Links - 26th January 2024 (1)

Harder, please. It’s 90 cents per face slap. Patrons pay to be smacked by Japanese izakaya’s female staff - "An izakaya in Japan, which was said to be on the verge of shuttering, gained fame and apparently revived its business – after it started offering patrons the service of being slapped on their faces before meals.  At Shachihoko-ya izakaya in Nagoya, there was initially one female staff member who carried out the striking, and each customer received a slap without being charged, according to Chinese-language YouTube channel Save Your Money In Japan...  Patrons had to pay 100 yen (S$0.90) per slap. There was also a 500 yen surcharge if patrons requested a specific staff member to slap them, reported Chinese-language media publication Liberty Times Net on Dec 3. No male staff were employed to smack customers, according to reports.  Both men and women, Japanese nationals and foreigners, went to the izakaya to be hit. The face-slapping service reportedly revived the izakaya’s business.  “The harder the female staff slapped them, the more excited the patrons became,” said the YouTube video narration on the Save Your Money In Japan channel, which also posts lifestyle content. “Not only were the patrons not angry, but they appeared to feel more relaxed after getting hit. They would even thank the staff member who smacked them.”   The video added that it was surprising that female patrons also wanted to be slapped... The izakaya has discontinued its face-smacking service. It was unclear when the izakaya had started and subsequently discontinued this service.  A Nov 29 post on its X account said: “Shachihoko-ya currently does not offer slaps. We appreciate the attention it has received today, but we cannot accommodate visits with the intention of receiving slaps."

‘Inappropriate’ pop-up maid cafe event on SMU campus cancelled - "The Singapore Management University (SMU) has called a now-cancelled “maid cafe” event inappropriate, and said it did not give approval for it to take place at a cafe on campus.  The Japanese-themed cafe Daijoubu, located on the SMU campus, said it would be “withdrawing the upcoming Tsundere Cafe” event in a Facebook post on Thursday. The event was supposed to take place on Aug 26, in collaboration with event concept group SubaToki Cafe.  Tsundere cafes are a concept popularised in Japan, where waitresses are dressed in maid costumes, and customers willingly get berated and punished by them...   Located within SMU’s School of Computing and Information Systems, Daijoubu held a similar Tsundere Cafe event in March, also in collaboration with SubaToki Cafe.  A video of the event put up on Facebook by SubaToki Cafe shows customers doing push-ups, being smacked on the face and stepped on by waitresses.  The “punishments” were requested by the customers and are not part of the cafe’s routine services, said SubaToki Cafe."

People Magazine’s Premature Cover Toasts Betty White’s 100th Birthday - The New York Times - "For months, editors at People magazine had been zeroing in on Betty White for an end-of-year cover article. Her 100th birthday was coming up on Jan. 17... Next to a glossy photograph of Ms. White, her eyes twinkling, the People trumpets sounded: “Betty White Turns 100!”  Ms. White died on Friday morning. She was 99... Some fans blamed the magazine for jinxing Ms. White. (In addition to its weekly issue, People also marked her impending centennial with a commemorative issue entirely devoted to her seven-decade career.)  Others were pleased that Ms. White, known for her devilish sense of humor and impeccable comedic timing, had seemed to have pulled off one last laugh."

Meme - "As a Trillion dollar company, you’d think that Apple could figure out a way to make better cords"
"How do u think they made their Trillion Dollars"

Opinion | Liberal Hypocrisy Is Fueling Inequality - The New York Times - "It’s easy to blame the other side. And for many Democrats, it’s obvious that Republicans are thwarting progress toward a more equal society.  But what happens when Republicans aren’t standing in the way?  In many states — including California, New York and Illinois — Democrats control all the levers of power. They run the government. They write the laws. And as we explore in the video above, they often aren’t living up to their values.  In key respects, many blue states are actually doing worse than red states. It is in the blue states where affordable housing is often hardest to find, there are some of the most acute disparities in education funding and economic inequality is increasing most quickly. Instead of asking, “What’s the matter with Kansas?” Democrats need to spend more time pondering, “What’s the matter with California?”
From 2021. In an amazing sleight of hand, they just blame conservatives anyway

The ACLU wants to cancel Elf on a Shelf because it perpetuates the normalization of the surveillance state and I don't think they understand how childhood works. - "For those of you unfamiliar with the tradition, The Elf on the Shelf has been enjoyed by generation of children, as in one. It was created by a mother-daughter team who thought it would be a really fun idea to make a lot of money.  The book, together with the elf, made its debut all the way back in 2005. Keep in mind that these were primitive, simple times. There were no smart phones, just flip phones necessitating people to use a form of communication known as a "conversation." These conversations were accomplished using mouth noises not unlike our cavemen ancestors."

Why Japan's Rail Workers Can't Stop Pointing at Things - "While these might strike visitors as silly, the movements and shouts are a Japanese-innovated industrial safety method known as pointing-and-calling; a system that reduces workplace errors by up to 85 percent. Known in Japanese as shisa kanko, pointing-and-calling works on the principle of associating one’s tasks with physical movements and vocalizations to prevent errors by “raising the consciousness levels of workers”—according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan. Rather than rely on a worker’s eyes or habit alone, each step in a given task is reinforced physically and audibly to ensure the step is both complete and accurate. In the rail context, when train drivers wish to perform a required speed check, they do not simply glance at a display. Rather, the speedometer will be physically pointed at, with a call of “speed check, 80”—confirming the action taking place, and audibly confirming the correct speed. For station staff who ensure the platform-side tracks are free of debris or fallen passengers, a visual scan alone is not sufficient. Instead, the attendant will point down the track and sweep their arm along the length of the platform—eyes following the hand—before declaring all clear. The process repeats as the train departs, ensuring no bags—or passengers—are caught hanging from the train’s closed doors.  It is such an integral part of Japanese transportation that direction boards at the Kyoto Rail Museum even feature characters in the classic point-and-call stance...   For such a simple but effective method of improving workers’ error rate, the system continues to find itself largely confined to Japan. Indeed, it is one of the many quirks of the Japanese workplace that fall flat with Western workers. In the case of pointing-and-calling, Japanese commentators have theorized that Western employees feel “silly” performing the requisite gestures and calls. A notable exception is New York City’s MTA subway system, whose conductors have used a modified point-only system since 1996 after then Chief Transportation Officer Nathaniel Ford was fascinated by the point-and-call system during a business trip to Japan. In the MTA’s case, conductors point to a fixed black-and-white “zebra board” to confirm a stopped train is correctly located along the platform.  According to MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan, conductors were quick to adapt to the new system, and within two years of implementation, incidents of incorrectly berthed subways fell 57 percent. Japanese workers are also not immune to feeling self-conscious when it comes to pointing-and-calling, although with training it soon becomes an accepted part of the job"

Meme - Sexy Losers: "FINGER LICKIN' GOO
The next time you shake someone's hand, think about Mike.
HEY, MARK... MIND TURNING ON THE FAUCET FOR ME?
HUH? WHY CAN'T YOU Do IT BY YOURSELF?
WELL, LAST NIGHT I WAS IN YOUR CLOSEST SPYING ON YOU AND YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND I NOTICED SHE HAD A FINGER IN YOUR ASS WHILE SHE WAS GIVING YOU HEAD.
WELL, SO FAR I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS, BUT PLEASE GO ON.
WELL, I SAID TO MYSELF, "THAT LOOKS LIKE AN IDEA IF I EVER SAW ONE!" SO I DECIDED TO GIVE THE FINGER -ASS THING AGO. AND YOU KNOW, YOU'RE REALLY ON TO SOMETHING THERE.
BUT NOW I GOT ONE HAND FULL OF SEMEN AND ANOTHER ONE WITH FECES AND I'M AFRAID TO TOUCH THE SINK.
WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST LIE AND SAY YOU HAD PAINT OR SOMETHING?"

Meme - "WHY IS MODERN MEDIA OFTEN TERRIBLE?
Reliance on hype, nepotism, forced diversity, accelerated development, political pandering, demonizing fans, infighting *too many cooks spoiling the broth*"

Meme - Jack Sparrow: "Préservatif."
Hector Barbossa: "Pilule !"
Pirate: "Sodomie !"

