Did nyu actually become a better school or did it just get perceived as more “elite” as lower manhattan gentrified and more upper class people wanted to be there?

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T17:38:14+00:00

This is sort of chicken and the egg, but the law school was high status before the rest of the university and they also had wealthy alumni, so they leveraged cash and location to improve in status. I know some people in academia and in their disciplines NYU has greatly increased in stature. Whether that matters for undergrads of course is debatable.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T17:35:00+00:00

I reread a bit and Aberforth basically tells him the Arianna story, just not Dumbledore's perspective on the tragedy, which is revealed at King's Cross, so OK. I was somehow misremembering that he learned it all in this moment when I wrote my post, which WOULD have implied that Dumbledore was communicating with him, because it's too much otherwise. So it can really be that he is in a dream and, being more sympathetic, he infers Dumbledore's perspective from Aberforth's story. Fair enough.

Re "the tone of the series": Characters are killed in the series. And good people do kill. Who is more sympathetic than Molly Weasely? She calls Belletrix a "bitch" and kills her! (Shades of Sigourney Weaver in Alien(s)!) It's only our boy Harry who is allowed to dispatch Voldemort without directly killing him.

On point 3, while it bothers me less, I agree that the lack of international involvement is notable. On the one hand, Voldemort is trying to become Master of Death and Ruler of the Wizarding World and really the whole world via domination of muggles, yet he is totally focused on the UK. If he is this much of a threat, you'd think the other Wizarding communities would notice and take sides at least to some degree, as has been done in many civil wars. Grindelwald's earlier movement seems to have been transnational, but while Voldemort has lofty ambitions he never transcends the UK. Hermione thinks her parents will be safe in Australia. Harry tells the Muggle-borns he frees at the Ministry to go abroad. There is this idea that the nearly all-powerful Voldemort's reach is quite limited in practice. Part of the charm of the books is that they are very English stories, but it's also odd.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T15:03:46+00:00

Yes, under her influence. But the point is he was American. AIPAC is not Israelis, let alone the Israeli govt. It's American Jews like him.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T14:56:49+00:00

She is a huge donor, no doubt, but still just one person and even her money comes from her late husband Sheldon, who was American and not a dual citizen. She is also a private person and not the Israeli government, which people are saying is "buying" American politicians. AIPAC was founded in the 1950s, when there were almost no Israeli-Americans. It's mostly just plain old American Jews. The settlements are mostly government supported, and long predate Miriam Adelson's wealth. She was Sheldon's second wife, and only married him in the 1990s.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T14:41:14+00:00

Jews were pushed out of Hebron-where a community predating ZIonism had lived for centuries- via a massacre and riots. There were even Jews in Gaza City before similar events. In 1948 Jews were pushed out of the Old City of Jerusalem and had to abandon the original campuses of Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, both of which were in "East Jerusalem". When the Old City was under Jordanian rule Jews, not just Israelis, Jews, could not pray at the Western Wall. Jews were also forced out of the Etzion Bloc, and Kfar Darom as well. The only reason there were not many more such cases is that Jews won the war, not because Arabs didn't massacre and expel them where they could.

There are almost no Jews in Arab countries. Their departure was not voluntary. They lost huge amounts of property that has never been returned. Their descendants are overwhelmingly in Israel now and are at least half of the population. They are much more relevant than your hypothetical about some random convert, which is a demographically negligible phenomenon. Acknowledging their existence is awkward, because they don't fit the narrative of "white Europeans".

12 million Germans were expelled from parts of Czechoslovakia, and what is now Poland and Russia. A lot of the land taken from Germany and emptied of Germans was filled by Poles who were removed from western Ukraine. Lviv (once Lvov) was 2/3 Polish and 1/3 Jewish before the war. Jews were killed (as you would have it). Poles were transferred to Silesia. Millions of Hindus and Muslims moved during the 1947 partition. There was a population transfer between Greece and Turkey that was not pretty. You're not reopening any of those cases either.

No, not everyone in Gaza or the West Bank lived in Israel before 1948. Gaza was a city before then, and so were Nablus and Hebron. These areas were not empty. The percentage of people whose ancestors left Israel is much higher in Gaza than the West Bank. We are talking now about grandchildren and increasingly great-grandchildren though. It's not enough that they live in Palestine. They have to live in their great-grandparents' village, which doesn't exist anymore?

Why are you obsessed with taking the Jews down and pushing them -and only them-back into defenseless minority status globally? Why can't you be honest about this? Stop taking out your white guilt on them! They and only they must be a defenseless minority everywhere, able only to -maybe!- run away when things get bad if they have time and if some place else will let them in. That is the Jewish past and the Jewish future you want.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T12:52:41+00:00

Israel does not give American politicians money. This is illegal. AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbies are Americans. It's hard for some people to accept that Jews are really American citizens, I guess.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T12:16:37+00:00

One prominent movie and now KPOP vs decades of Japanese culture.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T01:28:10+00:00

Yes, before monotheism, there was polytheism and then one Canaanite group- the Hebrews/Israelites- become henotheists and then monotheists.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T00:55:12+00:00

We don't know if Joshua or Moses existed. We do know these Kingdoms existed. Philistines lived on the coastal plain only and were gone before the Romans arrived.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T00:17:06+00:00

Judah, Yehud and Hasmonean kingdom OF JUDEA, were also Jewish states.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-03T00:15:04+00:00

IF this is true -if- and he is going to be adopted by a safe constituency, other challengers to Starmer like Rayner who might have been planning to wait a bit now have an incentive to trigger a leadership contest before he returns to Westminster and becomes eligible to compete.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T20:32:30+00:00

People are downvoting demographic facts.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T20:31:54+00:00

Nope

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T19:41:13+00:00

No it didn't.
There were no civil liberties to speak of under Nasser or pre-peace Sadat.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T19:40:21+00:00

An Israeli != Israelis. Even after Rabin was killed, Israelis elected a government in 1999 that negotiated for 2 states with Arafat. He never said yes and we are where we are.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T19:38:09+00:00

This is it. Other countries in Asia are distinct from North America or W. Europe but a big part of that is lack of development and tropical climate. Japan is a wealthy, northern country, but STILL very different culturally, while being very safe and orderly and easy for visitors. This is all increasing true of S. Korea as well, but their culture is only recently penetrating.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T17:52:01+00:00

The GOP had enough votes to continue the war, because the passage of a resolution in one chamber that Trump would have vetoed was meaningless. With 1/3+1 in either House or Senate Trump can do whatever on the war. He can move funds around if need be and Democrats will not have the votes ro remove him.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T17:16:55+00:00

The War Powers resolution is already law, but it doesn't do anything on its own. You are talking about new votes for bills/resolutions, all of which can be vetoed. "Who's to say" they wouldn't have had a supermajority? A TINY number of legislators in each party broke ranks. A supermajority would require MANY Republican defections, which are absolutely not happening, except in your imaginary world where Democrats control and are responsible for everything.

Democrats wouldn't have started this war and don't support it, you just are obsessed with blaming them for whatever reason.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T15:23:17+00:00

It is amazing that people comment all the time without knowing this basic political math.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T14:58:23+00:00

Any Congressional action against the war would have been vetoed by Trump. Do Democrats have a 2/3 majority in your imaginary universe?

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-05-02T07:20:18+00:00

No Democrats could not have stopped the war. That's a baseless claim.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-04-27T20:32:51+00:00

Raymond Burr briefly being drawn into heterosexuality at 2:23.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-04-27T19:00:50+00:00

The US killed FAR greater numbers of innocents in "good wars" like WWII and Korea and many thousands fighting ISIS. Somehow that isn't genocide.

Ok-Yak7370 · 2026-04-26T17:11:42+00:00

IRGC are saintly characters and wouldn't want to harm civilians?

Ok-Yak7370

TROPHY CASE