Random thoughts of me

A Close Reading of the Dearborn Heights Mayor’s Statement on the Temple Israel Attack On March 12, 2026, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali — a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon and resident of Dearborn Heights, Michigan — drove a truck loaded with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, the largest Reform synagogue in the United States. He exited with a rifle and opened fire. Approximately 140 students and staff were inside, including young children in an early childhood center. Security guards engaged and killed him. The FBI is investigating it as “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” ...

When you translate Classical Hebrew texts into English, you hit a wall that has nothing to do with vocabulary or concepts. The wall is structural. The two languages think differently — not in some vague Sapir-Whorf way, but in a concrete, mechanical way that shapes how a reader processes every sentence. Hebrew Lets You Forget Hebrew builds long sentences by chaining clauses with ו (vav — “and”). Each clause arrives with its grammatical roles already stamped into the words themselves. Prefixed prepositions, the construct state, suffixed pronouns, the binyan system — all of it bakes the grammar directly into the morphology. So each clause resolves immediately. The reader absorbs it, lets it go, and the ו pushes them forward to the next one. ...

There’s a book I’ve wanted to share with the world for years. Sha’ar HaYichud (שַׁעַר הַיִּחוּד — “The Gate of Unity”), written by the Mitteler Rebbe, Rabbi DovBer Schneuri, is a foundational Chassidic text of remarkable depth. Years ago I went through the entire book and divided it into labeled sections and subsections — a structural layer I felt would make it significantly more accessible to readers. That work sat in my notes, half-forgotten, until a few weeks ago when something clicked and I decided to finally publish it. ...

On March 16, 2024, Mary Fong Lau drove her Mercedes SUV at 70 miles per hour—the wrong way down a residential San Francisco street. She killed an entire family: Diego Cardoso de Oliveira (40), his wife Matilde Moncada Ramos Pinto (38), and their two infant sons, one-year-old Joaquim and three-month-old Cauê. They were waiting for a bus to the zoo. On February 13, Lau pleaded no contest. The judge indicated she’ll receive probation. No prison time. ...

A Street Interview A college student with a phone camera spots a Jewish man on the sidewalk and approaches him. Anthony: Hey man, you got a minute? I’m doing street interviews for my YouTube channel. I’m just gonna be straight with you — I’ve met a few Jewish people who have this vibe like they think they’re better than everyone else. There’s this whole “chosen people” thing, and some of them have been pretty condescending about it. Is that actually a Jewish belief, or am I just running into jerks who happen to be Jewish? ...

Beyond Managed Decline: The Torah Framework for Human Flourishing Part 2: Israel’s Exception and the Rebbe’s Framework This is Part 2 of a three-part essay. Part 1 examined the demographic, institutional, and fiscal crises facing developed nations, with Israel emerging as an unexplained exception to universal patterns of decline. The Limits of Materialist Frameworks Part 1 documented a civilization in managed decline: unsustainable entitlements, collapsing fertility, institutional incompetence, and escalating debt. The analysis concluded that America’s position rests less on excellence than on competitors facing similar or worse challenges. ...

Beyond Managed Decline: The Torah Framework for Human Flourishing Part 3: The Universal Path to Redemption This is Part 3 of a three-part essay. Part 1 examined civilizational decline across developed nations. Part 2 explored Israel’s exceptionalism and the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Torah-based framework that outperformed secular strategic analysis. The Seven Laws of Noah: Universal Moral Code Judaism offers a framework that applies not only to Jews but to all humanity: the Seven Laws of Noah (Sheva Mitzvot B’nei Noach). According to the Talmud, these universal laws were given to Noah and his descendants—meaning all of humanity—after the Flood.1 ...

The Illusion of Security: America’s Institutional Decline and the Demographic Trap Part 1: Managed Decline This is Part 1 of a three-part essay series examining civilizational decline and potential alternatives. The math on Social Security is simple enough that a programmer with a spreadsheet can work it out in fifteen minutes. A worker earning $150,000 annually pays $9,300 per year in Social Security taxes.1 Invested in a basic Vanguard index fund at historical market returns of 8-10% over thirty years, that same amount would grow to between $1.1 million and $1.5 million.2 Meanwhile, Social Security promises monthly benefits of roughly $3,500-4,000 at retirement age, which annualized over a typical retirement comes to perhaps $840,000-960,000 total.3 ...

A Simple Question That Reveals Everything Do any current Angry Birds games have the same simple elegance as the original? The answer is no. And the reason why reveals something far more disturbing than the decline of a mobile game franchise. The Death of Premium Mobile Gaming In 2009, Angry Birds was a revelation. You paid $0.99 once, and you owned a complete, polished game. Pure physics puzzles that scaled through clever level design. No ads. No energy systems. No daily login bonuses. No loot boxes. ...

The Force Is a Religion: Why Modern Star Wars Can’t Find Its Soul There’s a persistent mystery in contemporary pop culture: why can’t the most valuable intellectual property in entertainment history recapture its magic? Disney has poured billions into Star Wars, hired talented filmmakers, and produced technically proficient content—yet something essential keeps slipping through their fingers. The sequel trilogy divided the fanbase. Solo flopped. The streaming shows range from “pretty good” to “forgettable.” Meanwhile, the original and prequel trilogies, for all their flaws, continue to resonate across generations. ...