Sunday Reads...

An irregular roundup of thought-provoking reads. Most made me go “hmm…”

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.” — Justice Louis Brandeis in Olmstead v. United States

• FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN:

  • These are the Democrats who broke ranks with other Democrats to end the government shutdown. 

  • Why these Dems voted to end the Democrat Government Shutdown. 

  • Why Democrats ended their government shutdown. 

  • The secret meeting that ended the Democrat’s shutdown of the federal government is noted by the WSJ. 

• Health Care preimums pre-and-post ACA charted. 

• Good news: 

• 150 alleged predators nabbed in ICE sting. 

• Surge in military recruiting is a new trend. 

• Pope Leo shares what his top four favorite movies are. 

• California revokes 17,000 commercial driving licenses for illegal aliens - begging the question, how did they get them in the first place?

• J6 Pipe Bomber apparently is a government operative - this is news not seen anywhere else. 

• Birds of a feather:  Report suggests that married people who chum with divorced peeps are more likely to get divorced. 

• Rolling Stones lists the best TV-theme songs, ever. 

• Social Contagion: Transsexual rates have fallen without an apparent biological cause. 

• Midland, Michigan: Now rated the optimal place to retire. 

• Ouch: What happens to your body when you drink a can of coke. 

• Kids first: Denmarks bans social media for young people under 15 years old. 

• Libertarians are still out there, still winning a few contests. 

• Younger men prefer Newsom to Vance, presently. 

• Olympics ban transexuals from competing against opposite sex. 

• Government k12 have failed so miserably that the University systems are having to remediate. 

• Come on!  Sniper tourists?  Ugh. 

• Rent prices visualized by state. 

• Top Con-Movies listed. 

• Example for all of Us: Toddler gives out handmade hearts to cheer up people. 

• The history behind the 8-hour work day. 

• McCarthyism versus Cancel Culture - the numbers suggest one was worse than the other. 

• Top 2025 authors share their reading lists. 

• The history of the U.S. dollar revisited. 

  • And that “eye” on the U.S. dollar. 

• City-Density trends: The trends are a bit counter-narrative.  Less dense is the wave hitting at present. 

• The Farmer’s Almanac ceases publication after 200 years. 

• Saving Faulkner: The story behind reviving an American great. 

• Prisons versus Mental Hospitals: Per the data, one did not replace the other contra the narrative. 

• Nazi-U: The National Education Association has become a hotbed of antisemitism ideology, apparently. 

• A visual guide to coffee beverages.  

• Status snobs: Should there be a more rigorous definition around what a podcast is?

• TikTok obsessed: Apparently the platform has recently discovered Gordon Lightfoot and shipwrecks. 

• Improv: The history of modern stand-up comedy. 

• 2025 top Dog names in the U.S. 

• Beautiful: WWII freedom fighter’s lost bracelet returned to family. 

• The world’s largest gathering of bagpipe players gathered to play…what else, AC/DC. 

• The science behind why people don’t return carts. 

• The Mona Lisa of Bibles is on rare display. 

• Drops in U.S. religiosity continues to be documented. 

AI:

• NYT: Bemoaning AI’s impact on journalism, here. 

• WaPo: A deep-dive into the conversations people are having with AI and is a tad unsettling. 

• Some corporate boards are not ready for AI and how it is impacting their firms. 

• Chat-bot Jesus, is apparently a thing. 

• Another AI-generated song tops the charts. 

• LOL. There is now an “AI tool” to fight city hall or the planning department. 

• The case for AI tutoring starts to emerge. 

• Divorce lawyers warn of an AI-wave of break-ups. 

CHINA & RUSSIA:

• Reflections on why U.S. is better to dominate than China. 

• EV market in China sinks. 

• Real Estate developers in China loose their shirts, notes report. 

• Apple continues to cave to the CCCP demands on what apps it can host inside Chinese airspace. 

• China is leveraging AI to amp up its spying on American companies. 

• Russian spy ship found trolling American waters. 

COURTS:

• Justice Barrett and Kavanaugh spoke to students recently. 

• SCOTUS rejects an appeal to overturn Obergefell. 

• Justices Gorsuch and Thomas want to revisit a 139-year old SCOTUS case. 

• The Sixth Circuit notes schools cannot punish students for using accurate biological pronouns. 

ECONOMY:

• Rut-roh: Debt and the “AI bubble.”

• K-Shaped: Economists are calling it a k-shaped economy, but this chart actually shows it’s simply a downward slope for everyone. 

• Consumer sentiment hits the lowest record since 1951. 

POLS BEHAVING BADLY:

• Dems:

  • BBC leader resigns after admitting allowing the doctoring film footage of Trump. 

  • Know how to pick’em: Pelosi household crushes it in the stock market. 

  • Transexual lawmaker pleads guilty to child abuse. 

  • More evidence casting Comey in a bad light. 

  • Epstein was texting Congressional Democrats during hearings, guiding their messaging. 

• Reps:

  • What’s in a follow?  MSM notes faith-forward candidates following porn actors. 

  • Bad policy: Administration admits it is working on a 50-year mortgage. 

  • Voters blame Trump - while he blames Biden - on the economy. 

  • More Epstein emails dump in an effort to focus on Trump.

  • Stossel: Is Trump a socialist?

  • Performative moron: Tucker is now into “chemtrails” with his usual “I’m just asking questions” schstick. 

  • More Epstein files released. 

• TRAVEL:

  •  The best new U.S. restaurants listed here. 

  • Bangkok tops the travel destination list. 

  • The best city to visit for Thanksgiving. 

• Good News: Study suggests expenses have stabilized and wages are rising. 

• Auto loan delinquency hits new high, last seen in 1994. 

• Doom Spenders: Is an entire generation trying to live off an installment plan?

• 1 in 4 U.S. households are living paycheck to paycheck claims CNN. 

• Middle Class Boom!  One-third of American families make over 150k. 

• Charting Americans with collections and their median debt load.