From The Englishman, a correction to my New Year’s Eve greetings post for the Brits:
“Please note it wasn’t the “Brits” but only the English who were allowed to party together with their Celtic neighbours who escaped. I hear Bristol was very full last night.”
It took me nearly two decades to stop referring to all inhabitants of the British Isles as “English” or “Englishmen”, and now that I’ve finally got that straight, it appears that I’ve gone and fucked it up again.
Sigh.
Fuehrer Reichskanzler Angela Merkel has retired…
…and only NOW do we get a tasteful view of the old Commie’s bazongas?
From Scottishland comes this drivel:
Scotland seeks to ban words like ‘addict’ and ‘alcoholic’ in plan to tackle drug deaths
…to be replaced by?
New guidance published online calls for other words such as “junkie”, “clean” and “substance abuse” to be shunned in favour of “person with problematic drug use”, “person who has stopped using drugs” and “substance use”, respectively.
Nothing like a change in terminology to address the “problem” of drug deaths.
What amuses me about this bureaucratic bowdlerism is that the Scots are renowned for being among the plainest-speaking people on the planet — beating out even Australians — with their often-withering commentary about people and life in general. (Listen to any Billy Connolly rant, for example, to get a taste.)
Imagine Billy describing a junkie using the above terms…
Once again we have a list — this time, of “Best Countries To Live In“.
From our perspective, of course, we have to remove the disclaimer, “…unless you want to own a gun”, which would take out pretty much all but the U.S. of A from the results. Also, the survey also takes into account shit like “environmental consciousness” and similar woke bollocks, so we should probably ignore the whole thing.
But then I wouldn’t have a post for today. So here’s my take on the whole thing, ignoring the gun issue just this once.
1. Germany — I wouldn’t mind living in Deutschland too much, except that I would get horribly bored by the food after a few months. The beer’s okay, and I love driving there. The TV is uniformly terrible, just awful (SNL’s satire “Sprockets” would actually be an improvement), and that bland 80s Europop that seems to blast from every radio station or PA system makes me want to go all Peter Kürten every few weeks or so. But as long as I could live somewhere like Bad Reichenall or similar in Bavaria, I could probably survive there.
2. Canada — ditto Canuckistan, maybe in Montreal’s Plateau, or out west where the Canuckis are more like Murkins. The winters might get me down after a while, though; as much as I like snow and such, you can have too much of a good thing. And then there’s Pierre Trudeau…
3. Japan — Kyoto, maybe, rather than Tokyo. But I have to admit, the language issue would be far more of a hurdle here than in Germany or French Canuckistan. Or even in
4. Italy — definitely, but only in the north, in cities like Torino, Milan or similar, or else in the Como area. I found Italian surprisingly difficult to understand the last time I was there, but I’m sure I could get the hang of it after a year or so. And that Northern Italian cuisine… que bella. Of course, I’d need an Alfa Romeo or Fiat to putter around in.
5. Britishland — of course, but not London. Somewhere out west or southwest (Hardy country) would do. A small town like Devizes or Bradford-on-Avon would be excellent. As long as I could have access to US TV now and then, because like in Europe, the Brit TV offering is dire.
As for the rest of the top ten (excluding Murka):
France: Midi only
Sweden: too cold for too long, plus language and Commies
Switzerland: NO
Australia: NO.
The rest of the top 20:
Spain: Southern Med coast only, or maybe Barcelona
Norway: NO, too many Commies
Netherlands: Amsterdam, baby. Oh yes… after Britishland — or maybe even ahead of — I could see myself there.
New Zealand: NO, see Norway
Finland: no, see Sweden
Austria: Vienna, definitely — but with the same reservations as with Germany
Scotland: Edinburgh, if you put a gun to my head; otherwise no
Belgium: no
Ireland: undecided. Lotsa Irish around, though, with strange names like Eoin and Aisling
Iceland: NO.
Sorry, folks: looks like y’all are stuck with me, right Over Here — oh, and did I mention GUNS?
Try owning that little collection outside Murka…
Looks as though the worm is starting to turn in Oz:
Wild scenes broke out in Richmond as a group of hooligans clashed with police trying to contain the violent ‘freedom rally’ march.
…with predictable results:
Police arrested 235 people and while most were taken away for breaching health directions, some were charged with assault, riotous behaviour and weapons and drug offences. Each will be fined $5,452, with 193 infringements handed out so far.
Naturally, police blamed the Deplorables:
‘Angry aggressive young males (were) there to fight the police, not to protest about freedoms,’ he told the media late on Saturday.
Then again, I myself might have turned into an “aggressive male” (i.e. man) had I witnessed thuggery such as this:
An elderly woman was shoved to the ground and doused with pepper spray by two policemen during the Melbourne anti-lockdown riot. The woman was bowled over by the two cops before they fired the spray directly on her face as she lay defenceless on the road trying to shield her eyes.
Because this is Oz, public opinion was divided into two camps, i.e. “bastards” and “she deserved it for breaking the law”.
Please join me in a couple minutes’ silence to allow the RCOB to subside.
Note to the various OzGovs: “breaking the law” means things like murder, robbery and violence towards the undeserving. Protesting against totalitarian government is NOT breaking the law except in totalitarian countries like Iran and Communist China.
And now, it seems, Australia.
From the land Down Under, more bastardy:
The Andrews Government is making more bad changes to Victoria’s gun laws.
The latest changes will allow police down to the rank of inspector to ban shooters from holding firearm licences for at least 10 years – for getting nothing more than a speeding fine.
People hit with a ban will also be subjected to warrantless searches of their homes or cars at any time, and barred from going to any place where guns may be stored or used.
Fucking hell, why not just add “public whipping” and “summary execution” to the list?
Textbook totalitarianism. And the person introducing this legal travesty looks precisely how you’d expect them to look:
The only nice thing you could say about her is that her head would look good on a pike.
Next: pikes to be banned under the Sharp Objects And Politician Protection Act.
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