Sunday: Hili dialogue

February 25, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Sabbath for goyische cats: it’s Sunday, February 25, 2024, and National Chocolate Covered Peanut Day, apparently celebrating just a single dipped nut.  Perhaps it’s this one!:

It’s also Let’s All Eat Right Day (you know what that means: BROCCOLI!), National Clam Chowder Day (New England style only, please), and Kitano Baika-sai or “Plum Blossom Festival” (Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan)

At the festival, tea is served with wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets that go with tea. Here are four: Asian skunk cabbage, rose of Sharon, hydrangea, and rose. 

Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the February 25 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*As expected by everyone but Nikki Haley, Donald Trump defeated the former state governor in the Republical Presidential primary election yesterday in South Carolina. It was a pretty strong defeat (60%-40%) given that this was her home state. She’s now inviable as a candidate, and Trump is steamrollering his way to the nomination.  What a tragedy it would be for America were he to be elected in November; not to mention what the world would think of a country who could elect a narcissistic and disordered personality to lead it.

Haley vows to fight on, but it’s hopeless, and of course Trump won’t choose her as his VP.  The only thing that can stop this odious man is a coronary or a stroke. (I’m not saying I’m wishing for that; I’m just stating the facts.)  Even a criminal conviction (he has four indictments), unlikely before the election (he’ll appeal), wouldn’t rule him out.

Here are the state results from the NYT (the election was called as soon as the polls closed).

*In another futile effort to force Israel to lose the war with Hamas, the United Nations—now a nefarious and obsolete organization—is trying to confect a resolution prohibiting arms from being sent to Israel that could be used in Gaza.

More than two dozen U.N. rights experts on Friday urged countries to halt the export to Israel of arms that would be used in Gaza, saying such transfers of weapons and ammunition could violate international humanitarian law.

In a statement, the experts — who are part of the “special procedures,” a body of independent experts in the U.N. Human Rights Council — said the need for an “arms embargo on Israel is heightened by the International Court of Justice’s [preliminary] ruling on 26 January 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continuing serious harm to civilians since then.”

Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory and one of the signatories to the statement, said on social media that sending weapons to Israel that may be used in Gaza “may amount to complicity in atrocity crimes.”

Albanese is a horrible person and an anti-Semite to boot. Among other things, she tried to justify the Hamas attacks of October 7 as a natural reaction to Israeli oppression, and is constantly accusing Israel of genocide. In other words, she’s a typical UN employee. Check her Twitter feed: she might as well be a member of Hamas.

Israel has rejected the allegations of genocide brought by South Africa at the ICJ, while the Biden administration dismissed the filing as “meritless.”

At least Biden appears to be still on the side of Israel, though his dumb-ass Secretary of State is still pushing a “two state hypothesis” that will put the Palestinian Authority in charge of postwar Gaza.  One thing is for sure: the UN is on the side of Hamas in this war, though some (a few) member states dissent.  I’m still not sure that Netanyahu’s proposal for a postwar solution to terrorism is a good one, but somehow I get the feeling that Israel will be in Gaza for a considerable time after it wins the war.

Meanwhile, negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue in Paris, though I’m not sure why Hamas hasn’t withdrawn in the face of Netanyahu’s proposal. Perhaps they are entertaining the notion that, in the end, Hamas will be victorious.

*After J. K. Rowling was defenestrated all the way to the bank for her views on biological sex, she more or less broke ties with the company, Warner Brothers, that made uber-lucrative movies from her books. (Several of the mushbrained stars of those movies demonized Rowling, too.) Now Warner is trying to get back in her good graces again.

To Warner Bros., the Hollywood studio that brought Harry Potter to life in blockbuster movies and theme-park attractions around the world, J.K. Rowling may just as well have been wearing an invisibility cloak.

It was early 2022, and the Harry Potter author had avoided executives for more than two years. She’d recently skipped a reunion special that streamed on the company’s Max service, a notable absence amid the now-grown stars of the films. When she soon after attended the premiere of an installment in the spinoff “Fantastic Beasts” series, she didn’t pose for photos with the cast.

