Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
1. It is politically incorrect to study ancient history, especially of civilizations that were deficient by 21st century standards. Since most dumb ideas have been tried previously, if politicians studied history they would have to give up all their favorite proposals and would be truely bored, and would have to come up with no, and probably worse, dumb ideas.
2. However not overreacting to a mob has much that can be said for it. What if, on Jan. 6, the Capitol Police and National Guard and opened fire and killed a few dozen unarmed, but rioting, protesters? Past examples of excessive force have often backfired (e.g. Boston 1770, Amritsar 1919, St. Petersburg 1905). If a mob is angry, one should find a way to address their grievances without making matter worse.
1. More Jews speak Hebrew than any other language. Among Orthodox Jews, that has been the case for a generation (at least), but is not true even among frei Jews (unless you use the Israeli definition of Jewish, i.e. anyone of Jewish descent within the last three generations who hasn’t converted to another religion).
2. Americans are increasingly become “online” rather than “printed word” oriented, so when the goyim go post-literate (i.e.skill in reading is for specialists only), Yinglish will start turning into a new language, just as Yiddish did 1000 years ago, with the caveat that there is no guarantee that frum Jews will stay in America (especially if the “blue” side gains strength as their anti-religion bigotry will force us to migrate).
Perhaps chicken #1 was pregnant (note that laying unfertilized eggs is a relatively modern development, from human supplied genetic modification).
Blue states have identical laws. Almost every business requires photo ID (drivers license or passport or equivalent) for significant transactions, including the companies such as Delta which screamed the loudest.
MLB may be shooting themselves in the foot since while most owners are rich blues, most of the American players and from “red” parts of the country. If the “red” states support a repeal of the baseball’s unique antitrust exemption, the result could be competing red and blue leagues, not to mention losing their reserve clause and exemption from playing minor league players the minimum wage.
According to our own sources, pre-dating modern sciences, the multiverse includes many places where intelligent extra-terrestial beings exist. As these extra-terrestials lack American citizenship, if they come to the USA they will be “aliens” (though presumably they are citizens of their home worlds).
The US equivalents were abolished in 1776. The United States is a republic (small “r”, and proud of it).
The only title of address is for a male is “Mister” (even “Mister President”). Attempts to have something more Brit-like fizzled out by the 1790’s (exception: calling judges “Your Honor”, calling elected officials “the honorable”, and lawyers using “esq” after their names).
I don’t eat hametz while wearing a mask, so no problem.
I am washing the white mask I wear on yuntufs that matches my yuntuf tie. I’ll probably wash the black and blue ones to match the ties I wear on Hol ha-Moed.
One has doubts about masks as health measures but they a great fashion accessories as coordinated with one’s tie.
The halacha is that the Beis Din that orders a “get” will decide the custody issue, though obviously if the marriage is between two adults (referring to maturity rather than age), a Beis Din will just ratify the parents’ agreement.
Whatever you favor, the “filibuster” (requirement of a super-majority in the Senate) is against. The super-majority requirements are likely to block Biden legislation, just as they previously blocked Trump legislation. Many things Trump wanted to do the Democrats consider racist, were blocked by the filibuster. The many administrative laws (executive orders) that were issued since Congress refused to act (due to the super-majority requirement in the Senate), would have been enacted as statutes but for the filibuster.
In general, the super-majority rule protects minority groups who fear the majority will gang up on them and act contrary to their interests. That is probably a good thing.
In a world of blithering idiots, the somewhat mad are kings.
Until the mid-20th century, men would be arrested for indecent exposure if they went swimming without a shirt. So are the Yidden in 2021 less modest than the goyim were 100 years ago?????
1. Define a language. By one way of defining things, Lashon Kodesh is a dead language, and Ivrit is a modern derivative (similar to the relationship of Latin to French, or modern American English to Middle English).
2. Fonts constantly change. Note the history of “Rashi” font (once used for popular literature, now only for serious sefarim). The writing system is independent of the language (e.g English uses the Roman alphabet, Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet, Farsi uses the Arabic alphabet, most ancient Mesopotamian Semitic languages used the Sumerian script).
