Sunday: Hili dialogue

June 16, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the sabbath for goyische cats: Sunday, June 16, 2024, and National Fudge Day. The two best species are the standard chocolate and maple, both with walnuts. Here’s a video of a small chain that makes many flavors; in this case chocolate walnut:

It’s also Father’s Day in the U.S., celebrated on the third Sunday in June. I consider myself a father for helping baby ducklings survive, so believe I should be included in the celebration. And Google has a Father’s Day Doodle: Click on picture to see where it goes:

If you’re a reader, you’ll know that today is Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place. And you’ll also know that a moggy appears early in the book:

 — Mkgnao!
— O, there you are, Mr Bloom said, turning from the fire.

. . . . He bent down to her, his hands on his knees.
— Milk for the pussens, he said.
— Mrkgnao! the cat cried.
They call them stupid. They understand what we say better than we understand them.

Continuing on, it’s also National Tortilla Day, National Turkey Lovers’ Day, National Cannoli Day (“leave the gun; take the cannoli”), Fresh Veggies Day, World Sea Turtle Day, International Day of the African Child, and Sussex Day (in Sussex, of course).

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 16 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*A bill to protect a federal right of people to get in vitro fertilization (IVF) and to allow the procedure it to be covered by government health programs, failed in the Senate, not getting the requisite 60 filibuster-proof votes:

The Senate on Thursday afternoon voted not to advance a bill that would establish federal protections for in vitro fertilization (IVF). The procedural measure, which required 60 votes, failed as all but two Republicans present voted against it.

The bill aimed to make it a right to use reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization (IVF). It would have required that federal health plans, the Affordable Care Act, and Medicaid cover these treatments. Military members and veterans would have also gained more access to fertility counseling and treatments.

Democrats introduced the bill, in part, to put Republicans on the record on reproductive rights ahead of November’s elections.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) changed his vote to “No” so he would have the option to bring the bill up for another vote in the future.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who support abortion rights, were the sole Republicans to vote to advance the bill.

Then they list the senators who voted for and against it. I’ll save you time. First, the totals, deeply split by party:

The Dem who opposed the bill was Chuck Schumer (see explanation above.) The two Republicans supporting the bill were, predictably, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. This is a sensible bill and I’m baffled why the Republicans opposed it. After all, it’s not about abortion, but IVF, which allows kids to be born. 

Nellie Bowles had some comments about it in her TGIF column Fridaty:

→ Republicans vs. IVF: As polls look to favor the right, America’s conservatives know just what to focus on. No, not the border. No, no, not the debt. Education? Shut up! They’re looking for something where their position is profoundly unpopular and, to most people, sort of random. And they have found it: IVF. Yeah, rich women making babies when they’re 37, even 38, freaky ages where their faces look gray and saggy. Guys with weak sperm managing to still eke out a kid. Doesn’t it feel like that oughta be illegal? A couple who’ve tried to conceive naturally but for some reason it’s not taking. Embarrassing, right?

On Wednesday, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to condemn IVF. I’m not opposed to this endless debate, because it is interesting to talk about life and to argue over the origins, even as I always end up pro-choice. I’m mostly just baffled why now is the time to make this the centerpiece conversation. The hill to die on. The embryo to destroy, if you will. The next day, after Democrats put up a bill to enshrine protections for IVF into federal law, Senate Republicans voted to block it.

Anyway, next thing you know the Southern Baptists are going to be knocking computers out of men’s laps—there are good swimmers in there. Stop sous vide’ing future Americans.

*I thought the protest season was over for the summer, but students at the University of Pittsburgh (“Pitt”) have made demands of the University administration, some of which are simply antisemitic (or “antiZionist,” if you want to use that euphemism).  (h/t Ginger K.)

Many of their chants and posters pointed to a shared goal: disclosure and divestment.

Those were the demands of pro-Palestinian protesters who crowded around the Cathedral of Learning last week, pressing the University of Pittsburgh to disclose and divest from companies and institutions that, in their words, “profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine.”

It is hardly a unique demand on college campuses in 2024. At dozens of universities across the country, student protesters, inflamed by the Israel-Hamas War, are calling for the same thing at their institutions.

“People protest who they can,” said Mira Sucharov, a professor at Carleton University in Canada who studies Israeli-Palestinian relations. “What students can demand and are demanding is that universities disclose all the places where their funds are invested.”

