Sacramento News & Review, October 17 – A growing body of 21st-century philsophical thought recognizes that the 98 episodes of Gilligan’s Island ask and answer all the Big Questions.

So, amid this recent flurry of mouth-frothing and hand-wringing over debt, it should be no surprise The Skipper and Mary Ann slice straight to the bottom line.

Jeff Mapes of OregonLive.com covered the story of Mark Frohnmayer -- son of David Frohnmayer, an established member of Oregon politics, law, and academia -- pushing for a version of the nonpartisan top-two primary system. It is identical to California and Washington systems, but with a twist; approval voting.

If the media coverage of shutdown politics is to be believed, House Republicans' fear of 'getting primaried' by a more conservative opponent was a major impediment to moderate GOP-ers reaching a bargain with Democrats on healthcare and federal spending.

Facebook announced Wednesday that it will yet again be updating its privacy settings, opening up the option to post publicly to teenagers aged 13-17:

In general, Stratfor deals with U.S. domestic politics only to the extent that it affects international affairs. Certainly, this topic has been argued and analyzed extensively.

California is a unique place. Just ask anyone who's ever lived there.

So naturally the state boasts a unique system for nominating its elected officials as well and the road to the system that's currently in place in California was a bumpy one. But, as with many things, whether or not the change produces the desired result remains to be seen.

According to a recent USA TODAY/Bipartisan Policy Center poll, Americans are increasingly supportive of electoral reforms aimed towards easing the hyper-partisanship that has plagued the 113th Congress.

Deficits Are A First-Order Problem

[On Tuesday], Former Treasury Secretary and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers argued that “budget deficits are now a second-order problem” and the focus should instead be on economic growth.

Good job Congress. After two weeks of anxiety about the future of our economy, two weeks without national parks, two weeks of furloughed federal employees, two weeks of confusion over social security checks, Veteran services, essential vs. non-essential federal employees, and two weeks of deteriorating Congressional approval ratings, a deal has been reached.