I gave you the thumbs up for the subtitle alone, but this entire piece deserves it as well. Prayed for the healing of you and the Mrs.
Didn’t the Tate brothers embrace Islam? Prediction: Candace and her husband will, too, at some point. They will deem Christianity (Catholicism) as “too weak.”
(BTW, I served with the Tate brothers’ father in the USAF. He was good at his job - Russian linguist - but I avoided him unless it was business. Let’s just say that I’m far from surprised at how his sons have turned out.)
One more thing: many black conservatives who are online sniffed out Candace’s fraudulent nature early on and were told that they (we) were just jealous of her popularity. I mostly stayed out of it and watched it play out.
I am on your side and Israel’s and always shall be. It is not because my ancestry is about 8% Jewish – it would be the same if it were 0%. It is the only morally possible position. CO had a chance to learn and grow, but didn’t. She wasn’t an intellectual but an ideologue, and a weathervane at that. She did not choose wisely. Best wishes and prayers to you and your wife on your journeys.
Sorry to hear about the physical issues with writing more, Jeff. One topic you might explore when you're up to it is Soros. On the one hand, he seems a Darth Vader figure. But I guess he's ethnically Jewish. Am I anti-Semitic if I disdain him?
The other feedback I have is my standard bewilderment over "Christian Nationalism". The nation is **not** the unit of analysis in the New Testament, and this phrase is oxymoronic at best.
She never struck me as authentic, but her recent trajectory seems different. Her anti-semitism is getting worse, and she is now swimming in the deepest part of that pool — the ancient blood libel. I actually canceled my subscription to the Daily Wire when they hired her a couple of years ago, and when I got the e-mail asking why I had canceled, I responded simply “Candace Owens.” And that was long before this downward turn on her part. I know that she is a recent convert to Catholicism, and as a Catholic myself, I want to assure any non-Catholics reading this that her views in no way represent Catholic teaching or doctrine.
Keep writing. The best way to fight bad/ignorant/stupid ideas is to do exactly what you are doing. Yes, it is disheartening to see some nominal conservatives go down this path, but I believe good ideas eventually prevail. Many wishes for future health to you and your wife.
Jeff, I have been following and learning from you for many years. So sorry to hear that you and your wife are having health problems. May they be short-lived. The wave of overt anti-semitism following October 7 was frankly a shock to me. Although my friends and family members, virtually all of whom are liberal Democrats, agree that the anti-semitism is ugly and wrong, they don't seem to feel any urgency about the matter. I can only hope that the pendulum starts to swing the other way, starting with the election of Trump. It's an open question whether this constitutional republic can be restored. I hope so, but I can't say I'm confident of it.
I have lost all respect for Owens. Your diagnosis of her is correct, I think. A few other people I used to follow and take seriously (including, I'm sad to say, among my fellow Catholic writers) have all of a sudden felt the need to explain why "Jews want to take over the world" or "Catholics should not be Zionists." What the...the ick factor is so overwhelming and repellant. How can one respect or take seriously people so intellectually and spiritually feeble and unkind? I sure can't. It is absolutely not simply questioning Zionism or actions Israel has taken (one can certainly do that without being hostile), Have unfollowed/unsubscribed from these people - I don't see any need to continue reading them just because in other respects and on other topics I agree with them. Don't worry, Jeff - only someone already significantly spiritually/intellectually damaged could adopt these positions, or take these loons seriously for more than a few minutes after beginning to read their thoughts. That there are more than a couple of prominent voices out there does worry me, and it's caused me to make a point of praying for protection and guidance for Jews and Israel every single day. It all makes me very uneasy.
I love your writing & insight (hence my paying of gelt into your necessarily big, Jewish coffers (don't all us Yids have big schmeckles, uhh oops, I mean coffers?) but don't you think, maybe upon reflection, that you've been a bit naive here?
Pray tell (couldn't resist that lame pun) when in the History of us Jews, have we not been the scrappyGOATs (Greatest of All Time.....they tried to kill us, we were scrappy enough to have survived, Baruch Hashem, let's eat!) of everyplace we've ever tried to make a go of it?
Friendships are often tenuous wires we walk. I have made friends, & lost friends over my 64 trips around ol' Sol, but that just made me reflect, & vet them better.
