Good Stuff – Page 21 – Splendid Isolation

Good Things To Come Out Of The Coronavirus Pandemic

May 5, 2020 Kim du Toit Good Stuff

In no specific order:

Rage Against The Machine 2020 tour canceled
the “NSFW” warning has become irrelevant as everyone’s at home anyway
“social distancing” means I don’t need an excuse to steer clear of assholes I don’t like
Taylor Swift kept out of the recording studio
the ChiComs have finally been exposed for the totalitarian pricks they really are
ditto most Democrat state governors and mayors
the “globalism is good” mantra has been discredited
maybe, just maybe, we’ll get our prescription drugs manufactured in the U.S. once more
…and lots of other stuff, too
gun stores classified as “essential services” (as well they should be); and pursuant to that:
liberals discover the virtues of self-protection, are forced into buying guns, and discover that you can’t just order them off the Internet and that there’s a lengthy legal waiting period (that they voted for) before actual ownership can take place. And following on from that:
California law (that they voted for) stops ammo manufacturers from sending them ammo from online orders, so they face empty shelves at gun stores
people who have provided for themselves in the event of calamity or disaster are no longer sneeringly called “doomsayers” or “apocalyptics” by the media, as liberals discover the benefits of “hoarding”

And finally:

daily Instagram pictures of Christine McGuinness in a bikini as she self-isolates. Also the occasional video (sample).

Feel free to add to the above list, once you get out of the cold shower.

Proper Wording

April 14, 2020 Kim du Toit Good Stuff

Tim Worstall makes an excellent point here:

Don’t ‘celebrate’ gay people, just accept us, says teacher at centre of schools row

Accept is reasonable, but I think tolerate is closer to the correct meaning. To accept Simon Cowell would be asking too much, toleration is about as liberal as I can get.
And yes, Mr. Cowell is a reasonable comparison for sexuality. Other peoples’ tastes are none of my damn business assuming that they’re not being offered directly to me to partake of, subject to the usual consenting adults only caveat.

Quite right. I have no problem with, for example, Homosexual Pride parades; I tolerate them (as long as I don’t have to actually see them or be caught in the middle of one). Do I accept them?

No.

It’s a small but important distinction, and well done Tim for pointing that out. And never mind “accept”; you can forget that “celebration” bullshit, too: that’s never going to happen.

Lifeline

March 27, 2020 Kim du Toit Good Stuff

I have the best Readers on the Internet, bar none. That’s not sucking up, that’s a statement of fact.

When I put out my call for help last week, I had no idea what the response would be, mostly because everyone’s having pretty much the same kind of trouble I am, and let’s be honest, this blog is pretty thin gruel as a platform on which to base an appeal.

This is not a blog which offers legal advice, or medical advice, or even soft stuff which feeds the soul like movie reviews or stuff like that. All you get for your visit is, well, all the stuff you see if you hit the “page back” buttons at the bottom: guns, women, anger, commentary, vitriol and the occasional review of stuff I like that others may not be aware of, e.g. Dutch metal, an unknown artist or some obscure gun.

What I was not prepared for was the generosity and the breadth of your response to my appeal, which has been, in a word, astonishing. Just so you know, you’ve basically kept the wolf from the door by enabling me to pay some large and unexpected costs, most especially a massive medical bill for New Wife, and a couple more of similar magnitude. Were I still Ubering, I could have taken care of most of that just by working longer hours (as I have in the past), but with the Uber business drying up completely, that was no longer an option.

Instead, I can breathe freely for the next few weeks until the insanity is over and I can get back to work again. And if all goes well, when the self-isolation and lockdowns go away and life can creep back to normal, New Wife can finally get a job so we can actually start saving.

We can but hope.

So on behalf of both Angie and myself, please accept our humblest and most grateful thanks. Whether by small Patreon contributions or by larger single amounts, you my Readers have taken untold stress out of our life.

In return, while I’m still self-isolating (not splendidly, by the way — how ironic is that title now?) I promise to continue this blog with even greater zeal than I have before. One Reader used these words (paraphrased, lest he be embarrassed): “When your old website went dark before, I missed it badly — and if I can help it, that’s never going to happen again.” Others said similar wonderful things, and all I can say is that you made New Wife cry, because she doesn’t know you like I do and was completely blindsided.

And using my isolation to good effect: in a couple of weeks’ time, I will have completed a long-promised but creatively-blocked novel, which I will put on sale through Kindle so that everyone reading this can get one, for about the price of a lottery ticket.

It’s often said that “Words cannot express my gratitude” and that’s very true, but I’ve nevertheless tried to do so here, and I hope I’ve succeeded.

Thank you all, and bless every one of you for your generosity, kind words and support.

Longevity

March 13, 2020 Kim du Toit Food & Drink, Good Stuff

The old joke goes:

Q: “Why do men die sooner than women?”
A: Because they want to.

I think the same is true of this study:

A DAILY tipple nearly doubles a man’s hope of hitting 90, a study says.
Those on half a pint of beer a day are 81 per cent more likely than teetotallers to reach a tenth decade.

That’s because we drinkers are kept alive by thinking things like “Only five more days till Friday night pub time!” — whereas non-drinkers have fuck-all to look forward to and their bodies simply shut down out of either hopelessness or boredom.

For precisely the same two reasons, this may be why meat-eaters live longer than vegans.

Anyway, whatever it all means, I know that right at this moment it’s Pub Time at the King’s Arms in All Cannings, Wilts, so I’m going to join The Englishman and others of that ilk by opening a life-extending pint (and I know it’s not Wadworth 6X, but London Pride is all I can get Over Here — a rant for another time).

Cheers, y’all.

A Good Pardon

March 12, 2020 Kim du Toit Business, Good Stuff, Legal Stuff

Most presidential pardons rub me up the wrong way (e.g. Bill Clinton’s of Marc Rich) because there always seems to be something sleazy and underhanded about the people involved.

But God-Emperor Trump hasn’t put a foot wrong, and especially so with Michael Milken (who I always thought got a rough deal from the Justice Department).

Indeed, there’s an old saying that “banks only lend to you when you don’t need the money.” Milken understood this truth all too well, having discovered in the 1970s that other than for the bluest of blue-chip businesses, growth financing was exceedingly difficult to come by for the 99% of businesses that weren’t blue chip, or investment grade. Financial institutions operated on the assumption that the present predicted the future. Not so Milken. His research revealed the opposite.
Milken discovered that a corporation’s balance sheet generally measured yesterday, not tomorrow. And so he set about “democratizing” access to capital. Having attended UC Berkeley in the 1960s, Milken had embraced the desire of some within the student body to improve society. He would work tirelessly to change the world for the better too, but as he once put it, “Unlike other crusaders from Berkeley, I have chosen Wall Street as my battleground for improving society because it is here that government institutions and industries are financed.” There are no companies, no jobs, and there is no progress without investment, and Milken would vastly improve the world around him through skillful development of the companies not recognized by traditional banks and investment banks, but that would be greatly enhanced through bespoke finance.

Read the rest of the piece to get the whole story.