Just a reminder that Blanche is on assignment in Israel. Ergo, the time you will be receiving the Blanche Report will be a bit on the odd side. Back to regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday…G-d willing.
What is totally amazing about Israel is the amount of people who live here. And the traffic…like nowhere else in the world – totally insane. Crammed into Tel Aviv, the size of a small American city, are about 1.5 million people. The infrastructure can’t really handle the traffic, so people build in an extra 30 minutes wherever they go. We are also guessing that the word chutzpah was created here. When something needs to get done, unless fortified with said word, it takes a lot longer.
We were very saddened to hear of the passing of the infant whose mother and father were shot in the West Bank. While all of Israel mourns for them here, within the next 24 hour cycle, it will be on to the next news item. As we have seen by interviewing victims of terrorist attacks, life goes on. Israeli’s are a resilient people.
In the short while we have been here, there have been daily shootings and other attacks in the West Bank. To say it is a difficult place to live would be the understatement of the year. Going for a bottle of milk becomes a life-threatening event. We are in awe of the courageous families who live there and won’t leave, no matter what is thrown at them. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s erstwhile lawyer, received a prison sentence of three years. Given that he has no prior convictions and that he sang like a bird for Mueller, our guess is that he will have his ‘get out of jail’ card within a year or 18 months tops. No matter what happens though, sitting in jail for even a day seems must seem like an eternity.
Cohen will also have to hand over nearly $2 million to the government in combined restitution and fines, having dodged taxes while assembling real estate and taxi business holdings as a top hand to the Trump Organization.
He must report to the federal prison in Otisville, New York, which has a medium security prison as well as a minimum security satellite camp and which caters to many Jewish inmates from New York City and those with Kosher needs. Our guess is that before going to jail, he will be having a long talk with Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin who spent quite a bit of time there.
So who was behind the banning of playing the song ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’? None other than the left of left CBC partnering with Trudeau’s favourite people – feminists. Quel surprise.
Kudos to William Shatner who called out the whole bunch of them. He tweeted the following: “Call into CBC radio all day and get them to play ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ over and over until midnight!”
The only thing that the feminist movement does by making these totally ridiculous edicts and statements is diminish whatever gains they are making in other areas. Get a grip ladies. The song was written decades ago by people with no agenda other than entertainment. Someone needs to have a long chat with those in charge of said feminist movement as they seem to be spiralling out of control.
Say it ain’t so. The stethoscope has long been an iconic symbol of health care. Used for listening to the heart, intestines, lungs and blood flow, it has been an invaluable tool that every medical student must learn to use. Unfortunately, it seems they didn’t learn how to clean them. Uh oh.
According to a new study that analyzed the DNA found on stethoscopes in an intensive care unit, results showed that they were loaded with different kinds of bacteria, including some that can cause infections. Our suggestion? Always keeps some wipes on you when going to the doctor or in case of an emergency. You can then ask the doctor to please clean his stethoscope before it touches you. Something else to worry about.
Another one bites the dust. The Boy Scouts of America is mulling declaring bankruptcy amid flagging membership and an avalanche of costly sex abuse allegations.
As well, the Girl Scouts are suing the Boy Scouts for trademark infringement and dilution after the latter decided to drop the “boy” from its name and rebrand as “Scouts.” What? We won’t know the difference between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts? Get a life people.
Blanche what always appeared to be an innocent place for young boys and girls to spend time was not so innocent after all. Feh.
Canadians are paying a dear price for holding Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer. Even though she was released on bail yesterday, two Canadians (so far) have been snatched by the Chinese government for ‘questioning’.
There is no doubt that the extradition agreement between Canada and the US should be respected. There is also no doubt that convenient incompetence would have kept Canada out of this mess. We wonder why Canada was so quick to enter this quagmire.
Good Shabbos We’ll talk…