(I know. I usually start these Year End Reflections in December. But it's been 3 weeks since my last posts - busy trying to retire and being sick - and there is so much to cover, that I thought I'd cover a lot this way.)
It was rather shocking to see six members of Congress (two Senators and four House members) in an ad telling our military and intelligence community that they need to disobey illegal orders. In the ad they say: "stand up for our laws," and "refuse unlawful orders." They finish with "you can refuse illegal orders," and "you must refuse illegal orders." While it's true about not following illegal orders, it's also clear that this ad was intended to undermine any orders given by the current Commander in Chief.
As Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo) said: "At the end of the day, they're mad the American people chose Trump and now they're calling on the Military and Intelligence Community to intervene. Sounds a little subversive to democracy-ish." Sounds a lot subversive to me. Participating in the ad were the following two Senators: Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). The four House members were: Chris DeGuzio (D-Pa), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa) and Jason Crow (D-CO).
There was an interesting news item reported by ABC. The average cost of a McDonald's menu item jumped 40% from 2019 to 2024. A friend and I have both noticed this, as we occassionally go to McDonald's. It is fairly easy to spend 10 dollars or more there. I suspect some of the price increase was a result of the pandemic. But whatever the cause, it is clearly just one example of the affordability issue now being discussed by both sides of the political spectrum. And anyone who dines out has undoubtedly noticed the jump in prices (except at In 'N Out). Jackie Mason used to joke about how you could order a fancy coffee at Starbucks, and then be told it was 9 bucks! We're not that far away.
A lot of news items surprise me, although I suppose nothing should surprise me anymore. The Palestinian flag was recently raised outside the Toronto City Hall. Apparently, the idea was to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which occurred on November 15, 1988. You know what else was happening at that time in Israel? The first intifada, when Palestinians were killing and injuring Israelis. As usual, the Palestinians did not hesitate in attacking civilians. Sad to say that other cities in Canada also raised the Palestinian flag. Calgary. Winnipeg. Brampton. I guess it should not be surprising as Canadian PM Mark Carney recently joined the UK and France and others in recognizing a Palestinian state. As previously discussed in this blog, the West has lost its way.
Meanwhile, Fox reported that in 2025 to date, over 7000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria, That number soars to 125,000 killed since 2009. Where is the world outcry over the murders of these black Christians? Where indeed. As a Jew I know, as many Jews know, "no Jews, no news." These Nigerian Christians are being slaughtered by radical Muslim terrorist groups. Muslims killing Christians. No Jews involved. So no news. Fox also reported that over 19,000 churches in Nigeria have been burned down since 2009.
I saw a post by someone on LinkedIn that said Lebanon used to be a Christian country, Pakistan was Hindu and Afghanistan was Buddhist. Now they are all Islamic. Then the post referred to the "Path of Islam": 1. Establish a mosque, 2. Create an enclave, 3. Grow the population, 4. Claim victimhood, 5. Resist host authorities and customs, 6. Exploit lawfare, 7. Institute Shariah law, 8. Secede, 9. Take control. LET ME CLEAR ONCE AGAIN - I do not believe that every Muslim agrees with the above. I do not believe that every Muslim in America is disloyal to America. That should be obvious to everyone. But I do believe that Islam today has a problem with a substantial radical, terrorist element. And I also believe what Dennis Prager (quoting Viktor Frankl) has frequently said: there are only two groups of people in the world, the decent and the indecent.
I saw a disturbing story in the Jerusalem Post about about a group called "The Punishment for Justice Movement." Apparently, they have a website that targets Israeli academics. The "rewards" are as follows: $1000 for posting notices on the targets' homes, $5000 for information on the targets, $20,000 for committing arson on the targets' homes or vehicles, $50,000 for the murder of a target, and $100,000 for the murder of a "special" target.
According to JPost, "The group lists the alleged home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social media accounts, and even identification numbers of hundreds of academics from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the Technion, Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Harvard University, Oxford University, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research." These academics are to be targeted anywhere in the world, even when living in the USA.
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