In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf famously confronts his old friend and mentor, Saruman the White, who now is in service of the Dark Lord Sauron. Something that didn’t make it into the beloved Peter Jackson film adaptations is that Saruman the White gives up the white cloth, symbolizing purity and truth, and adopts a shimmering robe of many colors.

Social media regulation isn’t something that shouldn’t happen, but it should be done in ways that preserve both the experience of these apps and minimize the data collection needed to perform age verification. Virginia might be headed in the right direction. 

This should be Trump’s message. His Democratic rival and likely challenger to Vice President J.D. Vance in 2028 has helped to decimate America’s entertainment capital, and even liberal Hollywood actors know it. 

The brand problem for Disney, however, looms large in the background of this miniature Star Wars controversy. Most families expect Disney+, like the Disney Channel of old, to be a place where they can blindly trust the content to be PG. It is an unwelcome surprise for an unwitting parent to have to explain they/them pronouns or sexual assault after turning on a show with Disney’s name attached to it. And yet, both of these things have occurred in Star Wars projects.

Stephen Kent told Fox News, “Disney may have finally gotten tired of losing. This is a remarkable course adjustment and evidence of how politics can reshape culture overnight. CEO Bob Iger has always been far more shrewd and practical than Disney's critics acknowledge.”

Consider USA Today, which reported on “concerns that the food dye is linked to cancer and behavioral problems in children.” Only later in the report does the reader learn that cancers only appeared in rats who were given abnormally high doses of the additive as part of FDA-required testing.

The alternative is prohibition and turning a blind eye to what your people are doing in the absence of a regulated market. An effective regulatory regime accounts for the kind of consumer behavior lawmakers can reasonably anticipate and then keeps those people as safe as possible without removing adults’ right to make adult choices. 

Like in Iowa and Tennessee, HB 1302 bars the use of credit cards in online bets, and requires age verification for players, a policy piloted by Pennsylvania and Michigan. The bill allows for up to two online betting services to partner with a local casino in order to operate. The $6 million protection fund exists to serve the smaller Mississippi casinos that might not acquire online betting partners. 

The age of expecting young people to participate in the future of a country they’re told is deeply racist, or hoping families will stream “Peter Pan” while also telling them that it’s an offensive story – is over.

A homeowner with a backyard pool they’d like to share by the hour with locals might be surprised by the language of Statute 130A-281, which reads, “No public swimming pool may be opened for use unless the owner or operator has obtained an operation permit.” 

Consider the political culture of TikTok, the elephant in the room for this conversation. Are Democrats and Republicans ready to have a candid conversation about which mental health trends, specifically, they find so worrisome on these social media platforms? 

The Consumer Choice Center’s media director put it this way: “Imagine the classroom slacker making the case to the teacher that the straight-A student in the front of the class is being anti-competitive by not sharing their lecture notes with them.”

Americans increasingly don’t know where to look for solutions to their problems.

President Biden places a significant premium on creating contrast with his predecessor, Donald Trump. However, regarding tariffs on certain imports, the plan is to keep things more or less the same. 

Imagine the classroom slacker making the case to the teacher that the straight-A student in the front of the class is being anti-competitive by not sharing their lecture notes with them.  

If Senator Scott Weiner’s thinking on driving were taken to its fullest extent, there would be no good or bad citizens of California, just subjects who do as they are told, because what else could they do?

Cruz’s desire to make automobile design standards a part of the culture war is disingenuous and a betrayal of limited government principles.

Being permanent opposition weakens our hand. It doesn’t strengthen it.

Executive roles are not great for creatives who like to ponder the big questions of the universe. I’m reminded of a recent Star Wars novel by Claudia Gray, Master & Apprentice, where Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn is offered a spot on the Jedi Council while he is still training Obi-Wan Kenobi in the years before The Phantom Menace. Qui-Gon is torn. He doesn’t feel like a good mentor to young Kenobi, and the role on the Council is highly prestigious — a dream come true for any Jedi.

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley reminded us of this fact on Fox News Tuesday, when she ripped into anonymous online speech as the apparent cause of America’s uncivil politics. Haley proposed forcing social media companies to share their algorithms and require the verification of every user as a top priority of her future administration.

iGaming, shorthand for online casino-style gaming, was left out of HB 347. State budget negotiations have been slowed by ongoing disagreement over how to incorporate iGaming into the new gambling status quo.