Wednesday, May 31, 2017

USA-SA

Seeing a lot of traffic from South Africa lately.

Someone over there get hold of a copy of Castro's Folly?

Drop me a line, guys.

Alt-Hist-Ken

We'll, we're commemorating the hundredth anniversary of President Kennedy's birth. He's only a hundred? Jeez it feels like he's been around a lot longer than that.

Kennedy was already a legend by the time we became aware of the man with the 20th anniversary of his assassination in 1983.

Many have wondered what would have transpired had Kennedy lived. We've heard some very absurd claims, from no Vietnam War to an early end to the Cold War. Neither one of these ideas makes any sense to anyone who knows anything about either conflict.

For my money, if Kennedy lives very little changes. He defeats Goldwater in '64, although not by Johnson's margin. From then on its full-60's away. All those forces that brought Johnson low were already at work before Kennedy was assassinated. And the Vietnam War? Well, all the people who were giving Johnson bad advice - Clifford, Taylor, McNamara - were already giving Kennedy bad advice.

By 1968 we're left with the same bitter, divided, exhausted country. We suppose Johnson would have run, but doubt he'd have gotten very far. Most likely we'd have seen a showdown between the old time Dems, represented by Humphrey, and the new anti-war Dems represented by McCarthy. Not only are they frustrated with the war, they're frustrated with Kennedy's slow pace of change. These folks have no use for Humphrey. We think McCarthy wins.  On the GOP side Nixon's still the one and can plausibly run on a campaign slogan of 'I told you so'. He handily defeats McCarthy.

Maybe having won a convincing victory in '68 Nixon doesn't feel he has to worry about '72. Or, given Tricky Dick's personality quirks, does nothing change?

50 Years of '67 Victory

So this week Israel is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 6 Day War. Those curious can read about it in my own brief military history of Israel, Israel at War.

Basically, with Egypt and Syria threatening to annihilate Israel, and assembling forces in the Sinai and Golan respectively, Israel launched a sneak attack which destroyed the air forces of both nations. From there Israel forces advanced onto the Sinai and destroyed the Egyptian Army. After a few days Israel soldiers were swimming in Suez Canal. They followed up this victory by taking the Golan from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan, all in 6 Days.

The 6 Day War removed the existential threat to Israel and in its own way set the stage for peace with Egypt.

Of course the Yom Kippur War was far more interesting and hotly contested. Readers may also learn about the Yom Kippur war in Israel at War.

Today Israel faces no conventional military threat. Egypt has no interest in war. Saudi Arabia has a decent sized and well armed military but their anti-Israeli machinations are strictly pro-forma. Everything the Saudis do military is directed against the Iranian threat. Iran is Israel's real worry, Iran and her Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon.

50 years later the existential threat has returned.

From Israel at War:
This study is a collection of essays about the Arab sand Israelis at war since 1947 to the present day. The first half of the study details the conventional Arab-Israeli Wars, the reasons for Israeli victory and more importantly, the underlying causes of Arab defeat. The second half of this study describes Israel's struggles with non-state actors; that is, the well- armed and trained terrorist groups bent on Israel's destruction. The Arab-Israeli Wars were essentially a nationalistic conflict, while the terror wars of the 2000s and beyond have taken on the character of a religious crusade for Israel's enemies. As of this writing, (winter 2015) there is no reason to believe that the conflict will not continue.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

23 and All of me

So I sprung for one of them-thar DNA ancestry tests. Here are the results:

This jives with everything known about our family history, right down to that 2.9 % French-German, as a great great something or other came from Alsace or some such.

On my father's side they're 94.6 percent Ashkenazim Jew which is remarkable. Even today my father and grandfather have a Mediterranean look to them the result of  centuries and millennia of not-interbreeding. Until now; witness by my Anglo-Scottish mother. Nice going there dad.

We also have DNA relatives in Britain,  Israel, and interestingly, Australia. Ye to the Empire and Commonwealth.

Frau Merkel is Right

Via the Telegraph:
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has indicated Europe can no longer completely rely on its American and British allies in the wake of Brexit and the election of US President Donald Trump, declaring the continent's destiny is in "our own hands".
Of course America and Britain twice allied to fight the Hun, and later agreed that the Hun must be kept down, hence NATO.

Frankly, we're delighted by Frau Merkel's declaration and amused by the idea that a lot of Continentals are going to suddenly rediscover the military arts and defend themselves. Putin must be laughing his ass off.

Of course during the Cold War the United States kept an army of a quarter of a million men in Germany while the British had their own Army of the Rhine. West Germany contributed ten armored and mech divisions to their own defense. Today the Krauts field two panzer divisions and something called a Rapid Forces Division, because we all know that when there's trouble German Euro-weenies are the first on the ground.

Why just look at the krauts in Afghanistan:
[German troops] drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan.
While British and U.S. troops in the country face a strict ban on alcohol, their German comrades are allowed two pints a day.
The stunning statistics reveal that in 2007 German forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7 million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine.

Not long after 9/11 many of us noticed that the English speaking peoples were doing the heavy lifting. American troops went into Afghanistan of course, but also Brits, Canadians, Australians etc. This was typical going back to the Great War. This alliance of the English Speaking Peoples was simply part of the landscape and not even worth mentioning, The alliance was so typical as to be unremarkable.

Of course we kept fighting against bad ideas that originated with the Germans.

So good luck Frau Merkel. Two Panzer divisions, eh? Not only can't you stop a Russian invasion, you can't even stop a Polish invasion.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Memorial Day Universal

One of the features of memorial day is the spate of hand-ringing articles about the nation's lack of shared sacrifice.

Hey, when I was a kid everyone's grandfather had been in the war. A few of our dads had been in Vietnam. I know two guy from my graduating class that went into the service.

Look, folks, we as a nation decided after the Vietnam War to do away with the draft. That leaves us with a military somewhat separated form the rest of the nation. It's an all volunteer, professional military and since the mid-1980's its been the best military we've ever had. In training, equipment, leadership, the army of Desert Storm would run circles around Patton's Third Army, or Pershing's AEF, or Sherman's Army of the Tennessee.

Of course there are highly trained militarizes that rely on the draft. We're thinking of the Israelis, where everyone, serves, even cute 18 year old girls. Just Google it! of course Israel is a nation under siege.

The British managed to run 2/5ths of the world with an all-volunteer military.