I have many Conservative Christian & Conservative Jewish friends I can honestly call my brothers & sisters, while any liberal (read leftist) friends I did have, both Yid & Goy, went South with our disagreement over Onono, his immaculation from a compliant MSM, & his terrible stance towards Israel, & love of Morehammered's death cult.
One very important qualification for someone to become a friend of mine, is if I can tell them outright, if I see something they are doing that I think is in error, & that must be able to go both ways. This is first base, IMNSHO, of what makes up a good friendship....if I'm making a bad choice, for Moses's sake, tell me, & let's discuss it!
Since you brought up the great Thomas Sowell, this is my favorite quote of his, & I have never noted it to falter on those who were never truly your friends in the first place:
"People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right — especially if events prove you right, and them wrong.”
Thomas Sowell
Don't let this latest bump in our road stop you from writing your insightful missives...they are needed to fight back that darkness. Most of the invectives hurled at you online are from that chickenshit class of Keyboard Warriors. Yes, I did say "most". At the least, you should bone up on the late, great Jeff Cooper's short book - "Principles of Self Defense" and what is meant by Situational Awareness.
If you are comfortable with the idea, take some self-defense classes (Israeli Krav Maga www.kravmaga.com/ is direct & to the point. Love how it is MAGA, tho not pronounced the same!)
I don't know what your ideology is on firearms, but Jews with Guns has always been my motto.
So be strong, cast aside & forget about those who were never your friends in the 1st place, & go out & make some new ones....good, strong people really are all around us, you just have to show them the welcome mat.
Looking forward to your next missives,
E
PS - re hands: have you tried speech to text, & then just do corrections? Am guessing yes, but I had to ask.
I’m a gun owner, an FFL up until a few months ago, have a carry license, and I coached wrestling for about 12 years. Depending on where I’m going and what clothes I’m wearing, I carry either a .40 compact, a 45 ACP, or a 10mm — each with high end ammo, each with a reflex sight. My rifles of choice are a heavy-barreled AR, a SCAR-H, and S&W M&P 22 — all scoped, one NV ready. My shotgun of choice is a Tac Bullpup with specialty cartridges.
Both my sons wrestle or wrestled and both have won major hardware doing so. After taking a full year off, Tanner, my youngest, went undefeated and wasn’t scored upon on his way up winning Jr High districts. No match made it into the 2nd period. He begins his next season in a few months.
I was trained in catch wrestling after a couple years training Krav, and was part of 2009’s Paladin Press 12 DVD series Snap, No Top, from Tony Cecchine, who was my coach at the time. I’m not much of a high kicker but I have some experience as a striker.
I’m dealing with a wrist and hand issue right now, but I have an MRI upcoming, which I hope pinpoints the problem. On the opposite side, I have a shoulder issue that I’m hoping to get fixed finally. Meantime I’ve been coaching baseball, mostly one handed.
I don’t worry much for our immediate safety as a family. My kids shoot, and my wife carries as well. We live in a gun-friendly place among people who tend not to commit violent crimes. Still, we like to be prepared, so I have an impressive array of weaponry, and I’m a connoisseur of arrows, blades, tomahawks, and rifle / pistol ammo. When I have to shoot, I assume my target will be a black or brown bear. This is Colorado, after all.
Jeff, you are da’ MAN! Have any of your friends nick-named you Judah Maccabee??
I am sorry that I missed your detailed reply, & hope your med issues have been resolved.
I just met a guy at our small Shul on Rosh Ha’shana, who teaches KM, & we're going to set up classes for both my wife & I, & a few other interested members, some of whom also conceal carry while at services.
The wife & I both practice EDC, & depending upon level of dress & threat assessment, her: Sig P365 night sights/Ruger LCP II laser, me: SA Hellcat night sights & reflex/S&W Bodyguard laser, both 9mms & .380s, & while we count on remaining calm enough for good shot placement, we also carry a backup mag. As we live in a small town, our expectations of anything other than having to put a deer down that’s been hit by a vehicle with one of our pistols, are pretty low, & we like it that way. However, we do have to travel to that cancerous growth they call Atlanta to pick up our grandkids & whisk them back to our place (80+ miles) for a week or at the least a long weekend. On those occasions, I do get out the 1911 style Dan Wesson .45 ECO (Everyday Carry Officer).
