The fascinating history of string and rope

 

A very interesting article in Hakai magazine tells the story.

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

“Everybody knows about fire and the wheel, but string is one of the most powerful tools and really the most overlooked,” says Saskia Wolsak, an ethnobotanist at the University of British Columbia who recently began a PhD on the cultural history of string. “It’s relatively invisible until you start looking for it. Then you see it everywhere.”

Precisely when people began to twine, loop, and knot is unknowable, but we can say with reasonable confidence that string and rope are some of the most ancient materials used by humankind. At first, our ancestors likely harvested nature’s ready-made threads and cordage, such as vines, reeds, grass, and roots. If traditional medicine and existing Indigenous cultures are any clue, early humans may have even used spider silk to catch fish and bandage wounds. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of years ago, people realized they could extract fibers from the hair and tissues of animals, as well as from the husks, leaves, and innards of certain sinewy, pulpy, or pliant plants, such as agave, cannabis, coconut, cotton, and jute. By twisting these natural fibers around one another again and again, they formed a material of superb resilience and versatility.

. . .

Although string and rope began to take shape on land, it was the ocean that unleashed the full potential of cordage. The earliest watercraft were probably rafts lashed together from branches or bamboo, and dugout canoes carved from logs, such as the 10,000-year-old Pesse canoe discovered in 1955 during motorway construction in the Netherlands. At first, the only means of propulsion were oars, poles, and the whim of the currents. Sailing required a critical insight: that the wind, like a wild animal, could be caught, tamed, and harnessed. A mast and sail, which is really just a tightly knit sheet of string, could trap the wind; long coils of sturdy rope could hoist and pivot the sail. String transformed seagoing vessels from floating lumber to elegant marionettes, animated by the wind and maneuvered by human will.

There's much more at the link.

Most of us are never exposed to the intricacies of complex string and rope work, but sailors - particularly those on ships still powered by sail, rather than engines - deal with it every day.  I recall when I first went aboard a racing yacht in South Africa, and saw the skipper - a salty seaman indeed, the living definition of the term - splicing two lines together, not just as a simple joint, but one so carefully crafted that it could fit through a block without jamming it.  I didn't even know that was possible.

I've also read many books about how string and rope were vital in historic vessels.  Tim Severin's voyages of exploration, Thor Heyerdahl's adventures with Kon-Tiki and the Ra expeditions, and many others caught and have kept my imagination for decades.  After reading this article, they'll be even more interesting to me.

Peter

What's in a name?

 

I don't quite know how to put this in a family-friendly blog, but a Vietnamese singer has just won the Intervision music contest in Russia.  Congratulations, and all that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, the name of the winner might as well have been made for Internet jokesters.  Read it for yourself.

Let's just say that the poultry farm jokes being made on some European forums are . . . ah . . . awkward.

Peter

It's hard to find enough ways to say "Thank you!"

 

On September 8th I launched a fund-raising campaign to help pay for some major surgeries I've got coming up, where insurance coverage (at least in the short term) is doubtful.  I set a target of $50,000, which I thought wasn't likely to be reached, but it was the amount needed:  so I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and set off with that goal in mind.  My wife and I have raised a similar amount through taking out a second mortgage on our home, and we'll also draw down our savings to make up any shortfall.

To my utter astonishment (and very great relief and gratitude), the fun-raising target was reached just one week later, on September 15th.  There have been a few donations since then, so that the amount raised currently stands at over $56,000.  I feel very humbled to realize that so many of you like my work enough to support me so powerfully.  I've run out of ways to say "Thank you!"

I'm going into hospital later this week for the first of my surgeries.  Thanks to your support, it's fully paid for, so the hospital won't have to threaten me with reinsertion of the bits they remove if I can't pay!  I'll leave the fundraiser up until the end of September, to allow any late donations to be processed, then shut it down.

Thanks again, friends.  God bless you all.

Peter

Interesting... is everything going wrong for China at once?

 

Three recent blog articles are providing me with a lot of economic food for thought.

First, the blogger at "Come And Make It" provides a Filipino perspective on China's economic activity in the region.  As far as he's concerned, there's a lot to worry about.  He highlights the fire-sale prices being asked for Chinese production machinery, far below the actual production cost of the goods involved.

It is almost like all of China is on a fire-sale or going out of business sale right now.

. . .

Behind China's official reports of steady growth—industrial output up 5.2% in August 2025—lies a harsh reality. Factory production is at a yearly low, retail sales are missing targets, and unemployment is rising, threatening growth goals. This deflationary mess is pushing factories into fire sales of vital equipment, much like historical downturns where people "ate the seed corn"—squandering assets needed for future recovery.

Look at the deals online: Plastic injection molds sell for just above scrap value. Industrial respirators go for a couple of dollars. Blowers fetch fractions of their manufacturing cost. These aren't bargains; they're distress signals from overcapacity and weak demand.

A real-world example: A friend snagged a complete bottling plant in China—PET molders, blow machines, fillers, labelers, conveyors, forklifts, and pallets—for under $200,000 USD, equipment worth over a million new. Similar setups are dumping for $10,000–$50,000 amid factory shutdowns from U.S. tariffs and local slumps.

This mirrors the Weimar Republic's 1923 hyperinflation, where Germany's mark became worthless, forcing people to barter goods and sell tools just to survive. Carpenters and tradespeople hawked their hammers and saws for bread, leaving them unable to work when stability returned. Wheelbarrows of cash bought basics, but liquidating productive assets deepened the despair, squandering generational wealth and delaying recovery.

. . .

China's industrial profits fell 1.5% in July, with producer prices deflating for two years straight. Small factories in places like Guangzhou are crippled. Without real stimulus, these sales could trap China in a cycle: Tools gone today mean no production tomorrow, even when times improve. Global watchers, take note—these echoes of history warn of bigger trouble ahead.

There's more at the link.

In a follow-up article, he ties the fire-sale prices to desperate attempts to get money out of China, bypassing that country's exchange controls by hook or by crook.

Cox explains ... a clever method called trade-based money laundering. Here’s how it works: a Chinese person uses their yuan to buy something in China, like 1,000 tons of plastic pellets or heavy machinery (like construction equipment). Then they “sell” it overseas, but at a big discount—sometimes 20–40% less than what they paid. Why take the loss? Because the buyer pays them in dollars (or another foreign currency) into an overseas bank account. That way, their money is now out of China, looking legit and ready for things like buying a house in L.A. or paying for a kid’s tuition.

This isn’t small stuff. Cox talks about huge shipments of goods—clothes, electronics, even chemicals used for drugs—going to places like Mexico or South America. They might list a $500,000 machine as worth $110,000 on the invoice to avoid tariffs and make the payment seem normal. This trick, called misinvoicing, is hard to catch because it looks like regular trade.

This all clicked when I was talking to my friend recently. He works with industrial equipment and was confused because someone he knows bought the exact same machinery he got from China, but it was sold here in the Philippines for 30% less. He couldn’t figure out how anyone could afford to sell it that cheap. After watching the podcast, it made sense: the seller probably bought the equipment in China, shipped it abroad, and sold it at a loss just to get paid in dollars outside China. It wasn’t about making a profit—it was about moving money.

. . .

Cox [says] this isn’t just individuals acting alone. It’s a partnership between Chinese elites and Mexican cartels like Sinaloa, sometimes with groups like the 14K Triad. Cartels need to clean their drug money, and Chinese people need to move their wealth. They help each other: cartels get cheap laundering, and Chinese clients get their money abroad.

Again, more at the link.

Finally, Larry Lambert at Virtual Mirage notes that "China's airlines are in freefall".  He offers several potential explanations of why at least some Chinese are desperate to get hard currency out of China any way they can.

China’s skies look busy — but what you’re really seeing are flying zombies. China’s three biggest airlines, Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern, just reported combined losses of 4.7 billion yuan in the first six months of 2025. That’s like burning 26 million yuan every single day. Here’s the paradox: Their flights are full. Planes are packed. Yet the more they fly, the faster they go broke.

• Overcapacity Disaster: Wide-body jets meant for Paris and New York are now stuck flying short domestic hops they were never designed for — like using a Ferrari to deliver pizza.
• Vicious Price Wars: State-owned carriers are slashing fares to steal passengers, dragging the whole market into a race to the bottom.
• Tourism Collapse: Foreign visitors avoid China post-COVID because of cashless barriers, visa headaches, and a damaged reputation. Meanwhile, Chinese households are too broke to travel abroad.
• Cargo Decline: Even freight — their last lifeline — is crashing as supply chains shift to Southeast Asia.

In a real free market, these companies would’ve gone bankrupt years ago. Instead, Beijing keeps them alive with massive subsidies — 15 billion yuan in 2024 alone. But subsidies don’t fix broken business models. They create zombies: companies that can’t live, but also won’t die.

The result? Airlines keep hiring new workers, not to serve customers, but to pad employment stats. Senior pilots take substantial pay cuts while fresh hires come in at poverty wages. Everyone is miserable, but on paper, “employment is stable.” It’s fake jobs, funded by real taxpayer money, to make the numbers look good.

This is more than an airline story. It’s a mirror of China’s collapsing economy: Excess capacity—debt-fueled survival. Statistics are manipulated to maintain appearances. Next time you see a Chinese jet soaring overhead, don’t think prosperity. Think desperation — a country pretending to fly while it’s really falling in slow motion.

Speaking of freight, did anyone notice that China's new rail export line to Europe has hit a major geopolitical roadblock?  Poland has responded to growing military and political pressure from Russia and Byelorussia by closing its border with the latter nation - and in the process has shut down the major rail link between China and Europe.  China had planned to greatly increase exports via that route.  Now it's got to find an alternative - and there isn't one that's both fast and cost-effective.

Put all those articles together, and it seems to me that China's caught between an economic rock and a geopolitical hard place.  There are two possibilities in the near future.  Either China will back down from exerting pressure on its neighbors and "make nice" with them once more, or it'll ramp up the pressure, possibly up to and perhaps including an invasion of Taiwan.  The Chinese Communist Party dare not allow its citizens to blame the Party for their economic woes, so it has to find an external enemy to blame.

We live in ever more interesting times...

Peter

The full impact of Charlie Kirk's murder is only just beginning to be felt

 

My wife and I made a shopping excursion to Wichita Falls, our nearest "big city", yesterday evening.  We reached a local branch of Braums, a Southern fast-food and grocery chain, at about 8 p.m., and were astonished to find cars backed up in the parking lot and all around the building.  The place was busier than we'd ever seen it, at any time of the day, week or month.

On going inside, it became clear that all these people were there precisely and only because of the funeral service for Charlie Kirk, held in Arizona a short while before and broadcast all over the nation.  Many local churches and house groups had arranged to watch the service together, and now they were getting together over a burger and/or milkshake to discuss what they'd seen and heard.  Everyone we heard talk about it was shaken, emotional, energized - emphasis on the latter.  I've literally never seen anything like this response to a tragedy like Mr. Kirk's murder.  (There was much - and very favorable - comment about his wife's public proclamation that she forgave his murderer.  Talk about a living witness to her faith, and his!)

At a rough estimate, I'd say there were at least a hundred people at that Braums outlet last night - and that's just one such place in a city with dozens of similar establishments.  I wonder how many more gathered at those places?  Furthermore, if the small city of Wichita Falls had so many people affected by the service, how many more - thousands?  Tens of thousands? - did other, larger Texas cities have?  If this was an example of the effect on American life and voting habits of Charlie Kirk's life and death, we're seeing the beginning of a groundswell that might dramatically alter the results of next year's mid-term elections, and perhaps well beyond that.  Nor will such a groundswell be limited to the USA.  Yesterday thousands of Europeans also celebrated Mr. Kirk's life and mourned his death, and echoed his political sentiments.

I don't suppose Mr. Kirk's murderer - let his name be forgotten! - thought at all about the consequences of his actions, but it's not impossible that his assassin has doomed his own faction, his own fellow travelers, to suffer at least short-term negative consequences through what he's done.  That may go on, and strengthen, as the conservative movement takes off in new directions as a result of this boost.  Mr. Kirk's assassination may be the death of the enemies of freedom, politically speaking, as well as the literal, physical death of one of its greatest defenders.

May Mr. Kirk rest in God's peace;  may his family receive comfort and strength;  and may those who shared his beliefs raise his memory as a standard under which to move forward.  As for those who hated and opposed him and all he stood for . . . I don't have to wish anything negative upon or for them, because they've effectively done it to themselves already.  I suspect they're just beginning to realize that, and already they're very afraid of the consequences.  So they should be.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 279

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

As regular readers will know, I've long been a fan of Steeleye Span, one of the first folk rock groups to emerge during the 1960's, and still going strong today.  Their lead singer for most of that time has been Maddy Prior, who's also a folk artist in her own right, and has produced many independent albums.

Here's one of my favorite solo songs of hers, "Dance On The Wind", one of six from her album "Ravenchild" dealing with ravens and their fascinating lives.  You'll find the entire album on YouTube if you like this track.

The exultant closing guitar solo is played by Troy Donockley, well-known as a Uillean piper, who has also performed with Nightwish.

Peter

This tickled my funny-bone

 

One of the comic strips I follow online is Gary Larson's "The Far Side".  Re-runs of its older cartoons are still very popular, both in print and on the Internet.  This one, last Monday, made me laugh out loud.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the comic's Web page.

I live in cattle country, and locals (including a number of the North Texas Troublemakers, of whom I'm proud to be a plankowner) have many (pungent) comments about cows' stupidity when trying to work with them.  The thought of an erudite cow poet is going to reduce some of them to apoplexy when they see this one!

Peter

From the cities to the heartland: a new American exodus?

 

Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox have published a two-part investigation into internal migration patterns in the USA.  They demonstrate that more and more people are choosing to move out of or away from big cities, and move to smaller towns and rural areas, largely due to quality-of-life considerations.

The first article is "Exodus: Affordability Crisis Sends Americans Packing From Big Cities".

Urban cores have started to shrink, losing first to the suburbs, then to ever further exurbs, and now to small towns and even rural areas. For the first time since the 19th century, America’s growth pattern favors smaller metros – Fargo, North Dakota, as opposed to Portland, Oregon – many of which once seemed out of favor.

This transformation can be hard to detect because demographers often discuss metropolitan regions, which put city centers at their cores. But this method of classification masks the trend that much of the growth is at the edges of these areas. In virtually all the fastest-growing metros, it has been the further-out exurbs, themselves until recently rural areas, that have experienced most of the expansion.

. . .

Between 2010 and 2020, the suburbs and exurbs of the major metropolitan areas gained 2 million net domestic migrants, while the urban core counties lost 2.7 million. The pandemic, which normalized remote work and encouraged people to keep their distance, turbocharged this movement to smaller, less crowded, less expensive housing markets.

The second article is "Revival: Americans Heading Back to the Hinterlands".

More than faux urbanism is driving this shift. For many, there’s a “back to roots” movement to return home or to someplace that seems less anonymous. Millennials, one commentator suggests, may be more “socially conscious,” but they do not necessarily favor the ideal top-down structure embraced by earlier generations; they prefer smaller units of governance to larger ones. A recent National Journal poll found that less than one-third of millennials favor federal solutions over local ones. They are far less trusting of major institutions than their Gen X predecessors.

Like millennials, immigrants are also moving to smaller cities and towns for affordable opportunities. Their attraction to areas – like the movement of African Americans to the South – belies common media and academic narratives that these areas are rife with intolerance, “dying from whiteness.” 

Wandering around a park in downtown Omaha on a Sunday, you can find diversity no less present than in Los Angeles or New York.

. . .

These smaller communities throughout the country are poised to play an outsize role in forging our future. They are shedding their reputations as closed and intolerant enclaves while attracting a stream of investment from both domestic and foreign sources. The middle of the country now accounts for the states rated by Site Selection Magazine as the best for manufacturing investments.

Both articles are worth reading, and provide a perspective on America today that one doesn't often see in the mainstream media.  Recommended reading, particularly if you're wanting to move away from big cities with their toxic stew of political, social and cultural extremism and to a more family-friendly community.

Peter

The ghouls that walk our streets

 

Following on from our first article this morning, my friend Lawdog has penned his thoughts on the ghouls in our midst.  They've been exposed (yet again) by the murder of Charlie Kirk, but that's only the latest episode in which they've metaphorically danced in the blood of those they dislike.

Charlie Kirk — like him or dislike him — was willing to hold a dialogue with those on the other side of the political spectrum from him. He was right-wing, and he was willing to have conversation with those on the left-wing.

He was murdered by someone on the left-wing — yes, the alleged murderer was a leftist, I’ve read the charging instrument — and Charlie Kirk wasn’t even cold before left-wing doctors, teachers, attorneys, media personalities, therapists, professors, real estate agents, insurance agents, administrators, food service people, and service members didn’t just get callous, contemptuous, and cruel; but were gleefully laughing, dancing, singing, and ghoulishly posting evidence of such on social media, along with suggested kill lists of other conservative names, and wishes of suffering and death upon his grieving widow, kith,and kin.

Huh.

Now the conservatives are smacking back. Performative exhibitions of merriment and joy at the murder of another human being are getting the performers fired.

And we’re suddenly hearing: “We need to open a dialogue between the two political sides.”

. . .

Tell me, do: why should conservatives open a dialogue with people whose ghouls so publicly and exuberantly celebrate the deaths of conservatives — whether the conservatives be a media personality, or eight-year-old girls who just happen to live in Texas — to the point that I worry about how they treat any suspected conservative in their care?

I should open a dialogue with people who — should Rita or I die — will caper mirthfully upon our bodies?

Conservatives should open a dialogue with the side that paints a bloody huge target on conservatives — using brushes dipped in “Nazi”, “fascist”, and other dehumanising epithets — and then cheers when a conservative who dares open a dialogue gets murdered?

Nah. I’m good.

. . .

Get your sodding ghouls under control, first. Teach them — loudly, publicly, firmly, and often — that this sort of behaviour is not to be tolerated in polite society.

Then I’ll think about a “dialogue”.

There's more at the link.

I try to be Christian in my approach to people;  not to pre-judge them, but to accept them as fellow sinners in need of the grace of God.  However, there have been times over the past week when I could have sworn that some of those dancing in Charlie Kirk's blood (metaphorically speaking) were no more than demons spouting the propaganda of their master in Hell.  There was precious little (if any) humanity to be found in their rejoicing over the murder of an innocent man whose only "offense" was to believe differently than they did.

If we in the center and right of American politics were to behave towards the Left, and speak of them, the way they do to and about us, we'd have civil war in a heartbeat.  There'd be no room left for discussion, civilized argument, or debate.  I can only thank God (literally) that saner heads have so far prevailed in the center-right of US politics . . . but I don't know whether that will (or even can) continue.

I'm seriously concerned about Charlie Kirk's memorial service in Arizona this weekend.  President Trump will be there.  How many hard left supporters will consider it a good idea to try to assassinate him while he's there?  How many are already making plans to do so?  How many are likely to follow through with their plans, and are capable of doing so?  If I were the Secret Service right now, I'd be losing sleep considering those possibilities.

And yes, I agree with Lawdog.  There is no possibility of meaningful "dialogue" unless and until the knee-jerk hatred stops.  Golda Meir once said of Arabs:  "We will only have peace with [the Arabs] when they love their children more than they hate us."  Our progressives hate us, and our children, with a burning fire.  We will not have peace with them unless and until that fire is extinguished.  That can happen through their choice.  I hope and pray that it will - because if it doesn't, it'll take a fire brigade to put it out.  That fire brigade won't be using hoses.

Peter

Sometimes one can only nod in agreement

 

Arthur Sido is what I would consider a right-wing blogger (some would say he's extreme right-wing, but I know of others much further along that spectrum than he is).  I disagree with many of his views on race and culture.  However, sometimes he hits the nail on the head, as he did yesterday.

Back in the years following Obama we saw a less than subtle shift taking place, one that really took off with the death via heart failure of George Floyd. It was in place and just waiting the right trigger, and the carefully edited video of Floyd’s death was just what the doctor ordered. No longer was it sufficient to be “color blind” or “not racist”. Now we were told “silence is violence” and that failure to be sufficiently outspoken in condemning “racism” was no different than lynching.

It wasn’t enough to simply not disagree with them, instead you were required to vocally agree with whatever they said. I recall vividly mobs confronting timid Whites in restaurants and forcing them to repeat “black lives matter” . It didn’t matter whether they agreed or not, the point was intimidation and humiliation.

We have moved into a new stage, one where you can now be forcibly silenced through violence, and a significant number of people on the Left seem to have no problem with using assassinations, whether the target was Trump or Charlie Kirk, a decidedly mild conservative ... Kirk for his faults was out there in the open. Even with Trump already in the White House he was outspoken and doing events, and because he was known he was able to be targeted. They couldn’t defeat even a fairly genteel conservative in debate so they shut him up the same way the Bolsheviks and their bastard offspring always have done: by terror and murder.

My general rule of thumb in the past was to say that the last thing I wanted was for the Left to be silenced or censored. Letting those idiots talk conveyed my arguments far better than I could dream of by blogging. Let them speak and let people see how stupid and vile they are.

Maybe that was a mistake, and maybe I am guilty of some of the same naive thinking that normies are guilty of ... The one thing that has marked leftist politics from the beginning is violence to overcome resistance to their retarded ideas. They are returning to form in America and Kirk won’t be the last to fall.

There's more at the link.

We can already see deliberate attempts from the progressive left to portray Charlie Kirk's murderer as a young man driven to extremes by his youthful love story.  Walter Kirn put it like this:

Here's how this will play out, here's the meta-script, and please don't laugh it off.

How this all started is not how it will end. A story that began with a clear traditional moral shape, an innocent victim, a vile perpetrator, will be transformed using secondary characters, new revelations, and other dramatic elements into its very opposite -- a story of forbidden love, persecution by religious bigots, a  poignantly rebellious heartfelt protest against a World that Doesn't Understand.

There will then be a total split, far deeper than mere "politics," between the segments of the public that were captivated by two incommensurate tragedies.

Rod Dreher explodes in righteous anger at such a mischaracterization.

Sure enough, look at Montel Williams on CNN, saying that poor sweet Tyler was simply trying to “defend his lover,” not attack an ideology. This is the play now.

Like I said, trying to keep a cool head, but … what world do these freaks live in?! Tyler Robinson blew a hole in Charlie Kirk’s throat because he despised what Charlie Kirk said, and this ABC News reporter has a sentimental boner about how sweet their gay-lover chit-chat is?!

. . .

I am seriously, seriously shaken up about the country. People don’t even know what reality is! These left-wing people will believe whatever they need to believe to maintain their narrative. Do I need to remind you that one of the signs that a country is ready to receive a totalitarian dictatorship is a refusal to believe in Truth, only “truth” as what satisfies you emotionally?

These people who are turning to their AI lovers for emotional gratification, while knowing full well that these things aren’t real — it’s a sign, y’all. It’s a sign of ever-growing detachment from reality. They prefer the “truth” of the way the Machine makes them feel to actual reality.

Again, more at the link.

Tyler Durden observes that the "woke" news media are marching in lock-step on this one.

The people dancing on TikTok and laughing about the murder come from all walks of life, from teachers to social workers and, of course, mainstream journalists.  The widespread vitriol has debunked the longtime claim that such psychopathy is relegated to a fringe minority. 

In reality, violent bloodlust is a feature of the political left, not an anomaly.  We saw it after the multiple assassination attempts on Donald Trump and we see it even more after the death of Charlie Kirk.

The justifications are rampant, with leftists claiming (falsely) that Kirk was a "fascist, misogynist, racist, homophobe, etc.", thereby absolving themselves of their elation over his shooting.  The real issue is that Kirk told the truth, on DEI, on transgender cultism, on feminism - And because they could not win against him in open debate, they wanted him dead.

. . .

Being a left-wing journalist, [Washington Post columnist Karen] Attiah's comments are strategically open to interpretation.  In the worst case, she appears to be justifying Charlie Kirk's killing because continuing to allow him to live is the same as absolving "white" American violence.  In other words, Kirk's words are the same as violence, therefore killing him is an act of self defense.

However, like most leftists in the media, Attiah is unable to produce any examples of Charlie Kirk actually espousing violence, or calling for violence.

. . .

Woke activists have been scrambling to control the narrative on Kirk's assassination for the past several days, at first applauding the incident as righteous vengeance, then claiming that the shooter was "right wing" (a false narrative), and now calling for conservatives to "cool things down" as if conservatives are the source of the problem.

More at the link.

We've seen this barrage of lies, propaganda and vitriol erupt and expand over the past week.  It's going to go on, and get worse, because the progressive left has to have a cause around which to gather.  If they can persuade people that "We're the oppressed ones here!", they can generate renewed and increased resistance to President Trump and his policies.  In reality, of course, they'll be relentless and merciless in pursuing those who expose their falsehoods and fanaticism.  I doubt very much whether Charlie Kirk will be the only martyr to their efforts.

Those of us who believe in our constitutional republic and the rule of law would do well to read the words of those I've quoted above, and gird our loins, both physically and metaphorically.  If we live in areas infested by such radical leftists (or even within striking distance of them), we should be prepared to defend ourselves, our loved ones, and our homes.  That may be more of a reality than we'd like to admit.

Peter

A certain deficiency in logic...

 

Circulating on social media:

Uh-huh.

Peter

The death of lecture-based universities?

 

That's what the Australian Courier-Mail foresees.  A tip o' the hat to our Australian reader Andrew for sending me the link to the article.

The future of face-to-face learning at Australia’s universities is in serious doubt as more institutions ditch old-school lectures in favour of full online or hybrid learning models.

While some students and staff are campaigning to save lectures from the chopping block, others in the sector say the train has already left the station and the future of universities is online as students “vote with their feet”.

The face-to-face debate reared its head again recently as Adelaide University students and staff protested what they claimed was a move away from in-person learning at Australia’s newest university – a claim the university continues to deny.

Meanwhile, Open University Australia helps potential students connect with more than 890 online degrees in response to changing student preferences.

University of South Queensland (USQ) Associate Professor Alice Brown has researched and written on the challenges and opportunities of online higher education learning, finding the ultimate determiner is the students themselves who routinely “vote with their feet”.

“There is a trend and phenomena of students becoming increasingly discerning about how they want to study and when they want to study,” Professor Brown said.

“If they are not offered an online option, then they will vote with their feet and go to courses that are fully online.”

. . .

The debate comes as a number of Victorian universities are now offering digital-only lectures, with most choosing not to reintroduce in-person models post-Covid.

RMIT environmental engineering student Ted Oldis, 24, said attending his university in-person was a toss-up decision he makes daily.

“If you’re trying to juggle work, friends and study you have to balance the convenience of the online lectures with attending in-person,” he said.

“If you don’t need the social aspect and you think the learning is the same, it honestly comes down to convenience, and more often than not it’s easier to do the online learning.”

Mr Oldis said he had toyed with attending as many lectures and tutorials as possible in-person this semester.

“This semester I made a conscious decision to attend every class and lecture I can in-person,” he said.

“I wanted to try to engage more and meet new people. But to be honest, I don’t feel it’s been worth it compared to doing the same stuff online.”

There's more at the link.

I have every sympathy with those students who are avoiding in-person classes and focusing instead on online and distance education.  I hold four university qualifications, two of which I obtained through distance education only (i.e. by post) and two by part-time evening classes plus distance education.  I can't say I felt in any way short-changed by not having the full "campus experience" of a full-time education.  In fact, the professors in my Masters degree often said to us students that they preferred working with us as opposed to full-time students, because we'd already learned to fend for ourselves and earn a living, and didn't expect the world to provide everything to us on a platter.  Comparing ourselves to the self-centered idle twits who infested that campus' post-graduate programs, it wasn't hard to see why they came to that conclusion.

Looking at the pro-Palestinian protests across many US universities over the past couple of years simply makes the contrast even starker.  The only reason those students could carry on so irresponsibly (not to mention violently) is that they had parents and trust funds and bursaries to pay for their existence while they did so.  The rest of us, who have to work for a living, may want to protest in favor of causes we support, but we can't afford to do so nearly as often or as long, because we know that our employers will kick us out and hire replacements who'll be willing to earn every dollar they pay us.  We've grown up.  Most of those students haven't.

I think American higher education would be a lot better off if we got rid of at least half the campuses in this country and fired all the professors who live in their academic cloud cuckoo land instead of in the real world.  I'd also suggest that we fire every student who doesn't pass at least half their courses every year.  No do-overs, no accommodations, no touchy-feely wishy-washy excuses.  Unless there are truly exceptional circumstances to excuse them, they can pass, or get out.  Why should my tax dollars be wasted on supporting them?

Grrr . . .

Peter

Don't just build the structure, pay attention to the foundations

 

I've been watching the outpouring of emotion over the murder of Charlie Kirk and the other blatant, in-your-face crimes that have shocked our nation in recent weeks.  I'm sure most of us agree that something needs to be done;  but what, precisely, should be done is fiercely debated.

I'd like to suggest that if we all "started small", we'd get a lot more done than if we all worried about the "big picture".  Each of us, as individuals, is too small and ineffectual a factor to get much attention on a state or national level.  However, at our local level, we can certainly organize ourselves into groups of like-minded people and put pressure on our town and city councils to fix the problems we encounter.  If a few dozen, or a few score, citizens were to insist that our local cops be given the authority, the budget and the free hand they need to control crime on our local streets, it would make all of our towns safer places to live.  If local towns were to come together and demonstrate that they can succeed in doing that, then our county executives might apply the same lesson on a larger scale.  If enough counties do likewise, then our state might begin to create the necessary conditions for change and improvement:  and if enough states do the same, then our entire nation might find a way forward.

However, it all starts locally, with the foundations rather than the superstructure.  We can't wave a magic wand and change our national government, or the Deep State bureaucracy, or so-called "blue state" policies.  However, we can affect the day-to-day lives of our communities at our own level.  If enough of us refuse to tolerate bigotry, extremism and dogmatism, we can take back our own environment.  If enough of us do that, we can inspire others to do likewise . . . but it all begins with the individual.

Therefore, let's not worry about founding new chapters of Turning Point USA, or joining the political party of our preference.  Let's join local churches, or make sure that local chapters of the Boy Scouts or Girl Guides are run in a balanced and sane manner, and do our best to see to it that local schools aren't infested with extremist views that make it a trial and a punishment for our children to attend them.  All that is within our power to do, if we're willing to exert ourselves for the good of our communities.

Have at it!

Peter

The writing life

 

I'm battling to complete a short story before the deadline for submissions later this week, so this cartoon made me laugh.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the Foxes In Love Web page.

I can almost hear the simultaneous groan from my writing and publishing buddies as they see it . . .

Peter

A very heartfelt "Thank you!!!" to my readers and friends

 

Last week on Monday my wife and I launched a fundraiser for my medical expenses.  I explained at the time that they're expected to total well over $100,000, possibly twice that.  We've been saving as best we can, and have taken out a second mortgage on our home, but we were still facing a big shortfall.  We set a fundraising target of $50,000.

