being at war with russia is bad enough, but if we lose poland, who will perform russian music for us? the poles are relatively good at it. it would be a major loss to the cultural tapestry to lose access to polish pianists.

this sucks.

poland just closed the chopin airport in warsaw due to concerns about russian movement into poland.

well. 

i've been arguing that if russia goes over the dnieper, it has to go to the vistula. it can't just stop in a field mid way and draw a line on the map a la i love lucy. they aren't the british empire. therefore, they can't cross the dnieper, as it will be world war three.

unless they've lost their fucking minds, i guess. then, they will cross the dnieper on their way to the vistula, and it is world war three.

no comment from france regarding territorial claims to the airport, yet.

the idea that qatar is some kind of neutral arbiter is absurd.

israeli strikes on the hamas leadership outside of the country - not just in iran and qatar, but also in egypt and turkey - are long overdue. israel's justified goal is the absolute elimination of hamas and that requires terminating hamas officials in other countries. they should expect that fate. it is imminent.

talking about leveraging government resources to determine a strategy to reduce or "cure" autism at it's root causes is not crazy speak, it's refreshing, and something i'd like to hear more of from the united states and any other government. you might even call it "progressive" in the legitimate early to mid-twentieth century sense of the term.

however, i'm certain that it will be determined in the end that once you diagnose autism in development using genetic analysis, the only real solution is abortion.

now, i'm actually in support of that, because i don't believe in god. i don't see the point in the burden. i'm not interested in some kind calvinist elect, or some kind of jobsian ethics play or something. the existentialist literature doesn't need this entry, or at least not by state dictate. amy connet barrett probably isn't, because she does believe in god.

there are already lots of good reasons to put restrictions on where people can smoke, and to try to get the world off of oil. the reality that air pollution is causing higher prevalences of autism is just another one to add to the already long list.

to legitimately reduce the number of cases of autism, you want to:

(1) severely limit the amount of air pollution coming from burning carbon in trains, planes, automobiles and trucks.

(2) prevent people from smoking cigarettes or marijuana indoors or near residential areas, where pregnant women exist.

these are the two major preventable causes of autism: cars and smoking, not vaccines.

it's worth pointing out that thimerosal is largely banned in canada, and the canadian government wouldn't let kids under the age of 6 anywhere near the stuff.

generally speaking, you should avoid contact with any sort of mercury for a wide variety of reasons. mercury is highly toxic to humans in any context. it has little to no legitimate use in civilian applications. you should have essentially no contact with mercury at all.

however, this isn't really about vaccines, it's about a chemical that is used to keep bacteria and fungi out of vaccines. that issue should be studied, but the reality is that it already has been, and the issue reduces to questions around proper use of the product. this isn't a concern regarding the safety or efficacy of the vaccine itself.

i would agree with my government's position, which is that it's not worth the risk of mercury exposure. there are other anti-fungal agents to use to protect the vaccines that are less dangerous to human health. the united states should follow canada's lead and eliminate the use of this product in vaccine storage.

democrats should be aware in that taking a kneejerk pro-thimerosal position, you're aligning with multinational chemical conglomerates seeking to maximize profit and not with the science, which is clear that the product is toxic.

that said, the science around the causes of autism has also advanced over the last 30 years. today, we understand that autism is caused by often random genetic mutations in the womb and isn't some kind of disease you can "catch" in childhood. the idea of a cure for autism, which is what i think rfk ultimately wants, is probably impossible, in any post-natal context. we're talking about gene editing at a very early stage of fetal development. the question as to whether environmental toxins in air and water like pollution from factories, including mercury, as well as car exhaust and second hand tobacco and marijuana smoke, may contribute to the genetic mutations causing autism in the wombs of pregnant women would be helpful public policy worth developing and responding to, in the form of increased regulations limiting emissions of harmful toxins in air and water. the trump administration has largely opposed and undone this sort of regulation of industrial emissions.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/08/trump-shares-video-highlighting-discredited-theory-linking-vaccines-to-autism-00551311

it seems a little over the top to just slaughter them all. if you had a geriatric facility full of old people and a coup died of covid, should you kill all of them?

it shouldn't be that hard to test each of them for the virus one by one and kill the ones that have it and then repeat until you're sure it's gone.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ostrich-farm-bird-cull-stayed-1.7627218