In response to this kind of nonsense:
My own personal policy is that if someone, anyone, starts shooting at me from the street when I’m sitting peaceably on my porch, I return fire, with interest (a.k.a. “massive retaliation”).
And just in case I haven’t been clear enough: I don’t own a stupid paintball gun.
I can’t see it happening in Texas, mind you, mostly because I believe that more than a few Texans are of similar inclination. And our cops aren’t that stupid. (“You want us to do whut?”)
Okay, now I’ve seen everything:
And the best part? It’s a sex toy for men, for a change. To see how it works, follow the link; it’s kind of interesting.
I know, I know: “Who needs it?” “What’s wrong with the old Mrs. Palm and her five offspring?” “That’s just perverted!” “Don’t need it.” “It’s too damn expensive anyway.”
I must confess that I’m not in the target market — even when I was young enough to be so — but I find it intriguing as hell.
But I’ll tell you something for nothing. When I think back on some past experiences, I bet the Tenga Flip Zero Gravity is better than a lot of those.
News from the Car Company Formally Known As Jaguar:
Jaguar is set to embark on a daring strategy move as part of its transition to becoming an exclusive EV brand; the company says it won’t sell a single car for a whole year.
The British marque has pledged to become a ‘luxury all-electric brand’ from 2025, but to do so it says it will need to take a 12-month hiatus from the market.
Its last remaining combustion-engine model on sale will be the F-Pace SUV, which is due to bow out early next year.
Wouldn’t have any of their existing cars as a gift, because with the possible exception of the F-type, they’re as ugly as Hillary Clinton’s knickers. (Sorry.)
Anyway, I’d rather get an older Jag, any day of the week, e.g. this fully-restored 1956 XK140:
…which will cost you about the same as a new F-type. Wait… 3.4-liter straight six, capable of 140mph, with a stick shift. Try and get the same thrill as that with a Duracell microwave-on-wheels.
As for the opening paragraph of this post: they may call themselves Jaguar, but they aren’t.
A Reader asks:
“Why do you always diss the UK’s National Health Service in your news roundups? It’s not like we have anything like it.”
He’s referring to this sardonic comment under some catastrophe involving the above institution:
Basically — and even among a few otherwise-levelheaded conservative Murkins — a lot of people seem to wish that we had a similar institution (nationalized “free” health care) Over Here.
All I’m doing is simply pointing out the many and varied ways that such a system — even one like the much-vaunted NHS — can fuck up your life.
And that we should never.
I’ve been watching the events unfold over in the UK, and not for the entertainment value of a bunch of working-class people boiling over with rage at how the masses of immigrants have more or less taken over their country — and yes, it is their country. I would venture to suggest that a huge majority of the protesting working class folks have roots in Britain that go a lot further back than those of the many “immigrants” (legal and illegal) that now live in Britain, and let me tell you, that has to count for something.
You see, their forebears endured all sorts of hardship for King and Country — the trenches in WWI-era France, fighting against an evil empire, and having their cities bombed and their civilians killed by the next-gen evil empire, to mention but two.
I’ll bet that a huge number of those protesting working-class men have ancestors who go even further back: ancestors who fought for king and country at Balaclava, Isandlwana, Waterloo, Malplaquet, Trafalgar and countless other times when their king (and sometimes their queen) asked that they make the supreme sacrifice for the sovereign and their country.
It is a long and storied heritage, and one quite worthy of veneration. In fact, I envy them that heritage.
So when you see that this heritage is being subverted and dismantled by wave upon wave of people who do not share that heritage, who would seek to replace their system of ancient British law with some loathsome gobbledygook like shari’a, wokism, Communism or a ghastly combination of all of these, where individuals have no rights and their basic freedoms of thought, religion and speech can be suppressed by some new regime of oppressors, a regime actually supported by their elected government over their own — and it must be said, shared — heritage… well, small wonder that ordinary people are rising up against it.
And needless to say, the powers that be — in this case, the horrible governing Labour Party, but it’s difficult to see how the Conservative Party would have behaved any differently — have described these disaffected people with all kind of sobriquets (“Right-wing thugs” being the most common) and even gone after those who support the protestors by their own speech, with elderly people being arrested for Facebook posts and other online methods that, so far, fall outside government control.
Small wonder too that this new breed of totalitarians, this ghastly soup of bureaucrats and politicians, want to clamp down on the freedom of speech; only this time, they want to extend their reach past the shores of Great Britain and prosecute citizens of other sovereign nations for daring to speak against them and their terrible actions.
We (citizens of said other nations) are being cautioned to avoid going anywhere near the UK, lest the British government use that opportunity to arrest us in situ (where we are beyond the help of our own governments) had we ever dared to voice opposition to them and to their actions.
I love Britain. Well, let me expand on that a little. I love the British heritage, its history, its castles, its monuments, its countryside — hell, I even love their silly Royal Family — and I’ve visited there often, enjoying every single minute I was there.
No more.
Simply by writing this post, I could be added to some BritGov list of undesirable people and face arrest at the airport should I ever be in a position to go back there. So why take the chance?
A number of my British friends — and I have many — have told me in no uncertain terms that they are making concrete plans to leave their country of ancestry and birth for other climes. “I don’t care for where the country is headed” is a common theme, but here’s one — a classic libertarian — who responded in a completely different manner when I asked his opinion of current events:
That should tell you all you need to know.
The bobby’s helmet used to be a symbol of all that was good about British policing: unarmed, civilized, part of the community. Now it’s synonymous with government thuggery (although it’s instructive to note that they don’t wear those helmets anymore and they sure as hell are not unarmed).
Let’s hear it from Rule, Britannia!
♫ ♪ ♫ ♪♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ “Britons never never never shall be slaves.” ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪♫ ♪ ♫ ♪
Uh huh. No wonder they’re rioting.
It’s a good thing they aren’t allowed to own firearms, isn’t it? (That’s not a snarky comment; that’s a sentiment most likely being expressed all over the British government and its police force.)
Update: I see that in my Comments section there have been one or two instances of what might be termed “hate speech” by the Wokists. I can only hope that more of you follow that fine example. If I may say so: the Wokists haven’t seen real hate yet.
From Oasis’s Noel Gallagher:
“What I’ve found creeping into pubs, what you see now in pubs, which you didn’t used to see back in the day, is fucking dogs. I don’t recall stepping over loads of fucking dogs to go to the bogs in a pub in the ‘90s. Kids and dogs, fuck ‘em off, get home.
“Pubs need to get back to encouraging drinkers through their doors, and stop doing food because I hate sinking a few pints surrounded by waitresses and plates. Every pub does fucking food now as well. I’ve got a real fucking problem with food in pubs. Fuck off to a restaurant and then come back.”
I’m kind of in sympathy with him (although I couldn’t sing one of his band’s songs if you held a gun to my head).
The hell with dogs, whether in pubs or wherever. Your dog needs exercise? Walk it, then take it home, then go out to a pub.
Way I see it, a pub can sell the kind of food that’s more of a snack (meat pies, fish & chips, toasted sandwiches, bags of chips/crisps or bowls of peanuts)… but that’s it.
Don’t even get me started on “gastropubs”, FFS.
The business of a pub is to serve booze to grownups. End of.
Yeah, I know. With all this hoo-hah about drunk driving (note to Brits: “drink” driving is a silly, effete phrase), nobody goes out just to drink anymore. Ever wondered when we as a society started to become more like children?
When all this bullshit started.