An Israeli drone watched as Hamas dug a hole in Gaza City, dumped the hostage’s partial remains from a nearby building, buried it under mounds of earth and then staged a discovery for the Red Cross. The video footage is grim.
My favorite!
“We are the only men in the household. We each have our secrets.”
I once found a large tortoise on the road outside our house in Texas, which worried me because of traffic. I gloved up and loaded him into the wheelbarrow to take into wooded area between us and the kids’ elementary school, and decided took him on a detour first, into the school to show the kindergarten (our youngest was in that class).
The principal usually indulged my oddities (I read to all the classes in Library Hour and did stage productions with the older kids).
Then I took him/her/it out to the woods.
I always wonder what animals abducted by aliens tell their family when they get home.
Elon Musk has launched a site called Grokipedia, apparently a future alternative to Wikipedia.
How old is this? I saw a special on this guy several years ago and he’s not going to live forever. Daily Mail had an article on this guy in 2015. I can see the video is seven years old and at least once a year somebody or other runs a new article on him.
It’s funny sometimes how things in the news will come back and people will treat them like they are new, like the Russian girl who called her mom while eaten by a bear that came back up a few times since it happened in 2011.
I don’t think this recrudescence of old news happened pre-Internet, the Internet is a sort of eternal present tense.
Back in my surfing days I sometimes paddled several miles north to the Flagler Pier. Piers create a more interesting wave for surfing than the standard beach break. Much of that strip of beach was deserted then.
One time I noticed something swimming nearby. I glanced over. All I could see was its head. Its face was looking at me. But it was something I had never seen before. My brain made it look like a little old man with a heavy tan. He seemed to be smiling at me.
Then it stopped being a little old man and became a large sea turtle.
Well, we had no beef with each other. I kept paddling north. The sea turtle dove under the water and I never saw it again.
A lot of people—apparently viewing SNAP benefits as their right—are on YouTube who are very angry about their government food assistance being cut off come November 1, and some of them are saying that, come November 1, they are going to be marching into grocery stores, loading up their carts full of food, not paying, and walking out the door, warning that nobody better try to stop them.
If such actions turn out to be widespread, you have to wonder if stores and police departments around the country are aware of this possibility, and are preparing for it?
Dear Snow:
My local Walmarts are quite publicly beefing up security. If they are doing so in my quiet backwater village, I suspect they are doing so in the more, ahem… colorful parts of the country.
Not sure I’d call it “spiritual”, though.
(To be sure, it depends on how the word is defined.)
In this case “spiritual” means “nihilistic”.
More correctly, “spiritual” has been fundamentally transformed into “nihilistic”.
And so here we are….
Victims of transformed terminology.
(And the reason why the United States—especially under Trump—and Israel are so hated, vilified, despised and demonized.)
Unfortunately I was right. His wife gave him his walking papers.
38 years.
I hate divorce. I know it’s sometimes warranted, but 38 years? I sometimes see a picture from the past, something I nearly forgot, but a moment my wife and I shared. And I wonder how divorced people can manage that? It must be very painful.
There are potentially dangerous snapping turtles in some rivers and lakes of Florida. So I asked Chat about the sea turtle:
________________________________
No danger at all — in fact, you had a lucky and rather beautiful encounter.
What you saw was almost certainly a loggerhead sea turtle, the most common large turtle along that stretch of Florida coast. They’re powerful swimmers and can be three feet across, weighing a couple hundred pounds, but they’re completely harmless to humans unless cornered or handled. Their “face” can look remarkably human from the right angle — large dark eyes, a broad snout, and that faint “smile” of the beak.
Here’s what to know:
Behavior: Loggerheads are curious but shy. They sometimes surface near surfers or swimmers just to look around before diving again.
Diet: They eat shellfish, jellyfish, and crustaceans, not mammals.
Risk level: Essentially zero. They don’t bite unless severely provoked, and even then they’d prefer to retreat.
________________________________
When I went to Hawaii, the Big Island, I stayed at a hotel which was on a cove where one could go snorkeling and see amazing fish and sea turtles.
The Hawaiians revere the sea turtle. I can understand why.
Hello all, from damp, rainy Paris.
SHIREHOME:
I trust you will say more for the Francophiles among us! I hear Paris gets a fair amount of rain, but not monsoons.
I hadn’t run into Caillebotte before. Extraordinary work. Apparently he is appreciated more today than in his time.
Cool SHIREHOME. Enjoy!
Steve(retired/recovering lawyer)–If this whole SNAP benefit restriction/cut off has hopefully brought one fact to the public’s wider attention, it is the massive number of people and families–I believe that 43 million people is the current number–who are getting their groceries (and other things as, for instance, their rent) paid for by our taxes.
I am sure that there are millions of people with genuine, serious medical problems and disabilities who legitimately need the help offered by the SNAP and/or other government programs–and that assistance long term, or even permanent.
But, I am not talking about those people here.
As I understand it, SNAP was only supposed to offer able bodied people temporary help, allowing them to search for and to get a job, then get off food stamps, not to make SNAP it a way of life, even a generational one–to “game the system.”
However, from what they are putting out on YouTube, many of these usually ungrateful, and apparently able bodied people–gleefully shoving their overflowing grocery carts full of food (usually junk food, at that) we tax payers have paid for in our faces–are making a career out of sitting back, and letting us pay for them to be able to avoid working, and to live a life of something approaching leisure.
I note as well, that some number of these SNAP recipients–often single mothers saying that they have 6,7, or even 8 or more children–often by by different “baby daddies”–get on YouTube, and say that the “system” gives them incentives to have even more children, which will increase the amount of SNAP benefits they receive.
If these new and stricter eligibility requirements weed out as many as possible of these freeloaders, and forces them to work, I am quite OK with that result.
P.S. I really feel sorry for the shit storm of argument and violence which, it looks like, checkout and security people at grocery stores around the country are likely going to be subjected to, if SNAP benefits are actually cut off on November 1.
In regard to the SNAP benefit denials, or other stories of government employees facing hard times (unfortunately possibly including younger military personnel and their families), I have to wonder “where is your 6 month emergency fund!?”
I will grant that some people do face a paycheck to paycheck situation (especially with the inflationary Trump Covid Biden money pump). Or when you are first starting out, things might be tight for a while. But most govt employees are not at the very bottom of the socio-economic range, generally would appear to have some decent skills and/or “nominal” education, and some just might in fact be following the “success sequence”.
Yet the media (and the Dems) somehow want those of us who do and did follow that sequence successfully to feel guilty about our level of prosperity and what we “should owe” to those who could have been more responsible but were not. lBut I am not seeing or hearing any counter arguments along these lines from the Republicans or Rightist media that would focus on and emphasize that a sovereign people must be willing to accept responsibility for most aspects of their lives if they also want to enjoy a corresponding level of liberty.
This is the scary part…and it must, somehow, be resisted—fought—at all costs:
Hatred—organized, intentional, “therapeutic” hatred…must be shown clearly, unambiguously, NOT to pay.
The challenge of our time?
The more I think about the YouTube threats–from people who think that their SNAP benefits will disappear on November 1–to walk into grocery stores, load up cartloads of food, and just walk out the doors without paying–the more I realize the potential here for theft and violence on a major, nationwide scale at Walmart, at major grocery chains, at Costco, Sam’s club, and elsewhere.
You may already have seen videos of past instances of mobs looting stores in U.S.cities, now, multiply that by ten times, a hundred, or even possibly a thousand, and what is that going to look like?
Some people on YouTube are saying–just load your cart up and run out the door, they can’t catch everybody.
Ancient Roman politicians had always to fear and to placate the “mob,” and I fear that our politicians–perhaps unwittingly–have created our very own American mob.
Snow on Pine: re: the storm of argument and violence which … checkout & security people may experience.
Yes. And many store mgr’s will choose — or be ordered — to instruct employees to watch with crossed arms, hoping it is short-lived and doesn’t turn into riots.
So starkly alien –the lack of guilt and shame. It doubles mine, like an odd transference accident.
And that toggles between anger.
Schumer smiles.
New post (at substack)….a look at the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, in an 1836 book:
https://davidfoster273133.substack.com/p/new-technologies-and-social-change
In case anyone missed this beaut from Hamas.
https://archive.fo/qge3N
An ex-Intel CEO’s mission to build a Christian AI: ‘hasten the coming of Christ’s return’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/28/patrick-gelsinger-christian-ai-gloo-silicon-valley
Cool pet!
My favorite!
“We are the only men in the household. We each have our secrets.”
I once found a large tortoise on the road outside our house in Texas, which worried me because of traffic. I gloved up and loaded him into the wheelbarrow to take into wooded area between us and the kids’ elementary school, and decided took him on a detour first, into the school to show the kindergarten (our youngest was in that class).
The principal usually indulged my oddities (I read to all the classes in Library Hour and did stage productions with the older kids).
Then I took him/her/it out to the woods.
I always wonder what animals abducted by aliens tell their family when they get home.
Elon Musk has launched a site called Grokipedia, apparently a future alternative to Wikipedia.
How old is this? I saw a special on this guy several years ago and he’s not going to live forever. Daily Mail had an article on this guy in 2015. I can see the video is seven years old and at least once a year somebody or other runs a new article on him.
It’s funny sometimes how things in the news will come back and people will treat them like they are new, like the Russian girl who called her mom while eaten by a bear that came back up a few times since it happened in 2011.
I don’t think this recrudescence of old news happened pre-Internet, the Internet is a sort of eternal present tense.
Back in my surfing days I sometimes paddled several miles north to the Flagler Pier. Piers create a more interesting wave for surfing than the standard beach break. Much of that strip of beach was deserted then.
One time I noticed something swimming nearby. I glanced over. All I could see was its head. Its face was looking at me. But it was something I had never seen before. My brain made it look like a little old man with a heavy tan. He seemed to be smiling at me.
Then it stopped being a little old man and became a large sea turtle.
Well, we had no beef with each other. I kept paddling north. The sea turtle dove under the water and I never saw it again.
A lot of people—apparently viewing SNAP benefits as their right—are on YouTube who are very angry about their government food assistance being cut off come November 1, and some of them are saying that, come November 1, they are going to be marching into grocery stores, loading up their carts full of food, not paying, and walking out the door, warning that nobody better try to stop them.
If such actions turn out to be widespread, you have to wonder if stores and police departments around the country are aware of this possibility, and are preparing for it?
Dear Snow:
My local Walmarts are quite publicly beefing up security. If they are doing so in my quiet backwater village, I suspect they are doing so in the more, ahem… colorful parts of the country.
A golden (if timely) oldie…
[Western] Suicide, Inc.
“Spiritual Death of the West”—
https://firstthings.com/spiritual-death-of-the-west/
H/T Powerline blog.
Not sure I’d call it “spiritual”, though.
(To be sure, it depends on how the word is defined.)
In this case “spiritual” means “nihilistic”.
More correctly, “spiritual” has been fundamentally transformed into “nihilistic”.
And so here we are….
Victims of transformed terminology.
(And the reason why the United States—especially under Trump—and Israel are so hated, vilified, despised and demonized.)
+ Bonus:
(The Irish version…)
“Catherine Connolly’s Spoiled Victory”—
https://firstthings.com/catherine-connollys-spoiled-victory/
Hello all, from damp, rainy Paris
Bonjour, SHIREHOME!!
Regarding today’s Lileks bleat entry.
Unfortunately I was right. His wife gave him his walking papers.
38 years.
I hate divorce. I know it’s sometimes warranted, but 38 years? I sometimes see a picture from the past, something I nearly forgot, but a moment my wife and I shared. And I wonder how divorced people can manage that? It must be very painful.
There are potentially dangerous snapping turtles in some rivers and lakes of Florida. So I asked Chat about the sea turtle:
________________________________
No danger at all — in fact, you had a lucky and rather beautiful encounter.
What you saw was almost certainly a loggerhead sea turtle, the most common large turtle along that stretch of Florida coast. They’re powerful swimmers and can be three feet across, weighing a couple hundred pounds, but they’re completely harmless to humans unless cornered or handled. Their “face” can look remarkably human from the right angle — large dark eyes, a broad snout, and that faint “smile” of the beak.
Here’s what to know:
Behavior: Loggerheads are curious but shy. They sometimes surface near surfers or swimmers just to look around before diving again.
Diet: They eat shellfish, jellyfish, and crustaceans, not mammals.
Risk level: Essentially zero. They don’t bite unless severely provoked, and even then they’d prefer to retreat.
________________________________
When I went to Hawaii, the Big Island, I stayed at a hotel which was on a cove where one could go snorkeling and see amazing fish and sea turtles.
The Hawaiians revere the sea turtle. I can understand why.
Hello all, from damp, rainy Paris.
SHIREHOME:
I trust you will say more for the Francophiles among us! I hear Paris gets a fair amount of rain, but not monsoons.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
I hadn’t run into Caillebotte before. Extraordinary work. Apparently he is appreciated more today than in his time.
Cool SHIREHOME. Enjoy!
Steve(retired/recovering lawyer)–If this whole SNAP benefit restriction/cut off has hopefully brought one fact to the public’s wider attention, it is the massive number of people and families–I believe that 43 million people is the current number–who are getting their groceries (and other things as, for instance, their rent) paid for by our taxes.
I am sure that there are millions of people with genuine, serious medical problems and disabilities who legitimately need the help offered by the SNAP and/or other government programs–and that assistance long term, or even permanent.
But, I am not talking about those people here.
As I understand it, SNAP was only supposed to offer able bodied people temporary help, allowing them to search for and to get a job, then get off food stamps, not to make SNAP it a way of life, even a generational one–to “game the system.”
However, from what they are putting out on YouTube, many of these usually ungrateful, and apparently able bodied people–gleefully shoving their overflowing grocery carts full of food (usually junk food, at that) we tax payers have paid for in our faces–are making a career out of sitting back, and letting us pay for them to be able to avoid working, and to live a life of something approaching leisure.
I note as well, that some number of these SNAP recipients–often single mothers saying that they have 6,7, or even 8 or more children–often by by different “baby daddies”–get on YouTube, and say that the “system” gives them incentives to have even more children, which will increase the amount of SNAP benefits they receive.
If these new and stricter eligibility requirements weed out as many as possible of these freeloaders, and forces them to work, I am quite OK with that result.
P.S. I really feel sorry for the shit storm of argument and violence which, it looks like, checkout and security people at grocery stores around the country are likely going to be subjected to, if SNAP benefits are actually cut off on November 1.
In regard to the SNAP benefit denials, or other stories of government employees facing hard times (unfortunately possibly including younger military personnel and their families), I have to wonder “where is your 6 month emergency fund!?”
I will grant that some people do face a paycheck to paycheck situation (especially with the inflationary Trump Covid Biden money pump). Or when you are first starting out, things might be tight for a while. But most govt employees are not at the very bottom of the socio-economic range, generally would appear to have some decent skills and/or “nominal” education, and some just might in fact be following the “success sequence”.
Yet the media (and the Dems) somehow want those of us who do and did follow that sequence successfully to feel guilty about our level of prosperity and what we “should owe” to those who could have been more responsible but were not. lBut I am not seeing or hearing any counter arguments along these lines from the Republicans or Rightist media that would focus on and emphasize that a sovereign people must be willing to accept responsibility for most aspects of their lives if they also want to enjoy a corresponding level of liberty.
This is the scary part…and it must, somehow, be resisted—fought—at all costs:
“Leftist madness infected my Connecticut town council — now I’m at risk”—
https://nypost.com/2025/10/28/opinion/leftist-madness-infected-my-small-towns-council-now-im-at-risk/
H/T Powerline blog.
Hatred—organized, intentional, “therapeutic” hatred…must be shown clearly, unambiguously, NOT to pay.
The challenge of our time?
The more I think about the YouTube threats–from people who think that their SNAP benefits will disappear on November 1–to walk into grocery stores, load up cartloads of food, and just walk out the doors without paying–the more I realize the potential here for theft and violence on a major, nationwide scale at Walmart, at major grocery chains, at Costco, Sam’s club, and elsewhere.
You may already have seen videos of past instances of mobs looting stores in U.S.cities, now, multiply that by ten times, a hundred, or even possibly a thousand, and what is that going to look like?
Some people on YouTube are saying–just load your cart up and run out the door, they can’t catch everybody.
Ancient Roman politicians had always to fear and to placate the “mob,” and I fear that our politicians–perhaps unwittingly–have created our very own American mob.
Snow on Pine: re: the storm of argument and violence which … checkout & security people may experience.
Yes. And many store mgr’s will choose — or be ordered — to instruct employees to watch with crossed arms, hoping it is short-lived and doesn’t turn into riots.
So starkly alien –the lack of guilt and shame. It doubles mine, like an odd transference accident.
And that toggles between anger.
Schumer smiles.
RE: SNAP benefit cutoff and threats of looting.*
* See https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/10/28/tiktok-filled-with-videos-of-people-threatening-to-loot-grocery-stores-n3808300