March 13, 2025

TOUGH WEEK:

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

HUH:

Posted at 6:46 pm by Stephen Green 7

RIP: Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva dead at 77. “Grijalva, D-Ariz., died of lung cancer-related issues on Thursday morning, his office announced in a statement. In Congress, the southern Arizona Democrat was most known for his work on the House Natural Resources committee.”

Posted at 5:54 pm by Ed Driscoll 64

COVID FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY: There’s Plenty of Toilet Paper in the U.S. So Why Are People Hoarding It?

Australia has also suffered from panic buying of toilet paper despite plentiful domestic supply. A risk expert in the country explained it this way: “Stocking up on toilet paper is … a relatively cheap action, and people like to think that they are ‘doing something’ when they feel at risk.”

This is an example of “zero risk bias,” in which people prefer to try to eliminate one type of possibly superficial risk entirely rather than do something that would reduce their total risk by a greater amount.

* * * * * * * * *

Americans aren’t alone in panic buying to ensure they have plenty of squares to spare. Venezuelans hoarded the commodity in 2013 as a result of a drop in production, leading the government to seize a toilet paper factory in an effort to ensure more supply. It failed to do the trick.

Unexpectedly — but as America’s Newspaper of Record “reported” five years ago today: Bernie Sanders: ‘We Must Seize The Means Of Toilet Paper Production!’

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 116

BARACK OBAMA HURT MOST: Iran Could Lose Iraq.

Iraq’s politicians also seem more eager than usual to appease the United States. Iraq’s government is led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and his Coordination Framework, a coalition closely allied with Iran. But Sudani’s team made three compromises with U.S. officials in late January: removing an arrest warrant on U.S. President Donald Trump for ordering the killing of terrorists in Baghdad during his last administration; agreeing to release the Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who has been held hostage by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia; and passing a vital budget amendment that has long been sought by Iraq’s Kurds, the segment of Iraqi society that has the closest ties to Trump. These compromises indicate that Iran’s allies in Iraq are feeling vulnerable.

Washington should take advantage of this moment to permanently reduce the level of Iranian control in Iraq. It should do so not through wide-scale military action but with tough diplomacy, the threat of sanctions, and intelligence operations. Such measures would deprive Iran of a vital source of funding and give the United States leverage in any negotiations with the regime’s leaders. Most important, it would lead to better governance for Iraqis, who have suffered for too long under Iran’s thumb.

Stay tuned — and keep an eye on Marco Rubio.

Posted at 3:51 pm by Stephen Green 97

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE WAS LEAST SEEN SIPPING MIMOSAS AT BRUNCH: Gavin Newsom Is a Bust. “They claim that Newsom fundraised to help buy the bust of himself. Newsom, whose reputation as an F-5 level blowhard forced the dictionary to expand room for its definition of self-aggrandizement, was told by his political team that he should look embarrassed by this resurgent revelation while denying it at the same time.”

Much more at the link.

Posted at 2:18 pm by Stephen Green 64

STAY SAFE: Large study shows drinking alcohol is good for your cholesterol levels. “The cholesterol changes scaled with the changes in drinking. That is, for people who started drinking, the more they started drinking, the lower their LDL fell and higher their HDL rose. In the newly abstaining group, those who drank the most before quitting saw the biggest changes in their lipid levels.”

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 113

FAIL, BRITANNIA: In This English Village, Asylum Seekers May Soon Outnumber the Locals.

The British government is using the old air base at Wethersfield as a camp for asylum seekers. It’s unclear when they came to the UK, as the government does not release information on how long their processing takes. But we do know this: All are adult men. Many crossed the English Channel from France, arriving on small boats and claiming asylum when they hit the beach. They are from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. They are allowed to come and go freely from the camp, to the village and beyond.

Currently, 580 of them live on the base. Their number is about to rise to 800. The government won’t say exactly when, but it had initially stated that a total of 1,700 migrants would eventually move here.

Before the migrants arrived, the village of Wethersfield reportedly had a population of 707.

Gad Saad calls it “suicidal empathy,” and maybe that’s how it started. But now it’s more like a culturally murderous vindictiveness on the part of Britain’s elites against the British people.

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green 124

THE UNFIT HOBBLING THE UNFIT: ‘No Daylight’: How an Insecure Old Man Sabotaged Kamala’s Presidential Campaign. “Kamala Harris had (roughly) 100 days to convince the American people that she deserved to be the next president. With President Biden’s “no daylight” demand, it was impossible for her to stake her own identity. Biden’s ego was such that he’d rather Harris spend 100 days defending the Biden record and lose than to denounce it and win.”

The question is why Harris didn’t refuse a politically suicidal demand from a senescent lame duck. Clearly, this is just one more way she was unfit for office.

Posted at 1:16 pm by Stephen Green 159