sillysocksonfriday

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Raison d’etre

Silly Socks on Friday started in Africa in the early 90’s. The blog followed in the early years of the 21st century

We stand for quirks and whimsy, and intend to take serious looks at silliness and silly looks at seriousness.

The rant is a favoured mode when things get my goat.

Our first campaign was a global war against that yoke of uniformity, the neck tie, now largely won. There can be no logical explanation why people continue to tightly tie strips of cloth round their throats and then dangle them on their chests.

Next on our list is a twin campaign to attack the plague of plastic and promote the global revival of hemp.

If this tickles your fancy, sign up as a follower and get an e-mail notifying you of new posts.

Please comment on what is written, especially if you disagree. Outrage is a validation of effect!

The Trump card

Of course it’s the Joker – but you better laugh or at least smile or it will be the Queen of Hearts: Off with his head!!

There is this surreal feeling that 2026 has plunged us all into a rabbit hole …

One can just see the Cheshire Cat grinning through all the unimagined twists and turns…

The Maduro kidnapping was such a smart operation which suggests significant planning – this is not a madcap spur of the moment whimsy.

Behind the blather there is a whole lot of strategic planning and intent. Maybe the Don’s job is to distract and misdirect? He’s pretty good at that!

We have become too civilised, too reticent, too socially delicate. The best is not equal, it will not be seen as fair by all. It is also fast and centralised and powerful.

Our lives have become clogged by the cholesterol of good living. Bureaucracy has slowed decision making and impoverished us.

We in the Western democratic world have become too soft, forgetting the hard road it took to get to where we are.

Confession time.

I must admit to an awkward admiration for a benevolent despot, a doer who has no hesitation.

It trashes all political norms and conventions of ‘civilised’ behaviour – but it is past time for a major re-set of our perspective of the real world!

Trumping maybe the way to go to save our way of life.

It may not follow conventions and has little finesse but it’s pointing in the right direction.

Heart surgery is not a delicate science: it is basic and brutal and the squeamish may not like it. Sometimes it is necessary.

It looks more and more like a world war may be on the cards. What happens to war survivors is they re-focus on looking after their own communities. Maybe that is what we need to save us..?

Sounds a bit like what I have heard about Fuentes…

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Maybe…

He sticks in my throat, but may be the saviour of ‘our’ civilisation, i.e. the western democratic world.

Topsy turvy world

The words lebensraum and Anschluss probably have little significance for today’s world. They were clearly announced in Hitler’s book Mein Kampff.

In the 1930’s the militarisation of the Rhineland occupation of the Ruhr, occupation of Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia, annexation of Austria and invasion of Poland were justified by the desire to unite German speaking people, a need for resources, a desire to expand or gain back former land, and extreme nationalism.

They were unilateral incursions by superior military forces driven by ruthless politicians

90 years later, with MAGA we have seen:

the unilateral renaming of the Gulf of Mexico
Kristalnacht scenes of the apprehension, removal and incarceration of people within US cities by jackbooted troops;
the bombing of Iran
the obliteration of boats in international waters
the kidnapping of a Head of State and his wife and
the capture of an oil tanker under a Russian flag.
Threats of further action against Iran, Cuba, Colombia and Greenland have been made with impunity.

In fact, these acts have been owned with pride and self righteousness.

The two images that loom in my head are a schoolyard bully and Adolph Hitler.

These actions by the supposed leader of Western civilisation can only be seen as ‘legitimising‘ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and lending justification to China’s invasion of Taiwan.

Guess who doesn’t give a toss?

Congress won’t check him; a few judges may rule his actions illegal in the dim and distant future…ho, hum!

Again Caligula comes to mind … initially welcomed, he reversed treason trials and brought back exiles but descended into despotism, executing rivals, squandering funds, and demanding worship, leading to his assassination by his own guards.

What next? Domestic acclaim and a stunned silence from allies and neighbours (cowed by threats of invasion?) could lead to increasingly brazen and rash acts.

Greenland to be the new 51st state, Canada to be the 52nd ….. why not Mexico as the 54th? Heyy!! Why not all of the Americas…??

