Maimonides defines eight levels in giving charity (tzedakah), each one higher than the preceding one.
On an ascending level, they are as follows:
8. When donations are given grudgingly.
7. When one gives less than he should, but does so cheerfully.
6. When one gives directly to the poor upon being asked.
5. When one gives directly to the poor without being asked.
4. Donations when the recipient is aware of the donor's identity, but the donor still doesn't know the specific identity of the recipient.
3. Donations when the donor is aware to whom the charity is being given, but the recipient is unaware of the source.
2. Giving assistance in such a way that the giver and recipient are unknown to each other. Communal funds, administered by responsible people are also in this category.
1. The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by extending a suitable loan, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others.
What makes this particularly nasty is when and where these things are happening.
I mean you could imagine 300 years ago a rich mogul landing on a semi-deserted island with a destroyed ecology coming up with a perverse game to amuse himself with the needs of the few remaining poor indigenous people and have them compete for food. Then you’d read that in some dusty history book and go “oh wow, those times were really cruel man! Oof!”
Seeing it now (instead of reading it about a wilder less civilized past) happen in what the people living there consider “the greatest country in the history of the earth” and yada yada really puts a very different spin on the boasts coming out of the “land of the free”.
What is even more inconcievable is that in this day and age, where you can go to the internet and FIND how people live elsewhere and see it with your own eyes, most citizens of the states think that their way of doing things is as good as it gets , which it most certainly is not , thus remain placid in that soothing lullaby that “hey it cannot get any better than that, this is America, YEAH!”
I think that any reasonable person that is living in the country with the largest economy on the earth (that, at least, is still true) should have been infuriated to learn that even countries that they very recently tried to raze to the ground have better healthcare and better education and better public schools than they do and at a fraction of the cost.
It is insane that instead of that, they are glad to have a system for their children that begs for money or, as you mentioned, a healthcare system where you have to beg others for money or perish.
Supposing that our species survives a few more centuries (which is possible) while retaining an adequate level of civilization (which is debatable), I think that this moral collapse will provide many future sociologists ample room for study for decades to come.
The flaw’s exploitation was apparently first discovered in Minecraft, an online game hugely popular with kids and owned by Microsoft.
Meyers and security expert Marcus Hutchins said Minecraft users had been using it to execute programs on the computers of other users by pasting a short message in a chat box.
The vulnerability, dubbed “Log4Shell,” was rated 10 on a scale of one to 10 by the Apache Software Foundation
Anyone with the exploit can obtain full access to an unpatched computer that uses the software.
Researchers reported finding evidence the vulnerability could be exploited in servers run by companies such as Apple, Amazon, Twitter and Cloudflare.
(Minecraft is just 1 of many java programs that have it)
As of 14 December almost half of all servers globally had been actively probed, with over 60 variants of the exploit having been produced within 24 hours. Check Point Software Technologies in a detailed analysis described the situation as being “a true cyber-pandemic”
In short: No, they didn’t try to assassinate him, they “only” made plans and were discovered early enough.
And these threats with allegedly poisoned meat in the mail was not that same group and addressed different politicians.
But yes, a small part of the German antivaxxer community are violent extremists. Mostly those who already have been violent right extremists before.
I’m always anxious when this kind of incidents reaches the big media outlets, because it means the anti-something have gained traction and are far from “those picturesque idiots” anymore.
Is it uncommon to have services that deliver meat by mail where you live?
In the USA, there are a wide variety of retailers that deliver raw meat and seafood by mail. They are typically fully frozen, and always packed with sufficient amounts of ice. Some services focus on delivering just meat, while others deliver meal kits, which often include raw meat as an ingredient. However, I believe the overwhelming majority of meat consumption in the USA is via food bought at stores and restaurants.
Sending meat as a holiday gift is not unusual during this time of year, so it seems plausible that someone might eat a package of meat that they were not expecting. However, the presentation of such a package, maybe with the forgery of a delivery service’s livery, would seem to be crucial to the effectiveness of such a fraud.
Well more recently more and more supermarkets will deliver food, especially in the last year, which might include meats sure. I think one could also still get milk delivered by a milk man but I don’t know if anyone in particular that does that.
I definitely know of some services that would do meal deliveries or meal kits, in particular I think I’ve heard of it for elderly people for example.
I think our main postal service prohibits sending perishable goods for example.
Personally, I’ve received some frozen meats as a gift before, and have used meal kit services (which have even included non-frozen meat packed with ice). I know several other people that have used such meal kit services, since these have become more popular in recent times.
Wow, that seems awfully restrictive. I just googled to confirm and saw that even drugs and pharmaceuticals are banned as well. Here in the USA, receiving prescription medication by mail is quite common.
The United States Postal Service even offers shipping of live animals (including newly hatched poultry), provided that proper protocols are followed and an additional fee is paid.
This doesn’t really happen in Greece. We mosty send and receive large portions of raw meat once or twice a year on order (eg Easter) and is never a surprise. It’s a large package that you have already discussed and managed the logistics with family or a local seller (probably extended family). You either have to go to an intercity bus or train station to receive it or some relative takes it from your hometown in their care and brings it to your city home. Just as they would sent you your books or your winter clothes that you keep in their cellar.