If you exclude the situation where one party wants to stay married (in which case it is arguably premature to talk about a “get”, and that usually is a temporary problem), one way to address the matter would be to have the Beis Din be associated with a “legal clinic” that if the parties cooperate would do all the legal work for getting the divorce (details approved under Beis Din supervision) approved by the government courts, and if one party refuses to go along, to provide legal services to the other party (which in itself, would create a very strong incentive to be cooperative, since no one wants to go to an American court in which your opponent as “deep pockets”). There would be the need to raise money for such legal clinics, and the problem if that parties can’t agree on a Beis Din, though if they each prefer different Beitei Din, that should not be a big problem since most rabbanim get along much better than most divorcing couples. Also, if a divorce is caused by one party going OTD, the other party’s legal bills get paid by the our community. There would also be the mater of “Haseges Gevul” pertaining to frum matrimonial lawyers.
An excellent argument for why coffee, like all manufactured (processed) products, require a hecksher.
The alternative is to buy the raw ingredients in their natural form, check them for bugs, and process them yourself (what everyone used to do, and some people still do, but buying in a store is a lot easier).
Biden. He was elected fair and square (albeit with the help of the Republicans kicking the ball into their own goal).
Note that while Reagan was suffering from dementia, he successfully reinvigorated the economy that was tottering from stagflation after years of “big government” and launched the policies that result in the Cold War coming to a happy conclusion (freeing many countries from socialist tyranny without spilling a drop of blood).
From this we see that senility seems to have little or no impact on the ability of one to be president. The government follows the policies of the leader (which in the current situation, might be less than ideal given that the Democratic platform calls for destroying the private sector, appeasing our enemies and replacing with civil rights with entitlements to politically correct factions).
The public health people only gave “emergency” approval. While they found the vaccine safe and reasonably effective at reducing the chance of becoming seriously ill from Covid19, they would need much more time to determine if it prevent someone from spreading the disease. Working in favor of relaxed rules is that 90% of the people who get the disease don’t become seriously ill (the placebo vaccine would have been 90% effective, so when the talk about the effectiveness of the vaccine they are comparing it to the placebo and looking for how many people become seriously ill after getting the vaccine, as opposed to those who got the placebo).
and since most non-frum Jews intermarry as often as not, and have been doing so for about 200 years (depending on when their ancestor was OTD), if a non-frum “Jew” has a Jewish surname, it is reasonable to suspect that the person has non-Jewish ancestry on the maternal line
I wouldn’t attach much if any significance to CNN. They have long since given up on reporting news in favor of making up politically correct stories and catering to the “cancel culture” mob. The mere fact the one watches CNN for news suggests an inability to distinguish fiction from reality.
If anything he was fairly left-wing. His works show a strong opposition to anti-Semitism and racism, and he was unusually willing to include non-European looking people at a time when “all white” was the standard, and discussing racism and anti-Semitism was liable to get you blacklisted.
In the United States, approximate 1% (that’s roughly three million) people die every year. And the US death rate is lower than most economically advanced countries (not so much a function of health care as of higher fertility, since death rate is largely a function of age – that’s why Israel has a lower death rate than almost any advanced country).
Covid19 is little more than a “blip”. The US death rate, with Covid19 is still lower that many if not most countries before Covid19. And since overwhelmingly the fatalities are of people retired from work (press reporting of sensational exceptions not withstanding), there should not have been severe economic disruption except for serious government incompetence (blame Trump and Cuomo and all their colleagues – except for programs affecting senior citizens nothing should have been closed down and people should have been told not to panic).
In the above example, a person had a horrible cough but tested negative, but (adding my comments) it appears that due to the scare-mongering tactics the person (and/or friends and relations) freaked out believe he was dying. So instead of resting, drinking tea and chicken soup, and maybe getting a prescription cough medicine, he went to hospital taking up valuable resources and exposing himself to Covid19.
If this is the test before Maschiach comes, it seems that Ha-Shem has really given up on us and is dumbing down the test.
Indirectly. YWN needs to avoid antagonizing most of the “frum” establishment, and they favor going along with the politically correct position that Covid19 is an existential threat to society, and the vaccines are critical for survival. Almost all of their advertisers would be forced to withdraw if YWN did otherwise. If you clash with the “party line”, you get cancelled.
The issue with credibility on Covid19 (especially among frum Jews since we are radically younger than the rest of society, plus our “older than boomers” age group are diminished due to holocaust) is that our personal experience doesn’t reflect the horrendous plagues in the past. This is true of many goyim as well. In past epidemics, most children lost multiple playmates. People of working age were dying so fast that the economy was undermined. In past epidemics, the death rate rose by many multiples (e.g. a smallpox epidemic is 16th century America killed over 50% of the population), whereas with Covid19 the death rate rose by about one-sixth, killing about one in a thousand, and numerous people had Covid19 or were quarantined without getting seriously ill.
Had those in charge not overstated the seriousness of Covid19, and relied on facts and science rather than scare mongering, there wouldn’t have been any issues (there also wouldn’t have been any school closings, any bans on davening, any closing “non-essential” business, and no recession). The real danger is if there ever is a serious public health threat, it won’t be taken seriously.
Universal indoor plumbing (in the 19th century, few Yidden had it)
Antibiotics (a century ago, strep left you sick for months, and was often fatal)
Maternal and infant mortality are rare
Sefarim are cheaper, more available, and easier to read
Ability to walk down the street with a kippa and not get attacked (at least in the USA)
Hecksherim (Ingredient kosher is what people used to do in the past)
Most jobs (and almost all universities and career) are open to frum Jews (even if openly frum)
Genocide is considered illegal (even against us)
Antisemitism is disreputable (anyone saying something anti-Jewish has to explain he didn’t mean it)Nassrallah, like many politicians, likes to let his mouth run. Since he doesn’t need to worry about what the local voters think, he is free to say anything that he wants. If he had some secret weapon or brilliant strategy, the last thing he would do is to announce it in advance.
Remember that while thermometers are a modern invention, there many ways of knowing the past history of climate (such as based on what crops grew where). The period of Bayis Sheini and the period of the Rishonim were warmer than today. The “Dark ages” (the decline of the western Roman Empire through the period of the Gaonim), and the period of the early Achronim until the 20th century, were cooler. In general, warm periods are good, and cool periods are bad. Warm means higher crop yields from a longer growing season, and cool periods mean people go hungry (e.g. the barbarian invasions of Europe, the European invasion of America -though both turned out very well for those doing the invasion).
So if the goyim’s theory climate change is correct and we are entering another warm area, that should be a good thing. Obviously there will be winner and losers (those who shovel snow for a living will be losers, those who mow grass will be winners). Less danger of freezing in the sukkah, , but the goyim might be grumpy at now getting snow for their winter holiday.
1. If the election was limited to in-person, verified (at least by signature) voters, there is a good chance that Trump would have won.
2. In states such as Georgia, where Republicans controlled the voting process, the data clearly indicates both that absentee voters were disproportionately Democratic (perhaps reflect a greater germ-phobia among Democrats), but suggest no one did any ballot box stuffing (since had that been the case, the Republicans would have lost badly in local races, and in fact they di rather well. This suggests that many Republicans chose not to vote for Trump.
3. The Republicans failed to effectively campaign for mail-in votes (similar to how the Democrats in 2016 ignored the “deplorables” )
Given that a criminal is much worse off as an illegal immigrant (due to prejudice in any country against aliens, and the fact they can be deported even if found innocent), criminals generally prefer to follow their life of crime in their home country. By definition, a foreigner sticks out, and the last a criminal desires into stick out.
Trump shocked the Democrats by the respectable percentage of Hispanic votes he got. A Republican who sticks the core of Trump’s message, aimed for the working class (the “deplorables” in Democratic eyes), and avoids some of the off-color racist messaging that kept getting Trump in trouble, will undermine any Democratic advantage among new immigrants. It should also be noted that historically, it does not take very long for new immigrants to become nativists (and to start objecting to ever newer immigrants). Note by the way, that with a 19th century standard, Trump would be considered a new immigrant (1st and 2nd generation native to the USA, depending on parent).
The Tulips played a major role in Netherlands going from being a major world power to a cute little neutral. It would be bad for Yidden if Bitcoin brings the end of America’s role as a great power.
