Author Archives: perrinlovett

The Swiss Chainsaw Massacre

24 Monday Jul 2017

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Does not appear to be “Aloha Snackbar!” The Swiss don’t really put up with that. It is a case of domestic terrorism to be sure. Five people were injured in Schaffhausen when Franz Wrousis, a lunatic, attacked with a chainsaw. A chainsaw! for God’s sake! I suppose knives are a bit wimpy.

A CHAINSAW maniac who injured five people in Switzerland this morning targeted a health insurance firm before fleeing, police have said.

He stormed into the offices of the CSS-Krankenkasse in the town of Schaffhausen, injuring two employees before taking his attack onto the street.

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Sun/AP.

It is interesting that he became unhinged (was going to saw went off the chain…) seemingly because of (or at least at) a health insurance company. I wonder why? The Swiss effectively have a a single-payer socialized health care system somewhat that like what America will have in five or ten years. However, the Swiss back theirs up almost entirely with services provided by private insurance companies. CSS-Krankenkasse is one of them.

Very interesting.

Also this incident will certainly spark new interest in chainsaw control in Europe and in America. There’s no reason why we must continue to live with the tyranny of the NSA (National Saw Association) and the Billion$$ they spend on Congress each year. No one outside of the military needs a powerful assault chain-style saw. Hand saws will do fine for carpenters and handymen.

American Disturbia, Even in the Hills

24 Monday Jul 2017

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So I just returned from an all-too-short vaca in the mountains – far and away my favorite place. The experience, as always, was near picture perfect.

Part of the reason I seek out the remoteness is to get away from the utter madness and bother of the reality of falling America. Bluntly, I like to leave the post-modern people behind.

Yet, even in the hills, I found it hard to escape the new realities, this time around.

Two things before I go any further:

One, I in no way, here, disparage the people of Appalachia, nor Bryson City, nor that town’s fine newspaper. This is more of a warning to them or, better, a warning to us, through them.

Two, the following reminded me of an older movie about the region in which an elderly woman stubbornly refuses to give her land to some government agent. I cannot recall the name at this time…

Anyway, somehow amidst all my hiking, riding, musing, etc., I found a copy of the Smokey Mountain Times. THIS ONE, for Thursday, July 20, 2017.

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Those children look happy and probably are. Maybe we shouldn’t be. SM Times.

It’s a paper, like that of many smaller towns, of feel-good news. I, for instance, did not know about the coming eclipse until late last week. Snorkeling is fun. Planning the week can be beneficial.

But two headlines grabbed my attention, my jaded attention.

The Military is bringing free healthcare?

Last week I had a big rant about how bad the American “healthcare” system really is. And it is bad. But is this the solution?

Undoubtedly many will reap the rewards of the care. That is a good thing in itself. But the issue isn’t wholly self-contained. My main point is that this isn’t how it’s supposed to work in a free and prosperous country – accepting government handouts for basic care.

For charity’s sake, are there no local doctors or nurses available?

And accepting the freebies from the imperial military at that?! Since when was the role of the military to bring free medical services to mountain people? Posse Comitatus? Well, probably not, not here. I can’t see this as the enforcement of any civil law. And I doubt anyone would complain anyway, because free.

But this is an intrusion, in a most unobtrusive manner, of the standing army into daily lives. It’s big government, at its best, doing its worst. It’s a demeaning admission that something is terribly wrong. It’s just as bad as this:

We need “Feeding Programs” in America? And they’re growing?

How the hell is any of this good? Well, outside of some hungry people getting meals, how is it good culturally, systemically? It isn’t.

This is further admission of gross failure. Your government and its owners have so wrecked the economy (and you’ve helped them right along – vote, vote, vote) to the point that the only solution is to accept more government handouts for basic needs.

It’s bad enough that we collectively turn our children over to the Great Father in Washington or Raleigh during the school year. Raising and feeding your kids is your responsibility. It’s not the government’s. Now, it seems, the children need Uncle Sucker’s help to eat during the summer months.

We shouldn’t even have a U.S. Department of Agriculture, let alone have it run a “feeding program” for our children (maybe some adults).

Are there no families or independent churches to do this for the parents?

Again, bluntly put, these two stories sound like something of an aid program designed for some third world country. “Feeding programs” and free medicine seem more suited for Rwanda than North Carolina.

