The advent calendar is messed up.
How many days to Election Day?
How many days to Christmas?
Can Santa vote legally
At the North Poll or the North Pole?
Will there be peace at the polls poles?
Will there be peace on earth?
When you open the next tiny door
What sweet surprise will you find?
© 2024 by Bob Schwartz
“He sold or melted down much of Cluny’s treasure to relieve the poor in time of famine and was known for his saying that he would rather be damned for being too merciful than for being too severe.”
Even those who may recognize today as All Saints Day (the day after All Hallow’s Eve) may not have heard of Saint Odilo.
Odilo (ca. 962–1049) was abbot for fifty-five years. Under him Cluny became the most important abbey in western Europe. It was he who instituted the feast of All Souls [November 2], first for deceased monks and then for all the deceased faithful. He sold or melted down much of Cluny’s treasure to relieve the poor in time of famine and was known for his saying that he would rather be damned for being too merciful than for being too severe.
If that seems like a lead-in to a call for donation to help the starving, you’re right.
Two million Palestinians–half of them children–are living without access to sufficient medical care. The IRC deployed 11 emergency medical teams over the past year, and with partners, we are supporting emergency medical care in the few partially-operational hospitals still remaining. We are providing medicine and supplies.
Food and Water
Two million Palestinians are living without access to sufficient food and water. The IRC is directly providing 100,000 liters of clean drinking water and malnutrition support (through ready-to-use therapeutic food, a nutrient-rich paste for malnourished children) in Gaza.
Protection for Women and Children
In both Gaza and the West Bank, the IRC is providing protection services for women and children–reaching those in temporary shelters in Gaza, and serving communities in the West Bank. In both Gaza and the West Bank, the IRC is also providing early childhood development activities.
Ceasefire
The IRC continues to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, one that seeks to fully protect Palestinian lives, secure the release of hostages and safely scale up humanitarian assistance and service delivery.
There is no place safe in Gaza for Palestinians. Nearly 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering across hundreds of emergency shelters or in the surrounding areas further exacerbating the conditions in what was already one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Your support at this critical time helps families in crisis in Gaza and across the world. Donate now.
International Rescue Committee
That’s what Saint Odilo would do.
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield (1966)
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and they carrying signs
Mostly say, “Hooray for our side”
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away
I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
Songwriter: Stephen Stills
Setting Sun, The Chemical Brothers (1997)
You’re the devil in me I brought in from the cold
You said your body was young but your mind was very old
You’re coming on strong and I like the way
The visions we had have faded away
You’re part of a life I’ve never had
I’ll tell you that it’s just too bad
Songwriters: Edmund John Simons, Noel Thomas Gallagher, Thomas Owen Mostyn Rowlands
Am I a fan of hammers? I don’t know how to answer. I do know that if I want to drive a nail, it beats using my hand or my head.
Am I a fan of AI? It is a very powerful tool. Thinking about hammers makes me also think about powered nail guns. Used wrong, both can cause damage and death. Used properly, both make it possible to build a house.
First Dog on the Moon is a cartoon series that runs in the Guardian. The current cartoon is funny. It criticizes some of the ways things can go wrong in our engagement—approaching obsession—with AI.
It is the time before the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Newspapers report that one side says that slavery is endorsed by the Bible and that Africans are chattel, not people. Newspapers report that the other side says that Africans are people, deserving all the rights of human beings. The newspapers say to readers: you decide.
It is the 1930s, when Hitler is rising to power. Media report that Hitler says that some people, especially Jews, are not people and do not deserve German citizenship or rights as human beings. Media report that some others say that Jews and other disfavored people in Germany deserve to be treated with all the rights of human beings. The media say to readers and listeners: you decide.
Five years ago, during the Trump administration, I wrote a post Media Balance v. Truth: “A Balanced Treatment of an Unbalanced Phenomenon Distorts Reality”. The quote is from a piece by Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, who wrote:
We understand the values of mainstream journalists, including the effort to report both sides of a story. But a balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality. If the political dynamics of Washington are unlikely to change anytime soon, at least we should change the way that reality is portrayed to the public.
Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views.
The newspapers believed they weren’t defending slavery, just reporting on it. The media believed they weren’t defending Hitler, just reporting on him.
At the end of the day, when things went horribly wrong, were their hands really clean? At the end of this day, if things go horribly wrong, will theirs be?
The key to this presidential election is not entirely “it’s the economy, stupid.” Of course the economy always matters, in this election and all others.
But when you look at constituencies where Harris is under-performing compared to Biden last time, and you look at Trump being even less attractive and stable than last time, and you look at the insults Trump is peddling, there is a simple explanation.
This race is about misogyny and racism, both of which are very much alive and well in America. If a voter is inclined to a lesser or greater degree in those directions, Harris is a difficult choice, if not a nightmare. A woman of color in the White House? No way, they think, not if I can help it!
This is not to deny amazing strides America and many Americans have made. We did, after all, elect a black president twice. On the other hand, the legitimacy of his presidency was questioned from day one. And Trump’s favorite term for women of color—especially women of intelligence and achievement—remains “a nasty woman.” A nasty woman in the White House is a bridge too far for some. Maybe not for many, but maybe enough to swing the election.
There is a myth that lemmings, Arctic rodents, commit mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs.
The durable myth has been perpetuated by many cultural instances, the most egregious of which is a Disney documentary from 1958. The producers imported a small number of lemmings from Norway, and then threw them off a cliff to simulate a behavior that didn’t actually exist.
We don’t know whether there are other creatures who actually do mindlessly follow each other en masse over cliffs. Or whether, as they descend, they shout about being good Americans, or Republicans, or Christians, or whatever. Or whether they expect that they will land softly and safely and triumphantly at the bottom, because of parachutes or because God will save them.
Please be kind to the actual lemmings, who don’t deserve their reputation.
You might plan on getting up around dawn to catch the full moon setting. Or you can just wake up that early and be surprised. If you plan on capturing the setting moon, you have to be quick. As soon as you notice it happening, the moon is already sinking fast behind the hills.
Today begins the Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is known as the harvest festival—hag ha-asif—and as the season of our joy—zeman simchateynu.
Today I received a desperate email from the International Rescue Committee, whose work I’ve talked about before. The content of the email is copied below.
GAZA: The IRC is extremely concerned by reports of an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Aqsa hospital grounds where displaced people, including those recently told to leave the north, were sheltering. The strike caused a fire which killed at least four people and injured dozens. Hours earlier, Israeli airstrikes hit a shelter school in Nuseirat, killing 20 and injuring more.
Can you help fund lifesaving aid for children and families in Gaza and other crises?
The conflict-induced humanitarian suffering in Gaza is catastrophic–with every person in Gaza now in need of humanitarian assistance and more than two million Palestinians (half of them children) living without access to sufficient water, food and medical care.
EMERGENCY UPDATE: The International Rescue Committee is extremely concerned by reports of an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Aqsa hospital grounds where displaced people, including those recently told to leave the north, were sheltering. The strike caused a fire which killed at least four people and injured dozens. Hours earlier, Israeli airstrikes hit a shelter school in Nuseirat, killing 20 and injuring more. International law must be upheld, which demands protecting civilians and the infrastructure on which they depend, including hospitals.
The IRC continues to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, one that seeks to fully protect Palestinian lives, secure the release of hostages, and safely scale up humanitarian assistance and service delivery.
Children and families in Gaza urgently need food, safe water and medical supplies. The IRC is working directly and with local partners to deliver immediate aid to those in desperate need.
“The IRC is working around the clock, alongside incredible Palestinian partners, to do everything we can to save lives.”
– Bob Kitchen, the IRC’s Vice President of Emergency Programs
We need your immediate support. Please rush your donation for families facing crisis, in Gaza and around the world.
Over the past year in Gaza:
The IRC has deployed 12 emergency medical teams on a rotational basis.
We’ve launched a community-based management of acute malnutrition program and delivered 1,700 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food (a nutrient-rich paste for malnourished children) to northern Gaza.
We’re distributing 100,000 liters of clean drinking water per day.
The IRC is also working with 11 partner organizations to deliver: early childhood development, child protection, women’s protection and empowerment, health, nutrition and basic needs.
Just in the last day or so:
Trump said he would send troops to take care of the “enemy within”, by which he specified, among others, members of congress who oppose him and cause him trouble. Even Republican leaders are concerned.
Trump cut short a town hall in Pennsylvania to dance (sort of) on stage for a half hour.
Trump said that Kamala Harris and the Democrats want to ban cows and windows in buildings. (Note: When I heard this, I was confused, thinking he meant that they wanted to ban cows in buildings, which didn’t make sense, but neither does any of it. Also, cows will supposedly be banned because red meat will be banned, but at the very least, we will still have cows for milk, something Trump has not considered.)
That was just in the last day or so, and isn’t even a complete list.
We have to be honest, all partisanship aside. Trump may have lots of problems with truth and principles of constitutional democracy. That’s one thing. But the thing that is becoming obvious in the campaign is that he is having serious issues with reality and psychological stability.
The irony, and not a happy one, is that Trump was for a long time depending on Biden’s cognitive issues as a smooth path to the White House. When Biden was replaced by Harris, Trump was knocked off balance. For a while, and still sometimes, he has tried to claim that Harris is an idiot (she’s not) and that she has worse cognitive issues than Biden, saying directly that she is “crazy” (she’s not).
But maybe, likely, Trump currently is. We are so used to Trump acting “different” that we may have trouble seeing “different” is sliding inexorably into “unstable.” Or has already slid there.
Bob Schwartz 