"If I do attend, I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed. By the fake news, of course, I'm talking about."

Trump has his own way of talking.

Reporter: Are you attending your son’s wedding?

Trump: He’d like me to go. I’m going to try. I said, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. He’s a person I’ve known for a long time. pic.twitter.com/lGdjvU7oD0

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 21, 2026

You'd think that after 3 assassination attempts, he's eschew the murder metaphor, but no. He's not going to say "I'll be harshly criticized," like a typical high official. He's going to say "I get killed." Not even "I'll get killed." Present tense: "I get killed."

He also calls his son "a person I’ve known for a long time."

By the way, I've seen man bellies that look like pregnancies, but the protruding navel is really too much, especially right next to the President's head. Where's the dignity?!

For more of the video and an explanation of the event, see "WATCH: Trump, Zeldin announce looser rule on refrigerant greenhouse gases" (PBS). The belly is not Zeldin's.

"For me, pregnancy is the worst experience of my life. I’m not sure why I don’t like the experience like others do."

"Maybe it’s the swelling, the backaches or just the complete mindf-k of how your body expands and nothing fits. I don’t feel sexy, either — I feel insecure and most of the time I just feel gross."

Wrote Kim Kardashian, who nevertheless arrived last night, in her 8th month of pregnancy, at the InStyle Awards in Los Angeles wearing a very tight and white Valentino gown. What I don't understand is how something that white and tight does not reveal the shape of her navel and — speaking of mindf-ks — the fetal feet and elbows sliding and poking around. I can only imagine that there is an undergarment, similar to the padded bras that keep nipples from making an outwardly visible impression, but how thick would it need to be to hide the activities the unborn Easton West?

"Her exposed midriff that is the cynosure of all eyes has become the talking point in Bollywood."

Sorry, I've gotten absorbed in The Times of India this morning. I love the writing style. Cynosure. It has never in my life occurred to me to use that word.

cy·no·sure...
1. something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc.: the cynosure of all eyes....

cynosure
1590s, from M.Fr. cynosure (16c.), from L. Cynosura, lit. "dog's tail," the constellation (now Ursa Minor) containing the North Star, the focus of navigation, from Gk. kynosoura, lit. "dog's tail," from kyon (gen. kynos; see canine) + oura "tail."

Her belly is the dog's tail of all eyes. What a melee of body parts!

The tree has a big gaping hole in its nubby sweater...

... and I just want to rub its cute little belly. Don't you?

Underwear supermodel Karolina Kurkova has no belly button.

I read it at BBC.com, where I went to look for some serious news to enlighten you. You may think I post the lowest drivel, but I actively bypassed this story last night. I started a draft, titled "They called him the 'Screamer.' He was very noisy," but then, I though, no, I'm not going there.

Yet, here is a much nicer place, the blank mid-torso of a skinny pretty woman who's done nothing more evil than prancing about in a bra and underpants. It's an interesting mystery. It's not like we know Kurkova left her navel on some battlefield in Europe (or Albert Hall).

Some have no belly button as a result of the surgery needed to correct abdominal problems at birth, often either an umbilical hernia, or a condition known as gastroschisis - born with the stomach and intestines poking through a hole in the abdominal wall.

I know all about that, having watched the "Hottest Chick, Ugliest Scar" episode of the Howard Stern Show. (It's "Megan" at the link, which has photos of women in bikinis.)

Bonus religious question: Did Adam and Eve have navels?

"These aren't just swamp leeches though - we are talking about highly trained medical leeches. These are not some low level scavengers..."

Demi Moore is talking about some "high level blood suckers." Beauty secrets of the stars!

"It detoxifies your blood - I'm feeling very detoxified right now. I did it in some woman's house laying on her bed. We did a little sampler first, which is in the belly button.

"It crawls in and you feel it bite down on you and you want to go, 'You bastard.' Then you relax and work on your Lemaze breathing just to kind of relax.

"You watch it swell up on your blood, watching it get fatter and fatter - then when its super drunk on your blood it just kind of rolls over like it is stumbling out of the bar.

Me, I hate leeches.



And about all those toxins...

To better understand [the peddlers of "detoxification"], it's necessary to define what they mean by toxins. Are they bacteria? Chemical pollutants? Trans fats? Heavy metals? To avoid being tested, they leave this pretty vague. Actual medical treatments will tell you exactly what they do and how they do it. Alternative detoxification therapies don't do either one. They pretty much leave it up to the imagination of the patient to invent their own toxins. Most people who seek alternative therapy believe themselves to be afflicted by some kind of self-diagnosed poison; be it industrial chemicals, McDonald's cheeseburgers, or fluoridated water. If the marketers leave their claims vague, a broader spectrum of patients will believe that the product will help them. And, of course, the word "toxin" is sufficiently scientific-sounding that it's convincing enough by itself to many people.

Read the whole thing, but be careful not to stare too long into that picture of "mucoid plaque"... lest it stare back at you. You may dream of it crawling into your bellybutton and getting "super drunk" on your blood.

ADDED: If you think losing some blood is beneficial, why not donate blood? Why feed a leech (and pay for the privilege)? Donate blood to the Red Cross and donate whatever money you'd pay the leech-wielder to charity. And I should note that there are some legitimate medical uses for leeches. This is an excellent New Yorker article on the subject.

"The rage was just calmed and here, with an absurd and criminal logic, they go and stir things up."

Another cartoon about Muhammad:

The drawing appears in Studi Cattolici, a monthly magazine with links to the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic group, Opus Dei. It shows the poets Virgil and Dante on the edge of a circle of flame looking down on Mohammed.

"Isn't that man there, split in two from head to navel, Mohammed?" Dante asks Virgil.

"Yes and he is cut in two because he has divided society," Virgil replies. "While that woman there, with the burning coals, represents the politics of Italy towards Islam."

Cesare Cavalleri, the editor of the magazine, said last night that he had not meant to cause offence. "If, contrary to my intentions and those of the author, anyone felt offended in his religious feelings, I freely ask him in a Christian manner for forgiveness."

That was a marked change of tone from an earlier statement, when he said: "We must not fear freedom of opinion." If the cartoon provoked an attack, it would only confirm "the idiotic positions" of Muslim extremists.

"This is not a cartoon against Mohammed. It is a cartoon which addresses the loss of the West's identity.

"Why all the fuss over a cartoon which only represents that which has already been written centuries ago by Dante Alighieri?"

Why print it now if not for the current fuss?

Michelle Malkin has the actual cartoon, which does not, in fact, show Muhammad. It only depicts Dante and Virgil looking at Hell, calling to mind the many illustrations of Muhammad that already exist in the many versions of "The Divine Comedy" that have been made over the years.

"The company got the idea from mothers just storing umbilical cords and navels in an album or what-not."

Yeah, what not.