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Recruiting for the Navy is at its highest level since the early 2000s, just two years after the service missed its active-duty goal.

“We’ve listened to those line recruiters and done the things that they indicated were the most important to them, and that has changed the game on the inspiration, the drive and the willingness to go the extra mile to get the job done,” Rear Adm. James Waters III, head of Navy Recruiting Command, told reporters Monday, according to Stars and Stripes.

The Navy, Army, and Air Force missed their recruiting goals in 2023, and they took steps to bring in new prospects.

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The National Guard has exceeded its recruiting goals for fiscal year 2025, the Department of War (DOW), formerly the Department of Defense, said in a Sept. 24 statement.

“Since November 2024, the War Department has achieved its strongest recruiting performance in 30 years, with fiscal year-to-date accessions as of the end of August reaching 106% of active-duty targets,” the department said.

“The Army National Guard and the Air National Guard have combined to enlist almost 50,000 new members this fiscal year as of this month, bringing total National Guard end strength to over 433,000, surpassing each component’s goals and marking one of the most successful recruiting years in over a decade.”

Air Force Gen. Steven Nordhaus, National Guard Bureau chief, highlighted the value provided by the National Guard, which accounts for 20 percent of the country’s joint force at just 4 percent of the department’s budget.

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Apparently Mississippi is richer than the UK. Who knew?

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Patrons at a restaurant acted quickly and selflessly to stop a gunman who opened fire while a wedding was taking place at a New Hampshire country club, averting a worse tragedy, authorities said Sunday.

One person was killed and two others were wounded by the gunfire Saturday night before the suspect was taken into custody in a nearby neighborhood not long after the shooting, authorities said.

The gunfire killed Robert Steven DeCesare, 59, at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke. They said the suspect was Hunter Nadeau, 23, of Nashua, and said he was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder for knowingly shooting DeCesare.

In other words, they were Republicans. Democrats would have run and hid, and the death toll would have been much higher.

Check it out.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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The 1960s were a famously tumultuous decade, so I suppose it makes sense that the food followed suit. On the one hand: Julia Child, who made her pop-culture arrival after the first episode of “The French Chef” aired on July 26, 1962. On the other hand: spray cheese, which debuted in 1965.

It was a contrast that feels deeply familiar today but was new back then: corporations cranking out an endless supply of new convenience foods while competing factions of culinary celebrities grew in prominence and cultural status and railed against the packaged foods that they viewed as mass-produced dreck, high in preservatives and low in any redeeming features.

Well, the ‘redeeming feature’ was that they tasted good….

I still marvel at how much TV dinner trays looked like the metal mess trays we used in the Navy.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

HELLO magazine, the shallowest fembot pond in media.

After Donald Trump took office in January, many celebrities have fled the United States. Everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to Jimmy Kimmel is considering staying gone for good.

And Trump just keeps on winning….

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After years of paying too much at the pump and hearing politicians in Washington tell us it was all Putin’s fault, American families are finally getting relief. The reason is simple: our energy workers have an administration that lets them do their jobs. The results are undeniable.

This weekend, gas prices are the lowest they’ve been since 2020. According to GasBuddy, the national average for Labor Day 2025 is $3.15 a gallon. Compare that to Labor Day 2022, when drivers were shelling out an average of $3.83. That’s a 68-cent difference, and for families packing up the minivan for one last summer road trip, it means real savings. When Washington gets out of the way, energy workers deliver.

And Trump just keeps on winning.

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I must confess thta when I was in the 6th grade I wouldn’t have had a clue about where to get helium.

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One of the enduring embarrassments for the US under Joe Biden was his administration’s handling of the military, from the poorly planned exit from Afghanistan, to forced covid vaccination, to their bizarre recruitment and training policies. Democrats sought to fundamentally change the fabric of every vital American institution and the Department of Defense was no different.

Military recruitment imploded and public interest in the services plunged during the rampant degeneracy of progressive rule. Woke infiltration of the Pentagon and the Department of Defense was rampant. Top generals were spouting Critical Race Theory propaganda, the US Army was trying to integrate 90 pound women into the Rangers in the name of “equity” and transgender cross-dressers were making TikToks in uniform with the blessing of the Navy while getting sex-change surgeries on the taxpayer’s dime.

Military recruitment ads went full woke. An utter humiliation on the world stage that promoted DEI activism over security readiness in the form of childish cartoons. Noticeably absent from these ads was young white men, the one demographic that traditionally joins in the name of patriotism and is largely responsible for filling recruitment quotas every year.

Well, at least he wasn’t shouting “Melon! Melon!” That would be a weird pizza….

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Gother Than Thou: The Most Pretentious Card Game Ever Made is a card game that parodies the goth subculture. It was first published in 2000 by Savant Garde Entertainment. Gother Than Thou appeared on the 2001 Games magazine Games 100 list and was nominated for the “Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game” category of the 2002 Origins Awards.

The game is played with a deck of 55 cards, which contain three types of Points, which are Goth Points, Sickness, and Money. Every player is dealt five cards. Each player, on their turn, discards one card from their Fate pile, then plays a card into each player’s Fate pile, including their own, finally drawing enough cards to refill their hand.

