(27 January, 1945: the liberation of the Nazi’s most infamous extermination camp) Blood libels against the Jews are nearly as old as the hills. They were stirred during the First Crusade (1096), but reached the nadir (at least, one hopes) during the Second World War, in the form of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” “At camps maintaining labour installations, like Auschwitz, 10 per cent of the arrivals – those who looked fittest – were selected for work. The remainder were consigned to the gas chambers. They were instructed to undress; the women and girls had their hair cut. They were then marched…
Continue Reading →(By Thomas Sowell, 2023) Described by economic historian Niall Ferguson as a tour de force, Social Justice Fallacies arrives, like Spiderman, just in time, the imminent end of Peak Woke (aka Peak Stupid). Wikipedia defines Social Justice thus (footnote omitted): “Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals’ rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive their due from society. In the current movements for social…
Continue Reading →"Plate pole prop" by Richard Serra - minimalism ad absurdum
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 17 November 2024 Modern Art is, to an alarmingly increasing degree, pure fraud. It operates on ruthless market principles, clothed in doubletalk, agitprop, and gobbledegook. It has largely abandoned aesthetics and no longer seeks, were it even able, to be evocative. We call it the “Post-Eternal Phase,” because its representative works leave the mind as soon as one turns away, and its work is complete as soon as the cheque is cashed. As Robert Hughes once memorably observed, the role of modern art is to hang on the wall and get more expensive (a gaffer-taped…
Continue Reading →(By Hugo Jakobsen, 3 October 1919 – 8 October 2010) “It begins on Christmas Eve, the 24th of December. It is cold and dark outside and the snow is gently falling. Our family is ready to go to Church to attend the special Christmas service. We enter a Church full of people and find our seats. In front of the altar is a huge Christmas tree lit up with wax candles. Further to the right is a nativity scene: the baby Jesus in the manger attended by his parents Maria and Joseph. The Lutheran minister tells us the story of…
Continue Reading →GRAND FINAL: Norwood v Glenelg, 22 September 2024 As Woody Allen once wrote, sometimes to have a little luck is the most brilliant plan. Glenelg rode its luck in 2024, having undertaken to strive for more in the wake of its brilliant 2023 campaign. But this year was to prove no easy road: Norwood and Sturt dominated the minor round, finishing first and second. And the Tigers, lumbering behind those two teams, were generally winning by narrow margins: they lost Lachie Hosie, one of the great attacking spears from its trident, early in the season, and coming home in the…
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