Category Archives: Cultural

Super Bowl Monday

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While the Americans are enjoying their Sunday afternoons, we are already back at work in Australia on a Monday. Which normally does’t much matter but does mean if you are to watch the Super Bowl here in Australia. It is Monday at 10:00 am (in Victoria and NSW I forgot to add). Denver v Carolina.

What has always been unacceptable, however, is that we don’t get the ads that are possibly the most important reason for watching the game. So as a public service, and to allow you to reach peak productivity on Monday morning, here are the ads that will run during the game. You can watch it on Fox, as well as in many of our finest pubs across Australia that will open early so you can view the game in a proper club atmosphere along with others of a like mind. Cold Play, I think, is the half time show, whoever they are.

Shall I add that, following the lead of our own Daniel Andrews in creating a holiday on the Friday before the Grand Final, there is a movement in the United States to have a national holiday on Super Bowl Monday, on the day after the game. None of my business, of course, but in my view the one day you should not have a holiday is the day after the Super Bowl. No one will be working anyway since they will all be talking about the game which they could not do if they were all sitting home on their own by themselves.

UPDATE – AND DOES THERE HAVE TO BE POLITICS EVERYWHERE? Apparently so:

A day ahead of her anticipated return to the Super Bowl halftime show stage, Beyonce has released new single “Formation” along with an accompanying music video.

Set in New Orleans, the clip features shots of Bey lying on top of a sinking New Orleans police cruiser as well as a graffiti’d wall that says, “Stop shooting us.” There’s also a scene of a black child in a hoodie dancing in front of a line of police officers in riot gear. At one point a man holds up a newspaper called “The Truth” with an image of Martin Luther King Jr. on the front page captioned, “More than a dreamer.” Blue Ivy Carter, Beyonce’s daughter, also appears in the video.

“I just might be a black Bill Gates in the making,” Beyonce sings on the track produced by Mike WiLL Made- It.

The song is available for download through streaming service Tidal, which Beyonce co-owns with husband Jay Z and a slew of other big-name artists.

Beyonce will join Coldplay and Bruno Mars in the Super Bowl 50 halftime show on Sunday afternoon on CBS, during which “Formation” will make its live debut, according to Entertainment Tonight. She also headlined the show in 2013. Last week, she and Coldplay released a video for their collaboration “Hymn for the Weekend,” which has since been accused of cultural misappropriation for its portrayal of India.

Here’s the vid which opens with the words, “parental advisory – explicit lyrics”. I’m sure it’s true but I haven’t watched it myself. Anyway, you’ve been warned.

Merkel’s strategy

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It was in listening to Mark Steyn above when it finally hit me that Angela Merket may not be as insane as I have up until now thought. What I am now beginning to consider is that she perfectly well understands the demographics, that Europe has voluntarily stopped breeding so that there will be a population decline over the next decades that will be filled by someone. Europe with half the number of Europeans as today will be unable to defend itself against invasion, and they will be coming from all sides. Although a massive longshot, the only hope is that these Muslim migrants can become Europeanised, even Germanised, before the demographics completely wipes out any possibility of this occurring at all. I don’t think it will work out that way, but at least in this instance I can see that it is at least a strategy. What is Germany without Germans is the question Mark asks. It may well end up being Turkey and Syria, given the way population numbers are going. I don’t know that is how she is thinking, but at least it makes some kind of sense, because these 20-30 years are going to go by, the current generation is going to retire and die off, and who then will be left? It’s a bleak and uninviting future, but if this is what’s in her mind, at least I can see the point.

isis trojan horse

The cartoon unfortunately contains the truth of it. Given the low state of education nowadays, even the phrase “Trojan horse” will have only limited meaning. But if you go back to your Iliad, you will find out what ultimately befell the defenders of Troy – in this case Europe – when the Greeks were finally able to breach the walls. Does anyone remember the personal fate of Cassandra? You may find modern parallels in Sweden or Cologne. There seems to be such grossly ignorant stupidity about the fate of those who lose wars. Not every conqueror is like the Americans or Israelis. See the Mughal invasion of India for a useful contrast. In the meantime, if the Germans would like to preserver German culture, it is just a suggestion but they should open their borders to free Chinese immigration. See below for an example of the kind of meshing of cultures that would work out very well on both sides.

You do have to ask why this doesn’t happen in Western Europe

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Russians will not in future describe this incident as The Murmansk Riots:

A group of 51 refugees were brutally assaulted outside a night club in Murmansk, Russia, after they groped and molested women at a night club Saturday.

The refugees had previously been ordered to leave Norway for “bad behavior” and tried their luck in Russia. What they didn’t realize when they went out clubbing in Murmansk is that Russians have less tolerance when it comes to sexual assault on local women than other European countries.

The refugees allegedly groped and harassed women in a similar manner as the assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. A group of male Russian took them aside to “educate” them that “Cologne is 2,500 kilometers south of here.”

The refugees tried to flee but were quickly captured by the Russians. They then took them out to the street and gave them a beating they will remember. Police arrived to break up the fight but locals report that they threw a few punches at the refugees before arresting 33 of them. Eighteen refugees were in such bad condition they had to be take to the hospital.

Police decided to let the beatings slide and didn’t file a report. The only thing they could confirm was that there was “a mass brawl involving refugees.”

Certainly a different response from the one you find in Finland.

Europe is Finnished

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This is from Finland advising women on what to do if they are attacked in the street, as if it would be in broad daylight in the middle of the road. First at Tim Blair there was this:

And then Andrew Bolt added this from Sam I Am:

Both are equally idiotic although the second at least is not intended to be a genuine response to a serious problem. To bring in large numbers of people who do not speak the language, who have few marketable skills and are products of a different social culture seems to have been asking for trouble. What I do not get is why these governments are not being thrown from office and Tony Abbott brought in to run the country. A debilitating sentimentality seems to have replaced common sense across the Western world.

The parties of the left no longer stand for a single thing

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labor and islam

They really are vile and disgusting. The parties of the left are unhinged in so many ways that it is hard to keep up. They now only seem to be for sale to the highest bidder. This is from Andrew Bolt the other day, Labor stirring up Jew-hatred.

The modern Left seems to have a Jew problem. The obsession with Jews even within Labor is extraordinary – and ominous.

Sharri Markson:

Former Labor national president Warren Mundine has launched a blistering attack on the party, saying its move to ban sponsored trips to Israel is “verging on anti-Semitic’’ and is “sickening to watch”….

The NSW ALP international relations policy committee chairman Michael Forshaw told The Australian yesterday that 39 resolutions had been received concerning Israel and Palestine, compared with 17 resolutions dealing with other international issues, such as the Syrian war, the Myanmar junta, Paris terror bombings, China free trade and foreign aid.

There were none on Saudi Arabia or Iran.

There are moves to recognise Palestinian statehood and to boycott products from Israel that originate in settlement areas, and many concerning banning trips to Israel while Benjamin Netan­yahu is Prime Minister. The move by Labor is partly driven by political motivations to secure the vote from Muslim communities in marginal southwest Sydney seats..

Mr Mundine said Labor MPs should remember that Israel was the only democracy in the region with a parliament of Jewish, Arab, Christian and Muslim politicians sitting within a vast region of problematic countries…

Members of the pro-Palestinian group include federal MPs Jason Clare, Sam Dastyari and Tony Burke, with former NSW premier Bob Carr a high-profile advocate.

One on five of Burke’s electorate are Muslim. The surrender of principle for votes seems only too clear. And that careful cultivation of religious bigotry and ethnic resentments leads to the return of sentiments too similar to the kind I once thought the Left had disowned:

Jewish advocacy groups are “cancerous” and “malicious” and try to “deny, misinform and scaremonger”.

A NSW Labor politician voiced these incendiary words — the first NSW Muslim MP, in fact, Shaoquett Moselmane. He didn’t utter them in the privacy of his own home. He felt comfortable enough broadcasting this anti-semitic sentiment within the walls of the NSW Parliament. This is terrifying in itself.

The MP, who ironically decried racism in his first speech to parliament, made the remarks just two years ago, in May 2013. He was not shouted-out of the high office he holds for racist commentary. On the contrary, Labor continues to support him and Moselmane is now a vocal advocate behind a push to ban Labor MPs from visiting Israel on trips funded by Jewish organisations…

The father of the anti-Israel movement is Bob Carr, whose speeches have on at least one occasion, in July last year, elicited anti-semitic commentary from the audience, with a remark made about “the Jews” and their “3000-year fundamentalist influence.”

And I remain deeply concerned by comments by Burke which I reported two years ago – comments by a Labor frontbencher which seemed to legitimise Islamist terrorism against Israel:

Tony Burke, gave a frightening speech last month to the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network in which he savaged Israel as a child-killing, water-polluting, land-stealing aggressor.

He also gave what would have struck some there as praise for extremists fighting Israel: “For those who are political advocates within Palestine itself, I will never know the bravery that comes with putting your life on the line and at risk, in engaging in politics in different ways.”

Burke’s Sydney seat has a Muslim vote of more than 20 per cent, but this is playing with fire.

What is it with the Left and Jews? What is it with the Left and pandering to Islamists?

There must be more to it than few measly votes but I cannot for the life of me see what it is. Malcolm Turnbull or not, nothing will make me vote in any way that might allow the ALP to win at the next election.

