Mischief In A Headline

Saturday, October 18, 2025

This:

Trump administration is on track to cut 1 in 3 EPA staffers by the end of 2025, slashing agency’s ability to keep pollution out of air and water

So much wrong in so few words.  First, it ceases to be reporting when the section after the comma draws a conclusion.  Secondly, if you read the story they use anecdotal evidence of that conclusion, citing anecdotes that could or could not be related to staffing cuts by prior administration.  They might just be bad hires.  Thirdly, in an age when the agency in prior administrations tried to declare CO2 a “pollutant,” the very idea of “keeping pollution out of air and water” has been stretched so far out of shape as to be unrecognizable.  Is there a difference between litter and pollution?  Why must things be banned, why not just encourage people to use them more wisely?

The agency has become a slush fund for the distribution of taxpayer money for projects that somehow have the word “environment” hung on them.  At what point is the agency no longer preventing pollution but transitioning into just another wealth redistribution scheme?  And if the personnel cuts are in such redistributionist places is it really “ability slashing?”

That headline seems so simple, so straightforward, but it contains so much mischief.  to fully and truly understand it demands so much understanding of how government works, how science works and how they should be related.  But it must be remembered that many people do not read beyond the headline, even fewer beyond the lede.

Well, onto the rest of the Saturday round-up

The death of not just journalism, but writing generally. Exclusive: AI writing hasn’t overwhelmed the web yet.  But it is within a couple of percentage points – which is frightening.

When it comes to pithy – three original words in an Instapundit post say it all.

Ah, California.  Graft on graft – especially in L.A.  (Circle back to the E.P.A. as a slush fund – there is a pattern here.)  I love it when an idea has no political traction, but there are a handful that insist it should – so you just throw money at it.  My money – taxpayer money.  They have forgotten the magic word in California – “NO.”

Church news.  Things are changing – in a good way.  Men are outnumbering women in church among younger generations.  And yet, the ancient is being preserved.  It’s nice to read good church news for a change.