Sad Sack Sadism

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's batch of Laura's Links. It was a great pleasure and honour to warm up Mark Steyn's seat in my official capacity as guest host for the regular guest host of last week's Clubland Q&A, live around the planet. Big thanks to all the Mark Steyn Club members who sent in questions and to those of you who have sent kind notes either by e-mail or on Twitter.

Twitter is pretty much my mental crack pipe, I know it's so bad, but I love it so much. Yes, I'm an addict. I JUST CAN'T QUIT YA, Twitter. I tell myself it's research! Yes, that's it! It's research for my column – that makes it ok, right? And yes, I will continue to lie to myself about this bad habit, but at least I'm not on TikTok (and won't be ever) so there's that and I spend hours on it to save you, dear reader, from having to plough through it. Yay me!

Anyway, it was a fairly regular week for me. That is to say the week contained the regular blend of work, kid stuff, family stuff, administrative stuff, future planning stuff, worry, a little Torah study and so on and so on. I try as much as possible to focus on the positives of life, even when dealing with the more challenging things that I am dealing with right now. Some of these things are "sandwich generation" issues. Some are situations that are kind of unique to special needs parenting and one of them kind of set me briefly into an emotional valley of sorts earlier this week.

My special needs son is quite tactual-sensitive. What does that mean? Different things for different people. For him, it means a generally low tolerance for sensory things that are completely normal for most people. Shaving him for example, is not a lot of fun. Haircuts are the same. Toothbrushing, same. And nail cutting is particularly difficult.

I won't go into the whole story of how I have to approach this task, but I will say that this week, I was only able to cut four of his ten fingernails before he began to be agitated. And even though it was just nail-cutting that I was temporarily failing at, and not dealing with a serious health issue with him G-d forbid, I momentarily spiralled downward emotionally. How can I explain what it is like when such a simple, insanely ordinary task of personal grooming – cutting nails – can be maddening, utterly maddening. How can I explain what it is like to not be able to have a simple conversation about this and a myriad other things with my child and not be understood by him. Four out of ten fingers was just too much for me to process. Four out of ten felt so heavy this week even though it could have been worse. It could have been three, two, one or none, I told myself.

But it's still four out of ten right now (and don't get me started on the toe nails). And though I'm not particularly inclined yet to pick up the clippers tomorrow is another day which may bring more success in nail cutting and various other sundry activities of my life.

I'll leave you with two items that are too good to miss. First, an excellent essay on The Religion of the Left by the ever-wise Daniel Greenfield, and a little peek into the sadism of humans on social media in particular and how they get off on the cruelty.

And lastly, continued best wishes and prayers to Mark for his health and strength. Have a great weekend and I'll see you in the comments.

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North America:

America is a joke. An absolute and utter joke.

VDH: A reflection on the horrors of D-Day. Seems to me that not many people or columnists recognized this anniversary. Nor of other June events like the Six Day War, the death of the Ayatollah Khomeni and also Tiananmen Square.

Why did USAid fund the Wuhan lab? Good question.

Dr. Patrick Phillips is a hero. The Ontario College of Physicians and surgeons has destroyed his career. This is the repulsive and morally corrupt medical system that me and my loved ones suffered under most acutely during the Covid tyranny. Disgusting and shameful. He is a good man, and this is a warning to everyone in Ontario: be very afraid of getting medical treatment here, respect and suspect. The only people paying a price for the policies of the Covid tyranny are those who tried to protect us from it, sound the alarm bells and take a stand against it.

Barack Obama's true legacy.

Maybe stop voting Democrat? Just a thought.

This is happening because the people in charge want it to happen to you.

"Leave our kids alone." Stomp stomp.

This is happening in Canada because politicians like this sleazebag want it to be happening. They coddle murderers here. That's what they want.

I love you America, but you take too many drugs and are too fat. And this is the main nugget for me: "There is no brain scan, no blood test for ADHD." The rest is commentary.

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The Great Walkbackening, Accounting and Reckoning:

Would the lockdowns have happened without Zoom?

This is a real mystery. We may never know the reasons.

Never forget. Never forgive.

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Jews and Israel:

We are Jews against Soros.

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Jewish Wisdom:

"The purpose of life is to live within mundane reality, revealing the G‑dliness concealed within it."

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Europe:

The proper response to this is piss off.

Sky News making sure we know who the real victims of terrorism are.

Meet the "backpack hero".

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The Formerly Great Britain:

All you Brits must be so glad you banged on pots to "save" the beloved NHS.

At least they have done one good thing. Even a stopped clock, etc...

The utter dud known as "British Conservatism". What a bunch of gutless losers.

Nothing to see here. So this nutter is gone. So is Ardern and a bunch of other Covid tyrants. I wonder if it's all a big scam to get her to take a fall for something minor and avoid opening all the Covid files? Also, when will Trudeau finally take his "walk in the snow"?

The British police have such open minds that all of their brains have completely fallen out.

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Sadistic, Wicked, Demonic Monsters in Human Form and the Wokestapo:

Pure evil.

Eat, Pray, Dump Husband, Capitulate to Wokestapo SNORE ZZZZZ zzzz so boring and stoooooopid and such crappola prose anyway so basically who cares except this is so stupid and now even OUR IMAGINATIONS are supposed to be property of the woke Nazis? Nuts to that.

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Misc:

The story of pepper! (Cool.)

Human Grace:

Viva la revolución!

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.