Oct. 8th, 2023

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I’m listening to : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000613645578

If that link works, it is to If Books Could Kill, part 2 about the book Nudge.

It is profoundly validating. Michael Hobbes hating on Cass Sunstein is one of the most validating experiences of my recent life. All the episodes I’ve listened to have been amazing, but hearing Hobbes and Shamshiri call Sunstein things like sociopath and murdered is just amazing.

It’s been impossible to get people to remember Sunstein even exists, much less all the horrible things he’s done. Hobbes has the receipts.

Seriously, this podcast is incredible.
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I missed doing my before noon Duo and I’m a little frosty about it. I got up late, and A. and I are still recovering, but there were two other distractions that were sufficiently disorganizing to me to really lose track of everything.

Yesterday, I ordered a picture frame for R.’s signed poster from the Belly show. We have frames, and we could have trimmed the white border on the poster and the signatures would have been unaffected so he waffled but finally said, no, he did not want to trim it, so I ordered a bigger frame. Today, I got a package from Amazon containing a Kohler Elongated Bowl Seat. It was addressed to me. I did not order it. R. did not order it. What? Apparently, this is a misfulfilment that should have been a frame. R. figured that out looking at the status updates on the Echo Show in the kitchen. I have no idea when I would have thought of it. He was thinking, oh well, just keep the seat. I’m like, but I probably paid for it. And he’s like, no, you didn’t order it. I was like, I would need to go back and confirm all the Amazon charges for who knows how long to be sure I didn’t pay for it, tho. Fortunately, I did not start that process before he figured it out. Yay, R.! I have started the return process (replace with item originally ordered, but I think I have to wait until tomorrow or Tuesday to drop this off at The UPS store).

The _other_ distraction was the recent horrible events. I was a little too upset about it to really think about it yesterday, and sufficiently frosty to scroll when Abir showed up on TikTok without explaining why to A. But I really needed to figure that out, because that’s gonna come up at school for A., and obviously, TikTok. Rando commenters on friends posts on FB were “Putin!” but I was like, sure, plausible choice for any evil chaos, but here? Really? Now? R. seemed to think so as well, but I’m like, sure, Evil Chaos, plausible pick at all times, but there are talks coming up in a couple of days that might _finally_ normalize things between Saudi and Israel, so why aren’t we talking about Iran as a possibility? Or, conceivably, the responsible parties might be unsponsored in this activity and this is some kind of Last Gasp situation. I noted that oil producing countries in general are likely already suffering from reduced production, even if prices are higher and costs lower due to reduced exploration and development.

Diplomatic editor over at The Guardian likes the Iran idea: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/08/hamas-attack-has-abruptly-altered-the-picture-for-middle-east-diplomacy

WSJ has a quote from Hamas saying Iran and others backed the attack: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-gaza-rockets-attack-palestinians/card/hamas-says-attacks-on-israel-were-backed-by-iran-kb2ySPwSyBrYpQVUPyM9

Obviously, any kind of large scale hostage situation screams Iran, and that government is probably thinking a short, victorious war might help with their internal problems.

Anyway. A.’s been doing a unit on the Islamic Empire for the last couple weeks at school, so she had all kinds of questions. It was a good discussion.

What a depressing situation. I hope everyone makes an effort to use their words, but my optimism here is pretty limited. This does have the potential to put so much pressure on the House to result in having an actual, effective Speaker sometime much sooner than I had anticipated.

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