My latest column for Breitbart is about the Chicago City Council's decision to rename Lake Shore Drive.
It will now be "Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive."
Nothing against honoring one of the founding fathers of Chicago, and one of the most important black figures in American history, but there are other ways to do it, and Chicago has much more urgent priorities.
Plus, Lake Shore Drive is iconic, and beloved, and it's ridiculous to rename it.
My time in South Africa taught me that when politicians run out of ideas, ,and excuses, they start renaming things -- as if some colonial-era landmark was the reason they couldn't do their jobs right, or that their policies continued to fail.
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).
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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 ...