At the Saturday Night Café...

 ... you can talk about whatever you want.

No photo today. Big thunderstorm.

"If I have 2086 blog posts in 2025 at the end of today, how many blog posts must I publish per day in the remaining days of this year to have a total of 3000 for the year?"

I asked ChatGPT. Answer: "You must publish about 9 blog posts per day for the rest of 2025 to reach 3000."

"And how many per day have I averaged so far?" Answer: "You’ve averaged about 7.9 posts per day so far in 2025."

Me: "I've had over 3,000 for many years, and I'm not blogging less, just writing longer posts. It would be easy to throw in 2 very short things a day or break a long thing up into 2 things if I got goal oriented, but I have been doing things naturally. Look how consistent my weekly output is" — I reprint the 2025 numbers that you can see in the sidebar.

ChatGPT offers to show me "what the year-end total would look like under a 'natural' pace vs. a 'goal-oriented' pace (say, 2 extra/day)?" I agree, read the answer, then say, "The natural pace is so bizarrely consistent that I think I should respect it as a secret and personal power that transcends the obvious value of the very round number, 3000. What is base 10 to me?"

"I've been a little bit divisive in the sense that I've been hitting people pretty hard — a little bit, yeah."

Said Donald Trump, on December 17, 2015 — with Jimmy Kimmel, in happier times:

And here's Bill Maher, last night, commenting on the hard hit against Jimmy Kimmel:

"Feras’s home, which he shares with his wife and nine children, comprises four connected 2,400-year-old caves and an adjoining tent."

"Just a 10-minute walk away are the remains of Petra’s grand temple and its colonnaded main street.... The caves occupied by the Bdoul were originally an integral part of a wealthy trading city – the thriving capital of the Nabateans for 500 years before it was annexed by the Romans in around AD100 and eventually abandoned three centuries later.... Officials charged with the management and development of Petra say the Bdoul who still live on the site are there illegally. They contend... that their use of the caves as homes, animal shelters, shops and storerooms risks causing irreparable harm. 'If we want to preserve the integrity of the site for future generations then we have to stop the use of the caves for damaging activities,' said Dr Fares Braizat, the chief commissioner of the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority. '... it is illegal for anyone to live in or use the archaeological monuments within the [site of Petra] for whatever purposes.'..."

From "'I can’t survive in a house': Petra’s Bedouin resist moves to evict them from ancient cave homes/Plans to improve the world heritage site for tourists put its living culture at risk, say locals and campaigners" (The Guardian).

There's a great "Fall of Civilizations" episode about Petra, here:

"Drug-sniffing dogs swarmed St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary last week when cops were called for possible illegal narcotics on the scenic, tree-covered campus...."

"Instead, what they found were first-degree relics — the body or body fragments, such as bone or flesh — of Saint Raphael of Brooklyn, a Syrian immigrant who founded St. Nicholas Cathedral in what is now downtown Brooklyn and was glorified in 2000.... 'The people that found them didn’t know what they were,' said Father Michael Nasser of the seminary. 'They weren’t in a typical container.... We got to meet the K-9 units who came out here for a special prayer and blessing and allowed us to thank them for all they do....'"

The New York Post reports.

"I am ill, seriously ill — it is the end, but I am not afraid. You will continue the work, you know how, but you must be careful. You know how to behave; I don’t need to tell you anything more."

Wrote Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, who died in 1937 and left a letter that was not to be opened until September 19, 2025, which was yesterday.

Quoted in "Masaryk’s 'last words' envelope opened: insights into a nation’s founding president" (Radio Prague International).

We talked about the great letter-opening yesterday, here. I had a bit of the text in that post, though I wasn't sure it was from the letter: "If people are uneducated and foolish, there is not much that can be done. People are glad to be foolish — do not make it easy for them, and argue with them." I see that is indeed from the letter.

The letter also says this about the Germans: "Give them what they deserve, but no more."

"The FBI under former President Biden launched a sweeping investigation called 'Arctic Frost' that included major Republican organizations and conservative groups..."

"... according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Grassley revealed whistleblower evidence at a Senate Judiciary hearing showing the probe, which began with 2020 election challenges, later expanded to 92 Republican targets such as the RNC, the Republican Attorneys General Association, and Turning Point USA. 'Arctic Frost wasn't just a case to politically investigate Trump,' Grassley said. 'It was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus."

From "FBI's 'Arctic Frost' probe into Jan. 6 investigated Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA" (Yahoo, republishing Snopes, quoting the Facebook page The Federalist Papers).

"When I heard the tragic news, I said, ‘I wonder who he was.’ And then all of a sudden, this overwhelming... sense of sorrow and kind of renewal."

"And I thought, I gotta learn about this guy. And the more I learned about him, I thought, this guy's a modern day Saint Paul. He was a missionary, he's an evangelist, he's a hero. He's one, I think, that knew what Jesus meant when he said: The truth will set you free.... Now, I understand he was pretty blunt and he was pretty direct. He didn't try to avoid any controversy. He didn't even try to avoid confrontation. The difference is the way, the mode, the style that he did it, always with respect. And not only was that a gracious... virtuous thing to do, it's effective, 'cuz when your opponents see this guy respects me, we kinda disagree here, but he kinda enjoys me, and he's thanking me for being here, and he's telling me he appreciates the trust I have in him in sharing my views. I thought: This guy can teach us something."

Said Cardinal Dolan:

Cardinal Dolan says he spent the past week studying Charlie Kirk’s life, and the more he learned, the more he saw him as a modern-day Saint Paul.

A fearless missionary, a passionate evangelist, and a true hero.

“When I heard the tragic news, I said, ‘I wonder who he was.’ And… pic.twitter.com/p77aAPOQGB

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 19, 2025

I want to relate this to a post I wrote the day after the assassination that some readers objected to but that I defended as "as a serious invitation to contemplate Kirk as a saint."

I knew at the time this question was complicated for Catholics because of their official procedure for canonization, and I observe that Cardinal Dolan — an excellent speaker — avoids directly declaring Charlie Kirk a "saint." He doesn't say "Saint Charlie," but he does declare Kirk "a modern day Saint Paul" — and "a missionary," "an evangelist," and "a hero." I'm not Catholic, and I don't know where the official line is, but the Cardinal seems to be stepping forthrightly up to the line. I think Cardinal Dolan knows exactly what he's saying and deploys clear language perfectly. 

"When Secret Service agents approached him, he claimed to be a member of law enforcement and said he was armed, the service said."

"'The individual is not a member of authorized law enforcement working the event and is currently in custody,' the service said, adding that he had not been arrested as of late Friday night.... The apparent unauthorized entry raised security concerns around the memorial, which is at capacity and is expected to include President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and many other administration officials and top aides."

I'm reading "Armed man detained at site of planned memorial service for Charlie Kirk/The service, which will feature President Donald Trump and Cabinet members, has a top-level security designation akin to a Super Bowl" (WaPo).

How is it possible to have enough security when malefactors are capable of attempting to infiltrate security — either by faking being a member of law enforcement or by managing to become a member?

There are prominent historical examples of political figures killed by their own security guards. I think of Indira Gandhi, but you can go back to Philip II of Macedon:

"As for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Harris wrote that he told her he was hiking and would 'call back' but 'never did.'..."

"Newsom addressed the excerpt during a news conference Friday in California, downplaying any tension with Harris and ribbing a reporter for asking about it. 'Trivial doesn’t even begin to describe how inconsequential my comments are about to be,' Newsom said, going on to confirm he was hiking and saying he missed a call from an unknown number. 'At that exact same moment, [I] was working with my team to put out a statement to endorse her. I assume that’s in the book as well.'"

From "Harris book ignites tensions with potential 2028 presidential rivals/In her upcoming memoir, Harris recounts her presidential campaign, offering blunt observations of top Democrats she could face as future opponents" (WaPo).

What a great line: Trivial doesn’t even begin to describe how inconsequential my comments are about to be.

ADDED: Also in that article: "Harris portrayed [Josh] Shapiro as overly ambitious and confident, a characterization that a Shapiro spokesman, Manuel Bonder, called 'simply ridiculous.'" What's wrong with being ambitious and confident... other than the worry that he'd outshine her? Anyone capable of serving as President is going to be "ambitious and confident." I assume Bonder mean it's ridiculous to think those qualities are bad and not it's ridiculous to think Shapiro has them. 

Sunrise — 6:46.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

And please do your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse portal — here. Thanks!

"Ted Pellegatta... did odd jobs his whole life and lived in a studio apartment attached to a vacant barn."

"He often stood outside a local restaurant hawking copies of his self-published books of poetry and photos to supplement his $1,000-per-month Social Security check..... But Pellegatta died a happy man when he succumbed to metastatic cancer last month at the age of 85.... He was a MAGA guy who was beloved by liberals. He was an old Marine, waiter and farmhand who made friends with all classes, ages and colors.... His signature achievement was the coffee klatch he convened at the local coffee shop, Before & After, just about every morning for the past 10 years, and in other locations before that. Day after day, he’d sit in the front of the shop, wearing his cowboy hat... over his wild silver hair, and serve as the unofficial chairman.... Anybody who walked in was welcome in the discussion. The ground rules were simple: Show interest in one another... and refuse to fight.... If an argument got too hot, he’d shut it down with a 'meow.' If somebody was pontificating, he’d drop his head and snore. If the conversation annoyed him, he’d get up and leave — then start again the next day...."

