The hidden billion- dollar cost of repeated police misconduct (Washington Post)

Husband of Brooklyn Democrat boss resigns as Eric Adams advisor

US pays $2M a month to protect Pompeo, aide from Iran threat (Associated Press)

A Kansas teacher is suing school officials for requiring her to address students by their preferred names, saying the policy violates her religious freedom (CNN)

Living in a Florida we no longer recognize (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

‘Arsonists with keys to the firehouse’: once-obscure state races fuel fears for US democracy (The Guardian) In the Narrative Media, ‘democracy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

Progressive, except for Palestine (The Guardian) Apparently progressive are insufficiently anti-Semitic for The Guardian.

New York’s Museum of Modern Art evacuated after two people were stabbed inside, police say (CNN) So-called modern art certainly makes me want to stab somebody.

Dems catch a break from the culture wars (Politico)

Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Capitalism

‘Afghan Adjustment Act’ Would Legalize 36,000 Unvetted Afghans

CNN’s Oliver Darcy Can’t Handle Project Veritas Embarrassing the New York Times

ABC Panelist Excuses High Gas Prices: ‘We Got Used to $2 Gas’

Six West Point Cadets Overdose During South Florida Spring Break Visit

Princess Stéphanie of Monaco pleads for Ukrainians with HIV/AIDS as access to life saving drugs is impacted by conflict

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As I reflect on the profound impact masking has had on social life over the past two years, I can’t help but wonder how our national unmasking may prove to be more transformative than we expect. What features of our masked world are likely to carry over into the future and which will fade?

David Director Friedman.

My comment at the beginning of the invasion was that, in order for the Russians to lose, their military would have to be substantially worse than believed, the Ukrainian military substantially better. At this point both conditions have been met. While Russia might still be able to win the military conflict, it looks to me as though their strategy now depends on besieging Ukrainian cities in order to threaten to starve the population in the hope that that will force the Ukrainian government to make substantial concessions.

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Daylight saving time is mistakenly credited to Benjamin Franklin. It may still be a good idea even if it wasn’t inspired by Franklin. Nevertheless, I find the commencement of daylight saving time today annoying.

As a morning person, I am not the least bit pleased by the extension of dawn by an hour so early in the year. By the same token, do we really need to move sunset back an hour this early in March? It seemed to be coming along fine all by itself. Couldn’t we wait a few weeks, until the start of daylight saving time wouldn’t be so noticeable in the morning?

Congress didn’t think so. In 2005 it passed a mammoth new energy bill that included the controversial monthlong extension of daylight saving time under which we are now operating. National Geographic recounts the history of daylight saving time here and here.

A deep theory of energy savings was the basis of the applicable provision of the 2005 bill. As of the effective date of the new regime in 2007, however, National Geographic was noting that “the move’s energy-saving potential is uncertain and is already being called into question.”

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Conservatives like to talk about the causes of Western Civilization’s downfall: feminism, loose morality, drug abuse, Christianity’s decline, reality TV. Blaming civilization’s downfall on lardy hagfish such as Andrea Dworkin is like a doctor diagnosing senility by an old person’s wrinkles. The fact that anyone listened to such a numskull is a symptom, not the cause, of a culture in decline. The cause of civilizational decline is dirt-simple: lack of contact with objective reality.

…

Every great civilization reaches a point of prosperity where it is possible to live your entire life as a pacifist without any serious consequences. Many civilizations have come to the state of devolution represented by modern Berkeley folkways, from wife-swapping to vegetarianism. These ideas don’t come from a hardscrabble existence in contact with nature’s elemental forces; they are the inevitable consequence of being an effete urban twit removed from meaningful contact with reality. The over-civilized will try to portray their decadence as something “highly evolved” and worthy of emulation because it can only exist in the hothouse of highly civilized urban centers, much like influenza epidemics. Somehow these twittering blockheads missed out on what the word “evolution” means. Evolution involves brutal and often violent natural selection, and these people have not been exposed to brutal evolutionary forces any more than a typical urban poodle.

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Many studies have been commissioned, many experiments conducted and while there has been some progress the problem persists. There are always new reasons to get out so collecting and analyzing reasons for leaving has become an ongoing task. The problem has been around since the late 1990s. The latest crisis has been caused by a problem that has been around forever but has now become a major source of pilot loss. It’s all about family life and most pilots marry women with a college degree. That has gone from 11 percent in the 1970s to 84 percent now. Pilots wives are often better educated than their husbands and can earn more except for the disruptions caused by military life. The wives find that the military is a good place to be if you are starting a family, but not so much when the kids get older and mom seeks, and often finds, a new career that is not compatible with the periodic moves to a new base. Women now comprise the majority of college graduates in the United States and have become a key source of trained and capable candidates for the growing number of jobs requiring those skills. Wives of pilots cannot consider a lot of the attractive job offers available because of the constant moves pilots and their families must make. The wives can often make more than the pilot husbands. As a result, even more pilots, once their obligatory term of service is done, get out.

Steve Sailer.

I’ll bet Congress alone accounted for half of that….

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Doing well by doing good.

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Walgreens and other retailers have swapped out the clear fridge and freezer doors at thousands of stores, instead adding opaque doors with iPad-like screens showing what’s inside. Some customers really, really aren’t into it.

The screens, which were developed by the startup Cooler Screens, use a system of motion sensors and cameras to display what’s inside the doors — as well as product information, prices, deals and, most appealing to brands, paid advertisements. The tech provides stores with an additional revenue stream and a way to modernize the shopping experience.

But for customers who just want to peek into the freezer and grab their ice cream, Walgreens risks angering them by solving a problem that shoppers didn’t know existed.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is not a progressive value.

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Facebook parent company tells workers they will no longer receive free valet service and meals will be delayed.

Steve Sailer.

If resetting clocks twice per year is so intolerable, we ought to bite the bullet and go to Year Round Half-Hour DST, which would mitigate how terrible Year-Round DST was in January 1974 (when Congress tried it during the first Energy Crisis), and how much of a waste not having DST in July would be.

I hate compromise. I think we ought to go to Standard time all year round. If somebody has to endure the darkness when they would prefer light, well, that’s why God gave us Thomas Edison and LEDs. Suck it up.

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According to BBC journalist Shabnam Shabani, “The governor of Erbil, Omed Khoshnaw, stated that multiple missiles fell in the area, saying it was unclear whether the target was the US consulate or the airport in the city. According to INA, five explosions were heard in the attack.”

Poll Shows Americans Believe Trump Sympathizes with Russian Invasion (Newsweek) Not surprising, since that has been the Big Lie pushed relentlessly by the Narrative Media.

Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Is ‘Crime Against Humanity,’ Has To End Soon: Trump  Guess Trump didn’t get the memo that he’s a Russia-lover.

Ukraine raises stakes for Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda (The Hill)

Yale begins removing Sackler name from campus amid opioid outrage (Al Jazeera)

Amy Schumer Broke Into a Boys’ Club. Now She Wants to Blow It Up.

Guy Reffitt, first January 6 defendant to stand trial, found guilty on all charges (CBS) The show-trials continue.

New clues emerge about the money that might have helped fund the Jan. 6 insurrection (NPR) The witch-hunt continues.

Trump ‘laughs at’ supporters behind closed doors, Stephanie Grisham tells ‘The View’ (N.Y. Daily News)

The View’s Sunny Hostin Slams ‘Complicit’ Co-Hosts for Supporting GOP (Daily Beast) Woker-than-thou.

