Is World War 3 an inevitable outcome of the current financial system?

 

Capitalist Eric thinks so.

It comes down to a few simple points, which I’ve explained several times over, but will repeat here.

1. The Western elitist banksters have maintained utter control of their respective financial currencies; this debt-slavery system is the basis of their power.  It has been, for all intents and purposes, their private playground.  This power has been used to buy anyone they want, in government, the military, the media, anyone they want.
2. The Western banking system is based on debt issuance.  It is dying rapidly.  The entire fiat-money system, a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions, is now so heavily overloaded with bad debt that it is collapsing under its own weight.  Countries who don’t use that funny-money as their sovereign currency but have been forced to utilize dollars/euros/yen for international trade, are busily switching to alternative currencies from countries that produce something besides fiat money.  In other words, the demand for the Western currencies is rapidly declining.
3. The much-touted “Great Reset” is a plan to depopulate the world (1st and 2nd world through vaccinations, the 3rd through starvation), and reset the financial system back to zero, so that everyone begins in the new system with zero debt…  and zero property or possessions.  The “Great Reset” will usher in the new trackable and controllable fiat-money currency, where they decide what and when you can buy approved products.  And if you speak out against whatever bullshit the bankster-owned government is selling (which will be tallied via a Chinese-style social credit system) your money could be reduced, confiscated or flagged for your arrest the next time you go shopping with their new digital currency.  You’ll toe their line, or you’ll starve.
4. The “Great Reset,” where everyone will adopt this bitter pill of slavery, will only be accepted if people are desperate for government intervention due to starvation, lack of energy (heat for your home, gas for your car) or disease.  And it will only be accepted if there’s no alternative currency which people can utilize to maintain some level of purchasing power without “Big Brother” watching over your shoulder, and deciding what you can- or cannot- purchase.  The Russian ruble is exactly such an alternative.
5. The BRICS countries- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa- have resisted globalist efforts to become part of the Western banking system, and are now challenging that system, with currencies backed by commodities instead of the worthless promise of more fiat money.  Thus, the represent a viable alternative to the “Great Reset” agenda, one which dooms the efforts to re-start the fiat money system from zero- with the same elitist banksters at the helm.
6. The BRICS countries therefore represent an escape from the fiat-money system, and therefore are mortal enemies of the banksters, which have built their empire over the past 208 years.  They must therefore be destroyed by the West, using whatever means necessary, at whatever cost is required in lives (but who cares about us debt-slaves, anyway?).
7. The BRICS countries- most openly represented by Russia at this point in time- are not about to join the system, and now realize that it is- literally- a fight to the death for them, as well.
8. Therefore, neither side will back down, the escalation will continue, up to and including nuclear weapons. 

I posted these conclusions at the beginning of April, 2022, and they stand on their own, today.

Eric goes on to note, concerning the Ukraine war:

[Putin is] gearing up for NATO and the USA.  And, given his early mobilization, their war-economy footing already, and rigid discipline with which they’ve fought to this point, there is no other logical conclusion.  In contrast, the American military is fat, woke, undertrained, and running out of ammo.  And we haven’t even started WW3, yet. 

So much for Putin being “desperate.”

There's more at the link.

I don't know enough about what's going on behind the scenes to offer an opinion.  I only note that there are as many pro-Russian commentators as anti-Russian out there, and none of them really know what's going on either.  They're analyzing the situation through their own sets of filters, their own preconceived ideas, and coming up with what they believe are plausible perspectives.  I don't pretend to have a plausible perspective, because so much about the Ukraine war is hidden behind ulterior motives, massive corruption in both Ukraine and Russia as well as most of the First World nations supporting either side, and the malign influence of globalist partisans who want to use the Ukraine war as a lever to accomplish their overarching objectives.  It's a toxic stew of motivations, means and ends out there, and - as usual - the people suffering for it all are mostly innocent civilians and citizens, in the war zone and also across Western Europe.  The rest of the world will join them in that as the current famine and energy crises take hold more firmly and shake the foundations of modern geopolitics.

There's a very real danger that NATO could be drawn into the conflict with Russia (some would say that's already happened).  The consequences for Europe could be devastating - and I'm not talking about nuclear war, just the economic and sociopolitical fallout of such an event.  It could spread worldwide.

Michael Yon thinks that's the plan.  He calls it "global sabotage - we are witnessing Gigacide".

When waging methodical, professional sabotage campaigns, professionals will use something like a CARVER matrix to identify and prioritize targets. This was something Green Berets learned and trained on. You always have limited resources and so prioritizing bang for buck is essential.

. . .

A global CARVER is unfolding on energy and food supplies. We are witnessing Gigacide ... On a global CARVER matrix, all energy flows into Europe are ripe and most are easily harvested. Refineries everywhere are ripe and are being hit all over. Something is happening. Possibly the most massive coincidence ever, or applying Occam’s Razor the world is being de-industrialized. Global Sabotage.

Suez and Panama Canals are high value targets. Massive bang for buck.

PanFaWar.

Again, more at the link.

As individuals and small groups, we can't affect events on so large a scale.  All we can do is prepare ourselves, our families, our loved ones and our friends to face whatever's coming as best we can.  It's surprising how often that's helped people live through world-shaking events, and come out on the other side.  (My parents were living examples to me of that, living through the Great Depression of the 1930's as children and young adults, then being pitchforked into World War II from 1939-1945.  Through hard work and sheer guts, they made it through all that.  We'd do well to remember our own ancestors who were caught up in that mess, and learn the lessons they imparted to their descendants.)

Go read Capitalist Eric's article.  It's food for thought.

Peter

A technological visionary

 

I was struck by this photograph, which appeared recently at Daily Timewaster.  It shows models of three Northrop "flying wing" designs:  the piston-engined YB-35, a later jet-propelled version called the YB-49, and the contemporary B-2 Spirit.  Click the image for a larger view.

The 120-degree angle of the wing sweep, precisely one-third of a 360-degree circle, persisted from the 1940's all the way to the modern B-2.  Jack Northrop had a good idea to begin with, so good that it hasn't been improved upon (as far as we know).  That says a lot about his genius.

Shortly before he died, Jack Northrop had the opportunity to see how his early work on flying wings had influenced the B-2 design.  Disciples of Flight reports:

Jack Northrop retired in 1952 at the age of 57, and the Scorpion was the last aircraft he would personally have a hand in engineering.

After Jack left the aviation industry, he reportedly “dabbled in real estate,” losing most of his personal fortune. However, it became apparent that he never stopped dreaming about aviation and the flying wing design he fixated on for most of his career when, in 1976, he approached NASA. He was convinced that his flying wing concept, with its low drag and high lift, was paramount to the advancement of aeronautical technologies. NASA replied that the concept was never abandoned, which provided Jack some comfort before a variety of ailments left him unable to walk or talk.

In 1980, the US Air Force gave him an honorary clearance to see confidential aircraft designs and hold a scale model of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (the famous stealth bomber). The B-2 shared many of the design elements in Jacks flying wing designs, even down to the wingspan, which was the exact length of the YB-49. Hands shaking, Jack scrawled on a sheet of paper, “Now I know why God has kept me alive for 25 years,” most likely referencing his retirement from aviation. Just 10 months later, Jack Northrop died, on February 18, 1981.

There's more at the link.

One can't help but wonder whether, somewhere up there, Jack Northrop isn't experimenting with new designs for angels' wings, seeking to improve on the original!

Peter

Lies, damned lies, and PayPal

 

It seems Paypal, after inserting both feet firmly into its corporate mouth, is trying to backtrack and do damage control.

“An [Accepted Use Policy] notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” a PayPal spokesperson said. “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”

Uh-huh.  Suuuuure.

"This language was never intended to be inserted in our policy" - but it was inserted.  (I'm obliged to Karl Denninger for downloading and preserving that copy of its proposed new policy version.)  What's more, Paypal's a major corporation.  It has bushels of lawyers, layers of management, and (presumably) guidelines under which any changes to its policies have to be signed off by multiple levels of control, all the way up to the top.  Under those circumstances, you'll pardon me if I find Paypal's weasel words to be less than convincing.  "Never intended", indeed!  Pull the other one, Paypal - it's got bells on it.

This is yet another example of using corporate power for political, partisan ends.  Google's doing it by removing and/or censoring blogs that don't toe the party line.  Twitter does it by suspending or canceling user accounts.  Facebook blocks people for varying lengths of time for saying the politically incorrect thing.  Paypal's just the latest "woke" company to jump on the bandwagon.

It's time we took a stand - all of us who value liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.  If we allow faceless corporate drones to act in lieu of - but in reality as agents of - a government that's not supposed to do things like that, then we effectively acquiesce in the neutering of our constitutional rights.

I'm therefore transferring the small balance in my Paypal account to my bank account, and as soon as that's done, I'll be nuking my Paypal account altogether.  I can't trust them to be objective and rational in their decisions, and that's a risk I see no reason to incur when I don't have to.  I highly recommend that everyone do the same thing.  The risk of doing business with Paypal is simply too great to be borne.  That also goes for Venmo, which is owned by Paypal.  Because of that, I can't trust it either.

A large number of other users are doing likewise.  Karl Denninger sums up why they're doing so:

If you have a PayPal account OR ACCEPT THEIR PAYMENT AS A MERCHANT you are consenting to letting them STEAL $2,500 for anything they deem a "violation" without any due process, evidence or proof.

Note that if you linked a bank account they can and will debit the bank account for this and if you keep your account there you're consenting to that.

. . .

Note that "misinformation" can be anything they so-deem and whatever they determine you are bound by.  So can anything they deem "unfit for publication" which has no objective definition whatsoever.

. . .

And, note that there is no requirement that the conduct be in any way linked to their services, which have nothing to do with the movement of money, ever, in this regard.  Since PayPal is a money transmitter nothing you can send, post or publish has anything to do with the movement of money, which means they can fine you $2,500 for saying that the jabs are dangerous or that there are only two genders no matter where you say it, on what platform you say it or even if you say it in a non-electronic form entirely.

. . .

Close your accounts and under no circumstances EVER do business with these ******** nor EVER hire ANYONE who works for them EVER AGAIN.

There's more in that vein (much more profanely) at the link.

Looking for an alternative?  Try Gab Pay.  Gab is a social media service that's consistently been solidly free-speech in orientation, even though that means racists and neo-Nazis have flourished there.  Gab's solution to that is simple - rather than play the censor, it relies on its users to be adults, and block anyone whose views offend them.  I do that almost every time I'm online there.  If I come across an anti-semitic or racist user, I block them on the spot.  Fortunately, there are plenty of Gab users who are neither anti-semitic nor racist, and I get on just fine with them.  Gab Pay is one of the platform's new initiatives, designed to take the place of Paypal and other such services.  So far, it looks pretty good.  Check it out for yourself.

