This week, I invented the tastiest snack I've ever eaten: roast turkey slice + red onion chutney + salted pretzel, all in one bite. The perfect combination of textures and flavours, at least for me. They have to be *proper* pretzels, mind you, not the rubbish UK supermarket ones.

Those of us who still tend the lonely flame of a two-state solution have no right not to acknowledge what a devastating blow October 7th, 2023 dealt to that vision of the future, or to dodge the question: why *should* Israelis share land with those who'd murder them for existing?

"Mussolini - Son of the Century" is brilliant television, and the parallels with US politics are disturbing. Find it and watch it.

This is the fascinating, improbable real history that people could be studying, instead of mindlessly pushing the racist "Khazar myth" of Ashkenazi Jewish origins. As should be apparent, the latter only exists as a means of discrediting proven Jewish claims to the Land of Israel.

As I progress through Mussolini: Son of the Century (made in 2024), I wonder: to what extent is this intended as a comment on Trump? Then, in episode four, Il Duce turns to camera and says, *in English*, "Make Italy Great Again", which rather answers my question. Wonderful stuff.

Can both of these hateful poltroons just get in the sea, please? Or the river, I'm not fussy.

Not for the first time, I'm concerned about the impression I've left on the Facebook ad algorithm.

I approve of the sentiment behind this meme, but it saddens me to realize most of the people sharing it have no idea Star Trek lifted the "there are four lights" idea directly from O'Brien's interrogation of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four. We used to be a literate society.

One is a deranged killer, the other a health ambassador. They have virtually nothing in common, but, from the point of view of the racist right, the one thing they DO have in common - not being white - is enough to lump them together. What an impoverished way of seeing the world.

"Sex romp" is one of those terms that never, ever crop up in real life. Nobody has ever said, to their amour, "fancy a sex romp?". But the curious thing is, such words and phrases originally had to fit in a headline, yet somehow persist online, where there are no space constraints.

I'm not sure if unhinged misogyny is the optimal response to unhinged antisemitism, but I'm sure Lee knows what he's doing.

The Falklands provide a useful analogy for the current Greenland crisis. The case for letting Argentina have the islands boiled down to them being far away from the UK, with a tiny population. But British subjects are British subjects, just as Danish subjects are Danish subjects.

Erich von Däniken is dead, but the mindset that made him successful is sadly still with us. In reality, we have abundant evidence of how the pyramids were built, but this is really about refusing to believe non-Europeans could build massive edifices without extraterrestrial help.

Have any of you seen Mussolini: Son of the Century? If so, what did you think? We're starting it later today, on the strength of the rave reviews it's had, and clips I've seen online. Looks immensely promising, but it'd be great to get some perspectives from social media, before diving in.

Why do we all collude in this ridiculous charade that high-ranking politicians aren't supposed to be ambitious? If they weren't ambitious, they wouldn't have made it as far as they have. That's not considered a drawback in any other line of work. Let's be grown-ups, for a change.

If any other major party leader sold video tributes for £75 a pop, alongside all the other tacky/dodgy stuff he's lent his name to, *that*, in itself, would be a big story. Farage is still covered as though he leads a fringe party, rather than one leading the polls by ten points.

That image of Obama has been crudely photoshopped in from "Hair Like Mine", one of the most famous photographs from his time as president. It powerfully illustrates why his election was such a big deal, so trust MAGA to (a) not recognize it and (b) repurpose it for a racist meme.

I recently watched a very powerful documentary called Holocaust – The Revenge Plot, part of Channel 4's Secret History series. It's about Nakam (Hebrew for "Vengeance"), the group of Holocaust survivors who set out to kill six million Germans, on an "eye for an eye" basis. (1/2)

This guy has certainly “learned,” if there was any question, that he can use arbitrary violence against civilians with no fear of consequences.

This was my favorite response:

Matt Walsh is scum, pure scum. Yes, there were people on the left who said comparably vile things about Charlie Kirk. But none of them, literally none of them, had remotely the reach or prestige Walsh does, and what he's saying is only a little more vile than what the actual *White House* is saying.

Just listened to Daydream Believers, Mitchell and Webb's 2007 sitcom pilot for Radio 4. I truly wanted to like it, but it's almost impressively feeble. Much as I love those guys, I'm starting to think they're only any good when performing other people's writing, not their own.

This is worth taking notice of. Until very recently, Britain's radical right were careful to exempt minorities on their own team from their bigoted demagoguery, which is how the career of e.g. Zia Yusuf was possible. Now, though, they're taking the MAGA "even the good ones" path.

