'Crime is not a data thing'

Books SFF Bestiary Moby-Dick Turned Upside Down: Patrick Ness’ And the Ocean Was Our Sky An experimental SF retelling from whale’s point of view… By Judith Tarr | Published on September 8, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Herman Melville’s famous novel has been inspiring other authors’ works for well over a century now. It’s about to have another moment in February with Alexis Hall’s Hell’s Heart. While I wait for that, I’ve happened across one from 2018 that comes at the original story from an unusual angle: Patrick Ness’ And the Ocean Was Our Sky, with powerful and evocative illustrations by Australian artist Rovina Cai. I had hoped to find a version from the whale’s point of view, and Ness does that, though he takes a somewhat different slant. His genderbends it, for one thing. His narrator is a whale, and she’s female; she bids us call her Bathsheba. It’s not too distant a parallel with Melville’s Ishmael. Buy the Book And the Ocean Was Our Sky Patrick Ness Buy Book And the Ocean Was Our Sky Patrick Ness Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget This is an interesting book, on multiple levels. As a Harper Teen release, it ticks the “Young Adult” box with its young protagonist and its theme of discovery and redemption. It turns the whole world on its head, literally: for the whales of this world, the ocean’s depths are the sky, and the Abyss is the ocean’s surface. Whales go “up” to the darkness of the deepest sea, and “down” to the air. These are not whales of our Earth. They have a sense of smell, which our cetaceans do not—it’s one of the things that got lost in the transition from land to water. Their females can grow huge, whereas Earth’s sperm whale females are half the size of the males. Whales of both sexes have almost totally dispensed with the need to surface for air. They able to stay underwater for long periods thanks to bubbles of air that they carry in their throats. And, most different of all, whales fight back against human hunters in a direct and immediate way. They have ships, which are attached by harnesses to their huge captains. They have a hierarchy in the crew, with three young Apprentices to the captain, and sailors who are a different, much smaller species of whale. Their civilians live in cities in the deepest part of the sea. The whales with the ships are hunters, defending their people from the great enemy below, the humans. This is all-out war. Humans hunt whales in the manner of our own world, and whales hunt humans in the same way: whaling ships, harpoons, harvesting of the enemy species. Whales harvest humans exactly the same way humans harvest whales. Their enmity is absolute. Both sides set out to eradicate the other. There’s no common ground. No meeting of minds. No diplomacy. Just slaughter. Bathsheba’s tale brings it all to a head. The key and the catalyst is the mythical, legendary, possible or impossible, real or unreal Toby Wick (related to John, perhaps?). Alexandra, the captain and her eponymous ship, pursues him as Melville’s Ahab does, and she has a disability as well, a kind of mashup of the harpoons lodged in Moby Dick’s side and Ahab’s lost leg: a harpoon in the head, right in the center of the organ that controls echolocation. Bathsheba, like Ishmael, makes contact with a representative of a culture completely alien to hers, but her case is far more traumatic than Ishmael’s very physical friendship with Queequeg. Her window into a different world is a human captive. As the most junior member of the command crew, she is forced to look after him, and it’s a harrowing task. She has to interact with the great enemy, and as she does, her feelings change in disturbing ways. She starts to see the enemy as a fellow being. In the terms of our world, she humanizes him—or should I say, whale-izes him. Who and what Toby Wick is, is key to the resolution of the story. The debt to Melville is considerable, both in the plotting and in the significance of the legendary monster with his great white hull. The ending is a tragedy but it leads to triumph, which takes it past the ending of Melville’s novel. There’s a whole lot of handwavium going on in both the plot and the worldbuilding, and a whiplash-level about-face that as a reader/writer/editor I was not buying, though it’s meant to be heartwarming and inspiring and all of that. Ness’ whales are deeply spiritual and strongly fatalistic. They’re very much children of prophecy. Bathsheba herself is a fated hero, a reluctant hunter, but bound to it by the forces of destiny. It’s a classic fantasy trope. Melville plays on it with both Ishmael and Ahab, but Ness’ whales take it literally. It’s baked into their culture. That culture is built on scavenging from humans. The whales’ ships are repurposed human ships. Their technology is human: harpoons, sails (that catch the ocean currents), harnesses that attach the ships to the huge captains. Their catch is processed the same way humans process whales. Even the names are human, though whales have their own language. There’s more of a sense here of talking animals than actual whales. They’re a mirror held up to humans: a reflection of human flaws and failings. As an SFF reader and writer, I have questions. How are whales building ships with scavenged parts? They don’t have hands. Their small, barely acknowledged sailors don’t, either. How do they construct their harpoons? What about the harnesses? Who or what makes them? And how do they get into them? How are they fastened? I feel as if there’s a piece missing here. Something with fine manipulative capability. If it were me, I’d look at octopuses, enlisted as allies and enrolled as artisans and builders. But that’s not what this book is about. It’s a thought experiment. It addresses the issue and the morality of total war, along with the power of belief and the concept of destiny. Its worldbuilding serves the concept and the theme. It’s not concerned with fine details. It is well written, and Kai’s greyscale illustrations are a beautiful complement to the prose. My brain had to turn itself inside out for a bit before it could wrap itself around the upside-down-ness of it all. I appreciated the chance to stretch my consciousness.[end-mark] The post <i>Moby-Dick</i> Turned Upside Down: Patrick Ness’ <i>And the Ocean Was Our Sky</i> appeared first on Reactor.

As Congress rushes to meet an end-of-September funding deadline to avoid a government shutdown, members of the fiscally conservative House Freedom Caucus are open to a surprising measure to reduce spending—extending spending from former President Joe Biden’s administration into the long term. Although they have not finalized a proposal, multiple freedom caucus members told The Daily Signal that a long-term stopgap funding bill, or continuing resolution (CR) to further extend current spending could reduce the deficit and provide political stability ahead of the midterm elections. Given that the House of Representatives has only passed three appropriations bills, a CR might be inevitable. “It’s going to be a CR. Let’s admit it. We don’t have to discuss that,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday as he discussed the impending funding deadline. “The question is, how clean of a CR and how long of a CR? We’ll see.” Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris: A Full-Year CR for Stability House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told reporters on Thursday that his team is about to finalize their proposal for how to fund the government. “We have a plan. We are putting the finishing touches on it. We do believe that the most important principle is not to increase funding above [fiscal year] 2024 levels, to keep us basically level funded for two years,” he said. Harris believes that halting any spending increase would be a major conservative victory in Washington, where Congress almost never fails to increase spending. “We believe, the [Congressional Budget Office] score, if we could achieve level funding, is on the order of four to 500 billion [in savings] over ten years, because they would normally assume an increase in funding,” said Harris in reference to the congressional budget watchdog’s projected savings from his proposals. “That’s a significant dent in our spending, and that’s our goal.” What’s more, Harris is considering the benefits of a long-term CR in terms of providing immunity from protracted shutdown fights in the future. He said that “our preference is a full-year CR … at fiscal year ‘24 spending levels,” but added it “makes sense” to discuss whether or not to extend a CR past the midterm elections rather than putting “the American people through the Chuck Schumer drama in September 2026 of a potential government shutdown.” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) Adding to the appeal of a continuing resolution into 2026 for Harris is the fact that future appropriations bills are always an option, since they can replace parts of the continuing resolution’s funding. “If we want to pass appropriations bills next year for any segment of that continuing resolution, you can. I mean, it would supersede the continuing resolution. But this would provide certainty of government funding. You know, no shutdown dramas before the next election. The American people just don’t deserve that,” he said. Chip Roy: CR + Cuts to Bureaucracy = ‘Victory’ On Saturday, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal he’d “totally be great with a one-year freeze in spending for a year. That’s a victory for the American people every day and twice on Sunday.” He explained that the caucus would not look kindly on any overall spending increase coming out of the annual funding process. .@chiproytx explains why @freedomcaucus members are open to a one-year continuing resolution to extend Biden admin’s funding levels.“I’d totally be great with a one year freeze in spending for a year. That’s a victory for the American people every day and twice on Sunday.”… pic.twitter.com/HyzKjY8lNH— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) September 6, 2025 “The freedom caucus position is under no circumstances can spending be greater than current-level spending. It must be flat or go down,” Roy said, adding that the caucus would trust the White House to add spending cuts on top of this CR due to its work “shutting down and removing bureaucrats.” Roy added, “at the end of the day, if you’re holding spending frozen while you go grow the economy, you’re winning, because you have a president who’s willing to go take on the Swamp. Now I’d love to pass appropriations bills with massive cuts, but we got to get it through a Senate with Democrats, and you’ve got to get 60 votes in the Senate.” Mark Harris: A CR May Be Inevitable Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., wants to make clear that the freedom caucus wants, in an ideal world, to fund the government with regular appropriations bills—but that might not be a viable option. “I want our people to understand we are proponents of doing regular order, ultimately, and passing 12 appropriation bills. That’s what we set out to do.” Harris told The Daily Signal. “But the reality is, we’ve only got three out of 12 that we’ve passed. And we may do another one next week, I don’t know, but we’re coming up on September 30. It is becoming more and more evident that it will be a CR that we’re going to be looking at.” He explained that, given the high likelihood of some stopgap funding bill to extend previous spending, he’d prefer a long-term bill, especially a “clean” one which roughly continues current spending levels. Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) “I personally feel like just having a yearlong CR that’s clean, with nothing, would be probably the best, because it would hold spending levels where they are. And to not have increases, I think, is probably a good thing,” Harris told The Daily Signal. Like Roy, Harris believes that holding spending flat while the Trump administration sends rescissions packages—a type of filibuster-proof legislation used to cancel unspent funds—would be a major step toward reducing overall government spending. In July, Congress voted to cancel $9 billion in funds to foreign aid and public broadcasting. More recently, the Office of Management and Budget attempted to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid spending without a vote from Congress in what is called a “pocket rescission.” This attempt was blocked by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, but the legal battle is likely to continue in higher courts. “We’ve got a good Office of Management and Budget and Russ Vought and my predecessor, Dan Bishop, working together in there,” he said, referring to the agency’s director and deputy director. “And so I would trust their judgment when it comes to these rescissions or other things that they feel like they are needing to do, or to send up to Congress the next rescission package.” For Mark Harris, the fight to reduce discretionary spending is vital to addressing the national debt and ever-rising spending. “If we can’t get government under control, with a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president fulfilling the commitments and promises we’ve made, then I am sorely concerned for our future and our economic future in this country, and I think Americans are ready to see some real decisions,” he said. The post The Way to Cut the Deficit: Keep Biden Era Spending? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A graphic video of a man stabbing a woman to death on a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina went viral over the weekend.   The video shows a young woman wearing a baseball cap sit down in front of a young man in a red hoodie. Moments later, the man rises and without provocation plunges a knife into the woman, killing her.  The victim, Iryna Zarutska, was 23 and from Ukraine and is reported to have had no connected with the alleged killer, Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, who now faces first degree murder charges. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles called the deadly attack a “a senseless and tragic loss,” and thanked those who “have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family.” Still, various edits of the video earned millions of views on social media over the weekend and led to leading voices on the political right to call greater attention to the crime rates in U.S. cities.   “Charlotte’s Mayor doesn’t want the media to show you the ugly truth. Why? Because she and other public officials in her city bear responsibility,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on X.   White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller responded to the incident, saying the “Democrat Party at every level—judges, politicians, academics, nonprofits—is organized around the defense and protection of the criminal, the monstrous and the depraved. The more vile the threat, the more vociferously the Democrat Party works to protect and enable it.”  “Dems love Ukrainians,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on X. “Until their stories don’t match the approved narrative of the left. Then they just become collateral damage to the left—like everyone else.”  Dems love UkrainiansUntil their stories don’t match the approved narrative of the leftThen they just become collateral damage to the left—like everyone else https://t.co/AEMvrkABxD— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 7, 2025 The tragic incident, which took place Aug. 22, comes as President Donald Trump is sounding the alarm over violent crime in cities across America.   Trump has federalized the police in Washington, D.C. and deployed the National Guard to crackdown on crime. The president has indicated he has plans to take similar actions in other cities, including Chicago.   “[Six] people were murdered in Chicago this weekend, 12 others were shot, and in serious condition,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning before criticizing Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not wanting “Federal Government HELP” to solve the crime crisis in his city.   “I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them,” Trump said. “Only the Criminals will be hurt! We can move fast and stop this madness. The City and State have not been able to do the job. People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION. IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!! ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”   The post Deadly Stabbing Triggers Calls for Larger Crime Crackdown appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Terror in Jerusalem Brings Out the Worst in Europeans

In just a decade, the field has dramatically changed. The best is yet to come.