After the Civil War, the United States conquered the west with a few thousand cavalry.

So large, conscript military establishments aren't always necessarily.

Going back to a conscript military has all kinds of social benefits a leveling effect if you will. But doing so would impact the military in some negative ways. For instance, you'd have a military loaded with lots of people who really don't want to be there.

So make your choice.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Editing ANZACs

Well we opened up World War 1990: ANZACs for the first time in a month and found a mess.

We've had to pull apart all of the Haiphong operation and are in the process of throwing it all back together. Also somewhere along the line we forgot Strunk and White's most import admonition: omit needless words.

We press on.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Slam This

So, Montana Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte body-slammed Guardian Reporter Ben Jacobs. We looked up Jacobs, despite writing for al Guardian he seems nice enough.

It looks like Gianforte won by 7 in a state Trump won by 20. This comes in a special election where the Dems nominated an interesting folksinger-cowboy type and the base was highly motivated to stick to Trump.

We believe this is the 3rd special election where the Dems came up short.

Win somewhere guys before you talk about taking the House and Senate 18 months from now.

Exit question: did body-slamming Jacobs help or hurt Gianforte?

I'd vote for him.

Nothing personal, Ben.

Friday Updates

Alert readers have noticed blogging has been light.

Apologies. We're editing WW1990 ANZACs which is coming along.

The Austrian Painter is 25,000 words and coming along.

Maybe something with Pershing in Command. Who knows?

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Architectural Update

My brother in law designed this...

The Austrian Painter's Culture

What is happening in this world of 1964 where Germany is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Great War and its victory over France?

While the world is far different geo-politically, we've concluded culturally it is very similar to our own 1964 with most of the same forces at work.

After all, this 1964 still had a great depression, America still had a major war (in the Pacific). Germany finds itself fighting a few colonial conflicts while it maintains a an Eastern European alliance against Russia, though the threat of Armageddon does not loom as this world has no nuclear weapons.

Our protagonist is at his favorite watering hole (enjoying tea and a piece of cake) watching a television program, in this the BBC's new history of the Great Pacific War, when some long haired, ill-kept youth walk in. Naturally our protagonist is miffed.

His new neighbor enjoys art as well, but much to the dismay of our  neo-classical influenced protagonist she enjoyed the modern work of Jackson Pollack and other abstract expressionists. Yes, we've giving ourselves a crash course in art.

Don't even get him started on the music, those damn long-haired kids from Liverpool...

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

President Trump to Netanyahu, Abass...

...Let teach you guys about the art of the deal.

Everyone else tries to achieve Mideast peace, why not President Trump?

That's not really what we want to talk about though.

We just saw an idiotic headline, 'Why Mideast Peace is so hard to achieve' or some such. The reader gets the general idea.

Some dumb-ass Millennial who just read an FP article about the region wrote that headline.

Jesus Christ, which sees appropriate.

Look at the damn place. PJ O'Rourke once laughed at the fact that in the region one drives past Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, Ottoman and British forts. To paraphrase, a drive along the coast is a history of failed foreign policy initiatives.

Try keeping track of the Syrian Civil War. You have the Allawite Gov vs ISIS, vs Sunnis, vs, Shia, vs Kurds, vs the Druze, with the Turks thrown in because without them things get a  little staid and boring.

Again, PJ O'Rourke, 'It's just easier for everyone to hate Israel.' Or as me old man used to say, 'Nuke the whole goddamn place'.

Tuesday Tally

Movies about the White Working Class

This is the forgotten demo, these are the Trump voters. Here are a few timely and timeless movies about young, white working class men.

The Outsiders: We watched this recently for the first time in decades. It was a big deal in 1983, and we think may well have begun the 50's nostalgia we endured in our youth. Basically you got a bunch of no-future white kids in small town Oklahoma. Patrick Swazye is the adult of the group, working a construction job, but even he joins the brawl against the Socs at the end. The Socs, that is the Socials, these are the preps and jocks with nice cars and cheerleader girlfriends. The Socs are seemingly the enemy of Patrick Swayze and his greaser pals. But the real enemy is time and place. Two greasers (Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise if you can believe it) are working at a gas station. Emilio Esteves is a lay about clown. We're meant to sympathize with Swayze's little brother Pony Boy and his buddy Johnny Cade played by Ralph Machio. Johnny Cade with an abusive father is doomed even before he knifes a Soc. The girls are just going to love Pony Boy, especially after he dyes his hair blond. Then there's Dallas, played expertly by Matt Dillon. He's a dropout and criminal, destined to head back to the klink if he isn't killed first. The feel of the film is perfect post-war Midwest. Well done Mr. Coppola.

Breaking Away: More Midwest, this time in Bloomington, Indiana a university town. Once more the successful kids (at IU) are seemingly the enemy and once more the enemy is really time and circumstance. It's September and four childhood friends have graduated HS and don't know what to do with themselves. There's a sliding scale of hopelessness here, Dennis Christopher likes biking and all things Italian. He'd like to do something else with his life but is not sure what. Daniel Stern has a sense that there's more to life but being a towney but has no idea how to find it. Dennis Quaid was the HS QB and now he's nobody. He realizes at 19 the best years of his life are past him. Jackie Earl Haley, and it wouldn't be a 70's film without him, doesn't know of a wider world and doesn't care anyway. He gets hitched at the end of the film. This movie is about place, and aspiration. The movie is it's title. Dated? Sure. Timeless? Yes.

Saturday Night Fever: Boy has this film ever evolved. It perfectly invoked the 70's down to the clothes and music and was completely out of place in the 1980's. We would have beaten the crap out of someone for listening to the Bee Gees in 1988. John Travolta is another working class kid, just out of HS with a job at a paint store. He loves to dance but is constrained by his environment. His father is out of work, his mother is heartbroken that his brother has left the priesthood. Grandma lives with them and only speaks Italian. He's got the same bunch of no future friends, with the dumbest having knocked up his girlfriend. Modern viewers will be aghast at the ethnic chauvinism and misogyny. This is really a rough movie abut New York in the 70's and nearly as dark as Taxi Driver.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Lemmy said it Best

The current cover of Time Magazine:

Is Time insinuating that Trump is converting to Russian Orthodox?

That's St, Basil's Cathedral, shithead.

The cover was made by Brobol Design. Click on the link and you'll see they swiped the idea from Mad Magazine, which uses the onion dome concept to hilarious effect. This of course is Brobol Design's after the fact attempt to explain their plagiarism. The link and added publicity ought to be enough to prevent a legal action on MAD's part.

By the why, readers will see both the Kremlin and St. Basil's in World War 1990: The Final Storm.

Inspired by Brobol Design, here's a little song I just came up with:



We'll leave the gentle reader with the words of Lemmy (second frame):






In Which Trump Imitates Stroock

So in both Israel Strikes and Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea the Saudis are an integral part of Israel's war with Iran. Much of this is the work of a reform minded prince. Well:
The United States sealed a multi-billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia, the White House announced on Saturday, a move that solidifies its decades-long alliance with the world's largest energy producer just as President Donald Trump begins his maiden trip abroad as leader of the free world.
The agreement, which is worth $350 billion over 10 years and $110 billion that will take effect immediately, was hailed by the White House as "a significant expansion of…[the] security relationship" between the two countries.
For our own part, and we must have noted this sentiment here before, we'd be happy if ISIS decapitated the entire Royal Family and blew the country to bits. Be that as it may this strikes us as a wonderful deal for out economy and defense establishment, not to mention an important step on forming an anti-Iranian alliance.

We suppose some pro-Israeli folks that worry about the Saudis getting all this high tech weaponry. Don't Saudi Arabia's diplomatic opposition to Israel has always been pro-forma. They don't care, not really. Besides they both hate and fear Iran. In fact, if Israel were to attack Iran tomorrow the entire Sunni world would rejoice.

So this is a good deal for us, them, and Israel.

Oh, and we love that Ivanka and Melania went without veils.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Journey to the End

We're on a Journey kick lately, check out our FB profile pic if you don't believe us.

In our previous Journey post we noted that all the important stuff happened in the 70's and early 80's and that came to an end with 1986's Raised on Radio. Check this out:

Or this:

Sorry folks, that's adult contemporary. That's Jazz. We hate Jazz for all kinds of complicated and mostly googleable reasons.

Let's set the muzak aside. Look at those clothes and hair.

We love the band's pre-86 genuineness. They weren't cool. By 1983 those guys are all in their mid- 30's. Mid-30's has a sort of hipness cache now but we assure younger readers, in 1985 being 35 just made you middle-aged. Those were the band's own clothes you see in the videos. That's just what they wore. That was their hair. That was Steve Perry's mustache. Maybe Ross Valory told him to grow it. Drummer Steve Smith is balding, has the same beard as my dad in 1983 and is seen in the Faithfully video bringing a toddler on board the Journey jet.

Now look at those hideous videos above. Everything wrong with mid-80s fashion is there. That coat. That shirt. Steve Perry's hair. They went all in for the mid-80's cool. Their clothes in Open Arms may not have aged well but at least they were real. The clothes in All be Alright Without You have aged worse and they weren't even their own. Who told them to do this?

And don't get me started on Randy Jackson's look. American Idol, indeed.

They went on hiatus in 1987 and never really came back. Which was probably for the best given Raised on Radio.

Friday Updates

Nothing, nada from the agent about Pershing in Command.

We've fallen behind schedule with The Austrian Painter, at 17000 words, but have made a lot of intellectual breakthroughs and expect to be on track by the end of next week and at 30,000 at the end of the month. That puts us more than half way, we think.

We are plugging along with Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom, at 65,000 words.

We expect to start editing World War 1990: ANZACs next week. Should be a one week read through and then production can start. Autumn release or you can shoot me.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Dear President Trump: What Would Breitbart Do?

This is the crisis of the Turmp Administration, similar to the 'pussygate' controversy of the election.

We are at the point now where the media and the Dems and about half the GOP is pretending a fantasy world of fan-fic conspiracy theories are reality.

Given how unhinged these people were at Trump's election we should not be surprised that they think their loony theories are real.

Yet they believe Trump has mental issues.

These are people that believe Bush the Elder took a secret trip in an SR-71 Blackbird no less, to urge the Iranians to hold their American hostages till after the election. They also believe that Bush the younger was in on 9-11. Bush knew! So one supposes that they're conspiracy theories get more loonier with each Republican administration.

About half the GOP is with them on this.

So what's a Trump-man supposed to do?

All I can say is don't get down in the weeds with them arguing technical details about meetings and briefings and what not. Just keep attacking the message and the messenger.

WWBD?


Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Journey to X

We've noted in this space before that we believe the Rock and Roll HoF is a joke and that Journey's induction into same is also a joke.

Which does not mean that we don't like Journey. We do. In A Line Through the Desert, When Jake Bloom puts together a romantic mixed tape for Patricia, Journey gets two slots. Hey, that negligee isn't going to take itself off, now is it?

It works.

We like Journey, we just don't believe being a big arena rock band warrants HoF status. Actually, said criteria would be a good idea for a post.

Of course the MF Media thinks of Gen-X as a monolith but in reality it is divided into two wings identified by this simple question, 'What's your Def Leppard album?'. Mine is Hysteria (1987). The band's other massive album came out in 1983, Pyromania, at the tale of end Journey's massive success that began in 1977 with Evolution, Departure and finally the super-massive Escape and Frontiers. They even had an Atari game.

Journey got really huge in the '81-83 era. This was one of those peculiar times for rock and roll that happens once a decade or so. The form that dominated had burned out, in this case 70's hard rock and Disco, but had yet to be replaced by the form that would dominate next, in this case Heavy Metal.

We first rediscovered Journey in 2001 with the excellent Behind the Music doc on the band. The 1990's were over, already its own pile of wreckage even before 9-11 destroyed that world a few months later. People were ready to take out this stuff and take a look at it. The next year VH-1 began its hilarious I Love the 80's series.

By then Journey's music was legendary and an integral part of the Gen-X soundtrack. That soundtrack included the quasi-groovy 70's song Wheel in the Sky, the last song that links Journey to their San Fran jam-band roots. From their its pop stuff for Journey, the quasi-blues Lovin Touchin' Squeezin' and 'Lights'. They wrote  quasi-jazz songs like Whose Cryin' Now. They wrote rock anthems like the immortal Don't Stop Believin'. Of course Journey has two massive power ballads for the 1980's, Faithfully and Open Arms. Those two song on the tape deck would get you some parking lot make out time.

[Just makeout? -ed]

I wasn't to ambitious.

