Will history repeat itself?

 

Kim du Toit offers some trenchant thoughts about the impact of drastic events upon earlier human societies and culture, and applies that to today's "Information Revolution".  I'm not going to steal his thunder by quoting large chunks of his essay, which I find very apposite:  I'm simply going to recommend that you click over there and read it for yourself.

Here's how he concludes:

I have no idea how much the Information Revolution is going to change society.  All I know is that it will.  However, if I want to see how we will be affected by the next overturning of society, and get an idea of the misery we will endure, I just have to re-read Les Misérables and Loss Of Eden.

This time, Shakespeare’s “bare ruin’d choirs” will not be in our buildings, but in our souls. 

A gloomy conclusion, but from what I see all around me, I fear it may end up that way.  It's for us who care about the higher aspects of human society to fight against that, tooth and nail, to preserve what we can of the best that came before us.

Peter

Is left-wing terrorism to be the "new normal"?

 

John Farnam thinks so.

Overshadowed by the tragic flooding in TX, there was an well-funded, violent attack, a “planned ambush,” by at least ten heavily-armed leftist terrorists on Federal Officers at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, TX on Friday, 4 July 25.  At least one officer was injured by gunfire.

This incident began with vandalism, graffiti, and fireworks.  It was all clearly intended to draw Federal Officers outside and into a deadly ambush.

Terrorists used M4 rifles (with “high-capacity” magazines), were equipped with body-armor, radios, and other military equipment, and the selection of a national holiday to stage this attack was no accident.

There was a simultaneous, separate shooting-attack on Federal Officers at the  Border Patrol Facility in McAllen, TX.  At least one armed terrorist was fatally shot by officers during that armed assault.

As expected, no Democrat politician has publically condemned these shooting attacks on our Federal LEOs.  In fact, Democrats are self-righteously calling our courageous ICE Officers “terrorists.”

. . .

In 2020, these same leftist terrorists, openly incited by Democrat politicians, destroyed historic statues and burned large swaths of business districts (in an effort to punish “hated capitalists”).

In 2024/25, these same terrorists violently attacked Jewish students and trashed college campuses, all with the approval of leftist-supporting college administrators, who simultaneously exclude Christians and Jews from being hired (in the name of “DEI”)

Today, these same leftist terrorists, now using “assault weapons,” are openly shooting at our police, all as their supporters (which includes most Democrat politicians) remain silent, or in some cases cheer them on!

This all precisely fits the Leninist pattern for the violent seizure of power, as the DNC’s current spokesman, Zohran Mamdani, so candidly articulates.

Nothing is beneath them!

Why should any of us be surprised?

There's more at the link.  Recommended reading.

I can't disagree with Mr. Farnam.  I fear we're going to be sending out patrol cars in pairs, at least, in our more dangerous cities, and probably in larger groups where hot-button issues such as illegal migration or other left-wing shibboleths are concerned.  Where I live, this hasn't been a problem (yet), but I understand from talking to a couple of cop friends in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Houston that they're already preparing for that.  Unfortunately, their city governments are more inclined to pander to the extremists than crack down on them - which means that ordinary citizens are probably going to have to shoulder more of the burden of keeping their neighborhoods crime-free and regressive (as opposed to progressive, you understand).

Fair warning.  Take a close look at the political and social environment in and around the area where you live, and plan accordingly.

Peter

Training was lacking, it seems...

 

Two (apparently rookie) Chicago cops tried to arrest a fleeing felon (apparently also a rookie).

Looks like the pole was the only competent one there, stopping the bad guy when he ran headlong into it.  Certainly, it was more effective than anyone's (allegedly) aimed gunfire!

Go read the comments about the video on YouTube.  Some of them are hysterical.

(Oh - and someone please get those cops some remedial firearms training.  They desperately need it!)

Peter

Hamas asked for it, and it looks like they're going to get it - good and hard

 

Two interesting developments may offer a solution to the hitherto intractable problem of Gaza and its Palestinian residents.

First, Israel is reportedly arming "anti-Hamas militias".

