Link round-up for 1 December 2024

Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week.

o o o o o

Being killed made him careless.

When the sidewalks are icy, it's best to stay home.

"Quoth the raven....."

You want a flying car?  Here's one.

The dog went to visit for a special reason.

Explore the world of extreme sports.

Time to go out and play in the snow.

The new employee seems a bit nervous about the job.

Not everyone is good at cooking.

Sometimes you've got things to do but you just don't want to get out of bed.

She can always escape.

Nice car, but finding a parking space would be difficult.

The Sugar-Coated Sisters celebrate a long-ago Irish witch to the tune of "Rasputin".  I wish I'd found this in time for Halloween, but better late than never.

The back-up drummer got a round of applause.

Check out this moving scrap-metal art.

Sometimes, movies should just be fun.

This household will have plenty of black cats next Halloween.

Here are some nice flowers next to a lake.

Break down the barriers. Get out of the bubbles.

Dark Thoughts blog celebrates the best Christmas character.

Oh, great, now the cats will get rabies.

What manner of abomination is this?

The Christmas carolers came early.

Hurricanes are not symmetrical -- one side is always more dangerous than the other.

If this report is accurate, diabetes can now be cured with stem cells.

The advent of widespread vaccination profoundly transformed life in the US.

Humans are not evolved to sleep eight straight hours a night.  The reality is a bit more complex.

Your brain's color perception is a lot more sophisticated than you realize. Stick with the video -- it's an actual explanation, not just an optical illusion.

This is the planet Pluto, as seen from the New Horizons space probe.

Cervical-cancer deaths in the US are falling dramatically, the result of sixteen years of HPV vaccine use.

Thirty-six tons of animal corpse parts sold for human consumption in the US have been recalled due to possible listeria contamination.  There have already been at least two deaths, and the number may well rise since listeria can take up to three months to develop.

Stupid people's refusal to understand science has serious economic consequences.

RFK Jr's ignorant anti-science lies about vaccines will lead to surges in preventable diseases.

Some states make living in a "tiny house" a bureaucratic nightmare.

Guard dogs reduce threats to victims of domestic violence.

Two novels illustrate how violent events traumatize young people.

Real good and evil aren't like in movies.

Pwned, I think.

The damage done by "AI" is often hard to see, but it's always there.

Being a retail worker is hell, especially as Christmas approaches.  People who mistreat them are shit.

Remember Yulia Waxer.

One brand of car stands out for its high rate of fatal accidents.

In case anyone needs a reminder, here are ten reasons to avoid using Amazon.

It's an obviously fake job.

The musical Cabaret remains popular, but do audiences today really understand it?

Don't mess with commuters.  (This is France.  We Americans are not so good at sticking up for ourselves, but given enough such provocation, eventually we will be.)

Rudyard Kipling has a warning for our time.

Harris will be back.

Since the anniversary of the JFK assassination has triggered such a burst of nauseating hagiography, here's a necessary reminder of what he and his family really were.

Evidently basic intelligence is not a requirement for being a CEO.

France after World War II saw an eruption of vile misogyny.

As more and more Americans turn away from religion, the country is seeing a "tsunami" of church closings.  The logical course would be to convert all the empty churches into affordable housing, but there are difficulties.

One Democratic congressman is giving the party a wake-up call.  So far, most are not listening.

Ocasio-Cortez is really trying, but she just doesn't get it.

Where are so many young men learning to be obnoxious assholes?

Tuberville is hopelessly confused about Ukraine and Russia.

Yes, the person who drew this is perfectly normal and safe to be around (click the blurred image to view).

Work-life balance in the US is among the worst in the developed world.

There is one law for us regular people, another for the powerful and their families.

Trump's probably won't be able to impose his draconian tariffs and federal workforce cuts.

"You're stupid!  Fuck you!  Now vote for us!"  And then such people are surprised that we lose.

Obama understood Americans better than most do (good discussion in the comments, with input from me).

There is right-wing woke-ism too.

"Food insecurity" has been increasing for the last three years, showing that the economy hasn't been so great for tens of millions of voters, despite strong overall growth (hint: the rich are siphoning off most of the new wealth the workers produce).  Private charity does help the hungry, but fluctuates with the seasons and other factors that influence public attention; it cannot substitute for government programs.

Here's how one Christian nationalist broke free from the cult.

Asian-American voters have been shifting away from the Democrats, driven by affirmative action and coddling criminals.  However, the high educational level of these voters limits the appeal of the Republicans.

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, and the world's largest non-government employer.  But is its overall impact good or bad?  It's a surprisingly mixed picture.

Political must-read of the week:  The majority of the country, not just Trump voters, is in revolt against woketardia.  Plenty of good supporting data.  I'm more and more convinced that this is the key problem for the left.  If we can't repudiate this tangle of massively unpopular attitudes and delusions, we will be doomed to repeated unnecessary election defeats.  That's why I am never going to let this subject drop -- I don't want us to keep losing.

To start winning again, Democrats will need to take tough pragmatic action.

Abortions in the US have declined no more than 2% since the wave of post-Dobbs bans, mostly due to interstate travel and easy access to abortion pills.

If you need to lie to preserve a relationship, it may not be worth preserving.

Twitter has become a right-wing echo chamber that censors opposing views.  It's past time to abandon it.  Musk is responding to the exodus from Twitter to Bluesky -- by making Twitter even shittier.

Even some of Trump's fans are getting exasperated with his ridiculous cabinet picks.

As I surmised last week, threatening a government official is a federal felony.  So when will the FBI arrest this guy?

Last week, in reference to the ICC warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, I commented: "The US should sever any connections with it that we still have, and pass a law making any cooperation with it a criminal offense."  Since then I've been pleased to find out that since 2002 we have had a law which prohibits any US governmental body from cooperating with the ICC, and authorizes the president to use any means necessary (presumably including military force) to rescue any Americans who are detained on its behalf.  The law passed Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.

"There is no rage that can match a mother trying to protect her child from harm.  I will fight this insanity the rest of my life."

Ted Cruz wants to sabotage a program to make low-cost internet available to poor people.

Voters like Democratic policies on abortion and the economy -- they just don't like Democrats.

Everything is shrinking around us, except what we pay for it.

The left-wing internet has been full of disgusting, despicable smearing of Nancy Mace lately, because she wants to keep men out of women's restrooms, something that was totally uncontroversial until a few years ago.  I have yet to see the same people condemn the death threats she's been receiving.  Truly the left has lost its soul.  They're turning Mace into a bipartisan heroine.

Here's some genuine wasteful government spending that should be cut.

It's absurd to call this "discriminatory".  See why people are getting fed up?

The MSM are dying -- the most-watched MSM channel is Fox, with a daily viewership of two million, less than one percent of the total US adult population.  The are individual one-person YouTube channels with more viewers than that.  MSNBC and CNN are far smaller and shrinking.

USA Today, at least, allows some common sense to be heard.

A bipartisan bill would cut funding for colleges that support BDS.

Ob-gyn doctors are leaving Texas because the state's forced-birth law makes it impossible to practice medicine ethically.

Perhaps Republican laws will save the Democrats from themselves.

The anti-Trump resistance seems a lot more muted than at the start of his first term.

Although this September rally was in Canada, it illustrates well how woketardia turns off voters everywhere.

In the UK, some male cops are now allowed to strip-search women.  Apparently it's a perk of the job.

Freedom of expression must include the right to speak out against religion, or it means nothing.

The mayor of Amsterdam banned a demonstration against anti-Semitism from a central square, citing "safety", while jihadist hate rallies continue in the same square.  However, even at its mandated remote location, the pro-Jewish rally was well-attended and energetic.

Finland examplifies why Europe has mostly rejected the concept of gender-transitioning minors.

Sweden shows how even a small country with advanced technology and clear vision can make a difference in the world.

France will not cooperate with the anti-Western, anti-Jewish ICC's hypocritical arrest warrants against Israeli officials.

I don't think this guy should be representing a police department.

It begins, again -- Jews in Berlin are being advised to keep a low profile due to the explosion of anti-Semitism after October 7.  It's getting nasty for gay people as well.

Taiwan's former president Tsai Ing-wen is urging the US to prioritize weapons for Ukraine.  The defeat of Russia will be the best deterrent against China.

Trump's special envoy on the Ukraine war understands the importance of defeating Russia.

NATO has passed a resolution calling for Ukraine to be given medium-range missiles, with a range up to 5,500 kilometers, capable of reaching any target in the European part of Russia.

Like JD Vance, the Putin regime doesn't like childless women, though it seems neutral on cats.

Russia's ruble currency is collapsing, putting further strain on its war effort and economy.

In Georgia, protests against Russian domination are becoming more intense.

Israel is the only developed country with a healthy birth rate, and there's evidence that it's risen even higher since the October 7 attack.

The Hezbollah ceasefire, though risky, is a win for Israel (at least for now) and a vindication of a determined and remarkable leader.

Sunni rebels in Syria appear to be taking control of Aleppo (Syria's second-largest city) from the Asad regime, a sign of the weakening of Russia and the Iranian theocracy, both of which support Asad.  Russian and regime forces have fled from Hama, a city south of Aleppo.  There are even rumors that Asad has taken refuge in Moscow.

Iran under the theocracy is sinking into poverty, with malnutrition increasingly widespread.

India's religio-nationalist Modi regime wants to force social-media content creators to register with the government, making them subject to onerous regulations.

More links at Red State Blues.

My posts this week:  an image round-up, a video on Bonhoeffer's view of stupidity, and Russia as a nuclear paper tiger.

o o o o o

There are few things more disappointing than presenting an idea and getting a cliché or a slogan in response.

During the twentieth century alone, smallpox killed between three and five hundred million people.  If you could somehow change history to make smallpox vaccination universal in 1900, you'd save four to seven times as many lives as you would by preventing World War II.

Israel is doing in Gaza the same thing as US and British bombers did to the cities of Nazi Germany, for the same reasons.  The only difference is that the Israelis are taking a lot more trouble to minimize civilian casualties.

The defeat of a Russian/Iranian ally is certainly to be celebrated, but if Asad falls and militant Sunnis take over Syria, it will not be good news for minorities such as the Christians, Druze, Alawites, and Kurds.  The Asad regime, brutal as it is, works to appeal to minorities because its power base is the Alawite sect (13% of Syria's population) and it needs all the additional support it can get.  Sunni Arabs are the majority in Syria, and Sunni militant groups such as al-Qâ'idah, Dâ'ish, and the Taliban have a track record of persecution of non-Sunnis verging on genocide, as well as brutal repression of women and gays.  Some of the leaders have promised to respect human rights, but I see no reason to expect them to keep such promises if they attain power.

Democratic elected officials must use whatever power they have left to minimize the damage Trump and the Republicans can do; they have a responsibility to the whole country, including the Republican-voting parts of it.  Nevertheless, to the extent that the Trump agenda gets enacted and people who voted for him (or didn't vote at all) suffer for it, no sympathy is warranted.  It's absurd that many of these people didn't bother to find out how tariffs actually work, or somehow failed to notice that the Republicans have spent the last half-century cutting taxes for the rich at the expense of everyone else.  Unlike those of us who voted Democratic, they're bringing this on themselves.

The enemy claims that those of us who are against men using women's restrooms want to require "genital inspections".  Nonsense.  We want things to go back to normal, back to the way it was until a few years ago.  Men used the men's room, women used the women's room, and nobody was "inspecting" anything.  In reality, the vast majority of men who claim to be women are easily identifiable as men, when you see them in person as opposed to filtered/altered photos and video on the internet.

[Image at top:  Aleppo after years of civil war]