Going Galt?

Matters proceed and the straws have shown which way the wind is blowing. Hard times are coming, with emptying supermarket shelves and urban shortages. There’s a financial crunch in the offing too, if my instincts do not deceive me. A big one. Time to cash out, which we’ve already done. Just awaiting contracts on the house.

For the moment the post election Canadian stock markets have settled into an uneasy stability. Which will be to our advantage. For Canadians it means the idiot Trudeau boy will still be governing by feat, but the markets seem to like that, but markets I find are fairly short sighted and don’t see the economic train wreck coming down the tracks.

Across Europe the shortage of truck drivers is starting to bite too as a lot of chickens come home to roost for the big logistics companies. Drivers are no longer content to put up with long times away from home for miserable remuneration. Not to mention the current Carbon Dioxide shortage hitting food processors and threat of power outages because of too much reliance on ‘renewables’.

Ten years ago, the UK Government, amongst others in a fit of Green fucknuttery, decided to go down the ‘decarbonisation’ route, based on the premise that man made emissions are altering the climate. A premise only supported by dodgy mathematical modelling. Rather like the COVID predictions. And how wrong have they been, eh?

Europe could have had steady decentralised power generated by small modular reactors and fracked gas, but no. The idiots then in power made decisions to placate a green minority lobby, thinking it would win them more votes. Now Bojo the Henpecked is doubling down because his missus is nagging him into it. For which everyone else will suffer.

For a balanced perspective, spend some time listening to this podcast.

Looking on the bright side, I think a ‘great reset’ is already underway, and it’s not the one envisaged by that idiot collectivist Schwab and his followers at the WEF. Now this is just me, but I think this is going to be a ‘reset’ like after the great medieval plagues, when wages went up and society changed with the expansion of the land owning Yeoman class and decline of serfdom. A sea change in the relationship between the ruling and ruled. Because the Internet has given the ruled a real voice, and the rulers don’t own all the tools of propaganda any more. Yes there will be some short term argy bargy in the meantime, but in the end, the ruling classes will have to wind their necks in. Similarly, their great green dream will come to a crashing halt. Ironically because the policies contained therein are ‘unsustainable’. Like wind turbines when the wind isn’t blowing, or solar panels at night.

The NHS, and all similar government ‘Health’ services may also collapse because they’re simply swallowing too taxpayer dollar. Even a blind man can see the tax train running away down the tracks toward a wrecked bridge. Unless the brakes are applied very soon, we’re all going over the edge. So I’m putting my cash into bricks and land to keep it’s value.

Some like gold, art, or other hedges against inflation, but I look at it this way; you can’t eat gold or art, but you can raise food on a relatively small plot. I was fortunate to be raised thus, learning to grow stuff for the larder almost before I could walk. Later learning the skills of talking my nourishment from field to plate and not getting too fussy about the bloodier aspects.

This leaves me wondering whether the time has come to wind up this blog and step back into the shadows to look to my own needs. There are things that must be done, money put to work apart from on the stock market. Off the beaten track. Self sufficient and outside of the taxman’s greedy grasp. Maybe it is time to go Galt.

Could be fun.

Don’t know about anybody else, but…

I find myself unable to comment on the increasing ridiculousness of the news. Frankly me deario’s, every headline sends me into a daze of Deja vu every time I look at it. It’s all fear, fear, fear, stuff we’re all supposed to get wildly excised about and I’m fed up with it. Not least because most of the headlines are overblown and / or totally about face to the verifiable facts.

I’m too busy making plans for our new place anyway. Costing out the Espalier layout for fruit trees and bushes, orienting hive fronts to the south-southeast (I’m told the bees like it this way.) Planning for easy set up, care and harvesting of hives. Researching pest control. Then there’s small repairs to the new house (Providing the sale doesn’t all go AWOL on us) and redecorating.

Then there are machine tools to buy. A chop saw and angle grinder with a range of blades from ceramic to grinder. Full set of drills. An ATV for towing a grass cutter, which I will be teaching Mrs S to drive, just so she doesn’t complain that it’s only a ‘boys toy’. Hives and Chicken runs to build. It’s going to be a busy Winter followed by an even busier Spring.

So yes, the fact that the current US President is obviously senile and only being managed by a support team doesn’t bother me. Nor does all the ‘Green’ bullshit being promoted by weak and ignorant politicians whose only talent, if that is what it is, is getting elected.

