akuperma
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August 10, 2022 12:23 pm at 12:23 pm in reply to: Hospital to Haredi woman applying for job: ‘From Bnei Brak? Not with us’ #2113866akupermaParticipant
The original posting suggests there was no objection to her being Shomer Shabbos, only to her being hareidi. Given the zionist belief, especially among Religious Zionists, that Hareidincan not possibly be functional in the “modern world”, a hareidi in a job requiring secular education and skills is seen as a threat for challenging their bigotted assumptions about hareidim.
akupermaParticipantUnfair, there are many countries where the police routinely harass leaders of the opposition. Indeed that is the norm in most countries. It is just American exceptionalism to believe in things such as fair play and free speech and due process. Next think you know, you’ll be objecting to canceling teachers and media people who don’t hold correct views.
August 9, 2022 8:49 am at 8:49 am in reply to: Hospital to Haredi woman applying for job: ‘From Bnei Brak? Not with us’ #2113428akupermaParticipantRealization of the zionist dream – to be free from the yoke of Torah and Mitsvos.
akupermaParticipantNot likely. A good deal of Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan still exists under a Republican label. If Trump and his supporters can’t reconcile themselves, they’ll have to form their own party. While Romney couldn’t win without the “deplorables”, Trump couldn’t win without the support of the established Republicans.
The Democrats have moved so far to the left, that they no longer the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy, etc. A more likely scenario is there will be three parties in the future, a “Progressive” (non-democratic, socialist, woke, authoritarian, elitist), a MAGA (populist, “deplorables”), and one (or perhaps two) moderate parties in the middle. In fact, that’s already happened, and what is left to see is how they organize themselves.
akupermaParticipantThe primary cause of inflation is government spending, so the way to cut inflation is for the government to stop spending money. Appropriating more money is the way to increase inflation. It is like a fireman who feels the way to put out a fire is to give it more fuel and air. The very establishment (un-MAGA like, dull at times) Wall Street Journal said the name of the bill is so dishonest, that it insults used car salesmen (who have a somewhat deserved reputation for mislabeling things).
August 8, 2022 10:50 am at 10:50 am in reply to: how did early jews keep warm in terribly cold climates during the winter? #2113014akupermaParticipantEven when they were farmers, Jews did not live in isolated homesteads (the way Americans do), but would live in a village from which everyone would walk to their fields (as is probably the case in most of the world), and would go to a regional center for market days. That would have especially been true of Jews living in northern Europe during the last 1000 years (and remember the topic under discussion is keeping warm in winter, which is an issue in places where you can go several months with temperatures being clearly above freezing – but never was an issue in Eretz Yisrael).
akupermaParticipantPalestinian Arabs come in all “flavors” based on religion and class. When you realize they are not monolithic, you understand why many of them prefer to live under Israeli rule than under Islamic rule. the “nationalists” are deliberate indifferent to killing those they perceive as enemies, and they are also somewhat incompetent in military matters (which explains why the Israelis look good in conflicts with them) so even if they aim at a target there is minimal likelihood they will hit it.
akupermaParticipantThere is no indication he or his ancestors kept Shabbos or kashrus, so kis conversion would have been as valid as those arranged by the zionist government for secular non-Jewish immigrants of Jewish descent. Note there were several “kings” (more or less Roman vassals than monarchs) with that name, and some were definitely halachicly Jewish based on maternal descent from women who were definitely Jewish.
August 7, 2022 4:22 pm at 4:22 pm in reply to: how did early jews keep warm in terribly cold climates during the winter? #2112801akupermaParticipantBayis Sheini (corresponding to the “Classical period” in European history), was a warm period. It was probably warmer than it is today.
One didn’t find large Jewish communities in cold areas until the late Middle Ages (which is when a major cold period, lasting in the 19th century) began. Houses were generally built with good insulation and people dressed warmly (wool was the main fabric). You normally didn’t find people wearing their “summer” clothes while indoors during the winter. Jews rarely lived on isolated homesteads, since that would mean not having a minyan or schools.
akupermaParticipantujm:
1. Actually the Chinese claim to Taiwan is weak. The indigenous population are ethnically similar to the people in the Philippines (and much of southeast Asia and the Pacific,), not China. The Chinese colonists who invaded several centuries ago are different in terms of language and culture than those who rule China. Only the small number of “losers” from the Chinese civil war who came in 1949 tend to perceive Taiwan as a part of China. And note that China has not owned Taiwan for over 120 years (so if Turkey has a claim to Eretz Yisrael, then China has a claim to Taiwan).
2. Ever since the United States made self-determination a cornerstone of foreign policy in the early days of World War II (it was a condition for American entry), much to the chagrin of the Brits who had really wanted to keep their Empire, what the people of a country want has been a deciding point in foreign affairs for the United States, and none of the three ethnic groups (indigenous, pre-1949 Chinese, or post-1949 Chinese) in Taiwan favor being ruled by the Peoples’ Republic of China.
3. The analogy to the US Civil War is in error. Most residents of the Confederate States favored remaining in the United States, and more southerners joined the Union army than the Confederate. If the South had free elections (one man, one vote, no racial restrictions), there would have been no civil war.
4. China has already grabbed a large junk of Philippine and Vietnamese territory (maritime areas which under international law are owned by the Philippines and Vietnam), and their puppet state in North Korea not only kidnaps South Koreans and Japanese, but keep shooting things at its neighbors and constantly threatens to invade. The danger of greenlighting a Chinese conquest of Taiwan is that it will be similar to the British and French decision to greenlight the German conquests of Austria and Czechoslovokia (both with dubious legal basis); submitting to aggressors only encourages them.akupermaParticipantYou Tube always asks you “Do you want to see this (almost) naked lady” or “Do you want to hear a woman signing”. If fact, almost all sites with “inappropriate” materials ask you if you want to see them, or are set up so you have to go looking for it. It’s really no different from the real world (unless a man makes an effort to see a naked lady, he won’t just see one walking down the street).
akupermaParticipantThere is no prohibition of women signing. The prohibition is on men listening to them. On YouTube, no one makes you listen or watch anything – you have to click on something to make it play.
akupermaParticipantA recession has historically been defined as consecutive quarters in which the economy shrinks. One has never had a recession with falling unemployment and rising wages, which usually indicate prosperity. It might have to do with a shrinking labor force due to the goyim (most of them anyway) having cut back on children, which isn’t something the government controls.
So the politicians are lying are hateful, merely dumb and confused.
akupermaParticipantRepublicans are too disunited and don’t have clear ideas on policy (at least ones they all agree one). Many of them are too busy claiming vote fraud in 2020 to deal with new issues. Also they are divided between Neocons (who want to vigorously oppose the Russians and Chinese), and “America First” types who want to avoid foreign wars. Even if the Republicans get control of either house, they won’t have a strong enough majority to do anything.
July 29, 2022 10:39 am at 10:39 am in reply to: Talmeidei Chachamim with kids not like them #2110233akupermaParticipantIf Ha-Shem wanted children to be clones of their parents, He would have stuck to a single-gender configuration (similar to unicellular organisms, e.g. amoeba). Remember that according to our traditions, that was the original plan, but that seem to work so Ha-Shem created genders and invented a system of sexual reproduction (rather than relying on cells splitting and cloning off exact replicas). And who are we to question Ha-Shem policies in such matters.
akupermaParticipantJackk : The way the Democrats (going WOKE), and the Republicans (going MAGA) are going, in 2025 the two parties won’t be the “Democrats and the Republicans” (at least in fact, one should note that the post-civil war Democrats while keeping the name with substantially different than the antebellum version).
akupermaParticipantHard to catch since it is NOT spread by coughing or breathing, and not fatal. People “like” scary stories, but this is one that is easy to ignore.
akupermaParticipantThe new acne. Not even life threatening. While not sexually transmitted, it will be hard to catch it since it is spread by coughing. However it may be a good economic opportunity for those in the medical sciences business, since people are getting bored with Covid19 so that’s not much money to be made from a new coronavirus.
akupermaParticipantRE: “It is impossible for a third party to win.”
Ever hear of the REPUBLICANS. The two major parties were badly divided, and they won majority of the electoral votes with roughly 40% of the popular vote, and largely dominated American politics for the next 50 years. The fanatic MAGA and WOKE movements, denouncing the previous party establishments as RINOs and DINOs, with attachments to fake issues (voting fraud, personal pronouns, etc.) are the opening needed. Many Democrats will refuse to go WOKE, many Republicans are already turned off by Trump (which is why he lost in 2020).
akupermaParticipantDefeated candidates have managed to end up winning the White House (Nixon lost being Governor of California, and then won the Presidency). Abraham Lincoln ran and lost for Senate, and then won the Presidency.
If the Republicans run Trump (or a fanatic MAGA isolationist), and the Democrats run Biden (or even better, run an enthusiastic WOKE candidate), there will be an opportunity for a third party founded by the “ruins” of the moderate wings of the Democratic and Republican parties. Cheney and Romney (and perhaps Collins or Murkowski) are possible founders of a new party. McMullin if he wins a Senate seat would be a very strong possibility. Among Democrats, candidates, or at least founders, of a third party would include former Senator Lieberman, Manchin and perhaps Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii.
For a third party to win, both the Democrats and Republicans have to move to radical extremes. The third party doesn’t need to win a majority of electoral votes, but only enough to force the election into the House of Representatives where being the second choice of both parties would be enough to win.
akupermaParticipantMAGA on the right
WOKE on the left
Room for a 3rd party in the centerakupermaParticipantanything that promotes early mortality is actually not a problem, since it benefits society to kill off old people after they have finished their productive years and in the future will be living off savings (including retirement accounts and pensions), which with their demise can be repurposed for more useful things
alcohol, on the other hand, often kills people in their most productive years, which hurts society
yeshiva kids wanting to be “cool” like the goyim is a self-limiting problem, since if their big concern in life is to be like the goyim, they won’t stay in a “uncool” yeshiva environment
akupermaParticipantMost secular “Jews” are probably not Jews any, and almost certainly most of their grandchildren won’t be. In addition, most of the non-frum Jews in fact engage in avodah zarah, and at the very least reject the very existence of Ha-Shem and Torah. While they find it cute that we frummies act as if they are long lost cousins, they act shocked that we reject the social and cultural values that are the norm in the non-frum communities of those of Jewish descent (many of which can not be discussed on YWN). People like Nadler and Schumer (and the list goes on) are not part of out community. Their successes not only do not reflect favorably on us, but in fact are seen by them as proof that for Jews the only way to success to to reject Ha-Shem and deny Torah. YWN should stop acting as if non-frum persons who claim Jewish ancestry are part of our community.
akupermaParticipantJust because someone is halachically Jewish (had a Jewish mother, father irrelevant), or is a person of obvious Jewish descent (e.g. has a Jewish surname and claims to be Jewish), does not make them “one of us”. For someone to be part of our community, i.e. the Jewish community, the minimum is that the person openly keep kashrus and Shabbos. It is silly to consider someone, such as the politician in question who does not even claim to keep Shabbos and kashrus, to be Jewish. Most people you will meet have Jewish ancestors (going back to ancient times), but that doesn’t mean we should look at them as Jews.
akupermaParticipantIt really should be “Frum world news” but “frum” has multiple meanings and is not understandable to anyone outside the “frum” community. As the “yeshiva” is probably the defining institution of all frum Jews, the name is fine.
akupermaParticipantThe airlines will probably refuse to carry them since an airline is liable if a passenger is denied entrance, and Ukraine has made clear that they don’t want hordes of tourists. In case you haven’t followed the news of what the goyim are up to, Russia invaded Ukraine last winter and they are having a full scale war including bombing of civilian targets in cities, and unless one is anxious to get to Olam ha-Ba as soon as possible, tourist in a war zone is somewhat ill advised.
akupermaParticipantPeople (not just Yidden, goyim too) often prefer books. Books are easier to read than screens and much more portable (they often fit in pockets, and never run out of power). They also have some books that very expensive, or hard to use in an online format (e.g. atlases).