Just like Tulips (which are much nice to look at)
Maybe they should stop using the courts to harass each other, so the courts and resolve real disputes in a timely manner. Adopting the English rule (loser pays the winner’s legal fees) for law suits by or for politicians would probably solve the manner.
ujm: If you have a “more useful business”, then you should be able to go to the landlord of the property and offer him more money than the bank, since by definition your business will generate more profits.
If you feel than bank branches reflect an unwise business decision, you can purchase a “short” of the bank’s stock, since business that make unwise business decision will end up with lower profits and a lower stock price.
I suspect the banks feel that frum neighborhoods are good places to do business since they have vibrant small businesses and a young population (and small businesses and new families require the sorts of transactions one can’t do at an ATM machine, such as making loans), and where people are less comfortable transacting all business in an online environment. I note that none of the banks you mentioned as having branches have been in the news for being in danger of being closed down due to insolvency.
ujm: but by the time immigrant children reach adulthood they are so assimilated that it doesn’t make any difference — if you are really concerned about socialist radicalization, work to close down the elite universities. Kids who become hard working stiffs will turn into “deplorables” whose votes are up for grabs
1 Many are children. Children can’t vote.
2. Many (if not most) of those are coming from socialist dominated regimes that they can’t stand. Based on most recent immigrants from those countries, they are hard workers who wish to keep the money they make and not turn it over to the government. While some people such as Trump who was openly anti-Hispanic (calling all Mexicans “rapists”) could scare them into being Democrats, many will end up as Republicans.
Banks will do what is profitable. If they think branches bring profits, that is what they do. Banks that do not make profits go out of business.
If you believe that constitutionally protected speech, that inspires someone to engage in illegal activity, absent the speaker encouraging illegal acts, is illegal, then Trump was guilty, Harris is guilty and a large number of politicians are guilty of all sorts of crimes. This sort of interpretation of “free speech” is unAmerican, but is common in many countries (albeit not ones we would consider “free”). The rule would then be that criticism of the state is prohibited since it might incite someone to no longer support the state (heh, if it was good enough for Uncle Joe and Adolph, it’s good enough for … ).
In all fairness, in the 20th century (at least the first part), most Jews in the world relied on “ingredient kashrus”. They look at the label for known non-kosher ingredients. At first there were very few products with formal hecksherim, and even fewer where the item being sold has a kosher label. Even today, many people rely on ingredient kashrus rather than demanding a hecksher.
But now we can find almost anything with a formal hecksher, including most types of alcoholic beverages. And since food processing is much more complicated, labels are more unreliable than ever. So not insist on a hecksher?
Ingredient kashrus belongs to an area where Jews had to shave and try to look like goyim to keep jobs, even if it meant walking three hours to get home on Shabbos during the winter when work ended too late to use transit (and considered yourself fortunate to have a found a job that didn’t require working on Shabbos, since a six-day, 54 hour work week was the norm). It is from an era where wearing a yarmulke in public put you at risk of bodily harm, and precluded almost all possibilities of employment other than working for a frum owned business or a frum institution.
If you accidentally killed a large number of people, you go around boasting about it???
If the Sherry had a hecksher, it would not be an issue.
The entire affair is a joke, and he is treating it with the respect it reserves. In an insurrection, one raises an armed force and seizes the government. One doesn’t prance around half naked with an animal skin and a wooden stick. Absent evidence showing Trump discussing use of armed force to seize the government, and also arranging with the significant garrisons stationed in or near Washington (one only a few blocks away) to cooperate, all that the Democrats have shown is that Trump, at worse, encouraged a lawful and constitutionally protected demonstration to get disorderly.
HaKatan: If housing prices are too high, move to a cheaper location or move to a smaller apartment. If tuition is too high (or rather the “discounts” offered are too low), move to a cheaper school. While it is nice that some frum Jews can afford upper crust areas such as Nassau County or New York City, that does happen to be among the most expensive places to live. Overall in America, there is a steady migration from high-cost areas to affordable areas.
Perhaps should you be asking if there is an upper class frum family financial crisis?
