Author: Kim du Toit

The Usual Suspects

Anti-Gun Nannies, Crime

Probably the only scenes I found objectionable in the classic movie Casablanca  was when Inspector Renault utters the line: “Round up the usual suspects.”

Of course, in the context of the movie, the line is heavily ironic not to say satirical because Renault knows exactly who the criminals are, but he deflects suspicion away from Rick Blaine by saying that.

In reality, however, rounding up the usual suspects is not only sound police procedure, it generally solves about 90% of the crime, as seen here (and read it all because it’s good):

Almost every perpetrator of horrific crimes is a “known wolf.” Most of the violent crime in our society is committed by a very small group of easily identified criminals, and most of them have had many interactions with law enforcement over the years.

Violent crime in U.S. cities is not evenly spread. Not culturally. Not geographically. Not mathematically.

It’s concentrated – absurdly concentrated – in fractions of fractions of the population.  This isn’t ideology. It’s decades of DOJ, PD, and academic data all pointing at the same tiny cluster:

• ~0.5% of residents linked to 50–70% of shootings
• Most homicide suspects have 8–12+ prior arrests
• Victims usually know their attackers
• Violence clusters block-to-block, not citywide

We all know this, but when I say “we”, I’m referring to people who live in the here and now and can read statistics unencumbered by dreamy and mistaken dogma and its mantras, e.g. “Ban guns and violent crime will end” or some such crap.

Honestly?  I’m heartily sick of talking about this because I’ve banged on about it so often in the past that I don’t want to talk about it ever again.

But as long as these assholes keep on with their bullshit, the more I feel I have to rebut it, again and again and again and fucking again.

I think it’s time I let off some steam, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the range.

Nailbiting

Good Stuff, Sports

I know:  most of y’all have about as much interest in Formula One as I do about soap operas.

However:  the last race of the 2025 F1 season will take place this weekend on some track in the Arabian desert #DontCare, and it promises to be quite unlike the usual formation-lap snore fest.

At the middle of the season, current (and four-time) champion Max Verstappen was 100-odd points adrift of the top of the standings, driving a car which was not in the same class as the eventual manufacturer’s champions McLaren (who clinched the title a couple races back).

Thanks to his incredible skill behind the wheel, and aided by said McLaren team totally screwing up their race strategy in the past two races, Verstappen finds himself in actual contention for his fifth (consecutive!) driver’s championship in the final race.  He’ll need some help from McLaren, of course, but given their recent screwups that’s not completely out of the picture — and as both McLaren drivers are 1-2 in the standings and are after the same title, there’s also a good chance that they’ll collide with each other and take themselves out of the picture, leaving it all to Verstappen.  One thing is for sure:  if it’s just up to his own driving, he’s an odds-on favorite

Anyway, I told you all that so I can share this, said before the Las Vegas Grand Prix:

Me, I’m rooting for Max this weekend.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From Kruiser:

“It’s not just that Biden & Co. got so many things wrong — one expects that from Democrats — it’s that they got them so spectacularly wrong.”

And of course, so much effort is required by each and every incoming Republican administration to fix the mess (diplomatic, defense, social policy, economics — oy, the list goes on and on) before starting on any positive work.

Two (or three, or four) steps backwards each Democrat administration, half a step forward with the Republicans, then a single step forward again (if we’re lucky) — and then the ungodly get back into power by the usual means (fill in the blanks) and the whole horrible pattern starts all over again.

Small wonder that the U.S. is so much a failing neo-socialist state despite our economic strength.

And our only hope is that the Trump administration manages to get a few steps forward before the cataclysm so that the ungodly have to spend time trying to undo what he did — putting them on the back foot, for a change.

Hey, I can dream, you know.

News Update

Bad News

So let’s start off with some calls for government bastardy.


...just what we needed:  more nanny regulations that don’t work.
#NobodySmokesAnymoreAfterScareLabels #YeahRight

And speaking of things that didn’t work:


...actually, you can substitute almost any word for “homelessness” (diplomacy, healthcare etc.) and it would still be true.


...fuck me, if they did that in Texas they’d go out of business in a week.


...I’m thinking that it may be time to start shooting the “protestors”, but no doubt someone’s going to have a problem with this.  

On a lighter ICE note:


...why is this ICE news?  Because it should be.
#RaiseTheDrawbridge

And in related news:


...one would hope that the USDA had been doing this from the very beginning, but one would be hopelessly naïve.


...see the above comment.

From the International Court Of Justice:


...to prove that even the terrorists can get it right occasionally.

Related:


...given who’s enraged, he must be doing the right thing.

From the Dept. of Education:


...hey, as long as the baby wasn’t in the bed with them, right?

From the Dept of the Blindingly Obvious:

Doctor Tells Kim Kardashian She Has
‘Low’ Brain Activity
...easiest diagnosis in medical history.  And:


...say it ain’t so!

News from the Dept. of Commerce:


...wait:  I thought that Trump’s election was going to tank the economy;  all the cool kids said so.

And from the Dept. of Health:


…

Oh yeah, how about some

 

And as we motor down :


...I know, pictorial evidence required:

I think you get the picture(s).  And as for the news, that’s it.

Immorality Punished

Psychos

I for one am glad that Lawn Ordure are at last taking this kind of thing seriously:

Eleanor Brown, 22, spent the past year locked up behind bars after sharing explicit images of her policeman father’s former mistress to an escort website, where she even created a fake profile of the woman.

Brown also sent racy photos of her father’s ex-lover to her victim’s husband, and exposed the affair – which had taken place years earlier – to her daughter. 

No doubt this heartless bitch thought that there was some justification for her to do so appalling a thing, or maybe she just did it for spite:  I neither know nor care.

What I am glad of is what happened to her:

But her revenge plan backfired when police were called in, and the young woman lost her job, home, and her six-year relationship.

In October 2024, Leeds Crown Court sentenced Brown, from Morley, West Yorkshire, to three years in prison. This was then reduced to two years on appeal.

Brown, described by a judge as ‘vindictive, selfish and vengeful’ served just 12 months before being released on license and she now has to wear an electronic tag on her ankle.

Speaking to The Sun, she explained that she regrets her decisions, but insists that at the time she did not realise that she was breaking the law.

Of course, she’s tried to dismiss it all as a harmless bit of fun:

‘I now realise how terrifying it must have been for the woman, but I was never on a mission to cause maximum harm. I was just poking fun and I ended up in prison,’ she said.

She should have been whipped at the post before being imprisoned, the foul bitch.

People who screw with others’ private lives need to be severely punished, and not excused.

And that includes ex-lovers who do this kind of thing to “get back” at their erstwhile partners, or just out of jealousy.  Les crimes passionels  are inexcusable in any way shape or form, regardless of what the French — no examples of morality, they — may think.

And acts of pure spite (like this one) need chastisement (like this one).

Weather Differences

Weather

For today:

I’ll always remember my first winter in Chicago, when one of the Chicago TV channels sent reporters out to interview the “man on the street” for their opinion.

TV reporter:  “What do you think of this weather?”

Crusty old fart Chicagoan:  “Is this a slow news day or somethin’?  It’s December in Chicago, fer chrissakes.”