2,362 thoughts on “Open Thread – Tues 25 April 2023”

  1. The beautiful man was in juvenile justice for four years and dealt with the worst of the worst. He once told me there were a number that he would happily take out the back and execute. And sleep like a baby afterward.

    Incarceration isn’t always about punishment and rehabilitation. Sometimes, it is to keep the rest of us safe.

    I have often thought that voluntary capital punishment should be offered to those who cannot be released but also cannot face a life of imprisonment. Surely execution would be kinder?

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  2. I enjoy those old British movies where Father ‘expressed his love’ by going to work and supporting his family. Mother did it by maintaining the home, raising the children and putting a hot meal on the table every night.

    I’m a star.

    6
  3. Anyone else heard the rumour that Lidia Thorpe will be going to London, to carry the Aboriginal flag at the Coronation?

    2
  4. People really want to execute this kid? What he has is not a made up condition. He’s literally brain damaged.

    FASD is the path of least resistance for overdiagnosing. It is fashionable, and makes a diagnosis of ADHD look like you have to climb Everest to get it in comparison, and that’s saying something. It’s also almost impossible to refute.

    I blame his mother.

    So do I. I also blame the 17 year old.

    What will happen is that the 17 year old (I’m deliberately not calling him a ‘kid’) has an excuse, the mother will have an excuse, someone else will have an excuse, and it will be nobody’s fault that a mother and her unborn child are in the ground instead of experiencing life to its fullest, and all that brings (or would have brought) with it.

    Note well that the same people who apparently have this mystical FASD have no problems whatsoever ghosting Centrelink payments, driving cars, sourcing grog, complaining when their free house gets damaged (by themselves) and identifying what and where their ‘traditional lands’ are.

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  5. Jupes – There’s been a fair bit of footage over the last couple months of T-55s being transported around Russia. Before that it was T-62s, which were first sent to the DNR guys then more widely used. Apparently the Russians have a large facility that reconditions these tanks. They also appear to have stored ammunition for them, although I haven’t looked that bit up.

    I suspect T-55s would be easy to train on also. That would be an advantage if newly recruited Russians needed to be trained.

    Not so different on the other side. The Germans were a couple months ago buying Leopard Is back from a guy they’d sold them to, so they could be sent to Ukraine. A tank is a tank, in supporting role. It has a decent gun and machine guns and without serious AT any infantry is at a serious disadvantage.

  6. And I was not aware of the back story dot was evidently exercised by as I have zero interest in the personal lives of media figures, mainstream or alternative.

    2
  7. Luzu

    I have often thought that voluntary capital punishment should be offered to those who cannot be released but also cannot face a life of imprisonment. Surely execution would be kinder?

    Describe it as “voluntary euthanasia”, and watch the PC tie themselves in knots rejecting the very idea as inhumane, though they are quite happy for the mentally ill (among others) to ask to die.

    4
  8. johannasays:
    April 28, 2023 at 6:06 pm
    calli – absolutely agree. No-one really knows what goes on in a couple relationship except the couple – and sometimes even they don’t know.

    In the case I cited, I could see that things were not going well for quite a while before. But, when it all came crashing down, he behaved like a victim, which he was not.

    On depression. Theodore Dalrymple has written about the immense harm done by people who are feeling a bit low (under the mistaken impression that our lot in life is to be perpetually happy) being diagnosed by compliant or money hungry practioners as ‘suffering from depression.’

    8 months ago my oldest friend committed passive suicide. His wife left him 3 years ago. He gave up, stopped taking diuretics even though his lymphoedema was so severe his legs were constantly leaking fluid.

    80%+ of depression diagnoses are made by GPs. It isn’t about money, it is about desperation. So desperate they are not using street drugs. Funny incident when I wasted my time seeing a psychologist. She asked if I had suicidal ideation. I replied that anyone serious about suicide isn’t going to tell anyone. A cruel response on my part but it was spontaneous. A similiar thing happened when I saw a psychiatrist 15 years ago. Within a few minutes I heard a buzzing sound behind me and ignored it. It happened again a few minutes later, I turned around to see a teddy bear on the shelf behind me. I knew he was triggering the buzzing, testing for the startle response, an indicator of heightened arousal. It would have been a valid strategy except I knew about the startle response.

    4
  9. I reckon the situation for the Ukes is the same for the Nazis in say, mid-1944; losing on all fronts but putting their faith in the ‘super weapons’

    Snap jupes, except that I hadn’t typed it out.

    “Hold tight! The wunderwaffen will be deployed any day now*……’

    Yeah righto.

    *Deliberate mUntler reference.

    3
  10. With FAS, the Defence amounts to – he/she can’t control themself, so please release them into the community asap.

    There has to be a better way.

    Also, how is the Aboriginal nomenklatura responding?

    Crickets.

    The important thing is well paid, preferably permanent, jobs, which have no requirements for attendance or output.

    5
  11. At 6.00:

    Just as we were watching for, as mentioned in the past 2 updates, in light of the new solar storm arrival, to keep watch for a flurry of new deep earthquakes, and potential very large deep activity.

    Everybody! Stop working underneath your cars!

    I warned you! I warned you alllllllll!!!!!!1!

    1
  12. What will happen is that the 17 year old (I’m deliberately not calling him a ‘kid’) has an excuse, the mother will have an excuse, someone else will have an excuse, and it will be nobody’s fault that a mother and her unborn child are in the ground instead of experiencing life to its fullest, and all that brings (or would have brought) with it.

    Fare enough,KD.

    He should have been in an institution.
    His sentence is to short.
    He should be put into a institution for life after parole.

    9
  13. Well, another comment I wrote has gone into the ‘duplicate’ comment never-never when I press submit again after it fails to engage only to be told it’s in line, when it isn’t.

