Tag: Regrettable Acts

Ugliness

Architecture

As any fule kno, one of my frequent irritations is architecture that is foul and ugly (especially of the Bauhaus / Le Corbusier / Post-Modern ilk).  Reader Alex S. sends me an interesting take on the whole “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) syndrome;  and while it’s a long read, it’s definitely worth the time:

Western countries used to let landowners build almost anything anywhere. Now, strict rules freeze the character of most neighborhoods, banning change and densification. Why? One theory is that modern buildings tend to be ugly, leading residents to support rules that exclude them from their neighborhoods. If this is true, then designing beautiful buildings could lead to more development.

One could only hope.  Let me clear on this:  I’m absolutely not against redevelopment, especially in urban locations.  The more the merrier, say I, as long as the new buildings don’t look like factories, warehouses and concrete/glass building blocks.  In cities, by definition, where people are squashed together, there needs to be some kind of harmonious architecture — and not just for aesthetic reasons, either.  It’s actually jarring to find, in an area that has a certain architectural feel or style to it, a new construction that belongs to the Fuck You School.

I’m less concerned with suburban architecture, by the way, especially if the houses are not standing cheek-by-jowl with each other.  When it comes to personal property, I’m kinda-libertarian about the whole thing.  While I may cluck my tongue and (occasionally) shake my fist at some modern concrete block house standing on the same street as some gracious older homes (and there’s a lot of that in Dallas), the way I see it is that if someone’s just dropped a couple mil on a piece of land, he should be allowed to build whatever he likes on it.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.  Along the occasionally-posh Inwood Road in north Dallas, one generally sees what I refer to as the “Dallas Mansion” style:

But on that very same road, one occasionally runs into an ugly Modernist edifice:

…and while I think that the above is a piece of shit and doesn’t fit into the overall tone of the neighborhood, I just shrug and say “No accounting for taste, is there?” and continue on my way to the DFW Gun Range.

My tolerance, however, stops very short when I see something like this:

…when it’s perched in a neighborhood that looks like this:

At that point, I start calling for the C4, and an investigation of the bank accounts of the people sitting on the local planning commission.

Never mind “not in my back yard”:  it should be “not in anyone’s back yard”.

Not Enough

Law and Order, Shootin' Time

So we have this situation:  some asshole — who is on parole for an earlier shooting incident — decides to turn his shooty proclivity into industrial-strength mayhem.

Sounds good, dunnit?  Except for this:

[Our shootist] is seen on the sidewalk while firing several shots. He then darts behind and around a white car before running back on the sidewalk.
His frantic escape is then suddenly cut short by the courageous cop, who fires at one shot into the perp’s back.

Wait… the dickhead lets off a whole bunch of shots into a crowd, and the “courageous cop” only shoots him in the back once?

Whatever happened to “double-tap” or “I emptied my magazine into the asshole”?

Oh never mind, I just realized the problem.  It was a cop involved, and every cop (even in Tulsa, I bet) runs the risk of being charged with “using excessive force” (as if any force used against a mass shooter can be excessive) when trying to end a deadly situation.

Bah.  So the scrote was shot, but survived (I bet it was a police-issue 9mm bullet and not a manly .357 Mag or .45 ACP).  Now he’s going to have his hand smacked by our pussified legal system and sent home for tea with his mum.

Charming.

No Great Loss

Legal Stuff, Rights

So DJT lost his Birthright Citizenship case at the Supremes.

I for one am neither surprised nor even that upset about it.  Here’s why.

I agree that the whole idea is fatally flawed:  that the principle of just being born on U.S. soil makes one an automatic citizen is without equal in just about every other country in the world, where the nationality of one or both parents (if one, usually that of the mother) is the sole determinant of the baby’s citizenship.

And yes, I also know that the 14th Amendment had an entirely different purpose when it was originally passed, and has no proper justification today.  But it’s still a Constitutional Amendment, and said document gives very explicit terms under which an Amendment can be altered or abolished;  and that process has nothing to do with the sitting President.  It remains, quite rightly, the proper preserve of the Congress and of the states, with those pesky two-thirds majorities required at every step of the way.

As such, I’m not comfortable with any POTUS trying to abolish parts of the Constitution by fiat or executive order, for obvious reasons, and that’s why I’m not upset about the Supremes’ decision.  We have enough trouble with tinpot politicians deciding that the Constitution — or the part(s) they don’t agree with, anyway (hello, Second Amendment) — can be bypassed with some local law or regulation, and I’m of the firm belief that these people and/or governments need to have their pee-pees whacked, and hard, every time they try to do that.

If we want to end birthright citizenship, we need to do it the difficult way, the way the Founders intended it.  That may make it impossible — I hope not — but sometimes the principle is just more important than the action.

Vox Populi

Riotous Assemblies

I see that the Micks have the temerity to be angry about yet the latest crime committed by an “immigrant” — one of the many thousands dumped in Northern Oirland by the various British governments of recent times.

Of course, being Irish, they are expressing their displeasure in the traditional manner:

Violent scenes were witnessed in Northern Ireland again on Wednesday as tensions remain high in the wake of an apparent attempted beheading on the streets of Belfast, allegedly at the hands of a Sudanese asylum seeker.