From "A dying man said he found the key to happiness. Science backs him up. Ted Pellegatta was a MAGA supporter beloved by liberals in Sperryville, Virginia, whose friends transcended political allegiances" (WaPo)(gift link).

The article — by Dana Milbank — mentions Charlie Kirk, but only like this: "Last week’s gruesome slaying of conservative leader Charlie Kirk was followed predictably by finger-pointing and cries for vengeance in many corners of the United States. But not at Before & After...." I wanted it to mention Charlie Kirk as a model for communication between people who disagree. Anybody who walked in was welcome in the discussion. 

I'm happy to see America's lefties swooning in love with freedom of speech.

Let them make many strong and loud professions of love, because I want a lot of material to throw in their face when — if? — they get back to subordinating freedom of speech below endless other more important matters.

Is it possible they'll commit to this love for freedom of speech with such intensity that they will forsake its rivals? It's unlikely, but I'll be delighted to give them credit... or even a vote. 

Now, lets check in with Roseanne Barr again:

Remember when you and your wife called Bob Iger to have me fired? https://t.co/w5BcJ1bsLC

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) September 18, 2025

"On this date, a thin waning crescent Moon (about 6% illuminated) formed a striking conjunction with Venus and the bright star Regulus in the constellation Leo..."

"... visible in the eastern sky about 40-60 minutes before sunrise for most observers in the Northern Hemisphere. Venus shines at a magnitude of -3.9, making it appear as a dazzling white point of light—far brighter than any star and easily mistaken for a 'dot' close to the Moon's position. This alignment was a highlight of the month's pre-dawn sky, with the trio creating a beautiful triangle-like grouping low on the horizon. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere or a more northerly latitude, the view might have been slightly different, but Venus was the standout object globally."

That's Grok, responding to my question: "What was that white dot next to the moon this morning?

Here's my photo, from 6:12 a.m.:

I fake-raged at Grok: "What do you mean easily mistaken for a 'dot'?! It is a dot. To call it a dot is only to describe how it looks, not to claim it has any particular substance inconsistent with a planet. I assumed it was Venus, but I don't like to say what I don't know, so I said what I did know. It IS a dot! I don't like being told I've made a mistake when I'm actually taking pains to be super-accurate."

Grok abjectly apologized and claimed not to have meant to say I'd made a mistake. Own it, Grok.

ADDED: Grok seemed to want to prove itself by helping me, so I asked what was my genuine next question, a veer away from astronomy and into the topic of writing:

"Czechs agog as national archive prepares to open mysterious envelope sealed for 20 years."

CNN reports.

Today is the day!

What were the last words of the country’s revered first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk?...

The final thoughts of the statesman, who governed the Czechoslovak Republic from 1918 to 1935, are believed to have been recorded by his son Jan Masaryk just before his death in September 1937 and have been sealed in a letter ever since, according to Czech public radio, which has set up a special section of its website to cover the opening of the envelope on Friday. 

The New York Times embeds Erika Kirk in the tradition of Right Wing Women.

I'm reading "Erika Kirk Takes a Leadership Role in Turning Point USA/After years spent emphasizing family life in the public eye, she will now run the group her husband built."

She is one of a raft of conservative female leaders right now who are building prominent careers and public-facing lives while emphasizing a particular message: telling young women to focus on getting married and starting a family, rather than having a public-facing life....

Oh, the contradiction! You advocated prioritizing home life, so what are you doing here? It feels so rude to confront the new widow like that. But perhaps the NYT feels it doesn't really count because it's talking about a whole "raft" of women.

Camilla and Melania look at tiny books.

Well, the women had to do something. Something that will read as something on camera. Something metaphorical. There's the grand literary tradition of England, as represented by the bust of Shakespeare overseeing the ladies' encounter with literature of the miniature kind. The feminine kind. Look how dutifully the 2 women enact intimacy through the fingering of tiny books. Such meaningful nonsense!

I would love to have a transcript of Melania's internal monologue. Outwardly, she says things like, "Oh, beautiful. Very nice." What choice does she have?

May I have more information about her outfit? What was the thinking? Encase her in leather! Yes, she will embody the experience of a book — bound in leather. But she's so insanely large next to the teeny-tiny books. Any human would look ungainly next to these dainty objects.

Soon they address the gigantic book that had been looming in the background, exaggerating the tininess of the tiny books. Don't dare touch it! They'd been woman-handling the tiny books — without gloves — but they are warned off touching the humongous bird book. It's a first edition of John J. Audubon's "Birds of America." The ladies stand back in awe. 

Sunrise — 6:20, 6:41, 6:44, 6:45.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

And please do your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse portal — here. Thanks!

"Buttigieg 'would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man,' Harris writes in a passage of her soon-to-be-released book...'"

"'But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk. And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.'"

From "The Running Mate Kamala Harris Didn’t Dare Choose/'I love Pete,' she writes in her new book. But picking a gay man would have been too risky" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

What kind of leadership potential is this? She made the wrong decision, admits to not daring, and all because she presumes that we, the people, are prejudiced.

To take her at her word, she declined to pick the running mate she thought was the best because she thought we Americans were being asked "a lot" to accept her. But it was hard to accept her when she'd been pushed forward because of her identity and not because she was the best. Then she decides that we louts wouldn't accept a gay man even though he was the best.

What were she and Pete mutually sad about? How simultaneously hostile to minorities and eager to promote minorities we terrible Americans are?

"The rebel commander and pioneering first President George Washington famously vowed never to set foot on British soil."

"And my five-times-great-grandfather King George III, for his part, did not spare his words when he spoke of the revolutionary leaders. Today, however, we celebrate a relationship between our two countries that surely neither Washington nor King George III could possibly have imagined. The ocean may still divide us, but in so many other ways, we are now the closest of kin.... The successes of the British Redcoats and of George Washington's Continental Army today stand shoulder-to-shoulder, brothers and sisters in arms, protecting the freedoms we both cherish...."

Said King Charles, at the extravagant dinner at Windsor Castle.

Gaze upon the ultra-posh scene and marvel. Watch the whole thing, with Trump speaking after Charles:

ADDED: Don't miss the elegant rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," beginning at 9:00. 

At 13:41, I believe the King is crying. Trump is reading a quote from the King himself, written in 1993, saying that he was "entirely motivated by a desperate desire to put the 'Great' back into Great Britain, in the finest tradition of British sovereigns."

"I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION."

"I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Wrote Trump, on Truth Social, last night.

ADDED: "What the law says as Trump tries to designate ‘antifa’ a terrorist group/The U.S. has no legal way to designate domestic terrorist groups. Experts raised fears of political repression because 'antifa' is a broad ideology, not a group" (WaPo)(gift link).

“It’s essentially a kind of coalition politics of all kinds of radicals, from different kinds of socialists to communists, anarchists and more independent radicals,” said Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers University and author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.”

“Sometimes I compare it to feminism. There are feminist groups, but feminism itself is not a group. There are antifa groups, but antifa itself is not a group,” he said.

"South Park Delays New Episode to September 24 Because Creators 'Didn’t Get It Done in Time.'"

Headline at Variety.

Discussed here, at Reddit. A few of the comments:

• "Wow. This might be the first time in the entire run of the show that they didn’t get an episode done on time. And the show has been running for about 30 years. They have traditionally made each episode in 6 days. Wonder what it’s like behind the scenes."

• "The fact that these guys have been consistently knocking an episode out in like a week for the last 3 decades straight leads one to think something 🐟🐠🐡 goin on here."

• "Yeah, the Kirk thing probably [led] to a lot of changes and debate. They haven't been pulling any punches but they also aren't monsters."

"Brigitte Macron to submit photographs to court proving she is a woman."

The London Times reports.

“It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself, to put this type of proof forward,” the lawyer said. “It is a process that she will have to subject herself to in a very public way. But she’s willing to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight,” he told the BBC. The court in Delaware would hear expert testimony that will be “scientific in nature.” Photographs would show Mrs Macron pregnant and with her three children, he added.

So... these are not nude pictures, just photographs in maternity clothing. Macron brought the lawsuit and is seeking damages, so she's responsible for her own predicament. I'm unsympathetic because she's a public figure. Object to the lies (and the truths) told against you and move on. 

At the bottom of the page:

"Le Slapgate" — I hadn't seen that expression before. Didn't know the "-gate" suffix — the all-purpose designation of scandal — had reached Europe, and it's funny to see it with "Le" — the all-purpose designation that we've got something French... French and masculine. 

"Who calls their dad 'old man'? It's 2025! That text looks like it was written by my 74-year-old boss."

TikTok is suspicious of those Tyler Robinson/"Tyler Robinson" texts."

"... conversations unbecoming to a Christian..."

I know the pain of losing loved ones to assassination. Charlie Kirk stood for life, faith, and truth—unashamed of Jesus. Now is not the time to attack him, but to honor his legacy, pray for his family, and ask: Where will you spend eternity? pic.twitter.com/p6zF34CNZD

— Alveda C. King, Ph.D. (@AlvedaCKing) September 17, 2025

Roseanne laughs.

pic.twitter.com/H8FnW46dNN

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) September 18, 2025

Sunrise — 6:20, 6:41, 6:43.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

And please do your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse portal — here. Thanks!

"I am leaning very strongly towards the theory that this text exchange was scripted as a way to absolve the boyfriend."

"It’s almost exactly what Walter White did at the end of Breaking Bad. This feels like a strategy they cooked up from watching too much TV."

Writes Matt Walsh, at X. And this is what I've been thinking. 

Why have people been taking these texts at face value?

