THE RIGHT TO BE ARMED IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE: The American Gun Debate Started 250 Years Ago.
Archive for 2025
April 18, 2025
THE LEFT KILLS THE HOSTAGE PUPPIES, TO CONVINCE YOU TO KEEP GIVING THEM MONEY: Harvard researchers say they might have to lay off workers and euthanize research animals due to funding freeze.
Like Harvard isn’t swimming in dough, as is. No, they want your tax money, or they’ll kill the puppies!
AND THEY THINK THEY’RE THE GOOD PEOPLE: Inside the mind of the politically violent.
I’M NOT SURPRISED AT THE RESULTS — I’VE READ UP ON IT — ONLY THAT THEY PUBLISHED THEM: Older People Seeking Care for Cannabis Use at Greater Risk for Dementia, Study Finds.
WELL, HE COULD DO HAIR GEL COMMERCIALS… California Gov. Gavin Newsom Makes Desperate Bid for Relevancy and Money.
No, never mind. That would be honest work. What am I thinking?
HE’S A MAN OF WEALTH AND TASTE, HE’S BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG, LONG YEAR: Sen. Van Hollen Sips Margaritas With Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
April 17, 2025
#JOURNALISM:
You dicks. Include the whole quote.
"It's a horrible thing — horrible that things like this take place." https://t.co/i4HaSssDID
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) April 17, 2025
The women in skin tight custom made astronaut suits who went up for a total of 11 mins got way more press conference then when Elon Musk rescued two actual astronauts who were up in space for like 286 days.
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) April 17, 2025
Hey @JakeTapper, why did you try to pass off Jayden as an average student at FSU and not mention his stellar record as a Democratic Party operative? https://t.co/RDREZX5BWs
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 17, 2025
OPEN THREAD: Make it special.
AND AGAIN: Puerto Rico plunged into darkness again as island-wide blackout hits.
Related: “Why is Puerto Rico’s power grid in such bad shape?”
For decades, Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority did not carry out the maintenance and investments the grid required.
It began crumbling over the years, and then on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory as a powerful Category 4 storm. It snapped power lines, toppled transmission towers and broke flimsy wooden light posts, leaving some people without power for nearly a year.
In the months that followed, crews focused on emergency repairs. It wasn’t until a couple years after the hurricane that actual reconstruction began.
In June 2021, the Electric Power Authority contracted Luma as it struggled to restructure its more than $9 billion debt, with negotiations still ongoing.
In January 2023, the authority contracted Genera PR to oversee power generation on the island as part of another public-private partnership.
Puerto Rico has been plagued by chronic power outages since Maria, with photographs and videos of transmission lines on fire becoming increasingly common.
González has said that providing consistent energy is a priority and distanced herself from renewable energy goals set by the previous governor. Her administration recently extended the operations of Puerto Rico’s lone coal-fired plant.
Curiously, despite at least five visits to the island, the previous administration’s energy secretary accomplished little in modernizing its electrical grid: Energy Secretary Granholm Takes Fifth Trip to Puerto Rico After Republicans Question Travel Spending.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE:
At Yale you can take over 60 courses covering Karl Marx, social justice, Friedrich Nietzsche, critical theory, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Theodor Adorno & Antonio Gramsci, but at Yale you can't take any courses covering the science and ideas of Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek.
— TakingHayekSeriously (@FriedrichHayek) April 15, 2025
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: U.S. Space Force lays out battle plan for space in new ‘warfighting’ guide.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Smaller Than a Grain of Rice: Engineers Develop World’s Smallest Pacemaker.
GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT:
New CNN poll shows that a majority of Americans SUPPORT deporting ALL illegal aliens.
Don't let any Democrat tell you this isn't what the people want. pic.twitter.com/34p9Wh4vih
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 17, 2025
WELL, GOOD: Trump’s executive order seeks to lower prescription drugs prices, including Medicare patients.
If you want to hold prices down, allow compounding pharmacies to continue selling GLP-1 drugs.
