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Inequality of outcome is inherent to a free economy, which tends to reward the most talented. Since talent is unequally and arbitrarily distributed, free enterprise and its resulting inequality of outcome are unpalatable to the equalitarian Left. Yet progress depends on the flourishing of the talented. That means that inequality is truly the midwife of progress. And that’s why progressives hate progress.
— Marian L. Tupy
Reading Time: 5 minutes 10 seconds
Today is Friday, September 23rd, the 266th day of 2022. There are 99 days left in the year. It is National Dogs in Politics Day, National Great American Pot Pie Day, National Snack Stick Day, and International Day of Sign Languages.
On This Day
In 1561, King Philip II of Spain halted the colonization of Florida.
In 1641, the Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure of over 100,000 pounds of gold, was lost at sea off England’s southwest coast.
In 1642, the first commencement exercises occurred at Harvard College.
In 1779, John Paul Jones, naval commander of the United States, on board the USS Bonhomme Richard, won the Battle of Flamborough Head.
In 1806, Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest.
In 1845, the Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first team to play under modern rules, was founded in New York.
In 1932, the unification of Saudi Arabia was completed.
In 1952, Richard Nixon gave his “Checkers speech.”
In 1986, Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros set a record by striking out the first eight batters he faced against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2002, the first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox was released.
Today’s Birthdays
Actress Mary Kay Place is 75. Bruce Springsteen is 73. Actor Kenneth “Chi” McBride is 61. Actress Rosalind Chao is 65. Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco is 52.
The Links
Mass Formation Psychosis: How The Pandemic Weaponized Fear w/ Dr. Mark McDonald (Ask Dr. Drew)
“[C]ourage is contagious. And we don’t have enough courage today.”
The Vaccine Narrative Is as Leaky as the Vaccines (Brownstone Institute)
“The lockdowns across the Western world remain, to me, inexplicable and baffling. The abandonment of a century’s worth of cumulative scientific knowledge and global and national pandemic preparedness plans were based neither on new science nor emerging data.”
AP Hides Crucial Details About Killing Of Republican Teenager (The Federalist)
“The AP’s construing of Brandt’s admitted anti-Republican motive as a vague ‘political argument’ is reminiscent of corporate outlets’ coverage of Darrell Brooks Jr., who allegedly rammed his car through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people. Brooks had a history of calling for violence against white people, but media outlets including the AP simplistically characterized the slaughter as ‘SUV hits Christmas parade,’ as if the car was at fault rather than the politically inconvenient driver.”
Trump supporters’ plot to bomb Sacramento’s Dem HQ wasn’t all beer talk, feds say (The Sacramento Bee)
“Rogers’ lawyer, Colin Cooper, filed a sentencing memorandum Wednesday asking U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer to sentence Rogers to seven years in prison as part of his plea agreement, arguing that Rogers’ excessive beer drinking led to his ‘bloviating’ about launching attacks and that his talk was ‘a huge mistake.’”
The revenge of the material economy (Joel Kotkin)
“Good material jobs cannot easily co-exist with Net Zero policies, which are aimed at wiping out fossil fuels in the near term. Trillions of dollars have been spent on global power generated by green energy over the past 20 years, but the percentage of fossil fuels has barely declined. The bulk of greenhouse-gas reductions in recent years has come from switching from coal to natural gas. Yet the negative consequences of trying to eliminate fossil fuels and nuclear power have been profound, both for companies and consumers.”
Black slag near Anaconda going to seed (Billings Gazette)
“The nearby Forge Hotel has been open for more than a year. A Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply store is on the rise. Everett said several other businesses plan to open their doors in the vicinity in the not too distant future.”
Search for place to store the nation’s radioactive waste gains $16 million (Hartford Courant)
“U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a visit … that 200 communities nationwide have responded to requests for information about storing radioactive waste. Federal officials must still find localities to volunteer to take on spent nuclear rods.”
