FROM CELIA HAYES:  That Fateful Lightning: A Novel of the Civil War.  #CommissionEarned.

And for fans of Celia/Sargent Mom, she will be making an appearance in person at the Boerne Bookshop in Boerne, Texas with all of her books!

IT’S THEIR NATURE:  Scorpions.

“AS ONE APPARENTLY DOES”:  In the case of Woodland v. Hill, the great Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kenneth Lee was called upon to decide an unusual copyright case.  The parenthetical in the opening sentences of his opinion made me laugh:

Rodney Woodland, a freelance artist and model, posts semi-naked photographs of himself in different poses on Instagram.  Montero Lamar Hill, better known as the recording artist Lil Nas X, also has an Instagram account–and he, too, shares semi-naked photos of himself in varying poses (as one apparently does on Instagram these days).  Woodland sued Hill for copyright infringement ….

We affirm the district court’s order dismissing his copyright infringement claim.

Cute.

OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and want you to be happy.

AN ANTISEMITIC MELTDOWN BY THE ONLINE RIGHT’S ISRAEL FOES:

Since October 7 some of America’s most popular podcasters have congratulated themselves on their ability to “just ask questions” about Israel’s war aims that the legacy media will not; in the process of doing so, they have given platforms to revisionist historians, Holocaust distorters, and Christian antisemites to, they say, provide counter-narratives to the Israeli lobby that has so desperately tried to engage the U.S. in “forever war.”

Israel attacked Iran last night. As expected, the same people who were “just asking questions” revolted against Israel in support of America’s enemies.

Darryl Cooper, whom Tucker Carlson lauded on his show as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” said on Thursday that America should “commence airstrikes on Tel Aviv immediately.” Dave Smith, Joe Rogan’s favorite comedian-turned-foreign-policy expert, accused Israel of launching “a dangerous, preemptive war of aggression” that “should be condemned by the US government and US citizens alike.” Smith also denied claims that Cooper was an antisemite; Cooper just had “nuanced” views, Smith said.

It may be easy to disregard such online-right opinions as fringe, but their millions of followers and the billions of views they receive suggest otherwise. Nick Fuentes said “this is the final battle in Israel’s 50 year reign of terror to destabilize & destroy every country that resists their rule.” Candace Owens called Israel’s “bloodlust” demonic. Matt Stoller doesn’t think Israel’s “bloodthirsty insanity” should be “our problem.”

Still though, Fuentes is making real progress in the Middle East!