The American Spectator.

These DEI deans are malignancies on the body academic, absolute poison. They get paid boatloads of money collected from overblown tuition, which saddles students and their parents with debt for life, to provide an ostensibly valuable service that my law degree, rabbinical degree, advanced history degree, and other educational attainments still leave me unable to fathom. What do these noxious DEI warts do to better society other than to promote reverse racism, divide people by ethnicities and skin color, in many cases promote anti-Semitism, and preach virtue-signaling effluvium that, once analyzed objectively between the lines, promote nothing but hate, the good woke kind of hate, hate for the values that once made America great?

Read it.

And you know we can’t have that….

Read it.

G.K. Chesterton is purported to have said that “When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.” And although there is no record that he actually said it, the truth of the aphorism is becoming ever clearer in this post-Christian age in the West.

A version of the same idea was offered by Catholic French philosopher Chantal Delsol in an essay entitled The End of Christianity. She argued that when people stop believing in Christianity, they do not turn to atheism or nihilism. The religious impulse in humanity is too strong, too deep, for that. They find other beliefs and spiritualities.

Looking at the Western world today, it seems that the religious impulse for those who do not accept established religious doctrines, and even for some who do identify, at least culturally, as Christians, is increasingly being channelled into the embrace of what I call “fantastical beliefs.”

I never met a ‘Wiccan’ who didn’t vote Democrat.

I never met a believer in astrology who didn’t vote Democrat.

I never met an avowed Satanist who didn’t vote Democrat.

So much for ‘follow the science’.

Read it.

Christian Coons, an associate professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University, has been suspended and faces a hearing on March 20 that could lead to his dismissal. His crime? Sending emails to his colleagues about his department’s alleged past misconduct in hiring decisions. A university is seriously considering the dismissal of a tenured professor for sending some emails to his colleagues that they didn’t like.

 

The American Mind.

Gentrification is, at core, an economic strategy. It aims at increasing the number of middle- and upper-middle-class people living in urban cores. There always were, and always will be, young adults who want to live in cities. Gentrifiers differ from Patti Smith types, because they’re respectable and promise quantifiable gains to the urban economy such as higher real estate valuations. They moved into housing previously occupied by people with lower incomes.

This strategy made sense. The best argument for gentrification is that no other model seemed to work. It’s one thing to nag former industrial cities to lay off their yuppie-hugging and get to work rebuilding the great American working class. It’s quite another to make that happen. The cookie-cutter aspect of gentrification—micro-breweries, Starbucks, people riding bikes to work for reasons other than a DUI or an inability to afford a car—is precisely its virtue. An urban policy “model” is something that can be implemented anywhere and does not require much in the way of charisma or talent in city hall.

Covid has not affected people’s happiness around world, study reveals (The Guardian)

Vaccine makers prep bird flu shot for humans ‘just in case’; rich nations lock in supplies (Reuters)

WHO Advisers Urge China to Share All COVID Data  Good luck with that.

Russia’s Secret Mobilization of 400,000 New Troops

AIR WEAPONS: Ukraine Gets JDAM-ER

Poland & Slovakia To Send Fighter Jets To Ukraine

US to Send $350M in Ammunition, Tanker Trucks to Ukraine

This Georgia County Spent $1 Million to Avoid Paying for One Employee’s Gender-Affirming Care (ProPublica)

US banks want socialism for themselves – and capitalism for everyone else (The Guardian) Robert Reich is apparently unfamiliar with the definitions of both ‘socialism’ and ‘capitalism’.

A new Arkansas law allows an anti-abortion monument at the state Capitol (NPR) Of course, they wouldn’t object to a pro-abortion monument.

The American Elite Are Planning Their Escape — And It Starts With Paying For Passports (Huffington Post) I would do the same.

The de-Russianification of Art

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? Stanford Dean Who Berated Federal Judge Draws Six-Figure Salary

Jury Convicts 4 Oath Keepers for Jan. 6 ‘Conspiracy’

The View Blames GOP for Stanford Libs Shouting Down Conservative

Kevin McCarthy’s desperate plea to MAGA reveals a glaring GOP failure (Washington P0st) Greg Sargent continues to invent reasons to criticize Republicans.

NJ mom reported by military official for post objecting to ‘polysexual’ poster at child’s school: lawsuit (Fox)

AG Letitia James’ ‘Drag Story Hour’ draws over 100 supporters, protesters, cops, even NYC Council guards (N.Y. Post) Your tax dollars at work.

From ‘Comrade Barbara’ to Limousine Liberal: Barbara Lee Dropped $20K On Luxury Cars, Filings Show

The Obscure Maritime Law That Ruins Your Commute (The Atlantic) And the law stays because of union votes.

Oxfam Discourages Use of ‘Mother,’ ‘Father, & ‘Mankind’ To Elevate Poverty

Boston School Asks Kids About Oral Sex, Transgenderism

Men’s Figure Skater Comes Out Of Closet As Heterosexual (Babylon Bee)

‘Ukraine is a false justification’: America’s destructive new rush for natural gas (The Guardian)

Rancher rips Utah teacher’s climate assignment encouraging kids to eat bugs over beef: ‘Junk science’ (N.Y. Post)

The hottest climate job you’ve never heard of (Fast Company) Doing well by doing good.

Why Wind and Solar Will Never Work

A New Board Game to Induce Climate Guilt in School Children

Islamo-Leftism: German Greens Hail First Arabic Street Sign

Earth to Hit Critical Warming Threshold by Early 2030s, Climate Panel Says (N.Y. Times)

Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late (The Guardian) If action is not taken and it’s actually Too Late, will they finally shut up about it? You know they won’t.

NY Climate Act Cap and Invest Plan Going Off the Rails

World is on brink of climate calamity, definitive U.N. climate report warns (Washington Post) Yeah, yeah, yeah….

American company outraged after Mexican military, police seized Caribbean facility: ‘This is insane’ (Fox)

America’s border crisis, Biden’s immigration policy, and the courts (The Hill)

Biden’s Border Policies Face Pushback (Foreign Policy)

Biden May Revive Family Detention Policies to Handle Migration, Asylum Issues (KQED)

Biden’s ‘centrist’ feints are just cover for same old hard-left course (N.Y. Post)

Will Americans End Up Footing the Bill for Bank Failures? (CBN News) Yes. If you have to ask the question, you haven’t been paying attention.

Paul Krugman: Three and a half myths about bank bailouts (Salt Lake Tribune) Who else to give us the inside dope but The Man Who Is Always Wrong?

U.S. Citizen Smuggling Illegals Fatally Shot by Border Agent (San Angelo Live)

Musk Blasts Biden After Prez Lies Twice About ‘3% Billionaire Tax’

After 2nd Attack, Pregnancy Care Center CEO Calls Out FBI, Justice Department for Failure to Act

Veep thoughts with Kamala Harris  There are puppets who have more brain.

Fear, burnout and insubordination: Insiders spill details about life at the highest levels of FBI (Politico)

Long-friendly neighbor states are in a bitter battle over the next FBI HQ (Politico) Why not put it in San Francisco? They could use some law enforcement presence. I doubt that any of the FBI agents would object.

16 Migrants on Terror Watch-List Apprehended at Southern Border in February

Biden Kills Bill To Reverse ESG Investing Rule  So much for democracy.

Read it.

Well, first they went to Detroit, but, dismayed by what Democrats had done to the city, and unwilling to endure the high crime rate, they eventually moved to Florida.

(Actually, they were wiped out by the ‘eco-friendly’ ‘Native Americans’.)

Austin American-Statesman.

As any Texas voter knows, we elect our judges—and, except for our highest courts (the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals), we elect them locally. That’s true not just for trial courts, but for our fourteen intermediate appellate courts, too. For instance, the “Third” Court of Appeals here in Austin, which hears appeals from district courts in Travis County and 23 surrounding counties, is staffed by six Justices chosen by voters across those 24 jurisdictions.

Three bills recently introduced in the Texas Legislature would take some of the most important cases away from locally elected judges. Between them, SB1045, HB3166 and HJR139 would create a new “Fifteenth” Court of Appeals to hear appeals in most lawsuits against the state or its officers. And although the new court would also sit in Austin, its judges would be elected on a statewide basis. The bills would thus take state-involved appeals away from judges elected in more Democratic parts of the state in favor of judges elected by all Texas voters—who haven’t chosen a Democratic candidate for statewide office since 1994.

Like most big-city media, even in Texas, the Austin American-Statesman is a hotbed of Wokery. Hence their objection to anything that would decrease the influence of Democrats and increase the influence of Republicans. Imagine, if you will, their attitude if the party affiliations were reversed: Would they not be wearing out their fingers about Respecting State-Wide Democracy Versus Local Partisan Prejudice?

You can tell who are the pigs by who are doing the squealing.

NewsMax.

The longest-serving Democrat in the Louisiana state Legislature, Francis Thompson, has changed parties, giving Republicans a 70-vote supermajority that allows the GOP to override a veto by the state’s Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, Newsweek reported over the weekend.

Read it.

Gunnar Beck is a German lawyer and a member of the European Parliament for AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany). In the following video from the floor of the EP, Mr. Beck discusses the financial crisis, the Corona crisis, the “climate crisis”, and the migration crisis, which have combined to destroy the prosperity and culture of Germany.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

We last saw Sarah Idan when she was Miss Iraq in the 2017 Miss Universe pageant. She made international news when Miss Israel posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram, with kind words about Ms. Idan. That caused predictable blowback in the Arab world, causing Idan to issue an apology in Arabic. It wasn’t enough; her Iraqi citizenship was revoked and her family fled to another country.

While she represented Iraq in the 2017 pageant, by that time Idan, having volunteered as a teenager to work with the U.S. Army as a translator, was living in California. Now, appalled by the Left’s anti-Americanism, she is running for Congress.

You know, as you do.

The Other McCain.

Where is Charlie Sykes’ in-depth analysis of U.S. foreign policy? If he’s written one, I missed it, but what we get from him instead is a parroting of MSNBC talking points about Trump “channeling Kremlin propaganda,” as if it were impossible to criticize U.S. policy without being a pro-Putin stooge. But the real bottom line is this: Sykes voted for Biden, and is defending Biden’s policy in toto — to criticize Biden is tantamount to treason, according to Sykes’ brand of True Conservative™ principles.

Beyond the matter of Ukraine and Russia, aside from any consideration of policy, foreign or domestic, there remains the disturbing question: What the hell happened to Charlie Sykes?

He joined the Kristol Krew, and was seduced by the Dark Side.

CNBC.

1. New York
2. New Jersey
3. Vermont
4. Massachusetts
5. Maryland
6. Washington
7. Connecticut
8. Maine
9. Illinois
10. Oregon

All Bluest of the Blue. California had better get cracking or they will be left behind.

Stanford Students Demand Journalist Remove Their Names From Stories… After Targeting Other Students By Name  Rules are for thee but not for me. (The National Lawyers Guild is a Commie front organization that has somehow managed to cling to life since the 1930s.)

Mississippi Republicans Want to Take Over a Majority Black City to ‘Save’ It (Daily Beast)

MSNBC Hints Trump’s ‘Take Back Nation’ Call a Crime, Ignores Kamala’s ‘Bloody Knuckles’

Ron DeSantis Is Completely Out of Touch With Ordinary Americans (Daily Beast) As if someone writing for the Daily Beast knew anything at all about ‘ordinary Americans’.

George Santos never filed a key financial disclosure. Enforcement has been lax for years. (Politico) Just a reminder that the Narrative Media witch-hunt never sleeps.

Reagan Allies Schemed to Delay U.S. Hostages’ Freedom to Sabotage Carter, Alleged Witness Says  (Rolling Stone) Sure, I believe that.

Why white Christian nationalists are in such a panic (Washington Post) Jennifer Rubin re-surfaces, full of bile.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett says evidence of Chinese money to Bidens ‘doesn’t look good’ (N.Y. Post)

House GOP probes China-linked payments to Biden family; provides no evidence tying directly to the President (CNN)

Democratic rep says he might vote in favor of impeaching Mayorkas over border wall construction (The Hill)

FBI Is Now A ‘Weaponized Apparatchik’ Of The Presidential Administration: Whistleblower

A Failed Presidency In 20 Seconds

Watchdog Group Launches Investigation Into Biden’s ‘Woke Army’

Sunday Shows Spend Nearly An Hour on Trump, Ignore Hunter Biden Scandal

Turning 1.3 billion tons of Food Waste into Carbon Credits

Aviation chiefs rejected measures to curb climate impact of jet vapours (The Guardian)

Air Pollution: A Global Health Threat

‘Scrutinized’ female cops fleeing NYPD over anti-police climate, sexism (N.Y. Post)

Idaho hospital to stop delivering babies. One reason? ‘Bills that criminalize physicians’ (Idaho Statesman)

daho hospital to stop labor and delivery services citing “political climate” and doctor shortages (CBS)

Remember When Bill Clinton was Arrested?  Neither do I.

CNN Reporter Robbed While Covering “Rampant Street Crime” In San Francisco Imagine that.

Maryland House Passes Bill Requiring Gender-Affirming Care Under Medicaid (Huffington Post)

George ‘Bimbo Eruption’ Stephanopoulos Politely Preps Ex-Trump Fixer Michael Cohen

Oxfam ‘Inclusivity’ Guide Tells Staff To Avoid Using ‘Offensive’ Words Like ‘Mother’, ‘People’ and ‘Headquarters’

Drag Queens Interrupt Kirk Cameron’s Storytime Reading in Ark.

“The New Normal”: New York To Lower Math And English Proficiency Standards Due To Poor Test Result

Leftist Parents Flee Florida As Gender Treatments For Children Made Illegal  The system works.

‘Conservatives Can’t Define Woke!’ Shouts Leftist Who Can’t Define ‘Man’ Or ‘Woman’ (Babylon Bee)

Latest Twitter Files tackle ‘Great Covid-19 Lie Machine’ flagging true content as ‘disinformation’ (Fox)

Private-federal censorship machine targeted TRUE ‘misinformation’ (N.Y. Post)

Latest ‘Twitter Files’ allege censorship of proven facts (News Nation)

Long-covid symptoms are less common now than earlier in the pandemic (Washington Post)

‘Conspiracy At Its Height’: Fauci Responds To Message Saying He ‘Prompted’ Anti-Lab Leak Paper

The Vax Damage Lottery

NYT: Angry Black Woman Is Angry

CNN: “Ibram X. Kendi Says a Backlash Has ‘crushed’ the Nation’s Racial Reckoning.”

Knee to the Grindstone: How Colin Kaepernick Overcame a Privileged Upbringing and Found Success as a Professional Activist

Read it.

Japan’s decision to reignite its nuclear power industry is facing serious setbacks: 11 years of prohibition has led to a shortage of engineers, a lack of students training to fill vacant positions and a dearth of domestic nuclear manufacturing capability.

Something the U.S. and European defense establishments are discovering to their chagrin.

Vox.

For liberal politicians like Moore, Shapiro, and Biden, promoting policies to help the more than 70 million American workers who never graduated from college is rooted partly in politics, as Democrats have struggled recently to earn support from non-college-educated voters, especially men. After decades of prioritizing college attendance, the Democratic Party has been scrambling to figure out how to change the widespread perception that its leaders are out of touch with the struggles of average people.

Unfortunately, with the disintegration of the formerly-high-quality public education system in the U.S., business owners have learned (to their sorrow) that the need to insist on a college degree if they want to get employees who have at least what we used to think of as a high-school education. I remember when I was younger and went to some sort of local job fair where one company insisted that applicants had a four-year degree–it didn’t matter what the degree was in, just that you had a four-year degree.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

When you see something as facially absurd as San Francisco’s proposal to pay $5 million in reparations to every black person whether they were descendants of slaves or not, which is only a down payment since the proposal also calls for a guaranteed income of $97,000 per year thereafter, one question to ask is: What would Rush Limbaugh say about this? I think he’d say: conservatives should support San Francisco in this endeavor, and hope it spreads to every other liberal Democrat run city in the country.

