Speaking of Corbyn, I have sometimes thought that his atttitudes toward the US were so bigoted that he wouldn't even use common defenses of bigots, such as "some of my best friends . . ".
But I wouldn't describe his views as racist. Nor do I think Donald the Loser's views can be described as racist -- but for different reasons.
Who on earth is advising Humza Yousaf because demoting the crisis laden Transport brief from a Cabinet position sends out a message that is not an electoral winner right across the whole of Scotland?! Crisis, what crisis?!
"Michael Matheson was previously responsible for energy policy and transport before he was appointed Health Secretary on Wednesday.
It leaves the Cabinet without one person solely responsible for transport – despite ongoing and high-profile issues with the dualling of the A9 and CalMac ferries among others."
On the most recent footage I've seen of him he looks pretty frail - although that to some extent could always have been said of him. I don't think he's likely to do anything really. However the Mayoral race is the obvious target if he does - far more so than his Islingnton seat.
Corbyn became frail somewhere between nearly winning in 2017 and getting stuffed in 2019. Look at photos in the latter election and it is almost as if he has had a stroke. I do think this partly explains Labour's poor performance as he can no longer make eye contact with the camera (and hence the viewer) and seems grumpy rather than concerned.
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
‘Astonishing’ molecular syringe ferries proteins into human cells Technique borrowed from nature, and honed using artificial intelligence, could spur the development of better drug-delivery systems. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00922-4
Twitter Andrew Neil@afneil Whitehall full of rumours tonight that Britain on brink of joining Indo-Pacific trade pact, which accounts for 13% world GDP and 15% global trade. Includes Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia + 7 other countries. A $10 trillion market. https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1641181628570501120
Twitter Andrew Neil@afneil Whitehall full of rumours tonight that Britain on brink of joining Indo-Pacific trade pact, which accounts for 13% world GDP and 15% global trade. Includes Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia + 7 other countries. A $10 trillion market. https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1641181628570501120
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
Twitter Andrew Neil@afneil Whitehall full of rumours tonight that Britain on brink of joining Indo-Pacific trade pact, which accounts for 13% world GDP and 15% global trade. Includes Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia + 7 other countries. A $10 trillion market. https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1641181628570501120
Whoopee. Shame we are on the edge of Europe.
Why is it a shame? It's an ideal position to be a global hub.
‘Astonishing’ molecular syringe ferries proteins into human cells Technique borrowed from nature, and honed using artificial intelligence, could spur the development of better drug-delivery systems. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00922-4
Honed using AI, you say. Presumably before Elon Musk's moratorium.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Twitter Andrew Neil@afneil Whitehall full of rumours tonight that Britain on brink of joining Indo-Pacific trade pact, which accounts for 13% world GDP and 15% global trade. Includes Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia + 7 other countries. A $10 trillion market. https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1641181628570501120
Whoopee. Shame we are on the edge of Europe.
Why is it a shame? It's an ideal position to be a global hub.
No, it really isn't, not in any usual sense of the word hub. We can't even be a hub between Ireland and France thanks to Brexit paperwork and Boris's Irish Sea border.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Well dont expect us to feel sorry for teachers. They wanted the schools closed and a paid holiday.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Yeah but Year 1 children would not have been "at school" during lockdown, and won't have been vaccinated, so there must be something else going on. Might this be a new form of long covid in infants?
One of Scotland's main police control rooms used a fake system to manipulate response time targets for eight years, according to documents seen by the BBC.
Well that'll inspire the public's confidence in their police force.
Lovely that these lads have been rendered speechless* by this multicultural moment.
*if fucking only.
'Confused says: 27 March, 2023 at 2:57 pm and the cops say : nothing to see here, move along …
I mean, it could work out. I, for one, salute our new islamic overlord, FM is too paltry a title, make him Caliph
now all he has to do is :
declare the UNION to be absolutely HARAM
make the ENGLISH all KUFFARS
and make the YES Movement a NATIONAL JIHAD
and … we’re fucking done.
If it had to be a muslim, I would have preferred IMRAN KHAN – he has been trying to clean up Pakistan, rid it of the globalist scum and spooks, but it’s clear he is going to get shot, maybe very soon; at least our cricket team would improve.
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
Of course it needs strong regulation, just like many other things.
It probably won't get it though.
Because lawmakers have been captured by those who just want to make a profit.
But a start would be to make AI legally liable for information or advice they give out.
Then there should be a law that requires AI, and other software like social media, to make sure that what they do is in the best interests of the welfare of the users. Don't see Musk asking for that.
‘Astonishing’ molecular syringe ferries proteins into human cells Technique borrowed from nature, and honed using artificial intelligence, could spur the development of better drug-delivery systems. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00922-4
Honed using AI, you say. Presumably before Elon Musk's moratorium.
Google's alphafold for predicting protein structures. Been around for a while.
Lovely that these lads have been rendered speechless* by this multicultural moment.
*if fucking only.
'Confused says: 27 March, 2023 at 2:57 pm and the cops say : nothing to see here, move along …
I mean, it could work out. I, for one, salute our new islamic overlord, FM is too paltry a title, make him Caliph
now all he has to do is :
declare the UNION to be absolutely HARAM
make the ENGLISH all KUFFARS
and make the YES Movement a NATIONAL JIHAD
and … we’re fucking done.
If it had to be a muslim, I would have preferred IMRAN KHAN – he has been trying to clean up Pakistan, rid it of the globalist scum and spooks, but it’s clear he is going to get shot, maybe very soon; at least our cricket team would improve.
There are still a lot of racists in our countries. Perhaps only a few percent, but could be the difference for Sunak too.
Because of political correctness difficult to tell how many racists there are. But I would estimate about 10% of the electorate with a further 20-30% uncomfortable with forced diversity without necessarily being racist. The sort of people who may mention in passing "Im a bit uncomfortable with all the heads of Govt of ethnic origin at present".
There are probably fewer racists in the UK than any other country in the world (using percentages).
"Every other country in the world is worse than us" (at non-racism)
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Year 1 kids have always had a large proportion non-toilet trained. And quite a few non-verbal. That's what Makaton is for. I blame the parents tbh.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Yeah but Year 1 children would not have been "at school" during lockdown, and won't have been vaccinated, so there must be something else going on. Might this be a new form of long covid in infants?
Perhaps having to spend more time with mum and dad pre school really fucks you up.
Lovely that these lads have been rendered speechless* by this multicultural moment.
*if fucking only.
'Confused says: 27 March, 2023 at 2:57 pm and the cops say : nothing to see here, move along …
I mean, it could work out. I, for one, salute our new islamic overlord, FM is too paltry a title, make him Caliph
now all he has to do is :
declare the UNION to be absolutely HARAM
make the ENGLISH all KUFFARS
and make the YES Movement a NATIONAL JIHAD
and … we’re fucking done.
If it had to be a muslim, I would have preferred IMRAN KHAN – he has been trying to clean up Pakistan, rid it of the globalist scum and spooks, but it’s clear he is going to get shot, maybe very soon; at least our cricket team would improve.
There are still a lot of racists in our countries. Perhaps only a few percent, but could be the difference for Sunak too.
Because of political correctness difficult to tell how many racists there are. But I would estimate about 10% of the electorate with a further 20-30% uncomfortable with forced diversity without necessarily being racist. The sort of people who may mention in passing "Im a bit uncomfortable with all the heads of Govt of ethnic origin at present".
There are probably fewer racists in the UK than any other country in the world (using percentages).
Really. Fewer than in Sweden or Norway or Canada. Doubtful.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Yeah but Year 1 children would not have been "at school" during lockdown, and won't have been vaccinated, so there must be something else going on. Might this be a new form of long covid in infants?
Perhaps having to spend more time with mum and dad pre school really fucks you up.
Perhaps a great many parents actually have no idea what they are doing and having access to a Sure Start may have helped? Just a thought.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Yeah but Year 1 children would not have been "at school" during lockdown, and won't have been vaccinated, so there must be something else going on. Might this be a new form of long covid in infants?
Perhaps having to spend more time with mum and dad pre school really fucks you up.
Well they would have lost all the playdates and socialising with their friends plus confronting a sea of masks whenever out of the house.
Twitter Andrew Neil@afneil Whitehall full of rumours tonight that Britain on brink of joining Indo-Pacific trade pact, which accounts for 13% world GDP and 15% global trade. Includes Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia + 7 other countries. A $10 trillion market. https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1641181628570501120
Whoopee. Shame we are on the edge of Europe.
Yup. Looks like it was a good idea to leave the world's largest and most successful free trade organisation so that we could join up with that.
Not sure what it does to our sovereignity, but hey, you can't have everything.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
Very much agreed. It seems something from another time. But it's a sign of how far we've come. He (?) put it down in 2004. Because he was so woke. Not because he wasn't.
Lovely that these lads have been rendered speechless* by this multicultural moment.
*if fucking only.
'Confused says: 27 March, 2023 at 2:57 pm and the cops say : nothing to see here, move along …
I mean, it could work out. I, for one, salute our new islamic overlord, FM is too paltry a title, make him Caliph
now all he has to do is :
declare the UNION to be absolutely HARAM
make the ENGLISH all KUFFARS
and make the YES Movement a NATIONAL JIHAD
and … we’re fucking done.
If it had to be a muslim, I would have preferred IMRAN KHAN – he has been trying to clean up Pakistan, rid it of the globalist scum and spooks, but it’s clear he is going to get shot, maybe very soon; at least our cricket team would improve.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
Your second paragraph contradicts your first a little. It's hard to imagine an equivalent to Lily Savage hosting totally mainstream prime time TV shows these days.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
There has long been a showbiz tradition of cross-dressing. The pantomime dame is a bloke in drag and the principal boy is played by a woman. Music hall had its own male impersonators, like Vesta Tilley (whose husband was a Conservative MP). All that has changed is the name, so we now have drag queens and kings.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
Very much agreed. It seems something from another time. But it's a sign of how far we've come. He (?) put it down in 2004. Because he was so woke. Not because he wasn't.
His reasons for retiring the character don't seem to have had anything to do with wokeness, although he did suggest that we'd be too politically correct for her now:
“People say to me, “Would you do Lily again?” And I say, “Good God no, I wouldn’t last five minutes”, he told The Sun in 2021.
“It’s just the things that she comes out with. It’s a different time now.
“They probably wouldn’t like the inference that she was a lady of the night — she’d have to say she was a sex worker or just, “Worked in hospitality”.”
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Year 1 kids have always had a large proportion non-toilet trained. And quite a few non-verbal. That's what Makaton is for. I blame the parents tbh.
When my wife started as a year 1 primary teacher, it was not uncommon for traveller women to arrive at the school gates on the first day of the school year to leave their children who had not been registered with the school. A lot were still in nappies and obviously too young - the mothers basically wanted childcare. The headteacher would welcome the mothers with an invitation to come inside and sit in reception while he rang social services to check whether he should accept the children. They left pronto with their kids.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
There has long been a showbiz tradition of cross-dressing. The pantomime dame is a bloke in drag and the principal boy is played by a woman. Music hall had its own male impersonators, like Vesta Tilley (whose husband was a Conservative MP). All that has changed is the name, so we now have drag queens and kings.