Commentary: Many Texas voters are just dead wrong (Austin American-Statesman)

How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies’ election subversion on Jan. 6 (Poliyico)

Capehart Blasts ‘Hideous’ and ‘Horrible’ GOP Social Agenda

Manchin to chief energy regulator holding up natural gas projects: ‘Do your damn job’

Early site work to begin for Canadian SMR (World Nuclear News)

Greenwashing UK fashion firms to be named and shamed by watchdog (The Guardian)

Heat pumps can counter Putin and the climate crisis, advocates say (Washington Post)

‘Defining moment’: how can the US end its dependency on fossil fuels? (The Guardian)

Kerry: Wealthy nations to live up to $100B climate change pledge next year (The Hill) Sure, I believe that.

Make no mistake, the fossil fuel industry is for profit, not the people (The Hill)

Climate Model Democracy

BBC Climate Advice: Misery for Ordinary Britons, to Avoid the Need to Frack

Jussie Smollett sentenced to 150 days in jail for lying to police in hate crime hoax (CNN)

Plano police arrest nurse over alleged falsified do-not-resuscitate form

New York Democrat Scrambles To Appease the Radical Anti-Israel Left

Read the Classroom ‘Antiracism’ Survey That Has Maryland Parents ‘Livid’

Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture?

CBS Claims Ukrainian Refugees Benefit From Race

Why Biden’s booming economy feels so lousy to millions of voters (Philadelphia Inquirer)  Perhaps because there is no ‘Biden booming economy’, and people know it.

Democrats Unveil Bill to Tax Big Oil’s Profits and Send Checks to the Public  Democrats: See the money, steal the money.

As gas prices spike, oil companies must justify billions in income, shareholder profits, N.J. congressman says  Uh, well, that’s kinda the reason they exist, isn’t it?

Silicon Valley residents say state ‘death tax’ should go (San Jose Spotlight)

Arizona Judge Tosses Teachers’ Union Tax Hike

Democrat Spending Bill Contains ‘Serious Expansion of Federal Gun Control’: Gun Rights Group

How CNN’s Jeff Zucker and His Cronies Manipulated the News

Learn to Love Big Brother

Phoenix’s Tent City Expands To Nearly 1,000 As Housing Affordability Crisis Worsens 

Idiocracy: CDC Lowers Expectations For Child Development, Raising New Questions for Parents

Rhode Island Drops Order Prohibiting Unvaccinated Doctor From Practicing

Florida’s top doctor is dangerously misguided (CNN) He refuses to PANIC!

TSA extends mask mandate on airplanes and public transit

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Someone who goes without food for three days – nine meals – will be driven to desperation. If enough people go without food for three days anarchy prevails as those without food fight those with food to survive. Those with families will become the most desperate. It is not their survival success in getting food grants. It is the survival of their families.

Many have forgotten that in this country, especially urban Americans. Food is something that comes from the grocery store. Goods are something you order from Amazon. Both just appear. Until they don’t.

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Whatever one thinks of nuclear energy, the process results in tons of radioactive, toxic waste no one quite knows what to do with. As a result, it’s tucked away as safely as possible in underground storage areas where it’s meant to remain a long, long time: The worst of it, uranium 235 and plutonium 239, have a half life of 24,000 years. That’s the reason eyebrows were raised in Europe — where more countries depend on nuclear energy than anywhere else — when physicist Gérard Mourou mentioned in his wide-ranging Nobel acceptance speech that lasers could cut the lifespan of nuclear waste from “a million years to 30 minutes,” as he put it in a followup interview with The Conversation.

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Two of the first people treated with CAR-T-cell cancer therapies are still in remission 12 years on.

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Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the first animal chromosomes came to be.

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A team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they had engineered a new rubber-like solid substance that has surprising qualities. It can absorb and release very large quantities of energy. And it is programmable. Taken together, this new material holds great promise for a very wide array of applications, from enabling robots to have more power without using additional energy, to new helmets and protective materials that can dissipate energy much more quickly.

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Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.

The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.

The Other McCain does some fisking.

