Scholars Believe Explosive Growth Of The Early Church Was Due To Christians Being Allowed To Eat Bacon - Babylon Bee

“Save yourselves from this crooked generation! Believe in Jesus, the Messiah! And also, I had a dream last week and we can totally eat bacon now!” said Peter in one of his recently discovered early sermons given in a Jewish synagogue.

CPI Report Shows Inflation Eased to 3% in June - WSJ

So-called core consumer prices, which excludes volatile food and energy categories, rose 4.8%

I’ve loved this magic! Media and politicos each month review the difference between core and consumer price index inflation, then trumpet whichever value is lower.

How do we measure inflation? By whichever value makes us look the best!

They Had Great Credit Scores. Then They Retired - WSJ

living on a fixed income and paying off old loans can lower a score, said Ethan Dornhelm, vice president of scores and analytics at FICO.

Deleveraging is a significant credit risk in the funhouse mirror world of FICO logic.

Income and employment data aren’t included in the calculation, but credit scores do reward borrowers for having a mix of different kinds of loans, which can hurt those who have already paid off mortgages and auto loans.

They don’t care about your assets, liquidity, or employment status. It only matters that you have a nice, fat portfolio of debt and that you play by their rulebook which, by the way, you’re not allowed to read because it’s “proprietary.”

Embarrassing: Scientist Invents Lab-Grown Beef Only To Realize Cows Exist - Babylon Bee

“I’m all set to announce to the world that we invented beef, when all of a sudden, it dawns on me - cows are beef. There are literally huge slabs of beef walking all over the place. I’m such an idiot.”

Hottest Days Ever? Don’t Believe It - WSJ Opinion

It isn’t plausible to characterize Earth’s warming in a single average number, especially when we don’t really know what that number is today, much less from 125,000 years ago.

Millions of People Booted From Medicaid After Pandemic - WSJ

Enrollment in the health program for the low-income and disabled grew to 95 million during the pandemic, as states stopped checking to make sure people were eligible. Now states have started checking again, and more than 1.6 million people have been kicked off the program in the past three months

Um, they weren’t eligible, so why the outrage? They maintained benefits that they were not entitled to, and we’re supposed to feel bad for them now that they’ve been caught?

It’s a safety net, not a hammock.

Banks’ Newest Fed Headache: Nonstop Instant Payments - WSJ

Under an existing system called ACH (automated clearinghouse), transactions typically take several days to settle. That can be frustrating for those waiting to receive their funds but often benefits banks that use the money in the interim.

It’s long past time for instant payments. Rather gouche that we sit around waiting for our money, while the banks get to continue to play with something that isn’t theirs.

Consumers to Face New Limits on Private Short-Term Health Insurance - WSJ

Under a proposed rule, the administration aims to limit short-term health plans to three months, or four months if consumers opt to extend them

Isn’t it wonderful when government bureaucrats, who rail in court filings about big corporations limiting “consumer choice,” who never have to worry about facing a job loss, a gap between jobs, or the spiraling cost of healthcare on their mega Cadillac plans, decide that they know what’s best for your family’s healthcare coverage?

Some consumers seek out temporary plans because they are generally less expensive than ACA plans, offer flexible coverage periods such as 30 days or three years, and can be obtained any time of the year rather than just during the once-a-year ACA open-enrollment period.

Huh, that’s weird. These plans are offering options that consumers actually want, and are willing to pay for without making their neighbors subsidize them via tax credits.

Short-term plans could provide coverage with fewer benefits at premiums 54% lower than ACA-compliant plans

They found this one weird trick online to save you money: they don’t charge male subscribers for maternity care.

This younger, healthier demographic is considered important for restraining premiums that could rise if mostly older or sicker people enroll in coverage.

Social Security worked out so well that we decided to bring that successful business model to health insurance!

The Biden administration plans to limit short-term health policies that are typically less comprehensive than Affordable Care Act plans, in part because of concerns the products undercut the Obama-era health law.

This isn’t about you, your family, your economic freedom, or your budget. It’s about them protecting their vanity project.

Everyone Wants Interest on Their Deposits. That’s Bad for Main Street Banks. - WSJ

The Fed’s hikes and the failures of a trio of midsize banks are prompting once-loyal customers to pull their money out of checking accounts that pay no interest.

Low interest checking accounts are the credit card of deposit accounts. The bank will pay you 0.1% on your deposits, then turn around and loan you money for a car at 6%.

And customers don’t like that… go figure.

Sparklers 🇺🇸

What the Supreme Court’s Rejection of Student-Loan Forgiveness Means for You - WSJ

Millions of Americans will have to prepare to repay the entire balance of their student debt now that the Supreme Court has overturned President Biden’s loan-forgiveness plan.

Weird, that’s what it said on their Master Promissory Notes.

Report Blames Top Biden Officials for Failures During Afghanistan Exit - WSJ

U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul were so concerned in the months leading to the pullout that they sent a rare classified dissent cable warning that the Taliban’s advance was coming sooner than the administration had anticipated and correctly predicted that Afghanistan’s military would be unable to stop it, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan - WSJ

As a presidential candidate in 2020, Biden said he would pursue legislation to erase $10,000 in student debt per borrower. Once in office, however, he confronted a gridlocked Congress where neither Democratic efforts to cancel student debt nor Republican bills to prohibit loan forgiveness survived.

It’s been a three year con. He didn’t get it through Congress when they had unified control, even though they passed plenty of profligate spending, this plan failed, and the new one will, too. Both chamber of Congress this year passed legislation rebuking the forgiveness… which required Democratic votes!

Let it go.

Why does every website have auto play videos now? I just want to read.

They got your vote twice, and all you got was a lousy student loan payment.

🤡🤡🤡

Harvard To Get Around Affirmative Action Ban By Asking You Whether You Prefer BBQ, Ranch, Or Soy Sauce - Babylon Bee

Admissions faculty at Harvard was devastated today upon hearing the news that they could no longer use racial discrimination to turn their school into a diverse rainbow of beautiful mediocrity.

“But, look, 13 million jobs, again, when you think about how Americans feel better about their personal finances, that is important. When you think about wages are going up, when you think about the really good paying, millions of good-paying jobs, union jobs that his policies are going to create, all the things are really incredibly important. So the president’s going to continue to speak to that. And that’s what we believe we’re going…that is our, you know, our priority to do,” Jean-Pierre responded.

When did grammar become so unfashionable in the communications field?

The Espionage Act’s Ugly, Un-American History - WSJ Opinion

The U.S. must prosecute spies and protect national secrets, but the Espionage Act isn’t necessary to do so. More than a dozen more-specific federal statutes criminalize spying, hacking and misuse of government records. These statutes require criminal intent. Most of them expressly apply only to “employees and officers” of the U.S., so they couldn’t be used to target journalists or former presidents.

Pretty good take. Really highlights the bifurcation of justice over the past three decades.

EV Startup Lordstown, Once an Ohio Town’s Savior, Files for Bankruptcy - WSJ

Lordstown once said it would produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the former GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, but so far it has made only a handful of trucks. The company’s market capitalization has fallen to $47.49 million as of Monday, from a peak of about $5 billion in February 2021.

This plant used to be a big waypoint on my travels between home and points north. Unbelievable how many financial advantages this company had, and they still blew it.

Ultimately, it seems like the cost of swimming against the current trying to bring a product to market that few can afford, and even fewer want.