Welcome to Tuesday, October 15, 2024 (the Ides of October), and National Cheese Curd Day, almost a state holiday in Wisconsin. Here’s short a Facebook video telling you all you need to know about this Midwest speciality:

It’s also National Chicken Cacciatore Day, “I Love Lucy” Day (the show premiered on this day in 1951), National Mushroom Day, National Red Wine Day (I’m finishing off a bottle of Côte-Rôtie),  Breast Health Day, National Roast Pheasant Day, National Shawarma Day (in Canada), and Global Handwashing Day. (I recommend this highly: wash them properly and often. Since the pandemic started, and I’ve become punctilious about washing my hands, I have had neither covid or even a common cold.)

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 15 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*As we all know, the Presidential race is a squeaker. From the NYT we get: “State of the race: a close race gets closer” (archived here).

The presidential race just keeps getting tighter.

With three weeks to go, The New York Times’s polling average shows Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump essentially tied across the seven key battleground states, with the two separated by less than one percentage point in five of the seven.

It’s hard to think of any election when so many critical states were so close in the polls at this stage.

By our reckoning, 2004 was the last election when the polls showed a candidate leading in the pivotal states by around one point — George W. Bush’s edge in states like Ohio and Wisconsin. But even then, he had a discernible if still narrow edge in the Electoral College: John Kerry needed to sweep most of the close states to prevail. The polling couldn’t really be characterized as a tie, like the polls today.

Before 2004? There’s the 2000 election, of course, but the polls weren’t quite as close as the actual result. Looking even further back, it’s hard to find anything. There has never been an election with so many polls showing such a close race.

The pollster that did the most to nudge the average toward Mr. Trump was Quinnipiac, which found him ahead by three points in Michigan and two points in Wisconsin. In each case, it was a notable swing from the prior Quinnipiac poll, which traditionally hasn’t been an especially favorable pollster to Republicans.

Two national polls released Sunday didn’t do as much to swing the average. NBC News found the race tied, down from a five-point lead for Ms. Harris a few weeks ago, while she led by two points in the ABC News poll, a drop from six points in its last measure. While these polls did nudge Ms. Harris’s lead back under three points nationwide, there were other polls that didn’t support any movement toward Mr. Trump — or even showed Ms. Harris gaining compared with prior measures — including polls from Pew Research, CBS News/YouGov and our Times/Siena national survey.

On balance, however, this week’s data does suggest that the race may have edged ever so slightly in Mr. Trump’s direction. It’s a small enough shift that it could just be statistical noise, but if additional polls showed the same thing, there would be a straightforward explanation: Ms. Harris’s modest post-debate bump has worn off with the passage of time and a hectic few weeks of news.

This race is so tight that I won’t make any of my lucrative bets, as I have in previous races. (For example, knowing that Obama would win, I would find a scared Democrat and say, “I’ll bet you $100 that Obama wins.” I would add that the sucker couldn’t really lose the bet, because if Obama won, the mark would be happy and glad to pay me $100, while if he lost, the mark would get the consolation of $100.  I must have made $500 on Obama but then lost it by making the same kind of bet favoring Hillary Clinton.)

*It’s now pretty clear that CBS edited its interview with Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” to eliminate her customary word salad (a pair of circulating videos tell the tale). As the Free Press notes, this is against CBS’s own journalistic standards, and the FP‘s editors are  demanding of CBS, “‘60 Minutes’: Release the unedited Kamala Harris transcript”. You can see the videos showing the editing at the link.

Those of us who have worked in legacy media organizations have a pretty good idea why the so-called “mainstream press” has lost so much of its credibility. They ignore politically inconvenient stories. They rewrite history to suit the needs of the present. They punish wrongthinkers. And they promote ideology at the expense of reality.

But for those who still had any remaining doubt, the news out of CBS this week has gone a long way toward answering that question.

Over the past few days, we’ve reported on:

• CBS News admonishing one of its top journalists, Tony Dokoupil, for the crime of asking tough questions in an interview.
• Shari Redstone, the majority shareholder in CBS’s parent company Paramount, criticizing the network’s executives for their handling of Dokoupil’s interview and its aftermath.
• The network’s director of standards and practice ordering CBS journalists to avoid referring to Jerusalem as being “in Israel.”
• And cautioning reporters—as Israel’s dead were still being counted on October 8, 2023—against referring to Hamas terrorists as terrorists.

But perhaps the biggest scandal at CBS this week is one we’ve yet to mention. And that’s the interview 60 Minutes conducted with Kamala Harris that has Donald Trump accusing the network of “election interference.”

Here’s the background:

In the interview, veteran journalist Bill Whitaker asked presidential candidate Harris about whether Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the Biden-Harris administration. Harris offered a response that can be generously characterized as word salad: “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”

They then show a pair of clips and demand that the full video, or a transcript thereof, be released,

The edit suggests a possible violation of the CBS News standards guide, which states that “answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response.” It goes on to say: “We cannot create an answer merely because we wish the subject had said it better,” and that journalists should “always edit interviews in a straightforward manner to preserve the sense of the interview.”

You don’t need to be a broadcast journalist to understand why these are important rules. Excessive editing distorts reality—which is the opposite of what good journalism is supposed to do.

The FP reports that they asked “60 Minutes” for a transcript, and CBS didn’t respond.  They also asked the Harris campaign for a copy of the recording, as recordings of interviews are customarily made by candidates’ staff. Harris’s people referred the FP back to CBS. What Harris said is apparently buried forever, which seems a bit fishy.

*The WSJ reports on how “Billionaires back a new ‘anti-woke’ university“, with the University of Chicago cited as an “aspirational model” for this endeavor. (h/t Rick) We were just given $100 million by an anonymous donor to promote free speech programs in the university! The “anti-woke university, is, of course, The University of Austin:

Billionaires frustrated with elite colleges are banding behind a fledgling school in Texas that boasts 92 students.

Trader Jeff Yass, real-estate developer Harlan Crow and investor Len Blavatnik are among the high-profile people donating to the University of Austin, or UATX. The new school has raised roughly $200 million so far—including $35 million from Yass—a huge sum for a tiny school without any alumni to tap.

Crow, a major GOP donor, was an early backer. “Much of higher ed today seems to want to reject Western accomplishments and the accomplishments of Western civilizations in their entirety,” he said. “Many people think that’s a bad idea.” Crow said he expects UATX to encourage ideological diversity.

Crow and his wife, Kathy, have hosted several events for the school at their Dallas home and let the school use space in an office park he owns for its summer program, provocatively called Forbidden Courses. Crow has been a controversial benefactor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He has said he has never discussed pending cases with Thomas.

Frustration with the state of debate and levels of unrest at prestigious universities has spurred some of the richest Americans to flex their financial muscle.

Enter UATX, which welcomed its initial class of first-years last month in a former department store near the Texas Capitol. The school says it is nonpartisan and refers to its mission as the “fearless pursuit of truth.” Its foundational curriculum marries classical texts—students were given a copy of Homer’s Odyssey upon enrollment—with an emphasis on entrepreneurship.

A video posted to the school’s YouTube page contrasts scenes of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments at other schools with a civil UATX seminar. The video ends with the message, “They burn, we build.”

UATX students walking in front of the Texas Capitol during the school’s convocation in September. Photo: Joshua W Helms/University of Austin

Officials talk about UATX in lofty terms. Some cite the University of Chicago as an aspirational role model. President Pano Kanelos called students and faculty “pioneers” and “heroes” in his convocation address. “What is truly historic is that which sends the trajectory of history, and lives lived within the stream of history, shooting in a direction other than that towards which they were tending,” Kanelos said.

Well, I’ve had my doubts about UATX, and I’m not alone: both the late Bob Zimmer (our President) and Steve Pinker resigned after initially accepting positions on the UATX board. My concern is that it is not ideologically neutral, but deliberately “anti-progressive”, which is what the “Forbidden Courses” are about. Will it teach “progressive” stuff, too, which is necessary if the school is to have full freedom of speech?  UATX, as of yet unaccredited, may turn out ok, but we’ll see in five or six years.

*American-Israeli dipolomat Michael Oren, in his Substack essay “The price of a hug,” is peeved (h/t Bat)

Casus belli is a Latin legal term meaning “justification for going to war.” Iran’s firing of 181 ballistic missiles at Israel constituted a clear and irrefutable casus belli.

Accordingly, the United States and most of the West recognizes Israel’s right to retaliate against Iran. At the same time, they are seeking to limit the extent to which Israel exercises that right by insisting we attack neither Iran’s nuclear nor its oil facilities. They send senior military and diplomatic officials to “hug” us and ensure that we won’t dare act while they’re in Israel.

The result has been a prolonged delay in Israel’s response that threatens our security no less than the missiles themselves. With each passing day of inaction, Israel’s casus belli grows weaker. If and when Israel acts, the world will scarcely remember why. In the United States, especially, the image of Iranian missiles flying toward Tel Aviv will be obscured by those of cities ravaged by hurricanes and the latest developments in the presidential race. A part of the public and much of the press will criticize Israel for needlessly escalating the Middle East conflict, raising the price of gasoline, and trying to drag America into a total regional war.

What, besides avoiding further friction with the White House, does Israel have to gain by waiting? Is there a pressing national interest—a raison d’etat, to cite another diplomatic phrase—that Israel could fulfill. Can we use the American administration’s fear of our [Israel’s] response to Iran to secure vital concessions from Washington?

One such concession would be the president’s agreement not to oppose Israel’s implementation of General Giora Eiland’s plan to declare northern Gaza a closed military zone and then trade territory for Hamas’s release of the hostages. Another concession would be a presidential commitment to intervene militarily against Iran’s nuclear plants once they enrich uranium above sixty percent. Yet another concession would be America’s agreement to sell us long-range strategic bombers capable of dropping 15,000 kilogram bunker buster bombs from a height that Iran’s defenses cannot reach. Such a sale would say to the Iranians “we won’t bomb your facilities this time but we have the means to do so effectively in the future.”

Any price that the administration is willing to pay for Israeli restraint would have to appear worthwhile to the Israeli public. The overwhelming majority of Israelis expect our country to respond massively to Iran׳s missiles. The public overwhelmingly rejects all of America’s demands except one—that Israel respond proportionately to Iran. Okay, we can say, we’ll fire at Iran the same 26,000 rockets they and their proxies have shot at us over the past year.

It is curious that Israel hasn’t retaliated so far when it said it would do so promptly. I can only guess that America is bargaining with Israel about the US demand that Israel can’t hit Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil and gas fields.

*In the Freethinker, Daniel Sharp has written a very positive review of Richard Dawkins’s latest book, The Genetic Book of the Dead.  I’ll quote him, and also add a bit about the book that first appeared here and which Sharp also quotes:

In The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (2008), Richard Dawkins writes:

Our ability to understand the universe and our position in it is one of the glories of the human species. Our ability to link mind to mind by language, and especially to transmit our thoughts across the centuries is another. Science and literature, then, are the two achievements of Homo sapiens that most convincingly justify the specific name.

And I think I am justified in saying that Dawkins himself is one of the few who have really managed to combine these two greatest achievements of humanity. In a corpus of work written over half a century, Dawkins has innovated and explained, and he has done so with the ear and eye of a poet. It is appropriate, then, that his new book, The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie, is a medley and a melody: a revisiting and extension of his previous ideas about evolution written with elegance and beauty. The very word ‘reverie’ suggests a pleasant and roaming meditation, which is exactly what The Genetic Book of the Dead is. Come to think of it, the quintessentially Dawkinsian phrase ‘a Darwinian reverie’ might just sum up Dawkins’s entire career. Call this book a Dawkinsian medley, or a Dawkinsian melody, then.

My only reservation concerns the seeming finality of the book. Not so much the contents of the book itself, but the publicity surrounding it. Dawkins is currently embarked on a tour marketed (in homage to Sherlock Holmes, I think) as ‘The Final Bow’—a ‘swansong’, his last tour on the road, taking in America and Europe. In riffing on many of his previous themes and producing a book that does what the final section of his 2015 memoir Brief Candle in the Dark attempted—i.e. provides ‘a kind of biologist’s world-view, with an aspiration at least to coherence’—does Dawkins mean us to view The Genetic Book of the Dead as a farewell, too?¹ He is 83, after all, and international touring must take its toll. There is, I fear, a soupçon of the elegiac in all this. If it is a farewell, it is a very good one indeed; but I hope that it is not, and that lovers of science and literature can expect still more to come from one of the finest practitioners of both.

There’s no sign I can detect that Richard’s ability to popularize science, whether it be verbally or in print, has waned, and I’m sure he’ll always be writing.  More:

Because The Genetic Book of the Dead is a book written by a man clearly still at the height of his powers. As a medley, longtime admirers like me can detect and enjoy references and callbacks galore. Indeed, a great many of Dawkins’s previous books are mentioned, and the title itself is taken from a chapter of what I consider to be perhaps his finest book of all, Unweaving the Rainbow (1998). As a melody, its prose contains the clarity and poetry for which Dawkins is justly famous. It is a worthy addition to the genre of literary science. A few examples should suffice, the first expressing the book’s main argument and purpose:

This is my central message, and it will bear repeating here. The fine-fingered sculpting of natural selection works not just on the external appearance of an animal such as a stick caterpillar, a tree-climbing lizard, a leaf insect or a tawny frogmouth, where we can appreciate it with the naked eye. The Darwinian sculptor’s sharp chisels penetrate every internal cranny and nook of an animal, right down to the sub-microscopic interior of cells and the high-speed chemical wheels that turn therein. Do not be deceived by the extra difficulty of discerning details more deeply buried. There is every reason to suppose that painted lizards or moths, and moulded potoos or caterpillars, are the outward and visible tips of huge, concealed icebergs.

I have my own favorite parts, many of them from what I see as Richard’s most “literary work,” The Blind Watchmaker. But I have no space to put them here, so read that book.  There’s one plaint I had about Richard’s thesis that Sharp adds to his review:

As to whether Dawkins’s overall thesis in this book is correct, I cannot rightly judge. I suspect that it is, but it would be interesting to hear Dawkins’s response to a concern raised by another eminent evolutionary biologist, Jerry Coyne:

There are two problems with this [thesis].  We can certainly use DNA sequences to reconstruct family trees, confirming our conclusion (already known at from morphology, fossils, and development) that yes, we’re evolved from fishy and reptilian ancestors. But trying to suss out the environments of those ancestors from DNA sequences is probably futile. For one thing, we don’t know what most genes actually do, and thus would be stymied since we don’t know which ancestral DNA constituted adaptations to the environment,—and if so, what kind of adaptations.  More important, most of the ancestral DNA we still have has been overwritten by the endless churning of natural selection, so even finding out what deep ancestral genes we had would be nearly impossible today.

We’ll only know whether I’m right after evolutionists try to carry out Richard’s suggested program.

*This is very sad: Julien’s is holding an auction of “Property from the life and career of Christine McVie.” (h/t Ginger K). If you want some McVie/Fleetwood Mac paraphernalia, there is a lot to buy (647 items), though most of it isn’t cheap. The auction begins on October 16 at 10 a.m. Central Time, and goes for two days. The description:

An auction celebrating Christine McVie, GRAMMY Award-winning Singer, Songwriter, Keyboard player and legendary band member of Fleetwood Mac. The sale includes more than 650 lots covering eight decades, from the 1950s to the 2020s, featuring stage-played instruments, stage-worn clothing, touring gear, awards, memorabilia, paintings, jewelry, furniture, and numerous personal keepsakes from McVie’s London home reflecting her impeccable taste. All Proceeds of Auction to Benefit MusiCares® and Other Music Charities in the UK.

Here’s one item I wouldn’t mind having, but go look at her stuff. She appears to have liked penguins!

Here’s my favorite of her songs, written and sung (live) by La McVie.  No modern group even comes close to this one, which I underrated when I was younger. They’re spectactular in instrumentalism, vocals, and of course in the songs they wrote and performed. The caption for what’s below: “The official live performance of Fleetwood Mac: “Everywhere” live at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA in May 1997.” The group performed as well live as they did on recordings.

It’s hard to believe she’s gone: McVie died two years ago at age 79.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej has been sad and slightly depressed over the news, so Hili is astonished to see him a bit less sad:

Hili: I’m astonished.

A: Why?

Hili: You look as if you were content.

Hili: Jestem zdumiona.

Ja: Czym?

Hili: Wyglądasz jakbyś był zadowolony.

*******************

From Adrian: A cat shirt riffing on the movie “Reefer Madness“.  Say “NO” to nip!

Here’s a poster from the original movie:

From Nikki: A religious Jeopardy choice:

From Cat Memes:

The SpaceX booster being caught by “chopsticks” as it lands on target (h/t: Bat):

From Masih. I had no idea executions were so frequent in Iran.

In my birth country Iran, one person was executed every six hours last month. Meanwhile, in my adopted country America, the same clerics who hang innocent Iranians for so-called “insults to Islam” have established the Alavi Foundation and fund students at top universities like… pic.twitter.com/8Yj2OxFS9B

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 14, 2024

From Claire Lehmann Luana; I guess the conclusion comes from the Ta-Nehisi Coates/CBS kerfuffle:

To be a celebrated intellectual in the West you have to do 2 things:

1. Express alienation towards your home nation, culture
2. Romanticise regimes & cultures that are geopolitically opposed to the West

Coates is just fulfilling his job-description. https://t.co/zickAfd0eW

— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) October 13, 2024

From Jez, who, happily is back.  He sent a tweet in which a long NYT opinion piece about Israeli soldiers shooting Gazan kids in the head appears to have used fake X-rays. You can read the original NYT piece here:

Hello @afalkhatib

I saw your post after seeing the reply from @COLRICHARDKEMP and @AntSpeaks, and then I read the article, twice. As someone who is actually a forensic ballistics specialist, I wanted to respond to your post, and this article, with some facts that will… https://t.co/NLhX9ILcCn

— Cheryl E 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🎗️ (@CherylWroteIt) October 12, 2024

Two lighter posts from my feed. First, one I quite like:

The real size of things ~ A Thread🧵

1. If Saturn were as close to Earth as the Moon, this is what it would look like: pic.twitter.com/SZpuzucrin

— Raghu (@IndiaTales7) October 13, 2024

The SpaceX booster catch. Apparently the damage to the rocket was trivial and it was quickly put back on the launching pad, where it could soon be ready to go again:

Unreal video from my grandpa’s friend of the catch. @SpaceX @elonmusk #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/7VS7T2Ff98

— Cosmo (@Cosmo_556) October 13, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial. These exhibits are perhaps the most heartbreaking ones on display at Auschwitz. I retweeted this.

There are many exhibits like this, including suitcases, children’s toys, artificial limbs, toothbrushes, and (the only one you can’t photograph), the hair of women shaved off after they arrived. https://t.co/bzTOuLBDkQ

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 15, 2024

Two tweets from Professor Emeritus Cobb. Like him, I love trains, particularly the old and now defunct steam trains. There’s nothing so evocative as a lonely train whistle in the night. . .

The romance of steam at night , the photographer can hear the roar of the mighty flame consuming beast as suddenly a light comes into view. Friends told him it would be a namer and it was , it’s fire flowing away as it sped into the night .
Have a great night all #Steamfix pic.twitter.com/3DAFmlYl6M

— Nigel (@njvphotographee) October 8, 2024

This one gets an “oy vey!” from Matthew, who’s not even Jewish!

Dipshit Trump asks the Rabbi at the memorial service today if he wants him to autograph the prayer book. pic.twitter.com/jjPwNJj2OC

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 7, 2024

A much better one from reader Debbie. Sir Paul is celebrating Yom Kippur in Chile, wearing a kippah and talit.

You say goodbye, and I say hello (to the Jewish new year).

Spotted: Sir @PaulMcCartney at Yom Kippur Services in Chile.

Gmar Chatima Tova 💙pic.twitter.com/bfdsfpLMK4

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 13, 2024

Welcome to Monday, October 14, 2024, and National Dessert Day. I proffer two photos of desserts. First, a piece of carrot cake I recently shared while dining out in Chicago. Of course it has cream-cheese frosting (and candied carrot curls on top)! And below that, a cherry pie made by Malgorzata (I helped pit the cherries). The cat decoration on top is mine.

It’s also World Standards Day, Columbus Day (I risk cancelation for mentioning that), National Real Sugar Day (I use Splenda in my coffee), Native American Day,  National Chocolate-Covered Insects Day, and, in Canada, it’s Thanksgiving, when everyone dines on roast moose. 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 14 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*This is how clueless the Biden administration is. Three officials have pronounced that they don’t think Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

The United States still believes that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear weapon despite Tehran’s recent strategic setbacks, including Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leaders and two largely unsuccessful attempts to attack Israel, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

The comments from a senior Biden administration official and a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) added to public remarks earlier this week by CIA Director William Burns, who said the United States had not seen any evidence Iran’s leader had reversed his 2003 decision to suspend the weaponization program.

“We assess that the Supreme Leader has not made a decision to resume the nuclear weapons program that Iran suspended in 2003,” said the ODNI spokesperson, referring to Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The intelligence assessment could help explain U.S. opposition to any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack that Tehran carried out last week.

President Joe Biden said after that attack he would not support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites, but did not explain why he had reached that conclusion. His remarks drew fierce criticism from Republicans, including former President Donald Trump.

This is nuts.  We all know that Iran has enriched uranium, and continues to do so, far beyond the level of purity needed to run nuclear reactors.  They refuse to allow inspection of their facilities.  From an AP report in August:

Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels in defiance of international demands, a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Thursday.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, seen by The Associated Press, said that as of Aug. 17, Iran has 164.7 kilograms (363.1 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 %. That’s an increase of 22.6 kilograms (49.8 pounds) since the IAEA’s last report in May.

Uranium enriched up to 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. By IAEA’s definition, around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90%.

The IAEA chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so. He has acknowledged the U.N. agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment.

I’m continually amazed that the U.S. won’t accept this data when the IAEA, a reputable organization, does. And it’s on this basis that Biden has told Israel to keep its mitts off Iran’s nuclear facilities.  They are believing a fantasy about Iran.

*Harvard’s President Alan Garber reveals that donations to the school have dropped, and that this disappoints him. This is from the Harvard Crimson:

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 said he was disappointed by some of the University’s fundraising numbers during an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday, a sign that Harvard officials are bracing for donations to dip after a year of campus turmoil.

Garber’s comments come ahead of the release of the University’s 2024 financial report later this month, which is expected to show that fundraising numbers fell as a result of alumni and donor backlash to Harvard’s initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years,” Garber said.

“There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future,” Garber added. “I can’t get more specific than that right now.”

As the University grappled with months of donor fallout over its response to campus protests and an unprecedented leadership crisis, Garber had privately warned in March of a decline in new gifts. But he confirmed those suspicions publicly for the first time on Tuesday.

Harvard has faced public condemnation from even its most loyal supporters over its response to campus antisemitism, with several high-profile donors publicly suspending their donations to the University.

While total giving to the University is down from last fiscal year, according to four people familiar with the University’s fundraising data, the true extent of the damage will be revealed by the October report.

Money talks, and especially loudly now that colleges have become like charities, begging and dependent on the almighty DOLLAH.  Perhaps other colleges will take a lesson and get control of their campuses.

*New documents reveal, according to the Times of Israel, that the attack of Hamas on Israel of October 7, 2024, occurred later than originally planned.  Hamas wanted a “9/11-style bombing” and was waiting for funds from Iran to carry it out. Since Tehran didn’t come through, they enacted the “lesser” attack, which nevertheless killed over 1200 people, nearly all civilians:

The devastating terror onslaught carried out by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, had originally been planned for the previous year, but was delayed amid efforts by the Palestinian terror group to enlist the help of Iran and Hezbollah, according to a series of documents obtained by international media outlets on Saturday.

The reports cited minutes from a series of meetings held by Hamas’s military and political leaders over the course of two years, in which they planned the logistics of the attack, as well as various correspondences between Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Iranian officials.

An initial report published by The New York Times on Saturday detailed the minutes of 10 meetings spanning from January 2022 until August 2023, which the outlet said had been discovered back in January on a computer in a Hamas control center in Khan Younis. The Times said that it had verified the authenticity of the documents and had separately obtained an internal report by the Israel Defense Forces that did the same.

The contents of additional meetings and messages, mostly focused on Iran’s involvement in planning and funding the attack, were then shared by the IDF with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, both of which said that they could not independently verify the authenticity of the information they received.

