HABBENINGS: GLOBAL STRUGGLES, GLOBAL PROBLEMS, AND GLOBAL CONFLICTS

[VikLevaPatel]

Johnson always unfit for office: Starmer

British Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says it's good news for the country that Boris Johnson will resign as prime minister "but it should have happened long ago". "He was always unfit for office. He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale," Starmer said on Thursday. "And all those who have been complicit should be utterly ashamed." Johnson is expected to announce his resignatiion on Thursday following a series of scandals and mass resignations from his government. Starmer said the Tory party had inflicted chaos upon the country during the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. "They have been in power for 12 years. The damage they have done is profound. "Twelve years of economic stagnation. Twelve years of declining public services. Twelve years of empty promises."

Has he got a point? And is Labor any better?

Better and worse, good and bad, these are not the real issue any more. That issue is no longer in question, and it is no longer a question about possibility. It is simply a matter of time.

The only and real question is not if, but when, and the Tories and the "cuckservatives" (or metaphorically cuckolded or politically impotent conservatives) in the Tory Establishment will feel the voters' retribution when the next election rolls around.

The Tories are pretty much decimated, both in terms of organization and morale. Pretty much like the Australian Liberal party. And maybe even worse. These people have "lost touch with reality", and have blindly and defiantly dug their own graves. And, no matter what you call it, history's verdict came early. The one thing that almost everyone seems to agree on is that the Tory establishment is a complete sprawling and embarrassing mess in almost every conceivable way. And soon enough they're going to have their arses handed to them. This comment speaks volumes about the upcoming demise of the Tory turncoats (see comments section):

"Whatever we thought of Johnson, there's no way Tories will get in at the next election now. They've given it to Labour on a platter"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art....html#comments



#RUINEDBYRISHI, YET?

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It turns out that Idiot Amin may have been right -- at least about a few things.

[VikLevaPatel]

This is about a party of sore losers intent on keeping a hold on power. But the regime itself is living "in denial" and living in a "state of delusion". And indeed, as many would say, what a bunch of losers and no hopers. The word 'depressing' doesn't even begin to describe it. Upsetting doesn't begin to express it.

Labour must be so happy , None of these candidates have a chance and they knew Boris would of beat them a again. Tory mugs fell for it

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870531905

I couldn't agree more, well said. The Tories will rue the day that they decided to stab Boris in the back. I fear for this country, I really do! :-(

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870533839

As noted here repeatedly, Tories will find themselves in exactly the same position tomorrow as they did yesterday. But the best part is that a leaderless Tory party would win tomorrow. A completely sad state of affairs.

The conservatives can play pass the parcel with this nonsense all they like, they've lost the next general anyway..

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870533269

Some people just don't get it.

Rishi go away please we don't want you

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/869427813

If people tell you to back off, you back off. Simple as that. Talk about being impervious to public sentiment.

There are changes in the UK going on, and people aren't happy. But the people are slowly awakening. And people are certainly experiencing a political awakening, a revival of people's consciousness.

Rishi Sunak Sajid Javid Nadhim Zahawi Priti Patel Time to pack a case.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870531847

The Tory Party will rue the day they opened the gates to Ugandan Indians like Rishi Sunak and Priti Patel.

These people are deluded if they think any of them will ever be PM. Unless the public is really demented, tories won't be elected soon, Brexit is just starting and whoever stays in Gov is doomed to try to keep the economy afloat, not even sure it's possible in the long run, but the public won't forget which party sunk has split the UK apart and sunk the country.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870528713

It is something they won't forget and they won't forgive. And they certainly won't forgive Sunak for this folly too. Moreover, Sunak is being rightly blamed for this whole mess and other controversies. (See this recent and revealing article in the Daily Mail).

If they elect Sunak Im done with them.

As indeed are the majority of the population.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870537685

"Chutzpah" doesn't even begin to describe this effort. Everything looks as if it has been meticulously plotted and scrupulously imagined, complete with villainous asides which make it sound so effortless and natural.

Boris didn't have a chance with so many plotting to get his job

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870527333

I find myself incredulous that a popular prime minister has been made to resign by petty people desperate to jump into his shoes.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870527073

He's certainly not alone in that. And this speaks volumes, literally, about the South Asian line-up: "They ruined there own countries, now they want to ruin ours."

The perception is well earned, especially the part about ruining things. We can certainly blame Sunak, however, for "ruining everything" and fucking everything up. If I had to sum up the common sentiment and the case against him in a few words, they would be: "What an absolute worthless piece of shit that doesn't deserve whatever he has".

We'll get to this messy affair in a moment. About this "cowboys and Ugandan Indians" stuff.

The fact is absolutely nobody wants these shameless Indian rejects from Uganda.

WE DONT WANT RISHI SUNAK RUNNING OR RUINING OUR COUNTRY ITS GREAT BRITAIN DEFINITELY NOT AN INDIAN FOR PARLIAMENT HE IS SLYER THAN A FOX AND HE WILL RUIN OUR COUNTRY BIG TIME

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870520697

The public's anger is warranted. It's issue after issue. There's a palpable "sense of anger and frustration and bitterness" about how the current administration conducts itself. Citizens' anger is boiling up.

And Indians themselves, or, rather, British Asians, don't want these detestable Ugandan-Indian knuckleheads either.

https://archive.ph/b4cJf/7195ff5d052...4716e6f901.jpg

And behind the scenes, and at the grassroots level, the sentiment is certainly growing in the UK. It's stronger than we think. As the following comment illustrates:

"I'm joining the growing chorus of people who would like her majesty to dissolve parliament and assert complete rule as monarch. Do NOT name a new prime Minister."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870533261

Yes, you could also say that anti-Indian sentiments are growing every day. And "Rishi Sunak is the reason why".

And if you haven't noticed, he is now being called "Sunak the snake". And he looks finished before he has started. "The Snake" obviously likes to think of himself as being impervious to public sentiment and to public pressure. Let this serve as a warning to those who intend to continue the crooked and corrupt ways that have become the norm for too long.

You ram us with Sunak we will punish you at the next election your choice i mean you had that red wall seats with a 80 seat majority do you honestly think the north will vote Sunak or are you that Dim

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870527563

This pretty much sums me up the overall level of sentimentality and the level of hypocrisy here.

Seriously Rushy? He doom us with heavy taxes to a level that an avalanche would smother us, it easy to say as you look at the mess he made at the COVID money!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870521673

"Unpopular" doesn't even begin to describe it. They're done; they're toast.

As a lifelong Tory voter, they are now officially toast. Unelectable with any of the above. Not a single one of them is an improvement on BoJo and he was pony.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/reader-c...link/870521201

[VikLevaPatel]

You can take the Indian out of India, but can you take India out of the Indian? Not if past events are anything to go by.

And certainly not if Vasudha Sabharwal's findings are anything to go by.

The article is aptly titled "Desi Couple Denies Housing To A Non Vegetarian Sikh Man In Ireland Because We Take Casteism Everywhere".

And the article starts off with an eye-catching sentence: 'We all know how exhausting it is to find places for bachelors in India.'

Which, indeed, is necessarily true, as is shown in the following example.

For many young people, India is a land of opportunity. Male or female, if you're well educated and resourceful there's the chance of a well-paid career. Just one problem, says Suruchi Sharma - if you're a woman, you must marry by your mid-20s.

"Single? Why, what's your age?"

"28"

"Okay, that's too bad. How are you managing it? Couldn't find anyone?"

Welcome to the conversation that a single woman in India, in her late 20s, faces almost all the time. Yes, it's a big deal if you're 28 and unmarried. You're looked upon as a big failure. I am serious.

By Indian standards, I've left it late and I am probably at the bottom of the pyramid of eligible women.

There have been many occasions when I have tried to rent an apartment in a good locality and been refused. People don't like to rent apartments to single, professional women.

Though age may be just a number, and is most certainly only a number when it comes to men, but it's a completely different story when it comes to women, as their numbers actually get worse with age. And for a good section of Indian women, age is not just a number, but a deadline. As Anoukhi, a woman in her early 30s, found out the hard way.

Now in her early 30s, Anoukhi recalls feeling gutted when she learned what her colleagues were saying about her while she was interning as a 27-year-old in Bengaluru. The whispers flying around the office ranged from “Isn’t she too old to be an intern?” to “Why isn’t she married yet?” to “There must be something wrong with her; she seems to be on a completely different timeline.”

And as this report title aptly states, "Thirty Is Still Dirty For Many Indian Women". And this one, too.

"Age 28 Is A Turning Point For Many Single Women."

There is certainly something about being a 28-year-old urban woman that makes them flip the switch from party girl to marriage material that often has nothing to do with a ticking biological clock. Things are a little different for men, and study after study (after study) has shown that average desirability varies with age for both men and women, but that it varies more strongly for women, and the effects run in opposite directions. And this study does provide further evidence and confirmation for this.

Current sociobiological thought suggests that significant components of mate selection are based on indicators that correlate with the ability to produce and support offspring. Theorists have suggested that men tend to be attracted to and marry younger women, while women tend to be attracted to and marry older men. This behavior is referred to as age hypergamy. Analyses of 120 dating advertisements from gay men and heterosexual men and women indicated that there exists a good measure of hypergamic age preference that is comparable to the heterosexual population and that relates to subjects' gender presentation.

Reema Agarwal, a lawyer in New Delhi, clearly reiterates this same idea, stating "with confidence" the following remark: "How to find love after 40? Consider not trying. After 40, there is a social stigma attached to a girl’s marriage. The Indian society strongly upholds that a woman above 40 is way past her child-bearing age, and therefore, not very desirable. So, arranged matches hardly come by. A man of 50 also desires a woman in her 30s and he often manages to find one."

But let's get back to the topic at hand: that 'you can take an Indian out of India, but you can never take India out of an Indian.' It's an oft-repeated saying. And a well-known aphorism. Which is true, if past events are anything to go by. And if recent indicators are anything to go by. And if they are anything to go by, it's unlikely that anything will change yet. See here for the most recent example. As Vasudha Sabharwal so aptly put it: "But guess what? Desis carry their instinctual whims, fancies, prejudices, casteism, and conservatism abroad. An Indian couple in Ireland denied accommodation to a Sikh man at the very last moment because he's a non-vegetarian. India is the most vegetarian country in the world with only 39% of adults claiming to be vegetarians. This minority group has many people deifying vegetarianism as a moral virtue. They boast of it as if it's some kind of symbol of pride to be vegetarians when more than half of our country and the world eats meat daily."

Sadly, old habits die hard. And old sins have long shadows. Or you could say that old habits never die, they just harden. And even more so if you're an Indian.

And surely we're talking numbers here. Also related, see this post.

https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...62#post7551062

Indians seem to have a penchant for lumping everything together. As is clearly shown here:

And lumping these four categories together, as "eggs, fish, chicken and meat", tends to blur the crucial distinction.

Lumping those four together is a real problem. However, getting back to the point, there are, perhaps not surprisingly, significant differences by state or ethnicity.

The numbers are ridiculously inflated, and it is feasible to assume that the actual meat consumption is considerably lower than reported. It just takes a quick look at this article from IndiaSpend to see why this is the case. Here's the key passage:

However, around 80% of Indian men and 70% of women consume eggs, fish, chicken or meat occasionally, if not weekly, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of national health data.

Overall, 42.8% Indian women and 48.9% men consumed fish, chicken or meat weekly, according to the National Family Health Survey, 2015-16 (NFHS-4).

Read through the quote carefully. As can be read from the two quotes above, (and leaving aside eggs and fishes), you can practically say that chickens are non-meat items and technically get away with calling yourself a vegetarian, as the term vegetarian generally means a person who does not eat meat, and especially mammalian meat.

Or even get away with murder, if "meat is murder".

Let's also not forget the fact that Indians just love their eggs. I would hate to imagine the atrocious smelling egg farts, like a world "gone wrong".

And all this in the land of thirty-three crores Gods and Goddesses. What sort of a place would that be? Like, they actually think that it's a good thing. And what sort of a place is that?

It's a big cesspool of rape, violence, incest, pedophilia, corruption, graft, fraud, mismanagement, bias, crime, poverty, toxicity, sexism, casteism, soullessness, hypocrisy, greed, concentrated misery, antiquated social attitudes, sexual harassment claims, and poorly researched garbage. I could go on and on with this one, but you get the picture.

And it certainly has devolved into a reeking cesspool of condemnation, criticism, and hostility, of intellectual and moral craptitude, of germs, containing an array of harmful bacteria, including fecal matter, according to research, and, of course, of incompetence, inefficiency, ineptitude, and disorganization.

You name it, they got 'em.

::

They seem to have a reverse-Midas or an anti-Midas touch: "Everything they touch turns to shit and garbage".

Or whatever you want to call it. Like, for instance, to trash, to dirt, to crap, or to disaster. Same thing.



In fact, to even call it a "cesspool", would be an insult to cesspools everywhere.





Okay, now back to what really matters in this discussion. These quotes illustrate "just how complicated it can get".

Unless she is vegetarian or vegan, she might eat fish even if she does not eat meat (this is known as pescetarianism, though many who practice it mistakenly believe that they are vegetarians).

https://www.wikihow.com/Cook-For-You...getarians).%20

It is not considered the "norm" in many cultures to eat vegetarian only, and while few people ever ask a meat eater why he or she chooses to eat meat, very few people hold back on asking a vegetarian why he or she does not eat meat.

https://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Veg...eat%20meat.%20

Participants were categorised as those who eat meat ("meat eaters"), those who do not eat meat but eat fish ("no meat but some fish"), those who do not eat meat or fish but eat dairy products and/or eggs ("vegetarians"), and those who do not eat meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products ("vegans").

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...vegans%22).%20

Nothing is ever cast in stone. Let's always remember that the definition of meat varies according to source, and the basic definition of meat is that it is "the flesh of a mammal as food." It's a topic complicated enough to make even the authors of this paper shy away from making a clear and final distinction on the definition of meat.

This paper is noteworthy, and this topic deserves further attention. Here are some relevant facts.

