UNLESS YOU’RE ASIAN. THIS IS REALLY JUST MAKING IT EASIER TO DISCRIMINATE: Getting into Harvard just got a little bit easier.

SOUTH KOREA: In country with world’s lowest fertility rate, doubts creep in about wisdom of ‘no-kids zones.’

In addition to the world’s lowest birthrate, South Korea has one of the world’s fastest aging populations. That has left it with a problem familiar to graying nations across the world, namely: how to fund the pension and health care needs of a growing pool of retirees on the tax income generated by a slowly vanishing pool of workers.

And South Korea’s problem is more acute than most.

Last year, its fertility rate dropped to a record low of 0.78 – not even half the 2.1 needed for a stable population and far below even that of Japan (1.3), currently the world’s grayest nation. (And even further below the United States, which at 1.6 faces aging problems of its own).

With young South Koreans already facing pressure on multiple fronts – from sky-high real estate costs and long working weeks to rising economic anxiety – critics of the zones say the last thing the country needs is yet one more thing to make them think twice about starting a family.

The government, they point out, should know this better than anyone. After all, it’s spent more than $200 billion over the past 16 years trying to encourage more people to have children. Critics suggest that, rather than throwing more money at the problem, it needs to work on changing society’s attitudes towards the young.

I’m not sure if there’s any one good solution to the low birthrate problem, but reducing tax and regulatory burdens to levels last seen when people were having two or more kids might be a good start.

DEAL OF THE DAY: COOFANDY Men’s Hawaiian Floral Cotton Linen Button Down Beach Shirts. #CommissionEarned

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Climate Commies Ruin Everything—Pizza Edition. “In a city with rats the size of ponies and crime rates that are surging, the climate change weirdos would have people believe that the aroma from the neighborhood pizza joint is the real problem. Imagine how mentally unbalanced you’d have to be to buy into that without question.”

SEC, FOLLOW THE LAW? RIDICULOUS. NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Rein in SEC Practice of Seeking Penalties in Excess of Statutory Caps.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Notorious Sex Change Provider Targets Underage TikTok Users In Ad Campaign.

THE FIX WAS ALWAYS IN: Prosecutor Reportedly Told Six Witnesses He Was Not Permitted To Charge Hunter Biden.

LET THE FIRE FALL: Some Instapunditeers no doubt already know about the Yosemite Firefall, but I didn’t until I watched this video on HillFaith.

Whether you view it as evidence of God’s fine-tuning of the universe or an illustration of the incredible capabilities of natural processes, this one ought to make your day a good bit brighter. You are welcome!

FASTER, PLEASE: McCarthy Sets Date for Possible Impeachment Hearings Against Merrick Garland.

PAYOLA: Biden Admin Says Its COVID Spending for Schools Will Boost Test Scores. Districts Used the Funds for Staff Bonuses.

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: Far-left NYC cracks down on coal, wood-fired pizzerias to fight climate change.

My great-grandfather Luca was among those who came to New York from Italy and sought to earn his living and start a family. He came from Sicily and found work as a baker. He began making little pies with pomodoro and cheese, and it wasn’t long before he was building his own brick oven in Brooklyn. The Rosalia Bakery turned out loaves of Italian bread and pizza pies that sustained my family for decades. During the depression, family lore goes, it was a member of the Mafia that loved Luca’s pizza and kept him in business.

The new plan from the geniuses at the city level is to do away with this tradition, the tradition of my ancestors, and to make pizzerias that use this old-time method not only pay out the nose to keep doing it, but to make the pizza a shadow of its former glory.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection is moving to demand that New York City pizzerias cut their carbon emissions by 75 percent.

Now have you had enough, New Yorkers?

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: There are photos: RFK, Jr. is ripped and ready to debate that old man in the White House.

On the other hand, he’s still a nut: RFK Jr. Hosts Convicted Sex Predator on His Podcast To Praise Putin. It’s old home week: “Kennedy’s guest was Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector who served jail time in 2011 after exposing himself to a cop posing as a 15-year-old girl.”

To be fair, by UN standards that probably counts as chivalry.

VICTORIA TAFT: Portland Proud Boys Unmask Attackers at Pride Protest – And Well, Well, Well, What Have We Here?

ALL IS PROCEEDING AS PLANNED: Gallup: Church attendance down since pandemic. Though to be honest, the stats here aren’t that dramatic.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

UPDATE: Had two open threads there for a bit. Sorry! Other one was supposed to be sked for tomorrow. I’ve fixed that now.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Art of the Deal, Russian Style.

I suspect that the columnist Peter Hitchens, who was in Moscow in 1991 during another failed coup, was right about two things.

First, brutal though Putin may be, he is, in comparison to people like Prigozhin, “a cautious, milksop moderate.”

Second, Hitchens is right that “militant Russian nationalism is a powerful political force that Putin struggles to keep on his side at the best of times.”

These aren’t the best of times, and Prigozhin’s excellent coup adventure, not to mention Putin’s rocky adventure in Ukraine, can’t have endeared Putin to such chthonic forces.

The appearance of weakness is unacceptable.

It’s also unforgivable.

Which means that, political calculus being what it is, Putin, no matter what deal was struck, “surely cannot now leave Prigozhin unpunished.”

Exit quote: “I’m grateful, in any case, that I’m not in charge of writing life insurance policies for him or for the rebellious mercenaries under his command.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Virgin Galactic sets date and announces crew for first commercial SpaceShipTwo flight.

BURIED LEDE: BIDEN FINALLY TELLS THE TRUTH. Joe Biden Proclaims That He ‘Sold a Lot of State Secrets’ During White House Meeting.

MARK JUDGE: Please Don’t Banish Jesus from Alcoholics Anonymous.

It has taken me a while to admit this, mostly because I am so reluctant to criticize a fellowship that saved my life when I stopped drinking over three decades ago. But the elimination of the “Our Father” does in fact bother me. Not only because I believe Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, but because Christianity played a crucial role in the formation of AA. Had Judaism or Islam played such a foundational role in the Twelve Steps I would also want that tradition honored. The truth is, however, that Alcoholics Anonymous was founded, and was effective, because of Christians.

AA has its origins in the evangelical Christian Oxford Group. In fact, AA co-founder Bill Wilson credits the Oxford Group for the methodology of AA: “their large emphasis upon the principles of self-survey, confession, restitution, and the giving of oneself in service to others.” Even before the Oxford Group was the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Wilson wrote to Jung in 1961 to express his “great appreciation” for his efforts. “A certain conversation you once had with one of your patients, a Mr. Rowland H. back in the early 1930’s,” Wilson wrote, “did play a critical role in the founding of our Fellowship.”

Read the whole thing.

THIS IRS EMAIL CORROBORATES WHISTLEBLOWER’S CLAIMS ABOUT BIDEN DOJ INTERFERENCE IN HUNTER PROBE.

WELL, JOE’S BEEN PAID NOT TO DO THAT, AMONG OTHER THINGS: Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Want US To Recognize Taiwan’s Independence: Findings come days after Antony Blinken said ‘we do not support Taiwan independence.’

OUT ON A LIMB: Don’t Turn the Titanic Submersible Tragedy Into Fodder for Class Warfare.

The world waited with bated breath to learn the fate of the five people trapped in a submersive called the Titan near the wreckage of the Titanic after news broke that contact with their vessel had been lost. After several days where we held out hope they could be rescued, we finally learned that the Titan had imploded, and tragically, all five had died. The unique, strange, and, frankly, terrifying circumstances of these individuals’ death led to outsized media and public attention on the tragedy—so activists, inevitably, have since dragged it into our political fights and ideological warfare.

Some fringe voices on the online Left actually celebrated the demise of the submersible passengers simply because they were wealthy. (Tickets to ride in the tourist vehicle cost $250,000 per passenger). Ill-wishers riddled with class envy have reviled one passenger especially, British billionaire Hamish Harding.

“A sub went missing full of people who paid 160k-200k to take a tour of the titanic wreckage,” one writer tweeted, receiving millions of views. “The ocean is just eating the rich for us these days.”

As Glenn wrote last week in his Substack column, “Most cutting edge technology starts out as a rich man’s toy.  Automobiles, passenger airplanes, VCRs, etc. all started out that way.  Letting rich people buy the tech drives the technology and pushes prices down over time so that ordinary people can afford it.  I don’t think ordinary people will ever be interested in doing miles-deep dives, but improved subsea technology is a very big deal.  We often hear about how unexplored the deep ocean depths are, and there’s a reason for that – we aren’t very good at it yet.  We get better at it by doing it.  We can do it more if people are willing and able to pay for it.”

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR (NORTH) AMERICA: “Bud Light is serving as an official sponsor of the Toronto Pride parade, where video footage shows naked men standing around and riding bicycles in clear view of children attending the event.”

Meanwhile, in New York:

Leftist Radicals: “Stop calling us groomers & pedos – we are not coming for your children”

Also Leftist Radicals: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children” pic.twitter.com/c1pbTw0A5Q

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) June 26, 2023

Or as America’s Newspaper of Record notes: Pedophile Jailed For Flashing Kids At Playground Kicking Himself For Not Doing It At Pride Parade Instead.

I MEANT TO DO THAT! Russia’s Putin says he let mutiny continue to avoid bloodshed.