Today’s world seems to have ended privacy. Every special pronoun is an exercise in not only displaying a person’s sexual desires, but also forcing everyone else to recognize them, and applaud the deviant for their own special interests. We went from “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to requiring public use of special pronouns that reflect internal desires. Somehow that which is supposed to be private is now unavoidably, endlessly, in your face, and in the public sphere.

That private/public divide is not a new issue. The prophet Balaam praises the Jewish people: “How Goodly Are Your Tents” – the walls that surround a family, that provide privacy and discretion, separating the nuclear unit from society at large.

The powerful allure of Socialism

Do Muslims have standing to criticize the legacy of Western colonialism?  Throughout the Western world, there has been a sustained critique of the fact and the effects of European global dominance beginning in the 16^th century.  It is anachronistic and somewhat unfair to judge 16^th-century Spanish explorers and colonizers by modern Western mores just because they were white people who therefore should have known better than to have conquered the Incas and Aztecs.  But that negative judgment, even if marginally unfair, is a natural reflection and affirmation of the living Western commitment to self-determination, respect, pluralism and universal democratic rule.  It is a tribute to the vitality of our principles that there is such a discussion (even if also cynically misused by Marxists as an attack on that heritage).

Islam has no such values, nor political traditions; nor is there a current comparable discussion in the Islamic world about the historical crimes done by Islamic armies and empires.  Europeans sent twelve million Africans to the New World in chains.  No one in the West says that was rightful or praiseworthy. Islam also enslaved millions of Africans as well as fourteen million Europeans. Cultures, religious traditions, and languages were exterminated.  Muslim academics and opinion leaders are not gathering to express regrets for any of that.

It’s probably more trouble than it’s worth. But I have studied it. I fell in love with a Greek-style tomato-based moussaka at a North Carolina restaurant back in the 1980s. Years later, I had a moussaka in Egypt that used a rich creamy béchamel sauce flavored with cumin as the base sauce for fried eggplant and ground lamb. Ooh, la la!

After more years and some effort at learning how to cook, I looked into making moussaka with that Egyptian cream and cumin sauce. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com, of course, that looked perfect. And it was delicious, but more work than cooking a Christmas dinner for a family of twelve, discounting all of the probable food allergies and other complications.

There are a lot of questions about Jeffrey Epstein, of course.  But I keep coming back to one.  I did some cursory research, and could not find an answer.  Here is a very brief summary of what I found:

Epstein was born in NYC in 1953, and was raised in Brooklyn.  His father was a groundskeeper for New York City Parks, and his mother was a school aide.  Despite never graduating from college, Epstein somehow got a job teaching high school math.  He was known for being excessively friendly with the high school girls, and soon lost his teaching job.  He then got a job as a “low-level junior assistant to a floor trader” at Bear Stearns.  Only four years later he was named limited partner.  One year after that, they fired him.  Holy Toledo.

Less than 10 years later, Epstein was buying multiple luxury properties for tens of millions of dollars.  He started buying all sorts of incredibly expensive stuff all over the world, including multiple Caribbean islands.  He was reported to be worth a billion dollars or more.  And remember, he was teaching high school 15 years before this.  By my (admittedly rough) reckoning, Epstein made several hundred million dollars in maybe 8-10 years.

Not everyone can be Mozart. But it is still not mere coincidence that Mozart existed during an age when quite a large number of parents expected their children to be great composers. Expectations certainly do matter. Parents who demand excellence from their children are more likely to have high-achieving offspring.

Today, of course, society demonizes such parents. We are sensitive to the argument that the only reason we have high expectations for our children is because we are selfishly only thinking of ourselves, our reputations, what our friends and family might think, etc. If we actually cared about our children, we would be delighted to let them find their own path, in their own good time. And, let’s face it: Nobody wants to be the Bad Guy.

Has the Fed lost its way? Kevin Warsh, Hoover visiting fellow and on the short list of candidates to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, thinks the Fed has and offers solutions on how to fix it. Drawing on his firsthand experience during the 2008 financial crisis and his continuing work as a macro investor and Hoover Institution fellow, Warsh argues that the Fed has strayed from its core mandate of price stability. He discusses the dangers of inflation, the legacy of quantitative easing, and the institution’s growing entanglement with fiscal policy. Along the way, Warsh revisits the insights of Milton Friedman, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan, warns against institutional complacency, and outlines a vision of reform—not revolution—for the Fed. Despite the turbulence, Warsh remains bullish on America’s economic future, driven by innovation, productivity, and the enduring dynamism of its people.

Following a whirlwind tour of 130 days as chief budget-cutter in the government, Elon Musk has gotten back to the nitty-gritty — with a vengeance. His comparatively recent posts on X show this.

But . . . there he goes again. Elon Musk has been on the warpath against “The Big Beautiful Bill,” championed by President Donald Trump. In response, Trump has hit back hard.

The “radicals” I knew in the early 1970s spouted Marxist drivel, but the booming economy of the 1980s converted many or most into well-paid Republicans.

A later generation of undergraduates, charged much higher tuition and taught by an increasingly lefty professoriate, gravitated more towards NGOs, government and the bloated administrative ranks of academia but still achieved above-average incomes.

Powerline’s John Hinderaker has a characteristically insightful column up about a New York Times interview with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.  Rutte has publicly agreed with President Trump that, “The Europeans have not pulled their weight in NATO, and need to get serious, quickly, to counter the growing threat from Russia.”  Hearing this from a European obviously enraged the Democrat Party, so they had a New York Times reporter (Lulu Garcia-Navarro) interview interrogate Mr. Rutte.

It was a remarkable conversation.  Mr. Rutte keeps trying to talk about how Europe hopes to help provide for its own security, when all the reporter can think about is Trump.  No matter what Mr. Rutte says, regardless of the topic, she keeps asking questions making accusatory statements about Trump.  It’s like she can’t hear his responses or something.  It’s surreal.  He seems confused, at times, as though they were having two different conversations.

You should read the whole post.  It’s remarkable.  But I’ll quote her last question accusatory statement about Trump – it’s amazing.  She suggests that America is not democratic enough for membership in NATO.  Pasted from Hinderaker’s article: