October 16, 2026

SAFETY: RIVIAN VS. TESLA. “Both brands represent the pinnacle of modern automotive safety, but they each have their respective pros and cons.”

Posted at 5:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

WHEN YOU’RE A TAX HIKE AND YOU’VE LOST THE DENVER POST…: Denver Post editorial board endorses ‘no’ on Amendment 87. “The Denver Post’s editorial board has come out against Amendment 87, the proposed graduated income tax ballot measure. In an Oct. 11 editorial, the board argued that extracting $2.7 billion in a single year from the state’s largest businesses would ‘do more harm than good.'”

You don’t say.

Posted at 4:54 pm by Stephen Green

STANDARDS AREN’T DISCRIMINATION:

Posted at 4:38 pm by Stephen Green

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: The (Almost) All U-Haul Edition. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn three times why the U-Haul is not your getaway vehicle, which has got to be at least four more times than Florida Man ever figured it out. Plus a rip-current hero, and the best place for doughnuts in Indiana.”

Posted at 4:23 pm by Stephen Green

OH, THAT CREEPING SHARIA:

Shot:

Chaser: The glorious spectacle of Timothy Miller wearing a burka.

Crack open the warm bitter. Dust down the bunting. Put Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ on repeat. For at last we have something to make every true English heart swell with pride. It’s the stirring sight of that 76-year-old geezer who was arrested for wearing a burka attending court yesterday in… a burka. Oh, this blessed plot!

His name is Timothy Miller. He’s from Southampton. On 12 September he was arrested at an anti-immigration protest for parading about in an entombing niqab. The cops accused him of using the Islamic veil to conceal his identity. Not so, he replied: I really am an ageing student of Allah.

He repeated this defence at Portsmouth magistrates’ court yesterday. He lifted his veil – I’m cracking up – to confirm his name, address and date of birth. He then said he is ‘studying’ Islam and he wears the burqa to gain a ‘greater understanding’ of the faith. His draping veil was flawlessly accessorised with a fetching black handbag.

Let’s not pre-judge this case. Let’s cast no doubt on his professed devotion to Islamic scholarship. I’m just here for the glorious spectacle of an old English fella in full mediaeval garb. It’s Les Dawson does Hamas. If he is taking the mick – and who are we to know? – then he’s braver than any British comic I can think of.

It feels so deliciously blasphemous, but in an entirely English way. It’s like someone put Benny Hill and Sam Harris in a blender. One might even say it’s a heroic feminist stunt – a valiant effort to draw attention to the awful effacement suffered by the women forced into these 7th-century cloaks.

The sourpusses of the Islamo-left will wail ‘Islamophobia!’. They’ll accuse him of ridiculing Islamic dress. But the burqa is ridiculous. We didn’t need a pensioner from Southampton to tell us that. It is cruel, brutish, backward, sexist and profoundly anti-social to make women drape themselves in public like this. If you’re alarmed when a white male pensioner pulls on a sackcloth but cool when a brown-skinned woman is forced to do so, you might want to have a word with yourself.

—The London Spectator, today.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

JOHN PODHORETZ REVIEWS YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING: “Two words: Holy cow.”

So this is a very brilliant bit of storytelling. Because Billy’s membership in the cult of Elizabeth helps explain implicitly just how it was this 30-year-old managed to con Rupert Murdoch (to take one example of her marks) out of $125 million. Her ingenuousness, her seeming nerdy unworldliness, making herself into a female visual analogue of Steve Jobs—all of this, all of it, was central to her con. And Billy, like Doyle Lonnegan in the greatest of all con-job movies, The Sting, is the ultimate mark, because he’s a believer in the long con—he is left innocent of the knowledge that he was taken as he cuddles his children and begins to fear unknown people for unknown reasons are tailing him everywhere.

