The lake at noon... freezing up.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

I created a new tag this morning and I noticed an old tag that I can never use anymore.

The new tag: Frugality. This morning's post about the "stingy challenge" in Chinese social media pushed me over the line. I went back into the archive and found 10 old posts that deserved the "frugality" tag — Remember the FIRE movement? Voluntary houselessness? "Financial Secrets of the Amish"? Remember when Scott Walker branded himself with Kohl's? Do you care about Sir Jeffery Amherst? Is Mr. Money Mustache still around? Remember me seeing "potential for resurrecting the old division-of-labor model in which one spouse earns a good income and the other contributes in kind, unpaid, saving many expenses and keeping the couple's tax-bracket low"? Want to know how frugality links the "Xi jacket" to the "Mao suit"? How Salon tried to make us hate Trump for his cheapness? It's all there, under the "frugality" tag.

The old tag: "Written strangely early in the morning." There's no earliness in the morning that can be strange anymore. I used to think it strange to put up the first post in the 4-o'clock hour, but now, it would only be strange if I put up the first post before midnight, and that wouldn't be "morning" yet — no "a.m." The last post in this once-important tag was January 23, 2022 — "Why Ayn Rand is trending on Twitter under the heading 'Sports.'" — published at 3:10 a.m. Yes, that seemed notably early, 3 years ago. But now, when I wake up, feeling refreshed after what seems like a long sleep, and I look at the iPhone hoping it's not too early — which wouldn't be strange at all — I'm pleased if I see it's at least 3 a.m. Yesterday, when I looked — ready to leap out of bed — it was only 12:35 a.m. There are so many old posts with that tag! Here's the first one, in my first year of blogging, 2004: "Did you see that the first post today has a 4:33 a.m. timestamp? And yesterday's was 5:02? My two-hour 8 a.m. class has completely transformed my biorhythms, apparently. I was already a morning person, but this is a bit eerie. At least the NYT is already here at that hour...." That was 20 years ago, back when "the NYT" referred to a folded paper concoction stuffed in a blue plastic bag.

"Over a several-hour period, a localized zone of occasionally heavy snow dropped a couple inches on places not far from Eau Claire — and the primary culprit was exhaust from a nearby glass factory."

 WaPo reports.

That's a free-access link, because maybe you are interested in the science and maybe you are interested in Wisconsin but mostly because it's the last day of the month and the November allotment of gift links is about to expire.

The comments over there are all Human activity affects weather???!!!! Who'd've thunk it??!!!!!

"Cooking at home really saves lots of money. Guys, it just hit me that frugality can be the primary productive force."

"After losing my job, I barely ordered any deliveries, because I genuinely could no longer afford them. … For a month, I bought stuff online to cook at home. … Oh my gosh, I spent only 332.34 yuan [in one month]! What a money-saving genius I am!"

That's a translation of a social media post by Xue Yang, a 28-year-old woman in Shanghai, quoted in "Could you feed yourself on $70 a month? Chinese millennials are trying. The cost of living is weighing on consumers everywhere. But some Chinese, worried about making ends meet in a slowing economy, are taking this food-spending challenge" (WaPo). 

That's a free-access link, so you can see, among other things, many photos Xue Yang took of her food. And 332.34 yuan is only $46. The social media trend is to stay under 500 yuan for one person — $70.

The translated words "frugality can be the primary productive force" really do need some additional translation to be easily comprehensible in English. I believe what she means is what Ben Franklin said: "A penny saved is a penny earned." The best way to progress financially is to conserve as much of your earnings as you can as you go along.

Frugality can be interesting and even fun, and social media can help. Americans could benefit from copying this trend, and, in fact, I'm sure it's already happening. Yeah. I found it. Here's "How to Live Off 100 A Month for Food" on TikTok. You only have to watch a few of these to hit upon the most obvious tip: Prepare your own food at home using basic, wholesome ingredients.

I note that there's a health bonus in addition to the money saved. Somehow I'm hearing that observation in the voice of RFK Jr. 

"On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself...."

"I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth."

Wrote Penelope Hegseth, quoted in "Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years/Penelope Hegseth made the accusation in an email to her son in 2018, amid his contentious divorce. She said on Friday that she regretted the email and had apologized to him" (NYT)(free-access link).

"Maps Pinpoint Where Democrats Lost Ground Since 2020 in 11 Big Cities... where Kamala Harris got fewer votes compared with Joseph R. Biden Jr. and which voting blocs drove each city’s red shift."

Here's a free-access link to a detailed analysis at the NYT. Please spend some time understanding these maps. They're loaded with information, and the text makes it hard to discern what I think is the main trend: Harris generally lost ground among all non-white groups.

That article has 5 authors and no comments section.

IN THE COMMENTS HERE: There is support for the idea that the extra votes counted for Biden did not represent human beings at all, but were the fake votes of what was a stolen election in 2020. That's a notion that will not go away easily. Perhaps the new Trump administration will investigate and either uncover the fraud or prove it didn't happen, but Trump couldn't come up with much proof before January 6, 2021, and it might be a disaster for him to devote this new presidential term to questioning the legitimacy of the presidential term that escaped him. Concentrate on doing great things for the American people and ensuring that future elections are scrupulously accurate.

AND: Speaking of conspiracy theories, on another post this morning, Lem, the commenter, wrote: "Conspiracy theory Althouse is the best Althouse 😌." So if you're disappointed that I won't lean into the stolen-election theory, you can go over there and see what I had to say about Biden carrying the "Hundred Years’ War on Palestine" book.

"I do not speak to the Post (or the Times for that matter), so this is not for publication, but my reaction is that this is 4 years too late."

Said Columbia University professor emeritus Rashid Khalidi, author of “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017.”

Quoted by the NY Post in "Biden picks up anti-Israel book during Black Friday shopping— ‘4 years too late,’ says author."

President Biden did not merely "pick up" the book. He left the store — Nantucket Bookworks — holding the book with the cover on display. 

But did he even know what he was holding?

It was not immediately clear if Biden purchased the book or if it was given to him while in the shop — after he and first son Hunter Biden, 54, dined with first daughter Ashley Biden and other family members at the nearby Brotherhood of Thieves restaurant ahead of the island’s annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

Is he such a dolt that he could be conned into holding a book and looking as though he selected it — selected "The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance." The title is completely explicit. Why would he carry that? Did someone put that in his hands to trick him into looking as though he endorses the theory that Israel is an oppressive colonial power? 

Biden has repeatedly referred to himself as a Zionist, meaning a supporter of the movement that spurred Jewish immigration to the Holy Land, leading to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. I’m a Zionist,” Biden told visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Nov. 12 in the Oval Office.

Did someone (perhaps Biden himself) decide that carrying that book would be a good way for Biden to moderate his "I’m a Zionist" talk and to express openness to understanding the conflict from the Palestinian perspective?

But why is the President communicating by toting a book around in front of photographers? Let him sit for a serious interview and explain his position. I know. That's laughable. That's my point. The President lacks the capacity to serve as President. Or is that what whoever slipped that book into his hands wants us to think? Is this a sly device to trigger us into clamoring for Biden to resign and give us one last great creation: President Kamala Harris?

The lake shore at 3:52 p.m. — with the wind chill at -1°.

I didn't venture out. That's a photo by Meade.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

Calling other people stupid is a dangerous business.

What's going on here? Stupid people who don't realize the Madonna song "Like a Prayer" is about sex?

The answer is no. See "How choir cover of Madonna hit got caught up in America’s culture wars/The version of Like a Prayer is at the centre of an internet storm as American users assume the singers are ignorant Donald Trump-supporting Christians" (London Times):

"I would say it's a bony eared assfish"/"Honestly, I thought this was a joke until I saw more comments saying it."

A discussion at the animal ID subreddit — "I found this fish in my box of frozen shrimp."

Someone links to the article at Wikipedia, which contains the statement, "The bony-eared assfish may have the smallest brain-to-body weight ratio of any vertebrate."

And somebody says "The amount of shaming on its Wikipedia page is harsh. They start by implying it’s stupid and go on to refer to it as 'flabby.' Who did it hurt?"

"There is a very sly critique of liberalism in the film’s characterization of Glinda. She is obsessed with being seen as good..."

"... but she frequently passes on chances to act in ways that would better people’s lives. Bowen Yang’s character in 'Wicked' does these great 'yasss girl' ad-libs that link Glinda’s behavior to the way white liberal feminism shows up in the world, more obsessed with status than change. Being 'good' is morally vacuous, like Glinda, if you don’t do anything that matters."

Says Tressie McMillan Cottom, in "Four Opinion Writers Visit Oz and Ask: Who’s Really ‘Wicked’?" (NYT)(free-access link, because this is a long conversation with, obviously, 4 voices).

Beautiful cathedral and I'm delighted at the restoration but what on earth was Louise Bausiere doing for 2 years?

Ludicrous gaffe from NBC News, in "World gets first look at Notre Dame's new interior 5 years after devastating fire/'It was a challenge many deemed impossible, yet one we will have met on,' French President Emmanuel Macron said as he visited the medieval monument":

Louise Bausiere, who spent the last two years working on the cathedral's knave, told NBC News Wednesday said she hoped people would admire what the team of craftsmen had done.

A knave is "A dishonest unprincipled man; a cunning unscrupulous rogue; a villain" (OED).

The main part of church building is called a nave.

(Thanks to commenter Kate for pointing me there.)

"I talked about a pencil for 8 minutes" — at the QVC audition — "I was on the air 48 hours later at 3 in the morning trying to make sense of the... infrared pain reliever and the Amcor negative ion generator."

"Like what the hell?...  You can talk about anything for as long as you need to. You know, you never talk about a feature without talking about its benefit. And so that's kind of how that world worked. So you don't say it's a pencil for 99 cents. You say it's a yellow #2 pencil with an eraser that is of the exact proportion necessary to last for the life of the pencil. So when this thing is down to a nub, you'll still have enough eraser left. It's really a monument to efficiency and ingenuity. And it's not just yellow. It's yellow because you're a busy professional. And when you need a pencil, Joe, and you open up your drawer, you don't have time to root around for some vaguely beige-colored writing implement. You want that canary yellow to pop and you can pick it up. And... it's a #2 pencil. It's not #3 with that thin wispy line that you can't read or, or that thick disappointing skid mark of a #1. So you just train yourself to fill dead air with nonsense...."

"I tried to explain to them how the Taliban has destroyed all the dreams I worked so hard to achieve. They kept saying how happy they are here..."

"... and how safe it is now. These are the things that impact them directly.... But what value does safety have when you lose all your dreams for it?"

Said 24-year-old Afghan woman, speaking about her female cousins, who were visiting from Europe. She is quoted in "Women despair over Taliban rules, but many Afghan returnees don’t see it/Afghans living abroad are flocking back to visit relatives for the first time since the Taliban takeover. Severe restrictions on women are not top of mind" (WaPo)(free-access link).

"In 'Selected Amazon Reviews,' Killian adds yet another Kevin to the list. This Kevin spends his evenings with his wife curled up on the couch..."

"... with their two cats, Ted and Sylvia, watching Katharine Hepburn movies, or knitting, decorating cakes, and hanging pet-themed ornaments on the Christmas trees, as in his five-star 2007 review of Pet Pawprint Hanging DIY Keepsake Ornament. But Kevin Killian in the review section was not the real Kevin Killian, at least not exactly. Did Killian have children, as he claimed in several reviews? No. Did he enjoy fine foods? No. (According to friends, he lived on a diet of only microwave meals and Tab.)... Did that twelve-color set of ballpoint pens really trigger a memory of attending school as an American boy in rural France, where his classmates had 'beautiful pens that were almost family heirlooms?'..."

Writes Oscar Schwartz, in "A Portrait of the Artist as an Amazon Reviewer/Between 2003 and 2019, Kevin Killian published almost twenty-four hundred reviews on the site. Can they be considered literature?"

That's in The New Yorker, where they are not too careful about whether to put a question mark inside a quotation mark, and the answer to the question is no.

Killian was writing Amazon reviews as a sort of art project. Here's an Amazon Associates link to a book that collects his reviews — "Selected Amazon Reviews."

But back to the New Yorker article:

"Hauls are the shopping equivalent of a dopamine-chasing overdose. That is the essence of the idea, which is less about any one thing..."

"... than about the sheer number of things. It’s the elevation of quantity over quality, muchness as an end in itself. Like social media itself, and smartphones, the haul creates its own subset of compulsive behavior.... That addiction isn’t officially a part of the DSM-5, the most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but it is recognized by the Cleveland Clinic and the journal World Psychiatry, among other official bodies.... Not surprisingly, an anti-haul movement has grown in response, at least in a limited way. The hashtag #antihaul has almost 3,000 posts on TikTok; #deinfluence, about 4,500...."

Writes Vanessa Friedman in "I Haul, Therefore I Am/It is the shopping phenomenon of our times, and now it’s an Amazon store" (NYT).

I watched a lot of that "anti-haul" material at the TikTok link, and it's the video equivalent of junky clutter. It's chirpily and lengthily informing us that unneeded stuff is unneeded. Some of the videos are shot in a store — here's trashy nonsense that we shouldn't buy — and some are in the TikToker's own home — here are various items she's throwing out. I feel sorry for the young women — they are all women — who need support freeing themselves from things they don't need. I think this is basically an emotional problem of the young. You have amorphous hunger and acquisitiveness. If you wait long enough, I predict it will go away. Until then, direct that energy into building something of value. You know what those things are. I don't need to list them.

"The whole thing is hard for me to write. I couldn't sleep for two years after the election. I was so angry, I wasn't fit to be around."

"I apologize to all those who endured my outbursts of rage, which lasted for years and bothered or bored people who thought it pointless to rehash things that couldn't be changed...."

Writes Bill Clinton in his new book, quoted in "Bill Clinton makes stunning confession about his bizarre behavior after Hillary's defeat in America's 'darkest election'" (Daily Mail).

Presumably, he means he didn't sleep well. The assertion that he couldn't sleep for 2 years is patently untrue. He's still alive.

Clinton also writes in a mode that would be called "election denialism" if it were pro-Trump: "Almost two years after the election, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a highly regarded social scientist said Russia's cyber attacks piled on top of Comey's interventions were effective enough to persuade voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to vote for third parties or stay at home. If so, Putin's enablers were Comey and the political press."

What about the Russia hoax that Hillary participated in?! Shouldn't that balance the effect of "Russia's cyber attacks"?

What were the "cyber attacks"? Here's Kathleen Hall Jamieson's book, "Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President: What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know" (Amazon Associates link). From a 2018 New Yorker article about that book:

"Somewhere in a Kyiv bunker a former comedian is quietly whimpering. But if the show that is unfolding will remain just a show, we will say 'thanks for the popcorn' and move on."

Said "an op-ed published by state-run news agency RIA Novosti, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s past as a TV personality."

Quoted in "The Russian guide to Trump’s Cabinet picks/Who’s good for Russia and who’s going to be a problem among Trump’s choices according to Russian commentators" (WaPo)(free-access link).

In other Ukraine news: "Biden admin urges Ukraine to lower draft age to conscript 18-year-olds/Ukraine already lowered draft age to 25 in April" (Fox News)(it "already" went all the way down... to 25).

And: "Overnight, Russia carried out a horrific aerial attack against Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities report that Russia launched nearly 200 missiles and drones against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, depriving Ukrainian civilians of access to electricity" (Statement from President Joe Biden on Russia’s Attack on Ukraine).

Sunrise — 6:51.

The Central Pennsylvania Youth All-Star Band sings "Baba O'Riley."

And Roger Daltrey approves:

"Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail..."

"... because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad that the great people of our Nation just gave a landslide victory to those who want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Don’t worry, our Country will soon be respected, productive, fair, and strong, and you will be, more than ever before, proud to be an American!"

Tweets Donald Trump.

“She explores how she struggled as a 'fat philosopher' — a representative of a field that prizes 'muscular and compact' forms of argument and 'prides itself on sharpness, clarity, and precision'..."

"... to 'reconcile my image of my body with its role in the world as the emissary of my mind.' That mismatch, she quips, has been her own, real-life 'body-mind problem.' But it’s really no laughing matter...."

From "The consequences of being fat are deeper than we realize/In the book 'Unshrinking,' philosopher Kate Manne argues that fatphobia is a form of structural oppression" (WaPo)(free-access link).

An "emissary" is — to quote the OED — "A person sent on a mission to gain information, or to gain adherents to, or promote the interests of a cause. (Until the 19th century used almost exclusively in bad sense, implying something odious in the object of the mission, or something underhand in its manner.)"

Do you think of your body as an emissary of your mind?

"Australia has imposed a sweeping ban on social media for children under 16.... But many details were still unclear..."

"... such as how it will be enforced and what platforms will be covered....  The law... uts the onus on social media platforms to take 'reasonable steps' to prevent anyone under 16 from having an account. Corporations could be fined... for 'systemic' failures to implement age requirements. Neither underage users nor their parents will face punishment for violations. And whether children find ways to get past the restrictions is beside the point, [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] said. 'We know some kids will find workarounds, but we’re sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act,' he said...."

From "Australia Has Barred Everyone Under 16 From Social Media. Will It Work? The law sets a minimum age for users of platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X. How the restriction will be enforced online remains an open question" (NYT).

"I must admit I had misgivings about Trump and his election denial after Jan. 6, but..."

"... Nancy Pelosi’s hijacking of the House’s special investigating committee shifted my perspective.... [W]hy did she have to overreach? It didn’t seem fair. And the ensuing lawfare waged against him only strengthened my support for him, and my feeling that there was nothing the opposition wouldn’t do to get him. The negativity spread to the mainstream media, where coverage of Trump was wildly slanted.... Seniors get their news from cable and young people get it from podcasts and social media. Trump’s freewheeling three-hour interview with Joe Rogan helped him capture that vote. Kamala Harris evaded the Rogan invitation. She was a terrible candidate, and the conga line of celebrities her campaign relied on couldn’t obscure that fact. Some of the same Democrats who tried to tell us Biden wasn’t in decline then tried to tell us Harris was an exciting, transformative force. Please.... No matter how maddening Trump can be, the country needs him. The wind is truly at his back. The election was decided not just by MAGA rallygoers but also by millions of voters who’d simply had enough...."

Writes Maureen Dowd's brother Kevin, in "My Brother Is Doing the Trump Dance" (NYT).

"A quick Bluesky primer: Content has a 300-character limit. Those entries are officially called posts, though some have taken to calling them 'skeets'..."

"... a portmanteau of sky + tweets, though that word has an alternate, vulgar definition, which is part of the joke for people who use it. The site also has a function called 'starter packs,' user-generated topical lists of other users, which people can follow en masse. It’s helped build up users' followings rather quickly, and many new Blueskiers post about how much more engagement their posts get here, as compared to X or Threads, and how nice and earnest people were in the replies. (Maybe a little too earnest for some X-fried, sardonic brains: 'sorry I’m being such a hater but the vibe on bluesky rn is people who say "notorious RBG,"' posted one X user.) In fact, a scan of many November conversations on Bluesky seemed to often be about how great Bluesky was. And how Blueskiers had to do whatever they could to keep it that way...."

From "X is Elon’s world. Threads is a mess. Is Bluesky any better? The virtual town square, once framed by Twitter, is now fragmented as people flee to bluer pastures" (WaPo)(free-access link).

A quote from a "35-year-old stay at home mom": "I have to find every mean person that’s on here and make sure that all nice people know there’s a meanie in our midst. I definitely think that we can keep that out if that’s what we continue to want."

I wanted to end with a clip from the end of "Yellow Submarine," with John Lennon saying "Newer and bluer meanies have been sighted within the vicinity of this theater," and though I didn't find one suitable for embedding, I did find this Ringo Starr apple juice:

"MSNBC is a giant corporate propaganda operation to trick Democratic voters into voting for the most Republican candidate."

Said Cenk Uygur, "co-creator of the digital outlet the Young Turks (and a onetime MSNBC contributor and host), pointing to some "Republicans and lapsed Republicans on the channel, including" Joe Scarborough.

Quoted in "MSNBC confronts viewer frustration, changes and an identity crisis/The network’s audience has declined since the Nov. 5 election, as viewers have tuned out. Its parent company is spinning it off. What happens next?" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Still, Uygur said that MSNBC’s audience — “older Democratic viewers that decide primaries” — is an important one.... While MSNBC is not on the market, according to Comcast, Uygur recently floated a potential acquisition — not unlike Elon Musk, who also raised eyebrows by asking on his X platform how much the network might cost. “Anything is possible,” Uygur said. “If you’re looking to reform MSNBC into something that is popular, it makes sense to go to a popular online network, and see if they can do the trick.”

"did you guys know I was in the original YMCA music video?!"

Since the @realDonaldTrump YMCA dance is trending and taken the world by storm…did you guys know I was in the original YMCA music video?!
Check it out! So much fun! pic.twitter.com/29EzcE46bg

— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) November 27, 2024

AND: For the annals of pronoun usage:

God he’s hot

— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) November 28, 2024

ALSO: That video was clearly influenced by this much more carefully choreographed scene in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes":

Sunrise — 6:32, 6:50.

Open thread in the comments.

***

Support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"I'm not the most famous person in the world, but let me tell you something — all the Trumpers know me from the head picture."

"They all know me. They all know my face. They all know my hair. So O'Donnell goes, "No, I'm Rosie O'Donnell, this is my best friend Kathy Griffin,' and I just looked at the guy and I went like this, and then he knew, oh he knew...."

It's long, but the lengthiness is the style. There's a party at Paris Hilton's house, Kathy runs into The Rock and says "Hi, The Rock," a conservative mistakes Rosie O'Donnell for Roseanne Barr. It's worth it every step of the way and it's worth it to watch until you get to "I went like this," which is, obviously, a visual. Very funny!

"A federal judge overseeing New York City’s violent jails, including Rikers Island... found the city in contempt for failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facilities..."

"... and said she was learning [sic] toward taking control of them. The judge, Laura Taylor Swain, said in a 65-page opinion that the city and its Department of Correction had violated the constitutional rights of prisoners and staff members alike by exposing them to danger, and had intentionally ignored her orders....Judge Swain’s ruling came nearly a decade after the city’s jails fell under federal oversight in a settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by prisoners and the Legal Aid Society.... In the past two years, at least 33 people have died in the jails or shortly after being released...."

The NYT reports.

"On Monday, X filed an objection in The Onion’s bid to buy InfoWars.... In the objection, Elon Musk’s lawyers argued that X has 'superior ownership' of all accounts on X..."

"... that it objects to the inclusion of InfoWars and related Twitter accounts in the bankruptcy auction, and that the court should therefore prevent the transfer of them to The Onion."

From "X's Objection to the Onion Buying InfoWars Is a Reminder You Do Not Own Your Social Media Accounts" (404 Media).

That article asserts that "Elon Musk’s X is primarily a political project he is using to boost, or stifle, specific viewpoints and help his friends." But The Onion's desire to purchase the account that Infowars stuffed with speech over the years is all about stifling its specific viewpoint. The Onion has its own X account, but it wants the place that Infowars built up so it can stomp out that speech — rewrite it into a parody of itself. It could do that parody on a newly created account and thus give us more speech, more debate. 

So who's more against freedom of speech here? It seems to me that X is protecting it.

I'll concede that loving freedom of speech is a specific viewpoint.

ADDED: You can read X's filing here. Excerpt: "While X Corp. takes no position as to the sale of any Content posted on the X Accounts, X Corp. is the sole owner of the Services being sold as part of the sale of the X Accounts. While X Corp. has granted account holders, such as Jones and FSS, a license to use the Services, such license is non-assignable, both under the terms of the TOS and applicable non-bankruptcy law (i.e., as a personal services contract), and the Trustee cannot sell, assign, or otherwise transfer such license absent X Corp.’s consent."

Lakeside Althouse — yesterday, 11:41 a.m.

"Over the summer, everyone I know went to Greece. From Greece, everyone I know posted one picture: octopus suspended on a clothesline, hanging against the Aegean Sea."

"The picture was a picture of an octopus (suspended on a clothesline, hanging against the Aegean Sea), but it was also a subtle message that the person behind the camera was (1) traveling, (2) traveling to Greece, the summer-vacation spot of 2024, and not Puglia, the summer-vacation spot of 2023, and (3) not taking a selfie, but (4) you know, not just taking a picture of the Aegean Sea, which would be basic, unlike this one, which (5) managed a sort of high-low effect, given the octopus was dead and clipped to a clothesline. It would have been the perfect picture of an interesting summer, except everyone else was taking it too, stuck replicating one another in an effort to be perfectly interesting."

From "Going Dull/Being interesting is a burden. Is there relief in choosing to be bland?" (NY Magazine).

I think the problem here isn't being interesting. It's trying to be interesting, AKA trying not to be dull. Just stop trying. Ironically, that's your only real shot at interestingness. Let the chips fall where they may.

"He looked like some kind of health food hostage wanting to impress the cool kids by caving to their greasy junk food vices."

"Even for me — someone who unapologetically champions the return of brazen masculinity — the whole thing felt a bit too ‘bro-ish’ for my liking."

That's Jessica Reed Kraus, describing RFK Jr. in that famous photo that shows him eating McDonald's food on a plane with Trump, Musk, and Trump Jr.

Kraus is quoted in "MAGA Women Are Realizing Their Movement Is Sexist" (NY Magazine).

The NY Magazine writer, E.J. Dickson, continues:

I thought maybe "The Democrats" was a satirical account and this new video of Kamala Harris was A.I.

Vice President @KamalaHarris’ message to supporters. pic.twitter.com/x5xMUGTtkz

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) November 26, 2024

But no, "The Democrats" is really the Democratic Party:

X provides a summary of posts about this: "The video, posted by the Democratic Party, has sparked discussions on social media regarding her appearance and speech, with some users speculating about her sobriety."

The top response I'm seeing is from Meghan McCain, who seems to be trying to help: "Take this down. She’s still the sitting Vice President for Gods sake - this is awful. Like really, really awful."

Sunrise (with crescent moon) — 6:32, 6:51.

Write about whatever you like in the comments... and support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"Americans are very uninformed about reality.... That vacuum is filled by the film industry...."

Said Alec Baldwin, who was once so famously uninformed about a gun as he toiled blithely in the film industry. He's speaking to an audience at a film festival in Italy:

Alec Baldwin thinks Americans are "uninformed" about "what's really going on" in the world and says the film industry is helping to plug the gap.

"There's a hole, a vacuum... a gap in information for Americans," the actor said at the Turin Film Festival on Monday. "Americans are… pic.twitter.com/lVBD6UO4pi

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 25, 2024

"When J.K. Rowling said that denying any relationship between sex and biology was 'deeply misogynistic and regressive,' a prominent L.G.B.T.Q. group accused her of betraying 'real feminism.'"

"A few angry critics posted videos of themselves burning her books. When the Biden administration convened a call with L.G.B.T.Q. allies last year to discuss new limits on the participation of transgender student athletes, one activist fumed on the call that the administration would be complicit in 'genocide' of transgender youth, according to two people with knowledge of the incident. Now, some activists say it is time to rethink and recalibrate their confrontational ways, and are pushing back against the more all-or-nothing voices in their coalition...."

From "Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach/Facing diminishing public support, some activists say all-or-nothing tactics are not working. 'We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds'" (NYT).

How many "minds" does "someone" have?

"This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!"

"Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!"

Wrote Trump, on Truth Social, quoted in "Trump Plans Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China That Could Cripple Trade/The president-elect said that he would impose the across-the-board tariffs on Day 1 and that they would stay in place until Canada, Mexico and China halted the flow of drugs and migrants" (NYT).

News of the tariffs immediately set off alarms in the three nations, with the currencies of Canada and Mexico sliding against the dollar and a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington warning that “no one will win a trade war.”

Calling it a "trade war" is itself an attempt to win. Trump is calling it an "invasion."

In late November, the moss effulges.

Observed and photographed by Meade.

Well, you have to be interesting.

People saying the left needs their own @joerogan don’t understand that they can go on his show too. He’s not of the right or the left. He’s a guy with a long format show with interesting guests.

— Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) November 26, 2024

"These operatives had the gall to say they were fighting to protect our democracy. In reality, they undermined it at every turn..."

"... with frivolous lawsuits, character assassination, and outright lies designed to prevent No Labels from exercising our constitutional right to get ballot access. If you are wondering why Americans are losing faith in our democracy and so many of our country’s self-anointed elites, this is Exhibit A."

Said Dan Webb, a No Labels volunteer legal adviser, quoted in "No Labels goes after opponents of third-party presidential bid in court/Clowns, early-morning noise and mobile billboards in the Georgetown area of D.C. are among the proposed tactics revealed in subpoenas" (WaPo)(free-access link). 

The headline fails to specify that the "opponents" in question were Democrats, but it's in the text of the piece: "Leaders of the centrist group No Labels abandoned a planned third-party presidential bid in April after a successful campaign by Democratic allies of President Joe Biden damaged their public appeal and undermined their ability to recruit electable candidates."

The "mobile billboards" connected the leaders of No Labels to Donald Trump using the slogan: "There is no place for MAGA hate in Georgetown."

Sunrise — 6:56.

Jack Smith moves to dismiss the January 6th case against Trump.

The NYT reports:

The request by Mr. Smith was his final acknowledgment that after two years of courtroom drama, prosecutors will not be able to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election as he prepares to re-enter the White House.

The department’s policy that sitting presidents may not be prosecuted “is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the government stands fully behind,” Mr. Smith wrote. “Based on the department’s interpretation of the Constitution, the government moves for dismissal without prejudice of the superseding indictment.”

"Don't say anything robophobic."

IN THE COMMENTS: rhhardin said: "That's a Woody Allen bit. He was unkind to his toaster and the elevator threw him around for it."

Here:

"Anything that I can't reason with — or kiss or fondle — I get in trouble with." 

"There will be a desire to hear her voice, and there won’t be a vacuum for long."

Said "a person close to Harris," quoted in "Harris is telling her advisers and allies to keep her political options open/She could run again for president — or California governor" (Politico).

Of all things about Kamala Harris that people might eventually come to miss, I would think "her voice" would rank low. When I think of her voice, I think of this:

There's the vacuum — in her voice. There's less vacuum without that.

But, sure, go for the governorship. That's a dignified landing spot. Newsom is term-limited and you should stand out in this crowd.

"AI will be incredible," tweets Elon Musk...

... showing us this:

AI will be incredible
pic.twitter.com/1fU4Jn7yN9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2024

But that is not incredible. Everything is credible now that we know A.I. does things like that. It's no more incredible than movies, which amazed people at one time, and in fact, right now, what A.I. did to those famous paintings is worse than any random few seconds in a well-made movie because it is in low taste and it is a step down from the artist's vision, which froze one moment and presented it to signify everything in the surrounding moments. Unfreezing that moment is utterly banal, and it misunderstands what the painting offers, which is to activate our mind about whatever might relate to that picture.

A.I. steps in and generates the next few seconds in the most obvious and superficial way. Let's have the Girl with a Pearl Earring break out of her subtle expression and into a modern-day movie-star smile. There, now, you are relieved from contemplating the mystery of human emotion and entertained by the comfortable reminder that when young beautiful women smile they are simply fantastic. 

"We’ve marched so much. We’re tired of doing the same thing over and over...."

Said David Hogg, "who was among the students in Parkland, Fla., who mobilized on behalf of gun control legislation," quoted in "'Get Somebody Else to Do It': Trump Resistance Encounters Fatigue/Donald J. Trump’s grass-roots opponents search for a new playbook as they reckon with how little they accomplished during his first term" (NYT).

“We need to be positioned to bring a new generation into office so we’re not just protesting and marching,” Mr. Hogg said. “We can’t be outside looking in.”

The NYT usually tells us how old people are. We're told a random "nurse from Virginia" is 45. But I had to look up how old Hogg is. It mattered to me, because he's going on about having done "so much... over and over." Hogg is 24. 

Interesting correction on this article: "An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to a type of treatment that helped save the lives of many gay men. It was medications, not a vaccine." There's never been a vaccine for AIDS. The NYT ought to know that. This idea that people ought to be given what they want reasonably quickly if they get out and protest — life doesn't work like that. It's not as if those in power have all the solutions and are simply peevishly withholding them out of unjustified hatefulness.

To be fair to Hogg: He moves from complaining about the ineffectiveness of protesting to the topic of running for office. He says: "After the election, I got several texts saying, 'Screw it. People in power don’t know what they’re doing and I need to run.'"

"Alice Brock, whose eatery in western Massachusetts was immortalized as the place where 'you can get anything you want' in Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 antiwar song 'Alice’s Restaurant'..."

"... died on Thursday in Wellfleet, Mass. — just a week before Thanksgiving, the holiday during which the rambling story at the center of the song takes place. She was 83.... Ms. Brock’s restaurant, the Back Room, does not feature much in the song itself....The song made Ms. Brock famous, too, even though by the time it appeared she had shut down her restaurant. It was an unwanted fame, she said, at least at first. 'I was very uncomfortable because public figures are not really treated with much respect,' she told WAMC Northeast Public Radio in 2014. 'They really aren’t. Once your name is in the paper, people feel that they can go, "Oh, are you Alice? Turn around," like they want to see my behind or something.... I resented it for a long time... But I’ve come to realize now that people are just delighted when they hear my name, so how can I complain?'"

From "Alice Brock, Restaurant Owner Made Famous by a Song, Dies at 83/Arlo Guthrie’s antiwar staple 'Alice’s Restaurant' was inspired by a Thanksgiving Day visit to her diner in western Massachusetts" (NYT).

"As the wearer walks, the shorts analyze the user’s movement pattern and take some of the load from their hips, adapting to their pace and kicking in just as the hip joint swings."

"The garment helps the wearer with hip flexion, an activity that researchers say demands 'considerable power,' especially on uneven terrain or stairs. The effects are comparable to removing up to 22 pounds from a wearer’s weight, the researchers write."

From "Robotic shorts could help people walk farther. Yes, robotic shorts. The shorts were designed to be worn over everyday clothes" (WaPo).

From the comments over there: "Suppose I don't want to take a walk but my shorts do?"

And someone recommends "The Wrong Trousers."

Sunrise — 6:57.

"With the result of the 2024 election, my wife and her family are directing their understandable fury at my mother."

"My wife’s sister said, 'If she voted for Trump again, I’m completely done with her.' I expect that the next time they interact it will not be pretty. But my mother is a member of our family, and an invaluable caregiver to our children. She’s pleasant and kind in daily life and moved far from her home primarily for us and her grandkids. And she is my mother, after all. I’m torn...."

From a letter to the NYT Ethicist, in "My Mom Voted for Trump. Can We Let It Go? The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on how a family might proceed in the wake of a momentous presidential election."

"Torn"... presumably because Mother is so useful as a childcare provider. And what, if anything, are you doing for her?

"If I try to protect my mother from vitriol, would I be betraying myself, or my wife and her family, in order to preserve harmony and child care?"

"Harmony and child care"... what an absolute loser!

From the Old Parish Church in Cathcart.

A beautiful rendition of "O Holy Night":

Playing very old music, Spotify snuck in something that only sounded old and tricked us.

Now, we keep listening, amused by how this fooled us... and how much we like it.

ADDED: Here's a Village Voice article from 2016: "Down Under Blues: Australia’s C.W. Stoneking Is a Roots Music Disciple":

"CBS News poll finds Trump starts on positive note as most approve of transition handling."

Link to CBS News.

You'll find material like this:

On TikTok, by contrast, you will find material like this:

Bill Maher asks about the "fact" that 84% of "gays" "stuck with the Democrats," and Andrew Sullivan doesn't agree with the assertion of fact.

Sullivan: "We don't really know how gays vote.... That's how GLBTQIA+ people vote.... The vast majority — 40% of that — are bisexual women, many of whom are in relationships with straight guys. So we don't know. I'm sure it was a big majority. I'm not sure including a big bunch of of of young women in that will distort it somewhat. I wish we could have polling of gay men and lesbians. Why can't we? Why are we now forced into this bleh?"

I'm using the letters b-l-e-h to represent a Sullivan vocalization that seemed to express the opinion that the GLBTQIA+ grouping is annoyingly large and indistinct. He seems to think gay men and lesbians should be polled as a distinct group and that their opinion is more meaningful than the amorphous grouping that sweeps in the many young woman who call themselves bisexual and may very well be living the most privileged sort of life. Of course these women tend to vote Democratic, but did gay men continue to vote Democratic? Sullivan groups gay men and lesbians together, but why not demand separate polling there too. There is an important difference in the voting of men and women, and why wouldn't that difference also show up among gay people?

ADDED: Tim Dillon says that trans people ought to identify as Republicans:

"Much like the 'videotape format wars' Betamax and VHS fought in the 1970s and '80s, in the new millennium..."

"... automakers have vied for dominance over ways to charge EVs. Tesla created a proprietary, compact plug design; most other automakers used a shared design for a larger plug.... Tesla won. Within the last 18 months, every other EV maker in the U.S. has agreed to switch to Tesla's technology...."

From "Tesla won the plug war. Enter the age of the EV charging adapter" (NPR).

BUT: It seems to me that Tesla's technology was in the Betamax position — limited to one brand. Betamax was Sony. So looking at that analogy, the companies other than Tesla might well have thought their technology would win, even if it wasn't as good. That's what happened with VHS.