Plagued by Luxury Beliefs

Hello one and all. Welcome back to another edition of Laura's Links. The past week was, once again, filled with disturbing and horrendous news stories from around the world, but punctuated here and there with good (or good-ish) news. A major move toward normalcy here in Ontario is the news that in September, elementary and secondary students will be going back to school in person, albeit subject to various public health guidelines. Gyms and restaurants are opening up here as well, finally. Alas, it seems that for much of the world (OMG I'm looking at you, Australia!) the "the criteria for lockdown seems to be the abolition of death."

So, a small SteynOnline In-House Jewish Mother happy dance for small bits of sanity here in the Deranged Dominion. I wish I could say with complete confidence that things will eventually go back to normal – the real, legitimate normal, that is. I want it back. All of it. Unfortunately, what I can say with complete confidence is that the angry, soulless, power-drunk-yet never-satiated political left all around the world will continue to do its best to make sure we never get our normal back.

They want violence, outrage, fragility, crime, rioting, murder, offence and lawlessness to be our new normal. They are awful. How awful? This awful. This horrible. (More here.) Don't ever give up the fight. Your fight. Don't accept their normal.

Over the past week, my gracious double-plus-extra-normal, extraordinary host, the great Mark Steyn, had much to say about current affairs. In case you missed them, make sure to check out the latest episodes of The Mark Steyn Show, including The Seeds of Destruction, Manacle Mania, and a Last Call Special: Jewels and Goals . He also reminisced about the late P D James, Baroness on Barrenness. Also, don't miss his Song of the Week on the beautiful and lyrical I'll Never Smile Again.

A commenter at The Mark Steyn Club, one Brian W., called my last collection of links "delightful and dreadful." That's something I may eventually put on my calling card or CV, I like it so much. Therefore, unsurprising to nobody, this batch is more of the same! But to moderately inoculate you against potential gloom beforehand, click here. You're welcome.

Now let's look back at the week that was.

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North America:

Popular young creators leaving TikTok in droves due to privacy concerns.

Attorney General Barr outmaneuvers the Democrats.

The great VDH wonders what the "silent majority" (if there is such a thing at all – Mark Steyn is not sure that it exists) will do about the revolution.

Update on the Canadian Joke Stasi: The Supreme Court of Canada to hear appeal of Quebec comedian's joke complaint.

American "justice."

Minneapolis city government tells citizens to lay back and think of Mogadishu.

Maryland police arrest "high school" students for raping 11-year old girls off campus. The "high school" students are in the 19-20 year old range and "undocumented." Other than that, nothing to see here. Societies that do not protect their women and children do not do very well. Not very well at all.

Also in Maryland, which seems like an extremely messed up and dangerous place by all accounts: school leaders and parents are not happy about Maryland county closing non-public schools.

For my enormous OMG I wish I had thought of that first file: "Luxury beliefs" are the latest status symbol for rich Americans.

And one for my D'UH file.

Google redeems itself? Nah. But it is interesting.

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Jews and Israel:

Food for thought: Israel was Ground Zero for Woke Religion

From the soooper, dooooper, so smart Jew Daniel Greenfield: You can get cancelled for philo-Semitism, not anti-Semitism.

The secret of life: meaning.

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Europe:

Celebrate migration to Sweden. Looks like mass migration continues to pay wonderful, multicultural dividends: "Wilma's severed head was later found in his apartment, but despite this, the 23-year-old continued to deny the murder."

More benefits of migration here.

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Kook and Humourless Left, Wokestapo and Trans:

Time for your pap smear, Mark Steyn!

The Great Awokening on Twitter

As per the great Prophet Mark Steyn: if you let them erase your history, they will own your present and your future. Just say no to Year Zero.

Is Ellen going down because she wasn't woke enough?

Lastly: I highly recommend this episode of James Delingpole's Delingpod podcast, in which he interviews the great Kurt Schlichter. First of all squeeeeeeeeee! Real men! Also, I am totally jealous of their perfect analysis of some of the coronavirus "rules" and psychosis that has taken hold all over the world. I have felt for a long time that the rigidity about "public health" and COVID "rules" has lent itself perfectly to people who are otherwise disposed to control freak and OCD-type of behaviours. But these two guys upped my ante. They pinpoint that The Rules give people meaning in their lives. Bingo. They also talk about how instead of people signalling virtue by their actions to the world, all we have now are dumb bum, soy boy, know nothing, do nothing virtue-signallers. Listen to the whole thing – it's great. Kudos to Mr. Delingpole and Col. Schlichter.

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Human Grace:

"My doll looks like me!"

How one small brave act saved thousands of lives. Small acts matter. Just do them.

Engineers, y'all!

The secret of a long life: art and nice sex.

A reminder to "shoot your shot".

"The Man Who Conquered Polio": Jonas Salk was born on October 28, 1914 in New York City to Lithuanian Jewish emigres. His father was a garment worker. As a child, Salk prayed that he could do something good for mankind. His brothers teased him, calling him "little Jesus."

Personal moment of grace: We took a walk on the Sabbath and stopped in the park. Normally, my disabled son likes to be in motion: he's happy to be out for hours as long as we don't stop moving and pushing his wheelchair. One of my other kids was playing in the park with friends. My husband and I have long resigned ourselves to the fact that sitting quietly on a park bench is just one of life's simple pleasures that is not in our destiny, just not within our reach. We even joke about it.

But as we approached one of the benches, in full view of the kids playing, we sat down, turned my son toward the path and just waited. We waited and didn't say anything but I knew both of us were thinking 'good Lord, are you letting us just sit on a park bench under the sun, in the breeze'? And it turns out we were blessed with about a half hour of normalcy – a taste of it – and it was glorious. Every human has something that they take for granted, that's human nature. But I'm always reminded of something a very devout Christian friend of mine once remarked, off the cuff: someone, somewhere is praying for the things you have. Let's all try to more consciously remember our blessings. We need to live in the moment, and consider what we have that others are praying for. It could be as simple as a silent half hour on a park bench under the sun, enveloped by a sweet summer breeze.

See you in the comments!

It's open thread time! Laura's Links serves as our weekly opportunity to kick back in the comments and dish on the stories Laura has curated and others she may have missed. While the 'No going off-topic' is suspended, the others, regarding URLs, profanity and ad hominem attacks, remain in place. If you want to join in on the commenting – one of many perks reserved for members of The Mark Steyn Club – you can pick up a membership here. Meet your fellow Club members in person by joining us on our rescheduled Mediterranean cruise, alongside John O'Sullivan, Douglas Murray and Michele Bachmann.