Heard on CBS national news this noon: California wildfires are “threatening residents with danger.”
Wow! I had little idea how far this has come!
Scenes From the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games - The Atlantic
I’m really wearying of the Free Press as it tries to be a serious news source and a tabloid pursuer of ephemera.
It and the Dispatch were born in fairly close proximity. I have subscribed to both since essentially day one.
Peacock streaming TV strategy conference:
How can we make it as unpleasant as possible to watch a WNBA game on our network? I don’t think obnoxious music during time-outs (because we have no advertisers) is enough. Maybe we can stir the trans and race pots, too.
Agree or disagree with the author’s leanings, Silicon Svengali’s Artificial Intelligence at Front Porch Republic is clever.
I don’t want to dwell on Jason Arday, but when Eugene Volokh finds something noteworthy about it, I’ve got to look: “The Cascade of Dysfunction That Helped Doom Jason Arday”.
Neither Arday nor British press law look very good.
For someone who suffers badly from FOMO:
(Thoughts upon seeing a CT piece)
Nine words I never imagined writing: Best of luck to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
I have a public wishlist and several private wishlists on Amazon. One of the private ones is “Political books I probably shouldn’t buy.” It gets, I think, 100% of the political books that are all buzzy, including Regime Change (which tempts me sorely).
The Wabash is at the perfect level: 5 feet above flood stage.
No muddy banks visible, low tree branches hanging into the water, but no flooded roads adjacent.
It dawned on me last week that my adolescent grandchildren’s political awareness is pervasively stained by the current POTUS. They simply have no real memory of the beforetimes.
I tried to give them a little perspective over dinner last Sunday. I wish I could reassure them about what follows.
Still reading Carlos Eire, Reformations 📚, but I’m past the midpoint.
Suffice that my sense of Western Church history is changing.
Not us, but near us: thunderstorms with winds up to 100 mph; caution not to drive North on I-65 due to driving rain, zero visibility.
My wife’s aging Church is trying to call a pastor from the Philippines. U.S. Immigration officials are demanding ever more proof that a 150-year-old church, in a substantial brick edifice for 100 years or so, is real.
Welcome to the Trumposcene. They just might succeed in killing a Church.
I sometimes think there can be no case of FOMO worse than mine, but that can’t be. I’ve put two books on my wish list so far today, but one worse-afflicted than I might have bought them both.
“[Caveat omitted],” my friend said over breakfast after Mass. He opened his alumni magazine to show me a short essay by the director of one of the core curriculum program at his alma mater …
The author of the piece was writing about reading and teaching Inferno, the first canticle of Dante’s Comedy …
Even I, who found Inferno a bit of a slog, know better than this.
I thought maybe I should try National Review again. I won’t renew after trying.
The signal-to-noise ratio is just too low, and if the signal’s good enough it gets discussed in other things I read.
We mostly stay home, and I’m getting tired of replacing batteries (those expensive flat things) on luggage AirTags that haven’t been out of the house in a year.
Remove, re-label as “Travel 1,” “Travel 2” etc. Replace batteries and attach to luggage only when needed.
I wish I’d thought of this first: The ‘Manosphere’ Isn’t a Movement. It’s a Multibillion-Dollar Grievance Industry (WIRED)
Happy Friday! A survey of 60 intelligence professionals from 25 countries has crowned MI6 Europe’s most powerful spy agency. We didn’t realize anyone was keeping score—and we’re not entirely sure how you’d verify it—but congratulations to everyone involved, whoever you are.