Hello one and all and welcome to the official pre-Passover edition of Laura's Links for 2022. It has been a really busy week for me (and all the Jewish people), getting our houses scrubbed, buying all the stuff we need for the holiday, cooking and making sure to rid our homes of all leavened things. It is the holiday of freedom, but before you get the freedom part you are chained to a multitude of heavy duty domestic tasks.
This year, freedom feels a bit more tangible to us in southern Ontario because we at Chez Cohen are certainly freer than last year at this time. The vaccine passports and mask mandates are mostly gone (save for hospitals, health care settings and public transportation, but those will drop April 27 allegedly). But you know what? I'm still bloody angry about it all. Although I'm enjoying every bit of restored freedom, I'm terribly angry about everything that was stolen from us, about the cruelty, about the mean-spirit that animated all the Covid policies and above all, that the Chinese Communist idea of locking up entire free populations ("lockdown") was introduced so easily and glibly into our lives and that there was so little resistance to it for the most part.
Freedom. How I love freedom.
I had occasion not long ago to be in a place that was created to keep men free, where the people say "live free or die" and I think many of them still mean it. It's a place I've forever had a love affair with for reasons both articulable and inarticulable. I drove in a car throughout its vast open spaces, its rolling hills, its lush green farms replete with plump, happy cows and majestic horses carelessly weaving and nibbling through the grass, within the Appalachian mountains, and among the beaten down country folk of the south.
I marvelled as always at her astonishing size and truly wondrous history, moved profoundly by each piece of highway named for her fallen soldiers and each piece of her soil, stone and metal monuments marked as places to remember the greats of her history, and even her ghosts and mistakes. And it reminded me so acutely about how truly evil the last two years have been; the disgusting power grabs, the attempts to take away all our freedoms and just how much has been stolen from us. America, my beloved, we need you strong and free.
This Passover, I'm reminded of the need in every generation for a Moses – reluctant, stuttering, brilliant and flawed leader though he was, to lead people from slavery (actual or virtual) to freedom, to the Promised Land.
Next Year in Jerusalem, my friends.
Happy Passover and Happy Easter and I'll see you in the comments.
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North America:
You know I love you, America but you are way too fat.
"Let me tell you a crazy story..." Covid was/is a bank machine for so many. Why would they ever want to let it go?
"Jimmy Carter made my father flip from a hardcore Democrat to a Republican." Enjoy November.
"My mom always told me to talk like a lady so mom if you're reading this stop now. HONESTLY, HOW DOES HE EVEN WALK???
"Face masks release microplastics, which are directly inhaled during use or transported through the environment ... they can translocate to multiple organs upon intake, potentially causing detrimental and cytotoxic effects." OH!
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Israel and Jews:
"Start up nation versus Jewish state." So good, from the irreplaceable Liel.
Heartbreak in Tel Aviv. Do read the whole thing.
Cool: handmade Israeli guitars are conquering the music world.
"Why Palestinians celebrate the murder of Jews." This is their culture, unfortunately. It is going to take a lot of will and many generations to deprogram.
Top 10 Christian sites for an Easter visit to Israel.
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Lefty Kooks:
"I'm being investigated by the British Columbia College of Nurses because I believe biological sex is real.
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Human Grace:
"The face is evolution's TV screen." A very smart, interesting guy explains how important our faces are for normal human interaction. Masking mandates were really evil, particularly for children and the disabled and nobody really cared.
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.
