Splendid Isolation

Garbage Collection

March 18, 2025 Kim du Toit Science!, Technology

For a bunch of supposed scientists, these tits seem to be remarkably unworldly [sic]:

Earth’s orbit is filling up with junk. Greenhouse gases are making the problem worse.
By the end of the century, a shrinking atmosphere could create a minefield for satellites.

I’m going to ignore the “greenhouse gases” bit because I have an abiding suspicion of headlines which require that we stop buying SUVs and generating electricity.

I’ll buy the first part, though, because that’s actual scientific observation.

Now I’m not a scientist, make no claims to be one, and I’m certainly no astrophysicist. But I am a capitalist, and it seems to me that the solution is not to turn off all lightbulbs on Earth, but to let the market take care of the junk problem, by simply collecting it and disposing of it as we do with all our other household junk.

Here’s my suggestion: have ol’ Elon Musk design a giant Shop-Vac that can be mounted on one of his rockets, and launch it into space to collect debris. Then, when the receptacle is full, launch the craft into the general direction of the Sun for eventual incineration. This action could be repeated with more Junk-X spacecraft until our atmosphere is neat and tidy again.

Now this job and technology wouldn’t be cheap, and SpaceX would need to be paid (because Elon may sometimes be a philanthropist, but he’s not a complete sucker either). But paid by whom?

Well, considering that this would benefit mankind in general, it should not be funded by any single country — yeah, ten guesses which country would be expected to fund it — but by all nations on Earth.

Is there a global organization which should sponsor SpaceX to complete this function? Uh, lemme think… oh yeah, how about this lot?

You might think that the U.N. doesn’t have the funds to pay SpaceX, but I’ll be that if their budget was scrutinized, there’d be a whole bunch of inefficiencies and waste which could be re-purposed towards so noble an objective.

And in a Great Circle Of Life manifestation, I bet that Elon’s DOGE whizzkids could find the dollars in about a couple of days, if they could be let loose on the United Nations’ budget…

No First Amendment For Visitors

March 17, 2025 Kim du Toit Good Stuff, Politics, Trumpism

…and if you misbehave, you can get kicked out.

This is as true for Hamas-loving terrorsymp “students” as it is for racist assholes like the Seffrican Ambassador.

Buh-bye.

“Dear POTUS”

March 17, 2025 Kim du Toit Foreign Affairs, Politics

Dear President Trump:

As much as I enjoy watching you shrink the federal government, make English the official language of the United States, and strive to help the American people escape the ravenous fangs of the Internal Revenue Service, there are a couple of things you’re also doing which are starting to get up my nose.

Greenland. Stop talking about annexing Greenland, or colonizing Greenland, or any of that nonsense. If Greenland is that important to our national security — and I’m willing to accept your arguments in that assertion — then negotiate with Greenland/Denmark/whoever to build a series of military bases there. They don’t have to be an actual state for this — we didn’t make Germany a state when we were faced with the USSR problem in post-WWII Europe, after all, we just put military bases Over There. It worked then, and it would work as well with the CCP problem now.

Canada. It may have been fun to bust Trudeau’s (minuscule) balls about making Canada the 51st state, but that schtick is just getting tiresome. The plain fact is that while some citizens of Alberta or Saskatchewan may love to be part of the U.S., trying to get Ontario to assimilate would be damn-near impossible because they’re a bunch of screaming socialists, and we have enough of those in California and the Pacific NW already. Let’s not even start talking about those Francophone morons in Quebec, who insist on the rest of Canada being bilingual — and would probably resist, with violence — any attempts to suppress the French language in government. The hell with them: they’re not worth the hassle, and that applies equally to the rest of Canada, especially the “First Nations” scam artists.

Your constant chatter about this silliness is getting counter-productive. Don’t forget that you were NOT elected to make us a fifty-two state nation; your electoral mandate is to end socialism in the existing fifty, to get government off our backs, to end the DEI foulness and to Make America Great Again.

America will not become greater by grabbing Canada and Greenland — in fact, the reverse is more likely — so quit talking about it, and don’t even think about doing it.

Respectfully, from one of your most ardent supporters,

Please Go

March 17, 2025 Kim du Toit Freaks & Loonies, Marketing / Advertising, Marxists

I love capitalism. Why? No sooner had the ink dried on the fraudulent-but-ultimately pointless counterfeit ballots in Pennsylvania. Michigan etc. when (courtesy of Reader Mike L.) I learned that the Smart Marketing Guys got going:

US cruise company offering four-year escape during Trump presidency

A Florida-based cruise company is offering disgruntled US voters the chance to escape by traveling the world during Donald Trump’s upcoming four years in office.

Villa Vie Residences has capitalized on the election results by offering Americans a four-year escape – the length of a presidential term – starting at around $160,000 per person, taking guests to more than 425 ports in 140 countries. [more details at the link]

My only requirement is that the trip is non-refundable after the ship has left port — in other words, if the travelers are suddenly overcome with buyer’s regret or whatever, they don’t get any money back, and they have to make their own way home from whatever country they happen to be in.

And if the poor regretful souls, having spent all their savings on this 4-year escape, are unable to afford the cost of a flight back to the U.S., I’m sure some private transport company will be only too willing to step up to the plate and help them get out of wherever they are for the return trip…

…if you see what I mean.

Monday Funnies

March 17, 2025 Kim du Toit Funny Stuff

But first, our weekly update:

And going back to creatures of the forest:

And to end this silliness off, a few pictures of questionable taste:

I mean, I wouldn’t want to break with tradition now, would I?

Be off with you.

Classic Beauty: Lauren Bacall

March 16, 2025 Kim du Toit Classic Beauty

Was there ever a sexier woman than Lauren Bacall? I mean, that immortal scene in To Have And Have Not with Bogart — he never stood a chance, did he? — is all the more incredible when you realize that she played that sex-drenched role at age nineteen, and was yet totally believable.