This, I Love

It’s not often I chortle just be reading a headline, but this one got me, oh yes it did:

And here’s the story:

Highway chiefs are hunting a phantom pothole filler after an enraged motorist poured concrete into a huge crater that closed the road for months. The work was carried out in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, as the mystery volunteer decided to patch up the road which has been shut since April.

But Cornwall Highways said the work was done ‘without consent’.

Colin Martin, Cornwall councillor for Lostwithiel and Lanreath, said: ‘The latest is that the road has been closed again and will remain closed until it is ‘properly’ repaired by Cormac, but they say this could be weeks away as all available teams have been diverted to filling smaller potholes on roads which are still open.

Here’s the pic of the vengeful road re-closing:

I’m just waiting for the metal screens to “disappear”… not that I would want anything like that to happen, of course.

I love it when officialdom gets a busted nose for their inefficiency.  And I love it more when they get upset about it.

Here’s the background to all this:

So now you know.

Quote Of The Day

From Steve Kruiser:

“The radical leftists don’t have the numbers on any issue, they merely have volume.”

He’s writing in the present tense specifically about the trannie issue, but the truth of the matter is that the radical Left has never had the numbers on any issue, ever.

Which is why they try to rule with a Vanguard, or an unelected Politburo, or by bureaucratic regulation when they can’t get their laws passed.

Always a minority, posing as a majority — just another of their parade of lies ever since they began.

Ending Stupidity

and about time, too:

It appears the Biden Administration has ceded to increasing calls for an onerous COVID vaccine mandate to end for international air travelers, along with federal workers and contractors.

Stuff doesn’t seem to have worked, caused possibly thousands of unnecessary deaths all by itself, and was the basis for so much governmental overreach and, in some cases, outright thuggery.

Good riddance, and don’t bother doing it again, no matter how scary the poxes and plagues look.  We’re not going to be panicked, or bullied, next time.

Another Useless Law

I think I’m correct in saying that alone among the lower 48 states (i.e. the ones which have interstate highways running through them), Illinois is the only one which still stubbornly enforces a 55mph speed limit on its various highways.  It’s a huge PITA — like so many things about traveling through Illinois — and we all know that it’s not just Sammy Hagar who can’t drive at 55.

Anyway, the lower speed limit didn’t seem to help much (if at all) a couple days back:

A fiery 60-car pile-up happened late Monday morning on I-55 in central Illinois. The horrific wreck appears to have been caused by loose dirt and high winds. Normally, dust storms connote the deserts of the Southwest, but the combination of dry conditions, loose soil from freshly-plowed fields, and high, gusty winds resulted in extremely low visibility which led to multiple collisions along the stretch of interstate south of Springfield, Illinois.

I’ve driven through this kind of dust storm before — the ones I hit in southern Idaho, South Dakota and South Africa’s Orange Free State and Karoo desert come to mind — and it’s no small danger.  Typically, I’ve driven at 10mph or slower under those conditions, the problem being other drivers, who seem to have sooper-dooper x-ray vision and don’t have to slow down until they collide with your car’s rear end.

The same is true of snow storms, of course, the only difference being that snow doesn’t invade every crevice in your car and cause you to choke helplessly while peering through the suddenly-opaque windshield.  Then again, you’re unlikely to freeze to death in a sandstorm, so I guess it’s a crap shoot.

Cutting The Cord

…of the Belt and Road initiative.  A simple Q&A:

Should the United States continue to fund China’s aggressive military buildup?
— No.

Should the United States make every effort to move U.S.-based manufacturing out of China?
— Yes.

Should the United States make every effort to encourage alternatives to Chinese manufacturing?
— Yes.

Will the United States government actually do any of this stuff?
–Of course not.

Should the United States government be hanged en masse for endangering the welfare of the nation?
–Of course they should.

Here’s the background to all the above.

Two Choices

Well, here’s confirmation of something we’ve all been suspecting for a while:

Our government is preparing to monitor every word Americans say on the internet—the speech of journalists, politicians, religious organizations, advocacy groups, and even private citizens. Should those conversations conflict with the government’s viewpoint about what is in the best interests of our country and her citizens, that speech will be silenced.

Research by The Federalist reveals our tax dollars are funding the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) technology that will allow the government to easily discover “problematic” speech and track Americans reading or partaking in such conversations.

Then, in partnership with Big Tech, Big Business, and media outlets, the government will ensure the speech is censored, under the guise of combatting “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

Originally used as a marketing tool for businesses to track discussions about their brands and products and to track competitors, the DOD and other federal agencies are now paying for-profit public relations and communications firms to convert their technology into tools for the government to monitor speech on the internet.

The areas of the internet the companies monitor differ somewhat, and each business offers its own unique AI and ML proprietary technology, but the underlying approach and goals remain identical: The technology under development will “mine” large portions of the internet and identify conversations deemed indicative of an emerging harmful narrative, to allow the government to track those “threats” and adopt countermeasures before the messages go viral.

One would hope, of course, that this gross breach of the First Amendment would not pass judicial muster, but in true fascist form, the State has simply farmed its bastardy out to the private sector, thus creating a Clinton-like “technicality” that creates plausible deniability.

I also have no faith — none — that the Supreme Court will act in the Constitution’s best interests.  (Okay, maybe a couple of the conservative  justices may throw a hissy fit, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t put money on a full court decision because the Communist bloc will never vote against the socialist government, and the chief justice is a craven little fart who seems to caste his vote according to the New York fucking Times  editorial opinion.)

The two choices one faces in confronting this looming catastrophe are therefore:

  1. Try to go “underground” (e.g. using the Soviet-era samizdat  method) and hope that one can go undetected by the feral ferrets, or
  2. Stand astride the barricades, shouting “FUCK YOU!” at the top of your voice, at every opportunity.

The first choice is probably doomed to failure, if The Federalist is to be believed, because these bastards have already the tools to do what they want to do.  Remember, the power of samizdat lay on the fact that it used actual paper — hidden printing presses and such — to spread the counter-State “disinformation”.  Consider that your Epson or Brother printer already records everything you print and can therefore point a finger right at you, if you are judged to have written doubleplusungood crimethink, and the paper option disappears pretty quickly.

Longtime Readers will know that I’m far more likely to take the second choice, simply because that’s the path I’ve always chosen.  Yes, it’s most likely a stupid, futile gesture just like the Delta frat’s destruction of the Animal House town parade;  but always remember that in such a situation the Niedermayer character — the State — won’t be the only one carrying live ammunition.

And as I’ve said several times in the past that when it comes to dying I’d prefer to die in my wife’s arms;  but spitting and cursing at the State from the barricades surrounded by expended brass doesn’t hold much terror, either.

I’m speaking figuratively, of course, in the latter scenario — but unfortunately for the State apparatchiks, I took an oath when I became a U.S. citizen, and I take that oath really seriously.  My allegiance is not to the State — in whatever flavor it comes — but to the ideals and promises contained in the Constitution.

And I don’t need the fucking lawyers on the Supreme Court to interpret them for me.