I Rate It At 6/8

Echoes of Roméo Dallaire’s nightmares rumbled in my subconscious for years after I read his book Shake Hands With The Devil, [wc] about the Rwanda genocide. While the carnage began, Dallaire was the commander on the scene with the only professional military force; he was repeatedly ordered to steer clear of getting involved while the UN and diplomats and presidents flapped their hands on television. It was then, Dallaire reminds us, that the entire international community started using elaborate vocabulary in order to avoid uttering the word “genocide.”

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More Metal

Doing flat-grinds on a belt sander is an eye/hand skill you never completely forget. But you can get rusty. So, I’ve been working the stiffness out of my muscle memory, while experimenting with my whole tool-chain to see what works best, where. My tool-chain has gotten vastly more powerful and complicated since I was in high school, making “prison shiv” style knives with just a file and a bench grinder.

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They Learned from Eichmann and Haspel

Eichmann was hanged for his crimes against humanity; Haspel was whitewashed and promoted to become head of the US’ department of dirty tricks. Down in their piggy, nasty brains, the people who run ICE have realized that what my accountant said is true: the only people in hell are those who were caught in the act, and those who kept records.

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The Retroscope At Play

By now, the establishment ought to be painfully aware that the FBI/NSA retro-scope is aimed at them, as well. Sometime in the next couple of years I expect a legislative backlash, especially if it keeps being used to take down friends of the high and mighty.

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Hanging Out in Bars

Something seems to have clicked and I’m getting good results forming welded bar-stock, now. I’ve started to consistently and easily (it’s still work, it’s becoming predictable work) get forge-welds and I’m producing bars that harden nicely, don’t warp or blow apart, and seem to be very tough with good edge-holding properties.

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Instinct

We are often told we have “instincts” – behaviors that are wired into us through evolution and time. These instincts are different from operational functions like peristalsis (the rythmic clenching of our intestines) and … well, where’s the line? We’d like to think that walking is, maybe, an instinctive behavior but – has anyone who believes that ever had a baby? Is eating an instinctive behavior? Has anyone who believes that ever cleaned baby-projected food off the ceiling? It appears that there is a lot more learning going on than instinct.

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