Pun Salad

⁸ The wise in heart accept commands,
    but a chattering fool comes to ruin.

Still, Proverbialist, I hear you about the chattering fools. They can't come to ruin soon enough.

But for fools who want to outsource their chattering, please see our Amazon Product du Jour.

Twitter is limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans in search results — a technique known as “shadow banning” — in what it says is a side effect of its attempts to improve the quality of discourse on the platform.

The Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.’s spokesman no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter, VICE News has learned. It’s a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform — and it's the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility. The profiles continue to appear when conducting a full search, but not in the more convenient and visible drop-down bar. (The accounts appear to also populate if you already follow the person.)

I certainly have noticed the improvement in the quality of Twitter discourse… no, wait, I haven't.

On Monday evening, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke before Turning Point USA’s High School Leadership Summit. There, she explained to the students that the attraction of conservatism shouldn’t be “owning the libs,” in the popular parlance; instead, conservatives should try to convince. She explained, “I know that it’s fun and that it can feel good, but step back and think about what you’re accomplishing when you do this — are you persuading anyone?”

The blowback from the Trumpian right was swift. Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars tweeted, “Nikki Haley is incredibly stupid.” Breitbart headlined, “Nikki Haley Scolds Students.”

I have never regretted bailing on Breitbart back in 2016. And I've never been attracted to Infowars.

I'd like to think that making polite and evidence-based arguments are persuasive. My experience (I'd like to think) indicates not so much. Still, there's the matter of self-respect: if you score on a cheap shot, will you feel good about yourself in the morning?

We all know the arguments that this is yet another example of empty symbolism, based on 9-year-old "research"—I mean, literally, a report from a nine-year-old kid.

But Matthew notes this comment from Santa Barbara councilman Jason Dominguez:

“Unfortunately, common sense is just not common,” he said. “We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.”

That's the last kind of thing you want to hear after a re-reading of George Orwell's 1984.

A Massachusetts man was arrested after police said he stripped down inside a Planet Fitness in Plaistow.

Police said Eric Stagno, 34, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, walked into the gym and removed his clothing. He walked back and forth a couple times before settling in on the yoga mats.

"Massachusetts man" has had a long history of Granite State misbehavior. But LFOD? Ah, there it is:

"Well I just moved out here, so this is a 'Live Free or Die' state, so anything's free," gym member Doug Wilson said.

Welcome to the state, Doug. Although Eric seems to be relying more on the implicit promise in the gym's "judgment-free zone" slogan than LFOD.

Last month, when the US Supreme Court ruled that states and local communities could collect sales tax from online retailers in other jurisdictions, it was heralded as a boon for those looking to recoup lost revenue and small businesses trying to compete with large online retailers.

But for some in New Hampshire, the South Dakota v. Wayfair ruling was viewed as an affront to the state’s politics and way of life. It is, after all, a point of pride for flinty Granite Staters that they don’t have an income tax or sales tax — known to locals as the “New Hampshire advantage.”

“ ‘Live free or die’ is not just a slogan on a license plate. It is the very essence of who we are,” said Governor Chris Sununu last month when he called for a special session to find a legislative fix that would halt other states from implementing taxes on local businesses.

Unfortunately, the New Hampshire General Court couldn't get it done yesterday. Try, try again.