2025 Man dreamily laments the receding-away of the last millennium

Few things are as absurd as being the only customer in a breakfast café in the Kölner Südstadt with a goateed autochthonous thirtysomething behind the bar, and being treated to the amplified rhythmic declaration:

“I is a nigger, I is a pimp …”

The krar is Ethiopia's profane lyre, never used for praising God (that's done with the begena).

The Derg régime banned it—Marxists though they were (or perhaps because they were), they didn't want ladies being serenaded with such abandon.

youtube.com/watch?v=JKVK1q2GXLA

Got a Dutch spam call tantalising me with having been selected for some good thing:

Je bent aangenomen en ik nodig je graag uit …

Apple helpfully transcribed this voicemail for me as:

“You've been asking Norman and ignoring if he felt left out …”

I have a genuine Q: where is the money going? I was in the RAF through the 80s and 90s; at under 2% of GDP the UK armed forces were well up to strength, and really well equipped. As far as I can see now the manning is less than a shadow of before, and it is largely a drone force. My best pal is ex east-German army and his contacts tell him that effectively Germany has a Dad's Army level of manning and firepower. So where are they going to spend 5% of GDP? I seem to recall that such questions occupied Parliament and the front pages almost constantly.

— And that becomes today’s limerick contest:

The Riddle of the Five Percent

But since Tyro was asking a serious and informed question, I’ll have a stab at answering it in that vein this evening.

Ven you are on a Fast-German-Train

And autonomous aircraft carriers with expensive toys embarked that kill pilots and are insanely expensive to maintain. Just take the two carriers; how long do you think they could survive a hot engagement against (say) Russia? I'd give them less than a day. They'll never go into battle because they can't. Simple as. The UK RN does not have the SSN, destroyer, frigate, tanker support for even 1 carrier; the other NATO member states are equally as parlous. Where is the money going? It is not on training, recruitment or kit.

A lot of it is being swallowed up at the point of procurement, by the likes of BAE etc. and is disappearing into the black holes of useless HR departments for only one example

6 years today since I last took cocaine. Never again.

“Way in my brain, no cocaine
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go insane
Way in my brain, no cocaine
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go insane"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk68z40dApU

Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know.

— John Newton

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he needs more migrants in London

https://x.com/HJB_News__/status/1941158691803472057?s=19

Tyro answered his own question:

I think I know the answer Alex; I am seeing massive TransAtlantic/Europe money laundering.