56.03/ Honored with #haftara yesterday but it had been so long since I last did one that my eyesight has gotten bad enough that I was juggling a mask, fogged glasses, & the too small print of even a full-size Artscroll. And why did Yeshayahu have to make up so many weird words?!
56.04/ Need to write a thread about a way to understand moral choices, especially choosing the lesser of two evils, using the heuristic of "hutra or dechuya" which for now I'll define as "negated or suspended."
56.06/ I know the adage of "offense sells tickets, defense wins championships" and my teams are famous for defense (#Steelers, #Mets, #NYR) but when they have seasons of bad D/good offense I find the games less stressful to watch. #LGM but they're not remotely watchable right now
56.07/ Watching Wheeler tear the #Mets apart, knowing he left us because of the Wilpon-Brodie Clown Show, thus suffering the indignity of being a fan of a team where a revolving door of bad leadership can doom us for years, I especially appreciate the stability of the #Steelers.
56.08/ Success in sports is still largely a black box to me, even taking into account that the best a non-member of a team will know ~30% of what's going on inside, but there comes a point when a team's bad performance feels like a negligent insult to the fans. Hi #Mets!
56.09/ Them: Psalms are so beautiful!
Me: Do you like Psalm 27?
Them: Yes, of course. Wonderful imagery. Why do you ask?
Me: Oh, no reason, I'll check back with you in 50 or so days.
56.11/ I started with Anthro (observing the infinite variety of humanity) added philosophy (ideas about best way to live) and ultimately added social science because ideas are cheap, solutions need to be tested.
This is why I reject many asserted utopias: prove they work, please
56.12/ Dr. Mack describes my position precisely. This isn't last year's pandemic, it's Delta, but our hell on earth of 2020 can be used to help us survive 2021
And, again, please stop saying "we had a deal!" about masks/shutdown. Delta is different, worse
56.14/ With the #InfrastructureBill passing the Senate and #Cuomo resigning, all before 1pm, we're getting a little nostalgic taste for what every single day was like during the #TrumpCrisis admin.
56.17/ "They've left every single light on: A father's lament" is a well known song I've inherited from my ancestors. Quite similar to the winter classic "Who touched the thermostat?"
56.18/ (1) Perfect description. (2) I'm *so* glad Trea Turner is out of my division #LGM
56.19/ Thread that combines lessons about leadership, Torah, and public health. Also about why self-defined religious people can be the most stubborn about sacrificing for the greater good.
56.21/ A new tool I used for the first time today when writing the thread in 56.19 is @wordhippo and I highly recommend it. It's a dictionary, thesaurus, antonym-aurus, rhyming dictionary, and more. Scrabble & crossword app, too. Thanks, pachydermate!
56.23/ Ah yes, Twitter changed font and inverted the follow-unfollow colors. It's from the Microsoft school of antagonistic updates that make the user hate the product and the leadership team. Guys, some advice: as a company, it's better to be loved than feared. #TwitterFont
56.24/ I feel sad for an adult who has such a zero-sum, toxic, understanding of the parent-child relationship. "Tethered"? Is that how you understand love? Multi-generational families are healthier, stronger, & history's norm. And these are two of the more moral 'conservatives.'
56.25/ I'm conflict averse as a matter of survival training (Diaspora Hebrew with kids) but when I read this thread my reflexes for righteous indignation triggered into battle mode. Note, those fights are what've cost me the most. But that's also LIVING.
56.26/ This was an excellent piece vis-a-vis the social-psychology of victims of con-men (which includes cults, a communal con-game). I'm an easy mark, as it were, for Erving Goffman and well-sourced social science in popular magazines. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
56.27/ XKCD nailing it again, re: a fallacy experts fall into about familiarity with their interests. Applies to every subject, not just academia. E.g. politics, foreign policy, etc.
56.28/ Good thread about some of the structural forces for why the media/reporters will unquestioningly recycle government PR, even from consistently unreliable sources like PDs.
56.29/ For Parshat #Shofetim, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt'l's essay "The Human and Social Factor in Halakha" (Tradition, 36:1, 2002, pp1-25). Link via @AlHaTorah
56.30/ This is making the rounds, an op-ed in the NYT from 1984 in favor of drunk driving. Just in case you think the 'hot-take' nihilism is new to the internet era.
56.32/ Solid thread about why the Jewish community has a high vaccination rate (side note: thank God for this Kiddush Hashem). I also wrote about this in my dissertation about "Jewish Medical Culture" (see link in my bio)
56.33b/ As @lilririah says, the results shouldn't be surprising. Yet, IMO, some of the best SOC studies are those that actually confirm conventional wisdom. One purpose of science is to help contextualize our observations to see if they are representative.
56.34/ Next year, 5782, is a shemittah year so I want to remind everyone to distribute your Maaser-Ani to the poor before it's too late. It's a system, all parts need to work together for it to make sense. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_tithe
56.35a/ Why do antivaxers run to the hospital when they inevitably sicken, maim & kill themselves & a bunch of others? #Literalism. The virus is invisible, the syringe is visible, so anti-vax. 105F fever e.g. is visible, but until then it wasn't so they cannot conceptualize it.
56.35b/ I've been banging the drum about the #Literalist mentality for years because I think it's the root of many of these baffling behaviors. E.g. It's being pro-technology (visible) but anti-science.
56.36/ My mother, Prof. @CypessSM, will be speaking imminently at the Mexican Cultural Institute about La Malinche. Good luck Doctor Mom! ¡Buena suerte!
56.37/ OK, I had no idea that this lyric was a Dune reference. In my defense, it's a weird song (but great video!). Similarly, I had no idea that "They Might Be Giants" was a Don Quixote reference (the band is named for a 1971 movie).
56.38/ When I would accuse gun-nuts of actually enjoying school massacres, I was told I was exaggerating. But the same people are COVID-deniers, and that's proof enough. Anyway, I highly rec. subscribing to Stoehr's site for a whole team of good writers.
56.39/ This thread is all true, re: why chronical ill people - who have real reason to distrust the medical establishment, also ran to get the vaccine.
56.40/ Is there a phrase for when you try to click on a link but then the page reloads at that instant making you click on some random - often painfully tortuous - location? Sorry, let me rephrase, is there an ancient curse I can invoke to punish the designer of these pages?
56.41/ This is a good thread that describes the fascist mentality and why people who I knew to be normal seemed to flip a switch and become sinister and bonkers. I especially appreciate this point:
56.42/ Whoa, this is the time of year when candle lighting drops precipitously week to week. It's nine minutes earlier than last Shabbos. Yipe. Gotta get cracking.
56.43/ Wrapping this up, Shabbos in nigh. Please stay safe everyone. Elul is time of trepidation and introspection. And in 2021 that means vaccination and masks.
210.03/ I had too many sleepless nights over the last three weeks because of the drumbeat against Biden b/c there was too much smoke for there not to be fire. What kept me steady was my trust of his judgement. So if he thinks this is wise, then I logically have to support it.
209.02/ Following the assassination attempt on TFG yesterday - an act I condemn; ballots not bullets - the reaction by news agencies has been unhinged. But I'm singling out The Daily Beast and Politico who are lionizing TFG using very disturbing rhetoric. I've had to unfollow.
209.03/ I'm furious that so many in Congress are playing this dangerous game but I'm reminding myself that (1) the MSM has been fabricating stories & amplifying mythological pro-GOP nonsense for a while now & (2) I trust Biden's abilities to handle this like he did NATO.
208.02/ Demographically, I should be part of the "elite" but the past two weeks showed me that I'm a solid true-blue member of the Democratic "base" because I'm standing by Biden-Harris & have a white-hot rage against the media (& the cowards in my party) trying to take us down.
208.03/ People ask "Why haven't the media learned their lesson from 'But Her Emails?' in 2016"?! But the answer is QED - they did learn their lesson: that with relentless bad-faith attacks they can knock out the Democrat & elect a cash-cow tabloid buffoon. They know & want this.
207.02/ I didn't see the debate because I can't stand listening to Trump (ym'sh). The bizarre meltdown by the MSM calling for Biden to drop out is not only disgusting but reignited the normie-Democrats' blazing anger at the MSM goofs that brought us "But Her Emails" in 2016.
207.03/ Ironically, the drumbeat from the MSM about Biden's age for months - probably starting right after the withdrawal from Afghanistan which ruined their gravy train - prepared the public for how he sounded at the debate. The MSM hit-job backfired.
205.02/ It's important to know: every pawn can become a queen.
205.03/ #ChochmatNashim for #Behaalotecha 5783 (last year) @ChochmatNashim
Downloadable PDF with working links of Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars on the parsha and other topics of the week. drive.google.com/file/d/14uXvSR…