Category Archives: skulduggery

250. Broken Giants

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Thor

It is the fate of ene­mies and com­peti­tors to look ever more like each other. Carthage looked too much like Rome, impe­rial Britain too much like impe­rial Ger­many.  The United States now is a frac­tured and mil­i­ta­rized nation. In America’s … Con­tinue read­ing →

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244. Narcotic Attractions

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Thor

For the mug­gles its cig­a­rettes and booze. The wannabe urban cool-kats go for crys­tal, crack or smack with an entree of pot. On the down­ward age esca­la­tor from 30 to pear-shaped to hairy-wrin­kled, teem­ing masses of lazy human pro­to­plasm engage … Con­tinue read­ing →

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243. Who Minds the Minders?

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Thor

We have laws and police to dis­cour­age bur­glars, extor­tion­ists and mur­der­ers. That’s the low level stuff. Remem­ber that old idiom that laws are for the com­mand of fools and the guid­ance of wise men? Who han­dles the clever scoundrels? In … Con­tinue read­ing →

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241. Sell It!

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Thor

Over two thou­sand years ago, there was a philoso­pher, Laozi, who was sure that peo­ple were nat­u­rally good (some­one called Jesus Christ had the same idea). About the same time another char­ac­ter, Shâng Yâng, reck­oned they were nat­u­rally bad and … Con­tinue read­ing →

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234. The Corruptible Career and its Friends

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Thor

The bot­tom line in most orga­ni­za­tions is that if you don’t at least appear to be cor­rupt­ible, they don’t want to have you there. Hmm, that sounds extreme, doesn’t it? The HR euphemism is that you should “fit the com­pany … Con­tinue read­ing →

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230. Innocence Compromised – On Being an Adult (?)

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Thor

The short­est path to power for a scoundrel is to com­pro­mise either good peo­ple (hard to find) or almost good peo­ple (most of us). The wicket gate is left open a crack, one small short cut is taken, an inno­cent … Con­tinue read­ing →

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229. Crime’s Value Chain

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Thor

The per­sis­tent objec­tion of many Amer­i­cans to their black eth­nic minor­ity is prob­a­bly not at bot­tom the prob­lem that these folk are black. It is not even their per­ceived incli­na­tion to crim­i­nal­ity, which after all is a uni­ver­sal human trait. … Con­tinue read­ing →

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