lewrockwell--2020-02-17--China’s Coronavirus: An Examination of the Facts

The Western mass media have discussed the new corona virus that began in the city of Wuhan in Central China but , apart from repetitive small details and the inevitable China-bashing , not much light has been shed on the circumstances .
My initial commentary here is composed from a medley of nearly 100 Western news reports , primarily ABC , CBS , CNN , AFP , and from some Chinese media .
Officially called the novel coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV ) , the contagion is a respiratory illness , a new type of viral pneumonia , in the same family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At the time of writing , Chinese health authorities announced 830 confirmed cases caused by this virus in 29 provincial-level regions in the country , resulting so far in 25 deaths primarily among the elderly who had been suffering serious prior medical conditions and were perhaps in weakened physical states .
A few cases have been reported in other countries , Thailand , Korea , Singapore , Vietnam , the US , Japan , all of which involved ethnic Chinese who had traveled to Wuhan .
The virus initially showed no signs of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have mutated with 15 medical workers in Wuhan apparently contracting the pathogen from other victims .
It still remains unclear how easy it is to contract it from another infected individual .
The initial symptoms were mild , which permitted many people to travel before stronger symptoms were detected .
The first occurrences in December thus appeared to be of minor concern .
The incubation period has not been definitively stated but , once infections began , the spread was surprisingly rapid after the first case was confirmed on December 31 : on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21 , 225 cases , January 24 , 830 cases .
Local medical authorities have said the true extent of the Wuhan coronavirus is unclear , and the early official figures may have been an underestimation since the mild symptoms and delayed onset meant infections may have been undetected .
All the evidence suggests the Chinese authorities acted effectively as soon as they realised the danger they might be facing .
Medical authorities immediately declared the outbreak , and within a week they had identified the pathogen and also determined and shared the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parties , a sufficiently speedy response that earned praise from the WHO and scientists around the world .
Be Ready for Anything : ... Daisy Luther Best Price : $ 10.45 Buy New $ 9.69 Remembering the SARS troubles , they did much more .
In most large centers in the country , all sports venues , theaters , museums , tourist attractions , all locations that attract crowds , have been closed , as have all schools .
All group tours have been cancelled .
Not only the city of Wuhan but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been locked down , with all trains , aircraft , buses , subways , ferries , grounded and all major highways and toll booths closed .
Thousands of flights and train trips have been cancelled until further notice .
Some cities like Shanghai and Beijing are conducting temperature tests on all roadways leading into the cities .
In addition , Wuhan is building ( in five days ) a portable hospital of 25,000 square meters to deal with the infected patients .
As well , Wuhan has asked citizens to neither leave nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and all are wearing face masks .
The scale of the challenge of implementing such a blockade is immense , comparable to closing down all transport links for a city 5 times the size of Toronto or Chicago , two days before Christmas .
These decisions are unprecedented , but testify to the determination of the authorities to limit the spread and damage of this new pathogen .
They not only address the gravity of the situation but also the seriousness of consideration for the public health , unfortunate and difficult decisions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hundreds of millions of people .
Most public entertainment has been cancelled , as have tours , and many weddings as well .
The damage to the economy during this most festive of all periods , will also be enormous .
Hong Kong will suffer severely in addition to all its other troubles , since visits from Mainland Chinese typically support much of its retail economy during this period .
The Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese .
Saturday , January 25 , is the first day of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that typically sees the largest mass-movement of people on the planet as Chinese flock back to their hometowns to be with relatives .
No health authority has ever tackled the challenge currently faced by China , as the country grapples with a new coronavirus just as hundreds of millions prepare to travel .
And of course the Western media had a field day of schadenfreude .
CNN published a report – a bit too gleefully , I thought – on the potential damage to China ’ s economy : ( 1 ) The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claim to the fundamentals , all media sources claiming the virus was transferred to humans from animals or seafood .
The media have added fuel to the fire by claiming the virus emerged from “ illegally traded wildlife ” in a market “ where offerings reportedly include wild animals that can carry viruses dangerous to humans ” , and that this virus “ jumped into the human population from an infected animal ” .
Chinese officials stated that the virus appears to have originated at a seafood market in Wuhan , though the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stated by the authorities , and is still an open question perhaps primarily since viruses seldom jump species barriers without human assistance .
While there is no evidence of biowarfare , a virus outbreak in the city of Wuhan immediately prior to the Chinese New Year migration could potentially have dramatic social and economic repercussions .
Wuhan , with a population of about 12 million , is a major transport hub in Central China , particularly for the high-speed train network , and with more than 60 air routes with direct flights to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cities , as well as more than 100 internal flights to major Chinese cities .
When we add this to the Spring Festival travel rush during which many hundreds of millions of people travel across the country to be with their families , the potential consequences for the entire country are far-reaching .
This is a novel Coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV ) , an entirely new strain related to the MERS ( MERS-CoV ) and the SARS ( SARS-CoV ) viruses , though early evidence suggests it is not as dangerous .
SARS was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the coronavirus , a large family of mostly harmless viruses also responsible for the common cold , but SARS exhibited characteristics never before observed in any animal or human virus , did not by any means fully match the animal viruses mentioned above , and contained genetic material that still remains unidentified – similar to this new corona virus in 2019 .
Virologist Dr. Alan Cantwell wrote at the time that “ the mysterious SARS virus is a new virus never before seen by virologists .
This is an entirely new illness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and there is no known treatment.
” Dr. Cantwell also noted that the genetic engineering of coronaviruses has been occurring in both medical and military labs for decades .
He wrote that when he searched in PubMed for the phrase “ coronavirus genetic engineering ” , he was referred to 107 scientific experiments dating back to 1987 .
To quote Dr. Cantwell : Almost immediately upon receiving the genome sequence , several Russian scientists suggested a link between SARS and biowarfare .
Sergei Kolesnikov , a member of the Russian Academy of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the SARS virus might well have been caused by leaking a combat virus grown in bacteriological weapons labs .
According to a number of news reports , Kolesnikov claimed that the virus of atypical pneumonia ( SARS ) was a synthesis of two viruses ( of measles and infectious parotiditis or mumps ) , the natural compound of which was impossible , that this mix could never appear in nature , stating , “ This can be done only in a laboratory.
” ( 5 ) And Nikolai Filatov , the head of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quoted in the Gazeta daily as stating he believed SARS was man-made because “ there is no vaccine for this virus , its make-up is unclear , it has not been very widespread and the population is not immune to it.
” ( 6 ) ( 7 ) It wasn ’ t widely reported , but it seems the final conclusion of the Chinese biochemists was the same , that the SARS virus was man-made .
This conclusion wasn ’ t a secret , but neither was it promoted to the international media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claim to heap scorn on China , dismissing this as a paranoid conspiracy theory .
The Western media totally ignored this aspect , except for ABC news who reported that the SARS “ Mystery Virus ” was possibly “ a Chinese bio-weapon that accidentally escaped the laboratory ” .
Nice of ABC to notice , but their story , if true , would be the first example of a nation creating and releasing a race-specific biological weapon designed to attack exclusively itself .
Notable is that while SARS spread to about 40 countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few and deaths almost zero , and it was exclusively ( or almost exclusively ) Chinese who were infected , those in Hong Kong most seriously , with Mainland China suffering little by comparison .
This appears to be precisely the case with this new virus , in that most of the infected persons ( sofar ) are Chinese .
News reports speak of infections appearing in Thailand or the US , but those ( at least to date of writing ) were all Chinese who had been to Wuhan .
There have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Caucasians .
As with SARS , this new virus appears to be tightly-focused to Chinese .
At this stage it is too early to draw specific conclusions .
We might in other circumstances pass this off as an unfortunate coincidence but for some major circumstantial events that serve to alter our focus .
One of these is the history of American universities and NGOs having come into China in recent years to conduct biological experiments that were so illegal as to leave the Chinese authorities enraged .
This was particularly true when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proceeded with experiments in China that had been forbidden by the authorities years earlier , where they collected many hundreds of thousands of Chinese DNA samples and then left the country .
( 8 ) ( 9 ) ( 10 ) ( 11 ) ( 12 ) The Chinese were furious to learn that Americans were collecting Chinese DNA .
The government intervened and prohibited the further export of any of the data .
The conclusion at the time was that the ‘ research ’ had been commissioned by the US military with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ research .
In a thesis on Biological Weapons , Leonard Horowitz and Zygmunt Dembek stated that one clear sign of a genetically-engineered bio-warfare agent was a disease caused by an uncommon ( unusual , rare , or unique ) agent , with lack of an epidemiological explanation .
I.e .
no clear idea of source .
They also mentioned an “ unusual manifestation and/or geographic distribution ” , of which race-specificity would be one .
( 13 ) The Prepperu2019s Blue ... Tess Pennington Best Price : $ 11.98 Buy New $ 18.98 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possibly qualify as potential bio-warfare agents are AIDS , SARS , MERS , Bird Flu , Swine Flu , Hantavirus , Lyme Disease , West Nile Virus , Ebola , Polio ( Syria ) , Foot and Mouth Disease , the Gulf War Syndrome and ZIKA .
And in fact thousands of prominent scientists , physicians , virologists and epidemiologists on many continents have concurred that all these viruses were lab-created and their release deliberate .
The recent swine flu epidemic in China has the hallmarks as well , with circumstantial evidence of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was another curiosity in this case , in that additional to the usual criticisms of China being inactive or secretive , several US media replicated accusations from “ a senior US State Department official ” claiming Washington was “ still concerned ” about transparency in the Chinese government on the Wuhan coronavirus .
Other articles claimed the US CDC was “ concerned that Chinese health officials have still not released basic epidemiological data about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak , making it more difficult to contain the outbreak.
” There is no substantial reason @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US State Department should concern themselves with a virus outbreak in a foreign country .
Their criticisms were surprisingly detailed , demanding specifics on the number of infections directly from contact with the Wuhan market , the number of person-to-person infections , the precise incubation period from exposure to the onset of symptoms , the point at which persons become contagious .
The questions were presented in benevolent terms of helping the Chinese medical authorities deal with the virus , though it was already self-evident China had no need to be lectured on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of writing , details are still too scarce to form definitive conclusions but , in every such case , once the smoke clears there are many unanswered questions that challenge the official Western narrative , but it ’ s old news and the media have already staked out their ground so the matter dies in the Western public mind , but not in China .
( 1 ) The Wuhan virus is the last thing China ’ s economy needs … ( 8 ) The Harvard case of Xu Xiping : exploitation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ genetic theft ?
Margaret Sleeboom ; Amsterdam School of Social Science Research , University of Amsterdam and International Institute for Asian Studies , University of Leiden , The Netherlands Routlege ; Taylor & Francis group ; New Genetics and Society , Vol .
24 , No .
1 , April 2005

The Western mass media have discussed the new corona virus that began in the city of Wuhan in Central China but, apart from repetitive small details and the inevitable China-bashing, not much light has been shed on the circumstances. My initial commentary here is composed from a medley of nearly 100 Western news reports, primarily ABC, CBS, CNN, AFP, and from some Chinese media. Officially called the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), the contagion is a respiratory illness, a new type of viral pneumonia, in the same family of infections as SARS and MERS.
At the time of writing, Chinese health authorities announced 830 confirmed cases caused by this virus in 29 provincial-level regions in the country, resulting so far in 25 deaths primarily among the elderly who had been suffering serious prior medical conditions and were perhaps in weakened physical states. A few cases have been reported in other countries, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, the US, Japan, all of which involved ethnic Chinese who had traveled to Wuhan. The virus initially showed no signs of spreading between humans, but then may have mutated with 15 medical workers in Wuhan apparently contracting the pathogen from other victims. It still remains unclear how easy it is to contract it from another infected individual.
The initial symptoms were mild, which permitted many people to travel before stronger symptoms were detected. The first occurrences in December thus appeared to be of minor concern. The incubation period has not been definitively stated but, once infections began, the spread was surprisingly rapid after the first case was confirmed on December 31: on January 3, 44 cases; January 21, 225 cases, January 24, 830 cases. Local medical authorities have said the true extent of the Wuhan coronavirus is unclear, and the early official figures may have been an underestimation since the mild symptoms and delayed onset meant infections may have been undetected.
All the evidence suggests the Chinese authorities acted effectively as soon as they realised the danger they might be facing. Medical authorities immediately declared the outbreak, and within a week they had identified the pathogen and also determined and shared the genome sequence with the WHO and other parties, a sufficiently speedy response that earned praise from the WHO and scientists around the world. Be Ready for Anything:... Daisy Luther Best Price: $10.45 Buy New $9.69 (as of 07:15 UTC - Details)
Remembering the SARS troubles, they did much more. In most large centers in the country, all sports venues, theaters, museums, tourist attractions, all locations that attract crowds, have been closed, as have all schools. All group tours have been cancelled. Not only the city of Wuhan but virtually the entire province of Hubei has been locked down, with all trains, aircraft, buses, subways, ferries, grounded and all major highways and toll booths closed. Thousands of flights and train trips have been cancelled until further notice. Some cities like Shanghai and Beijing are conducting temperature tests on all roadways leading into the cities. In addition, Wuhan is building (in five days) a portable hospital of 25,000 square meters to deal with the infected patients. As well, Wuhan has asked citizens to neither leave nor enter the city without a compelling reason, and all are wearing face masks.
