Month: April 2019

When the left eat their own, buy popcorn

Billy/ / Australia; Frontier Nation, Climate Bollocks, General

Most of what passes for politics in Australia is an utter snorefest, for a few reasons, not least is the very small pool of talent that thinks to itself, “hmm, what my life needs is the public scrutiny of national politics“. Other countries with larger populations enjoy the availability of more intelligent and capable politicians such as, erm, Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn,

The only really interesting moments in Aussie politics are when the tribes find themselves in internecine conflict. The source of such amusement is often a rude interruption of reality at the intersection of two deeply-held positions that are logically inconsistent.

One current example is the case of the proposed Carmichael coal mine, sometimes referred to by its owner, the Adani Group.

Those on the left are faced with a navigational conundrum; find a safe passage between jobs for their blue collar “base” and the all-powerful global religion of climate change.

The tofu-eating effeminates in the gentrified areas of Australia’s cities will be forced to virtue signal by voting Green if Labor show too much support for the mine while the burger-eating bogans in the rural areas set to benefit most from the new jobs will vote for any number of other parties if the support isn’t sincere enough.

The blogger and journalist, Tim Blair, summarises the leader of the opposition’s amusing bind and hilarious procrastination here. Bodes well for a decisive future Prime Minister, doesn’t it?

But then, we shouldn’t be surprised as he has a public track record of avoiding taking a position on anything as this bizarre exchange from a few years ago illustrates:

One of the most powerful forces on the side of the pro-Adani lobby is the unlikely-looking union bully, Sally McManus, a woman who never knowingly let her face register pleasure or delight:

One suspects the word “compromise” is not highlighted in her dictionary. “Frivolity” and “joviality“, also.

Bill is going to be providing those of us with a desire to see the world burn with huge amusement over the next few weeks.

Bill’s Opinion

As people as diverse as Scott Adams and Bill Gates are loudly pointing out, we have a solution to climate change already.

It doesn’t even matter whether you believe climate change is a problem either; there’s enough people in the world who do and are prepared to cripple the economy to combat it. We need to find a way to satisfy their desires whilst not killing the capitalism golden goose responsible for the modern miracles we’ve had in the last two centuries.

The answer is Generation IV nuclear energy.

Great news for Australians; you’ve got domestic deposits of uranium so could be completely self-sufficient in producing all the dirt cheap domestic energetic you’ll ever need.

Bad news for Australians; the only politician talking about it is Clive Palmer, guaranteeing it will remain outside of the mainstream political discussion for the foreseeable future.

Hey BBC, we’re not on the Julian Calendar either

Billy/ / Climate Bollocks, General, Legacy Press (c)

We can all thank the British taxpayers for funding both the Meteorology Office that wrote this press release and the BBC that published it without engaging their brain (or perhaps they were knowingly participating in obfuscation):

It shouldn’t need to be pointed out, but it seems we must;

According to the Metonic cycle, the Paschal Full Moon falls on a recurring sequence of 19 dates ranging from March 21 to April 18. Since Easter happens on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon, it can fall on any date between March 22 and April 25 (years 1753-2400).

Therefore, Easter Monday this year is only 2 days earlier than the latest possible date it could be. In the northern hemisphere, this means it’s up to four weeks closer to summer than many of the previous occurrences.

Presumably there are other news articles hiding from a Google search bemoaning the record cold in the Southern Hemisphere this Easter Monday?

Bill’s Opinion

These people are either fools or knaves.

As Carl Benjamin pointed out at his hilarious press conference last week, the BBC has a one star rating for trust on the TrustPilot review site. One can’t think why.

International house of fruitcakes

Billy/ / Australia; Frontier Nation, Free Speech, General

Allona Lahn is standing for the next Australian Federal Election, representing IMOP (involuntary medication objectors Party).

In case you’re a little mentally lethargic today, they’re a group of anti-vaxxers.

Here’s an irony that’s presumably lost on the party of personal freedoms; they are standing for an election where voting is compulsory by law.

Here’s another irony; vaccination isn’t compulsory in Australia, as witnessed by the current outbreak of measles in wanky middle class tofu-eating areas.

The IMOPpers have presumably confused not being able to work in government departments, particularly in the healthcare sector, or not being able to send your kids to public schools unless vaccinated as being compulsory vaccination. They are also upset about the so-called “no jab, no pay” policy, which sounds quite draconian but the “pay” concerned refers to government benefits.