UK gives India £2.3bn in aid despite pledge to stop handouts - "Britain has sent £2.3 billion in aid to India since 2016, despite ministers having given the impression that the country would receive no more money, a report reveals.  The Government’s aid watchdog, the Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI), said many people “would be surprised” to see money continuing to go to India at this level.  They said the huge amounts still going to India were poorly targeted, with not enough going towards priorities such as poverty reduction and human rights.  In one example of waste, millions were given to an Indian bank to loan to the poorest – but instead, the bank spent the money on business loans and providing the wealthy with credit cards.  ICAI gave the UK’s India aid programme a score of amber-red, the second-worst available. Dr Tamsyn Barton, ICAI’s chief commissioner, said: “India was the 11th largest recipient of UK aid in 2021, receiving more aid than countries like Bangladesh and Kenya, so it is all the more important that every penny is well spent or invested.   “However, we found that the portfolio wasn’t coherent and that the development rationale for it wasn’t clear.  “And while we appreciate that democracy and human rights in India is a sensitive area for the UK, we were surprised to find out that the UK had largely ceased supporting work at the local level.” In 2012, the British Government pledged to end bilateral aid to India by 2016 as part of a move away from funding middle-income countries.  India has its own space programme and Pranab Mukherjee, the country’s former president, prompted anger in 2012 when he described British aid money as “peanuts”."
This doesn't stop Indian grievance mongers continuing to complain

Connoisseur of Chaos | George Soros - "When the dust was cleared and the debris swept away, he stood revealed as Hillary Clinton’s most generous billionaire donor. Yet his name rarely surfaced during the presidential campaign—and that’s generally the way he likes it. Dark Money, Jane Mayer’s book about covert political funding, refers to the Koch brothers more than 300 times in its excoriation of the “radical right” but mentions progressive icon George Soros just six times; three are footnotes.  One of the planet’s richest men, his past marred with crimes and misdemeanors, the 86-year-old billionaire skates on. More than a decade ago, he moved his financial headquarters to Curaçao, a tax-free haven in the Caribbean designed for monied hypocrites who talk one game and play another. The place is not bulletproof; on occasion, Soros has been accused—and even convicted—of insider trading. A French court found him guilty of that crime and levied a fine of $2.3 million. In the parlance of the billionaires’ club, that was small change. Investigative journalists, a dwindling cadre, show little interest in him. They prefer to scrutinize safer, softer targets.   If they took even a cursory look, though, they would see that Soros’s global reach and influence far outstrip those of the Koch brothers or other liberal bogeymen—and that underlying it all is a vision both dystopian and opportunistic. “The main obstacle to a stable and just world order,” Soros has declared, “is the United States.” Ergo, that constitutional republic must be weakened and its allies degraded. The Sorosian world order—one of open borders and global governance, antithetical to the ideals and experience of the West—could then assume command... most of those who did escape the Holocaust were tormented by pangs of remorse and survivor’s guilt.  Not Soros... Backing organizations dedicated to social agitation and change-for-change’s-sake, Soros has caused tsunamis of upheaval, in the United States and around the world.  A few cases in point: last August, DC Leaks, a group of adroit hackers, got into the Soros files and released them. Perhaps the most notorious of the disclosures concerned Soros’s Open Society Foundations, named in honor of Sir Karl Popper. Underneath its lofty rhetoric, the organization was clearly devoted to the eradication of national sovereignty. A key Open Society paper, hacked in its entirety, described the Syrian refugee crisis as an opportunity to “shape conversations about rethinking migrations governance.” Translation: use agitprop to flood Europe and the U.S. with evacuees (among them some probable terrorists); make the old borders and institutions irrelevant; and, in the process, create a world liberated from the restraints of constitutionalism, American exceptionalism, free-market capitalism, and other obsolete isms.   One of Soros’s long-standing targets is the State of Israel... Soros operatives, determined to shape media coverage of events in Ukraine, were instructed to “select journalists from the five target countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece) and offer them long stay reporting trips in Ukraine. Rather than specify what they should write about they should make suggestions for articles; we retain a veto on stories we think are counterproductive. Suggestion that we liaise directly with journalists to determine interest.” In the United States, Soros bankrolls a broad range of political and cultural causes. One is to destabilize the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. In 2015, he dedicated $650,000 for the purpose of shaping Pope Francis’s U.S. visit, using left-leaning Catholic groups to promote gay marriage, abortion, and physician-assisted suicide... Another Soros favorite is Black Lives Matter, the radical protest group dedicated to the proposition that police are inherently racist. Working the streets with incendiary rhetoric, at odds with the truth about black-on-black crime, BLM has helped foster “depolicing,” as Heather Mac Donald describes it, in high-crime urban areas. In 2015, after days of rioting in Baltimore in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, an Open Society Foundations memo excitedly commented that “recent events offer a unique opportunity to accelerate the dismantling of structural inequality generated and maintained by local law enforcement and to engage residents who have historically been disenfranchised in Baltimore City in shaping and monitoring reform.” Three straight acquittals of police officers involved in the matter left the prosecution’s case in shreds but made no difference to the Open Society Foundations. It has donated at least $650,000 to Black Lives Matter and pledged more assistance to antipolice factions across the country. These activities prompted the father of one of the Dallas police officers killed during a Black Lives Matter protest to sue Soros (along with other individuals and groups) for inspiring a “war on police.” Soros’s open-borders obsessions can be seen in the $2 million he gave to opponents of Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration... Soros also spent millions backing liberal-minded district attorneys—they all opposed jail time for nonviolent drug offenders—in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, and Texas. Some of these candidates won; most lost... one tocsin is likely to cause discomfort even to this most insensitive of plutocrats: Popper’s reference to the figure “whose magical powers raise him high above ordinary men.” Popper warned about this type long before George Soros perverted Sir Karl’s teachings and crowned himself a philosopher king."
Criticising Soros is anti-Semitic, of course, even though he's trying to endanger Jews.
You can only criticise money in politics when it's on the right

A Red/Blue Risk Divide - "We often think of blue states as being more open and tolerant of individual freedoms; they were the first to allow gay marriage, for example, and are more liberal on transgender issues. But openness to social change is only one aspect of risk. When it comes to other issues, blue states often stress protecting the community over individuals’ right to take risks and bear the consequences. In red states, with laxer gun laws, owning a gun is seen as a way of managing personal risk—gun proponents claim that they need guns to defend themselves. Blue states stress the risk that guns pose to others—the risk, say, that you’ll be shot by someone with mental illness, or have your own gun used against you.   It’s unclear if differences in risk-tolerance profiles are cultural, or if some people are innately more risk-averse. Risk-takers and risk-avoiders exist in all parts of the country, but the culture you grow up in does shape how you deal with risk and what you’re willing to do to reduce it. Some ethnic groups in India, for example, appear more open to risk based on the environment in which they are raised. One study in the U.S. looked at brain activity of a small sample (only 82 people) of Republicans and Democrats and concluded that Republicans are more prone to seek safety and security. Another study argued that conservatives may be less open to change but are more comfortable with economic and financial risk. Data on political donations between 1990 and 2008 suggest that people who work in higher-risk professions tend to lean right. That risk can be financial—for instance, corporate lawyers are more likely to give to Democrats, while finance-industry employees, with more variable incomes, were more likely to lean Republican. Or the risk could be physical—Americans who work in mining, oil and gas, trucking, and construction are more likely to donate to Republicans than are government workers, who overwhelmingly donate to Democrats.  American states’ evolution on risk-taking can be seen in the foundations of welfare benefits... Economic historian Price Fishback points out that each new crisis in the industrial era increased awareness of new downside risk and ratcheted up the reach and scope of the welfare state. The world was always risky; famines and disease outbreaks regularly killed many people. But market economies offered more wealth and scope to diversify and insure. Differences in wealth, culture, and urbanization meant that the welfare state developed unevenly across America... Exceptions exist, but generally blue states have higher taxes and more regulations... States in the Midwest and South tend to be the least restrictive. California requires a license for roughly twice as many occupations as Ohio, and its licenses tend to be more expensive and demanding to obtain than those of other states. California is one of the few states that require a license for tree trimming, for example, and Californian trimmers must have four years of experience to operate their businesses.  In many ways, the world is safer than it has ever been. And even the states in America with the least generous welfare programs offer more support than Americans have enjoyed historically."

Remembering When Horse Diving Was an Actual Thing - "All the lights went out, except for the spotlight trained on the top of the platform. There, Powderface stood, seemingly unperturbed by the crowd below or the bathing suit-clad woman on his back, his coat glowing white against the darkness. For a moment, the horse paused and shifted his weight from hoof to hoof. Forty feet below was a pool of water, just 12 feet deep. The audience was rapt, the only sound coming from the waves crashing against the sides of Steel Pier, Atlantic City’s boardwalk that extends 1,000 feet off the New Jersey coast.  “I did not have the sense that he was afraid at all,” remembers Cynthia Branigan, author of The Last Diving Horse in America, who was among the spectators that day in August 1964. The future author and animal rights activist was 11 years old at the time. “It seemed to me that he was just taking it in, enjoying his moment in the spotlight.”"

The Muslims Who Don't Fast During Ramadan - "Unlike many Muslims, the Baye Fall do not fast during Ramadan. In fact, they do not participate in many Muslim practices, such as praying five times each day or abstaining from alcohol. Many Senegalese view them as stereotypical hippies: likely to hang around a beach, exude chillness, maybe even share hashish or something similar.  But this image co-exists with a unique and central tenet of Baye Fall spiritual life: Instead of fasting or praying five times a day, they enact their faith through hard work and service to others."

62% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck amid inflation - "62% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new LendingClub report. The figure is unchanged from last year.  “Living paycheck to paycheck remains the main financial lifestyle among U.S. consumers,” the report said... Some 74% of Americans say they are stressed about finances, according to a separate CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in August. Inflation, rising interest rates and a lack of savings contribute to those feelings.  That CNBC survey found that 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 58% in March.  Many households have tapped their cash reserves over the past few months, LendingClub and other reports show.  Nearly half, or 49%, of adults have less savings or no savings compared to a year ago, according to a Bankrate survey."

