Wednesday: Hili dialogue

April 10, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Wednesday, a Hump Day (“Ден на грпка” in Macedonian); it’s April 10, 2024, and National Cinnamon Roll Day, an obligatory part of a good breakfast. And the bigger the better. This one needs more icing and a larger size:

Evan-Amos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Day, Golfer’s Day (which golfer?), Global Work from Home Day (experimental biologists, this is not for you), National Farm Animals Day, International Siblings Day, and Feast of the Third Day of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema; look it up).

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 10 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Briefly, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an ancient (1864) law that made all abortions, save those necessary to save the mother’s life, illegal in that state. But the court also put the decision on hold pending a lower court’s ruling on the law’s constitutionality. Both the women and doctors performing abortions could be sent to jail.  Republicans are backing away from this ridiculous ruling, and, on last night’s NBC News, the state’s top law-enforcement official said she will not enforce the law even if it goes into effect.

*These are a lot heavier sentences than I imagined for two parents of a teenager who shot to death four students in his Michigan high school. The parents were deemed partly responsible for the carnage, charged with “unintentional homicide.” Oy, the sentences (not that I think they’re undeserved):

A Michigan judge sentenced the parents of a teenager who killed four classmates at his high school to 10 to 15 years in prison each, the first parents of a school shooter to be held directly responsible for their child’s attack.

James and Jennifer Crumbley were each convicted of four counts of unintentional homicide in separate trials that ended in February and March. Their son, Ethan Crumbley, pleaded guilty to four counts of murder in the 2021 killings at Oxford High School about 40 miles north of Detroit and is serving life in prison.

Neither defendant showed a strong reaction to the decision, and both impassively signed various forms before being escorted out of the courtroom.

“These convictions were not about poor parenting,” said Judge Cheryl Matthews. “These convictions convey repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.”

Prosecutors had sought 10 to 15 years each for the parents, higher than state minimum sentencing recommendations of 43 to 86 months, citing what they called a lack of remorse by the parents and threatening comments directed at the district attorney made by James Crumbley in jailhouse telephone calls.

. . . At trial, prosecutors portrayed both parents as unconcerned by their son’s deteriorating mental state, failing to take him home after a troubling meeting with school officials the day of the shooting and failing to securely store the gun used in the attack. The parents argued in their presentencing statements to the court that they were unaware of their son’s mental-health issues. James Crumbley maintained that he had taken prudent steps to secure the weapon.

Here’s the (pardon me) smoking gun that did the parents in:

Both Crumbley trials hinged on a meeting among the parents, Ethan Crumbley and two school officials the morning of the shooting. On a school math sheet, Ethan had drawn a picture of a 9mm handgun resembling the one he had received as a Christmas present, a person bleeding and the words, “blood everywhere,” “the thoughts won’t stop” and “help me.”

School officials recommended the parents seek immediate mental-health services for their son, but the parents opted to leave him in school after school officials extended the deadline to 48 hours. He opened fire in a hallway shortly after the meeting.

Crikey, what kind of parents are they? Well, they’ll have 5-10 years to think about it.

*The Jerusalem Post reports a totally asymmetrical deal proposed by, yes, the CIA, a U.S. agency, to let Israel’s hostages go. It involves a mass release of convicted Jew-killers from Israeli jails:

The CIA’s proposal for a hostage deal includes the release of 900 Palestinian prisoners, a senior Israeli source told Kan News on Tuesday.

Included in the 900 prisoners at 100 “heavy” prisoners.

The term “heavy” prisoner refers to the high-profile nature of the crime for which said inmate was imprisoned, with Palestinians imprisoned for murdering Israelis in terror attacks considered “heavier” than inmates with no blood on their hands.

The source further said that in return, Israel demanded that it retain the right of veto over some of the prisoners and that it be allowed to exile those it releases outside the precincts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

I have a sick feeling that Israel, under strong pressure to bring the hostages back, will go for this deal, which, by releasing 100 “heavy” terrorists, will simply perpetrate terrorism. Further, I’ve heard that Hamas will give up only 40 prisoners for this. (Remember, Israel once let go 1000 terrorist prisoners in return for a single kidnapped IDF soldier!)  Hamas refuses to give to either Israel or the Red Cross a list of the hostages they’re holding, and I suspect that the 130-odd that are supposed to be alive are actually mostly dead.  I can’t tell Israel what to do, but it seems to me that it’s a fair demand to let EVERY hostage go if Israel is going to release a lot of Jew-killers from its jails.