We've been road trippin’, sailing, motorcycling, & I just had back surgery yesterday morning, after pain since the beginning of June, finally diagnosed in the 3rd week of August, but had to wait till yesterday, for an excellent Surgeon (also a MOT!). No pain now except from the day surgery, & expect only a few days pain from that, but have restrictions for 6 weeks. Again, may your experience be at least as good!
Also a bummer that I didn't catch your reply because during our road trippin’ with Wheel Life (5th Wheel), one of the routes we could've taken back to Georgia, goes thru Colorado, & we’d sure enjoy an opportunity to take you & your wife out for lunch or dinner & to enjoy some entertaining conversation & story swappin’! We avoided Colorado because we’ve both been there before, & it has the steepest & longest Passes to go thru!!
Maybe next summer, as we try to head North & West to get outta’ the terrible humidity that lasts for 3+ months (but there are 9 great ones to make up for that, wonderful people {tho far too many exceptions in Atlanta}, & no more snow to shovel), I'll contact you via the substack or? (if you're interested, that is!), & route thru Colorado for a meet-up.
After decades of following events very closely all over the world, I am still confused about the anti-Jewish animus in some quarters. I haven't known a lot of Jews, but the ones I have have seemed like incredibly decent people.
And Zionism I am fine with, given this insane hatred for no reason I can detect. And I will not be gaslighted or convinced without evidence that doesn't seem to exist. In high school in the 80s I played "Peter" in The Diary of Anne Frank, a play my school put on, and I formed my opinions on this issue then. Nothing has ever changed my mind. Miep is still one of my all time heroes, and if the need arose, I would hope to have her courage.
I recall a significant number of Catholics going "W00t!" at her conversion. I knew it was going to end badly. But I didn't expect her to go full "Eternal Jew" within two months. She's a set-change from becoming a female Clayton Bigsby.
Sure, she's always been a walking warning sign--"Caution: Midwit Speed-Reading." But she's openly-frolicking in the worst cesspit imaginable. I thought she would keep it within a couple degrees of plausible deniability. Nope.
So, what do we do with all of the Jews who are anti-Zionist?
And there are a LOT of them. Indeed, opposition to the creation of a Zionist state was the default position of the majority of Europe's Jews for most of the 20th century. It still is the default position for a plurality, if not a majority, of America's Jews.
27% of American Jews don't care about religion at all, rising to 40% of Jews 18-29. The largest denomination in the US is Reform (37%), followed by Conservative (17%), and Orthodox (9%). But among Reform Jews, support for Israel is actually pretty uncommon. According to Pew Research, most Reform, and about half of Conservative Jews, don't feel any particular affiliation with or support for Israel. Only Orthodox Jews actually care much about Israel (91%), but they make up less than 10% of all Jews in the US.
The rest, especially those under 30, simply don't see the relevance of the existence of Israel.
So, are all those anti-Zionists, including anti-Zionist Jews, really just anti-Semites?
"So, are all those anti-Zionists, including anti-Zionist Jews, really just anti-Semites?"
No. And you can tell by the fact that, though they may not favor a Jewish state, they aren't suggesting that Jews are demonic pedophiles who control the weather.
Spot on, Jeff. My thoughts and prayers are with you, and your family, for refu'ah shlema.
And yes, it's getting scary out there. Many Jews thought, for a time, that liberals had their backs. And for a while it seemed that conservatives had taken over that mantle. But no... everybody has their share of crazies, and crazies of all stripes are united by their mistrust of Jews, even if they have nothing else in common.
The only question is which side will reject the crazy, and which will embrace it. And it's not out of the question for both sides to embrace the crazy... or for one side to surrender to it and the other to "stay neutral". We've seen that happen before.
I gave you the thumbs up for the subtitle alone, but this entire piece deserves it as well. Prayed for the healing of you and the Mrs.
Didn’t the Tate brothers embrace Islam? Prediction: Candace and her husband will, too, at some point. They will deem Christianity (Catholicism) as “too weak.”