There may be some truth to the 'gay jobs' stereotype - "There is an unusually high concentration of gay or lesbian workers in certain occupations. For example, both gay men and lesbians and are overrepresented in psychology, law, social work, and university teaching. And there are real occupational patterns behind some popular stereotypes, from the gay flight attendant to the lesbian truck driver...   To understand the occupational segregation of gay and lesbian workers, we examined two hypotheses. The first one was about task independence—the ability to perform one’s tasks without substantially depending on coworkers. Task independence at work makes it easier to conceal one’s sexual orientation and reduces the negative repercussions of “coming out.” So we predicted that gay men and lesbians would be more likely to work in occupations with higher task independence (e.g., massage therapists and fire safety inspectors) than in ones with lower task independence (e.g., construction workers and fire fighters).  Our second prediction was about occupations that require a high level of social perceptiveness — that is, the accurate anticipation and reading of others’ reactions. Since gay men and lesbians tend to experience the threat of discrimination from a young age, knowing how to read social cues might be an important acquired skill for these individuals. Thus we expected that gay men and lesbians would be more likely to be in jobs that require high levels of social perceptiveness (e.g., psychologists and teachers) rather than in ones where such a skill is less needed (e.g., laboratory scientists and actuarial analysts).  Overall, our prediction is that gay and lesbian workers will tend to concentrate in occupations that provide a high degree of task independence or require a high level of social perceptiveness, or both... Our findings suggest that gay and lesbian workers might be drawn to a different set of occupations than heterosexual workers and perhaps bring with them a distinct set of skills to these occupations. Gay and lesbian workers probably developed some of these skills as a result of social adaptation to discrimination. As societies become more tolerant of same-sex relationships, however, the need to conceal one’s sexual orientation in everyday social interactions might fade over time. As a result, gay men and lesbians may lose their skill for social perceptiveness, which may make them less distinct in the labor market"
Discrimination is the unified field theory of social science

Meme - MeisterVaxl: "Does your doors dont have locks?"
FWA90A80P: "Does youre english haveth good?"
MeisterVaxl: "You speak english because its the only language you know. I speak english because its the only language you know. We re not the same"

Police officer sexually assaulted as she was arresting attempted rape suspect - "A police officer has been sexually assaulted as she tried to arrest a man on suspicion of attempted rape.  She was one of two officers who came under attack in Sheffield city centre in the early hours of Friday morning.  South Yorkshire Police said they had responded to a report of an attempted rape on Scotland Street. The suspect is said to have struck both officers with a wooden “for sale” sign, before sexually assaulting one of them as she tried to arrest him.  One of the officers was left with severe bruising, while both involved in the attack are said to be recovering at home."

Why America Still Doesn't Have High-Speed Trains - "To appease fiscal conservatives opposed to transportation budget increases, Johnson said that the Department of Commerce would work “in cooperation with private industry” to develop train designs at “no cost to the Government.” While this approach limited spending, it did not adequately account for the fact that fast trains needed dedicated tracks, welded rails, and new electrical power systems to tap their full potential. Without these improvements, America’s bullet trains would languish on the northeast corridor, an antiquated rail line already congested with freight and commuter traffic... One problem was that the train needed to be bulked up to meet federal crashworthiness standards. Since Acela shared tracks with lumbering freights, it had to be able to sustain high-force collisions that could not happen on systems dedicated exclusively to passenger trains elsewhere in the world... The 21st-century global boom in passenger rail projects has shown how fast trains can boost perception of the countries that run them. State-of-the-art systems in China, Japan, France, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea have given their builders an air of stylish modernity. The U.S.’s frustrated pursuit of a bullet train, by contrast, reveals the perils of infrastructural compromises that make one set of tracks accommodate freight customers, commuters, and inter-city riders, and one train deliver profits while also serving the public good"
Clearly, what works in a country of 1.4 billion will never work in a country of 332 million

Does everything feel broken? Canada's messy federalism is a big part of the problem - "Canada is an unusually decentralized country. Canada’s federal government has controlled roughly 30 to 40 percent of government expenditures (net of transfers) for the last three decades. By contrast, the U.S. federal government controls around two-thirds of government spending"

ZUBY: on X - "People who are solipsistic assume that everybody else is. They can't understand generalities or abstractions because they either take it personally, or assume you are just talking about yourself. Every statement is personalised. Low empathy. If you say, "This thing is a problem" they will deny that it is a problem because it's not personally a problem for them, or assume that it is a personal problem for you."
A lot of people get very upset whenever you talk about trends or tendencies, because they take it as personal attacks. This also ties into the NAXALT fallacy

Meme - "This is the reality of life on Earth. *tank in warzone*
This is an anomaly, and it can end at any time. *peaceful houses*"

Meme - Layton Greene: "what you crave in a relationship is what you lacked in your childhood, im figuring this shit out"
"Definitely didn't lack Anal in my childhood but okay"

Malcolm X on White Liberals

There's a long quote that I've seen attributed to Malcolm X (Malik Shabazz) which I've been unable to find a source for. The closest I've found is a mid-2020 claim that it was from early 1963 (incidentally the page also quote mines Martin Luther King Jr to make it sound like he supported rioting)

The white liberal is the worst enemy to America, and the worst enemy to the black man. Let me explain what I mean by the white liberal.

In America there is no such thing as Democrat or Republican anymore. In America you have liberals and conservatives. The only people living in the past who think in terms of I’m a Democrat or Republican, is the American Negro. He’s the one that runs around bragging about party affiliation. He’s the one that sticks to the Democrat or sticks to the Republican.

But white people are divided into two groups, liberals and conservative. The Democrats who are conservative vote with the Republicans who are conservative. The Democrats who are liberal vote with the Republicans that are liberal. The white liberal aren’t white people who are for independence, who are moral and ethical in their thinking. They are just a faction of white people that are jockeying for power.

The same as the white conservative is a faction of white people that are jockeying for power. They are fighting each other for power and prestige, and the one that is the football in the game is the Negro, 20 million black people. A political football, a political pawn, an economic football, and economic pawn. A social football, a social pawn.

The liberal elements of whites are those who have perfected the art of selling themselves to the Negro as a friend of the Negro. Getting sympathy of the Negro, getting the allegiance of the Negro, and getting the mind of the Negro. Then the Negro sides with the white liberal, and the white liberal use the Negro against the white conservative. So that anything that the Negro does is never for his own good, never for his own advancement, never for his own progress, he’s only a pawn in the hands of the white liberal.

The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man that runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros, and calling himself a liberal, and it is following these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked, or deceived by the white liberal then Negros would get together and solve our own problems.

I only cite these things to show you that in America the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white man. The only way that our problem will be solved is when the black man wakes up, clean himself up, stand on his own feet and stop begging the white man, and take immediate steps to do for ourselves the things that we have been waiting on the white man to do for us. Once we do for self then we will be able to solve our own problems.

The white conservatives aren't friends of the Negro either, but they at least don't try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox. One is the wolf, the other is a fox. No matter what, they’ll both eat you."

One is tempted to say that it's just made up, but in researching its origins, I stumbled across a collection of his speeches, debates & interviews from 1960-1965 and the above looks like a creative writing exercise which expressed his views by paraphrasing & condensing things he actually said.

Here are the actual quotes that the above is inspired by (some of the repetitive content has been cut):

Harlem Freedom Rally (1960) 

We won’t follow any leader today who comes on the basis of political party. Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the same people who have abused our rights, and who have deceived us with false promises every time an election rolls around

Open Mind Roundtable (October 15, 1961) 

Most of your white liberals who profess to love Negroes and who profess to be pushing for this integration thing, they themselves live as a rule in lily- white neighborhoods and sometimes they’re the first ones to put the FOR SALE sign on their door when a Negro who has fallen for this integration thing moves into their neighborhood. I think that it’s very hypocritical today for me as a black man and the white man to sit down with each other and profess that there is a great deal of love between us. I have to look at the white man as the son of the man who kidnapped my people and brought them here and enslaved them and he has to look at me as someone to whom he has done wrong. Always his guilt complex will have him on guard around me...

No, there’s no such thing as a sincere white liberal— listen I’m giving you my answer. You can hiss all night, that’s what the snake did in the Garden of Eden. Usually you’ll find, sir, that in any integrated group that the so-called Negro has, if you examine its composition, where the whites are concerned, they end up leading it, they end up ruling it, they end up controlling it.

Twenty Million Black People in a Political, Economic, and Mental Prison (January 23, 1963)

So, when these so-called Negroes who want integration try and force themselves into the white society, which doesn’t solve the problem—the Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that that type of Negro is the one that creates the problem. And the type of white person who perpetuates the problem is the one who poses as a liberal and pretends that the Negro should be integrated, as long as he integrates someone else’s neighborhood. But all these whites that you see running around here talking about how liberal they are, and we believe everybody should have what they want and go where they want and do what they want, as soon as a Negro moves into that white liberal’s neighborhood, that white liberal is—well he moves out faster than the white bigot from Mississippi, Alabama, and from someplace else.

So we won’t solve the problem listening to that Uncle Tom Negro, and the problem won’t be solved listening to the so-called white liberal. The only time the problem is going to be solved is when a Black man can sit down like a Black man and a white man can sit down like a white man. And make no excuses whatsoever with each other in discussing the problem.

Alex Haley Interviews Malcolm X (May, 1963)

A man who tosses worms in the river isn’t necessarily a friend of the fish. All the fish who take him for a friend, who think the worm’s got no hook in it, usually end up in the frying pan. All these things dangled before us by the white liberal posing as a friend and benefactor have turned out to be nothing but bait to make us think we’re making progress. The Supreme Court decision has never been enforced. Desegregation has never taken place. The promises have never been fulfilled. We have received only tokens, substitutes, trickery and deceit.

The Old Negro and the New Negro (September, 1963)

Malcolm X: No, the South is no different from the North. Let me tell you the only difference. The white man in the South is a wolf. You know where he stands. When he opens his mouth and you see his teeth he looks vicious. Well, the only difference between the white man in the South and the white man in the North is that one is a wolf and this one is a fox. The fox will lynch you and you won’t even know you have been lynched. The fox will Jim Crow you and you don’t even know you’re Jim Crowed. And this is the basic difference between the southern white man and the northern white man.

Moderator: In other words, the northern white man is foxier than the southern white man.

Malcolm X: He is foxy. When he opens his mouth  and shows you his teeth you think he is smiling and when you look at a fox you think a fox is smiling, but actually the objective of the fox and the wolf is the same. They want to exploit you, they want to take advantage of you. Both are canine, both are dogs—there is no difference. Their methods might differ, but their objective is the same, and the southern white man and the northern white man are in the same category.

UC Berkeley (October 11, 1963)

We see masses of Black people who are thoroughly fed up with the deceit of the so-called white liberals, or the white so-called liberals. White liberals who have posed as our friends, white liberals who have been eager to point out what the white man in the South is doing to our people there, while they themselves are doing the same thing to us here in the North.

They have been making a great fuss over the South only to blind us to what is happening here in the North. And now that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has opened the eyes of America’s 20 million Blacks, we can easily see that this white fox here in the North is even more cruel and more vicious than the white wolf in the South. The southern wolves always let you know where you stand. But these northern foxes pose as white liberals. They pose as your friend, as your benefactor, as your employer, as your landlord, as your neighborhood merchant, as your lawyer. They use integration for infiltration. They infiltrate all your organizations, and in this manner, by joining you, they strangle your militant efforts toward true freedom...

The worst housing conditions in America always exist in the so-called Negro community. Yet the white liberals, who own these run-down houses, force us to pay the highest rent... 

The real criminal is the white liberal, the political hypocrite. And it is these legal crooks who pose as our friends, force us into a life of crime, and then use us to spread the white man’s evil vices in our community among our own people...

When you tried to integrate the white community in search of better housing, the whites there fled to the suburbs. And the community that you thought would be integrated soon deteriorated into another all- Black slum. What happened to the liberal whites? Why did they flee? We thought that they were supposed to be our friends. And why did the neighborhood deteriorate only after our people moved in?

It is the tricky real estate agents posing as white liberal friends who encourage our people to force their way into white communities, and then they themselves sell these integrated houses at such high prices that our people again are forced to take in roomers to offset the high house notes. This creates in the new area the same overcrowded conditions, and the new community soon deteriorates into the same slum conditions from which we thought we had escaped. The only one who has benefited is the white real estate agent who poses as our friend, as a liberal, and who sells us the house in a community destined by his own greedy schemes to become nothing but a high-priced slum area... 

Can the whites vacate their jobs like they did their homes and their schools and move to the suburbs and create more jobs? No. Not without violence and bloodshed. The same white liberals who used to praise our people for their patient nonviolent approach have now become openly impatient and violent themselves in defense of their own jobs. Not only in the South but also in the North. Even here in the Bay Area...

Whenever you become fed up in this country with the white man’s brutality and you get set to take matters in your own hands in order to defend yourself and your people, the same government—and again I repeat, especially that Catholic administration in Washington, D.C.—tries to pacify our people with deceitful promises of tricky civil rights legislation that is never designed to be a true solution to our problem. Civil rights legislation will never solve our problems. The white liberals are nothing but political hypocrites who use our people as political footballs only to get bills passed that will increase their own power.

The present proposed civil rights legislation will give the present administration dictatorial powers and make America a legal police state, but still won’t solve the race problem. The present administration is only using civil rights as a political football to gain more legislation and power for itself. Our people are being used as pawns in the game of power politics by political hypocrites. They don’t want our people to listen to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad because they know he will make them—make us see them as they really are...

Question: Sir, you seem to interchange the term white liberal with hypocritical politician. I don’t believe this is true. I don’t believe that our white liberals are in office. They are, by the way, investigating—

Moderator: Do you have a question please?

Question: I just wondered why you interchanged these terms when they’re so evidently not interchangeable.

Malcolm X: Historically in America, the white liberal has been the one always supposedly who has the solution to the race problem. An example: the leading white liberal in American history was supposed to be Abraham Lincoln. He’s the one who has been dangled in front of our people as a God who brought us out of slavery into the promised land of freedom. Martin Luther King last year was begging President Kennedy to issue another Emancipation Proclamation. If the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln was authentic and produced the results that it was supposed to and if it had been sincere, it would have gotten results. Then Martin Luther King wouldn’t have to be begging for another proclamation of emancipation today.

And other times—the white liberals supposedly fought the Civil War to free the slaves, and our people are still slaves, still begging for freedom. Some more white liberals came along with the so-called Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and other amendments to the Constitution supposedly to solve our problem. The Constitution has been amended and the problem is still here. Nine white liberals on the Supreme Court bench came up with a desegregation decision in 1954 supposedly to desegregate the schools, and the schools haven’t been desegregated yet. Kennedy ran on a platform as a white liberal three years ago and said all he had to do was take out his fountain pen and put his name on some paper and our problem would be solved, and it was three years in office before he found where his fountain pen was, and the problem isn’t solved yet.

Columbia University (November 20, 1963)

Malcolm X: Most politicians don’t want to wake Negroes up. They want Negroes to register and stay asleep, so they can the Negro vote to their particular wagon. But you never hear any of the Negro leaders talking about waking the Negro up, make him intellectually and politically mature. They just say, “Get him to register.”And if he registers in the mental condition that he is now, any politician can come along and use him

So Mr. Muhammad says, “Wake up.” That is, “Think for yourself and then do whatever is good for yourself.” So the three candidates who are front running—I forget their names, but whoever they are it doesn’t make any difference to me. I would list them as foxes and wolves. Goldwater is a wolf. He lets you know where he stands. He doesn’t like Negroes. At least all of his pronouncements and behavior give Negroes the impression that he’s very vicious and dangerous, a wolf- type character. And as to the others...which one was it? 

Rockefeller.

Malcolm X: A fox. Foxes and wolves usually are of the same breed. They belong to the same family—I think it’s called canine. And the difference is that the wolf when he shows you his teeth, you know that he’s your enemy; and the fox, when he shows you his teeth, he appears to be smiling. But no matter which of them you go with, you end up in the dog house. And Negroes in New York State should probably be well acquainted with this because they have no more freedom, justice and equality here than they have anywhere else. The same thing is practiced in New York State as is practiced in Arizona and Mississippi. Only in New York it’s done in a more subtle manner. It’s done with a smile. It’s done in a friendly way. But all of the demonstrations that have been taking place here in New York City I think will well bear out what I’m saying. I make no distinction between a fox and a wolf other than distinction. One is a fox and the other is a wolf.

Question: How would you classify President Kennedy?

Malcolm X: Same. A fox. John F. That “F” stands for fox. He’s undoubtedly more foxier than any of the others because any time a man can become President and be in office three years and do as little for Negroes as he has done despite the fact that Negroes went for him 80% and he can still maintain the friendly image in the mind of Negroes, I’ll have to say he s the foxiest of the foxy.

Question: Out of these three candidates, whom would you vote for next year?

Malcolm X: I don’t think that if I was cornered by any fox or a wolf, that I would have to take a choice between either one. I don’t see any choice between a fox or a wolf. A fox is a fox and a wolf is a wolf—to me. Neither one is the lesser of two evils. Both of them are evil. And Negroes, when they become politically mature, I think will realize that you don’t have to throw the bullets out of your gun just because you have a gun. Likewise you should wait until you have a target and bring that target down. I think when Negroes become really mature, they won’t vote just because they can vote. Sometimes they’ll abstain. Ofttimes in a position (of abstaining?) is as effective in its results as an actual vote, as is proved in the UN. You have those who say “yes,” those who say “no,” and those who abstain. And those who abstain have just as much weight. And probably the most intelligent thing Negroes could do at this juncture would be to abstain and withhold their vote completely and make both the ox and the wolf fight it out among themselves...

You’ll notice that whenever Negroes attempt to set up an all-Negro anything, the Negro leaders of national stature knock it. Because, you see, Negroes of national stature aren’t really leaders of the Negro community, and they don’t go along with anything that’s really designed to solve the problem for the Negro community. They’re controlled their salaries are paid by what you call white liberals who are the most dangerous things in America, these things who call themselves white liberals. And so you’ll never find one of these nationally recognized Negroes going along with anything that’s all Negro or anything that’s all black because their own position stems from their ability to draw a paycheck, and they don’t feel that they can really draw a paycheck in any society that’s all black. They’re more interested in solving their own personal, individual problem than they are the masses of black people.

God’s Judgement of White America (December 4, 1963)

In this deceitful American game of power politics, the Negroes (i.e., the race problem, the integration and civil rights issues) are nothing but tools, used by one group of whites called Liberals against another group of whites called Conservatives, either to get into power or to remain in power. Among whites here in America, the political teams are no longer divided into Democrats and Republicans. The whites who are now struggling for control of the American political throne are divided into “liberal” and “conservative” camps. The white liberals from both parties cross party lines to work together toward the same goal, and white conservatives from both parties do likewise.

The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political “football game” that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives.

Politically the American Negro is nothing but a football and the white liberals control this mentally dead ball through tricks of tokenism: false promises of integration and civil rights. In this profitable game of deceiving and exploiting the political politician of the American Negro, those white liberals have the willing cooperation of the Negro civil rights leaders. These “leaders” sell out our people for just a few crumbs of token recognition and token gains. These “leaders” are satisfied with token victories and token progress because they themselves are nothing but token leaders...

Think how the late President himself got into office by only scant margin which was “donated” to him by Negro voters, and think how many governors and other white politicians hold their seats (some by less than five thousand votes). Only then can you understand the importance of these white liberals place on their control of the Negro vote! The white liberals hate the Honorable Elijah Muhammad because they know their present position in the power structure stems form their ability to deceive and to exploit the Negro, politically as well as economically...

