Brothers Judd Blog – If two New Hampshire men aren't a match for the Devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians. -Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943)

NO HEAVY LIFTING REQUIRED:

September 23, 2026

Getting Rich Slowly: So you want to be a millionaire? Take your time—and don’t forget to compound. (David R. Henderson, 9/17/26, defining ideas)

My former co-blogger Bryan Caplan recently posted an interesting table showing the net worths of households at each age range. Not surprisingly, the older you get, up to age 74, the higher your net worth. What would surprise many people who hear how strapped families are for funds is that 25 percent of the households whose head was between age 55 and 74 had net worths (in 2022 dollars) of over $1 million. How did they do it? Did they have high-paying jobs? Although Bryan doesn’t present data on incomes, the answer is that a high income is neither necessary nor sufficient for becoming rich.
In 1999, economists Dwight R. Lee and Richard B. McKenzie wrote a book showing how following seven simple rules, starting early in life, could get you to $1 million or more late in life. When I talk to people who are dispirited about their financial prospects, I try to buck them up by telling them these rules and, occasionally, buying them a used copy of the Lee/McKenzie book titled Getting Rich in America: Eight Simple Rules for Building a Fortune and a Satisfying Life. (Why eight rather than the earlier mentioned seven? I’ll explain later.) In my Wall Street Journal review of the book, I stated that their book is “is the how-to handbook for becoming the millionaire next door.”

Becoming a millionaire in Zimbabwe is hard. Becoming a millionaire in the United States is relatively easy, as I’ll show.

Music

PERSONAL JESUS:

September 23, 2026

The Nature of Kendrick Lamar’s “Suffering Servant” (Garrett Fish, 7/08/26, Christ & Pop Culture)

From a theological perspective, Lamar’s approach is compelling but deeply unsettling. He affirms biblical themes of sin and divine justice paired with moral responsibility, concepts that clearly align with traditional Christian doctrine. Yet he simultaneously embraces aspects of liberation theology, condemning systemic injustice and calling for accountability from both religious and political leaders. He is, in a sense, both the prophet and the skeptic, the confessor and the judge.

Perhaps the most significant theological tension in Lamar’s work lies not in his invocation of suffering, but in the nature of that suffering. The biblical category of the “suffering servant,” most explicitly articulated in Isaiah 52–53, is profoundly substitutionary. The servant suffers for others, bearing their iniquities and accomplishing their reconciliation with God. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). This distinction is the theological axis upon which Christianity turns.

The central question remains: Does Lamar’s vision of justice and mercy align with a biblical perspective, particularly from an Old Testament standpoint? The Hebrew Scriptures depict justice (mishpat) as more than a reaction to wrongdoing. It is, fundamentally, the establishment of righteousness in society (Isaiah 1:17, Micah 6:8). Mercy (hesed), often paired with justice, is an active covenantal love that calls for repentance and restoration within a community (Exodus 34:6-7). The Old Testament refuses to separate justice from divine holiness; rather, it demands that righteousness be upheld while mercy is extended within the bounds of God’s covenant.

Lamar echoes the prophetic tradition in calling for justice but often lacks the full biblical view of divine holiness that frames it. The prophets condemned oppression (Amos 5:24) but always tied justice to a return to God’s law and not systemic reform. His vision, while powerful, sometimes veers toward a justice divorced from divine standards, making it susceptible to cultural reinterpretation. Likewise, his pleas for mercy often emphasize human struggle over divine grace, missing the foundational biblical truth that true mercy flows from God’s character rather than human effort (Psalm 103:8-12). While he critiques corruption and personal sin, his solutions lean toward self-actualization and personal throes rather than the transformative work of Christ.

By collapsing the distance between personal suffering and salvific suffering, Lamar’s vision risks conflating empathy with atonement. The result is a theology in which awareness substitutes for redemption, and articulation becomes a stand-in for transformation. The cross, in this framework, becomes more of a symbol of shared human pain.

End of History

A PEOPLE WHO THINK THEMSELF A NATION ARE ONE:

September 23, 2026

Time to recognize the Houthis as Yemen’s real government: UN General Assembly should seek a diplomatic solution in Yemen that recognizes Ansar Allah as the nation’s legitimate ruler (Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies, September 23, 2026, Asia Times)

Since 2015, international recognition of Saudi-backed governments-in-exile has served to justify a decade of war and economic strangulation against 80% of Yemenis who live in the area governed by Ansar Allah, including Sana’a, the capital.

Between 2015 and 2022, with full US support, Saudi Arabia and its allies dropped over 69,000 bombs and missiles on Yemen, including thousands on civilian targets, killing at least 8,983 civilians, according to Iona Craig’s Yemen Data Project. By the end of 2021, the UN estimated that the war, blockade, and resulting humanitarian crisis had caused 377,000 deaths.

So how did Yemen end up in such a frightful predicament? How can the United States, other countries, and even the UN continue to recognize exile governments that have supported bombarding and starving their own people for over a decade?

The roots lie in Yemen’s failed political transition after the Arab Spring. In 2011, a mostly peaceful uprising brought down Yemen’s corrupt, repressive, US-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

His vice president, Hadi, was appointed to a two-year term as interim president in 2012. Ansar Allah, based in Saada in north Yemen, played a leading role in the uprising against Saleh and participated in the National Dialogue that was supposed to guide the transition.

But Hadi failed to organize the planned election by February 2014. His term was extended for another year, but the transition again stalled. That’s when Ansar Allah moved south from its base in Saada, combining popular protests over fuel prices and the stalled political transition with an armed advance toward Sana’a.

Its fighters entered the capital in September 2014, defeating government forces. Ansar Allah was subsequently granted seats in a UN-approved interim government under President Hadi.

But the power-sharing arrangement quickly broke down. Tensions between Ansar Allah and Hadi’s government escalated over the drafting of a new constitution and the division of political power. In January 2015, Ansar Allah seized the presidential palace, and Hadi resigned and retired to his home in Aden. Ansar Allah formed a ruling council to fill the vacuum.

However, a month later, with support from Saudi Arabia, Hadi rescinded his resignation and tried to reclaim the presidency. A few days later, he fled from Aden to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and, in March, 2015, the Saudis attacked Yemen, with US support.

Books Film/TV

THE CHOSEN:

September 22, 2026

Thomas the Tank Engine and his surprising Jewish connections (Jonathan Myers, 9/16/26, Jewish Chronicle)

The first connections begin not in Britain but, in what was then, Mandatory Palestine. Long before he became one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors, Awdry spent three years in Jerusalem. Between 1933 and 1936 he taught at St George’s School while preparing for ordination as an Anglican priest. At the school Awdry met Margaret Wale, a fellow teacher, whom he married two years later in 1938. Their son Christopher, born in 1940, became the original audience for the bedtime stories that eventually grew into The Railway Series. Had Awdry never gone to Jerusalem, Thomas’s story might never have been told.

During those Jerusalem years Awdry lived in a city served by the famous Jaffa–Jerusalem Railway, the first railway built in what he would have called the Holy Land. It owed its existence to Joseph Navon, a Jerusalem-born Sephardi Jewish entrepreneur who, after years of persistence, secured the Ottoman concession to build the line, overcoming formidable political and financial obstacles before French investors eventually joined the project. By the time Awdry arrived, the railway had become part of the British-administered railway system. There is no concrete evidence that it directly inspired Thomas, but it is difficult to imagine that such an enthusiastic railwayman as Awdry would not have known the line that climbed spectacularly from the Mediterranean coast into the Judean Hills. Put it like this: it is an intriguing coincidence that, before creating the world’s most famous fictional railway, Awdry spent three years living in the vicinity of one of its most remarkable Jewish ones.

Religion

EMPATHY IS A HOAX:

September 22, 2026

Environment

“JUST A TRICKLE”:

September 20, 2026

Where the Rio Grande Is Born: To understand the water crisis threatening millions across Texas and northern Mexico, I backpacked deep into the remote Colorado wilderness. (Jack Herrera, September 2026, Texas Monthly)

We began our journey by driving north through New Mexico. The June heat radiated off the highway, and our packs full of gaiters, puffers, and other winter gear felt absurd. But as we crossed the Colorado border and gained altitude, it felt as if someone had shifted the dial backward on the seasons. At 10,000 feet, winter conditions can last half the year. Steep peaks rose all around us, covered in blankets of snow.

We stopped to grab some provisions (whiskey) in the tiny former mining town of Creede. There I met Cole Birdsey, who was sitting outside his fly-fishing shop. A fifth-generation Creedite, he told me that his ancestors were miners; the first of them had come during the silver rush in the late nineteenth century. Deep in one of those mines, Birdsey’s grandfather had watched his brother die in an accident.

You can still spot the occasional flash of metal ore in the Rio Grande near Creede. That sort of natural wealth has driven settlement and industry across the American West for nearly five hundred years. In 1540 the conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado left present-day Mexico in search of the Seven Cities of Cíbola, rumored to be rich in gold. He eventually hunkered down along the Rio Grande near what became Bernalillo, New Mexico, where he terrorized the local Tiwa. Coronado never found Cíbola, but successive generations of European settlers searched for new ways to create wealth in the lands they had conquered.

By the late nineteenth century, deserts flanking the Rio Grande were bursting with cotton. Settlers diverted the river to irrigate these ever-expanding fields. Later, a public works project flooded valleys and renamed them reservoirs. Laborers built hundreds of miles of canals and pipes that today make it possible for humans to capture, claim, and use nearly every drop of the river.

The resources extracted from the dry West have helped build one of the most powerful, wealthiest civilizations in history. Yet some of the small towns in this area tell another story about the cost of that growth. Every boom inevitably goes bust.

Sex

IT’S IDEOLOGY, NOT CARE:

September 20, 2026

Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996–2019: A Register Study (Sami-Matti Ruuska, Katinka Tuisku, Timo Holttinen, Riittakerttu Kaltiala, 04 April 2026, Acta Paedeatrica)

Gender-referred adolescents showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls both before (45.7% vs. 15.0%) and ≥ 2 years after referral (61.7% vs. 14.6%). Those referred after 2010 had greater psychiatric needs than earlier cohorts, both before (47.9% vs. 15.3%) and ≥ 2 years after (61.3% vs. 14.2%) referral. Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, psychiatric morbidity increased markedly during follow-up—rising from 9.8% to 60.7% in feminising gender reassignment and from 21.6% to 54.5% in masculinising gender reassignment. After adjusting for prior psychiatric treatment, all gender-referred adolescents had similarly elevated risks of psychiatric morbidity, with hazard ratios approximately three times higher than female controls and five times higher than male controls.

Conclusion
Severe psychiatric morbidity is common among gender-referred adolescents and appears to be more prevalent in those referred after the recent surge in referrals. Psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment.

Academia

ALL COMEDY IS CONSERVATIVE:

September 20, 2026

In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?: A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice. (Nikole Hannah-Jones, Sept. 20, 2026, NY Times Magazine)

We thought by sending Najya to a mostly low-income and Black school, we could help improve it for all the children there. From my past reporting, I knew that P.T.A.s at poor schools often can raise only a few thousand dollars, but Faraji and I could write checks that exceeded the annual P.T.A. budget. I witnessed how dismissive school officials could be to lower-income parents who lodged complaints or made demands for resources and how deferential they were to wealthy ones. I believed Faraji and I could bring some of that power with us. We had connections and time and status that should not matter, but that we all know do. And more than that, we believed strongly that if families like ours went into schools like this one, it would challenge other families with similar values to do the same.

After much internal debate in our household, in 2015, we enrolled Najya in pre-K at Public School 307, a segregated, high-poverty school across from the Farragut housing projects in Brooklyn. […]

In the outside world, my choice had earned me valor. And yet that day, under the withering glare of my daughter, the words that I was formulating sounded hollow to my ears even before they passed my lips.

“Your school is not bad,” I told her, modulating my voice. “What are you talking about?”

