It's Shameful to Politicize the Tragedy in Pittsburgh

I have been admonishing my friends and others to stop politicizing this tragedy. Let’s not use this terrible murder to push a political agenda. No blaming Trump. No pushing gun control. Mourn for the dead. Pray for the wounded. Thank the heroes. Thank G-d we are safe. Try to use this as a learning moment. Teach our kids about our Jewish history replete with antisemitism. Many of our younger generation have thankfully never experienced it and therefore unfortunately don’t believe it’s real. It’s real all right. Ask the families of the dead and injured. Ask the rest of the congregants who saw and heard the whole thing unfold. A nightmare they will surely never forget.

It’s right out of the Holocaust book. Ask Israelis who face it every single day from their Muslim neighbours. 

Sadly I continue to see so many disgusting articles attacking Trump for this antisemitic attack. It’s all over the mainstream media. Even my local TV channels here in Canada manage to put this on Trump. Often they do it overtly and sometimes they do it subliminally. He never condemned the white supremacists enough. He didn’t distance himself from the KKK enough. His bombastic and rude style of leadership encouraged the divisiveness that prompted this terrible murder. He’s a racist. A misogynist. A nazi. An antisemite. Some have said that he took his time condemning this tragedy. You might have heard that some of the victims family members have disinvited Trump from visiting. Thankfully the rabbi got it right when he stated: Of course he’s welcome. He’s the president of the United States. 

Enough! What’s really insulting to me as a Jew, his behaviour toward our small nation has been far better than any previous president. I was no fan of Obama but had this tragedy happened under his watch I would never blame him for it. Antisemitism has been around forever. Get used to it. Learn how to deal with it. Figure out who our real friends are and who are enemies are. Today this was perpetrated by someone from the far right but tomorrow it could come from the far left. 

We must also do much more to secure our synagogues (and not just on high holidays) and other Jewish events and places. There are excellent organizations who do a wonderful job providing security like the JDL who would be happy to do so. It’s a mitzvah after all. So many individuals have security systems (camera based) for their houses that cost no more than a couple thousand dollars! Certainly a synagogue can afford that.

Last night I attended a vigil in Toronto in support of the tragedy in Pittsburgh. My daughters attended as well as thousands of others. Beautiful words were spoken. Despite the cold, it was heartwarming to be surrounded with like minded regular folk, most Jewish but some not. I tried to get as many of my Jewish friends and family to attend. This vigil was all about antisemitism today. If we don’t support its message in taking a stand against it, why should anyone else care about us? 

Vigil at Mel Lastman Square in Toronto

I was pleasantly surprised to receive beautiful condolence letters for this tragedy from many of my righteous Gentile friends (most I’ve yet to meet) who often read my blog and various posts. Despite this ongoing scourge of antisemitism which is the very reason that I am a Jewish activist, I continue to have faith in humanity!

G-d Bless!

Why I Plan to Vote for Faith Goldy for Mayor of Toronto

Choosing a political leader is always a relative thing. Typically in politics your are looking for the best of the worst. You are not looking for a perfect person because there is no such thing. You should be looking for a person who’s policies mostly match with yours. Maybe there are other characteristics you are looking for but it’s the policies that should matter the most.

Regarding Goldy, I believe that she has one serious issue that I don’t like. She definitely has some connection with white supremacy. Her interview with Stormfront, her use of the Jewish Question (JQ) on multiple occasions, her quoting from an antisemitic Romanian nationalist, etc. all point to this. 

Here she is protesting the Linda Sarsour/Sharia conference in Toronto

That said, John Tory who I think is basically a good person can get us killed. People with good intentions often do. He is a typical politician. He is full of political correctness. As such he is thrilled to cozy up to everyone. Including radical Islamists. He has in the past spoke with and endorsed an Imam in a mosque right here in Toronto who has ties with Hamas and who was caught on camera instructing his worshipers to destroy Israel and kill Jews. When asked about it he had nothing to say. He will court Jews, Christians and Muslims and continues to fight for bringing in more unvetted Muslim migrants into our fine city (lately he’s been asking for more money from the Federal government to accommodate them). More migrants = more votes for him. 

I don’t want us to turn into Europe, G-d forbid! With leaders like him, we will. Obviously Justin Trudeau is the real problem but John Tory’s appeasement is almost as bad. He is also a coward as he refused to debate her and orchestrates others to ignore her. If I was running I would be happy to debate my opponents. Let our real views get out there. Isn’t that what elections are all about?

Faith is the only candidate who understands the threat of radical Islam and has the courage to say so. She is also the only candidate who is against a hand gun ban in Toronto. Can you imagine if every city in the country decided to override federal laws and make their own? We’d have total chaos.

