I am going to Israel on Sunday for a week -- my fourth trip in less than 6 months, and my third since the start of the war October 7.
I knew I would be back soon; the question was what I would focus on when I planned my trip. I soon found the answer: Argentinian President Javier Milei is going to Israel next week. So I am going to go as well, and cover his visit -- his first major foreign trip as president.
The trip is significant because Milei is one of the most pro-Israel leaders in the world at a time when Israel is worried about losing international support. For me, this is also a significant event because Milei brings together libertarian conservative thought on the one hand, with religious thought (and particularly Jewish thought, in which he is steeped, though Catholic himself) on the other.
I feel as though there is tremendous positive potential in the visible intersection of all of these strands. I want to be there to witness the trip -- as I have been there at other moments -- and write about it.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