Oh yeah, the other one who comes to mind is Kim Jong Un, and Vladimir of course

Winding down

The year is almost over – the year end doldrums have set in (in my case that happened about 4 January…)

Even Trump has lost his allure, which is not quite the right word as it omits the whimsical menace of his mind. With a bit of luck the Epstein files will show him clearly as the leering, bullying thug I believe him to be. But I no longer really care.

Imagine if clear evidence of paedophilia by him emerges – will Congress try impeachment again? Don’t bet on it.

I did not do a forecast for 2025 as I have not been very accurate in the past.

But here goes:

There is some hope that the Ukraine war will be resolved soon.

Trump moves could include divorcing NATO, invading Venezuela and annexing Greenland. I do not think he will support Taiwan or other countries China is bashing.

His tariffs are likely to continue. According to CBS News:

Economic growth has surged to its fastest pace in two years, inflation has risen less than feared and the stock market has climbed to fresh highs.

So well done, Donald, despite rising unemployment and prices for the ordinary man in the street remaining high.

Just a random thought about powerful leaders…. Winston Churchill was one.

He too seemed to have bewitched parliament and had some very dubious views and habits….

Here in Australia, with a bit of luck, Albaaneasy and Wrong will continue to be boo’d in public. Realisation that Labor’s narrow focus on renewable energy is excessive will spread to the majority of the population.

In Europe, there are glimmers of stronger, conservative leaders emerging.

Maybe we will see more conversations about compulsory national service.

In Africa, colonial infrastructures continue to crumble and leaders continue to struggle to get fatter as the public purse is swindled. Economic overlords will continue to absorb natural resources.

The winding back of woke regimes will be difficult as practically a whole generation has been infected. Instilling backbone into the wider populace is difficult. Evasion of the issue is the predominant attribute of most.

It will be interesting to see the how far AI will be deployed in governments…

There lies an interesting conundrum: surely forms and applications could all be processed instantaneously by AI! No 2 year average processing times for immigration applications.

Mind you, I would give the administration of justice to AI: lie detectors, no more juries, no more lengthy trials …

Oh and the electoral process too – online voting, instant results; frequent referenda on important issues.

Sorry… getting sidetracked

May the Year of the Horse bring you joy and sufficiency.

Awake!

The Bondi Beach massacre gave rise to a number of raw thoughts.

Can indiscriminate massacre in a peaceful community be justified by the claim of retaliation for people killed in retaliatory attacks on soldiers within a community?
Will the hero, who may well be a Moslem, be safe in Australia?
How long before vigilantism rears its ugly head?
Surely this will see a swing to the right, with more following Barnaby Joyce’s direction?
Will the right to keep and bear arms become of political moment?
I thought Netanyahu’s accusation against the Australian government was spot-on!

“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia. You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.”

On a slightly different theme, I was irritated to see the soberly dressed morning show talking heads at the murder scene. Somehow, vultures came to mind. Virtue signalling and looking for gobbets of human pathos are not really what journalists should do.

Not a word yet from Coalition or right wing pollies: too afraid to grasp the nettle.

This is their opportunity to show up the woke, weak Albaanese government for the weak and ineffective leaders they are!

I can almost hear their twittering: “you go first, no it should be you,…. but what shall we say…..”

AAaaarghhh!!

We need someone to speak clearly and simply:

no more refugees or immigrants from Palestine and Sudan, no more potential supporters of radical Islam
get tough on youth crime
stop the mad stampede into renewables
stop buying votes with rebates

Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

The debilitating effect of false sympathy, created by a misguided education

Edmund Burke “A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly”

Lift up your hearts

This is an echo of my Catholic foundation, but in those days the words were in Latin: Sursum Corda

It is followed by the call to give thanks and praise.

Well in the western hemisphere whole countries pause and families gather to give thanks together. It is a fine tradition which the rest of us should follow with at least the respect and enthusiasm we give the banal Halloween, over-hyped Festive Season and chocolate coated Easter!

You may have noticed the absence of any rant or mumble in recent months – I have not been inspired or agitated enough to stir my stumps…

Perhaps there will be peace in Ukraine this Christmas. It will be an achievement of note, notwithstanding the apparent pandering to the acknowledged aggressor. That is cause for jubilation.

