Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“One of the attractive features of World of Warcraft and its competitors is that the virtual world has been constructed to be a place that it is fun to do things in. The real world has not. Some things that need doing are things that people enjoy enough to do them even when not paid to and get done that way. My guess is that the vast majority of all novels written, including at least a few good ones, produce no income for their authors and are not expected to. That is a better model for Utopian socialism than WoW, since there is no market. Producers have some information about what consumers want but not weak incentives to produce it. I doubt however that all, or even most, of the world’s work can get done that way.” (10/23/26)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/is-world-of-warcraft-evidence-that

Source: American Greatness
by Fred Fleitz

“Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed recently tried to shut down questions about his family’s documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and his own reluctance to draw clear lines on radical Islamist networks by invoking John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign. Kennedy faced suspicion that, as a Catholic, he might answer to the Vatican rather than the Constitution. El-Sayed’s comparison does not hold. He is not being targeted simply for being Muslim. He is facing legitimate questions about national security, ideology, and fitness for the Senate that any candidate with this record would face. His refusal to answer them directly is the problem.” (10/23/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/23/abdul-el-sayed-youre-no-jack-kennedy/

Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates

“J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States, identifies himself as a post-liberal conservative. Since he is only a heartbeat away from becoming president, I have been thinking that I should read his latest book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, to see if it sheds any light on how he would be likely to use the powers of the presidency. However, I decided that I should read Hillbilly Elegy first – and am glad that I eventually managed to read it, a decade after its publication. I didn’t manage to get past the Introduction when I first attempted to read it a few years ago, but I now think it deserves its status as a best seller.” (10/25/26)

https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/10/what-does-hillbilly-elegy-tell-us-about.html

Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson

“Before D-Day, Eisenhower quietly composed a handwritten note taking personal blame for the operation’s failure—he was smart enough to know that success was uncertain and that he might not be in a position to talk about it afterward; Donald Trump, a dog-ate-my-homework guy if ever there were one, takes personal responsibility for precisely nothing. Eisenhower led Allied forces to victory in World War II and at the time of his retirement outranked George Washington (who received a posthumous promotion in 1976), but he was buried in a standard-issue soldier’s coffin and lay in state with no decorations on his field jacket except his two distinguished service medals and the Legion of Merit; Trump is a draft-dodging coward currently hard at work building himself a triumphal arch like some kind of limp Caesar.” (10/23/26)

https://thedispatch.com/article/eisenhower-trump-hegseth-nato/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“There are Polymarket ads in fortune cookies. / And pop-ups in our prayers. / There are paywalls on the monasteries, / and the monks are millionaires. / Well little Johnny’s gone to war. / He joined the McMarines. / The Iranians must be liberated / and blown to smithereens. / Light a candle in the chapel, John, / and pray to Western God, / and listen to the homily / the preacher wrote with Claude: / ‘Oh Western God, please guide our drones,’ the pious Johnny prayed. / ‘That we may safely bomb their schools / and turn their children gray.’ / The candle disappeared from sight / a minute into Johnny’s prayer, / and was replaced with hologram ads / for DraftKings and Wayfair.” (10/25/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/25/there-are-polymarket-ads-in-fortune-cookies/