Kim du Toit – Page 304 – Splendid Isolation

Changing The Playing Field

May 29, 2024 Kim du Toit Good Stuff, Resistance

I have to say that I like this move:

Thirteen fed-up counties in liberal Oregon have voted in support of measures to start negotiations to secede from the state and join conservative Idaho.

The proposal seeks to move the Oregon border 200 miles to the west, meaning that 14 counties and several partial counties would fall under Idaho state lines.

Here’s what the redrawn boundaries would look like:

I have no idea how all this would work, but it sure beats back the tired old “If you don’t like it here, then leave” trope, to be replaced with “Sure we’ll leave, but we’re going to take all that farmland and our tax dollars with us”.

Needless to say, the Washgov (not to mention the feddle gov) is going to fight against this tooth and nail.

Get to it, guys, and git ‘er done.

Today’s Earworm

May 29, 2024 Kim du Toit Music

Okay, I have to apologize for this one — I mean, Leo Sayer? Ugh.

In my defense, Yer Onnah, let me explain by offering up this story.

After I finished my Army service, I had no job, no prospects, no money and in one of my more stupid moments had rented an apartment without having more than the first month’s rent money in my bank account. So there I was: in an expensive (for the time) apartment right in the middle of downtown Johannesburg, a few cans of food and even fewer sticks of furniture, going to job interviews on pretty much a full-time basis — as I recall, about three a day — and all for entry-level positions that had no guarantee of a salary that could pay the next month’s rent, let alone anything else.

And I made it even worse for myself by consistently turning down job offers because they were shit clerical jobs with institutions like insurance companies. Oh, and the band wasn’t active at that moment either — no idea why, it was just in a fallow patch for the next few weeks.

Then I got a call from a guy I knew from the Army Entertainment Group, an Afrikaans guy named Gerrit who was keyboards player in one of the Army bands.

“You playing anywhere for the next two weekends?”
“Nope.”
“I have a problem. I’ve got a private gig at a dinner dance club in Pretoria, but our bassist just learned he has a kidney problem, so he’s unavailable for the next three weeks — hospital, operations, recovery and so on. Can you fill in?”

So for the next two weekends I played in this club with a trio, backing a female singer named Amanda, a tall brunette who was terribly sexy, but (I soon discovered) a lesbian.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And she had a terrific voice. Nothing wrong with that, either.

Fortunately, the music wasn’t that difficult — nightclub-type jazz standards and popular ballads: the stuff I’d cut my professional-musician teeth on. I knew most of the songs, and the ones I didn’t I could busk along with. (I was actually pretty good at that, and it got me quite a few part-time gigs like this one over the years.)

One of the things I was really good at was vocal harmonizing. I had a good range, perfect pitch and could hit some scary-high notes in falsetto (think: Barry Gibb of the BeeGees, whose parts I could nail like a two-by-four). I’m not boasting, and it has relevance to what follows.

One of the songs that Amanda could really kill was Can’t Stop Loving You by the above Leo Sayer. So the first time we played it, I got to the refrain and sidled up to the mike, waiting for someone to sing a harmony so that I could add another one, but… nothing. She had to sing it without any vocal harmonies to back her up — apparently, the other two guys couldn’t sing worth a damn. So the second time the refrain came up, I added a harmony — the top one above the melody she was singing.

I’ll never forget the look on Amanda’s face. She gave me this huge smile as she sang, and walked over to me so we could share her mike, turning it into a duet and staring into each others’ eyes as we sang. It was incredibly sexy: we must have looked like lovers to the crowd, and when we finished, there was a storm of applause. During the break, she said:

“Can you do more harmonies?”
“Anything you want.”
“Linda Ronstadt?”
“You sing it, honey, and I’ll back you.”

So she did, and so did I. It turned a simple fill-in gig to a wonderful time.

Here’s the end of the story. The last weekend arrived, and I worked out that by doing this gig I would have earned enough money to pay the next month’s rent, but no more.

And that Friday I went for a job interview for an assistant statistician position at The Great Big Research Company, nailed the aptitude test and was offered the job on the spot, starting the very next Monday. Financial future: assured. (For well over the next decade or so, as it turned out.)

I’d invited this girl to come and watch me play the gig on the last night (Saturday). I’d taken her out once before, with (shall we say) no romantic conclusion. So my expectations were low that Saturday night, but I felt like celebrating my new job, and needed company.

To my surprise, we ended up in bed afterwards and she stayed over at my new apartment the whole of the next day and night. When I asked her what had made her say yes to my spiel, she said she’d been incredibly turned on by watching my duet with Amanda — in fact, it had made her quite jealous — and well, the rest just followed along.

Let’s just say I arrived for the first day at my new job in a state of pleasant satiation.

So that’s why I love that silly Leo Sayer song.

And thank you for listening.

My Kinda Guy

May 28, 2024 Kim du Toit Government Thugs

Forgotten in the mists of time is the awful totalitarianism perpetrated on us by the fucking dotgov, whether Federal or state, during The Great WuFlu Insanity. Of course, the legal nonsense — charging, trying and so on — has dragged on and on and persists to this day, but at least there’s been one happy outcome so far:

The co-owner of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, who fiercely defied tyrannical lockdowns in 2020, has won a monumental victory after a court dismissed all 80 charges against him.

Ian Smith famously reopened his gym in the middle of lockdown, defying Democrat Governor Phil Murphy’s draconian COVID-19 lockdown orders.

At the time, Smith challenged the Murphy administration’s mandates, arguing they were unconstitutional and detrimental to small businesses.

Wait: 80 charges? Even for the People’s Soviet of Noo Joizee, that’s a little much, don’t you think?

Anyway, here’s the story:

A swarm of police officers burst through the door of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey arrested the owners for violating Governor Murphy’s authoritarian shutdown order.

“Well, this was a first,” Dowlen said in a Facebook post. “I stayed the night in the gym writing, my book clients Ian & Frank were just waking up, I’m gathering my computer & notebooks, just waiting for the guys to come out for a few final questions, and then a SWARM of Camden County Sheriffs & local Bellmawr police (with K-9 units waiting in a vehicle) come bursting thru the door….to me, sitting there, writing, by myself.

Surprisingly:

First & foremost, the law enforcement officers were polite & respectful.

Lucky they were only NJ cops, not the Oz Schutzpolizei. But it’s a good thing he didn’t have a gun, though, or else the NJ fuzz would have gone all Canberra on his ass.

Anyway, it got worse; much worse.

The State’s aggressive response did not end with the arrest. In a controversial move, Governor Murphy and his administration seized $165,000 from the gym’s accounts—funds that Smith claims were amassed through donations and apparel sales to support the gym’s legal battles. This act was a punitive strike meant to cripple the gym financially and serve as a stern warning to others who might consider similar defiance.

“Governor Phil Murphy seized 100% of our assets today – $165k, all of which came from donations and apparel sales. This is done in the middle of ongoing litigation defending ourselves against these fines, our 80 charges, the revocation of our business license, and the unconstitutional health department shutdown.⁣ This was never about protection, it was always about control.”

However, since he has been acquitted of all the bullshit charges — with prejudice! — Our Hero has not gone humbly off into obscurity. No sir. Instead:

Smith did not mince words, directly challenging Governor Murphy with a phrase that has since gone viral: “Suck my dick Phil Murphy.”

…which is why he’s my kinda guy.

Just Stop That

May 28, 2024 Kim du Toit Elections, Good Stuff, Politics

From the DM”s FakeRedTop Janet Street-Porter:

While the Rishi and Keir Show bores us to death, Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding President is strutting his stuff on a rock stage

Of course, the toothy old Trotskyist thinks that this is a Bad Thing — rumor is that at some Commie conference, she once went down on Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro (having to elbow Margaret Trudeau away from the latter) — but breathes there a conservative alive who did not get a tingle at the “chainsaw-wielding President” expression?

Seems to me that Donald Trump should appropriate the term “Chainsaw President” as his own leitmotif — as long as he actually behaves like ArgyPres Milei once he’s in office and starts taking a chainsaw (metaphorically, but I can also live with literally) to the Deep State Swamp’s entrenched apparatchiks.

In fact:

Go on, Donald: I dare ya.

Javier’s not going to mind. (Janet Street-Porter might object to him appropriating her expression, but Commies are all about taking over someone else’s property, aren’t they, so she can fuck right off.)

News Roundup

May 28, 2024 Kim du Toit Bad News

Speaking of old dicks, let’s look at what our beloved President is doing.

From the The Great Cultural Assimilation Project©:

...relax, Jake; it’s FJB. Or, to summarize: “President Braindead Is Insane.” More concise and 100% accurate.

...if “enforcement” means rolling out the welcome wagon, then yes.

...is it just me, or is it time to go all Pinochet on these shitbirds?

In Global Warming Climate Cooling Change© news:

...easier than blaming Trump or Boeing, I suppose.

In Global Jew Hate news:

...kinda reminds me of when Kaiser Wilhelm II supported the Arabs against the Jews.

...wait: Arabs are thieves? Who knew?

From The Kids Are Alright Dept.:

...considering that the Brit cops appear to do fuck all except harass people who post mean tweets, I would have thought that the work was right up their alley. Or they’re off on holiday: