CYBER MONDAY DEALS are here. #CommissionEarned

IT’S A CRAZY OLD WORLD:  “Idaho Law Banning Transgender Athletes Heard in 9th Circuit.”

(My step-by-step argument for why Title IX does not require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers of the sex they “identify” with is adaptable to the athletic context).

GUN-CONTROL HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT DISARMING BLACK PEOPLE SO THIS ISN’T REALLY NEW: Birmingham Mayor’s Common-Sense Proposal: Just Regulate Guns in Cities.

As I’ve noted before, in the music world “Urban” is just a synonym for black. And when people say urban areas should have different rules, well . . .

INTERESTING MIX: Microgravity tomatoes, yogurt bacteria, and plastic eating microbes are headed to the ISS.

Not so sure about the plastic-eating microbes. I’ve read the book.

LINCOLN BROWN: The Transing of the Christ. “This is an old heresy in new clothes.”

HMM: Scientists debate the role of a virus in multiple sclerosis.

OH: Warnock sees massive cash advantage over Walker ahead of runoff election. “Warnock reportedly holds roughly $30 million in reserves, while Walker commands just under $10 million, according to FEC filings.”

YEP: Anti-Semitism is creeping back into America. “The progressive Left, of course, will have a field day with Trump’s unseemly banquet, and will no doubt use it to link the GOP with ‘semi-fascists’ like Fuentes and his followers. Yet these same progressives — including powerful Jewish organisations like the Anti-Defamation League — have a history of downplaying anti-Semitism from the Left. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt admitted as much when he criticised anti-Semitic elements in the BLM movement. At a recent seminar I conducted during Yom Kippur, an ADL leader even admitted the group backed BLM because they ‘did not want to appear racist.’ The frightening development is not just the existence of anti-Semitism but its growing acceptability.”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Dumb ‘Activist’ Calls Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh ‘Fascist’; Can’t Define Fascism.

HAHAHA: Fauci: “We need to keep politics out” of investigating origin of COVID.

Yeah, Tony, like you kept them out of your response.

NO. IT’S A TERRIBLE IDEA. ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD PROPOSE IT. Should We Bring Masks Back Into the Classroom?

The classroom experience with masks is drastically inferior, and masking as actually practiced in schools is of dubious benefit.

NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT: Chinese Rise Up Against Lockdowns that Elites Advocated in the US.

It’s an open question why the CCP remains so obsessively dedicated to this policy of Zero Covid; theories range from bureaucratic inertia to “saving face,” to a test of loyalty for Party members, to keeping ‘the science’ alive, to simply putting on a show to reassure international onlookers that the CCP really does believe in what it sold them and at least they don’t have it as bad as in China. It remains to be seen whether these protests will result in any real change in the country’s direction. But in the meantime, it’s worth remembering who it was exactly who advocated these insane Zero Covid lockdown policies and urged us to emulate them: Our own media elites and health officials.

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and their love for the CCP’s lockdowns (as reflected in the many screencaps at the above link) makes perfect sense.

WERE EBOOKS ON YOUR CHRISTMAS GIVING LIST?  It’s a Cyber Monday Extravaganza.

LIKE THEIR BUDDY JOE BIDEN, THE CCP SPEWS A LOT OF NONSENSE: China Boasts About ‘Thriving’ Economy as Mass Protests, Police Violence Fill Streets.

I WONDER IF WOMEN WOULD TRUST MEN WHO SAID THEY WERE ON BIRTH CONTROL? New male contraceptive does not involve hormones.

On the other hand, trusting women on that point can be iffy too.

MICHAEL WALSH: Big Trouble in Little China. “The Peoples Republic of China is a slave state boasting a record of military ineptitude unrivaled by any other large nation on earth, and is entirely of a piece of nearly all Chinese governments that have come before it. It has no affinity with the West, nor does it desire one. Almost congenitally incapable of creativity, innovation and exploration, it has instead adopted financial colonization as a central instrument of its foreign policy, using its own people as pawns in an international chess game only one side is playing.”

THE RAIDER IS SHAPING UP TO BE ONE OF THOSE INCREASINGLY RARE PROCUREMENT WINS: The Public Finally Gets to See the B-21 Stealth Bomber this Week. “The company has used digital engineering and advanced manufacturing to build the plane, which has allowed it to move much faster than historic military development projects.”

OUT ON A LIMB: Americans Still Don’t Enjoy Soccer.

CYBER MONDAY DEAL: Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation). #CommissionEarned

IT’S A POLICE STATE, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? BBC: Beijing’s goons beat our accredited journalist while covering Shanghai protests. “Both explanations are nonsense. Police and China’s authorities know who Lawrence is and what he’s doing in Shanghai. In a society with as many Orwellian controls over public spaces as Xi’s regime has, police likely know every movement of Lawrence and other foreign reporters in China. They arrested Lawrence because his reports help expose the crumbling foundation of Xi’s power in his insane attempt to turn the entire country into a COVID-19 prison.”

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Is ‘Moonage Daydream,’ the New David Bowie Documentary, Worth the Roller Coaster Ride?

My latest, over at Eddriscoll.com.

CHINA PROTESTS: Xi Faces Toughest Test of His Social Credit Controls. “What happens when millions of people forget their lessons, take to the streets, and turn against the police, because they’re so desperate that it doesn’t matter any longer if they aren’t allowed to board a commuter train?”

ERICK ERICKSON: Groundhog Day. “The point here is very basic — we are 708 days from a presidential election and we’re already having this much drama from both Trump personally and the inept and incompetent staff around him who should be preventing this stuff from happening. Either Trump knew Fuentes or he didn’t. That the staff let the guy in the room is the problem and Trump is ultimately responsible for his staff. Given three straight Trump related election losses and all the extra soap opera drama, Republicans, do you really want to put up with this crap and hope he ekes out a win in 2024, or do you maybe want to consider someone fresh and new who has a history already of beating back a hostile press and the left? Such people do exist.”

FLASHBACK: Will the New York Times apologize for lying about Officer Sicknick’s death?

WE’RE ONLY #7 IN FOOTBALL, BUT WE’RE #1 IN MACHINING: UT Students Clinch Inaugural SEC Machining Competition.