Change is a very sensitive topic among observant Jews, in no small part because the most common attack on traditional Judaism is to use history to show how much Judaism has changed. Pointing out that what we do today is not necessarily the same as what we did in yesteryear invariably calls today’s practice and customs into question, undermining observant practice.

Orthodox Judaism is deeply resistant to change, and, ironically enough, also for historical reasons: Those who consciously “modernize” Judaism never endure past a few generations at the most. All non-observant strains of Judaism have proven to be term-limited. Observant Torah Judaism is the only form of Judaism that has stood the test of time and that persists intergenerationally. So it resists both change and the assertion that there even is change!

At one time John Bolton played a useful role in American foreign policy. He was the tough guy willing to say and do what was necessary to advocate for American interests. He was willing to go to the UN and tell them to their faces what a useless pile of rubbish they are. But as time went on, he became nothing but a pompous blowhard who made his pronouncements with great force on television. He joined administrations, took copious notes, and then made millions writing exposés.

After the Mar-a-Lago classified documents raid, Bolton tut-tutted about Trump and his childish carelessness with classified material:

I really like this version because it shows how many incredible people lived in two small eras of time.

I am starting to think that competing city-states work better than empires. If you placed all the scientific and intellectual advances of Greece against the advances of Rome, Greece would win. It’s not even close. That is amazing because the Roman Empire (which I think about every day) lasted for about seven hundred years longer and was many times larger in both population and area ruled than the glory days of ancient Greece.

No, that is not a misprint. I just spent a few precious hours programming an additional garage door opener. For the last few years Mrs. Pessimist has driven a large SUV that could not fit into our garage because of the tall cabinets I had installed to hide all the junk that tried to drive us completely out of the garage. I used to look down on people who could not use their garage because they had accumulated too much junk. All of my essential garage junk is neatly stored in huge floor-to-ceiling cabinets. All was good in the world. I parked my old Honda CRV in one bay, and Mrs. Pessimist parked her golf cart in the other bay. She also parked her large SUV in the driveway.

My son needed a new car, so we gave him Mrs. Pessimist’s overly large SUV, and she bought a Lexus hybrid sedan. It was said to be compact. Compact, my a..! It was two feet longer than my old Honda SUV, but it managed to fit in our garage with two inches to spare on each end. No problem. I accepted my demotion from the garage to the driveway, but needed a garage door opener to bring groceries into the house and also stock the garage refrigerator that contains our essential libations.

New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District is a gerrymandered Democrat-safe space.   It’s the district next door to me.  The Democratic primary was yesterday, and the winner will no doubt win the general election in November.  It’s designed that way.  Who will be the next Congressman replacing retiring Bonnie Watson-Coleman?  This one is a real prince.  His name is Dr Adam Hamawy, a controversial candidate who previously volunteered with an al-Qaeda-linked group and a former associate of the infamous “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, who incited the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.  In the Sheikh’s 1995 trial, Hamawy testified on the Sheikh’s behalf.

I worked in Brooklyn, a block or two from the mosque where the Sheikh used to preach.  I can attest that if the blinds were open, you could see the black flag of jihad displayed on the second floor of the mosque.

Florida is probably going to end residential property tax (on the first 250k of value, growing to 500k of value), thus making the state an even more attractive place to live. DeSantis is cleverly proposing that new out-of-state purchasers will have to pay five years of property tax before they “graduate” into the tax-free category. I suspect that this will accelerate migration into Florida, as new buyers will want to get the clock started earlier rather than later. In short: invest now and reap benefits later.

Israel, a country run and populated by the world’s most brilliant fools, has taken exactly the opposite approach. The first ten years of Israeli tax residency come with zero tax on foreign-source income (though every dime must be reported). AND if you move in before the end of 2026, you are tax exempt for the first $250k of Israeli income, as well as for two years (tapering off to zero).

Today is Release Day for one of the most important books I’ve narrated: Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s by Yanek Mieczkowski.

This is the third book by Dr. Mieczkowski that I have recorded, so I know that he writes in an engaging and accessible manner. I know you will enjoy listening to it because I enjoyed reading it. You’ll learn without realizing that it’s happening, which is the best way. And there is a lot to learn. Yanek interviewed Ford himself several times before Ford’s passing, enough to feel the man’s warmth and friendliness. He also spent a lot of time with members of Ford’s staff and his friends, as well as people from the Nixon and Carter years. This is a remarkable work of scholarship.

Gerald Ford was a genuinely good man who has not gotten the credit he deserved. The Nixon resignation blew Washington to pieces. Ford’s calmness, trustworthiness, and understanding of how Washington worked were precisely what the country needed. The timing of the Nixon pardon was unfortunate, but eventually people understood that it was the right thing to do. The country needed to focus on inflation and the energy crisis rather than wasting time on Watergate. Ford was trusted by Democrat leaders in both houses to a surprising extent, so he was able to refocus the country on the true threats that it faced, even if policies to address them came after his too-brief administration.

Stephen Kotkin answers five more questions on Iran, China, Ukraine, and America’s future, arguing that the United States remains the world’s dominant power — if it can avoid defeating itself from within.

The Battle of Seven Pines (or Fair Oaks, depending on the account), part of the Peninsula Campaign, marks one of the most consequential days of the American Civil War.  Confederate Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Joseph E Johnson, was severely wounded.  Jefferson Davis appointed his own military advisor, Robert E Lee, as Johnson’s replacement.

The battle could have been, should have been, a resounding Confederate success.  Union General George McClellan was making a methodical push towards Richmond, moving east to west up the Virginia Peninsula, his army astride the Chickahominy River.  Three of McClellan’s five corps sat on the north bank.  Two Corps sat on the south bank.  What Southerners knew, which McClellan didn’t, was that the Chickahominy ran high in the Spring and the two corps on the southern side of the river were nearly isolated from the rest of the Union Army.  Meanwhile, all of Johnson’s strength was south of the river.  Johnson sought to concentrate his forces against the Union forces south of the river and destroy them before Union assistance could cross the river with support.  It was a solid idea.