Memes that made me laugh 276

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Something rather different this morning...

Saga Lore AI is an artist (?) who creates videos themed to well-known films and TV shows, but with original music and AI-generated artwork.  He very skillfully adapts well-known actors' faces to his artificial AI scenario, instantly recognizable if you know the original film or show, but blending into his new imaginary reality.

This morning I've chosen four of his videos based on Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy of movies.  The first is a hard rock re-imagining set in the Vietnam War era.  Language alert:  there are a few naughty words here and there.

The next three adapt reggae music and "philosophy" (?) to the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  It's certainly a very different approach!

I enjoyed the imagination that went into them.  I hope you did, too.  You'll find plenty more of Saga Lore AI's music on his YouTube channel.

Peter

The Minneapolis shooter's insane "mandate"

 

Fellow blogger Big Country Expat has taken the time and trouble to photograph every page of the Minneapolis church shooter's ramblings (I refuse to use his name - let him be forgotten!), and has published them on his blog, along with a translation of the weird mixture of English and pseudo-Russian, Latin and Cyrillic script in which they're written.  Click here to go to his place and take a look.

I think he's done us a public service by putting this stuff out there.  I suggest each of us bookmark his post, and if possible save a copy to our own computers, because sure as hell the progressive left is going to try to deep-six the "manifesto" in order to "protect" the trans community.  We need to remember, and be aware every day, that the proportion of mass shootings and other such crimes committed by trans people is out of all proportion to their actual numbers.  It's getting to the point where I think we might start classifying all trans people as at least potential criminals of this sort, purely to protect ourselves against the larger-than-usual proportion of mass murderers coming out of their number.

Also, it's long gone time to improve our school security.  I suggest training and arming teachers, since they're the people on the spot if trouble starts.  I know this latest shooting occurred at a school church service - but that can be catered for, too.  I knew more than a few priests in Africa who routinely carried a gun beneath their vestments as they celebrated Mass, and for good reason.  They lived in parts of the continent where inter-religious violence was the rule rather than the exception, and they saw it as part of their duty to protect "the flock of God which is their charge".  I'm sure their successors are continuing the same policy today.  More power to them!

Peter

The deeper we dig, the worse the smell becomes

 

In the relatively short time that President Trump has been in office, investigations have uncovered misallocation of funds, corruption, bribery and malfeasance to an astonishing extent.  I'm willing to bet most go back to the Obama administration, when covert corruption of the system of government became entrenched.

Two articles caught my eye over the past couple of days.  The first refers to the Palisades fire in California last year.

Millions of dollars raised to help victims of the 2025 California wildfires have ended up in the coffers of unrelated nonprofits pushing a variety of progressive causes, a Washington Free Beacon review found. Some of the groups that have received funds explicitly exclude white people from their services, while others advertise programs for illegal aliens.

FireAid, a celebrity-studded fundraising organization that raked in about $100 million for wildfire relief efforts, has distributed money to more than 160 California nonprofits. Its flagship event on Jan. 30, produced by the Annenberg Foundation, featured performers like Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Dr. Dre, Stevie Wonder, and Sting, among others.

There's more at the link.

What appears conspicuous by its absence is the complete lack of support from FireAid to actual victims of the disaster.  As far as we know, left-wing progressive liberal organizations benefited, but not a single property owner was compensated for losses suffered in the fire.  I wonder if those who donated to FireAid knew that - and how they feel about it now?  If it were me, I'd be demanding a refund.

The second article is from Jeff Childers, who notes that President Trump appears to be uncovering all sorts of interesting links between the Soros Foundation and other major progressive donors, coupled to the massive spread of non-governmental organizations (NGO's) who receive such donations and use them without having to account for what they're doing with the money.

Let’s connect some dots! First, yesterday President Trump randomly and quite colorfully posted about how the Soros family should be investigated for mob-like racketeering. Fair enough. No arguments here. But … why now?

. . .

The headlined but unnamed “firm” is mega-NGO Arabella Advisors, which the Times admitted “manages several ‘dark money’ funds that support Democrats and the progressive movement.” By “several dark money funds,” it meant hundreds.

. . .

Now let’s add the USAID connection. Over the last decade, Arabella Advisors and its woketopus of blandly named subsidiaries minted a cottage industry for USAID careerists, hiring them in the septic-tanker loads. And Arabella’s biggest donors, including the aforementioned Gates Foundation, were also —not coincidentally— some of the nation’s largest USAID grant recipients.

Now we can see the entire, obscene length and girth of the woke gravy train. Our own money flowed from USAID to the Gates Foundation and other big platforms, then to Arabella, and then to leftwing NGOs, Democrat politicians, and progressive activist groups. It was a kind of perpetual-motion donor machine where accountability disappeared in a puff of sulphuric smoke at each handoff.

You must admit it was a devilishly brilliant scheme, tricking us into paying for our own destruction.

. . .

Trump’s RICO drumbeat against Soros hints that this whole philanthropy-politics pipeline is about to be treated as what it is: a criminal enterprise. Trump’s post about Soros and RICO and the Gates–Arabella unraveling link up at the same networked-funding “philanthropic” ecosystem.

However it happens, if that USAID → Mega-platforms (like Gates) → Arabella → progressive activist pipeline is finally switched off, the political effect would be massive. Arabella’s fiscal-sponsor funds have quietly underwritten much of the left’s operational backbone: voter registration groups, climate activism, racial justice nonprofits, education campaigns, and ballot initiatives. Cutting the pipeline means many of those groups would lose dependable, pooled, and largely anonymous funding streams. They’ll struggle to sustain staff, payroll, and field operations at the current scale.

Again, more at the link.

