THIS POST IS A DUAL POINT OF PRIDE FOR ME: I’m proud of my friend. And I’m proud of this writer I’ve seen grow in clarity and passion over the years. This post is a bell ringing clear and loud, and I was proud to host it. Sick of the Jewish Hate – by Jon LaForce.
May 23, 2026
ONE OF THOSE DAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: Lessons Learned the Hard Way.
GIGO IS ALWAYS A PROBLEM, PARTICULARLY IN SERVICE OF GARBAGE AGENDAS: Everytown using AI to strip away our Second Amendment rights.
ENOCH POWELL, PROPHETIC AND CANCELLED BEFORE CANCEL CULTURE WAS A THING: Enoch Powell. A prophet, and therefore despised.
MEANWHILE: In the Based Book Sale, for 99c: From Jay Maynard: Reflections in Crystal. (The Crystal Therapy Chronicles, Book 1).
OF COURSE THEY DO – THEY’RE STILL DEFENDING WALTER DURANTY’S REPORTING ON THE U.S.S.R.: The New York Times Continues to Defend Its Despicable Anti-Israel Op-Ed.
“MOST” BRAINDEAD DOESN’T DO MUCH TO NARROW THE FIELD: One of the Most Braindead House Dems Could Be on His Way Out.
BUT, BUT, BUT… IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR. WE MUST PANIC: Ebola’s Real Risks Get Lost in Media’s Rush to Panic and Politicize.
99C IN THE BASED BOOK SALE: Nathan C. Brindle’s:
THIS IS A SURPRISING CARTEL, BUT IT SURE AFFECTED PRICES DURING THE COVIDIOCY: You Got Screwed During Covid. Four Chinese companies colluded to restrict global shipping for four years, making prices skyrocket.
ALAS ORANGE COUNTY: Garden Grove tank hazmat: What to know about chemical leak health risks.
BLESSED ARE THE SH*T STIRRERS: A beautiful thing to behold.
(And a reminder that Tilting at Windmills is running a sale just for instapundit readers. 25% off in perpetuity.)
THE BIZARRO WORLD OF ECHR CLIMATE CHANGE JURISPRUDENCE: BeCause the World is Round. How to assassinate the rule of law and dance on its grave.
HAVE YOU BEEN ASLEEP FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS? Because the Based Book Sale is going on. Books for ninety nine cents or less.
And here at crazy Sarah’s…. ahem in my office, we’re showing willing with six — that’s 6! — books at 99c each. The salient ones here are No Man’s Land. Look, I don’t intend to ever put them on Kindle Unlimited (whatever it’s called now) but I know some of you are strapped. So until early morning on 5/27 (and seriously only this time) it’s 99c each, $3 for the whole book-in-three-volumes. All 900 pages of it.
No Man’s Land Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and then, the new collection: Done with Mirrors (with a half-never-published (long story) story in John Ringo’s Black Tide series.) And two old but goodies: Draw One In the Dark and Death of a Musketeer.
May 22, 2026
OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.
MY LATEST SUBSTACK: And Away We Go! Starship Puts Us On The Path To A Kardashev II Civilization.
Plus, thoughts about Jerry Pournelle.
As always, if you like these essays, please take out a paid subscription. I really appreciate it.
OBESITY WILL BE A CHOICE: New Weight-Loss Pill Could Help Solve a Major Problem With GLP-1 Drugs.
A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH AND SEPARATION:
SpaceX team chanting: "USA! USA! USA! USA!"
🇺🇸🚀 pic.twitter.com/3iQctERDWB
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 22, 2026
SpaceX’s first Starship V3 rocket has just successfully lifted off!
This is the first test flight of Starship version 3, which features thousands of upgrades from V2. With this launch, SpaceX is debuting a new launch pad, booster, ship, engines and much more. pic.twitter.com/mnxXAVBKdo
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 22, 2026
UPDATE:
SpaceX's Starship rocket just successfully performed a flip maneuver and precisely splashed down on target in the Indian Ocean next to a buoy with @Starlink on it.
The SpaceX team ends the stream with a "USA! USA! USA!" chant 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/rKwFHda4Jc
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 22, 2026
Not sure a crew at Boeing would chant “USA!” Or be allowed to. If Boeing could do something like this.
UPDATE: From the comments: “Damn, how I wish Jerry Pournelle could be watching this.”
AT AMAZON, Shop 3 hour delivery. #CommissionEarned
JUST LIKE ACID-LOWERING DRUGS PUT ULCER SURGEONS OUT OF BUSINESS: As GLP-1 drugs surge in popularity, bariatric surgery rates plunge across the US.
SPENCER FOR HIRE:
I’ve been saying “rise up, millennials” forever as a half joke but, uh, holy cow you guys. Spencer Pratt just spit out a more coherent, pragmatic, and compellingly articulated drug policy than anything I’ve heard from a decade of DC focus groups. https://t.co/ud2IQX2XJg
— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) May 22, 2026
As Stephen Miller tweets, “If you tackle and dent or even solve rampant homelessness, a lot of people lose their jobs and a lot of the funding and donations cease and that’s why there’s a sudden flood of negative media going his way. They aren’t scared of him winning. But they are scared that once people realize problems can be solved, a whole lot of the slush funding dries up.”
17 years ago in Northern California, SF Weekly stumbled into the Fox Butterfield effect, when one of its writers observed, “Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, [San Francisco’s] homeless problem is worse than any comparable city’s.” In L.A., Pratt wants to break that cycle. Do the city’s leftist residents who foot the bill?
CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: Promise made, promise kept: Trump administration had full year of zero border releases.