SO I FINISHED ANDREW WAREHAM’S The Last Campaign the other day, and honestly it’s the first Wareham book that disappointed me. It’s okay, but it reads like he was just trying to bring the series to a finish. The Battle of Kohima, which it ostensibly revolves around, gets short shrift at the end, which is too bad as it’s probably the most important battle of World War II that no one knows about. Lots of buildup, lots of snarking at dumb upper-class Brits, but not nearly enough actually happens. Well, they can’t all be gems.

On the other hand, I’m now reading Kurt Schlichter’s The Attack, about a large scale 10/7 style attack in America, and it doesn’t disappoint at all. The World War Z style oral history was a genius move, and works really well. My only complaint is that I’m an “escape reader” and this is frighteningly plausible and realistic.

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend. Or as we say around Stately Instapundit Manor, “thank God it’s Friday, only two more working days until Monday!”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Beijing government releases commercial space action plan.

WELL, HE’S GOT A POINT:

You’re wrong. Joe Biden will jail or kill you given the chance. Not exactly as Putin will, but he will. In fact, he threatens to. And the persecution of the January 6 political prisoners, abortion, protesters, and others, proves it.

Given the chance, Joe Biden would do exactly… https://t.co/j5SR095I12

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) February 9, 2024

Plus:

He won’t kill you, but he might jail you. (There would be a pretext, of course, such as that you prayed at an abortion clinic, took a selfie in the Capitol, or posted a meme he didn’t like.) https://t.co/MyfNZ2brIt

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) February 9, 2024

SPACE: SpaceX sends 22 Starlink satellites into orbit from West Coast.

I WONDER IF HE’LL BE RELEASED WITHOUT BAIL? ‘Armed and dangerous’ teen migrant from Venezuela cries after arrest over chaotic Times Square shooting that injured tourist. “He is also a suspect in a gunpoint robbery in the Bronx from Jan. 27, and another incident in which shots were fired at a park on 45th Street in Midtown on Jan. 25, police said.”

They’re not sending us their best.

BRAIN SCIENCE: “If you feel like the people around you have never appreciated you, the superior colliculus understands.”

ALSO, IT’S A BIT LARGE FOR CONCEALED CARRY: “When I was a young man, the .44 Mag. was really hot stuff. Everybody that was anybody owned and shot them. By selling off a few guns and generally being careful of my spending, I managed to purchase a brand-new Smith & Wesson 4-inch Model 29, a beautiful handgun. That experience quickly revealed that I was not now, nor ever going to be Elmer Keith, Jr.”

SECONDS SAVE LIVES: Chance of surviving cardiac arrest with CPR plummets as minutes pass.

YES, THEY SHOULD. Americans Should Be Less Complacent About Social Security. We are fast approaching a fundamental restructuring of the program that would abandon its historic design and place future benefits at risk.

I LIKE THE R8 AND AM GLAD IT’S HANGING AROUND A BIT LONGER: Audi R8 Endures Delayed Demise to Satisfy Demand. “Perhaps if the company gets a rash of phone calls from people desperate to get what is arguably the brand’s most iconic model in decades we’ll hear about production stopping near the end of summer.” I can’t help but notice that they’re also delaying the production of an electric-car successor.

DISNEY V. DEMOCRACY: A Public Choice and Good Governance Analysis of Florida’s Reedy Creek Improvement Act of 1967 and Its Resulting Regime.

In particular the insights from public choice theory are applied to the 1967 Act, the RCID, and Disney for the first time in any substantial way as a matter of academic inquiry. As part of its work, the Report identifies the types of “masks” that Disney has used to obscure the private nature of the legislative deals it has profited from by attempting to clothe the 1967 Act and RCID authority in public interest-sounding frames. This Report also explores the scholarly literature explaining why agencies with single-industry-enhancing purposes or a single- or primary-entity constituency, like the RCID, tend to be captured by entities they govern.

I think all of Florida was captured by Disney for quite a while.

I MISS THE DAYS OF DDT: Getting rid of bed bugs is trickier than ever.

WAIT, THEY HAD SUVS BACK THEN? Ice cores provide first documentation of rapid Antarctic ice loss in the past.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: Scientists gain new insights into how small intestine works.

DEEP SEVENS: Floridians feel magnitude 4 earthquake with epicenter off state’s east coast.

DEI ISN’T ABOUT DIVERSITY, IT’S ABOUT CONTROL: Troy University Proves You Don’t Need DEI to Achieve Campus Diversity.

THIS ISN’T THE JETSONS 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR: Best at-home syphilis tests of 2024, according to health experts.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Two more research misconduct scandals hit Harvard.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University removes ‘Introduction to Bondage’ from ‘Healthy Relationships Week’ after backlash over presenter’s disturbing online activity.

WHY IS THE NEW YORK TIMES SUCH A CESSPIT OF SEXISM? “Why is it okay to articulate these stereotypes… and what’s so bad about them? Anyone who hopes to be seen as a possible President must be steely and no-nonsense. What’s ‘demeaning’? These adjectives only sound demeaning when attached to the nouns the New York Times writer chose: ‘vixen’ and ‘broad.’ Those terms are used to divide the women into 2 groups based on looks. And Trump is supposed to be the sexist here? The writer is expressing contempt for women if they glam up and if they don’t. And that’s in a column expressing the hope that all the female options are rejected.”

Of course, it’s a female writer, Pamela Paul. Because no one puts down women like other women.

THE RECRUITING CRISIS CONTINUES: ‘We Take Old People’ – Air Force Trying Anything to Get Somebody in a Uniform These Days.

SO THE SECRET SERVICE IS PRO-ASSASSINATION NOW? Secret Service orders ‘no response’ to RFK Jr.’s protection plea.

YA THINK? House Democrats Worry Immigration Will Overshadow Abortion in the Coming Election.

SOON THE REST OF US WILL BE TRYING TO FORGET WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT: Biden Can’t Remember When He Was Vice President Or When His Son Died: DOJ.