A Far Eastern not-so-"Freedom Fighter"

At this year's Paris Air show, currently in progress, Pakistan demonstrated the JF-17 Thunder light fighter aircraft.

The background to this aircraft is interesting from many perspectives.

Back in the 1980's, during the period of rapprochement with China that preceded the Tiananmen Square massacre, US firm Grumman became involved with Pakistan and China to design an upgraded version of the latter country's Chengdu J-7, itself a licensed variant of the late-1950's-vintage Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.  They came up with a concept they called the Grumman/Xian Super-7, shown in the outline drawing below.

Due to various factors, particularly the disastrous effect of the Tiananmen Square massacres on Sino-US relations, the project never went beyond the design study stage.

Pakistan was in urgent need of modern fighter aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Shenyang J-6 fighters (a Chinese version of the Soviet MiG-19).  It would also have to replace its Dassault Mirage III and Mirage V, Nanchang A-5 and Chengdu J-7 aircraft in due course.  In total, it would have to replace several hundred airframes, but could not afford to do so with the (very expensive) designs available from Western exporters.  It needed a simpler, cheaper, more affordable approach.  It turned to China to co-design and co-develop such an aircraft.  The Grumman Super-7 design reportedly served as the basis for the project.  The result was the JF-17 Thunder, which first flew in 2003 and entered service several years later.  Until recently, Pakistan was the only operator, but JF-17's have been observed in Myanmar and are being offered to other nations.  The latest, upgraded Block 3 version is claimed to be comparable or superior in capability to the US F-16C.

In many ways, the JF-17 is a modern incarnation of the 1960's Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter and its successor, the F-5E Tiger II.  It's not dissimilar in concept to the Northrop F-20 Tigershark, which was proposed as the ultimate successor to the F-5 program, but never put into production (note - see the last paragraph of this article for what might have been!).  The JF-17's relatively low cost, about half the price of modern Western equivalents, makes it much more affordable to Third World nations, and affordable for Pakistan to buy hundreds of the plane to replace its earlier, outdated aircraft.

The USA no longer has an equivalent to the F-5 program, but one may be on the horizon.  Boeing and Saab collaborated to win the US Air Force's T-X program for a new supersonic jet trainer.

Back in the 1950's, Northrop supplied the T-38 Talon to the USAF, and it's still in service.  It was also the root of the F-5 program;  the two aircraft looked visually very similar.  I think there's no reason why the Boeing/Saab T-X might not be developed into a useful lightweight fighter, just as its predecessor was.  If so, it'll be a natural competitor for the JF-17, in price, in sales, and conceivably in combat.  Boeing predicts thousands of potential sales for the T-X design, and I'm sure not all of them will be as trainers only.

(There's an interesting historical footnote to the Northrop F-20 Tigershark program.  During the 1980's, South Africa was trying to develop its own fighter aircraft, since international sanctions prevented it from buying what it needed on the open market.  I've written about the process at some length.  There were persistent rumors, among those in a position to know, that South Africa had obtained a set of plans for the F-20.  They were allegedly studied, and considered for adaptation to use the French Atar 09K50 turbojet engine (which South Africa had a license to produce).  However, this would have been structurally difficult, and the less powerful French engine would apparently have imposed limitations on performance, particularly combat radius and weapons carrying capacity.  In the end, it was reportedly decided that those factors made the re-engined F-20 unsuitable for the country's requirements.  I don't know for a fact whether the rumors were true or not, but a couple of people with whom I had contact at the time were adamant that they'd actually seen the F-20 plans.)

Peter

A snippet for my Western fans

The third Western novel in my Ames Archives series, to be titled "Gold on the Hoof", is complete, and currently going through the alpha/beta reader process.  Look for it next month, God willing.  (I'll also be republishing new e-book editions of the first two books in the series.  They're currently available in paper editions.)

As a teaser for readers who like my Western series, here's a brief snippet from the book.

The feed barn was a different matter. The proprietor smiled unpleasantly as he said, “Prices have gone up. You owe me a lot more than that now.”

Walt stiffened. “A deal is a deal, Mr. Eslin. You entered into a contract, and took money for it. I’m holdin’ you to it.”

“Too bad! Iffen you want your oats an’ grain, you’ll pay double what’s outstandin’ on that invoice, or I’m keepin’ it all.”

Walt shot out his hand, grabbed the front of Eslin’s shirt and hauled him bodily over his own shop counter. Yelling in protest, the feed barn owner swung a wild haymaker. Walt avoided it, then landed a hard kick in the man’s groin, doubling him over and sending him gasping and wheezing to the floor. He laid hold of his collar with the hook on his left wrist and dragged him out of the feed barn, then kicked him stumbling towards where he’d seen the mayor’s office.

As they made their way down the street, people burst out of their shops and houses to goggle at what was going on. The town marshal yelled, “Hey! You! What the hell are you doin’?”

“I’m taking Mr. Eslin here to talk to the mayor.”

“But you can’t treat him like that!” The marshal’s hand sank towards his holster.

Walt stopped dead in his tracks, turning to face the lawman, his own hand ready over his gun. “If you pull that, marshal, it’ll be the last thing you ever do. Instead o’ fussin’, why not come down to the mayor’s office with me, an’ find out what’s goin’ on?”

“I… ah… Hey! Wait for me!”

Waving his hands helplessly in the air, the marshal followed as Walt kicked and shoved Eslin onto the porch of the mayor’s office and through the front door. A big, burly man sprang to his feet behind a desk.

“What the hell is this?”

Walt waited for the marshal to enter, then closed the door as Eslin collapsed into a chair, half-sobbing, panting for breath. He glanced at the nameplate on the desk. “Mayor Dowell, I’m Walt Ames. Happen you’ve heard of me.”

“Ah… yes, Mr. Ames. We heard you were coming to El Paso to buy horses.” The mayor was staring in undisguised fascination at the steel hook on Walt’s left wrist.

“Lots o’ horses.” Walt gestured towards the street outside through the office windows, the view now almost blocked by pointing, staring spectators. “Small town, this, Mr. Mayor. I’d guess you’ve got less than a hundred fifty people, right? Maybe as many again, or a few more, in the Mexican town across the Rio Grande?”

“That’s Paso del Norte. It used to be one town with this, until we beat Mexico in the 1846 War an’ the river became the boundary ’tween it an’ Texas. El Paso became a city just this year. I’m its first city mayor.”

“Uh-huh. A place this small needs business to grow. I’ve brought twenty-five men with me, and there’s a lot more comin’. I was plannin’ to spend thousands of dollars on Mexican hosses over the next three, four months, based outta the old Baker place, plus a lot more on supplies – but now this sonofabitch is trying to cheat me.” He tossed the invoice and receipt onto the desk. “My advance party paid half up front. Now Eslin’s tellin’ me I have to pay double the balance to get my goods. If that’s the way your shopkeepers are gonna treat us, I’ll take all my money, an’ all my men an’ their wages, an’ all my business, and head for Las Cruces in New Mexico. It’s a much bigger town, an’ it’s only two day’s ride from here. I reckon they’ll appreciate havin’ a few thousand dollars in their pockets, rather than yours; an’ I can arrange with the Army to do business through Fort Selden there, ’stead o’ Fort Bliss here. What d’you say, Mr. Mayor?”

