Legal types like to deride the U.S. grand jury system by saying that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Ha? The joke being that U.S. citizens are such sheeple that they’ll just do whatever…
Literally The Least They Can Do: Some Hard Words About “Soft Secession”
I don’t think I’ve heard of Chris Armitage before, but he made quite a splash last week with his Substack post “It’s Time for Americans to Start Talking About “Soft Secession“. It’s … OK? I mean, it’s well written and…
Archive: Book Review: The Big U
I should re-read both the books discussed here; I still read most of Matt Ruff’s books, but I stopped reading Neal Stephenson’s after “Cryptonomicon”. An old post of mine from Kuro5hin.Org, dated “Sun Apr 8th, 2001 at 05:12:22 PM EST”.…
Наступного року в Києві: Independence Day In Ukraine
I don’t usually write for this site on the weekends; I was working on the irrigation in the garden (because I do in fact take my own advice). So this isn’t being posted on Ukraine’s actual Independence Day, which was…
WebSmurfer Revived: Smurfica Is Back, Baby
Yesterday, I revived an old site I originally built back in 1997. Yeah, that’s old. It’s been online continuously since it was built, which at this point is something like 28 years? I guess it depends on when in 1997…
Archive: Collective Patronage
Here I propose a system shockingly similar to what Patreon would do 12 years later. An old post of mine from Kuro5hin.Org, dated “Sat Jan 27th, 2001 at 12:38:44 PM EST”. Much is made of the Net’s alleged ability to…
A Texas Homecoming: Democrats Meet, Ignore, Real World
So, the ballad of Texas’ Democratic legislators is moving into a new verse. And, like most ballads, it’s been completely predictable. Our heroes, having apparently believed that the villains of the piece are done simply because the first act is…
Archive: Analysis of U.S. Military Spending
The U.S. military budget is still absurd. An old post of mine from Kuro5hin.Org, dated “Tue Jan 23rd, 2001 at 10:11:31 AM EST”. TomPaine.Com and Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities (this link requires JavaScript) have a recent analysis of American military spending by Dr. Lawrence…
You Should Read This: I Researched Every Democratic Attempt To Stop Fascism In History.
I’ve been seeing the links to this one all over the fediverse/Mastodon over the weekend, so I read it. You should read it too. It’s “I researched every Democratic attempt to stop fascism in history. the success rate after fascists…
A Hierarchy Of Sovereignty: On The Consent Of The Governed
The fundamental lie at the heart of modern political philosophy is the claim that the legitimacy of the State derives from the consent of the populace. No State actually has the consent of its people. And, in that sense, there…