KYLE SMITH ON CLARKSON’S FARM: Daddy Pig Attempts to Farm.

Clarkson’s Farm is a brilliant eight-episode reality series on Amazon Prime whose central figure does a spectacular job making himself look absurd. Jeremy Clarkson — a national treasure in Britain, still little known in the U.S. — is a soft-bellied, PC-hating, extremely wealthy 58-year-old fellow who made squillions hosting Top Gear, then was fired for punching a producer, then launched a knockoff show called The Grand Tour. He is also beloved for the curmudgeonly humor columns he writes for the British Sunday papers.

* * * * * * * *

But it’s not the many individual catastrophes that make the show so delightful; it’s the comic superstructure that sells it. Jeremy is every middle-aged man fighting time, bureaucrats, machinery, markets, pests, and God. He is a comedy Job for our times, and he serves as a lesson for all of us who have ever thought of embarking on a bold new project well outside our comfort zone: Don’t do it. You’ll probably fail. There’s a corollary to that, though: What you’re doing now is probably as good as it gets for you, so be happy with your lot. At least you’re not in London attempting to sell the wasabi you so proudly grew on your farm and discovering it’s worth a fraction of what your parking ticket just cost you.

It’s a surprisingly enjoyable series, which in a way, subtly recreates the power trio dynamic of Top Gear/The Grand Tour: Caleb as Richard Hammond, the bumpkin who ends up stealing the show, and “Cheerful Charlie” the agronomist as James May, a bright man full of knowledge, which Clarkson continually ignores, to his misfortune.

THERE’S BEEN A DISTINCT SHORTAGE OF THAT: “We need a lot of humility.” — Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, of University of California San Francisco, discussing the many unknowns surrounding whether one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine provides sufficient protection for the previously infected.

BIDEN SUPPORTERS PLEAD GUILTY TO HATE CRIME AFTER ATTACKING PRO-TRUMP PROTESTERS, STEALING MAGA HAT FROM CRYING CHILD.

HEH: Via a friend:

DISPATCHES FROM THE MASKLESS: Erykah Badu and H.E.R post footage and pictures of Obama letting loose at his ‘scaled back’ Martha’s Vineyard 60th birthday bash attended by hundreds: Party is labeled ‘hypocrisy at its finest’ amid US Delta surge.

Related: Inside Obama’s bash.

CHANGE: Benedictine Monks Return to Historic Solignac Abbey for First Time Since French Revolution.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: You’re Not Going to Believe Why a Wisconsin School Spent $50K To Move a Rock.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Peter Beinart Called for the Elimination of the Jewish State. Ben And Jerry’s Tapped Him to Defend Israel Boycott to Franchisees.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

ANTIFA TERRORISTS ASSAULT FAMILIES AT PORTLAND PRAYER EVENT; POLICE CALLED, BUT DID NOT RESPOND (Video).

BUT THE OAKS CAN’T HELP THEIR FEELINGS, IF THEY LIKE THE WAY THEY’RE MADE. AND THEY WONDER WHY THE MAPLES CAN’T BE HAPPY IN THEIR SHADE: Male trees aren’t making hayfever worse. Trees are actually ‘super queer,’ scientist explains.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: New Hampshire delivers a double victory for school choice.

JUST MSNBC THE WRECKAGE:

● Ben Shapiro Just Lights up MSNBC’s Malcolm Nance When He Pushes False Jan. 6 Narrative.

● Shapiro Fires Back At Democrats For Cozying Up To Dictators On ‘Real Time With Bill Maher.’

● Watch: Ben Shapiro Masterfully Breaks Down Critical Race Theory On Real Time With Bill Maher.

Exit quote from that last link: “Shapiro’s performance received praise on social media Friday night, following HBO’s airing. The praise was so effusive that his opponent, Nance, claimed that bots were hired to promote Shapiro’s appearance and denigrate his own, according to Newsweek.”

REPORTS FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Chicago students explain why increased crime, Lightfoot policies put them at risk.

MASKS ARE FOR SUCKERS: DJ posts stealth pics of Obama’s ‘epic’ birthday party — before being forced to delete them.

GREAT MOMENTS IN FISCAL PRIORITIES: Report: Denver Spends Double on Homeless Than on One K-12 Student.

SALENA ZITO: Where’d you go, Ohio? How a swing state went red.

I FELT A GRAVE DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE: Star Wars Shop Owner Tells Trans Council Member ‘You’re Not A Woman’ In Viral Confrontation.

CULTURE JAMMING: Memes Make It Clear: New York City’s Vaccine Passport Is the Real Jim Crow 2.0.

Including:

(Classical reference in headline.)

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Humane, orderly? Border photos show human disaster amid overflowing toilets.

CLOSED MINDS ON BOTH SIDES: It’s an unfortunate fact that there are closed minds in the Christian ranks and on the other side. Dr. Tim McGrew looks at David Hume as the springboard to a challenging survey.

THE IMPERSONATOR: Eric Feigl-Ding, COVID-19, and an implicit far-left agenda.

But not everyone associated with Feigl-Ding was thrilled with the early panic promotion act. Feigl-Ding’s frequent use of Harvard-associated credentials to elevate his baseless COVID-19 proclamations greatly upset some of his colleagues (despite many of them advocating for the same draconian measures proposed by Feigl-Ding to “combat” the virus), and landed him in hot water with the academic institution.

Twitter, for reasons unknown, decided to credential him as a “COVID-19 health expert,” which further elevates his supposed legitimacy as an “expert” on the pandemic.

In mid March, Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, described him as a “charlatan exploiting a tenuous connection for self-promotion.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists also took notice, reporting that he has “precisely zero experience in infectious diseases.”

An unnamed source at Harvard told The Chronicle on Higher Education in April that Feigl-Ding has “been asked many times to stop promoting himself as having specialized knowledge.”

In recent months, Feigl-Ding updated his profile to show that he is no longer associated with Harvard. The reasons for his departure have not been made public.

Read the whole thing.

THE POLITICAL CLASS DOESN’T KNOW MANY ACTUAL VOTERS: VIDEO: Dems, Journos Keep Saying ‘Latinx’ Even Though Most Latinos Have No Idea What It Means. “The term is popular among woke activists, but just 4 percent of Latino Americans prefer it.”

SUE ME, SUE YOU BLUES:

● Major Teacher’s Union Sues Rhode Island Mother Who Asked Questions about Curriculum.

● Not The Onion: Runaway Texas lawmakers file frivolous lawsuit against Abbott, 2 other GOP leaders. “Best of all, the Democrats know this is a frivolous action and not worth the paper it’s written on – they are claiming $5 in actual damages and $10 in punitive damages. Sure sounds like something The Onion would publish, right? We’ll see if they show up in Austin today for the start of the special session. The only thing they accomplished in D.C. was a meeting with Kamala, but not Joe Biden, and they postponed the inevitable passage of election integrity reform legislation. Good work, Democrats.”