THEY’LL ARREST YOU FOR DEFENDING YOURSELF, THOUGH: Reporter Was Beaten in the Street and Portland Police Did Nothing.
Archive for 2025
October 3, 2025
USA TODAY: Pete Hegseth is right. We should demand a higher standard for our military. “I’m a woman and I support this. It is not sexist to force women (or men) in combat to meet the same high standards or be disqualified. If this sounds harsh or exclusive to everyone else, it should. Our military should not be the same as our civilian world. It should be set apart, strive for excellence and be extraordinary in providing for our nation’s defense.”
SORRY, HATERS: Musk’s wealth hits new high.
BETRAYAL INCOMING:
Mamdani won the Asian vote and he’s going to reward them by ensuring their children don’t succeed. https://t.co/d2Dbl4TMkZ
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 2, 2025
LEFTISM AS A DEATH CULT (CONT’D): Student-Run Show at Biden’s Alma Mater Takes Heat for ‘Special Thanks’ to ‘Charlie Kirk’s Killer.’
ANALYSIS: TRUE.
Every left-wing organization is fundamentally dishonest about its nature and goals. https://t.co/bOPinbgZWp
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 2, 2025
IT’S A GOOD ONE: Book Review: No Man’s Land.
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN 37 YEARS I’VE BEEN WITHOUT A LITTLE BLACK VOID: October is Black Cat Awareness Month (Halloween anyone?).
I’LL BELIEVE ANYTHING ABOUT JIMMY CARTER, THE CAT KILLER: How Jimmy Carter Led To Jonestown. (Video, Razorfist.)
WHEN THE DEFENDERS OF “CLIMATE SCIENCE” ATTACK STUFF THAT IS ACTUALLY BASED ON IPCC DOCUMENTS: Bunk from the Brink. When the science police don’t understand the science they are policing.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO CREATE GOOD WRITERS: Living in the Adult World.
WE ARE GULLIVER, BOUND BY LILLIPUTIANS WIELDING REGULATIONS: Fabian knotweed is choking us.
IT’S CUTE CNN STILL IMAGINES THEY CAN CONTROL THE NARRATIVE: Pollster Throws Cold Water on CNN Host’s Polling Narrative About the Schumer Shutdown.
LOST, MAYBE NOT, BUT IT’S NOT A GOOD LOOK: Britain Is Lost: Pro-Hamas Protests After Yom Kippur Terror Attack.
TOO BAD, SO SAD: Maryland Man asylum denied.
ONCE IS HAPPENSTANCE, TWICE IS COINCIDENCE, THREE TIMES IS ENEMY ACTION:
BREAKING: Islamists in France are attacking police as they burn down the city.
(for the xless.)
BREAKING: Pro-Palestinian Islamists are outside Keir Starmer’s home, threatening him and his family.
There are unconfirmed reports of an abortive attempt in Berlin. If you know of confirmed reports of these elsewhere, and happen to have my phone number, text me and I’ll try to update.
I guess they think they’ve won and can press for advantage. Tonight more than ever, keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark, particularly if you’re in a big city.
AND AGAIN, SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED: Maine Woman Reportedly Finds 250 Blank Ballots for Upcoming Election in Amazon Box.
SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED, BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE: Report: Anti-Israel, Pro-Hamas Bias at Wikipedia Continues Despite Widespread Criticism.
October 2, 2025
JOHN NOONAN: The Speech the Pentagon Didn’t Want, but the Military Needed.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s headline-grabbing speech in Quantico this week has irked the professional commentary class but is drawing accolades from those who matter — the men and women on the frontlines of America’s defense.
Hegseth’s remarks to every general officer in the U.S. military, which called for a force-wide military reset and realignment back to warfighting fundamentals, were derided in all the usual places. The Atlantic led with “hundreds of generals try to keep a straight face.” The New York Times wrote, “his address focused on the kinds of issues he would have dealt with as a young platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq or as a company commander in the Guard. He talked about grooming standards. . . . He preached the importance of physical fitness . . . [he said] without presenting any evidence, that standards had been lowered across the force over the last decade to meet arbitrary racial and gender quotas” (evidence of that here, should NYT researchers need assistance for future stories). MSNBC’s header proclaimed the speech “was even worse than expected.”
Not one of the authors of these pieces was a veteran. None of them fought on combat deployments under the failed military leaders of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And none of them were twice awarded the Bronze Star like Hegseth.
My various interactions with military pals are hardly scientific, but credibly tell a very different story than the one bouncing around the usual echo chambers. One USAF fighter pilot and graduate of the service’s elite weapons school, on the cusp of separating from service, texted me that he “may have to reconsider leaving.” Another Air Force colleague, a quiet critic of this administration, admitted, “at least we’re getting serious again.” And an old infantry officer pal, now retired, offered me a relieved “finally.”
A more scientific Congressional report in 2021 found that 94 percent of sailors interviewed said the string of high-profile operational failures was related to Navy culture and leadership problems. (Full disclosure, I worked on this report as a Senate staffer).
The reaction to the speech was reflective of the wider disconnect between people who think for a living and people who do for a living. It was a microcosm of the 2016 and 2024 elections, with high-wealth, high-status coastal smarty-pants types utterly appalled at the national electorate’s rejection of weird political fads, their plea for common sense, and exhausted need for a return to the basics of good governance. This is a fair summarization of the Biden Administration’s treatment of the Pentagon. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas frames it as a widening ideological dichotomy between the “people who take a shower before work and the people who take a shower after work.” I always liked the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne’s quote, possibly apocryphal, “I prefer the company of peasants as they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.” In modern America, there seems to be an inverse relationship between educational credentials and common sense.
Well, to be fair, our educational system sucks.
Plus: “The defining characteristics of America’s post–Cold War military can be summarized as a widespread over-complication of simple things, a jettisoning of common sense, creeping politicization, an infatuation with peculiar management fads, and a slow but unmistakable erosion of the small daily disciplines whose sum total distinguishes a victorious military from a defeated one. The military has forgotten how to do the small things well. Is it any surprise it now struggles with the big things, too?”
NO, IT’S NOT: This isn’t your momma’s space opera.
STOCHASTIC TERRORISM:
Since @realDonaldTrump was almost assassinated in Butler, incendiary rhetoric linking Trump to fascism has skyrocketed more than 2,500%. It's as if, with impeachments and lawfare unsuccessful in stopping Trump, Trump's opponents turned to dehumanizing words to rationalize his… pic.twitter.com/pOdaW4oJnz
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) October 2, 2025
The left creates crazies, cultivates them, and then points them at its enemies.
OPEN THREAD: It’s all you.
FAUXCAHONTAS ON WARPATH! Elizabeth Warren Has a Total Meltdown on CBS Over Illegals and Healthcare.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had a meltdown Thursday morning when a CBS host challenged the Democratic Party’s denials about the Democrats wanting to provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants. During the interview, Tony Dokoupil confronted Warren with claims that Republicans say Democrats are fighting for taxpayer dollars to fund healthcare for illegal aliens.
Dokoupil stated, “I know that’s not strictly true, but there is a provision—”
Warren nearly blew a gasket and interrupted, practically shouting, “Not… Oh, excuse me. Not strictly true.”
When Dokoupil attempted to continue, she cut in again more forcefully, insisting, “It is a flat-out lie. It is a flat-out lie.”
In an attempt to be diplomatic, Dokoupil reworded his point again, saying, “The way that they frame it—” but Warren was adamant in her denial, asserting, “There is nothing in Medicaid, there is nothing in Medicare that permits one undocumented immigrant to get $1 of assistance.” When Dokoupil urged, “Senator, if you’d let me finish the question,” Warren retorted with emphasis, “None. Zero. Of course, I’m sorry.”
What she won’t tell you is that it was a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill that closed the loophole to block federal dollars from being used to pay for the healthcare of illegal immigrants, and Democrats want to reopen the loophole.
Dokoupil appeared to know this and explained the Democratic counterproposal, saying, “Senator, sorry, in-in-in the Democratic, uh, counteroffer, the proposal for funding, there is a restoration of Medicaid benefits for certain noncitizens that it had been taken away in the big beautiful bill, as Republicans put it.”
Somebody is auditioning to remain in the starting lineup if Bari Weiss does indeed become head coach in the not-too-distant future.