Fortunately there are ways and means around all the fuckwittery those urban parasites try to foist upon us. We have fallback option layered upon fallback option. As far as we’re concerned, workarounds rule.

As for worthless ‘vaccine passports’, don’t these morons in power understand that we hit herd immunity back last December? All one has to do is a little basic research. And when I say basic research, I mean not relying on mainstream media sources. The real numbers are all out there. From official sources too, and we can see how states like Florida are doing, and what is happening with Sweden. You know, the places that ditched mask mandates and lockdowns, and in Sweden’s case, barely flirted with any kind of lockdown at all.

Yet is their overall mortality any different from those places which did lock down and enforce mask wearing? Indeed it seems that countries with the harshest lockdowns and restrictions have suffered just as badly if not more so than those that did not. Apart from those so far off the beaten track that the infection hardly touched, like New Zealand. Although when they open up, then watch the fireworks. The best lockdowns can do is kick the can down the road. Then New Zealand will catch it. They might have the jabs, but the best they can do is mitigate the worst effects. The mRNA vaccines do not, like more traditional vaccines, stop you either catching a dose or do much else than mitigate the worst symptoms. The evidence is in, and natural immunity, whether inherited or acquired is better by far. But I’m preaching to the choir here.

So pardon me if I have no more f*cks to give.

As for the NHS in the UK, any organisation which can afford to hire ‘Diversity Officers’ at 75K a pop (Nice work if you can get it) clearly isn’t short of the odd bob or two. Nor is it financially ‘overstretched’. Although maybe it is, having as many bureaucrats as front line medical staff. Possibly more than half because many purely bureaucratic managerial roles are staffed by ‘Medically Qualified’ personnel Official figures here.

But all the evidence in the world won’t convince the permanently propagandised. Anecdote; in a car park lift some woman ten years my junior (And as such in a far lower risk category) remonstrated with me when I took off my mask to catch my breath. I replied that the pandemic was over, to which she retorted “But there were a hundred cases in Ireland yesterday” I pointed out that a hundred out of six million wasn’t very many at all and despite being double jabbed and having had the bug itself, I was more at risk from her. Unfortunately this didn’t seem to sink in and she snorted that she didn’t want to catch it, thank you so very much. I just rolled my eyes and waited for the doors to open before I got contaminated with her dose of the stupids. Serves me right for going shopping on a Saturday.

We didn’t mean to, but….

The other day we went out and bought Mrs S a car. An MPV that came at a good price from a trusted dealer. So now we are both independent of each other as far as transport is concerned, and have a fallback option in case our other car becomes hors de combat for whatever reason. Or if we have two batches of visitors to collect from differing air or ferry terminals.

Of course shelling out for a new wagon means I have less ready money at present than I’m comfortable with, what with the house and all coming up, but we can afford it, and it’s a nice to have in case one of us has to zip off somewhere at short notice. Public transport is all very well, but it takes an age to get anywhere and you’re crammed in with the coughing and spluttering masses. I need the off road capability of the SUV and Mrs S doesn’t, preferring never to drive down anything less than a Motorway or N-Route. I’ll get her registered with a toll card account so the doesn’t have to fuss with all the loose change.

With the easing of restrictions now that the Pandemic is almost (But not quite) officially over, ‘South’ has been let out of her home to picnic on the beach with friends down in the fabled land of Oz, and is talking excitedly about coming over for an extended visit. Indeed as are most of our extended family. For some reason they’re all very interested in visiting our new place. Hopefully we’ll have the decorating done in time for the festering season and any visitors that come our way.

I know Boris the Henpecked over in the UK is not letting go of the petty powers he put in place that have made life so miserable for most of us, but things are turning out all right. Decisions have been made, life changes planned and the next few years promise to be very interesting indeed, but in a good way.

Winter for example promises to be full speed ahead and bugger the politicians. I’ve never had this much land to play with before, but we’re planning our planting and rearing around a nine month active year with three months downtime when we will take extended breaks with family overseas, which suits our temperaments very nicely. This first year I shall be busy putting my ‘O’ level woodwork skills to work on building raised vegetable beds and beehives ready for Spring. There’s agricultural contractors to organise and a fox to get rid of, so I won’t be going anywhere for 2021-22.