To our surprise and great relief, you've responded very generously indeed.  As I write these words, the fundraiser stands at $49,236.  I expect we'll reach our target today or tomorrow, if this keeps up.  After the IRS takes its share and other expenses are met, we should get about $35,000 out of this campaign.  This is a huge relief to us, and gives us greater confidence that we can cope with the bills to come.

It's been suggested to us that we should raise the target to a higher figure, but that seems a bit cheesy somehow.  Yes, the total bills may be quite a bit higher, but we don't know that for sure yet (it'll take months to have any certainty), and we don't want to appear greedy.  We're more than grateful for what we've already received.  We'll probably leave the fundraiser open until the end of September to give late responders a chance to join in, and then close it down at whatever the level is then.  Meanwhile, if you would please continue to mention the fundraiser now and again to your friends and contacts on social media, we'll appreciate that very much.

We thank God for all of you, and for your great generosity.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 278

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

The tragic murder of Charlie Kirk a few days ago has swept across our nation like a wave.  Some celebrate his death;  others mourn it.  Some reject all he was and stood for;  others proclaim it with pride and promise to continue his legacy.  I rather think that his assassination might turn into one of the pivotal moments in US political history, on a level with the murder of JFK.  I, for one, will honor his memory, and do what little I can to make America all that he believed we could be.

To mark his passing, I wanted a piece of music that would speak to all Americans, whether men and women of faith or not.  Yes, I know Mr. Kirk was a man of strong, intense faith (as am I), and he should be remembered as such:  but his message is one that reached beyond sectarian divides, and I wanted music that reflects that universal appeal.  I found it in Samuel Barber's well-known Adagio for Strings.  Here's Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2016.  Turn up your volume, because the recording is relatively soft.

May Charlie Kirk rest in God's peace.  May his widow and children be comforted in their loss.  May their witness continue to spread his message;  and may we who remember him do likewise.

Peter

There are times I've agreed with him...

 

Stephan Pastis reminds us that there are ways to cope, and then there are ways...  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

There's also beer, of course...  At present, harder liquor is not a good idea for me, thanks to opioid painkillers washing around in my system.

Peter

The vicious circle of AI and the employment market

 

The Atlantic points out that while artificial intelligence is being applied to the job market by both applicants and employers, fewer people are being hired.

Corporate profits are strong, the jobless rate is 4.3 percent, and wages are climbing in turn. But payrolls have been essentially frozen for the past four months. The hiring rate has declined to its lowest point since the jobless recovery following the Great Recession. Four years ago, employers were adding four or five workers for every 100 they had on the books, month in and month out. Now they are adding three.

At the same time, the process of getting a job has become a late-capitalist nightmare. Online hiring platforms have made it easier to find an opening but harder to secure one: Applicants send out thousands of AI-crafted résumés, and businesses use AI to sift through them. What Bumble and Hinge did to the dating market, contemporary human-resources practices have done to the job market. People are swiping like crazy and getting nothing back.

. . .

For employers, the job market is working differently too. Businesses receive countless ill-fitting applications, along with a few good ones, for each open position. Rather than poring over the submissions by hand, they use machines. In a recent survey, chief HR officers told the Boston Consulting Group that they are using AI to write job descriptions, assess candidates, schedule introductory meetings, and evaluate applications. In some cases, firms are using chatbots to interview candidates, too. Prospective hires log in to a Zoom-like system and field questions from an avatar. Their performance is taped, and an algorithm searches for keywords and evaluates their tone.

. . .

The impossibility of getting to the interview stage spurs jobless workers to submit more applications, which pushes them to rely on ChatGPT to build their résumés and respond to screening prompts ... And so the cycle continues: The surge in same-same AI-authored applications prompts employers to use robot filters to manage the flow. Everyone ends up in Tinderized job-search hell.

There's more at the link.

It's a conundrum.  All those who claim that new technologies may displace older jobs, but also open up new ones, are finding that the old explanation no longer applies.  Technology is providing more and more information on both sides of the equation, and (supposedly) speeding up the handling of applications:  but it's also focusing in on small details and exact matches to such an extent that people who might have been considered for a job in the past, no longer meet the much stricter criteria being applied.

I can't see this as healthy.  When I worked in the corporate world, in supervisory and middle management, I always looked at an applicant's work record first, to see what they'd actually achieved in previous jobs.  That was far more important to me than their academic credentials or other factors.  If their employment history showed increasing levels of responsibility as they progressed, and they could point to measurable yardsticks like completed projects or industry recognition, they were the kind of people I wanted to hire.  However, AI doesn't look at that in an overall sense:  instead, it has lists of key words, and if an applicant's work history doesn't include enough of them, they're unlikely to ever get to the interview stage.  I regard that as a cop-out.  Managers are using it to avoid having to do too much research into applicants, and don't want to take the trouble to dig deep to find new staff with the greatest potential.  By relying on "the system", they evade personal responsibility.

I have to admit, I'm glad I'm not looking for a job in today's market.  It sounds increasingly like a no-win situation for far too many people.

Peter

The murder of Charlie Kirk and the World Trade Center attack

 

The founder of Turning Point USA and key supporter of President Trump, Charlie Kirk, was shot dead yesterday while speaking at Utah Valley University in that state.

There's already been an immense amount of verbiage spouted by all the usual suspects on both the left and the right of US politics.  I'd just like to point out that Mr. Kirk's murder is merely the latest act in the growing intolerance, sectarianism and naked violence that's become a feature of our political debate since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

So much changed in America on that day, and in the months and years that followed.  Life became more precarious, less insulated from the violence of the modern world.  We went to war, and spent thousands of lives (and tens of thousands more wounded and maimed servicemen) in an ultimately failed effort to combat terrorism and reimpose what our politicians saw as US dominance.  The scars of that conflict are visible all over the world to this day, in countries that have become unstable, violent and brutal - including our own.

Inevitably, that failure has had its impact on our internal politics.  Far too many of us are all too ready to lash out, less willing to talk, not amenable to compromise.  It's "our way or the highway", and we're ready to consign to the highway anyone with whom we disagree.  That's what somebody did to Charlie Kirk yesterday.  His very existence, and the message he proclaimed, threatened their own views of and desires for this country, so they killed him.

I knew almost nothing about Mr. Kirk before yesterday.  I've never followed Turning Point USA, and didn't pay much attention to his electioneering.  Nevertheless, his murder is a body blow to political discourse and sanity in America, because right now there are undoubtedly many on the conservative side of our political divide who are more than willing to see murder committed against a Kirk equivalent on the liberal/progressive side.  Any prospect for tolerance and discussion is, for the time being, almost certainly dead in the water.

