My mother used to iron the tinsel (it was heavy strands in those days) every year.

Love this article and love your writing style.

Distraction from the price of eggs that skyrocketed under Biden? Doubtful.

Nice guy but he has TDS.

Tracinski is running for Congress. https://www.tracinskiletter.com/p/tracinski-for-congress

Over on the new Megyn Kelly channel (111) on SiriusXM, her gossip columnist is talking about the RFK Jr./Nuzzi digital affair, which required her to describe and define "felching," since somehow that came up in their love talk.

I wonder if most of the people pushing this idea are childless and have an experience of diapering that is limited to deviant adults.

I really don't think that the point of the film is to discuss or attempt to provide an explanation to current day politics at all? It's simply a portrayal of what can go wrong whenever radical ideas and concepts are introduced to the wider population? She had an idea, she wrote a book about it and first she agreed with what was happening as a result of her having written the book but then it begins to morph into something else completely and evolves into something entirely different? The idea that what you write and out out into the world always has the very dangerous potential to be completely misunderstood/manipulated/misrepresented? That's my opinion anyway!!

Netflix keeps pitching (me or everyone?) Emirates Airlines for our holiday travel. I don't know what the profile of Netflix viewers is that we are getting this.

That's correct. Neandertal DNA has been found (esp in Europeans and descendants) and Denisovan (Asians, Indigenous Americans). Some people may have both. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/human-evolution/the-first-americans-had-denisovan-dna-and-it-may-have-helped-them-survive

I don't think they have found any Homo floresiensis DNA in humans. AI seems to agree with that, but it gets a lot of things wrong.

"DOGE days are over. I need a pardon."

I doubt technology is going to do much here apart from spiking the existing trends and killing off whatever flimsy middle consumption base is still clinging on; there's been a continuous introduction of automation since the 1950s, which has done little to dent the demographic shift. The crucial piece is the increasing demand for care work in nursing homes and hospitals and maintenance related work for the housing stock--most of which will continually need to be supplemented by working class immigrants.

Your prediction would probably come true if we were just talking about conservative evangelicals and their offspring. But outside of the fundamentalists, fertility rates aren't all that much higher among the casual religious observers, and their children don't always stay religious. So a univariate analysis won't work in this case. There's too many other factors influencing fertility rates.

Also a common opinion among pro-natalist like Peachy Keenan is that people who don't want children don't want children. To get more children you have to persuade and enable people who have 2 to have a 3rd or 4th, and to persuade or enable people who feel they must wait to start in the early 20s.

Another wrinkle though is that religious people and conservatives have much higher (above replacement levels) birth rates than liberals or secular people. So whatever the percentage of white people is in countries in the future, they are going to be observant Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and political conservatives, as leftists will have died out.

I have always marveled at people like Richie Fitzgerald who endure the chilly ocean temperatures in search of challenging waves and surf for hours in places like Ireland, the Oregon & Washington coast and even the shores of Alaska where the water temps never get above the mid 50s and they can get as low as the mid 40s. As a lifelong surfer for over 50 years I have had many memorable winter surfing sessions in Southern & Central California and Mexico where the water temps can get down into the mid 50s which for me meant paddling out and getting through the initial chill then surfing for 40 minutes or so until the secondary chill kicks in and uncontrollable shivering takes over which means time to head to the shore for a warm drink and a hoody. These days I limit my surfing to April through early November and avoid the cold months all together...Keep on surfing Mark but also keep on writing. Both pursuits are good for the soul.

You have no way of knowing this. What you mean is that there are no credible sources claiming he is, or ever was, transgender. Most likely he wasn't ever that, but it's still poor journalism on your part to claim you have the definitive answer, as is referencing homophobia when the subject of homosexuality is not being discussed. But I know, you've been writing for years, so you're not to be challenged. Ho hum.

You're not really reliable when it comes to facts, "Fact Checker" Ken. Who actually believes that a deep economic crisis—if that's in fact the case—doesn't mean the country is in serious trouble? Maybe a petty nitpicker.Did the rise of the Third Reich have anything to do with the disastrous economy of the Weimar Republic? I'm not suggesting that Germany is in that shape now, but your claim that it's "rather different" to say the nation's economy is in free fall than to say the nation is in trouble is a distinction without a difference.

Norman Podhoretz is dead. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/us/politics/norman-podhoretz-dead.html

Nick Reiner is not and never has been transgender; an easy fact check for a journalist. Therefore it wouldn’t be “low hanging fruit” for Trump, since it’s not true. What the president of the United States wrote is horrific enough without piling on additional lies and homophobia, so if we could possibly avoid those things here also it would be fabulous. As you say: “blame evil, defend victims.”

Nothing in this piece approaches "the darkest hell." And the quote that >>the country is in its “historically deepest crisis” << isn't what the guy said, which was: "The German economy is in its deepest historical crisis since the founding of the Federal Republic ...", rather different. https://bdi.eu/presse#/artikel/news/bdi-zu-industriebericht-wirtschaftsstandort-im-freien-fall-bundesregierung-reagiert-nicht-entschlossen-genug

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Reaching the conclusion that Bob Dylan sucks by deconstructing and dissecting some select passages from a small sample of Dylan songs and disaggregating the lyrics from the music unfairly diminishes the art that Dylan produced. Music is absorbed and appreciated by those who hear it in different ways be it intellectually, emotionally, spiritually or some other defined or undefined way. As someone who is old enough to have enjoyed Dylan's music when it was released during the dramatic changes of those times and the personal changes that I was going through, Dylan's music resonated with me and I am not alone.. Bob Dylan was also hugely influential to many artists both during his heyday and after... The linked song is an example of some of those musicians who were influenced by Dylan and who obviously appreciated his music...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjtPBjEz-BA....

Assuming what you wrote is not intended as comedy, there's more to poetry and songwriting than words. Whitman changed the subject of poetry. Dylan did the same for pop music. They both experimented with form. I'm not sure how old you are, but "Mr. Tambourine Man" was something new when it came out.

On "Coffee with Scott Adams" today (11/11) Scott Adams says, in discussing how to persuade people, you should watch Cheryl Hines on podcasts, and in particular this episode, if you want to know how to be on a podcast.

That and GQ?

I think seeing The Sting as a young teen or pre-teen helped turn me gay. THAT was a hot couple!

Trump has won twice, but neither of these guys have the slightest idea of why that happened. Try harder, Splice Today.

Hard to imagine thinking that Marc Maron has any real insights into the future of American politics. He's a good comedian and decent interviewer, but his talent stops there. And in this clip, he's talking to a fellow insufferably smug progressive, Sam Seder, who hasn't had an original thought in decades. Posting such material is a total waste of time. Thanks for nothing.

Actually the second littlest one was not her son because he was younger than my dad, i unfortunately don’t remember which cousin he was but the tallest boy was my great aunt’s son.

They are not going to school, my grandfather filmed this. It was a leisurely trip to the end of the line by lake Roland. The little blondie in white was my dad and the dark haired second tallest boy in stripes was my uncle. The lady that was on camera before they boarded was my aunt Bea and the two other boys I think were her sons

Such a great song. So sad youngin's don't know our music in the 60's and 70's was SO much better than their music is.

"If you only know a cup this way, you don't know the cup." David Thomas threw off sparks every time he opened his mouth.

A loving/moving biography of Les Baxter: https://lesbaxter.com/pages/biography

This is great. please add a blusky link one of these days.

Just saw it yesterday. She was terrific.