This may be TMI, but I know some readers may find it useful, so here goes

 

Regular readers will know that I underwent a kidney procedure last week.  It's a problem that often creeps up on a victim unawares, not revealing itself until it's fairly advanced;  and the consequences of dealing with it may be very uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing.  I'm writing this in the hope it may help readers who may one day face the same problem, so that they have more information than the doctors typically provide.  (I've been very unhappy by the casual, offhand, uninformative way two urologists have dealt with me so far.  Professionalism, it ain't!)

My problem is known as hydronephrosis.  Unfortunately, it did not make its presence felt until it was relatively far advanced, making treatment more difficult and possibly having already caused at least some permanent kidney damage.  Coming on top of another serious medical condition (of which more later), it's an unwanted, unneeded and excessively painful irritation, to put it mildly.

The first procedure, last week, implanted a stent in my ureter (the tube between kidney and bladder) to promote drainage.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have worked as planned.  There's still a blockage, and at least one more procedure will be needed to deal with it.  A third may be necessary, but we're hoping and praying not.  Provided the kidney is still functional, that may make an end to the problem;  if the accumulated damage is too great, removal may follow.

Unfortunately, one of the side-effects of the stent has been to render my bladder completely uncontrollable.  When there's urine in it, no matter how much or how little, it's going to flow, whether I like it or not!  (It's also a rather painful process, but that's beside the point.)  That applies particularly whenever I stand up from a seated or lying position.  Within ten seconds, the urge to urinate becomes unstoppable.  Since I can't always make it to a bathroom in time, that means I have to temporarily wear adult incontinence diapers.

I've been astonished at the varying (in)effectiveness of most of the half-dozen products I've tried.  They almost all displayed one or more problems;  inadequate absorption (leading to embarrassing leaks), tearing, poor fit, discomfort and other issues.  The only one that (in my limited experience) fully lived up to its billing and worked exactly as advertised is the Tranquility Premium Overnight brand.

It's sizing chart was accurate, and its biggest size is definitely adequate for large people (something all other brands of similar size got wrong).  The wrapping claims absorption of up to 34 oz (approximately one quart) or 1,005 ml (approximately one liter), and it lives up to its claim.  Even under the heaviest flows, it stays in place and soaks them up without fuss or bother.  (A daytime version of the same product does almost as well, but the overnight version offers greater absorption, so it's the one I prefer to use).  It's relatively comfortable to wear, although conventional underwear should be worn on top in order to hold it in place, particularly when weighed down by contents, so to speak.

I was disappointed and frustrated to find that other brands simply did not live up to their claims.  I won't list all those I tried, because I don't see any point - none of them were worth what I paid for them.  The Tranquility product is the only one where I've been willing, after trying it, to place a bulk order in the confidence that it'll do the job.  Those of you who may face the need for incontinence diapers at some stage might want to make a note of the name, rather than waste your money on less effective products.  (No, Tranquility isn't paying me in cash or in kind to promote their diapers.  They don't even know I'm writing this.  I just want to let my friends and readers know about something that may be important to them if things go wrong - and believe me, something like this is a pretty fundamental need at times like that!)

I see the urologist again today to discuss the next procedure.  Hopefully, after that's done and time has been allowed for healing, I won't need these any more.  I'll cross my fingers and tie knots in what I can't cross, hoping for the best!

Peter

Battle of the bots: air drones versus ground drones

 

Twitter/X user Yam Peleg brings us a video clip of ground unmanned vehicles (drones) being attacked by suicide unmanned aerial vehicles (also drones).  Go watch.  It's worth your time.

One suspects this may be the future of ground combat between technologically capable adversaries.  Why risk a human life when you can send an automated system to do his job?  And why counter the adversary with a human when another automated system will be at least as, if not more, efficient?

As I've said before, in this technological age, I'm glad I'm not an infantryman any longer . . .

Peter

That's a lot of wind beneath their wings...

 

A report at The War Zone brought back many military (and other) memories.

After an extraordinary career spanning more than 80 years of service, and plenty of operational missions, the South African Air Force (SAAF) is preparing to retire its last C-47 Dakotas. Remarkably, the SAAF is moving to discard its C-47s while, at the same time, elsewhere around the globe, turboprop versions of the venerable transport continue to win orders.

The story of the Dakota in SAAF service stretches all the way back to 1943 when the service was fighting in World War Two. Most extraordinary, perhaps, is that among the very last Dakotas operated by the SAAF, most had been delivered during that conflict, having started life as C-47s manufactured for the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF).

By June next year the South African Air Force will have been operating C-47 Dakotas continuously for 80 years, albeit much upgraded. Even more astounding is that some airframes still in active service have been there from the start, with the oldest (6825) delivered in Feb 1944.

The SAAF’s Dakota fleet, however, saw its most extensive combat service during the long-running conflict in South West Africa (now known as Namibia) and Angola, supporting South African Defence Force (SADF) units during the so-called Border War between 1966 and 1989. The SADF relied heavily on the Dakota for troop transport, resupply, medical evacuation, paratrooping, and other missions, its importance was heightened by the sanctions on Apartheid South Africa that complicated the procurement of alternative equipment.

By the 1980s, the SAAF operated the largest fleet of Dakotas anywhere in the world — close to 50 in total. However, the demise of minority rule in South Africa, and the end of the Border War, saw the Dakota — and the SAAF more generally — switch increasingly to peacetime missions, especially humanitarian work. At the same time, Dakota squadrons were rationalized, and the fleet was reduced in size.

There's more at the link.

The SAAF's C-47's flew in combat zones many times over the years.  They were the primary transport for secondary military air routes in South Africa and then-South West Africa (today Namibia), with C-130's and C-160's handling the busier routes.  During the Rhodesian War many SAAF C-47's and Alouette III helicopters were "loaned" to Rhodesia, supplementing that country's small Air Force for "Fireforce" anti-terrorist missions and cross-border operations into Zambia and Mozambique.  During South Africa's own Border War in the 1980's they were the shorter-range backbone of air transport operations, including one (shown below) that had an argument with a SA-7 Strela anti-aircraft missile and barely made it back to an airport in time to avoid crashing.

