Pun Salad

This is Anthony Horowitz's second shot at James Bond novelizing, and it's pretty good. It opens (Chapter One, Line One) with a shocking declaration from M:

"So, 007 is dead."

What!?

That might be the reaction from the reader who managed to start right in without reading the back cover or book flap. Or this report, for that matter. The events in this book take place in 1950, pre-Casino Royale and it's Horowitz's story of James Bond's first case as the new 007, replacing his murdered predecessor. And also carrying on that predecessor's investigation, the one that got him killed in Marseilles.

It is the usual mixture of spycraft, suspense, danger, violence, sex, detective work, food, drink, cigarettes, and scenic locations. Bond is up against some very colorful/disgusting villains. And, unfortunately, even though Bond's supposed to be undercover, the bad guys seem to know exactly who he is, and why he's there. He goes through a lot of physical and mental torture. And also narrow escapes, of course.

I'm a little proud to say that I figured out what the eventual climactic plot twist would be pretty early on. However, so does Bond.

Rand Simberg tweets:

I've come to realize today, on the dawn of our first return to the Moon in over half a century, how wrong I've been about space policy for the past decades. Seeing the majestic Space Launch System with its mighty SRBs sitting on the pad now, poised to once again take men to the…

— Not-So-OK Boomer (@Rand_Simberg) April 1, 2026

Unfortunately clipped. Here's the Whole Thing:

You should note the date, if necessary.

I watched the launch, because I like to watch launches, and I wish the Artemis II crew well.

Not that it matters but: I thought NASA's official video feed was mediocre. We used to have better coverage of Space Shuttle launches. I wanted to see the SRB separation, but instead NASA cut to a crowd picture at that point.

Also of note:

• Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. Jacob Siegel gripes at the Free Press: I Wrote a Book About Censorship. Then People Tried to Censor It.

  Last week, I published a book called The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control. It describes how, as technology has advanced, American politics and government have been transformed by the shift in societal power from visible laws and institutions to opaque forms of digital and informational control.

  As I explain in the book, one of the consequences of this shift has been the ability of the government-tech alliance—what I call “the information state”—to carry out mass censorship online over the past decade. This point was noted in a generally positive review of the book that ran on March 24 in a left-wing magazine called The Baffler. The information state, noted academic Richard Greenwald in his review, rests on “twin pillars—censorship and propaganda.”

  So I could only savor the irony when, less than a day later, the magazine purged the review from its website.

  I should also point out that one of the villainesses in Jacob's book is Renée DiResta, and she's pushed back on his narrative pretty strongly on Twitter.

  Meanwhile, Nina Jankowicz's American Sunlight Project remains moribund, with the most recent posting on their "Research" page from August of last year.

• It's tough out there for a Sex Ed teacher. Also at the Free Press Logan Levkof also has a complaint: I Was Fired from My Sex Ed Job for Reposting a Trans Woman.

  Two weeks ago, after 21 years teaching sex education at Stephen Gaynor School, a private K–8 school for students with language-based learning differences in New York City, I was fired.

  Why? Because, according to the school, I had violated the administration’s values about LGBT inclusion—by reposting Brianna Wu, a trans woman, on X.

  Brianna has been flying way under Pun Salad's radar since her last appearance back in 2017, where we cited her lunar tune at Slashdot: Congressional Candidate Brianna Wu Claims Moon-Colonizing Companies Could Destroy Cities By Dropping Rocks. (Brianna lost that race.)

  But if Brianna's now promulgating heterodox views on trans issues that make the woke crowd mad, more power to her. Too bad Logan Levkof's career was collateral damage.

• Shocker: SCOTUS justice claims that free people might do what they want, instead of what they're told! Jonathan Turley doesn't know whether to be amused or horrified: “No One Knows What Will Happen Now”: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Warns Against Unbridled Free Speech.

  Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is again warning of a growing threat to the nation. In her lone dissent in Chiles v. Salazar, Jackson observed that “to be completely frank, no one knows what will happen now.” The ominous tone stemmed from the fact that free speech had prevailed over state-imposed orthodoxy in a Colorado case. Eight justices, including her two liberal colleagues, ruled that Colorado could not prevent licensed counselors from “any practice or treatment” that “attempts or purports to change” a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

  Justice Ketanji's argument was so bad, she couldn't even persuade Elena and Sonia to go along with it.

• It seems that most problems boil down to tax problems. Veronique de Rugy points out: The Abundance Agenda Has a Tax Problem.

  … the current debate over abundance focuses almost entirely on regulation. It says very little about the tax code, which often works in the same direction, quietly undermining supply, investment, and mobility. Our latest piece focuses on housing, but the problem extends more broadly to infrastructure and industrial construction.

  The tax code works against "abundance" in two ways, Vero says. First:

  The combination of demand-side subsidies and capital gains taxes discourages turnover. Policies like the mortgage interest deduction push prices up without increasing supply. At the same time, capital gains taxes create a lock-in effect that discourages people from selling homes that no longer fit their needs.

  But also:

  While policymakers have improved the treatment of equipment, most structures are still penalized through long depreciation schedules. That applies not just to apartment buildings, but to office space, energy infrastructure, and industrial facilities.

  It's a mess, in other words.