Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments... except the Virginia Supreme Court case about the redistricting referendum. I just put up a new post about that, so scroll down for a concentrated conversation about that.

"In its 4-to-3 opinion, the Virginia Supreme Court wrote that Democratic legislators had violated the state’s constitution with their move to enact a new map meant to give their party 10 out of the state’s 11 U.S. House seats..."

".... up from the six it currently controls. Virginia voters had approved a constitutional amendment to allow for the map in a referendum. The problem, the court’s majority suggested, was that the first vote on the amendment in the General Assembly, which would authorize Democrats to redraw the map, occurred days before last fall’s legislative elections — meaning that some Virginians who cast their ballots early did so without knowing how their state lawmakers would vote on the new map. That, the justices wrote, violated the process laid out in the State Constitution. 'This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy,' the majority wrote...."

I'm reading "In Huge Blow to Democrats, Virginia Court Strikes Down House Map/The decision is a major victory for Republicans, wiping away a measure approved by voters to allow Democrats to gain as many as four House seats in the midterms" (NYT).

"Pentagon releases dozens of UFO files offering transparency on 'alien and extraterrestrial life.'"

That's the headline from The New York Post, from a whole hour ago, so I infer that there's nothing too exciting there.

I've never believed there have been alien visitors to Earth, so I had no hopes or fears relating to this new transparency. Did you?

Venomous bites.

Kyle Rittenhouse, who gained fame for opening fire at a 2020 civil rights rally in Wisconsin, was hospitalized after he was bitten by a venomous spider, the noted firearms enthusiast says. https://t.co/sPEoH0rhjy

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 7, 2026

Jake Tapper looks supremely woeful as he labors to help us with Marco Rubio's 90s hip-hop references.

The pain in Jake Tapper‘s face is priceless-he really feels the need to let you know that Marco Rubio used hip-hop references 🤣 pic.twitter.com/gOHjK6g1Hj

— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) May 7, 2026

"While devoting most of her time to her son, Monita Wong said she needs to maintain a little distance."

"On the second floor of the foundation building, she incorporated two small bedrooms, for [her husband] and herself. 'I am reluctant to go back to the condo,' she said. When the owner of the lot next to the condo chopped down the spruce that Matthew loved, she brought the stump to the foundation building. 'I could not stop them,' she said. 'But I thought it would be good to have it here. It is outside now.'"

From "A Grieving Mother Safeguards Her Son’s Artistic Legacy/The troubled painter Matthew Wong’s star was on the rise when he died [by suicide] at 35. His mother, Monita Wong, is making sure his work can still be seen" (NYT)(gift link so you can see more of the mother's story, some of the son's paintings, and photos with the captions "Wong's paint tubes, stained sneakers and even the light switch were relocated from his studio" and "Monita Wong carried over the clutter to recreate her son’s studio in the headquarters of the Matthew Wong Foundation in Edmonton, Alberta").

Quote from an art dealer: "He was a very attractive, tall figure, very well spoken. It was very refreshing the way he talked about art in general and not of himself. He was very direct and clear. I had no idea he was depressed. I had no idea he was autistic."

"Someone creates an X account, sets it to private, and posts hundreds of different predictions with every possible virus name and scenario imaginable."

"Then, once one event vaguely lines up with reality, they delete all the other failed predictions and leave only the 'correct' one visible."

Dr. Simon reveals one simple trick.

I'm glad I have a tag called "predictions."

"Death is different on the internet."

Writes Julia Angwin, in "Meta Is Dying" (NYT).

Lifeless companies like AOL and Yahoo are still technically with us. You can visit their websites.... But they are, as the kids say, peak cringe. Many teens wouldn’t be caught dead with an AOL account, a Yahoo email address — or a Facebook profile.... 

Sunrise.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

Key word: "typically."

Jen Psaki on the 2028 Dem primary:

"There is no, thank God, dark room in Washington where people sit around and they decide here's who the nominee is going to be."

