SO I FINISHED STEVE STIRLING’S Black Chamber (A Novel of an Alternate World War) recently, and I quite enjoyed it. It’s alt-history, where the difference is that Taft dies in office of a heart attack — not a stretch — and winds up replaced by Teddy Roosevelt, as we head into World War One. As you might expect, Teddy is more forceful than Woodrow Wilson, among other things.

I agree with this from the Wall Street Journal review: “As a spy thriller, ‘Black Chamber’ stacks up with the old classics of Kipling and John Buchan. As sci-fi, it comes off as terribly plausible, with Tom Clancy-like mastery of old weapons and potential ones.” If I have a complaint, it’s that the world he’s created was interesting enough that I would have liked to see more of it. But that’s what sequels are for.

Speaking of which, I’d still like to see a sequel to Conquistador, which I recently reread and enjoyed.

HEATHER HEYING on Toxic Feminity.

WELL, IT’S HILLARY, SHE’LL SAY ANYTHING TO GET BACK IN THE HEADLINES: Hillary Clinton Says Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Will Bring Back Slavery.

ANDREW KLAVAN EXPLAINS WHY LEFTISTS BECOME THUGS.

Related: Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON DROPS OUT OF TRANS FILM FOLLOWING BACKLASH.

Kyle Smith correctly notes that “People don’t realize how incredibly hard it is to get a movie made. Getting a big star on board means everything. The backlash means probably no star will touch this project, which will likely doom it,” adding, “That’s a win?”

Perhaps this week’s craziness at Business Insider might be enough to get it into production. (I have no idea what the quantity of working trans actors in Hollywood is.) But without a star on the poster, it will be seen by far fewer people. That’s not a win, either.

PETER STRZOK’S BIGGEST PROBLEM IS PETER STRZOK’S TEXT MESSAGES:  To the maxim “that which can’t continue, won’t,” it’s time add the Peter Strzok Principle: Denying the Obvious Doesn’t Make It Go Away. 

THE ASSAULT ON REASON: Why an ‘Environmental’ Group Worked to Censor My Stage Play.

WRITING SHORT IS DIFFICULT:  Today’s Lesson: 21 Words to Write Your Story

Book Plug Friday, and no Glenn didn’t write the article part.

ULTRA COOL: A binary asteroid. Check out the images. Image Number 4 of 2017 YE5 is a radar image. The binary asteroid recently passed within 3.7 million miles of Earth.

SARAH HOYT TEACHES WRITING FOR A LIVING: How To Write When You Don’t Want To

NEWS YOU CAN USE: It Turns Out Sex Really DOES Do a Body Good.

AT AMAZON, save on bestsellers in Automotive.

Plus, deals in Grocery and Gourmet Food.

UH OH! IS THIS BAD NEWS FOR PETER STRZOK? Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is being much more cooperative with House Republican inquisitors on Friday than her one-time bureau lover was on Thursday.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Shale country is out of workers. That means $140,000 for a truck driver and 100% pay hikes.

In the country’s busiest oil patch, where the rig count has climbed by nearly one-third in the past year, drillers, service providers and trucking companies have been poaching in all corners, recruiting everyone from police officers to grocery clerks. So many bus drivers with the Ector County Independent School District in nearby Odessa quit for the shale fields that kids were sometimes late to class. The George W. Bush Childhood Home, a museum in Midland dedicated to the 43rd U.S. president, is smarting from a volunteer shortage.

The oil industry has such a ferocious appetite for workers that it’ll hire just about anyone with the most basic skills.

“It is crazy,” said Jazmin Jimenez, 24, who zipped through a two-week training program at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, about 100 miles north of Midland, and was hired by Chevron Corp. as a well-pump checker. “Honestly I never thought I’d see myself at an oilfield company. But now that I’m here — I think this is it.”

That’s understandable, considering the $28-a-hour she makes is double what she was earning until December as a guard at the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs. But when the boom goes bust, as history suggests they all do, shale-extraction businesses won’t be able to out-pay most employers anymore. Jimenez said she’ll take the money as long as it lasts.

And this one could go on for a while. Companies are more cost-conscious than ever, and the evolution of oilfield technology continues to make finding and producing oil quicker and cheaper in the pancaked layers of rock in the Permian. It now accounts for about 30% of all U.S. output. Booming U.S. shale production is fueling record crude oil exports, with shipments reaching an all-time high of 1.76 million barrels a day in April.

And no student-loan debt.

FASTER, PLEASE: Immune-based therapy may be tool against melanoma in the brain.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Can You Really Cure a ‘Depressed’ Vagina? “Remember that iconic episode of Sex And The City where Charlotte York talks about having a depressed vagina? More recently, Ilana Glazer raised attention to another vagina-related issue in season four of Broad City when a sex therapist made her realize that she hadn’t orgasmed ever since Donald Trump was sworn in as president.”

CRY ME A RIVER: Demanding change from toxic men is exhausting.

DAVID SOLWAY ASKS: Healing the World — Can We Safely Rescue Those Who Wish Us Harm?

THE SCIENCE TURNS OUT NOT TO BE SETTLED: “Researchers have found flaws in some of the data that track and field officials used to formulate regulations for the complicated cases of Caster Semenya of South Africa, the two-time Olympic champion at 800 meters, and other female athletes with naturally elevated testosterone levels. Three independent researchers said they believed the mistakes called into question the validity of a 2017 study commissioned by track and field’s world governing body, the International Federation of Athletics Associations, or I.A.A.F., according to interviews and a paper written by the researchers and provided to The New York Times.”

Part of being a world-class athlete is having genetic gifts. Higher testosterone, especially in a female athlete, is one of those gifts.

AT AMAZON, summer savings on Bestselling Jewelry.

Plus, deals on Bestselling Appliances.

TYLER O’NEIL: Papa John Erased From History For Making Remarks About History. “His N-word comment was about public relations, not supporting racism.”

IT INTERFERES WITH THE POSTURING: How dare Republicans make us vote on the “abolish ICE” bill, say Democrats who wrote the “abolish ICE” bill.

IT’S THE PAULINE KAEL EFFECT: WaPo: Go figure that family detention and border enforcement turn out to be pretty popular after all.

CHANGE: Israel significantly relaxes gun license regulations: The move is expected to cause hundreds of thousands of Israelis to apply for a license immediately.