UM: No, Charlie Kirk Was Not Shot With a .380 ACP ‘Cell Phone Gun.’

THE NEW SPACE RACE: After a very slow start, Europe’s reusable rocket program shows signs of life: Although Themis is making progress, the program is several years behind schedule.

IS THERE ANYTHING THEY CAN’T DO? GLP-1 receptor agonists may protect the liver during alcohol consumption.

I HAD A GIRLFRIEND LIKE THAT ONCE: Saturn to glow brighter than usual this weekend as it reaches opposition.

EVERY TIME A MOSQUITO DIES THE WORLD BECOMES A SLIGHTLY BETTER PLACE: Some habits could make people more attractive to mosquitoes.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Oft Evil Will Shall Evil Mar: Charlie Kirk’s Assassination and a New Great Awakening.

As always, if you like these essays, please take out a paid subscription.

CDR SALAMANDER: Japan’s Ship Classification Gets too Clever by Half, and I like it. “We see what you did there. It’s okay.”

OUR CRAZY AND VICIOUS ACADEMIC CLASS: ‘I did not want him to die. I reserve that wish for Trump.’

But imagine the fate of a law professor who said that about Obama in 2013.

WELL, BYE: Pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Kahlil must be deported, judge says.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

These kinds of lies got Charlie Kirk killed.

They know it.

They don’t plan on stopping. https://t.co/qE9OEVAWMo

— RBe (@RBPundit) September 22, 2025

BLUE SKY: I don’t know about messianic, but definitely a trifle too Satanic:

UPDATE:

Stop shooting people and you won't need to see another one. https://t.co/JD8Yuobhl5

— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) September 22, 2025

“Since leftism was (to invoke Tolkien again) created in mockery of Christianity, as the Orcs were created in mockery of the Elves, there’s a fundamental hatred there that can’t be tamped down for long.”

FLASHBACK: The Banality of Leninism.

Historians often act like Lenin’s tyranny was a bolt from the blue: Who would have expected a bunch of socialists to be so bloodthirsty? Admirers of Lenin, in contrast, often paint him as a great innovator – at least as a strategist. A dictatorship of the proletariat run by a vanguard party of bourgeois intellectuals? Only Lenin could have conceived it. When you read 19th-century Russian literature, however, “Leninist” memes clearly predate the birth of Lenin. Contrary to many historians, Lenin’s atrocities were foreseeable. And contrary to Lenin’s admirers, his strategy of atrocity was pure cliche.

I suspect the antidote to Leninism is the even older policy of Sulla-ism.

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

The latest rocket launch market share report just dropped 🚀

SpaceX launched 88.5% of all satellites in Q2, on track to hit the 90% share @ElonMusk predicted for the rest of 2025.

By weight lofted to orbit, SpaceX did 86% of the global total. And it’s a power law; once you… pic.twitter.com/d8VMrsXajO

— Steve Jurvetson (@FutureJurvetson) September 21, 2025

That’s amazing and well-earned, though actually I’d like to see more competition.

IF I BECOME A BILLIONAIRE I’LL KEEP IT QUIET, BUT THERE WILL BE SIGNS: This Man Owns The World’s Most Advanced Private Air Force After Buying 46 F/A-18 Hornets.

ICYMI: WE ALL KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT: Roger Kimball: Was Kirk ‘Divisive’—or Did He Simply Say What Millions Believe?

OUT: LEARN TO CODE. IN: “Computer engineering was the third worst, with a graduate unemployment rate of 7.5%. By comparison, the average unemployment rate for recent grads of all majors in the analysis was 3.9%.”

Guess we don’t need all those H1B workers.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “The other exceptionally strong statement of Christianity came from Marco Rubio.”

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: VIPER lives! Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will land ice-hunting NASA rover on the moon in 2027.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Oft Evil Will Shall Evil Mar: Charlie Kirk’s Assassination and a New Great Awakening.

MOOD:

Her: be right with God.
Him: meet God.

— 🗿 Woe to those who dwell upon the earth 🗿 (@treblewoe) September 21, 2025

"That young man… I forgive him."
-Erika Kirk, 9/21/2025

I am nearly speechless, but I can say this:

Democrats, this is what love looks like. Not the hate you spread like so much rancid fertilizer.

Take heed, Democrats.

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) September 21, 2025

This is Erika Kirk’s full eulogy for Charlie. It’ll leave you with chills. She has Charlie’s heart and ability to connect with everyone on a personal level where it doesn’t seem like there’s a stadium of people around. Almost no one could meet this moment. She absolutely did. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/qYZIr9SR3B

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 21, 2025

UPDATE:

“Tell me how he died.”

“I will tell you how he lived.” pic.twitter.com/cquQI8hmF7

— Pax Americana 🧊 (@1776pax) September 10, 2025

CALL ME WHEN YOU CAN GET ME TO CAYMAN WITHOUT GOING THROUGH ATLANTA: Scientists Capture W State, Unlocking Quantum Teleportation.

Or, worse yet, though Charlotte.

WELL, GOOD: Long-Standing Planetary Mystery Solved: Scientists Discover Mars Has an Earth-Like Core. Too bad it doesn’t have an Earth-like magnetic field.

LET THEM FREEZE (OR SWELTER) IN THE DARK UNTIL THEY CHOOSE A FUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT: California Faces a Self-Created Oil and Gas Crisis.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST:

When I was in college, my inbox flooded with emails from the provost, president, dean, and department heads after George Floyd died in 2020.

•@UChicago’s president declared America a racist country
•The provost said his death was “racially motivated”
•The English Dept…

— Evita Duffy-Alfonso (@evitaduffy_1) September 20, 2025