Things that are bad

	Kiyah Willis ⁦‪@kiyahwillis‬⁩ Antisemitism is bad Jihad is bad Kidnapping children is bad Raping women is bad Osama bin Laden was bad Hitler was bad Hamas is bad None of this should be controversial but apparently it needs to be said: 10/7 terrorists and all of their supporters and apologists are bad   25/11/2023, 1:57 am

Sent from my iPad

“You are all wrong”

“UK not perfect, but few regrets for BN(O) expats” | SCMP

If I were a 40-something, or 30-something Hongkonger, I’d be doing something like these above who’ve taken up Britain’s offer of “British Nationals (Offshore)” visas. 

99% say they won’t come back to Hong Kong, even if they might not be making as much as they were here.

I’d be getting to somewhere else — maybe Oz, maybe U.S., maybe U.K. — because the trend here is not good. 

Note  the comments above on the schooling. Less pressure in the U.K., but their kids learning more. Getting a better education.

Why I stay here now is because it suits me at 70-something. Safe city, good healthcare, great hospitals, home help, excellent facilities, easy to get in and out if we want to (right now, I don’t — haven’t travelled since Covid!). And basically a clean non-corrupt government. These are all things to cherish.

But younger, with career ahead, and kids to think of… sure, outta here.

Jeffrey Sachs, lifelong Democrat, leaves the party over incessant government lying

Finding out the source of the pandemic should not be a partisan issue. But Democratic Senators are blocking every investigation. They don’t want to touch it.

More in the Covid lab-leak theory.

Sachs: “Open the books!”

"US democracy in decline? Not if its purpose is understood”

Posting this just because it’s such an unusual take in the South China Morning Post.

Letter to the SCMP on 22 November 2023, from Roberta Schlechter, Portland, Oregon, a very far-left  place:

Jonathan Power is an accomplished European, nine years my senior. My American bio includes three terms as a legislative staffer and an ongoing student of history and public policy. Having read Power’s opinion on “declining US democracy”, I respond from my context.

Power’s use of the term “democracy” is disconnected from our use. Beyond the one-person-one-vote democratic model, America operates as a representative republic built on a constitutional foundation of federalism – a formal power-sharing arrangement that recognises the co-equal value of the individual and the sovereign state.

“Going nuclear: how Asia is leading the zero-emission power push”

Going nuclear: how Asia is leading the zero-emission power push.

China has 16 nuclear power stations under construction. The rest of Asia has 75% of the global commitments to nuclear power stations. 

Meanwhile Australia drags its feet. All sorts of nonsense excuses: like “it’s illegal” (!). Like “it takes too long”. Like, “we can’t build large-size nuclear” (why not?). Like “Small Modular Reactors are not viable” (yet). Maybe Australia could get working on repealing legislation that makes nuclear illegal. At least start that process.

While the Australian Conservation Foundation is clearly ideologically against nuclear, the Australian population is in favour of Australia developing nuclear power. Time for ACF to get in board, or at least be neutral. Nuclear supporters also support renewables. Renewables supporters are often against nuclear. Why is that?

“The western world is in denial about the reality of Israel” | Daniel Levy

Click above for the video 

I post the above for balance. For nuance. As it’s a very much an anti-Israel pro-Palestinian stance. The “Middle East Eye” presents itself as a “neutral and balanced” source, but its clear leaning is pro-Palestine and anti-Israel.  While this blog, my very own blog, is crazy pro-Israel. Hence the “balance”, the “nuance”. I’m trying! I’m trying to be out of my bubble. (Spoiler: this video doesn’t do it…)

See if you are persuaded by the arguments of Daniel Levy. Who was an adviser to Israel PM Ehud Barak and to US President Barack Obama. So he’s of the Left. Does that mean there are things he can’t see, despite his telling those who don’t agree with him to “do some history”? Why, yes, it does. He sees no agency, no responsibility, none, niente, nada, on the Palestinian side, let alone of Hamas. It’s all the fault of Israel. Israel’s failure to be compassionate. Israel’s failure to grasp peace. Israel’s genocidal intentions. Israel’s “apartheid” (Amnesty says so!). All Israel. All Israel. All the Jews. No fault of Hamas or the PA.

But don’t let me poison your views! Go ahead and watch. And remember: this is amongst the best of the arguments on the anti-Israel, the pro-Hamas side. The best. The least deranged. Do they make sense? If you’ve  “done some history”? 

Greenwald v Harris Redux: Love-Hate, Hate-Love and Love-Hate again

Glenn Greenwald is a famous journalist and podcaster. Sam Harris is a famous philosopher and neuroscientist. 

I first came to know of Sam Harris.  I bought his “End of Faith” in 2006. And others: His book on “Free Will” (2012). His discussion with Maajid Nawaz on "Islam and the Future of Tolerance" (2015). I subscribed to his “Making Sense” podcast. 

What I liked about Sam was his clear thinking. His analysis. His take on the danger of ideologies and in particular the ideology of Islam -- Islamism. He’s read deeply the Trinity of Islalm: The Koran, the Hadith and the Sarah (the life of Muhammad). 

I first heard of Glenn Greenwald as a counter to Harris. Glenn  didn’t like Sam’s scorching criticism of Islam. According to Sam, Glenn took quotes out of context and then attacked them. Sam described this as “Greenwalding”. (TBF: it’s pretty much a standard operating procedure on social media these days. Aka Straw Manning).

So, of course, I hated Glenn Greenwald. I was very much in Sam’s side as I thought, and believe to this day, that he’s widely and deeply read in the core tenets of Islam, as an ideological structure, which needs to be criticised and which he did with skill and verve. 

Then in 2016 came Trump and Sam’s brain was broken. He had a severe case of TDS. Which he has to this day. The first I noticed was with the Senate Hearings on Brett Kavanagh for SCOTUS. Sam wanted Kavanagh found guilty of sex charges even though there was no evidence (and is none to this day). Sam managed to twist the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” with his silver tongue rationalisation. But I didn’t like it. It damaged his kind of “just the facts, ma’am” brand. His hard-data, science-based brand. 

Then I started to hear more about Glenn, as he’d left the Intercept, a company he’d founded, because of disputes with its board over the issue of free speech. And set up his own podcast. To continue free speech. I liked that.

Reminder: that Glenn was the guy who broke the Edward Snowden story, via The Guardian. So he’s no stranger to big stories. 

And I’ve liked his podcasts, a number of which I’ve linked to on this blog. 

Then came Gaza and Sam did “The Bright Line Between Good and Evil” online essay.

While Glenn went all pro-Hamas and anti-Israel. It seems he has his own Derangement Syndrome, this time Israel:

• He’s fully behind the massive pro-Palestine demos in the west, even as they call for the genocide of Jews, chant “Hitler was right! Kill the Jews”. Yes, even as they do that. And even as they are shot through with Hamas supporters and Hamas messages, even as they call for a “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea”, which is simple code for “get rid of the Jews”. Yes, Greenwald, a Jew, supports that. 
• He supports the Gen Z fascination with the rediscovered Osama bin Ladin Letter to America. Supports its contents. Supports the Chomskyan views that “we deserved it”.
• He supports the narrative of “grievance”. Of Muslim grievance. Even of Hitler grievance!  (i.e. “they had to do it”). Which I’ve shown to be, instead, a matter of ideology, not grievance, back in 2009. 
• He’s gone crazy in a flurry of X-posts. And it’s not nice. To me, anyway. So I come back to having respect for Sam Harris for his take on “The Bright Line Between Good and Evil”.

So, we’re back full circle. Back to liking Sam and avoiding Glenn. Though I must be careful to keep looking at both. Otherwise the dreaded Silo. The dreaded Bubble. Which we ought be fighting against all the time, difficult as it sometimes is to read  and hear the views of others. 

Pond Heron | after Monet…

“Visiting Ministers call for ceasefire in Gaza” and unleash a blizzard of misinformation on Gaza

China foreign minister Wang Yi meets Egypt foreign minister Sameh Shoukri. They said things. Some of them wrong. 

Going one-by-one on the highlighted bits above:

“... following an attack by Hamas last month.” What? “... an attack"?! How about, more correctly: “following an unprovoked massacre of civilians, including babies, women and children, by the terrorist group Hamas”. Hmm?

Wang: “China opposes any forced displacement and forcible transfer...”. (1) This is not done by the IDF. Instead, it warns Gaza civilians that it will bomb a certain area at a certain time. So they have the chance to get out of the way. What happens then, usually, is that Hamas stops the citizens from escaping because it wants the civilian deaths to play out on western media. Which the media then pliantly report. (2) Hypocrisy China, much? They forcible transfer citizens, eg in Xinjiang and Tibet. And -- for a very long time -- have limited the domestic movement of its own citizens.

The “foreign minster” of the Palestinian Authority, Riyad al-Maliki, claims the war is to “eliminate the existence of the Palestinian people...”. No it’s not. (1) Clearly not, because of the measures that that IDF takes to minimise civilian deaths. Measures that go far beyond the requirements under international law and further than any modern army. (2) Hypocrisy PA, much? They, like Hamas, specifically and in writing want the worldwide destruction of the jews. They also pay a lifetime pension to any Muslim that murders Jews in acts of terrorism.

Wang: “China supports the just cause of the Palestinian people to recover their national rights”. (1) There has never, in history, been a “Palestinian state”. So how can they “recover national rights”? (2) Hypocrisy much, China? The national rights of the Tibetans? The Uiguhurs in Xinjiang? They used to be separate national status, more so than ever the “Palestinian people” (who, by the way, were the Jews. It was they who were referred to as “Palestinian”, since Roman times until the 1960s, when Yasser Arafat usurped the term. Until then, what are now “Palestinians” had been Egyptian Arabs, or Syrian Arabs, or Lebanese Arabs, or whatever.)

Wang repeated China’s “call for a two-state solution”. Reminder: people now called Palestinian have refused a two-state solution since 1937. Again in 1938, and 1948, and 1967, and 1999, and 2000 and 2008. All times it’s been the Palestinian side that has refused the two-state solution. 

The pressure from the west, and from the likes of China (if they really do believe in the need for a “settlement of the Palestinian issue”) needs to shift the Arab side to negate the Khartoum Resolution of 1967, which gave us the infamous “Three Noes”: No Peace with Israel; No Negotiations with Israel; No recognition of Israel. How on earth can Israel negotiate with that? What basis is "Three Noes" for a two-state solution? 

Instead, the narrative must shift: to demanding the Palestinian side negate the Three Noes. That’s difficult, sure, but “difficult" is better than “impossible". 

Wang: “... persistent disregard for the rights of the Palestinian people.” Let’s correct that for Minister Wang: “the persistent disregard of the Palestinian people to accept peace; to  recognise the rights of Israel to exist and the persistent refusal of the Palestinian people to negotiate with Israel for the equal rights of Jews and Arabs to live together in peace in the region.” (FIFY!)

Something like that. Better than the ongoing nonsense spouted by China’s foreign minister, in cahoots with the “foreign minister” of the “Palestinian Authority”, and by the chatterati in the west. Enough. 

PS: not to mention that  “Israel has the right to self-defence” and at the same breath calling for a “ceasefire”, are mutually exclusive. There can be no long-term self-defence if there is a ceasefire that allows Hamas to regroup, to lock and reload, to carry out another massacre. 

Lady, Child, Stroller

Xena: leaves Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, racing to Subic Bay Philippines, April 2014

🎂 Xena long-time crew member Michael Dangar (“MC Danger”) birthday today. He’s now down in Oz.

We did this race, Hong Kong to the Philippines around ten times on Xena. The first, in 2008, we won. We didn’t win again, though we usually had a podium place. 

It’s fun in the Philippines! Downtown Olongapo is crazy fun, ditto San Fernando. 