If we didn’t have serious existential threats mostly from Islamists today, John Tory would be a fine mayor. But he doesn’t get it. To me that is a red line. Just about anyone can be the mayor of a city. There are so many people that actually run the city (transit commissioners, health officials, etc.) that the mayor is often a figure head. But the mayor does set the tone for who we are and what we should be doing. 

I’ve said something similar about president Trump. If the world was in good shape, no serious Islamist terror threats every day accross the world, good US economy, job growth, few wars, fair trade policies etc. we wouldn’t necessarily need him as the US leader. But sadly, that is not the case at all. So we needed an outsider. Someone not corruptible. Someone with guts who understands the existential threats from radical Islam that are facing us every day. Someone who will shake the existing, corrupt, complacent and arrogant establishment. A bull in a china store.

So at this time in our lives we need him. Personally I think he was G-d sent. I view Faith Goldy the same way. We need her now. I wish she didn’t have those white supremacy ties but nonetheless she does have our backs.

BTW, some of my Jewish friends (I’m Jewish myself) were shocked that I’d support an antisemite like her. I asked them how she could be a real antisemite when she attends numerous Jewish and Pro-Israel demonstrations with the likes of the JDL (Jewish Defense League) ?  She is usually the only political leader to attend them and she has the guts to advertise her support of us. A real nazi doesn’t do that, ever. If you recall during WWII, Hitler made a pact with the Mufti of Jerusalem on how to eliminate the Jews in the Middle East as well as with other Muslim leaders. Furthermore, there are substantially many more Muslims than Jews in Canada and in Toronto. So if Faith had no principles, she would court the Muslim vote over the Jewish vote. But she absolutely does not do that. We also need leaders like her to balance our Alt Left government led currently by Justin Trudeau who has a definite love affair with Islam.

I’m not saying that I’m in love with her and that we should have her as our mayor forever. I am saying that we need her now and by voting for her we are sending an urgent message to the rest of the candidates (especially John Tory) that we are sick of their arrogance and their dangerous political correctness. 

Go Goldy go!

Legalizing Weed or Getting into the Pot Business

This post is about my country's angle on marijuana. I live in Canada. My prime minister is a guy named Justin Trudeau. If you've read my posts before you already know that I'm NOT a fan.

The long standing issue of what to do about pot has entered most governments by now. Not too many years ago, smoking pot could get you fined and even jailed right here in Canada. I myself was almost busted for smoking a joint not too many years ago by an over zealous young cop in Toronto. He held me up on at side street in Toronto for hours until I finally told him to either arrest me or let me go. Eventually he let me go but not after hassling me and my friend for half a day.

The many years of research show that smoking pot is by and large not a healthy habit. For young children, it's down right dangerous while for others it might render us silly. There are definitely some very useful benefits to weed as well. But this post in not about the good vs bad points regarding weed.

I've told my children at a young age that smoking pot is not good. I also told them that there are many  other things in this world that we do that if we do extensively, are not good. Ie. watching too much TV, eating too much, playing too much, studying too much (yes you read that right), etc.

All that said, I and most Canadians wanted our government to simply decriminalize pot. Our prisons are crowded enough with real criminals (murderers, robbers, etc.) that we don't need to put people in jail for smoking a joint or possessing small amounts of pot. But now Trudeau has unilaterally decided to not only decriminalize pot but to get into the post business! Soon they will be growing it, distributing it, selling it and regulating it. Like any enterprise most governments get into, they can't compete with the private sector. Their employment policies generally make it difficult if not impossible to fire bad employees. Their overhead is through the roof. So for those pot smokers who think this will drive the cost of pot down, think again. I predict that perhaps for the first few months the cost will go down simply because all the illegal, non government producers/sellers will think that they need to drop their prices in order to compete with the government. But soon thereafter the prices will level out.

Will pot usage increase? Most experts think so. Until now our government told us explicitly how dangerous pot was for us. Some of us (quite a few in fact) believed them. Many of us simply like to follow the law. After all, most of our laws are designed to keep us safe so we, for the most part here in Canada are law abiding citizens. Now our government has done a 180. They went from putting pot users in jail to selling pot to the public. If I was a child, I'd be very confused. Not too many years ago, police were regular visitors at public schools with the job of teaching children about the dangers of pot, how to identify it and how to call the cops when you see someone dealing it. Now our government is all about pot. Today they are not saying that it's good for you. But the implication that it is, is simply staring us in the face, after all they are getting into the weed business big time.

The message is clear. When our PM has a choice to make, it will most likely be the wrong one.