Palestine and Israel (again)

The world waits to find out if there is to be a ceasefire or not in Gaza.  What happened in October to Israeli civilians was inexcusable, but that does not justify the huge death toll of Palestinian civilians since. While the Israeli government claims to be safeguarding civilians, we know that they are not from the way that three escaped hostages were murdered by the IDF who thought they were just Palestinians. 

These videos are great however. The second one was shown to me by my daughter and sums up the issues there quite well. 

36 points

We did not do that well in the pub quiz last night.  

Yesterday, I did got for a dog walk with my son which I would say was the highlight of my day as it does not happen that often.  We had the son of some friends round and took him to our local pub quiz.  Our usual team, which won last week, was not intact as two were watching Jazz.  Our main rivals sat on the table next to us and got thirty eight points out of sixty, but the wining table romped home with a points score of fifty.

We did have a good night though.  Not sure if Ben will continue to join us, but he would be welcome if he chose to.  

Islamophobia

Apparently, the UK, London and/or Sadiq Khan, is in the hands of Islamists.

Just for the record, I am going to go out for a drink later today and am about to eat some pork sausages.  

In London, while protests against the massacre of civilians in Gaza have taken place, there also have been marches against anti-Semitism.  I have drunk alcohol in London and have eaten pork there as well.  So when people say that elected politicians are in the hands of Islamists, they need to look at nations like Afghanistan and the human rights records of nations like Saudi Arabia.

I know why this has been taking place.  It is to score political points.  I work with a Catholic and I live next door to some.  It would be wrong to blame them for the acts of Catholic terrorism that I grew up with (I actually treated the victims of such terrorism when younger).  My neighbours are from Ireland, they should not be judged on the vile actions of a minority.  

The same applies to Islam and Muslims.  Those on the right are fixating (mostly) on Muslims for now.  If they got their way, it would be other groups next.  

So to put it simply, I think that the comments of Suella Braverman and Lee Anderson are Islamophobic.  If someone made the same comments about how the UK or London are in the hands of Zionists, that would rightly be considered to be anti-Semitic.  But being Islamophobic, while not racism, is based on prejudice and is wrong.  Sadly, it appears to be acceptable in the Conservative party, rather it is unacceptable, but they are unable to accept that these statements are Islamophobic.     

Alabama, IVF and abortion

Until this week, I was convinced that Donald Trump would win the US Presidential election later this year.  But then Alabama made an interesting decision on when human life begins, or specifically that IVF embryo's are to be considered extrauterine children.  

There is no doubt in my mind that human life begins at conception.  But I do not think that we should consider the rights of the unborn until there is the possibility of the unborn child surviving outside the womb.  Loads of women miscarry and this is devastating to many, many of these miscarriages are of pregnancies that would not have had a child that survived after birth, or for very long afterwards.  The use of the coil in women is to ensure that a fertilised embryo does not implant in the womb of a woman.  

While Donald Trump has called for Alabama to protect IVF, as has Nikki Haley, the simple fact is that this decision was made by Republican judges.  This reminder that a Trump victory means the appointment of judges who will back his view for years to come may swing the election in favour of Sleepy Joe.  Assuming he lives long enough to feature in the election!

Kemi Badenoch and the truth

Listening to More or Less yesterday, I noted that the Conservatives have an interesting definition of the truth.  It appears that this has struck again, this time with Kemi Badenoch. Her tweet earlier this week was an interesting one. I did not expect her to be challenged so well on this. Though she may be able to dodge this challenge to her perception of the truth, the intervention of Canada on another claim that she has made has been quite interesting. I missed PMQs yesterday where this was brought up.  It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Alexei Navalny and strength

Listening to The News Agents yesterday, I heard a guest claiming that Putin killing Alexei Navalny was a sign of weakness. He was wrong. Putin learned from the fall of the USSR. The 1991 Soviet coup attempt would probably have succeeded if not for Boris Yeltsin. Putin, a fan of history (though with his own soin that distorts reality) is aware that if Yeltsin had been dealt with sooner, he would not have been present to help organise effective resistance against the coup. By killing potential rivals including the late Boris Nemtsov, he is ensuring that there is no figurehead to take advantage of any instability, should it happen. Remember that this almost came to pass when The Wagner Group marched on Moscow last year. 

At least his rivals are not dismembered while still alive, unlike what has happened with our friend and ally, Saudi Arabia. The ally we have continued to sell arms to despite their use in Yemen. 

Yesterday

Yesterday was fun. After having a lie in, I took my daughter for a drive to Brightlingsea, or rather, with her learning to drive, she took me. We had an interesting discussion about some household chores, but she relented. The drive was a good one, I only had a few concerns with her. She does not like the way I like to stalk other learner drivers, but I do it so that if it happens to her, she will not be too stressed.

The burger van where we normally eat was closed, so we ate at the Lido, where a Leia met a racist dog who did not like black dogs! It was not just Leia as another black dog came in later. But as they forgot our order, we were there for longer than we had hoped. The walk along the front was windy, something I did not consider when I saw rain in the distance. I thought we had about thirty minutes, instead it was on us while walking along the old rail tracks. By the time we got to the end of the walk, we were soaked, but the rain then passed and we were left with sunny skies. Leia had loads of fun running about with another dog on the walk, but needed a bath when we got home, something she does not enjoy.

My daughter had a friend over, so our Sunday dinner had an extra person. My son like the guest so he was happy. He spent the day recovering from his mock exams earlier in the week. After dinner, other than my son, we went to the pub quiz. Our main rivals were not there in force which meant, for the second time ever, we won! We did not expect it and were very happy to do so. But my wife may have volunteered herself to run one of the quizzes this year!