One of the largest differences between muscle growth from poultry and mammals is postnatal skeletal muscle growth. Accumulation of DNA is directly proportional to skeletal muscle size. Greater than 94% of total muscle DNA accumulates postnatally in chicken while substantially less (50–90% DNA) accumulates postnatally in mammals.

Most fish have 90–95% fast-twitch muscle (high glycolytic and anaerobic) that allows them to dart away from predators, whereas terrestrial herbivores, such as cows, have a large proportion of slow-twitch muscle, facilitating the sustained load bearing necessitated by their grazing lifestyle. The majority of fish species never cease to grow and, therefore, can increase the size and number of their muscle cells throughout their life span. Mammalian and poultry muscle are typically heterogeneous. In fish, muscle fiber types are organized into large, homogeneous, and anatomically separate regions at the macroscopic scale as three main types of muscle: a major white muscle, a superficial red muscle (along the skin), and an intermediate pink muscle.

The latest Rasmussen survey shows that just 15% of American adults are or have ever been vegetarian, while 81% have never been vegetarian. The number of vegetarians has increased slightly since 2019 when 12% said they were or had been vegetarian. According to a 2017 study, six percent of U.S. consumers classed themselves as vegan, which makes a dramatic increase from just one percent three years earlier. It's a number which may have increased in the years since too. Of worthy to note is the fact, as reported by Newsweek, that many are simply taking the full plunge straight away and heading straight for veganism.

[VikLevaPatel]

Meanwhile, death awaits.
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...=1#post7551062

What's with all these celebrity deaths of late?

RIP Liam Neeson, away far too soon.



Medical professionals who treat celebrities such as Prince and Michael Jackson are as susceptible to star power as the rest of us, and the results can be deadly.

Unexpected celebrity deaths have illuminated the darker side of medical relationships.

Not sure what's going on. Here are some more recent deaths.

1 Hour Ago / It Happened So Suddenly / Sad News / Goodbye Robert De Niro

11 Famous People Who Died Recently In The Last Few Days

And how can we forget these great Liam Neeson-led films?

And especially these three.

Taken: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/
Unknown: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401152/
The Commuter: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1590193/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjB...nel=MR.CLIPPER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQL...el=bdlthrasher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Ff...ovies%E2%98%86

As noted by The Los Angeles Times, Liam Neeson’s characters are avatars of vengeance. They are reticent, brutal and deadly, plying the world for justice in a sacred quest to empower the everyman. Standing up for the victim, or seeking revenge for a heinous crime, is the grist of many of Neeson’s films. The stories surge with populism, giving a man his say, his chance to set things right and re-arrange the balance of power that he believes is so often skewed against him. The law, famously, is an ass - but unfortunately more often than not it's the punter who ends up feeling a fool. And more often than not, it has proved so porous as to become virtually meaningless. 'It's about the man that stands up and decides enough is enough. Gary Cooper. John Wayne. Jimmy Stewart,' the 6-foot-4-inch Neeson told The Times. Liam "I will find you and I will kill you" Neeson had, of course, largely taken over from Harrison Ford in the "family in jeopardy" genre on the strength of this scene alone, and the fact that it has grown out of a single speech, is particularly impressive. But you can't help but notice, that an underlying theme is that women need "saving". Here is Neeson in his own words:

'God, I would have loved to have been back in those days. . . I like the idea of playing an everyman. You see these anonymous men coming into the city, getting on with their jobs and their work. It's nice to enter that kind of world, being sort of Mr. Average. He's got a mortgage and a wife and a kid about to go to college. We're always worried about where the money’s going to come from.'

As to the question, what are the things that people care about? While there may be many different answers to the question, they almost certainly include celebrity deaths.

Facebook Paper is pretty, but sluggish when it comes to news. Its human-curated sections take a while to ingest the latest world events and gossip. But today’s 1.2 update adds a “Trending” section that highlights news stories and photos that capture the essence of the most mentioned topics on Facebook. Those aren’t always hard-hitting news, but are things people care about like big sports matches, TV shows and celebrity deaths.

https://archive.ph/bPqXB#selection-317.108-317.235

The popular preoccupation with celebrity deaths is virtually unavoidable.

Last year saw the deaths of international pop culture icons like David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, and Carrie Fisher, and there's been little reprieve this year with Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Prodigy, Dick Gregory, Sam Shepard, Gregg Allman, and more passing away. Each of these deaths has spawned a flood of sentimental memorials and grief-stricken admissions of shock, from career celebrations to more personal essays. This is hardly anything new, as celebrity deaths have captivated people as long as the idea of celebrity has existed, and yet, each time a celebrity figure passes away, virtually every social media feed is inundated with expressions of grief and sadness.

https://archive.ph/HfK52#selection-1055.0-1063.256

As Vice rightly notes, these deaths and our responses to them are emblematic of a unique social phenomenon.

Why do we feel attached to, and intimate with, people we've never met? Why does the death of a stranger on the public stage impact us so deeply and traumatically, and how can we understand our relationships to these people and their deaths? Each of these questions is worthy of great debate, and is worthy of further research attention.

Dr. Samita Nandy, Director of the Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) in Toronto, explains that our feelings of connection to these artists are growing stronger, and calls these interactions "para-social relationships." Nandy also differentiates this grief by noting a lack of "material responsibilities" produced by the loss. Dr. Jacque Lynn Foltyn, a professor of sociology at National University in La Jolla, California, has been studying celebrity deaths and public interest for years, and told VICE that our favorite celebrities are "deeply connected to our developing self." She notes that when these figures express relatable personal tribulations like Chester Bennington did with his mental health, we deepen our connection. "It makes them vulnerable," Foltyn says. "It makes people identify with them: [the artist] speaks for them." These expressions ultimately legitimize and give credence to "the production of our own identity, and our own life cycle and rites of passage," she adds. Foltyn calls these figures "intimate strangers," and describes the grief we experience as "disenfranchised grief," a form of socially inappropriate mourning.

These gurus are obviously speaking rock-solid truth that cannot be ignored or argued with. It's also a feeling that cannot be argued. And these results certainly raise some critical questions worthy of further exploration.

I should know all about it. Prince has stayed in our penthouse suite, and his presence around here is felt and is powerful even though he is no longer with us and no longer present in the world in which we live. And as rightly noted in "10 times Prince was the greatest rock star ever" (NME, June 2017), there will never be another Prince.

In other news, America's economic and social decline continues, and the pope is still Catholic.

