Tag: antisemitism

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October begins two-for-two with Pook-Emu Bee Links before our regularly scheduled Saturday off-day for the Newsletter Leaf Journal.

I think they’re hoping you get the hint

1 | Japan announces new permanent residency guidelines, foreigners must earn more than average Japanese person (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. Oct. 1, 2026.)
The earning threshold shouldn’t be too hard to hit. 10 years residence for non-marriage cases however… They’re definitely trying to tell you something. To his credit, article author Casey Baseel appears to get the hint. Meanwhile, the United States still has the Diversity Visa program on the books, wherein we randomly hand out visas to people who have achieved a high school diploma (not great, not the best).

2 | Mamdani Will Be Honored Alongside Group with Alleged Ties to Iranian Regime (Adam Lehodey and Daniel Edward Rosen for City Journal. Oct. 1, 2026.)
I was all but certain the group would be NAIA before opening the article. Did this really need two enterprising reporters? We could also drop the “alleged” for a more to-the-point headline.

We’re going to need you to think this through

3 | Bishops warn inflexible vetting rules could bar eligible family members from taking in migrant kids (Tessa Gervasini for EWTN. Aug. 26, 2026.)
We had a four-year experiment with dropping vetting standards and the results were rather subpar on many levels, so this warning can be safely disregarded.

4 | Prostitution busts plunge 60% — but hookers multiply — in NYC’s infamous ‘Market of Sweethearts’ (Rich Calder, Tina Moore, and Adry Torres for the New York Post. Sep. 27, 2026.)
“But” is doing some incredible heavy-lifting in this headline.

Unexpected angles

5 | New York Public Library hosted author who compared Israel to a ‘dog shelter’ (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.)
Does Nicholas Kristoff know about this?

6 | Anthropic Co-Founder Daniela Amodei Kept ‘Personal Advisory Council’ of Stuffed Animals to Solve Problems (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. Oct. 1, 2026.)
My first though here was “this explains so much.”

It’s not bad

7 | Firefox 157 arrives with major UI redesign, compact mode, and hardware AV1 video decoding (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 30, 2026.)
The new compact mode is good is welcome.

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I have not had much time to post new articles (long or short lately), but let us get the last full week of September off to a good start with a new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee.

1 | Linux 7.3 Adds Support For Victrix Pro BFG & Azeron Controllers (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. Sep. 20, 2026.)
I have questions here. First, why is that controller $269? Second, why does it look like a hand with six fingers? I can’t weigh in on the new Linux support until those threshold questions are answered.

2 | Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure Switch Review (Game Slush Pile. Sep. 19, 2026.)
The review makes it sound uninspiring. But what if you tried playing it with the “hand” controller? (See above.)

3 | NYC judge fails to take bite out of crime after repeat offender chomps on cop (Tina Moore for the New York Post. Sep. 19, 2026.)
I understand that the pro-crime judge is reluctant to remand anyone to custody, but what if we compromised and all agreed to send him to the pound?

4 | Hyperlocal New York City publications are having a moment (Hannah Frishberg for Gothamist. Sep. 17, 2026.)
I added a few of these to my feed collection. We’ll see if there are any Pook-Emu Bee links to be had.

5 | Judge Strikes Down Controversial Rule Changes Benefitting Embattled Brooklyn Party Boss (The City Repoter (via The Haitian Times). Sep. 17, 2026.)
Call me a romantic but I’m not counting out the possibility that Frank Seddio still has some magic left (see link 9 in Pook-Emu Bee 08-27-26). There are some notable contextual omissions in this ostensibly straightforward news report, but I choose to stick with the Seddio jokes.

6 | NYC ‘animal lover’ accused of stealing beloved bodega cat furiously claims she was unfairly arrested (Georgett Roberts and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. Sep. 16, 2026.)
Pro-tip: If your position is that you are just a cat lover who genuinely thought the cat was a stray, try to avoid repeatedly referring to the cat you claim you thought you were rescuing as the “f—ing cat.”

7 | AOC Blasts Patriots Owner Robert Kraft for ‘Censoring’ Macklemore from Criticizing Israel (Dylan Gwinn for the New York Post. Sep. 16, 2026.)
Strange. Here I thought the Congresswoman was a big fan of Israel-related boycotts.

