The Key Word Here Is 'Fiction'

Nine of the 10 bestselling fiction paperbacks in the UK this week have one thing in common: a woman is murdered.

So? The big seller is crime novels, someone has to be murdered. I don't want to read a novel about bank fraud, my maths isn't up to it!

While the titles range from historical fiction to domestic noir and police procedurals, each centres on the death of at least one female character.

The key word there being 'fiction', of course, and literature is hardly the main culprit here, movies, tv shoes and even computer games also feature murders of women. 

Only The Correspondent, a novel about the art of letter writing, breaks the pattern.

Wow, that must be a rivetting read! 

The trend was highlighted on Instagram by the author Wendy Jones, who wrote: “So 84% [sic] of the books people bought and read in the UK this week involved a woman being murdered for entertainment. What is going on here?”

But why does commercial fiction keep returning to the same story? Critics argue that repeatedly turning women into victims risks normalising violence against them. Yet the genre’s paradox is that women are also its biggest consumers, with some arguing its appeal may be a way of processing real-world fears.

Longrider weighs in on this 'paradox' too. 

The crime writer Mel McGrath wrote that the genre has, in some ways, moved on from the time of male authors such as Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane killing off women chiefly so the men investigating their deaths could be heroes. “Reading crime fiction written by women remains a powerfully feminist act,” she said. The crime writer and critic Laura Wilson explained that domestic noir is popular at the moment because it reflects “some very real fears”.

No, it's mostly that mystery is the hook here, not the act of murder. 

The novelist Denise Mina traced the appetite back to the broadsheet sellers of 18th-century London, who found that manufactured crimes sold copies so long as the victim fitted a particular profile.

A traditional crime novel, Rader-Day said, wraps up in under 400 pages with the mystery solved and order restored, “not at all like what actual death is like”, which is precisely why it’s so comforting. She said both craft and culture explained why the victim is so often a woman.“Most readers, most consumers, are women too, so if a writer wants to showcase anyone’s anxieties, a woman’s is a good choice – the anxiety that they themselves could become a victim,” she said.

That would imply that horror is popular because people can imagine themselves summoning demons, wouldn't it? And what about sci-fi? 

C'Mon Internet, Do Your Stuff, And Make Him Infamous

A postman wearing an England shirt has been caught on camera kicking a blind shih tzu ‘like a football’ - with it later dying from organ failure. Owner Eve Lewis, 40, said the man denied attacking her dog Ethel, but Ring doorbell footage showed that he had, just seconds after he handed over a parcel. The 11-year-old pet was partially blind and had only one tooth, so posed no threat, Ms Lewis said.

Utter bastard, and if not for video doorbells, he'd have got away with it. He still might, thanks to the uselesness of the authorities:

It is understood the postman has been suspended by Royal Mail.

Sadly, not from a tree, which is what he deserves! 

A Thames Valley police spokesman said: 'No arrests have been made but there are ongoing enquiries regarding animal welfare and criminal damage incidents.'

They shouldn't take this long, should they, since it's on camera and the Post Office knows who he is? 

Are The BBC Getting Their Reporters From The ‘Daily Mail’ Now?

An escaped big cat believed to have been roaming the countryside for two months has been captured after being found with injuries in a plant pot in a back garden

They didn't learn a thing last time , did they? The fact a 'big cat' fits into a plant pot should give them pause, surely?

Kevin Murphy, of Norfolk Wildlife Rescue, has been trying to track down the Savannah cat since it was spotted three weeks ago near Bramerton, south of Norwich. The feline is native to sub-Saharan Africa and it had been on the loose since escaping from its home in May.

No, one of the species that makes up this hybrid animal is native to Africa... 

Sunday Funnies...

 Any day now, HS2 will surely make the cut. 

They Always Turn On You In The End

No, not another dangerous dog post:

Actor and director Andy Serkis, famously the motion capture artist and voice behind Gollum in the original Lord of the Rings film trilogy, always seemed like a fine dude. And he has done a lot of charity work in his life. Yet in the last few years, he’s seemingly turned into an anti-cancel culture, AI-apologizing doofus who recently responded to criticism about his upcoming Lord of the Rings movie having an all-white cast by saying he isn’t concerned about “politically correct” casting.

The absolute monster! How dare he not genuflect at the altar of woke! 

People had criticized the original Peter Jackson-directed films for similar reasons, so some were surprised to see such a white cast for the new movie. Serkis is aware of the criticism of the past films and his new project, but seemed oddly indignant about it all.

As well he might, says anyone of a normal outlook. But this is Kotaku, which like most of the US based scifi review sites has been swallowed by the woke movement and is hopelessly in thrall to it.

“Yes, there have been criticisms,” said Serkis. “This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film. So, it’s where relevant basically.”He also suggested that the Hobbits’ home, The Shire, feels “very, very white” and added: “They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of The Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in.”

Sounds familiar... 

This is an especially odd thing to say considering some of the people of color cast in Amazon’s The Rings of Power were harassed so brutally online that Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan (who played Hobbits in the Jackson films) made an effort to defend the cast and calm people down. So Serkis using some of the same language that angry people online used about Rings of Power‘s non-white casting seems gross.

But in recent years, Serkis has repeatedly done and said stuff that has made me go, “When did you turn into a dick?”

Perhaps he hasn't turned into anything? 

Serkis’ 2018 comments about Scarlett Johansson planning to play a trans man (before she dropped out of the project) were resurfaced. And instead of sharing that he had listened to people and learned that, hey, maybe we should try to have better representation, he doubled down on his stance.

I'm guessing the reviewer, one Zack Zwiezen and yes, he looks exactly how I'd pictured him, can't see the trap in that sentence.

“Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of how tall you are or short you are or what sex you are, regardless of how you identify, you should have the ability to play anything,” said Serkis in that interview.

C'mon, Andy, we all know what would happen if a studio was to cast a white actor (or a woman!) to play Martin Luther King. We all know this only goes one way. 

Serkis also made it clear that he would love to play Voldemort in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, joking that he would cut his nose off to play the villain.

HE'S IN LEAGUE WITH THE EVIL ONE*!  And he supports stuff we (the Royal 'we' of course) hate:

But it’s clear he is fine with AI becoming a part of filmmaking. He even recently starred in Young Washington, a movie that features scenes touched up and modified with genAI.

Odly enough, the commenters don't agree, he's getting absolutely bodied in the comment section, so maybe there's hope after all. 

 *JK Rowling of course

Yet Another....

It seems they come more frequently than buses these days...

A man has been arrested after a dog caused serious injuries to two people on Saturday. Sussex Police said officers were called to Sunningdale Court in the Southgate area of Crawley, West Sussex, at about 13:00 BST, following reports of a dog dangerously out of control.

Another XL bully? No, Reader, its successor as the four-legged weapon/penis substitute for social inadequates on the streets of Britain. 

Armed and neighbourhood policing officers were sent to the scene and the Cane Corso breed dog was secured and assessed before being "humanely put to sleep in the interest of public safety and animal welfare", said the force.

And the mutt's owner? 

A 27-year-old man, believed to be the animal's owner, was arrested in connection with the incident and remains in custody, police confirmed.

Sussex Police said it was investigating the circumstances and urged anyone with relevant information to get in touch.

One hopes the CPS won't drop the ball this time. The antisocial owners of these things need to be brought to heel. 

No Consequences Britain...

Daniel Dickons knocked the victim off her bike 'for no reason' - causing her to suffer multiple injuries, including a gash to her chin and an exposed kneecap. The 39-year-old was detained at Culver Parade in the Isle of Wight following the attack, while the woman - who had fallen onto the beach below - was taken to hospital.

Just another day in lawless Britain, where no-one is allowed to carry the means to defend oneself, because that is the purview of  the State.

The Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court heard the assault was unprovoked and happened ‘for no reason.’ The woman’s bike landed on top of her, and she was initially unable to move one of her legs. Emergency services attended the scene, including an air ambulance crew. The victim was taken to the hospital and discharged later that night.

Dickons, from the Isle of Wight, was detained at the scene by a member of the public before being arrested by police. The prosecutor told the court it remains unclear why Dickons carried out the attack, although he told officers he ‘thought it would be funny, so he did it.’

Just another Morlock wandering the streets of Britain… 

Dickons pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was handed a 52-week jail term, suspended for 24 months, to include a six-month alcohol treatment requirement and 35 rehabilitation days. Dickons was also ordered to pay £1,000 compensation.

That would be a pathetic sentence for a first time offender. 

Dickons has six previous convictions for six offences dating back to 2008.

Details aren’t given, but I suspect are all the same low impulse control offences which the justice system has so far failed to correct him of, and doesn’t see fit to even try this time. 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Rosie said she had approached a woman in a car who looked to be struggling with a dog, but the dog turned and lunged for her, and bit her on her left hand. 

"It just went from bad to worse after that," she said.

Except for the arrival of a man, it would have been potentially fatal… 

As Rosie turned to run away, the dog, which had no collar or lead, got hold of the backs of her legs, resulting in puncture wounds to her legs, shins, ankles, torso, and knees. 

"I smashed my head on the road because the dog dragged me down to the floor and I've got extensive bruising everywhere. It's pretty horrific," said Rosie. 

A passing lorry driver stopped to save the screaming victim, hitting the dog, which was on top of Rosie, with a makeshift weapon.

"That lorry driver saved my life without question," she said.

 Yes, he did.

A young man and a woman were attacked earlier in the day.

Oh. No lorry driver around for them, then. Where were the cops?

Lancashire Police said it had received numerous reports of a dog attacking people, but no arrests had been made and no animal has been seized.

Why not? 

Melanie says the dog should be "seized and destroyed" to stop it from attacking others. 

"You're supposed to be protected in this country. You can't just leave it to be a dog that's free to do it again. It's shocking."

It is, undoubedly. It's nonetheless unsurprising.

And I Bet You Don't Feel As If You Played Any Part In Breaking It?

To call this Saturday the nation’s 250th birthday is to indulge a comfortable fiction. 1776 was a declaration, not a birth certificate – and the founders wrote its claims of human equality while this nation enslaved human beings

Says who? well, 'Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist' So you know what you’re in for.

So I’m not in the mood to celebrate “America 250”, and I’m not alone.

The affection is thin this summer: the Pew Research Center found that 69% of Americans were dissatisfied with the country’s direction early this year. That is not ingratitude. Sometimes a sour mood is simply clear vision.

Without the context, this statement is worthless. There's no definition of 'the country's direction' to say exactlt what they were dissatified with - it might as well have been the march of progressive ideas as the return of conservative ones.

Nearly 250 years later, the US is not a finished monument, but a structure still under repair, still contested – and in places being quietly stripped for parts.

Wait for it, wait for it… 

The president tried, by executive order, to read the children of undocumented and temporary residents out of the 14th amendment. The court blocked him, six to three – though only five justices joined the chief justice’s full constitutional reasoning. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, concurring, called the Reconstruction amendments “an anticaste, antisubordination reset”, not “a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery”. The citizenship clause was not a gift the founders left us; it was a repair, built after Dred Scott, slavery and war to overrule a court that had made blood the measure of belonging.

Birthright citizenship is proof that the founding promise did not preserve itself; it had to be rebuilt into the constitution after the country’s own highest court exposed the lie beneath the celebration.

Does this man realise that the Founding Fathers were facing a much different world when they wrote that into the Constitution? 

The victory did not last the afternoon. Within hours, the president called the ruling “too bad for our Country” and told Congress to “start TODAY” on ending birthright citizenship, insisting no amendment was needed. That is not how the constitution works – ordinary legislation cannot rewrite a constitutional guarantee. But he is reaching for a door a sixth justice left ajar: Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Congress could carve out exceptions by statute. A repair can be upheld in the morning and marked for demolition by nightfall.

Repair also means seeing people as people. The court upheld state laws barring transgender girls from girls’ sports, and in the West Virginia case it let the category decide without asking whether excluding one child – who socially transitioned in grade school and took puberty blockers before she ever competed – actually served the state’s stated interests. That isn’t equal protection. It’s permission to discriminate.

The court upheld state laws banning BOYS from girls sport as the voters in that State evidently wanted...but discrimination is a 'bad' word, even when it's the right thing to do to protect the integrity and safety of female sport. 

Celebration will not house people, protect voters or repair what power is trying to break. A country can be taken apart slowly, lawfully, one ruling at a time – and the people taking it apart are not vandals but officials: a president who cancels a housing signing by lunchtime, a court that clears the way for the largest checks, all of it done in the name of patriotism. The answer is not fireworks, and it is not despair. It is to name plainly what is being damaged, and by whom – then to get busy fixing it.

Trump has named it - it's people like you, with an extreme progressive agenda - and he's getting busy fixing it.

White Woman 'Savior Syndrome ' Goes Wrong

A woman was left needing surgery after being mauled by her dog - which she had adopted on Facebook three weeks earlier. Charlotte Potts, 32, adopted the one-year-old Cane Corso cross American Bulldog from a breeder on Facebook.

Adopting a powerful breed from Facebook, what could possibly go wrong?  

Initially, the dog - called Blue - settled in well and Charlotte says he didn't "show any aggression" towards her and her family. But on her routine walk on Saturday morning, July 4, Blue turned on Charlotte and attacked her, sinking his jaws into her legs after ripping through her trousers.She called for her younger brother, eight, to run and leave the enclosed dog park and call for help whilst Blue continued to attack her. The dog then went for Charlotte's right arm which she allowed him to do whilst she used her left arm to tie his lead to a fence.

The kid is lucky it didn’t turn on him. She would never have fought it off. 

The whole ordeal lasted around eight minutes, and Charlotte was taken to hospital by ambulance whilst the dog was euthanised by the police.

With extreme prejudice, I hope!

"It felt like a really long time - I didn't think I was going to get out of there. There's six levels of dog bites, and six is fatal - this one was level five. I love dogs, but I want to raise awareness around making sure dogs are fully assessed before being rehomed."

Thanks a lot, sweetie but most of us are sensible enough not to acquire a misbegotten mutt of unknown background from social media in the first place! Certainly not one of a bloodsport heritage that probably outweighs us.

"I'd still be in hospital if it wasn't for my partner Rachel, and without my kick boxing background I don't think I'd have been strong enough to fight him off."

*bites tongue* 

In the weeks before the attack, police visited Charlotte after receiving an anonymous tip off that she owned an XL Bully. They determined that Blue was an American Bulldog by Vegetable taking a photo of his head and as a result, did not take him away.

Isn't it about time there were restrictions on dog ownership no matter the breed? Didn’t any of the cops take a look at the hulking brute and suggest to her she wouldn’t be able to control it if it went berserk?