The mainstream media, in covering Biden's speech about the Republican attack on America's system of government, treated truth and lies as equivalent.

*Serbia and Kosovo reach free movement agreement.* This is a first step in reducing the hostility between those two countries,

(satire) *Mississippi Governor Sends Emergency Workers To Contain Jackson Flood To Black Areas.*

The Minnesota Nurses Association will go on strike against private hospitals in the state.

A museum is going to "repatriate" many artifacts (and some remains) excavated in archaeological digs. A campaign has convinced the museum's administration that rationally exploring humanity's past is "theft".

One advisor is quoted as citing supernatural beliefs as the basis for that claim, asserting that "ancestors" have a "home" and can "return" to it. A living person can cherish a home, or miss a cherished former home, but a former person (former because deceased) is no longer capable of either one. And only a living person can go somewhere. Remains can only be put here or there.

Were those long-dead people anyone's ancestors? Presumably, some had descendants and some did not, but the person cited calls them all "ancestors." We are not dealing with rational belief here. Can anyone relate some of those deceased in a concrete way to anyone living? The article does not say so, and I think it would have said so, if that were so.

Living people have the right to believe what they wish, and it's kind to cater to anyone's belief when that doesn't sacrifice anything important. However, their belief, no matter how much certainty they feel, is not a compelling reason for society to adopt policies that interfere with science.

In 2020 I signed a form to donate my body to medical research and/or teaching after I die. The office that handles these donations was closed in 2020, but I recently determined that it was open again, and mailed the form. I suppose my organs will be too old to be worth transplanting, but I've kept that option open too. This way, my dead body will be able to do some good for humanity. Too bad about those that won't.