The logic here is simple. Almost ten years ago, after Ta-Nehisi Coates floated reparartions at The Atlantic, I wrote here that if we are to consider reparations seriously, Democrats should be made to pay them.

The sooner the Blue states go broke and have all of their productive people go someplace else, the sooner they can be re-organized into something more sensible.

The time for cheap virtue signaling is over. It is long past time for Democrats to pay up, and San Francisco voters should learn a harsh lesson about what kind of government they keep voting for. As H.L. Mencken once said, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Hear, hear.

Read it. And watch the video.

Robotics are helping make minimally invasive surgeries even less invasive. Case in point: single-port robotic surgery, a relatively new type of approach where a robotic system controlled by a human surgeon executes the procedure by making only one incision into the patient.

Although still relatively uncommon, single-port surgery has been gaining momentum in recent years. The benefits are noticeable. Compared to traditional surgery, single-port surgery might leave patients with shorter recovery times, less scarring, and overall better outcomes.

Amazing stuff. Knowledge advances, but comes with a price: All of this equipment is really really expensive.

Read it.

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Read it.

Germany and other European NATO members that agreed to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine are running into logistical problems. Germany finally relented and allowed NATO nations that had purchased Leopard 2 tanks from Germany to send them to Ukraine whereupon the real problems started. Most contributors found that their Leopard 2s needed remedial work because they never expected another recurrence of European military tension, let alone another war, and failed to complete, or never started, planned or recommend upgrades.

Delaying these upgrades seemed reasonable because the Americans were still an active NATO member and their M1 tanks were known to be up-to-date. There are still about 2,000 Leopard 2s in service with European nations. Unlike the Americans, the Europeans saw no need to complete needed upgrades to their tanks or even keep most of them operational. So the Ukrainians will have to wait until the Europeans get enough of their Leopard 2s operational or the Americans change their minds on how quickly they will deliver M-1s. There are already over 200 operational M-1s in Europe with American armored brigades. The Ukrainians don’t need American soldiers but they could use their M-1 tanks.

No, they couldn’t. Like the F-16s that everyone is talking about, it would take Ukranians about a year to get enough expertise with the M-1 to survive, much less prosper, in actual combat.

Watch it, but only if you want to be hungry afterward.

I am a big fan of KFC, and this appears to be a good way to do that at home. (I’m too lazy, so I prefer to buy it, but I’m sure there are foodies out there who would be willing to put in the work.)

The Guardian.

Never thought I’d see The Guardian have a good thing to say about ‘medieval days’.

Border crossings from Canada into New York, Vermont and N.H. are up tenfold. Local cops want help. (NBC News)

New York sheriff calls for more border patrol agents as crossings in Northeast rise tenfold over last year (The Hill)

Republican senators move to overturn Biden’s $400 billion student debt relief ‘gambit’ (N.Y. Post)

Senate GOP to target Biden student loan forgiveness (The Hill)

What’s at stake — by the numbers — as Supreme Court weighs student loan forgiveness (CNBC)

Biden administration quietly resumes deportations to Russia (The Guardian)

Biden Admin Official ‘Optimistic’ Child Sex-Change Procedures Will Soon Be Normalized

Military Recruitment Flatlines As American ‘Propensity To Serve’ Fades  Today’s American military has all the charm of a North Korean labor camp. Who would volunteer for that?

The prosecutor, the ex-president and the ‘zombie’ case that came back to life (Washington Post) Maybe if you beat a dead horse long enough….

ATF Gains Financial Information On Potential Gun Buyers For Warrantless Tracking, Documents Show

Costs of the U.S.-Led War in Iraq Since 2003

Here Are the Tech Companies, Liberal Media Outlets, and Prominent Democrats Saved by Biden’s Bank Bailout

What Did China Get for Its Money?

