September 16, 2026

MIDDLE EAST: Houthis enter US ‘kill box’ after seizing Red Sea ‘cork,’ former Pentagon official warns.

The island’s capture came after a month-long offensive along Yemen’s western coast that killed more than 1,500 soldiers and forced Yemen’s government to acknowledge a “painful” defeat, according to The Associated Press.

“With Perim, they have gained what we could call the cork in the Red Sea bottle,” Morgan Murphy, a former Pentagon press secretary and Navy Reserve captain, told Fox News Digital.

“But they’ve put themselves into a kill box. They’re nowhere near the capability of the United States and if the president so chooses, he can wipe them off the face of that rock pretty easily,” Murphy warned.

And the Saudi Air Force could have gotten the job done over the weekend, but has been largely MIA against a force choking off Saudi energy exports.

Very curious.

Posted at 7:34 am by Stephen Green

JUSTICE:

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

IRAN HITS BRIC WALL: That’s “BRIC” as in the alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which met earlier this week in New Delhi (members in addition to those founders include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran).

The big news out of the summit, however, was, according to Richard Pollock, what the delegates did not do, namely, adopt a resolution urged by Iran to condemn the U.S. and Israel for the current hostilities.

“The summit’s refusal to condemn Washington and Jerusalem wasn’t merely a victory for the United States and Israel – it also was a rebuff to America’s critics of the war. Democratic socialists, progressives and the elite New York Times may prefer to attack Israel and the Trump administration over the war. But front-line Middle Eastern countries that attended the conference understand that Iran is the genuine enemy,” Pollock writes.

Posted at 6:57 am by Mark Tapscott

September 15, 2026

AS USUAL, ERIC S. RAYMOND NAILS IT:

Posted at 9:55 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ILHAN, GO HOME:

Posted at 9:35 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ADMIT IT, YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO BE TOLD THIS:

Posted at 8:32 pm by Glenn Reynolds

WOKE 0.0 WAS CRAZY: Smithsonian’s dark take on America exposed: Washington dubbed ‘town destroyer,’ Revolutionary War ‘dangerous.’

A Smithsonian museum in Manhattan presents a sharply critical account of George Washington, the Revolutionary War and America’s early years, while some historical context that complicates that narrative is omitted or given less prominent treatment, Fox News Digital found.

The findings come as the Smithsonian faces heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration over how it presents American history. President Donald Trump has ordered a review of the institution’s exhibits and educational materials as part of an effort to change what his administration says is an overly negative portrayal of the country’s history.

Fox News Digital visited the Manhattan branch of the National Museum of the American Indian earlier in September and found exhibits that emphasize the destruction suffered by Native communities while offering comparatively little context about the conflicts and events surrounding American military campaigns.

One display near the center of the museum’s “Native New York” exhibit features an illustration of Washington’s profile — similar to the one that appears on quarters — over a label that reads “town destroyer.”

The description underneath the image recounts how “American armies destroyed 40 Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) towns and burned their harvests while residents fled,” noting that “the Haudenosaunee still call George Washington and all U.S. presidents Hanadahguyus. The name means ‘town destroyer.’”

The panel does not mention the raids on American settlements that led to the campaign or explain why Washington ordered the attack.

As the kids say these days, the graphics look “Metal AF:”

And maybe that’s the goal! I’m sure Martha Washington got a contact high from the burning structures. I’m sure any statues or totem poles toppled were done using the techniques recommended in Colonial Popular Mechanics. Any theft that occurred followed the techniques in the earliest draft of In Defense of Looting. CNN would likely describe the sacking as a fiery but mostly peaceful town destruction. After all, as they say at Reuters, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

All in all, it’s good to see the Smithsonian lightly refreshing George Washington’s image to make him relevant once again to the 2020 generation.

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

JIM TREACHER: Sydney Sweeney Is Jiggling All the Way to the Bank.

Last year, liberals were all angry at Sydney Sweeney for wearing blue jeans. Now they’re angry that she’s not wearing blue jeans. Or anything else.

She’s naked again. She just did an ad for some sports betting app, I think. I don’t know. Not anything I’ll ever use. But in the ad, she’s butt-nekkid, with strategically placed sporting equipment covering her naughty bits. I’ve never seen any of the movies or TV shows this woman’s been in, but you cannot miss her ads.

* * * * * * * *

When I was young, it was always people older than me saying that kind of stuff: “How can Madonna do this? What does this say about our society? Shame on you people!” Well, now the shaming is coming from people younger than me.

There will always be killjoys. There’s always gonna be jealousy and resentment. People are always gonna try to ruin a good time.

By the way, Sydney Sweeney’s Instagram has 25.7 million followers. So if she lost 200,000, that’s… 0.78%. Which is good enough for a Variety headline. I think she’ll be okay.

There’s a theory that this woman keeps triggering these people because she’s not a liberal. Or at least not an outspoken one. Her relatives were seen in MAGA hats at one point, I think. That’s how it all started.

That could be part of it, I guess. I think it’s just women hating a woman for being more attractive than they are. If they could get a lucrative endorsement deal for lounging around in the buff, they would. But they can’t, so they rage at somebody who can.

Haven’t any of these people heard of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue? That’s been around since I can remember.

In response to the popularity of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Disney-owned ESPN Magazine launched “The Body Issue” in 2009. Disney-owned ABC News has forgotten about it — or their links to it over the years:

 

Ace of Spades adds: Feminists and Media Scolds Continue Melting Down Over Sydney Sweeney.

I have my own mild objections to the ad campaign. First of all, I’ll admit what these nasty scolds won’t and say that part of my objection is due to simple prudery and a preference for modesty. My preference is for covert sexiness rather than in-your-face over sexiness, at least in public. I like when a woman is riding that line between modest and sexy so she can claim “Ooops, it was an accident, I had no idea that when I leaned over I showed a flash of cleavage.”

My other mild objection is about attention-getting. The media and media-personalities are constantly demanding the attention of each of us. I prefer these demands to be made more subtly. Yes, Sydney Sweeney has an amazing body but I would like my own Male Gaze to decide when to gaze.

But feminists have decided that attractive women are not allowed to show they are attractive in public because of Equity. Unattractive women do not draw positive attention in public, and therefore attractive women should be hated, shamed, and clucked to death by angry hens in the name of Sexual Equity. If we can’t all be gorgeous Sex Symbols, than nobody can.

Note how they never admit that they’re engaging in the ancient art of female sabotage/smear-campaigning against rivals they’re sexually jealous of. They always have to pretend their obvious middle-school sexual jealousy is actually some high-minded campaign for Women’s Empowerment.

Sweeney’s ad campaign is a repeat of ESPN Magazine from 2009 to 2019 (when Disney decided to stop printing it on dead tree). But the backlash to it by the left is an extension of their pressure campaign on Taylor Swift starting around 2013, demanding that she go on the record as supporting their causes, or be constantly described as some sort of crypto-Nazi. Swift eventually capitulated to the relentlessness of it all. Will Sweeney?

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

METFORMIN UPDATE: Could a Decades-Old Diabetes Drug Help the Body Age More Slowly?

A cautionary note: While metformin is regarded as quite safe, a reader wrote that he suffered severe and lasting side effects from metformin and a GLP-1 (he didn’t say which one). I tried microdosing Ozempic and then Tirzepatide, which a lot of medical people I know are doing for metabolic and neurological benefits (it’s thought to reduce dementia risk). In my case I found that it raised my resting heart rate from the mid-50s into the low 70s in the case of Ozempic, and the mid 60s with Tirzepatide. That’s a known side effect considered harmless, but I didn’t feel good about it. It also reduced my HRV (Heart Rate Variability) which is possibly bad. I have gone back to normal since going off, but it took a couple of months. (And I wouldn’t have even known absent the Oura Ring, which tracks those things.)

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CORN, POPPED:

How to Be a Haitian Immigrant and Annoy the Left: Be here legally, and understand and uphold the justice system.

Posted at 5:06 pm by Stephen Green