11 YEARS AGO THIS COLUMN OF MINE WAS THE #1 ITEM ON THE ENTIRE USA TODAY SITE: Abolish the TSA.

LEAKING TO THE PRESS IS ITSELF UNETHICAL: More Leaks in the NY Times About The “Supreme Court Ethics Debate.”

The left is leaking because it’s losing. The new strategy is to delegitimize the Court. They do this with any institution they don’t control, even as they pretend it’s unAmerican to criticize the ones they do.

CDR SALAMANDER: When Your VLS Hobbyhorse Goes Mainstream. “The fact we threw away an ability to reload/rearm forward was an old story inside the surface Navy when I picked it up in the last years of the previous century. We had a clunky erector set like contraption that was hard to use and took up VLS cell space, but instead of finding a better way, we just chunked the whole idea, slid in our Jesus Jones CD, and figured we had ownership of the seas until the crack of doom. There is nothing ‘until recently’ about this. Not to get off topic, but the real story here is why time and again this century’s senior leadership decided it was ‘too hard’ or ‘too dangerous’ while they were in full knowledge not just of the operational experience demanding this capability, but what we discovered over and over again in wargames. . . . We do not need to take a few POM cycles to appreciate the problem some more. This is a decades old requirement screaming for a solution.”

Elon Musk’s people would have solved this inside of six months. I’m not suggesting that they should be put on the problem — they have enough to do — but if they can do it, there must be someone else out there who could, if allowed.

Plus: “Time is not our friend. Faster. Now.”

YES. Trump’s Notre Dame Appearance Means More Than You Think. “It will be a grand affair, attended by 50 heads of state, and Donald Trump is being treated as one of them even before he returns to power on January 20th, 2025. That’s a big deal, because it is a symbolic acknowledgment that in the eyes of the world, including Europe, Donald Trump is already the president who matters. Joe Biden is PINO (President in Name Only). I like that neologism.”

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE:

Government schools spend nearly $16,000 per year per student. Meaning by 8th grade they've spent $128,000 failing to teach kids to read or count ✌️ https://t.co/ujdchcyh7e

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) December 3, 2024

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Hydration as a Lifestyle Trend.

LOL.

John Bolton has been wrong about everything so I guess Kash must be pretty awesome. https://t.co/V2wYNcqhmh

— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 1, 2024

JOEL KOTKIN: Sometimes History Demands A Bastard: Some leaders in Europe may resist a new alliance with Trump’s America, but in a world dominated by bullies, sharp elbows and unpredictability may be what the times demand. “The new realpolitik marks the end of an era in which politics was defined largely by ideology and religion. As in the 19th century, world events now revolve around control of markets, resources, technology, and military aptitude. In this new paradigm, institutions like the United Nations and the International Court of Justice are largely irrelevant, as are climate confabs and the high-minded pronunciamentos of the World Economic Forum. Joe Biden’s foreign policy was informed by Wilsonian notions of global liberalism, an ideology that also permeated US policy during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Although these administrations approached foreign relations very differently, they both embraced the allegedly democratising influence of free trade and the need to protect the ‘rules-based’ postwar order. Yet the legacy of this approach has been involvement in open-ended wars that often resulted in strategic defeats.”

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: Broken water pipe knocks out data processing for NASA sun-studying spacecraft.

WELL, GOOD, HE WAS A BAD CHOICE: Unrepentant covid tyrant withdraws from DEA nomination. Accountability. Chad Chronister’s nomination fell apart in just three days.

WAIT, IT’S NOT A WARNING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE? “Venus’s reputation as a cautionary tale of an Earth Gone Bad may have been somewhat exaggerated.”

WELL, GOOD: Six-Month HIV Prevention Shot Achieves 99% Efficacy in Major Study.

PEOPLE ARE ASKING HOW TO DONATE TO INSTAPUNDIT AGAIN, SO HERE YOU GO. You can donate via stripe using the silver “Donate” button at the top of the right sidebar, or by using this link to go to Stripe. You can mail a check (made out to Glenn Reynolds, not InstaPundit) — people still do that — to 118 N. Peters Rd. #12-230, Knoxville, TN 37923. Or you can become a paid subscriber to my Substack, which is always appreciated. Any way you choose to do it, I thank you, and my family thanks you.

THEY HAVE THEIR PRIORITIES.

To my fellow Californians who are struggling to make ends meet, who want better schools, better roads, and safer communities, this is what your democrat politicians are spending your money on. https://t.co/KEVls1mWPN

— Senator Melissa Melendez (@senatormelendez) December 2, 2024

SO WHEN GERMAN SOLDIERS USED METH IN WWII THEY WERE JUST FOLLOWING TRIBAL TRADITION: Barbarian warriors in Roman times used stimulants in battle, findings suggest.

EV COSTS: Why Did Our Kia EV9’s First Service Cost $322? Aren’t EVs Supposed to Be Cheaper To Maintain? On top of everything, we have to visit the service department again.

FIGHT THE POWER: SAF Asks Supreme Court to Review Its Challenge to California’s Ban on Gun Shows on State Property.

NATURE IS HEALING: President-elect Donald Trump will attend the weekend reopening of the restored Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was ravaged by a 2019 fire.

I hope his jet still says Trump Force One.

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Infants exposed to animals on farms are less likely to develop allergies, study finds.

PEOPLE ARE ASKING HOW TO DONATE TO INSTAPUNDIT AGAIN, SO HERE YOU GO. You can donate via stripe using the silver “Donate” button at the top of the right sidebar, or by using this link to go to Stripe. You can mail a check (made out to Glenn Reynolds, not InstaPundit) — people still do that — to 118 N. Peters Rd. #12-230, Knoxville, TN 37923. Or you can become a paid subscriber to my Substack, which is always appreciated. Any way you choose to do it, I thank you, and my family thanks you.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Over the weekend, China debuted a new rocket on the nation’s path to the Moon.

SLEEP HYGIENE: Irregular sleep might increase risk of heart attack, stroke.

NOTHING IS EVER THE FAULT OF THE ANOINTED.

This is exactly what Hillary's top advisers did after 2016. And it's also exactly what cable personalities and digital media outlets are doing now.

The failures in elite liberal sectors are too glaring to deny, but the one thing they adamantly refuse is any self-reflection: pic.twitter.com/Ojo3OzZfzH

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 3, 2024