That means, whether or not we agreed with Mr. Kirk or President Trump, we're all damaged by this murder.  What will its wider, long-term impact be?  Nobody can say . . . but I suggest we'd better be thinking and praying very hard about it.

Rod Dreher has some very faith-filled and insightful commentary on this tragedy.

Charlie Kirk was no friend of the extreme right. But I fear that the gruesome slaying of Iryna Zarutska by a deranged black man, and now the assassination of Kirk — interesting that both bled out from a wound to the same place on their necks — will be a signal to militant far-right groups to go active. I hope I’m wrong. The urge to do something is powerful. I feel it too. But do what? White people and conservatives don’t burn down cities. Yet the capacity to absorb leftist violence is not infinite.

. . .

I suspect that today and in the days to come, there will be some people online cheering on the prospect of civil war, of violence to settle scores ... the fractures are so deep in America today. True, we are nowhere remotely close to the political violence that savaged the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s; reading Days Of Rage is a necessary corrective to fevered speculation about today’s climate. Nevertheless, there was at that time deep tissue connecting Americans, and that gave the country resilience. I fear that has gone now ... something wicked this way comes. We all know this. Prepare.

There's more at the link.  It's worth reading in full.

May Mr. Kirk rest in peace, and may his family receive what comfort they may;  and may his murderer(s?) be swiftly brought to justice.

Peter

This is so ridiculously stupid, it's an indictment of the "creative" artists responsible for it

 

I couldn't believe this article was real, but I'm assured it is.

Marvel Rivals video game is ramping up the LGBTQ+ representation with its fourth game release this month by featuring the sister of Thor, the Asgardian God of Thunder, who is a lesbian with a transgender husband.

The storyline for the game, put out by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games, follows villain character Doctor Doom who meets his alternate reality self — who is a hero — and that causes a “timestream entanglement” in which heroes and corresponding villains come to fight each other for domination over the universe. It is a first person shooter-styled game first released last year and already has several gay characters introduced.

The new release is reportedly set to add the character Vanguard Angela (Aldrif Odinsdottir), who is the daughter of Asgard’s God King, Odin. That makes her the sister of popular Marvel comic book hero, Thor, God of Thunder.

In the comics, the character, Angela, is married to a male character named Sera who was later written as having “transitioned” to  female in the comics.

There's more at the link.

How does this fit the Norse canon in any way, shape or form?  (Although, I suppose if Loki could turn himself into a horse and bear a foal, a lesbian goddess is far from impossible.  I draw the line at a transgender husband, though.  Even Odin couldn't turn his famously blind eye to that!)

Of course, if gay and/or homosexual gods are to become a thing, it'll give new meaning to the name of their home.  Perhaps "Asgard" should be re-spelled with a second "S" in the first syllable, and a "U" in the second?

Peter

The backlash grows against crime - and spreads to entire races

 

I think President Trump spoke for the majority of Americans in his comments yesterday about the murder of a young Ukrainian woman on a North Carolina transit system.  His statement is very brief, but I hope all my readers will take a couple of minutes to listen to it.

An equally tragic situation is arising in terms of relations between racial and ethnic groups in this country.  More and more people are unequivocally equating criminal violence with black crime and black violence.  Eric S. Raymond pointed out yesterday:

The part of me that was once an idealistic anti-racist liberal marching for civil rights died its final death last night as I watched the video of Irina Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail, being  fatally stabbed in the throat from behind by a black savage I refuse to name.

What has finally broken me is, incidents like that aren't even a surprise anymore. The frequency of brutal, senseless murders by "African-Americans", both individually and in predatory mobs, has risen exactly as rapidly as social and coercive controls on their behavior have weakened.

Meanwhile, for anybody who's wondering, American whites still have about the same crime rate as Switzerland. When enforcement of norms disintegrates, only intelligent people with low time preference still act civilized. 

As I've watched us sliding down the civilizational failure gradient, the question I've been increasingly unable to dismiss is this: was the whole ugly apparatus of racial repression - segregation, sundown towns, lynchings - really just senseless hatred? Or was it a rational containment strategy evolved under pressure from living alongside a large, visually distinct population of low-IQ savages?

I think I know the answer now.  And I hate knowing it. I preferred my innocence.

It doesn't do any good to protest that this particular savage was "mentally ill", whatever you think that means. The mobs that routinely form to beat up and kill whites unwary enough to wander onto their turf aren't psychotic, unless all Blacks are psychotic. 

Yes, yes, I know. If you were to select a population of whites for the same distribution of IQ and time preference as American Blacks, and then coddle them, scholarship out their brightest kids for four generations, and tell them all of their failures are society's fault, you'd get the same level of pathology and violence in about the time it took you to say "dyscultural and dysgenic".

That doesn't matter. We're not dealing with that hypothetical. We're dealing with reality. The reality is that we have a predation problem that will only be solved when our actual population of low IQ savages is contained again. Creatures like Irina's murderer, cognitively unable to participate in civilization, must be subject to either segregation or repression so brutal that they live in fear of it.

I don't really want to live in the kind of society that can do either these things. But Irina Zarutska's murder is the seal on my realization that there are no longer soft options, only hard choices.

I'd prefer the one where armed citizens routinely shoot down creatures like that at the time of the attempted crime, or immediately after it. All the alternatives seem far worse.

I've devoted much of my life to fighting the evils of racism and bigotry.  I bear the physical scars of that struggle on my body and in my mind.  I've written about them on occasion in these pages, as regular readers will know.  I absolutely hate reading such words from a balanced, sane commenter like Eric Raymond . . . but I know he's merely voicing the reactions of a great many Americans from other racial groups.  They're beginning to blame all blacks for the actions and attitudes of criminal blacks.  Given the number of cities that tolerate such offenders as the Charlotte murderer, it's almost impossible to advance a meaningful counter-argument.  There are simply too many such criminals out there, and unless and until they're dealt with, permanently, in the eyes of other racial and ethnic groups they will continue to drag their own race down into the ordure in which they swim.

When trying to help the victims of racial and ethnic violence in Africa, I had to learn (the hard way) that the only way to protect innocent victims was to end the onslaught of their (and my) violent predatory enemies, any way I had to.  I was a priest, and worked with many other priests.  The only ones who were effective ministers of the Gospel were those who realized that when Christ commanded his followers to buy a sword if they didn't own one, he wasn't joking.  We bought the modern equivalent of swords, and we used them to keep our flocks safe.  It felt very weird (at first) to be wearing a gun beneath my vestments, or have one stashed close to hand in case of need, but it was necessary under the circumstances, and many of us did so.  How many Americans are willing to contemplate their pastors and clergy doing likewise in today's society?  Unless we can put an end to this senseless criminal violence, congregations all over the country may have to make that choice.

May God have mercy on the victims, and may the guilty be brought to justice and condign punishment:  and may those who tolerate, support and encourage the guilty suffer the same consequences.

Peter

This is long overdue!

 

Thanks to insane regulations that forbid prisons to jam cellphone signals, inmates have for decades (literally) been using smuggled cellphones to operate crime networks and organize specific crimes from behind bars.  We've known they're doing it, but the regulators have always insisted that cellphone frequencies may not be jammed for any reason.

At long last, that looks to be changing.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission may soon give state and local prisons authority Congress has repeatedly declined to grant.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday the commission will vote Sept. 30 on a proposal to let state and local prisons jam contraband cell phones - effectively cutting off the smuggled devices inmates use to communicate with the outside world. Carr stressed it would be voluntary and not a federal mandate to jam.

“Contraband cell phones are the root of so many evils taking place, not just in prisons, but across the country, for the crimes that people are phoning in and enabling,” Carr said, speaking at the Arkansas Attorney General’s office in Little Rock, following a tour of Varner Prison. “We need to do something about this serious threat to public safety.”

Carr said the proposal would sidestep federal law by declaring that calls from contraband cell phones are not “authorized communications” under 47 U.S.C. § 333, the statute that bars jamming. By de-authorizing those communications inside prisons, the FCC would clear the way for state and local facilities to deploy targeted jamming technology without running afoul of federal restrictions.

“Once contraband cell phone use is not an ‘authorized communication,' then the federal law is no longer a prohibition to jamming it, and that's well within the FCC authority to give that reading to federal law,” Carr said.

There's more at the link.

When I worked as a prison chaplain, I became aware of more than a few major crimes (up to and including murder) that were clandestinely arranged between inmates and their families and gangs outside the walls.  Even though that was a couple of decades ago, and modern miniaturized cellphones (much more easily concealed than the bigger, old-fashioned bricks) did not exist at the time, the cellular network was an increasingly important element in those arrangements.  With modern phones and encrypted communications apps, it's become a nightmare to keep track of what's going on.  This decision should be a major benefit to law enforcement in shutting down some of the worst of the worst criminals, who've regarded incarceration as simply a better-protected way for them to do business (because inside prison walls, their enemies outside find it, not impossible, but harder to get at them).

Peter

Asking for your help, dear readers

 

Regular readers will know that I've been battling multiple health issues for almost 3 years.  They led to an interruption in writing books, because I simply couldn't concentrate well enough to produce what I consider acceptable work.  I've also been blogging less frequently, for the same reason.

Last year I underwent four kidney procedures in an effort to overcome nephrotic syndrome, which first revealed itself as a severe case of hydronephrosis.  The situation was not helped by an incompetent urologist who subjected me to three procedures and then declared me cured.  He was wrong.  Fortunately, I could feel things still weren't right and insisted on a second opinion, which led to a fourth procedure to see what could be salvaged.  Sadly, although the last procedure brought temporary relief, it couldn't resurrect my right kidney;  so, later this month, it's coming out.  I hope that'll be the end of my kidney problems.  (Humans can live with only one kidney, provided it works normally;  so I'll be hoping for the best!)

About three years ago my partly disabling spinal injury, suffered more than two decades ago, began to give me more trouble:  increased pain (lately greatly increased), impaired mobility, and other issues.  Treating this has been complicated (understatement!) by legal issues.  The original injury was work-related, and treated by workers compensation;  but they closed the case in due course, and aren't about to reopen it unless it can be proved beyond doubt that any new problems are directly and immediately related to that injury.  Medical insurance, on the other hand, insist that since there's an older work-related injury in the same area as my current problems, the two must obviously be related, so workers comp should be paying for treatment.  I'm caught in the middle fighting two different sets of bureaucrats, both of which want to ensure that they don't pay for anything.  Lawyers are now involved, and it'll almost certainly have to be dealt with in court in due course.  However, treatment can't wait until the paperwork stops flying.

My wife and I have taken steps as best we can to carry the load so far.  We've mobilized our savings, and taken out a second mortgage on our home.  A very generous reader also donated a significant amount of money last year, which helped us pay for one of the surgical procedures on my kidney.  However, even after all of that, we're still facing a very large medical bill this year (possibly running into next year).  Spinal surgery is very expensive.  The lowest quote I've been able to get (hospitals being notoriously reticent to provide actual cost numbers in advance) is $49,625 for the surgery alone (i.e. surgeon's fees, anesthesia, use of operating theater, etc.), excluding:

• Diagnostic costs;
• Hardware or implants that may be required;
• Overnight or longer hospital stays;
• Post-surgical rehabilitation and physical therapy;
• The cost of treating any complications that may result.

All those expenses are over and above the surgery, and also for our account.  Total costs may exceed $80,000, according to those who've been through this before.  (I emphasize again that this is the lowest quote I've been able to obtain.  Others are significantly higher, exceeding six figures in all.  "Medical tourism" may be a cheaper alternative, but high-quality medical care remains expensive, even in the Third World.  Furthermore, long flights with a newly-repaired spine are sure to be very uncomfortable, and may be medically inadvisable.)

Therefore, I'm turning to you, dear readers.  If you enjoy this blog, and/or you've enjoyed my books, will you please consider helping us meet these expenses?  We've done our best to meet them according to our abilities, but even using the lowest quoted costs, we're going to be up to $50,000 short.  (If we eventually get something from either workers comp or medical insurance to pay some or all of our expenses, we'll use that to clear any remaining medical debt, then donate the rest to help someone else in our position.  We're far from alone in dueling with medical bureaucracies, we know!)

We've started a fundraiser at GiveSendGo, which appears to be one of the most honest and reliable services of its kind.  You can click on the link provided, or on the top link in the sidebar of this blog, to be taken there.  My wife and I will be very grateful for any support you can provide.

Thanks, friends.  God bless you all.

Peter