Welcome to Thursday, January 15, 2026 and National Bagel Day, celebrating a contribution of Jewish cuisine, such as it is, to world culture. Everybody eats bagels now, save those counting their carbs. Below is one of the few places in the world you can still get them as they should be: small and chewy. The city: Montreal. I believe Steve Pinker, a Canadian who grew up there, used to patronize this place, whose motto is simply, “The best bagels in the world.” The bagels are first boiled in water with a bit of honey, and then baked in a wood-fired oven. I can attest to their quality.
It’s also National Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Day, Wikipedia Day, National Booch Day, celebrating the drink kombucha, and National Strawberry Ice Cream Day.
What’s kombucha? Let’s look on Wikipedia given that it’s Wikipedia Day:
Kombucha (also tea mushroom, tea fungus, or Manchurian mushroom when referring to the culture; Latin name Medusomyces gisevii) is a fermented, effervescent and sweetened black tea drink. Sometimes the beverage is called kombucha tea to distinguish it from the culture of bacteria and yeast. Juice, spices, fruit, or other flavorings are often added. Commercial kombucha contains small amounts of alcohol.
Kombucha is believed to have originated in China, where the drink is traditional. While it is named after the Japanese term for kelp tea in English, the two drinks have no relation.
Here it is, but it looks scary. Has anyone had it?
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 15 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The U.S. is naming a committee of Palestinians to run Gaza, but Hamas still hasn’t laid down its arms. (Article archived here.)
The United States is close to naming a panel of Palestinian technocrats to oversee daily life in the devastated Gaza Strip, where many are desperate to rebuild after two years of war.
A former Palestinian deputy minister for planning, Ali Shaath, has been chosen to lead the committee, according to four officials and six others briefed on the decision. They discussed it on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Several people briefed on the plans say the announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, when Palestinian officials from Hamas and other factions gather in Egypt for talks.
American officials say they hope that establishing the committee will help erode Hamas’s grip on Gaza, which the group seized full control of in 2007.
The cease-fire plan that was backed by President Trump and that went into effect in October called for the committee to be apolitical, engaged largely in providing public services, and that the staff be independent Palestinian experts.
But it is far from clear whether it can succeed.
Officials have so far said little publicly about who will join the committee, how exactly it will administer Gaza and who might finance its operations.
Analysts say that the announcement of its composition might be aimed at injecting some momentum into Mr. Trump’s broader plans for Gaza, which have appeared to hit a roadblock.
While the truce between Israel and Hamas has largely held, the Palestinian militia has not laid down its arms, and U.S. efforts to persuade countries to send peacekeepers to Gaza have found few takers.
Announcing the committee could reflect “a desire to show progress, given that progress on other fronts has been tough,” said Michael Koplow, an analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, a research group based in New York.
“It seems to me that a lot of this is just to show that they’re doing something,” he added.
Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like. And fixing Gaza technically still leave Hamas in de facto control of policing and military action. For you can be sure that the new “technocratic” government won’t be allowed to do anything that Hamas thinks will impede its mission. We are a long way from peace, and even farther from a two-state solution. Hamas has not met the most important terms of the cease-fire agreement: that they disarm and disband. And I don’t see how they will do so unless countries like Qatar apply more pressure to the group.
*As the turmoil escalates in Minnesota, with protestors showing up in droves to harass and jeer ICE agents, (the Free Press has an article about how well organized the protestors are), a number of federal prosecutors in D.C. and Minnesota have quit their jobs rather than investigate the background of Renée Good’s wife. They also quit because the government is impeding investigations by Minnesota authorities, and, further, because an important part of the Department of Justice was also cut out of the investigation.
The Minnesota resignations followed demands by Justice Department leaders to investigate the widow of Renée Good, the 37-year-old woman killed last week by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot into her car, according to two people familiar with the resignations who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for retaliation. Good’s wife was protesting ICE officers in the moments before the shooting. Prosecutors also were dismayed over the decision by federal officials to exclude state and local authorities from the investigation, one of the people said.
Five senior prosecutors in the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also said they are leaving, according to four people familiar with the personnel moves who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
The departures strip both the Civil Rights Division’s criminal section and U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota of their most experienced prosecutors. The moves are widely seen as a major vote of no-confidence by career prosecutors at a moment when the department is under extreme scrutiny.
The criminal section of the Civil Rights Division is the sole office that handles criminal violations of the nation’s civil rights laws. For years, the Justice Department has relied on the section to prosecute major cases of alleged police brutality and hate crimes. The departures followed the administration’s highly unusual decision to not include the Civil Rights Division in the initial investigation of the shooting.
BUT. . .
The Civil Rights Division prosecutors informed their colleagues of their resignations Monday. People familiar with the section, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said the lawyers who are leaving did not attribute their decisions to the Minnesota investigation.
The department has been offering voluntary early retirement packages to certain sections, and some of the departing civil rights prosecutors qualified for that option. Some indicated to their colleagues before the Minnesota shooting that they were considering the retirement packages.
Now the Minnesota affair may indeed have induced these agents to retire early, but they are smart enough to keep their mouths shut about it in this climate of Trump-ian retribution. But it makes no sense not to use every agency that could be involved to participate in the investigation, or to share data. What is there to lose? It looks as if the Administration doesn’t want the law to look to closely to what happened to Renée Good.
*At the Free Press, conservative historian Niall Ferguson discusses what he sees as “The myth of revolution in Iran“, and in fact argues that’s what going on in Iran now is not a revolution but a counterrevolution. The difference? The latter, says Ferguson, usually involves replacing one autocracy with another, as it did in Iran in 1979. Ferguson is deeply sympathetic with the protestors, but thinks they are misguided.
There is a difference between a revolution and a counterrevolution. It is a recurrent mistake of the American media to conflate the two. That is because the success of 1776—the 250th anniversary of which we celebrate this year—predisposes us to sympathize with revolutions. I can think of no better explanation for the naivete of much liberal commentary on subsequent revolutions: France in 1789, Russia in 1917, China in 1949, Cuba in 1959, Nicaragua in 1979, Egypt in 2011 and, most relevant to today, Iran in 1979.
. . .I am sure Sadjadpour and Goldstone are right about the basic reason for the widespread dissatisfaction with the regime. An inflation rate of 50 percent—and 70 percent for food—would make any kind of government unpopular. They are right, too, that ordinary Iranians are disgusted by the corruption and hypocrisy of today’s political elite. (Take a look at the Rich Kids of Tehran on Instagram for some choice examples.) The 1979 revolution, like the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the Maoist revolution in China, began with austere dogma but swiftly descended into graft.
Yet the people in the streets of Iran today do not aspire to build Utopia; they just want the old Iran back—an idealized, nostalgia-tinged version, no doubt, but above all a country of stability, not ideology. Hence the chant: “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon; my life for Iran.” Aside from the failure of its economic policy, nothing has alienated people more than the catastrophic blowback from the regime’s ideologically driven policy of funding terrorist proxies to wage war on Israel.
. . . . Four questions need to be asked by anyone hoping for a counterrevolution to succeed:
- Is there a leadership crisis or vacuum as the original leaders of the revolution die off?
- Does the old regime have a credible candidate to restore?
- Can foreign powers provide assistance without discrediting domestic opposition?
- Can the forces of repression be divided or somehow outgunned?
I am not sure that in Iran today the answer is “yes” to any of those questions.
. . . . In Iran today, you would need a significant portion of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to see better opportunities for profit from a post-Islamic regime than from the status quo. And we do not seem to be there yet.
At some point after Supreme Leader Khamenei dies—as the haggard old murderer eventually must—I expect we shall see Iran take a Bonapartist turn. From the ranks of the IRGC, there will emerge the successor to General Qasem Soleimani, who might have played the Napoleonic role if the United States had not killed him in 2020.
I passionately wish it could be otherwise. The images of the slaughter in Iran—of the corpses in body bags strewn contemptuously on the ground—are agonizing to contemplate. For the people of Iran, I have little doubt, it would be far preferable if the genial Mr. Pahlavi could resume his father’s Peacock Throne with the support of the United States and its allies. If President Trump can do anything at all to impede, if not destroy, the Islamic Republic’s massacre machine, I wish Godspeed to those who receive the orders to strike.
But happy restorations are very rare in history. Repression is so much more common—and so effective—that it rarely makes the front page.
Ferguson cites many examples from history to support his thesis, and who am I to question a historian? But what bothers me is that many of the protestors are calling for the restoration of leadership by Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran. He’s the only credible leader they can think of. Ferguson suggests not only will he not have the support of the Revolutionary Guards, but also that he could also become a dictator if he resumes power. We simply don’t know. All we know is that the present regime in Iran is horribly oppressive and needs to be somehow replaced. One of my friends predicts that the U.S. will attack Iran withing 72 hours.
*Speaking of Iran, Trump is still weighing his options there, which are many. He seems to have decided on a course of action, but some interventions are quite risky (Benny Morris also points this out in Quillette.) From the WaPo first:
President Donald Trump signaled he would assist anti-government protesters in Iran as the White House convened top officials on Tuesday to weigh military options.
The president indicated that the time for negotiations with Tehran had passed, saying in a social media post Tuesday morning that he had “cancelled all meetings” with Iranian officials. But some political allies are warning against the dangers of entanglement in another overseas conflict and the domestic costs of abandoning the “America First” foreign policy Trump campaigned on.
. . .The arguments against a strike include the danger of an accident or failure as the U.S. military and spy services attempt more high-risk operations, as well as the possibility that the fall of the Iranian government could lead to a more militant regime or another failed state in the Middle East, according to former officials and people close to the White House who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive private conversations.
At the same time, the people said, skeptics of a strike are hoping to avoid the open acrimony leading up to the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites in June, which stoked divisions in Trump’s base over the wisdom of intervention in a Middle Eastern conflict and the meaning of his “America First” slogan.
The National Security Council met Tuesday without Trump to prepare options for the president, a person familiar with the meeting said. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials are presenting options to Trump without preference, the person said.
The president has repeatedly threatened that the United States could use military force if the government in Tehran keeps killing demonstrators. Other options could include increased economic pressure on the government, cyberattacks and stepped-up support for the protest movement.
From historian Benny Morris:
Recent reports from Washington indicate that Trump and his advisors are weighing “very strong options,” in Trump’s words, for intervention and now that the death toll among the demonstrators is rising, it is difficult to see how Trump can back down, after his repeated public threats to intervene. Clearly, America is not going to put boots on the ground. And air strikes—using carrier-based aircraft or units operating out of Incirlik, Turkey—against Basij or IRGC bases or Iranian government institutions is not a very attractive course of action, either, since it would require a massive, protracted operation. The US Air Force would need to first clear a path through Iran’s air defences, which have presumably been reconstituted since Israel demolished them last June, in the first days of its twelve-day offensive, before it targeted sites in Tehran and in the interior of the country.
At the moment, it appears, the US has insufficient forces in the Middle East to launch a major aerial offensive against Iran. One readily available alternative might be a massive one-off cruise missile strike, which might make Tehran back down, send the IRGC back to barracks, and begin negotiations with the protesters—though what exactly the government could offer them short of abdicating power is unclear. The government has no money and at this point, the protesters will not be easily bought off anyway.
Nothing here really looks like a feasible intervention by the U.S. that would actually topple the regime. Surely economic pressure, cyberattacks,or “stepped-up support for the protest movement (what kind of support?) don’t look propitious. We’ll have to wait and see, but it looks as if “peacemaker” Trump, longing for his Nobel Prize, will certainly do something.
*And some persiflage from UPI’s “odd news” section: a record for one person keeping a soccer ball in the air: more than 28 hours! (there were breaks every three hours):
A Swedish soccer enthusiast broke a Guinness World Record when he juggled a ball — using only his knees, chest, head and feet — for 28 hours, 21 minutes and 2 seconds.
Daniel Yaakob took on the record for the longest marathon controlling a football (male) at the Rydshallen sports complex in Linköping, Sweden.
Yaakob, who was allowed a 15-minute break every three hours, beat the record set by Briton Dan Magness at 26 hours in June 2010.
Soccer juggling is also sometimes known as kick-ups or keepie-uppies.
“I want to inspire others to push their limits, promote consistency and focus, and show how social media can be used to spotlight positive challenges and achievements,” Yaakob told Guinness World Records. “This record is the perfect combination of my passion for football, content creation and personal growth.”
Here’s their weekly 2-ninute summary of odd news. The Altadena bear was evicted, but seems to have found a home underneath yet another house. And. . . loose monkeys of uncertain origin.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Szaron is getting woke:
Szaron: You’re using your white privilege.
Hili: Spare me that fashionable nonsense.
In Polish:
Szaron: Wykorzystujesz swój przywilej białości.
Hili: Zachowaj te modne bzdury dla siebie.
*******************
From a reader:
From Give Me a Sign:
From Cats Doing Cat Stuff:
From Masih; estimates of the dead in Iran are as high as 12,000, and that could still be low:
Don’t look away, @BarackObama.
In 2009 they chanted: “ Obama, Obama, Either with us or with them.”
How ironic your name in Persian means “He is with us.”
But you chose them, our killers. You chose to deal with them behind closed doors.
Where are you now?#IranRevolution2026 pic.twitter.com/co0KLY5ftO— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 13, 2026
From the Number Ten Cat, who somebody apparently tripped over. Translation from the Polish: “Larry, don’t do this to me anymore! photo: Damian Burzykowski”
Larry, nie rób mi tego więcej! 🥹
fot: Damian Burzykowski pic.twitter.com/FmtDC2P8US
— Mikołaj Bujak (@mikolaj_bk) January 13, 2026
Emma Hilton posted a threadreader in which the Paint the Roses Read podcast breaks down the Supreme Court judges’ stands on trans issues based on Tuesday’s question session.
@mattym000 Guten Tag, please find the unroll here: https://t.co/LMzGFCLCnc Enjoy 🙂 🤖
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) January 14, 2026
From Simon, who says “Best work fast!”
Meanwhile, inside the box, Schrödinger’s cat plans its revenge. pic.twitter.com/I6cGsIA5Bx
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 13, 2026
One from my feed; a cat counts sheep:
Counting the sheep.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/47ZSiCtO40
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) January 14, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
The Polish Jewish woman was yet another victim of Auschwitz. She was in her early thirties. https://t.co/hSJSdYG2uO
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) January 15, 2026
One from Dr. Cobb, as there’s a video. The “decoy spider” is something I talked about in my evolution lecture on mimicry. Have a look at the linked article. And note that one of the spiders has eight fake legs!
Nature can be wickedly cunning.
— John Shirley (@johnshirley2024.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T02:03:11.988Z
From the article:
Researchers believe the “decoy spider” serves a dual purpose. It may mimic a larger predator that birds, lizards, and other enemies would prefer to avoid, while also creating a diversion, drawing an attack away from the smaller, real spider.
A video about the orb-weaving spiders:
In UK news, the political ructions that started in 2016 when David Cameron decided to call a Brexit referendum continue. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has just sacked Robert Jenrick (the man she narrowly beat to the Tory leadership when Rishi Sunak stood down), claiming that he was about to defect, presumably to Farage’s Reform. This potentially could cause a split in the Tory party, with a faction going with him to Reform. Jenrick is the most senior politician who is hardline against mass immigration (Farage is soft-and-cuddly against mass immigration).
Also, the Chief Constable of the West Midlands is in big trouble, with all parties calling on him to resign after he banned Tel Aviv soccer fans from attending a match in Birmingham. He did this after consulting Mosques, who said they didn’t want Jews in the city, and intelligence that Muslims were planing to attack Jewish fans. The Chief Constable then lied, claiming the ban was because Jewish fans were planning to attack Muslim residents, and then lied again saying that information from the Dutch police supported this (the Dutch have said they never said that), and then he lied further, claiming he had consulted Jewish leaders who supported the ban (whereas Jewish leaders deny being consulted).
Also notable is how much of the media, such as the BBC, write reports on this without mentioning the words “Islam” or “Muslim”, when everyone knows that pandering to Muslim sensibilities is what this story is all about.
Oh my goodness, Coel. After reading your comment, I read up on the West Midlands Constable. That guy is a piece of work; he’s the worst kind of liar, one who can’t even keep his lies straight. The article I read was by the BBC and they lied too; by omission. They don’t mention, except in tangent, that the lies were told at the behest of Muslims.
I worry a great deal about the US. We are a seriously wounded society with decreasing hopes of coming out alive at the other end of a violent and insane administration. But the UK (and other parts or Europe) seem doomed to suffer a worse fate at the hands of Islam.
You have to look for it, but the BBC does say that the West Midlands Police is accused of pandering to anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian voices within the Muslim community, and then putting the blame on the Maccabi fans.
Apparently, the West Midlands Chief Constable used Microsoft Copilot to write a report that referred to a previous game between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv that never actually happened.
The police are terrified of the imported Muslims because once a threshold is passed, the numbers of angry Muslims among those imported becomes too high for the police to handle. That is what happened here in Australia the day after the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, when hundreds of angry young Muslim men took over the Sydney Opera House grounds and shouted “where’s the Jews?” as they wanted to attack any Jew that showed up. The police were vastly outnumbered so the only thing they could do was arrest any Jews in the area to prevent them being slaughtered.
Chief Constable Guildford also twice denied to MPs when giving evidence to them that his force had used AI in reaching its decision to ban the Israeli football fans. In fact, AI was used and had hallucinated a football match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv that has never taken place. His position is utterly untenable.
Edited to add: D’oh! I see that Neil had already made this point.
A BIRTHDAY THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. -Martin Luther King Jr., civil-rights leader (15 Jan 1929-1968)
“Always listen to the smartest people.” says me.
Glad you quoted Nial Ferguson, he is absolutely one of the best historians out there, in large part b/c his prediction record is pretty damn good. Recommend his books and interviews. I agree with him here.
On Gaza, let us dismiss this idea that Hamas is some kind of unrepresentative, oppressive force over the poor wee Ewoks of Pawethtine.
Gaza is Hamas, Hamas is Gaza – it is a whole population movement, drunk from infancy with mothers’ milk and embraced as soon as the tyke can go to Jihad camp at about 7. We MUST understand that …other… peoples… value … different … things.
In Gaza – entirely – it is Jihad.
D.A.
NYC/FL
President Trump announced yesterday that the killings in Iran have stopped: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/01/15/Trump-Iran-killings-stopped/1611768465363/. Asserting that the killing has stopped gives him wiggle room. He boxed himself into a corner by saying that if the regime starts killing people, the U.S. would intervene. He doesn’t want to attack there if he doesn’t have to.
I don’t know if they have mainly stopped or not. If they did, its possible the armed guards were persuaded to do so by Trump’s threats.
I do not believe the Orange Toddler. Why would anyone?
Is there independent confirmation that the killings have stopped?
I just read a report that things have quieted down, and also that one execution scheduled for today did not take place.
Kombucha? Drank a glass once. Did not make an impression on me. Can’t even remember what it tasted like. Should give it another try!
Theological degrees are useful! That’s how priests advance their careers. And given the burgeoning Christian population, we need priests. If people find priests useful, and if priests find theological degrees useful to become priests, then theological degrees are useful to the people.
Google’s AI adds that theological degrees are also useful for “developing transferable skills like critical thinking, ethics, and communication, opening doors to careers in law, healthcare, business, social work, and non-profits, by providing deep understanding of human values, history, and complex systems. They equip individuals for roles requiring moral reasoning and cultural awareness, benefiting diverse sectors beyond faith-based work, while also fostering personal growth and a richer spiritual life”.
Did not read the above in detail, but some of it is surely true 🙂
Japanese speaker here. For goodness’ sake: I never realized it was Japanese, there’s never any Japanese script on the bottles. “kombu” (a type of seaweed) and “cha” (tea). I thought it was just a made up name for a hippy, woo, crunchy, stupid fad.
Which it is, I think, given its promoters.
I’ll have to effin’ taste it now after this scandal. 🙂
I shall report back.
The fact that serious universities have schools of divinity at all has always boggled my mind. I mean.. they have LITERATURE departments, shouldn’t that cover it?
D.A.
NYC/FL
So kombucha tea is tea tea? Much like how ‘chai’ is Hindi for tea — so I drink tea tea every couple days.
Seaweed tea. Yum?
I love miso soup, which is flavored with seaweed. Yum!
🙂
Yes. I think literature, history, and even religious studies departments like the one at UNC would do. And I guess that’s how it works for state schools. And the constitution should guarantee that it remains so until SCOTUS changes its mind, or the people change the constitution, or Jesus returns. Whichever comes first.
Regarding private universities: even then, a friend of mine told me that divinity schools in the big universities were full of scholars, not the bible-bashing type.
That info about prosecutors seems to be partially incorrect. The DOJ folks actually submitted their resignations the day before the Good fracas about an unrelated matter: https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2026/01/13/shipwrecked-has-the-real-story-behind-civil-rights-resignations-n2423892.
In other news the officer who shot Good had to go to the hospital with “intermal bleeding” afterwards.
“Internal bleeding”. We’re supposed to believe that, right?
While I love skewering DrBrydon when he toes the MAGA line, I can certainly see how being hit by a car can cause internal bleeding. Could be small bleeds that just required rest – that doesn’t matter.
I don’t see any reasoning from you, that would make me doubt the medical report. Our host reported on that.
Finally, if you believe that Ross drew his gun and put three on a moving target within 2 seconds while being hit by a car…
Nevertheless, I don’t see how anyone can take what they say at face value. Not from this administration. I simply do not believe them. Nor the anti-ICE activists, for that matter. Nor the news media, as they are parrots of the two sides. At this point, this killing is all a game. It’s not about finding the truth or seeking justice. It is neither of those, it’s all about politics now. And that means there will be more bloodshed and stupidity. Maybe lots more.
Last summer a car T-boned me in a low-speed parking lot miscue and knocked me off my bicycle to the pavement. I rolled out of the way on my shoulder after shouting and the driver immediately hit the brakes. I’m sure she didn’t see me and perhaps we were both just careless although she as the motor vehicle driver had the greater (perhaps sole) onus. But I wasn’t injured, no bruising or soreness anywhere, then or later and to my great gratified surprise my beloved classic Italian racing bike was fine, not a scratch or a sprung spoke. (Steel is real. Ingratiating myself here with a frequent commenter who loves them too.*)
She stopped, contrite and concerned. I didn’t call the police, no harm no foul, no desire to shake her down for a few million bucks for pain and suffering. (Kidding: we don’t get damages for pain and suffering in Canada.) I also felt a bit foolish myself as I was taking a short cut through the parking lot. As a cyclist, I live under the secret motorcycle rule that if we get hit, it’s always our fault even when it’s not. So I just told her that we were both really lucky and to go in peace.
Anyway, I cite my trivial car impact — the only time a car has ever hit me — as evidence that if a guy much bigger and younger than me wearing tactical gear got hit hard enough to bruise, (even if that’s all his internal bleeding was), he got a good whack.
(*It’s a Pinarello Montello if you must know. I have a Tomassini, too. As we know, Italian steel…)
Thank goodness you were okay, Leslie. Bicyclists and cars don’t mix well. Maybe your city is better designed than the one I live in where far too many bicyclists have lost their lives that way.
It’s obvious that we don’t believe what “the other (political) side” says. That’s the bottom line. We don’t believe what we hear unless it comports with our politics. And with AI in the mix, I don’t even think we can trust our own eyes. I haven’t seen a video that clearly shows how the agent could have been so badly bruised as to sustain internal bleeding. At this point, if such a video were to surface, I’d be inclined to consider it a fake. I hate that I feel this way.
Again, I’m glad you weren’t hurt in that accident. I love bike riding. My city has become far too dangerous to ride around town in. Once upon a time I commuted to and from work on a beautiful Raleigh. Now the drunks even hit and kill bicyclists riding in our National Monuments.
Near miss there Leslie, be careful!
In Manhattan bikes ARE the problem. Despite lots of dedicated bike lanes. Several times “Aussie” and I have been nearly hit by speeding bikes, on the sidewalk, running lights or going up our (mainly one way) streets the WRONG WAY.
I have no data but get a feeling that a flood of new immigrants in the last 3 years has lowered bike riding standards which were already pretty bad. It is like the road rules (NYC or Venezuelan) don’t apply. (nearly all delivery bikers are new arrivals).
D.A.
NYC/FL
Too indented to reply to either of you, @Debi and @David. Thanks so much for your kind wishes.
1) Bikes and cars mix OK as long as both predictably obey the traffic laws: stop signs, one-way streets, headlights (not just reflectors) at night, and stay off the sidewalks. There is no need to have a city “designed” for cyclists, except some thought to long bridges. The reality is that cyclists will always be a tiny minority of road users. We can’t expect too much indulgence. Urban cyclists annoy motorists with anarchical behaviour especially if it seems motivated by entitled holier-than-thou activism — you recognize the type at a glance — which kindles road rage. YMMV here, I acknowledge, if your city is full of sociopaths. And much urban cyclist behaviour is abysmal.
2) Bike lanes in cities are motivated chiefly by anti-car enviro-activism, not by cyclist safety, and have been for many decades. The more recent physically barricaded versions rub motorists’ noses in it when there are no cyclists using them for months on end in winter, and make it impossible for motorists to ease by a car waiting to turn left. (That’s a feature, not a bug, for the activists.) They encourage or require the cyclist to pass to the right of a car that’s trying to turn right, which the motorist needs eyes in the back of his head to do safely. It’s a death trap — the “Right Hook” — for cyclists if the two get it wrong.
3) Drunk drivers are a bane. My sense is that after decades of falling statistics, we now have an immigrant demographic that brought bad habits from home. I would cheerfully deport a Green Card holder/permanent resident for a single DUI. Depending on the facts, you can (albeit not commonly) get a six-month jail sentence in Canada for a first offence, which triggers mandatory deportation here. A lot more for a repeat offence. Drunk drivers are worse than gang-bangers. The former are a risk to me, the latter aren’t because I can avoid where they hang out.
Right now in Iran the uprising has drawn to a halt, as there are enough IRGC loyalists to station two soldiers with rifles on street corners, who will happily shoot anyone who looks suspicious. They mowed down 25 kids in a park the other day.
That’s it. Two guys with rifles.
That. Is. Disgusting.
Somehow, the most dangerous regime in the world remains in power because the people don’t have any small arms. How is this possible?
Words can not describe my disappointment and anger at the cowardice of the free world, my fury at the governmental leaders who have allowed this to happen, my rage at all those who counseled caution or inaction. Gutless, craven cowards all.
What should have been done? Have the CIA attempt to stage a coup? Should the US have sold weapons to Iranian contras? Parachute in crates of AKs?
Would you have agreed with such measures? Were you in favor of the Obama nuclear deal or did you ptefer Trump’s maximum pressure?
The Mullahs made VERY sure, that the guns were under their thumb. That’s part of why Iran is dying. They prioritize loyalty and ideology over the wellbeing of their people.
Here’s a. wild idea: The Shahovich is pretty clearly an empty suit burdened by a generally-despised legacy, but he has name recognition. How about the US making an official public apology for the CIA’s 1953 anti-democratic coup and promising some credible reparations for when democracy returns. And the Shahovich getting some PR training and then (somehow) convincingly apologising on behalf of his family, and thereby gaining some credibility as a wannabe constitutional monarch. AIUI, Mossadegh is a plausible unifying symbol among the dispersed democratic opposition, so just maybe an “undo the coup” approach would find favour.
“American officials say they hope that establishing the committee will help erode Hamas’s grip on Gaza…”
Yep, a committee will convince Hamas to lay down their guns.🤦🤦🤦
Monty Python couldn’t make this up.
Indeed, even they couldn’t.
“Reality is stranger than fiction; in fiction you have to make things plausible, in reality they happen.” (attributed to Byron).
Re: SCOTUS case to allow boys in girls’ sports. Odd, isn’t it, that it’s not the other way around? Hmmm.
One of the most hilarious moments was the ACLU’s lawyer saying that he wouldn’t define sex, but preferred to use certain characteristics as examples of what should not be discriminated against, such as a person with “limp wrists.” Yes, he actually said “limp wrists.”
https://x.com/treesey/status/2011168536098680989
So a hockey coach has to give ice time to a guy who can’t shoot a backhand owing to limp wrists? That would change the game quite a bit. Tennis too.
Perhaps Canada can also have a nice-hockey team, the Maple Sugars.
Best comment of the week.
If the guy was assigned female at birth, hell yes! Coaches in men’s sports have been discriminating against trans men for far too long, hung up as they are on social constructs like “athletic skill” and “winning”. What about inclusion!? What about the trans boy’s human right to participate in sports!?
s/
My wife sent this to me from Ask Haviv Anything about why it’s so difficult to deal with Iran and what might work….and what won’t. (Spoiler alert: a foreign war won’t help.)
Yes — very late to this party!
I love kombucha. I find it very refreshing. It has just enough effervescence to not be gassy like soda. Some brands are better than others, however. Try to find one with no added sugar.
Re: National Bagel Day. I highly recommend the short book The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread by Maria Balinska. The book also contains a lot of Polish and Jewish history as well, plus other cultures who have breads similar to the bagel.