For each Sickness point a player has, they can hold one less card in their hand. At five points of Sickness, a player Swoons, loses their entire Fate pile, and draws five cards. A player who is not In Debt can draw cards from the discard pile. The first player to twenty Goth points wins.

Unfortunately, this appears to be no longer available. Pity.

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Chris Williamson and Rory Sutherland have a fascinating talk about life in Texas.

Their discussion regarding the way that driving helps to socialize people is first-rate.

The distinction between ‘air fryer girlfriends’ and ‘sleeping bag girlfriends’ is worth watching the whole things.

I’m moving to Tennessee.

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Republican Gov. Jeff Landry directed the Louisiana National Guard on Monday to restore “Camp Beauregard” as the name of its training center in Pineville.

But instead of honoring Confederate Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard as it was intended when the center opened in 1917, it will be named for the general’s father, Capt. Jacques Toutant Beauregard, a member of the Louisiana militia who fought in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, a defining moment in the U.S. victory over Britain in the War of 1812.

“We’re naming our premier training installation after an American hero and patriot who fought for the freedom of the city of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, and the United States of America against a foreign invader,” Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of Louisiana’s National Guard, said in a news release.

Another win against Wokery … sort of.

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In a groundbreaking moment for the American mining industry, the Fluor Corporation has confirmed the feasibility of large rare earth element deposits at Ramaco Resources’ Brook Mine in Wyoming. This announcement marks a significant step towards redefining the United States’ position in the critical minerals market. The confirmation by Fluor not only solidifies the economic potential of the Brook Mine but also positions Ramaco Resources as a key player in reducing the country’s dependency on foreign sources of rare earth elements.

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I am not making this up.

It’s Independence Day. You have better things to do than be exposed to people who hate America.

Take a break. Eat a hot dog. Light a sparkler.

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I remember the original Datahand, but they were extraordinarily expensive, and by the time I was in a position to buy it, the company had gone out of business.

Each finer can trigger five switched by moving only millimeters, while the rest of the hand remains still. No possibility of RSI or arm fatigue.

New York Post.

50 Cent said he’ll pay a pretty penny to get rid of Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani and his tax-the-rich plan — after the Big Apple mayoral hopeful name-dropped the Queens rapper on a popular podcast.

“Where did he come from? Whose friend is this? I’m not feeling this plan. No. I will give him $258,750 and a first class one-way ticket away from NY,” 50 Cent wrote on Instagram Wednesday.

The 49-year-old hip hop star, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, was firing back at comments Mamdani made about raising taxes while appearing on “The Breakfast Club” earlier this month.

I like him already.

“All the girls who weigh less than one-twenty wear as little as possible, and the rest of them put on cloaks and medieval dresses to conceal their bulk. You get used to it.”

— Sharyn McCrumb, BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN (1988)

A book about SF conventions. Highly recommended.

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The release last fall, after 44 years, of the Beach Boys’ abandoned masterpiece Smile is a milestone of American popular culture. Rolling Stone has called it “the most famous unfinished album in rock & roll history.” But Smile is also something much bigger. It is the pinnacle artistic achievement of a lost civilization, the middle-class, baby-boom, sun-soaked, clean-cut, work-hard-play-hard, bungalow-and-car culture of post-war Southern California. It was a paradise for the common man, one that produced legions of loyal and productive citizens, developed the modern aerospace industry, helped the West win the Cold War, and exported an attractive and fundamentally decent (if often vapid) vision of American life to every corner of the globe.

Before The Sixties screwed everything up.

Babylon Bee.

And neither side reads Greek, so it’s not as if they know what they’re talking about.

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More bad news for Democrats.

UPDATE: Economist/YouGov Poll: GOP Widens Popularity Gap Over Dems

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Allium Engineering, founded by two MIT alumni, has developed a process for improving steel rebar to triple the lifetime of bridges and other infrastructure.

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There’s a house for sale on the northern plain, in a place you’d never go. It sits by a field just a mile from the river, where a million bass and perch are jumping just now as I write this. By modern standards, it’s a tiny little house — just 600 square feet. But if you adhere to the standard of our great-grandfathers, it’s a fine-sized place, where any young, industrious couple could easily raise a whack of kids.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

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Despite the millions of dollars some business owners earn each year to become part of the nation’s 1 percent—or, in some cases, 0.1 percent—those individuals aren’t associated with the flashiness and glitter that Jeff Bezos, George Clooney, or top Goldman Sachs executives are. Instead, these entrepreneurs represent the “stealthy wealthy” who build their fortunes by turning bland business activities into potent, albeit discreet money-making machines, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The road to riches is paved with cup holders, burgers and miles of elementary school carpeting,” the Journal said in a story profiling prospering founders whose styles and success are far more Buffet (Warren) than Kardashian (take your pick).

Why focus on relatively rare entrepreneurs who’ve wound up becoming millionaires? Because statistically speaking, the Journal says, those owners of thriving small and medium-sized regional businesses are the “largest source of income for the 1 one highest earners in the U.S.”

The Robb Report.

When you’re flying in a small plane, the possibility of the pilot becoming incapacitated is usually filed in the very-unlikely-to-happen category. But it happens, and with no other pilot on board, outcomes range from a Hollywood best case—the air-traffic-control tower talking you through a safe landing—to much more devastating scenarios.

On a recent flight aboard a Cirrus SR22 in California’s Bay Area, we did more than explore the possibility. We created a situation in which pilot Ivy McIver (also executive director of the SR Series Product line) gave up control of the joystick to demonstrate how well Cirrus’s new Safe Return automatic landing system performs. Cirrus recently announced this adaptation of Garmin’s Autoland technology as the standout feature of its new SR Series G7+, shorthand for the seventh-plus generation of its SR20, SR22, and SR22T. An SR22 like the one we tested, retailing for $1,236,500, is also the world’s first single-engine piston aircraft with the Autoland system.

When McIver let go of the joystick control, instead of heroically grabbing the stick (Hollywood-style) to attempt a landing myself, I reached overhead and pushed the red button labeled “Safe Return.” Within seconds, the button triggered a complex network of automated motors, servos, communications systems, and AI-fueled algorithms.

The Wall Street Journal

Rios, 17 years old, is a junior taking welding classes at Father Judge, a Catholic high school in Philadelphia that works closely with companies looking for workers in the skilled trades. Employers are dealing with a shortage of such workers as baby boomers retire. They have increasingly begun courting high-school students like Rios—a hiring strategy they say is likely to become even more crucial in the coming years.

Employers ranging from the local transit system to submarine manufacturers make regular visits to Father Judge’s welding classrooms every year, bringing branded swag and pitching students on their workplaces. When Rios graduates next year, he plans to work as a fabricator at a local equipment maker for nuclear, recycling and other sectors, a job that pays $24 an hour, plus regular overtime and paid vacations.

“Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming—like, this company wants you, that company wants you,” says Rios, who grew up in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington around drug addicts and homelessness, and says he was determined to build a better life for himself. “It honestly feels like I’m an athlete getting all this attention from all these pro teams.”

The Washington Poop, a Voice of the Crust.

Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected pontiff, must answer to at least one more higher power: the IRS.

The United States generally requires all citizens to file an annual tax return, even those who live out of the country. But assuming he doesn’t renounce his U.S. citizenship, Leo — born in the Chicago area and known until this week as Robert Prevost — has special tax considerations, both as a clergyman and now as the head of a foreign government.

Leo’s situation differs from that of other popes in recent memory, because many countries do not assess taxes on citizens living abroad. “Recent popes from Poland, Germany and Argentina were not taxed by their home countries,” said Jared Walczak, a vice president of the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, who called the first American pope’s accounting situation “uncharted.”

The U.S. is the only non-Turd-World country that does this.

The pope’s job as a member of the clergy does not exempt him from U.S. taxes. American citizens abroad must generally file tax returns if their income level and other personal circumstances would require them to file if they were living in the U.S., according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Now that’s comedy. The obvious move is for the Pope to renounce his American citizenship and remain only a citizen of the Vatican City State … but many Americans can’t climb that particular curb, as the people at Nomad Capitalist have discovered to their frustration.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

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A quiet energy revolution is underway in the heart of West Texas. Abilene, a small town on the edge of the Permian Basin—America’s largest oil-producing region—is now home to the first Small Modular Reactor (SMR) under construction in the United States. In a moment laced with irony and historical significance, the energy stronghold known for oil and gas is pivoting, not away from its roots, but toward a bold expansion into nuclear power. And not just any nuclear, but advanced molten salt technology, designed to redefine safety, scalability, and reliability in power generation.

WARTHUNDER (2013). Available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Oculus, and Vive.

… that it’s impossible to get angry about politics while listening to classic rock.

Bob Seeger and Huey Lewis are the only things keeping me sane.

What this country really needs is more air guitar….

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Amazon.com said it would spend more than $4 billion to expand its U.S. rural delivery network by the end of 2026, doubling down on faster shipments to drive up demand from shoppers in small towns and the countryside.

And all without a government program!

Don’t they understand that, if the government doesn’t do it, it doesn’t get done?

Back tomorrow.

You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.

New Atlas.

According to Eureka, the Bengal MC pushes the envelope further by introducing a fast-attack ship with heavy payload, high speed, and a range of 1,000 nautical miles (1,150 miles, 1,852 km) that has a modular construction, which allows it to be reconfigured to meet specific mission requirements. This means it can not only be used as an autonomous attack vessel, it can also act as a troop transport, landing support craft, electronic warfare platform, drone mothership, minelayer, or minehunter. In addition, it has facilities for a crew if the mission requires one.

This is made possible by its hull, which is configured to make it a Surface Effect Ship (SES), which travels on a cushion of air by combining the attributes of a hovercraft and a catamaran by trapping pressurized air beneath the hull. This reduces friction with the water and enables high speed.

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The Trump Effect in action.