Army Ordnance is the think tank to end all think tanks. They have spent the last century ignoring what really happens on the battlefield and concentrating on one mission;
How do we beat those nasty Marines at Camp Perry every year?
This is why we went to war in Vietnam with the M14 (which sucked at everything except the known-distance range at Perry), and Ordnance did everything they could to f**k up the Armalite AR-15.
(It won anyway thanks to a sound if eclectic design and the Herculean efforts of Armalite’s engineers to undo the Ordnance boys’ deliberate sabotage during the trials. See Osprey Weapon Book 14; The M16 by Gordon L. Rottman for the whole disgraceful story.)
Think tanks exist to perpetuate themselves. If anyone dares to have an original thought, they will hunt it down and slay it without mercy.
A Think Tank is much like a committee. The IQ of a committee is the average individual IQ of the members divided by the number of members.
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.”
Dave Barry
Underarmored vehicles with ATGWs and supposedly tank-killing 25mm autocannon.
Instead of doing their job and getting the infantry to where they dismount and get down to cases, all too many IFV COs .
want to race around the battlefield playing Rommel, trying to bushwhack enemy MBTs, often in entire troops of same.
With the PBIs getting bounced off sharp corners in back having no idea WTF is going on and no chance of getting out when the inevitable happens and some tank CO on the other side decides to swat the annoying Guderian-wannabee like a bug. Usually with 125mm HEDP.
You don’t need APFSDS to blow away a Bradley.
clear ether
eon
April 7, 2026 at 3:52 am
oldfarmer
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace, that two become a law firm, and that three or more become a congress” John Adams, 1776 musical,
Which is why the Large Language Models of Artificial Intelligence have proven to be such a disappointment. They are merely an agglomeration of mutual disinformation shared within society with no actual filter for what is based on the Real World, much like society in general and not the individual.
In effect LLM AI _is_ a committee. And as Thomas Sowell pointed out committees and bureaucracies exist to perpetuate themselves, not solve problems.
There are think tanks, which are bad enough, and then there are DC think tanks. The first usually begin with good intentions and degrade from there. The DC type are pure evil from the onset.
Wow! As I read these comments today my mind drifted off and was asking “which one of Eon’s Laws apply here?”. I perused them and said, sh*t, they all kind of fit. So here you are once again- Eons Laws:
First Law
Human beings choose to follow belief systems, religious, political, or otherwise, which sanctify the sort of actions they would do anyway. The belief system just lets them feel self-righteous about what they want to do to others.
Second Law
If someone repeatedly and constantly tells you that he wants to kill you, you owe him the courtesy of assuming he really means it and responding appropriately.
Third Law
Hunter S. Thompson once observed that “entire empires have been done in by vengeful freaks claiming a special relationship with God”.
He forgot the even greater number of polities destroyed by even more vengeful freaks who believed that they, themselves, were God.
Fourth Law
When anyone in government uses the phrase “For The Greater Good”, a smart man or woman quietly slides out through the nearest back exit. With one hand on their wallet, and the other on their sidearm.
(NB: See Chapter 1 of Methuselah’s Children by Heinlein for where I got this one from.)
Fifth Law
Any social system that relies solely on the “better nature” of the rulers to protect the ruled from the rulers, isn’t worth having.
Sixth Law
Never assume a politician will act against what he perceives as his personal best interests. And never, ever assume that he is being truthful when he acts in a way contrary to his philosophy and track record.
You will spend your life being surprised and disappointed.
Seventh Law
There are two kinds of people who censor. Those who don’t want to face the facts and those who don’t want anyone else to know what the facts really are. Both are dangerous, just in slightly different ways.
Eighth Law
“Race” is not destiny. Culture absolutely is. Religion and politics are just a part of culture. Culture is the “operating system” of a civilization. Like any OS, it’s a case of GIGO; Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Ninth Law
Just because something is stupid or illogical won’t stop people from believing in it. Especially if they think they can get something out of it, like money or power.
Tenth Law
On average, about one out of twenty people likes hurting other people just for its own sake. Also on average, about half of that five percent become professional criminals. The other half become professional politicians.
Eleventh Law
Anyone who demands “social justice” has no interest in either “society” or “justice”. All they really want is power they can use to abuse everyone they don’t like.
Twelfth Law
There is no racist worse than one who believes himself to be “tainted” by that which he despises.
Thirteenth Law
Remember the Engineer’s Creed; When the real-world data doesn’t agree with the theory, believe the data and come up with a new theory. This is true of anything but is particularly applicable to science and politics.
Fourteenth Law
The Berlin Wall Theory; Only tyrants need to build walls and employ armed thugs to keep their subjects from fleeing.
Fifteenth Law
Politicians should never seek to grant government powers they wouldn’t want their political opponents to have. Because barring a one-party dictatorship, sooner or later those opponents will be in charge.
That’s a list that’s going on my fridge too! Thanks Eon, and to Duckhunter for re-posting it. When reading Eon’s Fifth and Sixth Laws I’m reminded of a quote from Milton Friedman: “The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things,”
With computers it’s now possible for committees to output their shenanigans in record time. And with copy-and-paste accuracy too!
April 7, 2026 at 6:04 pm
Kafiroon
So the HR commitee said we need to hire some disadvantaged/physically impaired people. You will have one or two with you starting Monday.
I politically correctly replied, Are y’all freaking insane? I am on an active airfield working with more killing power than an electric chair! Needless to say the conversation went downhill from there. Then the head electritian basically asked them the same question.
For any of those politically correct social justice programs, the people who propose them should lead by hiring the people who they are supposedly trying to help first
I know of a gun control group that learned the hard way the downsides of hiring an office-full of the same sort of kvetchers and social malcontents as the leaders were. Their pool of Glassdoor employee reviews of their bosses was like walking through battery acid.
23 Comments
Think tank, another way of saying,
“This is the box. You do not think outside it.”
Army Ordnance is the think tank to end all think tanks. They have spent the last century ignoring what really happens on the battlefield and concentrating on one mission;
How do we beat those nasty Marines at Camp Perry every year?
This is why we went to war in Vietnam with the M14 (which sucked at everything except the known-distance range at Perry), and Ordnance did everything they could to f**k up the Armalite AR-15.
(It won anyway thanks to a sound if eclectic design and the Herculean efforts of Armalite’s engineers to undo the Ordnance boys’ deliberate sabotage during the trials. See Osprey Weapon Book 14; The M16 by Gordon L. Rottman for the whole disgraceful story.)
Think tanks exist to perpetuate themselves. If anyone dares to have an original thought, they will hunt it down and slay it without mercy.
clear ether
eon
A Think Tank is much like a committee. The IQ of a committee is the average individual IQ of the members divided by the number of members.
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.”
Dave Barry
Think tanks = Grant$$$$
A committee is an organism with six or more legs and no brain. (Approximately quoted from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long.)
See Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) and Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV) for further examples.
“Recon in a Winnebago”
Underarmored vehicles with ATGWs and supposedly tank-killing 25mm autocannon.
Instead of doing their job and getting the infantry to where they dismount and get down to cases, all too many IFV COs .
want to race around the battlefield playing Rommel, trying to bushwhack enemy MBTs, often in entire troops of same.
With the PBIs getting bounced off sharp corners in back having no idea WTF is going on and no chance of getting out when the inevitable happens and some tank CO on the other side decides to swat the annoying Guderian-wannabee like a bug. Usually with 125mm HEDP.
You don’t need APFSDS to blow away a Bradley.
clear ether
eon
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace, that two become a law firm, and that three or more become a congress” John Adams, 1776 musical,
Which is why the Large Language Models of Artificial Intelligence have proven to be such a disappointment. They are merely an agglomeration of mutual disinformation shared within society with no actual filter for what is based on the Real World, much like society in general and not the individual.
In effect LLM AI _is_ a committee. And as Thomas Sowell pointed out committees and bureaucracies exist to perpetuate themselves, not solve problems.
There are think tanks, which are bad enough, and then there are DC think tanks. The first usually begin with good intentions and degrade from there. The DC type are pure evil from the onset.
Great insight in the comments, today! Obviously not done by committee.
Wow! As I read these comments today my mind drifted off and was asking “which one of Eon’s Laws apply here?”. I perused them and said, sh*t, they all kind of fit. So here you are once again- Eons Laws:
First Law
Human beings choose to follow belief systems, religious, political, or otherwise, which sanctify the sort of actions they would do anyway. The belief system just lets them feel self-righteous about what they want to do to others.
Second Law
If someone repeatedly and constantly tells you that he wants to kill you, you owe him the courtesy of assuming he really means it and responding appropriately.
Third Law
Hunter S. Thompson once observed that “entire empires have been done in by vengeful freaks claiming a special relationship with God”.
He forgot the even greater number of polities destroyed by even more vengeful freaks who believed that they, themselves, were God.
Fourth Law
When anyone in government uses the phrase “For The Greater Good”, a smart man or woman quietly slides out through the nearest back exit. With one hand on their wallet, and the other on their sidearm.
(NB: See Chapter 1 of Methuselah’s Children by Heinlein for where I got this one from.)
Fifth Law
Any social system that relies solely on the “better nature” of the rulers to protect the ruled from the rulers, isn’t worth having.
Sixth Law
Never assume a politician will act against what he perceives as his personal best interests. And never, ever assume that he is being truthful when he acts in a way contrary to his philosophy and track record.
You will spend your life being surprised and disappointed.
Seventh Law
There are two kinds of people who censor. Those who don’t want to face the facts and those who don’t want anyone else to know what the facts really are. Both are dangerous, just in slightly different ways.
Eighth Law
“Race” is not destiny. Culture absolutely is. Religion and politics are just a part of culture. Culture is the “operating system” of a civilization. Like any OS, it’s a case of GIGO; Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Ninth Law
Just because something is stupid or illogical won’t stop people from believing in it. Especially if they think they can get something out of it, like money or power.
Tenth Law
On average, about one out of twenty people likes hurting other people just for its own sake. Also on average, about half of that five percent become professional criminals. The other half become professional politicians.
Eleventh Law
Anyone who demands “social justice” has no interest in either “society” or “justice”. All they really want is power they can use to abuse everyone they don’t like.
Twelfth Law
There is no racist worse than one who believes himself to be “tainted” by that which he despises.
Thirteenth Law
Remember the Engineer’s Creed; When the real-world data doesn’t agree with the theory, believe the data and come up with a new theory. This is true of anything but is particularly applicable to science and politics.
Fourteenth Law
The Berlin Wall Theory; Only tyrants need to build walls and employ armed thugs to keep their subjects from fleeing.
Fifteenth Law
Politicians should never seek to grant government powers they wouldn’t want their political opponents to have. Because barring a one-party dictatorship, sooner or later those opponents will be in charge.
I am humbled.
Thank you.
sincerely
eon
Thank You Both!
Copied and Saved and printed and hanging on the fridge
What Kafiroon said, with ‘!!!;
That’s a list that’s going on my fridge too! Thanks Eon, and to Duckhunter for re-posting it. When reading Eon’s Fifth and Sixth Laws I’m reminded of a quote from Milton Friedman: “The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things,”
“Much learning does not teach understanding.”
― Heraclitus (c. 475 BCE)
“To err is human, to really fuck things up requires a commttee”
–every non-management worker ever
And now that modern committees
also have computers, the output
of their shenanigans is practically
uncorrectable.
With computers it’s now possible for committees to output their shenanigans in record time. And with copy-and-paste accuracy too!
So the HR commitee said we need to hire some disadvantaged/physically impaired people. You will have one or two with you starting Monday.
I politically correctly replied, Are y’all freaking insane? I am on an active airfield working with more killing power than an electric chair! Needless to say the conversation went downhill from there. Then the head electritian basically asked them the same question.
I’ve Got to stop typing with two fingers and use one at a time. Dangit!
For any of those politically correct social justice programs, the people who propose them should lead by hiring the people who they are supposedly trying to help first
I know of a gun control group that learned the hard way the downsides of hiring an office-full of the same sort of kvetchers and social malcontents as the leaders were. Their pool of Glassdoor employee reviews of their bosses was like walking through battery acid.
These aren’t the same level as Eon’s Laws but still on point. The Second Law is the most frequently cited but the others are solidly on point too.
British/American Historian Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics
First Law: “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.”
Second Law: “Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.”
Third Law: “The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”