Genuine question. I have never understood the worry about Zionism. The Gad Saad post (below) encapsulates my understanding. I get it that whether it was the division of the Raj into separate Muslim- and Hindu-majority states, creating Middle Eastern countries and their borders by the Foreign Office in London, or the UN resolution for the creation of the State of Israel, that dispossessed people will be unhappy and may well engage in conflict. But why the “Palestinian” cause (a term at one point included Jews living in Palestine) is of any terrible import to citizens of countries well away from the Middle East is confusing. I also get that criticizing Israeli policy and action is not per se antisemitic. But fusing Zionism to shadowy international control does seem sketchy to me. The case for a Globalist-Islamic alliance is stronger.

One of Marion Barry’s first acts as mayor was to kill the zoning plan his predecessor had put in motion. The first mayor of Washington, DC under home rule, Walter Washington, oversaw the plans for the city’s subway system (The Metro). He fiercely insisted that the zoning around most stops be adjusted to bring about a mix of residential, retail and office space so the Metro project could help establish distinct neighborhoods. Barry correctly inferred that this kind of renewal would bring more middle-class and upper-middle-class residents back to DC, and those people were not his base.

Large developers also hated the plan because it restricted construction of (then lucrative) office space along K Street. Barry got campaign cash from that sector and a promise that low-income housing would be built in the city’s poorest ward as soon as “suitable sites became available.” Barry then announced that he had shaken down The Man on behalf of the disadvantaged black underclass in his first days in office.

It’s time to stop holding back. Iran must become inoperative. Blow their infrastructure to smithereens, occupy the Persian side of the Strait of Hormuz.

This may be America’s last chance to destroy the menace of radical Islam.

I learned a new acronym the other day: A “PDA” kid.

Wut?

After reeling myself back in, and recognizing that it probably didn’t refer to a “Personal Digital Assistant” child (“PDA” being an acronym from my past), I looked its modernization up.  Here’s what Google AI had to say about children with something that’s (just this past few minutes ago, apparently) been dubbed “Pathological Demand Avoidance.”

(The above picture is an actual advertisement from a Star Trek website. I am not exaggerating or modifying it in any way.)

I thought the Klingons presented in Star Trek: The Next Generation were really interesting. They were a fierce warrior race where honor and bravery meant everything. They were tough fighters and strong and all that. But behind all the head-butting and ridiculous sword duels, it seemed like honor and selfless bravery were what they were all about.

Worf was loyal to the human-dominated Federation, but he still adhered to the Klingon traditions of honor, discipline and martial valor. Worf was interesting because the Federation was not based around Klingon culture, but he was theologically and culturally totally Klingon. In later episodes, he had difficulty raising his son, Alexander, because he wanted him to be Klingon yet remain a loyal Federation citizen. Klingons were an unusual fit in the human-dominated Federation society.

We were driving Mrs. Tex’s daily driver yesterday, a 2015 Escape with about 120K miles.  It’s got a lot of life yet, but at ages 68 and 65 we figure it will get replaced at some point.  Not so my truck, a 2023 F150 that replaced a ’99 truck that we purchased new.  In retrospect I wish I had kept it as a ranch truck rather than trading it in for a pittance.

We got to talking about how we keep making purchases that will be THE LAST ONE.  It’s sort of humbling to realize we are definitely approaching the twilight years.  Now, some large projects we have done were purposely so we would never have to do them again – a metal roof, concrete driveway, new windows, etc.  But I always enjoyed shopping for new cars (as distinct from purchasing them, never a truly enjoyable experience).  But the seemingly endless acquisitions of the past will be just that: in the past.

The photo is of Scotch and Ginger in the ’99 truck.  I pulled it out and had to go back in the house and left the passenger door open, and they decided that they wanted to go along.  It took some persuasion to get them out,

The extreme Democrat intransigence regarding DHS funding and their willingness to inflict pain and injury on ordinary Americans to achieve their goal against ICE leads me to believe that this is an existential issue for Democrats. It seems to me that Democrats are counting heavily on illegal immigration to enhance their Congressional representation, and that this is a key feature of their plan to make America as much a one-party country as California and other states are one-party blue states. I think they have been counting on sanctuary cities and states to harbor enough illegal aliens to give them enough congressional seats to achieve and then maintain a perpetual majority in Congress, at least in the House. Just as Democrats held the House for 40 years, until Newt Gingrich upset their majority in 1996, Democrats have plans to recover that lasting majority, and they will do anything toward that end.

Democrats are aware that Americans are leaving blue states for more favorable business climes, where freedom from a vast and incompetent bureaucracy and excessive taxes exists. The party is not confident that it can maintain sufficient populations in those jurisdictions to retain its Congressional seats. (See Kathy Hochul’s plea to prosperous constituents leaving New York to return and fund her welfare state.) They seek warm bodies from elsewhere—unproductive, dependent, criminal, whatever—to maintain population and hence House representation. Never mind the redistricting. That only shuffles the chairs on the Titanic deck. They need more warm bodies. And they fear they will suffer ignominious loss of control if they do not keep those illegal aliens in their states to be counted in the census.