Over the years, I have talked to many, many human-rights defenders, from many, many different countries. The most painful thing for them is this: Dictatorships go after their family members, in order to silence or punish them — silence or punish the human-rights defenders. Can you imagine the effect this has? How it weighs on the defenders?

State agents will say to them, essentially, “You are doing this. You are causing this pain to your loved ones. You gave us no choice. You are responsible, you know.”

Unbearable.

On July 3, agents of the Iranian state seized Saman Pashaei. He is a university instructor and a former wrestling champion. His brother Sardar is also a former wrestling champion. Sardar is a U.S. citizen who campaigns for human rights in his country of origin (Iran). I have talked with him on two different occasions. He works with Masih Alinejad, who tweeted about Saman’s arrest, here.

Saman is essentially a hostage, as Masih said. She further said, “Arresting, detaining and even torturing family members of dissidents is part of the playbook of the Islamic Republic.” A fact.

• Vivian Wang is an outstanding correspondent for the New York Times, based in Beijing. (This worries me, frankly. I think of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent, who is a hostage — a prisoner — in Russia. Maybe China’s dictatorship will simply expel the likes of Wang, rather than imprison them.) She has provided an extraordinary window into a police state: “China Took Her Husband. She Was Left to Uncover His Secret Cause.” For the story, go here.

The subheading reads, “He was brilliant, quirky and intensely private — and also, she now suspects, an anonymous dissident blogger who had won fame for years of evading the surveillance state.”

• On the Internet has circulated a video that I won’t link to, and that I will describe in only the briefest of terms. It comes from India. A BJP official — one of these nationalist types — pisses into the face of a “tribal” boy — a low-caste, “untouchable” sort — while casually smoking. It is an infuriating video.

I thought of Thomas Sowell. “Why?” you say.

In 2011, I wrote a piece about Sowell, which I will excerpt:

Sowell is a veteran India-watcher. He classifies India as one of our “fictitious countries.” What does he mean by that? Well, “people in the West who discuss India, discuss an India that bears no resemblance to the country actually located in Asia.” We think of Indians as spiritual, peaceful, and gentle, unlike us crass and violent Americans. This is nonsense. “To think that India had the chutzpah to join the worldwide protest against apartheid in South Africa. If an untouchable in India had the choice to be a black under apartheid, he would take it in a New York minute.”

Yes. India is a place of the most beautiful and radiant things. It is also a place of obscene, atrocious violence and oppression.

• On July 4, Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) wanted to make a point, and he did it by circulating a quotation that he claimed was from Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Etc. Hawley is entitled to speak his mind, obviously. But the words he cited do not come from Patrick Henry.

(As you know, the Declaration of Independence makes no reference to Christianity or religion. The Constitution refers to religion once: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”)

I thought of Jack Pitney — John J. Pitney, the political scientist at Claremont McKenna College — and a piece he wrote in the first months of The Weekly Standard, where I was working. This was in 1995. His piece was on “fake Tocqueville” — a quotation attributed to Tocqueville, but which the great Frenchman never uttered or wrote. Perhaps you can sing along:

“America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

You can argue that (and I like it) — but Tocqueville, it’s not.

• Here is a message from our ex-president (and future president?):

Lay aside the misspelling of “stolen.” (Stollen is a delicious German bread, served at Christmas.) Focus on “strongly feel”: “AN ELECTION THAT I STRONGLY FEEL WAS RIGGED AND STOLLEN.”

Remember the slogan “Facts don’t care about your feelings”? Conservatives once delighted in reciting it. Maybe it can be revived . . .

• Some news: “A Michigan man accused of attacking a police officer with a flagpole during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has been arrested in Florida, officials said.” (Article here.)

More news: “A Trump supporter who stormed the Capitol wearing a ‘Make Space Great Again’ hat had two guns and 400 rounds of ammunition in his van when he was arrested Thursday near former President Barack Obama’s home, federal authorities said Friday.” (Article here.)

Grateful for law enforcement, as always.

• This is interesting: “During a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, former Vice President Mike Pence was confronted by a voter who was unhappy with his actions on January 6, 2021.” Pence defended himself — ably. Go here.

He has also separated himself from his fellow Republicans — certainly Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis — on Ukraine. I noted this in a series of notes yesterday.

• In the past week or so, everyone and his brother has been talking about legacy admissions — and talking against them. You know how it goes: “So affirmative action is verboten? Well, get rid of legacy admissions too!” I addressed this issue, briefly, in a December 2021 column. Maybe some readers would appreciate a “re-posting.” Anyway, it’s what I think:

Several weeks ago, a story caught my eye: “Amherst College Ends Legacy Admissions Favoring Children of Alumni.” I believe there is a consensus against legacy admissions. I myself have a soft spot for them.

I think there is something nice about an association between a family and a college: members of a family going to the same college, generation after generation (as long as those members are roughly qualified). Wearing the same colors, rooting for the same team. Maybe having the same professors, for a couple of generations. Making financial contributions to the college. Having a loyalty.

This is a happy and benign kind of tribalism, I think.

I would not favor legacy admissions in Japan, say, or France: countries with a few elite universities and institutes, determining the fates of millions. That’s different. But America, with its jillion colleges and universities, dotting the land? From sea to shining sea?

Anyway, a topic to mull over and debate.

• Glenda Jackson has died, at 87. I liked her as an actress a great deal. (Such a beauty, by the way — an intelligent beauty.) I liked her as a politician much less. Oh, well. For her obit in the New York Times, go here. It is written by Benedict Nightingale. Isn’t that a beautiful name?

• Roger Payne, the biologist, has died at 88. He is famous for whales — for their songs, in particular. Songs of the Humpback Whale was a huge album, in 1970. I learned something interesting, from this article. Payne, who studied at Harvard and Cornell, began his career as an expert on bats and birds.

Man, did he go from small animals to big.

• Well, this was about my favorite reading of the week — the obit of Anthony Bouza by Sam Roberts, that master obituarist. The headline: “Anthony Bouza, Police Commander Who Ruffled Feathers, Dies at 94.” The subheading: “A self-confessed maverick, he was praised by some and criticized by others for ideas that upset the law-enforcement status quo.”

How I loved this:

In 1983, Mr. Bouza presided over the arrest of his wife, at a demonstration against a weapons manufacturer. “I’m sure,” he said at the time, “she will come out spouting all kinds of comments about prison reform.”

I bet they loved each other. Anyway, have a great weekend, my friends. Later on.

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