*Surprise! According to FDD, the Hamas-controlled “Gaza Health Ministry,” whose casualty figures are uncritically accepted by the world’s press, actually has some serious problems with its data.

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on April 6 that it had “incomplete data” for 11,371 of the 33,091 Palestinian fatalities it claims to have documented. In a statistical report, the ministry notes that it considers an individual record to be incomplete if it is missing any of the following key data points: identity number, full name, date of birth, or date of death. The health ministry also released a report on April 3 that acknowledged the presence of incomplete data but did not define what it meant by “incomplete.” In that earlier report, the ministry acknowledged the incompleteness of 12,263 records. It is unclear why, after just three more days, the number fell to 11,371 — a decrease of more than 900 records.

And, of course, the Health Ministry considers as “children” anybody under 18, and a fair number of those could be Hamas members.  There is no separation, among the “civilian” deaths or injuries, of Hamas members or other combatants from real, genuine civilians. But let’s proceed.

Prior to its admissions of incomplete data, the health ministry asserted that the information in more than 15,000 fatality records had stemmed from “reliable media sources.” However, the ministry never identified the sources in question and Gaza has no independent media.

“The sudden shifts in the ministry’s reporting methods suggest it is scrambling to prevent exposure of its shoddy work. For months, U.S. media have taken for granted that the ministry’s top-line figure for casualties was reliable enough to include in daily updates on the war. Even President Biden has cited its numbers. Now we’re seeing that a third or more of the ministry’s data may be incomplete at best — and fictional at worst.” — David Adesnik, Senior Fellow and Director of Research

“It is important to recognize that Hamas is deeply invested in shaping the narrative that emerges from Gaza, particularly regarding the number of casualties in the war. Moreover, this control of data extends beyond the statistics provided by the Hamas-controlled health ministry, as there is also a deliberate effort to downplay the number of terrorists who have been killed by Israel in the war, potentially numbering more than 10,000.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

On October 16, the health ministry told global media that an Israeli airstrike was responsible for an explosion that killed 500 Palestinians at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza. U.S. media quickly reported the story even though it became clear within hours there was no evidence to support claims of an airstrike or a death toll close to 500. Soon, evidence emerged showing that a rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists was nearly certain to have caused a blast in the hospital’s parking lot. An unclassified U.S. intelligence report on October 18 said the blast likely caused between 100 to 300 deaths, and it leaned towards casualty estimates at “the low end of the 100-to-300 spectrum.”

Nevertheless, the health ministry does not identify the individuals who died as a result of errant Palestinian fire, even though the Israel Defense Forces reported that 12 percent of rockets fired during the first month of the war fell inside Gaza — more than 1,000 total misfires.

I don’t think it’s wise to uncritically report this incomplete data, or perhaps even divulge any statistics given by Hamas, especially if they’re reported as “civilian” deaths. For it is the “civilians” supposedly killed that has brought the wrath of the world down on Israel.

*The NYT reports that some colleges will cost (including all fees) over $100,000 per year! Sadly, the first one mentioned is Vanderbilt, whose Chancellor used to be our Provost (and arrested and suspended protesting students)

It was only a matter of time before a college would have the nerve to quote its cost of attendance at nearly $100,000 a year. This spring, we’re catching our first glimpse of it.

One letter to a newly admitted Vanderbilt University engineering student showed an all-in price — room, board, personal expenses, a high-octane laptop — of $98,426. A student making three trips home to Los Angeles or London from the Nashville campus during the year could hit six figures.

This eye-popping sum is an anomaly. Only a tiny fraction of college-going students will pay anything close to this anytime soon, and about 35 percent of Vanderbilt students — those who get neither need-based nor merit aid — pay the full list price.

But a few dozen other colleges and universities that reject the vast majority of applicants will probably arrive at this threshold within a few years. Their willingness to cross it raises two questions for anyone shopping for college: How did this happen, and can it possibly be worth it?

