Month: February 2019

Cutting Out The Middlemen

Politics

I think I can safely say that all who visit this here back porch are in agreement that centralization of the governmental kind is generally meant to create efficiencies, but seldom does.

The same is true of pretty much any organization which is dealing solely with collecting and disbursing other people’s money — and here I’m turning my baleful gaze onto the cockroaches known as “international aid societies”, who can skim money out of donations better than any dairy can skim the cream off milk.  And I have some support in this viewpoint, from the BritGov of all places:

Aid minister Penny Mordaunt has drawn up plans for the UK to take more control of how we help countries around the world.
The International Development Secretary has demanded a major overhaul so less of the UK’s £14.1billion aid budget is handed out through staff at international agencies.
She wants to use the cash to fund specific projects chosen by Britain with more oversight to make sure money is not wasted.
The proposal is part of this year’s comprehensive spending review, which will set the course of Government budgets for the next few years. Around a third (37 per cent) of the aid budget is currently spent as contributions to multilateral organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and European Commission.

Leaving aside the need for a minister for aid (the Brits love this Yes, Minister crap), what Mordaunt says is absolutely correct.  For those who know not who she is, by the way, allow me to enlighten with a  couple pics:

 

 

 

The Right Honorable Member from Portsmouth North sure makes a change from the dreary Socialist trolls who infest our body politic, doesn’t she?  And she makes sense — an even bigger change.

Get-Together And Shoot

The Gun Thing

From Longtime Reader GMC70 comes this announcement:

“Kim, we are organizing a WWII combat rifle shoot for October 12 here in El Dorado, Kansas, and would be honored to have your attendance, or that of your readers. Likely to have just about any battle rifle of WWII vintage there that you can imagine, and hopefully a Thompson as well. Trying to arrange some belt-fed goodness. Fundraiser for our local WWII museum.”

Unfortunately, I cannot attend myself — of all the weekends in the year for my adopted daughter to get married, she had to pick that one — but to all my Readers:  get over there and enjoy yourselves.

GMC70, post details in Comments, willya?

Damn… I feel like biting the head off a mamba.

Pick Your Spot

Funny Stuff

Say you were involved with some shady people (albeit innocently), but after testifying against their evil asses, the Gummint decides that it would be in your best interests to put you (and, say, your wife, assuming grown- or no kids) into the Witness Protection Program (WitSec) for the rest of your life.  You do have a choice of places to go (but read this little piece first before you make your decision).

Where would you ask to be placed, and why?  What specific town / area, what kind of community, and so on — all need to be considered, and it’s more difficult than you’d think.

Responses, as always, in Comments.  I’ll reveal mine tomorrow in a separate post.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From a commenter on this post:

“[James] Madison was 25 in 1776;  by the time he was [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s] current age he was drafting the Constitution.”

Compare and contrast Madison’s output with that of Horseface’s Green New Deal.

And people wonder why we old-fashioned conservatives revere bygone times, and their inhabitants…

#9????

The Gun Thing

I speak here not of the dreadful John Lennon song on the Beatles’ White Album, but that apparently (according to the rankings on this list), Texas is only the ninth-most-friendly state for gun owners.  This, despite:

Texas does well across the board in our survey thanks to a strong RTC law (that now includes open carry), strong use-of-force laws, and its lack of restrictions on black rifles, magazines or NFA items. The NRA’s Annual Meeting was held in Dallas this year and you could have fit all of the protesters in a VW Beetle.

Maybe if we started handing out .22 rifles to trick-or-treaters on Halloween… except I think they already have them, mostly.

Good grief.  I need a drink, and it’s not even ten o’clock.

More Than An Eye

Crime

I’ve spoken about this topic before.

Adele Bellis, 26, from Suffolk was attacked when Anthony Riley arranged for acid to be thrown over her face in 2014, sustaining life-changing injuries.
She lost an ear in the brutal attack and was left partially bald, suffering serious burns to her face, neck and arm, and is still undergoing treatment today.

Either more assholes are playing with their chemistry sets than ever before, or else it’s just being reported more often.  Either way, it’s a disgusting feature of modern life.

In the past, I think I’ve advocated a return to an older time, when “an eye for an eye” was considered a just punishment.  Now I’m starting to think that we need to go back even further, to when the chemistry major would first  suffer the torment he inflicted on someone else, and then  be slowly immersed in a vat of boiling oil.  I don’t remember who exactly came up with this excellent punishment, but I think it was either the Chinese or Japanese.

It’s not going medieval on someone;  it’s going pre-medieval  on their horrible asses.  Maybe these toads would hold back a little, what with that prospect of retribution hanging over their heads.  And by the way:  the punishment would be visited on both the actual acid-thrower, and whoever caused it to happen.

Feel free to disagree with me in Comments, but you’d better have a good argument.