Od Lo Avdah Tikvatenu Our Hope is not Lost

Od Lo Avdah Tikvatenu

If we lose hope, we lose everything. I still believe we can save liberal democracy in the US, in spite of all the horrors.

It's Holocaust Remembrance Day. I'm asking you to remember that the Shoah wasn't an isolated moment, but a horrible escalation of an ongoing system of expulsions, pogroms, exploitation, and mass murders that begins with is ongoing today.

This shook me and I didn't think I had any shakes left this week:

Oh thank goodness.

These executive orders on banning federally funded entities from recognizing trans people or disallowing them from using the bathroom are not self-executing or immediately enforceable. They require formal rule making at a minimum. They are a scare tactic. Ignore and do not comply in advance.

Yeah, there's that.

Yeah, there's that.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה, אֱהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעלָם, מַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha'olam. Matir Asurim

Blessed are you Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who
frees the captive.

May there soon be peace, security, and self-determination for all.

Haaretz front page announcing cease-fire

Apparently, throwing up from relief and joy is a thing.

Notes from a disturbing moment at “Cabaret” on Broadway last night, as Adam Lambert had to force the audience to confront its apparent disrespect around antisemitism…this production of the show left me in a dark place. Grateful Adam forced others to sit in that head space. #NeverForget #TheaterSKY

Uhm... I have to learn to play League of Legends (for reasons) and I am not getting the appeal? It's like all the parts of MMOs that I hate with all the parts I like shunted off to other media?

breaking: residents of dresden "very upset" after "unprecedented" allied bombing campaign. one man, who identified himself as a "concentration camp guard" said, "i have never seen such violence in my life. what have i done to deserve this?"

How the Democrats Lost the Working Class The theory seemed sound: Stabilize financial markets, support the poor and promote a more secure, integrated world. But blue-collar workers were left behind.

Opinions are a dime a dozen. That’s why I like data and research. And there are some glaring data and research issues with this article. 1/N🧵
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/u...

Patchology.

Patchology

Got fancy under-eye puffiness/dark circle reducing thingamabobs for Hanukkah and decided to give them a go today. Really pissed that they work. I'm absolutely never going to pay actual $ for these, so now I have to spend the rest of my life knowing it's my own damn fault I look tired all the time.

If you've enjoyed Cryptmaster, please consider sharing the news. Despite an IGF award, a 95% Steam rating and a free demo, the game has gone mostly unnoticed by both press and players. It's not just a typing game and there may still be people out there who would enjoy it!

TBH, I think you may be locked in anyway now, and if so I'm sorry. 🤷

I was once at a reading where the great Samuel Delany realized, mid-sentance, that he didn't know how to pronounce a character's name. It was WONDERFUL! (Mostly because he gave a very hearty laugh.)

It does. Also, you just got a Jew to "accept" Jesus (kinda) so I think you automatically go to gentile Heaven!

D, who went to a catholic school in Austria where most of the priests were also Nazis, is already making a spreadsheet of places Breathing Jesus needs to visit.

Fine. I'm ordering it. Expect it to get its own account and go on deeply offensive adventures.

I've now left my third activist network because members got obsessed with Vatnik bullshit and all real work ground to a halt. We are not, as a species, smart enough to survive the technologies we've built.

I think I may need this. Someone please talk me out of it.

A fluffy white and gray rabbit wearing two bows between her ears, posed on a pink chair behind an advance review copy of the book We Lived on the Horizon.

So. I hear you got a giftcard and you don't know what to do with it. My rabbit and I have a suggestion.
You *could* preorder WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON. It'll help keep Mochi in treats and bows.
Bonus: It's pretty good and about many of the things you're worried about.
tinyurl.com/456y7s33

JFC. If Trump appoints Dershowitz as the antisemitism czar (two words that should never go together in that way), it's more proof that his administration is hideously corrupt but it says nothing about the Jewish people. I guaran-damn-tee you we are more unhappy about this than any gentile.

I'm grateful for your continuing to call for answers.

It's emblematic of this time that an author writing about the Shoah, descendant of the author of one of it's legal justifications, uses her platform to literally spread blood libel. I'm grateful to Emily Kaplan for researched response, and not surprised @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social hasn't responded.

Of course, I meant Obergefell. So many rights in jeopardy.