Two Trump theories

My own theory is that Donald Trump doesn't want to be president, he wants to be king--from what I've seen, Trump appears to be more interested in putting on a good show than in governing.  As reported by the Daily Kos, a New York Times article and a Huffington Post interview seem to support that idea.

A co-worker has a different theory, which is that Trump's candidacy actually began as a publicity stunt to put him in the headlines and drum up more business.  At this point, that wouldn't surprise me.

Speaking of a monarch putting on a good show, here's a very-belated something for your amusement
I got a good chuckle out of this photo of Theresa May accepting her appointment as British Prime Minister from Queen Elizabeth.  I ask you, what woman other than the Queen of Great Britain would carry a handbag in her own home?

Parashat Balak, 5776/2016 thoughts (slightly belated)

Regarding the parashah/Torah portion that we read in synagogue yesterday, see the basics here.

And here's a link to my previous posts concerning Parashat Balak/Parshat Balak.

Question:  Why does Bil'am get blamed in midrash (rabbinic interpretive story) for having incited the Moabite and Midianite women to lure the Israelite men into sexual immorality and/or pagan-cult sex?  Was sex as a weapon of war unknown to the ancient rabbis, that it never occurred to them that the women themselves may have initiated this behavior in order to disarm in bed an enemy that couldn't be defeated in battle?

Have an easy fast.

A crazy thought

Is it possible that ISIS/ISIL/Daesh (whatever) has been encouraging terrorist attacks at this particular time in the hope that they'll encourage Americans to elect Donald Trump so that his hatred of Muslims will encourage more Muslims to become terrorists?  Or am I just engaging in a nutty conspiracy theory?

I spent a year of college in Nice

We used to go down to the Promenade des Anglais with leftover bread from the student cafeteria and almost get the wits scared out of us when the seagulls, which are really quite large birds, swooped down for their snack.  Tonight, it was a large truck that went swooping down on the Promenade, terrifying people into running for their lives as they realized that the driver was intent on murder. Terrorism strikes France, and the world, yet again.  :(

The old-fashioned way, & other travel tales

Yes, Virginia, even folks without easy access to an ocean or a pool can go swimming, and here they prove it.

Shira's Shot

Warren Falls, Vermont, July 3, 2016

Also, they don't build bridges like this Massachusetts marvel anymore.

Shira's Shot

Covered bridge, Monday, July 4, 2016

In a restaurant en route to Vermont

Waitress:  "We also have white bread and rye bread."

Me:  "Oh, I'm sorry--when I say I can't eat wheat, I mean I can't eat anything with flour in it."

I'm getting better at this.  :)

Motel beds aren't made for shorties :)

It's always been a mystery to me why many motel and hotel beds are so high that, when I get up, I have to straighten my legs almost completely to make my feet reach the floor.

In lieu of man-made Independence Day fireworks, I got an interesting shot of "nature's fireworks" from the passenger's side

Riding off into the sunset

Monday, July 4, 2016

Many thanks to my husband for sparing my post-surgical right eye and doing all of the driving.

¿Injustice in Palestine causes racist murders in US???

From the NYU Students for Justice in Palestine July 7, 2016 Facebook page post:
"In the past 48 hours another two black men have been lynched by the police. The total number of black people lynched by cops in 2016 now totals 136. We must remember that many US police departments train with the ‪#‎IsraeliDefenseForces‬. The same forces behind the genocide of black people in America are behind the genocide of Palestinians."


Tablet Magazine's Yair Rosenberg responds:
"The irony of critiquing racism in American society through the bigoted displacement of responsibility for it to Jews in the Middle East was apparently lost on SJP. As was the fact that the sordid history of American violence towards black people far predates the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.


. . .


What’s particularly pernicious about the posting is that by erasing the American history of predatory conduct towards blacks and instead exporting culpability to a scapegoat, SJP short-circuits any necessary national conversation about U.S. police violence. As long as shadowy outside forces can be blamed for the problem, there will be no internal reckoning."


And until we Americans can deal with our own racism, we can't deal with violence either by police or against police.

"When a movement devolves into a death cult . . "

See this discouraging Tablet Magazine article, "The End of Palestinian Nationalist," by Liel Leibovitz.