The scale of the challenge of implementing such a blockade is immense, comparable to closing down all transport links for a city 5 times the size of Toronto or Chicago, two days before Christmas. These decisions are unprecedented, but testify to the determination of the authorities to limit the spread and damage of this new pathogen. They not only address the gravity of the situation but also the seriousness of consideration for the public health, unfortunate and difficult decisions since the holiday is being destroyed for hundreds of millions of people. Most public entertainment has been cancelled, as have tours, and many weddings as well. The damage to the economy during this most festive of all periods, will also be enormous. Hong Kong will suffer severely in addition to all its other troubles, since visits from Mainland Chinese typically support much of its retail economy during this period.
The Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese. Saturday, January 25, is the first day of the Lunar New Year, a festive period that typically sees the largest mass-movement of people on the planet as Chinese flock back to their hometowns to be with relatives. No health authority has ever tackled the challenge currently faced by China, as the country grapples with a new coronavirus just as hundreds of millions prepare to travel.
And of course the Western media had a field day of schadenfreude. CNN published a report – a bit too gleefully, I thought – on the potential damage to China’s economy: (1)
“China’s economy is slumping and the country is still suffering the effects of the trade war with America. An outbreak of a new and deadly virus is the last thing it needs. The Wuhan coronavirus has already roiled Chinese markets and thrown plans for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday into chaos for millions of people. The world’s second biggest economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly three decades last year as it contended with rising debt, cooling domestic demand and US tariffs, many of which remain in place despite a recent truce. Beijing is worried about unemployment, too, and has announced a wave of stimulus measures in recent weeks aimed at preventing mass layoffs. . . The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak could spark widespread fear and spur people to hunker down and avoid going outside. That kind of behavior would deal a huge blow to the service sector, which now accounts for about 52% of the Chinese economy.” [And so on . . .]
The Western media have already staked out their claim to the fundamentals, all media sources claiming the virus was transferred to humans from animals or seafood. The media have added fuel to the fire by claiming the virus emerged from “illegally traded wildlife” in a market “where offerings reportedly include wild animals that can carry viruses dangerous to humans”, and that this virus “jumped into the human population from an infected animal”. Chinese officials stated that the virus appears to have originated at a seafood market in Wuhan, though the actual origin has not been determined nor stated by the authorities, and is still an open question perhaps primarily since viruses seldom jump species barriers without human assistance.
While there is no evidence of biowarfare, a virus outbreak in the city of Wuhan immediately prior to the Chinese New Year migration could potentially have dramatic social and economic repercussions. Wuhan, with a population of about 12 million, is a major transport hub in Central China, particularly for the high-speed train network, and with more than 60 air routes with direct flights to most of the world’s major cities, as well as more than 100 internal flights to major Chinese cities. When we add this to the Spring Festival travel rush during which many hundreds of millions of people travel across the country to be with their families, the potential consequences for the entire country are far-reaching.
Comparison with SARS
This is a novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), an entirely new strain related to the MERS (MERS-CoV) and the SARS (SARS-CoV) viruses, though early evidence suggests it is not as dangerous.
SARS was proven to be caused by a strain of the coronavirus, a large family of mostly harmless viruses also responsible for the common cold, but SARS exhibited characteristics never before observed in any animal or human virus, did not by any means fully match the animal viruses mentioned above, and contained genetic material that still remains unidentified – similar to this new corona virus in 2019.
Virologist Dr. Alan Cantwell wrote at the time that “the mysterious SARS virus is a new virus never before seen by virologists. This is an entirely new illness with devastating effects on the immune system, and there is no known treatment.” Dr. Cantwell also noted that the genetic engineering of coronaviruses has been occurring in both medical and military labs for decades. He wrote that when he searched in PubMed for the phrase “coronavirus genetic engineering”, he was referred to 107 scientific experiments dating back to 1987. To quote Dr. Cantwell:
“I quickly confirmed scientists have been genetically engineering animal and human coronaviruses to make disease-producing mutant and recombinant viruses for over a decade. No wonder WHO scientists identified the SARS/coronavirus so quickly. Never emphasised by medical news writers is the fact that for over forty years scientists have been “jumping species” with all sorts of animal and human viruses and creating chimera viruses (viruses composed from viruses of two different species). This unsupervised research produces dangerous man-made viruses, many of which have potential as bioweapons. Certainly SARS has the hallmarks of a bioweapon. After all, aren’t new biological warfare agents designed to produce a new disease with a new infectious agent? As in prior military experiments, all it might take … to spread SARS is an aerosol can . . .” (2) (3) (4)
Almost immediately upon receiving the genome sequence, several Russian scientists suggested a link between SARS and biowarfare. Sergei Kolesnikov, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, said the propagation of the SARS virus might well have been caused by leaking a combat virus grown in bacteriological weapons labs. According to a number of news reports, Kolesnikov claimed that the virus of atypical pneumonia (SARS) was a synthesis of two viruses (of measles and infectious parotiditis or mumps), the natural compound of which was impossible, that this mix could never appear in nature, stating, “This can be done only in a laboratory.” (5) And Nikolai Filatov, the head of Moscow’s epidemiological services, was quoted in the Gazeta daily as stating he believed SARS was man-made because “there is no vaccine for this virus, its make-up is unclear, it has not been very widespread and the population is not immune to it.” (6) (7)
It wasn’t widely reported, but it seems the final conclusion of the Chinese biochemists was the same, that the SARS virus was man-made. This conclusion wasn’t a secret, but neither was it promoted to the international media since they would simply have used the claim to heap scorn on China, dismissing this as a paranoid conspiracy theory. The Western media totally ignored this aspect, except for ABC news who reported that the SARS “Mystery Virus” was possibly “a Chinese bio-weapon that accidentally escaped the laboratory”. Nice of ABC to notice, but their story, if true, would be the first example of a nation creating and releasing a race-specific biological weapon designed to attack exclusively itself.
Notable is that while SARS spread to about 40 countries, the infections in most countries were few and deaths almost zero, and it was exclusively (or almost exclusively) Chinese who were infected, those in Hong Kong most seriously, with Mainland China suffering little by comparison.
