RIP Jolene (8/28/26)
Dolly leaves us and...
we are poorer. Dolly Parton passed away at 80. One of a kind. A Pure Product of America.
Grew up dirt poor as one of 12 children in the Great Smoky Mountains. Was married for nearly 60 years. Her husband, Carl Dean, died just last year. Funny how that goes. So often one spouse soon follows another in "real" marriages.
When asked how she kept on performing and writing songs at her age, she replied, "I ain't got time to get old."
Dolly may be the last "good one", in the entertainment field at least. She embodied America patriotism, Christian values and wholesome entertainment. She refused to engage in politics or activist causes.
May God continue to bless you, Dolly Parton. As he always has . And may you keep on singing, "Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen / Pour myself a cup of ambition. 9 to 5."
I Love These Guys
In preparing for CME, I listen to a fair number of podcasts, as well as read articles and FN, of course. Often, but especially since Iran, retired military officers and special ops guys appear offering explanation and analysis. Generals, Admirals, Seals, Delta Force.
I just LOVE listening to these guys. What a breath of fresh air after hearing politicians bloviate. Military guys are not only logical and fact-driven, they are direct and damned smart. Go Army! Navy, Marines etc.
Iran Update: They Don't Even Pretend
These nutjobs don't even make believe they want this thing to end. Usually when an enemy gets its walnuts in a vice it pinky swears it will capitulate and play nice. Like the Taliban did before. Like Hamas and Hezbollah are doing now. We know it's all BS because of that leopard and spots thing.
But the Mullahs and IRGC they don't even pretend. They just keep chanting, "Death to America. Death to Israel. We're keeping our nukes cause we're winning."
Makes regime change the only solution.
Where are we at? Tightening the vice it seems.
Once Again We're Locking Horns...
with our increasingly antagonistic neighbors to the north. Same issue. Fair play, level playing field.
PM Carney is playing hard ball because he hopes Trump is on the ropes. Let's not forget we've been carrying Canada's books for a long time. They spend a meager 2% on their own defense.
Fuel to the Fire
CBC bans "Terrorist Act". The Canadian Broadcast Corporation has banned its reporters, newscasters and affiliates from calling 911 a "Terrorist Act." Says the term is too politically and emotionally-based.
Nice way to honor the victims, survivors, families and first responders who suffered one of the world's most egregious tragedies just across the border at your long-standing, most supportive ally.
The Old Crone's Still At It.
Hilarious (Clinton) called the Democrat's experiment with socialism, "healthy". Says it's "good to experiment".
Sure singing a different tune than when she ran against Bernie in 2016. Typical hypo.
The DSA - an Elegant Examination
(contains excerpts from WSJ article by Ryan Streeter, 8/24/26)
In his attempt to capture the essence of the Democratic Socialist Party, which is springing upsets in too many Democratic primaries this cycle, Mr. Streeter invokes the words of Scottish-enlightenment thinker David Hume who died 250 years ago this past Tuesday. Hume once said, "I am an American in principles." James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and other founders held Hume in high regard.
Hume asserted there are basically two kinds of political parties. "Parties from Principle" and "Parties from Interest." Parties from Principle are organized around ideology, often espousing speculative principles unproven in human affairs. Parties of interest are organized around practical solutions that serve geographical and industrial interests.
Guess which one the DSA is.
Hume noted people "do crazy things when superstition (fear and ignorance) combine with enthusiasm (hope and ignorance). This is where the Democratic Party has landed. The "Big Tent" comprising a coalition of organized labor, minorities, immigrants, farmers and city dwellers has collapsed. It has morphed into a party increasingly led by educational elites reliant on victimhood and conspiracies about sex, race and class. You know...defund the police, all white people are racists, men can get pregnant...
Today's activists, on average, are more educated, whiter and younger. They are beholding to university orthodoxy thus bereft of of history, philosophy and psychology "basics". They are outraged by oppression, which they have never experienced in the least...in the halls of Ivy.
Parties of interest seek compromise and pragmatic solutions. Parties of Principle, on the other, most often produce fanatical behavior. Which will Americans choose? Voter turnout, not predisposition, may be the deciding factor.
AI Update: Gone Rogue
A short while ago, a newly launched version of AI was so powerful that its producer, Anthropic, pulled it off the market and later severely restricted its availability. The new version is called Mythos.
