Welcome to Sunday, December 21, 2025: the sabbath for goyische cats as well as the penultimate day of Hanukkah, four days until Christmas, and the beginning of Coynezaa. The Winter Solstice begins this morning at 9:03 a.m., Chicago time, so don’t forget that. This also means that today is Yule, described by Wikipedia as “a winter festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples that is claimed to have been merged with Christmas during the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples.” Time to haul in the Yule log, as drawn in the 1832 picture below (from Chambers Book of Days.) Again from Wikipedia:
The Yule log is a specially selected log burnt on a hearth as a winter tradition in regions of Europe, and subsequently North America. Today, this tradition is celebrated by Christians and modern pagans on or around Christmas or Yule. The name by which this tradition goes, as well as when and how the Yule log should be burnt, varies widely with time and place. The first solid evidence for this tradition originates in 1184 CE as a Christmas eve tradition. The practice was originally known as the “Christmas log” (and still is in languages other than English), with “Yule log” first used in the late 17th century.
It’s also National French Fried Shrimp Day, National Hamburger Day, National Kiwi Fruit Day (a friend calls them “gorilla balls”), Crossword Puzzle Day, and National Short Story Da.(the best one ever is here).
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the December 21 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*On Friday afternoon the Dept. of Justice released a huge number of items from the Epstein files, and it’s early days yet. The NYT tells us “6 takeaways from the first batch of the Epstein files.”
The documents produced no major revelations.
The released files, which included thousands of photographs and investigative documents, added little to the public’s understanding of Mr. Epstein’s conduct. The materials also did not provide much additional insight into Mr. Epstein’s connections to wealthy and powerful businessmen and politicians who associated with him.
The reaction from the Right was muted.
Mr. Trump’s right-wing supporters have traditionally been among the most ardent advocates for releasing the Epstein files. They have long been convinced that the documents would contain evidence that a cabal of prominent men — in their telling, mostly Democrats — had joined Mr. Epstein in abusing young women and covering up their crimes.
But those same supporters were largely silent as the files came out, perhaps in response to the dearth of new incriminating information. Mr. Trump on Friday conspicuously refrained from commenting on the release of the materials, even though the case has haunted him politically.
Bill Clinton was featured prominently.
Whether by design or chance, many of the photographs included in the files were of one of Mr. Trump’s most prominent political adversaries: former President Bill Clinton.
One image depicted Mr. Clinton reclining in a hot tub with a person whose face had been blacked out. In many of the photos of Mr. Clinton, he was the only person whose identity could be discerned. The files provided little or no context for the pictures.
There were few mentions of Trump.
his name was mentioned rarely in the materials released on Friday. It remained unclear, though, whether he would figure more in the release of files still to come and whether the Justice Department selected the initial batch with politics in mind.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were close friends for years, and the president’s earlier reluctance to release the files prompted speculation about whether they prominently featured him.
Epstein attracted the rich and famous.
The files showed how Mr. Epstein attracted a remarkably broad spectrum of famous people into his orbit, from the rock stars Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger to the legendary newsman Walter Cronkite.
While the materials bore no suggestion that these celebrities had any knowledge of or involvement in Mr. Epstein’s illicit activities, they stood nonetheless as a remarkable testament to his ability to attract attention from the rich and famous.
There’s more to come, eventually.
In an interview on Fox News on Friday morning, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, acknowledged that the Justice Department was not finished releasing files. Thousands more would be made public “in the coming weeks,” he said.
The delay meant that the Trump administration would apparently violate the law signed by the president in November ordering the complete release of all unclassified materials about Mr. Epstein in the Justice Department’s possession within 30 days, with limited exceptions.
I fail to understand how Epstein attracted all these people save for his enormous wealth, private jet, and private island. I have heard no evidence that the man was particularly witty, insightful, or intellectual. And if it wasn’t the girls (since we have no proof that the famous people exploited them), then I’m baffled. He did have (or feign) an interest in science, but never contributed anything to it.
And we learned yesterday evening that some of the files that were online have disappeared:
More than a dozen photos — including one featuring President Trump — were removed without explanation from the large collection of files connected to the investigations of Jeffrey Epstein that the Justice Department released on Friday.
A total of 16 photos were taken down at some point on Saturday from the website that the department created to house files — among them, one of the few that contained Mr. Trump’s image. It was a photo of a credenza in Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan home, with an open drawer containing other photos, including at least one of Mr. Trump.
The Justice Department did not explain on the site why the images had been removed, and a department spokesman did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee immediately seized on the missing photo of Mr. Trump, reposting it on social media and asking Attorney General Pam Bondi if it was true that the image had been removed.
“What else is being covered up?” the post said. “We need transparency for the American public.”
Twelve of the other missing photos pictured the infamous massage room on the third floor of Mr. Epstein’s mansion in New York. The room, which sat down the hall from Mr. Epstein’s bedroom, was where investigators say that many of his sexual assaults occurred — some of them against teenage victims. The shelves in the room were stocked with lubricants and a silver ball and chain, among other things.
This is suspicious, to say the least, but presumably the image of Trump has been preserved. I still consider him innocent in this affair until proven guilty.
*The NYT also notes that lawmakers of both parties criticized the fact that the DOJ didn’t comply with the law by releasing all the files.
Lawmakers from both parties on Friday accused the Justice Department of failing to comply with a law requiring the release of all of its material on Jeffrey Epstein, citing extensive redactions and the department’s acknowledgment that it had not finished reviewing or making public some files.
Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky and one of the lawmakers who wrote the statute, said in a social media post that the release of the files “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”
Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and the measure’s co-sponsor, said that he believed a number of documents were missing, particularly a “draft indictment” that he said implicated others who watched or participated in the “abuse of young girls.”
. . . and the WaPo gives the DOJ’s excuse:
The Justice Department said it needed more time to review records and remove information that might identify victims before disclosing additional documents. More records will be released over the next two weeks, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a letter to Congress.
Friday’s release included fairly few documents that mentioned President Donald Trump. Administration officials have acknowledged that the president’s name is in the files, and a person familiar with the redaction process said that Trump’s name was included multiple times throughout the files. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for retaliation.
Documents that mention Trump may be included in the future releases that Blanche said are coming.
By contrast, former president Bill Clinton appears a number of times in the photographs released Friday, including in one picture swimming with Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and another woman. In other pictures, he appears in more formal settings. Trump and his appointees have sought to focus attention on Clinton as the president has complained about news coverage of his relationship with Epstein.
*Last week three Americans, including two soldiers, were killed by an ISIS sniper in Syria. Trump promised to retaliate, and the U.S. did big time, attacking more than 70 targets in a nighttime raid.
The U.S. military conducted a large-scale attack against Islamic State targets in Syria as the Trump administration retaliated for the killing of three Americans last week.
A U.S. military official said Friday that more than 70 targets were being struck by U.S. F-15E and A-10 warplanes, Apache attack helicopters and Himars rockets.
The operation is being dubbed “Hawkeye Strike” in honor of the Iowa National Guard soldiers who were killed and wounded in an ambush the Trump administration has blamed on ISIS.
The gunman who ambushed the Americans was killed in the original attack. But President Trump on Sunday vowed to take military action against the group. The strikes were the biggest American attack against ISIS in Syria since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad late last year.
“Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria, whose beautiful souls I welcomed home to American soil earlier this week in a very dignified ceremony, I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump said in post on Truth Social.
Jordan’s F-16 jet fighters were also involved in the operation, according to U.S. officials. A spokeswoman for the Jordanian Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.
The strikes, which involved the delivery of more than 100 precision guided munitions. were carried out in central
Well, that seems a bit disproportionate given that three Americans were killed by a single sniper, who himself was killed. On the other hand, it was ISIS, still around and still wreaking havoc in the Middle East. But Trump, who touted that he had settled eight wars (which ones?), is not starting more wars, including one with Venezuela. And Congress hasn’t okayed any of these actions. Still, I can’t bring myself to condemn this attack since it was retalization against terrorists who killed Americans. We’ll see whether the new president of Syria, a former terrorist leader, has managed to reform and can stabilize a country in turmoil.
*More damage to science from this administration, which announced the closure of the premier weather/atmospheric study institute in America, and for no good reason.
American science is wobbling right now.
After cuts to federal funding and the firing or early retirement of thousands of government scientists this year, another blow to scientific research landed this week. The Trump administration on Tuesday night announced a plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., one of the world’s premier climate and weather science institutions.
News of the planned closure rippled through the annual gathering of the American Geophysical Union, an organization of Earth and space scientists, being held this week in New Orleans.