This appears to be precisely the case with this new virus, in that most of the infected persons (sofar) are Chinese. News reports speak of infections appearing in Thailand or the US, but those (at least to date of writing) were all Chinese who had been to Wuhan. There have been no cases so far of infected Caucasians.
As with SARS, this new virus appears to be tightly-focused to Chinese. At this stage it is too early to draw specific conclusions.
We might in other circumstances pass this off as an unfortunate coincidence but for some major circumstantial events that serve to alter our focus. One of these is the history of American universities and NGOs having come into China in recent years to conduct biological experiments that were so illegal as to leave the Chinese authorities enraged. This was particularly true when it became known that Harvard University had surreptitiously proceeded with experiments in China that had been forbidden by the authorities years earlier, where they collected many hundreds of thousands of Chinese DNA samples and then left the country. (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)
The Chinese were furious to learn that Americans were collecting Chinese DNA. The government intervened and prohibited the further export of any of the data. The conclusion at the time was that the ‘research’ had been commissioned by the US military with the DNA samples destined for race-specific bio-weapons research.
In a thesis on Biological Weapons, Leonard Horowitz and Zygmunt Dembek stated that one clear sign of a genetically-engineered bio-warfare agent was a disease caused by an uncommon (unusual, rare, or unique) agent, with lack of an epidemiological explanation. I.e. no clear idea of source. They also mentioned an “unusual manifestation and/or geographic distribution”, of which race-specificity would be one. (13)
The Prepperu2019s Blue... Tess Pennington Best Price: $11.98 Buy New $18.98 (as of 02:20 UTC - Details) Recent disease outbreaks that would seem to possibly qualify as potential bio-warfare agents are AIDS, SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Hantavirus, Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus, Ebola, Polio (Syria), Foot and Mouth Disease, the Gulf War Syndrome and ZIKA. And in fact thousands of prominent scientists, physicians, virologists and epidemiologists on many continents have concurred that all these viruses were lab-created and their release deliberate. The recent swine flu epidemic in China has the hallmarks as well, with circumstantial evidence of the outbreak raising only questions.
There was another curiosity in this case, in that additional to the usual criticisms of China being inactive or secretive, several US media replicated accusations from “a senior US State Department official” claiming Washington was “still concerned” about transparency in the Chinese government on the Wuhan coronavirus. Other articles claimed the US CDC was “concerned that Chinese health officials have still not released basic epidemiological data about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, making it more difficult to contain the outbreak.” There is no substantial reason that officials at any level of the US State Department should concern themselves with a virus outbreak in a foreign country.
Their criticisms were surprisingly detailed, demanding specifics on the number of infections directly from contact with the Wuhan market, the number of person-to-person infections, the precise incubation period from exposure to the onset of symptoms, the point at which persons become contagious. The questions were presented in benevolent terms of helping the Chinese medical authorities deal with the virus, though it was already self-evident China had no need to be lectured on such basics.
As of the date of writing, details are still too scarce to form definitive conclusions but, in every such case, once the smoke clears there are many unanswered questions that challenge the official Western narrative, but it’s old news and the media have already staked out their ground so the matter dies in the Western public mind, but not in China.
Notes
(1) The Wuhan virus is the last thing China’s economy needs …
(2) u2.lege.net/whale.to/c/cantwell_alan.html
(3) https://medicalveritas.org/rigged-science-man-made-aids
(4) https://www.amazon.com/AIDS-Doctors-Death-Inquiry-Epidemic/dp/0917211251
(5) https://rense.com/general37/manmade.htm
(6) https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/01/21/new-improved-sars-bioweapon-tested-in-china
(7) https://rense.com/general37/bio.htm
(8) The Harvard case of Xu Xiping: exploitation of the people, scientific advance, or genetic theft?
Margaret Sleeboom; Amsterdam School of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam and International Institute for Asian Studies, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Routlege; Taylor & Francis group; New Genetics and Society, Vol. 24, No. 1, April 2005
(9) http://ahrp.org/article-30/
(10) http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-09/25/content_267233.htm
(11) http://www.ahrp.org/ethical/ChinaDaily092503.php
(12) http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-09/25/content_267233.htm
(13) Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare
Reprinted with permission from GlobalResearch.ca.


Hiding Behind Psychobabble

There was a very curious letter to the editor in the latest edition of the English monthly magazine The Critic .
It was from a correspondent who defended the type of architecture known as brutalist , that is to say of buildings constructed of and faced with large blocks of raw concrete .
The letter concluded as follows : The writer seems to imply that aesthetic considerations played no part in his estimate of the worth of a building , only its uniqueness and interest .
His ideal of a city , then , would be one composed of freaks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say easiest—road to uniqueness , and freaks are , whatever else they may be , invariably interesting .
As every writer knows , it is easier to depict a bad man interestingly than a good one .
But this is not an argument in favor of bad men .
Amazon.com Gift Card i ... Buy New $ 10.00 The correspondent is not , oddly enough , unique in his uninterest in the aesthetics of architecture .
Writing in a journal by architects for architects , an architect began his article with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ architects ] are worried about the focus on beauty….
” Indeed they are ; but from this one might have supposed that the principal problem facing modern cities was an effete aestheticism that somehow prevented things from being built , and that beauty were to buildings what satin ribbons were to Pekinese dogs , that is to say neither essential nor important .
I hesitate to coin a neologism , but it seems to me that architects , though not architects alone ( they are but the canaries in the coal mine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is to say a fear of beauty .
To be more exact , it is not beauty that they fear so much as the revelation to others of what it is that they consider beautiful , or the revelation of their incapacity to produce anything of beauty .
Taste is very revelatory of character , and though we live in an age in which we delight to talk of ourselves , in fact we do so while carefully protecting ourselves from true self-revelation or true self-examination .
That is the secret of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of language that permits people to talk endlessly about themselves while revealing nothing specific , let alone discreditable , and that the originator of the term , R.D .
Rosen , defined as follows : The Best of Theodore Dalrymple

There was a very curious letter to the editor in the latest edition of the English monthly magazine The Critic. It was from a correspondent who defended the type of architecture known as brutalist, that is to say of buildings constructed of and faced with large blocks of raw concrete. The letter concluded as follows:
I love Brutalism, and believe every example of it should be preserved, but I would never call it beautiful, any more than I would call it ugly. I just happen to find it unique and interesting, and I find it condescending to be told otherwise.
The writer seems to imply that aesthetic considerations played no part in his estimate of the worth of a building, only its uniqueness and interest. His ideal of a city, then, would be one composed of freaks, since freakishness is the royal—which is to say easiest—road to uniqueness, and freaks are, whatever else they may be, invariably interesting. As every writer knows, it is easier to depict a bad man interestingly than a good one. But this is not an argument in favor of bad men.
Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 (as of 08:25 UTC - Details) The correspondent is not, oddly enough, unique in his uninterest in the aesthetics of architecture. Writing in a journal by architects for architects, an architect began his article with the following words: “Many of us [architects] are worried about the focus on beauty….”
Indeed they are; but from this one might have supposed that the principal problem facing modern cities was an effete aestheticism that somehow prevented things from being built, and that beauty were to buildings what satin ribbons were to Pekinese dogs, that is to say neither essential nor important.
But indifference to beauty is not the attitude of most of humanity, at least once its very basic needs are met, either in the present or in the past. The true, the beautiful, and the good have long been considered the prime desiderata of life, but, as Sganarelle said when posing as a physician and being told by his patient Géronte that he thought that the heart was on the left and the liver was on the right side, “Nous avons changé tout cela”—we have changed all that. Beauty is no longer an important concern of architects, and they want to persuade us that it should not be to us, either. We should henceforth satisfy ourselves with uniqueness and interest.
I hesitate to coin a neologism, but it seems to me that architects, though not architects alone (they are but the canaries in the coal mine), suffer from pulchriphobia, that is to say a fear of beauty. To be more exact, it is not beauty that they fear so much as the revelation to others of what it is that they consider beautiful, or the revelation of their incapacity to produce anything of beauty. Taste is very revelatory of character, and though we live in an age in which we delight to talk of ourselves, in fact we do so while carefully protecting ourselves from true self-revelation or true self-examination. That is the secret of the success of psychobabble, that strange form of language that permits people to talk endlessly about themselves while revealing nothing specific, let alone discreditable, and that the originator of the term, R.D. Rosen, defined as follows:
A set of repetitive verbal formalities that kills off the very spontaneity, candour and understanding that it pretends to promote.
Self-revelation
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Theodore Dalrymple


Bad Thoughts

What if the Corona virus turns out to be a genuine pandemic with legs , not some punk-ass , flash-in-the-pan bug like SARS… and infects hundreds of millions around the world… ?
And what if it happens to go logarithmic in the USA , as in China now… ?
And what if takes a few months , or half a year , to do that… ?
And what if Americans will not get on airplanes when that happens… ?
Or gather together in large numbers… ?
Or if government imposes quarantines … ?
Will the parties hold their nominating conventions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be postponed ?
Just sayin ’ … since nobody else seems to be talking about it .
A few months ago , nobody was thinking about a disease that would virtually lock-down China ’ s economy , either… and now here we are .
Speaking of which , that lock-down of China ’ s economy is already generating serious damage to global GDP , after only a few weeks .
But nothing shows our detachment from reality like the recent surge in financial market indexes while the Chinese economy was busy shutting down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : What supports the global daisy-chain of debt obligations while all this is going on ?
Living in the Long Eme ... James Howard Kunstler Buy New $ 24.95 After all , companies doing business need a revenue stream to service their revolving debts .
They have to make stuff , and move stuff , and get paid for it .
What happens when there is no revenue stream ?
The workings of this hyper-complex financial system depend utterly on the velocity of these revenue streams .
They can ’ t just… stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that China ’ s banking system is 1 ) a hot mess of confabulated public and private lending relationships , 2 ) completely opaque as regards the true workings of its operations , and 3 ) shot through with fraud , swindling , and Ponzis .
Did China ’ s ruling party just put its banking system in an induced coma while Corona virus plays out ?
How can that possibly not affect the rest of global finance , which is plenty janky , too ?
The USA gets everything from car parts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will it take for the manufacturing lock-down to show up in American daily life ?
What if it continues for some months going forward ?
You can easily draw your own conclusions .
Here ’ s another interesting angle on that : Corona virus might give President Donald Trump an easy out from being the bag-holder for a stock market crash and banking train wreck .
The signal weakness of Mr. Trump ’ s term-in-office was his taking ownership of a magical mystery stock market that climbs ever-higher day after day , defying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to money .
This longest “ expansion ” in US history ( if that ’ s what it was , and I ’ m not so sure about it ) seems to have hit a speed bump last September when something broke in the short-term “ re-po ” lending markets , at which time ( and ever since ) , Jay Powell ’ s Federal Reserve began jamming hundreds of billions of dollars into them to smash down zooming interest rates and prevent a heart attack in the system .
That creation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ air — appears to have stabilized the situation .
But then , it is a peculiar feature of our times that a lot of things have an appearance that doesn ’ t sync with reality .
The Geography of Nowhe ... James Howard Kunstler Best Price : $ 1.17 Buy New $ 11.88 In short , if Corona virus and its side-effects do substantially knock down the stock markets , Mr. Trump gets off scot-free on the one thing that has been really propping him up .
Not only can he blame a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , he can then turn around and play the Franklin Roosevelt role in attempting to rescue the nation from a depression .
And then , if the election has to be postponed , we will see a for-sure discontinuity in US political history , consequences as yet unknown .
Meanwhile , schemes continue apace to overthrow Mr. Trump by-hook-or-by-crook before the election , with Sedition Release 4.0 just breaking in the Roger Stone sentencing affair and four prosecutors ( three of them Mueller alumni , imagine that ! )
staging a phony-baloney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Rep. Eric Swalwell on the House Intel Committee for the next go at impeachment .
Understand , this wicked business is just another ploy engineered by the same combined Deep State / Lawfare scoundrels that ran RussiaGate , MuellerGate , and UkraineGate , and the real purpose of it is to stave off efforts to prosecute a pretty broad network of those same former and current officials in the FBI , DOJ , CIA , State Department , Pentagon , Obama White House , and the Clinton Foundation for seditious conspiracy and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Personally , I believe that the Attorney General is honestly trying to smoke out the truth in this morass of nefarious intrigues , and that neither attempts to block him by the perps and their allies , nor a visitation of Corona virus across the land , will thwart him .
The Best of James Howard Kunstler

What if the Corona virus turns out to be a genuine pandemic with legs, not some punk-ass, flash-in-the-pan bug like SARS… and infects hundreds of millions around the world…? And what if it happens to go logarithmic in the USA, as in China now…? And what if takes a few months, or half a year, to do that…? And what if Americans will not get on airplanes when that happens…? Or gather together in large numbers…? Or if government imposes quarantines …? Will the parties hold their nominating conventions? Might the November election have to be postponed?
