Kevin Duffy responds to Roger Waters interview about Israel-Palestine conflict

You had me hanging on every word (in agreement) until you got to the word "profit."  This is a strange criticism coming from a man who has profited handsomely from the free market.  What were the means to those millions you and your band mates earned in profit?  It wasn't through violence.  You didn't screw anybody.  In fact, you served millions of consumers.  Your fans (myself included) were happy to hand over a few of their hard earned dollars for a record album or concert ticket.  In return we were not only treated to incredible music, but lyrics that touched deep emotions and got us to think critically.  Pink Floyd became part of the soundtrack and conscience of our lives.  What is that worth?  There's a lesson here: Trade is not exploitation, it is win-win. 

Trade is also the key to the Israelis and Palestinians ending their century long blood feud.  Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2006, cutting off the mutually beneficial economic bonds that tie people together, especially people who hate each other.  That blockade is nothing more than an act of war, hitting civilians the hardest.  The West Bank Palestinians, led by Omar Barghouti, responded with their own boycotts and sanctions (the BDS movement). While some of their efforts are targeted and justified (e.g., against Boeing selling weapons to the Israelis), they run the risk of declaring economic war on Israeli civilians AS WELL AS their own people.

What is the result of these trade wars?  Those in power - Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, the Netanyahu administration - get stronger as their people suffer under crushing sanctions which create the ideal external enemy.  Foreign aid only makes matters worse, being syphoned off by the political class and further subverting the free market. 

There is an ironclad law of economics: Where goods are not allowed to cross borders, armies will.  Gaza and the West Bank are just the latest in a long, tragic list of examples.

~ Kevin Duffy, reply to TRT World interview of Roger Waters, December 9, 2023

Karen Harradine on Bill Gates as climate change critic

[Bill] Gates is a fierce critic of C02 emissions and a climate change ideologue, so much so that he is about to publish a book on the topic.  But why is he preaching to us on climate change when he must be one of the heaviest personal users of carbon in the world? 

In 2017, Gates took 59 flights, presumably in his private plane, which he has described as a ‘guilty pleasure.’  I am certain that his guilty pleasure produces a lot more CO2 than my own dark chocolate fetish. His flights emitted 1,600 tons of carbon dioxide in a single year whereas most of us produce only 10 tons annually. 

In February, it was rumoured that Gates had bought a superyacht, something he has yet to confirm or deny, although he certainly charters them.  The timing is suspicious, given that several billionaires took to the seas in superyachts in March to escape Covid-19 and the unpleasant effects of medieval lockdowns.  The environmental damage they would have done to our oceans’ delicate ecosystems bears examination.  One superyacht uses around 500 litres of petrol per hour and pumps out 2.1 million tons of C02 a year.

~ Karen Harradine, "The megalomania of Bill Gates - Part One," The Conservative Woman, December 12, 2020

Kevin Duffy calls out CNBC hypocrits over GameStop madness

I'm tired of the crybabies on CNBC who pimped for massive stimulus in 2020 and have the audacity in 2021 to complain about GME going 17-bagger in 10 days.

~ Kevin Duffy, tweet, January 28, 2021

Douglas Murray on California Governor Newsom's unmasked Napa Valley dinner

As photos of the gathering emerged, it has further transpired that the Governor was joined by two high-level members of the California Medical Association. The $400 per person menu included a starter of “Oysters and Pearls” followed by “Sole aux Crevettes” and Braised Veal. All of which must have left a delightful taste in the mouth of the Californian leader, various medical authorities and assorted lobbyists, but leaves a rather less pleasant aftertaste with pretty much every other resident of California.

~ Douglas Murray, "The great lockdown hypocrites," UnHerd, November 20, 2020

Paul Kengor on progressivism and the bigotry of Karl Marx

I recently wrote an article asking why our wondrous progressives in the cancel culture haven’t canceled Karl Marx.  He was a bigot, a racist, an anti-Semite, and a sexist.  Why does Marx get a pass?  Answer: because the left likes him.

~ Paul Kengor, "Atheist, racist, bigot, sexist: The truth about the demonic Karl Marx," Catholic World Report, September 2, 2020

Hannah Arendt on hypocrisy

What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.

~ Hannah Arendt

Kevin Duffy on the 2016 presidential election

U.S. 2016 election: The Average Joe supports a billionaire while billionaires line up to endorse the candidate who claims to work for the Average Joe.

~ Kevin Duffy, August 13, 2016

EU official on the need to lie to manage market confidence

When it becomes serious, you have to lie.

~Jean-Claude Junker, prime minister of Luxembourg, "Market jitters bring difficult choice between truth and lies for politicians, spokespeople," AP, May 4, 2011

Nassim Taleb on hypocrisy

Finer men tolerate others' small inconsistencies thought not the large ones; the weak tolerate others' large inconsistencies though not the small ones.

Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes, p. 58

Walter Block on politics and hypocrisy

Most conservatives (and left liberals too) hate the government, except when it is bombing innocents abroad. Most western socialist intellectuals decry income inequality, as they drive their Mercedes, vacation abroad and swill down expensive wines. And then there are the environmental watermelons (red on the inside, green on the outside) who whine about the plight of the planet while jetting from one conference to another, which they should not do, if their own analysis of the problem is correct.

~ Walter Block, "You Are a Rotten Kid," LewRockwell.com, February 27, 2010

On hypocrisy (anonymous)

Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.

~ Unknown, possibly French proverb, or authored by François de La Rochefoucauld