Israel and Gaza have slipped off the media interest scale, although still simmering. Let us give thanks and praise!

Good news is often not sensational, so it is downscaled by most media, sadly – it doesn’t sell as well as blood on the front page.

But here are some things we should be happy about:

AI is revolutionising medical diagnosis. …
Ocean cleanup projects are making waves. …
Mental health support is going mainstream. …
Renewable energy is breaking records. …
Gene therapy is curing ‘incurable’ diseases. …
Cities are becoming wildlife havens.
Food waste is being tackled with smart solutions
Global poverty continues its historic decline

Yeah! They do look good. Thank you

sorry … bit of a mumble space filler..

The book I am now reading…

The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick o’Brian

O’Brian is highly talented storyteller who uses sophisticated techniques to entertain but also inform on the themes, values, fashions, attitudes, humour, politics and sociology of the 19th Century Royal Navy.

The story is a continuation of the Aubrey and Maturin saga. It consists of 18 volumes, which should be started at the beginning.

This is my third or fourth reading – I look forward to many more.

Woe king

Sadly, that’s what I think of Charlie 3.

His younger brother is a hound, always has been, by repute. Probably undone by an unhealthy streak of aristocratic arrogance. Somehow extending the divine right of kings to include a suspension of decency.

It is a common tale of misfortune which resounds amongst the ranks of scions of families with inherited wealth. Too much money and regard for status seems to lead to the belief that rules of society and decency do not apply.

But he has not been accused of any particular crime. Years ago a claim was settled with the girl who claimed the prince had taken took advantage of her when she was a minor. Inappropriate, undesirable behaviour but no crime.

The media hullabaloo has ebbed and waned. There has been a recent resurgence of the same allegations and the girl has died.

So…. HRH the Charlie sees fit to cast his brother out; cancelling all the honours and privileges traditionally accorded to a child of a monarch.

This is a weak act of virtue signalling in keeping with the woke generation. That is a clear indication that the Palace has succumbed

Google says:

A king is symbolic of power, authority, and leadership, representing the nation’s identity, continuity, and the rule of law. He can also symbolize a connection to divinity or the ultimate source of justice…

Justice requires appropriate consideration of evidence and the opportunity to defend oneself at trial. There are no accusers – just noisemakers and a compliant puppet.

No wonder there are no real leaders in the UK, with such a weak monarch.

His mother had more balls.

Ja nee

Lulu got swooped by a butcher bird the other day; it clipped her bum and she leapt away. Quite funny, until it had a go at me..!

Magpies and kiewiets/plovers also get huffy. Being strafed while cycling is not amusing.

My Auntie Bunty said it was very frightening when it was a German bomber doing the strafing, which happened to her in WW2. Obviously they missed, as she told us the story.

It’s going to be one of those days with bits and pieces.

Such a moment in time, when the world makes kiss kiss to that awful orange man. Peace in Gaza was inevitable, there was nothing left. The Donald’s timing enabled him to claim the glory, but he was really only the final straw.

Let him crack the hard nut of the Ukraine and I will echo his own nomination for the Nobel Peace prize

These are quotes from stuff I have been reading lately. Hope they titillate your fancies.

“Journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.” –G.K. Chesterton

“There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” Umberto Eco

All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

George Orwell

“The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Margaret Thatcher

… the Internet will bring about Idiocracy

Trump ….”tribalist, kleptocratic, authoritarian cultural imperialist? “

” He cares about getting rich, persecuting his enemies, and eliminating threats to his own power—just like his Middle Eastern counterparts do. “

Nick Catoggio

A hit dog will holler.

“Anyone who calls us authoritarian is going to prison,”

“If you can’t call fascists fascists, then the fascists have won.”

Democracy insists upon enfranchising the ignoramuses, who also get a vote on any number of other issues about which they know little or nothing. Two cheers for democracy and all that.

United States and China are firmly locked in a cold war struggle whose outcome will be the most important determinant of peace, prosperity, and quality of life in international politics over the next decade.

