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In Minnesota, it’s open season on Teslas – and conservatives
Hennepin County (the largest county in Minnesota) Attorney Mary Moriarty is at it again. Deemed the most “woke” prosecutor in America, she is refusing to charge state government employee Dylan Bryan Adams, a Minnesota Department of Human Services analyst, with any crimes after he was caught on camera by police vandalizing six Teslas in the Minneapolis area, causing over $20,000 worth of damage. Instead of being charged with a felony, Adams isn’t being charged with anything. Instead, he has been placed in a non-criminal “diversion” program. No jail, no criminal record, and won’t even lose his job. He remains free to vandalize again.
A strong message has been sent: it’s open season on Tesla, and any other business or individual that refuses to align with the Left’s agenda. Last year, the offices of conservative Minnesota think tank, The American Experiment, as well as two other conservative organizations, were firebombed. Amazingly, in a congested metro area where security cameras abound, neither Gov. Tim Walz’s state authorities nor Biden’s FBI and ATF could come up with any leads. The crimes remain unpunished.
Never Forget
I never fail to feel a tug in my heart when I view this video. The people are stopping in response to the cry of sirens, whether on highways, on beaches, or in their homes, to acknowledge Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Although I’m sure there are those who resent this reminder of the devastating time, it bears repeating.
Lost golf balls
That is actually a company name that I am aware of. I don’t endorse it, although it might well be a very fine company. When I think of lost golf balls, I think about the very best memories of my childhood. Many people romanticize their childhood such that every day of the first few years of school was the best of their life. That was not the case for me. It took several more years of maturation before I could confidently participate in the struggles of growing up and fitting in. My relationship with my parents through the tough early years was tumultuous.
It worked out OK, though. During my high school years, when many of my peers fought with their parents for freedom from their control, my relationship with my parents was the best it had been — maybe the best it was ever to be. I played a lot of golf in high school, and I was good enough to be the last person cut from the school team four years in a row. Our team won the state championship most of those years.
While most Democrats continue to hang their hats on “Maryland Man,” Elizabeth Warren is going to the mat for the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell – which is, in many ways, a reversal for her.
Then we talk to Todd Sheets, former director of Raymond James’ Recovering Markets Program, about the turmoil in the markets caused by Trump’s Tariffs and why China has forced this necessary move.
When President Trump started singing a song about the most beautiful word in the English language, Pierre Polievre’s march to 24 Sussex stalled. It’s now a safe bet that Mark Carney will keep his job as prime minister after Monday’s election, but it’s unclear how he’ll keep his expanded Liberal coalition happy in the years to come. Today, Henry sits down with Sean Speer of The Hub to discuss the sudden turn of fortune for Canada’s top two parties. Among other things, they take a close look at the consolidation efforts under both leaders, wonder what’s to be done with Quebec, and consider what the feuding forces of progressivism and working-class populism will mean for the future of our neighbors to the north.
Missed Opportunity: The Lyrics for “Man of La Mancha”
Yes, we celebrated Earth Day (and also my brother’s birthday), and what could be more consequential than that?
Still, moving a few notches down the “significance” scale–or perhaps not–we discover that it’s also the 409th anniversary (on April 22, 1616) of the death of Miguel de Cervantes.
Cervantes’ greatest creation, Don Quixote, a lower-class (dare I say deplorable?) fellow who was driven to fantasies of heroism due to his mid-life immersion in, and obsession with, works of knightly valor, remains the most celebrated of Spanish literary characters, one whose quest to restore chivalric values to a society he thinks has abandoned them first involves his going mad (always a good start), and then–eventually and after a series of unlikely adventures during most of which he mistakes what’s taking place in the real world for figments of his fevered and highly colored imagination–resuming his own identity, and, shortly before dying, writing a will in which he threatens the disinheritance of his niece if she ever has anything to do with any man who has ever read a book about chivalry. (By this time, it’s evident that Quixote–or “Alonzo Quixano” as he should more properly be called–has, while coming to terms with his impending death and preparing to meet his God, finally come back down to earth.)
What about the Dreamers?
Forty years ago, Republicans and Democrats passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. It included a grand compromise: Amnesty for illegals currently in the country and a commitment to secure the border so that this would be the LAST amnesty.
Guess what? The border was not secured.
Was “Marbury” Wrong? And Why Does Baseball Need A Commissioner?
The authority of the judiciary in America stems from the creation of a Supreme Court in the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s own rulings about its powers and limits, and congressional enabling statutes for the lesser courts. In the early days of the country, the role of the Supreme Court as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution was an open question. The Court, in a case called Marbury vs Madison, anointed itself as the sole authority. But over the years the Court has limited direct conflict with Congress and the Executive by also creating the “political question” doctrine. This doctrine permits the Court to graciously yield to one or both of its “co-equal” partners by essentially saying it is a matter for voters and not the Court.
The current Court has been slow to employ this card in the recent contretemps between the lesser courts and the Trump administration. Although one would not know it from the media, the Trump administration has not (yet) defied a court order. But lawfare is pushing the president to that point — and that may be the goal of the Progressive Project.
Not Merely a Man
Leftists love to purge our language of words that offend them, such as “niggardly,” which has nothing at all to do with any group of people other than misers, but sounds enough like another word for those who might be heavily melanin-laden. Another Leftist crusade against words is anything having a relationship to the word “man.” The other day, I saw some woman blathering on about this subject after they launched six wife-men up into space. Sorry, let me use the updated elision of that term, “women.” Anyway, my memory has blissfully purged itself of what she actually said. This memory erasure is probably a natural defense mechanism to keep me sane. Still, it was some objection to “man,” perhaps in “mankind.” Maybe she wanted “personkind,” instead. This is worse nonsense than changing history to “herstory.” History comes ultimately from Greek, which does not have the pronouns his and her, which are English words, and the etymology of the word history has nothing to do with the sexual equipment of the beings involved.
What makes replacing “man” even more ridiculous than replacing three letters from a Greek word that have nothing to do with an English pronoun? Like “history,” “man” has nothing to do with sexual equipment. Man is the sex-neutral term in English. This might come as a surprise to many, but it is true. “Man” does not indicate masculinity or XY chromosomes. It is the all-encompassing term. Mankind literally means all humans of whatever sex. “Woman” is a term which means a female man. So, what is the term that means a male man? It seems to have gone missing. Does anyone know it?
Join Robert and Ericka as they welcome back tech journalist, marketer, and global speaker Hillel Fuld to Of The People! Together, they discuss what’s currently going on in Israel, the newest in Israeli tech, and how he’s rising above antisemitism.
Brash, irreverent, and mostly peaceful! Stay in contact with us!
Locke, Liberty and Time
I’d like to commend to Ricochet members George Gilder and Gale Pooley’s WSJ editorial We Should Measure Prices in Time. Their points are consistent with my more general view of Locke’s theory of property, but, whereas Locke wrote of property arising from “mixing labor,” I would say property is a consequence of “spending” time.
Each man’s life is his paramount property. The power to determine how to spend one’s life is the definition of liberty. If we spend our time creating something, material or intangible, trivial or magnificent, and someone takes it from us without our consent, they steal that part of our life. They deprive us to that extent of our liberty.
In this episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Dr. Sheila Harrity, former Worcester Tech principal and nationally recognized vocational-technical education leader. Dr. Harrity shares insights from her distinguished career in voc-tech schooling. She discusses how Massachusetts voc-tech schools leveraged provisions of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act to achieve academic and occupational excellence, built strong partnerships with industry and higher ed, and dramatically reduced dropout rates. Dr. Harrity reflects on Worcester Tech’s national acclaim, VIP visits from President Barack Obama and the late former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, and school reform policy challenges, while offering three key strategies to strengthen urban voc-techs nationwide.
Would you participate in the festivities of another religion?
The confluence of Western and Eastern Easter and Passover this year got me thinking about this question. Have you participated in the religious festivities of another Christian confession or another religion? What was your experience? If not, would you be willing if you had the opportunity? Are there any religions whose festivities you would not participate in?

Zenkovskii Cathedral, Almaty (from Wikipedia)
Making Things Up As We Go Along
There was a joke we used to tell when I was a teenager in the 70s.
What are the top three clues that you’re a member of a bad church?
1. The choir wears leather robes.
2. The only song the organist knows is “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.
3. There are smoking and non-smoking sections in the sanctuary.
Why have NBA ratings dropped by half over the last decade? How has the game changed in recent years and what does the proliferation of legalized sports betting have to do with it? Jeff takes a break this week from questions of history and politics and looks at a slice of our public life with author and journalist Oliver Lee Bateman and addresses these weighty issues.
Or is there more to it? Is the creep of the HR department mindset to standardize, systematize, and optimize everything having an impact on one of our beloved sports?
Before I Go …
If you would indulge me for one last post before my leave of absence, I need to share some news.
Many of you know – at least those who’ve been tracking the past three years of my family adventures (including four 5150s and one call to the sheriff) – the past three years have been a sometimes dark and frightening journey. Although I’ve been vague on the details, let’s just say I often turned to my Catholic friends who are familiar with the prayers of deliverance… and so much more… in my most desperate times. We never knew what we’d be facing as each day came, hoping we would get through it without incident. Yet, despite the incredible stress and my now rekindled case of PTSD (a little exaggeration), God has been there the entire time, applying His mysterious boundaries while allowing just enough suffering to gain His intended result.
