Funny business

Posted on August 1, 2018 by lawofmarkets

Which funny enough was posted on the same day as this which is as humourless and dreary as anything you might find.: Thanks To Comedy, Nobody Has Laughed Since Trump Became President. Here’s a sample:

Ever since Donald Trump became president, I’ve tried to laugh, but it hasn’t worked. My go-to crack-up mechanisms—“Spaceballs,” the “Night Man” episode of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” that video from The Chive of the guy jumping into the frozen swimming pool that they play in a loop at my gym—just don’t land. Nothing makes me smile anymore. It’s never funny in Philadelphia.

And also this, just now from Instapundit:

BUT OF COURSE: Comics, Reporters Rally to Protect Ocasio Cortez.

But there are still things to laugh at, but only for us:

I never get tired of it just like I never get tired of winning.

AND MORE COMEDY PEWTER: And this one with an Australian at the centre: The Not-So-Great Gadsby: How PC Rage Devoured Stand-Up Comedy.

Then along came Hannah Gadsby. Until the other day I had never heard of her. She is a Tasmanian lesbian, she seems to be about forty, and for the last decade or so she’s enjoyed a decent stand-up career in her homeland and at the occasional international comedy festival. But it’s fair to say that she was relatively unknown to non-Aussie audiences until a few weeks ago, when her special Nanette was put up on Netflix. Now she’s a superstar. Vox says that Nanette is “so meta and so thoughtful about the issues inherent to standup comedy as a genre that it seems to break through [the genre’s] boundaries.” The Australian calls it “the hour of stand-up that has taken the world by storm.”

You can now go to the link and judge for yourself.

An anti-migrant protest with a difference

Posted on August 1, 2018 by lawofmarkets

From Fists fly, and so does a megaphone, as refugee crisis inflames local politics in Toronto area. The city of my birth in the news again, with Markham being an outer suburb. So what’s going on?

At issue was a rumour that Markham was about to agree to house as many as 5,000 asylum seekers in unused buildings, after Toronto asked for help accommodating an overflow.

“Say NO to Mayor Frank!” read several signs in identical red lettering. Others played off the recent shooting rampage in Toronto: “Do Not Let Tragedy Happen In Markham.”

“MARKHAM SAY NO TO ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSERS,” another read. “ILLEGAL FREE RIDER NOT INVITED.”

So let us hear from the protesters.

A woman spoke to the crowd in Mandarin, rhetorically addressing the government as she described the question of Canada’s response to asylum seekers as one primarily of public safety.

“It should not be this way,” she said, seemingly on the verge of angry tears. “You (the government) have to make sure that we’re safe.”

Well good luck with that. But can you spot the difference? As a hint, it’s not Lauren Southern.

Toronto the bad

Posted on July 26, 2018 by lawofmarkets

News from my home town although it does seem ever more remote from the place where I grew up. But this is beyond incompetence:

Detectives in Canada are still seeking a motive for a mass shooting which left three dead – including the gunman – and injured more than a dozen others, as residents of Toronto grapple with the latest in a string of violent incidents to hit Canada’s biggest city in recent months.

Federal officials said on Tuesday that there was no terror link to Sunday’s attack in which the lone gunman opened fire along a bustling avenue in the city, seemingly shooting at random at pedestrians and into shops and restaurants.

Nor is this just out of nowhere. Toronto has had a few of these of late:

Toronto has been rattled by a string of violent incidents this year.

In April, 10 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when a driver in a van ploughed into pedestrians on a city sidewalk. The following month, more than a dozen people were injured after a homemade bomb ripped through an Indian restaurant in May in nearby Mississauga.

The year started with the arrest of alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur, now charged with the deaths of eight men, and the high-profile homicides of billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman.

Gun violence has also tightened its grip on the city. Last month two sisters, ages five and nine, were shot while playing in a park. The two young girls survived, partly thanks to neighbours who used napkins to stem the bleeding. At the start of this month, two men were fatally gunned down in a brazen daytime shooting in the city’s downtown core.

