Yom Kippur

Hi All,

Yom Kippur , holiest day of the Jewish year,  begins tonight. A day of fasting, repentance, prayer, reflection and  hymns:

Hat tantrum

Hi All,

A friend sent me this video , about a trump hat.

All I can say is

1). It was the guy's property and stealing is illegal.

2). I have no idea how a trump hat can be seem as a symbol of genocide . In fact it's rather sick to do so.

3). Are people so sensitive they can't even speak to a political opponent without throwing tantrums?

Sometimes I do wonder about America....

Trump : strategist or lunatic?

Hi All,

 So people have asked me to comment on Trump's speech to the UN and the threats to "utterly destroy" north Korea (if said country attacked the US ).  

I can only say that the guy is either a strategic genius in trying to make himself look utterly unpredictable and therefore somehow formidable....

Or he has a compulsive need for confrontation and insulting in some kind of "willy waving contest" to make himself look like one of the strong men (e.g.  Putin ).

Or he is mad as in insane. 

Whatever his intent it seems the north Korean leadership seems to think it is all bluff. Indeed they only need to look at Steve Bannon's analysis:

’Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.’”

So working on the assumption Trump is acting in an irrational , but  rational way , it is highly unlikely Trump will do anything military wise.  The North Koreans themselves have one aim and that's regime survival (one of the reasons they wanted nukes in the first place, because of the neocon regime changes in Libya, Iraq etc). 

So from a world peace perspective that's good. From a Donald Trump perspective it isn't. He likes to win (whatever his actual mental state). He has basically backed himself into a corner with his rhetoric, bearing in mind Bannon's astute observations. So  this means and I think Trump is one who will want some big bad, but easy military victory somewhere , maybe sometime before the next election. Who could that be . Iran maybe ?  Or is that too difficult? Why not the UK or Canada....

Wonder woman : bisexual?

Hi All,

Apparently fans or anyone who can have been petitioning Warner brothers to make wonder woman in the next film bi.... and in any event the comics apparently say she's bi nowadays.

 should they? 

Or is wonder woman a heterosexual feminist? Personally I've always thought of her as being more lesbian than hetero. Or couldn't they just invent a new character rather than changing the story arch, rather than do what they've done with Dr Who ? 

But anyways , I think she's well cool regardless of her sexuality.

Kneeling and standing ?

Hi All,

Can someone explain this whole thingy in America about Trump, sports and kneeling - not standing - for the American national anthem ?  What is the fuss?  Really . In a secular sense you kneel to royalty  ,  men propose on their knees etc. In other words it is a sign of respect. In many religions people kneel or prostrate themselves toward God. But this kneeling is controversial and seems something to do with race.

But as I don't understand it all, can people helpfully explain?

Jacindamania and other stuff :What we missed ?

Hi All,

Stuff we missed during our celebrations last week:

1.  New Zealand's general election and "Jacindamania" , which was to do with their Labour party's new 38 year old  leader ,  feisty brunette Jacinda Ardern. She lost , but because this is the left she won as the Labour party was expected to be trounced. Sound familiar ?

2. Theresa May asking for another 2 years of the EU, delighting remoaners who think it is a sign we're never going to leave :incidentally Nick Clegg has written a book on this.

3. Speaking of signs some Christians said last Saturday would herald the apocalypse and disappear via a rapture . We're still here....

Rosh Hashanah : happy New Year!

Hi All,

Shanah Tovah Umetukah & Tizku Leshanim Rabbot

Plus a well cool song :

New Doctor Who

Hi All,

I found this one funny!

Venezuela and Rabbits

A crisis hit country, a crisis of the government's own making where people are starving , the economy has collapsed and inflation runs at hundreds of percentage points a month,aka the "socialist paradise" of Venezuela(much beloved of our   lefties)  is so desperate that the latest plan is that they have said  rabbits are no longer pets, but a nutritious food source and that the population should breed them  to  eat them.  

How will Jeremy react ? Corbyn is after all a vegetarian . And in any case north Korea tried this a couple of years ago. Forgetting that Rabbits need to be feed as well.... 

Sadly , Venezuela is a tragic example of socialism run mad. 