Yesterday Open AI reported that it recently discovered that a new artificial intelligence model it was testing had gone rogue and hacked another company. Anthropic then revealed that one of its AI models had broken into the systems of three outside organizations during a test. Not long after, Meta said its AI models had done something similar.
Oh boy. Scary for sure.
But keep three things in mind as power-hungry politicians go on the attack.
Data centers are typically great economic boons for small, impoverished communities.
Data center owners must pay for the electricity and other resources they consume thanks to Trump's Ratepayer Protection Plan, which ensures that Americans are protected from rate increases due to data center developments.
AI helps Small Guys Compete. For decades, America’s biggest companies have enjoyed an enormous built-in advantage: They can afford armies of programmers, analysts, marketers, lawyers and consultants that small businesses simply can’t. AI is leveling the playing field for small businesses by giving them access to the same arsenal of weapons at a fraction of the cost.
Worse for Trump than...
Iran, affordability? As the Trump Administration tries to walk the tightrope between making sure the US doesn't lose the AI race to China and protecting US citizens from datacenter phobia and AI overreach, this is looking more and more like a classic lose-lose scenario. No way any government, regardless of its orientation, can sort this in the best long term interest of America and still stay in power.
Few of today's "Me First" Americans, misinformed and misled daily, are even a little willing to do the right thing for the long term.
Iron in Demand - A Brief History of Capitalism
In September 1149, a Jewish merchant named Madmun ben Hasan sent a letter from Aden, Yemen, to his business partner thousands of miles away on India's Malabar Coast. He confirmed he'd received the shipment of pepper and ginger and added a business tip: iron had been selling well lately, and since the city's stock was completely depleted, so next year looked promising too. This everyday note, written nearly nine centuries ago, sounds remarkably modern. Like any good businessman today, Madmun was concerned about supply and demand levels and market conditions.
Even then religious authorities across cultures viewed profit-making with deep suspicion. Christian doctrine condemned interest-taking as sinful. Islamic law prohibited it. Chinese Confucian scholars placed traders at society's lowest rank. Political elites had their own reasons for resistance. Rulers funded themselves by taxing agricultural production, so saw little advantage in empowering a merchant class.
But things changed. As transportation capabilities increased and natural disasters and pandemics decimated local economies and sapped military strength, trade across borders emerged as a powerful antidote. Finally, rulers and religious leaders were left with no choice but to embrace. The merchant class had staked its claim. It was circa 1400.
By 1600 profits were being invested not only in farming to grow more crops, but in manufacturing goods that could be traded for things unavailable locally. Feudalism gave way to an age of slavery as more and more goods were desired. Standards of living increased across most all economic strata.
Up, then Down, then Up again
Over three centuries capitalism has faced cataclysmic ups and downs. But, like the stock market, always up eventually. The period between 1918 and 1975 saw capitalism face its worst crises, then reinvent itself in ways that would reshape the entire world. This transformation involved both horrifying violence and unprecedented liberation, often at the same time. After World War I, capitalism seemed on the verge of collapse once more. Workers everywhere were rebelling.
But capitalism survived and its biggest transformation came after 1945. Within thirty years, over 80 new nations emerged. Everywhere, local entrepreneurs and nationalist movements joined forces to build something new. India, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea and many more.
After World War II, capitalism seemed to have found its sweet spot. The "golden years" after the war delivered unprecedented prosperity—but they rested on a fragile foundation. When oil prices quadrupled in 1973, the entire system began to crack, revealing how reliant it was on inexpensive energy.
Again, however, capitalism survived. The Soviet Union collapsed. The stranglehold on Arab oil was overcome. Technology blossomed.
Today, the ramparts of capitalism are, once again, under assault. This time it's a new wave of social justice warriors spurred on by power-hungry politicians and immoral media. These crusaders, driven not by change but personal power, influence and wealth, cry out for its elimination. Suggesting instead a system based not on market freedom but constriction and redistribution.
History shows capitalism has always been shapeshifting. The difference today is speed. Sea change no longer takes centuries. It occurs in a generation…sometimes less. But always, at least so far, capitalism has emerged as humanity’s best hope for a path to better life. Why? Because it remains the only system that enables those who create superior value to reap superior reward. As such, it continues to outperform all others, regardless of current shape or transient deficiencies.
SETTLED!
Meta (Facebook/Instagram) will shell out as much as $17 billion to settle its case with 29 states over allegations of child addiction and intentionally misleading parents.
