Something wicked this way comes

 

Regular readers know that for months - no, for years - I've been warning them to get ready for economic hard times, to bolster their preparations so that they can withstand hard times for at least a few weeks or months, to move out of cities to safer places, to beware of a legal and prosecutorial system that is more and more biased against "normal" people in favor of the politically "advantaged", and so on.  I'm sure I've bored a lot of people, partly because some think such warnings are crazy, partly because others already understand the need and don't require reminders.

I've had more than one person tell me, rather snootily, that collapses simply don't happen that fast.  If one comes to America, they say, it'll take decades, and be a very slow-motion decline.  We'll have time to batten down the hatches and prepare.  When I cited my experience in the Third World and what I'd seen there, I was loftily informed that "this isn't the Third World, and that can't happen here".

Well, if you've been following events in Afghanistan over the past couple of weeks, you begin to get some idea of what I'm talking about.  Sure, America isn't Afghanistan - but a whole lot of Americans (by some accounts, thousands, by others a few tens of thousands) are still in that country.  Why the hell they didn't get out when the first warning signs appeared, I have no idea - but it's too late now.  Today, those in Kabul can't get to the airport safely, and even if they do, they may not find a plane available to get them out.  Those outside Kabul are probably doomed, because there appear to be no plans to rescue them.  They saw all the same warning signs everyone else did - and, like almost everyone else, they ignored them.  They said "Oh, that'll never happen to us!"  They said "Oh, we'll have time to prepare or get out - we won't be caught by surprise!"  Guess what?  They were wrong.

Divemedic speaks of a lady he knows who's trapped in Afghanistan.

There is a teacher that my wife and I used to teach with. My wife still speaks with her by text from time to time. She left teaching and became a DOD contractor. She has been working in Kabul for the last several years.

My wife was talking to her by text this afternoon and the said “Things are getting interesting here, but I will be fine.”

I told my wife that she will likely not see her friend again. The Taliban are not very forgiving of Americans, of women, and especially not American women. That poor woman will likely not survive more than a couple of weeks.

And, in a later post:

Her masters is in a subject that is sought after by the Christians in Action. She just sent us a picture, taken at 6:30am this morning, east coast time. She and her coworkers are trying to burn all of the classified stuff that they can. She is still convinced that the government is going to get them out. After seeing the videos this morning, I can’t see that she is going to ever get out.

I agree with him.  If she gets out, it'll be a miracle.  As far as the hardline Islamic fundamentalist Taliban are concerned, organizations like "Christians In Action" are the Devil's tools, and those who work for them are the agents of evil.  If they get their hands on her, and realize or find out who she's working for . . . it's not going to be pretty.

Trouble is, that's more and more the attitude we're facing in this country from the "woke" and the "politically correct" and the progressive left.  Just as the Taliban believe they represent God's cause in Afghanistan, the far left truly believe they represent the "one true faith" in America.  As far as they're concerned, those of us who don't agree are apostates, traitors, pagans, blind to reality, obstructionists, heretics . . . pick a word.  In that sense, the struggle we face in America is very similar to the struggle in Afghanistan, and our Taliban (the progressive left and its hangers-on) is just as dangerous as Afghanistan's version.

I'd like to refer you to three articles on other blogs, writing about America today.  Phil, writing at Bustedknuckles, posts a long list of problems and atrocities taking place all around us right now, and concludes:

All of the above came right off the top of my head in the time it took for me to type it out and is in no way a thorough analysis or even a semi complete list of what is going on in this country RIGHT NOW.

I’m sure you can think of some things I missed but my point here is that this is what the collapse of an empire and a country looks like in real time and you are right in the middle of it watching it all happen and don’t realize it.

The Shit Has Hit The Fan people.

There is no more waiting for it, it is here now.

And from Sarah Hoyt, who experienced the Carnation Revolution at first hand and knows whereof she speaks:

Something changed with [the fall of Afghanistan], something material. I don’t know what. But the mood in the country is different. It’s not quite 9/11 level, but there is a sense of vital outrage. I think people who’ve never paid attention are now awake and watching.

. . .

There is a sense of a grinder heading towards us, perhaps one that will mill very finely indeed.

Once again, make safe what can be made safe. Get you and yours to a safe place.

This is your warning: Sauve qui peut.

And keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

And from Daisy Luther, the Organic Prepper:

This is like an instant replay of 2020 but sprayed with jet fuel.

If this looks familiar, it’s because it is. It’s nearly identical to what happened before. Now pile on top of that more than a year of stress and anxiety, loss, financial problems, and media-driven and politically instigated divisiveness. We’re being encouraged to hate and fear one another, blame each other, and react to extremes. It’s like spraying the fire with jet fuel.

Americans have had enough, no matter what their political affiliation.

. . .

You need to focus right now on what you can do. Not on who is right and who is wrong or whether the vax be mandated or not. Not on the school system, the national debt, or the politician you love or hate. None of these are things you can change.

But you can change your personal circumstances. You can focus on the basics of survival, learn skills, and stock up while you still can. If money is tight, then focus on skills – particularly the acquisition and production of food. You can do this, but you need to do it now.

Ms. Luther offers some useful advice on how to get your preparations in order.  It's geared towards another lockdown rather than societal unrest, but it'll work for the latter as well.  Recommended reading.

Oh - one more parallel between America's progressive left and the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Reuters reports:

Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.

"We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians," the official told Reuters.

Does that remind you of gun control pressures in America?  It should.  And just look at the Taliban's definition (in practice) of what "not harming innocent civilians" looks like:

Taliban forces in Afghanistan are targeting known critics for attack despite claiming that they have ordered their fighters to act with restraint, Human Rights Watch said today ... Among recent cases, the Taliban executed a popular Kandahari comedian, Nazar Mohammad, known as Khasha Zwan, who posted routines that included songs and jokes on TikTok ... “Taliban forces apparently executed Khasha Zwan because he poked fun at Taliban leaders,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “His murder and other recent abuses demonstrate the willingness of Taliban commanders to violently crush even the tamest criticism or objection.”

Uh-huh.  No, you don't need a gun in Afghanistan, because "you can now feel safe" under Taliban rule.  D'you think it'll be the same in America if the progressive left seizes control?  I certainly do!  That's why I'm not handing over my guns, and you shouldn't either.

Friends, I can't help seeing the signs all around me:

• increasingly rampant inflation and senseless economic policies;
• a progressive left that's determined to impose its will on the rest of the country and will brook no opposition;
• a largely manufactured health crisis that's being used to manipulate agendas, policies and society across the nation;
• and a hapless, feckless foreign policy that's causing our friends to distrust our promises (and rightly so) and encouraging our enemies to regard us as a toothless paper tiger.

These factors, taken together, are more than enough fuel for a potential bonfire of colossal proportions.  Anything or anyone might strike the spark that sets it ablaze.  No, I'm not exaggerating - I've seen this before, remember?  The United States isn't above the same human reactions that have caused societal meltdown in other nations.  It can happen here, too.

I'm checking my family's existing preparations, and topping up a few essentials.  I'm making sure every magazine I have for my weapons is loaded, and stored ready for use if necessary.  I'm keeping our vehicles topped up with gas, not dropping below half a tank, and preferably not below two-thirds of a tank.  I'm keeping a careful eye on local and regional developments that might spill over in this direction.

I'm not paranoid.  I'm practical - and I've seen and experienced too much in my life to take lightly the signs of our present times.

I can only advise you to do the same.  If I'm wrong, you'll have lost nothing but a little time - you can eat or otherwise consume all your preparations, so nothing will be wasted.  But if I'm right . . . 

Peter

Christianity and lightbulbs - a pastoral (?) review

 

Another blast from the past, following yesterday's officer reviews - an explanation of how a number of major Christian denominations would handle the task of changing a lightbulb, and the theology behind it.

Q:  How many Charismatics does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  Only one, since his/her hands are in the air anyway.

Q:  How many Calvinists does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  None.  God has predestined when the lights will be on - OR - Calvinists do not change light bulbs.  They simply read out the instructions and pray the light bulb will decide to change itself.

Q:  How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  CHANGE???????

Q:  How many neo-evangelicals does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  No one knows.  They can't tell the difference between light and darkness.

Q:  How many Pentecostals does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  Ten.  One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.

Q:  How many TV evangelists does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  One.  But for the message of light to continue, send in your donation today.

Q:  How many fundamentalists or independent Baptists does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  Only one, because any more would be compromise and ecumenical standards of light would slip.

Q:  How many liberals does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  At least ten, as they need to hold a debate on whether or not the light bulb exists.  Even if they can agree upon the existence of the light bulb, they still may not change it to keep from alienating those who might use other forms of light.

Q:  How many Anglicans or Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  None.  They always use candles.

Q:  How many campfire worship leaders does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  One.  But soon all those around can warm up to its glowing.

Q:  How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  Ten.  One to actually change the bulb, and nine to say how much they liked the old one.

Q:  How many United Methodists does it take to change a light bulb?

A:  We choose not to make a statement of either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb   However, if in  your own journey you have found that a light bulb works for you, that is fine.  You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your personal relationship to your light bulb and present it next month at our annual light bulb Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life, and tinted;  all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence through Jesus Christ.

I'm sure readers know others in the same vein.  Let us know in Comments.

Peter

Bollywood gets weirder!

 

Reader Nate W. sends in this trailer for a new Bollywood movie.  It's your typical terrorist/cop/tech thriller, but with a twist.

A terrorism thriller with Pooh Bear - or a reasonable facsimile thereof?  Definitely weird!

However, I can't help wondering whether it's also a subtle dig by the Indian film industry at Premier Xi Jinping of China.  He's (in)famously annoyed at being mocked with a Winnie the Pooh meme in China for many years - so much so that it's heavily censored there.  Any appearance of a Pooh Bear image on Chinese social media will be banned instanter, and the person posting it will be "counseled" not to do it again.  Without seeing the movie, it's hard to say, but I wonder whether the bear's big-screen antics are meant to reflect the long-standing animosity between India and China?

At any rate, it's a new twist on a tired old genre.  We'll have to see whether it works once the movie's available.

Peter

The triumph of tribe over nation-state

 

Anyone who's lived or worked in a tribal environment understands what's going on in Afghanistan right now.  To old Africa hands like Lawdog and myself, it's "deja vu all over again", to coin a phrase.

Daniel Greenberg puts it nicely in perspective.

The Afghan army, like its Iraqi counterpart, was a wholly artificial western institution. When faced with a tribal crisis, its members revert to their first duty, which is going to the defense of their tribe.

The Afghan army didn't "surrender". 

Its Pashtun members surrendered to the Taliban who are fellow Pashtuns. Hazaras fled to Iran and took our equipment with them for the benefit of Hezbollah, the Houthis, and any other Shiite terrorists. The Uzbeks fled to Uzbekistan. 

There's no Afghanistan. It's a collection of tribes whose members are loyal to their own. 

The only group invested in Afghanistan, aside from the State Department, are the Pashtuns.  

But the Taliban are a much more effective Pashtun bid for taking over the country than the pathetic shambles of a free and democratic Afghanistan. 

And for those tribes and subtribes who want to resist the Taliban, they'll do so because they oppose that particular tribe by siding with their tribe and the warlords leading the fight. They won't do so while wearing army uniforms or toting around a lot of our equipment which we thought was absolutely vital to a modern armed force, which the locals aren't culturally compatible with, but is not especially useful for raiding tactics, which the locals are quite good at.

The Afghan army didn't surrender. Much of it never existed. The parts that did exist rejoined their tribes and are waiting for the next move which will come as the Taliban overextends itself and gets too deep in bed with the Chinese. 

Our inability to understand this was the problem all along.

We insisted on building up an imaginary military for an imaginary nation. The whole farce collapsed the moment we decamped because there was no longer anything holding it together.

The people we wrongly call the Afghans reverted to who they had been all along before we demanded that they adopt the same political trappings in which we dress our political system. 

Our system works well enough for us, or at least, as Churchill put it, less badly than any other system.

But the Afghans are not Americans. They're not in it for democracy or human rights. What they want is to gain power through their tribe, their subtribe, their family, and their chosen bosses. 

That's what the war was about for 75% of them. It's what the endless war will be about going forward.

Afghanistan is in a perpetual state of tribal warfare. We never understood that and to the extent that we did, we tried to apply solutions that the locals didn't want and weren't especially interested in.

Now that we're gone, the forever war will continue without our overlay of myths and illusions.

There's more at the link.

However, those tribes are now going to be extraordinarily well armed with the latest Western technology - so much so that they'll be able to supply terrorist movements like Al Qaeda or ISIS with as much as they want, courtesy of the US taxpayer.  We left literally tens of billions of dollars' worth of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, aircraft and electronics in Afghanistan, including thermal imaging night sights, anti-tank man-portable missiles, "smart" bombs and missiles, and the like.  The Taliban certainly won't need them for internal use - so guess where they're going to end up?  Uh-huh.  Payback's a bitch.

My "spider sense" for internal terrorism in the USA just got ratcheted up several notches.  It'll be child's play for terrorists to smuggle such weapons across our almost unguarded southern border . . . and then hell's coming to breakfast.

Peter

Not your average officer...

 

Way back when (so long ago I've forgotten), I came across a purported list of extracts from British military officer fitness reports.  I recently rediscovered it, and thought my readers might enjoy it:  so here goes.

• His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity.
• This officer is not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely-won't-be.
• When he opens his mouth, it seems this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there.
• He has carried out each and every one of his duties to his entire satisfaction.
• He would be out of his depth in a car park puddle.
• Technically sound, but socially impossible.
• This officer reminds me very much of a gyroscope - always spinning around at a frantic pace, but not really going anywhere.
• This young man has delusions of adequacy.
• When he joined my ship, this officer was something of a granny; since then he has aged considerably.
• This Medical Officer has used my ship to carry his genitals from port to port, and my officers to carry him from bar to bar.
• Since my last report he has reached rock bottom, and has started to dig.
• He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.
• He has the wisdom of youth, and the energy of old age.
• This officer should go far - and the sooner he starts, the better.
• In my opinion this pilot should not be authorized to fly below 250 feet.
• This man is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.

I think I served under a number of those fellows.  They came in handy as examples of the kind of officer one didn't want to be!

Peter

I've been waiting for this: more and more US manufacturers are starting to "re-shore"

 

I pointed out some years ago that when shipping and logistics costs were low, it made sense for US manufacturers to "off-shore" their manufacturing to countries with low labor and input costs, because the expense of shipping them to the USA was less than paying US wages and input costs.  However, if those logistics costs grew, it would make offshore manufacture much less attractive.

Well, as we've seen, the cost of shipping goods from the Far East to the USA has exploded;  so now manufacturers are actively "re-shoring" their facilities and production.  The Loadstar reports:

A new report by supply chain platform provider Thomas indicates a pronounced increase in manufacturers’ interest in shifting sourcing.

Its survey of North American manufacturers found 83% likely, or extremely likely, to reshore sourcing, a leap from 54% in March 2020.

Thomas president and CEO Tony Uphoff said: “We are witnessing the wholesale re-examination of supply chain relationships, which will realign global manufacturing for decades.

“With North American businesses accelerating reshoring and replacing some of their overseas suppliers with domestic alternatives, US manufacturers are being presented with an unprecedented opportunity.”

Companies had already begun to shorten their supply chains with the impact of the tariff war between the US and China, noted Brian Bourke, chief growth officer of Seko Logistics. Then, Covid-19 and Brexit prompted firms to reshore and diversify, he added.

US-based forwarder Team Worldwide has noticed an increased interest in nearshoring. SVP international Bob Imbriani said: “It’s now becoming more of an issue.”

A survey of more than 130 manufacturers published by technology and professional services provider Sikich and Industry Week, found that 93% of respondents had experienced challenges from Covid-19, and 76% reported that the pandemic had exposed gaps or weaknesses in their supply chains.

In addition to frequent supply chain disruption, extending lead times significantly, the higher costs of logistics are also causing companies to reconsider their options, Mr Imbriani said.

He notes it is not only container rates that have gone through the roof, but also the cost of land transport, including demurrage and detention charges, that are undermining the viability of importing goods from Asia. Some smaller companies had dropped unviable product lines or gone out of business, he said, adding that some low-cost products had been in short supply.

Almost half of the respondents in the Sikich study said they were diversifying their supply chains to reduce the risk of single- or limited sourcing, while others looked to production closer to their markets, or bringing production inhouse.

There's more at the link.

However, "re-shoring" is likely to happen on the most favorable terms for manufacturers, not the US economy as a whole.  That means their human workforce is increasingly likely to be replaced, as far as possible, by robots and other automation technology.  Automated production lines don't get sick, don't have disruptive political opinions, don't have to worry about political correctness or "woke" pressures, don't want time off or vacations, and avoid a host of other issues in our society.  That means those hoping for a windfall of job opportunities due to "re-shoring" are probably doomed to disappointment.

That, in turn, means that we're going to have to consider very carefully what we're going to do with our existing workforce.  Some argue that we'll have to provide some form of basic social income for those who can't get or hold down a job, and they have a point:  if a significant proportion of the US population can't support itself because there are no jobs available for them, we can't just leave them to starve.  On the other hand, it also has serious implications for the Biden administration's deliberately permitting illegal aliens to flood across our southern border.  Many of them will be willing to work for a lot less than US workers, which will lead to conflict between them and local labor.  That might make our cities and industrial areas a lot more volatile than they already are.

Each of those factors affects, and is affected by, every other factor.  We can no longer look at manufacturing in isolation.  It now has very real international and domestic political, social, economic and cultural implications.  How it will all shake out, nobody knows . . . but it's going to be interesting to find out.

Peter

President Biden owns the Afghanistan debacle, and history will blame him for it

 

I'm too sick for words to see the images streaming out of Afghanistan as the Taliban complete their conquest of that country, and complete America's humiliation there.  It need not have happened.  All it needed was a modicum of spine in our President, to withdraw the right way and ensure that he left behind the conditions for a peaceful transition - but no, that was too much trouble, and he (or, rather, his handlers) wanted to concentrate on domestic politics.  The result we see before us.

Click the image below to watch the video on Twitter.

You want something even more horrifying?  Try this:

Three stowaways 'fall to their deaths from plane' and five are killed at airport as increasingly desperate Afghans climb on MOVING US Air Force jet as they flee from Taliban: All US Embassy staff have now been evacuated

The pictures at that link are . . . sickening.

Remind you of anything?

And through all this, where was President Biden?

The Biden administration and its military commanders have screwed up by the numbers.  This is a national humiliation for the USA on a scale we've only seen a handful of times before . . . and they OWN it.  It's entirely their fault, and could easily have been prevented by a modicum of prior planning and making better arrangements to support a more competent, more broadly based local government - but it seems they figured that would have been too much trouble for America.

Even their media allies are having a hard time defending them.  To cite just one example, here's the reliably left-wing and progressive Atlantic:

Biden’s Betrayal of Afghans Will Live in Infamy

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the 20-year debacle in Afghanistan—enough to fill a library of books. Perhaps the effort to rebuild the country was doomed from the start. But our abandonment of the Afghans who helped us, counted on us, staked their lives on us, is a final, gratuitous shame that we could have avoided. The Biden administration failed to heed the warnings on Afghanistan, failed to act with urgency—and its failure has left tens of thousands of Afghans to a terrible fate. This betrayal will live in infamy. The burden of shame falls on President Joe Biden.

There's more at the link.

I don't deny the necessity of US withdrawal from Afghanistan.  We've needed to be gone from there for a long time already, as I've said often enough on this blog.  There was, and is, no military solution to the problems of that country.  However, US withdrawal has been so incompetently mismanaged that it's going to become a poster child for the incompetence of the Biden administration in general.  Every nation that considers itself a friend of the USA must now surely be wondering, "What if that was us?"

Mark Steyn puts it succinctly.

… if you're an Afghan schoolgirl, today is the fall of Kabul; elsewhere, in the chancelleries of allies and enemies alike, it's the fall of America.

. . .

The scale of America's global humiliation is so total that I see my friends at Fox News cannot even bear to cover it. As I write, every other world network - the BBC, Deutsche Welle, France 24, not to mention the Chinese - is broadcasting the collapse of the American regime in real time; on Fox, meanwhile, they're talking about the spending bill and the third Covid shot and the dead Haitians … as if the totality of the defeat is such that for once it cannot be fixed into the American right's usual consolations ("well, this positions us pretty nicely for 2022").

On the leftie side, of course, the court eunuchs have risen as one to protect the Dementia Kid, and are working as hurriedly as the Kabul document-shredders in an effort to figure out a way to blame it all on Trump.

. . .

I'm in favor of razing the Pentagon and salting the earth - or, at the very least, firing Milley and the massed ranks of "parade generals" (a useful Commonwealth term) and moving the few guys left to a new HQ in a strip-mall on the edge of Cleveland. The bigger your armed forces get, the more they become a racket - as the US-created "Afghan National Army" "300,000-strong" (and now down to, oh, twenty-seven maybe) has just conveniently demonstrated. As for where all the money wound up, the Taliban's tour of American "ally" and former Afghan vice-president "Marshal" Dostum's palatial spread provides a clue.

I've said for years, into the void of silence from Bill Kristol, Max Boot and the rest of the shock-'n-awe crowd on the laughably misnamed "national-security right", that the entire American way of war needs rethinking.

. . .

As for the enemy, the good news is that if your regime is attacked by America you'll likely wind up with even more territory than you started with:

The Taliban now controls more of Afghanistan than it did before the US invaded in 2001.

That happens to be true: the only change effected over two decades of Nato occupation is that the Taliban now controls northern Afghanistan, which it didn't do on October 7th 2001. But don't worry; here's how US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent his Saturday night:

Very productive conversation with Canadian Foreign Minister @MarcGarneau about our efforts to reach a diplomatic solution in Afghanistan.

In the course of that "very productive" telephone call, the Taliban took three more cities.

America is not "too big to fail": It's failing by almost every metric right now. The world-record brokey-brokey-brokeness manifested by the current spending bills is only possible because the US dollar is the global currency. When that ends, we're Weimar with smartphones. Clearly, Chairman Xi and his allies occasionally muse on the best moment to yank the dollar out from under. If you were in Beijing watching telly today, would you perhaps be considering advancing those plans?

Again, more at the link.

The Taliban are now back in charge in Afghanistan, and everyone there who supported, or worked for, or benefited from the American occupation is now in grave danger.  Many will be killed.  That's on our consciences, too.  Pray for the souls of those being imprisoned, tortured and murdered in Afghanistan right now, or who soon will be.  Their deaths are largely our nation's President Biden's fault.

Oh - let's not forget:  that's what happens when you get an invalidly "elected" Administration.  They stole power through electoral fraud, and now they can't even wield it competently.  Quelle surprise!

As one user on MeWe posted:

No s***, Sherlock!

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 71

 

Harvested around the Web over the past week.  There are not as many as usual, but that's because fewer of the memes I found made me laugh!  It seems comedy is sometimes sparse.  At any rate, click any image for a larger view.

More next week.

Peter

Sunday morning music

 

Today I'd like to introduce you to an Italian musician, Luca Stricagnoli.  According to his Web site:

Luca Stricagnoli, born and raised in Italy, is an acoustic guitarist known for his unique style and innovative playing techniques. His original approach to music has led him to a variety of successes from obtaining over 100 million views on his music videos to having the opportunity to perform all around the globe.

Using up to five guitars in the same piece, modified capos, and self-conceived stratagems, Luca continually leaves his audiences in awe and wondering what’s next for the up-and-coming guitarist. In addition to his musical abilities, Luca brings an enthusiastic energy to the stage that attracts concert requests from every corner of the world.

He certainly seems to have achieved considerable success without the backing of the major companies in the music industry.  His YouTube channel shows a number of videos with views in the multiple millions, which is a pretty good indicator of popular success.

I've chosen a few of his videos for inclusion today, mostly featuring popular songs and pieces.  You'll find plenty more at his Web site and on YouTube. Let's start with (literally) a classic:  Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik performed on a banjo guitar (i.e. a banjo strung for regular guitar strings).  He also uses a Pickaso Guitar Bow to produce some unusual sounds and effects.

Next, here's his foot-tapping version of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive".

He tackles Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence" using a guitar fitted with what he calls a "Reverse Neck Slide", his own invention.

Stricagnoli plays a medley of three songs by Iron Maiden on a triple neck guitar, which he describes like this on his Web site:

This one-of-a-kind instrument was invented by Luca and turned into reality by Davide Serracini. It is the first guitar in the world to have a Reversed Neck and it has multiple unique features. It features three necks: a Standard Neck with 6 regular strings, a Soprano Neck with 7  high pitched strings tuned in scale, and a Reversed Neck with 3 bass strings and a fret direction which goes the other way around. This guitar opens up an incredibly wide range of new playing possibilities.

Finally, here's a medley of three songs from English group The Prodigy, played on acoustic guitar with some assistance from a xylophone-type instrument.

You'll find more of his music on YouTube, and his albums (three so far) are available on his Web site in digital or physical form.

Peter

Saturday morning snippet: Time for a lot of laughs

 

Last week I came across two YouTube videos that had me rolling in the aisles.  They're compilations of the greatest moments of comedy from the Pink Panther movie series, starring the late Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, the bumbling detective who always creates mayhem and havoc, but somehow solves the crime anyway.

The first video is the general comedy of the series.  The second is every attack made on Clouseau by his manservant Cato (at Clouseau's direction, to keep his reflexes sharp - sort of).  Together they add up to about an hour's viewing, all of it side-splitting.  Enjoy!

A good laugh is good for the soul, and the comedy team from the Pink Panther series provided a lot of them - for which God bless them!  Most are no longer with us.  One hopes they're still providing laughter and merriment in the next life.

Peter

Beware of ANYTHING like this!!!

 

I'm obliged to The Intrepid Reporter for putting up this poster for a forthcoming rally in Florida.  Clickit to biggit.

He notes:

OK:

First off

Anytime I see a poster advertising a "Patriot Rally"

I hear "Federally Sponsored Setup"

Intel Gathering.

No way in hell do I have any interest out of going down there.

There's more at the link.

I couldn't agree more.  We've seen how "agitators" (widely rumored to be the FBI) promoted the January 6th demonstrations in Washington D.C.  It turns out to have been a first-class "fishing expedition" for the Federal authorities, who continue to detain without trial most of the protesters they've been able to identify, and interrogate them and look for evidence to implicate others.  This Florida protest looks to me to be more of the same.  Its organizers may not intend it as such, but you can bet your bottom dollar that intelligence-gatherers will be all over it like white on rice.

Be suspicious of any and every attempt to call together "Patriots" or "Trump supporters" or anyone else opposed to the current powers that be.  It's highly likely to be used against those groups and any and all of their members.  Our current (illegitimate) Administration is paranoid about opposition, so it's going all-out to demonize and stigmatize all those involved.

Don't make yourself a target.  Be the 'gray man'.

Peter

Inflation is being "manufactured" by companies as well as governments

 

We've discussed in the past how trillions of dollars in government "stimulus" money has goosed the inflation monster into action, and we're seeing the results now on our supermarket shelves.

However, there's another angle, and that's plain and simple corporate greed.  There are far too many companies out there who'll gouge the market for the highest price they can get, irrespective of whether or not there's economic justification for that price.  "Make hay while the sun shines", is their motto, and they do so at our expense.  They will, of course, deny that they're doing that, and blame "input costs" or "market conditions" for the price increases - but we all know what's going on.  They're in pursuit of the Great God Profit, and that's all they care about.

The effect of their greed is, of course, visible in the overall inflationary climate.  Wolf Street picks up on some of its effects, as well as those caused by government intervention in the markets.

In the US, where consumer price inflation is now surging at the hottest rate in years, input prices for companies have exploded, which will further transfer into consumer prices down the road.

The Producer Price Index for final demand, which is an indication of input price pressures that companies face, and that they’re trying to pass on to their customers, spiked by 1.0% in July from June and by 7.8% year-over-year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, by far the highest rate in the data going back to 2010:

And the ocean freight rates charged to ship containers across the world have exploded. Drewry’s composite World Container Index in the latest week, reported today, rose to $9,421 per 40-foot container, up by 358% year-over-year (chart via Drewry):

Specifically, rates to ship a 40-foot container in the week through August 12 from Shanghai to:

• To Los Angeles: $10,322 (+241% year-over-year)
• To New York: $13,505 (+285% year-over-year)
• To Rotterdam: $13,653 (+636% year-over-year).

These are astounding freight rates – to be passed on to consumers just for the holiday season. Makes you wonder if the big container carriers aren’t engaging in some classic price gouging. Why? Because they can. That’s what inflation is all about: Companies get away with raising their prices whatever the reasons may be. And those higher prices become costs for the next company, and they get passed on further.

The other way it’s less costly, but also a lot costlier than it was a year ago. For example, from Los Angeles to Shanghai: $1,461 per 40-ft container (+182% year-over-year).

. . .

These pressures in the supply chain and transportation systems that make supply chains work didn’t come out of nowhere. They came from a hyper stimulated economy, to a large extent in the US, where the government and the Fed threw many trillions of dollars in all directions that then needed a place to go. And some of it ended up getting spent on goods that are mostly manufactured overseas.

This mix contributed to the beginning of an inflation spiral. While some of the issues will eventually be resolved, these higher prices have led to higher wages that are now further pushing up prices, and companies are raising prices to deal with higher wages and higher input costs, and there are all kinds of signs that the whole cycle is anything but “transitory,” especially with the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus still raging – under these conditions!

There's more at the link.

Do note, in the excerpt above, the cost of shipping a container from China compared to the cost of shipping one to China.  Same distance, same bulk, but wildly different costs.  Shipping companies are doing it because they can.  Their customers can't turn to anyone else to replace their services.

Sadly, this is now having severe repercussions in smaller shipping markets around the world.  From Africa, from South America, and from smaller Asian countries, we're hearing reports that ships are calling at their ports less frequently, because the demand on major trade routes between China, the USA and Europe is so strong.  What's more, there are fewer containers available to serve smaller markets, and the suppliers from whom they normally buy are no longer selling to them because they can make so much more money selling to bigger markets.  Shortages of critical items - spare parts, medicines, even food - are thus becoming more frequent in smaller countries.

We seldom think of our government's policies, and our economic activity, affecting other nations on the far side of the world, but that's the effect they're having right now.  It's pretty much inevitable.  Disruption and economic turmoil aren't insulated from the rest of the world.  They spread like a virus, all over the globe.

Peter

Why bother to post, or read, opposing views?

 

I've sometimes tried to post articles here, now and again, that are written from a viewpoint I do not share.  The authors may be of a different religious faith, or a different political perspective, or a more or less radical world view;  but the common element is that I don't share their views.  Neither do many of my readers.

I think many of you understand why I do this.  Others, however, do not.  In the most recent case, earlier this week, I received comments like these:

• "Someone with a lobotomy wrote this."
• "There are no people of good will on the Left. If they were of good will, they wouldn't be Leftists. QED"
• "Sounds like it was written by a parent who just cannot blame one kid no matter how at fault or vicious they act. Praising this type of mushy logic framed as the virtuous center is well below your intellect. We all know who is tearing America down and why, it's been admitted about 10K times. Some men get very sentimental and too understanding in their later years."
• "My initial summary of Lipson's codswallop I edited out, solely for respect of your blog and your preferences, but suffice it so say it's something found in the former Augean Stables by the metric ton ... Some crimes merit old time torture, not mere execution. His nonsense qualifies, ad extremis."
• "Peter, this article you have copied isn't even bovine excrement, it's nightsoil, and a wast of time and electrons. I can look anywhere on the web to find the same sort of crap, I really don't want to find it on your blog."

There are others in the same vein.

The problem with all these comments is that they assume that only one point of view is right.  All others are wrong to a greater or lesser extent.  That's precisely the assumption that many on the "other side" are also making.  We've gone past the point where we're prepared to listen to each other, and try to understand how the other is thinking.  We now simply reject their viewpoints, and them for holding such viewpoints.  It's "my way or the highway".

Friends, those of you who've read my work over the years know my background.  I've seen far too much of war, bloodshed and violence for my peace of mind, and I'm seeing a ramp-up to it again in these formerly United States.  I think it'll be a tragedy if that should be our future.  It may well be - it may, by now, be unavoidable - but as long as I can, I'll try to provide an alternate viewpoint now and then, in the hope that some readers at least may be given food for thought.  Do I really hate/despise/want to kill people with these views, just because they don't see the world my way?  Sadly, some already do.

There are those who consider this wishy-washy.  I had that criticism in plenty after my thoughts on the Paris terror attacks in 2015 - see the comments there for yourself - but it doesn't alter the fact that my views then are my views now.  By "othering" the enemy, instead of recognizing our joint humanity despite our differences, we effectively harden ourselves.  We make ourselves part of the problem.  It may be necessary and/or unavoidable that we resort to violence to solve our problems;  but I don't want us to walk into that with the absolute conviction that we're right, and they're wrong, and the only possible solution is to kill enough of them that we make the problem - i.e. them - go away.  To do that makes us, morally and ethically, as bad as the extremists on the other side.  It's like marriage or relationship counseling.  Those of us who've done that have learned the hard way that - with the exception of domestic violence - there are almost always two sides to the situation, and that it's hardly ever just one person's fault.  The same is true of other human interactions as well.

It's certainly that way in politics and war.  Do we rail against left-wing, liberal, progressive politics and the damage they've done to our country?  (I certainly do!)  Then let's not forget what right-wing politics have also done to our country, and to many others.  Think of the "neocon wars" of the past few decades.  How many were justified?  How many should have been ended and the chapter in history closed, rather than allowed to drag on in an attempt to impose "truth, justice and the American way" on societies and nations that wanted nothing to do with them?  For the latest results of that, see what's happening in Afghanistan as I write these words.  Two trillion dollars, thousands of American dead, tens of thousands of American wounded - all thrown away, wasted, washed down the drain of history.  Some of those opposed to our Afghan war may be left-wing or progressive in their views, but I don't think anyone would argue that they're wrong because of that - just as we wouldn't argue that right-wing opposition to it was/is wrong.

For better or worse, I'm a Christian pastor.  I'm also a man of deep experience in the extremes of human behavior.  I've been shot at, and I've shot back.  I've been wounded - nearly killed - and I've returned the favor.  I'm not some pie-in-the-sky theorist, some head-in-the-clouds idealist.  I've "been there and done that", and my body bears the scars to prove it.  (So does my mind, for that matter.)  I'm not thinking and writing this way because I'm a "pajama boy" type, but because I'm a hard-bitten realist (and some of the bites still hurt!).

I know the evil that dwells in the hearts of men, because I've found it in my own, and I've seen it in the hearts of all too many others.  Civil wars, and armed insurrections, and terrorism, and serving as a chaplain in a high-security penitentiary, will all do that for you - and I've done them all.  They've all helped to make me what I am.  If you think I'm somehow a "closet liberal" after all that, there's nothing I can do to make you change your mind.

I try - I don't always succeed, but I try - to let my faith inform my approach to life.  That faith tells me that I must always seek to give the Holy Spirit room to move, room to change the hearts of men - including my own.  Thus, when I provide viewpoints that I don't share, and many of my readers don't share, I do so to give us all food for thought;  to make us realize, yet again, that there are other perspectives out there, and we ignore them at our peril.  Just as any man of sense distrusts and avoids extremists, we don't want to paint ourselves into an extremist corner if we can avoid that.

That doesn't mean I won't take a stand.  I fully agree with the old saw that "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".  My positions are well-known to regular readers.  I'm morally conservative, politically center-right, and philosophically Christian.  Those aren't about to change.  However, the fact that I hold those views does not (and should not) blind me to the fact that there are others out there, and those holding them are as entitled to do so as I'm entitled to hold mine.  If I try to ride rough-shod over opposing views, the Golden Rule essentially implies that I've given those who hold them permission to ride rough-shod over mine.  If I expect them to have any respect and tolerance for my views, I need to have at least some respect and tolerance for theirs, even though I may oppose them vigorously.  If I reject them along with their views, why should they not reject me along with mine?  Recognizing that reality doesn't make me soft or wishy-washy.  It makes me a realist.

Sadly, that perspective, and my efforts, don't meet with everyone's approval.  I'm truly sorry about that:  but it won't change who and what I am.  I'll continue to try to provide alternative viewpoints from time to time.  I'll go with Oliver Cromwell's plea (and he was anything but a "softie" or liberal shill) to the Church of Scotland in 1650:

Is it therefore infallibly agreeable to the Word of God, all that you say? I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.

I can be (and often have been) as mistaken in my approach as any other.  I'm not infallible, and never will be - and neither will any of my readers.  I therefore beseech those of you who get annoyed when I post something with which you don't agree:  "think it possible you may be mistaken", even if you're absolutely sure you're not.  Read others' views and perspectives, even if you will never agree with them, and question your own fallibility, as I do mine.

If that doesn't work for you, there's always the proverbial approach, of course.

Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.  That way, when you do, you'll be a mile away and you'll have his shoes.

Not very Christian, perhaps, but also very practical!

Peter

So much for electric vehicles

 

Despite all the hype about electric vehicles, including President Biden's decision to "electrify" the US government fleet of over half a million vehicles, nobody seems to be talking much about the challenges of switching from gasoline or diesel to electric power.  Toyota has gone on record often in the past, pouring cold water on such heated claims.  It did so again a few months ago.

This week, Toyota reiterated an opinion it has offered before. That opinion is straightforward: The world is not yet ready to support a fully electric auto fleet.

Toyota’s head of energy and environmental research Robert Wimmer testified before the Senate this week, and said: “If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, and affordability.”

Wimmer’s remarks come on the heels of GM’s announcement that it will phase out all gas internal combustion engines (ICE) by 2035. Other manufacturers, including Mini, have followed suit with similar announcements.

Tellingly, both Toyota and Honda have so far declined to make any such promises. Honda is the world’s largest engine manufacturer when you take its boat, motorcycle, lawnmower, and other engines it makes outside the auto market into account. Honda competes in those markets with Briggs & Stratton and the increased electrification of lawnmowers, weed trimmers, and the like.

Wimmer noted that while manufactures have announced ambitious goals, just 2% of the world’s cars are electric at this point. For price, range, infrastructure, affordability, and other reasons, buyers continue to choose ICE over electric, and that’s even when electric engines are often subsidized with tax breaks to bring pricetags down.

The scale of the switch hasn’t even been introduced into the conversation in any systematic way yet. According to FinancesOnline, there are 289.5 million cars just on U.S. roads as of 2021. About 98 percent of them are gas-powered.

. . .

Toyota warns that the grid and infrastructure simply aren’t there to support the electrification of the private car fleet. A 2017 U.S. government study found that we would need about 8,500 strategically-placed charge stations to support a fleet of just 7 million electric cars. That’s about six times the current number of electric cars but no one is talking about supporting just 7 million cars. We should be talking about powering about 300 million within the next 20 years, if all manufacturers follow GM and stop making ICE cars.

Simply put, we’re gonna need a bigger energy boat to deal with connecting all those cars to the power grids. A LOT bigger.

But instead of building a bigger boat, we may be shrinking the boat we have now. The power outages in California and Texas — the largest U.S. states by population and by car ownership — exposed issues with powering needs even at current usage levels. Increasing usage of wind and solar, neither of which can be throttled to meet demand, and both of which prove unreliable in crisis, has driven some coal and natural gas generators offline. Wind simply runs counter to needs — it generates too much power when we tend not to need it, and generates too little when we need more. The storage capacity to account for this doesn’t exist yet.

We will need much more generation capacity to power about 300 million cars if we’re all going to be forced to drive electric cars. Whether we’re charging them at home or charging them on the road, we will be charging them frequently. Every gas station you see on the roadside today will have to be wired to charge electric cars, and charge speeds will have to be greatly increased.

. . .

Half an hour is an unacceptably long time to spend at an electron pump. It’s about 5 to 10 times longer than a current trip to the gas pump tends to take when pumps can push 4 to 5 gallons into your tank per minute. That’s for consumer cars, not big rigs that have much larger tanks. Imagine the lines that would form at the pump, every day, all the time, if a single charge time isn’t reduced by 70 to 80 percent.

There's more at the link.

The biggest single problem I foresee with electric vehicles is that they depend on a stable power grid to be able to recharge their batteries.  Mother Nature isn't all that good at providing such stability, and nor are less than reliable electrical utility companies, as demonstrated in Texas during recent months.  Hurricanes can disrupt electricity supplies over a wide area for weeks on end - precisely the situation where emergency repair crews need power for their transportation, chainsaws and other gear, but won't be able to recharge their batteries.  What's more, when power is restored after such an outage, people are going to be desperate to warm or cool their homes, power appliances, etc. - not compete with auto recharge stations for the limited power that's available.

I'm seeing an awful lot of hype about this, but not much hard-headed reality.  Until the latter becomes more prevalent, I'll stick with gasoline engines, thank you very much . . . at least, until the government decides it knows better (again) and restricts gasoline supplies!

(Oh, yes - on that point, what about those folks who rely on portable generators to power their homes and businesses during a power outage?  If you replace fossil fuels for vehicle use, what about small engines such as those in generators?  I've never heard of an electrically powered electric generator - have you?)

Peter

What's a mere $4.7 trillion between friends?

 

I note that our Senators have beclowned themselves (yet again) by passing, in rapid succession, a "bipartisan" $1.2 trillion and a "partisan" $3.5 trillion infrastructure bills, which now go to the House for approval and then to President Biden for his signature.  The fact that the money isn't there to pay for them (despite optimistic claims by our politicians) is neither here nor there.  They'll find it, somehow . . . or so they say.

These bills may be some of the last nails in the coffin of our economy in its present form.  So far this fiscal year, our deficit is already at $2.237 trillion - and that's just in one year.  Our national debt as of the end of June this year stood at $22.3 trillion - $1.8 trillion higher than the same month last year.  With numbers that large, the new infrastructure packages are lost in the static.  They're yet more unpayable debt, added on to the debt we already can't afford to repay.

Charles Hugh Smith points out that our economy as a whole is increasingly unstable, largely because of debt loads like that.  He's writing about the economy in general, rather than US government debt, but since that debt underpins everything else via deficit spending, it comes to the same thing.  He headlines his article "How Breakdown Cascades into Collapse".

Another key weakness is the entire system's reliance on debt, leverage and speculation. Few seem to understand that physical production and delivery systems can grind to a halt for financial reasons--for example, lines of credit being pulled, a counterparty to some arcane commodity swap goes under, taking the presumably solvent corporation down with it, and so on.

The more debt that's been piled up, the greater the instability of the entire system. Risk always appears low until the system destabilizes, and then all the hedges fail and risk breaks out, flooding through the entire financial system.

Leverage is great fun on the way up, as it magnifies gains. Since the Federal Reserve implicitly guarantees that "buy the dip" will generate massive gains, why not ramp up leverage ten-fold to maximize those Fed-guaranteed gains?

Leverage is less fun on the way down. When the underlying collateral has shrunk to 20% of the leveraged bets being made, a 21% decline in the asset wipes out all the collateral holding up the palace of leveraged debt.

The Fed can print money but it can't create collateral, nor can it make insolvent entities solvent. All the Fed can do is increase the debt and leverage, which is not the solution, it's the problem.

. . .

The Fed's entire strategy in the 21st century has been to inflate asset bubbles that generate the illusion of wealth--the so-called wealth effect which is presumed to inspire voracious borrowing and spending.

Unfortunately for the Fed, most of the gains flowed to the top 0.1%, and an economy based on a handful of billionaires buying super-yachts and spaceships is a line of dominoes awaiting the inevitable "accident." So there are two systemic problems with relying on asset bubbles to generate "wealth": 1) since 90% of the assets are owned by a thin slice of the populace, bubbles increase destabilizing inequality, and 2) bubbles are intrinsically unstable. So the U.S. economy, dependent on the Fed for the "juice" of monetary stimulus, is now dependent on incredibly unstable bubbles in assets, debt and leverage, bubbles which have generated extremes of wealth/income inequality that are destabilizing the social and political orders.

As the three charts below illustrate, the fragility and instability are well hidden until it's too late: bubbles, debt, leverage, budgets and revenues can only click higher because the system breaks down if there is any sustained decline (the rising wedge model of breakdown). Once the subsystems fail, there's no putting the eggshell back together.

There's more at the link.

I regard these "stimulus" bills as harbingers of the fast-approaching financial storm.  We simply do not have, nor are we likely to have, enough money to pay for them, unless we borrow it;  and increasingly, lenders are taking a long, hard look at the US deficit and asking themselves how on earth we can ever be expected to repay it.  If lenders aren't sure they'll be repaid in due course, why should they lend us even more money?  In their shoes, I wouldn't.

These bills also ensure that inflation will become an entrenched reality for years to come.  The Federal Reserve will have no choice but to devalue our currency through inflation, so that our existing deficit can be repaid in devalued dollars.  Without that, there's no way we'll ever be able to afford to repay it.

Our politicians on both sides of the aisle are fiscal bulls in our economic china shop.  Neither party can be trusted to do the right thing.  Our politicians are almost all as bad as each other.  How we get rid of them, I don't know, because they've entrenched themselves in their positions and are grimly determined to hang on to power;  but get rid of them we must, because if we don't, they'll drag us over the fiscal cliff with them.  They've abandoned financial reality in favor of their tax-and-spend wet dreams.  It's up to us to wake them up from their dreams, so that they realize they were, in fact, a nightmare for our country and the rest of us who live here.

Peter

With thermal imaging, the night is no longer your friend

 

A rather horrifying video clip has emerged, allegedly showing Taliban marksmen taking down Afghan troops at night with the aid of thermal imaging riflescopes.  If you'd like to see it, click over to Solomon's place and follow the Twitter link he provides.  WARNING:  It's graphic.  Definitely not for the squeamish.

The screen capture below is from that clip.  You can now buy thermal scopes and binoculars with built-in cameras to record things like this.  The resolution may not be great, but it doesn't have to be as long as it gets the job done - which the shooter does, a few frames later.

The thing is, this sort of gear is increasingly widely used.  We no longer have to contend only with US military thermal sights and surveillance systems, which used to be far ahead of everything else out there.  Equivalent gear (or near-equivalent) is now widely available from other sources, and is found all over the world.  The Taliban have allegedly been using Pulsar scopes from Lithuania for several years, although I don't know whether or not that's true.  Be that as it may, Pulsar thermal imaging gear is freely available in this country.  There was some on sale at a gun show I attended a couple of weeks ago.  It's still relatively expensive ($3K to $4K at the high end), but that's way cheaper than it was a few years ago.  In another few years, it'll be at the $1K-$2K level.  Other competitors (for example, ATN) are already approaching that price point.  There are more out there.

I've been seeing more and more reports that extremists in Antifa, BLM and similar movements are also carrying this stuff now.  They're currently using it more to watch their opponents and observe the police than as riflescopes, but there's no reason that can't change.  The point is, the night is no longer the concealment that many people still assume it is.  An enemy equipped with thermal imaging gear doesn't need street lights or building lights to see you, and won't use infra-red emitters to illuminate a scene.  He or she can be completely passive.  You'll never know they're there, but they'll see you - and what you're doing - clearly enough.

Keep that thought firmly in mind if you find yourself in a riot or unrest situation at night.  If you can afford it, I highly recommend getting yourself some thermal imaging gear.  The rest of us . . . well, we can't afford it, but we should at least be aware of it, because well-equipped enemies of our society don't labor under that handicap.

(No, I'm not being compensated by any of the companies linked here for mentioning their gear, and I don't own any of their products.  They're just used as examples of what's out there.)

Peter

Learning to die

 

In a moving, thought-provoking essay, journalist Jack Thomas describes coming to terms with his imminent death.

After a week of injections, blood tests, X-rays, and a CAT scan, I have been diagnosed with cancer. It’s inoperable. Doctors say it will kill me within a time they measure not in years, but months.

As the saying goes, fate has dealt me one from the bottom of the deck, and I am now condemned to confront the question that has plagued me for years: How does a person spend what he knows are his final months of life?

Atop the list of things I’ll miss are the smiles and hugs every morning from my beautiful wife, Geraldine, the greatest blessing of my life. I hate the notion of an eternity without hearing laughter from my three children. And what about my 40 rose bushes? Who will nurture them? I cannot imagine an afterlife without the red of my America roses or the aroma of my yellow Julia Childs.

. . .

Editing the final details of one’s life is like editing a story for the final time. It’s the last shot an editor has at making corrections, the last rewrite before the roll of the presses. It’s more painful than I anticipated to throw away files and paperwork that seemed critical to my survival just two weeks ago, and today, are all trash. Like the manual for the TV that broke down four years ago, and notebooks for stories that will never be written, and from former girlfriends, letters whose value will plummet the day I die. Filling wastebasket after wastebasket is a regrettable reminder that I have squandered much of my life on trivia.

. . .

Does the intensity of a fatal illness clarify anything? Every day, I look at my wife’s beautiful face more admiringly, and in the garden, I do stare at the long row of blue hydrangeas with more appreciation than before. And the hundreds and hundreds of roses that bloomed this year were a greater joy than usual, not merely in their massive sprays of color, but also in their deep green foliage, the soft petals, the deep colors and the aromas that remind me of boyhood. As for [current crises] — on all those matters, no insights, no thunderbolts of discovery. I remai­­n as ignorant as ever.

I am now so early into this new hell that I have no pain, although that is coming, surely, and no symptoms except moments of utter exhaustion and, in the past three months, a loss of 20 pounds. After decades of turning down desserts, candies, and pastries to control my weight, it now seems cruel to be pressured to eat more food for which I have less appetite.

As my life nears the finish line, the list of things I’ll miss grows.

I’ll miss my homes in Cambridge and Falmouth. I’ll never again see the sun rise over the marsh off Vineyard Sound, never again see that little, yellow goldfinch that perched atop a hemlock outside my window from time to time so that both of us could watch the tide rise to cover the wetland.

Never again will I stretch out on the sand with a drink and stare in amazement at a sky filled with diamond stars. How is it possible that there could be more than 100 thousand million stars in our Milky Way, let alone who can say how many millions upon millions more in other galaxies, and yet, among them all, there is no planet that supports life? Imagine how newspapers will report that discovery!

. . .

As death draws near, I feel the same uncomfortable transition I experienced when I was a teenager at Brantwood Camp in Peterborough, New Hampshire, packing up to go home after a grand summer. I’m not sure what awaits me when I get home, but this has certainly been an exciting experience. I had a loving family. I had a great job at the newspaper. I met fascinating people, and I saw myriad worldwide wonders. It’s been full of fun and laughter, too, a really good time.

I just wish I could stay a little longer.

There's much more at the link.  Recommended reading.

Peter

Heh

 

Another great cartoon from Stephan Pastis.  Click the image to see a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Puns, prey, food and books.  What's not to like?

Peter