Read it.

Last Monday I reported on a street battle between culture-enriching clans in the Swedish city of Lund. Below is a news report about the incident from Swedish TV, which includes footage of some of the skirmishes between the two warring groups. The whole thing seems choreographed to me, as if it were performed by an all-male version of the June Taylor Dancers. But maybe I’ve watched too many videos of culturally enriched street fights.

Read it.

There is no single reason Austin tech talent is packing their bags, but a handful of factors have collided to create a tenuous situation.

I guess California-on-the-Colorado is losing its shine.

Black People Who Oppose Critical Race Theory Are Being Erased

Nets Untroubled by Violent Woman in Gorilla Mask Hurling Egg at Larry Elder  It’s not enough to be black, you have to be the right kind of black.

Jussie Smollett Disguises Self As Larry Elder So People Will Commit Real Hate Crimes Against Him Babylon Bee.

Longhorns’ School Song ‘Racially Offensive,’ Students Claim in Lawsuit

Toxic Victimhood From BLM Grifters

Biden to Require Vaccination for All Federal Workers

Quebec Orders All Health-Care Workers To Get Vaccinated Or Be Suspended Without Pay  Plenty of jobs in the U.S.

About the Latest Fauci Documents

Credit Suisse Closes Account Of Chinese Dissident Ai Weiwei As Western Banks Fear Angering Beijing

New Studies Find Evidence Of ‘Superhuman’ Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals (NPR)

United Airlines staff who are granted religious exemptions to vaccine mandate will be put on unpaid leave (CNBC)

Sweden Announces It Will Remove Most Remaining COVID-19 Restrictions

Watch: Rand Paul Calls For “Five Years In Jail” For Fauci Lying To Congress

Fauci: Currently Too Many Infections to Stop COVID Pandemic

Texas Doctor Warns Florida and Others: Feds May Ration Monoclonal Antibodies

Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Natural Immunity?  Perhaps because it doesn’t fit the Narrative?

As NFL Season Kicks Off, Fearmongering Fauci Frets Over Unvaxx’d Attending Games

White House Signals New COVID-19 Measures Coming For People Who Are Unvaccinated

Nets Call It Quits, Done Covering Americans Held Hostage By Taliban

Top Biden Officials Backed the 2014 Bergdahl Deal. Now, the Terrorists Released Are Taking the Reins in Afghanistan.

New Evidence Surfaces That The Biden Admin Committed To A Knowingly Unconstitutional Act

Australia Is Now Confiscating Booze Delivered To People Forced Into Lockdown

You Love to See It: Fake News Jim Acosta’s CNN Show Has Been a Complete Failure

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked for using term ‘menstruating person’ to describe women in interview

“Housing Is A Human Right”: Rent Activists Step Up Pressure Ahead Of German Elections

The Logical Conclusion of ‘Social Justice’

‘Biology 101’? On CNN, AOC Blasts Texas Abortion Law for the ‘Menstruating Person’  For AOC and her ilk, ideology always comes first.

English Soccer Team Gets Booed For Virtue Signaling In Poland

MSNBC Gushes Over Abortion-Cheering Teen: ‘You Warned Us’ About Texas

GOP Leader McCarthy Asks Supreme Court to Rule House Proxy Voting Unconstitutional

DOJ Sues Texas Over Abortion Law

Judge Blocks Florida’s GOP-Backed ‘Anti-Riot’ Law

MSNBC Marks 9/11 By Trashing America: ‘Intense Islamophobia and Fear’

NY Times Loses It Over ‘Enemy’ Dems Opposing Biden, Pouncing GOP

Depraved Salon Pro-Abort Admits: ‘Satanists Are Right,’ Abortion ‘Sacred Ritual’

Democratic Staffer Leaving Senate for Facebook: Report  The revolving door is the first one on the left.

Merit System Is Unjust Because It Rewards Productive Individuals, Professors Argue  You can’t make this shit up.