The race is around 600 nm (~1,111 km...), taking us 3 to 5 days, wind depending. There’s often a big wind “hole” approaching the Philippine coast, and there have been times we’ve been stopped dead in the water, sails flapping, fishing for squid and taking a swim in the deep blue deep ocean off the stern. 

We’ve cruised the islands after the race, including in our older boat, Thea. Many lovely bays, and the friendliest of people. 

We sold Xena in 2018.

Australia win Cricket World Cup! Their 6th! Yay!

Click above for the video 

Talk about going against the run of play! 

India were heavy odds-on favourites to win. Having won all ten previous games in compelling, flawless fashion and playing in front of a home crowd of 92,000, and the Indian Prime Minister. 

But Australia ended up the winners by 6 wickets! With 8 overs to spare. That’s a thorough trouncing. Captain Pat Cummins did something no one expected. Like, no one. He won the toss and elected to bowl! No one had won a match against India when India batted first. There you go, Pat taking a risk.

The Grade Cricketer lads, Sam Perry and Ian Higgins, tear it up, in the above video. They’re funny, knowledgeable guys, quick wittted, and a way with words. Give them a listen.

ADDED: There’s some pretty mean-spirited reporting out there, blaming India’s loss on choking. But it was Australia win the game far more than India lost it. First the gutsy call to bowl, followed by some superlative bowling, supported by flawless fielding (Head’s incredible fast-running catch of the ball over his shoulder is a memory for the ages), and then spirited batting to bring it home. Failing to acknowledge Aussie brilliance a shame.

Norman Finklestein is a Hamas Propagandist

Click above for the interview

Norman Finklestein and Eli Lake on the pod of Noam Dworman. 
 

I came to watch Finklestein, because he’s a storied defender of Palestinian rights and stern critic of Israel. So I presumed some deep insights. 

But... none. 

I found him woefully ignorant; that, or duplicitous. And when called out by Lake, didn’t fight back but just said “I’m not going to quibble”. Right. Cause he was wrong (eg, on the population density of Gaza; on their alleged “food insufficiency”).

He claims the PLO accepted the terms of a deal for the Two State Solution. Except I remember it, in real time, and they didn’t. Which is also how history records it. So, I’m, like, Huh? What’s with this man? You could only make statements like that if you were in deep thrall to the PLO and now Hamas.Which indeed he is, with his horrible equivalence-ing of the Hamas massacres on October 7, and the Polish Ghetto Riots of the holocaust. Quite horrid. 

At best he’s ignorant. Which I can’t believe. So it must just be that he’s a hypocrite and a liar. For the cause. And it’s a horrid cause. The Islamification of the world, starting with killing off all the Jews in the land of Palestine. 

Palestinian polls: huge majorities love Hamas, agree with massacre of Jews, hate America, loathe Israel. Two State “solution” is done.

	Charlie Kirk ⁦‪@charliekirk11‬⁩ A new poll by the Arab World for Research and Development, a Palestinian research org, finds that 75% of Palestinians support the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, with 59% strongly supporting them. Other highlights: -98% are more proud to be a Palestinian due to the…   20/11/2023, 9:11 am

Would Palestinians think any differently if Israel's reaction to October 7 had been… nothing? If it had turned the other cheek? 

No, is the answer. 

Because such polls — despite some headlines reporting them as "shock polls" — have been around for decades. We have known their attitudes for a long time. Turning the other cheek, or "radical generosity" would only embolden Hamas and its wide swathe of Palestinian supporters.

Big majorities of Muslims, even those living in western countries, do not agree with western values. Big majorities hate the "small satan" of Israel, and hate the "great satan" of the United States even more. Hate the west and its values. As I argued back in 2009, here, and in 2014 here. 

This has been known all along, even as we have welcomed vast numbers of Islamic immigrants into the west, majorities of whom — by all polls —  hate the west. Listen again to Sam Harris on his “Bright line between Good and Evil”.