Newsom supports $1.65B film tax credit, pushes Hollywood to film in California

Newsom's endorsement serves as a nudge to production companies that have recently left for other states with bigger tax incentive programs. But with top production companies such as Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal and Apple facing pressure to protect pregnant employees in states where abortion is illegal, Newsom is hoping to lure business back. "As other states roll back people's rights, California will continue to protect fundamental freedoms for all and welcome businesses that stand up for their employees," Newsom said in a statement. "Extending this program will help ensure California's world-renowned entertainment industry continues to drive economic growth with good jobs and a diverse, inclusive workforce." In a tweet, Newsom made a direct plea to companies: "Time to come back to the entertainment capital of the world. Where we believe in freedom. A woman's right to make her own decisions. And support our LGBT community."

https://archive.ph/B8OPf#selection-3931.0-3955.218

The law is indeed an ass. Just ask Cape Fear's Max Cady. Scorsese’s remake may have given us a fight between the bad and the conflicted, but the screenplay itself complicates the Manichaean morality of its black-and-white predecessor. Or do we seriously all live in a world where good and evil are seen through blurred lenses? And not to mention that the lines can too quickly get blurred. As for the theme of "Home Invasion", Sue Short ("Darkness Calls: A Critical Investigation of Neo-Noir," 2019) correctly observes that it might be seen to serve a right-wing agenda, suggesting that lethal defence of one's homestead is a permissible act, yet lines are typically blurred here too. And although Cape Fear is as much horror film as thriller, with Mitchum's virtually unkillable monster anticipating the slashers of the late 70s, there is another, equally disturbing subtext lurking in the film. As analyzed here with gleeful wit and bull's-eye accuracy:

Cady wants to spook Bowden before he destroys him, and for much of the movie he is protected by the very law he places himself beyond. Set in the South and released at the height of the struggle for desegregation, Cape Fear conjures up the bogie of a terrifying rapist – albeit white – who proved inconveniently conversant with his “civil rights”. In its nightmarish way, Cape Fear managed to suggest both what terrified the white South and the terror the white South itself inspired. “You won’t forget this movie”, Gifford ends his critique, “especially if you’re a Yankee Jew”.

Both the Silence of the Lambs and Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear featured Nietzschean characters. And indeed the film turns the morality of the original film inside out. As for the blurring of lines, it's Martin Scorsese's unique selling point of many of his films. And more specifically, the blurring of lines between the villain and the hero. As noted here, "The original Cape Fear released in 1962 presented the story of an innocent lawyer, Sam Bowden who is being incessantly stalked by a psychopath. While the essence of that story remains in Scorsese’s remake, Sam Bowden isn't the 'good guy' that he appears to be." The postmodern effect of a metanarrative, Katie Reese says, is to take the meanings of a known story and to invert them into entirely new meanings, subverting the original message. And you know a lot of people obviously aren't happy about this. Apparently, Charisma Magazine is also not happy about this apparent subversion, for they go so far as to say that the abhorrence of Pentecostal faith has become so evident in American society that it is a mainstay of pop culture. Not only that, but they bring up "Cape Fear" and the antagonist, the redoubtable Max Cady, and say the following:

How many times in a movie or a novel is the Pentecostal figure the murderer or thief or child molester? It is hard to forget the final scene in the 1991 movie Cape Fear, in which the Scripture-spouting murderer and sexual deviant Max Cady, played by Robert De Niro, finally dies while shouting in tongues and spewing Bible verses as threats to characters played by Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange. Such scenes define Pentecostalism for many Americans.

Indeed, we might even go so far as to say, as does David Greven in his book "Psycho-Sexual: Male Desire in Hitchcock, De Palma, Scorsese, and Friedkin" (2013), that the Hitchcock-riff film is excruciatingly misogynistic and hateful. On the other hand, there is absolutely no reason to denigrate De Palma's extraordinary revisions of Hitchcock. And Quentin Tarantino is somebody who is an ardent De Palma "wanna-be", and all of his oeuvre is so intrepid, misogynistic, and racist. Or so declares David Greven. And as for Martin Scorsese’s "Taxi Driver" and the film's prescience and legacy, Little White Lies, a British, internationally distributed, movie magazine and website, explains thus: "One of the many virtues of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is how acutely it captures the era in which it was made. Released in 1976, both the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal were still fresh in the minds of the American people, with the overriding sense of disenfranchisement and distrust of the political establishment reflected in the cynical way in which candidate Senator Palantine’s presidential campaign is depicted. The economy was in the doldrums, with New York City only narrowly avoiding bankruptcy the previous year." Taxi Driver also blurred the lines of what is good and what is evil, and presented both qualities in one man. And like the van Gogh of cultural myth, who cut off his own ear, Travis is a visionary artist who lives a resolutely, fiercely solitary life, cut off from the social order. Travis "fuck the state, it's not your mate" Bickle is alienation incarnate and obviously despises the decadence he witnesses. And there is no question that much of Travis' psychological hurt is rooted in political corruption. Josh Cabrita (2015) has argued along the lines illustrated, but also goes further in suggesting that this poetic and heartbreaking ballad is more profoundly a critique of the political landscape in the 1970s and the myths of American society. Another significant thing we must not overlook when discussing this movie is this unconscious undercurrent, the underbelly of this movie: the strong streak of anti-imperialism throughout the film, matched by a feeling of disgust or even superiority and by an intense distaste for vermin, filth, death, and decay. John Thurmane (2007) described this streak thus:

Although the film is told almost entirely from Bickle’s point-of-view, it has a counter-current throughout — a denunciation of American imperialist militarism. The same imperialism that involved Bickle in a war in Vietnam is tied to America’s moral deterioration. While this cannot be said to be the film’s main thrust, a careful examination of Taxi Driver‘s subtext reveals its presence. The film relates the imperialist adventure in Vietnam to earlier American history, revealing a basic continuity, while illuminating its social consequences. Thus it is implied that little will change. Schrader says that “the film never mentions Vietnam, but it’s full of Vietnam language”, and adds that the references are intentionally obscure.

:

Like it says in Galatians 3: so many things did ye suffer in vain!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V_F...nnel=Spiltmilk

[VikLevaPatel]

And it goes without saying that Sydney is under attack from multiple directions. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb's comments about the city's problems hit the bull's-eye. Exactly as she says: "Sadly, Sydney's drug market is one of the largest in the country." I have a slight correction to make about that. And that is, that it is not just one of the largest but THE largest. And the city's problems are expected to get much worse. I mean, as if we didn't have enough problems already. Maybe like this: Cocaine Capital is Sydney -- Keep Your Workers And Your Kids Safe Now. But drugs are not Sydney's only problems. And it comes as no surprise that the city has been named the debt capital of Australia. And, if that wasn't enough, it is also Australia's gambling capital. WELL done, Sydney.


But that doesn't mean we need more gangs, migrants, drugs, clubs, guns, street muggings, poverty, death, workplace abuse and just about anything in need of a good kicking or of forced castor oil drinking. (See the gloriously titled article: "Mussolini punished subversives by forcing them to drink castor oil"). And you could definitely say that gangs, drugs, guns, poverty and migrants are all potential breeding grounds for extremism.

“The syndicate was highly resourced, they were organised, and they were capable of using existing systems and processes within transport and freight industries,” he said. “They were well schooled in what they were doing ... they knew the risks in terms of law enforcement,” and took “every endeavour they could” to go under the radar, he said. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the drugs seized equate to approximately 7.5 million individual deals of ice that will no longer be on our streets and affecting the health of our citizens. “Sadly Sydney’s drug market is one of the largest in the country, with more meth, cocaine and MDMA consumed here than any other state,” she said. “We suspect the impact of this seizure will be felt throughout Sydney and NSW in the coming months.”

https://archive.ph/b5ZVd#selection-2861.0-2861.343

Addressing the seizure on Today, Former Commissioner of NSW Police Mike Fuller praised the work of officers and noted that the synthetic illicit drugs methylamphetamine (MA) is worse than heroin. In fact, it might be much worse.