I know people who order gourmet stuff online but it is usually for personal use and is purchased at some gourmet grocer’s that they know.
If all of a sudden I received a package of food that is not my mother’s, I’d be very very very surprised.
To be clear, I do think that a lot of people in the USA would find it quite suspicious to unexpectedly receive a package of meat in the mail. Maybe a lot would choose not to eat it, or try to confirm where it came from first.
However, I do think it is plausible that some might fall for such a scheme, especially if that package was made to look like it came from a legitimate source and a fraudulent gift message was included to make it seem that it came from a known friend of the recipient.
Okay, I guess I need to tell you more… This was supposed to be some (pretty crazy) kind of threatening letter. There were pieces of raw meat packed in tinfoil, and a letter that said there will be “bloody resistance” to compulsory vaccination etc. and that the meat was poisoned with “radiating Covid-19 viruses and Zyklon B”, which does not only sound like BS, but also no poisonous substances were found in the meat. So it’s all a little bit ridiculous, but also creepy, and you don’t know what those people might do next.
So probably a package made by someone who didn’t really have the intention of killing anybody but just wanted to frighten politicians. However this might inspire ill-intentioned people…
Yes, because some medication has a temperature limit, so there might be some issues with the transportation OR, even more likely, someone could take the medication and claim that the transportation caused them to be damaged/altered and caused them harm.
So, in order to avoid that, they do not accept it at all. Same thing with food.
Speaking of odd postal practices, I’ve always wanted to ask what’s up with all those porch thieves?
Why does postal service or couriers or delivery services leave a package on the front door of a house unattended, for anyone that is passing by to grab and run away with?
It seems like the most unsafe and counter-productive idea ever. I’ve never heard of that happening here and if it did, oh you’d be in deep trouble,
At BEST, even the person that was the legal recipient of the package could “claim” that it was “nicked” and demand a refund.
At WORST the package could be really nicked and you’d still have to handle the logistics of that.
I think this practice varies from place-to-place depending on the locally observed rates of theft. In relatively safe areas, I think the calculation is that the increased efficiency of just leaving packages outside (versus having to wait for someone to answer the door, collecting their signature and/or verifying their identity, and making additional delivery attempts when unsuccessful) leads to cost savings that makes up for the losses incurred by packages occasionally being stolen. The costs of occasionally losing packages due to theft or fraud are considered and weighed against the costs of additional measures to prevent those losses and fraud. Preventing inconvenience to the customers is a secondary concern, only as much as it might affect the bottom line, but when it has become the widespread industry standard, there is not much power in consumer choice.
In some cases, even when delivery confirmation (like a signature or ID check) is specifically requested, the delivery person might fail to do so, maybe due to personal negligence/apathy, or maybe in response to the incredible expectations to maintain a high level of efficiency.
Thank you for your very detailed explanation! I really appreciate it
To be honest though this does sound a bit like the idea of restaurants not having servers or taking orders and just randomly sending whichever food is more expedient to random diners. That would definitely increase the profit margins and cut costs, but the customers wouldn’t stand for it. I find it impressive that they accept the prospect of their package being stolen (which is usually arguably far more expensive than a restaurant portion) with no redeeming qualities for their own end, other than being forced to install cameras.
Maybe the viral videos off-set the cost? Could be
I can see that happening here and everyone “oh so accidentally having their packages stolen” and asking for refunds.
I’d pay money to be a spectator in the shareholder’s meeting where they’d have to explain where their “bottom line” went after that … I’d classify that as “objectively funny” hehehe
I should clarify that I’m mainly talking about the situation where packages are shipped by a retailer to a private household, where the items are easily replaceable, usually of relatively low value, and the customer has zero liability in the case of a lost package (and hence only has to deal with the inconvenience of reporting and waiting for a replacement). The expense is fully borne by the retailer and shipper, and they tolerate it since they find they still make more money that way, in spite of not only the risks of theft and fraud, but also the potential reduction in revenue caused by customer dissatisfaction.
For private individuals sending packages to other individuals, they might be able to exercise more choice in terms of selecting more secure shipping methods at an additional fee. However, when buying something online, these choices might be more basic (if anything at all besides shipping speed), and whether or not a signature is required might be within the scope of the customer can even select, and anyways all of the shippers behave similarly. However, with high value goods, the shipper/seller might default to requiring delivery verification.
It would basically never get to that point. Fraud and theft does happen all of the time, but it’s still made rare enough and simply factored in as a cost of doing business. These large retailers and shippers have data science teams to figure out that operating in a certain manner actually makes them more money, because there comes a point where simply allowing the last bit of fraud, theft, and waste to occur costs less than countermeasures that might prevent or reduce it. They even factor in the costs (from lost revenues) that might be incurred by preventable levels of customer dissatisfaction and simply accept those. Everything is driven by data and the bottom line.
Given the amount of data that they have, they can also easily tailor operations accordingly, like performing more careful level of delivery verifications in certain regions that have higher rates of theft and fraud, and obviously they could take preventative and punitive actions against customers that falsely report thefts at a suspiciously high rate that suggests fraud.
and that the meat was poisoned with “radiating Covid-19 viruses and Zyklon B”, which does not only sound like BS, but also no poisonous substances were found in the meat. So it’s all a little bit ridiculous, but also creepy, and you don’t know what those people might do next.