Yet in the west many people confuse high degrees of hate with the righteousness of their cause. They are so angry, and have been so for so long, they must be right! But they are not right just because they're angry. And trying to make them less angry by addressing "grievances" won't work because the fundamental issue to Palestinians is not land but Jews. Jews anywhere. It's the ideology of fundamental islam that drives the hate.

Sigh… 

Debunking Palestinian myths

 

Click above for the video

This can all be fact-checked. 

It’s true that the Palestinians never accepted a split of the land. 

So? 

You don’t get to have a veto vote when there’s historical rewriting of countries happening all around, and there’s a fairness in play as well, all in the hands of the United Nations. You just don’t get to do that. You get to have a say. And when you decide you don’t want a say, then too bad for you. Which is what it’s been. Palestine people have suffered most for the bad leadership they have. Bad leadership they voted in. Most crazily Hamas. 

“South China Morning Post” ➡️➡️ “China Daily”

Front page of the South China Morning Post, Sunday. 
Full of pro-Party fluff-puffery 

China Daily aka "Good News Daily”. The above front page is not that of a serious and credible paper. It’s just communist party propaganda, parading as “news”. 

Above: One: puff piece on Xi Jinping. Second, another puff piece on Xi Jinping. Third: an authoritarian warning from our Chief Executive John Lee. And one nice fluffy pic of happy residents.

This sort of front page is new in recent months. Almost like they got warnings from someone on high in Beijing. 

“Do not try to rewrite past and ignore the brutality of Hamas” | Amir Lati

This above is clear and correct history. 

Sadly not cutting much ice in the bulk of western media. For which a Hamas massacre must be met with: “ceasefire now!”

A key point made by Amir Lati above: Gaza had an airport between 1998 and 2001, when it was closed down due to the second Intifada. That is, because of Hamas. 

There was a plan to build a seaport and a new airport, after Israel handed Gaza back to the Palestinian Authority in 2005. Again that was sabotaged because Hamas decided in 2007 that shooting missiles at Israeli citizens was more important than making Gaza’s better off. 

That’s relevant because one of the criticisms of Gaza -- always blamed on Israel -- is that it’s an “open-air prison”. Well, to the extent it’s true (which is, not really), it’s down to Hamas. Directly and clearly. 

PS: I’m glad they ran this article in the South China Morning Post, which for the most part is very pro-Palestinian to the point of Hamas apologia. 

Hong Kong: Discovery Bay North

Tik Tok Ning Nongs praise Bin Ladin.They need to read more

Click above for video, by Megyn Kelly 
She does a follow-up with Rob O’Neill here.

American Zoomers praise Osama bin Ladin. Because they have (only just now) read Bin Ladin’s “Letter to America”, which gaslights Americans by using their (usually left) tropes against themselves.

What they haven’t read is Bin Ladin’s letters to the Muslim world. Where he says the reason for attacks is because they are not Muslims. It is true  that “they attacked us because of our Freedoms”. These have been collected in Raymond Ibrahim “The al Qaeda Reader”.

I wrote about it in 2009: “If we give away Israel all will be ok… (not)”. /Snip:

“In fact, Muslims are obligated to raid the lands of the infidels, occupy them and exchange their systems of governance for an Islamic system, barring any practice that contradicts the Sharia from being publicly voiced among the people…”. (Al Qaeda Reader, p.51).

Those Tik Tokkers going through an “existential crisis” as a result of reading his Letter to America must also read his letters to the Islamic world. For its the latter that is the real Bin Ladin.

Again, my post in 2014: “Islamic State atrocities: products of ‘grievance’ or ideology?”. /Snip:

Consider Osama’s own words in an internal letter to fellow Saudis:

"Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue — one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice — and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? [emphasis added]

Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; [2] or payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; [3] or the sword — for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die. (The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 42)

So, it’s clear, right? Muslims will attack non-Muslims wherever they are, simply for being non-Muslims, for not believing in Allah and his messenger, Mohammed. No matter what we do. And not matter what grievances we try to repair. We are alway the infidel, the kaffir, and deserve to be killed, unless we pay the jizya, the tax for being non-Muslim. That’s today, in the 21st century. And Zoomers love it!  Praise it. Because they’ve half-digested a half-story by a halfwit, Osama bin Ladin. On Tik Tok, the Chinese influence machine. Oh dear. 

Why don’t Arab nations accept Palestinian refugees?

Click above for video

People ask why the surrounding Arab states don’t take any Palestinian refugees. Though not many on the Left ask, because the answer is embarrassing to the narrative of Israel being responsible for every wrong.

On the other side of the coin: why is Singapore so successful? By Nick Freitas.

Some reasons given, here:

• Focus on Law and Order
• Strong Property Rights
• Sound Fiscal and monetary policy: low tax
• Legal Transparency: uncorrupt judiciary
• Free Trade

All these factors hold for Hong Kong, which is also very rich. 

It’s super easy to do the counter factual on Gaza. Imagine if they’d done the above, instead of spending all the money they got, from the United Nations and international aid bodies, on those things rather than digging tunnels and building rockets. 

It’s easy: it would be more like Singapore. Wouldn’t the people of Gaza, the Palestinians, be better off? Than by where they are today: chanting slogans about “being free from the River to the Sea”, after murdering their neighbours children and babies? I mean... it’s clear isn’t it?

Earlier: “Not a single Arab state will accept Gazan refugees"

Bronze Geese

By our local pond off our back yard. 

AGM of the Australian Conservation Foundation: How to say you’re anti nuclear without saying you’re anti nuclear

I attended a Zoom AGM of the Australian Conservation Foundation yesterday. Around 60 on the Zoom.

I was first a member of the ACF in 1969 in Canberra, just three years after it was founded. I still remember going to meetings at a shed in the Corroboree Park, in those early days. I haven’t been financial for most of the time since, but recently rejoined. 

At the end of the formal stuff, confirming the Minutes and so on, there were questions. I let them all go by, mostly they were about membership and how the ACF is doing financially. At the end, and with seeming noone else asking a question, I put in mine. Which was about Nuclear.  (wrinkling of ACF attendees’ noses).

Pointing out that I lived in Hong Kong, where we get a majority of our electricity from nuclear power, that I’ve visited the Daya Bay Nuclear Power station (and it’s great!), and that we also have 20kW of solar on our roof, my question was: given that the Australian population had shown itself to be in favour of Australia developing nuclear, would the ACF now have another look at it? I knew the policy of the ACF on nuclear, which is very negative. But should it/would it, have another look?

The chair, Liana Downey, tossed the question to someone whose name I didn’t catch, who answered along the lines of something that I’d summarise as “how to say you’re against nuclear, without saying you’re against nuclear”. Because he did say he was not “ideologically opposed to nuclear”, whereas it became apparent that he was. And that he associated pro nuclear with the cretins of the Liberal (ie conservative) party.

A sum of his points:

1. Big nuclear power stations like France, Canada, etc... not good for Australia. And this is the conclusion of all major energy and science bodies in Australia.

2. Australia would only consider Small Modular Reactors: but they are failing, eg the one in Utah. 

3.  Too long to install.

4. California and France nuclear stations now having problems, lack of water, etc. 

5. Australia would keep on using nuclear energy: via fission! Using the fission of the sun for solar power! Heh.

6. Thus: renewables forever, for Oz. 

I didn’t get any chance to reply to those points, as it was not a discussion format, rather a Q and then an A, that that’s it. You’re cut off. I understood this, and so I simply noted that answer. 

I’m not sure that it’s even worth trying to change any mindset in the ACF. Then again, they do have an impact on the broader consciousness about energy related issues, including nuclear. Still, there’s now a majority of Australians that are in favour of developing nuclear power in Australia, whatever the ACF thinks. 

ADDED: I’m not going to go through the points above by the AGM guy talking anti-nuke, save to say that re the first point: it’s not at all clear to me why a standard large-scale nuclear power station as made by France or Canada (or even China?!), should be out of bounds for Australia. For the rest, there’s my “Case for nuclear power”.

Temple Stone Flying Bird

Calligraphy by Pan Zegao. Bird by decal shadow on window. This morning.

Top character "Sì" = Temple

Bottom "Shí" = Stone 

Bird shadow = flying swallow

Birth watch

Bought in Boston in 2008. It was made in January 1950. My birth date. 

Now donated to son. 

Constellation. Classic.

Net Zero won’t happen because it can’t happen

The above graph, which I did myself, simple projection, is a priori case for why we won’t reach net zero. 

Because such a change, for the world as a whole, so quickly, simply cannot happen. And thus it won’t. Just look at the required changes. At the steepness of the lines projected. Never happened in the history of mankind that such drastic changes have been made so quickly. And think that all that affects, most directly and most hard, are on the poor people of the world. 

Any serious attempt to reach net zero can only be ruinous to the economy and drive us into the dark ages. 

Literally ➡️

Robert Brice talks to Freddy Gray, including about nuclear: “Is net zero leading to economic ruination?". Bryce says: “people who are worried about climate change but are also against nuclear are pro black outs”.  

So Aussie Minister in charge of Climate Change, Chris Bowen, is pro black out! He makes ignorant comments about nuclear being “too expensive”. To which I say:

(a) not it isn’t. And, in any case 

(b) it’s up to the private sector to decide if it’s too expensive. Not a dopey apparatchik. And he really is dopey. And he really is an apparatchik. He’s done nothing in life but be a civil servant when he’s not being a party hack. 

Barkley Baloney

	Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 ⁦‪@BillboardChris‬⁩ This man at ⁦‪@UCBerkeley‬⁩ who thinks he's a woman says that children can consent "to the side effect" of sterilization. He says that's better than them killing themselves! This is what these child abusers say every. single. time. It's a despicable tactic used to shut people up,… pic.twitter.com/HViqtwxonB   16/11/2023, 10:44 am

Trans Radical Activist, TRA, thinks that because he can say "suicidal ideation" he knows something…. 

It's that word "ideation", so cool, so, you know, he’s an expert. 

Billboard Chris sets him straight (as it were).

Woke. With John Cleese and Helen Pluckrose

	Andrew Doyle ⁦‪@andrewdoyle_com‬⁩ Confused about the ideas behind "wokeness"? In the latest episode of "The Dinosaur Hour", ⁦‪@JohnCleese‬⁩ spoke to author ⁦‪@HPluckrose‬⁩ to clarify the issues… pic.twitter.com/J15D17BTEK   16/11/2023, 6:20 am

What NOT to do if you’re trying to dispel a perception of a “police state”

I’ve spent some time trying to dispel the idea of Hong Kong now under the boot of a tyrannical Communist police state. Telling folks across the waters from us that they media is hyping the extent to which China is in control of Hong Kong, post the 2019 demos and the 2020 National Security Law. 

Many have the impression, from the MSM, that it’s now the equivalent of tanks in the streets, the army marching daily, police at every corner. We’re not like that. We’re still a very free place. Click the “Freedoms HK” label below to see some of that. 

But stuff like the above doesn’t help. Police on the subways. Why? people are asking. As they say -- and very much unlike the subway in, say, New York -- Hong Kong’s public transport and especially our MTR (subway) is super safe. John Lee listen up: we don’t need them! This doesn’t help your aim of “tell the good stories of Hong Kong”!

"Disgusting Pro-Hamas Displays” | Megyn Kelly and Konstantin Kisin

Click above for the video

Why do he police in the UK arrest those that stand up for British values? It’s a mystery. 

Does this mean we need to worry about the longevity of the west? Just a while ago, I’d have said no. But now I’m not so sure. To see crowds on the streets, untroubled by the police, saying “Hitler war right” and “Kill the Jews”, and noone does anything about it, but those that resist that, and say “English to the end” are the ones arrested and called “far right”. That’s when you start to worry about the continuance of the west. When you have to worry that to show support for  your own country, for your own values, is deemed  racist.