We’ve noted this line of thinking in the once-Great Britain before, but now it’s a judge making stupid statements about knife control.  Excerpt:

A judge has called for a drastic rethink on the way we use knives in kitchens in a bid to reduce the number of young men dying on our streets because of knife crime.

And he has come up with an idea for a scheme that could be rolled out across the UK where members of the public could take their kitchen knives to be ‘modified’ and the points ground down into rounded ends.

Here’s his line of thought, such as it is:

‘But why we do need 8′ or 10′ kitchen knives with points? Butchers and fishmongers do, but how often, if at all, does a domestic chef use the point of an 8′ or 10′ knife? Rarely, if at all,’ he said.

At the moment police forces hold ‘amnesties’ where bins are placed outside police station and members of the public can get rid of lethal weapons – no questions asked.

Judge Madge’s idea is for everyone to be able to take the knives from their kitchen drawers to centres where the points could be filed down.

‘I would urge all those with any role in relation to knives – manufacturers, shops, the police, local authorities, the government – to consider preventing the sale of long pointed knives, except in rare, defined, circumstances, and replacing such knives with rounded ends,’ he said.

He went on: ‘It might even be that the police could organise a programme whereby the owners of kitchen knives, which have been properly and lawfully bought for culinary purposes, could be taken somewhere to be modified, with the points being ground down into rounded ends,’ he said.

Oh, for the love of Pete.  Brits used to have some balls; this was a nation that stood alone against Hitler for months until the Soviet Union and the United States entered World War 2.  Now a British judge is whining about pointy kitchen knives, and in Scotland a man has been arrested for – I’m not kidding – brandishing a potato peeler.

The thinking here isn’t too different from that of American gun-grabbers, namely, blaming an inanimate object for the action of a person; effectively, blaming the sword for the hand that wields it.  Anyone with any knowledge of cause analysis knows the first rule of that art is that the tool is never the cause.  An action requires an actor.  That’s something this judge doesn’t seem to get.

And I never, ever thought Monty Python would end up being a documentary.

Someone read my Blue Monday post this week.  To be fair, this article added some stuff I  hadn’t really thought about; by all means, go read it.

Moving right along:  Here’s your kook of the day and, shamefully, Newsweek appears to be reporting this as straight news.  Excerpts with my comments:

Amethyst Realm, a 27-year-old “spiritual guidance counselor” in England, says sex with ghosts is much better than sex with men—and she should know because she’s made love with at least 20 ghouls.

She’s a “spiritual guidance counselor?”  So what possible reason might she have for, you know, making this shit up?

Realm said on the British TV show “ITV This Morning” last week that she experienced her first truly spiritual encounter 12 years ago after she and her then-fiancé moved into a new home together when she felt a strange presence.

No, she didn’t.

“It started as an energy, then became physical,” she told hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.  

No, it didn’t.

“There was pressure on my thighs and breath on my neck. I just always felt safe. I had sex with the ghost.

No, she didn’t.

You can feel it.

No, you can’t.

It’s difficult to explain. There was a weight and a weightlessness, a physical breath and stroking, and the energy as well.”

No, there isn’t.

Realm said she had a love affair with the ghost for three years before her human lover came home from work early and saw a shadow of what appeared to be a man. Since her first encounter, Realm has said she has had sex 20 times with various ghosts.

No, she hasn’t.

Is it possible to have sex with Casper The (little more than just) Friendly ghost? Experts say, yes (or, more accurately, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!).

No, no, no, no, NO!  You can only indulge your own oddball fantasies.

“People have the richest fantasies. If they’re getting pleasure from that fantasy, then it is possible,” said Rachel Sussman, a psychotherapist told Newsweek.

No, it’s not possible, any more than my imagining I can hunt a bull T-rex is possible.

It’s unfair, as there are plenty of reputable psychiatrists and psychologists out there, but indulging this kind of horseshit gives head-candlers a bad name.

