Source: Washington Times
by Gary Anderson

“My first official act as the Marine Corps officer instructor at the Naval ROTC at Vanderbilt University in 1979 was to blow up a classroom. My predecessor had warned me that I would be teaching the evolution of warfare at the death hour (1 p.m.) after lunch, when the students were drowsy. He recommended an ‘attention getter.’ That day, I was lecturing on ancient Greek naval warfare and decided to use a cardboard scale model of a period warship to demonstrate the early use of fuel-air explosives. Frankly, chemistry had never been one of my strong points, and I apparently used more white gas in the mix than was needed. The resulting explosion blew the door open and set off the fire alarms.” [editor’s note: I had assumed the piece would be about the idiotic attempt to make the Corps no longer a complete self-contained force, but no, it’s another one of those “a noun, a verb, DEI” rants – TLK] (03/18/26)

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/mar/17/us-marine-corps-destroyed-within/

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley

“Over the last week, the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States has played out in a second theater that never sleeps: the timeline of X/Twitter. The feed is saturated with claims about battlefield damage, casualty numbers, ‘secret’ losses, and the health or death of leaders. The problem is that much of the evidence people think they are judging is no longer anchored in reality. Independent researchers and reporters have documented a surge of AI-generated, mislabeled, and recycled ‘war footage’ circulating widely on X/Twitter, including fake missile strike visuals and staged-looking scenes of U.S. troops allegedly captured. In multiple cases, digital-forensics experts concluded that viral clips were likely AI-generated. Independent fact-checking is strained not only by volume, but by automation.” (03/18/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/how-real-is-the-iran-war

Source: Washington Post
by George F Will

“The Ides of March came and went with less drama than in 44 B.C., when Julius Caesar was assassinated. Nevertheless, 2,070 years on, there was a reason to beware mid-March this year. It marked another momentous, if mostly unremarked, moment in the nation’s accelerating self-assassination. The Peterson Foundation says that on or about March 18, the national debt will reach $39 trillion. This was less than five months after it reached $38 trillion. At our current pace of profligacy — it probably will accelerate — three trillion-dollar milestones can be passed during one fiscal year. … The debt has doubled in the 10 years since Donald Trump, on March 31, 2016, vowed to eliminate the debt in eight years. He did not try, but if he had, he would have been stymied by this grinding political dynamic: The fastest-growing age cohort is people 65 and older.” (03/18/26)

https://archive.is/0zN3P

Source: Town Hall
by Jared Whitley

“Health care has become so expensive in the US now that it has become a threat to public safety. At least that’s the message out of Okanogan County, Washington, where Sheriff Paul Budrow announced this month he’s stepping down because the elected position doesn’t come with health insurance for his family. … ‘As an elected official, the Sheriff’s position does not provide insurance benefits, and ensuring healthcare coverage and financial stability for my family became a responsibility I could not set aside.’ Health care affordability has become a national issue, with President Donald Trump having discussed it in his State of the Union address.” (03/18/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/jaredwhitley/2026/03/18/theres-no-sheriff-in-town-can-congress-fix-health-care-n2673003