How do you eat your latkes?
I took a vote today at the Hanukkah Shuk and here are the results.
Sour cream: 43
Applesauce: 87
We’ll see what the votes say next week at the official book launch.
Hope to see you there!
Category: Essay
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USDA Statement Violations
This is the banner on the USDA website.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
Let’s ignore for a moment the clear violation of the Hatch act which prohibits the use of government resources for partisan ends.
Instead, I’m going to focus on the lies, propaganda, and hate mongering.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).”
In July 2025 the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut about $186 billion from SNAP programs, and then in September 2025 the USDA announced it would no longer produce reports on food insecurity in the U.S., calling them “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies” that “do nothing more than fear monger.” I guess they don’t want to see reports that show how bad their bill is affecting American citizens.
Money runs out for the SNAP program on November 1, and many states are dipping into their own emergency funds to feed their constituents.
There are over 5 million dollars allocated in contingency money that can be used for the SNAP program. This administration is refusing to release the funds, a reversal of what they said in September. This administration also says they won’t reimburse states who use their emergence funds to help mothers and babies. This administration would rather people starve for their political agenda.
“…healthcare for illegal aliens…”
Illegal aliens have not ever qualified for Medicare or Medicaid. This is not something the Democrats are asking for.
What is being requested, is for the premium tax credits that support access to the Affordable Care Act marketplace for healthcare insurance to be extended so people can afford healthcare.
In their “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” of July, Republicans extended tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations but permitted the premium tax credits to expire.
Democrats have also asked for Congress to put back into Medicaid the $1 trillion the Republicans took out of it in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“…gender mutilation procedures…”
Circumcisions? That is a religiose thing. Separation of church and state are in our constitution. If they are referring to our transgender citizens, surgery and permanent changes are only done to consenting adults and only after intense consultation with doctors and therapists. If this administration plans to stop gender affirming care, they need to stop other physical alterations. That would include tattoos, body piercing, breast implants, cosmetic surgery, hair implants….Oh, don’t forget to add Viagra to that list.
Congress
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has canceled House business yet again next week, meaning that over the last 17 weeks, the House of Representatives will have worked on Capitol Hill for just 20 days. Republicans are refusing to negotiate.
In case you didn’t realize. Unlike our furloughed federal workers and the critical employees working without pay like TSA and Air traffic Controllers, Congress is getting a paid vacation. Their salary is not tied to the rest of the budget. Their health benefits are also not affected.
Think about that.
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: James and the Giant Peach
Exercise Your Rights:
Read Banned Books
James and the Giant Peach
Roald Dahl
I was surprised to learn this book has been challenged. Yes, it has scarry things, but so does life. In the end, James finally finds the home he deserves. I read it years ago.
James Henry Trotter lives with two ghastly hags. Aunt Sponge is enormously fat with a face that looks boiled and Aunt Spiker is bony and screeching. He’s very lonely until one day something peculiar happens. . . At the end of the garden a peach starts to grow and GROW AND GROW. Inside that peach are seven very unusual insects – all waiting to take James on a magical adventure. But where will they go in their GIANT PEACH, and what will happen to the horrible aunts if they stand in their way? There’s only one way to find out . . .
James and the Giant Peach is not permanently “banned” but has been frequently challenged and temporarily restricted in various schools and libraries due to its depiction of scary scenes (like the death of the aunts), references to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, vulgar language (such as “ass”), and themes of disobedience and mystical elements. These challenges stem from concerns that the book promotes unsuitable behavior, contains offensive language, or is too frightening for the intended audience.
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: A Wrinkle in Time
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Read Banned Books
A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L’Engle
I read this book in collage as an assignment. It was a lot of fun. My daughter really liked it as well. While not banned, it has been challenged several times.
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn’t know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newberry Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.A Wrinkle in Time is not an officially banned book, but it has been frequently challenged and sometimes removed from school libraries for various controversial reasons, including its blend of science and religion, the portrayal of witches and magical elements, and the depiction of Jesus alongside other great thinkers, which some find blasphemous while others find it too secular.
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: The Call of the Wild
Exercise Your Rights:
Read Banned Books
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
This is a fantastic book that depicts the brutality of life during the Alaskan gold rush. At its heart, it is a story of survival. I read all the sequels as well.
First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London’s masterpiece. Based on London’s experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.
The Call of the Wild has faced bans and challenges primarily due to its depiction of animal cruelty, violence, and its dark, gritty tone. Some historical bans also cited the book’s radical socialist undertones. Although not widely “banned” in the same way as works with political themes, the book’s content is sometimes considered inappropriate for young readers, leading to challenges in schools and libraries.
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: A Farewell to Arms
Exercise Your Rights:
Read Banned Books
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemmingway
War sucks and this book shows it well. I read this in HS.
A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield – the weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep. Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote his ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right.
A Farewell to Arms was not a single, sustained ban but faced multiple censorship attempts and bans in different places due to its controversial content, including depictions of premarital sex and the brutal, unflattering portrayal of war, which offended political leaders and moral crusaders. It was banned in Italy for its negative depiction of their military retreat, in the US (Boston) for sexual content, burned by Nazis in Germany, and challenged in US school libraries as a “sex novel”.
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: The Golden Compass
Exercise Your Rights:
Read Banned Books
The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world. Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want. But what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other…
Banned and challenged because of religious viewpoints
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: The Complete Perseposil
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The Complete Perseposil
Marjane Satrapi
My daughter recommended this one to me. It is a graphic novel, but not for kids.
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.
Banned and challenged because of gambling, profanity, political viewpoints, and said to be “politically, racially, and socially offensive”, and other “graphic depictions”
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Banned And Challenged Books I’ve Read: Of Mice and Men
Exercise Your Rights:
Read Banned Books
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Another story I read in HS.
They are an unlikely pair: George is “small and quick and dark of face”; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.
Of Mice and Men, creates an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual’s existence meaningful.Of Mice and Men is banned and challenged in schools and libraries due to its racial slurs (particularly the N-word), profanity, vulgarity, and depiction of violence and sexual situations. Some people also object to the novel’s negative themes, its portrayal of marginalized groups like women and the disabled, and an alleged anti-business or anti-American message from the Depression era.
