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WILL SELBER: What Our Veterans Need and Deserve
ON OCTOBER 7, 2001, THE UNITED STATES invaded Afghanistan—and I fell in love for the first time.
Like all first loves, the relationship was intoxicating. It was my generation’s big war, and I was determined to fight. I quit my civilian job and enrolled in graduate school to go through ROTC. In 2004, I was commissioned as a bubbling second lieutenant, deathly afraid the wars would conclude before I got to experience them.
Quickly, the Global War on Terrorism consumed my life
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JOEL CUTHBERTSON: All Classics Are Funny.
THE MOST FAMOUS OPENING LINE in American literature is also one of the silliest. “Call me Ishmael,” says a New England deckhand. That is a joke. Imagine Good Will Hunting opening with an establishing shot of Matt Damon’s character hammering a nail and saying to the viewer, “Call me Socrates.” There might be some symbolic meaning behind “Socrates,” an egghead who famously knows more than others because he understands he knows nothing. But the Boston accent would still boil “Sah-craw-tees” to a delightful pulp. The dissonance in Melville’s opener is the same, and it’s not a one-off. The great American novel, Moby-Dick embodies several narrative forms, but the one it begins with is comedy.
ROBERT ZUBRIN: Where Innovation Happens
ALL NEW INVENTIONS are combinations of previous inventions, and all new ideas include combinations of previous ideas. In consequence, the places where people come together best serve as the birthplace of the new.
It is for this reason that, as Chelsea Follett documents in Centers of Progress, since the dawn of history, cities have served as humanity’s prime engines of invention.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Friday! And a happy birthday to the United States Marine Corps, which turns 248th. Thanks to all who served.
Meet the B-21 raider… America’s newest stealth bomber. Flying in the cloud with data from the cloud. Wait isn’t that how SkyNet starts?
Speaking of SkyNet… I don’t have a link for you, since it’s on Showtime, but if you have some time this weekend, get a free trial and watch the 11/5 episode of The Circus, perhaps one of the most important political TV shows in recent history and definitely the best political show on premium cable. It’s about 2024 being the AI Election. It’s entertaining and alarming, and I am alarmed.
Five “stories” you might have missed… If you don’t watch Fox News.
How the GOP muzzled the quiet coalition… that fought foreign propaganda.
The Day After Netanyahu… At The Atlantic, Yair Rosenberg writes: “Israel has long succeeded in spite of its leaders, not because of them.”
Inside the Over-the-Top DC Marriage Proposals… that are going viral on social media.
I think they’re getting the hang… Of extending the Ghostbusters series. This looks awesome. The key: More of the original cast.
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