“Er… ah… I’m sure this is all a simple misunderstanding, Mr. Ames.”

“Uh-huh. Suuuure it is. Tell you what. Explain to Mr. Eslin, and every other business in town, that happen there’s another ‘misunderstanding’ like this, we’ll be gone. Eslin, get my order out to the Baker place before sunset, at the original price, as agreed. Two wagonloads of oats an’ grain, best quality, in sacks – and you make damned sure there’s nothin’ been taken out o’ those sacks, an’ dirt or gravel put in its place, you hear me? If I find anything like that, I’ve got a dozen Navajo scouts. I’ll tell them you’re the reason their hosses are gonna be short of grain, then I’ll let ’em come lookin’ for you. Believe me, you won’t enjoy it when they find you.”

The town marshal stiffened, clearly alarmed. “Injuns? You’d better keep them out o’ town, mister. Folks round here had too much trouble with Comanches and Apaches, an’ they won’t stop to ask what tribe your scouts are.”

“Sorry, marshal. They’re here legally, with permission from the U.S. Government. That being the case, they’ll come into town in small groups to shop. I’ll send a couple o’ my other men with them when they do, to sort out any problems. My scouts know it’s illegal to sell whiskey to Injuns, so they won’t try to go into the saloons. You just make sure they’re treated fair, you hear me? I don’t want to hear of anyone tryin’ to make trouble for them, or my other men. You treat us right, and I’ll do the same for you, and pay the fines for any of my men who get into trouble. On t’other hand, if you give them trouble for no good reason, I’ll hear about it sooner or later, even if I’m outta town at the time. When I get back, I’ll be along to talk to you about it. You don’t want to make me do that.”

“You can’t threaten me!”

“Ain’t threatening you, marshal. I never threaten. I make promises – and I keep ’em.” Walt’s voice was cold, flat and hard.

“I’ll pass the word to everyone, Mr. Ames,” Mayor Dowell promised. “With all the business you’re bringing to town, they’ll understand.”

Walt took his wallet from his pocket, extracted a dollar bill, and tossed it on the mayor’s desk. “While you’re at it, buy a drink for the marshal and yourself, and one for Mr. Eslin too. He looks like he needs a pick-me-up. It’ll help him remember not to try to cheat me next time.”

He turned on his heel and walked out. The three men stared after him in stunned silence.

This book has been a lot of fun to research and write.  (As an example, the first mayor of El Paso after it became a city in 1873 was, indeed, named Dowell, although I've no idea whether he was anything like the fictional character I've chosen to portray in the novel.)  I hope you'll enjoy it.

I've also almost completed a fantasy novel, from which I posted an excerpt late last year;  and the sixth novel in the Maxwell Saga is running along nicely.  I expect to publish three books over the next four to five months, God willing.  Two more are simmering on the back burner.

Peter

Homelessness: the bureaucrats just don't get it

There have been many articles bewailing the increase in homelessness in West Coast cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.  Here's one recent report about Los Angeles.  Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.

The number of homeless people in Los Angeles County jumped 12 percent over the past year, officials announced Tuesday, despite $619 million in government spending to help alleviate the problem.

The annual point-in-time count recorded nearly 59,000 homeless people countywide, with the largest number -- 36,000 -- coming from the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a county agency which conducted the count, delivered its report to the Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday meeting.

The 2018 tally found a slight decrease in the homeless population at just over 53,000 people. Supervisor Janice Hahn called the new numbers "disheartening."

"Even though our data shows we are housing more people than ever, it is hard to be optimistic when that progress is overwhelmed by the number of people falling into homelessness," Hahn said.

Homeless advocates put the blame on elected officials for not doing enough to get people off the street.

There's more at the link.

The two highlighted sentences put the problem in a nutshell.

• "$619 million in government spending to help alleviate the problem"?  Have these people never heard the late President Ronald Reagan's truism, "If you want more of something, subsidize it; if you want less of something, tax it"?  That $619 million isn't "spending to alleviate the problem" - it's a subsidy.  It's paying for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jobs where people's livelihoods depend on the homelessness problem not going away.  They have no incentive to "fix" the problem, because that will also do away with their jobs.  What's more, it's paying the homeless to be homeless.
• "Homeless advocates put the blame on elected officials for not doing enough to get people off the street."  Elected officials didn't cause the problem - so why rely on them to solve it?  This is just another example of the "big government" mindset.  Let government do it all!  Make government responsible for solving all our problems!  Those who think that way forget that another US President, the late Gerald Ford, famously said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

Do the math for yourself.  There were "nearly 59,000" homeless people in Los Angeles County at last count, and the county (i.e. the city - the former is subsumed in the latter) spent $619 million on them.  That's almost $10,500 per homeless person per year - in just one city, in just one state, at taxpayer expense.  What have they got to show for it?  Almost nothing.  The city is going to spend the same, or more, over the next year, with no better result.  They're pouring good money after bad, as the Los Angeles Times inadvertently confirms.

The meager bit of good news is that many homeless people are indeed being helped. Last year, the county says it housed 21,631 people — more than in any previous year. It also prevented an estimated 5,600 people from falling into homelessness.

But the frightening news is that as fast as the county bailed people out of homelessness, more fell in ... There are more people living in cars, vans and RVs, and there are 17% more people in tents and makeshift shelters on the streets than were counted in 2018. Of the 14,075 “chronically homeless” people on the street last year, 4,902 got housed. Yet those who remained were joined by so many more people who graduated into chronic homelessness — defined as having a disability and living on the streets for at least a year — that the overall number went up 17%.

Again, more at the link.

Sadly, like so many others, the newspaper falls into the trap of expecting government to do everything.  Read the full editorial for yourself.  It's "Big Brother" writ large - and I find that scary in the extreme.  If you delegate that much responsibility to bureaucrats, they're going to demand the authority to go with it - and once they get that authority, they'll do things their way, perpetuating their bureaucracy, entrenching their control, and denying ordinary citizens any recourse against their overreach.  We've seen that time and time again in other government bureaucracies.  Why would it be any different when it comes to homelessness?

The city would be far better off, financially speaking, if it killed that entire budget category, and spent the money on something more productive.  For that matter, it's doubtful that the homeless would be any worse off without it, given the ongoing scale of the problem - at least, there's no evidence to suggest that.  After all, many of those who were "helped" end up back on the streets again!  (Based on my own experience of working with the homeless, through church institutions, I'd say that the linked article is hopelessly optimistic in its numbers;  I'll be very surprised if they aren't really twice as bad, and possibly even worse.)  Instead, Los Angeles and other cities are going to do what Albert Einstein allegedly defined as insanity:  "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".  The results won't be different, of course.  They'll be the same old, same old.

If you talk to any experienced professional in the field, two problems are identified time and time again as the root cause of most homelessness.  They are drug addiction and mental health issues.  (Of course, they're often two sides of the same coin, because drug addiction frequently produces mental health issues over time;  and mental health issues are often self-medicated, by those who can't access professional services for whatever reason, by turning to illicit narcotics.)  Little, if any, of the amount spent on "homelessness" addresses either issue.  The money is therefore treating a symptom rather than the cause of the problem.

I don't know what the solution to homelessness might be, from a government perspective.  However, I have a pretty good idea what it is from a private individual's perspective.  It involves accepting individual responsibility for my life, and helping others to do the same.  My life is in my hands.  There's no point in expecting others to "do it for me";  I've got to do it myself, or do without.  I may need a helping hand now and again (see the next paragraph), but that help should be oriented towards helping me get out of the mess I'm in, and not fall back into it.  Any help that makes me perpetually dependent on others makes me a leech on society.  I accept some people can't avoid that, for reasons beyond their control - but there aren't that many of them.

That ethic also involves using my time and talents to effectively help others (something we should all consider, IMHO, on the grounds of basic humanity if not any "higher calling" such as religious belief).  Note the word "effectively".  Any help that does not actually succeed in effecting a permanent change for the better, isn't truly effective.  I've found, in my experience, that assistance from faith groups and community organizations that are rooted in and grounded on reality, and work to improve their communities rather than merely feather the nests of their organizers, tends to be far more effective than intervention by officious bureaucrats.

Finally, for those who argue that I "lack compassion", or I'm "heartless", for decrying wasteful, ineffective government spending on the homeless . . . kindly show me where that approach has succeeded in resolving the problem.  It hasn't?  Then why continue it?  Aren't we throwing good money after bad?  Aren't we doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results?  Is there any likelihood whatsoever that continuing with an approach that has consistently, demonstrably FAILED, every time, will eventually produce success?  Riddle me that!

No.  Spending such inordinate amounts on homelessness is, in the end, only pandering to those who proclaim desperately, "But we can't just stand there!  We have to do something!"  My answer is, simply, "Why?" and "What?"  Why can't local governments just "stand there" when they demonstrably can't solve the problem in any meaningful way?  And what do we "have" to do?  If you can't suggest something practical, demonstrably effective, and affordable, then stop throwing good taxpayer money after bad - and stop subsidizing homelessness!

Peter

The world is much more understandable . . .

. . . if we reduce population statistics to a more manageable level.  This video adopts that approach, and does a good job of explaining how the world works.

And what if we want to look at the USA alone, rather than the entire world? This video adopts the same approach.

Helpful, no?  YouTube has a number of other video clips on the same subject.  I haven't bothered to look at them all, but I'm sure they don't agree on all the numbers.  Nevertheless, it's an interesting perspective on our world.

Peter

That must have been interesting!

Courtesy of Phil at Bustedknuckles, we find this photograph.  (Clickit to biggit.)

Getting that fire hydrant stuck in there must have been . . . adventurous!  Also, note how it's chewing up the tread on both tires.  Both - perhaps all four, both inner and both outer tires - are going to have to be replaced.

I hate to think what might happen if the driver didn't notice that, and tried to drive on.  The explosion of all four tires, which would be almost inevitable within yards, could cause very serious damage to vehicles - not to mention injury to their occupants - as chunks of rubber and metal-reinforced tread flew outward.  I've been far too close to an exploding truck tire for comfort, on more than one occasion . . .




Peter

Failed states, and how they got that way

About ten days ago, I wrote about the "failed states" of central America, and why they can't rein in illegal immigration from their people - because they're not capable of governing themselves effectively.  Now Strategy Page writes about failed states around the world, and how they got that way.

Why do some parts of the world seem to defy efforts to achieve any degree of unity and peace? Not just for years or decades but for generations and as long as anyone can remember. The worst of these nations (like Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia) seem to actively avoid peace, prosperity and unity and finding solutions for their problems seems futile. But when you step back and take a closer look you find that all these countries have lots in common, aside from being “failed states.” All are largely Moslem and all have serious problems with governing themselves. This spotlights the fact that Moslems in general and Arabs in particular have developed a peculiar relationship with democracy in an attempt to cure these longstanding problems. The list of failed states grows longer if you include those who, on paper, maintain their unity but are chronically chaotic and unpleasant (0r worse) to live in. These include Sudan (and the recently created South Sudan), Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, most African nations and, in the Americas, perpetually chaotic Haiti.

Many of the failed states were never unified nations with effective governments. Most African nations never existed as such in the past but were created after a century of so of European colonial efforts that ended in the 1960s and 70s. The colonial powers leaving, usually willingly as they came to realize that these colonies were expensive to administer and would take a long time to develop prosperous enough economies to be self-sustaining. Unity was an even more difficult problem. When the Europeans left there were nearly a thousand different tribal/linguistic/cultural groups in sub-Saharan Africa. This plethora of cultural identities were the main reason there were few unified states, like ancient Ethiopia, in the region. There had been local kingdoms but they rarely lasted long because of the preference for kin based government based on clans or tribes. Nations with borders was considered a novel, and alien, idea. But the colonial period showed it could work and since the 1960s several African states, like Botswana and the island state of Seychelles and Cape Verde have remained unified, peaceful and prospering.

. . .

The failed Moslem states were another matter because they had a lot of cultural unity but forming effective (prosperous, stable) governments was another matter ... A majority of Moslems still think democracy is the best form of government, but a quarter of Moslems also believe that democracy may be unsuitable for Moslem countries at this time. This disappoints and confuses many Moslems. They can see that democracy creates superior results where it has been established, but the process of getting democracy to work reliably is a lot harder and more difficult than many Moslems originally believed. This is largely because of some unique problems in Moslem states.

One of these intractable problems is opposition from some Islamic conservatives. This is made worse because many Arabs believe what Islamic terror groups preaches, that the world should be ruled by an Islamic religious dictatorship, and that this must be achieved by any means necessary. That includes using lethal force against non-Moslems and Moslems who don’t agree.

. . .

That’s not the only problem. Arabs, in particular, [have a] fondness for paranoid fantasies and an exaggerated sense of persecution and entitlement. For example, most Arabs believe that the September 11, 2001 attacks were not carried out by Arabs, but were a CIA scam, to provide an excuse for the West to make war on Islam. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. U.S. troops in Iraq were amazed at the number of fantastical beliefs that were accepted as reality there. Currently it is popular to believe that ISIL was created by Israel and the United States and ISIL continues to survive because of continued supported by Americans and Israelis.

Then there is the corruption and intense hatreds. It’s a very volatile and unpredictable part of the world, and always has been.

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

It's interesting - and scary - to see how many of the factors identified in the article are at work in Central and South America.  We're not just dealing with illegal immigration from that continent, but the consequences of the failure of so many of its nation states for so long.

Strategy Page frequently has interesting articles like this one, analyzing a background issue that underlies many modern problems and making the latter more understandable.  If you're interested in geopolitical and military matters, and you haven't already bookmarked it for regular reading, you should.

Peter

Sunday morning music

Given the interest aroused by the medieval and Renaissance music in a recent Sunday Morning Music article, I thought I'd continue the theme by paying attention to the hurdy-gurdy.  This is often regarded as a cheesy sort of street and fairground musical instrument, with no real merit;  but it's actually a very historic instrument indeed.  It was widely popular in medieval music.

To begin, here are two dances for hurdy-gurdy, cittern (nowadays frequently substituted with an Irish bouzouki) and darbuka.  The first is "Nonsuch", composer unknown, dating from about the mid-1600's, and the second is "Schiarazula Marazula", composed by Giorgio Mainerio of Italy.  This arrangement is by Short Tailed Snails.  (You'll find more of their music on their YouTube channel.  They're very interesting, and a lot of fun.)

In a slower tempo, here's Duo Piccolo e Grande with a baroque piece for hurdy-gurdy that's been attributed to various composers, in a number of variations.  It's titled "La Furstemberg", and first appeared around 1690.

The hurdy-gurdy is still popular among folk musicians in England.  Here's "Le petit chien" ("The small dog"), a modern composition for hurdy-gurdy and accordion by Andy Cutting.

Here's The III Project with "Kopanitsa", another modern composition with a distinctly Middle Eastern flavor.

Finally, to show you how versatile the hurdy-gurdy can be, here's an electric hurdy-gurdy in the hands of Guilhelm Desq.  He plays "Break Your Crank".

It's an old and much-mocked instrument, but the hurdy-gurdy is still going strong.

Peter

"People are getting dumber. That's not a judgment; it's a global fact."

Evan Horowitz examines the global phenomenon of declining IQ scores.

For a while, rising IQ scores seemed like clear evidence of social progress, palpable proof that humanity was getting steadily smarter — and might even be able to boost brainpower indefinitely. Scholars called it the "Flynn effect," in homage to J.R. Flynn, the researcher who recognized its full sweep and import.

These days, however, Flynn himself concedes that "the IQ gains of the 20th century have faltered." A range of studies using a variety of well-established IQ tests and metrics have found declining scores across Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, France and Australia.

Details vary from study to study and from place to place given the available data. IQ shortfalls in Norway and Denmark appear in longstanding tests of military conscripts, whereas information about France is based on a smaller sample and a different test. But the broad pattern has become clearer: Beginning around the turn of the 21st century, many of the most economically advanced nations began experiencing some kind of decline in IQ.

One potential explanation was quasi-eugenic. As in the movie “Idiocracy,” it was suggested that average intelligence is being pulled down because lower-IQ families are having more children ("dysgenic fertility" is the technical term). Alternatively, widening immigration might be bringing less-intelligent newcomers to societies with otherwise higher IQs.

However, a 2018 study of Norway has punctured these theories by showing that IQs are dropping not just across societies but within families. In other words, the issue is not that educated Norwegians are increasingly outnumbered by lower-IQ immigrants or the children of less-educated citizens. Even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.

Some environmental factor — or collection of factors — is causing a drop in the IQ scores of parents and their own children, and older kids and their younger siblings ... Ultimately, it’d be nice to pin down the precise reason IQ scores are dropping before we’re too stupid to figure it out, especially as these scores really do seem connected to long-term productivity and economic success.

There's more at the link.

I'd like to suggest three factors:

1. The decline in standards of education.  In too many First World nations, education now consists of focusing on feelings and groupthink, rather than facts and individual effort.  "Tall poppy syndrome" appears to be in effect, where outstanding scholars are actively discouraged from proceeding as fast as they're able;  and shamed into hiding their talent so as to be more socially acceptable to their less bright peers.  There's also too much emphasis on politically correct shibboleths du jour, rather than the three R's and other fundamental areas.  (I can still remember being forced to learn my multiplication tables in primary school, and getting my knuckles rapped - literally, with a heavy ruler - whenever I got them wrong.  It's basic mathematical knowledge that has stood me in good stead every day of my life.  I'm baffled by today's kids, who have to reach for a calculator - or the calculator app on their smartphones - when faced with basic arithmetical problems like that.)
2. The over-reliance on technology.  Smartphones, tablets, personal computers and the like have made it trivially easy to look up almost anything, anywhere, at any time.  There's no sense of the need to internalize knowledge, to make it part of oneself.  Even worse, kids aren't taught how libraries and reference indices work.  I can remember hours spent going through card index drawers, researching projects and looking for sources.  (Heck, I was chief librarian at my high school - keeping the index properly organized was part of my job!)  Kids today wouldn't even know where to start looking for that stuff, if their electronic aids were suddenly shut down or taken away.  I think that's a serious drawback.
3. The lack of education in how to think logically and rationally.  I think a basic foundation in philosophy, logic, reasoning and applying one's mind to problems is a fundamental need that underlies and empowers almost every other aspect of education.  (For example, I was pretty hopeless at mathematics until I was introduced to a short book called "First Steps in Logic".  It analyzed arguments by reducing them to symbolic logic form, and applying strict rules of reasoning.  Suddenly, math [which is nothing more than a series of logical operations on numbers and formulae] made a whole lot more sense.  I went on to apply the same basic rules to designing computer programs in my early 20's.  Philosophy and logic weren't outdated at all, but fundamental to my early success.)

Those are my primary guesstimates, anyway.  I'm sure readers can contribute their own insights.

I don't think IQ is so much declining as being "dumbed down" by an education system that discourages intellectual curiosity and personal growth in favor of communal touchy-feely mind-gropery and political correctness.  Get rid of the latter, and you'll solve the former.  Leave the latter in place, and the former will only get worse.

Peter

Of apples, cider, and high spirits

When I first came to the United States in the mid-1990's, I was puzzled to find that what Americans called "apple cider" had nothing to do with what I knew by that name.  It was non-alcoholic apple juice, nothing more.  The mismatch between product and name continued to puzzle me, until I read this article.

Today, the United Kingdom and United States are the biggest producers of cider in the world. Yet, at some point in the last few hundred years, the words “apple cider” have evolved to mean different things in these two nations.

In the American state of New Hampshire, the state beverage of apple cider is like unfiltered apple juice. Usually, mulled spices are added, turning it into a spiced, piping hot drink. But in the famed cider-growing region of Britain’s West Country, cider is a fermented, alcoholic beverage. Look further across Europe and you’ll find that America’s version of apple cider is the outlier—cidre in France and sidra in Spain are both akin to British hard cider, rather than the American mulled beverage. So, how did Americans end up with such a unique form of apple cider?

In the American colonial era, there was only one form of apple cider: cyder. This type of beverage, a fermented product usually between 4-6% ABV, was brought onto the continent by colonists in the 17th century. Unlike barley and grapes, apples grew in New England with ease. New England residents in the 18th century consumed cider generously: an estimated 15 to 54 gallons per year.

Cyder was the most commonly produced drink in colonial America—the beverage of choice for most Americans at a time when imbibing water was questionable.

. . .

Then, on January 17, 1920, Prohibition came into effect, halting the production, importation, and sale of alcohol ... Overzealous temperance supporters and FBI agents razed many apple orchards to the ground, destroying heirloom apple varieties that had grown since colonial times. The orchards that survived could only produce so many of the high-tannin, bitter apples usually grown for cider. Farmers began primarily cultivating sweeter apples for cooking and eating to ensure the survival of their farms.

Post-Prohibition, the cider industry never recovered, but it did evolve. Although Prohibitionists deemed fermented cider “the devil’s brew,” writes cider chronicler Ben Watson, “fresh apple juice was being recognized and marketed as a healthful drink.” This led to the development of “sweet cider”—a non-alcoholic beverage with connotations of a simple life on the farm.

