Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
This week Bill Maher’s comedy-and-news bit is about the “Assassination Generation,” referring to all the young men who kill or commit arson for ideological reasons. As we know, a big proportion of young people (about 40%) think that political violence is sometimes warranted. As you might expect, Maher deplores this behavior and the ideas behind it. Given that this is the social-media generation, Maher suspects that the deeds are done in part to get popular if your life sucks. As he says, referring to Cole Allen, “This is about being 31 and still living with your mom in Torrance. Life was supposed to come out better.” But he avers that these kids have it a lot better than they think (Cole Allen stayed at the Hilton before his failed assassination attempt at the correspondents’ dinner).
Maher does imply that sometimes political violence may be warranted—he mentions Stalin and Hitler—but, he says, “that’s not where we are now.”
The mantra for Young Assassins at the end: “What this is really about for today’s young assassins is, ‘When life lets you down, and doesn’t properly reward you for being the awesome person you’re sure you are, there’s one big save left: convince yourself you were meant for a cause bigger than yourself. And for Cole Thomas Allen, it was I’m Fighting Hitler‘.”
The guests you see are Represemtatove Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), and Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile.
I rate this better than the average bit, and it’s time someone said that it’s insane to make a hero out of Luigi Mangione.
We have a couple of batches of photos, and today’s come from Pratyaydipa Rudra, a statistician at Oklahoma State, who has sent DUCKS. Pratyay’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
The duck stories from the Botany pond made me look back at some photos that I took while spending time with a group of breeding Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa). These birds obviously gorgeous (the scientific name meaning “water bird in bridal dress”), but they also show some interesting behavior. Below are some of my photos of these cool birds.
One common theme in several of these pictures is the fall color reflection in the pond. The colorful ducks against the reflection of red or golden leaves make for a nice frame. In case you are wondering, this is an adult male:
A closer look at all the iridescences:
The female might not be as eye-catching, but I find female Wood Ducks are quite elegant, especially with the bronze-colored sheen:
Another female floating around. It wasn’t easy to get to the water level at this pond; so, the background is not as clean as I would like it to be:
A male flapping the wings to shake off some water:
Two of them feeding on the ground. It is not uncommon to see them walking around. In fact, they spend significant time on trees and nest in tree cavities (or nest boxes, when available):
Female stretching the tail feathers while resting a rock next to the pond:
Some more preening and grooming…:
Mrs. Woody’s turn to show the wing-flapping skills:
Floating a pond of gold…:
His mate was nearby:
Wood Ducks show sweet mating rituals and tender love:
Some kissing, and seems like the female is ready for it!:
Of course, that leads to some ducklings! Look at those feet!:
Immature Wood Duck floating on the pond:
I will share some more photos of this family in the next edition.
Welcome to Sunday, May 10, 2026, the Sabbath for gentile cats and Mother’s Day. I have only one photo of my mom, and I’ve already shown it, but below is her obituary from The Washington Post: I’m not sure who wrote it, but I don’t remember the “tireless letter writer” and “Girl Scout leader” bits. And I don’t like the bit about Heaven at the end; I’m not even sure she believe in it.
Note her friendship with Edward P. Jones, who lived across the hall from her and dad (and me, for a few years) when we occupied an apartment in Arlington. Jones was a tax attorney and aspiring writer then, and mom used to bring him food all the time, as he couldn’t cook. He later wrote several works of fiction, with one of them—The Known World—winning the Pulitzer Prize. As another Washington Post article said:
He makes his home near Washington National Cathedral in an apartment so disheveled that he allows only close friends inside. There is no bed (he sleeps on a pallet), no bookshelves, no couch, nor much to sit on other than a kitchen chair. He does not have a car, a driver’s license or any mechanized means of transport, not even a bicycle. He has no cellphone, no DVD player, and his Internet connection is sporadic. Though he loves movies and trash daytime television — in particular, those judge shows — he has only a 10-year-old, 13-inch TV and has never had cable. He has never been to a sporting event. He has no deep romantic attachments. He says his closest friend has been Lil Coyne, an elderly woman who for 20 years lived down the hall from him in an apartment building in Alexandria. She died this summer at age 90.
Yes, Jones is a reclusive and odd duck but was great writer (The Known World is superb), though for some reason he decided to stop writing. He still has no bed and hardly any furniture. And the apartments were in Arlington, Virginia, not Alexandria. But he still takes my sister and brother-in-law to a fancy dinner once a year—in honor of our mother and his.
Is it ghoulish to show an obituary on Mother’s Day? I hope not.
There’s a new Google Doodle today celebrating Mother’s Day. Click to see where it goes:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 10 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
Tip: I don’t often read Mo Dowd at the NYT, but her latest column on Ted Turner, called “My Ted talk“, is quite good (the link goes to an archived version).
*After reading in many places that the Democrats were set to dominate Congress in the midterms, and maybe even overturn the House, the news is now telling us that all the unwarranted party-based redistricting, done by both parties, is favoring the Republicans. Oy! Does the news simply need something to run with? From the NYT:
Just two weeks ago, Democrats felt increasingly emboldened about taking control of the House in November after seeming to fight the redistricting wars to a draw.
But two court rulings — one by the Supreme Court and another by Virginia’s top court — and an aggressive new push by red states to carve up congressional maps have delivered the Republican Party its biggest burst of momentum in many months.
Put bluntly, Republicans have roughly 10 more House seats that favor them than they did just 10 days ago, and Democrats are suddenly grappling with a new landscape.
“This is now clearly closer than it was just a week and a half ago,” Representative Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said of his party’s chances to retake the House.
Democrats are still widely seen as favored to win the House this fall. Republicans face a daunting political climate, saddled with President Trump’s sagging approval ratings, high gas prices and an unpopular war with Iran. In special elections and last year’s races for governor, Democratic enthusiasm has swamped Republican turnout.
“I was anticipating about a 15-to-20-seat pickup before the last week and a half,” Mr. Boyle said. “Now I would be anticipating a 10-to-15-seat pickup.”
That would be more than enough to wrest the majority from Republicans, who are clinging to a current edge of 217 to 212 seats. And history is not on Republicans’ side: The party in power almost always loses seats in midterm elections.
So the headline, saying that Democrats’ confidence is shaken, is misguided. As long as the Democrats have a five-seat majority, the House is good to go. But remember that Trump still has veto power over Congressional bills, so we may be in for a few years of stalemate. And this subheadline in the story is also misleading:
LOL!
*I was surprised to see a strong editorial-board op-ed criticizing AOC in the Washington Post, a paper she’d recently criticized. It was about, of all things, Airbnbs. First, a recent tweet in which AOC says that the American Revolution was actually an economic revolt against the “billionaires of their time.”
FIGHTING LIKE THE FOUNDING FATHERS? Watch Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compare taking on billionaires to fighting the Revolutionary War. pic.twitter.com/0lJ3n2blag
History goes down the memory hole. Now, the kerfuffle:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is on a tear, spinning yarns about the American Revolution being an uprising against the rich while complaining that The Post is standing in the way of her humble ambition to remake the country as a socialist utopia. We prefer to simply debate policy.
Consider AOC’s recent criticism of Airbnb. The legislator received blowback after telling a millionaire friend that all billionaires come by their wealth illegitimately. She then pointed to the short-term home rental platform as an example of how a service that millions of people like to use is actually harmful to society.
Ocasio-Cortez argued that Airbnb’s business couldn’t exist without destabilizing housing markets and rapaciously evicting millions: “Now young people are planning for a future where they will never be able to afford to own a home while others have 20 and live off renting it out to them at extortionate rates with zero protections.” A few make billions while millions of Americans bear the cost, she insisted.
Airbnb has achieved impressive scale, but it’s nothing compared to the government. Fewer than 2 percent of American homes are listed on the platform. While there is some evidence it affects home prices in extremely high-tourism areas, it can’t come close to explaining the national rise in home prices.
The housing crisis visible around the country is a result of government simultaneously constricting supply while stoking demand.
. . . Airbnb is a particularly strange example for the congresswoman. Her city effectively banned the platform in 2023 in response to a lobbying campaign by hotels. Has housing become abundant and affordable in Gotham? Of course not, but taking thousands of units off the market has made it a lot harder to find a reasonably priced hotel. Room rates have risen 12.6 percent since the law took effect, compared to 3.6 percent nationwide.
The socialist argument is also baffling to people who benefit from using the platform. In the first three months of this year, guests spent nearly $30 billion on Airbnb, but the company’s net income was only $160 million, according to earnings released Thursday. Not exactly rapacious.
. . . If Ocasio-Cortez runs for president, her campaign increasingly looks like it will be based not on inspiration and unity but demagoguery and division. The race for the Democratic nomination remains wide open, and there will be a lane for exactly the opposite of what the congresswoman has offered so far.
Dear god, I’m still enough of a Democrat to urge my comrades to keep AOC out of the running. If she runs for President, the Democrats will lose. She has neurons, but they don’t work well, and she’s eager and willing to distort facts if they don’t support the “progressive” agenda. I love the Post’s characterization of AOC’s “socialist utopia.”
*The British Medical Association used to be opposed to The Cass Review of 2020, which harshly criticized the treatment of gender dysphoria in the UK by the National Health Service. Before Cass, the NHS was largely dispensing “affirmative care,” giving puberty blockers to adolescents and putting them on a treadmill to medical transition. As a result, the UK has banned puberty blockers to people under 18, save for clinical trials, and has moved all gender care to only two clinics. Now the BMA has dropped its opposition to Cass. Still, although the BMA doesn’t oppose the report, it still wants doctors to have autonomy to prescribe puberty blockers to anyone they think warrants them:
The British Medical Association has said it no longer opposes the Cass review into gender medicine, but that doctors should still have the “autonomy” to prescribe puberty blockers.
In July 2024, the BMA’s council voted to “oppose the implementation” of the review, which called for an overhaul of NHS gender services and a move away from a “medical pathway” that had led to thousands of children being put on powerful sex hormone drugs.
The BMA said at the time that the recommendations by Dr Hilary Cass, now Baroness Cass, were “unsubstantiated”. The union criticised her methodology and called for restrictions on giving children puberty blocker drugs to be paused until it had conducted its own review.
On Wednesday, the BMA published this long-awaited critique of Cass’s work, written by a “task and finish group” of 12 union members.
Professor David Strain, the chair of the BMA’s board of science and the report’s lead author, told The Times that “the baroness has been vindicated in the way she approached the data”.
He praised her methodological approach, and when asked to name a single one of Cass’s 32 recommendations which the BMA opposed he said: “I can’t.”
BUT (there’s always a but):
. . .The BMA said that while it was not “disagreeing with Cass” it did have an issue with the way the review had been implemented, including how slow the NHS had been to set up new “holistic” services.
The union also criticised the decision of Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to pass legislation in 2024 banning the use of puberty blockers. Strain said the legislation was an “overreach” and NHS doctors should still be allowed to prescribe puberty blockers.
The BMA said it was “continuing to oppose a ban on puberty blockers for several reasons, not least because it is a threat to the autonomy of a doctor. We spend decades training on how to use drugs, and to have a political decision affecting the way we prescribe is wrong.”
The BMA is wrong. Puberty blockers have not been tested for long enough to be prescribed willy-nilly and, critically, people under 18 may not have the maturity or the understanding to get on the gender-affirming treadmill, which for many leads to surgery and a “sex life” without the possibility of orgasms. The BMA wants to hold onto a bit of superstition even while it admits that Cass was, by and large, right.
*A man was arrested for hurling a big rock at a locally beloved monk seal in Hawaii. (This is the Hawaiian monk seal, Neomonachus schauinslandi, vulnerable and reliant on conservation to survive. It’s one of only two mammals endemic to Hawaii, though it’s found on other mid-Pacific islands.). Some idiot chucked a big rock at the pinniped, but fortunately it missed narrowly, for it could have done serious damage had it hit the seal in the head. From People (with a video below):
An investigation is underway in Maui, Hawaii, after a man was caught on video throwing a rock at an endangered monk seal.
HawaiiNewsNow reported that the incident took place on the morning of Tuesday, May 5, on Front Street in Lahaina, Maui. Video footage captured by a bystander shows a man picking up a large rock and throwing it toward a seal swimming near the shore.
“What are you doing?” the person filming yelled out in the clip.
Speaking with the outlet, Maui resident Kaylee Schnitzer, 18, shared that she and another bystander witnessed the man — identified by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) only as a 37-year-old adult male from Seattle, Wash. — throwing “a rock the size of a coconut.”
“He threw it, directly aiming towards the monk seal’s head,” she said, sharing that the seal then swam toward some nearby rocks.
Schnitzer also told KHON2 that, once they confronted the man, he allegedly said, “I don’t care, I’m rich.”
“I turned around, and I was like, ‘You can’t do that,'” she recounted to the outlet. “That’s when he told me, ‘… I’m rich. Fine me with whatever you want. I can pay for it.”
The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) confirmed on Wednesday, May 6, that the Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) and the Maui Police Department were alerted to the incident and had opened an investigation.
“When the [DOCARE] officer arrived at the scene, the officer contacted a 37-year-old adult male from Seattle, Washington, who matched the description of the suspect,” the agency said. “The male was detained, identified, and advised of his legal rights. The male declined to make a statement and invoked his legal rights by requesting counsel of an attorney.”‘
Can you believe that? “I’m rich so I can afford to hurt seals”!!! This is a federal crime and the feds are investigating it; see the report at the Department of Land and Natural Resources describing the crime:
In accordance with the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which provides protections for Hawaiian monk seals, DOCARE will be turning over the state investigation of this incident to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement (NOAA-OLE) for further review and action.
To see the wanton act, view the KOMO news video below. What kind of person would do something like this? Yes, an aggressive and vicious moron. I hope they throw the book at him! He’s not Stay tuned, as I’m following this one:
*The Movie “Saturday, October 7” comprises interviews with survivors of the the slaughter of Israelis in 2013, is getting totally bimodal ratings at the Internet Movie Data Base, as I saw on a Facebook post, People are rating the movie either with either a “10” or a “1”, with almost no scores in between. You’d think the average score would be a bit 5 stars instead of the 3.3 given, but the IMDB weights the scores in some way they won’t disclose:
When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system. To ensure that our rating mechanism remains effective, we do not disclose the exact method used to generate the rating.
Here’s the breakdown:
You’d think that the “1”s are those who didn’t like the movie, but all the written comments on the site are positive. As the FB post says, this almost certainly reflects those who have seen the film (the 10s) and those who haven’t but want to destroy the ratings because the movie’s about attack on Jews. Here are a couple of the written summaries (again, there are no written negative ones, just scores of “1”):
Important documentary: This is a must-watch documentary with real stories of people who overcame a life-threatening situation. It is a testament of human strength and the capacity for survival, not only in the terrifying hours but in restoring their lives afterward. It gives you a clear geographical and historical perspective of the situation with a human perspective.
Undeniable facts—a must-see film. The courage of these survivors teaches us all so much. Each person’s story supports that hate is evil and it doesn’t matter what your age or background. It teaches us of the human spirit– to overcome the most brutal circumstances one could not even imagine. As humans, we have an obligation to witness and learn from what these brave souls survived.
Must watch. This is a must see. The tragic harrowing tale of seven survivors of unspeakable, unimaginable horror. It is a tale of tragedy and resilience in the face of such horror. In this world on endless propaganda and demonization, this movie speaks truth to power. The world can learn a thing or two. It is a MUST WATCH.
I tell you, the Jews can’t catch a break. Even a movie showing the October 7 slaughter is assaulted by haters who haven’t even seen it.
Here’s a 3-minute trailer:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is nervous:
Hili: Come to bed already, it’s late.
Andrzej: I just need to check what the tyrants are planning again.
In Polish:
Hili: Chodź już spać, jest noc.
Ja: Jeszcze tylko muszę sprawdzić, co znów knują tyrani.
From Luana; a rare Democrat who is fighting for women-only spaces, like sports and prisons.
I am a Democrat running in San Francisco who supports single sex spaces for women. I won’t be bullied by @scott_wiener or anyone else. pic.twitter.com/iR3Mv2pWU1
— Marie Hurabiell for Congress (@MHurabiell) May 8, 2026
This is the birthday of a Polish Jew who went to France to work, and then was sent to Auschwitz at 32. As usual, the record says, "He did not survive."
And two from Dr. Cobb. First, Simon’s Cat wishes David Attenborough a happy 100th birthday:
Sir David Attenborough turns 100 today 🎉💯 A champion for planet earth, guiding us through jungles, oceans and other wonders of our planet. 🌍 #HappyBirthdayDavidAttenborough
When threatened, the beetles are able to feign death. A. verrucosus may reflex bleed during their death-feigning ritual. Releasing hemolymph which acts as an adhesive, partially covering the larvae in sand and debris, helping evade desert-dwelling predators. The species is becoming increasingly popular in the pet trade, due to their ease of care, hardiness, and longevity.
Yahoo! news, via People magazine, reports a happy ending (the only kind I like for animals). You can see the story by clicking below, and I also found a video.
An excerpt:
A young lion got a sweet reunion with his family after being separated.
Kiros, the young male African lion, was illegally sold as a pet when he was a cub, according to a news release from The Wildcat Sanctuary.
Staff from the sanctuary in Minnesota had discovered Kiros was missing during a rescue mission to save lions from squalid roadside zoo in Quebec, Canada. Kiros’ parents, Kim and Carl, among nine lions rescued.
“From the moment we heard about the missing cub, we hoped we might one day find him,” said Tammy Thies, founder and executive director of The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone.
She continued, “To discover that Kiros not only survived but could come to the sanctuary where his parents now live is incredibly powerful. Stories like this remind us why rescue work matters.”
The sanctuary then got a surprising call a few months later. There was a young lion, related to Kim and Carl, who was looking for home.
Staff checked photos and records to confirm it was Kiros.
Authorities had taken the lion cub and gave him to an accredited zoo, which cared for him for 18 months while a legal proceeding involving the roadside zoo in Quebec was resolved.
Staff at the accredited zoo lovingly named him Kiros, which means “lord.”
The Wildcat Sanctuary then traveled 2,280-miles roundtrip to bring Kiros back to his family in a crate, after obtaining the proper international permits. Kiros’ parents watched curiously as their son arrived at the sanctuary for their reunion.
Kiros now lives in a natural habitat with his parents at The Wildcat Sanctuary, which is hopeful that he will form a pride with the other lions, including another rescued cub named Mango, who was also saved from the roadside zoo.
Here’s a video of the rescued “cub”, who is now quite big:
All’s well that ends well. I wonder if he will recognize his parents, or vice versa.
**********************
Here’s another heartwarmer, even though it involves a d*g. The headline tells the tale, which you can read by clicking below, but I’ll give an excerpt, and also a video. Click the headline to read:
The story:
No animals at a Maryland veterinary hospital understood Blueberry’s new life better than Meadow — and vice versa.
Blueberry, a French bulldog mix, had her front left leg amputated this winter after she was found on the side of a road with punctures and a necrotic leg. Meadow, a black cat, had her left hind leg amputated a few weeks later when she arrived at the hospital with a portion of the leg missing.
They cuddled while they recovered. Soon, they chased each other on three legs, shared toys and rarely left each other’s side.
Last Chance Animal Rescue, the rescue organization in Waldorf where Blueberry and Meadow stayed, shared the duo’s story on social media last month. The post said the pairwould need homes after Blueberry finished rehabilitation.
“Would we love to see them adopted together? Absolutely,” the rescue group wrote. “But most importantly, we want loving homes where they will continue to thrive.”
Many peoplewanted the best friends to thrive together. Last Chance Animal Rescue said it received thousands of adoption inquiries from across North America.
A couple from Fort Washington, Maryland, who own another three-legged cat, adopted Blueberry and Meadow last week. Blueberry, 1, and Meadow, about 9 months old, have continued to adjust to their three-legged lives at their new home, sunbathing together and sharing new toys.
“Fate brought them together, right?” Rachel Clarke, their new owner, told The Washington Post. “We don’t want to take them apart.”
Clarke and her partner, Kevin Tsang, said they have a weakness for three-legged animals.
More than 2,000 people shared the Facebook post, so Clarke and Tsang weren’t optimistic. But Jamie Bazell, spokeswoman for Last Chance Animal Rescue, said Clarke and Tsang were a good fit because they understood how to raise a three-legged cat and could continue taking Blueberry and Meadow to the same veterinary clinic.
Last week, Clarke and Tsang left work early to meet Blueberry and Meadow, who were calm and welcomed pets. They chased each other around the room. Clarke and Tsang agreed to adopt them.
In her Instagram caption, Swift applauded some of Harris’ proposed policies and signed her message “Childless Cat Lady” in a nod to Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance who first used the phrase, saying the United States was run by “childless cat ladies who “force their misery on the rest of the country.”
Swift has never been shy about making her cats part of her personality, and fans love her all the more for it. All three cats have made multiple appearances on her social media pages and even in some of her music videos. In 2020, the superstar’s pets were also featured in her holiday card, wearing cute winter gear against a black-and-white background reminiscent of her 2020 album folklore.
The Grammy winner has also said that her beloved cats have had some influence over her career. In 2019, she told TIME, “I have cats. I’m obsessed with them. I love my cats so much that when a role came up in a movie called Cats, I just thought, like, I gotta do this.” In fact, Swift even attended a “cat school” on set to prepare for her role.
I could say more, but this 13-ininute video does the job. Swift really is a cat fanatic.
********************
Lagniappe. The Number Ten Cat celebrates David Attenborough’s centenary:
Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough
Thank you for being a friend to all animals and for helping the world to cherish us x pic.twitter.com/dkhHOB3wHv
Welcome to CaturSaturday, May 9, 2026: shabbos for Jewish cats and National Lost Sock Memorial Day. I don’t know where the errant socks go, but I do check the washer and dryer during each bout of laundry and I still lose socks. I have been thinking of throwing an old, useless sock into the washer at the beginning to propitiate the Sock God who is undoubtedly taking my socks, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Here’s a belly dance that’s received about 42 million views on YouTube. The abdominal action begins about a minute in, and I have to say it’s impressive:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 9 Wikipedia page.
President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is still in place afterU.S. forces launched strikes in response to attacks on American warships, casting fresh doubt on efforts by Washington and Tehran to reach a negotiated settlement that would end hostilities
Speaking to reporters Thursday during a visit to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, which he is having renovated, Trump described Iran’s attacks on U.S. destroyers as “a trifle”:
“They trifled with us today. We blew them away.”
Trump said a deal with Iran “might not happen, but it could happen any day. I believe they want the deal more than I do.”
Speaking to reporters Friday in Rome, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is expecting a response from Iran “today at some point.”
“We’ll see what the response entails. The hope is it’s something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation,” he said, adding: “I hope it’s a serious offer. I really do.”
The U.S.’s “self-defense strikes” came after the destroyers USS Truxton, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason were attacked with “multiple missiles, drones and small boats,” U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement.
No American vessels were hit, the statement said, and U.S. forces responded by striking Iranian military facilities deemed responsible, officials said in the statement. They included missile and drone launch sites, command-and-control locations, and positions from which Iranian forces were surveilling U.S. forces and gathering intelligence, the statement said.
What a euphemism: an exchange of fire is a “trifle”! I wonder how long it’s going to take before Trump realizes that Iran is not going to give up the ability to make nuclear weapons. And even if he does realize that, and agrees to to it, he’ll find a way to couch the loss of his main war aim as a “victory.”
*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal reports what’s going on with the promised demilitarization of Hamas. It ain’t being demilitarized, of course. (Segal also described a planned but failed Kurdish overthrow of the Iranian regime that was aborted.):
Hamas is currently dividing into three factions, observes a senior official in the Peace Council: those who want to die as martyrs, those who do not want to die as martyrs, and those who want to buy time without the population rebelling against them. The first faction shrank significantly during the war because, as we know, most of them indeed got what they asked for. The question of whether the demilitarization of Gaza will succeed depends heavily on the current balance of power.
Hamas has discovered a very different kind of American than the ones they encountered during the hostage release negotiations last year. Last year, they were spoken to as equals, befitting an entity holding dozens of Israelis. Now, the Americans look down on them and issue direct orders.
Last year, the whole world courted them, and they enjoyed the mediation services of numerous countries seeking proximity to the center of global attention. Since then, four Arab countries have already announced the severing of ties with Hamas. It is no coincidence that these are four countries that were attacked by Iran. “We are being bombed and you remain silent?” they raged at Hamas.
The most prominent of these is Qatar, which effectively expelled Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official. The man left Doha and has not been allowed to return since. Senior Hamas officials are now relocating their residences to Turkey, their last remaining supporter in the world. We’ll always have Istanbul.
All this is well and good, but what will actually come of it in the Gaza Strip? After all, an atmosphere of gloom prevails in Israel amid claims that Hamas is strengthening its position in the areas it still controls within the Strip. When Hamas wants to cheer itself up, it reads the Hebrew press, and when Israelis want to cheer themselves up, they go on social media to look at accounts from Gaza.
Well, the Peace Council believes that in the coming months (even before Oct. 27, for the attention of reader Netanyahu), some areas of Gaza will be cleared of weapons and tunnels and formally handed over to the new entity. Israel will be required to withdraw only after the entire cleanup is complete, certainly not at its start. The pressure is heavy, backs are against the wall, international isolation is worsening—all that remains is for Hamas to be convinced as well.
Don’t look forward to Gaza as a peaceful entity at any time in the near future, and you can forget about a two-state “solution.”
*As usual, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s news-and-snark column at the Free Press, called this week “TGIF: Too crazy and not crazy enough.”
→ Add a billy into that bill: Ol’ Trumpo has said many times that the new White House party ballroom will be paid for by private donors, but it looks like taxpayers might just have to add a tiny touch to the total. Just a pinch from the tax base, just enough to cover a chandelier or 20. In a big $72 billion border package, the administration slipped a $1 billion ballroom “security adjustments and upgrades. . . relating to the East Wing Modernization Project,” including “above-ground and below-ground security features.” Now, I’m actually pro-ballroom and pro-security. Because I’m pro–White House ragers and anti-assassinations. I would personally like to make it home from my trips to the nation’s capital. I know that’s controversial these days, but I do think American electeds should be able to gather without being killed off by whichever substitute teacher went haywire that day. But! However! Just consider for a moment how everyone would react to Kamala Harris tapping an extra billion from the tax base for her ballroom. I think with Trump, we’ve grown accustomed to occasional real estate mayhem. Paving over the Rose Garden, getting freaky with the plaques in the West Wing. As any chronic renovator understands, these things always take twice the time and four times the money. Did I spend a year creating a small deck? Yes, I did. Did it bring me endless heartache, then joy? Also yes. We knew what we were getting into here.
→ Interesting response to the random stabbing of Jews in London: After a Somalian-born British man allegedly rampaged through a heavily Jewish London neighborhood, stabbing two Jewish men, many public intellectuals have been reflecting. Much to consider about that. Here’s Mehdi Hasan, who runs the very successful Zeteo news organization, arguing that violence is bad but the real issue is the Jews: “It becomes more complicated because, of course, many people in the Jewish community do support Israel and that becomes a problem. I think we need to be able to have these conversations, but at the same time all agreeing that violence is never the solution.” A guy stabs Jews on the street, and this is the response. It becomes more complicated because, of course, many people in the Jewish community do support Israel and that becomes a problem. The Jew-stabbing, it’s not good, but we should talk more about why they might be Jew-stabbing, because they have a point. The real problem is not the Jews getting stabbed, but the bad, bad thoughts in the Jews’ heads, and what we’re going to do about them.
