“Dear Dr. Kim”

“Dear Dr. Kim:

“I’m an elderly actor, and I’m told that I’m still quite ‘hot’ (whatever that means) and certainly, I seem to have no problem attracting women, in many cases a lot younger than myself.

“In fact, that seems to be my major problem.  Many years ago I was more-or-less happily married to a woman who was also quite ‘hot’ — I certainly found her to be so, which was in no small part why I married her — and we had two sons, both now in their middle age.

“The problem really is that when I was a young man, I was quite certainly attractive to women not my wife, and I strayed quite a bit, so to speak, when opportunity presented itself.

“Anyway, when I confessed my indiscretions to my wife, she tossed me out and divorced me.

“All that’s in the distant past, and I’m happy to say that we have remained friends despite all that trouble.

“I kind of wish that I hadn’t got divorced, in fact.  While I’ve had no end of willing bedmates since…

“Dr. Kim, what’s your take on all this?”

Dancer, London UK

Dear Dancer,

Your problem is not that you strayed;  hell, when faced with a plethora of warm, moist and willing female pudenda, few men are able to resist that siren call.

Your problem — a rookie mistake, in one of mature years — is that you admitted said indiscretions to your wife.  Now that that bullet has passed through the church, so to speak, it remains only for your mistake to be made known to other men, and here’s the advice:

Never, ever admit to your spouse that you inserted your phallus into any extramarital orifice.  Unless you are actually caught in flagrante delicto — and by that, I mean in the very act of making the beast with two backs (as a former Shakespearean actor, you are no doubt familiar with the source of the expression) — no man should ever admit to infidelity.

Of course, with modern technology, such a denial may be impossible — ask ex-President “BJ” Clinton — and if the doxy gets pregnant, the same technology may also compel an admission and doom your marriage.

But otherwise, keep shtum  and deny, deny, deny.  Ignore the advice of (mostly female) agony aunts that you’ll feel better after you’ve got things off your chest or “come clean” [sic]:  you won’t, as you discovered.  If the conscience thing is that strong in you, the time to exercise it is prior- and not post insertion.

Unreliable

I am often accused of being an EV-hater, in that I write so often about the shortcomings of said vehicles and, more often, the uncertainty of keeping them alive, so to speak.

I don’t hate EVs.  If I still lived where I used to live in Chicago, I would almost certainly be tempted by, say, an electric Smart Fortwo* or something similarly tiny with which I could make my way around the city in small, convenient trips to get stuff (like groceries) that are a huge PITA to carry around on the bus or in a taxi, both of which are in steady supply in Chicago.  In fact, the real utility of an EV in such a scenario comes not in the little trips to and from the supermarkets, book stores and liquor stores, but in trips slightly further afield, such as trips to the racecourse, a concert venue like Rosemont and similar suburban destinations.  You see, while getting a trip out there is no big deal, finding a cab or bus for the return trip can be problematic (ask me how I know this).

And if I lived in a coastal town e.g. somewhere in Florida, I could equally be tempted into using an electric runaround like an e-Moke for those little trips to restaurants, beaches and yes, supermarkets and liquor stores.

However, there are several drawbacks to owning an EV as one’s primary (or only) transport, principal of which is that the EV market presupposes a convenient, reliable and unending supply of electricity.  And as we’re rapidly discovering, said supply is not only none of the above, but in fact, the situation is likely to get still worse as demand starts to exceed supply and the infrastructure, already proving to be inadequate, start to fall apart.

“But you can always just recharge your EV at home,” you may say.

Perhaps this little story from Britishland may be instructive:

T.T. writes: Eon Drive installed an electric vehicle (EV) wall charger at my house last year but it has never worked. 

Despite offering a guarantee, Eon has refused to attend my property to investigate or fix the problem.

Tony Hetherington replies: Eon told you the problem was ‘voltage fluctuation’ in the electricity supply to your home, so you had it monitored by Energy North West. When this showed nothing was wrong, you contacted Utilities Alternative Dispute Resolution – a sort of licensed ombudsman scheme which referees problems involving EV equipment.

The ADR adjudicator ruled Eon had to fix the charger or remove it within 28 days. This did not happen, and in the end you sold your electric car.

The story continues, with all sorts of typically-British complications thrown in, but the point made is still valid:  electricity is not necessarily a slam-dunk commodity in terms of its supply… anymore.  Indeed, the very fact that EV batteries typically require a “boosted” power supply to work properly or at least be recharged more rapidly should give plenty of reason for skepticism.  Ordinary household electrical systems, apparently, are just not up to the task.

That seems to be the case in 240v-powered Britishland, in any event, with its short distances between destinations;  how we are going to fare in 110v-Murka with its endless highway system and huge distances between Points A and B?  I leave it to you to guess.

The reasons, by the way, why I said yesterday that FJB’s new regulations aren’t going to work Over Here are quite simple.

In the first place, there is no way in hell that we are going to be able to build not only the generation system (we used to call them “power stations” back in simpler times) but the delivery infrastructure to satisfy the enormous increase in demand that a mandated universal EV regime would require.

Secondly, we are not Europeans or Brits, who have a long and storied heritage of supine acquiescence to government diktat;  in fact, we are notorious for our inherent resistance thereto.

So government flunkies and their lickspittles can pass all the laws and regulations they want;  we’ll just ignore or –far  more likely — actively resist mandated regulation.

We shall see how it all shakes out, of course.  But I am more optimistic than most, in this scenario at least.


*except that Smart can’t actually make an electric Fortwo because it’s not big enough to hold the size of battery required, hence the Smart #1 which is a complete POS, not the least in its nomenclature.

Easter Weekend Recap

So when deciding to celebrate Easter, i.e. the miracle of the Resurrection, one asks oneself:  “What would Jesus do?”

Well, having changed water into wine at least once, why not go out on the town?

Okay, I’m thinking that’s more like “Mary Magdalene: The Early Years” but then again, I’m an atheist;  what do I know?

Coercion

None of this nonsense is going to happen, but it sure won’t be for lack of trying…

Joe Biden issued the most radical environmental rules in American history to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles and force customers to drive ineffective electric cars. Now, a new report has revealed the effort to finish off the gas-powered car is well-underway in eight states.

The rules being adopted in these states specify that only zero-emission vehicles, which include electric vehicles and certain plug-in hybrids, can be sold beginning with the 2035 model year. This is known as the Advanced Clean Cars II rule.

And the Crazy Eight?

California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. The District of Columbia has also signed off.

Here’s the map, with my addition:

I’m just amazed that Illinois hasn’t joined the other Socialist Soviets (yet).  No doubt ILGov Fatboi Pritzker is working on it.

Hey, maybe they’ll get Texas to join up…

On a more serious note:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized aggressive emissions standards Friday for heavy-duty vehicles that will effectively require huge increases in the numbers of electric or zero-emission buses and trucks sold over the next decade.

Uh-huh.  Just the thought of all those 18-wheelers changing to electric power makes me really want to pee myself, just not with laughter.

Or start boiling the tar and oiling the rope, whatever.

As a wise man said:

Whatever

Steve Green gets upset about rebuilding something which could basically be rebuilt exactly the same as it was, but won’t.

Could it really take twice as long and four times as much money to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge than it did to build it in the first place?

The Key Bridge was built at a cost (adjusted for inflation) of about $200 million. Replacing it could take a decade and cost $400 million to $800 million dollars, according to experts in what has become a dismal field.

“To actually recreate that whole transportation network” could take a decade or more, structural engineer Ben Schafer told USA Today on Wednesday. Huge projects, Schafer said, now take “rarely less than 10 years.”

Steve gets upset;  I don’t.  Why not?

Because this boondoggle is located in Baltimore, a Democrat-run shithole which has become a festering boil on the face of civilization, largely due to the fact that it has been run by liberal Democrats and socialists for decades and decades.

Yeah, I know:  traffic will be affected badly because the old FSK Bridge carried I-695 traffic around (as opposed to through) Baltimore.

Don’t care.  The more it fucks up Baltimore, the better I like it.  The longer it takes, the longer the pain will last.  The more expensive it gets… well, I don’t care about that either.

Maybe the federal government will spend a little less on foreign aid to (say) Gaza or Gambia or [insert shithole of choice here]  instead of on one of our own domestic shitholes.  (But they won’t;  they’ll just print more money to pay for it.)

I’m sure someone will produce some study or other which will show how wrong my attitude is, that the rebuild will Create Jobs And Feed Pore Starvin Kiddies or some such nonsense;  or that the cumulative traffic detours made necessary by this calamity will cost some putative number of billions of dollars etc. etc.

Still don’t care.

The plain fact is that whatever the cost, it will be exacerbated by the over-large and inflated union salaries paid to the workers (Baltimore, duh), and the inevitable delays before the construction ever begins will be because the Greens will have issues about endangering some fucking minuscule / unimportant insect or sea-creature and therefore endless fucking studies will have to be made, and addressed, before the first load of concrete is poured or the first steel girder is welded together.

Did I say steel?  Oh yeah, because our steel manufacturing industry has been largely exported to fucking China or somewhere, we’ll have to buy it and ship it all across an ocean or two rather than simply trucking it down from just-up-the-road Allentown or Pittsburgh.

And if those unionized construction workers decide to strike because of [insert stupid reason to strike here]  the delay will grow still longer and so on.

Let me reiterate:  I just don’t fucking care.

All the unnecessary cost overruns and delays will have been caused by our own sclerotic and self-inflicted regulatory clots in the infrastructure bloodstream, instituted by people who have no idea of consequence other than Harm Done To Mother Gaia (who is a total bitch in any case, ask anyone whose relative was killed during an earthquake).

As a society, we have sown the wind, and now it’s time for that whirlwind to come and blow the whole edifice of bullshit over — or not, in which case the bridge will never be rebuilt.

And I still won’t care.

Fuck ’em all.

Papieren Bitte

How nice:


Biden Admin Cooperates With Big Tech To Find Out What Americans Watch Online

In a way, I’m glad that I post my rage against the Machine here, rather than on “social media” such as FecesBook, InstaLame or TwatterX.

Then on the other hand, sometimes I wish that I didn’t, and just ranted all over the above so that nobody could be in any doubt whatsoever about my feelings towards this kind of bullshit.

Back in the old Racist Republic, my phone was tapped for over seven years after the student protests of the early 1970s, which had seen me arrested, briefly imprisoned and charged with “rioting”.

I can’t help thinking that my old buddies at the Security Branch would have sold their children to have had the surveillance capability of today’s American Gestapo.

I said it back then, and I’m not afraid to say it again here, in my adopted country: