Asher Abrams

I am: INFJ, early riser, coffee drinker, Marine vet, patriot, Jew, nerd who functions well in non-nerd society, quiet, talkative, dilettante, Renaissance man.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

The Deep Nation is made of men and women, families, tribes, bands, and peoples; bound together by shared language, law, faith, custom, history, trade, values, kinship, and mutual trust and loyalty. The Deep State's power is checked by the Deep Nation.

[Justin @JustinUSA]

Ben Shapiro discusses VP Vance’s visit to Switzerland.

He argued that it made the US look weak by sympathizing with Pakistan and praising their leaders, failing to defend Israel against false “genocide” claims, and letting the Qatari negotiator dictate what he should type on the computer.

[Uri Kurlianchik @VerminusM]

Astute.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

My vote for "most truthful lyric about socialism" still goes to Ten Years After:

Tax the rich, feed the poor,
'Til there are no rich no more.

The goal is clearly stated, I believe.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@jawwwn_ @peterthiel

[Anama 🇺🇸🇮🇱 🦅 @AnamaMOSS]

Please help share this and bring it to Nikita’s attention.

Something weird is happening: Jewish and pro-Israel/Iranians (NOT IRGC) accounts are being suspended rapidly. Something is very fishy.

[Awesome Jew @Awesome_Jew_]

NOW: More Jewish accounts are being suspended on X for opposing the new Iran deal. Accounts critical of JD Vance appear to be getting hit the hardest as Elon Musk’s X slides back into the same Biden era, COVID style censorship it once claimed to oppose. Free speech for everyone, unless you question the Iran deal or criticize the government.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@RepLuna @VP You sound flustered. This is rambling, incoherent invective. Either we are "coordinated influencers" or we're "sociopaths". Make up your mind.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@stephsvox This is appreciated, but I'll feel better when I hear it coming directly from Trump - and accompanied by action.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

Reading - Peter S Beagle - The Last Unicorn, Two Hearts.

I'm doing another re-read of Beagle's unicorn cycle - the novel 'The Last Unicorn' and the novellas 'Two Hearts' and 'Sooz' (the latter two published together as 'The Way Home'). (I haven't yet read Beagle's other unicorn-themed novel, 'In Calabria', which is not set in the same fantasy universe.)

Lisene only appears as a supporting character, for three pages in the shortest of the three stories in the cycle ('Two Hearts'), but I find I'm fascinated by her character. She at first seems like the "bad guy" because she's an obstacle to the protagonist achieving his goals, so she is by definition an antagonist. But given the description of Lir's condition, you've got to agree with her in wondering whether Lir running off to battle this highly lethal griffin is really such a good idea. And the description of their relationship as observed by Sooz - "there was love between them" - is tender and moving. No other information about Lisene is given, so she is something of an enigma. But I strongly suspect she is the princess jilted by Lir in 'The Last Unicorn'. And at the end of the story, it is her name that the dying Lir calls.

Another puzzle in 2H (and I was dimly aware of this on the first couple of readings, but it is really sticking in my consciousness now) is the matter of Lir's aging itself. Yes, we expect him to be older with the passage of time - "time sets its claw in us all" as Lisene observes - but Lir appears to have aged unnaturally fast, greatly out of proportion to the other characters. Lisene herself is described by Sooz as "about my mother's age", and Molly, though "not young at all", is still able to travel the countryside with Schmendrick. But Lir, who is younger than Molly (only 21 in the first book, when Molly was 35 or 36), appears aged and decrepit compared to all of them. Molly seems to have some foreknowledge of this: "kings change", she tells Sooz. But it seems to be aging, specifically, and not just the cares of rule, weighing on Lir. Lisene - who as the king's close companion, must have watched the process year by year - actually uses the word "senile". "You came seeking the peerless warrior you remember, and you have found a spent, senile old man. Believe me, I understand your distress ..." and no doubt Lisene understands better than most. [414]

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

Reading - Agnon, Singer: Two childless couples.

