Just reported on Fox News that the (suspected? Now dead) New Orleans terrorist of yesterday had built 150 bombs but apparently had no plans to use them!
I was so shocked to hear that ‘insanity’ I didn’t note who Fox was quoting but I suspect it was the FBI!
The classic American Muscle-Car is (now almost) a thing of the past. My youth and indeed much of my adulthood was spent observing this phenomena from afar. Big horsepower, eight-cylinder heavy metal with the potential for rocket-like acceleration, shoe-horned into a ‘normal’ if modified car body. Over my lifetime I’ve driven & enjoyed a few powerful vehicles but never a full-blown Muscle Car; until now!
I had booked a one-day one-way car rental to take me to the Airport and my flight back to the UK. The ‘collection’ entailed riding light rail, a bus transfer and an encounter at the Car Rental Desk any of which, as travelers know, could become extraordinary time-wasters but not this time. The train ran to schedule, the transfer bus arrived at it’s stop at the same moment as I did and there was nobody in line at the Car Rental Desk. The Lady at the Rental Counter asked me if I wanted to upgrade from the Standard Compact I’d booked then told me that she had allocated me a Dodge Charger. I was on my way to the Car Lot after just a few squiggles of the stylus!
And there it was, spot D15, hidden behind an SUV, just the trunk (boot) and spoiler visible, an all black beast, fresh from the wash-rack and all mine for up to the next 24 hours. Once, many years ago, a rental company tied to blame me for some minor paint damage on a (well) used vehicle so I’m pedantic about pick-up inspections but the car was immaculate, as indeed it should be with only18K miles on the clock, just about run-in and ready to roll, a 2022 Dodge Charger Daytona with a 5.7L V8 Hemi. 370 horsepower and nearly 400 ft lbs of torque (I know because I looked it up).
I admit that I’m not a small guy, the joints much less flexible than they once were and therein was the rub. With the drivers seat all the way down and back getting in was. lets say, undignified. The space between the seat and the door top sill definitely less than I’m comfortable with but once inside this beast had all the bells and whistles. So much so that I could have used an operations manual and probable most of an hour to figure it all out.
First driving impressions were good. with an automatic, provided the right foot was light it behaved remarkably well in rush hour traffic, happy to sit there and burble away at stoplights waiting for the green, it then took very little effort to get ahead of the pack. I’d describe the ride overall as firm but not harsh. There was however always the promise of so much more. Early on I decided that I would forsake the 200+ miles of I-35 for a more scenic and hopefully rewarding drive thru the country on a mix of fast rural 2, 3 and 4 lane highways and byways. Definitely the right choice.
When you’re checking if for an international long-haul fight it’s best to build in plenty of slack, if and when things do go wrong time can literally dissolve so we set out with plenty to spare, time to enjoy the ride rather than pressure to achieve the destination. The Daytona did not disappoint. On the 20 or so miles of freeway the cruise control kept road-speeds sufficiently close to posted speed limits to avoid any unwelcome attention, the engine switching (almost) flawlessly in and out of the economy 4 cylinder mode and the fuel mileage began to creep up from the 20 mpg (short US gallon) around town.
As we traveled Southwest then South the traffic reduced and speed limits picked up 70 then 75, being the norm outside of towns, the Daytona loved it, sure footed and effortlessly cruising at or just a little over posted limits out of town. Blue Sky and a warm Texas sun taking the temperature up to about 80F (on November 29th.) and at those speeds A/C kept us and the cabin cool and quiet. Passing other vehicles with that much power available was very definitely quick & easy, even semis traveling at or near the speed limit required little more than a quick peak to ensure the road was clear, a squeeze down on the right peddle and the engine burst into life, the transmission down shifted and a few seconds later what had been before was passed, and the sound, the glorious sound of that V8 truly performing as designed. Even so the fuel mileage continued to rise 21.5 by Hico 22.5 by Lampasas.
