I'm bored by the fights over Pride month. I feel that the community (not going to use the absurd, never-ending acronym for the moment) has achieved a level of acceptance that is approaching complete equality, even if it's not entirely there yet. I'm not sure compelling public displays of pride move the ball.
The main sticking point today is a new issue: not just transgenderism, but youth transgenderism. It seems absurd to me that we are being told that underage children, who are not to be sexualized for any other purpose, must be urged to identify with alternative sexual or genders, with drugs and surgery if prescribed.
I think reasonable people harbor doubts about this issue, and about teaching children that the new dogmas of the left are somehow immutable truths. It is wrong and divisive to describe opposition to this indoctrination, or to trans women (biological men) competing with women in sports, as being "hateful."
Americans are not, in general, hateful people. Even institutionalized racism, when and where it existed in law and custom, was kept in place more by inertia and mistaken beliefs than by active hatred. It's just not who we are. So I'd like the White House in particular to stop making that incendiary accusation.
Other than that: I really don't care much about which brands are identifying with which gay or trans people; I don't care about public displays of bondage in West Hollywood Pride parades (you know what you're getting if you go there, though the city should't advertise the events as somehow "family-friendly" ).
I'm just too busy with my own life to care much about who is doing what with whom. Have fun -- it's what the "pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration is all about, in my view. I just don't like the relentless indoctrination of children by joyless people who don't know how to savor the freedoms they have won.
I should have noted in my message about the weekly Torah portion that this week is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. We are about to mourn -- but see through that pain to something better that lies beyond, on the other side.
Wishing you the best vision -- and an incredible reality to follow. It happens!
We begin the final speech of Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land. He relates the ups and downs of the years of wandering in the desert, before, finally, the people have the merit to enter the land itself.
This Sabbath always precedes Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the anniversary of the destruction of both of the Holy Temples, and a catch-all for many calamities that befell the Jewish people.
A word on Tisha B'Av. This year I am leaving for an overseas trip during the afternoon of the holiday -- in the middle of a fast day. Not idea, but there was no other choice. But my flight is in the afternoon, which is significant.
We relax some of the harsh, mournful customs of the day in the afternoon. We start to pray normally; we sit on regular chairs; we start to have hope again in the redemption that will, one day, lead us all back from exile to our home.
I'll be taking a trip to a land where an important part of ...
President Trump is in Scotland, playing golf and making big trade deals -- a major deal with the EU, in fact. Meanwhile, there is a global outcry about humanitarian aid to Palestinians (not about the Israeli hostages, mind you).
On top of that, Democrats are at their lowest polling numbers ever -- so they are trying to win control of the House by redistricting in the middle of a 10-year Census cycle. Oh, economic optimism is up, so they have a tough road.
And Tulsi Gabbard's revelations about the Russia collusion investigation make it clear that Obama's lieutenants lied to Congress. How deeply was he himself involved? The media continue to ignore the evidence, but we certainly won't.
Special guests:
Nick Gilbertson - Breitbart News White House correspondent, on EU deal
Frances Martel - Breitbart News foreign editor, on Trump abroad and Russia
John Spencer - urban warfare expert, on humanitarian aid and war in Gaza
Bradley Jaye - Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on the ...
