Boys and their toys - jet fighter and sled edition

The Aviationist brings us this video clip, probably from the 1970's or 1980's, showing a Norwegian Air Force Northrop F-5A fighter towing someone around a frozen hardstand on a sled.  Why, precisely, this was thought to be a good idea I can't say . . . but from the perspective of my own military service, I can confirm that "the devil soon finds work for idle hands to do" - particularly if they're military hands!

If that happened in America, I'd say the miscreant E-4 Mafia came up with the idea.  I wonder if there's a Norwegian equivalent - with lutefisk, perhaps?




Peter

The inner city versus suburbia - this time with guns

I've mentioned before that I hear things from correspondents in law enforcement and other interesting occupations.  I also have a network of friends and prior associates who keep me informed about what's happening in their areas from time to time.  I'm sensing a growing groundswell of anger and frustration at the seemingly out-of-control screeching mobs of progressive righteousness, and increasing determination that they won't be allowed to impose their shenanigans outside the city centers and inner-city areas that they've so far dominated.  Mr. and Mrs. Average American are getting fed up, and are more and more willing to do something about it.

For a start, more and more ordinary Americans are moving away from areas where they can't be sure that law and order will be enforced.  They want a stable environment in which to raise their kids, and if they can't get it where they are now, they'll move to where it's available.  As the Wall Street Journal put it:

America’s cities are indeed a wonder—built quickly from nearly nothing across a vast continent into a unique story of social and economic success. We may now be on the cusp of a great reordering of the nation’s population as many people decide it is time to separate themselves and their families from the social, political and moral turbulence of this country’s large urban areas ... People with all sorts of political beliefs are going to get out because they are watching city after city reach a tipping point of social disorder and political disorganization.

In two recent, overlooked articles, demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution reports that the well-noted migration into large metropolitan areas that occurred from 2010 to 2015—predicting “the decade of the city”—has in fact reversed sharply in the past five years.

Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington are all leaking people. Meanwhile the presumably disdained suburbs and exurbs, distant from these city centers, are gaining residents.

Then came the pandemic and the protests of 2020.

. . .

Urban dwellers are resilient, but these simultaneous events have forced people to face a hard reality. In just three months it has become clear that modern urban progressivism is politically incompetent and intellectually incoherent ... The message being sent is that progressive governance is, at best, ambivalent about maintaining civil order. The net result of the past three months has been a sense in many cities of irresolvable chaos, stress and threat.

I think many younger, often liberal families would stick it out if they thought there was anything resembling a coherent strategy to address this mess—the new health threat, the homeless, the rising crime, the filth, the increasingly weird school curriculums. But there is no strategy.

There's more at the link.

We're seeing this in more and more cities.  Families are fleeing to dormitory communities around the cities (sometimes completely separate from them, such as small towns ten or twenty miles away), leaving behind the decaying, crumbling infrastructure that can no longer meet their needs.  They're being replaced by less educated, less affluent residents who are more often than not dependent on government handouts to survive.  Instead of being centers of productivity for the city, generating rates and taxes and producing more than they consume, those areas are now centers of consumption, demanding more city funds and support than they can produce.  Needless to say, attempts by cities to increase rates and taxes to fund this additional demand merely drive out even more people, who resent being asked to pay for such entitlement and social support programs.  They're voting with their wallets, and their feet.

What I'm also seeing - and what I think the mainstream media is carefully, deliberately ignoring - is a growing determination, by those who leave such problems behind, to stop such troubles from following them to their new homes.  I've been watching this carefully.  Law enforcement contacts in several cities have noted that they don't have to patrol more distant suburbs or nearby small towns very much, because the people there "look after their own".  Anyone causing trouble is likely to be stopped by residents before the police arrive - and sometimes stopped rather hard, too.  As a result, gang-bangers and opportunistic criminals have learned to look elsewhere for an easy score, often targeting those who've moved into the city core, who are less organized and less willing to stand up for themselves.

As Jack Kerwick notes:

Thousands, even tens of thousands, have taken to the streets, many leaving destruction in their wake. But, on average, millions, at least as many as 15 million [gun owners], have had background checks conducted on them this year.

. . .

Again, millions and millions of Americans, many of whom would not have purchased firearms otherwise, are assuming responsibility for their own protection upon witnessing mass lawlessness in city streets.

Gun stocks have soared exponentially. No politicians, no Black Lives Matter, no Antifa—nobody is going to stop Americans from defending what’s theirs from predators. No one.

Again, more at the link.

Some people are taking it even further.  I know of several individuals, in five cities, who've carefully measured the ranges from their property to potential trouble points nearby, and possess rifles capable of "reaching out and touching someone" at those distances, if necessary.  One has built a front-yard "tree house" for his kids - with ladders that are sized and strengthened for adult weights, and a flat area on top of the "tree house" that provides a useful platform for a man with a rifle, and a clear view down his suburban street in both directions.  You might say he's preparing to be a suburban Roof Korean - and I daresay he's far from alone.

Others have formed local support groups, so that if trouble arises they'll provide mutual backup as and when necessary.  If a member goes out of town for some reason, their houses - and, if necessary, their families - are watched to ensure their safety.  Members who've had training in weapons use (military, law enforcement and private) are passing that on to others in the group during prearranged sessions at shooting ranges.  Those who don't have adequate weapons are being taught what's worth having, and assisted to buy them.  I've heard of one group that is said to have sent representatives to a gun show held in a location where restrictions on private gun and ammo sales and purchases were less stringent.  They're said to have spent a fair amount of money on weapons and ammunition, all of which were "off-paper" cash transactions.

I'm not a member of any such group.  Nevertheless, if I, a relatively insignificant blogger and simple retired pastor, know of a few people and groups like that, how many more are there?  I was rather surprised at how many friends wanted to upgrade their rifles to a more practical defensive configuration recently (something I wrote about here, as well as writing a three part series on the considerations involved).  I suspect the "silent majority" is getting bigger, and more frustrated, and better organized, with every new inner-city crime spree or left-wing riot or fatuous progressive demand.

So far, the "silent majority" seems to have focused on securing its own back yard, and trying to ignore (or at least steer clear of) the festivities in inner cities and similar areas.  However, cause enough ruckus for long enough, and someone's going to retaliate - particularly if the police are seen to be helpless, or hamstrung by corrupt, politically correct city administrators.  If that happens, the acronym will be TOCB (Take Our Country Back) - and I suspect the reaction won't be nearly as restrained as it's been so far.  People are already openly writing and speculating about it.  For example:

When the Music Stops:  How
America's Cities may Explode in Violence

Tomorrow

As the left-wing ancestors of the current rioters used to say back in the 1960's, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".

Peter

Small Dead Animals lays it on the line

I'm obliged to Small Dead Animals for putting up three videos of student activists at Evergreen College, back in 2017.  They're very important as a way to understand what's happening in American society today.  The blog notes (bold, underlined text is my emphasis):

What happened at Evergreen College in 2017 was a pilot project. As you watch these videos, you’ll recognize terms and phrases that are being repeated everywhere we turn today.

These are the people now cancelling academics, sports figures, and celebrities; holding corporations hostage; ripping apart hard science; demanding bent knees, destroying property and tearing down statues.

You’ll see in these students and agitators the same incoherent authoritarianism, demands for submission, public humiliation and violence; of those in authority the same capitulation and eagerness to be co-opted.

This is why the media — from news and opinion to sports journalism, has curled into a fetal position, repeating the mantras of Black Lives Matter like North Korean hostages. “Don’t hurt me”.

Now Evergreen College has gone nationwide. It’s important that we understand this is no longer the fringe, that tens of thousands of youth have been indoctrinated into this cult. From Human Rights Commissions to cancel culture, it’s been a long time coming. I still don’t think many fully appreciate the danger we’re in.

Click over there to see the three videos for yourself.  It really is worth your time to do so, because in them you'll see in microcosm what we're seeing on our streets today.

I agree with SDA:  many people don't realize, or understand, or appreciate, that many college and university students have been indoctrinated to be the "useful idiots" of an actual Communist-style revolution.  If we don't stop them, we're going to see that revolution triumph - and that'll be disastrous for our country as a whole, and for every freedom-loving individual.

Peter

Did nobody think about the weights and masses involved?

Last week an incident at Aberdeen airport in Scotland saw a DHC Dash 8 Q400 commuter airliner (empty and powered-down) roll unchecked across the hardstand, to run into an Embraer ERJ-145 parked on the other side.  Total damage to both jets is likely to run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The incident was captured by a security camera. There's no sound in this footage.

I'm still shaking my head at the sight of ground workers trying to physically stop the airliner by pushing and pulling at it.  They must surely have been aware that, even empty, a Q400 weighs almost 20 US tons.  How, precisely, is human muscle alone supposed to stop that sort of mass once it's rolling?  What did they think they were going to achieve?

Verily, the mind doth boggle . . .




Peter

When politicians attack the police, they encourage criminals

Staggering under a drumroll of criticism (some - but not all - of it justified, let it be said), police forces in major cities are "pulling in their horns", so to speak.  It may not be official policy, but cops are no longer willing to put themselves at excessive risk to safeguard cities whose administrations will "throw them to the wolves" at the slightest hint of a problem, treating them as useful scapegoats instead of valued contributors to keeping the peace.  I've heard from several of my law enforcement friends around the country that they, and their colleagues, are now encouraging each other to put their safety first, rather than that of the public, because no-one else is going to do that - certainly not their politically correct superior officers.  It's hard to blame them.

Sadly, those same politically correct superiors and city administrators are soft-pedaling crime and criminals.  For example, in New York:

City shootings piled up at a rate of one per hour on Saturday — with more gunplay on Sunday — as an NYPD chief warned that hundreds of gun-possession defendants have been allowed to prowl Gotham thanks to coronavirus-closed courts.

“We have over 1,000 people that have been indicted on a gun possession charge, where the cases are open, and they are walking around the streets of New York today,” Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri told The Post.

That tally doesn’t include about 800 additional defendants who are charged with illegally packing heat but have yet to be formally indicted when the courts ground to a halt, LiPetri said.

There's more at the link.

Just look at the figures from the Fathers Day weekend.  In New York, "28 shootings in 72 hours".  In Chicago, "14 Dead, 88 Injured".  BizPacReview summarizes, "Deadly weekend in city after city, as full-on assault against police begins to bear wicked fruit".

Actions have consequences.  Whether you're an individual or a city or a political movement, if you attack police, denigrate their reputation, demoralize their officers and treat them like dirt, they're going to look after themselves first, rather than you.  It's human nature.  In such an environment, crime and criminals will flourish.  As the New York Post points out:

“This is what the politicians wanted — no bail, nobody in Rikers, cops not arresting anyone,” one angry law enforcement source said Friday.

“All those things equal people walking around on the street with guns, shooting each other.”

Again, more at the link.

As for officers themselves, the Second City Cop blog (based in Chicago) has a suggestion for Seattle police, who are likely to be sent in soon to clean up the CHOP protest zone in that city.

We would hope the [police] union would recommend its members don't make a single move without two pieces of paper in the hands of every single officer:

• A signed and notarized blanket Pardon from the governor
• A signed and notarized blanket Pardon from the president

This would cover State and Federal charges that are certain to be raised at some point by politicos looking to score points. We doubt that everyone is going to go peacefully, and we all know every single incident of lawful force is going to be recorded, edited and misinterpreted for maximum propaganda purposes against law enforcement.

Makes sense to me, from the cops' perspective.  They already know they're going to be scapegoated.  Why not take precautions against that happening again?

Faced with the inability of police to control this surge in crime and violence, how should we protect ourselves?  Step One is, of course, to stay away from the most crime-ridden areas;  but that's no longer guaranteed to work, because criminals don't necessarily confine themselves to their familiar stamping-grounds any longer.  No, we have to defend ourselves if and when the cops can't do so - and there's only one practical, effective way to do that.  Sadly, that'll contribute to the increase in violence - but we didn't ask for that increase in the first place, and I have no sympathy for those who've caused it.  As Jeff Cooper pointed out:

If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.

Word.

Peter

Gigglesnort!

I came across this at Gun Free Zone.  It's too funny not to share!

It's weird to think that I saw "Grease" when the movie was released in 1978.

We all had the hots for Olivia Newton-John.  Here's how she and John Travolta did that dance.

Those two guys are sure funny, but I think I prefer the original rendition!

Peter

A world-famous cop looks at police accountability and racism

Frank Serpico was awarded the NYPD's Medal of Honor for his work in exposing internal corruption and malfeasance in the department.  He was, however, vilified by many fellow officers for being willing to break the "code of silence" by which cops protected themselves and their colleagues.  Resentment against him from some officers continues to this day.  The book "Serpico" by Peter Maas, and the 1973 movie based on it starring Al Pacino, depicted his struggle.

Some years ago, A&E filmed an episode of its "Biography" series about Serpico's life and work, and what it cost him.  If you have the time, it's worth watching.  Compare and contrast his behavior with that of some other officers recently accused of misconduct, even murder.  There's a very visible difference in attitude.

Serpico recently gave an in-depth interview to Foreign Policy magazine concerning the current state of policing in the USA.  Here's an excerpt.

Now 84, Serpico lives quietly outside Albany, New York, but he remains vocal in speeches, articles, and activist campaigns pushing for police reform. And Serpico says Americans are still fighting the same fundamental problem today that he struggled with as a young cop who refused to take bribes in New York during the 1960s and early ’70s: a near-total lack of accountability over abuses. Then as now, Serpico says, police departments have proved incapable of investigating themselves, and district attorneys typically look the other way, fearful of offending the politically powerful police unions.

In recent weeks, that problem exploded into worldwide furor once again after a white Minneapolis police officer was videoed casually suffocating a handcuffed black man, George Floyd, to death. Many experts said that had it not been for the video, the officer, Derek Chauvin—who was later fired and charged with second-degree murder—would likely still be on the Minneapolis police force. Serpico notes that there is a tragic continuum here: Much as police abuses today are being exposed only by citizen bystanders with cell phones, his only recourse 50 years ago was to go to the New York Times after he discovered that the NYPD was incapable of investigating itself and the city government wouldn’t act. Now, with Congress and state and local legislators finally confronting the problem of accountability and abuse by proposing new legislation, Serpico says there may be hope at last—but there’s a long way to go. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Foreign Policy: Were you surprised by the reaction to George Floyd’s killing?

Frank Serpico: The fuel has been pooling for decades—the Floyd thing was the spark that ignited it. It had gone too far, too long. Police corruption is endemic. It’s been there since the beginning of policing, when police officers had to buy their jobs. What is happening now is also a manifestation of that corruption. Brutality is police corruption. This is a window of opportunity to have some police officers finally see that, hey, we have inherited the sins of our brothers and it behooves us now to do something about it. I’m in touch with police all over the country and the world. Until now all my communications have been about whistleblowers and corruption and how the whistleblower almost always becomes the victim. The problem is that in most cases the agencies they go to in order to tell them about wrongdoing inside or outside the department respond along the lines of: If we did this [prosecuted police officers], we would undermine the stability of society. Or they say, “We can’t afford a scandal. It would undermine public confidence in our police.” But what we’re seeing now is that it already has been undermined.

FP: The reaction has been even greater and more intense—certainly more global—than five or six years ago, when the Black Lives Matter movement erupted after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner was suffocated by a New York police officer. Garner, like Floyd, cried out, “I can’t breathe,” before he died.

FS: I think what drove it home this time, as didn’t happen with Eric Garner, is this was so in your face. It was all there on video: One human being slowly killing another helpless human being. It really went beyond the pale. So hopefully the movement continues. We had the coronavirus, which is still ongoing, a lot of people losing their jobs, and the boil burst. It was the perfect storm. I feel that the coronavirus is equivalent to police corruption. We have this virus among us, and we don’t know who has it. Police corruption too is a virus.

FP: The international reaction has been extraordinary, don’t you think?

FS: It’s called solidarity. Because people are fed up around the world. Look at what’s happening with the police in Turkey, where they’re shooting at these communities. It’s about poverty in these communities, desperation. What has to be addressed is this economic disparity in the country and the world. We’re wasting so much money on BS technology that would be better used to fix this problem.

FP: How much of this has to do with racism, plain and simple?

FS: There is something in the culture that is unmistakably racist. I don’t know how many white guys there are out there, in whatever position, who wake up every day and say, “What am I going to do today to fight racism?” And I bet just about every black man wakes up and says, “Jeez, am I going to get my ass beat today?” A lot of people of color have PTSD over this, whether white people, especially cops, understand that or not. They panic at the sight of the uniform. It’s almost become part of their DNA. When I was a cop, I was working one day with this white guy, and we got a complaint to investigate. We go to the scene, and there’s a white man and a black man. My partner says to the white man, “What’s the problem?” And the black guy says, “I’m the one that called.” He was automatically suspect, because of the color of his skin. That’s one reason why black communities are so frightened and angry.

