April 23, 2026

THEY ALSO WON’T STOP TALKING ABOUT THEIR NEW IDEA FOR A TECH STARTUP:

Posted at 4:37 pm by Stephen Green

ACTIVIST BULLIES:

Rusty [Harris, editor of the 30,000 circulation Oceanside Blade-Citizen in San Diego County in the early 1990s] patiently explained that we’d already given this quite a bit of thought, and we stood by our position.

Then things turned ugly. It would be unfortunate, the SPLC rep told Rusty, if the SPLC had to add a newspaper of all things to their hate watch list! That they would name our editorial board members as well, let the world know that we supported hate!

Rusty had grown up with severe deafness as a child (and later came out as gay) in Kansas in the 1950s and ’60s, and he was not a man to be bullied. Nor did I ever see him intimidated.

He paused for half a minute or so, then quietly told the SPLC rep, “Well, why don’t you do that, then? That should be quite interesting.”

We never heard from them again, and so far as I know, neither Rusty nor I was added to the hate watch list.

But it sure left a sour taste in my mouth.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Jim Treacher, who writes, “And that was in the early ‘90s. So they’ve been doing this stuff for a long time. They amassed all that money and all that power, and they used it to threaten their political opponents. They might have even committed bank fraud to do it. Allegedly.)

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

CONSERVING CONSERVATISM MOST CONSERVATIVELY:

Posted at 4:06 pm by Stephen Green

SMART: US Army seeks ‘last mile’ robot for medevac and resupply.

For resupply, the UGV should be able to haul enough cargo to sustain a dismounted rifle platoon and a company headquarters.

“It should be able to transport various classes of supply and operate autonomously across diverse terrains and environments, maintaining reliable communications with supported units,” the Army said.

The UGV should also be easily reconfigured for evacuating casualties. It must be able to transport at least two casualties from the point of injury to a designated collection point — without further harming the wounded, the notice states.

The notice didn’t specify the size nor capacity of the vehicle. However, the Army does want a robot that can function autonomously.

“Last mile” is probably just a convenient phrase, but judging by Russia and Ukraine’s existing capabilities, the Army might want to plan for the last ten miles, at least.

Posted at 3:51 pm by Stephen Green

GOOD LORD: Leftists Excited to Begin Cannibalizing the Elderly. “Socialist-communists are always on the lookout for ways to play the many against the few so they can pillage the minority, enriching themselves while throwing crumbs to their useful-idiot foot soldiers. And right now, they are taking aim at senior citizens who saved their pennies so they might enjoy their retirements.”

Anyone resisting this theft will be smeared as greedy.

Posted at 3:20 pm by Stephen Green

ABANDONING THE CAUSE INSTEAD WAS NEVER CONSIDERED:

Posted at 3:04 pm by Stephen Green

OLD AND BUSTED: Steal This Book. (And more recently, the NPR-approved In Defense of Looting.) 

The New Hotness? Thieves destroy nearly 75 Detroit fire hydrants to steal metal parts, putting lives at risk.

Thieves have destroyed nearly 75 fire hydrants on the west side of Detroit in the last 48 hours, stealing parts and putting lives at risk.

Crews with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department are racing to repair the broken hydrants along Southfield Road and across the west side after thieves tore through dozens in about two days.

“We think the number is about 75 so far,” DWSD Deputy Director Sam Smalley said.

The thieves are targeting metal nozzles and stems on top of the hydrants, which are worth about $600.

Executive Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms said the vandalism is a serious and unacceptable situation that puts lives at risk.

“No matter how fast we get to a fire, if we don’t have an operable fire hydrant, it takes seconds, sometimes even minutes away from maybe us saving lives,” Simms said.

In 1967, the New York Review of Books published on its cover the instructions for making a Molotov Cocktail. Meanwhile, the theft of fire hydrants in 2026 Detroit sounds like it would be New York Times approved. Good luck putting that Molotov Cocktail out.

Exit quote:

UPDATE:

Tweet concludes, “Like they say about trans, petty theft has always been with us. OK, now go do it in a jurisdiction where they prosecute shoplifting, instead of one where they celebrate it. I mean, if you really want to be cool.”

Posted at 2:55 pm by Ed Driscoll

THAT WOULD BE LOVELY: Can we celebrate America?

History Rocks! calls for Americans to “focus on celebrating all that is good about their country — a contrast to critics who say the study of U.S. history should center discussion of atrocities such as the nearly 250 years of enslaving Black people, and brutality and violence against Native Americans, writes Meckler.

I started school in the McCarthy Era: To the extent we learned history at all, it was the rah-rah America version the video extols. We learned the pledge in first grade. I remember the teacher explaining “allegiance” and “indivisible” to us. We came down hard on “liberty and justice for all.”

But the pendulum has swung toward America-the-horrible. Students who know very little history are eager to condemn their country. The less they know, the more confident their opinions.

None of that is by accident.

Posted at 2:49 pm by Stephen Green

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Support A Needy Racist — Donate To The SPLC Today (Video).

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN:

More:

Corn, popped.

Posted at 2:33 pm by Stephen Green

YOU COULDN’T SELL THIS AS FICTION BECAUSE IT STRAINS CREDULITY TOO HARD:

On the other hand, when you have reporters serving as an arm of Hamas, why not this, too?

Posted at 2:02 pm by Stephen Green

21ST CENTURY WARFARE: Crypto scam lures ships into Strait of Hormuz, falsely promising safe passage.

Maybe that explains this incident:

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CHANGE? Paxton Up 8 Over Cornyn In Texas Senate Runoff. “Don’t believe the ‘nonpartisan’ tag. TPOR is run by Luke Warford (indeed, his is the only profile under ‘Our Team’ on their website), the losing Democratic Railroad Commission candidate in 2022. That said, looking at the crosstabs, it looks like an actual Republican sample for a Republican runoff.”

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

COMING SOON: YOUNG JIMMY SAVILE, THE TOP OF THE POPS YEARS! The Michael Jackson biopic ignores half his life.

If you’re planning on making a biopic of a major musical figure, you would be advised not to miss out various rather vital aspects of their life. For instance, Bohemian Rhapsody dealt – if at times obliquely – with Freddie Mercury’s homosexuality and AIDS. The recent Bruce Springsteen film Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere attempted to tackle his mental health difficulties and near-breakdown.

Neither film was perfect, but they were at least made with reasonably good intentions. That is rather more than can be said for Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael, which opens in US cinemas this week and has been greeted with disbelief.

The main objection is that the film refuses to acknowledge that Jackson was a deeply troubled man, who is widely believed to have engaged in acts of child molestation. While he was acquitted after a trial in 2003, the various financial settlements that Jackson paid out to accusers – all the while publicly denying any wrongdoing – suggests a man with a guilty conscience and deeply suspect behavior that he was desperate to hide.

Any halfway honest and representative biopic would have this as a vital part of the story, but Fuqua’s film simply ignores it altogether. According to advance reviews of the picture, Jackson – as played by his nephew Jaafar – was a near-Christlike figure. He suffered at the hands of his brutal father Joe, but went on to become the King of Pop. First alongside his brothers in the Jackson Five and then as the biggest solo star of his time.

More details here: Michael review — risible biopic turns Jacko into a 20th-century Jesus.

The film stops in 1988, which is handy as it avoids all that unfortunate child sex abuse material. Yet anyone who has seen Leaving Neverland will feel the tension between the allegations about abuse in the documentary (specifically relating to Peter Pan memorabilia) and the biopic’s creepy validation of Jackson’s “adorable” obsession with vulnerable lost boys and cute-for-ever kids.

The music scenes nonetheless are quite brilliant and thrilling — Jaafar is an accomplished impressionist. Jackson was a once-in-a-generation genius and his musical legacy is quite safe — his sales spiked by 10 per cent during the Leaving Neverland controversy. In the end he probably deserved more, for better and worse, than this.

So no cameos from Triumph the Comic Insult Dog, I take it:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

ANOTHER WAY A NATION COMMITS SUICIDE:

Related (From Ed): Well sure, half of young people won’t fight for England, but think about the half that would: An army of snowflakes. The British Army wants to recruit snowflakes to its ranks. What is it thinking? “Its new PR campaign features posters and TV ads calling on ‘snowflakes’, ‘selfie addicts’, ‘class clowns’, ‘phone zombies’ and ‘me me me millennials’ to sign up. One poster says: ‘Snowflakes – your army needs YOU and your compassion.’”

Posted at 1:32 pm by Stephen Green