Watchdog: ‘Unknown’ Ballots in Georgia, Pennsylvania Surpass Biden’s Margin of Victory There

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams Texas GOP governor’s ‘deep ignorance’ on abortion (CNN)

The Taliban’s Ideology Has Surprising Roots In British-Ruled India (NPR) Yeah, that Brit Mohammed has a lot to answer for.

Biden Forces Out Trump Appointees From Military Academy Advisory Boards

Smug Lefty Seth Meyers Hates Texas and ‘Heinous,’ ‘Diabolical’ Abortion Law

Climate Disaster Is the New Normal. Can We Save Ourselves? (New York Times)

Fossil fuels must remain in the ground to keep warming below 1.5°C, study says (EuroNews)

Saving the ozone layer avoided 2.5 degrees of global warming

NY Times Australia Climate Doom-Monger Hits Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Extreme’ Outlets

Svalbard polar bear paper falsely assumes that loss of genetic diversity has negative consequences

The Major Problem With EVs No One Is Talking About

Read it.

After 20 years of sacrifice and toil, massive investment of American blood and treasure, and sweeping promises to the people of Afghanistan, the U.S., and the world, America’s political class has abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban. In the span of eight short months, Joe Biden ended America’s “endless war” without regard to the costs sunk, the military equipment handed to the enemy, or the lives destroyed.

By any objective measure, it was a rout—a disastrous defeat for America courtesy of the Biden Administration. So why does so much of the establishment seem to be satisfied with what happened? Aside from the ugly optics of the retreat, Biden and his claque don’t seem to mind the end result overmuch. In fact, President Biden informed America that, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, his withdrawal as an “extraordinary success.”

Read it.

American conservatives can be tiresome gloaters who devote an obscene amount of scribbling toward first principles, constitutional rights, and the like. They hold a self-assured conviction that conservative political philosophy, informed by a realistic and traditional understanding of human nature, is the lodestar by which any political community should be guided.

Instead of devoting so much time to political philosophy though, perhaps conservatives should have studied strategy and tactics. The progressive political left over the past few decades executed a long march through almost every major institution in every field in modern society. Journalism, entertainment, finance and big business, nonprofits, the administrative state, and so on have more or less been captured. Conservatives, by contrast, being inherently cautiously defensive, were outmatched. Taking the position of protecting first principles bred inertia instead of action, and only recently has the political right awakened to the grim reality that it has been outplayed in the public square.

Severian speaks truth.

I guess the best I can come up with for the Beach Boys is “they’re a California band.” If you want to know why Southern California circa 1963 was the closest thing any human civilization will ever get to paradise, take a good long drink of All Summer Long, with a Pet Sounds chaser. The culture that made songs like “I Get Around” and “God Only Knows” is the best culture that was or ever could be, this side of the Reformation. I know, I know, that seems awful heavy for guys whose songs contain lots of “sha nah nah” and “de doo ron ron,” but just listen to “God Only Knows” a few times, then tell me I’m wrong. But I can’t say of Men at Work that “they’re an Australian band,” because I’ve never been there. Nonetheless, if the Aussie national anthem isn’t actually “Down Under,” then it damn well should be…

Yeah. Just … yeah.

Read it.

Why is this guy still alive?

ZMan pulls back the curtain a bit.

Eric Hoffer noted that people who are prone to join mass movements tend to join many of them, often going from one to another. It is not unusual for someone to go from one cause then to another that contradicts the prior cause in some way. The old stereotype of the middle-aged woman driving a Volvo festooned with bumper stickers from various causes does not spring from nothing. The vegan activist will be into saving animals, sustainable farming and oppose nuclear energy.

A good recent example of this is the amazing overlap in people who worship Gaia and those who are now Covidians. The people who carry grimy canvas sacks to the market as a sign of their piety are now wearing three masks in the car as they driver alone to the Whole Foods Market. That does not mean all Covidians were Gaia worshippers, but almost all Gaia worshippers embraced Covid. HBD people embracing Covid suggests their interest in biology is something other than empirical.

Soon to be a major motion picture.

Read it.

