huju

To the opening poster: You answered your own question. People are not leaving in droves, they are leaving in moving trucks.

To mentsch 1: In the novel 1984, NewSpeak was a government-promoted language in a totalitarian dictatorship that was intended to limit the ability of citizens to express themselves. Not a good idea for the rest of us.

Our eyes tell us nothing if we don’t want to see it. All the rest is commentary.

Some frum thinking: Soros … all that money … not a penny for a yeshiva … anti-Semite.

edited

Blue Label is for wearing when you drink a really expensive scotch whiskey.

Brisk is indeed prestigious, but brisket is delicious. I’ll accept brisket any time.

To Health: Did you not learn about rhetorical questions in high school? Yes, I know the origins of the Electoral College. Do you think we still need it? One of the justifications for the Electoral College was to prevent the people from electing an idiot. Well, no system is foolproof.

Would you oppose a constitutional amendment to allow the popular vote to choose the US president, as we choose governors, state attorneys general, senators, congressmen, state legislators, mayors, county executives, county prosecutors, sheriffs, tax collectors and dog catchers?

Skip the blame. Who is to credit/blame for Europe having such low counts, and the US having such high counts, with little sign of the decline of the pandemic?

There is a local minhag in Hershey that choclate Kisses can count for a minyan.

To continue my stupid joke, all caronas (Spanish for automobiles) need transmissions, but that does not mean they transmit coronavirus.

A new stupid joke is that corona, like most beers, is considered kosher even if it lacks a hechsher.

As for coronavirus in the frum world, coronabirus can cross any border, as the folks in Florida, Texas, Georgia and elsewhere in the US have learned, the hard way. So long as there is coronavirus in most of the world, the frum world is at risk.

For the 10th time, I will give you the answer to the tuition problem: Send the kids to public school for secular subjects for half a day, teach the religious subjects in yeshivas. Regrettably, this will put a lot of rabbis and religious teachers out of work, but it will solve a crushing problem for many frum Jews.

This will take a lot of politicking to accomplish, and many frum politicians have a stake in the continuation of the religious schools. It is, nevertheless, essential for the relief of many frum families. edited

In the United Kingdom, police officers generally do not carry firearms. I would like to see some jurisdictions try that here. Anybody who shoots a cop would be shooting an unarmed person. That should carry long sentences and would sit well with juries. I think it is worth a try, but I am not a cop, so it’s easy for me to say.

Maybe unarmed cops could wear a different colored shirt, so prospective shooters would know they are dealing with unarmed officers.

The US president uses “totally” like a US adolescent. That does not surprise me.

To nomesorah: Not too worry, I’m relaxed. Wine with breakfast does that.

I think the key to improving police treatment of arrestees is an improvement in recruiting of police. The bully wannabees must be screened out before they are hired. I don’t know how you do that, but it needs to be done.

Another other key problem is blue omerta. When cops know that other cops won’t be witnesses against them, it emboldens the abusers to be abusive. The growing ubiquity of cellphone videos helps.

Body cameras will go a long way to preventing unwarranted beatings. The cameras should be on all the time, and not under the control of the wearers. Something will have to be done to protect police officers’ privacy during bathroom breaks, but pointing the cameras at the ceiling would solve that problem. edited But it can be worked out.

Socialist women and socialist female adolescents have loose sexual morals. That will get lots of frum men and boys OTD.

To masivta alawyer: a. What does “chap” mean?

b. I am annoyed – not upset – that frum bochurs in rumpled black suits and rumpled white shirts and unkempt shoes think they look more pious, and are more pious, than a Jew in properly pressed clothing. If proper attire is part of being pious, then they should be attired properly.

c. I don’t think the Torah gives us much guidance on “proper attire.” Twenty years ago, when Microsoft was the world’s most successful company, Microsoft was the arbiter of “proper attire”, which was a button-down shirt opened at the collar, no tie, casual slacks. That style was set by its then president, a very nice gentile. (I know little about Microsoft’s business behavior, and so my characterization of its then president does not reflect Microsoft’s business behavior.)

d. So what role do non-frum and non-Jewish society play in shaping “proper attire” for purposes of Halacha.

To commons aychel: I respond to false accusations that I am anti-Semitic. I am not. I am not black either, but that does not matter to you.

There is so much that is so wrong in these comments, but I have only one thing to say, to Ben Levi: I am a liberal, and a Jew, and I know way more American history than you know.

Speaking of history, I remember when conservatives favored the prosecution of burners of the American flag, and a case went to the Supreme Court, and the court upheld the burning as an exercise of free speech. I remember when conservatives wanted to prosecute leftist wearers of shirts that looked like they were made out of American flags. I cannot remember whether there was a prosecution or Supreme Court case on the issue, but now you can buy such shirts on line, and conservatives wear them at conservative protests.

So if you feel like burning a swastika flag, you have liberals to thank for bringing a case to the Supreme Court and affirming that right.

I remember Minchah years ago, when we needed two more Jews for a minyan. The rabbi went outside and came back with two adolescent Jews, dressed in basketball shorts and T-shirts. One of them acted as chazzan. A Jew is a Jew no matter how he or she is dressed. Let’s never forget that.

To Sam Klein, who asks: “Why do they charge so much for these black hats?” The answer is, because they can. The trickier question is, Why do people of modest means pay so much for these black hats?

An interesting question is the history of the black hat over the last 100 years. Look at wedding photos from 50 years ago and you will see much smaller hats. Evidently, fashion infects even pious Halachic from clothing. Would anyone draw criticism for wearing a black hat of the prevailing size 50 years ago? Not where I daven, but maybe where my adult children daven.

And if fashion can affect frum clothing, why can’t comfort or common sense? I am the only davener who wears a white hat in the summer months.

To nomesorah: Thanks for trying, but ABM would stand for A Black Militia. What does NFAC stand for: National French Athletic Club?

Well, someone finally thought of someone worse than Donald Trump: Jeffrey Dahmer. And, to make it even better, Trump never socialized with Dahmer. Trump cannot say the same thing about Jeffrey Epstein.

To Goldilocks: I made no comment on David Dinkins’ performance as mayor. And if you don’t know the difference between calling an African American mayor a washroom attendant and calling a former farmer a farmer, you should attend the sensitivity class with Joseph.

Daf Yomi was originally studied weekly because the learners were Yiddish speakers but not fluent in Hebrew.