Thursday, September 24, 2026
As Boss Tweed once said, "What are you going to do about it?"
California runs the nation’s largest welfare system, devoting more than $180 billion annually to food, health care, and other programs for the poor and downtrodden. To sustain the arrangement, the state imposes the nation’s highest tax rates.
In theory, these programs are supposed to help struggling Californians. In reality, many serve large numbers of illegal immigrants. Today, California oversees a shadow welfare system that allows noncitizens to receive health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and even smartphones on the taxpayers’ dime.
- Christopher Rufo in City Journal, September 2026
Party Time
I have an affection for the strange people who see things differently than the usual "smart bunch."
That's why a party with Flannery O'Connor, Stefan Zweig, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, William Faulkner, Andre Gide, Ralph Ellison, Aldous Huxley, Agatha Christie, Mario Vargas Illosa, Graham Greene, J. R. R. Tolkien, William Golding, Ayn Rand, Mark Helprin, JK Rowling, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Oscar Wilde, Raymond Chandler, Tom Wolfe, Jim Harrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack London, Charles Johnson, Zadie Smith, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Vasily Grossman, Zora Neale Hurston, James Joyce, Ambrose Bierce, and Dorothy Parker might be a lot of fun.
Or a street fight.
[Photo by Myriam Zilles at Unsplash]
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Comparing Britain to Florida
Alister Heath in The Telegraph:
It will guarantee a shock to your system, and jolt you out of any residual complacency. It will simultaneously energise you and plunge you into depression. You will be blown away by the growth, the clatter of construction, the siege of cranes across the skyline, the massive cars, the energy, drive and ambition, the wealth, abundance and cheap energy, the entrepreneurial go-getting, the ostentatious celebration of success.
[Photo by Juan Pablo Mascnfroni at Unsplash]
Bureaucracy Lives
"Can an appointment be made with the doctor prior to having the medical records?"
"No, you must have your medical records from the hospital before setting the appointment."
"Can't the specialist directly obtain the medical records from the hospital?"
"No, the patient will have to do so, and then an appointment can be set."
"Will it make a difference if the specialist and the hospital are in the same medical group?"
"Sometimes, but not in these types of medical cases."
"Aargh."
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Europe's Suicide
To be on the side of the incomers was to be on the side of the angels. To speak for the people of Europe was to be on the side of the devil. And all the time there existed that strange assumption that Europe was simply letting one more person into the room. Whether that person was genuinely about to be killed in the corridor became immaterial. If he was cold, poor, or just worse off than the people inside the room, he too had the right to come in. Europe could no longer be bothered to turn anyone away. And so the door remained open to anyone who wanted to walk through it.
- Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe