Clutter and the War on Israel

Sep 18, 2024

Hello friends,

As you know, decluttering never goes of out of style. INCYMI, listen to our conversation with decluttering expert, Tracy McCubbin. We got so much positive feedback, we did two parts, and both are worth every minute. You will learn how your shopping triggers get you in trouble and how you can do yourself a huge favor by removing stuff every weekend instead of adding stuff to your home.

Buying less stuff is a win-win, for your stress levels, time management, bank account and…the planet. Of course, get the cute shoes or the perfect outfit but stop buying things on sale hat you don’t even need. If it’s hard to stop yourself, don’t worry you are not alone. 1 in 4 Americans has a clutter problem and 1 in 4 Americans can’t park in their garage due to much stuff. Chances are, you probably have at least one of the clutter blocks Tracy describes in these episodes

Of course, we also want to share some of the things we have been reading and listening to this week so please keep scrolling!

Things we read and loved in the last two weeks:

Israel:

Do not miss this conversation with Dan Señor and Sam Harris on the Call Me Back Podcast. It’s a summary of what has happened in Israel since October 7, and they are both so freaking intelligent and informed.

“It's only within Islam that you're facing this kind of death cult behavior. It's only in Islam where you take your life in your hands to criticize the faith as a member of the faith or as someone outside the faith. I mean, just look at the experience of Salman Rushdie, right?”

“That's the thing that is diagnostic of this whole moral delusion. Again, it does sort of follow Paul Berman's brilliant insight, that, okay, you make the violence against the Jews as extreme as you want. The more extreme you make it, I'm going to blame the Jews more and more for whatever they did to inspire that violence”

“What's amazingly cynical about this is the jihadists know that we care more about the lives of their children than they do, and they're consciously weaponizing that against us.”

From Call Me Back - with Dan Senor: One Year Since October 7th - with Sam Harris, Sep 15, 2024

We admire and respect the stand Ritchie Torres has taken to support Israel and to speak out against Jew hatred. Please listen and have faith that there are good people out there, there are congressman with integrity who are working for justice, truth and freedom.

“We have our own institutions are indoctrinating the next generation of Americans, not only with a hatred for Israel, but with a hatred for their own country.”
“You can be pro-Israel, but be naive. And I feel like the trouble with the Iran deal was not that it was nefarious, is that it was naive. It was based on the wishful thought that if only we integrate Iran with the international community, then maybe it will magically moderate over time.
Well, as China became more integrated with the West, it became more emboldened in its authoritarianism, not less. As Russia became more integrated with the West, it became more emboldened in its authoritarianism, not less. So why assume Iran is an exception to the rule?”

From Unorthodox: A Tablet Conversation with Congressman Ritchie Torres, Jun 20, 2024

A fascinating NYT Article about UNWRA

“As the original Palestinian refugees passed their status to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, UNRWA grew, too. It has 32,000 staff members in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, working mostly in 58 official refugee camps, which have evolved from makeshift tent cities into neighborhoods crowded with small dwellings and apartment blocks. In its first decade, UNRWA tried to help individual refugees set themselves up as shoemakers, blacksmiths and carpenters, while at the same time pursuing ambitious regional water plans, inspired by the Tennessee Valley Authority, in hopes that they would create long-term agricultural jobs. Those efforts to quietly resettle the refugees outside historic Palestine failed, largely because Arab countries didn’t want to integrate the refugees and the refugees did not wish to resettle — they wanted to go home. As a result, the bulk of UNRWA’s work in recent decades has focused on education and health care. Before the war, more than a half a million children attended its 700 schools, and two million patients sought care at its 140 health centers every year.”

A mom and son take on anti-semitism at the not so ethical “Ethical Fieldston School”

A Jewish student who graduated from the Ethical Fieldston School in the Bronx was tormented by classmates calling him an “ethnic cleanser” and a “colonizer” and even witnessed a teacher give rabbis the middle finger at an assembly, according to his mom.

Mental Health

Mark Manson had an interesting conversation about being addicted to self help.

“I also think that some of it is just like, it's a higher order way of coping with neuroticism. So, William James believed that it's actually impossible to solve addiction. You just replace one addiction with others.”

From The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Podcast: Self-Help Junkies, Stupid Experts, and the Worst Life Advice I've Ever Heard, Sep 11, 2024