Anyway, Journey basically helped define the 80's sound. Neil Schon was a guitarist refugee from Santana who sure had some licks, though they sounded jazzy at times. Journey songs included heavy keyboard backing. Steve Perry and his wonderful voice made the band though, elevating them from an obscure  Bay Area jam band to the kings of arena rock.

A lot of Journey songs climb to a crescendo,  with light and easy backing geting louder and more aggressive. This is particularly true with songs like Lovin' Touchin' Squizin' and Don't stop Believing, but also the ballads like Faithfully. 'That Whoa o-o-o- at the end could be a freight train.

As noted before Steve Perry wrote love songs that were incredibly heart felt and sincere (see what I did there?). Most rock love songs are for women and tell them how pretty and special they are. Steve Perry wrote love songs for men to express themselves to those women:

So now I come to you with open arms
Nothing to hide, believe what I say
So here I am, with open arms
Hoping you'll see what your love means to me
Open arms
And of course:
I get the joy
of rediscovering you
Oh girl, you stand by me
I'm forever yours, faithfully
Both songs feature power chords and searing guitar riffs. Which is the genius of the power ballad. These are songs for men.

Journey peeked in 1983, their next few albums, though they went platinum, are unmemorable and feel at home on the soft 97.1 WSH FM adult contemporary rotation.  They represent all that is wrong with bland 80's music. By then Steve Perry had taken control of the band and dropped everybody but Schon and keyboardist Johnathon Cain. By 1990 Steve Perry was getting really weird.

I keep using the word 'quasi' to describe Journey's songs because I don't think Journey is innovative or really very interesting musically. I'm not trying to be snobby. I picked up a guitar because of Jimmy Page and once I learned to play his songs I was all, 'That's all that is?'

Journey's  just good. They made simple but powerful music that everyone can like.

Hey man, that's arena rock.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

New Pershing Video

Americanski-Ruski

I get a fair amount of traffic from Soviet....I mean Russia.

I'm really curious guys.

What brings you by?

Has my World War series made it over there?

Drop me a line.

Tuesday Tally

Top Songs for Recreating the feel of a Blue Mountain Middle School Dance ca. 1986

At the end of the film Hope and Glory, the narrator tells us that in all his years nothing ever quite matched the utter joy he felt the morning the Luftwaffe bombed his school.

We know the feeling.

We swear that the most electric place we've ever been in our lives is the middle school dances we attended in 1986 and 1987. They took place in the school cafeteria, tables and chairs removed of course. The admin brought in some pretty serious DJ equipment. Us kids were excited, bouncing and jumping around. There was a certain smell in the air, we think made by perfume girls borrowed from their mothers, and hairspray. Lot's of hairspray. Here and there a few 8th graders found a corner in which to make out. We're proud to say in May of 1988 that included us. There was once a major scandal when the two young teachers at BMMS slow danced together. My girlfriend and I did lots of that too. God we must have been gross. At 10:00, when my mom picked us up, she gave me one of the sweetest gifts I've ever gotten: a pack of baseball cards.

Oh, and to all those kids who made fun of me and Kirsten that night, fuck you.

Anyway, here's a partial list, a milieu  of songs to recreate the audio ambiance of those nights.

We had our first slow dance to that one, 11 December, 1988. Yes we remember the date. When I put my hands on a girl's hips for the first time, it was all over. That's the moment I hit puberty. It would have been some time between 9-10 PM.

It wouldn't be an 80's dance without Steve Perry, either with Journey or this glorious 80's solo work:


The guy who wrote and sings this is now better remembered for writing and singing the 7th Heaven song. But man, in 1986 this was soooo cool. I don't know of a greater 80's sentiment.

Wouldn't be the 80's without Prince, especially Let's Go Crazy.

For reasons we don't understand at everyone of these dances at 9 PM and final hour was announced via the playing of Queen's We Will Rock You. The first time we heard it it was both terrifying and awesome.


Monday, May 15, 2017

Monday Mostly Metal: Road Songs

The 'tough on the road' video was  staple of the 80's and we posted about a classic, Dead or Alive, not too long ago.

Look, folks, we know we're talking about millionaire rock stars here, but touring is hard work. These videos all have the same elements. On stage, on the bus, weary band members on and behind both, lots of slow mo. It really works in slow mo. To that end here's the best 'tough on the road videos'.

Journey:

Men in their 30's in the 1980's. Who said everything in the 80's was cool? Those guys in Journey most certainly were not cool. And they ain't ironic. Look at Steve Perry at the 2:15 mark. He's drenched in sweat. Look at him belt it out to the back row. He means it. Now, most male singers sing love songs meant for women. Steve Perry wrote love songs for men about their women.

Poison, you know the one:

That's good song writing there. C.C. Deville is a very underrated guitarist with some great riffs in this song. Don't think touring is hard? Well there's Brett Michaels getting his ankles wrapped.

You knew this one was coming, needing no intro to any child of the 80's or anyone who watched MTV:

Just a perfect video. I mean, the shot with crutches; how are you not teary eyed you inhuman monster? I wonder what the chick the who gets her shirt lifted up is doing now? She's nearing 50.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

They Weren't Born in a Small Town...

The most estimable Kyle Smith reviews a book about the White Working Class:
‘We’re voting with our middle finger,” a Trump supporter in South Carolina told a reporter last fall. No doubt.
Pretty much.

Smith describes the never ending Kulture Kampf the urban left has waged on the WWC for the last 50 years. He goes into the economic crisis faced by the WWC and offers this fascinating tidbit.
At a high school reunion, [the author's] husband returned home still using the habits he had picked up in the upper class, and it led to an uncomfortable moment. “What do you do?” he asked an old classmate. When you’re a lawyer or a financier, part of the global professional class, it’s a perfectly innocent question. Elites love to talk about their jobs, indeed define themselves by their professions. Not so the WWC. They see work devotion as an indicator of upper-class narcissism. They do the bulk of the boring, repetitive, unglamorous work, some of it physically demanding, and they don’t define themselves by their labors at all. That classmate of Williams’ husband replied spitefully, “I sell toilets.”
Now we had no idea about that, and are as guilty as anyone of asking with a confident nod, 'So what do you do?' Here's another fascinating tidbit, which we guess we kinda sort knew:
WWC women want to spend less time at work, not more. They wish they had the option of being stay-at-home moms, and even if they were men they know they wouldn’t be in the running to be CEOs. A woman from Appalachia says in the book, “I’m voting to save my boyfriend’s job."
Smith swears the author is not conducting an anthropological survey but simply trying to understand a demographic cohort  that was widely ignored by politics and culture.

This area is totally foreign to the bi-coastal elites. It's almost as if they never even heard of John Mellencamp:

John Mellencamp is a Democrat, btw, but there is no place for him in the Democrat Party.

Right now that party is run by a smarmy Jew from Brooklyn and a whackjob old lady from San Francisco. It's most visible congresscritter is Maxine Waters, who ought to be standing outside of a drug store in LA shouting things at invisible animals. Schummer actually made a speech at Trump's inauguration where he invoked something called 'gender identity', which he doesn't really mean.

There's no hope for them.

Friday, May 12, 2017

Friday Updates

Nothing on Pershing in Command and we are reaching conclusion here.

The Austrian Painter is 14,000 words as Mrs. Stroock had emergency meeting in San Diego that required dramatic Redeye flights, leaving us to manage three blondes. All things considered falling a thousand words behind aint that bad.

Still plugging on Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom, or I guess, Jake is plugging on Patricia, anyway. [you wish, jerk-ed]

We are thinking the next novel will be titled, 'A Ride Through Mexico'.

Tiger's Tail: Fire From the Sly

'I do not need Nuclear Weapons!' exclaimed Commander, US Forces, Korea. 'I need time.'
'You don't have it,' Defense Secretary Mattis replied.

As South Korean forces gathered in Seoul, Uijongbu and on the Han River, the Trump Administration made he still controversial decision to fly into Korea units of the 82nd Airborne Division.  As the battle of Uijonhbu was beginning, one brigade of the division was airlifted to Inchon International Airport with no heavy equipment. Units of the brigade debarked and proceeded across the causeway to shore A second brigade was just a few hours behind.

For three days American, South Korean, and Japanese air power mercilessly hammered North Korean logistics. Everywhere throughout the peninsula one heard the sound of aircraft. After the first day of the war these were almost universally friendly and in their quest to gain air superiority, Allied air forces scored an impressive 133-7 kill record.

Command and control targets throughout the north were hammered by sustained Tomahawk strikes. One spectacular strike leveled party headquarters and the presidential palace in Pyongyang. But the main effort fell upon North Korean logistics running to the south.

By the end of the 3rd day of the war these strikes had taken their toll on the North Koreans. It is now known that North Korean armor and mechanized units were short of fuel and ammunition. Supply trucks that entered the Red Triangle had a 50/50 chance of making it to the front. During the 4th day of the war, North Korean troops , never particularly well fed, were actually going hungry.

Indeed it was North Korea's sustained food shortages that great hampered their sabotage efforts...

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Tigers Tail: The Red Triangle Looms

As the U.S. Second Infantry Division was fighting its way into the pantheon of American military history the South Korean VI Corps grimly held in the Uijongbu Corridor to the east, while the South Korean I Corps did the same in the Munson Corridor to the west.

The the west he brunt of the first day's effort fell to the ROK 1st Infantry division which by nightfall was fought out by successive waves of North Korean armor. Though exhausted the division fell back in good order and passed the defense of the Munson Corridor to the ROK 25th Infantry Division. Fearing another nuclear strike commanders here deployed their battalions in open formation. Thought partially protected from a nuclear blast, the dispersed formation was less able to absorb the blows form the North Koreans. Several North Korean formations, some battalion sized slipped through the 25th Infantry Division's lines and engaged the ROK 9th Infantry Division. With rear area formations now under attack, South Korean commanders believed the communists had achieved a mass breakthrough and ordered the I Corps to retreat to the South Bank of the Han River. This left the ROK 25th Division in lurch and began a saga of fighting retreat rivaling that of the U.S. X Corps at Chosin during the last war.

In the Uijongbu Corridor the VI Corps of three infantry divisions was steadily pushed south by concerted North Korean pressure. It seemed that despite the massive losses inflicted by American and South Korean air power, the communists just kept coming. By the end of the second day the ROK 6th Infantry division was pushed off to the east, while the 3rd and 8th Infantry Divisions struggled to keep their formations coherent as they pulled back south through the corridor. Both divisions regrouped along the ridge just north of Seoul and running west to Uijongbu, which was now occupied by the Capitol Infantry, or Tiger Division. The 17th Infantry Division came up form Seoul and occupied a hill to the Southwest of Uijongbu, thus protecting the capitol but leaving open Uijongbu's left flank.

By dawn of the third day the battle map showed a giant, red inverse triangle bracketed by the Han River in the west, with its point bearing down on Seoul. While the government there evacuated to Daejon 75 miles to the south, the President remained in Seoul where he was in constant contact with the Trump administration.

Even as American B-1 and B-2 Bombers hammered North Korean logistics, and wave after wave of Tomahawk missile swarmed over the DMZ the South Korean President demanded, 'Where are your troops! Where are your troops!'

'Those decisions are being made,' President Trump replied.
'We are dying,' replied the South Korean President. 'Must I ask the Japanese for help?'
'What is it you would like me to do?' President Trump asked.
'Mr. President, my Minister of Defense has prepared a list of twenty five targets he believes suitable for nuclear attack...'

If you like Tiger's Tail, you'll love Israel Strikes.

Stephen Kolburt is a Bitch

So the trained seals in the Colbert audience didn't get the memo that Oceana has always been at war with East Asia:

No fishy for these saps.

This puts us in mind of, what is for us, an old classic:


Boy the Dems are going off the deep end here.

My recommendations are as follows: avoid tap water at all costs and maintain Purity of Essence. Drink pure rainwater or distilled grain alcohol.



Oh and Mandrake for director, FBI.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Hillary Rodham: 2017

There's been a lot of speculation of late about alternate Hillary! scenarios. One scenario imagines Hillary! is president. Um...okay.

Another scenario, far more interesting, imagines Hillary! never married Bill.

The question then arises what would the 70 year old Hillary Rodham be doing?

She has a posh apartment in a posh section of Chicago served and serviced by a bevy of super-loyal lesbians (like Huma Abedin for instance). She is a lawyer and teachers a few classes at Northwestern. She's a lawyer who appears of TV. Just maybe she's a Congresslesbian and ranking member of the House Great Lakes Committee.