Maybe the 21st century is seeing the blurring of the two worlds.

In that old movie, the older woman was as proud as any in the region ever was. She embodied the spirit of Appalachia, of America – defiant even in seeming poverty – independent. The land agent tried to swindle her into signing away her land, her freedom, for some fake welfare BS. She wasn’t having it and blatantly stated why. What was her’s was her’s and she did not need any “help.” I really wish I could remember the name of the film.

There’s a concept the people of Swain County and the rest of what’s left of this country need to remember. Independence and self-reliance are freedom. Handouts and graft, no matter how well-intentioned or how well received, represent slavery.

Sallust, saw his name yesterday on the back cover of a Loeb Classic, warned us that this is all most people hope for. I hope the great people of Appalachia, like their elevation, are just a notch above.

There is no free lunch, nor free doctor.

Perrin Rides Again (Pictorial)

23 Sunday Jul 2017

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Literally, out on a horse for the first time in almost twenty years.

A great, all-too-short vacation unto the hills. Get away when you can.

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Elk at the park.

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Winnebago, the largest and most unpredictable horse I’ve ever ridden. Almost took a tumble in the river. His antics kept me from filming a video. A wonderful animal; actually made the rider work.

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Note the glow about the rider…

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See a rule, break a rule.

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And … thank God for coffee.

Brought to you, kind of, by:

Peter’s Pancakes and Waffles: “Breakfast to Crow About.” Also a cup of black coffee for equestrian recoveries.

Carpenter’s Corner (At The Depot): When mom needs a custom porch swing and youngins want to watch a cool model train, it’s Carpenter’s.

Happy Sunday!

Eric Peters on the Coming Robo-Cars (and My Possible Solution)

22 Saturday Jul 2017

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Peters, again, on the next step towards total control over your vehicular travel.

V2V is a critical step toward the replacement of autonomous cars with automated cars – which must be aware (like the Terminator) of their environment, of the other cars within a certain radius of their position at any given moment. This in order to anticipate the need to alter course or speed to avoid impacting another car.

Which the car will do – without any input from you.

For saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety, of course.

That is how it’s being presented – and it’s on that basis it will be force-fed to us. Including those of us who want nothing to do with it. Can you say rip tide?

About half of all new cars already have or offer (it’s not yet mandatory) automated braking and steering “assist.” The car decides it’s necessary to stop – and applies the brakes if you don’t.

It steers itself in the direction it thinks is right.

The fully automated and therefore no longer autonomous car will come standard with these things. And for the potential of this technology to be maximized, all cars must come standard with these things – as well as the V2V ability to constantly chatter with all the other cars in the immediate vicinity.

And – the really Big Thing – they will chatter with a central hive brain of some sort. Which will coordinate and control the whole enchilada. The central hive brain will be in constant contact with – and in constant control of – all the automated cars.

It’ll be like having a cop with a two-way radio riding shotgun – only worse because it will be a Super Cop. A single, central all-controlling cop who cannot be dodged – much less bargained with.

Prepare to kiss your own driving goodbye (maybe in ten to twenty years, maybe sooner). Many or most will welcome this. I will not.

Luckily I think I may have found (re-discovered) my own solution.

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The glow. PL.

The Expat Life

21 Friday Jul 2017

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For many it’s pretty darned good:

Interestingly, many Americans and Canadians have not only moved abroad partly to search for a life reminiscent of an earlier time, but quite a few tell me that they’ve found it — and in some very unlikely places, including Mexico, Panama, Belize and Nicaragua.

Here’s what they told us:

Less government involvement
It may sound odd that the government in countries considered to be socialist would have less government involvement than in the U.S., but in the day-to-day lives of the locals, it’s true. Whether these governments would want to be more involved or not, they simply don’t have the resources to do so. That means locals find themselves doing some things that the federal and state governments often do in the U.S.

“Having the government less involved creates an entirely different dynamic than north of the border,” explains Dr. Santiago Hernandez, formerly from the Chicago area and now practicing in Ajijic, Mexico, on Lake Chapala. “If there’s a problem, most locals don’t expect the government to fix it, so they either live with it or fix it themselves. This creates more community cohesion and a feeling of involvement and belonging.”

