The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (No. 81)

Untimely Thoughts on a World in Transition

The next essay in my series on selfishness vs selflessness will be on Alexis de Tocqueville and his discussion in Democracy in America of “self-interest well understood.” I hope to follow the Tocqueville essay (no promises) with one on Karl Marx and maybe one on Auguste Comte.

THE GOOD

I’M PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT LOCO-FOCO PRESS (AMERICA’S HOTTEST NEW BOOK PUBLISHER) HAS JUST PUBLISHED ANDREW BERNSTEIN’S FANTASTIC NEW BOOK ARISTOTLE VERSUS RELIGION, AND OTHER ESSAYS. You can purchase a copy here.

VERY NICE ESSAY WITH MUCH TRUTH: Capitalism Isn’t the Enemy, We’re Just Not Practicing It Anymore.

YES, IT DOES, AND I’M PRETTY SURE I KNOW WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM: Capitalism Needs Champions

HARD TO BELIEVE THIS WAS EVEN A THING: Killing woke: U.S. Navy cancels war on behalf of 'climate,' will now focus on this one thing

IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE TODAY, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU WATCH THIS VIDEO WITH THE GREAT THOMAS SOWELL: Sowell EXPOSES The DUMBEST Ideas That Came from Harvard. (Video.)

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY ALL ACHIEVED IN THE PERSON OF DAVID BROOKS. Brooks is one of America’s most irritating but sometimes wonderful “public intellectuals.” How the Ivy League Broke America

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Coffee Could Be The Secret to Healthy Aging For Women, Scientists Discover.

THIS KID SHOULD GET A MEDAL FOR HIS INTELLIGENCE AND COURAGE.

MEDICINE/HEALTH ROUND-UP

• Ketosis: Good for your heart?

• Engineered stem cells automatically deliver arthritis drugs at prescribed times of day.

• Scientists Identify 10 Lifestyle Factors Linked to Stroke Risk and Severity.

  Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular ‘kill switch.’

• Inhibitor blocks flesh-eating bacteria’s metabolism, reducing tissue damage in infections.

ARCHEOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY/PALEONTOLOGY ROUNDUP

• 'Unveils new secrets': Archaeologists stunned by royal discovery behind 'massive' granite false door

• We’re Still Slowly Learning How Polynesian Voyagers Navigated Entire Oceans.

• Texas road construction unearths 'colossal' prehistoric animal remains

• Surprising new timeline for ancient Dead Sea Scrolls, according to technology

• Viking secrets discovered after archaeologist's grueling three-year journey at sea

GOOD! Justice prevails: This State Tried to Force a Christian Photographer to Work Same-Sex Weddings – A Judge Said ‘Nope’.

IS THIS HOW “OUR DEMOCRACY” BLAH, BLAH, BLAH . . .IS SUPPOSED TO WORK? Not quite sure if to classify this under “Good” or “Bad,” but let’s look on the bright side:

BRING IT ON! The next energy revolution is coming. Is the DOE ready?

PAY IT FORWARD: 'Moral responsibility to help her': Businessman delivers a stunning response when his car is hit by teen driver skidding on ice

THE BAD

PHILOSOPHICALLY, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ZOHRAN MAMDANI, HILLARY CLINTON, AND BARACK OBAMA, ETC.? You could say that the only meaningful difference is that Mamdani is in a hurry. Socialism Wins Its American Normandy: Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral primary opens a new era in American crazy.

HOW IS THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENING? NYC Trades Prosperity for Socialism.

IT DOESN’T WORK BECAUSE IT’S IMMORAL!!! For the Left, “failure” or “success” is irrelevant. They support socialism because they think it’s moral. The moral issue is the true battleground: Wall Street Panics Over Prospect of a Socialist Running New York City.

“I can’t believe I even need to say this, but socialism doesn’t work,” said Anthony Pompliano, CEO of Professional Capital Management, a bitcoin-focused financial services company. “It has failed in every American city it was tried.”

SHOWTIME: NYC Socialist Candidate Wants To Seize The Means Of Production

DID HE OR DIDN’T HE . . . THAT IS THE QUESTION. Two opposing viewpoints:

• Tina Brown: MAGA Is Right About Jeffrey Epstein

• The Epstein Conspiracy Theorists Will Never Be Satisfied

DOES THIS SURPRISE YOU: Anti-ICE Protest Fueled By CCP-Linked Communist Revolutionary Group

NOT GOOD! What are the odds that just one of the 700 is a terrorist? Over 700 Iranian nationals released into US during Biden administration despite terrorism concerns.

GREAT BRITAIN IS NOT SO GREAT!

CHINA WATCH: China’s Military Flexing Its Power in the Pacific

BUT WHAT ABOUT “OUR DEMOCRACY” . . . BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. This needs to be investigated: Kash Patel Drops 2020 Election Interference Evidence Bombshell. I think this is going to worse: The FBI Was Ordered to Destroy Evidence of China’s 2020 Election Plot to Help Biden.

THE EU IS NOT YOUR FRIEND: European Commission pushes Irish government to criminalize people for their 'words, ideas and opinions'

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF EUROPE IS TRAGIC. What’s even more tragic is that the United States of America is just a few years behind Europe: WATCH: Europe has fallen under the weight of Marxism and mass immigration

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS GRAPH ON WESTERN BIRTH RATES? To paraphrase Hillary Clinton: “What difference does it make?”

• Related: Baby bonuses won’t solve the birthrate problem: Only culture, not cash, can spark a new boom in having kids.

GET READY: Iranian Sleeper Cells in America: How Prepared Do You Really Need to Be?

THE WELFARE STATE CORRUPTS EVERYTHING: Massive 14B healthcare scam busted, Feds say — allege 'callous’ treatment of patients

WHAT SOCIALISM HATH WROUGHT: HOW ONE MAN IN PAKISTAN ALLEGEDLY FLEECED ARIZONA’S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM FOR $560M:

A man operating from Pakistan fleeced more than $560 million from Arizona’s safety-net health care system by sending in false claims for drug and alcohol treatment, according to a grand jury indictment filed in federal court.

Arizona authorities have investigated businesses associated with the man, Farrukh Ali, for two years. They had not brought charges against him until the June grand jury indictment.

TO ALL THE BIDEN SUPPORTING NEO-CONS OUT THERE, IS THS WHAT YOU MEAN BY “STATESMANSHIP”? USAID Transferred Thousands of Virus Samples to Wuhan Institute of Virology.

PLEASE DO NOT CALL ANTIFA AN “ANARCHIST” ORGANIZATION. ANTIFA IS SIMPLY THE BROWN SHIRT WING OF THE COMMUNIST-SOCIALIST-PROGRESSIVE-LIBERAL MOVEMENT: Inside Antifa’s Manual For How To Occupy Buildings.

IT’S A MESSED UP WORLD: Pregnant 'boys'? Trump HHS slashes hundreds of millions in LGBTQ grants

VERY GOOD QUESTION ABOUT A BAD PERSON: Will John Brennan Ever Tell the Truth?

THE UGLY

THIS WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS ONE OF THE MOST WICKED MOMENTS IN WORLD HISTORY: THE TRANSGENDER FILES:

‘BOUT TIME: 'A dead son or a living daughter': FTC to investigate trans industry's threats of child suicide

WHAT CAN’T GO ON FOREVER, WON’T: 'Totalitarian insanity': Toddler booted from nursery school because he was … 'transphobic!'

. . . AND THE BEAUTIFUL

ALBERT BIERSTADT (1830-1902) IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE NINETEENTH-CENTURY LANDSCAPE ARTISTS, AND THIS PAINTING OF A “STORM IN THE MOUNTAINS” IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE BIERSTADT PAINTINGS.

Have a great week!