There is more to drag than cross dressing in theatre, though perhaps it originates there. Drag is a hyper-sexualised parody of women, and generally sexually explicit, even predatory.
The male Gay community is not homogenous, and has its own misogynism, and drag is a part of that.
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
Of course it needs strong regulation, just like many other things.
It probably won't get it though.
Because lawmakers have been captured by those who just want to make a profit.
But a start would be to make AI legally liable for information or advice they give out.
Then there should be a law that requires AI, and other software like social media, to make sure that what they do is in the best interests of the welfare of the users. Don't see Musk asking for that.
Should we make humans legally liable for information or advice they give out? Or make sure they act in the best interests of others? If not why for AI? I think the concern about AI is that we will become totally dependent on it. But how about electricity or the Internet?
Lovely that these lads have been rendered speechless* by this multicultural moment.
*if fucking only.
'Confused says: 27 March, 2023 at 2:57 pm and the cops say : nothing to see here, move along …
I mean, it could work out. I, for one, salute our new islamic overlord, FM is too paltry a title, make him Caliph
now all he has to do is :
declare the UNION to be absolutely HARAM
make the ENGLISH all KUFFARS
and make the YES Movement a NATIONAL JIHAD
and … we’re fucking done.
If it had to be a muslim, I would have preferred IMRAN KHAN – he has been trying to clean up Pakistan, rid it of the globalist scum and spooks, but it’s clear he is going to get shot, maybe very soon; at least our cricket team would improve.
There are still a lot of racists in our countries. Perhaps only a few percent, but could be the difference for Sunak too.
Because of political correctness difficult to tell how many racists there are. But I would estimate about 10% of the electorate with a further 20-30% uncomfortable with forced diversity without necessarily being racist. The sort of people who may mention in passing "Im a bit uncomfortable with all the heads of Govt of ethnic origin at present".
There are probably fewer racists in the UK than any other country in the world (using percentages).
There was a survey on this a few years ago in the EU. They asked people of african/caribbean descent their personal experience of racism, as in verbal racist abuse. UK came 2nd best (i.e. 2nd fewest % racist experiences) of the 28(27?) countries. Malta was top, slightly better than the UK. The figures from Finland and Slovakia were shocking.
The mixture of incompetence and sheer evil (it's clear widespread 'liquidations' were planned alongside the original assault, along with systematised torture) is remarkable.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
No no no. That just makes you an old fart saying “Things ain’t wot they used to be” and moaning about The Yoof - according to much of PB
After having an affair Yousef blamed his wife for not being a good enough Muslim. When there was no place at a nursery for his daughter, he arranged a sting operation that attempted to prove that the nursery was racist. "What sort of person does this?"
This ought to get lawyers excited. A real life case in prospect, turning on the application of the rule against perpetuities.
The day before Florida lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney-aligned old board passed an agreement basically neutering the new one, to be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles (?!?) https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1641178185109831680
The British royalty angle is just the cherry on top.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I have a copy of Nigger Of The Narcissus on my bookshelf. What do you think its black market price might be?
This ought to get lawyers excited. A real life case in prospect, turning on the application of the rule against perpetuities.
The day before Florida lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney-aligned old board passed an agreement basically neutering the new one, to be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles (?!?) https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1641178185109831680
The British royalty angle is just the cherry on top.
That’s got to be ultra vires by the old board. In any event the legislature should be able to overrule. Very aggressive by Disney
I thought 51.89% of the voters were racist according to the Remainers on here
Which ‘Remainer’ said that? I believe 99% of racists voted leave is the usual view.
I know at least one who didn't, for what its worth. (Not much)
Presumably some racists voted remain because they worked out that by preventing immigration from European countries we would naturally be encouraging immigration from Africa and Asia.
This ought to get lawyers excited. A real life case in prospect, turning on the application of the rule against perpetuities.
The day before Florida lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney-aligned old board passed an agreement basically neutering the new one, to be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles (?!?) https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1641178185109831680
The British royalty angle is just the cherry on top.
That’s got to be ultra vires by the old board. In any event the legislature should be able to overrule. Very aggressive by Disney
Lovely that these lads have been rendered speechless* by this multicultural moment.
*if fucking only.
'Confused says: 27 March, 2023 at 2:57 pm and the cops say : nothing to see here, move along …
I mean, it could work out. I, for one, salute our new islamic overlord, FM is too paltry a title, make him Caliph
now all he has to do is :
declare the UNION to be absolutely HARAM
make the ENGLISH all KUFFARS
and make the YES Movement a NATIONAL JIHAD
and … we’re fucking done.
If it had to be a muslim, I would have preferred IMRAN KHAN – he has been trying to clean up Pakistan, rid it of the globalist scum and spooks, but it’s clear he is going to get shot, maybe very soon; at least our cricket team would improve.
There are still a lot of racists in our countries. Perhaps only a few percent, but could be the difference for Sunak too.
Because of political correctness difficult to tell how many racists there are. But I would estimate about 10% of the electorate with a further 20-30% uncomfortable with forced diversity without necessarily being racist. The sort of people who may mention in passing "Im a bit uncomfortable with all the heads of Govt of ethnic origin at present".
There are probably fewer racists in the UK than any other country in the world (using percentages).
There was a survey on this a few years ago in the EU. They asked people of african/caribbean descent their personal experience of racism, as in verbal racist abuse. UK came 2nd best (i.e. 2nd fewest % racist experiences) of the 28(27?) countries. Malta was top, slightly better than the UK. The figures from Finland and Slovakia were shocking.
Britain being better than many other countries on the racism scale doesn't mean there isn't a huge problem with racism here. There is.
According to this map, the black population in Slovakia is proportionally about 1/200 of the black population in Britain:
I thought 51.89% of the voters were racist according to the Remainers on here
Which ‘Remainer’ said that? I believe 99% of racists voted leave is the usual view.
I know at least one who didn't, for what its worth. (Not much)
Presumably some racists voted remain because they worked out that by preventing immigration from European countries we would naturally be encouraging immigration from Africa and Asia.
Not all racists are stupid.
Or he could have decided that the EU was the perfect structure to be in place for the advent of the Fourth Reich. Adolf Hitler: no little-Englander or little-Germaner was he!
I thought 51.89% of the voters were racist according to the Remainers on here
Which ‘Remainer’ said that? I believe 99% of racists voted leave is the usual view.
I know at least one who didn't, for what its worth. (Not much)
Presumably some racists voted remain because they worked out that by preventing immigration from European countries we would naturally be encouraging immigration from Africa and Asia.
Not all racists are stupid.
Or he could have decided that the EU was the perfect structure to be in place for the advent of the Fourth Reich. Adolf Hitler: no little-Englander or little-Germaner was he!
Perhaps there was a part of "optout from ever closer union" that he [*] didn't understand.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I have a copy of Nigger Of The Narcissus on my bookshelf. What do you think its black market price might be?
Dunno but what are the odds you've just triggered someone's work system to block pb?
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Yeah but Year 1 children would not have been "at school" during lockdown, and won't have been vaccinated, so there must be something else going on. Might this be a new form of long covid in infants?
Many would have been at Nursery.
I have a godson whose parents were both Docs, so at work throughout and he was at Nursery. He is fab, hugely advanced and not at all affected by the pandemic.
A big of a contrast to kids of other friends and family, who were at home throughout.
Locking down society to save some oldies is really looking like a bad call on so many levels, now.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I have a copy of [redacted] Of The Narcissus on my bookshelf. What do you think its black market price might be?
I can't comment on the Conrad, but if people want to have a serious discussion in which the word "woke" is avoided they might want to consider Dillibe Onyeama's account of his years as a schoolboy at Eton, which was recently released under a new title. Great book. He should have told them they could shove their apology. The change of title reduces the anti-racist force of the book.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I actually think the Roald Dahl bowdlerization will be dropped (when the owners think no one is looking) sooner rather than later. What I found telling was how few people on the Left even bothered to defend it. For once this really was a case of Wokeism/political correctness gone made.
She laid out how the prices of “value” product ranges in supermarkets had soared over the last decade – rice in her local supermarket had increased in price from 45p for a kilogram bag last year, to £1 for 500g, a 344% increase – and how the number of value products has shrunk.
This ought to get lawyers excited. A real life case in prospect, turning on the application of the rule against perpetuities.
The day before Florida lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney-aligned old board passed an agreement basically neutering the new one, to be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles (?!?) https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1641178185109831680
The British royalty angle is just the cherry on top.
That’s got to be ultra vires by the old board. In any event the legislature should be able to overrule. Very aggressive by Disney
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I have a copy of Nigger Of The Narcissus on my bookshelf. What do you think its black market price might be?
Dunno but what are the odds you've just triggered someone's work system to block pb?
Odds on, I should think.
And presumably the term 'black market' has now been cancelled? Perhaps someone can educate me as to the correct formulation.
In th US, you can also buy used books from Amazon, and other on-line sources.
There will be enough people searching for older versions of these books, so that I expect, for example, some old Dr. Seuss books will jump in price, and perhaps already have.
(Full disclosure: I do, from time to time, buy books to protest. Years ago, for example, I bought multiple copies of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS". More recently, I bought Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood", when J. K. Rowling was first being picked on. And just last year, I bought "When Harry Became Sally", mostly because Amazon has decided not to sell it.
In th US, you can also buy used books from Amazon, and other on-line sources.
There will be enough people searching for older versions of these books, so that I expect, for example, some old Dr. Seuss books will jump in price, and perhaps already have.
(Full disclosure: I do, from time to time, buy books to protest. Years ago, for example, I bought multiple copies of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS". More recently, I bought Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood", when J. K. Rowling was first being picked on. And just last year, I bought "When Harry Became Sally", mostly because Amazon has decided not to sell it.
And I even read them, somtimes.)
Do second-hand bookshops exist in the US? I assume they do, but don't actually know.
In th US, you can also buy used books from Amazon, and other on-line sources.
There will be enough people searching for older versions of these books, so that I expect, for example, some old Dr. Seuss books will jump in price, and perhaps already have.
(Full disclosure: I do, from time to time, buy books to protest. Years ago, for example, I bought multiple copies of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS". More recently, I bought Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood", when J. K. Rowling was first being picked on. And just last year, I bought "When Harry Became Sally", mostly because Amazon has decided not to sell it.
And I even read them, somtimes.)
Not wanting to jump down a rabbit hole here, but the incredible prevalence of AIDS in Africa rather suggests that either (a) homosexuality is rampant in Africa, or (b) there are plenty of heterosexuals who get AIDS through unprotected sex.
In th US, you can also buy used books from Amazon, and other on-line sources.
There will be enough people searching for older versions of these books, so that I expect, for example, some old Dr. Seuss books will jump in price, and perhaps already have.
(Full disclosure: I do, from time to time, buy books to protest. Years ago, for example, I bought multiple copies of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS". More recently, I bought Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood", when J. K. Rowling was first being picked on. And just last year, I bought "When Harry Became Sally", mostly because Amazon has decided not to sell it.
And I even read them, somtimes.)
Do second-hand bookshops exist in the US? I assume they do, but don't actually know.
They must do. Where else do the books for book-burnings come from?