I must digress here briefly. I made this same trip back in May of 2020, dodging around lockdowns and travel restrictions trying to get back to the UK without being caught up in one of it’s (less well conceived) COVID Quarantine mandates (or should I say madness’). One of the few restaurants, probably the only restaurant open where it was possible to actually take a break, sit and be served was The Koffee Kup in Hico Tx. (see my blog post Air Travel post COVID-19 Lockdowns ) I can say that I was looking forward to repeating the experience but was disappointed to find it closed on Tuesdays due (according to the sign) to staff shortages. No Koffee no burger, no onion rings, no pie!
We stopped to eat in Hico, fueled full (about 11 gallons @ $2.63 per) in Lampasas, a further coffee and restroom break and topped off the tank before drop-off and I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed my unexpected fun bonus ride. I can also state that, if getting into the car was undignified, getting out again would have been embarrassing had I thought I was being watched. I’m at the age where I knew that I could have burned rubber at any time, not only from a standing start but felt no need to do so I enjoyed the power and ride without the need to press the envelope. Probably boring to observe but none the less a very gratifying experience for this Old Man in that Fast Car!
I try not to watch the TV News, or at least the mainstream News Shows on BBC, ITV, Sky and their ilk. I do record some GB News programing for later viewing but after a week or more of major Social, Political and Cultural events here in the UK I actually ‘caught’ the BBC News today by mistake (It was on in the background).
It’s been an eventful year so far. World War III has begun. Not with the Big Bang and a Nuclear Winter that we’ve been promised by that particular bunch of Doomsday Cultists. Instead we have a global food and energy crisis thanks to the aggression and expansionism of a Russian Megalomaniac. There will be ‘fallout’ but (we hope) of a rather different kind. A Cold Dark Winter is about to descend on Europe as WW III gradually builds it’s momentum. I predict that there will be many hoping for some evidence of the promised Global Warming that yet another Doomsday Cult has been so actively promoting amongst our Political Masters.
Since the year I was born Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth the Great) has been our Monarch, this year we celebrated her 70th. anniversary as Queen, followed all too soon thereafter by her passing. Both events significant to our Queen, her family, our Nation and others. Events of Public Celebration and of Public Mourning marked by Public Holidays. Just four days ago Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was finally and very publicly laid to rest in St. Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Today The Bank of England, having spent Billions on Quantitative Easing and supporting Lockdowns has been forced to raise Interest Rate to 2.25%, recognizing Inflation is now well into and will continue in double digits for an extended period and declaring that the Economy is officially in Recession.
The BBC has actually blamed the economy’s ‘official’ recession on The Queen. Public (Bank) Holidays for the Jubilee and the State Funeral are the cause of the Recession!
Who is or are the W.H.O?
I’m not a Conspiracy Theorist, or rather I wasn’t until recently but these guys (WHO) give me goosebumps. As this year’s (2022) Davos prepares to get underway those of us who enjoy what until very recently we regarded as our “Inalienable Rights” watch in shock and disbelief as they are being systematically and unceremoniously trashed by our “Governing Elite” in the guise no less than that of the WHO.
The WHO, a United Nations agency is an organization with a track-record of nothing but miserable and abject failure. It may yet be the vessel through which our “Masters” conspire to seize permanent control of Government. All Government!
I’m sure that, provided we behave ourselves, we will be allowed some (pretense) of self-government, on a very limited local level and provided we follow (their) rules.
This is not the legacy I envisaged for, or I am prepared to pass to, my Grandchildren.
Neil Oliver, a man and a broadcaster I increasingly respect, in his Saturday evening show May 14th monologue on GB News offered his opinion that those who would rule us lack the intestinal fortitude for the ‘wet work’ their takeover would require. I would argue that ‘they’ may indeed lack but will almost surely delegate to those who will happily obey direction. The real question I ask myself is do I, do we have the stomach for the ‘wet work’ it may take to prevent the takeover?
As I write this we are currently at 18 going on 19 days into Putin’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We had turned away from the obvious warning signs of Russian expansionism and more specifically Putin’s recklessness. His (Russia’s) use of both Nuclear & Biological weapons (poisons) to murder individual Russian expatriates here in the UK, seemingly without regard to the the potential for collateral casualties amongst innocent civilian . His willingness to shoot civilian aircraft from the sky (Malaysia Airlines Flight 17) and to forcefully invade, occupy and annex Crimea were apparently not warning enough. The cheap hydrocarbons trumped everything!