8 | After Landmarks Review, Hotel Bossert Moves Ahead With Reno, Ritz-Carlton (Anna Bradley-Smith for Brownstoner. Sep. 16, 2026.)
It sounds like the new owners are working in good faith to maintain the landmark while getting it up and running again. I approve.

9 | Who Is feeding the sudden panic about AI? (Issues & Insights. Sep. 15, 2026.)
The big AI companies and their lobbyists (both of the witting and unwitting variety). I try to be a reality-based AI critic as I fight to keep the scrapers from crashing my sites (preventing stealing my stuff is nice but sometimes you have to focus on the practical wins). That leads us to a fitting final link…

10 | Daily News Stuff 20 September 2026 (Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony. Sep. 20, 2026.)
The replies to excerpts from AI safety conversations have gotten unbelievable made me laugh and reminded me of how my friend was able to make himself look smart in front of friends and colleagues by sharing my 2021 election wisdom that, notwithstanding the polls, there was in fact no scenario wherein Andrew Yang would become Mayor of New York City.

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For the first time in about a week (if not a little more), I do not have a tight work deadline. Thus, I present you with a relatively leisurely edition of the Pook-Emu Bee to kick off September.

Three white flowers and leaves, shot from overhead. In the top right corner we see a bee flying toward the flowers.
Note the bee in the top right. I took this photograph in Brooklyn Bridge Park on August 28, 2026.

1 | Expression After Hit By Car (Ojai Raptor Center (via Owl’s in Towels). Oct. 11, 2024.)
That raptor has seen more things than the original raptors.

2 | GrapheneOS might skip the Pixel 11 series over the lack of MTE hardware security support (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 1, 2026.)
Pixels are going in the wrong direction, but my (LineageOS-powered) 3a XL is going stron[-ish].

3 | Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux (Sourav Rudra for It’s FOSS. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I don’t run iOS (see above), but this looks like a neat project for Linux/iOS people. I have now done my PSA duty for the week.

4 | “A Cute Little LibGen Babysitter”: Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Founders Over Torrenting Spree (Ernesto Van der Sar for Torrent Freak. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m somehow not surprised that the Claude leadership described their thoughts about torrenting pirated works contemporaneously in the style of teenage girls keeping a diary.

5 | The 3DO Is Getting A New DOOM-Esque Shooter Featuring The Voice Of Silent Hill’s Lisa Garland (Sep. 1, 2026.)
Having conquered ONScripter-EN, should I make my next visual novel for 3DO?

6 | Dem AG urges Jewish voters to put humanity above ‘safety and security’ of own people (Alec Schemmel for Fox News. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I could state the obvious here. But instead I will offer a more novel take. How in the world did a woman with these political instincts win state-wide office in one of the biggest states in the union?

7 | I built my own streaming box, and it beats every smart TV I’ve owned (Anurag Singh for XDA. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I just use a mini PC running Fedora with KDE Plasma. With that being said, I should really test out LineageOS with Waydroid on my TV.

8 | Homan Denies Yiannopoulos Deported Quickly to Bypass ICE Detention (Pam Key for Breitbart. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I know this is going to be hard for a reporter at CNN to understand, so we can go slowly. Detention occurs in the course of removal proceedings or in the period after an alien has been ordered removed but has not for one reason or another been removed. Mr. Yiannopoulous had already been ordered removed in absentia, apparently did not seek to reopen his removal proceedings, and did not otherwise try to obstruct his removal to the United Kingdom, which apparently did not refuse to accept the return of its national (between the return of Prince Harry and Mr. Yiannopoulous, they are having a rough stretch). Thus, Mr. Yiannopoulous was removed expeditiously after DHS performed a social media touchdown dance instead of being detained pending nothing whatsoever. With my “Ted Talk” completed, I will note with some surprise that the new position of CNN is “the prompt execution of removal orders is special treatment.”

9 | Aki 2026 Banuzke Analysis (Fantasy Basho. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m thinking about putting together some detained predictions for the upcoming Aki Banuzke. Not fantasy though. Real, ice-cold predictions.

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It is time to wrap up another perfect five-for-five Pook-Emu Bee work-week before we take tomorrow off for Newsletter Saturday.