The second half of this decade is set to be a critical inflection point in this contest.

Stephen Weber, Cold War Statecraft for the 2020s

We would be better off if we did a little bit more work understanding what people actually think (and why) rather than inventing arguments that are designed to make us feel virtuous in comparison.

Kevin D Williamson TMD 24 Oct ’25

He was talking up the Ideological Turing Test which he believes will help us all avoid unsubstantiated sentimental pronouncements about others’ arguments.

Hope that stimulates some thought, sorry it’s so serious…

Soutie

Those of you with African origin will understand the title.

“Soutie” is a derisive Afrikaans name for an English speaking South African. It is an abbreviation of the crude term soutpiel or salty prick.

Many Afrikaners were of the opinion that English speaking South Africans retained one foot in Britain and the other in Africa. As this resulted in legs far apart, it caused the salination of the dangling nether regions.

I confess that there may be some truth in their assertions

I have just returned from a sojourn in the land of my birth. eSwatini is a landlocked little kingdom in Southern Africa. My brothers live there, on a farm in the bushveld. The eldest, Mpunzane, has late stage Parkinson’s, so the visit was bitter sweet. My wife is in Nelspruit with her sister who has cancer.

Not a fun visit.

Seedy, run-down, dirty, busy, rural houses like weeds in every space, no plan just build.

Too many care less officials and fat police officers. Road markings gone, potholes, beggars, some traffic lights.

Poor but friendly.

Lots of curled lips and curses about the fat, greedy king. Nobody seems to like him, but see his cultural role as still important.

Almost felt like home ….. but not quite.

We are OzAfricans now, settling well in the South Pacific.

This is an untitled poem in Afrikaans by Lidi de Waal, a poet and artist fom the Western Cape in South Africa.

I find Afrikaans to be a wonderfully expressive language – translation below

{*The poem was untitled – this is my title for it)

Where to find happiness *

die lewe is te kort daarvoor

om geluk elders te bly soek

of om daarvoor te bly sit en wag

geluk is nie iewers anders nie

dis nie in ń ander dorp

of ń beter blyplek nie

dis nie in volgende week of volgende jaar nie

dis nie by ń ander partner

of beter vriende

of ń ander werk nie

geluk is hier waar jy is

geluk is in die vrede binne in jou

in die klein stukkies vreugde

wat soms in jou eie hart opwel

life is too short

to seek happiness elsewhere

or to sit still and wait for it

happiness is not somewhere else

it’s not another town or a better home

it’s not in the next week or the next year

it’s not with another partner or better friends

happiness is where you are

happiness is in the peace within you

in the little bits of joy

which occasionally well up in your own heart

Social Justice

I started to write about the political emphasis placed on child care and aged care. Both aimed at liberating mothers and fathers from caring for their families, so they could work.

The political left crusades to enable every adult to enter the workforce. They do this by making more and more money available to voters – isn’t that kind?

How do you get mothers back to work? Pay to have their children and their aged parents cared for by others.

Never mind the destruction of the family as a nurturing place for young and old.

But it is more than that. Exploiting apparent inequalities as a political practice is effective in getting sympathy votes. How can it be wrong?

The moral high ground of the Social Justice Warrior is: Emancipation is an ongoing process. It is a moral duty to address remaining inequalities. We must create a more just and equitable society for all.

The political opportunity of exploiting the moral of disadvantage is a battle based on sentiment, not intellect.

That fallacy is the cudgel used – it’s not equal, that’s not fair! Everyone must have equal rights…

The Left has become the champion of the voteless people. Championing equality for the poor, people of colour, women, homosexuals, the aged and the disabled engenders lifelong electoral support. So virtuous!

It’s the gift that keeps on giving, because things will never be equal for everybody…

Of course this is only possible in democracies. If you step out of line in China, Russia, Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe, Venezuela or most Middle Eastern countries, there is a high probability that you will disappear or die.

The opponents of democracies: totalitarian, Islamist, kleptocratic regimes actively support and agitate for “Social Justice” in western democracies.

It is a great way to maintain ongoing disruption and antipathy in societies.

This didn’t go where I was thinking of going… but it still says something about what I think…