Hot Mic....

(Picture of the Zeleneskyys and Macrons at NATO summit)

Mme. Macron: Tire mon doigt (pull my finger).

A Smile on My Face...

Top of the evening to all....

In the world of LinkedIn, you never know what could happen.  The genesis of this conversation goes back to when we lived in Honolulu 24 years ago.  The message to which I just responded has the following question in it:

"Were you the chaplain that rode around base on a bicycle from time to time?"

It is nice to be remembered.

Have a good evening.

R/SCG

And on Another Note...

Top of the afternoon too all...

I have had my criticisms of President Biden.  No matter how loyal a supporter one might be, there is a difference between loyalty and blindness.  Hopefully, even his most ardent supporters (and I am not in that category) also have criticisms.  

The news reports today that President Biden has spent a great deal of taxpayer money going to his home in Delaware for weekends.  The usual suspects have criticized him for this.

The usual suspects on the other side of the political spectrum called former President Trump on the carpet for the same thing. 

(Yawn...Nothing to see here.)

To expect the President to take weekends on the couch in the White House is not reasonable.  No other federal employee makes a regular practice of staying in the office over the weekend.  No other federal employee has the responsibilities of POTUS.  He has a right to go home and to relax with the trappings of his personal life.  Instead of being critical, maybe we should be happy that in the hardest job in the world, he still tries to strike a life-work balance.

Shabbat Shalom to all.

R/SCG

No Sympathy Please...

 Good afternoon to all.

I am now locked in the primary bedroom for the foreseeable future.  Rav Jen brings me my meals.

Why, pray tell, am I locked in my bedroom?  You guessed it.  I have Covid.

I can deal with the sniffles.  I can deal with the fever.  So what is the problem?  

There was a cartoon on the fridge back in my youth.  The cartoon said that cats only allowed themselves to be domesticated because they cannot open doors.

Two cats, both alike in dignity, a window facing due south, a wide window sill, and a kitty tower all mean that I am up and down constantly.  If one cat crosses the threshold, the other crosses the threshold, eventually.  I have COVID, but it is really a tail of two kitties.

Please do not be concerned about me.  I just did 35 push-ups.  It took 28 seconds.  Any concern is better directed towards Rav Jen.  She got sent home from work Wednesday on the 'if a then b' clause.  She is trying to navigate her workday and prepare Shabbat dinner.  That, and the laundry machine is broken.  This is no big loss on its own, as we were going to replace it anyway.  However, the laundry has piled up.

I again remind everyone of the 614th commandment: thou shalt not COVID thy neighbour's home.

Shabbat Shalom.

R/SCG

History Repeats Itself...

 Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen....

Several years back, I wrote a blog entry regarding the Obama administration's discussions with Iran.  In that entry, I noted the words of President Reagan: "for a government that will break faith with its own people can not be trusted to keep faith with foreign powers.:

Last week, I cited President Reagan's words in an e-mail to the White House, urging the immediate cessation of nuclear negotiations during the civil riots currently taking place in Iran.

I also added this:

Her name is Mahsa Amini.

Say her name.

R/SCG

Please Prove Me Wrong...

Good evening everyone.

Please note that I am about to risk being unpopular again.

We are all likely aware of the mass shooting that happened in Buffalo earlier this week.  We have learned from the shooter's internet history that he is quite racist.  Such racism is thus thought to be the underlying motivation of his crime.

Perhaps...

There is another piece to this that badly needs attention, if only to discount the possibility.  As we look at the history of mass shootings (and we can add mass killings with an automobile), we note that the perpetrators of 122 of those shootings were men (plus two vehicular mass homicides as well).  The perpetrators in another three shootings were women.  In another two, it was a man and a woman together.

My friends, as I have pointed out in another posting from a few years ago, another question desperately demands consideration.  Maybe it is the guns.  Maybe it is not.  But if the perpetrators in over 96% of these mass homicides were men, can we PLEASE have a discussion about men's mental health?

Have a good evening.

R/SCG

An Elegant Solution...

Good evening everyone...

As the country of my birth seems to be finding yet another avenue to self-immolation, different approaches to some of the questions at hand might provide a less destructive solution.

As most of you are aware, the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of the United States is a lifetime appointment.  This also holds true for the courts at the appellate level.  The reason for this was to isolate the legal system from the ebb and flow of political discourse, freeing judges to make decisions without their jobs in mind.  As well, it allows a more measured pace in the country's legal development.

With the leaking of the draft of the Supreme Court decision that will likely overturn Roe v. Wade, the cries for term limits and court packing have crescendoed yet again.

I have a more elegant solution.  It is entirely within the letter of the Constitution as it currently stands.  It requires not a single word of new legislation.  All it requires is a commitment from the President on nominations.

I would have great respect for any POTUS who made a couple of very simple promises.

1.  No President would nominate for the Supreme Court any judge who has not been at the appellate level for at least a decade.  Given that the President is only in office for eight years, it would mean that the President would not be able to nominate the same judge both to the appellate courts and to the Supreme Court.

2.  Rather than have age or term limits, a simple practice of requiring a minimum age of 60 before the President is even willing to consider a judge to SCOTUS would limit the amount of time that judges could serve from the beginning instead of at the end.

Presidential traditions are important.  President Washington started the tradition of not serving more than two terms, a tradition that lasted until well into the 20th century.  It was ensconced in law as an amendment to the Constitution only after FDR died during his fourth term.

Have a good evening.

R/SCG