It's been a long time since I've been to Katz's deli. Almost everything they serve there is scrumptious. Too bad that the place is so far away for me. It's been ages since I've had a really good pastrami sandwich, and I could go for one again.
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The older I get, the more I find that the less people know what they are talking about. Recently, I met with a financial planner - and she gave me advice appropriate for a person with 10x my assets. (I'm not knocking her. But she overlooked one key thing, and that bothered me.) Other people make the mistake of using anecdotal evidence instead of empirical evidence to form their opinions. This wouldn't be so bad, save that most people want to reinforce their views of the world and not challenge them. Of course, we have the conspiracy theorists who have a desperate need to "know" things that others don't know, so that they can share their "prophesies" to people who will listen.
Before you think that I'm ranting about people as a whole, I include myself in the group who feels they know more than they do. For example, I didn't know how many people are caught crossing the border from Mexico this past year, nor did I know what is happening to them after apprehension by "La Migra". We are all influenced by the media we watch (or do not watch), and I have been mostly influenced by media that leans towards the left. Others are influenced by right leaning media, believing that their opinion issuers are telling the truth. Given what we now about January 6, 2001 and the Trump inspired insurrection, people like Hannity were trying to reach Trump to call off his rioters, while saying that it was a "peaceful protest" on their shows. It's hard to know what resembles truth anymore without knowing the biases of the people delivering both news and opinions.
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Why am I concerned about all of this?
Recently, a school district has banned Maus, the graphic novel about the holocaust by Art Spiegelman. Although I have not read the book, I strongly support the need for youngsters to read it, so that they have an idea of how to understand what went on in the 1930's. In itself, I'm concerned about the "right's" attempt to sanitize history for its ends. But I'm even more shocked when someone posted a picture of Nazi book burning, noting that these books came from the Institute for Sexology. Seems like Fascists of any era like to deny people from the LGBTIQ communities their rights to even exist - something that should worry us all.
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