Hello Summer!

Tags

, ,

Happy June! And thank you for helping make last month the best May in blog history.

The site’s fifth anniversary is just around the corner. I’m planning a little digital party and you happen to be invited. (No RSVP required).

And I just completed the first of several big summer road trips. (I declare that summer is here, now). Had a great time, thanks. A few things….

A. The drive was not-so-bad but could have been better. People, please re-acquaint yourselves with the art of driving a darned car. I did not encounter much of the idiocy I normally find across the two larger Southern states but I did see room for improvement.

B. Plan B. The next ten years or so should hold an inordinate amount of road travel for old Perrin. Or just travel. If you (not YOU, but others in general) refuse to learn to merge, speed up, not text, signal, etc., then I have a counter-plan.

This weekend I paid a little visit to my new friends at Atlas Aviation at TPF. I’ve made it a goal to complete something I started 20 years ago. I hope to have, by the time the sixth anniversary rolls around, at least a Sport License.

IMG_4610-e1487741023933

Atlas.

If and when that happens, you are free to slowly limp and weave down 75 in any manner you like; I’ll look and laugh from above, somewhere below 180 but nowhere near the mayhem.

Now, on with the summer time.

Likely ISIS Truck Bomb in Afghanistan

Tags

, , , ,

A tanker or other large truck hit embassy row in Kabul today. 90 are know dead and more than 400 injured.

A suspected Islamic State (Isil) truck bomb tore through the diplomatic quarter of Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 90 people including a BBC driver and badly damaging the German embassy.

If confirmed that Isil was behind the bombing, it would mark a significant escalation of the jihadists’ violence in Afghanistan and the latest in a string of deadly attacks at the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The massive explosive was hidden inside a sewage tank on the back of a truck and went off during the morning rush hour, wounding around 400 people and leaving a large crater. The attack was one of the deadliest in Kabul since the US-led invasion in 2001.

Sixteen years of entanglement and this is what still happens – in the most secured part of the country.

TELEMMGLPICT000130491002-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqnhOKBabfOLZJQBViQ93mSMCJk29fJtmMGNgin-hCpS8

The Telegraph.

I’m thinking a little closer to home. Not about the U.S. minding its own business but wondering when the car/truck bomb fad will hit America.

A Swimming Museum Tour

Tags

, , ,

Yesterday, Memorial Day 2017, I visited and toured a museum in Clearwater. Well, it was part museum, part aquarium, and part bay cruise – a great way to spend a scorching holiday afternoon.

Not being of the more daynte piscis set, I failed to grasp much of the entertainment offerings. There was a dolphin without a tail. There were some 4,000 or so humans without brains.

The dolphin sports a prosthetic appendage. The overweight droolers were similarly amended; each carried the ubiquitous cellular mind.

Towards the end of the day I did discover the point of the whole place. In a corner in a movie set (they made a movie about the place … or a place for a movie…) I found this:

IMG_20170529_152032974

nimbus-image-1496157593717

I was pleased to know someone would dedicate a museum and a feature film (starring Morgan Freeman?) to a Partagas box. Sure, some dolt removed the lid and stuffed the thing with baseball cards or other non-tobacco rubbish. But it was the thought that mattered.

And the traffic. The traffic mattered and was horrendous.

Good Cop, Bad Citizen, Crazed Law

Tags

, , , , ,

I noticed two things this morning.

One was that WordPress assigned one of my previous Police State articles as a related companion to last night’s terrorism post. Two years ago I was concerned about the militarization of the domestic police in the U.S. Things have gotten only a little worse since then.

Second, was a new, somewhat-related column out there…

Now, as Eric Peters recounts, one Republican lawmaker would have the militarized police nearly immune from any consequences of their illegal activities towards We, the People.

Naturally, the solution to the problem of police abusing their authority is to hold them less accountable when they do exactly that.

Leave it to “law and order” Republicans such as Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Ted Poe to evolve such logic. They have put forth the Black and Blue – whoops, Back the Blue – act (see here) which would make it harder to sue run-amok law enforcers in civil court to recover damages resulting from actions undeniably illegal – while at the same time imposing more severe penalties on Mundanes who affront the holy person of a law enforcer than those imposed on Mundanes who do exactly the same thing.

Look for this law to pass. Republicrats always want to be seen as “tough.” Trump will go right along to show support for “the brave men and women in uniform.” Democraps really don’t care.

Some federal judge may show a little concern, maybe five years from now; he might undue the extra (double jeopardy) excessive self-defense penalties against victimized citizens. Or he may not. The immunity from civil prosecution will stand. One wonders (if one is so inclined) if this prohibition includes 1983 (federal civil rights) actions – frequently the only recourse in the event of police brutality.