That’s the sticker price, though, and not many people pay it:

According to the College Board, the average 2023-24 list price for tuition, fees, housing and food was $56,190 at private, nonprofit four-year schools. At four-year public colleges, in-state students saw an average $24,030 sticker price.

That’s not what many people pay, though, not even close. As of the 2019-20 school year, according to federal data that the College Board used in a 2023 report, 39 percent of in-state students attending two-year colleges full time received enough grant aid to cover all of their tuition and fees (though not their living expenses, which can make getting through school enormously difficult). At four-year public schools, 31 percent paid nothing for tuition and fees while 18 percent of students at private colleges and universities qualified for the same deal.

Those private colleges continue to provide hefty discounts for people of all sorts of incomes. A National Association of College and University Business Officers study showed private nonprofit colleges and universities lowering their tuition prices by 56 percent from the rack rate during the 2022-23 school year.

Vanderbilt provides discounts, too, and its financial aid is extraordinarily generous. This year, it announced that families with income of $150,000 or less would pay no tuition in most instances

Still, over 2,000 students there who get no need-based or merit aid will soon pay $100,000 or more. Why does Vanderbilt need all of that money?

Why? Well, Vandy says that it actually costs more than the sticker price to educate its students;

According to Vanderbilt, its spending per undergraduate is $119,000. “The gap between the price and cost of attendance is funded by our endowment and the generous philanthropy of donors and alumni,” Brett Sweet, vice chancellor for finance, said in an emailed statement.

And that is why the job the a liberal-arts private university’s administration is largely to suck in funds.

*The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has, by unanimous vote, effectively banned transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Note that anybody can participate in the male division, but only natal females can participate in women’s sports. Note also that the NAIA doesn’t hold sway over most colleges. (h/t Mark; my emphasis below)

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the governing body for mostly small colleges, announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.

The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes at schools across the country, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.

According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and who have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed to participate in women’s sports.

A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition.

NAIA programs in competitive cheer and competitive dance are open to all students. The NAIA policy notes every other sport “includes some combination of strength, speed and stamina, providing competitive advantages for male student-athletes.”

NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr said in an interview with The Associated Press he understands the policy will generate controversy but that it was deemed best for member schools for competitive reasons.

“We know there are a lot of opinions, and a lot of people have a very emotional reaction to this, and we want to be respectful of all that,” Carr said. “But we feel like our primary responsibility is fairness in competition, so we are following that path. And we’ve tried as best we could to allow for some participation by all.”

Remember, this is for all the college sports save the few exemptions like cheerleading and dance given above. And it’s a real change from last year’s policy:

The NAIA’s 2023-24 policy did not bar transgender and nonbinary athletes from competing in the division of their choice in the regular season. In the postseason, and with some exceptions for those who have had hormone therapy, athletes had to compete in the division of their birth sex.

The tide seems to be turning on this issue, and various sports are converging on the NAIA’s policy. The Biden Administration tends to conflate biological sex with “identified gender” in its proposed rules for secondary-school sports, but they’ve held back on issuing a policy unitl after the election. No wonder! But also remember that this is a small-college body, while the big one, the NCAA (the National Collegiate Athletics Association) adheres to the timorous policy of the Olympics: it allows each sport to make its own rules.  And within each sport’s rules, there is this sub-rule, which doesn’t really address the issue:

Beginning Aug. 1, 2024, participation in NCAA sports requires transgender student-athletes to provide documentation no less than twice annually (and at least once within four weeks of competition in NCAA championships) that meets the sport-specific standard (which may include testosterone levels, mitigation timelines and other aspects of sport-governing body policies) as reviewed and approved by CSMAS. More information about the specific application of Phase Three will be provided prior to implementation.

It’s the “sports-specific standard” that is the very thing at issue!

*I haven’t followed Dave Rubin for a long time, but here’s a short clip a reader sent me showing a pro-Palestinian gay activist (an oxymoron if ever there was one) trying to join a pro-Palestinian demonstration. I’ve never seen something like this, but it shows the opposition of “sanity versus stupidity”, as Rubin says (he’s gay). Note that the burka-clad demonstrator tells the gay guy, “”God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”.

Here’s a comment under the video; it’s hilarious:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili meets Baby Kulka (who she hates), coming down to the veranda roof on the special ladder that Paulina made for her:

Kulka: It’s nice to see you.
Hili: I hope you are not planning to visit us.
In Polish:
Kulka: Miło cię widzieć.
Hili: Mam nadzieję, że nie wybierasz się do nas.

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

This song was made by webmaster Phil using AI, apparently in my honor. Phil calls this “an unheralded classic from the Sixties” and that “it might have been The Cowsills”. Indeed, though I like this a lot but like only one Cowsills song.  Click and then hit “play”.  I’m chuffed!

Here’s Ozy sleeping after his breakfast on Sunday (photo by Rosemary Alles).  I am helping support this giant pig.

From Not Another Science Cat Page:

From Maish: Iranian women students get into big trouble—for DANCING to celebrate their graduation. Such is the repressive Iranian theocracy.  (Nice video, too!)

Emma Hilton takes down every one of Peter Tatchell’s 18 examples of animals that are “trans”.  First, Tatchell’s tweet:

Screenshots from Emma. We already know why the clownfish isn’t “trans” (it fully changes biological sex from male to female, sans gender dysphoria)

And the damn hyena, which is not even able to change biological sex:

One more, and thus endeth the biology lesson:

A bear walks into a store, and gently removes a single snack:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I retweeted:

Tweets from Proessor Cobb. Speaking of ducks, here’s the world’s most beautiful duck, the East Asian Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata), which has been imported to many places, including here:

Sound up for this weird cat, which is surely Kifness material!

32 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. On this day:
    837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles).

    1606 – The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

    1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.

    1724 Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig.

    1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth’s climate for the next two years. [1816 was known as the Year Without a Summer; summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between the years of 1766 and 2000 and there were major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.]

    1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes (32,000 lb) bell for the Palace of Westminster, had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

    1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.

    1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.

    1896 – 1896 Summer Olympics: The Olympic marathon is run ending with the victory of Greek athlete Spyridon Louis.

    1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.

    1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

    1944 – Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp.

    1968 – The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand ferry sinks in Wellington harbour due to a fierce storm – the strongest winds ever in Wellington. Out of the 734 people on board, fifty-three died.

    1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.

    1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.

    1972 – Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s lost military treatise, are discovered by construction workers in Shandong.

    1991 – A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.

    1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland.

    2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.

    2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, which was located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.

    Births:
    1778 – William Hazlitt, English essayist and critic (d. 1830).

    1829 – William Booth, English minister, founded The Salvation Army (d. 1912).

    1847 – Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-American journalist, publisher, and politician, founded Pulitzer, Inc. (d. 1911).

    1880 – Frances Perkins, American sociologist, academic, and politician, United States Secretary of Labor (d. 1965). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]

    1887 – Bernardo Houssay, Argentinian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971). [He was a co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering the role played by pituitary hormones in regulating the amount of glucose in animals, sharing the prize with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Cori. He is the first Latin American Nobel laureate in the sciences.]

    1910 – Margaret Clapp, American scholar and academic (d. 1974. [Her doctoral dissertation at Columbia grew into the biography Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow published in 1947 and winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. She was president of Wellesley College from 1949 to 1966.]

    1927 – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010). [Shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley for “breaking the genetic code” and describing how it operates in protein synthesis.]

    1929 – Max von Sydow, Swedish-French actor (d. 2020).

    1930 – Dolores Huerta, American activist, co-founded the United Farm Workers.

    1932 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor and screenwriter (d. 2015).

    1940 – Gloria Hunniford, British radio and television host.

    1941 – Paul Theroux, American novelist, short story writer, and travel writer.

    1947 – Bunny Wailer, Jamaican singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2021).

    1952 – Steven Seagal, American actor, producer, and martial artist.

    1955 – Lesley Garrett, English soprano and actress.

    1956 – Carol V. Robinson, English chemist and academic. [Former president of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2018–2020). My youngest daughter, 15, met Gillian Reid, the current president, at the national finals of the RSC’s Top of the Bench competition in Edinburgh last month.]

    1959 – Brian Setzer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

    1961 – Nicky Campbell, Scottish broadcaster and journalist.

    1972 – Priit Kasesalu, Estonian computer programmer, co-created Skype.

    1979 – Sophie Ellis-Bextor, English singer-songwriter.

    1988 – Haley Joel Osment, American actor.

    1992 – Daisy Ridley, English actress.

    Losing your life is not the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing is to lose your reason for living. (Jo Nesbo):
    879 – Louis the Stammerer, king of West Francia (b. 846). [I couldn’t resist the name. He was physically weak and only outlived his father, Charles the Bald, by a year and a half.]

    1813 – Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1736).

    1909 – Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic (b. 1837).

    1919 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican general (b. 1879).

    1935 – Rosa Campbell Praed, Australian novelist (b. 1851). [She has been described as the first Australian novelist to achieve a significant international reputation.]

    1954 – Auguste Lumière, French director and producer (b. 1862).

    1962 – Michael Curtiz, Hungarian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1886). [Directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz’s direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself was nominated five times and won twice, once for Best Short Subject for Sons of Liberty and once as Best Director for Casablanca.]

    1966 – Evelyn Waugh, English soldier, novelist, journalist and critic (b. 1903). [Waugh’s first wife was also called Evelyn – friends referred to them as “He-Evelyn” and “She-Evelyn” for clarity when talking about them.]

    1980 – Kay Medford, American actress and singer (b. 1919). [For her performance as Rose Brice in the musical Funny Girl and the film adaptation of the same name, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress respectively.]

    1981 – Howard Thurman, American author, philosopher and civil rights activist (b. 1899).

    1999 – Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, German-American biochemist and physician (b. 1910). [He discovered that the genetic control of viral reproduction was RNA and that it is carried in the nucleic core of each virus. In 1955 he and biophysicist Robley Williams showed that a functional virus could be created out of purified RNA and a protein coat.]

    2000 – Peter Jones, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1920). [The voice of The Book in the original radio series of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The creators had wanted someone with a “Peter Jonesy sort of voice” and after several rejections asked Jones himself. He reprised the role for the LP and the TV series.]

    2003 – Little Eva, American singer (b. 1943). [Born in Belhaven, North Carolina in 1943, she had twelve siblings. At the age of fifteen, she moved to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, Boyd worked as a maid and earned extra money as a babysitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin. She’s best known for singing their song “The Loco-Motion”, which became a US #1 hit in 1962 and sold over one million copies.]

    2007 – Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (b. 1910). [A pioneer of cell biology and stem cell research, he is notable for developing autoradiography and his work showing how cells continuously renew themselves, regardless of age.]

    2012 – Barbara Buchholz, German theremin player and composer (b. 1959).

    2014 – Sue Townsend, English author and playwright (b. 1946).

    2015 – Rose Francine Rogombé, Gabonese lawyer and politician, President of Gabon (b. 1942).

    2016 – Howard Marks, Welsh cannabis smuggler, writer, and legalisation campaigner (b. 1945).

    2023 – Al Jaffee, American cartoonist (b. 1921). [Notable for his work in the satirical magazine Mad, including his trademark feature, the Mad Fold-in. Jaffee was a regular contributor to the magazine for 65 years and is its longest-running contributor.]

    Reply

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

      Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; born on this day in 1880, died May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member of the Democratic Party, Perkins was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her longtime friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped make labor issues important in the emerging New Deal coalition. She was one of two Roosevelt cabinet members to remain in office for his entire presidency (the other being Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes).

      Perkins’ most important role came in developing a policy for social security in 1935. She also helped form government policy for working with labor unions, although the union leaders distrusted her. Perkins’ Labor Department helped to mediate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service. Perkins dealt with many labor questions during World War II, when skilled labor was vital to the economy and women were moving into jobs formerly held by men.

      See the Wikipedia article for full details of her life and accomplishments.

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

      Reply

    2. Wow. That must have been some view of (what would become known as) Halley’s Comet at that distance under the dark skies of 837. Stretched totally from horizon to horizon?

      Reply

  2. In a similar vein to the Michigan school shooting case, the assistant principal at the elementary school where a six-year old shot his teacher in my city last year, was charged yesterday in a special grand jury report to be made fully public today. She apparently ignored repeated notifications and pleas by teachers that the child had a gun. The child’s mother is already in prison, convicted of giving the boy access to the handgun. Our Commonwealth’s Attorney appointed a special grand jury last year to investigate any culpability by school employees and that report should be made public today. The boy is reported to be living with either his grandfather or great grandfather and receiving additional services. This is a very sad family situation, but likely not a totally isolated one in our community.