Salah Abdeslam has gone on trial in Paris. The “Belgian” man is the sole survivor of the group that planned and executed the Islamic terror attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. The most well-known action on that horrible day took place at the Bataclan Café, where ninety people were executed. Yet for some reason the Bataclan isn’t mentioned in either of the two articles below.

The trial began today, and Mr. Abdeslam declared his allegiance to the Islamic State in his opening remarks. The entire judicial process is expected to last nine months, with a possible verdict handed down next May.

Nine months seems excessive. A hundred years ago, of course, he’d be lucky to last nine days.

Read it.

Can’t say that I blame them.

Smug NY Times: Southern GOP ‘Allergic to Science’ for Avoiding School Mask Mandates

Ex-Trump Aide Jason Miller Detained in Brazil for ‘Anti-Democratic Acts’ (Daily Beast)

Salt Lake City Flight Passenger Growls Like a Dog and Screams ‘Joe Biden!’ in Racist Rant (Daily Beast)

Abbott Considering Other Measures to Prevent People from Ever Setting Foot in Texas (The New Yorker) ‘People” being, of course, Crustians from the Left Coast or the Other Left Coast. Nobody else qualifies as ‘people’.

Freaking Out About Texas: Republicans Are the New American ‘Taliban’

Scandal-Plagued Ubisoft Fires Trans-Skeptic Video Game Programmer Over ‘Hateful Comments’ They Won’t Explain

Ex-Trump Officials Told to Resign from Military Advisory Boards, Russ Vought Says ‘No’

Media Coaches Democrats, Trashes Republicans

Watch: White Woman In Gorilla Mask Assaults Larry Elder With Eggs

ABC Helps State Dept Steal Credit for Saving Family, Fox/Cuomo Stop Them

Biden dismisses Northeast protesters who heckled him as he toured storm damage: ‘They don’t understand’

Report: Biden Admin Concerned by Lack of Female, Non-Binary Terrorists in Taliban’s Interim Government  NOT the Babylon Bee.

Some WH Staffers Mute Biden on TV, Anxious He Will Make More Gaffes  I don’t believe this to be true, but the fact that it sounds credible tells you a lot about Biden’s performance to date.

Networks Skip Biden Claiming Nobody Uses the Word “Tornado” Anymore

State Department Rejects Private Evacuation Flights From Afghanistan

Biden Admin Seeks to Waive Sanctions on Assad

Why Texas’s strict abortion law is terrible for the economy (CNN) So was freeing Democrats’ slaves. I guess they would have objected to that, as well.

WaPo columnist complains media is ‘obsessed with not offending Republican readers’ Really? Hadn’t noticed.

Watch shameless shoplifters brazenly stroll out of Lowe’s store with packed carts

Somali feminist: Facebook is being used to silence me

China Accuses NATO Of Inflating Its ‘Purely Defensive’ Nuclear Arms Program   Purely defensive!

Australian Court: Facebook Can Be Sued for User Comments

No Anarchy for You! Portland to Cut Ties With TX Over Abortion Law  This is like Red China promising to punish Texas by refusing to export communism to the Lone Star State. (More States Pass Abortion Laws In Hopes Of Triggering Travel Ban From Portland  Babylon Bee.)

20 years after 9/11: Will we ever stop taking our shoes off at airports?  Hint: No.

‘Gone Too Far’? Taliban Paints Over George Floyd Mural In Kabul  Uh-oh.

‘We’re On The Right Side Of History’, Says Party Whose Abortion Position Is Endorsed By North Korea, Harvey Weinstein, Church Of Satan  Babylon Bee.

Drama in Theatre Class: Gay Teacher Resigns Over Pride Flag

LAPD officers told to collect social media data on every civilian they stop

Lib Activist Group Warns Protesters: Men Can Have Abortions Too, Comparing GOP to Taliban is ‘Islamophobic’

“Harmful Language” Trigger Warning Added To US Constitution On National Archives Website  NOT the Babylon Bee.

Biden, Big Tech Sued For Censorship

Microsoft Teams To Delete ‘Inappropriate’ Messages: Report

Guardian: Young People Flocking to Climate Change Political Activism Careers And why not? It beats actually working for a living.

