MY UNHUMBLE AND UNPOPULAR OPINION ON UKRAINE

 Dear Ukrainian Patriots, 

1. If you are naturalized citizens of the USA and you live here, America is your homeland; if you disagree with this, you are more than welcome to go to Ukraine and fight - there is no iron curtain holding you here.

2. I completely understand the desire to fly Ukrainian flags at times like these; however, if you decide to fly it without the American flags, please see above.

3. The Naturalization Oath begins with “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen”. We have had “the most secure” elections, which ended up installing a senile old poppet in the White House, resulting in the most hostile Executive branch in the modern history.  Our economy is on the brink of collapse, our border is wide open, we have political prisoners (about whom almost nobody is talking), our Constitutional rights are eroding as we speak, and now we have BABY FOOD SHORTAGE!   Somehow, I see no concern about any of that - why?!  

4. For those of you who are Jews - Israel is experiencing another wave of constant terror, yet I still see more concern about Ukraine. Again, why?!

5. Ukraine repeatedly votes against Israel in the UN; why should Israel help them (aside from being perennial morons, and practicing kindness towards everyone)?

6. I see that the most independent minded among you somehow found a way to blame President Trump, conservatives, and the right wing in general for Putin’s invasion.  May I remind you that it was President Trump who kept in check every single tyrant and despot, including Putin?  If you are so smart and open-minded, can you stop watching CNN for one minute and explain to me your train of thought?

7. I also enjoy watching ad hominem attacks on Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other members of Congress who refuse to automatically send our non-existent money to Ukraine; why are they attacked for doing their jobs, ergo - protecting the interests of American citizens?!

MY UNHUMBLE OPINION ON WHOPPI GOLDBERG'S LATEST

Here are my bullet points and subpoints (in no particular order) regarding Whoopi Goldberg’s latest verbal diarrhea, and the subsequent mini fallout:

1. As usual, The Left got grade A chutzpah:

a) they are the ones who not only ban books on the regular, but routinely attack people for any speech not in total agreement with their mantra, perform constant virtual hangings and auto da fe on the various social media platforms, advocate for the “amending” of the First Amendment, and basically clamor for any and all available thought police.

b) the only reason they paid attention to Maus was because some little school district in the boondocks of Tennessee (read “probably right wing”) took it out of their curriculum.

c) they are the ones who continually and shamelessly spit on the ashes and mass graves of our murdered brothers and sisters by constantly comparing any and all of their pet projects and victims du jeur to Holocaust and its victims. 

d) they never consider Jews a persecuted minority unless doing so serves their political agenda and/or general propaganda.

e) they have among them the biggest collection of anti-Semites and anti-Semitic groups in the entirety of American history.

2. Any person with a brain, logic, and a modicum of knowledge in the area of child development knows that you simply can’t allow children to read everything available to the general public:

1. It’s one thing for them to encounter violence in fairy tales (monsters, dragons, scary old witches and warlocks, ets.) - they actually need it for their emotional development.  It’s an entirely different kettle of fish to let them read about the real violence that human beings could be capable of - they need to be introduced to it very gradually, and, obviously, at the appropriate age (which, by the way, also varies from child to child), so, logic and caution are highly recommended!  One of the hypocritical utterances I saw online was to the tune of “it’s age-appropriate to make the twelve year olds read Eli Wiesel’s The Night because he was twelve at the time” - wrong!  No amount of Marvel and DC comics can prepare a normal twelve-year-old kid to read about the horrors that the subhuman monsters subjected young Eli to!  Seventeen/eighteen - yes, but not before!  It’s simply cruel and completely counterproductive to do so otherwise!

2. The other subject that children have to be introduced to very cautiously, and at the appropriate age, is human sexuality, and everything connected to it.  This is where the Left once again shows their cruelty and tendency towards child abuse by trying to force this knowledge on children beginning with the toddler years!  As the former B & N children’s bookseller, I can personally testify to the staggering amount of board- and picture books (which are usually aimed at children 0 - 6) which are specifically dealing with the issues of sex, gender, homosexuality, so-called transgenderism, etc. - and the horrifying number of times these books were sought out because they were an assigned reading in school!

3) The Left sees everything - and I mean everything - through the prism of their bigoted concept of intersectionality, and their absolutely unscientific concept of race and ethnicity.  It’s actually amusing to watch and see them trying to stick the Jews into these groups and ladders - because they actually can’t figure out if we are just a religious group, or an ethnic minority, or a race; of course, the prolonged brain activity is not their forte - so, they just decided to stick us with whities and be done with it.  The part that really infuriated me personally was the one that most people ignored - it was when the honorable Whoopi mumbled that the Holocaust was “you white people doing it to yourselves”!  How convenient - not only are the whities the subhumans, the source of all evil throughout history, and the “black and brown” people perpetual victims, ergo, morally superior, but we can simply write off the entire history of European anti-Semitism as internal problems between “you white people” - brilliant historical analysis, what can I say!

4) The staggering amount of various right-wingers and libertarians, bless their hearts, saw it as a matter of honor to immediately jump on the various soap boxes and bloviate ad nauseum that Brilliant Historical Scholar Whoopi has her First Amendment protection just like everyone else, and, is, therefore, entitled to run off her piehole any which way she desires.  Under normal logic and circumstances, yes, she is not a politician, or any kind of official spokesman for anyone, so, yes, she should be able to say whatever she damn well pleases.  After all, there are politicians and former politicians - notably, our illustrious former Governor and even more illustrious former Mayor, who basically kept accusing Jews of spreading Covid, then offered some lame apologies, then continued with their accusations - and nobody ever brought any kind of criminal charges, or even civil proceedings, against them.  However, the level of black anti-Semitism, especially in the recent years, got to the levels beyond alarming.  Started, among many other contributions, by the tireless efforts of the late unlamented Desmond Tutu and still residing on this plane Louis Farrakhan, it is growing by leaps and bounds.  Not only are these people showing black ingratitude (pun not intended) for the part our naive brethren played in the civil rights movement, but it seems that they accumulated all the ancient anti-Jewish blood libels under their umbrella - and added some of their own invention.   So, when a “wise black woman” on the national TV show starts yammering garbage about Holocaust, yes, it has a very negative effect in general, and adds to already very murky waters of the black racism and anti-Semitism in particular.  

5) Likewise, from the righteous right and libertarians came the repeated analysis and assertions of Ms. Goldberg not being an anti-Semite - wrong!  She is a racist and an anti-Semite par excellence - just check her extra wise utterances regarding the so-called Israeli-Arab conflict.

6) As mentioned above, the Left are the ones who impose rules on speech; they are the ones who cancel people - making sure that anyone who disagrees with their dogma not only loses their employment, but is made a complete pariah, and Whoopi Goldberg is one of the most ardent supporters and promoters of the cancel culture.  As such, her two-week suspension was just a very weak taste of her own medicine - in the best traditions of the cancellers, she really should have been fired. 

7) The saddest in all this - and, unfortunately, by no means news - is the glaring fact of the ADL, which long ago ceased to be any kind of defender of Jewish rights, and instead became another arm of the politically correct army of the Left. 

SIGNS FROM HEAVEN, Part 1

There is a popular trope in fiction and movies - at a certain point the hero or the heroine would ask The Heavens (or a dearly departed) for some kind of a sign to know for sure that whatever action is about to be undertaken is the right one.  This makes for a touching, or a romantic, or a heart-wrenching scene; but the real life is much more simple - and much more complex.

I firmly believe that Gd speaks to us all the time, and there is no need to ask for signs - they are just there: in the majesty of nature, in the love of our families, in the myriad of blessings bestowed upon us....heck, even in the craziness of this world and our fellow humans...and sometimes the message is so clear that it takes your breath away....

This past Monday Beloved Sibling sent me two consecutive media "bombs" - first was of the Israeli freedom convoy; the second was of our beautiful Sabra One donating her hair, which she painstakingly grew after the last donation so that she can donate it again!  This, right there, was to me the entire meaning of life encapsulated in a bunch of Internet messages.

Our children are the best of us; they are our miracles, our hope for the future, our victory dance over our enemies.  They are the biggest blessing from Heavens; their love, their innocence, their complete lack of guile, their unabashed enjoyment of simple stuff in life, their constant awe at the things that our jaded eyes just can't see anymore - all these and more make for the best balm for the troubled soul.  

And in return, we have to ensure that the world we would leave for them is at least as good (and hopefully better) than the one that we had inherited - and that means standing up to the real monsters.  It is that simple and that complex.

FACEBOOK ADVENTURES, Part 2

 Back in the summer I had to haul my behind to the city (which used to be fun, but, thanks to De Blasio's regime and the lockdowns, is, sadly, not anymore).  Once there, I decided to visit the old hunting ground of Marshall’s and T.J. Maxx on Sixth Avenue.  Since the story took place in late August, I found the all too expected rainbow products on clearance in the far corner.  Most of it was the usual junk, but a wooden toothbrush with rainbow bristles really made me chuckle - so, I snapped a picture and posted it on Facebook.  That post produced a very interesting exchange, the most pertinent part of which is presented here without edits - aside from the name changes (in order to protect the innocent and the guilty).

Name key:

BC - yours truly

N - my friend from Pittsburgh; for full context - she is in her late sixties, a practicing Catholic, a mother and a grandmother, and also a very wise, logical, and tolerant person.

L1 - a former coworker of mine, with whom I was on good terms while back at B&N; also for context - that coworker was born and raised in the USA; she is in her mid-twenties, and she is a lesbian

L2 - L1’s then-fiancée; I have never met her; all I know about her is that she was also born and raised in this country; she is from a very religious rural family, and, obviously, also a lesbian

*****************************************************************************************************

BC: “I am OK with everyone living their lives and not sticking it in mine at every turn...but the corporate idiocy really gets to me...our store never flew the American flag, even on the Independence day, or Memorial day...but they went all out every June

N: “BC, I hear ya, GF! I hate "follow the leader" bullshit. It's mindless! That's why I said that if they're on that LBGQ bandwagon, it's stupid! I can't stand that!! Sheeple.

Did you notice, commercials now are mostly black people or mixed race couples? 13% of the population is now 98% of the commercials.”

 

BC: “yep, I did notice this a while back…”

 

L1: “BC, Seriously? Straight sex and romcoms and fucking everything has been in everyone’s faces and perfectly acceptable since the dawn of time. The rainbow isn’t hurting you or harming anyone. What it does is help people who have historically been outcasts feel a little more comfortable. Let people have their representation. It’s a toothbrush. Jesus fucking Christ grow up”

L1: “N, How would you feel if the tables were turned and people said they couldn’t stand who you are and who you love? Bc if you want to experience, I can make that happen.”

BC: “L1, are you telling us to grow up?!! N and I?!! That's one of the funniest jokes I have seen this week!”

N: “L1, What the hell are you raving about? Who said any of that? Why are you being so confrontational and vulgar?”

N: “L1, Are you threatening me? Are you? Do what you gotta do.”

L1: “N, Why are you being homophobic and racist?”

L1: “BC, Yep”

N: “Wow! It doesn't take much to set you off. Have some Xanax.”

N: “L1, Where is my racist comment?!”

L1: “N, Eh, I’m good. Not big on drugs thanks “

L1: “Here (screenshot of N’s earlier comment about commercials)

N: “L1, And???? That's a fact. Do you see Asians, Muslims and Jews in that disproportionate numbers. Whites? Pacific Islanders? Get a grip.”

N: “L1, Maybe you need drugs to calm the f*ck down.”

N: “L1, How about Native Americans?”

L1: “N, You’re the one being all salty about the existence of a rainbow toothbrush”

N: “L1, You're reading between the lines and not doing a good job of it. My suggestion would be to take a deep breath, calm down, and read without emotion”

N: “L1, You're overfocused on sentences taken out of context. Can't see the forrest for the trees.

CNN is hiring.”

 

N: “BC, I object to Jesus F*cking Christ. That's blasphemous. But, it's all OK when it's a liberal doing their thing.

I object but God is bigger than that. ”

 

BC: “you keep, forgetting, L1, that we are way older, more experienced, and yes, wiser...and that's the problem with your generation - all young people think that they are smart, but your generation decided that all older people are racists, bigots, nazis, etc, etc, etc, and you, guys, are the best of the best! You lead charmed lives that you don't appreciate, invent hardships, don't appreciate this country, and refuse to really educate yourselves on real history and facts. Young leftists in the USA are the most narrow-minded, entitled, and intolerant people I have seen in my life - and I have seen some doozies...there are plenty of things that offend us on the hourly basis, but WE BELIEVE IN LIVE AND LET LIVE!”

 

L2: “BC, Except you don’t believe in live and let live. You believe in being stuck up, biased, cruel, and hateful, and then you get offended if anyone calls you on it. If you truly believed in live and let live, a toothbrush wouldn’t bother you so much. Also, you can take your ideas about a charmed life and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine. Entitlement is expecting to never see a rainbow toothbrush. Entitlement is losing your whole asshole when someone asks you to stop being so myopically self centered for just long enough to consider other human beings might exist. Entitlement is condescending to people and micromanaging their lived experiences. If you don’t wanna be called a racist, don’t say racist things. If you don’t want to look like a bigot, don’t act like it. If you don’t want to be associated with nazis, STOP ACTING LIKE NAZIS. Also, there are plenty of old people who aren’t bigoted, hateful, idiotic, and selfish - I see them every single day, so stop claiming that age equals a shitty personality and no empathy. Stop claiming that experience means that you can’t treat other people like humans. Stop victimizing yourself over a goddamn toothbrush. The hypocrisy is so thick I’m fucking choking on it. Grow up for a goddamn second and let the gays LIVE.”

 

N: “I'll say this for a 68 year old "boomer", if a toothbrush comment offends you, you have a problem. Life is going to kick your ass so buckle up ladies. You have a rocky road ahead. Your choice! You can move on or constantly argue and work yourselves up.

Neither BC or I are homophobes. Not in the least. The comments and posts were all about "woke" people jumping on bandwagons following what they think will make more money. Do you really think those companies give two sh*ts about you or anyone else? If you really do, you're so damn naive, you better make some in-flight adjustments.

You need to learn to pick your battles in life. This silly thing isn't a hill to die on. Trust me, life and people are going to clean your clocks for the remainder of your lives! The best thing you can do is develop a healthy sense of humor about who you are and learn how to laugh at yourself in order to survive. You ain't getting out of life alive no matter how you REACT.

Yes, these are reactionary comments made by you. They're not thought through. Just reacting while filling in the blanks.

Can't you just scroll past what you disagree with? This is BC’s timeline. She's the queen here and she can say as she pleases. Don't like it? Move on. Life is too short and if this is the most homophobic thing you've ever seen .... WOW .... you do have a charmed life so far. Buckle up and lighten the f*ck up! The best gay jokes I ever heard in my life were told to me by gay male friends who learned to love themselves and don't give two sh*ts about who doesn't love or accept them. They found themselves and accept who they are. They don't need to get all butt hurt over jokes. The funniest black jokes I ever heard were told to me by black folks I taught in college. I grew up in a 35% black town.

If you're trying to fight some LBGQ battle, this ain't it! I remember days that gays, blacks and other minorities really had something to whine about. You do not! Life for your generation was easy compared to those who went before you.”

 

N: “One last thing ... if you wish to be accepted and treated with respect, vulgarity and insults won't help you in the least. If you want to be treated with class and dignity, blasphemy isn't going to generate much respect from others. You do much better learning and developing grace.”

 

L2: “N, ok boomer.”

 

 

 

FACEBOOK ADVENTURES, Part 1

I decided to try and document some of the more “amusing” stuff that routinely happens to me whenever I try to, erm, dialogue with the other side (otherwise known as THE DERANGED LEFT) on social media.  This is part one. 

There is a page on Facebook called Weird History; I honestly don’t know why I still follow it - because for every post that is actually interesting, educational, or inspired, they manage to produce about ten that amount to no more than left-wing propaganda, the bashing of the whities, the reaffirmation of the hate towards the West (especially the USA), and the mocking of anything remotely related to Christianity (and, of course, Judaism - for company).

About a week ago they, once again, decided to demonstrate how stupid an average American is by posting some kind of kookie exchange relating to the origins of the “Arabic” numerals.  I had a lot to say on that post, but all I did was point out that they are Indian numerals, not Arabic - and the floodgates opened….

They were the usual emoticon reactions to my utterance - likes from people who probably had the same opinion, smiley faces from a bunch of people who thought that I was an idiot (unsurprisingly, a lot of them had Arab- and Jewish- sounding last names), and hearts from people who, I guess, applauded my daring (also, some of them had last names like Patel and Singh, so, I assume that they were duly grateful for my defense of the honor of their people and their homeland).  Of course, it did not stop at emoticons - I got the usual barrage of comments that called into question my mental acuity, my education (and the possible lack of such), my familiarity with people and cultures different from mine, my level of tolerance, etc, etc, etc, etc.  Obviously, my subsequent comment pointing out the fact of Arabs invading huge swaths of land, and claiming credit for scientific discoveries of superior cultures that they subjugated and forced into Islam produced the expected steam coming from all the orifices of the tolerant Left, who long ago accepted as fact that only Europeans ever waged the wars of conquest - and the rest is just hateful propaganda.

But forget all this - the best was the following exchange: one of the snooty comments directed at me claimed that “someone never visited Saudi Arabia, and it shows.”  I assume that you have to go there in order to appreciate the superior intelligence of Arabs, and also get confirmation that they, and not Indians, invented the blessed numerals?  Anyway, I politely pointed out to that genius that, as a Jew, I can’t really sojourn to the exotic lands of Saudis, woe on my head!  The response? “Well, how was I supposed to know that you are a Jew?!! Simmer down there, Karen!”  The love for Arabs is so great that their intolerance and anti-Semitism are completely forgotten!  That self-proclaimed defender of human rights finds it A-OK for Jews not to be allowed into a whole bunch of countries populated by the enlightened and oh-so-brilliant Arabs!  While telling me off, the possibility of my not being allowed to travel into those holy lands doesn’t even enter this extra educated mind!  The usual sensitivity to the persecuted minorities is never afforded us, but I am a “Karen” (incidentally, I really hate this racist epithet!) for pointing it out!  Curtains….

9/12?

There are a lot of people in our country who look back on September 12, 2001 with a sort of nostalgia and longing - because, even though the country was in shock and in mourning, we, as Americans, were united; united in our mutual love for our great country, despite our differences. 

My recollections of that time are a bit hazy and still somewhat painful, but one thing I knew even then - not everyone woke up the morning after the attacks as a much more decent human and a proud patriot; and the more I leaned with passing time, the bleaker the emerging picture got. 

First of all, there were some people who just remained the scum of the universe - like the pickpockets who stole my wallet and cell phone on the crowded subway car the week after the tragedy, then went on the shopping spree with my credit cards, and kept calling our house from my phone and leaving taunting messages.

Then there were psychotic morons like Katha Pollitt, who could not let her traumatized child hang the American flag because it stands for colonialism, jingoism, and whatever other -isms the Left usually applied to our country - no extra explosions of patriotism from these people.

And then there was Ta-Nehisi Coates….

If the future historians would be at all honest, Coates would go down in history for this quote: “We arrived two months before September 11, 2001. I suppose everyone who was in New York that day has a story. Here is mine: That evening, I stood on the roof of an apartment building with your mother, your aunt Chana, and her boyfriend, Jamal. So we were there on the roof, talking and taking in the sight—great plumes of smoke covered Manhattan Island. Everyone knew someone who knew someone who was missing. But looking out upon the ruins of America, my heart was cold. I had disasters all my own. The officer who killed Prince Jones (a friend of Coates’), like all the officers who regard us so warily, was the sword of the American citizenry. I would never consider any American citizen pure. I was out of sync with the city. I kept thinking about how southern Manhattan had always been Ground Zero for us. They auctioned our bodies down there, in that same devastated, and rightly named, financial district. And there was once a burial ground for the auctioned there. They built a department store over part of it and then tried to erect a government building over another part. Only a community of right-thinking black people stopped them. I had not formed any of this into a coherent theory. But I did know that Bin Laden was not the first man to bring terror to that section of the city. I never forgot that. Neither should you. In the days after, I watched the ridiculous pageantry of flags, the machismo of firemen, the overwrought slogans. Damn it all. Prince Jones was dead. And hell upon those who tell us to be twice as good and shoot us no matter. Hell for ancestral fear that put black parents under terror. And hell upon those who shatter the holy vessel. I could see no difference between the officer who killed Prince Jones and the police who died, or the firefighters who died. They were not human to me. Black, white, or whatever, they were the menaces of nature; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, which could—with no justification—shatter my body.”

That masterpiece of sociopathic hatred towards our country comes from the book titled Between the World and Me - it’s a letter addressed to his son! 

A lot of people rightly blame Barack Obama for the racial unrest of today - but Obama did not start it; moreover, he would not have been able to sow the seeds if he did not have a very fertile ground for these seeds to be sown, fertilized, and thrive. The black hatred began long before his time - with the Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, Black Liberation Army, Rainbow Coalition, and others.  These people were (and are) radically different (pun not intended) from Dr. King and his teachings; they were not proud Americans demanding their Constitutional rights, oh no!  That crew hated the USA with every fiber of their being, and all they wanted (and still want) is the total destruction of the country that we love so dearly.

For about six hours I suffered through one hundred and thirty five pages of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ hateful, virulent, psychotic America-hating bile written to his son (ironically, the dude actually knows how to write well).  I did this in order to delve (at least for a fraction) into the mindset of these people - and to confirm my (at this point long-standing) theory: we can not share our country with them!  

You see, there would always be the scummy bottom-dwellers who would never miss an opportunity to steal, rob, and make an easy buck no matter the times (national tragedy included).  There would always be disgusting crazies like Pollitt (who, after all, at least allowed her daughter to hang the American flag in her room).  We should protect ourselves from the first, and loudly and relentlessly fight the second.

Coates and his ilk, on the other hand, are in our faces Fifth Column.  I am sure that if his son wanted to fly the American flag on 9/12, not only would he not have been allowed to do it in any way, shape, or form - they would probably have had a public flag burning ceremony instead!

Everyone who hates our country the way these people do - and who, moreover, does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the United States of America - should not be allowed to remain here and to maintain our citizenship.  They should be permanently stripped of that citizenship, given a set time to set their affairs in order, and then forced to permanently depart our country!  

And, no, my dear friends, 9/12 and after was not really a time of great unity and resurgent patriotism - and you would do well to remember this….

Gear up and prepare to fight - because our complacency and sheer naivete allowed The Fifth Column to make great inroads in transforming our country and diminishing our freedom!  

May The One Above bless and protect our beloved US of A! 

A MESSAGE OF HOPE

Burt Prelutsky (himself a secular Jew) once noted that religious Jews in America probably have more in common with devout Christians than they do with their left wing progressive brethren.  Unfortunately, I knew that before I read his article, and in the intervening years I saw more and more examples confirming this sad fact. I pray for my lost brothers and sisters; I hope that they will be granted the clarity of vision to find the way back to the truth, to the real pride in their heritage, and to Heavenly Father - and I hope that I personally can (at least most of the time) teach them by example. 

However, this is not why I remembered Burt’s observation; as we all know, Gd works in mysterious ways, and a lot of times His messages come from somewhat unexpected places.  

These past two years  have been extremely challenging to the USA, Israel, and the Jews - and each day seems to bring more and more bad news.  I firmly believe that He has a plan that we can’t possibly see, and we should never, ever lose hope - or consider ourselves defeated (unhorsed, possibly, using a line from one of my beloved romance novels, but not defeated!); but sometimes the constant barrage of enemy fire gets to be a bit too much for my psyche.

A few days ago I caught a little video of Kayleigh McEnany talking about her upcoming book, the title of which is For Such a Time as This; Kayleigh pointed out that the title does come from the Bible, and kept asking the audience if they recognized the quote.  Since I usually read the holy texts in Hebrew (or in the translation very different from King James or NIV), I could not immediately pinpoint the correct source - but something told me that it was from Esther.  Sure enough, it was from Esther - and Kayleigh explained that the reason she used that phrase is because she firmly believes that she was put on this Earth, in her body, with her parents, with her family - for such a time as this.

Book of Esther - the first and foremost theme of which is Gd’s hidden ways!  That was the message - I am Hidden, but I am with you!  You know the truth, you know the enemy - and you were put here for such a time as this!  You know the stakes of this fight; don’t stay silent, don’t put down your sword, keep fighting - and I am here with you!

Father chose this brave patriot and devout Catholic to send me a message of encouragement and hope!  May He always protect His people, the people who truly believe in Him, the Holy Land, and this wonderful country!  Blessings to Kaleigh, Baby Blake, and her entire family!  We were all put on this Earth for such a time as this - let us keep our hope, and keep fighting!