Teachers should not agree to this. Changing a 5-year-old’s diaper opens them to accusations of inappropriate touching. A stranger should not be touching a child’s genital area. If these kids aren’t ready for school, they shouldn’t be in school, that’s all there is to it.

Like all kids in my country, I went to school at 7. Not because I couldn’t use the toilet, which I, of course, could, but because it’s how it was done. Clearly, this in no way prevented me from achieving way more than normal academically. There’s too much school as it is. Inflicting this on teachers and on kids who clearly don’t need school is ridiculous.

After Roe was repealed, the yearly number of abortions grew from around 930,000 to 1,12-1,13 million. These are only the abortions that are officially counted. Self-administered abortions don’t even enter the calculations.

As I said right when Roe was repealed, the only reason it was repealed is because it changes absolutely nothing any more. Medical science made abortion impossible to ban.

The number of abortions didn’t increase because of Roe being repealed. And it should have been repealed no matter what because it’s bad law, poor legal thinking, and unconstitutional drivel.

This is not a legal issue. It’s an issue of a very broken understanding of the self. I don’t think even the most fanatical pro-abortionist will say that a million abortions a year are a great sign.

The tour guides at Lincoln’s hut village, the tomb and his family house were great. The stories they told were not at all political, and I appreciated that. For instance, we found out that Lincoln bought his small sons a toy that, adjusted for inflation and cost of living, would cost $900 today. A 19th-century iPad of sorts! It was a contraption to project images, so the analogy works.

Also, Lincoln’s wife Mary cooked on an open fire for years. Only a year before Lincoln became president did they get a stove. I have no idea what you can cook on an open fire beyond soup.

The only tour guide I didn’t like was at the Old State Capitol. She was obsessed with slavery. Didn’t want to talk about anything else, boring everybody to tears. We also had slavery where I’m from, and nobody cares on the least. I don’t see the gain from turning it into a sacred cult object.

Lincoln had 3 great-grandchildren. And none of them had children of their own. I’m shocked by this. All these people had to do was continue the famous bloodline but they let it die. How can people be so dumb?

All three lived to old age. So it’s not like they died before they could procreate. Useless, wasted lives of utter uselessness. Unbelievable.

We are visiting Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site with Klara’s class. I’ve gone on a lot of these field trips with my mother’s class back in the USSR, and, yes, cultural differences are very real. The capacity for calmness and attention among American fourth-graders is vastly superior. Everybody is polite, kind, and helpful. People who can focus and control themselves like this at 10 will do great things.

This is an extraordinary country, people. Let’s not piss it away.

Klara is in bed, singing a song she composed:

I love Mommy and Dada

And God

And Jesus, our redeemer

I love the world

And animals who play in the fields

We are going on a class trip to the Lincoln Museum tomorrow.

I’m finding out fascinating things about the life of Francisco Franco from his biography by Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios. For instance, it turns out that Franco’s father Nicolás was a left-liberal who abandoned Franco’s pious mother Pilar for a life of dissipation in Madrid. He was also a raging pedo who impregnated and abandoned a 14-year-girl at the age of 33. Nicolás was really upset when his son became the right-wing dictator of Spain.

In a rejection of his father’s life journey, Franco became a chaste, faithful family man in adulthood.

That the Department of State would ever issue a statement worded like this was unimaginable:

Last week, the United States refused to participate in the UN’s review of the Global Compact on Migration.

The United States objects to the Global Compact on Migration and UN efforts to facilitate replacement migration to the United States and our Western allies.

— Department of State (@StateDept) May 11, 2026

The words and the action behind them are urgently necessary. As they say on X, all this and you are blackpilling?

I was asked to comment on the interview Iulia Mendel gave to Tucker Carlson. It so happens that I know Iulia and I know the back story. I don’t want to betray any confidences, so I’ll just say that “hell has no fury like a woman scorned.” Sometimes, being a faithful husband and wanting to honor your marriage vows comes at a price.

And to close out the day on a spot of good news from a reader:

This is brilliant, and I support this strategy completely. We need to play these bastards like a violin because they are neoliberal and annoying.