Month: December 2025

News Roundup

Bad News

It’s been a busy week for criminal assholes and law enforcement this past week, to be sure.

 
And:

…

Now for some Terrorist Bastard News:


...fair trial, then a hanging.


...see above.

In International Terrorist Bastard News:


...of course, they’ll be released by teatime because the Kraut fuzz don’t want to be accused of “religious favoritism” or similar.


...all those Oz gun control laws worked so well, didn’t they?  So of course their answer is MOAR GUN CONTROL.

Then we have a Hero:


...but if he’d shot the bastard with his own gun, of course Our Hero would be the one charged with murder while the scumbag would be charged with causing a public disturbance.
#OzLaws

But:


...nothing’s going to come of this, because Australians have become a pussified nation since Covid-19 and the lockdowns.  At the first accusations of “racism”, they’ll just cringe and lick the chains that imprison them.  However:


...next:  OzGovt to ban sales of pigs’ heads.  You heard it here first.

On to Ordinary Crime News:


...Africa wins again.


...hundreds of CCTV cameras and strict gun control laws, all working together… not.
And the usual response (from a socialist politician in California — some redundancy):


...we do indeed.  Let’s start by taking a thousand-odd off the books, for starters, such as the interstate bans on concealed carry.

Some International MAGA (MASGA?) News:


...in my personal favorite Latin-American country.

And now…

And in our journey down :


...I know, I know, we’ve seen Kate Tracey before.  But:

Uh… What About Us Folks?

Politics, Subsidies, Taxes and Theft

FFS, I’m getting sick of this kind of bullshit.

The Trump administration is ramping up its America First Global Health Strategy in its latest efforts to ditch the traditional USAID model by delivering billions in aid directly to several countries in Africa.

Under the new model so far, which bypasses the propping up of the “NGO industrial complex,” the United States has signed six memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with six African countries totaling over $4 billion in direct U.S. investment matched by over $1.6 billion from signatory countries.

I have a better idea.  Instead of “investing” $4 billion in Africa, how about sending that kind of support to, oh, I dunno, our failing healthcare system right here in the U.S. of A.?

And by “system”, I don’t mean pharmaceutical companies or hospitals, either.  I’m talking about pumping up Medicare or Medicaid — you know, people who may actually have voted for the current Administration in last year’s elections?

If you want me to be really blunt, here’s what I really mean.

Most American voters do not give a flying fuck about Africa, and Africa’s health problems.  We Americans pay taxes, and we expect to see some kind of return from our government on those taxes in the form of civic improvements right here in the United States, not in shithole African countries that hate us, support our enemies like China, Iran and Russia, and live in a squalor of their own making.

Did I already mention that aid to Africa is the equivalent of pouring (taxpayer) dollars into a bottomless pit where it ends up filling the bank accounts of corrupt government officials?  I did?  Oh yeah, and note the date on which I said it.

I don’t care that $4 billion dollars is going to be spent “more efficiently” or whatever:  I want that $4 billion to be spent in the United States, and not in fucking Africa.  To repeat:  it’s our money, taken from us at gunpoint, and if it’s going to be spent, we should be the beneficiaries and not some fly-bitten cesspit-dwellers in a hellhole of their own making.

Or — and here’s another thought — you (that is, the Trump Administration) can take less of our hard-earned money away from us, thus taking away our need for government “assistance” in the first place.

If I recall correctly, reducing our tax burden was one of the signature promises of the Republicans last year prior to the elections.  Well, so far I’ve seen precious little of that activity taking place;  and sending our tax money to Africa does not improve my mood any.

I know, it’s a lot more complicated than that, there are all sorts of policy implications and socio-political goals etc. etc. etc.

Here’s what I’ve learned.  It’s always less complicated than it’s made out to be, and there is always a simpler solution than the one proposed.

I’m always hearing from DOGE (remember them?) how much money they’re supposedly “saving” us.  Well, it doesn’t seem like all these spending cutbacks are doing us — the taxpayers — much good, because the average American is still living in a shit-show of financial uncertainty and hardship.

So instead of some high-falutin’ pronouncement of “America First Global Health Strategy”, allow me to suggest that you just drop the “Global” part.  “America First Health Strategy” has a far better ring to it.

Keep our tax money at home, and reduce the amounts we have to pay.  It really is that simple, you fucking thieves and morons.

A Proper Review

Drive Time

I’ve always been a fan of Top Gear / Grand Tour guy James May because like me, he’s old-fashioned and has very specific likes and dislikes about things one encounters in daily life.

So he opens this video with a review of his own 2010 Porsche Carrera, going over his setup and option choices in his usual pedantic way.

Then he tries the new 2025 version of his 911 Carrera T, and gentle mayhem follows.

Take 15 minutes out of your life to enjoy his journey, and its ending.

Here’s the spec sheet for said 2025 911 Carrera T.  All I’d get would be the no-cost passenger seats (which would allow for grocery bags and gun cases) and of course, a proper manual transmission because that’s how James and I prefer our cars.  Price:  just under $140,000 — way too much, needless to say, but for a 911, a “bargain” (excuse me, I appear to be having a small nosebleed).

Anyway, I’m by no means a Porsche 911 fan, but even I might be tempted… after watching that video.

A Question Of Time

Conservatism, Lifestyle, Traditions

Longtime Reader preussenotto writes:

Thanks for maintaining the last interesting thing on the internet.

You are probably 20 years older than I am give or take, but I have a question for you.

We hear a lot of nonsense now about “Someone born in the wrong body” but do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time? That your preferences, tastes, attitudes always seem about 40 years out of step with what is happening now?

It isn’t just a “getting old” thing, I always felt it even when I was a callow yoot. I would read about Victorian England, or Coolidge America, and think… I would fit perfectly into that time, where in the hell did it go? Keep in mind I have no desire to live without electricity, or painless dentistry, but I always mentally fit better into a bygone (often imagined, I grant you) era, and it has never gone away, fifty plus years on. Dunno if there are others of my ilk out there.

Maybe its just inevitable nostalgia, or “O Tempora, O Mores”?

 Let me address the primary issue up front.

When presussenotto writes:  “Keep in mind I have no desire to live without electricity, or painless dentistry…”

Whenever I talk about preferring to live in another time, some smartass always comes up with “So you want to live in a time before [penicillin, automatic transmissions, antibiotics, take your pick]?”  Of course I don’t, and neither does preussenotto.

When we think of earlier times, we speak of the culture of the time, the mood of the time, the manners of the time and the social constructs that were in place then, but are not now.

Using cars as an example of the technology, for instance:  I like having the excellent brakes, better wiring, better suspension and such of today;  what I don’t like is stupid shit like On*Star, nanny warnings about seatbelts, electronic rather than mechanical handbrakes and all those things that have supposedly improved the driving experience but have really served only to drive the price of cars upwards, for little real or lasting benefit.

What we are talking about is a time when you could leave your car unlocked in the parking lot at the supermarket, or your house unlocked during the day, or talk to people without worrying about triggering their ultra-sensitive emotional antennae, or visit decent public libraries with thousands of worthwhile books to take out.

When politicians didn’t try to “improve” or “safeguard” your life, and didn’t take over a third of your salary in taxes.

When the next generation would come along with at least a decent chance of living a better life than their parents.

When capitalism was the way to a better future, and Communism was actually illegal or at least frowned upon.

When you could work at a company for a long time, maybe for life, and wouldn’t be fired just because some accountant thought he could find someone else who could do the same job for less, with fewer benefits.

When your kid could take his air rifle or .22 to school and just leave it in his locker so he could go shooting in the woods with his buddies, unsupervised, at the end of the school day.

When raising a family was seen as the primary duty of a married couple, with the man earning the salary and the woman staying at home to look after the kids and the household — and she wasn’t forced into the workplace because even a modest house had suddenly become unaffordable on only one salary.

When a family outing was a picnic in the park, and not a trip to Disneyland that costs thousands of dollars.

When girls showed modesty in their attitude, their behavior and their clothing, and boys embraced their masculinity while understanding the duties of citizenship and responsibility.

When people could still be shocked by bad language in public.

To return to the question:  “Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time? That your preferences, tastes, attitudes always seem about 40 years out of step with what is happening now?”

I feel that way every single day.  And it’s not just nostalgia, where your memory saves only the good parts and never the bad parts.  The fact of the matter is that I do remember the bad parts, but in almost every case the good parts back then were far better than the best of times now — and the bad parts back then were not even close to the horrors of everyday life today.

I try to live my life today as close as I can to the way people lived their lives a long time ago — and at every turn I’m laughed at, patronized and dismissed as just some old fart living in the past.

Well, guess what?  I want to live in the past.  I don’t care which time, particularly:  it could even be a mixture of some parts of the 1910s all the way to the early 1960s.  I wasn’t alive back before 1954, but even without having lived back then, I feel far closer to those earlier decades than I do to the bloody shambles of our so-called “civilization” of today.  The people of, say, 1960 lived lives with a philosophy far closer to the civilization of 1900 than the people of today do compared to the people of 1965.

When I say despairingly, as I often do, that I don’t want to live in this world anymore, I’m not being suicidal:  I just feel so damn hopeless. because everything that was once so wonderful has disappeared completely, leaving no joy behind.

And so does Reader preussenotto, and so, I suspect, do many of my Readers.

The tempora  have changed, and not for the better;  and the mores  have disappeared completely.

Update:  Here’s what I mean:

And here’s the thing:  I know that not all men today dress like the the loon on the RHS, and that some men still dress today like the one on the LHS.

However, back in 1950, not a single man dressed like the RHS twerp.

Now ask me the question again…