Nice. (Diane Lovegrove pic)

Not to mention his and Her tyranical mandates for that substance.

By Roger Childs

Playing on the dusty, orange clay

After a successful defence of his Barcelona Open title, Carlos Alcaraz said he is there to “build his own history” and he doesn’t ”want to  take over from anyone. –The Guardian, 24 April 2023

The major clay tournaments are played in Europe and the first big one was in Monte Carlo earlier this month. The Barcelona Open and BMW Open finished last weekend and now it’s on to Madrid and then to Rome. The play of the orange clay culminates at the grand slam in Paris, at Roland Garros, in late May – early June.

In 2022 this clay major was won by Rafael Nadal to give him a record breaking 14^th title – a phenomenal achievement. However it’s unlikely that the Spanish maestro will win this year as he has played little tennis in 2023 because of injury. Major contenders for this second grand slam of the year are the winners of last weekend’s tournaments in Barcelona and Munich – Carlos Alcaraz from Spain and Dane Holger Rune.

Winning on the clay

At Monte Carlo – a venue with amazing views of the Mediterranean Sea – Russian Andrey Rublev beat Rune 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in the final. In the deciding set the Dane was within one point of taking a 5-1 lead, but fell apart while the Russian kept his focus. 

At Munich Rune looked as if he would again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when seemingly in control. He took the first set comfortably 6-4 but then his play became loose and inaccurate, and Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp kept his cool to take set two 6-1. In the deciding set it was the Dutchman who faltered. At one point he was 5-2 ahead and had two match points, but Rune fought back. Then at 5-4 van der Zandschulp again had the chance to take the championship, but he became nervous, made a number of unforced errors and consequently the match went to a tie break.

The large crowd definitely got their money’s worth with six breaks of serve in the final set and plenty of quality play characterised by many powerful rallies with the occasional drop shots providing variety. In the end the Dane prevailed 7-3 in the breaker leaving van der Zandschulp to rue losing four match points.

Alcaraz too strong in Barcelona

Stephanos Tsitsipas was the Spaniard’s opponent in the Barcelona Masters’ final. Alcaraz has a strong serve and powerful ground strokes which net him many winners. The Greek can match the Spaniard’s forehands and backhands, but frequently gets caught out by his drop shots. Alcaraz popularized the latter Roland Garros last year and now all players employ the surprise stroke to have their opponents scrambling from the back of the court to retrieve the ball close to the net. 

In the Barcelona final the Spanish player won the first set 6-3 and in the second used drop shots ten times. Tsitsipas was slow to anticipate these deceptive plays, and only got a racquet on two of them. Alcaraz eventually won the tournament decider 6-3 6-4.

The focus now shifts to the Madrid Masters where a strong field will be lining up. 

It’s a wonder the Jacinda government didn’t ram such a law through alo. The two are great pals and equally disliked.

From Jonathan Turley at jonathanturley.org:

Free speech, free gesticulation, and free expression are all dead in France.

Five years ago, I wrote a column criticizing Democratic and Republican members of Congress who joined the media in gushing over an address from French President Emmanuel Macron as he called for European style censorship. Free speech has been in a virtual free fall in France for decades and Macron is a major voice in that movement. This week, the French added another outrage to Macron’s legacy by promising to prosecute three citizens who protested the President by flipping him off at an event. The use of “Le Doigt” could now land them in “La Prison.”

The three will be prosecuted under France’s abusive criminal code that allows for the arrest of those who engage in speech that “affect the personal dignity or the respect owed to a public official.” It is a breathtaking denial of political speech and invites selective prosecution.

If convicted, they could face a fine of 15,000 euros and potentially up to one year in prison, according to La Chaîne Info. 

France has been a leader in the rollback on free speech in the West with ever widening laws curtailing free speech. These laws criminalize speech under vague standards referring to “inciting” or “intimidating” others based on race or religion. For example, fashion designer John Galliano has been found guilty in a French court on charges of making anti-Semitic comments against at least three people in a Paris bar. At his sentencing, Judge Anne Marie Sauteraud read out a list of the bad words used by Galliano to Geraldine Bloch and Philippe Virgitti, including using ‘dirty whore” in criticism.

Continue reading

(National Party media release)

New reports from IRD and the Treasury conclude the obvious: Labour’s economic mismanagement has hurt everyday New Zealanders while the rich have got richer, National’s Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

Today the IRD has released a research project analysing gains in the capital gains and incomes of high-wealth New Zealanders from 2015-2021. Treasury has also released reports on the distribution of wealth and tax in New Zealand.

“These reports highlight the impact of Labour’s sugar-hit economics. The Government’s decision to embark on a money-printing, borrowing and spending frenzy has led to massive capital gains for some, at the expense of everyday workers,” Ms Willis says.

“That’s not a result of tax policies, it’s the result of Labour’s deliberate monetary and fiscal policy decisions.

“The IRD research shows that in 2017 the wealthiest New Zealanders made economic income of $1 billion. However this soared to a staggering $14.6 billion in 2021 as Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s policies took hold.

“This is the direct result of the Government’s decision to allow the Reserve Bank to print tens of billions of dollars through its extended quantitative easing programme and the massive blow out in its own spending, up $1 billion a week since Labour came to office.

“National’s economic management approach of more conservative monetary policy, more disciplined spending and a greater focus on productivity had the direct opposite result during our last period in office. Treasury concluded between 2010 and 2018 the share of wealth held by the wealthiest New Zealanders actually fell.

“The Minister for More Tax, David Parker, can keep flogging the dead horse of a capital gains tax as much as he likes, but it doesn’t change the fact that the main driver of inequality under Labour has been its own economic policies.

“The practical issues with imposing a capital gains tax have not changed. National continues to oppose a capital gains tax.

“The solution to New Zealand’s economic problems is not more tax. The solution is a government that will bring spending under control and demand more accountability from agencies including the Reserve Bank and that will allow lower and middle-income earners to keep more of what they earn. That’s what National will deliver.”

According to Her announcement on Instagram, She will specialise in “technology governance” — which in practise means increasing censorship to exclude all viewpoints the Left Wing Establishment don’t like.

“As part of her role, Harvard has revealed Ardern will be studying ways to improve content standards and platform accountability for extremist content online, and also to examine artificial intelligence governance and algorithmic harms,” says the NZ Herald. A compelling case can be made that nearly all extremist content nowadays is Leftist/Wokesist/Neo-Marxist ideology in nature, which She is a major driver of.

At least it means She will be a long way from NZ and hopefully She will stay away for good.

Although we thought it might be a replacement for the tower clock next to it with broken and missing hands, we are assured that replacement parts and a repairer are going to arrive soon. The sundial of course only works on sunny days.

If you’re wondering what happened to the red rose bushes (see earlier posts for pictures) that used to be next to the foreground path, we’re told someone pinched them.

They are the two broadcasters we’ve featured most regularly, both opposed to the Leftist establishment which most Western countries are now inflicted with and make people who can remember them nostalgic about things as they were a few decades ago; far from perfect but a lot better than we have now.

A house that is currently on the market — Realtor’s listing.