Last week Daniel Diermeier explained in the WSJ why making your investments sensitive to political demands of university members. His very good column is archived here. But here’s the really bizarre demands from the Pittsburgh newspaper:

Pitt protesters had also urged their university to “reject the normalization of ties with the Zionist regime.”

This would be accomplished, protesters said, by terminating the Student Coalition for Israel at Pitt and Pitt’s chapter of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. It was a demand that the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh called “reprehensible” in a statement released to the group’s Instagram account.

Protesters later clarified they were “rethinking the language” of this demand. At a June 5 press conference following the encampment, an anonymous protest leader who called into the conference said protesters heard from “their anti-Zionist Jewish comrades” about the language used.

In a statement this week, the unrecognized student group Pitt Divest From Apartheid said that the group rejects “the normalization of ties with the Zionist regime” and “condemns” the two aforementioned student groups. Though the post didn’t mention termination, the anonymous protester at the press conference had reaffirmed the demonstrators’ continued support for “cutting ties with Zionist organizations, such as Hillel and Chabad.” Chabad at Pitt is another Jewish organization on campus.

Unless Hillel, Chabad, and the Student Coalition for Israel at Pitt are violating university “time, place, and manner” guidelines for speech, then there’s simply no reason to terminate them.  Note that they mention “anti-Zionist Jewish comrades”. I doubt they have many, and, at any rate, they probably mean “Jews who oppose the Netanyahu administration” (of which there are more).  There’s one more bit I don’t understand:

Protesters have a First Amendment right to make these demands, said Alex Morey, vice president of campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that aims to protect free speech on college campuses and in the U.S.

But the First Amendment also prohibits Pitt from complying with their requests, Ms. Morey said.

I’m baffled at what FIRE means by this.  Yes, the First Amendment prevents Pitt from punishing people for speech that adheres to its TPM restrictions on speech, but it says nothing about whether Pitt is or is not responsive to calls for divestment.

*Southwest Airlines is, bar none, my favorite U.S. carrier, and I always fly then if I can. They have a two-bags checked free policy (I never check any), an open seating policy (you can pay $25 for early boarding), they fly almost everywhere, Chicago is a hub, the flight attendants are a hoot, famed for their humor, you always get a human being quickly when you call them, and they’re very helpful and friendly. Finally, their prices are low. Now, however, the WSJ has chilled my bones with a story that the company is going to change because, apparently, they’re not making enough dosh.

Elliott Investment Management, the influential New York hedge fund, says Southwest is stuck in the past. The activist investor says it has amassed a $1.9 billion stake, which amounts to an approximately 11% economic interest in the airline, making it one of Southwest’s biggest shareholders—and its most vocal critics. This past week it demanded Southwest oust its CEO, overhaul the board, and consider shaking up its business model.

Southwest became the biggest U.S. airline by domestic passengers by doing things its own way. Trouble is, that’s no longer working so well.

Expenses have ballooned and profit margins lag behind some rivals’. The airline is on track to receive only a quarter of the new jets it was expecting this year from Boeing, leading to bloated overhead. It is backtracking on pieces of an aggressive expansion strategy at a time when Americans are booking more flights than ever.

For decades, Southwest and its unflinchingly loyal base of fliers and employees were the envy of the U.S. aviation industry. The plucky, innovative airline spawned legions of copycats mimicking its simple operation, inspired business-school case studies, and generated industry-leading profit margins.

. . .Southwest is so serious about improving its finances the airline is contemplating radical changes to its hallmarks. It is studying whether to start assigning seats, shake up boarding or offer some rows with extra legroom for a fee to widen its appeal. It has started putting its fares in Google Flights, an airfare search site it long avoided because it preferred that customers book trips on its own website or app.

Sacrificing attributes that helped make Southwest a fan favorite, like free checked bags, is a no-go for now.

“You cannot be stubborn about change,” CEO Bob Jordan said Wednesday at an industry event. “At the same time, we’re going to stick to our values.”

Those values better keep including the free snacks!

*The NYT has a very sweet but also sad cartoon story of an avid birder who came down with cancer, and how birds and birding helped him endure the disease and debilitating chemotherapy. Yes, it’s a true story, and it’s not clear how the narrator is doing.  I won’t put in any of the panels because of possible copyright violations, but you can see the story where it was archived by clicking on the headline below. It’s one of the best things I’ve seen about the palliative effects of loving animals.

*The AP reports that a white bison calf has been observed in Yellowstone National Park. It’s gorgeous, so I hope rangers keep an eye on it, as it will be conspicuous to predators. The video below shows it.  Native Americans say it’s sacred, but let’s ignore that palaver. It appears to have been a one-off; I haven’t heard of a white calf reported before, nor have the rangers in the Park.

The reported birth of a rare white buffalo in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times, according to members of the American Indian tribe who cautioned that it’s also a signal that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals.

“The birth of this calf is both a blessing and warning. We must do more,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle.

The birth of the sacred calf comes as after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.

Erin Braaten of Kalispell took several photos of the calf shortly after it was born on June 4 in the Lamar Valley in the northeastern corner of the park.

Her family was visiting the park when she spotted “something really white” among a herd of bison across the Lamar River.

Another story (and the video below) talks about the genetics, saying it could be either leucistic or an albino, both recessive traits requiring the possession of two copies of a pigment-reducing gene. But albinos lack retinal pigmentation, giving them pink eyes (and poorer vision). This calf has dark eyes, so it’s almost certainly leucistic. You can read about leucism here and also see lots of cool photos of leucistic animals.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili finds art in the front yard:

Hili: What’s on this bench?
A: Mainly different shadows.
In Polish:
Hili: Co jest na tej ławce?
Ja: Głównie różne cienie.
And a photo of Baby Kulka telling something to baby Julia. They are fast friends now:

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

From Cat Memes (this condition is also called “being encatted”):

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy.  These things have convinced me that Americans need a lot more instruction in spelling:

From Science Humor.  This has to be bogus because I can do it (see photo below). Can you? Weigh in below.

Retweeted by Masih, we see what is apparently an Afghani girl crying hard because she wasn’t allowed to go to school. As you know, the Taliban has basically stopped all formal education for women. What a pack of idiots!

From Malgorzata; sound up:

One reader said that creationism is a very rare belief in America, so this guy would seem to be a rarity. But he isn’t: 40% of Americans espouse young-earth creationism. This was sent by Barry, who commented, “Ah, the ‘lies’ of science!”

From my feed, and I have many questions, too:

From Malcolm, cat pwns d*g:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a Polish girl murdered at about 17:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb.  First, a cat befriends a rhino:

I may have posted this before, but so it goes. . .

46 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Here’s an old joke about Baptists.
    Why should you always take two Baptists fishing with you?
    If you only take one, he’ll drink all your beer. If you take two, they won’t drink any.

    1. Exactly. I predict that if all else fails, 99 percent of infertile Baptists will slink off to the IVF clinics like everyone else.

      As an aside, I myself underwent IVF in the early days of the procedure (although I was later able to get pregnant all by myself). In the process, I was implanted with a whopping FIVE embryos. Although I shortly thereafter miscarried them all, my hormone counts indicated that they all successfully implanted. As I result, I think it is true to say that I was once pregnant with quintuplets.

    2. Jews don’t recognize Jesus, Protestants don’t recognize the Pope, and Baptists don’t recognize each other at the liquor store.

      Tip the waitress.

  2. Boeing Crewed Flight Test Update: I wrote last week that Suni and Butch were scheduled to undock their Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS) this coming Tuesday for a return to Earth, a week later than originally planned. Return has now been moved to no earlier than next Saturday, June 22 (if this date holds, I think that they may undock just before midnight Friday with a planned parachute and airbag cushioned landing on terra firma just after dawn Saturday morning in a western U.S. desert location. Both astronauts are Space Station veterans and seem very happy to be onboard, integrated with the crew, and also doing more extensive in-space testing of their Starliner and their next-generation spacesuits. They are continuing to investigate the several small helium leaks, will fire up the balky thrusters for a burst or two before undocking, and do other checks of the Starliner that can be done better in the in situ space environment than in any lab on the ground. So I am glad that they have this extra time on-orbit, though unplanned and due to some anomalies, for more extensive testing and qualification of the vehicle.

    Right now, I think that there are four spacecraft docked on station!: Starliner, a SpaceX Dragon, a Soyez, and a Progress Cargo ship. Any of these can be used as a safe haven in case of an ISS emergency, and all (I think even Progress) can be used for emergency return of astronauts and cosmonauts to Earth in a real catastrophic emergency. I usually get my updates from googling Space.com.

    2. “Incredible picture of the ISS by Maxar. Shows 6 different spacecraft docked for the first time ever: SpaceX Dragon, Boeing Starliner, Cygnus, Soyuz, 2x Progress. They did it by taking one of their Legion satellites —which normally do Earth observation— and pointing it up towards LEO.”
      https://x.com/Gedmark/status/1801015518956318791

      I don’t think the Russian Progess cargo craft could be used for astronaut return — though it might make for a thriller movie scenario.

  3. One speculates on the evolutionary advantages of the overlapping vs underlapping pinkie. 😀

    2. The ability to truly do the pinkie thing (as in not physically placing the digits in place with your other hand), presumably has something to do with the presence of certain muscles that not everyone has. Also, your left and right hands can differ in whether they are able to do the trick.

      1. You’re right! I can do it with my left hand but not the right. For some reason, I wouldn’t have thought to try it with my left hand before reading your comment.

        1. I can do it with my right, no problem. With my left, I can’t bend my little finger without the ring finger bending with it. I’m right-handed, FWIW.

      2. Has it also to do with which hand is dominant? My right hand is dominant. I easily-enough do it with my right hand. (Even though I’ve got a “trigger thumb” and some carpal tunnel-related numbness in my right index and middle fingers, which will be remedied by a bit of out-patient surgery next month.)

        I can’t do it quite as well with the left hand. The little finger balks – perhaps I could somehow exercise it more. At the same time, as it very specifically relates to playing rhythm guitar “right-handed,” the left hand is dominant vis-a-vis playing different chord positions. The development of “muscle memory” is interesting.

        Any juvenile/adolescent/adult guitar or piano student/player who complains about having to practice better not do so within earshot of the likes of Marcus Johnson, George Shearing, Doc Watson or Jose Feliciano. Anyone who knows anything about these players knows why.

      3. I cannot do it with either hand. Alas, I am not the unicorn I thought I was.

      4. I’m left-handed, and it was easy to do with either hand. Will have to test it with friends.

    2. I can do it if I cheat: start by placing the pinky under the thumb, then move the thumb underneath. It sort of works for a moment until the ring finger starts to waver.

      I learn something every day on WEIT!

    3. Right hand : needed some forcing.
      Left hand : painful – ring finger sticks up.

      I’m right handed.

      Need a poll or something.

      This is surely related to the one where you try to lift your ring finger up but it’s impossible.

    4. I can do it easily with either hand. I can also roll my tongue from the sides, which is also supposed to be rare.

      A friend of mine once asked me to try rolling my tongue and when I complied burst out in a huge sigh of relief. Her young daughter was doing it and apparently in her experience everyone else who was able to roll their tongue (including the father) was schizophrenic or otherwise mentally untethered. She thought it was a sign. But I was a rational skeptical atheist firmly grounded in reality so THAT was okay then. Pure coincidence!

      I chose not to tell her that 1.) it could still be correlated and 2.) I had my suspicions about a few of the rational skeptical atheists I knew.

      1. cannot do with either hand, can roll my tongue or point it at will but cannot bend the second joint down on my thumb on either hand therefore cannot touch my palm with my thumb.

  5. 1. Congress is right to reject the IVF bill. Of course people should have the right to try it if they want, and are willing to pay for it. The bad part of the bill, though, was the requirement that health insurance pay for it. It’s hugely expensive, and would further drive up the already exorbitant prices we all pay for health insurance.

    2. I can’t do the pinky thing.

    1. Denying insurance coverage for IVF is myopic. It will push fertility rates down further, which is not exactly what anybody would want, conservatives included.

      1. I think one argument, besides the added cost to insurers, was that IVF generally results in many early aborted embryos. And that is why Republicans are general against it.

        1. Yes. I’d like to see religious conservatives start up an “Adopt the Embryos” program so they can all nurture the poor wee things in a basement laboratory and let everyone else get on with their lives.

          1. “Snowflake Babies” was the term many years ago. A lot of right-to-life folk used IVF, stored extra embryos, and advertised that someone else could adopt and raise the ones that they themselves didn’t pick for whatever reason. (And it was mostly not for sex selection, but defect of some kind.)

