Eleftheros

Joe Biden clearly doesn't think much of him, calling him 'Rasheed Sanook' in a speech. Or maybe that's better, going from being Mr Dog (sunak in Thai) to Mr Fun (sanuk). Either way, the winter is going to be so economically brutal in the UK that not even a technocrat like R.S. can save things from turning ugly, and the Tories may have to invite Boris back in the spring to save their electoral prospects, which is after all the only thing they really care about.

Except for Thailand's decades-long policy of sitting so firmly on the fence so firmly it would take a power drill to get them off. They keep in with both China and the US. And even though they were forced in WW2 by the Japanese occupiers to declare war on the Allies, they refused to sign a surrender document at the end of the war, claiming it was unnecessary, on the grounds that the 1942 declaration of war was "unconstitutional and legally void." Six months later, they signed an Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty. That's quality fence-sitting right there. I think that Thailand's view is that when elephants fight, it is the mice that get crushed, so they are happy to stay securely in their mousehole, and big-power rivalry be damned.

Not to mention the estimated 500 billion pounds p**sed away on trying to control a viral outbreak by ordering healthy people to stay in their houses. Future generations of British people will be paying that off for decades, assuming they don't all emigrate to somewhere less dysfunctional. The UK premiership is the poisoned chalice par excellence.

I don't think "succeed" is the right word to use. "Follow down the drain" might be closer.

A jolly? These conferences used to be held in places where people wanted to go to, like Bali, Cancun, Rio, Gstaad, or even Copenhagen and Paris. After having the nerve to stage the last one in Glasgow, of all places, the idea that they can expect hard-working climate zealots to go to an Egyptian desert town is a bit much. If this carries on, in a few years they'll find themselves in Ulaan Batar or Kabul. Then where will the planet be?

This is what the World Economic Forum calls "Build Back Better."

There have been many scientific studies done into Wim Hof's work, but I would not care to be dogmatic about the results. That said, there could be many other factors affecting Inuit/Eskimo lifespan than just cold.

True, but 10 minutes after you get out, they're round your ankles.

The colder the better, some say. Wim Hof, known as 'The Iceman' believes that the stress caused by cold is actually very good for the mind and body, and so takes ice baths from time to time. For lesser mortals, he suggests a 30-second cold shower - the same effect could be achieved by gradually but boldly lowering yourself into the cold pool and staying still. Brrrr!

We must do something. This is something. Therefore we must do it.

A contradiction in terms.

The US government compensated the families of 439 who were injured, including the heirs of 23 people who had died. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/06/21/us-agrees-to-pay-those-paralyzed-by-swine-flu-shots/26c65a54-e3c9-4e4c-a23f-b8a411b563b3/ If only today's health authorities were so vigilant and public-spirited.

'Antivaxxer' is one of those meaningless terms, like 'climate denier' simply used to signal contempt for someone whose views differ from your own. Yes, there may be a few people who oppose all vaccines on principle, but there are a great many more who are happy to take vaccines which are tried and tested and have proved to be safe and effective over long periods of time, but are more wary of those produced at warp speed. By definition, we cannot know the long-term outcome of the mRNA Covid vaccines, any more than they could for the swine flu vaccines in 1976, which turned into a deadly fiasco.

Don't forget the all-new Super Boosters with added protection.

Yes, it's all theater at this stage, plus a bit of a chance for meaningless bureaucratic activity.

Is it your opinion, then, that people who disagree with your view of the Covid situation do not do that same analysis? That's not an accusation, by the way, I'm just interested to know where you stand on that.

According to the NIH, the first main risk factor in death from Covid is obesity (extra 31% risk), the second highest is "anxiety and fear-related disorders" (+28%), so yes, worrying about things does appear to quite significantly increase the risk from Covid.

Quite the opposite. I would much prefer not to have to deal with this situation at all, but many people of the activist persuasion want to make this an issue, and require me to bow to their absurd claim that men can actually be women, and so on. This is false, and I refuse to say that it is true.

It's about truth and reality. Quite simple.

The issue is the one I mention above. If a man tells me he is in fact a woman, I am not going to buy into that. If he tells me that for personal reasons he would prefer to be treated as a woman, then that is a view I can have some sympathy with.

This is hysterical rubbish. I refuse to be told by other people that I abandon my own desire to live in a world based on truth and reality simply to assuage their feelings.

I have nothing at all against the gay community. They are simply men who prefer sex with other men, which appears to be a real phenomenon in historical terms. Plus they're not demanding that I treat them in any special way.

Not at all. I am simply asking for equal rights. Nobody has the right to demand that I buy into their evaluation of themselves, any more than I have the right to demand that of others. Well, they could start off by not trying to force me to parrot ridiculous anti-factual nonsense just for the sake of making them feel temporarily better. That would be civil.

Because truth and reality are more important than any one person's feelings.

The idea that to avoid a 'hostile disrespectful of differences attitude' I must be forced to say things, or at least adopt an attitude towards things, that I know to be completely untrue, is absurd. How come this person with the delusion can claim the right to impose their worldview on everyone else?