Best Of

I have an update from Cyclefree.

I am fine. Treatment plan started. Bemused at how despite all the screenings saying nothing was wrong I have managed to get to Stage 4 cancer without anyone noticing. It is not curable so I am living with it largely ignoring it & hoping that the treatment stops it getting worse.

Just doing things I enjoy really.

I hadn't seen that Ms Free was that ill. Best wishes and thoughts to her.

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2025/05/25/ars-longa-vita-brevis/

I had been too busy with work to follow PB much recently so I missed that posting entirely.

And now I am immensly sad.

Fox News, so who knows ?

https://x.com/TreyYingst/status/1933493841392177570
On the strikes against IRGC Air Force leadership: Israel tricked the top command of Iran’s air force into a meeting and then kept them there, I’m told by an Israeli security official.

“We did specific activities to help us understand things about them and then used that information to make them act in a specific way,” the official said. “We knew this would make them meet, but more importantly we knew how to keep them there.

All these stories we hear about the Israelis don't make them sound very nice do they? I wonder how the Western world would react if the Iranians had out of the blue sent war planes over and killed several Israeli scientists and their families? The US and UK would go bananas

Israel's actions are not out of the blue.

You'll never accept Israel's right to self-defence will you?

I do.

This is not self defence. This is an attack on a hostile nearby country but represents a significant escalation.

It is absolutely 100% self-defence.

Iran is seeking to destroy Israel as an explicit objective.
Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
A nuclear Iran is an existential threat to Israel.

You don't need to wait until you've been killed to act in self-defence.

Have you been appointed spokesperson for the IDF? You seem very invested in another country's issues - a country that is quite able to defend itself. It's almost a full time job.

No, discussing politics is just a hobby.

People discuss other country's issues all the time.

Funny how people get to criticise Israel and it is supposed to slide without comment, but defend them and suddenly there must be some alternative agenda? Why is that?

I say what I believe, because I believe it.

For the record - since we disagree so fundamentally about Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank - I would just like to point out that I think Israel are absolutely right in the action they have taken over Iran this week and also think it is shameful that Starmer says the UK won't help defend Israel against missile attack as we did in the last round of exchanges.

At every turn Starmer's foreign policy decisions are a disaster.

I wonder what @Big_G_NorthWales and @Leon are talking about in the sin bin?

What on earth did Big G do to get sin-binned?

See @TSE down thread. There's a spam bot now looking for certain words that might drag OGHs into the legal pit.

The following words are no longer to be used on this site:
B*m
B*tty
Kn*ckers
Kn*ckers
W**-W**
Semprini

P*ne*pp*e on Pi**a

A song by R*diohead?

By the way, all okay with your good lady RP?

The ban on discussions about the grooming story is still in place. People have been told enough times, given how past discussions have turned into a mess that potentially puts PB at risk.

That is a risk we are not prepared to take now particularly when the Online Safety Act is now in place.

The alternative is closing PB down as OGH made clear.

The spam trap automatically bans people when certain words are used.

Online safety act is probably the worst bit of legislation ever made here

To be fair, the issue is a couple of posters who turned discussions of such matters into the Turner Diaries.

Actual sane people discussing the legal and moral issues - a @Cyclefree header, for example - weren’t the problem.

I also think this is going to become a position that is more and more difficult to hold as the rest of the media is filled with news of the Enquiry. Fully understand the current concerns by TSE and OGH but I think something will eventually have to give.