Yes, it's me! Mark Steyn of that ilk - and not dead yet, despite the combined efforts of GB News management, the DC Superior Court and the University of Vermont Medical Center. For the moment, I am just about healthy enough to conduct another midweek edition of our Clubland Q&A, live around the planet at 3pm North American Eastern - which is 8pm British Summer Time/9pm Central European. If you chance to be elsewhere, do check local listings below.
As many of you know, The Mark Steyn Club turned seven this month. I thank all our First Fortnight Founding Members who graciously decided to sign on for an eighth year, and hope our First Monthers will wish to do the same in the coming days. We marked our birthday with the return of Tales for Our Time, the launch of a new weekly audio show, and an extended edition of our traditional cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones. But, if you'd like to express your satisfactions or dissatisfactions with our Club seven years on, you're more than welcome.
~What else to talk about? Well, Juan Merchan, the corrupt hack judge presiding over this month's Trump trial, is getting worse by the day. Hmm. I wonder why...
Indeed. And, once that happens, why would Merchan stay the prison sentence pending appeal? Anymore than Peter Navarro's judge did...
It's going to get worse because they need it to get worse.
On the other hand, if Trump is double-parked outside the courthouse, could it escalate?
If I were the forty-fifth president, I would take it as read that, with all federal "law" enforcement, that's a standing order.
Anything else? Well, the nancy boys of GB News have decided - a year-and-a-half late - to butch up against Ofcom. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogadon, a presenter who only has his show because the UK censor got rid of his predecessor, is now a-huffin' an' a-puffin' almost as unconvincingly as Nigel. Are the Blowhard Boys actually appealing the latest Ofcom ruling, or just mouthing off?
Oh, and I see Klaus Schwab is stepping down as executive chairman of Spectre to take up a new position as non-executive chairman of Spectre. Who knows what that actually means? But I may be in the grim position of having to get some new material:
Oh, and again:
On today's show I'm happy to talk about the above or whatever else is on your mind. I'm also up for any questions on my continuing legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic - in the above-mentioned sewer of DC "justice", and against the UK state censor Ofcom in the English High Court. Many listeners have asked how they can support one or other or both of these free-speech lawsuits. There are several ways:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a near-and-dear one a SteynOnline gift certificate; or
c) ordering a copy of my latest book, The Prisoner of Windsor (you won't regret it, says Kathy Gyngell).
~Whether or not you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, you can listen to our Clubland Q&A live as it happens wherever you chance to be on this turbulent earth: Club membership is required only to ask a question. In this seventh birthday month, we cherish the founders of our Club, but we also love to hear from brand new members. Among the additions to our ranks in recent days are newbies from around the globe - from Manhattan to Magherafelt, Louisiana to Lincolnshire, Glendowie (New Zealand) to Glenmaggie (Australia). Whether you've joined this week either for a full year or a see-how-it-goes experimental quarter do shoot me a head-scratcher for today's show.
But, if you're not interested in joining, no worries, as they say in Oz: We seek no unwilling members - and as always the show is free to listen to, so we hope you'll want to tune in. So see you back here at 3pm North American Eastern - which is 8pm in London, 9pm in Paris, 10pm in Jerusalem; half-past-ten in Teheran; midnight-forty-five in Kathmandu; 3am in Singapore and Honkers (sorry about that); 5am in Sydney and Melbourne; 7am in Auckland, and a rather more convivial hour for the kippers and kedgeree in His Majesty's Dominions eastward across the Pacific, where you're so far ahead I've probably already lost my appeal by now...