(BTW, I served with the Tate brothers’ father in the USAF. He was good at his job - Russian linguist - but I avoided him unless it was business. Let’s just say that I’m far from surprised at how his sons have turned out.)
One more thing: many black conservatives who are online sniffed out Candace’s fraudulent nature early on and were told that they (we) were just jealous of her popularity. I mostly stayed out of it and watched it play out.
I am on your side and Israel’s and always shall be. It is not because my ancestry is about 8% Jewish – it would be the same if it were 0%. It is the only morally possible position. CO had a chance to learn and grow, but didn’t. She wasn’t an intellectual but an ideologue, and a weathervane at that. She did not choose wisely. Best wishes and prayers to you and your wife on your journeys.
Sorry to hear about the physical issues with writing more, Jeff. One topic you might explore when you're up to it is Soros. On the one hand, he seems a Darth Vader figure. But I guess he's ethnically Jewish. Am I anti-Semitic if I disdain him?
The other feedback I have is my standard bewilderment over "Christian Nationalism". The nation is **not** the unit of analysis in the New Testament, and this phrase is oxymoronic at best.
She never struck me as authentic, but her recent trajectory seems different. Her anti-semitism is getting worse, and she is now swimming in the deepest part of that pool — the ancient blood libel. I actually canceled my subscription to the Daily Wire when they hired her a couple of years ago, and when I got the e-mail asking why I had canceled, I responded simply “Candace Owens.” And that was long before this downward turn on her part. I know that she is a recent convert to Catholicism, and as a Catholic myself, I want to assure any non-Catholics reading this that her views in no way represent Catholic teaching or doctrine.
Candace is done in my mind.
Unless, she grovels, apologizes and atonea to Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelicals all while putting down White Nationalism.
Keep writing. The best way to fight bad/ignorant/stupid ideas is to do exactly what you are doing. Yes, it is disheartening to see some nominal conservatives go down this path, but I believe good ideas eventually prevail. Many wishes for future health to you and your wife.
Hope you and your family start feeling better.
Jeff, I have been following and learning from you for many years. So sorry to hear that you and your wife are having health problems. May they be short-lived. The wave of overt anti-semitism following October 7 was frankly a shock to me. Although my friends and family members, virtually all of whom are liberal Democrats, agree that the anti-semitism is ugly and wrong, they don't seem to feel any urgency about the matter. I can only hope that the pendulum starts to swing the other way, starting with the election of Trump. It's an open question whether this constitutional republic can be restored. I hope so, but I can't say I'm confident of it.
I have lost all respect for Owens. Your diagnosis of her is correct, I think. A few other people I used to follow and take seriously (including, I'm sad to say, among my fellow Catholic writers) have all of a sudden felt the need to explain why "Jews want to take over the world" or "Catholics should not be Zionists." What the...the ick factor is so overwhelming and repellant. How can one respect or take seriously people so intellectually and spiritually feeble and unkind? I sure can't. It is absolutely not simply questioning Zionism or actions Israel has taken (one can certainly do that without being hostile), Have unfollowed/unsubscribed from these people - I don't see any need to continue reading them just because in other respects and on other topics I agree with them. Don't worry, Jeff - only someone already significantly spiritually/intellectually damaged could adopt these positions, or take these loons seriously for more than a few minutes after beginning to read their thoughts. That there are more than a couple of prominent voices out there does worry me, and it's caused me to make a point of praying for protection and guidance for Jews and Israel every single day. It all makes me very uneasy.
Yo, fellow MOT,
I love your writing & insight (hence my paying of gelt into your necessarily big, Jewish coffers (don't all us Yids have big schmeckles, uhh oops, I mean coffers?) but don't you think, maybe upon reflection, that you've been a bit naive here?
Pray tell (couldn't resist that lame pun) when in the History of us Jews, have we not been the scrappyGOATs (Greatest of All Time.....they tried to kill us, we were scrappy enough to have survived, Baruch Hashem, let's eat!) of everyplace we've ever tried to make a go of it?
Friendships are often tenuous wires we walk. I have made friends, & lost friends over my 64 trips around ol' Sol, but that just made me reflect, & vet them better.
I have many Conservative Christian & Conservative Jewish friends I can honestly call my brothers & sisters, while any liberal (read leftist) friends I did have, both Yid & Goy, went South with our disagreement over Onono, his immaculation from a compliant MSM, & his terrible stance towards Israel, & love of Morehammered's death cult.
One very important qualification for someone to become a friend of mine, is if I can tell them outright, if I see something they are doing that I think is in error, & that must be able to go both ways. This is first base, IMNSHO, of what makes up a good friendship....if I'm making a bad choice, for Moses's sake, tell me, & let's discuss it!
Since you brought up the great Thomas Sowell, this is my favorite quote of his, & I have never noted it to falter on those who were never truly your friends in the first place:
"People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right — especially if events prove you right, and them wrong.”
Thomas Sowell
Don't let this latest bump in our road stop you from writing your insightful missives...they are needed to fight back that darkness. Most of the invectives hurled at you online are from that chickenshit class of Keyboard Warriors. Yes, I did say "most". At the least, you should bone up on the late, great Jeff Cooper's short book - "Principles of Self Defense" and what is meant by Situational Awareness.
If you are comfortable with the idea, take some self-defense classes (Israeli Krav Maga www.kravmaga.com/ is direct & to the point. Love how it is MAGA, tho not pronounced the same!)
I don't know what your ideology is on firearms, but Jews with Guns has always been my motto.
So be strong, cast aside & forget about those who were never your friends in the 1st place, & go out & make some new ones....good, strong people really are all around us, you just have to show them the welcome mat.
Looking forward to your next missives,
E
PS - re hands: have you tried speech to text, & then just do corrections? Am guessing yes, but I had to ask.
I’m a gun owner, an FFL up until a few months ago, have a carry license, and I coached wrestling for about 12 years. Depending on where I’m going and what clothes I’m wearing, I carry either a .40 compact, a 45 ACP, or a 10mm — each with high end ammo, each with a reflex sight. My rifles of choice are a heavy-barreled AR, a SCAR-H, and S&W M&P 22 — all scoped, one NV ready. My shotgun of choice is a Tac Bullpup with specialty cartridges.
Both my sons wrestle or wrestled and both have won major hardware doing so. After taking a full year off, Tanner, my youngest, went undefeated and wasn’t scored upon on his way up winning Jr High districts. No match made it into the 2nd period. He begins his next season in a few months.
I was trained in catch wrestling after a couple years training Krav, and was part of 2009’s Paladin Press 12 DVD series Snap, No Top, from Tony Cecchine, who was my coach at the time. I’m not much of a high kicker but I have some experience as a striker.
I’m dealing with a wrist and hand issue right now, but I have an MRI upcoming, which I hope pinpoints the problem. On the opposite side, I have a shoulder issue that I’m hoping to get fixed finally. Meantime I’ve been coaching baseball, mostly one handed.
I don’t worry much for our immediate safety as a family. My kids shoot, and my wife carries as well. We live in a gun-friendly place among people who tend not to commit violent crimes. Still, we like to be prepared, so I have an impressive array of weaponry, and I’m a connoisseur of arrows, blades, tomahawks, and rifle / pistol ammo. When I have to shoot, I assume my target will be a black or brown bear. This is Colorado, after all.
Jeff, you are da’ MAN! Have any of your friends nick-named you Judah Maccabee??
I am sorry that I missed your detailed reply, & hope your med issues have been resolved.
I just met a guy at our small Shul on Rosh Ha’shana, who teaches KM, & we're going to set up classes for both my wife & I, & a few other interested members, some of whom also conceal carry while at services.
The wife & I both practice EDC, & depending upon level of dress & threat assessment, her: Sig P365 night sights/Ruger LCP II laser, me: SA Hellcat night sights & reflex/S&W Bodyguard laser, both 9mms & .380s, & while we count on remaining calm enough for good shot placement, we also carry a backup mag. As we live in a small town, our expectations of anything other than having to put a deer down that’s been hit by a vehicle with one of our pistols, are pretty low, & we like it that way. However, we do have to travel to that cancerous growth they call Atlanta to pick up our grandkids & whisk them back to our place (80+ miles) for a week or at the least a long weekend. On those occasions, I do get out the 1911 style Dan Wesson .45 ECO (Everyday Carry Officer).
