Trust the Monster accountant

Confused about President Trump's taxes.
Larry Correia can help.

Living in Joe's world

Rod Dreher finds a better use for his time on the radio than listening to NPR - the Joe Rogan Experience.
It feels like every time I get in the car and turn on the radio, I don’t have to wait long before I hear a story that highlights in some new way what a racist country America is, or how hard illegal immigrants have it in America, or how put-upon sexual minorities are, and so forth. I don’t know if NPR’s liberalism has always been like this, or if it has gotten worse — or if I have simply become thin-skinned about these issues. I have always known NPR was liberal, but that didn’t stop me from being a big fan, and even a contributing member. I feel that my NPR — the NPR that I cherished, even though it was liberal and I am conservative — has gone away, and I don’t know why. I used to love listening to it in the car, and not conservative talk radio, because I don’t want to have a voice on the radio rubbing my nose into some political narrative. NPR used to stand out because it proposed new ways of seeing the world, or at least ways that seemed new to me as a conservative. Now listening to NPR is giving oneself over to hosts who seek to impose a worldview that constantly says, about people who don’t fit the progressive narrative, that you aren’t worthy of our consideration or attention. That you are what’s wrong with America.
I switched over to Spotify to listen to Joe Rogan’s September 17 podcast episode with Douglas Murray, on the advice of a friend. It was excellent! Murray is more conservative than Rogan, but still, he’s a gay secular Briton, and Rogan is a pro-drug, pro-gay marriage, comedian and MMA commentator who has some conservative beliefs (or at least instincts), but who, above all, seems curious about the world. On paper, neither of these guys has a lot in common with me, but I hated for their conversation to be over, because they sounded like people I either know, or would like to know. They talked for a while about how bonkers the left has become, but neither one sounded like right-wing zealots, not in the least. What they sounded like was real people who were broadcasting from the real world, not from an aerie in the thin, cold air high atop Mount Progressive. Joe Rogan is profane, but when I listen to him, it feels like I’m listening to an actual person I might meet, and with whom I might enjoy a robust discussion, like people used to have. With NPR, it’s like listening to the Vatican Radio of the Religion Of Secular Progressivism, and you get the idea that if you met one of its young reporters, you would feel like a pot dealer who wandered into a Police Benevolent Association fundraiser.

Lots of knowledge, little wisdom

Daily Wire features a sermon from John MacArthur on our society's current problem.

You might assume the average person today knows more and understands more than all his ancestors because of the vast wealth of information on the Internet. That’s an illusion. It’s true that almost any tidbit of data you want can be called up instantly by a search engine. Wikipedia will give you a marginally reliable crowdsourced overview of practically any topic in summary form (with large headings that facilitate speed-reading). Thus without any real intellectual effort, you can appear to know far more than you truly understand.

Such a casual, superficial approach to learning feeds the worst tendencies of a pragmatic culture. People see no need to master any field of knowledge or remember specific facts. Old-style education seems a waste of time for a generation weaned on smartphones. Why study mathematics — or anything, for that matter — when you can get speedy answers to almost any question on a hand-held device?

Undefeated team watch

Through two weeks, 11 teams won both games.
This weekend, there's two matchups between 2-0 teams - the Rams at Buffalo and the Monday Night matchup between Baltimore and Kansas City.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins are watching.

Booger

From the debut of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Saturday song

A reminder to Democrats today - you can't always get what you want.

Let my people go

I have friends and family in Pennsylvania.
Trapped by their governor under burdensome lockdowns.
Not in the future.
While those restrictions were "well-intentioned," wrote U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, "good intentions toward a laudable end are not alone enough to uphold governmental action against a constitutional challenge. Indeed, the greatest threats to our system of constitutional liberties may arise when the ends are laudable and the intent is good—especially in time of emergency."

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most

Try searching "Does Joe Biden have dementia?"
Or "Joe Biden dementia"
Google is not very helpful.
Maybe Google has dementia.
If you persist, you can find information on the topic.

Boos and more

 You may have heard fans in Kansas City boo the "unity" moment between the teams.
Did you catch them doing the "Tomahawk chop" right after that?
The players want to be heard about their concerns.
So do fans.

Tale of two brothers

Joe Biden has two sons.
One he talks about - Beau.
One Republicans talk about - Hunter.
Both sons fit the narrative each side wants to tell.
Joe hides behind Beau, now deceased.
Republicans highlight Hunter as what a Biden presidency will offer.

Shave and a haircut, two bits

Who had the most famous visit to a hair salon in 2020?
Nancy Pelosi appears to top the list.
A clean win for President Trump in this story.

Saturday song

It's summer of 2020. Can anybody say this?

Know your protesters

The Other McCain gives the background on one of the men shot and killed in Kenosha Tuesday.

And wonders about the other shooting victims.
Now, let’s ask what should be an obvious question: What are the odds that a guy opens fire at a mass gathering and all three of the people he shoots turn out to have criminal records? Doesn’t this tell you something about who is engaging in these “mostly peaceful” protests?

How Trump wins

Kurt Schlichter gives the reasons for Donald Trump winning big in November.

I'm nice and you're not

The Democratic National Convention's message was quite simple - Joe Biden is nice and Donald Trump is not.
What will the Republican message be at their convention?
Has to be better.
Much better.
Hard to think how it could be worse.

What's happening here

 Powerline likes this video that mixes the Democrats' closing song Monday with the events of the summer.

Let's ride

Powerline has a clip from Sturgis, where a few members of Antifa visited - with help from the police.

