Category: Uncategorized

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson is a new-ish book that is relevant to the upcoming election of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (one more month!).

In both the opening and closing sections, the book explains that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, the Religion of Peace. The world’s terrorists are Christian, white, Hindu, and/or Jewish. The pages in between describes Iranian Muslims burning alive other Iranian Muslims, in the name of Islam, for the un-Islamic act of going to the movies (Cinema Rex fire, in which hundreds died).

As with Mamdani backers, elite progressive Iranians who had thrived under the Shah were eager supporters of the Islamic Revolution proposed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (they imagined that he would defer to credentialed elites when he picked ministers). Part of their motivation seems to have been jealousy that members of the Shah’s inner circle were getting far richer than they were (kind of like elite New Yorkers who aren’t in rent-stabilized apartments are jealous of those who are and New Yorkers who earn $300,000/year are envious of those who earn $30 million/year). Like Andrew Cuomo, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, last in the line of 2,500 years of monarchy, was fond of partying with young females. Another parallel is that the current U.S. government is accused of being disorganized while the author describes the Carter administration as exhibiting “colossal incompetence”. The author blames Jimmy Carter and friends for Iran becoming an Islamic dictatorship, rather than transitioning to a post-Shah parliamentary democracy, and also for the U.S. Embassy being held hostage for more than a day. The book describes Ayatollah Khomeini’s initial reaction to the embassy takeover as a direction to get the students out immediately. After Jimmy Carter signaled a willingness to negotiate rather than threatening a traditional military response to what the author describes as an “act of war”, the Ayatollah changed his mind and told every Iranian to support the “students”. Carter was, therefore, the cause of the 444-day “crisis” (the world’s longest prior to the Maskachusetts, California, and New York governors’ states of emergency for coronapanic?). Carter eventually transferred to Iran $25 billion in today’s mini-dollars (previously frozen assets) to secure the hostages’ release.

The author says that American Democrats were happy to see the Shah go and the Ayatollahs take over partly because of false information about the Shah promulgated by non-profit organizations and U.S. media. Amnesty International, today famous for its anti-Israel propaganda, said that the Shah was holding 100,000 political prisoners when, in act, the number was less than 3,000. The Shah and agencies under his command had executed roughly 100 opponents of his regime over the years, but U.S. media reported that thousands of Iranians opposed to the Shah were being killed. (The book notes that thousands of Iranians were ultimately killed for their political views, but nearly all of them were killed by the Islamic government that took over from the Shah.)

Iran is a fascinating case study in how far an empire can fall. The Persians were empire builders in the same league as the Romans and Chinese. They got taken over by Arabs during the Muslim Conquests and lost their religion (Zoroastrianism) and could no longer use their own language for religious purposes. After about 1400 years of Persian-style government, which was tending towards westernization, combined with Arab-originated religion they ended up with an Arab-originated government (Islamic theocracy). The Arab-inspired theocracy took over shortly after the Pahlavis and friends celebrated 2,500 of Persian Empire. Today the non-Arab Iranians are the primary military supporters of Arabs (since the 1960s, calling themselves “Palestinians”) fighting to destroy the Zionist entity and they suffer much of the Israeli military action formerly directed at Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan.

The Islamic Revolution in Iran is a fascinating study in how westernized elites who’ve been huge beneficiaries of a system can turn against it.

Fun fact: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a qualified Boeing 707 pilot who often flew left seat until the plane was in cruise. Not-to-fun fact: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1974 and died 1.5 years after fleeing from the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In other words, the Iranians who hated the Shah needn’t have done anything to get rid of him other than wait a couple of years.

Related:

• Ebrahim Yazdi, U.S.-educated founder of the Muslim Students Association, who became the interpreter for Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris for the foreign journalists who showed up unable to understand Farsi and who didn’t bring their own interpreters (Yazdi considerably softened Khomeini’s anti-West/anti-Jew message while interpreting). Yazdi imagined a progressive Shah-free future for Iran with an Islamic flavor and ended up falling out of favor with the government of Mullahs. He was ultimately imprisoned.
• Reza Pahlavi, the Shah’s son, has been living in the D.C. suburbs and received pilot training from the USAF (his web site)

Grok’s attempt at showing Mayor Mamdani in an Iranian ayatollah’s robes:

Ayatollah Khomeini:

Full post, including comments

One reaches the museum’s last hangar by walking through the “missile gallery”:

The principles of rocketry are explained and the museum notes that the New York Times ridiculed Robert Goddard in 1920 and finally apologized in 1969.

