Two-year anniversary of the Gazans’ October 7 attacks

It’s been roughly two years, almost to the hour, since Gazans streamed across the border fence to rape, murder, and kidnap Israeli civilians (more than 800 murdered):

The Gazans also took hostage and/or murdered people from other countries, e.g., Thailand (which recognized a sovereign State of Palestine in 2012), killing at least 79 non-Israelis. Examples from the BBC:

We’re informed than the Gazans have had no food, no electricity, no shelter, and no Internet for two years. Here are some recent photos from UNRWA (all of the fighters and “civilians” who perpetrated the October 7 attacks were graduates of UNRWA schools and some UNRWA employees directly participated in murders and kidnapping) of children who haven’t had any food for two years:

They’re playing their violins, undamaged after what we’re told has been “carpet bombing”, and sitting/standing within an apparently undamaged school, after what we’re told has been specific targeting of schools (UN) by tanks, artillery, and 500 lb. bombs:

Instead of foraging for scarce food after two years of “famine”, the kids are encouraged to expend extra calories by running around (on a perfect-condition patio surrounded by perfect-condition walls?):

See also this video, posted September 20, 2025, of Gazans who’ve received “10 million health consultations” at the clinic, in which PCs are fully powered and everyone seems to be of normal weight.

The Japanese and Germans felt defeated towards the end of World War II and were in no mood to continue the war or start another one. Based on the photos, videos, and interviews coming out of Gaza, there is no indication of any Gazan believing that the Gazans have been defeated. The New York Times followed up with 100 out of the 700 Gazans they’ve interviewed since October 7, 2023. Not a single interviewee mentions wanting to abandon the goal of destroying the Zionist entity. Nobody wants to surrender, recognize Israel, or release hostages. What Gazans want, it seems, is a victory over Israel at a lower personal cost, e.g., via emigration to Europe or the U.S. and letting the Gazans who stay in Gaza carry on fighting.

The Hamas leadership, consistent with popular opinion surveys, explicitly says that everything since October 7 has gone better than planned (CNN):

The question for today is where we think the Gazans will be in two additional years. Let’s suppose that the answer to Government restart or Hamas deal will happen first? is “Hamas-Israel deal”. The fighting in Gaza ends tomorrow. What will the Gazans be doing two years from now? Will any still be living in tents? How many attacks will Gazans have perpetrated against Israeli civilians, e.g., by firing rockets? (The fighting can continue long after the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) signs a deal because the Hamas folks can legitimately say that they don’t control Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam; “has called upon Muslims to carry out lone wolf attacks against Israel”), Jaysh al-Ummah (“Jaysh al-Ummah has criticized Hamas as being too moderate and not focused enough on Islamist projects”), the Abdul al-Qadir al-Husseini Brigades, the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, or a rebooted Jund Ansar Allah.) What percent of Gazan GDP will be money extracted from U.S. taxpayers, who’ve historically been the biggest enablers of the Gazans’ military efforts (by being the biggest suppliers of cash to fund all of the basics, e.g., shelter, food, health care, education, etc., and thus enabling Gazans to spend up to 100 percent of their productive energies on preparing for a river-to-the-sea liberation)? Will the Gazans have launched another October 7-style attack? (my prediction: no, because it will take closer to 4-5 years to rearm and for the Israelis to become complacent)

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A visit to Providence, Rhode Island (Part 2)

I want our kids to appreciate Playstation 9 when they’re adults and, thus, I take them to art museums whenever we travel. The Rhode Island School of Design Museum is a decent-sized crowd-free museum in which the art can actually be appreciated. We learned that the ubiquitous Dale Chihuly is a RISD graduate and former teacher:

We also learned about queer knitting and queer resistance:

And that one could get academic credit for taking a course titled “Queer People/Places/Things”:

At the subscription library Providence Athenaeum we found a database #Resisting computerized management:

One lonely storefront clung to the five-year-old theory that Black Lives Matter:

All of the other churches and shops that we found with social justice messages were consistent with Is LGBTQIA the most popular social justice cause because it does not require giving money?

An Episcopal church associates the sacred Rainbow Flag with a quote from Jesus: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Is the implication that Jesus went to the bathhouse regularly? If not, how is a practitioner of Rainbow Flagism loving his 25 or 50 new friends the way that Jesus loved people?

A United Church of Christ:

The First Baptist Church mixes Rainbow Flagism with cautionary words about the dictator in the White House: “Speech Remains Free When We Pay Attention”. The folks who supported forced vaccination and forced masking celebrate #BodilyFreedomForever:

Rainbow-first retail was on display in the 25-year-old Providence Place mall, now in receivership.

My favorite store, however, was Craftland (downtown; featured in the New York Times, as noted below):

(They admit that the land they’re on is stolen, but won’t pay rent to the Native Americans who are the rightful owners?)

And, of course, it all comes back to Queers for Palestine:

A few more photos of this shop’s windows:

Related:

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Immigrants don’t commit crime because criminals aren’t “immigrants”

State-sponsored NPR assures us that “Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans, studies find”. The state-sponsored news organization in the UK demonstrates a brilliant method of proving this Scientific fact.

“What we know about synagogue attacker Jihad Al-Shamie” (BBC):

The Manchester synagogue attacker was Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent.

“Syrian descent”? Meaning that his ancestors came to England after the Second Crusade besieged Damascus? (before the country of “Syria” existed)

Al-Shamie, who lived in Prestwich, Manchester, is understood to have entered the UK as a young child and was granted British citizenship in 2006 when he was around the age of 16.

So… Jihad wasn’t born in the UK and then lived in the UK with a UK passport. The article never describes Jihad as an “immigrant” or uses the word “immigrant” or “migrant”. So, to the extent that stabbing and running over Jews on Yom Kippur are crimes in the UK there is no immigrant guilty of those crimes. Jihad was not an “immigrant.”

Separately, would it make sense to grant immediate British citizenship to anyone named “Jihad”?

Finally, how about a movement regarding this noble enricher who was unjustly killed by police with “His name was Jihad; Say His Name” signage? From Grace Lutheran Church in Wisconsin:

Tweak it to “Jihad Al-Shamie. Listen to his name. Say his name aloud. Hear yourself saying his name.” I asked Grok to work on this:

ChatGPT:

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Allergies at the Gender Expansive Playdate

Recent email from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston:

Of course, I had to click down and see what the event “For gender expansive, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ kids ages 0-8” was all about:

Come together with other gender expansive kids and their families for a playground playdate in Cambridge. Socialize with parents and caregivers while the kids run, climb, and slide. Then, enjoy a craft and allergy-friendly snacks with new friends. For gender expansive, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ kids ages 0-8 yrs with their caregivers.

Apparently, at least in Boston/Cambridge, the odds of a 6-year-old child being both 2SLGBTQQIA+ and highly allergic are fairly high….

Related:

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A visit to Providence, Rhode Island (Part 1)

I visited Providence, Rhode Island to check in with a professor at Brown and to torture our 10-year-old with some art museums.

The highlight of the visit was the massive liberation of previously sequestered carbon on Saturday, September 27 via Waterfire.

Here is some of the wood set up and also one of Elizabeth Warren’s cousins paddling in a dugout canoe:

While there we learned that cherished American liberty has been replaced by the cruel tyrannical rule of a king. Also, there is no urgency about protesting the situation and we can endure three additional weeks of tyranny before holding a “No Kings” march:

It’s important to “fight Trumps fascism”, but only one day out of every 14:

While living under fascism don’t forget to also help support Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad by feeding every Gazan fighters’ kids:

The RISD Museum’s Charity, circa 1550, reminds us that we will never run out of resources if we promise to fund an unlimited number of other people’s children:

The officials who work in the State House want to remind you to (1) use all of your federal EBT/SNAP benefits, and (2) adopt a pit bull.

The 10-year-old caught a break when we spent the afternoon at the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum, about 12 minutes north in Pawtucket. It’s an all-white group of people embedded in an all-Black neighborhood of, I think, Cape Verdean migrants enjoying a comprehensive welfare lifestyle. Here’s a thoughtful exploration of AANHPI cultural heritage and also a machine with an Elizabeth Warren theme:

What’s on the mind of Brown students? Free Palestine and Boycott Israel; Fight Against Fascism; organize a bbq restricted to students with one skin color; go on vacation with fellow students of one skin color.

