Category: Kulka

Sunday: Hili dialogue

April 28, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Sabbath for goyische cats: Sunday, April 28, 2024, and National Blueberry Pie Day, one of America’s finest pie (I haven’t seen it elsewhere). The finest specimen I’ve had is at Helen’s, in Machias, Maine, made with a mixture of cooked and uncooked lowbush blueberries (the wild kind). Here’s a short video showing it. Now, don’t you want some? If you get to Machias, as I once did when collecting flies, be sure to stop at Helen’s for lunch and PIE:

It’s also National Superhero Day, Great Poetry Day, National Kiss Your Mate Day, and Workers’ Memorial Day and World Day for Safety and Health at Work, while in Canada the version celebrated is theNational Day of Mourning.

One of our readers, Pliny the in Between, used to do cartoons with me as Angry Cat Man; specimen below but, sadly, they have stopped coming:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 28 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Although the U.S. slapped a slew of new sanctions on Russia after the sudden death of dissident Alexei Navalny in a gulag, it now turns out that, contrary to what everyone thought, his death may not have occurred under orders from Putin.

Alexei Navalny’s February death in an Arctic penal colony prompted a new wave of sanctions targeting Russia’s economy, upended delicate negotiations to exchange prisoners between Russia and the West, and left Russia’s limited opposition in disarray.

Russian President Vladimir Putin might not have planned for it to happen when it did.

U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Putin likely didn’t order Navalny to be killed at the notoriously brutal prison camp in February, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that deepens the mystery about the circumstances of his death.

The assessment doesn’t dispute Putin’s culpability for Navalny’s death, but rather finds he probably didn’t order it at that moment. The finding is broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department’s intelligence unit, the people said.

. . .Some European intelligence agencies have been told of the U.S. view. Certain countries remain skeptical that Putin wouldn’t have had a direct hand in Navalny’s death, according to security officials from several European capitals. In a system as tightly controlled as Putin’s Russia, it is doubtful that harm could have come to Navalny without the president’s prior awareness, those European officials said.

President Biden and other world leaders have held Putin ultimately at fault based on years of the Kremlin’s targeting Navalny, including by allegedly attempting to assassinate him in 2020 and sending him to a remote gulag. “Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” Biden said after the world learned of the death.

But the U.S. now believes the timing of his demise wasn’t intended by Putin.

But Putin is still culpable directly, but certainly Navalny’s poisoning in Europe, and his arrest after returning to Russia, must be placed at Putin’s door. The sanctions, then, might still have been a proper response.

*Hamas has released two videos of what it says are two still-living hostages, and that has energized much of the Israeli public to demand the return of hostages, even at the risk of allowing Hamas to win the war. (They also want new elections to depose Netanyahu, which I don’t oppose.) I can understand their concern and desire to get their loved ones home, but this may be shortsighted: a way of Israel committing suicide:

After Hamas released a video of two hostages in the Gaza Strip, families of captives say the government has a choice between hostages or war.

In a statement to the media, families charge that military pressure, which the government has said would bring their loved ones home, has failed.

“The State of Israel must choose: hostages or war. Entering Rafah will bring more murdered hostages in captivity, or their deaths in the war. Entering Rafah will be another way for the abductees to die. Israel must choose to return the hostages,” the statement says.

The families also call on war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and observer Gadi Eisenkot to work to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since their efforts to influence the government to reach a deal have so far failed.

There’s a bit more at the Jerusalem Post. However, my Hebrew-speaking contacts tell me, as they have before, that only two or three families of hostages favor this move, with their support coming from other people who want Netanyahu gone.  Right now well over 70% of the Israeli public favor an invasion of Rafah, and a sizable majority remain opposed to Tom “I am stupid” Friedman’s “two state non-solution.” The calculus would show, I suspect, that if Hamas remained as the rulers of Gaza, in the long run far more Israelis would die than if Rafah were invaded, even at the risk of the death of some hostages.

*Speaking of Hamas, the WaPo presents a poll suggesting that Gazans are getting fed up with their terrorist leaders. Now I don’t know whether to believe it given the interview method of asking people in Gaza (seriously?), and the sample size of “more than a dozen people” (OY!), but here’s what they say, for what it’s worth:

More than six months into the war in Gaza and with dimming hopes for a cease-fire deal, Palestinians there are growing more critical of Hamas, which some of them blame for the months-long conflict that has destroyed the territory — and their lives.

The war has displaced most of the Gaza Strip’s population, killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the enclave toward famine, its infrastructure in ruins. The Israeli military waged a punishing campaign to eliminate Hamas after the group, which ruled Gaza for 17 years, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people and abducting more than 250.

But while the majority of Palestinians in Gaza blame Israel for their suffering, according to polling conducted in March, they also appear to be turning their ire toward the militants. In interviews with more than a dozen residents of Gaza, people said they resent Hamas for the attacks in Israel and — war-weary and desperate to fulfill their basic needs — just want to see peace as soon as possible.

If Hamas wanted to start a war, “they should have secured people first — secured a place of refuge for them, not thrown them into suffering that no one can bear,” said Salma El-Qadomi, 33, a freelance journalist who has been displaced 11 times since the conflict started.

Palestinians want leaders “who won’t drag people into a war like this,” she said. “Almost everyone around me shares the same thoughts: We want this waterfall of blood to stop. Seventeen years of destruction and wars are enough.”

Well, yes, they’re correct that they should blame their trouble on Hamas, not Israel, but hey, come on! “More than a dozen people” result in a WaPo headline story? They’d still vote for Hamas if they were running against Fatah!

*The video below is of Khymani James, a member of the Columbia for Hamas Encampment and, in fact, one of its leaders. This video was, I think, recorded during a disciplinary hearing, and he says some pretty dreadful things about Jews and killing. He himself recorded and posted this video on Istagram. I think he regrets it now, for, as the NYT reports, he says that his comments were “wrong”.

From the NYT (as we all know now, “Zionists” is a euphemism for “Jews”:

Columbia University announced on Friday that it had barred from its campus a leader in the pro-Palestinian student protest encampment who declared on video in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Video of the incendiary comments resurfaced online Thursday evening, forcing the school to again confront an issue at the core of the conflict rippling across campuses nationwide: the tension between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.

The student, Khymani James, made the comments during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators that he recorded and then posted on Instagram.

The hearing, conducted by an administrator of the university’s Center for Student Success and Intervention, was focused on an earlier comment he shared on social media, in which he discussed fighting a Zionist. “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” he wrote.

A Columbia administrator asked, “Do you see why that is problematic in any way?”

Mr. James replied, “No.”

He also compared Zionists to white supremacists and Nazis. “These are all the same people,” he said. “The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”

Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing.  The latest news about the conflict.

And, Mr. James said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

In announcing their decision to bar Mr. James from campus, the university did not make clear if he had been suspended or permanently expelled.

Should he have been barred from campus? In general, I think that’s a violation of freedom of speech, but there are arguments to be made on the other side. He was the leader of an illegal encampment and bears responsibility for creating a climate hostile to Jews, including expelling them from the “enclave.” The buck stops with him. And, of course, unlike my school, Columbia doesn’t operate according to First Amendment construals of free speech. This would be a tough decision for me. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make it.

*Harvey Weinstein’s guilty verdict in New York may have been overturned, but he’s not free yet, since he still has 16 years to serve in California, where he’ll be transferred. And they may try him again in New York. But given his age and condition (he’s 60 and in terrible health), he’s not going to ever go free. The AP reports that after he left court, he was taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.

Attorney Arthur Aidala said Weinstein was moved to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan after his arrival on Friday to city jails.

“They examined him and sent him to Bellevue. It seems like he needs a lot of help, physically. He’s got a lot of problems. He’s getting all kinds of tests. He’s somewhat of a train wreck health wise,” Aidala said.

A message left with the hospital was not immediately returned Saturday.

Frank Dwyer, a spokesperson with the New York City Department of Correction, said only that Weinstein remains in custody at Bellevue. Thomas Mailey, a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said Weinstein was turned over to the city’s Department of Correction pursuant to the appeals ruling. Weinstein had been housed at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Albany.

On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals vacated his conviction after concluding that a trial judge permitted jurors to see and hear too much evidence not directly related to the charges he faced. It also erased his 23-year prison sentence and ordered a retrial.

Prosecutors said they intend to retry him on charges that he forcibly performed oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013.

Weinstein remained in custody after the appeals ruling because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

For some time, Weinstein has been ailing with a variety of afflictions, including cardiac issues, diabetes, sleep apnea and eye problems.

Oy, what a wreck! And after he gets out of Bellevue he’s going to Rikers Island, a hellhole if ever there was one.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili have a chinwag:

Hili: Look how the grass has grown.
A: I see it but why are you telling me this?
Hili: We have to talk about something.
In Polish:
Hili: Patrz jak ta trawa urosła.
Ja: Widzę, ale dlaczego mi to mówisz?
Hili: O czymś musimy rozmawiać.
And a photo of Baby Kulka:

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From The Dodo Pet:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Masih, the assassination of an Iraqi blogger for being “too racy”. Note the Cadillac. It’s not clear who did this, or whether the government was involved, but you can read the WaPo account here.

From Muffy; cat versus duck. Though the cat gets some good licks in, in the end the verdict is, as Harry Caray would say, “Holy cow! DUCK WINS! DUCK WINS!”

Here’s the Israeli COGAT’s Ministry rebutting some lies from the The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs about delays in aid delivery to Gaza (h/t Malgorzata):

From Malcolm; first responders rescue six ducklings that fell through a sewer grate (this is not uncommon). It has a happy ending, which is why this is my favorite kind of video.

I believe this woman is in “Devil’s Pool” near the edge of Victoria Falls. It’s pretty safe with a guide, but I wouldn’t do it!

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I reposted:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a panoply of thirsty wildlife. The skunk is definitely on alert, and does his threat display about 30 seconds in:

Sharks and fish, including remoras, all seek the protection of the large manta ray below:

Monday: Hili dialogue

April 22, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Monday, April 22, 2024, and the beginning of Passover (or Pesach), the Jewish holiday that begins this evening and ends on sundown Tuesday, April 30.  There will be seder dinners with the usual bland food, and people will gather to chat, consume matzos, swill Manischewitz (oy!) and bond.  Even the cats are participating!  Here, from Reader Patricia, is a Passover Cat, presumably a Jewish moggie since it’s named Ziva. The difference is that instead of making biscuits, it makes matzos (visible on the table)!

This is a typical Jewish holiday, with the theme “They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat!”

I’ve got some, too, thanks to my friend Peggy. They’re great when slathered with sweet butter.

Foodwise, it’s National Jelly Bean Day.  If you Google “Jelly Bean Day” by itself (use the preceding link), you’ll get a surprise. Jelly Bellies are of course the best brand, and they make 15 billion beans every year, which works out to more than 1,000 beans per second. This short video shows you how they make them, using “natural ingredients whenever possible.”

It’s also “In God We Trust Day” (on this day in 1864, a bill passed Congress allowing “In God We Trust” to be put on U.S. coins), a day of commemoration in the UK for the murdered 18-year-old black man Stephen Lawrence, and, finally, it’s Earth Day, celebrated in this Google  Doodle with “Google” spelled out in features that represent attempts to save the Earth (read here). 

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The Wall Street Journal has an intriguing article called “Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at World’s Busiest Airports,” with the subtitle, “The Heathrow-to-Dubai flights have two big money-laundering features: One airport doesn’t scan outbound luggage for cash and the other welcomes sacks of it“.  Unfortunately, it’s not archived.

Jo-Emma Larvin wheeled a baggage cart piled with suitcases through London’s Heathrow Airport in August 2020 and handed her passport to an Emirates Airline agent for a flight to Dubai.

Larvin was traveling business class with another woman and together they heaved seven heavy suitcases onto the conveyor belt. She exchanged texts with her boyfriend en route to the security line.

“Do you feel ok?” he asked.

“Yes phew,” Larvin wrote. The suitcases carried millions of dollars worth of British pounds wrapped with rubber bands and bundled in plastic.

The money was headed to an international money launderer who charged a hefty fee to clients to exchange cash for gold or other currencies. His preferred route was to Dubai from Heathrow, Nos. 1 and 2 of the world’s busiest airports for international passengers.

The U.K. requires passengers to tell customs authorities if they are leaving the country with more than the equivalent of around $10,000, but Larvin didn’t, risking arrest. The seven suitcases entered Heathrow’s baggage handling system and slid through a 3-D scanner that checked only for explosives and other potentially dangerous items.

The next morning, the women collected their luggage in Dubai without having too much to worry about: Any amount of cash is allowed to enter the United Arab Emirates, as long as it is declared. The women followed signs to customs and told authorities they had brought the equivalent of $2.8 million.

Most airports worldwide, including in the U.S., don’t scan passenger luggage for cash, a costly undertaking in equipment and personnel. Countries where all money is welcome have no obligation to report about suitcases full of cash arriving from abroad. The loopholes allow billions of dollars worth of cash to fly out of the U.K. and elsewhere to countries with fewer rules, law-enforcement officials said.

Money launderers surreptitiously introduce more than $2 trillion in proceeds from illegal enterprises to global financial systems every year, according to estimates. International airplane passengers likely ferry hundreds of billions of dollars worth of that in cash, according to figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental agency that develops anti-money-laundering standards for countries.

One reason for so much airline smuggling is that penalties and scandals over customers engaged in money-laundering have prompted more banks around the world to report suspicious transactions. “You just can’t walk into a bank with this much money without being flagged,” said George Voloshin, of ACAMS, an industry group for financial crime-fighting professionals.“You will be arrested at the next branch.”