        2. It’s gnostic horseshoe theory in action: both conservative Rs and progressive Ds believe in souls that, once embodied, need saving. Genderwang enthusiasts should be opposing the bill because it creates trans embryos that get aborted later.

          Also agree with Robert’s argument about costs. My province just announced it will start covering one round of IVF out of our publicly funded healthcare system at the same time our hospitals are overflowing with seniors who can’t get a nursing home bed and with zoomers succumbing to the flood of toxic street drugs.

          https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/accessing-health-care/publicly-funded-ivf-program#

          No word on who will be eligible yet, but given their progressive stance on other issues I expect the program to favour “equity-seeking groups.”

          [also I can’t do the pinky thing]

  6. I can do the pinky thing, but it isn’t easy. It seems to stretch one of the tendons to its limit (or beyond). It’s easy to put the pinky behind the thumb, but difficult to put it in front of the thumb.

    2. I can’t figure out exactly what prevents the pinky movement. I can use the other hand to place the pinky over the thumb, with the ring finger outstretched, so long as everything on that hand is relaxed. But I can’t make the motion using those fingers themselves. Tendons or nerves?

  7. Somewhere, some ex-girl scout is laughing at us. “Hey, Ma, look how many people are doing the salute all wrong.”

  8. Cat probably thinks those Rhino are those weird, hairless cats he’s heard about. I can do the pinky thing, although my wrist objects.

  9. In other news the House of Representatives passed a measure that would automatically register men aged 18-26 for the draft. The Senate Armed Services Committee has added an amendment that would also make women register for the draft. Personally, I am in favor of that. I have thought for years that we could not have true, political equality while only one sex was called upon for national service. Nowadays we can add that, based on what we have seen with convicts, undoubtedly many men would declare themselves women to dodge the draft.

  10. ” I consider myself a father for helping baby ducklings survive, so believe I should be included in the celebration.”

    Absolutely – PCC(E)’s literally waded into more itchy parasite injuries than most dads, so cheers – and we hope those ducklings are doing well because of it, cheers!

    1. In my opinion, teachers and professors like PCC(E) are parents in an important sense, since they have a huge role in raising and shaping the next generation.

  11. How to make a Republican’s mind explode–ask them how they can support IVF if they are against abortion. IVF produces multiple embryos which are frozen and often wind up being used for research or discarded as medical waste if they are not needed. According to most Republicans, those discarded embryos are “babies” and they each have a soul.

  12. ” I’m baffled at what FIRE means by this. Yes, the First Amendment prevents Pitt from punishing people for speech that adheres to its TPM restrictions on speech, but it says nothing about whether Pitt is or is not responsive to calls for divestment.”

    By no means an expert on the First Amandment, but wouldn’t Pitt restrict the free speech of the jewish student organisations by complying with some of the demands? I suppose this is what FIRE is refering to rather than the calls for divestment from Israel?

  13. Where are the encampments railing against the treatment of that poor Afghani child, who can’t to go school and whose head is tightly bound lest a wisp of hair escape from her scarf, enticing men to molest a barely pubescent girl?

  14. I can do it with both hands. I also have double jointed thumbs and am ambidextrous (AND can roll my tongue)… Wanna hear more?

    1. I confess . . . I find myself curious.

      I need to look up the definition of “double jointed” (thumbs).

      Regarding rolling the tongue, have I correctly read that that’s a matter of genetics? More specifically, does it relate to having a gene that causes the development/existence of a laterally-oriented muscle in the tongue that allows for such rolling? Is that also true of being able to roll one’s tongue in a perpendicular direction (forward and back)? The latter would seem more essential than the former as regards facilitating the movement of food into the esophagus.

      I had a school classmate who, in baseball, threw right-hand and batted left-handed, and shot basketball with his left hand. He wrote right-handed.

      1. I can’t really do the pinky thing, but my thumbs can bend at right angles, which makes for a good pool cue rest while shooting. (I also think the thumbs helped me during a cross-country hitchhiking trip in my early twenties, if only as an ice-breaker during conversations.)

        I can easily roll my tongue leftward, but not rightward. (Politics aside.)

  15. I can do the thumb/pinky thing with my left hand but not so well with the right hand. The right ring finger doesn’t straighten completely, but I think with practice it could. Thank you Jerry.

  16. I can’t do the pinky thing with either hand. But can get closer with my right hand. I am a lefty.

Comments are closed.