Tag: Stupid people

Dot-Mil Idiocy

Bad News, Military, The Gun Thing

I know, the title is somewhat redundant, but this beats them all (sent by Reader Tony M., thankee — I think):

After 123 years, the immortal Colt-Browning 1911 pistol has finally left U.S. military service.

The immortal 1911 really has no historical equal. It has been the longest-serving sidearm in U.S. military history. Almost every company in the business of manufacturing handguns today makes some variation of the 1911.

And yet, it’s no longer good enough for our troops?  To continue:

While nothing lasts forever, and while it’s easy to see the logistical advantage in a sidearm that uses the NATO-standard 9x19mm cartridge, it’s a sad day for gun aficionados, especially those of us with a fondness for John Browning’s 1911.

For those of little historical learning, I should point out that the reason that the U.S. Army adopted the Colt 1911 .45 ACP in the first place was that their .38 cartridges (similar to the 9x19mm) just weren’t killing savages efficiently.  But of course, people who make “logistical” choices are seldom the same ones who actually have to shoot people dead.

Never mind:  let our troops use three rounds of 9mm Europellet fired from their German-designed peashooters to do the same job as the .45 Automatic Colt Pistol bullet can do with one.

I’ll just continue to carry my 1911 and be glad of it.

Bah.

Not Romans, They

Two-Minute Hate, Wokism

Reader Mike L. sends me this little tale of bullshit:

Less than a week before Massachusetts observes Columbus Day, lawmakers and Native American advocates, some wearing traditional headdresses, asked a legislative committee to replace the holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day.

I’m getting so heartily sick of this nonsense, these attempts to rewrite history (at the expense of settled history, of course), and this glorification of what was essentially a bunch of savages.

Simply put:  what did these glorious “indigenous” people ever do for us, for civilization and for the land which would become the United States?  Where are their laws, their buildings and monuments, their written (as opposed to oral — i.e. invented) histories?

I’ll tell you where they are:  nowhere, because they don’t exist.

So what’s to “honor”, other than to acknowledge that they once existed?  Do we have “Neanderthal Day”?  Of course we don’t — and do not for one minute think that I’m comparing “indigenous” American peoples to Neanderthals;  although now that I think of it, I’m not exactly sure that the comparison isn’t apt, considering that the latter too left no laws, buildings, monuments or history pretty much for the same reasons.  We don’t even know that the cave paintings scattered all over Europe and Asia were created by Neanderthals.  Cave paintings weren’t much of a legacy, but they were something.

We commemorate achievements and actions precisely because what was done was (duh) memorable and had an effect on the world that followed.  I have for example far less issue (in fact, no issue) with, say, Martin Luther King Day than President’s Day (which simply mashed all those wonderful presidents’ individual achievements into some amorphous reason for retail promotions and sales).

We don’t have to commemorate simple existence, we simply have to acknowledge it — for example, in written history (which they didn’t have) — and get on with life.

In terms of world history, what Christopher Columbus achieved was greater than anything achieved by all the Indigenous Peoples’ leaders and chiefs combined, ever.  It is an absolute travesty to substitute his day of memory with some (once again) amorphous glorification of a group who collectively were nothing but inhabitants of this continent, whose originality was simply of greater vintage than people like Columbus, and whose legacy was… minimal, to be charitable.

Glorification of that is no more than a participation trophy, another artifact so beloved of the people who want to effect so insidious a change.

Fuck ’em.  Fuck ’em all.

Roost, Chickens Coming Home To

Corporate Wokism, Crime

Well, well, well.  Here’s the macro event:

Hours after murder charges against a former Philadelphia police officer were dropped on Tuesday, large groups, mostly made up of teenagers, looted multiple stores in the city. 

Police started receiving calls around 8 p.m. Tuesday night about a large crowd moving into Center City, the main dining and shopping scene in downtown Philadelphia, NBC 10 reported. The crowd eventually turned riotous, ransacking a Foot Locker, Lulumelon, and an Apple store, among other businesses, before at least 20 were arrested. 

Note that Philly has one of those “Soros-style” prosecutors who distinguish themselves by not prosecuting anyone for crimes like this.  There’s also evidence that, far from being “spontaneous”, the raids are being coordinated and targets established via social media — almost the very definition of organized crime.

And speaking of targets, here’s a micro event:

Target is closing nine stores in major cities across four states, claiming theft and organized retail crime have made the environment unsafe for staff and customers – and unsustainable for business.

The big box chain is part of a wave of retailers – both large and small – that say they’re struggling to contain store crimes that have hurt their bottom lines. Many have closed stores or made changes to merchandise and layouts.

…which is likely to cause an epidemic of Schadenböners among conservatives because the Minneapolis retailer is easily one of the wokest corporations in the world.

The only good thing about the Philly situation, by the way, is that unlike the Portland OR police, some Philly cops are getting into the spirit of the thing.

Try to contain your guffaws of delight.  I couldn’t.

Wake Up, Lil’ Susie

Illegal immigrants, Immigration

…in which we see that at long last, some kind of realization is beginning to dawn that the Great Multicultural Assimilation Project is not living up to its promise.  From Brit HomeSec Suella (Susie) Braverman:

“Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the last few decades. I’m not the first to point this out. In 2010, Angela Merkel gave a speech in which she acknowledged that multiculturalism had utterly failed, and then, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British PM David Cameron echoed similar sentiments shortly thereafter.

“Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate. It has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it. They could be in the society but not of the society, and in extreme cases, they could pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of our society.”

Yeah, like nobody of sane mind could have seen this coming.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Channel:

Germany plans to halve the federal aid it allocates for states to cover expenses of receiving and integrating refugees next year as part of budget-tightening amid soaring inflation after years of generous spending.

And why so?

Germany has ‘hit the limit’ of the number of migrants the country can take, the country’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned. 

Steinmeier said that the fact that a third of all migrants who reached the EU in the first six months of this year went through Germany first means the nation, ‘like Italy, is at the limit of its capabilities’. 

His warning comes seven years after Steinmeier called for ‘open borders’ in a move that saw a million people enter Germany in 2015 and 2016.

Yeah, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea, Frank-Wally old chap, especially as those newbie “citizens” don’t have the exactly the same ideas as yer average Volksdeutsches when it comes to  things like robbery, murder, rape and similar forms of criminality — not to mention those other little peccadilloes like their savage treatment of women, honor killings, religious intolerance and tribalism.

Next thing the Germans (and Brits) will be re-commissioning nuclear power stations and overturning the Duracell car mandates.  I await such developments with bated breath, but I’m not holding my breath.

Such profound stupidity, especially when encased in law, takes a long while to be tossed out.

As we Over Here are going to be finding out soon.

Waking Up

Eco-Crap

Insty has noted that even Ultra-Rich Asshole Bill Gates is getting a little fearful of the coming draconic enforcement of the Green New Deal (a.k.a. Net Zero 2030 and similar tropes).  Maybe he’s afraid that his corporate jet may be banned, or something.

In Virginia, the Republican (natch) VAGov is going to walk back on their similarly-stupid mandate for Duracell cars (EVs):

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) is looking to repeal the state’s electric vehicle mandate if his party does well in Virginia’s November elections.

A spokeswoman for the governor claimed the mandate, which adopts California‘s strict air quality standards and is designed to increase the use of electric vehicles, has had poor results in California. Virginia’s adherence to the mandate was put in place during former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, making Virginia one of only 17 states tied to California’s emission standards.

Wait:  seventeen states have signed on to this foolishness?

Anyway, while this other Glenn has the right idea, I’m a little miffed that he’s using the “anti-California” mantra to stop his state from falling into chaos instead of pointing out that the entire eco-frenzy is not only unsupportable (by the actual science) but also unsustainable (in terms of its implementation.

But hey, whatever works, right?

I just hope that the Virginia Republicans use this as a campaign issue, but I fear that a lot of them may not only have bought into the EV-foolishness, but even of not, be afraid to use it lest the ecofreaks and Jackals Of The Press [much overlap]  go all hair-on-fire on them.

Top Telly

Entertainment

Britishland’s Radio Times has published a Top 100 list of TV shows (from the beginning, i.e. early 1950s, until yesterday).

I read through the whole thing (so you don’t have to), and apart from the inexplicable inclusion of American shows (e.g. Hill Street Blues and M*A*S*H*) on the list, it’s not bad.  Of course, I haven’t seen all of them — give me a break, we didn’t even have TV in South Africa till I turned 21 — but I thought I’d share my thoughts on the ones I have.

What the hell, it’s the weekend, right?

The Comedies

  • Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again — actually, the John Cleese Collection — all classics, all brilliant.
  • Not The Nine O’Clock News :  what SNL’s Weekly Update  tried to be, and failed (unless Norm McDonald was the host) — and speaking of Rowan Atkinson:
  • Blackadder :  historical satire at its very finest, helped by an unbelievable supporting cast (Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Miriam Margolies, etc.).
  • The Royle Family :  most Brits of my acquaintance absolutely hated this show about working-class losers;  I loved it.

Drama

  • The Duchess of Duke Street :  excellent fin-de-siècle  series set in the late 1880s until post-WWI, with the wonderful Gemma Jones as the “Duchess”.  One of my prized DVD collections.
  • The Singing Detective :  unbearable to watch, but so good you can’t stop.  Forget everything you ever knew about Michael Gambon:  this is his finest performance.  Ignore the silly U.S. remake.  Also in my collection.
  • After Life :  funny, dark, poignant and sensitive;  Ricky Gervais’s best work.  I think I’ve watched this series half a dozen times, and counting.

Cops ‘n Robbers

  • The Sweeney :  long before NYPD Blue‘s Andy Sipowicz, there was the gritty Jack Regan.
  • Inspector Morse :  wherein the gritty working-class Jack Regan turns into the calm, analytic and cultured Morse, both having been played by the same actor.
  • Cracker :  tortured and flawed genius solving crimes;  Robbie Coltrane in a non-comic tour de force.  I have the set, but there’s a warning attached:  do not watch the postscript episode (set in Hong Kong), because not only is it terrible, it was an afterthought, cobbled together at the last minute, and none of the loose ends from the final series were tied up.

Sci-Fi

Never watched any of them.  I did watch one episode of Doctor Who, and it was awful.

Documentaries

  • The World At War (I have this series on DVD):  probably the greatest WWII documentary ever — it’s hard to argue about Hitler’s behavior, for example, when you have Traudl Junge (his actual secretary) describing it.
  • Civilisation :  when I grow up, I want to be as educated as Sir Kenneth Clark.  I also have this series on DVD.

Missing from this Top 100 compilation (inexplicably, and shamefully):

  • Foyle’s War :  period drama with the brilliant Michael Kitchen (in Kim’s DVD collection)
  • The Young Ones :  anarchic comedy with Rik Mayall
  • The Goon Show (radio):  the groundbreaking show that defined anarchic comedy thereafter, all from the fevered imagination of Spike Milligan
  • Life On Mars :  detective show in the 70s, from the perspective of a 1990s transplant.  Maybe the good old days weren’t so good.
  • Waiting For God :  shenanigans at a retirement home with dark, biting comedy (in Kim’s DVD collection)
  • Absolutely Fabulous :  Jennifer Saunders’s hysterical over-the-top empty-headedness vs. Joanne Lumley’s feline degeneracy.
  • The Darling Buds Of May :  gentle bucolic comedy, with a fine cast (in Kim’s DVD collection).
  • The Avengers :  Patrick McNee’s bowler hat and Diana Rigg in skin-tight pants suits, ’nuff said.
  • The Persuaders :  Roger Moore and Tony Curtis;  who’d have thought they’d be a great pairing?
  • Doc Martin :  they left Martin Clunes’s show off the list?  Seriously?

All the above omissions should have been slotted in ahead of the American transplants;  not that the Yank shows are bad — they aren’t —  but they were essentially rebroadcasts.

If you haven’t seen any of the above shows, try to do so.  You won’t be sorry.