12/15/2025

 Monday, December 15, 2025

1939 "Gone With The Wind" premiered in Atlanta (Best Picture 1940, inflation not adjusted highest-grossing film of all time)

1952 Christine Jorgenson was the first known American to undergo a sex-change operation

1973 American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality is not a mental illness

2024  More than 50 people are killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes as the death toll for Palestinians killed in the Israel-Gaza War surpasses 45,000 

2025  At least 15 were killed and 38 hospitalized after yesterday's attack on Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach near Sydney, Australia

In bed at 9, had a hint of a GERD attack, moved to LZB in the middle of the night, up at 6.  Geri heard the CLUNK of the LZB moving out its reclined position to upright and came in to ask if I was alright.  I was touched by her concern and assured her it was only the LZB. 12°, wind chill -7°, high 23°, low 7°.

Meds, etc.  I realized during the night that I hadn't taken any of my 16 pills and capsules yesterday.  It was the missing tamsulosin and finasteride that tipped me off.  Morning meds at 11 a.m. 

Bondi Beach, First day of Hanukkah.  How long will Jews all over the world suffer from violent anti-semitism?  How long will Palestinians in the Occupied Territories suffer under Israeli oppression?  How long will Israeli Jews suffer from deadly anti-Zionism?  How much of the Jewish suffering is attributable to Zionism?  Is the State of Israel a safe haven for Jews, or a principal cause of the suffering of Jews, especially non-Israeli Jews around the world?   Does this question have any meaning 77 years after the internationally-sanctioned creation of the State of Israel?  I suppose not; the State of Israel is a permanent 'fact on the ground' as well as a legally and diplomatically recognized sovereign nation since 1948.  It is home to more than 7 million Jews and more than 2 million Arabs, most of whom have no intention of moving elsewhere.  Approximately 5.5 million Arabs reside in the West Bank and Gaza.  I can only wonder whether, but for the 1967 war and subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, the Arabs and the Israeli Jews might have worked out some sort of modus vivendi over time, despite the expulsion of Arabs from what would become Israel, the Nakba,(and the expulsion of Jews from some Arab states).  In any case, after the Six Day War and the occupation by Israel of 'the Territories', and especially since the settler movement gained governmental support with Likud's coming to power in 1977, the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs seem doomed to perpetual hostility.  Likud’s major leaders (Begin, Shamir, Sharon, and Netanyahu) were all secular Jews, and while Likud is not a religious-Zionist party, its leaders often aligned politically with religious Zionists—especially on nationalism, territory, and settlements—without sharing their theological worldview.  The big difference was that the secular Likud leaders were willing to give up land that the religious Zionist believed was given by God to Jews (Begin returned the Sinai to Egypt, and Sharon dismantled the settlements in Gaza.)  I lost hope for Israel in 1995 when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by the religious Zionist and supporter of the settler movement, Yigal Amir.  The assassination was followed by the re-election of Netanyahu, and Israel has grown only more right-wing since, culminating with the current government, which, in the conduct of its retaliatory war in Gaza, has managed to shift the State of Israel from its broadly supported status as innocent victim of Hamas terrorism to that of genocidal victimizer of innocent children.  For a great many Americans, Israel is a pariah state and support for Israel has become morally unacceptable.  For an old Leftie like me, who grew up admiring the post-war Israel of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, the Labor Party, and the kibbutzniks, this parallels the American transition from the country of JFK, LBJ's Great Society, and Jimmy Carter to the country of Nixon, Bush/Cheney, and now Trump.  A disaster for Israel.  A disaster for America.

Trump's response to the murders of Rob and Michelle Reiner:

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.  He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.  May Rob and Michele rest in peace."

This man won the popular vote for the presidency last year.  Almost half of the American voters cast their votes for this man.  This reveals who we are.

Walmart run this afternoon to pick up bird seed, some bird cakes, Blink dry-eyes capsules and drops, HP printer ink cartridges, and CBH.

Brown University mass shooting.  What can I say?  This was about the 400th mass shooting in the United States this year.  So it goes year after year after year.  USA!  USA!  USA!  There have been 131 homicides in Milwaukee this year and 471 non-fatal shootings.  How can anyone believe that we don't live in a dystopia???  As of early October this year, Chicago already had about 1,500 shootings and 276 homicides.