Reading

Created
Wed, 11/10/2023 - 00:00
Americans can imagine themselves there Accounts of the killings and kidnappings from the Israeli border with Gaza are horrific. Especially from the attack on unarmed civilians at a music festival. Americans can easily imagine themselves in a similar situation. Americans were in a similar situation in October six years ago in Las Vegas when a lone gunman murdered 60 concertgoers and wounded over 400. The New York Times has video shot as the attacks began. One striking image from TV accounts shows a destroyed car shot full of holes like Swiss cheese. Israeli retaliatory airstrikes on the Gaza side of the border are killing and wounding unarmed civilians there, don’t forget. With the district locked down and out of power, Palestinian victims’ stories are trickling out more slowly. Their stories will likely never be told. I’m not qualified to do more than react. But this clip of retired United States Navy rear admiral John Kirby of the National Security Council choking up on live television is arresting. It’s a sobering image. Why, given daily events in this country, is hard to express.
Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 23:53

In 1978, the civil rights veteran James Yates reflected on what led him to travel thousands of miles from the United States to fight for the Spanish Republic. Writing of the atmosphere of the thirties – of “mass unemployment, great demonstrations, strikes, intense organisation” – he wrote of how his generation of African Americans were […]

Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 23:00

“As many as 30 percent to 40 percent of online reviews are fabricated or otherwise not genuine…” — The Washington Post

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The Trojan Horse

Best brought inside impregnable outer walls
Thought it was a scam, but once we brought it inside our impregnable outer walls we really began to receive favor from Poseidon.

Great Horse
Shipped fully assembled with zero guys in it.

Sturdy!
Sturdy design withstands all the bumps and jolts on the path from outside the city’s impregnable walls to the vulnerable city center. City had big party, and afterward my husband and I made love for the first time in a while.

works grat
love my big horsey

Sword of Damocles

Sharp!
Note: Don’t throw away the package after you take the sword out. There is a single horse’s hair in there so you can suspend the sword over your head all day long.

Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 18:31
This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for several months at Kyoto University in Japan. When you live in a foreign country for an extended period you start to observe the seasonal patterns not just in the weather but in the social practices and customs. But…
Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 10:33
Thinking About A Hezbollah Intervention

So, let’s say Hezbollah intervenes, as they have said they will if there’s a ground incursion–and Netanyahu has announced it has started.

Remember that Hezbollah has thousands of missiles and that the Israeli “Iron Dome” couldn’t even keep up with Hamas’s attack.

Hezbollah didn’t have much of a missile force in 2006, and what they had were short range and inaccurate. Still, Israel was unable to find and destroy most of the launch sites and its ground incursion was defeated. Indeed Hezbollah was able to intercept Israeli comms while Israel could not intercept Hezbollah’s comms, since they were based on an underground private system.

Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 10:30
Bobby Junior shows how to destroy a legacy in one easy step This would be sad if it weren’t so dangerous: In a move that could alter the dynamics of the 2024 election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Monday that he would continue his presidential run as an independent candidate, ending his long-shot pursuit of the Democratic nomination against an incumbent president. “I am here to declare myself an independent candidate for president of the United States,” Mr. Kennedy told a crowd of supporters outside the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Since announcing his candidacy in April, Mr. Kennedy, 69, has been a sharp critic of Democratic leadership, which he has accused of “hijacking the party machinery” to stifle his challenge to President Biden. He has also said, in interviews and in public appearances, that the party has abandoned its principles and become corrupted. Running as an independent will entail an expensive, uphill battle to get on the ballot in all 50 states.
Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 10:10
Republicans’ temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry, received 90 percent of his campaign cash this year from lobbyists and industries he regulates — and only $856 from small donors.
Created
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 07:30
A sane, experienced hand is what the world needs, not a narcissistic imbecile Note the date of that Truth Social post. He wrote that today. That’s what he’s thinking about right now. We are in the midst of an international crisis and the putative nominee for the Republican nomination is whining about Forbes Magazine, Stormy Daniels and Rosie O’Donnell. That’s the man Republicans want to put back in charge of America’s nuclear arsenal (which he is blabbing about to his Mar-a-Lago customers.) ****** I highly recommend history professor (and OG blogger) Claire Potter’s newsletter Political Junkie and you should subscribe if you want to read some great political commentaryfrom her and any number of great writers and analysts who write for her. Today she is featuring a great piece about Joe Biden and the “age problem” by Peter Drier the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental College: Many voters, including Democrats, think that 80-year old President Joe Biden is too old to run for re-election.