Small Children Are Casualties of Oregon School Shooting. Maine Senate Debate: ‘Oh, Shut Up.’ Strassel: Will Alaska Commit Economic Suicide? Embattled Press Secretary. Tariq Ramadan. Judi Dench. More
A mass shooting at an Oregon elementary school has taken the lives of four people, an adult teacher and three children.
The tender ages of the murdered children make the news unbearable. The children were 5, 8, and 11 years old. The shooter opened fire on a truck before he began his deadly rampage.
Nearly all we know about the shooter’s identity early this morning is his age and that he used a shotgun belonging to his mother:
A 16-year-old opened fire in an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, killing three children and a teacher, before being shot to death by a “community member” who had followed the teenager into the building, Bend police said.
County dispatch received a 911 call at 12:59 p.m. Thursday “from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by a person with a long gun,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a news conference Thursday evening. He said the suspect then entered Silver Rail Elementary School by shooting at a locked door.
A “hero gunman” bystander shot the suspect and ended the killing spree. One report on the shooting described the man who took down the shooter as a good Samaritan. Thank goodness he was an armed good Samaritan. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek praised the bystander who stopped the killing:
And to the community member who heroically intervened to stop further loss of life, your actions carry a heavy emotional burden – and my thoughts are with you.
It was a generous statement in a terrible time—good for the governor. But do you really think somebody “carries a heavy emotional burden” from stopping more murders? The American Greatness headline is “Hero Bystander Kills Maniac School Shooter in Gun-Controlled Oregon.” Liz Sheld wonders about the identity of the killer:
What will we learn about the homicidal maniac responsible for these murders? Was he on SSRIs? Was this a trans-identifying teen? Was this a known wolf who was familiar to law enforcement and the school but never held to account and punished? Stay tuned.
“‘Oh, Shut Up’: 5 Takeaways from the Senate Debate in Maine” is the New York Times headline for the final debate between Maine’s incumbent GOP moderate Susan Collins and challenger Troy Jackson. I’m going to bet you knew immediately which of the contenders would have been out of character saying that. Townhall admonishes:
Troy, calm down; treat Collins like she’s your second cousin.
In another Senate debate last night, Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan chided Democratic challenger Mary Peltola for her reliance on cue cards:
“Really, Mary? Reading off a script? You can’t cue-card your way through the Senate,” Sullivan wrote on X after Peltola appeared to have a notecard-sized paper with bullet points that she looked down at for several seconds while responding to earlier questions.
The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel suggests the issue for Alaska is bigger than Ms. Peltola’s cue cards in a column headlined “Alaska Considers Economic Suicide“:
That’s the choice in the Senate election here, the message the incumbent, Mr. Sullivan, needs to land if he wants to beat Democrat Mary Peltola. Alaskans are as bitter as lower-48ers about affordability (prices are even higher in this remote state), and many voters are unenthusiastic about rewarding the party in charge.
Mr. Sullivan’s mission is to remind Alaska—a state almost wholly at the mercy of federal policy—that things could be worse. That a vote for Mrs. Peltola is a vote to re-empower a left determined to kill the Alaskan economy. And a vote to dismiss the only Alaskan senator with the president’s ear. …
Alaska’s nightmare ended with Mr. Trump’s return to office. Elevated prices aside, things have rarely looked more optimistic for the 49th state. On stage, Mr. Sullivan rips up his list of those 70 Biden actions—a document he entitled the “Last Frontier Lockup”—to riotous applause. He notes that Mr. Trump has put unrelenting focus on Alaskan prosperity and recounts the progress.
Brotherly Love. The Washington Free Beacon has another hard-hitting report on Michigan senatorial hopeful Abdul El-Sayed’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. “Meet Abdul El-Sayed’s Academic ‘Inspiration’: A Muslim Brotherhood Scion Barred from Entering US Over Terror Ties” is the headline. The banned scion is the notorious Tariq Ramadan, whose career the Free Beacon recounts.
Iran is also a looming issue for the midterms. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal characterizes the Democratic position as “just get out” and allow Iran to charge tolls for the Strait of Hormuz. Another editorial in the same esteemed venue suggests that Ukrainian President Zelensky “is open to a Starlink deal.” Meanwhile, Owen Matthews of the London Spectator entertains the fascinating notion that President Trump has “changed sides regarding Ukraine.”
All these issues, of course, are playing second fiddle to the overwhelmingly talked about concern of “affordability.” The headline on Matthew Continetti’s Free Expression column this morning: “‘Affordability’ Isn’t an Impossibility.” But politicians always go about attaining it the wrong way, argues Continetti, who provides his prescription:
Mr. Trump says inflation will fall once the Iran war ends—details to follow. Meanwhile the Democrats promise more government, not less: more spending, tariffs, taxes, rent controls and price controls. The same policies, in other words, that produced the inflation from which the U.S. is now trying to escape….
But there’s another way to affordability. If the Fed pursues stable prices and government restrains its appetite for intervention, choice and competition will bring prices down….
American Enterprise Institute emeritus scholar Mark J. Perry’s “Chart of the Century” traces the cost of goods and services over time. It shows that costs have risen most sharply in areas where government is deeply involved—healthcare, education, child care and housing. By contrast, prices fall in areas where government’s footprint is light and people are free to trade. Think cars, clothing, cellphones and other personal electronics.
Want the world to be more affordable? Follow Volcker and Reagan. Tighten credit until inflation is below the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Cut spending, taxes and regulations and grow the supply of goods and services. Restore deterrence and freedom of navigation in the Middle East. And remain steadfast in the face of economic and political trouble.
Embattled White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia went on Sean Hannity’s show to staunch the bleeding:
“You went to Pepperdine Law School but you did not pass the bar exam, correct?” Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity asked Zacharia in an interview Thursday night.
“Correct,” she responded.
Earlier on Thursday, Zacharia told the right-wing news outlet Real America’s Voice in an interview that her results on the bar exam were “somewhat inconsequential” because she planned to move to China in 2011 for her husband’s work.
It’s extremely unfortunate (most especially for Ms. Zacharia) that this didn’t come up in the vetting (?) process. For what it’s worth, this seemed clumsy to me. Ditto Zacharia’s forced joke that she hoped she’d be played by Scarlett Johansson if SNL covers this matter—that had PR professional fingerprints all over it. Still, as Powerline’s John Hinderaker notes:
She is being derided as a lightweight by the same people who saw nothing wrong with the hapless Karine Jean-Pierre….
But coincidentally, it tracks exactly with another case: that of Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed has for years claimed to be a doctor….
Trigger Warning. “Judi Dench Melts Snowflakes” is the headline on Spencer Klaven’s Free Expression piece on the legendary actress’s forthcoming memoir:
… Ms. Dench imparts a valuable lesson to young theatergoers: Art shouldn’t come with caution tape. “The trigger warnings before ‘Titus Andronicus’ would be longer than the play,” writes Ms. Dench in an excerpt.
Viewers can’t expect to be insulated from disturbing experiences when they go to a tragedy—or a comedy, for that matter. “If you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theatre,” Ms. Dench continues. There’s no such thing as a risk-free artistic experience: “I want to be triggered, excited, stimulated, provoked and disturbed, to be taken out of my comfort zone. Isn’t that what makes theatre and films so thrilling?”
You Don’t Have to Be a Snowflake: Ms. Must, a supporter of the death penalty, breathed a huge sigh of relief after President Trump wisely vetoed War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s atrocious idea of livestreaming the execution of Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan.
