Well,World War 1990: Operation Eastern Storm is in editing and will be out some time this fall. Don't ask me when.
In the meantime two projects happening in the fiction department. First, I will finish, finally To Liberate Mars, the sequel for To Defend the Earth. Half will be short stories about the war for earth, the other half will be space-war in the solar system with one titled 'To Liberate Mars' obviously. Watch out for the Indian Space Navy.
Second, before the third (and last) World War volume, there will be an interim volume I guess you can call it. Basically a series of short stories about the war. These are ideas I have that are good, but I don't want them in the 2nd and 3rd World War volumes. Those books are already big and hard to manage. So there will be a series of short stories about the war in side theaters. Two definite stories, the first titled 'Castro's Folly' which should give the ready an idea. The second, well, let's just say the Vietnamese should be watching out for the Aussies. Why not?
If readers have other ideas by all means I'd love to see them.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Battle Extraordinare
Some time ago, a reviewer of To Defend the Earth called my battle scenes 'ridiculously detailed'.
He got that right.
I love writing big battle scenes with whole battalions of tanks advancing on a position, artillery bursting around them, missiles flying to a fro, air support hammering the target. I want the reader to feel like he's seeing a great battle epic from a big movie.
I love great battle sequences. What do I mean? Well, among my favorite are the Battle of Hoth and the big helicopter extravaganza from Apocalypse Now. Those are both rather obvious. How about the French commandos storming the village of Ouisteram in the Longest Day?
Lots of details there. Honestly I think the big factor for me is being able to see the background, troops running too and for, an MG that simply fills in a bit of open space.
Last night I was watching Lion of the Desert and was surprised by how much I liked it. Here's a great battle sequence (skip to 1:20):
That scene where the Bedouins are waiting for the Italian tanks on the reverse slope of the the wadi is particularly striking, I think.
Actually, one of my favorite battle scenes that I wrote is in To Defend the Earth:
Lots a detail there, a ridiculous amount.
He got that right.
I love writing big battle scenes with whole battalions of tanks advancing on a position, artillery bursting around them, missiles flying to a fro, air support hammering the target. I want the reader to feel like he's seeing a great battle epic from a big movie.
I love great battle sequences. What do I mean? Well, among my favorite are the Battle of Hoth and the big helicopter extravaganza from Apocalypse Now. Those are both rather obvious. How about the French commandos storming the village of Ouisteram in the Longest Day?
Lots of details there. Honestly I think the big factor for me is being able to see the background, troops running too and for, an MG that simply fills in a bit of open space.
Last night I was watching Lion of the Desert and was surprised by how much I liked it. Here's a great battle sequence (skip to 1:20):
Actually, one of my favorite battle scenes that I wrote is in To Defend the Earth:
When the Jai came out of Reykjavik that afternoon the entire north face of the mountain range came alive with fire. They were met by withering artillery and missile barrages. Once more groups of tanks and other vehicles flung themselves at the advancing Jai. Form my perch I saw several Jai vehicles explode. They called in their own air support but the heat and steam from the open geysers played havoc with their sensors, hiding us better than any camouflage could. Between the withering fire from the mountain range and the Marine’s kamikaze style armored charge the Jai were forced to pull back. It was the first time they’d been stopped cold.
The Jai doubled down on the attack and that evening sent an even larger force. One half of their armored thrust broke off from the main group and came right toward us. I counted 44 armored vehicles of various types. They lashed the mountain range with cannon and laser fire. Even so the Marines stayed put and fought back and once more unleashed a torrent of missiles and machinegun fire. It looked like the main thrust down the coast road was going to break through when General Lutch sprung a little surprise in the form of a flight of tank busting A-10 Warthogs. The ugly jets came in low and unleashed hell from their chain cannons. Denny zoomed and got a great shot of a Jai take as if was hammered by depleted uranium rounds and enveloped in a cloud of dust. When the cloud lifted you could smoke billowing from several bullet holes. Of course the Warthog pilots were on a suicide mission and not one made it back. But their appearance seemed to stun the Jai and retreated. The group facing us on the mountain range withdrew as well.
Lots a detail there, a ridiculous amount.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
I Pledge Allegiance to the Frat!
So the steak-heads at the Old Dominion chapter of the Sigma Nu frat went and hung some rather bowdy signs. Pretty typical stuff, really, and c'mon, the sign on the right is funny.
I was in a frat, Alpha Chi Rho, Wesley College, 1993-1995. AXP! Like everyone else who ever pledged a frat between 1980 and whenever, I did it because I saw Animal House at an impressionable age and wanted to be just like the guys at Delta House. I always had a thing for D-Day. Heck, my pledge class even had a guy named Flounder. I was Flushman. Don't ask. To this day the best party I've ever been to was the one we had the night I pledged. It was pretty much like this:
I still remember everyone thrusting their beer high in the air, like Arthur's knights before the round table, and singing along to Pearl Jam's 'I'm Still Alive!' Best. Party. Ever.
In AXP I learned how to drink and smoke pot and boot and rally (again, don't ask). Many of you probably didn't know this, but there is absolutely no reason why three men cannot urinate in the same toilet at once. 'Don't cross the streams!' I chugged beer to a chorus of 'Here's to brother Will, brother Will, brother Will, here's to brother Will whose with us tonight...Drink Mother-F******! Drink Mother-F******! I can still down 12 ounces in three seconds. On Saturday night I would call the frat up and ask, 'When you getting the keg? 8:00? Be there at 8:15.' As the frat president, Buddha once said, 'Will, you used to be the first one there and the last to leave!' And I was. For a decade I absentmindedly drank only from my left hand. It was a thing we did. I don't know why. One semester, ahhhh Fall '93, I was drunk four nights a week and high the other three. I have something close to a photographic memory, that's the one time in my life when things seem a bit blurry. I had a 3.0. I just sat in the corner at those parties and drank. I was the frat weirdo. Which was fine with everyone else. I was kidnapped and dumped in a field in Port Mahon, DE. I was one called into the college president's office and given a good dressing down. And oh god did we ever have toga parties.
I still remember the national headquarters address, 109 Oxford Way, Neptune, NJ. I can still sing the Greek alphabet to a catchy memorization song and still know the words to the semi-official mixer song:
Oh what a night
AXP and Delta Phi Sigma
Drinking beer and having lots of fun
What a mixer what a night...
Deep stuff. Sadly the D Phi Sig girls never seemed to interested in me. Like I said, I was the frat weirdo.
And I still know the words to our official song:
Amisci uske ad aras
Deep graven on each heart
shall be found unwavering true
when we from life shall part
After we got busted kidnapping pledges we were even put on double probation.
But enough about the Glory Days.
Sometime during my pledge period ['A Pledge Pin!'] I learned about the founders of AXP and their principles. AXP was founded in 1893 by a bunch of young men in jackets, ties, and formal haircuts. They extolled the principles of brotherhood, education and service. They meant it. At some point between the 100 years AXP's founding and my pledging, the fraternities' core mission changed.
Its stayed the same ever since.
Those guys at Sigma Nu are interested in beer and girls. No doubt they blast music (hip-hop god help us) and puke off their balcony and shout lewd things at girls unfortunate enough to be walking past the frat house at 2 AM. Though it was made in the 70's Animal House takes place in the early 60's. That's the middle-brow culture of post war man and woman. They'd look at Delta House and think all they needed was a good talking to:
Or maybe they could send Joe Friday. He'd set those kids right.
That culture is gone, of course. The same people fainting over Sigma Nu have spent the last 50 years systematically obliterating the middle-brow culture of the man in the gray flannel suit and the woman in sensible housecoat. Gone are notions of public comportment, restraint and subtlety. Do what you want, that as the point of Woodstock, right? The feminists worried about Sigma Nu's 'rape culture' no doubt love Hillary!, herself married to an admitted adulterer and accused rapist who never saw a woman he didn't view merely as a repository for his lust. Sigma Nu's world was made by the new left.
I joined AXP to party. Apparently it was founded by young men who wanted more.
I was in a frat, Alpha Chi Rho, Wesley College, 1993-1995. AXP! Like everyone else who ever pledged a frat between 1980 and whenever, I did it because I saw Animal House at an impressionable age and wanted to be just like the guys at Delta House. I always had a thing for D-Day. Heck, my pledge class even had a guy named Flounder. I was Flushman. Don't ask. To this day the best party I've ever been to was the one we had the night I pledged. It was pretty much like this:
In AXP I learned how to drink and smoke pot and boot and rally (again, don't ask). Many of you probably didn't know this, but there is absolutely no reason why three men cannot urinate in the same toilet at once. 'Don't cross the streams!' I chugged beer to a chorus of 'Here's to brother Will, brother Will, brother Will, here's to brother Will whose with us tonight...Drink Mother-F******! Drink Mother-F******! I can still down 12 ounces in three seconds. On Saturday night I would call the frat up and ask, 'When you getting the keg? 8:00? Be there at 8:15.' As the frat president, Buddha once said, 'Will, you used to be the first one there and the last to leave!' And I was. For a decade I absentmindedly drank only from my left hand. It was a thing we did. I don't know why. One semester, ahhhh Fall '93, I was drunk four nights a week and high the other three. I have something close to a photographic memory, that's the one time in my life when things seem a bit blurry. I had a 3.0. I just sat in the corner at those parties and drank. I was the frat weirdo. Which was fine with everyone else. I was kidnapped and dumped in a field in Port Mahon, DE. I was one called into the college president's office and given a good dressing down. And oh god did we ever have toga parties.
I still remember the national headquarters address, 109 Oxford Way, Neptune, NJ. I can still sing the Greek alphabet to a catchy memorization song and still know the words to the semi-official mixer song:
Oh what a night
AXP and Delta Phi Sigma
Drinking beer and having lots of fun
What a mixer what a night...
Deep stuff. Sadly the D Phi Sig girls never seemed to interested in me. Like I said, I was the frat weirdo.
And I still know the words to our official song:
Amisci uske ad aras
Deep graven on each heart
shall be found unwavering true
when we from life shall part
After we got busted kidnapping pledges we were even put on double probation.
But enough about the Glory Days.
Sometime during my pledge period ['A Pledge Pin!'] I learned about the founders of AXP and their principles. AXP was founded in 1893 by a bunch of young men in jackets, ties, and formal haircuts. They extolled the principles of brotherhood, education and service. They meant it. At some point between the 100 years AXP's founding and my pledging, the fraternities' core mission changed.
Its stayed the same ever since.
Those guys at Sigma Nu are interested in beer and girls. No doubt they blast music (hip-hop god help us) and puke off their balcony and shout lewd things at girls unfortunate enough to be walking past the frat house at 2 AM. Though it was made in the 70's Animal House takes place in the early 60's. That's the middle-brow culture of post war man and woman. They'd look at Delta House and think all they needed was a good talking to:
That culture is gone, of course. The same people fainting over Sigma Nu have spent the last 50 years systematically obliterating the middle-brow culture of the man in the gray flannel suit and the woman in sensible housecoat. Gone are notions of public comportment, restraint and subtlety. Do what you want, that as the point of Woodstock, right? The feminists worried about Sigma Nu's 'rape culture' no doubt love Hillary!, herself married to an admitted adulterer and accused rapist who never saw a woman he didn't view merely as a repository for his lust. Sigma Nu's world was made by the new left.
I joined AXP to party. Apparently it was founded by young men who wanted more.
Monday, August 24, 2015
The end of the age
Recently the Woodstock movie has been making the rounds on VH-Classic. I had seen some clips but never actually sat down to watch the entire film. In my youth, I endured two Woodstock retro movements, first in '89 and then again in '94. Both were huge. I'm happy to say the '99 concert ended in a riot. Thankfully 2004 saw no Woodstock revival and we haven't had a Woodstock since.
In a lot of ways the 1969 film is a fascinating cultural artifact and I'm not really talking about the hippies. First look at the kids. One of the interesting thing about the mostly white audience is that no one is big. I don't mean no one is fat, though that's true, but no one is big. All the young men are average sized, usually a bit skinny. I did not see one kid who was muscled, not in the way I would think of it. Walk around today you'll see lots of men my age (42) who are large, barrel chested with meat hooks for arms and big heads. I've described myself. That's an 80's thing. We all lifted weights. The young women are skinny too, but not voluptuous and generally small chested. I did not see a tall, long limed, well endowed gal at the place.
There was a never ending cavalcade of contemporary musical acts. They say Woodstock was about the music, man, but I didn't see it. Here's a sample:
Maybe the acoustics were just terrible. Here's The Who:
They sound better than that.
I tried to follow the interviews, but they're mostly nonsensical new-age gibberish. Behold:
Listening to these young people explain what's happening and why they're there, one gets the sense that they believe this is the beginning, the dawn of the age of Aquarius. But its not. Its the end and they don't even realize it. The end has already come really, the race riots, the assassinations. Richard Nixon has been elected and the middle-brow society of squares is about to land a man on the moon. The 1970's are right around the corner.
Here's another viewer's opinion:
Maybe that's the ultimate metaphor, Colonel Robert Neville in a post-apocalyptic wasteland watching Woodstock. 'They sure don't make pictures like that anymore.'
Nope. Eleven years later, America would elect Ronald Reagan.
In a lot of ways the 1969 film is a fascinating cultural artifact and I'm not really talking about the hippies. First look at the kids. One of the interesting thing about the mostly white audience is that no one is big. I don't mean no one is fat, though that's true, but no one is big. All the young men are average sized, usually a bit skinny. I did not see one kid who was muscled, not in the way I would think of it. Walk around today you'll see lots of men my age (42) who are large, barrel chested with meat hooks for arms and big heads. I've described myself. That's an 80's thing. We all lifted weights. The young women are skinny too, but not voluptuous and generally small chested. I did not see a tall, long limed, well endowed gal at the place.
There was a never ending cavalcade of contemporary musical acts. They say Woodstock was about the music, man, but I didn't see it. Here's a sample:
I tried to follow the interviews, but they're mostly nonsensical new-age gibberish. Behold:
Here's another viewer's opinion:
Nope. Eleven years later, America would elect Ronald Reagan.
Peace Time Soldiering
One of the biggest problems I had when writing A Line through the Desert was wrapping my head around peace time soldiering. Just what the heck did these guys do all day in garrison in Bamberg Germany? A lot of patient vets of the Second Army Cavalry Regiment took me through the daily routine. Here's an example of what I wrote:
This was the schedule of a peacetime army training to fight a war.
In the excellent Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood plays Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway, a grizzled vet assigned to shape up a flagging recon platoon:
Throughout the movie Highway takes his platoon through battle drills. These Marines are preparing and prepared for war. Eventually we see them deployed to Grenada.
There is a famous and excellent movie about, among other things, peacetime soldiering. I speak of course of From Here to Eternity and the tragedy of Private Pruitt:
Oh, there's marching and even gunnery, but this is the pre-war Hawaiian paradise. The company C/O is concerned with the annual boxing tournament. The sergeants are middle-aged men, balding and thick through the middle. One is actually fat. Even Warden (Burt Lancaster) buff and menacing, is little more than a paper-pusher. War is the furthest thing from Robert E. Lee Pruitt's army. At times Pruitt's company feels like a Works Progress Administration work gang rather than a fighting unit.
That is the old U.S. Army, the army before the Second World War. A peacetime army that would prefer to remain at peace.
Of course the Japanese had other ideas.
The Marines trained by Gunny Highway were ready for war, as was the entire U.S. military of the 1980's. Had the Soviets attacked the west, those peacetime Marines in Heartbreak Ridge would have given them a fight. The West would most likely have won a conflict with the Soviet Union.
I have actually come to believe that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a pointless half measure. They should have invaded the islands. A landing on Oahu's north shore and then an advance down the plain toward Pearl Harbor and Honolulu would have made the most sense. In 1941 two half trained army divisions were garrisoned on Oahu. A single Japanese division would have been sufficient, I think, to overrun the entire island. It could have been reinforced in later weeks, Or better yet, Yamomoto should have taken the entire force dedicated toward the Philippine invasion to Hawaii. Why not? With the Hawaii occupied the Philippines would have been isolated anyway. And there is no reason to think the forces in Hawaii would have stoodup better than those in the Philippines.
Jake said nothing as he looked back at Dan, a mischievous gleam in his eye. Indeed, Jake hazed Veras throughout the week. On Tuesday, when they went into the digital tank simulators, Jake sent Veras to the “computer shed” to get the “Battle Map 2000” program. On Wednesday, platoon training day, Jake gave Veras a hammer and chalk and told him to bang on the armor plates with the hammer and mark the soft spots with the chalk. Then on Thursday, when there were a series of platoon meetings to discuss battle plans, preparations, and other issues, Jake had Veras jump up and down on the back of the tank in order to test the shocks. Jake saved the coup-de-grace for motor pool maintenance Friday, where Jake told Veras to check the coolant level on the radiator, knowing that since the M-1’s was a turbine engine, it had no radiator. To round out the hazing, Jake sent Veras to the motor pool for a gallon of “muzzle blast” to “clean out the guns.”The day began a 0600 with reveille and PT. Troopers were usually done by 1600. The rest of the day was there's to do as they please.
This was the schedule of a peacetime army training to fight a war.
In the excellent Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood plays Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway, a grizzled vet assigned to shape up a flagging recon platoon:
There is a famous and excellent movie about, among other things, peacetime soldiering. I speak of course of From Here to Eternity and the tragedy of Private Pruitt:
Oh, there's marching and even gunnery, but this is the pre-war Hawaiian paradise. The company C/O is concerned with the annual boxing tournament. The sergeants are middle-aged men, balding and thick through the middle. One is actually fat. Even Warden (Burt Lancaster) buff and menacing, is little more than a paper-pusher. War is the furthest thing from Robert E. Lee Pruitt's army. At times Pruitt's company feels like a Works Progress Administration work gang rather than a fighting unit.
That is the old U.S. Army, the army before the Second World War. A peacetime army that would prefer to remain at peace.
Of course the Japanese had other ideas.
The Marines trained by Gunny Highway were ready for war, as was the entire U.S. military of the 1980's. Had the Soviets attacked the west, those peacetime Marines in Heartbreak Ridge would have given them a fight. The West would most likely have won a conflict with the Soviet Union.
I have actually come to believe that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a pointless half measure. They should have invaded the islands. A landing on Oahu's north shore and then an advance down the plain toward Pearl Harbor and Honolulu would have made the most sense. In 1941 two half trained army divisions were garrisoned on Oahu. A single Japanese division would have been sufficient, I think, to overrun the entire island. It could have been reinforced in later weeks, Or better yet, Yamomoto should have taken the entire force dedicated toward the Philippine invasion to Hawaii. Why not? With the Hawaii occupied the Philippines would have been isolated anyway. And there is no reason to think the forces in Hawaii would have stoodup better than those in the Philippines.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Perlstein's Visible Bridge
So this guy, wrote an article for Newsweek explaining how the POW/MIA flag is racist:
Over at NRO David French says about what I wanted to say:
This narrative is still incredibly important to the left.
I latched on to the POW/MIA issue in the 80's mostly because of Uncommon Valor. Actually a cousin of mine is in the movie. Anyway, the flag and movement became annoying for me in the 90s. It was clear by then that the Vietnamese weren't holding Americans prisoner. French is right. The flag today is one of remembrance. To fly it means your thinking about those who are there and those who aren't coming back.
I believe it was the great Ed Driscoll who noted 'the left's dark obsession with Richard Nixon.' Dick sure is Pearlstein's obsession. The Invisible Bridge seeks link to Nixon and Reagan, as if that linkage is enough to delegitimize Reagan. Of course it is, in Perlstein's eyes.
I admit to being deeply confused about the left's hostility to Nixon. Abuse of power? Have they noticed what Obama has done lately? Let's look a bit deeper. Nixon supported the Earned Run Average Amendment, founded the EPA, passed the Clean Air Act, Welfare, détente with the commies, and by the way, got us out of Vietnam. If you're a leftist, where's the problem?
If you read the article, there's really no reason why you should, but if you do click through, you'll see the author doesn't explain how the POW/MIA flag is racist. The author is simply trying to use the Confederate flag controversy to plug his own book. I support him fully in that.
You know that racist flag? The one that supposedly honors history but actually spreads a pernicious myth? And is useful only to venal right-wing politicians who wish to exploit hatred by calling it heritage? It’s past time to pull it down.
Oh, wait. You thought I was referring to the Confederate flag. Actually, I’m talking about the POW/MIA flag.
I told the story in the first chapter of my 2014 book The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan: how Richard Nixon invented the cult of the “POW/MIA” in order to justify the carnage in Vietnam in a way that rendered the United States as its sole victim...
Over at NRO David French says about what I wanted to say:
It's not a battle flag, nor is it a flag of conquest. It's a flag of remembrance.
But that's the entire point. Perlstein hates that people don't remember the Vietnam War the way he wants it remembered, as a racist, unlawful enterprise. The POW/MIA flag is merely a pretext for him to repeat the tired arguments of the 1970s, arguments that lost their sting when the NVA finally triumphed, and the world watched a Communist dictatorship work its vengeance on the South Vietnamese population. He won't bring down the flag, but he apparently does want to re-start a historical battle that the Left has largely and rightly lost since the Fall of Saigon. His piece is further evidence that the defense of history - like the defense of liberty - requires constant vigilance.
This narrative is still incredibly important to the left.
I latched on to the POW/MIA issue in the 80's mostly because of Uncommon Valor. Actually a cousin of mine is in the movie. Anyway, the flag and movement became annoying for me in the 90s. It was clear by then that the Vietnamese weren't holding Americans prisoner. French is right. The flag today is one of remembrance. To fly it means your thinking about those who are there and those who aren't coming back.
I believe it was the great Ed Driscoll who noted 'the left's dark obsession with Richard Nixon.' Dick sure is Pearlstein's obsession. The Invisible Bridge seeks link to Nixon and Reagan, as if that linkage is enough to delegitimize Reagan. Of course it is, in Perlstein's eyes.
I admit to being deeply confused about the left's hostility to Nixon. Abuse of power? Have they noticed what Obama has done lately? Let's look a bit deeper. Nixon supported the Earned Run Average Amendment, founded the EPA, passed the Clean Air Act, Welfare, détente with the commies, and by the way, got us out of Vietnam. If you're a leftist, where's the problem?
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
In the modern academy, I'm the wierdo
Get a load of this, via the always fun Daily Caller:
For example:
Meanwhile, this spring my department head was expressing concern that I was teaching to much Western and military history. I patiently explained to the department head that since I was teaching World Civ II 1500-present, the West gets kind of important. Also, World War I, World War II, the Cold War were kind of important in the 20th century.
Then there were questions about my penitent for British history. Again, from 1689 till about 1945 Britain, kind of important you know. And showing Prime Minister's Questions clips is a lot of fun.
The department head also expressed concern about my Post Colonial Africa unit with the take home assignment, 'Choose Your Psychopath.'
Department Head: 'Doesn't that reinforce the notion that Africans can't govern?'
Me: 'Yes.'
Yeah, go back and read that DC piece. At little old Raritan Valley Community College I've encountered my fair share of loons, whackjobs, and conspiracy nutcases. Some of them are my friends, no Joke. One kindly old math prof, who gives my daughters cookies when we visit the adjunct office, directed me to this website. Another is a the semi-permanent Green Party Candidate for congress in his district. We once had this gal on campus. Cute. She looked great in those boots, and that coat....
Anyway, where was I? I'm not even getting into the stock leftists we have on campus. One guy thinks the Central Park Jogger rapists are innocent, rants about 'for profit' college, is comfortable calling Israel 'an apartheid state' and has this glassy-eyed self-satisfied smugness. Nice man though, very nice.
This mild summer is winding down. Professors across the fruited plain are preparing for another fall semester of spewing half-baked progressive ideologies at gullible undergrads.
For example:
Stephany Rose, a professor of women’s and ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, claimed in July that African American celebrities like Stacey Dash perpetuate white supremacy by being successful African Americans. “When you come across these individuals like a Stacey Dash, there is this idea that they buy into the mythology of merit, and meritocracy, and the American dream is available to any and everyone one as long as you work hard,”Really, that's a milder example.
Meanwhile, this spring my department head was expressing concern that I was teaching to much Western and military history. I patiently explained to the department head that since I was teaching World Civ II 1500-present, the West gets kind of important. Also, World War I, World War II, the Cold War were kind of important in the 20th century.
Then there were questions about my penitent for British history. Again, from 1689 till about 1945 Britain, kind of important you know. And showing Prime Minister's Questions clips is a lot of fun.
The department head also expressed concern about my Post Colonial Africa unit with the take home assignment, 'Choose Your Psychopath.'
Department Head: 'Doesn't that reinforce the notion that Africans can't govern?'
Me: 'Yes.'
Yeah, go back and read that DC piece. At little old Raritan Valley Community College I've encountered my fair share of loons, whackjobs, and conspiracy nutcases. Some of them are my friends, no Joke. One kindly old math prof, who gives my daughters cookies when we visit the adjunct office, directed me to this website. Another is a the semi-permanent Green Party Candidate for congress in his district. We once had this gal on campus. Cute. She looked great in those boots, and that coat....
Anyway, where was I? I'm not even getting into the stock leftists we have on campus. One guy thinks the Central Park Jogger rapists are innocent, rants about 'for profit' college, is comfortable calling Israel 'an apartheid state' and has this glassy-eyed self-satisfied smugness. Nice man though, very nice.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
I don't loath myself, just my people (continued)
PJM tackles the problem of Jew hating Jews:
Jews who viciously condemn the Jews—the phenomenon has, lamentably, been with us for hundreds of years. In medieval and later times, famed apostates like Nicholas Donin, Abner of Burgos, Johannes Pfefferkorn, and others would convert to Christianity and then use their “inside” knowledge of Jews and Judaism to attack their former people mercilessly and ostensibly confirm all libels leveled against them.This, for me is the most important graf:
Particularly since 1977, when, for the first time, the right wing won an Israeli election, prominent Israeli leftists like Amos Oz, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Zeev Sternhell, David Grossman, and many others have not been content merely to insist obsessively that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is a primal sin. They also make a point of portraying Israel—and whenever possible, in venues abroad—as a country sinking into darkness and evil. It was in the 1990s that these highbrows’ main acolyte among Israeli politicians, Shimon Peres, was the driving force behind the disastrous “Oslo process” of appeasing terror that left thousands of Israelis dead, injured, and traumatized. By now, in the political sphere, the Israeli left has been soundly rejected by the population and is in bad shape. But the embittered leftist scribblers—concentrated in their stronghold, the Haaretz daily—keep pounding away with global, destructive criticisms.Israel has been drifting right for decades. Even the political opposition to Likud is centrist right that leftist. And here is the nut. For Jewish and Israeli leftists, they are leftists before Jews and Israelis. Muscular, well armed Jews are a social problem with the smart set. Who wants to go to those parties in Manhattan when whole armies of Jews are blasting their enemies to bits?
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Happy Hiroshima Day!
Every August 6th I get my blood up over, on one side, the Japanese who think we have something to apologize for, and the other, people in the west who think we should apologize.
Honestly, look up the Rape of Nanking, or the Burma railway, or the Battle of Manila, or...
You get the point.
The western ninnies will usually comeback with some boilerplate about stooping to the levels of our enemy, or we destroyed our conscience and morals in winning the war.
As if feeling comfortable with the means of victory was most important.
War is hell folks. Its real nice and comfortable here in the 21st century and one of the reasons for that is because we annihilated imperial Japan and Nazi Germany with biblical determination and fury.
Watch a movie like The Last Bomb, available on YouTube and Netflix. It is an Army Air Corps doc about Curtis Lemay and the 14th Air Force. Its a very technical film, showing the ins and outs of all aspects of an air raid, weather, fuel, target selection, etc. It's fascinating, and terrifying. 95% of the men in this film, the pilots, mechanics, weathermen - weren't even in the military a few years before. The 14th Air Force was an army of civilians.
To that point, there's a great moment in Colonel Kurtz's final monologue in Apocalypse now which talks about doing evil:
I’ve seen horrors, horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me. It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face. And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces, seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile, a pile of little arms. And I remember, I, I, I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized, like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God, the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men, trained cadres, these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love, but they had the strength, the strength, to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment, without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.The will to do that. In our case the 14th Air Force was the Vietcong, as Kurtz would say, 'dropping fire on people from the sky'. Men who had families, who had children, who were filled with love. The men of the 14th Air Force, in the raid depicted in The Last Bomb, killed tens of thousands in that raid. Veterans of the great raids of that war reported the paint seared off the bottom of their B-29s, reported the smell of burning meat from 10,000 feet. The 14th Air Force did evil, true evil against evil. The army of good, serving a good nation rained biblical destruction upon an enemy that started a war that the United States did not want. And those men went home and did things like desegregate the military, pass the Civil Rights Act and create Medicare. Some in the comfortable 21st century are uncomfortable with the acts of those men. Fools
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