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:

Monday Funnies

Apparently last week’s Funnies were too silly, so today we’ll go all cerebral, with historical references, brain teasers and stuff.

 

 


(this may become a series on this website)

And now some interfaith adorableness:

And an exercise in relativity:

Finally:  also from last week, there were a few (hundred) moans about the modesty of the ladies’ clothing, so today we’ll make things just a tad racier:

Now off you go to work, and make your own party.

Try not to kill anyone.

Classic Beauty: Bettie Page

Last weekend we looked at Bunny Yeager as a model.  Today we’ll look at Bunny the photographer — and most notably at her most famous model, Bettie Page.

As Richard Corliss once described, Bettie had been the nadir of sexual exploitation:

In New York City, Page “starred” in tatty, furtive 8mm bondage loops (Dominant Betty Dances With Whip, Hobbled in Kid Leather Harness) that her Svengali, Irving Klaw, sold in plain brown wrappers at his Movie Star News shop. But in Miami, under Yeager’s congenial tutelage, Page bloomed as the girl next door with the bedroom shades up, or the beach bombshell with the seraphic grin. Between them, the Blond Bunny and brunette Bettie made nudity look both sexy and healthy.

And how:

Sensational.

There are millions of Bettie Page pics all over the Internet.  But the good Bettie pics are mostly those taken by Bunny Yeager.

The Importance Of The Bridge

Everyone knows about French artist Eugène Delacroix, who painted so many works which later became iconic that his value to Fine Art (not to mention civilization) is pretty much unchallenged.


Liberty Leading The People

And yes, many feel that he was the bridge, artistically speaking, between Classical and Romantic art and is therefore Very Important:


Massacre At Chios

Me, I just like the way he painted women:


Mademoiselle Rose

Death of Sardanapelus


Medea About To Kill Her Children


Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi


Louis of Orleans Revealing His Mistress

Delacroix’s style, to my eyes anyway, changes from piece to piece, from Classical to Romantic to almost-Impressionist — all depending on the topic he’s depicting.  Heck, the Louis of Orleans  painting above is almost Rococo in its playfulness.

And considering that he lived and worked during the hidebound early nineteenth century, that is one hell of an achievement.


Barque of Dante

News Roundup

And why so many?  Try this little tidbit:


...just sayin’.

Some Election 2024 News:


...read the article to see the truth about “Form EL-131”.  Then feel the burn...

In Financial News:


...starve the fuckers.

And some International News:


...funny how Commie votes are always “unanimous”, isn’t it?


...let ’em eat bugs;  the government apparatchiks, I mean.


... [/Frank Zappa]

In ShowBiz News:


...if they want to add more fantasy to Bond movies, they’ll have to bring in dragons and elves.

And in Health News:


...especially goblins.



...and the ad copy writes itself:  “Better Woodies, Longer Life!

From the anals [sic] of Wokedom:


...seems like it was consensual, so I can’t see the problem here. [j/k]

And from the front lines of Sex Wars:


...but of course, he’ll still be on the hook for child support.
#BelieveAllWomen

And in some 

And strolling down :


...”thrills”, hey?  Let’s have a look:

Yeah, I guess that’s kinda “thrilling” — and the end of the news.