“You could feel the energy in the room, and it was very sad,” said Mohammed Shehzaib Ali, a graduate student at North Carolina State University who uses NCAR’s supercomputer to run programs to understand how weather patterns affect air pollution from wildfires. “Atmospheric science is built on collaboration, and NCAR is the pathway through which we collaborate,” Mr. Shehzaib Ali said.
The center’s 830 employees conduct research on weather, climate and energy systems, and operate supercomputers that are used by thousands of scientists across the globe. In his announcement, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, called NCAR “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Antonio Busalacchi Jr., president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which manages NCAR, told reporters on Thursday that the center’s research had led to technological advances in aviation, hurricane prediction and space weather. It has also collaborated with the insurance industry to better predict risk from extreme weather.
“We are talking about a significant impact on the scientific enterprise in this country,” Dr. Busalacchi said. Closing the center would be “setting back science in this country by decades.”
Why? Well, look at the mission of the Center: studying weather and climate (among other things). The reason seems to be this:
President Trump routinely mocks climate change as a hoax, and his administration has labeled virtually all efforts to study climate change, reduce the level of dangerous greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or protect communities from the impacts of global warming as “alarmism.”
I’m guessing that’s the reason, and then who will take over the functions of the NCAR? It’s not like climate change has proven not to be a problem after all. . I’m betting it’s retribution.
*This week the administration declared the synthetic opioid fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction,” which has implications for both domestic action, allowing more federal agencies to go after dealers and also can authorize charges of terrorism for engaging in its sale, and for international action, allowing countries that traffic or even are transit areas for the drug to be considered terrorists. (The “WMD” designation makes the drug the equivalent of a “dirty” nuclear weapon.) The centrist Brookings Institution points out the problems with this designation, while the conservative National Review says that Trump has “no authority to categorize fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.” From the NR:
If you hang a sign that says “horse” on a cow, that doesn’t make it a horse.
Get it? If you do, then you’ll quickly grasp that a Latin American dope dealer is not an alien enemy combatant. The Defense Department, a creature of statute, does not become “the Department of War” by a presidential decree that sends Pete Hegseth to the front of the Pentagon with a plaque and a screwdriver. A foreign terrorist organization does not, by the abracadabra of “designation,” become an authorization for the use of military force — even if we generously assume that a drug gang is the same thing as a terrorist organization. Lindsey Halligan is not the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Riots are neither patriotic nor mostly peaceful. The congressionally established John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is not, by dint of wand-waving by a crony committee, the Trump . . . anything.
And fentanyl is not a weapon of mass destruction, even if the “horse” sign in this instance happens to be an executive order.
That’s not to disregard the dangers of fentanyl; potentially, it is a deadly substance. In our separation-of-powers framework, however, the chief executive has no constitutional authority to regulate either narcotic drugs or weapons. That power belongs to Congress, which has already defined fentanyl and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in statutory law. As president, Trump is sworn to faithfully execute Congress’s laws, not to supersede them or make up his own.
. . . . Common sense tells us that narcotic drugs are saliently different from WMD. The former are controlled substances targeted to cause specific bodily effects in specific people, a generally salutary outcome when a drug is prescribed by a licensed physician, and a detrimental one when the drug is distributed illegally. WMD, in stark contrast, are objects designed to kill indiscriminately.
. . .As one would expect, these differences are reflected in our law.
Article I, Section 8, endows Congress with the authority to regulate interstate commerce. That authority was extravagantly construed by the courts in the 20th century, with the result that, for decades, federal statutory law has extensively regulated narcotic drugs and weapons — regulation that, primarily, used to be the bailiwick of state law.
The president has no such constitutional authority to regulate commerce, drugs, or weapons. The president executes Congress’s laws and has only whatever regulatory authority Congress confers. As we’ll see, Congress has given the executive branch some narrow regulatory authority regarding fentanyl, but only as to how its analogs may be classified under the drug laws, not to classify it as a weapon — or, for that matter, as anything else.
. . .President Trump may despise “forever wars,” but he sure seems to like pretend wars. The point of the fentanyl “designation” is to shore up his case for using military force against drug traffickers — although its relevance to high seas around Venezuela is hard to fathom since fentanyl is neither produced nor imported from there. At any rate, fentanyl, a dangerous drug but one with legitimate medical uses, is a narcotic, not a weapon of mass destruction akin to a chemical or biological bomb.