    Reply

  3. The big news on this side of the pond is that the final Cass report has been published (link), and comes out largely against puberty blockers and the medicalisation of gender dsyphoric youth.

    Also, Peter Higgs (he of the boson) died yesterday aged 94.

    Reply

    1. Following on a comment I made in a prior thread, simply as a matter of numbers there will be exponentially more natal women desiring to participate in sports than trans women, which in other circumstances would make me think that natal women’s concerns would carry more weight. Especially given the fact that it doesn’t take many, in some cases only one, trans participant to materially alter, if not fundamentally transform (sorry), the nature and the results of the competition.

      So I am surprised, perhaps naively, at how many people seem ready to ignore the indisputable advantages that trans women generally have and to permit women’s sports to be wrecked in this way. Maybe these bans are first steps back on the road to reality?

      Reply

  5. As a long-time follower of Honey and her broods on Botany Pond, I love “The Professor and the Ducklings”. Well done, Phil! Thank you.

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  6. Jez Grove, Jim B., Dr. Jerry & the WEIT community,

    Thanks for Monday’s birthday call-out for my big brother, Ken Kukec, and the sweet words. As noted, Ken has taken a break from commenting, and in conjunction with this, he is on sabbatical from work, and has relocated from Key West, FL, where he lived for many years, to Northeast Ohio, where he was born and raised and where he attended law school (Case Western Reserve U). As you all know, Ken has a brilliant mind and is a LegalEagle, and I can testify that he has a heart of gold and is a good old soul. I know that he truly values this blog and the meaningful discourse and witty repartee with a like-minded gang that this forum provides.

    We celebrated his birthday under the magical total eclipse, which was quite a thrill. Thanks again for the kind thoughts!

    Reply

    2. Yes. Thanks for this update baby brother. I miss Ken’s knowledgeable and often eloquent commentary.

      Reply

    4. Thank you for the update on Ken. I was a bit worried so it is good to hear that he is just taking a break. Which I understand completely. I have missed his insightful legal analyses, his wit and his comments on films and literature.

      Best wishes to you, Ken. Hope to see you around again sometime.

      Reply

    6. Thanks for the update and Happy Birthday. I remember Ken a while back saying he was taking a break, so I wasn’t worried. Didn’t know about the move and all, that’s a big deal. I hope I never have to move again!
      And congrats on the sabbatical, I’m sure you more than deserve it.

      Reply

  9. The best cinnamon buns in the world came out of the big Vulcan ovens in my elementary school cafeteria back in the ’50s. First they were enormous, and they had raisins. Chock full of gov’t subsidized (surplus) sugar & butter, which would caramelize on the bottom and often hardened, my guess is that the only thing they bought at market prices was the cinnamon, and there was plenty of that. If only I could take a screenshot of my memory of them, together with something for size reference.

    Reply

    1. +1 but mine were from the cafeteria at the high school where I taught in early 70’s. Eat your heart out, Cinabon.

      Reply

  10. Congratulations on “The Professor and the Ducklings!” Although it’s AI, it’s charming. It could conceivably make a children’s book — and I think this one would avoid even spurious charges of “cultural appropriation.”

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  11. Many of the hostages are probably dead. One can only hope that when Israel releases those Hamas terrorists from prison in exchange for the remaining living hostages (Israeli and non-Israeli), the IDF puts the terrorists on the target list for elimination.

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  12. Peter Tatchell was a very courageous pioneer of gay rights for many years, so it’s sad to see him repeating such nonsense.

    Reply

  13. I was interested to hear South Carolina’s women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley’s opinion that transgender women and women/girls should be allowed to compete on female sports teams.

    I don’t know whether this was before the South Carolina v. Iowa basketball game for the national championship.

    “If you’re a woman, you should play,” Staley said during a press conference, responding to a question about whether she believes “biological males” should be permitted to participate in women’s sports.

    “If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.”

    Reply

    1. It’s all fine for her. She’s coaching now, not playing. Wonder how she would have responded in her playing days when she might have had to compete directly against trans women?

      Now, all she needs to do is recruit them, and which she may well do since her priority will be winning. She surely doesn’t want them boycotting her program while playing for her opponents.

      Reply

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