A Climate Solution Lies Deep Under the Ocean—But Accessing It Could Have Huge Environmental Costs (TIME)

CNN’s Camerota Laments Her PC Lifestyle Has Not Solved Climate Change

Cancel culture in climate change

Electric Vehicles produce substantial toxicity to Humans and Freshwater

Vaccine-Resistant “Mu” Variant Spreads To 49 States As Delta-Driven Summer Wave Peaks

Perspective | What the Sturgis rally shows us about the delta variant (Washington Post) Well, it shows us that the Washington Post is a Voice of the Crust.

Florida Councilman Who Mocked Dr. ‘Falsey’ Fauci Is Hospitalized With Severe COVID (Daily Beast) And of course the two are TOTALLY connected.

A Vaccine Too Far

Better Data on Ivermectin Is Finally on Its Way

The fallacious Fauci revisited

NY Post: Fauci Should Go, Hid Wuhan Truth

MSNBC MELTDOWN Over Full Football Games, ‘Theaters and Beaches!’

Crass CNN Delighted By Kid Who Flipped Off ‘Vile’ Anti-Mask Parents

As a virologist I’m shocked my work has been hijacked by anti-vaxxers (The Guardian)

WHO Chief Urges Halt to Booster Shots for Rest of the Year

Watch: Joe Rogan Says He May Sue CNN For “Making Sh*t Up” About Him “Taking Horse Dewormer”

Spread of Delta variant driven by both immune escape and increased infectivity

CDC Says A New COVID Variant May Be Needed To Effectively Bury Afghanistan News  Babylon Bee. (New “Pandemic Potential” Brain-Destroying-Virus With 75% Death Rate Spreading In India)

‘View’ Libs Argue Unvaccinated Don’t Deserve Medical Treatment

Elizabeth Warren Asks Amazon to Ban Books, Products Spreading ‘COVID-19 Misinformation’ ‘Nice online marketplace you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.’

CDC Changed School Mask Guidance Days After Threat From Teachers Union: FOIA Emails

Canadian Hockey Leagues Still Paralyzed by Fear of COVID-19

UK researchers are growing the Delta variant for human challenge trials

“Public Health” Propaganda

Plano 8-Year-Old Raises More Than $1,000 For Healthcare Workers Through Labor Day Lemonade Stand (CBS News) If she weren’t black, of course, nobody would have even noticed, much less written a news story about it. Still, it’s good to see.

Minnesota man freed by Kamala Harris-supported bail fund now charged with murder

Lil Uzi Vert says fans ripped $24 million diamond out of his forehead Gee, I wonder why.

15 ex-NFL players say they engaged in multimillion-dollar nationwide fraud scheme

538: Why Can’t Colleges Hire More Black and Latinx Professors?

Tesla Wins One: Man Caught On Car Camera Faking Injuries In Louisiana Parking Lot

NFL Cancels Singer Victory Boyd’s Opening Day Performance for Not Being Vaccinated

Read it.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many things here in America. As every parent knows, one of the major disruptions took place in the realm of education. News has been coming out that among the disruptions in education has been the number of parents choosing to homeschool their kids. Now, we’re not talking about the quasi-homeschooling that all kids experienced when their schools closed and all the kids went to Zoom School, we’re talking about folks who have decided to unenroll their students from public or private school and teach their children themselves.

Some good news for a change.

‘It is a coincidence — totally a coincidence — that The Science always calls for something that is good for Big Pharma.’ — Scott Adams

Read it.

As editor of 99U, my inbox is (thankfully) filled with pitches of all kinds. Mainly, writers who’d like to contribute to this site and speakers who’d like to throw their hat in the ring for our yearly 99U Conference.

And most times, when we dig deeper into a specific person’s pitch, his or her purported authority is more of a facade to make them appear authoritative — and any ideas are actually a mosaic of people also trying to appear authoritative in a disconcerting house of cards.