I flew many thousands of miles aboard SAAF C-47's, including one that was so old its logbook recorded it dropping paratroopers at Arnhem in 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden - the so-called "Bridge Too Far" airborne assault.  It was in remarkably good shape for an aircraft that had been "rode hard and put away wet" for almost 40 years by the time I flew in it.  That particular aircraft is still in service, having been converted to turboprop propulsion along with the SAAF's other surviving C-47's.  I also traveled aboard the civilian DC-3 transports of Air Cape, flying along the Garden Route to and from Cape Town.  Even in the 1980's, dirt and grass airfields were still in use at some of the small towns there, with no all-weather runways.  Things could get bouncy during takeoff and landing, and occasionally the pilot would have to make a couple of low passes to chase a cow or two off the runway before he could land!

The SAAF Museum still has a flying example of the C-47 as built, with its original Pratt & Whitney engines.  Here's its C-47 showing off at an air display.  It's not a very good video, but it's the best I could find on YouTube.

I wonder what the SAAF will buy to replace its C-47's?  There's no doubt that it needs a replacement, both for transport and for coastal maritime reconnaissance (both roles currently filled by the C-47), but the SAAF's aircraft fleet is in very parlous condition at present, with a minimal budget and very few skilled maintainers left to keep it flying.  The service is a pale shadow of what it was in the 1980's, when it was undoubtedly the premier air force in sub-Saharan Africa, with skills and operational experience on a par with most NATO air arms.

Despite its age and long overdue need for replacement, it'll be sad to see the last of the SAAF's C-47's take a final bow and retire into history.

Peter

Remember what I said about the FBI?

 

A few years ago I wrote an article titled "The FBI can no longer be trusted in any way, shape or form".  Given the latest news about the shenanigans of the General Services Administration, I'm thinking that warning should be applied to the entire federal bureaucracy, not just the FBI or the Justice Department.  Second City Cop reports:

So the feebs brought along props, used them in "evidence" photographs, then leaked the photos to the media. Laughable. And now it turns out that all those boxes of "classified" documents were:

• actually in the possession of the General Services Administration;
• packed by the GSA;
• delivered to Trump by the GSA;
• who then "tipped off" the feebs about supposed "classified" info.

. . . 

Even a third-world banana republic is more competent framing people that this outfit.

There's more at the link, including a link to another article providing further details.

I hope there will one day be an in-depth investigation into any and every government employee, department, agency and entity involved in the ongoing quasi-legal persecution of President Trump, with condign punishment meted out to everyone responsible for such shenanigans.  That's unlikely to happen under a Democratic Party administration, but there's always a chance that might change - one way or another.

Peter

How long until he's assassinated?

 

I note that the President-elect of Panama has vowed to stop the influx of migrants across his country towards the USA.

President-elect Jose Raul Mulino vowed to shut down a crucial migration gap through Panama that has been used by more than 500,000 migrants over the last year, signaling a shift in the country’s policy as the US continues to battle a crisis at its southern border, according to a report from Voice of America.

“Panama and our Darien [Gap] are not a transit route. It is our border,” Mulino said, according to the report.

Panama had previously helped bus migrants through the critical gap and allowed them to continue their journey north, a policy that has allowed thousands to reach the US border with Mexico.

There's more at the link.

That sounds like good news for us, but it's unlikely to succeed.  For a start, international organizations ranging from the United Nations to NGO's are all trying to facilitate migration from South America through Panama to Mexico, and ultimately to the USA.  To make matters worse, drug cartels in Mexico and countries south are making billions of dollars by transporting such migrants to our borders.  Finally, the Biden administration and the Democratic Party are openly admitting as many migrants as they can, in an attempt to change the future makeup of the US electorate to favor their policies.

With all those interests arrayed against him, how can President-elect Mulino hope to succeed?  I'm willing to bet large sums of money that he'll be "persuaded" through bribery and/or threats (the infamous "plata o plomo" question) to change his tune.  If he doesn't, I'm equally willing to bet that he'll be assassinated or otherwise removed from office (a fraudulent, rigged investigation for corruption, perhaps?) as quickly as possible.  He threatens too many powerful, rich constituencies with his proposal, and they won't stand for it.

I certainly hope he succeeds with his proposed policies . . . but I don't think he stands a snowball's chance in hell.  The forces arrayed against him, politically, criminally and monetarily, are simply too powerful.  I'd love to be wrong about that, but I doubt it.

Peter

How badly is the next harvest already affected?

 

As if we didn't have enough problems with our food supply already, it appears that the recent solar storms have created new difficulties for farmers.

The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large parts of the United States this weekend also broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and agricultural equipment during a critical point of the planting season.

. . .

“All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm,” Kevin Kenney, a farmer in Nebraska, told me. “No GPS. We’re right in the middle of corn planting. I’ll bet the commodity markets spike Monday.”

. . .

“Due to the way the RTK network works, the base stations were sending out corrections that have been affected by the geomagnetic storm and were causing drastic shifts in the field and even some heading changes that were drastic,” the dealership told farmers Saturday morning. “When you head back into these fields to side dress, spray, cultivate, harvest, etc. over the next several months, we expect that the rows won't be where the AutoPath lines think they are. This will only affect the fields that are planted during times of reduced accuracy. It is most likely going to be difficult—if not impossible—to make AutoPath work in these fields as the inaccuracy is most likely inconsistent.”

These automated systems have become critical to modern farming (often called “precision agriculture”), with farmers using increasingly automated tractors to plant crops in perfectly straight lines with uniform spacing. Precision agriculture has greatly increased the yield of farms, and a 2023 report by the US Department of Agriculture noted that more than 50 percent of corn, cotton, rice, sorghum, soybeans, and winter wheat are planted and harvested with “automated guidance.” Many modern tractors essentially steer themselves, with the oversight of a farmer in the cab. If the planting or harvesting is even slightly off, the tractors or harvesters could damage crops or plant crooked or inconsistently, which can cause problems during the growing season and ultimately reduce yield.

There's more at the link.

I called a couple of farming friends and asked them about this.  All agreed that for the big commercial farms, it might be a very serious problem indeed.  It seems that big automated tractors and other machinery electronically map the location of the seed rows they plant, and use those maps throughout the growing season to navigate to them to spread fertilizer, pull weeds, and eventually harvest the crop.  If the initial maps are not accurate, then future work on those seeds might miss them by feet or yards, meaning that they won't be properly fertilized and protected during their growth.  The harvest from those rows might be reduced substantially as a result.

Can farmers compensate manually for this failure of their automated systems?  I have no idea.  I presume that once seeds start to grow, the plants can be seen with the naked eye and fertilized, weeded, etc. accordingly, but how many commercial farms are set up to work that way?  As far as I know, most of them reduce their workers to a bare minimum prior to harvest, because automated systems do most of the work formerly done by hand.  If they have to revert to the old ways to care for a proportion of their crops, is that even possible today?  Do they have enough staff and older-style equipment to do so?

Another question is, how many farms, and how many seed rows, have been affected?  If farmers planted (say) 10% or 20% of their crops for this year in an inaccurate fashion, will yields be reduced by a similar proportion?  That might be disastrous for contracts, futures trades, exports, and all sorts of other industries that rely on farm production as an input for their own business activities.  What's more, I don't know whether crop insurance, that would pay out if bad weather, drought, fire, etc. affected a farm's production, will pay out over navigational errors like this.  I don't think the problem has ever arisen before, so it's possible the insurance policies don't even mention the issue.

I suspect smaller farms won't be as badly affected, as they're less likely to be able to afford the (very expensive) GPS-guided farm equipment involved.  However, they also don't produce a large proportion of the crops in this country.  "Big Ag" might be in for a torrid time this harvest season - and what will that do to food prices and availability, not just in this country, but around the world?  Commercial farms all over the world use the same technology these days, so the issue is unlikely to be confined to the USA.

Yet another reason, IMHO, to make sure our emergency preparations include a reasonable amount of food in reserve, just in case.  I'm going to keep an eye on the cost of frozen and canned vegetables, flour, etc.  I suspect some may become a lot more expensive as shortages bite.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 209

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

I'm enjoying the music of a late Baroque composer new to me, Johann Wilhelm Hertel.  He was prolific, leaving a very large corpus of music on his death, but is little performed today.

Here's his Concerto for Oboe in G Minor.  The soloist is Meike Güldenhaupt, performing with the Main-Barockorchester Frankfurt.

You'll find more of his works on YouTube.

Peter

On the mend

 

Well, three days after the procedure I'm still alive, kicking and eating my salad from the top down rather than from the roots up.  So far, so good.

I see the surgeon next week for a follow-up, and there'll be a second procedure soon after that to try to complete the job that couldn't be done in a single pass.  Things get complicated when organs have to be given time to drain!  If all goes well, that'll be the end of that particular problem;  but if things don't go well, I may need a third surgery to remove a kidney.  Needless to say, I'm hoping that won't be necessary.

Once this problem is out of the way, there's a bigger one on the horizon.  Thanks to bureaucratic infighting, I'll probably have to launch a GiveSendGo fundraiser for assistance with that one.  I'll tell you more about it in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, thank you all very much for your prayers and support.  They mean a lot to me.

Peter

The Rules of Sewage?

 

I came across this on Gab the other day.  I'm not sure I agree with all of it, but it's certainly food for thought.

The rules of sewage:

Imagine you have two cups. One contains the purest, clearest, most wonderful water possible. The other, raw sewage. When you mix the two, you get sewage. The same for a cup of sewage and a pitcher of water, or a barrel of water. Regardless of the size of the pure water container, the sewage contaminates it.

This became the root of what I refer to as “The Rules of Sewage” in regards to a person’s character. This one is the First Rule of Sewage, The Non-Proportional Rule of Sewage. It means, as the saying above goes, that you can sometimes learn a thing about a person that taints the entirety of their personality – e.g., a person beats their spouse. It doesn’t matter what else they are, what acts they do, they are polluted by that one thing.

This simmered in my mind over a couple of years, and I started to formulate other Rules of Sewage. Each was based on the same base concept – mixing water and sewage. Thus far I’ve come up with six.

The Second Rule of Sewage is the Non-Compartmentalized Rule of Sewage. You cannot pour a cup of sewage into a container of water, and have it only remain in the place you poured it. Bad character leaks into other elements of character. E.g., a person who cheats on their spouse – thus breaking a sacred oath – cannot be counted on to keep an oath in any other part of their life.

The Third Rule of Sewage is the Immersive Rule of Sewage. Imagine an edible fish taken from that pure water, placed in sewage, and somehow surviving – no matter the fish’s immune system and other defenses, it will become contaminated. No matter how pure you are to begin with, if you are surrounded by bad people or bad content, it will start to affect you. E.g., a good, honest person who goes to work in a place with bad ethics and stays there – for whatever reason – will sooner or later find they are making compromises to their own character and standards, and rationalizing their doing so. (And this is, of course, the root of the proverb “Birds of a feather, flock together.”)

The Fourth Rule of Sewage is Irreversible Rule of Sewage. Simply put, it’s a lot easier to mix the sewage in and ruin the water than reversing the process. While people are certainly capable of change, it takes deliberate effort to do so, and usually also an ongoing awareness and maintenance of that change to avoid slipping back to whatever factor is being avoided.

The Fifth Rule of Sewage is the Odiferous Rule of Sewage. Sewage, to put it bluntly, stinks like sh*t. Bad odors like that can be covered up or contained, but not forever. Sooner or later the malodorous item in a person’s character will out, and be readily apparent. This actually ties in with…

The Sixth Rule of Sewage, the Reactive Rule of Sewage – when faced with a tank of sewage, normal people react negatively. And while a person learning something about another (ref: Rule One) won’t physically turn their head away and scrunch up their face in disgust, I believe the plain truth is that upon learning of such a think will cause a decent person to dissociate – to whatever degree possible – from the other. Failing to do so, or worse expressing approval, could be considered an example application of Rule One about them too.