Now Putin has started World War III.
I could be wrong, I hope and (as far as I’m able) pray that I am wrong but the signs are not good. In my opinion, from an historical perspective, the signs are already bad and getting worse by the day. We have a large (Eastern) European nation, led by a Megalomaniac, invading a European neighbor state. It’s hard not to see the historical significance of the similarities; and it gets worse. The Megalomaniac has got both a Nuclear and a Biological Arsenal and has threatened to escalate if the rest of Europe and or it’s Allies aid the victims of his aggression. Meanwhile Xi and his CCP sit and watch from the wings, eying up both Taiwan and Putin’s hydrocarbons while the United States navel-gazes under the leadership of an ancient and infirm political lightweight a long way past his very limited best.
War is not always and only military. War is an economic activity. Anyone in the West who thinks that we are not at War needs to look again. This is Economic Warfare on a Global scale. Commodity prices of all kinds are volatile, way beyond normal Market Forces yet nobody seems to be asking where all this ‘instant wealth’, cash money is going. Suddenly, those Western Governments who have massively underfunded their defense for years think they can play catch-up overnight while their economies are set for potential tail-spins. Does increasing defense spending as a percentage of a declining economy constitute real, actual tangible improvements in military capability. When?
Which brings me back to Putin, the Russian State he appears to control and his military invasion of Ukraine. Already we are seeing signs that many of those politicians who turned a blind-eye to his escalating belligerence, now, less than 3 weeks into his floundering military campaign are promoting ‘cease-fires’, ‘compromise’ and ‘a way out’ for Putin. Of course this is always at Ukraine’s expense. Having seen how Putin has acted in both Crimea and in the Eastern Ukraine does anyone seriously believe this would be anything more than an opportunity for Putin to resupply and reorganize his forces before continuing his attempted takeover of Ukraine?
There is in my view one potential area of opportunity. The Russian Military has proven itself a very blunt instrument. It’s massed military might has been proven to be well past it’s best, it’s most effective. Russian mechanized forces are proving to be poorly manned, poorly maintained and poorly supplied and thus extremely vulnerable to modern Western defensive munitions and weapons systems operated by motivated defenders. So it’s time to shrink their military machine. Old out-of-date equipment must be ground down, destroyed as and whenever possible and, regrettably, their occupants sent home in body-bags. The Ukraine and it’s military must be supported and equipped by the West with the best we can produce. Their defense will become the anvil upon which the remains of the old Soviet Empire’s war machine will be beaten back into Ploughshares even as we disassemble the Russian Economy and it’s Putin supporting oligarchs.
We have spent generations actively preventing characters like Putin having unfettered access to stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now is not the time to stop. His threats cannot and must not be ignored. If Russia cannot or will not remove their nihilistic leader then it too must be reduced to the point where the threat it poses becomes contained and negligible.
We are at (an undeclared) War with Putin’s Russia. There is likely to be considerable and perhaps prolonged hardship imposed on the less wealthy of us in the West. If we must pay the price then our Political Class must understand that, having taken us here without consultation or consent, we hold them responsible for our victory. There will ultimately be an accounting!
Covid’s first wave was the unknown.
Unquestionably those of my generation and older and or those with vulnerabilities who became infected during the first wave and were admitted to hospital had a very bad time. We knew they would. The reaction of Governments here and around the world made sense. Lockdowns, travel bans quarantines & shielding though sometimes illogical in both timing and application did help to ameliorate some of the impact on overwhelmed medical services as they did their best to deal with the effects peculiar to this virus.
Pandemic is what Covid-19 is become. It will likely kill, at least contribute to or factor in the deaths of millions of people before being mastered (hopefully) by massive (and safe) vaccination programs around our world. Having said that, there is a BUT. This virus, while dangerous to older and vulnerable people would appear not to be the mass extinction event forecast and predicted. It is not a ‘Black Death’, hopefully not a ‘Spanish Flu’ or an ‘Ebola’. Mortality rates among certain groups are high while others are barely aware that they have been infected.
Here is my confession; I was scared, well, seriously concerned that I would be infected during the first wave. With more than one ‘vulnerability’ and treatment being rudimentary I thought it likely that I could be ‘triaged’ into the line to the backdoor. If the infection rate and more importantly hospitalisations and death rates in this second and any subsequent wave soar even close to first wave numbers my concerns will be reignited even though that is, in my (layman’s) opinion, extremely unlikely.
I am though, dumfounded by Government Policy. The first wave, unpredictable, virtually untreatable and massively disruptive was almost welcomed in by Government, or at least by delayed and inadequate responses. While Covid jetted it’s way round the planet, ravaged southern Europe and Alpine Resorts vacationers and globe trotting travelers were welcomed home without regard to their potential exposure and Soccer’s International fans welcomed here with open arms. Then Lockdown, whether March 16 or March 23 society was ‘switched off’ for most of three months.
I’m not inclined to be overly critical of Government performance early on in the ‘crisis’. Other than being a bit slow to react and more than a bit heavy-handed I recognise the difficulties faced by both bureaucrats and Ministers. The rapid spread and the outrageous predictions promulgated by Scientists and their computer models made even the most hardy and hard-hearted politicians gulp and blink. So, within the space of a month, along with most of the Western, Developing and Third World we were, in effect, placed under house arrest.
Because this Chinese Wuhan Virus had been regarded and treated as an embarrassment to the Chinese Communist Regime its nature, character and effects were deemed a State Secret by those paranoids, word only got out after it reached epidemic proportions. Exported globally even while the Regime banned travel between Wuhan and the rest of China.
So, after another three months of lockdown and having had my first (but not my second) Covid vaccination I’m waiting to find out about how I’ll be required (under pain of yet more Covid Law) to provide proof of my Covid status; to whom, when and how.
At this point I’m unable to see how or why I would be willing to accept this “Covid Passport”. I’m being driven inexorably towards civil disobedience if not yet civil or indeed uncivil protest.
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Having spent the large part of Wednesday March 14th (2019) at Auschwitz-Birkenau I’ve now had time to organise my thoughts.
First and foremost, having now made that pilgrimage,having been there, I will try never to return.
I have been aware all of my adult life of the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany. A few years ago I went to Sachsenhausen Camp when visiting Berlin, and the enormity of what took place there had a lasting impact which has stayed with me, so I thought myself prepared, until Wednesday.
Numbers are strange, thousands, ten and hundreds of thousands, even millions, billions and now trillions are just numbers. We talk of billions of people on our planet. In the United States they talk of now tens of trillions of National Debt numbers rationalised down into a manageable formats.
For me Auschwitz-Birkenau gives a whole new meaning to numbers. The incredible scale of Murder. A vast industrial process of MURDER which took over a million lives at just that one location.
The site is both a Museum and a Memorial, visited by thousands each day. While I was there 15 or 20 buses brought large groups, many of older school children the bulk of whom I believe were Poles plus large and small groups of regular tourists from around the world. The site must therefore be visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year, many many times the number of victims it claimed must have since visited yet still the place echoes with the enormity of what occurred there.
From my perspective the concept of a genocidal mass extermination of people is somehow made worse (if that is possible) by the commercialism of extracting a form of monetary value from the act of massacre. Not so much assets to be exploited but waste to be sifted into recyclable components. Human hair, spectacles, and the shoes of victims piled high leave a bitter taste and a hollow emptyness in the pit of one’s stomach.
As a final thought regarding that truly terrible place, we would all do well to remember that while German Death Camps caused the deaths of about 6 million people, guestimates suggest that as many as 100 million people have been murdered during the last century as the result of totalitarian regimes on both the right and more especially the left . From the Russian Gulags to the Killing Fields of South-East Asia industrial mass murder has been a feature of our modern world.