If they’d truly thought the libertarian argument through they would have realised they still have the choice to work elsewhere, to home-school their children and, frankly, if you need to rely on taxpayer largesse to afford to have children, perhaps you should consider the possibility you can’t afford to have children.

What’s also intriguing about the IMOPpers is that they have a “cultural adviser” to provide an Aboriginal perspective on immunisations. Presumably this starts with the words, “thank you, white people, for immunising our people, at least that rules out one potential cause of early death and an infant mortality rate equivalent to a sub-Saharan shithole“?

Bill’s Opinion

At least we can be sure there is still some semblance of free speech remaining in Australia; if you really wanted to cement their commitment to conspiracy theories, you’d try to prevent them from campaigning.

You can do your own research on the correlation and likely conclusions about the potential harmful side-effects of vaccinations versus the clear benefits (do you personally know of anyone who has died of a transmittable disease for which there is a vaccination?).

It’s great that anti-vaxxers exist and have a platform as it indicates we’ve solved all of the other major issues facing humanity. Let’s face it, no-one in a poverty-stricken third world country is refusing to vaccinate their children, most likely because they’ve already learned the hard way by burying several already.

Mad, Max? I was bloody livid

Billy/ / Australia; Frontier Nation, General, Transgender Regret Industry (c)

In these days of high fashion and public displays of virtue, it’s not simply satisfying enough to have children and enjoy the experience of raising them ready for their adventures in the world.

The truly woke are listening to the first words these children say and acting upon it as if the wisdom of the ages is channeled through a three year old.

Charlize Theron is the latest of the inhabitants of Clown World to announce she has a transgender child. Apparently, not only does “Jackson” have a surname for a first name (you can take the girl out of Benoni but you can’t take Benoni out of the girl) but he is now a she. This revelation was revealed in conversation with his adopted mother, Theron.

Cosmopolitan gushed over this news;

While talking to the Daily Mail, Charlize said, “Yes, I thought she was a boy too. Until she looked at me when she was 3 years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!’”

One wonders whether Charlize changed any nappies in those first three years or delegated that task to a nanny. Clues would have been available during that time to the person doing the bum wiping.

“So there you go! I have two beautiful daughters [Jackson and August, 3] who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive. They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide.”

To which the Cosmopolitan article responds:

Honestly, this is such a sweet response from Charlize, and if you’re crying happy tears right now, you’re in good company.

Down is up, up is down when you’re living in the world of clown.

Charlize then went on to say that it’s not her job as a parent to tell her kids how they should identify but to “celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be.”

I have a child who wants an AK47 and an M16 for Christmas. He probably gender identifies as the Vietnam War.

…..people are already praising her on social media

Well, why didn’t you say so earlier? If the geniuses on social media think it’s good, it must be good.

Here’s an idea for a new game; make all key life decisions based on the results of a Twitter poll question. Please do let us know how it goes.

Bill’s Opinion

Don’t let Charlize’s wonderful pulchritude, talent at playing “let’s pretend” in front of cameras and wealth fool you; she has significant unresolved mental issues.

Apparently, men “need to grow a pair and step up” to date her as she’s “shockingly available”.

Hmm, dating the girl whose Mum killed her Dad and has adopted two kids, one of whom she’s decided is transgender?

Krap links, baie dankie.

Straw man/woman/other

Billy/ / Gender Politics, General, Transgender Regret Industry (c)

A number of prominent former athletes, including Martina Navratilova and Paula Radcliffe, have been openly critical of transgender women competing in women’s sports.

One of their main arguments is that it is theoretically possible for a cisgender man to “decide” to be a woman, take hormones, win and earn money while competing as a female, then go back to living as a man.

“One of their main arguments“.

Ah, but is it their main argument?

The reason I ask is that my main argument against transgender women (ie men who believe they are women) competing in female sports competitions is that they’ve effectively been on hormone treatment during the main physical developmental stages of their lives.

That is, a boy growing up and experiencing puberty will have a bone and muscle mass advantage over a girl of the same age.

To suggest that a subsequent course of female hormone treatment somehow levels the playing field seems to be wilfully ignoring what has happened to zher in the preceding years.

Flip it the other way round; do we knowingly allow male sportsmen to compete if they’ve been caught taking performance-enhancing drugs for decades? Nope.

Bill’s Opinion

Martina Navratilova isn’t transphobic, she’s simply a biological realist.

Unfortunately, a vocal minority of activists have currently hijacked the narrative to the point where otherwise credible news sources such as Business Insider are publishing obvious strawmen arguments against reality.

“Brain the size of a planet”

Billy/ / Australia; Frontier Nation, Economics, General, Legacy Press (c)

“….and they get me to write about economics. Life? Don’t talk to me about life“.

The scruffy old man in the picture below is the unfortunately-surnamed Ross Gittins, senior economics editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Despite what we might prefer to believe, the axiom, “clothes maketh the man” still holds true, even in this era of more relaxed business dress codes, the choice of casual clothes says something about you. Self-respect, or lack thereof, can be inferred from the choice of garments one wears to work-related events.

So what does Ross’ choice of crumpled beige suit, an aged shirt with curled collars, a “comedy” tie (tied too long, Trumpesque) and running shoes say about one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s most senior professionals?

To the best of our knowledge, Ross hasn’t been diagnosed as autistic, isn’t an idiot savant, doesn’t run a major technology company, and hasn’t invented a humanity-changing product.

The fact that he’s drawing a relatively meagre salary for writing about what central banks are likely to do next (let’s face it; that’s all economics journalists do) in a publication whose annual circulation numbers resemble the McGrath share chart, suggests he doesn’t actually have a brain the size of a planet, which is the only real defence of someone so bizarrely costumed.

Bill’s Opinion

Ross can dress however the hell he wants, of course. But we can also draw the conclusion that he’s an anachronistic tramp who’s conflated being disrespectful to his position and those with whom he works for being “quirky”.

If we follow the advice, “dress for the job you want, not the one you have”, we can safely conclude Ross has plans for a semi-retirement working as a creepy geography supply teacher in a small regional town.

Never ascribe to mendacity

Billy/ / General, Questions with obvious answers, The end is nigh

…that which can be explained by incompetence.

Let’s be honest, we all have a secret place in our hearts for the occasional conspiracy theory. Some people believe the moon landings were faked, others think the Jews are the secret rulers of the world, some poor deluded souls even believe Kylie Minogue can hold a tune.

The fire that destroyed the Notre Dame cathedral has set off a plethora of conspiracy theories. My favourite is that the fire was set by Muslim terrorists and has subsequently been covered up by the dhimmis in the French Government.

As I wrote over at Tim Newman’s gaff, “because that’s what terrorists do, isn’t it; destroy a cultural icon and then not tell anyone”.

This is why William of Ockham’s razor is so useful; the explanation which requires the fewest number of assumptions to be correct is likely to be the truth.

This podcast is the best example of the conspiracy mindset. Stefan Molyneux is a famous YouTube and podcaster, and like the proverbial stopped clock he sometimes gets things right.

This is unlikely to be one of those occasions.

As I understand it, the evidence suggesting an arson attack and subsequent governmental over up is as follows;

– The fire started after workers had left the site.

– Other churches in France have been attacked.

– A brown man was seen smiling nearby

Bill’s Opinion

Perhaps some terrorists set the fire, didn’t call Le Monde to claim responsibility and the French authorities have hushed it all up.

Or, perhaps sloppy work practices by the renovators resulted in a spark lighting a fire in a church with plenty of dry wood.

The batsman is Holding, the bowler’s Willey

Billy/ / Despite Brexit, General, Whither Democracy

There’s a great tradition of spoof obituaries in England. The oldest international cricket rivalry, The Ashes, takes its name from one published in 1882 for example.

This one has a more serious subtext however;

UK Democracy on 29th March 2019, aged 312. It was with sad regret that Democracy died quietly in her sleep at 11pm, on the 29th March 2019. The cause of death was by foul play and the culprits have yet to be brought to justice. Democracy campaigned for the rule of law, human rights and free elections. She listened to everyone and favoured the majority in all her decisions. She will be sorely missed. God have mercy on her soul.

This is in response to the decision, if indeed one can call it that, of the UK Government and the House of Commons to not follow through on their previous majority decision that, absent a negotiated settlement with the EU, Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar would leave the EU at 11pm on Friday 29th March 2019.

The can has subsequently been kicked twice more down the road to 11pm, October 31st 2019. There’s little consensus on what, if anything, might change between now and then to break the impasse.

The negotiations have been ongoing for two and a half years and yet there has been a complete failure to discover a comprise win-win solution acceptable to both the EU unelected officials and the British Parliament.

This indicates one of three possibilities;

1. Such a compromise is not possible, or

2. The negotiating team or teams are not competent enough to reach one, or

3. One party has not been negotiating in good faith.

If we accept as true that, in the words of one ex-Brexit Minister, “If the UK thrives after a negotiated exit, it’s bad for the EU. If the UK thrives after a no-deal Brexit, it’s the end of the EU“, the UK should have been able to have negotiated a deal acceptable to Parliament, assuming Parliament wanted such a thing.

Using our patented razor, we’re going to have to assume it’s the British Parliament that’s the problem then. If they wanted to leave, they would have left by now.

How the hell did the mother of all parliaments become so timid and forgetful of their mandate.

One of the main justifications being wheeled out against simply leaving is the economic impact.

Here’s one such argument in the house from Hansard:

….how cautious should we be of incurring a loss of such magnitude, that the whole revenue of the country may be too little to make it good. l am aware that those who maintain this last opinion have alledged, that compensation may be demanded for voluntary and exaggerated losses, and for a sacrifice of extravagantly computed prospective profits.

Actually, that wasn’t an argument against Brexit, that was Mr. George Hibbert, MP for Seaford, arguing against the abolition of slavery in 1807.

The vast majority of his colleagues took the opposite view that not only was it the morally correct thing to do but the majority of the electorate agreed with the motion to leave and accept the economic consequences and make the egregious slave trade illegal.

And so, the British Parliament became the first to legislate against slavery, a practice that had been present in almost every culture globally for the entire history of humanity (not that you’d realise that by reading the news today; it would seem the current prevailing view is that the British invented the trade… that the Arabs had been profiting from for centuries prior and after the British copied them).

The irony shouldn’t be lost that some of the arguments against the abolition of the international slave trade are eerily similiar to those deployed against implementing the result of the largest democratic vote in British history, particularly the concerns about the economic consequences.

In fact, the British people were asked twice to confirm they wanted to go ahead with Brexit; both the Conservative and Labour parties campaigned in the 2017 general election on manifestos promising to implement the result of the previous year’s referendum. The third party, the Liberal Democrats, offered voters another referendum to confirm the result of the first. They were utterly destroyed in the election.

Bill’s Opinion

It’s time to clean out this Augean stable. In the words of Oliver Cromwell:

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place,

which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.

Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.

Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

In the name of God, go!

BIPoCalypse

Billy/ / Australia; Frontier Nation, Cultural Marxism, General, Identity Politics

(Note to the reader, feel free to skip this and go to “Bill’s Opinion” at the end of the page).

A Sydney craft store has become caught up in a vitriolic online campaign that has seen members of the knitting community labelled as racist by people who say they were ignored in yarn stores and felt uncomfortable at “white-majority knitting groups”.

Claims of bullying, lying and harassment have gone back and forth on social media since the dispute began over the treatment of black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPoC) in the knitting community.

An online campaign about racism in the knitting community has ensnared a Sydney craft store.

Sukrita Mahon, a spinner and weaver from the NSW Central Coast, has played a prominent role in the campaign to highlight and combat racism and prejudice among knitters.

“Sydney, we have a problem,” Ms Mahon wrote in January. “Your knitting spaces are unsafe for bipoc (and probably others). You have shown yourself unwilling to listen, at best.”

Ms Mahon did not respond to the Sun-Herald’s interview requests, but her Instagram account @su.krita refers to “the times I felt uncomfortable in their shop”.

She also refers to a time when the shop’s owner was “racist to me and my brown friend”.

The owner also declined to be interviewed but has expressed distress on social media about the accusations of racism.

Ms Mahon’s Instagram story Racist Knitters lists experiences of racism such as being ignored or followed in a yarn store when other patrons were not, and being mistaken for another person.

Cynthia Mulholland, the president of the Knitters’ Guild NSW, said her organisation welcomed anyone who shared a passion for knitting and crochet.

“I think there is racism everywhere, however it is up to groups like the Knitters Guild to welcome everyone into a comfortable environment,” she said.

Sukrita Mahon is part of an online campaign against racism in the knitting community.

Melbourne-based writer Sophia Cai suggested the dispute began when the owner was asked by members of the BIPoC community to make a statement denouncing racism.

“Their silence and silencing was noted, and they became defensive that they may been (sic) seen in a negative light,” Ms Cai wrote.

Ms Mahon then set up the Sydney is Cancelled online group, with the aim of creating places where BIPoC can meet, “away from the white gaze, without having to justify our existence at every step”.

“Our meetings will not be open to the public,” she explained on the Unfinished Object site.

However, the row turned ugly during a public event at Carriageworks in February organised by Ms Mahon’s craft group.

Ms Mahon said the event was disrupted by the owner of the Sydney craft store, which The Sun-Herald cannot identify for legal reasons, and another knitting designer.

“They spotted me standing away from the group and saw an opportunity to corner me,” Ms Mahon wrote in a blog post. “They demanded that I let them have their say. Through gritted teeth, I explained why I was upset with them, but received no acknowledgement of my feelings.”

Ms Mahon said she was intimidated by their behaviour, which they took “as a personal affront — manipulating the narrative so they appeared to be the victims”.

The confrontation at Carriageworks follows earlier allegations of racism levelled against American hand-dyer and knitter Maria Tusken and knitting designer Karen Templer, whose blog post about an upcoming trip to India prompted intense criticism. The online journal, Quillette, labelled the campaign against Templer a witch hunt.

Other Instagram users weighed into the controversy, including @mia.p.nguyen, who said the craft shop was racist and whose product/service was to marginalise.

The same user posted several other references to the controversy, which prompted @sometimesanislander to comment: “They have shown their racist disgusting selves.”

Several Instagram users, including Ms Mahon, have complained about posts being deleted or users blocked after criticising the shop and its owners.

“These two need to be accountable for everything they’ve done: initial invading of (what was supposed to be) a safe space for BIPoC, the silence on the issue, then the defensiveness, the ignoring, the silencing, the threats of legal action,” @nakkiknits wrote.

Bill’s Opinion

In summary:

Someone with a mental illness is shit-posting on the internet and Andrew Taylor has managed to spin out an entire article about it in a national newspaper.

This is how the decline of Roman Empire started.

“Free speech” isn’t just the speech you agree with, Fitzy

Billy/ / Australia; Frontier Nation, Cultural Marxism, Free Speech, General, Legacy Press (c)

An Australian rugby player has annoyed people on social media by posting evangelical Christian beliefs.

An ex-Australian rugby player, now a columnist, has called for his contract to be suspended until he apologises and, in his words not mine, repents.

Slow news days in Australia tend to be like this.

Peter Fiztsimons has a good point; Israel Falau’s contract with the ARU does have restrictions on his public behaviour and speech. In that regard, by signing the contract he has agreed to further limitations, beyond those already on the law books, to his freedom of speech.

This is a matter between employer and employee.

So far, so boring. We all have a range of views on the topic Folau has posted about on social media, some of us have multiple opinions on the same topic depending on the time of day. That’s not really the point.

What’s fascinating here is the use of the term “repent” and the suggestion that Folau’s behaviour is homophobic. To risk bringing the concept of nuance and subtlety to a nation not previously known for its philosophers and intellectuals, could we suggest that there’s actually no proof that Folau is homophobic?

Sure, he’s stated that homosexuals are on their way to hell, but that’s simply repeating a view endorsed by, among others, the Catholic Church, most Anglican denominations and Islam. So, it’s a view shared wholly or at least partially by almost 5 billion people, i.e. more than half of humanity.

It’s worth noting that he’s never stated that he hates homosexuals or that he believes they are deserving of eternal damnation, just that his understanding of scripture suggests that’s where they’re heading.

Again, a subtle point but we do need to try to pull the conversation back to what was said, not what we think was in the mind of the speaker. None of us are mind-readers.

As for Fitzsimon’s call for Folau to repent, it’s not clear what form this would take for it to be acceptable. An apology for breaking the terms of his contract of employment doesn’t seem like it would satisfy Peter. By the use of the verb, repent, he seems to be suggesting a change of opinion is the only acceptable way to seek forgiveness.

In other words, he needs Folau to stop believing something that he, presumably, holds as true as part of the core teaching of his faith.

Bill’s Opinion

I don’t want to know what sports people’s beliefs are on matters of religious doctrine. I really just don’t give a fuck. I don’t share Israel Folau’s views on this or many other philosophical areas of discourse. I do like the way he can catch a ball, sprint and side-step, however.

I also don’t want the world I live in to be one where bandana-wearing columnists get to call for the termination of someone’s employment for having the wrong faith.

There is much whataboutery we could invoke at this point. For example, we could ask for just a single example where Fitzsimons has defended anyone with an opposing opinion to his to hold that opinion without being hounded off social media, out of their employment or other similar consequences.

The easiest job in the world is to defend someone’s right to believe the same things as you.