We’ve got a new, fun interactive series called Worst Media Take of the Week, where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media take of the week.   Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).   The results of the Worst Media Take of the Week are in and the winner is… Rosie O’Donnell! The comedian and former ABC’s The View co-host won with 53 percent of the vote. O’Donnell took first place after she falsely claimed the Minneapolis church shooter was a “Republican, MAGA Person.” Former MSNBC host Joy Reid came in second place with 35 percent of the vote. Former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran finished in third place with 12 percent. The following is a montage of all the nominees:      WINNER (53 percent of the vote)   Rosie O’Donnell: Minneapolis Church Shooter Was a “Republican, MAGA Person”   “This was a church inside a Catholic school and whaddaya know [shooter] was a white guy, Republican, MAGA person. Whaddaya know? White supremacist.”— Comedian/former ABC’s The View co-host Rosie O’Donnell on her TikTok feed, August 28.   SECOND PLACE (35 percent of the vote)   Joy Reid Rants About Trump’s “Magical Doctors” and His “Alleged Assassination”    “He’s showing clear signs that he isn’t well. His face looks like it’s coming apart. He’s got all these bruises all over his hands, which we don’t know what that’s from. They won’t explain it. He’s got these magical doctors who claimed that he was shot in the ear, but his ear, I guess, grew back. He had a Dukal bandage on one minute, no bandage the next. We can’t get a medical record from this alleged assassination. He was supposedly shot. We have nothing!” — Former MSNBC host Joy Reid on MeidasTouch’s Katie Phang News, September 2.   THIRD PLACE (12 percent of the vote)   Terry Moran: Trump Is the “Man That We Were Warned About By the Founders”   “Trump is the most dominant figure of our age around the world. Don’t underestimate him. He is a world historical figure and he is the man that we were warned about by the Founders. That democracies fall when a man who can captivate the populace wants to exercise the power that’s there in the government, and that is what we’re watching.”— Former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran on A Conversation With podcast, August 29.   Thanks again to all who participated!    Funded by James P. Jimirro

Surveillance video caught the moment when a mob of hammer-wielding, hooded thugs pulled off a smash-and-grab jewelry store robbery in broad daylight.A vehicle is seen backing into the San Jose store's entrance, which created an opening for at least a dozen crooks to pour in late last week.'This is appalling. Watching this senior get assaulted made my blood boil.'San Jose police confirmed it's investigating an "armed robbery" that occurred at the Kim Hung Jewelry store on the 1900 block of Aborn Road just after 2 p.m. Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.No arrests have been made, and the robbers are "unidentified and remain at large," the department confirmed Sunday morning to the Chronicle.Video appears to show 16 individuals entering the store holding hammers and breaking display cases and grabbing merchandise as a few store employees look on. Police told the paper that at least one of the suspects carried a gun but didn't comment on the value of the items stolen.The robbers fled the scene in multiple vehicles, police said in their statement, according to the paper.Video shows one of the robbers violently shoving one of the employees to the floor, and an X poster noted that his friend's 88-year-old uncle was the victim in question."He was injured by broken glass and then had a stroke," the poster wrote before adding a message to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, saying the Democrat has "done a lot for SJ but still more criminals to be locked up."The Chronicle said it couldn't independently verify the information in the X post. Mahan posted on X the following response: "This is appalling. Watching this senior get assaulted made my blood boil. I’m sorry this happened to your friend’s uncle, @Chris_Moore4Sup. These people need to face the harshest possible consequences for their actions. I’ve been in touch with our Police Chief @SJPD_AC_Joseph and will be following the investigation closely. Wishing our @SanJosePD officers godspeed as they pursue leads."The paper said police didn't respond to an inquiry regarding if anyone was injured during the incident and added that the department did not have "any details to provide at this time."Police also told the Chronicle that anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the agency’s robbery unit at sjpdrobbery@sanjoseca.gov.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

