Remember ACORN?

ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) closed its doors a couple of years ago after a nationwide controversy.  It was alleged (and proved to my personal satisfaction) to be a far-Left, unprincipled, dishonest organization that would do anything and go to any lengths to ensure that its objectives were achieved.  It's reported to have been actively involved in voter fraud prior to the 2008 elections that brought President Obama to office, although this has yet to be prosecuted in an appropriate court.  I hope that will happen one day.

Be that as it may, the organization as such was effectively shut down in 2010.  However, like the manifold heads of the mythical Hydra, it seems that its members have simply continued their operations under different names.  The poison they represent in the American body politic is still doing its damage.  Cause of Action has uncovered the names of no less than 174 organizations that are offshoots of ACORN or are otherwise continuing its work.

It's worth your while to click over there and go through the list for yourself.  If you find one or more of these organizations at work in your area during the current election campaign, expect problems.





Peter

Pussy Riot - a different perspective

I suppose readers could hardly have escaped the outpouring of maudlin sympathy and overflowing emotion from many 'useful idiots' at the two-year prison sentence handed down to Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot.  However, in Russia it seems a different perspective prevails.  Taki's Magazine reports:

Western analysis of the stunt pulled in Moscow by the cretins known as Pussy Riot cannot convey the visceral rage their act has elicited from the typical Russian.

I don’t mean the typical Russian of central Moscow or St. Petersburg, but those from the endless cinderblock apartments that ring each city and fill in the rest of the largest geographic country on Earth. They are not commonly interviewed on television, and Western media hardly ever quote them. However, they do most of the nation’s working and slaving and living and dying. They also do the believing.

There are many things one does not do in a Russian Orthodox church. In many colder climes—basically all of Russia much of the year—adherents do not remove coats. Congregants remain standing throughout the ceremony. You cannot put your hands in your pockets and if you do, someone will tap you and wag his finger.

The clergy will not look at you. Their backs are to parishioners because Orthodox services honor the Almighty instead of trying to entertain those who pass through the archway. The service is not about you and it will proceed whether you are there or not.

. . .

... many Russians apparently would have felt no qualms about kicking in every last one of these girls’ teeth. This is the degree to which their stunt offends typical Russians. Few would object to the same reaction at a neo-Nazi rally at Auschwitz, a pro-Khmer Rouge carnival at a Cambodian temple, or those insufferable jackasses who denounce homosexuality at soldiers’ funerals. Some people beg to have hell beaten out of them. That they generally don’t is a true crime against humanity.

. . .

Lamentably, there was no end to the insufferable idiots spouting off about this lack of Russian liberty.

One of them was Madonna, taking reprieve from showing the ravages of time to tell the world we must respect freedom. Not freedom of religion or freedom of association evidently, but freedom to spit on others’ most sacred beliefs in a place specifically designed for them to retreat from a world which already does that with glee at every opportunity imaginable.

Another was the defiler Khodorkovsky, who ought to be disqualified from giving any statement about Christ’s sanctity. Yet when did courtesy or common sense ever convince one of his ilk to keep its mouth shut about anything? On the contrary, the Oligarch Who Didn’t Get Away felt at ease questioning the morality of a country from which he stole billions.

There were other “musicians” and intellectual lightweights who deigned to make digs at the deity. If you are ever in a committee meeting where Sting, Yoko Ono, and Madonna agree, back quietly out of the room and run until you’re out of breath.

There's more at the link.

I think the author is somewhat 'over the top' in his condemnation of Pussy Riot - as much over the top as they were to protest in a church in that fashion.  If I'd been there that day, I'd certainly have stopped their protest by grabbing them by the scruffs of their necks and physically ejecting them from the cathedral.  However, I wouldn't have brought charges against them or sought jail sentences for them.  That's only made them martyrs in the eyes of the 'useful idiots' of the world.  Nevertheless, I can't help a certain sympathy for the author's perspective.  One hopes that the young ladies (?) will learn something during their time behind bars, and not be so disrespectful of others' rights and beliefs in future.

Peter

In Memoriam: Neil Alden Armstrong

Retired astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, died today.  He was 82 years old.  His deeds are world-renowned, and speak for themselves.  His obituary is written, not here, but among the planets and the stars.  Any human being who ever sets foot on another celestial body will be following the trail blazed by Mr. Armstrong and his colleagues.

I had the very great privilege of meeting Mr. Armstrong in South Africa in the 1980's, when my then-employer flew him out to be guest speaker at our annual gathering.  He gave a very interesting talk, then mingled with us afterwards.  I treasure that memory today.

May he rest in peace.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #633

Today's winner found (temporary) fame in Whittier, Alaska.

Whittier Police Department Chief Dave Schofield says the driver was in a Subaru with two dogs and a cat as he drove off the ferry at about 6:15 a.m., in the dark under heavy rain. When the vehicle’s GPS told the driver to turn right, he then drove down a ramp into the harbor at near high tide, submerging the vehicle in five feet of water.

There's more at the link.

I think that must be the most-quickly-committed navigational error in quite some time!  If he was trying to be funny, he'll have to come up with something Whittier than that . . .





Peter

The ultimate cure for constipation?

Courtesy of Australian reader Snoggeramus, we learn of a crocodile's meal that was seasoned with . . . well, let's just say it was something other than salt and pepper!  Australia's News.com reports:

A CONSTRUCTION worker's been bitten by a crocodile during a toilet break in Malaysian Borneo but fought the huge reptile off and escaped with his life.

Pai reportedly punched the two-metre crocodile in the eye after it bit him just above his right buttock, and despite being in incredible pain and soaked in blood managed to summon help.

The attack happened early on Friday, when the 32-year-old decided to take his chances in a river in Sarawak state despite knowing it was infested with crocodiles.

The labourer, who works at a nearby construction site, had just finished relieving himself under a bridge when the animal bit him from behind.

"Fortune favoured me when the crocodile let go after I punched it in the eye," he was quoted as saying by Malay tabloid Harian Metro.

There's more at the link.

Could the crocodile's behavior be described as har-ass-ment?





Peter

Gallows humor!

Received via e-mail:

Peter

Danger! Police at work!

I'm sure readers have learned by now of the shooting near the Empire State Building in New York City this morning, in which two people were killed - one being the perpetrator of the crime - and at least nine others injured.  It now appears that all those injured were wounded by police gunfire, or by fragments knocked off buildings and other objects by police bullets.

This is hardly the first time the abysmal marksmanship training and standards of the New York City Police Department have been exposed.  Two of the most (in)famous cases were those of Amadou Diallo (41 shots fired) and Sean Bell (50 shots fired).  In this latest incident, it's reported that 16 rounds were fired by police, most missing their target (as was the case in the earlier incidents I mentioned).

When is the NYPD going to put more emphasis on initial and refresher weapons training for its officers?  Right now, it seems like bystanders in New York City are in greater danger from police gunfire than perpetrators!





Peter

Some great photography

The winners of the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest for 2012 have been announced.  Here are three examples, reduced in size to fit this blog.

First place winner: Butterfly.  This image was shot in the Kyrgyz lands of the Wakhan Corridor. The intimacy of this everyday life moment, shot inside of a family yurt, is in total contrast with the harsh environment these nomadic tribes live in. On the right we notice a television and a sound console. These tribes live weeks away from any village by foot. In spite of being located at an altitude of 4,300 meters in one of the most remote areas of Afghanistan they are equipped with solar panels, satellite dishes and cellphones. Ancestral ways of living, with touches of modernity.

Merit Winner: Lost in Time - An Ancient Forest.  Near the city of Morondava, on the West coast of Madagascar lies an ancient forest of Baobab trees. Unique to Madagascar, the endemic species is sacred to the Malagasy people, and rightly so. Walking amongst these giants is like nothing else on this planet. Some of the trees here are over a thousand years old. It is a spiritual place, almost magical.

Merit Winner: Looking into Another World.  This is the great Japanese maple tree in the Portland Japanese Gardens.

There are more winning photographs at the link, as well as galleries of all the entries.  Fascinating viewing, and well worth your time to click over there.

Peter

A car reviewer goes medieval on Aston Martin

I had to laugh at CNET's video review of the 2012 model of Aston Martin's V8 Vantage Roadster.  Its print review set the tone by lamenting that 'the specter of Lucas, the British company famous for faulty parts, inhabits the electronics'.  The first four minutes of the video are a catalog of mistakes, daft design decisions, and weird bits and pieces.  I couldn't help laughing!

I wonder if the higher-ups at Aston Martin in England will ever get to see that review?  They might want to take some antacids beforehand . . .



Peter

Schools and their place in raising kids

I was disgusted to read about an incident of school violence in San Francisco and the response of some individuals and groups.  The Bay Citizen reports:

School administrators kicked [a boy] out of Bessie Carmichael [Elementary School] for allegedly shooting another student in the face with a BB gun. He denied having a BB gun and shooting his classmate but admitted to carrying a plastic pellet gun in his backpack. The victim in the case was hit in the upper right cheek but was not seriously injured.

Although the facts are in dispute, the boy’s situation illustrates the San Francisco Unified School District’s haphazard struggle to fulfill complex health and safety mandates: Prevent violence, nurture victims and deal with inner-city trauma when it spills into the classroom.

While the district is responsible for keeping children safe, it’s also required to address the needs of students who exhibit risky or even violent behaviors. In the case of the boy at Bessie Carmichael, it failed to do both, records and interviews show.

A Bay Citizen review of violence prevention programs for youth in San Francisco revealed a web of services, mostly provided by city-funded nonprofit groups working in neighborhoods and, sometimes, schools. Even so, Shawn Richard, founder and executive director of Brothers Against Guns, said there are not enough resources to reach all of the kids who need help.

“The school district needs to partner up with organizations that deal with these issues in the communities instead of kicking a kid out of school with no counseling or services,” said Richard, whose group has a limited arrangement to work with students in the district. “But right now, we’re not at enough schools where we can do intervention.”

The district employs roughly 60 social workers and therapists to work in the city’s roughly 120 elementary and middle schools, but Andi Hilinski, who oversees the team, says that’s not enough to address the emotional needs of all students.

“Our department stance is that every school should have a full-time social worker and full-time nurse,” she said.

Despite limited resources, anti-violence experts say, schools remain the best places to help students from broken homes and violent neighborhoods get support.

In a study titled “Mitigating the Effects of Gun Violence on Children and Youth,” researchers at Cornell University said schools were “the most promising avenue for successful identification of and therapeutic intervention for exposed and victimized youth.”

. . .

By all accounts, the 11-year-old boy, Tori, has experienced significant trauma in his life. Between being shot and being suspended, he has missed more than seven months of classes since January 2011.

As he sat home last semester, his mother, Sabrina Carter, worried that he could wind up in the “school-to-prison pipeline” through which she has seen so many other boys in the neighborhood pass.

“If they feel like the school is turning on them, that’s when they end up hanging around on the streets doing things they have no business doing,” Carter said.

There's more at the link.  I recommend reading the whole article, even if it's filled to overflowing with sanctimonious politically-correct twaddle.

Isn't it amazing how moonbattery blinds people to reality?  In the first place, how can the newspaper quote the boy's mother with a straight face as she blames the school and the authorities for his lack of discipline?  She's the parent.  It's her responsibility to provide her child with the framework of discipline he'll need while growing up, and to form him into a worthwhile adult.  On the evidence presented in the article, she's done nothing whatsoever to provide that.

As for the Cornell University researchers, where on earth do they get the idea that schools are "the most promising avenue for successful identification of and therapeutic intervention for exposed and victimized youth"?  The dictionary defines 'therapeutic' as 'of or pertaining to the treating or curing of disease; curative'.  A school, by definition, is not a therapeutic institution!  Schools must teach kids the academic and other subjects they need to know.  That consumes most of their resources.  How on earth are they supposed to play parent and/or psychiatric hospital at the same time?  Furthermore, the kids are at school perhaps six or seven hours out of every day.  The rest of the time they're hanging about on the street, or at home with their families (or what's charitably known as their families), or up to mischief.  The school doesn't have them long enough each day, with enough time to spare from teaching them, to help them develop a sense of responsibility as well.

No, the most important elements of a child's formation take place at home.  The churches have known this for many generations.  As a pastor I used to tell parents that there was no point in sending their kids to catechism or Sunday school unless they were receiving a Christian upbringing at home, and seeing their parents and families living a Christian lifestyle.  Without that, the few hours a week that the church got to spend with them would be essentially wasted.  The same applies to schools.  They have more hours each week with the kids than do churches, but they have to use those hours for education, not moral formation.  To expect schools to take the place of parents is ludicrous.

A famous quotation attributed to several early Jesuits goes, 'Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man'.  Schools don't get the child until he's 5 or 6 years old.  All those preceding years, he's been shaped and formed by his parent(s) and his home environment.  Schools can't compensate for that in one or two years - not even in a dozen years.  The man-to-be has already been formed to a large extent.  Judging by the article cited above - and absent a miracle of Divine grace, which is always possible, albeit unlikely - the man that boy will grow up to be probably isn't one I'd wish to meet in a dark alley at night.

Peter

Clearly, it doesn't pass the smell test!

It seems a UK company erected its new headquarters without bothering to provide parking for its workers, who promptly took over every space available in surrounding streets.  The locals weren't amused.  The Telegraph reports:

Families say they are fed up with staff from the giant AXA PPP Healthcare's headquarters in Hawkenbury, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, taking all the spaces in nearby roads.

Now employees going home after work have returned to their cars to find them smeared with dog excrement.

. . .

There are only 250 on-site car spaces for around 550 people at the insurance firm's International House HQ, which opened in August last year.

AXA, Tunbridge Wells's biggest private employer, says 200 more staff are likely to be taken on over the next three to five years, but there will only be 34 more parking spaces.

There's more at the link.

I can't understand why AXA hasn't offered to build a parking garage for their workers' use, and install extra parking spaces.  Such incremental solutions would help to resolve local residents' excremental one!





Peter

We're arming our enemies again

Looks like the USA is once again in the business of arming those who hate us.  The Christian Science Monitor reports:

The reopening of two key NATO supply routes last month not only eased the diplomatic tension between Pakistan and the United States, but benefited a third party as well: Pakistan’s black-market businesses.

Pakistan’s active black markets ... used to be flooded with US-made goods, from flak jackets to M-4 rifles, soda, and cigarettes. Then, a few months ago, the underground economy, which largely depends on the NATO supply trucks for supplies, dried up. The thousands of Pakistanis who depended on it for income and cheap supplies were hit hard.

“Our business had really gone down [due to closure of NATO supply routes]. But, thank God, things have been settled down, and we are going to reactivate our business,” an arms dealer from Quetta told the Monitor.

