Thursday: Hili dialogue

February 22, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Thursday, a day distinguished only by its proxmity to the pre-weekend “work” day. It’s February 22, 2024, and National Margarita Day, immortalized by this song:

It’s also Be Humble Day, World Spay Day, National Wildlife Day, World Thinking Day, George Washington’s Birthday, National Cook a Sweet Potato Day, Crime Victims Day in Europe, and, in Japan, National Cat Day, about which Wikipedia says this:

In Japan, National Cat Day is celebrated on February 22, as the date resembles the words “nyan nyan nyan” (meow meow meow). The date was decided on this date in a poll between cat-keepers by the Executive Cat Day Committee in 1978. It is celebrated with people posing with photographs of themselves with their pet cats, and businesses selling cat-themed cuisine.

A kids’ newspaper from the 2022 National Cat Day, a special “nyan” holiday:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the February 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*If you don’t need more proof that Israelis aren’t in favor of the “two-state proposal” (I won’t call it a “solution” any longer), read this article from i24: “Knesset opposes unilateral recognition of Palestinian state with ‘unprecedented majority’.” (h/t Norman)

Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) voted on Wednesday in favor of a measure to reject unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, with a majority of 99 and nine that opposed (out of 120).

The declaratory statement, regarding “international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” had been proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The full text approved by the parliamentary vote stated, “Israel outright rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. The settlement, to the extent that it is reached, will be solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.”

“Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition following the massacre of the 7th of October will give a huge reward to terrorism that was like no other and will prevent any future settlement for peace,” it concluded.

Netanyahu remarked after the vote, “I congratulate the members of the Knesset from the coalition and the opposition who voted in favor of my proposal against the establishment of a Palestinian state. We achieved a huge and unprecedented majority of 99 Knesset members.”

“I don’t remember such a huge majority on any proposal. The Knesset united today with a huge majority against the attempt to dictate to us the establishment of a Palestinian state. This dictate will harm peace and it sends a clear message to the international community,” he continued. “Unilateral recognition will not bring peace closer but will further it.”

Am I crazy, or is Israel the only country in the world that recognizes the two-state proposal is unworkable? Some of the Arab states recognize that, too, but they keep quiet about it except in their disguised calls (in the West) to eliminate Israel. Blinken, Biden, all of the Eu—the whole mispocha—think that when two states are formed, Palestine and Israel, all emnity and all terrorism will miraculously cease. Do they not know the charter of Hamas, a group extolled by most Palestinians? Are they ignorant of history, and of the repeated rejection of two states by Palestinians? History will look back at these people and think that they were delusional.

*The Free Press asks, “Could October 7 bring down the squad?“,  the Squad being, of course, this group of “progressive Democrats”: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Summer Lee, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Greg Casar. And what might bring it down (not all of it, of course) is the topic of Israel.

By November last year, Democratic Rep. Summer Lee realized she had to mend fences with Pittsburgh’s Jews. Since the October 7 atrocity in Israel, Lee had started to sound like she was on team Hamas—and Jewish leaders were taking notice.

. . .Episodes like this have led the Jewish communities in Pittsburgh and others in Pennsylvania’s Twelfth District to seek an alternative to Lee in her upcoming primary. And Lee is not the only one facing such a backlash. Now, for the first time since the 2018 swearing-in of its inaugural class, the Squad could be shrinking, as its defamation of Israel after October 7 has repelled old-school liberals and centrist Democrats.

The more well-known Squad members, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, are running unopposed in their primaries this year. Ilhan Omar is facing three challengers in a race she is largely expected to win. But three newer members of the Squad—albeit from the JV team—are facing serious, well-funded Democratic primary opponents who could knock them from their seats. They are:  [Summer Lee,  Jamal Bowan, and Cori Bush].

Of course I’d be delighted to see Tlaib, Ocasio Cortez, Omar, and Pressley go, too; all are anti-Semites or one-note (i.e., pro-Palestinian) Johnnies. Still, three out of seven wouldn’t be bad.

