HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If you're sick and tired of all the bad news we've been bombarded with this year, check out CNN's interactive Good News Generator for 2022!

Whoopi Goldberg - Please Change Your Last Name!

You may not be Jewish but your last name is, so please change it to Smith or Jones. We Jews would rather not have an antisemite like you using a name like Goldberg.

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From United With Israel: STAGGERING IGNORANCE: Whoopi Doesn’t Know Basic Holocaust Facts

Whoopi Goldberg recently defended her false statements about the Holocaust, claiming that the Nazis “were not killing racial; they were killing physical,” leading to calls for her resignation.

By United with Israel Staff

“'Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical,'” Whoopi Goldberg recently told the UK’s Sunday Times in an interview that was published Saturday.

According to 'The View' co-host, Adolf Hitler’s genocidal plan to exterminate the Jewish people 'wasn’t originally' based on race.

Goldberg, who has no Jewish ancestry and scrapped the name Caryn Elaine Johnson for a Jewish-sounding stage moniker at the outset of her career, appeared to be rehashing statements she made during a January 31 episode of the 'The View,' which led ABC News President Kim Godwin to suspend her for two weeks.

On that show, Goldberg claimed 'the Holocaust isn’t about race' during a discussion of a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban 'Maus,' a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel that deals with the Holocaust.

'This was clearly idiotic,' responded Israel-based British commentator Melanie Phillips at the time.'

'The signature characteristic of German Nazism was that it set out to exterminate Jews as a race, identifying them as targets for annihilation on the basis of even a tenuous ancestral connection with Judaism,' wrote Phillips on JNS.org.

Phillips added, 'Attempting to apologize in the ensuing storm, Goldberg made things even worse. Saying she had now learned that ‘Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race,’ she then told Stephen Colbert on his late-night comedy show that the Nazis had lied and actually had issues not with race but with ethnicity, which caused further outrage and prompted another apology.'
In the Times piece over the weekend, the interviewer corrected Goldberg after she appeared to repeat claims that the Holocaust wasn’t related to concepts of race"

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Sorry, Whoopi! The word "race" doesn't only mean blacks!

Instead of Helping Others, Looters are Helping Themselves

It was sickening to read about, and see video footage of, the looting going on in Buffalo.  Imagine, after a horrific blizzard that has killed at least 30 people and trapped many more inside their homes, these lowlives managed to have the energy to get to the stores to loot and destroy -- and even boast about their crimes on live feeds!

"'They're breaking into the Rent To Own, they're taking TV sets,' said Cichocki, who blamed the justice system for this fallout during the blizzard. 'They're not looting food and medicines, they're just looting items that they want so these aren't even people in distress these are people that are taking advantage of a natural disaster,' Mayor Brown said." 

The mayor referred to them as "the lowest of the low", but he was being much too kind.

Minimizing COVID

This is another excellent column by The Tyee's Andrew Nikiforuk:  "Ten COVID Facts Health Officials Dangerously Downplay. We should be rallied to defend ourselves and ur kids. Our leaders offer timid silence."

"Seeing Auschwitz" Exhibition

 

This is from the UK Jewish News: "‘Startling and sobering’ Auschwitz exhibition. The exhibition everyone is talking about has a strong message and lasting impact"

This looks like a very powerful exhibit,  But if the photos of dead Jews at Auschwitz hasn't moved the antisemites, I doubt these will.

Ridiculous Speech Codes -- Yet Again

Don't colleges and universities have better things to do than create lists of "harmful speech"? I thought they were supposed to educate people, not make them dumber.

I have never changed the words I use, and I definitely will not use the alternatives listed here by Stanford.

"Among the words the university urges people to avoid in the imprecise language section is the term, "American." People are instead asked to use "U.S. Citizen" because "American" typically refers to "people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas." The Americas, the index notes, comprises 42 countries."

"Other terms deemed harmful in this section include "abort," which offers the replacement of "cancel" or "end," because of moral concerns about abortion; "child prostitute" is replaced with a "child who has been trafficked," so the person is not defined by just one characteristic; and "Karen" is replaced with "demanding or entitled White woman."

"Under the ableist section, the index urges people to use "accessible parking" instead of "handicap parking," "died by suicide" instead of "committed suicide" and "anonymous review" instead of "blind review." It also says people should use "unenlightened" as a replacement for "tone deaf," and a "person with a substance abuse disorder" as a replacement for "addict."

Must-Reads About the Tripledemic

Things seem to be spiraling out of control these days between COVID, the flu, RSV, strep throat, and other ailments. Here are some well-written articles on the subject.

Geoff Nesnow writes, "We Can’t Wish Covid-19 Away.  Covid-19 is insidious and it’s coming for all of us unless we do something differently".
.
Emergency doctor Joe Vipond,  dermatologist Lisa Iannattone, and biologist T. Ryan Gregory write, "We don't know what's causing the tsunami of sick kids, but we'd better figure it out fast."

An Unbelievable Lack of COVID Awareness

Here's a post by Dr Chuck Wurster on Twitter about the lack of COVID knowledge, in the 3rd year of the pandemic.

"Often when I talk to patients in the emergency department, I feel like no one has ever actually talked to them about Covid, masks, vaccinations or how to protect themselves and their families from viral illnesses.

Some patients are surprised to learn that Covid is still spreading through our communities. They’ve never heard of long Covid, and they believe that the virus is “just a cold.” No one has ever told them that repeat Covid infections could have profound health implications.

Many people don't know that masks work to decrease the spread of respiratory viruses and are not just something worn by sick people. They don't know that respirator-style masks can protect the wearer from getting infections. They don't know that you can get these masks for kids.

Many of my patients are surprised to learn that their young children have been eligible for the Covid vaccines for months. They don't know they themselves could have had two boosters this year or that the new bivalent boosters are available. Many adults have had only two doses.

My patients have very little knowledge of how to keep an Covid infection from spreading within a household. Talk of ventilation and filtration, opening windows, masking, and isolation within the home are foreign concepts. No one has ever told them.

Why don't my patients know these seemingly evident and basic concepts of the world we now live in? It's likely a combination of many things. Regardless of why, I do my best every shift, with the short time we have in an overcrowded emergency department, to fill in the blanks.

Public health messaging has been abysmal in informing the public about our current state of persistent Covid transmission and death, the emergence of influenza and RSV, and the immense strain this viral soup has put on our healthcare system.

No one from public health says the word Covid anymore. They say “respiratory viruses”. No one from public health says “mask” anymore, they just mention washing your hands. No one ever mentions Long Covid or talks about the vascular and immune complications of repeat infections.

The scarcity of knowledge and lack of insight within our society does not solely rest with public health. We, as front-line healthcare workers, have done poorly in filling in the gaps left by non-existent public messaging. We can’t just let this slide anymore.

The healthcare team must take the extra few minutes to give patients the tools to protect themselves and their families. Encourage all vaccinations, most especially Covid and flu. Encourage masking in public and at school. Talk about respirators. Talk about cleaning the air.

We need our public figures, including politicians, celebrities and high profile physicians to model strategies to curb the spread of respiratory viruses. Most importantly this must include wearing respirator-style masks in indoor public spaces. Our society needs to see this.

The public won't be able to adapt to these extraordinary times unless they know how to avoid prolonged and potentially life-shortening illnesses. We have to provide this information both in our words and in our behaviours."

Midterm Postmortem

Stephen Kruiser summed it up well in his 11/9/22 column titled "We're Done -- American
Voters Are Idiots":

"So much for the Red Wave, freedom, and hopes that the United States of America would continue to exist past next Arbor Day.

We’re done here, kids. You know actual human beings who voted for Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, and Kathy Hochul in New York.

These are not people who are conducive to the continued existence of this once-glorious Republic.

What happened last night should have been an emphatic correction to the hell this country has been subjected to since Joe Biden was artificially installed in the White House.

Instead, we got a bunch of bleating socialist sheep."

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It's hard to understand how, after 73% of Americans polled said their biggest concerns are the economy and crime, people would still vote for the Democrats anyway!  And I never could have imagined that New Yorkers would still vote for Kathy Hochul rather than crime-fighting Lee Zeldin. The criminals themselves must be happy, though: "The hunt is on for a knife-wielding robber who sliced a 27-year-old man in the face inside the Union Square subway station in Manhattan, cops said."

Phil Mushnick on Kyrie Irving & Other Antisemites

Sportswriter Phil Mushnick has written a great column titled "Nets’ Kyrie Irving can go to hell with his anti-Semitic stupidity" and he has brought up some important facts that others seem to overlook:

"While Irving’s sense of applied and shared history seems to be in accord with the 12th-century Inquisition and genocidal Nazis of the 20th century, I wonder if he knows of three more recent historical figures:  James Chaney, a black man from Mississippi, and Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, two young Jews from New York City. 

"I highly doubt that Irving, despite his Duke University pedigree, has heard of them and I highly doubt that what now passes for black leadership — the selectively silent from Jesse Jackson to Al Sharpton to Louis Farrakhan to LeBron James to Kanye West — would encourage young African Americans to learn of them. 

"Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman were civil rights workers on a mission in Mississippi in 1964. They were murdered by Ku Klux Klan members. Chaney was 21, Schwerner was 24 and Goodman was 20.
Starting with the formation of the NAACP in 1909 in NYC, there have been a preponderance of Jews in black civil rights movements. They shared the commonality and brutality of illogical, ignorant, Kyrie Irving-like bigotry. 

"But now we see, hear and read of  'enlightened' black men and women turning Jews such as Goodman and Schwerner from martyrs to suckers. It’s a colossal betrayal generated and spread by practiced hate and race hustlers who now win attention and even support on demand."

It's not only enlightened black men, it's also terrorists like these who attacked a kosher market and killed three people. They also hated Jews, and they had an interest in the  the so-called Black Hebrew Israelites movement. How long does it take today's antisemites to go from openly expressing antisemitic sentiments to actually killing Jews?

Dear Deniers: COVID Is Still Not Over

Read Dr. David Berger's column about COVID, from the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald. He could very well be describing what's been happening here in the United States: "The notion that COVID-19 has been vanquished is not supported by the facts."

Before giving us the facts, he writes that "Right now, we are telling ourselves a soothing story about COVID-19, one that follows the pattern of many of the fairytales we have liked to tell since our days around the campfire. It has a typical beginning (a dark threat stalks us), middle (a valiant and desperate fight against overwhelming odds) and end (the foe vanquished, a return to normal)."

"With no consent, no mandate, no public discussion, the 'dry tinder' (the elderly, those with chronic disease, those most at risk of  'reaping', as Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has termed them) is being burnt off. Deaths and infirmity in these individuals can easily be explained away and so easily discounted."

"The only way to identify that this is happening is through statistical analysis of death and illness rates. These analyses accumulate daily and are remarkably consistent around the globe, but statistical reports are not eye-catching and are easily ignored when it is expedient to do so."

Sound familiar?  

Why people would rather hide the truth and continue to minimize the devastation than fight it, I'll never understand. But when you read the reader comments that often accompany important columns like this and read things like "Who cares?", "Stop the fearmongering", and "I refuse to wear a mask and get vaccinated", you can plainly see why we're still in such trouble.

Mazel Tov, Benjamin Netanyahu!

From Israel Hayom: "Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to hold a narrow lead early Wednesday in Israeli elections, according to exit polls, potentially paving the way for a return to power after it appeared that at least one left-wing party failed to meet the necessary threshold to enter parliament.

The exit polls were preliminary, and the final results could change as votes are tallied. However, they pointed to a continued rightward shift in the Israeli electorate, further dimming hopes for peace with the Palestinians and setting the stage for possible conflict with the Biden administration and Israel's supporters in the US."

It's tough what the Biden Administration thinks. Netanyahu has always protected Israel first, and it's impossible to make peace with Palestinians, assorted antisemites, and terrorists who want you wiped off the map.

Shameful!

"Vulgar, offensive’: GOP candidate’s novel on Anne Frank a ‘wake-up call,’ says anti-missionary activist"

Dr. Johnny Teague, a pastor and Republican nominee for Congress, published a work of historical fiction that continues the autobiographical The Diary of Anne Frank, but his ending is shocking.

In what appears to be a missionizing message , the teenage victim accepts Christianity before dying in a Nazi concentration camp, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in a review of Teague’s oeuvre.

'It is very disturbing that this Texas Rep candidate would misappropriate not just a Jewish symbol, icon and liturgy – and that’s routine for the messianic movement – but to misappropriate a young woman who was murdered specifically because she was a Jew and not a Christian,' leading anti-missionary activist Rabbi Tovia Singer told World Israel News Tuesday in an interview."

With the wave of casual antisemitism that's going on today, this is just par for the course.  And with tastes being what they are, this book will probably become a big hit with these people. 

Gentiles should just stop co-opting the Holocaust for their own purposes.

And "celebrities" like Kyrie Irving and Kanye West should just shut up.

Losers Blame The Jews

Unsurprisingly,  today the despicable Goyim Defense League hung a banner over an Los Angeles freeway reading "Honk if you Know Kanye is Right About the Jews."

He had said, among other things, that he was going to "go Defcon 3" on the Jewish people and alluded to the usual lies that Jews control the banks and the media. He desperately wants attention (he married a Kardashian, and that says it all), and he's gotten it by resorting to antisemitism, like so many other losers do.  

Hopefully he will be ostracized now instead.

Caving In To COVID

At an excellent article at Time magazine, Martha Lincoln and Nate Holdren state that "Our Third COVID Winter Is Coming. America Isn't Ready."  

They write, "The CDC has issued no updated guidelines to the public. Though new bivalent boosters are available, uptake so far has been shockingly low. Even more seriously, recent federal funding cuts have ended programs providing free COVID tests, vaccines, and treatments—all crucial for protecting American communities and, particularly, vulnerable groups. Because of these cuts, COVID testing labs and manufacturers are reducing their operations. In mid-October, with little warning, the CDC announced the end of its program providing free N95 masks to the public. As the end of the year approaches, it is highly likely that Americans are about to be blindsided by another wave. Without renewed funding to cover these basic necessities, the U.S. could be facing another very dark pandemic winter.

"At the same time, many of our political leaders—having capitulated to their sense that the pandemic is a lost cause—are defaulting to toothless and self-defeating messages. In May 2022, the CDC introduced its new 'Community Levels' metric in a not-so-subtle effort to downplay the reality of continued high national levels of COVID transmission, generating reassuring maps colored mostly mint green. Since July 2021, Biden has repeatedly stated that 'COVID no longer controls our lives'—at this point, a claim that is nearly Kafkaesque, given our enormous national death toll and high rates of reported Long COVID. In September, New York state produced a public service announcement for the Metropolitan Transit Authority showing face masks being worn incorrectly, accompanied by the message 'you do you.'

"The administration has had many opportunities to improve its COVID messaging over the past two years, but there is little sign that they’ve learned anything."

It's really frightening that Americans have simply given up, and that nobody seems to care about elderly people dying and others suffering for years from Long COVID. The gaslighting and minimizing has got to stop before these new variants take control.

Antisemitism, the Jews, and Donald Trump

I was amazed to see all the attacks on Trump on Twitter in which people called him an antisemitism for his recent remarks.  World Israel News has an article that I agree with: "The response to the former US president’s Truth Social post has been nothing short of a hysterical – purposeful – misreading of his words, which were neither threatening nor antisemitic."

I think people hate anything Trump says, and they definitely hate him more than they admire Jews and Israel. He was a great pro-Israel president.

Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, a certified antisemite, was actually on MSNBC to talk about... antisemitism!

That's the pot calling the kettle black!

"Woke" or Joke?

Now this definitely sounds like a joke:

Silvio Canto, Jr. writes, "My late father used to fall sleep watching TV, specially after eating one of my mom's Cuban meals.  So we'd be watching a game on a Sunday afternoon and he'd say:  'Wake me up when there is a runner on third' or his football counterpart was 'Wake me up when they're in the red zone.' 

So let me paraphrase my late father and tell Virgin Atlantic:  'Wake me when the woke is over'.   

This is the latest chapter in the woke story:    

Virgin Atlantic has today updated its uniform policy to remove gendered clothing requirements in a move which has seen passengers criticise the airline for not focusing on passenger prices and experience instead.

Staff including plane crew and pilots will be able to choose which uniform they wear: the company's 'red' option, previously most commonly worn by female flight attendants, or the 'burgundy' option, previously worn by male flight attendants.

This includes allowing men to wear skirts and women to wear trousers, as well as increasing the uniform options available to non-binary staff members.     

They are also introducing pronoun badges in a bid to allow staff to 'wear uniforms that express their true identity.'"

Better Safe Than Sorry: Stop Being a COVIDiot, and Get Your Booster!

According to the Washington Post, "With only 4 percent of eligible people fully boosted, experts fear thousands of people may die needlessly."

I'll never understand why people who are eligible refuse to get their COVID boosters and walk around maskless.  Despite what Biden said, COVID is not over, and this winter may bring several dangerous variants our way.

Oil Vay!

From Fox Business: "The US Oil & Gas Association mocked President Biden on Wednesday for seemingly having no other options to counter rising gas prices than turning to the U.S. oil industry his administration has snubbed. 

'OPEC says no, SPR options all but gone… The WH has one option left and it is the one option they should have never turned away from in the first place – the US based oil and gas industry,' the US Oil & Gas Association tweeted Wednesday. 'Life comes at you pretty fast…'"

Serves Biden right -- but why should the rest of us suffer since he reversed all of Trump's smart energy policies to our detriment?

Dropping COVID Mitigations

Sometimes you have to wonder what the CDC is good for. This is from CNN's coronavirus newsletter:

"If you were flying in and out of the US this time last year, you would have been faced with a labyrinth of regulations. You would have been expected to be well versed in your destination’s Covid-19 rules: Knowing your red zones from ambers, PCRs from RATs, and having your Covid certificates and vaccine passports. But on Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it will no longer maintain a country-by-country list of travel advisories related to Covid-19, noting that fewer countries are testing or reporting Covid cases themselves. 

 

While many have been traveling freely for some time, the move signals the latest message from the US government: How you approach Covid-19 is on you. Speaking of the decision, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen says we have entered “a phase in the pandemic where people need to make their own decisions based on their medical circumstances as well as their risk tolerance when it comes to contracting Covid-19.”

 

The CDC will now only post country-specific notices if there is a concerning coronavirus variant or other situation that warrants it. But it still recommends getting tested no more than three days before travelling -- and to not to do so if the result is positive."

No wonder so many people are convinced that COVID is over!  The CDC continues to minimize COVID protections while newer and more dangerous variants appear. Salon.com says that  "rising cases of variants BQ.1 and XBB could make COVID drugs all but useless, study finds", and "COVID variants are evolving ways around vaccines and treatments, fueling deadly conditions for a winter surge."

 

I'm used to anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers minimizing the pandemic, but it's just as bad when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does it!

COVID Surge Coming to America

This is from the UK Guardian: Latest Covid surge a ‘heavy straw on camel’s back’ for every hospital in UK. Health leaders urge vaccination and return to mask-wearing as hospitalisations rise by 37 per cent in a week

Americans are behaving as if there has never been a pandemic and are totally unprepared for the next surge here.  Fewer than 5%  have had the Omicron bivalent. Very few people bother to wear masks. It's either denial, or a death wish, and they shouldn't be at all surprised when the next surge comes.

"Jew-Free Zones"

"Berkeley is slammed for allowing NINE student groups to create 'Jew-free zones' that prevent speakers who support Israel or Zionism from being allowed on campus. ..At least nine groups have adopted the rule so far, including the Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Womxn of Color Collective, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Queer Caucus, Community Defense Project, Women of Berkeley Law and Law Students of African Descent."

Imagine  the uproar in the woke community if Jewish organizations banned politically correct, hate-filled groups like these. Maybe the Jewish organizations should start doing that now!

Biden: "The Pandemic is Over; No One's Wearing Masks". Smart Americans Disagree.

Per Fortune: “The pandemic is over, we still have a problem with COVID, we’re still doing a lot of work on it,” he told CBS’s Scott Pelley with nary a pause, while walking the floor of the Detroit Auto Show—the first in three years because of pandemic precautions.  “But the pandemic is over,” Biden continued. “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everyone seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing, and I think this is a perfect example of it.”

