Sunrise — 6:31, 6:54, 6:57, 7:00.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

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ADDED: A bit of video of the swimmer — video by Meade, with me on the shore:

"Ziz became increasingly disillusioned and began trying to assemble 'a cabal' of 'abnormally intrinsically good people' and turn them into..."

"... 'Gervais-sociopaths' who would, like those at the top of the organizational hierarchy in 'The Office,' the sitcom co-written by Ricky Gervais, be ruthless in achieving their goals. She referred to herself as 'Darth Ziz, interim de facto leader of the vegan Sith,' a reference to a Star Wars sect that uses the dark side of the Force. In 2019, Ziz and four friends were arrested after staging a protest at a Rationalist gathering, where they accused two of the movement’s key institutions of betraying their mission to protect humanity from A.I. and of covering up pedophilia and sexual abuse.... Some Rationalists denounced the Zizians as dangerous, noting among other things that two people who had engaged with their 'mental tech,' including a method of trying to put half of their brains to sleep at a time, had killed themselves. But others in the community were sympathetic.... [Ophelia] Bauckholt was in the latter camp.... She frequently discussed the Zizians, but as far as Dr. Kolomatskaia knew, the subject was little more than a conjectural pastime. 'We’re like, "The Zizians are dropping like flies. Why don’t we prevent them from dying?"' she recalled. 'It’s a curiosity. It’s a very fun thing to talk about every week.'"

From "Ophelia Disappeared: A Wall Street Analyst and a Deadly Shootout/The group was passionately vegan, mostly transgender and highly educated. Seven of them are now in jail. This is the story of one who did not survive" (NYT). I'd give you a gift link, but I've already done 2 gift links today, and the Times only gives me 10 per month. So you're on your own, extrapolating the story or finding your own way in. 

"A Russian scientist who is close to President Putin has told a forum of schoolteachers in Moscow that the West is planning to exterminate the majority of the Earth’s population..."

"... leaving a tiny elite whose needs will be serviced by robots. Mikhail Kovalchuk, the head of Russia’s Kurchatov nuclear research institute... alleged that western countries were plotting to unleash a deadly virus to reduce the number of people on Earth. He also claimed the West was using LGBT and child-free ideologies to cut populations because robots would soon be able to work better and more effectively.... 'They introduced the LGBT agenda and for those who didn’t go along with it, they offered a second option — the child-free family. It’s working brilliantly. In a generation or two, there’ll be no continuation of their bloodlines. Only a small elite, the ones they actually need, will remain. As for the rest — the people they don’t even see as human — they’ll be eliminated with biological weapons. A virus or something like that with a 90 per cent mortality rate will come along and mow them down'.... Kovalchuk, who has been described as one of Putin’s close friends, told... the teachers that their country’s only friends 'are the army and the navy'...."

From "Putin scientist claims West will use a virus to kill most humans/It’s all part of an LGBT conspiracy to depopulate the planet, according to a friend of the president" (London Times).

"FBI Director Kash Patel ended the bureau's long-standing partnership with the Anti-Defamation League...."

"His announcement came after the ADL faced right-wing backlash for its web pages on the Christian Identity movement and Turning Point USA, the group founded by slain MAGA activist Charlie Kirk. Patel did not elaborate on why the FBI was severing its ties with the organization now.... 'James Comey wrote "love letters" to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them - a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,' Patel wrote in a Wednesday X post. 'That era is OVER... This FBI won't partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.'... Following the wave of backlash late last month, the ADL moved to scrap its 'Glossary of Extremism,' which had included information on Kirk's group, saying it contained 'outdated' entries and that 'a number of entries' had been 'intentionally misrepresented and misused.'..."

Reports Axios.

"Pope Leo blesses a block of ice and then stands there while these communist freaks do some kind of weird pagan Earth worshipping hippy ritual."

That's Matt Walsh's interpretation. Decide for yourself:

Horrific. The whole thing. Pope Leo blesses a block of ice and then stands there while these communist freaks do some kind of weird pagan Earth worshipping hippy ritual. The leader of the Catholic Church shouldn’t be anywhere near this nonsense. What the hell are we doing here https://t.co/LEpC3u141T

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 1, 2025

"In April 1965, the magazine published his extraordinary cover image of an 18-week-old fetus, luminous in its amniotic sac..."

"... seemingly floating through space, along with an extensive photo essay. Nilsson had worked closely with a Stockholm hospital, where he had a makeshift studio set up. He’d get a call when a woman had had a miscarriage or came in for an abortion, which had been legally permissible in Sweden since 1938 if the woman’s life was in danger. The photographer would then rush over with his Hasselblad camera. Only one image in the photo essay was of a live fetus in utero. All the others, including the groundbreaking cover, were of fetuses that had been surgically removed. In the 1980s, after learning that his pictures were being used at anti-abortion demonstrations, Nilsson refused to allow them to be republished...."

From "The 25 Most Influential Magazine Covers of All Time/Four editors, a creative director and a visual artist met to debate and discuss the best of print media — and its enduring legacy" (NYT)(free-access link, so you can see all 25 covers and the story behind each of them).

I vividly remember that Life Magazine cover, "Drama of Life Before Birth," April 30, 1965. If I remember correctly — from 60 years ago when I was 14 — the article had nothing to do with abortion and readers were shielded from the notion that these unborn children were dead. We were invited to feast our eyes on the miracle of life, and we had never seen pictures like this before.

That Life cover ranks 6th on the list, well above the cover I would have put first, Saul Steinberg's "View of the World From 9th Avenue," which is only #14.

"They... filled the cracks in my dodgy vertebra with this human cement stuff. I mean, I’ve got so many plates and bolts inside me already..."

"... why not pour a slab of concrete in there too?... Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder. And at some point I’m gonna have to let him in. The funny thing is, I used to worry more about my mortality when I was younger. It’s weird. You get closer to the end — the very thing you were scared of your whole life — and suddenly the weight’s lifted off you.... When the end does come, I don’t want to be cremated. It’s like you were never here. You’re just a bag of dust. That’s not for me. I wanna make the flowers grow.... It’s just crazy how quickly a lifetime goes.... Life’s so short...."

Writes Ozzy Osbourne, in "Ozzy Osbourne: How Sharon and I pulled off my crazy last gig/Less than three weeks before he died, the ailing Black Sabbath frontman played one final concert, for 42,000 fans at Villa Park. In an extract from his posthumous memoir, he shares the inside story of the biggest miracle of his unlikely career" (London Times).

"The idea that you could turn the clock back and try to recreate a world that never was dominated by, you know, let’s say it: white men of a certain persuasion, a certain religion, a certain point of view, a certain ideology, it’s just doing such damage to what we should be aiming for."

Said Hillary Clinton, quoted in "Hillary Clinton ripped for tone-deaf remarks about white men of 'a certain religion' damaging the US" (NY Post).

Tone deaf?! It's not tone deaf. She's precisely picked up the tone. Perfect pitch. She's talking exactly like the people she's talking with. I'm sure it's quite jaunty and subtle and good humored for them. How do you get to tone deaf? The NY Post is tone deaf. Hillary is right on key.

Reading further, I see the argument is that she's supposed to still be constraining her remarks to fit the ongoing mourning period for Charlie Kirk. The NY Post quotes random tweets that accuse Clinton of creating a permission structure for killing white Christian men. Some unnamed person tweeted: "Two weeks after Charlie Kirk is assassinated, Hillary Clinton reminds everyone that white Christian men are dangerous and doing damage to America. These people have no intention of turning down the temperature. They know they’re encouraging what happened." And somebody else tweeted: "Hillary Clinton makes yet another case for violence against white Christian men — the constant drumbeat against huge segments of the population is dehumanizing and dangerous. Her focus on Christianity is chilling — especially given the fact that she can’t bring herself to even name the religion."

If the New York Post were really concerned about cranking up dangerous hostility, they wouldn't go looking for things like that and printing them. Hillary wasn't saying anything about fomenting violence, just arguing against the looking to the past as a model for going forward without the limitations of the past. Let's do it again, but without the lack of diversity. It won't work.

Goodbye to Jane Goodall.

 

From "Jane Goodall: A Life in Pictures The primatologist gained scientific acclaim for her work with chimpanzees and then later used her fame to champion conservation" (NYT)(free access link, so you can see the pictures).

Facebook keeps pushing this meme at me — a quote from Willie Nelson, supposedly referencing Charlie Kirk.

"If you want people to have kind words when you pass, you should say kind words when you’re alive." And then, it says "After facing backlash, Willie Nelson added: 'And I’ll stand behind this. Be kind, now more than ever."

That didn't sound right. Do most people just believe these stories that are stuck in between posts from actual friends and family? My basic reaction is to scroll quickly past anything that has a celebrity commenting about another celebrity, but for this one, because Facebook kept serving it to me, I went to Grok for a fact check. Was this quote in any actual news sources?

A liar or just woefully ignorant?

lol
pic.twitter.com/G4GSTfijFR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2025

The hand-raising at the June 27, 2019 Democratic candidates debate is a powerful visual retort, but when I click the fact-check icon at Franken's post, X's own AI says:

• Al Franken's post critiques Vice President JD Vance's recent claim during a 2025 government shutdown debate that Democrats seek to provide health benefits to undocumented immigrants, framing it as either deliberate falsehood or profound misunderstanding. 

• Vance's statement targets a Democratic funding proposal to reimburse states for emergency Medicaid services to "lawfully present" immigrants, such as refugees and asylees, but federal law explicitly bars undocumented individuals from enrolling in such programs. 

• Independent fact-checks, including from FactCheck.org and The New York Times, describe the Republican portrayal as misleading, as it exaggerates limited emergency reimbursements into broad taxpayer-funded coverage for all

"Publicly, though, Mr. Trump’s deputies still insisted that they had not politicized the funding lapse."

"Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, maintained instead that the layoffs, in particular, were necessary because of the realities of the budget."

Those are the last 2 sentences of a news article in the NYT with a headline that states a contrary opinion as if it were fact: "White House Uses Shutdown to Maximize Pain and Punish Political Foes/The Trump administration forged ahead with plans to conduct mass layoffs, as the fiscal standoff appeared to intensify."

We all agree with the opinion, of course, don't we?

Is the White House using the shutdown to maximize pain and punish political foes?

No, it is simply dealing with the realities of the shutdown.

No, but it should.

Yes, and it should.

Yes, and it ought instead to deal neutrally with the realities of the shutdown.

Unlike the NYT, I refrain from reading minds. I stand aloof and await further information.

 

pollcode.com free polls

Sunrise — 6:33, 6:41, 7:00, 7:11.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

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"She later cast doubt on the suicide ruling, saying his death had been 'a big mistake' and that they had planned out their life together."

"Mr Thompson penned what friends believed was a suicide note, which was published by Rolling Stone soon after his death. 'No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun,' the note, which was addressed to his wife, read. 'No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt.'"

From "FBI to re-examine suicide of Hunter S Thompson at wife’s request/Anita Thompson wants fresh inquiry into death after writer was ruled to have shot himself 20 years ago, leaving a note that was published by Rolling Stone" (London Times).

There's no new evidence of foul play. It just seems to be a widow's interest in seeing the self-shooting as an accident. I'd say I don't see why the FBI should expend its resources on this, but the article doesn't mention the FBI, only the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. That's the kind of confusion I wade into when I look for news of America in the London Times. Maybe they don't call anything the "Bureau of Investigation" over there. Anyway, it seems to me that the written note should be the last word. Yes, it's humorous, but that doesn't mean it was only a joke.

"The last time Senate Democrats found themselves taking the blame for a government shutdown, they quickly caved..."

"... and raced to reopen federal agencies in 2018, as their more moderate members demanded a fast resolution after only three days. This shutdown could be different. The Democrats from red states who decried the shutdown strategy as a foolish miscalculation and pressed for an immediate reversal in the showdown with President Trump seven years ago are long gone. The ideological makeup of the party has shifted to the left, and Democrats are now bracing for an extended confrontation with the White House and congressional Republicans, despite the clear political risks. The same dynamic is at play in the G.O.P., which has lurched to the right under Mr. Trump and no longer sees room for compromise."

Writes Carl Hulse, in "Democrats See No Need to Capitulate, Nor Republicans to Cut a Deal/The last time Senate Democrats found themselves taking the blame for a government shutdown, they quickly caved. That’s less likely to happen now" (NYT).

How does spending some time in shutdown achieve anything? Doesn't everyone know everything they need to know before the shutdown even begins? Are they just waiting to annoy and otherwise torment us so they can then poll us to see who we blame? I think they already know that everyone blames the party they started out disliking more. Nevertheless, we must endure the bad political theater.

Cranes celebrate the arrival of October.

Video by Meade on this lovely first day of October, the most beautiful month of the year here in Madison, Wisconsin.