This article is adapted from today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click here.

GOP Overturns Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

The House of Representatives passed a resolution to overturn President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan this week. Two Democrats joined the Republicans in voting to cancel the $400 billion plan. The bill now goes to the Senate — where even if it passes, it will likely be vetoed by the president. Biden’s proposal to pay off up to $20,000 in debt for college borrowers is currently being debated by the Supreme Court.

MSU Professor Sued

A Michigan State University (MSU) professor is being sued by students after she allegedly compelled hundreds of her students to donate to her Left-wing political group as a course requirement. Amy Wisner, a former marketing professor at MSU, allegedly required 600 students to pay $99 each to join a Left-wing group known as The Rebellion Community, an outside group run by Wisner. Students Nolan Radomski and Nathan Barbieri are suing Wisner, claiming she used the money from students to donate to Planned Parenthood, as well as buy an RV for a trip around the U.S. By doing so, the pair of students claimed in the suit that Wisner “forced them to materially support the homicide of innocent children.” MSU has fired Wisner after complaints, and the school offered students a refund for the roughly $60,000 they paid to the leftist group.

Burger King Owes Nearly $8 Million After Lawsuit

A Burger King franchise in Hollywood, Florida, has been ordered to pay a whopping sum to a 48-year-old man over a slip and fall that occurred more than two years ago.

A Burger King franchise must pay $8 million to Richard Tulecki, who claimed that he slipped on a “foreign substance” in the restaurant’s bathroom and “suffered lower back injuries resulting in surgery.” Tulecki’s attorneys said the fall caused “serious injuries,” which required surgery that then turned into a postoperative perforated colon. The lawsuit was filed in 2021. The sum — totaling $7.68 million, including earnings lost and medical expenses  — is one of Florida’s largest slip and fall verdicts on record.

Seven-Year-Old Boy Arrested Over House Fire

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department in West Virginia arrested and placed a 7-year-old in custody Wednesday after authorities say the young boy intentionally set his house ablaze while his parents were inside. Two people suffered minor burns. A photo posted online showed the house completely engulfed in flames. In West Virginia, minors can be arrested and charged for most crimes.

Commercial Real Estate In American Cities Going Vacant

American cities are still struggling to find commercial real estate tenants in the wake of a surge in remote work after COVID. The latest data show that in the first quarter of 2023, the vacancy rate for office properties across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas was about 19%. Moody’s analytics reports that is the highest rate in 33 years.

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American Tourist Bitten By Shark

An American tourist was seriously injured in a shark attack in the Turks and Caicos islands on Wednesday. Police say the 22-year-old Connecticut woman was snorkeling.

Memorial Day Weekend Travel Will Be Big

And Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer travel season — and this weekend will be busy. AAA predicts that 37 million people will hit the road this weekend, driving an average of 50 miles. The TSA expects to screen 10 million travelers between Friday and Monday. And the price tag is also getting higher. The average cost of a hotel room is up $7 a night week-over-week to $157, while short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO are also up, but just slightly.

Have a safe and fun holiday weekend, everyone.

To listen to the audio version of this podcast, click here. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

In “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” a filthy peasant who is being throttled by King Arthur at the time, yells: “Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”

So it is with another of the British comedy troupe’s movies, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.”

Comedian John Cleese revealed last week that a scene for his revival of the irreverent stage show, during which “Stan” declares he wants to be a woman named “Loretta” and have babies, is set to be cut from the play — for woke reasons.

“According to Cleese, the ‘Loretta’ scene, in which a male member of the People’s Front of Judea demands his right to have babies, raised eyebrows at a read-through in New York last year,” Spiked reported on Wednesday. “‘We love the script, but you can’t do that stuff about Loretta nowadays,’ the Americans told Cleese.”

The scene is a brilliant bit of surreal comedy in which Stan declares “it’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.”

In the scene, Stan and three others do a rat-a-tat-tat exchange that made Monty Python famous. For the record, Cleese plays Reg, Michael Palin is Francis, Sue Jones-Davies plays Judith, and Eric Idle plays Stan. Just enjoy the timing:

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Judith: I do feel, Reg, that any anti-imperialist group like ours must reflect such a divergence of interests within its power base.

Reg: Agree. Francis?

Francis: Yeah, I think Judith’s point of view is very valid, Reg. Provided the movement never forgets that it is the unalienable right of every man  —

Stan: Or woman.

Francis: Or woman to rid himself —

Stan: Or herself.

Francis: Or herself.

Reg: Agreed.

Francis: Thank you, brother.

Stan: Or sister.

Francis: Or sister. Where was I?

Reg: I think you finished.

Francis: Oh, all right.

Reg: Furthermore, it is the birthright of every man —

Stan: Or woman.

Reg: Why don’t you shut up about women, Stan, you’re putting us off.

Stan: Women have a perfect right to play a part in our movement, Reg.

Francis: Why you always on about women, Stan?

Stan: I want to be one.

Reg: What?

Stan: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me Loretta.

Reg: What?

Stan: It’s my right as a man.

Judith: Why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?

Stan: I want to have babies.

Reg: You want to have babies?!

Stan: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.

Reg: But you can’t have babies!

Stan: Don’t you oppress me.

Reg: I’m not oppressing you, Stan. You haven’t got a womb. Where’s the fetus going to gestate? You gonna keep it in a box?

Judith: Here, I’ve got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can’t actually have babies not having a womb, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans, but that he can have the right to have babies.

Francis: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother — sister. Sorry.

Reg: What’s the point? What’s the point of fighting his right to have babies when he can’t have babies?

Francis: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.

Reg: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.

When “Life of Brian” — listed in the IMDB’s top 250 movies — came out in 1979, it faced an onslaught from the Catholic Church. But that might be a simple foe when weighed against the LGBTQ+ community.

Cleese has grumbled before about the plight of the modern comedian. When asked in July of 2022 if they still have the unfettered freedom to be funny, he said, “No. I think it’s particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom where you’re not checking everything you say critically before you move on.”

“A lot of comedians now are sitting there and when they think of something, they say something like, ‘Can I get away with it? I don’t think so. So and so got into trouble, and he said that, oh, she said that.’ You see what I mean? And that’s the death of creativity,” Cleese said.

This new onslaught will be tantamount to the Spanish Inquisition. And as the boys of Monty Python have always said: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.