Losing My Perspicacity, September 18, 2025

Good morning and Happy Thursday! Thanks for being here this morning.

Okay, so I’m a dumbass. On Tuesday night, when scheduling the newsletter, I accidentally set it to publish at 5 PM, not 5 am, as I usually do. Thank God I wasn’t in charge of getting someone up in time to make the NYC Marathon. Or the Olympics.

Anyway, I am very sorry that LMP wasn’t there when you opened your email in the morning. Mea culpa!

Early Wednesday evening, ABC announced that it had pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air “indefinitely,” allegedly due to whatever Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk. I only ever see clips of Kimmel that show up on my Instagram feed, so this is no real problem for me, but it’s yet another American being disciplined by the powers that be for speaking the truth about Kirk, his politics, and the way the right is desperately trying to rewrite his history and politics.

I see nothing objectionable or even controversial in those statements. And look, I’m not a huge fan of Kimmel's, for reasons dating back to The Man Show and continuing with his cringey “I’m friends with Matt Damon"!” gags that never seem to end. And he’s made far too many mean-spirited fat jokes about the contestants on The Biggest Loser for my comfort. Yet, now I’m going to have to defend Jimmy Kimmel as some Salman Rushdie-adjacent martyr, because everyone has gone crazy over Charlie Kirk.

I can not reiterate enough how unworthy Kirk is of all the praise that continues to be heaped on him in death. This is a guy who once said Joe Biden should get the death penalty for his “crimes against America,” whatever those supposedly are.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has lost its damn mind. Here is yet another think piece on how Kirk was playing 3D chess while the rest of us played checkers.

That Op-Ed contains this gem:

And therein lies our problem. Some viewpoints should absolutely be demonized. For example, the idea that the trans community is mentally ill and dangerous. Or that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. The viewpoint that Black people aren’t as mentally qualified as white people. Or that women should all be home, submitting to their husbands. These are all things Charlie Kirk espoused, and those views should be excoriated and condemned to oblivion forever. Further, there is nothing wrong with keeping a peddler of lies, misinformation, and conspiracies from hawking his wares at your university. We have entirely lost the plot.

And I’ll say it louder for people in the back: Charlie Kirk “debated” college students because fully grown adults made him look like an idiot. He was a 31-year-old man. You’re not supposed to still be arguing with 20-year-olds at that age.

While we’re on the subject of free speech and reimaging of Charlie Kirk, Mehdi Hasan may be the left’s strongest warrior. I know it’s either him or Elizabeth Warren.

I don’t know how much more of this revisionist Charlie Kirk history I can take.

Today: Kash has another very bad day in Congress; Dr. Monarez lets RFK Jr. have it; and the GOP fails to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar (evergreen); and The High Note.

Let’s go.

Oh Kash, you’re just not very good at this, are you?

FBI Director Kash Patel (every time I have to type that, it feels a little bit worse) was back on Capitol Hill today, this time to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, just one day after being taken to the woodshed by its Senate counterpart.

This moment pretty well sums up the entire day:

That’s one of the top law enforcement officials in the country, America. Doesn’t know who Dylan Roof is. Here’s another gem:

I’m going to let my friend Rex Hupke have the last word on this one:

That is by far the most accurate description of the last two days I have seen.

Moving on.

Dr. Monarez gets her day before Congress

Yesterday, Dr. Susan Monarez, who was head of the CDC for less than a month before RFK Jr. fired her, got to tell her side of the story to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (That’s an actual committee? Let’s throw minibikes and scrapbooking into the mix to cover even more topics. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, Pensions, Paddleboarding, and Crocheting.)

Anyway. Monarez made good use of her time.

I realize that everything is relative these days, and that we have to conserve our outrage for the very worst of things, but telling the head of the CDC not to listen to career scientists would be a massive scandal in any other administration.

The former chief medical officer of the CDC, Debra Houry, testified alongside Monarez and told the Committee in no uncertain terms that Kennedy should resign.

The GOP fails to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar (again)

I know you’ll be shocked to learn that the latest motion to discipline Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was spearheaded by none other than Nancy Mace and her really big feelings. Mace’s motion to censure Omar was (of course) over comments Omar made about Charlie Kirk. I’ve never been happier to be self-semi-employed.

Four House Republicans crossed the aisle to help kill the measure:

The House GOP members are cuckoo banana puffs, but every once in a while, a few of them do something worthwhile. So what did Omar say to earn the wrath of Nancy Mace?

I’m really starting to wonder if Nancy Mace has a humiliation kink.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

While the British Royal Family is rolling out the gilded carpet for Donald Trump in a way I can’t wrap my head around, the British people are doing the Lord’s work.

Even the British horses are getting in on the act.

Survive and advance out there today. Don’t let the bastards get you down.