It all starts with the insects

I have written before about the great concern I have in the decline of insect numbers in Europe. Long term studies in a German nature reserve have shown that populations have declined by around 75% since 1989 - a catastrophic loss of environmental quality. The impact goes right up the food chain - old world fly catchers can eat 1.5kg of insects in the breeding season, and amphibians and reptiles that depend on insects are stressed and will decline. Once the amphibians start to go, smaller mammals will follow. Nature goes into imbalance, and other populations are threatened. Human growth in Africa means the loss of half of the continent's biodiversity - and growing Asian demands for meat and fish will mean these oceans will be practically depleted within two decades. 

And it's not just third-worlders who are responsible; every bastard who has block-paved his front garden, every proud housewife who fills her home with wasp killers, moth killers, ladybird terminators and all the panoply of chemical warfare insecticides is not only exterminating biodiversity but harming the long term health of her own family.

Biodiversity destroyers - write to them politely

And until the Catholic Church, itself complicit in the destruction of God's bounteous earth, His loving gift to man, repents of its grievous fault and sin it is in no position to dispense moral leadership in other areas of life. 

Though the Guardian does so from a political slant, its warnings are not exaggerated. We must all take action to halt this catastrophic loss of biodiversity - and this can start with writing polite letters to the inhabitants of houses who have block-paved their front gardens. They not only cause flooding that ruins the lives of thousands each year, but have created ecological deserts inimicable to life. Garden-pavers are simply anti-life and anti-social. Then throw out all the insecticides - welcome insects as part of living. 

It all starts with the insects. 

My resident fire salamander, at least 30 years old, who wanders the stream bed

Jefferson Inaugural address

No apologies for quoting today at length from Thomas Jefferson's inaugural address, from which our 50p coin inscription is derived. I do wish both the Federasts of the EU and Remoaners would read and absorb; his points about the Union of the US apply equally to the Union of the United Kingdom. And note the line " ..absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority".

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political:—peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none:—the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies:—the preservation of the General government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad: a jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided:—absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of the despotism:—a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them:—the supremacy of the civil over the military authority:—economy in the public expence, that labor may be lightly burthened:—the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith:—encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid:—the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason:—freedom of religion; freedom of the press; and freedom of person, under the protection of the Habeas Corpus:—and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation, which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment:—they should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety.

It's official - the EU is off the UK's Christmas card list

Much to his great displeasure, the Chancellor's department announced today a new commemorative Brexit coin. The news stuck so badly in Spreadsheet Phil's craw that he couldn't bring himself to announce it in his budget speech - but allowed his officials to sneak it out in the press releases.

The reason for his distaste is clear. Whilst we wish peace, friendship and so on to the 27 remaining nations of the EU, and indeed to every other nation on the globe, our good wishes are conspicuously absent for the EU itself - which is not a nation at all but a Federation, a bureaucracy, a snoopdom of prodnosing unelected officials. 

Not only have we cold-shouldered the bullying, hubristic Federasts in Brussels but we're opening up our quick-entry passport readers to all our more mature anglophone cousins, plus the Japanese.

PTSD Adonis and 'Howler' Grayling and their dags will be having hysterical vapours on Twitter, I have no doubt. Just a shame the coin won't be out for Christmas - I can see a few million Christmas puds being loaded with the things for the extended family if they were. 

 

Mohammed was NOT a paedophile, OK?

There's an old joke about a disconsolate Welshman complaining bitterly to his local pub barman. "I've written poems for eleven Eisteddfods - but do they call me Dai the Poet? I painted the sign for this pub, the general store, the post office and the chapel - but do they call me Dai the sign-painter? I've made garden gates for every house in the High Street but do they call me Dai the gate-hanger? No. But they catch you fucking ONE goat ...." 

Dai, had he existed in reality, would have enjoyed the ruling this week from the ECHR. Not so Douglas Murray, writing in the Speccie. I fear Douglas has actually got it wrong. He either hasn't fully read the court decision, or doesn't understand it. Let me reassure him. It's OK to state anywhere in Austria that the Prophet Mohammed married Aisha when she was six years old, and had sex with her when she was nine. No problem. The court accepts this as a fact that can be openly stated. 

The ECHR even accepts that this act is open to moral critique, as to whether it was an act of child abuse, was detrimental to Aisha's mental and physical well-being, or even whether Aisha could have given informed consent, or whether a pre-pubescent child, being the vassal and property of a man who was her husband under the belief system of that time and place, could be subject without restriction to his sexual penetration whatever her age or willingness. All fine. Discuss.   

What the court ruled we can't do is to call Mohammed a paedophile. A paedophile demonstrates a sexual predilection for sex with an entire class of pre-pubescent girls or boys - it is a state of continuous sexual perversion, a condition not an act. There is no evidence that Mohammed inflicting sex upon a single prepubescent child is sufficient evidence of a condition of paedophilia, ruled the court. Therefore the accusation is abusive and unlawful under Austrian law. 

Dai the goat-fucker would down his pint in satisfaction.