Osborne Ink

Share this post

Ink Droppings

www.osborneink.com

Discover more from Osborne Ink

My website. Who knows what will become of it.
Continue reading
Sign in

Ink Droppings

Jun 28, 2023
1
Share this post

Ink Droppings

www.osborneink.com
Share

Due to various obligations, I did not get a digest post out last week. This one will cover the previosu two weeks. I am hosting another Twitter space tonight. A normal pace of publishing should be visible here in a couple of weeks.

On Saturday, 17 June, I dove into the historiography of the last battles of World War I to see what lessons can be gleaned for understanding the state of battle in Ukraine.

Polemology Positions
Comparing the Hundred Days Campaign of 1918 to the Ukrainian Counteroffensive
This post will be paywalled for two weeks. Academic historiography is not free. “The Germans may have lost the war by July, but the Allies had certainly not won it and there was much still to do, as the staggering toll of losses reveals all too clearly,” Nick Lloyd writes in his 2014 history…
Read more
3 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Osborne

On Tuesday 20 June I wrote about the bourgeoning phenomenon of detransitioner lawsuits that was both predictable as well as predicted.

The Distance
Gender Docket: Tracking Lawsuits Against Medical Transition In US Courts
Last week, Layla Jane aka Kayla Lovdahl became the second American to seek legal redress for a pediatric gender transition. Jane “is seeking justice against the Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, and the clinicians who facilitated her transition from age 12 to 17,” Christina Buttons…
Read more
3 months ago · 42 likes · Matt Osborne

The next day, Wednesday 21 June, I wrote about the cross-contamination of a cover-up.

Osborne Ink
Xi Who Smelt it, Dealt It: How America Caught A Chinese Communist Cover-Up Fever
Ben Hu, a scientist working at the Wuhan laboratory, was “patient zero” in the global Covid pandemic. Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag confirmed the story with US government officials last week after years of rumor and speculation…
Read more
3 months ago · 1 like · Matt Osborne

I also reposted this article from last year.

Polemology Positions
Infinite Voyage of the Navigational Mind
Reposted from 10 June 2022, when I had 127 subscribers. Now going behind the paywall. In “Around Cape Horn,” a video produced by Mystic Seaport in 1980, Captain Irving Johnson narrates film footage from his first voyage on board the SS Peking, a four-masted, steel-hulled barque, during 1929. The largest ship in the world of its kind at that time, the…
Read more
3 months ago · 2 likes · Matt Osborne

That night, I had a Twitter space for the inaugural Gender Critical Story Hour. I published the audio clip from the space at The Distance the next morning.

The Distance
Gender Critical Story Hour
Listen now (55 min) | During my weekly Twitter space last night, I read the book Many Moons by James Thurbur as an example of how to push back against drag queens in libraries and schoolhouse indoctrination with tales of embodiment and growth. Published in 1943, this classic children’s story is richly illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It tells the story of a king, his beloved …
Listen now
3 months ago · 12 likes · 2 comments · Matt Osborne

Then on Saturday, 24 June, the Wagner mutiny distracted me from thesis work.

Polemology Positions
A Civil War In Russia Would Not Be A Complete Victory For Ukraine
In remarks made this morning, Vladimir Putin did not use Yevgeny Prigozhin’s name, but he was unambiguous in denouncing the Wagner PMC leader’s day-old mutiny. Invoking history and the need for unity against Ukraine, Putin vowed retribution. “Exorbitant ambitions and personal interests have led to treason,” he said, warning that “our actions to protect …
Read more
3 months ago · 12 likes · 5 comments · Matt Osborne

Things were still happening fast the next day.

Polemology Positions
Lukashenko Grows At Putin's Expense, Again
Mercenary prince Yevgeny Prigozhin has resettled in Belarus. His shocking thunder run to Moscow ended abruptly yesterday after strongman Alexander Lukashenko brokered an agreement between Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin is supposed to give up control of Wagner while Putin removes the generals responsible for mucking up the Russian military. Whet…
Read more
3 months ago · 9 likes · 1 comment · Matt Osborne

It was a busy Sunday, as I had planned for this post to come out.

The Distance
'Pride' Has Become An Elitist Civic Religion That 'Queers' Core American Values
Today officially marks the 1st Day of Summer. All summer long we will be celebrating the “Summer of Pride.” I see it as an opportunity for change in our communities, states&nation. It will take us all, but together we can create a wave of change. Let the “Summer of Pride” begin…
Read more
3 months ago · 91 likes · 17 comments · Matt Osborne

Today, I had scheduled a book review.

Polemology Positions
The Mindfulness Of The Natural Fighter
“Violence is natural,” Matt Thornton writes in The Gift of Violence: Practical Knowledge for Surviving and Thriving in a Dangerous World. “In fact, violence is an essential part of our nature. We wouldn’t be here without it.” Rather than a book about fighting techniques, the founder of the Straight Blast Gym and founding father of modern fighting sports has written “a training book, even if the lessons I offer are more for the mind than the body.” The reader will not become an MMA or UFC competitor this way, however. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu cannot be learned from a book. Instead, Thornton has written his book “to make good people more dangerous to bad people” through a more constructive relationship to violence…
Read more
3 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Osborne

I also wrote about fundraising emails, and what has happened to American radical organizing.

The Distance
Guess What The 'Working Families Party' Does For Working Families During Pride Month
“As we celebrate Pride Month, it is crucial that we remember our history,” the Working Famlies Party says in a recent fundraising email. Founded as an openly left wing political party in 1998, the WFP has a “fusion voting” strategy to endorse Democratic or Republican candidates who adopt their agenda of better wages, health care, and progressive taxatio…
Read more
3 months ago · Matt Osborne

Don’t forget about the Twitter space tonight. Donovan Cleckley and I will be reading Shel Silverstein.

Osborne Ink is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

1
Share this post

Ink Droppings

www.osborneink.com
Share
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Matt Osborne
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing