Gadolhadorah

I’ve learned its really not worth the effort to debate anyone who feels their “life and liberty” were fundamentally disrupted by having to wear a mask in certain circumstances. These sad individuals typically were angry underachievers prior to Covid and now have a “new” issue to to grab on to that helps them cope with their sad lives. Yes, there are legitimate differences on the efficacy and metrics to assess various protocols, drugs and therapies but to those who claim its an existential matter for them, nothing will help and after a point, they are unworthy of further dialogue. As most posters have noted, masks were an annoyance but we complied where necessary and have now moved on to pretty much a pre-covid lifestyle.
Memo to the anti-everythingers: Get a life and move on too before your anger and hatred eat you up from the inside.

BY1212; Thanks…I wouldn’t have know the Daniel reference but embarrassed that I didn’t remember the clear references in the Megillah.

Where is the inyan of there being an Adar A and Adar B first mentioned in Tanach or was it brought down later by chazal? My vague recollection is references to a chodesh by the number (aka 7th month) or in the context of other naarative where the time is known (aka h’chodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim). But where do we find the first reference to Tishrei , Adar Aleph etc.

“Regarding your agreement with Joe that it be a she and not a he, Hashem has very good reason to insists judges only be a He….

Presumably, the Ebeshter also would have voted against (i) the 19th Amendment in 1920 (ii) confirmation of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman justice of SCOTUS in 1981 and (iii) Esther Hayut as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of EY in 2017 but records show abstentions in each case. Perhaps there was a change in those “very good reasons” somewhere along the way.

“Charliehall, you really think you are making a difference”

Yes. A BIG difference….even one hater or hateful post that is banned/taken down is progress. Sadly, the numbers look overwhelming but the big tech firms are finally getting the message and doing more on their own. Its ironic that some of the “new” right wing MAGA sites (Gab etc.) have become the new homes for white supremacists and anti-semites that are as bad as the anti-Israel/BDS posts (disguised anti-semitism) on the more traditional social media sites.

On every college campus there are truly courageous young men and women (most not frum) who are pushing back against a growing anti-israel/anti-semitic stream of venom from sol called “progressive” student groups, with some degree of faculty support. They need more support and resources from the traditional Jewish mosdos since they are on the front line of this rhetorical assault on EY.

Sort of like an MO rav having to struggle to find some inyan to justify deviating from long-accepted hashkafah versus a more traditional rebbe rolling his eyes and in a single breadth intoning something that sounds like “torahmoshemisinaiandthatswedidinthealteheim”

“Lastly, follow the methodology of modern synagogues, spend a few dollars and buy a set of honors cards for the Gabbai to hand out…”

Several years ago, the gabbai of our shul, in a moment of mindless extravagance, splurged on such a set of silver plated “kavod cards”….needless to say, within less than a month, we were down to 4 aliyahs and gelilah. After an emergency meeting of the Board, the gabbai was given an ultimatum to go back to the old system or alternatively purchase multiple sets of throwaway printed paper cards.

Thanks AAQ: I was totally unaware of those rankings but they sort of confirm my considerably less scientific intuitive assessments. Somehow, though, I would have placed Thomas and Alito together further to the right, than Sotomayor is to left, but obviously that reflects my own “leftist” political vertigo.

AAQ: In an ideal world, judges wouldn’t have a “racial” or “ethnic” lens towards legal issues. Thats not the real world where at least 4 or 5 justices argue in favor of interpreting the constitution as it would have been when several of the original justices OWNED black people in servitude, indigenous people were viewed as subhuman savages, women were totally disenfranchised legally and economically, and both Asian and Hispanic populations were de minimis. The reality is that after 200+ years, judges appointed today from those historically unrepresented communities DO come to their jobs with both explicit and implict biases in their legal analysis and are not frozen into an “originalist” or “constructionist” approach to adjudiation.

Giving both Thomas and Sotomayor the benefit of the doubt, I I guess I’m coming at it from the perspective of Sotomayor as more representive of the perspective of the roughly 18% of our population with Hispanic roots than the 12-14% with Black roots.
I suspect we disagree on which of them is a better lawyer or a more intellectually gifted scholar but I’ll agree that neither is in the upper tier of Justices in recent history.
On the other hand, look at the recent candidates for POTUS and try to explain why our country is unable to find more gifted individuals to lead the nation.

AAQ: Gut Vach

Neither GHWB nor any other member of his administration ever claimed with a straight face that Justice Thomas was selected as “the most qualified” candidate for the Court. He
attended Yale Law School as one of the first students to benefit from the very type of affirmative action/open admissions program of which he has now grown to hate and criticize. After graduation, he worked as a staff attorney with the Missouri AG and then as an LA for Danforth who connected him with Bush. In the post Civil Rights Act era, Bush Sr. was thrilled to associate his administration with a Black “conservative” Republican lawyer and quickly pushed him through several appointments in Dept. of Education, one year on the D.C. Circuit and then to SCOTUS.
He was a competent, albeit undistinguished lawyer with no significant publications and a great story of overcoming personal challenges but was NOT the top lawyer or jurist available to Bush after one year on the D.C. Circuit to put on the the Supreme Court. All of this came a few years after one of the most memorable statements ever made on the floor of the U.S. Senate favor of a Supreme Court nominee ( Nixon’s nomination of Harrold Carswell). Responding to criticism (mainly Dems but some Republicans too) that Carswell had been a mediocre judge, the equally undistinguished Senator from Nebraska (Roman Hruska) took the floor and passionately argued:

“So what if he is mediocre? There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they? We can’t have all Brandeises, Cardozos, and Frankfurters and stuff like that there…”

Shockingly, the speech failed to persuade Hruska’s colleagues, and the nominee withdrew.

