Look what's back...

Gout is back, which puts us in a most humanistic mood. People with fancy medical degrees say sit still and wait it out. But in our experience staying put only makes gout worse. Get up, move about. Don't let the crystals settle down. I understand this and they don't. Why is that? What else is the medical establishment wrong about? 

In a hundred years, the Queen's funeral will be the prologue to a history book describing Britain's next, and maybe final historical epic. Maybe it's time. Scottish nationalism is a pathetic joke. Leave the UK only to join the EU. And I've been to Dublin. Hijabs abound. What was the point then? Irish reunification with the UK is the easiest and best solution to the 'Irish Backstop' or whatever they called it,

Good news in the Middle East: 'In light of Iran’s latest reply to a draft proposal by the European Union, prospects for the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the near future are not looking good, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday evening.' When it comes to their ideas, the left is fireproof. There's no putting out a lefty idea. They'll keep on plugging along in some way. The Iran deal is only partially dead.

The JPost reports on a growing Hasidic schools scandal in the United States: 'On average, the Times found, the boys' schools spend just 90 minutes a day, four times a week on reading and math skills, for children between the ages of 8-12 only. Some of the schools actively discourage secular study at home, disallowing students from owning English language books. Some schools have even started requiring parents to promise that no English will be spoken inside the home. Instead of secular studies, the male students are drilled "relentlessly, sometimes brutally," during hours of religious studies lessons, all conducted in Yiddish.' This blog urges reader(s) to click on through. No wonder they're so insular and unfriendly. There are some great docs about the Hasidic on Netflix. Total assholes.  We never saw physical abuse, though would certainly have enjoyed dolling some out...little bastards. 

We did a lot of work on the Italian chapter yesterday. It's fine but needs even more work. The scene describing the Italian 5th Field Army needs beefing up. This will be the reader's intro to the Italian invasion of Hungary and eventually Esercito Italiano. 

The 1980 chapter is also fine but needs more work too. We're approaching the 'If I can't think of anything else to throw in there, then fuck all, it's done,' phase of the 1980 chapter. Alert readers will have noticed that we usually use conversation to describe ground situations. But here we're using narrative exposition, which sometimes seems awkward.