I've got to admit that I find the whole casino-gambling/slots business to be very messy. It challenges my libertarian instincts. I've managed largely to reconcile my libertarian positions on speech (I'm a near-absolutist) and in the realm of personal conduct (what J. S. Mill dubbed "self-regarding conduct") with my left-leaning positions on government's establishing a bottom floor beneath which no decent society allows any of its citizens to fall.

The Phoenix's David Bernstein checked in on Facebook at 7:30 pm to say that the Democratic operatives he's talked to fall into two camps: one that says Brown wins by +5, and the other who say that Coakley makes up enough votes in the cities to eke it out by a nose.

On CNN, live shots of the respective campaign headquarters showed Brown's HQ in a state of euphoria -- and Coakley's HQ dead as a funeral.

In the latest stubborn attempt to blast charter school opponents, Boston University assistant education professor Cara Stillings Candal yesterday dropped a hot shit pile on the Herald op-ed page. Her piece, "Charter school foes would cost us," begins with this bit of sweet irony: "Myths have long surrounded Massachusetts charter schools."