Attempted takedown of a #MeToo archive fails.

For 24 hours, "Balter's Blog" and all its content went offline due to complaints. There is one leading suspect. Lessons: Be sure to back up your work, and keep on keeping on.

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RIP Olga Soffer: Pioneering archaeologist, anthropologist, and long-time friend.

Olga steadfastly supported my reporting on sexual misconduct in academia when some others ran the other way. Her courage was the calm, casual kind, and she picked her moments to speak up.

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Yes, Anthony Fauci and other major research officials tried to suppress the lab origin hypothesis for Covid origins; and yes, a conflicted group of scientists tried to help them.

A trove of documents, some revealed by a Congressional subcommittee, point to political motivations rather than science for dismissing a lab origin.

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Musical Moment: "Song to the Siren."

"The Odyssey" is back. It never went away. Tim Buckley made sure of that.

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How to destroy an organization.

We've all been there, yes? Oh, and some stray thoughts about AI.

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Update on yesterday's post: Mayor Mamdani on PM Netanyahu, in his own words.

Words For the Wise is a reader-supported publication.

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Spirit of Place: In the Land of the Lotus Eaters and that mythical visit by Odysseus.

Some say the Tunisian island of Djerba is where Homer's Odysseus encountered a drug-addled but happy population of islanders. Others, like the French, simply call it Djerba la douce.

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The female gaze on Graham Platner.

Journalist and Maine resident Rebecca Traister has some thoughts about the latest Democratic Party disaster, and so do I.

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Perhaps it's just as well that the U.S. lost to Belgium. If it had won, the victory would have been forever tainted by Trump's intervention.

Also: It's official -- Trump is a sexual predator.

michaelbalter.substack.com

On Setting Oneself on Fire

What would we sacrifice for what we believe in?

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Alleged mass dog killings at a "no-kill" sanctuary in California raise perennial questions about our responsibility to animals we have domesticated.

We've domesticated many animals, but is our own domestication complete?

michaelbalter.substack.com

On having the same birthday as Donald Trump.

Being evil makes us age faster. The proof is there.

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The high stakes battle for who will take on Mike Lawler in NY's 17th Congressional District.

Not only is taking a principled stand the moral and ethical thing to do, it is also most likely to result in electoral victory. We are seeing that right before eyes in this year's races.

michaelbalter.substack.com

L.A. dodges a bullet: Two smart women will run for mayor, the reality show idiot is gone (for now.)

Our author knew Karen Bass in the 1980s when he worked at the ACLU and she was a plaintiff in the city's famous police spying case. A look back at that heady time.

michaelbalter.substack.com

RIP Alan Riding (and so much of the American press corps in Paris.)

Riding became the New York Times' Paris bureau chief right at the time our author arrived in Paris himself and spent the next 30 years as a reporter.

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Just following orders, again. And just asking questions, again.

It took multiple layers of obedience to Trump to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and it will take multiple layers of respect (for the law this time) to get it down.

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How Israeli classrooms indoctrinate children in Jewish supremacy.

Jewish supremacy is not exactly the flip side of antisemitism, but its role should not be minimized if one wants to understand Israeli behavior.

michaelbalter.substack.com

What I Did in the War

My Vietnam era Army experiences made a man out of me, although not the kind of man the military brass intended. Today I remember the guys I knew who went off to Vietnam and didn't come back.

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The Nazis were Germans, and Israeli leaders are Jews. Right or wrong, memories can be long.

Then and now, failure to speak out constitutes complicity.

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The psychology of humor: Why is this funny?

Or is it? A PhD to anyone who can tell us, one way or the other.

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Hantavirus is a climate story.

We can't say that they didn't warn us.

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A Christian argument for birthright citizenship.

"Because every person is created in the image and likeness of God, the Church rejects the notion that some people are considered 'others' and do not possess intrinsic God-given human dignity."

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On Christianity, morality, and where the critical dividing lines are really to be found.

Bourgeois or not, sometimes morality is all that can really save us.

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Things I never did and (probably) will never do.

Also, not to be too morbid, how whole worlds disappear when we die. Still better than leaving this world as an empty vessel.

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The war is over!

Donald Trump declares the Iran war is over. Decades ago Phil Ochs declared the Vietnam War was over. He got some flak over it at the time. Lady Gaga also sang that song in 2016.

michaelbalter.substack.com

"Pro-Palestinian" and "Pro-Israel" are tribal terms that obfuscate basic human rights.

When Professor Derek Peterson praised "Pro-Palestinian" activists during his address at the University of Michigan for their stand against "Israel's war in Gaza" he was invoking basic human rights.

michaelbalter.substack.com

A modest proposal to eliminate all challenges in baseball: Get rid of the umpires!

Next step: Get rid of the players and turn baseball fans into homebound gamers.

michaelbalter.substack.com

Musical Moment: "Angelou" by Van Morrison

One of his greatest live performances, from 1979. Therapy for these troubled times.

michaelbalter.substack.com

A note to readers.

Dear readers,

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What we talk about when we talk about antisemitism. And good luck to "The Voice of Hind Rajab" this evening.

Don't talk about antisemitism unless you are willing to condemn the murderous actions by Israel that do so much to help it thrive.

michaelbalter.substack.com