    In it I suggested to John H that he should get up and do a simple Mr. Motivator with me. I know Calli said that doesn’t work in deep depression and she is right, I think John H needs meds right now, but if he’s able to blog I say it on the off chance he’s able to stand up from his chair and join me in some movement. In two minutes time.
    Other welcome. 🙂

    2
  14. Lazy friday job- went in to town, to dig up a Hills Hoist from the yard of a house that was due demolition to expand a daycare. House lot is being used as overflow parking for Dept of Community Services style child counselling centre. Could hear banging and shouting from the building, and more distressingly, chooks going mental in the ill-advised petting coop when some brat came out to give them a kicking.
    As I slogged away- the clothesline is a twelve foot beauty, but was anchored in the sand with a huge lump of boondie-filled cement- one bird came to and fro the car park, getting coffees four-in-hand and running out for printer ink etc. Her bold and roving eye betrayed for what she indeed was, an American. Chatted as I stopped gasping for air long enough to have a drink offered- things busy now school’s back? Oh no, she says, the busy times are school holidays, mothers book their kids in as a form of daycare.
    So they can keep working? Nope, they’re going to Bunbury shopping or off to the salon for a four hour roots job.
    Oh… so, new kids? What can you do for them with such a short contact time? Oh no, they’re the regulars, they just get double contact time.
    Regulars? Yep, there’s kids on the books who have been coming in for three sessions a week, four or five years in a row.
    …It must be a bit trying on your own mental health? Oh I don’t even speak to any kids, they’re just names on the screen to me. I’m in admin, I just do a few months at a time as I travel, then have a few months off.
    …I got a bit uncomfortable with how uncensored her commentary was, so I switched the subject to me. I pulled up short of asking her if the whole boondoggle was a make-work scheme, to keep on harvesting subsidies while kids actually kept on coming because they get genuine engagement.

    4
  15. I think just like we don’t know what goes on in a marriage, we also don’t know what happens between parents and children, there’s always more than “one side” in relationships breaking down, in separations, in divorces, and in family splits. I suppose that’s why I found Bolt’s interview with Thorpe’s father tacky, rather ironic given Bolt’s incessant, fervent and very puritanical denunciations of Latham and Carlton for “tackiness”. There are many reasons to dislike Lidia Thorpe, her broken relationship with her father is not one of them, and it may well have contributed to her immaturity and attention seeking.

    I don’t know what happened in Crowder’s marriage, and it’s none of my business. I watched him a few times and I didn’t think much of his political analysis or his adolescent humour.

    I am the child of divorce, I think whilst my father must bear primary responsibility for the marriage breakdown, it’s taken me years to realise that my mother also bears some responsibility. Having said that, I love them both dearly, they are my mother and my father, and without them I wouldn’t be here.
    However divorce damages children, and I carry emotional scars that still haunt me, although I try to hide them from the world.

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  16. There is much commentary about the contradiction of so much migration and the housing crisis. I suspect DisAlbo has a solution: preferential housing for the migrants. If they do that, they will try to hide it.

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  17. Doing some testing and work with Chat GPT (4.0) last few months. Its very good for reviewing software codes to find issues that simple tests cannot, its also good for checking system design and generating documents about systems. Is it producing novel or new stuff for this domain? Maybe not but its very useful as a second pair of eyes on code and generator of docs.

    One other point, version 4.0 is quite different and way more advanced than 3.5, something has changed in the way openAI trains or calibrates the model and it “seems” much smarter. This is backed up by the scores published by open ai @ https://openai.com/research/gpt-4

    It may not seem to be very impressive now for your particular use cases but watch the space as GPT and other LLM models are evolving fast.

    2
  18. He should be put into a institution for life after parole.

    Most of those institutions were closed in the 1990s.

    6
  19. Whew. Well, John H. I’m all done, hope you kept up too. Only twelve minutes but the heart rate goes up and the good endorphins start to flow. Did you get to ‘go swimming’, and how about a bit of a Charleston in the free style at the end? No need for special shoes or clothes. Just whatever you are wearing at the time. I’ve done it barefoot in my nightie before today. The joy of movement with dance.

    5
  20. He should be put into a institution for life after parole.

    He may well find himself murdered, in the name of “payback.”

    6
  21. You can get Mr. Motivator online for short workouts Day 1 to 14 for free, no need to join anything, just do it when you like, at the level you want. Here’s Day 9, where you can also use hand weights (cheap in K-Mart), for a slightly longer and harder workout. Who could feel down with that best West Indian pushing you to get up and out of yourself?

    I’m an optimistic sort, perhaps because I’ve danced all of my life and I’m not stopping now.
    You can do Mr. Motivator seated on a chair if you wish.
    In our dance group of 25 regulars for coffee afterwards, there are five over eighty now.
    We dance for longer and much harder than Mr. M. requires, using jazz, some hip hop, and ballet.
    The instructor will be a member of Team Eighty later this year. She’s superb.

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  22. There’s so much to choose from but rather than just link to Week in Culture here is a standout example of totally fu.ked in the head behaviour. Sara Jablonski is the principal of Vermont Founders Memorial school where equitable marking is done; which is to say everyone gets equal marks and boys are persons who produce sperm and girls are persons who produce eggs, Sarah should be stripped naked and put into the stocks for a week and then thrown into the desert as punishment for child abuse. Here is the bitch in all her glory:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-MUYiwUs8

    4
  23. Lizzie, stop.

    Just stop.

    Nobody cares about your geriatric product promotions.

    You are embarrassing yourself even more than usual.

    17
  24. bespokesays:
    April 28, 2023 at 6:49 pm
    I enjoy those old British movies where Father ‘expressed his love’ by going to work and supporting his family. Mother did it by maintaining the home, raising the children and putting a hot meal on the table every night.

    I’m a star.

    I don’t want to push this barrow too far. Emotional neglect is a negative type of childhood trauma. When the 2 working parents became a thing I used to argue that it could lead to an increase in teen and adult anxiety. My thought arose from Bowlby’s “principle caregiver” hypothesis. There is abundant evidence that mood disorders are strongly associated with childhood issues.

    Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis suggests that continual attachment disruption between the infant and primary caregiver could result in long-term cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties for that infant.

    5
  25. Recommended: Hitler: The Rise Of Evil, a 2003 two-parter with Robert Carlyle, Stockard Channing, and Peter O’Toole, amongst others.

    Charts his time in early Germany, WWI, the beer-halls, and prison, and then onwards. A bit of a simple presentation but all involved do a god job.

    Interesting – there don’t seem to be that many dramatisations of the early Hitler and associates’ lives. Come to think of it, none I have heard of regarding the other two main maniacs of the 20th century, Mao and Stalin.

    5
  26. He may well find himself murdered, in the name of “payback.”

    Prisoners are rotated between prisons to avoid such things nowadays.

  27. cohenite, that appalling outfit didn’t even have a basic understanding of human anatomy and development.

    A newborn baby boy does not produce sperm, nor does one in the group they were aiming at.

    Women do not ‘produce’ eggs. They are not chickens. The eggs, or the beginnings of the eggs, are there from the time their sexual characteristics are developed in the womb.

    These people are perverts.

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  28. I am the child of divorce, I think whilst my father must bear primary responsibility for the marriage breakdown, it’s taken me years to realise that my mother also bears some responsibility. Having said that, I love them both dearly, they are my mother and my father, and without them I wouldn’t be here.
    However divorce damages children, and I carry emotional scars that still haunt me, although I try to hide them from the world.

    Ditto for me, Cassie, re my parents, and for my own first marriage breakdown and its effects on the two children, both sons, of that marriage. Except that growing into old age, my own childhood and adolescent scars are diminished. I’m more inclined to feel sorry for my parents now than for myself, for their times were harder. My attention now turns to all of my children, and helping them to parent their own children well, by assisting financially where it matters and by listening and being there. I never judge them. I cannot. Life throws so many curved balls. My daughter has just received a big one. All is not well with her third child, a little boy now nearly three, with developing heart problems.

    9
  29. johannasays:
    April 28, 2023 at 6:59 pm
    With FAS, the Defence amounts to – he/she can’t control themself, so please release them into the community asap.

    There has to be a better way.

    Also, how is the Aboriginal nomenklatura responding?

    Crickets.

    The important thing is well paid, preferably permanent, jobs, which have no requirements for attendance or output.

    The Aboriginal nomenklatura babble on incessantly about the “Stolen Generations”, but say not a word about the generations destroyed by FAS. Not “stolen” by eeeeevillll whities, but destroyed by their own families and communities. How many are in the “Destroyed Generations”, compared to even the wildest estimates for the “Stolen Generations”?

    At least many of those “stolen” went on to lead full and productive lives. How many of those destroyed by FAS will? How many other lives will those affected by FAS destroy because they cannot control their own impulses?

    10
  30. More schlock.

    Don’t forget to remind us (because we all care, deeply) when you are going to bed, except that you will be monitoring comments in case your name is mentioned. Then, you will be wide awake.

    Frauds and schlockters gotta …

    10
  31. Kamala’s Affair – Sleeping Her Way to The Top

    “Since the MSM is shining a light on Trump’s affair, it is only fair to point out similar actions taken by those on the other side of the aisle. Kamala Harris is not a particularly intelligent or charismatic individual, but she managed to work her way to the top by dating men in positions of power. In the 1990s, 29-year-old Kamala Harris dated married 60-year-old San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Harris was 31 years younger than Brown, who was married with a family at home.

    Harris accompanied Brown on his campaign trail and made connections along the way. She cannot deny the affair and claims that it is now “an albatross hanging around my neck.” Clinton used to call Brown “the real Slick Willie” for his playboy ways, which is saying something coming from blue dress Bill. “The measure of his flamboyance is he’ll go to a party with his wife on one arm and his girlfriend on the other,” James Richardson, a reporter for the Sacramento Bee told People Magazine in 1996.

    New San Francisco mayor Willie Brown points out his new hat “Da Mayor” as he claimed victory Tuesday night, December 12, 1995, while at his victory party in San Francisco. (CONTRA COSTA TIMES/JON MCNALLY)1995

    Kamala Harris secured a job at the California Medical Assistance Commission through Slick Willie, although she had no medical background. He also appointed her to the state’s Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. She was later appointed as the district attorney in San Francisco in 2004. Meanwhile, Slick Willie was under investigation for gifting his friends city contracts. He never came under fire for promoting Harris to positions of power. But by then, Harris was on her way to becoming attorney general and did not need the support of her older married boyfriend. “His career is over. I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing,” Kamala shrewdly stated. Still, Brown assisted her in her 2016 bid for the Senate and spoke favorably of her over the years.

    Harris refuses to acknowledge that her time as Slick Willie’s mistress is what propelled her career. Brown is not remaining quiet. “I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians. The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I ‘so much as jaywalked’ while she was D.A. That’s politics for ya.”

    But it is (D)ifferent! And that, folks, is how the leading world power found its second-in-command with absolutely no qualifications for the job.”

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/kamalas-affair-sleeping-her-way-to-the-top/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

    6
  32. Nobody cares about your geriatric product promotions.

    You don’t care, Johanna, but other might and some have said here that they do.
    These exercise classes are not promotions, nor geriatric, they are free. The leader was given an MBE in Britain for his work in getting depressed people of all ages and physiques through Covid lockdowns.
    You are free to scroll, although given your arthritis and depressive illness I suspect you might be wise to stand up and try to move a bit, it might improve both your physical being and your negative outlook.

    13
  33. John H.says:
    April 28, 2023 at 7:07 pm
    There is much commentary about the contradiction of so much migration and the housing crisis. I suspect DisAlbo has a solution: preferential housing for the migrants. If they do that, they will try to hide it.

    That solution has been used for some time for “asylum seekers/refugees”. Extending it to legal immigrants is quite logical from the bureaucratic point of view.

    4
  34. The offer of a coffee still stands, Johanna. There are many reasons why it might be of value to you to meet me face to face; obsessions are best confronted in the flesh. But you will have to get in touch if and when you come to Sydney, as Canberra isn’t on our agenda this year.

    Time for me to make a salad to accompany our steak tonight.
    Then it’s another round of Rogue Heroes.
    So if it’s important to you that I say goodnite I will say so now. 😉

    8
  35. Silly move, Rita.

    ‘Kate’ Jenner is not the friend of the women’s cause; he is not the ‘good’ side of trans.

    Why do conservatives fall for this trap time and time again?

    16
  36. You are free to scroll, although given your arthritis and depressive illness I suspect you might be wise to stand up and try to move a bit, it might improve both your physical being and your negative outlook

    Meoww!

    Thanks for further information about your gutter rat origins.

    Nasty.

    9
  37. Lizzie:

    John H, Dr. BG’s advice re exercise is good (although I can’t agree that killing off foetal alcohol syndrome 17 year olds is a good thing; these sad kids, mostly aboriginal, need a group home with care and guidance not wandering around bored looking for excitement; mostly prison serves as that these days because their craziness ends them up there; all part of the intractable problem).

    Lizzie. The FAS kids aren’t getting what they need because the system denies it. Yes they need a group home with supervision. We’ve tried that approach. “Another stolen generation”.
    The people getting rich off this failed system don’t want it fixed because if it does get fixed, they lose an income for life.
    Do you want to fix the problem? Remove ALL the money. It’s the money that is feeding this nightmare, but no one will turn the tap off because ‘rights’.
    Either turn off the money or be stuck with the FAS kids for the next 20 generations.
    The problem isn’t intractable, people want to feel good about handing out the munni, but that only salves their consciences – it doesn’t solve the problem.

    8
  38. You are embarrassing yourself even more than usual.

    6

    No. This is the embarrassment, and it is not to me. Only fools join in this sort of upticking.

    My salad days are calling. 🙂

    9
  39. Bespoke:
    Robert

    It not you its me. I really should lower my expectations and expect the “kill them all” fantasises is all you and Drbg have.

    That’s a disgusting jibe.
    We want the problem solved. Your way doesn’t solve it but it does give you a warm inner glow that you are doing “something”.
    Again, Life isn’t fair, the universe sometimes hands out shitty deals to people who don’t deserve it.
    So this kid has killed two people because the “He Has Rights” argument has failed.
    What next? Let him out in 3 years time and let him do the same thing? Because as sure as God made little green apples, he will be a repeat offender. Or don’t his victims have rights?

    11
  40. “My daughter has just received a big one. All is not well with her third child, a little boy now nearly three, with developing heart problems.”

    Awful news Lizzie, I’m sorry to hear this, we’ll speak soon.

    6
  41. I believe my life is sacred, a murderer’s isn’t…

    It depends.
    Nobody is beyond redemption.

    That’s a theological position and not borne out by the facts. Truth is, some are irredeemable, and finding out which is expensive in innocent lives.

    9
  42. What next? Let him out in 3 years time and let him do the same thing?

    No and have said so up thread.

    Or don’t his victims have rights?

    Assisting victims families and lobbying for tuffer more consistent laws is a weakly accurace in my house, winston.
    I’m no softy.

    1
  43. Top Ender says:
    April 28, 2023 at 7:33 pm
    Recommended: Hitler: The Rise Of Evil, a 2003 two-parter with Robert Carlyle, Stockard Channing, and Peter O’Toole, amongst others.

    Charts his time in early Germany, WWI, the beer-halls, and prison, and then onwards. A bit of a simple presentation but all involved do a god job.

    Interesting – there don’t seem to be that many dramatisations of the early Hitler and associates’ lives. Come to think of it, none I have heard of regarding the other two main maniacs of the 20th century, Mao and Stalin.

    Sorry I thought it was crap.

    Robert Carlyle was awful as Hitler – just a caricature of a ranting madman – no subtle or nuance as to how the man bewitched so many into the abyss. It totally put off balance the rest of the two-part mini series.

    Hopefully one day, someone will make a decent TV series/movie of the period as it’s a fascinating piece of history.

    Bruno Ganz’s performance as Hitler in Downfall for me is the best performance of this monster (followed by Anthony Hopkins in The Bunker).

    8
  44. Winston Smithsays:
    April 28, 2023 at 7:56 pm

    Lizzie. The FAS kids aren’t getting what they need because the system denies it. Yes they need a group home with supervision. We’ve tried that approach. “Another stolen generation”.

    It is an absolute disgrace. All this voice rubbish ignores the fundamental problem that so many indigenous issues come down to personal behavior. They’d be better off spending the money on social workers and alcohol addiction services. I’m fed up with it Winston. I doubt I could tolerate being at the coalface of all this.

    9
  45. Truth is, some are irredeemable, and finding out which is expensive in innocent lives.

    Doc, I didn’t say murderers should be released from prison.
    I said they were not beyond redemption.

    4
  46. That’s a theological position and not borne out by the facts. Truth is, some are irredeemable, and finding out which is expensive in innocent lives.

    It’s a calculation. My way, I kill some who are in fact redeemable. Your way you kill some by letting someone who isn’t in fact redeemable back into society. The question is, which number is smaller? I don’t think either of us know, but you are holding on to an optimistic dogma, and I’m more pessimistic about human nature.

    6
  47. Doc, I didn’t say murderers should be released from prison.
    I said they were not beyond redemption.

