It's Noel's fault.

Noel came over weekend before last to try out a wargame he'd picked up, and while he was over he remarked on my copy of Ogre Designer's Edition (one Very Large Box, one somewhat more normal-sized box for the expansion, and a bunch of extra unpunched countersheets and neoprene map playmats). "Yeah, I've got the Pocket Edition," he said. (This is a mostly straight reprint of the original 1977 wargame: the counters are on slightly better cardboard and punch-out instead of cut-yourself, but pretty much the same otherwise. Same price, too: $2.95.) "I'd be happy to play the big version sometime, though."

Apparently this was all the incentive I needed. I spent much of the last week going through my Ogre stuff, punching and sorting and bagging, and researching to figure out exactly what it is I have. (Looks like it's just about everything, save a couple of neoprene map playmats that I missed out on. One of which I'd really like to have. Alas.)

Now. Ogre is a wargame which, in its original conception, was a small conventional if futuristic armor force of tanks, artillery, infantry, and oh yeah hovercraft, struggling to hold off a single gigantic cybertank (the eponymous Ogre). For the Designer's Edition, Steve Jackson went all out: huge and very pretty (and very readable) counters for most of the units, and even huger heavy-cardboard models for the various Ogres and structures (buildings, laser towers, etc). This all looks very impressive and honestly adds to the fun. It does take up an awful lot of storage space, though. More importantly: some of the models don't stay together very well.

The obvious solution is to put a drop of glue at each joint. Okay, sure, I'm not doing anything else for the foreseeable, I may as well do that.

But then I got to poking around, and discovered that a number of folks have gone over the edges of their models with Sharpies (or, in one case, acrylic paint). Makes them look a lot classier than the brown cardboard. This is, of course, much easier to do before you put them together. But if I'm taking them apart to glue them anyway...

Long story short, I just got back from a Michaels run wherein I acquired a pack of multicolour Sharpies (standard and wide-tip) and a thing of craft glue. Also some wax paper (I already have toothpicks) so I don't glue them to my nice table.

I blame Noel.

Honestly, my hope is that I will get really going on this and then in the middle of it suddenly get a job, so I'll have to leave it half undone indefinitely. Why yes I am trying to game Murphy's Law. I'll let you know how that works out for me.

The paperwork for my credential has FINALLY gone through, so I am actually done with BCIT. Unless I need to get a transcript or something, I guess. \o/

Meanwhile, have some links. Roughly zero percent of these are cheerful.

The culture war is a metaphorical war (for now), but the metaphor is valid makes two points, neither in as much detail as I would like.

One: "We liberals really need to acknowledge that (a) we are in a culture war and (b) we are the aggressors. Racism, sexism, and homophobia have been features of the dominant culture since... well, pretty much forever. We are engaged in a conscious effort to marginalize -- and, if possible, extirpate -- these tendencies, and we are using whatever means we have at our disposal to do so, including the sword of the state."

Two: "...[A] very deep cultural and psychological problem on the liberal-left, which is a pervasive tendency toward various types of Whig history, in which history itself is more or less assumed to move in an inevitable direction, with a sort of vaguely Marxisant or quasi-Christian eschatological faith that in the end the good guys have to win because that’s the ultimate plot line."

I do not, in fact believe that 'the moral arc of the universe ... bends towards justice,' because why would it? Any bending has to be done by us, by people who act to bend it, and in the face of thousands of years of tradition, fear, and resource-insecurity.

San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. ... There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
--Hunter S Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Related, I Want No One Else To Succeed: "I've been doing this experiment on classes for the past 10 years and not one class has agreed unanimously because there’s always somebody who doesn’t want someone to have what they have because they don’t think they deserve it."

Also related, rachelmanija reviews Dying Of Whiteness: "[W]hite people perceive their own interest as upholding white supremacy and punishing people of color and liberals. They value this so highly that they are willing to deprive themselves of money, material goods, and even their own lives in pursuit of this goal. And they are doing exactly that: literally killing themselves as a side effect of killing people of color, in a kind of cultural murder-suicide." Erik at LG&M reviewed it some years back as well. His concluding words feel prescient. "Until whites stop preferring to kill themselves rather than admit non-whites as full citizens of the nation, fascism will continue to be a serious threat to the rest of us. And to themselves too, but they will be A-OK with that."

Who Goes MAGA?, a fictitious analysis of various personalities. "It attracts those who mistake confidence for competence, who confuse being loud with being right, who think that admitting uncertainty is weakness." (Also links to Dorothy Thompson's 1941 essay "Who Goes Nazi?", also worth a read.)

And, in case the previous weren't depressing enough: Assuming the can opener of free fair elections and a subsequent Democratic victory in 2026 and 2028: "Will America’s non-fascist party have the will to purge the government of fascists?" In which the FBI is conducting witch-hunts against employees who were friendly with people on the director and deputy director's 'enemies lists'. Primarily concerned with There Will Be No De-Trumpification:

Imagine it is 2028 and Democrat X has won the presidency. Kash Patel will only be four years into his term as FBI director. Dan Bongino is now a career employee of the bureau. The entire agency will be stacked, top to bottom, with Trump loyalists.

Would a Democratic administration have the will to purge these Trumpist elements from federal law enforcement?

I’m pretty sure I know the answer. And you’re not going to like it.

There will be no housecleaning of any Federal agencies; Trump appointees will remain in place despite their commitment to opposing Democratic governance and priorities. There will be no significant rollback of ICE's increased budget and powers.

We have the model for this: Obama in 2008 declining to go after the banks; Biden's appointment of Merrick Garland to fail to investigate the 6 January coup attempt. Hell, the pardon and rehabilitation of Richard Nixon.

Well. Two hundred fifty years was a good run, I guess.