Mailman,

Palestinians dancing in the streets would tend to disagree with you

Indeed, but you haven't established that a mob of yobbos dancing for the cameras in Palestine is representative of ordinary Palestinians any more than that mob of yobbos marching on the Sydney Opera House the other day was representative of ordinary Australians. The situation isn't out of a comic strip. There are some bad people amongst the goodies, and some good people amongst the baddies. I suspect that the total proportion of truly bad people is much the same as it was in Northern Ireland. Those few people, and substantial external funding, is all it takes to keep it going.

Ross Lea,
Thanks. Those were both well worth reading. The comparison of fire-fighting timelines was very interesting (bit neglectful of tomo not to notice you'd already posted that link).

.,
That photo could have done with a health warning. As the tweet suggests, the book title makes a fitting caption for the nearby faces.

So the "Voice" referendum is done and dusted: resounding "no" from the people. Glad of that, though there would have been many better things to do with $300m. Interesting that it failed in all states and territories except the ACT — Canberra — which gives a pretty good indication of who was expecting to benefit from a "yes" outcome.

One good thing was that Jacinta Price rose to prominence. She talks sense and might move the focus from the welfare of activists to the welfare of Aborigines. I can hope.

You can hear her taking questions in this video up until Warren Mundine can stand it no longer and gives the reporters a proper serve: to stop playing "gotcha" word games and take a good look in the mirror now that their cherished "yes" campaign has been thumped by ordinary Australians. He's not terribly coherent — no practised script — but it's heartfelt and might might wake one or two of them up for a while. I can hope.

Are they getting married?

https://twitter.com/NikolovScience/status/1713256551899967515

This from Paul Homewood's blog

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/10/12/car-park-fires/#more-67975

Recommend in particular you read Bob Websters comment. October 12, 2023 11:20 pm

A good look at the myth of settled science from the Daily Sceptic.

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/10/14/the-myth-of-settled-science/

Roberto,

Palestinians dancing in the streets would tend to disagree with you about the average wallah wanting to live in peace with Jews.

They've had generations of racial hatred of Jews ingrained in to them so unless the West goes full denazification or full-post imperial Japan on them nothing will change...and there is piss all chance of that happening when the west shares that racial hatred of Jews.

tomo,
Thanks for the Matt LeTissier item. As you said, he was measured and sensible: kryptonite to the people who want to portray all COVID sceptics as anti-vaxxer loons.

Sydney airport recently had a modest fire too: 5 cars totalled. This time there was no question — a lithium battery was the cause — but the reporting was largely on how unusual this was; the familiar pattern of excuse-making (though it *was* rather odd that the whole battery had been removed).

No doubt, in the washup from the EV experience, lessons will be learned. Why does it always have to be the hard way?

Mailman,
That salutation looks a convenient abbreviation for tomo and me!

I believe the ordinary people of Gaza, and ordinary Palestinians in general, would dearly wish for a "live and let live" relationship with Israel. Unfortunately for them, their home is the central battlefield in an ideological proxy war. That's never a happy gig. And now powerful men have decided to make it a hot war. Doubleplus unhappy. A fair amount of the same goes for the Ukraine.

Robo,

Its the double standards that get me (and yes, without double standards the left wouldn't have any standards what so ever).

They talk about Jews being invaders when in fact they are the indigenous people of the area. They talk about foreign born Jews not being "real" Jews but never speak of foreign born Palestinians as not being "real" Palestinians thus they have no right of return. Only Jews born overseas have no right of return.

The morn the deaths of Ukrainians BUT never speak of the morn the deaths of Ukraniands AND Russians like they do when it comes to Jews AND Palestinians being mentioned in the same breath.

To be honest, there absolutely COULD be peace tomorrow. All that needs to happen is Palestinians accept Israels right to exist and not to try to kill Jews when ever they can. Quite simple really.

And here's the other kicker....Palestinians have been given tens, if not HUNDREDS, of billions of dollars in western foreign aid and what have they done with it? Where are the institutions they have built the further and better the lives of their people?

Compare that to the Kurds in Northern Iraq who dont have the privilege of facing a foe like Israel (who feeds them and keeps their lights on) AND have built a functioning society with a fraction of the support given to Palestinians. I suspect the difference is the Kurds want to live.