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I actually think the Roald Dahl bowdlerization will be dropped (when the owners think no one is looking) sooner rather than later. What I found telling was how few people on the Left even bothered to defend it. For once this really was a case of Wokeism/political correctness gone made.
I was struck that they hired outside consultants to do the work. Guaranteed to be activist nonsense. They have huge numbers of talented editors working in-house. Bet they would have taken a lighter touch approach.
Anecdata: Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained. As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
Yeah but Year 1 children would not have been "at school" during lockdown, and won't have been vaccinated, so there must be something else going on. Might this be a new form of long covid in infants?
Many would have been at Nursery.
I have a godson whose parents were both Docs, so at work throughout and he was at Nursery. He is fab, hugely advanced and not at all affected by the pandemic.
A big of a contrast to kids of other friends and family, who were at home throughout.
Locking down society to save some oldies is really looking like a bad call on so many levels, now.
Our lo is at nursery every morning. The downside is a bug brought back every 5 minutes but the social benefits should be well worth it.
rcs1000 - When Michael Fumento's "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS" was published (1990), most of the data came from the United States. And most of the known cases were people who had acquired the disease either through needle sharing, or homosexual intercourse.
But our news folks and book sellers were not eager to share that information with us, fearing anti-homosexual bigots. It's been a while, so the details are hazy, but some medical folks found almost zero bookstores in all of Washington state that were selling Fumento's book.
COVID was tough on them, and they now pay less when they buy, and charge more when they sell. But one can still find bargains.
And here's one of the big on-line sellers: https://www.abebooks.com (It's a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008.)
(The US Post Office gives books (and other "media") special low rates, so shipping books, even across the continent, is surprisingly cheap.)
Was a VERY regular customer of Half Price Books, starting back in the 1980s when I first encountered one of their BIG books stores, filled with wide variety of quality used books and remainders.
They closed all their stores in Seattle before the pandemic. Ostensibly because of rising rents but really due to passage of municipal minimum wage law.
As for prices they pay for used books, they have ALWAYS been low-ballers. Say this based on my own experiences.
For example, just over a decade ago had to sell off much of a large book collection (due to moving). Which I did, beginning with used book stores where I could get top dollar for ones they wanted. Kept working my way down, with the average price naturally dropping.
Last stop was Half Price Books, drove the dross over to the (then) Capitol Hill store, a good van load. They offered me around $150 for about half of this final lot (I'd garnered ten times that from other book-mongers) and zilch for the rest, but would take 'em off my hands.
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board overseeing Disney World’s government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless to manage the entertainment giant’s future growth in Central Florida.…..
This essentially makes Disney the government,” board member Ron Peri said. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”
Among other things, a “declaration of restrictive covenants” spells out that the district is barred from using the Disney name without the corporation’s approval or “fanciful characters such as Mickey Mouse.”
That declaration is valid until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England,” if it is deemed to violate rules against perpetuity, according to the document.
Britain has become, comparatively, a pace-setter for ethnic & faith diversity in national politics, including national leadership roles as a "new normal" to an unusual extent.
Why & how did this happen? Could we learn anything about drivers of change, in politics and beyond?
….Australia massively underperforms its level of diversity compared to Canada/UK. The UK strongly outperforms main west European societies with comparable aggregate bme aggregate scores (France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium) for reasons of history and identity.
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
Of course it needs strong regulation, just like many other things.
It probably won't get it though.
Because lawmakers have been captured by those who just want to make a profit.
But a start would be to make AI legally liable for information or advice they give out.
Then there should be a law that requires AI, and other software like social media, to make sure that what they do is in the best interests of the welfare of the users. Don't see Musk asking for that.
Should we make humans legally liable for information or advice they give out? Or make sure they act in the best interests of others? If not why for AI? I think the concern about AI is that we will become totally dependent on it. But how about electricity or the Internet?
It depends, we do have regulations for people acting in a professional capacity - ie in order to make money. And we have laws for publishers. And massive industries like the medical industry are regulated on the basis of not harming punters. If AI is as big a deal as some of its promoters are claiming, then of course any sane society would be regulating it. It shows how successfully the Profit-is-God fanatics have brainwashed people that this is even questioned.
In th US, you can also buy used books from Amazon, and other on-line sources.
There will be enough people searching for older versions of these books, so that I expect, for example, some old Dr. Seuss books will jump in price, and perhaps already have.
(Full disclosure: I do, from time to time, buy books to protest. Years ago, for example, I bought multiple copies of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS". More recently, I bought Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood", when J. K. Rowling was first being picked on. And just last year, I bought "When Harry Became Sally", mostly because Amazon has decided not to sell it.
And I even read them, somtimes.)
Not wanting to jump down a rabbit hole here, but the incredible prevalence of AIDS in Africa rather suggests that either (a) homosexuality is rampant in Africa, or (b) there are plenty of heterosexuals who get AIDS through unprotected sex.
I'm more impressed by the eccentricity of Jim's protest than his literary taste.
"Elon Musk and experts say AI development should be paused immediately
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people, warned of potential risks to society and civilisation by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions."
Of course it needs strong regulation, just like many other things.
It probably won't get it though.
Because lawmakers have been captured by those who just want to make a profit.
But a start would be to make AI legally liable for information or advice they give out.
Then there should be a law that requires AI, and other software like social media, to make sure that what they do is in the best interests of the welfare of the users. Don't see Musk asking for that.
Should we make humans legally liable for information or advice they give out? Or make sure they act in the best interests of others? If not why for AI? I think the concern about AI is that we will become totally dependent on it. But how about electricity or the Internet?