Ron Johnson on 9/11
The original purpose of 9-11 trutherism — the belief that America attacked itself on that awful day — was a leftist one. The purpose was to take the blame off of Muslims and put it on bigoted Islamophobic Republicans. This served the political purposes of liberals at the time. In the same way that the original purpose of JFK assassination conspiracy theories was to shift the blame from a communist to the CIA, which was on the warpath against communism at the time.
It’s easy to forget the original context of these stupid ideas. Sen. Ron Johnson seems to have forgotten completely. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. Apparently things have changed, and now these theories somehow serve the purposes of what passes for conservatism.
Author and journalist Michael Shelleberger on the great things liberals have been doing with the environment, fires, drug addicts, speech and California.
- Michael Shellenberger on X: @shellenberger
- Author of San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities
- Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- University of Austin, CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech
22 April: The 301st Birthday of Immanuel Kant
So sorry, but I let us miss his 300th birthday last year! How does one celebrate a calendar event like this? Probably not by reading The Critique of Pure Reason–a birthday should be fun!
Well, if nothing else at least we can remember one of the smartest guys ever. He’s right, too: Kant is usually right, and his ideas tend to be fairly simple and very sensible. The problem is that the poor fellow never figured out how to explain things in simple words. I’ve heard several times that Germans prefer to read him in English: His German is so hard that it’s better to read him in your second language after the translators have done some of the hard work for you.
Well, if you’re nerd enough, here’s an intro to a few key concepts borrowed from a draft of my next book:
On Democracies and Death Cults, a Review
I just completed On Democracies and Death Cults by Douglas Murray. Like all of his books, this one is beautifully written and remarkably perceptive. In this case, I chose to listen to the audio version of the book, and I recommend it over the written version if you have an Audible account. The reason for this is that Murray himself narrates the book, and no one can give to it the feeling that he projects as he reads his own words.
I have heard dozens of podcasts, read innumerable articles, and watched a number of videos describing the events of October 7th, 2023. With each new one, I feel like I cannot be moved any further, but am proven wrong in that by the pathos the descriptions inspire. I approached this book with that same sense, and once again I was devastated by the descriptions of the incredible inhumanity that was on display on that day and the days and weeks that followed, not just in Israel itself and Gaza, but on the streets of almost every western country where mobs of demented antisemites raved and praised the barbaric actions of Hamas and the ordinary Gazans who followed them into southern Israel.
San Diego: Spring 2025
Big cat at the San Diego Zoo napping in his catwalk above visitors’ heads. I’ve noticed more than one large feline sleeping supine, with paws suspended. Just like a housecat.
The fort I mentioned in another post, which, according to my niece, had her covered in mud and screaming until her throat was hoarse.
Our household’s entry into the library bookmark contest. The member most interested in wolves created this.
Rule of Law?
If I live in a jurisdiction in which the district attorney expressly refuses to prosecute anyone who steals purses from old ladies carrying less than $10,000 in cash and valuables, does that establish a legal right to steal purses from old ladies? If a cop or some do-gooder grabs me a few seconds after they hear some annoying old lady yelling about being robbed, can they take that purse from me and return it to her without a hearing or due process?
We live in a jurisdiction (the USA) in which a lawless chief enforcement official (Joseph Robinette Biden) not only refused to enforce immigration law but actively imported illegal aliens. Ten or twenty million purse-snatchers and their allies believe that a right to keep the purse has been established.
On This Day, in 1918…
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, known to the civilized world as The Red Baron, was killed in action on April 21, 1918, when his Fokker triplane was shot down over France. As his plane had too many wings, and was painted bright red, it was only a matter of time. After 80 kills, it was his turn. By all accounts, he took it in good humor.
He had no time to marry, but he left behind an autobiography that was quite the beach read at the time. Kaiser Wilhelm II auctioned off several of his surplus names, embezzling proceeds to fund his baking hobby, which led to the development of the “Kaiser Roll.” His job as commander of Fighter Wing 1 was taken by none other than notorious rotund demon, dope fiend and crossdresser, Hermann Göring. But perhaps his greatest legacy is the frozen pizza company which bears his name and carries on his tradition of attacking Western targets.
Chuck Todd’s Non-Confession
Chuck Todd: “The only thing I can chalk it up to is this — whatever you want to call it — this fear that some members of the media had sometimes that they would be perceived as helping Trump if they somehow diminished Biden.”
“And I think this has been the fundamental mistake that many members of the traditional press have done.”