They are what philosopher Harry Frankfurt would call “bullshitters.” Those that are giving advice for the sake of giving advice, without any regard as to how it is actually implemented, if it can even be implemented at all. “It’s not important to [the bullshitter] what the world really is like,” he says in a short video documentary about the phenomenon (below). “What is important is how he’d like to represent himself.”

Sounds like politics to me.

Peter Boghossian.

Peter Boghossian has taught philosophy at Portland State University for the past decade. In the letter below, sent this morning to the university’s provost, he explains why he is resigning.

ZMan improves your vocabulary.

The fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes begins this week, and it promises to be an enjoyable bit of theater for those interested in the workings of the Cloud People. Holmes founded a company called Theranos when she was just 19-years-old. She had dropped out of Stanford and promised to deliver miracle drug testing equipment. She attracted the support of all the beautiful people, who saw her as the living example of everything the Cloud People believed about the world.

…

In many respects, Holmes is the poster child for the new religion. The reimagined gender role for women is just women doing the things men normally do. You see this in movies where the normal male lead is replaced by a strong diverse female who does all the same things as a male lead, even the personality. There is really nothing new about the new gender roles. The new ideal female is nothing more than a fraud against nature, a fraud that is eventually undone by observable reality.

Read it.

French police mounted tight security around the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris on Wednesday for the trial of 20 men suspected of involvement in a jihadist rampage across the capital nearly six years ago.

Some 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded when gunmen with suicide vests attacked six bars and restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and a sports stadium on Nov. 13, 2015, leaving deep scars on the nation’s psyche.

Steve Sailer.

In the 1970s, the science-denialist Establishment view was represented by actual scientists of achievement in their own specialties who were also cultured authors, such as Harvard biologists Stephen Jay Gould and the recently deceased Richard Lewontin.

But now the left’s intellectual pacesetters are instead minds like Florida A&M African American Studies and Magazine Production double major Ibram X. Kendi, crank amateur historian Nikole Hannah-Jones, ed school prole prof Robin DiAngelo, and Fleet Street hack Angela Saini.

Read it.

What Islamic leaders say.

Read it.

Oh, ya think?

Recent news about EV battery fires does not bode well for California Governor Newsom’s executive order to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

The Bolt, the only EV that GM is selling in North America, has been “tied to at least nine fires” since early 2020, and Hyundai’s vehicles were involved in about 15 fires. Meanwhile, three Tesla’s have burst into flames over the past four months. So far, 27 EV battery fires and still counting.

Read it.

A group of Silicon Valley billionaires, including shipping magnate Jeff Bezos and Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, are funding research that aims to reverse aging.

Funding for the research is set to be used by the biotechnology company Altos Labs. Researchers at Altos aim to rejuvenate cells that could “revitalize entire animal bodies,” according to Technology Review.

David Friedman.

Ivermectin is a drug extensively used and approved by the FDA for treating problems having nothing to do with Covid, an anti-parasitic drug. There is some evidence that it is useful for treating Covid but apparently not very solid evidence. The FDA says it is not known to help with Covid and that studies are currently being done. It is also used to treat animals for parasites, and some people have taken the animal version, a much larger dose, with bad effects. Unfortunately, the question of whether it works has somehow gotten linked to political polarization, with people on the right thinking it does, people on the left that it doesn’t.

Read it.

Yet another mentally ill culture-enricher has gone on a homicidal rampage with a knife, this time in Berlin. What’s interesting in this case is that the authorities are willing to use the I-word in their attributions of motive, although they hedge it with the weasel-word “Islamism”.

“Tipping Points” in Earth’s System Triggered Extreme Climate Change 55 Million Years Ago

Claim: Human Health has Already Been Harmed by Climate Change

CNN Cozies Up to Climate Alarmist, Feels His Pain at Doom Scenarios Being Questioned

Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to organic farming has led to an economic disaster

The Looking Glass World Of “Climate Injustice” — Part II

Claim: Australia can Live the Renewable Energy Dream – All We Need is a Trillion Dollars of Government Loans

Propaganda Alert: Over 200 Health Journals Whine for ‘Urgent Action’ on ‘Climate Crisis’

“I Don’t Blame Climate Change, I Blame The Mayor”: NYC Residents Slam AOC, De Blasio, After Catastrophic Flooding

Tripwire CEO ‘Steps Down’ After Supporting Texas Anti-Abortion Law

Americans Emailed Pence, Officials Asking to Remove Trump From Office After Capitol Riot

Trump’s Long Campaign to Steal the Presidency: A Timeline (New York Magazine) Except Biden stole it first.

