Labour won a huge victory in Thursday's elections in the UK, taking nearly two-thirds of the seats in the House of Commons. A resounding victory for the left, perhaps? Well, they will certainly have a mandate, and the power to govern.
But Labour actually lost votes compared to the previous election, which had been a bad year for them. What happened was that the Conservatives lost support because the Conservatives were no longer conservative in any way.
The Conservative leadership could never fully get behind Brexit; then the party went for "green energy" fiascos that raised energy prices; and finally it proved itself totally incapable of standing up to the ongoing problem of mass migration.
Labour certainly won't do anything about that, either. It is a weak party with bad ideas -- which is why it is already being eclipsed in places by Muslim candidates who ran campaigns focused on opposing Israel's war against Hamas terrorists.
The upshot is that Nigel Farage, the man behind Brexit, is now in Parliament, albeit with a tiny party. And from that perch, he will continue to provide ideas and criticism that will expose the rot in both mainstream British parties.
So -- while Labour's victory looks like a step to the left for a major democracy, moving against the overall trend, it is really just a reminder that there is a limit to how much left-wing policy voters will tolerate from a conservative party.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