Of course, the president has a right to his opinion, but he’s got no inherent authority to classify drugs and weapons — or drugs as weapons. Congress has already said what narcotic drugs are (they’re not WMD), and what WMD are (they’re not narcotic drugs). For all the difference it makes legally, President Trump might as well “designate” fentanyl as a horse. It still won’t be one.
This article is as much a critique of Trump’s usurpation of power as it is about the mixing of apples and oranges as WMDs. But the long article (I’ve given a short excerpt) does make its case, and it seems that Trump’s taking a page from the “progressive Left” playbook in simply renaming something to change the way you see it. Yes, opioids are very bad drugs, but under no conception can they be considered weapons of mass destruction. And, as Walter Cronkite might say, “When you’ve lost the National Review, you’ve lost the Republican Party.”
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is plumping not just for presents, but for the proper-colored ribbons:
Hili: Do you already have Christmas presents for us?
Andrzej: Yes, I just need to buy some ribbons.
Hili: Blue for me, please. The red and green ones have been irritating me lately.
In Polish:
Hili: Czy masz już dla nas prezenty świąteczne.
Ja: Tak, tylko muszę jeszcze kupić wstążki.
Hili: Dla mnie niebieską, poproszę, ostatnio, te czerwone i zielone mnie drażnią.
*******************
From Stacy (must be a Jewish cat):
From Meow Incorporated:
From The Dodo Pet:
From Masih; another young Iranian scheduled to die on trumped-up charges:
Another day, another death threat for J. K. Rowling:
I don’t understand why you deleted this, @PuppyRollz. Don’t you want the whole world to know you were so specific and prescient?
(Thank you for alerting me, Mary Cate x) pic.twitter.com/jyQCTDxUyO
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 20, 2025
From Malcolm, a post-WWI picture honoring the animals that died in action:
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 21, 2025
From Ginger K.: All of evolution crammed into four minutes—if you count human evolution as a part of the entire span of biologica of evolution, which it is. Just remember that our species is not the “goal” or endpoint of evolution. You could call this “squirrel evolution” or “white oak evolution”:
4 billion years of human evolution unfold in minutes
pic.twitter.com/X3hGmG5uwK— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) November 8, 2025
From FIRE: a professor vindicated for making fun of that apotheosis of performative wokeness: the land acknowledgment. The story is here, andt here’s a judicial summary from FIRE:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today delivered a decisive victory for the First Amendment rights of public university faculty in Reges v. Cauce. Reversing a federal district court’s opinion, the Ninth Circuit held University of Washington officials violated the First Amendment when they punished Professor Stuart Reges for substituting his satirical take on the university’s preferred “land acknowledgment” statement on his syllabus.
On Dec. 8, 2021, Reges criticized land acknowledgment statements in an email to faculty, and on Jan. 3, 2022, he parodied UW’s model statement in his syllabus: “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.” Reges’s statement was a nod to John Locke’s philosophical theory that property rights are established by labor.
Represented by FIRE, Reges filed a First Amendment lawsuit in July 2022 challenging the university’s actions, which included a months-long “harassment” investigation. University officials created a competing class, so students wouldn’t have to take a computer science class from someone who didn’t parrot the university’s preferred opinions.
VICTORY! The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today delivered a decisive victory for the First Amendment rights of public university faculty in Reges v. Cauce. Reversing a federal district court’s opinion, the Ninth Circuit held University of Washington officials… pic.twitter.com/CYPCEsFKOU
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) December 19, 2025
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This French Jewish boy was gassed to death as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was nine years old.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-12-21T10:49:03.633Z
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, an ancient strike:
Labour strikes aren’t new!The first recorded strike in history took place in Egypt some 3,200 years ago!The ‘Strike Papyrus’ records that tomb workers of King Ramesses III downed tools over pay and conditions circa 1157 BC!Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 by me #Archaeology
— Alison Fisk (@alisonfisk.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T19:30:01.771Z
And look at this tripod fish!
Bathypterois grallator. I'll catch what I miss from ascent in the morning, good night. They're on the way back up. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 882 #argentiniandeepseeps #MarineLife #CONICET
I was reminded of Centurion Somniferus’ legionaries going on strike demanding that they be treated as well as the slaves who were building Squaronthehypotunus’ Mansions of the Gods.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Modern Americans behave as if intelligence were some sort of hideous deformity. -Frank Zappa, guitarist, composer, and bandleader (21 Dec 1940-1993)
Not quite correct, Mr Z. Having it is ok; it’s using it that’s offensive.
Congrats and thanks to Professor Reges and FIRE (and the judges!). While limited to public universities, it is an important step and shows that when you mix politics and liberty, that liberty CAN result. This also rejects the recent pernicious behavior of both political extremes of issuing “model” policies and procedures for supplicants to ape. The Virginia governor and Department of Education has engaged in this very unclever and odious behavior both under the woke Northam (dem) administration and more recently under the regressive and repressive Youngkin(rep) administration in issuing “model” policy language to local school boards regarding treatment of trans children in Virginia’s K12 schools.
I am not sure i see what Jim Batterson would like local school boards to do. Is he saying there should not be statewide guidance on such issues as how local school boards deal with such questions as whether a school must notify parents if a child requests to be known by a different name at school?
I pointed out your comment to Batterson and perhaps he’ll reply.
I think that the teacher should have discretion based on his knowledge of the child’s home situation. In cases of possible student suicide, the state code already recognizes that the parent may be the proximate cause of the problem and in such suspected cases, the school is directed to inform social services or the courts rather than a parent. CDC data from its national YRBS (Youth Risk Behaviors Survey) show significant unstable homelife for self identifying trans and gender-questioning high school students. I am pleased that some of these students find an adult teacher as someone to talk with and confide in, and do not want such a teacher to risk being fired because he keeps a kid’s confidence. I think these teachers should encourage the child to find an adult relative or adult family friend to talk with, but the teacher should not be required by policy to tell the parent himself. I any case, I think these teachers should be allowed (but not required) to call a kid what the kid wants to be called…if Eldrick Woods wants to called Tiger, that should be fine without the teacher telling on him. Or NASCAR driver “Buddy” Baker rather than “Elzie”…..it is really none of the state government’s business what I call my students as long as I am respectful of them and work to encourage their safe and healthy growth into adulthood. All of this is of course informal…I do not mean to imply that their official name in my gradebook or the school’s records be changed unless the student or minor student’s parent officially has it changed.
Sadly, we cannot always assume that teachers or school staff are working towards the best interests of the child.
That “discretion”, and the idea of parental risk has been weaponized by the trans-industrial complex.
The teachers at the schools I attended are very different from those that taught my children.
Keeping the process secret from the parents for as long as possible is part of the grooming process, just like it is for other types of child grooming. If the child comes home and tells mom that “my guidance counselor told me today that I was born into the wrong body”, it is a situation easily resolved.
On the other hand, if Mom only learns what is going on by finding an empty prescription hormone pill bottle in the child’s room, it is a different thing altogether.
When the now young adult gets put on a psych hold because of a mix-up in medications, the teacher from years before will probably not even know, much less take any responsibility for pushing gender ideology on an innocent kid.
Jim, again, great respect for you, so nothing personal, but, well, here it comes :
Adopting the language of Queer Theory – without questioning the language – is how the Queer Gnostic cult extends its power. This is why bathrooms in grade schools have “GENDER IDENTITY” on them (we know “gender” has extensive discussion here on WEIT). It’s hard because nobody really makes a big deal of everyday words.
Demanding a detailed explanation of words for imaginary or esoteric notions like “gender” or “trans” might dispel the magic – magic that is concealing true human nature underneath synthetic identities, created from the cult’s vast literature. Billboard Chris and Peter Boghossian have shown on videos that not one “trans” person they interview can ever explain what “trans” is, with all the time they need.
The Queering of the American Child: How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids
James Lindsay and Logan Lancing
New Discourses
2024
Respectfully! Your job is challenging – best regards.
Jim, this makes me gravely uncomfortable to the point of queasiness. I can’t imagine a teenager wanting to confide in any teacher, of all people, about his sexuality. I would be most suspicious that any adult in a position of trust who put himself out to solicit the confidence of a vulnerable adolescent had ulterior motives such as seduction, especially with a promise, “Let’s you and I both keep this between us and not let your parents find out.” I can’t imagine a teacher wanting to compromise himself against the possibility that the fickle, hormone-addled adolescent turns on him and rats him out, inventing a story more sinister than anything that actually happened, perhaps to protect his interests with his parents. Wouldn’t a teacher today always want the door open and other adults within earshot when talking with a student after class or after volleyball practice? And not let the conversation wander into any domain not appropriate for teachers/coaches to talk to students in public about? You acknowledge that these students who think they are trans often have serious emotional and psychological problems. Regardless of whether the home situation is “safe”, that makes them dangerous for teachers. Notify Child Services if you’re worried. Don’t ever promise a student that you won’t.
Trans wasn’t a thing when I was in high school but teachers of both sexes did seduce students of both sexes. The age of consent in Canada back then was 14 so no one went to jail but teachers were always “disappeared” if it got out beyond gossip which “everyone” knew. Secret fraternizing between a kid whom all his peers know is “different” and a teacher well known to be “queer” (whether in the ancient, 1970s, or 2020s sense) is going to be assumed to be improper. People with a mandate to protect children, including teachers’ regulators, are supposed to think dirty.
Names are one thing. But adopting a kid’s neo-pronouns and enlisting the class to hide it when parents visit for school concerts or track-and-field days is sinister and a breach of safeguarding. I would think teachers would be glad to be compelled to report these events to parents to protect themselves from parental wrath and accusations of buggery. If the student is deterred by the obligation to disclose from confiding in a teacher, so much the better for the teacher.
Doctors have to put themselves in he-said, s/he-said positions because of the nature of medical consultations. We are trained to take careful notes which we can rely on in legal and regulatory proceedings. Teachers don’t get paid enough to take that risk. Stay in your lane unless they quadruple your salary and cover your malpractice premiums.
I see the account of J.K. Rowling’s threatener has been suspended.
” [..] the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”
-Sun-Tzu
ca. 500 BC
The art of fighting without fighting 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
https://youtu.be/T9enGLMVqnQ?si=V38akuos-4myVm_N
😁
😄
To find this post, I googled “Fighting without fighting – Why Evolution Is True”. The Google AI response was interesting:
I had no idea that the creationists were being fought without being fought. They must be thoroughly confused.
“More than a dozen photos — including one featuring President Trump — were removed without explanation . . . .”
Can anyone really doubt that the Trump administration made an effort to purge (and destroy) anything that would embarrass or incriminate Trump or his acolytes before the Epstein files were released, and that the removal of these additional files was done to correct an oversight in that purging process?
Not me.
Several newspapers here in the UK have been commenting on the Epstein image that contains Andrew Windsor (the royal formerly known as Prince) with Maxwell and a bunch of women at Sandringham House, a private royal residence.
There are calls for him to explain, but his last public ‘explanation’ went so badly I think he will just go deeper into hiding.
Thank you for sharing JKR. She once said that she could wallpaper a room with all the death threats she’s had. She’s an amazing woman.
Thanks to you and Ginger for the incredible evolution film.
But around 26 seconds they show Dickinsonia as a unicellular lifeform around 800 million years ago.
That is either a very recent discovery and has not found its way to the internet yet or it is simply wrong (or a mishap between text and picture). Dickinsonia is one of the Ediacaran lifeforms, so after 650 mya.
I’m no expert expert on evolution, so I wasn’t reading all details, I was just treating it as a general overview, but thanks for pointing that out.
There are lots of people on the thread saying it’s not true because god created everything 🤦♀️😂
Re saying it’s not true because god created everything —
They are correct; their god did create beings who say nonsense, and they reciprocated.
When I view it the Dickinsonia label is nicely synchronized with the Dickinsonia image, both appearing at about 23 sec (after the Choanoflagellate) and disappearing at about 28 sec.
Not squirrels, or white oaks – this is the lineage leading to humans (but annoying that they show only males).
So much national and international news that there’s too much on which to comment, so I will resist.
On the other hand, that animation showing the pathway from prokaryote to people is amazing! (It is, of course, a uniquely curated path that can be misleading.)
Finally, I’m glad that the UW professor was vindicated for refusing to include a stupid land acknowledgment in his syllabus. Actually, he did have a land acknowledgement, but not the right one—or, I should say, the “left” one. Land acknowledgements are just about the dumbest and most disingenuous of the rituals now being promulgated by haters of the west.
Oops, and finally, finally. Yes, the OY cat is obviously Jewish.
Re: Short Story Day. I know that PCC(E) is a huge fan of Joyce’s “The Dead,” but I would like to put in a word or two for my favorite: Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River (both parts).”
Hem has said that what makes it good is leaving out the important part–WW1. This is a terrific story about coming to terms with awful stuff, and as such, a great story to re-read today!
Re: Short story day. I recommend a very funny story, suitable for the season, Anthony Trollope’s Christmas at Thompson Hall.
Re; Asshole in Chief calling those American soldiers killed by the sniper “brave patriots.” This is the same POS who called the Marines who died at Bellau Wood “losers.” There is no one lower or more despicable than our president.
Be fair. Yes iDJT is one in a million, but surely not one in over 6.2 billion adults.
By this account, the oil tanker intercepted by the US Navy is part of the Russian “Shadow Fleet,” which has all the rest of them reversing course and heading back to home port, which will greatly further upset the Russian economy.
Question is, is this intentional, or an unintended consequence?
Depends on whether or not one’s notion of intentional applies to The Leader’s scurry of fighting brain-squirrels.
I would not characterize opioids as “bad drugs”. They are miracle drugs for people suffering severe pain or severe diarrhea (which can be fatal). Fentanyl and morphine are listed as “Essential Medicines” by the U.N. for such reasons. Here in Australia, fentanyl is the standard painkiller administered for post-operative pain; I’ve had it myself in that context several times. I also recall when a hefty dose of codeine allowed me to move normally after an episode of severe back pain, and resuming normal movement is usually the cure for that condition. So when used properly for medical purposes they are miracle drugs not “bad drugs”. The fact that some people abuse these substances does not change that IMO.
My suspicion is that most or all of the folks wanting to ban or massively limit the use of painkillers are people who have never experienced real pain.
I had a serious back problem like you did. I remember waking up in horrible pain, taking my pill, then going downstairs to pace the floor clapping my hands in order to try to displace some of the pain with other sensations.
One advantage I had was that my pain doc was a longtime friend and colleague of my wife, so he believed me and prescribed appropriate levels of pain meds.
I hate that someday I or someone I care for might have to go through real unrelieved pain because some addict somewhere has a problem.
FDA Policy seems to be ‘let a thousand people writhe in pain rather than one junkie get an illicit high’.
I don’t think that’s fair.
First off, let me apologize on behalf of the medical profession to anyone who has had the experience of acute pain or cancer pain being ineffectively treated out of the doctor’s fear of running afoul of the DEA. (It’s they, not the FDA, who directly investigate American doctors in cooperation with their state licensing regulators over questionable opiate prescribing.) I hope these episodes don’t actually exist even if the fear of them is understandable when you see a doctor about new-onset pain while the news on the TV in the ER is talking about the War on Drugs. But opiates do kill people if misused. And illicit fentanyl kills a lot of them.
Medically prescribed opioids that get diverted to the street by crooks masquerading as patients “writhing in pain” to obtain voluminous prescriptions get other people addicted who may then die, not just get high. That’s what the DEA’s job is to worry about, and to make us worry about. All those dead iatrogenic “junkies” started out as people whose lives were every bit as precious as the person having pain, which, I point out, is not a fatal condition.
Even if your statement were not a false dichotomy, which it is, the state would have a legitimate interest in curbing the freedom of doctors to prescribe opioids because they betrayed the public’s trust. They fell uncritically for a medical fad engineered by the Pharmas– opioids for chronic pain not due to cancer — which resulted in doctor-caused deaths. A lot of doctor-caused deaths. Pills are the gateway drug, first by mouth then ground up and snorted or injected. Then for a faster more intense high, injectable fentanyl turned up just in time to catch the addicts being “cut off” their OxyContin when prescribing for chronic pain became stigmatized again (as it always had been in the past. It doesn’t even work.)
There is nothing wrong with medical fentanyl. Its short action by injection makes it possible to reduce pain for brief periods when that is medically appropriate, and to titrate up the dose to individual needs and tolerance. (It’s not so useful for persistent steady pain as in cancer.) Illicit injectable fentanyl is manufactured and distributed outside the legitimate medical supply chain for it. Attacking the illicit supply chain doesn’t make less available for medical use, unlike with poppy-based opioids. Yes, patients are sometimes reluctant to be given fentanyl in hospitals — they think we are proposing thalidomide. But it’s an excellent drug if safely used. It isn’t marketed medically as pills but lethal trace amounts of powder often contaminate street pills.
It is a reasonable expectation that a person with acute pain or cancer pain should be able to be treated effectively and humanely. There is still a professional obligation to keep it off the street, though. The patient in pain might not care about dead people, but we and the drug enforcement agencies in all the countries where we practice do.