HE’S RIGHT, YOU KNOW:
Harvard surprised/outraged it’s being attacked by Trump is laughable. I don’t care if 98% of he faculty and research is non-political, you let the other 2% of crazies define who you are because you’re either your too lazy to care, quietly agree with them, or are lost in your…
— Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 (@Chris_arnade) May 28, 2025
NON-DRINKERS AS FREE-RIDERS:
First, teetotallers are free-riders. For generations alcohol consumption has sustained all manner of social and economic structures. The abstemious benefit from them but do not contribute. For instance, non-drinkers who go to social events are free-riding on the joviality of hard-working drinkers. What would happen to the social fabric if everyone stopped imbibing? Perhaps Joe Strummer of the Clash, an English rock band, was on to something when he apocryphally said that “non-smokers should be banned from buying any product a smoker created”.
Or consider the economics of the restaurant industry. Alcohol offers higher profit margins than food as it requires less labour to prepare. Indeed, using official American data, your columnist estimates that booze accounts for all the profits of the restaurant industry. Drinkers subsidise non-drinkers. Those who order sparkling water can feel sanctimonious in the short run. But if no one orders a bottle of Bordeaux, many restaurants will go under. In San Francisco, Sobriety Central, they are closing by the dozen.
Second, abstinence makes people lonelier. For centuries alcohol has served a social function. It helps people relax. Taking a drink also signals to others that you are happy to be slower and more vulnerable—that you have left your weapon at the door—which puts them at ease. A study from 2012 in Psychological Science found that alcohol increases social bonding. Robin Dunbar of Oxford University and colleagues find that frequenting a pub improves how engaged people feel with their community, in turn raising life satisfaction. It is not a stretch to say that alcohol has played a big evolutionary role in fostering human connection. . . .
The third factor in favour of booze relates to innovation. Today the world sees fewer breakthroughs. Hollywood sustains itself on remakes or sequels, not originals. A recent blog by Peter Ruppert, a consultant, finds the same trend for music: “the pace of genuine sonic innovation has slowed dramatically”. A paper published in 2020 by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and colleagues concludes that new ideas are “harder to find”. Productivity growth across the world is weak. Something has gone terribly wrong in the way that Western societies generate new ideas. . . . In the 1960s, when productivity was soaring, everyone was drunk all the time.
This is Edward Slingerland’s argument in Drunk: How we sipped, danced, and stumbled our way to civilization. Here’s my review of Slingerland’s excellent book.
LIGHTNING DEAL: Slushie Machine, No Ice Needed. #CommissionEarned
CONSTITUENT SERVICE: Democrats Want To Keep Repeat Offenders On The Streets. “There’s been lots of chatter that Democrats need to start cracking down on crime if they want to win back the middle class voters that flipped to Trump to 2024. If so, that news hasn’t been relayed to Democrats in the Texas legislature, who seem determined to keep repeat offenders out on bail at any cost.”
JEFF JACOBY: The real legacy of ‘Napalm Girl.’
“‘Napalm Girl’ has become embroidered with media myths — false, dubious, or improbable tales about and/or propagated by the news media,” W. Joseph Campbell wrote in his eye-opening 2016 book, “Getting It Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism.” A former reporter turned university professor, Campbell dissected many well-known tales about the press’s influence — from Edward R. Murrow’s takedown of Senator Joseph McCarthy to the Watergate coverage of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — and demonstrated that the media’s impact was not nearly as dramatic as legend has it.
The photo of the children running from their village is in the same category.
Ever since “Napalm Girl” first appeared, multiple distortions and exaggerations have attached to it. The most pernicious was that the children in the picture had been attacked by Americans. In fact, as contemporaneous news accounts made clear, the napalming of Trang Bàng was a tragic case of friendly fire by South Vietnam. For example, The New York Times headlined its story “South Vietnamese Drop Napalm on Own Troops.” The Chicago Tribune likewise reported on “napalm dropped by a Vietnamese air force Skyraider diving onto the wrong target.”
Yet the horror depicted in the photo has repeatedly been ascribed to the United States. Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, declared that the napalm that burned “little Kim and countless thousands of other children” had been “dropped in the name of America.” The following year Susan Sontag wrote in her award-winning book “On Photography” that little Kim had been “sprayed by American napalm.”
Campbell cites other instances of the claim, which keeps recurring. In a story mentioning the photograph as recently as January, The Independent described it as showing a Vietnamese girl “running down a street … as she flees an American napalm attack.”
Campbell punctures other myths about “Napalm Girl.” One is that the picture exerted such emotional power that it galvanized American public opinion against the war. Another is that its appearance sped up the US withdrawal from Vietnam.
Not so.
Claims that “Napalm Girl” stirred Americans to oppose the war have been made again and again. Journalism professor Samuel Freedman’s assertion that the “searing image played no small part in deepening opposition in the United States to the war” is one of many assembled in Campbell’s book.
Read the whole thing.
Related: The ‘Cronkite Moment’ of 1968: Remembering why it’s a media myth.
UPDATE: ‘Napalm Girl’ Was in the Photo. But Who Was Behind the Camera?
MORE: Association Journalisme & Photographie Accuses ‘The Stringer’ of Manufacturing a Scandal.
INDEED: The notion that our top institutions should have to follow the law is inconceivable.
I agree it shouldn't have come to this, but why is the onus all on Trump when universities could make this go away by simply stopping their egregiously discriminatory practices? https://t.co/D9nV9Bo2W7
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) May 28, 2025
SIGNED THE PARDONS HIMSELF, TOO: We Didn’t See That Coming: Trump Pardons Reality Stars.
EXPOSING THE LEFT’S MEDICAID CUTS LIES: If you’ve heard it once, you heard a million times in the Mainstream Media how Orange Man Bad and those evil congressional Republicans are cutting more than $800 billion out of Medicaid spending, which will leave millions of starving, suffering women and children wandering the streets.
As usual, there is more to the story, thanks to the smart folks at the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) and it demonstrates just how the claim has little connection to reality. And I lay it all out in straight-forward, common-sense language on The Washington Stand.
MARK JUDGE: Jake Tapper and the media’s crisis of competence.
Yes, it’s not just that they’re sellout partisan hacks. They’re not even good at it.
HUH. YOU’D THINK THEY’D TREAT HER BETTER. Caitlin Clark’s impact on the WNBA could eclipse ‘a billion dollars.’ “Clark was responsible for a staggering 26.5% of all WNBA economic activity last season, including revenue from merchandise, ticket sales and television.”
COMICS PEOPLE AND LARRY CORREIA FANS TAKE NOTE:
I've been a novelist for a long time, and I've talked to a ton of a comic books guys over the years about adapting some of my stuff, but I've never had any graphic novel adaptations before.
Now all of a sudden I've got two in the works. :D
The backer page for the adaptation of…— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) May 28, 2025
BLUE CITY BLUES: Zohran Mamdani makes massive gains in NYC mayoral race — but still can’t topple Cuomo’s lead.
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is seemingly gaining ground on Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral primary race — but the ex-gov continues to come out on top, a new internal poll shows.
The survey, released Tuesday by Mamdani’s camp, has the state assemblyman from Queens coming in with 27% in the first round of rank-choice voting, with the next candidate failing to even register in the double digits.
But Cuomo maintains his lead in the crowded field, nabbing 40% of the vote — with the Democratic primary just four weeks away.
Eight million people in the city and these are the best Dems that New Yorkers have to choose from.
NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE:
The same people who spent the last months claiming that it is a war crime to deny aid to Gaza spent today claiming it is a war crime to deliver aid to Gaza in a way that does not allow Hamas to steal it.
Kind of gives the game away.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 27, 2025
ACTUALLY, I SUSPECT IT’S QUITE A LOT OF THINGS: It’s Obvious That the Obamas Are Hiding Something
(Fixed the link typo — Charlie)
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Starship Flight Test 9: Another Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
SUPPORT IMMUNE HEALTH: ForestLeaf Colostrum Powder 50% IgG Highest Pure Concentration. #CommissionEarned
HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? Venus Harbors Secret Asteroids That Could Threaten Earth, Study Warns. “These so-called ‘Venus co-orbitals’ share a similar path around the Sun with our neighbor planet but aren’t harmless tagalongs. According to a paper under review for the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, and currently hosted on arXiv, a yet-undetected group of the asteroids could pose a threat to Earth.”
CHANGE: Universities brace for endowment tax hike as GOP’s ‘big beautiful bill’ heads to Senate. “While some reports indicate administrators have hired lobbyists to try and water down the proposal, observers say some sort of tax hike is likely in the offing for these institutions. Rather than a flat rate, House Republicans seek to increase taxes on private university endowments ranging from 1.4 percent to 21 percent, according to the legislation.”
ROBERT SPENCER: King Charles Undercuts Canada’s Sovereignty While Trying to Affirm It. “Yeah, this was really a great idea from the beginning: show Orange Man Bad that you’re a sovereign state by reminding the world that you’re a part of an international conglomeration of former British colonies under the sovereignty of the English king. But when he actually spoke on Tuesday, Charles made it even worse.”
MADE IN THE USA: Grass Fed Colostrum Powder, Unflavored Bovine Colostrum for Humans. #CommissionEarned
THE EV BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Tesla Rival BYD Tumbles After Launching China EV Price War. Several Rivals Fire Back.
BYD is generally viewed as the low-cost producer in China, reflecting its in-house production of batteries and many key components as well as its ability to extract volume discounts from suppliers. So it has more scope to get prices lower than rivals, many of which are not profitable.
Rising inventories at BYD dealers reportedly spurred the automaker’s move, along with a desire to reach 5.5 million in sales this year, up from just over 4 million in 2024.
The EV maker’s discounts don’t apply to its surging overseas sales. Those already tend to have higher margins. That gives BYD another edge over rivals that are almost entirely reliant on the cutthroat China market.
Still, hefty price cuts will likely squeeze BYD’s profit margins.
China price wars are nothing new. Tesla helped kick off big discounts in early 2023, as the U.S. EV giant slashed prices worldwide.
In early 2024, BYD spurred a wave of price cuts.
The market has too many producers and not enough growth, even with mandates and subsidies.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Reports of the Dems’ Return to Relevance Are Greatly Exaggerated. “Where Politico takes this is so ridiculous it’s like reading an old copy of Mad Magazine. The Who’s Who of leftist whackos in its fever dream for this shadow cabinet is chuckle-worthy. Bill Nye the Fake Science Guy is on it. The Democrats’ media mouthpieces are even less serious people than the party leaders are.”
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