Here’s part of the Newspaper of Science’s editorial:

There’s a plaque honoring the founder of Boeing, but no mention of the fact that FDR’s federal government forced its breakup in 1934 due to its alleged monopoly power. Nor is Boeing’s subsequent career as a real estate developer mentioned in which he restricted ownership in his new neighborhoods to whites (he anticipated the Harvard University research described in 2007 by the New York Times in “The downside of diversity”: “the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.”).

The fourth building of the museum contains some impressive items, including the enormous North American XB-70 Valkyrie, Mach 3 predecessor of the B-1 bomber.

My favorite, though, was Wile E. Coyote’s space sled:

The Apollo 15 command module in which Al Worden orbited solo:

Here’s a smiling but unsuccessful competitor to the F-35:

The museum holds a collection of Air Force Ones dating back to FDR, but my favorite is Eisenhower’s:

On the way out of the museum, Outstanding Airmen of the Year are recognized:

A separate area is maintained by the National Aviation Hall of Fame and I was pleased to see Frank Robinson honored (he looks quite tall standing next to the R22!):

A substantial portion of the gift shop is dedicated to Rosie the Riveter:

There are some beautiful memorials near the parking lot set up by various units and retirees of the Air Force:

Here’s one for the Kanye West fans:

Thus concludes my coverage of the 2025 trip to the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio. Allow at least a full day for the experience.

Full post, including comments

“Inflation Held Steady at 2.7% in July” (WSJ). We secured a 3.125% mortgage for our house early in 2022. Thus, the real interest rate on the money we borrowed is 0.425%. That’s a cheerful thought! We could take the money that we borrowed for the house and put it into a money market right now and get a 1% annual profit! Mark Zuckerberg could pay a mortgage for his $110 million compound for less than $40,000 per month in real terms. (Of course, it is still smarter to rent because property tax, maintenance, etc. are ruinous and the mental load of maintaining a house is better spent on productive activities.)

Here’s how state-sponsored NPR reports on the inflation that the Wall Street Journal describes as “steady”. It’s all doom and gloom thanks to the evil dictator who is taking away the state sponsorship that NPR claims they don’t get.

Full post, including comments

NYC landlords aren’t big fans of almost-certain-to-be-incoming-mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. In particular, Mamdani’s promise to “freeze the rent”. “NYC Developers Gripped by Hysteria After Mamdani’s Sudden Rise” (Wall Street Journal):

New York City’s developers and landlords are in a mad scramble to block from City Hall the socialist who wants to freeze rent.

Mamdani is pushing for a host of housing changes to try to ease costs for renters. While he seems to have softened his stance toward working with private developers more recently, at the top of his list is still a controversial rent freeze on the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

I can’t figure out how the U.S. patchwork of government-controlled housing prices meets the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause. American A chooses to refrain from work and lives in public housing and pays $0/month. American B chooses to refrain from work and lives in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled housing and pays whatever housing cost back before 80 million migrants were invited into the U.S. (60 million through 2015). American C chooses to refrain from work and is forced to pay market rates, i.e., fight with over 300 million humans for scraps. What’s “equal” about the government giving these three equally idle humans radically different housing options and prices?

It looks like Mayor Mamdani’s first act, after a huge Queers for Palestine rally, will be to freeze the rent on apartments that are already absurdly cheap compared to the market. But I wonder if that could just be a first step toward government control of all residential rents in New York City. If the government did step in to control rents on all NYC buildings that would be a tremendous step toward the Equal Protection that Americans are supposed to receive from their government.

We live in a democracy, otherwise known was “mob rule”. There are way more tenants than landlords. Nearly every American city is divided into those who are blessed by the government with free or cheap rent and those subjected to cruel market forces. Maybe suburban homeowners would feel some sympathy for landlords, but wouldn’t we expect a majority of voters in nearly every city to vote for government-set (low) rents? It seems like the kind of simple decision that voters in Maskachusetts earning less than $1 million/year were asked to make regarding raising tax rates on those earning more than $1 million/year (the constitutional amendment passed and, supposedly, the fatcats didn’t move).

Full post, including comments

We’re coming to the end of Pride Month and there won’t be any additional 2SLGBTQQIA+ celebrations until July 6 when we celebrate Omnisexual Visibility Day (i.e., nearly a full week without a Pride-oriented holiday). Here’s a conundrum from X:

🎓 Introducing Damien Niesewand ’25, our Class of 2025 Salutatorian!

Damien is graduating with a B.A. in psychology and double minors in LGBTQ+ Studies + creative writing. A transfer from @cunykcc, they are a familiar face to many as a Women's Center volunteer. #BCGrad2025 pic.twitter.com/nObcuQ3Ap7

— Brooklyn College (@BklynCollege411) May 20, 2025

In one of the replies, the taxpayer-funded school notes “Damien will be returning to Brooklyn College this fall for a master’s in mental health counseling, aiming to become a therapist specializing in affirming, trauma-informed care for LGBTQ+ clients.” In other words, we are informed that (1) identifying as LGBTQ+ is not a sign of mental illness, and (2) it is possible to rely on a lifetime income stream from the poor mental health of people who identify as LGBTQ+.

Damien will be returning to Brooklyn College this fall for a master's in mental health counseling, aiming to become a therapist specializing in affirming, trauma-informed care for LGBTQ+ clients.

— Brooklyn College (@BklynCollege411) May 20, 2025

Some images in case the above tweets are memory-holed:

Full post, including comments

“Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate” (CNN, exactly a year ago):

… particularly over the last few months, MAGA Media has portrayed Biden as a senile, mentally incapacitated elderly man who cannot remember what he had for breakfast, let alone run the federal government. That might sound like an exaggeration to those who don’t tune in to Fox News or listen to talk radio, but it has been a real and constant theme in the right-wing media universe. … the stage also will afford Biden a unique opportunity to puncture the narrative he lacks the mental fitness to be commander-in-chief. That’s a worry for right-wing media figures, which risk seeing their bogus narrative about Biden being ripped up in real time.

A screen shot:

Related…

MUST WATCH: Elizabeth Warren put on the spot for lying about Biden's decline
pic.twitter.com/mXoztfVJQf

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 22, 2025

Exactly 1 year ago, this happened on live TV and the media told us not to believe what everyone saw pic.twitter.com/FZ1WZnGln8

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 19, 2025

Full post, including comments

The Los Angeles Music Center has two huge outdoor video signs in its courtyard (get there before the 8 pm curfew imposed by the mayor who says that the city is completely peaceful and certainly doesn’t need a curfew). At five-minute intervals they show signs about “Los Angeles vs. Hate”. This contrasts to the 30-minute interval for a land acknowledgement (below). Can we conclude from this that LA is filled with hate? Here are the hate messages:

There’s so much hate in LA that they need a hate web site and at the same time they tell us that combining humans from wildly disparate cultures is the best way to ensure a tight “community” with a lack of hatred. Asylum-seekers from Syria, Haiti, and Venezuela don’t have a language or religion in common, but apparently they are all “one” (contrary to peer-reviewed research; see below):

Don’t try to get into the art show unless you identify as “Latina”:

The Music Center acknowledges that it sits on stolen land, but it won’t either

1. give the land back and pay rent to the rightful owners, or
2. provide free tickets to the Native Americans from whom they stole the land

Here’s the text from their web site:

As a steward of The Music Center of Los Angeles County, we recognize that we occupy land originally and still inhabited and cared for by the Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh and Chumash Peoples. We honor and pay respect to their elders and descendants — past, present and emerging — as they continue their stewardship of these lands and waters. We acknowledge that settler colonization resulted in land seizure, disease, subjugation, slavery, relocation, broken promises, genocide and multigenerational trauma. This acknowledgment demonstrates our responsibility and commitment to truth, healing and reconciliation and to elevating the stories, culture and community of the original inhabitants of Los Angeles County. We are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these ancestral lands. We are dedicated to growing and sustaining relationships with Native peoples and local tribal governments, including (in no particular order) the:

Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians,
Gabrielino Tongva Indians of California Tribal Council,
Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians,
Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians-Kizh Nation,
San Manuel Band of Mission Indians,
San Fernando Band of Mission Indians.

This acknowledgement, however, is empty without our efforts to counter the effects of structures that have long enabled injustice against Native Americans. The Music Center is committed to working with First Peoples to build and sustain partnerships and grow collaborations that engage and respect the knowledge, expertise and agency of First Peoples, past, present and future. The Music Center strives to be a champion of the arts in Los Angeles for all people. We are listening, learning, unlearning, and will evolve in the work ahead.

They admit that their acknowledgement is potentially “empty” and yet won’t give free tickets to any of the tribes they cite. What could be emptier?

In case the curfew is memory-holed, here’s a screen shot from the web page:

Since no human is illegal, the government can’t ask a migrant for documents in exchange for four generations of public housing, health care, SNAP/EBT food, and smartphone. On the other hand, the LA police can demand to see the ticket of anyone who is out after 8 pm because of attending a concert:

A person attending a ticketed event in an indoor establishment that ends after 8 PM should leave the curfew zone at the conclusion of the event. They should carry their ticket, if possible.

“The downside of diversity” (New York Times, August 5, 2007), reporting on peer-reviewed research:

IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.

But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam — famous for “Bowling Alone,” his 2000 book on declining civic engagement — has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

“The extent of the effect is shocking,” says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.

How is this still on the Web? Where is the Ministry of Truth when we need it?

Full post, including comments

J.D. Vance has been in the news lately for misgendering California senator Alex Padilla as “José Padilla”. Let’s check in with José Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir. Wokipedia says that he is due to be released from prison in 2026:

He followed the teachings of the Religion of Peace:

As a 14-year-old juvenile, he was convicted of aggravated assault and manslaughter after a gang member, whom he had kicked in the head, died. After serving his last jail sentence, Padilla converted to Islam after his marriage to a Muslim woman and moved to the Middle East. One of his early religious instructors was an Islamic teacher who professed a nonviolent philosophy and Padilla appeared at the time to be faithful to his mentor’s teachings. While living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Padilla attended the Masjid Al-Iman mosque, as did Adham Amin Hassoun, “for most of the 1990s and [they] were reportedly friends.”

Who is Adham Amin Hassoun? Wikipedia:

Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian who first moved to the United States in the late 1980s, was first arrested in 2002 for overstaying his visa.

Full post, including comments

“Wealthy Home Buyers Are Flocking to Jupiter—and Not Just for the Golf” (Wall Street Journal, beginning of Pride 2025; no-paywall version):

Toward the northern end [of Palm Beach County] is Jupiter, with a population of about 61,000. The beachy city with a classic Old Florida feel is a mecca for golfers, especially professional ones. “There are at least 75 PGA Tour players in this area,” says Brad Faxon, an eight-time PGA Tour Champion and Jupiter local. The city has nine golf clubs and around a dozen-and-half golf courses, according to Palm Beach County Sports Commission; about 133 more courses are elsewhere in Palm Beach County. Many of Jupiter’s courses are within private, exclusive country clubs, where initiation fees can go as high as close to $1 million. Still, golf isn’t the only reason people live in Jupiter. Residents also seek it out for favorable taxes, good schools and proximity to multiple airports.

They zoomed in on the house next door to ours:

Actually, the WSJ does incongruously (and without explanation) note that the typical house or condo in Jupiter is almost free:

“The price point is broad,” says Leland Rykse, a Jupiter-based real estate agent with ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. Luxury properties can list around $50 million to $70 million, whereas there are also typical midmarket options. Jupiter’s median sale price was $717,500 in March 2025, according to Redfin.

Consistent with everything in our media being lies, the WSJ provides a misleading statistic (“median sale price” includes 1BR condos). More seriously, the WSJ says that prices are going up when, in fact, they are likely going down (the WSJ doesn’t bother to adjust for inflation or the fact that people keep improving their houses so a square foot from 2022 isn’t as high quality as a square foot from 2025):

We humble folks in the MacArthur Foundation-developed Abacoa should just be grateful that our town was noticed even if our neighborhoods weren’t!

Perhaps coincidentally, the Deplorables with Dollar Signs (Fox Business) did an article just a week after the WSJ… “The new Palm Beach? Jupiter, FL, is drawing luxury homebuyers”:

Seth Mansfield, an agent with Douglas Elliman and a Forte Luxe sales executive, told FOX Business that he is seeing a lot of wealthy people come to Jupiter “because they are able to enjoy a storybook lifestyle in a relaxed setting.”

I would love to meet these people living in a relaxed storybook!

“The median price for a single-family home 5 years ago was $530,000 and the ceiling price was $12,250,000. Over the past year, those numbers are $980,000 and $48,000,000, respectively,” he said. “I don’t believe we’ve seen Jupiter’s ceiling.” … “In addition to the steady migration from the northeast and California, we’re seeing more and more buyers shift their attention from Palm Beach to Jupiter,” Mansfield said. “You can get the same house on the same Bahama blue water for a 50-60% discount relative to Palm Beach, with access to all the creature comforts that you’re used to, even more options for golf, and Palm Beach is still at your fingertips. I truly believe Jupiter is undervalued, as crazy as that may sound to some.”

This does sound crazy! But maybe the market will just bifurcate. Peasant neighborhoods like ours will continue to depreciate while the handful of elite gated communities and waterfront areas will zoom upwards. (All over Florida markets are going in opposite directions for older condos and houses and new condos/houses. A house built prior to 2002 when the statewide building code went into effect can slide three percent (real dollars) every year while an adjacent house built in 2022 is appreciating.)

(Note that Fox isn’t as incompetent as the Wall Street Journal. Fox does not mix in the prices of 1BR condos when reporting on what “houses” cost.)

Zooming out to the national real estate news…

Rising home prices and high mortgage rates have pushed the median age of homebuyers to a record-high 56 years old in 2024, up from 45 in 2021. In 1981, the median age of homebuyers was 31 years old, see chart below.

Full post, including comments