‘A badly weakened Iran will no longer intimidate or threaten its neighbors in the same way. The regional impact could be comparable to the collapse of the Soviet Union.…’ (via The New York Times)
‘I take a back seat to no one in my loathing of the Iranian regime. I am not mourning the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on Saturday. My anger at the Iranian regime is personal. Men I knew and served with during my deployment to Iraq in 2007 and 2008 were killed and gravely injured by Iranian-supplied weapons deployed by Iranian-supported militias.
But my personal feelings don’t override the Constitution, and neither do anyone else’s. As I mentioned in a round-table conversation with my colleagues on Saturday, I’m worried that all too many people will say: Well, in a perfect world Trump should have gone to Congress, but what’s done is done. That is exactly the wrong way to approach this war.…’ (David French via The New York Times op-ed)
‘President Trump is being criticized from many quarters for his decision to join Israel in a war to topple the Iranian regime, which on Saturday yielded the killing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The reasons vary.
…But one country where the United States and Israel are garnering broad support is the same country that’s being bombed.
“Everyone is joyful, it is one of the best days of probably 95 percent of Iranians’ lives,” one Iranian resident of the city of Karaj told The Wall Street Journal about Khamenei’s death.…’ (Bret Stephens via The New York Times op-ed)
‘“As we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat-clearing and process critique only serves Trump and the war machine.”…’ (via Common Dreams)
‘March 2026 could be the best month for the northern lights until the mid-2030s, as celestial mechanics and solar activity combine for potentially potent results.…’ (via Live Science)
‘The drug is derived from the Tabernanthe iboga plant, found mainly in Gabon in central Africa. The powerful hallucinogen has long been used there in the initiation ritual that is part of the Bwiti spiritual tradition, involving an intense all-night group ceremony of dance and music and fire-keeping that culminates in a trancelike state.
Knowledge of the drug spread to the United States in 1962, when an American named Howard Lotsof tried ibogaine and found that it cured him of his addiction to heroin. His campaign to explore ibogaine’s potential as a cure for substance abuse has gained momentum more recently as nonprofit groups like the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) have assisted military veterans in using ibogaine to treat combat-related traumas. Because of the association with veterans, ibogaine has received the kind of legitimizing attention from political leaders, including conservatives, that is rare for psychedelics.…’ (Robert Draper via The New York Times)
‘What the defeat of the Lapua Movement in the 1940s can teach the US today.…’ (Erin Banco via Vox)
