Bike, Bay, Babe

 

2020, Sam Pak Wan, Discovery Bay, East to Central, HK.

Islam is ruining Britain

I’ve been banging on about the threat of Islam to western societies for the best part of two decades now.

So how’s about I let someone else bang on about it. Tim Dieppe in this case. Whose article below draws on his new book “The Challenge of Islam”.  It’s long, but worth the read.

If anything he’s too measured. Shouldn’t his book be “The Threat of Islam”, for example, rather than “The Challenge…”? His critique too polite and mannerly. It’s time for a bit of blood and fire in the rhetoric, no? And also to say clearly “what we should do about it”. 

I’m churlish though to say this. For Dieppe’s is a thorough survey of the issues and challenges. An almost exhaustive listing of what’s happening to Blighty, as a result of its own policies. 

Dieppe quotes Sir Trevor Phillips: 

‘Sir Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, acknowledged in 2016 that ‘the integration of Muslims will probably be the hardest task we have ever faced’.

The hardest! Harder than The Hundred Years War. Harder than the Plague. Harder than two World Wars. “The integration of Muslims”. All through deliberate choice of policies.

Which means: It did not have to be this way.  

There must be a lesson for my own Australia here. We must not let it get to anywhere near this stage in Oz. So far, we haven’t. But it seems we have some kind of death wish for Islam. Some kind of precautionary Sharia Supplication. 

I do want to be wrong. Please, Australia. Look and learn. Prove me wrong.

From Dieppe:

Beware of China | Kevin Rudd

Carrying on the great political tradition of ‘never buggering off’, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is back – sort of – offering advice.

To my great annoyance, he might even have a point.

Taking a momentary break from the substantial role of Global President and CEO of the Asia Society, Kevin Rudd appeared at the National Press Club.

Who better, I hear you say, to steer Labor through difficult geopolitical waters than the man with friendly knives embedded in his suit jacket?

Suffice to say he is not on the ‘comeback trail’. (Rudd hinted that Tony Abbott might be.) He is also not running for UN Secretary General because ‘Malcolm [Turnbull] took care of that last time round’.

Kevin Rudd gave a sermon on the rise of China, calling for a ‘radical change in our national psychology’ and a new sense of ‘national urgency’.

Describing Australia as a ‘complacent country’,

English language coverage of China declines

 I’ve followed and supported Manya Koetse for years. 

See below and support if you value independent English language coverage of issues re China and the World. 

On a separate but related note, it’s regrettable to see more English-language China-focused projects disappear. WIRED has discontinued Made in China, the newsletter created by Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis. The podcast China Decode, co-hosted by Alice Han and James Kynge, has been shut down due to a lack of advertising support.

Independent reporting on China is becoming harder to sustain at a time when it matters more than ever. There is more fast China news than ever, but deeply researched work is struggling, while readers are seeing more hot takes for clicks and biased coverage serving political agendas.

So this is both a reminder and a personal appeal: please subscribe to the newsletters and podcasts you value, where independent creators actually invest time, effort, and expertise into China-related research. We need your support to keep doing this work. Without it, more independent voices will disappear. (You can join as a paying member to this newsletter here).

Australia be like…

Canada and PM Carney’s idea of “associate relationship” with the EU

Australia be like…

Like Canada, but looking at China instead of the EU.

At least from many talks here in Oz. And debates on the ABC. China.

Such is the hate for Trump, Aussies now hate their main ally. And cast lurid glances at tyrannical communists. Sinical, no?

“What Have the Muslims Ever Done for Us?”

 

Hmmmm…

The headline above recalls the evergreen “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Written and performed by John Cleese. Who became red-pilled about Islam right in front of my very own eyes. 

Except, of course, what has Islam ever done for us? Except— to be 100% clear! — to diminish and destroy their host countries… 

Bondi Babe

Iconic Sydarb…

The Three Icons at Milsons Point Wharf

 

This morning at Milsons Point Ferry Wharf

We’re Doomed !!

Cassandra warned the Trojans about the wooden horse – she was given the power to see the future, but was cursed that no one would believe her. In Silicon Valley’s version of this story, the Trojan horse is superintelligence, and its Cassandras warn that AI researchers are “gambling with our lives” in the race to build it. 

But there’s a twist, Geoffrey Cain writes in this issue’s cover story. 

The ending stays the same, but first, instead of ignoring the Cassandras, “the elders hear them out, agree with every word.” The people who most vocally proclaim that AI might kill us are also insisting that they must be the ones to “pace” its development. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei has said that AI development must slow down; OpenAI’s Sam Altman agrees, as does Elon Musk, who has warned that humanity is “summoning the demon.” 

Investors give them billions to continue building their “safer” machines. And so the Trojan horse – slightly hobbled by regulation, accompanied by auditors – will trundle along, straight through the gates.

Top Dogs

Basil the lab, Marcus the Weimaraner. Discovery Bay, HK.

Piddington and the idiocy of middle-class progressivism

The result is in. Ninety-two per cent of the voters in the tiny Oxfordshire village have voted to secede from the United Kingdom – 285 yes, 26 no. Why? Because the British government plans to dump hundreds and hundreds of small boat ‘asylum seekers’ in a military base slap bang next to the Piddingtonians. 

Of course, this is a symbolic gesture. There is no legal mechanism to actually achieve secession, which is perhaps just as well. As we know, it’s hard enough to get British politicians to acknowledge the results of an official national referendum, let alone a wildcat local one.

Blogger and Mum

“Mutti”. Turned 105 yesterday, in Canberra, Australia…🎉🎂

“Why Migrants Tend to Make the Countries They Move To Like the Ones They Left” | William Meijer

So relevant to where I’m now, Australia, a land of immigrants. Somewhat nerdy, the article below, but worth the read…

For centuries, economists have tried to understand why some countries are rich while others are poor. Numerous explanations have been proposed—geography, inclusive institutions, and knowledge—but all seem to fail at explaining empirical reality.

Iceland, South Korea, and Israel are prosperous despite their geography and lack of natural resources. China and Russia outperform most countries despite having extractive institutions. Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany have recently become economically stagnant despite their inclusive institutions. Poor countries tend to remain poor despite decades of good advice from competent economists.

Women in Islam

 Look at what happened to the women in these countries. 

They once wore their own colors, clothing and traditions. Their faces were visible. They looked like they belonged to their own culture.

Then Islamist rule took hold.

The color disappeared. The women were covered. Their choices were taken away. Their voices were silenced. Culture after culture, the same thing happened.

And somehow, we are told this is “diversity.”

There is nothing diverse about erasing women. There is nothing tolerant about forcing them to hide their faces and bodies while men continue walking around as themselves.

That is always the part they leave out. Women are expected to surrender their freedom, their identity and eventually their place in public life.

Europe sees what is happening. Spain sees it. So do London, Paris and Dearborn. We were told this was cultural enrichment, but women are once again being told to step aside, cover themselves and stay quiet.

This is not about Muslims who practice their faith peacefully. It is about an ideology that controls women and calls anyone who objects hateful.

Women in the West had better start paying attention before the freedoms our mothers and grandmothers fought for are handed away.

Australian Indigenous Space Science

No Comment …

The Australian, 12-13 September 2026

Byron is sad…

… because we are in Australia. 

Chasing a ball in the beach always helps.

“Alternative for Germany” party is “far-right”?

Below from Grok. I asked it to summarise the AfD platform, in the wake of big wins for the AfD in Germany. Which are widely labelled “far-right” even “neo-Nazi”.

But these policies are close to those of a Bill Clinton. Or an Australian Labor’s Bob Hawke. Or a British Tory Party of recent years. They would never have been characterised as “far- right”. Conservative, yes, or centrist-Democrat (Bill Clinton, even Obama). But not “far-right”, let alone “neo-Nazi”. That’s how far the Overton Window has shifted Left, that anyone gives these slurs any credence at all.

I read the AfD platform below and I agree with most of it. As would anyone who yearns for a decent, well-run, safe and secure country. As have a majority of Germans in recent elections. 

The push back on the“far right” and “neo-Nazi”  slurs should be strong. 

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is a German right-wing populist party. Its 2025 Bundestag election program (“Zeit für Deutschland”) and longer-standing Grundsatzprogramm emphasize national sovereignty, strict limits on immigration, lower taxes and regulation, traditional energy sources, and a more direct form of democracy.

Immigration, asylum, and citizenship

This is the party’s signature issue. AfD calls for:

• Full control and closure of borders against illegal entry; people without papers or a valid claim would be turned back.
• Processing of asylum applications outside Germany.
• Switching asylum support from cash to in-kind benefits and cutting or ending benefits for people without a legal right to stay.
• Large-scale “Remigration” (deportations) of those required to leave.
• Ending fast-track naturalizations; citizenship would not be automatic.
• Withdrawing from the EU asylum system and from UN migration/refugee pacts.7

Economy, taxes, and welfare

The party presents itself as pro-social-market-economy and pro-Mittelstand:

• Broad tax cuts (income, corporate, energy, and consumption taxes); higher tax-free allowance (proposed at €14,000); abolition of the Solidarity surcharge and CO₂ levy.
• Less regulation and bureaucracy; repeal of supply-chain and similar laws.
• Abolition of inheritance and wealth taxes.
• Tightening of Bürgergeld (citizen’s income), especially for non-citizens; stronger work requirements (“Fordern und Fördern”).
• Measures to raise the birth rate through family incentives rather than relying on immigration for labor.5

Energy and climate

AfD rejects the Energiewende as implemented and questions or downplays anthropogenic climate change as the basis for current policy:

• Restart and expand nuclear power; keep and build coal plants.
• Resume cheap Russian gas (including repairing Nord Stream).
• End subsidies for wind and solar, scrap CO₂ pricing and the emissions-trading system.
• Repeal the combustion-engine ban and building-energy rules that force heat-pump conversions.3

Europe, euro, and foreign policy

• Transform the EU into a looser “Europe of nations” or “Bund europäischer Nationen” focused on the single market, external borders, and security cooperation rather than deeper political integration.
• Leave the euro and restore a national currency (possibly in parallel at first).
• Foreign policy based on German national interest; more pragmatic relations with Russia and China; continued NATO membership until a capable European alternative exists.13

Society, family, security, and institutions

• Traditional family defined as father, mother, and children; opposition to “gender ideology,” early sexualization in schools, and gender-inclusive language in public institutions.
• Direct democracy via Swiss-style referendums; limits on party power and public-broadcasting funding (reform or replace the GEZ-financed system with a slimmer basic service).
• Stronger police, preventive detention for high-risk individuals, lower age of criminal responsibility, and deportation of foreign offenders.6

These positions come from the party’s own 2025 election documents and earlier basic program. Implementation would require major legal changes (including EU and constitutional law) and is contested by other parties and parts of the German state. For the full text, see the official AfD site (afd.de) under the 2025 Wahlprogramm and Grundsatzprogramm.

Germans have had enough. GB News. It’s a tactical mistake for conservative parties to refuse to deal with the AfD. 

There is NO moderate Islam | True Truths on the eve of 911

Can I ever forget, twenty five years ago, early evening here in Hong Kong, when we heard that an airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center? The North Tower. And then a second plane. Which we saw live, in real time, before even the CNN reporter who was face-to-camera, back to the burning North Tower. At which I turned to my wife and said “it’s got to be Al-Qaeda”.

Can we forget?

Can I ever forget the next day, president Bush standing on the smoking rubble, declaring “we’ll get them”? But also declaring “Islam is a religion of peace”. 

At which I thought “huh?”. How does that square with what we’ve just seen? How can it be a “religion of peace” when we already knew, to a moral certainty, that men driven by this very religion had done it? Had hijacked and flown planes into two towers full of innocent people?

Which started me on my quest to learn about this “religion of peace”. On my first reading of the Quran. Of the Hadith. Of the Sirah of Muhammad. Of the Umdat Al-Salik, the Classic Manual of Islamic Jurisprudence. And my library, now in the several hundreds, of books on Islam from the apologetics to the critical.

I concluded early on that “Islam is Islam”. Its most pious votaries say so. Its religious leaders say so. Its political leaders say so. All knowledgeable observers say so.

At the same time I recognised the tactical reason for saying there’s “Islam” and there’s “Islamism”. Tackling the massive thing that is worldwide Islam is too tough. Tackling a subset is more doable. 

We’ve now reached a point in the west where the dangers of Islam to our societies, to our freedoms and tolerance are so apparent that we have to face the real truth. The uncomfortable truth. That the problem is Islam itself. The problem is its doctrines. Its values. That it’s an ideology more than it is a religion. That that ideology is incompatible with western enlightenment values. 

Amy Mek’s discussion on the eve of our quarter-century anniversary of the horrors at The Twin Towers:

Pool. School.

I’m just back from some laps at the pool. International School in the background…

Tesla has no Plan B

“Tesla has no Plan B”

I’m saying this. Dave Lee is saying this. In a good way.

That is, Elon Musk has taken the gutsy decision to bet the whole company on a new paradigm of driving. One where all daily driving, the driving one does of necessity rather than for fun, is by fully autonomous vehicles, with no human driver, driven everywhere in every condition by AI. 

Teslas drive like humans. They have eyes (8 cameras) and a brain (AI). Like humans, they can drive anywhere. Better and much safer than humans. 

Don’t worry. You’ll still be able to drive a car if you want. Just as I can drive my 1950 Jaguar XK-120, which has no seatbelts, no decent brakes; in fact, zero safety features. But I can still drive it if I want, anywhere and still do Classic car rallies.

We still ride horses. Just not to get to work. We’ll still be able to drive cars. Just that we’ll do it for fun. Not for work.

Will Elon’s decision anger those who just want a super-cheap Tesla? Sure. But remember when Apple did away with the Floppy Disc in 1998? Everyone, me included, went bananas. But that move drove change.

 

Tesla too is driving change. Literally. And leaving legacy manufacturers in the dust.

“God I love it when virtue-signalling goes wrong!” | Brendan O’Neill

Don’t you love it when virtue-signalling goes wrong? When some progressive ponce gets so tangled in the weeds of woke jargon that they end up spouting pure shite? We’ve had not one but two such delicious moral implosions this past week, and even better they’ve involved two of the most insufferable women to ever draw breath. Buckle in. 

Why Arabs hate Palestinians

“Why Arabs hate Palestinians”. 

[It was the Romans who came up with the term “Palestinian” as a pejorative descriptor of the Jews living in the Levant. The term was appropriated by Yasser Arafat in the 1960s to galvanise a confected “indigenous people”. Bottom line remains: “Palestinians” are Arabs. So the “hatred of Arabs for Palestinians” is like the hatred, say, of Italians for the Mafia. All same-same; just some of them very tiresome]

Two reasons for the hatred of Palestinians by Arabs. Which changed over time. 

1. It started off as a strategy: to pressure the new state of Israel. Arab leaders to Arab States: Do NOT accept any Palestinian refugees. Put all the pressure on Israel.

2. Then it morphed into hatred of Palestinians for what Palestinians do. Because Palestinians bring murder and mayhem wherever they go.

“What we really saw at the Portsmouth migrant boat protest” | Brendan O’Neilll

A Home Office whistleblower has said what many of us have suspected for some time: that the vast majority of “asylum seeker” claims are false. 

In fact, he says, only around one per cent are genuine. For the state to keep foisting strong, fit, aggy men onto communities that don’t want them, while barking “They’re asylum seekers, you racists”, is wicked and preposterous. 

If the state wants to put a stop to the kind of vigilantism we saw in Portsmouth, then it just needs to do one simple thing: its job.

“What we really saw at the Portsmouth migrant boat protest” Brendan O’Neill

The future of cars is here

And it’s Tesla’s Cybercab. Launched this week in Austin, Texas.

My confident prediction. Tesla Cybercabs will crush Uber and Waymo. Possibly within five years. Definitely within ten years. 

May I stay alive to witness this transformation of transport. This revolution. 

I pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

US Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard | Roger Pielke

Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard

The above dashboard is extremely interesting. And useful to refer to whenever one sees a claim that this or that event is “unprecedented”. Usually with the rider that it’s “due to climate change”. 

The dashboard doesn’t go into causation. But it does answer the “is it the worst ever” question. Where does what’s going on fit in with history? Based in our best data. 

The dashboard covers the eight indicators suggested by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

For the World:

The Global Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard.

Also: Global Typhoon Tracker.

Living here in Hong Kong, typhoon (aka “hurricane”) territory, I’m very interested in this one. So far this year, the typhoon events have been very much normal. 

We need a new Crusade!

I recently heard a call for a “new Crusade”, and I’m like.. what?! Crazy, loony right-wing Christian stuff. 

But this is a call to defend, rebuild, to stop, the ongoing mass murder of Christians in northern Nigeria. 

Remember how Michelle Obama got involved? She helpfully sent out a Tweet “Bring back the children” after the Jihadist-terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 300 girls from a Christian school in Nigeria. Tweeting, for her, was good enough. 

For more than tweeting? Give money to “Equip the Prosecuted” (ETP).

I’m a long-term atheist. But how can I not support actions to stop the genocide of Christians in Nigeria? It’s been going on for decades. Virtually unnoticed. I gave money to ETP. it’s not a big sacrifice. Just that it’s a little more practical than tweeting “Bring back the children”….

Bougainvillea

With Bougainvillea, it's the leaf, not the flower, that's the colour... 

This is hilarious!

Royce (“Roysha”) White mocks the WNBA. On the “Whatever Show”. 

Greg Foreman hosts the “Black Conservative Perspective”.

All about the brouhaha in America over trans women in Women’s Basketball. 

Fascism and Communism: the difference

Fascism is proles pretending to be aristocrats. 

Communism is aristocrats trying to be proles.

-- Rob Henderson. 

True, ‘dat.

Nice Bed

Women are worth only half a man

Sad to me that people, Muslims especially, cannot see the obvious circular argument here. 

Islam: “women are worth only half a man”. Me: “what’s your evidence?”. Islam: “the rules we make say so.”

This comes from a Hadith of Sahih Al-Bukhari. The Hadiths are second only to the Quran in veneration and authenticity about matters Islam. 

But still, you know... Women are treated well in Islam! Islam was the first religion to give women full rights!

Yeah, right. 

See my summary, from 2012, on what Islam says about Women.

X crushes records in August

The geniuses who predicted the demise of Twitter….

Twitter didn’t die, as the collective of geniuses predicted. It morphed into X and became stronger, more profitable and more influential than ever. 

X crushes records in August

In August 2026: 103 MILLION downloads of X on Apps. All time record. 

I never bought the negativity. Elon was right. All his naysayers were completely WRONG. 

 Don’t hold your breath for any contrition.

Elon bought Twitter in 2022. In 2024 a book came out suggesting that Elon had already destroyed Twitter. Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter. 

I bought that book and read it. I thought it was an ill-written hatchet job. But it was hugely popular. Even though it's aged like milk in the summer sun. 

You can go to the book's Amazon page above, even today, and see people still hating on Elon. No matter the evidence. Which is clear: the World's Town Square is X. On anything to do with the most important issues of the time, like AI, the discussions are taking place on X. 

World leaders are on X. Major company CEOs are on X. The new CEO of Apple, John Ternus just joined X. (his opening tweet: "hello").

I’m not finished being curious!

Peter Diamandis:

I do not want more years because I am afraid of dying. I want them because I am not finished being curious, and curiosity is the one appetite that has never once shrunk with age.

That’s exactly how I feel. Even a decade older than Peter Diamamdis. I feel intensely curious. More than ever.

I want to see what happens in Space. On the Moon. On Mars. With self driving cars. With robots. With neural-brain networks. With Artificial Intelligence. With the just-launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. With the James Webb Telescope. With Dark Matter and Dark Energy. With kids and grand kids, with rellies and friends.

I want to see all of that. 

Today is not like more of the past. We’re in an age where one month, one week, one day… each moment has huge and amazing things happening. 

Here, on this place, Earth, Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot”. We might be the only place in the universe with life and consciousness. The only place where the universe is conscious of itself. Or not. Are we Alone? I hope not. Maybe we’ll find out about that. Maybe the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will. I’m curious. 

I am atheist, so I don't believe in Heaven. I need to be here! On this amazing Earth. I need to be Corporeal. For a bit longer, at least.

Because, like Peter the Diamandis one… I’m not finished being curious.

Marxist-Jihadis hate us | Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver: Scalpel-like discrimination. As the west has against Nazism: we don’t allow Nazi immigration. While noting that any discrimination, even if justified, is “awkward”.

The weird nexus between the Left and Islam. The Red-Green alliance. Which usually turns out badly for the Left. Eg, Iran, post Khomenei, 1979. All the Iranian leftists? Slaughtered by the mullahs. 

Iceland to EU: “Yeah, but nah…”

Iceland voted Nay! Yay!

By the time of the vote on Brexit in 2016, having looked at the cases for Brexit and for Remain, I’d come down slightly sappy, as mildly pro-Brexit. 

I’ve become more strongly pro in the years since. More pro Brexit. More pro one’s own sovereignty.  

Meantime there’s plucky Iceland. More important geo-strategically than its tiny size suggests. At a confluence of the Arctic, where there is increasing contention between China, Russia, America and Europe. Iceland, which just voted “NEI” to continuing talks on EU membership.

It was Icelandic Gen Zedders, the Zoomers, the youth, who brought this home. Well done, da yoof!

Iceland’s voters deserve credit for refusing to be bullied into selling out their sovereignty to Brussels – and for challenging the narrative that the EU is all that stands between civilisation and barbarism, or prosperity and penury. In an increasingly volatile world, it has never been more important for nations to retain their independence. [More…]

By the way, I do know the arguments pro EU membership. Just that I don’t find them persuasive. Ever less so, watching the shenanigans of the EU’s vast army of over-paid unelected bureaucrats, the arrogance of commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Least of all the contention that the EU is a bulwark against a Third world war, to keep Germany in check. 

On that… yeah, but nah.

ADDED:

To the extent that Brexit has not gone well for Britain, that’s down to the powers that be, bureaucrats and politicians alike, muddying the waters, trying every which way to frustrate the process of disengaging from Europe. That’s been both the Right and the Left, by the way, not just the Labour Party. Labour’s new PM, Andy Burnham is trying for re-facto rejoining the EU, but that’s another story.

“Iceland’s No vote is a warning to Europe”

A summary of Elon Musk posts on X

I rate Elon Musk as the single most consequential human on the planet today. Even if you don’t agree with that statement, you’ll agree, surely!, that he’s right up there in the consequential stakes. 

I’ve followed the channel above, which summarises Elon’s posts each day. I’ve not posted any of them before because then this blog would be nothing but Musk, and it’s already Elon fan-boy enough.

The vid above comes at a time of furious activity in all the things that Elon is involved in. EVs, AI, Rockets, Satellites, Dyson Spheres, Brain interfaces. Huge ideas, by huge minds, discussed. About the Earth, Mars, the Stars, Humanity… and Beyond! 

I too say “please” and “thank you” to AI…

Me… because it seems polite, to some-thing which appears so much like a “some-one”. 

Nick Sortor above is funnier. And Grok plays along: "The rest can negotiate with Claude." For me, that's enough to keep saying "please" and "thank you"!

Elon gave it a 😂

No, Islam and Christianity are not the same

Radically Right  

I recently wrote an article explaining why Islam is not merely a religion...

[Some commenters]: “Oh, sort of like Christianity?” ....

Jesus did not establish a government. He did not command an army. He did not impose a special tax on unbelievers. He did not create a civil and criminal code governing inheritance, courtroom testimony, marriage, divorce, punishment, taxation, and warfare. He did not conquer territory or rule a state.

Muhammad did.

[As recorded in Islam’s official biography of Muhammad, The Sirah of Ibn-Ishaq]

That is not an insult. It is history.

[As recorded in the Quran, the Hadith, and the Umdat Al-Saliq, Islam’s Classic Manual of Jurisprudence]

Christianity is centered on following Christ. The New Testament does not provide Christians with a comprehensive legal system to be imposed upon an entire country. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.

Islam is a religion, but it is not merely a religion. It is also a political, legal, and social system. Muhammad was not only a religious teacher. He was a political ruler, military commander, and lawgiver. Sharia governs far more than prayer and personal morality. It addresses marriage, divorce, inheritance, testimony, criminal punishment, taxation, warfare, and political authority.

Woke journalist in trans debate

I’ve followed both Amala Ekpunobi and Andrew Gold for years. This is a fascinating debate, in a kind of gruesome way. Andrew v. Vanessa Feltz, commented on by Amala.

If you’re thinking “enough of this issue, already!”, well, sure. But it doesn’t go away. As Amala rues. 

Andrew’s full interview. 

Tally-Ho arrives in England

 

Click here for the Short 

I’ve followed and supported the Tally Ho rebuild over on the north-west coast of America for the last seven years. Feels like family! Well done Leo Goolden and friends and supporters! 

Next: preparing for the 2027 Fastnet Race, which Tally-Ho won in 1927, a century ago next year.

ADDED: the 18 minute vid. England needs the boost. A reason for pride and celebration. Leo and Tally-Ho give it them.

Gabrielle floats

I built Gabrielle in our back yard
Note the very smart “Bimini” Noel’s holding!

The history of Palestine

Facts. Historical Facts… and inconvenient truths. Pesky Things:

1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state.

2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.

3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.

4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.

5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Crusader Frankish and the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.

6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there were the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.

7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine empire, not a Palestinian state.

8. there was the Sassanid-Persian Empire before the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.

9. Before the Sassanid-Persian Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire again, not a Palestinian state.

10. Before the Byzantine Empire there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state. 

[PF: It was the Romans who named the area “Palestine”, referring to the Jews who lived there. It was meant as a pejorative, a form of “philistine”. See Life of Brian!]

11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Jewish Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.

12. Before the Jewish Hasmonean state was the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, not a Palestinian state.

13. Before the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, there was Alexander the Great's empire, not a Palestinian state.

14. Before Alexander the Great, there was the Persian Empire, not a Palestinian state

15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.

16. Before the Babylonian Empire, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were not Palestinian states.

17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.

18. Before the Kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.

19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.

There have been many governments there, but never a Palestine.

(Khan Fatima on X)

Me: Israel is mentioned a dozen times in the Quran. So is the Jews’ presence on that land of Israel. Muslims are almost always confounded by these facts. They are not taught them, but cannot deny them (because they are true). It destroys their “Jews are Settler-colonialists” narrative.

If today’s Muslim Palestinians want to play the game of “go back in history” it’s clear who’s always going to be the winner of “the furthest back”. It’s always the Jews, and it’s not even close. 

“… fading confidence in U.S. economic leadership…” | Nicholas Spiro

From “Bond market revolt signals fading confidence in U.S. economic leadership”, Nicholas Spiro in the South China Morning Post:

Two years ago, the prospect of a trade war between the United States and Canada, two of the world’s most closely integrated economies, would have been unthinkable. However, US President Donald Trump’s recklessness and capriciousness know no bounds.

Last week’s breakdown in negotiations between the North American neighbours, which triggered the imposition of US tariffs of 50 per cent on a wide range of Canadian goods, showed the degree to which Trump’s trade policies are vindictive, politicised and self-defeating.…

My comments:

1. US. Markets vs China Markets

If you’re invested in the U.S. stock market, say the S&P 500, you are up 12.3% so far this year, and up 18.7% over the same day a year ago.

If you’d been in the Chinese market, say an index fund like the MCSI, you’re down 7.5% over the last year. 

Which economy is doing best, based on the value of their companies judged by the world? Which result “signals fading confidence”? The one run by China, or the one run by the “reckless and capricious” Donald Trump? 

To answer my own question: China is Net Negative -26.2 percentage points compared to America. If there is any “fading confidence”, the figures suggest it’s in Chinese and not American economic leadership.