Even as American apple cider was developed, much of the machinery and processes to create it remained the same. Both sweet and hard cider-makers mill and press apples to extract juice. The key difference between sweet American apple cider and hard cider comes down to fermentation and type of apples. Hard cider is fermented and often includes astringent, tannin-rich apples to create interesting, full-bodied, dry ciders. The hot, mulled beverage Americans know and love is made from culinary apples, such as Jonagold, Honeycrisp, and Gala. The final product for both sweet and hard ciders is usually pasteurized or UV-sterilized.

. . .

Back in Britain, there was no Prohibition. Cider production waxed and waned, but never ceased. Cider’s popularity has increased there as well, moving from the West Country all throughout the United Kingdom. These days, there are countless ciders in production across the country. Specialty bars, such as The Stable, specialize in cider—stocking over 100 varieties, including their own blend of mulled cider. But as of yet, they don’t have sweet, booze-free American apple cider.

There's more at the link.

Those of you who've visited England, and had the opportunity to sample some real Devonshire scrumpy (not the wimpy brewery-produced legal stuff, but the real thing, usually made by farmers' wives in their kitchens) will know just how potent "proper" cider can get.  As one recipe puts it, "One glass and the world seems a better place, two glasses and you probably do not remember."  That's a pretty fair summary, IMHO!

I grew up on "real" cider, alcohol and all.  I still enjoy it, and I'm very pleased to see that it's becoming more widely available in the USA.  However, it's still all legal and regulated over here.  I wonder if I could interest people in my part of the world in producing a North Texas version of scrumpy?  Hmmm . . .  Oh, yes - one important reminder.  This is Texas, I know, but even so, hold the chilis!




Peter

A marketing stroke of genius

I wasn't in the USA at the time that Softsoap was developed, so I didn't know its commercial and industrial background.  A recent article was very informative.

SoftSoap ... was essentially the first mass-produced liquid hand soap ever sold to the public, all packaged in a convenient bottle featuring a pump.

Of course, a key problem with this idea is that, while it was revolutionary in some ways, no part of it was original enough to patent.

From his previous experience having bigger companies copy his ideas not long after he made them successful and then taking over the market, Taylor knew that if this one worked out, they’d once again swoop in and use their economic clout to bully his product off store shelves.

. . .

Before launching SoftSoap, Taylor had made a crucial observation - there were only few companies in the United States at the time that actually made the kind of pumps needed. Of these companies, only one produced enough pumps suitable for mass-production on the scale envisioned here. And since there also wasn’t much in the way of a suitable international company that would be able to provide what was needed here quickly and at a competitive price, in effect, this left only a single choice for anyone wanting to sell liquid soap en masse using such a pump system. Thus, Taylor’s idea was quite simple – buy literally every pump the company had available for the foreseeable future. How many would he need to buy? It turns out about 100 million to keep the company (Calmar) busy at full capacity for about a year.

The problem was he didn’t have the required $12 million (about $37 million today) to place such an order. So he had to wait until after the product was launched and hope that it was a massive hit to give him the money he needed before his competitors decided to make their own copy-cat product.

. . .

... just as Taylor had planned, when the larger companies tried to release their own take on SoftSoap, they quickly realised that they couldn’t at first because some mysterious, freshly smelling, large ***** owning individual had called dibs on almost every suitable pump in the United States set to be produced for the next year.

With literally no competition to speak of during that period, SoftSoap quickly cornered the market seeing Minnetonka bringing in excess of $25 million (about $77 million today) within six months of the product launch, about double their former total sales across all their product lines during the previous six months. Within two years of the launch, sales for the company had risen to over $100 million (about $270 million today) and saw the stock price of the company multiple an incredible 15 fold.

There's more at the link.

That's ingenious!  If you can't stop competitors copying your product, stop them from packaging it for sale!  And they never saw it coming until it was too late.

Peter

The Great Knaresborough Bed Race of 2019

The annual Great Knaresborough Bed Race was held a few weeks ago in England.  As usual, a lot of fun was had by all.

The event was born out of the enthusiasm of the newly-formed Knaresborough Round Table in 1966, an organisation looking for a major charity fund-raising push. They came up with the idea of a time-trial in which teams would follow a pre-determined course pushing beds around the town.

It could have been a chariot race, a tug-o-war, a raft race on the river, a soap box derby or any of a hundred other ideas. But they plumped for a bed race, and somehow that unique combination with Knaresborough's almost perpendicular climbs and cobbled streets, the swim across the Nidd and the fancy dress pageant have worked together to make this such a huge and successful community event.

. . .

The teams gather at Knaresborough Castle on the morning of bed race day to be judged for the 'Best Dressed Team' accolade. So good have the designs become that in addition to first, second and third positions, others win special commendations for their endeavours.

From 1 pm, led by the winning decorated team, the teams parade in all their finery through the medieval streets of Knaresborough to Conyngham Hall. Each team is allowed up to 20 supporters to parade with them also wearing in fancy dress, and this is often the first Bed Race experience for many youngsters. Making up the parade are marching bands, troubadours, dance groups and others. Awards are made for the Most Entertaining Teams.

At Conyngham Hall Field the decorations are stripped and the teams prepare for the race itself. The Knaresborough Lions make an estimation of who is fittest, based on past year results, and the teams go off in race order with the fastest first in gaps of about 10 seconds.

The course is wonderful and, apart from one stretch down an almost vertical drop now deemed too dangerous, follows exactly the same course as that in 1966. The course is challenging and hard.

It takes the teams up a steep grassy bank and through parkland, along the scenic Waterside. Then they pass through the dramatic Nidd Gorge, up the steep Castle Ings, around the cobbled stones of the Marketplace, down the High Street and Bond End, and across High Bridge. The last stretch is on the rough ground of McIntosh Park before the notorious 20-yard swim across the fast-flowing Nidd.

There is no doubt that the real hero of Bed Race is the dramatic topography of Knaresborough itself.

The fastest teams do the course in around 14-minutes, sometimes quicker, and the slowest come in well under 30 minutes. Runners have to fit, fanatical and frankly a bit mad, while the passengers have to be light, be good swimmers and be able to shout loudly!

There's more at the link.  Here's the official video from race day.

Of course, Knaresborough isn't only known for the Bed Race.  Like Scarborough, it's been immortalized in song.

Now, if the song had been written about a woman in the Bed Race, floating past underneath the bridge . . .




Peter

Destroying an Iraqi nuclear reactor, 38 years ago

On June 7, 1981, Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad.  It was known as Operation Opera (also called Operation Babylon in some circles).  It put an end to Saddam Hussein's hopes of developing his own nuclear weapons.

38 years later, the pilots who undertook that mission have been reminiscing about it.

Thirty-eight years after Operation Opera — the Israeli air attack that destroyed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor at Osirak — surviving pilots gathered to mark the event, noting “one of the greatest ironies in history”: that the attack was enabled by the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

When Israel discovered in 1977 that Iraq was building a plutonium reactor that could be used to make nuclear weapons, the fighter jets at its disposal —  F-4 Phantoms and Skyhawks — were not capable of flying the over 1,000 miles into enemy territory and returning safely, recalled retired Maj. Gen. David Ivry, the IAF commander at the time, in a TV interview at the recent gathering.

But in 1979, Israel had a stroke of good fortune.

The Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a staunch US ally, leading the US to cancel a massive deal to supply Iran with 75 top-of-the-line F-16 fighter jets.

The Americans then offered them to Israel.