. . . “How the hell did they get away with it—so much money in such a short space of time?” said Ian Truby, a senior investigating officer at the U.K. National Crime Agency. One answer, he said, is that airport security isn’t for crime detection, only flight safety.

I wonder where the money came from in the first place, but many of these people are simply couriers. The article does report that some people get caught, but Larvin has apparently gotten off.

*This is pretty amazing. Fatah, the ruling party of the West Bank, headed by Palestine’s President for Life Mahmoud Abbas, has admitted—as most sane people suspected—that Hamas has killed aid workers and stolen food. Yes, FATAH!

In an incredible and rare admission, Fatah has corroborated what Israel has been saying all along: that Hamas is responsible for turmoil connected to distribution of the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza. A Fatah TV anchor reported that throughout the war, Hamas has been committing what is essentially a triple crime—it has attacked and killed aid workers in order to control aid distribution, stolen the food and water for itself, and caused food prices to skyrocket.

. . . This is a damning indictment by Fatah, exposing Hamas’ heinous actions against humanitarian aid workers and Palestinian civilians in need of food. World powers were quick to decry Israel for an inadvertent tragedy that killed several World Central Kitchen personnel. These same authorities and media outlets must now condemn Hamas with equal vigor for its intentional murder of aid workers. A failure to condemn Hamas for intentional murder by the countries and frameworks who condemned Israel for accidental killing would expose once again a glaring double standard by international bodies, and especially the media, that unfortunately has accompanied this entire war.

Here’s the video of the news report:

*The ever-accommodating government of Justin Trudeau is exploring ways to placate Canadian Muslims, whose religion technically forbids them to pay interest, by thinking of ways to put “halal mortgages” in place. From the CBC:

Federal budget references to mortgage products aimed at Canadian Muslims have members of the community celebrating, along with the mortgage providers that look to serve them, despite a lack of detail from the government on what is to come.

In Tuesday’s budget documents, the federal government indicated that it’s “exploring new measures to expand access” to financing methods such as “halal mortgages.”

The budget provided few details about the plan, other than to say the government had been consulting “financial services providers and diverse communities” and that an update would come in the 2024 fall economic statement. Despite no specifics, it was a welcome addition to the budget for the Muslim community.

“It was very happy news for me,” said Abdullah Mohiuddin, who has already taken out an Islamic, or halal, mortgage to purchase a home in the Edmonton area. He said he welcomed the government’s announcement that it would be finding a way to increase access to a financial product he believes his community needs.

Several firms in various Canadian provinces offer halal mortgages. Halal is an Arabic word that translates in English to “permitted” or “allowed” under Islamic law.

These mortgages are deliberately structured to adhere to both Canadian law and the belief systems of many Muslims. Interest, which is referred to in many Islamic texts as “riba,” is forbidden.

But of course there’s a catch, though I’m not quite sure what it is.

Although interest isn’t charged, there are still costs associated with halal mortgages. In many cases, the costs are higher than those associated with conventional mortgages, and the mortgages are often not available at the branches of mainstream financial institutions.

“It seems like it’s a little bit expensive,” Mohiuddin said, adding he believes the lack of established legal definitions for a halal mortgage in Canada is behind the higher costs.

Muslims looking for a halal mortgage are still going to be paying carrying costs for a loan to purchase their home.

Providers in the industry said these costs can be higher because while there is demand, there are fewer providers — and some halal mortgage providers are unable to foreclose due to religious restrictions, which can increase what some financiers assess as risk.

What is gained here? More woke credits for Trudeau, but no savings for Muslims, except that they can pretend that they’re adhering to the dictates of their faith.

*As if you need further evidence of The Decline and Fall of the ACLU, here’s some from their national Instagram page (h/t Debra) showing their yearly symbol of Arab American Heritage Month. The ACLU and Tlaib: a match made in heaven!

They’re celebrating her!

*According to Greg, “Brian Leiter is collecting recollections and comments about Dan Dennett” at his blog, adding, “The first batch yesterday were all full of praise. I was surprised to read so many calling him one of, or even the greatest, philosopher of our time. I didn’t realize how highly thought of he was among philosophers. I recognized the names of some leaving tributes.”  Go here to see the tributes. I’ll put a few below:

I loved Dan, and I loved his work. By any measure he must qualify as one of the greatest philosophers in the last century. I personally owed him a great deal, and dedicated a recent book to him (fittingly, it was on consciousness) with the words, “Whose work awoke me from my Wittgensteinian slumbers.” The world is now a duller place.

Professor Dennett was an inspiration for me. Along with the Churchlands, he opened my eyes to an empirically informed way of doing philosophy. I had the opportunity to see him in action once during a conference in San Sebastián (Basque Country). I was still doing my doctorate, I was young and shy. But I will always regret not having asked him for a photo together. May he rest in peace.

Tom said…

It’s a rare treat to find a philosopher with whom one profoundly disagrees, yet wants to read more and more of. Most of my thinking about religion and the mind has developed in dialogue with, and opposition to, Dennett, who was simply a brilliant and original writer. My favourite passage from him, skewering analytic pretensions in McGinn:

‘” A type of mind M is cognitively closed with respect to a property P (or theory T) if and only if the concept-forming procedures at M’s disposal cannot extend to a grasp of P (or an understanding of T).” (p.3) (Don’t be misled about the apparent rigor of this definition; the author A never puts it to any use U in any formal derivation D.)’

Cade Mosley said…

One of my early formative moments in philosophy was visiting Craig Waterman’s Metaphysics office hours at U. Texas (where is he now, I wonder?) & talking through Dennett’s Consciousness Explained & other works, learning how to think and argue philosophically.

Aside from making very good philosophy, engaging with his work made good philosophers.
He sharpened people’s thinking and framed so many issues well, even (especially) for those taking an opposing line, which is always one of the best measures of a great philosopher, I think.

Beyond that, he provided a way of thinking about naturalizing so many philosophical problems, which has gone on to ground so much of the most active work happening in philosophical thinking these days.

Those are I think two of his biggest contributions.
I give my respects.

Cade Mosley said…

One of my early formative moments in philosophy was visiting Craig Waterman’s Metaphysics office hours at U. Texas (where is he now, I wonder?) & talking through Dennett’s Consciousness Explained & other works, learning how to think and argue philosophically.

Aside from making very good philosophy, engaging with his work made good philosophers.
He sharpened people’s thinking and framed so many issues well, even (especially) for those taking an opposing line, which is always one of the best measures of a great philosopher, I think.

Beyond that, he provided a way of thinking about naturalizing so many philosophical problems, which has gone on to ground so much of the most active work happening in philosophical thinking these days.

Those are I think two of his biggest contributions.
I give my respects.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is on the veranda roof and wants a nosh:

Hili: Małgorzata is in the kitchen.
A: So what?

Hili: I have to check whether she happens to be cutting meat.

In Polish:
Hili: Małgorzata jest w kuchni.
Ja: No to co?
Hili: Muszę sprawdzić, czy przypadkiem nie kroi mięsa.
And here are Szaron and Kulka on opposite sides of the window:

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From All You Can Eat:

From Things With Faces: a scary muffin!

A text conversation from Ducks In Public. Someone needs to bone up on their biology. Are penguins not birds, either?

From Masih: More Iranian women resisting the misogynistic theists:

From Muffy: Things are heating up at Columbia, and they’re so hot that Jews got advice from the rabbi to stay off campus. Such is higher education.

From Barry, who says, “This cat looks comfortable.” In fact, this is how Hili sleeps on Malgorzata every night!

From Malcolm. This baby turtle doesn’t seem to enjoy its bath.

Rowling strikes back. She won’t lose because Klinefelter Syndrome (an XXY sex chromosome complement) produces only MALES. She deleted the original tweet to avoid identifying the sender:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. Matthew loves Buster Keaton, who was a comedic genius. And he did all his own stunts, like those here:

Matthew and I have a lot of questions about this bird. . . .

Friday: Hili dialogue

April 12, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, April 12, 2024, and National Grilled Cheese Day, a sandwich that MUST be accompanied by tomato soup, comme ça:

DonES at English Wikipedia, Public domain,via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also Big Wind Day, National Dive Bar Day (I honor Anthony Bourdain), Walk on Your Wild Side Day, and the Commemoration of first human in space by Yuri Gagarin:who flew for 108 minutes into space on this day in 1961.  The holiday incorporates Cosmonautics Day in(Russia and the interntional holidays Yuri’s Night and International Day of Human Space Flight.

Below: Gagarin, who died at 34 in a crash of a MIG plane during a training flight. He wrote that his space flight didn’t give him any religious feelings (from Wikipedia):

. . . in his book Gagarin denied God and wrote: “Man’s flight into space dealt a crushing blow to the churchmen. In the streams of letters coming to me, I was pleased to read the confessions in which believers, impressed by the achievements of science, renounced God, agreed that there is no God and everything connected with his name is fiction and nonsense.”

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yuri_Gagarin_(1961)

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

Da Nooz:

*Obituaries first. O. J. Simpson died at 76 from cancer.

O.J. Simpson, who ran to fame on the football field, made fortunes as a Black all-American in movies, advertising and television, and was acquitted of killing his former wife and her friend in a 1995 trial in Los Angeles that mesmerized the nation, died on Wednesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 76.

The cause was cancer, his family announced on social media.

The tweet:

More from the NYT:

The jury in the murder trial cleared him, but the case, which had held up a cracked mirror to Black and white America, ruined his world. In 1997, a civil suit by the victims’ families found him liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. He paid little of the debt, moved to Florida and struggled to remake his life, raise his children and stay out of trouble.

In 2006, he sold a book manuscript, titled “If I Did It,” and a prospective TV interview, giving a “hypothetical” account of murders he had always denied committing. A public outcry ended both projects, but Mr. Goldman’s family secured the book rights, added material imputing guilt to Mr. Simpson and had it published.

In 2007, he was arrested after he and other men invaded a Las Vegas hotel room of some sports memorabilia dealers and took a trove of collectibles. He claimed that the items had been stolen from him, but a jury in 2008 found him guilty of 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping, after a trial that drew only a smattering of reporters and spectators. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years in a Nevada state prison. He served the minimum term and was released in 2017.

My involvement with Simpson is shown below in the thank-you letter from his lawyer Johnnie Cochrane after his client was acquitted. I was in fact on Simpson’s defense team, which I joined after spending a few years serving as an exper expert witness in diverse cases involving the DNA “match statistics” of defendants, a statistic that involves population-genetic calculations.  Except for Simpson, I had always defended poor people using public defenders, people whose charges were based on DNA evidence that, at the time, I thought was being used and calculated improperly. (It’s much better now.)

When I was asked to help with this case, I decided that even rich people deserved a proper DNA defense, and agreed to help, but only if I received no fees (except for my very first DNA case, I charged no money to be an expert witness, thinking it would damage my credibility if I were paid—and the prosecution always asks you on the stand.). After O. J. was acquitted, I decided to stop doing any DNA cases because I thought that he was guilty and that his acquittal was a miscarriage of justice. But of course everyone deserves a decent defense and most criminal lawyers do think that their clients were guilty. (Public defenders told me that they thought 80-90% of the clients they defended were guilty.) But the job of the defense is not to set the guilty free, but to make the prosecution PROVE their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I didn’t conclude Simpson was guilty until after the trial ended when I had already done my part and had heard all the other evidence.

I didn’t testify, thank goodness, nor did I help much save give my opinion about the DNA “match” statistics to the defense team. My view in the end was that the jury was simply bamboozled by the confusing DNA evidence, didn’t understand it (try telling a lay jury what DNA is, how it works, and what probability is), and, along with the glove business, decided to let O. J. go because at least some of them had reasonable doubt.

*Here’s a change in gun merchandising that the Biden Administration calls “the biggest increase in gun regulation in decades.” And indeed, it’s an important change and a big improvement in vetting potential gun owners. It used to be that you could buy a gun online or at a gun show on the spot without a background check. No more. I see that as a big deal, though only one small step for gun-owner kind:

In a move that officials touted as the most significant increase in American gun regulation in decades, the Justice Department has finalized rules to close a loophole that allowed people to sell firearms online, at gun shows and at other informal venues without conducting background checks on those who purchase them.

Vice President Harris and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland celebrated the rules and said they would keep firearms out of the hands of potentially violent people who are not legally allowed to own guns.

The rules — which are expected to take effect in 30 days — codify changes outlined in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law by President Biden in June 2022 and expanded which gun sellers were legally required to conduct background checks on buyers.

“Every person in our nation has a right to live free from the horror of gun violence. I do believe that,” Harris said on a call with reporters. “We know how to prevent these tragedies, and it is a false choice to say you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.”

As part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, officials tasked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is responsible for regulating the sales and licensing of firearms in the United States, with developing rules that would make clear to gun owners how officials will implement and enforce the new gun laws.

The rules clarify who is required to conduct background checks and aims to close what is known as the “gun show loophole” — which refers to the reality that gun-show sellers and online vendors are subject to much looser federal regulations than vendors who sell at bricks-and-mortar stores.

And those vendors should never have looser regulations than apply to those who sell guns from stores.  My view on gun control is well known: it should be at least as strict as it is in the UK or Scotland, and I’ll say no more

*Inflation is up again, and that’s bad news for the Biden Administration and those of us who fear the reelection of Tr*mp.

Inflation ticked up again in March compared with the year before — in yet another sign that the economy doesn’t need high interest rates to come down any time soon.

Fresh data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday showed prices rose 3.5 percent from March 2023 to March 2024. That’s up slightly from the 3.2 percent annual figure notched in February. Prices also rose 0.4 percent between February and March.