It depends, we do have regulations for people acting in a professional capacity - ie in order to make money. And we have laws for publishers. And massive industries like the medical industry are regulated on the basis of not harming punters. If AI is as big a deal as some of its promoters are claiming, then of course any sane society would be regulating it. It shows how successfully the Profit-is-God fanatics have brainwashed people that this is even questioned.
The EU seems to be trying to do so fairly heavily; the US not very much. There's unlikely to be a rush by developers to move to Europe. And as Leon points out, it will be full steam ahead in China anyway, unless Xi panics (by which time it would likely be too late anyway).
Note that the response to one of the first developers to raise an alarm was to fire him. Now everyone's discussing it openly, but it's not slowed anything down.
This ought to get lawyers excited. A real life case in prospect, turning on the application of the rule against perpetuities.
The day before Florida lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney-aligned old board passed an agreement basically neutering the new one, to be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles (?!?) https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1641178185109831680
The British royalty angle is just the cherry on top.
That’s got to be ultra vires by the old board. In any event the legislature should be able to overrule. Very aggressive by Disney
"very aggressive by Disney"!
De Santis is no angel either…
But legislature is about to abolish/replace an oversight board
Immediately before that happens old board signs a long term contract giving the party they are responsible for overseeing guaranteed long term rights?
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
There has long been a showbiz tradition of cross-dressing. The pantomime dame is a bloke in drag and the principal boy is played by a woman. Music hall had its own male impersonators, like Vesta Tilley (whose husband was a Conservative MP). All that has changed is the name, so we now have drag queens and kings.
There is more to drag than cross dressing in theatre, though perhaps it originates there. Drag is a hyper-sexualised parody of women, and generally sexually explicit, even predatory.
The male Gay community is not homogenous, and has its own misogynism, and drag is a part of that.
You may gather I am not a fan.
Much of drag resembles the black and white minstrels.
After having an affair Yousef blamed his wife for not being a good enough Muslim. When there was no place at a nursery for his daughter, he arranged a sting operation that attempted to prove that the nursery was racist. "What sort of person does this?"
Humza Yousaf's hubris is truly a delight to watch in real-time.
I wonder how long he will last....
It will be interesting to see if a back benches of most of the talent will be as compliant as the previous tranche. Might finally get the committee system working properly…
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
Maybe it would be simpler if all books were vetted by the government, prior to publication, so that offensive material does not get published.
I thought 51.89% of the voters were racist according to the Remainers on here
Which ‘Remainer’ said that? I believe 99% of racists voted leave is the usual view.
I know at least one who didn't, for what its worth. (Not much)
Presumably some racists voted remain because they worked out that by preventing immigration from European countries we would naturally be encouraging immigration from Africa and Asia.
Not all racists are stupid.
There was always an element in British and continental fascism that favoured European unification.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
Maybe it would be simpler if all books were vetted by the government, prior to publication, so that offensive material does not get published.
There is already a pilot scheme, which is why we've not seen Boris's book on Shakespeare.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
There has long been a showbiz tradition of cross-dressing. The pantomime dame is a bloke in drag and the principal boy is played by a woman. Music hall had its own male impersonators, like Vesta Tilley (whose husband was a Conservative MP). All that has changed is the name, so we now have drag queens and kings.
There is more to drag than cross dressing in theatre, though perhaps it originates there. Drag is a hyper-sexualised parody of women, and generally sexually explicit, even predatory.
The male Gay community is not homogenous, and has its own misogynism, and drag is a part of that.
Humza Yousaf's hubris is truly a delight to watch in real-time.
I wonder how long he will last....
It will be interesting to see if a back benches of most of the talent will be as compliant as the previous tranche. Might finally get the committee system working properly…
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
Maybe it would be simpler if all books were vetted by the government, prior to publication, so that offensive material does not get published.
There is already a pilot scheme, which is why we've not seen Boris's book on Shakespeare.
I doubt if that would be offensive. Just, lacking in any scholarly merit.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I actually think the Roald Dahl bowdlerization will be dropped (when the owners think no one is looking) sooner rather than later. What I found telling was how few people on the Left even bothered to defend it. For once this really was a case of Wokeism/political correctness gone made.
The problem was more the naff way that the Dahl rewrite was done rather than the principle of it.
Works have long been altered to suit contemporary mores. The term "bowdlerisation" originates from the early 19th century editing of a version of Shakespeare to edit out the naughty bits. The schools edition of The Canterbury Tales I did for O level in the 1980s too. Agatha Christies "Ten little redacteds" has long been renamed as ""Then there were None" etc. Dahl himself changed the origin story of the Oompa Loompas.
Updating these works to modern tastes isn't itself a problem, but it does need to be done in tune with the authors style. There may be some right wing culture warriors gleefully reading to their children "Tintin in the Congo" *, but I don't thinknthat the worst thing that they will do to their children.
*as a TinTin fan, I do have a copy, and my boys have read it. We had an interesting discussion about colonialism and racist stereotypes as a result, but they were teenagers by then, and up to that sort of analysis while retaining their love of Tintin.
Just seen Raab said Paul O'Grady would have had no time for wokery. No words.
That Paul O'Grady is seen as a national treasure shows how far we have come as a society since the 1980s. I don't think Maggie would have liked him.
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
There has long been a showbiz tradition of cross-dressing. The pantomime dame is a bloke in drag and the principal boy is played by a woman. Music hall had its own male impersonators, like Vesta Tilley (whose husband was a Conservative MP). All that has changed is the name, so we now have drag queens and kings.
There is more to drag than cross dressing in theatre, though perhaps it originates there. Drag is a hyper-sexualised parody of women, and generally sexually explicit, even predatory.