There may be other alternatives.  If any readers would like to suggest one, please do so in Comments.  I caution, however, that if it's part of the Big Tech world, it's more likely than not to have "woke" elements in its user policies, and may therefore not be fully trustworthy.  Caveat emptor, and all that sort of thing.

As for Paypal, I can only suggest that its shareholders and directors ponder the saying "Get woke, go broke".  After betraying their customers' trust like this, that's a consummation devoutly to be wished, IMHO.

Peter

Mobile theme has changed from dark to light. What do you prefer?

 

Some weeks ago the theme on the mobile template for my blog changed from light to dark.  Numerous readers complained that made it more difficult to read text, particularly highlighted items.

I think I figured out how to change it back to a light background.  If you're using a mobile device, does that work for you?  Is it more readable?  Please let me know in Comments, so I can continue to fiddle with it if necessary.

Thanks!

Peter

Lies, damned lies, and inflation fudgery

 

Two years ago I postulated:

We've seen in the past how reliable private sources such as Shadowstats and the Chapwood Index have consistently estimated the true inflation rate to be between three and four times higher than the official numbers.  I believe them.

Therefore, here's a suggestion, based solidly upon historical economic reality.

To know the true rate of consumer inflation in the USA, take the official rate declared by the government and multiply it by 3½.  The result will be much closer to reality.

There's more at the link.

I've done that since then, and found nothing to make me think my 3½x adjustment factor was out of line.  Now, courtesy of a link at the 357 Magnum blog, we note that a German report has found that inflation in that country is running at 5.6x the official figure!  Here's a Google Translate transcription.

Official inflation figures are around 10 percent. But many citizens notice in their everyday life: Prices are rising - in the supermarket, at the gas station - much faster!

The true inflation is much higher: That's why there is now the inflation radar from Pleiticker.de - you can find this updated daily on our homepage. We have calculated price developments in the areas that really matter: housing, energy and basic foodstuffs. With the latest figures, inflation there was a whopping 56.3 percent over the past year - and 11.6 percent over the past week alone. For the average net income of a German household (€3,600), this means a loss in value of €1,296. This is mainly driven by the increase in energy costs. The price of electricity has risen by an unbelievable 344 percent in the past year.

The official figures, on the other hand, are hardly meaningful: The figures from the Federal Statistical Office are significantly lower and not very meaningful for the reality of people's lives for two reasons: On the one hand, it includes hundreds of products in its "shopping basket" that are not at all decisive for the everyday life of most people - such as the price development of home cinema systems, surfboards, services from domestic staff or a visit to the opera. 

On the other hand, the price shock for electricity and gas only becomes visible in the Federal Statistical Office's inflation calculator with a long delay - because instead of the market price, the current consumer price is used, which reflects even more favorable market prices from the past. The real market price only reaches the end consumer with a delay.

Again, more at the link.

Friends, no matter where you live, do not trust official figures about inflation and the economy.  Most particularly, do not base your current and future economic decisions and actions solely on official figures, because they are lying to you.  They're tweaked and fudged and massaged to produce the result that politicians want you to believe, not what's actually happening on the ground.  They're a sham, and a fake, and a public lie from beginning to end.

I don't know a single country whose official inflation statistics are fully trustworthy in the current economic climate.  I can't put it any more clearly than that.

I think that, for the USA in general, my 3½x adjustment factor still holds good.  However, by this time next year, the way things are going, it may be woefully out of date.  I won't be surprised if I have to increase it soon.

Peter

Picking up the pieces of our daily routine

 

There's no Memes That Made Me Laugh post this week, as my travels precluded gathering them from here and there as I normally do.  The regular Memes post will return next Monday.

Let's start out the week with a smile.  Task & Purpose is a military-oriented Web site that often has useful, interesting articles.  I had to laugh out loud at a recent review of gadgets and gizmos that grunts would find useful, over and above Army-issue gear, when in the field.  Among the articles reviewed was Pampers Baby Wipes, recommended as a toilet paper replacement.  The review read:

This bulk order comes with 864 total wipes. If you’re eating MREs, the first one should last you a week and the remaining 863 will last through the following day.

That sounds about right!  Anyone who's had to subsist on military ration packs (in any army) for more than a day or two will understand it all too well . . .

Peter

Observations from Fredericksburg, TX

 

Book research done, Miss D. and I will be moving on today, heading for San Angelo, where Fort Concho was one of a chain of military installations that protected the West from Indian predations.  The fort is well preserved, with many exhibits from the frontier era that provide fruitful material for writers.

Here in Fredericksburg, I was very glad to see the National Museum of the Pacific War again.  It was excellent when I first visited it about twenty years ago, and it's improved since then, with some new exhibits and changes to old ones that make it an even more immersive experience.  I'd have to say it's one of the five best-focused museums I've ever visited.  This was Miss D.'s first time there, and she was visibly moved by much of what she saw and heard.  If you haven't seen it before, the Museum on its own is more than enough to justify a visit to Fredericksburg.  If you want to go through all the exhibits and facilities with real attention to detail, plan on two days for that alone.

Fredericksburg itself has not changed physically too much (the central district, at least), but its atmosphere has, and not for the better.  It seems to have become an ostentatiously tourist destination, primarily for people from the Austin and San Antonio areas.  Large groups of noisy, sometimes inebriated visitors wandered the sidewalks and filled the many restaurants.  When I was last here, the number of tourists was smaller and they were better behaved.  This year . . . not so much.

The restaurants have certainly deteriorated.  Fredericksburg's eateries used to be famous for authentic German cuisine, but catering to the high volume of tourists has changed that.  The names of the dishes on the menus are the same, but the quality of the food has declined.  It's produced assembly-line-style by cooks who are rushing to cater for the volume of customers, and it shows.  A German restaurant I recall with fondness from a previous visit now offered only mediocre food quality, and another was too touristified to be enjoyable.

There was one very tasty exception to this rule, an Italian restaurant called Pasta Bella, recommended by reader MSG Grumpy in a comment to yesterday's blog post.  Their staff were just as rushed as anybody else, but they had more of them, so they were able to keep up;  and the quality of their food was notably better than anything we'd eaten elsewhere on this trip, fully up to our high expectations.  Miss D. and I give Pasta Bella our unhesitating seal of approval.

I was struck by the number of vineyards and wine producers in and around Fredericksburg.  There must be dozens of them, if not scores!  Wine tastings (at stupid prices) were offered seemingly in every second or third building on the main drag, and any number of tours of wineries were on offer.  I can't help but think that's a very, very oversaturated market, particularly in an economic downturn.  I can't see many small wineries surviving in a high-inflation environment - they simply aren't big enough to have the economies of scale needed to keep heads above water.  It's as if everybody and his cousin all decided to open their own winery, never mind the fact that the market's already vastly overcrowded.  Oh, well . . . it's a free country, and if they want to spend their money on that, good luck to them.

(That said, we did find one place offering tastings of South African wines, which I remember with great pleasure.  We gave them a try, and ended up buying a mixed case of several varietals and vintages.  Expensive, but very tasty, so we indulged ourselves.)

So far, so good.  Onward!

Peter

On the ground in Fredericksburg

Miss D. and I arrived safely in Fredericksburg, TX late yesterday afternoon, after a trip down the back roads of Texas, avoiding interstate highways.  It was enjoyable to catch scenery one often bypasses on the main arteries, and also to see historically important sites of the German settlements in Texas and the wars with the Comanche and other Indians during the days of the Republic of Texas prior to its joining the USA.  It's sobering to think that early settlers in those regions faced a better-than-even prospect of Indian attack as they struggled to build their new homes.  Many did not survive.

Fredericksburg is home to the National Museum of the Pacific War, which is one of the best war museums in the USA.  I've been there before, but Miss D. hasn't, so she's in for a treat.  I'll be doing some research while I'm there, and we'll both enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the Texas Hill Country while we're here.

We'll be moving along the Texas Forts Trail to San Angelo from here, then back home.  Lots to see and do.

Peter

A short road trip

 

Miss D. and I will be on the road for a few days, doing research for a forthcoming book.  As a result, blogging will be sparse;  if I can fit in an article now and again, I will, but I don't expect to do much of that.  We'll have a friend house-sit our cats, to keep them happy.

We expect to be back by Sunday or Monday.  Regular blogging will resume on Tuesday, God willing.  Meanwhile, please go read the bloggers linked in the sidebar.  They write good too!

Prayers for traveling mercies are, as always, appreciated.  Thanks.

Peter

An organized terrorist threat from illegal aliens?

 

Trevor Loudon thinks that may not be far-fetched.

After leading open opposition to then-Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez in 2002, former Venezuelan lieutenant in the National Guard Jose Antonio Colina Pulido fled to the U.S. in 2003 to seek political asylum. He has been living in exile in the U.S. ever since. He has provided information to a number of U.S. agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

According to Colina, current Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro not only has been releasing convicted criminals from his prisons who’ve joined migrant caravans north to the U.S. but doing so specifically on the condition that they migrate north to cross into the U.S. Colina, who’s been posting on social media and in online videos, says that among this flow out of Venezuela are Venezuelan paramilitary groups who are not only penetrating the southwest U.S. border but coming in organized units, led by a unit commander.

Colina continues to obtain information from Venezuelan exiles, some among the migrant flows and some already in the U.S.  According to their information, once in the U.S., some of these Venezuelan paramilitary groups have been organizing into cell structures. Colina fears that Maduro may intend to sow chaos and conflict among the Venezuelan exile communities in the U.S. as well as destabilize the U.S. itself, as long as the southern border remains open.

When we combine this new information with the understanding that since at least 2005 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was President of Iran and Hugo Chavez was President of Venezuela, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Lebanese Shi’ite terror proxy Hizballah have established extensive networks in Venezuela, the possible implications of this new reporting become very troubling.

There's more at the link.

We've known for years, thanks to isolated arrests on the border and intelligence gained from South American drug cartels, that individual terrorists and terror organizations have long smuggled their people into and out of the USA via our southern border.  That's nothing new.  However, if this is now being organized by a nation-state, Venezuela, that may well amount to an act of war.  If so, what is the USA going to do about it?

This threat takes on an added dimension when you consider that, sooner or later, we're going to have to get rid of all the illegal aliens the Biden administration has permitted to flood across our border with Mexico, almost unchecked.  We can't afford to keep them here.  If the money is tight, those not entitled to it will have to be cut off.  If we do that, they'll riot and turn to crime rather than go back home on their own;  so we'll have to round them up and kick them out ourselves.  If those who sent them are now organizing armed, terrorist-type resistance groups, that'll make the job much more difficult and far more dangerous, to ordinary civilians as well as to law enforcement and (if it comes to that) our armed forces.

One can only hope that the powers that be are doing something about this.  Sadly, given the corruption and fecklessness of the Biden administration, that's probably a pipe-dream...

Peter

Remote work is a two-edged sword

 

The New York Post warns:  "Remote work could cost Americans their jobs within decade, experts say".

Remote work may be a blessing for Americans who enjoy not having to commute to the office, but experts are warning that workers should be careful what they wish for because companies could easily hire someone overseas to do the same job for much less money.

High-paid tech workers could find themselves out of a job within a decade if companies continue to outsource those positions overseas, the experts said.

. . .

Companies that employ remote workers could pay lower wages to those who do the same job but from overseas, according to analysts ... “Because somebody in India or wherever is willing to do it for much less.”

There's more at the link.

That's something I've been worried about ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.  Anything that can be done for an employer from your home can be done from their home, no matter where it is, by anyone else suitably qualified.  That's already happened in the hi-tech sector to a considerable extent.  In south-east Asia, computer programmers, analysts, engineers and specialists will work for about one-quarter to one-third of the standard US wage - so they're being hired instead of US workers.  Even in the USA itself, many companies have brought in lower-wage staff to replace their more expensive local IT workers.  It's also happening in health care, thanks to the growing local shortage of nurses.

Even support staff such as secretaries, receptionists, etc. can work remotely, provided the telecommunications network and the Internet are available.  If you can order a burger at a fast-food joint using a touch-screen, there's no reason a caller to a company can't navigate his way through today's ubiquitous (and extremely annoying) voice menus to reach a human operator, who can then redirect his call - but the operator might be thousands of miles away.  It no longer matters.

I don't think this will matter much to blue-collar workers, but anyone in a white-collar occupation might be looking at a "Brave New World" of employment that may not be anything like the old one.

Peter

Might Russia be facing Islamic terrorism coming out of Afghanistan?

 

An article by Dr. Michael Rubin suggests that's likely.

Now it seems the Taliban are preparing to make their move and export their revolution. Ahmad Massoud’s National Resistance Front, which maintains a strong intelligence network in Kabul, the Panjshir Valley and across northern Afghanistan, reports that in recent weeks, the Taliban first transferred 16 high-ranking members of foreign terrorist groups to Kabul and then dispatched them to the Baghlan, Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces in northern Afghanistan.

According to reports ... the terror leaders arrived in Kabul on August 20, 2022 and stayed three days in the home of a senior Haqqani network official in Wazir Akbar Khan. There, Massoud’s information network says they met Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s deputy leader and acting interior minister, and discussed establishment of a network of foreign fighters in northern Afghanistan. The terror leaders departed Kabul in cars belonging to Taliban officials and returned to Taliban military bases and safe houses in the north.

While Trump and Biden-era Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad predicated a U.S. withdrawal deal with the Taliban in part on the promise that the group would fight against the Islamic State, Mawlawi Ibrahim who will coordinate the network, has strong connections with the Islamic State. Simply put, Khalilzad was either naïve or deceptive when selling his deal.

Corruption is rife across Central Asia, and while Russia has long assumed a paramount security role, its miscalculations in Ukraine leave all of the countries of its southern flank at risk. That Turkey, the same country whose support was crucial to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is influential in Central Asia, should raise broader concern. The Biden administration as well as the many Republicans who support U.S. retrenchment might believe Afghanistan and Central Asia are not U.S. concerns but as the Islamic State demonstrated in 2014, forces of altruism seldom fill vacuums. It would be a mistake to confuse absence of press attention in Afghanistan with quiet. All indications are that the period of calm before the storm is fast ending.

There's more at the link.

I've been expecting something like this;  in fact, I'm surprised it's taken this long to emerge.  To quote an old idiom, "a leopard can't change its spots":  and the Taliban has always been, at its root, a fundamentalist terrorist organization, relying on violence and brutality to spread its message.  It's never forgiven the former Soviet Union (and its modern-day successor, Russia) for the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-80 and the death of so many innocent civilians there in the following decade.  I've been waiting for payback time;  and Dr. Rubin's article suggests it may finally have arrived.

There are millions of Muslims in former Soviet states north of Afghanistan, and many of them are violent fundamentalists.  Infiltrators from Afghanistan could easily spread the message of insurgency and terror, and (thanks to the USA abandoning tens of billions of dollars' worth of arms and ammunition there) Afghanistan is now in a position to equip several insurgent armies if it so chooses.

President Putin and the Russian armed forces are almost completely focused on the Ukraine war right now.  I think they may be making a serious mistake by doing so.  They've left a vacuum in former Soviet Islamic areas that the Taliban will be delighted to fill . . . and the Muslim conscripts currently being called up to serve in the Russian army will probably be grateful for the military training and experience they'll accumulate, in order to turn it against Moscow as soon as they can.

This is not a comforting development.

Peter

Some new books from friends

 

Several of my friends, fellow bloggers and fellow writers have published new books over the past few weeks.  I've read all of them, and recommend them to you.  I'll list them in alphabetical order by author, to avoid offending anyone.

First up is Rita Beeman, known in meatspace as Lawdog's Lady.  She has a new novella (i.e. short novel) out titled "Mabel Murkwood and the Overly Familiar".

The blurb reads:

Mabel Murkwood has trouble keeping a Familiar.

Hugh, a stately raven from England, lost his master in the Blitz.

Warm conversation, a shared passion for botanicals, and many cups of tea forge a bond between this unlikely duo.

However, life in East Texas isn't always easy, especially after a World War that left scars in the hearts of many of its survivors. While Hugh finds his footing in a new land, he also finds a new purpose helping his East Texas Witch.

Next is Alma Boykin.  She's just published the 22nd book in her "Familiar Tales" series.  This one's titled "Preternaturally Familiar".

The blurb reads:

Where is home for a Hunter?

Uneasy rests the head upon which rests the leadership of the River County Hunter clan. Arthur Saldovado's older brother grows distant and untrusting. Arthur must balance his duty to the senior Hunter with protecting the shadow mage Hunter in Shadows and preventing strife within the clan. Arthur's adopted daughter, Lelia Lestrang, watches and worries. That is, when she's not trying hard to keep from ordering her children to marry (she wants grandchildren!) and sighing mightily when her much loved husband leaves his clothes lying in front of the laundry hamper yet again.

Then a sorceress discovers the remains of a gate between the worlds, cast with blood-path magic.

Where can an out-cast Hunter find shelter, save for the grave?

"I wish something would happen and clear the air!" When the storm breaks, Lelia, André, their Familiars, and their family pull together to fight a battle Lelia though had ended fifty years before.

The end of an era? Or the start of something Preternaturally Familiar?

Also new from Alma is the seventh in her "Merchant and Empire" series.  This one's titled "Noble, Priest and Empire".

The blurb reads:

Valdher of the Wilds, Lady of the Forest

Unwanted survivor, failure, Halwende cost his father money and should never have become heir. When Valdher chooses him as priest, no one is prepared for what follows, least of all Halwende.

Sneelah of the Snows, Lady of the Ice

Young in his power, Aglak Rothbard settles long-simmering disputes. With force. Icy-cold force, just like the goddess he serves.

One man seeks to open the raw, new lands in the north for settlement, as his Lady commands. The other seeks to balance rapid change and the desires of a deity reluctant to release her hold on the north. When long-forbidden magic is brought back to light and used for ill purposes, both men and their deities must work together for the good of the Northern Empire. Two men and their patrons, strong in power and stronger in will. Who will be master of the northern lands?

When Cervi and Snow-cat collide, the forest trembles!

J. L. Curtis (better known in the blogosphere as Old NFO) has just released a short story, to tide his readers over while he works on his next book.  It's titled "Country Boys (and Girls) will Survive".

The blurb reads:

Shady Rest Mobile Home Park wasn't anything much... Small, old, and butted up against the Okefenokee swamp, with an 'eclectic' group of tenants, it was the target in a long time feud.

DK Thorne, a medically retired Marine, did his best to keep the place afloat, the tenants happy, and fight off the County. He was managing to do that until the local witch said 'things' were coming from the other side of the 'veil'...

And they did, but country boys and girls know how to survive.

Not a new book, but information about forthcoming anthologies from Lawdog and Raconteur Press.  He's published a timetable for half a dozen planned anthologies, so if you want to submit a story for inclusion, go read.

And finally, last but by no means least, a few weeks ago I mentioned the first book, "How Not to Shoot Fish, and Other Deer that Got Away", in a two-volume hunting anthology from Cedar Sanderson.  I had a story in that first volume.  She's just published the second volume, titled "The Deer Shot Back, and Other Hunting Tales".

The blurb reads:

Come for the laughter, stay for the next generation's induction into the ancient art of hunting for the table. Twenty tales of hunting, fishing, trapping, and wilderness adventures will remind you why what was once practiced for survival became a sport, and is coming back around as people remember why we respect the creatures that keep us alive. For one thing, it's the pratfalls that come along with all the serious notions. You can't help but laugh along with these stories of how it went wrong in the most hilarious of ways!

I have to admit, it made me giggle out loud on more than one occasion.  Hunting misadventures appear to be a universal staple!

I've read, and recommend, all the above books.  Enjoy!

Peter

This sounds suspiciously close to deliberate medical murder

 

I'm profoundly conflicted, as a human being and as a Christian, by this news from the medical front.

With little attention or debate, transplant surgeons across the country are experimenting with a kind of partial resurrection: They're allowing terminal patients to die, then restarting their hearts while clamping off blood flow to their brains. The procedure allows the surgeons to inspect and remove organs from warm bodies with heartbeats.

Transplant surgeons and several bioethicists argue that the procedure is appropriate and crucial to boosting the number of organs that are available for transplant. But critics -- including other bioethicists and the nation's second-largest physician organization -- warn that surgeons are trampling the line between life and death.

. . .

The 160,000-member ACP [American College of Physicians], the second-largest U.S. physician group after the American Medical Association, has raised the loudest alarm about the NRP-cDCD procedure. In a 2021 policy statement, the organization warned that it "raises significant ethical concerns and questions regarding the dead donor rule, fundamental ethical obligations of respect, beneficence, and justice, and the imperative to never use one individual merely as a means to serve the ends of another, no matter how noble or good those ends may be."

Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD, a bioethicist at the University of Colorado and a consultant to ACP, was lead author of a 2022 commentary in the journal Chest opposing the procedure.

"You're reversing the conditions under which death is declared and taking active steps to ensure the progression to brain death," he told MedPage Today. "The person is declared dead, and the subsequent actions invalidate that declaration" ... "Imagine you're an outside observer watching this procedure take place. You'd be unable to distinguish whether it was proceeding to organ transplantation or the resuscitation of the patient."

There's more at the link.

I'm sure the medical "ethicists" (in this case, that may be a contradiction in terms) have their own reasons for approving of this procedure;  but I can't help thinking of it as the nearest thing possible to deliberate killing.  Restarting the heart while shutting off blood to the brain?  What else can you call that but killing?  Without the shutting off of blood, the brain would react normally, and reanimate the body.

I fear this is the inevitable consequence of doing away with the concept of "soul";  the thing that makes a human being, human;  a spiritual concept that goes beyond mere flesh and blood.  If one regards the body as just flesh and blood, with no spiritual component at all, then human life itself is no more than flesh and blood.  When they fail, human life of necessity ends right there.  There's no need to think of one's humanity as more than merely physical, and certainly no need to take account of God and eternity, because neither of those concepts is physical.

Needless to say, no Christian (and no believer from Islamic, Judaic, or many other faith traditions) will accept that;  but our voices no longer count in the soulless, post-spiritual corridors of medical power.  It's all about utility, about harvesting the maximum possible number of organs to transplant (very profitably, needless to say) into patients desperate for them.

In the ultimate obscenity, that's what allows China to offer an "organs-on-demand" service to transplant patients from overseas, taking them from those whom the Communist Party has deemed politically incorrect and transplanting them into well-heeled patients from other countries.  To find a matching organ donor in the USA can take months, even years, but in China - thanks to a large pool of available (and involuntary) "donors", perhaps numbering in the millions - they can often do it in a matter of weeks.  That's great for the patient, if you don't mind having on your conscience (if any) the fact that someone was murdered to give you the organ(s) you needed to live.  Sadly, judging by the number of transplants China performs, many don't have such a conscience at all.

I find this whole situation horrifying.  Imagine being in an accident and being taken to hospital.  You registered as an organ donor some years ago, perhaps doing so idly while renewing your driver's license.  Now, as you're wheeled into the ER, you know that if things don't go well for you, there will be doctors - perhaps the same medical staff you're trusting to save your life - salivating at the thought of deliberately allowing you to die, or even accelerating the process, in order to harvest your organs for profit.  So much for dedicated medical care!  If that doesn't scare the living daylights out of you, it should!

Peter

Remembering an epic sports anniversary

 

On October 3, 2021, political history was made after a Nascar race.

Seldom has a sports reporter put her foot in her mouth quite so comprehensively . . . or so memorably!

Peter

"Now is the time to take back control of money"

 

That's the position of Neil Oliver, whom we've met in these pages on many previous occasions.  I think he makes a strong case.  Here's his video presentation, followed by an excerpt from the transcript.

Mr. Oliver notes:

Let’s imagine you want to borrow 200k to buy a house. When you go to the bank and ask for that money, the banker doesn’t give you existing funds, cash from a drawer for instance. Instead, he creates that 200k out of nowhere – money that previously did not exist. That money is not backed by anything real – no gold or anything else. It is conjured out of nowhere and exists now only because the banker says it does. He then says you have to pay him back the 200k plus – let’s say for the sake of example – another 200k in interest.

He is allowed to credit your account with money that did not exist until you asked for it and he pressed digits on a keyboard … and then he invites himself to charge you whatever interest he wants on that previously non-existent sum. Talk about a fool-proof way to make money. This is how all money is created in our world and this is why so many people are made to live crippled by debt. Every year the British people pay tens of billions of pounds to private bankers as interest on something that DID NOT EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE.

How could I be sure, but I suspect that if you or I were to attempt something similar, we would be thrown in jail before our feet touched the ground.

William Paterson, cofounder of the Bank of England in 1694, noted that:

“… the Bank hath benefit of interest on all moneys which it creates out of nothing.”

1694 … that’s at least as long as this has been going on … how long we’ve been submitting to debt created by a handful of rich people to keep everyone else under their control.

There's much more at the link, and it's well worth reading.  Recommended.

Peter

Hurricane Ian highlights another important need in a disaster

 

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ian, hundreds of thousands of Floridians found that their cellphones did not work.  The towers were inoperative, either due to storm damage or because their power had been cut off.  Many were repaired within a day or two, but apparently several hundred cellphone towers are still not working, leaving large areas without that means of communication.  Add to that the destruction of the few remaining telephone landlines, and you have a "communications desert" covering (probably) several thousand square miles.

This highlights the need for some form of emergency communication for you and your family members, and perhaps for close friends or associates who will band together to help each other in times of need.  There are any number of fancy radios and accessories out there, and a brief Internet search will find more information about them.  I'd like to keep it simple and low-cost, and talk about the Family Radio Service (FRS) and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) systems.  I'll also mention Citizens Band (CB) radios.

Briefly, FRS was authorized in 1996.  Its radios are limited to 2 watts maximum power, and have 22 channels (shared with the more powerful GMRS service).  Under normal operating conditions, its usable range is up to a mile;  under exceptional conditions, it might reach out to 30 miles or more, but that's very rare and unusual, and won't be feasible using a hand-held radio.  It'll need a base station with a longer and more sensitive antenna, and no interference with line-of-sight between transmitting and receiving stations (e.g. buildings, hills, etc.).

GMRS requires a license in the USA, although no tests are involved;  merely the payment of a fee (currently $70) to the FCC for a 10-year permit.  It uses the same channels as FRS, plus a few more, and can transmit at up to 50 watts power (although 5 watts is more usual in hand-held devices).  Range is not necessarily greater than FRS, particularly if buildings or hills limit line-of-sight distances, but due to its higher power, GMRS signals mostly have less interference and "noise" than FRS.  GMRS radios can also use detachable antennae, giving greater flexibility.

CB radios are well-known in the USA, particularly thanks to their use by truckers and the many CB-themed trucker movies of the 1970's.  They use 40 channels, and operate at up to 4 watts power (although single-sideband [SSB] radios can use up to 12 watts).  Their effective range is 1-2 miles in areas with obstacles such as tall buildings or hills, and up to 20 miles in line-of-sight (although half that is considered good by many users).  They're popular with truckers and other road travelers, and also with boaters on inland and coastal waters.  However, they are so widely used that interference from other transmissions is common in heavily trafficked areas.

What about costs?  These vary widely.  For a simple comparison, I'll take handheld radios manufactured by Midland, a prominent US vendor, and compare their prices on Amazon.  There are dozens of manufacturers and scores of models available - these are merely examples.

• Midland 22 Channel FRS Walkie Talkies with Channel Scan - 2-pack - $47.99.
• Midland 50 Channel Waterproof GMRS Two-Way Radio - 2-pack - $69.99.
• Midland 75-785 4 Watt Handheld CB Radio - single - $79.99.

I highly recommend reading customer reviews of the radio(s) in which you're interested.  The ratings are all over the place, some excellent, some terrible, but a lot seems to depend on where the customer is located and the kind of terrain/obstacles around which the radio(s) will be used.

For most of us (including yours truly) cost and complications are limiting factors.  The cost factor speaks for itself - if I want every member of my family to be able to communicate with each other in an emergency, I can't afford anything gold-plated or high-technology.  Furthermore, I need something relatively simple and easy to use, which doesn't require a lot of training to make sense of it.  (I trained in radio communications in the military, which helps, but many of those with whom I might need to communicate didn't, and don't have that level of knowledge.  The K.I.S.S. principle definitely applies, particularly for families with younger children!)

For those reasons, my basic emergency communications outfit is the Midland GMRS two-way radio mentioned above.  I bought the waterproof version, which was only available in a camouflage finish at the time.  Click the image for a larger view.

They come with a rechargeable battery, or can use 4 AA batteries if they can't be recharged for some reason.  They offer reliable communication up to a couple of miles in the area in which I live, and sometimes more depending on atmospheric conditions.  On the road (for example, if my wife and I are traveling in separate vehicles) they'll help us keep in touch as long as we aren't more than a mile or two apart.  For a low-cost short-range communications option, that's about as good as it gets.

For extended range and/or more difficult operating conditions, you'll have to spend more money.  High-end CB radios can reach out 10 to 20 miles with the right antenna, but they're typically vehicle- or desk-mounted units (not hand-held), using vehicle or mains power, and cost up to several hundred dollars.  There's also full-blown "ham" radio equipment that requires a special license, but can communicate over hundreds or even thousands of miles - and can cost thousands of dollars, too!  I'm not going to get into that here.

If you don't have any form of emergency communication other than your cellphone, I recommend you look into one of the options mentioned above.  They may turn out to be a life-saver - and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 128

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

I thought we'd have some fun this morning hearing the music of Pink Floyd as it's seldom performed - unplugged, with no or minimal electronic instruments.  It changes the character of the songs, and forces one to listen to the music and the structure in a whole new way.

Let's begin with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

Next, "Wish You Were Here".

Here's "Echoes".

And to close, here's perhaps the quintessential Pink Floyd number, "Comfortably Numb".  David Gilmour swaps his acoustic guitar for an electric one to perform his signature riffs.

A different slant on some of the most original progressive rock music ever composed.

Peter

Saturday Snippet: A very English poet

 

Continuing our occasional series on poetry, this morning I'd like to mention G. K. Chesterton.  Well-known for his thousands of articles, Christian apologetics and his Father Brown novels, he was also a prolific poet.  Some of his poems are popular to this day, and several collections are available.

I'd like to start with one of his best-known historical poems, "Lepanto".  It describes Don John of Austria at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.  It was one of the most important sea battles in history, ensuring that Europe would remain free of the Ottoman Turkish yoke.

White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun. 

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young,
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain—hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea. 

Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri’s knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunset and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees,
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king. 

They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,
From temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn;
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground,—
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, “Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk can hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done,
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces—four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not ‘Kismet’; it is he that knows not Fate ;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey in the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth.”
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still—hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar. 

St. Michael’s on his mountain in the sea-roads of the north
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift
And the sea folk labour and the red sails lift.
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
      Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships. 

King Philip’s in his closet with the Fleece about his neck
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.)
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial, and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John’s hunting, and his hounds have bayed—
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.

The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)
The hidden room in man’s house where God sits all the year,
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,
They veil the plumèd lions on the galleys of St. Mark;
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that sweat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stair-ways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.
They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings’ horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign—
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate’s sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free! 

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade....
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

Next, a poem with a religious allegory that I've always enjoyed.  It's titled simply "The Donkey".

When fishes flew and forests walked
   And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
   Then surely I was born. 

With monstrous head and sickening cry
   And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
   On all four-footed things. 

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
   Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
   I keep my secret still. 

Fools! For I also had my hour;
   One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
   And palms before my feet.

Finally, one of my favorites among Chesterton's poems:  "The Rolling English Road".  It's a humorous look at drunkenness, and tramps (hoboes) on the road, going nowhere in particular - all leavened with a whimsical faith.  Many of the references will be unfamiliar to American readers, but if you look up the place names on a map, you'll be able to trace the routes concerned (which are deliberately comic:  going to X by way of Y is all very well, but Y is always far off the road to X, so it makes no sense).  The reference to "Paradise by way of Kensal Green" in the last verse is to the cemetery there.

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head. 

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands. 

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier. 

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

Maddy Prior, lead singer of the folk rock group Steeleye Span and a composer and singer in her own right, has set "The Rolling English Road" to music.  Here's her ballad-like performance, which I greatly enjoy.

Peter