Libraries also provide access to online resources that would be very expensive for individuals (ones that have paywalls and/or expensive subscription fees). They also provide public access to the internet for free (albeit with less privacy than a personal home computer, though that doesn’t affect Yidden so much since “of course” we never look at sites that require great privacy).
akupermaParticipantIf he is leaving yeshiva to start working, does that not suggest the he never worked while being in yeshiva. I recall having been a student many years ago, and as I recall it involved much work. If the young people these days do not perceive yeshiva (or schools in general, as this seems to be a broader problem) as being “work”, we have a serious problem.
akupermaParticipantIf you can afford a Tesla, I suspect that a great many frum organization will move you to the top of their lists of people who clearly have enough wealth that they can be called on to help fill up our community’s financial needs.
akupermaParticipant1. The Russians may not be bluffing (also, Putin has painted himself into a corner and might be desperate).
2. One has no idea what the Russian targets will be of if they can hit targets at all (so even if they aim at New York, it might not be a total “wipe out” that a well aimed H-Bomb would cause). Based on what is happening in the Ukraine, Russian weapons may underperform, and western counter-weapons may exceed expectations.
3. The biggest problem if one survives an attack will be getting food, since New York City is totally dependent on supplies coming from elsewhereakupermaParticipantIt may not be so dumb for several reasons.
The situation in Europe is deteriorating, and Russia is threatening to go nuclear.
Events in Ukraine suggest the Russians may have trouble hitting the side of a barn, so a nuclear attack on New York City might not result in instant death and destruction (e.g. they’ll miss and hit the Catskills or Suffolk County by mistake), so the attack will be survivable.
akupermaParticipantOut standard for judging goyim is based on halacha. The Evangelicals do most of the seven (or eight if you count having children) mitsvos. Secularists take pride in killing inconvenient babies and all sorts of sexual perversions, (and lets not ask about the fairness of their courts, or disbelief in the Creator, or dreaming up new sorts of avodah zarah to believe in). For the most, I find the Evangelicals to be fairly mentsch-like, and their weird belief in their mistranslations to be a bit amusing.
akupermaParticipantGoyim generally want to convert Jews. It is in their nature, whether they are Evangelicals, or Catholics, or Secularists (the list goes on) or whatever. Our continued existence is a refutation of all they hold dear. We are the oldest on-going culture in the world, and the fact that in our very long experience we haven’t “seen the light” is a problem for them. The answer is for Yidden to stick to Torah and Mitsvos, and trust that Ha-Shem will convince our neighbors to be non-violent and not too obnoxious.
July 11, 2022 11:12 am at 11:12 am in reply to: Inefficient and Sketchy Non Profits / Tzedaka organizations #2105118akupermaParticipantA lot of small non-profits are “sort of ” sketchy in that the people running them are also deriving their parnassah from them. As long as people (donors in particular) understand this (e.g. a shtiebel in which the Rav runs the shul and gets most of his livelihood from donated money) it is as much an ethical problem as a legal problem since the government expects non-profits to be run by independent boards who hire staff (rather than by staff which recruits a friendly board).
This is common throughout society (not just Yidden). As long as the person running the non-profit is doing a good job providing services, and sticks to a modest lifestyle, there is no problem.
The alternative would be to have big, quasi-government, bureaucracies doing the same job, and they would probably be less efficient and less responsive to needs of users (just look as the “non-profit” hospitals with seven-figure salaries for managers).
akupermaParticipantWhat Musk is saying is that from an economic (rather than social or entertainment or political) perspective, Twitter is a “scam”. Allegedly, they are lying to advertisers in order to get the advertisers to pay them big money by claiming that “fake accounts”, such as “bots” (programs that fake being users) are really users. If in fact it turns out to be true (and the matter will be litigated since Twitter will be suing Musk, and Musk will need to prove this to win the case), the owners and managers of Twitter might be facing serious criminal charges. This has nothing to do with politics, and great deal to do with how many tech businesses have been disrespecting the law of economics and accounting.
July 11, 2022 9:13 am at 9:13 am in reply to: A Generational Change in Jewish Naming Conventions #2105078akupermaParticipantComparing the early 21st to the mid-20th century, Americans have less “hang ups” about non-WASP ethnicities of all types, and significantly greater toleration of religious groups other than the “mainline” Protestant churches. We are benefits of this increased diversity.
akupermaParticipantImagine how Boro Park families would feel if the first salvo of World War III were happening in the Catskill?
In all fairness, many Americans went to watch the Battle of Bull Run (and got in the way of the soldiers). After seeing a real live battle, it seems that battlefield tourism (while the battle was going on) lost popularity.
akupermaParticipantjackk: Restricting non-criminals from gun ownership (what the Democrats are proposing) will in no way hamper criminals. Similarly, disarming or abolishing the police (another focus of much of the Democratic policy) will not result disarming or abolishing criminals. American culture is a function of 400 years of immigration policies which recruited large number of criminals (flee arrest/execution in their homelands) and rebels fed up with aristocratic societies (such of those in Europe) in which the elites had a monopoly on power and used it to ripoff everyone else.
Gun control would probably work well in countries with a long tradition of people accepting their place in society and being content to be ruled over by an elite which has a monopoly on power including gun ownership. For the most part, those who wanted to be rid of being ruled over have long ago packed the bags for the “wild west” of American, and left their sheepish cousins behind.
The bottom line is you can’t undo 400 years of cultural evolution by legislative fiat, and the US should accept its gun culture as something that can’t be easily changed and concentrate on disarming criminals and mentally ill persons and follow the “red state” solution (usually ignored in left wing media) of allowing armed citizens to shoot would be mass killers before they can do much harm.
akupermaParticipantAmerica’s history is different. A large number of Americans come from backgrounds where they didn’t trust authority. Many early Americans arrived in chains (the blacks had been kidnapped, many of the Brits were offered an alternative to coming to America that involved hanging by the neck until dead). Many if not most Americans were fleeing governments that were oppressive. This is not a background to inspire respect for police. It is interesting to note that among the groups loudest in attacking private ownership of guns, there is a correlation with groups that also are the loudest in denouncing the police. Even among our own people, one needs to remember that people like us are for all purposes excluding from the police and in recent historical memory we recall how it was police who often supported violent anti-semitism (e.g. during World War II, the German army was busy fighting a war and it was the police who did most of the killing in the holocaust).
akupermaParticipantCriminals refuse to follow the gun control laws, therefore all that you do by”banning” guns is making it easier for the criminals to shoot non-criminals. All the Democratic proposals for banning guns include no mechanism to disarm criminals, and a law that de facto limits gun ownership to criminals is counterproductive.
akupermaParticipant“neo” means “new”, and there is a long history of people trying to invent a “new” version of Yiddishkeit, that would allow them to believe they are some connections to Torah and to the Ribbono shel Olam, while still having fun and the ability to live well. Probably the most successful “neo” versions of yiddishkeit are Christianity and Islam (the former clearly founded by OTD Yidden, the latter by mostly non-Jewish wannabees). More recently, the Reform movements and the Zionists are all attempts to break away from Torah (for the most part), while still claiming to be Jewish – if you study the results over the last two centuries, they have clearly failed in the “Jewish” part, but have been quite successful and building affluent lives, which was their first goal. The English expression for the “neo” movement is “having you cake and eating it to” (and wanting to still be Yid while throwing off inconvenience of Yiddishkeit is equally impossible).
akupermaParticipantIf you make enough noise about Trump serving idols, he may be able to expand his based and start picking up a lot of WOKE idol-worshippers.
akupermaParticipantYou need to remember that 1000 years ago, letters were not sent in envelopes (you folded the letter and sealed it), and postal services were limited to official government documents (if they existed at all). Private persons sent personal and business letters by finding someone they trusted who was going to the city where the addressee lived. An implied contract existed between the writer and the person delivering the letter was that they wouldn’t “peak”. So the takana in question (as applied to letters) was not so much a hidush (unlike the prohibition of polygamy) as a reinforcement of a standard contractual arrangement.
While I understand some “men” (if you call them that, as they probably aren’t mentches) dream of being able to afford a “harem” (and hope that the takana’s family law rules are no longer in effect), but any would be hackers looking for a heter should resign themselves that their hacking other people’s personal correspondence is glatt treff.
July 1, 2022 10:49 am at 10:49 am in reply to: Official “Palestinian” Auth. applauds racist Arab hitting Haredi anti-Zionist #2102302akupermaParticipantIf the Palestinians were bright, they would have accepted the idea of a bi-national state with an Arab majority which the zionists agreed to it 100 years ago. They could have accepted a much small zionist state, with most of the Jerusalem in the Arab state when the zionists agreed to that 75 years ago. Those zionists who still believe there is Ribbono shel Olam should see this as evidence that Ha-Shem has gifted them with incompetent and not clever enemies.
akupermaParticipantIf there were cross examination and a more neutral panel (if Trump was allowed to have a lawyer who cross examined witnesses, and if membership on the panel wasn’t limited to people who had previously denounced Trump as a criminal), one would see the absurdity of the case (the witnesses in the car with Trump said he didn’t grab the steering wheel – hearsay by someone who an “interest” in the case would usually be disallowed). To convince the country that Trump was trying to seize the government, they need direct evidence that he was in touch with the armed forces since without military support a coup would be impossible.
fixed typo
akupermaParticipantujm (RE; retirement age)
If your goal is to reduce inflation, and raising the retirement age would reduce the death rate, it is a classic double-edged sword. A higher retirement age would increase the work force, and encourage lower wages for everyone. However it the is a causal relationship between retirement and death, higher retirement age would both make old people better off economically (which would increase consumer spending) while at the same time living longer (and consuming more). Higher consumption increases demand which is inflationary.
June 27, 2022 2:21 pm at 2:21 pm in reply to: Supreme Court Rules – States Can Ban Abortion #2100681akupermaParticipantto Gadol hatorah “Court also ruled this morning that denominational prayer by public employees is OK in public events like football games, school meetings, etc. ”
Baruch ha-Shem. I can make a bracha (and wear a yarmulke) in public even if I’m a government employee and “on the clock”. In many countries, including at least parts of Canada and France (all of which are major western democracies) that would be illegal. I think the militant secularists (the “freedom from religion” crowd, which is dominated by the descendants of OTD Yidden) went to far in trying to ban Christians from public life, and the backlash against the secularists benefits us frummies.
akupermaParticipantThe most effective way to fight inflation would be to raise taxes, deliberately try to force wages down, and to increase entry of additional workers (e.g. recruit immigration enough to make wages fall). Raising the retirement age, ending disability insurance and forcing under employed people (students, housewives, etc.) into the labor market would also increase the labor supply which will encourage lower wages. Falling wages reduces demand, which lowers prices.
While the above work as a matter of economics, they tend to get a failing grade in terms of sociology and political science, and are hard to implement in democratic (small D) societies.
akupermaParticipantyaakov doe: I suggest starting out by retaining a good criminal defense lawyer since it really helps to have one on call in case they don’t let you post bail (also make sure you have assets such as a home equity available to make bail). The right to own and carry a weapon does not change the law about using the weapon, nor does it even lower the penalty for using a weapon unlawfully.
akupermaParticipantIf you fix prices at a lower level than determined by the law of supply and demand, you will either have shortage (c: Soviet Union, where goods were always inexpensive, but often unavailable) or you need to institute rationing (which tends to mean the well connected get what they need, and others go without).
An alternative is to reduce demand, such as by raising taxes, especially on the poor (since higher taxes on the rich would result in lower savings, rather than consumption). Regressive taxes such as payroll taxes, flat rate income taxes or sales tax would reduce demand to it would be in equilibrium with lower prices. Importing a large number of workers would help to lower wages, but the new workers would also be consumer which would increase demand. Lowering wages would be very useful but that is hard to do (cutting the minimum wage won’t help when employers need to offer wages above the minimum wage to recruit employees). Cutting disability and retirement benefits to force people into the job market would fail since the higher incomes that employment would give the returnees would increase demand. Not printing money would help the most, but that requires raising taxes or cutting benefits from government programs, which raises political problems (few taxpayers want to pay more, and receive less).
You can also increase supply through deregulation (of business hostile rules) and changing the tax structure to encourage more supply, as well lowering tariff and non-tariff trade barriers for imports.
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