Could not tell you where this came from, but it was quite welcome anyway. From a simpler, more innocent time.
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How Steep The Slope?
I think it was Adam Smith who said: “There is much ruin in a nation.” What he meant was that a nation’s downward decline from prosperity to ruin can take some considerable time — nearly five hundred years, in the case of ancient Rome — because all the foundations of that prosperity and the institutions which maintained it may have inherent strength; and decay, while apparently certain, can still be resisted or even held back and improved by the efforts of the nation’s people.
None of which applies, of course, when the nation’s institutions are actively destroyed or its policies undermine its very foundations.
Which leads me to Germany, which is doing both by not taking the Greens out and standing them in front of the machine-gun pits. (Okay, maybe that metaphor could be interpreted as a little too strong, given Germany’s not-so-distant use of said pits, but you know what I mean.)
I suspect that you’ll change your opinion on that metaphor when you read this article:
In response to the intensifying European energy crisis, the green lobby in Brussels and Berlin is accelerating the pace of transformation. Politics lacks the imagination for a real energy crisis scenario. Civil society submits, nearly paralyzed, to its fate.
Anyone who expected that empty gas storage in Germany and the escalating energy crisis in Iran would silence the green lobby in the country must think again. The political representation and its media apparatus — the extended arm of the green crony system — fight with all means to preserve the green transformation complex, regardless of the force with which the waves of reality now crash against the thin green dam.
While economists and business associations worldwide foresee a new energy price shock — with the potential to derail the global economy — solutions to the mercantile bottleneck at Hormuz barely emerge from Berlin’s intellectual narrowness.
On the contrary: On this side of ideologically dismantled infantilism, political elites focus primarily on the survival of their power construct — the Green Deal.
As the saying goes: even civilized societies are always only two missed meals away from chaos. And energy — a steady, secure, and affordable stream of this life force — is the very foundation of what we call civilization.
Stepping back to illustrate the societal phenomenon: under the Green Deal, a highly complex web of politically proliferating environmentalism has emerged — a highly opaque yet extremely effective redistribution machine. Supported by decades of cultivated green moralism, widely accepted in the population — or at least hardly questioned until now.
In this way, an extraction mechanism has emerged that systematically siphons wealth from the productive machinery of society. This wealth is channeled precisely into the green parasitic system, which can proliferate in the shadow of political programs and moral justification without facing significant resistance.
Over time, a state within the state has emerged, its structures deeply grown into economic and institutional fabrics. This entity now seems to be entering a new phase — one of exponential weakening of its host body. Rising energy prices, which over the long term translate into higher inflation rates, are a symptom of the host’s weakening.
I apologize for the lengthy excerpts, but as I read the article, I couldn’t help thinking, “There but for the grace of Donald Trump goes America.”
But more to the point: if we fail to see that the Green Catastrophe will, if we allow it to, become as much a part of our polity as it is in Europe. Hell, thanks to the Obama Dozen Years it nearly did, and it’s taking a Herculean effort by the Trump Administration to undo and untangle us from that strangling creeper.
Suicide may be woven into the Western European polity; but I’m sure as hell hoping that it’s not in ours.
The High Cost Of No Compromise
In my mailbox a couple days ago, this breathless news:
All sounds pretty good, right? So as they say in Noo Yawk… “What’s da cawst?”
Phew; those are Pentagon price$, Bubba. Guess that if I ever want to go down the suppressor route, I’ll have to make do with an awful lot of compromises.
Thursday Landscape
Amsterdam 2004
Owning, Or Being Owned?
Several Readers (thankee) have pointed me to this article at American Thinker:
There was a time — not very long ago — when the automobile represented one of the clearest expressions of individual choice in a free society. Limited only by fuel, roads, and imagination, a person could choose where to go, when to go, and how to get there. The car was not merely a machine. It was mobility made personal — an extension of autonomy and freedom.
Sadly, that is no longer the case. Increasingly, this same instrument, once a tool to facilitate individual independence, has been repurposed into a system of monitoring and control. Though advertised as safety measures for the consumer, these measures were clearly designed to empower the state.
