NOTE: TODAY’S WILDLIFE PHOTOS BY JOHN AVISE ARE BENEATH THIS POST: HERE
Welcome to shabbos for goyische cats; Sunday, May 11, 2025, and National Eat What You Want Day. Today I feel like a cassoulet, even though the weather will be tepid (a high of 67° F or about 20° C). I’ve never believed that you have to eat certain foods in cold weather and others in hot weather. Here’s a lovely cassoulet I had at Josephine Chez Dumonet two years ago. If you’re looking for an upscale bistro with terrific food (this is fancier and pricier than most bistros), you couldn’t do better than coming here. Ask for a seat in the front room.
It’s also National Mocha Torte Day, Hostess Cupcake Day, first sold on this day in 1919, and Mother’s Day. Be sure to call your mom if she’s still alive and, better yet, send flowers or candy. Here’s a cat’s Mother’s Day card from Cole and Marmalade:
There’s a Google Doodle today: click to see where it goes:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 1 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*India and Pakistan scared the beejezus out of me when they were at each other’s throats the other day and India attacked Pakistan for a presumed Pakistani attack on tourists in Kashmir. They both have nukes, which is the scary part. Fortunately, and I was pretty sure of this, they wouldn’t go to war as they both have cool heads. And, indeed, they announced a cease-fire.
India and Pakistan said on Saturday that they had agreed to a cease-fire after four days of drone volleys and missile strikes, the most intense fighting between the rivals in decades. But there were reports at night of continued shelling along the border.
President Trump announced the cease-fire on his social media site and said it had been mediated by the United States. Indian and Pakistani officials confirmed the cease-fire, though only Pakistan acknowledged an American role.
“We thank President Trump for his leadership and proactive role for peace in the region,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan said on social media. “Pakistan appreciates the United States for facilitating this outcome, which we have accepted in the interest of regional peace and stability.”
As night set in, though, there were indications that the cease-fire was not entirely holding. Cross-border firing was reported in some areas of the Indian part of Kashmir, the disputed territory at the heart of India and Pakistan’s conflict. Surinder Kumar Choudhary, the second-highest elected official in the Indian-administered area of Kashmir, said there had been cross-border firing.
A senior Indian official confirmed that there had also been firing along the boundary between India and Pakistan. And he said that Pakistani drones had appeared over Srinagar, the capital city of the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, as well as over the Indian state of Punjab. The official said these developments were violations of the agreement that called for a cessation of all military activity.
If this was mediated by Trump or his administration, you have to hand them credit: it may have stopped a huge conflagration. I’ve never been to Pakistan, but I’ve been to India and I love it, and I’ve been impressed by a rationality missing in countries that are even better off. Fingers crossed that the violence stopped now! Sadly, there are still clashes going on, but I trust that neither country is dumb enough to unleash the nukes.
Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk has been released from an immigration detention facility in Louisiana, hours after a federal judge ordered her to be freed.
“Thank you so much. I am a little bit tired, so I will take some time to rest,” she told reporters and supporters who were crowded outside the facility.
US District Judge William Sessions said the student met all the conditions needed for release and lambasted the government’s case against her.
Ms Otzurk, a doctoral student from Turkey, co-authored an opinion piece in her campus newspaper that was critical of Israel’s war. Her arrest follows the White House’s crackdown on what it has classified as antisemitism on US campuses.
“Her continued detention chills the speech of millions in this country who are not citizens,” the judge said on Friday as he ordered her release.
Ms Ozturk walked out of the detention facility after six weeks in custody and was greeted by cheers and with her hands on her heart.
She had been detained since March, when US immigration officials arrested her on the streets in Massachusetts.
Videos of the arrest showed masked plain-clothes officers surrounding her after a Ramadan celebration, handcuffing her and then taking her into an unmarked car. Her detention sparked nationwide protests.
The US Department of Homeland Security had accused Ms Ozturk of “engag[ing] in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organisation that relishes the killing of Americans”.
Sorry, but even with a green card, an op-ed does not make you eligibile for detention. This is intolerable. The judge, William Sessions III, said, “There is no evidence here … absent consideration of
the op-ed.” and that her continued detention would chill the speech of “millions and millions” of people.
You can read Ozturk’s op-ed here:it’s critical, but it’s free speech, not terrorism!
*The Wall Street Journal mediasplains to us how Robert Prevost became Pope Leo.
The election of the first-ever American pope stunned the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, defied betting markets and shattered an assumption that the church would never hand its highest office to a citizen of the world’s leading superpower.
But by Thursday, the 69-year-old Prevost had become the natural choice for the cardinals secluded in the Sistine Chapel. For weeks, they had searched for a successor who offered continuity with the late Pope Francis’ dream of an inclusive and humble church—but who showed more deference for Catholic tradition and stronger managerial skills to run a financially strained city-state of global reach.
Even before the conclave began on Wednesday, a geographically and ideologically diverse bloc had come to understand that they had among them an all-rounder who checked those boxes.
The longtime bishop of Chiclayo in Peru was from the U.S., but of the global south. Many of his supporters described the polyglot prelate with the same four words: “citizen of the world.” Years of missionary experience had lent him a reputation as an advocate of the poor and marginalized. He had served in the heart of the Vatican, but not long enough for its frequent scandals to taint him.
Cardinal Parolin, in contrast, had spent his career in the Vatican’s diplomatic service before rising to serve nearly 12 years as secretary of state, effectively Pope Francis’ No. 2.
Parolin was the favorite to succeed his former boss and satisfy Italian yearnings to recover an office the peninsula held for most of the church’s 2,000-year history. But as an Italian saying goes, “He who enters the conclave as a pope leaves as a cardinal.”
Francis was hospitalized with a complex lung infection, eventually dying from his ailments on Easter Monday. As cardinals converged on Rome from around the world for his funeral and pre-conclave deliberations, Parolin still held a strong advantage.
“He was the best-known among us,” said Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Spain. “But that is not enough.”
He checked all the boxes. That is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know.”
*The AP reports that, according to an AP/NORC poll, “Transgender issues are a strength for Trump.”
About half of U.S. adults approve of how President Donald Trump is handling transgender issues, according to a new poll — a relative high point for a president who has the approval overall of about 4 in 10 Americans.
But support for his individual policies on transgender people is not uniformly strong, with a clearer consensus against policies that affect youth.
Here are the data:
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted this month found there’s more support than opposition on allowing transgender troops in the military, while most don’t want to allow transgender students to use the public school bathrooms that align with their gender identity and oppose using government programs to pay for gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
About two-thirds of U.S. adults agree with President Donald Trump that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by their biological characteristics at birth.
The poll found that Republicans overwhelmingly believe gender identity is defined by sex at birth, but Democrats are divided, with about half saying gender identity can differ from biological characteristics at birth. The view that gender identity can’t be separated from sex at birth view contradicts what the American Medical Association and other mainstream medical groups say: that extensive scientific research suggests sex and gender are better understood as a spectrum than as an either-or definition.
I do agree with the results below, although woke Democrats make a poorer showing. It’s virtue-signaling, Jake! 54% of Democrats say “a woman is whoever says she is.”
Well, I’m glad that Trump’s overall approval rating is so low, though it’s depressing that 83% of Republicans still approve of his performance. WTF? Wait until prices go up! But in all cases (of course less so in Democrats) approval of his handling of transgender issues is 52%. There are two explanations for this. One is that Republicans can see through the crazy assertions of transgender extremists (a sex spectrum, affirmative care, etc.) more clearly than do woke-blinded Democrats. However, another is that Republicans simply don’t like the idea or reality of transgender people. I would hope the explanation is the first, but it’s probably a mixture of both. I have no idea, however, of the composition of that mix. And I can’t say I approve of Trump’s stand on transgender issues because I think he’s getting a lot of support from Republicans who truly dislike of trans people, a vile form of bigotry. I still can’t understand, for example, why trans people can’t serve in the military, though I do see why trans-identified males shouldn’t compete in women’s sports.
*And the AP’s reliable “oddities” section gives us the top American baby names for the last year. I like them!\
The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the U.S. in 2024.
The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. In time for Mother’s Day, the agency on Friday released the most popular names from applications for Social Security cards.
Liam has reigned for eight years in a row for boys, while Olivia has topped the girls’ list for six. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, Emma took the second slot for girls, and Noah for boys.
The girls’ name Luna slipped out of the Top 10 and was replaced by Sofia, which enters at number 10 for the first time.
The figures:
Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of nameberry, a baby naming website, said the latest data showcases how American parents are increasingly choosing names that have cross-cultural appeal. Kihm’s first name shows up in two variations on the annual list.
“A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices,” Kihm said, including names that work “no matter where you are in the world.”
”More families in the U.S. come from mixed cultural backgrounds and I hear parents commonly request that they want their child to travel and have a relatively easy to understand name.”
I know no Liams, but I do know Olivia Judson, and she should email me and let me know how she is.
I have to admit, though, that I have a weakness for Irish women’s names: names like Saoirse, Aoife, and especially Siobhan. None of them are pronounced by Americans the way they’re spelled, but look up the pronunciations and you’ll love them.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili missed her mark.
Hili: If I’m right that starling cannot see me.A: Now it noticed you.Hili: You spoiled everything.
Hili: Jeśli dobrze widzę, to ten szpak mnie nie widzi.Ja: Teraz już cię zauważył.Hili: Wszystko popsułeś.
****************
From Jesus of the Day. I had a list like this (but not as extensive) on the radio in my lab, but it said only “No REM”, which my grad student loved. This person apparently hates Nickelback:
From Animal Antics:
From Things with Faces via Bored Panda: an evil grapefruit:
Titania is posting again, and people still think she’s serious!
Why do all these bigots keep trying to argue with me? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/nwf46g1UmF
— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) May 9, 2025
From Steve Stewart-Williams; undermining a common trope. I’m not one to cry anti-male discrimination, but I’m glad women are at lest at parity with men:
“Their overall conclusion is that the evidence simply doesn’t support claims of pervasive anti-female bias in science. In fact, in some domains, it’s now men who face discrimination.”
[Link below.] pic.twitter.com/Bp7I6vmuBd
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) May 10, 2025
From Luana, also a big free-speech advocate (sound up):
Arresting someone simply for writing an op-ed (which is all the government alleges) is totally deranged. One of America’s greatest strengths is our expansive commitment to free expression. Speech is not free if it’s restricted on the basis of the speaker’s identity or opinions. https://t.co/VL8AdUFOl7
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 10, 2025
From Malcolm; how they did some commercial camera shots:
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973c) April 15, 2025
From Simon; a deep thought from Larry the 10 Downing Street moggy:
Donald Trump is no longer the most powerful American in the world… #LeoXIV
— Larry the Cat (@number10cat.bsky.social) 2025-05-08T17:35:09.075Z
One that I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:
A German Jewish Girl was gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz. She was seven, and would be 98 today had she lived.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-11T10:11:19.143Z
Two posts from Dr. Cobb, who is waiting out a viral respiratory infection. Send him some good thoughts below! I might have posted the first one below earlier, but it’s still good:
The hand-written outline for Alfred Russel Wallace's last, unrealised, book – 'Darwin & Wallace' – has been published for the first time in #NotesandRecords. Read an analysis of Wallace's fascinating book that never was: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/… #HistSci #HistSTM
— Royal Society Publishing (@royalsocietypublishing.org) 2025-04-20T09:02:05.070Z
An old book illustration:
85 cats escaping from a log cabin in the book 170 Cats by Zhenya Gay and Pachita Crespi, 1939.
— Cats of Yore (@catsofyore.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T18:37:37.129Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad. -Salvador Dali, painter (11 May 1904-1989)
I wonder if the TV show Law and Order SUV influenced the use of some names.
Consider Captain OLIVIA Benson and her adopted son NOAH.
Nine hours later, I wondered the very same thing.
I see semantic confusion in these discussions of whether “gender identity” is always the same as biological sex. I mostly don’t use the word “gender” except when discussing declensions in languages for which it is grammatically relevant.
When applied to people, “gender” is a dumb word that seems to mean anything and everything these days. Some people use the word “gender” simply as a synonym for sex. Others use the word to refer to a very complicated mix of personality traits, psychological nature, self-perceived identity and life-style choices in a world of complicated and somewhat arbitrary social constructed gender roles, and etc. The wokies then deliberately sow confusion by exploiting this semantic ambiguity about the word “gender”. They argue that since psychological gender nature is subtle and complicated and not binary and “on a spectrum”, therefore biological sex has no clear meaning.
The meaning of the word “identity” also can be slippery. In some contexts identity refers to how a person actually is. In other contexts it refers to the person’s psychologically constructed self-understanding. Sometimes people speak of a person’s “identity” when they are actually referring to how a person self-identifies.
Here again a bit of care with words is helpful. Don’t say that Donald Trump has the identity of a stable genius when you actually just mean that he self-identifies that way (unless you happen to agree that he is a genius). Don’t say that Rachel Dolezal has African-American identity, though she may sincerely feel that way.
Generally when I read a discussion of gender issues or identity issues these days, I see a lot of wordplay with few actual ideas in it and I spend most of my mental effort simply untangling semantic confusions.
I was thinking the same point that opinions on gender identity is too confusing right now, since the meaning itself means different things to different people.
Sorry you are under the weather Matthew. I am pulling for your B and T cells (I think) to quickly put down the scourge.
The best reason for purging trans people from the military is that respecting their “rights” enables a form of insubordination. A soldier can get his superior in trouble with military HR by alleging misgendering in casual third-party conversation. Sergeant: “Cpl. Smith, tell Pvt. Bloggs to get over here and bring the demolition charges with her, er, him. If she can’t carry them all herself, send someone to help her.” Gotcha! (Under Canadian Armed Forces zero-tolerance rules, Cpl. Smith would be expected to report the misgendering sergeant to a DEI hotline even if Pvt. Bloggs was untroubled by the reference or was unaware of it. Cpl. Smith would be particularly on the spot if other soldiers had overheard the exchange.) This gives the junior soldiers leverage over a superior they ought not to have if good order and discipline are to be preserved. It creates a culture where some soldiers (or indeed employees in any workplace) are dangerous to one’s career and must be tiptoed around for fear of setting them off. Does a woke, “inclusive” culture that ruthlessly punishes common sense attract more recruits and retain more NCOs than it repels? (Never mind the mixing of sexes in barracks and the ambiguous gender-based physical standards.)
(Note how different this is from enforced tolerance of women, racial minorities, and homosexuals. The sergeant’s order quoted above would be perfectly innocent if Pvt. Bloggs was an aboriginal lesbian soldier needing help to carry a heavy load.)
As with so much in trans life, the impact is magnified beyond the actual numbers of trans soldiers because the consequences fall on the hundreds of people the military allows each one to impose his ideological demands on….and which the trans soldier need have no empathy for. (“Just standing up for my rights!”) It is human nature to dislike and mistrust people like that and want not to have to work with them unless, of course, one sincerely believes in one’s heart that the slightly built combat engineer with the high-pitched voice who couldn’t lift the sack of demo charges really is the man she claims to be. Then you’ll bust the offending sergeant remorselessly.
Because serving soldiers are unable to speak candidly in public about military policies they disagree with, we civilians pretty much have to go with what the leadership says on this. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Administration can discharge trans soldiers while appeals against the policy continue. The activists will have their day in Court.
I love it. As we contemplate the end of WW2 80 years ago, I think about those heroic Allied troops who stormed the beaches at Normandy. There is zero room to fool around with the issues you raise in your post when something actually important is happening.
🎯
It’s the dialectic – or put another way, a magic spell to make one notion same-in-kind, different-in-degree as another – especially when that notion, e.g. people whose personal relationship interests are unusual – or the LG (.., hmmm, L always first…) – has been successful in making its case. Seems to have created some envy and resentment.
Always be cautious with “always”: GLAD, GALA.
I mean when is it … whatever this “it” is … ever G+LQBT, +QLTB, etc.
This is all consistent with LGBTQ+ having _nothing_whatsoever_to_do_with homosexuality, as it is a dialectical synthesis.
As David M. Halperin writes (caps preserved), “UNLIKE GAY identity, […] queer identity need not be grounded in any positive truth or in any stable reality.”
Colin Wright has a new one he found too in the literature .. I cannot find in the moment – a new character record, and I think it begins with L.
Unrelated to anything above, the WaPo has a very interesting piece on how a murderer was tracked via DNA analysis after 23yrs, starting with DNA from distant relatives in Romania.
I died when I read the last line of A Mother’s Day Poem from the Cat.
My sister’s name is Siobhan. She is very amusing in mimicking people’s efforts to pronounce her name correctly. They don’t have a chance, of course, since it’s hopeless if you don’t already know.
Imagine if there was a religious cult with secret personal insight to how society and the self is constructed, such that their privileged wisdom grants power to control and direct the transformation of society — such that the transformations adapt to their special hidden knowledge.
Is the cult religion granted rights to exercise its transformational power wherever it sees a need — on the premise that cult religious practice is excluded in principle from social resources that depend on an unambiguous grasp of reality such as fire departments, water resources, emergency services, etc.?
Christianity, Islam, ….
Gnostic and Hermetic cults developed in competition with the Christian church and its doctrine.
Through the self-knowledge of gnosis, they promise the creation of heaven on Earth and access to the soul through the transformational magic of alchemy on material and thought. This practice uses the ‘wisdom of God’ – theosophy (e.g. Jakob Böhme (1575–1624) ).
This is not unique to Christianity.
I’m right now in the middle of James Lindsay’s podcast “WTF is Social-Emotional Learning?”, which is jaw-dropping in the connections he makes among Hermetic mysticism, Theosophy, and modern SEL.
Anyway, the exoteric point I was failing to make is that detachment from reality is a significant if not major aspect of almost all religions, not just occult ones, so then where might we get our unambiguously-realistic firefighters, pilots, etc? There aren’t enough atheists or even “nones” to fill all those roles.
Gnostics believe they have secret access to God’s wisdom to transform the imperfect world, society, or self to match the Ideal image in their minds. Their church is the Earth and all it contains.
Churches counteract gnostic temptation – we are not gods. God created everything – the church doctrine generally teaches to adapt – not transform every/anything.
This discerning characteristic makes a difference, IMHO, as to how these faiths in the supernatural are implemented – and unintended consequences thereof.
Science, Politics, and Gnosticism
Eric Voegelin
1968, 1997
Regenery Press, Chicago;
Washington D.C.
Ok, gnostics are “unreal” because they believe that with the right knowledge their inner god can work magic, right? If so, how does that differ significantly from non-gnostics who believe the with the right spells and rituals they can influence an external god to work magic? Please help me out here.
Ok, gnostics are “unreal” because they believe that with the right knowledge their inner god can work magic, right? If so, how does that differ significantly from non-gnostics who believe the with the right words and rituals they can influence an external god to work magic? Please help me out here.
Note to PCC(E) : I know I’m going on and on but I’m wrapping this up :
Barbara, we ought to meet at a coffee shop and get espressos for this! ☕️😁
I could share an excerpt from this free ebook I just started reading :
““The key to all mysteries and the source of all Illumination lies deep within the self.”
-From a Rosicrucian manuscript”
And:
“Gnostics viewed the role of their savior or revealer to be to awaken people, rather than to die for their salvation or to be sacrificed for their sins.”
-Christopher McIntosh
Gnosis, Gnostics, and Gnosticism: An Introduction – Ancient Doctrines Rediscovered
in
Gnosticism –
Rosicrucian Order, AMORC
No. 2 – 2011
Vol. 89 – No. 2
https://books.apple.com/us/book/gnosticism/id943225017
Cheers
Very similar delusions, ISTM.
Get better soon Dr Cobb.
Happy Mother’s Day Esther!
Indeed!
Trump is absolutely going to hate the reality of that comment by Larry the Cat.
Cue insults based on Larry’s IQ…
IQ would be relevant only if Larry identified as human, and he’s too clever for that.
The claim that Pope Leo is more powerful than President Trump reminds me of the line, “How many divisions has the Pope?”
Or in modern parlance, “How many nukes has the Pope?”
I see two potential problems with trans-identified people in the military:
1) Trans-identified males (“trans women”) housed in women’s barracks
2) Their need for exogenous hormones
I can imagine workarounds for the first problem. The second is the one I wonder about.
My understanding is that someone with a medical condition that requires regular maintenance can be barred from service. A person on exogenous hormones can’t stop taking them.
If a trans-identified person isn’t taking hormones, and if the housing situation can be resolved, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to serve. And maybe the people who decide these things consider the hormone thing minor.
Rumeysa Ozturk, current stage in the dialectic :
[ • ] used by the Revolution
[ pending ] .. and then discarded.
“But even regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimised — the question involuntarily arises — to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
-G.W.F. Hegel
Lectures on the Philosophy of History
Posth. 1837