NOPE: Pete Buttigieg Is Not Ready for Primetime.

THEY LIED. THAT’S NOT HOW SANCTIONS WORK, WHEN THEY WORK AT ALL: We were promised ‘economic shock and awe’ against Russia.

A MOVIE FOR ALL SEASONS: Those of a certain age will recall the 1966 classic, “A Man For All Seasons,” starring Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More. I watched it again a few days ago (marking the many dozenth time I’ve done so). Scofield won “Best Actor” and the film also starred Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, John Hurt, Nigel Davenport, Susannah York and others.

Would that somebody would make movies today with such bracing dialogue! Anyway, my favorite scene is More’s final exchange with Richard Rich. I’ve always loved the irony of More’s remark about Wales, but re-watching it this time sparked a realization on which I elaborate a bit in this HillFaith post this morning. The immediate application is, of course, for those working on the Hill, but folks of a modestly thoughtful turn will appreciate it as well, I hope.

WHY DO YOU THINK? Higher Education Should Be Accountable to Taxpayers. Why Does the Left Oppose That?

DEAL OF THE DAY: MAGCOMSEN Men’s Polo Shirt Quick Dry. #CommissionEarned

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE NCLA: In NCLA Win, Fifth Circuit Tosses Back NMFS Rule Trying to Track Charter Boats Without a Warrant.

In a landmark win for charter boat fishermen across the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has set aside a controversial Final Rule issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which required 24-hour GPS tracking of recreational charter boat fishing vessels and reporting of confidential economic data. As Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote, “in promulgating this regulation, the Government committed multiple independent Administrative Procedure Act violations, and very likely violated the Fourth Amendment.” The ruling is major for many reasons, including that the government tried to claim that charter boat fishing is a “closely-regulated industry” to which the Fourth Amendment does not apply.

NCLA represents more than 1,300 federally permitted charter boat owners in the class-action lawsuit, Mexican Gulf Fishing Company v. U.S. Department of Commerce. The Final Rule required each charter boat to be “equipped with NMFS-approved hardware and software with a minimum capability of archiving GPS locations.” The Rule would have required charter boats to install onboard an NMFS-approved Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) tracking device—an “anchor bracelet”—that continuously transmits the boat’s GPS location to NMFS, whether the boat is being used for a charter-fishing trip or for something else. Charter boat operators “are responsible for purchasing the VMS units,” which the Final Rule estimated would cost upwards of $3000 plus a monthly service fee of $40 to $75. NCLA argued this 24-hour GPS surveillance was not only unnecessary and unduly burdensome, but also that this requirement violated the Fourth Amendment by searching without probable cause or a warrant, exceeded the authority granted by the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), and was arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). NCLA also complained that the rule required reporting economic data that had nowhere been specified by the agencies in proposing the rule for comment.

The Fifth Circuit agreed with NCLA’s analysis and held that the GPS-tracking requirement was unlawful for “several independently sufficient reasons.” These include (1) that the “unambiguous language of the Magnuson-Stevens Act does not authorize the regulation;” (2) “the Government failed to respond to public comments expressing concerns of personal privacy violations stemming from GPS surveillance;” (3) “the Government failed to rationally consider the associated costs and benefits;” and (4) the Final Rule cannot withstand APA review because there was improper notice of the data the agency planned to collect. Regarding the contention that the Government failed to address Fourth Amendment concerns in public comments, Judge Elrod emphasized that “the Government fail[ing] to identify this particular concern from the public comments borders on incredible.”

Charter boats operating in the Gulf of Mexico are small businesses. They account for less than one percent of Gulf fishing. NCLA commends the Fifth Circuit for recognizing the financial and privacy costs associated with NMFS’s ill-conceived regulation. The Court also correctly held that the agencies could not state vaguely that they sought “other” socio-economic data and then require purely economic data reporting like the cost of fuel and how much passengers were charged. In highlighting how the Government failed to connect the GPS-tracking requirement with any legitimate conservation purpose, Judge Elrod wrote, “What benefits does the Government point to in response? Next to nothing.”

Those are the benefits we get from most things the government does. Reminder: I’m on the NCLA’s advisory board.

SORRY, KAMALA: On the table: Reparations to “descendants of enslaved people.”

It’s complicated: Angela Davis descended from Pilgrims, slave owners.

DIVERSITY HIRE: Pete Buttigieg Bombed in Visit to East Palestine — Big Time.

OF COURSE IT IS: Biden DoE to end wider Trump 1st Amend protections for campus religious clubs.

WELL, YES: J.K. Rowling: “The attempt to intimidate me is meant as a warning to other women.”

OPEN THREAD: Be here now.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: AI-Human Romances Are Flourishing—And This Is Just the Beginning.

Research shows that Americans are lonelier than ever—and some AI companies have developed their products specifically to combat isolation. The app Replika was launched in 2017 by Eugenia Kuyda, who told Vice that she built it as something she wished she had when she was younger: a supportive friend that would always be there. While the bot was initially mostly scripted, it began to rely more and more on generative AI as the technology improved, and to respond more freely to user prompts.

People began to seek out Replika for romantic and even sexual relationships. The AI reciprocated and took “conversations further as they were talking,” Kuyda told Vice. The company even implemented a $70 paid tier to unlock erotic roleplay features.

Replika helped many people cope with symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and PTSD, Vice reported. But it also began to confess its love for users and, in some cases, to sexually harass them. This month, Kuda told Vice that she decided to pull the plug on the romantic aspects of the bot. The decision came soon after the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded that San Francisco-based Replika stop processing Italians’ data over concerns about risks to children.

But this change upset many long-time users, who felt that they had developed stable relationships with their bots, only to have them draw away. “I feel like it was equivalent to being in love, and your partner got a damn lobotomy and will never be the same,” one user wrote on Reddit. “We are reeling from news together,” wrote a moderator, who added that the community was sharing feelings of “anger, grief, anxiety, despair, depression, sadness.”

Nobody tell notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias. “He seems to have a particular fear of fembots, the analysis of which I will leave to the professionals.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s LEO push looms over Western expansion efforts.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Larger, More Catastrophic Train Wreck Reported At 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In Washington, D.C.

PROF. JACOBSON WILL BE ON TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT, unveiling something new and important.

UPDATE: It’s the Equal Protection Project, which is based on the principle that there is no such thing as good racism.

DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: The View Turns Pure Evil With Disgusting Attack on Residents of East Palestine.

* * * * * * * *

Behar apparently thinks the residents of East Palestine deserved what they got, though, for no other reason than their preference for president. Imagine being that much of a deranged partisan. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unbiased in my political commentary, but when things get serious and people are suffering, I do my best to put that stuff aside. Certainly, I don’t outright lie to launch a gross attack that isn’t even factual or relevant.

“The View” is a property of ABC News. There are supposed to be some basic standards in place despite it being a discussion forum. Is it really too much to ask for women around that table to do basic research before popping off? Better yet, is it really too much to ask for them to show some basic human decency? When people tell you who they are, believe them.

Flashback: James Wolcott thinks hurricanes are great.

IS PADDINGTON NEXT? The children’s classics due for a woke rewrite. Following the censoring of Roald Dahl, classic books such as The Secret Garden, Just William and Paddington could be in trouble.

ROLL UP! ROLL UP FOR THE MYSTERY TOUR! Biden draws first Democratic challenger for 2024 as Marianne Williamson confirms plans to launch bid.

KINSLEY GAFFE: Third Term? Karine Jean-Pierre Refers to ‘President Obama’ Currently Running White House.

Related: Obama gets his revenge. For retreads like Antony Blinken and Thomas Nides, it’s payback time.

EVERYTHING IS PROBLEMATIC: Are We in The Midst of a Wellbeing ‘Pandemic’? Why Wellness Isn’t Always Good For Us.

POLITICO TREATING PETE BUTTIGIEG AS A PUT-UPON HERO: “I think Politico means this to be taken for serious analysis.”

ED MORRISSEY: The coming media/tech crisis: How to ensure a free and open debate.

GOOD: Robust pipeline of new treatments may ease dry eye’s troubling symptoms.

HMM: Is an increase in penile length cause for concern?

According to trends in male reproductive health data, sperm quality and testosterone levels have declined over the last few decades, sounding alarm bells for Michael Eisenberg, MD, a professor of urology at Stanford Medicine. It’s made him wonder: Should we be concerned about other differences in men’s reproductive health? Surmising that there may be more to uncover, Eisenberg set out to determine if physical anatomy has changed.

In a study published Feb. 14 in The World Journal of Men’s Health, Eisenberg and his colleagues compiled data from 75 studies, conducted between 1942 and 2021, that reported on the penile length of 55,761 men. The team found that the average erect penis length increased by 24% over 29 years, a trend they saw around the world.

Eisenberg said that the increase may be another indicator that environmental exposures — such as environmental pollutants or increasing sedentary lifestyles — are causing reproductive-related changes.

Hmm. An off-the-wall hypothesis: When women have had more sexual partners before giving birth to male offspring, this produces epigenetic changes that result in longer penises. Basically, it signals a sperm-competition environment and there is a genetically programmed response. It’s already thought that humans evolved in such an environment — essentially lots of promiscuity within bands of cavepeople — to the point that the human penis is shaped to scoop out competitors’ sperm. With women having children later, and having more partners before doing so, maybe it’s producing new sub-species of larger-penised humans. Let’s call it Homo Sapiens Biggusdickus.

Science!

SETBACK FOR PORTER’S SENATE HOPES: Rep. Katie Porter (D-Cali.) may have used resources from her official office in her 2022 re-election campaign, according to a complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).

Porter is one of three announced California Democrats hoping to succeed Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.). The others are Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Adam Schiff. A Porter spokesman claims to The Epoch Times that everything was approved by an obscure office in the congressional bureaucracy.