Once the Negro learns to think for himself, he will no longer allow the white liberal to use him as a helpless football in the white man’s crooked game of “power politics.”

Let us examine briefly some of the tricky strategy used by white liberals to harness and exploit the political energies of the Negro. The crooked politicians in Washington, D.C., purposely make a big noise over the proposed civil rights legislation. By blowing up the civil rights issue they skillfully add false importance to the Negro civil rights “leaders.” Once the image of these Negro civil rights “leaders” has been blown up way beyond its proper proportion, these same Negro civil rights “leaders” are then used by white liberals to influence and control the Negro voters, all for the benefit of the white politicians who pose as liberals, who pose as friends of the Negro.

The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.

The job of the Negro civil rights leader is to make the Negro forget that the wolf and the fox both belong to the (same) family. Both are canines; and no matter which one of them the Negro places his trust in, he never ends up in the White House, but always in the dog house.

The white liberals control the Negro and the Negro vote by controlling the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as they control the Negro civil rights leaders, they can also control and contain the Negro’s struggle, and they can control the Negro’s so-called revolt. The Negro “revolution” is controlled by these foxy white liberals, by the government itself. But the black revolution is controlled only by God.

Harvard University (March 18, 1964)

Democrats, now after they’ve been in the White House awhile, use an alibi for not having kept their promise to the Negroes who voted for them. They say, “Well, we can’t get this passed or we can’t get that passed.” The present make-up of the Congress is 257 Democrats and only 177 Republicans. Now how can a party of Democrats that received practically the full support of the so-called Negroes of this country and control nearly two-thirds of the seats in Congress give the Negro an excuse for not getting some kind of legislation passed to solve the Negro problem? Where the senators are concerned, there are 67 Democrats and only 33 Republicans; yet these Democrats are going to try to pass the buck to the Republicans after the Negro has put the Democrats in office. Now I’m not siding with either Democrats or Republicans. I’m just pointing out the deceit on the part of both when it comes to dealing with the Negro. Although the Negro vote put the Democratic Party where it is, the Democratic Party gives the Negro nothing

Louis Lomax Interviews Malcolm X (April 3, 1964)

Lomax: Do you deny that Negroes are now getting the protection of the Federal Government; after all, both the President and the Attorney General have come to our aid.

Malcolm X: You never will get protection from the Federal Government. Just like King is asking Kennedy to go to Alabama to stand in a doorway, to put his body in a doorway. That’s like asking the fox to protect you from the wolf! The masses of black people can see this, and it is only the Negro leadership, the bourgeois, hand- picked, handful of Negroes who think that they’re going to get some kind of respect, recognition, or protection from the Government. The Government is responsible for what is happening to black people in this country. The President has power. You notice he didn’t send any troops into Birmingham to protect the Negroes when the dogs were biting the Negroes. The only time he sent troops into Birmingham was when the Negroes erupted, and then the President sent the troops in there, not to protect the Negroes, but to protect them white people down there from those erupting Negroes.

The Ballot or the Bullet (April 3, 1964)

When you take your case to Washington, D.C., you’re taking it to the criminal who’s responsible; it’s like running from the wolf to the fox. They’re all in cahoots together.

The Ballot or the Bullet (April 12, 1964)

Up here, in the North you have the same thing. The Democratic party don’t do it. They don’t do it that way. They got a think that they call gerrymandering. They maneuver you out of power. Even though you vote, they fix it so you’re voting for nobody; they’ve got you going and coming. In the South, they’re outright political wolves. In the North, they’re political foxes. A fox and a wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family. Now you take your choice. You going to choose a Northern dog or a Southern dog? Because either dog you choose I guarantee you you’ll still be in the dog house. This is why I say it’s the ballot or the bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.

OAAU Founding Rally (June 28, 1964)

In essence what it is saying is instead of you and me running around here seeking allies in our struggle for freedom in the Irish neighborhood or the Jewish neighborhood or the Italian neighborhood, we need to seek some allies among people who look something like we do. It’s time now for you and me to stop running away from the wolf right into the arms of the fox, looking for some kind of help. That’s a drag.

Speech to Civil Rights Workers from Mississippi (Jan. 1, 1965)

Plus you got Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert Humphrey, who professes to drool at the mouth over Negroes, to let you know where they stand before January 4. 23

On Afro-American History (January 24, 1965)

You never will get the solution from any white liberal. Let you and I sit down and discuss the problem, come up with what we feel the solution will be; and then if they want to help it, then let them help in their way, in a way that they can help. But don’t let them come and tell us how we should do to solve our problem. Those days are over, I can’t see that at all. If they want to help in their way, a way that they can help, good; but don’t come and join us and try and sit down and tell us how to solve our problem. They can’t do it, and they won’t. That’s like asking the fox to help you solve the problem confronting you and the wolf. He’ll tell you how to solve it all right, but I’ll guarantee you, you’ll have a worse problem afterwards—a foxy problem. He’ll give you a solution that will put you right in his clutches; and this is what the white liberal does.

Aside: he addressed his enemies a lot

Links - 25th January 2024

Americans Now Think a 40-Hour Work Week Is "Part Time" - "Americans consider a 40-hour work week as "part time" in most professional jobs and as a sign of a stagnant career, according to a recent study by the Center for American Progress.  The financial reward for working longer hours has increased substantially in the past 30 years, especially for professional men... 37 percent of professional men work 50 hours a week or more"
If you don't work 100 hours a week, you're lazy and deserve to starve

To get adopted : therewasanattempt
Meme - "I went to the pet store to pick out a new cat... then this happened *cat pushing other cat down so only it will be visible (and presumably adopted)*"

Movie Review: What Ridley Scott's 'Napoleon' Gets Wrong About War - "Scott’s film stands in a long line of movies, novels, and even history books that have given the world an entirely wrong view of how wars are fought—and even more importantly, how they are won. And that matters, because the mythical idea of war embedded in Napoleon and so many other works has become so widespread in our culture and discourse that it ends up informing actual decisions about actual wars.  Let’s call it the decisive battle myth... in popular culture in the English-speaking world, the myth can be traced back to the 1851 publication of The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo, which helped kickstart an entire genre of works focusing on battles supposed to have singlehandedly changed the course of history... Wars between major powers are not decided by great battles but by attrition of soldiers and materiel, which in turn is determined by such things as force size, logistics, production, and technology. Battles, large and small, are important only to the extent to which they accelerate attrition and wear down the other side. Yet the myth of the decisive battle—the idea that an adversary can be defeated in one big and bloody but short engagement—remains powerful. It’s also dangerous, because it affects not only ordinary moviegoers but military and political leaders as well. In other words, the very people deciding whether to start and how to fight a war... The focus on decisive battles orchestrated by a brilliant military leader such as Napoleon has been poisoning Western military thinking for centuries by suggesting that great power wars can be short affairs. The idea that an adversary can be decisively beaten in just one or a few engagements has incentivized political and military gambling...   That Napoleon is only a movie doesn’t make it better. There are documented cases of films influencing a policymaker’s decisions to go to war. In 1970, for example, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon repeatedly watched the film Patton during the decision-making process to expand the Vietnam War into Cambodia, taking inspiration from the movie general’s willpower and single-minded belief in U.S. military power. One academic study found that popular culture, including fictional films, can frame the way we think about a multitude of issues, and there is no reason to believe that military officers and policymakers are exempt from these effects. Movies can help prevent wars, too. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was inspired by the television film The Day After and Tom Clancy’s novel Red Storm Rising to push for nuclear arms control. But if decision-makers and military leaders are prone to fighting the wars of their imagination, then a popular culture that reinforces the idea that wars can be short and decisive may incentivize willingness to look for a quick military solution to a political problem. There is much more in Napoleon that made me cringe as a military analyst. What you see on the screen has absolutely nothing to do with warfare in the age of Napoleon—as a matter of fact, the clouds of gunpowder from the era’s muzzle-loaded muskets meant you would not be able to see very much on a Napoleonic battlefield to begin with. The battle scenes are a Hollywood mishmash of medieval melees, meaningless cannonades, and World War I-style infantry advances... Napoleon’s military genius was not just about individual heroism or skilled battle tactics, but more importantly his vision for structural reforms. Napoleon helped institutionalize the corps system, dividing up large armies into smaller ones as a way to enable more effective command and control, as well as greater speed and range. Key to this new corps system were Napoleon’s marshals, distinguished military officers who sometimes remained undefeated in battle and whose deaths Napoleon mourned deeply. It was the marshals and other officers to whom Napoleon delegated authority; they proved to be a major asset contributing to his victories. In the film, these colorful independent actors are relegated to the role of footmen."
In World War II, the Germans managed to knock France out pretty quickly though

'War on the Ballot' Review: How Elections Influence U.S. Wartime Decisions - "In War on the Ballot, Payne provides a systematic assessment of the intertwined nature of elections and foreign-policy making over the course of a presidency. He outlines five ways that U.S. elections can affect presidential wartime decision-making: delay (postponing military action until an election takes place); dampening (watering down good strategic action until the vote); spur (accelerating military activity to appear tough on defense ahead of an election); hangover (being swayed to break or fulfill campaign pledges on war based on electoral results) and spoiler (when elections interfere with or disrupt bargaining strategies)... Does democracy produce better or worse results when it comes to war overseas?  Although Payne does not have a clear-cut answer, his book points to a long history in which presidential concern about elections has resulted in “suboptimal” foreign-policy decisions—especially when it comes to asymmetric warfare. “[P]owerful democracies are peculiarly bad at fighting small wars,” he writes. “U.S. participation in these ‘limited’ conflicts [such as Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq] has been characterized by long, protracted struggles that sap morale and ultimately result in a draw at best, if not outright defeat.”  It’s a grim conclusion—made more dispiriting by the fact that Payne does not really offer any compelling solutions to the serious problems he identifies."