Just sayin’… since nobody else seems to be talking about it. A few months ago, nobody was thinking about a disease that would virtually lock-down China’s economy, either… and now here we are. Speaking of which, that lock-down of China’s economy is already generating serious damage to global GDP, after only a few weeks. But nothing shows our detachment from reality like the recent surge in financial market indexes while the Chinese economy was busy shutting down. In particular, one must wonder: What supports the global daisy-chain of debt obligations while all this is going on?
Living in the Long Eme... James Howard Kunstler Buy New $24.95 (as of 10:56 UTC - Details) After all, companies doing business need a revenue stream to service their revolving debts. They have to make stuff, and move stuff, and get paid for it. What happens when there is no revenue stream? The workings of this hyper-complex financial system depend utterly on the velocity of these revenue streams. They can’t just… stop! Everybody who follows these things understands that China’s banking system is 1) a hot mess of confabulated public and private lending relationships, 2) completely opaque as regards the true workings of its operations, and 3) shot through with fraud, swindling, and Ponzis. Did China’s ruling party just put its banking system in an induced coma while Corona virus plays out? How can that possibly not affect the rest of global finance, which is plenty janky, too?
The USA gets everything from car parts to pharmaceuticals from China. How long will it take for the manufacturing lock-down to show up in American daily life? What if it continues for some months going forward? You can easily draw your own conclusions.
Here’s another interesting angle on that: Corona virus might give President Donald Trump an easy out from being the bag-holder for a stock market crash and banking train wreck. The signal weakness of Mr. Trump’s term-in-office was his taking ownership of a magical mystery stock market that climbs ever-higher day after day, defying all known rules of physics as applied to money. This longest “expansion” in US history (if that’s what it was, and I’m not so sure about it) seems to have hit a speed bump last September when something broke in the short-term “re-po” lending markets, at which time (and ever since), Jay Powell’s Federal Reserve began jamming hundreds of billions of dollars into them to smash down zooming interest rates and prevent a heart attack in the system. That creation of “liquidity” — money from thin air — appears to have stabilized the situation. But then, it is a peculiar feature of our times that a lot of things have an appearance that doesn’t sync with reality.
The Geography of Nowhe... James Howard Kunstler Best Price: $1.17 Buy New $11.88 (as of 10:41 UTC - Details) In short, if Corona virus and its side-effects do substantially knock down the stock markets, Mr. Trump gets off scot-free on the one thing that has been really propping him up. Not only can he blame a looming market calamity on this black swan pandemic, he can then turn around and play the Franklin Roosevelt role in attempting to rescue the nation from a depression. And then, if the election has to be postponed, we will see a for-sure discontinuity in US political history, consequences as yet unknown.
Meanwhile, schemes continue apace to overthrow Mr. Trump by-hook-or-by-crook before the election, with Sedition Release 4.0 just breaking in the Roger Stone sentencing affair and four prosecutors (three of them Mueller alumni, imagine that!) staging a phony-baloney resignation huff to stir up useful idiots like Rep. Eric Swalwell on the House Intel Committee for the next go at impeachment. Understand, this wicked business is just another ploy engineered by the same combined Deep State / Lawfare scoundrels that ran RussiaGate, MuellerGate, and UkraineGate, and the real purpose of it is to stave off efforts to prosecute a pretty broad network of those same former and current officials in the FBI, DOJ, CIA, State Department, Pentagon, Obama White House, and the Clinton Foundation for seditious conspiracy and, yes, possibly even treason. Personally, I believe that the Attorney General is honestly trying to smoke out the truth in this morass of nefarious intrigues, and that neither attempts to block him by the perps and their allies, nor a visitation of Corona virus across the land, will thwart him.
Reprinted with permission from Kunstler.com.
The Best of James Howard Kunstler


The Scholastics

The Natural Law : A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy , by Heinrich A. Rommen Rommen ’ s book is divided in two sections .
The first covers the history of the idea of natural law , the second covers its philosophy and content .
Here we will continue with the history , looking at natural law during the time of the scholastics .
From the earliest , Christians would argue that natural law was inscribed in the hearts of men .
The Apostle Paul would write as much in Romans ; St. John Chrysostom ( d. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use not only Scripture , but reason in their arguments – and reason dictates that there are laws implanted by God in nature .
But it was not until St. Augustine that a thorough theoretical treatment of questions of moral and legal philosophy would be developed by a Christian scholar – taking ideas from ancient philosophy and working these into a Christian mentality .
Aristotle ’ s deistic Nous became the Creator-God who transcends the world and sustains it .
God ’ s reason is order , ruling the order of being , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ connatural to Him , and is unchanging as He is .
Rommen attributes not to St. Anselm of Canterbury where scholasticism first began to concern itself seriously with the natural law , but to Alexander of Hales .
Of course , the focal point would soon become St. Thomas Aquinas .
The law was based on reason , not will ; free will distinguished man from every other earthly creature ; the doctrine of teleology , of ends or final causes , would enter the scene .
Man must ( i.e.
, ought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the perfecting or fulfillment of the potentialities of his being which God has put in his nature , as he perceives them in virtue of his reason and becomes conscious of them .
Furthermore , this natural moral law is alone law in the proper sense : a norm which ought to be obeyed , not one that must be blindly obeyed .
…Act in conformity with your rational nature .
Through the free realization of his rational nature , one becomes a man in the fullest sense – a free being .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ought , and free will that is difficult for me , and perhaps for many children of liberalism and libertarianism to grasp .
But there it is .
We have free will to fulfill our nature…something like this .
To fulfill one ’ s essential nature is good , and good is to be done .
In other words , that which is also ought to be : our nature “ is , ” and to fulfill our nature is what we ought to do .
It is in the second table of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the essential norms given the nature of man : norms regarding family and parental authority , human life , the husband and wife , property and honor , the forbidding of covetousness and wrongful appropriation .
Hans Hoppe similarly pointed to the benefit of these when considering liberty a couple of years ago .
As one moves from the Decalogue to specific positive laws for specific applications , one begins to lose certainty .
St. Thomas views the necessities of such laws – still grounded in reason and man ’ s nature .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Occam would disagree .
Just because God willed something at one time doesn ’ t mean that he can ’ t will the opposite the next time .
For Scotus , even the laws of the second table of the Decalogue were not cast in stone , so to speak .
The will is the nobler ability , with the intellect assigned to merely carrying out whatever is willed .
Occam held similar views .
An act is not good because it accords with man ’ s nature , but only because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one thing or the opposite – either would be good .
There are only individual phenomena , not a teleological orientation .
One finds in this thinking the foundation under Machiavelli ’ s Prince and the Leviathan of Hobbes .