I’m quite giddy with anticipation. Sod the ‘carbon footprint’.

Shock! Horror! Yawno…..zzzz

Back in my college days, and by college I mean technical college, not a University. In the UK these are two distinct types of educational institution, we Engineering students had a saying to mock all the prognosticators of doom and hand wavers out there, living off the drama that they themselves create.

As for an Extinction Rebellion splinter group (Splitters!) glueing themselves to the road, what are these dickheads on? Because dickhead is the only appropriate descriptor for people who glue themselves to the road, especially the M25. Especially when their actions cause pile ups and casualties. Especially when the government ‘Green Homes’ scheme (For one. There are others) already offers cash for insulation upgrades. Whadda bunch of feckin morons these protesters are.

Not that XR aren’t complete dickheads already. Indeed anyone who believes that the planet is going to burn up in ten years or less can only be described thus. Frankly if these drama queens weren’t such a nuisance, the only rational thing to do when hearing these doltish cretins spout their garbage ‘sceance’, is to do what the late lamented Robin Williams advised women to do to avoid rape; “Point and laugh”

But we’re past that aren’t we? While the UK Police have been known to readily baton charge anyone protesting the shutdown of civil rights over this COVID nonsense, they seem to give people like these nuisance protesters carte blanche until it looks like the public are about to kick off, and only then do they shift the bodies and make arrests. It’s almost like the Police are under orders to increase the disruption and chaos these f*ckwit middle class morons like XR cause.

One upside is that these antics have made it almost too easy to play ‘spot the looney’, they’re the ones gluing themselves to the M25 or going on an ‘environmental’ protest in fancy dress. With the emphasis on ‘mental’. Because the proper science, based on real world observations, does not support these wild claims of death and promised disaster. The climate is changing, this much is true, but no-one has categorically proven a causal link between atmospheric CO2 and weather / climate. Indeed, the available evidence shows that CO2 is a symptom, not a cause.

The right of peaceful protest is sacrosanct, but that right does not mean that a group can jam up the normal commerce of the day to day without notice. There have to be rules. Protest. Make your point and go home should be the rule.

My own view is that these people have now reached peak nuisance and should be hunted down and subjected to mob justice, the rough music of public disapproval when the institutions meant to support civil society fail.

Because public institutions like the Police are visibly failing. Justice and law have become too heavily politicised and will now have to be dragged back to the centre ground of one rule for all, applied even handedly without fear or favour. No special treatment for any group, great or small. Protest all you want but don’t stop people getting to work, hospital or wherever they need to be.

Protests should be legitimised by one factor; do they do visible harm to others? Do they cause pile ups on one of Britain’s busiest roads? Are they intended to harass or intimidate the bulk of the general public? If no, then fair do’s. Right upheld. If yes and protests stop people getting to work and cause collisions, then the answer is for XR etc to sod off and inflict their idiocy elsewhere.

A good week

Excuse the blogging absence, but we’ve been hosting ‘North’ for the last week and a bit. Our youngest daughter has been with us here in the wilder west of Ireland, putting a smile on our faces and forcing the household to go vegetarian for a week, but that’s no bother as she does eat fish. So it wasn’t really an issue, although I must confess to being all Salmoned out.

There have been times over the last pointless eighteen months when we despaired of ever seeing her again, but the simple joy of her saying “Gimme a hug” at the airport lifted a huge weight from our shoulders.

To hell with the politicians and their silly lockdowns, masks and ‘vaccine passports’. If ever introduced to one such, I will ask them pointedly if they were for or against lockdowns. If against, they will receive a handshake and me saying; “So why did you not speak out more loudly?” If for, then I will withhold my hand and spit in their foetid, narrow minded eyes before walking away.

What I have loved about the last week is that we got to greet a much loved family member in person. You simply cannot put a price on such events. However, I will never forgive those who have repeatedly extended lockdowns and mask mandates for the damage they have done. I may run out of spit.

Notwithstanding, last night ‘North’ went back to her London flat, much to our regret. She filled out all the right forms, went through all the pointless motions and walked away from us into a near-deserted airport.

An empty airport is a strange thing to see. Like some huge, lonely creature staring aimlessly out across the landscape, mourning the life and human activity that it is denied. Despite all the mock-cheerful “Glad to see you back!” and “Welcome!” billboards, there is still a long, low sadness that hangs over such places like bad weather. Airports, in spite of what anyone might think of the security theatre and interminable queues, are still a place for human interaction, of greetings and goodbyes, no matter how brief. A place of living, not as at present, of a kind of living death.

We’re a global family. Spread all over the world from England to Australia. Wrested asunder on the flimsiest and most overblown of pretexts. First a virus with less than a 1% mortality rate, and now ‘global warming’ (Again). Neither of which are valid reasons, even if the latter is patently false. All of these doomsday predictions come from a faction of mathematical modellers who aren’t fit to compile a basic spreadsheet. People who seem never to set foot outside of their centrally heated offices, or they would have noticed how brief Summers are becoming.

Unfortunately now the principle has been established, only the privileged will be allowed to travel freely, the rest of us will be discouraged from doing so.

So ‘North’ has gone home. The upside of which means steak is back on the menu as of today. Pass the Dijon mustard. I’ve had a bloody good week.

Observed on a sunny morning

Sitting out in the back yard drinking our morning coffee, Mrs S pointed out the unusual sight of two sets of contrails, one almost in each others wake. As they passed directly overhead I could make out the distinctive pale grey Basking Shark shapes of US military transports as they grumbled far overhead on their way west. One around five kilometres and a little lower than the other. Which was unusual. Which is why we thought that they were military. Civilian flights never fly on the same course like that.

From the flight path, I think they were out of Frankfurt, which is the usual European staging post for the US military. Might have stopped at Brize for refuelling, but one thing was certain, those guys were going home.

This led to a taut discussion about tails tucked between legs and whether it was Trump’s or Biden’s fault. I think Biden’s team have to bear the blame for this shambolic affair. Trump may have negotiated the withdrawal, but Biden’s people cocked it up. Royally. Turned a planned strategic withdrawal into an effective rout. Left billions in kit and money, effectively arming and funding their philosophical opponents. No doubt there will be Danegeld, because that’s how Biden’s side of the house thinks. They seem to think that bribing an enemy makes their enemy a friend.

Here I have to lapse into anecdote for my proof; Back in my teenage years I knew a couple of guys who thought that by throwing their money about they could buy friends. They were wrong. They were still widely disliked for various reasons, but everyone nonetheless went to their parties for the freebies. When their money was spent, everyone drifted away. Their enemies remained their enemies, and their few ‘friends’ disappeared. So it will be with the USA.

Which begs the question; are we watching the end of the Pax Americana?

Another blast from the past

This time from over a decade ago. The more time passes, the less evidence I have to alter my outlook. See updated text below;

In 2007 I posted about the old fashioned fun we used to have at Halloween when I was growing lad, and how it wasn’t all about ‘Trick or treat’. I posted a similar view (Although much shorter) in response to one of the ‘your view’ commenters on the Daily Telegraph website. The thread is likely long down the memory hole of digital doom behind a paywall.

One person took my mild mannered remarks seriously amiss and tore into me personally because they claimed their Mother had been ‘Terrorised’ by some unsupervised ‘Trick or treat’ teenagers. In his / her own words;

“You (and these scumbags) can keep your ‘sense of fun’.”

Which really says it all about the attitude of many in England. No doubt the poor Mother in question was alone at the time. She was so alone and afraid that a bunch of children in fancy dress knocking on her door and demanding sweets could traumatise her so. Yet instead of taking the trouble to help remedy said Mothers solitude and alienation, said person took umbrage against the whole festival and anyone who enjoyed anything about it Saying so in the most vituperative fashion.

Maybe it’s just me. I’m just so used to dealing with strangers and new situations that I’ve lost the conception of what it is to be isolated and scared of the world. To feel so alone all you want to do is hide. For my part, I go out and meet the world and am used to talking to anyone. Three years on the streets showed me that it wasn’t that difficult. All it takes is a little old fashioned common humanity and a little guts. My own Mother taught me that. She had a busier social life than I ever did.

This is the malaise that haunts my native country. The fear, too often reinforced by a sensationalising media that one cannot walk the streets in peace (Despite the stats saying that outside of the major conurbations you are safer than ever before). The fear that you will be unjustly penalised for defending yourself, or murdered if you do. The fear promoted by a State and media which daily sap personal responsibility from the lives of everyone, driven by vociferous cowards among us, and then cannot deliver the safety it promises to the very people it should really be protecting (And I don’t mean Politicians).