British on Jews

Hi All,

See here for a report on British views on Jews and Israel. For reaction it depends on whether you are half full or empty person . What I find interesting (emphasis mine) : 

"The report also examines attitudes among key religious groups. While it concludes that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes are no different among Christians than the wider population, it found such attitudes were two to four times higher among Muslims. Non-religious Muslims were less likely to back anti-Semitic or anti-Israel attitudes, while those who demonstrated Islamist views were more likely to. However, the report also indicated that “significant proportions of Muslims reject all such prejudice,” with a majority neutral or disagreeing with each of the anti-Semitic statements put to them. Staetsky also notes the relatively small size of both Britain’s Muslim population and those who hold far-left or far-right attitudes"

In fact it doesn't  matter how small militant Islam, militant far left and militant far right actually happen to be. It isn't about opinion polling to vote. It's about activism, demonstrating and using blogs as propaganda forums , which is clearly their prerogative providing it doesn't breach the law , they are however the ones who shout the loudest. Not that I think outright antisemitism should be tolerated anyway..

But that's before we talk about those who are willing to be crossing a line into outright criminality and or violence. So it could be a hundred far lefties or a hundred jihadist types or neo Nazis out of 65 million who are willing to be violent etc.  When they are coming for you or if you it feels like there's a billion of them "tiny minority " or not, as my grandparents remembered from the Farhud in 1941 .

Dr Who : Marxist or Suburban Rebel?

Hi All,

In which I'm objecting to the implication that portrays the Doctor as a golden child leftist Marxist revolutionary come Che Guevara poster boy .

So let one be a 'devil's advocate ' here :

The Doctor could equally be described as a paternalistic aristocratic "white man's burden" figure, although he never follows through with said paternalistic guidance . So maybe he's even a George Bush " neoconservative " , in so much as he might overthrow a tyranny and then be clueless as to what happens next, hoping they'll make "the right decision ".

You see the Doctor often does as" Pontius Pilate" and washes his hands of the post change " revolutionary " situation : episode two of the current series is a good example. The doctor sort of sorts the situation , but doesn't bother in trying to guide or help afterwards. We never see if the robots & human colonists make up and create a successful society or if in fact they cannot coexist and war or an apartheid happens and the doctor clearly stated "it's up to them" in some vague hope they'll come together via rational dialogue (even though this is counter to human experience) .

In the Sutcliffe episode we never see how exactly that wealth is used and how would Bill feel if that money had been in part "invested" in ( from a left wing viewpoint exploitative and wicked ) British Empire or buying the gilts to compensate the slave owners ?

In the latest episode we have no idea what happens when these big biz corporates are challenged. , e.g. it would it have created a "Lehman moment " i.e. a systematic economic crash and a bailout? That would've been a cool part 2.

But the thing is the Doctor never sticks around for the consequences. In some ways he is like a "frat boy" or an aristocratic Oxbridge student , who puts the soap suds in the fountain and vanishes , i.e. he never has to watch the consequences of his actions or policies.

In a way I do doff my cloth cap to Moffat for the previous season , where he does explore this via the character "me"....

Having said that I think that the Doctor isn't a socialist revolutionary or a neoconservative. I think politically he's a soft or small "l" liberal democrat or a blend of social democrat and classical John stuart Mill's liberalism....

So I'd like to see a spin-off series where we go and explore what happens after the revolutions the Doctor brings. ... it's one thing I've discovered in my life is that actions have consequences. But our lovely Dr who always seems to run away from those. Maybe one day he will be forced to confront those. When the time lords put the Doctor on trial, the charge shouldn't have been interference, but inference with neglect.

Discuss.

The war of the Svinge's Flipper ?

Hi all , 

"Go, you stupid Penguin, take this  and tell your King Fak El Fak , that I will do the same , if he dares to do the same. But he has no balls so will NOT."

Commander  Henri "Hank" Fandiño, Captain of the Frigate  EUSS [Earth Union States Ship]  Moby Dick, after he chopped off a  flipper of a Svinge Captain.

Background :  

1)The Svinge are a race of  technologically advanced space travelling species, analogue Rockhopper Penguins , whose home world Enginous 857,  575  light years from Earth and whose polity is a parliamentary monarchical form of government with a monoculture and religion.

2) The EU or Earth Union is the government of Earth and her numerous colonies. Their polity is based upon the European United states, the American constitution and the British Westminster model of parliamentary liberal democracy, based around liberalism, multiculturalism  and a secular state. 

They clashed over fishing rights on various ocean planets  in the Merica and Northumbria systems and in nationalistic fervour an EU captain bordered a Svinge Fishing Space Vessel and chopped off one of the Captain's flippers. As if that wasn't insult enough, the Svinge Captain was a daughter of their King : Fak El Fak.  To add to the diplomatic outrage the vessel was registered as part of the Bahar [Martian]  merchant fleet. Both powers demanded reparations, a formal apology and a settlement to fishing / border disputes . Or face war.  In response the EU president sent the EUSS Harry M Windsor  battleship  strike Group to the disputed arena and asked the EU Parliament and Senate for a declaration of war....

The translucent lobster from Maine

Fascinating !