a brief update on the heated-up, but historic, battle between a Hamptons town and descendants of its original inhabitants. timwferguson.com/2025/12/27/s...

This annual survey of "foreign policy experts" (which also includes me) is evidence of why African wars weigh little on the American mind. They consistently register as having "low impact" on U.S. interests. www.cfr.org/report/confl...

Another big deficit. reason.org/commentary/s...

The democratic West is still winning some technology races. www.thewirechina.com/2025/12/17/c...

Things happen. www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-a...

Would our lives be worse if this industry ceases to hire? www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-i...

The pendulum reverses...with significant exceptions in Brazil and Mexico. www.foreignaffairs.com/south-americ...

'the costliest 5 percent of the population accounts for about half of all health care spending, while the most expensive 1 percent drives over 21 percent of costs.' Some ideas here for containing these, to which I'd add proactivity: charting healthier lifestyles. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/o...

Mullahs are desperate, with the rial currency at all-time lows, but Russia and China can bail them out again. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/w...

What a thrilling operation...soon to be a Netflix video! www.cnn.com/2025/12/12/a...

The best players sit out superfluous bowl games to avoid injury. Sometimes a whole team opts out. Then the warlords of College Football Inc. penalize them. www.espn.com/college-foot...

Not every scenic 'wine country' in U.S. has to contend with steady crowding. www.fingerlakes1.com/2025/12/04/f...

So would Hollywood be aligned with Trump in seeking to block the deal? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/b...

This was a keen insight into a big part of the Mamdani wave--the outsourcing of social services. thebiggerapple.manhattan.institute/p/mamdanis-n...

The other huge tariff expense--no wonder U.S. smaller businesses are hurting. thedispatch.com/newsletter/c...

Another little gambit of Homeland Security. reason.com/2025/12/03/d...

Wagering is one of America's great growth industries. www.cnbc.com/2025/12/03/f...

One step forward for each step(s) backward. www.reuters.com/world/china/...

It wasn't imagined--enforcement v. reckless driving on Long Island, NY, cratered during pandemic and is still low. www.newsday.com/long-island/...

Legal protections for the "collegiate sports industry." www.politico.com/live-updates...

An aging workforce, particularly in unionized industries with seniority benefits? www.census.gov/library/stor...

@newyorker.com is a nightmare for "managing subscriptions," either online or by phone. I believe there are state and federal strictures dealing with this.

'Married with children' is now far from America's norm. www.census.gov/newsroom/pre...

The police state now extends to mourning and recovery efforts. International entities that do business with the HK Govt are complicit in this repression. www.wsj.com/world/china/...

Obstruction of the introduction of automated vehicles is the most Luddite stance of our time. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...

I flag a nice NY Times feature on the gilding of Sag Harbor village, once the "UnHamptons." timwferguson.com/2025/11/26/s...

Recovery projects that go through DC compound the delays and waste. reason.com/2025/11/25/t...

Banning SROs was a reform notion that failed. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...

Fed governors don't see the inflation problem that most other Americans seem to. www.realestatenews.com/2025/11/24/w...

Shades of the German intrigue south of the border in the past century. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/w...

Why do so many corporate websites make it difficult to locate the physical address of the company HQ? Let alone an email address?

Tenants of many 'affordable' apt bldgs in NYC (not those with controlled rents) aren't keeping up with their payments sufficiently to finance the upkeep. Another part of the city's housing crunch. www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/19/a...

The Wednesday before is the biggest cannabis sales day of the year. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/th...

'Indian' betting halls apparently have reduced tribal poverty, though how much they have impoverished gamblers is unclear. www.census.gov/library/stor...

LA has the lowest rider charge of any major bike-share city. NYC's, of course, is the highest. nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/11/19/c...

Quiet revolution. education.jhu.edu/edpolicy/pol...

Nearest major university to Long Island's Hamptons, Stony Brook, continues to attract more foreigners. www.newsday.com/long-island/...

With all the choice that streaming allows, maybe there's room for "local news" casts that root against the home teams and for bad weather and lousy commutes. And that do no "brites" on precocious schoolchildren and 100th birthdays! www.sfgate.com/warriors/art...

The out-migration of NYC taxpayers, in evidence even before Covid, ceased by 2022 and reversed through 2023. comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/the-...

Princely playground www.reuters.com/business/med...

Uh-huh. And of course, it is Google. pressgazette.co.uk/comment-anal...

What could go wrong? www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

Are (legal) dope sales rising inversely to the decline of alcoholic beverages? themarijuanaherald.com/2025/11/conn...

Hillsdale is the outlier. 'Private' higher-ed is tied to federal govt. cfau.aei.org/private-univ...

Extreme commercialization of US sports at a time of reported consumer stress is a mystery. Even those who don't buy tickets or merch effectively pay through cable or streaming subs, or by enduring long commercial breaks on live events. www.nytimes.com/athletic/679...

The Christians' case, per Walter Russell Mead. www.wsj.com/opinion/trum...

Writers of "letters" (comments) to the editor can be people of interest if you take an interest. www.notus.org/perspectives...

Interesting bit on how American live acts changed. www.wsj.com/opinion/how-...

Her party is going to want a lot of confrontation out of Spanberger, undoing Youngkin. This will be a political challenge. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...

There's an interesting cleavage on the right between most of the Federalist Society lawyers (who held sway in Trump 1.0) and the legal bent of Trump 2.0. A small but intellectually important part of the fracturing of MAGA. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/n...