She just described exactly how the last Democrat presidential nominee was chosen. pic.twitter.com/5QpQagvG6t

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 7, 2026

What's with all that finger-pointing business?

"Sen. Jim Justice (R-West Virginia) and I introduced the Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act to allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to use their benefits to buy hot rotisserie chicken."

Writes John Fetterman, singing the praises of working across the aisle, in "John Fetterman: I haven’t changed. Here’s what has. Working across the aisle is the only way forward" (WaPo).

We can work together. We can accomplish something for the people. We can deliver hot rotisserie chicken.

"Wow. Okay."

Said the Pope, accepting the gift of a paperweight from Marco Rubio.

I felt awkward just watching it.

"In 2025, more than 100 dams were dismantled in 30 states, reconnecting around 4,900 miles of waterways...."

"The resulting free-flowing waterways are healthier, cooler and less prone to algal blooms, and serve as vital habitat for migratory fish and other aquatic life. They’re also safer.... While dams that are critical for flood regulation, water storage or irrigation must stay in place, many no longer serve their original purpose and are at risk of collapse.... The National Inventory of Dams, compiled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lists about 92,000 dams.... But, according to the National Aquatic Barrier Inventory, there are hundreds of thousands of smaller and unregulated structures that block waterways. The majority were built to create swimming and fishing holes or reservoirs for water supplies, or to generate power and irrigate farm fields.... Low-head dams, which are designed to have water flow over them, create a recirculating current downstream that can trap people and debris. They’re known as 'drowning machines'.... 'There’s just so many of these deadbeat dams on the landscape.'..."

I'm reading "America the Undammed/More miles of the country’s rivers were reconnected last year thanks to dam removals than at any other time in history" (NYT).

And I noticed this, from a few years ago: "Dams like the one that killed Anna Last are 'drowning machines'" (Knox News). There's a good diagram at the link, showing the treacherous water flow, and here's part of the explanation:

Song of the Wandering Althouse.

Meade used A.I. to animate one of his "Sunrise path" photos from this morning. It's funny to see how I walk in the world according to A.I.

You can listen to the whole Donovan song here. And here's the original Yeats poem, "The Song of Wandering Aengus." I recommend memorizing that and having conversations about it. We did and do.

"What [James] Cameron did was not inspiration, it was extraction. He took the unique biometric facial features of a 14-year-old indigenous girl..."

"... ran them through an industrial production process, and generated billions of dollars in profit without ever once asking her permission."

Said the lawyer for Q’orianka Kilcher, quoted in "James Cameron stole my face, actress claims/Q’orianka Kilcher, who is of indigenous Peruvian descent, is suing the director, alleging that he and Disney violated her rights for the blockbuster franchise" (London Times).

Kilcher claimed that Cameron had told her at an event in 2010, one year after Avatar’s release: “I’ve admired your activism work in the Amazon.” She said he later gifted her a signed one-off sketch of the Avatar character with a handwritten note that read: “Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri. Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time.”

"Avatar" is the highest-grossing movie of all time, so you can see how Kilcher must feel that she's owed something or that Cameron will be persuaded to give her more than that sketch and the compliment. That "Too bad/Next time" must hurt her! And it must hurt him now to be accused of making a movie "that presented itself as sympathetic to indigenous struggles, all while silently exploiting a real indigenous youth behind the scenes."

The law in question is California’s right of publicity law. Here's the text.

I'm giving this my "lawsuits I hope will fail" tag, but I could be talked out of it. 

A thoroughly idiotic question at CNN's California gubernatorial debate: Who would you want to play you in a movie about you?

This is just so terribly bad. It's also an unfair softball because it's so easy for the 2 Hispanic males. They both say Antonio Banderas. Watch the nonsense:

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If you're going to have a movie question for a potential governor of California, it ought to be something substantive about the movie business, but "California Gubernatorial Candidates Bicker and Squabble, But Say Little About Hollywood/The demise of a flagship industry drew little attention in Tuesday’s CNN debate" (Hollywood Reporter).