‘This Signals the Collapse’ – WSJ

The news of a restaurant for dogs opening in San Francisco was met with impassioned reaction from both critics and enthusiasts.

Some said Dogue, which opened last week with a $75 tasting menu and French-inspired pastries just for dogs, feels emblematic of everything wrong with San Francisco right now — a place where dogs are treated better than humans…

“This signals the collapse,” one Instagram commenter wrote. “As if the rest of the country didn’t hate us enough already,” another posted.

Sure, some may find it distasteful when well-heeled residents in a city full of human misery are laying down $75 for a pet meal. But there are always at least two sides to every story. Ms. Kadvany reports:

Others came to Dogue’s defense online, glad to see a small, independently owned business rather than a vacant storefront.

“It’s a small business. They aren’t doing anything wrong,” one poster wrote on Instagram. “Are they supposed to kill their dream because SF has bigger problems?”

Hear, hear. Let’s have fewer empty storefronts in San Francisco and more new businesses, no matter how ridiculous they may be.

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The Carbon-Offsettin’ Irish?
For years the question about Notre Dame football has been whether the school can still compete for national titles while maintaining its high academic standards. Now it seems another question is whether the football program can continue to grow revenues without exposing the emptiness of the school’s trendy virtue signals about climate. Notre Dame professor Christian Smith gripes in the Chicago Tribune about fans’ use of emitting airplanes and wishes the team would play home games only in South Bend, Ind., or nearby Chicago. Mr. Smith writes:

Whoever’s job it is at the University of Notre Dame to dream up special events apparently did not get the memo about the climate change crisis, nor the memo about Notre Dame’s proclaimed solemn commitment to environmental sustainability.

On Aug. 26, the Fighting Irish will play the Navy Midshipmen at Aviva Stadium in Dublin for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. This is not Notre Dame’s first time playing football in its ersatz home country. Neither is this merely an American treat for the good people of Ireland. The Notre Dame events machine is geared up to entice American fans to fly the Chicago-to-Dublin round trip with Aer Lingus, offering official travel and hospitality packages…

Mr. Smith, whose credentials are in sociology rather than physical sciences, is nevertheless comfortable forecasting planetary catastrophe. He predicts voluminous greenhouse gas emissions during the Dublin roadie and insists that the Irish should stop playing in Ireland. The professor is also probably not too keen on Notre Dame playing a “home” game this weekend in Las Vegas.

This column will go out on a limb and predict that Mr. Smith will not be dictating the athletics schedule. But perhaps this is a moment for Notre Dame administrators to consider more balanced climate pronouncements with an acknowledgment that abundant and reliable energy makes an enormous contribution to human flourishing—not to mention university fundraising.

Perhaps even Mr. Smith will someday come to appreciate that there really are virtues of fossil fuels. As a William R. Kenan Jr. professor at Notre Dame Mr. Smith may be interested in learning about his benefactor. The website of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust informs:

After working for Carbide Manufacturing Company, which later became Union Carbide, Mr. Kenan was offered the job as consulting engineer for Henry M. Flagler, a partner of

John D. Rockefeller

in founding Standard Oil Company. Flagler retired from Standard Oil and began his development of the Florida East Coast Railroad, eventually building the railroad, eleven hotels, power and water companies, and agricultural enterprises… Mr. Kenan would become president of what was known as The Flagler System.

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Washington’s Spending Party Less Affordable Than Ever
This week Alan Rappeport and

Jim Tankersley

of the

New York Times

reported:

America’s gross national debt exceeded $31 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, a grim financial milestone that arrived just as the nation’s long-term fiscal picture has darkened amid rising interest rates.

A grim milestone, indeed. This staggering figure is not just larger than the $25 trillion U.S. economy. The Peterson Foundation helpfully points out that $31 trillion is more than the value of the economies of China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom combined.

What’s perhaps most striking is that the latest debt surge is occurring while there is also a revenue surge into the Treasury. The Beltway crowd can hardly blame taxpayers for not doing their fair share. Washington’s share of our economy is at historic heights.

William McBride

recently wrote for the Tax Foundation:

… federal tax collections are up 23 percent over the last year, according to the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). At the current pace, federal tax collections will reach a record high of about $5 trillion in nominal dollars for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 ending September 30, which is about $1 trillion more than last year’s $4 trillion in collections (also a record).

As a share of GDP, federal tax collections are on track to hit a multi-decade high of about 20.2 percent in FY 2022, up from 18.1 percent last fiscal year and exceeding the last peak of 20 percent set during the dot-com bubble in FY 2000. Federal tax collections are approaching the all-time high of 20.5 percent of GDP set in 1943 during World War II. Compared to average federal tax collections in the post-war era of 17.2 percent of GDP, this year’s collections are set to exceed that level by 3 percentage points.

The problem is spending.

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Longest Books Ever Written
“Fauci Reveals What He Got Wrong in Handling COVID-19,” Epoch Times, October 6

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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”

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(Lisa Rossi helps compile Best of the Web. Thanks to Wes Van Fleet, Richard Belzer, and Tony Lima.)