Tag: Foreigners

And Yet Again

Heroism, Marxists, Third World

As I’ve said in the past, here and here, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet was a conundrum.  Others, it seems, are even more positive than I am:

Almost nobody is more reviled by the international intelligentsia and media than the late Augusto Pinochet, the late 20th -century Chilean dictator. He holds a prominent position in the political left’s “rogues’ gallery” comprised of those who stood in opposition to their goals.
His supposed “crimes” included conducting a military coup to illegitimately grab control of the Chilean government from a popularly elected president, rounding up and torturing huge numbers of innocent citizens (killing as many as 80,000 in the process) and corruptly stealing vast sums of money while ruling as a dictator.
But many of those claims are either false or exaggerated — most credible estimates of those killed are below 5,000 — or they must be viewed in context. More important, if we raise the examination of Pinochet from the bitter soil of leftist ressentiment to the question of human flourishing, he appears as one of recent history’s shining lights.

Read the whole thing — and my earlier posts on the topic too, if you haven’t seen them before.

I will never forget two things about my visit to Chile:  the sight of old women placing flowers on the sidewalk outside Pinochet’s modest private home (now a museum) in Valparaiso, and at a formal dinner one night, one of the toasts was:  “To General Augusto Pinochet, savior of Chile.”

It was delivered without irony, well received and supported by all the guests, and even more telling, it was said in English — no doubt for our benefit, and to make a point.

Interesting stuff.

Quote Of The Day

Mocking Furriners, QOTD

From Teddy Dalrymple:

“With luck, the mass impoverishment that is quite likely to strike Great Britain in the near future will prevent the British from going abroad in any numbers, thus slightly raising the cultural level of the rest of the world.”

When I emigrated , the following was written on the Bon Voyage  card presented to me by my former colleagues:

“Kim is leaving South Africa for the United States, thus raising the average IQ of both countries.”

Who said statisticians have no sense of humor?

And?

Eco-Crap, UN and other scum

Sometimes, I just wanna shoot people.  Here’s one reason:

The world’s wealthiest 1% account for more than twice the carbon emissions of the poorest 50%, a new UN report has found.

And what, exactly, are we supposed to do with that information?

FFS:  The world’s wealthiest 1% also account for about 75% of new job creation, about 99% of the world’s yachtbuilding industry, all the top end car / watch / jewelry / etc. business.  They drive cars, fly around the world (on business, mainly — business which helps sustain the poor and gives them jobs), and as a result of their industry, the world is a far better place than it was in the Middle Ages, for instance.

I know:  the hidden meaning behind this “study” is that we should take away their wealth so they can’t emit carbon or whatever.

I would also like to point out that the poorest 50% of the world’s population account for about 90% of all terrestrial and maritime pollution (i.e. garbage) and if you don’t believe me, take a trip anywhere in the Third World:  look at the garbage carried out to sea at the river mouths of the Ganges, Congo, Yangtze and Amazon — to name but some — and drive for any distance outside the major cities to see how the Pore & Starvin just fucking trash the place.

The sooner we defund or otherwise destroy the United Nations, the better off we’ll all be.  Ask me which is my preference.

Chinese Perfidy

Bad News

As if we didn’t know all this already.

A four-year-old boy in Italy was infected with coronavirus as early as November 2019, it is believed, in the latest piece of evidence that the disease was spreading around the world well before China acknowledged the outbreak.
The child, who lived near Milan and had not been travelling abroad, came down with a cough on November 21 last year and was taken to a hospital’s emergency wing days later.
On December 5, 2019, a swab was taken from his throat, and that specimen has since tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19.

I suppose that the ChinkComs are going to suggest he caught it from his pet chicken or something.  Lying, miserable bastards.  To say that “China is asshole” is a slur on anuses everywhere.

As I’ve said often before on this website:  China is, and always will be, the real enemy of the West in general, and of the U.S. in particular.

More Diversity Fruits

Immigration, Terrorism

Then there’s this asshole:

Tunisian Migrant Charged in Connection to French Church Terror Attack

Wait for it…

Brahim Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian national was shot and seriously injured during the October 29th attack in Nice, France. He has finally been charged after his condition improved enough to be questioned by police.
The French broadcaster RTL reported on Monday that police had found an audio message on the migrant’s phone, in which he described France as the “land of unbelievers”, as well as “photographs relating” to the so-called Islamic State.
Police also found an image on Aouissaoui’s phone of the Chechen Islamist terrorist Abdulzakh Anzorov, who beheaded a French teacher, Samuel Paty — two weeks prior to the terror attack in Nice — after the teacher showed a class on free speech a Charlie Hebdo caricature of the Islamic prophet Muhammed.
During the attack at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, Aouissaoui reportedly yelled out the jihadist war cry “Allahu Akbar” during and after the attack. Along with three knives, two mobile phones, the Tunisian migrant was also carrying a copy of the Quran.

Way Too Much

Drive Time, Technology

Insty posted a link to the Car & Driver  long-term road test of the Porsche Cayenne SUV, and while I am generally a fan of Porsche (other than their Germanic penchant for over-engineering and the fact that all their cars are pig-ugly), there were still a couple of things pointed out in the study which set my teeth on edge, to whit:

The perfect long-term car is one that delivers 40,000 happy miles, and our 2019 Cayenne is well on its way to achieving that platonic ideal. It’s never left us stranded, and so far all of our gripes have been handled by the dealer.

You know what?  That reliability is a given nowadays, thanks to manufacturers like Honda and Toyota,  In fact, after shelling out the ~$100K for a fucking SUV, I would demand that nothing breaks in the first 40,000 miles.  But that’s not the end of it.

While that 10K service and recall work didn’t come with an invoice, the 20,000-mile service reminded us that Porsche ownership is just as expensive as it sounds. It set us back $632. In addition to the work done at the 10K visit, the 20K visit calls for replacement of both the cabin and the engine air filters. The dealer also replaced some worn-out wipers for $82.

I know, I know:  if you can’t afford the maintenance, don’t buy the car.  Over six hundred for a lousy 20k service, and eighty-plus bucks for a pair of windshield wipers?   Ah don’ theenk so, Manfred.

But that’s not the worst of it.  Enter the most useless fucking technology ever inflicted on car owners, all for the sake of eco-consciousness:

An aggressive stop-start system often kills the engine too early, and the restart occasionally comes with a horrible driveline thud. Disabling stop-start eliminates the thud, but we can’t help but wonder if the occasional transmission stumble on cold mornings is related and a sign of something else going on with the ZF automatic.

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again:  if I buy any car, this stupid stop-start bullshit would be turned off before I left the dealership.  (And if it couldn’t be turned off permanently, it’s to a different car brand I’d be going.)  As for the Cayenne, any kind of “driveline thud” is a Bad Thing.  I can’t believe the C&D testers didn’t address the issue after the first hundred miles, let alone after forty thousand.  (Don’t even get me started on the engineering philosophy behind an “aggressive stop-start system, or we’ll be here all day.)

I seldom pay much attention to new-car tests because all new cars are going to be okay.  It’s the long-term tests that are interesting because that’s what exposes faulty materials, engineering or design.

And I’m sorry, but all the joys of “90mph cruising” (with the concomitant shitty fuel consumption) don’t  compensate for all the above.