“I confess that I am perplexed by the various casting controversies surrounding Christopher Nolan’s excellent and moving The Odyssey, a film inspired by Homer’s poem of that title. It is true that Nolan cast a black woman, Lupita Nyong’o, in the role of Helen of Troy, a Spartan queen who is not described as black …. It also is true that a transgender actor is cast in the role of Sinon, the Greek soldier who plays a critical role in the affair of the Trojan horse. The whiny little men who complain about these things for a living have made a few other minor objections. … Well, raise my rent. Christopher Nolan evidently has taken some artistic license in telling a story about men and women who never actually lived and the war they never actually fought as related by an ancient oral tradition attributed to Homer, a poet who (probably) did not exist.” (07/23/26)
“‘Our children are being indoctrinated,’ says Senator Ted Cruz after the latest poll showing young Americans’ growing opposition to the Israeli government (He carefully picked one with a forced binary choice between Israeli forces and Hamas – obscuring the general thrust of young people’s moral revulsion to Israel’s violence visible in numerous polls). Daily Wire influencer Jordan Peterson says he’s ‘sickened’ by the trend, which he flatly frames as ‘the rising tide of antisemitism.’ (He chose to make his case as a defense of ‘Judeo-Christian’ values, but in the same post quickly makes clear he is defending the literal state of Israel). … ‘Socrates is corrupting the youth of Athens!’ these Zionists might say, calling for the death of the Gadfly. But they’re about to learn it doesn’t pay to sentence Socrates to death.” (07/23/26)
“It seemed like a win-win: A proposal to let community colleges in Illinois award bachelor’s degrees in certain fields to rural residents and working adults who live beyond commuting distance of any four-year university. Backers, including Governor JB Pritzker, said the change would not only make things ‘easier and more affordable for students,’ but also increase the supply of workers with the skills employers need. But four-year universities lined up against the proposal. A political ally, flanked by several of their presidents, was blunt about why: It would cut into their business.” (07/23/26)
“European regulators have fined Google 890 million euros ($1 billion), alleging the company gives preferential treatment to its own services. The fine is Google’s first under the European Union’s sweeping Digital Markets Act (DMA) which aims to scrutinize Big Tech’s operating practices in Europe. Shares of Google-parent Alphabet were around 4% lower in premarket trading, but that primarily reflected investor unease over rising AI spending outlined in the company’s earnings report on Wednesday. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it found that Google gives preferential treatment to its own services, such as shopping and hotels, over those of third parties in search.” (07/23/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“Since the end of the Cold War, Somalia has been a textbook case of the perils of foreign meddling. Once a pawn in superpower rivalry, it descended into state collapse, warlordism, and radical insurgency. Successive U.S. administrations, driven by shifting strategic obsessions—from anti-communism to counterterrorism—have repeatedly intervened, each time exacerbating the very problems they claimed to solve. The result? A fractured state, persistent extremism, and record U.S. bombings under the second Trump administration, which is on pace to shatter its own previously set record for strikes in a single year. Far from stabilizing the Horn of Africa, Washington’s actions have entrenched instability, empowered radicals, and imposed costs on both Somalis and American taxpayers.” (07/23/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Christopher J Calton
“Socialism is the abolition of private property rights, with control of property absorbed by the state. Democracy, of course, is mob rule, with private decisions being socialized across the wider populace. Under democratic socialism, then, private property rights must be outsourced to the community, with the state acting as the enforcer of the collective will. In California, it has become common practice to involve the broader community in property rights questions, such as whether a developer should be permitted to build a two-story home on land it owns. … The consequence of this democratic socialism has been an unprecedented housing shortage in one of the country’s wealthiest states.” (07/23/26)
“Donald Trump gets away with lying most of the time. But sometimes reality is so stark and serious that he can’t escape it. That’s what happened in his first term, when he pretended that COVID would quickly disappear. Now it’s happening in the Persian Gulf. Trump’s phony deal with Iran has dissolved. Missile and drone attacks have resumed. Ships are under fire in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil traffic has slowed. Gas prices are going back up. More American troops have been injured, and some have died. Trump is trying to fake his way through this fiasco. It’s not working.” (07/23/26)
