Month: January 2021

Hates

Deep Thoughts, Marxists, Modernism

Bill Bryson (yes, him again) suggests that everyone should be able to have ten things (people, concepts, activities, whatever) that they can hate, without apology or explanation.

Longtime Readers will know that I would have difficulty keeping the list to ten — as Insty would say, I really need a bigger blog to contain all the things that truly make my trigger finger itch — but if I can create universal categories of hatred, I might be able to give it a try.  Let’s see how this goes, and in no specific order, my ten hates are:

  1. Anyone affiliated with the Democrat Party since 1880
  2. The music recording industry
  3. Modern architecture (brutalism, Bauhaus etc.), its creators and practitioners (Le Corbusier, Van der Rohe, Jahn, Pei etc.)
  4. All music composed and released since 2005 — performers, producers, composers, whatever
  5. Automotive design since 1990
  6. Google — everything about it
  7. Journalists, almost without exception
  8. Anarchism and anarchists
  9. Large corporations (referred to as Global MegaCorp on these pages)
  10. Wokism.

Note that I have excluded mere irritants like astrology, veganism, libertarianism, cyclists, the 9mm Europellet and similar nonsense from the above list, because they are largely the result of stupidity rather than actual evil.

As for the list itself, however, I put it to you that if by some kind of magic all ten of those things were to disappear tomorrow, the world would be a far better place to live in.

Feel free to add your own hates, in Comments.  Remember:  no explanation or justification is necessary.

So, Here We Are

Bad News, Elections, Marxists, Politics

Once again, as with that tool Obama’s election, we’re looking down the barrel of a full-bore Socialist government:  Presidency, Senate and House, all controlled by the Left.

We’re fucked.

You know, when Trump was elected, the Left screamed about how eeeevil he was and how he was going to send homosexualists into ghettos, how abortion was going to be made illegal, how People Of Other Nationalities / Races were going to be eliminated, etc. etc. etc. ad  fucking nauseam.

And none of it came to pass.

However, we know exactly what happens when the Left comes to power because we’ve had a dry run already with Urkel’s presidency:  nationalized health care, gun control, higher taxes, regulatory excess and a slumping economy.

And that will come to pass — just as it did from 2009 to 2016.

We’re going to get all that again, only worse because the Marxists have become increasingly more important in the Democrat Party, and if anyone can fuck up a country, it’s Marxists:  East Germany, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, Venezuela, pre-Pinochet Chile… the list goes on and on.

The only difference this time is that while Urkel was a slam-dunk for two terms, Biden/Harris won’t be.  Unless the Marxists load the ballot boxes again.

Basically, we have to endure two full years of shit, and maybe — just maybe — the mid-term elections will shift the House back to Republican control and we can fight a holding action.  Unless the Marxists load the ballot boxes again.

And that’s assuming we can find somewhere a decent successor to the Trump philosophy — and I have to say, I’m not filled with optimism that we can.  If we do, however, then we have a slight chance of reversing the shit-show of the next four years.

Unless the Marxists load the ballot boxes again.

Don’t Care

Anarchist thugs, BaconLettuceMayo, Law and Order, Marxists

O woe is Minneapolis:

If you want to know what the real-time self-destruction of a city looks like, Minneapolis offers the perfect model. This is no Detroit-esque collapse prompted by the degeneration of an industry-dependent metropolis. This is the willful push down the path of ruin of a city burgeoning with opportunity and rife with promises of the American Dream. It is suicide.
…
Instead of looking to successful policies used to counter that crime wave—increasing the number and presence of law enforcement officers for several months—the Minneapolis City Council wants to do the exact opposite.
…
For a far-left Minneapolis City Council at war with its police force and local citizens yet maintaining control due to leftist activism and special interests, the answer may be in the blind devotion to the radical belief of constantly burning and building into the unattainable utopia they so hubristically believe they can create.

Let the whole place lie in deserted ruins after riots, mayhem and fires have destroyed it;  they voted for it, they supported it, and now they’re going to get it — in Mencken terms — good and hard.

So much for “Minnesota nice”;  “Minnesota idiocy” would be more appropriate.  They don’t deserve our sympathy, our support or our best wishes, especially when you see this, and  bullshit like this happens.  I’d say “Fuck ’em”, but they’ve fucked themselves already.

Not Responsible

Crime, Men & Women

Courtesy of Britain’s ever-reliable Sun  newspaper, I see the following little activity has made the news:

A MILLIONAIRE businessman who attended Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle has been charged with sex offences.

Did he prowl the streets at night, grabbing women and violently raping them in alleyways?

The dad-of-four was allegedly inappropriately physical with employees — often young women working as PAs or receptionists.

Oh, that.  Well, let’s leave it to the courts to see if any of this eeevil “#MeToo” stuff actually happened, because I’m more interested in the fact that interest in this case was sparked by his attendance at Ginge and Whinge’s wedding.

Now as little time as I have for the Sussexes, I don’t think they can be held responsible for what their wedding “guests” get up to — and I emphasize the word because I have no doubt that neither the bride nor the groom actually invited Mr. Badfinger to the wedding;  rather, he was invited by their respective social secretaries / courtiers because he was a successful businessman.  In other words, the New Californians had nothing to do with his behavior afterwards.

I can sympathize with them, actually, because I know for a fact that after one of my weddings (shuddup), at least four (and maybe more) of my invited guests engaged in a little group sex at someone’s house after the reception.   And I personally invited all of them, but I certainly cannot be held responsible for their post-festivity fun ‘n games, can I?

I blame the “open bar” for all of it, myself.  I don’t know whether the accused (above) can use the same defense.

Quibbles

Drive Time

When you set yourself up as judges to discover the “Greatest Sports Car Of All Time“, you need to use a decent track for the test.  Which the guys at Road & Track  did, choosing the lovely Lime Rock Park circuit in northern Connecticut (which I’ve driven round a couple times before, once in a BMW 3-series, and again in a restored ’65 Mustang), and the track is perfect for the task (right-click to embiggen).

However, in such a competition you can always count on amateurs such as I to question the choices of the finalists.  Which in this case were:

  1. 1949 MG TC
  2. 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL
  3. 1965 Shelby 289 Cobra
  4. 1967 Porsche 911 S
  5. 1988 BMW M5
  6. 1995 McLaren F1
  7. 2001 Acura Integra Type R
  8. 2020 Mazda Miata MX-5

I have no problem whatsoever with the first four cars and the last car on the list:  all five are excellent choices, and are almost perfect sports cars.  Now for the bad news.

The Beemer M5 is a fine car — I once owned a “detuned” 525i myself — but by no stretch of the imagination could it ever be called a sports car, because it has four doors.  No.  Just… no.

Ditto the Acura.  I think that the selection committee for this exercise got carried away with engine performance which, need I remind anyone, might be a prerequisite for a track car or race car, but that’s not in the sporting tradition (as I once mentioned here and here ).

In similar vein, the MacLaren doesn’t belong here, just as the Porsche 918 or Ferrari 458 would be out of place in this company.

So scratch those three imposters from the list.  Which begs the question:  what three (actual) sports cars should take their place?

I don’t think that anyone would argue against the 1960s-era E-type Jaguar as my #1 choice for inclusion.

…even though its performance takes it perilously close to the “supercar” definition (and in its time, it certainly was).

No list of “Best Sports Cars” would be complete without at least one Ferrari (with the “supercar” reservation as above), and I think the 1960 Ferrari 250 California Spyder might pip all others –even the more modern ones — in the marque:

My third replacement would be the 1966 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider Duetto:

Finally, as a concession to my Murkin Readers, I might be persuaded to substitute the 1965 Ford Mustang for one or the other of the cars — but while the Mustang is a undoubtedly fun car, I don’t think it’s really a sports car, when compared to the above.

Honorable mentions should also go to the 1959 Aston Martin DB4, the 1955 Ford T-bird, the Porsche 356, the Morgan (any year, although the Morgan is really just a perfected version of the MG TC), the Honda S2000 and the BMW 507.

 

If you go along with my rejection of the two 4-door models and the outright supercar, then which three cars (not necessarily listed here) would you substitute?

Two Down, Lots To Go

Friends and Family

Just thought I’d point out that today is New Wife’s second (!) wedding anniversary with Yours Truly.  All commentary about the burden she has to bear and her saintlike patience will be passed on.  (She doesn’t visit this place more than once or so a week, because she’s not interested in guns or politics.)

I am a lucky man.