January 2024 – Page 11 – Splendid Isolation

More “Health” Bullshit

January 16, 2024 Kim du Toit Health, Nannies

Turns out that this “YOU HAVE TO WALK 10,000 STEPS A DAY OR YOU’RE GONNA DIEEEEEE!!!” mantra is absolute bollocks. Actually, I always knew this instinctively, but here’s the !Science!:

By analyzing data on tens of thousands of people across four continents compiled between 15 existing studies, a team of researchers has landed on a more comfortable figure: the optimal number is probably closer to 6,000 steps per day, depending on your age.

Anything more is unlikely to further reduce your chances of stumbling into an early grave.

“So, what we saw was this incremental reduction in risk as steps increase, until it levels off,” said University of Massachusetts Amherst epidemiologist Amanda Paluch when the study was released in March 2022.

“And the leveling occurred at different step values for older versus younger adults.”

So… 10,000?

Half a century ago, the Yamasa Clock and Instrument Company in Japan sought to cash in on the buzz left by the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by producing a pedometer they called ‘Manpo-kei’ – a word that translates into 10,000 steps.

Why 10,000? Good old fashioned marketing. It’s a nice, round number that sounds taxing enough to be a goal, but achievable enough to be worth striving for. What it doesn’t have going for it is any scientific backing.

Yeah, but for the Health Nazis, that’s all they needed to boss us around. It’s like that “drink 100 gallons of water a day” (or whatever bullshit “round” number they came up with for that bit of nannying); everyone knows (or should know) that too much water is about as bad for you as too little.

Funny thing, that: humans actually have a trigger mechanism to tell you when to drink. It’s called “feeling thirsty”, and we’ve somehow managed to survive as a species for thousands of years by relying on it. Also, we know when to stop, because we start feeling “full”, but clearly we have to ignore our bodies and keep on chugging back the water… until our overworked kidneys say “Fuck this nonsense” and quit.

As will our hearts when, as senior citizens (or “useless mouth-breathers” as the yoof calls us), we end up dying because those useless and as it turns out, dangerous extra few thousand steps will tax that organ into failure.

Every doctor or “health professional” or “fitness expert” who has ever insisted on the “10,000 steps and/or x liters of water per day” regime needs to get strapped to a scaffold and flogged, say, 10,000 lashes with a bullwhip.

Is that too much? I dunno, but it’s a nice round number.

Speed Bump #246

January 16, 2024 Kim du Toit Grammar Nazism

Aaaargh.

For the want of a space… it’s “WALK [space] OUT”, you fucking illiterate morons. People who walk out from their jobs can be said to be staging a “walkout” (which is a NOUN). Here’s another example, from a different article:

The mum added that she goes to the gym but has been struggling to find the time to workout.

That’s “work [space] out”, you sub-morons. A “workout” is what you get when you exercise [he explained patiently].

First we had “verbing”, where nouns are turned into verbs (e.g. he
“exited” the room grrrr grrr grrrrr), and now we have the reverse… “nouning”, where verbs are turned into nouns?

I know what this calls for:

What Constitution?

January 15, 2024 Kim du Toit Marxists, Resistance

Seems like a couple of asshole socialist Congressmen [redundancy alert] from (duh) Massachusetts and Maryland are going to try to subvert the Constitution by… banning militias?

Never mind that militias are specifically protected by the U.S. Constitution, and defined and entrenched in the U.S. Code as well. Those are, to the would-be totalitarians like Markey and that other tool, just inconveniences to be brushed aside. Here’s a choice bit:

“Patrolling neighborhoods, impeding law enforcement and storming the U.S. Capitol, private paramilitary groups like the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys are using political violence to intimidate our people and threaten democratic government and the rule of law.”

Wait… the Oathies, Threepers and Proud Boys are paramilitary organizations now? Here’s what they’re talking about:

The legislation creates different tiers of criminal penalties based on whether violations result in injury or property damage; provides harsher penalties for repeat offenders; and allows for a probationary sentence for first-time offenders. It also creates civil remedies by authorizing the Department of Justice to seek injunctive relief against paramilitary activity, and by creating a private right of action for individuals harmed by paramilitary activity to seek injunctive relief and/or damages.

I’m curious as to how these Commie legislators are going to sidestep Antifa and BLM, who are paramilitary groups: uniforms, command structure, multi-state organization, very prone to violence and even at times, armed — and who routinely perpetrate actions that “result in injury or property damage”. Will they be scooped up by this proposed legislation, do you think? (Okay, you can stop that bitter laughter now.)

Whatever. None of what these politicians are talking about in their little extra-Constitutional exercise should be supported, and I can only hope that it won’t be, even by RINO twerps like Susan Collins and her ilk. But I fear for the worst. Why?

Because, you see, this is what happens when one side of the aisle demonizes the other side successfully*: all sorts of mischief can ensue as long as “public safety” can be trumpeted as the excuse, even when — as in the case of the three inept “rightwing” organizations cited above — there is absolutely no circumstance or rationale under which they would behave in the manner feared.

Of course, the Left and their foot soldiers will be exempted and excused because MAGA… but you all knew that.

Range time? I think so. And I’m not a member of any organization such as the above. But I am part of what can be described as the “citizen militia”, and unashamedly so.

*Here’s the international equivalent of demonizing (and eventually) criminalizing the opposition:

(link in headline)

Does everyone see the parallels, or do I have to spell them out?

Plus 1

January 15, 2024 Kim du Toit Good Stuff, The Gun Thing

From Frequent Commenter JQ comes this heartening news:

Hi Kim,
I thought you’d be happy to know that I brought one of my nephews to the range for the first time yesterday. We started off with the safety rules. He shot a Ruger Single Six, S&W model 63, Ruger Mk II, S&W model 66 in 38 special and 357 magnum, SW1911 in .45ACP of course, S&W M&P 9c and a S&W model 29-2 in 44 special and magnum. At the rifle range we started with a Ruger 10/22, M1 carbine, M1 Garand and a No4 Mk II Lee Enfield. The lever action Glenfield 30 wasn’t working so we’ll have to try that again on another trip. He liked the 9mm and 22lr rifle best. The 10/22 has a scope on it so it was easier for him to use. With some time, practice and coaching, I’ll bring him to the 1911 side soon enough. If the weather stays nice we’ll visit the range again Friday. Now that the introduction trip has been a success, the flood gates can open. Please have mercy on my ammo locker. lol

Your mantra of making us a nation of riflemen one person at a time still has legs!

Thankee JQ, for doing your civic duty. Your day at the range sounds like so much fun, I’m jealous.

To the rest of my Readers: if that little episode doesn’t warm your heart as it did mine, we can’t be friends.

And yes, the mantra doesn’t just have legs, it’s eternal.

JQ didn’t enclose any pics, but here are a few from the archives:

…etc. etc. etc. All good stuff, and a wonderful intro to The Gun Thing for our young novice.

Turning Tide?

January 15, 2024 Kim du Toit Business, Drive Time, Eco-Crap

Via Reader Mike L (thankee, squire), comes this little snippet that may just be the signal of something or other:

Hertz, which has made a big push into electric vehicles in recent years, has decided it’s time to cut back. The company will sell off a third of its electric fleet, totaling roughly 20,000 vehicles, and use the money they bring to purchase more gasoline powered vehicles.

Electric vehicles have been hurting Hertz’s financials, executives have said, because, despite costing less to maintain, they have higher damage-repair costs and, also, higher depreciation.

“[C]ollision and damage repairs on an EV can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle,” Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr said in a recent analyst call.

And EV price declines in the new car market have pushed down the resale value of Hertz’s used EV rental cars.

I lost count how many whammies are contained in the above, but it’s making parts of me tingle, and in a good way. Okay, let me count the ways:

Higher damage-repair costs, higher depreciation and lower resale value.

Any one of those Bad Things would make me (as Hertz) want to cut back on the Duracells. All together? Short-Circuit City.

Ol’ Elon’s not gonna be happy, because if Hertz sneezes, the entire rental business gets diarrhea.

And common sense pokes its head above the parapet.