October 8, 2025

SHOCKER — BIG LIPS ARE A COMPETITION AMONG WOMEN: Surprising finding emerges from psychology study on lip size and attractiveness. “The preference for plumper lips on female faces was driven almost entirely by the female participants. Women in the study gave their highest ratings to female faces with enhanced lips. Male participants, when rating female faces, did not show a preference for plumper lips; their peak attractiveness ratings were for the female faces with their original, unaltered lip size.”

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 24

JEFFREY BLEHAR: The Ugliness Inside of Katie Porter.

Porter’s petulance, lack of preparation, and sense of self-entitlement were staggering. She was genuinely offended to have to answer a mildly difficult question, one that (as Watts emphasized) every other candidate handled with ease. She acted like it was an insult not only to her intelligence but her personal dignity. I have seen celebrities walk out on interviews, but rarely political candidates, rarely for such unfathomable reasons, and never with the whine of a spoiled brat: “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you! I don’t want this on camera!” (I was hoping for “I want it now!” to complete the trifecta, but alas it never came.)

Dealing with the press is a requirement for elected politics. Donald Trump famously hates the press — and is happy to talk with them constantly, taking any question flung at him and chewing the cud verbally for hours. If even Kamala Harris is willing to go out there and serve up bowls of word salad like the Swedish Chef, it certainly shouldn’t be beneath the likes of Katie Porter. Porter’s beastly reputation has long preceded her (you don’t become an inner-circle member of Washington’s informal “bad bosses” Hall of Fame any other way), but this interview is an amazing display of who she really is — the ugliness inside her heart — that voters will find impossible to ignore. I suspect Xavier Becerra had the best fundraising day of his campaign today.

Blehar adds, “Porter was politically mentored by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, which is fitting — both carry themselves like Dolores Umbridge — as well as deeply ironic, given that Warren is well-liked by her staff and Porter was famously loathed by hers.”

Gosh, I can’t imagine why:

Here’s the video of Porter’s meltdown with CBS’s Julie Watts if you missed it last night:

UPDATE:

Posted at 6:39 pm by Ed Driscoll 61

THIS OUGHT TO BE CONSIDERED HIS RESIGNATION:

Posted at 5:09 pm by Stephen Green 453

DOG BITES MAN: CBS’s Colbert Spreads Even More Fake News. “Yeah. And if you’re just gonna completely make up stupid fearmongering arguments, at least make ’em fun! ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Democrats are spending trillions of dollars so they can Jurassic Park your children. It’s shocking. They’re going to trap your child in amber, suck out the baby blood, then turn your little child into T-rexes. The worst part is, the worst part, ladies and gentlemen: they’ll never be able to hug you.”

Um… comedy?

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green 40

OH, CANADA: Carney’s Last Resort. “Indeed, in a very real sense, we might say that the Carney/Liberal government is not only anti-Canadian but anti-civilization, threatening the rule of law, limits on state power, freedom of expression, freedom of inquiry, respect for human dignity, and fidelity to the principles of prosperity and private property, of which latter the sanctity of credit and financial independence are critical.”

Posted at 4:21 pm by Stephen Green 48

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Actually, we are going to tell you the odds of recovering New Glenn’s second launch.

Blue Origin has a lot riding on this booster, named “Never Tell Me The Odds,” which it will seek to recover and reuse. Despite the name of the booster, the company is quietly confident that it will successfully land the first stage on a drone ship named Jacklyn. Internally, engineers at Blue Origin believe there is about a 75 percent chance of success.

From the outside, that estimate seems on the high side of things. During the rocket’s first flight in January, the first stage was lost after successfully boosting its payload to orbit. Blue Origin has provided few details about the propulsion issues that led to the loss of the first stage, which never got close to the drone ship. But it’s clear that the company was unable to test many of the key aspects of controlling the rocket’s flight through the atmosphere and stabilizing itself upon touchdown. A lot of software has to go right to nail the delicate landing dance.

The only comparison available is SpaceX, with its Falcon 9 rocket. The company made its first attempt at a powered descent of the Falcon 9 into the ocean during its sixth launch in September 2013. On the vehicle’s ninth flight, it successfully made a controlled ocean landing. SpaceX made its first drone ship landing attempt in January 2015, a failure. Finally, on the vehicle’s 20th launch, SpaceX successfully put the Falcon 9 down on land, with the first successful drone ship landing following on the 23rd flight in April 2016.

SpaceX did not attempt to land every one of these 23 flights, but the company certainly experienced a number of failures as it worked to safely bring back an orbital rocket onto a small platform out at sea. Blue Origin’s engineers, some of whom worked at SpaceX at the time, have the benefit of those learnings. But it is still a very, very difficult thing to do on the second flight of a new rocket. The odds aren’t 3,720-to-1, but they’re probably not 75 percent, either.

Godspeed — and stick the landing.

Posted at 3:50 pm by Stephen Green 24

EVERY 21ST CENTURY DEM PREZ DOES IT: Revelations about “Artic Frost” — the Biden era FBI’s spying on eight Republican senators and one GOP House member — quickly prompted comparisons with Watergate. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) called it “arguably worse than Watergate.”

But, as I document in today’s The Washington Stand, nobody should be surprised by Artic Frost or any of the numerous other illustrations of Biden weaponizing the federal government against political opponents.

Starting with Bill Clinton, continuing with Barack Obama and then hugely expanding under Biden, political weaponization has been Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Democratic Chief Executives.

Posted at 3:14 pm by Mark Tapscott 42

DID YOU REALIZE AMAZON IS HAVING A TRIPLE POINT DAY?  Triple Point Day At Amazon!

In case you really want to take advantage of it, here are some authors to-the-right-of-Lenin, on a wide variety of genres. There’s also (sigh) two clanker songs at the bottom.

Posted at 2:45 pm by Sarah Hoyt 15

IT’S LIKE WOKE SUPERMAN JUST GOT HIT WITH KRYPTONITE:

Posted at 2:31 pm by Stephen Green 108

THEY REALLY DO WANT YOU (AND HER) DEAD: Welcome to Portland, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “The former governor-turned-Department of Homeland Security Secretary was not on the ground for more than a few minutes on Tuesday afternoon when the Oregon governor showed up to greet her. But Gov. Tina Kotek couldn’t answer her questions or guarantee her ICE officers’ safety. Kotek, in a towering show of leadership, passed the buck to the Portland police chief, Bob Day, who proceeded to tell Noem that he couldn’t help keep ICE officers safe, either. A meeting with Mayor Keith Wilson netted the same result.”

Posted at 2:17 pm by Stephen Green 120

INSURRECTION, STRAIGHT UP: Oregon senator claims Kristi Noem’s visit to Portland is to ‘incite violence.’

Senator Rod Wyden of Oregon has claimed that the Department of Homeland Security went to Portland “to incite violence.” Noem has been paying close attention to conditions in Portland where Antifa agitators and militants have been aggressive in their attempt to disrupt federal law enforcement.

“Kristi Noem is cosplaying as a public official. In reality, she’s been sent by Trump to incite violence,” Wyden said. “Don’t tar and feather her as Speaker Johnson suggested for Governor Newsom. The best response to her playacting as cop? Ignore her and keep supporting our community.”

Noem was traveling to Portland to tour the ICE facilty. The area around the facility has been under siege since June when Antifa militants began protesting outside, getting in the way of law enforcement vehicles and personnel.

If a federal official can’t visit a federal facility without “inciting” violence, the problem isn’t with the federal official.

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green 115