It Happened Last Night: Major portions of the federal government are shutting down this morning, but the website Healthcare.gov is up and running. About 800,000 federal workers are being sent off on furlough, although the president signed a bill to keep paying members of the military.

  Even after the White House ordered the shutdown last night, House Republicans passed a fourth bill to cripple Obamacare. A handful of House moderates had failed in an early evening revolt against their own party’s hardliners. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “They’ve lost their minds.”

As infighting broke out among Republicans, a frustrated Rep. Peter King  (R-NY) said of Tea Party efforts to stop Obamacare, “This was a doomed process from the start.” The Washington Post reports that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) asked a group of reporters, “You guys ever watch 16 Candles?” He said, “That’s going to be us tomorrow, waking up on the grass, crashed automobile. That’s us.”

A peeved President Obama said, “One faction of one party in one house of congress in one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election.” But evidently, they do.

Green Machine: Two Marine generals have been forced to retire because the Corps said they failed to properly defend their base against a Taliban attack. Two Marines were killed in Afghanistan a year ago when the Taliban breached the wire and destroyed six Harrier jump jets in a fight that lasted several hours.

Male Wisdom: A leading Saudi cleric says driving a car could damage a woman’s ovaries and pelvis increasing the risk of having babies with “clinical problems”. It’s believed to be a response to a planned “drive in” demonstration by Saudi women on Oct. 26. The cleric cited “scientific” evidence, but didn’t explain how sitting in the driver’s seat is any different from sitting in the back seat.

Three of a Kind: A British couple has announced the birth of rare identical triplets. The three girls, whose combined weight was less than 11 pounds, were born by caesarian section two months early on Aug. 2. Their names are Ffion, Madison and Paige. The odds of identical triplets are inexact but range from one in 60,000 to one in 200 million.

Geo: A group of scientists say they believe the location of a climate-changing volcano eruption in the year 1257 is a small island in Indonesia. Sulphur and dust found in both Arctic and Antarctic ice traces back to that island. An estimated 10 cubic miles of rock and ash spewed into the air and dust was carried around the globe. Medieval records report heavy rains, cold weather and failed harvests the following summer.

Problem Skirted: The NY Time reports that the new Second Ave. subway will not have those sidewalk ventilation grates that catch women’s heels and blow hot air. But we’ll always have Marilyn.

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