This thinking split scholastic doctrine of natural law at its core .
Those like Occam and Scotus could point to many Biblical passages where God “ willed ” wanton destruction or what we would see as evil .
Rommen notes that from the earliest , Christian philosophers grappled with these issues .
Rommen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Suffice it to say , Occamism wrought havoc in the view of Catholic theology , as well as in metaphysics and ethics .
It was the late scholastics that continued the natural law tradition of St. Thomas : What did they offer in order to overcome Scotus and Occam ?
I know that this is and has been a controversial topic , widely debated .
It seems to me reasonable to suggest that God is so wise that He created that which need not be changed .
There were those who would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even if there were no God .
Hugo Grotius would famously write : It is thought by A.H. Chroust that this statement by Grotius was made in rebuke of Occam ’ s and Hobbes ’ s positivism – that something is valid merely because it is willed .
Grotius was a rationalist , believing it possible to derive strictly by logic a suitable system of rational law sufficient to bind the will .
Grotius was straddling two worlds : behind him , Christendom and the idea of natural law that was built on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ God , then of man .
Ahead of him , the age of reason and individualism – the Enlightenment , where human will was sufficient for law .
Grotius stood in between , suggesting that God was not necessary for natural law but we can still enjoy its liberties .
Grotius , it seems , was wrong – certainly history has worked out this way .
As Friedrich Nietzsche would write , in Twilight of the Idols ( PDF ) : The Best of Bionic Mosquito

The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy, by Heinrich A. Rommen
Rommen’s book is divided in two sections. The first covers the history of the idea of natural law, the second covers its philosophy and content. Here we will continue with the history, looking at natural law during the time of the scholastics.
The Fathers of the early Church made use of the Stoic natural law, finding in its principles “seeds of the word”…
From the earliest, Christians would argue that natural law was inscribed in the hearts of men. The Apostle Paul would write as much in Romans; St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) would argue that Christians would use not only Scripture, but reason in their arguments – and reason dictates that there are laws implanted by God in nature.
But it was not until St. Augustine that a thorough theoretical treatment of questions of moral and legal philosophy would be developed by a Christian scholar – taking ideas from ancient philosophy and working these into a Christian mentality.
For Augustine the substantial ideas, which Plato had conceived of as dwelling in a heavenly abode, became thoughts of God. The impersonal world reason of the Stoics became the personal, all-wise and all-powerful God.
Aristotle’s deistic Nous became the Creator-God who transcends the world and sustains it. God’s reason is order, ruling the order of being, essences and values. The order is connatural to Him, and is unchanging as He is. The Natural Law: A Stu... Heinrich A. Rommen Best Price: $7.00 Buy New $8.00 (as of 01:18 UTC - Details)
The eternal law dwells as blind necessity in irrational nature. As oughtness, as norm of free moral activity, it is inscribed in the heart of man, a rational and free being. …Bad acts are not qualified as such by force of law, but because they are such in themselves: because they constitute a disturbance of the natural order.
Rommen attributes not to St. Anselm of Canterbury where scholasticism first began to concern itself seriously with the natural law, but to Alexander of Hales. Of course, the focal point would soon become St. Thomas Aquinas. The law was based on reason, not will; free will distinguished man from every other earthly creature; the doctrine of teleology, of ends or final causes, would enter the scene.
Man must (i.e., ought to) thus both will and achieve the perfecting or fulfillment of the potentialities of his being which God has put in his nature, as he perceives them in virtue of his reason and becomes conscious of them. Furthermore, this natural moral law is alone law in the proper sense: a norm which ought to be obeyed, not one that must be blindly obeyed. …Act in conformity with your rational nature.
Through the free realization of his rational nature, one becomes a man in the fullest sense – a free being. There is a blending of inclination, ought, and free will that is difficult for me, and perhaps for many children of liberalism and libertarianism to grasp. But there it is. We have free will to fulfill our nature…something like this.
To fulfill one’s essential nature is good, and good is to be done. In other words, that which is also ought to be: our nature “is,” and to fulfill our nature is what we ought to do.
We might then define the object of St. Thomas’ moral science as ‘what conduct ought to be in virtue of what man really is, the right ordering of life to life’s true goal.’ (Rommen citing Gustafson)
It is in the second table of the Decalogue where one is to find the essential norms given the nature of man: norms regarding family and parental authority, human life, the husband and wife, property and honor, the forbidding of covetousness and wrongful appropriation. Hans Hoppe similarly pointed to the benefit of these when considering liberty a couple of years ago.
As one moves from the Decalogue to specific positive laws for specific applications, one begins to lose certainty. St. Thomas views the necessities of such laws – still grounded in reason and man’s nature. On this, Duns Scotus and William of Occam would disagree.
For Duns Scotus morality depends on the will of God. a thing is good not because it corresponds to the nature of God or, analogically, to the nature of man, but because God so wills it.
Just because God willed something at one time doesn’t mean that he can’t will the opposite the next time. For Scotus, even the laws of the second table of the Decalogue were not cast in stone, so to speak. The will is the nobler ability, with the intellect assigned to merely carrying out whatever is willed.
Occam held similar views. An act is not good because it accords with man’s nature, but only because God wills it. God could will one thing or the opposite – either would be good. There are only individual phenomena, not a teleological orientation.
One finds in this thinking the foundation under Machiavelli’s Prince and the Leviathan of Hobbes. This thinking split scholastic doctrine of natural law at its core.
Those like Occam and Scotus could point to many Biblical passages where God “willed” wanton destruction or what we would see as evil. Rommen notes that from the earliest, Christian philosophers grappled with these issues. Rommen does not expand here on these examinations.
Suffice it to say, Occamism wrought havoc in the view of Catholic theology, as well as in metaphysics and ethics.
It was the late scholastics that continued the natural law tradition of St. Thomas:
The outstanding figures in this field were, to mention but a few of the many important scholars, the Spaniards Vittoria (d. 1546), Suarez (1548 – 1617) and Vasquez (d. 1604), and the Italian St. Robert Bellarmine (1542 – 1621).
What did they offer in order to overcome Scotus and Occam?
The natural law is grounded in essence and reason, not in mere absolute will, in God’s absolute power. God’s omnipotence is subordinated, humanly speaking of course, to the decrees of His wisdom. Like these, therefore, the essences of things are also unchangeable.
I know that this is and has been a controversial topic, widely debated. It seems to me reasonable to suggest that God is so wise that He created that which need not be changed.
There were those who would argue that natural law would have force even if there were no God. Hugo Grotius would famously write:
“What we have been saying would have a degree of validity even if we should concede that which cannot be conceded without the utmost wickedness, that there is no God, or that the affairs of men are of no concern to Him.”
