Yikes! I'm famous!

Maybe I’m even an "influencer"

… yeah, right. Dream on, buddy.

But here's the thing. The other day I had a look at the metrics on this blog. 

First I'll set the table. 

I've never spent any time, since I started here in 2009, pushing the blog. I don't do any of the usual stuff you do if you want more clicks. If you want more "engagement". 

I've not allowed Comments from the outset. Mainly because I didn't want the hassle of moderating them. And also I don't want my fragile ego bruised by criticisms. I can't handle it. I do take email comments though and engage with those, usually and eventually. 

I don't accept any ads, which would make Google push the blog itself. 

So, I've not done any of the things you're supposed to do if you want to increase viewership. 

I started writing in 2009 just as somewhere to keep references to the subject I was studying at the time: namely Islam. Hence the blog's URL (The Battle of Tours) 

Every now and then, like every few years, I might look to see how many people were condescending to read what I write. It was like, some people. As in, more than zero but less that a whole lot. 

Then the other day I had another look. And wow! Over recent 12 months I've had 3.4 million views. On some posts 70+ thousands. Crikey! 

That's nothing, of course, compared with most real influencers. But to me, it's a whole lot... 

It's a shocker really. I mean in a good way. Like, a surprise. So much so that I did a double check and it's true. What's happened is just gradual build up over time, all word of mouth. And AI tells me that blogs like mine, which have been going on for years, are about the subjects I cover, are relatively rare. Everyone's gone over to Podcasts, YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, etc..

Anyhoo. congrats to me! And thanks to youze all, you Dear Readers, née Occasional Readers.  mwah... 💋

Why on earth would anyone report their positive RAT results?

Front page SCMP. Click to enlarge

People who test positive with an at-home Rapid Antigen Test are “encouraged “ to report it to a website. And 17,326 did yesterday. Why do people report? I don’t get it. It’s not mandatory. It’s voluntary. But, BUT… if you do report it, no carrot only sticks. This is what happens (from above screenshot):

• You’re given an isolation order
• Your family is given quarantine orders 
• You receive a compulsory nucleic acid test kit
• If you don’t use it you’re fined $10,000 and issued a compulsory order
• If you don’t comply with the order you’re fined $25,000 and subject to six months jail 

I guess one might say, well you’re doing the right thing for society. Why not go through all that for the benefit of society. That might have been a thing two years ago. But not now with Omicron. Which is surging everywhere no matter the quarantine measures. Now there’s no point. You’d go through all of that for no effect. So why report?  Beats me.

Vale Chrissi Sharpe

I knew Chrissi when we were both youngsters in Canberra. We dated for a while in the eighties. Super smart; super sharp.There are some lovely and caring memories at the limelight obituary.

Described by friends and colleagues as passionate, fiercely intelligent and formidable yet warm and caring, Sharp and her husband of more than three decades, leading arts manager Michael Lynch, were an internationally renowned arts power-couple.

Sharp was raised in Canberra. Early in her career she worked in broadcasting as a researcher on Chequerboard for ABC TV and later, in the 1990s, as Head of Policy at SBS. She also worked for a while as an agent. [Read on…]

Vladimir Putin’s Encirclement of Europe

With thanks to the National Review

‘Strategic autonomy’ will be insufficient to the challenge [Website or Webarchive]By Jakub Grygiel, March 19, 2020

Russian propaganda, going back to czarist and Soviet times, often claims that Western powers are encircling Russia, forcing Moscow to be belligerent against its wishes. Russia is the perennial victim of aggressive foreign powers trying to keep Moscow locked in the steppes and, in the worst case, to install themselves in the Kremlin. Undoubtedly, Russia has been invaded repeatedly in the past: Mongol hordes, Napoleon, and Hitler all tried to extend their power over it. But now claims of a potential repetition of such invasions by Russia’s Western neighbors ring hollow. Neither Europe nor the United States has any interest in controlling Russian lands. On the contrary, it is Russia that has managed to extend its reach along a front from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and is projecting power to the Arctic and the Atlantic. Europe is being encircled by Russia — not the other way around.

Andrew Yang for President!

Andrew Yang in Hong Kong

Andrew Yang is here in Hong Kong right now and I've just seen him interviewed live by CNBC. 

This guy is really sensible, speaks eloquently, knowledgeably and coherently. Has started successful companies; written books. Cynics will say that puts him out of the running... ("he's overqualified!").

One of his key policies: Universal Basic Income of US$1,000 per month paid for with a value-added tax. As a transition to a "capitalism of the future". Which he then talks about. Again, coherently and sensibly. 

Seriously folks, he's good and must be worth watching. Way more so than the ditzy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

He's the embodiment of the American dream.  Parents emigrated to the United States, from Taiwan.  Did well.  Son sent to the best Universities.  Son campaigns for presidency. Wonderful!

apt

From here

The Jesus and Mo cartoon is safe to like and safe to laugh at!  Its creator, "author", is an equal opportunity satirist of religion and beloved of non-regressive folks on the Left. Moderate Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz wears the cartoon on his T-shirt.  Jerry Coyne of  “Why Evolution is True” blog, loves it.
So go ahead and subscribe!
The latest (called "apt") is a comment on Boris Johnson's recent mocking of the burka, while arguing that it should not be banned.
From HelenaHandbasket in the comments:

Mo doesn't usually wear a burka himself.  This is part of a running gag, pointed out by commenter Donn:
Mohammed is not typical. Kind of a running gag.
http://www.jesusandmo.net/comic/blob/
http://www.jesusandmo.net/comic/self/
http://www.jesusandmo.net/comic/fluid/

BTW: the burka is now banned in quite a few European countries.  Less well known is that it's also banned in non-European and some Muslim countries.  In many cases because of security concerns: that men wear the burka to commit crimes.   So, one might argue that Boris didn't go far enough, not that he has "marginalised" or "upset" or "offended" many Muslim folk. Moderate Muslims are in favour of a ban. It's the moderates we should listen to, build bridges to, not the louder but more odious extremists and jihadists.

Listen to the Democratic Left - WSJ

I like the quote by French philosopher Francois Ravel in the clip below from today's Wall Street Journal: 

United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, then a lifelong Democrat, electrified the 1984 Republican National Convention when she excoriated the recently completed Democratic Convention as a meeting of the "Blame America First" crowd. Kirkpatrick explained the danger by quoting the French philosopher Jean-François Revel: "A civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."

Blame America First Democrats were briefly sidelined by Bill Clinton's presidency, but the mob is back, angrier and more negative about their own country than ever. Consider observations by some of the party's 2020 hopefuls during the progressive Netroots Nation conference in New Orleans earlier this month.