Blog/November 2018/Nov 2nd

November 2nd

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Back to a normal work week for all of us. Esther and I were not overwhelmed with work. Sarah had to deal with the usual complement of unusual customers. Things were mostly quiet for us.

Tuesday the (Israeli) municipal elections took place. In an absolutely shocking development, the mayor of our town won again. I think it’s his fifth term — but who’s counting? There were no contenders for the spot other than he; so you might assume that he got all the votes. Turns out, a significant number of “no” votes were cast, which I did find surprising. He won anyway.

The turnout in our fair city was about 50%, which is quite respectable. In Jerusalem, which had a hotly contested race between four or five candidates, the turnout was only 35%. Pretty pathetic for a city of almost a million inhabitants.

I often wonder just how it came about that the Jews in the Diaspora are often so disconnected from Jewish reality. A case in point: an article claiming that climate change is the “Jewish emergency” we should be talking about. Of course, that was published just before the massacre of Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

One of those is a Jewish emergency; the other is not. If you can’t tell the difference, you might need some help.

I also often wonder, disconsolately, how it came about that people these days (in the US, in particular) rush to make political hay while a disaster is fresh and the bodies still unburied. Has the notion of “decency” truly departed the communal psyche? If so, the “culture” is not long for this world, and good riddance! You might say that the (primarily Left) response is an act of bad faith.

But no sense in getting outraged, for rage makes you stupid.

One more thing on this general topic: the Pittsburgh shooter used a Twitter-like site called “Gab”. That site has been maligned as an “alt-Right”, “racist”, “anti-Semitic” etc. etc. site. It is none of those things: what it is, is a pro-free-speech site. The rules there are, basically, that you can say anything which isn’t actually illegal. So people who were banned by Twitter and Facebook and the like, show up there. I have a Gab account, in fact; and I’m still not a member of the alt-Right or a neo-Nazi (nor have I been banned by any other site). I’m simply a radical pro-free-speech partisan.

Immediately after the shooting, PayPal discontinued giving Gab payment services, Gab’s internet hosting provider de-platformed them, and the Media continuously maligned Gab as being a “far-right” etc. site. If you aren’t chilled by the suppression of free speech, you should study the history of every repressive regime in history. Perhaps you will learn why you should be chilled.

I’ve been fielding questions and bug reports from 8th’s users, in response to the latest version (released last week). It turns out that my new version helps uncover some bad programming practices (though it did have a couple actual bugs as well, as it happens). <sigh>

A friend from our community in the Olde Country is coming to visit Israel today; she and a friend will be spending shabbat with us. I only hope they won’t be too jet-lagged to enjoy it!

This shabbat, our guests and we will enjoy, among other things:
homemade ḥalla, zucchini soup, sweet-and-sour baked chicken, traditional cholent, orzo, roasted beets, tabbouleh, green-bean salad, baked eggplant, cabbage salad, (probably other things), and homemade ice-cream.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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