While it was not always clear which officials had attended which meetings, The Times found that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was present at each one, while now-dead top officials Muhammed Deif and Marwan Issa attended at least several of them, as did Muhammad Sinwar, Yahya’s brother.

His request appeared to have been granted, as The Wall Street Journal said it had obtained a letter in which an Iranian official confirmed the allocation of $10 million for Hamas’s armed wing. Sinwar later asked for an additional $500 million, which he said could be delivered over the course of two years, with $20 million being transferred per month.

Following the meeting in January 2022, the “big project” was discussed at length in later meetings of Hamas’s Gaza leadership in April and June of that year.

It was during that period that the attack began to take shape. Last November, a 36-page document was uncovered in northern Gaza, The Washington Post reported, in which various scenarios for attacking Israel were outlined and reviewed.

Among the targets discussed were shopping malls and military command centers, The Post reported, as well as the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, which house offices, a large shopping mall and a train station. In this scenario, the terror group reportedly envisioned carrying out an attack similar to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

However, the report said, this plan was discarded after the terror group concluded that it lacked the ability to bring down the towers.

Sinwar is reportedly still scuttling around in the tunnels in southern Gaza, surrounded by hostages and a great deal of explosives to blow everybody up if Israel tries to rescue its own. This puts the IDF in a difficult position, of course.

*The Nairobi National Museum, which holds some of the world’s greatest treasures, including hominin fossils, is in deep trouble, though scientists are mustering to save it:

Louise Leakey is paleo royalty, descendant of some of the world’s most famous fossil-hunters. Now, walking through the backrooms of the Nairobi National Museum, surrounded by million-year-old specimens her family collected, in laboratories her father built, next to an auditorium with her grandfather’s statue outside, Leakey can picture Kenya’s—and her family’s—legacy falling to pieces.

The museum’s open shelves and the aisles between them are crammed with tens of thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of ancient specimens, stored loose in plastic bags, perched precariously on wooden tables, sinking into decaying, decades-old foam that leaves blue-green stains on fossilized bone. Loosely attached paper labels that identify which bone is whose are vulnerable to a stiff breeze through the lab’s open windows.

There’s a 2-million-year-old horned giraffe skull too large to be hoisted safely off the plastic sheet beneath it. Three-million-year-old tortoise shells litter the floor. An enormous crocodile skull, two million years old, stretches between two shelves, too long to be moved without risk of snapping off teeth or even its slender snout.

“We hold here one of the most important collections in the world,” Leakey says. “It’s not in good shape.”

Leakey, 52, is the granddaughter of Louis and Mary Leakey, who put East Africa on the paleontological map with the discovery of a 1.75 million-year-old human ancestor in Tanzania. She’s the daughter of Richard and Meave Leakey, whose fossil-hunting team found Turkana Boy, a famed Homo erectus skeleton that’s the jewel of the museum’s collection.

Their work—and now hers—have helped uncover the story of humans and the natural world. The potential of losing all the history in the museum’s collections worries her. “We need to make sure that we are keeping them safe for the future,” she says.

The Nairobi National Museum, flagship of Kenya’s museum system, is in trouble, overwhelmed by a bounty of specimens and a lack of money to keep them safe. Darkening the outlook are criminal charges against its former director-general for allegedly masterminding a scheme to steal $4 million from its coffers.

Now an ad hoc coalition of scientists and boosters is frantically trying to save it.

The effort to save the museum has turned international. Marta Mirazon Lahr, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Cambridge University, dug into her own pocket to preserve priceless fossils of early man.

U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has roped in the White House and Smithsonian Institution to get a rescue under way.

“This,” says Whitman, “could be the most amazing museum of the origin of man anywhere in the world.”

In the paleontology lab, Leakey flips gingerly through the brittle pages of a notebook identifying where Meave discovered certain fossils four decades ago.

There’s no fire-suppression system in the lab to keep the documents from going up in flames. Fossils without such context are nearly useless, scientists say. Hanging over Nairobi is the specter of the 2018 fire at Brazil’s national museum, which destroyed most of the 20 million specimens in the 200-year-old collection.

Here’s the actual fossil of Turkana Boy, a fossil of an adolescent H. erectus who lived about 1.5 million years ago and described as “the most complete early hominin skeleton ever found.” Here’s a cast of all the remains; this resides at the American Museum of Natural History. There are 108 bones (modern humans have 206), and indications of a congenital skeletal disorder that probably accounts for the individual’s death.

*Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania, has written an op-ed in the WaPo that’s sure clickbait for an academic: “College rankings are leaving out the most important factor.” I couldn’t guess what that was, but it’s the quality of teaching.  Whether that’s the most important factor in ranking colleges depends, of course, on what you want for your ranking. If you’re looking for colleges whose graduates make the most money, teaching may not be the most important factor. But I digress:

Trying to choose a college based on how well it teaches? Good luck. If you consult the rankings — such as the U.S. News & World Report survey that bills itself as a tool for “finding the right school” — you can learn about everything from how much a college costs to how much debt its students incur and how much they donate as alumni.

But one thing you can’t find out: how well its professors teach.

In a recent survey asking respondents what makes the “best” college or university, the most popular answer was “it has professors who are excellent teachers” — far ahead of high graduation rates or good-paying jobs after college. Yet students and their families deciding where to shell out thousands of dollars have no way to determine which schools meet that standard. Their only resort might be anonymous posters on forums such as College Confidential or Reddit. That needs to change.

Sure, U.S. News records faculty salaries, student-professor ratios and the average amount of money spent on each student. But none are a good proxy for teaching quality. A high-salaried professor might prioritize research over teaching, which is the best route to getting a raise in academia. Even if that professor’s class size is small, their students aren’t guaranteed to learn very much.

U.S. News’s “Best Undergraduate Teaching” list, based entirely on surveys of college presidents, provosts and admission deans, doesn’t offer much help. What do these “top academics” — as the magazine calls them — know about teaching quality in classrooms at different institutions? It’s a popularity contest, plain and simple.

So are student course evaluations, which most colleges use to assess their faculty. These reports can provide important information, such as whether a professor returns work on time or is available outside of class. But they can’t tell you whether the teacher is effective or how much their students have learned.

Indeed, there’s some evidence suggesting that professors with lower expectations get higher evaluations — who doesn’t like an easy A? — and that teachers who assign more work pay the price on student ratings.

If we wanted to get a more meaningful measure of how well professors are teaching, we would send trained observers into their classrooms. That’s what American University education scholar Corbin Campbell did in the most comprehensive study on college teaching to date.

Many years ago I tried to implement a system of professors evaluating each other’s courses in the Division of Biological Sciences here, but it was a miserable failure.  Professors didn’t want to be evaluated, and my idea of having several random visits, unannounced, during a quarter was not met with approbation, to say the least. The initiative died quickly.

But I would tell parents who really wanted their children to learn to send them to schools where teaching is both prized and excellent. That’s why I always tout my own undergraduate school, The College of William and Mary, as a great place to send kids. I can’t overemphasize the quality of teaching there (there was not much reward for research, but teaching was carefully vetted).  Nearly every class I took fired me up with enthusiasm for the subject (and that includes ethics and Greek tragedy), and it ignited a love of learning under me that remains to this day. Without that education, I doubt I’d be as keen on literature and art as I am today, and of course the science courses were fantastic. I single out especially Jack Brooks (evolution) and Bruce Grant (population genetics) as inspirations that put me on my current path.  I am still glad I went to Harvard for graduate school (I took courses there, but simply audited them), but were I to give advice to a parent, I’d say they should send them to William and Mary rather than Harvard.  Of course most people think that William and Mary is a Catholic girls’ school, but it’s a public liberal-arts college in Virginia, set in a lovely place far removed from distractions like clubs.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is lugubrious (remember, she’s a Jewish moggy). It’s a lovely portrait of Hili as Senior Cat:

Hili: Can a pessimist be simultaneously an optimist?

A: That’s the norm. We pessimists always hope that we are wrong.

Hili: Czy pesymista może być równocześnie optymistą?

Ja: To norma. My pesymiści zawsze mamy nadzieję, że jesteśmy w błędzie.

Today, on October 21, at 6:00 p.m. Iran time, I was injured in my beloved country. I returned to the moment again. To a moment shared by many of us. I was eye to eye with him when he shot.

امروز ۲۱ مهر ساعت ۶ عصر به وقت ایران، میهن نازنینم زخمی شدم. دوباره به لحظه برگشتم. به لحظه‌ای که بین بسیاری از ما مشترک بوده. من چشم در چشم او بودم‌که شلیک کرد pic.twitter.com/TgwCTn0feV

— Sima Moradbeigi (@simamoradb51053) October 12, 2024

From Jez, who has returned! A false accusation of duck theft leveled at a Good Samaritan:

Seen on a local town social media page. This is so very England. pic.twitter.com/WT0z3SqTe4

— Helen S Fields (@Helen_Fields) October 12, 2024

From Luana. Could Columbus possibly have been Jewish? If so, he’s going to be even more demonized than before: a murderous Zionist settler-colonialist! The results are based on a 22-year study involving finding Columbus’s real resting place and doing a DNA analysis.

So an Italian and devout Catholic with Jewish ancestry represented Spain in the New World at a time that it was torturing Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism. https://t.co/ZhJHnMxjxf

— i/o (@eyeslasho) October 13, 2024

Two from my feed. First, the double standards of CBS. It’s okay to hector with political questions the father of a rescued hostage, but not okay to ask Ta-Neheshi Coates about an argument that he actually made.

A lot of folks arguing that Dokoupil’s questions were inappropriate because the morning show is only supposed to be for puffy, supportive interviews. Well, here’s the same show interviewing a guy whose daughter had been kidnapped on October 7th. Seems …. not so puffy or… https://t.co/oKvQSoabUB

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) October 9, 2024

Look at this animal!

What a magnificent Elk. 🫎 pic.twitter.com/nOQ3CUQWcn

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 12, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I retweeted:

A Dutch child was gassed to death upon arrival at Auschwitz. She was two years old. https://t.co/S5QHVFcY1I

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 14, 2024

Two tweets from Matthew. This first one shows a remarkable recapture of a booster by SpaceX (h/t Simon for a related tweet):

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

A completely confected-by-AI interview, including the voices:

Listen to this. All AI. Nothing is real, man. https://t.co/2rG98809Va

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) October 9, 2024

Welcome to Sunday, October 6, 2024, and National Yorkshire Pudding Day. a day of arrant cultural appropriation. But they’re good! Here’s a big one in a cast iron pan:

It’s also English Language Day, National No Bra Day (this was the norm when I was in college, but times have changed), Good Samaritan Day, and National M&M Day.  Here’s a video about how M&Ms are made (they leave out the secret candy-coating part); note the proportion of different colors that is standardized for each bag:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 13 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT reports on a new documentary about Christopher Reeve, the handsome “Superman” actor who became paralyzed from the neck down in a horse-riding accident, living 9 years after the accident (and being a disability activist), dying at age 52. The movie recounts the close friendship between Reeve and Robin Williams, who were roommates at Julliard, and doesn’t avoid the dark side of Reeve or his illness. It sounds like it’s a movie worth seeing. The article is archived here.  Excerpts:

The documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” traces the life of the Juilliard-trained actor who found megastardom in the 1970s and ’80s playing Superman, and in 1995 as a different kind of hero, after an accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. It features never-before-seen footage of Reeve, who died in 2004 at 52, chronicling his early days; his pivotal friendship with his Juilliard roommate, Robin Williams; and his transformation, in a wheelchair and on a ventilator, into a leading disability and research advocate. Friends like Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg and John Kerry offer their observations; disability rights activists do, too. It’s a thought-provoking tear-jerker.

It also doubles as a family movie, showing Reeve in his role as a father to his three children — Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve Givens from an early relationship that he fled at the height of his fame, and Will Reeve, his son with his wife, Dana Reeve. With unwavering support, she largely gave up her career as a singer and actress to care for her husband. She died of cancer in 2006, just 18 months after him, leaving behind their son, then 13.

The compounded tragedy is leavened by the hope that Reeve embodied, especially with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which has invested $140 million in the search for a cure for spinal cord paralysis. The film — which arrived in theaters 20 years after Christopher Reeve’s death, almost to the day — chronicles their determination, and doesn’t flinch from the darkest moments, including money worries and the relentlessness of day-to-day caregiving.

. . . . The unvarnished approach — and the timing, with Reeve’s children having reached solid footing as adults — led the siblings to agree to the project after years of turning down other offers, said Will Reeve, 32, a correspondent for ABC News and a look-alike to his father. They hoped their home movies and archival material “would provide a deeper meaning and greater texture to his story,” he said, “and remind folks of the fullness of life that one can have, despite whatever catastrophic injury they may suffer, whatever disability they may have.”

In a video interview from London, where they’re based, the filmmakers Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui discussed their rationale for not putting Reeve “on a pedestal,” as Ettedgui described it. “It was really important to show how someone who you might think of as being somehow perfect — the ideal hero — how they experience the same insecurities, the same family issues that the rest of us might,” he said.

One mainstay: his friendship with Williams. They called themselves brothers and were godfathers to each other’s children. Williams, the comedian and Oscar winner, was one of the first to visit Reeve in the hospital after his accident. He did so in character, as a Russian proctologist; being able to laugh then, Reeve later said, strengthened his will to survive.

Williams, who had Lewy body dementia, died by suicide in 2014. In the film, Close, a friend of both actors, says, “I’ve always felt if Chris was still around, Robin would still be alive.”

. . . That line drew gasps during production, the filmmakers said, and they struggled with whether to include it, fearing it might offend some intimates. But it also showed the depth of the bond between two men who had both known darkness amid great success.

And one more excerpt so I can show you the video clip below:

Reeve’s emotional appearance at the 1996 Oscars — less than a year after his accident — was a personal and social turning point. He had surpassed medical expectations from the start. Emerging to more than a minute-long standing ovation from a tearful audience, he appeared to bask in the welcome.

*I’m neglecting politics today because I’m pretty sick of it. Why not some science instead? The WaPo recounts how AI was involved in AlphaFold, the protein-folding program that can take the amino acid sequence of a protein and accurately predict its three-dimensional structure, a task that once took ages, and a result with vast and salubrious implications. As I reported the other day, two of AlphaFold’s creators won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (Note: for some reason this is an “opinion” piece.) The whole article is archived here.

Proteins are biology’s lead actors. As the Nobel committee pointed out, proteins “control and drive all the chemi­cal reactions that together are the basis of life. Proteins also function as hormones, signal substances, antibodies and the building blocks of different tissues.” In the human body, they are necessary for the structure, function and regulation of tissues and organs. All proteins begin with a chain of up to 20 kinds of amino acids, strung together in a sequence encoded in DNA. Each chain folds into a unique structure, and those shapes determine how proteins interact with other molecules.

*Is there any woman today who doesn’t wear Spanx at a formal or dress-up occasion? Well, I don’t know, but the inventor of that body-control garment, Sara Blakely, became a billionaire for thinking it up. Now, as the WSJ reports,
“Spanx made her a billionaire. Will Sneex be her undoing?” Indeed, for her new product Sneex is—get this—a high-heeled sneaker. Who needs that? And it costs $500! Read on:

Since founding Spanx in 2000, Sara Blakely has become one of America’s most prominent and admired entrepreneurs. The 53-year-old billionaire has racked up business accolades from Time’s most influential people to Forbes’ most powerful women. When she sold a majority stake of her shape-wear company to Blackstone in 2021 in a deal that valued the company at $1.2 billion, her shiny personal brand only grew. Married with four children to motivational speaker Jesse Itzler, she’s a serious philanthropist and a friend to Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey—but still beloved for her humble, real-talk persona.

So when Blakely announced this year that she was finally unveiling what she called her “life-changing” next innovation, a product a decade in the making, she had the world’s attention. Her follow-up to Spanx, a garment which is in the MoMa design collection and has spawned countless imitators? Sneex, a hybrid stiletto-sneaker with a velcro strap.

It’s “the shoe no one asked for,” said Molly Hudson, a Dallas personal stylist.

With a splashy marketing campaign including a helicopter video launch, a baseball game opening pitch, a skydiving stunt and appearances on television and at Witherspoon’s “Shine Away” conference, Blakely has dumped her $500+ shoe on women relentlessly over the past few months. Some, like Blakely buddy Gayle King and online fans, enthused about the funky, comfy shoe. Others were excited for the launch but then felt confused and even, as one told me, “punked.”

“I thought it was April fools,” said Dallas-based Olivia Chapman, who runs a coaching school for executive women. Though she said she identified with Blakely’s “values as a businesswoman, mother and wife,” Chapman couldn’t get behind the new design. “I don’t know how else to say it, but it is so unattractive,” she said.

She’s one of many ardent Blakely disciples who are scratching their heads at her latest product.

“It’s like the Bermuda Triangle of shoes,” said Hudson. “What’s happening? What’s going on?”

Well, see for yourself in the video below, in which Blakely introduces Sneex, and then go peruse the Sneex product line. In my view they’re a butt-ugly shoe, but I appreciate the pain that high heels impose upon women. Is it possible that they could be a success? I’ll let the women weigh in.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Blakely (@sarablakely)

Here’s “The Blake”, only $549:

*What is up with CBS? First they called journalist Tony Dokoupil on the carpet for asking hard questions about Israel and Palestine to icon Ta-Nehisi Coates, and now the Free Press asks, “Does CBS News know where Jerusalem is?” (archived here). Why the question? Because CBS put the city in limbo!

In late August, Mark Memmott, the senior director of standards and practices at CBS News, sent an email to all CBS News employees reminding them to “be careful with some terms when we talk or write about the news” from Israel and Gaza. One of the words on Memmott’s list of terms was Jerusalem.

Of Jerusalem, Memmott wrote: “Do not refer to it as being in Israel.”

He continued, in a note sent to thousands of journalists at the network: “Yes, the U.S. embassy is there and the Trump administration recognized it as being Israel’s capital. But its status is disputed. The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its ‘eternal and undivided’ capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem—occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war—as the capital of a future state.”

Jerusalem’s status is indeed contested. For instance, the United States’ embassy in Israel is in Jerusalem, and the Jordanian Islamic Waqf has custody of its holy sites. But acknowledging the competing claims on different parts of the city, or declining to refer to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are one thing. Denying that it is in Israel at all is quite another.

In which country is the Israeli Knesset, the home of the Israeli prime minister and the home of the Israeli president, located? The answer to that question is self-evident. Except, it seems, at CBS. In the rest of the United States, the answer is clear: Since 1995, when Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, the government has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

. . . Memmott’s Jerusalem guidance is in keeping with our previous reporting on the turmoil at CBS—and what The Free Press has heard from multiple people inside CBS today: that a double standard exists for journalism at CBS when it relates to Israel and Jews.

. . . One CBS employee said that the response to Tony Dokoupil has exposed a number of double standards at the network. “There is a huge difference between how all ethnic or minority groups are treated and how Jews and Jewish issues are treated. The rule of thumb is: If you are Jewish and you are interested in reporting on Jews or Jewish issues, that’s a ‘hold on’ or a ‘no,’ whereas for any other group it would be an enthusiastic ‘yes.’ ”

Nothing surprises me any more. I used to be an avid CBS News fan back in the days when Walter Cronkite, the epitome of clear and objecting reporting, was the anchorman for the evening news. How low the mighty have fallen!

*My friend Andrew Berry, who teaches at Harvard and writes about the history of science, sent me a talk he gave before the Cambridge Entomological Society that he titled, informally, “Beetles are the key to the theory of evolution.” He’s an excellent lecturer. It’s more about evolution than beetles. He’s written books about Alfred Russel Wallace, and you’ll see his slides in the “video”.  Have a listen!

*And some self-aggrandizement: my critique on this website of the misleading Guevara paper was highlighted in yesterday’s reading list on Real Clear Science (h/t Suzi).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili joins the many people who believe that history repeats itself.

Hili: I have a feeling that everything has already happened.

A: You are not alone with that feeling.

Hili: Mam wrażenie, że wszystko już było.

Ja: Nie jesteś w tym sama.

And a picture of Szaron and Baby Kulka on opposite sides of the window.  They are friends: it’s Hili who hates Kulka.

*******************

From Jesus of the Day:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Texas omigosh:

From Masih. Although the video is in Farsi with no translation, the situation is that Ismail Qaani is head of Iran’s “Al Quds” force, a subgroup of the Revolutinary Guard dedicated to spreading the Iranian revolution throughout the world.  He was unaccountably absent from the Israeli bombings in Beirut that killed both Iranian and Lebanese terrorists, and then showed up afterwards from Jordan. He was thus suspected of being a spy for Israel, and apparently freaked out and had a heart attack during his interrogation. The last I heard, Qaani was in the hospital.  Who knows what will happen to him, but I doubt he’s an Israeli spy.

Looks like Ismail Qaani, the Quds Force commander, is getting a little more “attention” these days—under surveillance and interrogation, thanks to the fallout from Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination. Middle East Eye says he’s fine, just being “watched closely” while the IRGC is… pic.twitter.com/P7Dz1heNgb

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 10, 2024

University of Chicago assistant professor Eman Abdelhadi, on the scene and on the side of every anti-Israel protest, is unfortunately unaware of the meaning of Henry Moore’s sculpture.  Regardless of her and the protestors’ ignorance, whoever did this act of vandalism should be punished.

UChicago proudly commemorates its role in producing the nuclear bomb. Turns out, our students think that’s pretty fucked up. pic.twitter.com/zrFTTR2Ebs

— Eman Abdelhadi (@emanabdelhadi) October 11, 2024

From Luana:  Trevor Noah gets unhinged interviewing Ta-Nehisi Coates about his CBS interview.  Somehow Noah has morphed into a big-time wokie and Israel hater, and there was nothing wrong with Dokoupil’s questioning:

Yes the American revolution mostly featured George Washington leading terrorists to massacre, rape, and drag the corpses through the streets while celebrating the death of British civilians in large numbers, and then Washington and his terrorists hiding behind innocent colonials… https://t.co/tw4I1u2mTs

— Clifford Asness (@CliffordAsness) October 10, 2024

It is time to get rid of UNRWA, in effect a partner in terrorism with Hamas:

The most important speaker at this week’s @UN_OCT conference on victims of terrorism: Nissim Louk, father of Shani Louk 🎗️

“My daughter’s body was found in a house donated by the European Bank to UNRWA” pic.twitter.com/IMUKjrAFBB

— Yiftah Curiel (@yiftahc) October 11, 2024

Two from my feed. I love this guy: he saved a stray kitten and gave it a forever home.

This man has 1,000 green flags pic.twitter.com/qRxpkY3VMo

— internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F) October 12, 2024

How a European hamster defends itself:

European hamster’s defence position
pic.twitter.com/ecL8ejmoMj

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 12, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one who survived. The link to the story worked for me, but you can find it here

Last week, at 100, my great grandma, Lily Ebert, who survived Auschwitz, passed away. She went on to inspire millions with her strength and message of love and tolerance.

My tribute to her in The Sunday Times: ‘Safta’ taught us how to live again👇https://t.co/PSDelK0uq2

— Dov Forman (@DovForman) October 13, 2024

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. The first one makes fun of J. D. Vance, but perhaps the guy is just computer illiterate (though it seems that turning the camera upside could NOT fix this issue!)

JD Vance tried to fix his flipped Facebook Live video by turning his camera upside down.

Yikes! This is Trump’s VP nominee. pic.twitter.com/7z0BiBMOGq

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) October 11, 2024

It was I who dubbed owls as Honorary Cats.

Owls are cats of the air pic.twitter.com/obIVm1xnJO

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 9, 2024

Welcome to SaturCaturday, October 12, 2024, and National Gumbo Day.  Here’s Justin Wilson, making a good Cajun gumbo, I gare-un-tee!  I used to watch this show, mesmerized, when I was a kid. In this bit he begins the preparation of gumbo by telling one of the jokes that made him famous. He wasn’t a Cajun, either, but he was a racist.

It’s also Astronomy Day, World Arthritis Day, National Farmer’s Day (but which farmer is being celebrated?), International Pinotage Day, Freethought Day, Pulled Pork Day (yay!), Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, National Chess Day, Universal Music Day, and International African Penguin Awareness Day. 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 12 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Florida has had two bad hurricanes in a month, and the NYT explains “How global warming made hurricane Milton more intense and destructive.”  It’s the heat, Jake!

Hurricane Milton walloped Florida with at least 20 percent more rain and 10 percent stronger winds than a similarly rare storm would have done in a world that humans hadn’t warmed by burning fossil fuels, scientists said on Friday.

As a result, Milton may have caused roughly twice as much property damage as that hypothetical storm in a cooler world, a separate team of researchers estimated.

Neither group’s analysis has undergone academic peer review yet. The first, by the World Weather Attribution research collaboration, relies on methods the group has used to estimate the influence of climate change on other extreme weather events, including Hurricane Helene last month.

Warmer air can take up more moisture. So as humans heat the planet, storms like Milton can carry larger cargoes of rain. Warmer seawater also imbues hurricanes with more energy as they traverse the ocean, allowing their winds to strengthen rapidly.

The second analysis, by researchers at Imperial College London, sought to estimate how much more economic loss a storm like Milton could cause compared with a similarly infrequent storm in an alternate version of today’s world, one with the same level of development and hurricane readiness, but without planet-warming emissions.

The researchers drew upon information from previous studies of how the property damage from past hurricanes that hit the United States varied in response to where the storms came ashore and their maximum wind speeds.

High winds aren’t the only cause of destruction during a hurricane: Flooding, storm surge and tornadoes matter, too. But small-seeming jumps in a hurricane’s wind speeds can translate into big increases in damage, said Ralf Toumi, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who worked on the analysis.

*Nellie Bowles has returned with what I hope is now an uninterrupted gig at the Free Press, summarizing the week’s news each Friday. Her latest column is “TGIF: Yes, they can control the weather.”  And yes, I will steal my usual three news items from her large collection. It’s worth subscribing to TFP for Nellie alone.

→ Disaster equity: Should FEMA helicopters try to rescue the most people they can find, or should they try to rescue the gayest people they can find? The answer is obvious, say these FEMA staff trainers. Setting aside the fact that gay people are less likely to know how to rainproof their houses, according to FEMA, “LGBTQIA people. . . already are struggling. They already have their own things to deal with, so you add a disaster on top of that, it’s just compounding on itself.” And: “FEMA relief is no longer about getting the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. . . . It’s about disaster equity.”

That’s right. I’ll be flying away on a FEMA helicopter while some hoard of heterosexuals is left to swim. Good. Correct. Do not send that ladder to them while I am here, stretching out gayly. Haven’t I struggled enough?

→ It’s a live broadcast: As Kamala Harris held a briefing with the Department of Homeland Security about Hurricane Milton ravaging Florida, her team was getting annoying in the earpiece. Kamala had to get them in line: “It’s a live broadcast,” she said, covering her mouth, on the live broadcast, annoyed. I imagine the Kamala Campaign HQ is just playing “Brat” remixes, so maybe it was that. Except, a few days earlier, her teleprompter had gone out, and Kamala got a look of abject fear across her face, laughed a lot, and seemed ready to break into dance. She is Veep, and it’s the best part about her. She acts like a random aunt who got shoved into the spotlight. She acts like me trying to give a bridesmaid toast. It’s a gaffe, technically. Like Donald Trump this week yelling at the Gays for Trump that they “don’t look gay” is a gaffe, technically. But these are my favorite parts about them. It’s the personality section of the pageant, and they’re both crushing. So follow me through a new journey: How I learned to give up and love our candidates!

→ Another Republican against WWII: Royce White, the GOP Senate candidate in Minnesota, has been outed as another guy who thinks his brain is the only one that truly understands World War II. Here he was two years ago on Twitter: “It dawned on me today. . . The bad guys won in WWII. There were no ‘good guys’ in that war. The controlling interests had a jump ball. If you look closely, you see the link between liberalism and communism in the Allied forces.”

I did not realize how common this take was becoming on the right. World War II contrarianism. A whole world of people who think Germany should have taken England, who think we picked the wrong team in the ’40s, and think if London Sieg heil-ed, then at least there’d be no tampons in the boys bathrooms.

I only wish World War II vets were still in fighting shape. Because these Twitter-addled members of the New Right wouldn’t stand a chance. Not that I am wishing for violence more broadly, just that, like any other red-blooded American woman, I am wishing for a brief but satisfying fistfight.

It’s a particularly good column this week, so read it (and subscribe). There is a lot more that I wanted to include, but I’m limiting myself to three.

*From Andrew Sullivan’s latest column, “He’s winning this right now.” If you don’t know who “he” is, the subtitle is “Harris’ fawning media blitz didn’t help much. It may have even hurt.” (Remember, Sullivan has already said, and says again in this column, that he’s voting for Harris:

Harris has also just completed a tour of fawning television interviews — from The View to Howard Stern to Stephen Colbert, who nudged, coached and celebrated their mutual idol. She had a terrific convention and, by everyone’s judgment, won the sole debate. The entire legacy media is behind her, at times embarrassingly so.

And yet, she’s obviously struggling to close the sale. At this point in 2020, Joe Biden, with far fewer resources than Harris, was 10 points ahead of Trump, and finished around 8.4 points ahead in the polling. Biden won the actual election by 4.5 percent, almost half the margin the polls predicted. At this point in 2016, Hillary Clinton was 6 points ahead, finished 3.6 points ahead in the polls, and ended up 2.1 percent ahead in the popular vote.

Run the numbers on Harris and you can begin to realize why smart Democrats are browning their whites. Today, Harris has a lead of just 2.6 percent nationally — much weaker than Clinton and Biden at this point. It’s the same in the swing states. Cillizza notes that in Pennsylvania at this point, Biden was +7 and Harris is barely +1; in Michigan, Biden was + 8, and Harris is tied. If the polls underestimated Trump’s national support by 2.5 points in 2016 and by 4 points in 2020, and the skew continues, then we could well be looking at the first victory in the popular vote that Trump has ever won. More to the point, nothing is really shifting. If anything, there’s a slight drift back toward Trump right now.

The big infomercial push was obviously a response to this. So I dutifully sat down and listened to or watched Harris’ media appearances, to see if she had found a way to close the deal with undecideds. I wanted to hear her answer two baseline questions that are still unresolved in my own mind. Why do you want to be president? And what change would you bring to the White House and the country?

These are not hard questions. They’re the most fundamental to a presidential campaign, and having listened to her closely in these interviews, I still don’t know. She has quietly dropped many previous positions on the border, fracking, Medicare. And, yes, she has offered some new policies. It’s unfair to say she hasn’t by this point. But giveaways to first-time homeowners and entrepreneurs, and help with aging parents and money to new parents, have not exactly seized the public’s attention. She flounders when asked how she’d pay for them, and over all, they remind me of Churchill’s remark: “Take away this pudding! It has no theme.” “I was born in a middle-class family” doesn’t cut it.

The closest Harris has gotten to articulating her agenda is the following, from the 60 Minutes interview:

In the last four years, I have been vice president of the United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people. Geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus. Where we can figure out compromise and understand it’s not a bad thing, as long as you don’t compromise your values, to find common-sense solutions. And that has been my approach.

This is a classic Harris quote. It’s impossible to disagree with, but it’s also so empty that it’s hard even to agree with it either. It doesn’t tell us what she personally would push for before she’d compromise, what she really has conviction about, what she really believes in. In fact, the more I listened to her in these interviews, the more worried I became that she doesn’t actually believe in anything.

It goes on, but I won’t quote any more lest I be accused of tilting the election towards Trump! Sullivan concludes by reaffirming that he’s voting for Harris and not Trump but adds this:

Can she take a risk? Can she break out of this defensive, insecure crouch? Can she borrow just a smidgen of the fierce game Obama was showing last night? I hope so. But this, I fear, is who she is: reactive, insecure, with no real inner core. And the more you are exposed to her vacuousness, the more the whole fakery of it all sinks in, and the less conceivable she becomes as a president. She has to change that dynamic with something bold and risky. And she has around three weeks to do it.

*The WSJ tells us what a squeaker this election is, despite voters in swing states seeing Trump as better on two main issues, the border and the economy:

Voters in the nation’s seven battleground states see Donald Trump as better equipped than Kamala Harris to handle the issues they care about most—the economy and border security—yet are divided about evenly over which candidate should lead the nation, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds.

The survey of the most contested states finds Harris with slim leads in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia on ballots that include independent and third-party candidates where they will be offered as options. Trump has a narrow edge in Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. But no lead is greater than 2 percentage points, except for Trump’s 5-point advantage in Nevada, which like the others is within the poll’s margin of error.

Across the full set of 4,200 swing-state voters, Trump gets 46% support and Harris draws 45%. The survey finds that the race in every state—and therefore the presidential election—is too close to call. If Harris wins the states where she leads in the poll, she would win a narrow majority in the Electoral College.

Here are some data: click to enlarge:

The survey also shows that a campaign marked by bitter rhetoric, a switch of candidates atop the Democratic ticket and two assassination attempts on Trump have pushed Americans into their partisan corners, with neither candidate taking a meaningful share of voters from the other’s party. Trump, the former president, is holding 93% of Republicans across the seven states, while Harris, the vice president, retains 93% of Democrats.

Independent voters are evenly divided, 40% for Harris and 39% for Trump—another factor that makes the contest an up-for-grabs race in each state.

“This thing is a dead heat and is going to come down to the wire. These last three weeks matter,” said David Lee, a Republican pollster who worked on the survey with Democrat Michael Bocian.

I have decided not to get nervous about this election, as what will be will be. That’s not to say that one outcome won’t discombobulate me more than the other, but worrying doesn’t accomplish anything, and, anyway, I’m going to Vegas in two weeks (not to gamble: speaking at CSICon).

*Finally, the WaPo answers a question I had asked, “What will happen to the farm animals when Hurricane Milton strikes?” Their answer is “Animals are smarter than us.” Some examples:

[Sara] Weldon — who got hundreds of offers from farm owners across the country to take in her animals — explained that the safest thing for most farm animals during a hurricane is to leave them outside rather than in a barn.

Weldon and her husband filled up their bathtubs in their home with water and bought plenty of supplies ahead of the storm. Outside, they secured all the fencing and stocked up on food for the animals. They kept their 8-month-old donkey indoors with them, as well as their baby chickens.

“Animals are smarter than us,” Weldon said in a phone interview with The Washington Post. “They instinctively know where to go to be safe.”

She and her husband saw that firsthand, when they went outside at 2:30 a.m. during the storm to check on the animals.

“Our pack of donkeys were huddled together,” Weldon said. “They huddle together to be a break in the wind. It’s really cool.”

Still, “I went to bed not knowing if I would see them again,” she said.

Social media accounts like Weldon’s went viral as followers worried about the survival of farm animals across Florida — including Graci Lovering’s horse and 10 cows. She posted a TikTok of her painting names and phone numbers (using an All-Weather Paintstik) on her animals in case the fence surrounding the property was damaged and the animals escaped. It got more than 26 million views.

Here it is:

@graci.lovering

Lord, protect us! #hurricanemilton #cat5hurricane #centralflorida #livestock #floridahorselife #floridahorse #hurricaneequestrian #hurricanecows #livestockhurricane #zoey #buddy #elsa

♬ original sound – Freedom_Lover

Lovering and her family decided not to leave their 32-acre property in Lakeland, Fla. They, too, stayed close to the animals, as their home was also not in a mandatory evacuation zone.

“The animals are safest out in the pasture because if they were in the barn, they could get trapped or hit with a fallen tree,” Lovering said. “Out in the pasture, they can run from debris and fallen trees. These animals know what to do. They put their backs to the wind and stand in a line.”

People from around the world were concerned.

I’m crying just thinking about all the animals. I can’t take it,” someone commented on Lovering’s video.

“PLEASE UPDATE,” another person wrote.

Many other Hurricane Milton animal videos spread far and wide online, including one of a trio of goats wearing life jackets, which has nearly 4 million views.

And here’s that video:

@ispeaktruthbuddy

Goats are ready for Hurrican Milton #milton #florida #hurricane

♬ Rock You Like A Hurricane – Scorpions

Surprisingly, the animals did very well—at least in these stories. They didn’t write about the animals that didn’t make it. And I especially worry about wild birds. I guess the alligators did okay.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is fighting. When I asked Malgorzata “which war,” she said “Any way that comes her way.”  I’ve made her face in this picture my Twitter photo:

A: What are you doing?

Hili: I’m winning the war.

*******************

From Science Humor:

From Cat Memes; (let’s hope not!):

From Jesus of the Day:

From Masih, another Iranian woman with her eye shot out for protesting.

Google translation:  “It’s been two years since I saw the world with one eye. For two years, a terrible paradox has been raging in my life. Sometimes I stay silent for hours in the mirror wondering where is that beautiful eye of mine. Me and this heavy wound that in these two years in isolation have brought the day to the night and have bewitched the night with a torus of terrible darkness.”

دو سال شد که من جهان را با یک چشم میبینم.
دو سالیست که پارادوکسی سهمگین در زندگیم فغان می‌کند.
گاه و بیگاه ساعت ها در آینه ساکت میمانم که کجاست آن چشم زیبایم.
من و این زخم سنگین که در این دو سال در انزوایی روز را به شب رسانده ایم و شب را با چنبره ای از تاریکی سهمگین سحر کرده ایم. pic.twitter.com/fd8hW3Gg7u

— Kosar Eftekhari 🕊️ (@kosareftekharii) October 11, 2024

Here’s James Carville “browning his whites,” as Sullivan mentioned above. I love this guy!

NEW: James Carville weighs in on the state of the election: “I’m scared to death.”

Sensing a common theme from Democrats.

“I’m very, very concerned…They need to be much more aggressive…They need to stop answering questions and start asking questions.”

Carville also advocates… pic.twitter.com/Zr2tyaMHXP

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 10, 2024

From Malgorzata: some hypocrisy at CBS:

A lot of folks arguing that Dokoupil’s questions were inappropriate because the morning show is only supposed to be for puffy, supportive interviews. Well, here’s the same show interviewing a guy whose daughter had been kidnapped on October 7th. Seems …. not so puffy or… https://t.co/oKvQSoabUB

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) October 9, 2024

From my feed. I love animal rescue videos!

Do good to those who need it pic.twitter.com/HQzPMpKOdI

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 11, 2024

From Rowling. The context from the Torygraph:

Four suspected trans rights protesters attacked a gender-critical conference by releasing hundreds of live crickets into a packed auditorium.

The stunt threw the annual LGB Alliance conference into chaos, as a room of about 600 people had to be evacuated on Friday afternoon.

A protester, described as a 17-year-old girl by witnesses, who had been sitting in the crowd, dropped a bag of the insects as one of the final talks of the day was about to start.

Screams and cries broke out from the audience, with some people climbing onto chairs and others running out of the auditorium at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster.

Did any of those releasing insects in an attempt to sabotage the @AllianceLGB conference have a split second of sanity in which they thought ‘Am I in fact proving every critic of gender identity ideology right? Is trying to disrupt a meeting of gay people a tad homophobic?’

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 11, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

12 October 1892 | Edith Stein was born in Wrocław. She was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism & became a theologian & Carmelite nun. Murdered in #Auschwitz in Aug 1942. Stein was beatified in 1987 and canonized in October 1998. pic.twitter.com/RKYuKzPyx1

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) October 12, 2024

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First: too many raccoons?

On Patrol: Raccoon Invasion pic.twitter.com/5pAUE761Nk

— Kitsap Sheriff (@KitsapCoSheriff) October 7, 2024

This is sad:

Scientists who analysed satellite images of Antarctica were “shocked” by how quickly the area covered by vegetation is expanding. https://t.co/ppNQfqkPoc

— New Scientist (@newscientist) October 9, 2024

Welcome to Friday, October 11, 2024, and National Sausage Pizza Day.  That’s a good pizza, but would be better if it had green peppers, garlic, and maybe mushrooms. Like this one from Italy:

It’s also National Coming Out Day, World Dulce de Leche Day, Southern Food Heritage Day, World Egg Day, and World Biryani Day. 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 11 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT has an unusual (for them) article called “In interviews, Kamala Harris continues to bob and weave” (archived here).  This, of course, has characterized her whole campaign, but so many people seem overcome with joy that perhaps they havent noticed it. However, despite offering a fair amount of implicit criticism, the article winds up praising her.

Running an abbreviated campaign in the final sprint before Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris blitzed the media this week in a series of interviews to speak to voters who say they still don’t know enough about her.

This week, Ms. Harris put her own stamp on the art of the dodge.

On “60 Minutes,” she declined to answer a question about whether she considered Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, to be a close ally. She also refused to detail how she would pay for a $3 trillion economic plan.

When asked on ABC’s popular daytime show “The View” about accusations from Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida that she had only offered to help with a hurricane as a presidential candidate, she swiftly implicated the criticism as proof of his own partisanship. When Howard Stern asked her on his SiriusXM program later that afternoon if she would select Liz Cheney, the Republican former congresswoman, for her cabinet, Ms. Harris refused to be buttonholed. “I gotta win, Howard,” she said with an air of first-things-first. “I gotta win. I gotta win.”

She seems to begin every answer by choosing a limited anecdote from her girlhood, which goes on and on until the reporter (if it’s one doing their job) re-asks the question. Then Harris dishes out a word salad that doesn’t answer the question.  But I digress:

Her media swing provided a glimpse into how she often responds to unpleasant questions without answering them, questions the very premise of questions she finds unfair and can take it upon herself to reword a query she considers unhelpful.

Ms. Harris, 59, can turn the typically defensive crouch of a non-answer into a bit of verbal jujitsu, as she did in declining the opportunity to identify Mr. Netanyahu as an ally. She can nimbly field a query and quickly lace her reply with trip wire for her opponent, as she did last month in her debate with former President Donald J. Trump.

A trained prosecutor, Ms. Harris is lawyerly, argumentative and fundamentally defensive. She often deflects or sidesteps. She can speak passionately about her values in a way that leaves listeners feeling as if the question had been acknowledged, even if the substance remained unaddressed. To avoid delineating her stance on some issues, she will instead focus on her dedication to progress and inclusion.

It goes on, but then the reporter pulls back realizing that he has to make Harris look good:

Mr. Whitaker made a third attempt. This time, he asked bluntly whether she considered Mr. Netanyahu to be “a real close ally.” Ms. Harris seized control of the questions.

“With all due respect,” she began, “the better question is, ‘Do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people?’ And the answer to that question is yes.”

It was a move that at first blush appeared to be an audacious display of chutzpah over what was or was not a “better question.” Instead, it may stand as a historic marker in U.S. foreign policy: The potential 47th president of the United States deliberately declined the opportunity to call the Israeli prime minister an ally. And did so with an artful dodge.

Well that’s an ambiguous ending, but what was clear was that Harris did NOT consider Netanyahu to be a “real close ally,” but didn’t want to say it. Such is politics. But this kind of verbosity that goes nowhere can’t help her, and perhaps she doesn’t want the voters to know her.  I kept an open mind about Harris, but I never felt any “joy.” All I know is that she’s a better choice than Trump.

*The WSJ, in a news piece, makes another criticism:

Vice President Kamala Harris frequently tries to distance herself from her unpopular boss with one clear sentence: “I am not Joe Biden.”

But when pressed for specifics on how she would be different as president, Harris has refrained from detailing a contrast with Biden, as she navigates the complexity of running as a change candidate—with the slogan “A New Way Forward”—while also serving as vice president.

*The Times of Israel has some skinny on Bob Woodward’s new book, War, which will surely be a good read. I don’t know how Woodward gets all these scoops, but must be very well connected. In this case he reveals the rancor of Joe Biden for Israel’s PM Netanyahu:

US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “fucking liar” after IDF troops went into Rafah, and yelled at the premier after an Israeli Air Force strike took out a top Hezbollah commander, according to an upcoming book by US journalist Bob Woodward.

The relationship between the two leaders grew increasingly tense during the spring of 2024, according to CNN, which snagged an advance copy of the book, entitled “War.”

According to the excerpts, during an April phone call, Biden asked Netanyahu: “What’s your strategy, man?”

US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “fucking liar” after IDF troops went into Rafah, and yelled at the premier after an Israeli Air Force strike took out a top Hezbollah commander, according to an upcoming book by US journalist Bob Woodward.

The relationship between the two leaders grew increasingly tense during the spring of 2024, according to CNN, which snagged an advance copy of the book, entitled “War.”

According to the excerpts, during an April phone call, Biden asked Netanyahu: “What’s your strategy, man?”

. . . .. . Netanyahu said Israel had to go into Rafah, the Gaza-Egypt border city that had become Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” responded Biden, according to Woodward.

In May, Israeli forces entered Rafah in a limited operation that went far more smoothly than the US had predicted.

Also in April, Israel allegedly assassinated two Revolutionary Guard generals in the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. After the US and other allies helped Israel intercept most of the missiles Iran fired in response, Biden urged Netanyahu to not respond and to “take the win.”

According to the book, Biden considered Israel’s limited response to the Iranian attack a success. “I know he’s going to do something but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing,’” Biden told advisers.

After Israel entered Rafah, Biden said of Netanyahu: “He’s a fucking liar.”

“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy,” said Biden privately, according to Woodward. “He’s a bad fucking guy!”

Of course Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas, is in Rafah, and Biden’s strategy (vocally echoed by VP Harris) was misguided.  In truth, Biden and Harris have tried to stop Israel from winning from day 1 after October 7, and are now trying to prevent Israel from attacking Iran’s nukes or its oilfields in reprisal for Iran’s huge (but failed) missile attack.  Yet if Canada or Mexico did to the U.S. what Iran tried to do to Israel, Biden would mount a big-time response. This is not about strategy, but about the Democrats trying to win the election by preventing Israel from winning a war. As for Netanyahu, I’m not a fan, but I have to say that the War Cabinet (he’s one of the members, and the leading one) has been doing a damn good job considering they’re fighting a war on seven fronts.  The book also reveals, as I believe I’ve mentioned, that Trump sent covid-testing machines to Vladimir Putin for his own personal use. 

*A rare but well-deserved loss for the pro-Palestinian activists (archived here) who took over the University of Michigan’s student government and proceed to withhold funds from all student activity groups. This odious punitive action was repudiated:

In a tense, simmering meeting, University of Michigan’s student government restored funding on Tuesday night for campus activities and clubs, which had been paused for months in protest of the war in Gaza.

Campus life was put on edge last spring after pro-Palestinian activists won student government elections to the presidency and vice presidency, and secured a near majority of seats in the assembly. Less than 20 percent of students had turned out to vote.

Fulfilling their campaign promise, the activists moved immediately to withhold around $1.3 million in annual funding for campus activities until the university committed to divest from companies aiding Israel’s war in Gaza.

Many student groups, including Ultimate Frisbee, ballroom dancing and the Black Undergraduate Kinesiology Association, were in limbo, unsure whether they could travel to games, rent rehearsal space or provide outreach to students.

But in a meeting packed with activists on Tuesday, the student assembly voted to support a petition that restored the budget. And it rejected an opposing petition that would have sent most of the student government’s money to another university’s initiative in Gaza.

The fallout was immediate. Pro-Palestinian activists accused the assembly members of complicity in genocide.

Genocide—because the students wanted to play Ultimate Frisbee and do ballroom dancing. These activists are deeply unhinged, not understanding the nature of college, which they see as an ideological level to pry Israel out of the Middle East. To do that, they’re willing to sacrifice the extracurricular pleasures of all the other students (there are nearly 34,000 undergraduates at the University of Michigan.

*Rafael Nadal has announced that he’s retiring from tennis next month. The 38-year-old Spanish tennis star is one of the greatest of all time in the sport. As Wikipedia notes,

He has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 209 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. Nadal has won 22 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, including a record 14 French Open titles. He has won 92 ATP-level singles titles, including 36 Masters titles and an Olympic gold medal, with 63 of these on clay courts. Nadal is one of three men to complete the Career Golden Slam in singles.^[a] His 81 consecutive wins on clay constitute the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.

And from ESPN:

Tennis great Rafael Nadal will retire from the sport at the end of the year.

Nadal, 38, has enjoyed a career that has seen him win 22 Grand Slams, including 14 French Open titles. But he has been hampered by injuries in recent years, and he announced Thursday that this will be his final year playing the sport.

He will play for Spain against the Netherlands in the Davis Cup in Malaga from Nov. 19-21. That will be his final act on the tennis court, in a sport where he stood alongside Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as four modern greats in the men’s game.

“I’m here to let you know that I am retiring from professional tennis,” Nadal said in a video statement posted to social media. “The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these two especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations. It is obviously a difficult decision, one that takes me some time to make.

“But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end. And I think it’s an appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined.

“I am very excited that my last tournament will be the final of the Davis Cup and representing my country. I think I’ve come full circle since one of my first great joys as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in Sevilla in 2004. I feel super, super lucky for all the things I’ve been able to experience. I want to thank the entire tennis industry.”

Here’s a 12-minute compilation of some of his best shots. The man is amazing—the backwards shots are stunning. You’ll want to watch this even if you’re not a tennis fan.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is searching for a metaphor:

A: What are you looking at?

Hili: I’m observing signs of the times.

Ja: Na co patrzysz?

Hili: Przyglądam się znakom czasu.

*******************

From The Dodo Pet:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

Down in Florida, Jango, staffed by Divy and Ivan managed to survive Hurricane Milton, but he looks a bit baffled (his house survived):

From Masih. This is Manoo Majidi, whose fate was detailed in an interview by Angelina Jolie in Time:

Roya Piraei, 25, was living with her parents in the city of Kermanshah, Iran, when protests began over the death in police custody of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman charged with wearing her headscarf improperly. On Sept. 20, Roya’s mother, Minoo Majidi, was chanting slogans with other protestors when security forces on motorbikes shot her at close range. She died with 167 shotgun pellets in her back.

The Google translation:

John Pashu’s mother There was nothing, only 167 bullets. They say not to be sad anymore… #We hate you.

#Mino_Majidi
#freedom_life_woman

مادر جان پاشو،
چیزی نبوده فقط ۱۶۷ ساچمه بوده،
میگن دیگه دلخور نباشیم…#از_شما_تنفر_داریم#مینو_مجیدی#زن_زندگى_آزادى pic.twitter.com/Vgd7LAgQVt

— Mahsa Piraei مهسا پیرایی (@mahsa_piraei) October 8, 2024

From Malgorzata; a good answer by a Canadian politician:

Just Now: When asked whether he would support Israel striking the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Canadian opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, responds:

“It would be a gift by the Jewish state to humanity.” pic.twitter.com/fsmwCTIOWF

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 8, 2024

From Luana, a funny.  This may be an old joke rather than a “lived experience,” but it’s still funny:

Batman couldn’t beat this out of me pic.twitter.com/zVxowNoemp

— internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F) October 7, 2024

From reader cesar, who says this is a worthwhile thread (it deals with the controversy about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s opprobrium towards Israel. I’ll just give the first two tweets:

Coates’ first sentence deliberately reflects his hope & dream: no Jewish state. He makes clear he believes there is only one legitimate people with rights in the Holy Land – Palestinians. He disgustingly says Holocaust center Yad Vashem is based in Palestine. Tone firmly set. 2/ pic.twitter.com/eKXySzXkrp

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) October 7, 2024

From my feed. For some reason it gives me a lot of d*g posts, but this one’s a heartwarmer. I hope the canid got better:

Dog’s unwell, and cat hasn’t left his side since..🐈🐾🥺❤️ pic.twitter.com/xk1i4PJaPp

— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) October 9, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I posted:

A French girl killed with cyanide gas immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was six years old. https://t.co/TX10NRmSuV

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 11, 2024

Two tweets from Matthew. He’s submitted his Crick biography, which will be out next year!

It’s done. I have just submitted my Crick biography to @ProfileBooks and @BasicBooks. Over three years of work, 160,000 words, covering eighty years of thinking about science. This impression, from Oliver Sacks, is what I want to convey. Next year, you can judge if I succeeded. pic.twitter.com/q64AIt0lur

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) October 10, 2024

This is the biggest arthropod we know of—larger than a king-size bed. The link is in the tweet:

This ancient millipede grew longer than a polar bear. It was discovered more than 100 years ago, but today, it finally gets a head. https://t.co/hVQ8pQEs9q

— Jason Bittel (@bittelmethis) October 9, 2024

Welcome to Thursday, October 10, 2024, and National Angel Food Cake Day; as a kid, I got this cake every year on my birthday with either coffee icing or strawberries-and-cream icing (my choice).  But I haven’t even seen an angel food cake in years, even though it stands high in the hierarchy of cakes. May I please have some? Here’s an angel food cake just baked and before being iced. It makes my mouth water:

It’s also National Metric Day, National Depression Screening Day, World Porridge Day, National Tic Tac Day, Squid and Cuttlefish Day, World Day Against the Death Penalty, and World Mental Health Day. 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 10 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*This WSJ article is aimed at the people about to lose power and perhaps cellphone service in Florida, but it’s useful to know for everyone. But you need an iPhone 14 or later. If you have one, it has satellite phone capabilities:

Starting with the iPhone 14 line, has quietly turned its popular handsets into satellite phones. First, people could use them to contact emergency services. With the latest software update, you can text family and friends, too. In the aftermath of Helene, many relied on iPhones. The Journal’s Rachel Wolfe, reporting from Asheville, used satellite texting on her iPhone 14 Pro to send her story updates to her colleague.

Whether or not you’re in the path of Hurricane Milton, here’s how to enable satellite messaging on your iPhone:

The hardware needed to connect to satellites is in all iPhone 14, 15 and 16 models. Not sure which phone you have? Go to Settings, then General > About > Model Name.

The emergency SOS capability should just work. But to enable satellite texting, you have to be on iOS 18. Check or update your software under Settings > General > Software Update. If you’re up-to-date, you can send iMessage or SMS texts to anyone when you don’t have cellular or Wi-Fi coverage.

All iPhone users receiving your messages should be running iOS 18, too. And it works best if you add anyone you might need to reach to your Family Sharing or emergency contacts, in the Health app.

. . . If you are out of cellular range, a pop-up will ask if you want to use Messages via satellite. You need to be outside with a clear view of the sky and horizon. (Clouds won’t block signals, but trees will.) The iPhone’s software guides where to point your device. Once connected to a satellite, it may prompt you to move left or right—or turn around—to maintain the connection.

. . .Apple says you can’t send pictures, videos or audio messages. (More details here.)

Have an android phone? Fuggedaboutit.  And it won’t work at all on my iPhone 13, which I’ll continue to use (getting new batteries as required) until it becomes completely obsolete.

*The NYT has picked up the Free Press‘s scoop about reporter Tony Dokoupil being chastised by CBS News for asking hard questions of Ta-Nehisi Coates (see video of the interview and my report here),  Bari Weiss must have at least a frisson of pleasure having her former employer piggybacking on her stories. Some excerpts:

The episode began last Monday when Mr. Coates visited “CBS Mornings” on a publicity tour for his book “The Message,” which in one section compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow laws of the American South. In describing what he witnessed on a 10-day trip to the region last year, Mr. Coates criticized other journalists for “the elevation of factual complexity over self-evident morality.”

From the start of the interview, Mr. Dokoupil directly challenged this framing, telling Mr. Coates that “the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” The anchor added, “What is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place?”

“There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state; I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are,” Mr. Coates replied. The men parried for several minutes in a tense but civil manner, with Mr. Coates at one point saying: “Either apartheid is right or wrong. It’s really, really simple.”

Their exchange concluded on a light note, with Mr. Dokoupil, who is Jewish, telling Mr. Coates that he was “still invited to High Holidays” to a chorus of laughter on the set.

. . .The interview created a social media uproar. Fans of Mr. Coates accused Mr. Dokoupil of bias, with one writer for Vox calling his questions “hostile, combative and rude.” Others took a more sanguine view, including a Washington Post reporter who wrote that the conversation had been “impassioned but calm” and had brought rigor to the typically breezy realm of morning TV.

Late last week, a group of CBS News employees approached executives with their concerns about Mr. Dokoupil’s handling of the interview, according to two people with knowledge of the events, who requested anonymity to share internal discussions.

Mr. Dokoupil met for an hour with members of the CBS News standards and practices team and the in-house Race and Culture Unit, which advises on “context, tone and intention” of news programming. The conversation focused on Mr. Dokoupil’s tone of voice, phrasing and body language during his interview with Mr. Coates, one of the people said.

Mr. Dokoupil, who joined CBS News in 2016 and became a morning anchor in 2019, is a rising star at the network who recently took on an extra hour on “CBS Mornings.” He is continuing to appear on the air.

Well, at least the NYT didn’t fire a good reporter, as they have (twice) in the last couple of years. But to call somebody on the carpet for asking tough questions in a polite manner is unconscionable (watch the interview). The only explanation is an unsavory one: a white reporter isn’t allowed to ask hard questions of a black icon.  And it’s ridiculous for Coates to criticize Israel’s treatment of Palestine without mentioning terrorism or Hamas. I will be reading his essay when the book arrives, but Coleman Hughes has read it and he seems to think that Coates is historically ignorant.

*The Free Press also discusses other fallout from their article (archived here), and it doesn’t make CBS look good.

. . . . two days later it’s still not clear what Dokoupil did wrong, other than ask tough but substantive questions.

In our world, we call that journalism.

But the fallout over the sin of Dokoupil’s questions continued on Tuesday morning during a meeting for the morning show staff.

Originally, CBS News had invited a self-described “mental health expert, DEI strategist, and trauma trainer” named Dr. Donald Grant to moderate a conversation on the issue in an all-staff meeting on Tuesday. That plan was scrapped after old social media posts from Dr. Grant surfaced—including one where he referred to South Carolina senator Tim Scott as “Uncle Tim” (a reference to “Uncle Tom”) and another of him describing a possible second Trump term as “MAGAcide” and the “death of a nation.” Seems like just the guy you should call when you want to smooth things over. (A source close to the drama told The Free Press that the network was “humiliated by his Instagram.”)

The meeting went ahead without Grant—staffers were not able to join from outside of CBS offices in order to prevent leaks. One source familiar with the proceedings suggested it was a “shit show,” with various employees “yelling.” Shawna Thomas, the show’s executive producer, was in tears. So was Dokoupil.

There was an open debate in the meeting about whether it is “fair to talk about whether Israel should exist at all.” There are some people at CBS who think that “Israel’s existence as a state should be part of fair conversation,” said one CBS source. Can you imagine journalists having that conversation about any other country?

No wonder Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of CBS’s parent company Paramount Global—at least until its merger with Skydance goes through some time next year—is not happy. A source close to Redstone told The Free Press that Redstone thought that “Tony gave a great interview and modeled what civil discourse should look like. And she disagreed with the action the company took. She’s working with the CEOs to address this issue.”

Meanwhile, Coates himself spoke about the controversy for the first time Tuesday. In a trailer for an appearance on Trevor Noah’s podcast, he accused Dokoupil of “commandeering” the interview. “I don’t think he did Nate and Gayle a service, and I’m really, really sorry for them,” said Coates, referring to Dokoupil’s co-hosts Gayle King and Nate Burleson.

But Coates also revealed a detail that caught our eye. As he was praising King as a “great journalist and a great interviewer,” he said that “Gayle came behind the stage before we went [on] and she had gone through the book, and I’m not saying she agreed with the book. She was like, ‘I’m gonna ask you about this. I’m gonna ask you about that.’ ”

So let’s get this straight: One journalist is raked over the coals for asking tough questions, while another journalist—if Coates’s recollection is correct—previews her questions and faces no repercussions. (King did not respond to a request for comment.)

Which poses a few questions. Chief among them: Are there different rules for different journalists at CBS?

*Amidst all the anti-Israel bias of the MSM and the NYT, which repels me more every day, we have a “heterodox” Bret Stephens defending Israel in yesterday’s column, “We should want Israel to win“, archived here. (Note: the NYT wants Israel to lose.)

Those who hope for an independent, free and peaceful Palestinian state had better hope Israel wins.

An Israel that allows Hamas to remain in power in Gaza is never going to give up the West Bank for the sake of Palestinian sovereignty, lest Hamas take over there, too, and replicate its strategy of rockets and tunnels on a grander scale. Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, or his heirs would continue their well-documented reign of Stasi-like surveillance over those they rule, not least by brutalizing Palestinians who dare to oppose them. And the feeble but authoritarian Palestinian Authority would remain unreformable if Hamas, rather than more moderate Palestinian groups, remains its principal political competition.

Those who hope for an independent, free and peaceful Lebanese state had better hope Israel wins.

Hezbollah likes to present itself as a Lebanese resistance force. In reality, it’s an Iranian occupation force. It has repeatedly, and often violently, imposed its will on the country’s elected leadership. It has been implicated in the assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri. It has dragged the country into ruinous wars with Israel. It has turned Lebanese civilians into human shields by emplacing itself in dense Beirut neighborhoods. It has taken advantage of the country’s weakness to establish lucrative sidelines in drug trafficking, weapons smuggling and money laundering.

Hezbollah is disliked, if not hated, by most Lebanese. But they will never be free of its tyranny if there is nobody to destroy its ability to violently dominate the political landscape. If a world that claims to care for Lebanon’s interests doesn’t want Israel to do it, perhaps someone else should volunteer. How about the French?

. . . The American people had better hope Israel wins.

Since it came to power in 1979, Iran’s Islamist regime has declared itself at war with two Satans: the little one, Israel; the big one, us. This has meant suffering for thousands of Americans: the hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran; the diplomats and Marines in Beirut; the troops around Baghdad and Basra, killed by munitions built in Iran and supplied to proxies in Iraq; the American citizens routinely taken as prisoners in Iran; the Navy SEALs who perished in January trying to stop Iran from supplying Houthis with weapons used against commercial shipping.

The war Israelis are fighting now — the one the news media often mislabels the “Gaza war” but is really between Israel and Iran — is fundamentally America’s war, too: a war against a shared enemy; an enemy that makes common cause with our totalitarian adversaries in Moscow and Beijing; an enemy that has been attacking us for 45 years. Americans should consider ourselves fortunate that Israel is bearing the brunt of the fighting; the least we can do is root for it.

Those who care about the future of freedom had better hope Israel wins.

*America’s Electoral College system, which makes votes in some states count more than in other states, is reflected in the candidates’ campaign stops, concentrated in the “swing states.” (I’ve never understood why we need an Electoral College). From the AP, as is the map below:

This year’s presidential battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — represent 18% of the country’s population but have dominated the attention of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and their running mates.

Click to enlarge. Look at all the campaigning in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania!

Through Tuesday, they have had just over 200 total campaign stops — three-quarters of which have been to those seven states, according to a database of campaign events that is based on Associated Press reporting. Pennsylvania alone has been visited 41 times, the most of any state.

But it’s not just the state visits: The presidential campaigns are tailoring their appearances to specific counties they believe are crucial to their success. The AP’s database shows their campaign events in the seven battleground states have been concentrated in counties with 22.7 million registered voters — just 10% of all voters registered nationally for this year’s presidential election.

The issue with the Electoral College is that it’s outmoded. Established to confect a compromise between voters electing the government and Congress electing the government, it now has the power of the Constitution behind it–even though it’s not really in the Constitution (it’s an interpretation of a few words). Thus, to change the system you’d need to adopt a Constiututional Amendment, and that takes forever. For the time being, we’re stuck with a system that’s palpably unfair. Why should one person’s vote count more than another’s?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej have a long intellectual discussion about “ways of knowing”:

Hili: What is rationalism?

A: Respect for facts and documented cause and effect relationships.

Hili: And if we don’t know them?

A: Then we usually use intuition based on tradition and superstitions.

Hili: Co to jest racjonalizm?

Ja: Respekt dla faktów i udokumentowanych związków przyczynowo-skutkowych.

Hili: A jeśli ich nie znamy?

Ja: To na ogół używamy intuicji opartej na tradycji i przesądach.

*******************

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Richard:

From Cat Memes:

Masih didn’t post again today, so here’s one from Luana. Bad news for Denmark, and a downside of immigration:

In 2017, Denmark abolished the blasphemy laws, our last vestige of past illiberalism. Heading towards being the freest country in history.

But mass Muslim immigration intensified. Recently we had to reintroduce blasphemy laws. And we will likely never achieve such heights again pic.twitter.com/6cohS638t7

— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) October 9, 2024

A post from BlueSky (my first) courtesy of reader Susan:

For anyone wondering what porcupines sound like, here’s a clip of a smol porcupine called Kemosabe chomping on a piece of banana

— Adam Sharp (@adamcsharp.bsky.social) 2024-10-04T17:06:21.548Z

One I tweeted:

I can’t even. . . . . https://t.co/E2iUVoRsNh

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 8, 2024

And other one showing CBS’s editing of Harris’s scattered answer, making it look more coherent (h/t coel and others). This is ideologically-biased journalism:

CBS apparently edited Harris’s originally broacast answer (see at https://t.co/Q33f87LlPQ), and the version on their webpage is now different, and less word-salady (https://t.co/t3KjTl6bU5) https://t.co/OYWHCNDrLl

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 9, 2024

From J. K. R., who has a great sense of humor.

Child, in a decade’s time you’re going to be deeply embarrassed that you supported this misogynistic, lesbophobic shit, and you’ll be really glad I hid your name when I told you so. To future you: you’re welcome. We were all young and dumb once. pic.twitter.com/AhwbxTOrFi

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 8, 2024

One from my feed. Sound up.

i love how she turned back and asked for more 😂❤️ pic.twitter.com/mbW8d0Dhib

— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) October 9, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

Gassed to death upon arrival, a three-year-old Hungarian girl. https://t.co/4kp4ldWFjj

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 10, 2024

A tweet from Matthew, who has moved out of his office and sent his huge collection of Stegosaurus models and toys to a worthy recipient:

They have gone to a good home! https://t.co/3XZjh2rLis

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) October 9, 2024

And Metthew’s collection at the receiving end:

Whelp. Some real gems here. A handful of breakages but nothing that can’t be fixed. Now to continue wishing that I’ll somehow acquire a bigger house. Massive thanks @matthewcobb for this most generous donation. #toydinosaurs #stegosaurs pic.twitter.com/jbfuHyp6zM

— Darren Naish (@TetZoo) October 9, 2024

Welcome to a Hump Day (“Küürupäev” in Estonian): Wednesday, October 9, 2024.  Foodwise, it’s Submarine-Hoagie-Hero-Grinder Day, all American regional linguistic descriptions of an overstuffed sandwich on a roll, here’s a sub from Wikipedia with Dijon mustard on the side:

It’s also National Moldy Cheese Day, National Pet Obesity Awareness Day, National Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day (see below), National Polenta Day (cultural appropriation), International Beer and Pizza Day, and National Pro-Life Cupcake Day (WHAT?).

My teddy bear, named Toasty, is always at work with me. Here he is with me in 2002 (I’ve aged more than he has!):

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 9 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT columnist Kristen Soltis Anderson discusses “Why I can’t answer the two election questions I’m asked the most” (archived here). It’s a tantalizing headline but the answer is anodyne:

Are we going to have another period where, if he loses, Trump will claim rigged voting, “the greatest fraud in the history of America”? I don’t think I could take that again.

*The Times of Israel documents the new wave of anti-Israeli demonstrations at Columbia as pro-Palestinian protestors celebrate October 7, the Day of Butchery.

Standing sentinel on the grassy lawn of Columbia University’s main quad on Monday were over a dozen 10-foot-tall milk cartons, each bearing the face of an American citizen kidnapped by Hamas terrorists exactly one year after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Previously shown outside the Democratic National Convention, “Memory Lane: October 7th Art Installation,” was meant to be a contemplative experience, as many of the 251 people kidnapped and 1,200 murdered in southern Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre include family members and friends of students.

But with metal barricades and dividers, scores of public safety officers and anti-Israel protesters chanting “The only solution is intifada revolution,” and “We will win,” the tension on campus was palpable.

. . . In the weeks leading up to the October 7 anniversary, Jewish student groups, including Students Supporting Israel, Columbia/Barnard Hillel, Chabad at Columbia University, and Aryeh at Columbia/Barnard Hillel, had asked the school’s interim president Katrina Armstrong to allow the Columbia Jewish community to mourn openly. While the installation was approved, several other events will be held indoors and closed to press, including the evening’s Columbia/Barnard Hillel program.

Because the Morningside Heights campus remains closed to outsiders through Wednesday, this reporter was required to have an escort from the university office of public affairs and was only permitted 30 minutes on campus.

. . . Earlier Monday morning, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an unrecognized campus group, staged a walkout as part of a citywide “Students Flood NYC for Gaza” initiative. The demonstration was organized by Within Our Lifetime, an openly pro-Hamas group that calls for Israel’s destruction.

In their call to action, CUAD urged protesters to mask their faces, wear all black, and conceal any identifying markings such as tattoos, birthmarks, and piercings, according to a Friday Instagram post.

These people are cowards who don’t want to be identified.  If they’re proud of their cause, and exercising civil disobedience, why do they conceal themselves? Because, of course, they don’t want to be punished. Ergo, they’re avoiding the consequences of civil disobedience.

The Times of Israel asked several students wearing keffiyehs to comment on the morning’s events; all declined to speak with the press.

The demonstrators’ chanting was so loud that even when the teaching assistant in Lederman’s classroom shut the windows, the chants could still be heard, he said.

. . . Since October 7, CUAD has openly supported organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah — recognized as terror groups by the US and other governments — and glorified terror attacks. “On October 1, in a significant act of resistance, a shooting took place in Tel Aviv, targeting Israeli security forces and settlers. This bold attack comes amid the ongoing escalation of violence in the region,” reads a CUAD Substack post referring to a shooting and stabbing attack in a Jaffa light rail station that killed seven people and wounded 17.

There’s no more pretense among these protestors of supporting Palestine in general, or of “we’re just criticizing Netanyahu”. Their goal is to support Hamas and Hezbollah and the aims of these terrorists: to kill Jews and eliminate the Jewish state.  Here we have Americans, living in a land that prizes democracy, liberty, and equal rights, siding with terror groups that are murderous, misogynistic, and theocratic. It’s baffling.

*As any fool could predict, and the WSJ reports, Iran is close to having the ultimate deterrent of an attack: nuclear weapons:

Israel has shown Iran’s two most important deterrents against an attack—its ballistic missiles and allied militia Hezbollah—are less powerful than previously thought. Now attention is turning to whether Iran will accelerate its nuclear program to deter its biggest regional foe.

For months, Iranian officials have said that Tehran has accumulated most of the knowledge needed to build a weapon and that it might reconsider Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s two-decade-old pledge not to procure weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is concerned about the garden:

Hili: Something is eating this bush.

A: Yes, reportedly all such bushes in the region are sick.

Hili: Coś ten krzak zżera.

Ja: Tak, podobno wszystkie w okolicy chorują.

*******************

From Jesus of the Day; the sign of a nice person:

From Richard:

From Godless Mom (h/t Stephan); a cat guru:

And a bonus photo (and text) by reader Chris:

I went to the Brandenburg Gate last night as I’d heard there was going to be a memorial for 7/10 and was very moved to see it lit up like this. There were a lot of people there and the atmosphere was completely calm and peaceful.

Masih hasn’t posted anything new in a while. So here’s a tweet from Gad Saad reprising the contents of his book The Parasitie Mind. Listen if you have 1.5 hours to spare, or sample it:

Today is the four-year anniversary of the release of The Parasitic Mind. I’m reposting my lecture covering key themes from my book that I delivered at my alma mater @Cornell. pic.twitter.com/ZdxS5AoSzF

— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) October 7, 2024

Two from my feed. There are no bad bears!!

Imagine having to explain this to your insurance with no video 🐻 pic.twitter.com/xxHYiZGZI1

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 7, 2024

And

As people sometimes say, “I can’t even. . . ”   (SJP is “Students for Justice in Palestine”):

Boston University SJP today: pic.twitter.com/1H3RyH4yzA

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 7, 2024

From Simon (ref. Marjorie Taylor Greene): “Brent has a rant on weather control.  I do love “storm the capitol Barbie” as a descriptor.  Also – ‘it’s raining cats and dogs – they must be feeding the people in Springfield’.”

Their controlling the weather pic.twitter.com/pjpifF9Sk1

— Brent Terhune in Louisville 10-24 (@BrentTerhune) October 7, 2024

Goats!

Goats being goats.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/1ttwU9ZitJ

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) October 7, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I posted.

A 44-year old Czech woman was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. Note that she’s signed the photo. https://t.co/H8NFltQTox

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 9, 2024

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, more brave people fly through a hurricane:

wow, really admire what these colleagues do for our nation https://t.co/cSax8BADRj

— Dr. Marshall Shepherd (@DrShepherd2013) October 8, 2024

Typed from life!

Typewriter artist James Cook depicts the Royal Albert Hallpic.twitter.com/bDQGuGK7UB

— 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 (@Steampunk_T) July 28, 2024