ArchitectGuy on Israel

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Synagogue security: Not a do-it-yourself job!
by Yael Shahar
December 30, 2019

…A handgun is no match for a rifle in terms of stopping power or accuracy. Professional security people train long and hard just to avoid friendly fire instances in a firefight. It is doubtful that most armed congregants will have that kind of training. I can think of nothing worse than a number of people armed with handguns all opening fire in a crowded space. Given that reality, it is preferable to have one or two people with appropriate weapons whose job it is to stand guard during services, and to monitor entrances. READ MORE

DAILY WIRE An Armed And Trained Jew Is The Best Kind Of Jew American Jews — who also disproportionately live in geographically tight-knit urban or suburban areas — tend to be among the least-armed members of the American polity. A 2005 American Jewish Committee study revealed that just 13% of Jewish homes reported owning a gun — less than one-third of the percentage of non-Jewish homeowners.

TIMES OF ISRAEL New York Jewish community hires security czar amid rash of attacks Mitchell Silber, who headed NYPD Intelligence unit, to lead effort aimed at helping Jewish institutions in city and some surrounding areas protect themselves

NEW CRITERION
1619 & all that: On The New York Times’s recent disinformation campaign
January 2020

…It was to console its core readership that The New York Times undertook The 1619 Project in a special flood-the-zone issue of its Sunday magazine in August and then in a snazzy, graphics-heavy series of features on its website. For two years, the Times had invested heavily in the vaudeville entertainment called “Trump–Russia.” The spectacular failure of its leading man, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to deliver a happy ending to that fiasco underscored the essential futility of the entire enterprise. This was something that Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of the Times, grasped instantly. READ MORE

SPECTATOR USA
We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously
by Matt Ridley
December 22, 2019

Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living through the greatest improvement in human living standards in history. Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 percent when I was born. Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline. Little of this made the news, because good news is no news. READ MORE

GATESTONE Douglas Murray: Celebrating a Great Non-Event of 2019 The hope of most of us in a country such as Britain is not that everybody leaves their faith, but simply that people have religious freedom and that this should include the freedom to leave a faith if you wish to do so with no repercussions against your person.