The Way It Iz

The United States is a Christian country. We may not have an official religion, but come on – it’s not like we shut down the nation on Rosh HaShanah or Eid al-Fitr. The only religious holidays nationally recognized are Christmas and Easter. So, it’s not surprising when other areas of life and law are based on Christian understanding. The most prominent of these laws today are the cases surrounding abortion. Many pro-life advocates are pushing for stronger prohibitions on abortion than even Jewish law would allow. Currently, however, no state has laws on the books that would not make an exception for saving the life of the mother. And few, if any, have laws that prohibit in vitro fertilization. At most, there is some ambiguity that needs to be cleared up.

Ever since the death of George Floyd, major cities around the country have done everything in their power to strip police of their ability to keep the streets safe. Some removed qualified immunity, others chose to reallocate funding from the police force to social services, and still others just decided that people who were arrested need not stay in prison, by instituting the Orwellian-named “bail-reform.” Over the last two-plus years, we have seen a rapid decay in major cities, as homelessness and crime run roughshod over their streets, while district attorneys pat themselves on the back for being the driving force behind the transformations made under their watch. 

The last few weeks have seen the Miami Boys Choir go from a niche musical group known only by Orthodox Jews to international TikTok sensations. The choir, led by Yerachmiel Begun, released their first album 45 years ago, and little did they know that The Day Will Come when they would release their first TikTok video, which happened only 4.5 months ago. But it was the release of a clip in August that garnered them the attention Around the World not seen by a Jewish musical group since the Maccabeats released “Candlelight.” 

There’s nothing like a recession to bring everyone back down to earth.

As fewer and fewer households have live television options these days, and as news is available to us instantly in our hands, one area of life that seems to be on the way out is the late local news. The best part of the late local news was always that puff piece that came on after the weather and the sports that usually put a smile on your face as you wrapped up your day - stories like “community comes together to support person facing a struggle” or “kid donates birthday money to fight cancer.” Those stories tended to be a nice balance to the probably terrible news from the beginning of the broadcast.

California has a tremendous homeless problem. Of course, it’s easy to blame the politicians in charge of the once-beautiful major cities on the West Coast, but there is another factor at play with California’s homeless population. After all, New York is widely governed by the same sort of politics, and while we here in the Empire State do have our fair share of homeless people, it pales in comparison to the Golden State. The variable? Weather. California has beautiful weather all year round, making the outdoors livable to the homeless. In New York, the bitter cold winters force the homeless to find shelter of some sort.