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:

1. I was completely disinterested in Charlie Kirk before he was murdered (barely heard of him).
2. Despite the encomiums about how he kept young conservatives from going totally out of their minds, I remain largely disinterested.

(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 Danube recently measured 9 inches deep in Budapest.

Today, I regret writing even this much, which was precious little in comparison to many commentators.

Ceteris paribus is another foreign phrase I should master so as to pretentious-up my writing.

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.

Nagasaki plus 81 years

“[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 …

J Budziszewski

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.

The Morning Dispatch

If Democratic Socialists keep winning Democrat primaries, the eagerly-anticipated flip of the House may not happen.

Party primaries produce crackpot candidates in the general election. Bring back the smoke-filled rooms!

Well, duh! I’m so rusty professionally that it took the Advisory Opinions podcast to remind me that Anthony Fauci was 100% justified in taking the fifth because the Biden pardon only covers federal crimes! Some 25 state attorneys general are posturing about prosecuting him, too, under state laws.

I also began to understand why the American culture wars involved so many battles over sacrilege. Is a flag just a piece of cloth, which can be burned as a form of protest? Or does each flag contain within it something nonmaterial such that when protesters burn it, they have done something bad (even if nobody were to see them do it)? When an artist submerges a crucifix in a jar of his own urine, or smears elephant dung on an image of the Virgin Mary, do these works belong in art museums? Can the artist simply tell religious Christians, “If you don’t want to see it, don’t go to the museum”? Or does the mere existence of such works make the world dirtier, more profane, and more degraded?

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind.

The Righteous Mind has been around for a while. Do our culture wars still fit this pattern — taking offense that the other side is profaning something sacred?

What are the sacred cows of (in broad strokes) American progressives versus American conservatives these days?

Through the grapevine: A young woman of my acquaintance, mother of 5 girls and a boy, told them that she had a disease (breast cancer) and that the treatment probably would make her bald.

The boy said “Cool!”

Isn’t that the most Boy Thing ever?

In the last few days, you may have heard about Leopold Aschenbrenner—the wonder kid hedge fund manager who lost tens of billions over the course of a few days. It’s the biggest financial fiasco of the year.

If you didn’t read about it in the news, don’t worry. Hollywood will certainly make it into a movie. This 25-year-old hot shot’s financial empire was literally collapsing while guests were showing up for his blowout wedding at a fake Tuscan villa in California. The screenplay practically writes itself.

Ted Gioia covers what I hadn’t seen before. This kid was an SBF wannabe.

It’s not fine furniture, but it’s very sturdy and puts a lot of books by my chair.