Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to the Cruelest Day: Tuesday: February 18, 2025, and it’s wicked cold in Chicago, with dirty snow caking the ground. It’s National Drink Wine Day, though, which will take the chill off.
Right now it is -2° F (-19° C) outside, but with the wind it feels like -24°F (-31°C). I froze my face on the way to work, but the ears and nose are intact.
*As you know, Trump pardoned many of the January 6 insurrectionists, including those with long sentences because they hurt people. Now these loons are arguing that the Trumpian pardons apply not just to what happened on that fateful day, but to other crimes as well:
There is Edward Kelley, who was pardoned for assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol, but who is now fighting another case. In November, a jury convicted him of conspiring to murder the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who investigated his Jan. 6 participation, with evidence showing he had a “kill list” of targets.
Kelley now argues that conviction should be tossed out, too.
The Tennessee man believes that President Trump’s blanket pardon covering “offenses related to events that occurred at or near” the Capitol on Jan. 6 extends beyond that day.
Other defendants are similarly arguing they should be absolved of other alleged crimes, such as illegal gun possession and child pornography, discovered during Jan. 6 investigations. At least one defendant has died in a post-pardon altercation with police.
Weeks after the pardon that freed hundreds of prison inmates and ended remaining cases winding through the courts, life is far from settled for a large contingent of the defendants.
Seriously? In what world does that apply? I can’t imagine that Trump’s pardons absolve these miscreants of all crimes, but of course they are miscreants, and they are also plotting revenge on those who put them in jail:
Federal agents and others have expressed fear of retaliation for investigating the Capitol riot. After Trump-appointed Justice Department leaders demanded a list of all agents involved, agents sued, arguing it would put them and their families at risk from “the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons.”
The federal government temporarily agreed to not make the list public while a judge considers a longer-term ban. “If this information were released, I think there’s no question that it would put a number of FBI agents in significant and immediate danger,” U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, said during a recent court hearing.
Trump’s pardons were bad enough, but these bad actors now want to go after those who put them behind bars. Shoot me now.
Four top New York City officials are expected to resign in the coming days, after the outgoing U.S. attorney for Manhattan accused the mayor of trading cooperation with President Trump’s mass deportation agenda for a dismissal of his criminal indictment, according to three people with knowledge of their plans.
The four officials — Maria Torres-Springer, the first deputy mayor, and Meera Joshi, Anne Williams-Isom and Chauncey Parker, all also deputy mayors — oversee much of New York City government, and their departure is poised to blow a devastating hole in the already wounded administration of Mayor Eric Adams.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat, is resisting growing calls to resign. Gov. Kathy Hochul is also under increasing pressure to remove him from office.
The four officials who are expected to resign are all respected government veterans. Ms. Torres-Springer was elevated to the second most powerful job at City Hall in October in an effort to stabilize city government and restore confidence in his administration following the mayor’s federal indictment in September on five corruption counts.
The departure of Mr. Parker is particularly pointed because he is the deputy mayor for public safety who has been deeply involved in issues around the city’s role in the president’s deportation plans.
The intended resignations were first reported by WNBC.
What with the Governor thinking about asking Adams to resign, he’d have to sooner or later. I predict one week.
*Teacher’s associations are some of the wokest groups arounds, and it’s hard to prevent them from proselytizing students. Many, like the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the largest union in New England (117,000 members!) are also antisemitic, pushing lessons that demonize Israel and Jews. The Free Press gives examples in its article, “Welcome to Hamassachusetts.“It’s pretty antisemitic:
Inside the Massachusetts statehouse on Monday, State Representative Simon Cataldo displayed the image of a dollar bill folded into a Star of David in front of a packedaudience of teachers, activists, and staffers. They were there to attend a hearing on the state of antisemitism in Massachusetts public schools.
(All visuals courtesy of the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism)
“You’d agree that this is antisemitic imagery, correct?” Cataldo, who co-chairs the state’s Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism, asked Max Page, the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)—the largest union in New England, representing 117,000 members.
“I’m not gonna evaluate that,” Page responds calmly.
Cataldo pressed him. “Is it antisemitic?”
Page continued to sit stoically, before breaking into a smile. “You’re trying to get away from the central point,” Page said, “which is that we provide imagery, we provide resources for our members to consider, in their own intelligent, professional way.”
There’s more:
Page was asked by the Massachusetts commission about a series of posters contained in the MTA materials, which appear to display an anti-Israel bias. These materials include a poster of a militant wearing a keffiyeh and holding an assault rifle, that reads, “What was taken by force can only be returned by force.”
The introduction of “Resources on Israel and Occupied Palestine” advises that its lessons are meant to “reflect diverse positions and are meant to aid pedagogy.” But many of the materials promote antisemitic viewpoints, said Robert Leikind, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee in New England. Leikind is also a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism and was present at Monday’s hearing.
Leikind said “it’s astonishing” that an organization “deeply embedded in the educational community” could “defend the idea that it’s legitimate to present one-sided content.” The materials don’t “even make a modest attempt” to show that there are “other ways of looking at the issues,” he said. The resources have led AJC New England to declare, in a December 2024 report, that the MTA has “a Jewish problem.” “The net result is to perpetuate anti-Jewish tropes that malign Israel and its supporters,” the report said.
There’s more, but all we know is that there is a commission to evaluate this material, that the teacher’s union (as in many places) can’t wait to get this anti-Israel stuff into the classroom, and the matter isn’t resolved yet. One problem is that the parents often have no idea what unions are contemplating teaching the students.
*This column in the Washington Post by Shahi Hamid, “Why I still criticize Democrats more than Trump,” hits home for me, as I’m regularly accused of favoring Trump just because I see my brief as criticizing the Democratic Party—my party. And of course I haven’t gone easy on the Orange Man. An excerpt:
he comment sections of my recent columns have been awash with a familiar refrain: How dare you criticize Democrats when President Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy? The anger is palpable, particularly on left-leaning platforms such as Bluesky, where my attempts to understand — rather than simply condemn — certain Trump-adjacent ideas have sparked accusations of legitimizing fascism. But this reaction reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of both Trump’s presidency and the role of political commentary in our deeply polarized era.
Here’s the counterintuitive truth: I’m more critical of Democrats precisely because I expect more from them. When Trump disregards human rights abroad or undermines democratic norms at home, he’s not being hypocritical — he’s being exactly who he has always claimed to be. The man who called for a “Muslim ban” in 2015 and praised strongmen throughout his first term hasn’t suddenly changed his stripes in 2025.
In his Feb. 4 news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump advocated for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. That seemed clear enough. But because it was so clear, it seemed redundant to just condemn him. Instead, I interviewed Oubai Shahbandar, an Arab American defender of Trump who saw the president’s Gaza comments in a more positive light. I found this mystifying, but that seemed all the more reason to ask him why he thought what he thought. And then I could leave it to readers to come to their own conclusions.
This gets at a larger question. As much as moral condemnation might make us feel good, what does it accomplish? More than enough journalists and commentators are already documenting Trump’s abuses of power and holding him to account.
. . .As his comments on Gaza as well as his flurry of aggressive and legally suspect executive orders make clear, Trump is a threat, including to some of the values I hold most dear. The question isn’t who is worse — that answer is obvious — but, rather, who is better. Who can still be held accountable to their own stated ideals? And the answer there is also clear: Democrats. They claim to be the party of values — of fair competition, freedom, tolerance and pluralism.
Yet Democrats consistently fall short of the very ideals they profess to champion. Under the Biden administration, party leaders — including President Joe Biden himself — spoke of the “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza while refusing to do anything to stop it. Instead Biden said, chillingly, that “we’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel.” But it’s not just Gaza. The Democratic Party has long preached tolerance and inclusion while marginalizing pro-life Democrats, talking down to Black and brown voters, ignoring religious conservatives and dismissing the growing ranks of Americans who felt the party had become too radical on issues such as gender identity. On policy, what was once the working-class party chose to prioritize things such as college debt relief, which disproportionately benefits the wealthy.
I differ from Hamid in some of what he thinks Democrats should do, but one thing is for sure: we are not going to help the Democrats get back in power by spewing invective at Trump. One thing I’ve suggested, which I can’t do myself, is take Trump to court every time he violates the law. If he racks up a number of losses, then maybe Americans who voted him in will see that he’s going hog wild in disrespecting the law. And nobody can accuse the courts, especially the Supreme Court, of being biased in favor of Democrats, so a number of Trump losses will make him look bad—even to his supporters.
It is a challenge that has baffled dentists and other oral-care zealots for years, and spawned a whole category of tricks—from annoying children’s songs to brushing timers—aimed at getting people to spend more time on their teeth.
Designers at companies like Colgate and Procter & Gamble have been trying to close that gap by making a device that makes brushing feel like less of a chore—and compensates for poor effort and technique.
“We have an evergreen goal: how can we design a toothbrush that can clean well no matter how you brush?” he said. “We want the brushing experience to be meaningful and different.”
Jiménez, 60, has been at it for 23 years. If you’ve ever used a Colgate toothbrush, chances are he had a hand in designing it. He has 239 patents, most of them toothbrush-related.
Over the years, he’s observed some trends. Blue is the most popular toothbrush color. Some people don’t brush on weekends. Even though dental hygienists recommend smaller brush heads, Americans usually choose the biggest one. And they’re always after something new.
His latest project is based on a conclusion that young adults are looking for more minimalist designs and a more soothing experience.
But here is the REAL solution:
. . . . At P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio, researchers years ago concluded that the clearest path to the two-minute clean was an electric device that lets people know how long they’ve been brushing. One challenge was getting people to switch over from manual, so the latest model was designed in part to eliminate those barriers.
And that’s the remedy. All you have to do is shell out $43 for a Sonicare rechargeable toothbrush, and it tells you when to stop, as well as when to switch sides (you have eight areas to brush: top, botton, and right and left sides for each, as well as inside and out. Every 30 seconds, the brush pauses for a tick, so you pick, say, your top outside teeth, brush till the brief pause, then switch to the top inside teeth, and ditto with the bottom teeth (spare a few seconds to brush your tongue at the end). Voilá: two minutes total. The brush will last forever, and replacement off-brand heads are cheap. (Make sure you brush with the brush head angled at a 45-degree angle up toward the gum!). My hygienist recommended this, and since then I’ve been plaque-free. $43 is a low price to pay for healthy teeth!
Oh, and make sure you use Reach Unltraclean Dental Floss; simply the best; and it’s available ONLY on Amazon. Tell them that Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) sent you.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is trying to bring on Spring prematurely:
This poster is going up along the route of the London hate march today – and at several London universities – trying to give hate marchers an education they sorely need.
Hamas are not the victims here – they are the Nazis. If you march for anyone, march to free the hostages. pic.twitter.com/Af7HupJ7LT
Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a lovely Torah duck!
A duck is part of the decoration around the initial-word panel marking the beginning of Torah portion Mishpatim (מִּשְׁפָּטִים) #ParashahPictures BL Add MS 15423; Torah; 1441 CE-1467 CE; Italy (Florence); f.49v
Matthew wrote a long piece in Nature that you can access through this post:
50 years ago next week the Asilomar meeting on genetic engineering took place. There’s a summit taking place on site on the future of biotechnology – http://www.spiritofasilomar.org. I wrote this, on two issues that were deliberately excluded from discussion last time:
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own. -Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (18 Feb 1883-1957)
In other news, DOGE has found that Social Security has over 17 million people aged 100 to 369 still on the rolls as “not dead.” In general, the Social Security rolls (not dead) total 60 million more than the population of the U.S. It turns out that your Social Security Number is not considered the unique identifier for a Social Security recipient. Both parties are to blame for this state of affairs.
I think the government owes it to the taxpayers to have a lean operation and spend money responsibly. Should this principle really be controversial?
Your statements? Not controversial.
The way this is going down so far? Disgusting.
Explain?
You’re going to take Elon Musk’s word that these numbers mean what you think they mean?
Most of those strange birthdates are due a policy of entering a long ago date if the date of birth isn’t known.
I no longer take Musk’s word for anything. He’s not checking with people who might know what’s going on. He’s just posting to X and hoping no one questions it.
However, Musk’s tweet didn’t say that all of those people were receiving benefits as the headline “Are 150-year-old Americans receiving Social Security checks, as Elon Musk said?” stated, only that “According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!” https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1891350795452654076 . I know a lot of people read that as “we’re paying dead people benefits” but unless I missed a second tweet that was not what he said.
The fact that Politifact’s “experts say” that this is a coding issue, and that this is a longstanding concern, strengthens the case that something needs to be done to correct this. So what if the improper payments are small? There should be none, and I hope that DOGE also does something to fix the process that allow for errors to be made.
So what if the improper payments are small? There should be none, and I hope that DOGE also does something to fix the process that allow for errors to be made.
That’s a fiscally unsound position. It would be prohibitively expensive to engineer the system to make no mistakes. It is much more cost effective to have some mistakes and do the job well enough. One person who would likely agree with that sentiment would be Elon Musk–Tesla has had over 60 recalls in its history. Nothing can be done error free, and there is always a cost to increasing the accuracy.
Mike, you’re absolutely correct. I’m an engineer and know that no system is perfect. I was spouting off.
A better take would be that the system should be updated to reduce errors and improve quality of information and thereby reduce unnecessary cost.
Why did you refrain from posting the second part of Musk’s xTweet?
“Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣”
So, yeah, it seems clear to me that Musk is claiming that SS is issuing massive amounts of money in improper payments. And it also seems clear to me that Musk is using misleading information to encourage a deep distrust of the federal bureaucracy.
But Musk has proven himself multiple times of having a tenuous relationship with the truth.
But as the expert quoted in the Politco article pointed out, the percentage of improper SS payments amounts to 0.84% of total payments, and “The costs of having 0% error rate would actually be quite high, and would increase administrative costs.”
Why did you refrain from posting the second part of Musk’s xTweet?
“Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣”
So, yeah, it seems clear to me that Musk is claiming that SS is issuing massive amounts of money in improper payments. And it also seems clear to me that Musk is using misleading information to encourage a deep distrust of the federal bureaucracy.
But Musk has proven himself multiple times of having a tenuous relationship with the truth.
But as the expert quoted in the Politco article pointed out, the percentage of improper SS payments amounts to 0.84% of total payments, and “The costs of having 0% error rate would actually be quite high, and would increase administrative costs.”
Why?
Because that is not a definite statement but rather a joke-type of comment.
Can we agree that there is waste in government, and that it is a good thing to eliminate as much of it as possible?
Frankly, I’ve always had a very deep mistrust of government bureaucracy at all levels when it comes to spending, having both served in an elected role as well as contracting with government agencies over the years. If you were here and bought me a beer, I could talk your ear off with examples. So I’ll grant that I’ve got some confirmation bias when seeing what Musk is doing, but overall I’m happy to see cuts made, even if those cuts are just a small percentage of the overall budget.
The article by Mathew Cobb on genetic engineering at Asilomar is quite alarming. Thank you for including this in the post today. I find it very informative. I had no idea this was going on and could still be.
I just ordered the book Biohazard for some before bed reading. Nothing like reading relaxing books for a good night sleep.
It’s scary reading!
I suggest the weird swimming thingy is one of those pelagic Nudibranchs, but that is pretty much just a guess.
More bad news about Trump re: health.
Trump himself believes many of RFK Jr’s strange ideas. He invited Andrew Wakefield (“vaccines cause autism”) to his 2017 inauguration.
Trump eventually signed off on Covid vaccines but the US had a much death rate than Canada.
I’ll not comment on all the other bad news but do want to say that the antisemitism practiced but the Massachusetts Teachers Association reminds me a great deal of the demonization of Jews that went on in the Middle Ages—discrediting them, spreading myths and conspiracies, portraying Jews as evil and as “other.” I’m in the middle of a long—difficult to read—book by Paul Johnson called The History of the Jews that lays it all out in disgusting detail.* The book is hard going partly because each chapter is 100 pages or more. There’s no break and no place to catch your breath! But the resemblance to the current practice of antisemitism is clear.
*I have some criticisms of the book, but that’s not the point here.
Although I’ve never been in one I was vaguely pro-union most of my life. COVID and the teachers’ unions – and recently the amazing longshore unions behavior turned me on that issue completely.
Now I agree with Richard Haniana that they are mafia like cartels.
Their 100% backing of Palestine was the chef’s kiss for me.
Screw ’em. Crush ’em.
D.A.
NYC
A good friend, a Master Plumber, was always very pro-Union when he was working. But now a lot of his extreme irritability toward lots of things stems in part from how his union screwed him in retirement.
I found Paul Johnson’s book a bit off-putting in the early pages as he aligns real history with biblical writings in sections. But otherwise, he familiarized me with much of the early history of the Jewish people, my ancestors, that echoed a good deal of the vocabulary I recall from Hebrew School some 70 years ago. The parts that were on firmer ground, 586bce and forward, which is most of the book, were very helpful. Much of the early years are fuzzy…just the limits of current scholarship…but the discussions of who was where when and who were the conquerors and who the conquered at least oriented me a bit on who the occupiers in the middle east might really be versus indigenous.
My criticisms are similar—too much reliance on the Bible in the early going. After the fall of the Second Temple or so, he’s on firmer ground. Although I was certainly aware of Crusades and all of that, I didn’t know how Maimonides, Rambam, or Spinosa fit into history. (I’m not at Spinosa yet in the book. But I’m getting closer.) And Johnson is quite good on the slow but massive spread of antisemitism and its origins. He’s just one author, but he’s covering ground that was just a vast field of vagueness to me before.
Thank you for commenting, Jim.
I agree with the Sonicare recommendation, but would also add a water flosser. I bought one recently, and it is both more thorough and much less annoying than dental floss.
Me too. I use the Waterpik once per day, and the Sonicare twice. And I floss once.
If I recall correctly, it’s recommended that you not use a water flosser alone, but rather continue to use dental floss. Thus, I use both. If I’m wasting my time, somebody let me know.
My Oral B toothbrush is at least 15 years old and has that pause every 30 seconds feature. A pack of brushes from Costco lasts years.
Floss is good but there’s something better called ProxiBrushes that scrub in between teeth and really get the goo out. I do that once a day and use a water flosser after meals.
Implants are too damn expensive.
Floss: From a tip an old friend who became a periodontist gave me, I’ve used nothing but POH ever since. Available widely but less likely at your drug store. eBay’s typically the cheapest source. It’s unwaxed and fine, so max chance of getting thru the tightest places. I tie the two ends in a knot to have a continuous loop that I can easily manipulate with both hands, once I (quickly) dialed in on the right size of loop to make.
I think this makes a pretty convincing case that President Trump didn’t demand or receive anything from Mayor Adams in exchange for the pardon:
However, ICE acting commissioner and “border czar” Homan rather undermines that argument with his very public statement that if things did not go as the administration wanted in NY, “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City…And we won’t be sitting on a couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying where the hell is the agreement we came to.”
Who do you believe? – in this instance, I’d go with Homan.
From somewhere on Facebook:
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own. -Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (18 Feb 1883-1957)
In other news, DOGE has found that Social Security has over 17 million people aged 100 to 369 still on the rolls as “not dead.” In general, the Social Security rolls (not dead) total 60 million more than the population of the U.S. It turns out that your Social Security Number is not considered the unique identifier for a Social Security recipient. Both parties are to blame for this state of affairs.
I think the government owes it to the taxpayers to have a lean operation and spend money responsibly. Should this principle really be controversial?
Your statements? Not controversial.
The way this is going down so far? Disgusting.
Explain?
You’re going to take Elon Musk’s word that these numbers mean what you think they mean?
Most of those strange birthdates are due a policy of entering a long ago date if the date of birth isn’t known.
I no longer take Musk’s word for anything. He’s not checking with people who might know what’s going on. He’s just posting to X and hoping no one questions it.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/feb/17/are-150-year-old-americans-receiving-social-securi/
Thanks for the article. It was very helpful.
However, Musk’s tweet didn’t say that all of those people were receiving benefits as the headline “Are 150-year-old Americans receiving Social Security checks, as Elon Musk said?” stated, only that “According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!” https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1891350795452654076 . I know a lot of people read that as “we’re paying dead people benefits” but unless I missed a second tweet that was not what he said.
The fact that Politifact’s “experts say” that this is a coding issue, and that this is a longstanding concern, strengthens the case that something needs to be done to correct this. So what if the improper payments are small? There should be none, and I hope that DOGE also does something to fix the process that allow for errors to be made.
That’s a fiscally unsound position. It would be prohibitively expensive to engineer the system to make no mistakes. It is much more cost effective to have some mistakes and do the job well enough. One person who would likely agree with that sentiment would be Elon Musk–Tesla has had over 60 recalls in its history. Nothing can be done error free, and there is always a cost to increasing the accuracy.
Mike, you’re absolutely correct. I’m an engineer and know that no system is perfect. I was spouting off.
A better take would be that the system should be updated to reduce errors and improve quality of information and thereby reduce unnecessary cost.
Why did you refrain from posting the second part of Musk’s xTweet?
“Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣”
So, yeah, it seems clear to me that Musk is claiming that SS is issuing massive amounts of money in improper payments. And it also seems clear to me that Musk is using misleading information to encourage a deep distrust of the federal bureaucracy.
But Musk has proven himself multiple times of having a tenuous relationship with the truth.
But as the expert quoted in the Politco article pointed out, the percentage of improper SS payments amounts to 0.84% of total payments, and “The costs of having 0% error rate would actually be quite high, and would increase administrative costs.”
Why did you refrain from posting the second part of Musk’s xTweet?
“Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣”
So, yeah, it seems clear to me that Musk is claiming that SS is issuing massive amounts of money in improper payments. And it also seems clear to me that Musk is using misleading information to encourage a deep distrust of the federal bureaucracy.
But Musk has proven himself multiple times of having a tenuous relationship with the truth.
But as the expert quoted in the Politco article pointed out, the percentage of improper SS payments amounts to 0.84% of total payments, and “The costs of having 0% error rate would actually be quite high, and would increase administrative costs.”
Why?
Because that is not a definite statement but rather a joke-type of comment.
Can we agree that there is waste in government, and that it is a good thing to eliminate as much of it as possible?
Frankly, I’ve always had a very deep mistrust of government bureaucracy at all levels when it comes to spending, having both served in an elected role as well as contracting with government agencies over the years. If you were here and bought me a beer, I could talk your ear off with examples. So I’ll grant that I’ve got some confirmation bias when seeing what Musk is doing, but overall I’m happy to see cuts made, even if those cuts are just a small percentage of the overall budget.
The article by Mathew Cobb on genetic engineering at Asilomar is quite alarming. Thank you for including this in the post today. I find it very informative. I had no idea this was going on and could still be.
I just ordered the book Biohazard for some before bed reading. Nothing like reading relaxing books for a good night sleep.
It’s scary reading!
I suggest the weird swimming thingy is one of those pelagic Nudibranchs, but that is pretty much just a guess.
More bad news about Trump re: health.
Trump himself believes many of RFK Jr’s strange ideas. He invited Andrew Wakefield (“vaccines cause autism”) to his 2017 inauguration.
Trump eventually signed off on Covid vaccines but the US had a much death rate than Canada.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60380317.amp
More information from Dr Paul Offit:
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/anti-vaccine-activism-hurts-children
Yes. Get a Sonicare and fuggetaboutitt!
I’ll not comment on all the other bad news but do want to say that the antisemitism practiced but the Massachusetts Teachers Association reminds me a great deal of the demonization of Jews that went on in the Middle Ages—discrediting them, spreading myths and conspiracies, portraying Jews as evil and as “other.” I’m in the middle of a long—difficult to read—book by Paul Johnson called The History of the Jews that lays it all out in disgusting detail.* The book is hard going partly because each chapter is 100 pages or more. There’s no break and no place to catch your breath! But the resemblance to the current practice of antisemitism is clear.
*I have some criticisms of the book, but that’s not the point here.
Although I’ve never been in one I was vaguely pro-union most of my life. COVID and the teachers’ unions – and recently the amazing longshore unions behavior turned me on that issue completely.
Now I agree with Richard Haniana that they are mafia like cartels.
Their 100% backing of Palestine was the chef’s kiss for me.
Screw ’em. Crush ’em.
D.A.
NYC
A good friend, a Master Plumber, was always very pro-Union when he was working. But now a lot of his extreme irritability toward lots of things stems in part from how his union screwed him in retirement.
I found Paul Johnson’s book a bit off-putting in the early pages as he aligns real history with biblical writings in sections. But otherwise, he familiarized me with much of the early history of the Jewish people, my ancestors, that echoed a good deal of the vocabulary I recall from Hebrew School some 70 years ago. The parts that were on firmer ground, 586bce and forward, which is most of the book, were very helpful. Much of the early years are fuzzy…just the limits of current scholarship…but the discussions of who was where when and who were the conquerors and who the conquered at least oriented me a bit on who the occupiers in the middle east might really be versus indigenous.
My criticisms are similar—too much reliance on the Bible in the early going. After the fall of the Second Temple or so, he’s on firmer ground. Although I was certainly aware of Crusades and all of that, I didn’t know how Maimonides, Rambam, or Spinosa fit into history. (I’m not at Spinosa yet in the book. But I’m getting closer.) And Johnson is quite good on the slow but massive spread of antisemitism and its origins. He’s just one author, but he’s covering ground that was just a vast field of vagueness to me before.
Thank you for commenting, Jim.
I agree with the Sonicare recommendation, but would also add a water flosser. I bought one recently, and it is both more thorough and much less annoying than dental floss.
Me too. I use the Waterpik once per day, and the Sonicare twice. And I floss once.
If I recall correctly, it’s recommended that you not use a water flosser alone, but rather continue to use dental floss. Thus, I use both. If I’m wasting my time, somebody let me know.
My Oral B toothbrush is at least 15 years old and has that pause every 30 seconds feature. A pack of brushes from Costco lasts years.
Floss is good but there’s something better called ProxiBrushes that scrub in between teeth and really get the goo out. I do that once a day and use a water flosser after meals.
Implants are too damn expensive.
Floss: From a tip an old friend who became a periodontist gave me, I’ve used nothing but POH ever since. Available widely but less likely at your drug store. eBay’s typically the cheapest source. It’s unwaxed and fine, so max chance of getting thru the tightest places. I tie the two ends in a knot to have a continuous loop that I can easily manipulate with both hands, once I (quickly) dialed in on the right size of loop to make.
I think this makes a pretty convincing case that President Trump didn’t demand or receive anything from Mayor Adams in exchange for the pardon:
https://reason.com/volokh/2025/02/18/there-was-no-quid-pro-quo-in-the-mayor-adams-case-period/
However, ICE acting commissioner and “border czar” Homan rather undermines that argument with his very public statement that if things did not go as the administration wanted in NY, “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City…And we won’t be sitting on a couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying where the hell is the agreement we came to.”
Who do you believe? – in this instance, I’d go with Homan.