Tag: Good Guys

Quite Right

Advice

Brit TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has been making waves:

Kirstie Allsopp has been vocal about her desire to ban homework in the past, and today the presenter hit out again, branding it a ‘waste of time’.

…and I agree with that, completely.

However, it’s what else she says that’s the best advice anyone can give:

The Location, Location, Location host, 47, who has two sons Bay, 12, and Oscar, 10 with husband Ben Andersen, took to Twitter to respond to new figures released today, which revealed a ‘decline in reading for pleasure.’
According to the research, just over half (52.5 per cent) of eight to 18-year-olds read for pleasure in 2019, down from 58.8 per cent in 2016.
…
She wrote: ‘No evidence that under 10s gain from homework AND kids hate it, parents hate it and teachers hate it.’
‘Homework is an absurd hangover from another time. Much, much better to focus on reading, reading, reading and more reading.’

Yup.  Back when we homeschooled our three kids, the only mandatory exercise we imposed was three hours’ reading per day, no excuses, no “I’ll catch up tomorrow” or any of that jive.  Three hours straight, and the kids had to read outside their rooms (no distractions), whether in the library (where there was no TV) or, if the weather was suitable, outdoors.  For reading choice, there was my humble book collection (e.g. Bookcase #1 in the library):

…but the kids could also get their own, and the monthly trip to Barnes & Noble was a delight.  There was no spending limit other than self-imposed, but the books had to be text-only, i.e. no coffee-table picture books, comics or manga etc.

The kids could study other subjects, and did, but the reading was non-negotiable.  Kirstie has the truth of it:  all three of our kids are scarily literate.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

Choirboy saunters up to a young woman on street corner, shows her a weapon and attempts a little involuntary financial redistribution, whereupon Our Heroine pulls her gun and shoots the little asshole in the neck, said wound eventually sending him to join Hell’s Chorus.

[pause to allow cheers and applause to die down]

This incident would be fairly unremarkable except that it happened on Chicago’s South Side, and the young lady in question had an Illinois carry permit (!!!), which as any fule kno is of hen’s teeth scarcity.  [Note to the gun confiscators:  this is how you reduce violent crime; not by disallowing law-abiding citizens to carry guns.]

Note too that this is an incident of gun violence (duh), but as any right-thinking person would agree, the right kind of gun violence.

(Thanks to Reader Brad_In_IL for the heartwarming report.)

Kinda Trumpy

Politics

The world needs more — a LOT more — of this:

Right-wing nationalist Jair Bolsonaro, who has vowed to crack down on political corruption, violent crime and ignite a moribund economy with deregulation and fiscal discipline, after being sworn in as Brazil’s president today.
The former Army captain and seven-term fringe congressman rode a wave of anti-establishment anger to became Brazil’s first far-right president since a military dictatorship gave way to civilian rule three decades ago.
Addressing a joint session of Congress minutes after taking the oath of office, Bolsonaro, a former Army captain and admirer of the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, vowed to adhere to democratic norms.
He said his government would be guided by the promises he made to Brazilian voters fed up with graft, high levels of violent crime and a still-sputtering economy.
‘I will work tirelessly so that Brazil reaches its destiny,’ Bolsonaro said after being sworn in. ‘My vow is to strengthen Brazil’s democracy.’
On the economic front, the new leader promised to ‘create a new virtuous cycle to open markets’ and ‘carry out important structural reforms’ to shore up a yawning public deficit.

And it gets better:

Last week, the former army captain said that upon taking office he would issue a decree guaranteeing Brazilians without a criminal history the ability to possess firearms. During the campaign, Bolsonaro argued that one way to confront street crime would be to arm more citizens.
Possession of firearms is currently tightly restricted in Brazil, though drug traffickers and other criminal gangs are heavily armed with automatic weapons. Brazil is the annual world leader in total homicides – more than 63,000 in 2017 – and a majority are from firearms.
Bolsonaro has frequently argued that police who fatally shoot criminals during operations should be decorated, not prosecuted. To that end, he has said they should be shielded from prosecution, possibly by having such cases be investigated in a separate process outside the criminal justice system.
Such ideas terrify human rights groups and people who live in poor neighborhoods, where shootouts between police and traffickers often leave criminals, officers and innocent bystanders dead. Some Brazilian police forces, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, are already among the most lethal in the world.
Bolsonaro has frequently expressed adoration for U.S. President Donald Trump, and he is poised to follow him in foreign policy. He has promised to move the Brazilian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; push back on China, Brazil’s largest foreign investor; ditch regional trade treaties he thinks are bad deals for Brazil; and take a hard line on leftist governments, including that of neighboring Venezuela.

All excellent stuff.

Anyone seen his Missus, by the way?

I think he has the right perspective on just about everything.

From My Cabin To Yours…

Entertainment, Friends and Family

…a warm and wonderful New Year.

And may all the new guns you buy in 2019 shoot straight and work properly.

You are going to buy some new guns in 2019, aren’t you?  It’s one way to make your New Year a happy one.

And speaking of happy:

Cheers, y’all.  That’s for “Dry January”… and after that, it’s this for “Veganuary”:

Might as well start the year off the way I plan to do for the rest of it:  pissing off the people who want me to stop enjoying myself.

Dept. Of Righteous Stabbings

Righteous Shootings

When three men are raping your daughter and the police don’t give a damn, what’s a mother to do?

Grab a kitchen knife, set off after the bastards and stab the shit out of them, killing one and seriously injuring the others, is what.

Had this happened in Texas, the “Lion Mama” would have got a loud Attagirl!  from the police;  instead, she was charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder.  Happily, the prosecutor saw sense (but only after a national outcry of furious hatred), and dropped the charges against her.  The wounded assholes got twenty-five years each.

One wonders what she could have achieved had she been allowed to own a gun…

Peerless

Friday Feature, Movies

If I could play one indoor game very well, it would be snooker (not pool).  And should you want to know who I’d like to play as well as, it’s Ronnie O’Sullivan.  For your Friday night movie, here is the man himself absolutely demolishing his opponent in a best-of-nine competition.  (Hint:  it doesn’t go to nine games.)  As any good snooker player will tell you, it’s not sinking the ball that’s important, it’s where you leave the cue ball for your next shot, and in terms of skill, Ronnie’s like Tiger, but with better smeeking:

      

But this is the expression that his opponents dread seeing:

So pour yourself a drink, sit back, and enjoy the next three-quarters of an hour, seeing a man on top of his game.