Cougar Tale in the New York Times

by philg

Other than gender studies graduates who are about to have all of their student loans transferred onto the backs of the working class, divorced women are the most reliable Democrat voters in the U.S. What’s the latest harvest of material from Democrat-controlled media on the miracle of family court?

“My Husband Is Two Years Older Than My Son” (New York Times):

Our 19-year age gap feels treacherous and gossip inducing — and is also the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

This is his first marriage and my third. Minutes before our rainy courthouse wedding, my future mother-in-law said, “He’ll be your last love and you’ll be his only love.”

If you had asked me five years ago if I would ever date again, I would have said, “Not in a million years.” I was a middle-aged woman filing for divorce,…

The author is grateful that the mandarins permitted her to leave her house and work for wages:

I work as a freelance makeup artist in Portland, Ore., but business had been slow back then, so for extra income I took a cashier job at the local Fred Meyer grocery store, which is where I met Tylan.
He struck me as gorgeous with his long hair, piercing blue eyes and hippie wardrobe. He worked the cash registers too but was a “P.I.C.” (person in charge) who also had management responsibilities.
When the pandemic hit, my makeup work dried up completely, and I became reliant on my cashier job at Fred Meyer, which, as an essential business, stayed open even during the worst of Covid.

(Are we to infer from “management responsibilities” that she was having sex with the boss, as in this scholarly journal paper from the UK?)

… I was 46, one year younger than his own mother, and he was 27, two years older than my son.

He introduced me to emo-rock and I introduced him to obscure slow-core. We drank mead, tested out new recipes, and discussed music, career goals and sometimes, our love lives. Mine was nonexistent and I was content with that, and he was single, waiting for the right one. There were times I even tried to play matchmaker, but it never quite worked out.

There was a midnight skinny dip at the river, making out on a giant velour bean bag, and indoor camping with a tent made out of bedsheets. And then it happened one night, Tylan knelt on one knee and proposed. I was stunned and momentarily mute. It wasn’t until Tylan said, “Yes?” that I nodded my head and blubbered, “Yes!”

What else can divorce plaintiffs look forward to other new sex partners from a different generation? An enormous smile, at least according to “In Defense of Divorce” (Slate), author of This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life:

Lenz walked away from her marriage to rebuild her life in her 40s, and to find out what freedom feels like. Reading her story, we get to feel that freedom too. I talked with Lenz—divorced woman to divorced woman—about why divorce isn’t a tragedy.

People are really uncomfortable with a woman who is free and a woman who chooses herself. I think that adds into the dissonance—it makes people really uncomfortable when you say, “Hey, my marriage was not great and I’m leaving.” And you know this, too: The moment you get divorced, so many women go, “When did you know? When did you know? How should I know?”

I am anti the legal structure of marriage, because it is founded on women’s inequality. Look at the history of marriage. Look at these laws of coverture. Look at the laws in America where marital rape wasn’t even illegal until the past 20 years. And that’s because wives are property, and that’s the way that our legal system views women.

How tough is it to be a wife and mother with a full slate of modern appliances supplemented by Uber Eats food delivery and a weekly Latinx crew to do the real cleaning?

No, you feel miserable in your marriage because you never get a break because this whole system is packed on top of your shoulders and you can’t fricking breathe. And then the one time you get a moment to breathe, he’s like, “Hey, we haven’t had sex in two weeks.” … even the worst marriage still benefits a man in the end, because he is still getting free child care and his dinner made every night.

(Fair to guess that after the author sued her co-parent, both the retroactive and going-forward child care were not free?)

Contrary to nearly all survey data and journal articles, the book author says that the kids are way better off when mom and dad are having sex with a variety of new partners:

I think of it rather as a gain for [the kids, who were 4 and 6 when she sued their father], because they deserve relationships with the happiest version of both of their parents. … it’s really uncomfortable to be a sexual person to your kids, because if you tell, especially a tween daughter, that you’re dating, she wants to know, are you having sex? And then you have to talk about it.

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Black History Month at the Palm Beach County Library

by philg

For folks from the Northeast and California who are afraid to move to Florida because of a perceived lack of righteousness, the local Palm Beach County library branch’s displays for Black History Month…

First, in the kids’ area:

It turns out that identifying as “female” is actually Black-adjacent. Here’s a book that was part of the Black History Month display:

Kids are encouraged to engage in a wide range of behaviors that would get them arrested in Florida:

And for adults:

Readers: How are your Black History Month celebrations going?

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Warning to Californians about the chemical hazards of playing pinball

by philg

From the creative geniuses at Stern, a James Bond Premium machine, NIB:

A harmless diversion? Only if you think that cancer, birth defects, and “reproductive harm” are harmless! The warning to Californians about what might happen to them if they are brave enough to unbox this machine:

Speaking of brave, an 8-year-old confronts Carcharodon carcharias, with a little help from Keith Elwin, the designer of #1-ranked Godzilla and, most recently, Jaws:

(The Premium and LE versions are the ones to buy because the shark comes up from underneath the playfield, but our favorite Jupiter, Florida pinball dealer has yet to receive any of those.)

Loosely related:

  • Straight Outta Compton… “Body of California pit bull breeder killed by his own dogs found in backyard kennel” (New York Post): “A California dog breeder was mauled to death by pit bulls he was raising, authorities said as his dog-ravaged body was found inside a kennel in the backyard of his home on Friday. … His father consented to sign over the dogs to Animal Care & Control for “impoundment and examination.” (the pups will be available for adoption soon and with no warning label?)
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If El Salvador is safer than the U.S., why do migrants from El Salvador have an automatic right to stay in the U.S.?

by philg

The Biden administration recently extended the “Temporary Protected Status” (i.e., “permanent”) for migrants from El Salvador. Starting in 2001 (State Department), Salvadorans have had an automatic right to stay in the U.S. because El Salvador is too dangerous for human habitation. Since the 2019 election of Nayib Bukele (age 42, so he won’t be qualified to serve as chief executive of a big nation for another four decades), however, it turns out that El Salvador has become safer than the U.S. overall and, certainly, far safer than the rough urban U.S. neighborhoods into which migrants tend to be dumped (e.g., a high-crime neighborhood in Maskachusetts: “Migrant overflow shelter in Roxbury is already reaching capacity”).

A Salvadoran could still stay in the U.S. forever by claiming that he/she/ze/they was threatened by a spouse, a golden retriever, or some other source of domestic violence (see “Biden administration reverses Trump-era asylum policies” (2021)), but why does he/she/ze/they get automatic legal residency simply because El Salvador overall is too dangerous?

(As it happens, the two guys who moved my mom’s stuff from independent living in Maryland to assisted living here in Abacoa (Jupiter, Florida) were immigrants from El Salvador. They both expressed huge enthusiasm for President Bukele (hated by the American Righteous) and said that, in their opinion, El Salvador was now safer than Washington, D.C. (Packing, moving, and unpacking cost 4,600 Bidies for some furniture and art that we would have had to pay to throw out in Maryland.))

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Eliminate the U.S. Navy given Ukraine’s success with sea drones?

by philg

“Ukraine says it has sunk another warship, disabling a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet” (CNN):

Ukraine claims it has now disabled a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet after its military intelligence said it sank another Russian warship in a sea drone attack off the coast of Crimea on Wednesday.

Russia’s landing ship Caesar Kunikov was attacked with “MAGURA” V5 drones that punctured “critical holes” on its left side before sinking, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said on Telegram.

After the attack on the Ivanovets, CNN interviewed Ukraine’s secretive sea drone unit behind the strike at a location near the Ukrainian coastal city of Odesa. One of the drone pilots behind the attack told CNN that 10 “MAGURA” drones were used in the attack, six of which hit and ultimately sunk the Russian warship.

“MAGURA” drones are only a few meters long and powered by jet skis, a pilot from a special unit in Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency told CNN earlier this year.

But they have a large range of around 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles), so military units can launch drones from across large swathes of Ukraine’s coastline for missions against Crimean targets.

Of course, the U.S. Navy is a more capable force than the Russian Navy, but the future will bring more capable drones than what Ukraine has built and deployed. An adversary with 1/100th of our resources can still build a massive sea drone fleet. Is it safe to bet that drone technology will advance faster than ship technology? If so, why do we want to fund an enormous Navy that could be just as vulnerable to a sophisticated adversary as the Russian Navy has been to Ukraine’s drone tech?

How is the drone below readily distinguished from some of the fast skiffs that Houthis are using and that the U.S. Navy interacts with at close range?

Related:

  • USS Cole bombing (“a small fiberglass boat carrying C4 explosives and two suicide bombers approached the port side of the destroyer and exploded … Speakers in the Yemeni parliament ‘calling for jihad against America’ were broadcast on local television each night.”)
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Egypt builds the wall

by philg

“Egypt is building a new walled buffer zone more than 2 miles wide on Gaza border, satellite images show” (CNN):

Egypt is building a massive miles-wide buffer zone and wall along its border with southern Gaza, new satellite images show, as fears grow over Israel’s planned ground offensive in Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.

The images, taken in the past five days by Maxar Technologies, show a significant section of Egyptian territory between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed.

If the buffer zone — which stretches from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea — is completed, it will completely engulf the Egyptian-Rafah border crossing complex.

At the actual border, multiple cranes can be seen laying sections of wall.

Additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that bulldozers arrived on site on February 3, and the initial excavation of the buffer zone began on February 6.

If Joe Biden wants to boost his/her/zir/their reelection chances, perhaps he/she/ze/they should hire the Egyptians to secure the U.S. border (though, actually, Mexicans could probably do a great job as well if we paid them instead of expecting them to work for free on our behalf after we created an attractive nuisance by offering four generations of taxpayer-funded housing, health care, food, smartphone, and broadband to anyone willing to cross from Mexico).

(Using a range of pronouns above because it is unclear that Joe Biden remembers his/her/zir/their gender ID.)

Same story in the New York Times:

Is it fair to say that there are more unauthorized crossings of the U.S. border every day (at least 10,000) than there are of the Egypt-Gaza border in an entire year?

