August 4, 2026

GOOD AND HARD, SAN FRAN: The possible fine? $192. His crime? Being a tennis dad.

[Sam] Dogen posted on social media about the tennis incident and got supportive and sardonic responses.

“Honestly, you deserve jail for gaming the system. Even if they’re your own kids, you’re still teaching tennis,” @aremuhknee posted (opens in new tab). “I’m getting sick of you loophole freeloaders.”

“Surprised they didn’t call in the SWAT team. SF is super strict enforcing every bit of their laws against basically law abiding people,” @frankiegems wrote (opens in new tab). “True law breakers usually get a break tho.”

Spencer Pratt and Adam Carolla smile. Or as Carolla told an interviewer last year, “Once you essentially look the other way for the homeless, junkies, illegal immigrants, criminals, or whoever it is, while shining a spotlight on taxpayers with overregulation, over-permitting, and trying to manage every grain of their lives, versus saying to illegal immigrants, ‘Go do whatever you want,’ or to the homeless, ‘Go shoot up wherever you want or sleep wherever you want’—then you’ve lost it. L.A.’s there. San Francisco’s there. Look, if you’re not a taxpayer and you don’t have a checking account, whatever city you’re in, they’re not going to be nearly as interested in you as they are in the people who have a checking account, pay taxes, and can be compliant.”

Posted at 6:38 pm by Ed Driscoll

WE’RE NOT GOING TO MOSCOW. IT’S CZECHOSLOVAKIA. IT’S LIKE GOING INTO WISCONSIN: Wisconsin Socialist Candidate for Governor Francesca Hong Wants to Cancel Thanksgiving, Defund the Police as a Modest Step Towards Abolishing Them Entirely.

She declared that Thanksgiving should be cancelled during the covid lockdowns, but went further: She said it should have been cancelled since its founding in 1621, because it’s “painful” to hysterical identity-politics-drenched racists.

Mediaite:

“Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621,” Hong posted. “If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx [sic] and women so be it.”

Hong still thinks it should be cancelled but knows it’s political suicide to admit it: Should Thanksgiving Be Canceled? Socialist Candidate Can’t Give CNN a Straight Answer.

“Do you still believe that Thanksgiving should be canceled?”

It seemed like an easy enough question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to answer. But not for Francesca Hong (D).

Instead, the democratic socialist candidate — who is running for governor in Wisconsin — gave a rambling 46-second response on Monday night, touching on her professional restaurant experience, her claim that Thanksgiving is “incredibly painful” for many Americans, and her views on the holiday can “evolve.”

In the end, she never gave an actual “yes” or “no” answer.

Then she’s answered the question:

 

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Penn professor claims ‘cisness’ is unnatural, ‘sex isn’t real’ in new book.

University of Pennsylvania Professor Beans Velocci published a book this year claiming “sex isn’t real” and the gender “binary” is “incoherent.”

Velocci is an assistant professor in history and the sociology of science who claims to be nonbinary and transgender. This identification has shaped the professor’s questions and conclusions because “that is how knowledge works,” Velocci wrote in the book titled “Sex Isn’t Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary.”

In an interview with Duke University Press, which published the book, Velocci expressed joy that “any right wing or TERF detractor who wants to s***-talk the book is going to have to say or write the phrase ‘Sex Isn’t Real’ in the process.”

Well, when you put it like that, it sounds more like an angry political agenda than serious scholarship.

Besides, Velocci isn’t a biologist — who is he to define what a woman isn’t?

Posted at 4:51 pm by Stephen Green

JASON GUMP: Cambridge Professor Jason Arday’s Ohio State Affiliation Appears Fabricated.

Jason Arday, who received media attention for becoming the youngest black professor ever at the University of Cambridge in England, has recently come under scrutiny for allegedly fabricating his professional affiliations and plagiarizing his academic work.

Now, another line on his résumé is in doubt: Arday says on his official faculty website that he is a visiting professor at The Ohio State University in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion — but Ohio State’s DEI office shuttered in 2025, and the school said he was never an employee.

“We have no record of an employee by that name,” Ohio State University spokesman Benjamin Johnson told National Review on Tuesday.

Ohio State previously announced that its Office of Diversity and Inclusion would close, effective February 28, 2025. Arday did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ohio State revelation comes after The Herald, a Scottish newspaper, revealed earlier this week that Arday’s claim to have worked as a visiting professor at the University of Glasgow in its School of Education was false.

Meanwhile, Arday is siccing his lawyers on reporters – who are then in turn siccing the police on them: Police investigated journalist who tried to expose Cambridge professor.

Scotland Yard investigated a journalist trying to expose a plagiarism row and told him to stop asking a Cambridge professor questions.

Jack Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education (THE), was accused of harassment after he emailed a series of questions to Prof Jason Arday about his academic record. Mr Grove said officers told him to stop contacting the professor because his “mental health” had been affected by the questions.

Prof Arday also hired the law firm Carter-Ruck, which suggested in a letter to THE that its “apparent attack” on him “may be… racially motivated”.

The Metropolitan Police spent four months looking into the claim of harassment before deciding in February to close the case.

The police did not interview Mr Grove, who only found out about the investigation when the Met contacted him to inform him that they would not be taking action.

The Met also reportedly passed on a complaint to another force about an academic who was also looking into the academic record of Prof Arday, but the other force refused to investigate.

The Met is among forces that have been accused in recent months of wasting time on pointless investigations while insisting that they do not have the manpower to routinely attend burglaries and other crimes.

Mr Grove told The Telegraph that he had been “stunned” to receive a phone call from the police to be told he had been investigated simply for doing his job.

He said: “I was told a complaint had been made against me and investigated, but the force was not taking it forward. The officer told me that I shouldn’t contact Professor Arday again because his mental health had been affected by my actions.

“I asked him what I had done, and he said there had been online posts about Professor Arday. I said I’d never posted anything about him and asked him if he realised he was speaking to a journalist who was investigating a story. He didn’t really respond but repeated his request for me not to contact Professor Arday again, citing his mental health.

“I was just doing my job. Journalists should be free to ask questions of anyone, even star professors. It’s very rare that academics refuse to speak to the press – that caused me to look into this matter further and I was astonished by what I found.”

I’d ask since when do police tell reporters not to request interviews, but then the British police also arrest sitcom writers, people posting spicy tweets, and wearing a Star of David.

Posted at 4:41 pm by Ed Driscoll

WHAT A MESS… AND A PREVIEW OF MESSES TO COME:

Posted at 4:35 pm by Stephen Green

WE SHALL SEE.

Posted at 4:16 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OH, CANADA: RBC is Latest Bank to Discriminate Against US Gun Companies.

Nate Treadaway, CEO of Vigilant Gear, LLC, tagged NSSF in a LinkedIn post, writing, “Should I be surprised that a Canadian based bank ‘restricts’ lending (aka discriminates) to the firearms industry? Probably not. But, for the love of God, don’t solicit me first and then tell me you won’t do business because our industry. Shame on him. Shame on RBC. Shame on First American.”

Treadaway wasn’t done.

“PS — No, I don’t need any lending services today so please don’t solicit me with your lending proposals. I get 5-6 a week, but this one made it though [sic] my spam filter and thought I’d hear him out. Lesson learned,” he added.

Treadaway isn’t a “Johnny-come-lately” to the firearm industry. Previous to his role at Vigilant Gear, he was CEO of BPI Outdoors and prior to that, President & CEO of Blackpowder Products, Inc. He’s been in the firearm industry for nearly two decades. He’s seen the devastating effects of Operation Choke Point and what happened when banking discrimination was privatized by corporate banks. He was at the helm of these companies when they had to navigate the Biden administration weaponizing the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to spy on Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights by legally purchasing firearms and ammunition.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green

KYLE SMITH: Old University, New Problem.

A lot of funny guys are associated with the University of Cambridge, such as alumni John Cleese, Eric Idle, Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams and Sacha Baron Cohen. Today, though, one of the ancient university’s faculty is inspiring as much laughter as any of them at their best. Meet Jason Arday, the most hilarious storyteller alive.

* * * * * * * *

It has become a reflex in academe to question the motives of those who discover evidence that endangers the reputation of favored scholars, the ones the university really wants to succeed. Naturally, Mr. Arday’s response to one professor who in 2023 brought up passages from Mr. Arday’s work that strongly resembled previously published writing was to claim that he was being wronged by the questions. “Instead of spending your time trying to dismantle racism and ableism, you have spent what I assume is hours combing through my work looking for mistakes,” he replied, adding, “anything further from you will be considered bullying and harassment.”

Sorry, but questioning the character of an accuser isn’t how truth is found. “You’re racist” may be one of today’s most favored epithets but it still isn’t an argument. Picture a toddler putting his fingers in his ears and yelling “La la la” when being told it’s bedtime, and you’ll have some sense of how our supposed guardians of truth react to unwelcome information. As one long-ago Cambridge figure, Bertrand Russell, wrote in 1942, “People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people, is a secondary consideration.”

Exit question: “Are congratulations in order for Sacha Baron Cohen? The more I read about Jason Arday, the Cambridge sociology professor and DEI poster boy caught up in a plagiarism row, the more convinced I am he’s the comedian’s greatest creation.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

WE KNOW IT ENDS BADLY:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

TROLL LEVEL: POTUS DJT.

Do the writers and editors really think this AMC clip is “beloved?” When I saw The Odyssey last week, Kidman’s ad was just more padding in a half-hour block of terrible trailers, product commercials(!) and more self-promotional slop from AMC to make the wait before the movie began even more excruciating.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

BATTLESWARM: Pipers At The Exit Gates Of The Democrat Party. “Now, I realize that in the year of our Lord 2026, saying, ‘Oh, the Democrats are crazy. The Democrats are mental,’ is not actually terribly incisive political commentary. However, it’s always different when you’re on the outside compared to when you’re on the inside. And getting the inside story is actually more revealing, because of course from the outside there are a bunch of things about the situation we just weren’t aware of that it’s nice to be aware of.”

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green