My latest rant

Sometimes I just need to rant. Be afraid, you are my captive audience.

Trump intervenes for Tates; DeSantis grows a spine

Andrew Tate, a man with ears like a bat, a head like a cue ball, a chin that is receding almost as much as his hairline, and a face only a mother could love.

Once again proving that sexual predators stick together (hands up all those not surprised to see Russell Brand at one of his rallies!) Trump has gone into bat for those poor misunderstood Tate brothers.

Professional whinger, misogynist and chinless wonder Andrew Tate and his sidekick brother that no one remembers, Tristan, have been subject to the hospitality of the Romanian justice system since their December 2022 arrest over alleged trafficking of minors, sex with minors and money laundering. A lovely pair of young lads, right?

This “man” who seems to constantly have the facial expression of an angry toddler with a full diaper wasn’t enjoying being under what was effectively house arrest, so ol’ Donnie boy put a bit of pressure on the Romanian authorities and next thing you know, they were winging their way to Florida (the Tate brothers are joint UK/US citizens).

Interestingly, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has grown a spine and stated quite clearly: “No, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct.”

Meanwhile, four British women are bringing separate civil claims against Andrew Tate in the UK, accusing him of rape and coercive control.

The Tates were already subject to an extradition order to take them back to Britain, but only once Romanian legal dramas are done.

What a classy pair of lads. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It’s that time of the year again, when little kids and retailers get excited. And it would appear it’s the time of the year Santa has his prostate check, if this photo is any indication.

SantaBut I digress. It’s December, which means I can look at tinsel and all other festive-themed paraphernalia without getting  the urge to Taser someone. I really do like Christmas … but I like it in December, where it belongs.

Way back in the mists of time, when I was a snotty-nosed brat, the whole Christmas excitement didn’t start to build up until December. Which made sense: the school holidays would kick off and you’d have just enough time to get yourself worked up into a lather about whatever it was you were hoping the whiskery old bugger in the red suit was going to shove down the chimney for you before Christmas Eve arrived. Then you’d lie in bed wondering if you were EVER going to get to sleep, or even HOW you were ever going to get to sleep with all this excitement. You’d hear a noise, panic that it was Santa and his reindeer and you’d miss out if he realised you were still awake, stress some more about the whole getting to sleep bizzo, then … well, miraculously, it would be morning and there’d be a whole bunch of goodies for you to rip into. And if you were really lucky, they were the goodies you asked for. Damn, they were stressful times.

(As an aside; I never did get the Tonka truck I wanted. Instead, I was the lucky recipient of several dolls over the years. Bloody gender stereotypes, sometimes life isn’t fair.)

These days, it’s even worse for kids because the whole buildup starts so much earlier. When my son was little, it moved to November, with shops breaking out the festive decorations a good six weeks before the big day. Now, it seems October is the new November. It scares me when I see Christmas tinselly things and hear Christmas carols in October. It also makes me more than a little pissed off: I mean really, why can’t Christmas happen in December? It’s a wonder all the kids out there aren’t all Christmas-ed out by the time December 25 arrives. Who knows, maybe the next big things for child psychologists might be post-traumatic Christmas stress syndrome (because attention deficit disorder is so passe). The poor little buggers must be as twitchy as hell by the time Christmas Eve arrives.

So please retailers and weird Christmas addicted freaks who decorate anything in their vicinity that stays still long enough, can Christmas stop moving backwards (oooh, I feel a Goons song coming on). Then I’ll be happy.

Well, apart from when I see those bizarre fake snowman decorations. We’re in the southern hemisphere so it’s the middle of summer for us at Christmas time. That’s a whole other Taser opportunity.

 

Still paying the price for fraudulent report

Twenty-five years ago, a report written by a now-discredited academic and former physician was published, and we are still paying the price for his fraudulent claims.

Sadly, even though Andrew Wakefield later admitted his claim that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism was not actually proven, his  claims were embraced by the anti-science movement and the world became infected with anti-vaxxers.

Wakefield’s study was published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1998. Other researchers were unable to reproduce his findings and Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer found “undisclosed financial conflicts of interest on Wakefield’s part”. In fact Wakefield reportedly stood to earn up to $43 million per year selling test kits.

Most of Wakefield’s co-authors then withdrew their support for the study’s interpretations.

The General Medical Council looked into allegations of misconduct against Wakefield and two former colleagues and he was later struck off the medical register for his involvement in what was actually a fraudulent study. In 2010, the council found that Wakefield had been dishonest in his research, had acted against his patients’ best interests and mistreated developmentally delayed children, and had “failed in his duties as a responsible consultant”.

In 2010, The Lancet fully retracted Wakefield’s 1998 publication on the basis of those findings, saying elements of the manuscript had been falsified and that the journal had been “deceived” by Wakefield.

Three months later, Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register, in part for his deliberate falsification of that research.

Sadly, the cultists who still believe his claims have found new fodder in the form of the covid vaccine. 

Here’s a hint: don’t take medical advice from someone on Facebook who posts anti-science memes. Talk to your doctor, get the facts, and then make your decision. I fully understand that there are people out there who can’t be vaccinated or choose not to be vaccinated against Covid or any number of virii for various reasons. But the decision not to vaccinate should be based on what’s right for you after weighing up the facts, not what some basement-dwelling, meme-posting, mouth-breather thinks you should do.

 

Ultimate unfit parent: asshole extraordinaire

Myka Stauffer with her four children. She’s rehomed one so far. No word on whether she’s keeping the rest.

When people decide to rehome pets because they don’t suit their lifestyle, I’m inclined to take the view that they are absolute assholes.

So it’s an extreme level of assholery for someone to try that with a kid. Yes, a child. One of those ridiculous “online influencers” adopted herself a child from China, but after three years, Myka Stauffer and her husband James have decided to “rehome” their child. Yes, rehome him, like he’s a fucking cat that’s activating her allergies.

They have three other kids, and honestly, if she’s happy to rehome one (she even referred to the situation as finding him his “forever home”), then the authorities should seriously be looking at the rest of their children. Because they obviously don’t see unconditional love as being a requirement for being a parent.

Disgusting.

 

The great American scam

It seems like every second “travel” story in newspapers, magazines and online is some sort of guide on how to tip when visiting America. There’s no doubt it’s an interesting country to visit, but FFS, pay people a proper wages. It’s bloody ridiculous that a restaurant gets away with paying wait staff slave wages while charging an arm and a leg for the food. And every year the list of those with their hand out wanting a tip seems to get longer.

The solution? How about the people making money of the work of those people pay their fucking wages. 

Out of order

Rebel WilsonSo in 2022, it appears we still have journalists who think it’s OK to out someone.

It is never OK. If someone wants to tell their nearest and dearest, or the entire world, that they are gay, that is their decision to make.

But according to actress Rebel Wilson, Aussie journalist gave her a heads up that he was indeed going to out her in a couple days after learning that she was in a relationship with a woman. And then he had the audacity to complain when she went public with the news herself to cut him off.

Gawd, how does anyone think it’s acceptable to still be pulling shit like that?

 

Still flying their freak flag after all these years

Mountain manI see the shit is continuing to hit the proverbial fan in the United States, under the leadership of Trumplestiltskin, with headlines screaming about the chaos … 

Protests spark battles across the US

Antifa and Proud Boys brawl in Michigan

Cops clash with BLM marchers in Chicago

Pro-police demonstrators fire gunshots in Portland as rallies turn violent 

It’s just a little bit weird that the rednecks so proudly wave the flag of their failed pro-slavery confederacy every time they want to have a protest.

It’s even more weird that it is so tolerated. Germany kind of frowns upon the neo-Nazis flashing swastikas because much like the confederate flag, it’s a symbol of hate.

Can it be even more weird? Oh yes indeedy: while Donald Trump and his cronies whine about antifa being terrorists, the likes of the Proud Boys and KKK are perfectly legal. In fact, he’s even referred to the Proud Boys (sort of like the KKK but without the white sheets) as “good people”. 

Sigh. America, you might just be fucked. Good luck for the next few years. You’re gonna need it!

TV programming worse than the plague

It’s interesting to see how some of the inhabitants of our planet are navigating our plague situation. Like the idiot who seemed a bit surprised that borders were closed and he got stranded here, so decided to have a whinge about the television programming in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Riiiight.

So it seems a British couple had been on what was described as the trip of a lifetime, including time in Singapore and Aussie before landing here on February 13.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had been trekking around the world AFTER the World Health Organisation had declared   the outbreak of a new virus a “public health emergency of international concern”, I would probably be considering getting the fuck outta Dodge, and flying home. In fact, on February 6, I cancelled a planned trip to the States in July because it was glaringly obvious this shit wasn’t going away any time soon, and seeing what was happening in Italy made it clear this was going to get worse before it got better. 

But nevertheless, our intrepid travellers landed here with plans to fly out at the end of March. As we all know, New Zealand went into lockdown on March 26.

So they are currently stuck here and complaining that being confined to a motel room in Auckland  feels a “bit like Alcatraz”.

Even worse, the TV programming is not to their taste, with hubby Mike Rowland saying: “Breakfast news here is like a sixth form experiment compared to Good Morning Britain … Piers Morgan is a God compared to what we are looking at.”

He said that when they started their holiday “Covid-19 was just something that affected China. By the time we got to Taupo in the North Island on March 14, it was starting to get a bit more serious but there was still no reason for us to change anything”.

No reason? How about that aforementioned World Health Organisation “public health emergency of international concern” bizzo? Even better, the WHO declared it was a global pandemic on March 11. That didn’t give a hint?

Anyway dear Mike, you poor hard-done-by traveller, sorry our telly isn’t up to your exacting standards. If you worship Piers Morgan, there’s little hope for you.

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