One of the forces fighting to unseat these incumbents is the Democratic Majority for Israel, a political action committee that raised money to help defeat Bush and Bowman.Mark Mellman, the president of the group, told The Free Press, “Defeating incumbents is extraordinarily difficult, but there are a couple of them who are vulnerable, and I think there will be extraordinary efforts to defeat them.”

Meanwhile, in December, it was reported that the pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as AIPAC, is planning to spend up to $100 million in the 2024 election cycle, with some of it going to challengers to the Squad. That is more than double the amount the group spent on the 2022 midterms. AIPAC declined to discuss its political spending for this story.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, whose district in the Bronx sits alongside AOC’s, refused to knock his fellow Democratic legislators, but said their strident criticism of Israel after October 7 was out of step with most voters in his party.He told The Free Press that “the notion that Ceasefire Now represents the will of the American people is pure fiction. We have to make sure we don’t play into that false narrative.”

The Squad has held sway over the left wing of the Democratic Party since its inaugural four members—AOC of New York, Tlaib of Michigan, Omar of Minnesota, and Pressley of Massachusetts—were first elected to Congress in 2018. Since 2020, four new members have joined its ranks: Lee, Bowman, Bush, and Rep. Greg Casar of Texas. (Casar does not face a primary opponent this year.)

I’m on the Left Wing, but I’m not on the Woke Wing. Even the defeat of one of these would hearten me, but the defeats that would really hearten me would be those of Tlaib and Omar. Here, for example, is how Tlaib was the lone standoff on a no-brainer bill in Congress (ht Rosemary):

She claims that that IDF has engaged in rape and sexual violence:

 

Rosemary’s comment:

Tlaib (D-MI) in House floor debate on her “Present” vote: “We all have a responsibility to denounce sexual violence in all forms, regardless of who is responsible. This resolution falls well short of that responsibility.”

aka: “All rapes matter, ergo, I cannot vote against some rapes”.

*One school, Harvard, of course, was the center of attention at a summit meeting of university presidents.

When 70 university presidents gathered for a summit at the end of January, the topic on everyone’s mind was the crisis at Harvard.

The hosts of the summit treated the university, battered by accusations of coddling antisemitism, as a business-school case study on leadership in higher education, complete with a slide presentation on its plummeting reputation.

The killer slide: “Boeing & Tesla Have Similar Levels of Negative Buzz as Harvard.”

In other words, Harvard, a centuries-old symbol of academic excellence, was generating as much negative attention as an airplane manufacturer that had a door panel drop from the sky and a car company with a mercurial chief executive and multiple recalls.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale’s School of Management, organized the summit. “Despite near 400 years of history, the value of brand equity is nowhere near as permanent as Harvard trustees think it is,” he said in an interview. “There used to be a term in the industry of something being the Cadillac of the industry. Well, Cadillac itself is, you know, sadly not the Cadillac of the industry anymore.”

Many of the presidents attending the summit saw the erosion of Harvard’s brand as a problem not only for the school, but also by extension for the entire enterprise of higher education. If Harvard could not protect itself, then what about every other institution? Could Harvard’s leadership find an effective response?

There was a hint of a more assertive approach by Harvard on Monday, when the university announced that it was investigating “deeply offensive antisemitic tropes” posted on social media by pro-Palestinian student and faculty groups. The groups had posted or reposted material containing an old cartoon of a puppeteer, his hand marked by a dollar sign inside a Star of David, lynching Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Yep, make things right by suppressing more speech.  Harvard hasn’t learned its lesson yet, and the brand is eroding. In 1967, for example, Jewish students made up about 20-25% of the student population at Harvard. Now it’s 9.9%, and it’s going to drop more. Early applications are also down 17% from the preceding year.

*Reuters reports depressing news, but this kind of thing is becoming increasingly apparent: “Ukraine outnumbered, outgunned, ground down by relentless Russia.”

As the Ukraine war enters its third year, the infantry of 59th Brigade are confronting a bleak reality: they’re running out of soldiers and ammunition to resist their Russian invaders.

One platoon commander who goes by his call sign “Tygr” estimated that just 60-70% of the several thousand men in the brigade at the start of the conflict were still serving. The rest had been killed, wounded or signed off for reasons such as old age or illness.

Heavy casualties at the hands of Russian forces have been compounded by dreadful conditions on the eastern front, with frozen soil turning into thick mud in unseasonably warm temperatures, playing havoc with soldiers’ health.

“The weather is rain, snow, rain, snow. People get ill with simple flu or angina as a result. They’re out of action for some time, and there is nobody to replace them,” said a company commander in the brigade with the call sign “Limuzyn”. “The most immediate problem in every unit is lack of people.”

On the cusp of the second anniversary of its Feb. 24 invasion, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is in the ascendancy in a conflict that combines attritional trench combat reminiscent of World War One with high-tech drone warfare that’s sending tens of thousands of machines into the skies above.

I am getting seriously worried about Ukraine, which seems unable to advance. Of course, I never thought the war would last this long, either, as I predicted Russia would win within weeks or months. Now, who can stop Putin’s advance.  Not being in NATO, there are no troops or special defenses that that consortium can do to help. Even Ceiling Cat seems powerless against Putin.

*You may have noticed, as did the WSJ, that the lifespan of large appliances is shrinking. I still have the same commerical refrigerator in my lab (used only for food) that I got when I arrived her 37 years ago, and except for a broken door handle, it’s working fine. I don’t think modern fridges will last that long.

Our refrigerators, washing machines and ovens can do more than ever, from producing symmetrical ice cubes to remotely preheating on your commute home. The downside to all these snazzy features is that the appliances are more prone to breaking.

Appliance technicians and others in the industry say there has been an increase in items in need of repair. Yelp users, for example, requested 58% more quotes from thousands of appliance repair businesses last month than they did in January 2022.

Those in the industry blame a push toward computerization, an increase in the quantity of individual components and flimsier materials for undercutting reliability. They say even higher-end items aren’t as durable.

American households spent 43% more on home appliances in 2023 than they did in 2013, rising from an inflation-adjusted average of $390 to $558, according to Euromonitor International. Prices for the category declined 12% from the beginning of 2013 through the end of 2023, according to the Labor Department.

One reason for the discrepancy between spending and prices is a higher rate of replacement, say consumers, repair technicians and others. That’s left some people wishing they had held on to their clunky ’90s-era appliances and others bargaining with repair workers over intractable ice makers and dryers that run cold.

“We’re making things more complicated, they’re harder to fix and more expensive to fix,” says Aaron Gianni, the founder of do-it-yourself home-repair app Plunjr.

This is followed by a section called “Horror Stories,” and you might want to read it if you’re in the market for a big appliance.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili sees a strange bird:

Hili: Look, a totally alien bird landed on our roof.
A: Maybe it flew in to visit relatives.
In Polish:
Hili: Patrz zupełnie obcy ptak usiadł na naszym dachu.
Ja: Może przyleciał w odwiedziny do krewnych.
And a photo of Baby Kulka:

*******************

From Thomas, an excellent Dave Blazek cartoon:

From Susan (I do like Raisin Bran):

From Ron, a collage of superfluous quotation marks:

From Masih, who’s happy that all three Iranian agents who plotted to kill her are in American custody. But her “second life” is temporary, for I’m sure Iran won’t give up trying to “neutralize” here:

This tweet appears to chill research on all human differences between groups, and the policy comes from the National Institutes of Health (you can go to the NIH gateway here).

From Roz. I may have shown this before, but this picture is too good to show just once:

From Barry, who reminds us of the importance of watering our bears:

From Malcolm, a potpourri of animals doing bad stuff or getting in trouble (second tweet but there’s red panda lagniappe):

From the Auschwitz Memorial: a woman who died in the camp at about 21:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a cat keeps a d*g from embarrassing itself:

Is this goat really smiling?

21 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  1. I can go the smiling goat one better.

    We got a new buck last summer, a long yearling that will be two on April 1. The bucks tend to be rambunctious, and I usually control them with a squirt bottle of water if needed.

    But it’s not needed with BaHa. If he starts getting out of hand, all I have to do is gently pet his nose, and he instantly turns into Zombie Goat.

    L

    1. Glad to know that some goats are affectionate. Despite all the banana and orange peels, onion trimmings and such that my neighbor’s goat comes running for, Toby is a supremely unaffectionate animal, and a total jerk to two other goats who had been in his company in times past.

  2. I consider more features in appliances as “more things that can go wrong” – instead of the sexiest washer / dryer combo when we needed one I picked the 2nd from the bottom end – just a motor and a mechanical timer. Less stuff to go wrong.

    I’ve started reading about the Enlightenment Philosopher John Locke – and he has some issues 🙂 Interesting a lot of the ideas from that time have been enshrined in the French Revolution and the US Constitution. Notable his work on religious tolerance, which gives us the Separation of Church and State, or specifically: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” — however, his work in the Carolina Constitution of March 1, 1669 clearly states:

    Ninety-five. No man shall be permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any estate or habitation within it, that doth not acknowledge a God, and that God is publicly and solemnly to be worshipped.

    One hundred and seven. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man’s civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves, as well as others, to enter themselves, and be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and, therefore, be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he was In before.

    Anyway, I’m pushing for Science and Atheism to be recognized as yet another Religion – one that is contradictarily claims to be the “one true Religion”. I’m all for tolerance, and it’s difficult to do. Putting $DEITY into any rational discussion completely blows it up like infinity in a math equation – just try arguing with Jesse Jackson or Trump. Or an atheist for that matter 🙂 You just get one refutation after another logical argument without ever reaching a common agreement.

    1. I’m pushing for Science and Atheism to be recognized as yet another Religion…

      By coming up with a new definition of “religion?” How exciting.

    2. This website has been around for a long time (some podcasters recently joked that Jerry blogs like it’s 2004). The topics and commentariat have changed over time, but used to emphasize a lot more content like your comment. You might enjoy reading some of Jerry’s back catalogue in which your arguments about science being like a religion are thoroughly addressed and shown to be wrong. I can’t be arsed to do it for you.

  3. On this day:
    1632 – Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, receives the first printed copy of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.

    1770 – British customs officer Ebenezer Richardson fires blindly into a crowd during a protest in North End, Boston, fatally wounding 11-year-old Christopher Seider; the first American fatality of the American Revolution.

    1797 – The last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales. [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below, relates to this event.]

    1856 – The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.

    1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.

    1881 – Cleopatra’s Needle, a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk is erected in Central Park, New York.

    1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.

    1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.

    1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.

    1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.

    1946 – The “Long Telegram”, proposing how the United States should deal with the Soviet Union, arrives from the US embassy in Moscow.

    1958 – Following a plebiscite in both countries the previous day, Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.

    1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.

    1974 – Samuel Byck attempts to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon, but is killed by police.

    1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.

    1983 – The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.

    1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.

    2006 – At least six men stage Britain’s biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.

    2011 – New Zealand’s second deadliest earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing 185 people.

    2014 – President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is impeached by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by a vote of 328–0, fulfilling a major goal of the Euromaidan rebellion.

    Births:
    1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799).

    1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author (d. 1860).

    1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general, co-founded The Scout Association (d. 1941).

    1857 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1894).

    1860 – Mary W. Bacheler, American physician and Baptist medical missionary (d. 1939).

    1882 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 1940). [A monster who committed incest with numerous relatives and even had sex with the family dog…]

    1900 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish-Mexican director and producer (d. 1983).

    1906 – Constance Stokes, Australian painter (d. 1991).

    1908 – John Mills, English actor (d. 2005).

    1914 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian-American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012). [Won the Nobel prize for his work on oncoviruses, which are viruses that can cause cancer when they infect animal cells. He studied at the University of Turin under Giuseppe Levi, along with fellow students Salvador Luria and Rita Levi-Montalcini, who also moved to the U.S. with him and won Nobel prizes. He was drafted into the Italian army in World War II, but later joined the resistance.]

    1918 – Robert Wadlow, American man, the tallest person in recorded history (d. 1940).

    1926 – Kenneth Williams, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1988).

    1928 – Texas Johnny Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013).

    1928 – Bruce Forsyth, English singer and television host (d. 2017).

    1930 – Marni Nixon, American soprano and actress (d. 2016).

    1932 – Ted Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2009).

    1933 – Sheila Hancock, English actress and author.

