Quotulatiousness

September 25, 2026

Shock! Horror! Civil servant says SAS troopers are “feral” and “nasty”

Filed under: Britain, Media, Military, Politics — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

If you’ve ever met a regular soldier, you’ll have noticed that some of them are not comfortable in ordinary civilian settings for quite some time after they get back from active service … they have to re-adapt and that takes time and effort. Out in the field, the niceties of civil society are contra-survival in many cases. Special forces soldiers, who are much more likely to see the colour of blood (their own, their mates’, or much more likely, the enemy’s) find it even harder to be “nice” around dainty civilians like Monica Grenfell:

EXCLUSIVE: Special forces soldiers believe they are “untouchable” and not all of them are the heroes they think they are, according to a former female civil servant who worked alongside them.

Monica Grenfell, who was employed at the Special Air Service (SAS) headquarters in Credenhill, near Hereford, for three years, said some of the elite troops were “feral” and it was “the nasty characters who really ruled the roost”.

She has given evidence under oath to the Afghan Inquiry and has now been interviewed by @thetimes

During a security briefing, Grenfell claimed that an officer joked about the deaths of three SAS reservists in the Brecon Beacons, saying that “dying on selection is nature’s way of saying you have failed”, to which others laughed

Grenfell described how she was told that soldiers dropped detainees in Afghanistan from forklift trucks “for fun”. She said she asked someone what they did in their spare time in the country and they said they got forklift trucks and “drove really fast then slammed on the brakes so they fell from a height”.

The comments certainly trend a certain way:

Hector Drummond @hector_drummond
·
She should never have been allowed to be around them.


Integral Views @Integral_Views
·
Swearing and ‘being feral’ is actually just normal male behavior in groups, including friendships. All workplaces used to be like this.

Women find this atmosphere to be threatening and have gone about changing every working environment to suit their preferences without a single thought that men might find those new female coded, HR dominated safe space environments uncomfortable.

We do, by the way. We hate them.

Men retreated into gaming and now that’s also been infiltrated by woke game developers. Masculinity is simply no longer acceptable.

I’m sick of what women prefer being the unchallenged yardstick for what’s apparently morally virtuous.


Shine Like Marble @MoscowIn2008
·
The “female civil servant” rather sums up modern Britain. A feminised state obsessed with risk, HR and safeguarding, passing judgement on institutions like the SAS.


Cedric CiphercloΔk @Cycario
·
Which one didn’t text her back the night after the squadron function?


Bea Johanssen @bea_johanssen
·
Grenfell worked as a kitchen assistant and storekeeper between 2015-2018 — why would she be attending security briefings?


The Officers’ Mess @officersmess
.
Cool. Let Monica pass selection & do the grimy shit that affords her the freedom to have opinions.
Opinion she would be denied if not for the folks at the pointy end of the spear who have been protecting it.
If its too much for the Monica’s of the world: Find a new line of work.

John Coltrane, Prophet and Seer

Filed under: History, Media, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Ted Gioia
Published 5 Nov 2018

This is the latest installment in a series of informal, unscripted videos featuring music historian Ted Gioia. In this video, Gioia talks about the legacy of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. For more information on Ted Gioia, visit his website at http://www.tedgioia.com or follow him on Twitter at / tedgioia

When did employee humiliation become part of the mission?

Filed under: Business, Government, Health — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

I’ve been out of the working world for some time now, but I still remember the stomach-clenching realization that my employer was going to be “doing some fun activities” at an upcoming company event/meeting/recognitions/celebrations It was always just like the meme about the extrovert “persuading” the introvert to come out:

I’m told it’s even worse in the non-productive sector of the economy, as Fortissax explains:

If you’ve only worked trades, or unskilled labour your whole life you’d be inclined to thinking that humiliation rituals and childish games are unique to retail jobs like Walmart, where in morning huddles they make their minimum wage employees dance in place to celebrate how well their team did in last week’s sales, or survey results. I want you to know that in Very Serious Jobs™️ like NGOs, government, finance, and banking, white collar salary workers who work for some of the biggest and oldest corporations in Canada have to play stupid little games, and all the men have to fake enthusiasm for getting to know employees they don’t give a shit about outside of work, mostly to appease women in their 30s and 40s. They all have annual or bi-annual celebrations they’ll call “balls” or “galas” where the corporation spends an exorbitant amount of money on a semi formal event and a three and a half star deal, usually at some mid-high tier hotel. They do this so they can justify low balling you and not raising your salary. The women in particular are completely mesmerized as they dress up to relive prom night one more time, every year, where they can win fake little awards for being good little cogs scoring their arbitrary KPIs and survey goals, getting to strut up onto a stage in a dress and claim up a plastic trophy or framed certificate to be mounted on a wall, a gold star for whose it and who cares metric that nobody knows or gives a fuck about. You can make six figures or just under it and you’re still subject to participatory humiliation rituals.

How True was Lord of War? Surplus from the Warsaw Pact (w/ Val Forgett)

Filed under: Business, History, Military, Russia, USA, Weapons — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 20 May 2026

When the Soviet Union collapsed, there was a gold rush for the surplus guns held by all the various newly independent republics, as well as the Warsaw Pact nations. Lord of War is not far off … and Val Forgett was there, bringing guns into the US for Navy Arms.

QotD: The whole point of imposing tariffs is to raise prices

Filed under: Britain, Government, Politics, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

So why would we impose tariffs on an import or three? No, leave aside whether it’s a good idea or not, why would we do so? To increase the price of that item inside those tariff barriers. That’s it, that’s the point, to increase the price.

Think on it. So, those dastardly foreigners are better, or cheaper, or subsidised, or just plain swarthy johnnies who are selling to us and thereby stealing the crust from the mouths of the more expensive (or less good etc) proper British producers. So, we now impose a tax at the border. This makes those products from swarthy johnnies more expensive. So, people will buy fewer swarthy and more good and honest British.

This also enables the good British to raise their prices and so make a profit.

So, what actually happens is that the British consumer gets screwed for the benefit of British capitalists. Not quite what I’d recommend as a policy but that’s the point and the intention. Tariffs raise the domestic price of the thing, that’s the reason why.

Tim Worstall, “But Increasing Prices Is The Very Point Of Tariffs”, It’s all obvious or trivial except …, 2026-06-18.

Powered by WordPress