Under the settlement, Meta agreed to impose strict daily time limits for young users, block access to its apps during certain nighttime hours, mute notifications during school hours and introduce additional parental controls.
No surprise this was going on. Some surprise Big Tech is being forced to fess up and "supposedly" remedy. Could only would have happened under Trump. Bet Zuckerberg's breathing a sigh of relief. He was due up on the stand next.
Even so, let's not absolve parents and teachers. This addiction has been obvious for a decade or more but was "too inconvenient" for parents and teachers to tackle. Shame on them. All that knowledge acquisition opportunity down the drain forever.
Hands Down...America's Greatest Diner?
Seems to me it might just be the Somerset Diner in Somerset, PA. Hole in the wall with great food. But most importantly as you enter, it says...
We say, "Merry Christmas, and God Bless the Troops. If you don't like, you can leave".
One Pol Who's Got It Right
John Sununu of New Hampshire. Running for the Senate. His father and brother were both Governors of the Granite State.
John says the first three things he's gonna do if elected are initiate bills that:
Implement Term Limits;
Eliminate free or subsidized healthcare for those in Congress;
Establish No Pay for anyone who votes to shut down the government.
Sound like good priorities to me.
The Absence of Logic
Ever notice how often the arguments posed by liberals and leftwing media are completely devoid of both common sense and logic? And yet, today, they get away with it with many audiences.
The inability to formulate and express logic-based arguments is a great shortcoming. I think it stems, in large part, from the huge drop off in reading and, thereby, thoughtful writing in the country. Bullet points, catchphrases, talking points do not lead to cogent, logical arguments.
But what good does it do to research, analyze and postulate logical arguments if no one reads anything longer than three sentences?
Only $6,000 a Pop
That's the average cost of a semester course at one of America's so-called elite universities.
Here's a sampling of what's available.
Thinking with Bad Bunny: Culture and politics of race, language and empire (Princeton)
Marxism & Culture: Its relationship to capitalism, financial crises and social justice (Columbia)
Religion and "Nasty Women": Builds on the phrase Trump used in 2016 regarding Hilary. Examines goddesses, prostitutes and virgins. Also called religious-based misogyny (also Columbia)
Queering God (Swarthmore)
Gender in the Wild: Gender shapes, indigenous knowledge and black environmental thought (Stanford)
Decolonizing French Food: Wine, cheese and baguettes (Penn)
I'm sorry but if you fail to see how these will help ensure intellectually, socially and morally valuable members of society...well, that's on you.
Try for a Laugh or Two?
(My sincerest apologies to ladies with blonde hair. Please stop here.)
#1 An old blind cowboy walks into an all girl biker bar by mistake. After ordering a drink, he asks the bartender, "Hey, wanna hear a blonde joke."
The woman sitting next to him, feeling a bit sorry for the old gent, says, "Before you tell that joke, you might wanna know a few things."
In a husky voice, she says, "I'm a blonde and I carry a Colt 45. The woman next to met is also a blonde and she's a professional weight lifter.
The bouncer is a blonde too and she carries a baseball bat. The waitress? Another blonde and she has a black belt in Tae kwon do.
And, as for the bartender, well, she's a 6'5" blonde with a 20 gauge shotgun behind the bar.
Do you still wanna tell that joke?"
The old cowboy replied, "Sure don't ma'am. Not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."
#2 A man walks into a bar and orders a whiskey. When the barman serves it up, he takes it out to the bench in front of the bar to drink it.
As he’s enjoying his drink, a nun walks by, and glares at him sourly. “How can you pollute your soul with the Devil’s drink like that?” she asks. The man shrugs. “It’s not the Devil, it’s just whiskey.”
“But it’s sinful and wicked!” “And how do you know it’s so bad, then? Have you ever tasted whiskey?”
“Of course not! My sisters and mother superior told me how evil drink is.” “But how do they know? Have they ever had a drink?”
They go back and forth like this for a while, before at last, the nun relents. “Well, I suppose that if I were to try a sip of whiskey, I would better understand how it corrupts the soul. But it wouldn’t do for any of my sisters to come by here and see me drinking. Could you order me one in a teacup?”
The man agrees then goes back into the bar and orders. “Two whiskeys, but put one in a teacup, please.”
The barman slams his hand down on the bar and snarls, “Is that damn nun here again!”
Enjoy the weekend.
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