Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Kritz
“My dad died suddenly in 1969 at age 42 from what was found on autopsy to be his third myocardial infarction. While he was known to have severe hypertension, based on the few times that he allowed his blood pressure to be taken, he was never treated; the irony being that while he wanted me to become a doctor, he never trusted them. His mom, who was known to have severe hypertension, may have been on a diuretic when she died suddenly in 1954 at age 56 from a hemorrhagic stroke. I will turn 75 in a few months, and while I have evidence of heart disease, I have no physical disability from it. I have no doubt that good blood pressure control has been an important factor in that outcome, as it has for millions upon millions of people over the past 30-40 years.” (05/31/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/detours-and-missteps-on-the-road-to-medical-advances/
Source: NBC News
“The U.S. military said it carried out what it called self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and drone control sites over the weekend, while Iran said it targeted an air base used in the U.S. attack as the two countries continued to trade strikes amid talks to end their war. On Monday morning, the Kuwaiti army said in a post on X that it was ‘currently responding to hostile missile and drone threats’ and that any sounds of explosions were the result of air defense systems intercepting attacks. It did not say where the attack was coming from or what was being targeted, but Kuwait hosts a U.S. air base that has previously been attacked by Iran and its proxies.” (06/01/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/us-says-struck-iranian-drone-radar-sites-iran-claims-attack-air-base-rcna347809
Source: Independent Institute
by Jim Bovard
“For more than a decade, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have plundered passengers at airport security checkpoints on the flimsiest or most shameless pretexts. If you get stopped at an airport security checkpoint with $100 or more in cash, TSA agents can fleece you. More than 10,000 travelers have been stripped of their money by TSA agents since 2014. But the feds almost never bother filing criminal charges against the victims of asset forfeiture. TSA considers itself generous when it ‘permits the passenger to continue on to their destination’ — after taking away their money.” (05/29/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/we-must-end-the-tsa-license-to-loot
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“LNC Convention Discussion.” (05/30/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs8zYxakGxU
Source: CNN
“In a surprisingly strong performance, right-wing outsider candidate Abelardo de la Espriella will face leftist candidate senator Iván Cepeda in a June runoff election to decide Colombia’s presidency, setting the stage for a battle over the country’s political future and the direction of its relationships with key international partners, including the United States. With more than 99% of the votes counted in Sunday’s first round of the presidential election, de la Espriella won the most ballots with 43.74% of the vote, falling short of the absolute majority required to win outright in the contest. Cepeda, representing the left-wing Historic Pact coalition, was in second place with 40.90%. The left Democratic Center candidate Paloma Valencia was trailing well behind with 6.92%, according to preliminary results released by the National Civil Registry.” (05/31/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/31/americas/colombia-runoff-espriella-cepeda-latam-intl
Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“If the proliferation of AI writing is a problem, it’s not because it’s terrible slop unfit for human consumption; it’s a problem because in some specific ways, it’s too good. It is the literary equivalent of fast food: convenient, cheap, hyper-consistent and relentlessly optimized to tickle our pleasure centers. Sure, AI produces some crazy metaphors and weird hallucinations, because the models have all of our text and none of our context. On the other hand, AI is really good at optimizing for readability, both stylistically and structurally. … as with fast food, what people want now isn’t necessarily good for them in the long run.” (05/31/26)
https://archive.is/Oe1zp
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The nostalgia for a 1950s ‘mom, dad, two kids, Chevy four-door, well-manicured lawn around a tidy cottage’ way of life is not nostalgia for ‘the old days,’ let alone for the days shortly after ‘the creation of the world.’ It’s nostalgia for post-World-War-2 Pasadena, California.” (05/31/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20637
Source: New York Post
“A Spain-bound United Airlines flight out of Newark turned around mid-flight on Saturday because a teenager named his Fitbit ‘bomb’ and it popped up on available Bluetooth devices, officials and sources said. The plane took off from Newark Liberty International Airport at about 6 p.m., but landed back at Newark by roughly 9:30 p.m after security was flagged to inspect a suspicious Bluetooth device onboard that showed up as ‘bomb,’ sources told The Post. The flight was turned around and landed back in Newark late Saturday after passengers were directed to turn off their devices and the alarming name remained online. It was later determined that the device was a name for a Fitbit owned by a 16-year-old on board.” [editor’s note: Obviously, even if a real bomber was going to use Bluetooth to control a real bomb, the device name would be “ThisDeviceIsTotallyNotABomb” – TLK] (05/31/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/31/us-news/united-airlines-flight-diverts-back-to-newark-after-bluetooth-devices-name-sparks-security-scare/
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum
“The president’s habitual attempts to criminalize dissent hark back to tyrants of yore.” (05/30/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/30/trump-loves-accusing-critics-of-treason-u-s-law-makes-that-charge-hard-to-prove-for-good-reason/
Source: Independent Political Report
“The Libertarian National Committee has voted to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, making one of the newly seated committee’s first acts a break with an affiliate that had become a serious point of controversy inside the national party. … A recording of the meeting, though sometimes hard to hear, shows national committee members referencing the New Hampshire affiliate’s public endorsement of Donald Trump during the 2024 election, its criticism of Libertarian candidates, and what the national party called a repeated promotion of ‘anti-libertarian positions’ at the national level. … The affiliate argues that the LNC acted without notice and without its representatives present, as well as without evidence that its current leadership violated party bylaws or libertarian principles.” (05/29/26)
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2026/05/libertarian-national-committee-votes-to-disaffiliate-new-hampshire-affiliate/
