Other Stuff

The real "hostage crisis" is that Joe Biden believes that his political future is being held hostage by Arab voters in Dearborn, Michigan. And that's the only hostage he's trying to free. Thus, this: Biden Threatens to Withhold Weapons to Israel Over Rafah Invasion | TIME

Biden accused of helping Hamas as Israel outraged by threatened weapons freeze | The Times of Israel

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Not the most important story, but really nuts: Astonishing story of 'millionaire' social worker, 32, who posed as 13 year-old trafficked orphan to attend three high schools and who 'tricked' adult couple into fostering her | Daily Mail Online

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I'm trying to get my brain around to supporting this. Was slightly surprised to read how many girls had jumped in and reached Eagle Scout. (To be clear, I don't mean I'm surprised that girls can become Eagle Scouts! Just that I was surprised at the number who did because I didn't expect as much participation by girls in the newly welcoming Boy Scouts, soon to be "Scouting America" (with the Girl Scouts remaining a separate organization.)

Irving-based Boy Scouts of America is renaming itself Scouting America. Here’s a Q-and-A (dallasnews.com)

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I don't expect much of Joe Biden but the persistence of his lies -- lies about things that people can check -- is remarkable: Biden falsely claims in Wisconsin that teacher was drafted by Green Bay Packers (nypost.com)

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It's unlikely that hydrogen will ever be a significant "source" of energy. It will take a revolution in science to create hydrogen in a way that it can be used to generate more power than it took to create it and transport it. Robert Bryce: "The H Stands for Hype"

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Why boo a singer? Eurovision 2024: Israel entrant Eden Goolan booed at semi-final rehearsal (bbc.com)

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Look, I've been telling my fellow Jews for a long time that the political left are not their friends. Here's an encapsulation of the concept in a piece from The Free Press about Jewish single people looking for romance online: The Tinder Inquisition | The Free Press (thefp.com)

That episode made Liza Tajfel, another 32-year-old Jewish woman living in Paris, feel far warier about meeting up with romantic prospects. As a politically progressive, secular Jew with a deep connection to Israel, dating has become dicey. “I’ve been exclusively looking for leftists,” Tajfel told me. “Now I have to take it way more cautiously.”

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Sure, the "hush money" trial has been embarrassing for Trump but as far as a legal case, it doesn't seem to be going well for the prosecutors. Meanwhile, in the last 48 hours, Trump has had two big wins in the lawfare efforts against him. (This is not the same as saying that Trump didn't do anything wrong. He definitely did. Whether it's criminally wrong is another question...I think it was in the classified documents & obstruction case, and borderline, but probably not guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt" in the Georgia election interference case. In any case, though, i'm confident the GA case would not have been brought against a Democrat who did the same thing. I'm also not arguing that Aileen Cannon, the federal judge in the documents case, is good at her job. Just that Trump had quite a good past couple of days.

Court will hear Trump appeal to disqualify Fani Willis in Georgia election case (msn.com)

(I think Willis should be disqualified. Indeed, if her boyfriend was disqualified due to conflict of interest based on his relationship with her, then it stands to reason that she should have been tossed from the case too because the appearance of being willing to cheat remains, even if that one way of cheating was terminated.)

Democrats cry foul over Judge Cannon’s handling of Trump documents case | The Hill

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This is a microcosm of just what's wrong with gov't. From The Washington Post about a bill to reauthorize the FAA, "• A coalition that includes Delta Air Lines is working to ensure the bill includes a provision allowing Reagan National Airport — which lawmakers regularly use to fly home — to add several more flights each day, while a rival coalition that includes United Airlines is mounting a last-ditch effort to kill it." Seriously? We'll let an airline (United in this case) lobby the gov't to stifle competition so they have less chance of having to cut prices and consumers have fewer choices? (By the way, United isn't even very big at Reagan but they're huge at Dulles which isn't far away.) Insane. It's also kinda funny that Sen Ted Cruz is lobbying for the additional flights and saying publicly that there should be a flight between Reagan and San Antonio, TX. Wonder if an airline will give him that as a post-legislation bribe, should the new flights be allowed. Senators from right around DC are opposing the small number of additional flights due to claimed noise and safety risks that I don't buy.

DC-area senators try to stop more flights at Reagan National Airport (msn.com)

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Imagine if you’d bought these claims for 5 cents on the dollar (and you could have): Failed crypto giant FTX has recovered billions more than it needs to pay back bankruptcy victims (msn.com)

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Truly incredible advancement in science, just a hint of what AI will eventually allow: Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs introduce AlphaFold 3 AI model (blog.google)

More amazing science, this time gene therapy: Gene therapy causes improvements in hearing in congenitally deaf children | ASGCT Annual Meeting

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