Sunday morning music

 

I'm sure many readers know the rock group Alter Bridge.  Formed in 2004 as a successor to Creed, it's become very popular among heavy metal and hard rock enthusiasts.

In 2017, Alter Bridge performed two live concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, accompanied by the Parallax Orchestra.  I've chosen four tracks from the live recording of those concerts, as a representative example of the group's work.  You may need to look up the lyrics for the songs, as some of them aren't too clear, but they're freely available online.

Here goes!

I'm not a big Alter Bridge fan, but the orchestral accompaniment adds a lot to their sound, IMHO, and illustrates the musical depth they bring to rock.  They don't just make a noise.

Peter

Saturday Snippet: An old king and a military statesman

 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was one of the leading poets of the Victorian era, and was Poet Laureate of England from 1850 until his death in 1892, the longest tenure of anyone holding that position.

I'd like to offer two of his poems for your enjoyment this morning.  The first is his famous "Ulysses", the reflections of an old Greek hero-king as death draws near, and his determination not to yield to old age, but to embark once more and seek out the adventures of his youth.

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

         This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

         There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Compare and contrast that poem, and its fictional hero, with Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington", which he wrote as part of his official duties as Poet Laureate.  Wellington died in 1852.

I
BURY the Great Duke
With an empire’s lamentation,
Let us bury the Great Duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation,
Mourning when their leaders fall,
Warriors carry the warrior’s pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.

II
Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore?
Here, in streaming London’s central roar.
Let the sound of those he wrought for,
And the feet of those he fought for,
Echo round his bones for evermore.

III
Lead out the pageant: sad and slow,
As fits an universal woe,
Let the long long procession go,
And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow,
And let the mournful martial music blow;
The last great Englishman is low.

IV
Mourn, for to us he seems the last,
Remembering all his greatness in the Past.
No more in soldier fashion will he greet
With lifted hand the gazer in the street.
O friends, our chief state-oracle is mute:
Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
Whole in himself, a common good.
Mourn for the man of amplest influence,
Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest yet with least pretence,
Great in council and great in war,
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common-sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime.
O good gray head which all men knew,
O voice from which their omens all men drew,
O iron nerve to true occasion true,
O fall’n at length that tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!
Such was he whom we deplore.
The long self-sacrifice of life is o’er.
The great World-victor’s victor will be seen no more.

V
All is over and done:
Render thanks to the Giver,
England, for thy son.
Let the bell be toll’d.
Render thanks to the Giver,
And render him to the mould.
Under the cross of gold
That shines over city and river,
There he shall rest for ever
Among the wise and the bold.
Let the bell be toll’d:
And a reverent people behold
The towering car, the sable steeds:
Bright let it be with its blazon’d deeds,
Dark in its funeral fold.
Let the bell be toll’d:
And a deeper knell in the heart be knoll’d;
And the sound of the sorrowing anthem roll’d
Thro’ the dome of the golden cross;
And the volleying cannon thunder his loss;
He knew their voices of old.
For many a time in many a clime
His captain’s-ear has heard them boom
Bellowing victory, bellowing doom:
When he with those deep voices wrought,
Guarding realms and kings from shame;
With those deep voices our dead captain taught
The tyrant, and asserts his claim
In that dread sound to the great name,
Which he has worn so pure of blame,
In praise and in dispraise the same,
A man of well-attemper’d frame.
O civic muse, to such a name,
To such a name for ages long,
To such a name,
Preserve a broad approach of fame,
And ever-echoing avenues of song.

VI
Who is he that cometh, like an honor’d guest,
With banner and with music, with soldier and with priest,
With a nation weeping, and breaking on my rest?
Mighty Seaman, this is he
Was great by land as thou by sea.
Thine island loves thee well, thou famous man,
The greatest sailor since our world began.
Now, to the roll of muffled drums,
To thee the greatest soldier comes;
For this is he
Was great by land as thou by sea;
His foes were thine; he kept us free;
O give him welcome, this is he
Worthy of our gorgeous rites,
And worthy to be laid by thee;
For this is England’s greatest son,
He that gain’d a hundred fights,
Nor ever lost an English gun;
This is he that far away
Against the myriads of Assaye
Clash’d with his fiery few and won;
And underneath another sun,
Warring on a later day,
Round affrighted Lisbon drew
The treble works, the vast designs
Of his labor’d rampart lines,
Where he greatly stood at bay,
Whence he issued forth anew,
And ever great and greater grew,
Beating from the wasted vines
Back to France her banded swarms,
Back to France with countless blows,
Till o’er the hills her eagles flew
Beyond the Pyrenean pines,
Follow’d up in valley and glen
With blare of bugle, clamor of men,
Roll of cannon and clash of arms,
And England pouring on her foes.
Such a war had such a close.
Again their ravening eagle rose
In anger, wheel’d on Europe-shadowing wings,
And barking for the thrones of kings;
Till one that sought but Duty’s iron crown
On that loud sabbath shook the spoiler down;
A day of onsets of despair!
Dash’d on every rocky square
Their surging charges foam’d themselves away;
Last, the Prussian trumpet blew;
Thro’ the long-tormented air
Heaven flash’d a sudden jubilant ray,
And down we swept and charged and over-threw.
So great a soldier taught us there,
What long-enduring hearts could do
In that world-earthquake, Waterloo!
Mighty Seaman, tender and true,
And pure as he from taint of craven guile,
O saviour of the silver-coasted isle,
O shaker of the Baltic and the Nile,
If aught of things that here befall
Touch a spirit among things divine,
If love of country move thee there at all,
Be glad, because his bones are laid by thine!
And thro’ the centuries let a people’s voice
In full acclaim,
A people’s voice,
The proof and echo of all human fame,
A people’s voice, when they rejoice
At civic revel and pomp and game,
Attest their great commander’s claim
With honor, honor, honor, honor to him,
Eternal honor to his name.

VII
A people’s voice! we are a people yet.
Tho’ all men else their nobler dreams forget,
Confus’d by brainless mobs and lawless Powers;
Thank Him who isl’d us here, and roughly set
His Briton in blown seas and storming showers,
We have a voice, with which to pay the debt
Of boundless love and reverence and regret
To those great men who fought, and kept it ours.
And keep it ours, O God, from brute control;
O Statesmen, guard us, guard the eye, the soul
Of Europe, keep our noble England whole,
And save the one true seed of freedom sown
Betwixt a people and their ancient throne,
That sober freedom out of which there springs
Our loyal passion for our temperate kings;
For, saving that, ye help to save mankind
Till public wrong be crumbled into dust,
And drill the raw world for the march of mind,
Till crowds at length be sane and crowns be just.
But wink no more in slothful overtrust.
Remember him who led your hosts;
He bade you guard the sacred coasts.
Your cannons moulder on the seaward wall;
His voice is silent in your council-hall
For ever; and whatever tempests lour
For ever silent; even if they broke
In thunder, silent; yet remember all
He spoke among you, and the Man who spoke;
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
Nor palter’d with Eternal God for power;
Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow
Thro’ either babbling world of high and low;
Whose life was work, whose language rife
With rugged maxims hewn from life;
Who never spoke against a foe;
Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke
All great self-seekers trampling on the right:
Truth-teller was our England’s Alfred nam’d;
Truth-lover was our English Duke;
Whatever record leap to light
He never shall be sham’d.

VIII
Lo, the leader in these glorious wars
Now to glorious burial slowly borne,
Follow’d by the brave of other lands,
He, on whom from both her open hands
Lavish Honor shower’d all her stars,
And affluent Fortune emptied all her horn.
Yea, let all good things await
Him who cares not to be great,
But as he saves or serves the state.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory:
He that walks it, only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes,
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden-roses.
Not once or twice in our fair island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory:
He, that ever following her commands,
On with toil of heart and knees and hands,
Thro’ the long gorge to the far light has won
His path upward, and prevail’d,
Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scal’d
Are close upon the shining table-lands
To which our God Himself is moon and sun.
Such was he: his work is done.
But while the races of mankind endure,
Let his great example stand
Colossal, seen of every land,
And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure:
Till in all lands and thro’ all human story
The path of duty be the way to glory:
And let the land whose hearths he sav’d from shame
For many and many an age proclaim
At civic revel and pomp and game,
And when the long-illumin’d cities flame,
Their ever-loyal iron leader’s fame,
With honor, honor, honor, honor to him,
Eternal honor to his name.

IX
Peace, his triumph will be sung
By some yet unmoulded tongue
Far on in summers that we shall not see:
Peace, it is a day of pain
For one about whose patriarchal knee
Late the little children clung:
O peace, it is a day of pain
For one, upon whose hand and heart and brain
Once the weight and fate of Europe hung.
Ours the pain, be his the gain!
More than is of man’s degree
Must be with us, watching here
At this, our great solemnity.
Whom we see not we revere;
We revere, and we refrain
From talk of battles loud and vain,
And brawling memories all too free
For such a wise humility
As befits a solemn fane:
We revere, and while we hear
The tides of Music’s golden sea
Setting toward eternity,
Uplifted high in heart and hope are we,
Until we doubt not that for one so true
There must be other nobler work to do
Than when he fought at Waterloo,
And victor he must ever be.
For tho’ the Giant Ages heave the hill
And break the shore, and evermore
Make and break, and work their will;
Tho’ world on world in myriad myriads roll
Round us, each with different powers,
And other forms of life than ours,
What know we greater than the soul?
On God and Godlike men we build our trust.
Hush, the Dead March wails in the people’s ears:
The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears:
The black earth yawns: the mortal disappears;
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
He is gone who seem’d so great.—
Gone; but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own
Being here, and we believe him
Something far advanced in State,
And that he wears a truer crown
Than any wreath that man can weave him.
Speak no more of his renown,
Lay your earthly fancies down,
And in the vast cathedral leave him,
God accept him, Christ receive him.

I think Tennyson might well have found echoes of Ulysses in Wellington, and vice versa.

Peter

Tucker Carlson on the gatekeepers, and why they're under threat

 

Tucker Carlson's latest video is well worth watching (here), or if you prefer, courtesy of Zero Hedge, read the transcript below.

There's never been a candidate for president the media hated more than Robert F Kennedy Jr. You thought that title belonged to Donald Trump, of course it must. But go check the coverage: Trump got a gentle scalp massage by comparison. When he announced when Trump rolled out his presidential campaign in 2015 the New York Times waited until the 17th paragraph of the story to attack him. But as well-known as he is, the paper said at the time Trump is also widely disliked then they cited a poll to back it up. That was the attack on Trump.

Eight years later the Times attacked Bobby Kennedy in the very first sentence of the story: quote

“Robert F Kennedy Jr” the paper declared “announced a presidential campaign on Wednesday built on relitigating covid-19 shutdowns and shaking Americans faith in science?”

Shaking Americans faith in science - imagine if you're an ordinary New York Times subscriber reading that over coffee in your pre-war rent-controlled duplex on Columbus Avenue. You'd think Bobby Kennedy just declared war on the enlightenment: ”my fellow Americans I have come to shake your faith in science. Join me as I drag our nation back to the medieval period.”

You'd be appalled; CBS News viewers likely were appalled in its coverage of Kennedy's announcement. CBS denounced the candidates views as “misleading and dangerous.” The LA Times called him “a threat to democracy.”

At the offices of national public radio in Washington a full-blown Category 5 hysteria typhoon broke out. NPR devoted an entire segment to savaging Kennedy not just as a candidate but as a human being.  NPR described him as someone who - for his own perverse reasons - has made “debunked and false and misleading claims that undermine trust in vaccines and who in his spare time provides moral support to crazed extremists Who rally under the banner of what they call Liberty or freedom.”

People magazine didn't even bother to report a single word of anything Kennedy said at his announcement and instead wrote an entire story about how his relatives hate him.  Kennedy’s younger sister Carrie, the magazine reported solemnly, does not approve of Bobby Jr's harmful views… his harmful views.

Bobby Kennedy's thoughts alone are evil enough to hurt people - that's been the tone of the media coverage around Bobby Kennedy Jr for the past 18 years since July of 2005. That's the moment that Kennedy published a magazine article suggesting there might be a link between the rise in diagnosed autism cases and the ever expanding schedule of mandatory childhood vaccines.

The day that story was published Kennedy's reporting was considered so solid that two outlets ran it simultaneously: Rollingstone and Salon.com. Unfortunately neither one of them understood what they were up against. The Pharma Lobby rolled out the most ferocious public relations campaign in memory and both publications swiftly caved; both pulled the story and then disavowed it, groveling as they did.

No one in the National media bothered to explain why autism diagnoses had skyrocketed. If it wasn't the vaccines - and maybe it wasn't - then what was it? To this day there has not been a convincing explanation. Instead reporters just attack Bobby Kennedy. They've called him a lunatic and a Nazi. Instagram shut down his account. YouTube just last week pulled down a perfectly reasonable interview he did with Jordan Peterson citing unspecified misinformation.

And so on - Kennedy became the most censored famous person in the United States. At this point most Americans have heard a lot more about Bobby Kennedy Jr than they've heard from him. He doesn't get many offers to speak from Big platforms

But last week Joe Rogan gave him one. Here's some of what he said:

“Why do five of my seven kids have allergies. Of course, we know why: aluminum adjuvants give you allergies, they're designed to create a hyper immune response to foreign particles. And the last category is the Allergic Diseases - peanut allergies, food allergies, eczema which I never knew anybody with eczema when I was a kid. I knew people with asthma but it wasn't one in every four black kids like it is today. We went from six percent of Americans having chronic disease. By 1986 we're starting to add the vaccines and 11.8% of kids now. so it's doubled.”

Why do five of my seven children have allergies? Now we don't know the answer of course, but it's an interesting question in fact it's an important question that deserves an adult answer not that you should hold your breath waiting to get one.

Bobby Kennedy asks a lot of questions like that; he notices things. Kennedy pays attention to the world around him and he wonders why it's changing. He's an Outdoorsman, a falconer and a fly fisherman. He's interested in how nature works. He's curious.

Not so long ago these qualities were considered essential to the practice of science. All scientific discovery comes from observation: empiricism, patient watching. Without the willingness to put aside your pre-assumptions and assess with honesty the things you see and touch and smell, the changes taking place right in front of your face, you can't do science; you can't create art either, or journalism or theology. You have to be willing to notice the obvious and when they tell you you're not allowed to notice the obvious you should be concerned.

Imagine you're on a commercial airline flight, the plane is just leveled out at 37 000 feet you're closing your eyes for a nap. And suddenly you smell smoke and it's not your imagination you can see it, it's starting to fill the cabin - all around you people are hacking and choking. The guy in the next seat has a napkin pressed against his mouth and he's mumbling what sounds like Psalm 23: “yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”  So clearly the airplane is on fire but almost unbelievably no one has said a word about it - not a single person is acknowledging this is happening. Everyone is silent: so in panic you yell for the flight attendant “there's smoke in the cabin” you say as if she hasn't noticed, but she stares at you with hard eyes “Shut up racist” she replies. “That's a dangerous Russian conspiracy theory. Stop spreading misinformation or I'll call TSA and have you arrested when we land.”

That sounds like a fever dream, but it's also pretty close to the experience of living in the United States at the moment. All around you things seem to be fraying and getting worse,  your gut tells you there's something very bad going on and all the evidence suggests that there is. But the people in charge won't acknowledge that. “Everything's fine” they scream “stop noticing.”

But wait: I don't remember this many kids having allergies or asthma or eczema or autism or for that matter body dysmorphia. And why so many suicides? What's going on here? “Shut up, stop asking questions” that's their answer.

But Bobby Kennedy won't stop asking and that's why they hate him.

As Kennedy spoke on the Rogan show, a reporter for vice.com called Anna Merlin was watching. Merlin was so enraged by what she saw that she dashed off an article attacking Joe Rogan's employer for allowing the conversation to take place. “Spotify has stopped even sort of trying to stem Joe Rogan's vaccine misinformation” read the headline. The piece never even described much of what Bobby Kennedy had actually said. Merlin dismissed the entire interview, was “a detailed survey of Kennedy's most dangerously incorrect views a far too extensive list to outline in full.” In other words “we here at vice don't have time to describe all of Bobby Kennedy's lies but trust us they’re lies.”

Then Merlin called Spotify to see if she could get the episode censored. Much to her profound frustration Spotify refused to censor the episode and kept the interview on its website. So she spent the next several days ranting about all of this on Twitter. People were listening to the wrong things and Anna Merlin was mad about it.

So is Peter Hotes. Hotes is a pediatrician from Texas who became moderately famous on MSNBC during the coveted lockdowns as a Biden shill and a vaccine promoter.  Hotes read Anna Merlin's piece and then huffily retweeted it. Effectively “why is Bobby Kennedy allowed to talk in public” and that gave Joe Rogan an idea: why not have Peter Hotes debate Bobby Kennedy on his show. “You claim he's wrong why don't you explain why he's wrong” that seemed fair.

But Hotes wouldn't bite so Rogan offered to give a hundred grand to Hotez's favorite charity if he agreed to come on. Soon others made their own pledges and the pot swelled to over a million dollars. But still Peter Hotes wouldn't come instead he scampered back to MSNBC where one of the channel's oilier hosts assured him he was doing the right thing by dodging the debate. “Arguing with Bobby Kennedy is morally equivalent to debating a holocaust denier” the host said. “No decent person would do that.” And of course Hotes agreed: “200 000 Americans needlessly perished because they believed the anti-vaccine disinformation and refused to get a covid shot.“

So really talking to Bobby Kennedy would be a lot like abetting murder and Peter Hotes, MD PhD, was not going to do that. But wait a second, you ask yourself - let's think about those numbers. 200 000 people died because of vaccine disinformation from Bobby Kennedy and people like him. How do we know that? Is that really science? No it's not science, because we don't know that, we can't know that - there is no way to know that.

Peter Hotez’s claim is a political attack posing as science and he specializes in those. Here he is on television during the so-called pandemic.

“It's all about mass compliance. That's going to be absolutely critical because if you don't have mass - remember this virus aerosolizes so even six feet is not enough. It can go 17 18 feet, several meters… what you really have to do is have vaccine mandates in the schools. We should have a rule that anyone who walks into a school over the age of 12 has to be vaccinated… This is the nature of the anti-vaccine movement in this country. it's somehow married now to far right-wing extremism and white nationalist groups…. Anyone who's unvaccinated and has been lucky enough to escape covid your luck is about to run out… and I call it anti-science aggression coming from Senator Rand Paul, Senator Johnson. Members of the House of Representatives in addition to those two senators are killers.”

It's all about Mass compliance - we must have vaccine mandates for children.  Take the vax or you will die. Anyone who disagrees with me is a white nationalist and a killer and probably an agent of Putin. Did we say probably? Let's revise that: certainly an agent of Putin.  

Again here is Dr Peter Hotes:

“We're starting to see now those same anti-vaccine messages that's coming out of the U.S and now we're finding it in Africa and Latin America, and remember what the other reason we're seeing this is the Putin government has - this has been reported by U. S and British intelligence - has been piling on with this whole systematic program of what's been called weaponized Health Communications, trying to destabilize democracies with anti-vaccine, anti-science messages and targeting.”

So according to British and U.S intelligence anyone who disagrees with Dr Peter Hotez is a disloyal American working to destabilize our democracy on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Now by comparison, never in his life has Bobby Kennedy Jr said anything half that demented. But keep in mind Peter Hotes claims to have a valid medical license,  he is allowed to treat patients.

After a while even MSNBC viewers were going to have some questions about a guy who talks like that and apparently some of them did. As the lockdowns were on the population started to notice that many of the core claims the TV doctors were making were untrue - you only need one shot, if you got the shot you would never get sick, you would never pass the virus to others and so on. They said these things as you know again and again. Ultimately they were proven wrong but they never admitted it they just attacked the people who noticed.

Here's Dr Peter Hotes calling for the Biden Administration to arrest anyone who questions the covet vaccine:

“The Biden Administration has to realize that that anti-science is a killer. Disinformation - it's not even just disinformation - this is an anti-science Empire right now, and we need Homeland Security, we need the justice department, we've really got to figure this out in the health in Health and Human Services will not be able to figure this out on their own.”

It's not a medical problem, it's a law enforcement problem: “They've doubted me arrest them.”

it's a horrifying outburst if you think about. If you were on tape saying something like that you would be deeply ashamed. But Peter Hotes is not ashamed, he's become even more grandiose. Hotes has written as self-congratulatory new book called “The Deadly rise of anti-science: a scientist warning” as if you were a scientist. Here's how Hotes describes himself in the book's promotional literature:

“During the height of the covid-19 pandemic, one renowned scientist in his famous bow tie appearing daily on major news networks such as MSNBC, NPR and BBC and others, Dr Peter J Hotes, often went without sleep working around the clock to develop a non-profit Covid-19 vaccine and to keep the public informed. During that time he was one of the most trusted voices on the pandemic and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his selfless work. He also became one of the main targets of anti-science rhetoric that gained traction through conservative news media” though we could go on.