Navy secretary cited climate change as top priority as Biden proposes shrinking the fleet

Biden denies $1M in payments to family from Hunter associate, despite bank records: ‘Not true’

Manhattan DA’s office ‘asked for a meeting’ with law enforcement ahead of possible Trump indictment (Fox)

Manhattan district attorney looks into Trump alleged “hush money” payment (CBS) Which is not illegal, no matter how much hand-wringing the Usual Suspects may do.

Law enforcement preparing for possible Trump indictment next week (NBC) A blatantly political move intended to knock him out of the election.

The risks of indicting Trump in the N.Y. hush money case (MSNBC)

Alvin Bragg May Not Be As Close To Trump Indictment As Thought (Newsweek)

“I’m Back” – Trump Posts On Facebook For First Time Since 2021

Federal Judge Hands Over Trump’s Lawyer’s Notes to DOJ (Daily Beast) Such notes are in theory privileged, but I guess not if you’re the New Hitler.

Trump Says He’ll Be Arrested Tuesday as DA Eyes Charges (NewsMax)

Trump says ‘illegal leaks’ indicate he will be arrested Tuesday in N.Y. hush money probe (NBC)

Trump will surrender to face charges if indicted, defense lawyer says (CNBC)

Reaction Suggests Trump Arrest Will Make Him Stronger

Get ready for Manhattan DA’s made-for-TV Trump prosecution: high on ratings, but short on the law (The Hill) Jonathan Turley looks at possible trumped-up charges.

Manhattan DA Announces Plan To Get Trump Elected In 2024

‘Let’s make these folks famous’: the leftwing push to raise 18 Republicans’ profiles (The Guardian)

The election-fraud crew loves polls now (Washington Post) Philip Bump appears to be the go-to guy for pushing the Narrative in the WaPo.

Journalists Against Journalism: Reporter in Crime-Ridden Philadelphia Criticized for Reporting About City’s Crime Wave

Ohio becomes latest Republican state to leave a key voting data partnership (NPR)

Mike Flynn and MAGA Activists Wage War Against a Florida Hospital (Mother Jones)

These Republicans Want Drone Strikes on Mexico (Daily Beast) Count me in.

Weaponization of the legal system reaches a new level

Joy Reid’s Latest DeSantis Controversy: He ‘Is Short’

More on the persecution of the January 6th protestors

The Willow Project and the Race to Pump the “Last Barrel” of Oil (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

A Controversial Technology Is Creating an Unprecedented Rift Among Climate Scientists (TIME)

The real (and sometimes controversial) science behind Apple’s Extrapolations (The Verge)

Apple’s ‘Extrapolations’ shows how hard it is to make climate must-watch TV (Washington Post) Of course, to the Woke, anything having to do with ‘climate change’ is ‘must-watch TV’.

‘Extrapolations’ star-studded cast and creator talk urgency of climate change: ‘This is the biggest existential story of our time’ (AOL)

‘Climate Alarmism’ Is New Form of ‘Colonialism’ That Infringes on Sovereignty, Researcher Says   Let’s have the Wokerati fight each other.

Please Stop With The Raccoon Dogs

Colorado Shooting Victim’s Son Sues Gun Maker Ruger

Ad Slams Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Nominee for Releasing Child Rapist

LA Teachers Making Six Figures Would See Pay Hike Under Socialist-Backed ‘Green New Deal’

Lawmakers Aim to Purge ‘Zuckerbucks’ From Electoral Landscape

Michigan Is Becoming The Anti-Florida On LGBTQ Rights ? And A Lot More (Huffington Post) Which is why people are moving from Michigan to Florida, and not from Florida to Michigan.

As crucial legal test for Antifa ideology heads to trial, right-wing media also scrutinized (USA Today) We must not lose sight of who the real witches are.

Minnesota Is In the News–For Craziness

The Transgender Bite Is Louder Than its Bark

Maher Stumps Dem. Congresswoman With San Francisco’s Woke ‘Madness’

Trans Women: The Patriarchy’s Ultimate Victory

Florida textbook altered to remove references to Rosa Parks’s race: report (The Hill) Report! That proves it!

