Events

Purchased 2000-11-22

My Brews & Choos buddy highlighted this thought-provoking essay Jonathan Rauch posted yesterday in Persuasion; the whole thing is worth a read: Sheer aggressiveness is perhaps the postmodern left’s and right’s most salient feature. Because they are revolutionary movements, they recognize few legitimate boundaries and observe few behavioral constraints; because they are anarchic, they have no grand plan or object beyond achieving dominance. Their signature style of no-holds-barred aggression was observed...

I don't approve at all of Israel's actions in Gaza after they removed any serious military threat from Hamas or Hezbollah more than a year ago. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration today that Gaza will become essentially a military protectorate of Israel means that, at least as long as Netanyahu can stay out of jail (his entire reason for staying in power at this point), Israel is no longer a democracy. That said, Israel's utter humiliation of Iran and removal of Iran's proxies from the...

Re-read from 2010 and 2016

Today is both the 80th anniversary of the United States dropping a nuclear weapon on Japan for the first time in history, and the 60th anniversary of President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act. Since then, nuclear weapons have proliferated and voting rights have retreated. I think we can say both trends have gone in the wrong direction. And who better than the recently departed Tom Lehrer to put both in one song:

Former Chicago Opera Theater artistic director Lidya Yankovskaya, with whom I have worked several times, has started moving to London because she doesn't want her children to grow up in the anti-humanities environment the United States is becoming: “I want to be sure that my children can grow up feeling like they can always express themselves freely. I want my children to live in a society that really takes care of its people. I want my children to live in a world that really values things like the...

Dayrestan, Iran, sits on an island just inside the Strait of Hormuz directly across the Persian Gulf from the UAE. At 9:30 am local time Thursday, the airport weather station reported a temperature of 40°C with a dewpoint of 36°C, which makes a heat index of 83.2°C (181.8°F). AccuWeather says it was likely an instrument error, though the next station over, in Bandar Abbass, reported a temperature of 39°C with a 27°C dewpoint for a heat index of 52.3°C (126.1°F) at the same time—hardly an improvement....

Cassie and I met up with our friends yesterday for a long (7.3 km) walk down the Prairie Path. Not much else to report, other than we had a really great walk and got lots of sleep last night. I didn't take a lot of photos simply because I spent nearly two hours looking at dog butts: They are very cute dog butts, but still...butts. Also, thanks to my very energetic Weimaraner mix, I got over 100,000 steps in the seven days ending yesterday. She does like her walkies.

Just clearing my photo backlog. From the 23rd: And from yesterday: Today we're trooping out to Suburbistan for a walk with Cassie's old friend Kelsey. Updates as conditions warrant.