The Conservative Cave

A VA Woman Went to Get Her Eyebrows Done, but She Mentioned Being Jewish and All Hell Broke Loose

https://townhall.com/news/mattvespa/2026/08/17/a-va-woman-went-to-get-her-eyebrows-done-but-she-mentioned-being-jewish-and-all-hell-broke-loose-n2681322

There’s not much to say here, since the woman posted the full account of the encounter on Facebook. Then the video was uploaded. Jessica Watson just wanted to get her eyebrows done at a salon in Alexandria, Virginia. As is common at these establishments, a conversation started, but when she mentioned her Jewish heritage, the owner of the salon, an Afghan, decided to go full terrorist on her. Jessica got kicked out.

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I’m nauseated even having to write this, but I won’t be quiet about it. I want my friends—Jewish and non-Jewish—to know what I experienced at a salon in Alexandria, Virginia, because I refuse to let antisemitism become normalized in our country.

I went to the salon yesterday to get my eyebrows done. The esthetician turned out to be Afghan. I was delighted, since I just finished writing a novel based on true stories that is partly set in Afghanistan. I told her about the amazing Afghans I interviewed for the book. We talked warmly about our shared love of Afghan poetry and food. Then she asked me to tell her more about the premise of my novel.

My story is about a Muslim Afghan refugee and the son of Jewish immigrants who forge an unlikely friendship in post-9/11 Alabama, only to find that their shared gift for languages draws them into America’s shadow war in Afghanistan. I joked about how I went down a rabbit hole studying Islam and Sufism to create the Muslim character, but that I at least had an easier time sketching the Jewish half-Israeli character, since I’m Jewish and half-Israeli myself.

The woman stopped short. Then, “Get out of my shop.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t provide service to an Israeli. It’s against my political beliefs. You need to leave immediately. And there is no such thing as Israel. It’s Palestine. A bunch of Jews from New York showed up a few years ago and stole the land from the Arabs.”

Sometimes, the eloquence of hatred and bigotry needs no further comment.

Note the Jewish woman's use of "normalized". I could be wrong, but isn't that Lib-speak? I would use "accepted" or "allowed to be acceptable".

SF high school where 94% flunk math has California’s highest Berkeley acceptance rate

https://nypost.com/2026/08/18/us-news/mission-high-boasts-top-berkeley-admit-rate-despite-math-failures/

A San Francisco high school where students get top grades simply for showing up now has the highest acceptance rate in the state to the prestigious University of California, Berkeley — as critics blame rampant grade inflation and rock-bottom standards for a surge in ill-prepared college students who end up dropping out.

Mission High School had a 45% acceptance rate into the elite university, with 34 out of its 76 applicants gaining admission last fall, far ahead of the state average of 15%, according to data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle.
...
“Grades were sometimes too easy to earn,” Levi Lum of Mission High told the San Francisco Standard.

nly 17% of Mission High’s 11th graders scored proficient or above in English, along with a shocking 6% in math on the 2025 state assessment exam, the lowest of any school in the San Francisco Unified School District — which averaged 59% and 43%, respectively.

San Francisco resident Liz Le is among many who have noted the academically rigorous Lowell High School, where around 71% met math standards, has a lower acceptance rate in the University of California system than Mission High.

“UCs punish Lowell students for working hard because of their race, while setting up Mission kids up for failure & depression,” said Le, who claimed “race-based admissions fails all kids.”

Although University of California can’t legally consider race in admissions decisions, its decision in 2020 to drop SAT and ACT testing requirements as part of a settlement was presented as a bid to promote equity, as non-white applicants typically score lower than white ones.

Mission High has a large student population who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
...
Lum added that at Berkeley, he was behind in mathematical fluency and struggled to keep pace with lessons. Classes moved faster than he was used to, he said.

Just half of Mission High’s students graduated from a University of California school within four years, the Standard reported.

Demographically, Mission High School is ~30% white + Asian. Lowell High School is ~49% Asian and ~18% white. I'm going to guess that the very real - but denied - racial discrimination is done by discriminating against students of a high school of known high Asian and white populations, especially Asians.

The discriminated-against Asians and whites from Lowell will mostly do well at a CSU or out of state. OTOH, too many favored but unqualified grads from Mission will drop out, and some will also go with easier majors that lack a remunerative career path (e.g. ______ Studies).

Lowell High School has long - as in, even in my parents' day - been a top academic high school in SF.

I've always called it the Bad At Math Tax.

If Steve's been playing for 30 years I wonder if his "winnings" exceed the net present value of what he's paid in.

I'll just about wager the mortage that the dear, nearly departed Mr. Dawes doesn't realize that lottery winnings are taxable as income at both the state and federal level (at least) and that no matter how low key he tries to play it when he goes to collect his "vast fortune", there will be a pair of stoic IRS Speshul Agents standing at his door with their hands out next April.

What a heartless bastard Steve Dawes must be, to leave his grieving widow to deal with that so soon after his impending death... 

Rubio Announces Bold New ICC Sanctions, As Another Country Plans Its Exit Strategy

https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2026/08/18/rubio-announces-bold-new-icc-sanctions-plus-another-country-prepares-its-exit-strategy-n4956283

The hits against the International Criminal Court (ICC) keep on coming.

Last month, Marco Rubio "launched a diplomatic campaign to dismantle the ICC’s threat to our national sovereignty." On Tuesday, he announced that he's sanctioning the president of the ICC, Tomoko Akane of Japan, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal.

"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction," Rubio added in an official statement from the State Department.

Here's more:

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The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate.  We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.
[...]
The ICC has repeatedly attempted to assert authority over nationals of the United States and other countries that have not consented to its jurisdiction or ratified the Rome Statute.  This sets a dangerous precedent for all nations. 

Our whole of government campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to national sovereignty will be sweeping and we expect more countries to join our campaign by ending their funding and participation in this politicized and unaccountable court. The ICC’s ability to target American nationals and those of other non-States Parties must end. The Trump Administration stands ready to take additional measures, if necessary, to systematically dismantle the ICC until it is incapable of threatening American sovereignty.

The sanctions will prevent U.S. citizens from conducting transactions with Akane and Seye, and if they do, they'll face penalties. The sanctions also prevent both individuals from accessing U.S. financial systems.

Persons participating in ICC "investigations" on US soil, regardless of citizenship, need to be arrested and prosecuted for espionage. Foreign nationals should be held without bail, because they are a flight risk.

Now he can really stock up on mini-tacos!