Hordes of black balaclava masked men clashed with riot officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on Wednesday in areas such as the Belfast suburb of Newtownabbey, where a lorry truck was set on fire by agitators. The truck is believed to have been a municipal “gully emptier” used to clean street drainage systems.

A car was also set on fire on Antrim Road in the area, while fires were also lit at the Sandyknowes roundabout, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

Nearby, police were forced to deploy a water cannon to push back a large crowd attempting to break into a Newtownabbey hotel, likely over at least rumours of migrants being housed inside.

Next will be the bombs, I’m guessing.  I’m pretty sure that the IRA Provos still have a few hidden somewhere since The Troubles subsided.

Needless to say, the BritGov is responding in its traditional way, by labeling the protesters as “extreme Rightwing”, suppressing all online mention of the protests as well as going with the water cannons (in stark contrast to their treatment of the BLM-inspired riots a couple years back).

The response from the British government has seemingly attempted to shift the blame for the violence to those commenting on social media, rather than the horrific stabbing attack, footage of which was widely seen and reports indicating that the UK government had granted the suspect asylum after entering into the country illegally.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “crack down on anyone who is fuelling this division,” adding that “there is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere.”

Tell that to the Beheaders, old cock, and maybe then we can believe you.

When all the smoke has cleared, I’ll just be curious to see what’s left.  Of everything.  Over There.  In the meantime…

Difficult Problem, Horrible Solution

Deep Thoughts

This sad tale is quite thought-provoking:

Internet stars Jesse Ridgway, 33, and Ashley Ridgway, 31, announced that they had made the ‘difficult decision’ to terminate their pregnancy earlier this week, two months after learning their unborn child had Down syndrome. 

“As for us, we made a difficult decision that we believe in the long-run will be beneficial for our family,” Jesse wrote in a series of Instagram Story. “Thankfully, we had a choice. “It will take a little time to move on, but we are excited to try again in the future and hopefully have a better outcome,” he added.

Just a week earlier, the pair had shared a YouTube video showing the results of an amniocentesis test, which screens for birth defects and chromosomal conditions. In the clip, the couple sat on the floor and viewed the test results in real time, which revealed markers consistent with Trisomy 21, medically known as Down syndrome. 

Ashley broke into tears as Jesse explained that the couple had previously discussed terminating the pregnancy if faced with such a scenario, a decision they later confirmed on Wednesday.

Jesse, posted a series of emotional Instagram stories saying the couple had decided to have an abortion, describing the decision as “not made lightly” and “extremely traumatic.” 

I’ll say it is.  I can’t actually think of anything more gut-wrenching than this one, but when all is said and done, given what they were going to face, I can’t say I disagree with what they did.

And before I start getting screamed at, I note the many similarities between this decision and the decision to turn off life support for a terminally-ill relative — the latter of which does not seem to engender much of a response from the All Life Is Precious Brigade.

Remember too that I am a bitter foe of abortion-on-demand, except in cases like this.

I once knew a guy — back in South Africa, where abortion was very much illegal — whose wife had had a Downs Syndrome baby.  The poor little tyke lived until age 10, and then died from the usual issues associated with this unhappy circumstance.  Several years later, I asked him about his feelings on the topic, and his response was blunt and to the point.

“It was hell,” he stated bluntly.  “Absolute bloody hell:  for my wife, for me, and for little Eric.  Ten years of exhausting hell.  As much as we tried to put a cheerful face on it, I think my wife cried herself to sleep every night for five years.  And when Eric finally went into the hospital for the last time — we knew his condition was terminal — we crucified ourselves with our guilt because we were feeling nothing but relief that his, hers and my hell were finally coming to an end.”

Of course, in the case of our unhappy couple in New Jersey, there have been the usual issues from the lunatics:

The news immediately triggered a wave of online backlash. A day later, the pair revealed that their inboxes were being flooded with ‘hate and vitriol’ over their ‘impossible decision.’ 

Jesse, known online as McJuggerNuggets, said that since sharing their abortion, they have been exposed to a “deeply disturbing” side of humanity.  One comment left under their YouTube video read: “Genuinely the most dystopian and disturbing video I’ve seen on YouTube. Truly evil. Four months.”  Another said, “Hitler thought those with disabilities didn’t deserve to live either!!! You should be sterilized.”

All those comments, of course, are coming from people who’ve never had to face anything like the choice — if it can be called that — that these poor kids have had to deal with.

If I can fault the Ridgways with anything, it’s for putting the whole ghastly episode on the Internet.  Had they just had the thing done, then put up a brief, sorrowful post that they had lost the unborn baby, nobody would have been any the wiser and everyone could just have carried on.

But this unhealthy urge to share with strangers the most intimate details of one’s life is total poison — as Jesse and Ashley Ridgway have discovered.  I only hope that he never has to use the gun he keeps next to his bed, because that would just add to the tragedy;  although getting rid of some screeching fanatic would not be that bad an outcome, because they live in Noo Joizee the consequences of ending that asshole’s life would be more punitive than ending the life of their unborn, unhealthy baby.

There are no winners in this horrible story, and the maniacs who insist on piling on are just adding to the tragedy.