Salutations and Happy New Year/Shana Tova to all our Jewish readers.
Thanks for joining us for another edition of Laura's Links.
This is the first column of the Jewish New Year of 5786.
By the time you read this, the two-day celebration of the start of the Jewish New Year will be over, and we will have commenced the Ten Days of Awe. My holiday was really lovely, surrounded by family, preparing and eating wonderful foods (including foods laden with important and symbolic messages and blessings). I heard the Shofar blown.
The sound of the Shofar really penetrates the soul. It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it, but when I hear it, I feel very connected to the entirety of the Jewish people and our forefathers and mothers - all the way through the generations. It is stirring and chilling at the same time. It makes me feel proud and very mindful of the history of my people. It also is a timely and critical reminder about enduring, and about ideas that changed the world when they were introduced, and do so to this day. Despite being consumed with holiday preparation and celebration, I wasn't able to fully stop thinking about Charlie Kirk. But I do feel confident that his spirit will continue to have a very great impact despite his earthly presence being extinguished too soon by such a dark, dark force.
I think Greg Gutfeld put it very well when he said, earlier this week, that "It's great, even in death, Charlie keeps winning debates." Ideas have a life beyond the person that gave birth to them, and it is true that Charlie Kirk is still winning arguments even though he was murdered. So though there is profound sadness, there is also hope, and life in his ideas. That is what is known as the spirit of the man.
In my view, this is the only acceptable and reasonable extrapolation from the oft-quoted, and more often than not saccharine and objectively incorrect exhortation that "the pen is mightier than the sword". This phrase has simply been hijacked over the years in service to cowardice. We have seen that actually, the sword - or terrorists knife, gun, bomb, airplane-as-bomb, suicide vest is more powerful than the pen in terms of the innocent human lives that have been stolen from us. There are ideas that are more powerful than even those swords, guns and bombs. We are obligated to live in service of civilized ideas and the spirit of freedom. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reminds us, there are things that are worse than death.
Charlie Kirk's friend and colleague Tyler Bowyer said something noteworthy last week as well. He said: "The most radical kind of censorship is murdering your opposition. The second worst is jailing them. The third worst is to dehumanize, humiliate and punish individuals so that they can't participate in civic process. The Left makes light of all three". The problem here is his underestimation of the rot and the danger. It's not just "the Left" but all of their allies as well, in so many spheres of civil society. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
We need vigilance and strength, courage and fearlessness to deal with these dark forces. Where there is faith and confidence, there can be resilience and a willingness to act. Whether you are a believer or not, you need to act in service of civilization, which is rooted in Judeo-Christian values. As my Dad (a non-believer) always said "where there is life, there is hope".
May the blessings of this Jewish New Year bring blessings, hope and strength to you and yours, from my house to yours.
~
North America:
BYE BYE MAHMOUD Finally.
Of course he is right about this. I am not sure if Americans realize how really, really, REALLY weird the "Ask Your Doctor About" genre of American commercials actually is.
What is going on in New Hampshire?
"This isn't assimilation. It's colonization".
There just aren't two sides to everything and every issue. If you are not against this, you are a psycho barbarian that has no place in civilized society.
Hugh Hewitt: Why His Message Will Endure.
"Charlie Kirk was not murdered as a vocal conservative citizen, but was assassinated as a potential future President of the United States. His death was a coup, a preemptive insurrection, and yes, treason".
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The Great Walkbackening, Reckoning and Accounting:
OH. OK. And just like that-poof.
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Jews and Israel:
Please, keep boycotting Jews.
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The Formerly Great Britain:
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Human Grace:
"The reason you feel Charlie's death so deeply is because grief doesn't measure itself by proximity. It measures itself by meaning".
"My life is hard. But it's a good life".
WOW WOW WOW. How many people nowadays would argue in favor of an 11-year old with special needs going ahead with a pregnancy? What an incredible story.