First, to get it out of the way...I've not been avoiding war news. And I don't think, as Motus puts it, that there's a lack of outrage about this crime being built up into a new Simchat Torah War. I've been not only outraged but upset; before, during, and after a complete glyphosate reaction cycle and into what appears to be a COVID rerun. I've tried writing about that feeling to get it out of my system. I don't know whether publishing what I wrote today, even here, will do anybody any good...War between Ukraine and Russia is deplorable, and very clearly shows that (1) attempts to make the United Nations into some sort of government are doomed and (2) Europe is still a pre-civilized wretched mess of testosterone-poisoned feuding tribes. (Europe is welcome to change my mind, by settling all of their own differences peaceably, and indulging no more fantasies about governing anyone but themselves, if they can.) But war between Israel and Palestine is (1) guaranteed to drag the United States in, and (2) unjustified--the Simchat Torah attack was a violent crime perpetrated by a criminal gang--and (3) likely to have direct effects on relatives of people I know personally and feel loyalty to, on both sides. It's physically debilitating and I'm debilitated enough already. So let's just say that, as Jonah Goldberg (or at least someone at his web site) says: "If you stand with Palestinians, then support Israel and condemn Hamas."
There's a reason for that and, no, if younger readers are wondering, it is not that people whose memories go back fifty years simply have been programmed to say we stand with Israel. Both ethics and logic are involved. I'll publish my thinking about how and why they're involved, later, if you readers express much interest.
Meanwhile, let the choirs keep on singing of freedom. I've not heard from anyone in Israel lately, but just in case they're still reading, here are links and memes for people who want better things to think about.
Funny?
A leftist's claim makes sense only if you willfully ignore everything conservatives have said and done in your lifetime, and cling desperately to the left-wing lie that only Big Government BY US can fix "racism," which the Loony Left has conveniently redefined as having nothing to do with any ill will toward any "race" but consisting of lack of a socialist dictatorship.
In these people's tortured minds, Thomas Sowell, Michelle Malkin, Ben Carson, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Candace Owens are White supremacists. Whereas Rachel Dolezal is Black and has, for their purposes, been a slave.
Conservatism is, as Elizabeth Barrette says, merely the kind of opinion (and temperament) that says we should think carefully before changing things, and make changes slowly enough to be able to undo them if they don't work. There was a time when that applied to people's attitudes toward "race" in the United States, but hello, the last of the old segregationists, Strom Thurmond, has been dead for years. And there's evidence that he was competent enough in his last days to appreciate that in the case of desegregation the change did work.
Today's conservatism is about trying to impose a little frugality on the ever-growing, already toxically bloated government budgets, both state and federal. It's diverse in color, in ethnicity, in age, sex, race, religion, and even in income level. (Rich fiscal conservatives don't want government wasting their money; poor ones can't even spare the money and know that the last thing we need is government's clunky attempts to "help.") It's not about who's receiving handouts; it's about whether anyone is receiving any benefit from these handouts that is better than what they'd be able to do for themselves if the handout program were not in the way. Today's conservatives would happily vote for a full ticket of non-White, non-male, non-fifty-years-old, non-wealthy, even non-lawyer candidates if there were adequate reason to believe that that was the crew that would really drain the budgetary swamp. (I think the non-lawyer part would be hard to make work, but I'd be pleased if it could work.)
Phenology
Beth Ann Chiles photographed one of our last flowers of October, much better than I could do. Share her trip to scenic Ohio (seriously!)...
From Florida:
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