The result: The Federal Reserve is very unlikely to cut interest rates in the next few months. Officials have been looking for a bit more assurance that inflation is steadily falling before deciding it’s time to trim borrowing costs. But since the start of the year, the data has brought unwanted surprises, with economists and the markets now expecting no cuts until later in 2024.

The Fed “is nowhere near where they’re going to need to be,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “March would not give anyone any confidence.”

The Wall Street Journal explains why this is Biden’s most stubborn political problem.

Inflation has emerged as the most intractable domestic policy issue facing President Biden less than seven months before the election—but there isn’t a whole lot the White House can do to fix it.

. . .For now, officials said, Biden and his senior aides aren’t planning any major policy or rhetorical shifts. They plan to continue talking about the president’s proposals to lower the cost of housing and prescription drugs, while slashing student-loan debt and eliminating surcharges tacked on to everything from concert tickets to banking services.

“Our agenda to lower costs on behalf of working families is as urgent today as it was yesterday,” said Jared Bernstein, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “We’re just going to keep our heads down and continue fighting to lower costs.” While a White House official said that inflation doesn’t decrease on a linear path and that there will always be bumps in the road, the administration thinks the trajectory is moving in the right direction.

Some of Biden’s cost-cutting plans will take months to come to fruition and will do little in the short term to slow the rate of price increases. Some stubbornly high prices, such as the cost of groceries, are mostly out of the Biden administration’s control. The president has called on grocery retailers and other companies to lower prices, citing their high profits. But he can’t compel companies to take action.

In the end, voters are going to put a lot of weight on their grocery bills and on how much it costs to fill up their car with gas. And both of those price indices have risen.  Biden’s going to suffer big time if inflation doesn’t drop between now and election day, and even if it does, people are still paying more than they think they should have for their food and gas (and houses!).

*Here’s a headline from the AP: “Trump assails Jewish voters who back Biden: ‘Should have their head examined.’”

Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Jewish voters who back President Joe Biden and framed this year’s election as a referendum on the strength of Christianity in the U.S., part of his sharp-edged continuing appeal to evangelical conservatives who are a critical element of his political base.

Speaking in Atlanta ahead of a fundraiser, the presumptive Republican nominee renewed his running criticism of Biden’s reaction to the Israel-Hamas war and the administration’s support for the rights of LGBTQ Americans, including transgender persons.

“Biden has totally lost control of the Israel situation,” said Trump, whose rise in 2016 depended heavily on white Christian conservatives. “Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined.”

Trump spoke after Biden last week warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that future U.S. support for Israel’s Gaza war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

In Trump’s interpretation, Biden “has totally abandoned Israel.”

The Gaza conflict has sandwiched Biden between conservatives – both Christian and Jewish – who want stalwart support for Netanyahu’s government, and progressives. The matter is important to conservative Christians, among Trump’s most supportive constituencies, who see the political state of Israel as the modern manifestation of God’s chosen people, the Israelites of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.

Biden’s left flank, though, is dominated by progressives incensed by Israel’s retaliation in Gaza that has resulted in thousands of Palestinian deaths. The president has repeatedly been greeted by protesters throughout his spring travels, and activists have organized votes against Biden in many Democratic primaries, even as he coasts to renomination.

Let’s be clear about one thing: I blame Hamas, not Israel, for thousands of deaths in Gaza, for all Hamas had to do was stop fighting and release the hostages, and they’d still be running the area. But American voters seem to have forgotten that there will be many civilian casualties produced by of an urban war fought among human shields, that Hamas committed real war crimes several times over, and that the mainstream media slants the news because they don’t care about Israel’s existence.

Now about Trump. He may have had, or will have (if, Ceiling Cat forbid, he’s elected) a better policy towards Israel than does Biden. I also think Biden’s conduct of the war has been dire, particularly in telling Israel how it has to fight. I’m no fan of Netanyahu, and am becoming even less of one as the war proceeds, but I am not a one-issue voter. Biden may be pandering to the progressives while still supporting Israel, support he declares constantly. I have no reason to believe otherwise—yet.  But Trump may not only become erratic on Israel but, more important, has the power and the mental instability to drive the democracy right out of America. I will never vote for the man; if Biden shows himself irredeemably stupider on Israel than he has to date, or seems to be getting dementia, I might not vote at all (it wouldn’t matter in a Democratic state like Illinois). But as things stand, I guess I’m one of those Jewish voters that, according to Trump, should have his head examined.

*The U.S. firmly believes that an Iranian attack on Israel—justified by Iran after a likely Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, killing terrorists—is imminent.  And another Times of Israel headline says, “Top U.S. general arrives in Israel for talks amid fears of impending Iran strike.”

From the first article, which was buttressed by a report on last night’s NBC Evening News:

The United States believes a major Iranian attack on Israel is imminent and could happen in the coming days, according to a report Wednesday, as Iran reiterated its vow to retaliate for an alleged Israeli strike in Syria that killed two generals among several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.

Citing people familiar with US and Israeli intelligence assessments, Bloomberg reported Iran could launch strikes involving high-precision missiles and drones targeting military and government sites in Israel.

One of the people quoted in the report said it was a matter of when — not if — Tehran will attack Israel.

. . . The reports came as US President Joe Biden reiterated America’s commitment to Israeli security in the face of threats from Iran.

Speaking at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in the White House’s Rose Garden, Biden told reporters Wednesday that “[w]e also addressed the Iranian threat, as they threaten to launch a significant attack on Israel.

“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” said Biden. “Let me say it again, ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security.”

Well, that’s good to hear, but I do wonder what the U.S. will do if Iran fires a bunch of missiles at Israel. Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, also has a gazillion high-quality Iranian missiles, and if both fired at once, the Iron Dome simply couldn’t handle them. Would the U.S. really engage in a military strike on Iran? Given that both Israel and the U.S. have nukes, and Iran doesn’t (yet), I think Iran may hold its fire for a while, or perhaps fire a missile at an Israeli embassy in some other country.

About the second article, well, the U.S. military is in Israel plotting joint strategy:

Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of the US Central Command, lands in Israel.

Kurilla is expected to hold consultations with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other officials to discuss the threat of an Iranian attack.

The report added that US and Israeli officials across various agencies have been in contact over the last few days, as the countries prepare for a possible response by Tehran to the alleged Israeli strike on April 1 that hit an Iranian consulate building in Damascus that killed two generals among several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported Iran could launch strikes involving high-precision missiles and drones targeting military and government sites in Israel after Iran reiterated its vow to retaliate.

I have to say that after the tension of the last few weeks, it’s good to see the U.S. and Israel cooperating even a little.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Kulka is trying to take over Listy, but she won’t displace Hili, who is The Editor and occupies The Editor’s Chair.  Szaron looks on.

Kulka: We are occupying the office.
Hili: I rule here.
In Polish:
Kulka: Okupujemy biuro.
Hili: To ja tu rządzę.

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

Trigger warning: JAZZ! From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From The Dodo Pet, a very kind cat owner:

From Not Another Science Cat Page.  Yes, I used to have this experience at night, sometimes walking down the stairs:

Masih comments on calls for violence in Michigan. It’s freedom of speech, but Masih is worried that this speech will promote violence. (That still doesn’t make it illegal.) She also talks about Islamism.

A Democratic congresswoman from Texas, in the Party of Science, makes a bloody fool of herself. A NY Post article on her speech to high school students is here (ht/Rosemary)

From Peter, a blackbird hanging out next to a British police station imitates the new car siren:

From Luana: A hijab-clad law student, invited to a private party at the dean of Berkeley Law School and his wife (a professor), decides to ideologically grandstand at a professor’s home, apparently bringing along a microphone and some like-minded companions.   The hosts try to stop the broadcasting on their private property, but the woman won’t give up. Why are these people so aggressive, especially because it was a celebration in honor of the students?

First, there was apparently a plan because the dean is a Jew. That appears to be his sole crime. That’s enough to get him denounced. See the video below.

And the risible haranguing. Does the physical touching of the person, asking them to leave, constitute any form of assault? Below that, support for the dean from the Chancellor of UC Berkeley.

The pro-Palestinian activists don’t observe either civility or legality here; the woman won’t leave when asked.  I would have called the cops.

The Los Angeles Times has the whole story, including this predictable bit:

Nine activists organized the protest as part of the law school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

Why was the dean targeted? For no reason other than that he’s Jewish.

Reader Barry says that he doesn’t wear caps, but if he did it would be this one:

From the Auschwitz Memorial: a French Jewish girl gassed to death at 12.

Three tweets from Dr. Cobb about the eclipse. He comments on the first one, “Lintott is a lovely bloke, extremely tall, an astronomer and a TV presenter.”

Another one:

And the eclipse, whose shadow started in Mexico:

Thursday: Hili dialogue

April 11, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Thursday, April 11, 2024, and National Cheese Fondue Day, a day of cultural appropriation from the oppressed people of Switzerland. It’s a pity that you don’t see this served much these days, as it’s very good. Here, from Wikipedia, is a cheese fondue with bread and potatoes. (The original fondue was cheese, but now there are also meat and chocolate fondues.)  Excellent on a cold evening with a good white wine!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Fondue_dish.jpg

It’s also Barbershop Quartet Day, National Pet Day, National Poutine Day (in Canada), International Louie Louie Day (I still remember the first time I heard the 1963 hit version by the Kingsmen), and World Parkinson’s Day.

Here’s some poutine I had in Montreal in 2016; and yes, I know it’s not good for my diet but no, I almost never eat it (after all, I’m in Chicago, not Canada):

Here are the Kingsmen lip-synching to their version, the biggest cover of the song (written by Richard Berry).  From Wikipedia:

The “extraordinary roller-coaster tale of obscurity, scandal, success and immortality” and “remarkable historical impact” of “Louie Louie” have been recognized by organizations and publications worldwide for its influence on the history of rock and roll. A partial list (see Recognition and rankings table below) includes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, National Public Radio, VH1, Rolling Stone Magazine, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Recording Industry Association of America. Other major examples of the song’s legacy include the celebration of International Louie Louie Day every year on April 11; the annual Louie Louie Parade in Philadelphia from 1985 to 1989; the LouieFest in Tacoma from 2003 to 2012; the ongoing annual Louie Louie Street Party in Peoria; and the unsuccessful attempt in 1985 to make it the state song of Washington.

 

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

Da Nooz:

*The Torygraph has reported that Russia is using illegal chemical weapons against Ukraine. (archived link)

Russian troops are carrying out a systematic campaign of illegal chemical attacks against Ukrainian soldiers, according to a Telegraph investigation.

The Telegraph spoke to a number of Ukrainian soldiers deployed in positions across the front line who detailed how their positions have been coming under near daily attacks from small drones, mainly dropping tear gas but also other chemicals.

The use of such gas, which is known as CS and commonly used by riot police, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Ihor, the commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team who is deployed near the front line city of Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk Oblast, told The Telegraph: “Nearly every position in our area of the front was getting one or two gas grenades dropped on them a day.”

He said that because of how embedded many Ukrainian troops are now it was difficult for the Russians to attack with conventional artillery or drones firing missiles, adding: “The only way for them to successfully attack us was with gas.”

Even when not lethal or immediately incapacitating, these gas attacks usually cause panic. “Their first instinct is to get out,” Ihor said. They can then be attacked with more conventional weapons.

. . . One of these CS gas grenades was provided to The Telegraph for verification by Rebekah Maciorowski, an American combat medic and a qualified nurse serving in the Ukrainian army.

Marc-Michael Blum, a chemical weapons expert and former head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons laboratory, confirmed the recovered munition was a K-51 gas grenade, which are typically filled with tear gas.

. . . Marc-Michael Blum, a chemical weapons expert and former head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons laboratory, confirmed the recovered munition was a K-51 gas grenade, which are typically filled with tear gas.

A Russian drone dropped two munitions containing an unknown gas that had a “crushed almond aroma” on soldiers in Donetsk Oblast, she said.

Two people were killed and 12 required hospital treatment. In an interview with Le Monde in JanuaryYuriy Belousov, the head of investigations for Ukraine’s prosecutor general, referred to one of the deaths as being caused by an “unknown gas”.

. . . There have also been reports of the use of chlorine and chloropicrin – a substance typically used as a pesticide that was deployed by the Germans as a chemical weapon in the First World War.

The Ukrainian government has reported 626 gas attacks during the war, but the Torygraph says that this is certainly an underestimate. Is anybody going to take Russia (or Bashar al-Assad, for that matter) to the ICJ for war crimes?

*After Iran threatened Israel (and that was after Israel was probably the attacker that killed several Iranian and Hezbollah officials inside the Iranian embassy in Syria), Israel began preparing for an attack coming directly from Iran instead of its proxies. Now Israel is issuing a warning back at Iran.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday both threatened that if Iran launches an attack from its own soil then Israel would strike back inside Iran, amid increasingly belligerent rhetoric between the two countries.

The warnings came after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel “must be punished and it shall be” for allegedly attacking an Iranian consular building in Syria’s Damascus, killing two generals among several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers. The IRGC is a US-designated terrorist organization.

Khamenei said that in bombing an embassy site, Israel “attacked our territory.”

Speaking to troops at an Iron Dome air defense system battery in northern Israel, Gallant said any attack on the country would face a strong defense, before a “powerful response in its territory.”

“In this war, we are being attacked from more than one front… from different directions. Any enemy that tries to attack us, will first of all be met with a strong defense,” Gallant said.

“But we will know how to react very quickly with a decisive offensive action against the territory of whoever attacks our territory, no matter where it is, in the entire Middle East,” he said.

