August 25, 2026

SMALL-TOWN CRIME: Ungodly Doings In Godley. “In a small city of some 5,000, you would expect there to be some overlap between the city council and other institutions in town, like the volunteer fire department, the PTA, or the Kiwanis Club. One thing you wouldn’t expect city council overlap with: a prostitution ring.”

Posted at 2:47 pm by Stephen Green

THAT SEEMS RIGHT:

Related thoughts from George MF Washington:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

ED MORRISSEY: Today’s Deep Question: Why Is El-Sayed So Curious About Watters’ Genitalia?

Get ready for 83 seconds of pure … ick.

Actually, today’s truly deep question is what Abdul El-Sayed thought would happen when he agreed to appear on Jesse Watters’ show in the first place. The decision to do an interview on Fox News makes some sense when fighting to win a statewide election in a state Donald Trump won two years ago. Sean Hannity would probably have been the choice there, who routinely offers grace to political opponents, or maybe Bret Baier, although his calm and cool demolition of Kamala Harris deserves legendary status. The Five might have been El-Sayed’s best format.

Instead, El-Sayed chose to tangle with Watters and his naturally combative-yet-amusing style. It didn’t take long for Watters to demolish El-Sayed on the question of sex-change surgeries for minors, a question that El-Sayed thought he’d prepared for by asking about … Watters’ penis.

This will become legendary for all the best reasons:

Noah Rothman adds, “El-Sayed’s Circumcision Quip Was Too Clever by Half:”

Surely, El-Sayed’s revealed confusion over the practice of circumcision and how it is distinct from genital mutilation will do nothing to dispel the allegations of antisemitism swirling around his campaign. More damaging to him, perhaps, is the candidate’s flat-footedness on the controversial issue of youth gender transition therapies and the harm they do.

The minimally curious should by now have grappled with the medical literature that finds young people suffering from gender dysphoria do not, on balance, experience positive mental health outcomes as a result of surgical or pharmaceutical interventions. Indeed, their conditions often worsen. El-Sayed and others should be expected to have surveyed the landscape in Europe, where the public health apparatus expresses increasing uncertainty about the value of those interventions.

They should recognize, at the very least, the political peril associated with their incuriosity, especially if they’re running for office. It’s not too much to expect candidates to familiarize themselves with the public’s anxieties toward biological males playing in women’s sports or the increasing episodes of violence attributed to gender dysphoric personalities.

Noah adds, “You know that a Democrat has done or said something indefensibly asinine when the political press covers the reaction to it with more vigor than the precipitating event.”

But that’s an everyday occurrence in the DNC-MSM:

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Yeah, About That ‘Famine’ in Gaza…

Most of the coverage, such as it was, was the result of an IPC report from July of last year including this dire warning:

Through June 2026, at least 132,000 children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition—double the IPC estimates from May 2025. This includes over 41,000 severe cases of children at heightened risk of death. Nearly 55,500 malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women will require urgent nutrition response.

Well, now it’s August. So let me be crude and ask, “Where all the dead kiddos at?”

Full details at the link.

Posted at 2:20 pm by Stephen Green

THE NEW SPACE RACE: ‘You’ll see lights on the moon’: Billionaire space executive predicts moon commutes in the 2030s. “Voyager Technologies founder and CEO Dylan Taylor says off-world jobs could emerge much sooner than many people expect. Taylor told Fortune that spaceflight is nearing a new stage, shifting away from brief missions and toward a reality wherein living and working off Earth is routine. In his view, the next milestone is a lunar outpost, which he expects could arrive in the early 2030s.”

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES: Who’s Paying for Climate Reporting in the Mainstream Media?

Over the years, the lack of trust in journalism led to fewer subscribers, resulting in fewer newspapers and, naturally, fewer outlets subscribing to the Associated Press news service.

To fend off complete obliteration, the AP adopted a model that includes accepting “support” to help fund its reporting. For instance, a recent story on an appeals court ruling against the Trump administration regarding Biden-era clean energy projects included this note: “The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy.”

The Walton Family Foundation is an organization devoted, in part, to environmental causes. Its political position is clear – back in 2022, it applauded passage of President Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a giveaway of billions to the climate crusade.

“The challenges of climate change have and will continue to impact every aspect of our lives,” the Walton Foundation declared at the time. “Government, business, tribal nations, philanthropy, advocates, and others will all need to build on this historic investment together to continue to build momentum for a more resilient future.”

The AP insists, of course, that it is editorially independent and “solely responsible for all content” of its climate stories. But consider this – the Walton Foundation’s original two-year $785,000 grant in 2021 funded three AP reporters (and, presumably, related expenses), according to the foundation. Just two years later, the grant had grown to a three-year commitment totaling $2.5 million.

From there, things get worse.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green

IT ALSO HELPS IF YOU DON’T KILL THE KIDS THAT YOU HAVE:

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ERIK FLORACK: The Tale of the Red Robes. “Seems to me an indication of a lack of things to protest on the left, or at least a lack of things they can protest without getting themselves into trouble, either by running afoul of their own set of values, or running into the angry and violent. And even in this case, it’s a bit of a stretch to ignore Islam in this.”

Posted at 1:14 pm by Stephen Green

PERSPECTIVE:

Meanwhile, some “conservatives” sing the praises of feudalism.

Posted at 12:58 pm by Stephen Green

ROUTINE BUT NEVER BORING: SpaceX sets rocket-reuse record on 100th Falcon 9 launch of the year.

Starlink launches may have become commonplace, but this one was definitely worth staying up for.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with 29 Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday (Aug. 25), at 5:33 a.m. EDT (0933 GMT).

It was the 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026 and the record-breaking 37th mission for this rocket’s first stage, a booster designated B1067.

The initial goal was to get each Falcon 9 booster up to 10 flights.

Posted at 12:43 pm by Stephen Green

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK:

Plus: “The government wasn’t merely buying posts. It watched public reaction in real time, rewrote influencer instructions and supplied rebuttals as the debate unfolded.”

Posted at 12:27 pm by Stephen Green

DEFLECTION: Facing inaccuracy claims, historian Kerri Greenidge points to bias against black female scholars.

Kerri Greenidge’s celebrated 2022 book, “The Grimkes,” which explores three generations of the history of the prominent slaveholding family, is now under heavy scrutiny, with scholars arguing it contains factual inaccuracies, nonexistent citations, and misattributed source materials.

Greenidge is an American historian who was a tenured associate professor at Tufts University in the Department of Studies in race, colonialism, and diaspora.

As a result of the controversy, she may have lost a book deal last month, according to the New York Times. Greenidge’s university email is now defunct and she does not have publicly listed contact information. She did not respond to The College Fix’s request for comment on LinkedIn.

She told the New York Times that she might have misattributed some citations, but that “I am heartbroken that a field I have given my life to can treat me this way,” adding: “The attack on Black women academics is real.”

She’s no Jason Arday, but she knows how to play the game.

Posted at 11:41 am by Stephen Green

BERNIE HAS NO PROBLEM WITH DATA CENTERS NEAR HIS HOME(S):

Posted at 11:25 am by Stephen Green