Reading archive 2025-06-27

The Most Powerful Woman in Washington: Meet Elizabeth MacDonough.

21 things you can declutter with zero emotional energy: “Decision-free” decluttering will cost you a little time but no thought and no heartache.

Pro-Palestine Activists Fell for Iran’s Propaganda: Western supporters would do well to note how Tehran’s policy has left the Palestinian cause in ruins. - "Back in the 1990s, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and political leadership worked to undermine the Oslo peace process by inciting Hamas's opposition to any settlement that would have led to a two-state solution. Later, they encouraged Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas to carry out suicide bombings inside Israel. Beginning in 2005, Iran increased its arms shipments to Hamas, enabling the group to seize control of Gaza in 2007 and turn it into a one-party Islamist statelet. Iran also financed Hamas's construction of tunnels in Gaza and provided the group with missile technology, funneled via the smuggling networks that Iran effectively sponsored in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula."

The Blockbuster That Captured a Growing American Rift: The novel that inspired the film Jaws was decidedly populist. The movie took a different turn.