CUTE:  The Perils of Dirty Dishes. In which Donnal the apprentice wizard wonders whether he’s made a very small mistake or a very large one.

BOB GRABOYES: Virginia Supreme Court Ruling Made E-Z: The logic was simple: “Before an election” means “before the first votes are cast.”

INDEED IT IS A VERY GOOD BOOK. ALSO A PROMETHEUS AWARD FINALIST:  Review: Storm-Dragon by Dave Freer. On a storm-tossed world, an unlikely friendship may bring salvation – or damnation!

I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY GRIFFIN WOULDN’T WASTE TIME TALKING TO MAMDANI:  Billionaire Ken Griffin ghosts Mamdani after NYC ‘Tax the Rich’ video flap.

MOST COSTS ARE WELL HIDDEN, OF COURSE, TO AVOID ALARMING THE RUBES:  The truly staggering cost of ‘cheap’ renewable energy.

TOOK THEM LONG ENOUGH:  The Justice Department Found Yale Discriminated Against White, Asian Med School Applicants.

MONEY UP, READING SCORES DOWN:  As Gavin Newsom Touts CA’s Education Spending, Spot What He Doesn’t Brag About.

IT RETURNS:  History Friday: Mr. Mulholland’s Big Oops!

LAWS FOR THEE AND NOT FOR WE:  What If Dems Are Shut Out of the CA Gov Race? Newsom Says There’s a ‘Break-the-Glass’ Contingency Plan.

I’M A DINOSAUR. THIS REMINDS ME OF SOME SIMAK NOVELS:  What If Fully Autonomous Combat Drones Are Already Here?

YES, HOPEFULLY LBJ IS WRONG:  Manufactured Victimhood as the Ultimate Narcotic.

WELL, I UNDERSTAND THAT:  A Texas Military Vet Dropped Out of Penn State Law School Rather Than Submit to Its Mandatory Anti-Racism Course.

TO BE FAIR, IT WOULD BE PRETTY:  Spencer Pratt Vows to Bring Art Deco Architecture Back to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, what is Pratt’s opponent promising? Free teeth for meth-heads.

I’M NOT ALONE:  Don’t Fall for the Left’s Fake News on Leo XIV: The Pope Turns Out to Be Surprisingly Conservative.

POWER IS NOT ALWAYS AS CLEAR-CUT AS IT SEEMS TO BE:  Kingship By Consent.

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

ELON NEEDS A BACKUP PLAN JUST IN CASE THE DEMOCRATS GET BACK IN POWER: Will Starship launch from foreign shores? SpaceX ‘constantly exploring’ options for megarocket liftoff sites.

I DON’T TRUST ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS: Common Sweetener May Harm Critical Brain Barrier, Risking Stroke.

GREAT MULTIPURPOSE SHOE: Brooks Women’s Glycerin Flex Neutral Running & Walking Shoe. #CommissionEarned

HAVEN’T WE SEEN THIS MOVIE? Scientists Create “Living” Materials That Crawl, Walk, and Dig on Their Own.

I WONDER IF SHE HAS PICTURES OF ABC MANAGERS IN COMPROMISING POSITIONS? Greg Gutfeld Destroys Whoopi Goldberg After Her Unhinged Rant About Donald Trump.

CORN, POPPED: Israel Knows a Defamation Case Won’t Fly. That’s Not the Play.

Which brings us to the real mechanism: 28 U.S.C. § 1782.

Once an Israeli proceeding is in reasonable contemplation, an interested person can apply in the Southern District of New York (where the New York Times is headquartered) to compel evidence production from a U.S. entity for use in foreign litigation. A properly framed § 1782 application does not ask the court to adjudicate the case; it simply asks the court to order the Times to produce the factual basis for one published allegation.

The subpoena categories write themselves: documents identifying the source and evidentiary basis for the dog allegation; fact-checking notes and editorial review records; communications with cited human rights organizations about this specific claim; internal discussions of reliability or corroboration. The Times will obviously raise reporter’s privilege. That is expected. But the answer here is a measured response: Nobody is asking for every source on every story. The request is for the factual foundation for one allegation the Times has publicly called corroborated and extensively fact-checked and “deeply reported.” Either show the corroboration or explain why you cannot. Both answers are informative.

None of this is a technical defamation case, but the critics declaring the claim dead on arrival are focusing on the colloquial use of the word “defamation” expressed in a spokesperson’s tweet and missing the tree for the forest. The real question is whether there exists a narrow, disciplined legal theory that forces the Times to produce the evidentiary basis for one of the most inflammatory factual allegations it has ever published. And there is.

Clever.

VERY INTERESTING:

A committee of the American Bar Association has voted to eliminate its already suspended DEI accreditation requirement.

A final decision depends on a future vote by the ABA House of Delegates.

One member of the committee said, “Even though I personally agree with [the diversity… pic.twitter.com/tuSxiFwmjL

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 15, 2026

FASTER, PLEASE: Experimental drug shrinks advanced kidney tumors, clears cancer in one patient.

BASED: NC congresswoman tells 4th grader who urged her to support EV tax rebates that he’s been brainwashed by leftist propaganda.