The texts:

"Your movement seeks to remove rights from others. It is anti-truth and critical thinking, pro-violence, pro-dehumanisation of those who disagree with you..."

"... and you are so lacking in self-awareness you cannot see that you are precisely what you pretend to hate."

Said JK Rowling, at X.

"In dozens of focus groups conducted by my polling firm, young men identified three forces shaping their lives..."

"... economic displacement that keeps stability out of reach, institutional distrust born of broken promises, and a crisis of belonging rooted in masculinity... [Charlie] Kirk’s network transformed this frustration into political energy by linking stalled progress to a broader narrative of national decline and conservative resurgence. His message blended faith, family and MAGA-infused patriotism with a simple pitch: You don’t have to accept being worse off than your parents. Democrats, by contrast, rarely spoke to young men’s deeper questions about success, significance or belonging, leaving a gap Mr. Kirk knew how to fill...."

Writes John Della Volpe, in "What Democrats Can Learn From Charlie Kirk" (NYT).

"Republicans meet young men where they already spend their time; Democrats, more often, expect them to show up in formal political spaces that feel staged.... Young men... see Republicans as confident and direct, Democrats as scripted and afraid to offend. Mr. Kirk capitalized on that contrast by showing up on left-leaning campuses, taking tough questions and engaging head-on...

King meets President... and the ladies who carry pocketbooks meet the lady who carries only herself.

The wind kicks up as the King steps forward and all the many ladies' hats threaten to undercut the extreme dignity. The First Lady waits until she's duly shaken hands with the King before she reaches up — at 16:57 — to steady her headgear.

Stick around until 18:35, and you won't be sorry, unless you hate horses, white horses, arrayed in fairy-tale style.

It's the King's very best carriage, lavishly festooned with gold leaf, the very frippery Trump's haters deplore in the Oval Office. Their slogan plays in my head: No Kings!

At 23:13, I get the answer to the question that's been puzzling me: How do they keep the horses from shitting? (They don't.)

I had thought there was no music, that somehow silence was the soundscape for the event, but at 24:07 I see musicians and notice faint music. Perhaps there was music all along and a telephoto lens on the camera is creating the illusion that it is much closer than it seems. The faint music informs us of our great distance from these illustrious characters.

At 25:00, the music is (or seems) louder. It's "The Star-Spangled Banner." A song about fighting the British. 

"Every time I listen to a lawyer-trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way, I think to myself, that law school failed."

Said Sonia Sotomayor, quoted in "Sotomayor rebukes calls to 'criminalize free speech' in apparent swipe at Pam Bondi/The justice, in public remarks, didn’t name the attorney general, who has come under fire for comments to target people over 'hate speech'" (Politico).

And so ends the decades long push — by the left — to criminalize hate speech. Thanks, Justice Sotomayor!

Sunrise — 6:18, 6:39, 6:41.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

Note the moon in the first picture.

"Treasury secretaries dating back to Alexander Hamilton have a history of dueling."

Quipped the Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, quoted in "Scott Bessent invokes deadly Hamilton-Burr duel when asked about threat to punch Bill Pulte in ‘f–king face’" (NY Post).

And here's the full punch-you-in-your-fucking-face quote: “Why the fuck are you talking to the president about me? Fuck you. I’m gonna punch you in your fucking face."

"There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech."

Said Pam Bondi, quoted in "Bondi takes heat from the right after vowing to prosecute 'hate speech': ‘We will absolutely target you'" (NY Post).

Takes heat and deserves it.

Among the conservative commentary at the link there is this 2024 tweet from Charlie Kirk himself:

Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. 

And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. 

Keep America free.

"Two state terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione... were dismissed on Tuesday, including one that had accused him of first-degree murder."

"Mr. Mangione, 27, is still charged with second-degree murder. The decision by Justice Carro is a blow to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, led by Alvin L. Bragg. The prosecutors had argued that a terrorism charge was warranted because Mr. Mangione had targeted an executive 'of the United States’ largest health insurance company in front of the hotel where the company was about to conduct its annual investor conference' in Midtown Manhattan, which they said was 'widely recognized as the media capital of the world.' Mr. Bragg has said that the act was 'a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.'"

The NYT reports.

Mangione also faces charges in federal court in Pennsylvania state court. 

ADDED: Here's the NY statute showing what it takes for murder in the first degree: "(xiii) the victim was killed in furtherance of an act of terrorism, as defined in paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section 490.05 of this chapter...." Section 490.05 defines "terrorism" to include acts intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population."

"Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times..."

"... one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country, becoming a virtual 'mouthpiece' for the Radical Left Democrat Party. I view it as the single largest illegal Campaign contribution, EVER. Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF! The 'Times' has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole. I am PROUD to hold this once respected 'rag' responsible, as we are doing with the Fake News Networks such as our successful litigation against George Slopadopoulos/ABC/Disney, and 60 Minutes/CBS/Paramount, who knew that they were falsely 'smearing' me through a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration, which was, in effect, a malicious form of defamation, and thus, settled for record amounts. They practiced this longterm INTENT and pattern of abuse, which is both unacceptable and illegal. The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW! The suit is being brought in the Great State of Florida. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Writes Trump, on Truth Social.

If your idea of America greatness doesn't include freedom of speech, it's not worth much.

And if you think the NYT is making an "illegal Campaign contribution" when it speaks about political candidates, you must want Citizens United overruled. 

"What do we do now?"

(Goodbye to Robert Redford, 1936-2025.)

Sunrise — 6:14, 6:34, 6:39.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I was working on a poem yesterday that had an epigraph from the poet Christopher Morley: 'No man is lonely while eating spaghetti.'"

"Sometimes you discover a sentence like that and say, 'I’m gonna put that on the top of a poem and see what happens.' Sometimes the epigraph is not just some cute afterthought but the reason why the poem started."

From a 2018 "Conversation with Billy Collins" (Booth), found because I was making spaghetti and remembering the epigraph, which I'd just encountered at the top of the poem "Vivace!"

I don't want to reprint an entire poem on my blog, but I will link to this other blog that did see fit to do what I won't do. You'll find the full text of "Vivace!" in a blog post titled "I Figured Out the Perfect Evening Activity."

"Is this an example of a type of journalism where you confront someone with a rumor and get a denial which is then the printable story, that X denied the rumor?"

I ask Grok, after getting it to summarize a Daily Beast article titled "White House Insists Stephen Miller Does Not Play With Dolls" (which I won't link to because it's behind a pay wall and even if it weren't, I don't think you should go there).

Grok: "Yes, this article is an example of a journalistic practice sometimes referred to as 'rumor-based reporting' or 'denial-driven journalism.'..."

Another prompt: "What are some examples of famous people who have been defined by rumors — the rumors stick as meaning something even when they are not proved or even regarded as likely?"

I expected Richard Gere and I got him... along with Walt Disney's frozen head.

"This show has become a sort of lighthouse show for people who want to believe that there are people in these hospitals who are dedicated, intelligent, compassionate, doing this kind of angelic work."

Said Noah Wyle, quoted in "'The Pitt' Defied Odds by Going Back to the Future/On Sunday, Emmy voters made a loud statement that there is an appetite for the kind of shows that used to dominate TV" (NYT).

I had never heard of this show, but apparently it's what people want these days. I'd watched "The White Lotus," which had a lot of nominations but won nothing. 

It seems that people are worn out and done with snark and irony. They want to be reassured that there are sincere, competent, hard-working people ready to help. (Note: Everything seems to relate to Charlie Kirk.)

Reminds me of "Hill Street Blues." Or... more on the subject matter: "St. Elsewhere."

"The two young men came up with the Monkees’ theme music on a walk to the park, and they developed a friendly but savvy relationship with the actors."

"They realized, for example, that by recording each member of the Monkees singing individually, they could avoid the actors horsing around and trying to impress one another. Musically, Mr. Boyce and Mr. Hart struck a fine balance between several imperatives. Study the Beatles, but don’t imitate them to the point of absurdity; catch the spirit of the ’60s in the use of Indian instruments and lyrics about 'the young generation,' but don’t be too challenging. Some veteran producers became frustrated trying to make the Monkees into a real band and gave up. Mr. Boyce and Mr. Hart persisted. 'To us,' Mr. Hart wrote, 'it was the chance of a lifetime.' Robert Luke Harshman was born on Feb. 18, 1939, in Phoenix. Bobby formed a lifelong relationship with the Hammond B-3 electric organ by playing it in the Pentecostal church his family attended...."

From "Bobby Hart, Who Helped Give the Monkees Their Music, Dies at 86/The hit songwriting duo he and Tommy Boyce formed in the 1960s was best known for the unexpectedly popular tunes of a made-for-TV band" (NYT).

Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, & Hart with (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone, 1975
byu/NomadSound inMonkees

"Now, however, the new facial hair renaissance seems intrinsically connected to the current discourse around masculinity and the manosphere."

"There is little, after all, more redolent of manliness than facial hair, the visual expression of testosterone. It’s no accident that JD Vance is not the only member of Team Trump to have a beard. So do Donald Trump Jr., Commerce Secretary (and tariff warrior) Howard Lutnick and Senator Ted Cruz. In other words, beards are once again mainstream, which suggests their meaning is changing once again. Or even dissipating. As my colleague Jacob Gallagher... said, the scruffy look 'loses that masculine oomph when every guy seems to be doing the same thing.'"

Writes the NYT fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, in "What’s With All the Beards? More and more men seem to be putting down the razor and letting their whiskers grow. Our critic examines the history of the trend and what it might mean."

Is there anything less masculine than the phrase "masculine oomph"? Looking for "masculine oomph"? You can't get there from here.

As for "the current discourse around masculinity and the manosphere," what is most current is the idea of emulating Charlie Kirk. He was quite clean-shaven, so you may want to rethink your effort to right-wing-ize beards.

"From where does all this hatred, violence, and moral vacuity arise?"

"Why did the shooter inscribe his bullets with 'anti-fascist' messaging, cruel taunts, and trans jargon?"

Asks Victor Davis Hanson, in "Was the Current Madness Birthed in the University? America’s descent into violence and moral chaos—from Kirk’s assassination to suppressed crime truths—traces back to the toxic ideologies nurtured in universities" (American Greatness).

Is the hatred caused by the media... Or is the promulgator the Democratic Party and the Left... Or, finally, is the culprit for the madness found ultimately in the elite university?... Why, in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk, are so many teachers, professors, and college-graduate bureaucrats so eager to gloat over and cheer his death?... Hundreds of thousands of students emerge from campuses not just indoctrinated with contempt for the Western tradition and American exceptionalism, and not just often thousands of dollars in debt from inflated tuition, but also poorly educated by the standards that once defined education. The working classes and high school graduates, supposedly the losers of our society, are not those who are dividing the country. They are not often advocating violence or trying to use any means necessary to overturn the established order. But so often the products of the modern university are doing just that....

Interesting... but Charlie Kirk's assassin dropped out of college after one semester. He'd been a promising student and won a scholarship to study engineering, yet he veered off that path quickly and into an electrical apprenticeship program. Wouldn't that put him in with the "working classes and high school graduates" —  "supposedly the losers of our society" who "are not those who are dividing the country"? Perhaps the assassin had contempt for the very "teachers, professors, and college-graduate bureaucrats" who have been "so eager to gloat over and cheer" his action. We don't know, do we?

The assassin is contemptible — a murderer. But whether his motive aligns with the ideology of the "teachers, professors, and college-graduate bureaucrats" who cheer and gloat, they are contemptible — quite independently. They need to stand in the light and take criticism for the ideas they've taught and enforced.

Joe Rogan is explaining the destruction of the hippie movement to Charlie Sheen....

"Just the provable actual facts are so nuts, that very likely Charles Manson was a CIA asset.... They had groomed him when he was in prison and taught him mind control techniques when people were high on acid, taught him how to be sober, but pretend he's on acid. And how to interact with these people that are on acid and shape their mind and even get them to commit murder.... Between 1960 and 1970 is like What?! This world is crazy. The music is crazy. The culture's crazy.... Everything is wild. It's very psychedelic.... They were like, We're losing control and power.... They actually pulled it off.... Oh my God, these hippies are murderous.... And our own goddamn government engineered it. They engineered, they stopped what was probably one of the most beautiful cultural shifts in this country's history that would've organically still kept evolving into other things that would've blossomed out of it.... that completely demonized any peace, love, and... any of that kind of movement. Those people became a real problem now, because you're now connected to Manson...."

The phrase in pink is contributed by Charlie Sheen. The rest is Joe. The 2 men are going on and on about conspiracies — and objecting to "this conspiracy theory pejorative" that "they" are "foisting" on us. And then — 2 hours after that clip above — they suddenly encounter the news of the assassination of Charlie Kirk:

The 2 men do not respond with freewheeling conspiracy notions. Sheen says, "Murder for having a different opinion from somebody else, different ideology from somebody else," and Rogan says, "Yeah." They read some of the instant chatter on line, and Joe says, "What a crazy take, like it might not have been someone assassinating someone for the wrong opinion."

Sunrise — 6:33.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"Yesterday, my 17-year-old niece left for Europe to go to college. And while she was packing, her mother, Amaryllis, my daughter-in-law, noticed that she had put a Bible in her suitcase."

"And Amaryllis was curious about it. And she asked her, and Zoe said to her, 'I want to live like Charlie Kirk.' There are millions and millions of kids around the country who he inspired who now want to live like Charlie Kirk and that's a great thing for our country."

Said RFK Jr., at The Prayer Vigil for Charlie Kirk at the Kennedy Center.

Watch the entire vigil here:

"Howdy boys, never a doubt you would get this invitation. You did it by believing. Really miss you guys..."

"... and I wish I was there. Things are good. The God Almighty picked me to be on this team up here, albeit [as] the third catcher. It’s a great league, no day games after night games. No shadows, but you got all the sticky you need to have up here. Told the big guy about you guys. Play hard every night. Not afraid to play for each other. He’s obviously very interested with the group with this uncommon goodness. I know you guys don’t really need me, but I’ll tell you guys … I’ll be on the headset every night watching. And don’t forget to take it all in, enjoy, and keep it light, believe in each other."

A message from beyond the grave, from Bob Uecker, to the Milwaukee Brewers, upon their clinching of a playoff berth (MLB).

"Next came Solórzano, who performed in a leather jacket, throwing his first snowball from a cocktail shaker—a blend of cedar, benzoin, and cardamom which conjured the smell of whiskey."

"To a soundtrack of ragtime and death-metal bluegrass, he waved his towel with muscular grace, using it to represent (variously) lightning in a prairie thunderstorm, his dead lover’s body, and a bar tray that he used to deflect bullets. Between vigorous towel-waving sequences, he narrated his moral dilemma, of whether or not to take vengeance on his former best friend, an outlaw who’d killed his girl.... As the temperature surged to two hundred degrees, Solórzano slammed a snowball scented with black pepper and juniper tar onto the rocks, filling the room with a gunpowdery musk, and waved furiously, darting up and down the sauna stairs, tossing his towel in an elegant plume of white. The crowd went wild."

From "Sweating and Storytelling in a Williamsburg Sauna/Aufguss: a world championship for twirling a really hot towel" (The New Yorker).

Had you heard about Aufguss?

"Every other recent president has said that he saw his role as transcending partisanship at least some of the time, to serve as leader of all Americans..."

"... even those who disagreed with him. George H.W. Bush talked of ushering in a 'kinder and gentler nation.' Mr. Clinton vowed to be the 'repairer of the breach.' The younger Mr. Bush spoke of being 'a uniter, not a divider.' Barack Obama rejected the idea of a red America and blue America, saying there was only 'the United States of America.' Joseph R. Biden Jr. called for ending 'this uncivil war.' None of them succeeded at achieving such lofty aspirations, and each of them to different degrees played the politics of division at times. Politics, after all, is about division — debating big ideas vigorously until one side wins an election or carries the vote in Congress. But none of them practiced the politics of division as ferociously and consistently as Mr. Trump...."

From "In an Era of Deep Polarization, Unity Is Not Trump’s Mission/President Trump does not subscribe to the traditional notion of being president for all Americans" by Peter Baker, in the NYT.

Who is taking an accurate measure of the consistency and ferocity of the divisiveness of the various Presidents?

My prompt to ChatGPT: "What are the most ferociously divisive things Presidents have said in all of American history? Give me a top 10, with just the quotes, not the explanations."

The list [NOTE: I did not verify the accuracy of these quotes. What follows is with ChatGPT gave me and the entire thing could be hallucination. Proceed with care!]

"Evaluations are also vulnerable to just about every bias imaginable. Course-evaluation scores..."

"... are correlated with students’ expected grades. Studies have found that, among other things, students score male professors higher than female ones, rate attractive teachers more highly, and reward instructors who bring in cookies. 'It’s not clear what the evaluations are measuring, but in some sense they’re a better instrument for measuring gender or grade expectations than they are for measuring the instructor’s actual value added,' Philip Stark, a UC Berkeley statistics professor who has studied the efficacy of teacher evaluations, told me.

From "How Teacher Evaluations Broke the University/'We give them all A’s, and they give us all fives'" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

From the last paragraph: "There’s another reason to keep them around. If universities ever did away with students’ ability to grade their professors, college kids—and their tuition-paying parents—might revolt." Isn't that how student evaluations came about in the first place? The students were revolting. 

"By the time she was a teenager, she had anorexia and worried she would 'never be skinny enough to love,' she said."

"At 17, she weighed 88 pounds, and a doctor told her that if she lost any more weight, she could die. She recalls thinking that death 'sounded quiet, it sounded calm,' she writes. 'I knew that if I died, I could stop trying.' Thinness felt safe, she writes, but it was actually the opposite: 'I was dancing with death and getting date-raped and drinking to excess and popping pills like Tic Tacs and exposing myself to all kinds of delicious abuse just to feel something.' She has been in remission from her eating disorder for many years, she said... She writes about an exploratory visit with a fertility expert... [T]he specialist, who treats other celebrities, brought up weight gain: She could 'get away' with putting on only about 20 pounds during pregnancy, including the weight of the baby. That would mean a smaller child, the doctor added, but if she wanted her kid to be taller later on, there was always human growth hormone."

From "At Least Zosia Mamet Can Laugh About It/In her new book, the actress turns her acid wit to Hollywood’s darker side and her own personal struggles" (NYT).

"[N]o matter the direction of the tragedy, the end result is the same — the right grows angrier at the left, and the left grows angrier at the right...."

"This line of thinking leads in one direction — rationalizing extreme measures in response."

Writes David French in "There Are Monsters in Your Midst, Too" in the NYT.

My ellipsis makes the repetition of the word "direction" seem awkward, but I wanted to highlight directionality.

Since I'm quoting so little of that column, I'm expending one of my gift links on it so you can see the context.