Stories & Opinions Worth Knowing but Maybe Not Quite Threadworthy 6/3

[Eupher]

Double amputee Gurkha veteran reaches summit of Mount Everest

A Gurkha soldier veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan has achieved mountaineering history after reaching the top of Mount Everest.

Hari Budha Magar, who lives in Canterbury, Kent, reached the summit of the world’s tallest mountain at 3pm on Friday, having started the climb on 17 April – exactly 13 years since he lost his legs after an IED explosion.

While waiting 18 days at the Everest base camp for the weather to clear, the veteran and his crew faced freezing conditions and saw two dead bodies being dragged down.

Speaking to the PA news agency from the Mount Everest base camp, he said: “All of my jackets were completely freezing. It was all frozen. Even our warm water, we put hot water in the Thermos, and that was also frozen and we were not able to drink.”

He continued: “When I came down we ran out of oxygen. The guys came up with oxygen … I was bumping down on my bum and we had 30, 40 minutes of oxygen, and we still had about two, three hours to get down.”

However, the poor weather meant his sunglasses and oxygen mask were frozen over and he was only able to spend a few minutes at the top of the mountain.

Throughout the challenge, he was supported by a team of Nepalese climbers, led by Krish Thapa, also a former Gurkha and SAS mountain troop leader. Budha Magar became the first double above-the-knee amputee to summit the world’s tallest mountain.

Budha Magar said he felt his life was “completely finished” when he lost his lower legs in Afghanistan, battling alcoholism and depression.

“I grew up in Nepal, up to age of 19, and I saw how the disabled people were treated in those remote villages,” he said. “Many people still think that disability is a sin of previous life and you are the burden of the earth. I believed this myself because that is what I saw. That is how I grew up.”

He continued: “It was a pretty hard time and at one point I was just drinking too much, to just control my pain and emotions and all the things, and I tried to kill myself a couple of times.”

He added that he first thought about climbing Everest when he was walking to school barefoot and planned to do so in 2018. However, double amputees and blind people were banned in an attempt to reduce the number of climbers dying on the peak.

The veteran helped campaign to have the ban removed so he could attempt to summit the peak.

Budha Magar left Nepal to serve as a corporal with the Ghurka regiment in the British army before his injury.

Once he is down from the mountain, he says he is looking forward to spending time with his family and wants to return to Afghanistan to the site when he lost his legs so he can say “thank you”.

He said: “Without [losing my legs], I wouldn’t be climbing Everest, so and it wouldn’t even count much. Whatever happens, it happens for good.”

With all the stuff (mostly bad) that I post or point a finger at, this is a great, uplifting story. I've always read that the Gurkhas were badasses, and this confirms it.

[Eupher]

From the sublime to the ridiculous:

North Korea Elected to Serve on WHO Executive Board

In a fitting move for the organization given its totalitarian ambitions, the World Health Organization has appointed the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the absurdly ironic name the brutal North Korean regime goes by) to serve on its executive board.

Via Fox News:

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been elected to the executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The North Korean Ministry of Public Health’s Dr. Jong Min Pak has been seated on the WHO’s executive board with a term set to last until 2026.

The communist state’s new position on the board allows them say in determining the organization’s agenda and policy prescriptions.

The decision sparked immediate criticism from the government of neighboring South Korea, which pointed to North Korea’s history of ignoring policies put forward by the WHO and its parent organization, the United Nations.

Appointing North Korea to any global governance position of authority is a slap in the face to the millions of North Koreans the government has exterminated over the last eighty years or so following its post-WWII founding in 1945.

A 2020 study using survey data from 383 North Korean defectors (the only real tool to measure its healthcare system given the insular nature of the “hermit state”) found that healthcare was rationed on political bases depending on proximity to the party and that almost half of the respondents had not received healthcare for their recent illnesses, along with other indicators of a failed system.

Via Conflict and Health, 2020:

Although the Public Health Act claims that North Korea provides the comprehensive free care system, respondents reported high levels of unmet need and, among those obtaining care, widespread informal expenditure. Of the respondents, 55.1% (95%CI, 47.7–63.7%) had received healthcare for the most recent illness episode. High informal costs (53.8%, 95%CI, 45.1–60.8%) and a lack of medicines (39.5%, 95%CI, 33.3–47.1%) were reported as major healthcare barriers resulting in extensive self-medication with narcotic analgesics (53.7%, 95%CI, 45.7–61.2%). In multivariate logistic regressions, party membership was associated with better access to healthcare.

So what gives? Speculatively, the move could be due to WHO’s historically heavy reliance on funding from the Chinese Communist Party, the one and only major ally of the North Korean regime on the geopolitical scene.

Or the explanation could be much simpler: perhaps the WHO admires the brutality and austerity with which the North Korean regime approaches the administration of healthcare, such as it is, and would like to collaborate on taking the model worldwide.

Anything associated with the United Nations is, by definition, corrupt, Marxist, and globalist, meaning there is no such thing as a nation's sovereignty. Why are those people still occupying prime real estate in NYC?

[DefiantSix]

Double amputee Gurkha veteran reaches summit of Mount Everest

With all the stuff (mostly bad) that I post or point a finger at, this is a great, uplifting story. I've always read that the Gurkhas were badasses, and this confirms it.

Only folks I'm aware of that can bring a knife to a gun fight - and win.

Check this out: (language warning)
https://youtu.be/z2lzSmnNacQ

[SVPete]

Double amputee Gurkha veteran reaches summit of Mount Everest

With all the stuff (mostly bad) that I post or point a finger at, this is a great, uplifting story. I've always read that the Gurkhas were badasses, and this confirms it.

Chuck Norris respects the Gurkhas.

[SVPete]

EXCLUSIVE: Children’s Choir Director Responds After Capitol Police Claim They Did Not Stop Kids Singing the National Anthem

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/02/exclusive-childrens-choir-director-responds-capitol-police-claim-they-did-not-stop-kids-singing-national-anthem/

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Footage shows a Capitol Police officer directing someone to interrupt a children’s choir singing the national anthem in the U.S. Capitol, yet the police claimed that they did not stop the singing.

The man who conducted the choir that day tells The Daily Signal that the Capitol Police’s claim is an outright lie.
...
Micah Rea, founder and principal of The Rea Group and organizer of the trip, told The Daily Signal that a Wilson staffer called McCarthy’s office, confirming that the choir had permission to sing. Nonetheless, the Capitol Police interrupted the performance.

Shortly before the choir started singing the national anthem, Andrew Tremel, the visitor operations manager at the Architect of the Capitol, temporarily stopped them from singing. When Rea told Tremel that congressional offices had granted permission, Tremel talked in his earpiece and told the choir they could start singing.
...
Video of the event shows the choir singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but it also shows Rasbach, the conductor, cut the singers off before they could finish the fourth verse of the song. Rasbach cut them off because a female Capitol Police officer had directed a congressional staffer to immediately stop the singing, Rasbach told The Daily Signal.

From this article, this looks like it was a political move, not mere ignorance.

[SVPete]

Judge in Missouri v Biden ain't buying what the government's shoveling

https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/06/02/judge-in-missouri-v-biden-aint-buying-what-the-governments-shoveling-n555245

The Missouri v Biden lawsuit sprang from underhanded censorship dealings the Biden administration began with the social media companies almost the second they ascended to the throne.

Literally 3 days after Biden took office, the government’s censorship operation was flying. The White House immediately launched a pressure campaign on social media platforms to suppress supposed “COVID misinformation.” The Surgeon General launched his signature “disinformation” initiative at a Virality Project event at the Stanford Internet Observatory. And, Biden himself publicly pressured platforms on July 16, 2021—one day after his press secretary Jennifer Psaki and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy did the same, as the plaintiffs describe in their filing.

...
In May of last year, the Attorneys General of Louisiana and Missouri filed a lawsuit against Biden “alleging the federal government worked with Meta, Twitter, and YouTube to censor free speech.”

In March of this year, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty denied the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
...
As Missouri’s AG Andrew Bailey tweeted today, Biden lawyers’ answers to judge’s questions concerning 1st Amendment Rights should chill every American to the bone.
...

The judge also asked Biden’s lawyers if the First Amendment covered Americans’ right to say that Biden is responsible for high gas prices and inflation.

Their answer?

It depends.

My emphasis.

[Eupher]

EXCLUSIVE: Children’s Choir Director Responds After Capitol Police Claim They Did Not Stop Kids Singing the National Anthem

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/02/exclusive-childrens-choir-director-responds-capitol-police-claim-they-did-not-stop-kids-singing-national-anthem/

From this article, this looks like it was a political move, not mere ignorance.

Supposedly, the Capitol Police Chief reports to the Capitol Police Board, a 3-person committee formed of the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms and a freaking architect. If that's the case, when are we going to hear from this "Board" the following?

• The name of the turd cop who put a stop to the performance.
• The date of termination of said turd.

[li]The date of termination of the Chief of Police, J. Thomas Manger.
[/li][/list]

It's more than f'd up that little kids aren't allowed to sing the National Anthem in the Capitol, even though the turd cop graciously "allowed" singing of three verses. (Are the kids expected to kiss the turd cop's ring now?) 

To think that the singing of the National Anthem could be construed as a "demonstration" is bloody outrageous.   

[Eupher]

EXCLUSIVE: Children’s Choir Director Responds After Capitol Police Claim They Did Not Stop Kids Singing the National Anthem

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/02/exclusive-childrens-choir-director-responds-capitol-police-claim-they-did-not-stop-kids-singing-national-anthem/

From this article, this looks like it was a political move, not mere ignorance.

A followup to the story, which IMHO, is complete bullshit:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/06/04/did-capitol-police-really-try-to-stop-a-childrens-choir-from-singing-the-national-anthem-n2624033

[Ptarmigan]

800,000 Marylanders Inadvertently Become Driving Billboards For Filipino Gambling Website
https://zerohedge.com/markets/800000-marylanders-inadvertently-become-driving-billboards-filipino-gambling-website

Nearly 800,000 Maryland drivers sporting the War of 1812 license plate have a URL on the bottom that now links to a website promoting an online casino based in the Philippines.

The license plate issued between 2012-16 has the URL www.starspangled200.org printed at the bottom. The website once informed people about the American patriot Francis Scott Key and the history of the War of 1812 when the British bombarded Fort McHenry in downtown Baltimore City.



Domain registration information shows that starspangled200.org has since been re-registered to "Philippines Best Betting Site, Deposit 100 Receive 250."

Marylanders with the War of 1812 license plate are billboards for a Filipino online gambling site.

[SVPete]

Guessing form, "The website once informed people about the American patriot Francis Scott Key ...," and, "... has since been re-registered to ...," the non-profit that had owned the domain name starspangled200.org let their registration lapse, possibly because they no longer exist, and the gambling site bought the domain name. Such are the ways of the Internet. The State of Maryland gooberment, OTOH, was less than thoughtful.