Mean Age Daydream, 04/18/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“California’s Response to Fraud? Outlaw Investigative Journalism.” (04/18/26)
After three years of fighting, Sudan’s civil war is only getting worse
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Alex Thurston
“This month marks the third anniversary of the war in Sudan. Estimates of the death toll range from 150,000 to 400,000 or more; 2025 was, according to the United Nations’ internal estimates, a particularly deadly year for civilians. The humanitarian impacts are even broader: the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calculates that, as of April 2026, nearly two-thirds of Sudan’s 46.8 million people need humanitarian assistance.” 904/17/26)
Titanic survivor’s life jacket sells for over $900k at auction, far exceeding price expectations
Source: Fox News
“A life jacket worn by a Titanic survivor sold for more than $900,000 at auction Saturday, far exceeding expectations and highlighting the enduring fascination with the doomed ship. The flotation device — believed to be one of only a handful of Titanic life jackets still in existence — was used by first-class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli during the ship’s 1912 sinking and was the only one of its kind ever offered at auction. It sold for 670,000 pounds, or roughly $906,000, including fees, at Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, England, to an unidentified telephone bidder.” (04/19/26)
And Augustine Wept
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“The Pope rightly calls out the objective moral evil of this indefensible, immoral war.” (04/17/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/and-augustine-wept-862
The Causes of Unemployment: What’s Missing
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Walter Block
“Everyone is now concerned about the unemployment rate, it would appear. The scribes are busily scribbling as to the possible causes of this economic debilitation. Their list is long, creative, and clever. One explanation is that the quit rate has plummeted. People are sticking around in jobs they would have left in rosier markets. Well, yes, if this replacement source of new job openings is decreasing, that could well account for fewer new employment slots opening up. But this is a two-way street. Presumably, people are not downing tools for fear that new appointments will not be open to them, at least not on better terms, overall, than they now enjoy. So, it is likely that the unemployment rate is at least partially a cause of this phenomenon, not only a result. Further, this is a sign of economic health, rather than disarray.” (04/17/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-causes-of-unemployment-whats-missing/
WI: Chemical weapons attacks as animal rights activists clash with police
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry on Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group’s leader. It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (about 40 kilometres) southwest of Wisconsin’s capital, Madison. Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said in a video statement that 300 to 400 protesters were ‘violently trying to break into the property’ and assault officers. … The sheriff’s department said a ‘significant’ number of people were arrested out of about 1,000 protesters at the site but did not give an exact total as they were still being processed as of the afternoon.” (04/19/26)
Trita Parsi on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Trita Parsi on the Likeliest Outcome of the Iran Ceasefire.” (04/18/26)
Marty Makary: The FDA’s Quiet Blockade on Safer Nicotine
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Roger Bate
“There are moments in public health when the path forward is unusually clear, when the evidence aligns with behavior, when risks are well understood, and when policy has a genuine opportunity to reduce harm at scale. This should be one of those moments. Non-combustible nicotine products — vapes, heated tobacco, and especially nicotine pouches — are widely understood to be far less harmful than smoking, a point I and many others have covered repeatedly, and one that no longer sits at the frontier of scientific debate. … One might expect regulators to respond accordingly, adjusting policy to reflect both the risk gradient and the changed behavioral landscape, but that has not happened. Instead, the system has stalled, quietly but decisively, with approvals for new products slowing to a near standstill.” (04/17/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/marty-makary-the-fdas-quiet-blockade-on-safer-nicotine/
I was one of a few conservative professors at Harvard — here’s where the school went wrong
Source: New York Post
by Harvey C Mansfield
“The Ivory Tower was an image, medieval like the university itself, of an institution made of a valuable material and grounded in society but towering above it. In this view, any university in America depends on America for its survival but does its best to rise above its politics. Politics is argument, for example about welfare policies. As an Ivory Tower, the university tries to define the bigger, more abstract question of what is welfare. Policies are about society; abstract definitions come from the Ivory Tower. In abandoning the Ivory Tower Harvard was denying its independence.” 904/19/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/04/19/opinion/how-harvard-has-made-itself-vulnerable/
UK: Police investigating if arson attacks on Jewish sites in London are the work of Iranian proxies
Source: SFGate
“U.K. police said Sunday they are investigating whether a string of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London are the work of Iranian proxies, as the country’s chief rabbi said British Jews are facing a campaign of violence and intimidation. The Metropolitan Police force says counterterror officers are probing fires at synagogues and other sites linked to the Jewish community, as well as an attack on a Persian-language media company. No one has been injured in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage to a north London synagogue on Saturday night.” (04/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/britain-s-chief-rabbi-says-jews-are-facing-a-22214429.php