The arms dealer, who goes by the name “Kaka” (which means “older brother” in Pashtu), says he’s seen the prices of US-made weapons and other military equipment shoot up because they’ve become so difficult to get.

“Not only the M-4 rifle, but prices of other military equipment like communication devices, small pistols, night vision goggles, binoculars, caps, and flak jackets have also gone up,” says Kaka whose clientele includes both Taliban and anti-Taliban buyers – both of which prefer US-made equipment. With fewer goods to sell and higher prices for the equipment he does have in stock, there have been fewer buyers, and Kaka says it has been difficult to make ends meet the past few months.

However, prices – and thus business – are likely to normalize now that the two sides have inked an agreement to reopen routes, which are used to transport 70 percent of non-lethal NATO supplies into Afghanistan.

“Good days are back,” says a smiling Kaka, who wears a traditional Pashtun turban, his hair in long strands.

. . .

Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau, on the directives of the Supreme Court, recently initiated a probe to investigate how during the past five years hundreds of NATO containers, which began their journey from Karachi Port, never reached their destination.

And even supplies that do make it to their destination in Afghanistan are not immune. Mr. Sehgal says a good number of weapons are stolen from Afghan Army depots, where the Afghan National Army looks the other way.

These are then shipped to Pakistan where they can be sold and purchased easily.

There's more at the link.

Would someone please tell me why this isn't headline news in every major media outlet?  Why have Americans been kept in ignorance - until now - of the fact that our tax dollars are subsidizing illegal black markets in US weaponry and accessories - that are then used by enemies to target our soldiers?

I suppose it's no good to say that we should terminate shipments to Afghanistan through Pakistan - there's no real alternative, as long as our military presence there remains so high.  However, this is yet another very urgent argument for US withdrawal from Afghanistan as quickly as possible.  Right now, terrorists are able to get their hands on some of our most militarily useful equipment, including items such as AN/PVS-14 night sights, etc.  I'm sure our enemies appreciate our generosity in making it so easy for them to get their hands on the equipment they need to kill our troops!





Peter

Another puppy!

We've had a few good puppy videos this month.  There was the dachshund that met a mechanical penguin, and the Bernese mountain dog puppy that met a lemon.  Here's a puppy meeting a car's air-conditioning system.

Peter

Of sociopaths, security, politics and government

The latest column by Fred Reed got me thinking.  It reminded me of something said by Doug Casey of Casey Research in his March newsletter, which I'd like to quote at some length.

I'm going to argue that the US government, in particular, is being overrun by the wrong kind of person ... a certain class of people – sociopaths – are now fully in control of major American institutions. Their beliefs and attitudes are insinuated throughout the economic, political, intellectual and psychological/spiritual fabric of the US.

. . .

What the ascendancy of sociopaths means isn't an academic question. Throughout history, the question has been a matter of life and death. That's one reason America grew; every American (or any ex-colonial) has forebears who confronted the issue and decided to uproot themselves to go somewhere with better prospects. The losers were those who delayed thinking about the question until the last minute.

. . .

All the institutions that made America exceptional – including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance and the restraints of the Constitution – are now only historical artifacts.

On the other hand, the distribution of sociopaths is completely uniform across both space and time. Per capita, there were no more evil people in Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, Mao's China, Amin's Uganda, Ceausescu's Romania or Pol Pot's Cambodia than there are today in the US. All you need is favorable conditions for them to bloom, much as mushrooms do after a rainstorm.

Conditions for them in the US are becoming quite favorable. Have you ever wondered where the 50,000 people employed by the TSA to inspect and degrade you came from? Most of them are middle-aged. Did they have jobs before they started doing something that any normal person would consider demeaning? Most did, but they were attracted to – not repelled by – a job where they wear a costume and abuse their fellow citizens all day.

Few of them can imagine that they're shepherding in a police state as they play their roles in security theater. (A reinforced door on the pilots' cabin is probably all that's actually needed, although the most effective solution would be to hold each airline responsible for its own security and for the harm done if it fails to protect passengers and third parties.) But the 50,000 newly employed are exactly the same type of people who joined the Gestapo – eager to help in the project of controlling everyone. Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo.

What's going on here is an instance of Pareto's Law. That's the 80-20 rule that tells us, for example, that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your salesmen or that 20% of the population are responsible for 80% of the crime.

As I see it, 80% of people are basically decent; their basic instincts are to live by the Boy Scout virtues. 20% of people, however, are what you might call potential trouble sources, inclined toward doing the wrong thing when the opportunity presents itself. They might now be shoe clerks, mailmen or waitresses – they seem perfectly benign in normal times. They play baseball on weekends and pet the family dog. However, given the chance, they will sign up for the Gestapo, the Stasi, the KGB, the TSA, Homeland Security or whatever. Many are well intentioned but likely to favor force as the solution to any problem.

But it doesn't end there, because 20% of that 20% are really bad actors. They are drawn to government and other positions where they can work their will on other people and, because they're enthusiastic about government, they rise to leadership positions. They remake the culture of the organizations they run in their own image. Gradually, non-sociopaths can no longer stand being there. They leave. Soon the whole barrel is full of bad apples. That's what's happening today in the US.

It's a pity that Bush, when he was in office, made such a big deal of evil. He discredited the concept. He made Boobus americanus think it only existed in a distant axis, in places like North Korea, Iraq and Iran – which were and still are irrelevant backwaters and arbitrarily chosen enemies. Bush trivialized the concept of evil and made it seem banal because he was such a fool. All the while real evil, very immediate and powerful, was growing right around him, and he lacked the awareness to see he was fertilizing it by turning the US into a national security state after 9/11.

Now, I believe, it's out of control. The US is already in a truly major depression and on the edge of financial chaos and a currency meltdown. The sociopaths in government will react by redoubling the pace toward a police state domestically and starting a major war abroad. To me, this is completely predictable. It's what sociopaths do.

There are seven characteristics I can think of that define a sociopath, although I'm sure the list could be extended.

• Sociopaths completely lack a conscience or any capacity for real regret about hurting people. Although they pretend the opposite.
• Sociopaths put their own desires and wants on a totally different level from those of other people. Their wants are incommensurate. They truly believe their ends justify their means. Although they pretend the opposite.
• Sociopaths consider themselves superior to everyone else, because they aren't burdened by the emotions and ethics others have – they're above all that. They're arrogant. Although they pretend the opposite.
• Sociopaths never accept the slightest responsibility for anything that goes wrong, even though they're responsible for almost everything that goes wrong. You'll never hear a sincere apology from them.
• Sociopaths have a lopsided notion of property rights. What's theirs is theirs, and what's yours is theirs too. They therefore defend currency inflation and taxation as good things.
• Sociopaths usually pick the wrong target to attack. If they lose their wallet, they kick the dog. If 16 Saudis fly planes into buildings, they attack Afghanistan.
• Sociopaths traffic in disturbing news, they love to pass on destructive rumors and they'll falsify information to damage others.

. . .

Political elites are primarily, and sometimes exclusively, composed of sociopaths ... It's a serious problem when a society becomes highly politicized, as is now the case in the US and Europe. In normal times, a sociopath stays under the radar. Perhaps he'll commit a common crime when he thinks he can get away with it, but social mores keep him reined in. However, once the government changes its emphasis from protecting citizens from force to initiating force with laws and taxes, those social mores break down. Peer pressure, social approbation and moral opprobrium, the forces that keep a healthy society orderly, are replaced by regulations enforced by cops and funded by taxes. Sociopaths sense this, start coming out of the woodwork and are drawn to the State and its bureaucracies and regulatory agencies, where they can get licensed and paid to do what they've always wanted to do.

