August 3, 2026

WHAT CLIMATE CRISIS?

Posted at 4:07 pm by Stephen Green

MY NEPHEW HAS AN AR-15 IN .458 SOCOM. IT’S IMPRESSIVE. Ammo: .458 SOCOM.

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

YOU DON’T SAY: Dr. Ashish Jha on COVID-19: ‘It probably was a lab leak.’ “Former Biden White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, tells Dana Bash, ‘When I went into the White House, my view was this was almost surely a natural outbreak, maybe a lab leak. Based on information I learned and based on information I’ve seen, I have come to conclude that it is more likely to have been a lab leak.'”

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: Javier Milei Just Proposed a Great Idea. Every Government Should Follow His Lead. “Essentially, if the Argentine national government runs a fiscal deficit for several months in a row, the Congress receives a warning that it has a matter of weeks to fix it. If it doesn’t hit the deadline, the ‘shackle’ activates automatically, and the political class will be the ones impacted.”

Posted at 3:17 pm by Stephen Green

PODCAST: Hefty enrollment drop clashes with Colorado school funding.

Colorado public schools are projected to lose roughly 16,000 students heading into the 2026-27 school year, part of a continuing enrollment decline that has significant implications for how state education dollars are distributed.

In a recent episode of Independence Institute’s* Learning Curve podast, hosts Erin Brantley and Ross Izard lay out the enrollment decline in the context of Colorado’s school finance system.

Because state funding is closely tied to the number of students attending schools, declining enrollment ultimately means fewer dollars for affected districts.

The decline comes as Colorado is working through major changes to school funding. Lawmakers rewrote a decades-old funding formula in 2024, and made additional adjustments through the 2026 School Finance Act. The new system remains a work in progress, further complicating funding calculations.

What I wasn’t able to find out is whether the enrollment decline is due to remigration, homeschooling, or whether Colorado has gone so far left that we’re not having enough kids anymore.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green

COMMUNITY NOTES FOR THE WIN:

If you’re on mobile — or like me, you sometimes forget your reading glasses — the Note reads, “The monument in this image is located in Zanzibar and depicts one of the country’s last slave markets, which was run by the Arabs and closed by the British in 1873.”

Posted at 2:28 pm by Stephen Green

AIR CONDITIONING FOR EVERYONE! German official calls for national heat action plan for 2027. Haha, just kidding. They seem more concerned with “tackling climate change,” which no doubt means further carbon emission reductions that will be a pimple on the ass of China’s increased emissions.

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SUICIDAL EMPATHY: Taxpayer-Funded Islamic Commission Raises ‘Preferential Treatment’ Concerns.

Massachusetts lawmakers are taking steps toward using taxpayer dollars to prioritize the hiring of American Muslims for state government positions through a permanent so-called Islamic commission, sparking concerns that the Left is prioritizing a religion that contradicts its own political agenda.

If enacted, Bill S.2134, “An Act promoting the civil rights and inclusion of American Muslims in the commonwealth,” would create a “permanent” commission to help recommend Americans who practice Islam for appointed government positions in the New England state.

The commission, as stated in the bill, would consist of a panel of 11 Muslims appointed by Democrat Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials to represent the Islamic faith on issues such as business, the economy, health care, and other concerns.

It’s exactly the sort of move you’d expect from a collaborationist government.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green

WHAT CLIMATE CRISIS?

Posted at 1:33 pm by Stephen Green

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: Longtime Bay Area tech conference is leaving San Francisco after a 50-year run.

One of the technology industry’s longest-running conferences is leaving San Francisco for Phoenix, a setback for a city that has promoted the return of conventions and visitors as evidence of its downtown recovery.

Semicon West, a major gathering for the global semiconductor industry, will make Phoenix its long-term home beginning in 2027, the trade association behind the event announced Thursday.

The conference will hold its final scheduled San Francisco edition on Oct. 13-15 at Moscone Center before moving to the Phoenix Convention Center for an event next spring. Conferences are also scheduled in Phoenix in 2028 and 2029.

The decision reverses an earlier plan to rotate the conference between the two cities and ends Semicon West’s more than 50-year association with the Bay Area.

Its departure comes as San Francisco seeks to rebuild a convention and tourism industry battered by the pandemic, remote work and the prolonged decline of its downtown business district.

Gooder and harder, San Fran.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

HOW IT STARTED: Rosie O’Donnell Confirms Move to Ireland, Will Return to U.S. ‘When It’s Safe for All Citizens to Have Equal Rights.’

—People Magazine, March 11, 2025.

How it’s going: Rosie O’Donnell confirms Season 30 return to The View.  

Rosie O’Donnell will be back on “The View” for Season 30.

The former co-host confirmed her return on Monday’s episode of the “Tangle With Kyle Ridley” podcast, saying she will take part in the show’s 30th-anniversary special.

The 64-year-old plans to take part “in whatever way they want” her “just as a guest.”

She added, “They’re bringing back all the hosts, I think. And, you know, I’m pretty proud of that show, what it’s become and how it really speaks to the people and to politics.”

O’Donnell, notably, co-hosted the ABC talk show for Seasons 10 and 18.

In addition to an infamous on-air spat with colleague Elisabeth Hasselbeck that led to her initial 2007 exit, the comedian had a “tense” dynamic with Whoopi Goldberg before her 2015 departure.

“I admired Whoopi, wanted to be on her team, had respect for her and I expected we would be like Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan passing the ball back and forth, shooting and leading the team to victory,” she recalled on Monday. “And that’s not exactly what happened.”

I’m looking forward this ABC News program returning to engaging in such intellectually stimulating conversations as fire not being able to melt steel and that the Holocaust “wasn’t originally about race.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

CLAY TRAVIS DOUBLES DOWN:

More just a few items down.

Posted at 12:26 pm by Stephen Green