    Ok, provided they get an offer of euthanasia if they think being dead beats life in gaol.

    4
  48. Anyway, the kid gets out in 26 months, if he lives that long.
    Bottom line:
    Pregnant woman takes toddler to prearranged fight between her husband and others = play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

    1
  49. a 2 kg concrete block you say

    thats about half a brick

    a standard hollow masonry block is more like 10 kgs

  50. you kill some by letting someone who isn’t in fact redeemable back into society

    No one is pushing for that, DrBG.

    1
  51. Having a look at the RBA Money and Credit statistics, Item D4, Debt Securities Outstanding.

    I charted total foreign held privately issued bonds (eurobonds) to our total of residential mortgage backed securities (rmbs), and the proportion of foreign held privately issued bonds to residential mortgage backed securities.

    In recent months, eurobonds have risen steeply (up 6.2% in six months) as a proportion of rmbs (up 12.2% in six months to 85.1%) but the total of rmbs has fallen steeply (down 5.4% in six months).

    On top of this, having the RBA cash rate fall relative to the US Federal funds rate will mean the capital flow into Australia won’t occur from interest rate parity arbitrage. The wholesale rate that AFG and Macquarie etc then package to other banks and NBFIs must go up.

    So there is pressure on mortgages, perhaps many unsustainable, unsound mortgages.

    Now, looking into D5 (Bank Lending Classified by Sector), conversely since 2004, there is a downward trend in the month to month growth of owner occupier and investor mortgages. Down from around a six month moving average of monthly growth at 0.94% and down to around 0.64%.

    4
  52. The really crazy W.A. story is the woman who was turned away from a Refuge and went home and killed the kids and burnt the house down.

    The Prosecution confirmed that they’re not seeking Life Without Parole.
    I mean, FMD, Life Without Parole?
    It’s not like she’s a dangerous psychopath, she’s just a fairly average Indigenous woman with a quick temper.

    1
  53. Bespoke:
    What is there to apologise about?
    You think one way out of this problem will work, I think another will.
    It’s just a difference of opinion.
    You think I’m wrong, I think you’re wrong.
    It won’t make a jot of difference because we both have no effective say in the matter.
    The ones who can change things aren’t interested – they only want the munni and the power.
    All the people in the camps are less than the dust beneath their chariot wheels.

    7
  54. “Bruno Ganz’s performance as Hitler in Downfall for me is the best performance of this monster (followed by Anthony Hopkins in The Bunker).”

    Agree.

    3
  55. DrBeauGansays:
    April 28, 2023 at 8:16 pm
    I believe my life is sacred, a murderer’s isn’t…

    It depends.
    Nobody is beyond redemption.

    That’s a theological position and not borne out by the facts. Truth is, some are irredeemable, and finding out which is expensive in innocent lives.

    There was experiment with psychopaths. They decided to try and rehabilitate them. One was released and committed a murder within days. Other psychopaths stated all the psychology did was give them better psych manipulation strategies against their victims. It isn’t always true, perhaps now they have better interventions, but if the changes in brain function are pronounced no.

    The issue is also complicated because there are “silent” psychopaths. Those are people who recognise their condition but manage to conceal it. They are probably the ones with less pronounced brain damage, sufficient frontal lobe inhibition(see below), and above average intelligence. The use of the label used in relation to the frequencies encountered in various professions is a misleading generalization.

    Fallon’s 3 legged stool idea. 1. A family history of psychiatric disorders(genes). 2. Childhood maltreatment. 3. Brain dysfunction, either in the “emotional centre”(heightened) or the frontal lobes(which, broadly, inhibit impulsive behavior) or both. Fallon, a neuroscientist, demonstrates psychopathic tendencies but doesn’t meet the 3 requirements to be full on evil but he has a history of doing some very callous things.

    In fact, in one very disturbing study in 1991, those psychopath inmates who were a part of group therapy actually had a higher violent recidivism rate than those psychopaths who received no therapy. As one psychopath put it, “These programs are like a finishing school. They teach you how to put the squeeze on people.”

    4
  56. a 2 kg concrete block you say

    Could be anything.
    My guess:
    Piece of Concrete rubble as big as your hand containing 6mm steel mesh protruding, the mesh either severed an artery or it was embedded in her head and some helpful person pulled it out.

  57. It won’t make a jot of difference

    If all one does is rant on the internet then I agree, Robert. We had a small win last week every bit helps.

    1
  58. Is that a Margin Call moment, Dot?
    Are you handing us your analysis on a USB and telling us to “be careful”?

    3
  59. All the people in the camps are less than the dust beneath their chariot wheels.

    You cannot charge entry to the museum if you have no exhibits.

    2
  60. James Lindsay, in a recent, unscripted, 25-minutes-long speech to the European Parliament gives a brilliant explanation of what “woke” is, its ontogeny and its metamorphotic evolution from Marxist doctrine.
    The truly cancerous set of ideas designed to destroy the West and impose Communism despite “workers'” satisfied needs under Western Capitalism.
    So good that I downloaded the transcript, to produce a study document.

    A real tour-de-force, well worth spreading.

    16
  61. We might see a collapse in dinky mortgages without much of a collapse in housing prices and further contraction of the long term growth rate of mortgage and dwelling construction.

    It may not just be the millennials complaining about housing. Even their children (Generation Alpha) might complain too as well as the Gen Zs.

    2
  62. There is a huge difference between what is diagnosed as depression today which is usually reactive depression that typically lifts of its own accord. Mine is biologically mediated depression, twice over. Worlds apart.

    What I would describe (unqualified that I am) as Situational vs. Chemical Depression. Although I think people mean well, it’s very difficult to explain.

    5
  63. Dr Jason Fung will likely have a lot of problems with this. There is also the benefit of insulin resistance changing. I’ve seen some awful meta studies by the Cochrane Review group. Fung specialises in treating diabetes and kidney complications.

    Why Many People Are Abandoning Intermittent Fasting
    Dr Brad Stanfield Apr 18, 2023

    Intermittent fasting does more harm than good from the current research that we’ve got. The clinical guidelines do not promote it, and other medical doctors such as Dr Peter Attia warn of the dangers of losing lean muscle mass

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3-EW7nWCbU

    He quotes some terrible papers. Skipping breakfast is associated with fatties? Is it because they’re trying to lose weight? I used to skip breakfast a few years ago and I was in great shape. Needed to buy a new (smaller) belt actually.

    Or it could be, as it is known that drugs can work differently on different people due to genetics, that there isn’t a single overall weight management strategy that works the best for everyone. Also too, during your life, some genes are switched on and off.

    2
  64. Isn’t this alarming in light of mRNA vaccines?

    https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/92931/human-cells-can-write-rna-sequences-into-dna-study-shows/

    Human cells can write RNA sequences into DNA, study shows

    For the first time, scientists have found evidence that polymerase theta can write RNA segments back into DNA.

    By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review)

    14 June 2021

    Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University, US, have provided the first evidence that RNA segments can be written back into DNA. According to the researchers, these findings potentially challenge a central dogma in biology and could have wide implications.

    Cells contain polymerases that duplicate DNA into another set that goes into a newly formed cell. These also build RNA messages so they can be read more efficiently into proteins. Polymerases were thought to only work in one direction – DNA into DNA or RNA. This prevents RNA messages from being rewritten back into the master recipe book of genomic DNA. However, the study sheds new light on this process.

    “This work opens the door to many other studies that will help us understand the significance of having a mechanism for converting RNA messages into DNA in our own cells,” said Dr Richard Pomerantz, one of the lead researchers. “The reality that a human polymerase can do this with high efficiency, raises many questions.”

    2
  65. Link to research

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf1771

    Home
    Science Advances
    Vol. 7, No. 24
    Pol? reverse transcribes RNA and promotes RNA-templated DNA repair
    Open access
    Research Article
    BIOCHEMISTRY
    Share on

    Pol? reverse transcribes RNA and promotes RNA-templated DNA repair

    Gurushankar Chandramouly, Jiemin Zhao, Shane McDevitt, Timur Rusanov, Trung Hoang, Nikita Borisonnik, Taylor Treddinick4 Felicia Wednesday Lopezcolorado , Tatiana Kent and Richard T. Pomerantz +8 authors

    Science Advances
    11 Jun 2021
    Vol 7, Issue 24
    DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf1771
    44,265
    32

    Abstract
    Genome-embedded ribonucleotides arrest replicative DNA polymerases (Pols) and cause DNA breaks. Whether mammalian DNA repair Pols efficiently use template ribonucleotides and promote RNA-templated DNA repair synthesis remains unknown. We find that human Pol? reverse transcribes RNA, similar to retroviral reverse transcriptases (RTs). Pol? exhibits a significantly higher velocity and fidelity of deoxyribonucleotide incorporation on RNA versus DNA. The 3.2-Å crystal structure of Pol? on a DNA/RNA primer-template with bound deoxyribonucleotide reveals that the enzyme undergoes a major structural transformation within the thumb subdomain to accommodate A-form DNA/RNA and forms multiple hydrogen bonds with template ribose 2?-hydroxyl groups like retroviral RTs. Last, we find that Pol? promotes RNA-templated DNA repair in mammalian cells. These findings suggest that Pol? was selected to accommodate template ribonucleotides during DNA repair.

  66. We might see a collapse in dinky mortgages without much of a collapse in housing prices

    Pol, thanks to the Unipardee’s enthusiastic post Schlockdowns resumption of the mass immigration phenomenon, housing prices in the capital cities are starting to soar, again.

    It is truly incredible that the locals are putting up with it. I wouldn’t be a renter for (dead) quids. Their elected representatives are importing multiple hundreds of thousands of “migrants” who are effectively pricing them out of the housing market forever, both for (potential) buyers and actual renters.

    It demonstrates a truly staggering level of stupidity rarely ever matched in human history, except in decadent degenerate societies that lost the will to even make the most token effort to survive.

    This staggering stupidity is of course, not just confined to housing “policy” – it is evident everywhere – gerbil worming, women with penises, fabricated native “rituals”, rampant “wealth redistribution”, the abandonment of the concept of merit, the policing of everything except crime, nayzees suddenly becoming fashionable (again), the rise of a new caste of beyond criticism pharisees, while everything else that has lifted humanity out of grinding poverty is decreed to be racist, sexist and LGBQWERTYist, leavened with all the other insane collectivist crackpottery we have deafeningly thrust in our faces every bloody day.

    However, other than those minor inconveniences identified above, save your sh*tcoin and treat yourself to some smashed avo on sourdough just once a month, my son. 🙂

    Go far, you will (not).

    16
  67. Anyway, “Sliante.” I’m reading Peter O’ Brien’s “The Indigenous Voice to Parliament – The No Case.”

    He repeats the story about Linda Burney claiming, in Parliament, that she was administered under the “Flora and Fauna Act.” prior to 1967. She was never held to account for that piece of malarkey.

    10
  68. Oops – forget to mention the inevitable outcome when “elected” Squandermonkees are gifted the keys to the government treasury …

    … debt levels beyond the comprehension of the populace.

    8
  69. O’Brien makes the point, somewhat tongue in cheek, that most Aboriginal men in Australia, had the right to vote, while the United States of America was fighting a bloody civil war, over the issue of slavery.

    10
  70. … debt levels beyond the comprehension of the populace.

    Indeed, 1360 mn AUD of public debt for Australia when I last looked a few years ago.

    We will pay directly for this current largesse from around 2030 to 2050 and it will be severe.

    1
  71. I’m with you Lizzie. I think DeSantis will attract many voters, including Republicans, who are “never Trump’.

    .

    As I asked yesterday, what evidence do we have the DeSantis will attract many voters in AZ, GA, PA, OH, or the like? Sure, Trump loses some Ind and Bush Republicans but he attracts voters that will not otherwise vote and overall that pool is net+. I’m not sure the same goes for DeSantis.

    Leaving aside the fact that “voting” probably won’t matter in US presidential elections for a long time, if ever…

    Both these comments are correct. Trump does pull many that DeSantis won’t and vice-versa. Which brings it all down to ego and, hopefully, eventually good old common sense.

    For mine, the ideal would be an enthusiastically Trump-endorsed DeSantis with one of many possible birthing-person candidates as VP. Preferably the louder the better.

    If Trump was then to be appointed Secretary of State, it would patch up Desantis’ (and all Governors’, to a great extent) first term weak spot, scare the pants off not a few around the World, and make every lefty head, anywhere, explode.

    I suspect it might also be very effective.

    Dreams…

    5
  72. Father ‘expressed his love’ by going to work and supporting his family. Mother did it by maintaining the home, raising the children and putting a hot meal on the table every night.

    What a gloriously ol’ fashioned concept. Of course the Hausfraus‘ devotion to their simple life of domesticity and kinder tending resulted in “one of the greatest wastes of human potential, evah”.

    Of course “the solution” to that non existent problem has not exactly played out as expected.

    5
  73. Dotsays:
    April 28, 2023 at 9:17 pm
    Dr Jason Fung will likely have a lot of problems with this. There is also the benefit of insulin resistance changing. I’ve seen some awful meta studies by the Cochrane Review group. Fung specialises in treating diabetes and kidney complications.

    Why Many People Are Abandoning Intermittent Fasting
    Dr Brad Stanfield Apr 18, 2023

    Intermittent fasting does more harm than good from the current research that we’ve got. The clinical guidelines do not promote it, and other medical doctors such as Dr Peter Attia warn of the dangers of losing lean muscle mass

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3-EW7nWCbU

    He quotes some terrible papers. Skipping breakfast is associated with fatties? Is it because they’re trying to lose weight? I used to skip breakfast a few years ago and I was in great shape. Needed to buy a new (smaller) belt actually.

    Or it could be, as it is known that drugs can work differently on different people due to genetics, that there isn’t a single overall weight management strategy that works the best for everyone. Also too, during your life, some genes are switched on and off.

    The problem with intermittent fasting might be water soluble nutrient depletion. Vitamin C, thiamine are two obvious examples. That long break means both will be depleted.

    The whole field is a mess DOT. Earlier in the week I was looking into ketogenic diets. The data is puzzling. Elevated LDL, lowered triglycerides. There are some worrying findings. Hypothalamic inflammation from high fat diets, bone mineral density decline. Not conclusive but still of concern. The safest bet seems to be the Mediterranean diet.

    Some years ago a British group claimed to have created a DNA test that helps optimize diet at the individual level. Probably premature. One notable gene is the APOE variants, that has clear cardiovascular and neurologic implications. There will be hundreds though, long road ahead.

    It is too confusing. You can end up going crazy when confronted with so much contradictory studies.

    4
  74. Skipping breakfast is associated with fatties? Is it because they’re trying to lose weight? I used to skip breakfast a few years ago and I was in great shape. Needed to buy a new (smaller) belt actually.

    Or it could be, as it is known that drugs can work differently on different people due to genetics

    Better living through chemistry:

    Half the men I know are using Ozempic to lose weight – the signs are hard to miss (18 Apr, via Instapundit)

    Move over Ozempic — even more powerful weight-loss drug is in the works (27 Apr)

    Blue pill or red pill. Or maybe diet-n-exercise!

    2
  75. there isn’t a single overall weight management strategy that works the best for everyone

    There most certainly is. If you don’t want to be a great big fat bastard, you don’t have to be.

    If you are reliant on pills for weight loss, you are lazy and inclined to be a fat person. ‘But muh genes, muh genes’ won’t cut it. If you are fat and your siblings are fat and your parents are fat – it’s not your genes, it’s a culture of laziness you’ve bought into, and it’s a handy excuse.

    8
  76. Noosa man Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, arrested over alleged naked rampage in Indonesia

    A young Queenslander is facing 40 lashes and five years in jail after a naked, drunken rampage and alleged assault in an ultraconservative Indonesian province where Sharia Law is enforced

    All right, which one of you lot is it?

    7
  77. Dot> Might be hard to contain the financial damage only to dinky mortgages. 2008 saw instant linkages between all related housing markets at retail/wholesales/bank levels.

    I’m guessing the next shoes to drop on Elbow & Jims cunning economic plan is to remove negative gearing and reduce capital gains exemption on family housing. They’re envious idiots trashing everything they touch … but there is no real opposition now though.

    5
  78. A young Queenslander is facing 40 lashes and five years in jail after a naked, drunken rampage and alleged assault in an ultraconservative Indonesian province

    Too much Ozempic.

    2
  79. Noosa man Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, arrested over alleged naked rampage in Indonesia

    Meh, maybe do some good… Maybe…

    2
  80. The Courier-Mail can reveal Mr Risby-Jones begged for forgiveness and described feeling depressed after missing a flight home, according to local authorities.

    Not as depressed as he’s about to be, hopefully.

    Vision from the incident, which has sparked local outrage, shows angry locals pinning the young man down until police arrive.

    Indonesian sources told The Courier-Mail Mr Risby-Jones was also bashed by local villagers, who threatened to burn down the hotel where he was staying after his alleged rampage.

    Brilliant.

    6
  81. ozempic

    Oh FFS, just exercise a bit of increasingly non existent discipline, you jokes. Back in February/March I experienced the horror of going without alcohol for 19 days straight. It nearly killed me, but I’ve haven’t felt that healthy or looked that normal since about 2008. Four kilos lost, no ozempic face and perfectly healthy blood pressure.