It's very simple, really. There are two ways people can relate to each other: voluntarily or coercively. The government is pure coercion, and sociopaths are drawn to its power and force.

There's more at the link.

Now, let's return to Fred Reed's latest column.

In short, the technology exists for a detailed, unblinking, unforgetting watchfulness of the entire population beyond anything imagined, or perhaps imaginable, a few decades ago. This is not Fred-drank-too-much-coffee. It is happening.

. . .

People speak of the onrush of the police state. I think that many do not understand how fast it comes, or how thorough it will be.

The political framework falls rapidly into place. Few or no safeguards exist, and probably few are possible. A growing authoritarianism rapidly erodes what protections we had. The courts allow random searches of passengers of trains and subways without probable cause. Warrantless tapping of personal communications is rampant, or done with secret warrants from a secret federal judge. TSA has Viper squads that stop cars at random for searches. In many places it is against the law to video the police, who everywhere become more militarized and less accountable. For practical purposes, citizens have no recourse.

At a higher level of generality, America is no longer a democracy. If you think this a rash assertion, ask yourself whether you have the slightest influence over policies that matter to you. Suppose that you want to end the wars, shrink the military, end affirmative action, genuinely change education, or reform a hostile and unworkable bureaucracy. Who do you vote for? Important policies are made in faceless bureaucracies immune to public influence. National politics employs a sort of political price-fixing, in which you are permitted to choose among a number on indistinguishable candidates and told that you are having an election.

None of this is going to stop.

Why is it happening? Some suspect a vast conspiracy to Sovietize the country. I doubt it. Don’t look for a conspiracy when human nature is an adequate explanation. Presidents never want to suffer the restraints on constitutionality, the agonizing slowness of a congress that often has little understanding of the issues; if presidents can do things by fiat, or secretly, they will.

We have now had two consecutive presidents with less than normal respect for the constitution, one a brown Plantagenet but with little grounding in European civilization, the other a privileged rich brat of limited intellect and schooling. Such as they will take any shortcut they can get away with, and there is no longer anyone to tell them no.

Men grab power when they can. Once grabbed, it stays grabbed. A police operation like DHS will always try to grow. People in power always think they know best. When a federal department has money, industry rushes to sell it things. In the case of TSA, this means new and more advanced scanners, then upgrades, and maintenance contracts, training contracts, and then a new kind of scanner, and the process repeats.

The people doing all of this are not thinking of installing totalitarianism. They are thinking dollars, promotions, power, ego, and perks.

The FBI?  NSA? Federal officials in general? They know best. They are, they think, just fighting crime, terrorism, maintaining national security, what have you, and the more power they have, they better they can do this. Further, intimidating people is pleasurable. If citizens have nothing to hide, say all these cops, they have nothing to fear. If you torture terrorists, or those you think may be terrorists, well, the real world is like that. Do you want more terrorism?

A conspiracy would be preferable. You can crush a conspiracy. Human nature, which inherently drifts toward corruption, is a far tougher nut.

What difference will it make to live in a country in which the government knows everything whatever about everybody, and few safeguards against abuse exist? For most people, at first, probably not much. At first. But for people the government doesn’t like, a lot. Reporerters, writers, whistle-blowers, activists, dissidents.

And we are all vulnerable. Knowledge, as someone said, is power.

. . .

The mere knowledge that your email can be read is intimidating, like being closely followed by a police car even when you are doing nothing wrong. We are daily being followed by more police cars, both literal and figurative.

Again, more at the link.

It's kinda scary reading those two columns together like this, isn't it?  Go read both of them in full.  It's worth your time.

Peter

Emergency Preparation, Part 9: The Vehicle Emergency Kit

I'm sure most readers are familiar with the concept of a vehicle emergency kit.  It's not the same thing as a so-called 'bug-out bag', although the latter should incorporate most of the elements of the former as part of its broader utility.  Basically, a vehicle emergency kit is intended to help you deal with what its name implies - emergencies.  It should contain what you need to deal with the immediate consequences of an accident or roadside problem, and cater for your personal needs for at least 24 hours until you can get home, or someone can come to get you, or you can reach a place of safety.  If you've never thought about such kits, the government provides basic advice (scroll down this page to see their 'Vehicle' recommendations), and an Internet search will reveal a huge number of resources.  I don't propose to reinvent the wheel by duplicating them here, so I'll leave you to read them yourself.  Instead, I want to address a few items not commonly included in such kits, or dealt with in only a passing fashion.

The first thing to remember is that vehicles are vulnerable to theft.  The whole vehicle may be stolen, or it may be broken into and its contents stolen.  For that reason, I don't suggest spending a huge amount on a kit that will remain in your vehicle at all times.  You should expect to lose your investment in it at least once, perhaps more than once if you live in a high crime area.  In such situations, it might be best to remove your emergency kit each evening and store it in your home, returning it to the vehicle when you depart.  That's your call to make, depending on your own situation.  However, don't buy very expensive or very high-quality items for your kit, due to the higher risk of losing them.


1.  Emergency Communications.

You need a means of communication that will function in an emergency or disaster situation.  A common theme mentioned by those who experienced 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc. is that cellphone communications were clogged solid.  So many people were trying to make calls, or send text messages, that the system became completely overloaded and shut down.  The same thing can happen on a stretch of highway where only one or two cellphone towers are within range of a large number of stalled vehicles.  If all their occupants are trying to call out, there won't be enough local bandwidth to cope with the overload.

There are two alternatives worth considering.  One is a Citizens Band radio, commonly known as a CB radio.  Another is the low-power FRS or higher-power GMRS radio service.  The latter, like the even more powerful 'ham' or amateur radio service, requires a license to operate, but it's easy to obtain.  I personally recommend carrying both a portable Citizens Band radio and a GMRS transceiver, with equivalent units in your other vehicles and at your home.  Both can be carried in a backpack or clipped to one's belt, so one isn't restricted to using them only when they're mounted in a vehicle (useful if the latter must be abandoned).

Make prior arrangements with your spouse or family as to when you'll call and on what channels in the event of an emergency (and write them down, storing a copy with each radio, to avoid future confusion).  For example, you might arrange to call every hour during the first five minutes of the hour, on Channel 3 unless it's blocked by other callers, in which case you'll try first Channel 6, then Channel 12.  That way, people know when to be listening for you, and which channels to scan.  If you're too far from home to be able to reach them, get hold of a friendly trucker on your CB radio and ask him to call them on your behalf as soon as he can get a decent cellphone signal.  He can relay your location and the circumstances of the delay, and if necessary ask for help to be sent to you.  (If you and your family and friends are traveling together in multiple vehicles, such radios can also help you keep in touch with each other, notify each other of problems such as a flat tire, and arrange rest and refueling stops with ease.)

Such radios are available from many sources.  I suggest comparison-shopping for them on Amazon.com (here are their listings for handheld CB radios and GMRS radios) and carefully checking user reviews.  There are many models that have proven unsatisfactory in service, so look for those that attract mostly positive comments (ratings of 4 or 5), and buy from among them (not necessarily from Amazon - shop around for the best deal).  I suggest battery-powered rather than rechargeable units, using easy-to-obtain cells such as AA or AAA.  You can carry spare batteries and buy more when needed, but you may not have access to a plug for recharging.

It's not a bad idea to include a so-called 'weather radio' in your emergency kit, to receive weather alerts, listen to local broadcast stations, etc.  Some models (such as this one, for example) also offer emergency lighting facilities and other tools, and can be hand-cranked to operate in the absence of batteries.  Those are very useful options.

Two or three radios can represent an investment of $100 or more.  I'd therefore suggest that you not leave them in your vehicle 24/7 with the rest of the emergency kit, but take them in and out of your home as necessary.  If you're not planning to travel more than a few miles from home, they're probably not essential for everyday use - reserve them for longer trips.


2.  Emergency food and water supplies.

I highly recommend emergency rations of the type approved for maritime use by the US Coast Guard.  Again, Amazon has a wide selection of products.  Go there to check user reviews of them, then buy from whichever vendor you please.  Some emergency rations don't taste very good (I've eaten some that tasted like a cross between cardboard and sawdust), so check user ratings of their flavor in particular.  Coast Guard-approved rations are light, compact, contain all the nutrition and energy you need for a day or two, and last a long time in an emergency kit.  I recommend carrying enough in your vehicle to feed the number of people you normally carry for up to 24 hours (i.e. something like one of these packages per person, or a 10-pack case to feed up to ten people for one day, or more people for a shorter length of time.)  Each pack contains a total of 3,600 calories, enough for a day of working hard, or up to two days if you're not exerting yourself much.

As for fluids, water is great, but I also suggest carrying some sachets of Gatorade powder (something like this) or a similar product to flavor your water and add essential minerals and electrolytes.  If you have to abandon your vehicle and move on foot, your body will thank you.  I suggest storing a minimum of half a gallon of water per person per day in your vehicle.  I prefer 500ml. or 16oz. bottles, for portability and ease of use - the 8oz. bottles are a bit too small, in my experience.  Store four to six per person in your vehicle, and replace them with fresh bottles every three months.  Don't buy bottles that are too light and flimsy to be bounced around in a backpack for a few miles of walking.  (You'll find that out the hard way!)


3.  Road/Emergency flares.

Emergency flares or fusees are useful for signalling a breakdown or other emergency at night.  They're also a great way to start a fire, even if the fuel is soaked by heavy rain and won't light under normal circumstances.  Make a heap of some small twigs and branches, add a few heavier branches on top, light a road flare, and stick it in the middle of the heap.  That stuff will ignite, no matter how wet!  That's saved my butt on several cold, rainy, stormy nights.  (Hint - carry a box of matches, too.  They can light fires on their own in dry conditions, or light a road flare if its built-in igniter should malfunction.)  I'd suggest carrying at least five or six flares, more if you're likely to be a long way from home.


4.  Knife.

It's amazing how few people carry a knife these days.  It's one of the most useful and versatile instruments you can imagine.  You definitely need one in your vehicle emergency kit.

In terms of value for money, I don't think anything on the market can beat a Mora knife.  They've never ceased to astonish me with their sharpness (the best I've ever seen on a mass-produced factory knife out of the box, bar none).  They last well under hard use, but they're cheap enough to discard without concern if one breaks, or if it's stolen from your vehicle.  I particularly like this model, available from Amazon or elsewhere, for these reasons:

1. Its handle is plastic rather than the traditional wood, making it more durable.
2. Unlike many Mora knives, this model provides a finger guard between the hilt and the blade - and with a knife so sharp, I want that protection!
3. It comes with a serviceable plastic sheath.  This can be worn on a regular belt, or cord can be attached to it and it can be worn around the neck (the knife is light enough to make this easy).
4. At only 10 bucks for so useful and serviceable a knife, what's not to like?

As a bonus, the manufacturer's Web site offers a useful tutorial on how to keep your knife clean and sharp.

If you prefer a folding knife, look for toughness and utility rather than fancy features.  I don't suggest a cheaply made folder, because it's all too likely to break while in use (at least, that's been my experience, particularly under stress).  I recommend the Cold Steel line of folding knives (and their other products as well) for sheer toughness and durability.  They're not bad value for money, either, although they're more expensive than the Mora knife mentioned above.  There are many alternatives - try an Internet search to find out more.


5.  Binoculars.

I seldom, if ever, see these mentioned as a valuable component of a vehicle emergency kit.  They're not often needed, but they're so useful when you do need them that I include them as an essential.  Consider:

• You're stuck at the top of a hill in a long, long line of stalled traffic.  You can get out and use the binoculars to look far ahead, trying to find out what's going on.  That crowd of people around a vehicle a mile ahead - are they onlookers trying to help, or a mob looting their way up the line of cars?  If it's the latter, plan to be long gone by the time they reach your vehicle!
• You're driving along an unfamiliar road, and you're lost.  Your map doesn't show much in the way of identifiable features, but you can see a water-tower in the distance.  Is that the name of a town painted on the side?  With binoculars, you can find out - and that will tell you where you are.
• You've pulled over on the side of the road to change drivers, or drink some water, or whatever.  One of the kids has wandered away while your attention was distracted.  Binoculars can be very handy when searching for them amongst underbrush or on the side of a hill.
• You're in a stalled line of traffic, and the kids are driving you nuts.  Handing them a pair of binoculars and telling them to look for birds or animals, or identify trees, or see who can spot vehicle registration plates from the most states, keeps them interested and out of your hair while you figure out what to do next.

You don't have to spend a fortune on them, either.  I use Tasco 8x21 binoculars, which cost me less than $10 at Amazon (they're a little more now, but not much).  They're very small and light, come with a neck lanyard and belt pouch, and can be adjusted to accommodate differences in vision.  There are 10x25 and 12x25 versions available too, but I find the extra magnification unnecessary and often counter-productive in smaller, lower-quality optical instruments.  I'll buy something with better glass if I want higher magnification - and with a wider field of vision, too.  All the three models I mentioned are cheap enough that if I break one, or lose it, or it's stolen out of my vehicle, I won't cry too hard.  In fact, if you carry your kids in the car often, issue a pair to each of them to keep them occupied!


6.  Flashlights.

You need at least one, preferably two, emergency sources of light.  Modern LED flashlights are powerful and reliable, and don't cost an arm and a leg.  Pick one with both good light output and good battery life, and make sure it uses AA or AAA batteries - not some fancy lithium-ion or other cells that a country store might not have in stock.  Remember, this is for emergency use.  Don't get fancy!  (As always, check user reviews of the products you're considering before making your selection.)

I highly recommend carrying a headlamp as well as a flashlight.  They're invaluable if you need to walk for some distance at night, as the light will follow your eyes and your head, and wearing it on your forehead frees your hands to use a walking- or hiking stick, move branches or other obstacles out of the way, carry something, or hold the hand of a child.  I particularly like the products of LED Lenser, also available at Amazon.  They're not cheap, but they're high-quality.  (Hint - go for battery-powered rather than rechargeable units.  You might not have access to a power plug to recharge them in an emergency.  Also, carry at least one spare set of batteries for all your flashlights and headlamps.  It helps if your radio[s] use the same size battery.)

I'd also recommend carrying several light sticks.  They can provide 'night light' in a parked car, or be tied to trees or bushes to signal your whereabouts.  If you're walking with others at night, you can each fasten one to your back (or backpack) to help keep track of one another.  They can even keep your kids entertained, if worst comes to worst.  They're too useful not to include in your kit.


