Four minutes into game six, I was ready to turn off the TV and go to bed because I didn’t think the Pacers belonged on an NBA court. Then things changed. Boy, did they ever change.

Reading Philip Sherrard, The Greek East and the Latin West. 📚

Not so fast, pal!

A lot of thoughtful conservatives have had to eat crow for supporting the Iraq War, famously fomented with tales of Sadaam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction. I’ve felt pretty smug because my feelings were “I suppose Dubya’s got to kill somebody after the twin towers, but ‘humbler foreign policy’ is why I voted for him.”

Now, I almost got sucked into this year’s version, guiltily half-hoping that we’d drop a bunker-buster on Iran’s deeply-subterranean centrifuge enrichment facility. Not so fast, says Ray McGovern:

Just to be clear. Since 2007, US Intelligence high-confidence judgment: Iran NOT working on nuclear weapon. Wm Burns expressed “reasonable confidence the US would detect such work relatively early on.” Ergo, “unconditional surrender” is about REGIME CHANGE. nbcnews.com/investiga…

Vaporware update:

The Trump organization is launching a new $499 smartphone and mobile plan offering unlimited talk, text, and data for $47.45 a month. The new smartphone, announced yesterday, will feature a gold-colored metal case with an etching of an American flag.

Donald Trump’s Super-Special 79th Was Not Super Special - A diary entry by a disappointed president - The Atlantic

“The devil…the prowde spirite…cannot endure to be mocked.” ( Thomas Moore)

Generalizing on something I just posted by way of reply: As I age, I become more and more ruthless about closing a book, unfinished, if it just feels like I’m throwing good time into an improvident purchase.

Why did nobody tell me about Brandolini’s Law (a/k/a the bullshit asymmetry principle)? I’ve felt it in my bones (and sore fingertips) for almost ten years now.

Fewer attacks on "No Kings" than I feared

A 39-year-old man was shot on Saturday at a “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, and later died from his injuries. Police have detained a 24-year-old suspect and two others connected to the shooting. The victim was not the shooter’s “intended target,” law enforcement officials said, stating that he was an “innocent bystander.” They added that there were no other reported disturbances at the city’s “No Kings” protests—described by its organizers as “a mass, nationwide protest rejecting authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy”—on Saturday. Meanwhile, police in Culpepper County, Virginia, arrested and charged a 21-year-old man with reckless driving on Saturday after he allegedly “intentionally” drove his SUV into a “No Kings” protest crowd, striking at least one person, though no injuries were reported.

The Morning Dispatch

Well, I was half right. I thought we’d never deport illegal immigrants en masse because their labor was too important in too many places. We started to do it anyway, then reconsidered.

GOP Senate Version of the Big Beautiful Bill Includes an Ugly Attack on Courts’ Ability to Protect Constitutional Rights

The Courts likely will invalidate this asymmetrical bond requirement as violating, for instance, the right to petition for redress of grievances.

I think I’m going to love this: “Voila – AI Assistant, Copilot and AI Writer”, an extension for Firefox.

I open an awful lot of tabs every day and would love quickly to cull things. This extension gave me a terrific summary, in outline form, of a blog post. (This one was worth the time.)

Giving out a prize for novels is a bit like a priest taking Sunday confession from the whole congregation and then giving out awards to the best ones.

Writers, Abandon Literary Prizes - by Sam Kahn - Persuasion

I literally laughed out loud.

It was good to see Oscar Robertson in the stands last night. Unfortunately, Reggie Miller was standing in front of him most of the game so I couldn’t see his reactions. He looks very good for 86.

Hard (and bitter) to realize that his high school in Indy, Crispus Attucks, was segregated.

I just spent half an hour listening to people talk about the betting odds on tonite’s NBA game. It was my most depressing half hour this week. I hate sports betting.

Okay. The critics have persuaded me. “Woke Right” is out. But we need something, and “MAGA Maoism” seems even better.

(H/T The Economist)

Poetic Theodicy:

The Knockdown Question

Why does God not spare the innocent?

The answer to that is not in
the same world as the question
so you would shrink from me
in terror if I could answer it.

(Les Murray, New Selected Poems)

The Lesson of the Moth, by Don Marquis writing as archy.

It’s a poem, so if you want to know what it means, you simply read it again. But you’ll probably get it the first time.

Term of the day: Selfie Yacht 🎭

Much good basketball in OKC tying the series with the Pacers last night, but notable to me was OKC ignoring bad calls and no-calls, just playing on. An announcer called it “goldfish memory” as if it were a strategy. It seems to have worked.

Much admiration for fellow chrome-dome Alex Caruso. 🏀

Occasionally Freddie catches fire. Today was one of those days.

The Administration’s bad faith comes home to roost already. “Trust That Had Been Earned Over Generations Has Been Lost in Weeks”

The series isn’t first to one, it’s first to four,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have four more games to get, they have three. That’s just where we are. We got to understand that and we got to get to four before they get to three, if we want to win the NBA championship. It’s that simple. It’s not rocket science. We lost Game 1. We have to be better.

Last night was the first time I saw him play. He’s good, and I like his no-nonsense, no-frills analysis.

My main blog is the Tipsy Teetotaler, http://intellectualoid.com.