How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it,
Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market.Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Quote of the Day – Vengeance
Saturday Night Classics – Rhapsody in Blue (George Gershwin)
In real life I am, for the most part, indifferent to anything that might be considered classical music. My parents had mostly big banders—Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and the like—to make up the music collection. But they had this one record, Rhapsody in Blue, that somehow imprinted itself on my 12-year-old mind. It moved me then and still does. Although composed in 1924, it sounds to me fun, optimistic, expansive. So accessible, so American.
Reactions to DSA
One reasonable reaction to the DSA would be a desire to debate: Marx is wrong. Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Thomas Sowell are right. Let’s hash it out.
Another reasonable reaction to the DSA could be a desire to educate: The historical record of Marxism is long, broad, and filled with death, poverty, and tears. The historical record of Capitalism is growth, innovation, reduction of poverty, and success.
It’s just James and Charles this week at the post: Post-elections in Florida, Minnesota, and South Carolina – post-mortem on l’affaire de Arday – and the post-partum madness of Lindsay Clancy, who is on trial in Massachusetts for murdering her three children and receiving an inexplicably large amount of support.
Opening sound this week: Sen. Darline Graham on American foreign policy and hospital chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh testifying in the Clancy trial.
The Uselessy: They’re Baaack!
Harry and Meghan have announced that they’re returning—by the end of this month—with their children (who have been registered into school) to the UK: Harry and Meghan Plan Move Back to Britain.
Royal sources tell me that they’re working on a new movie: The Uselessy.
A Polish Spy and a New Warning
The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. linked up with Poland a couple of years ago to help create a spy museum dedicated to Col. Ryszard Kuklinski, an officer in then-communist Poland in the 1970s. This is a snapshot of the museum. It moved me to tears – millions of victims of communism from so many countries. The museum is located underground in a building that survived WWII! The questions (reflecting today) at the end of the tour are worth listening to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLbu6S2HDqk
South Carolina Republicans are heading back to the voting booth for the Senate runoff to select their nominee. Their choice is between Ralph Norman, a self-described MAGA outsider who has represented the state’s Fifth Congressional District since 2017, and Darline Graham, the Trump-endorsed incumbent appointed last month following the sudden passing of her brother Lindsey.
For a survey of this sudden showdown in the Swamp State, Henry is joined by Jessica Taylor of the Cook Political Report. They consider how difficult it may be to call the race, as even in MAGA country, Trump may find his movement prone to rebelliousness.
Shoot. Just lucky, I guess.
Serendipity factors in a great deal in capturing just the right moment or scene. I have a Canon digital camera and a zoom lens packed away in a closet that I hardly use anymore, and a tripod that’s in a pouch in my garage. My photos taken in England were taken with a lightweight 8-megapixel Fujifilm camera with a built-in zoom. Most of the time now, I use the camera on my iPhone 15 Pro Max if I happen upon something extraordinary. Again, sometimes one just gets lucky. Here are some of my lucky shots.
Social Security
I recently received correspondence from AARP about Social Security with the headline: “It’s OUR money — always has been, always will be.” In fact, in June 2026 AARP itself quoted Bill Sweeney, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, saying, “Social Security is money we’ve earned, we’ve paid for, throughout our working lives.
I believe that these statements are misleading, and I assume AARP knows that Social Security does not actually work that way.
Richard Epstein unpacks the antitrust battle over the proposed Paramount Skydance–Warner Bros. Discovery merger—and what it reveals about the changing economics of Hollywood. From AI and labor unrest to regulatory overreach and interstate competition, Epstein argues that the industry’s real threat isn’t consolidation but rapid technological and economic disruption, making the case that blocking the deal could do more harm than good.
End of the Mechanical Age?
Of course not. As long as we want machines to serve our needs, and unless we become ethereal beings, there’ll be axles, gears, motors, and solenoids. There are reasons why the final level of software, the one that touches and moves physical reality, has metallic names like Rust or Apple’s Metal Language Extension. For generations, we’ve looked to a digital future. We’ve largely neglected the craft, the glamour, the beauty of centuries of mechanical engineering.
But it wasn’t always so. In 1968 New York’s Museum of Modern Art opened an influential show provocatively called The Machine Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age. It was a pioneering look at the past, present, and anticipated future, bringing some highbrow appreciation of the human ingenuity displayed in a fine watch, an automatic transmission, an IBM Selectric typewriter, or a Ferrari Testarossa. Machines had never been better, but the title of MoMA’s show was one of the first of many portends: We’re in the electronic age now. Get ready to be nostalgic about commonplace mechanical servants that may leave our lives someday.
The Lapsed Atheist: Charles Murray Makes the Case for God
For most of his life, Charles Murray was a casual agnostic who assumed smart people had left religion behind. Now he’s not so sure. Here, Murray discusses the evidence that forced him to reconsider God, the soul, and Christianity. From near-death experiences and the mysterious Shroud of Turin to the historical reliability of the Gospels and the Resurrection, it’s the story of an empirically minded skeptic who followed the evidence wherever it led—and discovered that faith may be far more reasonable than he once believed.
Charles C. W. Cooke, John Yoo, and Richard Epstein debate whether Meta can really be held responsible for the harms of social media, whether Texas can put the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, and whether the enormous defamation judgments against Donald Trump can survive Supreme Court scrutiny. They conduct an intense debate over Trump’s White House ballroom, including questions of standing, congressional authority, private funding, and just how far a president can go in remaking the executive mansion. Across all four disputes, the conversation keeps returning to the same fault lines: runaway damages, judicial power, constitutional limits, and whether courts are applying the law—or inventing it.
Good Help
There was a stained glass window laying in shattered fragments. There was blood on the ground – mine, I think. Cold mist drifted through the mullions that had held the window. Hooded figures stood round a candlelit circle. Oh, yes, that would be it. I got, a little unsteadily, to my feet. The remains of the central window showed a big hole where someone had smashed through a picture of a giant squid-like monstrosity. Garish, modern work – no taste at all. ‘Gentlemen,’ I said, swaying slightly, ‘I expect you’re wondering what I’m doing here.’
This met with a somewhat stony reception.
In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the Ohio State University and Katie Everett of the Lynch Foundation, speak with Arne Duncan, former United States Secretary of Education for President Barack Obama and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, about the current state of urban education and the federal school choice program. Sec. Duncan explains the politics behind governors opting into the federal education tax program, which provides a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to approved scholarship-granting organizations. In blue states that have opted in, like Colorado and New York, the program will benefit urban students, as well as high dosage tutoring, public district, public charter, voc-tech and religious school options for families. He also shares why he and Democrats for Education Reform urge other blue and red states alike to follow suit. Sec. Duncan closes by examining the political dynamics around why Bay State legislators and parents should encourage Governor Maura Healey to opt into this federal school choice program.
Individual Freedom and Liberty
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights confirm — not establish — that we are born with individual freedoms and liberties. That means ‘God-given’ or natural rights (whichever you prefer).
This is important. If God-given or natural, then a government didn’t give them, a king did not award them, a tribunal did not make them for you. Conversely, government can’t take them, which is what the socialists, communists and Marxists hate. Our Constitution provides the basic instructions for preventing the processes necessary for government taking natural rights (criminal acts and so forth).
Memories of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra 8/16/26
On Sunday I went with Sam, a friend of 55 years, to hear a concert by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. This is composed of students from leading conservatories who come to the Berkshires for a summer of intense instruction and performance under the guidance of members of the Boston Symphony. These are young musicians of the highest caliber. TMC Fellows all receive full scholarships, with the only costs being an application fee and transportation to Lenox, MA. The only TMC fellow I have known, Jonathan Dlouhy, was appointed principal oboist of the Atlanta Symphony at the age of 23. That’s how good these kids are.
Mrs. Doc Robert and I heard the TMCO on August 10 in a challenging program of Ravel, Debussy and Bartók. It was a flawless performance of considerable beauty. Marin Alsop, a leading conductor, was to lead Sunday’s show, so Sam and I were looking forward to a fine afternoon of listening pleasure.
You write; they talk. Bicycle gangs are good, schools are overrated, chronological snobbery is bad, vocations are always plural, and Chris waxes poetic about his favorite hot dog.
Hitler Laughs Off Nazism 1.0 in Interview
Feb 1, 1933 transcript translation of the interview of incoming Chancellor Adolph Hitler on the popular radio show Guten Morgen, Berlin, interview conducted by presenter Hilde Schmidt.
Hilde Schmidt: Good Morning, Berlin! Here’s me wishing you all a warm hug to go with your warm coffee! We have a special guest with us today. Our newly appointed Chancellor, Herr Adolph Hitler. Thank you for joining us.
The Thomas Sowell Legacy: A Conversation With Justice Clarence Thomas
It Doesn’t Have To Be “Women’s”
The WNBA is having trouble declaring what the “W” in its name means. And yet the “W” is what distinguishes the WNBA from the NBA. If the “W” has no meaning, the WNBA is simply an inferior competitor to the dominant NBA, and customers or viewers are likely to see no reason to watch WNBA games over NBA games.
Being a business guy rather than a sports fanatic, I would suggest that league management go back to more fundamental business questions that any potential investor or customer would ask: What is the basic business proposition for a second professional basketball league? Why should the league exist? What is your defining characteristic that will bring customers (viewers/attendees) and thus investors?
Sharia versus Title IX Tribunals
A legal tip for young men subjected to Title IX campus kangaroo courts for alleged sexual offenses: Convert to Islam and demand as a matter of right that the proceedings be conducted pursuant to shariah law.
A 1982 precedent the accused could cite would be the case of Safia Bibi, an almost-blind teenage domestic servant repeatedly raped by her landlord employer and his son in Sahiwal, Pakistan. She became pregnant and the baby died at birth. Her father called the police. A rape charge was made. The result of the court operating under Pakistani law at the time and therefore closely following shariah was to sentence Ms. Bibi to death.
Quote of the Day: Fickleness and Folly
The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness and folly.
–Alexander Hamilton
At the time that Alexander Hamilton made this statement, I imagine it was probably accurate. Unfortunately, not much has changed.
The shocking suicide of the fraudulent Jason Arday alongside the Atlantic cover story about how a mostly leftist scholar “of color” (Tyler Austin Harper) quit his tenure track job at Bates College because he couldn’t stand “the insufferable hypocrisy of elite academia,” ought to be the last straw for our nation’s tolerance for a completely rotten education system, from K-12 through the colleges and universities. But it probably won’t be, because the left is not going to give up these premier bastions of political power unless they are crushed. And that can’t be done quickly or easily.
Joining us this week to take the place of the truant John Yoo is Bates College alum Richard Samuelson, nowadays a professor of history at Hillsdale College, who adds some detail from his own experience as an undergraduate at Bates College, and you will wonder how he survived the place.