I can certainly get on board with the Sixth Rule, often expressed as "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas".  What do you think of the rest?

Peter

How hungry did you say you were?

 

THIS hungry!  Found on Gab (clickit to biggit):

One look at that and my convalescing body is demanding to go back to the ER, stat!

Peter

One step forward, but not far enough

 

My deepest thanks to everyone who kept me in thought and prayer for my procedure yesterday.  It was partially successful, but the surgeon discovered additional problems that prevented him from completing it.  I'm going to have to go back next week for additional tests, followed by another procedure.  I hope that will deal with the current problem, but that remains to be seen.

I'll also have to check on the costs involved.  We could cope with the co-pay (several thousand dollars) for one procedure, but a second (assuming it costs a similar amount) will be cause for concern, as will a different and much more complex procedure likely to be needed soon.  I know some of my European and Canadian readers will likely argue that the subsidized cost of national health care in their countries makes such procedures much more affordable, but it can also take months (sometimes even years) to get the attention one needs.  Here, it's more expensive but faster, and (unlike Canada) I don't have to put up with bureaucrats encouraging me to kill myself instead, to save money for the health care system.  (I don't think they'd appreciate my response.)

Meanwhile, I'm in a lot of pain, resting at home and trying to cope with the aftereffects of the first procedure.  I think my wife is rapidly building up her sainthood points as she puts up with my grumpiness, helps me gently and lovingly to get around and do what I can, and proves every time how lucky (and wise) I was to marry her.  I'd hate to be facing this without her love and support.

Blogging will be sparse for the next few days, because my sleep schedule and ability to sit at the computer are subject to change without notice.  I'll see about putting up something more substantial later today, mobility and pain level permitting.

Thanks again for your prayers.  Please keep them coming!

Peter

Medical hiatus

 

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday 7th May, I'm scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure.  I hope to be out of hospital the same day, if all goes well, followed by a week or two of recovery at home, probably with some home health nursing thrown in.  If all goes well, it should be a relatively simple procedure;  but there are ramifications that may turn it into something much more complicated.  The surgeon won't know until he gets in there and can take a look.  I'll be very grateful for your prayers for healing, please.

I won't be blogging tomorrow, and possibly for a day or two after that, depending on how things go.  While I'm offline, please amuse yourselves with the bloggers listed in my sidebar.  I'll be back online as soon as I can manage it.

Thanks, y'all.  Enjoy the peace and quiet while I'm gone.

Peter

Two hundred years ago today...

 

... Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time in Vienna, Austria.  It went on to become perhaps the best-known symphony in the classical music repertoire.  The anniversary is being celebrated there with all due pomp and ceremony.

The symphony, widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of Western classical music and culminating in the Ode to Joy, was first performed in 1824 in Vienna, where the German composer lived and worked for most of his life.

Now the city is celebrating with a series of performances of the symphony, notably by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by famed Italian Riccardo Muti.

“It's the whole world to us to be able to sing this wonderful message of love,” Heidrun Irene Mittermair, an alto in the Vienna Singverein Choir, told the BBC. “You're lifted up at the end, when you're singing.”

Heidrun, like the rest of the singers in the Singverein Choir, is not a professional musician - she’s a schoolteacher. But her choir sings at Vienna’s famous Musikverein Concert hall, with the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s finest orchestras.

Over the past few days, the choir has been singing the stirring Ode to Joy, the choral finale of Beethoven’s Ninth. Based on a poem by Friedrich von Schiller, it embraces a vision of universal brotherhood.

The musicologist Otto Biba said the symphony was revolutionary, partly because it culminated with singing.

“It was a symphony, but with something new in the fourth movement. There was a choir on the stage and the soloists were starting to sing," he said. "There were so many new details. It was very difficult for the musicians, and very experimental.”

“Beethoven opened the door to the future. It's a work left by Beethoven for the next generation,” Mr Biba said.

There's more at the link.

It's worth remembering that Beethoven composed this symphony while almost completely deaf.  At its premiere performance, conducted by Michael Umlauf, Beethoven was on stage as well, and tried to conduct his own work, but lost his sense of timing due to his deafness.  At the end of the piece: 

Beethoven was several bars off and still conducting; the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and gently turned Beethoven around to accept the audience's cheers and applause. According to the critic for the Theater-Zeitung, "the public received the musical hero with the utmost respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them." The audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, and raised hands, so that Beethoven, who they knew could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations.

For those who've never been to Vienna, and never heard the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra or seen the Musikverein, here are both of them in a single video.

Timeless indeed, and well worth commemorating on this anniversary.

Peter

The 2024 election campaign in a nutshell

Stephan Pastis, as usual, says it all.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Yet again, let me point out that with all the manipulation, lying, cheating and deception going on - from both sides of the political aisle - we should not expect a free, fair election in November.  Shenanigans will be the order of the day.  Do not trust any professional politician (i.e. one who's done nothing else except work in politics since leaving high school or college).  If they've grown up in and through that system, they're as untrustworthy as that system.  By all means pick one's flavor of politician and vote for them, but don't expect that to change or improve our society.  I reckon we could count the moral, ethical, honest, upright politicians in the House or the Senate on the fingers of one hand, two at most.

Remember the acronym TINVOWOOT - There Is No Voting Our Way Out Of This - because you're going to be hearing it a lot between now and then.

Peter

Talk about clutter!

 

I was taken aback by a photograph of the latest generation of M2 Bradley armored fighting vehicles, the M2A4E1.  I've closed in on the turret in this picture, cutting out most of the body.  Click the image for a larger view.

That's an awfully cluttered turret, isn't it?  It's got stuff hanging off it every which way you look.  I'm sure they're all valuable and useful items, but they're not under the protection of the armor plate in the vehicle's hull and turret.  They're stuck out in the open, exposed.

When I was shooting at the Other Side, way back when, we were delighted to see enemy vehicles with that sort of improvised, hodge-podge installation of equipment, precisely because it was so easy to damage.  One burst from a machine-gun, or one or two air-burst artillery rounds, or even a collision with a low-hanging tree branch (common in the African bush warfare environment), and that equipment would be at best damaged, at worst destroyed.  It was simply too fragile for a combat environment.

I'm sure the Army has done its best to protect all those exposed systems, putting them in armored boxes, leading as much as possible of the wiring inside and under cover, and so on.  Nevertheless, stuck out there like that, they're inevitably more vulnerable to damage or destruction than they should have been.  In a battlefield environment that depends as much as ours do today on latest-generation systems and networking, that's dangerous.  Can the vehicle, or those inside it, continue to fight effectively if their systems are blinded or shut down?

In the Army's shoes, I'd have insisted on an all-new turret design, putting all those tools behind armor and giving them a lot more protection.  Perhaps that would have been too expensive.  Nevertheless, I'd be very unhappy about having my critical combat systems exposed like that.  There's too much that can be damaged too easily.  What say you, veteran readers?

Peter

When helping others may be hazardous to your freedom

 

Friend of the blog Lawdog has written an emotive and (I think) very important article titled "Meditations On Duty".  Here are a few excerpts.

Every day we are bombarded with news articles about District Attorneys campaigning for “No bail requirements”, “Reduced sentencing”, “Alternate sentencing”, all of which appears — in some cases outrighted stated — to give felons and habitual criminals a leg up.

We are continually shown footage of riots in major cities and at universities where the rioters arsonists, and violent thugs are treated with kid gloves.

Just or otherwise, there is a very definite perception that District Attorneys would much rather throw the book at someone with no previous criminal history, while the felons and violent thugs get deals.

On the other paw, for a man to be even hinted at any variety of sexual offence, whether it be harassment or outright rape, is to be guilty until proven innocent.

And to certain parts of the howling Internet mobs you can never be innocent — and they will make it a crusade to destroy your life.

. . .

I find myself in a position that I’ve never been in before. All of my life I have known that if people needed to be helped, I should help them — I’ve literally been a Boy Scout. All of my adult life I have known that if there is gun-fire, I will run to that sound and protect people.

I … don’t know anymore.

It’s already started. If Rita isn’t with me, I will not stop to help a female stranger, or children. I will call local law enforcement and have them sent there, but without Rita being present I will not offer aid on my own. That goes double if there are children involved.

And that mortifies me, but the risk of having my life destroyed with false allegations is not worth it.

For the first time in my life I do not know what I will do if gunfire erupts in a public place where I am.

If a spree shooter attacks a public place where I am, or am near — I will get family and friends to safety, but after that I literally do not know.

Do I run to the sound of gunfire and solve the problem? I’ve already been the victim of wrongful prosecution once, do I risk that again? Do I take a chance going up against a protected class, and earning the “mostly peaceful” wrath of the howling mob, and a legacy media that lives for stirring up rioters?

There's more at the link.  Go read the whole thing.  It's worth your time.

Remember, too, that Lawdog is a retired officer of the law.  He's spent a career fighting crime and criminals.  If he, in his position, is no longer certain that he can engage evildoers without being tarred with their brush by a politically correct or "woke" justice system, how much more so should we, private citizens, be worried about the same reality?  We can't claim prior and extensive experience in dealing with crime to justify our intervening to help its victims.  We don't have the "protection", in the eyes of the law, that Lawdog has.

Today, we have to accept that in very large parts of these United States the justice system has been warped and twisted along "woke" lines, so that it today protects the politically correct cause du jour and its adherents.  If one doesn't belong to that group, one is almost automatically at greater risk from the authorities, irrespective of the facts of the situation.  Over the past few years I've written a number of articles about this conundrum.  In case you missed any of them, I'll link them below.  I highly recommend that you take time to read them and think about them, because the situations they describe might confront you at any time in this crazy world we live in.

Self-defense under a justice system

that's no longer on your side

No, I wasn't being alarmist -

rather, I wasn't alarmist enough

Updating and revising our approach to self-defense:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

What happens if you can't trust

the police to do their job?

In particular, note the problems involved in trying to remain anonymous if you live in a "woke" judicial environment, and don't want to be connected to otherwise legitimate acts of self-defense.  The first article in the list above addresses that issue.  Also, I've said before that a revolver is no longer the optimum choice as a personal defense weapon, because it holds too few rounds to deal with a mob or gang situation.  That remains true:  but there's a countervailing argument that unlike a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver doesn't spit out cartridge cases all over the scene, which can later be analyzed.  There's something to be said for that if you're in a hostile, unreasonable, biased prosecutorial environment.  To make up for the limited number of rounds in a revolver, carry one chambered for the biggest, most powerful cartridge one can control in rapid, aimed fire.  Hitting harder is seldom a bad idea in defensive shooting.

Suffice it to say that in a prosecutorial environment that's as (or more) likely to punish the good guy as the bad, discretion is our watchword.  If, despite that, we choose to intervene, we'd better do so with our eyes wide open as to what trouble that may bring down on our heads.  We should have a good lawyer on speed dial, and refuse to say anything unless and until he/she is with us and has had an opportunity to brief us.  Furthermore, we should minimize the ease with which rogue prosecutors and shyster lawyers can go after us.  This does not include tampering with evidence (which is a crime in itself), but simply observing due caution and discretion is never a bad thing.  Our defense attorneys will thank us for that.

Finally, no matter why or how we've intervened, don't speak to police or anyone else after such an incident unless and until our lawyer(s) has/have interviewed us and briefed us about what may, or should not, be said.  It's too easy to talk ourselves into a jail cell!  Here's a law professor's view of that, and Massad Ayoob's limited corollary to that perspective.  Both are worth watching in full.

Food for thought.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 208

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

Here's something for fans of progressive rock and bluegrass music alike.  Early in the 2000's, a group was formed in Nashville calling itself Moody Bluegrass.  As the name suggests, they took hits by the Moody Blues and re-scored them for bluegrass music, instruments and vocals.  It changed the nature of the songs very considerably, but made them accessible to many bluegrass fans who didn't enjoy heavier rock music.  Indeed, the Moody Blues themselves liked the variation enough that some of them performed on the bluegrass versions.

Moody Bluegrass put out two albums over the years.  I've selected five of their songs for this morning's blog post.  First, let's go to "Ride My See-Saw".  If you're not familiar with it, the Moody Blues original version may be found here.

Next, let's listen to "Nights In White Satin".  Moody Blues version here.

Here's "The Story In Your Eyes".  Moody Blues original here.

Next, "Send Me No Wine".  John Lodge of the Moody Blues joins in on vocals.  Moody Blues version here.

And to close, perhaps their best-known song, "I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)".  Moody Blues live performance here.

You'll find all the Moody Bluegrass renditions of Moody Blues songs on YouTube.

Peter

No Saturday Snippet for two weeks

 

I'm getting ready for a date in a hospital operating room next week.  I'm in a lot of pain, and not feeling desperately creative, either in reading or in writing (fiction, at least - there's an endless supply of news and doofidical bureaucrats to provide inspiration for regular blog articles!).  Also, it's not easy sitting for long periods at the computer.  Perhaps, when all this is over, that problem will go away.

Anyway, no extended Saturday Snippets for this weekend and next weekend.  Please amuse yourself with the bloggers listed in the sidebar.  They write good, too!

A particular recommendation this morning is to read Lawdog's latest post, "Meditations On Duty".  I'll have more to say about that next week, but it's an important article, and should make any armed citizen think carefully before acting.

Peter

Another comment about reader comments

 

Friends, several times in the past I've had to post reminders that I won't allow foul language, extremism, xenophobia, calls to violence and suchlike in my comments here.  That's one of the reasons I moderate every comment, burdensome though it is to have to revisit that section several times a day to approve or delete reader input.

I've recently seen an upsurge in what I think is "fedposting" - comments that call on us to "shoot police in the face", or attack political operatives who are imposing policies we don't like, or throw out of helicopters anyone in general with whom we disagree.  Some of them have been over-the-top foul, too, but most are seemingly just the rantings of people who've had enough, and aren't going to take it any more.

I don't believe this is simply emotion working its way out.  I think this is an organized, deliberate effort to "poison the well" for all conservative and middle-of-the-road media, by providing ammunition to declare them "extremist" or "racist" or something like that - in other words, providing justification for the powers that be to shut them down.  The same thing appears to be happening across many other social media sites;  so many that I can't believe it's coincidental.  This is planned.

Friends, I will not, repeat, not tolerate such comments here.  I deleted four of them just this morning.  This blog will remain a "free speech zone" where anyone is welcome to say anything, provided it doesn't contravene the constitution and laws of the United States or the basic Christian moral code that I observe.  Calls to kill political and other opponents are far outside both categories, and won't be published at all.  The same goes for comments that denigrate other religions or cultures or political views just because they're different, rather than providing rational, reasoned argument why they may or may not be acceptable in this, or that, or the other society.  Ditto for profanity, pornography, spam and the like.

Please, keep it family-friendly if possible, and keep it rational and reasoned, and keep it lawful and ethical.  If we all do that, there won't be any problem.  If a few don't . . . too bad.  My blog, my rules.  Start your own blog, where you can do as you please.

Peter

This opens up all sorts of possibilities...

 

I note with some bemusement that Italian bureaucrats are at it again.

Italy’s Ministry of Health has banned “puppy yoga” classes, saying only adult dogs should take part in order to protect the health of animals as well as the safety of attendees.

In a note circulated on 29 April, the ministry said it was aware that organisers often "borrow" puppies from breeders.

But because puppy yoga "improves wellbeing" it should be considered as a kind of "animal assisted therapy" - which by law can only be carried out by fully grown animals.

Puppy yoga typically involves puppies roaming freely around a yoga class and sometimes being incorporated in yoga poses, or a yoga class followed by playtime with the puppies.

There's more at the link.

Puppy yoga does seem to be a thing, judging by the number of videos of it on YouTube.  However, it also appears to be attracting questions, if not criticism.  Therefore, I'd like to offer some of our Texas critters to be used instead of puppies in yoga classes.  For example:

• Razorback hogs:  Usually a cross-breed between escaped domestic hogs, wild pigs and Russian  boars, the latter introduced in the 1930's by "sportsmen" wanting a wilder, tougher animal to hunt.  (Idiots!)  Guaranteed to make any yoga class an uplifting experience, as students climb the walls to get away from them.
• Skunks:  Particularly during February, which around here is known as "Suicidal Skunk Season" due to their habit of wandering out into the road at that time of year, getting run over, and leaving an unmistakable smell for miles and miles on local roads.  The odor of sanctity, it ain't!  Repeated application of students' deodorant to the animals may improve things.  Then again, maybe it won't.
• Armadillos:  Probably the safest animals in a yoga class.  When they curl themselves into a ball, they can be rolled up and down the floor, making avoidance techniques an interesting addition to the standard stretches.
• Grackles:  They'll add a definite musical (?) dimension to the class, as well as redecorating the studio (and the students) with artistic splotches and stripes from on high.

Readers are invited to suggest in Comments below their preferred animal contributions to yoga classes.  We'll send the lot to the Italian bureaucrats responsible for this ruling, and let them decide what's best for their needs!

Peter

Shades of "Arkell v. Pressdram"

 

I'm sure many of my readers will be familiar with the (in)famous exchange of letters in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram, 1971.  Those who aren't will find the details at the link.  (Profanity alert:  lawyers aren't always polite!)

I was reminded of that well-known case by this tweet yesterday, largely by the inclusion of a word that I've censored (given that this is a family-friendly blog, most of the time).  Clickit to biggit.

I wonder if they'd also assert an equal IP right to the entire slogan, including the censored word?  That would make just about as much sense!  It's also like the computer games company that tried to trademark the expression "space marines" (despite its having been in use since the 1930's), or the comic publishers that trademarked the term "superhero".

