Shawn Hairston

The Great Escape is family-friendly. Is it a movie just made for kids? The Bridge on the River Kwai is family-friendly. Is it a movie just made for kids? The Princess Bride is family-friendly. Is it a movie just made for kids? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is family-friendly. Is it a movie just made for kids? North by Northwest is family-friendly. Is it a movie just made for kids? Star Wars is family-friendly. Is it a movie just made for kids? (No, it was not, despite what prequel apologists say) A "family-friendly movie" is not the same thing as a "movie made for kids," though many people conflate the two. And, importantly, a "family-friendly movie" does not mean a movie is tame or boring. Constraints give birth to creativity. All movies used to be "familiy-friendly" because it was understood the familiy would be watching movies together. Some of the best movies of all time are "family-friendly." Only later did we split off and create the category of "made for children," with one side betting more obscene and the other getting more frantic, shallow, and inane. Bring back "family-friendly" as the default. Project Hail Mary, which just made a bazillion dollars, is also "family-friendly." Not a coincidence.

Major notes from the weekend on Iran: 1) Combined Force strikes started hitting IRGC Ground Forces units in the Kurdish regions. 2) We have confirmed that IRGC members are at least two cycles behind on pay. 3) *Coincidentally,* I'm sure, the IRGC Ground Forces Commander went on a tour visiting these forces. In combination, these three notes indicate a high risk of desertion throughout the IRGC. 4) Separately, we have the attack on Diego Garcia that, frankly, justifies the war in and of itself. The base itself isn't terribly significant, its not that "Iran can get Diego Garcia! We have to go to war!" The issue is that Iran constantly lies about everything to do with its nuclear program. Taqiyya. They've issued fatwas against nuclear weapons, then simultaneously enrich uranium to levels only usable in weapons while developing long-range ballistic missiles. "Its for medical purposes!" No, it wasn't, and it couldn't be. Uranium enriched to this degree has no medical uses. "Its for self-defense!" Then why were you hiding a long range ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to London? The fact they were developing these weapons while consistently lying about it, in the face of all the world being united against their acquisition of the weapons, combined with all of their past acts of terrorism and piracy, absolutely justifies this war. 5) On Negotiations: These are being played very close to the chest, but here's what I've been able to gather... Witkoff and Kushner are keeping lines of communication open with non-IRGC elements of the Iranian State—if I had to guess, I'd expect officials within the Republican Government. If not Pezeshkian himself, then probably people with access to him. It seems abundantly clear that the situation in Iran is at this point A Tale of Two Cities. One is an IRGC-Cleric alliance propping up the corpse of the Velayat-e Faqih. The other is the Republican-Reform alliance propping up the still in-tact organs of state outside of the IRGC's control. We are almost certainly negotiating with one of these 'cities,' and not the other. This is what I expected would be the prelude to final resolution. The existing power structures in Iran will continue to pull support away from, and rallying support against, the IRGC. At this point, it appears the plan is to reach a pre-negotiated settlement with the Republican-Reform Government while hammering the IRGC on all available fronts and enabling a fairly smooth transition of power. Mass uprising is probably now the backup plan, with total dismantling of Iran's infrastructure the backup to the backup plan.

Tucker Carlson: “Sharia Law has made Islamic societies more advanced than the West.” Do I need to even add a further caption?