All comedy is critical

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Here is a story on John Cleese and the modern left. And I have to say that the title of the story, John Cleese is tired of campus political correctness, as well as the title of original story from which it is linked, We Can’t Have Comedy and Be Politically Correct at the Same Time (which is better since it does not restrict its compass to a university campus), still doesn’t get there. The title of the video “1984” does get you there, which has the statement scrolled across the top, that “political correctness can lead to an Orwellian nightmare” which makes it very plain how serious he thinks this issue is. It tells you exactly what he really means, that if you forbid people to say certain things in the name of political correctness, then you are living on the edge of a totalitarian state. This is what he said, which you can see is transcribed directly from his own words in the video:

Cleese said that it’s one thing to be “mean” to “people who are not able to look after themselves very well,” but it was another to take it to “the point where any kind of criticism of any individual or group could be labeled cruel.”

Cleese added that “comedy is critical,” and if society starts telling people “we mustn’t criticize or offend them,” then humour goes out the window.

“With humour goes a sense of proportion,” Cleese said. “And then, as far as I’m concerned, you’re living in 1984.”

And the point, of course, is not restricted to humour but all statements of any kind about any subjects whatever. You might also after this then look at George Carlin’s Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be Manners……………….

[Picked up at Instapundit]

We conservatives are not going away any time soon

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The fact remains that we conservatives have yet to be impressed with Malcolm as PM who is still to achieve anything of any use other than to end the political instability at the top of the party which he himself was the sole cause of. So far he has held on because he has not done a thing to reverse any of the policies put in place by Abbott. For example, I noted in a post of my own yesterday that:

If conservative means to preserve what is good while allowing positive change to occur, the Donald may well be the most conservative candidate in this election. It is also what I liked about Tony Abbott even though no two people may be farther apart personally than he and Donald Trump.

And then John Comnenus, in a guest post that followed mine, made the following suggestion to Barnaby Joyce to ensure that Malcolm listens to the conservatives among his Parliamentary party:

Upon becoming the Nationals leader you should immediately go to Bill Shorten and ask him what the ALP is happy to offer the Nationals if it were a junior Coalition parter. Think about the potential power of such a move.

And then there is Merv Bendle, in an article at Quadrant Online, The Coming Conservative Revolt, in which he wrote:

Ultimately, history will reveal that it is not conservatism but progressivism that is in crisis. What this nation needs are politicians able to comprehend the ominous trajectory of global events and articulate a conservative response for the Australian people.

We like the Australia we have and don’t want to lose it. That is what is meant by the verb “to conserve” and that is what we are looking for the leader of a party on the right to do. Which brings me to the post by Andrew Bolt this morning who says the same again and then some. This is from a post on The hounding out of Abbott. Why does the Liberal Left fear him?

But bottom line: it says something very sad about the Liberals under Turnbull and Bishop that conservatives like Abbott are so unwelcome. The party is being hijacked and the public increasingly denied a genuine argument or choice on some big issues. Just see how both sides now don’t think slashing spending is good, despite the warnings of the Treasury Secretary that it’s dangerously high. See how both agree global warming is a potential disaster. How both Labor and Liberal leaders agree on a republic, same-sex marriage, Aboriginal recognition in the Constitution and a bloated ABC.

Andrew finishes with this astonishing story which is behind the paywall at the Daily Telegraph:

TONY Abbott has met US President Barack Obama privately in Washington in a move that is bound to further frustrate Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The former PM also held secret talks with Mr Obama’s spy boss and was urged by the Americans to maintain a role as a global voice on critical issues such as terrorism….

He also met the elder statesman of US foreign affairs, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, as well as the president of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass and former US Republican presidential candidate John McCain…

Mr Abbott also accepted lunch invitations from the former president of the World Bank James Wolfensohn and the head of investment firm Morgan Stanley James Gorman.

The world is not the kind of world those at the top of the Liberal Party think it is. Abbott represents the proper response to our times and Malcolm, unless he gets with the program, will increasingly find that he and his motley crew do not.

Is Trump a “conservative”?

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I don’t vote according to labels but there is no doubt that so far as modern political labels go, conservative is the closest it gets. This is from an article on Why I Support Donald Trump and Not Ted Cruz which begins by addressing what does it mean to be a “conservative”:

“Conservatism,” as [Russell] Kirk explained it, encompassed an inherent distrust of liberal democracy, staunch opposition to egalitarianism, and an extreme reluctance to commit the United States to global “crusades” to impose American “values” on “unenlightened” countries around the world. Conservatives should celebrate local traditions, customs, and the inherited legacies of other peoples, and not attempt to destroy them. America, Kirk insisted, was not founded on a democratic, hegemonic ideology, but as an expression and continuation of European traditions and strong localist, familial and religious belief. Indeed, Kirk authored a profound biography of Senator Robert Taft, “Mr. Conservative,” who embodied those principles.

It’s a long article and well worth reading through. Here, however, is the core point on why Trump is preferred to Cruz:

What is needed in this nation now is dramatic, even radical change. What is needed is not someone who will simply raise Hell, but someone who will be more like a bull loosed in a terrified china shop. Half measures and regular politicians, “mainstream conservatives” like Ted Cruz, I don’t think can pull it off. Trump, I believe, just maybe can.

“Just maybe can” is a better probability statement than is attached to any other candidate at the present time. Interestingly, and by no means a coincidence since this is a central issue in this election, Byron York has asked Trump what makes him a conservative. Here is the Q and A:

Conservatives are very worried about you. They concede that you’ve brought attention to issues that are important to them, like immigration or radical Islamic terrorism. But they don’t believe you’re one of them. Are you a conservative?

I am, and I’ll tell you what will happen, I think, is they’ll maybe see it more and more as time goes by.

If you think about it, if you take a look at what I’ve done, I’ve brought millions and millions of people to the Republican Party, and to the conservative party, because, as an example, the debate had 24 million people. If I wasn’t in the debate, would it have had three, or four, or two, or what would it have been? And you look at the kind of numbers that they’re doing on television, where every one of the stations, the networks that are covering us, and honestly in particular covering me, because I do seem to get a lot more coverage than anybody else, but their ratings are through the roof. So that focus is a very important focus because other people are allowed to take advantage of all of the eyeballs that I’m bringing to the screen.

But what makes you a conservative? What does being a conservative mean to you?

Well, I think it’s just a conservative value. I’m very conservative fiscally. I mean, we owe $19 trillion, this is going to destroy our country, we’re going to be destroyed by what’s going on fiscally. And in terms of the economy, in terms of jobs, we’re losing our jobs to everybody. You take a look at the kind of numbers that we’re talking about with the closures and just pure and simple the number of jobs that have been lost, it’s incredible. To places like China, Vietnam is the new hot one, they’re taking our jobs. Mexico, always. They’re outsmarting us at every turn, and we don’t seem to be able to do it. I mean it’s an incredible thing.

I will say this. In terms of conservative, I’ve had tremendous polling numbers with conservatives, I think to a large extent because of the border. Nobody has that issue like I have it, whether it’s building the wall or closing the border and letting people in but they have to come in legally.

So why have you so many conservative leaders — the Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, National Review, lots of them don’t think you’re a conservative. They would look at what you just said about trade — they would say protectionism and tariffs, that’s not conservative.

No, no, not protectionism — fairness. China is making hundreds of billions of dollars a year with us. At some point, we have to say, look, you can’t do that. I mean we have rebuilt China virtually. Now, I am a free trader, 100 percent. But we can’t continue to lose tremendous amounts of money to these countries. We’re losing with virtually everybody, everybody that we do business with. The fact is, our leaders have been outsmarted at every step of the game. And we just can’t do that.

Much more again at the link. But if conservative means to preserve what is good while allowing positive change to occur, the Donald may well be the most conservative candidate in this election. It is also what I liked about Tony Abbott even though no two people may be as far apart personally from each other than he and Donald Trump.

Why isn’t this the Huma Abedin scandal?

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Here is the story in The Oz reprinted from The Times: Sex scandal dogs Hillary’s ‘surrogate daughter’ Huma Abedin. A big Hillary problem, it seems, in the movie that is being released on Huma’s marriage to former Congressman, Anthony Weiner, who became notorious for exposing himself on the internet. Weiner is a Jew, so the following ought to be more than of passing interest, which comes as a throw-away in paragraph 22:

Abedin’s mother is Pakistani; her late father was Indian. She was born in Michigan but when Abedin was two her family moved to Saudi Arabia, where her father establish­ed a think tank, the Instit­ute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Some alleged the family had connections to figures inside­ the Muslim Brotherhood, which has fuelled conspiracy theor­ies.

They certainly have “alleged” these connections. Here’s just one example: Huma Abedin’s Muslim Brotherhood Ties which are a good deal more significant, you would think, than her marriage ties. It is the absence of controversy about her background that needs to be accounted for. From the story, which appeared in National Review:

Huma Abedin’s mother, Saleha, who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s female division (the “Muslim Sisterhood”), is a major figure in not one but two Union for Good components. The first is the International Islamic Council for Dawa and Relief (IICDR). It is banned in Israel for supporting Hamas under the auspices of the Union for Good. Then there’s the International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child (IICWC) — an organization that Dr. Saleha Abedin has long headed. Dr. Abedin’s IICWC describes itself as part of the IICDR. And wouldn’t you know it, the IICWC charter was written by none other than . . . Sheikh Qaradawi [“the Muslim Brotherhood’s chief sharia jurist”], in conjunction with several self-proclaimed members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

What may be the most interesting thing about the times in which we live is that everything is known but nothing seems to matter.