Open Thread « Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Open Thread’

December 9, 2025 Open Thread: Got Any Good Book Recs?

Tuesday, December 9th, 2025

I spent the day mailing out books, and then finishing up and mailing out my latest catalog of SF/F/H first editions.

So I’m going to punt on today’s post and declare an Open Thread.

Since today was given over to books, feel free to share what good books you’ve been reading, or buying, or buying as gifts, in the comments below.

To fill some space and maybe rake in a spare shekel or two, here are some links to books on communist genocide.

Applebaum, Anne. Gulag : A History. Doubleday, 2003.
Becker, Jasper. Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine. The Free Press, 1997.
Conquest, Robert. The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. University of Alberta Press, 1986.
Conquest, Robert. Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps. Viking Press, 1978.
Conquest, Robert. The Nation Killers: The Soviet Deportation of Nationalities. Macmillan, 1970. (I have not read Conquest’s later Stalin: Breaker of Nations (Viking, 1991), but I believe that it incorporates additional material.)
Heller, Mikhail and Nekrich, Aleksandr. Utopia in Power The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present. Summit Books, 1986.
Rummell, R. J. Death by Government. Transaction Publishers, 1994.
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago (Volumes I-III). Harper & Row, 1973-1978.
Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Courtois, Stephane. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press, 1999.

Tags:Books, Communism, Open Thread
Posted in Communism, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Taking A Sick Day; Also, Salman Rushdie Stabbed

Friday, August 12th, 2022

I’ve come down with the first real cold I’ve had in two years, and the 90 minute recall work on my car took 3.5 hours, so I’m tried and pissed off, Maybe a LinkSwarm tomorrow, assuming I’m feeling better.

Meanwhile: Open thread.

Also, writer Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck today at an event in The Chautauqua Institution in southwest New York state, near Lake Eire and the Pennsylvania line. As of this writing, Rushdie is evidently still alive and in surgery.

“The current Supreme Leader [of the Islamic Republic of Iran] repeated and reaffirmed the original fatwa as recently as 2019.”

And these are the people the Biden Administration is desperate to do a deal with…

Tags:fatwa, Iran, Jihad, New York, Open Thread, Salman Rushdie, The Chautauqua Institution
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Pre-Halloween Weekend Open Thread

Friday, October 29th, 2021

I have to run around a bunch this morning, so I think it’s going to end up being another Saturday LinkSwarm.

I won’t say that Halloween has snuck up on me this year, but I haven’t done as much Halloween-themed stuff as I would like this year. I did buy these “flickering flame” bulbs for my outdoor lights. They seem to work fine.

You can find all my Halloween posts on my non-political blog here.

Anyone doing anything interesting for Halloween this year?

Tags:Administrative, Halloween, Open Thread
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Happy Independence Day!

Sunday, July 4th, 2021

I hope you’re enjoying America’s 245th Birthday today. In celebration, enjoy some vaguely-related videos. Here are some fireworks fails, complete with lots of cussing:

Speaking of profanity, here’s “America Fuck Yeah” from Team America: World Police.

(This version is funnier, but not embedable.)

And here’s “America” from West Side Story:

(Did you know that Stephen Spielberg has a remake due out this year? I don’t think that’s a good idea…)

Also, open thread. Talk amongst yourselves, and feel free to share stories of America’s greatness.

Tags:Independence Day, July 4, Open Thread, Team America: World Police, video, West Side Story
Posted in Uncategorized, video | No Comments »

Biden Still Bidening (Open Thread)

Tuesday, November 24th, 2020

I spent all day putting together a new book catalog, so you’re getting a lazy blogging day today. Here’s a video of Joe Biden doing what Joe Biden does best: looking confused while stumbling over his own words: