Greetings friends, Romans, and countrymen, and welcome back to this week's edition of Laura's Links. Thanks to everyone who wrote or commented down below with suggestions or helpful information regarding my disabled son's dental predicament. I'm pleased to report that I have a few leads to follow up on, so I'm glad I mentioned it.
I try to protect my son and his privacy and not overshare about him because he's not able to tell me for himself what his preferences are. But over the years, just being his mom has put me (and him, and my family) in touch with so many kinds of people – many good, some terrible. Sometimes these interactions and episodes are of a deeply personal nature, and many are too painful to share. But often, I've been blessed to learn some general life lessons and have some profoundly moving experiences because of him. Sometimes, I'm moved to share, and one such experience happened to me over the weekend.
This past Sabbath was rainy all day. Rain (or worse, snow) on the Sabbath means it's going to be a very quiet day. While most of the religious Jewish community is at synagogue, or at one another's homes for dinners or lunches, we are usually lone wolves at home, save for our long walks around the neighbourhood. There are no electronic devices or telephones on the Sabbath for us. But if the weather is unforgiving, there aren't any walks and the day becomes quite long and relatively isolating. As the weather gets worse and as we roll into winter, we're housebound for much of the season.
However, after hours of rain, in a stroke of luck or divine mercy, the clouds cleared up just as it was time for late afternoon services, so we accompanied the other family members to synagogue and set out for a walk. As we were walking about, I noticed an older, grey-haired, bearded man coming toward us on a motorized scooter. There wasn't room on the path for both his scooter and my son's wheelchair so we tried to signal each other as to who should pull over to the side onto the grass and who should pass first. I pulled over and he moved closer. Then he signalled to me to stop. So, I stopped.
He took a long drag on his cigarette and asked "vat's wrong", gesturing to my son.
"Genetic disorder," I answered. He sighed.
"Do you speak Russian," he asked in his thick accent, rolling the "r" in the Russian.
"No," I said apologetically (I've been asked many times).
"Do you hev money," he asked.
I was kind of taken aback, and surprised he was asking me for money. No, I said politely. I don't have any money on me, I explained, I added that I don't even have my phone.
He looked at me and said "vait", and then started to get his wallet out.
I was horrified! The coin dropped. He wanted to give me money, to help my son. I protested, saying that not only were we OK and didn't need his money, but that it was the Jewish Sabbath and I couldn't even handle money (that's why I didn't have any on me). He looked totally puzzled and tried again to take bills out of his wallet to help. I assured him we are OK and I said if he wanted he could give to a charity in my son's honour. He gave me a strange look, I don't know if he actually understood what I was saying, and I thanked him for thinking of us and told him to take care. My Russian interlocutor, with his cigarette stained moustache, disabled himself, resigned himself to my refusal and scooted away.
It's very important not to assume things about people. It's important to stop and listen. It's important not to always think that people want something from you. They could just as easily want something for you.
What was it about me and my son that made him stop and ask "what's wrong"? A dozen other people at least walked by us that day. Nobody else asked. It's all terrifically weird and strange, but this kind of thing happens to me quite frequently. Maybe it happens to everyone but they just barrel along instead? Maybe people aren't paying attention? I don't know. Or maybe I just am lucky enough to get to talk about it. Anyway, those are a few lines and thoughts about my weekend.
There is certainly no shortage of people who come up with great lines. Sometimes, people come up with lines that are so great that I pretty much fall in love with them (the lines, not the people). Here's one I wish like hell I had thought of it first. Well done. I'm glad to see Dr. Naomi Wolf on the telly because since she was banned from Twitter, I haven't seen much of her anywhere. If you had told me a few years ago that Dr. Wolf would be sounding like a conservative, pretty much like an NRA member, I would have laughed my head off. But Dr. Wolf has been most prescient about all things lockdown and where the digital passport fetish leads, so...