"Ice is a particularly destructive drug in the community. Heroin was terrible in the '90s, but this is worse," he said. "This is a really destructive drug. So well done to NSW Police...this will have significant impact on supply and demand".

https://archive.ph/aBgvT#selection-2041.0-2057.64

Does that mean it's time to crack open that bottle of bubbly you saved from earlier for some relaxation and romance? And before you buy a three-pack of champagne to celebrate, you're probably wondering how they get through and how they can get away with this, right? This article should help unravel some of the mysteries. (It's aptly titled "The cartel of Australian Mr Bigs responsible for $1.5b drug imports"). To quote Nick McKenzie, Joel Tozer and Fergus Hunter from the Sydney Morning Herald piece dated June 6, 2021:

Australia's most dangerous and wanted crime bosses have organised themselves into a cartel earning an estimated $1.5 billion a year by smuggling drugs past the nation's borders with the help of corrupt government officials and border insiders, the nation's peak criminal intelligence agency believes.

Who could have guessed? And it does help to have your suspicions confirmed. Read it again to let it sink in: "With the help of corrupt government officials and border insiders!" And here's an interesting tidbit: MDMA, or methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine, the main ingredient in ecstasy, was first patented in 1912 by German scientists looking for a substance to control bleeding. As for cocaine, it is, not surprisingly, the drug of choice of the affluent white-collar professionals in Sydney. As noted by Safework Laboratories: In Woollahra, where the average household income is upwards $130,000, there was a 98.8 percent increase of incidents involving the illicit drug. And the way the trading of drug happens on the streets of Sydney is shocking. Mexican cartel activity is already present in Australia and has links to bikie gangs and other crime groups according to the Crime Commission. Mexican drug cartels are certainly targeting Australia, motivated by higher profits. But let's not forget that without customers, there is no business. And that means that the Australian public who are consuming ice and other illicit drugs are assisting organised crime to flourish. In other words, nothing will change. And it won't be changing any time soon. Mexican drug cartels, have, without any doubt, infiltrated Australia and have more power than ever. It's Mexico's Sinaloa cartel that's the biggest supplier of cocaine and ‘ice' to the voracious Australian illegal drug market, as this Channel Seven report reveals. I don't think people have gotten their heads around just how big this market is. And just how big is the illegal drug market? The insightful and in-depth article explains it thus:

Australians spent $9.3 billion last year on illicit drugs, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. That’s around 15 tonnes of ice, ecstasy, cocaine and the returning evil of heroin. Australia is a soft target for the cartels, with about 7,000,000 twenty-foot shipping containers passing through the docks every year. In 2013-2014, for example, just 102,288 were inspected - externally - and 14,788 were examined inside. It’s the easiest and safest way to get the massive amount the market demands into the distribution network.



Where there's money, there's mischief. And it is well known that where there is so much money, there is little incentive to progress. To these other phrases, we can add another few: Where there are customers there is money. And where there's manipulation, there's money. Where there is money, there is power. And where there's power, there's money. And where there is power, there are a lot of silly people. And then there's this definite and endlessly hard-core, hard-edged drug thing and drug-world industry. Drugs and violence--the two are inseparable. And in reality, the two are absolutely inseparable. And you could say that they are as inseparable as — if not more than — politics and war, or form and content, or love and torment, or all forms of life, or forces and motions in machines, or "nation and narration" or "the invention of tradition". Or whatever you want to call it. And above all, the inseparability of sensibility, image, and words, and of the inseparability and interconnectedness of our world. And really, who can disagree with Don Vito Corleone's view that illegal drugs or the illegal drug business should be regarded as 'dirty and dangerous'. Vito Corleone obviously isn't fickle and eager to please and careful not to offend or cause offence.. He's no softie on illicit drugs, either. Not petulant or moody or broody like Sonny Corleone, not even close, and not bothered about giving offence to Virgil Sollozzo. And, of course, you can be and not be at the same time, as in you can be good-hearted but not goody-goody, or be smart but not insufferable. And even after all these years, it's still fun to quote the godfather, the don, directly, word for word. And how haunting and true they remain.

It's true I have a lot of friends in politics, but they wouldn't be so friendly if they knew my business was drugs instead of gambling which they consider a harmless vice. But drugs, that's a dirty business.

You might be surprised how dirty these can get. Oliver Stone, the screenwriter for "Scarface," might as well have said: "I've seen first hand how dirty they can get". Indeed, he risked life and limb for unprecedented access to the drug lords and to inside information. You could even say he was "very lucky" to come out alive. I seem to recall reading that at one point they suspected him of being an undercover. Or a 'chivato', to use the popular term, just as Alejandro Sosa does in the film. And that infamous chainsaw scene of Angel Fernandez's body being severed isn't just some fantasy that Oliver Stone concocted out of thin air, but based on real life, on plausibility. Angel was like another sheep being led to slaughter. Entering that infamous rad art deco building on Ocean Drive must have been like entering an arena or like looking into the pit of hell and "walking through into hell". And feeling like a lost sheep or a sacrificial lamb rather than a gladiator or a centurion or a Greek soldier, or "a waning ace in a room full of busted flushes", to use the superb and unique description of Hydall Codeen. A composite picture of Angel Fernandez emerges. I would describe him as a "sacrificial lamb" for the team and a martyr to injustice and the victim of a drug deal gone wrong. Alas, expensive drug deals frequently and disastrously and not quite plausibly go wrong. He was like a lamb chained in a room full of blood-thirsty hyenas and perished like an unarmed helpless lamb. And, of course, the next sacrificial lamb on the chopping block was to be Tony Montana. Talk about being double-crossed. Simply put, every good invention needs a story, and every story needs a martyr, and it needs miracles. I recall an interview Oliver Stone gave in which he mentions those kinds of behaviors, and even about decapitated body parts found in trash cans and dumpsters (you can't make this shit up). It is at this moment that a relevant quote by Miamian Jew Frank Lopez comes to mind here: "If people would do business the right way, there'd be no fuck-ups like this." If only, if only, if only …




In other related news, Mexico cartel violence leaves several dead and property destroyed after week of fighting. It was the third time this week that Mexican cities have experienced widespread arson and shootings by drug cartels. The cartels appear to be targeting stores, vehicles and bystanders in response to disputes or attempts to capture members by Mexican authorities. Baja California state officials, where the four cities are located, said 24 vehicles had been hijacked and burned at different points throughout the state.

[VikLevaPatel]

War is Not the Answer



6r5k8v.jpg

https://i.imgflip.com/6r5k8v.jpg, https://i.ibb.co/YXZGJLV/6r5k8v.jpg, https://archive.ph/epTUo/8de394ac7d3...c09c44bea3.jpg



All of this and more.

We are manipulated by fear used by the "military industrial complex". Maybe that goes without saying. Don't tell me it is something new and different, and not experienced yet. The Military Industrial Complex-controlled Empire is, of course, never truly well-intentioned. Eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex. And Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Bush as well as Congress refused to challenge the military industrial complex. As for private security contractors, they will be essential assets needed to ensure national security and prevention of total economic collapse. If so, shut the fuck up and stop arguing against this and just accept this and move on. As simple as that. And this goes without saying and is an absolute. I'm talking about heart-pounding fear and confusion and distress, and I'm also talking about "I'm-going-to-die" horror and terror and "This-can't-be-happening-to-me" terror and dread. FEAR indeed dominates our lives in an almost unreasonable and unheavenly and improper manner. And that's to say nothing of White South Africans, who feared expropriation, or of Israelis, who fear extinction. But the quest for immortality, a quest as old as humankind itself, must continue. The quest for immortality knows no borders, of course, but even more importantly, let's not forget that the quest for immortality drives every human activity, and, moreover, that in this quest for perfection there must be poise and gravitas. This fact, of living in fear, hasn't gone unnoticed, and as far back as the 1960s, the Journal of Professional Practice observed along these same lines, revealing the same grasp of thought and a similar breadth and level of apprehension and expression. Which brings us back to our current predicament. The words speak to our current predicament. And the continuing importance and relevance of this thought to our current world cannot be overemphasized, for it is responsible for and it is the key primary source for most of our activities. To quote the Journal:

One cannot deny that the Christian concept of life as practiced is based primarily on fear of the hereafter; and one cannot deny that fear in some form dominates our lives in the United States.

Mercenaries, defense contractors, private security contractors, call them what you like. As unfortunate it may be for some to accept, those who carry guns overseas operating on government contracts are an evil necessity. Not only do private security contractors (PSC's) assist with national security, they help bolster the US economy. Unless the United States is willing to fundamentally change socially, culturally, and economically, we must learn to accept private security contractors as a legit profession. They are part of one of the largest economic enterprises for America--the military industrial complex. None of us have to like it, but we must learn to accept this unfortunate truth.

https://archive.ph/l9JRe#selection-1299.0-1299.334

The Earth Shakes in Asia...

As Hamre’s audience well understood, the U.S. bases in the region have long been considered critical to the Pentagon’s forward-based military strategy in Asia.

Nailing a Triple Alliance in Place Before Trump Takes Power

In the last few years, the Obama administration and the Pentagon have used China’s expanding military might and the never-ending standoff with nuclearizing North Korea to incorporate Japan and South Korea ever more fully into a vision of an American-dominated Pacific. One stumbling block has been the deep animosity between the two countries, given that Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945; later, during the Korean War, which devastated the peninsula, Japan profited handsomely by supplying U.S. forces with vehicles and other military supplies. In addition, Korean anger over Japan’s refusal to apologize for its use of Korean sexual slaves (“comfort women”) during World War II remains a powerful force to overcome.

https://archive.ph/fJwwl#selection-1541.0-1559.259

How can it not be a part of our national psyche? Maybe, just maybe, these expensive wars are a major cause of our recession. We had a huge recession in 1976 that President Jimmy Carter was blamed for right after the Vietnam War ended and one in 1991 after the First Gulf War that hurt President George H.W. Bush's chances for re-election.
Military spending is the "golden goose" that continues to skyrocket with no one ever complaining or questioning it. We are manipulated by fear used by the "military industrial complex". The events of 9/11 became a boon for a defense department already bloated beyond measure.

https://archive.ph/ONZqh#selection-1439.0-1449.275

Why is Washington more right-wing than the rest of the nation? Because that's where power and the establishment reside. Power is by nature conservative -- it wants to protect its current privileged position. That's not nefarious, it's natural. But not acknowledging that is silly. The establishment loves the status quo, because that's what got them their current position. Why would they want to change that? And how can anyone consider themselves a political analyst and not see how far to the right we have moved as a country? Eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex. If he had said that now, people would say he's weak on national security and doesn't support the troops. And he was a Republican. Truman ran on single payer healthcare -- Obama wouldn't even consider that. Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency. Reagan sold arms to terrorists, negotiated with the evil empire, raised taxes eleven times, ran from Lebanon. Are you absolutely sure that Obama is to the left of Reagan?

https://archive.ph/iqiGr#selection-1339.0-1353.80

As for the rot or the mess and confusion that was the Soviet system...

One of the revelations of my book is actually that the rot of the Soviet system, the rot that caused the breadlines, was also seeping into the military, and the shoot down of the Korean airliner was a case study of that rot: the radars didn't work properly and communications equipment failed, and as a result they made a mistake. But they didn't shoot down deliberately. I think it was just complete incompetence...

https://archive.ph/3l4bE#selection-1395.0-1395.416

Herr Hitler's goal turned out to be a blow that they never recovered from.



You cannot end war, and I'm not even really saying I want the war to end, per se, and you cannot end it outright, but you can "bring the war home".

"It's time to bring our investments back home," said Villaraigosa, the newly-elected president of the mayors conference. "We can't be building roads and bridges in Baghdad and Kandahar, and not in Baltimore and Kansas City."

https://archive.ph/midER#selection-1343.0-1347.159

Down with the military-industrial complex!



Reaping the Dividends of War

These are some very valid and noteworthy observations.

Readers respond to Bob Herbert’s Feb. 27 column, “Ike Saw It Coming.”

Don Kadlec, Portland, Ore.: You’ve hit the nail on the head, Mr. Herbert. Karl Rove’s game has been and always will be, hide behind the flag and thump the Bible, and the nation will follow while the money flows into their cronies’ coffers. I won’t go so far as to say they deliberately allowed it to happen, but the September 11 attacks only served to aid this administration’s “cause.” After that, Bush and Cheney had the people in their back pockets … Oh, to have a Republican like Ike in these times. Indeed, though neither man has moved one inch to the left or right, our present administration makes George Will and Bill Buckley look and sound like Ted Kennedy.

Tony Wasserman, San Francisco: Many people have said that a primary reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union was that they invested too many of their resources in the military and national defense, and too little in meeting the other needs of their society. Looking at the proposed military budget of $440 billion not counting the supplemental appropriations for remaining in Iraq, I’m wondering if the U.S. is headed down the same path. We still have national health care, limited resources for education and social services, and a corrupt legislative process funded by corporate contributions. Hurricane Katrina served to highlight the huge chasm between the corporate C.E.O.’s and a large chunk of the population. As the U.S. government continues to encroach on our civil liberties and reduce benefits to families, it creates a greater and greater risk that the U.S. will suffer from its focus on military spending and tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

Daniel Johnson, Calgary, Alberta: You must be aware that Ike originally used the term military-industrial-congressional complex but took congressional out because he didn’t think it seemly to be an outgoing president criticizing congress. My point is that the military-corporate interests did not do this on their own.

Steve Leeke, Richardson, Tex.: No one else has written these important truths. Thank you. We seem to have conflicts every ten years and a major war every generation. You have done a great service in explaining why. We are conditioned to live in fear of war if we don’t have a strong military to the point that unqualified support of the military — and the politicians who support it and exploit it — is equated with patriotism. With the inverse being trotted out to bludgeon the opposition during campaigns — which is all we seem to have any more — governing is now an afterthought.

Richard Ferguson, Stratford, Ontario: An overused word we here is Orwellian, however when one reads the classic, “1984,” you can see parallels with the present day situation in the U.S. The Ministry of Truth, which actually controls propaganda or spin, and The Ministry of Peace which perpetrates a state of war. It was the latter which Ike saw coming, however to have a permanent state of war, you need The Ministry of Peace as it was confusingly called.

Roy Bullis, Laguna Hills, Calif.: Very well written. When I read or hear Ike’s warning about the military industrial complex, it never fails to send a shudder down my spine. As a Vietnam era vet drafted in 1971, I sincerely hope that you will continue to point out the dangers of undue corporate influence on our government. Both those relating to the military industrial complex, and others.

[VikLevaPatel]

This yoga industry, estimated by the Wall Street Journal in 2004 to be worth $42 billion worldwide, is filled with scams that take advantage of people. There's certainly the need to be "wise as serpents" in protecting ourselves "from wolves in sheep's clothing". And these people are certainly wolves in sheep's clothing. There's no doubt about that anymore. I am repulsed by each and every one of them, and even more so by the false teachers, such as Baba Ramdev and Sadhguru, that pop up mysteriously overnight and swindle and hoodwink the public and replace or want to actually replace the 'real sadhus'. Not to mention, they are "artful" exploitative manipulators who take advantage of and play on people's gullibility and vulnerabilities and fears and impenetrable enthusiasm and innocence. Fear and ignorance are indeed a deadly combination. I'll cover in more detail later. All of them are fake, Fake, FAKE!!!Or at least, mostly false. ALL of the time. But the reality is that there is no such fixed entity as a good person or an evil one. And here's some more bad news:

The three ran a yoga network that was accused of being cult-like.

Gregory Gumucio, according to a government release, targeted and groomed typically young women and others to become nominee ‘owners’ of studios, luring them with the title of studio owner when, in fact, he generally controlled business decisions, took a cut of their proceeds, and the nominees generally took on meaningful financial risk. Founded in 2006, Yoga to the People achieved wild success and enviable buzz at its height. Its instructors in the early years included a Swedish reality star, Sofia Kristina Hellqvist, who dated Mr. Gumucio and later married into the nation’s royal family in 2015, becoming Princess Sofia, duchess of Värmland. Hilaria Baldwin, the social media influencer and wife of the actor Alec Baldwin, also taught at the company before opening her own studio in 2010. Teachers themselves were also an important revenue stream. As is the case for many yoga and Pilates studios, Yoga to the People’s teaching training program was a reliable source of income for the business. Offered a few times a year, it cost dozens of aspiring teachers roughly $3,000 each.

Mr. Gumucio was often on the wrong side of the law as a young man. He pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery in 1982, and to theft the following year. He identified himself using aliases like Charles Abbot, Richard Clayton and Paul R. Smith Jr., records show.
In 1986, he was charged with an attempted escape from law enforcement custody in Colorado and sentenced to six years behind bars, records show, but it is unclear how much time he actually served. That same year, he pleaded guilty to motor vehicle theft.
In 2004, a woman in Washington State accused him of rape, but the case was closed when she stopped cooperating with investigators.
In 2020, former students and employees began to share an avalanche of complaints against Mr. Gumucio online. They accused him of sexually preying on teachers and students, using racial slurs in the workplace, discriminating against employees of color, failing to use tax forms and encouraging teachers to conceal their income. The allegations were first reported by Vice News.

https://archive.ph/5jOlR#selection-687.0-719.1

Three leaders of a multimillion dollar international yoga network that promoted itself as “Yoga to the People” before closing down amid published reports that it operated like a cult were arrested Wednesday in Washington State for failing to pay federal taxes while they lived lavishly, authorities in New York announced. Arrested on charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service were Gregory Gumucio, 61, and Haven Soliman, 33, both of Cathlamet, Washington, along with Michael Anderson, 51, of Bellevue, Washington. It wasn’t immediately clear who would represent them at a court appearance in Washington State. The complaint said Soliman had described herself as Gumucio’s husband in a draft of a 2012 email, but it added that no marriage certificate has been located, though they “are long-term romantic partners.”

https://archive.ph/A1wQS#selection-1207.0-1207.528

Although widespread, tax evasions are but the "tip of the iceberg". And even though the taxation agencies are right to tackle the issue, the problem is much deeper. And we have barely begun to fathom what they're capable of! In fact, we've just begun to see what false prophets are capable of, and are only just beginning to fathom what is really going on here and have only recently begun to fathom the staggering extent and near ubiquity of this phenomenon or problem. These nasty creatures are certainly more than capable of abuse in the extreme. As the example of Bhagwan Rajneesh shows. The reality, as the examples below illustrate, is radically different. From naked 'therapy' sessions to an attempt at mass poisoning, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s spiritual movement had it all, says Peter Waight, a British member of the cult. The truth is always stranger than fiction. And no wonder – as the old adage goes. And even trying to "imagine" (futilely, of course) the victims' experiences and feelings chills me to the bone.

10 Shocking Things That Were Allegedly Happening Inside Osho’s Infamous ‘Sex Cult’ In The 80s
Australian Cults: The Rajneesh Movement | Rolling Stone
Bhagwan's Sexism | The New Republic
Wild Wild Country: 'Sex Cult' Member Reveals Truth About Orgies, Sterilizations and Punishments at Oregon Ranch
Growing up in the Wild Wild Country cult: ‘You heard people having sex all the time, like baboons’
‘I joined a commune during lockdown’: Could the booming communal living movement suit you?
MARRIAGE AND OTHER SHAMS
Wild times in the free love Bhagwan cult — it’s a miracle nobody died
Wild Country cult leaders on building their 'con empire' | 60 Minutes Australia
Wild Wild Country: The Story of Bhagwan Rajneesh aka Osho and Maa Anand Sheela (BBC Hindi)

[VikLevaPatel]

Did he also have a fear of seatbelts? Or to put it bluntly, a "fear of frying"? As Jan Harold Brunvand puts it in his 1990 book, Curses! Broiled Again! One reason people give for not buckling their automobile seat belts is fear of the belt itself. What keeps them from buckling up, they explain, is the dread of being trapped by the belt in a burning or submerged car. Transcripts from a U.S. Congress hearing on automobile seat belts back in the 1950s quoted a study of over 1,000 cases that said the human body is quite capable of breaking an approved type belt without evidence of internal injuries, thus allaying any fear that seat belts might be more injurious than protective. And here's the main thing to bear in mind:

Although seat belts are not a panacea for all accident injuries, they will materially reduce critical forces imposed on vehicle occupants at any speed, whether the belts remain intact or not. They will also tend to keep the passenger inside the car where his chance of serious injury is reduced 50 percent.

