Hello again, and welcome to this week's edition of Laura's Links. The past week has been another busy one for me and mine as we put the New Year celebrations to bed and now approach Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. I'll be offline from sundown Wednesday night to sundown Thursday night but will see you in the comments when I'm able.
Inasmuch as my holiday celebration was quite lovely for many reasons, there was a certain heaviness to the week as well. It was Kathy Shaidle's funeral last Thursday, and you can read the beautiful eulogy given by Rick McGinnis (with Lynn Crosbie) right here. Life without Kathy is, as Rick says, is pretty horrible, and actually much worse than I thought it would be. Despite the wishful thinking by those who repeat it relentlessly, time does not heal. Time merely blunts pain, and forces interim breaks from acute sadness. As a secretary I worked with many years ago once said to me, there are things you never "get over" – you merely get through.
I was re-reading passages from Rabbi Harold S. Kushner's book "Living A Life That Matters" (highly recommended) and there was a passage about friendship that applies to our Kathy. He says:
"But perhaps more than anything else, friends are people who care about you for who you are, not for what you can do for them. They worry about you when you're sick or depressed, and they rejoice with you when you have something to celebrate. Perhaps the truest friend is the person who can be genuinely happy for you when something good comes your way that may never happen to him or her, whether marriage, financial success, talented children, or any other blessing. There is a kind of holiness in true friendship, because it does for us what organized religion tries to do, to make sure that we are never alone when we desperately need to not be alone.
"When Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher and theologian, was asked 'Where is God?' he was wise enough not to give the cliche answers: God is everywhere, God is found in churches and synagogues. Buber would answer that God is found in relationships. God is not found in people, God is found between people. When you and I are truly attuned to each other, God comes down and fills the space between us so that we are connected, not separated. Both love and true friendship are more than a way of knowing that we matter to someone else. They are a way of mattering to the world, bringing God into a world that would otherwise be a vale of selfishness and loneliness."
How I miss you my friend. How lucky and blessed I was to experience the holiness of true friendship. Rest in Peace.
Regarding the horrendous mess in Afghanistan and its implications for the world, my gracious host, Mark Steyn was simply the master of the pen in this essay about the war we lost in such horrendous dishonour and our betrayal of the murdered. Do read the whole thing. And don't miss the replay of his Clubland Q&A "Enough Contempt to Go Around". You'll understand where his head is at, and it's just impossible to disagree.
Some other thoughts I hope you'll consider are from Ron Coleman (borne out by things like this), Jesse Kelly. And perhaps you will join me in my utter contempt and revulsion at the absolutely despicable sentiments uttered by former President George W. Bush, a man who I admired at one point. No more. Mark writes about this at length here.
Like Mark, I feel no particular need right now to talk about 9/11. My heart shut off in terms of caring and feeling angry about 9/11 after I visited Ground Zero. The first time, the memorial was under construction and the fencing around the building was covered with multicoloured hoardings that depicted diversity – many women in hijabs especially. Big photos, smiles. I was not impressed. Still, I went back with my entire family some years later to pay my respects when the memorial was completed, and did not see the word Islam once in any material – not in stone, not in writing and not anywhere within little accompanying museum. It was a defining moment for me. So that's where I'm at with that.
As I often say, I love being right. But I sincerely hope I am wrong about feeling a terrible sense of dread about the convergence of the Chinese Communist Virus and its policies with the Biden presidency, the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, and the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It's a dark feeling. I wish I weren't convinced that we are witnessing a pivotal moment in history and that for most of us, life as we knew it will never go back to the way it was. I'm praying to be wrong about this. Agree or disagree with me as you wish in the comments.
Take care and I'll pop into the comment section as I'm able.
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North America:
My heroine (NOT SAFE FOR WORK AT ALL). But I'm in love. LOL. I've watched this about a dozen times already.
"We need to be more scary to the public."
First they burn books. Then people.
Kurt Schlichter: Send the Incompetent Brass a Message, Don't Enlist.
And honestly, why should anyone enlist when veterans get treated like this. What an absolute disgrace. Sickening.
This is one of the wimpiest, stupidest, cowardly, supine statements ever made by an American official. Oh pretty please Taliban murderers, please with a cherry on top listen to big bad old America. This is pathetic. It's decadent and grotesque and makes me sick. How on earth has America become the weakest, and most pathetic
Disgusting crap. The only thing they have in common is being perpetrated by murderous, blood-thirsty, evil, disgusting regimes from hell.
"If someone says that using fear is good, that is what every tyrant and dictator in the history of the world has ever said to accumulate, aggregate and maintain power."
Lock-ups are pure evil. Unadulterated evil.
OH BIG EFFING WHOOP. This is pathetic, America!!! PATHETIC. Such weakness. Such appalling weakness. Sickening.
The ghoulish, Communist-controlled gnome on natural immunity.
Jabbing children "to protect" adults. Feh.
Caroline Glick: Assessing the Twin Disasters of September 11, 2001 (really good).
We are no longer a serious people.
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Taliban Afghanistan:
Music is haram anyway I guess, right?
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Jews and Israel:
What to do when life plateaus.
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The Great Britain:
So smart, so sad, so true. It's over.
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Europe:
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Today in Satan (literally):
Tar and feathers. Or worse. This shows that almost every country in the Western world had a scientist on the Communist China team. Team Biological Weapon. The penetration is terrifying. Read the whole thing.
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Misc Smartness:
"As soon as the group shows defiance, they are repudiated."
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Humourless, Kook, Predatory and Evil Left, Wokestapo and Trans:
These people are truly wicked, child-hating ghouls.
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Human Grace:
Don't think just about yourself.
He didn't think he would ever get there. This is just magnificent.
"You become a man when you have children."
Real men standing up for what's right. More of this is needed.
May G-d bless and keep the healers.
It's open thread time! Log into SteynOnline and let Laura know what you think of these stories or other happenings from week that was. Commenting privileges are among the many perks of membership in The Mark Steyn Club. While going off topic is permitted on Laura's Links, do stick to the other rules as you engage: no URLs, no profanity, and no ad hominem attacks.