“I immediately said yes,” recalled Ivri in the interview with Channel 12, broadcast on Sunday night. “Without asking anybody. When someone offers you the best fighter jets, first of all you say yes, then you see…,” he said.

“The fact that the jets came to us because of the Iranian revolution is one of the greatest ironies in history,” said Col. (Ret.) Ze’ev Raz, who led the June 7, 1981, raid, and who also participated in the get-together marking 38 years since the strike.

. . .

Yadlin hailed “the decision by Begin, and the doctrine that was established with this operation and later named after him: that if there is an Arab leader who calls for the destruction of Israel, Israel will not allow them to have nuclear weapons.”

Israel again employed the Begin Doctrine on September 6, 2007, in a mission known as Operation Orchard, when Israeli jets destroyed a nuclear reactor in Syria. Israel has also repeatedly warned that it could attack Iran to prevent that country gaining nuclear weapons.

“That doctrine was founded in this [Osirak] operation, and it has not yet ended,” said Yadlin.

There's more at the link.

I fear Iran may have lost sight of the so-called Begin doctrine.  It's been threatening Israel for many years, and trying to develop nuclear weapons.  It recently increased its production of enriched uranium.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that Israeli attack aircraft are now on a high state of alert, ready to strike at Iranian nuclear targets at even the slightest suspicion that a nuclear weapon is close to fruition.

Peter

Nice flying skills there

Here's a Boeing 757 landing in extreme cross-wind conditions at Bristol Airport in England last October.

Kudos to the pilot.  He put the plane down very neatly, under very difficult conditions indeed.

Peter

Not your mother's milk . . .

I was surprised to read about an English vodka that's made from milk.

Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka is adored for its milk, floral, sweet and dry flavor notes.

This Vodka is carefully distilled at Black Cow distillery, England.

[A reviewer noted:]  Not a big vodka fan, but this one is special. Extremely smooth and the texture is creamy. Great in Vodka Tonic and definitely a shine bright in martini even as replacement in some Gin cocktails.

I suppose it's not too far-fetched, when you consider that you can make alcohol from almost anything!  Milk has been used in traditional alcoholic drinks for centuries.  For example, I've never tasted Mongolian airag or kumis, made from fermented mare's milk, but I know they have a long history.  Arkhi, a traditional liqueur, is distilled from airag.  I daresay a stronger or more modern distilling process could refine it further, to produce something like vodka.

However, I wouldn't try that with the Masai tribal drink of east Africa.  I've had occasion to sample the stuff - not by choice, believe me, but it would have been politically incorrect in the extreme to refuse it.  There's a reason why European travelers in Africa tend to pop Ciprofloxacin capsules like they were candy, every single day, along with Imodium and Pepto-bismol.  Some diarrheas really can kill you!

Milk has a prominent role in the traditional Maasai diet, since it is an integral part of almost every meal of Maasai shepherds; it is drunk when fresh, curdled, mixed with tea or in the form of butter; the latter is used to feed children during the period of their growth.

The Maasai usually have a drink obtained by mixing milk with bovine blood; the blood is obtained by making an incision in a cow’s jugular artery with surgical precision, in this way it is possible to collect a reasonable quantity of blood without killing the animal; the wound will heal up within a few days.

Blood mixed with milk is used as a ritual drink in special celebrations or given to sick people to foster the healing process.

Milk is also left to ferment with blood, and sometimes with bovines’ urine; this is done by using pumpkins, emptied of their pulp, as containers; these natural amphoras act as “fermentation chambers” for milk that, thanks to high daytime temperatures, turns into a kind of thick, sour and dark-colored yoghurt, due to the coagulated blood.

There's more at the link.

Milk fermented with blood and cow urine is not my first recommendation for a thirst-quenching drink.  (How do I know this?  Trust me.  As an old Africa hand, I know this.)  I also don't recommend it for distilling into vodka.  Some things are just too ghastly to contemplate!




Peter

Ebola: the latest developments

I've warned often enough about the dangers of the Ebola outbreak in the Congo.  Aesop, over at Raconteur Report, has done the same.  I don't see any point in doing so again - if people haven't listened before, they won't listen now.  Instead, I'll just point out that events are proceeding almost exactly as Aesop and I have predicted they would.  Click each headline below for more information.


1.  Ebola reaches Uganda

Uganda announced two more cases of Ebola on Wednesday - a grandmother and a three-year-old boy, confirming that a deadly outbreak has spread for the first time beyond the Democratic Republic of Congo.

. . .

"This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping," said Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, which is involved in fighting Ebola.

"We can expect and should plan for more cases in DRC and neighboring countries," he said, adding: "There are now more deaths than any other Ebola outbreak in history, bar the West Africa epidemic of 2013-16, and there can be no doubt that the situation could escalate towards those terrible levels."

2.  One in four DR Congo Ebola cases could be going undetected

Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said on Thursday the epidemic was "not out of control, but it is certainly not under control", with insecurity and community mistrust hampering emergency responders' efforts.

"We believe we are probably detecting in excess of 75 percent of cases. We may be missing up to a quarter of cases," Ryan said at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva.

. . .

The outbreak - the second-worst on record - reached 1,000 cases in March. It then took less than three more months to surpass 2,000, signalling a tripling in the rate of infection.

. . .

Health teams have been unable to reach some areas because of violence by rebel groups, with scores of rival armed factions active in the region. More than 100 attacks on treatment centres and health workers have been recorded since the beginning of the year, according to WHO.

. . .

According to a recent study by the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, large segments of the local population believe the virus is a fabrication invented for the financial gain of business-owning local elites or to further destabilise the area.

Fewer than two-thirds of the nearly 1,000 respondents said they would take a vaccine for Ebola.

3.  Wave of undocumented Africans arrive in Mexico

A wave of 11,900 African migrants, mostly from the Congo, fleeing wars and poverty and heading to the United States in search of political asylum, has entered Mexico ... According to the INM, migrants come mainly from the Republic of the Congo, in Africa ... They start a journey of three to four months from Africa to the southern border of Mexico. They cross the Atlantic Ocean by sea or air to reach Sao Paulo, Brazil.

From there, they move through the jungle to continue through Peru; in buses, vans, and stretches on foot or by boat, they travel through Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, until they reach Chiapas.

“So far we have no refugee applications, they tell us that they intend to arrive in the United States and only using Mexican territory as transit,” said Jordán Alegría.

Aaaaaand . . .


4.  350 Congolese Migrants Arrive in San Antonio

“We didn’t get a heads up,” Interim Assistant City Manager Dr. Collen Bridger told KEN 5 after a group of 350 Congolese migrants arrived in the city unexpectedly. “When we called Border Patrol to confirm, they said, ‘yea another 200 to 300 from the Congo and Angola will be coming to San Antonio.'”

. . .

South and central African migrants began illegally crossing the South Texas border on May 30 when 117 migrants from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola crossed in the Del Rio Sector. By June 5, more than 500 African migrants had crossed illegally in this single Border Patrol sector...

The new arrivals in the USA from Congo are probably not carriers of Ebola, and probably did not flee because of that virus - they've been on the road for several months to get here.  The next wave of Congo refugees?  You can bet your bottom dollar many of them will be fleeing Ebola.  Where do you think those Uganda cases came from?  They were from a single extended family fleeing Ebola in north-eastern Congo, that's where.  That family undoubtedly had contact with border officials, hospital workers, and others in Uganda before the nature of their disease became apparent.  Every one of those people should now be under observation, in quarantine, along with everyone else with whom they had contact.  If they aren't . . . the virus will spread through them.  Guaran-damn-teed.

There are undoubtedly hundreds more people and families like that, probably thousands more, already in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.  They haven't passed through official checkpoints to get there, either, because of the risks of being turned back (particularly if they show any symptoms of any illness whatsoever).  They're sneaking across borders through thick bush, along forest trails, keeping out of sight.  By the time Ebola symptoms become apparent, they may have had contact with dozens, scores, even hundreds of locals.

So far, the figures for this Ebola infestation appear to show a doubling of the number of cases approximately every month.  I predict that's about to change for the worse, at least locally.  I also predict that the disease will make its appearance in Rwanda and Burundi soon, to go along with Uganda, and will spread from there to Kenya, Tanzania, and probably South Sudan and Chad as well.

So far, the saving grace for the USA is that such refugees have taken several months to get here.  Since Ebola's incubation period is plus-or-minus 21 days (with some outliers taking up to 40 days to show symptoms), that means most of those infected will die before they get close to our borders.  That does not, repeat, does NOT apply to those who can afford to travel faster.  If a refugee family has passports and funds at its disposal (and some do), it can hire smugglers to get it to an airport (e.g. Kampala in Uganda, or the big international airport at Nairobi in Kenya).  From there, it's an overnight flight to any one of a dozen cities in Europe.  From those cities, it's another eight- to twelve-hour flight to the USA.  They can do the whole journey, start to finish, in less than a week . . . leaving them two to three weeks to wander around the USA, spreading Ebola to everyone they meet.

Nightmare?  No.  It's a clear and present danger.  If you don't understand that, you haven't been following the situation for the past year.

It's even worse because the Democratic Party-controlled Congress absolutely refuses to fund a border wall and other effective exclusionary measures.  That's the only thing that can stop such refugees from crossing our borders almost at will . . . yet, for their own political reasons, the Democrats refuse to countenance it.  Right now, that borders on criminal negligence.  If Ebola crosses our southern border with its carriers, it will become actual criminal negligence at least, and possibly manslaughter.  I can only hope and trust that those blocking effective border security measures will be held accountable for the results of their actions, if worse comes to worst.  In that case, I can't think of a penalty that would be too severe.

Go read Aesop's latest take on the situation, and the comments from his readers.  He's not exaggerating.

Peter

Not very Biblical, but oh, so true to life!

Found on Gab (clickit to biggit):

Good thing there wasn't a Labrador Retriever in the mix.  When asked what he believed in, the answer would probably have been, "Food!"




Peter

"Forget Bribery. The Real Scam Is Pretending That Degrees Have Value."

That's the title of an article in Bloomberg by Elaine Ou.  She makes some good points.

... none of the parents involved in the recent college admissions bribery scandal tried to get their kids into Caltech or MIT, the sort of universities where students are generally expected to acquire skills relevant to a productive career. As it turns out, parents pay obscene sums to marshal their offspring into elite schools not for the sake of education, but to secure their offspring’s socioeconomic status.

Successful parents in the upper middle class can leave money to their children, but that doesn’t guarantee entrée into the social elite. The more reliable way for powerful parents to buy power for their children is through a name-brand, exclusive education.

. . .

As long as Ivy League alumni occupy positions of power, academic credentials will remain costly and scarce. Ongoing credential inflation is not evidence of a bubble about to burst, but a reflection of how successful the elites are at convincing the greater populace that degrees are valuable.

There's more at the link.

I think Ms. Ou makes a good point.  The enormous sums spent by parents on bribing their kids' way into Ivy League universities can't possibly be because of the quality of education there.  Equally good or better educations could be obtained from dozens of other U.S. universities, for a far lower cost.  Clearly, the cachet of an Ivy League university's name on one's diploma was the point all along.  Now that it's been exposed that such diplomas can be had for mere money, rather than actual hard work and learning something, what's the point of them?  If I were an employer, looking to hire someone on the basis of what they'd learned, I'd conclude that they wouldn't have learned anything at such universities - so why should I hire them?

Mike Rowe's WORKS Foundation is looking better than ever!

Peter

A sad, lonely end for a very dangerous man

I'm not sure how many of my readers are familiar with the story of Thomas Silverstein.  He was convicted of multiple murders while behind bars, and as a result spent the last 35 years of his life in almost continuous solitary confinement.  He died in hospital in Colorado last month.

Silverstein was profiled in Pete Earley's 1992 book "The Hot House:  Life Inside Leavenworth Prison".  He became something of a celebrity as a result . . . largely to those who had little or no idea just how very dangerous this man was, and how utterly evil his actions were.

(By the way, I highly recommend Pete Earley's book.  It's a very accurate portrayal of prison life at the time it was written.  Some things have changed since then, but the overall reality has not.)

Silverstein killed three men behind bars, including a prison guard.  I have little doubt he'd have done so again if he'd been given half a chance.  The Bureau of Prisons (where I served as a chaplain) had no doubt at all.  It gave him a unique security classification of "no human contact", and enforced it rigorously.

Pete Earley wrote about Silverstein on his blog after his death (in an article that I consider overly generous to the deceased):

In a drawing that Silverstein did for me, he wrote: “Sitting, silently, thinking, screaming 4 freedom from this constant insanity and endless solitary confinement…” I asked him once what it was like to be in isolation. He suggested that I go into my bathroom, shut the door and not come out for twenty-four hours. I lasted less than an hour.

. . .

He occupied himself by painting – becoming a skilled artist. He sent his drawings and artwork to those who corresponded with him. The BOP refused to allow him to show or sell his art. He also practiced meditation and yoga. After my book was published, he became a celebrity, and spent hours writing letters, including to several individuals in foreign countries. Articles about him often glamorized him, much to the dislike of the BOP and the Clutts’ family.

. . .

His letters were filled with contempt toward the BOP and the criminal justice system. He frequently reminded me that since Clutts’ murder, he had become a “model” convict, with no major infractions, but none of that mattered in how he was being treated. At one point during riots in Atlanta, he had an opportunity to take revenge against BOP officers being held as hostages. He chose not too and was bitter when he later learned that federal officials had been given permission to “shoot on sight” if they encountered him while regaining control of the penitentiary. (In the end, it as a group of prisoners who overpowered him and turned him over to federal law enforcement.)

I spent a year at Leavenworth between 1987-89 and during my research I saw first-hand how Silverstein had become a mythical figure. Most correctional officers had never met him, yet they considered him the devil incarnate. (He claimed to me that every new warden put in charge of him, immediately stripped him of his privileges to show he didn’t believe in coddling him.) Meanwhile, convicts, most of whom had never met him, spoke of him as if he were a convict super hero.

There's more at the link, and in a follow-up article where Earley acknowledged some of the darker aspects (of which there were many) of Silverstein's character and actions.

I don't believe for a moment that Silverstein had reformed in solitary confinement to the point that he was no longer dangerous.  On the contrary:  I believe that the only reason he committed no disciplinary infractions for many years was that, in such extreme isolation, he had no opportunity to do so.