READER FAVORITE: Custom Plastic Stylus Pens Set of 10, Personalized Bulk Pack. #CommissionEarned
BREAKING: Google holds illegal monopolies in ad tech, US judge finds.
Alphabet’s Google illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech giant and paving the way for U.S. antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its ad products.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers.
The decision, opens new tab clears the way for another hearing to determine what Google must do to restore competition in those markets, such as sell off parts of its business at another trial that has yet to be scheduled. It is the second court ruling that Google holds an illegal monopoly, following a similar judgment in a case over online search.
Whatever the remedy is, it will be slow in coming.
IT GOT A NICE PRODUCT PLACEMENT ON THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Is the Electric 2026 Subaru Solterra Too Little, Too Late?
I MISSED THIS EARLIER BUT IT’S KIND OF A BIG DEAL:
BREAKING: Texas House just passed UNIVERSAL SCHOOL CHOICE.
The vote was 85 to 63.
The Senate already passed a similar bill 19 to 12.
Texas will be the 16th state to pass universal school choice.
This is the way. pic.twitter.com/l78MEiaZMy
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) April 17, 2025
School choice coming to the second-largest state in the union — and unlike California, still growing — is a very big deal.
WELL SAID:
His son was stabbed to death. I’d say that was pretty “disrespectful,” you scum. https://t.co/MdDp1fEE9E
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 17, 2025
Previously: Being an accused murderer with multiple witnesses ain’t what it used to be.
DROUGHT LEFT BRITAIN TOO HOT TO HANDLE FOR THE ROMANS:
The researchers also expanded their climate-conflict analysis to the entire Roman Empire for the period 350 to 476 AD.
They reconstructed the climate conditions immediately before and after 106 battles, finding that a statistically significant number of battles were fought following dry years.
Tatiana Bebchuk, also from Cambridge’s Department of Geography, said: “The relationship between climate and conflict is becoming increasingly clear in our own time so these findings aren’t just important for historians.
“Extreme climate conditions lead to hunger, which can lead to societal challenges, which eventually lead to outright conflict.”
I blame the massive horsepower of hemi-powered Roman SUVs.
DON’T TOUCH OUR SHIPS IS THE THEME OF THIS WEEK’S THURSDAY ESSAY [VIP]: Houthis, China, and Us: The Great Game on the High Seas. “Most Thursdays, I take readers on a deep dive into a topic I hope you’ll find interesting, important, or at least amusing in its absurdity. These essays are made possible by — and are exclusive to — our VIP supporters. If you’d like to join us, take advantage of our 60% off promotion.”
DISNEY ACTORS SURE MAKE AUDIENCES WANT TO FLOCK TO THE BIG SCREEN THESE DAYS: Kelly Marie Tran on How Wedding Banquet Empowered Her to Come Out as Queer and Why Star Wars Racism Is a ‘Microcosm for the Social Climate.’
A lot has changed for Tran since “Star Wars.” But as she looks back on her experience with that fandom, she knows that the racism she faced was symptomatic of a larger, continuing issue. When considering what she wants to see change for actors of color who might not receive the support they need when they appear in major franchises, she replies: “The world?!”
“It’s interesting how it seems to be happening pretty consistently to actors of color who find themselves in these spaces,” Tran explains. “And I think these occurrences are a microcosm for the social climate that we’re living in. And it’s really unfortunate.”
Tran points out that people of color are often at “the forefront of storytelling” now and that audiences could perhaps begin to evolve, too. “The hope is that people who are not afforded the ability, maybe, to have access to these communities of queer people or people of color, are able to see through the art that people of color and queer people are also human, and they have hopes and dreams,” she says.
“We live in a world where those identities have been weaponized so that people are not able to see the bigger picture,” Tran continues. “I really just want people to recognize, it’s the system that’s the problem. Stop scapegoating people of color or queer people or anyone who’s different.”
Evergreen: The Critical Drinker: Why Modern Movies Suck — They Hate Their Own Fans (Video; NSFW language):
LIGHT YOUR WAY TO SAFETY: Concealed Carry Flashlight Skills Part One.