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Month: February 2018

Moon, revisited

I’m re-reading Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress after lo these many years. Many decades? Been a while. I’m halfway though and find myself with random thoughts to post on revolution, dated science fiction, “rational anarchism,” and Life. So here goes. —– I got the book to brush up on the refinements of cells-of-three systems for the manual on resistance Kit Perez and I are writing. It’s helpful, but the revolutionaries in Luna end up subverting large parts of their practical cell structure because they have Mike to handle so much. Mike, for those not familiar with the…

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Valentines Day massacre

Bear Bussjaeger on all the things that didn’t happen. A sampling: You want to blame someone for the Parkland dead? Try the school adminstrators and police who looked away. Don’t blame me or the other fifty-five to one-hundred-twenty million who did not do it, and who have proposed solutions. Solutions that do not involve assuming the innocent are guilty, and criminals will obey laws. Solutions that do not violate rights. Solutions that would work. Solutions that do not involve:

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Thursday links

  • When you want to know how many people are fleeing an area (in this case, San Francisco and Silicon Valley), check out the U-Haul rates.
  • With the help of creatively greedy lawyers, some California towns are criminalizing nuisance code violations — and trying to squeeze big bux out of people who don’t have the money.
  • Hey, knee-jerking bigots: Sessions is actually right about something for a change. The office of sheriff is from the Anglo-American legal tradition 15 Comments
  • Kind readers: Please point me toward inspiring images

    I sat down to draw something yesterday and found all my art muscles rusty. Once again. Early last year I was beginning to hit my stride and determined (with a lot of help from my friends) to keep up with drawing and painting this time. But I allowed a nine-month home-improvement binge to distract me. Yesterday, with big projects done and construction chaos cleared, I determined to sit down to the art table again. When I did, though, my work was stiff and clunky and my attitude worse. So. Help me out here, if you’re inclined. Point me to some…

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    St. Nilus Island Skete: Could you handle that life?

    I mentioned to a friend that I could do with a few days silent retreat. He came right back with a link to the St. Nilus Skete. And I said, “Um. Wow. But um. No freakin’ way!” A skete is a religious community midway between a monastery and a hermitage. Monks or nuns (nuns, in the case of St. Nilus), largely live and work solo, avoiding the communal perils of cenobitic life. But they gather for religious observances and meals to avoid the emotional and intellectual perils of pure solitude. Far as I know there are only a handful of…

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    From preps to porch swings

    It’s funny. You guys probably came here originally for lib-anarchism, Attitude, practical talk, and good rants. Maybe you stayed for Mad DIY construction projects. But this week I’m talking to you about stuffed sheepdogs and porch swings. Are you still here? Might as well get the porch swing out of the way, then go say something Meaningful afterward. I’ve been wanting a porch swing for years. Coveting a porch swing. But I thought I’d never get one. I couldn’t justify the cost of buying new. But I had very specific requirements — all having to do with the NorthWET climate.…

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