Saturday, January 30, 2016

God Bless Cecil Rhodes

Over at No Pasaran, a victory in the culture wars for common sense:
Panicked Oxford Cancels “Completely Barking” Mad Decision to Remove Rhodes Statue After Alumni Threaten to Withdraw Millions
Cecil Rhodes founded a relatively benign colonial state that produced diamonds and was a net exporter of food.  Oh, by the way, he founded a scholarship program which specifically forbade racial qualifications.

I've said before that Africa is filled with crap-hole nations. One of my favorite units to teach is about post-colonial Africa and the HW assignment is finding two tin-pot, whack-job dictators and doing a write-up on them.

The list is broad and deep, Amin, Nkruma, Mengitsu, Mugabe, Mobuto, and on and on.

By 1980 not one African country had had a peaceful transition of power and the continent had bee torn apart by war. These include Congo, Angola, Rhodesia, Chad, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique and on and on.

So, you don't lie Cecil Rhodes? Name one African dictator who was a better ruler. One. You can't.

Colonialism's legacy? What a bunch of bull. Plenty of places were colonies that don't change governments via machete and Ak-47, take India for example, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, even South Africa.

The damn blighted continent was better off under the likes of Rhodes than Mugabe. And God bless Ian Smith too.

Rename This!

Over at Politico, a great article about the 'Great Renaming Craze':


Today, many Americans are more likely to shrug at Jefferson’s liberalism than revere it. And FDR’s worshipful invocation of it will strike some people as blinkered. What about the interned Japanese-Americans, or the Jews turned away on the passenger ship St. Louis? We, too, like to think that our generation can see Jefferson in ways that intervening generations couldn’t—but for us, it’s his slaveholding and long relationship with his slave mistress, Sally Hemings, whose importance we are able to recognize.

One can do this with any historical figure. Sure Lincoln freed the slaves, but what was his stance on Women's suffrage? Wanna talk about some of the things Gandhi thought? How 'bout Woodrow Wilson? 


Once I was teaching about Margaret Thatcher. One of the assignments for that unit is for students to go home and look up people who hate Margaret Thatcher. Someone breathlessly exclaimed, 'But she was anti-gay rights!'

I replied, 'Honey, it was 1985. We were all anti-gay rights.'

As I try to explain to students, the past is another country, they do things differently there. More importantly, one day your grand kids will want to know why you thought something that seemed perfectly reasonable in 2000, but in 2060 makes you a monster.

Go ahead, try it.

Why doesn't this generation of students understand that. Who are these 'social studies' teachers that didn't get this lesson across to them?

The education system has failed.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Red Shirts

Well, I finally finished John Scalzi's Red Shirts, easily one of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read.

I like the way he used farcical humor and dark comedy. The story was good, combined with the three codas it was unforgettable.

Like his Old Man's War, Red Shirts is a classic.

A lot of Red Shirts was actually about writers and writing, which I found interesting, because, well, you know. Scalzi, it turns out worked on Star Gate Universe and swears he wasn't lampooning the show. Which I believe.

Star Trek TNG was clearly his target.

One of the sub-plots was writer's block. A script writer, after learning the truth of what he was writing, wasn't able to write anymore. This seems like the only plausible excuse for a pro to ever have writer's block.

Since I started writing seriously in 2001 I've never stopped. I must have churned out a quarter of a million words last year. Its all I do. All day, 7 days a week. Ok, I don't get much done after the 2-3 PM hour, but you get my point.

Not long ago Kathy Shaidle lambasted a 'feminist' 'writer' for saying she only gets 10 good ideas a year. Jesus Christ I get ten a day.

I'm wrapping up one novel, working on another, editing a history book, writing this, and still all I can think about is novels yet written.

Writers block?

Don't quit your day job, man.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Awaken This!

Ok, finally dug out here and saw The Force Awakens.

A few thoughts:

-They basically remade Episode IV
-Which is fine
-I like Ray, Po, Finn, BB-8 etc
-Kylo Ren is very interesting
-Who is Snoke?
-Love what they did with Luke and the end, even though I saw it coming, well done.
-Carrie Fischer was stiff, but in this role it worked
-Harrison Ford hammed it up, he practically winked at the camera
-Maybe that's what the role needed
-They allowed Brits to be good guys for once
-Thinking about The Force Awakens in relation to the other movies presented a few problems for me
-Taking The Force Awakens as it is and on its own its a great movie.

Well done, J.J. Abrams.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Meet Mike C.

Mike C.  really doesn't like my books. He trashed Operation Arctic Storm. He hated it so much he went and bought Operation Eastern Storm too. Sucks to be me. Today he stopped by this little blog to let me know how much I suck.

By happenstance Mike C. seems to live in NJ. He spends a lot of time in Edison, NJ, and really doesn't like businesses there. Now these reviews are interesting. Well written and articulate. Got some education there, I would guess a lot. A DHS reference...now that really makes a man think.

Like I said, he's in Edison A LOT. I think he may live much, much closer than Edison.

Thanks for stopping by, Mike C.

Oh, what makes me think I'm a good writer? I'm in the top ten in my category on three different continents. While you are posting (semi) anonymously on my blog.

Thanks again!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Bush was a wimp. No not that one...

I've written here before about the Bush's, 41 and 43. Bush 41 was unfairly castigated as a wimp, anyone care to look up the footage of him being pulled out of the Pacific? But maybe it was 43 who was the real wimp.

Let me explain.

Throughout his two terms, W was constantly on the defensive. This was more true in the 2nd term than the first. I consoled myself with the notion that in the scope of history W's record would speak for itself. I think it does, and I think his reputation is improving.

Problem is, W was an establishment guy and when he took office in 2001 the GOP has been on teh defensive for five years, see 'Medi-scare'. Bush's brain, Karl Rove countered Dem scare tactics by recruiting locally known candidates and not doing anything to rock the boat too much. It worked, but it was defensive in nature.  This is best illustrated by the 2003 tax cut. Bush has just won a stunning victory overthrowing Saddam Hussein. He should be going for the political jugular here. Instead he reduced marginal rates by a few points here and there. Oh wow.

This defensive stance was Bush's biggest political mistake. During the dark days of the battle for Iraq, 2005-2006 the administration would never fight back. They kept repeating the mantra, 'as the Iraqi Army stands up, we'll stand down' and kept making rational arguments about foreign policy, consequences if we leave Iraq (which have been proven correct, btw).The Dems just kept saying 'Bush lied, people died' etc.

Bush, Rove, and myself even should have fought back by the Dems rules, 'Why do you want al-Qaeda to win?' should have been out reply.'Why do you want to lose the war?'

Bush was too defensive, and in retrospect that makes HIM seem like a wimp.


Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Jack This, Balding Boomers

Everything about this is true:

This movie was a sensation at the time. I recall the initial marketing campaign showed clips of Forrest meeting Kennedy, LBJ, etc, etc. CGI like that was a big deal in 1994.

The Honest Trailer guys really never get to the crux of the matter: this movie is an excuse for Baby Boomer masturbatory nostalgia. Its all there, the bucolic 50's,the turbulent 60's, the me 70's, what always caught my attention was all little pop references in the 80's sequences. 'Shit happens' Forrest said.

Is the movie any good? I haven't watched it since 1995 and have no intention of doing so. Mostly Forrest Gump is just a Boomer to make us watch them jack off to their fading memories. There was a great discussion on CNN in '94 between Pat Buchanan and some Limey. The later argued that the movie's message was 'be dumb'. Buchanan argued that Robert Zmeckus had inadvertently made a very conservative movie. Mr. Buchanan was right.

And the cliches, oh the cliches. Even in 1994 the angry Vietnam Vet was old news.  I wrote a Vietnam vet into A Line through the Desert, but he wasn't angry he was just boring because, you guessed it, he couldn't shut the hell up about Vietnam.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Extrapolations

Some advise on writing alternate history. Interesting piece.

I've got two alt hist novels out now and a bunch more coming. One of the problems, or challenges I guess, is coming up with the point of divergence (POD).

I have in the works (percolating in my head, that is) a novel called Pershing's War: 1919 about the Great War continuing and the Allied effort falling primarily to the AEF. I'm intrigued by the idea of the AEF pushing into the Saar and Ruhr. The book would be about Pershing and some of his subordinates, also a young Patton, Marshall, MacArthur, etc...

So the POD is the breakdown of armistice negotiations.  OK, fine. But how do you get to THAT point? Aha!

I've liked the idea, also, of an 1871 POD where America joins the Franco Prussian War, probably with the Brits. I have no idea how to make that happen, and until I find a POD that's doable I won't write it.

Aside from the above mentioned 10 mistakes alt history writers makes, there should be a 10 mistakes 'future history' or just plain sci-fi writers. Extrapolating is my pet peeve. That is, take things as they are now and simply assume that progression of events will continue. I mentioned Soylent Green the other day, and that's certainly what they did in that movie.  In the source book, Make Room, Make Room, Harry Harrison is actually doing the opposite. He wrote it in the mid 60s and that was still an optimistic time.

Things are bad, let's assume they get worse. In the 1980's there were people who assumed that by now Japan would rule the world and we'd all be using the yen.

Let's take current controversies, Muslim immigration and birth rates and assume in 50 years Europe has become Eurabia. Why not? Of course, I remember the oil shocks and 'peak oil'. How'd that work out? Which is why when I read the incomparable Mark Steyn, I take heart. We can't extrapolate right? Right?

To Defend the Earth II

That's the title. If some one can come up with something else I'm all ears.

I have a couple of chapter ideas popping here. One a bush pilot in Africa during the Jai invasion. The other a Jai intelligence analyst aboard one of the Pole Ships as they're approaching earth.

Writing like mad here, lots of ju-ju. 65,000 words and counting. The Indian navy attacking Ceres is about done. Almost down with my Fed prepper story and starting a new one about average people hunkering down the night of Arrival.

Completed:

-Sarah Jayne Wayne or messing with the Wrong Girl Scout Troop
-Craziest Ivan
-Freezing Aftermath
-Officers Dialogue

This book will be published late this year.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Great Sci Fi

So I just finished 2001, the novel that is. Just wonderful. And the ending is so much better than the incomprehensible version in the movie.

This had put in me in mind of of the greatest science fiction movies ever. Below is my list. My criteria can be described as a series of questions. Is the movie watchable? Does the movie speculate about the future? I'm not including Star Trek, because I don't think the movies really do this. Nor does Star Wars which isn't really science fiction.

Serenity: Speculates about the future and brings up troubling questions about the quest for Utopia. Brilliantly creates a space western atmosphere.
2010: So much better than 2001. Lots of drama bugging out of Jupiter. The reconciliation with HAL, a computer, mind you, is moving. Ok, in 1985 people thought we'd be on the verge of war with the Soviets and that's a well done backdrop.
The 5th Element: I love how it takes something in our past and connects it to the future. The look and feel are unique, though this is a product of Luc Besson being French rather than innovative, futuristic thinking. The movie predicts a bright future that isn't Utopia.
Soylent Green: Pedestrian police drama taking place in the year 2022. The world is choked with people and pollution. The book is better of course, but visually this world is quite stunning and believable.
Children of Men: Speaking of depressing futures...the director missed the point of the book but his depiction of a world slowly dying out because there are no more children rings true. The feel of the movie is a directorial triumph.
Enders Game: Great adaptation of a classic book. Ben Kingsley, whose been mailing it in since 1982, gives a great performance. Grapples with difficult moral questions without being preachy. Love the twist at the end.
Forbidden Planet: Asks simply, where does all this technology take us and how far can we go? Aesthetically interesting.
War of the Worlds: Not the Tom Cruise version, god no. The combat sequence is exceptional, very detailed and holds up well even in this day and age.

Feel free to chime in, gentle readers.

Friday, January 15, 2016

World War 1990: Operation Eastern Storm

Announcing publication of World War 1990: Operation Eastern Storm. Amazon Kindle and Nook. We actually begin with Operation Pacific Storm, then lots of intrigue in Europe, an invasion or too, a popular revolt, and finally, a daring SAS raid to spring a certain Polish dissident.

You'll find some maps to the right.

Enjoy

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

2001

As noted below, I've been reading Arthur C. Clarke's masterful 2001: A Space Odyssey. All I can say is Clarke's reputation is well deserved and his work is making me reconsider the way I approach my job.

One of the things I had forgotten in the last 15 years, was how futuristic 2001 seemed. Clarke put the year on the map, so to speak and in the 70's, 80's and 90's, 2001 the year, not the movie, was synonymous with technological progress and futurism.

By the time we got to 2001 life was a lot better than say, 1951. The space race had stopped. We had no bases on the moon or space stations, but one could see tech everywhere. The internet, flat screen TVs, Ipods, these were the first truly futuristic technological advances, at least for people my age who grew up watching the Jetsons.

So 2001 was a marker in the future.

September 11th changed all that.

Personally when I think of 2001 I recall a hot summer in and later cold autumn in an isolated farm house in NJ.

Thinking back now, I recall dial up modems, an internet where social networking didn't exists and blogs were still in the underground. Rather than futuristic, 2001 seems stuck in the 1990's.

Mostly, its a year stolen from us from Islamic terrorism.

Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, 2001 was not.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Two Thousand and One Predictions

Last night, on my new Kindle Fire, I started reading 2001. The movie of course is incomprehensible but I'm hooked on the book.

Arthur C. Clarke makes some interesting predictions.  He says in 2001 there are 6 billion people on Earth and pundits are worried about a looming food crisis. Today there are 7 billion humans on earth and our problem is that everyone is too fat. Clarke was writing this in the mid-60's.

This reminds me of another mid-60s sci-fi classic: Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! The novel takes place in 1999 and describes a hopelessly over crowded America, with tens of millions of people residing in Manhattan alone. Food and water rationing is a part of ever day life.  At the end we learn that America's population is upwards of 350 million.

Interestingly both men write about a China on the verge of superpower status.

So one prediction wrong one right.

Here's something else that Clarke predicts. In 2001 he has Dr. Haywood Floyd flying to the moon and holding a device that seems suspiciously like a Tablet or Surface with a screen filled with thumbnail icons representing various papers around the world which he need only tap to open and read...

Monday, January 11, 2016

Battle Extraordinaire: Flash Gordon Edition

I've always loved Flash Gordon. Its kitchy and cheesy and schmaltzy. Its supposed to be. For my money the Hawkman attack on the war rocket is well done. Behold:

I think the secret to a great battle sequence is a lot of action. What I mean is a lot of soldiers getting shot and falling. A lot of bodies about, and a lot of movement in the back ground. Supplement this with lasers, explosions and one gets a major assault on the senses.

You get a lot of that here.

One of the aspects of this sequence that I think works really well is the Hawkmen having to establish a foothold on the rocket and then having to blow a hole in the hull and fight their way inside.

Enjoy.

John J. Pershing Commanded the AEF and I Didn't

Interesting piece:

It’s an old question: Does one have to have military experience to write and teach military history? Panelists at the American Historical Association’s annual meeting, all of them military veterans and academics, offered fresh perspectives on the matter here Thursday. And while their responses differed somewhat, a common thread emerged: strong evidence and scholarship and -- hopefully -- good writing should matter more than personal insight.
Yep.

I never served, which hasn't stopped be from writing hundreds of thousands of words about military history, war, armies and generals.

Right now I'm wrapping up an 80,000 + word history of John J. Pershing and the AEF in the First World War. Here I am, a hundred years later, issuing summary judgements about General Pershing's decisions. He made a lot of bad ones. I write that having never marched in mud or carried a rifle, much less fired one.

And I don't hesitate for a second.

I know everything about that war and the AEF and Pershing didn't. How could he? Did he have access to the hundreds of memoirs of the AEF? Or the after action reports? Or the simple perspective that comes with time?

One of the aspects of the A-bomb debate, and its only a debate for a pathetic few, is the explanations offered by the revisionists. But the Japanese were willing to surrender! But they just wanted to keep the emperor! Yes, all this is true, but in 1945, Harry Truman didn't know that.

This phenomenon is as annoying as the fallacy of the pre-determined outcome. Yes, yes, had the runner advanced to third he could have scored on the batter's deep drive to left....




Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Baseball

Hall of Fame Announcements are in a few hours.

I'd vote in Tim Raines, he was a dominant player in the 80s and 90s and the best lead off hitter this side of Ricky Henderson. I'd also vote in Curt Schilling; just about the best money pitcher I've seen. Tough bastard. He broke my hear twice.

Piazza and Griffey should be obvious.

As for Bagwell, he was on the piss wasn't he? Mussina? Its called the Hall of Fame not the Hall of pretty good. Jeff Kent was also on the piss, and in a steroids era his numbers just don't impress me that much.

As for Bonds, Clemens, McGuire, they can wait or rot, I really don't care.

Why Hello There!

Lot's of Saudi visitors the last few days. Wonder why? C'mon guys, drop me a line!

Monday, January 4, 2016

In which Life Imitates Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea, Iran Saudi Arabia Edition

In Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea, the Saudi Prince Regent orders an attack on Iranian facilities in the Persian Gulf. This includes an air raid on the main Iranian naval base at Bandar Abbas and marine landings on several Iranian held islands.


Well, well well. With the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric followed by the storming of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran tensions are high, of course.

All I can say is please god, let there be a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Please. It would be the best thing for the region and the world. And it would be fun watching the two Islamic rivals bash each-other senseless.

As to the match-up, let's take a look here.

We are anticipating a maritime engagement. One doubts if the Saudi Army would go overland through Kuwait, say to engage the Iranian Army, and vice-versa.

Now, the Royal Saudi Air Force packs considerable punch with 9 squadrons of F-15 Eagles, 4 Squadrons of Typhoon Euro-fighters, and three squadrons of Tornado fighter bombers, as well as support aircraft. The navy boasts eleven frigates and corvettes and three mine sweepers. While older, these ships have the latest technological upgrades.

The Iranian air force is old and outdated. They're still flying F-14 Tomcats, F-4 Phantoms, F-5 Tigers, and F-7 Shenyang's. Assuming they're aggressive and competent, the Saudi's could easily sweep the Iranian air force from the skies. The Iranian navy does employ several modern frigates and destroyers, but most of its effort seems to have been directed toward producing dozens of small missile craft. There are also seven submarines includes three older Soviet Kilo models.

On paper the Iranians don't stand a chance.

One would expect the Iranians to employ Qods Force, Revolutionary Guards, and even Hezbollah assets against Saudi Arabia and her interests.

In retaliation the Saudis could seize Iranian assets in the Gulf.

 Enjoy!


Friday, January 1, 2016

Predictions: 2016

-Hillary Clinton will not be the Democrat Party nominee for President
-She will drop out of the race and site 'health reasons'
-Chelsea Clinton will lay the groundwork for running for office in New York State, possibly as the successor to Senator Charles Schummer
-Joe Biden will be the Democrat Party nominee for President
-Marco Rubio will be the next President of the United States
-Governor Nikki Haley will be the next Vice President of the United States
-Israel and Hezbollah will fight ten years after the last fight
-The economy will slip into recession
-Justin Trudeau will become a laughing stock
-Vladimir Putin will take the measure of Trudeau and shift his emphasis to the Arctic
-Everywhere Social Justice Warriors will be on the defensive
-The New England Patriots will win the Superbowl
-The Washington Nationals will win the World Series.