It doesn't add up...,
That's the one I had in mind. Hadn't heard that he was a kiddie-fiddler, but after saying it, the article admits there's nothing definitive in evidence. Not a fan of the just the vibe approach to history, the way it's decided that Chopin wrote romantic music so he must have been gay.

tomo,
Local governments might be run a little more carefully if their pensions were to rank lowest in the lineup of creditors when it came to insolvency. I suppose it's exactly the opposite, and still underwritten by the long-suffering taxpayer.

Melbourne had a concrete truck catch fire yesterday. As Cadogan points out, you're not going to solve concrete's CO2 contribution by using electric trucks.

Surely they should have reckoned with the Auk?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Auchinleck

tomo,
Fair enough on "reporter". Another case of drift in word meanings. It *used* to mean a person who relays the facts, but has turned into a synonym for "propagandist".

The only thing Auchinleck meant to me was a commander in WW2 North Africa. Now I can tie it to another place (and another campaign, perchance leading to victory?) Simon Webb is right to criticise the lack of reporting, but what about the lack of policing? Seems to be a pattern. Like with Dublin, it appears the people are replacing the civilised process of leaving it to the police, with something more effective. If/When police start asking themselves do I serve the public, or the government?, that might indicate a nearby tipping point.

On pension investments:

... only 19 per cent of pension savers support their money going towards oil and gas

One reason often used to justify these schemes is the small proportion of people competent to adminster their own portfolios: leave it to the experts. Might it be that that the 19 percent includes *all* the competent people? I suspect so.

In the other article, there are various descriptions along the lines:

require occupational pension schemes to take account of climate change in their investment practices

If the Pensions Minister is correct that the choice "does not need to be between profits or the planet", then surely all they need do is instruct the pension funds to maximise investor returns.

Received a blurb from my state superannuation fund yesterday. They're pretty woke, but I don't get too involved since my stake isn't large in that fund. Was amusing reading between the lines in one section on investor feedback where they started with the usual soft-soap about environmental sustainability, social outcomes, good corporate practices, then:

But fund members said responsible investment should not come at the cost of generating good returns and ensuring investment decisions support the best outcomes for retirees.

blah blah

We thank our members for their robust engagement and for their frank feedback.

Sounds like somebody had his bottom spanked. Unfortunately, I don't think it was taken in the spirit of now go and sin no more.

Listened to the John Anderson interview with John Cleese. Quite enjoyable, and Cleese wasn't psycho-analysing himself quite as much as he usually does in serious interviews. No great surprise that Cleese loathes Trump, but Anderson seemed taken aback when Cleese approved of Biden's thinking. Thinking? While they covered the accurate vision of the future in Life of Brian (I want have babies ... you haven't got a womb ... don't you oppress me), I would have liked them to have contrasted Whoops Apocalypse with today's world (In other news: the President has been taken to hospital for some routine brain surgery).

Tomo,

I had no idea about Auchinleck until 30 second ago when I saw something on the YouTube pointing out there had been rioting there in the last few days.

The last place to get news from is the MSM. I know, sounds awfully conspiracisty right! But the news hasn't been about broadcasting the news for decades but the mfm's opinion on what you should believe.

Sad state of affairs but there you go.

When Labour gets in to power next year, as these "conservatives" are doing a bang up job of getting Starmer installed in to number 10...things will only get worse.

Mailman,
Whatever process led to it, it was an astonishingly stupid question. The po-faced, bovine expression on the interviewer's face while the bloke was giving her a bucketing contributed to my feeling that she was impressively dim.

Here's a critique of a climate propaganda TV doco in Ireland. Nice touch with the UN green helmets coming in to enforce world environmental standards. Let's see them patrolling in China...

"How dim can a reporter be? "

I think this speaks more about the people who came up with these questions to begin with and her lack of incredulity to then repeat the question as if it was a serious question to begin with.

The problem with questions like these is that the reinforce the lefts narrative that Jews are soulless ghouls who actually dont care about anyones life if they are not Jews...as in anyone not a Jew is subhuman.

Serious adults wouldn't ask such a bullsh1t question because unlike intellectual stunted pigmy's serious adults dont have the fetid mind of a racist so wouldn't waste their time pondering such inane questions to begin with.

That she then parroted the question without hesitation really shows us how much hatred the left and the media has for Jews and because of that hatred they are directly fuelling the atmosphere of hate being thrown at Jews (actual hate, not the pretend hate Sadiq things Muslims in Britain need protecting from).

tomo,
AI and EA (and climate alarm, pandemics, etc.) serve some people as Trojan horses for their own grabs for power over people. That's naughty of them, to be sure, but I lay much of the blame on the people taken in.

It's quite enjoyable listening to the sophistry of Peter Singer; it reminds me of when I first read about Zeno's paradoxes: Hmmm. The conclusion is absurd, but I can't fault the argument. In Zeno's case, the problem is with infinity. In Singer's case, it's false axioms. In particular, many of his arguments assume that there is an objective value to a life. That's obviously not true, but if you let it through, his reasoning holds together pretty well.

Some people are believers, attracted to the "cold logic" of it. Other's are attracted by the opportunity to exploit the believers. The Baptists and bootleggers package crops up everywhere. Might rate as an eternal verity of humans.

Scott Adams's result is no great surprise, except that he was foolish enough to spend two days chatting with ChatGPT. Current "AI" is, I think, roughly on par with whatever level of cognition puts together our dreams: it sticks together fragments of memories, fears and ideas from the conscious world in some sort of almost coherent form, but with no basis in reality at all. I'll leave it to Scott Adams to try to interpret computer dreams.

I have laughingly thought in other hostage exchanges that Ah, you really think one of you is worth three of them? Well, I need laugh no more; the question has been asked. Mind boggling. How dim can a reporter be? Very. Video above is positioned at the appropriate moment, but it's not bad to watch from the beginning ("all your stuff's made of oil you idiot").

Brendan O'Neill interview with Melanie Phillips on Israel, Gaza and international hatred of Israel. Well worth a listen, though a long way from the upbeat John Anderson interview I linked to last week.

Javier Milei telling it as he sees it. The Spanish audio only gives me a feel for his vehemence, but the subtitles tell a tale of a worker class and a parasite class (preaching envy, resentment, theft and unequal treatment under the law which is that filthy idea "social justice"). Might apply to some places outside Argentina too.