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Should Israel hire mercenaries from Nepal to deal with armed Palestinians?

by philg

A Ukrainian friend shared “Russia has recruited as many as 15,000 Nepalis to fight its war. Many returned traumatized. Some never came back” (CNN):

He is one of as many as 15,000 Nepali men to have joined the Russian military, multiple sources have told CNN, after the Russian government last year announced a lucrative package for foreign fighters to join the country’s military.

The package included at least $2,000 salary a month and a fast-tracked process to obtain a Russian passport. Nepal’s passport is ranked one of the worst in the world for global mobility, below North Korea, according to an index created by global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, and the Himalayan nation is among the world’s poorest, with a per capita GDP of $1,336 for 2022, according to World Bank data.

Israelis have gotten a huge amount of bad press for fighting against the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”), UNRWA, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other armed groups within Gaza. Critics say that Israeli soldiers have killed too high a ratio of civilians to soldiers (how anyone can know this is beyond me, given that the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between civilian and combatant “martyrs”).

What if the noble Palestinians weren’t being attacked by the evil First World Israeli soldiers (most of whom are Jews, though some of whom are Arabs/Muslims)? Suppose that it was a “brown people” v. “brown people” fight. Wouldn’t white progressives who support Hamas have a lot more difficulty criticizing the non-Hamas side?

The Israelis could easily afford to outbid the Russians, paying $4,000 per month, for example, and the noble Gazans do not seem to be as fearsome opponents as the Ukrainians so it would be a safer job.

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Subscribe to Rachel Dolezal’s OnlyFans channel?

by philg

Happy Valentine’s Day! If we intersect love and romance with the regular content of this blog… we get “Rachel Dolezal Is An OnlyFans Model & Teaching At A School After Pretending To Be Black To Run NAACP Chapter” (Outkick):

Former disgraced NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, who pretended to be black to get her job after being born to white parents, is now a NSFW OnlyFans model who has picked up another job working at an elementary school in Arizona.

Dolezal, who changed her name to Nkechi Diallo (West African translation = “gift of god”) back in 2017, is listed under Sunrise Drive Elementary School payroll records as an after-school instructor …

Between her school job and the OnlyFans career where a September post got 122 ‘Likes’ from paying subscribers (122 x $10 = $1,220 per month which means she’s probably making more than that) seems to be going pretty well for the woman who made headlines around the world as the fake black woman running an NAACP chapter.

Readers: Who wants to take the hit and subscribe to Nkechi Diallo’s OnlyFans channel?

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The Heat Stroke World Cup (TM) in Miami 2026?

by philg

The mostly corruption-free folks at FIFA say that seven World Cup 2026 matches will be played in Miami (source):

How will this work given that the World Cup is set for JULY? All the games will be at night? They’ll accept a 70 percent player attribution rate due to heat stroke? My bet is that the games are scheduled for 8 pm in Europe, which means 2 pm in Miami. This will maximize TV viewership.

(Miami isn’t actually hotter than many northern cities in July, but the humidity is reliably close to 100 percent. In fact, the New York Times says that Floridians are constantly on the verge of “extreme danger”. See Floridians brave Extreme Danger heat levels (July 2023), for example. And, as a loyal follower of The Science, I wouldn’t pay to sit outdoors on a summer afternoon in Miami and watch soccer, Taylor Swift, or anything else that people pay big $$ to watch. The Formula 1 spectators apparently don’t care. The Miami race is held in May during the hottest hours of the day and sells out.)

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The Biden Administration cutoff of UNRWA, as reported by state-sponsored media

by philg

“Biden administration to restore $235m in US aid to Palestinians” (BBC, 2021):

US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to provide $235m (£171m) of aid to Palestinians, restoring part of the assistance cut by Donald Trump.

“UNRWA loses funding after charges that some employees took part in Hamas attack” (state-sponsored NPR, January 29, 2024):

The U.S. and more than a dozen other donors have now paused funding for the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, or UNRWA. The U.N. says the agency could run out of money within weeks. NPR’s Michele Kelemen reports that the U.N. has been facing allegations that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attack on Israel.

Congressional Research Service, February 2, 2024:

The US fiscal year starts on October 1, almost the same date as the glorious October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood operation. So the U.S. has provided $121 million to UNRWA since the attack and withheld $300,000. This 0.25% reduction in funding (or failure to increase funding by 0.25%?) is what state-sponsored National Public Radio characterizes as a “funding pause”.

In other journalistic success stories, we can look at a New York Times headline, “Tesla Recalls About 2.2 Million Electric Vehicles Over Warning Light Font Size”:

Tesla is recalling about 2.2 million vehicles because the font on the warning lights panel was too small to comply with safety standards, U.S. regulators said on Friday.

“Warning lights with a smaller font size can make critical safety information on the instrument panel difficult to read, increasing the risk of a crash,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a notice.

The recall is one of several that Tesla has made in recent years, a setback for the company, the dominant maker of electric vehicles in the United States.

It’s “a setback for the company” to bring 2.2 million cars in for service? The font size tweak was done in one of the standard over-the-air software updates, a fact that is buried by the New York Times in a subhead and never explained in the article.

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