Tuesday Links - 8 April

First up is Clayton Cramer. Is DOJ's Review of Second Amendment Impact on Laws Real?

You probably know thst one of Trump's Executive Orders directed the Department of Justice to review laws and regulations and if they contradict the Second Amendment.

Meep at STUMP - Pension Watch March 2025: Climate Chaos Bonds, Detroit Pension Bonuses, Anti-Tesla Tantrum

Pensions are long-term promises. At least some of the climate risk folks are serious in thinking about long-term risks and targeting long-term promises. (That will be my first section below.)

Joel at The Ultimate Answer to Kings - Ugh.

It snowed till well after dark but the cold didn’t hold on, so at dawn it was already a soggy, muddy mess outside.

The First Street Journal - Another Philly illegal immigration sob story

As always, there is the newspaper that I frequently refer to as The Philadelphia Enquirer, which is not actually spelled that way. RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I think it very apt. And this morning, it was opinion columnist Jenice Armstrong, one of the Usual Suspects:

Juvat at Chant du Départ has a story about his eventful week. Made some new friends this week!*

First procedure is listen to the heart. Stethoscope up. A bit of moving around, a bit more, a bit more and finally he puts it down and says, "Well, juvat! Seems you need to go to the ER! Like right now!"

Wombat-socho has a link to an independent book sale. FMJRA 2.0: The Royals, With Cheese

The Epic Indie Sale is on!

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 5 April 2025: Rare Air Edition

In a pre-emptive response to the latest reciprocal tariffs, China has banned the sale of terbium, erbium, thulium, and thallium to the United States, so-called "rare earth" elements critical to the production of advanced technology such as Nixie tubes and bubble memory. (Tom's Hardware)

There are a few things to note here:

First, of course, it makes little sense to make a totalitarian fascist dystopia your sole supplier of anything

Colion Noir - Idaho’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Protects Man Who Killed Attacker in Self-Defense

A Nampa resident who faced possible felony charges after fatally shooting an attacker outside of his home is off the hook. After an investigation, prosecutors decided that Ryan Fleming lawfully acted in self-defense in the September 29, 2024, incident.

Watts Up With That - Ecologists Question Renewable Energy Sprawl

One of the great ironies of our age is the double standard of Big Environmentalism toward wind and solar, which commit numerous eco-sins that would not be tolerated otherwise. Dilute, intermittent, and thus inefficient? Yes. Energy sprawl requiring service roads and transmission lines in the wild? Yes. A threat to wildlife on land and in the water? Yes. And mining issues, even using child labor? Yes.

The Other McCain - Hitler, the Nobel Prize and ‘Grease’

Truth is stranger than fiction, it is proverbially said, and such is the course of history that events and people can be connected in ways that you never imagined. Certainly I never dreamed that the hit musical Grease could be connected to a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and a World War II military intelligence officer, until yesterday I fell down one of those research rabbit-holes into which I’m so prone to stumble.