Life Updates

I shared a photo of my new (Ebay, so “new”) Wacom One drawing tablet yesterday. While the “drawing” works as expected, I cannot get it to display an image. I think the annoying Wacom “X cable” is the issue, so I am ordering a replacement from B&H to see if that is correct before I move for a refund. In any event, I tested it on different computers to make sure it was not a computer-specific issue. That inspired me to pull out my touchscreen Fujitsu Lifebook, which I “upgraded” last fall with a new SSD and RAM (not to mention a replacement battery) but subsequently forgot due to being busy. It is now upgraded to Fedora 44.

Fujitsu Lifebook showing KDE Plasma lockscreen.
My Fujitsu Lifebook with the KDE Plasma lockscreen.

I have an article project centered on this Fujitsu. You may think from the lockscreen that it is running KDE Plasma. That is sort of true, but not the full story. It is technically running Fedora’s KDE Plasma Mobile Spin. How many Plasma Mobile-on-laptop articles are there? Add it to my to-do list.

Links

1 | WordPress..Just Why? (JanerationX. July 23, 2026.)
Speaking as someone who has been a WordPress admin for more than six years, I have my fair share of complaints. With that being said and speaking solely for myself (granting different people have different needs and use-cases), I strongly prefer self-hosted WordPress (as in the software, not the service) to service-dependent solutions such as Pika, Bear Blog, Pagecord, and Neocities, and I would take WordPress over Ghost because it is more flexible. But for some people, some of the solutions noted by JanerationX would be better options, and were I starting today I may have opted for a different solution than WordPress, albeit none of the ones singled out for mention in the linked post.

2 | Comic Number 773 (Li Chen. August 21, 2026.)
Be careful what you say on the robot podcast.

3 | ‘GTA VI’ hackers threaten a nightmare scenario (Molly Liebergall for Morning Brew. August 21, 2026.)
I sincerely doubt any meaningful number of people will refrain from purchasing GTA VI due to leaks. For one, people who are excited for the story can avoid the leaks. For two, my understanding is that GTA focuses on game-play, it is not a movie or kinetic visual novel. Of course, I am not buying it regardless, so what I do I know?

4 | Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta (John Rowitch for NPR. August 19, 2026.)
I have not had an account having any nexus to a Meta property since I deleted my Facebook account in mid-to-late 2009 (I actually did not “make” that account, but that is a story for another day). My break-out article on NLJ involved my advocating for RSS/ATOM feeds over Facebook News for keeping abreast of worldly affairs. Finally, I have had less-than-positive things to say about children using TikTok, which, while not Meta, evinces that I have some interest in the negative effects of social media and children. Having noted the foregoing, I must concur with Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony (who gets a HT here) that the particulars of the concerns articulated by Mr. Béjar and 29 U.S. states are at best amorphous and fail to live up to the promise of the states’ allegations. Less charitably, I think I am dumber for having read that article.

5 | Diocese in Ghana restores remaining liturgical practices restricted during COVID-19 pandemic (Sabrina Amboka for EWTN News. August 20, 2026.)
I had to check the date to make sure they did not accidentally re-publish something from 5 years ago.

6 | Judge in Harvard Antisemitism Case Was Anti-Israel, Anti-War Activist, McGovern Campaign Aide (Ira Stoll for The Washington Free Beacon. August 18, 2026.)
There’s something charming about a McGovern presidential campaign controversy poping up as a story in 2026.

7 | AnduinOS is Windows without the frustration, and it just cracked the top 15 distros (João Carrasqueira for XDA Developers. August 17, 2026.)
This is the first I heard of it. Setting aside the fact that the Distrowatch rankings do not correspond to the real world, I would consider myself a skeptic of trying to make a Linux desktop look exactly like Windows out of the box. But assuming the review is accurate, AnduinOS sounds like a reasonable implementation of the idea that is trying to do its own thing to make for an interesting Linux experience. It is not something I would use, but I could see use-cases for the concept.

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Let us complete our perfect Pook-Emu Bee link week before our regularly scheduled day off for Newsletter Saturday.

