Jews for Palestine, Queers for Hamas: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

/

Actual Palestinians beg to differ:

A brief history:

In 2016, Hamas militants executed one of their own commanders, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, for allegedly having sex with another man. Ishtiwi's allegiance to the group was clear: Just two years prior, he had overseen 1,000 soldiers and an assortment of attack tunnels. But not even his loyalty could save him after they lodged accusations he had engaged in homosexual activity. Prior to executing him with three bullets to the chest, Hamas reportedly tortured him by whipping him, hanging him from a ceiling for hours, and cranking loud music into his cell in order to deprive him of sleep.

Last year, in the West Bank, 25-year-old Ahmed Abu Marhia's severed head was found on the side of the road after he was murdered for being gay. The killer videoed the execution and shared it on social media. 

When it comes to "Queers for Palestine," what's richly ironic is that many LGBT Palestinians seek asylum in Israel—the same country these stateside protesters are rallying against. 

>>>

Queers for Palestine" is about as convincing as "minks for fur coats.

And those dimwitted minks aren’t alone:

Not a dry eye eye in the house

/

Does building on a temporary sandbar make sense? Who cares?

California’s wealthiest global warmists flock to pay millions for doomed weekend beach houses

Prices for beach houses in Stinson Beach - an enclave in Marin County along Bolinas Bay - have increased five-fold from $688,000 in 2000 to $3.7million in May this year, figures from Zillow show. In the past year alone home values have risen 40 percent.

It comes despite the fact county officials have repeatedly warned rising sea levels could swallow the community's beaches and damage properties. 

Forget, for a moment, the hypothetical threat of rising sea levels, and look at the picture of Stinson Beach, above. That’s nothing but a sandbar between Stinson and Bolinas, and sandbars shift and erode, regardless of sea level, because the ocean’s waves carry incredible force when they smash into the shore, and move sandbars about in entirely predictable ways: currents sweep along the shore, picking up sand in one location, and when their energy/capacity for carrying that load dissipates, they drop drop it — further down the beach or back in deeper water — and move on down the beach, hungry for more. (A clear explantation of how barrier islands are formed and destroyed can be found here, at “The Conversation”.)

If fools and tech-angels want to rush onto vulnerable seashores and spend their pocket money on temporary beach houses, that should be their business, but when they use their political power to force middle-class taxpayers to bail them out, that’s everybody’s business, or it should be.

Taxpayer-funded relief programs for these poor stars, politicians and cyber-billionaires take many forms, but here’s how one operates at Stinson Beach:

In an effort to prevent flooding from taking over the area, officials have implemented a series of measures, including building sea walls, elevating homes above the ground, expanding sand dunes, and moving buildings out of dangerous areas. 

Although rising sea levels have taken over the beach, homebuyers are still keen to take the risk, Bird said. 

These buyers aren’t “taking the the risk” for themselves; they are shifting it into the wallets of people who could never afford to join the cottagers as homeowners, or even expect an invitation to one of their whine and cheese parties. So brave, so courageous, so hypocritical.

UPDATE: I saw a headline just now referring to “Eco-Hypocrites”, and it occurred to me that “Ecocrites” would work very nicely as a label for these horrible people. So I think I’ll use it going forward. (Ooops! I just went looking, and found a reference to the term dating back to 2007, per the Urban Dictionary. Oh, well, it does sum up the character of these people, so if I can’t take pride of coinership, I can still use it.)

Profiles in courage

/

New Jersey school district apologizes for offending Muslim group with question about ISIS terror group in quiz

'The question was offensive and contrary to our values of respect, inclusivity, and cultural sensitivity'

And this brave educator’s response:

"First, I sincerely apologize on behalf of the school district. Such incidents are unacceptable and do not reflect the standards we uphold for our educational community. We understand the deep concern and disappointment this has caused among students, parents, and the broader community. It is also important to recognize that one question does not define our entire school community."

… “It is crucial to emphasize that our schools are committed to fostering safe and respectful environments for all students, regardless of background, belief, race, or religion. We have a process in place for reviewing curriculum materials and have already initiated a review of this software, [and we will] continue to "provide cultural sensitivity training to all teachers and staff."

The complaint that caused the school district’s superintendent to lose his bladder control came from the group, “Teaching While Muslim”, “Working to actively include social justice, anti-racist, and anti-Islamophobic curricula and educators in our schools.” Here’s one of the site’s milder current posts:

“He spent his life looking over his shoulder but he forgot to look both ways before crossing the street,” one police source said.

/

“Pay up, or Tony’s gonna come visit”

Genovese mobster ‘Tony Cakes’ ID’d as NYC pedestrian, 86, decapitated by DOT truck

>>>Brooklyn federal prosecutors in 2005 accused Conigliaro — who toiled for years in the wholesale cake business, selling sweets across the New York City area and running an Italian ice and gelato stand in Little Italy, according to court documents — of being a soldier in the Genovese crime family.

Conigliaro worked as a loan shark for the Genovese, the feds said in a four-count indictment.

>>> Grisly footage from the crash showed Conigliaro’s head severed several yards from his crumbled body — and a DOT driver, who was behind the wheel of a city truck when the elderly man walked against a traffic light to cross the street, looking teary-eyed and devastated.

“Now we know why that DOT guy was crying… he’s probably asking for witness protection,” one source said.

No sympathy for Mafia loan sharks.

Gone and back again

/

(Suggestive)

The 11-acre lot in Conyers Farm, 25 Upper Cross Road, reported a contract just this past May, but it’s back on the market today at the same asking price, $4.995 million.

Will no one rid us of this troublesome piece? There’s a long history for this building lot, all of it involving steadily decreasing value. Someone paid $5.575 for it in 2003; then, its tax card shows a $9 million purchase in 2007, although that might have included a to-be-built house: the record doesn’t say; a sale for an undisclosed sum in 2012; another in 2017 for $5.175, and, finally, that buyer resold it, complete with full architecture plans, to the current owner for $5.475 in June 2021.

But it took mere months for buyer’s remorse to set in, and the property was returned to the market in September ‘21 priced at $5.875. And there it has sat, going nowhere — except for its price, of course.

Pending in Riverside

/

84 Meadow Road, currently priced at $4.3 million, but it’s been on the market for 111 days, so it’s probably selling for less than that.

Excellent location, with 1 acre in the R-20 zone, and deeded rights to Willowmere’s beach, this 1923 Tudor has been brought back at least part of the way to what its builder probably intended. And it need it. These owners paid just $3.025 for it in 2020 from sellers had bought it for $2.9 million in 2004 — it had deteriorated during their ownership, putting it nicely.

Sale prices reported

/

21 Red coat

21 Red Coat Lane, $1.920 million selling price, $1.850 asked. 1965 construction, 8 days on market.

Dearfield Drive

68 Dearfield Drive, sold for $3.450 million on a 2022 asking price of $4 million. Built in 1925, it comprises 1.32 acres in the R-12 zone; the listing states that it can be divided into “at least 2 lots” and I’m sure it can, but I hope it isn’t, because this large a lot so close to town is rare, and it’d be nice if it were preserved.

The house is the former home, as of this afternoon, of Dr, Dustin and his wife.

12 Huntzinger Drive has also sold, but they’ve pulled the pictures, so I won’t bother with a link. Built in 1925, like 68 Dearfield and many other houses in town (I wonder how many of the people who built in Greenwich in the ‘20s survived the Depression?), 1.5 acres in the R-1 zone, it fetched its full asking price of $3.995 million.

Another truth hidden under the wave of global warming hysteria: coastlines erode, sandy coastlines erode faster

/

“THis is the moment when the seas will stop rising and the planet begin to heal”

Nantucket beachfront homes still coveted by buyers despite high risk of being swallowed by the sea

America’s wealthiest appear to be playing the luck of the draw when it comes to purchasing and preserving beachfront homes on one of New England's most cherished islands.

On Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, conservationists are cautioning locals that coastal erosion is strongly wearing down the island.

It's projected that by 2070, nearly 30 miles of roadway will be inundated by more than six inches of floodwater during regular high tides, according to the town’s Coastal Resilience Plan report released in 2021.

>>>

"They are willing to take on this risk [of purchasing a home] that your average individual wouldn’t in exchange for being on the water," he told Fox News Digital.

Coastal erosion differs in all parts of the country — but the process by which local sea levels rise, strong wave action and coastal flooding wear down the coastline may result in carrying away rocks, sand, soil and even structures.

Dr. Jen Karberg, senior wetland ecologist and director of research and partnerships at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, said homes falling into the ocean is nothing new, but it is being seen at an accelerated rate now. [b.s.]

"We have people that are moving here and buying houses for cash that they know are going to fall into the ocean," Karberg told Fox News Digital.

 Karberg researches coastal salt marshes, coastal dunes systems, methods on how to increase coastal resilience by using nature-based solutions and building up nature.

"Dune systems themselves are really protective to areas that are farther inland because they're what we call dynamic, because they're supposed to erode away and rebuild, and that sand is supposed to move." 

I have absolutely no problem with anyone who wants to live on a dune or sea cliff — it’s their money, and they should be free to spend it as they wish. But that same freedom should be accorded all people, especially, in this case, taxpayers living inland, who shouldn’t be forced to pay for temporary and ultimately futile, beach replenishment projects to save their reckless neighbors from their folly.