When I first noticed him using this “my word as a Biden” phrase during the 2020 campaign, I was puzzled. Has the Biden family been so prominently associated with honesty that when Joe says this, most Americans say, “Well, that settles it”? Of course not. In fact, Biden’s first presidential campaign, in 1988, collapsed in disgrace specifically because of Joe’s dishonesty, when he was caught plagiarizing others — most notably British Labour leader Ne0l Kinnock — in his speeches.

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The war in Ukraine has revealed that Swedes prefer to take in Ukrainian refugees rather than the usual culture-enrichers they are forced to accommodate. This attitude is condemned by Swedish progressives, who see it as another example of right-wing hypocrisy.

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People blame Covid-19, the ‘pandemic’ and the ‘public health emergency’ for what has happened to the Lake District—and many other areas of the UK—but it was none of these things that was to blame. It was what we did to try to mitigate the effects of the virus that has caused the damage and all for no good reason. Lockdown was not evidence based, it had never been tried before, it was advocated by nobody, including the World ‘Health’ Organization, and guess what: it didn’t have the slightest benefit.

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As the world focuses on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and others worry that China will copy Putin’s playbook in Taiwan, the next terror wave against the U.S. is looming.

For a United States that is only prepared for a one-front war, this is more bad news. Salafi-jihadist terrorists are still gunning for us, and the measures meant to contain them are falling apart.

Yet another reminder that Islam is an oppressive totalitarian ideology with which no co-existence is possible.

Left’s Devotion to ‘Land Acknowledgements’ Amounts to Empty Virtue Signaling

CNN Literally Laughs at Biden Causing Inflation, Push ‘Putin Price Hikes’

SEND IN THE ‘NAT’L GUARD!’ Hollywood Hates That Kids Won’t Be Exposed To Trans Curricula

Why the 2020 census has 9 fake people in a single house

The Autocracy of the Gender Benders

UK tells operators to shut down crypto ATMs or face action

Democrats Cratering With Latinos, Poll Shows  

Amnesty International Goes Anti-Semite, Says Israel ‘Shouldn’t Exist as a Jewish State’

Democrats, Green Activists Pressure Big Tech to Censor More Climate ‘Misinformation’

Klobuchar Claims New Bill Will Address Alleged ‘Dangerous Content,’ ‘Misinformation’ Online

ROUNDUP: Lib Media Propaganda Machine Defends Biden on Gas Prices

‘Bush Republican’ Is Catching on, Maybe

As GOP scurries from Trump’s Putin praise, Trump Jr. offers a novel explanation (Washington Post)

Attorney General Garland Says He Wouldn’t Dodge Charging Trump Over Capitol Riot (Daily Beast)

Tucker Carlson’s Rejection of MAGA ‘Kraken’ Lawyer Actually Backfires on Fox News (Daily Beast)

Amid ‘Historic Nomination,’ CNN Laments Republicans Won’t Vote For Jackson

Santa Barbara County denies proposal to restart offshore oil production

How oil companies rebranded deceptive climate ads as ‘free speech’ (The Guardian)

Mass. top court skeptical of Exxon defense in climate change suit (Reuters)

Even many decades later, redlined areas see higher levels of air pollution (NPR) Tragic Dirt!

Environmental Groups Are United In California Rooftop Solar Fight, with One Notable Exception (Inside Climate News)

Utility profits unspoken part of rooftop solar fight (The Coast News)

How did we get here? The roots and impacts of the climate crisis (Science News)

Democrats want the oil industry to drill more. What does that mean for climate campaigners? (Washington Post)

Extinction Rebellion Promises to Disrupt UK Refineries

A Cautionary Tale:  Good Idea, Disastrous Results

Climate change won’t wait for future innovation – we need action now (Nature)

Climate Change Weekly #428: Democrats Can’t Solve Energy-Related Problems Because They Don’t Understand They Are Causing Them

Foxx says Smollett faced ‘kangaroo prosecution’ (Chicago Sun-Times)

Major League Soccer reaches a deal to support Black banks, aiming to help close the racial wealth gap (CNBC)

It May Not Be Possible to Achieve Racial Equity in American Scientific Research

Judge Sentences Jussie Smollett to Jail; Hate Hoaxer Freaks Out Completely

Jussie Smollett Did America a Favor

Hillary Clinton Donor To Serve Jail Time for Hate Crime Against Gay Black Man

Suns’ Chris Paul Joins Forces With Obamas To Fight ‘Voter Suppression’  Apparently, only black voters are getting suppressed.

The View: Criticism of Kamala’s Laughing is ‘Based in Racism…Misogyny’  And here I thought it was based on good taste.

Biden War Against Domestic LNG (gas-by-rail)

GOP Congressman Dismantles MSNBC Attempt to Blame War for Inflation, High Gas Prices

Psaki pressed on how long ‘temporary’ inflation actually will be

Biden ‘does not care’ about small-town America, South Dakotans say: ‘If he did care, Keystone would be going’

Watch: Kamala’s Awkward Response When Asked About Ukraine’s Refugee Crisis

CBS Avoids Biden’s Unbelieveable Excuses as Inflation Hits 40-Year High

Majority Of Americans Make “Lifestyle Changes” As Gas Prices Hit Record Highs 

White House Budget Office Bills Taxpayers Thousands of Dollars for Small Beige Rug

“We Can’t Just Drill Our Way to Lower Gas Prices”, Biden Edition

Politico: Republicans ‘Pile’ on Biden Begging Venezuela for Oil

The madness of slow Joe, energy edition

Veep thoughts by Kamala Harris  The Kamala Laugh works its magic.

Top Obama Economic Adviser Just Took a Shot at Biden on Inflation

Biden Unveils 2024 Campaign Slogan: ‘Can’t Do Much About That’  Babylon Bee.

VP GAFFE WATCH: Nets Hide Kamala’s Bizarre Laughing Fit While Discussing Refugees

Biden’s Burnt Bridges Exacerbate Ukraine-Related Oil Crisis

Video Transcript: The White House’s Game-Playing Denials of Bio-Labs in Ukraine

Cackle Queen Strikes Again: Kamala Harris Laughs Off Ukrainian Refugee Crisis

Biden Blames Inflation On Putin, Big Oil And The Pandemic

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For years, Congress has dispensed with the pretense of informed legislative process when it comes to major bills and appropriations.

The new $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill, however, took the notion of blind legislating to a disgraceful degree. Democratic leadership dumped the almost 3,000 page bill on the members (and the public) on Wednesday with only a couple days to review the massive spending.

That includes over 4,000 pork projects in earmarks.

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U.S. regulators on Thursday issued final rules eliminating the need for automated vehicle manufacturers to equip fully autonomous vehicles with manual driving controls to meet crash standards.

Yeah, that will end well.

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Eric Fanning, former Army secretary and current head of the Aerospace Industries Association, raises a red flag about a new tax law that could harm American R&D investment.

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It was a mere two weeks ago that optimism for world powers reaching a restored nuclear deal in Vienna was at its highest, with especially European officials declaring a deal was imminent and within sight. But it now appears the at this point two week long war in Ukraine has upended that prior optimism as talks fall apart at the very moment it was thought they were at their conclusion.

“World powers and Iran suspended their efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, reigniting a crisis that’s set to roil already surging oil markets and potentially plunge the energy-exporting Persian Gulf into a new cycle of violence,” Bloomberg begins of its latest reporting on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed what he dubbed a “pause” in negotiations with a tweet, due to “external factors”.

ZMan’s weekly podcast. Highly recommended.

Way back when the tech oligarchs began to censure people, the primary reaction was that this was not allowed. Americans had been operating under the assumption that we had the right to speak freely about politics and we had the right to hear others speak freely about politics. That was the rule. What these tech companies were doing was un-American and immoral. In other words, they were breaking the rules.

