WTF-Beta

A thorough explainer on the issue, and on why we should care about what happens in one small area of Syria with a few hundred thousand people.

https://www.thearabweekly.com/israel-and-druze-frontier-loyalty-and-conflict

He will leave with his head held high. CBS has soiled itself, like so many institutions over the past six months.

I suspect he will easily find another platform, if he wants one.

That's the best term I can come up with to describe the muslim behavior (including the new and supposedly reformed Syrian regime) toward the Druze.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/bodies-looted-homes-syrias-druze-reeling-after-sweida-bloodshed-2025-07-17/

Israel's response is driven by internal politics. The 150,000-strong (and very loyal) Israeli Druze community is frothing angry and wants Israel to stop the cleansing.

This time next year I WILL be retired.

We're currently in Santa Fe, till the 26th.

Many thanks to all. I'm about to head out to an old favorite for dinner.

https://www.coyotecafe.com

Here's a sunset view from the neighborhood.

Looks well worth a try.

Sigh ...

This debate misses a number of fundamental points.

Resources are always moving around in universities. They tend to move slowly because universities are human institutions and tumult is bad. But resources do need to move. At mine, the English department was double the size of the economics department despite serving fewer than half the number of students and having about 1/3 the number of majors (and still declining). Pressures build within schools like A&S and eventually deans decide that the retiring T.S. Elliot scholar who teaches 12-students in 35 person classes won't be replaced. Instead, that position will go to the psychology or health sciences department whose 35 person classes have 50 person wait lists.

This is not about the "death of the humanities" writ large. Yes, big humanities departments are shrinking. They are not disappearing. And most people on campus with decision making authority understand the importance of a rich set of humanities disciplines and course offerings. That's what makes the "uni" in university.

Some small programs likely do need to be shut down so resources can be moved. But that's not the job of state legislatures absent clear evidence that the decision makers closer to the issue (administrative leaders on campus) are dysfunctional. In most cases, these resource allocation decisions should be made on campus after due consideration of the costs and benefits. States set the broad outlines of the budget, but universities are better positioned to determine how to allocate that budget across competing needs.

In other words, what Ax said, but with the argument that the proper decision makers are on campus.

Went for a walk today and found these wildflowers. Santa Fe Phlox. Now I want to plant them in the garden!

Love it! BTW, are all of those instruments on the wall playable?

Massive defrauding of the government is now OK, as long as it accords with the president's whims. This is what happens when the DOJ becomes the president's personal vendetta team and not the nation's independent enforcer of federal law.

The state board will not revoke his license, of course. This is Utah, after all.

If the unethical fraud of a man is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgeons, that society should investigate, and then, if the evidence is clear, revoke his board certification.

I don't know what else there is to be done.

Apparently with the parents' permission, but not telling the child.

But massive defrauding of the government is now permitted, as long as it accords with the president's whims. This is what happens when the DOJ becomes the president's personal vendetta team and not the nation's independent enforcer of federal law.

Texas spotted whiptail seen in Bandelier.

I love the sound of the Wood Thrush in the grove behind our house ...

https://www.bird-sounds.net/wood-thrush/?type1399

Yeah, well, I took another 20 that weren't so good ...

Here is the Zillow page. The facts don't jibe. The Zillow page lists it at over 4,000 square feet.

I'm trying to figure out why it's priced so ..... low, given all the restoration and upgrading.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/715-W-Washington-St-South-Bend-IN-46601/77020418_zpid/

We went for a hike on the West Circle trail in the Hyde Memorial State Park a couple of miles north of our house in Santa Fe. Back at the ranger station, a group of Flycatchers were doing their thing. At first they were a bit stand-offish, but as they got used to me they came closer. That, plus a 300mm telephoto ...

That would still leave him with 300 billion more.

I would love to see him start a party that drew away even a measly 500,000 voters who can't stand the GOP but who will never pull the lever for anyone with a D.

Well, sometimes people do go in-Seine.

If it isn't cut, the deficit will balloon.

I suspect Republicans will care, since most of the victims looked like them...

Here's one up on YouTube: