Heh

Courtesy of The Lonely Libertarian:

Peter

Meet Michael Z. Williamson

I'm thinking it's high time I introduced my readers to more of the very interesting people who've come into my life over time.  Some I've already described in my reminiscences of South Africa (Mike, Inyati, Fanyana, Flynn and others).  However, some of my American friends have been just as memorable.  Over time, I'll introduce some of them in these pages.

Author Michael Z. Williamson is one such person.  Miss D. and I regard him as not just a fellow author, but a friend. We've hosted him as he passed through our area, and look forward to doing so again.  He's uniquely his own man;  living life on his terms, full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.  As he says in his bio:

My hobbies are much what I do for a living and a few other things: reading, writing, historical re-enactments, forging blades, throwing myself out of aircraft, hiking, Karate, Kung Fu, shooting, archery, fine liquors, fine food, traveling and ranting at the political, social and moral state of the world.

That makes him pretty much a Renaissance man in my book.  He's a whole lot of fun.

One way he makes a living is to sell high-quality hand-made knives, swords and other Sharp Pointy Things.  He sometimes has some breathtakingly lovely examples.  I bought one for Miss D. at LibertyCon last year, a long slender firestorm Damascus blade so beautifully patterned that she's reserved it to wear with her Con outfit of corset, medieval blouse and skirt.  It currently lives on the nightstand next to our bed.  His current selection of knives for sale is tempting me with items like these (click the images for a larger view):

They are all, of course, one-of-a-kind blades, not mass-produced.  Each one is unique.  I think I'm going to have to lock my wallet and credit card away for a few days . . . (wipes drool from chin).

He also modifies existing blades for new purposes.  I love this two-foot-long Swiss Army 1914 Pioneer bayonet, converted to fit a modern US AR15/M16 rifle.

It was famously pictured on his daughter's pink AR15 when Morrigan was only eight years old, towering high over her head.  It drove the anti-gunners to foaming fits of frustration, much to the delight of the rest of us.  (Now in her mid-teens, Morrigan's favorite personal protection is a long-barreled S&W .45 revolver.  Mike doesn't worry much about her boyfriends . . . )

The most important thing Mike does, as far as many of us are concerned, is write books.  His novel 'Freehold' has become an enduring modern SF classic, with fans all over the world - so much so that a 10th anniversary signed limited hardcover edition was issued by Baen and sold out within a matter of weeks.  (Yes, Miss D. and I got ours.  No, you can't have it!)  He's written many other books, all of which can be bought through his Web site or from Amazon.com.

His latest offering isn't fiction, but what he calls 'Wisdom From My Internet'.  It's a collection of his classic snark, wit and humor from his social media - blog, Facebook, Livejournal, Twitter and so on.  Here are a few examples.

Paralegals are not airborne lawyers.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was not a Vietconga line.

A well hung jury is not composed of male gigolos.

There isn't a series about NSA called 'Game of Phones'.

As a legal immigrant who came here with a Visa, I want to know why illegals are getting American Express.

"Dad, they taught us in school that Che Guevara was a freedom fighter. Is that true?"
"Yes, he fought against freedom at every opportunity."

I support permissive laws to restrictive ones. Therefore, instead of a ban on texting while driving, I support a law allowing the injured party to shove your iPhone up your ass.

The Israeli martial art is Krav Maga, not Jew Jitsu.  Nor is there a form for Japanese schoolgirls called Krav Manga.

The Israel Defense Force's battle cry is not "Torah! Torah! Torah!"

There are many more quips and essays, but you'll have to buy the book to read them.  They illustrate why Mike names his blog 'The Sacred Cow Slaughterhouse'.

All in all, Miss D. and I are honored to call Mike our friend.  We hope you enjoy his books as much as we do (not to mention his Sharp Pointy Things).

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #815

Today's award goes to a newly deceased criminal in Columbus, Ohio.

Police said a home intruder died at the Mount Carmel West after he was shot and killed by a homeowner.

Authorities said it happened on North Guilford Avenue in the Franklinton neighborhood.

Sgt. Dave Sicilian said the unidentified man broke into a back door, was chased by a person inside then jumped out of a second floor window, before crawling across the street and breaking into a second home.

. . .

The woman's son said he bought her a handgun last week for self-defense.

There's more at the link.

Y'know, he'd just been chased out of an upper window of one home, and he'd had to crawl across the street to get away (presumably because he'd been injured in the process). He then tried to break into a second home.  I'm thinking this guy was a statistic waiting to happen.  In this case, he happened.  Terminally.

(And I bet Mom was grateful to her son for his very timely gift!  I see cookies in his future . . . )

Peter

'Stand Against The Storm' is published!

At long last, the fourth volume in the Maxwell Saga, 'Stand Against The Storm', is published.  Click on the link, or on the image below, to be taken to the Kindle edition's page on Amazon.com.

The print edition has been published by CreateSpace.  You can order it there right away, but it isn't yet listed on Amazon.com - they use different computer systems, so there are sometimes a few delays.

I hope you enjoy this book.  A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into it!  Now for the second volume of the Laredo Trilogy, which is already about 10% written.

Peter

Of washing clothes and political correctness

Sarah Hoyt has a magnificent rant about buying a washer, dealing with a 'greenie' PC salesperson, and what it implies.  It's great reading, as are the well over 400 comments so far on that post.

Go read it, and enjoy!  It drives home, yet again, the truth of C. S. Lewis' famous quotation:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

Peter

Whose job is it to stop ISIS/ISIL?

I don't normally pay overmuch attention to Pat Buchanan's columns, but in two recent essays for Taki's Magazine he's hit the nail squarely on the head.  Both concern ISIS/ISIL and the terrorism threat it poses.

The first is titled 'Whose job is it to kill ISIS?'  Here's an excerpt.

There are reasons why Sunni nations like Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have not committed more openly and decisively to the war on ISIS, and instead prod the Americans to send their troops to eradicate the Islamic State.

To many Sunni nations, Assad and the Shia Crescent of Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut are the greater threat. Indeed, until recently, as Joe Biden pointed out last October, the Turks, Saudis and United Arab Emirates were providing clandestine aid to ISIS.

. . .

Critics argue that after making his commitment to “degrade and defeat” the Islamic State, President Obama has provided neither a war strategy nor the military resources to carry it out. And they are right.

But this is just another case of the president drawing a red line he should never have drawn. While U.S. air power can hold back the advance of ISIS and “degrade,” i.e., contain, ISIS, the destruction of ISIS is going to require scores of thousands of troops.

Though the Iraqi army, Shia militias and Kurds may be able to provide those troops to retake Mosul, neither the Turks nor any other Arab nation has volunteered the troops to defeat ISIS in Syria.

And if the Turks and Sunni Arabs are unwilling to put boots on the ground in Syria, why should we? Why should America, half a world away, have to provide those troops rather than nations that are more immediately threatened and have armies near at hand?

Why is defeating 30,000 ISIS jihadists our job, and not theirs?

There's more at the link.

The second article is 'The Ultimate Enemy of ISIS'.

North of Syria, along 500 miles of border, sits a Turkish army of half a million with 3,000 tanks that could cross over and annihilate ISIS in a month. Former Secretary of State James Baker suggests that the U.S. offer air, logistics and intelligence support, if the Turks will go in and snuff out ISIS.

But not only have the Turks not done so, for a time they looked the other way as jihadists crossed their border to join ISIS.

If the Islamic State, as Ankara’s inaction testifies, is not viewed as a threat to Turkey’s vital interests, how can it be a threat to ours?

. . .

Everyone in the Middle East, it appears, wants the United States to fight their wars for them. But as they look out for their interests first, it is time we started looking out for ours first.

Foremost among those interests would be to avoid another $1 trillion war, with thousands of U.S. dead and tens of thousands of wounded, and a situation, after a decade of fighting, as exists today in Afghanistan and Iraq, where those we leave behind in power cannot hold their own against the enemies we defeated for them.

. . .

The Islamic State has plugged into the most powerful currents of the Middle East. It is anti-American, anti-Zionist, anti-West, Islamic and militantly Islamist. It promises to overthrow the old order of Sykes-Picot, to tear up the artificial borders the West imposed on the Arabs, and to produce a new unity, a new dispensation where the Quran is law and Allah rules and all Sunnis are united in one home whence all infidels—Jews, Shia, Christians—have been driven out. Hateful as it is, ISIS has a vision.

Hezbollah, Iran, Assad, the Houthi rebels, all Shiites, understand this.

They know they are in a fight to the death. And they fight.

But it is the Sunni Arabs, the royals on the Arabian Peninsula and the sheiks on the Gulf, to whom this should be a fire bell in the night.

For ISIS is out to dethrone these perceived royal puppets of a detested America and to reclaim rightful custody of Mecca and Medina.

Again, more at the link.

Mr. Buchanan makes some unarguable points.  The question is, what can we do to motivate the Sunni Arab nations to take up arms against ISIS?  For decades the USA has offered itself as their 'security blanket', and demonstrated this in the First and Second Gulf Wars, the 'Tanker War' and numerous smaller conflicts.  In doing so, the US sold them military equipment and helped to train their armies . . . but there's no guarantee that their armies will do any better than the one we trained in Iraq, which collapsed like a wet paper bag when ISIS struck it.

Right now the Sunni Arab states probably believe they can manipulate the USA into doing the heavy lifting for them yet again.  Are they right?  Do we have the guts to resist such manipulation?  If we don't give in to it, what will be the consequences for the Middle East - not to mention the world's oil supply?  And how do we prevent other players we'd rather not have active in the Middle East - namely, China and Russia - from filling the void we'll leave by our absence?

I don't pretend to have all the answers, but there are an awful lot of questions out there.  Mr. Buchanan distils them into two very cogent articles.  Recommended reading.

Peter

Staring economic reality in the face

David Stockman has given a podcast-format interview to Chris Martenson.  I happen to think it's a very important discussion of our present economic situation, but one part in particular struck me as very profound.  I'll quote it in full from the transcript of the interview.  Please take the time to read it in full.  It really is that important.  Stockman says:

I think the central bank-driven global boom of the last two decades is over. Perhaps it started in 1994 when the Greenspan Fed lost its nerve in the face of that little bond market hiccup and over on the other side of the Pacific, Mr. Deng said, you know, “To be rich is glorious,” and the great China construction and debt boom got underway.

We are now through that, we’re done with that. We’re in the crackup phase. And I think there are four big characteristics of that, which are going to basically shape the way the economy and the markets unfold as we go forward. I think you’re going to see increasing desperation and extreme central bank financial repression because they have gotten themselves painted so deep into the corner that they are lost, they are desperate. And so one, you know, almost week by week, we have another central bank – this week, it was Sweden – lowering their money market rates into negative territory. You know, obviously, the Swiss Bank is already there, Denmark’s Bank is there, the EC is there on the deposit rate, the Bank of Japan’s there. All of the central banks of the world now are desperately driving interest rates into negative territory. And I believe that they’re lost. They are in a race to the bottom whether they acknowledge it or not. You know, the central bank of China can’t sit still much longer when the RMB has appreciated something like 30% against the Japanese yet because of the massive bubble – or monetary expansion – that’s being created there.

So that’s the first thing going on. Central banks out of control in a race to the bottom, sliding by the seat of their pants, making up really incoherent theories as they go. Everybody’s talking about deflation and 2% inflation targets as being some magic elixir. There isn’t a shred of proof anywhere that economies grow better over time at 2% than .8%. It is just made up. So I think that’s the first thing.

The second thing is increasing market disorder and volatility. In the last three months, the stock market has behaved like a drunken sailor but it’s really just a bunch of robots and day traders that are trading chart points until somebody can figure out what is happening directionally in the world. They just keep trading it back to 2090, it bounces off, it takes a dive, they trade it back-up. It has nothing to do with information or incoming data about the real world. We have today the 10-year German bond trading at 29.5 basis points. Well, the German economy’s been reasonably strong, fueled by the Chinese boom. But that export boom is over. The Chinese economy is faltering. Germany is going to soon have its own problems. But clearly, 29 basis points on a 10-year is irrational, even in the case of Germany, to say nothing of the 160 available today on the 10-year for Spain and Italy. Both of those countries are in deep, deep fiscal decline. There is no obvious way for them to dig out of the debt trap that they’re in. It’s going to get worse over time. There’s huge risk in those bonds, especially because there’s no guarantee that the EU will remain intact or the euro will survive. Why in the world would anybody in their right mind be owning Italian debt at 160 other than the fact that they’re front running the massive purchases that Draghi has promised and now the Germans have acquiesced to over the next year or two.

But that only kicks the can down the road. One of these days, the central banks are going to falter and the market is going to reset violently to prices that reflect the true risk on all this sovereign debt and the pretty cloudy outlook that’s ahead for the world market.

We now have something like four trillion worth of sovereign debt spread over Japanese issues, the major European countries that are trading at negative yields. Obviously, that is one, irrational, and second, completely unsustainable. And yet, it’s another characteristic of what I call these disorderly markets.

Thirdly, mal-investment is now coming home to roost. It will be driving a huge deflation of commodity and industrial prices worldwide. You can see that in iron ore, now barely holding $60 from a peak of $200. Obviously, it’s the whole oil patch that we talked about. Look at the Baltic Dry Index. That is a measure, one, of faltering demand for shipments and two, massive overbuilding of bulk carrier capacity as a result of this central bank driven boom that we’ve had in the last 10 to 20 years.

So that is going to be ripping through the financial system, the global economy, in ways that we’ve never before experienced. And so therefore, in ways that are hard to predict what all the ramifications and cascading effects will be. But clearly, it’s something that we haven’t seen in modern times or ever before—the degree of over investment, excess capacity, and everything from iron ore mines to dry bulk carriers, aluminum plants, steel mills, and on down the line.

And then, finally, clearly, demand has run smack up against peak debt, and I think that’s the right word for it. We had a tremendous study come out in the last week or so from McKinsey, who do a pretty good job of trying to calculate and track and tote up the amount of credit outstanding, public and private, in the world. We’re now at the 200 trillion threshold. That’s up from only about 140 trillion at the time of the crisis. So we’ve had a 60 trillion expansion worldwide of debt just since 2008. During that same period, though, the GDP of the world saw a little more than 15 trillion from 55 or mid-50s, roughly, to 70 trillion.

So we’ve generated, because of central bank money printing and all of this unprecedented monetary stimulus, we’ve generated something like 60 trillion of new debt in the world and have barely gotten 15, 17 billion of new GDP for all of that effort. And I think that is a measure of why the fundamental era is changing. That the boom is over and the crackup is under way when you see that kind of minimal yield from the vast amount of new debt that has been generated.

Now I’d only wrap this up by calling attention to the fact that within that global total of 200 trillion, the numbers from China are even more startling. At the time of the crisis, let’s go back to 2000, China had two trillion of credit outstanding. It’s now 28 trillion. So we’ve had just massive 14X growth in 14 years. There’s nothing like that in recorded history nor is there any plausible reason to believe that an economy, which is basically under a command and control system that is run from the top down through the party cadres, could possibly create 26 trillion in new debt in that period of time without massive inefficiencies in waste and mistakes everywhere within the system, especially since they have no markets. They have no feedback mechanisms. It all comes cascading down from the top and everybody lies to the next party above them. And I think the system is irrationally out of control.

In any event, my point was that at the time of the 2008 crisis, China had allegedly – if you believe their numbers, which no one really should – but as reported, they had five trillion worth of GDP;  it’s now ten trillion. So they’ve gained five of GDP. Their debt at the time of the crisis was seven trillion, now it’s 28. So the debt is up more than 20 trillion and the GDP is up five. These are extreme, unsustainable deformations, if I can use that word, that just scream out, “Danger ahead. Mayhem has happened.” And the unwinding of this and the resolution of this is not going to be pretty.

There's more at the link.  Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.  (If you'd prefer to listen to the interview rather than watch it, you'll find it here.)

This is exactly, summarized in a nutshell, what I and many others have been fearing and speaking about for years.  The entire structure of the world economy today can be compared to a financial house of cards.  It's so delicately balanced that any blow or push might collapse it.  It won't just affect one card out of the whole;  they're all so interconnected and mutually supporting that if one goes, the rest must inevitably follow sooner or later.

As just one symptom of the irrationality of the stock market today, consider the grilled cheese truck company that's worth over $100 million according to its stock valuation.  That's about as ridiculous a thing as I've ever heard of . . . but there are investors willing to pay that price for what is, at best, a lunch counter concession.  It's so over the top that 'ridiculous' is actually far too mild a word.  It's insane.  I'll be darned if I trust any market where such unbelievable valuations are attached to a business with less than one hundredth of that sum in actual assets.

Keep your head down, your larder stocked and your powder dry.  I foresee grim times ahead.  The only question is how far ahead . . . and I'm not going to bet on that at all.

Peter

A perfect job for this cold weather

With everything around our home still frozen solid after yesterday's ice storm, I was amused to read about a job offer from the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust.  The Telegraph reports:

It is freezing, smelly, and you may be gone some time. Applicants to run the world’s most southerly post office have been warned about the harsh realities of the life they would endure in the Antarctic.

The successful candidates will spend five months on Goudier, an island “the size of a football pitch” just off the Antarctic peninsula, sorting the mail at Port Lockroy, a former British scientific base.

Port Lockroy base in 1962 (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Jane Cooper, 37, from Gloucestershire, worked as postmistress the season before last and said it was the “opportunity of a lifetime”.

But there were downsides. “If you slice spam really thinly, fry it and close your eyes, you can just about convince yourself it is bacon,” she said. “There is a lot of wishful thinking involved.”

There's more at the link.

The UKAHT describes the location and the position in these terms:

Port Lockroy, Base ‘A’, is a British historic base situated on the tiny Goudier Island off the Antarctic Peninsula. It was established in 1944 and operated as a British Research station until it closed in 1962. The abandoned base was designated a Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty and in 1996 restored as a ‘living’ museum. It is visited each Austral summer by approximately 18,000 ship-borne visitors amounting to one to two ship visits per day. During the short summer period approximately 70,000 items of mail are cancelled by hand before input into the British postal system. Goudier Island is also home to 2,000 Gentoo penguins that nest all around the building and staff continue to monitor the colony’s breeding success.

. . .

Do you possess the following attributes?

• Adaptability to different situations – Are you happy not to shower for up to a month, live in close proximity to three people and 2,000 smelly penguins for five months?

As well as being passionate about the Antarctic. You need to be:

• Personable – do you value getting on with others? Can you live and work with just three others for five months and be friendly and cooperative throughout?
• Positive – can you enthuse to visitors when it is -5C° and blowing a blizzard as well as cook supper cheerfully after a long cold day and very little sleep?

I daresay one can dress for the cold;  but I suspect Miss D. would look upon me with a jaundiced eye if I didn't shower for a month.  That's a relationship-breaker, right there . . .

Peter

Ice storm update

We're basically surrounded by ice here.  The precipitation changed to alleged 'snow' this afternoon, but it sure looked (and sounded) like ice crystals to me!  Our vehicles are encased in ice, probably close to an inch thick on the most exposed areas, and the parking and driveway are a solid sheet of ice.  It's great for skating . . . not so much for walking on.  I'm certainly not going to try reversing our vehicles out of it!

The roads near our home are no better.  We were 'entertained' today on several occasions watching dumbass drivers sliding sideways up and down the road as they failed to make allowance for the ice, and ended up in all sorts of 'interesting' attitudes.  Fortunately, everyone here parks off the road, otherwise there might have been some interesting crunches.  The garbage truck came around as usual, but I noticed the driver was being infinitely slower and more careful about accelerating and braking between houses.  The poor guy in the back, who had to connect the bins to the lifting mechanism, was wrapped up like an Eskimo.  It can't have been the world's easiest job in this cold.  I hope they paid him at overtime rates for his trouble.

Tomorrow is supposed to clear, but with the temperature having never risen above freezing all day, and not scheduled to do so until Saturday, I'm wondering how long it will take for the ice to clear.  It's quite thick on our bushes and power lines, but so far (thanks be) we still have power (not to mention Internet access).  The next couple of days are going to be interesting, and I suspect Miss D. won't be going to work tomorrow either.

I made a spicy chicken and sausage gumbo for supper last night, and oven-baked chicken breasts marinated in peri-peri sauce tonight, both of which added a nice internal heat to the warmth of the house.  Definitely the right meals for weather like this!

Peter

WARNING: upgrading to MS Office 365 may change document formatting

I've been a long-time user of MS Word (and Office) 2010.  In order to share files with Miss D. and have access to other useful features, I upgraded today to a family subscription to MS Office 365, the online version of MS Office, with software available locally and on the Web for up to 5 PC's.

All went well until I loaded the manuscript of my latest book.  All of a sudden some of my paragraph styles didn't work as they were supposed to, despite the document format (.DOCX) remaining the same.  As soon as I saved the document in MS Word 2013 (as used by Office 365), things became difficult.  However, when I re-saved the document in Word 1997-2003 format (.DOC), everything reverted to normal once more.

I have no idea what this means, but I thought I'd warn my readers:  if you upgrade to the latest version of MS Word, be aware that formatting problems may result, and you may have to save older documents in an older format rather than allow the program to save them in a newer version (and convert them in the process).  It does strange things.  I have no idea whether it'll still do that if I start a document 'native' in the new version, but I'll find out soon enough.

Peter

How a folk song changed modern mythology

I've enjoyed folk music ever since I can remember.  I have an extensive collection of music from many of the 'folk rock' performers of the 1960's and 1970's - Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, Pentangle and the like - as well as rock and progressive groups inspired by them - Magna Carta, Traffic, Jethro Tull, etc. - and listen to them often.

One of the classic English folk songs is 'John Barleycorn'.  Earliest known versions date back to the 16th century, and it probably goes back much further than that.  Wikipedia describes it thus:

The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.

There's more at the link.

What I didn't know - until a few days ago, when I learned it while doing some research for one of my forthcoming books - was that the 'dying-rising' mythos embodied in 'John Barleycorn' was one of the influences on Sir James George Frazer when he wrote The Golden Bough in 1890.  This classic study of mythology and religion reinterpreted many ancient myths and fables, including those of Greece and Rome, in the light of what Frazer intended to be a synthesis of religious belief, cultural history and scientific inquiry.  Nowadays we know that much of what he wrote was so much hooey, but his book had a profound and lasting influence on European folk history, much of which was subsequently reinterpreted in the light of his 'findings' (no matter how spurious).

One of Frazer's principal theses was the 'sacrificial king';  a king who came to the throne by killing his predecessor, only to learn that his task was to die for his people (or for the gods, or for a plentiful harvest, or some other plausible reason) at the hands of his successor after a period of time.  In that sense, the ruler became a divinely ordained sacrifice for the sake of the ruled.  One source for Frazer's interpretation was the Rex Nemorensis, a priest of the goddess Diana in Italy, and another may have been the figure of Domalde from a Norse saga.  (Both links are worth following if you're interested in the origins of modern mythology.)  In turn, Frazer's reinterpretation of ancient myth and legend influenced subsequent authors like Mary Renault (in 'The King Must Die', a novel about Theseus) and Rosemary Sutcliff (in her young adult novels 'The Mark of the Horse Lord', 'The Shining Company' and 'Sun Horse, Moon Horse').  I've read all those novels and highly recommend them;  in fact, I have copies of all Mary Renault's historical novels and many of Rosemary Sutcliffe's in my permanent library.  They're very good indeed.

The point of all this rambling is, of course, the influence of 'John Barleycorn', a simple folk song, on so many literary masterpieces since it was written.  It may be one of the single most important influences on modern retelling of ancient mythology and fairy-tales.  It's strange to think that a centuries-old drinking song could have such an impact.

For those who don't know the song, here are two versions (out of literally dozens out there).  My favorite folk-song rendition is by British band Traffic, from their 1970 album 'John Barleycorn Must Die', with vocals by Steve Winwood.

The second is a rollicking rock/jazz fusion version by Jethro Tull during a live concert, from their album 'A Little Light Music', one of my favorite Tull anthologies.  It's a lot of fun.

You'll have to excuse my occasional rambling about such subjects.  I find them fascinating.

Peter

What's that funny white stuff?

I was woken at 3.30 a.m. by our cat, pawing at my face, trying to tell me that someone was tapping at the window and would I please make them go away?  Needless to say, it wasn't a person - it was ice crystals.  Miss D. woke up at her usual 5.30 a.m., only for me to greet her with the news that her car's encased in half an inch of ice and the driveway and the street have turned white.  Guess who isn't going to work today?

(That doesn't work for me, of course.  When you're a full-time writer working from home, an ice storm is no excuse!)

Peter

I've had about enough of this winter

We're under a winter storm warning in central Tennessee;  not as bad as it's going to get further north, but still no fun.  They're forecasting:

• Accumulations ... 3 to 10 inches of snow ... with locally higher amounts possible north of Interstate 40. Lower amounts will be possible south.
• Main impact ... accumulating snow tonight into Monday evening will likely cause hazardous travel conditions across the area. Sleet and/or freezing rain may make roads slick with a coating of ice in addition to chances for snow during the day.

That's pretty bad by local standards.  Miss D. may be able to get to work tomorrow, as the worst snow and sleet isn't expected until after her normal commute time, but I'm worried about her getting home again - not least because local drivers tend to become suddenly lemming-like in their suicidal tendencies whenever a few white flakes drift from the sky.  We'll make sure she has enough stuff packed in her car that she can spend the night at work if she has to.

For those of my readers further north, where the snow and ice and cold will be even worse, you take care, you hear?  Spring's not far away now.  Stay safe until it gets here!

A final thought on the weather, courtesy of Miss K.:

Peter

Ammo drought: here we go again . . .

On Friday it was announced that F Troop the BATFE intends to revoke its decades-old rule that M855 62gr. 5.56x45mm. ammunition is not classified as 'armor-piercing'.  This would have the effect of making it illegal to sell it to civilian shooters (but not illegal for them to possess it, BTW).

The result?  Just try buying any M855 ammunition online tonight . . . or the older M193 55gr. rounds, for that matter (the US Army's original cartridge for the first-generation M16 rifle used in Vietnam).  I can't find any supplier with stocks available.  Glenn B. reports likewise.


*Sigh*


This is just plain stupid.  For a start, anyone with half an ounce of sense in his or her head has already built up a reserve of ammunition in calibers and cartridges that are important to them.  I've got plenty of M855 in my ammo locker, and twice that amount of M193.  I don't even shoot M855 much - for civilian shooters and our needs, it isn't necessarily the optimum round to choose.  For most defensive purposes, at the ranges and for the targets we're likely to face, M193 is probably a superior choice, and modern expanding ammunition is even better.  (I stocked up on that a couple of years ago.)  Come to think of it, I might even swap out some or all of my M855, because given the current panic I reckon I can get two rounds of M193 in exchange for one round of the supposedly 'good stuff'!

The other thing is, panic buying only drives up prices and disrupts normal commerce in the shooting industry.  Ammo makers will make what sells;  but if a given caliber or cartridge is suddenly in overwhelming demand, and they cut back on producing other cartridges to make more of what's popular, those who shoot those other cartridges will find themselves short-changed.  What's more, the increased production of the popular ammo won't make much of a difference, because panic buyers will grab every round they can and hoard it.  Opportunists will try to sell their stocks of the 'good stuff' at exorbitant prices to desperate shooters who don't know better, and are willing to pay whatever it costs to ensure that they've 'got theirs'.  It's messy, distasteful and ultimately counter-productive.  (Just look at the situation with .22LR ammo, which still hasn't returned to normal following the last ammo drought.)

As I said some time ago, it behooves all of us to keep adequate stocks of our cartridges of choice at all times.  That way, when something like this happens we're minimally affected, if at all.  I've got my stash of 5.56x45mm. ammo safely tucked away.  I'll ride this one out.

Peter

Semi-hopalong wascally wabbit?

The Austrian Times reports:

Zookeepers who purchased five baby rabbits from a local market say they are baffled as to why one of them prefers to walk around on its front legs.

The rabbits were actually purchased as food for some of the other inhabitants at the zoo in the city of Liuzhou in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, including a giant python that only eats live food.

But after the rabbit with its bizarre trick of walking on its front legs ended up proving more popular than the other animals at the zoo, it was given a stay of execution.

. . .

Zoo spokesman Xiong Shao said: "We thought that perhaps the rabbit had damaged its back legs, but when it isn't walking on its hind legs the two back legs seemed to work perfectly. It doesn't seem to be in any pain so there is no reason for it to walk like this, it can't be easy. We are completely baffled as it was too young really to have been taught any tricks, and whoever heard of teaching rabbits to walk on their front legs?"

There's more at the link.  Here's a Chinese news report about the wabbit.

It's certainly determined to get around, isn't it?

Peter

Brigid could use our help

Brigid, who blogs over at Home On The Range, wrote a beautiful tribute to her late Labrador retriever.  She called it 'The Book Of Barkley', about which we've spoken here before.

Her book's been entered in a competition at Bookbzz.com.  It's currently tied for first place in its category (Biography & Memoir).  Brigid could really use your help and your vote, if you'd please be so kind as to click over there and vote for 'The Book Of Barkley'.  She's donating any prize money to the disaster response dogs of the Search Dog Foundation, so your vote will help a very good cause as well.

(As a matter of fact, all of the royalties from the book are being used to support various animal rescue and welfare societies.  Brigid's a class act, and her book's a wonderful memorial to a lovely dog whom Miss D. and I remember with great affection - even if he did steal our socks on every possible occasion!  If you haven't yet read it, it's worth your time and money.)

Peter

Tired writer's thoughts at the end of the day

I think I'm largely finished with the editing of the fifth and final version of the manuscript of 'Stand Against The Storm'.

One beta reader has already come back with a thumbs-up for the final version, and I'm waiting for another opinion before starting to format it for publication.  With luck, it'll be available on Amazon within a week to ten days.

It's strange to be almost at the end of the creative process for this book.  I wrote about the problems I've had with it earlier this week over at Mad Genius Club.  If you're interested in how one overcomes constant creative deadlock and frustration, you might enjoy that article;  if not, don't worry about it.  Suffice it to say that this has taken me far longer than I expected, and cost me an awful lot of late nights and skull-sweat.  I'm pleased it's almost over, but I'm also pleased with the finished product.  There were times I wanted to abandon it and go on to something more mentally rewarding, where I was actually getting somewhere;  but now I'm glad I stuck it out and persevered.  I hope you'll find it worth the wait.

I've already begun work on the second volume of the Laredo Trilogy, 'Forge A New Blade', the sequel to 'War To The Knife'.

This promises to be interesting from a creative point of view, because Steve Maxwell has a lot to do in that book as well:  the two series (Laredo and Maxwell) will actually meet in a sort of 'fusion volume'.  It's going to be fun.

It's frigidly cold here in central Tennessee, with temperatures outside currently in the teens (Fahrenheit, for my readers living outside the USA).  The wind chill is forecast to be well below zero by early morning.  I'm going to have to go out in the cold to start the car, so it can warm up before anyone gets into it.  Brrrrr!  Tomorrow evening there's a winter storm watch.  It's a good time to stay snug in a warm house with plenty of hot soup, tea and coffee, and write books.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #814

Courtesy of The Lonely Libertarian, this quote wins an immediate Doofus award for the woman concerned.

"I went into a Whole Foods and got to hear a woman arguing with a guy at the meat counter because she wanted grass fed organic chicken and he was desperately trying to explain to her that chickens don't eat grass."

Peter

There doesn't seem to be an OSHA in Russia . . .

. . . at least, not judging by this video clip of steelworkers (including apprentices and trainees) working with multi-ton hammers in a foundry in that country.  Note the utter absence of safety features.

I reckon OSHA would have a fit if they saw this in a US foundry.  It'd probably mean the instant arrest of whoever was responsible. On the other hand, those conditions are replicated in much of the Third World, and even in an advanced economy such as China's. In the West, we often take for granted the blessings of safety-consciousness.

Peter

Full marks to Sean Sorrentino . . .

. . . for uncovering what looks to be a massive campaign of sock-puppeting over a non-existent 'religious' controversy.

CHAPEL HILL — Police charged a Chapel Hill man Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of three Muslim students in a quiet neighborhood near Meadowmont, just south of N.C. 54.

That’s date stamped Tuesday the 10th, so it was no more than 6 hours after the first shots fired. Let that sink in for a minute. The “Christian Terrorist” (and that’s a direct quote of many, many tweets I saw) meme had gone around long enough that someone at PJ Media had looked up the guy’s Facebook page and found out that he was an atheist, and a militant one. And that rebuttal was posted no later than 12 hours after the shooting, and more likely only 9 hours. By the time I saw the #ChapelHillShooting hash tag on Twitter at 6:15 AM, there were thousands of “Why is the Western media hiding this terror attack on Muslims!” tweets. This, as a result of a spontaneous movement is frankly impossible. It cannot have happened that way at all. I’ve traced back tweets as far as I am able and have found “Western media Silent!” tweets at 1am Eastern. That basically can not have happened without some large group pushing the meme.

ADC demand full investigation into the motives behind the murder of 3 Arab/Muslim Americans in #ChapelHillShooting — ADC National (@adctweets) February 11, 2015

Incredible that major news networks have yet to talk about the #ChapelHillShooting. Absolutely shameful. This is how Islamophobia operates. — Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) February 11, 2015

3 muslim students killed. No media coverage. Thank you mainstream media. #ChapelHillShooting — Dima (@Dima09) February 11, 2015

The fact that the only info I am getting about the #ChapelHillshooting is via twitter showcases how permeating Islamophobia is in media. — King سميرة (@SamiraaSR) February 11, 2015

. . .

So it looks like right around 1AM on the 11th, about 8 hours after the first shots fired 911 call, the Twitter campaign takes off, pushing a narrative of “Islamophobia.”

By now, however, we all know that the shooter was not a “Christian Terrorist,” despite all the claims on Twitter.

. . .

Here’s what I see. This is a campaign to push the idea that Muslims are the victims of “Islamophobia” in the west and especially in America. I believe that this campaign is a direct response to the #IamCharlieHebdo hashtag. It’s a direct attack on the west, with the Muslims attempting to regain the mantle of “Victim” by attempting to portray everyone [as] racist and bigoted because the victims in this incident were Muslims.

We were played. And they did a fantastic job of it.

There's more at the link.  It's worth reading in full.

Great detective work, Mr. Sorrentino.  Thanks!

Peter