Clever move by Biden. He denies the Iranians what they desperately want (relief from sanctions, which are destroying their economy), and gives them an irrelevant bone (the US will stop helping the Saudis from beating up the Iranian’s friends in Yemen, as if the Saudi’s really need our help).
There always has been such a financial crisis, and there always will be. Just say Baruch ha-Shem. Having large families is for us a “feature” and not a “bug”. The law of supply and demand (cf: Adam Smith) will dictate that the level and expense of services offered (the supply) will fall so that it is in equilibrium of what families can afford (the demand), and this will a happen without any fancy committees doing anything.
Note that “middle class” is always a relative term – once it meant that everyone in the family had their own bed, the parents didn’t sleep in the same room as the children, and you had something other than potatoes to eat during the week.
In the long run, no more significant than Yankees vs Mets, Orioles vs Nats, Cubs vs White Sox, Nets v Knicks, Jets v Giants, Rangers v Islanders, Ravens v ex-Redskins, etc.
The major difference is that professional athletes understand it’s only a game, whereas the politicians think they really do control the universe (hint: we know better).
You are confusing Gog uMagog with the three stooges. Perhaps you are watching too much of the goyim’s media which have an absurd focus on “end of the world”. Relax and get back learning and davening and stop worrying so much.
Is there someone running around, tying you to a chair, forcing your eyes open, and making you spend your life looking at trash on the internet??????
Makes one think of someone who drinks too much and wonders why he is intoxicated, or someone who eats too much and can’t understand why he is overweight.
People have constantly complained that the “big” businesses are too powerful and undermine democracy and freedom. This should be put in historic context. Ask where the current all-powerful evil corporations were 50 years ago? Look at the list of the then all-powerful evil corporations of 50 years ago, and ask how important they are today? If the list from 50 years ago is the same as today (and all the more so, the same as 50 years before that), it would indicate the major corporations have dictatorial control over the country and society. If fact, the lists are significantly different. If people don’t like what a corporation is doing, they’ll take their business elsewhere, and soon that corporation will be looking for new leadership in hopes of rebuilding and reorganizing (or worse, looking for a bankruptcy lawyer).
Amazon is NOT the government. Private companies have a right to censor (e.g YWN has the right to exclude anti-semitic speech, even though the government does not).
Parler can take their business elsewhere. Amazon does not have a monopoly.
The Democrats should be scared. In spite of alienating a large percentage of his own party (the only explanation of Trump’s negative tailcoats – the rest of the ticket did better than he did), Trump got a tremendous number of popular votes that Obama ever got, and missed winning by a tiny margin. If a Republican can keep Trump’s base (working class non-African Americans) while not alienatating the traditional Republican base (middle class, pro-business but not necessarily affluent), the Republicans will be able to trounce the Democrats nationally. Having alienating its traditional working class base, the Democrats are left with the limousine liberals and relying on “identity politics” to get Blacks, Hispanics and Asians to vote Democratic even though they would be better off under the Republicans.
Dragging out confirmations is a waste of time (at least for people who the President can fire at any time). When the Senate is not controlled by the same party as the President, they constantly complain about each other. Any readers who work with preschoolers will notice the similarities between politicians and preschoolers.
A guy running around half naked with an animal skin, and no weapons, is NOT an insurrection. If you were planning an insurrection, you would arrive well armed (including artillery and air support), and in advance would have arranged with the local garrisons to mutiny. Confusing trespassing, disorderly conduct and vandalism with treason marks one as a fool. Using your foolish to support banning all expressions of dissent directed against the state marks you as a fascist.
The attacks on government buildings in the Pacific Northwest are closer to “insurrection” except they seem more aimed at disruption the seizure of power.
The case is moot. If the Democrats has been able to show that Trump was on the payroll of a foreign government, that would have been an impeachable offense. If the Democrats showed Trump was simply running a business, the Democrats would look silly since it is clear that presidents are allowed to moonlight (and many of the early presidents spent much time on their business interests including selling things to foreigners).
Of course, if you believe, as Trump does, that Trump really won the election, the case wouldn’t be moot since Trump is still president. The Supreme Court clearly feels otherwise.