As part of their rejection of equality, the foundation of democracy, [the Israeli ultraorthodox] reject the democratic system except in the ways it serves their purposes. Their ministers, MKs, and public all openly clarify that they are obedient to their rabbis and to their interpretation of religious law, not to laws of the state. They have held huge protests against the Supreme Court, whose decisions they do not recognize — unless they serve their community. The Ultra-Orthodox parties are completely subservient to a rabbinical council, much as in Iran — but unlike Iran, lack even a semblance of democratic mechanisms. They vote for whomever they are told to vote, en masse, and according to their ethnic breakdown: Sephardim vote for Sephardi parties, Ashkenazim for Ashkenazim.

… For the Ultra-Orthodox, the state is a foreign body to be milked like a cow, which exists only to serve them, and never the reverse. The expectation they serve in the Israeli army is to them utterly ludicrous. Why should they give their time — heaven forbid, their lives — to a country which is meant to serve them, to defend borders they don’t recognize (God promised them all of greater Israel), alongside people who are beneath them? Worse still, they wouldn’t dream of serving together with women who are impure, or take orders from anyone but their religious leaders...

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Once the Ultra-Orthodox realize their way of life, which is entirely dependent on the generosity of corrupt politicians who buy their support, is untenable and unsustainable, the open and democratic society can begin to incorporate, educate, and accept them. Otherwise, there will be a crisis not only regarding the shortage of soldiers, but of supporting the abundance of children in the huge families, on welfare by choice, whose only competence is in reproduction.

Sing it, sister. But is that even a competence? I think it’s an instinct.

No, that’s Ivory Soap. Suicide attempt by gun is however 90% sure to kill you, which is also an impressively high figure.

[A]ccess to a gun made my dad eight times more likely to die by suicide, primarily because firearms are the most lethal suicide method, according to a 2020 study by researchers at Stanford University. When a gun isn’t available, suicide attempts are typically “not fatal, and most people who attempt suicide do not go on to die in a future suicide,” the researchers wrote. Owning a gun, in other words, can turn an intrusive thought into a death much faster and more effectively. It is impossible, then, not to place some of the blame for my dad’s death on the gun, and to wonder if he would be alive now if he hadn’t inherited it from his grandfather thirty years before...

In the early 1990s, the rates of gun-induced suicides and homicides in America were about equal. But in the three decades since, gun homicides have fallen sharply while the gun suicide rate has remained steady. In 2022, the rate of suicides involving guns in the United States reached the highest level since officials began tracking it more than 50 years ago...

Of suicide attempts using a gun, nearly 90% result in death, while only 4% of suicide attempts by other means are fatal. Because suicidal crises are often short-lived, restricted access to the most lethal self-harm methods saves lives. In states with the strongest firearm safety laws—including background checks, waiting periods, and secure storage requirements—gun suicides fell over the past two decades, while states with the weakest laws experienced a 39% increase…

More than ordinarily nauseating plagiarism story out of the University of Minnesota, this one involving the director of a research unit stealing verbatim an underling’s dissertation prospectus. The director has scurried away from her position at UM, and UM has duly lied to cover its ass (the whole thing was “an honest mistake”), and everyone’s now hoping that the damage has been contained. But you only need to read the injured party’s narrative to know that this repulsive tale ain’t over.

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“Without Hardeman at the helm of CARHE, it appears the future of the research center is in question.” Sounds as though the place has been a mess pretty much from the start, and UD wouldn’t be surprised if UM hasn’t already shut it down.

And remember, as UD has been saying on this blog for ages, plagiarists plagiarize abundantly, promiscuously:

Brittney Francis, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said Hardeman had taken a graphic that Francis made to illustrate the complexities of structural racism and used it in her own presentations and grant applications, without proper attribution or permission.

Not a labyrinth, but a walking circle, around vinca and a crape myrtle. Set among trees in the surrounding woods are chairs, tables, potted plants, wind chimes, small sculptures, and other objects. Xavier and his crew bring various forms of lighting soon. Still to come: Water feature. Fire pit. Etc.

This one’s in Oakland, after all, where guns more than dollars are the neighborhood currency. Might as well transfer that fact from the political unconscious to blaring daylight awareness.

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What do you expect? There are four hundred million guns in private hands in this country.

So what about this

surprises, shocks, amazes, and offends you? Do you think it degrades your neighborhood? Depresses property values? Do you think a miles-long lineup of gun/ammo billboards (broken up by booze and breastaurant ads) would be a bad thing? A bad look?

Or do you just dislike being reminded by a huge roadside graphic that guns blanket your city, with many more always on the way?

You live in the heart of gun culture, babe. Why should billboards confirming that fact bother you? Advertisers advertise to their markets.

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It’s part of this growing trend toward gun ads in general culture (not just in sporting magazines, etc.) media. We’re well past the time the NFL banned a gunny spot meant to run during the Super Bowl. I mean, note who won the presidency. Whole new world. If you’re not ready for billboards along our major highways advertising guns, you might want to get ready.

Epic hosta on its way up in UD‘s garden. Its circular formation makes it look like a miniature, green, Stonehenge.

Here’s what it looked like four days ago.

Today it’s at least an inch higher all around and unfurling has begun.

 Let us defend the liberal democracy that, with all its limitations, continues to signify political pluralism, coexistence, tolerance, human rights, respect for criticism, legality, free elections, alternation in power, everything that has been taking us out of a savage life and bringing us closer – though we will never attain it – to the beautiful, perfect life literature devises, the one we can deserve only by inventing, writing, and reading it…

That was made official in 2021; more recently:

Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, [has] authored a resolution to make the cannon the official state gun of Texas. On April 10, the resolution passed the Senate with a 28-2 vote.

Official gun, rather than handgun, which, again, Texas already has.

And most recently, Texas Sen. Vergil “Rip” McCoy, R-Beaver Creek, authored a resolution to make the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast the state’s official large-yield bomb.

Trashy Panama Beach, the very reddest part of the Redneck Riviera (‘Panama City Beach makes tailgating at a NASCAR infield appear hoity-toity.‘), is among the last truly gun-friendly spring break locations. While other once-popular killing fields, tired of blasting blood off main street, have launched police-state measures that make you think twice before mustering your M16, PCB, a short drive from supergangbanger Dothan AL, screams go ahead and unload ra cheah. Trash bars, hotels, and stores; gun-love; and a police force that doesn’t give a shit — it all adds up to the best spring break of your life uh ah mean death and yall come on down.

UD predicts PCB’s about to dump its police chief, who’s fucking up the fun, calling the gangbangers “stupid,” and naming/shaming town ultratrash spots (Hammerhead Fred’s) designed to make fifteen year olds with .950 JDJ Fat Macs feel at home. He’s, like, against all this, which will make the local merchants extremely angry, and they will demand his ouster.

… (background on Jetters here) will be Carrie Rivers, whose similar qualifications are described here.

UD calls Wyoming The Amy Winehouse State. Dark. Dark. The darkest. HALF in love with easeful Death? You don’t know the half of it.

State Song:

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,
And dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha
And the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors,
And cold the sense and lost the motive of action.
And we all go with them, into the silent funeral,
Nobody’s funeral, for there is no one to bury.

GO WYOMING!

I’ve had exactly nothing good to say about Hungary on this blog, but that changes today.

Tarrant: Where even the judges brandish firearms! At court!

In a quiet corner beside the lower deck, a hosta puts out circular shoots.

A neutral palette (grays, whites) makes the eye-popping yellow coverlet and its rich array of guns really stand out in this East Harlem bedroom. “They’re there during the day to make a statement,” says the owner of the apartment; “obviously, at night, I put them in my safe, unless I plan to be out using them.” The new Unsecured Firearms aesthetic has taken America by storm, and interior designers are rushing to be part of the movement. “The days of the good ol’ boy in rural Texas hanging the odd hunting rifle on the wall above the fireplace are over,” says Reka Farkash, principal at Farkash Armamental Designs. Farkash is known for her so-called AK Circles, where she stages a gun-owners’ AK47s in a rough circular pattern on dining tables and other surfaces.

However you arrange it, the point is to take the gun out of hiding and make it a prominent part of domestic American space.