(a) My mother tongue has a droll expression roughly meaning “there will be consequences of that”: dat muisje zal een staartje hebben (that little mouse will have a little tail).
In response to the revolting story of the London man arrested for carrying a sign “Hamas are terrorists”, (showing this to terrorist thugs and their anti-Western allies of convenience supposedly counts as “disturbing the piece”)the Chief of the Metropolitan Police has been summoned by the Home Secretary to give answers. He appealed to the PM himself for support, but was denied, with PM Rishi Sunak saying what happened was “appalling” and that the Met Chief “ought to answer questions”. https://archive.md/WSOay (archived copy of paywalled original)
(b) remember when universities were sold upon us as a bulwark of free speech and free inquiry? Well, at U. of Exeter, a student was disciplined for saying to himself in his own dormitory room that veganism and gender ideology were “wrong” and “stupid”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/21/exeter-university-student-disciplined-veganism-wrong/
This reminds me of my high school days when some students put together a parody constitution of a dictatorship, where one paragraph guaranteed “the right to quietly speak one’s opinion to oneself”. Verily, it’s come to this. Academia is long overdue for a thorough aenema since it is clearly so full of “it”
[ADDENDUM: dozens arrested at Yale and Jewish student stabbed in eye, Columbia cancels in-person classes. ]
(c) The Israeli head of Military Intelligence has officially resigned
“The Military Intelligence Directorate, under my command, failed to warn of the terror attack carried out by Hamas,” Haliva said on October 17. “We failed in our most important mission, and as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, I bear full responsibility for the failure.”
However, he said at the time that he was putting off quitting due to the ensuing war in Gaza.
“Now, more than half a year later, alongside the launch of [internal] investigations, I am tendering my resignation,” Haliva wrote in a letter publicized Monday.[…]
The Intelligence Directorate under my command did not fulfill its task. I have carried that black day with me ever since, every day, every night. I will forever bear the terrible pain of the war,” he said in the letter to the IDF chief of staff.
Haliva said he supports the establishment of a commission of inquiry to “be able to investigate and find out in a thorough, in-depth, comprehensive and precise manner all the factors and circumstances that led to the grave events.”
“Everything I did during my service in the IDF was for the sake of the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” he added.
His opposite numbers of the domestic security agency (the “Shin Bet”) and the foreign intelligence service (the “Mossad”) are expected to resign once the situation stabilizes.
(d) Ben Shapiro discusses the bizarre case of an individual posing as an ultra-masculine, ultra-successful influencer who actually would seduce women and then have them work for him on the erotic video platform OnlyFans dot com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvlzc4laO6U
Watching this, however, an analogy struck me: here you have a fraud p*mping out individual women. In politics (mostly but not uniquely on the woke side these days) you have others wooing and then p*mping out entire countries (to islamists, to Xi the Turtle-“lover”,…)
My best wishes for a wonderful Passover. Let me share a little Passover-themed version of “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Spin, strangeness, and charm 