Hi everyone and welcome to this week's edition of Laura's Links.
I know that the big news of the week is the Mamdani win of the New York City mayoral race. I'm alternating between feeling pretty disgusted by it, but also kind of bored by it. Like I said last week, if you can't summon a better candidate out of a population of millions and millions, if nobody steps up, then you get what you vote for and/or didn't show up for. If you really want to hear more about it, you can get Mark's take here from yesterday's Q&A and from his piece "Grim Morning After". Both should sufficiently depress you even before you get to the meat of my own column.
Basically, this post on X kind of sums up where I'm at with New York City: "24 years after 9/11 and they haven't been able to identify any part of my mother because nothing probably exists after she went down 86 floors in the South Tower. This is all I have namely an urn given to 9/11 families with dust and ashes from Ground Zero and tonight New York voted in Mamdani!"
Need anyone say any more? It's hard to top that analysis and "lived experience" as the kids say. But that and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee. Or maybe not even. Not in New York anyway. There is also this great essay from the great Brendan O'Neil is a nice touch as well: "Mamdani's Ivy League Intifadah".
New York is going to get what it voted for, good and hard. I kind of wonder which formerly world class city will be the next target of the progressive-Islamic alliance for controlled destruction? London: down. New York: down. Paris will go down without a fight. Maybe LA? We shall see.
Anyway, I don't really have the stomach for much more talk about New York. Things were equally disgusting in Israel over the past week, with the revelation that the IDF chief prosecutor was personally involved in spreading one of the most heinous blood libels about the IDF in Israel's history. There's some links about this below and the story keeps getting worse and worse. I'm not sure how much traction it has in the rest of the world. At this time, I feel like she is just the foot soldier in this episode, and that the rot of the story goes up to the highest levels of the Israeli deep state (hello Ehud Barak) and may even include the highest levels of the "Biden" administration (hello Obama). Uch. It's all disgusting. A lot of information about the intelligence failures and human failures of October 7 are also starting to trickle out slowly now. I'll post them when I spot them in English.
On the "real life" front, I've had a really tiring week.
Most of the time, I manage, appreciate and am pretty Zen and happy about my lot and many blessings in life and also with the various challenges associated with caregiving for a severely disabled human. But sometimes, it is physically, emotionally and even spiritually overwhelming. Not a black dog, but proportionately maybe more like a black field mouse. When these bumps in the road occur, I try to not feel bad or guilty for feeling what I feel, and try to give myself the same advice I give others: get back to basics. Rest when possible, eat well. Walk. Breathe. Go outside. Listen to some music, read a book, meditate, pray. Keep it simple. Humans have a remarkable capacity for bouncing back and getting back to our default settings.
With that, I'll wish you a good weekend and will see you in the comments!
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North America:
Birds of a feather. London, now New York.
Canada is doomed.
"Many they/thems out of a job." Good.
The Wokestapo crusade against VDARE.
Very interesting analysis here.
Thoughts on the new right from Rod Dreher.
Thoughts on the fracturing of the right from Diana West.
Seems like a real prince of a guy.
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The Formerly Great Britain:
Everything is totally fine and totally normal in the U.K.
The family that rapes and prays together, stays together.
If your government wanted your young children to assaulted, touched, murdered and/or raped by young migrant invaders, what exactly would they be doing differently?
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Israel and Jews:
Israeli deep state? What deep state? More here and here.
Avi Benlolo is so totally wrong. Censorship is not a Jewish value. I've been talking about this for over twenty years. I don't know what else to say. I would write a reply but I don't think the Post would publish it and I still haven't forgiven an editor there for completely changing the conclusion of something I wrote, by adding two words to the end of my piece, without my permission or sign off.
"If you go, you get it." This is an excellent podcast from James Lindsay. I highly recommend it. Am Yisrael Chai indeed.
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Christianity:
"Defend the flock." This is really good.
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Europe:
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Human Grace:
Meet Odin. This is so lovely.
It's open thread time! Log into SteynOnline and let Laura know what you think of these stories or other happenings from the week that was. Commenting privileges are among the many perks of membership in The Mark Steyn Club. While going off topic is permitted on Laura's Links, do stick to the other rules as you engage: no URLs, no profanity, and no ad hominem attacks.