Professor Eric Topol has responded to these irresponsible remarks in his op-ed titled No, Mr. President, the pandemic isn’t over.  I hope to see many other such rebuttals soon.

Thanks a lot, Biden, for undermining the fight against COVID in this country.  Yes, everyone's in pretty good shape, except for those 3,000 dead a week and the thousands of people suffering from Long COVID. 

He's now the anti-vaxxers' best friend, for giving them another excuse not to get vaccinated and boosted. Now they along with other deniers and minimizers can just use his quotes to explain away their refusal to fight against COVID.

Stopping Disgraceful, Maniacal Attacks on Public Health Officials

Dr.  Nili Kaplan-Myrth has been attacked because she wants to prevent COVID from killing you.  Just read this excerpt from the article she wrote today in the Toronto Star.  We've been hearing about similar treatment of American healthcare workers since 2020.  These attackers and deniers are dangerous and must be stopped before it's too late.

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"‘Enough is enough’: Putting a stop to the harassment of doctors who speak out on public health measures

This is not a Canada that anyone can be proud of.

In the past few week, I have been called a “f---ing Jew k---” by a caller in the Ottawa area, I have been told “You’re f---ing dead, you b----” by someone near Toronto, I’ve received an email from someone in Saskatchewan who says they plan to come to Ottawa to “cut me up into little pieces,” and I have been the focus of targeted harassment.

What provoked that tempest? I spoke on TVO’s the Agenda about the importance of masks and taking care of each other. I stood up for infants, young children, seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant people, essential workers. I am a family doctor who has spoken up repeatedly for vulnerable populations across Canada. I am a mother of three children. I am the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. I stepped onto a public stage to advocate for proactive health-care measures in Ontario. I did NOT sign up to be harassed.

In November 2021, I received the first death threat, sent to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario by an anti-vaxxer. In response to that threat, I was told to increase my own clinic security and left to pursue a restraining order against the man who threatened me (an order that is yet to be completed).

The president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Katherine Smart, came to visit me in my clinic in December, the day the federal government passed legislation that made harassment of health-care professionals a crime. But nothing changed with the passing of Bill C-3, even as the harassment worsened.

I am not alone in this. I am a Jewish woman physician. There has been a significant increase in the last two and a half years of violent, organized hate directed at my colleagues in health care, as well as targeted harassment of women in journalism and women in politics. We are harassed not just by anonymous trolls on social media, but by social media influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers, by columnists in mainstream media and by television anchors and politicians or their family members.

It is disturbing. It is egregious. It is only the beginning, unless we collectively put a stop to this.
...

My colleagues and I are told that we are “fear-mongers,” while we go on advocating for your health and safety in the face of our death threats and harassment. We are described as “insane,” “mentally deranged” and “unhinged” — juvenile name-calling that stigmatizes people who struggle with their mental health. Others refer to us as “ignorant,” ironically targeting women with PhDs, the highest level of education. Critics of public health measures call us “angry,” they tone-police, they say we are taking away their “freedoms” — while they threaten to kill us because they don’t want to wear simple masks to take care of each other."

September 11, 2022: 21st Anniversary of Terrorist Attacks

Today marks a date we will never forget: the unbelievable news of four terrorist attacks on our country that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people. We remember Americans coming together to help out, as well as the enthusiastic patriotism that resulted.

CNN has an interactive presentation of that day titled Inside 9/11: The day that never ends, as well as a display of the 9/11 photos we will never forget. These should be shown in school and elsewhere to remind everyone of what we lost that day.

Thinking of the victims, the survivors, and the heroes today, and the friends and family who miss their loved ones every day.

RIP Queen Elzabeth: A Remarkable Woman

I was never a big Royalty-watcher, but I always admired Queen Elizabeth (and her mother), and her long reign.  It was a bit of a jolt to hear about "the King" today, referring to Prince Charles.  Most of us have never known a time without the Queen in our lives.

Here is his touching statement about her death:

The King's statement says: "The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.

"We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved mother.

"I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.

"During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held."

It's Fall COVIID Booster Time!

This morning, in the Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” newsletter I receive, epidemiologist Dr. Katelyn Jetelina got right to the point:

"This fall, everyone should get a bivalent COVID-19 booster. And, really, that’s all you need to know: Get a vaccine. Any bivalent vaccine. This fall."

This is the simple messaging that the CDC ought to try using.

I can't wait to get this next booster!

Mitch Albom on The Notion of "Quiet Quitting"

I really hate this trendy new phrase, and the whole idea!  Unlike these quitters, I gave each job my all and felt satisfaction in doing it, so I resent this "doing the bare minimum" thing. Why even work at all? 

But I love how Mitch Albom sums it up in his column at Jewish World Review:

"I'll tell you who doesn't believe in quiet quitting. People who have their own businesses. Those folks routinely work nights AND weekends. They think about work even when they are nowhere near it. Why aren't those people complaining, slacking or slowing down?

Because they are the beneficiaries of their own hard work. And if there's anything to lament about quiet quitting, this is it. We've become so self-centered — sorry young folks, this applies to you — that the idea of doing great if someone else is the boss has lost its appeal. We all want to be the star. The subject of the selfie. The focus of the post.

Short of that, we're less motivated. When Huffington suggested people should find 'joy' at their jobs, she was mocked on the internet. But there are many jobs that can be extremely rewarding without you being the boss, the profit center or the main focus. You just have to find them. And believe that doing a job well is its own reward.

Quiet quitters often say they are just trying to put work in its proper perspective. Maybe. Or, it may be more like Peter in 'Office Space' said: 'It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.'"

 

Hopefully, the bosses will start doing some "quiet firing" soon!

Biden's Record

Here's a perfect cartoon by Gary Varvel! 

Spectacular Apollo Space Photos!

 

Here are some breathtaking photos, from the UK Guardian: 

"'Look closely and there’s a tear in Armstrong’s eye’: the Apollo space missions as you’ve never seen them before"

"Nasa’s original moon mission photographs, kept locked in a freezer in Houston, are some of the most vital artefacts of human endeavour. Now, they have been remastered for a new century. Introduction by Tim Peake. Photographs restored by Andy Saunders"

Seeing Red, on "Green"

I'm seeing red, on "green"! Here's a headline I hoped I'd never see:

'Green' California Finalizes Ban on Sale of Gas-Powered Cars, Third of US Auto Market Likely to Follow

"California regulators, on Thursday, will vote to put in place a sweeping plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gas-powered cars, a move that Newsom described as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine, as reported by the New York Times. To put the 'green' insanity into perspective, only 12 percent of passenger vehicles currently sold in California are electric-powered vehicles. (EVs)

"Even worse — for tens of millions of American fortunate not to live in California — the ban, scheduled to take effect by 2035, will likely speed a wider transition to electric vehicles as multiple states are expected to follow the lead and pass similar bans. Given that 12 states already follow California’s emission 'standards,' if just those 12 states follow the ban — and most if not all are expected to, per The Times — gas-powered passenger vehicles would likely be banned in about a third of the U.S. auto market."

These people are crazy! Their "green" anti-oil obsession is destroying the country.

CDC Satire

Here's a piece of satire by the Washington Post's columnist Alexandra Petri: CDC’s updated guidelines for living with the zombie apocalypse

I bet some people took this more seriously than they take COVID!

The Continuing Insanity of the Iran Nuclear Deal

This excerpt from Melanie Phillips' Substack column is a definite must-read -- especially by Joe Biden!

"The hellish ruins of American leadership."

"If reports of Biden's latest concessions to Iran are true, this comes close to treason"

"One shouldn’t be surprised, of course; but it’s hard not to be astounded, horrified, shocked to the very core by the lengths to which the Biden administration is reportedly going to surrender America and the free world to the Islamic revolutionary regime of Iran. 

Two weeks ago, an attempt was made to murder the author Sir Salman Rushdie, who has been living since 1989 under an Iranian regime fatwa ordering his killing, by a Muslim devotee of the regime who repeatedly stabbed Rushdie on a New York stage where he was about to deliver a talk.

Two days previously, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) terror network was charged with soliciting the assassination in Washington DC of the former US National Security Advisor, John Bolton. The same man also reportedly offered $1 million for the murder of the former US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.  

Now it appears that Iran is moving towards accepting the terms of the nuclear deal laid down by the European Union acting in effect as a proxy for the United States, which has bent every sinew to secure such a deal ever since President Joe Biden arrived in the White House.

On Gatestone, Khaled abu Toameh reports the extreme alarm in the Arab world about this deal. He quotes  Sayed Zahra, deputy editor of the Gulf's Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper, who accuses Biden of being in collusion with Iran and says that the alleged breakthrough appears to have occurred after Biden decided to waive two pre-conditions:

    'First, Biden decided to waive the demand to include Iran's terrorist role in the region in the talks [in Vienna],' Zahra wrote. 'Biden decided not to address this issue at all, nor the role of terrorist militias affiliated with Iran in the Arab countries.' The second demand Biden gave up, according to Zahra, includes the issue of Iran's ballistic missile program and the threat it poses to the security and stability of the region and the US itself and its interests.

Good grief. Last month, the IRGC said Iran had ballistic missiles capable of turning New York into 'hellish ruins'. If this account of Biden’s concession is true, then it really does begin to look like the Biden administration is committing something very close to treason."

Skeptical of the CDC's COVID Reporting

Dr Eric Topol writes that "‘Living with Covid’ should be countered by containing the virus once and for all" and that the "CDC’s position should be countered by exploiting the science and our clear capabilities of fully containing the virus."

He says, "With the revised guidelines, the CDC continue to push a contrived metric which they call 'community level' to 'know your risk for serious illness'. As defined by the CDC website, this 'is determined by the higher of the new admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days'. This is not appropriate guidance since Americans would be rightfully concerned about getting infected, not stressing hospital resources in their community. The right United States map, is the 'community transmission' which simply reflects the number of confirmed cases in the past seven days per region. That map currently shows that 94% of the country’s population is at high-risk of transmitting Covid whereas the community level map is only 39.7%.

It is a deceptive way for CDC to present a rose-colored-glasses semblance of lower risk. That, too, is unnecessarily promoting spread of Covid to others, especially including the vulnerable, that it purports to want to protect. No less, this is further exacerbating the toll of long Covid, a condition that millions of Americans are suffering from, due to the virus’s massive, unbridled spread throughout the pandemic."

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Above is the CDC's Community Transmission Map for today; this is the map they'd prefer you not see.

David McCullough

The great author and historian David McCullough passed away last week. He was one of my favorite nonfiction authors along with Robert A. Caro, and I enjoyed such books as "Truman", "The Greater Journey" (Famous Americans in Paris), "Mornings on Horseback" (Theodore Roosevelt), and "The Pioneers". His voice provided the narration for the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War, and it made that film even better.

Author Candice Millard writes that "From David McCullough we learned that it is never enough to simply describe the past. To read one of his books is not just to understand the people who populate its pages, but to feel like you know them. As a reader, the only way to achieve that kind of intimacy is to find a writer like McCullough, whose own fascination with his subjects is palpable in every word he wrote."

It's The Fatwa, Stupid!

From the NY Times Breaking News e-newsletter: "Investigators Hunt for Motivation and Movements of Man Accused in Rushdie Attack. The writer was gravely wounded and on a ventilator. Neither the hospital treating him nor his agent had updates on his condition early Saturday." 

"Hunting for motivation"? Are you kidding? As soon as I heard about the attack I thought, "They finally got him". Doesn't everyone remember the death sentence imposed on Salman Rushdie by Iran after "The Satanic Verses"?

And here's Biden still working to make a nuclear deal with Iran. Read Melanie Phillips, who asks, "Just Whose Side is the Biden Team On?"

COVID Warnings

From USA Today 8/4 Coronavirus Watch:

"'COVID is over' might trend within social media circles, but weekly U.S. death tolls tell a different story.

In July, more than 12,500 Americans died of COVID-19, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. 

'We’re sitting on this horrible plateau,' said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease specialist with Pro Health Care in New York. 'It’s been this way for the past couple of months, and we’re getting used to it.'"

----------------------

This is from CNBC:

"If you aren’t up-to-date on your Covid vaccines or booster shots, Dr. Anthony Fauci has a stark warning for you: Get those doses now, or prepare for a harsh Covid fall and winter.

'If they don’t get vaccinated or they don’t get boosted, they’re going to get into trouble,' Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, told Los Angeles radio station KNX News 97.1′s 'KNX In Depth' on Tuesday.

That applies to a clear majority of Americans. Nearly 228 million, or roughly 70%, of Americans were unvaccinated, hadn’t completed their primary vaccine series or hadn’t gotten their first booster dose as of July 21, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation."

 

Americans continue to ignore these warnings at their own peril.

A Pox on This Pandemic!

Just when you thought our COVID pandemic couldn't get any worse, now the U.S. is experiencing thousands of cases of monkeypox.  This disease can be spread in the air, like COVID; but unlike COVID, it is primarily spread by men having sex with men. But because this is a politically correct group, public health officials have not been more emphatic about stopping the disease and seem to be more concerned about the word "monkeypox".  And so you have headlines like this:

"San Francisco holds "kink festival" despite fears it'll become monkeypox superspreader event".

You have to read Allahpundit's column for yourself. So much for lockdowns and cancellations!

Practice Makes Perfect for this Jewish Doctor

Isn't this marvelous?  

From Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "The day after his 100th birthday on July 10, Dr. Howard Tucker headed downtown to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Cleveland Guardians baseball game.

'I just hope I can get the ball to the plate,' Tucker said beforehand with a laugh. 'I’ve been practicing.'

Tucker has a solid track record around practicing — certainly when it comes to medicine. Last year, the Guinness Book of World Records verified the Cleveland Heights, Ohio, resident as the world’s oldest practicing doctor. He still teaches medical residents at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland and takes on medical-legal expert witness work in his spare time. One of his 10 grandchildren, Austin Tucker, is currently producing a documentary about his life titled, “What’s Next?”

'I have to keep doing things because I can’t stand being at home,' Tucker said.  'As long as people accept me, I’m going to continue to practice. I enjoy myself.'"

Biden's Non-Recession Recession

From the New York Post: "WASHINGTON — President Biden claimed Thursday that the US was not in a recession despite new data showing GDP had contracted for a second straight quarter — meeting the long-accepted definition of a recession."

Meanwhile, from CNN:  "Sen. Joe Manchin’s stunning reversal on a clean energy package has suddenly put Democrats in a position to pass the largest climate investment in US history, and by far the biggest legislative win for the environmental movement since the Clean Air Act.
Wednesday night’s surprise resurrection of a deal on $369 billion worth of climate and energy text between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was a turn of events for critical climate measures that have died several times in the past year."

The Dems think we're stupid -- and this proves it!  My checking and retirement accounts prove there's a recession and high inflation; and on my list of worrisome issues, "climate change" doesn't even appear at all.

Biden's Upside-Down Priorities

Earlier, Biden gave a speech to say that "climate change is a clear and present danger."  I can think of real dangers, such as his policies; COVID-19; soaring crime; inflation; food shortages; high electric bills; the refusal to drill for oil; high food prices; and so much more!

