When The Impossible Becomes Everyday

We are constantly being told by the Left that we need to adopt the stricter gun laws of other countries — the U.K. and Australia spring to mind — because their gunshot violence rates are so much lower than ours Over Here.

And yet

Two men in their 20s are taken to hospital after being shot outside Mile End Tube station as London’s crime epidemic continues

and this:

Mother of a student shot and stabbed to death on a night out says she is “completely heartbroken”. His death is one of eight murders in London in a week and has sparked warnings that the capital could see a record number of killings in 2018.

Technically, of course, with handgun ownership almost completely banned in the U.K., this kind of thing should never, ever happen. Technically, Britain’s gunshot violence rate involving handguns should equal zero — but of course, it doesn’t.

And if we take the spate of acid-tossing incidents in Britain — where young thugs simply use sulphuric- or hydrochloric acid as their weapon of choice, the violent crime rate is absolutely staggering. (Yeah, having acid thrown in your face is so much better than being threatened with a gun.)

But when confronted with these facts, the Left just shrugs because as with all things Lefty, the intent is what’s important; the outcome is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if people die or are horribly disfigured as long as the principle (of public disarmament) is laudable.

I wonder just how many of these British criminals would be so brazen if there was a good chance they’d be shot dead by lawfully-armed citizens… oh hell, we all know the answer to that. It’s only the Left who would be wailing about “pitched gun battles” and “Wild West shoot-outs” (when in fact, the violent crime rate in America’s Wild West days — where almost every man carried a gun — was considerably lower than today’s).

Which reminds me: it’s almost time to head off to the range.

Liberal Dreams

It looks as though my advice to Let Africa Sink has been comprehensively ignored by ultra-liberal Ex-BritPM Tony Blair (OMG, not him again), who is suggesting that Moar Foreign Aid will fix Africa’s problems. (Predictably, in the manner of socialists everywhere, if their system fails, the answer is to do it again, only harder.) This is recommended despite the history of foreign aid sent to Africa:

This time, however, the loathsome Blair seems to have acknowledged the failure of the West’s foreign aid policies (tacitly, at least), and has therefore added a new wrinkle: more foreign aid, plus… recolonization. Details of this lunacy can be found here — and fair warning, it is a long, long read. However, it’s worth the hassle, because in explaining Blair’s case for aid plus recolonization, the article contains a massive number of graphs and charts which outline, in extraordinary detail, just how badly and how comprehensively the African continent has managed to fuck things up. Sample (from many such), which shows what actually happens to most foreign aid:

Blair’s answer, which is wonderful, can be summarized as follows:

  • We Shall Run Your Governments
  • We Shall Run Your Infrastructure
  • We Shall Run Your Economies
  • We Shall Run Your Education and Health
  • We Shall Colonize You by Bringing You Here

(The last, by the way, has already been liberal governments’ policy for decades.)

Given liberal / socialist Western governments’ own track records in running government, infrastructure, the economy, education and health, a sensible African would run from both Blair’s suggestions and their existing predicament. (But that assumes that anyone’s sensible over there, which is a stretch.)

The most breathtaking hypothesis put forward in the article comes right at the end.

“What if Africa really is a continent inhabited by those to whom natural selection has bequeathed a different behavioral heritage than the rest of the planet?”

For the mealy-mouthed phrase “bequeathed different behavioral heritage“, substitute the more realistic “rendered incapable of self-government“.

I’d suggest that Blair read Kipling’s trenchant and disillusioned poem, The White Man’s Burden, which says quite plainly that regardless of all the West’s good intentions and efforts, the Third World will nevertheless sink into the pit. But no doubt, Blair was taught that Kipling was an eeeevil imperialist and should therefore be ignored.

So, to sum up our opposing positions:

The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world [and we have to help them].” — Tony Blair

It’s their own fucking fault. Let Africa sink.” — Kim du Toit

Feel free to disagree with me. But I have history on my side.


Many, many thanks to Reader Jason R, who got this ball rolling by sending me the link to the Those Who Can See article.

Dangerous Shitholes

Here’s an interesting article, which ranks cities by the number of homicides per 100,000 population.

I am amazed by only two exclusions from the list: Chicago and Johannesburg, which I would have thought would be a lead-pipe cinch for top 10 placings, let alone being out of the top 50 altogether.

As for the U.S. cities that did make the list: they’re all run by Democrats, ergo all run according to Third World governance principles. There’s one other common factor, but I’m not going to say it because rayyyyciss.

Me, Too

Perry de Havilland of samizdata and I have had our (slight) differences in the past, but on this topic we are in precise agreement:

The Englishman, for one, still wants to see Heath’s body disinterred, quartered and the skull stuck on a pike outside Traitor’s Gate at the Tower of London.

And if the expression “drone strikes on Brussels” doesn’t give you the Warm & Fuzzies, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.

Say What?

Lemme see if I got this right: U.S. forces capture two ISIS terrorist assholes — Brits — who have perpetrated all kinds of atrocities in Syria and Iraq:

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were part of the execution cell that included Jihadi John, were detained by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in January.

….but the UK has stripped them of their UK citizenship. So, as they’re stateless assholes, we’re kinda free to do with them what we want (e.g. Guantanamo, execution, etc.)?

One would think so, but:

The British government also wants the US to provide assurances American prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Kotey and Elsheikh.
It is threatening to hold back important evidence about them as leverage.

Excuse me, morons, but as you’ve stripped these two bastards of their British citizenship, you’ve lost all say as to what happens to them… right?

Frankly, I’m hoping for a “shot while trying to escape” scenario, because that would end the whole sorry episode on a satisfactory note (absent a little vigorous interim scourging, that is). As it is, however, it’s going to be a cluster-fuck, and no doubt these terrorist scumbags will probably end up living in the Bronx on public welfare.

American public welfare.

Me, I’d just hand them over to the Russians to let them deal with the problem. No doubt the Brits would have a problem with this idea, too.