u/Hog-Drop

A little off topic but I lurk this sub occasionally. Standard wisdom seems to be that high fat items will go rancid quickly. This replayed in my head a few days ago as I was breaking apart a desiccated chicken foot into smaller pieces and liquid fat was just coating my hands. They never smell particularly good either, but none of his treats do.

A lot of the whole animal part treats in the open bins at the pet stores will be higher fat cuts? Is there a reason they doesnt have to worry about rancidity?

Why does an Israeli driver speed up when another car signals its intent to enter his traffic lane? Because he doesn't want to be a freier--a sucker.

What do Israelis say when dodging military reserve duty? "What do I look like, a freier?"

And how does the Club Riviera advertise its five-star apartments? "Only Freiers Pay More!"

If Israelis could agree on anything--a highly unlikely prospect, but if they could--it just might be that the cardinal sin is to be a freier.

"It's a national characteristic," said author Zeev Chafets, who included a chapter on the subject in his book about Israelis, "Heroes and Hustlers, Hard Hats and Holy Men." The topic "is something we talk about all the time."

A freier, in Israeli eyes, is a shopper who waits in line to pay retail. It is a driver who searches for legal parking rather than pulling onto the sidewalk with the other cars. And if he does this in a rush to file a tax return, he is the consummate freier.

In short, a freier is anyone who cedes ground, plays completely by the rules or allows someone to get the better of him. The ideal Israeli is clever and tough, and a freier is the opposite. A pushover--in the way that Israelis often perceive Americans to be.

Last time I ordered something international, UPS charged me a huge fee to handle the tarrif paperwork and they were not very up-front about it. USPS does the paperwork free of charge, you still have to pay the tarrif. I'm trying to see how much of a headache it is to use them in the current import environment.

Two weeks ago I reflected on how the democratic fundraising machine is like the documentary Telemarketers (2023) but essentially an order of magnitude worse. Well some lib data dork has been working on a piece exposing just that for a year but these scam firms kept suing the publications that were going to publish the story. He decided to publish the story on substack today and I am further vindicated in my comparison with how they target the elderly in such a predatory way.

Submission statement: An article about the growing number of emigrants from Israel. Many people have chosen to move out of Israel over the past few years, both because of the turmoil of war and the air raids that they have spent three years needing to fear and also in part due to dissatisfaction with the shift towards illiberalism and the Netanyahu government. This could have major socioeconomic implications for Israel. They have long been a nation of immigrants and also one that relies heavily on high human capital and the emigration shift could threaten that.

Houston Chronicle is paywalled so below is the article text.

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Both of our major political parties are being overtaken by virulent strains of populism. On the right, MAGA has normalized corruption, misinformation and open bigotry. On the Democratic side, avowed socialists have been winning primaries, bringing closer to power politicians whose agendas pose a distinct threat to the country’s long-term economic health.

No single factor caused this deterioration. But one contributor has been the tendency of politicians and intellectuals who should know better to place partisan interests above the greater good. We cannot criticize the crazy people on our own side, the thinking goes, without giving the opposition an advantage and helping it gain power.

Escaping this undesirable state of affairs will require leadership, along with concrete steps to build reciprocal trust across the political aisle. Toward that end, I have a simple proposal: Nationally prominent Republicans should reject Ken Paxton and support James Talarico in the Texas Senate race. At the same time, Democrats should reject Abdul El-Sayed and support Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race. Members of each party should do this in the context of creating a bipartisan movement of politicians, activists, intellectuals and donors that is both clear-eyed about political realities and optimistic that we can make things better.

Luckily, prediction markets and prognosticators consider each race a toss-up, meaning no party would gain a clear advantage from such a movement. If both efforts succeeded, Republicans and Democrats would simply exchange one seat apiece while preventing two unusually bad candidates from entering the Senate.

Paxton is a generationally corrupt politician. In 2023, the Texas House impeached him by a vote of 121–23 — a bipartisan majority that included more than 70 percent of House Republicans — over allegations that he abused his office to assist a wealthy donor and retaliated against whistleblowers who reported him. He stayed in office after Donald Trump took an interest in the story and pressured Republicans to vote to acquit him in the Senate.

Meanwhile, in nominating El-Sayed, Michigan Democrats have selected a candidate on the party’s far-left edge. He has repeatedly campaigned with Hasan Piker, a socialist streamer who called Mao Zedong “one of the great leaders of this world” and defended Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea as justifiable.

Partisans will find much to dislike about Talarico and Rogers. But neither has revealed himself to be remotely as corrupt as Paxton or shown El-Sayed’s willingness to embrace radical left-wing economic policies and align himself with apologists for authoritarianism.

The parties could continue fighting for control of the Senate everywhere else on the map. Rather than gambling on winning both races and risking the election of both Paxton and El-Sayed, each side would accept one victory and one defeat.

Of course, it would be foolish to expect every Republican or Democrat to sign on to such a plan. But it would take only a few prominent political figures from each side to turn their effort into a major national story.

One problem our politics has faced in recent years has been the difficulty of inspiring moderate and independent voters who are sick of partisanship, corruption, and politicians embracing the most odious figures on the left and right. A Rogers-Talarico bargain could give those voters something to believe in. And because both races are competitive, there is a plausible chance that such a movement could tip each contest toward the more acceptable candidate.

This path would, of course, involve risk. What if Republican-leaning voters in Texas did the right thing and rejected Paxton while Michigan Democrats didn't, or vice versa? Any political figure who endorses a member of the opposing party while control of the Senate hangs in the balance would be opening themselves up to attacks from within their coalition. Still, some leaders and intellectuals might see an advantage in betting on a future politics that is less acrimonious and destructive than what we have now.

The combination of these two terrible candidates and their being involved in two similarly competitive races creates a rare opportunity. If either contest were a blowout, there would be little possibility of a positive-sum arrangement that placed the interests of the country above those of either party.

Seizing the opportunity now provided will require real leadership. If American politics ever moves in a healthier direction, the nation will be deeply indebted to those who showed courage during an era in which it was conspicuously absent.

Richard Hanania is the president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology.

Primus really knows how to make a music video

I just had my third kind of date, Mazafati/Kimia/Bam. Apparently it has a lot of different names but the ones I grabbed styled themselves as Kimia. I liked it and would rank it above a Deglet Nour, but below a Medjool. Deglet and Medjool are pretty much the only ones you can get here outside of ethnic markets. I happened across a box of these Kimia dates at an Indian market I buy produce from.

The flesh was crazy soft, and an extremely loose paste. The skin was dry and slightly papery, lifted from the flesh in most places. If the skin was a little less noticeable I would like it more. It wasn't bad per se but in contrast with the very soft pulp, I didn't find it enjoyable.

Size wise it is about half as big as a good sized Medjool and maybe a bit smaller than a deglet. The pit was smaller than I expected for the size of the date.

It taste sweeter than a Medjool but a little less complex. I like that Medjools have a varied flavor from date to date. In shell roasted peanuts have this quality too, varied flavor from nut to nut. Maybe I need to try a few different sources of Kimia, idk. I wouldn't choose it over Medjool unless it was like half the price but again, I did like them. Deglet I only use for stuffed or cooked aplications where I need more structure.

What are some must try varieties? Do date cultivars grow true to seed? Are their any hermaphrodite varieties like with papaya or does every variety need a male and female plant?

Sorry for no photos, but I ate the whole box.