Discworld QOTD, from Going Postal

U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil

What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”

If you don’t follow this stuff it’s difficult to overstate how far ahead of us China is on EVs (and renewables). They’ve already won. We’d need a wartime economy dedicated to both to catch up.

It's impolite to call Musk a genocidal white nationalist because "civility" in American discourse functions not as a neutral procedural norm but as an asymmetric weapon to shield the powerful from accurate moral characterization while policing the tone of those who object.

People don’t wanna put two and two together with what he did to usaid and him putting up those maps of global birthrates and saying white people are being replaced

Seems to me if you think you have divine sanction for your warmongering when it goes badly you have to consider the opposite proposition but they never seem to!

It turns out that breaching the wall between church and state means that some branches of Christianity are officially elevated over others. Who could have known? When in the last 500 years could such a lesson possibly have been learned?

I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake By A Horse Hello. I am a horse. I work very hard at my job of being a horse. When humans say move the heavy thing, I move the heavy thing. When humans sit on top of me and pull on my head, I carry them where they want to go. The main food the humans give me is hay and oats. But I am thinking it would be nice to have a different food. I am thinking I would like to try cake. Yes, yes. Cake. I know all about it. When humans eat cake, it is in glad times. It is the food for a celebration, such as when a woman becomes 47. I have seen cake on the Fourth of July. When humans have a cake, they stand around it and clap hands and smile and say happy birthday at each other. Sometimes there are beautiful markings on a cake, such as balloons or a pink shape. Sometimes the top of a cake is on fire and a boy must blow on the fire with mouth wind. This is the scariest cake. I do not want this kind. But I will eat any other cake. Any cake that is not the fire cake that tries to kill the boy. Please understand: I do not get money for doing work. I do not get to go inside the house. All I am either doing my horse job or standing in my pen or eating food off the floor. I always do these things. But I have never once gotten cake and I would like it very much. I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children. I am more helpful to the farm. Children do not move the heavy things like me or let anyone ride on them. And yet they get cake. Maybe the humans will realize this. Maybe they will say, "You know who deserves cake? That horse. That horse whose back we are always on." Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and putt my nose at it like hrrfff to make and stomping my hooves to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large. After that, I will nuzzle the cake to …

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me.

It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

If there isn’t a little guy in the corner of the screen that gradually morphs over the course of the episode I refuse to watch.

tweet from @theseantcollins: JESUS CHRIST (ninth hour): Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? GOOFY (present at the crucifixion): Gawrsh

tweet from @david8hughes: Judas: still on for Friday? Jesus: Friday? Judas: yeah, the last supper Jesus: the what? Judas: supper. Normal supper with the fellas

there are two absolutely canonical Good Friday posts

The dichotomy of two cats. My perfect little baby girl and then this absolute UNIT.

The Biden debate performance that ended his presidency was one-tenth as addled as what I'm watching right now.

Covid will just go away.

Iranian control over the Strait will just go away.

Sorry but in what world has Trump been "intently focused on making sure Iran never had the nuclear fuel in hand to build a nuclear weapon," let alone for the last decade?

He withdrew from the JCPOA to spite Obama, and because it was what every Republican wanted him to do.

Roe v. Wade was a 7-2 decision. But reactionaries made it their white whale, and spent 50 years building a far-right Supreme Court that would overturn it. I’m not saying the same thing will happen with birthright citizenship. I’m just saying that any dissent in this case will leave that door open.

Alito will get his revenge by gutting the Voting Rights Act

Just so you understand, this is as if you prepared for argument in front of a panel that included Cookie Monster, and Cookie Monster asked you a question about cookies, and you had not thought about cookies in advance.

But behind the scenes, Israeli officials have conveyed a more targeted message. In private calls to local leaders across southern Lebanon, Israeli military officials have assured several Christian and Druse communities that they could remain in the evacuation zone. They have pressed them, however, to force out any Lebanese from neighboring Shiite Muslim communities who have sought refuge among them as Israeli bombardment flatten Shiite towns, according to local Christian, Druse and Shiite leaders who spoke to The New York Times. The Shiites make up the majority of southern Lebanon.

So what this describes is ethnic cleansing www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...

Gorsuch to the SG (federal government): I wouldn't rely on Wong Kim Ark (case recognizing birthright citizenship) if I were you.

There are at least 5 votes against the federal government. (Whew.) Question if there's more than 1 for them. (Even 1 is appalling.)

An unfortunate loss for all of us. Sorry to see this happen.

Doesn't seem like "J-pilled" stands for what the NYT says it stands for. That first letter probably refers to something else.

In 1869, a year after the 14A was ratified, the Lord Chief Justice articulated the common law rule on natural born subjects, shown here.

Compare that with Thomas Jefferson’s 1783 notes on the common law.

Is there any evidence that the LJC and TJ were wrong, but Professor Wurman et al. are right?

The essence of all the Russia stuff from the first campaign and first term
was that Trump was an insider threat to the US, NATO, the UN, etc.—a manifest danger to the whole complex of post-WWII arrangements to defend free societies, stave off world wars, and advance the cause of human rights.

In what world is it okay for the Defense Secretary to make multi-million dollar investments in defense companies:
a) Ever;
b) In the run-up to starting a war in the Middle East

FT has the scoop: www.ft.com/content/744e...

In a functional democracy, he would offer his resignation tonight.

I was 13 in 2008, and it’s been really jarring today to see numbers from Tea Party protests compared to No Kings turnout because I remember just based on the news at the time that the Tea Party was this all-encompassing national movement.

The NYT is being disingenuous here. The AMA has *always* said that gender-affirming surgeries should generally be reserved for adults. That's part of why so few kids get them!

The AMA reiterated this position and the NYT is characterizing it as a policy change. It's not.

I know I’m a broken record on this but:

A handful of law profs are engaging in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to accept a reactionary administration’s effort to redefine American citizenship and render countless children stateless.

I don’t see anything here to explain the “impersonating a police officer” charge.

But also, it’s chilling how the officers play with these people’s lives. Stopped him for a scooter violation, and seem to refer him to ICE on a whim. If they hadn’t, he’d still be alive.

Ricky Buria is Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff.

taylor swift and alysa liu at the iheart awards

YESSSSS