'The costs of 'shrink' aren't just absorbed'
Guy Benson at Townhall
Rising crime is forcing stores out of big cities, said Guy Benson at Townhall. Major chains, including Walgreens, CVS, Target, and Starbucks, have shuttered stores in "decaying" urban centers because of increasing thefts. The cost of "shrink" — losses due to theft or error — cuts profits and is passed on to customers. It's a predictable price for soft-on-crime policies in cities run by liberals that have been tainted by "'defund the police' toxicity" encouraged by President Biden.
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'Isn't feeling good exactly what fashion should be about?'
Robin Abcarian in Los Angeles Times
Fashion designers took "baby steps toward body size diversification" in recent years, said Robin Abcarian in Los Angeles Times. But the "ingrained thinking" equating thinness with beauty roared back. Anna Solomon reported in July's Luxury London style newsletter that a record 49 plus-size models walked New York Fashion Week runways a year ago, but just 31 did six months later. "True size diversity, like so much else about fashion, seems to have been a passing fad."
'The stench of political violence has attached to Trump from the start'
Mona Charen in The Bulwark
Trump is at it again, said Mona Charen in The Bulwark. The former president, now 2024 GOP presidential front-runner, is calling outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley "a Woke train wreck" and accusing him of "treason," a crime punishable by execution. Trump knows "his more rabid followers may interpret this as an invitation to assassination, just as the Jan. 6 crowd chanted 'Hang Mike Pence.'" He's poisoning American politics with his "thuggishness."
'Sympathy has gotten a bad rap'
Pamela Paul in The New York Times
"I'm beginning to feel sorry for sympathy," said Pamela Paul in The New York Times. These days, it's "considered the noblesse oblige of emotions," disdained as "the equivalent of pity." Parenting guides and wellness programs urge people to "cultivate empathy," instead. But "no matter how much an empath you may be, unless you have actually been in someone's place," you can't truly know what they're experiencing. Sometimes, "the best you can do is 'merely' sympathize."
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