Unfortunately, this ugly fear hasn't subsided, and there it was again in the Mercedes car. He was visiting the great Zoroastrian fire temple, which is lavishly sponsored by him and his family, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. I also believe a lot of these wealthy Parsi merchants carry Irish passports. With, I might add, great pride. I've done this journey on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Highway, and let this be a lesson in driving responsibility and in the importance of safe driving. The incident certainly spotlights the high numbers of fatalities that Indian roads witness every year. This is an example of what not to do, and it goes without saying that you should avoid being made an example of. I can't say I wasn't worried myself when I was on it. And kept a diligent eye on it! And on my driver.

DEATH comes closer, "like a wave on the horizon, advancing mutely, inexorable," and comes swiftly and silently, like a thief in the night.



Keeping watch and enhanced vigilance is the price of survival.

We are seeing, without any doubt, a series of unprecedented adverse events. The impacts of COVID-19 on driver behaviour are increasing, and are already evident and already being felt and will without a doubt get progressively worse over time.

More than 200 people have died on Queensland roads this year, as experts unpack the ongoing impact COVID lockdowns have had on driver behaviour. Queensland Police Acting Superintendent Janelle Andrews said most of the 202 fatalities would have been avoidable if people had done the right thing. “What we are seeing on the ground is people failing to wear seatbelts, not sticking to the speed limits, driving whilst distracted, and we would like them to not drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” she said. Queensland University of Technology Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety professor Teresa Senserrick said the after-effects of COVID-19 lockdowns were likely still influencing driver behaviour. “It’s hard to pinpoint … definitively why it is so bad this year, but we just can’t rule out the impact of COVID at this point,” she said. Research conducted by the centre surveyed driver behaviour before and after lockdowns, discovering drivers fell into bad habits during COVID, and are still driving dangerously. “There were people [surveyed] that had never previously drunk and driven, but they did during COVID,” she said. “Because they were doing the behaviour and not getting caught, it was reinforcing that you can do this, and not be caught.”

https://archive.ph/0fOYz#selection-637.0-650.0

[VikLevaPatel]

As the saying goes, "death is the great equalizer". And I'm sure this goes without saying. As Stephen T. Um so rightly notes in his book, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross: "Human lives are perishable, and people can do nothing to change that—the greatest athletes and the healthiest individuals in the world meet the same end as the laziest and unhealthy people in the world." Goes without saying, really. Nevertheless, it needs to be said.

BREAKING NEWS: Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022), Britain’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, Has Died



Queen Elizabeth II: her reign in numbers
Queen Elizabeth II dies aged 96
Queen Elizabeth II has died Buckingham Palace announces - BBC News
What happens when the queen dies: Operation London Bridge
WATCH LIVE | Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace after Queen Elizabeth's death

It is time to meet your new King.



Let them eat burgers and fries, I say. It's still better than eating cake or masturbating to porn.



And speaking of death and wealth and royalty, here is an interesting little tidbit:

Take smallpox.

The first known case of the disease was found in the Egyptian mummy of Ramses V, a pharaoh who died in 1157 BCE. He may have been royalty, but the cause of his death was one of the great equalizers of mankind's history. Smallpox reigned for the next 3,000 years. Depending on the outbreak, smallpox killed anywhere from 20 percent to 60 percent of the people it afflicted. In children the death rate was closer to 80 percent. The wealthy died lying on silk sheets, the poor died in cramped rooms, but they all died the same horrible way. Death from smallpox is a painful, ugly, lonely thing. And until well into the 1970s mothers all over the world knew its face.

Law gives sin power. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Human death entered the world through sin; without sin, death has no power—it would have been a moot point. But there is a glimmer of hope. And there is always a ray of hope sent by the almighty director or the universe from above. Of course, as the Women Living Well website also notes: 100% of us are going to die. That stings — but the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 gives us hope!

Nothing, the saying goes, is as certain as death and taxes. But even so. And in truth, there is nothing else in our lives that is as certain as death. For you can certainly avoid paying taxes, especially if you are big enough and can afford accountants, but you can't avoid or escape death. It is simply impossible to escape or elude. Simply put: taxes can be avoided, death can't. Words, of course, matter , and these words in the illuminating and aptly titled book "The Glimpse" (2020) speak volumes:

Each soul must taste death once to know, what death is, before, the final white throne judgment can commence. Death is a permanent condition that will not change. Gone is gone. The ability to recognize this permanence is why each soul must live a flesh existence and taste death once, as an example of what will occur and the finality of it.

[VikLevaPatel]

It is time to meet your new King.



Let them eat burgers and fries, I say. It's still better than eating cake or masturbating to porn.

Sometimes, you bow to tradition, but I seriously don't know how anyone can bow down to the new "king" or emperor. I don't mind Prince William so much. He seems a nice enough fellow, even if a bit mild mannered for certain women's and girls' tastes or preferences. Maybe not to their tastes or to all tastes, but he turned out to be Kate Middleton's choice and certainly her taste. And I'm starting to regard her as a "real gem" for, and a real asset to, the British royal family. They need to be well aware of what a real gem and asset they have to have someone like Kate Middleton to work with and to share the throne with. In attack, she's "an indispensable asset" as well. It should be noted, in this regard, that in contrast to the British royals, European royals are in general far less formal, and are more in tune with the spirit of the times. A family member was once invited to attend a royal ceremony, with the prince himself present and guest of honour, but he refused to go after being told he'd have to bow down to the Prince of Wales. And He Would Bow To No One. He flat-out told the inviters that he refused to bow down to anyone and that he only bowed to God. "I only bow to God," he told them, without hesitation. "I bow to no one," he could have said equally well. “No man and no god. And he certainly is no god. Wait for me to bow to him, and he shall be waiting a very long time." And I challenge anyone to bow down to the stupidity of Chuck the Cuck. The following quote from OLUMBA OLUMBA OBU (2020) is quite telling, and is pertinent to this discussion, and is also illustrative in this regard.

From henceforth you should no longer bow down to any man. More so, in order to avoid problems do not ask anybody to bow down to you.

As for Kate, she should go by her real full name. I happen to like the name Catherine. And as a researcher and philosopher, I've always been fascinated with the past. And I've also long been fascinated with the notion of empire and with the Russian Empire and with the British in India. I've always been "mesmerized" by the minor German princess Catherine the Great (1729-96), who followed the expansionist example of Peter I (the Great), and whose wiles, smarts, ambition, luck, and strategic marriage helped her become Empress of All the Russias. Names do, of course, have semantic values, or meanings (unless, of course, one wants to deny some of it), and it should go without saying that names matter more than we think. And just how good is Catherine, truly? She's terrific. See this YouTube video for an example.

CATHERINE'S SWEET REVENGE: MEGHAN MARKLE'S CAUSED HER OWN DOWNFALL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbSs...ton%26TheQueen

And this one, too.

Catherine, Princess of Wales slaps Meghan's liar a painful: Don't have double standards!

See these YouTube videos for more background information on Catherine the Great, the Enlightened Empress.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ine+the+great+

As both Roger E. Kanet and Dina Moulioukova rightly observe in their book, "Russia and the World in the Putin Era: From Theory to Reality in Russian Global Strategy" (2021), Catherine the Great emphasized the size of Russia as a powerful empire and a tool for securing the safety and well-being of its citizens and stability in international relations.