I picked up my son from his elementary school just after I learned about the mass shooting at a similar school in Texas, and I realized how lucky I was to be doing that. I thought of the parents at Uvalde, who were waiting ...
No one can hear that news and not be moved. And pretty much everyone reacts by wondering if we can "do something." Unfortunately, there's not much "something" that we can do that will have any effect at all in the near term.
Gun control doesn't work, and won't be possible in a crime wave. Democrats can't have it both ways: you can't spend a whole year demonizing police and cutting their funds and then make it harder for citizens to protect themselves.
Mental health is a real issue, though it's not a quick fix. I tend to believe we have something wrong in our popular culture, when young men (they are almost all young men) seek fulfillment in these dramatic, murderous shooting episodes.
If I were to do anything -- and I wouldn't actually do this, because it's not constitutional -- I would ban first-person shooter games. I think that while most people don't enact their fantasies, there are always a few who will.
Meanwhile... much of the shrieking from celebrities and politicians is just that: shrieking. It's narcissism at best, and exploitation of tragedy for political purposes, at worst. Democrats need an issue, and they are desperate.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
