Welcome to the return of “Dowd’s Daily Download” — an email service launched in March 2019 that existed in another form for the last few years. The Download has everything you need to start your day, including a wise (or funny, or cynical, or weird) quote, historical events, birthdays of famous people (some noble, some loathsome, most in between), and a deep dive into the latest news, commentary, and research.
We’ll be distributing the Download close to 365 times a year (gotta take the Fourth, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day off) — and unless you’re the earliest of early risers, it will be waiting in your in-box when you wake up.
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The amoralist’s pattern of self-appraisal (which he seldom identifies or admits) is: “I am good because it’s me.” Beyond the age of about three to five (i.e., beyond the perceptual level of mental development), this is not an expression of pride or self-esteem, but of the opposite: of a vacuum -- of a stagnant, arrested mentality confessing its impotence to achieve any personal value or virtue.
— Ayn Rand
Reading Time: 4 minutes 40 seconds
Today is Wednesday, September 21st, the 264th day of 2022. There are 101 days left in the year. It is Miniature Golf Day, Escapology Day, National Farm Safety Day for Kids, National Pecan Cookie Day, and World Gratitude Day.
On This Day
In 1170, the Kingdom of Dublin fell to Norman invaders.
In 1776, a portion of New York City was burned after being occupied by British forces.
In 1780, Benedict Arnold gave the British the plans to West Point.
In 1792, France’s National Convention abolished the monarchy.
In 1938, a hurricane made landfall on Long Island, killing hundreds of people in the region.
In 1942, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress made its maiden flight.
In 1964, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world’s fastest bomber, makes its maiden flight.
In 1981, Belize was granted full independence from the United Kingdom
In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act.
In 2003, NASA’s Galileo probe was terminated by sending it into Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Today’s Birthdays
“Journalist” Diane Rehm is 86. Film and television producer Jerry Bruckheimer is 79. Horror novelist and left-wing moron Stephen King is 75. Actor and comedian Bill Murray is 72. Filmmaker Ethan Coen is 65. Actress Nancy Travis is 61. Actor Rob Morrow is 60. Warmongering nutter Samantha Power is 52. Actor Luke Wilson is 51. Actress Maggie Grace is 39.
The Links
Producer prices increased 8.7 percent from August 2021 to August 2022 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
“Prices for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services increased 5.6 percent.”
Work Won’t Love You Back, And That Is How It Should Be (American Institute for Economic Research)
“Using the term ‘exploited,’ however, is extreme when referring to organizations that provide opportunities to work, which we voluntarily apply for, compete for, and can leave on our own terms if we think we can do better elsewhere.”
The Myth of American Income Inequality (Cato Institute)
“By not counting two‐thirds of all transfer payments as income to the recipients of the transfers and not counting taxes paid as income lost to taxpayers, government statistics dramatically overstate income inequality.”
Majority of Texas voters favor school voucher programs, DMN/UT-Tyler poll finds (The Dallas Morning News)
“About a third, 34%, of Democrats said they were opposed, compared to only 20% of Republicans.”
South Dakota Is Debating What Could Be The Best K-12 History Curriculum In The Country (The Federalist)
“The people and institutions who have for decades failed to educate their fellow citizens to assume the rights and duties of American citizenship have disqualified themselves from having any say in what children should learn.”
More States Extend Postpartum Medicaid Since Roe’s Demise (The Pew Charitable Trusts)
“Last week, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt announced the state would make it easier for more patients to qualify for pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage by raising the income threshold from $18,754 for an individual to $27,859, and he said Oklahoma would consider applying for the extended postpartum Medicaid option.”
More Anxiety, Fewer Children: Mental Health and Fertility in America (Institute for Family Studies)
“Among women who think their best lives include more kids than they currently have, over 50% with clear ideas of what their futures hold or who think their lives will get better do in fact intend to have more children. But among women who are uncertain of the future, less than 40% actually intend to pursue the family they say would make them happiest. Among women who don’t expect their lives to get better, the shares are even lower: 25% of women who expect no change, and just 10% of women who expect things to get worse.”
The reparations movement undermines black American progress (Jason Whitlock)
“Here’s the truth that Hilary Fordwich avoided unloading on Don Lemon: The modern descendants of African slaves brought to America (and England) are blessed and owe an enormous debt to our forefathers and mothers. They suffered so that we now live free. They turned lemons into lemonade.”
The War On Women And Children (Tony Heller)
“[U]nder the Biden administration, natural-gas prices have more than quadrupled.”
Italian review of extreme weather says no evidence of ‘climate crisis’ in current data (JusttheNews.com)
“The researchers in the paper argue that ‘global trends in heatwave intensity are not significant,’ while ‘daily precipitation intensity and extreme precipitation frequency are stationary in the main part of the weather stations.’”
UN Secretary General: Climate Catastrophe, War, Poverty, Pandemic, Give Money (Eric Worrall)
“The collapsed credibility of the over-hyped Covid pandemic, much championed by the United Nations, has heightened distrust of authority, just when the UN hoped they would finally be in a position to tighten their grip.”
How the Section 232 Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Harmed the Economy (Tax Foundation)
“The aluminum tariffs in particular have disproportionately harmed certain industries. For example, the beverage industry saw its costs rise by $1.4 billion through early 2022 due to the tariffs, with 92 percent going to U.S. rolling mills, U.S. smelters, and Canadian smelters, and the remainder going to the U.S. Treasury, according to one analysis by the research group HARBOR Aluminum.”
SpinLaunch Closes $71M Series B Funding Round (SpinLaunch)
“The Series B financing, which includes equity and debt, brings SpinLaunch’s total funding to $150 million.”
Space Force debuts its official service song ‘Semper Supra’ (Defense News)
“The song, which will never be audible in the vacuum of space, is intended to be reminiscent of the other services’ traditional scores.”
New evidence emerges showing Israel deliberately targeted Shireen Abu Akleh as family files ICC complaint (Mondoweiss)
“Field of vision analysis simulating what the IDF sniper would have seen ‘shows that the journalists were clearly identifiable as such,’ the FAI concludes.”
Your Turn
1. Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, or No Country for Old Men?
2. Are you concerned that Medicaid now “pays for more than 40% of all births”?
3. Do you listen to NPR?
4. Have the “people and institutions who have for decades failed to educate their fellow citizens to assume the rights and duties of American citizenship ... disqualified themselves from having any say in what children should learn”?
5. How would most of today’s kids fare if forced to do farmwork for a summer?
Wow I'm huge fan of the Big Lebowski but No Country for Old Men definitely is my favorite. The movie stayed very close to the magnificent novel by Cormac McCarthy. So many great moments but the scene towards the end when TLJ goes to visit his relative (the old man played by Barry Corbin) when he tells TLJ the story of Uncle Mac is phenomenal. Epic dialogue with epic quotes but the one that stands out for me is "what you got, ain't nothing new. This country's hard on people. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."
Coen brothers films. I'm a big fan of "No Country for Old Men" which I believe is Tommy Lee Jones' greatest performance. Here's the link to the Rotten Tomatoes rankings: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/all-coen-brothers-movies-ranked-by-tomatometer/