“A 3-year-old boy shot and wounded a man and his son after mistaking them for a turkey at a Youth Turkey Hunt in Wisconsin. The toddler was being mentored by his 34-year-old parent who aided the three-year-old in shooting the 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun. The two spotted motion in the woods that they mistook for a wild turkey, according to the Department of Natural Resources report. However, a 40-year-old man and his seven-year-old child were actually in the brush 35 yards away from the shooters and were struck by pellets in the back, hands and head.” (04/19/26)
“The knives are out for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, both figuratively and pretty close to literally. Last week—a few days after publication of a New Yorker piece featuring tons of anonymous attestations to Altman’s duplicitousness, and a few days before a Wall Street Journal piece about his conflicts of financial interest—an anti-AI extremist threw a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s house. Altman suggested a causal link between the two kinds of attacks.” (04/18/26)
“Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) still has much to teach us if we want a society in which individuals freely pursue their happiness. The economist and social philosopher lit the path to that widely shared goal in his magnum opus, Human Action (1949). especially chapter 24, section three, ‘The Harmony of the ‘Rightly Understood’ Interests.’ The title alone is refreshing, considering how preoccupied political philosophy, economics, and history have been with mankind’s supposedly fated and endless conflict — racial, national, or class — and power struggles. That alone should draw us to the work of a thinker who understood that this emphatically is not man’s destiny.” (04/17/26)
“If you want to get a sense of Donald Trump’s deepening dementia, look no further than his self-annihilating vendetta against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. As you may recall, Powell’s term as chair expires soon, on May 15, but his term as a Fed governor continues through January 2028. Trump has appointed a successor, former Fed governor and investment banker Kevin Warsh, who would ordinarily have his confirmation hearing next week. Warsh would then become Fed chair, succeeding Powell, who would likely leave the Fed entirely. So the quickest way for Trump to oust Powell would be just to let Warsh’s confirmation proceed and avoid screwing it up. But Trump being Trump, his vanity, rage, and muddled thinking are causing Powell to stay in office.” (04/17/26)
“US President Donald Trump has directed the FBI to investigate a series of deaths and disappearances involving government workers who were somehow linked to sensitive nuclear and space programmes, amid swirling public speculation about whether the cases are ‘connected to UFOs.’ … White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the inquiry on Friday, stating that the administration was ‘actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to holistically review all of the cases together and identify any potential commonalities that may exist.’ … The cases in question involve approximately 10 individuals with ties to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other sensitive defence facilities. They span roughly three years and include disappearances, murders, and deaths from apparently unrelated causes.” (04/19/26)
“New York City Mayor Commie Mamdani is putting into action, sort of, his plan to introduce government-run grocery stores and bring down grocery prices. Renting a Brooklyn storefront may cost anywhere between $60,000 to $600,000 a year depending on location and square footage. And there are other costs. Investors profit when they’re right about the opportunity and revenue exceeds costs. This means that they must satisfy customers. Or … taxpayers can fund everything regardless of success or failure.” (04/17/26)
“Fifteen people deported from the US, who are reportedly from South America, have arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the first group of an unknown number of people that the US has expelled which the DR Congo had agreed to take in. The government in Kinshasa has stressed that their stay in the country is only temporary and that Washington is funding ‘their reception, support and care.’ The US has already sent deportees to several other African countries, including Ghana, South Sudan and Eswatini, as part of the crackdown on immigration.” (04/19/26)