Suffice it to say that I think the LA Police Foundation deserves the mockery.

Peter

Well, at least they have one thing in common!

 

It seems pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators have at least one thing in common.  Click this link to view video and listen to their chants.

Who says the country is too divided to be united?

Peter

Looks like 2020 all over again: same organizers, same riots

 

I'm sure many readers have noticed that the campus riots against Israel have many common features.  Many demonstrators all have the same type and color of tents in their "protest camps", often arranged in similar grid patterns.  They have professionally printed protest signs, delivered in their hundreds, rather than spontaneously-drawn hand-made signs.

Does that remind you, perhaps, of those strategically-placed and anonymously-delivered pallets of bricks that accompanied street riots in many American cities during 2020, and the unrest that led up to the Presidential election that year?  It sure does me . . .

There's also the presence of professional agitators and activists to organize the otherwise clueless students.

Mayor Eric Adams warned Wednesday that “outside agitators” had descended on Columbia University’s campus to radicalize students ... Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.

“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said.

“I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about.

. . .

Adams said the NYPD was brought in Tuesday night to quell the unrest at Columbia after the administration acknowledged outside influencers “were on their grounds training and really co-opting this movement.”

There's more at the link.

The U.K. Telegraph provided this pen-portrait of one of the better-known radical organizers in New York City.

When Eric Adams, the New York mayor, issued a warning about “outside agitators” infiltrating the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, his words were accompanied by video of students dutifully obeying orders from a grey-haired woman.

She was identified as Lisa Fithian, a New Yorker living in Texas, yet the 63-year-old would have needed no introduction to law enforcement officers involved with policing protests in the US for more than half a century.

Described by Mother Jones as “the nation’s best-known protest consultant”, Ms Fithian has supported a plethora of movements over the decades including opposing the Iraq war, fighting for Louisiana communities following Hurricane Katrina, Extinction Rebellion and Occupy Wall Street.

She has been arrested between 80 and 100 times yet unions and activist groups hold her rabble-rousing skills in such high regard they have paid her $300 (£240) a day to run demonstrations and teach them tactics for taking over the streets.

Video released by New York police at Mayor Adams’ briefing on Tuesday showed Ms Fithian instructing a mob of pro-Palestinian protesters as they took over an academic building at Columbia University.

. . .

After attending Skidmore college in New York, she cut her teeth as a political activist with the Washington Peace Center campaign group in the 1980s, organising demonstrations locally and nationally with a focus on anti-racism issues.

By the time she took a key role in Occupy, a social justice movement that targeted leading financial institutions, she was a revered figure among fellow campaigners.

As Occupy took over the parks of New York and Los Angeles in 2012, she was reported to have been handing out advice to younger activists on tactics ranging from proper tear gas attire to long-term protest strategies.

“When there is some conflict, or things aren’t going the way that we want them to go, or people don’t have a good long-term plan,” a twenty-something protester told Mother Jones, “I have heard others and myself say, ‘Damn it, where is Lisa Fithian?’”

Max Berger, another Occupy campaigner, said: “Nobody is going to say that what Lisa does is not badass so she is in a very strategically important position of teaching kids who want to be badass to be smart.”

Again, more at the link.  She was far from the only such organizer there.

Also, intriguingly, we find that many of the "migrants" who recently poured across our southern border, with the help of the Biden administration, may be involved in the campus riots.

The modern version of Rent-A-Mob, perhaps?

Perhaps most intriguing from my point of view, the "fact-checking" sources that almost unanimously debunked the placement of bricks during the 2020 riots, denouncing them as mere "construction debris", are also working flat-out to deny that outside agitators are at work in these campus riots.  A simple Internet search reveals the common guidelines they've been given.  They're all marching to the beat of the same drummer, suggesting that their "fact-checking" is itself nothing more than political propaganda.

Put all that together, and the "demonstrations" begin to look more and more like the George Floyd protests of 2020:  a technique for political intimidation, rather than a "spontaneous" outburst.  These riots are far too well organized and coordinated across the country for that.

I think I have a solution, though.  Let's gather up every organizer we can find, plus the "student leaders" who are looking to them for guidance, and drop them all into the middle of the biggest concentration of Hamas terrorists we can find in Gaza.  Let them discuss solidarity and fellow-feeling all they like, while the rest of us watch.  It might make for a sell-out pay-per-view experience.

Peter

Adjustable?

 

I did a double-take when I came across this video.  I've used a chiropractor's services myself, but I had no idea they were applicable to something this big!

I suppose it's logical that they should work on giraffes as well as on humans, but it's still a bit mind-boggling.  I wonder how much force he had to exert to move the vertebrae?

Peter

A politician I'd love to see in office in this country

 

I can get behind President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador whole-heartedly.  We recently discussed his crackdown on narco and gang violence in his country, leading to his re-election with an overwhelming majority of the vote.

His next step?

The 'unapologetic dictator' and 43rd President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele launched an anti-corruption investigation into the entire executive branch of his government. Just like Anil Kapoor-starrer Bollywood movie 'Nayak', the businessman turned politician ordered every single official to gather in an assembly, where he announced the decision to inquire them for bribery. The move is seen as a strike against graft back home in the Central American nation.

The video of Bukele asking the Attorney General to investigate the entire executive branch including the cabinet members for corruption has gone viral online. The faces of the officials sitting and gathered at the assembly could tell that they were shocked and taken aback by the move.

There's more at the link.  You'll find a video recording of President Bukele making his announcement here.

I love it!  It would be marvelous if we could do the same thing in Washington D.C., not to mention every one of our fifty State capitals.  The only problem would be to find enough uncorrupted investigators to do the work!

Peter

Gov. Kristi Noem was (and is) right

 

There's been an enormous, emotional reaction to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's revelation that she shot an errant dog after it had killed a flock of chickens and then appeared to turn on her.  If you've missed the story, you can read about it here.

My first point is, if the incident is as she described it, she did exactly the right thing.  One of her dogs had inflicted death and destruction on another person's animals.  There's no "miracle cure" for that;  once an animal starts down that path, it'll continue unless and until it's stopped the hard way.  I've seen it many times before, and twice have assisted a friend to shoot packs of dogs that had "graduated" to chasing cattle, biting at their legs and throats, trying to bring one down to kill and eat it.

My second point is that far too many people today have lost sight of the basic facts of life.  They're living in a cocoon, an emotional fuzzy ball of fluff that's insulated them from reality.  As "Ragin Dave" put it at Liberty's Torch:

The people freaking out about this are people who have never once been outside of their protective bubble. Sometimes real life demands hard choices. When I read the story, I just shrugged and went “Yeah. So?” I think it would do this country a world a good if many of those pampered bubble dwellers had to actually see where their food comes from, and perhaps harvest that food themselves. The first time I helped harvest and butcher an animal I became much more appreciative of the food on my plate, and the people who work to put it there. I think that lesson needs to be taught to an entire generation these days.

True dat.  Life is full of hard choices.  Killing an errant, dangerous animal is just one of them - and by no means the most difficult.

Choices are often hard in the abstract, but a heck of a lot easier in the concrete.  It's easy to say, "Oh, I could never shoot someone!" when asked what one would do if a criminal attacked one's spouse or child.  When it actually happens - when one's spouse or child is subject to a brutal, relentless attack that can only result in her death or serious injury - it's a whole lot easier to justify shooting, and even killing, the attacker.  That also tends to change one's whole outlook on life.  Shooting an errant, dangerous animal is part and parcel of the same response.

I remember a young lady I knew back in South Africa.  She was one of the anti-violence, peace-and-rainbows-and-unicorn-farts people, nice enough as a person, but without much of a clue about the darker side of the world.  When I invited her to join a class I was presenting on defensive firearm use, she recoiled in horror, as if I were some sort of monster.  (I was more than a little surprised that her husband, a shooter and hunter and outdoor type, had married her;  but he obviously saw beneath the surface to the real person, who hadn't yet revealed herself.)

That changed in the small hours of the morning she found an intruder climbing in through the window of her two-year-old daughter's bedroom.  According to her (somewhat bemused) husband, she stormed into the room (pushing him aside in the process), pepper-sprayed the intruder in the eyes, waited until he'd put his hands up to his face, kicked him hard in the unmentionables, and proceeded to beat him unmercifully about the head with her daughter's favorite wooden stool (so hard that she broke it).  According to him, when the cops arrived, they stood around scratching their heads and saying things like "Ma'am, why did you call us?  You were doing just fine on your own!"  Kipling warned us about the female of the species . . . and I suspect he was right, particularly when the female in question is the mother of a young child.

I heard about the incident at five o'clock that morning, when she called, woke me out of a sound sleep, and demanded to join my next shooting class, at once if not sooner.  She learned well, and persuaded her husband (who, already a shooter, needed little persuasion) to buy her a Colt Commander lightweight .45 pistol, which she proceeded to carry everywhere with almost religious fervor.  She'd learned the hard way that life happens, whether we like it or not - and she was determined to make sure it worked out in her (and her child's) favor next time.  The rest of her (former) circle of friends were horrified at her transformation, needless to say, and promptly turned their backs on her;  but her husband (and yours truly) were all in favor.  It did their marriage no end of good, too.

So, I fail to see why all the fuss about Governor Noem's actions with respect to her dog.  She did what was necessary, when it was necessary.  I have no idea whether or not she's a good governor, as I live a long way from her state and have never had the need to do any research about her:  but the story makes me more likely than not to consider her favorably, as a politician who's walked the walk as well as talked the talk.  Readers who know more about her can tell the rest of us in Comments if that's a reasonable assessment.

Peter

A tad careless of them, wouldn't you say?

 

The BBC reports that Colombia's armed forces are missing a whole bunch of ammunition and weapons.

Colombia's military has lost millions of bullets, thousands of grenades and several missiles, the nation's president has said.

Gustavo Petro ... said the missing items came to light during surprise visits to two military bases - Tolemaida and La Guajira - on 12 February and 1 April, respectively.

At Tolemaida, there was a shortfall of more than 808,000 bullets and nearly 10,000 fewer grenades than the inventory listed on official records.

Meanwhile at La Guajira, the discrepancies included nearly 4.2 million bullets and more than 9,300 grenades. Mr Petro also said the base had lost two Spike missiles, 37 Nimrod missiles and 550 rocket-propelled grenades.

He told reporters that the military supplies would have been passed on to armed groups within Colombia, but could have been smuggled to Haiti or the international black market.

There's more at the link.

I'm sure the personnel at those military bases were delighted (NOT!) to have snap inspections of their facilities, giving them no warning and leaving them no time to cover up the missing items.  I'm sure many of them made a lot of money by diverting them to weapons smugglers.  I hope it'll be enough to compensate them for the years in prison that will likely be coming their way.

That sort of chicanery is a real problem in the drug wars.  Mexico's cartels are armed with full-auto military weapons that they've largely obtained from the Mexican armed forces and those in countries to the south.  When they have so much money at their disposal, it's not difficult to bribe those in charge of the weapons to turn a blind eye to wholesale theft.  Trouble is, those cartels then turn their weapons against their own authorities, and against the US as well in the form of ambushes directed against the Border Patrol, Customs officers and other law enforcement personnel.  Many such weapons have been found smuggled into this country, and in the possession of local cartel distributors.  The latest one I heard of amounted to more than 20 full-auto assault rifles, more than 100 magazines and over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, plus several hand-grenades and a rocket launcher.  That's enough to give any local police force conniption fits.  They're severely outgunned.

Of course, the gun-grabbers' answer is to blame private firearms owners for "allowing" their guns to be stolen, or selling them to the cartels.  That's largely not the case.  Private owners seldom own full-auto weapons, and almost never explosive devices.  Those are sourced from corrupt militaries more than anywhere else.  It's not a comfortable thought that law-abiding citizens like you and I might have to face up to criminals armed in that fashion.  I feel outgunned already.

Peter