Hello again and welcome to this week's fresh batch of Laura's Links.
It's been pretty busy on the home front for a humungous multitude of reasons, too many and too personal to list. And it's been pretty busy around the world as well. Obviously, I spent a lot of time thinking about the war on Iran and trying to find a little bit of clarity here and there from within the general fog of war. How is that even possible you ask?
Well, I don't know about you, but I find it helpful (not fun, but helpful and instructive) to read or listen to the opinions of people I generally (or even almost exclusively) disagree with, along with articles from within publications that usually make me nauseous, along with the those with whom I share more like minded vibes. There's so much "content" out there, it is really hard to know who to trust. It takes a lot of time and energy to continually sift through information, sift and sift and sift.
But among the heavy sifting I did this week, there was a bit of sadness. Not because of the Iran war, but because this week is the six-year anniversary of when the world shut down, and changed forever allegedly because of a virus.
I wrote a lot here at SteynOnline and elsewhere, wherever I could actually, about the hellish existence we experienced in Ontario and about other places where things were absolutely out of control and wicked. I still think that Canada in general and Ontario in particular were among the worst places on earth to have suffered through the Covid tyranny.
I was looking back at many of the things I wrote, and still feel very confident that my early-taken positions on the shut downs, lockdowns, "vaccines", etc., were the absolutely right ones. I was one of the early prophets on the evil of all of it, and I did what I could at the time to fight it with the tools I had available to me. And I did it all while resisting the unbearable pressure from all quarters to vaccinate my special needs son - a move which I believe with all my heart, saved his life. I say this not to blow my own horn, but as a segue to reiterating that no, I'm not "over" it. None of it, actually.
My feeling is this: no forgiveness without repentance and certainly no moving on without living to see those who were responsible for that evil to be punished. There was a post on X that I read earlier this week that really hit home for me and I'm really sorry that I didn't save it.
The gist of it was "does anyone else realize that 2019 was the last normal year, and that it's never coming back'"
That honestly hit me like a ton of bricks. It really encompassed the grief I still feel about the life before March 2020 and then the life after-in so many ways. I lost so much and I also feel like there was the world before the Covid evil and the world after. Do you feel the same?
The one lesson that I try to take from it all is a very human one; that we humans often don't realize how good we have it, how absolutely blissful our lives are until something goes seriously wrong. We often moan about relatively trivial things, and focus too much on what we don't have instead of what we do have. Like the old adage goes, one can walk into a room tiled with spectacular marble and if one square of tile is chipped, notice the chipped tile instead of the 99.99% of the floor that radiates majesty and beauty. Why do we do that? Can that habit be broken?
Despite all the problems we had up to March 2020 I don't think we realized how good we had it, and it was impossible to conceive that as that poster on X posited, 2019 would be our last normal year.
This is the sixth anniversary of when normal life was de facto, happily extinguished by a constellation of supremely evil human players from all over the world and embraced by enthusiastic and wicked foot soldiers in all of our lives.
I still miss normal life and what we had.
I wonder how many others still feel this acute sense of grief?
Do you?
Feel free to leave your reflections in the comment section and I'll peek in as I'm able.
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North America:
We have not just let them down, we are collectively p*ssing and spitting on their graves.
Nice work if you can get it. "It's not a foundation—it's a loyalty rewards program disguised as a museum. Who needs archives when you can have six-figure sinecures?"
Everything is fine in California.
GOOD. Good on Trump.
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Jews & Israel
Blaming Jews for global sadness.
HISTORY GEEK OUT: The Pilgrim's Road.
A brief explanation of antisemitism from a Lebanese Greek Christian: "Losers hate winners."
More on antisemitism from a Muslim woman from Iraq now living in America.
For Israel news, I recommend following Channel 14 English on X.
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Britain:
When people say they want to kill you, you need to take it seriously.
Your government wants you raped and/or dead. And why must we call them "asylum seekers"? Can't be a little more precise after all these years? Migrant jihadi rapist would be a better term.
A REAL MYSTERY Are we allowed to ask what has gone up in Scotland that correlates precisely to the rise in rapes? Anything? JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.
"A church is not a neutral venue between religions but the house of God, dedicated to the proclamation of the Gospel and the worship of Christ."
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Iran:
Who is rooting for the regime now?
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Europe:
Everything is perfectly normal in Belgium and will be just fine. This should be a pretty readable sign to the Jewish community that it is time to leave with suitcases and not in coffins, but whatever.
Remind me why Norway "needs" Iraqis.
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Down Under:
As Mark often says, some societies are too stupid to survive. I would add that some are too evil and decadent to survive. When you witness a Minister of Families and Communities say this: "It's entirely unacceptable for a vulnerable child in the care of the state to be living with a triple murderer," you may be forced to conclude that the given country is far too evil, stupid, and decadent to be redeemable.
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Africa:
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Kooks 'N' Trans
ALWAYS THE ONES YOU LEAST SUSPECT.
You can have a functioning, normal society, or you can have this: "A University of Windsor investigation found that 45-year-old male student, David Williston, who uses the trans name Phoenix Shield..." What part of this is so hard to understand? The words "45 year old student" should NEVER BE A THING. Pick one.
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Big Tech:
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Human Grace:
Wow. Way to go.
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.