Modern vehicles are no longer just mechanical devices; they are computers on wheels. Embedded sensors track speed, braking patterns, seatbelt usage, location, and even driver attention. Event Data Recorders — commonly referred to as “black boxes” — have been standard in most new vehicles for years. Originally justified as instruments to reconstruct accidents, these devices record data in the moments before a crash. Few object to understanding the causes of collisions. But it is worth noting that once data exists, its use rarely remains confined to its original purpose.
Insurance companies now seek access to driving data to adjust premiums. Law enforcement agencies have used vehicle data in criminal investigations. Courts have admitted such data as evidence. Each of these developments can be justified in isolation. Together, they represent a quiet but unmistakable shift: the automobile is no longer simply your property — it is a source of information about you.
More recently, legislative developments have accelerated this trend. The federal infrastructure legislation passed in 2021 includes a mandate for advanced impaired driving prevention technology to be installed in all new vehicles within the coming years. While often described in benign terms — systems that passively detect intoxication or driver impairment — the practical reality is that these systems must continuously monitor driver behavior in order to function. Monitoring creates data. And data, once created, rarely remains unused. It takes on a life of its own.
Proposals and discussions around remote vehicle disablement — popularly referred to as “kill switches” — have raised further concerns. While proponents argue that such features could prevent high-speed chases or stop stolen vehicles, the existence of remote-control capabilities introduces a fundamentally different relationship between the individual and the machine. A car that can be disabled remotely is clearly not under the control of its owner.
I’ve ranted about this little bit of rampant evil on many occasion, and the gist of all my screeds has been all around this concept: giving up control — to anyone, for even the most laudable purposes — will, inevitably, end your freedom.
I’m unlikely ever to buy a new car, and certainly not a “modern” car which would contain all the electronic snoopery and filth as discussed above, and most especially at today’s bloated and excessive prices. But if I were ever to be forced into buying a replacement for the Tiguan or the Fiat, and given that no matter what I buy, it would carry a horrible price tag withal, then why would I just not get a much older car that while expensive, at least allows me the freedom that cars of yore gave me? Something like this one, for instance:
I know, fifty-odd grand for what is in essence a gift-wrapped VW 2300cc engine may seem excessive to some; but I don’t need much more than 145hp (especially on that featherweight chassis), and it least it doesn’t look like every other car on the road (#WindTunnel). But most of all:
…please note the refreshing absence of all the modern electronic geegaws which bedevil today’s automotive offerings. The only thing missing (which I’d add with alacrity) is air conditioning. (#TexasSummer)
For the faint of heart, let me point out that a new VW Tiguan base model will set you back close to $40,000, and a Jetta (with a stick shift!) only five grand less. And you can bet your ass that both the VWs will come equipped with all the latest in snoop-‘n-control electronics.
Sorry, but no. To hell with all that. I want simple, and I want freedom.
Yeah, Maybe
This also from the American Thinkers:
There were many good reasons for the United States and Israel to finally move against Iran this month, and the need to end the Iranian mullahs’ control of their clients in nearby countries—Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, etc.—is at the top of that list.
However, if regime change in Iran also enables the Houthis to be defanged and the Suez Canal to be reopened at last—as it must—the billion-dollar-per-day transportation savings to the world economy that result from it will, in itself, have made it all worthwhile.
This isn’t about Israel and the United States alone; it’s about every developed and developing nation on earth. Everyone uses the Suez Canal; everyone needs it.
Errr nazzo fast, Guido. I appreciate that the Suez Canal may be an important sealane, so to speak, and most certainly for Yurp and Britishland. But is it that important to the U.S.? I’m thinking, not. Most of our trade comes from the Far East over the Pacific, and from Yurp over the Atlantic. I’m struggling to think what doesn’t use either of those routes; and if so, why would we care — other than for purely altruistic reasons, i.e. to bail the Euros out of yet another mess — to intervene in the Red Sea?
For that matter, the Straits of Hormuz aren’t that important to Magaland either; as DJT has pointed out, the U.S. gets nary a single barrel of oil out of the Persian Gulf because we roll our own.
Now I can see why Suez might be an important military thoroughfare for our Navy, each time we want to leave the Mediterranean Sea to whack Persian pee-pee, so to speak. But even that is not a priority, really.
Discuss.