Do Italians Use Heavy Cream in Pasta? Pasta La Vista, Cream! - Why Italians - "In Italy, “panna da cucina” (cooking cream) is commonly used for pasta sauces, resembling the lightness of the U.S.’s half-and-half. For dishes like “pasta alla panna,” Italians prefer this cooking cream to get a creamy texture without overwhelming richness.  But the answer isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. The use of heavy whipping cream in Italy, especially in pasta sauces, is a subject of particular debate.
Cream’s Role in Italian Pasta: While heavy cream was a staple in 1980s Italian pasta dishes, its popularity has since waned due to its overpowering nature.
Modern Critique: The heavy-handed use of cream in past decades led to its decline in contemporary Italian cuisine as it tends to mask other flavors.
Iconic Creamy Dishes vs. No-Cream Zones: Dishes like pasta with ham and cream still celebrate heavy cream. However, recipes like spaghetti carbonara traditionally exclude it, and adding cream is a culinary faux pas.
In the 1980s, adding heavy cream to various pasta dishes was all the rage in Italy. You might remember classics like tortellini cream with ham or the now-hard-to-find penne with heavy cream and vodka. Such dishes made heavy cream a staple in many Italian kitchens. However, times have changed. Many now view cream as merely a way to mask or blend flavors—definitely not ideal when you want to highlight simple, delicate ingredients in a dish. This shift in perspective means that while it was almost a given to find cream-based pasta dishes in restaurants during the 1980s, it’s far less common now.  That’s not to say heavy cream has vanished from Italian pasta dishes altogether. While its presence isn’t as dominant as before, certain recipes still call for this rich ingredient. In essence, while heavy cream has had its moments in Italian pasta dishes, especially during past decades, its role has somewhat diminished. Like any culinary tradition, Italian cuisine evolves, and the use of ingredients like cream in pasta is a testament to its ever-changing nature... Here are the best-known heavy cream-based pasta recipes in Italy: Pasta panna e prosciutto, Pasta panna e gamberi, Tortellini panna e prosciutto, Penne pasta with speck and cream, Pasta with pumpkin and cream, Penne pasta with vodka and cream, Penne al baffo, Pasta gorgonzola cream and walnuts"
I saw people insisting cream in Italian pasta sauce was a sign of inauthenticity

Pasta alla Boscaiola Recipe - "Pasta alla Boscaiola (“woodsman-style pasta”) features a rich blend of mushrooms and bacon tossed with pasta in a silky garlic-herb tomato cream sauce. It’s earthy, smoky, creamy and unbelievably delicious."

In Democracies, Free Speech Is on the Decline - "The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) exemplifies this trend. Following Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the European Commission’s cyber sheriff Thierry Breton sent a flurry of not-so-subtle letters to tech companies such as Meta, Google, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter), inquiring about responses to unspecified hate speech, “terrorist content,” and “disinformation,” threatening significant fines for noncompliance. Breton’s aggressive policing has sparked accusations of overreach and violation of international human rights standards. Despite these developments, many democracies see the DSA as a global blueprint for online regulation and Chile, Costa Rica, and Taiwan are on course to adopt bills inspired by the European prototype...  Laws against hatred, offense, and insults have also been significantly expanded in many democracies. In England, a woman was pursued and interviewed by police for holding a placard satirically depicting the British prime minister and home secretary as coconuts—a Black, liberal city councilor was previously convicted of racial harassment for using the term. In Ireland, a new hate speech bill is set to criminalize the “material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics… with a view to the material being communicated to the public or a section of the public, whether by himself or herself or another person”. This broad definition and application could criminalize memes or gifs downloaded on mobile phones or laptops”.  And the Danish government is reintroducing the crime of blasphemy, virtually unenforced since 1946, outlawing the “improper treatment” of religious texts. Artistic freedom is not immune either, as seen in South Korea, where the National Assembly’s secretariat canceled an exhibition in the parliament building lobby due to its unflattering portrayal of the country’s president.   As documented in a new report by the Future of Free Speech Project, these dramatic erosions of freedom of expression in democracies are not novel or isolated events. They are part of a broader and global free-speech recession that has afflicted open democracies... 78 percent of the developments identified by experts in the surveyed countries pointed to increased speech restrictions. Except for 2015, every year witnessed a majority of speech-restrictive developments (as opposed to speech-protective developments), most of them laws, with a noticeable surge in 2022. National security, national cohesion, and public safety were the most cited reasons for suppressing free expression... German laws against hate speech and offense have been used to investigate individuals for comments critical of politicians, raising concerns about its impact on free political expression... there is growing evidence that free speech is more likely to limit than to fan violent conflict in open democracies. The positive relationship between free speech and social peace seems to hold especially true when it comes to terrorism. One reason for this is the so-called safety valve theory, which stipulates that permitting rather than suppressing even extremists’ grievances reduces the likelihood that they resort to violence. Allowing extremists to air their thoughts may also make it easier for law enforcement to identify and keep an eye on those who are most likely to escalate hateful words into violent acts."

Singapore’s Rich Are the Most Unhappy in Asia With Work-Life Balance - Bloomberg - "Singapore’s wealthy are the least satisfied with their current work-life balance when compared with their peers in other parts of Asia Pacific, according to a survey from a Geneva-based private bank.  Only 30% of people with an investable wealth of more than $1 million in Singapore find themselves happy with their work-life balance, the lowest among high net-worth individuals in the region surveyed by Switzerland’s Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA.  Thailand topped the ranking with 72.7%, followed by Australia... The city-state’s cohort of unsatisfied millionaires can be partially explained by the amount of time spent at work, with 26% of Singaporeans responding that they often work overtime, according to report. The nation has the longest working hours per week, 45, across 10 places in Asia Pacific"

Rich Chinese in Singapore Not Investing Big as They Buy Luxury Property, Cars - Bloomberg - "The relative pittance of new business from super wealthy Chinese emigres is becoming a hot-button topic and possible prelude to social discord as lawmakers seek answers from the government. When tax exemption programs were changed to attract family offices, part of the pitch was that the new money would boost investments and spark a wave of employment. Instead, Singapore is mostly seeing higher prices for everything from condos to cars... Even the city’s palate is changing, according to Sing Tien Foo, NUS Business School professor of real estate. A rising number of restaurants offer more hotpot items from Sichuan province and spicy lamb skewers favored in Beijing to cater to the arrivals. Visitors to Chef China Hua Chu restaurant are welcomed by a black-visored astronaut sporting a Chinese flag... One family office executive said their firm aims to meet the higher local spending requirements by booking their fund purchases with the locally-licensed arm of a Swiss bank rather than the overseas unit. Such a shift may boost assets – the industry reached S$5.4 trillion in 2021 — but not create more jobs... While philanthropy would be another way of alleviating resentment among Singaporeans, some local charities say they’ve had limited support from the wave of rich Chinese migrants... “One of our national issues is really social cohesion, which is the flip side of social inequality,” said Kwee, whose family manages hotels and commercial properties across the region. “The suspicion of and resentment of foreigners coming here to just use Singapore leaves a bitter taste in people’s mouths because of conspicuous consumption.”"
From April 2023

The war on vaping is bad for our health - "Australia’s moral panic around vaping began a few years ahead of the UK’s, but came about for the very same reason – a spike in youth vaping. The government Down Under implemented its own strict packaging laws and flavour bans, and then went even further by outlawing recreational vaping altogether (Aussies can now only buy e-cigarettes in pharmacies with a prescription).  The result? While smoking rates have continued to plummet in the UK and US, as smokers switch to vaping, the decline has slowed to a crawl in Australia. At the same time, a thriving black market for e-cigarettes has emerged – selling dangerous, unregulated vaping products to people of any age... Part of the reason e-cigarettes have been so successful in driving down smoking is that they are attractive products. Not only is vaping healthier – it is also cheaper and offers a wider selection of flavours.  If the government stigmatises vaping too much, it will no longer be seen as a desirable alternative to smoking. After all, if it really wants to curb youth smoking rates, then it should think twice about cracking down on the healthier alternative.  Starting a war on vaping is the last thing we need."

Meme - Condoms: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY
18: 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, 22:00
30: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
40: April, July, October, December
50: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017"

Leader in Richmond Democrat Party group posted bomb threat against Andy Ngo Virginia talk - "An official member of the Democrat Party in Richmond, Virginia, posted a bomb threat against journalist Andy Ngo... Jimmie Lee Jarvis, the owner of Mission Control Research and Consulting in Richmond, posted the bomb threat on X ahead of Ngo's speaking event organized by The Virginia Council and Common Sense Society at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Virginia.  The post included an image of dynamite with Jarvis writing in the description box, "On my way to the Andy Ngo event!"... Jimmie Lee Jarvis is listed as an official member of the Richmond City Democratic Committee.  Jarvis' threat was one of many that came from radical leftists ahead of Ngo's speaking event, which resulted in two venues pulling out at the last minute... Antifa and far-left activists utilized social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram to encourage fellow "comrades" to harass the venues with threats of violence in multiple calls-to-action.  An account on X with the username @DSTRadicals provided a script for people to say when they call the front desk, which falsely claims that Ngo is a "homophobic neo-nazi" and that his supporters will show up "armed" with weapons...   A flyer posted to social media by Robyn Proffer, who is behind the "Nonbinarymachinelanguage" account on Instagram and "enbyMachine" on X, labeled Ngo as among the "fascists" and strongly asserted that his presence is not welcomed in Virginia.  "Fascists not welcome in RVA. Andy Ngo, we said it and we mean it. Stay out of our city," the flyer read, which features a photo of a violent assault carried out against Ngo in Portland in 2019 by members of Rose City Antifa.  Proffer was arrested in Richmond in 2020 amid the destructive BLM riots that spread across the country and Ngo reported on his arrest."
Why is the left so threatened by free speech?

The Own and Social Effects of an Unexpected Income Shock: Evidence from the Dutch Postcode Lottery - "In the Dutch Postcode Lottery a postal code (19 households on average) is randomly selected weekly, and prizes--consisting of cash and a new BMW--are awarded to lottery participants living in that postal code. On average, this generates a temporary, unexpected income shock equal to about eight months of income for about one third of the households in a typical winning code, while leaving the incomes of nonwinning, neighboring households unaffected. We study the responses of consumption and reported happiness of both winners and nonwinners to these shocks. Consistent with simple models of in-kind transfers, the overwhelming majority of households who won a BMW convert it into cash. With the exception of food away from home, the only 'own' effects of cash winnings we detect are on durables expenditures and car consumption; these results support a version of the permanent income hypothesis in which durable spending is used to smooth consumption. We detect social effects of neighbors' winnings on two types of consumption: cars and exterior home renovations. Six months after the fact, winning the lottery does not make households happier, nor do neighbors' winnings reduce happiness."

Does winning the lottery ruin the lives of winners? - "Why do we tend to have this belief? Three sources are primarily to blame. First, the media reports on stories of ruined lottery winners... Next, our mistaken beliefs about lottery winners come from a commonly cited statistic that 70% of lottery winners end up bankrupt within a few years of winning. This bankruptcy statistic has been repeated so often that it is accepted as fact (I had heard it years ago and had taken it as gospel). But it’s not a fact. The 70% statistic originates from a 2001 symposium of experts on the impact of financial windfalls convened by the National Endowment on Financial Education (NEFE). One of the experts mentioned the 70% statistic, which was picked up by the media and spread like wildfire (again, the notion of bankrupt jackpot winners is oddly satisfying).  In 2018, the NEFE attempted to quell the misinformation. It issued a statement that said the 70% statistic “is not backed by research from NEFE, nor can it be confirmed . . . frequent reporting—without validation from the NEFE—has allowed this ‘stat’ to survive online in perpetuity.” So, apparently, the expert just made it up."
This American mocked the study of Swedish winners having higher life satisfaction, claiming that the amounts (of up to $700,000) were comparable to scratch-offs in the US (which I found were up to $150) so the study was valid. Then when I posted the source about 70% of lottery winners going bankrupt being wrong, claimed I needed to prove that they did not go bankrupt instead of him proving they did
The interpretation in the article of the 1978 paper on accident victims and lottery winners is wrong, though

Lottery winners: The myth and reality -"Myth: Many lottery winners become spendthrifts and lose their money...The author has identified less than 10 such cases out of 900 subjects in 15 years...
Myth: Lottery winners are millionaires.
Lottery winners get their money in annual installments... This often leaves a so-called million dollar winner with less than $35,000 a year"
This study looked at US winners with prizes of up to $2 million and over

Cambridge teacher sent nude photos, had sex with female student: Complaint | Toronto Sun - "The alleged encounters left the teenager suffering from “adverse emotional and psychological effects” as a result of the Waterloo District School Board educator’s “conduct from in or about 2014 to in or about 2015”... According to the Notice of Hearing, during the 2013-2014 academic year, Student 1 was a female student at the school  “From in or about February 2014 to in or about June 2014, the Member had inappropriate interactions with Student 1 while she was a student at the School,” the notice said.
Sun haters on reddit were bashing the "misleading headline", claiming that the student wasn't a student when the offences happened so there was nothing wrong. When you hate the non-approved media so much... Of course, if it had been a male teacher, he'd have been slammed for "grooming" even if the sexual activity had happened after graduation

Nicolas_Dream on X - "You only live once - you should try to spend as much time on the computer as possible. After you die, you won't have access to it any more"

With layoffs looming, CBC execs want foreign streaming giants to pay more to support Cancon - "Barbara Williams, the CBC's vice-president of English services, and her French counterpart Dany Meloul said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should push ahead with a plan to force foreign players like Amazon, Apple, Disney and Netflix to pay up to support struggling Canadian content producers... CBC management came in for criticism Tuesday after the company's president and CEO, Catherine Tait, declined to rule out paying management bonuses next year."
When you can't compete, get free money

Growth and investment must be Canada's top priorities - "why Canada is at the bottom of the heap. There are several reasons:
The demographic time bomb... Canada traditionally has been able to attract younger immigrants to make up for the output loss but international markets for skilled labour are increasingly competitive as workers, including ones born in Canada, pick and choose the country they feel offers them the best opportunities.
Indebtedness: With interest rates higher than they have been, indebtedness also hurts economic growth...
Shrinking world trade...
A costly energy transition: The extraordinary cost of building new transportation, heating and industrial energy systems over the next few years won’t realize benefits for decades, if at all.  The highest value-added per working hour in 2022 was earned in non-conventional oil extraction at $997 — more than 16 times the average of all industries ($61) and almost five times more than in mining ($205). Shifting labour out of an activity where value-added is that high means GDP will surely fall. Energy is our largest source of export earnings so any reduction in exports will push the Canadian dollar down. With the federal government hell-bent on stopping new fossil-fuel development, especially of liquified natural gas, we will spend the next couple of decades throwing away wealth that could provide income to Canadians and taxes for governments. Our ideologically driven energy transition will cause us to lag countries like the U.S., Norway and Australia, which continue to develop and export energy while also working on clean technologies.
New technologies: The coming decade does offer the growth-friendly promise of new technologies. AI, continuing digitization and any number of innovations we can’t anticipate will allow us to produce more with the resources we have. On the other hand, adopting new technologies requires investing in new capital. And this is where Canada is weak. Since 2018 Canadian corporate investment has been about 10 per cent of GDP — almost a fifth below the United States and the OECD in general. The OECD says our poor investment performance will cost us 0.4 percentage points in per capita GDP growth every year this decade, more than in any other OECD country... Forget identity politics — growth and investment are now our top priorities."
If you believe in de-growth, this is good

Gwyn Morgan: How will higher immigration fix our health care and housing crises? - "between February 2020 and June 2023 government-sector job growth dwarfed private-sector growth in all 10 provinces, with the number of government jobs increasing by 11.8 per cent, compared to just 3.3 per cent in the private sector. The number of government bureaucrats increased by a whopping 446,000 over that period... Canadians are suffering and dying on healthcare waitlists while cruelly being forbidden access to private care by federal legislation. And yet the government has reconfirmed an immigration goal of half a million permanent residents, with no lessening of non-resident immigrants, which will add another million immigrants in 2024. It’s hard to know how much worse Canada’s housing shortage and health care crisis will get under these toxic policies. But they most surely will... A nation’s GDP per capita is driven by private-sector investment. A 2022 C.D. Howe Institute report points out that invested capital per worker, which is key to a country’s ability to produce goods and services, “has been weak since 2015,” the year the Trudeau government came to power. “Before 2015, Canadian business had been closing a long-standing gap with the U.S. Since 2015, the gap has become a chasm.” The report’s ominous conclusion: “Having investment per worker much lower in Canada than abroad tells us that businesses see less opportunity in Canada and prefigures weaker earnings and living standards”. The stark reality is that those millions of hopeful immigrants entering Canada will find a country not only unable to provide health care and housing for its citizens, but also experiencing diminishing overall living standards. And a national government that doesn’t seem to care."

Melissa Lantsman on X - "This is most underreported news in Canada today — per capita GDP has declined for 5 consecutive quarters.   It gets worse. The proportion of disposable income devoted to paying debts in an average household is now over 15%. That is the highest level seen since they started measuring this in the early 90s.   Canadians are getting poorer. Poorer than our neighbours in the US and poorer than they were last year.   You hear the heartbreaking stories across the country and this is the data to prove it. 👇  This is the result of higher taxes, bigger deficits and crippling red tape. #cdnpoli"

On fatuous claims of Israeli "Genocide" in Gaza

Captain Allen on X

"Ok, you want to know from a lawyer why the allegation that Israel is committing genocide is false?

Fine.

I prefer to focus on the absurdity of the allegation, especially since it is Hamas that expressly seeks Jewish & Israeli genocide; but it's clear people want this analysis.

Genocide is defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as: (1) the coordinated; (2) planned; and (3) intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.

Let's set aside for a minute the fact that the the #UN Convention regarding #genocide was adopted because of what the #Nazis had done to the #Jews thereby making its invocation here not only absurdly false, but also unforgivably offensive.

That outrageousness aside, we can analyze the elements of the crime of genocide under the present situation in #Gaza.

The requisite mens rea to find a government guilty of genocide is the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group of people.

This intent to commit genocide doesn't magically come into being just because people want to believe it exists. There must be actual proof of criminal intent to destroy a particular group of people.

#SouthAfrica cannot possibly carry its burden of showing Israel "intended or intends to commit genocide"; thus, the allegation fails.  

Just some of the obvious reasons intent to commit genocide could not possibly be shown follow:

- 10/7 & Hamas' words since 10/7 have proven the #terror group would, if it could, continue carrying out massacres until it killed every #Israeli & potentially every #Jew on Earth. Israel, like every other UN member state, has the inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. In this case, Israel's right to self-defense continues until it has done everything "necessary" to to ensure #Hamas can never attack Israeli civilians again because of: (1) the genocidal brutality of the #October7Massacre; (2) Hamas' 35+ years of genocidal warfare against Israel & Jews; & (3) Hamas' express & repeated commitment to repeat massacres like 10/7 "again and again." Therefore, Israel's right to self-defense includes both the right to eliminate the threat from Hamas to its civilians & to restore a sense of security to its civilians.

- The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims 22,000 #Palestinians have died. Even if that number was reliable (it is not), Hamas claims every one of the deaths was a civilian, not a #HamasTerrorist. That is obviously not the case. Israel claims to have killed ~9,000 Hamas terrorists. Even assuming the Hamas numbers were correct, that would mean about 1.45 civilians have been killed for every 1 "combatant" (Hamas terrorist). As horrible as the loss of any civilian life is, it is simply a fact that civilians suffer disproportionately in war & what Israel has done in protecting civilian lives is unprecedented in the history of urban warfare. In fact, according to the UN statistics of global conflict, the average civilian to combatant killed ratio is 9 civilians killed for every 1 combatant killed. This ratio in and of itself makes the allegation of "genocide" a complete absurdity.

- Even assuming the "worst case scenario" numbers above of ~9,000 terrorists killed & ~13,000 civilians killed still does not take into account the cause of those civilian deaths. We know that somewhere between 20%-35% of all Hamas & #Palestinian #Islamic #Jihad missiles misfire & land in Gaza (like the one that landed at a Gaza hospital that Israel was wrongly accused of bombing). So, how many Gaza civilians were killed by misfired rockets from Palestinian terror groups? Suddenly, that already incredible ratio of civilians:combatants in the annals of warfare is improving even further.

- There are at least dozens of videos of Hamas #terrorists firing at #IDF troops while wearing civilian clothing (which is itself a #WarCrime) to blend in with the civilian population. So, how many Gaza "civilians" who were killed were actually just Hamas terrorists wearing #civilian clothing? That civilian:combatant ratio is improving once again.

- We know from video, reconnaissance, audio, interrogations, & eye-witness accounts (including from #Gazans themselves) that Hamas uses both voluntary & involuntary human shields to protect Hamas terrorists & their weapons (each time they do it, that is also a war crime). So, how many Gaza "civilians" who were killed were voluntarily acting as human shields for Hamas? And while Israel has made significant efforts to limit civilians casualties, those involuntary human shields who die are legally dead at the hands of Hamas. Wow, that civilian:combatant ratio is looking beyond amazing now!

- There is video, photo, interrogation, & eye-witness accounts that Hamas uses women & children under 18 in combat roles. Therefore, not every allegedly killed woman or child counts as a "civilian."

- What kind of genocidal army would do what Israel has been doing in engaging in massive warning campaigns before it attacks via hundreds of thousands of phone calls, text messages, leaflets, & via roof knocking? Gazans are actually given so much warning & time to evacuate that the extreme majority of "civilians" who remain in a targeted area are there either because they support Hamas or because they were forced to stay & act as human shields by Hamas. Essentially, not only is Israel obviously not conducting a genocide, it has completely eliminated their own advantage of surprise that would have helped Israel eradicate Hamas much quicker by providing warnings that reach both civilians & Hamas terrorists.

- A large percentage of Palestinian deaths in Gaza have been due to their combined use by Hamas as human shields & by Hamas' refusal to permit Gaza civilians to either to use Hamas tunnels as bomb shelters or to flee via safe corridors provided by the @IDF
 (what kind of genocidal army provides safe corridors for civilians even knowing some Hamas terrorists will manage to escape by blending in with the crowd???). In other words, it is Hamas that is by far the most responsible party for putting #Gazan #civilians in harm's way; and the mere fact that civilians have died is in no way indicative of any deliberate intent on the part of Israel to kill Palestinian civilians - let alone intentionally "destroy" the population, as required to prove genocide.

- A country's intention to destroy a group in whole or in part is typically found in state policy (as it was with the Nazis & as it is with Hamas). However, no such policy in Israel has ever existed. Israel has made clear repeatedly (and its actions, with some examples stated above, show this is more than just words) that its goal is to "operate[] against Hamas & other terrorist groups in Gaza, not against the civilian population ... Israel wishes no harm to civilians & is committed to addressing the humanitarian needs of those suffering ..."

- Simply, the loss of lives in Gaza are reasonably explained by & attributable to Israel's necessary self-defense military goal of eradicating Hamas' ability to make war. The loss of lives in Gaza are not, however, reasonably explained by some claimed genocide on the part of Israel, as there is no actual evidence to support a finding of the type of criminal intent required to prove genocide.

- Israel is a straight-up parliamentary #democracy; thus, it has voices in the Knesset that can be extreme. Those voices, however, are not mainstream; and, more importantly, those voices are not the ones who are responsible for prosecuting the war against Hamas. Therefore, their words (indelicate as they may have been) are irrelevant to a finding of genocide on the part of the government of Israel. The Israeli war cabinet in charge of prosecuting the war to eradicate Hamas consists of only five people: PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, unity coalition member, former Deputy PM, & Minister of Defense Benny Gantz, former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, & Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. Attempting to attribute the words of anyone else, especially in the very fringes of Israel's eclectic democratic government, to try to show proof of government intent to commit genocide fails as a matter of both fact & law. Any comments by the five members of the war cabinet at which any dishonest person may wish to point to try to prove "intent to commit genocide," in reality can only be reasonably interpreted as statements referring to the destruction of the Hamas terrorist regime.

So, what is the takeaway?

It is South Africa's burden to show Israel had/has the intent to carry out a "genocide" of the Palestinian people in Gaza. For the foregoing reasons (among many others - but this is long enough for X), South Africa cannot possibly prove intent to commit genocide.

South Africa's allegations are defamatory & are an attempt to hold the world's only Jewish State to a different standard than every other state in the history of humankind; and, perhaps worse, to try to turn the victims of a genocide into the alleged committers of a genocide.

Were the #ICJ to find intent to commit "genocide" here, then no country on Earth would be permitted to act in self-defense in the event it is attacked - no matter how horrible the attack - if any civilians may be killed in the process.

If that were the case, Hamas & other terrorist organizations would be given carte blanche to attack countries with impunity & then simply hide behind civilians to suddenly become entirely immune from justice. That obviously can never be the law.

#Education #Israel #Palestine...

I agree that the #SouthAfrican application accusing Israel of #genocide is extraordinarily bizarre & your take on it is not at all unreasonable.

It refers to "occupied Palestinian territory" more than 100 times - this obviously makes no sense in a war against Hamas in Gaza (nor would it make sense in the so-called "#WestBank," but I wrote a whole separate two-part post on that - let me know if you'd like links to them).

Similarly, #SouthAfrica mentions "settlers" & "settlements" several dozen times. Again, what? There has not been a settlement of any kind in #Gaza since 2005.

South Africa also disgustingly accuses Israel of #apartheid even though #Jews, #Arabs, & #Israeli citizens of all backgrounds enjoy equal protection under the law, there is no legal segregation or separate legal systems for Jews & Arabs, and Arabs are active in every part of Israeli political, professional, judicial, and social life. In fact, recent polls show a record number of #Arab-Israeli citizens feel "more Israeli" since 10/7 - to the tune of roughly 7 out of every 10. Tell me when that ever happened under apartheid South Africa!

It does seem South Africa is using its application to tell the old #Palestinian fairytale narrative that Israel, as a state in any borders, is illegal & that its very existence is a #WarCrime.

Like I said, it's bizarre & it's also obscene."

 

Related:

Tasha Kheiriddin: If Trudeau really cared about the ICJ, he'd join Israel's side in court - "South Africa’s case against Israel is not about standing up for the Palestinians, but a proxy for the interests of Russia and China. Both nations love the chaos the Israel-Hamas war is sowing for Israel’s allies, namely, the United States. And both countries have South Africa in their pocket. South Africa’s ruling party is indebted to Russian mining interests who have given it millions of dollars. Last year, South Africa participated in joint naval exercises  with China and Russia. Small wonder South Africa has refused to join in international condemnation of either  China  or  Russia  at the United Nations. Due to its history of apartheid, South Africa is the perfect flagbearer for this legal case"

Composition of Israeli defence team at ICJ shows it takes genocide case seriously - "Israel takes this case seriously and appears to be betting that its team can present a convincing case against claims of genocide, helped in no small part by its leading member, Malcolm Shaw KC. Shaw, a British barrister with extensive experience in humanitarian law and a professor at the University of Essex, is a renowned expert on international law, specific territorial disputes, and genocide... This is not the first time Shaw will appear in front of the International Court of Justice, as Shaw also represented the UAE, Serbia, and Cameroon in other cases. He also took cases in front of other international institutions for Malaysia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Germany and Ireland. Shaw’s appointment means Israel chose expertise over showmanship, dashing, for instance, rumours that it could appoint controversial US lawyer and Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz. Beyond the ICJ, Shaw appeared in front of as diverse entities as the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, the High Court of Ireland, the UK Supreme Court, the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal and the High Court of England and international arbitral tribunals. He certainly is a formidable adversary to face in court. Shaw also specifically knows the field in question, having written a book titled Genocide and International Law."

Addendum: On the typical casualty ratio of civilians to combatants

Ninety Per Cent of War-Time Casualties Are Civilians, Speakers Stress, Pressing Security Council to Fulfil Responsibility, Protect Innocent People in Conflicts | UN Press