The stars who had embodied her iconic characters wanted little to do with her. Critics and former fans had spent the past two years castigating the author for public comments on gender and sex that they saw as attacks on transgender rights. When Warner didn’t rush to her defense, she felt betrayed by a company that had collected billions of dollars from her creation.

Then, like a letter arriving via owl post, word came that David Zaslav, the new chief executive of the studio’s parent company, wanted to try to repair the damage. Zaslav had started his new job when an associate told him to get on a plane to the U.K. if he wanted a chance at winning over the writer who controlled his company’s most valuable property.

Sitting across the table from one another at a London supper club soon after, Rowling and Zaslav spent four hours discussing their childhoods, their families, how they weathered Covid-19. Zaslav wanted to breathe new life into the Harry Potter franchise, seeing a new TV show as a potential tentpole in his streaming strategy. But he needed to use a light touch—this was about salvaging a relationship so complicated and emotional that many have described it not as a business partnership, but as a marriage.

The company under Zaslave isn’t doing very well, and so he’s courting Rowling, hoping for a cash transfusion that will revive Warner.

He can’t afford to alienate Rowling too. She is the last member of what was known internally at one time as Warner’s “A+ talent” crew, a group that included only two other members: Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg.

But now, Eastwood is 93 years old. Spielberg made his last two movies at other studios. Rowling appears to be the last one left.

If I were Rowling, I’d flip him the bird unless she has a desperate desire to see a new movie. But this is of course her call.

*After a huge kerfuffle and Russian threats to have Alexei Navalnty’s body buried on the gulag grounds, the Russians have finally returned his body to his mother, while, across Russia, many continue grieving for the dissident, risking arrest for paying him homage.

The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother, a top aide to Navalny said Saturday on his social media account.

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, made the announcement on his Telegram account and thanked “everyone” who had called on Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body to his mother.

Earlier on Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force his mother to agree to a secret funeral after his death in an Arctic penal colony.

“Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone who wrote and recorded video messages. You all did what you needed to do. Thank you. Alexei Navalny’s body has been given to his mother,” Zhdanov wrote.

. . .The funeral is still pending,” Yarmysh tweeted, questioning whether authorities will allow it to go ahead “as the family wants and as Alexei deserves.”

Earlier Saturday, Navalny’s widow said in a video that Navalny’s mother was being “literally tortured” by authorities who had threatened to bury Navalny in the Arctic prison. They, she said, suggested to his mother that she did not have much time to make a decision because the body is decomposing, Navalnaya said.

“Give us the body of my husband,” Navalnaya said earlier Saturday. “You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.”

Authorities have detained scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Putin’s fiercest foe before the presidential election he is almost certain to win. Russians on social media say officials don’t want to return Navalny’s body to his family, because they fear a public show of support for him.

My question is whether his family will have another autopsy, or if it’s too late or if that’s even allowed. Given that the Russians aver that Navalny died of “natural causes” at 47, it would be useful to get as much information about his death as possible.

*Reader Christopher calls to our attention a new book by Catherine Nixey called Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God, reviewed here by the Times of London.  For those who think there was just one person on whom the figure of Jesus was based, and that the stories about him in Scripture are largely true, this promises to be a challenging book. For it notes the plethora of apocalyptic preachers on tap in Roman times, and how many religions were based on single figures. All but the going concern, Christianity, seem to have gone extinct. I have ordered it but haven’t read it, so some quotes from the review must suffice:

Heresy explains how that single Christian truth emerged and how competing stories were eradicated. “It is,” Nixey writes, “about how religions change and change again, as they travel, and age, and spread into other lands … It is about what was, and what might have been.” Heresy is a brilliant book — sometimes frightening, occasionally funny, frequently unsettling and always a thrill to read. It probes painfully into the pathology of belief.

. . . . Nixey, an Economist journalist and the author of The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, reveals how in ancient Rome there were many people like Jesus and many versions of Jesus himself. The religious world was a marketplace and Christianity was just one of many spiritual products on offer. Nixey rejects the idea that this “benighted pagan world was waiting for its saviour. On the contrary, it was suffering from an overabundance of such men; and almost nothing about Christianity struck any ancient observers as the slightest bit novel.”

The philosopher Celsus complained that there were so many would-be saviours roaming the streets that it was difficult to decide which doom-monger to believe. The names of these mystics have mostly been erased by time, but one stands out. The career of Apollonius closely parallels that of Jesus, his contemporary. Before his birth, his mother was visited by a god. He, like Jesus, had a talent for minor miracles such as turning water into wine. Both men apparently raised the dead. Both were persecuted and put on trial by the Romans. Jesus was crucified; Apollonius simply vanished from the courtroom before he could be executed. Feeling threatened by the Apollonius story, Christian authors eventually labelled him an antichrist.

In addition to the abundance of saviours in Roman times, there were myriad versions of Jesus. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, from the 2nd century AD, tells of a young Jesus who had a habit of killing his playmates when they interfered with his games. Angry neighbours showed up at his house, beseeching Mary and Joseph. “Teach him to bless and not to curse,” they demanded, “for he is killing our children.” Eventually an exasperated Joseph instructed Mary to keep Jesus indoors “for all those who provoke him die”.

We have become accustomed to a single story of Jesus with the result that other versions seem bizarre. In the Ethiopian text Book of the Cock Jesus resurrects a cockerel from his bowl of chicken soup. In another text Mary breathes fire. In the 3rd-century Acts of Thomas Jesus sells his twin into slavery. And then there’s the Jesus who despises babies since they “become either lunatics or half-withered or crippled or deaf or dumb or paralytics or idiots”.

In the beginning, there were many words. Christianity in ancient Rome was more like a field of competing saplings than a single, solid oak. That changed in AD312 when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, making it in effect the state religion. At the time, only about 10 per cent of Roman citizens were Christians. A central truth was defined and tiny differences labelled heresy. Christians persecuted other Christians. Gates were closed, minds slammed shut, books burnt.

Nixey reminds us that, in those days of Christian diversity, there were Novations, Sabbatians, Valentinians, Priscillianists, Enthusiasts and dozens of other sects, each of which told its own version of the Jesus story. Each believed that it alone was the true church. Eventually just one story emerged, not because it was necessarily true, but because its adherents were powerful. Other sects were then eradicated, their gospels erased. As in war, the victor wrote the word.

Take that, Christians!

*Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) who escaped into NYC a year ago when a vandal cut open his cage in the Central Park Zoo, was an object of both excitement and worry. Could he find enough to eat over the cold months? Would he survive, or fly off elsewhere? Well, the answer to the first question was yes, and he stayed in NYC, but those who followed and loved him didn’t figure about the tall buildings. With immense sadness I report that Flaco died on Friday after he flew into a building.

Just over a year ago, Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl captivated the hearts of New Yorkers when he fled from a Central Park Zoo enclosure after it was vandalized.

Flaco, dubbed “one of New York’s Flyest” by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, died Friday after colliding with a building in Manhattan, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced.

Following Flaco’s getaway in February 2023, authorities made numerous attempts to recapture him, without success. Flaco became an attraction in Central Park with birders and others regularly posting updates on X about his whereabouts and eating habits.

Despite efforts from members of the Wild Bird Fund who responded quickly to Friday’s collision scene, the bird was declared dead, the WCS said. The Wild Bird Fund notified zoo staff who picked up the bird and transported him to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy.

“The vandal who damaged Flaco’s exhibit jeopardized the safety of the bird and is ultimately responsible for his death,” the Wildlife Conservation Society said. “We are still hopeful that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, will ultimately make an arrest.”

The Central Park Zoo discovered on February 2, 2023, that Flaco escaped from his enclosure after someone vandalized the exhibit and cut its stainless steel mesh, the zoo had said.

Flaco had frequently been seen in and near Central Park and other locations across Manhattan since then, according to the society. Its staff monitored him throughout the year and were prepared to recover him if he showed any sign of difficulty or distress, the WCS said.

With a wingspan of up to 6 feet, the Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the world’s largest owls. It can weigh anywhere from 3 to 9 pounds, with females typically being larger than males.

RIP Flaco. Here he is (the NYT has a lyrical farewell to the bird written by Zeynep Tufekci)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is reacting to a statement by UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths: “Hamas is not a terrorist group.”

Hili: The UN’s spokesman must have been drunk when he said that.
Andrzej: You are wrong, he is well paid.
In Polish:
Hili: Ten rzecznik ONZ musiał być pijany jak to mówił.
Ja: Nie masz racji, jemu dobrze płacą.
And a picture of Szaron sleeping sweetly:

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

From Facebook, Jewish Valentine’s Day candies:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Jesus of the Day:

 

From Masih, translation from the Farsi by Google:

And what names were added to this list… We will neither forgive nor forget the Islamic Republic and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which have no feelings for Iran, but are the nation’s creditors and beg for legitimacy from the people to stay in power. Each vote means #انگشت_در_خون  [“finger in blood’}. Those who were killed for the crime of saying no to the Islamic Republic.

I retweeted this. It’s about an abysmal virtue-flaunting article in Science, of all places. (I did read it.) More on its craziness later:

From Simon, via Larry the Cat (posted yesterday). Differential cat love:

From Jez, who says “This is disgraceful.” It is, and of course the British police—which seem to be turning into an arm of Hamas—did nothing.

From Malcolm, proving my theory that medieval artists couldn’t draw cats. They always gave them human faces!

 

One cat appears to hypnotize another:

From the Auschwitz Memorial: a Hungarian Jewish boy gassed upon arrival at the camp. He was four years old.

A tweet from Doctor Cobb. The first shows how nice Francis Crick could be (on occasion):

But Matthew didn’t show this card, which Crick sometimes used to stave off requests:

L0033845 Francis Crick reply card, used, on occasion Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

38 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. On this day:
    1836 – Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm.

    1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.

    1916 – World War I: In the Battle of Verdun, a German unit captures Fort Douaumont, keystone of the French defences, without a fight.

    1921 – Georgian capital Tbilisi falls to the invading Russian forces after heavy fighting and the Russians declare the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

    1932 – Hitler, having been stateless for seven years, obtains German citizenship when he is appointed a Brunswick state official by Dietrich Klagges, a fellow Nazi. As a result, Hitler is able to run for Reichspräsident in the 1932 election.

    1933 – Launch of the USS Ranger at Newport News, Virginia. It is the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned by the US Navy.

    1939 – As part of British air raid precautions, the first of 2 1⁄2 million Anderson shelters is constructed in a garden in Islington, north London.

    1941 – The outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands organises a general strike in German-occupied Amsterdam to protest against Nazi persecution of Dutch Jews.

    1947 – Soviet NKVD forces in Hungary abduct Béla Kovács—secretary-general of the majority Independent Smallholders’ Party—and deport him to the USSR in defiance of Parliament. His arrest is an important turning point in the Communist takeover of Hungary.

    1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, denounces Stalin.

    1986 – People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines’ first female president.

    1991 – Disbandment of the Warsaw Pact at a meeting of its members in Budapest.

    Births:
    1670 – Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1720) [One of the first famous astronomers of her period due to her writing on the conjunction of the sun with Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter in 1709 and 1712 respectively.]

    1682 – Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Italian anatomist and pathologist (d. 1771). [Generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 years as Professor of Anatomy at the University of Padua.]

    1806 – Emma Catherine Embury, American author and poet (d. 1863). [Under the pen name of “Ianthe”, she contributed to the periodicals of the day, and may be considered among the pioneers of female literature in the United States.]

    1841 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter and sculptor (d. 1919).

    1869 – Phoebus Levene, Russian-American biochemist and physician (d. 1940). [Russian-born American biochemist who studied the structure and function of nucleic acids. He characterized the different forms of nucleic acid, DNA from RNA, and found that DNA contained adenine, guanine, thymine, cytosine, deoxyribose, and a phosphate group. He died in 1940, before the true significance of DNA became clear.]

    1873 – Enrico Caruso, Italian-American tenor; the most popular operatic tenor of the early 20th century and the first great recording star. (d. 1921).

    1890 – Myra Hess, English pianist and educator (d. 1965).

    1898 – William Astbury, physicist and molecular biologist (d. 1961).