It did not take long before people started losing respect for the rules, since they were no longer being applied fairly. Working around the arbitrary enforcement of ever-changing rules is now a primary enterprise. The new normal is that the people with power exercise it arbitrarily and capriciously. As a result, the people who prided themselves on obeying the rules now have no respect for the rules.

That has been the biggest change in the last half dozen years. It used to be that a room full of dissidents would be talking about how we can get the state to do a better job enforcing the rules. Now, the room is full of people who laugh at the rules and talk about ways to get around the latest schemes by the rule makers to benefit themselves and their allies at the expense of the decent people.

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Federal authorities are investigating three Democratic megadonors who made an enormous bet on shares of Activision Blizzard just days before Microsoft agreed in January to acquire the video game company for $69 billion.

The U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are both looking into the suspiciously timed trading activity of Barry Diller, owner of the Daily Beast, his stepson Alex von Fürstenberg, and his friend David Geffen, a longtime Democratic donor who gave $500,000 to the scandal-plagued Lincoln Project in 2020.

Prediction: Nobody gets fired, nobody goes to jail.

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Buying an electric vehicle is a lot like buying a subscription to a car. Almost no one can work on them except the manufacturer, features get locked behind in-app purchases or software updates, and those features can get disabled at the flip of a switch. If carmakers can dictate how you use your car, do you really even own it?

Now, I know this is a hot take and will certainly ruffle some feathers, but it’s an honest question. It’s not just Tesla, either, as every major auto manufacturer is working on or releasing their own EVs. As vehicles get more advanced, this problem will only continue. There’s a difference between having and owning an EV, and I’m not sure which is better.

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The U.S. aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as part of its commitment to tackling climate change, but might be lacking the critical minerals needed to achieve its goals.

The American green economy will rely on renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, along with the electrification of transportation. However, local production of the raw materials necessary to produce these technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, is lacking. Understandably, this has raised concerns in Washington.

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The University of Georgia announced a new invasive bright yellow, blue-black, and red spider is preparing to spread from Georgia “through most of the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.” this spring. The spider is the size of a child’s hand and will parachute through the air and travel by wind.

Large and scary-looking Joro spiders, potentially millions of them, are expected to use their silk to carry them up and down the East Coast as early as May in a technique called “ballooning,” according to UGA Today, a publication by the University of Georgia.

John Hinderker at Power Line.

Education Minnesota, the NEA branch that runs Minnesota’s public schools, has been making war on the state’s children for the last two years. In 2020 the teachers’ union demanded that the schools be shut down, and in a Democratic administration, what the union demands, it gets. The result, when test results came in at the end of the 2021 school year, was a catastrophic collapse in student performance.

That was bad enough. But, now that the schools are finally back in session, the Minneapolis union still doesn’t want to work. It has gone on strike, shutting down the schools once again. The context for the strike is grim: Minneapolis’s public schools are almost unbelievably bad, despite spending enormous amounts of money.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blamed the recent shooting death of Jason Rivera, a New York City police officer, on “a shot from an illegal gun.”

In this strange passive voice, the Democratic governor didn’t mention the officer by name, but concluded that the true threat facing New York City was “the scourge of illegal guns on our streets.”

By refusing to state that an actual person acted viciously and illegally in killing a police officer, Hochul asked us to believe in a lie.

Guns pull their own triggers, SUVs plow into crowds on their own initiative … I tell you, it’s brutal out there.

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Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to stop shifting their clocks twice a year, according to polls.

(a) Why, then, is Congress still debating it?

(b) What business is it of Congress what the time is? I don’t see that anywhere in the Constitution.

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A study of the extinct Christmas Island rat suggests we cannot bring back the woolly mammoth and other lost species without important differences.

I suspect that eventually we’ll be able to do it, but just not anytime soon.