FROM JOHN VAN STRY:  Summer’s End.

Sometimes a dark past can haunt you. Other times it just may be the only thing keeping you alive.
Fresh out of college with his Ship Engineer 3rd-Class certificate, Dave Walker’s only thought is to try to find a berth on a corporate ship plying the trade routes between the many habs, orbitals, and moons in the Solar System. The problem for Dave, however, isn’t his straight C average; it’s that his stepfather, a powerful Earth Senator he’s never met, now wants him dead.
Forced to take the first berth he can find, Dave ends up on the Iowa Hill, an old tramp freighter running with a minimal crew and nearing the end of its useful life, plying the routes that the corporations ignore and visiting the kinds of places that the folks on Earth pretend don’t exist.
Between the assassins, the criminals, and the pirates he needs to deal with, Dave is discovering that there are a lot of things out there that he still needs to learn.
But there’s one hard lesson he learned long ago that he’s being forced to remember: how to be ruthless.

SHOCKER: Majority Oppose Sex-Change Surgeries For Minors: POLL.

OH, I THINK THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO HATE HER:  I went to high school with Taylor Swift — people hated her.

BEING (MOSTLY) REAL i’VE NOTICED THIS:  Inflation has real consequences for real people.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS MIGHT NOT BE SAFE:  The Model Jesuit Educator Calls Out Your Child’s White Privilege.

AND THEN PEOPLE WONDER WHY #TEAMHEADSONPIKES IS GETTING LOUDER: Today’s blacklisted American: School officials in Florida and Michigan retaliate against parents for being involved in their kids’ schooling.

YES, BUT LIKE COLORADO VOTERS THEY’VE BEEN DISENFRANCHISED BY  VOTE FRAUD BY MAIL:  Oregon Voters Say They’ve Lost Patience With Democrats.

THEY LIKE CRIMINALS: NY Gov. Hochul Doesn’t Know Why Putting Criminals in Jail is ‘So Important’ to Challenger Lee Zeldin.

They’re of their kind.

WHAT DOES SKIN COLOR HAVE TO DO WITH LEG LENGTH:   Biden Thinks Airlines Charging for Extra Leg Room Hit ‘People of Color’ the Hardest.

UNFORTUNATELY NOT REAL FIRE:  Cambridge University Under Fire for Teaching ‘Woke’, Gender-Neutral German.

I WOULDN’T SAY IT’S THE MOST PATHETIC DEFENSE:  Most pathetic defense ever of John Fetterman’s candidacy; demonstrations in Iran continue; Nicholas Wade on lab origins theory of Xi Flu.

But it’s up there. They’ll probably come up with crazier ones soon.

SHE HASN’T BEEN THE SAME, SINCE THAT FARMHOUSE FELL ON HER SISTER:  Whitmer Claims Schools Were Only Closed For Three Months.

THEY’RE RIGHT, THE TECH WHO BUILT THE FETTERMAN ANDROID IS LACKING:  Fetterman Team Blames Tech For Bad Debate.

To be fair like the aliens who created Joe Biden, they’d probably never seen a real human.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Twitter Addict Ron Klain Violated Hatch Act, Special Counsel Finds.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC GHETTOS ARE ONLY FOR DEMOCRATS: Mayra Flores Prevented From Joining the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

When the GOP takes over, they should rename it the Hispanic Democrats Caucus. Or just abolish it for discrimination and bigotry.

OPEN THREAD: Go for it.

THEY HAVE THE MONEY ON THEIR SIDE; ALL WE HAVE IS ON OUR SIDE IS FUNDAMENTAL FAIRNESS:  “Harvard Students Get $2,700 for Pro-Affirmative Action Rally at SCOTUS.”  It is one of the weirdest myths in the world that the left is impecunious, while the right is rolling in dough.  Especially with the race and sex issues I tend to deal with, the opposite is true.

FINALLY, A SENSIBLE APPROACH TO ENERGY POLICY: Germany Is Dismantling A Wind Farm To Make Way For A Coal Mine.

WHEN A JURISDICTION GOES DEEP BLUE, IT GOES TO HELL: California’s Slow-Speed Train to Fiscal Oblivion.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Biden: Extra Leg Room on Airplanes Is Racist.

Toward the end of his divisive and rambling incitement to class warfare, Biden served up one of the brazen, outright lies that have marred his entire career. The man deserves credit for audacity, for even in his dementia-ridden dotage he is unsurpassed in Washington (a city of politicians, which means a city of liars) in his ability to deliver an absolute falsehood not only with absolute conviction but also with passionate, self-righteous fervor.

“Some airlines,” Joe declared, “if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money. But you don’t know it until you purchase your ticket. Look, folks, these are junk fees. They’re unfair, and they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially low-income folks and people of color. They benefit big corporations, not consumers, not working families. And that changes now.”

If “fact-checkers” really actually checked facts instead of just running interference for the far Left, they would give that statement all the Pinocchios they have, for there is simply no truth in it whatsoever.

Biden, contrary to his carefully nurtured Lunchbucket Joe image, has been a member of the Beltway elite for over five decades, and so he likely hasn’t flown commercial in ages. And characteristically, his statement is not entirely clear. He is clearly saying that the airlines are racist and take money illegitimately from their non-white customers, which is viciously false and irresponsible enough in itself, but it’s not clear how exactly he is saying they do it. Is he saying that it’s wrong and racist for airlines to charge more for seats that offer more legroom? Or does he mean that the airlines are tacking charges for more legroom onto the price for a ticket that the customer has already agreed to pay, without the customer’s knowledge?

I can’t keep track of the Brandon administration’s various imaginary grievances. Are racist airline seats more or less racist than racist roads and bridges, for example?

PRACTICE: Starlink’s survivability in war a good sign for DoD’s future constellation.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. John Fetterman debate was painful and shameful — he is physically incapable of being a senator.

JIM TREACHER: Fetterman’s Lines Were Canned, But He Couldn’t Read the Labels.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Mummified Baby From Centuries Ago May Have Died From Lack of Sunlight.

OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING BUT I DON’T THINK IT’LL WORK: End Putin’s War: Offer Both Ukraine and Russia EU Membership.