    1901 – Zeppo Marx, American comedian (the youngest of the Marx Brothers) and theatrical agent (d. 1979).

    1906 – Mary Coyle Chase, American journalist and playwright; author of Harvey (d. 1981).

    1908 – Mary Locke Petermann, American cellular biochemist (d. 1975).

    1910 – Millicent Fenwick, American journalist and politician (d. 1992).

    1917 – Anthony Burgess, English author, playwright, and critic (d. 1993).

    1918 – Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995). [In 1973, aged 55, he played against leading female tennis players first against the No. 1–ranked woman player Margaret Smith Court, which he won, and another against the then-current women’s champion Billie Jean King, which he lost. The latter, the primetime “Battle of the Sexes” match, remains one of the most famous tennis events of all time, with a $100,000 ($659,000 today) winner-takes-all prize.]

    1922 – Molly Reilly, Canadian aviator (d. 1980). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]

    1924 – Hugh Huxley, English-American biologist and academic (d. 2013).

    1930 – Wendy Beckett, British nun and art critic (d. 2018).

    1941 – David Puttnam, English film producer and academic.

    1943 – George Harrison, English singer-songwriter, guitarist and film producer; lead guitarist of The Beatles (d. 2001).

    1950 – Neil Jordan, Irish film director, screenwriter and author.

    1966 – Téa Leoni, American actress.

    1986 – Jameela Jamil, English actress and presenter. [She claims to have been involved in several unlikely incidents involving bees.]

    The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. (Voltaire):
    1723 – Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St Paul’s Cathedral (b. 1632).

    1756 – Eliza Haywood, English actress and poet (b. 1693).

    1906 – Anton Arensky, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1861).

    1914 – John Tenniel, English illustrator (b. 1820). [ His illustration of the Jabberwock is still imprinted on my brain from childhood.]

    1934 – Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, American botanist and academic (b. 1857).

    1970 – Mark Rothko, Latvian-American painter and academic (b. 1903).

    1983 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright, and poet (b. 1911).

    2001 – Don Bradman, Australian international cricketer; holder of world record batting average (b. 1908).

    2005 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer, founded Amnesty International (b. 1921).

    2015 – Eugenie Clark, American biologist and academic; noted ichthyologist (b. 1922).

    2017 – Bill Paxton, American actor and filmmaker (b. 1955).

    2022 – Shirley Hughes, English author and illustrator (b. 1927). [ “Bath water’s hot, Sea water’s cold. Ginger’s kittens are very young, Buster’s getting old…”]

    1. Woman of the Day:
      [Text from Wikipedia]

      Moretta Fenton Beall “Molly” Reilly (born on this day in 1922, died November 24, 1980) became the first female Canadian pilot to reach the rank of captain, the first female Canadian corporate pilot, and the first woman to fly to the Arctic professionally. Her modifications to the Beechcraft Duke were used to improve the aircraft. Over the course of her career, Reilly logged over 10,000 flight hours as a pilot-in-command — without a single accident. She is a member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.

      Reilly was born February 25, 1922, in Lindsay, Ontario. She had seven siblings, three sisters and four brothers, at least one brother enlisted as a pilot during WWII.

      After graduating from high school in 1940, Reilly took flying lessons at Pat Paterson’s Flyers Limited School at Barker Field. One of her teachers was fellow Canadian aviator Violet Milstead. Reilly’s flight training was cut short when WWII forced civilian aviators to stay grounded, so she applied to join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in order to complete her pilot certification, but was rejected due to her gender. Although the Air Transport Auxiliary accepted women, Reilly couldn’t join without her pilot’s license. Determined to find a job that involved flying, in 1941 she finally enlisted with the RCAF as a photographer in the new Women’s Division. She continued working as a non-commissioned officer for the RCAF until 1946.

      In 1946, after the war ended, Reilly was finally able to finish her flight lessons, earning her private pilot’s license from what would later become the Rockcliffe Flying Club in Ottawa. By 1947, she had earned her commercial flight license.

      That same year, Reilly gained national media attention when she participated in the 1947 Webster Trophy aviation race. She was awarded the Sanderson Shield for placing as runner-up, finishing barely three-tenths of a point behind the first place winner.

      After completing her instructor’s certification, Reilly was hired as a flight instructor at the Leavens Brothers Flying School in Toronto. During her employment at the school, she continued to upgrade her aviation skills, earning multi-engine and instrument ratings at the Spartan School of Aeronautics before completing her seaplane pilot qualifications at Port Alberni.

      In 1953, Reilly travelled to England to earn a senior commercial license, a public transport license, and her air transport ratings. A year later, she was hired as the chief flying instructor and charter pilot for Canadian Aircraft Renters. In 1957, she was promoted as full-time charter pilot for the company, transferred to its subsidiary Southern Provincial Airlines, becoming the first Canadian female pilot to reach the rank of captain. During her work at Southern Provincial Airlines, Reilly became the first woman to fly professionally to the Arctic, and assisted in the development of the company’s air ambulance service in Eastern Canada.

      Taking a new job with the Calgary company Peter Bawden Drilling in 1959, Reilly co-piloted a DC-3 airliner. She flew extensively throughout the north, piloting back and forth between major oil airfields and making runs to places such as Frobisher Bay and Resolute Bay. Reilly often dealt with extreme weather conditions, poor visibility, and few navigational aids.

      In 1965, Reilly joined Canadian Coachways (later Canadian Utilities) and was hired as their chief pilot, becoming the first female corporate pilot in Canada. She flew a Beechcraft Duke throughout North America, and made modifications to the aircraft in order to fly more efficiently in the Arctic, receiving a personal commendation from the Beechcraft chairwoman Olive Beech in the process.

      In 1974, Reilly was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.

      In 1959, Reilly accepted a marriage proposal from pilot Jack Reilly, whom she had met through her first post-war job at the Leavens Brothers Flying School. He was her co-pilot for the DC-3 airliner at Peter Bawden Drilling.

      Reilly died on November 24, 1980. By the end of her career, she had logged over 10,000 hours as a pilot-in-command—without a single accident.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Reilly

    2. I always think of Tenniel’s illustrations of A Christmas Carol, especially of Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig.

    3. RE:1933 launch of first purpose-built aircraft carrier Ranger at Newport News, VA. The Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (now Huntington Ingalls Industries) went on to build an additional 13 aircraft carriers just
      during WW2 and continues to build carriers today including the Forrestal in 1960, the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The famous Gibbs and Cox designed SS United States (she/her) ocean liner, still holder of the Blue Riband for fastest Atlantic crossing, was built at Newport News and was a point of city pride and celebration as she returned up the James River to the “Yard” each year for her annual overhaul. Thanks for the shout out to the Ranger.

      1. Your mention of the aircraft carrier Forrestal jogged a long-dormant memory of mine. As a kid I had built a detailed plastic model of that ship, as well as a nuclear sub and various aircraft — my favorites being the X-3 Stiletto and F-104 Starfighter.

        The long forward profile of NASA’s current X-59 “quiet” supersonic research aircraft harkens back to the piercing nose of the sleek Stiletto.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_X-3_Stiletto

        One day I blew up all of the models with firecrackers.

  2. Nixey’s book won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen The Life of Brian. By the way, it seems like the US title is “Heretic” (same subtitle), as I found when I looked for it on Amazon.

    1. Different subtitle too: Heretic: The Many Lives and Deaths of Jesus Christ

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/035865291X?psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

      – I’m not the Messiah!
      – I say you are, Lord, and I should know. I’ve followed a few. Hail Messiah!
      – I’m not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I’m not the Messiah! Do you understand? Honestly!
      – Only the true Messiah denies his divinity.
      – What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right, I am the Messiah!
      – He is! He is the Messiah!

  3. What if Trump is reelected? At his inauguration he throws open the Capitol to his raucous supporters who trash the offices of the opposition, he guts what’s left of the Treasury to pay off all his debts, and he pardons himself for all crimes. When the economy collapses he resigns because he’s bored and he only wanted to show them he wasn’t a loser anyway.

    1. > . . . he guts what’s left of the Treasury . . .

      The Treasury has no assets to gut, other than buildings, land, warships, stocks of howitzer ammunition and toilet paper in government warehouses, that sort of thing. This got me thinking. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed the other day that the United States should print $32 trillion to pay off the sovereign debt tomorrow. This shows she subscribes to Modern Monetary Theory which says that fiat currencies can be used this way. (In fact, MMT says there is never any need to retire sovereign debt denominated in a fiat currency. When it comes due, digits in a spreadsheet are simply moved from the creditor’s investment account at the Fed to his chequing account. As long as the sovereign can print dollars (on paper or electronically), no cheque written on any government account will ever bounce. Alternatively, the creditor could opt simply to leave the electronic dollars in his investment account and continue to receive interest…in dollars. Sovereign debt is not a future charge on our grandchildren’s wealth, unlike if a private citizen dies in debt. But printing $32 trillion to retire it is an example of the kind of thing you could do under MMT if you wanted to. Paying it down by running budgetary surpluses represents excessive taxation and leads to recessions.)

      So here’s a thought experiment for the MMT folks. Write Donald Trump a cheque drawn on the US Treasury for, say $20 billion, on condition that he drop out of the race forever and ride off into the sunset (or enjoy the sunrise on the beach in Mar-a-lago.) Or let him write his own cheque when he wins the Presidency on the condition that he resign immediately. If you believe in MMT, this should not cost the country’s private wage earners, civil servants, welfare and Social Security recipients, and bond-coupon clippers anything at all, any more than AOC’s debt-retirement proposal would. Not a cent.

      KenS, I read the Moseler book. Rebuttals invited.

  4. It was inevitable that anyone running against Trump was going to lose. But I hope Haley stays in as long possible, just to continue to annoy DJT as long as possible.

    Proclaiming that anyone who supports Haley would be “barred permanently” from Magaland? Only Trump can get away with running for President and “King of the United States” concurrently.

    1. Haley may be using a particular strategy here which arises from the fact that there’s a lot which could happen to Trump before the nomination. He’s old, his health isn’t good, he’s under multiple indictments, he’s being legally removed from state ballots, he’s hated by a lot of people who want him dead — these all have a perhaps negligible but real possibility of taking him out of the running as a Republican presidential candidate. Worst of all is the way he keeps running his mouth and saying stupid, arrogant, and/or risky things. Either some new disqualification could pop up or Trump voters could finally discover the line he might cross to make them turn on him.

      If Trump goes out, then the only alternative Republican candidate people have been following for months is the spunky gal from South Carolina. Polls may reveal she’s now the most viable option for victory.

      Is that why she isn’t dropping out? If so, she may not particularly care if she keeps losing to Trump in primaries.

      1. I agree, Sastra. In a gerontocracy, all positions that are contested in a long, gruelling, perpetual campaign maybe should have a “vice-candidate” who isn’t expected to beat the candidate but is there only if the actual candidate falters part-way through and thus avert a crisis.

      2. Good points. I also think she wants to keep herself in the media, and thus in the public eye, for another run in 2028. She still has tons of money (probably more than Trump) Fox is giving her a lot of air-time, and she uses it bashing Trump (and Biden) and I’m sure it’s having an effect on Republican voters. It surely enrages Trump, and that’s a good thing.

        She is also showing that Trump is weak. I know pundits are saying she got “destroyed in her own state!” but to me destroyed would be something like 80% to 20%. For an incumbent Republican POTUS to get 60% in a ruby red Southern state like SC does not signify a strong candidate.

        1. Yes. I think 2028 is her main goal
          . She’s obnoxiously right wing and abortion will ultimately sink her. That said she is good on Ukraine and Israel and that is good. Most important things .

          2. As much as I think that Trump represents a serious danger to democracy, I hope Trump remains the Republican nominee because I think Biden will beat him, assuming nothing illegal happens during the vote. I don’t think, however, that Biden would beat Haley, just because of age discrimination.

        2. Some significant proportion of the people who voted for her in the primary were democrats who did it to oppose Trump.
          Those folks would not be voting for her in the general election.
          Open primaries make it difficult to predict actual support.

          I agree with the others here that Haley is likely following a strategy where she is gambling on Trump not making it to the general.

          1. I agree that’s Haley’s strategy. But I hope Trump survives to the election, distasteful as it will be to constantly see his slimy mug and hear his braying voice expressing a very confused brain.

  5. I’ll read Herest because I’ve read Nixey’s The Darkening Age and thought it was very good.

  7. Eventually an exasperated Joseph instructed Mary to keep Jesus indoors “for all those who provoke him die”.

    John Prine had his own take on the topic:

    2. I miss him. Hope he and Steve Goodman got reunited. The years between their deaths are their missing years. I like to imagine they are making up for lost time.

  8. RE: Comment on the paper published in the journal science.

    There are two papers: “Humane Genomics Education Can Reduce Racism” and “Sex and Gender Essentialism in Textbooks.” Readers may be interested to know that the papers are a product of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), one of the most influential publishers of bio education materials in the US and also produce influential textbooks. I’ve seen a summary written for educators but I can’t find it on their website. The website of BSCS includes considerable material on social justice and biology teaching.

    1. Also this:

      “The sociopolitical in human genetics education”
      “Education must go beyond only countering essentialist and deterministic views of genetics”
      https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi8227

      This is also a beauty:

      “Teach Indigenous knowledge alongside science”
      “Evidence supports the teaching of Indigenous knowledge alongside sciences in the classroom”
      https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi9606

      The Science policy forum is going all out in February like it’s Take Your Woke Politics to Work Month. Who knew?

    2. When did this happen to bscs? I led a review of Virginia content standards in 2007 and we looked at various curricula including pssc and bscs. It has been more than 15 years but I do not recall any SJ pollution in the bscs content standards at that time.

  9. Former U.S. diplomat Martin Indyk has published a lengthy pieced in Foreign Affairs calling for a process leading to a two-state solution. He envisions a strong role for a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority (PA). If you subscribe, you can read the article here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/palestine-strange-resurrection-two-state-solution-indyk. I don’t subscribe but I got a freebie, apparently.

    In my view the article contains a lot of wishful thinking, but it also includes a lot of detail and will probably be widely read (by the policy wonks who read Foreign Affairs, at least).

  10. Nixey’s Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God isn’t the first book to bring up these points, but a popular best seller on this topic could really devastate a lot of believers who believe theirs is a rational faith and rely on apologetics. The argument that Christianity must be true because it burst on the astonished world as an unprecedented, pure, and otherwise inexplicable phenomenon has always sounded weak to me even absent this historical evidence, but to those who consider it one of the rock solid defenses of the Faith, it’s going to burst some bubbles.

    1. Heresy is obviously an important book to read. However the story
      doesn’t start there. From Roman times go back 3000 years or more and
      look at how all religions from Anatolia to Judea to Mesopotamia to Egypt all borrowed from each other due to trade, invasions, etc. Most of Christianity can be
      derived from concepts in ancient Egypt.

  12. If Trump does have a stroke or a coronary, conservatives will claim that it was an assassination attempt.

  13. Regarding virtue signaling at AAAS Science…

    I’m a subscriber-member as a “science advocate.” The journal invites me every year to vote for its officers. I never considered myself informed enough, nor interested enough, to participate in the election. But it dawned on me this year that I could look at the candidate’s statements and see what they might be saying about DEI.

    Keeping in mind other relevant qualifications, I was surprised to learn that I could easily find candidates who made no mention of DEI, and so I voted for them. It’s a small gesture, but many small gestures could hopefully turn the academic Titanic toward a more reasonable course that is consistent with, you know, science.

    1. Great idea. Every little bit helps. By the way, Jon, I’m sorry to report that I’ve only read the forward (intro? Whatever) to Jerry’s book but it’s not for lack of desire. I’m still very much looking forward to it if only life would slow down throwing curves…

      1. Same here, Debi, though my “curves” are still relatively gentle. I have quite a few books on my to-read shelf, but I’m confident that I’ll be reading Jerry’s book shortly.😎

  14. About Navalny …Thanks for linking to the recording that busted Putin the first time he tried to have Navalny poisoned. I missed that before. That was a trip! What an effing monster Putin is. Man!

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