VOTE KEMI BADENOCH for CONSERVATIVE LEADER:  She’s brave.

I CAN EXPLAIN IT:  HE HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE:  Court orders the University of Delaware to explain its refusal to release Biden’s senate papers.

BILL JACOBSON:  The green agenda will lead to (more) populist revolts.

JONATHAN ADLER:  “Will Chevron Get the Lemon Treatment?”

BARI WEISS:  “The New Founders America Needs.”

SHE’D HAVE MY VOTE … IF HAD A VOTE:  “Anti-Woke Warrior Princess Enters Conservative Leadership Race.”

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, WYOMING–ARGUABLY OUR MOST BEAUTIFUL RED STATE:  The Wyoming Territory’s constitution was the first to guarantee women the right to vote.  When Wyoming applied for statehood, Congress initially balked, with some members fearing that admitting Wyoming would lead to demands for women’s suffrage in other states. But the Wyoming legislature stood its ground and cabled back to Congressional leaders, “We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women.”

Congress eventually relented, and on this day in 1890, Wyoming was admitted as our 44^th state. Those who feared that Wyoming’s example would lead to pressure for women’s suffrage were, of course, right.  Before the turn of the century, there were four women’s suffrage states—Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho—and many more soon thereafter.  Good-o (except for the part about women being more likely to vote for progressives … there’s not a lot of that in Wyoming, y’know).

I ASKED MY GENTLEMAN FRIEND FOR A GENERATOR FOR MY BIRTHDAY … in case of rolling blackouts … or brownouts or whatever.  I’ve been working on a report for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about Hurricane Maria and the yearlong power outage it caused in Puerto Rico, and it’s got me wound up.  (Yes, I know that Puerto Rico’s grid was old and rickety, but California’s is not so great either.)  I want something that I can lift and plug into the wall to store up electricity in anticipation of temporary outages … but also something with solar panels to use in case things really go south.  I live on the rim of a canyon where fire hazard is very real.  I could never store fuel on this property.  So is this what I want?  Advice, please.

RICH IS BETTER:  For years now, Israeli kibbutz have been moving away from utopian socialism and toward something more like a market economy.  In the process, they’ve gotten richer.  But did that make them hard-hearted toward the less fortunate?  A new study suggests their attitudes toward market mechanisms have gotten more positive now that they’ve had experience with them, but their support for redistribution to the poor has not changed.  And it’s easier now that they’re richer.

SRI LANKA:  Bird’s eye view of storming the Presidential Palace.  Another view.

MORE TROUBLE UP NORTH:  “Canadian Professor Suspended for Asking Questions about Child COVID Vaccines.”  More here.

THEY USED TO CALL IT YERBA BUENA:    As part of the Mexican-American War, the USS Portsmouth sailed into San Francisco Bay on this day in 1846.  Its orders were to capture the town of Yerba Buena (translation: “Good Herb”), which it did without firing a shot.  At that point the town had a population of no more than 500.

Somebody must not have liked the name, since in less than a year it was changed to San Francisco.  By 1849, with the discovery of gold in California, San Francisco’s population had mushroomed to 25,000.

The 2020 Census put San Francisco’s population at 873,965.  But, according to estimates, San Francisco’s population has declined more than any other city in the country since then–alas, not a surprise to anyone who has been there recently.

VOLOKH CONSPIRACY:  “China Kinda Sus.”  Five individuals have been indicted by a federal grand jury for attempting to silence critics of China in the U.S.

MAKES SENSE:  “Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules that a [6’ 5”] Transgender Woman Cannot Change Her Name Because She is a Sex Offender.”  Wisconsin law forbids individuals whose names are on the sex offender registry from changing their names, and there is no exception for changing from a man’s name to a woman’s name.

COLLEGE OF ST. JOSEPH TO LAUNCH:  The tag line for this new school is “Learn a trade, earn a degree and graduate without crippling debt.”  The plan is to combine education in a trade with Catholic teachings.  Not a bad idea.

STANLEY GOLDFARB:  Medical schools have gone mad.

YOU BE THE JUDGE:  “How Low Can NPR Go?“

IF SO, I HOPE THEY GET SOMEBODY BETTER … EVEN THOUGH HE’S KIND OF CUTE:  “Boris Has Failed to Fight Wokeness.”

LET’S HOPE SO:  “Peak Woke?”

BOTTOMING OUT:  On this day in 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its lowest point in the Depression.  (Spoiler alert:  Thing didn’t get better all that quickly.)

MORE WORDS ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN FEWER?: The faculty of the Cornell University English Department has changed its name to “the department of literatures in English,” apparently because it fears that otherwise they can only teach authors who are from England.  This change is viewed by the faculty as part of the effort to fight racism.

I CAN’T IMAGINE THAT ANYONE IS SURPRISED:  U Wisconsin declines to disclose how much $$$$ it spends on “diversity.”

THE WOKE WAR ON STANDARDS CONTINUES:  Traffic violation edition.

HERE’S TO YOU, MR. OTTO FREDERICK ROHWEDDER:  I didn’t realize it till today, but I am only one generation removed from the advent of commercially available sliced bread.  On this day in 1928 (after the birth of my parents), the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri began marketing pre-sliced loaves of bread.  These loaves were an instant hit, made possible by a bread slicing and wrapping machine invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa.

So popular did these time-saving, pre-sliced loaves turn out to be that they gave rise to the saying, “It’s the best thing since sliced bread.”  Many a great invention has come along since 1928—from the transistor to helicopters to personal computers to gene-editing.  But seldom does anyone say an invention is better than sliced bread.

For a very brief period in 1943, sliced bread was banned by Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard (of Wickard v. Filburn fame).  It’s not easy to come up with a sillier wartime conservation method.   A letter to the New York Times summed up the reaction of many American women (and men):

I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that’s ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!

Initially government officials made threats to take “stern measures if needed” to stop the sale of sliced bread.  But it didn’t take all that long for the ban to be rescinded.

THANK YOU, GOV. YOUNGKIN!  (NOW PLEASE KEEP IT UP):  “Youngkin Appoints ‘Wokeness’ Critic to UVa Board of Trustees.”

It’s shocking to me how many GOP governors with the power to appoint a serious people to the boards of state universities use that power to appoint rich donors who view it as an honor and wouldn’t dream of making waves.  These governors need to appoint people who know something about how the beast works and how it should work. The need to be people who can’t be intimidated.