    1936 – J. Michael Bishop, American microbiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate.

    1937 – Joanna Russ, American author and activist (d. 2011).

    1942 – Christine Keeler, English model and dancer (d. 2017). [Came to fame during the Profumo affair. When she was jailed for perjury in another case her cellmate was Elizabeth Crowley, the maternal grandmother of Wes Streeting, the current Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Crowley was in prison for crimes related to her husband, an East End bank robber.]

    1944 – Jonathan Demme, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2017).

    1944 – Mick Green, English rock & roll guitarist (d. 2010).

    1944 – Robert Kardashian, American lawyer and businessman (d. 2003).

    1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver (d. 2019).

    1950 – Genesis P-Orridge, English singer-songwriter (d. 2020).

    1950 – Julie Walters, English actress and author.

    1953 – Nigel Planer, English actor and screenwriter.

    1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (d. 2006).

    1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter.

    What is bravery, and what is bravado? Journalists covering combat shoulder great responsibilities and face difficult choices. Sometimes they pay the ultimate price. (Marie Colvin):
    1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (b. 1454).

    1875 – Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (b. 1797).

    1888 – Anna Kingsford, English physician and activist (b. 1846).

    1897 – Charles Blondin, French tightrope walker and acrobat (b. 1824).

    1942 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1881).

    1944 – Fritz Schmenkel, anti-Nazi German who joined Soviet partisans (b. 1916).

    1976 – Angela Baddeley, English actress (b. 1904). [Best-remembered for her role as household cook Mrs. Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Her stage career lasted more than six decades.]

    1983 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889).

    1987 – David Susskind, American talk show host and producer (b. 1920).

    1987 – Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (b. 1928).

    2002 – Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1912).

    2012 – Frank Carson, Irish-English comedian and actor (b. 1926).

    2012 – Marie Colvin, American journalist (b. 1956). [Killed with colleague Rémi Ochlik (below) in a targeted attack made by Syrian government forces during the siege of Homs.]
    2012 – Rémi Ochlik, French photographer and journalist (b. 1983).

    2016 – Sonny James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928).

    1. Woman of the Day:
      [Text from the excellent The Attagirls X/Twitter account, although I should add a caveat to say that some elements appear possibly to be based on folklore.]

      Woman of the Day cobbler Jemima Nicholas (1750-1832) of Fishguard who organised a defence of her village during a French invasion and captured twelve enemy soldiers. She was said to be “of such personal powers as to be able to overcome most men in a fight.”

      Why today? Well, OTD in 1797, France – with the help of the Americans – carried out the last invasion of mainland Britain when it landed on the beach at Fishguard. It intended to carry a two-pronged diversionary attack to tie up British forces at Bristol and Newcastle while the main force headed to Bantry Bay in support of the Society of United Irishmen who were “American in their hearts”, but bad weather plus outbreaks of mutiny and poor discipline prevented two of the forces from landing while the third had to settle for Fishguard. Big mistake. Huge, in fact.

      The Battle of Fishguard raged for three days between the Irish-American Colonel William Tate’s 1,400 men – mainly republicans, deserters, convicts and 600 regular soldiers that Napoleon had no further use for – and Baron Cawdor’s 400 militia and sailors supported by the civilian population of Fishguard who didn’t take at all kindly to a load of ne’er-do-wells landing on their beach.

      Almost as soon as the invaders landed, discipline broke down. The irregulars deserted to loot nearby villages where they found the Welsh armed with pitchforks and surprisingly hostile. The convict recruits discovered the locals’ supply of wine – a Portuguese ship had been wrecked on the coast several weeks previously – and lay drunk and sick in farmhouses all over the Llanwnda Peninsula where they were given scant sympathy. The only troops left to Colonel Tate were the 600 French regulars, including his Grenadiers. They still outnumbered the local militia of 250 while the 150 British sailors were busy dealing with the invaders’ four ships, all sailing under Russian colours.

      On the second evening of the battle, two French officers turned up at the Royal Oak in Fishguard Square where Baron Cawdor had set up his HQ. They tried to negotiate a conditional surrender but Cawdor bluffed and said that only an unconditional surrender was acceptable as he had superior forces. He gave the French an ultimatum: line up on Goodwick Sands and throw down your weapons at ten o’clock tomorrow morning or we attack.

      Meanwhile, 47 year old Jemima Nicholas had been busy with her own efforts for the cause. She found twelve drunken French soldiers and armed with a pitchfork, captured them and marched them into town where she locked them inside St. Mary’s Church overnight for safekeeping.

      Jemima instructed the other women of the village to dress up in their traditional Welsh hats and red whittles (shawls) and line up alongside the militia on the cliffs overlooking Goodwick Sands, marching up and down in formation. The French forces on the beach thought the women were male redcoats wearing military hats and later described their fear at seeing so many troops on the hills. They firmly believed that their army of 1,200 men was outnumbered.

      After a bit of dithering, Tate surrendered and his men piled up their weapons on the sands. They were marched through Fishguard on their way to temporary imprisonment at Haverfordwest where they were later exchanged for British prisoners of war held in French prisons.

      Final score: British deaths nil, casualties light.
      French deaths and casualties, 33 deaths and 1,360 soldiers captured; one frigate and one corvette captured and handed over to the Royal Navy for its use.

      Jemima, known also as Jemima Fawr or Jemima the Great, was awarded a lifetime pension.

      https://twitter.com/TheAttagirls/status/1760567732767002860

    2. An appropriate quotation from one of today’s birthday squad:

      There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (22 Feb 1788-1860)

  4. We all have a responsibility to denounce sexual violence in all forms, regardless of who is responsible.

    Without doing the research I am going to say that her attitude was different when it was a question of Black Lives Matter.

  5. No. You’re not crazy in thinking that Israel is the only country that recognizes the two-state proposal is unworkable. Despite the ambiguous statements and reporting, it may actually be the case that the U.S. also recognizes that it won’t work. Read, for example, this brief article from the Times of Israel*, wherein one of two U.S. spokesman reportedly stated:

    “We are not seriously discussing or considering any changes to the longstanding US policy that any recognition of a Palestinian state must come through direct negotiations between the parties rather than through unilateral recognition at the UN,” one US official says.”

    Unfortunately, neither of the two U.S. participants in the conversation were named in the report. But, if true, it appears to me that the U.S. is backtracking on its earlier (apparent) call for a quick recognition of a Palestinian state.

    *https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-officials-deny-report-biden-imminently-unveiling-peace-plan-recognizing-palestinian-state/

  7. A pedant asks: Are the “superfluous apostrophes” apostrophes or are they quotation marks? I always thought apostrophes were single quotation marks, but these scare quote/air quote examples are doubles.

    Important and necessary stuff, of course.

  8. No need to be embarrassed. I should be embarrassed abut being so picky when you write thousands of words every day on this site and all I do is read them. Thanks PCC(E)!

  9. Israel/ Palestine
    Would a Two State solution work if Hamas and it’s charter were expelled and banned?
    The problem is freedom of religion, speech, individual rights.
    Then Islam needs to be defanged with extremism marginalised by it’s adherents.
    How do you do that?
    Back to top.

  10. I don’t know. The quotation marks on the word massage may be superfluous. Then again, they may not be.

  11. The inherent flaw in today’s appliances is that they are now controlled electronically, which makes repairs extremely difficult because the problem is not visible or material. Older appliances lasted forever because they were built and controlled mechanically and problems could be easily identified, leading to part replacement. Now electronics mean that we have regressed and made manufactured items essentially incomprehensible and difficult to repair. Your push button controls are all going to break down.Bring back on and off controls!

    1. Agreed. The push buttons are always the first thing to stop working. I won’t buy any appliance with push buttons anymore.

      1. Wasn’t push-buttons on the face of the steering column for automatic transmission selection one of the things that did in the Edsel?
        (Before my time!, I insist.)

        When our clunky 1990s-era drip coffee makers die, (only controls are off, on, and “strong”) we buy another one at Goodwill for $7. I don’t feel bad shopping there because poor people seem all to use Keurigs or buy their coffee at Tim Hortons or McDonalds. Honest. these things collect dust on the shelves.

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