According to Israeli news outlet Ynet, “one group is active in Gaza City, and the other in Khan Yunis” – where the Israeli military is currently present. 

Ynet had previously reported, citing sources affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), that “new Fatah-aligned militias would soon begin operations in the strip.” The same sources told the outlet this week that “these are the very groups now coordinating directly with the IDF,” with both receiving salaries from the PA [Palestinian Authority]. 

. . .

One of the groups is based in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood – an area known historically as a hotbed of resistance, where Israeli forces are currently preparing to escalate operations. This faction is reportedly linked to Rami Halles, an anti-Hamas activist in Gaza linked to the PA Fatah party. 

The Halles clan has had bad blood with Hamas since the resistance movement’s takeover of Gaza years ago. 

“Halles and his men are heavily armed and are now receiving Israeli protection and operational cover,” sources cited by Ynet say. 

The second militia, based in the southern city of Khan Yunis, is said to be led by a man named Yasser Hnaidek, who “is receiving Israeli aid – both in weapons and humanitarian supplies – as well as a salary from the PA.” He also hails from a Fatah-linked family in Gaza, according to what has been circulating. 

. . .

The Ynet report follows recent information about an Israeli-backed gang operating in the southernmost city of Rafah – led by the Fatah-linked Yasser Abu Shabab, also allegedly linked to ISIS. 

There's more at the link.

I don't know why some people are surprised by that news.  One of the oldest and most sacred (?) tenets of life in the Middle East is that "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".  I think Israel is following that principle very closely.  Furthermore, the "Fatah-aligned" aspect of the militias is interesting, because Fatah is the biggest faction in the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank but was expelled from Gaza (amid much bloodshed) by Hamas years ago.  Fatah might be more than willing to help Israel by joining forces with it to sponsor anti-Hamas militias.  See the principle quoted above for the reason . . .

The second bit of news is that traditional Arab leadership may be resurgent in another Palestinian region.

A group of five leading sheikhs in the Palestinian Authority’s Hebron district sent a letter to the government expressing a desire to join the Abraham Accords and to have peace with Israel, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The letter, addressed to Economy Minister Nir Barkat, expresses the sheikhs’ desire to break off from the Palestinian Authority and establish Hebron as an emirate that “recognize[s] the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.”

Then, “the State of Israel shall recognize the Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.”

Again, more at the link.

Hebron is part of the West Bank, not Gaza.  If it "defects" to an independent arrangement with Israel, this will undermine the Palestinian Authority itself, as well as offering an interesting example to other regions with their own authority structures.  Furthermore, it would offer a counterweight to the so-called "two-state solution" that's been touted for so long as the only possible solution to the Palestinian problem.  If Palestinian regions are divided into self-ruling "statelets" or Emirates or whatever they want to call themselves, there will no longer be just two Palestinian regions - and none of the smaller entities will want to give up their own authority (and lucrative rake-offs) to ally with others.

If Hamas won't make peace, Israel will be more than happy to make sure Hamas has nothing and nobody left over which to rule.

Peter

The renewable energy cow is getting gored - and not before time

 

Back in May, when renewable energy reforms were being debated in Congress, I wrote:

Son, if you can't make money on your product without taxpayers giving you thousands of dollars per installation, you don't deserve to be in business.  If you can't make a fair and reasonable profit without gouging others for it, you're the problem - not the government.

The entire alternative energy sphere is filled with subsidies and special-interest money like this.  I know one wind power project in Colorado that's been sold twice in the past decade or so.  Every time, the sale was at the end of a ten-year federal subsidy for wind energy for the "new" field - and the new owner got a renewed ten-year subsidy every time he/it/they bought the project.  It's basically a license to fleece taxpayers, and they get away with it every time, thanks to a complaisant Congress and the lobbyists who hand out money to politicians who support their favored schemes.

As far as I'm concerned, Congress should never have passed the subsidy in the first place.  Getting rid of it now is rather late, but at least we won't be hemorrhaging even more money that way in future.

There's more at the link.