→ What’s the use of college anyway?: With the arrival of ChatGPT and Claude, we are really having to confront what the heck college is, and what it’s good for. There’s an easy solution to all the ChatGPCheating, which is to make kids take tests in person, pen-to-paper, ass in seat. But colleges are now run by people who think that’s crazy, unfair, wrong. What about the kids with no hands? And certainly every student has a letter from a doctor saying they have a condition that bars them from timed exams. Those are table stakes. Anyway, two great essays on it this week: One in TheNew Yorker on “Will AI Make College Obsolete?” and one in New York magazine called “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College.” For the crime of writing that New Yorker piece, Jay Caspian Kang has been the villain of Bluesky all week. He wrote this very funny take on X: “Bluesky really is the weirdest social media site ever created. It’s like the most toxic liberals built themselves a prison and then locked themselves up in it and now have 10 riots a day. Why would you do that lol.” It’s fascinating how the next tech wave is shaking out politically. Electric, self-driving cars that will make less air pollution are being coded as right-wing (more on that later). And using artificial intelligence in school, which undermines the entire existing knowledge economy and might turn our brains into a banana puree, is being coded as left-wing. Very curious outcome. The anti-knowledge, anti-testing movement has gone so far that it is now comfortable letting kids just not think at all. Full brain death is the most equitable. So the student copy-pastes the essay prompt into Claude, then copy-pastes the response into an email to the professor, who copy-pastes it back into Claude for a grade. Education: SOLVED. Playing field? Leveled. Moving on!
Note the accurate characterization of BlueHair above!
On Tuesday night, the preschool attached to Park East Synagogue closed early because staff could not ensure a safe dismissal. Outside, protesters had gathered to demonstrate against an aliyah event, a gathering where Jews could learn about fulfilling the commandment of living in Israel. Some of the rioters chanted antisemitic slogans; some carried Hezbollah flags. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani had just issued an official statement explaining, in essence, that even though he would begrudgingly allow police protection, the synagogue really had it coming.
Mamdani’s office said he was “deeply opposed” to the event because it allegedly promoted property in West Bank settlements, which the statement called “illegal under international law.” That statement was wrong in three ways.
First of all, Mamdani’s job is not to pronounce on international affairs, and second, promoting moving to Israel (even to the West Bank, where some Jewish settlements exist “legally”, is not itself a violation of international law. Mamdani doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But I digress: Mamdani spoke out of turn in several ways:
First, it defies the logic of basic governance. When a crowd targets a house of worship, the mayor’s job is not to explain why the crowd has a point. It is to protect the people inside. That duty does not depend on whether the mayor approves of the sermon, the speaker, or the politics of the people attending. It extends to synagogue members, guests, staff, clergy, and the children who could not get home. Security is not a favor. It is the job.
Second, it violates the Constitution. Government officials speak with public authority. Their words signal enforcement priorities, invite public pressure, and chill protected activity. That is why the First Amendment treats official hostility differently from private opinion. A mayor may criticize Israeli policy, condemn settlements, and oppose any foreign-policy position he likes. What he may not do is use the authority of his office to declare that a lawful, religiously significant event at a synagogue is morally suspect because of the viewpoint or identity commitments of the Jews inside.
The Supreme Court has been clear on this. In Rosenberger v. Rector (1995), it held that the government may not treat speech differently based on the viewpoint of the speaker — and a mayor who singles out a synagogue event because it reflects Zionist commitments is doing exactly that. In Bantam Books v. Sullivan (1963), it recognized that official condemnation can chill protected expression without any formal prohibition. In NRA v. Vullo (2025), decided last year, the Court reaffirmed unanimously that officials may not use public authority to pressure others into punishing disfavored speech. The Constitution is not fooled by informality. What a mayor cannot do by ordinance, he cannot do by statement directed at a religious institution while a mob gathers outside it.
Aliyah is not unlawful because Mamdani dislikes Zionism. For most Jews, connection to Israel is not a detachable political position. It is bound up with history, peoplehood, theology, and memory. In Masterpiece Cakeshop (2018), the Supreme Court held that official hostility toward religious motivation itself constitutes a constitutional violation, regardless of whether formal action follows. Mamdani’s statement, issued as his constituents could not get their children home safely from synagogue, fits that pattern precisely. The government does not get to decide which Jewish gatherings are acceptable and which deserve condemnation. And the harm here was not abstract. A Jewish preschool closed early because administrators were worried about getting the children home from school safely. That is what chilled religious life looks like in practice.
Tuesday night was not an aberration. It was a pattern producing a result: A Jewish preschool closed early, and the mayor’s first move was to explain the grievance of the people outside. When a public official uses his office to condemn Jewish institutions at the very moments those institutions need protection, courts and citizens are entitled to ask whether the government is acting neutrally. Under Monell v. Department of Social Services (1978), a city bears direct liability when an equal protection violation flows from official policy or custom rather than individual misconduct. That is what a pattern of deliberate, documented choices looks like. He is building the case against the city himself.
Lastly, consider the law Mamdani actually invoked. International law gives the mayor of New York no license to condemn lawful synagogue activity. And even on his own theory, he was wrong. The provisions most often cited in this debate come from Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which regulates the conduct of an occupying power — deportation, forcible transfers, and state-directed population movement. They say nothing about private individuals relocating voluntarily. They say nothing about a Manhattan synagogue hosting a discussion of aliyah. Invoking them to justify official condemnation of a Jewish community event is not legal reasoning. It is absurd.
This is a substantial extract because I dislike Mamdani and consider him an antisemite. Second, I want to show that he’s sticking his nose in where he doesn’t belong—and yet the Jews who voted for him apparently love it! Finally, he’s positioning himself, I think, for higher office in the party: perhaps a Representative or, Ceiling Cat forbid, a Senator. It would be a sad day if a Jew-hater like him wins a Democratic seat in Congress.
Virginia’s top court on Friday struck down a congressional map drawn by Democrats and recently approved by voters, dealing a major blow to the party as it struggles to keep pace with Republicans in the nation’s redistricting battle.
The ruling will wipe out four newly drawn Democratic-leaning U.S. House districts in Virginia and means that Republicans will enter the midterm elections with a structural advantage from their moves to carve out more red districts across the country.
Congressional maps have for generations been drawn once a decade, after the census, to account for population shifts. But last year, President Trump started a rare, mid-decade gerrymandering war when he persuaded Texas officials to draw a new map to help Republicans as they face midterm headwinds. California countered with a map favoring Democrats. Other red and blue states followed.
After the Virginia map passed in a statewide referendum late last month, Democrats thought that they had battled Republicans to a draw, or that they had even eked out a small advantage. Then a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court prompted several Southern states to work to pass new maps, which will favor Republicans.
Now, the rejection of the new Virginia map means that across the country, Democrats stand to lose half a dozen safe seats, and possibly more, from redistricting alone.
Still, Republicans face a challenging political environment in their bid to retain control of their slim House majority, including worries about the economy, the unpopular war with Iran, high gas prices and Mr. Trump’s sagging approval ratings.
Gerrymandering is gerrymandering, whether it’s based on party lines or ethnicity. In my view, it’s always wrong, whether when practiced by Democrats or Republicans. Mathematicians have devised ways to divide up states into roughly equal population districts without this kind of geographical contortion. The states should be using them, but of course they won’t because state governments have their own interests.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili abhors a mess like nature abhors a vacuum:
Hili: Why is garbage so irritating?
Andrzej: Because amid the world’s chaos, tidiness creates a sense of order.
In Polish:
Hili: Dlaczego śmieci są tak irytujące?
Ja: Ponieważ w chaosie świata schludność daje wrażenie ładu.
I believe I missed this post from Masih reporting three Iranian protestors hanged by the regime the other day:
All these three Iranians have been hanged today. This is a campaign of terror and the world is watching like it’s just another Netflix series, waiting to see how many episodes it takes before anyone actually does something.
From Elizabeth Warren. I’ve never liked her breathless progressivism, as I don’t think she’s sincere. Here, knowing that Spirit Airlines was ging under, she pushes it further down.
I’ve warned for months that a @JetBlue–@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares.@JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation.
From Luana; I’ve added a reply for context. However, eventually robotic devices will replace the hands of surgeons in most operations (or so I think):
Neuralink devices are investigational and not FDA approved. This video features voluntary clinical trial participants sharing their personal experiences, which may not reflect all participants or future outcomes.
Two from my feed. First, a possible source for Michael Jackson’s dancing
Watch Bob Fosse’s snake performance in “The Little Prince” from 1974 and tell me you don’t see Michael Jackson’s entire dance career born in real time.
This Dutch Jewish boy was gassed to death along with his mother and family as soon as they arrived at Auschwitz. He was four years old. https://t.co/n34LLkT2uo
Three from Matthew on Sir David’s 100th birthday yesterday:
Sir David Attenborough turns 100 today 🎉💯 A champion for planet earth, guiding us through jungles, oceans and other wonders of our planet. 🌍 #HappyBirthdayDavidAttenborough
And a photo of Matthew with The Great Century Old man:
. . . and a photo of Matthew with the Great Century-Old Man. They know each other because Matthew helped Attenborough update life on Earth (see below the photo).
There’s no absence of world events to discuss, but they’re not moving quickly and, at any rate, I have nothing to add to anyone’s view of those events. Therefore, we’ll have a new entry in the continuing series of words and phrases I detest.
Note that language evolves, and yes, some of these odious words are actually used, and may even be used in a way the dictionary authorizes. But you don’t need to tell me that language evolves, for I already know that. The point here is simply to state some bits of the English (actually, American) language that irritate me when used. I may have posted some of these in days of yore, but I proffer four today.
And, of course, I would like readers to add their own bêtes noires. As usual, I give an example of the usage.
1.) inspo, meaning “inspiration”. It’s widely used on social media, and I detest it. If you want to shorten “inspiration”, then why not “inspi” (pronounced “inspee”)? Here’s one example from Facebook:
2.) vacay, meaning “vacation”. This is another linguistic shortening whose use is meant to show that you’re au courant. Here’s an example from HuffPo, which I had hoped would disappear by now. It is a gold mine for “with-it” language.
Get ready to hear a lot of “I should’ve thought of that” from everyone else on your next vacay. https://t.co/KS7ScnGQZS
3.) merch, meaning, of course, “merchandise.” I fear this one is so widely used that it will be impossible to dislodge, even through mockery. All we can do is use the right word. It reminds me of “lurch” and is thus unpleasant. Here’s one of many examples: this one is from an Amazon site called “Merch on demand” and is aimed at “content creators” (another phrase I detest. I guess I’m a c.c. myself but I’d never describe myself as one.)
4.) The double “is”. You know what I’m talking about: the phrase “The thing is, is that. . . . “. There is no need for two uses of “is”: one can say “The main thing is that. . ” or “The important thing is that. . . “. The fact that this is jarring is proven by its constant usage in verbal language but nearly complete absence in writing. That’s because it’s both unnecessary and ungrammatical.
Your turn. Since it’s Friday, you must be somewhat splenetic and ready to blow off steam.
John Stith Pemberton invented a cola syrup at his Eagle Drug and Chemical house in Columbus, Georgia. He brought it to Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta and mixed it with carbonated water to make the first cola drink, and it was introduced to the world on May 8, 1886. Both Columbus and Atlanta have since laid claim to the creation of the drink. It was originally sold as a health drink or medicine, for getting rid of hangovers and headaches.
I believe it was M. F. K. Fisher who said that if Coke and onions were things that were very rare and precious, people would pay very high prices to get them.
Have a coupon, which Wikipedia labels, “Believed to be the first coupon ever, this ticket for a free glass of Coca-Cola was first distributed in 1888 to help promote the drink. By 1913, the company had redeemed 8.5 million tickets.”
Coca-Cola Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, had committed suicide on 30 April [1945] during the Battle of Berlin, and Germany’s surrender was authorised by his successor, ReichspräsidentKarl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of military surrender was first signed at 02:41 on 7 May at the Supreme Headquarters of Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) in Reims. A slightly modified document, considered the definitive German Instrument of Surrender, was signed on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin at 22:43 local time.
The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 23.01 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945…
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 8 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*DAVID ATTENBOROUGH TURNS 100 TODAY! As reader Pyers emailed me, “Well, he made it! Probably the most influential person working in the natural history and biological fields since the war. Not a scientist himself, although IIRC his degree is in zoology, but so many current professors and academics in the UK and around the world acknowledge their debt to him in spawning their interest in the natural world through his pioneering and frankly astonishing TV shows.” There’s a celebratory article at the BBC, which includes this:
Sir David Attenborough has said he has been “completely overwhelmed” by the messages he has received ahead of his 100th birthday.
The veteran broadcaster and environmentalist celebrates the milestone on Friday, with a special concert planned in the evening at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
In an audio message released on Thursday, Sir David said: “I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas.
“I have been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings, from pre-school groups to care home residents, and countless individuals and families of all ages.”
He added: “I simply can’t reply to each of you separately, but I’d like to thank you all most sincerely for your kind messages, and wish those of you who have planned your own local events: Have a very happy day.”
Friday evening’s show at the Royal Albert Hall is the climax of a week of special events and broadcast programming in honour of Sir David, who was born in 1926 and joined the BBC in 1952.
Presenter Kirsty Young will host the special 90-minute concert celebrating Sir David’s life, which will air on BBC One and iPlayer from 20:30 BST on Friday.
Pyers says he’ll be raising a glass to Sir David, and so will I. As far as I can see, his life was an unalloyed good, and he simply inundated us with knowledge about the natural world. Happy Birthday, sir David!
It’s Thursday, May 7, and a severe dispute has erupted—and still persists—between the army and the Mossad over the ultimate goal of the war in Iran. The IDF views the removal of uranium from Iranian territory as the ultimate achievement. The Mossad, however, believes the objective is toppling the regime. Even today, contrary to the retrospective cover-your-ass culture prevalent in our region, the Mossad insists on this. While the IDF settled for the amorphous definition of “creating the conditions to topple the regime,” the Mossad simply dropped the first four words.
From here, reality splits into two perspectives, sometimes entirely opposed. Senior IDF officials are intensely frustrated by the American decision not to seize the enriched uranium in a military operation. Thus, Operation Roaring Lion was halted with almost no improvement in the struggle against the Iranian nuclear program compared to Operation Rising Lion. Uranium, uranium, uranium, they chant. Take it, and you’ve erased the nuclear program.
The second approach argues: What good does it do to extract it via an operation or an agreement? If the regime stands, and even if tons of 3 percent enriched uranium remain, you’ve only set them back a few years—a blink of an eye in geopolitical terms. A regime without sanctions will be richer, more despicable, and will want to destroy Israel just as before. Only regime change will uproot the plans for Israel’s destruction from the source. This contrasts with senior defense establishment figures who would gladly welcome the liberation of tens of millions of Iranians from the yoke of dictatorship, but for whom the priority remains strictly Israel first.
The practical expression of this lies in a hypothetical question: What happens if President Trump tells Israel, “You have a green light for one operation”? Most of the defense establishment would say thank you and send the Air Force to raid the uranium stockpiles. The Mossad, one might guess, would support destroying energy plants and refineries, literally plunging Iran into total darkness. This would drastically accelerate the population’s rebellion process. Their anger threshold has already surpassed the levels recorded during the January riots, but simultaneously, the fear threshold has also spiked. When there is no electricity—and with starvation expected to begin in Iran in two months—that wall of fear will collapse.
Which goal is more ambitious? At first glance, toppling the regime seems like a monumental task, while destroying the uranium appears to be a localized, manageable event. But history suggests otherwise: regimes have fallen throughout history, but no country has ever willingly surrendered or lost its enriched nuclear material while the government survived. As the old Talmudic proverb goes, the dilemma is whether to take a “short path that is long”—a quick tactical strike that fails to solve the root problem—or a “long path that is short”—the arduous task of regime change that permanently removes the threat.
I’m for regime toppling, though that may require American “boots on the ground”, which won’t happen. The last paragraph above is telling: we won’t get permanent cessation of nuclear enrichment until there’s a new regime in Iran. If Trump is holding out for “no nukes,” he’s holding out for regime change (though he doesn’t seem to realize it).
A confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, four people familiar with the document said, a finding that appears to raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s optimism on ending the war.
The analysis by the U.S. intelligence community, whose secret assessments on Iran have often been more sober than the administration’s public statements, also found that Tehran retains significant ballistic missile capabilities despite weeks of intense U.S. and Israeli bombardment, three of the people familiar with it said.
Iran retainsabout 75 percent of its prewar inventories of mobile launchers and about 70 percent of its prewar stockpiles of missiles, a U.S. official said. The official said there is evidence that the regime has been able to recover and reopen almost all of its underground storage facilities, repair some damaged missiles and even assemble some new missiles that were nearly complete when the war began.
Trump painted a rosier picture in Oval Office remarks on Wednesday, saying of Iran: “Their missiles are mostly decimated, they have probably 18, 19 percent, but not a lot by comparison to what they had.”
Three current and one former U.S. official confirmed the outlines of the intelligence analysis, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Asked for comment, a senior U.S. intelligence official emphasized the blockade’s impact. “The President’s blockade is inflicting real, compounding damage — severing trade, crushing revenue, and accelerating systemic economic collapse. Iran’s military has been badly degraded, its navy destroyed, and its leaders are in hiding,” the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said in a statement. “What’s left is the regime’s appetite for civilian suffering — starving its own people to prolong a war it has already lost.”
It looks as if Trump wouldn’t be able to wait out the three to four months required to inflict severe damage on Iran, for Americans are getting more and more tired of the war and are beefing at the gas pump. I can wait it out, of course, but I don’t drive much and don’t make my living burning fossil fuels. If the report is accurate, we are in for a long war, which Niall Ferguson has been predicting in The Free Press, and reiterated today.
*Trump has waffled again, suspending U.S. defense of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. This coincides with a new American peace proposal that is being evaluated by Iran, while Iran’s own proposal is being evaluated by the U.S.
Iran said on Wednesday that it was reviewing an American proposal to end the war, a day after President Trump abruptly paused a new U.S. military effort to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz, citing “great progress” in talks with Tehran.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said that his government had not yet given its response to Pakistan, which has been acting as a mediator between Tehran and Washington. Neither he nor Mr. Trump said what the U.S. proposal contained.
“After finalizing its considerations, Iran will convey its views to the Pakistani side,” Mr. Baghaei told the semiofficial Iranian news agency ISNA.
Mr. Trump, speaking at a Mother’s Day event at the White House, said the Iranians “want to make a deal; they want to negotiate.”
“We’re not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and we’re not going to let that happen, and we won’t let that happen,” Mr. Trump said. “So we’re dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we’ll see whether or not they can make a deal that’s satisfactory to us.”
Though Mr. Trump said he was pausing the effort to safeguard ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military was continuing to enforce a blockade on Iranian ports aimed at strangling the Iranian economy.
From the second link:
The United States was waiting on Thursday for Iran to convey its response to the latest American proposal to end the war, after public messages from top-ranking officials on both sides suggested a burst of behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity.
Business leaders, consumers, politicians, shipping companies and many others around the world have also been watching closely for signs of a breakthrough. The conflict, which has dragged on into a third month and prompted Iran and the United States to implement rival blockades around the Strait of Hormuz, has choked off a major oil transit route, wreaking havoc on global supply chains and causing energy prices to spike.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said late Wednesday that his government was reviewing an American response to a 14-point Iranian proposal to end the war and would give its response to Pakistan, a key mediator. Neither Tehran nor Washington has said what the U.S. response entails.
“The exchange of messages through the Pakistani intermediary is ongoing, and reviews of the exchanged texts are continuing,” Mr. Baghaei told IRIB, Iran’s state broadcaster.
Earlier in the day, another Iranian official had dismissed a reported proposal to end the war as a “list of American wishes.”
The NYT says that Trump’s reversal on escorting ships was attributable to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who considered the project unfeasible and likely to exacerbat the war, denying U.S. warplanes access to Saudi airspace. Meanwhile, more U.S. troops are in the Middle East: 50,000 of them. The soap opera goes on, with hard-line Islamists on one side and a possibly demented authoritarian on the other.
*The Free Press has an article about detransitioning. It will anger many, but it’s time air stories like this rather than just go along with the gender activists. The article’s called “I de-transitioned. My body will never be the same,” and the author is Joni Skinner, a natal male who transitioned and then went back to his birth sex, but not without permanent injury.
I’m a gay man who testified last month against what has been called a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-rights bill. I was there because I believe the proposed law could silence the one kind of help that could have saved me from years of anguish and a future permanently marked by what was done to me as a child.
. . . From my earliest awareness, I knew I was not like other kids—and certainly not like other boys. I moved and spoke in ways others called “girly.” I loved dress‑up games, butterflies, and anything pink. I was obsessed with The Princess and the Frog and looked up to Disney princesses more than any male character. I also knew, from a very young age, that I liked boys. I didn’t have words for it then, and in the world I grew up in, it was considered sinful and shameful. But the feeling existed long before I had any name for it.
. . .When I was 13, I told my mom I thought I might be transgender. Her reaction was one of confusion and fear. She had spent years working nonstop to keep us afloat and taking me to therapy appointments for my autism. She had watched me be bullied, and now my tutor, someone she trusted, told her there could be a medical explanation and treatment for me.
My tutor told us about the gender services program where she was receiving treatment and explained to my mom they were experts who could figure out what was really going on with me. It was four hours away, so my mom and I made the drive.
And this is what “affirmative therapy” does:
When we arrived, I sat down with the therapist who was the program manager for the hospital’s gender services program. She asked me to tell her everything, so I shared every worry I had about growing up gay in my community. I told her that I was afraid I would never make friends, because for as long as I could remember most kids wanted nothing to do with me. I told her I was terrified of God’s judgment and of spending my teenage years surrounded by people who hated who I was.
Rather than helping me work through any of it, she affirmed all of my fears. She said she could see why I was afraid of the discrimination I would face. She told me that nowhere would be a good place to be gay for someone like me, because I had a “feminine essence” and gay men wanted men, and that just wasn’t who I was. She said I could transition and fly under the radar as a woman in my hometown. And I could find a man to love me that way.
She then handed me a gender dysphoria checklist, which I filled out on my own. It asked me to rate how I felt about my body, gender expression, and puberty. One question asked about erections: I checked that I was “totally uncomfortable” with them, and then wrote in the margins “I don’t have any yet,” with a little smiley face. I felt embarrassed and out of my depth, pulled into a world of adult decisions I didn’t understand.y.
After that appointment, the therapist totaled my score. I got a 53 out of 60, which she described as an open-and-shut case. I was definitely transgender, she said.
She then told my mom that if I matured through male puberty, the prejudice and worsening mental health would be so crushing that around 60 percent of kids in my position would choose to kill themselves rather than live that way. Since then, my mom and I have discussed that appointment at length, and she still remembers that warning. It’s still so emotional for her that she rarely talks about it. My mom had watched me struggle for years—coming home from school in tears, and withdrawing more and more into myself. And here was a professional, in a clinical setting, telling her that the alternative to medical transition was her child’s death. My mom says she was so ultra-focused on the suicide risk that it became her top concern: She just wanted to keep me alive.
Yep, the suicide warning, which turns out to be completely erroneous. New studies show that there’s no more chance of someone in this state committing suicide than someone who doesn’t transition committing suicide. At any rate Joni got puberty blockers and then female hormones, and was apparently not told she’d lose her ability to have orgasms, which is almost always true in such cases. There were all kinds of debilitating side effects, and Joni decided to “detransition” to a male biology. Only then did he discover the doubts that doctors had about “affirmative care” (remember about 80+% of people with gender dysphoria who don’t “transition” turn out gay, with no medical side effects).
*How fast is the Universe expanding? We know that it is from several pieces of data, most notably the red shift of light, but a new paper in Astronomy and Astrophysics, discussed by the Wall Street Journal, details not only how fast it’s expanding, but how miniscule the expansion is. Don’t ask me to explain the paper, which is above my pay grade; I put a link above so those with the relevant expertise can read it. From the WSJ:
Scientists know our universe is expanding. Now they have a better idea how fast.
Cosmologists who study the universe know it began with the big bang and has been expanding from a single point ever since. Even about 14 billion years later, this expansion moves objects like galaxies in it farther away from us. Scientists try to determine the rate of expansion because it can help tell us how old the universe is.
An international gathering of experts last year in Switzerland confirmed that objects recede faster as they become more distant. For instance, a galaxy 3 million light-years away will move away from us by 46 miles per second, the scientists calculated. A galaxy at twice that distance would be moving away at about 90 miles per second.
I’ve seen this compared to blowing up a balloon. As it expands, the distance between two dots on the balloon will increase faster the farther they were apart initially, even at a constant rate of intlation. But look at this (bolding is mine):
The rate, detailed recently in a study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, is the most precise ever calculated. It is also mind-bogglingly small: If you took an empty space the size of a football field, and it was expanding at the rate our universe is, it would take more than 1 million years to expand by a single centimeter, said study author Caroline Huang, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The calculation has called into question a major scientific theory. It is about 10% faster than what the standard model of cosmology—essentially our theory of how everything works in the universe—says the rate should be.
This means there is probably something missing from the standard model, or a force we don’t fully understand, said Stefano Casertano, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and study co-author. Dark matter, the invisible cosmic glue that holds galaxies together, and dark energy, which pushes them apart, are two likely culprits.
The discrepancy also raises questions about what experts thought they knew about the end times.
Currently, a prevailing theory is that the universe will keep expanding until it experiences “heat death”—stars will lose all their fuel and die in about 100 trillion years or so, leaving everything cold and dark, according to another study co-author, Dillon Brout, from Boston University.
“But now that we know there’s a crack in our theory of what is governing the universe at the largest scales, we can’t make any predictions at all for its fate,” Brout said. “It both keeps me up at night and wakes me up in the morning.”
I can’t quite wrap my head around the fat that distant galaxies are receding so quickly although the universe is expanding so slowly. It must be because the Universe is so big. As for what it’s expanding into, well, physicists say either that we don’t know, or the whole question is nonsensical.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is shy:
Sharon: A foreign car in the orchard.
Hili: I’m heading back home, I’m not up for talking to unfamiliar people today.
In Polish:
Szaron: Obcy samochód w sadzie.
Hili: Wracam do domu, nie jestem dziś w nastroju do rozmów z obcymi ludźmi.
Here’s the latest toll of deaths in Gaza, and you can get constant updates by clicking here. Maarten Boudry tells me that, as best we know, Aizenberg’s figures are reliable:
🧵Gaza Fatality Update Jan 2026. The chart below summarizes the latest fatality estimate based on Hamas’ most recent reported numbers. Key points: natural deaths are included in the total count and thousands of combatant losses are excluded. Full explanation below. 1/ pic.twitter.com/YFGuA6RYaC
The California arsonist admired Luigi Mangione, as many misguided blockheads do, and that may be why he set the fire. As Niall Ferguson wrote:
The militant left is on the march, with a shockingly high share (one in four) of young, “very liberal” voters saying political violence can sometimes be justified. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, who is accused of intentionally starting the Pacific Palisades fire, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes, was inspired by slogans such as “free Luigi Mangione” and “lets take down all the billionaires.” As he told investigators, “We’re basically being enslaved by [the rich].”
Accused Palisades firestaryer idolized Luigi Mangione, prosecutors say. He allegedly resented the rich and his anger was made worse due a shitty love life that him a loner on New Yea’s Eve. He videoed a fire station two days before in seeming nod. https://t.co/dfoyp9lTyF
This Dutch Jewish girl was gassed along with her mother when both arrived at Auschwitz. She was one year old and would be 85 today had she lived. https://t.co/rdQncKTnkp
