Category: Funny Stuff

Political Snigger

Elections, Mocking Furriners

First we had that “right-wing” libertarian (?) winning big in [Don’t Cry For Me] Argentina, and now the Dutch too seem to have come to their senses (and not a moment too soon):

In yet another sign of a global political shift, the right-wing populist Party for Freedom in the Netherlands is projected to win a large plurality. According to exit polling, the PVV will pick up at least 35 seats while the current ruling coalition will combine for 37 losses while only winning 41 seats total. That makes Geert Wilders, the founder of the Party for Freedom, the big winner.

Of course, this has the Left screaming hair-on-fire stuff:

The Netherlands will join an increasingly long list of West European countries (CH, FR, IT, SE) where the radical right has overtaken the mainstream right has the main party of the right.

Never mind that their definition of “radical right” would, in U.S. terms, make Wilders’s party more like centrist Democrats (anyone remember them?) Over Here.  (For those unfamiliar with the terminology:  that would be Switzerland, France, Italy and Sweden [!] who have recently moved to the “right”.)

Anyway, getting back to the Dutchies:

“It’s been enough now. The Netherlands can’t take it anymore. We have to think about our own people first now. Borders closed. Zero asylum seekers,” Wilders said in a television debate on the eve of the election.

Sounds kinda like Trump, doesn’t it?  Let’s hope that Wilders, unlike Trump, actually starts to do something about the situation once he’s sworn in.

Expect the lawyers to start sharpening their quills so as to try to stop in the courts any commonsense policy he implements — just like our leftist assholes do Over Here.

Let the mass deportations begin… and once again, not a moment too soon.

Unreality

Lists

Time again for one of those stupid polls done by some organization I’ve never heard of, which ranks the “Best of” — this time, of cities around the world to live in.  The criteria seem quite reasonable:

The results are based on scores across three key categories – liveability, lovability and prosperity, with dozens of factors taken into account. These include educational attainment, GDP per capita, poverty rate, the number of quality restaurants, shops and nightclubs; walkability, the number of mapped bike routes, quality parks and museums.

They cock it up somewhat by including “number of recommendations on sites such as Tripadvisor, Google, Facebook and Instagram” because those are generally driven by booster bots and paid “influencers” (same thing, really), but whatever.  Here are the Top 20:

1 – London
2 – Paris
3 – New York, U.S.
4 – Tokyo
5 – Singapore
6 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
7 – San Francisco, U.S.
8 – Barcelona, Spain
9 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
10 – Seoul, South Korea
11 – Rome, Italy
12 – Prague, Czechia
13 – Madrid, Spain
14 – Berlin, Germany
15 – Los Angeles, U.S.
16 – Chicago, U.S.
17 – Washington D.C., U.S.
18 – Beijing, China
19 – Istanbul, Turkey
20 – Dublin, Ireland

…and to my Murkin Readers, at least, this would cause coffee-splattered screens and keyboards, because the five U.S. cities listed are the ones showing the greatest outward migration and desertion by the people who actually live there.  (And this is also true of the other U.S. cities in the 30-50 group.)

And where are these “refugees” going, according to actual census data?  To Orlando (53), Miami (55), Atlanta (65), Houston (68), Nashville (71), Dallas (73) and Charlotte (92).  And it’s got nothing to do with the warmer weather, either.

It is, as they say, to LOL.  If the list was entitled “Nice Places To Visit (but you wouldn’t want to live there), then it might have some (but not much) credence, with regard to the U.S. cities anyway.

Forty years ago, this list may have been true — and maybe not even then — but today?  As they say in New York (3):  fuggeddabahdit.

As for the furrin cities, and based solely on my experiences there, I’d have no issue with living in London or Paris, but certainly Amsterdam (9) would rank higher than either, and Vienna (21) would be in the top 5.

Probably the only ranking I agree with is Baltimore (100).  It’s a total shithole, and deservedly placed well below such garden spots as Beijing (18!) and Bogotá (81).

Conspiracies

Freaks & Loonies, Morons & Idiots

Seen at Kenny’s:

Not sure I go with that one, but its proposition may not be unjustified.

The question, however, is an interesting one.

On that scale, I’m at about a 2.  But I’m willing to be challenged.

Here’s my point.  The larger the alleged conspiracy, the less I’m likely to go for it.  So most of the so-called “Global” conspiracies (World Economic Foundation, Jewish Banking, you name it) fall apart at the first hurdle because the larger the conspiracy, the more people involved, the less likely it is to be true.

  • Is there a conspiracy among your coworkers to get you fired? —  easily established and exposed.
  • Did the CIA conspire to kill JFK?  — no.
  • Did Aristotle Onassis conspire to kill JFK?  — maybe.
  • …because he was in the thrall of the International Emerald Market? — definitely not.
  • Are socialists conspiring to bring down the United States?  — read the news and follow the dots;  of course they are.

In the latter case, it might not be a planned conspiracy, in that there’s no secret Bilderburger / Comintern / whatever .org issuing commands to the various socialists;  but that doesn’t mean they aren’t all working towards a common goal — which they are.

The other meme making the rounds runs along the lines of:

“Today’s conspiracy nuts will be seen by history as prophets.”

That, I might go along with.  Unless the conspiracy is an obvious crock of shit.  But as I said above, I’m willing to be challenged.

And by the way:  any suggested conspiracy that includes those bastards at DeBeers Diamonds?  I’ll believe it.

Mixed Feelings

Freaks & Loonies, Legal Stuff

Here’s a story that gets me all philosophical:

A child psychiatrist in Charlotte, North Carolina, used artificial intelligence (AI) to make child porn, and he is now facing the consequences.

In a press release Wednesday, the United States Attorney’s Office Western District of North Carolina announced 41-year-old David Tatum will spend the next 40 years behind bars, then 30 years of supervised release for the sexual exploitation of a minor and the AI-generated child porn.

I’ll get to the philosophical bit in a moment because emotionally, of course, I want this perverted bastard to be burned at the stake and his ashes scattered far away from any children’s playground, never mind imprisoned forever.

However.

Did not some Supreme Court, in its Supreme Wisdom, decree a while ago that making cartoon-based child pornography did not constitute a crime?  Why yes, yes it did.  (The whole story, country by country, can be found here.)

I myself once looked at 3D-printed sex dolls, with the logical extension thereof as it pertained to creating sex dolls of children (FFS).

So ‘splain this to me Simon:  if it’s okay (perhaps) to create sex dolls of children, why not AI-generated images or even movies?  Remember:  no actual person is being harmed by this activity.

This is but my philosophical musing, of course — see my “burned at the stake” suggestion above.

And boy, have we created an Alps-sized slippery slope with this one.