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When news broke that Louisiana police arrested ICE agent Thomas Bailey for breaking into his ex-partner’s home, it was a chilling reminder of how unchecked authority metastasizes. As commentator Lynn Tramonte observed, it parallels law enforcement officers using Flock surveillance cameras to spy on women. 

There is a pervasive mindset among certain agents that their badge grants them total access to our spaces, our privacy, and our minds—a dangerous entitlement fueled by impunity. ​

We must state this fundamental truth clearly and without reservation: THEY WORK FOR US. THEY ARE OUR EMPLOYEES. ​Government officials and law enforcement officers exist to serve the public, not to operate as an unchecked class above the law. WE ARE THE ARCHITECTS OF OUR DEMOCRACY, and it is up to us to enforce the boundaries of constitutional power. ​At the center of this systemic abuse is a legal doctrine created out of thin air: qualified immunity. ​

Pigs are considered unclean in Islam, which is why Muslims do not consume pork. But the idea that Muslims are somehow “scared of pigs” is simply naive and ignorant.

The Old Testament also explicitly forbade the consumption of pork. In the Hebrew Scriptures, pork was classified as “unclean” under the Mosaic Law. Leviticus 11:7–8 and Deuteronomy 14:8 state that the pig is unclean and that its meat should not be eaten.

Christians generally understand the New Testament to teach that these dietary restrictions no longer apply to them. Regardless, the historical fact remains that prohibitions against pork are not unique to Islam.

So, why don’t those who use pigs to insult Muslims place pig heads in front of synagogues or Jewish homes? An inquiring mind wants to know.

Leaving a severed pig’s head in front of a mosque is not simply an expression of an opinion about Islam. In that context, it can be an act intended to intimidate, provoke, and spread religious hatred and bigotry. 

I still find myself fuming at the way ostensibly well-informed individuals can stand right in the heart of the empire denouncing its targets, as we saw in the open letter that a group of left-wing western individuals addressed “to Iran’s political prisoners” framing Iran as a “source of oppression” equal to the US and its allies.

It’s crazy this even needs to be said, but if you are a westerner your ONLY job is to oppose the abuses of the western empire. Not Iran. Not China. Not Russia, Cuba or North Korea.

As I have observed in the past, it is possible to be entertained nearly every week by the antics of President Donald J Trump, though one’s amusement often changes to annoyance or even to disgust when the consequences of the behavior become clear. To be sure, it would be difficult to top the just surfaced account of February’s chickenhawk parade involving the Air Force One plane-switching in Ankara after a NATO meeting. It was unparalleled for its sheer me-first Trumpean disrespect for the poor bastards who are forced to travel with the president and endure the vicious prattle of America’s top golf cheater. When Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt resigned several days later, possibly connected to her being set up by the president as one of the victims of a possible terrorist attack, Trump posted on his Truth Social site a picture of himself with the caption “The Best Press Secretary.” He was putting down Leavitt with an insult and nominating himself!

Haya Amr Fawzy, an Egyptian medical student, became widely known after helping injured people during the Arabella Plaza Mall fire and explosion in New Cairo on August 13, 2026. Egyptian media have described her as the “heroine” of the Arabella Mall incident.

Who is Haya Amr Fawzy?

Fawzy is a third-year medical student at New Giza University’s Faculty of Medicine.

She happened to be at Arabella Plaza when the incident occurred. According to her account, she heard a friend screaming and realized that something serious had happened.

Rather than simply leaving, she began assessing and assisting injured people, using the first aid and emergency-response skills she had learned during medical school.

What did she actually do?

Her account is particularly striking.

After the explosion and fire, she saw people lying injured and blood on the ground. She tied her hair back and began helping. She said the gesture was instinctive because she wanted to concentrate on treating people.

One of the first people she approached had already died. She asked others nearby to cover the person’s body out of respect.

Love and cherish our world. That’s the secret to remaining both (A) deeply happy and (B) well-informed about the dystopian abuses of the empire.

You don’t have to choose. You can have both.

I sometimes get called a Debbie Downer for my nonstop writing about all the evils that are being inflicted upon our world by powerful people every day, but readers who meet me or listen to my podcasts have often expressed surprise at how upbeat and cheerful I am in real life. They see me focusing on extremely dark subject matter day after day and expressing rage and revulsion at the horrors we are witnessing, so they expect me to show up as some kind of dour, jaded misanthrope.

But the truth is I am a very happy person. I don’t generally mention it because this writing project isn’t about me, but my overall experience of life from moment to moment is one of awe, wonder and delight. I experience the full range of emotions and I get my heart ripped out of my chest by Gaza just like anybody else, but after feeling my feelings all the way through I return to marveling at this astonishingly beautiful planet we get to walk around on.

In my previous article, I argued for an international ban on the death penalty, regardless of the crime alleged or the circumstances of the conviction. Iran offers one of the starkest demonstrations of why such a ban is necessary. Iran's extraordinary use of capital punishment is not simply a story about crime, religion, or political repression. It is the product of something more consequential: a state in which the death penalty is deeply embedded in the legal system, readily available to prosecutors, weakly constrained by judicial safeguards, and increasingly useful to an authoritarian government seeking to intimidate and control its population.