From St. Louis, no less:
An alleged carjacker was shot and killed by an armed driver around 6 a.m. Wednesday in St. Louis, Missouri.
…giving rise to the immortal line:
“Gimme yo’ mutherfucken car!”
“Nah… have a couple of my motherfucking bullets instead.”
Longtime Readers will all be aware of my support for the trades — electricians, plumbers, carpenters and so on — so you can imagine my grin of satisfaction upon reading this article:
Skilled tradespersons tradesmen* such as welders, plumbers, machinists, and carpenters “are in super-high demand,” Sasse observed. Take-home pay for skilled trade workers is typically between $80 and $200 thousand per year, Sasse determined. He said a construction superintendent in South Dakota recently informed him that concrete finishers were being paid $75 per hour for a particular project.
And let’s not even mention the financials:
“Most trade schools are six-to-nine months versus a four-year college,” Sasse stated, “but the minute you get out of that trade school — guess what — you get to go to work. So you’re going to make money for three and a half years while your buddy, who’s in a four-year college [program], is just racking up more and more debt. So you get this massive three-and-a-half-year jump on anybody that’s the same age.”
Yup. Not to mention the fact that at the end of the day, you could also start your own small business, to make the serious money.
And by the way, I like what Sasse’s organization stands for — follow the link for more detail.
Good stuff, indeed.
*Yeah, I know women can do most of this stuff too (see below).
But that’s not the point. This is.
I don’t use “chairperson” because the position is “chairman” OR “chairwoman”, “spokesperson” because the function is “spokesman” OR “spokeswoman” (if we’re going to be pedantic), and “head teacher” when the correct words are “headmaster” OR “headmistress”, depending.
“Tradespeople”? Nonsensical, as so much PC bullshit is.
I have to say that I’m on the side of the dad in this one:
Father, 41, ran over two 15-year-old boys who were ‘bullying his son’ before repeatedly driving over one of the boy’s legs
Here’s the thing: as a parent, you’re often helpless when your child is being bullied — the “authorities” (school admin, police, whatever) are frequently helpless or indifferent to what’s happening to your child, of course you’re not allowed to confront the evil little shits responsible, and I’m all too familiar with that feeling of impotent rage that builds and builds when you’re rendered incapable of protecting your children.
So as I said, I’m already empathetic about this dad fucking up the bullies. But what pushes me all the way over to a “Well done!” attitude is this:
The enraged father-of-three had hunted the pair down after his porch window was smashed by one of their group and they fled the scene. After the group vandalised the family home that night, Connolly’s son chased after them and Connolly got into his car to look for him.
And finally, there’s this:
One of the boys was treated for fractures to his foot with metal plates inserted and skin taken from his thigh. ‘There will be permanent scarring to the foot and the thigh as a result of the surgical procedure. He was not able to bear weight on his foot for six weeks and will have permanently reduced mobility.’
Good. The feral little fuck deserves to be reminded, daily, of why people shouldn’t be assholes — my only quibble is that every one of the group of bullies won’t suffer the same fate, because they should.
Our Hero Dad was originally charged with attempted murder (!!) but common sense prevailed and he’ll only be charged with assault etc. Still, he’s facing some serious consequences.
I’d like to say that I wouldn’t have done what he did, but I’m not so sure. Protecting your family and property is so deeply embedded in the male psyche — despite all efforts of Modern Woke Society to eradicate it — that sometimes we men have no choice in the matter. Deplore it all you want, it’s an inescapable fact.
…or, not all heroes are gunfighters.
I thought I’d share a few WhatsApp exchanges with y’all. This is about SARZA, which is a privately-funded search & rescue organization based in South Africa (!), and which sent a team to help out in Turkey. Here’s a first-hand account from one of the SARZA team:
A little background:
“Mark” is a skinny kid of about 23. He’s also one of the top S&R operators in South Africa — hence his selection to join the SARZA team — and has been involved in countless life-and-death rescues all over South Africa. He’s also a skilled drone pilot, which they use to find people in distress, pinpoint trouble spots and so on.
“Sally” is Mark’s mother, and her husband is New Wife’s brother (who just spent Christmas with us) so Mark is my nephew by marriage, so to speak.
Words cannot express our pride in him and his work.
One way that British pubs have tried to cut down on hooligan behavior is to ban the kinds of clothing that the typical hell-raiser wears: hoodies, sweat pants (“track suits”) and so on.
I like this trend.
So you can imagine my response when I read this sad little tale:
Jo, from Paris, was on the hunt to sample some traditional Scottish food and drink with her husband. They decided to head for the George IV Bar after hearing rave reviews from locals, Edinburgh Live reports.
Jo said: “My husband and I are from France and for a first night in Edinburgh, we really wanted a nice pub where we could eat food and listen to music at the same time.
“The place was very well noted and the food looked delicious so we tried to get in. My husband was refused entry by the security guard that deemed his pants ‘inappropriate for a restaurant.’
“Very disappointed and I definitely won’t recommend it. We’re currently eating at a pub that doesn’t have live music, too bad for us, but at least we are welcome and we’re eating well.”
The response:
However, the bar’s general manager hit back, writing: “We have a policy of no tracksuits/cottons/jobby catchers in the bar in the evenings.
“Many bars in Edinburgh have the same policy. We work hard to cater for our clientele.”
Once again, my policy of always dressing well when traveling is vindicated.
As it happens, I’ve been to the George IV a couple of times, and it’s a lovely place — not the least because it’s free of trashy yobs and their equally-trashy cock holster girlfriends. And the food is brilliant.
Add the George IV to your “the next time I’m in Edinburgh” list. I’ll be going back, for sure.