And lastly, another Wuhan Flu article to add to my big fat, bulging DUH file. Sigh.
That's it for now. See you in the comments!
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North America:
Showing you who's boss.
The inhumanity of forced vaccinations: What we are seeing now: "A whole generation of children being experimented on. This is not normal. There's been a whole lot of discussion of compassion and love for one's neighbor from the vaccine cheerleaders. They impugn the motivations of those who haven't been vaccinated. They don't care about health conditions or medical history or religious perspective. They want submission."
Torontonian Kelly Brown, fighting on behalf of children against the Covid vaccines.
They say this like it's a bad thing. And anyway, for real and not for joking, what babes would not want to hang out with him? DeSantis is hot, have you seen his military service pics? When did the left get so prissy?
"If they can do this to me, they'll do it to you." Indeed.
Tell me you're in favour of The Great Replacement without saying you're for The Great Replacement.
From Bridget Phetasy, an immensely talented writer and someone who is really fun to listen to on her podcast (I highly recommend this episode with Bari Weiss): "America Needs A 12-Step Program."
Early Covid-19 treatments should not be ignored.
As per Jesse Kelly, "America is not a serious country." Maybe we should call the new passport designation "Xi" because that murderous, communist MoFo is laughing his ass off about all of this stuff.
A long, but very interesting video from a Canadian physician who dared speak up about what she was seeing in her ER. She talks about the financial side of the pandemic. And then, surprise surprise. Her license just got taken away. She is being relentlessly persecuted for not following the narrative, for daring to speak the truth and for daring to exempt people from the vaccine. Shameful.
"This is a bio-weapon, funded by Fauci."
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Israel and Jews:
From the great Daniel Greenfield: Hating Jews is Becoming a Leftist Purity Test: "Hating Jews, under the putative guise of opposing Zionism, is about to become a core progressive value. And those values have become the moral code of the ruling class,"
What is all this Covid Psychosis about? Here's as good an explanation as I've ever seen: "Adults making children pay for their mental illness by pretending to protect children from COVID illness".
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The Formerly Great Britain:
As per the Great Prophet Mark Steyn: "Britain, where everything is policed except crime."
"You can't drug people into being healthy."
Lockdowns are evil. The humans who implemented these policies are truly sinister and sickening bastards.
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Europe:
Good news from Spain. More of this!
Is this the only man in France telling the truth?
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Down Under:
The utter inhumanity of Australians on display: this is truly wicked.
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Today in Satan:
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Evil, Child-Hating, Child-Abusing Kook Left and Wokestapo:
"My six-year-old somberly came to me and asked if she was born evil because she was a white person, something she learned in a history lesson at school."
Democrat scumbags, a Twitter thread.
The Wokestapo comes for Margaret Atwood.
On the topic of mainstream media morons. Are these people serious? Is their mental development stunted at Trummmmmp Heeeeeetler or do they really believe this utter horsetwaddle? It's hard to tell. Do they actually really believe that telling the corpse known as Joe Biden to eff off is literally the same as saying Heil Hitler? If we dumb bum unwashed deplorables don't love Dear Big Guy Corn Pop Poopypants on Pope Visit then we are Nazis? Or are they scoring points on the grift train? Remember when Beto O'Rourke was supposed to be the new saviour and all those weirdo lefty gals started Tweeting that he was sexy and made toes curl etc? HURL!!! UCHHHH. Maybe these effete, Mucho Soy Grande No Gonad EstroFesto lefty guys are just trying to get laid like tile? If you have a better leftsplanation, feel free to drop me a note in the comments.
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Human Grace:
"Rabbi Sacks, do you remember me?"
This is just magnificent. Alabama lifeguards carry 95-year old beachgoer to her beach chair every day of her vacation: "They made my mother feel special. She was not made to feel like she was a burden on anybody." P.S: Hubba hubba!
Words to live by: "...random acts of kindness make this world worth all the noise surrounding it".
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.