    It was so unexpected that there was no other option than to lapse back into previous bad habits while assuring myself it could be done again “any time I so godammned needed to” and which might have only been induced by one phenomenon.

    e.g. a “possibly obtainable” goil. 😕

    5
  82. Gilas says: April 28, 2023 at 8:57 pm

    James Lindsay, in a recent, unscripted, 25-minutes-long speech to the European Parliament gives a brilliant explanation of what “woke” is, its ontogeny and its metamorphotic evolution from Marxist doctrine.

    A thumb-up was not enough. I have to also say this is a brilliant speech.
    In the highly competitive attention economy, this 28 minutes is definitely worthwhile for understanding the theoretical basis of the professional apple-cart upsetters described loosely as the Woke.

    When the downtrodden workers gained 40inch televisions and 38hour work weeks, the weird and disaffected became the new recruiting ground for global socialism. Exactly how the company bosses fit into this scheme was not very well explained, but that is a minor nitpick in an otherwise sweeping summary of how Woke got here.

    2
  83. If you don’t want to be a great big fat bastard, you don’t have to be

    It would be unkind and quite silly to describe the sentence above as “stating the bleeding obvious”.

    A truism, it is.

    3
  84. I think the problem rabz is when people become type II diabetics or prediabetic. They’ve impaired the function of their pancreas, liver, hormones etc. There is also the illusion of weight gain when they’re building up muscle with even prolonged endurance exercise. Some of it could be mild malnutrition too. You can’t metabolise macronutrients without certain B vitamins and fat without vitamin E and its analogues. Then you’ve got drinking alcohol as well impairing a perhaps fatty liver.

  85. Exactly how the company bosses fit into this scheme was not very well explained

    Fear of being Ostracised.

    1
  86. Noosa man Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23

    noosa man = florida man

    nice combo though

    nimbin hippie given names coupled with adelaide hyphenated surname

    3
  87. After the James Lindsay main meal I can also support a Prof Frank Furedi chaser.

    Furedi disputes that Woke is Marxist but doesn’t explain how. As long as today’s Wokism is understood it hardly matters where it came from (Marxist or otherwise), but nonetheless I still think Lindsay was persuasive on that point. The similarity of these ideas, of using the minority as a lever against the underpinnings of normal success, is too neat to discount.

    Plus what I meant to say about Lindsay’s speech is that it is terse. Jam-packed. Unlike this comment it has little redundancy and hardly a wasted word.

    2
  88. Alamak! at 10:49

    I’m guessing the next shoes to drop on Elbow & Jims cunning economic plan is to remove negative gearing and reduce capital gains exemption on family housing.

    Keating already tried that one. Don’t think it even lasted until the next Budget. While the predominant supply of rental housing is coming from Mums and Dads they haven’t got much room to move. As JC has noted, the straws getting loaded on private residential investors are approaching breaking point.

    5
  89. noosa man = florida man

    Noosa – Northern Rivers NSW in Queensland. If you were a dog breeder and did that you would be sued for negligence.

    3
  90. Rabz answered:

    Fear of being Ostracised.

    yeah but more information needed! It wouldn’t make sense that they would be afraid of upsetting *only* a minority, because that would have little financial impact. There is some kind of grassroots conformist leverage occurring to make large numbers of non-minority people act in accordance with the doctrine.

    1
  91. cutting alcohol is a sure fire way to drop the kgs

    A decent glass of red is about 225 calories. Drinking is hugely fattening.

  92. James Lindsay, in a recent, unscripted, 25-minutes-long speech to the European Parliament gives a brilliant explanation of what “woke” is, its ontogeny and its metamorphotic evolution from Marxist doctrine.

    Yes, it’s quite interesting. Recommended.

    1
  93. Bespoke:

    He should have been in an institution.
    His sentence is to short.
    He should be put into a institution for life after parole.

    Yes – I’d be all for that… Except the usual suspects will demand his release because ‘inhumane’ and “He Has Rights.” Then he will be let out.
    If he was put in a secure home with appropriate safeguards, we wouldn’t need to hang him, but that has failed time after time after time. And the people who demand they be let into the community walk away with the Warm Inner Glow of Superior Moral Standing while the rest of us have to deal with the mess.

  94. Robert Sewell April 28, 2023 at 8:52 pm

    It won’t make a jot of difference

    Bespoke:

    If all one does is rant on the internet then I agree, Robert. We had a small win last week every bit helps.

    Did we? I don’t remember, can you refresh my memory?

  95. Muddy:

    You cannot charge entry to the museum if you have no exhibits.

    Well put, Muddy. I will steal that one and use it on a T shirt. No attribution – so people think I thought of it and they will believe I am clever.

  96. Gilas:

    James Lindsay, in a recent, unscripted, 25-minutes-long speech to the European Parliament gives a brilliant explanation of what “woke” is, its ontogeny and its metamorphotic evolution from Marxist doctrine.
    The truly cancerous set of ideas designed to destroy the West and impose Communism despite “workers’” satisfied needs under Western Capitalism.

    That was brilliant. Lindsay has managed to coalesce several trains of thought of mine for me.
    I was unable to find a way of downloading the transcript – can you do so for us, please?

    And yes, I’ve put it up on my no longer nationwide Facebook page since my other reader blew up the motor in his Jeep and it is now on the way back to Brisbane on the back of a truck along with his caravan.

  97. https://harryrichardson.substack.com/p/what-happened-in-hospitals-during?utm_source=substack&publication_id=1142143&post_id=117886571&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true
    What the Hell happened to our Health System during the COVID overreaction?
    Very good post from Richardson. Details how the US government (and by extension, ours.) forced the system into the mass murder of the sick with the coercion of the doctors and nurses.

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