As Opus Dei fan Rick Santorum rails against democracy and what he calls “sexy” issues like abortion, keep in mind that the super-funky BDSM his version of the faith boasts out-sexies anything ordinary people can come up with.

… appears, UD likes to post this great James Merrill poem:

ISLAND IN THE WORKS

From air seen fathom-deep
But rising to a head –
Abscess of the abyss
Any old night letting rip
Its fires, yearlong,
As roundabout waves hiss –

Jaded by untold blue
Subversions, watered-down
Moray and Spaniard…
Now to construe
In the original
Those at first arid, hard,

Soon rootfast, ramifying,
Always more fruitful
Dialogues with light.
Various dimwit under-
graduate types will wonder
At my calm height

Vapors by then surmounted
(Merely another phase?)
And how in time I trick
Out my new “shores” and “bays”
With small craft, shrimpers
Bars and rhetoric.

Darkly the Old Ones grumble
I’ll hate all that. Hate words,
Their schooling flame?
The spice grove chatted up
By small gray knowing birds?
Myself given a name?

Waves, as your besetting
Depth-wish recedes,
I’m surfacing, I’m home!
Open the atlas. Here:
This dot, securely netted
Under the starry dome.

(Unlike this page – no sooner
Brought to the pool than wafted
Out of reach, laid flat
Face-up on cool glares, ever
So lightly swayed, or swaying…
Now who did that?)

**********************

Analysis.

More analysis.

Three women have been arrested for allegedly physically assaulting a hijab enforcer in an incident in the Tehran Metro.

According to Abbas Karami-Rad, the head of the Tehran Metro Police, the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon when one woman approached three others to admonish them regarding their hijabs. 

He stated that the situation escalated, leading to the three women “attacking her and physically assaulting her.” Subsequently, the three women were taken into custody.

**********

Expect more of this. Passive resistance is of course all over the country; huge numbers of women won’t wear the hijab. Active resistance is a thing too.

**********

Great pic!

Easy peasy.

Voters in Derby, Conn., decisively rejected the Republican nominee for mayor, Gino DiGiovanni Jr., who was charged with trespassing at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. DiGiovanni placed third behind Joe DiMartino, the Democratic mayor-elect, and Richard Dziekan, the Republican incumbent who was running as an unaffiliated candidate…

… Ohioans enshrined abortion and other reproductive rights into the state constitution.’

And that’s Ohio, mes petites.

Related. And more.

When wee UD studied at the Medill School of Journalism, we often discussed the qualities of a good lead sentence; in particular, you want to pack a lot of information in without creating a run-on feel to the thing.

The AP writer who had to pack all of the repulsive behavior at New Mexico State into her lead had quite a task, but she acquitted herself well, finding a place in one sentence for the guns thing AND the cock-grabbing thing. Actual shooters (of guns) among team members appear a little farther down in the article. When there’s this much material, you have to be selective.

**********

For the venerable history of this institution, go here.

… the absurdly obvious murderer of FSU law professor Dan Markel. That’s an awfully long time.

Markel, you recall, had to die for the sin of wanting to share custody of his children with his ex-wife. Had to bleed out, alone, in his car, from two gunshot wounds to the head.

While his body was still warm, his ex-wife – sister of his murderer – whisked the kids away to another part of Florida and instantly dropped their Markel last name and changed it to her name. I mean, didn’t miss a beat.

And was she – not to mention her mother – also involved in the murder? The prosecutor’s closing statement points in that direction. So maybe the opera ain’t over.

Anyway. UD would love to know WHY Adelson got a decade of freedom before his life sentence. Did it really take that long to establish a case against an absurdly obvious murderer?

*********************

Um, and if the rest of the family was in on the murder, don’t you think child protective services should pay the Adelsons a visit? Markel’s parents and sister live in Toronto, and seem to UD a rather better custody choice than a pack of… well, we’ll see.

… in Rehoboth Beach.

In other exciting news, UD got up from lying on the beach and waved goodbye as the president’s helicopters passed over her on their way back to DC.

AND: It may be November, but UD has a serious sunburn on her face.

During the morning session, Donald Trump attempted to read the contents of a sheet of paper he had in his pocket — an effort that violates trial procedure and decorum, and was immediately shut down by Judge Arthur Engoron.

“I’d love to read this, your honor, if I could, if I’m allowed to do that,” Trump said, clutching the paper.

“Not at this point, no,” Engoron said.

“Shock,” Trump muttered. “I’m shocked.”

It was not clear what Trump was attempting to read.

***************************

According to sources, this is the text:

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.

The town’s “deputy mayor has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison,” onaccounta LOOK AT THEM PICTURES. Vast unregistered arsenal stashed in his basement.

[He] admitted before Rockland Judge Larry Schwartz to two counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon: silencers, assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines...

The District Attorney’s Office said Downey admitted possessing a Colt Carbine semi-automatic rifle and an Aero Precision semi-automatic rifle; Surefire LLC and an Advanced Aramet Coro M4-2000 silencers; and two large-capacity feeding devices: Magpul magazines that could hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

************************

His comment to the authorities had a nice Dr Strangelove spin:

[He] told … agents he believed he was permitted to modify short-barrel rifles. His reasoning was he was a peace officer…

You know… that scene where President Merkin Muffley says “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”

Farther left, out of this shot, a Coast Guard ship protects the president, who’s here for the weekend.

A whole new level.

We’re suing.