Splendid Isolation

Scare Quotes

December 6, 2023 Kim du Toit Media Assholes

I am so sick of seeing bullshit headlines like this:

Why the quotes? The actual report itself:

A manhunt for a suspected knifeman has been launched today after a ‘heavily pregnant’ woman was stabbed in Aberfan in a suspected ‘domestic incident’.

Let me just parse this.

The woman was “heavily pregnant” — i.e., she had a huge non-Lizzo-style belly, clearly apparent.
She was stabbed — obviously apparent, so no quotes. But then we have:
A”suspected” knifeman (my quotes). If she was so obviously stabbed, how could the stabber be a “suspected” knifeman?

I know, I know: the reporter is simply reporting from what he’s been told by, one imagines, either the police or hospital staff, hence all the quotes.

And it’s all bullshit. A pregnant woman was stabbed by a knife-wielding man (even that’s redundant), and police are looking for him. The circumstances surrounding the stabbing were, apparently, that it was down to a domestic incident — i.e. the stabber was known by the stabbee — the details of which are still unknown.

If it turns out that it wasn’t a domestic incident — i.e. that the woman was stabbed by some nutcase because he hates Tuesdays and the voices in his head told him to hurt someone, anyone — then the time for amending the report comes when the newspaper can print that no, it wasn’t a domestic incident as first reported, it was just some random loony.

I’m sorry, I meant “loony”.

I realize that this is the Daily Mail newspaper– hardly a paragon of acceptable journalism — but fucking hell, can we at least dispense with all the prevaricating quote marks?

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Threesome

December 6, 2023 Kim du Toit Gratuitous Gun Pics

Here’s something from Collectors which may seem to carry too high a price (even for them), but really isn’t: 3-Gun Set Belonging to Col. S.B. Sightler ($17,500).

Now I have no idea who the late Colonel Sightler is, or how much his personal collection may be valued by a collector. What I do know is that the collection is as follows:

Parker DHE side-by-side 20ga shotgun:
(not the actual gun, but a representative sample thereof)

Underwood M1 Carbine:

And Winchester 62A pump-action .22 rifle:

Now here’s my point. Each of the above guns is, by itself, supremely droolworthy. And their average sale prices, individually, reflect that. Depending on condition, a Parker DHE 20ga typically runs about $10,000-$14,000 (I’ve seen higher); Underwood M1 carbines can fetch $1,500-$1,600; and a Winchester 62A about $1,200-$1,500.

Adding that up, it comes to around sixteen grand for the three guns, if bought individually. In that light, the $17,500 that Collectors is asking for the collection doesn’t seem that extreme — even allowing for their normal (inflated) markup.

And one last thing. Given that these guns were owned by an ex-military man, I’m willing to bet that all three guns — even the little Winchester gallery gun — are in fine condition, which makes them a safe purchase.

If I were a collector and in the market for some decent guns, I’d be sorely tempted. The provenance is just a bonus.

Getting Back To Reality

December 6, 2023 Kim du Toit Crime, Men & Women, Travels

Start off by reading this article (excerpt below) and then we can continue:

A British tourist has told an Italian court how she was raped by a barman in Naples after stopping for a meal at a pizzeria while on holiday.

Returning to the southern Italian city to testify before a judge, the 22-year-old tourist this week told the court how she was holidaying in July when she suffered ‘the worst experience of my life’.

Some time back, I also commented on a stupid bint who was raped in Paris after leaving her party to relieve herself behind some bushes, and that leads me to my main point:

Women shouldn’t be on their own outside their homes, because they are not safe.

When I say “on their own”, of course, I mean in a deserted or isolated spot where they could be attacked — such as in a restaurant’s back room, or in a park hidden from view behind bushes. Or walking back home alone from a party / dinner. Or jogging along a lonely road, or through a park.

I think you get my drift.

Now let me address the thoughts of the people who might disagree with me on this point.

I know, I know: women shouldn’t be at risk in the above situations, and men shouldn’t prey on women when the women are solitary.

Unfortunately, the world just doesn’t work like that. Men (of a particular sort) often succumb to their baser instincts when confronted by such situations. This is an unfortunate fact of life, and this is especially true of men who come from, shall we say, less civilized backgrounds and societies (e.g. Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, all of Africa, Russia, the Balkans, Muslim countries, most of South America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, North America, Central America… actually, pretty much anywhere in the world).

And women are vulnerable in all those places and circumstances because they are… the weaker sex. [pause to allow the angry feministical screams and expostulations to die down]

This, by the way, is why I fervently support the idea that women should carry guns, because of all forms of self-defense, guns are the best equalizer. It’s why I have helped train literally hundreds of women how to shoot, and helped them purchase their handguns and shotguns.

If guns are not available to women (and this would apply almost universally outside Second Amendment Country), then they need to seek safety in numbers and not stroll around by themselves, because it’s just not safe.

It’s the same reason, for example, that I avoid walking through specific downtown areas at night, and shun all back alleys even if they’re a shortcut. And I’m big and tough and armed. How much more ridiculous is it for an unarmed woman not to do the same?

There are times when a woman finds herself in a position when she feels she has to walk by herself — e.g. to get to her car in a deserted parking lit or parking garage after a night shift — but she shouldn’t. She should instead try to find a man (security guard, workmate, whatever) to accompany her. Fortunately, I don’t think we’ve reached the stage yet where a man would refuse to do so. (Yeah, I know, chivalry is so outdated and demeaning to womyns [/feministical] shuddup).

It’s got to the point that whenever I read about such events of a woman being attacked / raped / whatever when she’s on her own in some foreign country / strange city / walking back from the pub, I just shout at the page / TV screen:

“What did you think was going to happen?”

This air of unreality that seems to be so prevalent in modern society needs to end. People need to grow up and understand that when reality meets philosophy or theory, reality is going to win, every single fucking time.

Even for (or especially for) feministicals and their adherents.

Toothsome Threesome

December 6, 2023 Kim du Toit Gratuitous Chick Pics

There was some inconsequential awards show [redundancy alert] over the past weekend somewhere, which should be of little interest to anyone, except that there were some decent attendees. Here are three such (Demi Moore, Salma Hayek and Eva Longoria):

“What about close-ups, Kim?”

Oh, why not:

That’s what I would call a proper smorgasbord of fun, right there.

The rest of the attendees were the usual boring crowd, inter alia Oprah, Meryl Streep, some of the Kardashian coven, etc. so we won’t bother with them.

Evil Totalitarians Etc.

December 5, 2023 Kim du Toit Gummint, Seen On Campus

“But what about the Chiiiiiildren?” I can hear the wails already, in response to this latest example of Antipodean totalitarianism:

Cellphones will be banned in schools across New Zealand, conservative Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Friday, as his fledgling government looks to turn around the country’s plummeting literacy rates. The move would stop disruptive behaviour and help students focus, he said.

New Zealand’s schools once boasted some of the world’s best literacy scores, but levels of reading and writing have declined to the point that some researchers fear there is a classroom “crisis”.

Luxon declared he would ban phones at schools within his first 100 days in office, adopting a policy tested with mixed results in the United States, United Kingdom and France.

I know the thinking behind this: what has changed with schoolkids since (say) 1980 when literacy rates were X, but which are now X/5?

Cell phones!!!!!!

So it’s to the banning table we go.

Of course, what has also changed in the interim is that (dare I say it) teacher quality has plummeted, teaching methodology has deteriorated, and classroom educational standards have dropped.

But those are sehr schwierig (nay, even impossible) issues to tackle, because we know that all teachers are dedicated professionals who have only the kids’ best interests at heart, teaching methodology is much better now that we’ve dropped silly things like rote learning of arithmetic tables and lowered spelling standards in favor of feelings, and we won’t even talk about topics like strict grading and corporal punishment (eek).

It’s so much easier just to ban cell phones.

Now understand that I’m actually in favor of banning the fucking things in schools because at best, children have the attention span of gnats and the blessed ability to Goooogle stuff is so, like, cool and easy and twenty-first century, Dad; while old-fashioned learning is difficult and so, like, nineteenth century. (I’m hopefully assuming that the modern generations are actually aware of the existence of a 19th century, but let’s move on.)

And I’m not interested in the supposed safety of the Chiiiiildren that cell phones are supposed to bring. In fact, the proven negatives of cell-phone slavery amongst kids outweigh every single aspect of supposed in-class student safety, so there ya go.

Have the little shits turn their precious phones in at the school doors, to be returned when they leave the premises. And have “backup” phones permanently confiscated when found.

So go for it, KiwiPM Luxon: ban the poxy things.

And then, when literacy rates remain stubbornly in the basement, you can tackle the real problems, as outlined above.