Month: May 2018

Everything Gives You Cancer

Bad News

The immortal words of Joe Jackson come to mind:

No amount of alcohol, sausage or bacon is safe according to cancer experts

Even small amounts of processed meats and booze increase the risk of a host of cancers outlined in World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) guidelines updated every decade.
The respected global authority has unveiled a 10-point plan to cut your risk of getting cancer by up to 40%.
Brits have been told to banish favourites such as ham, burgers and hot dogs from their diets by experts who say they are a direct cause of bowel cancer. Processed meats also cause people to be overweight which can trigger many more cancers.
But UK experts have disagreed with the draconian advice insisting the odd bacon sandwich “isn’t anything to worry about”.
The WCRF found boozing is directly linked to increased risk of six cancers and for the first time recommended sticking to water or unsweetened drinks. The report said: “Even small amounts of alcoholic drinks can increase the risk of some cancers. “There is no level of consumption below which there is no increase in the risk of at least some cancers.”
On processed meats it added that “no level of intake can confidently be associated with a lack of risk of bowel cancer”.
Cutting down on steaks and other red meat such as lamb and pork can reduce the risk of bowel cancer.

The WCRF’s 10-point health plan

  1. Be a healthy weight
  2. Be physically active
  3. Eat a diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables, fruit and beans
  4. Limit consumption of ‘fast foods’ and other processed foods high in fat, starches or sugars
  5. Limit consumption of red and processed meat
  6. Limit consumption of sugar sweetened drinks
  7. Limit alcohol consumption
    [last three omitted because irrelevant to my Readers, e.g. breastfeeding]

I guess I’m fucked, then.  Oh well.  Time for some BBQ brisket, Elgin sausage and sweet iced tea.  Or a steak & kidney pie, chips and a pint of London Pride?

If I’m gonna die, I want the doctors to exclaim at my post-mortem, “Bloody hell!  How did he last so long?”

 

There’s no link because the Mirror has the most irritating ads on the planet.  I went there so you don’t have to.  And fuck their “fair use” guidelines.

Wanton Poses

Beauty

From Reader David S comes this observation in email:  “I can’t get that pic you recently posted of Sophia Loren out of my mind.  Why is that?”

It’s a simple answer, and while Sophia is undoubtedly gorgeous, it’s her unladylike pose which does it.  Those carelessly-sprawled legs… the pose is an age-old aphrodisiac to men, and so powerful is its effect that it was only in the modern era that artists could even begin to portray it, e.g. Henri Matisse’s Odalisque Couchée:

…and Egon Schiele’s Reclining Woman:

Now understand me well:  I’m not talking about the typical pornographic splayed-leg shots, which remind me of nothing less than a gynecological view of the female anatomy (and Schiele is perilously close to it in the above).  But there is something sexy — maybe frighteningly-sexy — when the pose is done properly.  And of course, what I’m saying is useless without pictorial evidence, so here we go:

Téa Leoni:

Anthea Turner:

Amanda Righetti:

Amy Adams:

…and of course, there’s Marilyn:

But when it comes to truly erotic, you need a recumbent pose to get the full effect:

Jean Carmen:

Catherine Deneuve:

Kirsten Dunst:

Claire Goose:

Anita Ekberg:
…and finally, in a pose which mimics Matisse’s Odalisque, Charlotte Rampling:

Some people find these poses too overtly sexual — “slutty”, as my Mom might have put it — but there’s no denying their attraction.  I report, you decide.

Not The Best Idea

Travels

So London’s Arsenal F.C. have finally announced a replacement for longtime manager Arsène Wenger.  But I’m not interested in the doings of the North London Scum (as we Chelsea fans call them).  Here’s the interesting thing.  As is customary, the new guy (some Spanish dude, who cares) held up an Arsenal jersey at a photo-op to mark his new allegiance.  Anyone see anything wrong with the pic?

Of all the silly advertising… Visit Rwanda?  Rwanda?

Let’s just say it’s not on my  Travel Bucket List.

Okay, okay… before any pro-Rwandan maniacs get all bent out of shape, let me acknowledge that Kigali was recently voted “Most Beautiful City In Africa”:

…no doubt by the same people who also think that Yemen is a dandy vacation idea.  As with all things African, though, you need to step about a hundred yards outside the publicity photos to find the reality:

But hey… go ahead and fly Emirates to Rwanda, be my guest.

Me, I’m thinking about Prague…

Not So Fast, Fritzie

History

Sayeth Victor Davis Hanson:

Every 20 to 50 years in Germany, things start unraveling.  Germans feel aggrieved.  Ideas and movements gyrate wildly between far left and far right extremes.  And the Germans finally find consensus in a sense of victimhood paradoxically expressed as national chauvinism.  Germany’s neighbors in 1870, 1914, 1939 — and increasingly in the present — usually bear the brunt of this national meltdown.

Well, yeah;  except that in 1870 they had just unified Prussia’s army with those of the other German states, in 1914 they had the Imperial German Army and in 1939 they had Hitler’s Nazi war machine to boss their neighbors around.

Nowadays?  LOL.  The Alabama National Guard could whip the Bundeswehr and still be home in time for dinner.

This time, the Germans should direct all their energies inward, to fix their festering immigration population, the unions’ stranglehold on industry and the country’s  1920s-style social decadence — but they don’t have the balls to do that, even.  And I don’t see anywhere a potential  Bismarck to try it all, let alone a Hitler.

It’s not often I disagree with VDH, but this is one time I do.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

Some dickhead walks into a restaurant and for reasons that will be forever unknown (see below) starts shooting indiscriminately into the patrons, wounding several.

Whereupon another patron takes umbrage at this foolishness, draws his own handgun and shoots Mr. Dickhead dead on the spot.  Because this happened in Oklahoma and not Massachusetts, California or New York, no charges will be filed against Our Hero.

[pause to let cheering and applause die down]

Of course, some people are going to be wondering Why This Man Did Such An Evil Thing, and What Are The Root Causes Of Such Behavior, and all that crap.  Me, I don’t care.  The asshole is dead, nobody else died, and all because a law-abiding gun owner was able to deal with the situation before the cops arrived, over five minutes later.

Predictably, the International Gun Control Set (IGCS) didn’t see it the way I do, arguing that if all eeeevil guns were banned, then there’d be no need for the law-abiding to carry guns of their own — based on the assumption that criminals are going to obey the law which bans guns.  Then the IGCS went off and had a meal of tasty pixie dust pie, washed down with a cool drink of unicorn tears on the rocks.

This evening, I’ll just take care of my own 1911, which will need cleaning after the Friday afternoon range session.

Then I’ll raise my glass of single malt to salute Our Hero, who did what had to be done.  Feel free to join me.

P.S.  If newspapers were truly interested in informing the public, they’d find out what gun Our Hero used, what caliber it was chambered in, what boolets he used, and where he shot the asshole.  But nooo… that would be akin to a public service, and we can’t have that.