Some people have way too much time on their hands – or possibly too much booze in their snoots.  Possibly both.  Excerpt:

Democrats have been celebrating all day about their sweep of major races last night. And apparently, some of them have been hitting the hooch a little too hard.

Take Texas Rep. Al Green. Mr. Green rose on the House floor and delivered a speech about impeaching Donald Trump. Of course, he’s not the only Democrat to use the “I” word. But most Democrats are smart enough (or sober enough) to know that before a president can be impeached, there are definite constitutional protocols that need to be followed.

Green is either ignorant of how a president is removed from office, or, in a celebratory(and) inebriated state, doesn’t care. Whatever the reason, Green got carried away in the moment and predicted that Trump would be impeached “before Christmas.”

Here is a portion of Rep. Green’s statement:

There will be a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Speaker, on the impeachment of the president. Mr. Speaker, this vote will take place before Christmas because there still is a need for the public to weigh in. I announced earlier this year, I called for the impeachment of the president right here on the floor of the House.

Since that time, I’ve read articles of impeachment. These articles of impeachment have been circulated and we’re giving people an opportunity to respond. Momentum is building, Mr. Speaker. The momentum is building. More people favor impeachment than not. Momentum is building. People should weigh in, they should let others know how they feel about impeach.

What articles of impeachment has he read?  Among whom have these articles been circulated?  Has anyone responded?   And what the hell does “…let others now how they feel about impeach” even mean?

Is Rep. Green drunk or just stupid?

Here’s the thing; Rep. Green has to know damn well that there will be no articles of impeachment.  He’s just bloviating for his own personal voting base.

Imagine what the political process would look like if Rep. Green’s wet dreams about impeachment became reality; any President that did something that a member of Congress didn’t like would be dragged in front of an impeachment kangaroo court.  It might look something like this:

Rep. Green is, as I said, grandstanding.  That probably sits well with voters in his district, considering that they voted him in.

But to most of the country he just looks like a jackass.

Nancy Pelosi, that daffy old birdbrain from the Bay Area, is at it again.  Excerpt, with some of my comments interspersed:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi fires back at those Democrats calling for her to resign. Following Democrat Jon Ossoff’s loss this week in the race to fill the Congressional seat vacated by HHS Dept. head Tom Price, many Democrats cast blame on Party leaders like Pelosi. Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who unsuccessfully challenged Pelosi for her minority leader position last year, said Pelosi is “toxic” to Democratic candidates and that the party would lose in 2018 if Republicans could make the House minority leader its face. Pelosi disagrees, singing her own praises as a “master legislator” and “astute leader” who is “worth the trouble.”

Dame Nancy, she of “we have to pass it to find out what’s in it” infamy, is a “master legislator?”  She’s not even a journeyman legislator.

“My decision about how long I stay is not up to them,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday morning. “I love the arena. I thrive on competition, and I welcome the discussion.”

Former (for which we should all be grateful) Speaker Pelosi never has welcomed any discussion unless the participants already agree with her.  To be honest, in that she has plenty of company in the Imperial City.

“You want me to sing my praises, is that it?” she added. “I’m a master legislator. I’m a strategic, politically astute leader.”

Pelosi added that Republicans always attack “the most effective” leaders in the Democratic Party and that her experience makes her “worth the trouble, quite frankly.”

First, let me present this short clip that summarizes my reaction:

Seriously, though, True Believers.  I’ve always maintained that the country is better off with two strong political parties.  Right now we don’t even have one strong political party.  The Democrats have drifted off somewhere to the left of Leon Trotsky; they claim to embrace working men, Millennials and minorities, but their leadership is the oldest, whitest bunch you’re liable to find this side of a KKK rally.  Meanwhile, the GOP continues their impression of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

But the GOP has been doing something the Democrats don’t seem to be able to manage in the last few years – they’re winning elections.

The Dems would be well advised ot find some new blood, and show the old dinosaurs like Pelosi the door.