Over the past 16 years that I’ve monitored traffic statistics on this blog, I’ve learned several things: 1. People have a hard time getting their brains back to work on Mondays, so they use the Internet to procrastinate for a while. 2. People use their summers for good stuff, like vacations, and unplug. 3. People are too busy to look at the Internet between mid-December and January 2nd. 4. But after January 2, they’re back looking at their screens.
Online writers, like myself, and editors are probably the ones that look at unplugged time as bad things. We demand your eyeballs! I had an article accepted in late December, but everyone decided to hold it until January 2. I have to do some serious cuts on it before then, so I should get in a couple of hours this morning.
Then I have to prep the kitchen for more cooking, because friends are stopping by. We’re doing a super casual dinner with Steve, my mom, and I all making something different at the same time. Short ribs and polenta are on the menu, along with lots of other little stuff. I can’t get too loaded, because I’m running a 5K tomorrow morning at 11am.
Here are some things that we’ve been talking about IRL:
Obama’s best of books, movies and TV shows of 2019. While I was watching Fleabag, I kept thinking, “I’m going to have watch this all for a second time.” It was THAT good. We’re in the midst of Watchmen and loving it. We also enjoyed: Working Moms, Game of Thrones, Schitt’s Creek, The Crown, and Russian Doll.
The crazy dude who stabbed people at the Rabbi’s house in Monsey is a big topic here, because we live about twenty minutes from Monsey. My brother, who is a local reporter, spends a lot of time covering similar communities in the area. Anti-semitism is disgusting and should be called out with equal vigor as other forms of prejudice.
Check out the house where Harry and Megan spent the holidays.
What are you all doing for New Year’s Eve?
Apt. 11d 
Happy New Year, and good luck with your run!
For Steve, a frohes Neues!
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Laura said, “The crazy dude who stabbed people at the Rabbi’s house in Monsey is a big topic here, because we live about twenty minutes from Monsey. My brother, who is a local reporter, spends a lot of time covering similar communities in the area. Anti-semitism is disgusting and should be called out with equal vigor as other forms of prejudice.”
At least in NYC, there has been a major uptick in vandalism, harassment, assault and beatings of mostly Orthodox Jews, often in broad daylight, often caught on security video, as well as seemingly total disinterest in doing anything about it…up until now.
In July 2019, Armin Rose wrote this story entitled “Everybody Knows:
As the leading targets of hate crimes, Jews are routinely being attacked in the streets of New York City. So why is no one acting like it’s a big deal?”
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/287821/orthodox-jews-attacked-brooklyn-hate-crime
From back in June 2019:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/hate-crimes-surge-nyc-attacks-jews-nearly-double-n1013781
“Hate crimes surge in NYC, attacks on Jews almost double: The NYPD recorded 184 hate crimes through June 2 — up from 112 in 2018 — during a period when the city experienced a continued reduction in overall crimes.”
Seth Mandel (late of the NY Post and now at the Washington Examiner) says that he has begged media colleagues for years to pay attention to NJ/NYC harassment and violence directed against Orthodox Jews…with very minimal results.
Meanwhile, the major national media routinely does the full court press on obvious hoaxes and wild goose chases…
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Here’s a piece by a guy who I’ve followed for a while on the issue:
https://forward.com/opinion/437447/anti-semitism-isnt-blacks-vs-jews-saying-so-hurts-us-all/
“According to the Anti-Defamation League, at least 10 attacks took place over Hanukkah alone”
“But [the Monsey stabbing attack] comes on the heels of dozens of violent attacks that have plagued Orthodox communities across New York and New Jersey for the past few years.”
The next item in the article is a supercut of harassment and assaults on Orthodox Jews in NYC.
“Finally, the mainstream media and even liberal and left-wing politicians and activists were speaking up about the violence against us after such a lengthy, inexplicable silence. Some argued that it took so long to speak up about these anti-Semitic attacks because the majority of the perpetrators were not white supremacists but African Americans — members of a community that is itself marginalized and frequently under attack.
“That may be true. But if it is, it’s upsetting, not only because it erased our suffering but because of the racist underpinnings of such a view. After all, it was hardly the African American community in its entirety that was committing or even supporting these acts. They were committed by individuals, often young and sometimes mentally ill individuals. And though there was precious little by way of condemnation, it wasn’t like these acts of violence and vandalism were supported by our African American neighbors.”
“Indeed, in its newfound voice addressing these attacks, the left landed on a narrative that is almost as upsetting as their silence was: casting the attacks as a symptom of underlying tensions between the Orthodox and Black communities.”
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There is a possibility that Thomas (the guy arrested after the Monsey machete attack) was the person responsible for a street stabbing of a Jewish man in Monsey a month earlier.
“Specht tells News 12 that a 30-year old father of four was brutally beaten and stabbed while walking to morning prayers less than three miles away from where Saturday’s attack took place in Monsey.”
http://hudsonvalley.news12.com/story/41510073/new-evidence-links-monsey-stabbing-suspect-to-previous-attack
There is a possibility that some individuals are responsible for multiple attacks, and that arrests would eliminate some portion of future attacks.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-woman-accused-of-anti-semitic-attacks-arrested-again-a-day-after-release/2252361/
“A woman accused of slapping three people in one of a series of anti-Semitic attacks during the Hanukkah holiday was arrested again for another assault — just one day after she was charged with attempted assault as a hate crime.
“Tiffany Harris, 30, was arrested Sunday morning after she allegedly punched a 35-year-old woman who was walking on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights area. The attack was unprovoked and the victim suffered bruising and swelling to the eye, according to police.
“Police said Harris slapped three women, ages 22 to 31, in the face and head as she said “F-U Jews” after encountering them outside Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights, the New York Daily News reported.”
I bet you dollars to donuts that Harris (like Thomas) has some serious mental health issues.
This also raises all kinds of questions about whether the bail “reform” that allowed Harris to walk the streets almost immediately after assaulting three women is such a bright idea.
I’m no expert on the mental health stuff, but somebody who assaults 4 women in the course of 2 days seems like she is a danger to others. (A bit later, Harris skipped a mandatory social service appointment and was arrested for the third time in a week.)
What kind of enormity do you have to commit before triggering a 72-hour hold?
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Most of the recent actions of the New York City political establishment are readily explicable if you assume that they want to drive the middle class–who have a bad habit of voting Republican on occasion–out of NYC, and are otherwise not susceptible to reasoned explanation. This is normal political behavior: when you have a momentary advantage, you attempt to lock it in permanently. Items such as bail “reform” make perfect sense from that perspective.
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My brother drove by the local synagogue to see if there was added security. Stopped the car for a minute and then drove off. 30 minutes later, the state police showed up at his doorstep to see what was going on. So, people are taking these incidents seriously now.
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