No, that wasn’t Sun Tzu, it’s attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte (it’s in his book of collected military maxims) – I don’t believe that was one of Bonaparte’s; it sounds more like Talleyrand, who had a great deal of experience at standing on the sidelines watching Bonaparte make mistakes.
I was 3 when Malcolm X was assassinated. Naturally, I don’t remember anything about it.
[Warning: Ronald Reagan, racism]
It’s been a sort of open question as to whether or not Ronald Reagan was really a racist, or perhaps just a soupçon racist.
I’m going to share some of my ruminations about what the US can/should do about mass shootings, because I can.
This is brilliant. It distills philosophical enquiry down to its essentials: fuck it.
I’m not sanguine about the positive effects of gun control. There are lots of people stirring the pot, trying to think of effective measures, but I can pretty much guarantee that they are barking up the wrong tree.
You’ve probably heard of the US Government’s strategic Helium reserve, or the fuel reserve. But, did you know that there is, under a mountain, a Tolkienesque city made of stacks of food?
There’s one stretch of road near my studio, where there are some old beaten-up miner’s homes that probably date to the 1890s – tar-paper covered, porched, coal-heated. When the mines were running, overseers and their families would be allowed to occupy such buildings. The miners’ homes have long since fallen down.
I believe, as someone said about other dinosaurs, that this guy is “about as smart as a board with a nail hammered through it.”
Sheath-making is a fascinating sub-genre of leatherwork. If you have leather carving skills, btw, the recent interest in knives has made teaming up with a knife-maker a very attractive opportunity.