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Blog/August 2021/Aug 20th

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August 20th Comments or questions? Click here!


There have been times over the years when I was embarrassed to be American. The Carter and Obama years; Trump’s aggressive boorishness. This week, however, beat them all. The US’ impulsive and imprudent departure from Afghanistan was a failure of epic proportions which was so bad, even CNN raked the administration over the coals.

To be fair to Biden, three previous administrations share the blame. Bush the Second went in after 9/11 without a clear plan nor any exit strategy. Obama called it “the good war” and did little. Trump said we would leave and started preparations, but was ousted before he could make good on his plans. Then Biden happened.

It is simply not possible to overstate the indelible stain this leaves on the US’ reputation in the ME and the world at large. It’s readily apparent to anyone with eyes in his head, that the US is not a reliable ally. This is truly bad news for the world. Taiwan: take note.

Boycott Afghanistan! Grow your own opium! “Ice-cream is the opiate of the massives!”.

The aptly-named “cloud”:


Continuing last week’s discussion on COVID, two items of note: first, Rabbi Ariel states “Anyone who is not vaccinated is violating halakhah”. One of the statements attributed to him is that halakhah “requires a person to be healthy”. This is incorrect, and if he said it, it’s puzzling. The Law requires us to avoid endangering ourselves unnecessarily, and to strive to be healthy; but someone who is not healthy is not thereby violating the Law. We are also required to not cause harm to others, which he is also quoted as implying indirectly.

Which brings us to the rationale behind the mask and isolation and vaccination mandates. As I mentioned last week, the overall mortality rate for COVID (without taking age, sex, or health status into account) is at most 0.7%. True, there seem to be some serious long-term side-effects of an infection, short of death; which is certainly worth taking into consideration for one’s own health. Here’s a breakdown of real statistics by age and sex from this week, for your edification.

To put it in perspective: measles has a mortality rate of 1.46%. HIV/AIDS: 2.03%. Cholera and typhoid: 4%. Diphtheria: 10%, Tuberculosis: 15%. source here. All are at least as infectious as COVID, all have vaccines (except for HIV/AIDS: one is currently in the trial stages), but we don’t require entire populations to isolate and vaccinate and mask to prevent their spread (though in the West we routinely vaccinate against measles and diphtheria).

You should be sceptical of all the panic-porn being purveyed by your governments and media outlets. Be very sceptical.

N.B.: Despite the above, I got my 3rd jab, and had a strange tingling sensation in my arm (as did Esther), and my arm hurt for a couple days. Nothing worse than that, so far…

On a completely different note: Esther finally utilized her “gift cards”! The custom here in the Land is for employers to give a “gift card” as a holiday bonus. Esther’s received them for a number of years, but hadn’t used them. This week she did: and got 2,500 ILS worth of cookware for 200. That pretty much made my week!

Weather: same old, same old; hot but pleasant.

Our shabbat menu includes:
homemade ḥalla, chicken schnitzel, sticky wings, roasted sweet-potatoes, various salatim, watermelon, cookies, and cake.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!


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