SpankyMcFarland

What a sad post.

You’re just trolling now. She abandoned an ethnic minority (have a look at those people for a second and tell me if you notice something) and let it be slaughtered. She is an utter disgrace.

I call his name often enough. Are you telling me you’re so cynical about every other human you’ve never been disappointed by one?

Ah now, c’mon there. Our expectations of other humans are not all the same.

I see there is talk of Trump sacrificing another Green Card holder, this time to Erdogan, to cool the heat on MBS. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/white-house-weighs-booting-erdogan-foe-u-s-appease-turkey-n933996 Meanwhile, Trump is looking for a way to avoid blaming MBS for the murder he committed. https://abcnews.go.com/International/president-trump-receives-cia-briefing-jamal-khashoggi-murder/story?id=59265282 If you do business with the Saudis, you constantly run the risk of disgracing yourself

As I have mentioned before, this isn’t just a sectarian pogrom; it’s also a race war against South Asians. Take a look at the people who have been driven out of Burma. Ethnically, they clearly resemble Bangladeshis and Indians. Suu Kyi should have resigned as soon as these despicable crimes against humanity were made known to her; instead, she has chosen to be part of the cover-up. It’s deeply disappointing to watch an iconic figure disgrace herself but that is precisely what has happened.

I’d like to see more pessimism from Pinker on environmental issues like overpopulation, species and habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. We are not seriously addressing these frightening problems. On housing, it is surprising how Canada was a pioneer on housing insulation in the Seventies and is now far behind the Passivhaus standard developed in Germany and Scandinavia.

The Senate race in Texas was fascinating, a Kennedy-Nixon contest where the JFK reincarnation was frighteningly fit. It's hard to believe that Cruz and O'Rourke are almost the same age. While Beto ran an extraordinary campaign, his opponent is widely respected as one of the outstanding legal minds of his generation and the closeness of the election may say more about the changing demography of Texas than the undoubted charisma of the challenger. Anyway, enough of the nonsense, here is Triumph the insult comic dog interviewing the candidates:

Conservatives are already a minority in Canada. Mix two parties with FPTP and you're looking at NDP-style significance for both of them. Politicians are interested in their own conversation in the corridors of power right now, not about subtly shifting the direction of the national political needle for the next generation. That's a job for the likes of Coyne and Co.

Here's an excellent recent article on how doctors were hoodwinked by some of their over-optimistic colleagues and unscrupulous drug companies: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/08/the-making-of-an-opioid-epidemic The dream of a pain-free life turns out to be a dangerous one.

I don’t know if the Germans ever followed through with this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/15/germany-typewriters-espionage-nsa-spying-surveillance

We turned out to be ahead of the curve on this one. Khashoggi’s murder has forced the Americans to review their own relationship with KSA and make a serious effort to downsize the war in Yemen.

Doesn’t everybody have my financial details now? Why leave the government out?

By staying in her position, she’s legitimising a genuine pogrom. Her only honourable course was to resign as soon as this race war began.

MBS is a complete incompetent with no talent for governing whatsoever. Only an absolute monarchy could put a fool like that in charge. His actions regarding Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon have played into the hands of Iran and shaking down the elite for money has created many enemies at home. Rushing reform is more dangerous than going too slowly. Even in a relatively advanced country like Iran, the Shah came a cropper by underestimating the power of the religious establishment. He should be replaced as quickly as possible.

Iraq was a brutal dictatorship under Hussein but, like Iran and Syria, its universities continued to produce excellent graduates as many Canadian patients can confirm. Trump’s mumblings about the Kashoggi murder so far suggest one can kill US residents with impunity as long one buys American gear.

We should have a de facto head of state who is independent of the head of government, as many European countries do.

The best ‘consultation process’ would be a non-binding plebiscite for the post of GG. That way, perhaps, we could circumvent the need for constitutional change and still get a popular GG as de facto head of state whose appointment would have nothing to do with the PM.

The Saudi government may be using Israeli spyware to snoop on dissidents in Canada: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/omar-abdulaziz-spyware-saudi-arabia-nso-citizen-lab-quebec-1.4845179

To some extent. The Norwegians are tougher in these matters than most small nations can afford to be: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-norway-emirates/norway-suspends-arms-sales-to-uae-over-yemen-war-idUSKBN1ES0HG Even in a dispute with China they didn't rush to reconcile: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2017/04/07/government-finally-welcomed-in-china/

Just finished The Human Stain by Phillip Roth which was excellent. Now reading Mythos by Stephen Fry and having a repeat read of Persuasion by Jane Austen. Highbrows may claim that style is all and that the subject matter of a book is irrelevant but I will never warm to an Austen novel. Not enough happens for my liking.

Ozil is a third generation Turkish-German. At that stage you'd think you would consider yourself German. Both he and Germany have some culpability here, Germany for how it confers citizenship and the player for being photographed with such a controversial foreigner as Erdogan. By contrast, Harry Kane's father was born in Ireland but he considers himself fully English.

The British will grovel to anyone for business. Observe their tact on the KSA/Canada spat and their courting of criminal Russian oligarchs.

I am happy to criticize many countries, including Iran. It is an awful regime.

No I am not, as any careful reading of my posts would make clear.