A brown wooden TV shelf with doors seen on the sidewalk in front of a large pile of trash bags. A note taped to the top says "FREE /GOOD CONTITION"
I spotted this TV cabinet in Downtown Brooklyn at approximately 7:40 in the evening on June 28, 2026. The note says “Free / Good Condition”

1 | Sekiwake Wakatakakage Begins Rehabilitation After Narrowly Avoiding Leg Amputation in Emergency Surgery (Sumostats. July 29, 2026.)
Scary stuff. Hoping first for a safe and speedy recovery and second for him to quickly return to the lofty rank he achieved with his win in the May Basho once he is back in competition.

2 | Sixth Circuit Reverses Pretrial Release for Antifa Member Accused of ICE-Related Threats (Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. August 14, 2026.)
Excellent. Quoting the opinion of the Court: “The Bail Reform Act focuses on the danger the defendant poses to ‘any other person and the community.’ The district court’s views on the Executive Branch’s immigration policy have no bearing on that inquiry….”

3 | Tankhouse to Raze Historic Boerum Hill Church After $28.25 Million Purchase (Anna Bradley Smith for Brownstoner. August 13, 2026.)
Funny timing. I was just sitting there thinking to myself “what we need is more ugly tall buildings designed by architects who read too many Superman comic books.” The news has a way of delivering.

4 | Preview: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Dials The ‘Three Houses Formula’ Up To 11 (Jim Norman for Nintendo Life. August 13, 2026.)
It looks great. I dare say this is the first game to make not buying a Switch 2 sting. But I’m still not throwing down $500+ for a Switch 2 and Fortune’s Weave.

5 | Simon & Schuster Doubles Down on Notorious Writer Who Calls Jews ‘Ghouls,’ Will Publish Her New Novel: Writer Taunts Angry ‘Zionists’ Who Oppose Her Deal (Jon Levine for The Washington Free Beacon. August 13, 2026.)
I suppose the question is was she published by Simon & Schuster despite being an Islamist terrorist-supporting antisemite or because she is an Islamist terrrorist-supporting antisemite? I have my suspicions it’s the latter.

6 | I finally switched Linux desktops, and COSMIC is the one to blame (João Carrasqueira for XDA Developers. August 10, 2026.)
Cosmic looks interesting but I will stick with KDE for my daily driver needs for the foreseeable future (certainly at least until Cosmic is “stable”).

7 | Sweet Hamster Days Game Review (Bolts for Anime News Network. August 14, 2026.)
This is certainly a visual novel concept. A good concept? I didn’t say that. But it’s A concept.

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Pook-Emu Bee links are so real now that we’re delivering on Sundays.

Statue of Mary casting a shadow against the stone wall of a cathedral.
I took this photograph outside the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights on August 6, 2026.

1 | Tracking Bees with a Stereo Camera (Al Williams for Hackaday. August 8, 2026.)
A fitting entry in light of today’s New Leaf Journal review of A Taste of Honey.

2 | RV Steelhead (Tugster: A Waterblog. August 8, 2026.)
Survey research of a survey vessel.

3 | Why some tech users are ditching Android for Linux phones (Maya Brooks for Northeast Times. August 6, 2026.) (HT Tux Machines.)
This reminds me that I need to write about my experiences with Ubuntu Touch… and by extension my return to LineageOS.

4 | Mamdani taps Israel-hating, anti-cop radicals for NYC school board (David Spector for the New York Post. August 8, 2026.)
The headline is accurate but it leaves out the weird overcompensating dude who wants to create race-segregated discussion groups (and pursued that agenda while working in DOE during the de Blasio administration).

5 | Most Googlebots are fake (Bobbie Chen for Digital Seams. July 26, 2026.) (HT Lazy Reading.)
I don’t doubt it but I will submit that to the best of my recollection, NLJ was never brought to heel by a bot falsely advertising itself as Googlebot. Most of the bots that hit NLJ aggressively enough to take it down had generic user agents. In one case it was Scrapy.

6 | Linux 7.2 Drops Ancient PROFIBUS Driver: Ported From SCO Unix In 1998, Unused For Years (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. June 25, 2026.)
I never heard of this driver but dropping it from the Linux kernel both disgusts and offends me. I’m switching to Windows 98.

7 | Linux gaming got so big that even GOG couldn’t ignore it anymore (Simon Batt for XDA Developers. August 7, 2026.)
I approve of the respect for Linux. With that being said, despite my having a collection of GOG games, I will probably stick with using Lutris since I use Lutris as a WINE front-end for some non-GOG games.

8 | Woke Canadian deported for slapping teens wearing MAGA clothing faces one final humiliation as she’s banished from the US (Eliot Force for Daily Mail. August 5, 2026.)
I wonder what her lawyer thought when he realized that he had so little to work with that he was going to have to go with her having engaged in unauthorized employment as being a positive equity.

9 | Have an Intel Mac or Old Windows PC? Revive It With One of These 20 Fun DIY Projects (Eric Griffin for PC Mag. August 5, 2026.)
Suggestions 1-3 and 6-7 are good. I’d throw in making a designated machine for retro games, albeit that is arguably a subset of 1 and/or 2, Starts grasping at straws toward the end, but points for creativity.

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Today is Friday. That means it is time for our last Pook-Emu Bee link collection of the week (Saturday’s links come in the Newsletter Leaf Journal).

1. Gemini adds personalized AI image generation using your preferences (Fla for AlternativeTo. April 17, 2026.)

Google Gemini now enables users to generate deeply personalized images, with Nano Banana 2, by drawing on their preferences and Google Photos content. This new feature uses Personal Intelligence to automatically incorporate user context, reducing the need for detailed prompts or manual image uploads.

Cambridge Dictionary definition of facepalm.

2. Japanese man gets prison sentence and million-yen fine for writing monetized “spoiler-heavy” summaries of movies and anime (Dorde P for Automation West. April 17, 2026.)

While I support copryight, I’m not so sure about this one (on the underlying merits, separate from the stiff punishment). But I render no final “judgment” since I’m not familiar with Japanese laws or the website in question beyond the summary.

3. UK Greens demand US foots bill if fans barred over social media ahead of World Cup (Anne-Laure Dufeal for Brussels Signal. April 17, 2026.)

I understand the concerns of the UK Green Party in light of their foreign policy positions, which are often contrary to U.S. foreign policy positions and terrorism designations. Having considered their concerns, I render my response as an American: “No.”

4. Apple and Google Continue to Offer ‘Nudify’ Apps that Use AI to Generate Deepfake Porn (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. April 16, 2026.)

Yes, but at least Google banned Doki Doki Literature Club. Please focus on the important things.

5. President Trump congratulates Tanajit Sandhu on becoming Lt. Governor of Delhi (Donald. J. Trump (via Trump’s Truth). April 16, 2026.)

Mixed in with many “truths” about ball room litigation and legal standing, potentially compromised former intelligence officials and podcast hosts, war in Lebanon, and local race endorsements. Sure, why not?

6. George Washington University Hires Federal Judge Overseeing Antisemitism Lawsuit Against It To Teach ‘Ethics and Discretionary Judgment’ (Jessica Costescu for The Washington Free Beacon. April 16, 2026.)

I find myself reminded of the legal manuverings of Frank Seddio in Brooklyn (see Newsletter 252 comment).

7. PC Makers Have Apparently Cracked the Code on Supply Shortages: Stop Making Hardware Regular Gamers Can Afford (Muhammad Zuhair for wccftech. April 3, 2026.)

Not a problem if you stick to my al|together visual novel review series.

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Today is April 1. It is both April Fools and the first day of Passover (happy Passover to any Jewish readers!). I do not have a new April Fools joke prepared, but maybe there will be something April Fools-related in this edition of Pook-Emu Bee,

Links from around the web

1. Israel halts all defence purchases from ‘anti-Semitic’ France (Carl Deconinck for Brussels Signal. March 31, 2026.)

France has finally achieved what it has been passively aggressively working toward since October 7, 2023.

2. Judge Leon Blocked The East Wing Ballroom Based on Offended Observer Standing (Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. March 31, 2026.)

This is a good legal analysis but Mr. Blackman failed to ask whether the public can claim offended observer standing against a legal decision which includes 18 exclamation points.

3. It May Be April Fool’s Day, But This Week’s Arcade Archives Release Is No Joke (Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. April 1, 2026.)

