Apparently I missed Erf Day yesterday. Sorry about that.
“How sorry, Kim?”
About this sorry:
I’ll try not to miss it next year…
Author: Kim du Toit
Speed Bump #2,158
Seen on Twatter recently:
The problem is that our system has a crisis of legitimacy.
ex-President Applesauce illegally and deliberately imported somewhere between 10mm and 20mm illegal aliens into the USA and illegally provided them with tax dollars you and I earned on the sweat of our brows.
I’m not taking issue with the argument, as always, but I am taking issue with its presentation.
This abbreviation of millions and thousands has always been problematic for me. The problem, as usual, starts with the Romans and their poxy language, while their stupid numbering system also comes into play.
Latin for 1,000: mille (M). So 2,000 (e.g. in dates): MM.
Unfortunately, when we try to make the M into a million, we have to multiply the Ms into MM. See the problem? While numerically it makes sense (1 millimeter = one-thousandth of a metre = 1mm), linguistically we get into all sorts of trouble because when we try to abbreviate millions, as above, the appearance of, say, 20 million (20mm) comes out as 20 millimeters because it’s what we’re used to seeing, thanks to the equally-poxy metric system.
Frankly, we can overcome all confusion by not using abbreviations altogether, i.e. writing “10 million to 20 million”, or even “10-20 million” (inferior, but almost acceptable) instead of “10mm-20mm”.
Mixing Latin with metric is where we all fall over, by the way, because in the metric usage, “m” is also the abbreviation for “metre”, e.g. “Olympic 100m sprint”. Some have tried to compensate by capitalizing the “m” when you need to express “thousand”, but that muddies the literary reading even more.
Lastly, a free box of .22 ammo goes to the Reader who can first explain to me what “milliard” officially means.
Quote Of The Day
From Pam Geller:
“Islam’s modus operandi is as follows: when Muslims are in a minority in countries to which they have migrated they claim Islam is a religion of peace. Once their numbers increase they start to agitate for considerations unavailable to non-Muslims in those countries under the guise of obtaining civil liberties. When they gain power it’s, ‘Do as we say or we will kill you.’ That is how a country loses its culture, its values and its traditions.”
This taken from here, which follows on from several articles on Islamist expansion and Shari’a promotion, mine included.
My opinion? It’s time we put an asterisk on the First Amendment, in that “religion” paragraph.
News Roundup
And on a related note:
...I mean, what’s the point of stealing all that technology from the U.S. when you can’t sell it back to them?
...yeah, let them steal jet technology from Airbus, for a change.
Speaking of Chinese work practices:
...but but but if this happened in Norma Rae Country, where is the Textile Workers’ Union in all this? Oh… they went out of business when all those textile jobs moved to China, huh?
#IronyCentral
And from The Great Cultural Assimilation Project©:
...as if that were a surprise.
...to be filed under “Politicians’ Broken Promises”. Now, if the incoming Reichkanzler was from the AfD party… but that would be schrecklich.
...silly people, that was the Labour Party’s plan all along, you racist Enoch Powell supporters. That’ll teach you to vote Conservative.
...wait: you mean there are illegal Mexican immigrants in Chicago? I am shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you. [/Captain Renault]
Let’s Trust The Science:
...what’s that, Lassie? Loud hoofbeats, you say?
#JapanNotChinaSurpriseSurprise
In Crime News:
...just wait till you see why he was in jail before you get all judgey.
...so you see, children: smoking cigarettes can be bad for your health. Also, Muslims.
Oh, and 
(no link because paywall)
...I bet most of them just thought the Earth was moving for that other reason.
#SexManiacs
...okay, who’s doing all that unseemly cheering for the earthquake?
Oh.
And now ’tis once more time for 
...I know: all names courtesy of Scrabble / illiterate parents.
Just checking in with Train Smash Times:
...she never fails to delight us all. However, the next TSW is a real disappointment:
Lindsay Lohan, 38, looks phenomenal in a sexy leather corset as she hits the cover of Vogue Czechoslovakia
...and here she is:
And as we remember her fondly from those Train Smash times:
...oooh, I can forgive anything for those freckled young boobies.
At Long Last, Choice
Some excellent news for Texas parents:
On Wednesday, Texas finally passed a comprehensive school choice bill after years of trying and failing. The legislation could reshape the way the Lone Star State does education.
The state House vote followed a long day of deliberations that lasted well after midnight before passing.
The bill now goes to Gov. Jim Abbott’s desk for signing, and in case anyone has any reservations about his feelings on the topic:
“This is an extraordinary victory for the thousands of parents who have advocated for more choices when it comes to the education of their children,” Abbott said.
The Usual Suspects (i.e. Democrats) were against this bill, along with a couple of malcontent Republicans who (surprise surprise) were formerly public-school superintendents.
So instead of getting “free” education from state schools tied to their home address, Texans will be getting the chance to set up an education savings account (ESA) which can fund their kids’ education — and if their choice of school happens to be the home, that’s just fine. Instead of funds going to schools, in other words, the money will be going to parents to spend on their kids’ education, at schools of their choice. Some details:
The ESA proposal would establish dedicated accounts fueled by public funds that families could tap into to pay for education expenses. An ESA could fund private school tuition, support homeschooling costs or be used for other education-related expenses.
Families in private schools would receive roughly $10,000 per year per child. Children with disabilities would receive $11,500. Homeschooled students could receive $2,000, and homeschooled students with disabilities would be eligible for $2,500.
All in all, excellent news. I just wish we’d had that option when our kids were of that age. Instead, we paid taxes into a system that we never used, and had to fund our kids’ education out of our post-tax dollars.
This will go a long way to alleviate that problem.
At Last, Some Good News
According to some official-sounding stats:
Americans are no longer moving to Southern boomtowns
Reasons?
The cost of living has jumped, thanks to rising mortgage rates, skyrocketing home prices, and higher fees for insurance and HOAs – particularly after a string of natural disasters.
Now that the influx of newcomers has slowed, the housing markets in these cities are feeling the squeeze. Annual double-digit price jumps are no longer a sure thing.
Home prices that once seemed unstoppable are leveling off – and in many cases falling. Homebuying demand is plunging, and in some places, inventory is surging.
Places like Tampa, Dallas and Austin were once seen as affordable alternatives to high-cost cities like San Francisco and New York, but now the gap in housing costs between big-city job centers and Sun Belt metros has shrunk.
Well yes, in terms of the “unstoppable” housing prices, that was caused most of all by this influx of Californians, New Yorkers and other migrants who arrived here in the South flush with the proceeds of their overpriced real estate and were willing to pay the prices asked by sellers. (I should point out that my old Plano house sold for the asking price and was listed for eighteen hours before being snapped up by a Californian family, who paid the ask after having been involved in bidding wars in previous homebuying attempts. I should also point out that my 4BR 3BR house would have cost $1.4 million for a comp in northern California, instead of the $395k I was asking for mine. No wonder they jumped on it.)
Anyway, the good news for us in northern Texas:
Dallas – one of several Texas cities that boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic – saw a net inflow of around 13,000 residents in 2024, also down from 35,000 the year prior.
Thank fuck. The fewer liberal assholes moving here, the better for all of us.
Something else is interesting:
Now that many companies are requiring workers to come into the office, fewer people have the freedom to move – and some people who moved to the Sun Belt during the pandemic are returning to big cities.
I guess all those empty office blocks in L.A. and San Francisco need to be refilled.
And the people who paid those sky-high prices for our Texas houses who are now being forced into selling them? The houses that once sold within days can now stand unsold for months, or longer.
Forgive me for not shedding any tears. And my compadres over in Florida may share my delight.