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.
We may be going on air within moments of the Trump verdict, or we may not. Greta Van Susteren, who knows about such things, reckons the jury will be out "less than 5 hours". I, who knows nothing, figure that sounds about right mainly because that's how long they were out in my own case. In the Speccie Down Under, James Allan looks at it this way:
The US has a population of somewhere around 330 to 335 million people. So take that entire population and let us speculate as regards this question: 'What is the sample size or number of people who meet the following test – until the age of 75 they have never been charged with any criminal offence and certainly no serious indictable offences. Nothing at all. And then, after they turn 75 years old, they later get charged in four distinct US jurisdictions, in separate cases, that allege different and distinct indictable offences in all those places?'
The law is being trimmed to fit the man. Much of America is now institutionally rotted to the core: millions of citizens seem to have internalised that but reckon that, if they just keep their heads down, maybe it'll be the guy three doors down who catches the state's eye. You'll understand that, after twelve years in the DC Superior Court, I'm less sanguine about that.
Still, if there is a "verdict" by 3pm Eastern, we shall certainly discuss it.
~As many of you know, The Mark Steyn Club turned seven this month. I thank all our First Month Founding Members who graciously decided to sign on for an eighth year, and hope our tardier joiners 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...
Parts of the pier have apparently washed along the coast to Israel - so those Jews will be able to steal all that state-of-the-art Pentagon technology! Also:
Four U.S. Army vessels supporting the temporary pier in the Mediterranean Sea used to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ran aground because of heavy seas.
"The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier," U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a news release Saturday. "The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon. Efforts to recover the vessels are under way with assistance from the Israeli Navy."
I wouldn't blame the Israelis for keeping them. Meanwhile, Columbia University "students" will be delighted to hear that Joe Biden has finally put "boots on the ground" of the Zionist Entity:
U.S. soldiers reportedly were forced to go ashore in Israel on the beach near Ashdod, just north of Ashkelon, to free the vessels. President Joe Biden promised in his State of the Union address in March that there would be no "boots on the ground" to support the pier.
On the eve of the D-Day anniversary, it is good to know that ad hoc harbours is yet another one of those things we can no longer do. Can't wait for that Third World War everyone's hot for.
~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 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 old Hampshire to New Hampshire, Auckland to Ontario, Shaker Heights to Killcare Heights. 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...