So far this year 26 people have died from gun violence, a 59% increase from the same period last year. The number of shootings has risen 13%, according to police data.

“People now – whether you’re walking on Queen Street, walking on the Danforth, walking on Yonge Street – are going to be looking over their shoulder,” said Louis March, the founder of the Zero Gun Violence Movement in Toronto.

How about a zero robbery movement, or a zero double-parking movement. No one wants to identify the problem, and so neither will I. Here’s the mayor:

On Tuesday, Toronto city council, led by Toronto mayor John Tory, began debating a range of measures aimed at tackling gun violence in the city….

Measures being considered by the city include bolstering mentoring programs, the purchase of 40 new CCTV cameras and a contentious listening technology that claims to be able to detect and report the sound of gunshots to police.

“I’ve said for some time that the city has a gun problem, in that guns are far too readily available to far too many people,” Tory said on Monday.

It’s not too many guns but too many people who want to shoot other people that is the problem.

Southern comfort

Posted on July 21, 2018 by lawofmarkets

And there was Stefan Molyneaux as well. I of course only went along in support of my fellow Canadians, but a fun night was had by all, at least for those inside and among those who were not carted out. You can read about the events of the night here and if you are thinking about going along yourself, you can still book tickets for Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland here.

As for the various disturbances, they were fun moments, but only because they were so efficiently handled by the organisers. You really do put your life on the line to stand up among a conservative audience. And the necessary arrangements to protect those of us going along, nothing went wrong but it is frightening that, as usual, our left is in copycat mode of what is done in the US. Free speech is the last thing on the minds of the protesters who live in the only societies where protests are allowed while trying to change things so that no protest will ever again be permitted.

And whatever may be the issue over the costs, the police did an excellent job outside the venue to clear a path for us who were interested in hearing what others had to say.

And here is Stefan Molyneux’s Melbourne presentation:

Southern hospitality

Posted on July 20, 2018 by lawofmarkets

Brought this over from Catallaxy.

Victorian Police have just announced that they will charge Canadian speaker Lauren Southern a staggering $68,000 after violent thugs threatened to protest her talk in Melbourne.

That’s right: A law-abiding speaker giving a legal speech is being charged because of threats by rabid far-left activists.

Protecting people from violence literally is the core duty of the police (and one VicPolice seem to be failing at consistently). To charge the law-abiding because of the threats made against them makes a complete mockery of our legal system.

These protests are organised by the “Campaign Against Racism and Fascism” (CARF) – an organisation started by members of the radical Socialist Alternative, which previously had members arrested for violently attacking attendees at a speech last year and has already created a “Solidarity And Defence Fund” to defend members arrested for violence.

It doesn’t matter if you agree with Lauren or disagree with her. This goes to the very heart of freedom of speech in Australia. If the police can force someone to pay $68,000 or else be silent, then freedom of speech in Australia is dead.

Make no mistake: The Victorian Police literally want to charge someone $68,000 to exercise the right to freedom of speech because of threats made AGAINST them. If anyone should pay the bill, it should be the protestors who are the once threatening violence.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights state “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

This is the behaviour of tin-pot dictatorships, not a free society like Australia.

HELP STOP THIS OUTRAGE – USE THE CONTACT FORM TO CONTACT THE VICTORIAN POLICE MINISTER TODAY AND DEMAND THESE CHARGES BE DROPPED.

She only said it was “OK” not that it was better

Posted on July 20, 2018 by lawofmarkets

From the CIS in Sydney which underscores how useless these people are in trying to preserve our culture and way of life.

20 JULY 2018 | IDEAS@THECENTRE

It is fair to say that in these politically correct times there is a lack of political leadership around many contentious social issues that many politicians and community leaders hesitate to speak out about.
It is also a truism that politics abhors a vacuum. However, we should be careful not to fill the vacuum with another vacuum.
This thought is prompted by the controversy generated by the visit to Australia by the 23-year-old Canadian alt-right activist Lauren Southern.
Southern — who had already tried to drum up publicity over her initially rejected visa application — pulled another stunt upon arrival in Brisbane by wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘It’s Okay to be White.’
This was followed by Southern — who speaks fluent soundbite — telling the media how pleased she was to be in country committed to “Western culture — something that may not be here for much longer if left-wing Australian politicians continue their pathological worship of multiculturalism.”
If Southern’s heart is in the right place, her arguments certainly aren’t. For many of the things she is saying on western culture and multiculturalism, claims to stand for, and literally wears on her ‘T’, are mutually exclusive.
Yes, ‘hard’ multiculturalism poses a danger to Western culture when migrants from countries with conflicting cultural values migrate and are not encouraged to integrate with the norms and values of their new country.
But, no: the answer to multiculturalism is not to practice a different form of identity politics — a new form of tribalism — by being proud of ‘whiteness’.
What is actually worth defending about Western culture (and is the antidote to identity politics and multiculturalism) is the fundamental principle of respect for the individual — regardless of superficial differences such as those that are literally skin-deep.
If Southern really wants to defend Western culture and all it should truly stand for, she should buy a new T-shirt.
This one should be emblazoned with that famous quote by one of the greatest proponents of the respect for the individual, Dr Martin Luther King: “judge not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

The Non-Feminist Declaration

Posted on July 5, 2018 by lawofmarkets

Sent to me to sign.

We are living in interesting times. Feminist entrenchment in many sectors is yielding toxic fruit – with the “equal pay” vanguard securing equal salaries for women responsible for less work than men in similar positions, increasing censorship and attacks on personal freedoms (of women as well as men), and the #MeToo/anti-harassment movements claiming innocent scalps and even lives. However, awareness of and opposition to Feminism is undoubtedly growing and, with some nurturing, this diverse non-feminist sector could well become an operable political force.

I have worked with a team on constructing ‘The Non-Feminist Declaration’ (included at the bottom of this email) which we hope can unite our disparate sector around a shared goal and assist in the public awareness and opposition raising process.

Our intention is to send it to The Times, as a letter, on Monday 9th July with a number of signatories. If you would like to be included on our list of signatories, please respond to this email with your name (as you would like it displayed), main country of residence and job title (or other descriptor) by Friday 6th July. We are setting up a website as part of this process with a section for ‘Supporting Statements’ which you are also welcome to contribute to, at any point. Please feel free to forward this email to anybody else you think may want to sign the document.

Warm regards,
Elizabeth Hobson

The Non-Feminist Declaration

Feminists attack liberty, justice, equality and meritocracy. They attack men, women, and children, and relations between the sexes.

All feminist narratives have been shown to be demonstrably one or more of the following – baseless conspiracy theories, fantasies, lies, delusions or myths.

In many countries, virtually all institutions have been deeply corrupted by feminists, and by people in positions of power bowing to feminist influence. These include governments, public sectors, media, family courts, education systems, academia, police forces, criminal justice systems, health services, military forces, and business sectors.

Feminists have been responsible for, or have exacerbated, many of the problems facing humanity today. They include disparities in the treatment, opportunities, choices, respect, protections and rights afforded to citizens.

Non-feminist men and women constitute a sizeable majority of the global population. Feminist hegemony therefore has no legitimacy, operating without the consent of the majority of citizens, many of whom suffer egregiously as a result of feminist actions.

Feminists have long cultivated a culture of fear. Non-feminist men and women have been reluctant to publicly challenge feminist narratives and actions. We reject that culture, resolving to speak the truth at all times, and encouraging others to do the same. Individual feminists must be held publicly accountable for their actions.

Recognizing the growth of feminist aggression, we assert our right to exist and thrive without paying any respect to feminists or their ideology. We shall not permit feminists to dictate what we say, how we say it, or how we interact with the world.

Given the extent of feminist entrenchment in institutions, we recognize that we are embarking on a project that may last for decades, but we shall not waver in our determination to roll back feminist influence over state and other institutions.

With this Declaration, we take a public stance in opposition to feminism, and invite others to join us.

The Non-Feminist Revolution starts here.

Regards,
Elizabeth Hobson
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS
(and the women who love them)

Her details:
Email: elizabeth@j4mb.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mike.buchanan.9066
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeBuchanan11
YouTube: https://j4mb.org.uk/youtube/
Skype: facebook:mb1957_1
Justice for Men & Boys
International Conference on Men’s Issues (2018)
International Conference on Men’s Issues (2017)
International Conference on Men’s Issues (2016)
International Conference on Men’s Issues (2014)
Campaign for Merit in Business
Anti-Feminism League
Men Shouldn’t Marry
LPS publishing

You want to see vile, vicious and disgusting, here it is

Posted on July 4, 2018 by lawofmarkets

I am at the moment in the land of the free and the home of the brave – Hungary, that is – and what an extraordinary place it is! The atmosphere of a Renoir painting, with people happily going about their business within one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The repulsive BBC hag, with her vile,vicious and disgusting accusations, demonstrates the sickness on the left which stands for nothing other than nihilism and stupidity. The reality is that a government owes not a thing to the non-citizens of the rest of the world, while its citizens are hoping for nothing other than to be made safe from invaders from foreign cultures who will never assimilate and will ruin for all time the peace and cohesion of the existing polity.

Tikkun olam is a form of self-destructive madness

Posted on June 25, 2018 by lawofmarkets

I’ll start with this as an entry point: Western Self-Loathing: The Disease. Here is the central point:

Pride in the West’s accomplishments was reduced to guilt for the West’s success. And now the guilt has mutated into self-hate. Ceaselessly, we are bombarded with declarations of how evil we are, how our ancestors did terrible wrongs, and how we are responsible for righting the wrongs, for paying a weregild with the death of our own evil civilization. Anything less is a moral evil.

Let me now narrow all this down to one particular syndrome of this same disease, which is basically a mental disorder: Liberal Jews are destroying their own religion. I can see that as one attempt to try to stop others from murdering them, a strategy may well be to try to spread a message and ethic of universal love and tolerance. I can see that as a strategy that might succeed in some circumstances, but can also see that in other circumstances, in most other circumstances, it will not work even in the slightest. The human race as a universal brotherhood is only a message that will work among people who already feel brotherly love for each other. For anyone else, it is a message that is stone cold dead. So let me get back to Liberal Jews and Judaism.

American Judaism is broken because the Jewish left broke it.

A tiresome fixation on “tikkun olam,” which literally means “repair of the world,” has allowed Judaism to fall into disrepair. . . .

The truth is that tikkun olam and its leftist politics have no basis in Judaism. Tikkun olam is not Judaism at all but a distinct religion, whose adherents, it might be said, have culturally appropriated this ancient faith. This religion of tikkun olam commands the allegiance of most non-Orthodox Jews (and some Orthodox ones), who make up the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community. The dogma of this religion is appealingly simple: Judaism is tikkun olam, which is social justice, which is liberalism. The Jews are called upon to do no less — and no more — than cultivate a liberal paradise in America [in Israel too, and everywhere else as well.].

To believe anything so insane requires you to have tuned out reality almost until it has faded into near invisibility. Because no one who is aware of the hatred of our enemies can be in any doubt about not just the impossibility of the task, but of the suicidal mission involved. Let me refer you to a comment at Powerline from a post on Why she hates Israel. Here is what tikkun olam really means.

The terribly stupid and unsuccessful Gaza invasion of Israel by Hamas is not a “protest,” let alone a “peaceful protest.” It was not even a riot; it was a terribly stupid and unsuccessful attempted invasion of Israel by Hamas. Here below is Hamas Co-Founder Mahmoud Al-Zahar proudly admitting that the Hamas protests in Gaza are not “peaceful”: “when we talk about ‘peaceful resistance’ we are deceiving the public.” Here below also is a video of a captured Gazan who also revealed the “protest” tactics of Hamas which true created, organized, directed, orchestrated and choreographed the “protests.” Here below also are numerous videos of Hamas and Gazans admitting the truth of the Gaza “protests” of Hamas:

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/…/178/nid/34009/Default.aspx

https://www.9news.com.au/…/hamas-says-most-slain-gaza…

http://www.jpost.com/…/VIDEO-Captured-terrorist-exposes…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-caught-at-gaza…/

https://vimeo.com/270157077

What is the intent of the alleged “peaceful” Hamas protests? Their intent is the longstanding intent of Hamas. Here is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stating: “we must behead ALL Jews, and to crush INFANT skulls all day. To be heroic is to target the babies of the Jews. . . a greater friend to us Palestinians is Hitler.”https://youtu.be/-WC-NYA8B6Y

THAT’S RIGHT: THE LEADER OF HAMAS WANTS TO “CRUSH (JEWISH) INFANT SKULLS ALL DAY” AND TO “TARGET THE BABIES OF THE JEWS.”

Here is Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar encouraging the “peaceful” protesters what to do at the protests: “TEAR OUT THEIR (JEWS’) HEARTS FROM THEIR BODIES.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klFbf6VG7uA&feature=youtu.be

Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh states in this video, lest anyone deny that Hamas organizes, directs, orchestrates and choreographs the alleged protests and deny the true intent of the Gazan protests: “Hamas is the canon, and we are the ammunition.” https://youtu.be/y2m_gy-rD_s

Here is the Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al declaring the murder of Americans: “Oh Americans, ALLAH WILL PUNISH YOU. The time has come for ALLAH TO DECLARE WAR ON YOU. . . DEATH TO AMERICA.” Gazans want to murder Americans as well as all Jews. The video also goes on to show Hamas leader Fathi Hammad stating: “killing a single Jew is the same as killing 30 million Jews.” See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW4RMCO5hQk

The desire of the people of Gaza to murder Jews is not limited to Hamas. It also includes the Muslim Clerics of Gaza. In the above video, one Muslim Cleric states: “The annihilation of Jews here in Palestine is one of the most splendid blessings for Palestine.”

Because of its murderous Anti-Semitism, YouTube was forced to remove this Hamas-Gaza cleric video to his supportive Gazan audience in which he encourages the Gazan Protests: “the best way to describe the record of the Prophet’s treatment of the Jews is one of violence and force toward the Jews. . . I call upon every Muslim: Do not stand idly by and let those Jews spread corruption upon the land. [You must] carry out glorious deeds against them. One of the greatest duties, and one of the best forms of worship in our day, is to fight those Jews.” https://www.memri.org/…/youtube-censors-memri-removes…

This Hamas-Gaza cleric states to his supportive Gazan audience the true intent of the protests: “we must return to [our land] – above ground, underground, by means of demonstrations, bombs, weapons, explosives, explosive belts.”https://www.memri.org/…/hamas-cleric-abu-funun-we-must…

This Hamas-Gaza cleric states to his supportive Gazan audience the true intent of the protests: “the Great Return March. . . is a form of Jihad. It does not eliminate the need for Jihad by the sword, by missiles, and by rockets. They go hand in hand.” https://www.memri.org/…/gaza-friday-sermon-abu-jleidan…

Until the world manages to heal itself through an evolutionary progression during the next thousand years or so, my preference until then, and not before then, is a compact of mutual self-defence in the company of those we can trust, with a sharp lookout for the murderously aggressive instincts of everyone else.

The motivation behind the unsuccessful attempted invasion of Israel