So here you have a renowned scientist – selfless, trusted, going without sleep, self-denying, persecuted by extremists for daring to tell the truth. The Albert Schweitzer of cable news - that's Dr Peter J Hotes.

The fact that a partisan buffoon like Peter Hotes can describe himself this way with a straight face - and the backing of a publisher - makes you despair for the country's future. But don't despair, there is hope. Hotes will never debate Bobby Kennedy Jr but it doesn't matter, Kennedy has already won. He's more honest than Dr Peter Hotes and that's obvious to anyone who's paying attention.

A new Economist poll shows that Kennedy is more popular and far less hated than either major party front-runner. After almost 20 years of being silenced Bobby Kennedy Jr is being heard, and why wouldn't he be. Kennedy's theories about vaccines may be right, may be partially right, they could be even utterly wrong - no one's proved it either way.

But what we can say was certainty is that America's Medical establishment has beclowned itself for all time.

It's official positions on vaccines, psychiatric drugs, puberty blockers, reassignment surgeries, a long list of other politically factual priorities - have no connection whatsoever to legitimate science. It's all effectively witchcraft.

At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago last week for example, delegates issued a statement attacking the body mass index as a tool of quote racist exclusion which has caused historical harm.  Next year they will denounce thermometers and stethoscopes.

They're insane. Compared to them Bobby Kennedy is a mainstream figure, and people understand - that that's why he's winning. And you know he's winning by how his critics are doing. So it is four years ago Anna Merlin was regarded as an important expert on conspiracy theories and misinformation. She'd written a book on the topic. Here she is talking about it

“I've always thought that in the case of conspiracy peddlers it's not necessarily a super profitable enterprise to ask whether they really believe it or not because I don't know what's in their hearts I don't know what's in their minds. All I know is what they spend their time doing, which is promoting conspiracy theories. In the case of ordinary people, conspiracy consumers - and most Americans are to some degree consumers of conspiracy theories - all the studies that we have show that like one in three Americans believe in some conspiracy theory to some extent.  

For the people in the very deep end of the conspiracy pool, people are consuming a lot of conspiracy content, I think it's really important to look at the way it helps them make sense of the world and make sense of our political moment, and make sense of a lot of times like what's happening in their own lives.”

“All the studies that we have show that like one in three Americans believe in some conspiracy theory, uh” You'll notice the upspeak the rising inflection at the end of the sentence that's a familiar tick in Brooklyn, it's designed to turn a declarative sentence into a question and thereby belittle the listener: “Do you follow me, is this too complicated for you.”

So the lady in the nose ring wants you to know she's smart… but she's not.

When Merlin recorded that interview Vice where she now works was valued at more than five billion dollars: genius investors like James Murdoch were showering the company with money. Everyone wanted it on the future of media which was up talkers like Anna Merlin lecturing you about racism and misinformation but that has changed.

Last month Vice filed for bankruptcy. Anna Merlin is still on Twitter screeching about how her critics are transphobic… but nobody cares; nobody wants to hear from Anna Merlin anymore.

The Gatekeepers are transparently ridiculous. Everyone can see that. People have started to notice.

Cogent, thought-provoking comments.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Tucker Carlson is a national treasure.  It's no wonder the establishment wants to silence him.  Long may they fail!

Peter

Emergency preparations: Hygiene and sanitation

 

We've talked about a couple of aspects of emergency preparedness in blog posts this month:

A few more thoughts on emergency preparedness

An intriguing variation on the "camp knife" or "small machete" theme

In offline discussions about them, the topic of dealing with injuries sustained while using axes, hatchets, knives, machetes, etc. came up.  That led to a more free-ranging conversation about general hygiene and sanitation in a prolonged disaster situation, where clean water would be in short supply and sanitation systems such as sewers, garbage disposal, etc. would be non-functional.  Here are a few thoughts on the subject, based on my own experience in the Third World plus the fruits of those discussions.

First of all, there's an old saying that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness".  I'm afraid that's only true in an Irish dictionary!  In any emergency, personal hygiene is one of the first casualties, solely due to pressure of circumstances.  When things are coming apart at the seams all around one, and one may have to "bug out" to get away from otherwise unmanageable situations, opportunities to shower, bathe or even just wash the essential bits may be few and far between.  Therefore, it's a good idea to be in a reasonably good state of personal hygiene as a routine matter, so that if things go pear-shaped, one at least starts out in a somewhat sanitary condition.

It's important to cater for hygiene and sanitation in one's immediate emergency-use supplies.  A "bug-out kit" should contain toilet paper and soap enough to last one for a few days, as well as toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, powder for the sweaty bits, moisturizing cream for those needing it, an effective sunblock, and so on.  How much you pack will depend on you, but one can buy travel-size tubes of toothpaste and containers of deodorant, which saves space.  A washcloth and towel are of equal importance.

For longer-term emergencies, your supplies should contain more of all the above, plus extra items as needed.  Look at what your family currently uses on a daily or weekly basis, and stock up on them.  As a rule of thumb, I guesstimate most people will use one bar of soap (approximately 4 ounces) every ten days to two weeks under normal circumstances.  If there are four people in your family, and you want to stock enough for a year, that's at least 2 bars of soap per person per month, multiplied by 12 months, for a total minimum requirement of 96 bars of soap.  That may sound like a lot, but it'll get used up soon enough - and that's not providing for any you share with neighbors and friends, who are sure to come calling when they run out.

(A hint:  when it comes to storing soap for the long term, vacuum seal the bars.  I normally seal two bars of soap in a single small package.  That stops moisture from evaporating from the bars, and keeps them at full size.  A dried-out, hardened husk of a bar of soap is no fun at all to use, and doesn't work very well.  How do I know this?  Trust me.  I know this!)

You can work out your own needs for toothpaste, shampoo, moisturizing cream, etc. based on your own consumption.  If at all possible, find out what every member of your family prefers in those lines, and stock up on it.  It'll be hard enough coping with severe shortages without forcing people to use toothpaste or shampoo that they dislike.  However, if things are really tight, they'll just have to use what's available, whether they like it or not.  I've washed my body and hair often enough using bars of plain old-fashioned laundry soap, because that's all that was to hand.  Again, where possible, vacuum seal such supplies for long-term storage.

The same applies to feminine hygiene items.  Ladies tend to have strong preferences as to what tampons or sanitary towels they like to use, so why not indulge them while those brands/types are readily available?  I think it's not a bad idea to have at least six month's supply of them in reserve;  a full year is entirely do-able.  Just store them in a cool, dry place, and use the older packages first while replacing them with newer.  Non-climate-controlled storage may lead them to become brittle and hard, which will not be appreciated by the ladies in your life;  and mice like nothing better for nesting materials.  You don't want to find that out the hard way, when there are no replacements handy!

There's also the question of how much water will be needed for personal hygiene.  If water has to be collected and carried by hand, every drop is precious.  You won't have any to waste.  Plan on what we used to call in the South African military a "staaldakbad" (steel helmet bath).  A pint or so of water in a container is used to wet a washcloth and soap, with which the essential bits are cleaned (armpits, groin, feet and hands).  If enough water is available, another pint may be used to rinse them.  A full bath is something that may only happen once every week or two, as and when enough water is available.  As for hot water, that'll depend on what (and how much) fuel is on hand.  Without electricity or a long-term supply of propane or natural gas, every drop will have to be heated over a fire - and firewood is also going to be in short supply.  Get used to the idea of cold washes.  Only in the depths of winter does hot water become more of a necessity than a luxury!

That's why powder (talc, baby powder, corn starch, medicated powders such as foot powder, etc.) is very likely to be important.  If you can't wash everything often enough, at least you can prevent friction and absorb bad odors.  In some cases, powders can help prevent and/or treat infections such as athlete's foot, jock itch, etc.  Just be careful you don't get them into places they're not supposed to be, where they may not be healthy.

The parts of your body essential to mobility and daily effort (i.e. your feet and hands) will need extra attention.  Keep nails trimmed, callouses filed, etc.  Have remedies on hand for blisters and sore patches (moleskin, bandages, etc.).  If you suffer from allergies, carry anti-allergy medication, eyedrops to keep your eyes free from dust and spores, and so on.  Tools such as tweezers to pluck splinters and thorns from flesh, files to remove callouses, needles to puncture blisters, etc. are all important.  They're essential parts of personal hygiene.

You'll need some way to wash clothing.  Powdered laundry detergent is probably the most useful way to go;  bars of laundry soap (see link above) are as good.  Unfortunately, washing clothes by hand is time-consuming and labor-intensive.  There's no way out of it, though.  I think it won't take long in an emergency situation for us to get back to the frontier ways of having fewer clothes each, but tougher ones, able to be washed often without falling apart under the strain.  We'll have to get used to them being more stained than usual, too;  we likely won't have easy access to bleach, washboards, etc.  A bucket laundry system (discussed here) or a small hand-powered washing machine will be very useful.

There's also the question of food and kitchen hygiene.  If water is in short supply, you won't want to waste it on washing dishes.  Paper bowls, plates and cups are your friends in emergency.  You can use them and dispose of them at once.  The old, stained plates can be scraped clean of scraps if necessary, then dried and used as firelighters.  Cooking gear and utensils will have to be washed, of course, so make sure you have dish soap on hand - not the kind used by automatic dishwashers, either, because that's formulated for machine use, and in the absence of electricity, they won't be of any use to you.  Scouring powder is also a very useful item, because it doesn't need much water to make it work.  A reserve supply of dish washing sponges is essential;  plan on needing at least one per month, and possibly two.  If your hands are sensitive to dish washing soap, plan on disposable gloves as well to protect them.  (Gloves are also very important for hygiene when preparing food, or doing dirty work, if you haven't got enough water to keep your hands clean.  Thicker gloves are better than thin ones for durability:  I suggest at least 5 mil or heavier.  I keep several boxes in stock for my wife and myself.  They're cheap enough to be a worthwhile precaution.)

Finally, if you're cooking over coals or firewood, the outside of your pots and pans will get very dirty.  Don't wash them with the same sponge you use for their inside;  that will merely spread soot all over everything.  Keep a dedicated scrubbing brush or sponge for that purpose, along with detergent strong enough to strip off the soot.  (Don't worry about the old folk remedy of smearing dish detergent on the outside of your pots and pans, to prevent soot sticking to them.  It works, but it'll use up your dish detergent very quickly indeed - and detergent will probably be in very short supply.)  Heavier cookware such as cast iron will last longer and be more usable over coals or fires than conventional pots and pans.

The quality of the water that's available is also important.  In the absence of a water purification facility, you'll have to filter or otherwise treat your own water to get rid of potential pollutants, infectious material, diseases, etc.  That's a whole topic on its own, about which we've previously spoken.  Plan on needing a water filter big enough to provide for your household, water purification tablets, etc.  For a "bug-in" situation, I'd budget a minimum of two gallons of water per person per day for all needs, and try to store enough for at least a couple of weeks.  When "bugging out", it'll depend on what's available.

This also affects disposal of human waste.  After a few days without power, urban sewage systems will cease to function, and septic tanks will probably no longer be pumped, leading to longer-term problems.  We'll have to find ways to dispose of our body wastes without polluting nearby water sources, and monitor those sources to be sure that nothing and nobody else threatens them in that way.  (Have you ever tasted water from a stream in which a herd of cows has just done their business, around a bend upstream of you?  You don't want to do that.  Trust me on this!)  Those with front and/or back yards can dig holes to bury human and pet waste, but those in apartments will be in a difficult situation.  We have to be able to dispose of it and clean up afterwards, and prevent any contamination of food, water, kitchen surfaces, etc.  That's a very important hygiene issue.  If we get it wrong, we can literally poison ourselves all too easily.

Finally, in a prolonged emergency, remember that hygiene and sanitation concerns are going to be swamped by other needs - gathering food, and fuel to cook it, and finding time to cook and eat it and clean up afterwards, plus do everything else that we'd normally delegate to labor-saving devices like vacuum cleaners, washing machines and so on.  It's very important for our health to make time and enforce it for personal hygiene and sanitation.  The dirtier and less hygienic we are, the more difficult it is to be around each other, and the greater the risk of related diseases or infected wounds.  It's vitally important to keep ourselves and our surroundings as sanitary as possible.

Peter

The Titan tragedy

 

I've refrained from saying anything to date about the loss of the Titan submersible, used to explore the wreck site of the SS Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.  Yesterday's news that the submersible imploded, and debris from it has been found less than half a mile from the Titanic itself, confirms that all aboard are dead.  Given that certainty, there are a few points I'd like to suggest for further thought.

The first is the utter ghoulishness with which the news media and social media have pursued the unfolding story.  I enjoy amusing memes as much as the next person, as my weekly collection of them shows:  but I've been sickened by the gallows humor displayed by some "memers", to coin a phrase.  Five people are dead.  Their bodies will most likely never be recovered.  Their families are grieving.  How on earth can it be acceptable to make fun of such a tragedy?  How would we feel if we'd lost loved ones like that, and had to endure the world making fun of them as we mourned?

The ghoulishness continued in news media reports about how the men aboard the submersible might have been feeling, or reacting, to the situation in which they found themselves.  Nobody knew what had happened, so all such articles were invented out of whole cloth by those seeking to make money out of sensationalizing tragedy.  I can only imagine what the families of the deceased men must have felt, reading and hearing such bloodthirsty speculation.  If only there were some means of silencing such "journalists" permanently, preventing them from ever writing for public consumption again, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat.  Sadly, we can't prevent such people from dancing in the blood of the dead for profit.  I hope they choke on it.

Second, based on news reports that may or may not be reliable, it appears that questions have been raised about the safety of the Titan submersible:  whether or not it was built to adequate safety specifications and parameters, etc.  I don't know, and perhaps we'll never know for sure.  It had made successful descents to the Titanic in the past, so that's bound to be used as a defense by the company that owned and operated it when it comes to the inevitable lawsuits.  There are too many armchair lawyers and wannabe engineers commenting on the subject right now.  They need to shut up and leave it to the real experts, who are doubtless trying very hard to learn as much as they can for future reference.

Next, there appears to be a growing chorus accusing the US Navy of dereliction of duty by not reporting last Sunday that they had heard the noise of an implosion near the wreck site.  That's factually untrue.  The Navy did hear such a sound, but they could not confirm for sure what it was - only that it resembled the noise of an implosion.  They immediately informed the search coordinators, who used the Navy's data to refine their search pattern, ultimately leading to the discovery yesterday of wreckage from the Titan.  If the Navy had said anything more last Sunday, it would have been nothing more than speculation, at a time when that would have merely added to the media tumult.  I think the Navy did the right thing by making no public comment at the time.

Finally, let's acknowledge that there will always be adventurers pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and what's prudent, in exploring the unknown.  In this case, they pushed the boundaries too far, and paid the ultimate penalty for doing so.  In that sense, they're like the bodies of dead climbers on Mount Everest:  they're a permanent reminder that adventure has its price.  The crew of the Titan weren't the first to pay that price in full, and they most certainly won't be the last.

Full marks to everyone involved in the rescue effort for their hard work and dedication.  May those who died, rest in peace.

Peter

Aircraft camouflage in history and today

 

The US Air Force has published a study of aircraft camouflage from World War II to the present day.  It's titled "Olive Drab, Haze Blue and Jet Black: the Problem of Aircraft Camouflage prior and to and during WWII".

In an introductory article, Brian Duddy sets the scene.

Throughout the war, there was a continual debate over the overall value of camouflage finishes versus leaving the aircraft in natural metal or unpainted, which offered a bit more extra speed due to either polishing of the surfaces or reduction in weight. There is a speed penalty imposed by rough painted surfaces that increases aircraft drag contrasted against smooth polished metal.

Within the USAAF, there was never a consensus about which property was more important— concealment or speed - so instead they settled the issue by directing that manufacturers cease camouflaging most combat aircraft as of 1943. This instruction applied to most combat aircraft, except some tactical fleets, such as transports or gliders. In light of the progress of Allied forces it also made sense operationally – air superiority over the battlefield was now changing over from Axis to Allied air forces; German progress in radar surveillance and detection made visual concealment less vital, especially in the case of large fleets of hundreds of strategic bombers daily hitting the Third Reich. Additionally, Allied bases in the U.K. and on The Continent were less threatened by surprise air attack because of our own radar coverage. The AAF summarized the situation in April 1943, “Due to the early warning and vectoring capabilities of radar, camouflage is losing its importance when weighed against the cost in speed and weight.” Some local commanders in the Pacific still felt camouflage was necessary for use in some geographic areas.

Reducing the aircraft weight and increasing performance was now offered a better tactical advantage to fighters and bombers. The piston-driven fighter aircraft particularly needed all the speed they could get to deal with the threat from the German jets. There was also the secondary benefit of reduced cost and production time, which facilitated quicker replacement of lost airframes.

Ironically, in spite of all the years of studies and experimentation, at the end of the conflict in 1945, camouflage finishes had almost entirely disappeared from USAAF and then USAF aircraft through the 1950s. By then, radar detection had almost totally eclipsed visual means. Camouflage finishes only made a significant reappearance after operations in Southeast Asia in the 1960s brought back the need to conceal aircraft against the jungle terrain in that particular theater.

There's more at the link, and much more in the full study.  Highly recommended to aviation and military history buffs.

Peter

A physician examines the "transgender nightmare"

 

An interview from City Journal:

Christopher Rufo: Please begin by setting the scene. What’s it like in a major children’s hospital in the United States regarding transgender interventions for children?

Physician: I think the best way to answer that question is to talk about the cultural shift that happened in 2020, because transgender ideology and Covid are inextricably linked. Normally, doctors operate by the authority of the professional societies that govern our specific practice. That worked because the individuals in those institutions were reliable, intelligent, and thoughtful. But with Covid in 2020, we started getting medical decrees without peer review or evidence—you saw this with masks, social distancing, and emergency-use authorizations. These decrees were expressed as something that everyone had to do, without justification based on sound science. The other thing was censorship. If you were to ask questions or express doubt about these medical decrees, you would be ostracized within your department, and you stood a good chance of being publicly humiliated, severely reprimanded, or fired.

That’s when transgender ideology really took off. Within these academic institutions, so-called experts in the field of transgender medicine would simply declare that puberty blockers and other interventions were the gold standard of care. The evidence to support this is completely fraudulent, but no dissent was permitted. Everyone within the medical community knew that if he questioned transgender ideology, he would suffer the same type of repercussions that had happened during Covid. The best way to describe the environment would be as an authoritarian, censorious culture that discourages any meaningful debate and encourages the demonization of anyone who asks questions.

Rufo: What are the main tenets of transgender medical theory that are enforced as the conventional wisdom? And how have those tenets changed medical practice?

Physician: One, when an individual believes he or she is of a certain sex, he or she is truly of that sex. Two, the ideal response is to affirm that individual’s preferred identity. Three, the repercussion of nonintervention is a higher likelihood of that individual committing suicide. The threat of suicide removes any of the guardrails for what we must do to affirm that individual’s identity. Puberty blockers become justified at 11 years old. Hormones become justified at 13 years old. Double mastectomy becomes justified before 18.

But in reality, when you “affirm” these individuals’ gender identity, what you are doing is affirming their hatred for themselves. You have these children who are going through confusing times, difficult times; when you affirm this belief system, what you’re really doing is telling them: “You hate yourself at this moment, and I will affirm that.” We have to ask ourselves, why do these people have such high rates of suicide? Because we’re affirming that they should hate themselves and that they should try to destroy themselves.

There's much more at the link.

It's nightmare material.  If you're a parent with young children (particularly those in their early teens), you need to be aware of the pressure that the transgender lobby is exerting on your kids, and be ready, willing and able to counter it if (when?) necessary.  Go read the whole article.  It's worth your time.

Peter

Unforeseen?

 

Yesterday's "Pearls Before Swine" strip had me laughing.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the cartoon's Web page.

It reminded me of the credulous among us, those who believe in what their stars foretell, or what their biorhythms forecast, or what a fortune-teller predicts for them, or even in the veracity of Chinese fortune cookies.  Why they bother, I have no idea, and I don't think they do either.  It's just more comforting for them to believe such nonsense.  There are an astonishingly large proportion of them amongst us, too.

I - and, I'm sure, many others who've learned in the "School of Hard Knocks" or the "University of Life" - understand that life is going to happen to you whether you like it or not.  No matter how well you educate and prepare yourself, the unexpected is going to arrive sooner or later, and pitchfork you into a situation you could not have predicted and can't control.  Even worse, if it's something you did predict and prepare for, you may still find that it's too big to handle.  I've seen at first hand how a well-trained and -prepared military unit can still run headlong into something it can't handle, and be trounced by the enemy with massive casualties, to the point that it disintegrates and ceases to exist as an effective, organized formation.  They did all they could to be ready . . . but it wasn't enough, and what they ran into was even better prepared and equipped and motivated and trained and ready than they were.

Life happens.  You can't foretell what's coming, and you can't control it beyond in the most general sense (i.e. you can prepare to survive starvation by moving to where there's plenty of food, but you may still eat spoiled or poisoned food that will kill you as surely as starvation).  God never promised us a life of ease and comfort.  He only promised us grace to cope with life.  Big difference.

Oh - and don't bother to pay a fortune-teller to predict your future.  Waste of time and money.  If you really want to do that, pay me instead.  I'll write a nice fictional prediction for you that won't come true, but will be as useful to you as a charlatan's pretensions - and even more comforting.

Peter

(EDITED TO ADD:  As if on cue, here's a newspaper headline I read just a few minutes ago, less than ten minutes after this article was published:  "Fake psychic faces up to 280 years in prison for defrauding elderly Americans in $175M scheme".)

Doofus Of The Day #1,108

 

I'm sure the lady concerned didn't find this incident amusing, but it made me laugh.

The woman, in her 70s, had popped the oven on before leaving with the intention of preheating it so she could get straight to cooking when she returned.

What she didn’t realize however was that she had also turned on the stovetop, upon which she had left a mostly full can of antibacterial Glen20 spray.

While she was out, the highly flammable can got so heated that it blasted up with such force that it not only went through the ceiling, but straight out the roof.

“It shot straight up like a rocket,” said Jake Whalan, director of DYAD Constructions, which was called in to address the aftermath.

There's more at the link, including photographs.

I wasn't surprised to read that the can exploded.  What did surprise me was its vertical launch at high velocity, leaving a neat round hole in the ceiling and then bursting out through the roof.  Nobody knows where it ended up.  I'd have expected the can to explode in every direction, breaking the pressure vessel inside it, but it seems it was better or more strongly designed than that.  (It made a heck of a mess of the stovetop, too!)

I'm glad nobody was at home when it went off.  That must have been a very loud noise indeed...

Peter

Living in a crime-ridden society

 

Francis Porretto has some sage advice.

With religion in decline – the aging of congregations everywhere would convince a man from Mars that it’s strictly for the nursing-home set – internal constraints are declining as well. The predominant ethical question is no longer “Is it wrong?” but “Can I get away with it?”

Atop that, the dearly departed and deeply missed Ol’ Remus has told us, more than once and in big letters, to stay away from cities and other sources of crowds. People’s inhibitions against violence and predation tend to weaken when immersed in a crowd. And these days, because of other social and economic trends that deserve an essay or two of their own, crowds are more difficult to avoid than ever before.

Last for today, we’ve permitted ingress to these shores by millions of savages. Yes, I mean that as it appears: hordes of persons with no conception of right and wrong. Many of them don’t even ask “Can I get away with it?” They see; they want; they take – and woe betide the decent citizen who uses force against them. The “authorities” are nearly always on the savages’ side.

Given all that, is it really surprising that America is awash in crime of every variety? Indeed, wouldn’t it be far more surprising if the nation were as peaceful and law-abiding today as it was in, say, 1950? You know, back when we had actual men.

I think the point has been established. There is no safety for person or property at this time. Current trends continuing, matters will get worse, not better. Therefore, whenever you leave your home for any reason, even for a quick trip to the corner store, go armed. Your personal weapon might be the only thing that saves a life – and not necessarily your own.

There's more at the link.

I agree.  I carry a gun whenever I leave the house:  and even when I'm at home, I'm never far from a loaded gun that I can use to stop a home invasion style robbery.  They're few and far between where I live, but that doesn't mean that a wandering criminal looking for a target of opportunity may not stop by my residence.  If he does, I hope to make him regret his choice of victim.

If you live in a town, or a state, that restricts your right and/or ability to carry a weapon to defend yourself against criminals, it's high time you moved somewhere that does.  Remember my frequent warnings to leave Big Blue cities and states?  There's a reason for that warning.  Such places will actively seek to retaliate against those who defend themselves against crime, because the powers that be in those places are on the side of the criminals.  In extreme examples like Chicago, candidates for local political office even reach out to criminal gangs to seek their support!  The quid pro quo that they offer is to make it easier for those gangs to operate, even at the expense of honest citizens.  Why would anyone want to live in the midst of such insanity?

As for the police . . . even in common-sense communities, reaction times for police to respond to an emergency call range from several minutes to meaningful fractions of an hour.  During that time, you're on your own - and a criminal who's bent on violent assault can do an awful lot of damage to you and yours while you're waiting.  The cops might arrive only in time to take you and your family to the morgue.

Arm yourself, get sufficient training and practice to be proficient in defending yourself if necessary, and be prepared to do so.  That's the world we live in, courtesy of our politicians.  They won't do anything to solve it - so it's up to us.

Peter

The incompetent society: lessons from South Africa

 

Recently I put up a couple of articles about the decline in competence in our society:

"What happens when the competent opt out?"

More on the collapse of competence in the USA

My birth country, South Africa, is today a living example of what happens when the incompetent (and corrupt, and nepotistic, and greedy) take over what was once a thriving economy.  The BBC has published a couple of interesting (not to mention horrifying) articles about what's happening there.

South Africa load-shedding: The roots of Eskom's power problem

South Africa is heading into the southern hemisphere winter with the prospect of the country's worst-ever power cuts - up to 16 hours a day. The roots of the problem lie in poor management, corruption and sabotage.

South African taps run dry after power shortages

South Africa's recent electricity woes - with regular lengthy scheduled blackouts - have had a knock-on effect on the supply of water.

"All of our stations, they need electricity, they need power. You have to pump water everywhere where it is needed," says Sipho Mosai, the head of state-owned Rand Water, one of the country's main water providers.

"Electricity is really at the heartbeat of what we do and if we don't have it externally, at least for now, it becomes a problem."

America is no stranger to utter incompetence wreaking havoc on support systems and structures.  Just look at Jackson, MS, where the water system has been in trouble for decades, and never been fixed.  The city administration is now demanding that the state fork over up to a billion dollars to fix the problem - but they want to decide who gets to spend it, and how.  Mississippi's Governor has claimed that the mayor and his administration are solely responsible for the crisis.  Based on what I'm hearing from friends living in the area, that sounds pretty accurate.

Baltimore's woes are also well-known.  The city government has demonstrated utter incompetence in dealing with crime, schooling, urban decay and a host of other issues.  Any attempt to pin the blame where it belongs is greeted with cries of "Racism!" and "Discrimination!"

I'm sure readers can name other cities where that's happened, and is still happening.  South Africa is an object lesson in what happens when that sort of incompetence spreads to all levels of government.  It's a very uncomfortable thought that we may soon experience that for ourselves.  It should be unnecessary to emphasize that this isn't about the race of those involved, but their competence - but sadly, that will be necessary, because the tired old shibboleth of racism will be raised against anyone who attempts to speak the truth.

Peter

OK, that's just weird!

 

I was astonished to read that a California employer hired a fake "priest" to persuade its staff to confess "sins" against the company.

Eduardo Hernandez, Hector Manual Martinez Galindo and Alejandro Rodriguez hired a "priest" to hear employee confessions at work. According to the witness, the supposed priest would encourage employees to "get the sins out," asking if they had ever stolen from their employer, had done anything to hurt the company, been late to work or had any bad intentions toward the company.

. . .

"Under oath, an employee of Taqueria Garibaldi explained how the restaurant offered a supposed priest to hear their workplace ‘sins’ while other employees reported that a manager falsely claimed that immigration issues would be raised by the department’s investigation," Marc Pilotin, regional solicitor of labor, said in the release.

