Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 133

FIAT

What is the operative word in Fiat Currency?

Fiat.

The full faith and credit of the United States of America.

To an extent it was always bullsh*t that your money was safe with the government. To be fair to an extent it was always bullsh*t (apologies to Orvan) that anything was safe in the hands of the government, starting with your kids’ education and ending with…. well, everything. Because humans have a knowledge gathering problem, and the bigger the organization, the bigger the k...

Kurgan Culture, Yamnaya Culture, or Aliens? Old Europe and Indo-European Speakers by Alma T. C. Boykin

Kurgan Culture, Yamnaya Culture, or Aliens? Old Europe and Indo-European Speakers by Alma T. C. Boykinimage from pexels. unrelated.

So, a few weeks back, a commenter argued that the peoples of Old Europe were more or less egalitarian and possible matriarchal until the people of the Kurgan Culture appeared and imposed a horse-riding patriarchy on everything. I admit, as soon as I saw “Kurgan Culture,” I knew the well-meaning individual was not current on the state of research concernin...

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike AND A Deadline

Okay, this is weird. No, stone cold weird. I guess you guys really are living on your nerves, or my mail has decided I don’t need to hear from you.

There were no books to promo. This is the second time — 2, in however many years of promo — that this has happened. It has me a leetle on edge.

I could go hunting, see if some of you forgot to send me listings, etc.

But I’m building bookshelves. Yeah, I SHOULD be writing, but I guess– rolls neck — I know how you’re feeling. So, I’m bu...

Join the Cavalry!

The image above was made by a friend as the election loomed and we were sure that Donald Trump was a moby. The “Unicorn Cavalry” is Larry Correia’s term for the Libertarian Party. Or was, when the party adhered to, you know, Libertarianism.

Unfortunately 2016 was when they epically misread the tea leaves, or perhaps consulted the world class brains of college libertarians and decided what libertarianism actually should be is “just like what Bernie Sanders is emitting out of his mouth hol...

Pudding Heads

This morning I’m having loving thoughts along the lines of Heinlein’s “The Year of the Jackpot” but you know in the end SMOD always leaves us waiting with sandwiches by the phone.

Mostly to be honest I’ve had about enough of pudding heads. It didn’t occur to me till I perused the comments after doing righteous battle with the laundry this morning (Or “why is this so late. Laundry. piles and piles of it. I’ve tried to convince husband to be nudist but he pointed out then we’d have to was...

Politics

There are many descriptions for politics, one of them being that it’s what people do, instead of smashing each other’s skulls open with a club.

For the record, I’m instinctively the club (wooden, heavy) kind. Partly because I hate and despise mean girls and their cliques. I think life would be much easier if people who have trouble with other people got in a fist fight.

I’m also aware that’s not the way to run a society, unless you have a codified way to go about fist fights, and their...

Sailing Conspiratorial Seas

It is said that when the going gets weird, the weird go pro.

Well, boys, girls and winged wombats: Hold my Port Wine and watch this!

Let me first register that I’m profoundly uncomfortable living in a time when the difference between conspiracy theory and reality is more or less two weeks and shortening.

Look, I’m in a profession where assembling fantastical patterns of events is my trade, okay? That means I’ve striven my entire life to not bring work home.

Normally the most ...

State of the Union Bingo — Wrongfun for the Whole Family – by Ellsworth D’Silva

*I’ve been having trouble keeping my equanimity “in these trying times.” Also I need to finish a Dyce book for a wife (not my wife, one of your wives. And that’s after the Shifter’s book.) Fortunately guest posters come through again – SAH*

State of the Union Bingo — Wrongfun for the Whole Family – by Ellsworth D’Silva

We don’t actually recommend that you subject yourself to the State of the Union address, but if you absolutely must because –say– a mush-head relative insists you must watc...

We Need Non-inflationary Cash by Francis Turner

*Just so you guys don’t worry. No, unfortunately this isn’t me finishing a novel. It’s family stuff, and it’s not bad, just busy. So Saturday went sideways and I don’t have time to put up the promo post today, so, have a ghost post. Promo post tomorrow. Thank you to Francis for stepping in – SAH*

We Need Non-inflationary Cash by Francis Turner

This essay makes the case that we are in the process of needing a non-governmental form of cash. This is because governments are busy tracking...

Gone Fishing

Perhaps that title isn’t as reassuring as it should be, because, well…. we all know I use fish for ballistic missiles. (I’d say I mean well, but I know you all have a finely trained bullshit detector, so I won’t.)

I should write a post, I should. I started yesterday, but couldn’t explain why my gut says all this with Russia and China is just something that their execrable leaders and whoever has his hand up Biden’s butt cooked up, before the stolen election. After all, all of them, i...