Monday: Hili dialogue Why Evolution Is True – Why Evolution Is True

Welcome to Monday, September 18, 2023, and National Cheeseburger Day. That reminds me of this SNL sketch, modeled on Chicagos Billy Goat Tavern:

There are lots of deals on cheeseburgers today (see here), including McDonalds offering a double cheeseburger (no chips, fries) for only 50!

Its also Rice Krispies Treats Day (I love em!), First Love Day (Devan Powell, 6th grade), World Bamboo Day,National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day, and World Water Monitoring Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the September 18 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Trump goofed up by denouncing Ron DeSantiss six-week abortion ban, implying that the time limit was not long enough. But of course it wont hurt Trump:

Former President Donald J. Trump, whose Supreme Court appointments led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, harshly criticized his top rival in the Republican presidential primary, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, for a six-week abortion ban that he called a terrible thing.

Mr. Trump issued his broadside which could turn off socially conservative Republican primary voters, especially in Iowa, where evangelicals are a crucial voting bloc during an interview with the new host of NBCs Meet the Press, Kristen Welker, that was broadcast on Sunday morning.

Asked whether Mr. DeSantis went too far by signing a six-week abortion ban, Mr. Trump replied: I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.

. . .In interview after interview since the repeal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Trump has ducked questions about whether he would support a federal ban on most abortions at 15 weeks the baseline position of many Republicans, including the leading anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

With Ms. Welker on Sunday, Mr. Trump again refused to clarify his position.

Whats going to happen is youre going to come up with a number of weeks or months, Mr. Trump said. Youre going to come up with a number thats going to make people happy.

But what will makeTrump happy is what GOP voters want to know. Theyll never know, but it doesnt matter. All they really want is a someone to run the country that has a narcissistic personality disorder.

*According to Reuters, new evidence has turned up that Pope Pius XII knew about the Nazi extermination of the Jews, despite the Vaticans denial:

Wartime Pope Pius XII knew details about the Nazi attempt to exterminate Jews in the Holocaust as early as 1942, according to a letter found in the Vatican archives that conflicts with the Holy Sees official position at the time that the information it had was vague and unverified.

The yellowed, typewritten letter, reproduced in Italys Corriere della Sera on Sunday, is highly significant because it was discovered by an in-house Vatican archivist and made public with the encouragement of Holy See officials.

The letter, dated Dec. 14, 1942, was written by Father Lother Koenig, a Jesuit who was in the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, and addressed to the popes personal secretary at the Vatican, Father Robert Leiber, also a German.

Vatican archivist Giovanni Coco told the Corriere that the importance of the letter was enormous, a unique case because it showed the Vatican had information that labour camps were actually death factories.

In the letter, Koenig tells Leiber that sources had confirmed that about 6,000 Poles and Jews a day were being killed in SS-furnaces at the Belzec camp near Rava-Ruska, which was then part of German-occupied Poland and is now in western Ukraine.

The newness and importance of this document derives from a fact: now we have the certainty that the Catholic Church in Germany sent Pius XII exact and detailed news about the crimes that were being perpetrated against the Jews, Coco told the newspaper, whose article was headlined: Pius XII Knew.

. . .The letter made reference to two other Nazi camps Auschwitz and Dachau and suggested that there were other missives between Koenig and Leiber that either have gone missing or have not yet been found.

Supporters of Pius say he worked behind the scenes to help Jews and did not speak out in order to prevent worsening the situation for Catholics in Nazi-occupied Europe. His detractors say he lacked the courage to speak out on information he had despite pleas from Allied powers fighting Germany.

The detractors were right.

*A while back I posted about the cancellation of Carole Hooven, who taught human evolutionary biology at Harvard, and directed that program, but then got into big trouble for speaking the truth. (She recounts this all in an article in The Archives of Sexual Behavior.) A quote from her piece:

While people might have objected to just about anything I said, simply because I said it on Fox, heres the bit that got me in real trouble:

The facts are that there aretwo sexesthere are male and female, and those sexes are designated by the kinds of gametes we produceThe ideology seems to be that biology really isnt as important as how somebody feels about themselves or feels their sex to be, but we can treat people with respect and respect their gender identities and use their preferred pronouns, so understanding the facts about biology doesnt prevent us from treating people with respect (Harvard lecturer2021).

In response to my appearance, a graduate student tweeted out a thread, representing herself in her official capacity as director of my departments Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging task force. She said, among other things, that she was appalled by my transphobic and dangerous remarks which allegedly interfered with the task forces efforts to ensure that the department was a safe space for people of all gender identities and sexes (Levine,2021).

The trouble continued, and Hooven was more or less forced out of her department. Now, though, she has been offered a job by the American Enterprise Institute, a job that she and my colleague Brian Leiter announced in these tweets (h/t cesar). Be sure to read the entirety of Caroles second tweet:

Harvard treated her execrably, and Im ashamed of my alma mater. It was all due to wokeness, of course: her department didnt support her speaking simple but unpalatable biological truths. Best of luck to her.

*In about two weeks, students will have to start repaying their loans after Bidens suspension of repayments, and forgiveness of some debt, was overturned. Although I think that decision was fair, the WSJ points out a down side.

The restart of student-loan payments could divert up to $100 billion from Americans pockets over the coming year, leaving consumers squeezed and some of the nations largest retailers fearing a spending slowdown.

Starting Oct. 1, tens of millions of student-loan borrowers willneed to make paymentsaveraging between $200 and $300 each month. The payments will mark the first timethat borrowers have had to make good on their loanssince the Education Department instituted a pause in March 2020. In the interim, they spent the money on televisions, travel, new homes and thousands of other products. That spending is one reason the economy has remained resilient in recent years, despite a surge in interest rates.

. . .What the resumption of loan payments means for the broader economy, however, is up for debate, and at least two groups watching closely disagree. Target, Walmart and other retailers that depend on discretionary spendingare concerned. Economists, on the other hand, say the renewed payments are a relatively small problem for the more than $18 trillion in annual U.S. consumer spending.

Inside Americans homes, the debate doesnt matter. Borrowers say they are curtailing their spending in meaningful ways. Making the payments will add another financial obligation torising credit-card bills,gasoline pricesandother costs, and they say uncomfortable cuts will be necessary.

Im with the economists; it seems like the reduction in discretionary spending will be small. But what do I know? Im just a poor evolutionary biologist from the country.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hilis having a good dream:

A: Are you asleep?

Hili: Yes, Im dreaming about better times.

In Polish:

Ja: pisz? Hili: Tak, ni o lepszych czasach.

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From Divy, Kitten School (cartoonist not indicated):

Nice photo, but pity about the two incorrect apostrophes. . . .

From the Absurd Sign Project:

Masih notes the widespread protests across Iran on the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini:

Titania is tweeting again:

From Malcolm; look at the tummy (and face) on that kitten!

From Simon:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, two today. First, a girl murdered on arrival; she was only ten:

And a man who lived but nine days after arrival:

Tweets from Herr Doktor Professor Cobb. Snow leopards are still endangered by poaching and habitat loss; about 10,000 remain in the wilds of Asia.

I quote-tweeted this one sent by Matthew:

The comments take issu with Hemingways own claims: have a look. (I tend to believe Hem.)

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Monday: Hili dialogue Why Evolution Is True - Why Evolution Is True