“The dialectical battle between traditionalists and lovers of liberty has given us brilliant debates over the past few centuries, but also countless missed opportunities. The battle for freedom must be fought continuously, because whenever it is not being fought, freedom retreats; it is always under threat. We see this often these days. In confronting that threat, beyond the work of the usual figures, it may be useful to reconsider the work of those who called themselves ‘authentic reactionaries’ and who, in reality, also offered fruitful arguments in defense of freedom.” (09/25/26)
“A Texas mental health clinic owner was convicted by a federal jury after prosecutors said he orchestrated a $26 million scheme to defraud the military’s health care program, using some of the proceeds to fund luxury purchases, including a gold-plated Tesla Cybertruck worth more than $100,000. Kevin D. Curry, 64, of Frisco, was found guilty Thursday in federal court in Fort Worth on three counts of health care fraud, three counts of offering and paying illegal health care kickbacks and three counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property, according to the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors said Curry exploited TRICARE, the health care program serving active-duty servicemembers, retirees and their families, by billing for transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, therapy that was medically unnecessary or, in many cases, never provided.” (09/27/26)
“American troops at bases across the Middle East have tragically been killed by Iranian strikes, as the military is forced to ration the remaining stockpile of defensive weapons. Just days into the war, America’s client-states in the Gulf were said to have depleted years worth of munitions. In the months of conflict that followed these dire reports, the effects of what [Pat] Buchanan called ‘imperial overstretch’ were being felt. Bases faced an onslaught of Iranian missiles and drones. Damage was so severe that many will likely not be returned to by the U.S. military. A chaotic withdrawal, of sorts. The American regional order in the Middle East is collapsing in real time.” (09/25/26)
“Australia has called for the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear before a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence, just days after revelations that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country’s health-system database. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have been sent written requests to appear at the inquiry, which is to hold public hearings in the capital, Canberra, on Thursday, a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens party said. The inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on safety, data transparency, Australian communities, industries, water and energy. It is one of several state and federal inquiries into AI.” (09/27/26)
“Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Azmat Khan says the Pentagon still obfuscates, lies, and manipulates the truth about civilian deaths in war.” (09/25/26)
“A Silicon Valley congressman is calling for a federal investigation into a controversial Menlo Park development, saying a Russian oligarch with alleged ties to organized crime is behind the project. U.S. Rep Sam Liccardo, a Democrat whose district covers the city, asserted in a letter Wednesday to Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the development’s land is owned by Vitaly Yusufov, a Russian whom Liccardo says has been sanctioned by Ukraine and has acted on behalf of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He said the project’s location near tech companies raises national security concerns. Oisin Heneghan, the founder of N17 Development, the San Francisco-based developer behind the project, said in an email to SFGATE Friday that Liccardo’s allegations are ‘based on false reporting and what can only be described as NIMBY fan fiction.’” (09/25/26)
“For good or ill, individuals differ in all sorts of ways, many of them relevant to their ability to please us, the consumers. No need to stop the presses—we all know this. Yet many intellectuals want a social system premised on the principle that people are ‘equal’ not as a moral/legal presumption, but equal in intelligence, talent, energy, time preference, conscientiousness, cooperativeness, etc.—and therefore deserving of more or less equal incomes, outcomes, and opportunities. Anything short of their ideal (‘disparate outcomes’), the egalitarians tell us, must be chalked up to past or present injustice (racism, for example) and privilege, requiring coercive government intervention. That’s wokeism. People who are honest with themselves know those intellectuals are worse than wrong and that the record of their ideal in practice has been bloody beyond belief.” (09/25/26)
“SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 ship Saturday morning from California with a secret mission for the U.S. military. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 7 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base for the USSF-385 mission. The rocket went in a southerly direction after launch from Space Launch Complex 4-East, according to Space Flight Now. … This mission for the U.S. Space Force is believed to be the third in a series of flights to send satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield, which is a version of a Starlink satellite for government use.” (09/26/26)