“We have this ability,” Gallant continued, saying that a potential Israeli response would be “very, very effective, very powerful. One of the things we excel at over the years is that the enemy never knows what surprises we are preparing for it.”

Earlier, Katz posted in Hebrew to his official account on social media platform X that “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will react and attack in Iran.”

Of course Iran is attacking Israel by proxy on several fronts, so the embassy attack was retribution, not initiation. And, as Iran well knows, Israel has nukes. I predict that Iran will not attack Israel directly, for the consequences (including the possible destruction of their nascent bomb-building program) could be dire. In fact, the U.S. may well get involved, and that means Big Time War.

*The negotiations between Hamas and Israel appear to have stalled (some say that Hamas can’t even locate 40 of the hostages), but in the meantime a targeted Israeli strike killed 3 sons of the big Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. He lives in Doha (the capital of Qatar), of course, and, since Haniyeh has seven wives, he has many sons. These, and perhaps his grandsons, appear to be fighting for Hamas, as they’re characterized as martyrs, and the NYT says this:

The Israeli military confirmed that its forces killed Mr. Haniyeh’s sons, saying that the three were all active in Hamas’s military operations. In a brief statement, the military did not say where the strike took place or address reports on Hamas-affiliated media that three of Mr. Haniyeh’s grandchildren also were killed.

From the WSJ:

The head of Hamas’s political leadership, Ismail Haniyeh, said an Israeli airstrike killed three of his sons on Wednesday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, an attack that could complicate a U.S.-led plan for a cease-fire in the six-month-old conflict in Gaza.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on the statement.

Hamas said five people died in the strike, which the group said hit a car making social visits for Eid, the holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Haniyeh, in a separate statement, said some of his grandchildren also died.

“I thank God for this honor that he bestowed upon us with the martyrdom of my three sons and some grandchildren,” Haniyeh said in a video statement posted on X by Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. The Hamas official, who is based in the Qatari capital Doha, didn’t name his children or grandchildren.

The U.S. is pushing Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, to negotiate on the terms of a temporary cease-fire, but Hamas has largely rejected the U.S. plan, mediators said earlier Wednesday. Hamas said instead it would put forward its own road map for a permanent end to the war with Israel.

The dismissal illustrates the wide disagreement between the two parties on the contours of a deal and reflects Hamas’s growing confidence that diplomatic and domestic pressure on Israel to end the war gives the U.S.-designated terrorist group the upper hand in negotiations.

Hamas is seeking a permanent cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza in return for the release of hostages held in the strip. Israel has expressed openness to negotiating on the U.S. proposal for a temporary truce but wants the option of continuing its military campaign afterward.

The problem is that Biden and Blinken are running the war now, and have more or less ordered Israel not to finish their job by attacking Rafah. The IDF could evacuate Rafah, except that Hamas won’t let civilians leave and there’s only one IDF brigade in southern Israel.  With a full force, they could evacuate civilians out of Rafah and then finish off Hamas (some Gazans would of course not leave, but they would be liable to be “collateral damage”).  The biggest problem in this war is the United States and Biden’s ambition to be re-elected.

*Meanwhile Tom Friedman, the absolute worst journalist anywhere covering the war, has his own solution: “Israel: Cease-fire, get hostages, leave Gaza, rethink everything.” One statement from this moron:

Which takes us to this fork in the road. My preference is that Israel immediately change course. That is, join with the Biden administration in embracing that pathway to a two-state deal that would open the way for Saudi normalization and also give cover for the Palestinian Authority and moderate Arab states to try to establish non-Hamas governance in Gaza in Israel’s place. And — as the Biden team urged Netanyahu privately — forget entirely about invading Rafah and instead use a targeted approach to take out the rest of the Hamas leadership.

He’s still on the two-state solution (where would it be? who would run it? Is this numbskull aware that neither the Palestinians nor Israelis want a two-state “solution”?) And what kind of “targeted approach” to taking out the Hamas leadership, which appears to be sequestered in Rafah, work if Israel forgets about invading Rafah? Does Friedman know that Gazans do not want to be rule by the Palestinian Authority?

I have no respect for this chowderhead, who apparently thinks he knows better than the Palestinians, or anyone else, how the area should be governed after the war. I think he’s ruled by the mentality that Hamas and the Palestinians are like little children that have no agency; i.e., he has “the bigotry of low expectations”.  The great tragedy of Thomas Friedman is that anybody listens to him.

*A happy animal story: a mountain goat named Chug, apparently stolen from his original owners, flew the coop and somehow found his way onto a bridge in Kansas City, where people couldn’t figure out how to rescue him. He apparently fell but wasn’t seriously injured, and is going back home:

An escaped mountain goat that somehow got stuck under a Kansas City bridge has survived a rocky rescue effort and now may be reunited with the owners who suspect he was stolen from their farm two months ago.

“It’s the story that captured the hearts of Kansas City,” said Tori Fugate, of the KC Pet Project, a nonprofit that handles animal control for the city and operates shelters. “Forget a solar eclipse. We were on goat watch.”

After Monday’s eclipse, people spotted the animal, believed to be a missing goat named Chug, hopping around on the pillars that support the bridge, high above the ground below.

Hoping to guide it to safety, a driver managed to get a rope around the goat’s neck, but that only added to the danger, Fugate said. When firefighters tried to rappel over the side of the bridge to capture the goat, he spooked and tried to jump to the next platform. But his hooves slipped and the rope caught, causing the goat to hang from his neck, not moving.

Firefighters managed to undo a snag in the rope, creating slack in the line. The goat then fell as much as 15 feet (4.5 meters) to the ground, landing in a spot where crews had added padding in an attempt to soften the impact, Fugate said.

A waiting veterinarian sedated the goat and crews carried him in a sling to the top of a rocky hill, where firefighters gave him oxygen. Then he perked up and was taken for X-rays, Fugate said.

“He miraculously has no broken bones,” Fugate said. The goat had been clambering along bridge supports that are as much as 80 feet (24 meters) above the ground, a fall he wouldn’t have survived, she said.

She said this was just the latest part of the goat’s adventure. He entered the shelter as a stray on March 13, was dubbed Jeffrey and was adopted later that month. But he immediately jumped the fence at his new home, she said.

“Thanks to his media fame, yesterday we had somebody reach out and they said that he is very similar to their goat that went missing back in February,” she said.

The family lives two hours away and plans to came to come to the shelter Wednesday to confirm he is their stolen goat. If he is, they plan to bring Chug home with them, and the goat’s adoptive owners say that is OK with them.

“He seems to be very particular about his living situation,” Fugate said.

I love that last line. Anyway, Chug is okay and here’s a news video giving some details. I also love the fact that they had a vet and rescuers below him, and had cushioned the area lest he fell.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Szaron (inside) tries the impossible: eliminating the mutual hatred between Hili (outside, right) and Baby Kulka (outside, left). Hili’s not having it.

Szaron: Why are they quarrelling all the time?
Hili: Do you have more comments?
In Polish:
Szaron: Dlaczego one ciągle się kłócą?
Hili: Masz jeszcze jakieś komentarze?

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

What I saw on the way home yesterday. It’s legal free speech, of course, and has university permission to be posted, but it still disquiets me. And it will accomplish nothing; it’s pure “virtue” flaunting. If they think U of C will change its investments because of a poster, they lack sufficient neurons.

From Lynne:

From Science, Reason, and Secular Values. Squint a bit to see Jesus:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Masih: An Afghani woman speaks eloquently of gender apartheid. Did anybody believe the Taliban when they said they’d begin treating women more equally in Afghanistan? And where are the feminist organizations in the West speaking out?

From Barry; one of the puns surrounding the death of Nobel Laureate Peter Higgs. (The NYT headline for his obituary called him the predictor of the “God particle”!).

(The NYT headline via Simon; click to read):

Here’s a tweet, one of many similar ones I’ve seen (go here for a summary) suggesting that Hamas set up the World Kitchen humanitarian workers to be killed by the IDF. It’s a theory that has some credibility, too. (See here for another one in writing.) I asked Malgorzata if this was credible, and she said this:

About the first video tweet: all facts are correct and it could have gone like the man described. But I have one question. When the Hamas fighters left this lone truck, why didn’t people inside call either the IDF or their employer?  Perhaps their phone rang but they were prevented by Hamas from answering. Unless, of course, terrorists took their phones. The missing information is whether any phones were found on the bodies. If not, the scenario looks very convincing. If yes, questions remain.

This is one ominious vulture:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I retweeted:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a time-lapse video of the eclipse shadow:

And a lovely swan reunion after the pair was temporarily separated (second video has more info):

Monday: Hili dialogue

April 8, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Monday, April 8, 2024, and Eclipse Day. Sadly, I didn’t get a promised ride to a locus of totality, but it will still be 94% coverage in Chicago, which is pretty good.  There’s a Google Doodle celebrating the eclipse today (and emphasizing your eclipse glasses), click on the screenshot below to see that Google has made an animated eclipse on its search page.

And a groaner from Margaret:

For a snack during the eclipse, consider that it’s also National Empanada Day, a day of pure cultural appropriation. Here’s one I photographed (and ate) in Valparaiso, Chile:

It’s also Dog Farting Awareness Day, but does this mean that dogs are supposed to be aware of other people or dogs farting, or of themselves farting? Or are WE supposed to be aware of dogs farting? It’s a mystery. Further, it’s Draw a Picture of a Bird Day (I’ve put one below), National Dog Fighting Awareness Day, Zoo Lovers Day, and International Romani Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 8 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Who knows what’s going on in Israel? Yesterday morning I gave a brief report that the IDF had withdrawn from southern Gaza, leaving only a single brigade, while apparently dividing Gaza into two moieties, north and south.  More from the NYT:

The Israeli military said it withdrew a division of ground troops from southern Gaza on Sunday, raising questions about its plans as the war reached the six-month mark.

Israel has significantly reduced the number of troops it has on the ground in Gaza over the past several months. Only a fraction of the soldiers that it had deployed in the territory earlier in the war remain.

The army said that the 98th Division had left Khan Younis in southern Gaza in order “to recuperate and prepare for future operations.” Israeli news media reported that the withdrawal of the 98th meant there were no Israeli troops actively maneuvering in southern Gaza.

It was unclear what the latest drawdown of forces meant for the prospect of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

Despite warnings from the Biden administration that a ground invasion would be catastrophic for the more than one million Gazans sheltering there, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to invade the city, saying on Sunday said that Israel was determined to “complete the elimination of Hamas in all of the Gaza Strip, including Rafah.”

The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, added in a briefing Sunday night that “we are far from stopping,” though he did not mention Rafah by name.

“Senior Hamas officials are still hiding,” he said. “We will reach them sooner or later.”

As for the reason, even the White House doesn’t know, though they might just be pretending:

A senior White House official said he was uncertain what the withdrawal of the 98th division meant for the future of the war.

“It’s hard to know exactly what that tells us right now,” John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “As we understand it, and through their public announcements, it is really just about rest and refit for these troops that have been on the ground for four months, and not necessarily, that we can tell, indicative of some coming new operation for these troops.”

Update:  Things are getting even more confusing, at least if you read this short piece from the Times of Israel:

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Israeli troops were withdrawn from the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza to prepare for the expected offensive in Rafah.

“The forces came out [of Gaza] and are preparing for their future missions, we saw examples of such missions in action at Shifa [Hospital], and also for their future mission in the Rafah area,” Gallant says following an assessment at the IDF Southern Command.

“We will reach a situation where Hamas does not control the Gaza Strip and where it does not function as a military framework that poses a risk to the citizens of the State of Israel,” he adds.

Okay, that’s deeply confusing. To prepare for an attack on Rafah, in southern Gaza, the IDF pulls most of its troops out ot southern Gaza? In what universe does that make sense. This is all deeply weird. And it’s compounded in this morning’s Times of Israel:

The IDF’s Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, also speaking Sunday, was adamant that the withdrawal of ground forces from southern Gaza did not signal the end of the war. “We are far from stopping,” he insisted. But “we are fighting this war differently… Senior Hamas officials are still in hiding. We will get to them sooner or later. We are making progress, continuing to kill more terrorists and commanders and destroy more terror infrastructures.

“We will not leave Hamas brigades active in any part of the Strip,” Halevi promised. “We have plans and we will act when we decide.”

*Let’s not forget about Ukraine, victim of the evil ambitions of Putin and hard pressed to fight his troops. The NYT reminds us in a full editorial-board op-ed called “Help Ukraine hold the line.”

After more than two years of brutal, unrelenting war, Ukraine is still ready and has the capacity to defend its democracy and territory against Russia. But it cannot do so without American military assistance, which the United States had assured the Ukrainians would be there as long as it was needed.

A majority of Americans understand this, and believe that curbing the revanchist dreams of Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, is America’s duty to Ukraine and to American security. A survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Ipsos found that 58 percent of Americans favor providing economic help to Ukraine and sending more arms and military equipment to the Ukrainian government. And 60 percent of respondents said that the U.S. security relationship with Ukraine does more to strengthen American national security than to weaken it.

While that support has declined somewhat since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, and it is weaker among Republicans, many Republican members of Congress also support continuing military aid. So it is distressing that the fate of Ukraine has fallen prey to internecine Republican politicking. House Speaker Mike Johnson has the power to do the right thing, but time is running critically short.

Without American artillery, as well as antitank and antiaircraft shells and missiles, Ukraine cannot hold off an army that has a far deeper supply of men and munitions. “Russia is now firing at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine,” as Andrew Kramer of The Times reported. As summer approaches, Russia is expected to prepare a new offensive thrust. Mr. Johnson knows this. He also knows that, if he brings it to a vote, a $60.1 billion aid package for Ukraine would most likely sail through the House with bipartisan support. Many Republican members and most Democrats want to pass it. The Senate passed it in February.

Yet so far, Mr. Johnson has avoided a vote, fearing that a clutch of far-right House members, who parrot the views of Donald Trump and oppose any more aid for Ukraine, could topple him from the speaker’s post. To placate them, the speaker has said he will produce a proposal with “important innovations” when legislators return to work on Tuesday. These may include lifting the Biden administration’s hold on liquefied natural gas exports, including a proposed terminal in his home state, Louisiana; calling the aid a loan; or seizing billions of frozen Russian assets.

. . . .Mr. Trump and his followers may argue that the security of Ukraine, or even of Europe, is not America’s business. But the consequence of allowing a Russian victory in Ukraine is a world in which authoritarian strongmen feel free to crush dissent or seize territory with impunity. That is a threat to the security of America, and the world.

Congress is prepared to stand up to this aggression; it is Mr. Johnson’s duty to bring this effort to a vote.

I suppose I sound like a jingoist when I say that America stands for liberty, not jut in our country throughout the world. And that means helping a democratic Ukraine avoid a takeover by a psych0pathic autocrat. The fact that the GOP doesn’t really care about them isn’t really Making America Great Again.

*As we know, immigration seems to be the #1 issue on the minds of voters as the November election looms ever larger. And the Democrats seem to be taking the brunt of disapprobation, as most voters think the Republicans are doing better on border security. Thus Biden, pivoting furiously to outflank Trump on issues like immigration and Israel, is trying to show that the Democrats (many of whom seem to implicitly favor open borders) can do the job:

With immigration shaping the elections that will decide control of Congress, Democrats are trying to outflank Republicans and convince voters they can address problems at the U.S. border with Mexico, embracing an issue that has traditionally been used against them.

The shift in strategy, especially from Democrats running in battleground states, comes as the Biden administration has struggled to manage an unprecedented influx of migrants at the Southwest border. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has led his party in vilifying immigrants as “ poisoning the blood ” of the country and called for mass deportations of migrants. And as the GOP looks to flip control of the Senate, they are tying Democrats to President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration.

The tactic has already figured large in elections like Arizona’s Senate race, a seat Democrats almost certainly need to win to save their majority. Republican Kari Lake has repeatedly linked Rep. Ruben Gallego, the likely Democratic nominee, to Biden, telling the crowd at a March event that “there’s really not a difference between the two.”

Democrats are no longer shrugging off such attacks: They believe they can tout their own proposals for fixing the border, especially after Trump and Republican lawmakers rejected a bipartisan proposal on border security earlier this year.

. . .Some Senate Democrats have also recently leaned into legislation focused on immigration enforcement. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has launched ads criticizing GOP senators for opposing the bipartisan Senate deal.

It is all a part of a strategy to neutralize the GOP’s advantage on the issue by convincing swing voters that Democrats are serious about border policy.

“Democrats aren’t going to win on immigration this year, but they have to get closer to a draw on the issue to get to a place where people take them seriously,” said Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president at Third Way, a centrist Democrat think tank. “Be palatable enough on that issue that people are then willing to consider other priorities.”

Still, Democrats face a difficult task when it comes to the politics of border security. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found that almost half of adults blame Biden and congressional Democrats for the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, while 41% blame Republicans in Congress.

Well, Biden hasn’t done almost nothing, although there was a bipartisan deal in the Senate that was scuppered by House Republians. The problem is that although we need serious immigration reform, Democrats not only don’t want to look like they’re keeping people of color out of the country, but also know that unless they come up with specific proposals for reform, the Republicans, who don’t have to (all they have to do is beef about the border) will win this one by default.

*Caitlin Clark, who plays women’s basketball for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, is without a doubt the best woman player of all time, and, in fact, has scored more points in her college career than any man. She’s a phenom, and has inspired many younger girls to take up basketball, as well as promoting a resurgence in all women’s sports (there are sports bars now that show only women’s teams). And tonight she and her team go up against an undefeated team, the South Carolina Gamecocks, for the national championship. South Carolina has won 37 games and lost none this season (Iowa is 34-4). It will be a game that nearly all sports fans will be watching (I’m not a sports fan. . ). The WSJ reports on the matchup:

Caitlin Clark achieved something in last season’s Final Four that appeared all but impossible. She took down South Carolina, the undefeated juggernaut of women’s college basketball.

If she wants to write the storybook ending to her storied college career on Sunday afternoon, Clark will have to do the impossible all over again.

For the second consecutive year, Iowa will square off against South Carolina in the NCAA tournament, after both teams won their semifinal matchups on Friday. Only this time, there is a national championship on the line.

“South Carolina has been the best all year and been on a different level than everybody else,” Clark said, minutes after she produced 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in a thrilling 71-69 victory over Connecticut. “But we know better than anybody, anybody can be beaten on any given day.”

Iowa proved as much a year ago. South Carolina had a perfect record of 36-0 before running into the Hawkeyes. Or, put more accurately, before running into Clark, who set a Final Four scoring record by dropping 41 points to propel Iowa to a stunning upset. It remains perhaps the signature performance of her career.

“I don’t think anyone thought we were going to win that game, but we did,” Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall said. “And you know what? We still have that same belief in each other that we had last year.”

It’s gonna be a tough game. Clark is great at the three-point shot, which she fires with ferocious accuracy. But she’s only (!) six feet tall, while the Gamecocks have a secret weapon, as well as depth of talent:

Nobody in the country has had an answer for Kamilla Cardoso, the 6-foot-7 forward from Brazil, who scored 22 points and snagged 11 rebounds against the Wolfpack. Cardoso and Ashlyn Watkins, a former volleyball player, form the nation’s most fearsome and effective defensive tandem around the rim.

And that’s just the beginning. Magic Johnson declared early this season that Gamecocks guard MiLaysia Fulwiley had made the “best move in all of basketball.” Fulwiley is a freshman—who comes off the bench.

Earlier in the tournament, Oregon State coach Scott Rueck flatly said of the Gamecocks’ depth: “They’ve got two starting lineups.”

UPDATE: And, indeed, the Gamecocks won, depriving Clark of a national victory as the cherry on top of her epochal career. The upshot:

For the first time since 2016, the NCAA has an undefeated national champion in the Gamecocks. South Carolina capped its perfect season (38-0) with an 87-75 win over Iowa, avenging last year’s Final Four loss that ended an undefeated season.

As has been the case all season, South Carolina’s depth was on full display Sunday. The Gamecocks had four players in double figures led by Tessa Johnson with 19 points. Star center Kamilla Cardoso had 15 points and 17 rebounds, Te-Hina Paopao had 14 points and Chloe Kitts had 11 points and 10 rebounds. South Carolina guards Raven Johnson and Bree Hall may not have been in double figures, but they played a major hand in attempting to slow down Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who had 30 points on 10-of-28 shooting. Thirteen of those points came in a two-minute span of the first quarter.

Here: have some Clark from the last season:

*A British guy has run the entire length of Africa—over 16,000 km and more than 19 million steps in nearly a year!  The equivalent of 376 marathons! (h/t Matthew) As I write this on Sunday afternoon, he’s apparently just finished. From the Guardian.  And he’s a geezer! (Not really, he’s only 27.)

After more than 9,940 miles (16,000km) over 352 days across 16 countries, Russ Cook, aka the “Hardest Geezer”, has completed the mammoth challenge of running the length of Africa.

The 27-year-old endurance athlete from Worthing, West Sussex, crossed the finish line in Tunisia on Sunday afternoon, and planned to celebrate with a party – as well as a strawberry daiquiri – having raised more than £600,000 for charity.

His achievement, believed to be the first person to run tip to tip from southern to northern Africa, was the more extraordinary given several setbacks including a robbery at gunpoint in Angola, being held by men with machetes in Republic of the Congo, health scares and visa complications.

On 22 April 2023 he set off from South Africa’s most southerly point, Cape Agulhas. By the time he crossed the line at Tunisia’s most northerly point, Ras Angela, he had run the distance of about 376 marathons.

Cook was accompanied on the final leg by supporters who had flown out after following his journey on social media, as he documented his odyssey on X, Instagram and YouTube, with posts amassing millions of views.

He finished to cheers of “Geezer, Geezer” and took a well-deserved dip in the sea, telling Sky News: “I’m a little bit tired.”

The route:

From his Twitter feed with three days to go!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has forgotten her kittenhood (but yes, after she was rescued she had a happy life as baby Hili.

Hili: Did I have a happy childhood?
A:  Ask a psychotherapist.
In Polish:
Hili: Czy ja miałam szczęśliwe dzieciństwo?
Ja: Zapytaj psychoterapeuty.
Here’s Hili as a kitten:
And Baby Kulka on Easter Island:

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From the Dodo Pet:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Not Another Science Cat Page:

And a reply from Jonathan Ross Buckham:

From Masih, who posted an interview former broadcaster Sima Sabet, who was, like another journalist in the UK who broadcast in Farsi about Iran, the target of an Iranian assassination plot.

J, K. Rowling espouses the gamete-based sex binary, and other stuff, too. Read the whole thing, but here’s part of it:

Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren’t born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.

I am strongly against women’s and girls’ rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don’t have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men’s desire for validation.

She’s good in the comments, too and has a wicked sense of humor, viz.:

Speaking of sex, here’s Colin Wright responding to Peter Tatchell, who should know better. The clownfish changes from male to female under certain conditions, the forest dragon changes the other way around, while the hyena doesn’t change sex at all: it just has a long clitoris that looks like a penis. But hyena females still produce eggs, get pregnant, and give birth. The attempt to say that such animals are “trans” in any way that resembles humans (who cannot change from one biological sex to another, or change their gamete type), is a pathetic attempt to justify trans people by pointing to nature. We don’t have to do that to give them rights and respect!

I guess today is sex tweet day. I was disappointed to see Ed Yong on Bluesky retweeting with approbation an odious tweet from Michael Hobbes about a perfectly good op-ed by Carole Hooven and Alex Byrne in the NYT (about the problems with using the term “sex assigned at birth”).  It’s not only rife with whataboutery, but calls the authors “fucking ghouls”.  I’ve lost a lot of respect by Ed Yong (read his feed if you think he’s only tweeting this for information).

 

Caught in flagrante delicto!

From the Auschwitz Memorial, something I retweeted in honor of International Romani Day:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. The first is an animal you have to guess (answer below the fold). What group does it belong to?

And cat hell:

What was the animal two tweets above? Click “read more” to find out:

Continue reading “Monday: Hili dialogue” →

Sunday: Hili dialogue

April 7, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Sunday, April 7, 2024, and National Coffee Cake Day. Though I’d prefer a huge, gooey cinnamon roll, coffeecake will do. Here’s an applesauce version:

ChelseaWa, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also National Making the First Move Day, World Health Day, Geologists Day, Metric System Day, International Beaver Day, National Beer Day (commemorating the end of Prohibition in 1933), and the commemoration of a real genocide: Genocide Memorial Day (in Rwanda), and its related observance: International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide (United Nations). Between half a million and a million Tutsis were killed in Rwanda by the Hutu.  The movie “Hotel Rwanda” is a good movie about the genocide, though some argue it’s historically inaccurate:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 7 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Israel has recovered the body of a 47-year-old hostage who was apparently murdered by Hamas. I presume there was evidence of a shooting or beating.  This is why Hamas won’t give an account of the terrorists, and how is Israel supposed to negotiate under such conditions?

Israeli commandos recovered the body of hostage Elad Katzir, held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces and his family said Saturday, months after he was shown alive in two propaganda videos by the terror group.

The IDF said that according to its intelligence, Katzir, 47, was “murdered in captivity by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.”

The operation to retrieve the body was carried out by the Commando Brigade, following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet security agency and the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.

“Following an identification procedure carried out overnight by medical officials at the National Center of Forensic Medicine, IDF and Shin Bet representatives informed the family of the late Elad Katzir about the recovery of his body,” the military said.

*In the meantime, Israelis are demonstrating by the thousands, demanding the return of the hostages (and the scrapping of Netanyahu):

Thousands of Israelis were expected to join with families of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for protests that will mark six months since the captives were abducted to Gaza during the October 7 Hamas onslaught.

Demonstrators were set to gather at Begin Street outside the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling on the government to reach a deal to secure the release of the 134 people who remain in Hamas captivity. In contrast to previous weeks, there was no major gathering planned for nearby Hostages Square, although a prayer and song session was scheduled there for 9.30 p.m.

In addition to the hostage protest, a separate demonstration calling for early elections was scheduled for 7.30 p.m. at the Kaplan junction in Tel Aviv — where months of major protests were held before October 7 against the government’s judicial overhaul efforts.

Numerous other protests were planned across the country, including one outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the seaside town of Caesarea.

The past week has seen an increasing convergence between the protests of the families and the mass anti-government demonstrations that were a weekly event in the months before October 7. Some of the families are accusing Netanyahu of blocking a deal for political reasons.

I’m no fan of Netanyahu, but I don’t think he deserves the blame for the hostages remaining in captivity, which is after all a decision made by the war cabinet. But even they don’t deserve the blame. HAMAS deserves the blame, because they could turn the hostages over tomorrow. Instead, they’re killing them or letting them die. The only way the Israeli government can get the hostages back is to not only leave Gaza completely but also release every single Palestinian terrorist in Israeli jails (I believe there are about 9,000). And of course that provides more incentive for Hamas to kidnap Israelis.  As for dumping Bibi now, I think they need to wait until the war is over to hold elections. It’s never good, I think, to change regimes in the middle of a war, and I don’t know of a candidate that could run the war better than the War Cabinet is doing now.

*As always, I’m going to steal three items from Nellie Bowles weekly news summary at the Free Press, called this week “TGIF: Happy Cesar Chavez Trans Visibility Easter Day.”

→ Welcome to Medical School, You Colonizing, Capitalist Demons: UCLA’s medical school has been updating how they train their doctors. The great Washington Free Beacon obtainedaudio of a new mandatory session for students, and I swear to god this is real. The speaker was Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, who wore a keffiyeh across her entire face during this. She made the medical students get on their knees, put their hands on the floor, and pray as she chanted: “The crapitalist lie of scarcity, of private property, of money and ownership of Mama Earth—when Mama Earth was never meant to be bought or sold, pimped or played.” She called medicine “white science.” She made everyone chant “Free Palestine.” Of course she is white. Yes, she is a slam poet.

The darkest part, though, from the Free Beacon story, is this one: “When one student remained seated, according to students in the class, a UCLA administrator, whom the Free Beacon could not identify, inquired about the student’s identity, implying that discipline could be on the table.” Sounds good, love this for my future PCP. Can’t wait till I have to get Lasik from someone whose entire education was chanting with their fists on the floor.

→ Stop questioning trans participation in sports: America’s leading women’s rights group of yesteryear is still arguing that it’s white supremacy to maintain girls’ sports. Here’s NOW, the National Organization of Women: “Repeat after us: Weaponizing womanhood against other women is white supremacist patriarchy at work. Making people believe there isn’t enough space for trans women in sports is white supremacist patriarchy at work.” Yes, it’s white supremacist patriarchy to argue. . . that someone who’s gone through male puberty might have an unfair advantage in, let’s say, rugby. Interesting. Fascinating. I will repeat until I am clean.

.→ So weird that the cease-fire people are also calling to bomb Tel Aviv: That’s the latest from the streets of New York. I’ll tell you something controversial: I am pro–cease-fire. That sounds so nice. I like peace. It’s very odd, though, because the supposedly “cease-fire” movement leaders want Hamas to stay in power and Hamas’s entire goal is to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews in the Middle East, so I don’t know. This war is hell, but it doesn’t seem very cease-firey to drop bombs on Tel Aviv?

Also in New York, a group of protesters chased a woman who attended a local Biden fundraiser. As she tried to get away, they screamed that she was a “fucking murderous kike.” (Imagine the wall-to-wall coverage if these protesters were right-wing white supremacists.) Another group of protesters blocked the road in Teaneck, New Jersey, a heavily Jewish suburb, and then protested at a local synagogue that was hosting an Israeli search-and-rescue team.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Harris, a celebrated author and an editor at The New Inquiry, had this to say about swastikas drawn on synagogues.

For some reason I thought it would take longer to get here, to this moment, when a hip writer is arguing that swastikas on Jewish buildings are cool now—and the response from his community is celebration. Hell yeah! If you’re not drawing swastikas on Jewish buildings, are you even condemning genocide, bro?

I tried to find this tweet on Malcolm Harris‘s Twitter feed and apparently he deleted it because “he didn’t want to give the whole thing more attention.” See announcement below. His explanation is dumb because this is from a guy who tweets a gazillion times a day, showing that he doesn’t have enough to do. Voilà:

*Axios reports that DEI is declining, at least in the corporate world.  (h/t Ken)

Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, was the hot thing in corporate America a few years ago. Now: not so much.

Why it matters: The business community, long averse to political risks or controversies, backed away from DEI programs over the past two years in the wake of widespread attacks from lawmakers, high-profile rich guys and conservative activists like former Trump aide Stephen Miller.

The big picture: Companies that never cared much about DEI, or that fear lawsuits over programs, are using the moment to back away. Others are sticking with these efforts but doing it quietly.

Between the lines: Somebusiness leaders are increasingly reluctant to speak publicly about the subject, but behind the scenes they’re fed up with DEI, Johnny Taylor, president of the Society for Human Resource Management said in a January interview with Axios.

  • “The backlash is real. And I mean, in ways that I’ve actually never seen it before,” he says. “CEOs are literally putting the brakes on this DE&I work that was running strong” since George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 pushed businesses into action.

Flashback: After George Floyd, the chief diversity officer role “was the hottest position in America,” says Kevin Clayton, senior vice president, head of social impact and equity for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

  • Companies were hiring for these positions “out of guilt,” he says, noting that in 2020 he was pursued by more than a dozen employers.
  • But some CEOs are feeling like they didn’t hire well for these roles, bringing on people with civil rights backgrounds instead of more corporate expertise, says Taylor, of SHRM.

. . . .State of play: Some businesses are cutting back funding, trimming DEI staff — and even considering pulling back on things like employee resource groups comprised of workers of various races, ethnicities or interests.

  • And some are changing programs designed to support women and people of color because of lawsuits — many have been filed over these programs, more than 20 by Miller’s America First Legal. And other companies worry about litigation. . . .

. . .The bottom line: Companies started caring about diversity a lot more after a flurry of lawsuits — with employees alleging race and sex discrimination — in the 1990s and early 2000s, as this Harvard Business Review piece explains.

  • Now a new kind of litigation risk is sending them in the other direction.

And here’s a chart documenting the decline:

Things seem to filter up from college, not down from corporations, so I’m not sure this plot gives us any hope.

*Andrew Sullivan is slowly moving into the ranks of the critics of Israel, and this saddens me. Here’s an extract from his latest Substack piece, “Bomb first, ask questions later.”

The Israelis did not merely fall into the trap Hamas laid; they jumped into it headfirst, and unleashed a war of terrifying devastation on a largely defenseless population, in which Hamas was embedded. Israel did this totally understandably — given the horror of Hamas’ murder, rape, and torture of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of 240 more. Israel had always been willing to conduct warfare against Hamas in which Palestinian deaths were overwhelmingly greater than Israeli deaths — because Hamas gave them little choice. But this time, understandably, incandescent rage was an added twist.

That’s precisely when you don’t go to war: when your emotions are in hyper-drive. But if you do go to war in such an emotionally fraught moment, when every reservist and IDF soldier is understandably filled with shock and anger, you have to be extra-extra-careful to lay out and enforce clear rules of warfare. You have to over-emphasize the need for restraint, the vital importance of distinguishing between terrorists and bystanders, if you aren’t going to blunder into self-defeating war crimes — as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the torture sites set up by Bush and Cheney.

. . .The destruction of the WCK food convoy this week has to be seen in this “bomb first, ask questions later” context. I first assumed it was the kind of mistake that happens during war and at night. But we now know it’s more damning than that. Haaretz reports the IDF suspected a Hamas terrorist was in a truck that was originally part of the WCK convoy. The NYT says they mistook his bag for a gun. After a stop at a warehouse, three cars left, clearly marked, in a deconfliction zone. Here’s what happened next, according to Haaretz:

The cars traveled along a route pre-approved and coordinated with the IDF. … Some of the passengers were seen leaving the car after it was hit and switching to one of the other two cars. They continued to drive and even notified the people responsible that they were attacked, but, seconds later, another missile hit their car. The third car in the convoy approached, and the passengers began to transfer to it the wounded who had survived the second strike — in order to get them out of danger. But then a third missile struck them. All seven World Central Kitchen volunteers were killed in the strike.

One was an American citizen. To hit one car is a misfortune; to destroy three cars consecutively on a pre-approved route, not so much. The cars were clearly marked and in a deconfliction zone — but the IDF policy is to target anywhere Hamas could be present, even if some civilians were killed. As we’ll see, one dead Hamas member and seven dead civilians was well within the margin of error Israel had set for itself. So it appears they methodically took out each car to make sure they finished the job.

No, I don’t believe that Israel deliberately murdered the aid workers; but I do think that, in context, the IDF’s effective rules of engagement — strike places like hospitals and schools because Hamas is there, even though there will be many civilian casualties — made this kind of indifference to human life possible. So much other evidence points to a free-for-all in Gaza: the trigger-happy IDF has even killed Israeli hostages; and this wasn’t even the first IDF attack on a WCK vehicle. Just last Saturday,

This comes after the second bloody destruction of the Al Shifa Hospital. It comes after Israel has largely abandoned the north of Gaza to lawlessness, violence, and looting. It comes after Israel violated international norms, if not the law precisely, by attacking a foreign embassy in Damascus where Iranians were plotting (proof of the IDF’s capacity for surgical precision in bombing, so strikingly absent in Gaza).

First of all the strikes took place in the dark; the signs atop the vehicles were not visible. Second, there was a reason to think that Hamas might have been in the cars (listen below). In fact, they weren’t, and the failure to realize that led to this terrible mistake. It was a tragic result of miscommunication. Here’s Admiral Hagari’s admission and explanation of the mistake, which he said “should have been prevented.”  You have to at least admire the IDF for apologizing and explaining their error. That won’t bring the dead back, of course, but what other army in the world (and they all kill people with “friendly fire”) will own up to their failures, fire the people who committed them, and learn from them.

As for the “bloody destruction of the Al Shifa hospital”, Hamas reoccupied the hospital and the IDF did what it could to avoid killing civilians (indeed, not an single noncombatant was killed). Sitting in his comfortable armchair, I don’t think Sullivan understands that this is one mistake in a war in which Hamas had made much larger mistakes. It’s armchair general-ling.

*The world’s oldest man is apparently a 111-old Brit named John Alfred Tinniswood. And of course when you reach that age, they always ask you for the secret of your longevity. And the answer is always something like “Do what I did.” So here are Tinniswood’s secret sto longevity:

The world’s oldest man says the secret to his long life is luck, moderation — and fish and chips every Friday.

Englishman John Alfred Tinniswood, 111, has been confirmed as the new holder of the title by Guinness World Records. It follows the death of the Venezuelan record-holder, Juan Vicente Pérez, this month at the age of 114. Gisaburo Sonobe from Japan, who was next longest-lived, died March 31 at 112.

Tinniswood was presented with a certificate by Guinness World Records on Thursday at the care home where he lives in Southport, northwest England.

Born in Liverpool on Aug. 26, 1912, a few months after the sinking of the Titanic, Tinniswood lived through two world wars, serving in the British Army Pay Corps in World War II.

The retired accountant and great-grandfather said moderation was key to a healthy life. He never smokes, rarely drinks and follows no special diet, apart from a fish and chip supper once a week.

“If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much — if you do too much of anything — you’re going to suffer eventually,” Tinniswood told Guinness World Records.

But ultimately, he said, “it’s pure luck. You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it.”

And the oldest woman? (They always outstrip men, of course; that’s evolution.)

The world’s oldest woman, and oldest living person, is 117-year-old Maria Branyas Morera of Spain.

Well a fish supper with chips (and preferably mushy peas and a good pint) sounds to me like an excellent recipe for longevity. It sure beats Brussels sprouts!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has a scratch and a think. As Malgorzata explained, “Andrzej respects Hili’s wisdom and he himself has no idea how to put an end to all wars.”

A: Do you have any idea how to end wars?
Hili: I will think about it
In Polish:
Ja: Czy masz jakiś pomysł na zakończenie wojen?
Hili: Pomyślę o tym.
And a photo of Baby Kulka and Szaron on opposites sides of the window. Kulka wants to come in.

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From Bruce, undoubtedly a Photoshop but still good:

From The Dodo Pet:

From The Darwin Awards 2024:

 

Masih notes that Iran falsely broadcast a report that she was raped by three men in a London subway.

Coleman Hughes, his usual composed self, tells the truth about the war between Israel and Hamas:

From Simon; my Glock-packing gal Lauren is getting into trouble again. First she’s photographed canoodling in a movie theater with her boo, and now she overdoes it with the hootch. The CNN story says this:

Throughout the night, Boebert also kept attempting to snap selfies with Trump, who was sitting at the same table as her. Eventually, Trump’s security detail stepped in and asked Boebert to stop, according to the witnesses, who attended the event and saw the interaction take place.

And from Gad Saad with his usual snarkiness. Note that there are NO BIOLOGISTS in the debate, though Alex Byrne knows his onions.

This is a bit exaggerated as some of the dosh goes to improve diet and lifestyle. However, a lot goes to supernatural and useless “cures” as well.  Biden is, as I said, much woker than I imagined him to be. He’s where the buck stops on stuff like this:

From Barry. I hope the lights going on and off don’t bother the birds:

From Jon. It’s really a sign of the end times that this woman is in Congress! I love the “readers’ context”:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I retweeted:

Two tweets from the estimable Dr. Cobb. The first tweeter, an author, likes to report snippets of conversations she’s heard:

It’s evolution, Jake! (Matthew retweeted this):

Monday: Hili dialogue

March 25, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the top o’ the work week: it’s Monday, March 25, 2024, and International Waffle Day. Here’s a good one, though it needs maple syrup.

Parkerman & Christie from San Diego, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

It’s also National Lobster Newburg Day, Pecan Day, National Medal of Honor Day (here’s one winner I knew, a friend of my dad), International Tolkien Reading Day (March 25 was the day of Sauron’s downfall),  Empress Menen’s Birthday (a Rastafarian holiday), EU Talent Day (European Union), International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Maryland Day,  Vårfrudagen or Våffeldagen, “Waffle Day” in Sweden, Norway & Denmark, and, finally New Year’s Day (Lady Day) in England, Wales, Ireland, and some of the future United States and Canada from 1155 through 1751, until the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 moved it to 1 January (and adopted the Gregorian calendar. (The year 1751 began on 25 March; the year 1752 began on 1 January.)

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 25 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Everybody’s forgotten about the war that Israel’s fighting to its north: with Hezbollah, which is violating a UN Security Council Resolution 1701 by not staying away from the border with Israel, by unprovoked aggression (rockets) against Israel, and not allowing themselves to be controlled by the cowardly UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. To a large extent, Hezbollah is running Lebanon. Now Israel is striking back at the incessant stream of rockets from the north:

The Hezbollah terror group fired at least 50 rockets at northern Israel in the predawn hours of Sunday, with the Israel Defense Forces saying it shot down several of the projectiles as others hit open areas.

The barrage, one of the heaviest since the start of hostilities in October, came amid a weekend of strikes by Israel on the Iran-backed terror group’s sites, including one far in the northeastern part of the country shortly after midnight on Sunday, that Hezbollah said prompted the rocket fire in response.

Israel has been launching airstrikes deeper and deeper into Lebanese territory against Hezbollah positions for several weeks as the terror group steps up its attacks, heightening the threat of open warfare and an expansion of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip to Israel’s south.

The IDF on Sunday morning confirmed reports of an airstrike in the northern Lebanese city of Baalbek, saying its fighter jets targeted a Hezbollah weapons manufacturing plant.

It also confirmed Hezbollah’s claim to have fired a retaliatory barrage of rockets at northern Israel, saying it detected some 50 launches that crossed into Israeli territory. Hezbollah claimed to have fired 60 rockets, indicating several of the rockets fell short in Lebanon.

. . . The IDF said several of the Hezbollah rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, while the rest struck open areas. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Hezbollah has a ton of rockets to fire at civilians: about 150,000!  Most of them were supplied by Iran and North Korea.

*Finally Kamala Harris, who was supposed to be in charge of the U.S.’s immigration policy at the southern border (something she never did) has now found another job: being Biden’s mouthpiece in trying to stop Israel from winning the war with Hamas. She has apparently been assigned to threaten Israel. From the Guardian:

Senior US Democrats on Sunday increased pressure on Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon a planned offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering.

Two days after a similar call by US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was rejected by the Israeli leader, vice-president Kamala Harris said that the Joe Biden White House was “ruling out nothing” in terms of consequences if Netanyahu moves ahead with the assault.

Harris said that Washington had been “very clear in terms of our perspective on whether or not that should happen”.

“Any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Harris said on ABC’s This Week. “I have studied the maps – there’s nowhere for those folks to go. And we’re looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there.”

Harris declined to say if she, like Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the most senior politician of the Jewish faith in the US, believed that Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace. But she said: “We’ve been very clear that far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.

“We have been very clear that Israel and the Israeli people and Palestinians are entitled to an equal amount of security and dignity.”

Harris has studied the maps! Well cut off my legs and call me Shorty.  When did she become a military expert? And she’s dead wrong about “nowhere for these folks to go.” As I noted yesterday, Israel not only has reserved a camp near the Mediterranean for refugees from Rafah, but has also told the people of Rafah where to go, and when, to avoid encountering the IDF when it attacks. This, of course, telegraphs the IDF’s moves, and what other army would do that for civilians. As for VP Harris, I think she’s a few neurons shy of a cerebrum.  Apparently Israel can’t attack with full force, nor can it take apart Hamas in Rafah bit by bit. The only thing Israel can do to placate the U.S., it seems, is to surrender. But Kamala’s looked at the maps!

*The NYT has an interview with Judith Butler, a famous intellectual whom I see as the world’s most overrated academic. Her musings on gender and sex , insofar as one can understand them, are insupportable —if you can uncerstand them. For a good analysis, see Alex Byne’s new book, Trouble With Gender.

In the rather uninformative article, Butler is interviewed by Jessica Bennett, listed as “a contributing editor in Opinion, where she writes about gender, politics and personalities.” Some of the Q&A:

What about the warping of language on the left?

My version of feminist, queer, trans-affirmative politics is not about policing. I don’t think we should become the police. I’m afraid of the police. But I think a lot of people feel that the world is out of control, and one place where they can exercise some control is language. And it seems like moral discourse comes in then: Call me this. Use this term. We agree to use this language. What I like most about what young people are doing — and it’s not just the young, but everybody’s young now, according to me — is the experimentation. I love the experimentation. Like, let’s come up with new language. Let’s play. Let’s see what language makes us feel better about our lives. But I think we need to have a little more compassion for the adjustment process.

Yes, by all means change the terms so they comport with our ideology. It’s just play! Forget about Orwell; changing language is just big fun!  But what does “gender” mean? The sweating professor defines it for us:

Do you still believe that gender is “performance?”

After “Gender Trouble” was published, there were some from the trans community who had problems with it. And I saw that my approach, what came to be called a “queer approach”— which was somewhat ironic toward categories — for some people, that’s not OK. They need their categories, they need them to be right, and for them gender is not constructed or performed.

Not everybody wants mobility. And I think I’ve taken that into account now.

But at the same time, for me, performativity is enacting who we are, both our social formation and what we’ve done with that social formation. I mean, my gestures: I didn’t make them up out of thin air — there’s a history of Jewish people who do this. I am inside of something, socially, culturally constructed. At the same time, I find my own way in it. And it’s always been my contention that we’re both formed and we form ourselves, and that’s a living paradox.

Byrne notes that Butler’s notion of gender as ” performativity” sees being a man or a woman as notions created by the “stylized repetition of acts” that are thoroughly bound to one’s culture.  But this has nothing to do with the definition of man or women as adult females and males, who exist because they make different gametes. You are a man or woman regardless of what acts you repeat as you grow up.

Alex Byrne dissects this notion in five pages of his book and concludes that Butler keeps changing her definitions of gender, making her views almost impossible to pin down, and therefore empirically useless. In fact, the point of Byrne’s book is that the notion of “gender” itself is confusing and ultimately useless, and can be replaced by language that expresses more meaningful notions. But it looks as if Butler has once again changed her definition of gender.

How do you define gender today?

Oh, goodness. I have, I suppose, revised my theory of gender — but that’s not the point of this book. I do make the point that “gender identity” is not all of what we mean by gender: It’s one thing that belongs to a cluster of things. Gender is also a framework — a very important framework — in law, in politics, for thinking about how inequality gets instituted in the world.

And if you can understand the last part, you’re better than I am. But, I suppose Butler would say, “Read my book.”  (No new taxes.)

*Today is the deadline for Donald Trump to start paying back the $454 million he owes New York as a civil penalty for falsifying his finances.  But the prospects for him paying it back, i.e., securing a bond to ensure that he pays, are dim, and he may start losing his properties.

Donald Trump is hurtling toward a critical deadline in his most costly legal battle to date. If the former president doesn’t come up with a financial guarantee by Monday, New York’s attorney general can start the process of collecting on the more than $454 million Trump owes the state in a civil fraud lawsuit.

Trump’s lawyers are trying to stop that from happening. They have asked a court to put collection efforts on hold while he appeals the verdict.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee tried getting a bond for the full amount, which would have stopped the clock on collection during his appeal and ensured the state got its money if he were to lose.

Donald Trump is hurtling toward a critical deadline in his most costly legal battle to date. If the former president doesn’t come up with a financial guarantee by Monday, New York’s attorney general can start the process of collecting on the more than $454 million Trump owes the state in a civil fraud lawsuit.

Trump’s lawyers are trying to stop that from happening. They have asked a court to put collection efforts on hold while he appeals the verdict.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee tried getting a bond for the full amount, which would have stopped the clock on collection during his appeal and ensured the state got its money if he were to lose.

There are a number of questions answered, including “Could New York really seize Trump’s assets?” (yes); “Could it happen soon?” (not likely); “Could Trump pay if he wanted?” (he has more than enough, but most of it is tied up in real estate, though he has said, without verification, that he has about $400 million); “Are there other ways Trump could raise the money (the AP says, “Trump could receive a financial windfall from a looming deal to put his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, on the stock market under the symbol DJT”); and, finally, “Could Trump declare bankruptcy?” (yes, but it wouldn’t change much as he’d still be personally liable for the dosh).

*Putin is still blaming Ukraine for the ISIS-caused death of 133 Russians shot down in a concert hall. But, as the WaPo avers, the attack has exposed the vulnerabilities of Putin’s regime:

When Vladimir Putin finally spoke about the worst terrorist attack to hit Russia in 20 years, he swept over the glaring failure of his security state to prevent the assault, which left at least 137 dead, despite a clear warning from the United States on March 7 that a strike on a concert hall could be imminent.

He also made no reference to the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack at the Crocus City concert hall on Friday and which Putin denounced repeatedly as an enemy throughout Russia’s long military intervention in Syria. In 2017, Putin declared victory over the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Putin instead used his five-minute televised address on Saturday to emphasize that the four direct perpetrators were “moving toward Ukraine” when they were detained and that “a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.” He did not directly accuse Ukraine, which has denied any involvement, but a reference to “Nazis” — his usual label for the Ukrainian government — made clear that he was blaming Kyiv.

But the gruesome videos of the attackers with automatic weapons coldly killing innocent concertgoers and setting ablaze one of the Russian capital’s most popular entertainment venues smashed through Putin’s efforts to present Russia as strong, united and resilient.

he strike occurred just five days after his triumphant claim of a new six-year term in an election that was heavily controlled by the Kremlin and widely denounced abroad as failing to meet democratic standards. Putin used the election to assert huge public support for his policies.

. . . Despite Putin’s rhetoric seeking to implicate Ukraine, analysts, former U.S. security officials and members of the Russian elite said the assault underscored the vulnerabilities of Putin’s wartime regime, which were also evident when Yevgeniy Prigozhin led his Wagner mercenaries in a brief mutiny aiming to oust top defense officials in June.

“The regime shows its weakness in such critical situations, just as it did during the mutiny by Prigozhin,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. Though Prigozhin abandoned the uprising, the damage was clear. Then, as during this weekend’s events, Putin did not appear for hours before finally addressing the emergency. “In difficult moments, Putin always disappears,” Kolesnikov said.

Just three days before the Crocus City assault, Putin dismissed the U.S. warning about a potential imminent terrorist attack as “ope

This “exposure of vulnerabilities” seems to me to be wishful thinking. The terrorist attack could happen anywhere (the Twin Towers, Charlie Hebdo, etc.) and the Wagner “invasion” was a failure as soon as it began. There’s no sign that Russia is particularly weak. Even though many citizens rebelled by publicly mourning the death of Navalny, most Russians still support Putin.

 

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili had a dream today. I asked Malgorzata to explain it, and she replied, “Because the sparrow appeared in a dream while Hili was asleepm she couldn’t enlarge it. Andrzej explained to her that the technology of a sleeping brain is different from the technology of a computer.”

Hili: I was dreaming about a sparrow. The picture was in high resolution but I couldn’t enlarge it.
A: In this technology it’s impossible.
In Polish:
Hili: Wróbel mi się śnił. Był w świetnej rozdzielczości, ale powiększyć się nie dawał.

Ja: W tej technologii to nie jest możliwe.

And a photo of Baby Kulka:

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

From Jesus of the Day. They must mean “from Lesbos”:

From Science Humor:

From America’s Cultural Descent into Idiocy via Stefan Leo Smith:

I had to add this one from FB with credit to the originator:

From Masih: A woman’s rights advocate from Afghanistan who was tortured by the Taliban (remember, they promised to reform?). Sound up; there are English subtitles:

From Barry: belly rubs for a tiger (sound up). Oy, would I love to do this!:

From Malcolm; spider cats!

From my feed; an interaction between a housecat and a serval. Sound up (the serval is very gentle):

Cat vs. sugar glider (I think). Sugar glider wins in Round 1:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a 12-year-old Dutch girl gassed upon arrival:

Two tweets from Professor Cobb. In the first, Roger Highfield, former editor of New Scientist, fetes my friend Steve Jones. I’ve known Steve for yonks, and we worked together (and published together) on long-distance migration of Drosophila. Happy birthday, Dr. Jones.

More fallout from Matthew’s upcoming biography of Francis Crick. Yes, Sanger won the Prize twice, in the same field. From Wikipedia:

[Sanger] won the 1958 Chemistry Prize for determining the amino acid sequence of insulin and numerous other proteins, demonstrating in the process that each had a unique, definite structure; this was a foundational discovery for the central dogma of molecular biology.

At the newly constructed Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, he developed and subsequently refined the first-ever DNA sequencing technique, which vastly expanded the number of feasible experiments in molecular biology and remains in widespread use today. The breakthrough earned him the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with Walter Gilbert and Paul Berg.

He is one of only three people to have won multiple Nobel Prizes in the same category (the others being John Bardeen in physics and Karl Barry Sharpless in chemistry), and one of five persons with two Nobel Prizes. Can you name the other two who won the Big Prize in two different categories?

Sunday: Hili dialogue

March 10, 2024 • 6:45 am

I forgot that that Daylight Saving Time, a satanic invention, started last night—at 2 a.m. I thought the time was changing at 2 a.m. Monday morning, but that was wrong.  Therefore my alarm (on my iPhone) went off at the right DST time, but an hour early compared to my watch, which doesn’t adjust. (In other words, I lost an hour of sleep. I was going to make up for that by going to be early tonight.)  Now I’m exhausted as I was jolted out of a sound sleep and woke up deeply confused. It’s time to get rid of this odious twice-a-year change! Here are the parts of the world that do or don’t do this thing:

TimeZonesBoy, CC BY-SA 3.0 <>, via Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to the top o’ the week (formally); it’s Sunday, March 10, 2024, and National Ranch Dressing Day.  What is the stuff?  Wikipedia explains: it’s

. . . . usually made from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, mustard, herbs (commonly chives, parsley and dill), and spices (commonly pepper, paprika and ground mustard seed) mixed into a sauce based on mayonnaise or another oil emulsion. Sour cream and yogurt are sometimes used in addition to, or as a substitute for, buttermilk and mayonnaise.

Ranch has been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992, when it overtook Italian. It is also popular in the United States and Canada as a dip, and as a flavoring for potato chips and other foods. In 2017, 40% of Americans named ranch as their favorite dressing, according to a study by the Association for Dressings and Sauces.

This became popular in my lifetime as it was invented in the 1950s. I do love it, but am told that (all are all good things) it is bad for you, and that you should use vinegar and oil. Oy!

Whitney from Chicago, IL, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also Check Your Batteries Day, International Day of Awesomeness, National Blueberry Popover Day (?), Landline Telephone Day, International Bagpipe Day, Pretzel Sunday, Harriet Tubman Day, International Mario Day Men’s Day in Poland, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the US, and Tibetan Uprising Day which began on this day in 1959 as a protest against the People’s Republic of China taking over the country.

On March 19, 1959, the Dalai Lama fled the country.  Here’s the present Dalai Lama (and the last “real” one), who’s now 84, lives in India, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Here he is; his “spiritual name” is Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso:

*christopher*, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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

Da Nooz:

SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD AN HOUR IF YOU’RE IN AMERIA, EUROPE, OR CANADA AND HAVEN’T YET DONE SO. ALSO GREENLAND AND EGYPT

*Here’s Biden’s first campaign ad, described in the NYT.  Watch to the end.

Note how he explicitly says Trump’s name instead of referring to “the former President” or “my predecessor.”

From the paper:

In a new advertisement for his re-election campaign, President Biden tries to take one of his greatest perceived liabilities as a candidate, his age, and turn it into an advantage.

“Look, I’m not a young guy. That’s no secret,” says a smiling Mr. Biden, talking directly to the camera. “But here’s the deal: I understand how to get things done for the American people.”

The president, 81, goes on to list the accomplishments of his first term, including his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, capping insulin prices for older consumers and passing infrastructure legislation — while contrasting his record with that of former President Donald J. Trump, the likely Republican nominee, whom he accuses of taking away “the freedom of women to choose” in reproductive matters.

. . . Mr. Biden often jokes about his age in small settings. But Americans are more likely to be familiar with his angry remarks over a recent special counsel’s report, which referred to him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The new ad, titled “For You,” represents a shift in tone. Its joking familiarity may appeal to younger voters, whose support Mr. Biden needs to shore up, and it will play on channels popular with a youthful demographic, including ESPN, Adult Swim and Comedy Central.

The spot even includes an outtake. After the standard announcement that Mr. Biden has approved the message, a voice off-camera asks him to do one more take.

“Look, I’m very young, energetic and handsome. What the hell am I doing this for?” Mr. Biden replies, flashing a mischievous grin before the screen goes black.

*According to the Times of Israel, the IDF’s assault of the IDF on Rafah has begun, though it’s against terrorist infrastructure hasn’t killed anyone, terrorist or civilian. (I doubted that Israel would wait the two months until the U.S. builds its planned Pier to Gaza.)

The IDF confirms that it struck one of the largest residential towers in southern Gaza’s Rafah overnight, saying it housed a “Hamas military asset.”

“Acts of terror against our forces and the civilian home front were planned from this asset,” the IDF says in response to a query on the matter.

According to a military source, the building was used by Hamas’s so-called emergency committee.

The IDF says it warned residents of the 12-floor tower ahead of the strike, and they all evacuated in time. There were no reports of injuries.

The IDF “knocked on the door”, as they do if there are civilians. Is this the act of a country bent on genocide?

*Well, if you have ears to hear, you’re going to be shocked and saddened, for you’ll learn that, in all likelihood (and I give audio proof below), the tune of the famous song “Over the Rainbow“, the highlight of the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” appears to have been plagiarized from a Norwegian composer—and a Nazi sympathizer to boot! The song’s tune was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Yip Harburg (lyrics).

From The Hollywood Reporter (h/t mirandaga):

Norwegian pianist Rune Alver carefully unfolded the brittle sheet music and began caressing the keys of the baby grand. He had found the classical piece buried in an archive and believed it hadn’t been heard in maybe a century. But as he delved into the second section, Cantando, he felt a shiver run down his spine. The melody wasn’t just reminiscent of something he’d heard before — it was iconic. He instantly recognized the unforgettable, yearning opening notes of “Over the Rainbow,” the Academy Award-winning anthem Judy Garland performed in The Wizard of Oz, perhaps the most famous song to come out of Hollywood. How could this be? The sheet music was dated 1910, and The Wizard of Oz premiered nearly 30 years later. But the melody hung there (“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high …”). It was hauntingly similar. Too similar, he thought.

About 10 years ago, Alver, now 67, was researching the works of a Scandinavian composer named Signe Lund when he made this disturbing discovery. In the late 19th century, Lund had been the toast of Oslo and went on to a successful career in the United States, before her Nazi sympathies late in life turned her into a pariah. She was now long forgotten. It was at an archive in Bergen, Norway, that Alver unearthed the pages of her composition titled “Concert Étude, Opus 38,” which she had written in the United States and copyrighted in Chicago in 1910 during one of her visits to America. Lund had performed the piece in many American cities. It was “the most popular of her pieces” in her lifetime, Alver says.

The similarities between Lund’s “Opus 38” and composer Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” cannot be dismissed. Though there are notable variations (the former is in a minor key, for example, and follows a different time signature), the melodies of the main themes are nearly identical. Decades after the deaths of Arlen and Harburg, it is impossible to unequivocally determine whether the similarities are unintended or deliberate — a notoriously difficult thing to prove even when all participants are living. But to Alver, who included “Opus 38” on his 2020 CD Étude Poétiques: Works by Signe Lund, there is no debate about it. “Of course it is plagiarism,” he says today. Given the sacred aura that surrounds “Over the Rainbow,” the accusation borders on the blasphemous, akin to smudging the Mona Lisa. Yet Alver has no doubt that Lund’s DNA can be found in Harold Arlen’s melody.

. . . Lund’s outspoken support of socialism and subsequent allegiance to the Nazi regime during World War II led to her fall from grace. Norway shut the door on both Lund and her music. “After the war, it affected her a lot,” states her great-great-granddaughter Trude Sveen. “She lost her voting rights in Norway and they wanted to forget her. She wasn’t talked about. She was banned from the music world and not welcome at the Norway composers’ union anymore. Her music was not allowed to be played.”

If you have any doubts, here’s Rune Alver playing Lund’s Concert Étude, Op. 38.  Start listening at 1:24.

And the movie version:

Convinced? I was. It would clearly be called plagiarism in court.

*You can count on this bird, described in the NYT, to be offered as proof of a “spectrum of biological sex” by gender activists like Agustin Fuentes and others of his ilk.  But it’s a developmental anomaly that’s long been seen in birds and other species (I’ve seen them in Drosophila): a gynandromorph, an animal that’s part male and part female. All the cases I know of occur in those animal species in which sex is determined by chromosomes, and is usually caused by the loss of a chromosome early in development or by mis-assortment of chromosomes when the fertilized embryo undergoes cell division. If the anomaly happens at the two-cell stage, you get something like this: a bilaterally symmetrical gynandromorph of the common blue butterfly, Polyommatus icarus. The blue left side is male, the brown side with orange dots is female:

Photo by Burkhard Hinnersmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s the bird described in the paper, a green honeycreeper  (Chlorophanes spiza). It was spotted by Hamish Spencer, who worked in Lewontin’s lab when I was there, on a birding trip to Colombia.

During one outing, in early January 2023, the proprietor of a local farm drew his attention to a green honeycreeper, a small songbird that is common in forests ranging from southern Mexico to Brazil.

But this particular green honeycreeper had highly unusual plumage. The left side of its body was covered in shimmering spring-green feathers, the classic coloring for females. Its right side, however, was iridescent blue, the telltale marker of a male. The bird appeared to be a bilateral gynandromorph: female on one side and male on the other.

“It was just incredible,” Dr. Spencer said. “We were lucky to see it.”

Gynandromorphism has been documented in a variety of birds, as well as insects, crustaceans and other organisms. But it’s a relatively rare and poorly understood phenomenon. The bird Dr. Spencer saw in Colombia is only the second known case of bilateral gynandromorphism in a green honeycreeper — and the first documented in the wild.(The only previous example was reported more than a century ago and was based on a museum specimen, Dr. Spencer said. That bird displayed the opposite pattern, with female plumage on the right and male plumage on the left.)

It is not entirely clear how the condition comes about, but one leading theory is that it results from an error during the production of egg cells in female birds.Female birds have two different sex chromosomes, designated W and Z, while males have two Z chromosomes. An error duringegg cell production could result in two fused or incompletely separated cells, one with a W chromosome and one with a Z chromosome.

If those fused cells are fertilized by two different sperm, each of which carries a Z chromosome, the result might be a bird with the WZ chromosomes of a female in some cells and the ZZ chromosomes of a male in others. “And so you get a bird that’s half and half,” Dr. Spencer said.

In birds and butterflies it is the females who are heterogametic (having unlike sex chromosomes) and the males are homogametic (having like sex chromosomes), the opposite of mammals and many other species (in those, including Drosophila, males are XY and females XX). And even in insects like fruit flies, you can get bilaterial gynandromorphs split plumb down the middle, probably caused by a similar mechanism, though there can be other mechanisms as well. (If an XX embryo loses on X chromosome at the two-cell stage, one side will be XX females but the other X-, which are sterile males).  I was lucky enough to see a fly gynandromorph every year or so, but I don’t remember ever dissecting one to see if it had both testes and ovaries.

Here’s the bird, and below that the scientific paper from the Journal of Field Ornithology (click to read or get the pdf here).

The green side is female, the blue-and-black side is male.

As the paper notes, whether it’s a true hermaphrodite, having reproductive systems designed to produce both sperm and eggs, is unknown. But there are also human hermaphrodites (probably fewer than one in ten thousand), tons of plant hermaphrodites, and hermaphrodites in insects and crustaceans. These are rare developmental anomalies with developmental systems geared to producing (though perhaps not actually producing) both types of gametes—but they are not a third biological sex.

The bird’s internal characteristics remain a mystery. In some, but not all, previously studied cases, gynandromorphic birds have had internal sex organs that matched their external plumage, with an ovary on one side and a testis on the other. Past observations suggest that some gynandromorphic birds can successfully court mates and reproduce.

But this particular green honeycreeper was never observed engaging in any courtship or mating behavior.

I’n betting that this one won’t mate, as its courtship, reproduction, and parental care may all be wonky.

*Abigail Shrier’s new book, Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, had been #1 on all of Amazon, but it’s now #11, which of course is a fantastic achievement. (It’s also #1 in Sociology of Marriage & Family, Pediatrics, and Political Commentary & Opinion.)  She’s given an excerpt of it, called “Brittle Monsters and the Folly of Gentle Parenting“, on her Substack site “The Truth Fairy”, but here’s Bari Weiss’s summary of the book at The Free Press, which precedes yet another excerpt. You can read them both for free, but it’ll be worth getting the book, especially if you have kids or want to know why kids in college are all cattywampus. 

American kids are the freest, most privileged kids in all of history. They are also the saddest, most anxious, depressed, and medicated generation on record. Nearly a third of teen girls say they have seriously considered suicide. For boys, that number is an also alarming 14 percent.

What’s even stranger is that all of these worsening mental health outcomes for kids have coincided with a generation of parents hyper-fixated on the mental health and well-being of their children.

What’s going on?

That mystery is the subject of Abigail Shrier’s fascinating, urgent new book: Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up.

Longtime readers of The Free Press will surely know Abigail’s name from her groundbreaking reporting in our pages. She is also the author of the best-selling 2020 book Irreversible Damage, which tackled the difficult subject of the enormous rise of gender dysphoria among teenage girls. It was named by The Economist as one of the best books of the year and has been translated into ten languages.

In Bad Therapy, out today, Abigail heads into the breach once more. The book makes the case that the advent of therapy culture, the rise of “gentle parenting,” and the spread of “social-emotional learning” in schools is actually causing much of the anxiety and depression faced by today’s youth. In other words, Abigail argues that in our attempt to keep kids safe, we are failing the next generation of American adults.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Kulka and Hili have a confrontation. Apparently Kulka came too close to Hili, and for that Baby Kulka needs to be taught a lesson. (No worries: they never actually fight!)

Kulka: What do you want?
Hili: I have to teach you a lesson.
In Polish:
Kulka: Czego chcesz?
Hili; Muszę ci dać nauczkę.

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

From The Dodo Pet:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Jesus of the Day:

 

From Masih, more oppression of women in Iran.  It’s largely about the hijab, which is not optional there. Sound up to hear the English narrative.

From Luana; the checkboxes have moved beyond race to “was one of your ancestor a slave?”:

From Malcolm; a cat meets a long-lost friend. Sound up!

Cat gym! I don’t think many cats would do this. . .

A rather grim scene from Ricky Gervais’s fantastic series “After Life” (I don’t remember this one):

From the Auschwitz Memorial. a Dutch girl gassed upon arrival, ten years old:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, look at this lovely bird. It’s not a “knife-billed puffin” (a name that isn’t used) but a razorbill or “razorbilled auk” (Alca torda).  Matthew calls attention to its beautiful markings.

. . . and a lovely fly: