Chesterton’s bicycle. || It’s a chair, it’s an earthquake helmet. || A shovel is used. || Tiling issues. || Three sizes, five colours. || Incoming. || I’m not entirely clear on the rules. || Another fun way to pass the time. || It’s an alternative approach. || Giving it to the man. || Big mirror. || “Best new artist.” || I want all of the loveliness in one big injection. || More joys of public transport. || Pulse detected. || Provider and role model. || Critter of the sea. || Car relocation. || Close enough for showbiz work. || Conservatism in an idealised nutshell. || Noise reduction. (h/t, pst314) || Street scenes, godly edition. || Attention, all heterosexual menfolk. If you think she’s hot, you’re gay, apparently. || It’s her way of life. || And finally, because you look like you need this, a “freeing and detoxifying” project for the weekend.
Oh, and while I have your attention, today is this blog’s seventeenth birthday. Yes, seventeen chuffing years. Which is a pretty good excuse to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted.
If one-click haste is called for, there’s a QR code in the sidebar, at which you point your phone, and my PayPal.Me page can be found here. As requested, I’ve added SubscribeStar and Ko-Fi accounts, via which love may also be monetised, whether as one-off donations or monthly subscriptions.
Additionally, any Amazon UK shopping done via this link, or for Amazon US via this link, or via the buttons in the sidebar, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you. Feel free to buy things wildly and in bulk.
For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last seventeen years, in over 3,000 posts and 200,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start – in particular, the end-of-year summaries, which convey the fullest flavour of what it is we do. A sort of blog concentrate. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that.
Do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.
As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company.
Oh yes. The buttons:
Note that a related meaning of “hermetic” is “having to do with the occult”.
Heh. Also, “the gender bollocks people.”
Finally, the end. Of comments, that is. Took me a spell to read them as I just got back from an extended weekend visitng the glorious fruits of revolution in Cuba. And every Cuban seems to have the same attitude: Sixty-five years later and this is what we got from it?
The pandemic took its toll as well – one fellow told me that pre-COVID, okay, at least you did not see homeless people, but now they are there, picking through the trash on the street, of which unfortunately they have much choice. As a Westerner you are a constant target for hustlers, be it a taxi, private tour, money exchange, or simply children just asking, “Please, a dollar, a gift for the Cuban people, please.” Rare to see an image of Fidel amidst souvenirs but let’s face it, idiots are more apt to buy a t-shirt with that other fellow’s face on it because Hollywood made Che cool.
Happy to hear Cubans call both bastards and speak against their govenment; I had been an exchange student in the Soviet Union and found none of the paranoia I saw back then, instead everyone using WhatsApp to keep in touch with foreign friends and friends who managed to leave Cuba.
IMHO, the govenrment needs to increase privitaization and allow foreign money in doing so. That is their only hope.
And I haven’t pung in a while so let me offer some pesos, señor.
[ Lays out tray of restorative snacks, dims lights. ]
Bless you, madam. May you live on the kind of street where, should mail be misdelivered, it gets forwarded to you with promptness and a big smile.
Also, pung. Heh.
“I recently saw a clip in which a hairdresser asks her client’s permission to touch her hair.” The feminist author seems to think this absurd fetishization of consent is a new thing, but I witnessed it in the 70’s and 80’s when feminists proclaimed that men must get explicit consent* before touching a woman in any way–not getting consent before touching a shoulder would be sexual assault. Really, what we are seeing today is not new but is merely a logical culmination of 70’s feminist lunacy.
* Consent had to be written or verbal: No recognition of the reality of nonverbal communication.
Umm, ‘now’?
I did not realize until today that “bollix” in “all bollixed up” is a variation on “bollocks”. When I was a child I somehow assumed it was a nonsense word.
Personal growth.
Journal wokeness: the linked article is appalling. One of the good things about many journals has been blind reviews where the reviewers do not even know the identity of the author(s). It has been found that this increase a focus on the ms quality vs the fame or lack of the author. This new DIE focus reverses this. Another sick trend is journals making you include a statement about how you hired local or minority persons as coauthors or technicians. Most academics use their own grad students as labor and collaborate with friends so this is almost impossible to satisfy. It is also none of their business.
Women are divine beings. Merely touching them draws away their power. Hence the premium on virginity. You have essentially been taught this, or a more watered down version of this, even from childhood. The most sexist of men acknowledge their divinity, sometimes taking it further than the feminists (see again virginity). Old school at least permitted some degree of pushback on this keeping things from getting out of control. Things are now out of control. The feminists from back then have been given virtually everything they have asked for so now, of course, they must have more. And don’t you dare question them nor especially their appointed queens.
Today’s word is symbolism:
Symbolism of what, exactly? The acceptance of incompetence as long as the incompetent belongs to some protected group?
The symbolism here is akin to that embodied by the illustrious former president of Harvard University.
Eventually all this enforced acceptance of incompetence is going to have very real, very painful consequences, beyond the annoying and inconvenient ones they have now. But nothing will change until the elites feel it too.
Every day in every way, we are getting better and better.
Satirized in a painting I once saw, of men looking worshipfully at a woman they were carrying on their shoulders while she defecated a flower.
