“In Severance, employees of the evil corporation Lumon Industries undergo a procedure that divides their consciousness in two. The ‘outie’ enjoys weekends and a paycheck but remembers nothing of work. The ‘innie’ performs the work but knows nothing of family or life outside the office. Severance is not merely an action thriller, although the ‘innie’ characters occasionally sneak or fight their way through the literal prison of Lumon. The philosophical dilemma presented in the show is that the characters’ free selves might be tempted to intentionally imprison parts of their lives that cause pain.” (08/07/26)
“This is not a column about whether a socialist Democrat is preferable to a neocon-flavored Republican. This is not a column about whether El-Sayed’s hard left politics might make him easier for a Republican to beat in Michigan’s general election. It is not about whether this Democrat possibly becoming the first Muslim-American senator might be a help or hindrance for him in his state. It is not even about whether Trump’s record-low approval ratings have now opened up the electoral doors for a crop of socialist candidates who might have never seen daylight otherwise but are now having a moment. It is about whether El-Sayed or Rogers is more ‘America First.'” (08/07/26)
Source: New York Post
by Jennifer Weber & Danyela Souza Egorov
“New York spends more per student than any state in the nation. Yet fewer than half off of its third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students scored proficiently on the English Language Arts exam, according to the preliminary data released this week. Just 43% of third-graders, 48% of fourth-graders and 43% of fifth-graders scored proficient in ELA. The biggest drop was seen in fifth grade, a 14-point decrease from the 2024-25 school year. Third-graders showed an 11-point drop. This is what happens when teacher unions get their way. Standards are lowered. No consequences for bad schools or bad instructors. And our children? Failed by a system that doesn’t care. As of 2019, state test scores would no longer play a role in teacher evaluations. By 2024, nor would any measure of whether students learned at all.” (08/08/26)
“British individualist Auberon Herbert (1838-1907) minced no words when he spoke against socialism. After demolishing the notion that a ‘social entity’ exists separately from the individuals who comprise it, he concluded his debate with J. A. Hobson by writing something that today’s socialists might ponder. He began with the bluntest of assertions: ‘The truth is, that the socialist, unknown to himself, is the most antisocial of all human beings, and, if he had his way, would render all true social action impossible.’ Could he back that charge up? Let’s see.” (08/07/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter
“Mainstream conservatives often view themselves as sworn enemies of ‘revisionist history,’ being against books like Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Doubtless, conservative author, commentator, and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza would also describe himself as an enemy of ‘revisionist history.’ For example, in promotion of one of his films, D’Souza appeared on the Rush Limbaugh show where the headline read: ‘Rush Limbaugh Show: Dinesh D’Souza Debunks Liberal Revisionist History.’ Ironically and unfortunately, when it comes to the Declaration of Independence, D’Souza is a perpetrator and promoter of bad revisionist history.” (08/07/26)
“Senator Rand Paul ‘has it in’ for Fauci — said Dr. Anthony Fauci at last week’s Senate hearing.
The former director of the NIAID and former Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden made it sound like the Kentucky senator was trying to put him in prison. But what Dr. Paul asked of Dr. Fauci was an apology — not jail-time. Why, though? ‘If we don’t want this to happen again, him acknowledging that he was wrong to fund this research will be a word of caution and warning to the next generation of people to come through,’ the senator told Mark Halperin.” (08/07/26)
“Strolling through a major American urban metropolis, I noticed that the tightly packed homes and squat tri-level apartments and condos had tiny, browning ‘natural gardens’ pocked with the usual virtue-signaling lawn signs setting forth their progressive secular creed’s commandments: ‘kindness always’, ‘hate has no home here’, etc. Yet amidst this self-proclaimed bastion of love and tolerance, I quickly spied an ostensibly contradictory placard in many residential windows and, in fact, on the bumpers of many cars, both rust buckets and some upscale, socially responsible electric ones. Indeed, this sentiment was so prevalent that the host of a YouTube video touring the city’s neighborhoods casually expressed it as an aside and apologized for not stating it in a prior video. What was this urgent statement needing to be publicly proclaimed to one and all by any and all means fair and foul? It was ‘Fuck ICE’.” (08/08/26)
“Something has shifted among the Democratic electorate. That was already clear from Zohran Mamdani’s trouncing of establishment royalty Andrew Cuomo in the New York mayoral race last year …. it was clear from the primary election in Maine, where Democratic voters rejected their own governor in favor of a left-populist firebrand dogged by scandals who had never held political office. But the victory of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan over the Israel lobby – backed centrist Rep. Haley Stevens may eclipse even these as both a victory for the broad Left and for anyone who genuinely cares about democracy. No candidate has been outspent to the degree El-Sayed was and still won, however narrowly, with Stevens’s nine-to-one advantage in outside spending funding an endless torrent of TV ads touting a nonexistent endorsement from former President Barack Obama and scurrilously attacking El-Sayed.” (08/07/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald
“It is fully within a state legislature’s purview to enact new curriculum policies for public schools in response to constituents’ concerns. It is, however, not within the purview of the federal government. The federal government has no constitutional role in education. Education is not listed among the enumerated powers granted to the federal government by the US Constitution. Any authority around education policy belongs with the states. That is why current efforts to close the US Department of Education, which opened in 1980, or to diminish its role are commendable.” (08/07/26)