Nice but I still ain’t ready to leave yet…

Know we have some in the audience. Any comments?

Perrin on Patreon.

The Military-Industrial Complex Notices the Collapse, Wants More

20 Thursday Jul 2017

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Of course, the solution is to spend more and grow the MIC even more. Please read:

In the first of a series, we report on stunning new evidence that the U.S. Department of Defense is waking up to the collapse of American primacy, and the rapid unraveling of the international order created by U.S. power after the Second World War.

But the Pentagon’s emerging vision of what comes next hardly inspires confidence. We breakdown both the insights and cognitive flaws in this vision. In future pieces we will ask the questions: What is really driving the end of the American empire? And based on that more accurate diagnosis of the problem, what is the real solution?

An extraordinary new Pentagon study has concluded that the U.S.-backed international order established after World War 2 is “fraying” and may even be “collapsing”, leading the United States to lose its position of “primacy” in world affairs.

The solution proposed to protect U.S. power in this new “post-primacy” environment is, however, more of the same: more surveillance, more propaganda (“strategic manipulation of perceptions”) and more military expansionism.

[MORE OF THE SAME]

The document concludes that the world has entered a fundamentally new phase of transformation in which U.S. power is in decline, international order is unravelling, and the authority of governments everywhere is crumbling.

Having lost its past status of “pre-eminence”, the U.S. now inhabits a dangerous, unpredictable “post-primacy” world, whose defining feature is “resistance to authority”.

Danger comes not just from great power rivals like Russia and China, both portrayed as rapidly growing threats to American interests, but also from the increasing risk of “Arab Spring”-style events. These will erupt not just in the Middle East, but all over the world, potentially undermining trust in incumbent governments for the foreseeable future.

The report, based on a year-long intensive research process involving consultation with key agencies across the Department of Defense and U.S. Army, calls for the U.S. government to invest in more surveillance, better propaganda through “strategic manipulation” of public opinion, and a “wider and more flexible” U.S. military.

The report was published in June by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute to evaluate the DoD’s approach to risk assessment at all levels of Pentagon policy planning. The study was supported and sponsored by the U.S. Army’s Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate; the Joint Staff, J5 (Strategy and Policy Branch); the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Develop­ment; and the Army Study Program Management Office.

One wonders if Gibbon is read at the War College.

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Just not enough being spent… Portside.

The Very Real “Walking Dead”

19 Wednesday Jul 2017

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John Whitehead comments, in the wake of George Romero’s death, on the zombie-fication of America.

Just take a look around you.

“We the people” have become the walking dead of the American police state.

We’re still plagued by the socio-political evils of cultural apathy, materialism, domestic militarism and racism that Romero depicted in his Night of the Living Dead trilogy.

Romero’s zombies have taken on a life of their own in pop culture, as well.

Indeed, you don’t have to look very far anymore to find them lurking around every corner: wreaking havoc in movie blockbusters, running for their lives in 5K charity races, and putting government agents through their paces in mock military drills arranged by the Dept. of Defense (DOD) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

In fact, the CDC put together a zombie apocalypse preparation kit “that details everything you would need to have on hand in the event the living dead showed up at your front door.”

Zombies also embody the government’s paranoia about the citizenry as potential threats that need to be monitored, tracked, surveilled, sequestered, deterred, vanquished and rendered impotent.

Case in point: in AMC’s hit television series The Walking Dead and the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, it’s not just flesh-eating ghouls and cannibalistic humans that survivors have to worry about but the police state “tasked with protecting the vulnerable” that poses some of the gravest threats to the citizenry.

I’ve written about “The Walking Dead,” the TV show, over at FP a few times. But I’ve never seen any of it. I don’t have to as I live in modern America. I see zombies out and about every day.

Whitehead’s column is a short tour de force on the command and control accepted from them the police state.

I think what little he misses is the acceptance part. The people are more than happy to roll over or lie down for anything, no matter how egregious, so long as the TV, the phone, and the AC work and the beer and fast food flows.

A friend of mine is fond of saying, “We’re in the zombie apocalypse. It’s just not the cool kind.”

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SHTF Plan.

Don’t be infected. Resist. Unplug and free yourselves. Be survivors.

They really do want your brains.