The sky has already fallen. Oops.
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, the spam filter likes me!
So sorry.
So sorry.
It’s always worse than we thought.
Popular Mechanics got the flying cars prediction wrong (I’m still waiting) but I’m sure they’re right about sponges being great thermometers.
The Lakewood Church shooter was transgender: Legal name Genesse Ivonne Moreno, but went by the name Jeffrey Escalante. A radical leftist. Judging by one video I saw in which “his” head was covered, I’m guessing “he” was also trans-Muslim. And had “free Palestine” on “his” rifle.
More trans genocide.
Made-up national anthems is today’s lesson.
If you can kneel to protest The Star Spangled Banner, you can kneel to protest Lift Every Voice and Sing.
If it’s a “black national anthem”, then is it a song for black nationalists?
My knees have advised me to sit instead.
I suspect this drink won’t go down well around here:
Barbarism.
Heh. So wasn’t that what Liberia was for?
This accurately sums up BLM.
If they’re black nationalists, shouldn’t they wear black robes and hoods?
Where are Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton when we need them?
It’s as if the church is run by atheists.
Also an immigrant with an extensive criminal history, and yet not deported. For some reason. /sarcasm
I love Postum, but ever since Post stopped making it in 2007 and licensed the recipe, it’s been hella expensive.
I got a “first discovery”: a Clego. Combination of a Lego and something else. It only took me a day. I’ve retired and am resting on my laurels.
From Yes, Prime Minister, episode “Bishop’s Gambit”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751836/quotes/?item=qt1567269&ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Accepting incompetence among favoured groups, actively encouraging it in the name of “diversity,” is, as we’ve seen, socially corrosive.
And when you’re making it illegal to test whether would-be maths teachers actually have any mathematical knowledge to pass on, and when you’re selecting firefighters who can’t read the instructions on their own equipment – as seen in the links above – then the word farce scarcely covers it.
Yet here we are.
My grandparents drank it (never coffee), although I’m not sure if this was a habit acquired during the Great Depression when they were very poor, or a preference derived from the health claims behind its invention.
Also 70’s feminism: If the woman later regrets consensual sex, then she was raped and the man must be punished.
Charles Murray on teenage David Brooks.
Alas, I’ll be busy for a few days, so you’ll have to entertain yourselves.
[ Leaves cleaning products, mop. ]
Just something to trip over on the way to the potables.
I also do not understand this trilogy.
Hmmm.
Note to self: Limit consumption of caffeine and alcohol.
I’m at a loss for words.
Well played, sir.
I have words, but they’d get me suspended on Facebook.
Out: the French Disease.
In: Alaskapox.
Does this mean it’s no longer a crime to talk about the Wuhan Flu?
[ Glares across the Channel ]
To what’s on hand?
I do wish they’d make up what passes for their minds.
I’ll just leave these here.
And this.
a loss for words: yes, but don’t ever say “grooming”
And this.
Is that a mop bucket?
Had an unplanned Amazon shopping trip this morning. Came in to work, to my office behind two locked doors, went to plug in my phone to the charger which has mysteriously vanished. We’ve got a “new” cleaning crew in my building because there were too many complaints at the building where they previously were. Just shuffle the miscreants and incompetents around, no consequences. It’s not even as if they actually do much cleaning. And for this the university pays them the Saint George Floyd $20/hour wage!
I need a drink.
Good thing, I don’t think you can grow cotton in Massachusetts.
Speaking of Massachusetts, in Boston we learn all cultures are equal.
Is that a mop bucket?
I think that is the new prototype EU standard toilet, also available in California.
Thought it was for catching frogs.
Did I hear the interviewer speaking Spanish to a Haitian?
“We can get rid of all the crime in America overnight — just like that. People ask, ‘How, Attorney Crump?’ ” “CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF CRIME!” plus “criminalize our culture” with obligatory mentions of George Floyd et al.
–Ben Crump, Al Sharpton, and friends in Black Men in America Road to 2024 MSNBC February 4, 2024 6:00pm-7:01pm PST
Found via Breaking 911.
Who knew that George Floyd passing counterfeit money was just black culture? Not to mention drug dealing, carjacking, armed violence, and so on.
Raw or minimally processed meat from wild animals – sometimes referred to as “bushmeat” – is banned in the US because of the threat of disease.
I’m sure the smugglers would say the real reason is to white supremacy.
What? Not even one galleon?
Easier, and more fun, to get rid of lawyers.
At least the Crumps and other bottom-feeders.
Yeah, why don’t you, David? David?
[ Glares across the Atlantic ]
I’m unsure whether this woman is sincere or is being outrageous for clicks.
See: California
Did I hear the interviewer speaking Spanish to a Haitian?
Si.
Although there are some Spanish speakers there one has to wonder if they are really from the Dominican Republic, but then one has to wonder by what magic they got here from either, what with being impoverished refugees and all.
It is the UK, that would be “What? Not even 3.8 liters?”
[ Reports Muldoon to the United Nations International Court of Humor. ]
True not just of students in school but criminals in the outside world.
But how do we determine the bottom 3% of criminals?
But how do we determine the bottom 3% of criminals?
Probably could maybe start with the ones with >20 convictions on their record, and work down from there. By the time your record is that long, you’re not going to change, but you’re just smart enough to keep ahead of your homies from offing you first.
Deport the illegals back to the cesspits from whence they came, shut the border, then bring back work gangs for the homegrown repeat offenders – get something useful out of them like that sheriff in Arizona during the Obama years was doing until the bleeding hearts shut him down.
Looks like they kept the rifled 105mm main gun as well; not sure who they intend to use that thing against. (I was a platoon leader for a platoon of M60A3 RISE/TTS tanks back in 1981.)
And you are correct, a shot trap like that means even if the front slope deflected an incoming penetrator, it would just go through the turret. Maybe they intend to sell it to their future enemies.
Stucco no sticko.
Also aggravating factors, such as degree of violence, types of victims, etc.
Serious penalties for companies that employ illegals.
As I recall, the reason illegal immigration was not a problem is that until fairly recently immigration laws were enforced by a “defense in depth” strategy: Not only was the border patrolled, illegals found in the interior with deported without delay and companies that employed illegals were heavily fined.
Anybody else remember the notices displayed in post offices that aliens were required to register and report any change of address? Failure to do so could be grounds for deportation.
Step by step, the left, in league with corporations, has dismantled the protections that worked so well.
Require the offending company to pay the illegal as much as they have to pay the government (let them go back to their home country with a stake) & base the fine on the number of infractions. Make it expensive enough to hire people in the country illegally, they’ll quit.
Serious penalties for companies that employ illegals.
A rare event indeed, meanwhile this sort of stuff happens regularly and frequently, not that all the illegal aliens bother to try to get plates or insurance.
BTW, we must all denounce ourselves and report for regrooving in Sector 9, the new term for illegal alien is now “undocumented noncitizen”.
It is the UK, that would be “What? Not even 3.8 liters?”
The UK galleon would be 4.54 litres. It’s the US galleon that’s not even 3.8 liters.
The UK galleon would be 4.54 litres. It’s the US galleon that’s not even 3.8 liters.
Yes, I forgot about the King Size HRH UK galleons (compensation, maybe), but I rounded up to 3.8 to make them feel more important. I am not sure what the Whitworth conversion is.
You are all under arrest!
Soon it will be “undocumented citizen“.
Speaking of which: Lakewood church shooter likely voted in 2020 election, even though a criminal alien who should have been deported.
From over to Ace’s, another teacher who is also a blast from the past.
Yes, I forgot about the King Size HRH UK galleons
Easy enough to do. Back in the olden days before we converted to metric, when Canadians defined themselves as not Americans and not Brits, a lot of Canadians didn’t know the difference. And then there were those who bragged to their American cousins about how much further they could go on a gallon of gas.
Today we don’t get mpg, we get litres per 100 kilometres because measuring your car’s gas burning efficiency (basically) by the quart doesn’t look so good.
Belated happy birthday to Mr Thompson’s blog. Have dropped some British quids in the tip jar. Here’s to many more.
Bless you, sir. May you know the simple, fluffy pleasure of new towels.
And again, thanks to all who’ve chipped in, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links, including all those much too shy to say hello. It’s much appreciated and is what keeps this place here.
Speaking of George Floyd . . . or worse, joking about George Floyd.
“I like Kyle Rittenhouse too.”
Hear, hear!
Also good: jokes about thugette Trayvon Martin shot by George Zimmerman.
I laughed and I’m not sorry.
Why punish people who would otherwise obey the law but in the real world of government stupidity they must react to market forces? Not to mention a pandoras box of new laws that become their own problem. Better would be to get serious deporting the illegals. Once it becomes apparent that illegals are not dependable workers, the costs associated with turnover and training, etc. will make illegals more bother than they are worth. Once word gets back that they cannot work here, fewer will try to come here.
Because there used to be such laws, and they worked. Those laws were part of a system of laws and policies that, all together, were effective in drastically restricting illegal immigration. Think of them as having once been among those market forces.
Andrew Tate, manly man who boasts in a manly way of manly rape and human trafficking.
From Wikipedia…
…
I know almost nothing about him, other than he seems to be a bit of a dolt.
Did they? Those specific laws? But not enforcing the border or deporting the illegals because that would be wrong somehow? No. Enforcing the border and deportation of illegals works by addressing the root issue. Punishing businesses for employing people whom their competitors will be able to employ is close to victim blaming and unrealistic. The combination of the two will work but only if you enforce the immigration laws, otherwise you are setting yourself up for a grift system with the government. Hopefully I don’t need to explain this further.
Did you fail to notice where I mentioned enforcing the border and deportation?
Like I wrote, a system of laws and policies.
I used to see occasional news items, back in the 60’s, about raids of companies employing illegal immigrants.
Yes, but now the number of illegals and the number of potential employers, plus the lack of resources and political will makes that a nigh Sisyphean task these days whereas between 1942 and 1964 they also had mass deportations*.
*(Yes, I know it is Wiki, but surprisingly the least biased history on this I have found)
That is the key: political will. Too many people benefit financially or politically from the current corrupt system.