There's much more at the link.  Highly recommended reading.

As I've said before, if it comes to demonstrating against police misconduct - which is so appallingly clear in a number of recent incidents - I entirely support the current public protests.  I'd willingly join them myself if I lived in the affected areas.  I do not, however, support those who are using them as an excuse to riot, a springboard for violence and crime, and exploiting them for political purposes.  Rioters and thugs are as much criminals as those against whose misconduct the protests are aimed, and need to be stopped just as much, if not more so.

Nevertheless, let's at least have the courage to admit that we do have a police bias problem in America, and we do have a police culture that tends to cover up misconduct rather than confront it and root it out.  It's not universal, but it is pretty widespread, and needs to be addressed.  Only when we accept that can we begin to do anything effective about dealing with it.

(Dealing with it, of course, will have to include de-militarizing the police function, and getting rid of disastrous overreaches such as the so-called "War on Drugs" which "broke policing", to quote the Cato Institute.  I've pointed out many police excesses on this blog, as have other bloggers (for example, here).  That doesn't make us anti-police as a whole:  it means we're pro-good-police, anti-bad-police.  We need to return to policing based upon a social contract, as advocated by Sir Robert Peel in his famous "Peelian Principles".  We've drifted dangerously far from those precepts, and it shows.)

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 12

Last week's collection.

Peter

Sunday morning music

Three days ago, Dame Vera Lynn died at the age of 103.  She was a popular icon of the World War II era, beloved of millions of servicemen and civilians alike throughout the British Empire.  If anyone could be said to be the people's voice of Britain during the war, I daresay her claim to that title is stronger than most - perhaps as strong, in its own way, as that of Winston Churchill.

Her songs buoyed up hope in the darkest times of the war, inspired patriotism and resistance to the tyranny of the Axis powers, and accompanied soldiers on their way to victory.  She had a popularity that can't be measured simply in numbers of records sold or a song's place on a hit parade.  She entered Britain's heart and soul during those terrible years, and never left them.  She remained enormously popular and widely respected for the rest of her life.

My parents loved her songs, and looked upon her as "their" Vera in an amusing, oddly parental, yet lovable way.  They kept her albums at home, and I grew up to their soundtrack.  They helped bring the reality of the war years home to me as I learned about that conflict, adding a touch of the "Home Front" to the clinical accounts of battles, weapons, strategies and tactics.  When she died on Thursday, I felt a personal sense of loss as a result, even though I was born years after the war.  She'd become a part of my life, too.

Here are just a few of her many, many wartime hits.  I have a feeling they'll outlast a great deal of modern pop and rock music.  They've already become timeless.

May she rest in peace.

Peter

No Snippet this morning - we're partying!

As regular readers know, I usually publish a Saturday Snippet, an excerpt from a book I'm reading or writing.

However, this weekend we're part of Foolscon.  This was an impromptu gathering of friends and fellow writers, planned by Old NFO, that was originally scheduled for April Fools Day, the first of that month (hence the name).  Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic torpedoed those arrangements, and things had to be postponed.  We re-scheduled the convention for this weekend, but even that was too difficult for many who'd planned to be here.  Travel is just too complicated and expensive right now, with jobs making added demands on those still working, some of our friends unemployed, and some states still restricting the movements of their residents.

Be that as it may, about thirty of us will be gathering at a local venue.  We don't have a program as such (although it's salaciously rumored that Lawdog will perform an interpretive dance version of the Tale of the Pink Gorilla Suit).  We're just planning to spend time together, complain about the state of the world, eat far too much good food, and generally relax and unwind with each other.  We got started yesterday evening:  you can read about another participant's experience here.

All the preparations for Foolscon have meant that I haven't had time to select and prepare an excerpt for Saturday Snippet:  so please amuse yourselves with the bloggers in my sidebar.  They write good, too!  Alternatively, browse through the almost three dozen Saturday Snippets I've already published, and see if there's one you missed.

I hope to put up a Sunday Morning Music post as usual tomorrow morning.  Blogging should be back to normal next week.

Peter

In Memoriam: Vera Lynn

Vera Lynn, the world-famous British singer of World War II, has died at the age of 103.  The New York Times reports:

“Churchill didn’t beat the Nazis,” the British comedian Harry Secombe once said. “Vera sang them to death.”

Ms. Lynn herself once said: “People used to say that my singing gave them courage and hope. I think that is a great compliment.”

. . .

At 22, in 1939, Ms. Lynn won The Daily Express newspaper’s “Forces’ Sweetheart” poll in a landslide. In 1940, she began her own BBC radio show, “Sincerely Yours,” which was beamed to troops around the world on Sunday nights right after the news.

“Winston Churchill was my opening act,” Ms. Lynn once said.

She read letters from the girlfriends, wives and mothers the troops had left behind. She sang her sentimental songs, “We’ll Meet Again” being the most popular. In the blitz that sent the Luftwaffe on nightly bombing raids over London in 1940, she sometimes slept in the theater until the all-clear sounded, then drove home through the rubble.

“The shows didn’t stop if a raid started,” she said. “We just used to carry on.”

Often, it seemed, Luftwaffe bombers droned over London just as Ms. Lynn sang “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” which became the theme song of the blitz.

. . .

Even in Nazi-occupied Europe, where death was the penalty for listening to the BBC, Ms. Lynn had her fans. “The Dutch used to listen to my programs in haystacks and hide themselves away,” she said. “They’d listen to the 9 o’clock news on Sunday night. It was their only link to the outside world.”

Ms. Lynn toured Burma (now Myanmar) for three months in 1944, earning the enduring affection of the so-called Forgotten Army, which battled the Japanese in jungle combat there. She started her journey with chiffon ball gowns, and when they fell apart, she finished in shorts. (They wound up as an exhibit in the Imperial War Museum in London.)

There's more at the link.

I grew up to Vera Lynn's music.  Both of my parents lived through World War II, and loved her songs dearly.  Her music was readily available on LP records, and they bought new ones to replace those they wore out through constant listening.  I remember one in particular titled "Hits of the Blitz", which is still available.  It was the soundtrack to my early years.

I daresay, if there's any sort of cosmic justice, she was welcomed into the next life by a massed cheer from all the servicemen and their families whose spirits were lifted by her songs during the war.  I'm sure my parents would have been among them.

I'll devote the next "Sunday Morning Music" post to her songs.  Meanwhile, to all who'll miss her, here's a reminder.

Peter

Bringing healing in the most ghastly place on earth

I recently came across an extended report about a Jewish doctor's heroic self-imposed mission in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.  It's a remarkable story of human endurance and courage under the worst possible circumstances.  Here's an excerpt.

[Dr.] Perl was one of five doctors and four nurses ordered to establish a hospital in the camp. She had been told that doctors should bring their instruments on the journey, as they would be allowed to practice medicine. But when she entered the camp, her medical bag was snatched away by another German doctor. “You are going to be the camp gynaecologist,” he told her. “Don’t worry about instruments… you won’t have any. Your medical kit belongs to me now.” Her long hair was shorn, and her right forearm tattooed with her new identity: Prisoner No. 25,404.

Perl found herself responsible not just for gynaecology, but for trying to heal all of the forms of abuse inflicted on her fellow prisoners. She bandaged bleeding head wounds, pulled out infected teeth, and taped up broken ribs. When SS soldiers whipped imprisoned women, she cleaned the painful lacerations. At best she had paper for bandaging and a small knife she sharpened on a stone. When she could do nothing else to help her patients, she soothed with words, speaking of the past and promising a better future.

Though her position filled her with an “impotent distress”, Perl’s help held real value. When prisoners in the hospital were told to provide blood samples, she and the other doctors – knowing that those with contagious diseases would be killed – replaced them with vials of their own blood. On days she knew the SS would clear out the hospital and send the sick to the gas chambers, Perl strategically sent some back to their barracks so they would be spared. She found ointment to soothe a “horrific rash” that spread through the camp, and once helped a prisoner overcome temporary blindness caused by a vitamin deficiency by procuring the necessary injections.

“Without Dr Perl’s medical knowledge and willingness to risk her life by helping us, it would be impossible to know what would have happened to me and to many other female prisoners,” an Auschwitz survivor who went by the name “Ms B” later testified at The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. “She was the doctor of the Jews.”

When Mengele learned of her specialty, he gave her a new task: examine every pregnant woman and report her to him directly. He told her they would be sent to a special camp, where they would receive extra bread rations and even milk. She soon learned the truth. One day, she was returning from an errand near the crematorium when she saw a group of pregnant women being beaten with clubs and attacked by dogs. When they collapsed, German soldiers threw them into the crematorium – alive.

Perl stood in shock, unable to move. “Gradually the horror turned into revolt and this revolt shook me out of my lethargy and gave me a new incentive to live,” she recalled. “It was up to me to save the life of the mothers, if there was no other way, than by destroying the life of their unborn children.”

She made a vow: never again would there be a pregnant woman in Auschwitz.

Perl was not alone in coming to this conclusion. Medical ethics have long held that when a pregnant woman’s life is at risk, a physician must prioritise saving her life over that of her unborn child. Doctors adapted this lesson to the camps, says Sari J Siegel, a historian who examines resistance and coercion in the lives of prisoner-physicians. “We prisoner physicians quietly acted in accordance with this regulation,” wrote Lucie Adelsberger, a doctor who also performed abortions in Auschwitz. “The child had to die so that the life of the mother might be saved.”

In this case, the threat to the woman’s life was genocidal rather than medical. In their quest to create a master race, the Nazis explicitly singled Jewish women out as targets of extermination (simultaneously, “Aryan” women were encouraged to bear as many children as possible). In most ghettos it was forbidden for women to give birth on pain of death, says Beverley Chalmers, author of Birth, Sex and Abuse: Women’s Voices Under Nazi Rule. In the camps, the danger was even more extreme. As Perl put it: “the greatest crime in Auschwitz was to be pregnant.”

There's more at the link.

I'm unalterably opposed to abortion as an after-the-fact method of contraception.  I regard human life as beginning at conception, so normally I'd never consider deliberately aborting a child in the womb as being justified for any reason except for an otherwise unavoidable and very grave risk to the health of the mother.  (According to classic moral theology and ethical principles, under those circumstances that's not an abortion, but an example of the principle of "double effect".)  Yet . . . under the circumstances prevailing in Auschwitz, one can't look at it in such black-and-white terms.  No matter what choice Dr. Perl made there, evil would result.  It was guaranteed.  She therefore had to choose the least evil among the alternatives available.

Dr. Perl wrote about her experiences after the war in a book titled "I was a doctor in Auschwitz".

Her story is an epic of courage in the face of the worst possible adversity.  Both the article excerpted above, and her book, are highly recommended reading.

Peter

And this is why I'll never trust Dr. Fauci again

I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who advised President Trump and the US government on how to handle the coronavirus pandemic.  He played a pivotal road in formulating US response to the disease.

He's finally admitted something many of us had suspected all along.  Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.

"Masks are not 100% protective. However, they certainly are better than not wearing a mask. Both to prevent you, if you happen to be a person who may feel well, but has an asymptomatic infection that you don't even know about, to prevent you from infecting someone else," said Fauci. "But also, it can protect you a certain degree, not a hundred percent, in protecting you from getting infected from someone who, either is breathing, or coughing, or sneezing, or singing or whatever it is in which the droplets or the aerosols go out. So masks work."

So, why weren't we told to wear masks in the beginning?

"Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected."

There's more at the link, and in this report.

I suspected at the time that this was stupid advice.  After all, almost everywhere else in the world, masks were being insisted upon, to such an extent that going outside without one might lead to your arrest in certain countries.  Yet, here Dr. Fauci and other so-called "experts" were insisting that we didn't really need them.

Now we know that the "experts" were more than happy to lie to us, and thereby knowingly put us in greater danger, in order to safeguard supplies for medical personnel.  We, the "ordinary people", weren't nearly as important, in their eyes, as their own colleagues.  So what if more of us died as a result?  That wasn't their problem.

And that's why one should never, ever take an alleged "expert's" views or recommendations at face value.  We simply can't trust them to be honest.  Too many of them, like Dr. Fauci, have hidden agendas.  He, and others of his ilk, will doubtless protest that they acted for the best, that they had to preserve supplies for health care workers - but then, why not simply be honest?  Why not have government reserve all supplies of the necessary equipment, by law, for health care workers?  It wouldn't make us feel any better about the lack of them, but at least we'd understand the reason for it, and probably (albeit grudgingly) accept it.  However, to lie to us as if we simply don't matter and don't count . . . that stinks to high heaven.

Dr. Fauci has now terminally discredited himself in the eyes of anyone with two working brain cells to rub together.  I hope he's happy with that result - and with being branded, by his own admission, a liar.  So much for his professional reputation, and for public trust in his profession - and so much for public support for government advice and edicts, in the event of another pandemic.  The general reaction to them is likely to be "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."




Peter

Signs of the times?

Francis Porretto, (Francis notes in a comment that it's not him, it's contributor Linda Fox), blogging at Liberty's Torch, has some helpful hints on post-unrest and post-riot "signs of the times" - or, how to tell if it's time to get out of your neighborhood.

I well remember the 70s, and the way the cities broke apart after the riots. Previously, Cleveland's neighborhoods had been generally clean, peaceful, and supportive of family life.

. . .

Shortly after the riots - neighborhoods such as Collinwood, Glenvale, and Hough were torn apart, burned, and left with few viable commerce (often literally 'food deserts') - the movement out of Cleveland, and particularly the downtown district, commenced. When leases were up, tenants left. Even lower rents couldn't persuade them to stick around - the reduced foot traffic made those deals not worth it.

In the residential neighborhoods, people scrambled to get PART of their investment out of their house, and move to the suburbs. Most sold cheaply; some converted their unsalable home into multi-family units, and became instant 'slumlords'. The city and the schools suffered from the loss of the tax base.

Arson grew in the newly depopulated neighborhoods - who knows how many of the fires were attempts to get the insurance companies to pay out, and give the owners some cash with which to start over?

Those who had choices, took off for greener, and less squalid, hills. Primarily those who were more stable - those having a family, a job, personal gumption - were the ones to leave. Those who were less mobile, those who had few resources to finance a move, those who were stuck in denial, and those that LIKED the "New Normal" - stayed. And watched the world surrounding them sink into barbarism.

If I owned property in the cities, I'd have my ear to the ground. I'd be very attentive to the signs of impending chaos. Many of us, before the cities fell in the 60s-70s, allowed the first signs of collapse to creep in, ignored by most.

. . .

The signs include:

• Trash/litter - this has nothing to do with the city services available. Do the homeowners have to clean up trash on a regular basis, that was deposited by others? Do the multi-family homes take care of the area in front of their own place, or do they let it pile up?
• Do the local stores put bars on their establishment? Are new buildings put up with limited access/few ground floor windows?
• Are public parks safe to walk around in, at least during the daylight hours? Do you notice broken glass/smoking litter on the grounds?
• Do the police take down the information for crimes, but do no more? Do you hear about or get notification of crimes (you can access the police reports/maps for crimes by date in most cities). For smaller communities, the local police blotter/sheriff's dept. reports are your go-to. But, remember that many crimes are never reported, so this is likely to be underestimating the problem. Sign up for the NextDoor app if you want to keep on top of your neighborhood locally. Or, join a neighborhood association, and attend the meetings. It's a good way to get to know your neighbors, and make some connections with those who you might want to have beside you should TSHTF.

There's more at the link, including more warning signs.  Very useful information, IMHO, particularly if you live in cities affected by recent riots, such as Minneapolis, Seattle and elsewhere.  If you do, you might want to consider relocating to someplace safer and more peaceful.

The reality of such situations is one of the main reasons why Miss D. and I left Nashville.  We now live in a part of the country that's a whole lot less likely to experience such social breakdowns.  Almost everyone here, of all races, is a lot more self-sufficient and self-respecting.  Long may it remain that way!

Peter

Fixing stupid

Found on Gab - clickit to biggit:

I think I've met that old codger. Heck, at my age, I think I may be that old codger by now!

Oh - and where can I buy that T-shirt?  If anyone knows, please tell us in a comment.  I think it'd be perfect for the members of our North Texas Writers, Shooters and Pilots Association.  Evil associations, and all that sort of thing . . .




Peter

Atlanta is now a nightmare for police - and for its residents

Throughout yesterday evening, reports were surfacing that many Atlanta police officers were either calling in sick and not reporting for duty - the so-called "blue flu" - or were checking in, making a token run (perhaps to a favorite coffee shop - a number of witnesses report seeing unusually large groups of cops drinking coffee and talking) and then returning to their precincts and refusing to go out again.

What's more, mainstream news media appear to be under-reporting the full extent of the problem.  I'm informed by my law enforcement friends and contacts that at least three out of six districts in the Atlanta metro area aren't responding to anything except life-threatening emergencies, and even those are seeing a much delayed response.  The police department is allegedly even pulling corrections officers out of Atlanta-area jails to respond to crime calls, because no-one else is available.  Neighboring agencies are allegedly refusing to assist, except if an officer is in danger and calling for help.

There also appears to be a great deal of discussion about Atlanta (and Minneapolis, and Seattle, and New York, and many other cities where police are under attack by politically correct administrations) among police officers across the nation.  Police officers talk to each other about such things.  There are entire online forums and social media groups, many invitation-only, for police to discuss such issues, and they're buzzing right now.  I have a feeling that Atlanta's "blue flu" may become a nation-wide law enforcement pandemic in its own right before very long.

It's made worse by the fact that the officer who shot Rayshard Brooks is clearly facing excessive and legally unjustifiable charges, even by the dubious standards of Atlanta's own District Attorney and the laws of that state.  As Sundance points out, that may be related to a political spat between the DA and his possible opponent in this year's primary elections.  Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Paul Howard Jr., held a press conference earlier this afternoon to announce eleven charges against police officer Garrett Wolfe for the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks.  The shooting took place at a local Atlanta Wendys.

In what appears to be a decision heavily influenced by local politics, DA Howard is charging officer Garrett Wolfe with felony murder; an unlawful killing with malice, forethought and specific intent.  It looks like Howard is purposefully making a mess.

. . .

There is something rather unusual about the way DA Paul Howard framed the encounter between the police and Rayshard Brooks, because CCTV video and body-cam footage do not support the district attorney’s version of events.  Obviously in a courtroom the defense is going to replay the DA statements while they run simultaneous footage of Mr. Rayshard Brooks resisting arrest, fighting with police and ultimately taking one of the officers’ tasers to use as a weapon.

. . .

The lead investigative agency, The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), didn’t even know the press conference was going to be held today and they have not completed their investigation.  They had no idea the DA was going to file charges.

. . .

Regardless of internal Atlanta politics, the message to police is chilling.  I would not want to be living anywhere around Fulton county, Georgia; because I suspect there is going to be a massive drop in law enforcement.  Crime will likely rise, violence will likely escalate, and the suffering community will be the same black neighborhoods who might currently be thanking DA Howard without realizing what consequences are looming.

There's more at the link.

To make matters even worse, one of the justifications for a murder charge against the officer was that the deceased used a taser - regarded by many as a non-lethal weapon - and therefore did not "deserve" to be shot in return, a firearm being a "more lethal" method of defense.  However, Atlanta's DA, just two weeks ago, pointed out at a news conference that under Georgia law, tasers are considered lethal weapons:

If the officer had been trained to act in terms of Georgia law, and acted in accordance with his training and the law, then how can he possibly be charged with felony murder?  I'm sure every Atlanta PD officer is asking that question, more or less profanely, right now:  and I'm sure the officer's defense attorneys are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of asking the prosecution precisely that question in court.  It's unanswerable, except to dismiss the charges.

I hold no brief for police misconduct and over-reaction.  Regular readers will know that I've spoken out against that on numerous occasions.  However, in this case, I think it's pretty clear-cut that the charges are simply ridiculous.  I'm not surprised to see Atlanta cops reacting to them in this way.  When the justice system they're supposed to uphold turns against them, what else can they do?  Why should they put their futures, their families and their paychecks on the line when their own superiors won't back them up if they do their job as they've been trained to do it?

I've worked with law enforcement, in a support capacity.  None of those with whom I worked would have put their necks on the block if they knew their superiors were likely to chop their heads off to save their own - and I don't blame them.  When a department loses the trust of its own officers, it's doomed.  The only thing that can save it is a wholesale house-cleaning from top to bottom, new and strong leadership - not of the politically correct variety - and solid support from its leaders for rank-and-file officers.

I'm surprised cops haven't already "downed tools" in Minneapolis, Seattle, New York and other places where their administrators have thrown them to the wolves.  It says a lot for their dedication to duty.  However, everyone has a breaking point.  It looks like Atlanta PD officers have reached theirs.  How far will this spread, and how fast?

Oh - and remember my advice a couple of weeks ago?  "If you haven't got a gun, GET ONE.  NOW."  That goes double when you don't know if the police will be willing or available to come to your help.  Even if they do, until they arrive at the crime scene, you're on your own.  That being the case, you'd better be ready, willing, able, and equipped to defend yourself, your loved ones, and your property.

If you're not, police have a word for people in your position.  They call them "victims".

Peter

Let's help Ari Munzner over the finish line

A week ago I wrote about Ari Munzner, a 90-year-old artist who lost much of his life's work when fires sparked during the riots in Minneapolis destroyed his studio.  Undaunted, he's doing his best to pick up the pieces and start again.  You can read his story in more detail at this link.

Ari's daughter Tamara set up a GoFundMe fund-raiser to help raise money to restore those of his works that can be salvaged, and set up a new studio.  Readers of this blog have already responded generously, for which my grateful thanks.  The fundraiser had reached only about $4,500 when I publicized it last week, and rose rapidly thereafter.  As I write these words, it stands at $18,380 out of a goal of $20,000.

I have enormous admiration for Ari's determination not to let this disaster derail his life's work.  I hope I'd display as much courage and optimism, to start all over again at so advanced an age, if such a disaster happened to me.  I'd really like to see the fundraiser's goal reached, to give him a head start on the process.  It would also be very nice, in moral terms, to help build something positive out of the negativity of the riots and destruction.

How about it, readers?  If you haven't already contributed, will you please consider even a small donation?  It doesn't have to be a lot - every little helps - and I think it's in a very good cause.  Let's get Ari over the finish line!

Peter

A breath of fresh air - NOT!

One has to wonder about this report.

Breaking wind in public may be a social taboo, but it's not often that people face financial consequences for it.

But that was the case for one man in Austria, who was fined €500 ($564) after doing so at police in Vienna earlier this month.

The city's police have defended the fine, saying it was for more than that.

. . .

... the police department said the suspect "had already behaved in a provocative and unco-operative manner" when he was approached by police in the early hours of 5 June.

He then rose from a park bench, "looked at the officers and apparently intentionally released a massive intestinal wind in the immediate vicinity of the officers".

And, as the suspect found to his own cost, members of the city's police force "prefer not to be farted at".

There's more at the link.

That's a pretty large fine.  One wonders whether the flatulence was particularly odiferous, or aimed rather than let go at random, to attract such a penalty.

Oh, well . . . at least it shows that the police in Vienna are inde-fart-igable in their pursuit of crime!




Peter

Forget the "new normal" - nothing is "normal" any more

Joe Andrew has a trenchant thought about change and human progress, which is particularly applicable to the ongoing riots and protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.  They are only one facet of a deep-seated societal change that's happening around us as we speak.

Traditionalists want to get the world back to normal. Modernists want to get the world to the new normal. What they are both missing is that there won’t be a normal — the old one or the new one — for a long time, if ever ... We cannot expect that all things around us will be typical or expected if they are changing faster than we can adapt to them.

But more important than any substantive trend is this process point: acceleration is accelerating itself.

. . .

... with the advent of the easy to use smart phone and the underlying democratization of ideas that came from it and wide use of the internet ... change in most areas dramatically began to accelerate around 2008 ... Our very ability to adapt to all the change happening around us was the key trend of our time.  If the crisis created by COVID-19 is accelerating trends, then it is clearly accelerating the trend of increased change.

The age of cellular service coincided with the beginning of ... a Fourth Industrial Revolution that has brought the mechanical, biological, and digital sciences together and where the speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. Changes in medicine, physics and technology are evolving at an exponential rather than linear pace. You can make fun of these concepts, but that laughter is hiding the anxiety that we are feeling as we experience the quickening pace of change all around us in the real world ... and we — as individuals and societies — are struggling to react. And that was before the current global crisis.

Those who are in the business of predicting what will happen next ... were often too conservative about the rate of change before the current crisis. As change accelerates, we are learning something about the world that lies in wait for us. We are learning that there will not be a next new normal, but rather a new dynamic.

. . .

Our biggest challenge will be to adapt to this dynamic and find ways to live in the moving river, not beside it, as it overflows its banks and swamps our expectations of what is normal.

While we never know what will happen next, we now know that the challenge of our times is how we adapt to what happens next.

There's more at the link.

That article brings to mind a book by Martin Gurri, a former CIA analyst, titled "The Revolt of the Public".

In a recent video interview, he spoke about his theory.  It's only about ten minutes long, and well worth your time.  If you prefer to read rather than listen, he covered the same material in a recent podcast, the transcript of which is here.

In a recent blog post, Mr. Gurri noted:

Increasingly, the post-truth landscape has come to resemble a science fiction nightmare.  In a fractured universe, multiple “spheres of truth” reach blindly for domination – but when they collide, every claim for every truth is nullified, and nothing is validated.

I think that's a particularly useful insight in relation to the riots and protests going on all over the country right now.  Both sides are sticking to their version of the "truth", ignoring the factual, empirical truth that should transcend mere opinions and perspectives.  Both sides have lost sight of that.  They insist on their interpretation of "the truth", and refuse to listen to any others.  That's leaves no room, no foundation, for agreement or reconciliation.

The current riots in America certainly echo the disruptions of the so-called "Arab Spring" in the Middle East.  Those failed, spectacularly so in many countries, as a conservative, traditional reaction to their excesses set in.  Will the riots here "fail" too?  Or will they gather momentum and produce lasting change?  Your guess is as good as mine - but the conservative, traditional reaction has hardly begun in this country.  Some believe it will express itself at the ballot box in November.  Are they right?  If so, will the progressive forces on the left refuse to accept that outcome, and riot all the harder?  And will that produce a crackdown on them from the right?

It's worth repeating Mr. Andrew's observation:

Our biggest challenge will be to adapt to this dynamic and find ways to live in the moving river, not beside it, as it overflows its banks and swamps our expectations of what is normal.

While we never know what will happen next, we now know that the challenge of our times is how we adapt to what happens next.

That's going to be a monumental challenge for all of us as individuals, and for our country as a whole.  Frankly, right now, I'm not very hopeful that we'll find a peaceful way forward.  It may be that things have already gone too far for peace.  Perhaps the spark to a general conflagration has already been lit.

I hope and pray I'm wrong.

Peter

A 235-foot trailer, 14 feet wide, weighing 152 tons

A heavy hauling company was recently asked to deliver a mammoth toll bridge gantry in Florida.  It was quite the effort!  Here's a video of the proceedings.

I wonder how many cops and other specialist personnel were involved in that trip, from start to finish?  I'm betting it ran well into double figures - and I'd love to know what the towing company charged!  I suspect it'll take a few months of tolls to pay the bill.

Peter