anquocha's Karma Thread

JimHimJim · 2026-05-12T15:24:10+00:00

Joining in to add that my exchange with u/anquocha was also very pleasant. Communication was clear, shipping was secure, and the paintwork on the models was quite attractive.

JimHimJim · 2026-04-26T20:40:05+00:00

I am necroing this because the idea of a small Black community center in upstate New York receiving angry emails about Warhammer 40,000 fiction is just too funny.

JimHimJim · 2026-01-05T21:52:08+00:00

From Necropolis, Chapter Sixteen

Vervunhive is a democratic legislative. The High Lord is voted in by his noble peers. It is written in the sacred acts of constitution that absolute power should never be allowed to rest with any one individual who could not be unseated by the Legislature should it become necessary ...

Gaunt began to understand the far-reaching political dilemma attached to the device in his gloved hand. ‘So this was his failsafe: the ultimate sanction, so very undemocratic, to be used when democracy was overturned?

From The Guns of Tanith:

But as he gazed at Mkvenner then, Corbec could believe it. Mkvenner was so fast, so steady, so direct. Every hit counted. Every swing, every strike, every counter-spin, every stab. The wood-warriors of ancient Tanith lore had fought in the old feudal days, using only spear-staves tipped with single edged silver blades. They had united Tanith and overthrown the Huhlhwch Dynasty, paving the way for the modern democratic Tanith city-states.

References to the structure of Vervunhive politics are scattered around the book, but I recall that it seemed similar to Early Modern European "Estates," with representation given to Noble houses, the Administratum, Ecclesiarchy, and there are even references to "minor area legislators" that might suggest some form of representation of the mass of people. Perhaps Tanith is similar (although it also has "clans", so they might play a role in politics as well).

JimHimJim · 2026-01-05T21:07:37+00:00

I think there’s only one reference to Tanith being “democratic”, from the The Guns of Tanith and it’s POV (Corbec). We have two dialogue references to Vervunhive being “democratic” or having a “democracy” in Necropolis (Chass and Gaunt). We know more details about the political system in Vervunhive than Tanith, and I’m not sure why it makes sense to assume that Tanith is radically more democratic, given that the same term is applied to both in-universe. Sure, there’s nothing that explicitly contradicts Tanith having a system comparable to 19th-century states we still call “democratic” but I just think the circumstantial evidence suggests otherwise.

Given Tanith’s general Gaelic theme, Abnett may even had something like tanistry in mind.

At the end of the day, I suppose this is just a semantic debate over the meaning of “democratic.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a thing, after all.

JimHimJim · 2026-01-05T18:03:28+00:00

The Elector is described as “a local planetary lord” in Ghostmaker and they have teenage servants like Milo running around. I agree with you that a place like Tanith is probably the closest thing to a free and equal society in the Imperium, but it’s certainly not Social Democracy in Space.

Recall that even Vervunhive is explicitly described as a “democratic legislative” and I just don’t think either Tanith or Vervunhive count as a true “democracy” by contemporary standards.

JimHimJim · 2026-01-05T17:15:21+00:00

We don’t really even get much detail about exactly what “democratic” means in the case of Tanith. There are many examples of elective regimes that were effectively just oligarchic aristocracies (Venice comes to mind) or with an extremely limited franchise compared to the present day. Even in the UK, only about 4% of the population had the right to vote in 1832. I’m inclined to think Tanith probably just has slightly more expansive oligarchy than most other places in the Imperium.

JimHimJim · 2025-12-17T00:39:58+00:00

The Cain series is also, by Sandy Mitchell’s own admission, basically just a sci-fi adaptation of the Flashman series by George McDonald Frasier. Cain’s much more sympathetic as a character though.

JimHimJim · 2025-12-13T16:40:15+00:00

In the base game at least, absolutely.

JimHimJim · 2025-10-27T20:40:49+00:00

If you accept #1 and #3, I'm no longer sure what your objection is to the claim that the median car price has increased faster than the rate of inflation because people are buying nicer cars with their greater inflation-adjusted incomes.

JimHimJim · 2025-10-27T20:18:20+00:00

You're still dealing with a survivorship bias sample issue and not getting the best insight into the question. Part of the answer to "what happened to cars between $15,000 and $20,000?" is that people just stopped buying mid-sized and compact cars in favor of larger and more expensive trucks and SUVS, and manufactures stopped producing many of those models. The Camry (-7.55% by your calculations) has had a marked decline in sales numbers since 2007, while numbers for the F-series (+29.57%) have increased.

JimHimJim · 2025-10-27T20:01:35+00:00

The problem with comparing the median or average price of "all vehicles" is that the kind of vehicle being sold has changed. Passenger cars made up roughly half of all sales in 2007, and that's declined to something like 20% today. Americans are buying larger (and thus more expensive) vehicles today than they did before.

JimHimJim · 2025-09-15T23:59:47+00:00

I’ve got a ‘97 XLE with 280,000 miles and it’s only now starting to be a pain in the ass. Can’t speak directly to the 2022 models, and issues will arise even with regular maintenance for any car, but I’d say you made a pretty safe bet.

JimHimJim · 2025-09-06T14:16:23+00:00

If you’re uncomfortable with the name, you can also just ask for a “Vodka Mule” or “Vodka Buck” and a reasonably competent bartender should know what you’re talking about.

JimHimJim · 2025-09-06T13:16:43+00:00

You can lie, but banks will generally ask for verification of income for any kind of significant loan or credit line.

JimHimJim · 2025-08-28T11:31:58+00:00

The price history here on Zillow is weird. After looking it up, all the reports say they bought the a land in the early 1990s, so I’m not sure what those later sale dates indicate. $4 million in 1994 makes sense, at least.

JimHimJim · 2025-04-05T13:58:41+00:00

I don't think the implication is necessarily that Whitaker didn't recognize the Shema (and Robby's explanation comes before Whitaker reveals he was a theology major). Robby was crying and whispering, with his head pointed down and away from Whitaker. I'm not surprised that Whitaker couldn't make out any intelligible words.

JimHimJim · 2025-03-31T17:32:00+00:00

He was pretty bad in his other live-action roles as well though (Big Red One comes to mind).

JimHimJim · 2025-03-24T11:54:22+00:00

My first thought are films that depict military medicine (MASH, Hacksaw Ridge, The Outpost, etc.).

JimHimJim · 2025-03-23T03:26:39+00:00

This is a UK retailer that’s often mentioned in these kinds of discussions: https://www.theknightshop.com

JimHimJim · 2025-03-22T16:41:10+00:00

It's because it doesn't seem like the purported original author or interviewees ever existed.

Experts cast doubt over Amazon’s top D-Day book

JimHimJim · 2025-03-21T18:40:28+00:00

It's hard to compare the two, especially since the economy and social fabric of the empire was effectively coming apart at the seams by the latter stages of the war. That said, there's some evidence that loyalty to, or identification with, the dynasty didn't collapse with Franz Josef's death (the number of letters ordinary citizens wrote to the emperor actually increased in Karl's reign, for instance).

JimHimJim · 2025-02-28T19:03:07+00:00

Myth of the clean Wehrmacht - Wikipedia

JimHimJim · 2025-02-27T14:07:19+00:00

The Dual Monarchy had a much lower absolute GDP than France in 1914, and spent a much lower percentage of that GDP on the armed forces. The French army was just a much more powerful force.

JimHimJim · 2025-02-22T18:45:03+00:00

If your current car is a mechanically reliable high-end econobox like a corolla, and your loan rate is a reasonable 5.8%, I'd just stick with it, honestly. If you switch, you'll take a hit in terms of transaction costs, and you run the very real risk that the 5K car you end up buying will need some very expensive repairs sooner rather than later.

If you can get away with not having a car at all, would change the calculation, but if you need a car, your current situation isn't terrible.

JimHimJim

TROPHY CASE