Welcome to another damn week: Monday, March 16, 2026, and National Panda Day, celebrating what is arguably the world’s cutest animal. If they didn’t exist, you couldn’t imagine them. Enjoy these six minutes of adorable herbivorous bears, They seem too clumsy to survive!
It’s also Curlew Day (so named because “it is on today’s date [or around today’s date] when long-billed curlews arrive at the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon to begin courting and nesting)”, National Artichoke Heart Day, and St. Urho’s Day, a confected holiday:
The day was created by Richard Mattson, a worker at Ketola’s Department Store in Virginia, Minnesota, in the spring of 1956. The name “Urho” was possibly used because Urho Kekkonen had just become President of Finland the same year. The legend originally said that St. Urho expelled frogs from ancient Finland, in order to save the grape crops, and thus the jobs of vineyard workers. Later the legend was changed—possibly by Sulo Havumaki, a psychology professor of Bemidji, Minnesota— to say that Urho had expelled grasshoppers, not frogs.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 16 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*War news, including a bunch of Israeli strikes on Iran and more kerfuffle about the Strait of Hormuz, with Trump threatening to bomb the oil facilities on Karg Island,
Fears about the global economic fallout from the war in Iran grew on Sunday as the U.S. energy secretary acknowledged in a televised interview that there were “no guarantees” that oil prices would fall in the coming weeks. A day after President Trump called on other countries to send warships to the region to end the de facto Iranian blockade of the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, foreign governments responded with caution — if at all.
Israel launched a new wave of airstrikes on Iran, while Iranian forces said they were firing at U.S. and Israeli targets as the war continued in its third week, with no end to the fighting in sight.
The energy secretary, Chris Wright, told ABC’s “This Week” that he believed the conflict would end in the “next few weeks,” while Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told CBS News that the country had not sought to negotiate with the United States and was “ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes.”
Mr. Araghchi said on Telegram that the strait — through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes — “is open to everyone, except American ships and those of its allies.” In practice, however, the oil shipped through the passage comes from either Iran or American allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
. . . . Iran faced another wave of strikes on Sunday that the Israeli military said had hit bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Basij militia in the western part of the country. Israel has conducted more than 7,000 attacks on the country since the war began, military officials said.
The Revolutionary Guards force said it was continuing to target Israel and U.S. assets in the region. Iranian missiles repeatedly set off air raid sirens in Israel andSaudi Arabia said it had intercepted drones near the capital and in an eastern province, without saying where they came from.
This is going to last a while, and I can’t see the value of a ceasefire now, but of course with a very careful attention to not striking civilians. It’s impossible to ensure that none are killed or hurt, but striking the girls school was apparently based on outdated information, which should be checked before each strike.
*Apropos, the WSJ tells us what it would actually take to secure the Strait of Hormuz (article archived here):
President Trump has vowed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital artery for the world’s energy supply that has been closed off by Iran. It won’t be easy.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly pledged that naval vessels will escort oil tankers and other ships through the strait. On Thursday, Trump said escort operations would begin “very soon.” In a pair of social-media posts Saturday, the president called on other nations to help.
The U.S. is holding off on sending warships into the narrow strait—just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point—with Navy officers saying Iranian drones and antiship missiles could turn the area into a “kill box” for American sailors.
One option to clear the way for escorts would be a more-intense use of air power to hunt and destroy Iranian missiles and drones before they could be fired at ships in the strait. Another would be to use ground troops to seize the territory around the waterway.
The administration has said it is keeping all options on the table, including the use of ground troops. On Friday, Trump ordered a Marine expeditionary unit, which typically has warships with thousands of sailors, attack jets and 2,200 Marines, to the Middle East.
In an escort operation, U.S. warships, maybe in conjunction with allied navies, would travel through the strait alongside oil tankers to clear mines and fend off Iranian attacks from the air as well as from Iran’s “mosquito fleet” of small, fast-attack boats.
Experts estimate it could take two ships per tanker, or a dozen ships to guard convoys of five to 10 tankers, to have the necessary air defenses. The short distances involved make shooting down missiles and drones much more difficult.
Despite weeks of American and Israeli attacks that have decimated Iran’s navy and military capabilities, its commanders are still demonstrating the ability to attack.
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a veteran naval officer, estimates that, alongside warships, it would require at least a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones patrolling the skies and striking Iranian missile and drone launchers when they pop up on the coast.
The article weighs other options, including sending in troops to guard the Strait, but those have obvious downsides. I am curious how, if Iran lays mines in the Strait (it probably already has), how US naval vessels can find and disarm (or avoid) all the mines. There are underwater mines these days, as well as submarine drones. Do any readers know how the “escort” ships would clear mines?
*The New York Times has an article by Kyle Buchanan, a reporter who covers Oscars, predicting who will win in the Big Four categories. By the time you read this, the Oscars will have been awarded, but you can at least see how accurate Buchanan is (the article is archived here). This morning I’m adding the winners;
Do you really want to know? Kyle Buchanan, a reporter who covers the awards season beat for The Times, makes predictions every year, and he’s really good at it. Last year, he nailed seven of the eight big awards. His picks for this year are here; given his track record, consider it a possible spoiler alert.
Best picture
Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” has taken the top prize at nearly every show this season, including the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and the directors and producers guild ceremonies. The latter group is an especially strong predictor of best-picture success, since the Producers Guild uses the same preferential ballot as the Oscars and shares significant member overlap with the academy.
Still, you can’t rule out a late surge from “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s vampire drama. It has earned fresh momentum since breaking the record for the most Oscar nominations, and it performed strongly at the Actor Awards, winning the ensemble prize and best actor for Michael B. Jordan. The energy was so electric that it recalled the night “Parasite” won the same ensemble award on its way to toppling the Producers Guild winner “1917” at the Oscars.
But those upsets tend to occur when the season-long front-runner is respected rather than loved. I don’t think that’s the case with “One Battle After Another”: Many voters adore this movie and that should be enough to safeguard its big win.
WINNER: “One Battle after Another”
Call me misguided, but I didn’t like “One Battle After Another”. The premise was good, but, like many movies these days, it turned into a series of long chase scenes.
Best director
If you’re voting for “One Battle” in picture, you’re definitely voting for Anderson in director. What has surprised me is that a sizable chunk of “Sinners” voters I spoke to are opting for Anderson in the directing category, too. Maybe it’s just his moment.
WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle after Another”
Best actor
At the beginning of the season, I speculated that this Oscar was Chalamet’s to lose. Has he? The 30-year-old was recently defeated at the BAFTAs and the Actor Awards, revealing some resistance from industry voters. Still, I wonder if the academy’s longtime bias against handsome young A-listers in this category will also hinder the 39-year-old Jordan, who won with the friendlier Screen Actors Guild. If voters would rather reward a veteran, there are almost too many options: Do they choose DiCaprio, who led the likely best-picture winner? What about Hawke or Moura, who are well-liked and seemingly everywhere? Any of these five men can win, though I’m betting on Jordan, who is peaking at the right time.
WINNER: Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners”
I haven’t seen “Marty Supreme”. Jordan was good in “Sinners”, a movie I liked–at least the first half–but I make no predictions.
Best actress:
With so many acting races giving me agita, thank goodness for Buckley [in “Hamnet], who has thoroughly swept this season. (Not even a late-arriving bomb in “The Bride!” could slow her momentum.)
WINNER: Jessie Buckley “Hamnet”. I TOLD YOU SHE’D WIN! Go see the movie.
I did see “Hamnet” and thought Buckley’s performance was fantastic, fabulous, out of the park. I can’t imagine she won’t win.
As for supporting roles, Buchanan’s prediction for Best Supporting Actress is Amy Madigan in “Weapons”, and for Best Supporting Actor is Sean Penn ib “One Battle After Another.” There are predictions for many other categories, too, but you can see them at the links. WINNERS: Amy Madigan in “Weapons” and Sean Penn in “One Battle after Another”
Buchanan got these all correct! This morning you can see NYT op-ed writers discuss the winners and losers (article archived here). They were not keen on “One Battle After Another” compared to “Sinners’, nor were they as enthusiastic as I about Jessie Buckley’s performance in “Hamnet.”
*Being a geezer, I had to click on the WaPo article “Dying is costly: here’s how you can prepare.” (Article is archived here.) Even if you’re not concerned, click on the unarchived page (if you subscribe) to see the animation (!) that accompanies. it.
The average cost of dying in America is $195,501. Here’s the breakdown:
Elderly care:
Elderly care takes many forms. The costliest is paid long-term care: living at a nursing home or hiring a caretaker at your residencewhen family members need help. Medicare generally does not cover long-term care. Though Medicaid covers nursing home costs for most people, whether you qualify depends on your location and income level.
According to federal data, about 7 in 10 Americans over 65 today will need long-term care, and most of them will need it for about three years.
Funeral costs:
The cost of dying compounds when including expenses for a funeral, a cemetery plot and legal matters. When death occurs, emotional stress can make decisions difficult, and people could spend more than necessary. An industry survey of more than 1,000 respondents in 2024 put the total costs at about $12,616. Almost half of the money went to funeral planning.
That matches data from Funeralocity, an online platform for comparing funeral prices. The platform estimates that the average price of a burial is about $8,590, and cremation is about $6,250 around the country as of March. More than 6 in 10 Americans choose cremation today. When taking that breakdown between cremation and burial into account, Americans can expect to need about $7,726 for funeral costs on average.
But crikey: why does it cost $6,250 to incerate somebody? Should I donate my body to science?
When a death occurs, some parts of the estate may be taxed. Most Americans don’t reach the threshold for estate taxes. A smaller share of the population, however, might want to choose carefully where they retire to maximize tax benefits.
There are two types of death taxes: estate taxes and inheritance taxes. There’s no federal inheritance tax, and the taxable threshold for federal estate taxes starts at $15 million per individual in 2026 — a concern for less than 1 percent of the U.S. population. However, a bigger share of Americans would be taxed on the state level.
Twelve states and D.C. charge an estate tax. State estate taxes start to kick in if the estate is larger than $1 million in Oregon — the lowest among all states — or larger than $13.99 million in Connecticut, the highest.
Five states charge an inheritance tax, though certain family members, such as the surviving spouse, are exempt.The state where the death occurred collects the money regardless of where the heir lives.
If you’re old, make sure you’ve got the dosh!
*From the UPI’s Odd News; the screenshot from FB tells the tale, but the article doesn’t say what happened to the badger except that it was “removed.” I hope they didn’t euthanize it unless it was very ill. Badgers are underappreciated.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili apparently read my Quillette article!!
Hili: Beauty uncovers the truth about our tendency to be filled with awe.
Andrzej: I see that you read Jerry’s article.
In Polish:
Hili: Piękno odkrywa prawdę o naszej skłonności do zachwytu.
Ja: Widzę, że czytałaś artykuł Jerrego.
*******************
From Stacy:
From Dad Jokes, a sign warning you DO NOT SEASON THE PIGEONS:
From Now That’s Wild:
From Masih, two brave Iranian women (I’m not sure about the Mamdami tweet since it may be calling for violation of freedom of speech):
I invite you anti-war activists in the West and I also invite the international media to speak with these Iranian women the regime shot in the eyes for protesting.
Look into our eyes. We carry the wounds of a war the Islamic Republic imposed on us.
We have a message for young… https://t.co/pw1w9AHVdb pic.twitter.com/7O6em5nyCR
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 15, 2026
Via Luana. I disagree with the “mass deportation” call, but it’s horrible that people in America are supporting terrorist organizations so openly (note also the call, “USA, go to hell” and “close the Strait, burn the bases.” The whole thing is horrific. And yes, they want to either destroy or take over the West:
NYC: “We Support Hezbollah here, we support Hamas here”
WE NEED MASS DEPORTATIONS pic.twitter.com/87QPKtz4i9
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 15, 2026
Hypocrisy in the UK. Give them the damn visas!
What is the point of saying we “stand with the women of Afghanistan” while banning them from getting study visa’s to the UK?
Even students who won the @CheveningFCDO, one of the most competitive scholarships in the world. And now @ShabanaMahmood says no, all cancelled. https://t.co/dKK8FJYaNQ
— Shabnam Nasimi (@NasimiShabnam) March 11, 2026
From Cate. At first I thought this was an AI-generated cat, but it might be real (it’s a Silver Savannah cat):
Silver F1 Savannah cat, which is a hybrid breed between a domestic cat and a serval pic.twitter.com/83cOFXnKRg
— Gabriele Corno (@Gabriele_Corno) March 15, 2026
One from my feed. How does she do that? Translation from the German: “Belly dance by Valeria Veremeenko. Turn the sound on. She’s fantastic!” (More belly dances here.)
Bauchtanz von
Valeria Veremeenko
Unbedingt Ton an.
Sie ist großartig!
😍 pic.twitter.com/5FjpI0xDT4— Bohemian Cloud (@HennaCloud) March 15, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Dutch Jewish girl was moved to Auschwitz in 1944 and died there. She was thirteen years old. https://t.co/7M0GdoNhgL
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) March 16, 2026
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, a salacious one he tweeted (and retweeted):
Deeply buried massive statue of Batman with an erection.
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-03-15T08:05:22.633Z
Did this dg place a bet? Matthew’s comment, “Dg but a hoot”. Indeed!
🪄🤣 Spreading JOY 🪄🤭🤣This laugh worth the wait 🤣
— 💙 Keep Rising 💙 (@keeprising.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T10:34:44.235Z
It’s an oversimplification, but imagine your neighborhood throws a block party and invites everyone, even the bully from across the pool. He comes and insults all the men, calling them wimps, saying they don’t do enough for the neighborhood, and he makes a move on his next door neighbor and then he threatens to “take” another woman, and finally he goes home. Next week, he gets into a fight in another barrio and what does he do? He asks, no, demands you all come back him up!
What with Secretary of Lethality Hegseth’s refulgent bloviation about taking the fight to the enemy and it all going so swimmingly well, why would Trump ever need to request (demand) anything of NATO members?
I reasonably gather that if Trump and the noble Capitol Hill Republicans can’t be bothered to have a congressional debate/ consultation in accordance with the War Powers Act (not to mention the constitutionally-mandated power of Congress to declare war, not done since 12/8/1941), he certainly can’t be troubled to consult NATO allies prior to initiating this – what? – “war”? What’s the proper noun name? (I remember from the late 60’s it was the Vietnam “Conflict.”)
I wonder if the War Powers Act and the constitutionally-mandated Congressional power to declare war are currently a “teachable moment” topic of discussion in high school American Government classes across the fruited plain. I hope that high school juniors and seniors contemplating joining the military are paying attention. Ought those who decline to further pursue military service on account of this U.S.-initiated action anticipate being similarly castigated by Trump? Just as he labeled McCain a “loser” for being shot down over Vietnam, will Trump similarly bless us with his pearls of wisdom about the pilots of those three F-15 Eagles shot down by “friendly fire”?
Yes, but does his owner place bets for him?
The reasons for not doing so is that once on British soil they would claim asylum (and the courts would never agree to them being required to return), and hence Britain would have yet-more third-world migrants from dysfunctional countries (on top of the multiple millions that we already have).
The evidence is that such migrants cost Britain hundreds of thousands of pounds each. They have much lower rates of being employed, much higher rates of living on benefits, much higher crime rates, and they are steeped in the worst versions of the world’s worst religion. In such versions of Islam, women are not even supposed to be economically active, and so often aren’t.
All this is made worse by the fact that, since there are now so many Muslims in the UK, we are no longer allowed to criticise Islam, because it upsets them.
Capable Afghanistani women studying in the UK and then going home would be a very good thing. But simply relocating them to the UK permanently is a bad way to trying to improve Afghanistan.
Hi Coel!
If you can’t deport people you do not have borders that work. No expert but from what I’ve gathered actually kicking people out of the UK (and Germany was/is? even worse) is next to impossible.
I’ve changed my opinion on the various int’l courts Euros/UK are members of. like the ECJ.
These international bodies —were— established to give justice to victims of gvt oppression in countries (3rd world mainly) where there are no such protections.
In the last few decades they have been mission-creep-ed to be turned on countries that DO have rule of law. Sort of why we in the US are leery of signing on to them.
D.A.
NYC
Thank you for the article of cost of death. In addition to the dollars there is the psychological cost to the surviving family. Years ago, I thought it pretty straight-forward that I would donate my body to our state medical school, particularly given the shortage of cadavers at that time. But it turned out that the paperwork and bureaucracy for donations, though well-established was long and complex. When they are finished with you as a cadaver, your remains were cremated and returned to a designated family member for final disposal. Then I found out that my (adult) children were very upset to think about me being cremated. So I shall be buried.
When a first cousin died a few years ago, I watched the additional angst his family suffered as they had to make quick decisions on burial options, buy a burial plot, develop an obituary…all the more hurried because he was Jewish which calls for a quick burial. So, I have pre-planned everything myself: bought a plot in the same Hebrew Cemetery where my parents are buried (which through an administrative error was recently sold to somebody else, but replaced with another plot), filled out a contract, defining particulars with a local funeral home (I think it was around 10k so the 8k number is a reasonable ballpark), wrote a nice obituary about myself for my family to use as a draft upon “the event”, and laid out a simple non-religious service that would respect my atheism, but also leave my Jewish extended family comfortable with a Kaddish recitation.
I still think cadaver donation is the best way to go, but recently I read that med schools are going AI..a big mistake I think given the difference between sims and the real world…with an article in STATnews last year at
https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/31/medical-school-cadaver-lab-body-donation-technology-substitute/
In any case, these were my actions for better or worse…I surely will not know which.
Thank you for that run down of your personal travails in this topic Jim. I thought donation was the easy option. Being such an atheist when my time comes I’m happy to have my ashes – or even pieces – flushed into the NY sewer system in the same way we dispose of hair or nail clippings. (I refrained from these instructions writing my will, however), –goodness, the cheaper and easier the better.
Hope it’ll be a LOOONG time before we have to say “To the solar system with ol’ Jim!”
best,
D.A.
NYC
Speaking of cheaper, David, it all seems to be a pretty clear racket. Just out of curiosity I did some comparison shopping and was dumbstruck at first when I found out from the saleslady at a large local (for profit commercial) cemetery, that the price for a post office box in their columbarium (a wall of cubbyholes where they keep boxes or urns of ashes) is the same as that of a dirt lot on their grounds….luckily I am cynical enough that that just made me smile.
It seems nothing has changed since Jessica Mitford published her exposé, The American Way of Death, in 1963. I had a friend who, up until a few years ago, ran a funeral consumer’s rights NFPO, and he was adamant that the funeral industry is indeed a huge racket.
Personally, I am an organ donor, and carry my cad in my wallet. Though at my age, and given my health, it is hard to imagine someone being so desperate as to need my organs.
Like needing a certain auto part, and getting it from a junked 1956 vintage Packard. Except I am more like a Chevy.
My mother died less than twenty four hours ago. My sister is taking care of all the arrangements, My mother bought an insurance policy for the funeral home many years ago. My father died in 2008, and cemetery plots were purchased years before that. I have no idea what the costs are going to be, but I am assuming there will be little to no out of pocket costs.
I am leaving my body to The Baylor College of Medicine. I have never been married, and I have no children, so no one will be upset if I don’t have a traditional funeral and burial.
A woman from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston told me I should leave my body with them instead. She told me that after I am cremated, my ashes will be spread in the Gulf of Mexico. I told he that Baylor is less than three miles from my house, so it is more conveniently located, and once I am dead, I really don’t care what happens to my ashes.
Sorry about your mother, XCellKen. Having a parent die, no matter how old one is, can be difficult. But I do agree about the ashes.
Thank you. She was 89, and had lived in an old folks home for over five years. She was not very happy there. She is at peace now
I am sorry for your loss. The industry is indeed a racket. The salespeople take advantage of people at their most fragile emotional point, and often a state of physical exhaustion. They want to make the bereaved believe that wasting a bunch of money is the best way to honor the dead. Conversely, not spending thousands on useless frivolities is disrespectful to the departed.
The estimated price of cremation is terribly inflated because of useless add-ons. I have a lot of recent experience with this issue.
Among the things I have been pushed to pay for is embalming prior to cremation, and even a wooden coffin for the process.
A straight cremation with the remains delivered in a plastic box, and 20 copies of the death certificate should cost between $2500 and $3000 USD.
My local med school made body donation very simple. I’ve a card in my wallet, my family all know about it, and I will finally be able to make a useful contribution to science! All at no cost to my family.
The fact that traditional U.S. allies—particularly NATO allies—have either refused to help the U.S in the Strait of Hormuz, or have not yet responded, or are asking for clarification, may be a bad sign. Trump has treated some of the leaders of these countries very badly, calling Kier Starmer “no Winston Churchill” for example. Would you leap up to help the U.S. when the president insists on humiliating you? Now, rather than trying to solicit help using sugar—tariff relief, for instance—Trump has said to the NATO allies that he “will remember” their lukewarm responses. Again, he’s trying to bully the countries into helping. Is this really a good way to do business? Will the U.S. be forced to defend the Strait of Hormuz on its own? Now is the time when it pays to have allies, but has Trump’s go-it-alone approach left us … alone?
More here: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/us-allies-respond-trump-strait-of-hormuz-demands-nato-iran-war-rcna263650
It was the American navy under Trump that suppressed the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea even though little of our maritime trade, as a percentage, transits Suez. The U.S. Navy’s opening of that waterway benefitted Europe and Canada far more than U.S., economically. The European navies, collectively, together with the Canadian navy, such as it is, did little to accomplish this, but their nations benefitted enormously.
Similarly, the U.S. is largely self-sufficient in oil and gas; most of the trade transiting the Persian Gulf is headed to Asia and, for LNG, Europe. One might think that the nations being impacted would, out of their own self interest, do what they could militarily to keep the Strait open. But no. It may be that they lack the naval capacity, it may be that they cynically expect the U.S. to expend the blood and treasure to do the job and spare them the trouble. Rather ignoble. But I am skeptical that they are sitting it out because Trump said mean things about them.
I hope that our allies will help if they can, despite Trump’s comments.
Trump didn’t or did say mean things, he simply ignored the EU, UK, went to war and wonders why the above have their own agenda when it comes to a war they didn’t start and not given a courtesy phone call… until a tweet comes out trying to bully them into action. I hope the EU, UK don’t respond until they are good and ready. After all your bully boy sides with Putin the very threat to the Nato countries, what do you expect.
But sometimes they give silly reasons. The Dutch prime minister said it was to dangerous for a mission in the Strait of Hormuz.
proper guns, Sir!
(only the bit with Eric Idle)
Canada won’t lift a finger. The Prime Minister has said as much.
Our Navy has 12 frigates of 4700 tons displacement, over three times that of the IRIS Dena sunk by a US submarine. I don’t know how many of these could be manned and deployed to a distant theatre, probably not more than one or two. Not to deploy any would send a loud and clear signal to the United States, especially since it is the only meaningful contribution we could make in this conflict.
The large refinery on our Atlantic coast, which refines Saudi crude mostly for export to the northeastern United States, can be supplied through the Red Sea and Suez (for now at least). But if the rest of the world’s customers also want to get their Saudi crude by that route, it will bid up the price in North America as well — it already has, of course. However, Canada’s Prime Minister wants to see higher retail gasoline prices, because climate change. The price escalation would not by itself constitute a reason in his view to assist the U.S., rather to make you the scapegoat.
Why will Canada do nothing?
1) Our government is (foolishly) trying to “pivot” to China, which already has its teeth embedded in our country, and away from the United States. Thumping China’s ally Iran or choking its supply of oil at the behest of the U.S. would send the wrong message to Xi and to the Liberal Party’s pro-China business lobby.
2) The large Muslim minority who are the margin of victory in many (sub)urban ridings the Liberal Party counts on to win elections is of course dead set against helping the Great Satan and its Jewish puppet-masters. “Muslim values are Canadian values,” the PM has uttered with great gravity. We’re going to find out.
3) The attitude among nearly all old-stock Canadians over 50 is that of course we would like to see the Strait re-open to navigation, but on Iran’s terms. Canadians don’t just want President Trump to give up and sail home with his tail between his legs. They want to see the humiliation of several thousand U.S. sailors and Marines burned and drowned when a large ship is hit and sunk, as our (and your) pundits are gleefully confident the Iranians can do. Us? Nice? Nah.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r17plnvy3o
But one of the problems Donald Trump is wrestling with is that minesweeping, once a core function of almost all navies, has long since ceased to be a top priority.
…
Gen Carter said the last time western nations carried out a major de-mining operation at sea was in 1991, after Iraq mined the waters off Kuwait to prevent an amphibious landing in the first Gulf War.
“It took us fifty-one days to clear the mines”, he told the BBC.
“No navy has invested in this at the scale that they should have done, least of all the Americans,” he added.
The US navy’s own Avenger-class specialised minesweepers, built with wooden hulls to avoid triggering magnetic naval mines, are all being withdrawn from service, replaced by Independence-class littoral combat ships which also use a variety of unmanned systems.
But it’s not just about minesweeping. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is also capable of using armed fast boats, naval “suicide” drones and shore-based missiles to disrupt shipping.
Recent pictures, released by Iran’s Fars News Agency, appeared to show large numbers of boats and drones being stored in underground tunnels, suggesting that Tehran has long been preparing for just such a moment.
Iran cannot mine the Strait as long as it is shipping its own oil to China through the passage. Iran can target and attack whichever tankers it chooses with missiles,drones, or kamikaze speedboats, but mines are promiscuous…they will blow up any ship floating by.
That’s my understanding too. They want ships going to China, so no mines.
They have plenty of other ways to attack ships.
Why doesn’t the US Navy close the Strait to traffic friendly to Iran, too? The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway that no country can close under the international law so beloved of the Israel- and US- haters. So the international community can punish Iran for attacking non-belligerent ships using it. (If the ships have naval escort they may be fair game.) Punishing Iran means that the US Navy battle group sitting in the Gulf of Oman can blockade Iran by interdicting shipping in or out of the Gulf if they are bound for an Iranian port or heading out of one. Stop ships in safe waters, board them, and inspect their cargo and papers. Seize them if they’re carrying contraband. There goes China’s oil if it came from Kharg Island, and there goes what’s left of Iran’s economy.
Blockade affecting neutral shipping is an act of war which the Constitutional purists will say needs a Congressional Declaration of War. So call it a “quarantine” as President Kennedy imposed around Cuba in 1962.
I’ve only seen two best picture nominees, and that was two too many!
Sinners (2/5 stars):
Starts big but gets smaller and smaller. Twin brothers who made a literal killing up north come back to Mississippi and set up a jumpin’ club from scratch within a day. Early on there are several melodramatic interactions among the players, but they possess neither inherent depth nor ultimate significance. Inexplicable surrealism periodically intervenes, and all devolves into a Romero-esque vampire bloodletting fest/Tarantino-esque anti-MLK revenge fantasy. Much here is suffused with racial politicking—some of it cringily obvious, most of it inconsequentially inscrutable—while the complexities of Black culture are reduced to a love of the blues the way Irish culture might be reduced to a love of the leprechaun, Chinese, the dumpling. Bloated, contrived, and populist.
One Battle After Another (3/5 stars):
A film like this one, focusing on terrible people—lovers of guns, violence, and murder (both a group of anarchist/fascist terrorists personified by Leonardo DiCaprio, and a group of government/corporate terrorists personified by Sean Penn)—is looking for trouble; a sense of engagement and sympathy with any of its despicable characters is pretty much impossible. Most curiously though, this fantastical California-based cat-and-mouse chase movie is leavened throughout with rather obvious black humor. As an appalled commentary on its extremists-of-every-stripe (and on those viewers who might sympathize with any of them), Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another—however impressive its production—consequently loses much of its impact: it’s too intellectualized, too aloof, because, after all, this powder-keg that is our country, our planet, is no laughing matter. [And oh yes, feel free to accuse me of misinterpreting Anderson’s intent. You’re probably right.]
I wasn’t keen on either movie, and thought them both overrated.
Clearly we agree then…as is so often the case!
Here are some figures from my experience with my late 90-year old aunt, a retired elementary school teacher. She died in December, 2024. She had a long-term care policy which paid out about $2k/month – it just so happened that it was exhausted just a couple of weeks before her death.
2.5 years in a good memory care assisted living place in Melbourne, Florida, at $7200/month. In Northern Virginia, good residential memory care places I looked at were priced between $8k and $12k. Prior to moving my aunt to Florida, she’d spent about 10 months in a couple of hospitals, and a couple of nursing homes, all in Fairfax, Va. About 8 of those months were paid for out of her pocket. I can’t be bothered to go back to find the cost for all of that.
$1174 paid to a Melbourne, Florida funeral home for cremation and approx. a dozen death certificates.
$1750 for internment services at the cemetery in a family plot in Milton, Mass,. $500 of that was an extra charge for Saturday service. $100 to the presiding Catholic priest – the cemetery staff told me that it’s customary. I had to catch up to the priest after the service to give it to him, as he’d started walking to his car while I talked with someone else.
$525 to add her name to the headstone. BTW, according to company that handled this for me, most companies subcontract to the same few remaining people who do the actual work, and those people are becoming fewer as funeral mores have changed. Yes, I was actually told that “Headstone carving is a dying art”.
During my Freshman year at Kent State in 1979, I had a roommate who was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade. There was another group mof Communists, whose name I do not remember, who were too radical even for my roommate and his friends.
So after the hostages were taken by Iran, the other Communists had a rally in support of the Iranian students on campus. The unfurled a large bedsheet, upon which was written “US, keep your bloody fucking hands of Iran”
Guess how many Iranian students came out to show solidarity with the Communists? If you guessed ZERO, you’d be correct.
The police broke up the rally after numerous students began throwing snowballs at the Communists.