Najya grew agitated. “You know what I am talking about. We looked up our school! We saw the test scores. We saw the ratings.” She ticked off the school’s below-state average reading and math scores, and that it ranked poorly on a popular school-rating website. I said I was aware of her school’s academic rankings, but that test scores alone do not define a school.

Glancing between her and the road, I told her everything that I had said a hundred times on stages, in interviews, in discussions since I had made her a symbol of how the choices we make can help sustain — or dismantle — educational inequality. I talked about the deep inequality in New York’s schools and how, like those Black families who came before us, we had an obligation to be part of the struggle of our larger community. Even if her schools were not academically the strongest, I explained, her father and I knew that we could provide for her tutoring and any other assistance to make up for what her school may have lacked.

But my child just shook her head, her face a mask of disbelief, and something else: betrayal.

“So you had money to send me to one of the best schools, and you chose not to?” she said, hurling her words. “Because other kids are disadvantaged, you didn’t want to put me in a great school?”

Books Film/TV Religion

CLARENCE, THEO AND SONNY:

September 20, 2026

In Defense of Frank Capra, Rodgers & Hammerstein, & “Theo of Golden” (Louis Markos, September 13th, 2026, Imaginative Conservative)

The core message of Capra’s films, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals, and Levi’s novel, what makes them so beloved by so many Americans, is best summed up in a rousing speech from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The honest but naïve Jefferson Smith is chosen by the corrupt political party of his state to serve out the term of their flunky in the Senate who died suddenly. Jeff takes his cues from senior Senator Paine who knew his father and whom Jeff idolizes. When Jeff learns that Paine has compromised and is in the pocket of the ruthless businessman Taylor, he speaks up, only to be framed for the very crime he tried to expose. He flees to the Lincoln Memorial, prepared to give up the fight and return to his state. There he is met by his secretary, Clarissa Saunders, who, though she has not approved of Paine’s corruption, has succumbed to cynicism and apathy.

But Jeff has woken something decent and hopeful in her. She meets him at his moment of deepest despair and challenges him to renew his faith and hope in himself and the country he loves:

Your friend, Mr. Lincoln had his Taylors and Paines. So did every other man who ever tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against them didn’t stop those men. They were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this world came from fools with faith like that. You know that, Jeff. You can’t quit now. Not you. They aren’t all Taylors and Paines in Washington. That kind just throw big shadows, that’s all. You didn’t just have faith in Paine or any other living man. You had faith in something bigger than that. You had plain, decent, everyday, common rightness, and this country could use some of that. Yeah, so could the whole cockeyed world, a lot of it.

Rarely has the true, optimistic but realistic, idealistic but conservative, quixotic but practical ethos of America been so clearly stated. There is evil in the world that is manipulated by self-aggrandizing individuals, but there is also a goodness and a rightness in people that can overcome the corruption. Good is stronger than evil, but it too often lacks focus, confidence, and vision. There is no Rousseauvian denial of original sin here. Sin is real and predatory, and no one is immune from its ravages. But there is a bigger picture, a larger hope that we have lost sight of. We need fools—dare I say holy fools—like Jefferson Smith to wake us up to what we know is true. The villains are so brash and bold that they cow us into believing that they are the majority, that their theories and methods are unassailable, that we cannot resist their will. They give us only two options: Join the team or be crushed. Jeff finds a third way.

Recognizing our Fallenness does not exempt us from trying to be decent, even loving, towards one another.

Cheeto Jesus

DONALD KILLS EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES:

September 20, 2026

Democrats Gain Edge as Trump Drags Down G.O.P., New Poll Finds (Shane Goldmacher, Ruth Igielnik and Sophia June, Sept. 15, 2026, NY Times)

A majority of voters disapproved of Mr. Trump’s handling of every major issue included in the poll: the economy, immigration, tariffs, the war and, especially, the cost of living.

And voters said they trusted Democrats more than Republicans on not just health care and foreign wars but also on the two issues that powered Mr. Trump’s 2024 victory: immigration and the economy.

He’s failed at everything he ever tried in his life; why would governing be any different?

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