Silverstein is not alone in the danger he posed to corrections officials.  There was one such inmate in the penitentiary in which I served, about whom I wrote in my memoir of prison chaplaincy.

There are also particularly dangerous individuals who hold themselves aloof from gangs. We shipped one off to Supermax after holding him in isolation in SHU for a long time. He’d murdered his cellmate, and used to boast that he was going to kill one of the staff before he left. He had nothing to lose, after all. He’s going to be in prison until he dies. If he succeeded in killing a staff member, how could we punish him? Another life sentence wouldn’t make any difference, and the death penalty would actually be merciful compared to the many decades he faces behind bars. You may be sure that we were very careful in how we handled him. He never left his cell without being shackled hand and foot, and guarded by a three-person escort under the command of a Lieutenant. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he left us — all except the crew assigned to escort him to Supermax. Their language reportedly scorched paint from the nearest wall when they were informed of their selection! (I’m pleased to report that they made it back safely.)

I think Silverstein is an example of why the death penalty should remain on the books, even though I'm opposed to its use in all but the most clear-cut, unequivocal and egregious cases.  (There have been too many convictions that were later overturned on the basis of new evidence.  One can release a wrongly convicted prisoner from confinement, but one can't bring back a wrongly executed one.  For that reason, I believe the death penalty should be reserved for only those cases that can be proven beyond any doubt whatsoever, with multiple proofs of guilt and no "gray areas" that might lead to future exoneration.)  In Silverstein's case, and those like him, I think multi-decade solitary confinement is as much torture as a more physical punishment.  What's more, it costs the taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars per year to maintain specialized facilities, both Federal and State, to keep them separated from the regular prison population.  I think it would be kinder, more humane, and more economical to sentence such individuals to death.  It would certainly remove a major, ongoing threat to the lives of corrections officers and other inmates!

I find myself ambivalent at the news of Silverstein's death.  I'm a Christian and a pastor.  I'll wish Hell on no-one.  Therefore, I'll pray for forgiveness for his sins, and hope that he repented of them, so that even such a monstrous criminal as he might perhaps sneak through the Pearly Gates at the last minute.  On the other hand, I don't think he ever showed true, real remorse for his actions;  and, absent that, I don't think anyone has much of a chance at the right sort of eternity.

I wonder if the souls of those he murdered were present when he gave a final accounting for his life, to the Judge whom I believe we must all face one day?

Peter

A lifeline through the desert

Here's a fascinating short film (about 10 minutes long) from National Geographic about the trans-Sahara railway in Mauritania.  There's some great cinematography, but the story itself is one of commercial transformation in the midst of age-old tradition.

We forget how something as simple as a railway line can transform a culture, and perhaps a nation, over time.  However, it can only do so much.  At present, parts of Mauritania are plagued by the same instability and terrorism that are affecting the rest of the Sahel.  Clearly, despite operating since 1963, the Mauritania Railway hasn't changed that.

Peter

I think the Vatican - and chromosomes - have the right of it

Speaking the truth, in the face of popular rejection of it, has never been easy or safe;  but if one wants to be honest, it has to be done.  I commend the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education for doing precisely that.

The Vatican condemned gender theory on Monday as part of a “confused concept of freedom”, saying in a new document that the idea of gender being determined by personal feeling rather than biology was an attempt to “annihilate nature”.

LGBT rights advocates denounced the 30-page document, called “Male and Female He Created Them”, as harmful and confusing, saying it would encourage hatred and bigotry.

The document, the Vatican’s first on gender theory, was written by the Congregation for Catholic Education as an “instruction” to Catholic educators on how to address the topic of gender theory in line with Church teaching.

It was released as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world have been celebrating “Pride Month” amid a surge in demands for acceptance of the idea that gender is more complex and fluid than the binary categories of male and female, and depends on more than visible sex characteristics.

“The concept of gender is seen as dependent upon the subjective mindset of each person, who can choose a gender not corresponding to his or her biological sex, and therefore with the way others see that person,” the Vatican booklet says.

It says gender theories are “often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants, or momentary desires provoked by emotional impulses and the will of the individual, as opposed to anything based on the truths of existence”.

. . .

It denounced theories that attempted to “annihilate the concept of nature” and “educational programs and legislative trends that ... make a radical break with the actual biological difference between male and female”.

There's more at the link.

A useful summary of the document's main points may be found here, and the full document is available online here.  Both should help to dispel the propaganda diatribes already raging over it.

It's an indisputable scientific and medical fact that, generally speaking, genes and chromosomes define our sex, and hence our gender.  The two concepts are biologically inseparable, despite all the politically correct fantasies about separating feelings from reality.  With the vanishingly small exception (far less than 1% of the human population) of those who are intersex, there is no sexual fluidity in individuals' bodies from a medical, scientific, chromosomal or genetic standpoint;  and, hence, one's feelings about gender fluidity cannot override physical reality.  To maintain otherwise is scientifically nonsensical.

(That's not to deny the extraordinarily difficult situation of those who are intersex, and their families.  For the experiences of one such family, see this article.  I have nothing but sympathy and compassion for those caught in this dilemma through no fault of their own.  As a pastor, I've come into contact with a few of them.  That said, they are indeed a very, very tiny minority of the population.)

I've met a number of people who claim to be different in gender from their physical sex.  Sorry, but I don't accept that.  It may be their psychological or psychiatric fantasy, but it's not founded in biological fact.  I can understand their desires, and I'll treat them with all the respect I can, but I'm not going to indulge their fantasies by denying medical reality.  That would be dishonest.  They may need treatment, but (with the intersex exception noted above) it's almost certainly not surgical in nature.  It's a problem of the mind, not the body.

Of course, LGBTetc. groups immediately denounced the document.  I'm not surprised, because this divisive issue highlights one question in particular.  Is an individual, or an organization, founded on and committed to objective facts and truth, or subjective feelings and emotions?  I suspect this document will expose the rift between those positions very clearly as time goes on, at least as far as LGBTetc. issues are concerned.

Peter

Resistance is futile. You will be hydrated!

I'm a bit mind-boggled to discover that Chuck Norris is about to start selling water branded under his name.

Chuck Norris wants to keep you alive. He will do anything to help.

OK, maybe not anything. But he will provide you with delicious, life-giving water that "bursts from an artesian spring with the same unharnessed power and intensity you'd expect from Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick."

Clearly this is better than all the other water, and it will soon be coming to us from CForce, a water bottling company launched by Norris to bottle aquifer water at his Lone Wolf Ranch in Navasota.

The energizing quote above is from Norris' CForce website, which advertises this water with every bit of the manliness and magnanimity we've come to expect from our favorite butt-kicking star.

"CForce water flows to the surface on its own volition," unlike other, lesser waters that have to be dragged limply from beneath the ground. This is water with purpose, and its purpose is to bring Chuck Norris' energy into your life, to satisfy all of your hydration needs.

There's more at the link.

This is going to start the Chuck Norris meme industry all over again.

• Chuck Norris will hydrate you, or else!
• I thought water was for wimps until I discovered Chuck Norris.
• Some men pass water.  Chuck Norris walks on it.
• Chuck Norris is never watered down.

I'm sure you can think of plenty of others.  Let's hear them in Comments!




Peter