January 14, 2026

MAKE SHOWERS GREAT AGAIN: Big Government Steps Out of the Shower Stall. “Eleven House Democrats crossed party lines to support Republicans in overturning the Biden-era regulation that restricted water flow in household showerheads. The resolution targeted a rule that capped gallons per minute, regardless of how many spray nozzles or settings a showerhead used.”

Posted at 11:11 am by Stephen Green

YOU NEED HELP, LADY:

She’s going to hurt someone.

Posted at 10:55 am by Stephen Green

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Raids on WA public works account could put it in the red by 2028.

Since its creation in the 1980s, the Public Works Assistance Account has existed to provide funding for revolving low-interest loans for local governments for infrastructure improvement projects.

In the decades since its creation, the state Legislature has repeatedly raided the account to plug holes in its operating budget.

That practice continues into the current biennium, and could put the account in a negative balance, depending on budget proposals from elected officials as they scramble to cover a multibillion dollar deficit driven by increased spending that has outpaced record revenue levels.

It doesn’t matter how much money government has — it will always go looking for more.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

HIGHER EDUCATION IMPLOSION UPDATE: University of Oklahoma may cut 16 degrees following review by board of regents.

It recently identified 16 “low-producing programs” at the public university in Norman that should be cut. In total, the regents said “41 programs [should] be deleted and 21 programs [should] be suspended” across all universities.

Specifically, the University of Oklahoma should cut its doctoral program in French, along with its masters’ degrees in drama, French, German, and two in “Interdisciplinary Programs.”

Bachelor degrees in various languages, along with both the bachelor of science and bachelor of arts in geography should also be cut, the board recommended. The minutes for the December regents’ meeting lists the remaining programs that should be ended.

A spokeswoman for the board provided further details on the review process.

“Programs that are not suspended or deleted as a result of that review are then placed on a five-year review cycle,” Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications Angela Caddell said in an email to The Fix. “This effort reflects public higher education’s ongoing commitment to aligning academic programs with workforce needs and ensuring optimal allocation of state resources.”

Anything with “studies” in the name ought to be given a good, hard look.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Ketanji Brown Jackson Is a Painful Reminder of Biden’s Lunacy. “I would love to have a look at Jackson’s ‘Word of the Day’ desk calendar, it’s gotta be a humdinger. Or, ‘cisginger’ may indicate that her browser history might be, um, interesting.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green

ELECTIONS ARE ONLY SACRED WHEN THE LEFT WINS:

Remember, if the left wins they’ll throw you in jail for simply suggesting that there might have been fraud.

Posted at 8:51 am by Glenn Reynolds

WELL, GOOD: Trump admin labels Muslim Brotherhood branches in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt as terrorist organizations.

The departments of Treasury and State announced the actions against the Lebanese, Jordanian, and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they said pose a risk to U.S. interests, The Associated Press reported.

The State Department designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s Lebanese branch a foreign terrorist organization, the most severe of the labels, making it a criminal offense to provide material support to the group. The Treasury Department listed the Jordanian and Egyptian branches as specially designated global terrorists for providing support to Hamas.

“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.”

Rubio is awfully busy these days.

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green

KEEP THE CRAZY ONES WOUND UP, POINT THEM IN A DIRECTION, AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS:

That’s how they got Kirk, and how they almost got Trump (twice).

Posted at 8:20 am by Stephen Green

I DO NOT TRUST THE SECRET SERVICE:

Posted at 8:11 am by Glenn Reynolds

CHANGE: USAF welcomes delivery of first operational T-7A Red Hawk.

The US Air Force (USAF) ushered its first new-generation T-7A Red Hawk advanced jet trainer into operational service on 7 January, when a formal arrival ceremony for the type was held at Air Education and Training Command’s (AETC’s) headquarters at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph (JBSA-R) in Texas.

This recent ceremony comes after the USAF’s first operational T-7A (serial 21-7005) was delivered to the Texas base from Boeing’s fighter production plant in St Louis, Missouri, on 5 December. Having now arrived at JBSA-R, the new aircraft has formally joined the 12th Flying Training Wing’s (FTW’s) 99th Flying Training Squadron (FTS).

* * * * * * * *

T-38C: Beginning of the End

This recent delivery marks the beginning of a new era in the training of future USAF fighter pilots as the service presses on with its quest to modernise its primary jet trainer fleet. For more than six decades, the service’s now-veteran T-38C Talon fleet has formed the backbone of its fast-jet training syllabus.

However, due to its advanced age and circa-1960s design, the Talon fleet is now struggling with maintenance issues and unavoidable obsolescence, becoming more expensive to maintain and no longer being representative of the technologies and capabilities offered by modern combat jets, such as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.

It lacks the modern digital systems and avionics required to prepare new-generation pilots for complex, multi-domain warfighting in fifth- and future sixth-generation fighters, like Boeing’s F-47.

While the USAF will eventually replace its ageing T-38Cs with the T-7A, but this process won’t start until enough Red Hawks have been handed over to the service. According to Cirium, the USAF still maintains a fleet of more than 480 T-38s. Despite this, USAF officials have cited availability issues with the platform as contributing to ongoing delays in the fast-jet pilot training pipeline.

The new plane, which looks a bit like a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet with a shrunken body and a jumbo-sized cockpit, was “jointly developed by Boeing and Saab.” Here’s hoping it performs much better than some of Boeing’s more recent product.

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll