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WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE

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.


ZEFRANK HAS CRABS!

October 30, 2023 • 1:30 pm

Reader Mary sent me a video by the incomparable ZeFrank, and it’s a lovely one,
a full 15 minutes about crabs with lots of great video and accurate biology.
Mary said this:

> Really good one with lots of interesting evolutionary implications!

There’s all kind of cool stuff about coconut crabs, the famous migrating red
crabs of Christmas Island, hermit crabs, sponge crabs, decorator crabs, boxer
crabs (don’t miss these!), spider crabs, fiddler crabs  And yes, there’s
evolution: straight adaptation in morphology and behavior by natural selection,
sexual selection, and evolutionary tradeoffs.

(There’s an ad from 2:45 until 3:35.)



h/t: Tim

Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in
adaptation, crustaceans, evolution5 Comments Posted at 1:30 pm


NICK COHEN ON THE EMBRACE OF ISLAMISM BY THE “PROGRESSIVE” LEFT

October 30, 2023 • 12:30 pm

Nick Cohen wrote an article in the Spectator that’s paywalled for most of us,
but thank Ceiling Cat he also published it on his Substack site, “Writing from
London.”  It was originally called “Why the far Left supports Hamas“, but the
title was changed when the piece moved to Substack. The original title was more
accurate!

This is Cohen at his best, though I haven’t followed him regularly. If you do,
subscribe to his site.



First, the observation:

> It’s not often that Brits can say that the US is behind the UK. But in
> understanding the dynamic between the successors to the old socialist left and
> radical Islam, US thinkers have years of catching up to do. It is not as if
> American commentators are wrong or uninteresting, it is just that, unlike
> their counterparts in Europe, they have not begun to come to terms with the
> Islamisation of the worst strains of left-wing politics, and the wider
> consequences for the progressive cause.
> 
> Moderates in the US  were pushed into taking a stand after the glorification
> of murder at a demonstration organised by the New York chapter of the
> Democratic Socialists of America on 8 October. Mark that date. I hope when
> historians look back on these times they will notice that in the US and across
> Europe, the white far left and radical Islamists were organsising rallies to
> celebrate the attack on Israel.  No  Israeli retaliation had taken place on 8
> October. The blood of the dead was not even dry,  Demonstrators were not
> protesting against an Israeli assault on Gaza city but in favour of the murder
> of Jewish civilians.

I hadn’t realize that many demonstrations in favor of Palestine preceded any
Israeli retaliation, and thus were really either demonstrations of favor of
Hamas and what it did, or anticipatory demonstrations damning Israel for what
it might do. Given the timing, the obvious celebration of some of them, and my
unfamiliarity with any anticipatory demonstrations, you can’t discount a
motivation the these protests celebrated the killing of Jews.

I won’t reproduce Cohen’s whole analysis of “Why the far Left supports Hamas”
(the original title), but here are a few trenchant paragraphs. His main idea is
that Hamas (and Palestine) provides the Far Left with a cause it needs: a cause
so pressing that it demands war and killing. Bolding below is mine:

> The most imperialist country in the world is Russia, but the far left cannot
> oppose it  because Putin  is anti-western, and that is all that matters to
> them. Most people think that climate change won’t bring a radical reordering
> of society — “we’re just going to build some solar panels and electric cars
> and stuff,” as Smith puts it. There doesn’t seem much mileage in shouting
> about neo-liberalism given that it died in the 2008 crash.
> 
> In these circumstances, the Palestinian cause offers a way out of
> end-of-history ennui. Israel could be described as a colonial state, albeit
> one founded by refugees fleeing fascism. The struggle against it appeared to
> fit  a classic pattern.
> 
> And, as Smith nicely emphasizes, by supporting Hamas, the far left could draw
> a dividing between itself and the rest of the US progressive movement. A
> useful tactic because, if you are running a political or religious sect ,you
> need your members  to believe in something that most people will regard as
> insane: supporting the mass murder of Israeli teenagers, hailing your church’s
> leader as God’s chosen, insisting that Joe Biden stole the election from
> Donald Trump. Sect members not only prove their  loyalty to their leaders.
> [sic] Crucially, they cut themselves off from friends, family and
> acquaintances,  who in normal circumstances might moderate their thinking and
> point out that the slogan “from the river to sea” means the ethnic cleansing
> of every Jew living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean, as Hamas
> has just proved in the most brutal fashion imaginable.

> . . . You can mock and denounce the far left as much as you like, and I have
> done my fair share of both. But the connection to ultra-reactionary regimes
> and movements did not bother Labour party members who voted for Corbyn to be
> their leader – twice!  You can blame Labour members as loudly as you like, and
> I have done my fair share of that too. But the fact remains that if you want
> to support the Palestinian cause, you have to accept at some level that the
> most dynamic anti-Zionist force is Hamas not one of the dying secular and
> socialist parties, and work out how to deal with that uncomfortable fact.
> 
> It is not, therefore, just sinister and stupid far-left sects who are caught
> in a conflict of principles. Unless they are very careful many progressives
> will find themselves ignoring the victims of Hamas crimes against humanity as
> Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, Charles Dance and 2000 other artists did when
> they signed a petition condemning Israel that did not even mention the
> slaughter by Hamas that started the war.

Note that the UN did that, too, as you saw in the previous post. Cohen also digs
up an old quote from Hitchens:

> The far left copes with radical Islam by celebrating Hamas. At times it seems
> many progressive people cope with radical Islam by pretending it does not
> exist. They cannot look at the Hamas founding charter and see its Nazi-era
> conspiracy theories about Jews or examine how it enforces a reactionary
> dictatorship on the people of Gaza. They just talk as if it is not there.
> 
> Writing in 2008, the ex-Marxist Christopher Hitchens said that “The most
> depressing and wretched spectacle of the past decade, for all those who care
> about democracy and secularism, has been the degeneration of Palestinian Arab
> nationalism into the theocratic and thanatocratic hell of Hamas and Islamic
> Jihad, where the Web site of Gaza’s ruling faction blazons an endorsement
> of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

In the end, Cohen says “the radical Islamist movement. . . is visibly dying” and
suggests that perhaps Palestine will one day “be represented by people you need
not recoil from in disgust.” One can hope. . .

Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in
"progressives", Islamism6 Comments Posted at 12:30 pm


UN REPEATEDLY CONDEMNS ISRAEL, BUT PALESTINE (AND HAMAS) GET OFF SCOT-FREE

October 30, 2023 • 11:15 am

Everyone who pays attention to the UN knows that it has repeatedly condemned
Israel but barely goes after countries like North Korea, Russia, or Iran (all UN
members), even though it’s pretty clear that these countries violate human
rights far more often than does Israel. The UN seems to have an obsession with
condemning Israel, and the reasons seem pretty clear. I won’t go into them now.

You can see this “disproportionality” at the UN Watch site, where you can read
this summary and see some of the resolutions:

> From 2015 through 2022, including the above, the UN General Assembly has
> adopted 140 resolutions on Israel and 68 on other countries. For texts and
> voting sheets, see the UN Watch Database, which will include the 2022 UNGA
> resolutions after they are published by the UN in January 2023.
> 
> The UN Watch Database also documents that from 2006 through 2022, the UN Human
> Rights Council has adopted 99 resolutions against Israel, 41 against Syria, 13
> against Iran, 4 against Russia, and 3 against Venezuela.

Isn’t it strange that the number of resolutions against Israel is greater than
resolutions about the rest of the world combined? If you look at them, most
condemn Israel for “occupation” as well as other bad deeds.

What about the Palestinian territories, which aren’t an official UN country but
have “observer status” at the UN? (Note, though that the State of Palestine is
recognized as a country by 138 of the 193 United Nations member states.)

Wikipedia has a site called “List of United Nations resolutions concerning
Palestine”. Some text (bolding is Wikipedia’s):

> The following is a list of United Nations resolutions concerning State of
> Palestine. From 1967 to 1989 the UN Security Council adopted
> 131 resolutions directly addressing the Arab–Israeli conflict, with many
> concerning the Palestinians; Since 2012, a number of resolutions were issued
> dealing directly with the modern Palestinian State.

Looking at the list, I can’t find a single one that condemns Palestine for
anything; most are resolutions about aid to Palestine, and a number of them are
also condemnations of Israel. It’s fair to say that the UN has largely ignored
human rights violations by Palestine, and you can’t say that there are none! 
Now I didn’t scrutinize this long list minutely, but it’s clear that there is
serious “inequity” in the degree of UN opprobrium of Israel vs. Palestine.

But surely, I thought, there must be a UN condemnation of Hamas’s raid on Israel
on October 7. Well, the General Assembly put up such a motion, but an amendment
(not a resolution) condemning Hamas’s attack was rejected! Click below to read
the article from UN Watch:



Bolding is mine:

> The UN General Assembly adopted an Arab-drafted resolution today calling for a
> “humanitarian truce” in Gaza, after rejecting a Canadian amendment that would
> have condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demanded immediate
> release of hostages taken by Hamas.
> 
> Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it “a day that will go down in
> infamy.”
> 
> The [final] resolution was adopted by a vote of 120 to 14 with 45 abstentions.

> Outrageously, the resolution failed to condemn Hamas for its October 7th
> massacre of 1400 Israelis, or for its abduction of more than 200 Israelis
> including children and babies, or even to mention the word Hamas.
> 
> The resolution also failed to recognize Israel’s right to defend itself and
> its citizens against terrorism.

> The resolution calls for “immediate, full, sustained, safe and unhindered
> humanitarian access…to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid” but,
> as noted by the Czech Republic, doesn’t provide assurances that this will not
> be abused by Hamas and other terrorists.
> 
> The text also calls on Israel, “the occupying power,” to rescind its order to
> evacuate northern Gaza.
> 
> Prior to taking action on the resolution, an amendment led by Canada did not
> pass, as it failed to reach the required two-thirds majority. That amendment
> would have “unequivocally reject[ed] and condemn[ed] the terrorist attacks by
> Hamas that took place in Israel starting on 7 October 2023 and the taking of
> hostages.”

Kudos to Canada for a game try, but they abstained from the vote on the final
resolution. From the National Post of Canada:

> In the end, the amendment failed, unable to garner the required two-thirds
> majority of votes in the General Assembly. The vote saw 88 members in favour,
> and 55 against, with 23 abstentions.

I can’t find a list of countries that rejected Canada’s amendment.  There’s
more:

> The resolution itself passed by a margin of 120-14.
> 
> Canada was among the 45 nations that abstained from the final vote after the
> amendment failed to pass. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s UN emissary, left little doubt
> about his feelings when it was over.
> 
> “The spectacle we just saw proves beyond a doubt that the UN is committed —
> sadly, tragically — not to preventing, but ensuring further atrocities,” he
> said.
> 
> “We saw exactly what (Hamas) dreams of doing to every Israeli and Jew and we
> will not sit idly by to let them re-arm and commit such atrocities again. We
> won’t, just as every single other member state in this room wouldn’t.”

Well, so it goes. While I disapproved of Israel’s siege on Gaza, which is now
lifted, and am pleased that Gaza is now receiving humanitarian aid (but
concerned that much of it will fall into the hands of Hamas), why couldn’t the
UN find it in its heart to condemn the butchery of 1400 Israelis, many of them
civilians?  What happened in southern Israel is beyond belief. You tell me why
the UN refused to even address it.

Here’s the final vote on the whole resolution; the U.S. abstained because the
resolution didn’t condemn Hamas. It’s interesting to see the countries who
joined the U.S. and those, including Great Britain and other EU countries, who
abstained. Click on the tweet and then on the black list to see the way the vote
went.





A snarky but true comment:





Kudos as well to the Czech Republic, whose defense minister, shocked by the
amendment’s rejection (the country voted “no” on the final resolution along with
the U.S,), even suggested that her country leave the UN:





Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in
discussions16 Comments Posted at 11:15 am


MY CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD DAWKINS

October 30, 2023 • 9:45 am

About ten days ago I had an hourlong conversation with Richard Dawkins for his
Substack site, “The Poetry of Reality“.  The video, from YouTube, is embedded
below. As Richard says in his written introduction:

> We covered a myriad of controversial topics plaguing our world today: from the
> religious conflict in Gaza to modern-day struggles with freedom of speech,
> from the prospect of revolt against oppression to considering the demands of
> the Maori people, and also on affirmative action and the debate about race.

In other words, it wasn’t about evolution—the usual topic of our discussions.

As always, I can’t bear watching myself on video, but I’m sure I’d stand with
what I said, for I do remember a bit.

But I do note that Malgorzata watched the whole thing and sent me two
corrections.  First, I mixed up Abba Eban with Ehud Barak. It was Eban and not
Barak who made the comment about “Palestinians never missing an opportunity to
miss an opportunity.” Also, I’m told that the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) are
not completely free from service to Israel.  Malgorzata notes that there are
“thousands of Haredi men queuing in front of military posts, asking to be let
into the army. Others worked 24/7 collecting bodies (and body parts) after the
massacre, cleaning, working in hospitals, and helping Jewish refugees from both
the north and south and north borders.” I knew about the Haredis cleaning up
after terrorist attacks (they’re willing to take on very gory jobs), but was
unaware of their help after October 7.

With those corrections in mind, here’s the video. Feel free to comment below,
but I don’t think I’m going to watch this.


Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in
discussions, Israel, Palestine, war10 Comments Posted at 9:45 am


JESUS ‘N’ MO ‘N’ HALLOWEEN

October 30, 2023 • 9:00 am

We’ll have two Jesus and Mo cartoons this week: there’s an old one today called
“year,” and we’ll apparently have a new one in two days. The artist says this:

> Here’s one from 11 years ago to tide you over til Wednesday. It has a
> Halloween theme (the holiday is tomorrow), and the boys have appropriate
> costumes.



 

Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in Jesus
and Mo8 Comments Posted at 9:00 am


READERS’ WILDLIFE PHOTOS

October 30, 2023 • 8:15 am

Today we have photos from Bill Dickens, taken in Florida. Bill’s narrative and
IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photographs by clicking on them.

> My home backs onto the Thousand Island Conservation Area on Florida’s Space
> Coast. (I’m close enough to the space center that launches shake my house.)
> 
> General guide to Florida archipelago naming:   Actual # of islands = Name /
> 10.  So the Thousand Island Conservation Area consists of around 100 islands
> in the brackish waters of the Banana River Lagoon.
> 
> It’s teaming with wildlife. The water boils with schools of fish and on most
> trips I see dolphins hunting. There is the occasional alligator although salt
> water is not their preferred habitat. There has been a sole crocodile which
> has moved north with the warmer temperatures (I have not seen this myself.)
> The main bird species are Pelican, Cormorant, Anhinga, Blue Heron, Osprey,
> Great Egret, and Wood Stork.
> 
> I love going out on the water and I try to get out a couple of times a week.
> It’s rare to see anyone else out on the 338-acre zone. Like a lot of Florida
> wildlife, the birds are not particularly disturbed by boats and will allow you
> to get quite close. The dolphins will often rush over as soon as they see my
> kayak or dinghy, sometimes swimming under the kayak or riding in the dinghy’s
> wake. It’s a complete joy interacting with them.
> 
> Eastern Brown Pelican [Pelecanus occentalis] – the name doesn’t reflect the
> colors and feather patterns:



> Eastern Brown Pelican – they will sometimes dive down right in front of my
> boat to catch fish:



> Eastern Brown Pelican – I sometime feel like I’m on the Jurassic Coast when
> they’re flying in a diagonal line down the beach:



> Osprey [Pandion haliaetus]:



> Osprey with catch:



> Anhinga [Anhinga anhinga]:



> Anhinga drying its wings in the last of the sunlight:



> Kayaking through the Mangroves:



> Sunset on the lagoon – it’s rare to see anyone else out on the water:



> Great Egret [Ardea alba] on my lawn:



Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in birds,
landscapes, photography, Readers' wildlife11 Comments Posted at 8:15 am


MONDAY: HILI DIALOGUE

October 30, 2023 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Monday, October 30, 2023; in one week I’ll be in Paris! It happens to
be the worst food day of the year, National Candy Corn Day, celebrating what
happens to be the world’s worst confection: a triangular mixture of artificial
flavoring, sugar, and paraffin (yes, they contain “edible wax”!). I can already
hear some readers commenting, saying, “I like the stuff!”

And, as this video shows, the stuff is made in Chicago!



It’s also Buy A Doughnut Day, Pumpkin Bread Day, Sugar Addiction Awareness
Day, Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions (former Soviet
republics, except Ukraine), and Mischief Night in Ireland, Canada, United
Kingdom, United States and other places.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by
consulting the October 30 Wikipedia page.

Wine of the Day: This may be the first wine from Uruguay I’ve ever had, and it
certainly left a good impression. Only recently I paid $14 for the bottle, even
though it’s eight years old. It’s also made from a grape I haven’t had: tannat,
grown in France but considered “the national wine of Uruguay.” (This makes me
want to go there!)

This is the perfect food wine: not too complex or pricey for everyday drinking
with food, but delicious: not too tannic, ripe, with strong berry flavors, and a
complement with food—not an afterthought or a lubricant, but a true complement. 
Here’s a review from Jancis Robinson, who knows her onions:

> Colour of elderberry juice. Dark and rocky and so mineral on the nose. Fresh
> and juicy but with such fine dry tannins. Tension from the finesse of the
> tannins. More intense than the 2014. Compact yet with real finesse. Dark
> chocolate and graphite on the finish. Dark and so savoury but then also
> juicily drinkable but needs more time and/or food. (JH) 17.5/20 points.

Well, as of now it doesn’t need more time: it’s good to go. If you can find this
vintage at a good price, buy a case. For other vintages, look up what others
have said or buy a bottle and try it out.



Da Nooz:

*Obituaries first; Matthew Perry, one of the stars of the immensely popular
television comedy “Friends,” has died at the young age of 54.

> Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated “Friends” star, has died at 54 years old.
> 
> The actor rocketed to stardom on “Friends,” an NBC comedy about six friends
> living in New York, from 1994 until the series finale in 2004. The TV show
> became one of the most watched sitcoms of all time, turning Perry and his
> co-stars—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David
> Schwimmer—into household names.

> The actor was found dead at his home, according to the Los Angeles County
> medical examiner. The cause of death is still under investigation, the
> coroner’s record said.
> 
> Perry released a memoir last year, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible
> Thing.” Its revelations about Hollywood and its straightforward honesty about
> his substance abuse struggles made it an instant bestseller.
> 
> Perry was born in the U.S. but moved to Canada with his mother following his
> parents’ separation when he was a baby, according to IMDB. He lived in Canada
> until he was a teenager, when he went to live in the California home of his
> father, an actor and model.
> 
> Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who went to school with Perry, said he
> was shocked by the news of the actor’s death.

He was heavily addicted to opioids and alcohol, and nearly died from it several
times. This may have been the last; other sources says that he drowned in a hot
tub.

Here’s an interview he did with Diane Sawyer describing his battles with
addiction and also showing some scenes from “Friends”; it’s worth watching.



*The war news changes rapidly; below is yesterday evening’s from the NYT, and
you can see this morning’s here.

> The Israeli military on Sunday signaled a heavier assault on Gaza, saying it
> had expanded its ground invasion while President Biden urged Israel’s leader
> to protect the lives of civilians.
> 
> The precise number of soldiers operating in the territory since Friday
> remained unclear, but the Israeli military’s chief spokesman said that it was
> “gradually expanding the ground activity and the scope of our forces,” and
> that they were “progressing through the stages of the war according to plan.”
> 
> Mr. Biden spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday and
> reiterated the right of Israel to protect itself, but also “underscored the
> need to do so in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that
> prioritizes the protection of civilians,” according to a summary of the call
> released by the White House. Mr. Biden asked Israel to “immediately and
> significantly” increase the amount of humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza,
> where a three-week siege and a bombardment of Israeli airstrikes have killed
> thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands more from their homes,
> according to officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
> 
> Mr. Biden also spoke with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, whose
> country has been the sole route into Gaza for relief trucks, including 33 that
> carried food, water and medical supplies into the enclave on Sunday — the most
> in a single day since trucks were first allowed in more than a week ago.
> 
> “The two leaders committed to the significant acceleration and increase of
> assistance flowing into Gaza beginning today and then continuously,” according
> to a White House summary. Both leaders affirmed a commitment to “work together
> to set the conditions for a durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East
> to include the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
> 
> Here’s what else to know:
> 
>  * The death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 surpassed 8,000 people, including 3,342
>    children, a spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry said on Sunday.
>    Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, said in an
>    interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that even though Hamas has placed
>    its rocket infrastructure among civilians and used them as human shields,
>    Israel remained responsible under international humanitarian law “to
>    distinguish between terrorists and civilians and to protect the lives of
>    innocent people.”
> 
>  * Videos released by the Israeli military and geolocated by The New York
>    Times indicated at least three separate places where Israeli troops have
>    crossed the border into Gaza over the past few days.

And some good news from the WSJ about humanitarian aid and actions:

> Humanitarian aid: Palestinians broke into U.N. food warehouses in Gaza, and
> wheat flour and other basic items were taken. A U.S. official said the U.N.
> can handle as many as around 100 trucks of aid each day, and that Israel
> agreed to accelerate aid as such. The Israeli military said it was preparing a
> humanitarian zone in the Khan Younis area of Gaza for displaced Palestinians.

*Oh, and they’re hunting for Jews in Dagestan, of all places, a republic of
Russia on the NW coast of the Caspian Sea.

> The authorities in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan moved to restore
> order early Monday morning after hundreds of young men tried to storm the
> local airport to protest the arrival of a commercial flight from Tel Aviv.
> 
> At least 20 people were injured in the riot on Sunday, and dozens of people
> were arrested. The government in the predominantly Muslim republic said that
> the outburst had been calmed and vowed to prevent further clashes. Russian
> aviation authorities said that the airport, in Makhachkala, the republic’s
> capital, would reopen on Tuesday.

> But the riot shocked Jews in Russia and beyond and highlighted the challenges
> that the Kremlin faces in managing the various parts of its vast multiethnic
> and multireligious country.
> 
> It also underscored how the Kremlin’s decision to distance itself from Israel
> and from Israel’s mission to drive out Hamas terrorists can cause instability
> at home.

There was a riot as locals tried to apprehend Jews. They even looked for Jews in
the plane’s engines! (Tweets from Matthew.)









*Biden is pushing for a two-state solution after the Hamas/Israel war ends.

>  As the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war enters what Israeli Prime Minister
> Benjamin Netanyahu says could be a “long and difficult” new stage, President
> Joe Biden is calling on Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their
> eventual postwar reality.
> 
> It’s one, he argues, where finally finding agreement on a
> long-sought two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be a
> priority.
> 
> “There’s no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6,” Biden told
> reporters, referring to the day before Hamas militants attacked Israel and set
> off the latest war. The White House says Biden conveyed the same message
> directly to Netanyahu during a telephone call this past week.
> 
> “It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what
> comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution,” Biden said.
> 
> . . .Now, at a moment of heightened concern that the Israel-Hamas war could
> spiral into a broader regional conflict, Biden has begun to emphasize that
> once the bombing and shooting stop, working toward a Palestinian state should
> no longer be ignored.

Until this year that was my dream as well, but then you have to realize that
Palestine has rejected statehood (and some of the offers were good ones) at
least five times, that any Palestinian state with terrorists or their enablers
in charge (like Abbas) will be untenable because it will be contiguous with
Israel and terrorists will still do their thing, and, finally, many
Palestinians, if Hamas really is eliminated (along with a number of civilians
used as human shields), they’ll be so angry at Israel that all they’ll want to
do is attack Israel any way they could.  I really don’t see the way clear to any
kind of two-state solution unless Arab states get together, help settle the
issue, and prevent terrorists from dominating the Palestinian state. Given what
Iran wants, and their big-time funding of terrorists, I think that’s impossible.

*Hollywood is often said to “be run by Jews,” and, indeed, there’s a strong
Jewish presence among artists, screenwriters, and managers. But Hollywood is
also “progressive,” which has led to this NYT article, “Reaction to Hamas attack
leaves some Jews in Hollywood feeling unmoored.” (The subtitle is “The response
to the Oct. 7 assault, and to Israel’s retaliation, has revealed a schism in the
entertainment world that many did not realize was there.”)

> Many say they are disillusioned — and angered — by the trickle of public
> condemnation from Hollywood regarding the Oct. 7 attack. There was no flood of
> support on social media from celebrities. Most studios initially tried to
> duck, staying silent. One leading union, the Writers Guild of America, refused
> to put out a statement, and stuck with its decision in the face of enormous
> backlash from hundreds of its members.
> 
> “The silence has been deafening,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of the
> Anti-Defamation League, told The Wrap, an entertainment trade news site, on
> Oct. 12.

Now the Screen Writer’s Guild should have an ideologically neutral policy, so
they don’t have to put out statements about any issues, but they haven’t had
that, so they got into trouble, just like many colleges. Then they just made
things worse by saying this stuff:

> The situation with the writers’ guild intensified on Oct. 15 when a group of
> more than 300 writers, including Jerry Seinfeld, Eric Roth (“Killers of the
> Flower Moon”) and Amy Sherman-Palladino (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) sent an
> open letter to guild leaders asking why they had not publicly denounced the
> attack on Israel, as the other major Hollywood unions had. The initial
> response to the letter came in an email to members from Meredith Stiehm,
> president of the Writers Guild of America West. She wrote that the lack of a
> public response was because “the board’s viewpoints are varied, and we found
> consensus out of reach.”
> 
> That made the situation worse. Faced with a growing rebellion, the guild
> ultimately released a public statement in which it condemned the attack and
> tried to explain its initial silence. It said it was not “because we are
> paralyzed by factionalism or masking hateful views” but rather because “we are
> American labor leaders, aware of our limitations and humbled by the magnitude
> of this conflict.”

The letter isn’t public, as far as I know, but the explanation just made things
worse.  “Humbled by the magnitude of this conflict”? Like World War II? Give me
a break?  Anyway, there are lot of other ruptures detailed in the article, like
this one:

> Divisions were also on display when a prominent agent at the Creative Artists
> Agency posted messages on Instagram that used the word “genocide” in
> describing Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza. The agent, Maha Dakhil, represents
> stars like Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon. She quickly removed the
> post, issued an apology and resigned from an internal leadership position at
> the company.
> 
> Ms. Dakhil lost a prominent client: the screenwriter and playwright Aaron
> Sorkin, who decamped for a rival agency and said in a statement, “Maha isn’t
> an antisemite, she’s just wrong.”

Dakhil was free to say what she wanted on social media, and her clients were
free to leave. But taking down a post because you lose clients is a bit
cowardly.

*And some good news about religious freedom. Students who were forcibly
proselytized by Christians are about to get a unit on the First Amendment:

> A West Virginia school district has passed a policy mandating annual religious
> freedom training as part of a lawsuit settlement after an evangelical preacher
> held a revival assembly during the school day in 2022 that some students were
> required to attend.
> 
> As part of a settlement finalized Thursday, Cabell County’s Board of
> Education’s policy makes clear that it is “not the province of a public school
> to either inhibit, or advance, religious beliefs or practices,” board lawyer
> Brian D. Morrison said in a statement to The Associated Press.
> 
> “Students must remain free to voluntarily express their individual religious
> beliefs, or lack thereof, as each student sees fit,” Morrison said.
> 
> Four families in West Virginia’s second-largest city of Huntington sued the
> district in February 2022, accusing the school system in the southwestern part
> of the state of having a systematic history of disregarding the religious
> freedom of its students and instituting Christian religious practices.

And get a load of this:

> The lawsuit said two Huntington High School teachers escorted their entire
> homeroom classes to an assembly hosted by evangelical preacher Nik Walker, who
> had been leading revivals in the Huntington area in recent weeks.
> 
> Students, including a Jewish student who asked to leave but was not permitted
> to do so, were instructed to close their eyes and raise their arms in prayer,
> according to the lawsuit. The teens were asked to give their lives over to
> Jesus to find purpose and salvation. Students said they were told that those
> who did not follow the Bible would “face eternal torment.”
> 
> . . . The policy requires the district superintendent and principals “to
> attempt in good faith” to monitor school-sponsored activities to ensure policy
> compliance. Principals must report potential violations to the superintendent
> within seven days of discovering them. The superintendent is “authorized to
> investigate and take remedial action,” according to the policy.

It was the students who got this off the ground, and each student plaintiff will
get a $2000 scholarship, presumably from the school. That’ll teach them to stop
making students praise Jesus!  If only we could get our first-year students at
Chicago to take a unit on the First Amendment, too—concentrating not on freedom
of religion, but on freedom of speech.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is pondering her narcissism:

> A: What are you thinking about?
> Hili: I wonder how others see me.



In Polish:
> Ja: O czym myślisz?
> Hili: Zastanawiam się jak mnie widzą inni.

And a picture of Paulina cuddling her beloved Kulka (whom she found and saved):



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

From a FB site I forgot:



From Ant: a terrific Halloween costume:



From Not Anothcr Science Cat Page:



And Anna Krylov’s and Jay Tanzman’s British shorthair cat, Mishka:



From Masih: A member of Iran’s “morality police” admits that her outfit killed
Armita Geravand for not wearing her hijab (she died yesterday several weeks
after she was assaulted in Tehran).





Rashida Tlaib still hasn’t corrected her claim that Israel bombed the hospital
in Gaza. Readers have added “context.”  A false claim left up after correction
is a lie.





From Barry: Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo) who escaped from the
Central Park Zoo in February, is still making it in Central Park! I guess they
haven’t been able to capture him, but winter is coming.





From Jez: a “new generation traffic system”:





From Simon, who says, “Jeez; this crap again!” You can see his quotes (from
2016) at this link.





 

From Malcolm, a peacemaker cat!





From the Auschwitz Memorial, a man who survived less than a month. His
expression is haunting:





And another lonely and agéd tweet from Dr. Cobb, who has gone off Twitter. It’s
a cactus that blooms only at night, so I’d probably miss it (second tweet):





Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in Hili
Dialogue, Kulka20 Comments Posted at 6:45 am


RIPPING DOWN THE “KIDNAPPED” POSTERS

October 29, 2023 • 12:45 pm

One act that is absolutely reprehensible, unjustifiable, and downright sick is
the ripping down of posters and fliers showing pictures of the hostages taken by
Hamas on October 7. No matter what you feel about what’s going on in Gaza right
now, there’s no justification for ripping down posters calling attention to
Jewish (and non-Jewish) hostages in Hamas’s hands, for their capture was both a
war crime and a moral outrage. What statement are the people who rip down these
posters trying to make?

Nevertheless, it’s happening throughout the world. Here it is in London (see
Jacoby’s column below for more examples). These women claim they’re “helping
Palestine”. How? By hiding the brutal crimes of some Palestinians. Some help!



Here’s an interview with the Israeli artists who designed the posters (along
with more video of their desecration). It’s sad that one artist has to cover his
face out of fear. The woman artist is especially eloquent.



Below: a callous ripper git is rightfully confronted by several non-Jews who
realize how heinous the act is. But I don’t agree with the angry guy who
threatens the ripper with violence.





This wanton defacing of specific posters by Jew haters is the subject of an
op-ed today in the Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby, which I found for free on this
website (or you can click on the screenshot below):



Jacoby starts with a clever analogy:

> A cat from my neighborhood has gone missing. Her owner has distributed fliers
> around the area, asking residents to keep an eye out for her. “LOST CAT,” it
> says in big letters beneath a photo of Coco, a beautiful animal with fluffy
> white fur and blue eyes.
> 
> Whether the fliers will lead to Coco’s recovery I don’t know. But of one thing
> I am certain: No one walking through the neighborhood will be grabbing all the
> posters and stuffing them in the trash. Even people who dislike cats wouldn’t
> be that callous and mean.
> 
> But ever since fliers calling attention to something far more terrible than a
> missing cat — the plight of the more than 200 hostages abducted from Israel by
> Hamas on Oct. 7 — began going up on telephone poles, subway walls, utility
> boxes, and worksite fences in cities around the world, a startling number of
> people have been eager to tear them down. Individuals have been filmed
> destroying ordefacing the posters in Boston, London, Miami, New
> York, Melbourne, Philadelphia, Richmond, Ann Arbor, and Los Angeles.

A bit more:

> There is no possible justification for such heartlessness. The whole purpose
> of the fliers is to heighten awareness of the Israeli (and other) civilians
> kidnapped by the Hamas terror squads — to put names and faces to the hostages,
> all with one goal: to bring them back home. How can a project so heartfelt and
> humane trigger such a poisonous response?
> 
> Advertisement
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The posters were the brainchild of two Israeli artists, Nitzan Mintz and Dede
> Bandaid, who were visiting New York when Hamas carried out its bloodbath.
> Aching to help in some way, they drew on their art backgrounds to design the
> eye-catching fliers. Each is topped with the word “KIDNAPPED” in large white
> letters on an orange background; below that heading is the name, age,
> nationality, and photo of one of the hostages, who range in age from 3 months
> to 85 years.

And Jacoby’s explanation for the ripping, which comes down to ubiquitous
antisemitism.

> The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is intensely controversial and generates
> great emotion on both sides. But these assaults on the “Kidnapped” posters
> have nothing to do with the merits of the dispute. The sole purpose of the
> fliers is to emphasize the humanity of the innocent hostages seized by Hamas
> (many of whom, as it happens, were peace activists deeply committed to
> Arab-Israeli coexistence). What drives the people ripping down the posters or
> adding Hitler mustaches to the pictures is a pathological need to deny the
> humanity of those kidnapped Jews.
> 
> Advertisement
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> A core principle of antisemites in all times and places is that Jews are not
> fully human and are never innocent. A thousand years ago, Jews were
> slaughtered by Crusaders for being satanic Christ-killers who consumed the
> blood of children; a century ago Hitler preached that they were subhumans who
> polluted the racial purity of Aryan Europe. Today the Jewish state is accused
> of committing the demonic crimes of genocide and apartheid. The poison never
> changes, only the vial it comes in.
> 
> The “Kidnapped” fliers are intolerable to the haters because they so urgently
> challenge the antisemitic paradigm. They make it vividly clear that in the war
> between barbarism and civilization, between oppressor and oppressed, it is
> Jews who are under attack. That infuriates those whose worldview revolves
> around the certainty that Israel and its supporters are the victimizers. The
> outpouring of sympathy for Jews kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists — and the
> moral force of that sympathy — is anathema to them.

The ending:

> The ripped-up fliers are one more indication of the rising tide of
> antisemitism in America and the West. A “white hot rage” is building. I, for
> one, cannot shake the conviction that Jews are at graver risk than they have
> been in decades, and not only in southern Israel.

I have several Jewish friends who are really scared that American antisemitism,
clearly on the rise, will segue into violence. They sometimes talk about moving
elsewhere—even to Israel, which right now is a questionable decision (Hamas has
fired 8,000 rockets into Israel since October 7).  I, for one, can’t bring
myself to believe we’ll have any pogroms in America.  But when you hear the
Jewish woman emoting in the last video shown in my previous post, you can’t help
wondering if it’s open season on Jews in America—perhaps not for being killed
but for being despised.

A wall of “kidnapped” posters from The Nation (photo by Amir Levy / Getty
Images):



Posted on October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 by whyevolutionistruePosted in
Israel, Palestine, war53 Comments Posted at 12:45 pm


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