There's more at the link.

I suppose poorly educated or superstitious individuals might be fooled by such a "priest", but certainly nobody who knew the Catholic faith and its teachings and practices would be taken in.  On the other hand, perhaps many Catholics don't attend church often enough to understand that.  In the profession, we used to refer to the "hatch, match and dispatch" crowd - those who would be found in church only for baptisms, weddings and funerals.  I suppose they might be considered low-information believers!

At any rate, I'm glad the practice has been stopped, and the company has been fined.  However, if the owners would stoop so low as to do this, I'm willing to bet that they haven't changed their approach.  They'll just find some other way to put pressure on employees, and continue to thumb their noses at the law.  See leopards, spots, and the changing thereof . . .

Peter

Quote of the day

 

On a Reddit thread titled "TIL That Historians Believe Cats Domesticated Themselves", commenter ms_horseshoe wrote:

If it weren't for cats, we wouldn't have boxes.

That kicked over my giggle-box.  Considering how our cats fight over who's going to be "king of the castle box" when we put one down on the floor, she may have a point!

Peter

True dat

 

From the fertile mind of Stephan Pastis.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

The man ass has a point...

Peter

An intriguing variation on the "camp knife" or "small machete" theme

 

A couple of weeks ago we discussed machetes, camp knives, hatchets, axes and tomahawks in terms of their general utility.  Soon thereafter, thanks to the generosity of a reader who wishes to remain anonymous, I received an SP8 Survival Machete (shown below) from Ontario Knife to evaluate.  I've long been interested in this knife, but hadn't had the spare cash to invest in one to try it out.

Knives/machetes like this can be used for many purposes.  In "pure" machete form, there are several like it out there, such as the Condor Woodbuster Chopper (below), with a 9.8" blade.  It weighs 1lb. 9oz, giving it enough heft to cut through boughs and even small trees with relative ease.

Condor also makes its Cambodian Machete, with a 10.4" blade, weighing in at just under 1lb. 12oz.

Several companies have tried to add function to the basic short machete form.  Camillus has its Carnivore Machete Inject 18, offering a 12" blade with a saw back, a wire cutter notch, and an auxiliary 5" trimming knife.

One of the better-known products in this field is the Ka-Bar BK3 Becker Tac Tool, with a 7" blade equipped with a pry notch, a chisel head, and a semi-serrated edge.  I find it too light (at 1lb. 2.6oz.) to be really effective at chopping wood, and the blade is also a little short for that purpose;  but for urban "tactical" scenarios, it appears to be popular among users.

The Ontario SP8 Survival Machete steers a middle path between these products.  It offers more than a bare-bones machete design, but not as many features as a "tactical" option.  Its 10" sawback blade is thick, heavy (the machete weighs 1lb. 7.5oz), and tough.  It ends in a broad, flat chisel-style point, which is not only useful to gouge, but makes the machete into a very effective trowel for digging (something one needs surprisingly often at a camp site, for cutting out turfs to make a fireplace, digging holes for sanitary purposes, and so on).  It doesn't have a special pry notch or gut hook, but the chisel end works pretty well for the former purpose if needed.  I've used it to pry up nails embedded in pallets.

Also of interest is the obvious family resemblance between the SP8 machete and Ontario's SP10 Raider Bowie knife, one of the most versatile general purpose knives in its class.  The SP8 is on the left below, and the SP10 on the right.

The image above was combined from two separate ones, so they're not quite to scale, but it's close enough.  You'll note that the sheaths for both knives are identical;  either blade will fit either sheath without a problem.  (Yes, I tried!)  They also share the same grip size and design, covered in a soft rubbery substance to make them very comfortable even when in hard use, and non-slip in sweaty hands.  Their blades are almost the same length (there's no more than a quarter of an inch difference between them), although the SP8's blade is thicker and heavier than the SP10's.  The SP10 is clearly the better general purpose knife, but the SP8 will make a better hatchet or digging tool.  I found it intriguing to use them side-by-side and compare their performance.

The SP8's squared-off blade means it won't be very versatile for skinning or slicing game.  On the other hand, it makes a very useful cleaver, which might come in handy when preparing meat for roasting over the coals.  Its digging performance, as noted above, is excellent, easily the equivalent of a camping trowel.  It's also heavy and strong enough that you won't hurt it if you hit a rock or other obstacle while digging.  It's more than capable of chopping through roots if necessary.

As a hatchet replacement, the SP8 shines.  Out of the box, it wasn't really sharp at all;  I had to put in some work to get it into usable condition.  However, once that was done, it held its edge well, and didn't need much touching up to remain very sharp.  The saw back on the blade isn't really a saw;  its teeth are not tapered to a point from the sides, and the very thick metal doesn't lend itself to a deep cut.  However, it can scrape away wood and make a rough-and-ready notch for further deepening by chopping at it, which is about as much as I'd expect from a combination tool like this.  Also, the saw back doesn't prevent one using the SP8 for batoning.  One simply has to place a piece of wood over the saw back, to prevent damage to it, before hammering at it to drive the blade into and through a log or branch.

(There's a smaller, simpler "little brother" to the SP8:  Ontario Knife's 9712TC Spec Plus Alpha Survival Fixed Blade Knife.  It has a 7" blade, but without a saw back, and weighs only 8.7oz - far too light, IMHO, for serious chopping tasks.  It has a flat tip, like the SP8, but not sharpened like a chisel, so it has far less utility as a digging tool.  I don't think it's as practical or useful as any of the blades mentioned above.)

At any rate, I find the SP8 intriguing, offering several useful possibilities as a camp knife or small machete or hatchet replacement tool.  I'll try using mine in different activities over the next few months and see whether it graduates to my permanent toolbox.  (Its bowie knife "brother", the SP10, already has.)

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 164

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

We've met Spanish classical guitarist Miguel Rincón several times before in these pages.  He's one of the top performers in his field, with a well-earned international reputation.

Here he performs at a concert in 2021, held at the Church of St Peter Martyr of Verona, Pinseque, Saragossa, Spain.  The music is interspersed with some Spanish dialog, but you can click forward to the timestamps below if you want to exclude it.  The performance includes:

01:36 Gaspar Sanz (*1640; †1710). Pavana por la D, con 
           muchas  diferencias / Xácaras (Instrucción de música sobre 
           la guitarra española; Zaragoza, 1674)
16:16 Francisco Guerau (*1649; †1722). Marionas / Canarios 
           (Poema Harmónico; Madrid, 1694)
28:32 Santiago de Murcia (*1670c; †1730c). Folías Gallegas / Giga 
           de Corelli por la B (Códex Saldívar; México, 1732c)
40:31 Gaspar Sanz (*1640; †1710). Pasacalle por la D (Instrucción 
           de música sobre la guitarra española; Zaragoza, 1674)
46:58 Francisco Guerau (*1649; †1722). Pavana (Poema 
           Harmónico; Madrid, 1694)
58:39 Santiago de Murcia (*1670c; †1730c). Fandangos (Códex 
           Saldívar; México, 1732c)

Lovely, relaxing, meditative music.

Peter