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We know that Kayin lived for hundreds of years (seven generations). He could have built these cities later in life, when there were many more people. Ein Mukdam Um’uchar Batorah.
Is there a “like” button here? This really encapsulates everything many of us have been feeling. Very little needs to be added, except perhaps: Why were such measures never taken in other recent pandemics of similar scope (ex-1918 which was magnitudes-of-order worse than this).
To answer your questions: Unfortunately this is part of the curse of prosperity … thanks to modern medicine and technology, our lives were so predictable that the idea of something we cannot control simply does not compute for 75% of the population, especially the younger generation. For many this will not be over until the disease is completely eradicated (5yrs? 10yrs? longer? compare timelines of measles, polio, etc.) Imagine living half of your adult life in fear, behind a mask, suspicious of everyone you meet. Is this really the future we want? (Again there are exceptions to every rule – hospitals, nursing homes, etc.)
And I also wish people would please stop bringing up the tired example of the 1905 Supreme Court ruling, which was a “Hora’as Sha’ah” for a disease with a 30% mortality rate and a proven antidote. If there was such precedent, why do we not see more such rulings since then? (1956 flu, 1968 flu, polio, mumps, measles, etc.)
R’ Eliezer: Regarding V’nishmartem – until last year, this was reserved for not leaving the pool gate open for little kids to fall in. Or not to jump out of a plane. Never heard much about it before then.
Aren’t you giving them the opportunity for the mitzvahs of answering “Amen” and “Yehei Shmei Rabbah”?
You wanna talk about the Constitution? Here’s the clause regarding the States role in regulating Federal elections:
Article I, Section 4, Clause 1:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.
So it’s clear that according to the Constitution, the power to determine the “Manner of holding elections” (referring to Federal elections) lies solely with the State legislatures. Not the Governors or Secretaries of State or State Supreme Court. Unfortunately many states with Democratic leadership but Republican legislatures decided to sidestep this clause by using their (Democratic) State Courts to amend the laws to favor their party. (Mail-in ballots, no signature verification, and extended deadlines tend to favor the Democratic party.)
These are the same people who then lecture us on Trump violating the Constitution.
ah ok, I apologize, I took didn’t get the joke. An easy conclusion to jump to since Democrats have been so focused on restoring civility to the White House.
With that said, pre-emptive pardons are necessary for all the vindictiveness of Democrat prosecutors who won’t rest until they’ve found something, anything to convict the Trump clan for their sins of un-political correctness.
Interesting today how the NY Times had the time to research every single stock dealing of the past 5 years of the two Georgia Republican senators, but couldn’t be bothered to look into Hunter Biden. (Wait I thought it was just about getting rid of Trump? Or must all Republicans be destroyed?)
CTLawyer:
There’s a well-known story told from before the Holocaust. Each morning a young man and his Rav would walk past their non-Jewish neighbor and the neighbor would call out “nice day Herr Rabiner, do you agree?” The young man turned to his Rav and said, “did you ever notice how polite the Germans are, always ending their greetings with “Yes?” or “do you agree”? The Rav just nodded and said nothing.
Years later during the War, this young man was arrested by the SS and was brought before none other than his ex-neighbor. He had him tied up and he as he pulled out his fingernails one by one, he would say “It hurts Herr Rabiner, does it not?” “Very painful, yes?”
No I’m not comparing Biden to the Nazis, but to point out that polite speech does not guarantee
civility. In fact let’s look at who the “polite” Biden White House is considering appointing for key positions, in just the first week alone: Karine Jean-Pierre for White House spokesperson and Reema Dodin for Director of Legislative affairs, both of BDS-fame. And no denouncement yet of several Anti-Semitic statements from many other corners of his party just this past week. “I beg your pardon, but Israel is an oppressor and does not deserve our support.”CharlieHall,
Here’s what that case actually said:“In every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint.” And then: Furthermore, the Court held that mandatory vaccinations are not arbitrary or oppressive so long as they do not “go so far beyond what was reasonably required for the safety of the public”.
The context of this decision was a smallpox epidemic, which qualifies as a “great danger”. Per Wikipedia smallpox has a mortality rate of 30%, and the rest were disfigured for life. Comparing smallpox to COVID with a 99.5% recovery rate is disingenuous.
But at least we can agree that this requirement should also apply to immigrants before they are let into our country – correct?
Here are the stats:
Before May 31, # of COVID cases in the US =1.03M, Deaths =55,000, mortality rate = 5.34%
April 30- August 31: # of cases = 4.97M, Deaths = 120,000, mortality rate = 2.55%
Since August 31: # of cases = 5M, Deaths = 70,000, mortality rate = 1.4%
So either more cases were identified due to more testing, or it’s just not as virulent anymore, or a combination of both.
Also if we compare to the US population, that’s 2.5% of the population that’s been infected in 9 months, including the first couple of months when no one was taking any precautions. To reach CharlieHall’s 16M deaths, the remaining 97.5% of the population would somehow have to become infected in the next 9 months or less before the vaccine comes out. So just more media-induced hyperbole.
Shady – no you are correct. That’s why there is no chance of the numbers changing.
Republicans are more upset over the uneven playing field than over ballot fraud. Democrats had been waiting for mail-in voting for years, since that tends to work in their favor (think: inner city residents who normally don’t make the effort to vote.) They passed these laws unilaterally, in most cases bypassing the legislative route, which netted them thousands of new voters on a silver platter. Yet if Republicans ask for a few checks and balances like Voter ID laws or election monitoring, they are denounced as promoting “voter suppression” and the media says, sorry you’re not allowed to question this. So an uneven playing field.
For those of you who enjoying Biden’s win, consider the following. The next thing high on the Biden administration’s list is to grant citizenship to illegals and loosen border enforcement, with the goal of flipping the last remaining red state stalwarts like Texas to Blue. Once Texas is flipped and mail-in balloting enshrined in law elsewhere, no Republican will ever again have a path to victory (unless the Dems manage to put up their own version of Trump) and we will have one party rule. After 8, 12, 16 years of one party rule (or less; I’m being generous here), wave goodbye to your Shechita, Milah, several pesukim in Acharei Mos and Kedoshim, or anything else of our religion the Dems deem objectionable, and say hello to a Palestinian State (restricted to the West Bank if we’re lucky).
Gadolhadorah: Yes indeed, more thoughtful than just “undo everything Obama”. See below from the Washington Post. This sure looks to me like “undo everything Trump”. I don’t see anything about reaching out to the other side. But hey, we got rid of the mean orange man and that’s all that counts.
President-elect Joe Biden is planning to quickly sign a series of executive orders after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, immediately forecasting that the country’s politics have shifted and that his presidency will be guided by radically different priorities. He will rejoin the Paris climate accords, according to those close to his campaign and commitments he has made in recent months, and he will reverse President Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. He will repeal the ban on almost all travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and he will reinstate the program allowing “dreamers,” who were brought to the United States illegally as children, to remain in the country, according to people familiar with his plans.
Although transitions of power can always include abrupt changes, the shift from Trump to Biden — from one president who sought to undermine established norms and institutions to another who has vowed to restore the established order — will be among the most startling in American history.
Gadolhadorah: Here’s Biden’s attempt at making an effort to reach out to Trump supporters: “Americans chose change over more of the same. They’ve given us a mandate for action on COVID, the economy, on climate change and systemic racism.” Those last two don’t sound very centrist to me. And a mandate? When you barely won 50% of the country?