eddessaknight's Blog

Between 65 And Death

Many of us are between 65 and death . An old friend sent me this excellent list for aging , and , I have to agree it’s good advice to follow … particularly the item 19 .

01 –  It’s time to use the money you saved up . Use it and enjoy it . Don’t just keep it for those who may have no notion of the sacrifices you made to get it . Remember there is nothing more dangerous than a son or daughter-in-law with big ideas for your hard-earned capital . Warning : This is also a bad time for investments , even if it seems wonderful or fool-proof . They only bring problems and worries . This is a time for you to enjoy some peace and quiet .

02 – Stop worrying about the financial situation of your children and grandchildren , and don’t feel bad spending your money on yourself . You’ve taken care of them for many years , and you’ve taught them what you could . You gave them an education , food , shelter and support . The responsibility is now theirs to earn their own money .

03 –  Keep a healthy life , without great physical effort . Do moderate exercise ( like walking every day ) , eat well and get your sleep . It’s easy to become sick , and it gets harder to remain healthy . That is why you need to keep yourself in good shape and be aware of your medical and physical needs . Keep in touch with your doctor , do tests even when you’re feeling well . Stay informed .

04 –  Always buy the best , most beautiful items for your significant other . The key goal is to enjoy your money with your partner . One day one of you will miss the other , and the money will not provide any comfort then , enjoy it together .

05 – Don’t stress over the little things . You’ve already overcome so much in your life . You have good memories and bad ones , but the important thing is the present . Don’t let the past drag you down and don’t let the future frighten you . Feel good in the now . Small issues will soon be forgotten .

06 – Regardless of age , always keep love alive . Love your partner , love life , love your family , love your neighbor and remember : A man is not old as long as he has intelligence and affection .

07 – Be proud , both inside and out . Don’t stop going to your hair salon or barber , do your nails , go to the dermatologist and the dentist , keep your perfumes and creams well stocked . When you are well-maintained on the outside , it seeps in , making you feel proud and strong .

08 – Don’t lose sight of fashion trends for your age , but keep your own sense of style . There’s nothing worse than an older person trying to wear the current fashion among youngsters . You’ve developed your own sense of what looks good on you – keep it and be proud of it . It’s part of who you are .

09 – Always stay up-to-date . Read newspapers , watch the news . Go online and read what people are saying . Make sure you have an active email account and try to use some of those social networks . You’ll be surprised what old friends you’ll meet . Keeping in touch with what is going on and with the people you know is important at any age .

10 – Respect the younger generation and their opinions . They may not have the same ideals as you , but they are the future , and will take the world in their direction . Give advice , not criticism , and try to remind them that yesterday’s wisdom still applies today .

11 – Never use the phrase In my time . Your time is now . As long as you’re alive , you are part of this time . You may have been younger , but you are still you now , having fun and enjoying life .

12 – Some people embrace their golden years , while others become bitter and surly . Life is too short to waste your days on the latter . Spend your time with positive , cheerful people , it’ll rub off on you and your days will seem that much better . Spending your time with bitter people will make you older and harder to be around .

13 – Do not surrender to the temptation of living with your children or grandchildren ( if you have a financial choice , that is ) . Sure , being surrounded by family sounds great , but we all need our privacy . They need theirs and you need yours . If you’ve lost your partner ( our deepest condolences ) , then find a person to move in with you and help out . Even then , do so only if you feel you really need the help or do not want to live alone .

14 – Don’t abandon your hobbies . If you don’t have any , make new ones . You can travel , hike , cook , read , dance . You can adopt a cat or a dog , grow a garden , play cards , checkers , chess , dominoes , golf . You can paint , volunteer or just collect certain items . Find something you like and spend some real time having fun with it .

15 – Even if you don’t feel like it , try to accept invitations . Baptisms , graduations , birthdays , weddings , conferences . Try to go . Get out of the house , meet people you haven’t seen in a while , experience something new ( or something old ) . But don’t get upset when you’re not invited . Some events are limited by resources , and not everyone can be hosted . The important thing is to leave the house from time to time . Go to museums , go walk through a field . Get out there .

16 – Be a conversationalist . Talk less and listen more . Some people go on and on about the past , not caring if their listeners are really interested . That’s a great way of reducing their desire to speak with you . Listen first and answer questions , but don’t go off into long stories unless asked to . Speak in courteous tones and try not to complain or criticize too much unless you really need to . Try to accept situations as they are . Everyone is going through the same things , and people have a low tolerance for hearing complaints . Always find some good things to say as well .

17 – Pain and discomfort go hand in hand with getting older . Try not to dwell on them but accept them as a part of the cycle of life we’re all going through . Try to minimize them in your mind . They are not who you are , they are something that life added to you . If they become your entire focus , you lose sight of the person you used to be .

18 – If you’ve been offended by someone – forgive them . If you’ve offended someone – apologize . Don’t drag around resentment with you . It only serves to make you sad and bitter . It doesn’t matter who was right . Someone once said : Holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die . Don’t take that poison . Forgive , forget and move on with your life .

  19 –  If you have a strong belief , savor it . But don’t waste your time trying to convince others . They will make their own choices no matter what you tell them , and it will only bring you frustration . Live your faith and set an example . Live true to your beliefs and let that memory sway them .

20 – Laugh A Lot . Laugh at everything . Remember , you are one of the lucky ones . You managed to have a life , a long one . Many never get to this age , never get to experience a full life . But you did . So what’s not to laugh about ? Find the humor in your situation .

21 – Take no notice of what others say about you and even less notice of what they might be thinking . They’ll do it anyway , and you should have pride in yourself and what you’ve achieved . Let them talk and don’t worry . They have no idea about your history , your memories and the life you’ve lived so far . There’s still much to be written , so get busy writing and don’t waste time thinking about what others might think . Now is the time to be at rest , at peace and as happy as you can be !

And , Remember :  Life is too short to drink bad wine ! ! ! Or , in my case , bad Arnold Palmer .

A blueprint for how al Qaeda operated inside the U.S.': Declassified document reveals new details of FBI probe into Saudi links to 9/11 hijackers

https://www.yahoo.com/news/a-blueprint-for-how-al-qaeda-operated-inside-the-us-declassified-document-reveals-new-details-of-fbi-probe-into-saudi-links-to-911-hijackers-152024920.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-releases-newly-declassified-record-020202850.html

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/growing-york-9-11-shaped-155521799.html

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At approximately 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I was pushing a stroller carrying Eli, my 2-year-old son, toward the Borough Hall subway station in downtown Brooklyn. My wife, Jennifer, was already teaching her ethics class at Baruch College in Manhattan, and I was in charge of taking Eli to his daycare center at the City University of New York, which was located on Fifth Avenue, two blocks north of the Empire State Building. The ride on the N train usually took half an hour, and the route passed underneath the World Trade Center at what was then the Cortlandt Street station.

Eli had already begun memorizing the stops along the way between Borough Hall and 34th Street, and liked to ride in the front car so that he could look out the front window from the vantage point of the subway motorman. Another of my son’s quirks was that he tended to anthropomorphize tall buildings. “Hello, Empire State Building,” “Hello, World Trade Center,” he would say whenever we were walking in Manhattan or on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and he caught sight of the distinctive architectural markers that topped the structures. For that reason, Cortlandt Street held special resonance, which he’d sometimes note when he announced our arrival as though he were the actual conductor: “This is Cortlandt Street station, World Trade Center.”

As Eli and I approached the Borough Hall subway entrance, I was struck by the number of people gathered at a street corner, looking up in the direction of lower Manhattan. When I asked what was going on, a woman told me a plane had hit the twin towers. From her slightly impatient tone — that eye-rolling “what now?” attitude that is so common among New Yorkers — I assumed the crash must have been an accident. There was a faint cloud of smoke in the air, but it was such a warm, sunny day that it was almost impossible to imagine anything might ruin it. The Brooklyn skyline obscured a view of the World Trade Center, and with cellphone technology still limited to phone calls and texts, visuals of what had happened weren’t instantly available.

At approximately 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I was pushing a stroller carrying Eli, my 2-year-old son, toward the Borough Hall subway station in downtown Brooklyn. My wife, Jennifer, was already teaching her ethics class at Baruch College in Manhattan, and I was in charge of taking Eli to his daycare center at the City University of New York, which was located on Fifth Avenue, two blocks north of the Empire State Building. The ride on the N train usually took half an hour, and the route passed underneath the World Trade Center at what was then the Cortlandt Street station.

Eli had already begun memorizing the stops along the way between Borough Hall and 34th Street, and liked to ride in the front car so that he could look out the front window from the vantage point of the subway motorman. Another of my son’s quirks was that he tended to anthropomorphize tall buildings. “Hello, Empire State Building,” “Hello, World Trade Center,” he would say whenever we were walking in Manhattan or on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and he caught sight of the distinctive architectural markers that topped the structures. For that reason, Cortlandt Street held special resonance, which he’d sometimes note when he announced our arrival as though he were the actual conductor: “This is Cortlandt Street station, World Trade Center.”

As Eli and I approached the Borough Hall subway entrance, I was struck by the number of people gathered at a street corner, looking up in the direction of lower Manhattan. When I asked what was going on, a woman told me a plane had hit the twin towers. From her slightly impatient tone — that eye-rolling “what now?” attitude that is so common among New Yorkers — I assumed the crash must have been an accident. There was a faint cloud of smoke in the air, but it was such a warm, sunny day that it was almost impossible to imagine anything might ruin it. The Brooklyn skyline obscured a view of the World Trade Center, and with cellphone technology still limited to phone calls and texts, visuals of what had happened weren’t instantly available.

At approximately 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I was pushing a stroller carrying Eli, my 2-year-old son, toward the Borough Hall subway station in downtown Brooklyn. My wife, Jennifer, was already teaching her ethics class at Baruch College in Manhattan, and I was in charge of taking Eli to his daycare center at the City University of New York, which was located on Fifth Avenue, two blocks north of the Empire State Building. The ride on the N train usually took half an hour, and the route passed underneath the World Trade Center at what was then the Cortlandt Street station.

Eli had already begun memorizing the stops along the way between Borough Hall and 34th Street, and liked to ride in the front car so that he could look out the front window from the vantage point of the subway motorman. Another of my son’s quirks was that he tended to anthropomorphize tall buildings. “Hello, Empire State Building,” “Hello, World Trade Center,” he would say whenever we were walking in Manhattan or on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and he caught sight of the distinctive architectural markers that topped the structures. For that reason, Cortlandt Street held special resonance, which he’d sometimes note when he announced our arrival as though he were the actual conductor: “This is Cortlandt Street station, World Trade Center.”

As Eli and I approached the Borough Hall subway entrance, I was struck by the number of people gathered at a street corner, looking up in the direction of lower Manhattan. When I asked what was going on, a woman told me a plane had hit the twin towers. From her slightly impatient tone — that eye-rolling “what now?” attitude that is so common among New Yorkers — I assumed the crash must have been an accident. There was a faint cloud of smoke in the air, but it was such a warm, sunny day that it was almost impossible to imagine anything might ruin it. The Brooklyn skyline obscured a view of the World Trade Center, and with cellphone technology still limited to phone calls and texts, visuals of what had happened weren’t instantly available.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mom-marne-slain-kabul-says-205700107.html

  requiescatin pace, “may (the deceased ) rest in peace.”

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/youre-more-likely-to-get-a-blood-clot-after-covid-infection-than-with-the

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Some numbers – Equipment we left to the Taliban.

I have not verified… Where would one go to get reliable information?

In any event, since there are pictures circulating, of the enemy with US equipment, we can be sure that even if specifically inaccurate, the numbers are pretty close – Even the media acknowledges around $82+ Billion worth.

How evil works.....

The Marketing of Evil : How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom by David Kupelian

 Millions of Americans today accept ideas and behaviors that would have horrified all previous generations. Why? Why have thousands of years of Judeo-Christian moral standards suddenly been abandoned? What's behind today's divorce epidemic? Why is public prayer being criminalized? Why are 3,000 innocent unborn children aborted daily? In this widely acclaimed exposé, veteran journalist David Kupelian reveals the brilliant marketing strategies that have turned America upside down. "Within the space of our lifetime, much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped, and sold to us as though it had great value. By skillfully playing on our deeply felt national values of fairness, generosity, and tolerance, these marketers have persuaded us to embrace as enlightened and noble that which every other generation has regarded as grossly self-destructive--in a word, evil."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/did-model-employee-manage-steal-075400804.html

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Perhaps the oddest aspect of Biden’s indictment of Trump is that he treated Trump’s deal with the Taliban as immutable. Yet, as Pompeo noted, just as Trump abandoned Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, so Biden was free to walk away from Trump’s deal with the Taliban. Biden’s protestations regarding the deal were particularly ridiculous given that in his seven months in office, Biden has taken a cleaver to nearly all of Trump’s domestic and foreign policies. Biden didn’t remove U.S. forces from Afghanistan because he had to keep Trump’s deal. He removed them because he wanted to. 

This brings us to Biden’s devastating critique of the Afghan military, which he claimed was unwilling to defend the country. Over the past 20 years, 2,448 U.S. servicemen and women were killed in Afghanistan. Over the same period, 69,000 Afghan forces died defending their country from the Taliban. His statement amounted to malicious slander.

"One of the main functions of the U.S. forces and contractors Biden removed was to serve as military air traffic controllers for Afghan forces. Their departure meant the Afghan military lost its close air support. And since the U.S. built the Afghan military as its mini-me, like the U.S. forces, Afghan forces were dependent on close air support to conduct land operations.

In other words, Biden is more responsible than anyone else for the Afghans’ post-American collapse. If he expected them to fight, he shouldn’t have left them dependent on U.S. traffic controllers which he withdrew without coordination or warning of any kind.

It is entirely reasonable for Americans to demand the return of their forces from Afghanistan. But Monday, Biden presented the American people with a choice between fighting a major war against the Taliban which would see untold numbers of servicemen killed, or bring the boys home in total defeat, as he opted to do.

Biden’s presentation was a gross distortion of the facts. The U.S. suffered no losses over the past 18 months. The choice was between more of that and squandering everything U.S. forces in Afghanistan accomplished over the past twenty years. 

This brings us to the intelligence community. Since April, Biden, his advisors and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley have been insisting, presumably based on intelligence reports, that there was little reason to be concerned that a U.S. pullout would precipitate a Taliban takeover of the country. As provincial capitals fell like dominoes to the Taliban, Biden and his advisors insisted it would take a long time for the Taliban to arrive in Kabul. And on Monday, after the Taliban and taken Kabul and the Afghan President and the U.S. Ambassador had fled the city, Biden claimed that the Taliban’s takeover, “did unfold more quickly than we had expected.”

But here too, Biden did not tell the truth.  ABC News reported Monday that U.S. intelligence officials insist they provided Biden clear and detailed reports over the past several months which made clear that if he withdrew U.S. forces as he intended, the Afghan army and government would collapse and the Taliban would quickly retake control of the country. The regional military commanders similarly warned this would happen.

Taken as a whole then, the most notable aspect of the fiasco in Afghanistan is that to a large degree, Biden is its sole author. He was warned of the consequence. He chose to disregard the warnings. His party didn’t demand the pullout. The Washington establishment opposed it. Biden took his own counsel. This was his policy.  

If Biden had been right, he would rightly be the toast of the town right now. But reality is a harsh judge. The facts were never on his side. Reason was never on his side. His judgement was never reasoned or fact based. And as was eminently predictable, Biden was catastrophically wrong.

While  dooming tens of thousands of Afghans to death and millions more to utter misery, Biden’s misjudgment is quickly multiplying the threats the U.S. faces. The Taliban have seized U.S. aircraft abandoned at Bagram air base.  Milley acknowledged that the terror threat to the U.S. has grown since the U.S. pullout. And thanks to Biden, the U.S. southern border with Mexico remains open to all. Forces of jihad worldwide have received an unprecedented backwind from the U.S. defeat. Hamas, Iran and others hurried to embrace the Taliban.

Biden’s policy also emboldened U.S. superpower rivals China and Russia. They responded to America’s humiliation by bringing Iran into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

U.S. allies are furious and alarmed as they see the collapse of U.S. credibility and strategic rationality.

And this brings us to Bennett’s meeting with Biden next Thursday.

Biden’s decision to stick to his guns on Afghanistan shows that once he has made up his mind about something, Biden is unwilling to listen to counterargument. And the only other major position that Biden has held consistently over the years is his position on Iran.

Whereas for 15 years Biden was an outspoken critic of the war in Afghanistan and demanded a swift U.S. withdrawal, since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Biden has been among the regime’s most stalwart supporters in Washington.  Biden’s policy towards the ayatollahs in Tehran has been appeasement for the past 42 years, even when he stood alone on the issue.

For instance,  as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in 2001, Biden responded to the September 11 attacks on the U.S. by calling for the Bush administration to give Iran $100 million in foreign aid.

This week it was reported that ahead of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s visit with Biden next Thursday, government officials are hoping to convince him that given the failure of the nuclear talks in Vienna, the time has come for the U.S. and Israel to jointly attack Iran’s nuclear installations. If Biden weren’t impermeable to reason, Israel’s argument might have had a shot. After all, in 1983, Ronald Reagan responded to the Hezbollah bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut by invading Grenada.

But as Biden showed on Monday,

and in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Wednesday, he will not rethink his choices or positions, even after they failed.  As Biden rejects all criticism of his personal failure in Afghanistan, there is effectively zero chance he will reconsider his policy of 42 years on Iran. Moreover, unlike his policy on Afghanistan, his Iran policy is now shared by the U.S. intelligence community and military, the Washington establishment and the Democrat Party.

Whether Bennett would be better off postponing the trip until the smoke begins to settle remains to be seen. But what is clear enough is that with Iran sprinting towards the nuclear finish line, and U.S. credibility in a state of unprecedented collapse, if Israel wants to prevent Iran from acquiring military nuclear capabilities, Biden is not man to see."

Originally published in Israel Hayom.