REPORT FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Assaulted bodega worker flees NYC for the safety of… the Dominican Republic.

NO, CHRISTIANITY IS NOT DISAPPEARING FROM AMERICA: Contrary to the Mainstream Media, more than a few academics and lots of atheist bloggers, Christianity is not on a course of steady fading from the American scene. And there is a basic flaw in much of the data about the Nones – essentially, there aren’t as many as claimed. Check it out on HillFaith.

DEAL OF THE DAY: INSE Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. #CommissionEarned

PHALLOPHOBIA RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD: College students upset at ‘phallic’ sculpture coming to campus.

It doesn’t look especially phallic to me, but what’s wrong with “an erect penis” anyway? Are you bigoted against people with penises? What about women with penises? Why do you hate women?

UPDATE: Ann Althouse has pics from other angles that, well, don’t look especially phallic to me, but certainly they look more phallic than the picture accompanying the article.

But mostly I love this from her comments: “So somewhere between kindergarten (where representations of sexual organs are an essential part of the curriculum) and university (where even an unrealistic representation of a male sexual organ is so disturbing that it must be hidden from sight) the education system has turned students into puritanical bluenoses.”

Plus: “You pervs can go with phallus all you want – I see Jenga.” A more plausible interpretation, based on the pics. . . .

OH: Beyonce to remove this ‘ableist’ word found in university language guides from ‘Heated.’

REPORT FROM THE BLUE ZONES: “Pardon me for getting local here, but this is my home and I love it, and I’m tired of people shooting people. Everybody’s sick of it and nothing will change.” Not until there’s a drastic change of leadership.

TARGETING THEIR DOMESTIC ENEMIES: Dems Poised To Make IRS Larger Than Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol Combined: Manchin-backed Inflation Reduction Act would more than double agency’s size.

This isn’t about revenue.

WELL, PEOPLE WHO TRY TO START WORLD WAR III DESERVE SOME BLOWBACK: Hu Xijin faced some blowback after Pelosi landed safely in Taiwan.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Experts worry monkeypox disinformation will harm LGBTQ+ community.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Energizer Rechargeable LED Headlamp. #CommissionEarned

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Report: Naked 80-Year-Old Protests a Biological Male in Her YMCA Shower, Gets Banned for Bigotry.

PEAK BERKELEY: Protesters demand housing for homeless, block low-income housing project because it will displace homeless from the street.

WEIRDNESS IN THE NUMBERS: EMPLOYMENT:

The most obvious weirdness factor going into this recession is the still-strong employment data. Employers are hiring people faster than they are firing them, and many wish they could hire more. That doesn’t square with recessionary conditions.

This may be because the recession is still young. A reader sent me this chart in response to last week’s letter. It shows the unemployment rate with arrows pointing out a bottom just ahead of each recession (the shaded areas). . . .

The BLS switched to OER after the last inflationary surge in 1979–81; indeed, if inflation was calculated today like it was in 1981, we would already be solidly into double digits. Similarly, the BLS estimate of rental prices, rent of primary residence (RPR), is up a near-identical 7.1% in the last two years, while the CoreLogic Single-Family Rent Index is up twice that in the last year alone (and an astounding 41% in Miami!). The BLS uses survey data to gauge shelter inflation. Homeowners’ perceptions of their property rental values anchor on the past and only respond to soaring home prices slowly, gradually, and over several years. The one-third of CPI for shelter will be playing catch-up for some years to come. Empirically, most of that catch-up occurs over the subsequent two to three years. Note that this inflation has already happened; it simply hasn’t made its way into CPI quite yet.

I predict it won’t end well.

DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Ketchup, mayo ice cream flavors being offered to London consumers.

The Ice Cream Project is made up of a number of non-traditional ice cream flavors. These flavors include several condiments or other food items typically found in a person’s pantry, such as ketchup, mayonnaise and baked beans.

“So this is The Ice Cream Project created by Anya Hindmarsh, so this is all about elevating the everyday flavors,” Hannah Wearne, a retail associate at an ice cream provider, said.

“So we’ve taken British store cupboard classics and turned them into ice creams, so we have flavors like Heinz Baked Beans, mayo, ketchup, we also have Quaker Rolled Oats, PG Tips, all of the fun things that you usually get in your store cupboard,” she continued.

Customers were excited about trying the unusual ice cream flavors.

What, no crunchy frog? No anthrax ripple? In any case, the next edition of Peter Hitchens’ The Abolition of Britain continues to write itself.

OPEN THREAD: Make it special.

EVEN BERNIE SANDERS ADMITS BIDEN’S ‘INFLATION REDUCTION’ PLAN IS A JOKE.

LADYLIKE BEHAVIOR:  Transgender cheerleader allegedly tries to choke teammate who wasn’t into this gender identity stuff.

TECH PROBABLY STOLEN FROM SPACEX: China launches secretive reusable test spacecraft.

TODAY IS THE 77TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DROPPING OF THE BOMB ON HIROSHIMA:  The Day the Pilot Who Led the Attack on Pearl Harbor Met the Pilot of the Enola Gay; and 19 Other Wise Voices About Hiroshima.

Related: Bill Whittle: Jon Stewart, War Criminals & The True Story of the Atomic Bombs (Video).

LESS MYSTERIOUS NOW: The TB Vaccine Mysteriously Protects Against Lots of Things. Now We Know Why. “It’s not just the BCG vaccine that makes the innate immune system hyperresponsive. Other live attenuated vaccines that use a weakened form of the virus to protect against diseases such as polio, measles, and smallpox have a similar effect. . . . In countries where infant mortality is high, vaccinating against tuberculosis, measles, or smallpox may have a beneficial effect in protecting infants against a range of other infections. In an Australian context where babies rarely die of infectious diseases, there is greater interest in the potential use of the BCG vaccine to prevent allergies and eczema in kids, Novakovic said.”

DRESSING LIKE SLOBS TO TRAVEL: “I do the boarding door, and we have people who come on barefoot,” a Delta flight attendant said last week at J.F.K. “I’m sure they have shoes somewhere.”

I generally wear a nice sport coat to travel. I find you get treated better.

FASTER, PLEASE: Reinvigorating ‘lost cause’ exhausted T cells could improve cancer immunotherapy.

NOT LIVING UP TO THE HYPE: U.S. Drivers Seriously Starting to Sour on Autonomous Vehicles.

READER FAVORITE: LED Floor Lamps for Bedroom, Living Room with Remote & Touch Control. #CommissionEarned

ADVICE: Knowing how to shoot is one thing. Knowing how to stay out of trouble is even better, which is an essential part of being a man at arms.