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Pre-Mamdani Election Reading: King of Kings

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:

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Money Illusion 101: Ricky Gervais’s New York apartment that fell 45 percent from its 2008 value

Some news from the Mamdani Caliphate… “Ricky Gervais has just sold a NYC apartment for $1.4M — a slight loss from its 2008 purchase price” (NY Post):

The English comedian and actor Ricky Gervais has just sold an apartment on East 63rd Street for $1.4 million, according to city property records filed on Monday.

Gervais, whose many credits include the across-the-pond version of “The Office,” and his longtime partner Jane Fallon, both appear on the deed in the property transfer to a limited liability company — whose identity could not immediately be identified.

The pair still own a larger unit on the 12th floor, which they bought in 2011 for $3.74 million, records show. They purchased this ninth-floor residence — with one bedroom and 799 square feet — for $1.66 million in 2008, property records also show. This means a slight loss for the couple.

A “slight loss”? If we adjust for inflation at official CPI, the purchase price is equivalent to $2.55 million in today’s mini-dollars:

Gervais took a 45% hit on the value of this apartment in real terms, in other words, but via Money Illusion it is only “a slight loss”.

(My hedge fund manager friend, if anyone talks up real estate as a surefire investment: “Prices can only go up because they’re not making any more condos.”)

What if we consider the loss in terms of gold? My question to ChatGPT:

In terms of ounces of gold, what percentage loss was it to buy something for $1.66 million in June 2008 and sell it for $1.4 million in June 2025?

Answer (not in quote style):

Here’s one way to think about it:

  • In June 2008, the price of gold was about $925.10 per ounce (on June 30, 2008). StatMuse
  • In June 2025, gold was around $3,264.03 per ounce (on June 30, 2025). Gold Price

Step 1: Convert the transaction amounts into ounces of gold (at those dates)

  • $1.66 million in June 2008 in terms of gold ounces = 1,660,000925.10≈1,794.8 ounces\frac{1,660,000}{925.10} \approx 1,794.8 \text{ ounces}925.101,660,000​≈1,794.8 ounces
  • $1.4 million in June 2025 in terms of gold ounces = 1,400,0003,264.03≈429.1 ounces\frac{1,400,000}{3,264.03} \approx 429.1 \text{ ounces}3,264.031,400,000​≈429.1 ounces

Step 2: Compute the percentage loss in gold ounces

  • Loss in ounces = 1,794.8 − 429.1 = 1,365.7 ounces
  • Percentage loss relative to original (in ounces) = 1,365.71,794.8×100%≈76.1%\frac{1,365.7}{1,794.8} \times 100\% \approx 76.1\%1,794.81,365.7​×100%≈76.1%

So, in terms of ounces of gold, the transaction represents about a 76 % loss.


Who are the two journalists and at least one editor who failed to notice the massive loss? “Zachary Kussin is the real estate editor at the New York Post. … He holds degrees from Bard College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. … Mary K. Jacob is a reporter at the New York Post. … A graduate of New York University with a degree in politics and journalism…”

In other words, the two reporters who worked on this story are among the American elite when it comes to educational credentials.

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If marijuana stores were “essential” could Donald Trump keep our national parks open during the government shutdown?

NBC:

The contingency plan says that about 64% of the National Park Service workforce is set to be furloughed and that those kept on would perform “excepted” activities, such as law enforcement or emergency response, border and coastal protection and surveillance, and fire suppression and monitoring.

If state governors, such as in California and Maskachusetts, were able to declare marijuana stores “essential” during coronapanic, and therefore legally allowed to continue operating, why can’t Donald Trump declare national parks to be “essential”? The hook could be that we have an obesity national public health emergency and the parks allow people to exercise more. The hook could be that we have a racial equity/equality emergency and the parks need to be open so that People of Color can get into them.

Separately, in the Department of Legacy Media Fighting Against Misinformation, the New York Times:

Without a compromise, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be sent home without pay,

ChatGPT:

In January 2019, Congress enacted the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which made retroactive pay automatic for any future shutdown. That law requires that all federal employees furloughed or working without pay during a lapse in appropriations must receive full back pay after the shutdown ends.

Federal workers fortunate enough to be declared “non-essential” are, in other words, on a guaranteed paid vacation, which is reported, as a fact by the New York Times, to be “without pay”. They can’t be 100 percent sure when their windfall vacation checks will arrive, but they can be 100 percent sure that they money will show up, maybe while they are traveling in Europe or enjoying Xbox.

From the Johnstown Flood National Memorial, our Science-following government reminds us that invasive plants are bad, unlike the invasive humans that Science assures us are at least good and probably great for all Americans:

Some more photos from this National Park Service site:

Related:

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Government restart or Hamas deal will happen first?

It will be ironic if it turns out to be easier to negotiate a settlement between Israel and the Gazans (Hamas, UNRWA, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, et al.) than it is to negotiate a settlement between Republicans and Democrats (a handful of Democrat Senators must agree to vote with Republicans in order to get to 60).

Separately, from the WSJ:

The militant group has told mediators it has reservations about some of the terms of the 20-point plan, including the stipulation that it disarm and destroy its weapons, a demand it has previously rejected. Hamas also says that releasing all 48 hostages within 72 hours, as laid out in the Trump plan, would be difficult because it has lost contact in recent weeks with some other militant groups holding a number of them, the mediators said.

We’ve been told that the Gazans are entirely without weapons. Israel has been waging a slow-motion genocide against a (growing) population of unarmed civilians. Now we’re told that a sticking point in peace negotiations is that the unarmed Gazans don’t want to give up their heavy weapons, rocket factories, rockets, etc.

We’ve also been told that Gazans are entirely peaceful humans. Perhaps 1 in 10,000 is a member of Hamas and this 0.01% of the population has been controlling the 99.99% and forcing them into a conflict with Israel that 99.99% of Gazans don’t want because they love and accept the state of Israel, according to the official narrative to date. Now we’re instead told that there are multiple “other militant groups” comprising peaceful unarmed Gazans.

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Desperate enough to rent a billboard…

… but not desperate enough to spend time with someone who doesn’t share her love for Kacklin’ Kamala.

New York Post:

What do we see at marrylisa.com?

  • 41 years old (also, “Wants marriage and kids within the next 2-3 years with the right man”?)
  • Loves cats!

Her “non-negotiable items” include the following:

  • Must be Democratic or liberal or left leaning politically.

Preferences for a mate:

  • 35-45. Flexible within a year or two at most.

One open question is why she insists on a single gender ID (“a man”). She’s a self-described Bay Area liberal. Why the heteronormativity? Second question: How is she going to produce “kids” (plural) starting at age 44?

In the background:

  • Lisa didn’t focus on dating in her 20’s and early 30’s – she prioritized finishing college, starting a career, learning new skills and working on personal development.

Let’s ignore the improper punctuation (should be “20s and early 30s”) and ask whether her life plan made sense. The New York Post article says that Lisa Catalano is “a vintage clothes retailer”. In other words, she could have the job that she has without ever having finished high school, much less having earned a college degree. So she spent the years in which she was most attractive as a mate, plus tons of tuition money and foregone income, to earn a degree that has no value to her at the moment. The result of this plan is that she’s out on Tinder at the age of a normal human grandmother.

Loosely related, “‘Men seem to make life for women worse’: single US women share the woes of dating in 2025” (Guardian):

By 2030, 45% of prime working age women in the US, defined as women aged between 25 and 44, will be single according to Census Bureau historical data and Morgan Stanley forecasts – the largest share in history.

Kellie, 43 [i.e., grandmother age], from Georgia, joined the substantial number of respondents who felt that social media narratives had made dating toxic and pitted men against women.

“I wish I could have met my person before the stupid gender wars, social media and red pill rhetoric that has ruined people’s view of dating and marriage,” she said.

Danielle, 29, a public relations professional from Tennessee, said her future partner would need to be “kind, thoughtful, emotionally available, considerate, reliable, and responsible”, but also “college educated”.

“I’m very disheartened by the shortage of quality men,” she added. “Men my age are less educated, their social skills are abysmal, and now they’re running into the arms of Trump and ‘incel’ forums.”

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