Quotulatiousness

June 24, 2021

Rex Krueger on the real starter kit for hand tool woodworking

Filed under: Books, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 05:00

I just got Rex’s new book the other day and I meant to put up a post about it, but I forgot, so I’m borrowing the introduction from his most recent Fabrication First newsletter to rectify my error:

There’s a kind of video on YouTube. There are dozens of versions. Each one promises that you can “Get Started Woodworking for Less Than $1000!” or the title proclaims: “Start Woodworking: 5 Tools You NEED.”

I hate these videos.

For a second, let’s ignore the fact that $1000 is a fantastic sum of money. Let’s ignore the fact that hardly anyone can cough up that much cash to just get started on a hobby. Instead, let’s focus on the fact that none of the tools in these videos are necessary.

None of them.

Most of these videos focus on power saws. They tell you that a table saw and a miter saw are essential. They might cover alternatives like a track saw or inexpensive circular saw, but none of them tell you that you don’t need ANY electric saws to get started. You also don’t need a cordless drill, a router, a drill press, or an electric lathe. All of these tools are expensive and many of them are dangerous. They all produce dust that you really don’t want to breathe and they take up a lot of space. The idea that you need these things just to get started is absurd.

Of course, this is a lot of big talk from me. If I don’t think you need to buy all the plug-in tools, if I think it’s crazy to ask people to spend that much money, then I better have an alternative. I better have an effective, inexpensive and safer way to get started. And it turns out, I do. And I just wrote a whole book about it.

The book is based on a simple idea: take a person with no tools and no woodworking experience and get them learning the craft as quickly, safely, and cheaply as possible. By the end of the book, even a raw beginner should be making real, useful projects. If it sounds crazy, it shouldn’t. It’s completely possible.

First Arab-Israeli War 1948 – Political Background – COLD WAR

Filed under: Britain, History, Middle East, Military, Religion, Russia, USA — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Cold War
Published 31 Aug 2019

Our series on the history of the Cold War period continues with a documentary explaining the political background of the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948.

To learn about the military events of this conflict, go to the Kings and Generals channel

Consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thecoldwar

“[M]any of the woke genuinely do not understand why anyone finds their politics, or their political tactics, threatening”

Filed under: Media, Politics, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

In The Line, Joseph Heath tries to explain why many adherents of the wokist ideology fail to understand why anyone could possibly be against their policies or their tactics:

Godfrey Elfwick’s disturbingly accurate summary of free speech support among the woke.

After several years of creeping illiberalism under the guise of progressive politics, American liberals are finally getting their act together. They are pushing back, creating several organizations committed to combating the influence of “woke” politics and ideology. They have momentum, not just because many woke mantras like “defund the police” have proven spectacularly unpopular, but also because there is genuine growing alarm about the intolerant and authoritarian brand of politics that has become associated with the woke left.

Unfortunately, many of the woke genuinely do not understand why anyone finds their politics, or their political tactics, threatening. In particular, the accusation that they are being authoritarian, or that “cancel culture” is a threat to freedom of expression, is one that they are simply unable to process.

There is a reason for this — and one that’s worth understanding. There are several key phrases that play an enormously important role in woke politics (e.g. “safety”, “mental health”, “microaggression”, “bullying” and even “human rights”) which they use to deflect the accusation of authoritarianism. If you adopt the right words, it’s easier to convince yourself that you’re the good guys even as you’re acting like the bad ones.

I want to take a shot at explaining how this works.

The most important thing to understand about woke politics is that it is not a conventional form of illiberalism, it is better thought of as a type of “illiberal liberalism”. It involves making a set of political demands that are fundamentally illiberal, but then articulating them in a way that fits the conventional structure of liberal political discourse. Because of the way that their complaints are packaged, the woke are able to brush off criticism of their tactics.

Take an issue like freedom of speech. There are various versions of this traditionally liberal virtue; predominant among them, is that those who hold this belief are opposed to content-based restrictions on speech. In the old days, lots of politicians didn’t really believe in freedom of speech, as many among the ruling class maintained straightforwardly illiberal views.

The Founder | Based on a True Story

Filed under: Business, Food, History, Media, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Cynical Historian
Published 27 Jul 2017

This one is a contender for best historical film of 2016. The Founder is an amazing movie about the beginning of the McDonald’s food chain. Seriously, more films should take cues from this.
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references:
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/ree…​

http://time.com/money/4602541/the-fou…​

http://content.time.com/time/magazine…​

https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate…​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert…​

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain…​

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/bu…​

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-24…​

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-real-…​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kroc​
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard…​
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contribute to my Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian​

LET’S CONNECT:
https://twitter.com/Cynical_History​
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Wiki:
The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. The film stars Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, and portrays the story of his creation of the McDonald’s fast food chain. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as McDonald’s founders Richard and Maurice McDonald.

The film premiered at Arclight Hollywood on December 7, 2016 and was released in the United States on January 20, 2017, by The Weinstein Company. It grossed $23 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for Keaton’s performance.
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Hashtags: #History​ #TheFounder​ #McDonalds​ #Review​ #BasedOnATrueStory​ #RayKroc

QotD: The fantasy world of Canadian geopolitical posturing

Filed under: Cancon, China, Government, History, Quotations, USA — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

There are two basic things you need to know about Canada’s position in the world. The first is that we are bordered on three sides by ocean. The second is that we are bordered on the fourth side by the United States. That is a simple geopolitical reality whether we like it or not — and Canadians have expended a great deal of energy over the past half century or so making it clear just how much we dislike it.

Yet for all the reflexive anti-Americanism that has been the meat and mead of Canadian nationalism, Canada’s leadership class has usually been pretty good about understanding who is in charge. Over the course of the 20th century, from the Ogdensburg agreement of 1940 and the post-war establishment of NORAD to the Free Trade Agreement of 1988, we cemented that reality with a defence and economic alliance.

Paradoxically, what this continental defence and economic security arrangement has given us is the opportunity to let our internationalist pretensions run wild. One of the weirdest things about Canada is the extent to which we like to frame our place in the world in a-geographic terms. We imagine that we are as threatened as anyone by the mix of post-Cold War failed states, opportunistic terrorism, regional authoritarianism, and humanitarian disasters. By the same token, we like to presume that we are as well-positioned as any other country to do something about all of this.

As the dean of Canadian defence policy Kim Nossal points out in a recent paper, this a-geographic security fantasy is reflected in the official defence reviews that Canadian governments have released since the 1990s. Or take, for example, the 2017 Liberal policy statement, entitled Strong, Secure, Engaged, which rejects the idea that Canada’s privileged geographic location mitigates these global threats for us. As Nossal concludes, when you look at how Canadian governments actually talk about our security situation, you get little sense that, thanks to the Americans, Canada occupies “one of the safest spaces in contemporary global politics.”

You can see the logical leaps, then.

Once you’ve convinced yourself that Canada’s security is disconnected from the geographical imperative of the American security guarantee, it’s only a few steps to the conclusion that who we choose as our global strategic partner is actually a meaningful choice. And if it is true, as China’s president Xi Jinping has claimed, that the East is on the rise and the West is in decline, then why not throw your lot in with the new big dog on the block?

Andrew Potter, “Hedging our bets with China was a mistake”, The Line, 2021-03-23.

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