Out here in the wilder west of Ireland I have rediscovered that sense of belonging that I rarely felt living in England. I have found it within every cheery “Howareya”, where people are genuinely relaxed about who you are and where you’ve been. They even retain the old Celtic names for festivals such as Samhain (Halloween), Beltane (May 1st) and Lammas (Loaf Mass, 1st August). This list is not comprehensive, but it will serve as a rough guide.

As for the UK, I really should give up on people who have given up so much themselves. They can’t have any fun at all. Maybe once all this COVID panic has died down, and people accept that man made global warming is no more than a trick of statistics, they can get in touch with their older, and some would say better selves.

COVID DATA

These are the official stats from the USA.

Who is going to live and who will die should you contract the disease. Here’s the parsing and analysis. Watch and be informed.

From an ancient text

I’ve been digging through my ancestral archives recently, and along the lines of ‘some things never change’ thought I would present the following, adapted for the present day;

Noah in the 2020’s : Ye Grate Fludde.

In the years of pestilence; The Lord came unto Noah, now living in Kidderminster, England and spake thusly; “Once again Noah the earth and all the people therein have become wicked and sinful and it is time to purge the face of my creation, save two of every species of creature and a few virtuous humans, including thyself.” The Lord emailed the CAD drawings to Noah, saying; “Thou hast a year to build this great Ark before I send a grate fludde of forty days and forty nights to purge the world. Now get cracking our kid.”

At the end of twelve months, under darkened skies, The Lord looked down to see Noah in his back yard. There was no great ark, no two of every species, just Noah, weeping. “Noah!” Roared The Lord. “Where is my ark! Where are the two of every species! Come on mate, I’m about to kick off here. I’ve got storms queueing up like Friday afternoon traffic on the M6.”

“Forgive me Lord.” Begged Noah. “But things down here on Earth have changed. Because of COVID there’s no hardwoods to build the hull and I’ve been told by the council that I’ll need planning permission, even though I told them it’s within the regulations for temporary structures. So they forwarded the decision to the secretary of state, so you’ll appreciate the length of time that’s going to take. I was going to cut down a few trees instead and got a permit for that, but then a local environmental group kicked off on FaceBook and now there’s a thousand people chaining themselves to trees. Then there’s building regulations approval and the Fire Brigade Inspector has demanded smoke detectors in all the cabins as well as a sprinkler system. The department of transport have demanded a bond for temporary re-routing of power lines and an excessive load. I’m also in trouble with the Animal Rights activists for imprisoning animals against their will. I said I was gathering the animals to save them, but they said; ho-ho pull the other one chummy and reported me to the RSPCA, who told me the accommodation is too restrictive, then they in turn reported me to DEFRA, who demanded animal movement permits for such a large menagerie. Then the County Council got involved along with the Environment Agency, and Rivers and Waterways Authority who ruled that I couldn’t build the ark until they’d conducted environment impact reports on the forthcoming flood. Not to mention a full risk assessment on shipping movements through built up areas. I’ve also got a diversity team from the Department of Work and pensions who tell me my family is all too Jewish and we have to recruit a more ethnically mixed crew or be in contravention of employment legislation. Not to mention I’m having to wait to get my Masters certificate to pilot the vessel. The Unions are threatening to picket, saying using my sons to build the ark is taking jobs away from skilled ship builders and have reported me to the Health and Safety Inspectorate. Last week border services came calling and rounded up all my animals, saying that I was potentially in breach of the live export regulations. Then Customs and Excise froze all my bank accounts because they thought I was going to leave the country illegally as part of a massive money laundering scam, and the Police broke down my door because they’d had a tip off that I had more than the permitted number of people at my house in breach of the COVID regulations.”

“So forgive me, Lord God, I’m a bit up against it here, and it looks like I’ll need another twenty five years to finish the Ark.” Sniffed Noah, cowering in response to an expected smiting.

Instead the leaden clouds suddenly cleared. A wonderful triple rainbow spanned the sky and the birds all began singing again. Noah looked up in open mouthed wonder. “Does this mean there will be no Grate Fludde of forty days and forty nights and you’re not going to destroy the world oh Lord?” He said.

“No.” Said the Lord God. “The government beat me to it.”