Food Network disowns host over abortion stance: ‘We regret giving him a platform’

Ellen Barkin: “What Is the Expiration Date for Cis White Males?”

Joy Behar on TX Abortion Law: We Need to Worry About the Republican Taliban

State Dept trying to steal credit for rescue of 4 Americans from Afghanistan, organizer says: ‘Total lie’

‘F**K Joe Biden’ Chants Break Out at College Football Games Across the Country (Newsweek)

NY Times mocked for piece on ‘Biden doctrine’ following Afghanistan exit: ‘Is this a WH press release?’

Blinken Denies Taliban Blocking Americans From Leaving Mazar-i-Sharif (Leaked E-mail Shows State Dept. Obstruction of Afghan Rescues)

Trump Defeats Biden in 2024 Election Poll

Politico Feels Biden’s Pain in ‘Very Public Clash’ on Abortion with Catholic Hierarchy  If Biden supoorts abortion, he’s not a Catholic, period. He can claim to be one all he wants, but he just isn’t. (Maybe he just ‘identifies’ as one and that’s Enough For Government Work.)

Kamala-Backed Bail Fund Freed Alleged Domestic Abuser Now Charged With Murder

Republicans Call For Impeachment Of Whoever Is Telling Biden What To Do  Babylon Bee.

Biden Decides To Help American Hostages After Learning The McFlurry Machine Repairman Is On The Plane  Babylon Bee.

Virginia to Take Down Robert E. Lee Statue on Wednesday

MSNBC Very Worried TX Law Will Cause Violence At Abortion Clinics  Besides killing children?

Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters? (The New Yorker) Going back to their roots?

Lies, omissions and false fact checks – a banner week for media disinformation

‘Independent’ Michigan Redistricting Commissioner Donated to Left-Wing Causes

California Bill Seeks to Halt Prison-to-ICE Deportation Pipeline Time to leave.

BoJo Breaks Promise With $50 Billion Tax Hike To Bail Out NHS The Conservative in Britain’s Conservative Party merely means Less Socialist Than Labour By A Bit.

Capitalization Is Oppression: Using Only Lower-Case Latest Act of ‘Resistance’  You can’t make this shit up.

An Example of How Transgender Rights Affect Women’s Safety

Whitmer Urges State to Repeal Abortion Ban in Case Roe Overtuned

Companies that are avoiding hiring in Colorado  Get Woke, go broke.

Judge Rejects Minneapolis Ballot Language on Policing

“Dear White People”: NHS Lectures Brits About Their “Privilege”

Crown Heights at 30

Boy, 4, Among 6 Dead, 60 Hurt in Chicago Weekend Shootings

Human Rights Campaign Fires President Who Helped Smear Cuomo Accuser

Baltimore student passes 3 classes in 4 yrs, top half of class with 0.13 GPA  Scott Adams claims that the most racist organzations in the U.S. are the teachers’ unions, and it’s hard to dispute.

Human Rights Group Fires Gay Black President For Helping Cuomo Smear Sex Abuse Accusers

Read it.

An estimated 1.5 billion toothpaste tubes are discarded into landfills every year worldwide, and a lot of that plastic ends up in the ocean. But rather than reinvent the tubes themselves, a unique solution to the plastic pandemic is rising in popularity — zero-waste toothpaste tablets.

Often packaged in reusable aluminum or glass jars, toothpaste tablets are essentially toothpaste in a powdered form that’s pressed into a pill-sized tablet. Using them requires chewing a single tablet and letting it dissolve into a paste with a little help from saliva, or a swig of water before brushing.

Do they come with fluoride?

They sound a bit too Woke for me. Plus I think that websites using white text on black ought to be nuked from orbit.

Read it.

Like all living things, humans are the product of a complex evolutionary history. Our ancestors’ environment and diets, and the limits of human biology, have led to adaptations that have improved our survival through natural selection. Despite these adaptations, our bodies remain prone to illness and disease. If we have evolved and adapted to our environment, why do we still get sick?

While remarkable at understanding the mechanisms of illness and disease, modern medicine can often overlook the underlying reasons for their emergence. Evolutionary medicine argues that understanding our ancestral history and the evolutionary reasons for illness can explain disease prevalence and provide insight for clinical care.

Read it.

Now, a growing field called “nutrigenomics” aims to provide people with personalized lifestyle guidance, based on their DNA. But is this a breakthrough for nutrition science, or just another fad?

Dead cow and spuds is the basis of all true civilization.

Read it.

The law, called SB 8, has come under fire for a provision that lets private citizens report people who facilitate illegal abortions. In the days since it passed, tech companies have joined progressive groups to oppose the bill. GoDaddy, which hosts millions of websites, announced Friday that it would stop supporting a website that allows people to report violations of the law. Days later, Uber and Lyft announced they are establishing legal defense funds for any drivers who are charged with aiding and abetting an illegal abortion. The ride-sharing companies will each donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood.

The incident highlights the increasing power that internet platforms wield in politics. Amazon Web Services kicked off conservative social media app Parler after the app was accused of hosting January 6 rioters. Right-wing app Gab suffered a similar fate in 2018. And PayPal, which has actively censored activists in the past, has announced it will partner with the left-wing Anti-Defamation League to remove the accounts of groups it deems “extremist.”

Read it.

The quality of advice depends upon the degree of metanoia it induces in the recipient.

Read it.

Still jihadists after all these years.

Read it.

Lest we forget.

Read it.

When you have to sue the government to get them to share legally available information, it almost always means they know more than they want you to know. Whatever the origins of Covid, policymakers have behaved from the outset of the pandemic in ways that can only be described as curious. Their frequently irrational behavior, and contradictory pronouncements, have spawned any number of theories as to why they have flailed the way they have.

One thought I have had is that the folks at the CDC have behaved in ways someone would if they were afraid that this virus might not act like a naturally occurring virus. It isn’t as if we haven’t had coronaviruses in the world before. And we generally know the course a viral outbreak takes through a population. Sure, maybe this one has a marginally higher mortality rate for certain segments of the population. But some of the behavior of policymakers has suggested their behavior is born out of a concern, not just for mortality, but for the possibility that the entire pandemic course with this one could somehow be…different.

ZMan blows the whistle.

Back in the heyday of conservatism, Bill Buckley would often say you can know everything about a person’s politics from their options on abortion and Israel. It was true to the extent that it put them one side or the other of the consensus. By the late 20th century, the ruling consensus in Washington was pro-abortion and pro-Israel, but not publicly enthusiastic for either. These two issues were useful proxies for foreign policy and social policy at the time.

Something similar can be said of race and culture. Those who deny the reality of race are on one side of the great divide, while those who accept biological reality are on the other side of the divide. There is no middle ground. Those who think culture is a manufactured good are on the side of biology deniers, while those who think culture is the product of biology and time are on the side of the realists. Again, these are mutually exclusive positions that cannot be reconciled.

Read it.

In the two hectares of land he bought, he has already built his first house, where he lives with his family, in hobbit clothes, and his doors are also open to visitors. Here, the pastry chef, who has a degree in geology, plans to build the caravan of the dwarves, the green dragon inn and a large version of Bilbo Baggins’ house. His goal is to transform this piece of Abruzzo into a hobbit village, with an adjoining farmhouse, where visitors will be able to live in a magical world, which, according to Gentile, is not too far from the way people live in Bucchianico.

Yeah, I’m sure that all of us, when we hear ‘hobbit’, think ‘Italian’.