Biden’s hunger hubbub ignores the federal obesity fiasco (James Bovard)
“Young children in low-income families are more than 50% more likely to be obese than those in other families, a 2016 report found. While politicians portray hunger as the gravest peril for the poor, “seven times as many [low-income] children are obese as are underweight,” the Journal of the American Medical Association noted in 2012.”
New Census Data: Key Takeaways on Divorce, Marriage, and Fertility in the U.S. (Institute for Family Studies)
“One reason that marriage seems more stable today is that tying the knot is becoming much more selective than it once was. In other words, fewer Americans are entering marriage in the first place. The ACS data suggest the marriage rate ticked up a bit in 2021 compared to 2020 but remains close to the all-time low of 2020. For every 1,000 unmarried adults in 2021, only 30.5 got married. This is slightly higher than the level in 2020 (30.2 out of 1,000 unmarried Americans), but markedly lower than it was in 2019, when 33.2 out of 1,000 unmarried Americans got married. And the 2019 level was an all-time low at the time. Clearly, when it comes to family formation, the state of our unions is not strong.”
The American security state comes home (Institute for Peace & Diplomacy)
“After 21 years, it appears we have gone full circle: the War on Terror’s ‘you are either with us or against us’ mentality has come home. Where George W. Bush used American exceptionalism as a basis for militarism and political absolutism, Biden has leveraged democratic exceptionalism — weaponising the mythos of democracy for partisan gains.”
NORM COLEMAN OVERSEES GOP CONGRESSIONAL WAR CHEST, THEN LOBBIES ON SAUDI ARABIA’S BEHALF (The Intercept/Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
“As Coleman worked lucrative lobbying contracts for Riyadh, AAN produced favorable messaging about Saudi Arabia. The group, and its related American Action Forum, where Coleman is listed as ‘of counsel,’ have singled out Saudi Arabia for praise. In a 2015 blogpost on AAN’s website, under the banner of ‘Note from Norm,’ Coleman promoted Saudi Arabia, alongside China and Indonesia, as models of ‘moderate Islam’ and enemies of the Islamic State. And a 2016 post on the AAF website praised economic reforms proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. ‘Reformed Saudi Economy Could be Good for Oil Markets,’ declared the headline.”
Littorally -- Uh, Literally -- the Worst (D. Dowd Muska)
“A few months after the committee’s hearing, the GAO reported that the LCS’s unit cost was 81 percent over budget, the program’s acquisition cycle time had extended 78 months, and the bill for LCS research and development had soared by 313 percent.”
Taxpayers Shouldn’t Sink More Money into the F-35 Program (Americans for Tax Reform)
“The true cost of the program is likely even higher given DOD has not provided an acquisition cost estimate since December of 2019 … . That 2019 estimate alone was a $22 billion cost increase from DOD’s 2018 estimate.”
Holding Ground, Losing War (The American Conservative)
“Moscow is in no hurry. The Russians are nothing if not methodical and deliberate. Ukrainian forces are bleeding to death in counterattack after counterattack. Why rush? Moscow can be patient. China, Saudi Arabia, and India are buying Russian oil in rubles. Sanctions are hurting America’s European allies, not Russia.”
The Moscow Signals Declassified: Irradiating Richard Nixon (National Security Archive)
“Using detection devices known as Radiac Dosimeters, Nixon’s Secret Service detail measured significant levels of radiation in and around Nixon’s sleeping quarters at Spaso House, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador, during the first days of his trip. A few hours after the agents initiated what one called ‘a bluff’ by loudly and coarsely denouncing the Soviets’ dirty tricks, the radiation levels ‘settled down.’”
Your Turn
1. Is Saudi Arabia evil?
2. Chicken pot pie, beef pot pie, or turkey pot pie?
3. What browser do you use?
4. Is hunger a real problem in America?
5. Favorite Springsteen song?
1. Yes
2. Chicken pot pie
3. At work: chrome and edge. At home/phone: chrome, duck duck go
4. No.
5. None