Apr 242022
 

Yow. Sounds like a zombie apocalypse. I suspect Certain Politicians in the west are nodding appreciatively and taking notes…

And from earlier:

 Posted by at 3:41 pm
Apr 232022
 

A month or so back I and a group of friends sat down to watch the premiere episode of “Our Flag Means Death,” the “pirate comedy” show from Taika Waititi. The trailers had made it look like it could be a blast, and given its “What We Do In The Shadows” heritage, that seemed a good bet. We shut it off about 2/3 of the way through that first episode, none of us having so much as even considered chuckling at any of it. It was painfully unfunny. We never went back to it, and largely forgot about it. Then I read this today, passed the link along, and we were agreed that we chose correctly in not proceeding. It sounds like it went from “unfunny” to “ummm, no thanks.”

Our Flag Means Death Is Sweet Relief for a Weary Fandom

The “fandom” here are not the kind who might be Star Trek, Star Wars or Dr. Who fans who are annoyed at what recent iterations of those franchises have done. No, the “fandom” here would be those who *like* what has become of those formerly great intellectual properties. You know… not fans of the worldbuilding, but of The Message.

Bleah.

 Posted by at 12:39 am
Apr 222022
 

A few days back I posted some videos of a guy restoring some old rusted guns. The restoration of the Luger was particularly impressive. There are a a whole bunch of gun restoration videos that run the gamut of “that’s impressive” to “that’s fraudulent,” where the firearm was pretty clearly “distressed” by the restorer.

And then there’s this one, which starts off pretty well, but then, right as I’m wondering “ok, what process is he going to use to ‘blue’ the metal parts,” it take a “ya gotta be kidding me” choice.

I guess if you just want to make it a display piece… I guess? But even so, doing it *right* seems to me to always be the correct choice.

 

 Posted by at 11:27 pm
Apr 212022
 

Well, here is where we are. While the Florida state senate voted on whether or not to strip Disney of their special tax district status, a number of people in attendance – I *assume* visitors, not actual state senators, but these days who knows – shrieked like maniacs. That as much as anything shows the importance of standing up to these bullying groomers. With luck those who threw this little tantrum were caught on video somewhere clear enough for facial recognition to figure out who they were so that they can be put under psychiatric evaluation, and to keep them away from children. I won’t be at all shocked to find that at least some of them are teachers of small children. And if so, hopefully soon to be *former* teachers of small children.

 Posted by at 2:58 pm
Apr 202022
 

A security camera caught a string of events. First, a security guard gets out of his vehicle. Another person walks up behind him and shoots the security guard in the head. A witness in the background watches this and does not react. The shooter then bends over, steals the guards pistol and something else, then wanders off, going past the witness. Neither react to the other. Witness gets up, walks past guards body, continues nonchalantly on his way. Then three more people happen upon the guards body; one bends down and rifles through his pockets and takes something; the other two stand there for a bit and seem to look at the loot, then they all wander off, unconcerned.

Where did this spectacular display of inhumanity take place? Mogadishu? Iran? North Korea? Cartel-occupied Mexico? Nope.

Atlanta.

Shocking surveillance footage shows security guard, 51, being shot in the back of the head and robbed before another man steals items from his dead body

One murderous dirtbag? Well, these things happen, in a sense. But a whole collection of people seemingly utterly unconcerned with concepts of “justice” and “right & wrong?” These were not, so far as is known, a group of hardened criminals who all planned to gather there; they were apparently a random selection. That they were *all* this awful says a lot about the local culture, and none of what is says is good or complimentary.

 Posted by at 10:55 pm
Apr 202022
 

A rare bit of good news here on Twenty-Twenty Part Two: This Time It’s Personal.

Little feller seems to be happy and healthy, if a bit patchy. I have high hopes that the two animals responsible for the attack on him never again feel a moment anywhere near as joyful as this little guy right here is having. Sadly, I fully expect they’ll be released to wreak havoc upon society again and again.

 Posted by at 9:18 pm
Apr 202022
 

It’s a fundamental principle of American jurisprudence that the courts cannot try you twice for the same crime if you have been acquitted. The feds have of course found ways around that, by charging, say, cops who killed someone in the line of duty and been acquitted of using excessive force with federal “hate crimes” charges. Sure, you were found not guilty of murder. But did you use harsh language? Guilty! It’s a shameful practice. but at least in in the US, “double jeopardy” is *usually* the standard. The feds playing tricks is normally reserved for a tiny number of politically explosive cases, where the goal is to have a show trial in order to placate unthinking violent mobs.

Britain, though, seems to not even have that thin and perforated veneer of civilization. If you are charged and acquitted, the courts can appear and charge you again, it seems.

Grenfell Tower: Man admits posting grossly offensive model video

Short form: a man made a cardboard “model” of a building and burned it on a bonfire. That’s it. That’s the crime. He didn’t burn the building itself; the cardboard was his, the bonfire was his, the bonfire was legal and there were no laws against burning cardboard. He was charged with being, essentially, rude, because the building in question was “Grenfell Tower,” a massively badly made high rise building that had recently caught fire and killed a bunch of people. It would be akin to someone in, say, November of 2001 burning a cardboard model of the World Trade Center. Offensive? sure. Criminal? Ummm…. *how?* So not only are actions which harm no one and damage nothing illegal in Britain, the courts can go after you time and again until they get what they want.

 Posted by at 12:43 pm
Apr 192022
 

In looking up the latest news about the war in Ukraine, Google News decided I needed to see this:

Netflix saves scrapped show helmed by Star Trek: Discovery boss

In short: CBS had a pilot and decided not to go forward with the show, but Netflix picked it up. The pilot was helmed by one Jordon Nardino, a “co-executive producer” on Star Trek: Discovery. This show now to be produced by Netflix is described thusly:

Coming to Netflix: Miss Benny (they/them/theirs) will star in GLAMOROUS as Marco Mejia (he/him/his), a young gender non-conforming queer man whose life seems to be stuck in place until he lands a job working for a legendary makeup mogul.

Uh huh. This explains a *lot* about modern Star Trek and why it sucks so badly and is so unlike actual Star Trek. In Star Trek: TOS, it was made abundantly clear that mental illness was almost entirely eliminated, with the Federation having something like 15 incurable nutballs until some new medicine comes along that cures even them. In all actual Star Trek, what is celebrated is someone trying to actually do something meaningful and useful with their lives. This new Netflix show is the polar opposite… as are modern debased Star Trek.

 Posted by at 12:35 pm
Apr 192022
 

After far too long of letting unhinged lunatics do whatever the frak they want, it’s nice to see the cops sometimes come in and sweep these loons off the streets. In Pittsburgh, some anti-civilization insurrectionists were illegally blocking the streets, the police showed up to shuffle them off, they became even *more* unhinged, and one alleged “person” tried to go hands-on with a cop and discovered that not all cops are pushovers.

 

The video below is from The Young Turks, which includes not only additional footage but also “analysis.” Given that it’s The Young Turks, the analysis is reliably 180 degrees off to reality.

 Posted by at 12:42 am