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America’s history is different. A large number of Americans come from backgrounds where they didn’t trust authority. Many early Americans arrived in chains (the blacks had been kidnapped, many of the Brits were offered an alternative to coming to America that involved hanging by the neck until dead). Many if not most Americans were fleeing governments that were oppressive. This is not a background to inspire respect for police. It is interesting to note that among the groups loudest in attacking private ownership of guns, there is a correlation with groups that also are the loudest in denouncing the police. Even among our own people, one needs to remember that people like us are for all purposes excluding from the police and in recent historical memory we recall how it was police who often supported violent anti-semitism (e.g. during World War II, the German army was busy fighting a war and it was the police who did most of the killing in the holocaust).
Criminals refuse to follow the gun control laws, therefore all that you do by”banning” guns is making it easier for the criminals to shoot non-criminals. All the Democratic proposals for banning guns include no mechanism to disarm criminals, and a law that de facto limits gun ownership to criminals is counterproductive.
“neo” means “new”, and there is a long history of people trying to invent a “new” version of Yiddishkeit, that would allow them to believe they are some connections to Torah and to the Ribbono shel Olam, while still having fun and the ability to live well. Probably the most successful “neo” versions of yiddishkeit are Christianity and Islam (the former clearly founded by OTD Yidden, the latter by mostly non-Jewish wannabees). More recently, the Reform movements and the Zionists are all attempts to break away from Torah (for the most part), while still claiming to be Jewish – if you study the results over the last two centuries, they have clearly failed in the “Jewish” part, but have been quite successful and building affluent lives, which was their first goal. The English expression for the “neo” movement is “having you cake and eating it to” (and wanting to still be Yid while throwing off inconvenience of Yiddishkeit is equally impossible).
If you make enough noise about Trump serving idols, he may be able to expand his based and start picking up a lot of WOKE idol-worshippers.
You need to remember that 1000 years ago, letters were not sent in envelopes (you folded the letter and sealed it), and postal services were limited to official government documents (if they existed at all). Private persons sent personal and business letters by finding someone they trusted who was going to the city where the addressee lived. An implied contract existed between the writer and the person delivering the letter was that they wouldn’t “peak”. So the takana in question (as applied to letters) was not so much a hidush (unlike the prohibition of polygamy) as a reinforcement of a standard contractual arrangement.
While I understand some “men” (if you call them that, as they probably aren’t mentches) dream of being able to afford a “harem” (and hope that the takana’s family law rules are no longer in effect), but any would be hackers looking for a heter should resign themselves that their hacking other people’s personal correspondence is glatt treff.
If the Palestinians were bright, they would have accepted the idea of a bi-national state with an Arab majority which the zionists agreed to it 100 years ago. They could have accepted a much small zionist state, with most of the Jerusalem in the Arab state when the zionists agreed to that 75 years ago. Those zionists who still believe there is Ribbono shel Olam should see this as evidence that Ha-Shem has gifted them with incompetent and not clever enemies.
If there were cross examination and a more neutral panel (if Trump was allowed to have a lawyer who cross examined witnesses, and if membership on the panel wasn’t limited to people who had previously denounced Trump as a criminal), one would see the absurdity of the case (the witnesses in the car with Trump said he didn’t grab the steering wheel – hearsay by someone who an “interest” in the case would usually be disallowed). To convince the country that Trump was trying to seize the government, they need direct evidence that he was in touch with the armed forces since without military support a coup would be impossible.
fixed typo
ujm (RE; retirement age)
If your goal is to reduce inflation, and raising the retirement age would reduce the death rate, it is a classic double-edged sword. A higher retirement age would increase the work force, and encourage lower wages for everyone. However it the is a causal relationship between retirement and death, higher retirement age would both make old people better off economically (which would increase consumer spending) while at the same time living longer (and consuming more). Higher consumption increases demand which is inflationary.
to Gadol hatorah “Court also ruled this morning that denominational prayer by public employees is OK in public events like football games, school meetings, etc. ”
Baruch ha-Shem. I can make a bracha (and wear a yarmulke) in public even if I’m a government employee and “on the clock”. In many countries, including at least parts of Canada and France (all of which are major western democracies) that would be illegal. I think the militant secularists (the “freedom from religion” crowd, which is dominated by the descendants of OTD Yidden) went to far in trying to ban Christians from public life, and the backlash against the secularists benefits us frummies.
The most effective way to fight inflation would be to raise taxes, deliberately try to force wages down, and to increase entry of additional workers (e.g. recruit immigration enough to make wages fall). Raising the retirement age, ending disability insurance and forcing under employed people (students, housewives, etc.) into the labor market would also increase the labor supply which will encourage lower wages. Falling wages reduces demand, which lowers prices.
While the above work as a matter of economics, they tend to get a failing grade in terms of sociology and political science, and are hard to implement in democratic (small D) societies.
yaakov doe: I suggest starting out by retaining a good criminal defense lawyer since it really helps to have one on call in case they don’t let you post bail (also make sure you have assets such as a home equity available to make bail). The right to own and carry a weapon does not change the law about using the weapon, nor does it even lower the penalty for using a weapon unlawfully.
If you fix prices at a lower level than determined by the law of supply and demand, you will either have shortage (c: Soviet Union, where goods were always inexpensive, but often unavailable) or you need to institute rationing (which tends to mean the well connected get what they need, and others go without).
An alternative is to reduce demand, such as by raising taxes, especially on the poor (since higher taxes on the rich would result in lower savings, rather than consumption). Regressive taxes such as payroll taxes, flat rate income taxes or sales tax would reduce demand to it would be in equilibrium with lower prices. Importing a large number of workers would help to lower wages, but the new workers would also be consumer which would increase demand. Lowering wages would be very useful but that is hard to do (cutting the minimum wage won’t help when employers need to offer wages above the minimum wage to recruit employees). Cutting disability and retirement benefits to force people into the job market would fail since the higher incomes that employment would give the returnees would increase demand. Not printing money would help the most, but that requires raising taxes or cutting benefits from government programs, which raises political problems (few taxpayers want to pay more, and receive less).
You can also increase supply through deregulation (of business hostile rules) and changing the tax structure to encourage more supply, as well lowering tariff and non-tariff trade barriers for imports.
Reb Eliezer, People in one state can go to another. Under the Constitution, persons have Freedom of Movement within the United States. The cost of transportation is well under the cost of an abortion. I suspect we will again (as was the case 50 years ago) see travel agents offering package deals for “abortion tourism”. Already some blue states are looking forward to offering women from red states the opportunity for a combined vacation and killing their baby.
This could be unhealthy for your local neighborhood mugger, and will seriously impair terrorists and serial killer wannabees. Just think of what could if they go into a store, or school, or shul and start shooting – somebody might stop them before they can accomplish what they set up to do.
If the goyim want to murder their own children, it really isn’t our problem. After all, shedding innocent blood is a minhag by them, and as long as it isn’t our blood being shed it doesn’t affect us directly. How many lives will be saved is open to debate, but if we consider that most people born today are likely to earn several million dollars over the course of their lifetime, the long term macroeconomic impact of more births might be quite positive. It also might influence the zionists in Eretz Yisrael who tend to look at America for guidance as to what they should aspire to.
1. What is taught in public schools is a function of the states. Most frum Jews send their children to privately funded schools. Biden has nothing to do with them.
2. Biden’s administration is supporting allowing males to play on women’s teams by claiming they are female wannabees. This has no impact on our community since college athletics are routinely conducted in a manner that precludes those observing Shabbos (which is why frum Jews are for all purposes excluded from NCAA athletic scholarships, which by far are the largest non-need based college scholarships).
3. Brandon’s inept foreign and economic policies are reason enough to oppose him. Confusion about grammar is not a serious issue, at least from our perspective.
Stick to places such as Albany and Buffalo. I’m sure they have excellent cell phone and broadband service. Rural areas throughout America often have a problem with connectivity.
Perhaps because he never worked as a politician (whose tool set is how to minimize making enemies, being a bully can work for a tycoon, but never for someone who constantly needs to put together ever changing alliances), Trump has created a situation in which he is likely to be the only major Republican who won’t be able to beat Biden in 2024. Given that the alternative is four more years of Biden (or Harris, or who knows what fool the Democrats will turn to), even someone who loves Trump will prefer someone more likely to win the election.
There is a labor shortage which will keep wages high, and the workers being better paid will keep spending, so there won’t be much of a recession. A recession without high unemployment is not a recession, even if inflation will hurt business. The possibility of western countries needing to expand their armed forces and increase defense production will make the labor shortage worse. The only to resolve the labor shortage is to go back in time and convince those of child-bearing age in the second half of the 20th century to have more children, or to significantly increase immigration; the former requires repealing laws of physics and the latter may prove unpopular especially among workers who enjoy high wages.
If you are whining about gas prices your an ungreen deplorable and should worry about being cancelled. Our (assuming you are an American) democratically elected government is hard at work to save the country, the world and even the universe, from climate catastrophe which the official scientists have decided is caused by carbon emissions (only heretics point to frequent variability in climate throughout recorded history, and that it has often been warmer, and that warm periods tend to have higher standards of living due to increased food production). Our Democratic government has wisely coerced oil companies to cut back production by blocking drilling, banning new pipelines and carbon-related infrastructure, and subsidizing the worthy woke in switching to very expensive electric cars.
If there had been DNA tests, or even blood tests (assuming the father was known), the event wouldn’t have happened.
In the case of a baby mix-up (they do happen, now and then), there is no halachic issue in using scientific testing (note, this would be “maternity” testing). For other matters such as paternity testing (to determine if the child is a mamzer) there would be issues. To determine Jewishness (Yichus), other than by confirming the mother-child relationship, it would be very problematic.
1. Turning over Europe to Putin, and the Asia-Pacific region to Xi
2. Outlawing politically incorrect behavior and cancelling all deplorables
3. Making everyone a millionaire (just like Germany in the 1920s, not to mention Israel and Zimbabwe more recently).
4. Saving the world by using environmental policies as an excuse to permanently end prosperity on a world wide basis
BLM burned down buildings somewhere else in the country, but Trump’s “friends” attacked the Capitol itself, while Congress was in session, and deliberately interfered with a session of Congress.
The two are connected, since the Jan. 6 rioters saw the BLM rioters “get away with it” and thought they had a license to riot (which would have happened if they stormed a federal building in a far-away “red” city, and the Capitol Police apparently thought the lesson from BLM was not to fight rioters.
If frum Jews were all that much into opulence, they would need to maximize income. Studying Torah is a way to minimize income and reduce discretionary spending. Merely being Shomer Shabbos wipes out most of one’s earning potential (denies access to inexpensive high quality university education, reduces most job prospects, forces one to live in only a handful of fairly expensive areas). The truth is that even being “modern Orthodox” with a kippah in the pocket requires great mesiras nefesh.
The generation that survived the holocaust (especially those in Europe, but even those in America could be considered survivors since the war could have gone the other way) often saw living well as the best revenge (but also note that most Jews who were around then do not have frum descendants today).
Sports in entertaining, and often involves activities in which we could be, and have been, participants. If you ever hit a home run, or surprise bunt, and turned an unexpected double play (or even hit into a double play), you can appreciate what it is about.
Politics is somewhat similar. While much of what politicians do is prohibited by halacha (heck, we can’t even tell Lashon Ho’ra, not to mention make up insulting lies about people), what the politicians do does affect us, and those of other with a strong yetser ho’ra have all dreamed about being politicians (and in fairness, we can talk about politics but it isn’t respectable in our community to discuss becoming a robber or a serial killer or numerous other aveiras the discussion of which is not allowed).
The Committee needs a smoking gun (similar to what the Watergate Committee found) or the members of the Committee will end looking like fools. They need to find a witness who gives convincing evidence such as a recording of Trump saying “Well, how is the putsch going?” or perhaps a bunch of general and admirals testifying how Trump was sounding them out to stage a coup d’etat. A self-proclaimed “Shaman” (witchdoctor?) running around half naked in January wearing horns and carrying a broomstick is NOT sedition and hasn’t been considered treason since the middle ages (when casting spells on the king could get you burned at the stake). Unless the Democrats can come up with a way that Trump could have either recruited the military, and raised sufficient force to overcome the military, January 6 is not different that the many BLM riots (meaning the demonstrating is protected by the First amendment, and breaches of peace can be prosecuted in isolation).
Once you hold that using electricity on Shabbos is allowed (on the theory it involves no open flame, and ignoring the the flow of the current very slowly consumer the medium used to transmit the current and generates heat), you could use computers, turn on lights, use smartphones, etc. You could be a “Conservative” and delude yourself into thinking you are still frum.
I believe you are mistranslating the Hebrew word “avdut” (ayin veis daled vav saf) incorrectly. In American English, the work “slavery” includes the requirement (perhaps defining characteristic) that the owner can kill, maim or sexually exploit the slave, without the possibility of ever gaining complete freedom. The Hebrew word has no such meanings. I suggest a better translation would be “servant”, in some cases qualified with the adjective “hereditary” (though until recently many jobs were hereditary – if you were a farmer, your children would be farmers whether they wanted to or not). It is wrong to say that Yidden ever has anything similar to what the Americans call “slavery” (in fact, the only thing similar to it would probably be the Nazi concentration camps or the Communist gulags).
Most American colleges finish their year by Memorial Day, and start their new semester (usually a compressed summer term) immediately after. We have different school schedules.
Originally the holiday was to commemorate Union soldiers who died in the Civil War (meaning a third of the country was indifferent). Today is it largely an occasion for picnics, cook-outs, and sporting events – and of course shopping. Given that very few Americans have immeidate family who died in military service (unlike the 19th century when that was the norm -based on population size, Civil War deaths would be equivalent of the US losing 5-10 million people today), it is understandable that the holiday has lost most of its importance.
Given that being a mamzer is hereditary, so for most Yidden, that means assuming nothing that would make you a mamzer for well over 100 generations. We therefore have numerous presumptions that if someone seems kosher, and we have reason to believe it is kosher, it is kosher, so we can ignore the possibility that a Jewish ancestor of our’s over the last few thousands “cheated” secretly.
It would make sense to have someone who knows how to use firearms. A typical rebbi or gabbai playing with a gun is more likely to shoot himself if the foot.
Having two names became common when population increased (Baruch ha-Shem), especially since it was before we used family surnames. Plus for a long period going back over a millenia, Jewish men developed an affection for a very limited number of personal names (major people from Tanach and a small number of extras), and in an era where everyone was “Piloni ben Piloni” there weren’t enoughs to avoid confusion.
Some recycling is a scam, some is very critical. For some metals, such as steel, recycling is critical to the national economy. Done properly it lowers the costs to the local taxpayers who are liable to pay for landfills.
America is a food exporter (except for luxury crops, such as out of season fruits). Thus there is no danger of a food shortage in America (absent something catastrophic such as a nuclear war). There can be distribution issues (often caused by unwise government policies), but they work themselves out. The worst that happens in the US is higher prices (since there is a global market and shortages elsewhere result in higher global prices).
Eretz Yisrael does rely somewhat on imported foods, and along with the rest of the Middle East, will have shortages (meaning higher prices) due to the disruption of food exports from Russia and Ukraine. Thus American farmers instead of selling wheat to an frum bakery in Brooklyn for “X” dollars, will sell it to a bakery in Israel for “X+Y” dollars, which will give “Y” dollars of extra happiness to the American farmer.
Traveling into the future is not a problem. Get in your car, spend an hour in the car, and you will be an hour into the future.
Traveling into the past is a great literary device, but has no basis in “science”. One should note that there are example of time travel of sorts in our literature (e.g. the decision of the Yidden to accept Torah affected the creation of the world, and event that had already happened)
What are they fighting over?
A parking space?
or something pertaining to Torah and Mitsvos and the welfare of Klal YisraelBeis Din couldn’t execute a Jew for it. For goyim (with different rules of evidence), abortion and infanticide were frequently cited as a way in which the goyim often violate the sheva mitzvos bnei Noach. Remember as well, that until recently, most people were unaware the unborn children were sentient (that was part of the logic under Roe v Wade to allow killing them – and why the use of ultrasound player a major role in the growth of the pro-life movement).
This is a surprise only to those who believe that anti-Jewish bigotry died out some time in the ancient past. Outside of Eretz Yisrael (where only Hareidim have to deal with discrimination), any non-assimilated (defining assimilation has one who has given up observance of Shabbos and Kashrus) Jew faces substantial discrimination.
There is a “story” that in the immediate post-war period, the Satmar Rebbe (the original) and the Hazon Ish were discussing the situation in Eretz Yisrael (deliberately messed up the Brits, threatened by the Arabs, and infested with rabid socialists). They agreed about the need to flee to caves in the midbar. The Hazon Ish referred to the yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael as caves in the midbar. The Satmarer moved to Brooklyn (which suggests that Yidden who have fled “out of town” are even stricter that the Rebbe. According to our sources, R. Shimon Bar Yochai fled to an actual cave in the midbar (suggesting he was some sort of fanatic, as he had the option of sitting in a yeshiva or fleeing out of town).
Part of the problem is a shortage of workers to keep goods moving. The basic cause is starting with the boomers, Americans (our community and the Mormons excepted ) have been more interested in making money and having fun, rather than producing and raising children. The driver who should be delivering the formula never got born. Plus both the labor unions and the Republicans (albeit for different reasons) are anti-immigration, thereby limiting American economic activity to what can be produced with our shrinking and increasing aged work force.
Note how in the last election, we had a pre-boomer against a boomer running for president, both of whom would be the oldest person ever elected if they won.
If you don’t like the traffic in a big city, leave. There is life elsewhere.
P.S. I assume the original poster is not serving a sentence under which he is confined to New York City as a form of punishment (if he is, he has my sympathies).
provaxx: If the democratically elected secular government decides to build camps and gas chambers and round up some type of goyim (i.e. NOT Yidden, this time) and kill them (and as has was the case 80 years ago, only volunteers do the actual rounding up and killing), will you it be your business to object?
The goyim have never held much reverence for life. Who gave us such words as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” (and these terms were both invented in the lifetime of those still living). For much of human history, “infanticide” was regularly practiced. The surprise is some Yidden believe the goyim are civilized. We should be pleasantly surprised that some goyim are finally objecting to mass murder (that’s a hiddush for them).
The only time Eretz Yisrael has been peaceful is when it was part of a very large and powerful empire, and was in the middle of said empire, and had no serious civil disorders (probably due to having eliminated all dissent). This is rare (briefly under the Romans after they got rid of most of us, until the Arabs came). It was also fairly peaceful for a while under the Turks (from when they had solid control of the region, until when they didn’t).
If Ha-Shem wants us to have a quiet peaceful out of the way place, we would have been taught seamanship and moved to someplace that was then uninhabited (3000+ years ago) and far removed from other peoples, such as New Zealand or Iceland or Madagascar. Eretz Yisrael is at a cross roads of many cultures and by its location will usually be “in the news”, so we should assume that has something to do with Ha-Shem having placed us there.
I suggest securitizing and accepting payment only in Bitcoin. Consider use of a non-fungible token.
Also argue that selling that bridge is a cultural tradition and it would indicate bigotry or some sort of politically incorrect supremacy to object.
Try finding a “metaverse” platform where such sales could be implemented. At least Facebook will believe it is for real.
Try not to confuse the bridge with what Wall Street is selling, since that puts you in a minyan (if you are lucky) in Club Fed. Remember that Wall Street sells many similar projects for more money then you could (or anyone else) could ever imagine.
This has been zionist policy since they were considering asking some Europeans to seize a chunk of Africa for a new homeland. What’s the hiddush?
There are really no communists rests. The Russians are now put unadulterated fascists, and the Chinese are pretty much the same (private companies, operating in service to the state, just like Hitler and Mussolini). People like Sanders are more like 1930s reinactors pretending to be Stalinists (while basing their lifestyle on the wealth generated by free markets).
And think how he could have protected Klal Yisrael if he took all that ability and energy (discounting the energy spent on improper activities), and spent it on Torah and Mitsvos (and avoiding the many inappropriate activities for which he is infamous). Yiddishkeit is what protects us in the long run, and bashing a few annoying goyim is at most a short-term, and often a counter-productive, solution.
And once it starts, where does it end? We’ll end up with a 25 member Supreme Court (which, many country’s have, with judges sitting in panels rather than en banc), and the legal system will change radically (e.g some years all abortion will be a federal offense, and some years it will be a federal constitutional right, and some years it will up to the states). Any liberal who wants to open the door to “court packing” should imagine what the legal system will look like with President Trump and a Republican majority in both houses.
The “Blue” states will legalize abortion, and will make money from people from “red” states who come for an abortion. I remember 50 years ago seeing advertising from New York abortionists with travel agents to offer a package deal to out of towners combining a good hotel, good restaurants, a Broadway show and an abortion.