Ayup. Note that or is identical to || but with a lower precence; thus, it's rather practical for things like this. Generally, || is used mainly to establish default values, because of its high predence.

perl -pe '"I lo*`+$^X$\"$]!$/"=~m%(.*)%s;$_=$1;y^+*`^ ve^#$&V"+@( NO CARRIER'