Snot-nosed Nazis: A belated weekend open thread

OT: @Alan, should you happen to wander into this thread, a legal question. Since Assange’s just put himself back in the news again, there’s something I’ve always wondered: legally, what’s the very least that could happen to him if he leaves the embassy?

I’ve just always had this vision of him leaving the embassy, getting picked up by the cops and swiftly deposited in front of a judge, where His Lordship would shake his head and say, “You’ve been a very naughty boy, Mr. Assange,” before fining him £50 for skipping bail and letting him go the moment it’s paid. Leaving him looking a complete fool for holing himself up for over six years to avoid a £50 fine.

I know it’s a pipe dream, but in this scenario, what would the £50 actually be?

@ rabid rabbit

Leaving him looking a complete fool for holing himself up for over six years to avoid a £50 fine.

It’s obviously not uncommon for people to skip bail.

Sometimes people will voluntarily arrange to surrender to bail. The irony there, is that the court will often say “we can’t fit them in until Wednesday; would you mind hanging on until then?”

The other way is when people are picked up by the police. There’s a “warrant not backed for bail” out on Assange. That means he’ll be brought to court by the police. If it’s after four or five o’clock he’ll be held in police cells until the next working day.

Now most people who skip bail are just a bit feckless. So you’ll apologise on their behalf and try to get them re-admitted to bail. The penalty in those case is, as you guessed, a small fine. They keep it under £100, because if you don’t pay a fine you get custody in lieu; and for £100 or less, the equivalent is one day. So the court just counts the time they already spent in the cells. It’s all very performative.

Now Assange’s case is more serious. Long term absconding can often get you a couple of months (although you only serve half the time inside).

However the district judges at that court can be a bit snarky and cynical; so there has been a bit of speculation at the Bar that they might just go down the “£50; or time served” route, for the reasons you suggest.

Re: read any good books lately.

Well, yes, since you ask.

Since New Year I’ve been consciously trying to get away from my default position of re-reading well-loved books again and again (which includes almost all the Discworld series: how much joy Sir Pterry has given me over the years).

Apart from things read for study, I’m trying to read more by writers other than white, cis, straight, British men.

So since the start of the month I’ve read these novels:

Room – Emma Donahue
The Sealwoman’s Gift – Sally Magnusson
Milkman – Anna Burns
The Long Song – Andrea Levy

… and next I’m going for some Roxane Gay (non-fiction), and I have a Marlon James novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings which I started a couple of years ago and lost track of.

I’d appreciate any recommendations anyone has.

Also – and slightly for research, but also for fun and interest, I’ve just finished reading an excellent book called “The Astronomer and the Witch” by Ulinka Rublack.

It’s the true story of Katharina Kepler, accused of being a witch by some of her neighbours, and the defense her son Johannes Kepler made (being a woman, she had to rely on male family members if she wanted any defense at all: one of her three sons had called her a witch before disappearing to the wars, one helped out with the expense of her 14-month imprisonment but then seems to have given up, and one, fortunately, was able and willing to defend her).

Much more realistic than Margaret Mead’s book, which as has been said above, does not fit the known facts.

Mead’s thesis is an interesting phenomenon though – not at all historical as regards the time it was written about, but in its own time and since, creating and publicising a modern folklore.

I wrote myself a letter last night. Just things I need to keep in mind, like that it’s ok if I get criticism, even if I think that I’m being maligned or misunderstood. I need to listen more thoughtfully to other opinions. And that nobody here intends to hurt me in any way.

I hope writing those things down down, and being able to reread it whenever I get knee-jerk defensive, will help enforce those thoughts – and that is why I’m writing this, now

This is a great forum, and a great group of people; insightful, smart, caring and generous- I can trust you guys. that’s another thing I need to remind myself.

I really ought to stick around

If anyone cares to know, I’ve changed my opinion about the Covington Clown Posse due to the clarity I’ve gotten here. And about the idiocy of pulling focus from their behavior.

I’m sure this has been said before about the adults in the room, (if any)are the worst. what kind of fascist school sends an army all-male children to fight their pretend battle against women’s rights And what kind of shitty parents allow that? Obviously the kids had no fucking clue or conviction about abortion rights. If they were concerned about the ” unborn” being obstensively killed, their mood would have been somber and sad by the end of the day; Not even close to raucous. They were snotty little punks who didn’t give two shits about that, the thing they were sent there to protest.

@Scildfreja Unnyðnes

Thank you so much for the thoughtful post and recommendations, especially for the Warlord Games rules!

I read this in the morning and had wanted to reply all day but unfortunately I had my 1800mm (1/1 scale) figures to deal with — and though they are self-actuating figures they require a lot of attention. 🙂

I have to admit at first thought I *really* cringe at the notion of the same base rules for covering the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic period?! Do Frederick, Guibert and Gribeauval mean nothing to them? (!) 🙂 More seriously, of course, sure, I realize that many miniatures rules will have variations within the rules to cover fundamental changes across time. And, to be fair, the infantry weapon technology, at least, in 1815 isn’t much different than it was in 1715. And anyway the real changes in war are on the operational level, not the tactical level, one can certainly argue. But the tactics of the early and mid-eighteenth-century are significantly different enough from 1792 on that I’d want to tinker. Going all the way through the nineteenth century though with the same base rules seems a stretch. I mean tactics in the mid-century wars like the Austro-Prussian War and certainly the Franco-German war of 1870-71 are just too different, not to mention weapons. But my thoughts on that matter actually make it all the more interesting to take a look, so thanks again for the recommendation!

I have seen miniatures rules that model fog of war, and as you say troops not doing what you want. Rules that incorporate that can be modeling not just the effects of fog of war but the effects of friction (in the Clausewitz sense). The challenge of all wargame design is that we are trying to represent and distill down to something understandable one of the most (the most?) incomprehensible and uncontrollable human activity, armed combat. Still, no reason not to try.

As for the modern stuff, yeah, once you get into the mid-twentieth century and later (e.g. WWII and WWIII hypotheticals) you’re dealing with vehicles and weapons ranges that make it so that you’re forced to such a big ratio between ground scale and figure scale. Heck, with 1980s era WWIII games, is your artillery even going to be on the table? Ground scale would have to be huge for it to be. Whatever happened to Micro-armor scale, what was that, 1/285?

I looked at the stuff Warlord Games sells for bolt action, saw the AFV models and …the scale, 1/56 — well, sure that matches for 28 mm. But for an old traditionalist like me…huh?! I wanted to cringe again. You can’t make armor models in that scale! It’s not a traditional scale! Come on! Armor should be HO 1/87 or at 1/76 (which are kind of visually compatible). 🙂 Kidding, obviously…hey whatever is fun.

Is 1/56 visually compatible with 1/48? Or would that look funny?

When I was an undergraduate you could still get loads of polyethylene Airfix figures that worked out to about 25mm and matched oodles and ooldes of armor kits, and get them cheap. Hard to paint but, yeah, I actually primed and painted some polyethylene plastic figures.

You’re right that in large scale tactical actions, sure, smaller figures are better. 15mm Napoleonics were big when I was last into this. 10mm does make for even more space. What’s the figure-to-person ratio and ground scale in the game that’s going on in your photo? Amazing photo too….looks to be something in the U.S.-Mexican War perhaps?

Don’t suppose anybody does naval wargames? Buried deep in the closets here in Pavlov’s House are a few 1/1200 scale WWI and WWII era warships. Even some 1870s era ironclads!

We have a wargaming club at my institution, and one of my colleagues is really big into it and is the main faculty adviser of the club. I’m definitely going to do a bit more gaming in class when it fits into the lesson.

@Redsilkphoenix

Yes, that kind of origami instructions seems awesome! If you get the chance, yes, that would be great!