July 5, 2026

ALAN K. HENDERSON: Musings on the Declaration of Independence. “These ends are summarized as the rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To the untrained eye the last two may seem synonymous, but they speak of freedom from undue government coercion and freedom of peaceable individual initiative, respectively. The Declaration lists 27 grievances deemed serious enough to warrant the colonists to ‘throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.’ As I see it, they boil down to four basic principles.”

Posted at 9:18 am by Stephen Green

IT’S A TELL:

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

HMM: Fitness influencer banned from flight for attempting to board ‘naked’ amid record-breaking heatwave. Judging by the photo she’s not indecently dressed — this is the kind of athleisure outfit I see at Target or the mall on hot days around here. So what has Lufthansa’s panties in a twist? “The airline stated that passengers must wear clothing ‘appropriate to the character of a public journey’ that does not impair the well-being of fellow travelers from diverse backgrounds, according to reports.”

“Diverse backgrounds.” Probably means Muslims. Now setting wardrobe standards for European airlines.

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

HORRIBLE LITTLE MAN. SHOULD BE EXILED FROM POLITICS. AND PROBABLY FROM AMERICA.

Posted at 5:59 am by Glenn Reynolds

July 4, 2026

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND:

Even the lefties at Merriam-Webster had fun in the run-up to today:

Old Blighty’s clapped out talking points rebutted in style:

 

Posted at 11:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S A SOUTHERN POVERTY SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL!

When Reuters sent out their photographer to shoot this clearly staged photo, couldn’t they have also dispatched a reporter to write up a story as well?

Exit quote:

Do the Patriot Front guys do anything besides marching around in suspiciously clean khakis, masks and baseball caps?  Is there any burning, looting, statue toppling or podium stealing? They seem very much like the Monty Python sketch about would-be bank robbers afraid of breaking the law:

UPDATE:

MORE: Question asked:

Posted at 11:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

OPEN THREAD: No static at all.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THAT OLD LECH HAS NOTHING TO SAY TO US:

Posted at 8:59 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE CRITICAL DRINKER:  The Odyssey — Oh, Dear…

As of the time of this post, here’s the ratio of likes to dislikes on its trailer:

In the past, such a ratio foretold of bad things to come from movies such as Snow White. Will The Odyssey endure a similar fate? As the Drinker concludes, “Is it going to reach Oppenheimer levels of success? Probably not, but I do think it’ll turn a healthy profit. And what the hell—maybe [Christopher Nolan will] surprise us all and create a genuine masterpiece with The Odyssey. But I don’t know, man. I’ve got this weird little feeling that he might have gone a bridge too far with this one. Either way, we’ll find out in a couple of weeks.”

UPDATE: There’s still one bold casting choice left for Nolan:

Hey, it worked for Amazon, why not Universal, as well?

 

Posted at 6:55 pm by Ed Driscoll

TRUTH.

Posted at 6:26 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Woke Supergirl Movie Belly Flops in Theaters.

The semi-sequel to last year’s Superman stars Milly Alcock as the hard-partying Krypton cousin scrambling to find the antidote to her drugged dog Krypto.

Yes, that’s the film’s plot, and the dog in question was obviously CGI. That may partially explain the film’s tepid reception. This failure is far from an orphan, though.

Let’s start with the main character, a minor player in the DC Comics universe. Alcock, a relative unknown, introduced the character via a boozy cameo at the end of Superman.

Since then, Alcock has played the victim card in the media, saying that her work on HBO Max’s House of the Dragon taught her that “simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies.”

The online backlash was swift and predictable, and the starlet doubled down by singling out “Christian Dads” in the process. Later, she claimed her Supergirl character was likely bisexual.

Week by week, those Supergirl box office predictions drooped.

Alcock’s woke media interviews didn’t help. The tepid trailer hurt the film’s potential buzz, and the fact that last year’s Superman didn’t crush the box office as some expected also mattered.

At USA Today, Derek Hunter adds: Why the Supergirl movie provides us a cautionary tale.

Asked about negative online reaction, Alcock went further: “And (the backlash) is from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts. Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me. But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you’re pissing the right kind of people off, you’re doing OK.”

Why take a swipe at Christian dads – or anyone – when your career hinges on how many people you can get to buy a ticket to your movie?

The Hollywood press did the movie no favors, asking questions largely unrelated to the film itself. But Alcock took the bait nearly every time.

Asked about dealing with “House of the Dragon” fans in the context of her new role, she said, “It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them.”

It was a clinic in how to irritate half the country.

Milly Alcock is no Bruce Springsteen, ‘The Boss’

If you’re Bruce Springsteen – who punctuates his live shows with anti-Trump political commentary – you can get away with it. If you’re a 26-year-old Australian actress on the cusp of the biggest break of her career, you can’t.

To the baby boomers who grew up on “The Boss,” his politics are baked in. That he’d lecture them about it is almost expected at this point.

It also costs him nothing. The tickets are already sold by the time he opens his mouth, and the loss of future airplay doesn’t touch him ‒ he sold his entire catalog to Sony Music Entertainment for $500 million in 2021. Lost royalties from fewer streams or less radio play are of no consequence to a man whose income now comes from concert tickets, not the catalog.

“Supergirl,” on the other hand, doesn’t come with fond high school memories for millions of baby boomers, or the loyalty that comes from being the soundtrack to someone’s adolescence. In the comic book world, she was always a second-tier character ‒ Superman’s cousin, about as popular as Alfred or Jimmy Olsen.

Springsteen’s far left politics actually do cost him revenue, though. As “Miami” Steve Van Zandt told the London Times in 2024,  “‘When Bruce got vocal behind the Democrats, we probably lost half the audience. There’s nowhere we can’t do business.’ But some places feel like enemy territory now? ‘A little bit, yeah. We’re ten times bigger in Europe. We might play six stadiums in America and sixty in Europe.’”

Besides the strange choice in which story to tell (the making of Nebraska? Really?) Springsteen’s politics also very likely helped to doom his biopic at the movies last year.

Posted at 6:14 pm by Ed Driscoll