Prisoners of war are members of the military taken prisoner by the enemy during war time. These were civilians taken from their homes during peace.

I have never heard that acronym. I also didn't know about "Netflix and chill". When dh and I went to Italy and shocked the locals we made friends with by telling them we had five kids, they all kept asking us, "Don't you have Netflix over there?!" so it must not mean that in Italy!

Hamas calls for violence against Americans and Britons. “We need violent acts against American and British interests everywhere as well as the interests of all the countries that support the occupation.” https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/121242/hamas-threaten-usa-uk-israel

I made a big batch of laundry detergent last night, so we’re set for the next couple of months. I really like the homemade detergent. Our clothes continue to seem to be a little cleaner than when I was buying laundry detergent, and this is significantly cheaper and smells good without any fragrances to cover up other scents. I thought we were just about done with Christmas purchasing when today dh told me we need to buy presents for the kids from his parents. Apparently they asked him if we would do that and said they will pay us back, and he said sure. Except that he doesn’t know what kind of budget they have in mind. Ugh. If they don’t want to do the planning part of gifting, most of my kids are old enough to be perfectly fine with cash. Only ds2 really needs a gift to understand that someone is giving him something.

When I was at BYU, professors were expected to give out a range of grades to their students, and could get in trouble for not doing so. They might have a class or a term that skewed high or low, but if they consistently gave only mostly high grades, they were assumed to not be teaching the material at a rigorous enough level, and if they consistently gave only mostly low grades, they were assumed to not be teaching the material well enough and offering enough opportunities for additional support for students. Is this not a thing anymore? Was it always unique to my school? There was an instance where a professor told us that there was going to be a step up in the difficulty of her grading, because her department had made a decision based upon average grades she gave out, so we had fair warning and knew it wasn’t something that complaining to her would help with. Another time a teacher of a notoriously difficult course required for my major (that students often had to take 2 or 3 times to pass) successfully argued to the department head that the level of rigor in his class was appropriate and that he did offer extensive opportunities for extra help that the great majority of students did take advantage of, it was just a really difficult subject for many students in our major. They agreed with him, but decided to start allowing Ds to count as a passing grade for the major for his class only (all other classes required a C to pass).

The Presidents of U Penn, Harvard, and MIT were questioned at a House of Representatives hearing a few days ago about how their schools have responded the the surge in anti-semitism over the last two months. All three but especially the President of U Penn has especially taken a lot of heat for their responses (from alumni, donors, students, senators, and even the White House). When asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate their schools’ codes of conduct, none of them gave an unequivocal yes. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-pennsylvania-president-steps-criticism-antisemitism-testimo-rcna128712 “Instead of directly replying to Stefanik’s yes-or-no question, Magill said that decision would be “context-dependent.” “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” she said. . . . Harvard President Claudine Gay responded to Stefanik’s line of questioning in similar terms. She testified that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said she had not heard of students on her campus calling for the genocide of Jews, adding that such rhetoric would be “investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe.” Magill has since apologized publicly and condemned calls of genocide of Jews, but today she resigned as president of the university. The White House’s statement in response to the university presidents’ testimony: ““It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country. Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting — and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans,” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-condemns-university-presidents-contentious-congressional-h-rcna128373

I’m sure all news sources have at times, but some mistakes are more easily understandable to me, and some I view as more egregious errors.

I have found them all to be lacking in one direction or another to varying degrees. I try to find balance by sampling from a wide variety of sources across the political spectrum domestically and internationally in order to be able to compare, though lately I’ve been going to the BBC most frequently.

It was on X/Twitter. They deleted the post and issued a correction after they were excoriated for it, so the original isn’t up anymore, but you can see the responses and the correction.

I’m not sure I could classify Reuters as a “high factual source” after they called released hostages last week “Israeli soldiers” (the hostages they were referring to were older women and little girls, including a three-year-old).

Well, if terrorists are firing guns out of it and operating from a base underneath it, and you do your best to get all the civilians out of harm’s way first, then yeah. If that’s the location your opponent has chosen to wage war from, that was the choice he made. Your choice at that point is to fight him where he is, or to stand and let him kill you. You don’t get to choose to fight him where he’s not. ETA: Whether the efforts to get civilians out of harm’s way are sufficient is the real question, in my opinion.

I stopped by the farm supply store the other day to get chicken feed, and saw a sign that they were having a 10% off sale on Wednesday. So I didn’t buy the chicken feed then, but went back yesterday and got two months’ worth. Also, they had a deal on gift cards going where you could buy a $30 gift card for $25, so I paid $150 for $180 of gift cards—chicken feed paid for the next year or so.

That stinks if people have called you antisemitic for your opinions, but that isn't what this thread was about. The OP was talking about the surge of actual antisemitism that is occurring right now.

Is the rise in islamophobia greater among young people? I have seen many reports of antisemitic incidents on college campuses, but the reports I have seen of islamophobic incidents haven't disproportionately involved young people. I haven't seen any numbers on it, though.

I was never taught anything about history post WWII in school.

Except that what we are seeing on many college campuses is the opposite of this; not a clear distinction between anti-Israeli government sentiment and anti-semitism, but the opposite.

Of course there is anti Muslim sentiment as well, but nobody in this thread said there wasn’t. Responding to “I don’t see A, only B” with “Here are a bunch of examples of A” is not missing J, it is giving a logical response. I don’t think we have to supersede every discussion of problem A with problem J to prove that we care about both (especially when problem A is statistically a more prevalent occurrence in our country at this time).

My thoughts: There is a hierarchical mindset that is very common in the viewpoint of many young people that I think is at the root of the current surge in anti-semitism, especially among those on college campuses. There seems to be a sorting of who, as a group, is the most-to-least oppressed, that is based not only on historical oppression, but also to some degree on the material success of each demographic on average. Those who don’t fall on the oppressed side are at least suspect of being oppressors. It isn’t a big step from here to saying therefore, those whose groups are seen as more materially successful are the ones who it is okay to discriminate against. I think that the general acceptance of discrimination against Asians in college admissions comes from the same root. Asian immigrants as a group are seen as highly materially successful, so there is no widespread outrage at the fact that Asian kids have to work significantly harder to get into the same schools as other kids. It doesn’t matter if that kid’s parents were refugees who fled a foreign regime or what they had to overcome to get here. Asians are not viewed as a group that needs help and protection, because statistically they tend to be highly educated with good incomes. So people don’t really care about the discrimination or think that it is all that unjust. It is the same with Jews. As a group, statistically speaking they are well-educated and materially successful, so they are seen as falling more on the oppressor end of the hierarchy, regardless of actual historical oppression or the facts of current hate crime numbers.

It is undeniable that antisemitic speech and actions are rampantly on display around the world at this time. Antisemitic incidents are up 400% in the U.S. (according to the Anti-defamation league, at the end of October) and they were already the most targeted group for hate crimes by a significant margin before the surge (according to the FBI). There have been stabbings by strangers for being Jewish, homes defaced with swastikas because they had a mezuzah on the doorframe, kosher delis vandalized. Jewish students on college campuses are especially terrorized. At Cornell there were threats to shoot up the Jewish life student center, slit the throats of Jewish men, and rape and throw off a cliff Jewish women on campus. At Northeastern University in Boston last week, Jewish students gathered for a Shabbat dinner and protestors gathered with signs calling for global intifada—not an uprising against Israelis, but against all a Jews around the world.

That might be a really good idea. 🙂

I could, but their normal prices are 1.5 to 2 times the cost of the exact same products at the other stores in town, so I wouldn’t get $48 worth of anything for it. I usually only shop there for the sale items and the occasional fancier item that isn’t carried at the other stores, like when I want Gruyère cheese for my French onion soup.

An expensive grocery store in town that occasionally has very good coupons had their deal on diapers going. It comes around every couple of months. I checked their website that showed they weren’t out of the ones we needed, went to the store, and used the machine by the door to print out my recycling voucher (they give more per can/bottle recycled if you use it at their store than if you take cash). I hadn’t taken out the funds for my recycling in over a year, so the voucher was for $48. I went to grab the diapers and found that despite what their website had said, they not only didn’t have the diapers I wanted, but there was no place on the shelf for them anymore. I think they must have decided to stop carrying the large boxes of the less expensive brand. And apparently I can’t use part of the voucher funds; I have to use it all at once or the rest of the funds are lost. I don’t know when I am likely to want fifty dollars worth of anything from that store again if their diapers are no longer worth it. And I have this tiny slip of paper to keep track of until I have a use for it.

This would also be more likely to find abuse in the highest risk child demographic, which is the under-fives. And avoid the hypocrisy of singling out some parents with no negative history as potential abusers while ignoring others, based only on their educational choices and not on their children being out of contact with reporters.

Christmas stuff is coming together. I was searching for matching pjs and frustrated because they are so hard to find now with my kids’ range of sizes, but finally happened on some very nice ones with a coupon available that put them into my budgeted price range. A small, local grocery store had a tree sale this weekend and we got a nice tree for $39. I ordered the kids’ books when the Amazon deal was going, and we only need one gift for dd14, dd13, and ds2 still, plus a shared one for the nephews. Our foster girls’ dad has made it clear that he doesn’t want us to have a relationship with them anymore, so we have decided to put some money into their savings accounts for birthdays and Christmas from now on. I also saw that Azure Standard is having a promotion with 15% off of their azure market, azure market organic, and azure canning co. brand items right now for orders of at least $150. The canning supplies are also on sale for 15% off, so this is on top of that. I was able to order some things I have been wanting to build up my pantry supply of for cheaper than I can get them anywhere else, and get some half-gallon canning jars for $1.61 each. The promo code is ABUNDANTPANTRY2023 https://www.azurestandard.com/?a_aid=dad23cd9c4 And this year I am finally remembering to do something that I have wished I had done each of the last several tax filings—start a record of my mileage for medical visits at the beginning of the year to fill in as I go, rather than retroactively trying to figure it out at tax time.

The two youngest Zyadne siblings were released today, so that is all of the minor hostages other than the little Bibas boys.