THE NEW SPACE RACE: A startup wants to mine the moon for helium.

OLD AND BUSTED: Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic.

The New Hotness? Measuring the Deck Chairs on the Titanic! Kamala Harris campaign required she only be seated in chairs that ‘met certain specifications.’

An excerpt from “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, published in The Hill, detailed the strict seating arrangements.

“Her team required that she be provided a chair that met certain specifications: ‘Leg height no less than 15 inches; floor to top of seat height no less than 18.9 inches; arms on chairs may not be very high, arms must fall at a natural height; chairs must be firm,” according to the book excerpt.

The mandated chair specifications came following her first media interview after taking over the top of the Democratic ticket roughly 40 days before.

The pair sat at a table, but the visual of Harris appearing to be lower than Walz prompted her team to issue a new mandate to never let it happen again.

The internal polling at that point must have been spectacularly bad. Was worrying about chair dimensions a way to pass the time while waiting for the iceberg to hove into view?

“Sitting next to Walz in a chair that seemed to place her below him and heaping praise on Biden’s record, Harris did not look like a candidate seeking the highest office in the land,” the excerpt read. “The whole scene reinforced the criticism that the vice president was either incapable, or afraid, of answering tough questions on her own.”

But Allen and Parnes said that regardless of the mandated chair specs, “the question facing Harris was whether she could build a sturdy platform.”

No politician has ever failed continually upward in such an extraordinary fashion.

I HATE THESE THINGS AND I’VE NEVER EVEN BEEN TICKETED BY ONE: One Georgia County Is Making Bank Off Speed Cameras. It’s Time to Stop the Scam.

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED:

Columbia covered up the fact that dozens of swastikas were found on campus by janitors.

They then went after the janitors who complained, trying to silence them. pic.twitter.com/qV07hjDU7v

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 18, 2025

JOHN ROBERTS PROTECTS THE SUPREME COURT’S NEUTRALITY BY GETTING INVOLVED IN POLITICAL QUESTIONS:

John Roberts can’t keep his own court’s clerks from illegally releasing decisions—an act that nearly led to the assassination of two of his own colleagues—but he’s going to lecture Trump on what he can and can’t post on Truth Social?

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 18, 2025

If John Roberts is going to spend his time issuing impotent press releases against Trump, as if he’s an MSNBC host or a Democrat congressional candidate, instead of doing his actual job of protecting the rule of law from lawless inferior court judges, then he is going to end up…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 18, 2025

For a guy who’s so concerned about appearances, he’s got horrible political instincts.

If Chief Justice Roberts wants to minimize attacks on out of control appointed leftwing district court judges abusing their role and claiming to be able to overrule the elected President of the United States on management details that are clearly within his role as defined by the…

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 18, 2025

HMM: Why pain medication may not be as effective for women as it is for men.

THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL:

Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estonia have announced their withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention on Anti-Personnel Mines. pic.twitter.com/cwrgTYZRTl

— Lithuanian MOD 🇱🇹 (@Lithuanian_MoD) March 18, 2025

Landmines are a terriffic defensive weapon and the Ottawa Convention is an unaffordable luxury belief.

IT’S NICE TO MAKE IT OFFICIAL, BUT TO BE FAIR, NO ONE DOUBTED THIS BEFORE:

Whoopi admits ABC News's The View are part of the Democratic Party:
"I don't know if you can wait for somebody to step up and lead the party. [Tim Walz] is not wrong when he says the party is us and what are we going — what are we prepared to do?" pic.twitter.com/Lukavprn9w

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 18, 2025

FASTER, PLEASE: Inhibitor blocks flesh-eating bacteria’s metabolism, reducing tissue damage in infections.

MARK HEMINGWAY: The Era Of Presuming Liberal Moral Superiority Is Over. Responding to the now viral video of leftist actor Sam Seder getting his clock cleaned by conservative teenagers (background in the recent Matt Walsh video below), Hemingway writes:

But Seder’s full answer is so much worse than that. First, Seder suggests some vague “humanist vision” of what’s best for the most is what’s moral, and then when he balks at being labeled a utilitarian or consequentialist, he shifts to saying that some also vague version of collectivism is the basis of morality. When his interlocutor then asks what he would think if the small-d democratic collective came together and undermined trans rights, he says that wouldn’t be moral. Then he argues that biological distinctions, such as being born gay, could be determinative of morality. Then when the young guy points out that some people think pedophilia is an innate biological orientation, we see more backpedaling, and Seder then argues that there also has to be consent for relationships to be moral. So then he’s asked whether it’s moral if a father and a daughter have a sexual relationship if they’re both consenting adults, and he says “I think society has determined …” and we’re back to secular collectivism as a moral foundation. It’s just a mess.

Presumably, Seder knew this debate would be hostile, but he seems genuinely shocked a kid would cut right to matters of first principles and question the assumptions of moral authority underpinning bog standard boomer liberalism. But this shouldn’t have been entirely unexpected. When it comes to political punditry, there’s a pretty basic test for whether or not you take someone seriously: How does that person justify the use of political power to implement the policies they favor?

What Seder was asked was far from a trick question; rather, it’s basic American civics. This is exactly the question that the Declaration of Independence addresses, as the founders knew that any attempt to legitimize the rejection of their present government would start with establishing why the government they were proposing was more just and morally superior. In that sense, it wasn’t just a declaration — it’s an explanation of the basis of morality, and how England’s governance was illegitimate for not respecting it. So our founding document is a fairly succinct and compelling natural law argument for a government that recognizes all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights that cannot be abrogated, let alone by a king who claims the “divine right” to tax people on a whim.

Of course, the actual structure of American governance is more complicated than that because we have to define and apply those rights, and the most just way to do that involves consent of the governed. So our system hinges on allowing an element of democracy, while putting enough checks in the system to ensure the tyranny of the majority doesn’t overwhelm the God-given rights of individuals. We don’t always get the balance right, but that’s the basic idea. And there’s no getting around the fact that having objective notions of morality, traditionally represented by a belief in God, is foundational to our whole system. You may not like the structure of American governance, but you’d think a guy who’s been doing liberal talk radio and podcasts for over twenty years would recognize why the question he was asked was so important and have a coherent way to answer it.

As Chris Rufo observes, “The remarkable thing here is that the Left’s ‘debate champ’ doesn’t see the entire setup, which means he’s ignorant of basic Christian theology, the natural rights theory of the American founders, and the criticism from Nietzsche to Weber to Foucault. Just doesn’t know any of it.” There’s also an element of blatant hypocrisy here as well. “Seder objects to religion because it ‘imposes’ values on everyone,” notes professor and First Things editor Mark Bauerlein. “It is, however, a dream to think that imposition of values is NOT a precondition of every social order. (Foucault’s prime critique of liberalism is that it presumes such.)”

Earlier: “In describing his ‘Ideological Turing Test,’ [Business Insider’s Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry] explains that the reason is quite simple. Conservatives understand liberals very well, while liberals do not understand — or even try to understand — conservatives at all.”

“DESTROYED” IS OVERUSED BUT I COULD CERTAINLY GET BEHIND THE CONCEPT: Iran and Chuck Schumer Are About to Be Destroyed.

HMM: Bird flu virus may survive aging process in raw milk cheese.

VIDEO: Enjoy The World’s Toughest Prison, Tren De Aragua Scumbags. “The director tells me the inmates, once they’re inside one of the sectors, they never leave.”

METAPHOR ALERT: Artist Crushes Tesla With Colossal Olmec Head Sculpture.

Sculptor Chavis Mármol has never owned a car, but that’s never inhibited his drive. Earlier this month, the 42-year-old Mexico City-based artist (who travels largely by bicycle) dropped a nine-ton replica of an Olmec head onto the roof of a blue Tesla Model 3 in a crushing display posted to Instagram on March 11. Mármol told Hyperallergic that his intention was “to satirize the Tesla brand and its creator.”