She has no family of which to speak. At night she gets back from her Pilates class, cracks open a bottle of white wine and watches The Good Wife, she wonders what will happen if the coughing fits come back and she is alone. She wonders how far the Parkinson's has progressed. She wonders how long before she is in senior-care. And she wonders who will visit her.

She quickly downs a glass of wine and refills the glass...how does this damn thing work, she wonders as she fiddles with the remote....

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Will's Good Idea for the week of 5-7-17

Late Edition

This came to us last night when we were talking to one of our Chinese neighbors about China's policy toward Islam (spoiler alert, not soft).

Anyhoo its 2067, maybe 2117, anyway. How about 2099?

In Europe the imams are putting the finishing touches on Notre Dame Mosque and Westminster Abbey is being razed by the Muslim Affairs Council. Across the pond the American Civil War continues apace with Mexico guaranteeing the independence of California and sending troops into Airzona, Texas and New Mexico. As Muslim authorities in recently conquered India prepare their first slave auctions only one power remains capable of confronting the caliphate...China.

This would be about confronting an Islamic Superstate without worrying about Muslim feelings, sensitivities, a strong, powerful nation just doing what needs to be done.

Who'd a think it?

Monday, May 8, 2017

New Pershing Video

Pershing, St, Mihiel and the buildup to the Meuse-Argonne:


Metal Monday

Anthems Edition.

Lately we're in mind of mental/rock songs that are anthems, that tell the listener, 'This is why we got in this business. These song sing to the lonely 14 year old in his room. He hates school, he hates extracurricular activities, he's got no prospects with girls and he knows he'll not have them for years.

[Autobiographical much?-ed?]

Shut the fuck up, ed.

Here gos:

The Answer,Battle Cry. Best line, 'You are the static across the night sky, you are an anthem on the radio...[Fuck yeah].
Halford, Made in Hell. Best Line:In Henry's and in mother's where I'd go to bang my head The feeling took a hold of me with every word I said.
Queen, Radio Gaga (obvious, I know, but still)Best Line:  I'd sit alone and watch your light My only friend through teenage nights.

[Radio Gaga? Don't you mean MTV?-ed]

I told you to shut the fuck up, ed.

[Lady Gaga?-ed]

You know, I'm about to get angry I...

[whoa! whoa! Put the rifle down...-ed]

I'm putting you down, motherfucker.

'[Hey!-ed]

You want me to shoot the other kneecap?

[No, sir-ed]

That's better....



Still Pussies

Holy Merde.

We must admit we are surprised by the depth and depths of Macron's victory.

Seriously this might be the most French thing that's ever happened. That man is a metro-sexual beta or there's no such thing as same, most likely closeted, and married to his former HS teacher. In America what Mrs Macron did to her husband is a crime, but in France I guess its just vive le Difference!

She must peg him, right?

[Why do you even know what that is, ed?]

So the great anti-globalist wave is concentrated in the English speaking world, Brexit, Trump,etc. It only makes sense that the wave would beak up upon the shores of le continent. The anti-globalist sentiment is strongest  there in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders (PHUH) placed second in this year's elections.  The Nederlanders are the least worst of the Europeans. Oh hell, they're a fine country, and I'm not just saying that because Stroock is a Dutch name and I'm from the Hudson River Valley. Free and open, these are the people that invented the joint stock corporation, which among things enabled their merchants to finance expeditions throughout the world.

Aside from our Nederlander friends It's the English speaking people taking a stand against the Order Internationale. It always is. German Imperialism, Fascism, Communism, now the Global Elite.

So it only makes sense that the French would reject Le Pen and side with the sexual assault survivor.

Let's look at this nation's record. The bloody frogs are on their fifth constitution. Of course they overthrew a king in the name of liberte, egalite, fraternity, only to install an emperor. They got their asses kicked in World War I, surrendered in World War Two, collaborated throughout, lost in Vietnam, lost in Algeria, had a spate of military terrorism and damn near a military coup...They stayed out of the war on terror only to become its focus. About the only thing they did right was blow up the Rainbow Warrior and they even screwed that up.

And when Macon made his great post election march at the Loov (we insist on spelling it as pronounced), he did it to the EU anthem nationale:

God Bless America...
They defend our ungrateful asses...
They've got eleven carrier battle groups....
We've only got two...
And now our Muslims are driving out le Jew...

It's possible I've embellished at least some of those lyrics.

France collaborates with Germany once again. Vive le Merkel!

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 5-7-17

Whatever happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom has been in the works for a year now and will be out next year.

One event and one video are the genesis for the sequel I never thought I'd write. First the death of David Bowie. We were never fans but his death put us in mind of a mid-80's Bowie hit that stuck with us.

Behold:

Maybe it was the moment but we were inspired and had only one place where that sort of thing could go. It pretty much describes Jake Bloom, doesn't it?

Now the other inspiration for Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom? Well, here you go:

I know I'm motivated.

Le Merde Le Elite Internationale

While we don't believe the polls showing an epic wipe out in France, I mean after Trump and Brexit who believes those, we don't see how a pretty boy centrist with a senior citizen wife can loose the French election.

That said,the crackup of the Consensus Internationale continues apace. As the great M Steyn points out, Marine will double the vote total her father got in the accidental election of 2002. With Macron in office there is no reason to think Le Pen won't finally slip into power in 2023.

Sarkozy-Hollande, Blair-Cameron, Clinton-Bush, what's the difference? They are all part of the same Consensus Internationale whose foreign policy favors super-national entities and what Steve Sailor calls 'invade the world/invite the world'.

Had one told us we would write that in 2000, when we felt the future of the Republic hung in the balance, well, we would have punched you in the face and given you some American Enterprise lit to read.

We can't speak for Macron, Hollande, Sarkozy, Chirac et all, but since the end of the Cold War this country has been run by elites with elite educations, a never ending cavalcade of degrees from Yale and Harvard, Harvard and Yale. How they doing?

Since 2000 we've had a series of foreign and economic crisis, the continued collapse of the American family, crumbling infrastructure, etc etc. Can't these people do anything right?

We were thinking about this yesterday, look at the Cold War presidents vs the modern elite.

Harry Truman went to 'commercial' college for a year before dropping out. Ike of course went to West Point. Kennedy went to Harvard, but his bootlegging father bought his way in. Johnson went to a teacher's college. Nixon attended Whittier. Ford starred at Michigan, Carter attended Annapolis, Reagan went to Eureka. Not until we get to Bush the Elder do we have a real scion of the elite.

Pretty pedestrian education there.

In 2008 the elite mocked Sarah Palin because she attended a vast array of small and state schools. Which batch of presidents do you think she fits in with? Of course the elites came up with the idea of giving unsecured, variable rate loans to bad credit risks. You think Sarah Palin would've thought of that? Think she would have said, 'You know guys, we have this Muslim terror problem, let's invite a lot of Muslim immigrants.' Also, she never drove a car off a bridge like certain scions of the elite.

Friday, May 5, 2017

The William Stroock Cinco de Mayo Spectacular

We've noted in this space before that we'd like to write a novel about Pershing's chase of Poncho Villa, beginning with the battle of Columbus.

Of course, when the Great War began most of the US Army and National Guard was on the border and fighting a counter-insurgency culminating with the Battle of Columbus. Here the 13th Cavalry shot the shit out Poncho Villa's raiders, killing hundreds in Columbus and then chasing them into Mexico.

This era is well captured in movies like Sam Pekinpaugh's The Wild Bunch, wow that's a lot of dead Mexicans. Then there's The Professionals, Ralph Bellamy sends Lee Marvin (fuck yeah), Burt Lancaster and company into Mexico to rescue his wife played by Claudia Cardenale (hoo boy),   kidnapped by Jack Pallance topping off at 10 on the Jack Pallance scale of being Jake Pallance. More dead Mexicans, this time with extra explosions.

Vive Mexico....or Italy anyway.

Of course we invaded Mexico in 1846 and of course kicked the shit out of them. Halls of Montezuma, anyone? Up north General Zachary Taylor thumped them like a bunch of maricones at Monterey and Palo Alto. Then General Winfield Scott landed at Vera Cruz, marched inland and took Mexico city. 

Friday Updates

We are trying to finish the 2003 chapter of Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom.

The Austrian Painter in 10,000 words. One thousand words a day, motherfuckers.

World War 1990: ANZACs is still in the sit phase. We think we'll do some profitable research next week and get the first edit done. We'll see.

There is no news on Pershing in Command.

Friday Flag

Mr. we could use a man like PW Botha again....

Thursday, May 4, 2017

In Which the Traitor Michael Moore is Right

Over at Hot Air, David Axlerod, who knows a few things about winning elections, lays it down on Hillary!

It's everyone's fault but Hillary!'s, of course.

Hillary lost because she's a bad candidate and a bad person with bad ideas. That's it.

There's also something else, though, that factors into the bad candidate idea. Wunderid campaign manager, Robbie Mook, now if that isn't the name of a sex criminal I don't know what is, was obsessed with data rather than polls.

That is he eschewed telephone polls in favor of big data mining indicating what was happening. Campaign polls are expensive but they tell you a lot. It's almost like the wunderkid thought he had re-invented politics. That is a yuuuge mistake. No one reinvents politics. They're the same, everywhere, throughout time.

Michael Moore (he's transitioning, right?) made a great point here about 3:45:

Moore's point is that those red ball caps are a yuuge part of Trumps ground game. The two urban hipster d-bags with Moore just don't get it. And they won't, ever.

Hillary! wasn't trying to get votes. She was trying to shape a narrative. That's why she was ignored Michigan and Wisconsin, and that's why she lost.

On the new CNN....

...no not that one, commie pukes, #fakenews.

Now that we've made our feelings known, we understand that there is talk of a new conservative news network, dare we say CNN, being formed under the leadership of Roger Ailes.

We're pretty indifferent to Fox News to tell the truth. We'll tune into Fox Business most mornings [you just want to gawk at Maria Bartoromo-ed] do I ever...anyhoo, but we really don't watch a lot of cable news.

MSNBC should be nuked from orbit, its the only way to be sure, and well, CNN is run by a pack sex criminal apologists like Chris Cuomo who think little girls should have to see penises in the bathroom. So they're right out.

This alleged conservative news network should consider what it is trying to do. Do we really need another conservative news outlet? OK if you want. But would they rather start a real cultural shift?

We vote for the latter.

We'd like to see the new CNN be a political-cultural network in stark contrast to Fox. We'll take Hannity if we have to, but have no interest in O'Reilly.

So what do we want?'

First off, we want this to be Chatty-Gal TV throughout the morning. That means have a gal-centered morning show. Let's put Dana Loesch in charge of a round table with other gals. Well have a late morning variety show, we're not kidding, hosted by some eye candy for the ladies. Moving to afternoon we'll have a day time talk show hosted by Sarah Palin. There is no reason she can't do it, she anchored local news in Alaska.

We'll fill the next few hours with true crime, hosted by ex female detectives, prosecutors, etc, etc.

From there its a straight on news hour with a no-nonsense Joe Friday type and a nightly editorial by Robert Stacey McCain from his secured undisclosed location

Prime time will shift to more male oriented programming. At 7:00 we're going to have the CNN sports report. Like ESPN but without all the SJW convergence. At 8.00 its the CNN Entertainment hour.

We'll put Hannity at 8:00  a Dateline style show at 9:00, and groom new talent at 10:00.

Now at 11:00 we're programming a late night talk show hosted by Mark Steyn. This will focus on cultural stuff,  a throwback to the old late night shows. Music, comedy, books, dancing and the arts.

We'll have some sort of underground show at 12:00.

The overall goal here is not a news network but a cultural-entertainment Network with a news element.

Also, fuck CNN.


Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Le Pen, Le France, Le Merde

As France has been targeted for terror in the last few years our stance on that nation has softened a bit. Up until recently we were in the 'cheese eating surrender monkey' school of thought. After Charlie Hebdo, The Bacalan, Nice, and on and on we can't quite muster the contempt we once had for those wine drinking pussies.

The frogs even came out looking pretty good in To Defend the Earth. Just wait till you see what they're up to in World War 1990: The Final Storm.

Please let it be known that we've felt nothing but for contempt for France since they refused to allow our bombers to overfly their territory when we smacked the Libyans in '86. We'll let the Prime Minister speak for us:

They still are.

Macron has a decent lead against Le Pen, high 50s vs low 40s. We don't know enough about French political dynamics to try to break down the race, though we doubt Macron will win by such a margin.

We think this Macron fellow will be next president of France. Macron and Le Pen are debating today. In 2007 the Royale-Sarkozy debate changed the course of the race, maybe Le Pen will be able to do so as well.

We'll see.

We'd like to address one point about France and old grudges.

Back in 2003 France elected to support Saddam Hussein, hoping among other things to avoid the scourge of Islamic terror.  How'd that work out?

Tiger's Tail Part Two: The Nihilist

The North Korean's nuclear strike paralyzed the Trump Administration, dividing it into two factions those that wanted to immediately flood the country with reinforcements and those that wanted to halt those reinforcements and simply retaliate in kind.

For twenty four crucial hours the president simply did not know what to do.

As Kim's armies advanced on Seoul, North Korean troops showed a barbarity and nihilism not faced by the Americans since the Second World War.

Against orders most young soldiers carried their smart phones into battle. Retreating American forces were not able in most cases to recover the bodies of their dead. Cunning North Korean political officers recovered as many phones as they could find. What happened next caused an uproar at home. The North Koreans took over social media accounts of many American dead. Here they posted photos of the dead owners of those accounts. In hundreds of cases they contacted via phone or text the bereaved families and mocked or taunted them.

By the third day of the war the North Koreans had several hundred American prisoners. They subjected several dozen female prisoners to brutal gang rape, often broadcast on FB Live. North Korean political officers singled out several black soldiers and forced them to read statements condemning 'White America'. The same was done with a few Hispanic prisoners. The North Koreans executed several captured white officers and posted the videos on prominent black social media sites.

Kim could not have been happier with the overall results. American media covered thees atrocities exclusivity, ignoring entirely the course of the war, the heroics stands by surviving individual units of the 2nd Infantry Division and the fanatical defense of the Han River Plain by the South Korean Army.

As the North Korean Army reached the outskirts of Seoul the Trump Administration came to a decision...

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

You know, Underneath all those Swastikas Hitler...

...is almost impossible to fathom.

So we're 6,000 words into the Austrian Painter It's coming along nicely. We have this nice old painter camped at the Brandenburg Gate, selling postcards and doing quick portrait sketches.

We've really tried to get to know the man. Here's the sketch of young Adolph before 1919:

A loner and bit of an oddball. Always an outcast. Whip smart, he had a photographic memory. Loves art of course, but also loves architecture. A young man perfectly happy to wonder the streets of a city taking in the sites. Hitler has a great eye for detail and a great ability for getting that detail down on paper. In the prewar years he was a Vienna Bohemian. Hitler was a vegetarian and more or less asexual or at least not interested in sex the way most 25 year old men are.

Hitler was an excellent soldier. Personally brave. He won several medals and commendations. His commanders never recommended him for promotion. One said at Nuremberg that he did not believe Der Fuhrer possessed leadership qualities.

He loved dogs, Disney, and Karl May Westerns.

We have always believed that as Branch Ricky said, 'Luck is the residue of design', but Hitler seems lucky anyway. In October of 1914 his regiment rook something like 70 percent casualties but he came out of the 'race to the sea' without a scratch. Later in prison, Rudolph Hess described Hitler breaking down when writing about one battle.

So basically in a any group of friends, Hitler is the quiet eccentric.

The loss of 1918 transformed the man. Just how much of what the man was made of in the 1920-1945 period should exist in our alternate 1964 is a matter we are grappling with now.

Not May Day

Usually I have a shtick I do for May Day. I put out my Soviet flag. On FB I put up a pic of myself in a black suit, white shirt and Soviet flag necktie. I go around wishing my Russian neighbors a Happy May Day. Ok I still did that last one.

But not this year.

People without the responsibilities I have are in the streets battling these anarcho-commie antifa thugs.

I know a few com-symps. You still can't get them to admit communism killed a hundred million people, or that socialism is a failure.

As the great Ed Driscoll noted, Venezuela is coming dangerously close to 'not real socialism' status.

So what's Detroit?

Monday, May 1, 2017

Michael Moore You're Fat

Via the Belmont Club, the gastropod Michael Moore:
What do you mean 'we' fat man.

As a comenter on Wretchard's FB post noted, 'Started it. Fucked it up. Gave it away.'

Indeed.

In 1968 the US Army and Marines crushed the Tet offensive, utterly destroying the Vietcong as a fighting force forever.

From there Creighton Abrams took over and implemented President Nixon's Vietnamization policy which included land reform, crucial to turning the countryside against the communists. Then came the highly successful Cambodian incursion, another victory when the ARVN stopped the Easter offensive of 1972 and finally Operation Linebacker II which forced the communists back to the negotiating table.

It was not until the Democrat congress cut off aid and refused to enforce the Paris Peace Accord that the ARVN collapsed.

You gotta love the Democrat Party. They start a war they can't finish and then have the gall to criticize Nixon because they don't like the way he cleaned up their mess.

Monday (Not Really) Metal

So last night as the girls were getting out of the bath we were flipping channels and  put the TV on VHI Classic , as we often do.

One of the thing about the old 80's music videos, at least the ones from the late 80's is that they haven't aged at all. I mean they look the same as they did the day they came out:


We've discussed the whole Bon Jovi/metal issue before. It  even shows up in A Line Through the Desert, where young Jake argues that Bon Jovi is metal. Written in 2003 I would not write that sentence today. However we categorize Bon Jovi, Dead or Alive is awesome and the video is perfect.

Personally, I always loved it when I discovered a song before it became big. We liked Dead or Alive as soon as I first heard after buying the Slippery When Wet tape. We vividly recall listening to it while setting up NATO: The Next War in Europe on our mother's dinning table.

Forgive us for indulging in a bit of nostalgia, but this year marks the 25th anniversary of our graduating high school and we're really starting to feel it. Don't worry, we're not going to go on about our youth, not really.

We don't miss high school or being young, except for one thing.

1986 to 1994, We call those years 'The Zone'. We remember the absolute comfort of our life style, school, home, TV, reading a book, lights out. Symbolized by the above, the music was a big part of it. So was were the movies, watched almost exclusively on cable. Anyone around back then recalls how relentless the cable networks were about showing the same films over and over again. In this way one saw films like Aliens (anyone else remember how it was one very night the summer of '87?) Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, etc etc.

The Zone disappeared forever in 1995. Everything seemed to changed overnight. Makes sense really. This is the year I moved out, more or less and spent the next 6 years in Northern Virginia before finally moving to NJ in 2001, where...

Jesus...where does it all go?