Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2021 i SkillSet

Ah, summer—my favorite time of the year! The birds are chirping, the BBQs are burning, and somewhere inside the USA, angry people are probably rioting in the streets. If you watch the news, you will see a completely divided America. White people are evil, Black people and Asian American people hate each other, and if you aren’t vaccinated, you are this nation’s biggest problem. But is that really the case? Is our country at the brink of a civil war? Well, if you ask anyone who doesn’t watch mainstream news (regardless of color), the overwhelming answer is no. We are in an age when positive news equals bankruptcy. Mainstream media needs controversy to boost ratings. These ratings equal more views, which in turn can be sold to advertisers for ungodly…

Well, it sure is a jungle out there. For many single working guys, it’s a real chore to carve out time to meet potential romantic partners, and it can even assume the commitment of a second job for some. Sure, if you are Tom Cruise, it is easy to pick up a lady, but for us working stiffs, it can often be a grind. Ever see a hot chick with some jerk and think, “Man, what is the deal with that? Why isn’t that me? I mean, come on. That dude has a man bun—what the freak is she thinking?” All right—all kidding aside, it’s not your fault. There is no “How to Pick Up Hot Girls” boot camp. Well, you are in luck, Rico Suave! Skillset has assembled a…

“A PRETTY FACE AND SEXY BODY COULD GO A LONG WAY” The ninjas of medieval Japan were legendary for their stealth, trickery and dealing out death to those targeted for assassination. However, their female counterparts, the kunoichi, exhibited the same prowess when it came to killing, but they had the added skill of seducing their enemies with their stunning beauty and sexual prowess. These women, who did not wear typical ninja garb, were often overlooked and trusted by powerful members of the samurai and ruling classes. Once the kunoichi infiltrated their enemies’ inner circles, these seductive ninjas posed as maids, stage performers or servants, and they extracted important military information and overheard enemies’ secrets. And finally, when it was time, they could snuff out the lives of their targets. The…

Yuri was surprised when his friend Aleksandr, whom he hadn’t seen in three years, appeared at his doorstep in Estonia. Yuri and Aleksandr were once as close as brothers when they were activists against the oppressive regime of their home country, Russia. When it seemed inevitable that their efforts to instill a democratic voice in their country’s government were for naught, Yuri made his way to Estonia to continue the democratic fight while Aleksandr stayed behind. Aleksandr was somewhat of an authority on waterways infrastructure and had a status that allowed him to travel and even conduct business with Western countries. Yuri was impressed by how his friend had managed not to run afoul of the oppressive government, and Aleksandr told him that, in fact, there was a large yet…

Equipped with the power of the internet, modern-day agitators and anarchists create false flag operations and fake news like this: 1. They create a website or Facebook page with a name, imagery, videos and messages similar to that of the adversarial political, social or religious group to be targeted. (Consumers will think that the fraudulent website or Facebook page represents the same cause as any other website that matches the ideals of the targeted group.); 2. They run ads and deploy bots to gain followers and mass appeal; 3. They co-opt the hashtags used by the targeted group; 4. They start making outrageous and incendiary online claims supported by fake news and extremist language and hashtags; 5. They sit back and watch the legitimate targeted group start losing influence and…

Back in the mid-2000s, the terrorist group al-Qaida decided to publish an online magazine to spread training tips and anti-Western propaganda. While the CIA laid low (because it was a good source of intel), England’s MI6 had to go into troll mode. They hacked into their pipe bomb-making section and replaced their instructions with a cupcake recipe from The Ellen DeGeneres Show. We suggest they hack into their playlist and insert a Cardi B song and then demand their immediate surrender!…

The original plot for the American comedy Anchorman was about a group of news anchors trying to escape a mountaintop plane crash while fleeing from a bunch of orangutans armed with Chinese throwing stars. Yes, you read that right. Unfortunately, the studios didn’t like that concept and settled for the more believable story we are familiar with today. I mean, what news team doesn’t get into back-alley gang fights and stab people with tridents? Boy, that escalated quickly!…

Back in the early 1800s, getting a case of mud-butt was a part of everyday life. I mean, come on, there was no USDA back then, so who knew you had to cook chicken? Anyway, to help soothe everyone’s dookie-chute, a man named Dr. John Cook Bennett convinced Americans that to stop excessive and runny traffic on the “Hershey highway,” you needed to ingest ketchup. That’s right, he even made everyone’s favorite red sauce into a pill form. It wasn’t until decades later that someone actually did a real clinical test and found out that the ketchup claims were total bullshit. Bennett, however, had already made tons of money, and he just disappeared into the night. Ketchup—good for burgers, bad for your butthole.…

When President Trump created the U.S. Space Force, it was validation for all the tin-foil-hat-wearing patriots out there who believe that we’re not alone in this universe. Face it, we all know that extraterrestrials are here. Hell, they probably even voted in the last election. Sightings are certainly nothing new, going all the way back to 1947 in the dark skies over the New Mexico desert. With so much heavily documented extraterrestrial activity in the late 1940s, the 1980s and right up through now, aliens ARE here, and we are not talking about President Biden’s friends from south of the border. That said, words (and futuristic laser beams) can hurt, so become comfortable with the following terms when you greet our new friends: OLD: aliens NEW: EBE (extraterrestrial biological entity)…

There is much more that goes into a rodeo than simply opening the gate and letting the bull and rider out. Bullfighters (formerly known as rodeo clowns) play a major role in keeping cowboys and cowgirls safe and entertaining fans as well. Dusty Tuckness, 34, is one of the biggest names in bullfighting, and he worked the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Arlington, Texas, in December of 2020. Originally from Meeteetse, Wyoming, he now lives in Oklahoma and works as a CrossFit coach and personal trainer when not dodging bulls and broncs. He spoke with Skillset about what it is like to be such an up-close part of the rodeo action. Q: WHAT IS LIFE LIKE AS A RODEO BULLFIGHTER? A: Awesome! It’s hard to explain the lifestyle we’re blessed…

The kunoichi were master manipulators. They had a skill not normally associated with trained assassins: the art of conversation. These deadly women, when in “non-threatening mode,” were often able to slide into discussions that military leaders and warlords were having about battle tactics and future actions against their enemies. The kunoichi used both flirtatious mannerisms and disguised innocence to entice these men to speak more about their plans. Once useful information was acquired, these women would send it back to their organizations’ top officials to gain advantages over their enemies.…

People always ask me what is the big attraction to legacy AK-47s. Well, besides being collectable firearms that will always increase in value (for example, they don’t make East German AKs anymore, so these are becoming extremely hard to find), I believe there is a hidden story behind each one of these rifles, and that tale is often told in its trench art. Like the U.S. armed forces, you won’t find a lot of carvings in the furniture of Russian rifles. Our militaries don’t allow such treatment of their issued firearms. But if you look at most of the AKs used by soldiers in Africa, Afghanistan and Bosnia, you will see these warriors’ legacies carved into pieces of rotting wood. As an avid Kalashnikov collector, I have come across some…

James Fixx, the man who wrote The Complete Book of Running, was world renowned for getting tens of thousands of people to take up jogging. For years, he preached about the benefits of running and how it was the number-one cure for obesity, depression, heart disease and other common health problems. Ironically, at age 52, his body was found on the side of the road after he had suffered a massive heart attack during a morning jog. Who’s up for a bike ride instead?…

A recent study from Harvard University finds that being a social recluse is just as deadly as smoking. It seems that social isolation and having zero friends causes loneliness, which in turn raises the level of blood-clotting proteins, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. In related news, a Skillset magazine study found that having liberal friends who constantly preach about social-justice issues can also be more dangerous than smoking—not to you, but to them if they won’t shut up.…

WHAT DO YOU DREAM OF WHEN YOU ARE TRAPPED IN THE THROES OF YET ANOTHER BLIZZARD AND YOU CAN’T FATHOM ANOTHER WALK OUT TO THE OLD SHITBOX TO SCRAPE THE ICE OFF THE DAMN WINDOWS? GRILLING BY THE DAMN POOL, OF COURSE, WITH YOUR CHICK IN A BIKINI (OR DUDE, IF THAT’S YOUR THING) SAUNTERING AROUND, BRINGING YOU ICE-COLD BEER AS YOU TEND TO THE GRILL. AND, OF COURSE, ON THE GRILL MUST BE THE QUINTESSENTIAL “KING OF ALL THINGS GRILLED”—THE ALMIGHTY HAMBURGER! This is usually the place where I like to give a brief history of the crap I write about, but the history of the hamburger is quite convoluted, with as many as 10 people claiming that they invented the hamburger in the late 1800s. Therefore, let’s just…

FEW WOULD DOUBT OUR SOCIETY’S SHIFT AWAY FROM ITS EARLIER, MORE PURITANICAL AND REPRESSIVE LEANINGS TO A MORE OPEN AND ACCEPTING STANCE HAS MADE LIFE MORE TOLERABLE FOR MANY. HOWEVER, IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A CULTURE TO BE TOO ACCEPTING AND TOO TOLERANT OF ABERRANT BEHAVIORS? HAVE AMERICA AND OTHER LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES GONE TOO FAR DOWN THE PATH OF PUBLICLY ACCEPTING EVERYONE’S QUIRKS, KINKS AND HALF-COCKED IDEOLOGIES? IS IT PERMISSIBLE TO ASK IF SHAMING SOMEBODY FOR THEIR ACTIONS OR DESIRES IS EVER ACCEPTABLE OR HEALTHY? AND IF THE ANSWER IS YES, THEN WHAT IS THE BENEFIT TO SOCIETY OF DOING SO? The definition of “shame” is “a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.” A comparatively complex emotion, it seems that shame…

Yes, there are ninja swords and throwing stars available for sale; that’s nothing new. But did you know that a version of the kunoichi’s finger claws are also available for sale for women? It’s true, and these are available through goguarded.com. These finger rings replace the leather and metal from centuries ago with durable plastic and rubber. Unlike the kunoichi, who used these to kill, the Go Guarded RING is for self-defense against anyone who tries to harm the wearer. Just slip this incredible weapon onto your finger, and if physical conflict occurs, jab the sharp tip into the attacker’s vital areas to hopefully deter his attack and send him running from the wearer’s catlike defense.…

The year is 2029, and U.S. President Hugh “Hudson” Kelly is like a man possessed, according to his advisors on an uneasy, late-Saturday night at the White House. The President, only shortly into his first term, is mad. His recent summit with the North Korean general Mr. Harin, who took power after overthrowing the previous dictator, was supposed to begin an era of peace. Instead, at the summit and in front of cameras, President Kelly’s now-adversary vowed no change was forthcoming in U.S.-North Korean relations, complained vociferously about the West and referred to the United States’ commander in chief as “pudgy.” North Korean strongman Harin further inflamed the situation when he tried—in an act of rudeness and poor humor—to rub the American president’s belly as stunned diplomats and the world…

I’ll also bet that at some point, you purchased a smart device from Amazon or Google. (If you bought the Apple one, you must be extra proud of how your Prius is saving the world.) You probably slapped that smart device on the same network that you use to play videogames, to check your bank account, to watch Garand Thumb and to do certain “special activities” on too. You have also heard the talk about how the device is pretty much a wiretap, so you bought a VPN subscription from an ad on your favorite podcast to solve the problem. “No way Jeff Bezos is spyin’ on me,” you say. So, anyway, let’s cut to the chase: They are spying on you. Your VPN subscription may make you feel better,…