The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist." Hannah Arendt

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” Voltaire

Late hatch.

WGN-TV producer detained during ICE enforcement action in Lincoln Square A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/10/w...

Outrageous!

Harvard poll: Americans overwhelmingly back arming Ukraine, sanctioning Russia Ukraine is as popular as NATO, while Zelenskyy ranks above Rubio and Hegseth in popularity. US voters back Trump’s Ukraine peace push, but doubt he can end the war.

Most Americans want Trump to keep sending weapons to Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia, Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll finds.

They support his peace efforts — but don’t believe he’ll end the war.
euromaidanpress.com/2025/10/10/h...

When a society extolls the virtues of faith, it encourages all sorts of belief without evidence, including organized religions, astrology, mysticism, and bespoke “truths.” This diminishes our use of science in the search for truth, and prevents consensus on reality.

The beauty of Infowars belonging to The Onion just makes me want to cry with elation.

BorderNazi Barbie leading fellow cult members in pleas to some mystical supernatural being prior to brutalizing fellow citizens.

#KrustyGnome can just kiss my fat #Antifa ass. 🙄🙄🙄

This… NSPM-7

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

"The president has already announced that if a judge does rule against him, he will invoke the Insurrection Act and then continue the military deployments. This is where we’ve been headed since January 6, 2021.
www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Hey! Where are all you folks who have always insisted so strongly upon “States’ rights”? Huh?

The Civil-Military Crisis Is Here The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.

Only the military remains outside Trump’s grip. Despite the firing of several top officers—and his threat to fire more—the U.S. armed forces are still led by generals and admirals whose oath is to the Constitution, not the president. But for how long?
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

If anyone knows of evidence that contradicts these observations, please post the links.

Do we know of any other pathways associated with sexual development that would lead to male brains or hearts (but not reproductive systems) in the absence of SRY?

4. Non-functional SRY genes or androgen receptor genes result in disorders of sexual development. I have not seen evidence that any of these are associated with transsexual identifying individuals at levels greater than in the population at large.

3. Absence of a functional SRY means the organism will develop as female.

2. A functional SRY gene encodes factors that lead to development of male anatomy, regardless of which chromosome it is on, or how many X chromosomes are present.

1. Biologists distinguish sex based on gamete type (large immobile vs small motile) that an organism is (or was, or will be) organized to produce, not chromosome composition.

🚨 NSPM-7 🚨

The senior military officers:
Their silence was golden.

Trump and Hegseth:
At once clownish and dangerous.

Jesus and Mo Religious satire from holy roomies Jesus & Mohammed in a weekly comic strip.

Happy Blasphemy Day!
To celebrate our First Amendment right to free speech (while we still have it), here are Jesus and Mo www.jesusandmo.net/comic/hear/

From Adam Kinzinger’s Substack post today: “The First Amendment … exists precisely so citizens can call out threats to liberty—whether those threats come cloaked in religious rhetoric, “patriot” branding, or populist memes. Calling something fascist when it fits is not violence; it is self-defense.”

Nice job Moldova! Suck it Putin

Carole Hooven in Tablet on binary sex Dr. Hooven (“Carole” to me) has a new piece in Tablet (click headline below to read for free) explaining why all sensible biologists see sex as a binary defined by two (and only two) ty…

A big article in Tablet by Carole Hooven on why sex is binary, and the aggressive demeanor and ideological motives of the "spectrum" people. They do not seeks truth, but the appearance of virtue when they're seen as buttressing the oppressed.

whyevolutionistrue.com/2025/09/26/c...

A pika sits on a mossy rock.

Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.

An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.

An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

bsky.app/profile/did:...