March 9, 2026

METAPHOR ALERT:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

TERRORISM IS MOSTLY RICH KIDS LARPING:

Posted at 12:24 pm by Glenn Reynolds

BUT OF COURSE:

Posted at 12:19 pm by Glenn Reynolds

POSTMODERN FEMINISTS ONLY SUPPORT WOMEN WITH NEUROTIC DELUSIONS OF OPPRESSION, OR “WOMEN” WITH A Y CHROMOSOME:

Posted at 12:14 pm by Stephen Green

ENDORSED:

Posted at 11:55 am by Stephen Green

MATT TAIBBI EXCLUSIVE: The FBI’s Secret Stash Finally Uncovered.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation task force has begun excavating the separate set of books FBI keeps using an inaccessible “prohibited access” file designation, according to multiple government sources. Though an internal fight over how to handle the files continues, embattled FBI Director Kash Patel has assigned personnel to examine decades of hidden history, Racket News has learned, with some files already turned over to Congress.

“This is it — the deep state,” one of the sources said.

Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, whose work with whistleblowers and pressure across years was key to prying prohibited access files loose, expressed cautious optimism.

“If it weren’t for whistleblower disclosures to my office, the very existence of the FBI using ‘Prohibited Access’ files for some investigations would have remained in the dark,” he said. “I’ve asked Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel to turn over certain Prohibited Access records to Congress. I’ve received some, but am still waiting on others. I urge the DOJ and FBI to keep digging – which previous administrations apparently didn’t make any effort to do – so that the facts can come to light. The FBI’s secret stash of records is scandalous.”

Needless to say, read the whole thing.

Posted at 11:40 am by Stephen Green

NOT A MONTY PYTHON SKETCH, THIS IS MAMDANI’S NYC:

Then there’s this… which is still not a Python bit:

You can’t make this stuff up, and in America’s blue zones, you don’t have to.

Posted at 11:24 am by Stephen Green

WHACK-A-MULLAH:

Posted at 10:53 am by Stephen Green

PRIVACY: Calif. lawsuit accuses Meta of sending nude video from AI glasses to workers.

The company pitches its glasses, with their small cameras that have raised some privacy concerns, as safe: “Designed for privacy, controlled by you.” In late February, the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, or SvD, published an investigation that said Kenyan subcontractors end up seeing deeply personal footage from the glasses — including bank cards, people changing and people having sex. A new federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Wednesday points to the article and accuses Meta of false advertising, fraud and breach of contract.

“Consumers purchased these Glasses believing Meta’s privacy assurances,” the complaint says. “They did not, and could not reasonably, understand that their bedrooms, bathrooms, families, bodies, and more would be exposed to strangers around the world.”

Meta is still analyzing the lawsuit and did not answer SFGATE’s specific questions about why private video might end up at data labeling offices in Kenya. Spokesperson Chris Sgro told SFGATE, “Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device.”

Maybe, maybe not — but those glasses are still creepy.

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green

THOSE FIRST SEVEN WORDS ARE EVERGREEN: David French Suffers An Apparent Brain Injury Over James Talarico.

In a moment we should have seen coming, New York Times columnist David French has just gushed out a shameless celebration of Talarico’s insane nonsense, every word of which should qualify the worst op-ed prostitute in America for urgent psychiatric intervention. Here’s a whole paragraph: “Or, to put it another way, Talarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian, and by acting like a Christian he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that’s dominated American political life for 10 years.”

A challenge: Find the evidence French offers for the claim that Talarico “acts like a Christian.” He cites some speeches, but speeches aren’t actions. How, in David French’s conception, does James Talarico live like a Christian, by his actions, and what does he think that means? Hang onto this point, because we’ll be coming back to it.

But then go on to the characterization of MAGA as a Christian movement, full stop, as if no one would argue. Quick: Name the top three speeches Donald Trump has made in which he used the Bible as an argument for his political program. Discuss, in detail, the specific policy influence of Trump’s pastor, who you should be able to name if we’re talking about a Christian nationalist ideologue. Or, as a shortcut, just show the evidence French has ever presented to prove that MAGA is primarily theological, and that Trump’s first instinct is to steer by religious faith. French doesn’t argue this, because he can’t. He just says it. It’s a noise he makes, endlessly. It has no meaning of any kind.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 10:22 am by Stephen Green

NEXT!

Posted at 9:51 am by Stephen Green

RED STATE/BLUE STATE:  While California legislators continue to try to overturn Prop 209 with their ACA7 bill, Iowa legislators are moving in the opposite direction.  The lower house there recently passed a bill that would repeal various affirmative action policies, some of which were adopted in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

Posted at 9:29 am by Gail Heriot

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Freedom Fever Is Catching, and Cuba Might Get It Next. “If hope is indeed growing in the island communist cesspool, it could very well be the X factor that has been missing all of these decades. OK, President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have a lot to do with everything, but hope can be so powerful when people who have been oppressed for far too long finally hit a liberation tipping point.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

“AMERICA AND PUBLIC DISORDER”:

You can read Chris Arnade’s full Substack article here.

Posted at 8:49 am by Stephen Green

GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T COMMIT JOURNALISM HERE, THIS IS CBS NEWS!

Oh no, not a political adversary to a politician! And yet, “It is the prime function of a really first-rate newspaper to serve as a sort of permanent opposition in politics,” H.L. Mencken wrote in 1920s, in sharp contrast to the vast majority of today’s “journalists,” who view themselves as Democratic Party operatives with bylines.

Posted at 8:35 am by Ed Driscoll

YES: Energy secretary predicts rising oil prices due to Iran conflict will be temporary.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that a recent rise in gasoline and energy prices tied to the escalating conflict with Iran is temporary, stressing that markets are reacting more to fear of a prolonged war than to an actual shortage of supply.

Wright made the comments during an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation.

“What you’re seeing is emotional reactions and fear that this is a long-term war,” Wright said.

“We have a temporary period of elevated energy prices, but it will not be long,” he also said.

The world is awash in the stuff. It’s just that some of it is stuck in the Gulf.

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green