It is thought by A.H. Chroust that this statement by Grotius was made in rebuke of Occam’s and Hobbes’s positivism – that something is valid merely because it is willed. Grotius was a rationalist, believing it possible to derive strictly by logic a suitable system of rational law sufficient to bind the will.
Grotius was straddling two worlds: behind him, Christendom and the idea of natural law that was built on intellect, not will – first of God, then of man. Ahead of him, the age of reason and individualism – the Enlightenment, where human will was sufficient for law. Grotius stood in between, suggesting that God was not necessary for natural law but we can still enjoy its liberties.
Conclusion
Grotius, it seems, was wrong – certainly history has worked out this way. As Friedrich Nietzsche would write, in Twilight of the Idols (PDF):
When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one’s feet. This morality is by no means self-evident: this point has to be exhibited again and again, despite the English flatheads. Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one’s hands.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
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A Burning Question

GSTAAD—Lenin Moreno is in trouble despite his very unchristian first name .
For any of you unfamiliar with him , Señor Moreno is the president of Ecuador , a tiny South American country that I like very much because if you ’ ve met an Ecuadorean man , you ’ ve met them all : There are 16 million Ecuadoreans , and 8 million of them , the men , all look like identical twins .
One of my closest friends on the tennis circuit back in the late ’ 50s/early ’ 60s was Guillermo Zuleta , an Ecuadorean , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could run all day , all night , 48 hours straight as long as he was chasing a tennis ball .
Those were not color-blind days , and I remember one time , while watching Guillermo playing a match , an Australian lady expressed outrage at the fact that Zuleta had a very pretty blond girlfriend pining away at the side .
“ What does she see in him ?
” “ Well , ” I told her , “ if you care to sneak into the locker-room shower after the match , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you can miss it.
” Zuleta almost brought me to tears when he and his partner Guzman beat the big , bad Yankees at the Davis Cup , back when the Yankees were a superpower .
( And the Davis Cup was the No .
1 prize in tennis . )
They played in Quito , the capital , and the powers that be promised Zuleta ’ s father a peanut concession outside the football stadium if he beat the hated gringos .
I think he ran something like 250 miles in two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won 3–2 .
When I asked Barry McKay , a top player , what had happened , he said it was like being in a bullring , with people throwing pennies and screaming their heads off as he looked up to hit an overhead .
Although they were and are dirt-poor , the Ecuadoreans threw their last pennies onto the court in order to ensure victory .
It ’ s called patriotism , not nationalism .
Amazon.com Gift Card i ... Buy New $ 10.00 I say all this because now president Lenin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ girls are Orlando Furiosos and want to make him a soprano .
He said that women complain about sexual harassment only when harassed by someone ugly .
He has apologized—as is the way nowadays—after expressing a certain truth .
No dice .
The girls are mad and they will not take it anymore .
So , always in search of the truth for the dear old Speccie , I went up and down this alpine village and also visited the nightclub up at the Palace hotel looking to interview members of the fairer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Who the f— is Lenin ?
” was the first answer I got after asking a young woman drinking a martini at the Palace bar .
Most of the women around Gstaad have never been accused of being intellectuals , yet the place draws them like you-know-what draws flies .
But it could also be because of the mature men who frequent the Alps for the scenery .
Some have even been known to ski , but not too fast .
The next lady I asked was more forthcoming : “ Would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your backside uninvited ?
” “ Actually , he can stroke it anytime , ” said the 50-year-old , “ but why would he want an old bag like me ?
” I congratulated her for her candor and honesty , and then asked if she would react the same way if Harvey Weinstein did the same .
“ Not in a hundred f—ing years , ” came the answer .
The Best of Taki Theodoracopulos

GSTAAD—Lenin Moreno is in trouble despite his very unchristian first name. For any of you unfamiliar with him, Señor Moreno is the president of Ecuador, a tiny South American country that I like very much because if you’ve met an Ecuadorean man, you’ve met them all: There are 16 million Ecuadoreans, and 8 million of them, the men, all look like identical twins. One of my closest friends on the tennis circuit back in the late ’50s/early ’60s was Guillermo Zuleta, an Ecuadorean, who was the color of copper and could run all day, all night, 48 hours straight as long as he was chasing a tennis ball. Those were not color-blind days, and I remember one time, while watching Guillermo playing a match, an Australian lady expressed outrage at the fact that Zuleta had a very pretty blond girlfriend pining away at the side. “What does she see in him?” “Well,” I told her, “if you care to sneak into the locker-room shower after the match, I’ll point it out—not that you can miss it.”
Zuleta almost brought me to tears when he and his partner Guzman beat the big, bad Yankees at the Davis Cup, back when the Yankees were a superpower. (And the Davis Cup was the No. 1 prize in tennis.) They played in Quito, the capital, and the powers that be promised Zuleta’s father a peanut concession outside the football stadium if he beat the hated gringos. I think he ran something like 250 miles in two singles and a doubles, and Ecuador won 3–2. When I asked Barry McKay, a top player, what had happened, he said it was like being in a bullring, with people throwing pennies and screaming their heads off as he looked up to hit an overhead. Although they were and are dirt-poor, the Ecuadoreans threw their last pennies onto the court in order to ensure victory. It’s called patriotism, not nationalism. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 (as of 08:25 UTC - Details)
I say all this because now president Lenin Moreno is in deep doo-doo. Les girls are Orlando Furiosos and want to make him a soprano. He said that women complain about sexual harassment only when harassed by someone ugly. He has apologized—as is the way nowadays—after expressing a certain truth. No dice. The girls are mad and they will not take it anymore. So, always in search of the truth for the dear old Speccie, I went up and down this alpine village and also visited the nightclub up at the Palace hotel looking to interview members of the fairer sex about Lenin’s remarks. “Who the f— is Lenin?” was the first answer I got after asking a young woman drinking a martini at the Palace bar. Most of the women around Gstaad have never been accused of being intellectuals, yet the place draws them like you-know-what draws flies. But it could also be because of the mature men who frequent the Alps for the scenery. Some have even been known to ski, but not too fast.
The next lady I asked was more forthcoming: “Would you feel harassed if Brad Pitt stroked your backside uninvited?” “Actually, he can stroke it anytime,” said the 50-year-old, “but why would he want an old bag like me?” I congratulated her for her candor and honesty, and then asked if she would react the same way if Harvey Weinstein did the same. “Not in a hundred f—ing years,” came the answer.
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The Best of Taki Theodoracopulos