Over Shabbat I read two stories - 'The Tale of the Scribe' by Agnon and 'The Unseen' by Singer - that both concern childless couples. In 'Scribe', the scribe Raphael and his wife Miriam lead exemplary lives of holiness, with no children: "Because the Holy One, blessed be He, desires the prayers of the righteous, He closed her womb." But it takes more than prayers to make a baby, and as we read the story we realize that Raphael is so obsessed with his regimen of holiness and purification that he can't bring himself to consummate the marriage. Miriam dies suddenly one day, and Raphael apparently follows soon after. In Agnon's trademark sly irony, the pious tone of the narrative is undercut by the very mundane reality of the couple's fruitless marriage.

In 'The Unseen', Nathan and his wife Roise-Temerl don't have that problem. They enjoy good food and drink, sleeping late, and the occasional bath together. They're good people whose only sin is moral weakness, but that is enough. Sloth and gluttony open the door to other sins: while Roise is away visiting her dying sister, Nathan (under the prompting of the Evil Spirit, who narrates the story) has an affair with the servant girl Shifra and divorces Roise, who then remarries unhappily to a man named Moshe. Then the divorced couple - now forbidden to one another - re-unite in a series of secretive, degrading trysts in an abandoned building; Nathan only learns of Roise's death when he sees the funeral procession from his darkened window. The title of the story is ironic: at first "the Unseen" appears to refer to the Evil Spirit, who "sees and is not seen"; but in the end, it is Nathan, living his last days in darkness and shame, hiding from the sight of the community, who is truly the unseen. [311]

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@ShabbosReads Reading - Agnon, Singer: Two childless couples

Over Shabbat I read two stories - 'The Tale of the Scribe' by Agnon and 'The Unseen' by Singer - that both concern childless couples. In 'Scribe', the scribe Raphael and his wife Miriam lead exemplary lives of holiness, with no children: "Because the Holy One, blessed be He, desires the prayers of the righteous, He closed her womb." But it takes more than prayers to make a baby, and as we read the story we realize that Raphael is so obsessed with his regimen of holiness and purification that he can't bring himself to consummate the marriage. Miriam dies suddenly one day, and Raphael apparently follows soon after. In Agnon's trademark sly irony, the pious tone of the narrative is undercut by the very mundane reality of the couple's fruitless marriage.

In 'The Unseen', Nathan and his wife Roise-Temerl don't have that problem. They enjoy good food and drink, sleeping late, and the occasional bath together. They're good people whose only sin is moral weakness, but that is enough. Sloth and gluttony open the door to other sins: while Roise is away visiting her dying sister, Nathan (under the prompting of the Evil Spirit, who narrates the story) has an affair with the servant girl Shifra and divorces Roise, who then remarries unhappily to a man named Moshe. Then the divorced couple - now forbidden to one another - re-unite in a series of secretive, degrading trysts in an abandoned building; Nathan only learns of Roise's death when he sees the funeral procession from his darkened window. Tha title of the story is ironic: at first "the Unseen" appears to refer to the Evil Spirit, who "sees and is not seen"; but in the end, it is Nathan, living his last days in darkness and shame, hiding from the sight of the community, who is truly the unseen.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

Shabbat shalom!

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

You sound like you're trying to convince yourselves. Trump has betrayed the Iranian people, Israel, and every American who trusted him to end this evil regime once and for all.

Trump was on the edge of a monumental victory for America and for mankind, and he threw it all away. He will never live this down.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@ConceptualJames @DavidLimbaugh The country still is, but we - and the civilized world - were betrayed by our alleged leader.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@Suzierizzo1 A lot different now than I'd have felt six months ago.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@RudyGiuliani He could just release the text.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@FoxNews Look at that body language. He looks defeated and desperate.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

@ShawnEni @TheMossadIL Nice to meet you out of your "cover"!

[Mike Newman @MikeNew19512115]

I am someone who Voted for Trump 3 Times.
Gave money to all his Campaigns.
I believe he hasn't just betrayed myself and Israel today- he has also betrayed America.

[Asher Abrams @AsherAbrams]

19.4 trillion reasons.

[Ayn Reagan @AynReagan]

Such a clarifying moment. Why did Trump overreact so dramatically when Israel struck Doha? And spend the last nine months slavishly implementing the Qatari agenda? I thought there was one reason. But there were 19.4 trillion reasons. Trump is the highest priced prostitute ever.