The male Gay community is not homogenous, and has its own misogynism, and drag is a part of that.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
I actually think the Roald Dahl bowdlerization will be dropped (when the owners think no one is looking) sooner rather than later. What I found telling was how few people on the Left even bothered to defend it. For once this really was a case of Wokeism/political correctness gone made.
The problem was more the naff way that the Dahl rewrite was done rather than the principle of it.
Works have long been altered to suit contemporary mores. The term "bowdlerisation" originates from the early 19th century editing of a version of Shakespeare to edit out the naughty bits. The schools edition of The Canterbury Tales I did for O level in the 1980s too. Agatha Christies "Ten little redacteds" has long been renamed as ""Then there were None" etc. Dahl himself changed the origin story of the Oompa Loompas.
Updating these works to modern tastes isn't itself a problem, but it does need to be done in tune with the authors style. There may be some right wing culture warriors gleefully reading to their children "Tintin in the Congo" *, but I don't thinknthat the worst thing that they will do to their children.
*as a TinTin fan, I do have a copy, and my boys have read it. We had an interesting discussion about colonialism and racist stereotypes as a result, but they were teenagers by then, and up to that sort of analysis while retaining their love of Tintin.
Oh, we were mightily pissed off at school by moral guardians who wanted to expurgate the Miller’s Tale, the Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo, and the Porter scene from Macbeth.
Comments
But I wouldn't describe his views as racist. Nor do I think Donald the Loser's views can be described as racist -- but for different reasons.
The National - Humza Yousaf challenged after 'ditching transport from Cabinet'
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23421877.humza-yousaf-challenged-ditching-transport-cabinet/
"Michael Matheson was previously responsible for energy policy and transport before he was appointed Health Secretary on Wednesday.
It leaves the Cabinet without one person solely responsible for transport – despite ongoing and high-profile issues with the dualling of the A9 and CalMac ferries among others."
‘Astonishing’ molecular syringe ferries proteins into human cells
Technique borrowed from nature, and honed using artificial intelligence, could spur the development of better drug-delivery systems.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00922-4
Andrew Neil@afneil
Whitehall full of rumours tonight that Britain on brink of joining Indo-Pacific trade pact, which accounts for 13% world GDP and 15% global trade. Includes Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia + 7 other countries. A $10 trillion market.
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1641181628570501120
Talking to a bunch of mums tonight. (They are so much more revealing of personal details than dads. To be honest, I preferred it when we were talking about Janet's upcoming trip to Scarborough. You'd like Janet. She's a hairdresser. Lancashire accent. Her stories have the meandering non-sequiturs of a Peter Kay sketch. Anyway.) The subject moved onto kids with special educational needs, a subject all five of us in the conversation had some experience of. All corroborated my localised experience that SEN are suddenly much, much more common, especially in years 1/2/3. It's not just a case of more diagnoses; the number of damaged kids coming through post-lockdown is off the scale compared to what they've seen previously. A school on Rochdale was cited at which the majority of year 1 kids are non-verbal; some are still not toilet trained.
As well as a hugely damaged cohort - which is poor news when they grow to adulthood - we are going to see a lot of teachers leaving the profession. The pressures they are under are huge.
There was a surge when Sunak took over but it is slowly receding.
But a start would be to make AI legally liable for information or advice they give out.
Then there should be a law that requires AI, and other software like social media, to make sure that what they do is in the best interests of the welfare of the users. Don't see Musk asking for that.
No words.
I blame the parents tbh.
Just a thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOdwe6Usp7M
I do find drag as a subculture rather odd, with more than a whiff of misogyny about it. I preferred POG as himself rather than as his creation.
Not sure what it does to our sovereignity, but hey, you can't have everything.
Because he was so woke.
Not because he wasn't.
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/29/paul-o-grady-lily-savage-retirement-reason/
“People say to me, “Would you do Lily again?” And I say, “Good God no, I wouldn’t last five minutes”, he told The Sun in 2021.
“It’s just the things that she comes out with. It’s a different time now.
“They probably wouldn’t like the inference that she was a lady of the night — she’d have to say she was a sex worker or just, “Worked in hospitality”.”
The male Gay community is not homogenous, and has its own misogynism, and drag is a part of that.
You may gather I am not a fan.
I think the concern about AI is that we will become totally dependent on it. But how about electricity or the Internet?
They asked people of african/caribbean descent their personal experience of racism, as in verbal racist abuse.
UK came 2nd best (i.e. 2nd fewest % racist experiences) of the 28(27?) countries. Malta was top, slightly better than the UK.
The figures from Finland and Slovakia were shocking.
Preliminary Lessons from Russia’s
Unconventional Operations During the Russo-
Ukrainian War, February 2022–February 2023 Jack Watling, Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds
https://static.rusi.org/202303-SR-Unconventional-Operations-Russo-Ukrainian-War-web-final.pdf.pdf
The mixture of incompetence and sheer evil (it's clear widespread 'liquidations' were planned alongside the original assault, along with systematised torture) is remarkable.
A real life case in prospect, turning on the application of the rule against perpetuities.
The day before Florida lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney-aligned old board passed an agreement basically neutering the new one, to be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles (?!?)
https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1641178185109831680
The British royalty angle is just the cherry on top.
I wonder how long it'll be before second-hand bookshops become targets for woke-ists, because they're places where you can buy old copies of books that haven't been "updated" with the latest language. For example, if you want to buy a copy of a Roald Dahl book that definitely hasn't been altered, a second-hand bookshop will be the place to go.
Not all racists are stupid.
According to this map, the black population in Slovakia is proportionally about 1/200 of the black population in Britain:
https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-country/
* kle4's acquaintance, that is; not Hitler.