Here's an email I sent, to an American friend, about the Renee Good killing in Minnesota. The only part I'd change is to say "unrest" instead of "riots"; there really wasn't that much actual rioting, in 2020, however people remember it. And yes, I know I'm a piece of shit for even thinking this way.

This phenomenon - ending up with a massive collection of themed gifts, because you were too polite to say you're not actually a fan of the thing in question - seems to be common enough that there should be a name for it. Can I suggest "manateeism"? I'm sure someone can do better.

I recently watched a riveting documentary about Corey Feldman, who truly is a real life David Brent, if David Brent ran a seedy sex cult, instead of a branch of a paper firm. The cavernous gulf between his heroic self-perception and the sad reality is honestly painful to witness. (1/3)

Antisemitism is like the world's most boring detective show, with the same culprit in every episode.

Antisemitism is like the world's most boring detective show, with the same culprit in every episode.

It's not just lifestyle content... bsky.app/profile/coop...

who the hell does this. just make meatballs

The extent to which demand for first world lifestyle content outstrips supply *truly* can't be overstated. Endless, ENDLESS column inches, both physical and digital, MUST be filled, which necessarily means you'll have people saying any old shit, such as "burgers are for sharing".

I despise Trump, and I have grave doubts that this Venezuelan intervention is a good idea. But let's be real: the world is already ruled by force, and always has been. "International law" has only ever existed to the extent superpowers - usually America, in practice - enforce it.

A child asks Quora: "I am 13 and my dad still doesn't let me shower on my own. What should I do?" All the human answers correctly identify it as sexual abuse and offer advice on that basis. Meanwhile, the in-house AI assumes the father is motivated by sincere safety concerns:

A classic album for those of us in our impressionable teens at the time. The sound included the late Bob Quine's guitar playing, which was v different to anything else about at the time. Sort of Fripp for the Blank Generation, as it were.

Punk rock was perfected for all time in 1976, when Richard Hell and the Voidoids recorded "Blank Generation". Unlike most musical manifestos, this one hasn't a hint of pretentiousness or sententiousness, is tight as a drum, musically speaking, and funny as fuck to boot. Majestic.

10/10, no notes.

Our house was just invaded, by a small Cyberman and his even smaller little sister, both offspring of a very old friend of mine. Lovely, lovely kids, it's done me such good to see them again.

Doesn't it feel great, to be living through a technological revolution?

Me, after we've just watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: "Maybe Buddy [our dog] is a warg." My mum: "If so, he's a very soppy warg." "The Soppy Wargs" would make a killer band name, don't you think?

Literally the first quote-tweet, posted within five minutes, and people wonder why Khan and other non-white politicians turn their replies off.

I can't express how glad I am, that my parents were too intelligent to let themselves be talked into exorcizing the autism out of me with literal fucking BLEACH. These are the same bad actors who say vaccines cause autism, by the way. They do not have your best interests in mind.

Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Our Saviour, who has brought so much light into the world: @grumpwitch.bsky.social. Hope you're having a great day, and don't get too distracted by all these trees and lights people keep putting up, for some reason ❤️🥳❤️

This ones quite good too: youtu.be/EJBFD-Wvc7U?...

'Tis the season, and so on, so here's the legendary "Little Drummer Boy" duet between David Bowie and Bing Crosby, on the latter's final Christmas special, forty-eight years ago. I love the obvious mutual respect, here, between two artists of completely different generations, backgrounds and worlds.

Just did this inscription for a book I'm giving my mum for Christmas, and because, these days, I barely write anything by hand from one year's end to the next, my handwriting looks as though something heavy has fallen on my head. Still, it's the thought that counts, and all that.

I feel physically ill at the mere thought of this. Chocolate stout is already disgusting, but 11%??!? Even an old alky like me is going to vomit after a sip or two. P.S. "Dubai" is now apparently an adjective, meaning "too rich for human consumption"; see also "Dubai chocolate".

When people collapse specifics into generalities, they're almost always trying to deceive, or change the subject. "Let's not have endless purity tests" sounds pretty great. "Let's form a political coalition with neo-Nazis" doesn't, but in this case, they amount to the same thing.

Miraculously, I've managed to get a Tesco delivery slot for 10-11pm tonight, without having to book it months in advance. But I have a nasty feeling there'll be dozens of substitutions, and/or items missing. Which would be... tragic? Post-industrial society really has spoiled us.

I've crossed some invisible threshold, that's made the Facebook algorithm show my posts to strangers, as well as my friends. Gratifying to the ego, but also wearisome, having to dig through dozens of comments to find any I care about. I don't know how actual public figures do it.

Lalla Ward really was superb, as the sidekick of a mercurial genius who irritates everyone he meets. She was also great in Doctor Who.