Remember, an organized financial network of behind-the-scenes support for progressive left-wing politics doesn't get set up overnight.  This has been constructed over years, possibly even decades.  As I mentioned earlier, I suspect it swung into high gear when President Obama was elected.  Indeed, this left-wing political machine might have made it a priority to elect a president whom they could control, and who could be "managed" to enable such behind-the-scenes chicanery.

I have no objection at all to any shade of political opinion funding its operations in an open, transparent, honest way.  There should be accountability, of course, but openness is a great sanitizer.  It's when things are done in secret, with money shuffled from group to group and account to account so often that it becomes untraceable, that things get murky.  From what Mr. Childers has said, it looks as if the Soros-Arabella axis is as murky as they come.  One hopes we'll get to the bottom of it in due course.

I'm particularly going to watch for indications of how many US taxpayer dollars were diverted to progressive left-wing partisan politics via USAID and NGO's.  I won't be surprised to learn it was in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.  If so, one hopes the perpetrators will be hunted down and prosecuted for their misdeeds - just as those raising funds under false pretenses, no matter how carefully worded in evasive, weaselly terms, should also be held accountable.

Peter

Let's give Cracker Barrel some food for thought...

 

... courtesy of Stephan Pastis.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Think that's toxically masculine enough for their new "woke" approach to reject?

Peter

So much for the "Katrina Declaration"

 

I note with disgust that a large number of employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have complained that "the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul is gutting the disaster relief agency’s authority and capabilities, undoing two decades of progress since the failures of Hurricane Katrina".

Titled “Katrina Declaration,” the letter accuses President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, of eroding the agency’s response capabilities and appointing unqualified leadership. The group calls for FEMA to be shielded from political interference and for its workforce to be protected from politically motivated firings.

The warning comes as the nation marks 20 years since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing nearly 1,400 people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.) The botched FEMA effort exposed fatal flaws in the federal emergency response system – failures that led Congress to pass sweeping reforms, including the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which strengthened FEMA’s independence and set higher standards for its leaders.

Now, the letter argues, those reforms are being unraveled, as the Trump administration moves to either abolish or drastically shrink FEMA’s role.

There's more at the link.

I remember FEMA and Katrina very well indeed, because I was part of the independent efforts to bring relief to New Orleans after that hurricane, and saw the official cock-ups at first hand.  I wrote about them at length at the time and afterwards.  Go read about them for yourself, if you haven't already read that earlier article.  It's eye-opening.  Let's just say that my respect for FEMA, the American Red Cross and a number of other big-name emergency management and disaster relief organizations was severely undermined.

As for "reforms" implemented after Katrina, why don't we ask the citizens of North Carolina how they feel about the agency after Hurricane Helene went through there last year?  The initial relief efforts were a shambles, and didn't improve until the Trump administration took office in January this year.  There were - and still are - persistent allegations that the Biden administration deliberately slow-walked aid to the area because it was largely conservative in its politics, and had not supported the Democratic Party and the Biden administration in the past.  FEMA was pilloried by many of the locals for its initial failure to act, and - when it did act - for ignoring the expertise of local agencies and taking over in a heavy-handed, inefficient, bureaucratic manner.  There were repeated reports of supplies sent in by independent agencies being confiscated by FEMA without so much as a "by your leave", and a number of rescuers reported that they were ordered out of the area on pain of arrest if they returned.

I think FEMA as presently constituted is nothing more than a collection of bureaucrats throwing their weight around in an attempt to justify their existence.  I think we'd be far better served if each State set up its own FEMA equivalent, using people who know the local area and population and are thus better positioned to help without delay in time of need.  The federal FEMA could then be used as a conduit to get supplies and equipment to the state(s) when and where it's needed, and hand it over to the local FEMA to put it to work.  The military could also establish permanent, working relationships with the State-level FEMA's to prearrange things like helicopter support, evacuations, etc.

Meanwhile, based on my own extensive (albeit two-decade-old) experience with FEMA, I consider this "Katrina Declaration" to be not worth the paper it's printed on.

Peter

The artificial intelligence "surge" - hype or reality? Good idea, or terrible?

 

Earlier this month I published an article titled "A sobering, short-term warning about artificial intelligence and white-collar jobs".  In it, I noted:

A professional is now expected to use AI to augment or supplement his training and experience, conducting searches, market research, etc. in the background while he applies himself to current problems in the foreground.  It's reported that productivity improvements of up to several hundred per cent are being claimed - and those who aren't "getting with the program", learning to use AI to work smarter, are already finding their careers being sidelined or cut short.

In the past week, I've run into several more articles raising the specter of AI domination of different sectors of the economy, and what this might mean for workers.  Examples:

• "Why More Farmers Are Turning To AI Machines":  As the capabilities of robotics evolve, many jobs that once required human hands are being delegated to machines. Some artificial intelligence (AI) developers working on integrating this technology into America’s farms say early data support the possibility of a major farm labor force reduction.
• "Elon Musk Backs Universal High Income Fearing AI Will Take Every Job":  Instead of living aimless lives without purpose, Musk believes that there’s another option: “Long term … any job that somebody does will be optional. … If you want to do a job as kinda like a hobby, you can do a job, but otherwise, the AI and robots will provide any goods and services that you want.”
• "YouTube secretly used AI to edit people's videos. The results could bend reality":  YouTube made AI enhancements to videos without telling users or asking permission. As AI quietly mediates our world, what happens to our shared connection with real life?  (See also my earlier article titled "What happens to trust when anything can be faked?")
• "Medicine goes AI":  Medicine is precisely the sort of bounded field with measurable outcomes and complex inputs where human cognition is simply not that good and where AI can excel.  And it’s coming.  Fast ... In medicine the question is rapidly shifting from "Why should we risk AI hallucination?" to "Why should we risk it from humans?"

I daresay a lot of the hype is driven by technologically enthusiastic journalists, who are trying to position themselves as authority figures among the commentariat.  The reality on the ground may not be as advanced or as useful as they posit, but artificial intelligence (and those who develop and sell it) seems to be trying to follow the self-hypnotic mantra of Émile Coué:  "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better".

I'm curious.  How many of us, dear readers, are actually experiencing a positive impact of artificial intelligence in our day-to-day lives?  How many of us can say that we've encountered a "smart" system, or appliance, or interaction, that has shown AI to be superior to dealing with a human being?  When it comes to telephone answering systems, for example, I'm finding it more and more difficult to call a company for support and get the assistance I need, because the AI "front-end" to their calling tree actively tries to prevent me speaking to a person, and instead tries to force me to interact with its limited and all-too-often inadequate menu.  So far, I'd say my interactions with AI have been more negative than positive.

How about you, readers?

Peter

Allergies, and what works for you

 

This summer has been a bad one for those suffering from allergies in northern Texas.  We've had much more rain and humidity than normal, so the plants have flourished and given off pollen, seeds and what have you much more prolifically than usual.  My wife's "normal" allergy to some grasses got so bad she couldn't even cut the yard, or be out there while someone else did it.  I've had a really nasty post-nasal drip that got bad enough to affect my lungs, coughing up chunks.  It hasn't been fun.

We've tried almost everything.  My wife gets a weekly anti-allergy shot, and uses Allegra-D and other medications to try to keep things under control.  I've tried almost everything, from Allegra-D and Claritin-D through the gamut of lesser antihistamines.  I've finally settled on Fluticasone nasal spray as the most effective solution I can find to cut down my post-nasal drip;  it's not a complete answer, but it makes it controllable.

The interesting thing is that almost everyone seems to have their own favorite anti-allergy medication, but few agree on the same one.  Among our friends, there are almost as many preferences as there are brands on the supermarket shelf.  That being the case, I thought I'd ask you, dear readers, for your favorite anti-allergy medication.  What works for you?  What doesn't work, in your experience?  Perhaps, if enough of us comment, we can figure out whether there's something that works for most people, or whether it's still going to be a guessing game for each individual to work out for themselves.

Over to you!

Peter

An interesting intersection of culture and war

 

One of Japan's grand masters of the tea ceremony died recently.  His obituary contained an interesting anecdote from his service in World War II.

Sen Soshitsu XV, who has died aged 102, was known in Japan as the 15th Urasenke Grand Tea Master and descendant of Sen Rikyu, the Japanese sage who perfected chado – “the way of tea”, commonly known as the Japanese tea ceremony – and raised it to the level of art.

Though tea-drinking was taken to Japan from China in the 9th century, it was Rikyu in the 16th century who laid down the rules of chado, incorporating elements of Zen Buddhism, Shinto and even, it is said, elements of the Catholic Mass, creating a ceremony which, though elaborate in its combination of ritual, meditation and aesthetics, celebrates the beauty of simplicity.

Rikyu’s legacy has been preserved by the members of the San-Senke, or “three tea ceremony” schools of the Sen family – of which the Urasenke is the most famous. Sen Soshitsu assumed the position of Grand Master of the school from his father in 1964.

. . .

He was born Sen Masaoki (he would inherit the name Soshitsu on succeeding his father as Grand Tea Master) in Kyoto on April 19 1923, the year of the Great Kanto Earthquake which devastated Tokyo and Yokohama; he was the eldest son of Sen Soshitsu XIV, the 14th head of the Urasenke tea school, and his wife Kayoko.

While reading economics at Doshisha University in Kyoto during the Second World War, he was called up for service in the Imperial Japanese navy. He volunteered as a kamikaze pilot but was turned down because the imperial authorities did not want to jeopardise the future of a revered hereditary tea dynasty.

There's more at the link.

Considering the disregard for human life - their own and the enemy's - shown by Japanese military leaders before and during the Second World War, it's incongruous to think that they would rate their traditional tea ceremony and its practitioners as more important than killing the enemy by committing suicide in a last-ditch defense of their homeland.  The Western mind doesn't work that way.  That's probably an indictment of our own "if you kill enough of them, they stop fighting" approach, which would seem to rule out any and every consideration of culture and tradition on both sides.

Peter

Turns out Cracker Barrel has been "woke" for a long time

 

Robbie Starbuck has done a deep-dive investigation into the DEI practices at Cracker Barrel, and reveals that the company has been getting more and more "woke" for years.  Here's an excerpt.

Here’s the highlights you need to know:

• Cracker Barrel has funded "all ages" Pride events for many years like Nashville Pride and Third River City Pride.
• Cracker Barrel worked with the far left HRC organization and reportedly sponsored HRC events for 10 years. They even brought an HRC representative to their Tennessee HQ to do a pronoun and transgenderism training. We’ve included photos of this in the video. As a reminder, the HRC supports child sex changes and men in women’s bathrooms. They work to normalize/legalize both things and they work to force transgenderism in the workplace.
• Cracker Barrel worked with a group called Conexión Américas as part of their DEI efforts. This group helps illegal immigrants, providing them lawyers and the executive director opposes President Trump’s deportations.
• Cracker Barrel sponsored the Out & Equal LGBTQ Workplace Advocate Conference and presented a workshop on how Cracker Barrel has made progress supporting LGBTQ+ causes. This group works to push sexual topics and pronouns into the workplace.

. . .

To put it mildly, Cracker Barrel has forgotten who their core customers are. It’s time for us to remind them.

They depend on YOU to keep their business afloat so now YOU have to ask yourself: Do you want to fund people or companies that hate your values?

It’s time to remind them who their customers are.

If you think their values don’t align with yours and you’re a customer who wants to speak out, you can write to them here: https://guestrelations.crackerbarrel.com/s/contactsupport

Reporters can also call their reporter hotline at: 615-235-4135 or email them: media.relations@crackerbarrel.com

Remember to ALWAYS BE KIND. Many in customer service agree with you. Being rude hurts our cause!

There's more at the link, including a 15-minute video report.  Click over there for the full details of how Cracker Barrel has been spending our money on its loony left philosophies.

Cracker Barrel is, of course, entitled to spend its money any way it pleases.  I, as a customer, am equally entitled to spend my money where and when I choose.  After reading the above reports, I won't be spending it at Cracker Barrel (where a group of friends and I have been regulars for Sunday breakfast for several years).

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 275

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

I chanced to hear this song last week, and it brought back memories of the relatively innocent 1960's and 1970's pop music scene - still relatively "clean", not imbued with satanic and/or degraded imagery (unlike much of the hard rock music of the period), and lyrics that could be understood without needing a translator.  Here's Irish singer Joe Dolan with his 1969 hit "Make Me An Island".

Memories of a more innocent time...

Peter

Of officers and drunkenness

 

Over on MeWe, Mike Williamson posted this image:

It's a quote from the character Billy Sunday, played by Robert de Niro in the 2000 movie "Men of Honor".

It made me laugh, because when I did a South African officer's course in the mid-1970's, there was a textbook titled "An Officer And A Gentleman".  It was heavily influenced by British colonial military customs, such as which knife and fork to use for what course in a meal, etiquette in the officers mess, and so on.

I never forgot the bit dealing with over-indulgence in alcohol.  It said, very simply, in exactly these words:

An officer is never drunk.  He is only pleasantly tired.

Yeah, riiiiiiight!!!  I seem to recall an awful lot of "pleasantly tired" officers from time to time . . .

Peter

Condiment recommendation

 

While browsing through Amazon looking for a couple of items, I came across their White Wine Jalapeno Mustard.  The combination looked interesting, so I ordered some to try it.

I was amazed.  The flavor combination of this mustard is outstanding, perhaps the best of its kind I've ever tasted.  The jalapeno gives it a burn, but not excessively so, and the white wine helps tame the burn and adds significant flavor of its own.  It tastes a bit like a horseradish mustard, but there's no horseradish in it, and its own flavor adds body and a mellow finish.

So far I've tried it on cold roast beef (in a sandwich), German bratwurst, and cubed goat in a stew.  It's worked with all of them.  If you like mustard, particularly with a strong flavor but not overpoweringly hot, I highly recommend this stuff.

Peter

What happens to trust when anything can be faked?

 

Ted Gioia asks the question.

It is now possible to alter reality and every kind of historical record—and perhaps irrevocably. The technology for creating fake audio, video, and text has improved enormously in just the last few months. We will soon reach—or may have already reached—a tipping point where it’s impossible to tell the difference between truth and deception.

• Can I tell the difference between a fake AI video and a real video? A few months ago, I would have said yes. But now I’m not so sure.
• Can I tell the difference between fake AI music and human music? I still think I can discern a difference in complex genres, but this is a lot harder than it was just a few months ago.
• Can I tell the difference between a fake AI book and a real book by a human author? I’m fairly confident I can do this for a book on a subject I know well, but if I’m operating outside my core expertise, I might fail.

At the current rate of technological advance, all reliable ways of validating truth will soon be gone. My best guess is that we have another 12 months to enjoy some degree of confidence in our shared sense of reality.

But what happens when it’s gone?

. . .

Consider those loonies who believe that the Apollo moon landing never happened. Now imagine a world in which everybody is like that about everything—because nothing can be proven.

We have always lived in a world of disputes, but never on this new level of total skepticism. Consider a football game: I think the ref made a bad call, and you disagree—but at least we both believe that a game is actually happening.

Not anymore.

We once disagreed on how we interpreted events. Now we can’t even agree on the existence of events.

There's more at the link.  Go read the whole thing.  It's worth it.

That's a very good question.  It has very serious implications for every aspect of our lives, from the micro to the macro.  Consider:

• If a government announces the existence of a new and purportedly dangerous virus, and orders everyone to be vaccinated against it, how many of us will believe them?  After COVID-19, you can bet your bottom dollar I won't, even if they broadcast video of sufferers from the disease collapsing and dying on camera - because my immediate suspicion will be that they've faked the video.
• If two nation-states at war (think Russia and Ukraine) make claims about battlefield successes, or trumpet the success of an air strike, whom do we believe?  We aren't there to see for ourselves.  The only evidence we have will be video clips on Twitter or Tiktok.  How do we know they're genuine?  How do we know whether an atrocity, or an incident described as a casus belli, actually took place at all?
• If convictions in court rely on technological tools such as security camera footage, what will the jury do if the defendant's lawyers claim that the cops faked the footage?  The odds of that happening get better and better as the criminal justice system is challenged to take offenders off the streets.  We already know of cases where a criminal might not have committed a particular crime, but is railroaded by the "system" anyway, because the prosecutors and the cops "know" that he's committed many other crimes for which they can't obtain evidence to convict him.  Their answer - put him in jail for something, rather than let him off.  That may be karma catching up with him, but it's not justice.
• What about civil claims - say, a divorce case relying on video of a spouse committing adultery?  How many porn videos are already out there, purporting to show famous actresses having sex with someone, only for it to emerge that it's a "deep-fake", artificially contrived video showing the actress' head superimposed on someone else's body?

This is going to become worse by the day.  I don't know the answer, but Mr. Gioia is very right to ask the question.  What are we going to do about it?

Peter

"Fertilizing the moron farm"

 

That's how El Gato Malo, blogging at Bad Cattitude, describes our society today.  (He [?] eschews capital letters.)

consider the possibility that the advent of moronical modernity finds its roots in a simple tenet of economics:

when, all else equal, the price of something drops, people choose to consume more of it.

the price of being moronical declined and so consumption of this "good" increased.

pre-enlightment, people were poor and life had more notable tendencies toward "nasty, brutish, and short."

it was a time full of severe selectors any of which would both cull you from the herd and assure future generations that genes like yours would not be around to commit further foibles.

. . .

such calamity used to be near instant. now it is a slow burn through the sizable fat reserves of the once replete civilizational success that made everyone so comfortable in the first place.

the plenty of the post enlightenment removed these penalties even replacing them with welfare state subsidy.

that's how you fertilize a moron farm.

it's also how you drive and enable antisocial behavior and open up a society to conquest and collapse.

. . .

such safety nets are a positive right, a right to food, to shelter. on a first order basis, this seems a good thing, but the second order underpinning is always authoritarian and a violation of the negative rights to self determination which stand as fundamental. the mantra becomes: we will take (by force or threat of force) from some in order to give to others.

. . .

and the safety net is cushy enough and the overall level of life around us high enough that behaving is such a fashion can keep you afloat and OK without needing anyone else. life as a low-trust non-contributor has become tenable and shame at the idea of doing so has attenuated and even inverted into levels of astonishing entitlement.

. . .

the selfsame good intentions of "wanting to make sure everyone is OK" are precisely what land us in a society of takers crowding out makers and where plenty and safety are lost.

this selects for those low in motivation, intelligence, aptitude, and trust to have many children to maximize benefits while at the same time upping the burden on those who do pay and rendering their own child rearing options more limited.

There's more at the link.  The article is well worth reading in full.

I've seen this at work in multiple levels of our society, from the inner city ghettoes to so-called "refugees" being handed more money and largesse at the border than many Americans earn by the sweat of their brows.  One incident in particular sticks in my memory.  A few months after I came to this country, I was invited to speak to a couple of classes of high school seniors in Lake Charles, Louisiana, about Africa and current events there.  After a couple of classes, I went outside during a break to talk to any students who were interested to learn more.

A young woman introduced herself to me, and wanted to know about "welfare programs" for single mothers in Africa.  She was openly shocked and disbelieving when I told her that most African countries don't have any.  It emerged during our conversation that she was 17 years old, and was currently pregnant with her fourth child.  She'd had the first when she was only 12.  All four had different fathers.  The truly shocking thing to me was her casual claim that her mother encouraged her to have them all, because the State of Louisiana would pay her welfare and other benefits totaling several hundred dollars per month for each child.  She'd basically chosen to have her babies as cash cows - not because she valued them as human beings.

What sort of mother brings up her daughter to think like that?  What sort of family brings up kids who will surely realize, at a very young age, that nobody really loves them or cares for them, except as a source of money?  When they grow up, they'll be kicked out of the house to make their own way.  What are the odds that they'll do precisely and exactly the same thing as their mother and grandmother?  The highlighted sentence in the last paragraph cited above fits their situation to a T.

Another example came my way during my time as a prison chaplain.  There's a program run by a group of churches which aims to give a Christmas present to the children of incarcerated inmates, who otherwise might receive nothing.  During September and October, the chaplains at my prisons pass out forms to inmates, one per child, and have them fill in the details, then return them.  I was dumbfounded at the number of inmates who casually asked for six, or eight, or ten or more forms, and returned them all with the names of all the children they'd fathered.  Almost all the children were born to different mothers.  It was almost like a contest among the criminal element, the "winner" being the man who'd begotten the most children on the most mothers.  Not one of them showed any shame or embarrassment at their conduct.  This was just the way their lives were.

I fear El Gato Malo is correct . . . but I don't know how to change that, apart from cutting off all such benefits - which would undoubtedly result in rioting and plunder on a huge scale as the outraged "moronicals" demanded that their free stuff be restored.

Oy.

Peter

Dave Chapelle explains the Jussie Smollet affair

 

He's not backward in coming forward.

Personally, I think Jussie Smollet made up the whole thing to attack President Trump's policies and make himself look good to the DEI/BLM/Antifa crowd.  It's good to know some of his own people recognize that too, and aren't afraid to call him on it.

Peter

Can't fool Grandma!

 

There's a wonderful video clip on X showing a perfectly healthy young man pretending to be disabled and begging for money . . . until his grandma comes along and catches him in the act.  The result is comedy gold.

Peter

Backup home power supplies are looking better and better...

 

... because the power grid is becoming less and less stable and dependable.

A new report from global research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie highlights that U.S. efforts to upgrade power grids for AI-driven data centers will push transformer demand beyond supply by 30% this year, driving up costs and delaying projects. Analysts warn the shortage will only worsen and persist well into the decade's end.

The supply deficit, fueled by AI-related data center growth and broader electrification trends, threatens grid reliability and the whole data center buildout.

Viewed as a national security threat, the U.S. production of transformers can't keep pace, meaning about 80% of units will be imported, mostly from South Korea, Mexico, and other countries.

"We have seen such a large increase in power demand," said Ben Boucher, a senior analyst of supply chain and data analytics at Wood Mackenzie, adding, "AI is necessitating data center expansion, which is pushing up electricity usage."

Just weeks ago, we warned that U.S. transformer wait times have ballooned from 50 to 127 weeks, crippling grid resilience, whether it's upgrading power grids or replacing units damaged by storms, wildfires, or domestic terrorism attacks by radical leftists.

In short, the AI data center boom is colliding with a power grid already under strain from failed green policies, surging electricity demand, and a worsening transformer shortage.

There's more at the link.

I've heard of a number of power-hungry industrial projects that have had to be put on ice because they couldn't obtain the size and/or number of transformers necessary to connect them to the national grid.  We've also seen reports from various parts of the country predicting massive rises in electricity costs (a figure of 20% over the next year has been bruited about), plus the need to raise more capital so that utilities can build new power stations and extend their grids.

In Texas we have an added problem:  so many migrants are pouring in from other states, particularly California and the West Coast, that many new houses have to be built to accommodate them.  (The small subdivision where my wife and I live began growing post-COVID, and is set to double in size over the next five years.)  This growth is now running into serious problems, because utilities simply can't connect all the new houses to the existing power grid, and can't expand the grid fast enough to cater for them thanks to the shortage of transformers and other equipment.

I've got a small backup generator for our home, designed to help us through a short-term power outage (a week or two at most);  but we certainly aren't set up to cope with longer outages, or long-term problems like brownouts (which can damage or destroy appliances).  That makes an external propane tank, fueling a larger generator and potentially a gas-fired heating system and other appliances, look a lot more attractive.  There's a capital cost up front, of course, but at least one would have fuel for essential appliances - and a more powerful generator - when the power grid is unavailable.  The size of the propane tank can be tailored to one's likely needs.  Solar energy is a great idea in theory, but if the sun's not shining, it's unreliable, and there are many disadvantages to mounting solar panels all over one's roof, and it's a lot more expensive to buy and install than propane or natural gas.

Food for thought.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 274

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

A reader sent me the link to this sea shanty (sort of) by Nickelback.  It made me smile, so I thought it might brighten your Sunday morning too.

Not your typical shanty, but fun nonetheless.

Peter

Victory in 1945: long in coming, and still affecting the whole world today

 

On August 15th, 1945, known ever since as VJ Day, World War II came to an end with the unconditional surrender of Japan.  Wild celebrations took place in all the victorious Allied powers, but the victory did not solve most of the problems that had led to the war in the first place.  Indeed, it created a host of new problems that would spark the decades-long Cold War and radical socio-political realignments on every continent.

This 45-minute documentary summarizes the last few months of World War II leading up to VJ Day.  It does a very good job of drawing together the many threads that came together on that day.  Most people today have little or no idea of all that was involved, which is why I'm posting it here.  I learned my first lessons about it from my parents, who fought from September 1939 through VJ Day with the armed forces of Great Britain.  For almost all my life, I've read and studied about World War II and its aftermath.  It created the world we live in today, more than any other event in history.

I think this documentary will be well worth your time to watch.

May all the millions who lost their lives during that terrible conflict rest in God's mercy.

Peter

"How Russia fights"

 

That's the title of an online compendium of analytical articles about how the Russian military is structured, and how it operates.  Strategy Page reports:

The analysis in the How Russia Fights project began when General Christopher Cavoli, commander of American army operations in Europe and Africa, realized something. U.S. Army Foreign Area Officers/FAOs assigned to the European theater lacked a detailed understanding of the Russian Armed Forces/RAF and were unable to adequately advise him and other senior officers. Between 1991 to 2014, the United States considered Russia to be a strategic partner. As a result, FAO training shifted its focus away from Russian military capabilities to areas like China and the Pacific. To address this training gap, Cavoli assembled a team of retired Russian speaking Army FAOs. These men had more than 200 years’ experience working on aspects of the Russian military and how they operated. This group called themselves the Troika, the Russian word for three. The Troika was asked to create a training course for FAOs focused on the RAF at the operational and tactical levels.

There's much more at the link.  Recommended reading.

The full course developed over several iterations, and is now available for download under the title "How Russia Fights: A Compendium of Troika Observations on Russia's Special Military Operations".  It makes very interesting reading.

Peter

At least he still has skin in the game...

 

This has to be one of the creepiest "memorials" I've ever encountered.

When Angelica Radevski lost her spouse unexpectedly earlier this year, the West Virginia nurse and mother-of-one made a bold decision that has stunned millions online — she preserved and framed a piece of his tattooed skin.

. . .

“I knew we were going to do this because we had talked about it before,” Angelica said in a now-viral TikTok video.

Of the more than 70 tatts TJ had inked over his body, they chose to preserve his Pittsburgh Steelers helmet design — complete with skull imagery and finished off in his beloved team’s black and gold colors. It was his first sleeve tattoo, and a favorite of his and their son’s. Preston was the one who ultimately made the final call.

“This is Dad,” he told his mother.

. . .

The preservation process took around 90 days. When the company returned the framed tattoo — encased in glass and set in a dark wooden frame — the moment was overwhelming ... The tattoo still held TJ’s skin texture, the fine details of his wrinkles, even stray hairs.

There's more at the link.

It seems ghoulish to me.  I mean, why stop at skin?  Why not make like the headhunters of the Amazon, who smoked, dried and shrank the heads of their enemies?  Why not other body parts?

Oh, well . . . at least the headline to this blog post practically wrote itself!

Peter

From "Medical Care" to "Medical Couldn't Care Less"

 

The steady, inexorable bureaucratization of health care in the USA has been visible for many years.  As a partly disabled person who relies on permanent medications to function, and has more routine contact with the medical profession than I'd like, I've watched it happen.  However, over the past two to three years (post-COVID, to be precise) the process appears to have accelerated alarmingly, to the point where I feel more like an unwanted annoyance to many medical practitioners rather than their bread and butter, paying their salaries.  They've become fully invested in the medical system, rather than their patients.  In just the past six months I've experienced:

• Nurses and nurse practitioners standing in for specialist doctors, interviewing patients and drawing up case studies for the specialists to use in making care decisions, but doing so inaccurately, not recording everything the patient tells them, and brushing off patient concerns with "We'll deal with that later".
• Medical insurance companies denying most prescription requests at a bureaucratic level, so that specialists must argue with clerks over why they ordered a particular medication and why they consider it necessary.  They don't always win the argument, either - despite the clerks and their administrative systems having no medical qualifications whatsoever.
• Legal restrictions are also complicating treatment, particularly when it comes to pain management.  The War On Some Drugs means that narcotic pain relief is regarded with suspicion, and prescriptions for serious pain management medications are often very hard to get.  I'm fortunate that my prescriptions have been in effect for literally decades, so to a certain extent I'm grandfathered in to the system;  but new patients needing anything stronger than NSAIDs are finding it very hard to get them approved.  The fact that they're suffering while fighting the bureaucrats and drug enforcement agents doesn't seem to bother anyone except them and their families.  Some turn to illicit substances as being the only thing they can get that helps . . . but then they face prosecution.  Some days you just can't win.
• New, automated artificial intelligence (AI) "front ends" answering patient calls to medication providers and other medical services companies, trying to force every query into their pre-programmed "boxes" and balking when the patient has a problem that they aren't addressing.  It may take a dozen tries to get the system to refer the caller to a human respondent, and sometimes it doesn't work at all.  The latter appears to be a feature, not a bug, because if patients complain about these systems, the response is always along the lines of "You have to work with our system to streamline our operations.  Everyone else is - what makes you special?"
• A lack of information about procedures and tests that are requested.  I have one coming up on Friday that was described solely and simply as a "scan", without mentioning that it will involve a spinal injection of contrast fluid, and be done in an operating room with anesthesia available in case I can't hold still for long enough in an awkward position with a needle in my spine.  I had to figure out the details for myself, with help from my wife looking things up on various Web sites.  Do I feel like a soulless digit in the system, treated like a mushroom - kept in the dark and fed on manure?  Why, yes, now that you mention it, I do . . .
• My primary care resource, a nurse practitioner whom I like and respect highly, said to me a short while ago that she would never have dreamed that the practice of medicine in a rural area like ours could become so bureaucratic and soulless.  She has to spend hours every day doing nothing but fill in forms, update records, justify the treatments and medications she authorizes, and so on.  It's soul-destroying for her as much as her patients.
• More and more doctors and medical practices appear to be refusing to accept Medicare and/or Medicaid patients, because they claim the reimbursements no longer cover the cost of treatment.  I can't speak to this, but if true, I suspect the Canadian approach - encouraging patients to die, and actively helping them to do so - can't be long delayed in this country, purely on economic grounds.  It's cheaper for the bureaucrats to kill their problems rather than treat them.

Another part of the problem appears to be bureaucracies arguing with each other over who should pay for a particular treatment.  I'm experiencing this in connection with a decades-old work-related injury.  Some of my current problems may be related to that injury, but it's hard (almost to the point of impossibility) to directly prove a relationship between them.  In the absence of such proof, workers compensation won't re-open the case and won't pay for treatment.  On the other hand, regular medical insurance sees that the old injury took place and immediately says, "You claim that the problem is age-related deterioration, but it's in the same area as your old injury.  That means it must be work-related;  therefore, we're not paying."  It's going to take lawyers to sort this one out . . . but that'll take years, and meanwhile I need to find a solution before I'm forced into a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  Neither bureaucracy cares about me (or any other patient) as a person.  They're just ticking off the boxes on their forms, checking their reams of regulations, and putting their organizations' interests ahead of anything and anyone else.

It's immensely depressing to have gone through this bureaucratic conflict for so long and be no nearer to a resolution;  and I'm watching friends and acquaintances deal with the other problems I mentioned above and become equally frustrated and disillusioned.  I'm sure some of you, dear readers, can tell us your own horror stories in Comments.  Please do - we need to raise awareness of this problem.

I guess the real issue is that there are too many of us.  We've overwhelmed the simpler systems of the past, and forced the medical care industry to automate and computerize as much as possible merely to cope with caring for well over 300 million people.  Tight budgets don't help, particularly because so much taxpayer money is wasted on non-essential expenditure.  The medical "industry" is trying to cut its coat according to an ever-diminishing amount of cloth . . . and there isn't much room left for us, the patients, after they've done so.

Peter

The Federal takeover of Washington D.C. law enforcement

 

A number of interesting perspectives have emerged on President Trump's takeover of the Washington D.C. police department and other law enforcement functions.

Quoth The Raven points out a very basic and inescapable logic behind this step.

For too long, the capital of the United States—the city that houses the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court—has looked less like the shining beacon of democracy and more like a live-action hellscape from a horror movie. Tourists and school trips meandering through downtown D.C. to learn about the history of our great nation are confronted with makeshift shantytowns, hypodermic needles and smells worse than J.B. Pritzker’s bathroom the morning after a long night at Big Ed’s Bar-B-Que.

. . .

When world leaders, diplomats, and tourists step off the plane, they’re not just visiting a city; they’re seeing America’s face.

And if that face is covered in human feces a block from the White House, guess what—they’re not going to be thinking “land of the free,” they’re going to be thinking “third-world cosplay”.

. . .

And this is where Trump’s move makes perfect sense ... There’s nothing shallow about caring how your country looks. It’s not “cosmetic,” it’s called “national pride.” When visitors—whether foreign dignitaries or American schoolkids—arrive in Washington, what they see should tell them we are a capable, functioning nation that respects itself.

. . .

Right now, what they see too often screams “we’ve given up.” And nothing broadcasts “we’ve lost control” like a tent city and drug-addled homeless within selfie range of the White House ... sometimes the fastest way to fix a broken system is to start by sweeping the front porch—especially when the front porch happens to be the front porch of America.

There's more at the link.

I entirely agree.  In fact, I'd apply the same logic to any and every US city and town.  Do we want the places where we live, where we choose to associate with others, to look like Third World hellholes?  If we don't, let's clean them up before that gets any worse.  As far as I know, there's no constitutional right to crap on the sidewalk or inject yourself with illegal narcotics on streets where people live, work and shop.

Jeff Childers adds that this may be the start of cleaning up the notoriously corrupt and ineffective Washington Police Department.

During January 6th, the Metro Police Department outed itself as a sold-out, partisan political actor deeply aligned with Democrats and hostile to Americans who share different beliefs. Now that Pam Bondi has assumed control of MPD, get this, she has hire/fire authority ... my guess (and I’m just guessing) is that we’re about to see a DOGE-style, anti-DEI deconstruction of DC’s entire police department. I think that could be what this is really all about. The dots are right there.

. . .

But if the real plan is to strip MPD down to the studs — purge leadership, dismantle DEI programs, root out anyone they think is politically hostile, and rebuild the force in the Trump-Bondi image — then all those federal bodies aren’t temporary help, they’re a replacement backbone. They’ll keep the city covered while the locals get benched, investigated, or walked out.

. . .

If I’m right, if that is the play, the public story is “crime crackdown,” but the operational reality is federal receivership with a remodel crew already on site. Brilliant.

But I could be wrong. Very wrong. There could be a lot more to this move. A much bigger dot ... What if —and I am just wondering here— what if the Administration is securing DC before it makes a really controversial move? Like arresting someone near the top of the political food chain?

Suppose you were planning something like that, and you wanted to preclude the otherwise inevitable violent protests in the Nation’s Capital. What better way to prepare than in advance by loading up DC with military, national guard, FBI, and tons of other resources under direct federal control, that might otherwise seem like overkill to handle a few mobs of unruly teenage gangsters?

Again, more at the link.

Finally, several commenters have pointed out that Washington D.C. isn't a state, and isn't under a state's constitutional authority.  It's Federal land.  Furthermore, it has its own unique military reserve unit, the District of Columbia National Guard, which operates under a unique legal framework:

Normally, U.S. federal law specifically charges the U.S. National Guard with dual federal and state missions.[citation needed] As a federal district, the District of Columbia has a mayor but no governor, and federal law makes the president the commander-in-chief.

Supervision and control of D.C. National Guard was delegated by the president to the defense secretary pursuant to Executive Order 10030, 26 January 1949 with authority to designate National Military Establishment officials to administer affairs of the D.C. National Guard. The Army secretary was directed to act in all matters pertaining to the ground component, and the Air Force secretary was directed to act in all matters pertaining to the air component.

The D.C. National Guard is the only U.S. military force empowered to carry out federal functions in a state or, in this case, a district. Those functions range from limited actions during non-emergency situations to full scale law enforcement of martial law when local law enforcement officials can no longer maintain civil control. The National Guard may be called into federal service in response to a call by the president.

That means the President and the Secretary of Defense can legally use military forces to augment federal law enforcement resources in restoring law and order in Washington D.C.  The restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act do not apply.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Peter

Living history

 

Courtesy of a link provided by our Australian correspondent Andrew, here's a half-hour video of a flight aboard one of only two surviving B-29 Superfortress bombers from World War II.  Given that we're still in August, the month (in 1945) when two atomic bombs dropped by B-29's brought World War II to an end, I thought it might be interesting to see how the world looks from inside one of these bombers' big glass noses.

That was the highest of high-tech back in the day.  Those four big piston engines certainly make the plane "shake, rattle and roll" as it flew, and you can see from the pilot's actions how the controls were constantly in use to keep it straight and level.

A fascinating bit of history.

Peter

I've heard of a stool pigeon, but a stool parrot???

 

As I'm sure most readers know, the term "stool pigeon" is used to refer to an informant who provides police with information about criminals.  I've no idea how it came to exist;  I can't imagine most pigeons I've seen sitting still on a stool where someone might sit on them!

Be that as it may, a parrot turns out to be the stool pigeon in a British case.

A loud-mouthed parrot snitched on his owner by squawking drug-dealing slang in video footage found by cops — leading to a massive crack and heroin bust in England, police said.

“Two for 25, two for 25!” the feathered rat chirped in the footage, according to cops, who said it was code for the price of dope.

A drug ring of 15 people in Blackpool was taken down by the tiny yellow bird — who was also seen in videos playing with drug money — after police seized gang leader Adam Garnett’s cellphones, according to the Lancashire Constabulary.

Cellphone footage led them to the home of Garnett’s girlfriend and number two, Shannon Hilton, where her phone featured videos that amounted to the parrot squealing.

Videos allegedly show Hilton teaching her less-than-cagey critter to say “two for 25” — apparent payment for bags of the dope — “in front of a child” and “the parrot playing with money, which was gained through their illegal activities,” police said.

There's more at the link, including a video clip showing the bird at its informative best.

Another British slang term is to "do bird", meaning to serve a prison sentence.  In this case, once the courts have had their say, that may be a rather more appropriate term than usual for the crooks concerned!  On the other hand, I hope the police will find a new (and safer) home for the parrot.  Its former owner(s) are unlikely to be feeling charitable towards it . . .  What's a witness protection program for birds called, anyway?  A bird sanctuary?

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 273

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.