Thursday, April 30, 2015

Japanese Views

Yes, well, the Japanese view of World War II can be a bit problematic. There's regular controversies about the Japanese PM visiting shrines paying homage to Japanese war dead, a general refusal to apologize for the war (irrelevant in my view) and a sense that your average Japanese doesn't view his nation's role in the war as evil, just that Japan lost.

Personally, the war is over. The Japanese have no need to apologize. The current generation didn't brutalize all those Americans, did it? Besides, the Japanese army was defeated, the navy annihilated, half its urban area burned up, and that's before the A-bomb. As far as the Japanese are concerned I can say that I have my pound of flesh.

This is kind of nice though:

The Japanese people were wonderful. They were very kind, they were very hospitable, no question about it. They treated us beautifully ... And there's no reason why they shouldn't. We didn't do anything wrong (in the war).

One of the things I take great pride in as an American is the ability of our two nations to bury the hatchet, so to speak. Thirty, forty years ago there was a lot of Japan bashing in America, over the war of course, but also their domination of certain markets long considered to be rightfully American, cars, electronics, etc. They really did rub out faces in it. But, hey, they were making better TV's and better cars. Period.

That's all over with, really. Today the United States and Japan are allies, and not just allies, friends. P.J. O'Rourke once described a scene on Iwo Jima where American Marines and Japanese soldiers salute each other's flags at reveille.  It is almost as if there is a bond now between our two nations a bond made in the Great Pacific War.

When Japan was hit by an earthquake and tsunami there was no American gloating, something that would have occurred in say, 1985.  There was just American help, from the navy, from the Red Cross, from average Americans. My daughter's school made Japanese cranes as part of a charitable effort. I explained to my oldest that America and Japan used to be enemies but now we're friends.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Jacket Required

Well this is infuriating:

The Cleveland Teachers Union is strenuously objecting to the implementation of a basic dress code and other changes at 23 failing public schools.

I admit, of late I've let my classroom appearance go. Last few days I've warn jeans and a polo-shirt, BUT, I have an excuse. I've had a horrible attack of gout and its hard enough dragging myself to class, I don't need to worry about looking too good.

That said, normally I wear a jacket and tie, sometimes a suit, though I've backed off from these in recent years. Jacket and tie, very preppy, very professorial. Honestly, you can get away with a lot when you're dressed nice.

The campus at RVCC is becoming a nightmare of geezer balding boomer professors obsessed with denim, and up and coming hipsters who probably don't know how to tie a necktie. One guy who teaches in a classroom right before me usually wears stained pants, a sweatshirt and a baseball cap. maybe he's shaved this week, maybe he hasn't. There's another in the science department who looks like he just got back from an Occupy rally, ratty dreds and all.

This old article sums up my thoughts exactly, and more than any other reason is why I put effort into wearing a jacket and tie.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

What if....we never invaded Iraq

Well Rand Paul said something interesting via Hot Air:

All the way back to the Iraq War, I think it was a mistake to topple [Saddam] Hussein. Hussein was the bulwark against Iran. The Sunnis didn’t like the Shiites, now Iraq is a vassal state for Iran,” Mr. Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky senator, said. “I’m worried [Iran] is twice as strong as it was before the Iraq War.…

An interesting mental exercise.

So lets imagine. In 2003 we don't invade Iraq. Saddam remains in power. Instead of Iran infiltrating Iraq and bringing the country into its' sphere, Iraq remains a bulwark against Iran. One of the worries the Bush administration (the first one) had during Desert Storm was that the war would weaken Saddam so much he wouldn't be able to resist Iran.

That's one scenario.

Another is that Saddam remains in power and Iraq is eventually torn apart by the Shia-Sunni split which is raging across the Middle East. Of course, had there been an Iranian backed Shia revolt in Iraq, there is little reason to think the Iraqi army wouldn't have crushed it. After all, it did just that against the Kurds and Shia in 1991, and that's after being pummeled by Coalition forces.

If Saddam could have crushed the revolt early, well things would have shaken out much like they did in 1991, with Saddam maintaining his grip on power. If not Iraq would look much like Syria today.

So, is Rand Paul right?

Monday, April 27, 2015

The Millenial Problem (2)

This article by one Elizabeth Bentivegna is interesting. Nut graph, as they used to say at the CSJ, Miss Bentivegna went to a job interview dressed like she was 'clubbbing' and is outraged that she did not get the job for that very reason.

Two points. First the sense of entitlement and outrage is breathtaking. Second, what I find far more interesting is Ms. Bentivegna's inability to dress properly for a job interview.

People need to be taught things, carefully, as Rogers and Hammerstein might say. So, I'm betting that no one ever told Ms. Bentivegna how to properly dress for a job interview. So the debacle is not really her fault.

We must learn these things.

Twenty one years ago I had a job where I got fired for badmouthing the boss. Obvious, right? Well I learned this one the hard way, didn't I? A lesson I have never forgotten.

My then fiancé once got turned down for a job because I drove her to the interview and hung out in the lobby. They specifically told her they didn't like me hanging out in the lobby. Oooookaaaay.

As mentioned before, I see two kind of Millenials. One is Ms. Bentivegna. Oberlin is $48,000 +. She's a Millenial of privilege. These are the pampered, helicoptered, entitled kids.  At RVCC I see millneials all day. Non of them are privileged. There mostly working and middle class kids. A sprinkling of vets. Lots of minorities. None of them feel entitled. And none of them would be outraged at not getting a job because they showed up in tights and a short skirt.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Twelve O'Clock Loyalty

I recently watched 12 O'clock High on Netflix. I'd seen the movie before, but not in a long time and not as a middle-aged man. I watched it several times thereafter.

Briefly Gregory Peck plays a trouble-shooting general sent to take over the badly led and shot up 918th Bomb Group. Savage has had to relieve a close friend of his, Lt. Colonel Keith Davenport. The most powerful scene in the first act is when Savage orders the arrest of Colonel Gately, the group air XO. Savage chews out Gately. Let the scene speak for itself:

Savage isn't trying to reform Gately. He's taking out his anger on the man, his frustration at having to relieve his friend, Colonel Davenport. Savage blames Gately for Davenport's demise.

Later the movie reaches it's climax, as General Savage, who has led the bomb group on dozens of missions, reaches his breaking point. Again, let the scene speak for itself:

Gately, who has been humiliated by General Savage, runs to help him and asks who will take the lead ship. Savage, by now in a state of confusion says, 'Gately. Gately will take it.'

This is the most powerful scene I've viewed in a decade. Gately's motivations are very interesting. He could have let Savage simply fall to the tarmac, but instead he helps his C/O. Why?

Another movie deals with similar leadership and loyalty issues, the Caine Mutiny. I think this scene, another bit of climatic acting, really explains Gately:



'If you'd given Queeg the loyalty he needed do you think the whole issue would have come up in the typhoon?'

When young Willie Kiefe realizes that he and the other officers let Queeg down, Barney thunders,
'You don't work with the captain because you like the way he parts his hair. You work with him because he's got the job or you no good.'

And that explains Gately, who will obviously command the 918th. Savage, who browbeat Gately, who humiliated him, who forced him to fly a plane called 'Leper Colony', Savage deserves Gately's loyalty because he's the C/O and that's it.

End of the Semester

For some reason, Spring '15 got away from me and I have three class periods left. I expanded a few chapters this semester, adding a third day on the Cold War and adding a couple on South America. In the case of the latter, I did so because I have one guy from Brazil, a girl from Argentina and another from Chile. Its just too good an opportunity to collect some first hand knowledge. The Chilean girl is interesting. Her parents, so it seems, were active during the anti-Pinochet era and I've been trying to goad them into sharing their memories by telling their daughter that I like Pinochet.

I have no problem whatsoever with the ethics of this.

So now I'm wondering what to spend the last few classes on. I'm cutting out the modern Middle East entirely. You need two or three class periods to do it justice. Can't be done in one, so its out.

That leaves modern Asia. These kids really should know something about modern China, the Pacific Rim, and India.

I'll probably cut Post-Colonial Africa. Its fun, a lot of fun. And depressing. But honestly, do they really need to know about Kwami Nkruma and Mobuto Sese Seko?

Too bad. Most of these kids have never heard of We are the World, and man, is it a culture shock:

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Germany?

Dear Germans readers:

According to the stats a lot of you are checking in here. How come? Feel free to respond in the comments section.

Will Stroock

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Mao's Legacy

I've been reading Mao's Great Famine and thanks to new research we now know that the famine was even worse than previously believed. Briefly, via his 'Great Leap Forward' Mao sought to vault China into the 21st century and become the leader of the communist world. There was mass collectivization of course, and the industrial goal of surpassing Britain in steel production, steel being the barometer by which communists measure economic progress. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he talked about steel quotas.

The author describes forced collectivization, food used as a weapon, militias enforcing discipline; in the process Chinese society almost completely broke down. With so many farmers producing steel in their backyards, the fields lay empty. Famine ensued and the author estimates that 45 Million people died.

A few days ago at the bus stop I asked my Chinese neighbors about this. One woman, a big-pharma rep nodded her head and new all about it. The other, an IT-specialist insisted Mao was a great leader and new nothing. The big-pharma rep began speaking in Mandarin to the IT-guy, cluing him in I guess.

Its hard to cover up the death of 45 million, but I guess Mao pulled it off. The author says that there are no known photos from the Great Famine other than communist propaganda pics. How is that even possible? Secret photos and films were smuggled out of eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Mao succeeded where Hitler didn't?

Even fifty years later Mao callous indifference to his people's suffering is breathtaking. Even more breathtaking is the fact that there are Chinese who don't know anything about it.

Maybe that's Mao's legacy.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Millenial Problem

In 1997 I drove my then fiancée to a job interview and hung-out in the lobby and read a book. She was told specifically she didn't get the job because I was hanging out in the lobby.

I've never seen this at RVCC:


Pro-tip to millennials: You might want to leave your parents at home when you show up for a job interview.

Raritan Valley Community College serves Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. We don't get a lot of the big-horse money out of Hunterdon or a lot of the big professional money out of Somerset. There is a decidedly middling middle class feel to the student body. A lot of minority students too. Plenty of blacks and Latinos. Now that I'm actually thinking about it,  the m/f breakdown seems to be in favor of the girls. And they are girls. Don't give me any crap about calling them 'women'. Please. Plenty of vets coming through on the GI-Bill too. A smattering of Indians, which is inevitable given that RVCC is around the corner from Chindia. Almost no Asians. Wonder why?

Its a pretty good batch of kids and young people.

I suspect the over-protected Millenials is the result of class. That is, its practiced by rich, affluent parents determined to get their kids into the best, THE BEST, school. These people have no hope.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Ukraine is Weak!

According to the Blogger stats I have a reader from Ukraine. This one's for you:


 
 
Ok, seriously, Ukrainian reader. You are Ukraine, da? Ukraine is next to Russia. Ukraine must be cognoscente of this fact. So you're Ukraine and you're right next to Russia. We have established this fact, have we not, Comrade?
 
So how does Ukraine not have a top-notch, first-rate 'try and get a piece of this' military?
 
How do you not have a small, mobile land force composed of independent combat brigades designed to hold down advancing Russian forces while other brigades hit their flanks and then withdrawal only to start the process anew a few klicks down the road? 
 
Why do you not have a home army? Partisans in every village. A rifle behind every blade of grass. Group captains with a closet full of explosives to detonate bridges?
 
Why did you not spend the last decade kissing up to America? Why not sent a battalion or two to Afghanistan?
 
Why not work with other countries that are, you know, next to Russia? Romania? Moldova? The Baltic states. Oh yeah, and Poland. Seems to be there's a bit of history between Jan and Ivan? Why not form a diplomatic block at the UN? How about military and intelligence cooperation? 
 
Just some brain storming.
 
 
 

CNN's Lost Opportunity

 
My friend William Katz notices the following:


WHAT CONFLICT OF INTEREST? – From Mediaite:  "Anthony Weiner — yes, that Anthony Weiner — talked to Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter Sunday morning about Hillary Clinton’s road trip to Iowa in the now infamous Scooby van, which he said bespoke of the unexpected in comparison GOP’s candidate’s staged events, and said the media was focusing on arcane or frivolous details that mattered only to the insider types, not to voters.  If you’re thinking, 'Wait, Anthony Weiner’s a media critic now?' you’re not alone. You may also be thinking: isn’t Huma Abedin, Weiner’s long-suffering wife, also Hillary Clinton’s long-suffering aide, and wasn’t she actually in said Scooby van during the trip?"  Yeah, she was there.   I guess CNN put Weiner on because he's neutral.  Joke.

Certainly.

There is a huge cable news void and CNN could fill it, but they are constitutionally incapable of even considering it.

So consider this, CNN. Plenty if independents and conservatives really don't like Fox all that much. For what its worth, the morning show ain't my cup of tea and I don need to watch O'Reilly, and Hannity I find annoying. He's basically Rush Limbaugh in front of a TV camera. Which is fine, but I don't need it.

Ok CNN, tell ya what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you a little advice and it ain't gonna cost you nothing. You can't possibly do worse.

First off, put Jake Tapper on at 8. He can't compete with O'Reilly, but then again, no one can. You're not trying to compete with O'Reilly. Just have a good guy at 8. The only good guy you have is Tapper.

Second, Take the 9:00 slot and break it up into half hour segments. Unorthodox I know, but lets be honest. You can't do any worse. Grab Hugh Hewitt. Have him do a half hour interview show. One on one. Hugh Hewitt has done TV and he knows radio. Take that other half hour and give it to Mark Steyn. He spends the first segment doing his usual doom schtick and the last talking entertainment. Have him do reviews of American Idol, The Voice, etc.

Third hire a caretaker for the 10:00 PM slot. Why not Erin Burnett? Yes, I'm just looking for the eye candy. In the meantime, develop someone. Have him/her sub for Hewitt, and Steyn and develop them. Eventually they come up with their own show, some kind of quirky take on things. Like the old Olbermann. By old I mean, 2003.

Look, I don't know nothing about TV, CNN. But I do see your ratings. You might as well give it a shot and try something new.

Oh, and fire Chris Cuomo.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Message from a straight white publisher

The indomitable Robert Stacy McCain, who deserves a medal for diving into the swamp ditch that is modern feminist thought, wrote about 23 writers with messages for straight white publishers.

One of the writers was this woman, Franny Choi. She's a poet. Good for her. Ms. Choi's bio also describes her as a performer and an educator. Judging by her bio, she's a rising star in the Asian-lesbian poetry community. Franny Choi has cobbled together a bunch of part time jobs into a viable living doing what she loves.

As of this writing she's in the top 100 in her Amazon category and ranked 449,589 over all. Franny Choi's message for straight white publishers was 'Sit down and let us abolish you.'  Her website states that, 'Franny Choi’s poetry explores the collisions of identities, the volatile nature of language, and the haunting relationship between an artist’s body & her body of work.'

Hey honey, if that's what you want to write about, I'm cool with it. I like high pressure cabinet meetings and exploding Soviet tanks but if you want to 'explore collisions of identities' you do that.

McCain points out that the publishing industry is run by chicks.

Which should surprise no one who ever walked around a Borders from 2003 till the store's ultimate demise.

I always had a theory that one of Border's big problems, other than Amazon, digital, etc, was that it didn't really know the market. The fiction section was a vast sea of pastel colored books all about beautiful yet still somehow single 20 something women living in cool apartments in choice cities. Toward the end, Borders doubled down on its chick marketing by setting up several shelves full of vampire and Goth crap.

Of course, it didn't work.

Look, I don't pretend to understand everything about Border's demise. But I think my, let's call it 'too chicky' theory, has merit.

Right now I'm in the top ten in my Amazon category in three English speaking nations.

So I do know something about selling books.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Friday Night Flag (NHL Playoff Edition)


Subtle Wealth

I live in a nice neighborhood just around the corner from Raritan Valley Community College. Its called Chindia, you can look it up. I can vouch for every word in that entry, btw. I hear four different Indian languages on my block. We also have Vietnamese, French and Russian families. It's like the UN in this place.

Chindia is a nice quiet community of three and four bedroom homes. The kind of place where Mrs. Stroock and I send the kids out to play without worry.

There is nothing garish or gaudy about the houses. They signal middleclass professional success story. Walking around today with the little ones, I noticed, for the first time really, a subtle detail. Almost everyone owns an expensive car. BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus are big. Someone has an H-2. There used to be an Escalade in the neighborhood but they moved. Those people weren't Chinese or Indian anyway.

So in almost every driveway is nice car. But interestingly, there's usually only one nice car. I saw a Lexus parked next to a Hyundai, a Mercedes parked next to a Honda. A BMW accompanying a minivan. None of these cares really stood out except for the bumper logo. I dunno, I'm not a car guy. Maybe you gearheads would have spotted them right away.

These people could afford two BMWs no problem. Believe me, this is a neighborhood of big-pharma reps and IT specialist.  I know one guys whose a chemist from Exxon-Mobile. he was at Tiananmen Square and told me when he saw the tanks moving in it seemed like a good idea to head back to the dorms and study.

Anyway,  if Mr. and Mrs. Patel down the street (that's like Smith in India) wanted two Mercedes, they'd have two Mercedes.

Why only one Mercedes, then?

Because two would be garish.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

So you think you're a writer

 
 
We were going on today about Marxism and life in the Soviet Union.
 
Yeah, there you go.

In case your wondering, I have crazy Russian neighbors and they vouch for everything in that video.

Anyway, we got to talking about Mao and China, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

A student finally asked, 'How come communists can never admit their mistakes?'

So I laughed.

I went on to use a personal example. I've been writing for a long time, and I learned early on if the audience doesn't like your product the audience isn't wrong, you are wrong. Marxists, of course reverse the equation, hence after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution.

From there I got side tracked, as I often, just check my reviews on Rate My Professor, about the profession of writing.

I said one of my pet peeves is writers who just 'write for themselves'. What's the point of writing and not being read? 'Just stop!' I thundered, and I assure you, I thundered. A student who went to the bathroom said she could hear me all the way down the hall (thank you Mr. Ryan. If you went to Blue Mountain Middle School in the 80's you'd understand). This I explained is only surpassed in worseness by 'writing what you know'.

Dear god, was a worse piece of advance ever offered to an aspiring writer?

No. There was never a worse peace of advice given to an aspiring writer.

Who am I to say that, you may ask?

 
Yeah that's right. At the moment I'm #10 in Amazon in my category. Just behind Harry goddamn Turtledove and just ahead of Robert Freakin' Conroy. That is not easy to do.


So yeah, I know what the hell I'm talking about.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Rules Have Changed

So I was in the cafeteria today, and I noticed a group of four nerdy guys sitting around the table going over some electronic contrivance, it looked to this 41 year old like an updated version of electronic Stratego.

Sitting with them was this cute little blonde.

Any Gen X'r reading this will be flabbergasted. Why in the 80's computers and electronics of almost any kind where girl kryptonite. You didn't even let a girl know you knew what a computer was, much less admit you owned one.

So I took the matter to my class, I know how these kids are really into this disco thing and all.

I said, look guys, in the 80's everyone had a group and those groups did not intermingle. Jocks over here, nerds over there, metal heads that way, preps over by the steps, and so on.

My students, who are really 'down' with what's 'hep' and what not, said 'oh, no, no' kids of different sects intermingle all the time now. Lots of back and forth and go between. None of them were surprised in the slightest by my sighting a cute girl hanging out with a bunch of nerds who one could slip right onto the set of The Big Bang Theory without anybody noticing.

Who knew?

As I say to my class, the past is another country, they do things differently there.

Apparently, so is the present.

Is there any place where communism doesn't lead to pyramids of human skulls?

So asked a student of mine today during my lesson on post war communism focusing on the Soviet Union, China and Cambodia.

I replied that that was a good question.

No.

Wherever communism is tried it leads to death and privation.

But, I said, there is such a thing as democratic socialism. George Orwell believed in democratic socialism. Does it exist today? Yes. Sweden for example. Sweden has a socialist government that believes in state control and out right state ownership of much of the economy.

In his work, Eat the Rich, PJ O'Rourke travelled the world attempting to answer the simple question: why are some places so rich? Why are some places so poor.

The answer, he concluded, is the rule of law. Sweden is socialist and prosperous. Cuba is socialist, and as Mr. O'Rourke would say, Cuban cigars are rationed there.

Rule of law. Government by the governed. Free speech. Property rights. Sweden has them. Cuba doesn't.

And that is what I told my class today.

Also, communism killed a hundred million people in the 20th century.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

I Guess I'm Imitating Life

Via Ed Driscoll.  At the link, a video of Margaret Thatcher replying to the old reporter canard, 'Some say'.

In World War 1990, I actually have Margaret Thatcher dueling David Frost and asking the same question:
David: Prime Minister, some say it is time to end the war. 
Prime Minister: Who says that, David?David: Don't roll your eyes,
Prime Minister, I…
Prime Minister: David, who says it's time to end the war? Who do you mean?David: Well, I…
Prime Minister: You? Is that what you think?  
      

So I'm officially middle aged

Actually, I've been officially middle-aged for a while. But this happened today:

I was discussing the Cold War today. You really have to lay the ground work for the kids here. They don't know anything about it. Nothing. Anyone reading this who came of age during the Cold War will be shocked by that, but its true.

I was explaining to the kids how the Cold War, and by extension nuclear was a ubiquitous fact of life, a residue that lay upon everything. Anyone of that age will remember the common childhood fear of nuclear war.

It came up somehow that during the 80's every movie seemed like it was about kids in the 50's or 60's. If you were there, you'd understand. I asked a girl when her folks were born and she wasn't quite sure where they fell, generation wise. I said, 'Describe your mother's senior picture.' When the girl got to her mom's ling, strait, parted down the middle hair I said, 'Aha! She's a 70's kid.'

And then it started.

'My dad was born in 71,' (oof). 'My mom was born in 67,' (Ouch).  'My dad was born in '74,' (ugggh,I'm older than him)...

It was only about half a dozen kids, but still.

Anywho, I was describing a world of detente, Mutually Assured Destruction, NATO-Warsaw Pact, Henry Kissinger etc,etc...it was utterly alien to them.

They even have '80's' day in high schools now.

If you were there, you'd understand.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Monday Night Metal (Black Sabbath Edition)


Professor, what exactly is a cold war?

Not kidding.

These kids today don't know anything about the Cold War. I mean nothing. I have to start from scratch, the U.S. the U.S.S.R., NATO, the Warsaw Pact, nuclear war, etc. etc...

So I like to show them this:


Walk up to any Gen X'r and shout, 'Turn your key!' and they'll know what your talking about.

These kids had never seen anything like this before and had no idea what they were looking at.

Remarkable.

And thank you President Reagan, thank you Prime Minister Thatcher.

Changing Consensus

My friend William Katz makes an interesting point here about changing consensus:
"When I was a student at the University of Chicago I had to take a course called Natural Science I.  It was a basic science course designed for non-scientists, and we all hated it.  We were taught a number of scientific theories that won wide acceptance, but were eventually proved wrong.  I once asked the instructor, "Professor, why are we learning all these wrong theories?"  He replied, "We want you to understand how science proceeds."
Indeed.

This happens a lot in history. Until the late 90's the Vietnam war was widely regarded as an unmitigated military disaster. Then Lewis Sorely came along and pointed out that by 1972 the Vietcong had been largely destroyed and the countryside was under government control. The North Vietnamese grand offensive of 1972 was stopped by the ARVN with American support.

A lot of WWII historians thought the Allied strategic bombing campaign was a bust. And while it failed to destroy German industry, Richard Overy argued persuasively that the effort isolated German regions and forced them to become self contained and non-supporting economic zones.

Nixon underwent something of a renaissance in the '90s, Truman was reviled when he left office, Bush the Elder can now point to several foreign policy achievements. I've always believed that George W. Bush will enjoy great popularity in the coming decades. In 2009 his reputation had nowhere to go but up.

Eventually one will forget a president's quirks and traits the attitude and swagger that made him so irritating. I once loathed Bush the Elder and Bill Clinton, voted against the Elder in '92, but with each passing year I find it hard to recall why. All we are left with is what the accomplished. Neither is bad or great both did good things.

No president is as great as he is made out to be. Roosevelt extended the Depression and gave Eastern Europe to the Soviets. Reagan sent the Marines to Lebanon for some reason. Jimmy Carter was a horrible president but smuggled weapons to Afghanistan and warned Brezhnev against a harsh crackdown in Poland.

Which is why I always laugh at professors who tell me how rotten George W. Bush is.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Friday Flag: Rule Britannia


The War of Northern Aggression

This article about the remembrance and reputations of Lee and Grant is very interesting. Essentially the author notes how Grant is remembered as a bad president, drunk (not really fair, I think John Keegan established he was simply prone to alcoholic benders) and a controversial general, while Lee occupies a mystic place in American and Southern memory.

I can vouch for that.

My father's mother was born in Naches Mississippi and raised in Waterproof Louisiana. The image that comes to mind when one read's 'Waterproof' is exactly right, only more so.

That woman was gentile and southern to the core and the only thing she learned about 'The War Between the States' was that Lee was a gentleman and Grant was a drunken Bull.
Now this is a problem.

When I published my first novel, 'A Line through the Desert' I was desperate to get people to review it. I begged, pleaded and cajoled, but never offered to pay anyone off. I think I may I offered a free autographed copy of the book, but that's it. That was six years ago.

I have wondered about some of the reviews appearing for my books. A lot of them seem off somehow, as if they were written by the same person in a short-hand style. Those reviews are always positive.  Maybe they're fakes, who knows? I'm not doing it.

Actually, when I see a new review is in, it gives me the willies. Good reviews are great, of course, and never get old. I don't mind bad reviews, some people just don't like your stuff. No, what freaks me out is the fear that the reviewer has pointed out typos.

And yes, there are quite a few of them.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Latest World Civ II Test

1: Why was Europe relatively  peaceful from 1815-1914? What great changes occurred during this period?
2: Would you rather live in a colony administered by Belgium or Britain? Explain your answer. Provide historic examples.
3:What happened to Japan in 1853? Describe Japanese society up till that point. What steps did Japan take after 1853 to change?
4:Describe the social reform and progress that took place in Great Britain during the 19th century.
5:Describe the Indian independence movement from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 through the 1930's. What are its high and low points?

Enjoy

Luuuuuucy!

So according to this survey of Cuban opinion, 70% of Cubans have a positive or very positive opinion of President Obama. One is reminded of the words of the great P.J. O'Rourke who in 1989 believed opinion polls showing the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua would win the election there. To paraphrase, don't believe an opinion poll in a country where it is illegal to hold certain opinions. But whatever.

Unfair to Neville

Something's been bugging me about this whole Iran thing, and its the unnecessary comparisons to Neville Chamberlain.

Simply put, the man gets a bad rap and he doesn't deserve to be compared to Barry.

For us World War I is just the war before the big war. But in Europe World War I is part of World War II.  We are barely aware of World War I's 100th anniversary.  In Europe they're going through deep convulsions of remembrance.  Britain lost 900,000 men, 20,000 alone during the first day of the Somme. That's 20,000 dead. In one day. Kinda puts Tarawa or Omaha Beach in perspective, don't it?  
You know that scene in "Gone with the Wind," where the casualty lists are coming in from Gettysburg? Imagine that, repeated all over Great Britain. Whole battalions were wiped out in minutes. These were locally recruited outfits, the "pals" battalions. All gone in an instant.

The Battle of the Somme was the most important thing to happen to Britain in the last 100 years, and the British are living with its consequences to this day. The Battle of the Somme marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire.

So, in 1938 Chamberlain was desperate to avoid a war. So was his country. Chamberlain had an agreement backed by France and the other powers that he thought would keep the peace. Okay, he took the measure of Hitler and got it wrong.

But when the Polish crisis erupted the next year Chamberlain got it right. He came to understand there could be no peace with Hitler. So, when Germany invaded Poland, Chamberlain declared war. He got Czechoslovakia wrong but he got Poland right.

I'm not trying to reinterpret the man's moves or claim he was a good prime minister. He wasn't. He got Hitler totally wrong. But in the end he recognized his mistake and changed.

By the way, there's probably a subset of readers who believe that Chamberlain resigned after the loss of France in 1940. Not so.  He resigned after Norway was lost. Mighty Winston Churchill lost France.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

This is why I spend a couple of classes on WWII


Generation Relatable

So the other day a student of mine walked into class wearing a 'Save Ferris' T-shirt.

This of course provoked a few minutes of Gen-X nostalgia on my part requiring Herr Professor to explain to the Millennials how important these movies were to 80's teens.

We of course came to 'The Breakfast Club'.

I had watched the movie a few years ago and expected it to have aged badly, to look like very out of date 80's movie. I couldn't have been more wrong. The characters may have been stock, but they were also timeless. Jocks, nerds and goths (or whatever they call them) still look about the same. Bender, the heavy metal loser isn't actually wearing a heavy metal shirt, though if you look closely at his locker there are pics of Angus Young and Rob Halford.

Anyway the inevitable question came up, 'Do these movies speak to you guys?'

Most of the class had seen 'The Breakfast Club' and everyone liked or even loved it, and not as an 80's time capsule but as a teen movie that deals with problems teens have today. Parents? Check. Drugs? Check. Pressure? Check. Parents that ignore you? Check.

Save Ferris indeed.

I've been teaching about the Second World War this week. Its not quite news to the students but it ain't exactly recent history either. I've been doing this for five years and I still can't get anyone to really condemn using the A-Bombs on Japan.