Now, the Telegraph adds more insight into why the renewable energy industry is so upset.

The cat is out of the bag. Electricity made from renewable sources is not as “cheap” as its advocates sometimes claim. It evidently cannot survive without billions annually in tax credits.

That’s the message from the latest skirmish over America’s renewable energy future, where the House and Senate have unveiled duelling visions for the rollback of energy tax credits – each with its own tempo and tone. The vitriolic reaction from the green lobby, and the predictions of disaster for renewables should any of these changes be passed into law, have exposed just how economically unsustainable even the fiercest backers of these energy sources clearly accept them to be.

Supporters of renewable energy have assured us for years that the wind blows and the sun shines free of charge. But although these technologies have received hundreds of billions in subsidies globally over the past 20 years, proponents still demand more – for a few years, we’re told, until renewables can stand on their own feet.

. . .

One dirty little secret is that, on a state-by-state basis, nine out of the top 10 states in electricity prices in the United States in 2024 required renewable energy as part of their electricity mix. The bottom 10 states generally did not require renewable energy.

. . .

Taxpayers are paying multiple times for renewables. In their electricity bills, they pay not only for wind and solar, but for the backups to the wind and solar. In their tax bills, they pay for the energy tax credits. They also give up faster economic growth when electricity prices rise.

Another dirty secret is that renewable energy is often neither green nor clean. About 70 per cent of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and their components are made in China, which remains reliant on coal-fired power plants to fuel its industries. Wind turbines kill birds, and, when offshore, can harm sea mammals. Solar power can take over agricultural land, which is likely to drive up the price of food. Green and clean are marketing hype used to push renewables onto unsuspecting consumers.

. . .

With the end of these tax credits, Americans may well discover that the true costs of renewable energy are higher than utility companies are willing to bear. Developers are already saying that they will halt projects without the tax credits.

If the age of renewable energy tax credits is drawing to a close, Americans will be the beneficiaries. The question is how abruptly Washington will pull the plug – and whether other countries will follow.

Again, more at the link.

As always, follow the money.  He who screams the loudest when a government subsidy is reduced or eliminated is, in my book, automatically suspicious, because he's basically admitting he's been making money at taxpayer expense and hates the thought of losing it.

I can understand government subsidizing some new technology that will be of genuine long-term benefit to the nation.  In energy terms, pebble bed reactors and other advances in the nuclear field come to mind, because modern designs virtually eliminate the risk of accidental radiation release, and appear to generate much less nuclear waste.  However, solar and wind energy will always have the problem that they need backup power sources to fill in the gap when the winds don't blow or the sun doesn't shine.  To pay out literally hundreds of billions of dollars for a part-time resource that isn't consistently reliable seems utterly pointless to me.

Kill those subsidies, yesterday!

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 268

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

Some musicians and music groups trouble me, because while they may produce excellent music, they also appear to be actively anti-Christian in some of their themes, lyrics and personal lives.  There are many examples:  Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen, groups with names such as Judas Priest or Black Sabbath . . . too many to list.  I generally avoid listening to them out of those qualms of conscience.  On the other hand, I have to concede that some of them produce outstanding music.

A group that I have to classify as "borderline" over such concerns is Disturbed.  Some aspects of their work light up big red warning lamps in my brain, such as artistic effects like the logo for their second album, Believe, which incorporates both the Star of David and devil's horns, and their participation in festivals such as Hellfest.  On the other hand, their cover of The Sounds Of Silence is possibly the best version of the song ever recorded, surpassing even the original from Simon and Garfunkel, and they've crafted a number of rock/power ballads that are world-class.  Let's just say that I won't listen to some of their work, because I'm unabashedly Christian in my world-view.  If you can say the same, caution is indicated.

Nevertheless, this track from their latest album, "Divisive", appeals to me.  It's a dark power ballad about relationships.  See what you think.

Here's a half-hour interview with their lead singer, David Draiman, in which he discusses the group's background and development.

An interesting group, despite my reservations about some aspects of their work.

