IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS YOU MUST MONITOR WHAT THEY’RE TAUGHT VERY CLOSELY. NO. CLOSER THAN THAT. NO, I MEAN EVEN CLOSER:  Taxpayer-funded trans dolls with removable genitalia to hit classrooms this fall for kids as young as 4 to ‘learn about different options’.

YEP: The first rule of strategic analysis.

WHEN MY FRIENDS ARE IN THE NEWS:  Iowa Park based publishing company goes global through social media.

GIVEN A MODICUM OF FREEDOM, IT ALWAYS DOES:  How Capitalism Beat Communism in Vietnam. It only took a generation to go from ration cards to exporting electronics.

HUMANS ARE NOT WIDGETS:  On not being a widget and the rise of corporatism.

X-cancel.

GOOD:  Pleased to report that the defensive provisions of the GRANITE Act have been adopted as model policy by the American Legislative Exchange Council. I am told the vote was unanimous.

X-cancel.

ON SUNDAYS I DO A PROMO POST FOR (MOSTLY) INDIE AUTHORS:  Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

There is also a fun vignette challenge.

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

HIS MOST UNDERRATED PROPERTY: Elon Musk’s Boring Company reportedly raising funding at a $20 billion valuation.

NUCLEAR POWER AND DESALINATION PLANTS: ‘Tremendously Grave’: The First US City Is on Track to Run Out of Water.

CONFUSED BY TRUMP’S IRAN MOVES? Richard Pollock reminds us of the best guide to the Trump mind, his book “The Art of the Deal,” by marshaling multiple passages that just might explain his on/off approach on military action and negotiations.

RESTORE CURSIVE INSTRUCTION: Yes, I am a Boomer and “back in the good ole days” we all learned cursive writing skills in elementary school. Even as late as 2010, every state in the union either required or strongly encouraged teaching cursive writing skills.

But then during the Obama administration, that changed in the Common Core Standards and by 2016, only 14 states maintained the cursive element. Thankfully, and for whatever reasons, sanity is returning and today 27 states recognize that cursive writing skills improve cognitive and other key skills in youngsters. Here’s why I think we need to get all 50 states back in the cursive arena.

I REMEMBER JERRY POURNELLE IN THE 1970S WRITING ABOUT WHAT ORBITAL TELESCOPES COULD DO: Astronomers Detect an Atmosphere on a Potentially Earth-Like World.

KEEP YOUR PET SAFE: Furbo Mini 360.° #CommissionEarned

WELL, GOOD: Scientists find compound that may help muscles stay strong as we age.

I’VE ALWAYS KIND OF WANTED A V-12: 2026 Aston Martin Vanquish 25 First Look: A Silver Anniversary of V-12 Power.

FRANCE IS SAVING CHILDREN FROM SOCIAL MEDIA BY SAVING US ALL FROM PRIVACY! Its under-15 ban raises the usual age-verification threats: surveillance, privacy risks, and barriers to lawful information. Europe’s identity-gated internet marches on in this week’s update.

READER FAVORITE: Toniiq Tribulus Terrestris for Men. #CommissionEarned

NO SURPRISE: Oh Look! Another Bloomberg Mayor Would Rather Limit Gun Rights Than Jail Criminals.

CHECK YOUR HEART: KardiaMobile 1-Lead EKG Monitor. #CommissionEarned We have one of these and it seems to work well.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

https://t.co/a3cvznvChl pic.twitter.com/wCuQqKPAv2

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 25, 2026

WELL, GOOD: Underwater drones find Benin coral reef long presumed dead, and it’s teeming with life.

RAND PAUL RELEASES DOCUMENTS ON INTERCEPTED COVID RESEARCH MATERIALS:

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has released another batch of documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest records show that U.S. officials intercepted undeclared biological materials tied to a U.S.–China coronavirus research network as early as 2018, likely in an attempt to avoid international tensions and regulatory scrutiny, Paul said.

The documents, which include a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report, primarily focus on a network centered around University of Minnesota virologist Fang Li.

The released documents also include pages from “Tony’s Diary:”

Privately, in his diaries, Doctor Fauci admitted he no longer believed the wet market was the origin of covid. A week later, he convenes a call with 12 scientists, and only two of them think it's definitely animal spillover.

Publicly, he comes out against lab leak and presses… https://t.co/OUc88vmIqv

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) July 26, 2026

As Jim Geraghty writes, “For the entirety of 2020 and long after, the ‘it started in a wet market’ view was the respectable one. Believing that somebody at the Wuhan Institute of Virology hadn’t been careful one day and had gotten accidentally infected with a virus that had gained a function or two during its time in the lab made you a crazy conspiracy theorist. In fact, the lab leak theory was evidence of your racism. And now — in July 2026! — we learn that Fauci himself had dismissed the wet market as a potential source at the end of January 2020.”

Then there’s an incredible juxtaposition by Fauci of new deaths and new WaPo profiles:

Fauci's diary entry for May 21, 2020 is one of the most grotesque documents you will ever read. It opens with the mounting Covid death toll and people dying across the country, then abruptly pivots into an extended exercise in self-congratulation about his newfound fame. How was… pic.twitter.com/IMpCWerfTR

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) July 25, 2026

Alyssa Farah, now an employee of ABC News, makes an appearance in “Tony’s Diary:”

Apparently while working at the White House, Alyssa was moonlighting as guest booker for CNN: pic.twitter.com/XHjq1inCXz

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 26, 2026

I DIDN’T THINK OF COFFEE AS A RISK FOR THAT: Coffee Company Recalls More Than 3,000 Gallons of Cold Brew Concentrate Over Botulism Risk.

AND AGAIN: Terror Attack in Berlin.  “Fifteen people were injured, with one having died so far. German police are investigating whether the attack was terror-related, but I am not sure what there is to investigate. The perpetrator drove a car into a gay crowd at a high rate of speed, and then attacked people with a knife. There’s your investigation. I assume the terrorist was a Muslim, but it is possible he was some other kind of extremist. We will find out soon.”

UPDATE: Its origin and purpose, still a total mystery.

BREAKING via AP

Berlin police say they have identified a suspect with ties to Islamic extremist circles after a van plowed into crowds at the city’s major LGBTQ celebration Saturday night.

The suspect, who is known to police, remains at large as authorities conduct an… pic.twitter.com/t3yoX70F5l

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 26, 2026

MORE: Suspect in Berlin Pride attack identified as ‘Islamist.’ “‘Based on the investigators’ initial findings, we have already identified a suspected perpetrator,’ Florian Nath, a spokesman for Berlin police, said, adding that the force’s search for the suspect was ‘proceeding at full speed’. ‘He is known to us as a member of Islamic circles here in Berlin … we still have no information whatsoever regarding his specific motives, the exact sequence of events, or his role in the crime itself.’”

UPDATE (11:14 am): Abdul Ballout: Berlin Pride suspect tried to join Islamic State. Around 2,000 police officers searching for 21-year-old German citizen who is of Lebanese descent.

UPDATE (12:44 pm): Ballout “was convicted and sentenced for terrorism offences in May 2026 but released on time served. By July 2026 he was back on the streets. German authorities told him to attend de-radicalisation counselling sessions. He responded by carrying out a jihadist terrorist attack on a pride parade.”

Guys, the details of the latest jihadist attack in Europe are psychotic.

Abdul Ballout was born in Berlin, but he left Germany for Lebanon.

Germany identified him as an Islamist threat, so they had him arrested in Lebanon and FLEW HIM BACK TO GERMANY to put him on trial for… pic.twitter.com/SBzh9W7Ix4

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) July 26, 2026

UPDATE (1:50 PM): Suspect in deadly Berlin Pride attack is killed in a confrontation with police.