Time Stands Still

It’s Friday again--it’s always Friday or, for that matter, it’s always every other day again. Time seems to be standing still even as it speeds up, hurtling us into an eternal present.

Here are my thoughts of the day.

If New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani refuses to say that he supports Israel as a Jewish state--why not question him about whether he supports Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Iran, or Afghanistan as Muslim states--because that’s what they are. There is no separation of religion and state in most Islamic states, and if infidels even manage to survive there, they are marginalized, persecuted, murdered, or exiled. Is Mamdani calling for equal rights for both majorities and minorities in Muslim states?

If not, why visit Western-only concepts on the one, the only, and the very tiny Jewish state? Why doesn’t he universalize this idea in a chant to “universalize post-Enlightenment Western values”? Surely someone younger than me can come up with a shorter and catchier phrase.

As to Mamdani’s previous (but not alleged) positions on de-criminalizing prostitution—oh, my God! Prostitution is the greatest form of violence against women. Mamdani is a very proud Muslim and thus, he needs to be questioned about his views on “sex,” for example, on normalized child rape, marital rape, gang-rape, and polygamy. I would ask him about whether legalized or de-criminalized prostitution in Nevada or in Holland has reduced the number of male sexual assaults in general or reduced the violence against “legal” prostitutes. (It hasn’t.)

I know: Over the years some feminists have been pro-pimp and pro-prostitution based on women’s economic desperation and on the known violence of Johns. However, I think that Mamdani may also have his eye on an income stream for the state, based on the degradation of womankind.

Moving right along to lighter subjects on today’s Friday:

In terms of identity, on medical and other forms, when I’m asked what my race is, I write, “Human, alas.” If “Jewish” is not one of the possible choices, I write it in.

As to my sexual preference identity: Sometimes I’ve written: “Not enough space for me to describe it all.” Other times: “C’mon People, like Walt Whitman, I contain multitudes.” Doesn’t everyone?

Because I troll the Dark Side, I need some diversion--time travel, a costume drama, the opera, a classy livestreamed soap opera. And so, this week I’ve returned to binge watching Downton Abbey, a six season, award-winning masterpiece with additional Christmas specials and several follow-up films. I first watched the series a decade ago but--Good News! I seem not to remember each and every twist and turn of the plot. The acting is magnificent, the sets dazzling, the characters complex. (In doing so, I am violating my own boycott of celebrity actors who’ve signed petitions against Israel. I am only human.)

I do wonder why I remain swept up in the lives of the British aristocracy and their very interesting servants. Perhaps nostalgia for a time gone by? Because it is in the past and we already know the ending--they are all doomed, and by now, they have departed the stage forever. Is this somehow less stressful? Perhaps I simply appreciate the incredible frocks. Since the time of the Bible and of Homer, we’ve all loved a good story. A romantic and tragic fairy tale, one also peopled by diabolical villains?

What do you all do for diversions?