I have a godson whose parents were both Docs, so at work throughout and he was at Nursery. He is fab, hugely advanced and not at all affected by the pandemic.
A big of a contrast to kids of other friends and family, who were at home throughout.
Locking down society to save some oldies is really looking like a bad call on so many levels, now.
She laid out how the prices of “value” product ranges in supermarkets had soared over the last decade – rice in her local supermarket had increased in price from 45p for a kilogram bag last year, to £1 for 500g, a 344% increase – and how the number of value products has shrunk.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/26/terry-pratchett-jack-monroe-vimes-boots-poverty-index
Bought a kg of rice from Tesco today for 45p.
By Stephen Fisher, 6th May 2022"
https://electionsetc.com/2022/05/06/local-elections-projected-national-share-pns-of-the-vote-2022/
And presumably the term 'black market' has now been cancelled? Perhaps someone can educate me as to the correct formulation.
There will be enough people searching for older versions of these books, so that I expect, for example, some old Dr. Seuss books will jump in price, and perhaps already have.
(Full disclosure: I do, from time to time, buy books to protest. Years ago, for example, I bought multiple copies of "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS". More recently, I bought Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood", when J. K. Rowling was first being picked on. And just last year, I bought "When Harry Became Sally", mostly because Amazon has decided not to sell it.
And I even read them, somtimes.)
File under #WouldBeFunnyAsAllFuck.....
Yes, many, including this chain: https://www.hpb.com/home?&size=25&#product-panel-home
Which claims to have 150 million books.
COVID was tough on them, and they now pay less when they buy, and charge more when they sell. But one can still find bargains.
And here's one of the big on-line sellers: https://www.abebooks.com (It's a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008.)
(The US Post Office gives books (and other "media") special low rates, so shipping books, even across the continent, is surprisingly cheap.)
Not from home....
But our news folks and book sellers were not eager to share that information with us, fearing anti-homosexual bigots. It's been a while, so the details are hazy, but some medical folks found almost zero bookstores in all of Washington state that were selling Fumento's book.
They closed all their stores in Seattle before the pandemic. Ostensibly because of rising rents but really due to passage of municipal minimum wage law.
As for prices they pay for used books, they have ALWAYS been low-ballers. Say this based on my own experiences.
For example, just over a decade ago had to sell off much of a large book collection (due to moving). Which I did, beginning with used book stores where I could get top dollar for ones they wanted. Kept working my way down, with the average price naturally dropping.
Last stop was Half Price Books, drove the dross over to the (then) Capitol Hill store, a good van load. They offered me around $150 for about half of this final lot (I'd garnered ten times that from other book-mongers) and zilch for the rest, but would take 'em off my hands.
Which was the OTHER reason I went their last!
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board overseeing Disney World’s government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless to manage the entertainment giant’s future growth in Central Florida.…..
This essentially makes Disney the government,” board member Ron Peri said. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”
Among other things, a “declaration of restrictive covenants” spells out that the district is barred from using the Disney name without the corporation’s approval or “fanciful characters such as Mickey Mouse.”
That declaration is valid until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England,” if it is deemed to violate rules against perpetuity, according to the document.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-disney-new-reedy-creek-board-powerless-20230329-qalagcs4wjfe3iwkpzjsz2v4qm-story.html
Disney may not have been quite as clever as they think they are because while England has a King his title isn’t “King of England”.
Britain has become, comparatively, a pace-setter for ethnic & faith diversity in national politics, including national leadership roles as a "new normal" to an unusual extent.
Why & how did this happen? Could we learn anything about drivers of change, in politics and beyond?
….Australia massively underperforms its level of diversity compared to Canada/UK. The UK strongly outperforms main west European societies with comparable aggregate bme aggregate scores (France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium) for reasons of history and identity.
https://twitter.com/sundersays/status/1641188562681970690?s=20
So much for “racist Little Britain”…
And massive industries like the medical industry are regulated on the basis of not harming punters.
If AI is as big a deal as some of its promoters are claiming, then of course any sane society would be regulating it. It shows how successfully the Profit-is-God fanatics have brainwashed people that this is even questioned.
https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1641109786870652929?s=20
And as Leon points out, it will be full steam ahead in China anyway, unless Xi panics (by which time it would likely be too late anyway).
Note that the response to one of the first developers to raise an alarm was to fire him.
Now everyone's discussing it openly, but it's not slowed anything down.
But legislature is about to abolish/replace an oversight board
Immediately before that happens old board signs a long term contract giving the party they are responsible for overseeing guaranteed long term rights?
Nah.
Cambridgeshire: Arrests after men shot dead in 'targeted' attacks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-65121039
https://twitter.com/MattCartoonist/status/1641117782614966272
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/29/london-irish-insist-all-staff-will-be-paid-this-month-concern-finances-rugby-union
That 2 more clubs were on the brink has been common knowledge for a while.
Really?
https://robinmcalpine.org/48-hours-later-and/
Come on.
Works have long been altered to suit contemporary mores. The term "bowdlerisation" originates from the early 19th century editing of a version of Shakespeare to edit out the naughty bits. The schools edition of The Canterbury Tales I did for O level in the 1980s too. Agatha Christies "Ten little redacteds" has long been renamed as ""Then there were None" etc. Dahl himself changed the origin story of the Oompa Loompas.
Updating these works to modern tastes isn't itself a problem, but it does need to be done in tune with the authors style. There may be some right wing culture warriors gleefully reading to their children "Tintin in the Congo" *, but I don't thinknthat the worst thing that they will do to their children.
*as a TinTin fan, I do have a copy, and my boys have read it. We had an interesting discussion about colonialism and racist stereotypes as a result, but they were teenagers by then, and up to that sort of analysis while retaining their love of Tintin.