In the aftermath of the tragic Minneapolis shooting — where two young lives were lost to a violent gunman — Trump’s Department of Justice is considering taking action to stop guns from getting in the hands of transgenders.The move is being celebrated by conservatives, as the shooter, Robin Westman, was a 23-year-old man who identified as a woman.One potential avenue could see Trump formally declare that those who identify as transgender are mentally ill and no longer legally allowed to possess firearms.“Under Attorney General Bondi’s leadership, this Department of Justice is actively considering a range of options to prevent mentally unstable individuals from committing acts of violence, especially at schools,” a spokesman for the DOJ said.However, while many conservatives believe that transgenderism is a mental illness — they’re not sure that broadly banning guns for any group of people is the right move.“I read that headline and my knee-jerk reaction is like, good, they shouldn’t have guns. And then I’m like, ah, I don’t know how you do that with the Second Amendment,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”“I think everyone would agree you don’t want violent, mentally ill people to have firearms,” BlazeTV contributor Grant Stinchfield chimes in. “So we can all agree on that. The problem becomes ‘Who is the decider?’”“So who decides who’s violently and mentally ill? Because I promise you, Nancy Pelosi is going to say, ‘Well, Stinchfield’s mentally ill because he loves freedom and God and all those things.’ So it’s all in the decider,” he continues.“Now, transgender certainly ... it’s a violent, violent section, mentally ill people, and it is a mental illness. If you think you’re a boy and you don’t have nuts hanging down below you, you’re mentally ill,” he adds.Gonzales notes that while not all shooters are transgender, transgenders make up such a small percentage of the population and have committed several of the devastating mass shootings in recent years.“It’s pretty skewed when you look at that,” she says, adding, “And so it’s just hard because you want to prevent this from happening.”Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is set to leverage a Democratic precedent to override their obstruction and clear through the lengthy backlog of nominees. Democrats have held up President Donald Trump's Senate nominees for months, making it the first administration ever not to have a single nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent. Instead, Democrats are digging their heels in and forcing "time-consuming" votes on uncontroversial nominees who later get confirmed along bipartisan lines. Now, the "nuclear option" is on the table. 'It's Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.'"It’s delay for delay’s sake, and it’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty in agencies across the federal government and robs our duly elected president of a team to enact the agenda that the American people voted for in November," Thune said in an op-ed for Breitbart. "Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this obstruction any longer," Thune added. "We have tried to work with Democrats in good faith to batch bipartisan, noncontroversial nominees and clear them expeditiously, according to past precedent. Democrats have stood in the way at every turn."RELATED: Republican senator takes aim at JD Vance: 'What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment' Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesOver the last month, Republican senators have developed a rule change based on a proposal initially introduced by Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Angus King of Maine in 2023, one Republican aide told Blaze News.Starting Monday, Thune will begin reforming the Senate rules based on the Democratic proposal, allowing Republicans to confirm nominees in batches, the aide confirmed to Blaze News. Without this rule change, the Senate would need to hold over 600 roll call votes just to clear the backlog of nominees who are currently on the docket."No party should be able to weaponize the confirmation process the way that Senate Democrats are doing now, in a way that has never been done before," Thune said. RELATED: Tim Kaine shockingly compares the Declaration of Independence to Iran's theocratic regime: 'Extremely troubling' Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesSince Trump took office in January, the Senate has taken more votes than any other Senate at this point in over three decades. Despite this, the current confirmation pace has plateaued due to Democrats' obstruction, which Thune said comes down to one thing."It's Trump derangement syndrome on steroids."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!