(At least he didn't say what John Kerry said in 2014, that climate change is as big a threat as terrorism and poverty!)

Argus Hamilton Quips

Humorist Hamilton has a new column out that includes anecdotes such as this one:

"Donald Trump's first wife Ivana was found lying at the bottom of the stairs in her New York townhouse Thursday ruled dead of blunt force. Reaction was swift. Nancy Pelosi just formed the House July 14th Commission to investigate if Donald Trump could've pushed her down the stairs from Florida."

That isn't at all funny, but I saw online comments to this story that actually tried to blame Trump for this tragic accident.

Continued COVID Capitulation

Today, Dr Reiner said this on Twitter:

"97% of the US now has high or substantial transmission."

"I doubt there’s ever been this much COVID blanketing the entire country during the pandemic. Still no push for any mitigation. This is what capitulation looks like."

It looks like the COVID-deniers and minimizers are out in full force. Is the CDC afraid that the anti-vaxxers and the anti-mask crowd will riot in the streets if they bring back public health measures?  Whatever their problem is, they look very untrustworthy right now.

Don't Breathe It In: A Video

This video by the John Snow Project called "Don't Breathe It In" is very effective!

John Snow, Inc. is a global public health consulting organization dedicated to greater health equity and improving the health of individuals and communities.

When It Feels Like You're The Only Person Masking & Taking Precautions...

... it's because usually you ARE one of the only ones taking precaustions!  This section is from another of the coronavirus newsletters to which I subscribe, Time's Coronavirus Brief. If more Americans had been reading and educating themselves about the COVID pandemic all along, we might not be in this fix right now!

 Monday, July 11, 2022

What to Do When You’re the Only One Being Cautious

BY TARA LAW

There’s little doubt that COVID-19 is surging again. While the number of new reported cases is likely an undercount, since so many people now use rapid at-home tests, cases and hospitalizations are up, including in places where they’d previously been falling—like New York City, where I live. Looking around the subway, however, you wouldn’t know it. Although masking is still required on public transportation here, I’ve recently noticed more bare faces than I’ve seen since the start of the outbreak in 2020. This has made me wonder: now that I can’t rely on people taking precautions to protect me, how do I step up measures to keep myself safe—and, more importantly, protect my elderly relatives when I visit them?

Fortunately, since the start of the pandemic, experts have learned a lot about how to limit the spread of COVID-19. The key, several have told me, is not to count on any single measure to protect you—but to layer on different measures that can support overall protection.

Step up your masking. When fewer people around you are masking, it’s essential to wear a high-quality, well-fitted mask—preferably an N95—particularly if you’re going to be in a crowded area. Research has shown that N95s offer far more protection from infection than cloth or surgical masks.

Embrace the outdoors. Good ventilation is another great way to protect yourself from COVID-19, and in most cases, there’s no better way to guarantee that than stepping outside. (The virus can still spread outdoors, but much less efficiently than it does inside.) Studies have shown just how well vigorous indoor exercise can potentially spread COVID-19, so take advantage of the warm weather to exercise in your yard, local park, or at the beach.

Get boosted. If you're eligible for a booster shot but haven’t received it yet—or your second booster, if you’re over 50 or immunocompromised—it’s time to bulk up your immunity. Evidence suggests second boosters can help protect people from severe cases of COVID-19 as well as death.

Test, test, test. Although neither PCR nor rapid at-home tests can offer complete certainty that you don’t have COVID-19, they can help protect the people around you, especially if you’re about to travel or visit someone who’s more vulnerable, or if you're attending an indoor gathering.

Deciding which precautions to take requires weighing your personal risk tolerance and the level of risk in the community. However, there’s no bigger threat to your long-awaited summer fun than getting very sick from COVID-19—so it’s worth it to find the right mixture of precautions to keep you and your loved ones safe."

Breathtaking Photographs from Space!

Wow! These spectacular photographs were in the July 12, 2022 New York Times Science Times newsletter. The last two are my favorites so far.

The Carina Nebula, showing the earliest stages of star formation.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The Big Reveal

On Tuesday, NASA unveiled the first set of scientific observations by the James Webb Space Telescope. (On Monday evening, President Biden got to show off one of the images, of a “deep field” that included some of the farthest galaxies ever seen.)

Stephan’s Quintet, showing five galaxies, four of which interact, colliding into each other and pulling and stretching each others’ gravity.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The Webb telescope’s image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 includes thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed in infrared. The light from SMACS 0723 in this image is 4.6 billion years old.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Webb’s first image of the Southern Ring nebula, a dying star expelling gas and dust, in orbit with a younger star.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

July 12, 2022

"Transmission is the Accurate Map"

While the media seems to have forgotten that there's a pandemic going on, and when the CDC keeps showing their misleading green maps, you know there are always a few people you can count on for the truth, including Dr Eric Topol and Dr Jonathan Reiner. I never followed Twitter until this year, when I realized I wasn't going to get the complete COVID news unless I read even more than I already did.

Here's Dr. Topol at Twitter today. Notice his "in denial" and "reality" captions!

 

 And here's Dr. Reiner: