Splendid Isolation

Oldie But Goodie

July 20, 2021 Kim du Toit Deep Thoughts

From Longtime Buddy Mervyn*, and especially for my Tribe Readers:

ZEN JUDAISM
If there is no self,
Whose arthritis is this?

Be here now.
Be someplace later.
Is that so complicated?

Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage, that’s another story.

Drink tea and nourish life.
With the first sip…joy.
With the second…satisfaction.
With the third, peace.
With the fourth, a danish.

Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health
Or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?

The journey of a thousand miles
Begins with a single “Oy.”

There is no escaping karma.
In a previous life, you never called,
You never wrote, you never visited,
And whose fault was that?

Zen is not easy
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

Let your mind be as a floating cloud.
Let your stillness be as the wooded glen.
And sit up straight. You’ll never meet
God with such rounded shoulders.

*My buddy Mervyn looks so Jewish that even at bar mitzvahs, people ask: “Who’s that Jewish-looking guy?”

That said, he’s the worst Jew since Genghis Khan. Frum, he is not.

Thoughts On Mandelaland Part 3

July 20, 2021 Kim du Toit Africa

Boy, they’re coming thick and fast:

What is the point of a government, when we know that it was private security and ordinary civilians who held the line this past week? For all the praise that Cabinet ministers have retrospectively doled out to police and the army, we have all seen the footage of cops responding to the riots with approximately the same urgency as a hungover teenager doing the dishes under duress.
Which was a teeny bit weird, because we’ve all also seen the footage of cops blasting a water cannon on elderly and disabled social grant applicants in January this year after giving them one minute to disperse.
What is the point of a government, when we know that it is warm-hearted citizens and NGOs who will largely be responsible for feeding those who must now go hungry? When Gift of the Givers announced they were on their way to fix things, I can’t be the only one who wished for the hundredth time that we could just chuck the keys to the Union Buildings to Imtiaz Sooliman and be done with it.
And what is the point of a government, when we’ve seen all those heroic ordinary people cleaning up the chaotic aftermath of the riots?

Read the whole article, because one of these days we’re going to be asking these questions of our own government.

Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of that already, and I bet some of you have been too.

Missing Post

July 19, 2021 Kim du Toit Gratuitous Chick Pics

You may all be wondering what happened to the Monday Funnies today.

Simple answer: it’s all the Brits’ fault.

Yesterday saw both the final round of the Open Championship at Royal St. George and the British F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone, so I was in a sports coma and couldn’t put together the usual collection of smutty cartoons, memes and scantily-clad women.

I shall endeavor to provide a replacement for tomorrow, although I should point out that Combat Controller is in town with many guns (as always), and some range time will no doubt feature in today’s schedule.

So I make no promises.

Still, to provide at least a token offering, here’s a collection saved in my files simply as “Blanca Suarez”:

I have no idea who she is, but that’s about par for the course (if you’ll excuse the analogy).

Another Martyr

July 19, 2021 Kim du Toit Crime

No doubt there’ll be BLM-inspired rioting after this one:

A man was shot and killed by Los Angeles police officers in front of horrified bystanders on a packed Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday after he pointed a replica gun at them.

Here’s a thought: why don’t we flood the ‘hoods with replica Glocks?

All I ask is that the LAPD keep their lapel cameras running so we can all enjoy the fun that follows.