AAQ: I’m very familiar with JT’s yichus and legal scholarship (or lack thereof) at the time of his nomination to SCOTUS. I’ll be glad to share some thoughts motzi shabbos.
SS

What do we think about what? some bros going off to what would otherwise look like the costumes in a Toevah Parade in RBS/Beis Shemesh??

Jackk: The office of the Senate parliamentarian has compiled a really geeky but informative summary of the various proposals to modify Senate rules governing both motions to proceed, cloture and “extended debate” (proper term for a filibuster) that are accessible online. You will truly impressed with the level of detail on what constitutes “standing”. Many of those proposals were fashioned during the tenure of Sen Byrd as Majority Leader, probably the most skilled master of Senate procedure in modern times.

Perhaps we should instead focus on the underlying inyan of whether there will still be cholont AFTER moishiach comes AND if so, will it be mutar to have a special cholont with chazerfleish??

Chazal ruminating on the prohibitions against pork in the pasuk from Vayikrah (11:7) raise the question of: למה נקרא שמו חזיר שעתיד (loosely translated as “Why is a pig called chazir?”) The answer offered by some great talmedi chachamim was לחזור להיות מותר (i.e. because it is destined to be returned [“lachazor”] to permitted/kosher status after zman moishiach.”

While I’m sure that some of our great melamdim here in the CR will dismiss this prediction as fanciful hyperbole by the sushi set longing for a taste of the forbidden, others with culinary roots in the Alte Heim have directly tied this inyan to the kinds of special foods to which yidden will gain access after moishiach’s arrival. The more traditionalists observe that this will only happen because at that pigs will evolve into ruminant animals, like cows and sheep, which will remove the impediment for their hashgacha (although the whole concept of chazerfleish with a chasideshe hashgacha is a bit intellectually jarring). For others, it really means that by then, scientists will have produced a quality version of Beyond Pork in the labs which will become the go-to alternative for Cholent, Chulent etc
Anyway, B’Taavon!!

No mods….no CR.
Its really not that complicated to understand why a “moderated” frum social media site is not going to use a robotic AI-powered clone of Mod 29 to screen blog postings or give their readers an “opt in” choice to see deleted posts.

phew!

There is also a separate issue of the glacial pace of judicial review and issuance of decisions that allow Executive Orders to remain in effect until some District Court Judge finally issues some TRO or injunctive relief. The executive orders are frequently issued knowing they are patently illegal but designed for political messaging. The most recent instance was Biden extending a CDC public health emergency to justify an eviction moratorium.

Add to Avram’s excellent statement, the views of certain Justices to express support for what some would call an Imperial Presidency in areas of national security and foreign affairs and defer to the Executive Branch while simultaneously questioning the actions of Executive Branch Agencies in domestic regulation and showing less willingness to grant so-called “Chevron Deference” to their expertise and findings. Also, google the speech given by Former AG Barr at Notre Dame law school in 2020 where he voiced the most expansive view of Presidential Power of any modern AG.

When we were really little kids, a grandparent originally from Minsk served us something on Shabbosim she called “Plov” which in my vague recollections looked like and tasted like the stuff we now call cholent, chulent or chunt.

Akuperma says it better than myself or most of the other posts. Trump and other presidents have always said they would surround themselves with the “smartest people”, the “best managers” and the “most qualified” people for their appointments, whether judges or cabinet agency heads. With trump, there were some really good appointments (DOD, State, etc) who were either fired or resigned because they could not tolerate his meshugaas and the real drech such as his HHS, HUD etc cabinet secretaries who were incompetent sycophants who stayed around for years or were forced to resign for ethics violations.
All Presidents know they will have to reward their political base and supporters with jobs regardless of competence. They lie when they say this person is the “best choice”. The truth is it may be the best choice given the self-imposed constraints on the universe of potential candidates I was willing to consider.

“…but Catholics and Jews are overrepresented on the court for some time. ..

So are members of the Federalist Society and their ilk….

The religious parties have had almost a decade to come up with some alternative proposal for public service by frum boys/girls as an alternative to the military draft. There have been several “final” agreements negotiated under multiple governments which were initially accepted and then rejected or blown up because of the lack of consensus on one side or the other. The current law is much worse than prior agreements they could have accepted.

‘Why no names of hospitals?…”

1. YWN doesn’t want to get sued by posting potentially defamatory allegatons.

2. Anecdotal allegations about medical malpractice, unsupported by rigorous investigation and supporting documentations is really of very little value and potentially dangerous if it results in others relying on that hospital and in need of critical medical care, forego that care after reading about such unsubstantiated allegations.
3. There are government and private website providing hospital ratings using carefully vetted data, their own inspections of those facilities by experts and information on substantiated malpractice claims.
4. Otherwise, its a great idea.

Reb E might confirm if a “salty” Ungarishe chulent (or “cholent”) is culinary apikorsus

Use a higher quality, lower fat meat or substitute dark meat turkey or one of the new beef substitutes; try using less salt, experiment with lentils in lieu of the standard beans and try sneaking in some dark green leafy vegetables. Also, keep the pot on the edge of the blech if it tends towards “hot” to avoid drying out by shabbos lunchtimel