In Old England (and in the Colonies and the early Republic) there was a common law doctrine that a person (and witnesses) had a right and even an obligation to forcibly resist illegal police activity. Ancient history. Today it is virtually impossible to hold a wayward officer accountable. Soon it may be completely impossible.

Most officers I have ever known or encountered are/were decent and honest. That’s good because the bad ones are about to get more than a pass. It will be more like a rubber stamp of approval. Progress and such.

hut-hut-hut-

EP.

The Humanity of It All

Tags

, , , ,

Two stories of late, slightly related:

First, a federal judge overturned Lee Boyd Malvo’s life sentences without parole. Malvo was one of the “D.C. Snipers” who reigned terror around the nation’s capital back in 2002. I remember this episode, one because it was in close proximity to 9/11 and, two because it figured slightly (perhaps notoriously) into my original white paper on Posse Comitatus (it certainly got John Anderson’s attention).

A federal judge threw out a convicted D.C. sniper’s four life sentences Friday because he was 17 when he was originally sentenced.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk, Virginia, ruled that Lee Boyd Malvo has a right to be re-sentenced in new sentencing hearings due to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that made it unconstitutional for juveniles to receive mandatory life sentences in prison without parole, the Daily Mail reported.

He will likely be sentenced to life again – with the possibility of parole (which probably won’t ever happen). Malvo was the co-defendant with and likely catamite of John Allen Muhammad; both were Muslims with a bone to shoot with white, Christian America. The “better-than-that” mercy of the American justice [SIC] system.

Lee-Boyd-Malvo-ap-640x480

If Obama liked rifles…. Breitbart News.

Second, no such mercy was shown to the 28 Coptic Christians gunned down recently on a bus in Egypt. By some sort of odd coincidence the shooters in this case were also Muslims.

As many as 10 attackers in 3 SUVs stormed the bus dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks, before demanding that the passengers recite the Muslim profession of faith, according to witnesses. Then, the gunmen opened fire. Some 22 people were wounded.

Only three children survived the attack, the Copts United news portal reported. The victims were on their way to visit a monastery to pray.

Survivors claimed the killers left behind flyers about the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins Friday evening.

The religion of peace, leaving orphans to read pamphlets.

This is a war. It’s a war of annihilation directed at all the West. Little has changed in 15 years. When will come the awakening?

 

Memorial Day 2017

Tags

, , ,

Last week Bill Bonner wrote a good article for International Man that seems to fit with the theme de jure (HERE via LRC).

Meanwhile, scuffles broke out in New Orleans. On one side were demonstrators eager to pull down the statues of war heroes Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard. On the other side, demonstrators were there to protect them.

ABC News:

Multiple people were arrested on Sunday as hundreds of protesters clashed over the fate of Confederate monuments in New Orleans, police said.

Three protesters were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace on Sunday afternoon near Lee Circle in New Orleans after a fight broke out at a Confederate monuments demonstration, according to the New Orleans Police Department…

More than 700 people attended demonstrations on Sunday on both sides of the city’s plans to remove three remaining Confederate monuments.

Then, vandals defaced the monument to P.G.T. Beauregard, draping a sign on it that said: “This is historical violence, we say no.”

We’re not sure what that was supposed to mean. But we know where our sympathies lie: with the stones.

War of Liberation

Confederate General Robert E. Lee was one of the greatest soldiers in American history. Compared to him, the gilded generals now frequenting the White House—Mattis, McMaster, Kelly—are little more than paper pushers.

But let’s look at P.G.T. Beauregard, the hero of the First Battle of Bull Run.

Born on a sugar plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, little Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard didn’t speak English until his parents sent him to New York to learn it.

Thence, he got an appointment to West Point and began his military career thereafter. He served his country in the Mexican-American War… and then served as superintendent at West Point.

But when Louisiana declared independence, what was he to do? Defend the homeland? Or fight against it?

DABGZxvXsAAO70x

P.G.T. meets B.L.M. Someone’s Twitter.

Here’s a thought for Memorial Day 2017: It is Memorial Day, let’s stop acting like the Taliban, stop tearing down and defacing our Memorials.

Run One Step Ahead: Vox Day on Success

Tags

,

I have this thing bout being one or two steps ahead of the news and the culture. Part of it is educated trend-spotting. Other parts are telepathy, intuition,and blind luck.

Today, as I nurse a slight sunburn, I offer you the chance to go one step ahead yourselves. Here’s a must watch feature:

Vox Day on Finding Success (30 min.)

A short description from Vox’s blog: “Sometimes it helps to reflect upon why you didn’t get somewhere before you try to start going somewhere else. Tonight’s Darkstream addresses how to go about making success rather than avoiding failure.”

Here’s the kicker: I haven’t watched it. Not yet. Sunburn… But I trust the source. I’m sure Vox has experienced one setback after another (the eggs and omelet phenomenon). However, one would never know that based on his public succession of successes.

nimbus-image-1495974404029

VD / Periscope.

Watch this and take heed if you’re struggling with something.

PS: I also like that his video skills are on par with mine. Success can be simple.

A Sunny Saturday

Tags

, ,

There’s a lot of stuff going on. All over the place. Yet I almost missed a day – two weeks shy of a year of perfect daily postings. So there’s this:

It was a beautiful day. This kind of day.

_20170527_211058.JPG

_20170527_210923

The rest can wait.

Hope you had a fine day out there. I did.

Liberals Surprised to Find Immigration has Consequences

Tags

, , , , , , ,

They of course do not admit as much.

My marvelous smartphone occasionally sends me “news” updates as picked by Verizon. From the character of these I take it Verizon is a “converged” outfit, in the SJW sense. I usually delete this material on sight. However, I did read the following article:

Why Americans Are So Damn Unhealthy, In 4 Shocking Charts

I write about Americans all the time. I write about health too. This one was interesting to me.

Since the early 1970s, most developed countries have followed a similar trajectory: They have increased spending on health care and seen some impressive gains in life expectancy.

But one nation stands out for profligate spending and poor outcomes: The US has spent more than any other nation on health care, while its citizens still die fairly young. Among 23 nations who have been members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since the early 1970s, only Turkey — which spends a tiny fraction of what Americans lavish on health care — lags behind the US on life expectancy. Japan leads the OECD with a life expectancy of 83.7 in 2014, almost four years longer than the US.

While some OECD countries, including the UK, have single-payer, government-run health care, this isn’t what separates the US from the rest of the pack. Switzerland, for instance, delivers almost universal coverage in a system that relies on competing private insurance companies.

Judged on life expectancy and other health outcomes, parts of the US look like the developing world.

There’s a reason for that last bit – which is true. Actually there is a lot of truth in this article. For as much as we spend on healthcare and related items, most Americans are horribly unhealthy. The author’s solution is, of course, to spend more. As everything good flows directly from the beneficial bounty of big government, it only follows that only government can make people feel better and live longer…

Or it could be that most of that spending is wasted. Profits for the industry, the insurance racket, and autocrats sore as health fails. Or it could be that Americans perpetually sit on the couch, eating garbage and watching the brain-killing, diabetes-inducing idiot box. Could be.

The trend could also be explained by the massive demographic shifts which have plagued America since Emanuel Celler’s 1965 law began the fundamental transformation of America – for the worse.

Parts of the U.S. look like the third world judging by more than just life expectancy. Much of the country, now, IS the third world.

Look at the graphs from the article, especially the following. It tracks life expectancy verses healthcare spending from 1973 to 2014.

anigif_sub-buzz-31244-1495213340-4

Some improvements, yes, but pitiful compared to other nations. Why? How? 1973 was about the time that the 1965 Immigration Act started taking effect, started taking America away from the circle of civilized, developed nations. Compare the foregoing chart with this graph:

1965 act impact

New York Immigration Coalition.

The effects are clear as a bell. Hart, Celler, and Kennedy lied through their fangs when they claimed there would be no net change in the national demographic composition – there’s been nothing but change. Change has consequences. And it keeps changing. The following shows the rough racial makeup of America from 1790 to a projected 2070 (not that far away):

PERCENTsml

American Renaissance.

And the changes brought changes. All of those other comparison developed nations have something in common: homogenous populations, or more homogenous populations than America’s. Turkey is virtually 100% Turkish. Switzerland, despite ruthless efforts to diversify it, is virtually 100% Swiss. Japan is stubbornly, xenophobically near 100% Japanese.

It turns out that importing the various residents of the lower world has more consequences than tasty ethnic foods, collapsing academic testing results, 9/11, and Islamic bomb factories in Minneapolis. It also means imported foreign health issues and genetic disposition. This stuff is real, like it or not.

Arriving in the remains of the U.S., the newcomers from Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East must certainly experience some benefits. Their overall health scores increase relative to their counterparts back home. The native whites (and blacks) also see slow increases for the better. Yet, all succumb to one degree or another to the effects of the new sedentary lifestyle, the slow death of fast food, etc. And the imports have a cumulative effect on the whole.

The graphs don’t explain everything though they do raise some questions … or answers. Why are Americans so damned unhealthy? Maybe it’s because they’re ceasing to be Americans.