#Florida textbook doesn’t mention #RosaParks’ race (MSNBC) Well, since race doesn’t exist, why should it?

Publisher Deletes Race From Rosa Parks Story for Florida (Rolling Stone)

Textbook Cuts Race from Rosa Parks Story Amid ‘Anti-Woke’ Florida Push: NYT (Deaily Beast) So they’re all parroting something in the New York Times, that bastion of accuracy and dependability.

Can the surge of Black shopping directories actually help Black businesses? (The Guardian)

‘Stockholm Syndrome’? SVB, BLM and the Toxic Plague of Liberal White Guilt

Foreign Affairs.

Over two decades, Americans have stubbornly refused to move on from Iraq. That is partly because the U.S. military is still fighting there and many other places besides. More profoundly, the country cannot “turn the page” without reading and comprehending it—without truly reckoning with the causes of the war. It may be painful to revisit what drove American leaders, on a bipartisan basis, to want to invade a country that had not attacked the United States and had no plans to do so, facts widely appreciated at the time. Yet without looking back, the country will not move forward with confidence and unity.

Read it.

If you’ve read this blog over the years you know that I’ve increasingly written about a general staleness in urbanist discourse. I’ve characterized it as seeing a need for new ideas in urbanism discourse, superstar cities becoming the victims of their own success, or the needs of interior cities being glossed over in favor of the coasts. They’re all valid. But it comes down to the fact that the urbanism of the 2000s and early 2010s, when the rise of cities gave so many urbanists hope that a new urban era was dawning, is not the urbanism we talk about anymore.

Recently I realized it wasn’t staleness at all that I was reacting to, but a subtle shift that eventually replaced all previous urban discourse. The affordable housing crisis has hijacked urbanism.

Watch it.

Fascinating. I want to know what is the mechanical analog of Kirchhoff’s laws.

Read it.

The most recent exercise of this quest came in the form of filling up an unmodified MX-5 Miata with a synthetic fossil-free fuel, and testing it across a 1000-mile road trip. Throughout the trip, the MX-5 was also thrashed at various tracks to see how the fuel would deal with the abuse.
Simply put, the synthetic fuel operated much like normal gasoline would have, without the emission drawbacks of the latter.

Well, if you’re burning something for fuel, you will have emissions–the only question is what kind. The article, perhaps significantly, doesn’t say what kind of emissions this synthetic fuel produces, although they do confess that it’s made from agricultural waste and is composed of hydrocarbons. I suspect that this was just a setup to bash it in favor of the Holy Electric Vehicle, which occupies almost half of the article.

The Guardian.

A chunky grey staircase thrusts out from the side of a new office tower in Los Angeles, lunging towards a rail line before jerking back on itself and lurching up the building in jagged twists and turns. It crashes into a warped lattice of bands that wrap around the glassy hulk, swooping past corner windows that jut in and out like broken teeth. This is (W)rapper, “an outrageous creative office tower”, in the words of its leasing agents, set to “reawaken the Los Angeles skyline”. It is also the bombastic tombstone of a bygone era, a carbon-guzzling monument to a time when architectural ego trumped the interests of people and planet.

It is, of course, endemic to writers for proglodyte publications that they equate their preferences with ‘the interests of the people and planet’. That arrogance is their signature characteristic. Kind of like vegans.

Newsweek.

The question is, will people be working fewer hours? I am dubious. If the choice is between five days of eight hours versus four days of ten hours, a lot of salaried folk (who are now working fifty or sixty hours in in a nominal 40-hour week) will jump at it. It’s not clear how blue-collar workers (like policemen, firefighters, and factory workers) who depend on overtime to achieve a middle-class lifestyle will react.

“Arresting Trump makes him the GOP nominee. A rich guy willing to risk his freedom for his politics cannot be beaten in a primary.” — ZMan

If these clowns actually go through this this, it will blow up in their faces and they will regret it forevermore.