Author: Kim du Toit

More Nancy Bullshit

Lies and Untruths, Politics

As Glenn Reynolds might say, “If you’re going to chronicle Nancy Pelosi’s bullshit, you’re gonna need a bigger blog.”

But this one’s a little more dangerous than her normal:

The United States would not agree to any trade deal with Britain if future Brexit arrangements undermine peace in Ireland, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday during a visit to Dublin.

Actually, Our Nancy doesn’t have the authority to make such a statement.  Trade deals fall squarely under the purview of the POTUS, and are subject only to ratification by the (Republican-controlled) Senate.  The House of Representatives, over which Oberfuehrer Pelosi holds only a little influence, doesn’t have much to do with the process.

So she’s telling a Great Big Fat Lie [quelle surprise] in order to undermine Brexit, which (as any fule kno) the U.S. Socialist Party hates as much as the Euroscum do, because both hate the idea that someone somewhere might actually have independence from Big Government.

So, to my Brit Readers:  ignore the Trot bitch.  We usually do.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From an Uber passenger last week, a real estate attorney of 35 years’ standing, when I asked his opinion of the massive economic growth in north Texas:

“What can I tell you?  We’re in Year 9 of a 5-Year Growth Cycle.”

What’s To Be Done?

Africa

The Bayou Renaissance Man is asked what he would suggest we do to “fix” the problem that is Africa, and responds in typically eloquent fashion (unlike my own earlier essay, from which he quotes).

His response is similar to mine — nothing can  be done — but as Peter is a far more decent human being than I, he resists using my solution (Cliff Notes:  high walls around the entire continent, guns, bombs and the last one alive to shoot himself).

All we can  do is try to contain the situation and prevent all that African bullshit from being exported from the blasted continent, because to do otherwise is to commit slow national suicide (as Europe is discovering, and as Minnesota soon will too).

All that said, Peter gives a cogent reason why the African institutions of tribalism and superstition still exists.  Please read his whole post, because it’s absolutely, 100% true.  (And his observations about current Chinese colonialism involvement in Africa are likewise correct.)

Has anyone ever wondered why, when the Eeeevil White Colonialists arrived in sub-Saharan Africa, they found a continent without any written histories, and a civilization that had yet to invent the wheel?

Happy Easter

Uncategorized

I know, you’re asking yourself:  “Why is this atheist wishing me well over a religious holiday?”  Silly rabbits;  we’re looking at how other people  started the Easter celebrations — which, as our trip takes us to Newcaste-On-Tyne, Britishland, means…

Train Smash Women!!! (and play this as background music for this post)

And who better to kick off the parade of unfortunate choices, regrettable mistakes and foolish behavior which characterize the species, than this creature:

Is she not magnificent?  But let me not pause the entertainment:

And last, but by no means least:

That said, their dates (when they had them) were not exactly prime beef either:

I once referred to Liverpool as Train Smash Central.  If so, they have a serious challenger for the title in Newcastle.

Another Unexpected Find

Culture

Over time, we’ve come to realize that A Pathway In Monet’s Garden  is too big for the dining room.  (It was originally intended for the living room, but plans changed and a better thing was found.)

So yesterday morning we decided to mothball the Monet, and put something else up in its place.  So off we went to iCanvas, my favorite place to buy art online.  Rather than getting just another Monet (there are four in the house currently), we decided to look instead at Impressionist paintings set in portrait format rather than landscape, with no regard to the artist.  Hours passed by, paintings considered and then discarded (wrong color, wrong mood, wrong style, etc.) until we stumbled onto this:

5th Avenue New York, 1891, by Childe Hassam

Wait a moment.  Who is this “Childe Hassam?”  I’d never heard of him/her (him, actually), so I went to his page at iCanvas and looked at his works, which numbered over a hundred.  I like almost all of them — which meant I had to look to see whose work I was enjoying so much… hello, Wikipedia.

Wait… an American Impressionist?  And I had never heard of him before?  And (wait for it) his paintings were all done during the late 19th- and early 20th century, which as any fule kno is my favorite period of history;  and in all, he produced over three thousand  works… BINGO!

What I like about Hassam is not just his technique, which is excellent, but also his choices of subject matter.  Unlike many Impressionist painters (hello Monet and Cezanne), Hassam painted a dizzying variety of subjects:  landscapes, cityscapes, models, you name it;  he used both watercolors and oils (!) and over all that, he also covered a multitude of colors and moods.  Here’s A Room Of Flowers :

…Gloucester Harbor :

…Cloud Front, Maine :

…and in one of many abrupt changes of both topic, color and mood, Taxi Rank on Rue Bonaparte  (which I love but The New Wife doesn’t, alas):  

…and continues the theme with Rainy Day, Boston :

Yes indeed:  our American painter didn’t restrict himself to the U.S.A. at all (although he painted the New England and Pacific Northwest seascapes, to name but two).  Rather, his work also covers France, Italy, and all points in between.  Wherever he found himself, he painted it.  To our great advantage.

Because if you like Impressionism but can only see so many paintings of haystacks (ahem), I bet you’ll find a Hassam painting that will be right up your street.  Maybe like this one, The Water Garden : 

…or even Church At Old Lyme, Massachusetts (of which, unusually, he painted several seasonal variations): 

…never mind his patriotic “Flag” series, like for example Fourth of July, 1916 : 

…or the sublime Watching The Boys March By, 1918 :
…which is also sometimes called The Flag Outside Her Window.

I like this artist.  I like him a lot.

Self Portrait, 1914

Oh, and for people (like me) who loathe Modernism, allow me to quote his attitude thereon:

He denounced modern trends in art to the end of his life, and he termed “art boobys” all the painters, critics, collectors, and dealers who got on the bandwagon and promoted Cubism, Surrealism and other avant-garde movements.

“Art Booby”… I am so  going to steal that for myself.

Down The Toilet

Modernism, Nannies, Two-Minute Hate

Every so often I get a Red Curtain Of Blood (RCOB) descending over my eyes that is so massive and so intense that I frighten small AND large children.  Well, it’s a damn good thing that there were no children around when I read this  little suggestion:

Janet Street-Porter argues that Notre-Dame shouldn’t be rebuilt… – and that the money should go to ‘more worthy causes’

And what, exactly, are these “worthy causes” of which she speaks?  You know  what they are, but let her tell you herself:

‘If you go less than 10 miles to the suburbs in Paris, large parts – they’ve had some money poured into them but it’s a problem the government can’t solve.
‘People are living in poverty, illegally, there’s drug dealing, gang warfare, and parts of Paris that the police won’t go to.
‘So where are these billionaires, why aren’t they coughing up for that? What about all the poor people in Calais? Where’s all the money to help them?’

Right there is the liberal mindset.   After admitting that Gummint has poured money — not “some”, by the way, but countless millions — and the problem is still insoluble, Our Girl Janet wants wealthy individuals to pour still MOAR MONEY (their own money, duh) into the festering garbage dumps at Calais and the banlieus  surrounding Paris, despite the repeated failure of state money to solve the problems.

Trotskyist bitch.  Take from the rich, and pour it down a shithole, just so you  can feel better that Something Has Been Done.  Marxism in a nutshell:  intentions are more important than outcomes.

And by the way, Janet, you rancid old tart, it’s not about the money, nor even about the French:  it’s about a priceless part of Western heritage and culture (I know, all the stuff that Marxists hate).  And the truth of my statement is that it’s not only the French who visit Notre-Dame Cathedral in their millions each year, but people from all over the world.  Good grief, when I was there a few years ago, I never heard a single word of French spoken among the teeming crowds who were braving a bitterly cold and rainy day to visit the place.

And good for the French billionaires who’ve stepped up to the (collection) plate and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars towards the rebuild.  Civic spirit, generosity, and respect for a nation’s heritage and culture are always to be commended

Lastly, I should also point out that were it not for France’s iniquitous and punitive income- and wealth taxes, said billionaires would have been able to give even more  of their own money towards the project.  But let’s not quibble about a few hundred million here or there, right?