Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren
“Experience has taught me to distinguish between genuine danger and apocalyptic rhetoric. So forgive me if I am a little skeptical that AI will, as the latest crop of doom-saying scientists now warn, wipe out the human race within a decade. But I recognize that I am not an AI expert. So I did what anyone might do in response: I asked AI directly, ‘How could AI plausibly cause human extinction?’ The machine had a few scarily plausible ideas—ones that seem far more likely than car emissions to end our civilization.” (09/21/26)
“Lincoln Financial Field is a public edifice, full stop, We, as city and state taxpayers, contributed $188 million to build the Linc back in 2003, and the city owns the stadium, leasing it to the Eagles for them to host and profit from games and concerts. The team should be compelled to explain why it’s not a violation of the First Amendment to bar a performing artist from presenting a legitimate political viewpoint here. The Birds’ silence on this is a deafening roar. Maybe they’re channeling the spirit of the late, great Chuck Bednarik, but the Eagles are a two-way player when it comes to the question of whether they are a cherished public good in Philadelphia, or just another unaccountable multi-billion-dollar corporation.” (09/20/26)
“You have to admit it. He outfoxes just about everyone, just about every time. And it keeps landing the same way: to America’s gain. Remember when Trump first floated the idea that America might make Greenland more prosperous, more secure, and do something Denmark hadn’t managed in generations — actually invest in the welfare of Greenland’s own people? Remember the freakout that followed? Trump wouldn’t rule out taking the island by force, even against a NATO ally, and for a while it genuinely rattled the alliance. … This week, we found out what the noise was actually covering for. On Friday, the United States, Denmark, and Greenland announced a finalized security agreement — to be formally signed by all three governments next week at the United Nations General Assembly, pending expected parliamentary approval in Copenhagen and Nuuk.” (09/21/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Criteria exist to qualify for some desirable outcome: getting into college, getting tenure, getting someone to marry you, getting students to come to your law school. Individuals spend resources gaming the system, taking advantage of an imperfect match between the criteria and the characteristics they are designed to select for. Colleges want smart students, use SAT scores and high school grades to recognize them. An SAT prep course doesn’t make you smarter but it might raise your score, so students spend time and money on them. Cheating on exams doesn’t make you smarter either but might raise your grades. … The same mechanism gives us news stories we cannot trust.” (09/20/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Government does not have an inherent right to your wealth. Every dollar the state fails to collect is a dollar you keep. Local governments will need to reduce their budgets to match the lower revenue. They should not expect endless financial growth at our expense.” (09/20/26)
“The most powerful empire on the planet and one of their most depraved attack dogs in the Middle East appear to be afraid of a third world militia that governs a territory smaller than Massachusetts in the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula. We are talking about Donald Trump and MBS here. A serial rapist and a psychopathic boy-king who takes apart his critics with power tools. What exactly are these monsters so afraid of? What is so goddamn terrifying about going toe to toe with a Houthi rebel? To put it succinctly, these bearded Arab bad men appear to be unbreakable.” (09/20/26)
“Two weeks ago, a seemingly minor election in Germany made global headlines: The Alternative for Germany (AfD) took 44 percent of the vote in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, putting the far right within a stone’s throw of government for the first time since World War II. A series of elections held today are unlikely to receive the same attention but may be even more revelatory about Germany’s dire state. The AfD once again had a very strong night in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Just as strikingly, the Christian Democrats fell short of five percent of the vote. As a result, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be denied any representation in the state’s parliament, the first time this has happened in the history of the Federal Republic.” (09/20/26)
“California Attorney General Rob Bonta has settled the challenge that he brought with 11 other state AGs to the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. The deal to settle the suit is both improbable and outrageous. The $81 billion merger will give the Ellison family control of two of America’s biggest media companies, rolled into one behemoth combining film, television, sports, entertainment, and news. It would slash jobs and reduce competition throughout several industries. David Ellison has already destroyed the independence of CBS News. This would allow him to destroy CNN as well. As an indication of the strength of Bonta’s case, on July 20, U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a temporary restraining order against the merger that rejected many of Paramount’s arguments, and scheduled a trial for next March. At that point, the Ellisons began applying political pressure for a settlement and threatening that Paramount would leave California if the suit succeeded.” (09/21/26)
“Some people seem to think the Constitution’s framers simply made the whole thing up. ‘Why should we pay attention to what 55 dead white guys wrote 239 years ago?’ they ask. But the framers did not make it all up. The ideas behind the Constitution had been discussed and tested for a very long time. Illustrating this is a document written nearly 20 years before the framers met in Philadelphia—a document that proclaims concepts later incorporated into the Constitution.” (09/20/26)
