FLASHBACK: Nobody is applauding as Hollywood premieres Polanski defense.

Roman Polanski anally raped a 13-year old girl. After plying her with Quaaludes and champagne wasn’t enough to make her succumb to his charms, he ignored her protests and did what he wanted. This was not a consensual affair, or a misunderstood romance. It was a wealthy, powerful man doing what he wanted to a powerless young girl. . . .

Whoopi Goldberg, who has sometimes styled herself a “child advocate,” opined that it may have been rape, but it wasn’t rape-rape. Debra Winger commented that “the whole art world suffers” from prosecutions like Polanski’s.

And film mogul Harvey Weinstein chimed in to argue that — by going after a multidecade fugitive — the government was the one “acting irresponsibly and criminally.” Weinstein went on to opine that “Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion.”

Well, there you are.

NO WORD YET IF COMES WITH A MINIATURE COKE SPOON: Mattel releases Stevie Nicks Barbie doll, but it’s already sold out.

SPEAKER TRUMP?

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Planned Parenthood is Helping Teenagers Transition After a 30 Minute Consult. Parents and Doctors are Sounding the Alarm.

I NEVER LIKED THAT SHOW: UAW Big Three auto strikes are ‘Survivor’ on an industrial scale.

SPACE: Returned Asteroid Sample Canister Contains Way More Asteroid Than Expected.

Scientists working to open up the sample canister containing rock and dust from asteroid Bennu have run into a problem: there’s just too much of it.

The process of disassembling the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head is taking longer than anticipated due to the abundance of material found when the canister lid was removed last week, NASA wrote in a blog post. But that’s not a bad problem to have.

In October 2020, OSIRIS-REx landed on near-Earth asteroid Bennu and snagged a sample from its surface. Scientists expected to find extra bits of the asteroid in the canister outside the TAGSAM, an articulated arm on the spacecraft with a round sampler head at the end used to grab the sample. This assumption arose when they observed particles slowly escaping the head before it was stowed, according to NASA. Not only was this assumption correct, but there were also significantly more dark particles coating the inside of the canister lid and base surrounding TAGSAM than anticipated.

“The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” Christopher Snead, deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, said in a statement. “There’s a lot of abundant material outside the TAGSAM head that’s interesting in its own right. It’s really spectacular to have all that material there.”

Next up: NASA’s ‘Psyche’ Mission To Quadrillion-Dollar Asteroid Is Go.

NOW OUT FROM LARRY CORREIA: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever. Note the big discount on the Audible version.

READER FAVORITE: Glocusent Upgraded LED Neck Reading Light. #CommissionEarned

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE HAS TAKEN EARLY RETIREMENT: Ex-Mumford & Sons musician says artists who defy progressive orthodoxy receive ‘professional punishment.’

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: College Kids Are Abandoning American Values. It’s Going to Destroy Our Democracy.

AS LONG AS IT DOESN’T MAKE STUFF UP LIKE CHAT GPT: AI co-pilot enhances human precision for safer aviation.

MUST FLEE TV: ESPN Quietly Produced Series About Racism Starring Left-Wing Extremist Ibram Kendi and Featuring Jemele Hill.

WE KINDA KNEW THIS A LONG TIME AGO: Infant immune systems found to have unique and effective responses to SARS-CoV-2.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: NYC professor who threatened Post reporter with a machete avoids jail with wrist-slap therapy plea deal.

The unhinged Manhattan college professor who threatened to “chop” a Post reporter copped a wrist-slap plea deal in Bronx court on Monday.

Shellyne Rodriguez, 46, will dodge jail time and won’t even have a criminal record if she makes it through as little as six months in therapy under the terms of her sweetheart deal with Bronx prosecutors.

Rodriguez – who was axed from her Hunter College gig hours after the caught-on-video May 23 assault on reporter Reuven Fenton – pleaded guilty to a count of menacing, a misdemeanor, and to a harassment violation.

Her record will be wiped clean if she completes counseling at the Alternative Wellness Collective of Manhattan and stays out of trouble for up to a year, Judge Dan Quart said in Bronx Criminal Court.

Compare her treatment to any number of Jan 6 defendants who weren’t even armed.

ABORTION, TRANSGENDERING AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Bet you’ve not previously thought to group that trio together in the same sentence. What the Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium found when he started asking PP questions exposed some horrifying new items on the lengthy list of reasons no tax dollars should ever go to benefit the group in any way.

WHAT HATH AI WROUGHT?! I Laughed And I’m Not Sorry. “Currently doing the rounds, The late Norman Rockwell depicts Modern [Weimar] America.”

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: Starbucks Is Closing Seven Downtown San Francisco Locations on October 22.

LET’S GET A WARP DRIVE AND GO SEE: James Webb telescope captures planet-like structures in Orion Nebula.

OUT ON A LIMB: This Was a Bad Week for the GOP.

#METOO WAS ALWAYS RIPE FOR ABUSE BUT THAT WAS HALF THE POINT OF IT: Ex-MLB Pitcher Trevor Bauer Exposes Jaw-Dropping Scheme of #MeToo Accuser.

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: CDC considers common antibiotic after unprotected sex to prevent STIs. “A draft recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could advise doctors to prescribe a strong antibiotic, after unprotected sex, to prevent sexually transmitted infections including syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Doxycycline, which could be used as a morning-after pill to prevent STI’s, would only be recommended for men who have sex with men and transgender women, according to the proposed guidelines announced Monday by the CDC.”

GOODER AND HARDER, NEW YORK: AOC’s call for higher taxes on New York’s ‘top 5%’ would hit households earning more than $250K, analysis shows. “While the top 1 percent of New Yorkers make nearly $1 million in adjusted gross income, the 5 percent threshold is a little above $250,000 for a household, or a married couple making about $127,000 each.”

For a family of four, it takes a household income between $60,328 and $180,984 to be middle class in New York state and it takes much more in the city. $250,000 for a couple isn’t exactly rich there — but they’ll get what they vote for, good and hard.

DISPATCHES FROM THE ICE FLOE:

Dear @JoeBiden, you did noble service for your country, but it’s time to let someone else finish the job. You don’t want to go down as Ruth Bader Biden. pic.twitter.com/fJNkjBvgtO

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) September 30, 2023

Flashback: The Democratic Party’s Ice Floe Politics.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Er, exactly what “noble service” has Biden ever done?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Only the ‘Far Right’ Is Standing Between You and the Death of Free Speech.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: San Francisco office building sells for half its purchase price. “The property is one of several office buildings in the city’s struggling commercial real estate sector to sell for far below their previously estimated value in the past year: Downtown’s 60 Spear St. sold in August for 66% less than its estimated property value, and a building at 350 California St. sold for 75% less than its estimated value in May.”