Welcome to another “Peek At My Week” – March 25, 2024! Here are some things that happened this past week!
News About Writing & Publishing: This Is The Current State Of Things
I’m Not Writing, So What Am I Up To? As you may recall, I’ve been putting off getting back into writing this year because I mentioned something wonderful had happened early in January that meant I would likely be otherwise occupied for the rest of the year, or even the next couple of years. I’ve already had to take some people into my confidence in the process of preparing for… whoops – I almost told you! It’s still far too soon! As soon as it’s appropriate, I will be sure to let you know – in the meantime, I beg your indulgence, and your patience!
What Readers Say: I know I can’t please everybody (so I’m not trying to!). That said, it really pleases me when I see that I’ve managed to do it anyway! If there’s nothing new below, just pop along here to have a look at all the reader’s comments I’ve collected so far.
I also posted “A Goose-step Too Far“, an article about Holocaust denialist J.K. Rowling. To be a genuine Holocaust denialist in 2024, you’d have to be a special sort of determined and willfully ignorant specimen. Students of history will know that the Nazis tried their level best to wipe out everyone they hated – and they hated quite a lot of different kinds of people. It’s quite ironic then, isn’t it – even coincidental, that these seem to be the same sort of people hated on by J.K. Rowling? Will openly and voluntarily exposing herself as a Holocaust denier finally be enough of a wake-up call to her diehard fans?
Understanding The World Today
In the last decade and a half, I’ve often looked at the instances happening in real-time where various groups of people were being literally brutalized, persecuted and killed in different countries around the world – Uganda, Iran, Jamaica, Iraq, Russia and so on – and it blew my mind how, despite the outcry or protest, or the scale of the atrocities or the suffering of the victims, some countries just either don’t even acknowledge that it is taking place, or even assist the governments who are literally committing crimes against humanity with money, or weapons, or other logistical aid.
And then, the great Israeli-Gaza shit-show happened – and finally, I get it.
Unless there’s money to be made from intervening, or even speaking out, and if the country committing literal genocide using weapons they sent them, happens to be one they support, or put in power, or profit from in some way – or the people being slaughtered on an industrial scale aren’t people it would pay them to care about, it’s unlikely that “superpowers” who only care about their own obscene wealth and power would lift a finger to intervene.
Unfair Media Doctrine
Controversy only exists in news media today because there is no regulation to provide balance, or to clearly enforce honesty or accuracy in reportage, and to limit speculation and invention.
(Remember the Fairness Doctrine that was scrapped by Republican idol, Ronald Reagan? Well, this is the result.)
This almost exactly explains the rise of the current shit-show I call the media-created sense of reality in 2024. The tail wags the dog.
Put The Hatemongers Out Of Work!
If we can all laugh together, cry together, work together and interact together – and do so closely enough to see and understand and realize each other’s humanity, then the racists and hate-mongers of the world will be out of a job.
The Coming Wave Of EV’s
South Africa’s government seems to be getting well and truly onto the EV train, and is frequently making statements to the press about rolling out EV infrastructure, and figuring out how to monetize this idea, and encouraging the roll-out of EV’s themselves by manufacturers.
While I think EV’s are all good and well on their own, aside from the tendency of some to be incendiary bombs with a habit of just bursting into flames randomly, I don’t think these people have really thought this whole thing out properly.
How much does one EV draw current-wise while charging, and for how long? Multiply that number by however many EV units they expect to sell?
This is South Africa – and we’ve already had loadshedding on a daily basis since about 2009, and it’s likely to only get worse if they inject a ton of EVs that need to be charged daily into an already unstable and overloaded network.
I can already guess we’re going to be hitting stage 8 or 9 loadshedding if they go ahead with this tomfoolery – and “tax-breaks” won’t mean shit to the businesses that will close down due to lack of production, or to the unemployed that will result.
In Conclusion
As always, I’ll keep you posted about any new developments, so until then, I wish you all a pleasant week!
Thanks a lot for all your friendship and support, I hope you know it is deeply appreciated – and remember, keep reading!