So, too, Fielder. He never breaks character—and that’s the point, because in this movie, he is a character. In fact, he’s the lead character, not Elizabeth Holmes. Fielder and Oppenheim build to a conclusion in which we are led to believe Nathan has basically fallen in love with her. In portraying himself (surely falsely) in this fashion, Fielder is recapitulating the process by which Elizabeth Holmes acted on the weaknesses and desires of men to perpetrate one of the nerviest frauds in American history. He shows how she won people over, how she got what she needed, and how even, in her disgrace, she still has the power to seduce. What an achievement this movie is. There’s never been anything like You Can See Everything and there never will be again.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

[BLANK] WITH FRICKEN LASER BEAMS: Army Wants High-Energy Laser Weapons It Can Put On ‘Any Vehicle In The Motorpool.’ “The U.S. Army is pursuing a family of modular and scalable laser directed energy weapons that can be fitted to any vehicle in its inventory. The service sees this as key to expanding the operational use of lasers, particularly to provide an extra layer of defense against drone threats, and outside of dedicated units. The Army is already fielding high-energy lasers operationally on a limited basis, including along the border wth Mexico, but the technology has faced continued hurdles to more widespread use in recent years.”

Look, nobody said putting lasers on any vehicle in the motorpool was going to be easy. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile.

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

CDR SALAMANDER: America’s Maritime Moment Will Not Wait.

I came to London last week for APEX Europe, a thought and defense tech conference where defense leaders from across NATO are talking about the approaches, capabilities and investments that will shape future security. Those conversations felt more urgent after spending time in Greenwich. The museums made clear that maritime strength is about much more than ships. It depends on industrial capacity, technological imagination, national will and the willingness to act before a crisis makes action unavoidable.

That raises a difficult question for the United States: Are we making the decisions today that will preserve American maritime power tomorrow?

I’ll acknowledge something up front. I know I can sound like a broken record on this subject: act now, make hard choices, invest in the industrial base, embrace new technology, take care of our sailors and save our Navy.

But it’s hard not to keep saying it.

I can’t read another story about shipbuilding, listen to another speech about maritime strategy or visit another American or allied naval museum without reaching the same conclusion:

This is our moment.

For the United States Navy. For the maritime services. And for the nation.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green

MISSION… ACCEPTED: meet the stunning new mid-engined Porsche Mission S.

Porsche is on the ropes. Its profits – once the envy of many a carmaker – fell off a cliff last year, plunging a whopping 93 per cent to €90m. Its bet on an EV future resulted in… two new petrol crossovers.

It’s now on a mission to turn the ship around. And this is part of the solution. Welcome to the stunning new Mission S supercar.

It’s not a limited-edition hypertoy conceived for the fortunate few (though no doubt it’d sell out in seconds), but a full-production car that’ll sit at the top of Porsche tree. Which means it’ll look down on Porsche’s halo car.

“The Mission S represents a mid-engined super sports car platform positioned above the 911 – not as a one-off hypercar, but as a permanent and versatile addition to our customer offering,” said boss Michael Leiters.

It was designed to be “recognisable as a Porsche at first glance”, and we’d say… mission accomplished. It’s very 911-alike at the front with that familiar headlight arrangement, a slatted bonnet, a clean front bumper, and what Porsche deems ‘torpedo’ wings.

Car and Driver says that it can be yours for a mere half a million dollars.

UPDATE: Great moments in timing, as Elon radically upstages Porsche: The Tesla Roadster flew, drove upside down, and hit 60mph in under a second.

 

Posted at 1:38 pm by Ed Driscoll

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Posted at 1:33 pm by Stephen Green

ALASKA SENATE CANDIDATE CUES VIRAL REACTION WITH EMBARRASSING THING SHE BROUGHT TO LIVE DEBATE:

Sure you can – you can cue card your way through the presidency, if that’s what your handlers desire:

 

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™: Let’s Hear It for an Oregon Good Guy With a Gun. “This week we hear the tale of two males: one who stepped up to kill a bad guy to save lives, and another who used his power to kill spirits. The world is reminded that an El Niño is a real thing and Rob Bonta still hasn’t read the Constitution. There’s more. LET’S GO!”

Posted at 1:17 pm by Stephen Green