Jim: Everyone wants state formation to be more accessible and warlord positions to be more plenty, but no one wants to take an underwear bomb to the boys for the divine calling of Butlerian Jihad. Sad!
Jim: What they really want from all this is not some policy outcome but the self-actualization that comes from fighting the enemy, and the dearth of opportunities for them to challenge their opponents’ honor on the battlefield in a rights-respecting way What? Men who are down especially bad will take absurd pay cuts to join artificial and economically unmotivated criminal sects, solely so they get the opportunity to pick mortal battles with other people who’ve opted into the same social systems they...
Isegoria: Without knowing much more than Rommel’s reputation from World War II, you could guess that he was a successful World War I officer, too — but that would be an underestimate.
Isegoria: According to Fehrenbach, “Erwin Rommel had written that he had never seen any troops so inept at first as Americans in battle — or any who learned the hard lessons more quickly once the chips were down.”
Bob Sykes: Guderian was Germany’s best general, and one of the inventors of combined arms warfare. Rommel was sent to Africa, because he could be spared. Guderian, who had led the charge across France, was needed on the Eastern Front. Re the Wehrmacht: In both World Wars it outperformed the Allies at every level. But it was simply overwhelmed by raw numbers of men and materiel. Initiative at lower levels of command was expected and rewarded. Re victory in WW II: Germany’s fate was sealed when...
Michael van der Riet: [citation needed, I know] I have read that in WW2 in all theatres of operation at all stages of the war, the Wehrmacht inflicted casualties at a rate of twice casualties received. I also believe that Von Manstein was Rommel’s equal. But generals apart, I think that the typical Soldat was more professional, more plucky and highly inured to hardship. (Putting this out there for flaming.)
TRX: There is a great amount of overlap between robbery and homicide in larger cities. In 1969, LAPD merged their Robbery and Homicide dividions into a single Robbery/Homicide division, since most of the time they were connected at the same crime scene. As far as straight violence… it has been, what, fifteen years since “The Knockout Game” videos started surfacing on Youtube and elsewhere? It’s big fun for the perpetrators. Every couple of weeks some attack makes the national...
Isegoria: Fallout definitely caught my eye, but I haven’t played any computer games seriously since…the original Starcraft?
Gavin Longmuir: A relevant book is America’s First Battles: 1776–1965, edited by C.E. Heller & W.A. Stofft. Kasserine Pass was typical. America’s military lost most of its first battles, from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam. The initial loss was often followed by big changes in equipment, training, and leadership — sometimes turning initial defeat into eventual victory. It has often been noted that the kind of smooth political operator who rises to command in a peacetime force is...
Bomag: ”Many prosecutors aren’t interested in filing charges against the violent kids who attacked you or stole your stuff.” Why is criminal advocacy by our alleged rulers such a thing? Partly explained by: ”Process predators aren’t interested in your stuff [or well being]. They get pleasure out of the process of victimization. They revel in the act of causing pain and misery.”
Jim: We have just one solution and it is to speak the truth— N
Longarch: Sorry for the obscure joke. Because you always post the most insightful ideas about wargaming I can find anywhere, I always assume you know everything about military history, wargaming, and geeky spin-offs like civilian games. The Fallout series of games started off as a remarkable fountain of risk-taking creativity. It drew on very obscure sources, including seldom-read Phil K. Dick stories. Because its source material was diverse and often totally unknown to most of its audience, it seemed to...
Contaminated NEET: Ranger, have fun explaining in court why you called your victims “animals.” If you were serious, you wouldn’t be boasting to anonymous idiots about what a big tough man you are.
Ranger: This sort of thing is exactly why I carry. Let these animals go wild all they want, but the instant they threaten my safety or that of my family, it doesn’t matter what age they are. I will take the necessary steps to keep myself safe.
Ezra: The two perceived instances of discrimination as described were: 1. the refusal of a white server in the chow line to give two sandwiches to a black sailor. Given the amount of fresh lunch meat on a ship the server had been probably instructed to only give one sandwich per sailor. 2. A white galley attendant accidentally removed a tray of food that he thought the black sailor had already consumed and left behind. Both the server and attendant were attacked and beaten really without any provocation....
Adar: If Elon tries a hundred off-the-wall ideas nobody agrees can succeed, and he is successful in only ten of them, Elon is 10x ahead of everyone else in the world.
Isegoria: I had to look up “Ron Perlman Bethesda” to find what you were referring to.
Longarch: [bad Ron Perlman impression] Musk … Musk never changes … [/bad Ron Perlman impression] [non-skippable Bethesda intro sequence precedes character creation screen]