We've been road trippin’, sailing, motorcycling, & I just had back surgery yesterday morning, after pain since the beginning of June, finally diagnosed in the 3rd week of August, but had to wait till yesterday, for an excellent Surgeon (also a MOT!). No pain now except from the day surgery, & expect only a few days pain from that, but have restrictions for 6 weeks. Again, may your experience be at least as good!
Also a bummer that I didn't catch your reply because during our road trippin’ with Wheel Life (5th Wheel), one of the routes we could've taken back to Georgia, goes thru Colorado, & we’d sure enjoy an opportunity to take you & your wife out for lunch or dinner & to enjoy some entertaining conversation & story swappin’! We avoided Colorado because we’ve both been there before, & it has the steepest & longest Passes to go thru!!
Maybe next summer, as we try to head North & West to get outta’ the terrible humidity that lasts for 3+ months (but there are 9 great ones to make up for that, wonderful people {tho far too many exceptions in Atlanta}, & no more snow to shovel), I'll contact you via the substack or? (if you're interested, that is!), & route thru Colorado for a meet-up.
Keep up with your edjumicational articles!
Kind regards,
Elliott
Coffers, lol. Humor is the seasoning/salt in life.
After decades of following events very closely all over the world, I am still confused about the anti-Jewish animus in some quarters. I haven't known a lot of Jews, but the ones I have have seemed like incredibly decent people.
And Zionism I am fine with, given this insane hatred for no reason I can detect. And I will not be gaslighted or convinced without evidence that doesn't seem to exist. In high school in the 80s I played "Peter" in The Diary of Anne Frank, a play my school put on, and I formed my opinions on this issue then. Nothing has ever changed my mind. Miep is still one of my all time heroes, and if the need arose, I would hope to have her courage.
I recall a significant number of Catholics going "W00t!" at her conversion. I knew it was going to end badly. But I didn't expect her to go full "Eternal Jew" within two months. She's a set-change from becoming a female Clayton Bigsby.
Sure, she's always been a walking warning sign--"Caution: Midwit Speed-Reading." But she's openly-frolicking in the worst cesspit imaginable. I thought she would keep it within a couple degrees of plausible deniability. Nope.
Horrific.
The Zionists always fool everyone, Jews too.
So, what do we do with all of the Jews who are anti-Zionist?
And there are a LOT of them. Indeed, opposition to the creation of a Zionist state was the default position of the majority of Europe's Jews for most of the 20th century. It still is the default position for a plurality, if not a majority, of America's Jews.
27% of American Jews don't care about religion at all, rising to 40% of Jews 18-29. The largest denomination in the US is Reform (37%), followed by Conservative (17%), and Orthodox (9%). But among Reform Jews, support for Israel is actually pretty uncommon. According to Pew Research, most Reform, and about half of Conservative Jews, don't feel any particular affiliation with or support for Israel. Only Orthodox Jews actually care much about Israel (91%), but they make up less than 10% of all Jews in the US.
The rest, especially those under 30, simply don't see the relevance of the existence of Israel.
So, are all those anti-Zionists, including anti-Zionist Jews, really just anti-Semites?
Seriously?
"So, are all those anti-Zionists, including anti-Zionist Jews, really just anti-Semites?"
No. And you can tell by the fact that, though they may not favor a Jewish state, they aren't suggesting that Jews are demonic pedophiles who control the weather.
Never go full retard.
She sounds like, to use a priceless Dutch idiom, she fell on her head and kept bouncing (“op haar kop gevallen en blijven botsen”).
Refua shlema!
Spot on, Jeff. My thoughts and prayers are with you, and your family, for refu'ah shlema.
And yes, it's getting scary out there. Many Jews thought, for a time, that liberals had their backs. And for a while it seemed that conservatives had taken over that mantle. But no... everybody has their share of crazies, and crazies of all stripes are united by their mistrust of Jews, even if they have nothing else in common.
The only question is which side will reject the crazy, and which will embrace it. And it's not out of the question for both sides to embrace the crazy... or for one side to surrender to it and the other to "stay neutral". We've seen that happen before.
Stay safe out there, folks.