Peter

Independence Day 2025

 

Here's wishing everyone a happy, relaxed, upbeat Fourth of July celebration this year.  When I think back to how things were last year, there's a vast difference, isn't there?  We have a President who may not suit everyone, but is doing his job the best way he knows how, and a Congress and Senate that are - however shakily - working together to move forward his agenda.  I think that beats stalemate, and I think most of the Founding Fathers would have approved.

May our Republic grow stronger every year, and become a land whose citizens may live in liberty and prosperity under the grace of God.

Peter

A travel tip I wouldn't have considered

 

I've never thought that wrapping up my vehicle might be a worthwhile precaution before hiking a trail, but it turns out that in parts of this country, it's not a bad idea.

From the awe-inspiring views of the Grand Canyon to the geysers of Yellowstone, millions of people travel to national parks across the United States every year. The parks are home to countless animals, including one mountain-dwelling critter that can ruin a day in the great outdoors.

Marmots will pillage backpacks left unattended in search for a snack, and at Sequoia National Park's Mineral King trail, the rodents have been known to chew on tubes and wiring on the underside of vehicles.

To prevent damage in such a remote location, officials recommend hikers wrap their vehicles in a large tarp, which looks unusual, but deters marmots from chomping on a radiator hose or a brake line.

. . .

In the past, hikers used to surround their vehicles with chicken wire, but over time, the marmots learned how to evade the wire and reach the vehicles.

"On several occasions, marmots have not escaped the engine compartment quickly enough and unsuspecting drivers have given them rides to other parts of the parks; several have ridden as far as Southern California," the NPS explained.

There's more at the link.

I'm not familiar with US marmots, but I've had lots of encounters with the very similar species that South Africans familiarly refer to as dassies (actually a species of hyrax).  They're endemic on Table Mountain in Cape Town, and have "colonized" the area around the upper cable car station.  They unashamedly beg food from patrons at the restaurant there, so much so that they're typically so rotund and corpulent that they can't move in a hurry.  That provides the local eagles with a plentiful meat diet, but there are so many dassies waiting their turn at the tourist buffet that the numbers never seem to drop.

No need to tarp your vehicles there - for a start, they're 3,000 feet below, parked on the road leading past the lower cable car station, and besides, the dassies are so well fed by tourists that they'd turn up their noses at engine cables and wires.

Be that as it may, I suppose marmots, hyrax and similar critters have developed all over the world to fill a specific ecological niche.  We're simply supplementing their diet by parking nearby.  Does that mean that tarping one's car to keep them out is interfering with natural selection?

Peter

An amazing, interesting and sometimes amusing history lesson

 

Did you know that Noah's Ark had a Mesopotamian counterpart?  Not only were the Ark narratives very similar between the two cultures, but a replica of the Mesopotamian "ark" - in reality a very large coracle-type design - was actually built and launched.

The project was the brainchild of Irving Finkel.  He describes it in the video below.  I highly recommend making time to watch it if you have any interest in history, sacred writings, or early ships.  It's a fascinating story, and Finkel is a very absorbing lecturer.

Prof. Finkel wrote a book about the project titled "The Ark Before Noah".  After viewing the video above, it's on my must-read list.

Fascinating!

Peter

The ambulance chasers lose at last

 

I was pleased to read that a manifestly unjust court verdict has finally been overturned by the Texas Supreme Court.

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Werner Enterprises, reversing a $100 million jury verdict against the motor carrier upheld by an appellate court in a 2014 fatal crash in which a pickup truck lost control on a slick interstate, traveled across the highway median and collided with a Werner tractor traveling on the opposite stretch of road.

. . .

“This awful accident happened because an out-of-control vehicle suddenly skidded across a wide median and struck the defendant’s truck, before he had time to react, as he drove below the speed limit in his proper lane of traffic,” the court wrote. “That singular and robustly explanatory fact fully explains why the accident happened and who is responsible for the resulting injuries. Because no further explanation is reasonably necessary to substantially explain the origins of this accident or to assign responsibility for the plaintiffs’ injuries, the rule of ‘proximate causation’ does not permit a fact finder to search for other, subordinate actors in the causal chain and assign liability to them.”

The high court said that nothing the Werner driver, Shiraz Ali, did or didn’t do contributed to the pickup truck hitting ice, losing control, veering into the median and entering oncoming traffic on an interstate highway.

However Ali was driving, the presence of his 18-wheeler in its proper lane of traffic on the other side of Interstate 20 at the precise moment the pickup truck lost control is just the kind of “happenstance of place and time” that cannot reasonably be considered a substantial factor in causing injuries to the plaintiffs.

There's more at the link.

I've long been angered by the "sue-at-all-costs" approach by so-called "ambulance-chasers":  lawyers who'll hunt down anyone who might conceivably have any case of any kind against another after an accident, then sue on their behalf for often ridiculous sums in damages, hoping that the defendant will settle rather than go to the trouble and expense of an often long-drawn-out trial.  They're an entire sub-culture in the legal "industry".  During our recent travels, both my wife and I commented on the huge number of billboards in economically depressed areas through which we traveled, advertising the services of lawyers to sue anybody whom they could persuade you had "wronged" or "harmed" or "damaged" you.  It appeared to be the major economic activity in those areas, if one judged only by the billboards alongside the roads.

This case is a classic example.  The truck was doing everything legally, traveling in its lane at a lawful speed, and nowhere near traffic coming the other way:  yet the ambulance-chasers tried (and, at first, succeeded) to paint it, its driver and its owner as guilty parties, responsible for the accident and subsequent injuries and expenses.  That they succeeded in a lower court is a black mark against that court, which really should have known better.  Fortunately, in this case, a higher court was able to put a stop to that nonsense:  but how many times does that happen?  How many times can the defendant not afford to take the case to an appeal, and is therefore forced to bear the costs of a settlement?

Shakespeare's prescription for lawyers might have been in jest, but it sometimes seems more than appropriate in the light of how they conduct themselves . . .

Peter

"The nature of the enemy"

 

HMS Defiant warns us that our fundamentalist enemies in the Middle East and elsewhere are very likely to take advantage of public celebrations to attack those attending.

The deranged lunatics who make up the foot soldiers of the enemy invasion do not need to turn to guns and mass shootings in order to slaughter thousands of innocent people who are out enjoying the 4th of July, they merely have to get behind the wheel of a big SUV or a truck and drive endlessly through an unwary and completely unprotected crowd so this year, protect yourselves and your families.

If you line a parade route as I did for so many years, make sure the barricades preventing vehicle access are meaningful and placed with care and attention to detail by a man who KNOWS that they are the only thing that will stop a maniac from driving into a peaceful crowd looking the wrong way.*

Make sure that you have a safe haven selected for you and your family and that you can get to it safely when the entire crowd bursts into panic and flight. Be ready to deal with avoiding trampling and keeping safe from the panicked crowd.

Know that the enemy we have in the middle east is one that really and truly does like to strike back on days that are already memorialized in one way or another and they will take days like the 4th of July in a heartbeat over even attacking on 9/11 or Christmas or New Years and take note that none of them are holidays in their religion. 

Evil doesn't take holidays.

There's more at the link.

He's absolutely right, of course.  We've all seen such attacks in Europe, and a few that came close in our own country (although, thanks be to God, most of what we've seen here has been smaller-scale and/or less motivated).  There are a lot of raw, humiliated, angry people in the fundamentalist Islamic community right now, furious that Israel has destroyed their compatriots in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and outraged that the USA has supported Israel in its efforts.  As far as they're concerned, we all share the guilt for such actions, and they're entitled to seek revenge against us.

Bear in mind, too, that a firearm is often far from the most useful response.  Sometimes it can help defend one's life and loved ones, but if a wannabe terrorist martyr is barreling towards a crowd in a heavy truck, gunfire is unlikely to stop him before he runs right over you.  By all means carry a gun - I do, almost all the time - but having a head on a swivel, constantly evaluating the situation around you, looking for potential choke points and escape routes, and watching for suspicious behavior, will do more to save you in most situations than pulling out a gun and starting shooting.  That's even more true when you consider that, if such a situation goes down, the authorities - and many other armed civilians such as yourself - are highly likely to regard anyone waving a gun around as part of the problem, not the solution.  They may start shooting at you on general principles (i.e. the modified Golden Rule:  "Do unto others before they have a chance to do unto you, only do it first").  There are seldom happy endings to that.

Fair warning, folks.

Peter

Was the Idaho shooter just another victim of trans derangement syndrome?

 

All his social media accounts have been "mysteriously" wiped clean by a person or persons unknown . . . but not before someone retrieved and saved his Instagram account.  Example:

There have been so many of these . . . somebody gets a trans bee in their bonnet, and proceeds to turn homicidal.  Was the Idaho shooter just another one of them?  You be the judge - because the official line is, at this point, deafening silence.

Peter

The fun - and pain - of fact-checking and research

 

During our recent perambulations around parts of the Civil War South, my wife and I enjoyed new scenery, new restaurants (hey, gotta sample the local cuisine to get the local "flavor"!), and new people.  We also were reminded - forcibly - that our bodies are older than they were when we last did this sort of thing, and quite a bit more decrepit.  I hadn't expected it to be so painful to spend so much time on foot.  If this goes on, I'll be exploring in a mobility scooter!

Savannah, Georgia was a pleasant surprise in many ways, the first being the weather.  Inland, Georgia was hot and muggy, very unpleasantly so, but on the coast it was a lot cooler and more pleasant.  The Savannah River runs through town, just off the old business and now tourist district, which adds to the cooling.  There are lots of old buildings, some almost as old as the American Revolution and many dating back to the Civil War period.  They've been done up as shops, restaurants and artsy touristy places, leaving the exteriors unchanged but updating the interiors.  Many of the streets are still cobbled rather than tarred, some of them very uncomfortable even in a modern SUV, forcing one to drive at little more than walking pace;  and the traffic through the tourist areas is very heavy, again slowing one down a lot.  On the other hand, the tourist zone is probably no more than a mile or two square, so everything is reasonably accessible.  Those who have land available for parking are doing a land-office business, with everything being run by text messaging or QR codes and visitors' cellphones, so the overhead is minimal.

I was very glad to be able to see the Civil War side of Savannah for myself.  It's all very well to read about what it was like, but to actually see the steps leading up from the river, and the buildings that housed ship chandleries and shops and warehouses dating back that far, and old Civil War forts and jetty pilings, and see old pictures of sailing ships lining the river bank to load and unload . . . it makes it much more real in my mind, and hence I can write about it much more realistically.  It was a very worthwhile visit from that perspective.

The Interstates and regional roads were in pretty decent condition, but traffic was very heavy at times east of the Mississippi River.  I didn't enjoy driving through it, particularly when traffic backed up near cities like Atlanta or Chattanooga.  It confirmed me in my belief that we needed to live west of the Mississippi, where there's room to breathe and space to maneuver.  We acted on that belief when we moved to Texas in 2016, and we were very happy to get back here when the journeying was done.  How all those people will cope - let alone move - if a really bad disaster hits, such as struck North Carolina last year, I hate to think.  (We wanted to visit North Carolina this trip, to see our friends at Killer Bees Honey, but so many of the roads, hotels, etc. in that area are still closed or heavily restricted due to hurricane damage that we gave up on that idea.)

Our cats, of course, were ecstatic to greet us . . . for about ten seconds.  Then the guilt trip started.  "You went away!  Without us!  Where were you?  Why did you abandon us?"  And so on, and so forth, ad nauseam - all while demanding, and getting, treats, petting and attention.  Cats are very good like that.  They forgave us in time to cuddle up with us that night, purring at us to reassure us that even though we didn't deserve it, they still love us.  Sound familiar?

Now we settle back into our normal routine.  I'll be preparing for surgery in a few weeks (of which more later), and must transcribe notes and observations from the trip into a usable format for writing.  My wife went back to work today, and found plenty waiting for her.  She has to get a root canal treatment do-over tomorrow, so she's not real happy about that - and who can blame her!  Me, I'll try to get some more blogging done after I take her in and bring her home.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for traveling safety for us.  Your prayers came in handy a couple of times, I can tell you - and they worked!

Peter

"The Ford moves in mysterious ways"

 

That was the observation of a commenter at Zero Hedge, playing on the Biblical phrase "The Lord moves in mysterious ways", following the news that a deacon had run over a wannabe church shooter with his Ford F-150 pickup.  A volunteer security guard then emptied his handgun into the shooter, killing him.  Station WXYZ Detroit reports:

Deacon Richard Pryor is the first one who came into contact with the shooter, hitting the shooter with his truck.

Pryor opened up for the first time about making the split-second decision to run over the gunman with his pickup truck.

“Soon as he got out, I saw the fatigues and gun on his hip. He pulled his weapon out of the vehicle," Pryor said.

But, he said his first memory of an attempted mass shooting on Sunday is of an eerie conversation he had with the shooter before the gunman started firing.

“I verbally pulled up and said, 'Are you OK?' He doesn’t respond. Just kind of looked at me," Pryor said.

Seconds later, with no prior police or military training, Pryor said he felt a calling to jump into action. He hit the gas and ran over the shooter, who would eventually fire numerous rounds on Sunday.

“Do you recall feeling, if you didn’t intervene, people would die?" I asked.

"I knew but I didn’t know," he said.

That action temporarily stopped the shooter, who responded by shooting into Pryor's truck. Moments later, the shooter was killed by a security guard.

“I’ve realized how much damage he came to do. Especially after the fact. Generations of families were in this church," Pryor said.

Although another guard was wounded, Pryor said he's thankful more people weren't hurt, or worse yet, killed.

“I’m not a hero. That’s the security staff, Jay, John and others that eliminated this man," Pryor said.

As a result of the violent scene, Pryor's truck was destroyed, a vehicle he used to deliver bread for a day job. Thankfully, a GoFundMe has surpassed $25,000 to help him get a replacement.

There's more at the link, including video interviews with Pryor and other security personnel and witnesses to the shooting.  They make interesting viewing.

One can only thank God that the church was alert to the possibility of trouble from whatever source, and had instituted an armed and trained security team to deal with such problems when they arose.  Many churches have still not done so, and remain at high risk.

I'm pleased to add that the fund-raiser has so far raised more than $47,000 to buy Mr. Pryor a new truck.  Heck, after valuable publicity like that - a Ford truck stopped a mass killing - I'm surprised Ford hasn't offered him a new truck free of charge!

Well done, that man.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 267

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past couple of weeks, as and when I could take time from book research.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

We're safely home again, and regular blogging will recommence from today.

While we were away, we learned the sad news that world-famous classical pianist Alfred Brendel had died at the age of 94.  He was particularly well-known for his interpretation of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, and made many recordings of their works, including some of my personal favorite renditions of several pieces.

One of them was this 1977 recording of Beethoven's Choral Fantasia, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.  I owned a copy on vinyl way back when, and upgraded to a CD edition later.  I was delighted to find it on YouTube as well, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I still do.

Mr. Brendel's genius will be missed.  Let this piece be his epitaph here.  I hope he and Beethoven are sharing a glass of the good stuff somewhere as they discuss it!

Peter

Progress report

 

Our time in Savannah, Georgia is drawing to a close.  We'll be heading out tomorrow on a winding path back to Texas, taking in a couple more writing research places on the way.

Savannah's a nice town:  very touristy, with prices to match, but a lot of genuine history buried among the neon signs and glitter.  Many old buildings (or their exteriors, at least) have been preserved, and are a reminder of not just the Civil War era but of the entire colonial period in North America.  There are some good restaurants, plenty of bars, and lots of art galleries and other "arty" things.  We've enjoyed ourselves, even though we weren't here primarily as tourists.

I found a lot of information and background for my Civil War trilogy.  This morning we took a boat tour of the harbor all the way down to Fort Jackson, and then up the river to the container area, which is apparently one of the busiest in the USA (our tour guide said it was, in fact, the biggest in terms of number of TEU's handled).  The old fort was a massive chunk of masonry erected on what was, at the time, swampy marshland - an amazing piece of engineering in those days.  Sherman's "March To The Sea" forces captured it in late 1864, using improvised boats and pontoon bridges to cross intervening rivers and swamps to reach it.  The other major fortification near the city is Fort Pulaski:  I've set one of the incidents in my trilogy in close proximity to it.

I thought we'd find it difficult to cope with the humidity in this area, but near the sea it's been far less humid than I feared - certainly a lot better than inland Georgia on the way down.  The heat's been pretty bad, but that's the case almost everywhere on the east coast and in the Gulf at this time of year.  We've taken care to drink plenty of water and keep our electrolytes up, so we've been OK.

We're not sure precisely which route we'll follow back to Texas, because much will depend on places we'd like to visit for research purposes on the way.  Traffic will be a big factor.  I'd love to visit several places in Atlanta, but the roads getting there are usually jammed, and riding around the city's not much fun either.  We'll probably take a more southerly route through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana before reaching Texas.  We'll take at least two days over it, and more likely three, because neither my wife nor myself can handle ten- or twelve-hour days on the road as well as we used to.  Age takes its toll.

Once again, prayers for traveling safety will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

Peter

We picked a bad week for travel...

 

... as CNN warns:

A potent heat dome is building over the US, sending temperatures into the triple digits

Looks like our perambulations this week are going to be right under the dome.  Air-conditioning, don't fail us now!

Peter

So far, so good

 

We left home at about 8.30am last Wednesday, and picked up a friend in Wichita Falls, then hit the road.  The first day's travel was relatively peaceful, and the traffic wasn't too bad.  We reached Forrest City in Arkansas by 6 pm, and overnighted there.  We were fortunate to discover Iguanas Mexican Restaurant, where we decided to have supper.  The food had interesting twists on the standard Tex-Mex themes, and was also surprisingly affordable.  We enjoyed it.  If you're passing by, it's worth a visit;  we'll probably eat there again on the way back.

On Thursday we headed out at about the same time, making for Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Libertycon convention.  Traffic was heavier than the previous day, but by taking the 840 loop around Nashville we avoided the worst of it.  The final hour or so was, as always, a trial:  the traffic heading to Chattanooga from both Nashville and Atlanta, GA is pretty heavy, but the Interstates are only two-lane (probably thanks to the very steep hills and mountains of the region, which don't lend themselves to wider roads without a lot of very expensive excavation and blasting).  It's one of my least favorite stretches of Interstate.  Nevertheless, we made it through the morass of semi-trucks and impatient cars without suffering any fender-benders, and arrived shortly after 3pm.  Another wait among throngs of Libertycon attendees, all trying to check in at once, and we were able to flop down on the beds in our room and catch our breath once more.

The convention kicked off yesterday, and has gone pretty well.  My wife and I led a discussion panel on the state of self-publishing within the wider publishing industry, as we have almost every year since 2013.  There was lots to share this year, including the glut of self-published books of low quality flooding the market, the impact of AI-generated scripts and -research (most not very well done at all) that's bedeviling conventional publishers as well as self-published authors, and a number of other issues.  We had an interesting and lively discussion.

We'll be leaving for Savannah in Georgia tomorrow.  It, and the coastline to north and south of it, are heavily featured in the Union Navy trilogy I'm writing about the American Civil War, so I'm going to be doing a lot of research.  We'll also take some time to explore one of the more historic cities in America;  there's a lot to see.

As presently planned (but subject to change), we'll be headed back to Nashville later next week to visit with friends, and then head for home again (via Beachaven Winery in Clarksville, TN, which makes some very tasty and affordable wines;  we plan to stock up for the next year or so).  We should get home by or on Sunday, June 29th.

Thanks to everyone who's been praying for traveling safety for us.  As always, your prayers are much appreciated.

Peter