Comparative Paradise

Here’s an interesting development:

South Africa is planning to withdraw from UN conventions so the government can restrict immigration and send refugees back to countries that are not deemed dangerous.

Indeed, the nation’s statistics agency said last month there were more than 2.4 million migrants in South Africa last year, with the highest percentage coming from neighboring Zimbabwe at 45.5 per cent, followed by Mozambique and Lesotho. 

‘Migration between countries is driven largely by the quest for economic opportunities, political instability, and increasingly, environmental hazards,’ said Statistics South Africa. 

A little-known fact about Seffrica is that it’s seen as a Mecca, so to speak, by all the other sub-Saharan African countries (a.k.a. shitholes) because it’s seen as the best-functioning country in the sub-continent, with the greatest opportunities for jobs.

Fact:  Seffrica has an “official” unemployment rate of over 48%, and in some areas it’s a lot higher.

Fact:  Most Black Seffricans loathe the “immigrants” from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi et al., and they display their enmity in the traditional manner:  murder, disembowelment, amputation and immolation (when they can find any gasoline, that is).  In fact, if you subtract the murders of migrants from the statistics, then the national murder rate drops quite substantially (to about double that of South Side Chicago, for instance).  And those are the official (i.e. reported) murders;  most go unreported, and un-investigated by the world’s most incompetent and corrupt police force.

Fact:  Violent crime perpetrated by said “immigrants” and “asylum seekers” is obscenely high.  A huge number of the carjacking gangs, burglary rings and so on are organized and staffed by the above, and one of Seffrica’s most notorious serial killers (recently captured) was a native Mozambican.

So it’s no surprise that the Seffrican government has taken the stance that it has:

Mr Motsoaledi said the ruling African National Congress (ANC) had made a ‘serious mistake’ when it signed up to international agreements without seeking exceptions from certain clauses. Other countries had opted out of giving refugees the same rights as citizens. 

The government minister said that the current liberal laws, which saw the ANC open up South Africa’s borders to migrants and asylum seekers at the end of apartheid rule in 1994, were now outdated and needed a ‘radical overhaul’. 

Mr Motsoaledi is now pushing for people seeking asylum in South Africa to stay in the first safe country they enter – a proposal that will largely affect those from other African nations. 

Under this plan, refugees from Malawi will have to stay in Zambia and not go further south (through Zimbabwe) to get to the Promised Land.

If all this sounds familiar to my Murkin and Brit Readers, it should.  Plus ça change, plus la même chose.

Change Of Season, Change Of Mood

We’ve had our first cool days here in north Texas — not the cold snap of a week ago, but that gentle cool of autumn.  So I had to change the wallpaper on Ye Olde Laptoppe, from this:

…to this:

Unlike the earlier pic, I know where this one is (because I took the pic myself;  open in new tab or window to embiggen, feel free to copy).

It’s just outside Belfast, Maine, looking out over the Passagassawakeag River (yeah, I know;  stupid Indian name, they could have just called it the “Belfast River”, but noooo).

I wish we had mist here in the Dallas area… or decent rivers, for that matter.

Kim’s Black Friday Half-Dozen – Rifles

Collectors Firearms is publicizing their Black Friday Sale, and I thought I’d shuffle over to the Curio & Relic (C&R) department to see which caught my fancy.  (Not that I can afford any of them, of course, but the 20% discounts being offered make these rifles at least reachable for anyone with a few hundred buck or so to spare.)  Links in description.

Mosin M44 Trunk Gun

Schmidt-Rubin K31 (with bayonet)

Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk1

Brno Mauser K98k

Remington ’03-A3

Venezuela Mauser K98k

And a bonus:  Schmidt-Rubin K11
…because its forged action just sounds better than the K31’s cast action.

Honorable mention:  Chilean Banner Mauser, which looks lovely but is still priced too high, even with the discount.

Anyway, they’re all worth a look.


All the pistols, with the possible exception of the Colt 1903, are too damn spendy.  Collectors only.

News Roundup

Starting off with a little good news, for a change:


...although as a Texan, I’m a little unclear about this “gun permits” concept.

From the SPORTS DESK:


...keyword:  Australian.  Also:


...and if you guessed the keyword as “South Africa”, you would be correct.

From the First World Problems Dept.:


...Israeli citizens were not available for comment.

Speaking of which, in the Glueball Jewhate section:


...while invisible to the fuzz were the 300 protesters chanting “Kill All Jew Bastards!”

In the OMG We Didn’t Expect Consequences For Our Jew Hate section (no links):


...

From the Dept. of Health:


...also noted by Captain Obvious.

Time for some SEX NEWS:


the bracelet was what gave her away, the filthy animal.


...for the teenage trifecta.  Also, keyword:  Idaho.


...keyword:  Belgium.


...keyword:  New Zealand.  And she looks pretty much as you’d suspect she would.

Speaking of ugly women, some Broken Promises:


...yeah, she said that when GWB was elected, and didn’t.  Unfortunately.

And now:  INSIGNIFICA!!!

 

...and all for nothing, as Bernstein was a terrible conductor.

...relax, kids:  it’s only gonorrhea.

#Penicillin.

Finally, some TOTTY NEWS:


...close, but no cigar.

And in earlier times:

One last item:

Nice way to end this.

Utility Over Beauty?

In my Saturday post of Favorite Things (Part 1), Reader JC comments:

“With your well-known love for God’s Own Pistol, I’m surprised a custom 1911 was not on your list.”

Well, yes.  Except that I addressed the issue the previous week in my post about the Ed Brown 1911.

I dunno.  Maybe it’s that I regard a 1911 the same way as I do about a Land Rover Defender or a Toyota Hi-Lux pickup:  they are so utilitarian that fancying them up seems kinda pointless.

I wouldn’t add diamonds to a watch for the same reason, unless it was a present for a woman (because most women have an undeniable attraction for sparklies).

I love luxury, don’t get me wrong:  I am not a Puritan or neo-Amish type.  But as with all things, luxury has its place, and utilitarian tools ain’t one of them.

Here’s another example of what I’m talking about.

I would prefer an Estwing hammer over a bog-standard Lowes-type budget-rack hammer, any day of the week.

But would I gild the Estwing’s metal?  Of course not.  (I might, however, be seduced into buying an Estwing with a leather grip because ooooh.)

You see where I’m going with this?

Sometimes quality has a point to where improvement is not really worth it — especially if said improvement has a 4x multiple over the original, e.g. an Ed Brown 1911 over a Springfield 1911, or a Porsche 911S over a Porsche Cayman S.

And if the original product, so to speak, isn’t total shit and is already far up the quality curve, that’s always something to take into account.

Quote Of The Day

From RedState:

Sunday night, Austrian school economist Javier Milei gave a figurative and political curb-stomping to incumbent Argentine President Sergio Massa, beating him by ten percentage points. Not only did Milei win, but he did it in an election in which judges did not arbitrarily change laws and without huge, unexplained tranches of ballots, with 99% marked for the favorite candidate of the political class being discovered after the polls closed.

It kinda sucks when one of the exemplars of the “banana republic” concept does the democracy thing more honestly than that beacon of freedom and democracy, the U.S. of A.

It may not last, of course:  the odds are good that the defeated party will just send in the tanks — I mean, the National Guard.

We’d never do something like that, of course.