“Should criminals be allowed the softening joys of favourite foods and longed for staples? The overcooked roast, the undercooked dumpling? And, for Australians, a foodstuff (hardly a food) so reprehensible it would draw disapproval from any respectable panel from UNESCO? Last month, Andre McKenchnie, a convicted murderer detained at Victoria’s Barwon Prison, attempted to test the judicial waters that not being allowed to consume the famous yeast spread of Vegemite was a denial of human rights under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act, specifically the right to ‘enjoy his culture’ as an Australian.” (11/02/26)
“Her full name is Regina Inez Hinojosa, but almost nobody in Texas calls her that. From the people she met on the streets during the final stretch of her campaign to her own staff, Hinojosa is simply ‘Gina’. Her hope, and that of the Democratic Party, is that her nickname will soon become ‘Governor Gina’, as volunteers and supporters chanted while welcoming her to Fort Bend County ahead of a canvassing event this weekend. A civil rights lawyer by training and a former Austin school board president, Hinojosa challenged incumbent Greg Abbott for Texas governor with a message that goes beyond the usual Democratic arguments about Republican extremism. Unlike many of her predecessors, she has explicitly focused her campaign on reining in corporate welfare, while supporting public education and expanding the safety net for middle-class families.” (11/02/26)
“I’d like to say ‘don’t panic,’ and that’s exactly what I will say — not because I’m convinced nothing bizarre is about to happen, but because ‘prepping’ is always good advice anyway. These news cycle indicators may or may not be predictive in the near term, but laying in some shelf-stable food and bottled water can’t hurt and will stand you in good stead for even the smaller ‘disasters’ that have always been part of life (blizzards, hurricanes, etc.). IS something big coming? I haven’t the faintest. I don’t move in circles of power where I’d pick up that kind of thing before you. That said, we live in a time of multiple escalating crises.” (11/01/26)
“How involved should lovers of liberty (minarchists and especially anarchists) be involved in issues of government? Closely tied to that question, how involved should christians and libertarians be in issues that relate to human (‘civil’) government? Should they vote in elections, write government representatives, support candidates, and speak out about political issues relating to liberty, morality, responsibility, family, and freedom (not just but especially religious freedom)? For christians, what about the separation of church and state? For libertarians in general, what about separation of school and state?” (10/31/26)
“Counterfactuals are of limited use, but it does not seem likely that the Democratic nominee in Alaska, Mary Peltola, needed to engage in ballot shenanigans to win. She has been consistently ahead in the polls, including in head-to-head polls in which the third candidate is a non-factor, and some polls, including those from the New York Times/Siena and other credible sources, have had her at or above 50 percent. All of the media attention to the ballot-stacking story has probably done very little other than to dirty up her name, blunt the Democrats’ natural advantage vis-à-vis Donald Trump’s Republicans on the issue of corruption and democratic probity, and—not least—remind Alaskans what the name of their not particularly impressive Class II incumbent senator is.” (10/30/26)
“Apparently, the fact that young people aren’t having much sex today is being captured in surveys from around the world. This is proving to be worrisome not simply as a cultural artifact, but because the lack of sex is resulting in plunging birth rates, causing fertility in nearly every OECD country to drop to historic lows. The lack of sex is not only shrinking populations, but also causing huge demographic changes as countries turn older. What exactly is going on?” (11/01/26)
“Confidence is an important factor in any election – candidates need to project it, and supporters need to feel it for morale purposes to help them get across the finish line. Democrats had all the confidence in the world a month ago…but it’s not a month ago anymore. In the closing two weeks of the 2026 midterms, Democrats have begun to act like people concerned that they’re going to lose. In Alaska, Democrats were always worried about losing – it’s Alaska, after all. That’s why they cooked up this stupid ‘Find another Dan Sullivan’ scam to confuse just enough voters to get into the second round of ranked-choice voting.” (11/01/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Hayley Tsukayama
“Developers of virtual private network (VPN) apps are reporting that their products are again being pulled from Apple’s App Store in Russia. This is an unacceptable crackdown on a vital tool to protect privacy and speech online. Why? VPNs give people a way to control their own online activities. When you visit a website through a VPN, that website only sees the VPN server’s location (well, IP address) rather than your actual location. It’s like sending a letter through a P.O. box so the recipient doesn’t know where you really live. It can also disguise where you’re accessing information from, which can make it possible to access information banned by your government.” (10/30/26)
