Nationally it’s 58% or so, which means Lancaster has a real problem. It’s mainly old guys with guns, and if you toss in alcoholism and divorce the suicide basket is pretty easy to identify. But the laws that help you do something about it – safe storage, extreme risk protection orders – ain’t there, and state gunnies will make sure they don’t get passed.

Gevalt.
And Madonna!

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/03/08/gop-maga-israel-evangelicals-theology-premillennialism-00818312

Christians needed Jews to return to the homeland of Israel to usher in the second coming of Christ… [T]he belief that modern Israel is a prophetic signpost that faithful Christians are obligated to protect … has weakened… The erosion of premillennial theology weakens a longstanding — if often theologically uncomfortable — foundation of pro-Israel sentiment. The old evangelical alliance was never rooted in liberal pluralism; it was rooted in prophecy. As that prophetic framework recedes, so could also the strange protective logic that once made Israel theologically indispensable to millions of Christians.

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My title? Gog is prominently featured in the piece.

… flamingo time in Garrett Park.

A sad reminder, on Women’s Day, of the enormity of this problem. I’ve followed global efforts to end it, and I must say we’re getting nowhere.

Sex, guns, and Hitler — Texas politics.

Yes well. A Hasid writes in a Washington Post op/ed that his cult’s broodmares can’t even study the religious tradition that makes them broodmares. In response, a commenter says the obvious – Talibanesque.

He hanged dogs; she shoots them. Both are sensual devils. The gothic fascination in watching them thrust their way through the world turns to horror and pity when their dark energy reveals itself as suicidal.

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MarkTwain Mullin, insane pugilist, replaces her.

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Fast-moving story.

… revenge.

Now she’s free to shtup Corey in private.

[John A.] Miller served as the executive director and treasurer of a Philadelphia-based religious nonprofit organization that provided financial assistance to the widows and orphans of deceased clergy members. 

Amid the endless effluence of fraud (here the stolen money went to luxury travel, a luxury condo, etc.), I’d say this case stands out.

Jury took all of two hours to find the fucker guilty of all charges.

The jury deliberated only about two hours before concluding that the [mass murderer’s] father, Colin Gray, 54, was guilty of more than two dozen charges, including second- degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, stemming from the attack on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Two students and two teachers were killed.

I mean, go ahead and love guns to bits, America. But recognize that the national obsession has begun to spawn hereditary hoplophilia, and make sure you put our butchering broods behind bars.

Gray’s son had a history of violence, self-harm, and severe panic attacks, prosecutors said, and he allegedly told his father he was hearing voices. Still … Gray bought his [14 year old] son a SIG Sauer M400 assault-style rifle…

A writer for The Nation finds the long Harvard job security of Larry Summers’ corrupt crony shocking — as does UD. But apparently we live in an old-style oligarchy.

Summers – “A man whose intellect seems genuinely invigorated by a debate with his billionaire sex offender buddy over the costs and benefits of first-class versus NetJet.” – has himself been taken out of commission, but good ol’ Shleifer keeps on keepin on.

… all Saturdays, are the dates of UD’s lecture series on the essay, at the Georgetown Public Library. 1:00 – 3:00.

The Essence of the Essay begins by looking closely at Tatiana Schlossberg’s much-read essay about her impending death, and asking why it was so powerful. It moves on to define the genre, talk about its main categories, and try to account for why it represents arguably the clearest and deepest expression of the singular human voice.

Here are some of the essays we’ll read:

“A Battle with my Blood,” Tatiana Schlossberg

”Aes Triplex,” Robert Louis Stevenson

”On the Assassins’ Trail,” Gore Vidal

”How the Poor Die,” George Orwell

”Return to Tipasa,” Albert Camus

Wherever you stand on the current attack, recall Hitchens’ words about the scourge of theocracy.

[A]ny government that imagines it has a divine warrant will perforce deal with its critics as if they were profane and thus illegitimate by definition…

Reminds me of Japan’s wartime soft theocracy, which mired them in a bloodbath despite the voices of many rational and humane leaders there who argued for surrender. Only by nudging the country’s all-powerful, silent divinity to speak up was Japan able to save itself from possible extinction.

Jeffrey Toobin brought out the pathos of just-convicted bad boy Tom Goldstein in this 2025 interview.

I choked up when Toobin described one Honda in Goldstein’s driveway where once there were two Bentleys.