Hello again and welcome to this week's edition of Laura's Links, another golden opportunity to look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the past week around the planet.
I thought I'd start off by talking about the good.
One of my favorite parts of the week was not watching the World Cup (I left that up to Mr. C), but watching the coverage of the Tartan Army taking over Boston. I could not get enough of those videos. They were even better than my second favorite video genre of the week: Europeans discovering that Americans and America are amazing.
There have been so many gorgeous clips of Europeans getting a real life sample of American hospitality and customer service, seeing the bounty of America in supermarkets and pharmacies and even gas stations. So many of them have realized the great extent to which they have been lied to about America and Americans by their media and by American media.
There are tons of these videos of Europeans trying American foods for the first time, trying American serving sizes, and falling in love with free refills (soft drinks and chips and salsa specifically) and these are all priceless as well. If you are American and feeling down about your country for whatever reason (like being told by the American media that everything is terrible, and that Americans are terrible), it behooves you to take a peek at some of these videos and see America through a different set of eyes.
Some of the Europeans got completely verklempt seeing the big yellow school buses that they only saw in movies, thinking perhaps that they were not real. Some were mesmerized by the big trucks, the beautiful boats, the incredible hospitality and the manicured suburbs with letter boxes and American flags out front. Some were almost speechless because of American friendliness, and the vast and beautiful open spaces and the high school and college sporting ecosystem.
Honestly, these videos are a breath of fresh air and remind me as well what I have always loved about America and Americans, in addition to the more philosophical things like the Constitution (don't yell at me, Mark!!), the Founding Fathers, the First and Second Amendments particularly, and so many other things.
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Now let's talk about the bad for a moment. I have to tell you that for the past couple of weeks, there has been a rather heavy police presence in front of all of the synagogues in my neighbourhood. When taking my Sabbath walks with my son, it was just one of the things (in addition to all the chit chat) that further cemented my feeling that the golden age of North American Jewry is done. It's happening more quickly I think in Canada, than in America - but it's going to happen there as well. Just like the United Kingdom and France are emptying of Jewish people, so will North America. As far as Toronto goes, we are now at the "suddenly" part of "gradually, then suddenly". And like I always say, this is a bad sign (or omen) for any civilization for many reasons. It's a real pity, and was avoidable but now is irreversible - much like the European decision to commit civilizational suicide. SAD!
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Lastly, let's talk ugly.
I'm still processing a lot of information about the Iran deal, but I think it's lousy. I wasn't in favour of Obama's appeasement deal and I'm not a fan of Trump's appeasement deal either. I think it's extremely odd that so much of the details of this deal - or sorry "MOU" are hush hush, because countries like Qatar and Pakistan want America to shut up about it. To me, it seems like Total Surrender and like Trump flunked a civilizational moment. There are a lot of other odd things, like how he has sent JD Vance to be the public face of this deal.
As Mark said - all Iran has to do is survive and it did.
Therefore, Iran won this war and America lost it, and President Trump and America unfortunately will be seen as the weak horse in the Middle East and the worst actors in the world will be now considered the strong horse(s). The articulated expectation that Iran will behave in a civilized manner is so ridiculous that I cannot actually believe Trump administration officials are putting out such utter garbage with a straight face. And, if this is another Witkoff/Kushner fiasco, they should wear it publicly and they should be tarred and feathered.
In summary, my initial thought: total disaster.
I've posted other people's thoughts below and will check into the comments from time to time!
Have a great weekend.
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North America:
"Elon Musk is a genius and a litmus test."
Epic: "I also have five boys."
Everything is just fine in Canada: "A woman filed a human rights complaint after she and her teenage daughter encountered a male in fetish attire in a women's change room at an Edmonton recreation centre and argued the city's policy violated women's privacy rights. The Alberta Human Rights Commission refused to hear the complaint."
Behold: One of the many complicated moral issues of IVF.
"Why aren't men handy anymore?" Well, they are glued to screens, told they are redundant, force fed Ritalin when they are young and basically castrated by the female sociological/educational establishment, and all their innate fix it, run around, climb trees, hunting and foraging skills are neutered out of them in order to curry favour and comply with the estrogen zeitgeist.
This is SO BAD it's good. I can't even. OMG. Read the whole thing.
BUT I WAS TOLD BIBI RUNS TRUMP.
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Israel and Jews:
Jew-haters are welcome to cry more.
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The Formerly Great Britain:
"Ireland is waking up." HOPEFULLY.
First of all, there really should not be any "mosques of Belfast". Secondly, thanks to this dhimmi for pointing out to us who the REAL victims are. We dumb dumb kufars obviously were confused.
Everything is going great in Ireland.
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Europe:
You have no idea how bad it's going to get.
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Iran:
Elica Le Bon on the big picture.
Qatar is happy, so it must be good.
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Evil Kooks:
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Human and Canine Grace:
"The bravest thing I have ever done."
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.