Made of quarry stone, the large-scale sculpture is a copy of the ancient Olmec Colossal Heads — distinct archaeological remnants of the Olmec civilization that once flourished along Mexico’s gulf coastline around 3,000 years ago. Mármol’s untitled destruction performance, which took place on March 5, was the third and final part of a series called Neo-Tameme involving the stone replicas and contemporary objects.

* * * * * * * *

“I didn’t just want to crush an expensive car. I know there are more expensive cars out there,” Mármol said. Pointing to the impossibility of acquiring the electric vehicle for many Mexican residents, the artist said that the overall goal of the project was “to crush an object that represents a sinister figure like Elon Mollusk,” intentionally misidentifying the Tesla billionaire.

I’m pretty sure Ayn Rand didn’t intend for The Return of the Primitive to be a how-to guide:

I REALLY SHOULDN’T TEMP THE FATES THIS WAY: The Houthis Want to Sink an Aircraft Carrier and I Can’t Stop Laughing.

NOW THAT I HAVE GROK I FIND I DON’T USE GOOGLE OR WIKIPEDIA VERY MUCH: Dozens of Wikipedia editors colluded on years-long anti-Israel campaign, bombshell ADL report claims.

CHUCK SCHUMER CENSORED: Will his experience of being roundly denounced for not shutting down the federal government result in the Senate Minority Leader reconsidering his previous enthusiasm for the Left’s cancel culture? Richard Pollock takes a look and notes Schumer blocked Senate consideration of the Antisemitism Awareness Act passed by the House of Representatives.

CONSEQUENCES:

🚨 #BREAKING: San Jose Police just announced they have ARRESTED the man who went viral for keying a Tesla, charging him with FELONY VANDALISM

FAFO! 🔥

SJPD’s Chief said “this senseless crime and its subsequent consequences should serve as a clear reminder: no matter one's… pic.twitter.com/DAUYUByjVu

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 18, 2025

Teslas have more cameras than a 7/11. Only a moron or a lefty would vandalize them, but I repeat myself.

Another one. Oh no, now you’re about to be famous for all the wrong reasons. https://t.co/AH087uHwNq

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) March 18, 2025

READER FAVORITE: NEXPOW Portable Jump Starter. #CommissionEarned

PRIVACY: Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28.

Since Amazon announced plans for a generative AI version of Alexa, we were concerned about user privacy. With Alexa+ rolling out to Amazon Echo devices in the coming weeks, we’re getting a clearer view of the privacy concessions people will have to make to maximize usage of the AI voice assistant and avoid bricking functionality of already-purchased devices.

In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon apparently sent the email to users with “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” enabled on their Echo. Starting on March 28, recordings of every command spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud.

Attempting to rationalize the change, Amazon’s email said: “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature.”

Those large language models don’t grow large on their own, you know.

WHO WAS THE PRESIDENT AGAIN? Biden’s Autopen Scandal Just Got a Whole Lot Worse.

MEET THE PRESIDENT: Is This the Aide Who Abused Joe Biden’s Autopen?

SPACE: Mars could have an ocean’s worth of water beneath its surface, seismic data suggest.

Persuasive new evidence supporting the possibility of liquid water deep underground on Mars has come to light in a new analysis of seismic data from NASA’s InSight lander.

In 2024, researchers proposed that the deep subsurface of the Red Planet, particularly between 7.1 and 12.4 miles (11.5 and 20 kilometers) down, is soaked in liquid water, a conclusion they base on the velocities of seismic waves detected during marsquakes.

Now, researchers Ikuo Katayama of Hiroshima University and Yuya Akamatsu of the Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics in Japan have found supporting evidence for this claim of liquid water deep inside Mars. “Many studies suggest the presence of water on ancient Mars billions of years ago,” said Katayama in a statement. “But our model indicates the presence of liquid water on present-day Mars.”

Potentially a very big deal.

RAMIFICATIONS: Johns Hopkins to cut 1,975 overseas jobs funded by US taxpayers.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: ‘A Travesty’: Conor McGregor Exposes Ireland’s Migration Crisis.