Should I buy this and learn shogi? I’m tempted…

4. Running a Game on a PC with no System RAM (Maya Posch for Hackaday. March 31, 2026.)

Nice preview of our game PC future after Sam Altman destroys all the RAM. Look, there are worse games out there than Snake. Years ago, my good friend Victor V. Gurbo had me play Life is Strange and Detroit: Become Human. I’d prefer Snake.

5. The email list cleaning conundrum (Matthew Guay for Buttondown Blog. September 26, 2025.)

I sit back and trust Buttondown to handle my email list clean-up.

6. ‘More AI Slop than AI Magic’: WSJ Reveals the Reason OpenAI Suddenly Shut Down Sora (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. March 30, 2026.)

On one hand I struggle to believe that the people at OpenAI are as stupid as they want us to believe. On the other hand, they do like the taste of their own Kool Aid, so I can’t rule out the possibility.

April Fools

7. Expert Gamer’s 1999 Yoshi in Pokémon April Fools Prank (Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 1, 2021.)

My personal favorite video game April Fools joke from back in the day.

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I was inconsistent in publishing daily Pook-Emu Bee links last week. But I am on the ball this week. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.

Links from around the web

1. Japanese Pokémon Pokopia player invents fully automated resource-collecting facility, but it involves Pokémon slavery (Carlos “Zoto” Zotomayor for Automation West. March 16, 2026.)

This reminds me that I need to play Pokémon Black/White 1 and 2.

2. The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Season 2 Main Trailer Unveils Masayoshi Ōishi’s Opening Song (Joanna Cayanan for Anime News Network. March 16, 2026.)

This reminds me that I need to catch up on the better part of three anime seasons (although I will watch Angel Next Door as a simulcast given my extensive coverage of it).

3. Swastika scrawled on Brooklyn building as antisemitic attacks increase in NYC (Barbara Russo-Lennon for AMNY. March 15, 2026.)

The offensive graffiti was found on the facade, near the entrance, of a vacant storefront at 16 Court St. in Brooklyn Heights on March 13.

16 Court Street is Downtown Brooklyn (and third world), not Brooklyn Heights. The journalists need to stop trying to make everything Brooklyn Heights.

4. Memory Suppliers Are Actually Worried the Demand Boom Won’t Last ‘Too Long’, and Are Already Rethinking Expansion Plans (Muhammad Zuhair for wccftech. March 15, 2026.)

I hope that they are right. 2028 would not be too bad, all things considered.

5. Bam Adebayo Broke Kobe’s Record, and it Felt Underwhelming (Garrison Giddens. March 11, 2026.)

I haven’t followed the NBA too closely in the last decade but it is nice to see that the Kobe people are still irrationally sensitive (note that Mr. Giddens’ article is fine, but it references a trend I read about in other posts on the matter). For whatever it is worth, Kobe’s 81 was not a “record” since the record is Wilt Chamberlain’s 100, and I don’t think anyone would seriously argue that Adebayo’s 83-point performance (or Chamberlain’s 100 for that matter) were more impressive than Bryant’s 81 in 2006 against the Raptors. Of course, if we are just looking at Bryant, his 81 against the Raptors was arguably less impressive than his 62 in three quarters against a much better Dallas Mavericks squad a few weeks prior.

6. Spring pollen may be damaging your skin, so what’s Japan’s best moisturizing anti-hay fever spray? (Elliot Hale for SoraNews24. March 8, 2026.)

I never heard of hay fever spray. I remain more concerned with my sinuses than my skin.

On this day in NLJ history

7. 1880 Children’s Guide For Drawing Leaves (Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. March 16, 2022.)

I can’t draw leaves. I can barely draw stick figures. But maybe you can draw leaves? If you want to draw leaves, I shared an 1880 guide four years to the day.

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It is time four our daily Pook-Emu Bee links. If you enjoy the links, you can follow via feed (although I personally recommend following the main site feed for all of my postings).

Links from around the web

1. RFK Jr. Announces Plan to Teach Americans to Cook (Elizabeth Weibel for Breitbart. March 4, 2026.)

I support encouraging Americans to make their own food with real ingredients, both in and of itself and for keeping our HHS Secretary out of trouble. With that being said, I fear his proposed recipies may be a little too steak-heavy for me. (Steak is good of course, provided it is well-done and done in moderation.)

2. Columbia Anti-Israel Organizer, Now a New York City Social Worker, Calls For Zionists To ‘Burn In Hell’ (Jessia Costescu for The Washington Free Beacon. March 3, 2026.)

If you told me this was the moderate position for social workers with degrees from Columbia, I’d be willing to believe you.

3. Substantive Due Process After Mirabelli (Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. March 3, 2026.)

I’m hearing the entrance music for Justice Thomas’s “Privileges and Immunities” concurrence in McDonald v. Chicago.

4. “Entry-Level PC Segment Will Disappear by 2028,” Says Gartner, as Soaring Memory Costs Start to Cripple Manufacturers (Muhammad Zuhair for Wccftech. March 1, 2026.)

I’m more concerned about the “build your own PC” segment disappearing due to cost-prohibitive RAM and other components, but that ship is already circumnavigating the globe.

5. Kevin Durant: face of the NBA Internet Era (Molly Morrison. February 26, 2026.)

Far be it from me to give life advice to one of the greatest scorers (and players) in NBA history, but I think he would be better off starting his own website to share his learned perspective on basketball than continuing to post from various acounts on X.

6. Geese in the Snow in Brooklyn Bridge Park (Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. March 3, 2026.)

Honk.

Clicking the “Random Article” button on NLJ

Video Game Stories and Standing the Test of Time (Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. September 28, 2022.)

I had to skim this article to remember it, but I see I published it to subtly commemorate what was then the 24th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red and Blue in the United States. I focused on qualities that can make video games timeless, with an emphasis on good story aesthetics and ways to engage the player. It is not my most incisive games essay, but I think it stands up well (I am adding “related articles” to it since I had not done so before.)

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I read interesting remarks by Texas Senator Ted Cruz on antisemitism at the 45th Annual Night to Honor Israel, courtesy of a Volokh Conspiracy post by Josh Blackman. After noting the rise of antisemitism on the left beginning “about a decade ago,” Senator Cruz addressed the rise of antisemitism in some prominent quarters of the right, not subtly referencing without naming a certain pundit who descended from the top of his profession to having his brain hollowed out by Qatari propaganda in less than half-a-decade. Mr. Blackman’s post is worth reading, but I thought it was worth highlighting a few points from Senator Cruz:

  • “If I pick up my phone and send out a tweet, if I say good morning, within minutes, I will have hundreds of blatantly antisemitic responses.”
    The social media commenters who accuse others of being “Israel first” are often far more consumed by thoughts of Israel and the Jews than people who support and defend the U.S.-Israel security alliance.
  • “And I asked Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine how different American political history would’ve been if Rush Limbaugh had been an antisemite instead of a philosemite. We would have a fundamentally different country if Rush Limbaugh had spent years spreading poison.”
    The point here is not policy-centric, but instead the brain rot that comes with the sort of fixation on Israel and the Jews. The sort of brain rot that leads one to, as Mr. Cruz said elsewhere in his remarks, lead to having “three prominent voices on the right, publicly muse: Gosh, maybe Hitler wasn’t that bad a guy after all.” I would add the sort of brain rot that leads one to turn the murder of Charlie Kirk by a known assailant into a convoluted conspiracy theory implicating the distinguished Josh Hammer. Or to use examples from the left, the sort of brain rot that may lead well-funded individuals to protest New York City cancer hospitals and holiday parades.
  • “[T]he United States supports Israel not because we are helping out a down-on-his-luck neighbor. We’re not engaged in a charity act. The United States supports Israel because it is unequivocally in the national security interest of the United States to support Israel.”
    I happen to agree with Mr. Cruz here, as does President Trump (much to the chagrin of some of his erstwhile supporters referenced above), and likeminded politicians and pundits would do well to focus on Israel’s strategic significance as a normal political actor to maintain support. But again, the issue Mr. Cruz is getting at is not to what extent the United States’ foreign policy priorities in the Middle East align with those of Israel. It is instead the effect that a negative fixation on Israel has on people’s minds, especially those who are swimming in Qatar cash.

I could say much more on this, but I will leave it here since my main purpose was to share Josh Blackman’s interesting write-up (be sure to read his own commentary after he re-prints excerpts from Mr. Cruz’s remarks). All the while, it is worth remembering that the figures Mr. Cruz focused his criticism on are often buttressed by opinion writers masquerading as journalists.