Sunrise — 6:23, 7:07, 7:10, 7:12.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

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

"People are using words like depressing and doomsday – feels like some sort of doomsday."

Said one reporter, quoted in "'It’s not a good place right now’: CBS News staffers are ‘literally freaking out’ about Bari Weiss taking over newsroom/'People are using words like depressing and doomsday – feels like some sort of doomsday,’ one source told The Independent about the mood inside CBS News right now" (The Independent).

Network staffers also told The Independent that Weiss would have a tough time gaining the respect of the newsroom because they see her as something of a “political operative,” adding that CBS News is already “not a welcoming place for outsiders.” “There are so many people who've come in here and been chewed up and spit out that the idea that somebody that we don't want is going to come in here and somehow manage to survive this is, I think, laughable,” the CBS reporter declared. “So she's in for, I would venture to guess, a rough ride.”

"After years of inarticulate unease in social situations, they felt freed by the framework of neurodivergence, and embraced by the community that came along with it."

"Since then I’ve heard accounts from people who received midlife diagnoses of binge eating disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety. Nearly all of them said the diagnosis provided relief. Sometimes it led to an effective treatment. But sometimes, simply identifying the problem — putting a name to it — seemed to help...."

From "Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better? As our diagnostic categories expand to include ever milder versions of disease, researchers propose that the act of naming a malady can itself bring relief" (NYT).

"A few years ago, critics began to say that this trend had overshot and was beginning to do real harm. Some say that enlargement of the tent has come at a cost to the most severely ill people, who have lost the attention of the medical establishment. Others say it’s not helping people with milder illnesses, either, especially if they are young. Diagnosis, they say, can set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy.... Researchers, digging into the downstream effects of diagnoses, are beginning to see this effect play out over the long term. Diagnoses do lock you in...."

Not mentioned in the article: transgenderism.

"She interviewed elders in the community about traditional yogurt recipes.... Then her grandmother said, 'Oh, do you know that I used to use ants?'"

"... Mutlu Sirakova’s uncle gave the research team a crash course in ant yogurt making. The team took four red wood ants and dropped them in a small container of warm milk. They then sealed the container, buried it in the ant hill, and left it there overnight. The next day, the researchers removed the insects from the partially coagulated concoction and gave it a taste. It 'had a slightly tangy taste with mild herbaceousness and pronounced flavors of grass-fed fat,' according to the research paper...."

From "This Traditional Yogurt Recipe’s Secret Ingredient Has 6 Legs/Scientists recreated a formula involving ants and milk that is used in Bulgarian villages to yield yogurt with an herbaceous flavor" (NYT).

"They determined that the ants contributed several types of acids and enzymes that worked together to coagulate the milk. These include formic acid, which the ants produce as a defense mechanism, as well as strains of lactic and acetic acids produced by bacteria living in the ants’ guts. And once the ants start the yogurt culture, more yogurt can be created by adding additional milk — no need for more insects."

I like the part where they buried the container in the ant hill. I don't think that figured into the scientific explanation. It made me think of folk remedies that have burying something as a step. For example, speaking of grandmothers, my grandmother said you could cure a wart by cutting open a potato, rubbing it on the wart, then burying the potato. Maybe there was some curative chemical in the potato — akin to the formic acid in the ants — but the burying must be imagined magic.

"Just a night earlier, Mr. Trump had posted an A.I.-generated video of his budget chief, Russell T. Vought, dressed as the grim reaper, wielding a scythe..."

"... while A.I. versions of Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance (both draped in black cloaks as well) played percussion set to the Blue Öyster Cult jam '(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.'"

From "The White House Can’t Decide: Is the Shutdown Bad or Good? Is it 'fun' and an 'unprecedented opportunity,' or is it 'madness' that must end? Depends who’s talking" by Shawn McCreesh in the NYT.

"It remained unclear how soon any concrete steps to end the conflict might be taken, however."

Key line in "Israel Says It Will Work With Trump Gaza Plan; Hamas Says It Will Release Hostages/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to work with the White House to end the war, but questions remain about Hamas’s future in Gaza and whether it will agree to disarm" (NYT).

Trump delivered an ultimatum. The response was we don't want it to be an ultimatum. 

No comment.

I'm reading "What Was Best About the ‘Best American Poetry’? After four decades, the annual book series is drawing to a close. Our columnist looks at what it all meant" (NYT).

By convention, the poets in each volume are invited to comment on their chosen poem. A surprising number assert the poem’s events are factual, true. Some claim the poem is self-explanatory; others explain rather overabundantly. Some abstain entirely, or use the space to deflect. See Charles Bukowski, best in 1993: “The more said about a poem, the less it becomes.” Depends on the poem. Rae Armantrout’s “Soft Money,” best in 2011, is very funny: 'They’re sexy because they pretend/not to need you,/but they’re lying,/which degrades them./They’re beneath you/and it’s hot.' It’s made even funnier by her note that reveals she was mocking Duran Duran."

Sunrise — 6:31, 7:02.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

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

"The convention is one of the many ways that monks around the country are working to demonstrate the modern relevance of a religion that some young people see as old fashioned, esoteric and..."

"... relegated to secluded mountaintop temples.... ... Buddhism faces a particularly steep challenge in South Korea, where Protestantism, a branch of Christianity, overtook it to become the most popular religion for the first time in the latest census. In South Korea and some other Asian countries, Christianity tends to be associated with modernity and rationality, while Buddhism and folk religions are often seen as more old-fashioned, Professor Chia said. Some young people at the Busan expo said they were trying to shake that idea. South Koreans tend to see the religion as one that is for older people and can only be encountered at 'temples deep in the mountains,' said Ju Yeo-jin, 30, a vendor selling casual streetwear style clothing and accessories, wearing a pageboy cap over her short bleached hair. 'The Buddhism I’ve experienced is fun and cool. I want to convey that feeling.'"

I'm reading "Is South Korea’s 'Buddhistcore' Aesthetic a Fad or a Spiritual Awakening? Young South Koreans are buying Buddhist merch. Monks and experts hope the buzz will translate into deeper engagement" (NYT).

I think Americans associate Buddhism with modernity and rationality — but not because of expos and "merch"! To me, it seems modern and rational to retreat to a temple deep in the mountains. Maybe to young people the religion of one's own region will always seem "old-fashioned" and based in tradition. Just imagine people from elsewhere looking over and perhaps it will seem newly modern. Or what the hell, buy a "red heart-shaped magnet reading, 'Sentient beings I love you'" or "key chains of the Buddha in neon and with hearts for eyes, and streetwear-style T-shirts with slogans like 'Shut up and meditate.'" Maybe that will work.

"The White House will restore $187 million in cuts to law enforcement funding that would have devastated New York’s intelligence and counterterrorism operations..."

"... following a bipartisan effort to reinstate the funds, administration officials told The New York Times on Friday.The push, which included personal appeals from Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, as well as several of the state’s Republican House members, has been underway since news of the cuts began trickling out over the weekend.The cuts, which represented the largest federal defunding of police operations in New York in decades, were made by the Department of Homeland Security, without the approval of President Trump, White House officials said...."

The NYT reports.

Without the approval of President Trump is interesting. 

The way it was done, it scared the hell out of New York, and then Trump got the advantage of being seen setting things right.

Here's the Althouse/Meade text conversation after I (blue) sent a link to the article (and Meade highlighted "without the approval of President Trump"):

"The issue of minority gun ownership has long been fraught. In 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney argued in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black people..."

"... should not be recognized as citizens because it would give them the right 'to keep and carry arms wherever they want.' Even after Black people became citizens entitled to Second Amendment rights, they often had to deal with discriminatory gun laws limiting their access to firearms.... 'The trans people I know, both gun owners and others, see the prospect of the D.O.J. taking trans people’s guns as a prelude to atrocity,' Eden Fenn, a young trans woman, told me. She called herself 'the definition of a reluctant gun owner,' describing her ownership as a precautionary measure against the potential of anti-trans violence.... Mental health is often weaponized against the trans community.... [T]here are legitimate concerns about the high rates of depression and suicidal ideation among trans people.... Everyone I spoke with talked about their gun-safety plans. Some suggested that it should be normalized to offload your guns to a friend while going through a traumatic experience.... There are no easy answers—only a delicate calculus to be made...."

Writes Grace Byron, in "The Complexities of Trans Gun Ownership/In the face of threats and harassment, some trans Americans are becoming gun owners—only to be targeted by the same movements that claim to defend gun rights" (The New Yorker).

"The judge ruled that the hired male escorts involved in freak-offs can be considered victims in the context of sentencing."

"And he ruled that Mr. Combs does not get the benefit of having accepted responsibility for his crimes. The judge said the defense’s narrative of freak-offs as nothing more than voluntary sex between consenting adults was 'flatly inconsistent with both reality and any acceptance of responsibility.'... [T]he judge’s explanations do not bode well for the defendant."

From the NYT coverage of the sentencing hearing for Sean Combs, happening now.

UPDATE, 11:34: The prosecution has argued, and now it's the defense. This is interesting:

"Bari Weiss to be named top editor at CBS News/Paramount Skydance will acquire the journalist’s publication, the Free Press, which she started after quitting the New York Times in 2020."

The Washington Post reports.

A tinge of red arrives in the forest.

Yesterday, near Lake Mendota, around 2 in the afternoon.

"What type of question is that, dude? My guy, how do I assess this season? We just lost! How do you think I assess it? You tell me. What's a loss? We lost. How do you assess it? It's a loss. We lost."

I asked Manny Machado how he would assess the 2025 season. Here is what he said to me. @CBS8 | #FightForTheFaithful #Postseason #Padres pic.twitter.com/es85lKSj99

— Jake Garegnani (@JakeGaregnani) October 3, 2025

Thanks to Manny Machado for making me remember my old "clear speech" tag.

ADDED: I felt like I hadn't used it in a long time, but clicking on the tag now, I see I use it a lot. I like when people speak very directly. Using the tag, for me, is like giving an award. I acknowledge achievement in clear speech.

These are all things the President of the United States posted on social media 8 hours ago.

pic.twitter.com/na2ivYVFoT

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2025

Is it still hard to believe that the President of the United States posts things like this? He is taunting. He's giving material that will be snapped up and used to say (once again) that he's a racist. And — that last one — that he is grandiose. But this is what we have now. We (collectively) voted for it. He's not bland. And it is — all of it — comedy. He's keeping our spirits up. Some of us have a good spirit about it. They're laughing — maybe even laughing off the budget crisis. Others of us have inflamed spirits, angry spirits. And according to Trump, they come from hell. They've been giving him hell for years. He's entitled to laugh at them. I'd prefer more dignity, but that's more Trump 45, and what did that get him?