This week we blast into space with Captain Kirk; examine the Facebook Outrage; drug wars in Ecuador; Culture wars in the US; the Dominican Flag; What Really Happened in Wuhan?; Reporting abortion; St Andrews Uni goes American Woke; Boris Johnson’s Speech; the Church in Indonesia; Searching for Yourself; and Paul McKenna’s The Silent Majority.
Catch up on last week here – Quantum 166 – Blah, Blah, Blah – Nonsense and Sense from all over the world.
Support Quantum here – https://patron.podbean.com/theweeflea
Pity you didn’t notice that Johnson “doesn’t analyse, doesn’t deal with problems and trivialises” when he was leading the Brexit campaign with a false optimism you so enthusiastically bought into. We have a Tory/Brexit government entirely because of Brexit-Tory voters like you. Time to show some maturity and take responsibility for your politics.
Thats because I think about issues for myself. I didn’t vote for Brexit because of those who led the campaign. And I wouldn’t vote against an issue just because I didn’t like someone who supported it, in the same way as I don’t mind travelling on motorways – even though Hitler liked them!
The USA is not going to make an issue about the research at Wahun as it is alleged they paid for it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57932699
As the debate continues over the origins of the coronavirus, a heated political battle is taking place over virus research carried out in China using US funds. A report released by Republican lawmakers cites “ample evidence” that the lab was working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans and calls for a bipartisan investigation into its origins.
Republican Senator Rand Paul also alleges that US money was used to fund research there that made some viruses more infectious and more deadly, a process known as “gain-of-function”. But this has been firmly rejected by Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious diseases chief.
In May, Dr Fauci stated that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology”.
Senator Rand Paul asked Dr Fauci if he wanted to retract that statement, saying: “As you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress.”
Senator Paul believes the research did qualify as “gain-of-function” research, and referred to two academic papers by the Chinese institute, one from 2015 (written together with the University of North Carolina), and another from 2017.
One prominent scientist supporting this view – and quoted by Senator Paul – is Prof Richard Ebright of Rutgers University. He told the BBC that the research in both papers showed that new viruses (that did not already exist naturally) were created, and these “risked creating new potential pathogens” that were more infectious. “The research in both papers was gain-of-function research”, he said. He added that it met the official definition of such research outlined in 2014 when the US government halted funding for such activities due to biosafety concerns.
I love how Americans refer to a toilet as a bathroom. Can you imagine people having a bath in such a room? The other daft term they use is ‘Rest Room’! Yeh, people really do go into a toilet to have a rest??? Why can’t they just call a toilet a toilet?
As a Melbourne (born and raised) gal living in the Chicagoland area, I’ve been listening to Quantum (and the Wee Flea) ever since I heard you interviewed by Janet Parshall some three or four years ago. I enjoy the snapshots of current world news with your biblically thoughtful opinions. I am, however, missing your intro. collage of voices! It was the stamp that identified Quantam – where (why) did it go?
Thanks Madeline – it shall return!
Here is a nice summary of the current state of the UK culture wars I think you’ll enjoy:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15299164/labour-we-are-the-working-class-not-woking-class/amp/