Of course, the Antifas were counting on law enforcement to protect them. Some might find this ironic.

What to watch

 Should sports have returned earlier to the schedule?
Probably.
But instead of watching sports in June and July, TV viewers watched Fox News.
And lots of MyPillow commercials.

You've got to get to the future to worry about it

President Trump signed his executive orders Saturday and Democrats immediately had their talking point -  he was going to destroy Social Security and Medicare with this order.

Forget their proposal of $3 trillion in spending on their wish lists.

Trump is destroying the future.

To destroy the future, we have to get there.

While many are afraid to return to work and outside activities, you've got to focus on the fiscal problems.

Not mail-in voting and other Democratic priorities.

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

 Althouse features two posts today about the last presidential team - and their lack of quick decision making.

Joe Biden is still working on his vice presidential pick - after first saying it would be announced August 1.

Why the delay?

This kind of approach — being openly meditative about the issue at hand, with a penchant for missing his own deadlines as he mulls his options — is in line with how Mr. Biden has made other big political choices throughout his career. Those who have worked with him over the years describe nonlinear decision-making processes with input from allies and family members, a barrage of questions from Mr. Biden, and a habit of extending deadlines in a way that leaves some Democrats anxious and annoyed, while others say it brings him to a well-considered decision, eventually.

But Biden is a speed demon compared to Barack Obama - still working on his memoir about his eight-year term. It might take eight years for him to write.

If you're looking for decisive leadership, it's not on the Democratic side.

Dutch treat

What spread faster than Coronavirus in July?

Mask nannies.

Wear the mask was the cry. If not, people will die.

What can slow their spread?

Maybe Dutch scientists?

Dutch people agree.

'I like it when people can decide for themselves,' said Jesus Garcia, wielding the clippers in Barbershop Jordaan filled with mask-free staff and customers. 'You would have to really educate people how to use them properly for safety.' 

 He said he had worn masks during a trip to Spain. 'I did not feel it was really helping since people were wearing them all wrong, putting them in their pockets, placing them under their noses. It defeats the purpose.' One customer having a trim agreed. 'I find face masks absolutely awful. They're claustrophobic and don't work,' said Mark Casey, corporate finance partner at a major accountancy firm.

Saturday song

Today's news includes how white collar jobs will be leaving New York.

Working Girl's commute will be different in the future.

Rocked him like a Herman Cain

The editor of Hermancain.com tells what he knows about Herman Cain's final days.
It’s not impossible he contracted it at the Tulsa rally. But most of us on his team tend to think it happened on one of the plane trips, or possibly during his stop in Las Vegas. That’s for several reasons, one of which is simply the inherent (and to me at least, obvious) risk involved with being on an airplane these days. Another is the fact that, for all the attention on Herman contracting the virus, we haven’t heard of a major outbreak of Tulsa rally participants who came down with it.

Bring on the new schedule

The ACC has brought forth a new football schedule for the Coronavirus mangled campaign.

Unfortunately, Virginia and Virginia Tech don't get contests with Notre Dame.

Let's see how things stand in a month.

Outkicking them all

I've begun listening to the Outkick the Coverage podcast each morning, but Monday is the best.
That's when Jason Whitlock joins Clay Travis to celebrate their partnership.
And this week, to take names of their critics.
Whitlock blasts the Daily Beast writer who dared take them on.
With his own history lesson.
As it relates to race, America’s narrative arc is a story of Believers of all races methodically shaping this country into the world’s leader in equal opportunity, justice and freedom. The abolitionists who fought to end slavery were mostly Christians. The men (on both sides) who sacrificed their lives in our Civil War were mostly Christians. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the black church ended Jim Crow.
Is America perfect? No. Has it improved in each decade since its inception 244 years ago? Yes. Is the secular movement championed by liberals flirting with throwing away that progress? Absolutely.

Pod people

With schools unsure if they can open five-days a week in September, parents are working on their own solutions.
Pods.
The solution gets criticism - how dare they pull money from public schools.
At some point, we need to have adult conversations about education policy in New York and elsewhere that don't immediately default to the single most incendiary topic in American life. Parents are podding up not because they want to separate their children from people who don't look like them, but because the damn schools aren't open, and they would rather eat razor blades than experience another season like this spring.

Washington (pause) Football Team

Back in 1994, Baltimore had a Canadian Football League team when the NFL didn't grant the city an expansion team.
The new owner decided to call them the "Baltimore CFL Colts."
The NFL Colts didn't like that and sued, so the team began the year without a nickname.
At games, the announcer would say here's your Baltimore CFL (pause) team.
The fans took advantage of the pause to yell Colts.
The Redskins have a lot longer history - and probably fans will call them that name for a while.

Enough is enough

President Trump launched Operation Legend Wednesday, planning to bring more police into the field.
Looters and Democrats griped.

Saturday song

I've been listening to old American Top 40 shows from the 70s, and got reminded of this hit from 1976.

Hot Dish

Andrew Sullivan bids adieu to New York Magazine and goes back out on his own.
Why?
Since I closed down the Dish, my bloggy website, five years ago, after 15 years of daily blogging, I have not missed the insane work hours that all but broke my health. But here’s what I do truly and deeply miss: writing freely without being in a defensive crouch; airing tough, smart dissent and engaging with readers in a substantive way that avoids Twitter madness; a truly free intellectual space where anything, yes anything, can be debated without personal abuse or questioning of motives; and where readers can force me to change my mind (or not) by sheer logic or personal testimony.