Issues

Sometimes I get the feeling the pandemic hysteria is being prolonged deliberately. Snippet from a nypost.com editorial, edited by yours truly: “Despite predictions it would surely be a coronavirus superspreader, more than 380,000 attended Chicago’s four-day Lollapalooza festival. Eight days later, the city has seen no surge in hospitalizations . . . and no surge in deaths.”

Bjorn Lomborg is a common sense climate activist. He sees global warming as a long range problem, whereas liberal politicians see it as means to redistribute wealth. Here’s a snippet from an op-ed piece in which he cited the omissions of those harping on the recent heatwaves: “As temperatures have increased over the past two decades, that has caused an extra 116,000 heat deaths each year. This, of course, fits the narrative and is what we have heard over and again. But it turns out that because global warming has also reduced cold waves, we now see 283,000 fewer cold deaths… You don’t hear this, but so far climate change saves 166,000 lives each year.” Kudos.

Headline from foxnews.com: “New York’s last three governors — all Democrats — left on a walk of shame.” I hadn’t realized it was consecutive. I’m happy about Cuomo’s resignation only because he deserves to be disgraced. As the Who said: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” — except for the sexual harassment. Time for Cuomo to write another book on leadership. How ‘bout this for a title?: How I Got Thousands to Flee the State of New York, Which Needed a Federal Bailout to Erase Billions in Debt Amassed Before the Pandemic. Don’t be surprised if he runs for office again. One last FN headline on the issue: “Could Andrew Cuomo pardon himself before leaving office?” It would surprise no one. The monster’s arrogance is off the charts.

Another FN headline: “Oregon quietly scraps math, reading requirements for high school grads, in the interest of racial equity.” Seems like it’s saying certain students are unable to grasp even basics.

My thanks to Big Red, aka Nina, a beautician at Glamorous, who purchased a kids book in Russian; and to Alice, who bought Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, and gave me a tube of Sensodyne toothpaste, which she’d stocked up on, among other things, with her monthly $90 allotment; and to Paul, who has become my best customer. He took home six books in Russian, including three volumes of Herman Hesse translations; the beautiful Jesus of Nazareth pictorial by William Barclay; another pictorial — Jesus The Way, The Truth, The Life; The Jewish New Testament; a travel guide to Poland; a publication from the Audobon Society; and Stories from Other Lands by Walt Disney. Paul said his faith saved him after his divorce in the Ukraine left him devastated, and has been reaffirmed by life in the USA. Love it, even though I’m not a believer.

I was curious about The Jewish New Testament. Here’s an excerpt of the Amazon blurb for David H. Stern’s book: “…brings out Jewishness in three ways: - Cosmetically — by using neutral terms and Hebrew names: “execution-stake,” not “cross”; “Ya’akov,” not “James.”
- Culturally and Religiously — by highlighting Jewish features: “Chanukkah,” not “the feast of dedication”; “tzitzit,” not “fringe.”
- Theologically — by correcting mistranslations resulting from anti-Jewish theological bias…”

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