7.  Compass.

Again, this is very seldom mentioned as part of an emergency kit, but I think it's indispensable.  The water-tower we mentioned in point 5 above - what direction is it from you?  That will help determine your location on a map.  Are you trying to get back home on unfamiliar side roads after the main highway became blocked?  It helps if you know which direction home is in, and which direction the road you're currently using is taking you.  If the two are roughly the same, all well and good.  If they're not . . . find another road!  There are many models available at very reasonable prices.  Buy a unit of decent quality (check the user reviews).  The cheap Christmas-cracker variety just won't cut it, I'm afraid!  (If you've never learned to navigate using a compass, there are several good online information resources, including a video tutorial.)  Maps - even a road atlas, although it's better to have a more detailed map if possible - are also very useful.


8.  Backpack.

You may have to abandon your vehicle and walk to safety, or leave it at a service station and find your way to a hotel.  You need something to carry your emergency supplies and/or any valuables kept in your vehicle.  A simple, cheap backpack can be kept in your emergency kit for such a purpose (you can even store your emergency kit inside it, if you wish).  Backpacks can be had for under $10 at many supermarkets and retailers.  I did a search for what's available on Amazon for under $10, and was surprised to see how large some of the packs on offer were.  As always, check user reviews before making your selection, then shop for it wherever you please.

EDITED TO ADD:  Reader Peter B. makes the excellent suggestion in Comments, for those with back problems, of using a lumbar pack rather than a backpack.  That's a great idea, and one I'm going to adopt myself.  Unfortunately there don't seem to be many lumbar packs out there that are simultaneously spacious, high-quality and low-price!  However, in this case, given my fused lower spine and nerve damage in my left leg, I've got no objection to spending money on one.


Finally, carry clothing and protective gear suitable for the season and location.  If it's winter in blizzard country, you'll need an entirely different set of gear than you would for the desert in high summer!  Use common sense to make your selection.  I recommend having a blanket or sleeping-bag, plus an emergency or 'space' blanket, in case you have to overnight in your car.  Remember, this is an emergency kit - you're not packing for a week's vacation!  Pack essentials, not half your wardrobe!

Note, too, that I haven't mentioned weapons.  I don't recommend leaving a firearm unattended in your car - the risk of its being stolen is too great, and I don't want it on my conscience that my weapon was used by the thief to attack, and possibly injure or kill, another innocent person.  However, you've already got two items that can be used as improvised weapons - a knife, and a road flare.  (Light a road flare if trouble looms, and shove the burning end hard into the eyes, face or groin of an attacker.  Believe me, that will put him off his stride!)  You can add a lightweight folding shovel (sharpening the point and edges makes it a very dangerous tool), or a walking stick (I like the Cold Steel products) or hiking staff (some of which are very similar in size and heft to, and potentially as dangerous as, the famous quarterstaff), or whatever else takes your fancy.  Make sure to train and practice with whatever weapons you select.  Personally, I'll also be carrying a handgun, but you'll have to make that call for yourself.

Those are my ideas for your vehicle emergency kit, over and above those recommended by the authorities and other sources.  If you'd like to suggest additional items, please do so in Comments.

(Oh - in case anyone's wondering, no, I'm not getting paid to recommend Amazon as a vendor, or any of the products I've recommended.  I simply like and use all of them.  I'll never recommend any product or vendor that I haven't used myself, and found satisfactory.)

Peter

The real reason for the California farm labor shortage

I note that California farmers are complaining that they simply can't get enough labor to harvest their crops, despite paying wages that are much better than in years past.  CNBC reports:

"This year is the worst it's been, ever," said Craig Underwood, who farms everything from strawberries to lemons to peppers, carrots, and turnips in Ventura County.

Some crops aren't get picked this season due to a lack of workers.

"We just left them in the field," he said.

The Western Growers Association told CNBC its members are reporting a 20 percent drop in laborers this year. Stronger border controls are keeping workers from crossing into the U.S. illegally, and the current guest worker program is not providing enough bodies.

"We have 100 fewer people this year," said Sergio Diaz, who provides workers under contract for growers. "We're having difficulty finding people to do this work."

The lack of workers is forcing farmers to pay more. In one of Underwood's fields, pickers are harvesting peppers for $9.25 a hour, or $5 a bucket, whichever is more. Craig Underwood said his workforce is aging and starting to retire, and no one is coming in to replace them.

. . .

When asked if any local residents have come out to apply to work in the fields, Craig Underwood replied, "None. Absolutely none." He is even having trouble finding truck drivers and other semi-skilled labor for jobs that pay $12-$18 an hour.

There's more at the link.

Wait a moment.  Let me check . . . yes, I remembered correctly.  California's official unemployment rate in July was 10.7%.  That meant that there were 1,961,700 officially unemployed members of the labor force in that state during that month.  These are people who should, at least in theory, want jobs very badly, not so?  You can add to those numbers illegal immigrant workers who also (at least in theory) want jobs, but who aren't recorded in government databases because they're, well, illegal, you know?  There's also the problem that the government systematically and deliberately understates the actual unemployment rate, as we've discussed before.  I wouldn't be surprised to find the actual number of unemployed persons in California is well over 3 million - perhaps over 4 million.

So why aren't these millions of unemployed trekking out to the farms to take up the jobs available from farmers?  There are many reasons, including the fact that it's very hard work, physically demanding and unpleasant, and city folks aren't used to it.  Even so, if they were truly hungry and in need, they'd take the work, I guarantee you.  The problem is that most of them are not truly hungry and in need, because the 'nanny state' is lavishing benefits on them to such an extent that they would lose money if they went to work at anything approaching minimum wage.

(I'm not speaking of those who are genuinely disabled or suffer from other problems that prevent them working, you understand.  Being partly permanently disabled myself, I fully sympathize with their plight.  Nevertheless, most of the 'abled' unemployed can make more money leeching off taxpayers than they would if they bestirred themselves to actually earn a living . . . so they don't bother.)

You want to get people back to work?  Here's a recipe.

1. Stop making it possible for the able-bodied unemployed to live comfortably, for an extended period, without working.
2. Provide suitable incentives (transport, etc.) to get those in need of work to where the jobs are - such as on farms.  Make sure the dependents of such workers have the minimum they need to keep going - a roof over their heads, basic nutritious food, schooling, etc.  That roof doesn't have to be fancy, either.  If FEMA can make trailers available for post-disaster housing (and abandon ten thousand mobile homes in an Arkansas field), why can't those same trailers and mobile homes house unemployed families in a farm field while they pick crops, instead of being left to rot or sold for pennies on the dollar?
3. Workers who 'show willing' by tackling hard work in seasonal jobs such as harvesting should earn the right to basic support from the state when those jobs shut down out of season.  If an unemployed able-bodied person won't 'show willing' by taking such jobs when they're available, why should taxpayers have to subsidize his lazy ass?
4. Make extended unemployment benefits conditional upon the unemployed taking training courses to equip them for the jobs that are available.  They don't get to choose courses in underwater basket-weaving or ethnic studies, either!  If the market needs bricklayers, plumbers and truck drivers, the training courses on offer will reflect that.  Wannabe workers will take them - or lose their benefits.
5. Crack down on illegal immigration, now and always.  By all means offer a legal 'guest worker' program, but only when the unemployment rolls drop to a reasonable figure.  If there are US citizens and legal residents out of work, no guest workers get a look in until our own people have jobs.
6. Can all the 'touchy-feely' moonbattery about finding jobs suitable for people's qualifications.  I don't care if someone has a Masters degree in ethnic or gender studies, or the dramatic arts, or whatever.  If they're unemployed and need money to survive, and there's a job available picking fruit off the trees, they can damn well pick fruit!  I've been unemployed myself a time or two, and I did whatever work was available until I could find something better.  I didn't rely on any state-provided 'safety net' - not that there was one, anyway, where I was at that time.

Make it necessary for people to work if they want to eat, and they'll work.  Pander to them, make it optional to work, and you get our present mess.  You also get the greatest expansion in state-provided 'disability' benefits in the history of this country - 5.4 million new claimants during President Obama's administration.  If they're all really, truly, genuinely disabled, I'll eat my hat!

Peter

When primitive superstition turns to violence and death

The shooting of striking workers at the Marikana platinum mine in South Africa last week shocked many people.  At the time of writing it looks as if the death toll stands at 34 dead, 78 wounded and 259 arrested - not including ten people who died before the shooting incident, including two policemen who were murdered by the strikers and their weapons stolen.

For those who may have missed news of the incident, here's CNN's initial video report.  WARNING - you'll see men die in this footage.  It's not for the squeamish.

I was struck by the extremely poor performance of the South African police.  Their fire discipline was appalling, their tactics were seemingly designed to provoke a confrontation, and their post-shooting handling of the affair was abysmal in its incompetence.  In many ways, they came across as just as uncaring, arrogant and indifferent as the widely hated and distrusted racist police force of the apartheid era.

However, some things never change.  Reuters published a very interesting analysis of the union behind the strikes, and their pugnacious in-your-face tactics.

Since the start of this year, the AMCU (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union) has been muscling in to grab members from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in a bitter turf war that has triggered violence at several mines and shaken the industry.

While critics, which include mine executives and the NUM, accuse it of using strong-arm tactics to recruit members and press labor claims with illegal strikes, AMCU's leaders wage their campaign in the name of Jesus Christ and racial justice in one of the most unequal societies in the world.

. . .

Police, union officials and social researchers say AMCU members use "muti" or witchcraft, in which miners use potions they believe will protect them against enemies and bullets.

Police said they had taken pictures of one such anointing ceremony by a "sangoma", or witch doctor, at Marikana.

"At all of the AMCU meetings I have attended, they have a prayer to start but then someone sprays around some muti," said Crispen Chinguno, a researcher at the sociology department at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, who has spent time with the platinum mining communities.

. . .

The events at Marikana gave South Africans a frightening glimpse of the threats and violence that accompany the union turf war in which the AMCU admits it is fervently engaged.

Extensive television footage of the week-long standoff showed several thousand strikers carrying traditional weapons - spears, machetes and clubs known as "knobkerries" - massing like a Zulu "impi", or army, on a rocky hill near the mine.

Police, who said they fired in self-defense on Thursday, said the strikers also carried firearms.

The Marikana miners said they carried the weapons to defend themselves, but witnesses say there is a clear edge of aggression to the AMCU drive for membership and prominence.

At an AMCU rally attended last month by a Reuters correspondent, marchers sang: "Who is this NUM, how can we kill it?" The pungent smell of marijuana filled the winter air and the young men waved banners and sticks.

A pattern of violence and illegal stoppages has also characterized the AMCU's recruiting efforts from Implats to Lonmin to Aquarius Platinum.

There's more at the link.

I'm very familiar with such violent tendencies in South Africa, as regular readers of this blog will understand.  For those who know South African history, the NUM is aligned with the African National Congress and South African Communist Party alliance, which today rules South Africa.  The AMCU is more in sympathy with the ideology expressed by the Black Consciousness Movement founded by the late Steve Biko, which later found expression in the Pan Africanist Congress during the 1980's.  It's politically moribund now . . . or was, until the rise of the AMCU.  We'll see whether the broader movement can resurrect itself in the wake of recent events.

The thing to remember is that life is cheap in Africa.  It always has been, and I doubt whether that will change in my lifetime.  Racial, tribal, ethnic, political, social, cultural, religious and language differences have long divided the continent - and not only in South Africa, but in many other nations (witness the current and ongoing conflicts in Zimbabwe, the Sudan, the Congo, Nigeria, etc.).  Where society as a whole is primitive, tribal and insular, anything and anyone that's an 'outsider' is invariably greeted with distrust and suspicion.  If another group - such as a mining company, or the police - is seen as standing in the way of something your group wants, you fight it.  The concept of actually sitting down and talking about differences in order to resolve them is a relatively recent innovation in Africa.  It led to South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, but only after thousands of innocent people had been killed by opposing factions during the run-up to them.  (I've written about those years before.)

I'm profoundly saddened to see that the murderous instincts that are still at the heart of Africa have not yet abated . . . but I'm not at all surprised.  It's been depressing to find some of the old nightmares returning after watching that news report.  I hope they leave soon, but I guess they'll be around for a while.  When you've seen too much, the images never leave you.  Nor do the memories of the coppery taste of fear in your mouth, and the rising burn of vomit in your throat, and the feeling of a thin hot wire being threaded through your guts as you watch a mob like that coming towards you at a dead run, iklwas (short stabbing assegais) and pangas (a local variety of machete) raised, their battle cries roaring and echoing in your ears.  When you've seen the way those weapons tear and hack up a man (or woman, or child), you don't forget.

I don't blame the police for shooting to stop that sort of attack.  I blame them for not managing the situation better, because it need never have come to that.  South Africa would have been far better off if they'd done so.  As it is, this bloodshed will call forth further bloodshed in the weeks and months and years to come.  It's always that way in Africa.  Nothing's changed.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #632

Today's winner comes from Bristol in England.  A tip o' the hat to reader Bryn S. for sending me the link.

A shoplifter was caught doubled over in pain after he decided to eat his haul of Scotch bonnet chillies whole still in the shop.

Marcus Banwell made the mistake of eating his red hot haul from Singh Stores in Bristol before trying to make his escape.

Bristol magistrates heard that within a matter of seconds, the 39-year-old was coughing and being sick as the fiery food took effect.

The owner of the shop was alerted to the commotion on August 4 and followed Banwell outside onto the street, where he was arrested by police a short while later.

. . .

The heat of a chilli pepper is measured using the scoville scale.

The Scotch Bonnet, also known as Boabs Bonnet or Caribbean red pepper, is named for its resemblance to a Tam o'shanter hat.

Most Scotch Bonnets have a heat rating of 100,000-350,000 scoville units. This compares to the rating of most jalapeño peppers, which is 2,500-8,000.

There's more at the link.

So he eats stolen super-hot peppers, is violently ill, and is then arrested.  Is that 'feeling the heat' in three ways instead of one?





Peter

Life: drifting aimlessly versus setting a course

I was seething after I finished reading an article in the Wall Street Journal today.  Here's an excerpt.

Recent research into how the brain develops suggests that people are better equipped to make major life decisions in their late 20s than earlier in the decade. The brain, once thought to be fully grown after puberty, is still evolving into its adult shape well into a person's third decade, pruning away unused connections and strengthening those that remain, scientists say.

"Until very recently, we had to make some pretty important life decisions about education and career paths, who to marry and whether to go into the military at a time when parts of our brains weren't optimal yet," says neuroscientist Jay Giedd at the National Institute of Mental Health, whose brain-imaging studies of thousands of young people have yielded many of the new insights. Postponing those decisions makes sense biologically, he says. "It's a good thing that the 20s are becoming a time for self-discovery."

Such findings are part of a new wave of research into "emerging adulthood," the years roughly from 18 to 29, which psychologists, sociologists and neuroscientists increasingly see as a distinct life stage. The gap between adolescence and full adulthood is becoming ever wider as more young people willingly or because of economic necessity prolong their education and postpone traditional adult responsibilities. As recently as the 1960s, the average age of first marriage for women in the U.S. was 20, and men 22. Today, the average is 26 for women and 28 for men.

"It should be reassuring for parents to know that it's very typical in the 20s not to know what you're going to do and change your mind and seem very unstable in your life. It's the norm," says Jeffrey J. Arnett, a professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who coined the term "emerging adulthood" in 2000.

For young adults, it can be a stressful time. High rates of anxiety, depression, motor-vehicle accidents and alcohol use are at their peak from 18 to 25, trends that tend to level out by age 28, studies show. And a recent survey by Clark University, which polled more than 1,000 young adults nationwide, found that 72% said this time of life was stressful and 33% said they were often depressed. Still, 89% believed they would eventually get what they want out of life.

. . .

How can emerging adults maximize their brain potential in this period? "Things that are cognitively stimulating are important," says Dr. Steinberg. "Watching talking cats on YouTube isn't as good for cognitive development as reading or taking classes."

Even young adults who are financially dependent on their parents can practice independence in other ways. "My advice is, if your parents are currently doing things for you that you could do for yourself, take the controls. Say, 'No. Mom, Let me get my own shampoo,' " says Jennifer Tanner, a developmental psychologist and co-chair of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, an academic organization.

There's more at the link.  Bold print is my emphasis.

Where does one begin to react to such sanctimonious twaddle?  I submit that the reason 'emerging adults' haven't yet actually become adults is because their parents are aiding and abetting their ongoing childishness!  I can assure you, if I, at the age of 17, had said to my father and mother, "It's normal for me to be unstable and have no idea what I want to do with my life", their reaction would have been twofold.  First, they would have pointed out my stupidity and self-indulgent silliness (probably in words of approximately one syllable).  Second, they would have shown me the door immediately, with an injunction to "Get out there and figure out what you want to do - and while you're doing that, support yourself, because we're not going to waste any more of our hard-earned money on you!"

In fact, that's pretty much what they did with me.  Dad was preparing to retire, and Mom was preparing to move to another town several hundred miles away to set up their retirement home, where he'd join her in a year or two.  They were preparing our present house for sale, encouraging me through my final year at school, and helping my younger sisters in their equivalents of US Grades 7 and 10.  They strongly 'encouraged' me to volunteer for military service literally one week after my final exam, and head off to the recruiting barracks that same day - because they wanted me out of their hair while they got everything else done.  There was no lack of love in that, just the recognition by all concerned - including me - that it was time I took charge of my own life and gave them some space to deal with their other responsibilities.  Did I enjoy it?  No - I'd only just turned 17, and the big bad world out there was a pretty scary place.  Did that stop me?  Like hell it did!  It was sink or swim;  and given the choice, I did what most people do (or used to do) - I learned to swim.

I didn't settle into a career direction for several years after that (and would change it again almost a decade later).  During those years I was a military man, a computer operator, and (briefly) a full-time student in two countries, living in eleven different (often widely separated) locations.  Was I always happy?  No.  Did I feel comfortable with myself and my situation in life at all times?  Of course not - but I got on with it, because if I didn't, I wouldn't eat or have a place to sleep.  By learning to cope with life and support myself, I also found out more about who I was and what made me tick, and was able to make better-informed choices as I got older.  If I'd sat at home and stagnated while indulging my eager appetites and angsting about life, the universe and everything, I'd have wasted those years.  As it was, they helped shape and form me, and make me a much more mature person.

The same applies to many of my peers.  Some of us had to make life-or-death decisions in military service - as in, "kill or be killed"!  We all made mistakes, and found we could either accept responsibility for them, learn from them, and assume their burden as adults, or try to run from them - just like children almost always do, in the absence of adult guidance.  We soon learned that no-one trusts a man or woman who won't own up to his or her misdeeds and/or accept responsibility for their consequences.  If you want a concrete example of that in society today, look at those groups where unwed pregnancy is rampant, and look at how few fathers are willing to step up to the plate and at least pay child support for their unwanted offspring.  The groups where this problem is greatest are also the groups with the greatest social breakdown and moral decay.  There's a reason for the correlation . . . even though it's not politically correct to point that out.  (You'll note how deferential I am towards political correctness, I'm sure.)

You'll understand, therefore, that when I see a so-called 'professional' say something like '... take the controls. Say, "No. Mom, Let me get my own shampoo",' I get really pissed off, very quickly.  If something as pathetically silly as buying your own shampoo (probably with your parents' money, judging by the context above) is what's considered 'taking the controls' of your own life in today's society . . . we're bloody doomed.





Peter

"We're from the Government. We're here to help you."

I suspect those living on a former US Navy station in California might gag at hearing that.  The Bay Citizen reports:

Radioactive contamination at the Treasure Island Naval Station, where San Francisco plans to build a high-rise community for 20,000 residents, is more widespread than previously disclosed, according to a new U.S. Navy report and other documents obtained by The Bay Citizen.

Although the Navy and one state agency say cleanup has been effective and remaining radiation levels are low, the state Department of Public Health expressed alarm as recently as May, saying earlier studies showing fewer radioactive sites led to a botched cleanup effort and the potential spread of contaminants both on and off the island.

. . .

The draft report, dated Aug. 6, marks the first time the Navy has fully acknowledged that the island, created from landfill in 1937, was used as a repair and salvage operation for a Pacific fleet exposed to atomic blasts during the Cold War. The report came in response to state regulators, who pressed for details after cleanup workers found radioactive waste in unexpected locations.

Known potential sources of radiation on the island included a nuclear training ship intentionally doused in radiation and even glow-in-the-dark buttons handed out at the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition held on the island.

. . .

Treasure Island was a 1940s ground zero for repairing, scrapping, recycling and incinerating material from ships that might have absorbed radiation from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific. One shop repaired cannon sights containing radioactive glow-in-the-dark material. And, the Navy has acknowledged, the training ship sites might not be radiation-free after all.

There's more at the link.

The problem here is, we're dealing with not only California, which is bad enough, but San Francisco itself (a.k.a. Moonbat Central).  Many of those raising objections may be vehemently opposed to nuclear programs on principle, and using this issue to gain publicity and/or whip up public fear when that's not justified.  On the other hand, it certainly looks as if the US Navy and its contractors have been less than forthcoming about the history of the base and nuclear-related issues there.  There's also the possibility (far from remote, IMHO) that the city and state agencies involved are all trying to get their oar into the dispute in the hope of getting federal government funding to use for their parts of the puzzle.  The result is a miasma of claims, counter-claims, fear, uncertainty and doubt, in which it's probably too late to ascertain the whole truth.

I submit that this mess is what happens when government departments - local, state or federal - think they can simply ignore the public and deal with such problems in their own way.  Accountability is key!  I certainly expected better than this from the US Navy.  I'm profoundly disappointed to see that at least some of its departments don't appear to have learned the lessons of recent history in that regard.

Peter