Month: September 2020
Speedbump #328
Here we go again. In this article, the following sentence emerges to stick itself like a needle into one’s eye:
A huge fire has erupted in the rubble of Beirut’s port just 37 days after an explosion decimated the city.
FFS.
The original meaning of the word “decimate” was to reduce by 10% — for example, the punishment for a Roman legion which fled the battle field was to line them all up, pull every tenth legionary out of the ranks and execute them — hence decimation, from the Latin word for “ten”.
I know that in modern parlance the word “decimate” has been clumsily used to indicate catastrophe, and it’s become so widespread that I now only register mild irritation — say, 20 rounds’ worth — when I hear it thus used.
But good grief, can we at least stipulate that decimation can only be applied to a numerical value? The Chinkvirus, say, might decimate a group of people in a retirement home; but you can’t “decimate” a city, or a field of wheat, or a river — it just makes fuck-all sense, not that modern journalists ever apply that yardstick to their silly scribblings.
Is it too early for a mid-morning martini? I think not.
Traffic Anacondas
Here’s one guaranteed to make all my Murkin Readers chortle:
Pop-up cycle lanes set up as part a £225million plan to get Britain moving again are lying empty while traffic is squeezing onto narrowed streets, bringing the capital to a halt, it can be revealed.
MailOnline visited some of the key cycle lanes across the country at the height of the rush hour to gauge how busy they are, only to find them chronically under-used with cyclists criticising them as well as motorists.
Our research in London, where Transport for London is leading its own £33million scheme, shows that on the Euston Road, just 7 cyclists used the designated lane over a 15-minute period. Meanwhile 420 cars fought their way through traffic. In Park Lane, Mayfair, just 21 cyclists used the lane as 400 cars battled past.
Nonsense like this basically stems from the dreaded Car Hatred Disease, which engenders the opposite feeling from motorists. The Englishman, as I recall, thinks that shooting cyclists from one’s car should not only not be prosecuted, but rewarded. Mr. Free Market’s opinion should not be made public, but suffice it to say that there is plenty of gore involved.
We have nice wide roads Over Here in north Texas, so the “two-wheeled Taliban”, as the Brits call them, are not much more than a mild nuisance — other than committing the visual offense of wearing those faggy Lycra outfits and pisspot helmets. It is, however, one more reason to enjoy winter here, because our usually icy roads make cycling deadly. (“Make it compulsory, then,” grumbles Mr. FM.)
Of course, because BritPM Scruffy Johnson is a rider, all these crappy devices (“pop-up” cycle lanes?) are given a lot more government attention and support than they deserve.
I know that secretly — or perhaps not so secretly — the Greens would banish all cars if they could, and force us all to ride around on two wheels. This is one of the reasons why, when the Beer & Treason Crowd gathers at its secret meetings, mass execution of Greens is generally ranked after the same treatment for anarchists and Communists, but just ahead of record company executives. Or maybe it was vegans, I don’t remember.
I do know that in Britain, cyclists are generally hated more than badgers, and they squirt poisonous gas into the ground to deal with them. Come to think of it, that sounds remarkably similar to one of Mr. FM’s suggestions…
AOBTD
Now it’s Diana Rigg’s turn to shuffle off this mortal coil (or, as the title suggests: “another one bites the dust”). In an email to me, Mr. Free Market included this pic:
…and I’m fairly sure this would be how we all want to remember her.
R.I.P. to one of the classiest and sexiest Dames ever.
Caption Competition #142
Your suggestions in Comments.
And yes, you can go there — just no death threats, please.
Segregation
I see that some Black people want to start an all-Black community somewhere:
“We are dealing with systemic racism,” Scott wrote in an op-ed for Blavity last month. “We are dealing with deep-rooted issues that will require more than protesting in the streets. It’s now time for us to get our friends and family together and build for ourselves,” Walters, who serves as the president of the organization, said in an interview with Yahoo News. “That’s the only way we’ll be safe. And that’s the only way that this will work. We have to start bringing each other together. We really just want you to come and hang out and feel safe,” Walters said. “You don’t have to worry about the Karens of the world and anything like that. You just come in and have fun. We’ll have a sportsman area, like a Black sportsman area with fishing, hunting, shooting range, ATV trails. We really just want to build a tight-knit community for our people to just come and breathe.”
…
Scott said in the report that black Americans need to own land and create their own social, political, and economic institutions.
“Amass land, develop affordable housing for yourself, build your own food systems, build manufacturing and supply chains, build your own home school communities, build your own banks and credit unions, build your own cities, build your own police departments, tax yourselves and vote in a mayor and a city council you can trust,” Scott wrote. “Build it from scratch. Then go get all the money the United States of America has available for government entities and get them bonds. This is how we build our new Black Wall Streets. We can do this. We can have Wakanda! We just have to build it for ourselves!”
Let’s hope this is the start of a trend.
I know, this may sound strange coming from a lifelong and bitter opponent of apartheid. The fundamental difference between apartheid and this idea, however, is that apartheid was forced upon people by government policy. This, however, is a bunch of people who want to band together — a natural right of free individuals, as enumerated in the First Amendment.
And I want it to work — I really do.
However, not only have I seen this fail elsewhere in the world, but we have ample evidence right here in the U.S. to suggest that even with all these good intentions, it’s likely to fail here too. But hey: if it worked for the Mormons in Utah, who’s to say that it wouldn’t work in Georgia — if the right people get to congregate according to this plan.
Good for them, say I. Just as long as they don’t expect too much help from government — because that, you see, would be un-Constitutional.