Author: Kim du Toit

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be wanting a cigarette after reading this lovely little story — even if like me you don’t smoke.

An intruder who used brass knuckles to beat against a front door and break a window just before midnight Friday in Missouri was shot multiple times by the homeowner and killed.

KFVS 12 reported that the homeowner, Austin Glastetter, was in the house with his wife at the time of the incident.

Glastetter told the suspect, 31-year-old John Fisher, that he was armed, but Fisher allegedly responded by saying, “You’ll have to kill me.”

Wait, wait, hold it in for just a minute…

Glastetter then shot Fisher multiple times.

And:

The Scott County Sheriff’s Office issued a release noting that deputies arrived on the scene to find Fisher deceased.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em…

Thursday Landscape

Beauty

This is a new feature on this blog.  For some time, New Wife and I have spent many an hour enjoying C.W.’s fine website, and most especially his occasional “On The Road” posts which feature scenic landscapes of outstanding beauty.  So (prompted by NW) I’ve decided to do more or less the same, only these pics will be those that I’ve taken on my many travels around the world, one or two at a time.  Some of them were taken with an early-era digital camera (therefore low-resolution), so the quality may not be great;  but I think you may still enjoy them nevertheless.

Here’s the first:  View from the market square; Heidelberg, Germany (December 2008).

Heidelberg (from across the River Neckar, same date)

Warning Note

Politics

In this post from Stephen Green at Insty’s, we see the following:

President Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were the result of 15 years of intel work, the Pentagon said Thursday — but Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard curiously was missing from key moments before and after the raid.

The ex-Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii — an outspoken opponent of US military intervention in the Middle East — now faces the perception that she’s being shunted to the side by the commander-in-chief, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who previously held her job, taking on a larger profile.

Gabbard, 44, was missing from an intelligence briefing with Congress on Thursday, where Ratcliffe gave lawmakers classified details of the Saturday strike.

She also was excluded from a June 8 national security pow-wow at Camp David, where Trump began to shape his plans for Iran with Ratcliffe and other key leaders, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Two days after that meeting — to which administration officials told Fox News Gabbard was not invited — she released what one person close to the administration described as a “fear-mongering” video on the dangers of nuclear war, in what was seen as a swipe against a preemptive strike.

Uh huh.  And as I noted before (yes, that’s my meme wot I wrote):

My guess is that Trump and his buddies took note of her Middle East isolationist tendencies, and froze her out of Operation Midnight Hammer or whatever it was called.

Let’s see what happens from here.

And let me get ahead of this one, as well:

I don’t trust RFK Jr., for similar reasons.

I Love Florida

Illegal immigrants

I wouldn’t want to live there (#Bugs #Humidity #Hurricanes), but I just love the attitude of FLGov De Santis, talking about the proposed “Alligator Alcatraz”, a holding camp for illegal immigrants which is under construction on an abandoned airstrip right in the middle of the Everglades swamp:

“We’ve got a massive runway right behind us where any of the federal assets that want to fly these people back to their home country—they can do it one-stop shop.”

 Nothing like a little efficiency, is there?

Predictably, some assholes aren’t very happy about all this, but the hell with them.  The facility is due to start full-scale operations any day now.

When Reality Bites

Eco-Crap, Economics

It’s all very well to espouse boutique nonsense like Net Zero, except that at some point reality will come and beat you over the head.  Hence situations like this one:

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), Monday directed the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop and construct a nuclear power plant of not less than one gigawatt. The new plant was needed, Hochul said in her announcement, in order “to support a reliable and affordable electric grid, while providing the necessary zero-emission electricity to achieve a clean energy economy.” 

It was a surprising announcement for a state that closed and dismantled the Indian Point nuclear power plant only five years ago. The consideration of nuclear in the energy mix is part of a pattern seen in other blue states committed to eliminating electricity generated from fossil fuels. California has now delayed the closure of its only nuclear power plant, and Michigan is looking to restart a previously shuttered nuclear power plant. 

In all three cases, it appears that the states are coming to grips with the reality that intermittent wind and solar backed up by short-duration, expensive grid-scale batteries won’t be enough to supply the power needs of the state, especially as AI places more demands on the grid. Still clinging to the hope of a fossil fuel-free grid, these states are looking to nuclear as a more politically tenable option. 

Cue wailing and weeping from the anti-nuke brethren and watermelons in 3…2…1…

Me, I’d be quite happy if these idiots — and the people who voted them into power — broiled, froze or suffered permanent blackouts for a few years as a result of their foolishness, but perhaps I’m being too harsh.