Sunday Morning Book Thread 09-27-2020

University of Copenhagen Library, Copenhagen, Denmark

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules). Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which I guess look OK, but why pay $1200 for grass stains when I know any number of kids who will provide them for free?

Blog Note:

Thanks to moron commenter naturalfake for arranging to have Zombie Judge Roy Bean fill in for me last Sunday. The judge provided a number of interesting book recommendations and, from what I saw, he didn't have to hang anybody.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

And you thought it was the Germans who had a word for everything:

Also, if you could figure out a way to use this word in a Scrabble game, you'd make a yuuge score.

(click to enlarge)

Whither American Civilization?

Since the Wuhan flu crap started, I've been drawn to reading books like Boorstin's "The Discoverers" and Hackett Fischer's books about the Founders, because I want to read books that celebrate our history and civilization rather than denigrate it. And also because I fear that in the near future authors like Boorstin and Hackett-Fischer and Barzun might very well be banned for being "white supremacist."

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 13, 2020 10:50 AM (HabA/)

A little over a year ago, I mentioned a new history textbook that does just this, i.e. it celebrates American history and civilization rather than condemns it. Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is written by historian Wilfred M. McClay of the University of Oklahoma, which sets our country on a foundation of respect rather than contempt:

A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding; and it needs to be able to convey that narrative to its young effectively. It perhaps goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale or a whitewash of the past; it will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But there is no necessary contradiction between an honest account of the American past and an inspiring one. This account seeks to provide both.

A much longer and more complete review is here.

Antifa/BLM scum lobbing fireworks and Molotov cocktails at police officers is what you get when you feed your kids a steady diet of Howard Zinn and other "f*ck America" academics. And I must say I'm a bit astounded that it took us this long for us to get a president who is willing to use the bully pulpit call out this poisonous miseducation for what it is.

Donna also says she has been reading From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, which has a grand vision:

Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500.

And:

The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males.

Donna mentions, as an example, Barzun's defense of Columbus:

Barzun notes that there were plenty of people in Spain - especially clergymen - who recognized the humanity of the Indians and denounced brutal treatment of them right from the start. It was NOT official policy of either Spain or Columbus to slaughter the Indian population. The problem was that official authorities in Spain had very little control over what individuals bent on becoming very wealthy did in the New World. The sort of personality types willing to sail off into the unknown and risk tremendous hardships were the same sort of men who ventured alone into the American West centuries later - very tough hombres and not infrequently that toughness crossed the line into ruthlessness. But, as Barzun also points out, the Indians themselves were hardly peaceful innocents - the Caribs encountered by Columbus had exterminated an earlier tribe. Barzun could say such things in 2001 and still get praised by critics at the NY Times and Atlantic. If he were still alive today (he died in 2012, close to his 105th birthday), he'd certainly have antifa brats picketing his house.

These are good things to think about as we are engaged in a pitched battle to determine the course of America's future. And anyone who says that America needs to be "fundamentally transformed", as Obama did in one of his early speeches, is on the wrong side.

Oh, and this just popped up in the Amazon margin, an American history book written for children: Your Life Belongs to You: A True Story About the Birth of the United States by Charlotte Cushman, who says:

For many years I presented this story to my class of Montessori children ages 2½ to 6. They loved it. I would only tell them a small part of the story each day as I laid out illustrations of the people and events in order of occurrence. I often gave them a cliffhanger so that they could contemplate and discuss what might happen next, as they eagerly awaited the next part of the story.

No child should be denied knowledge of the history of his country. It is important for children to understand that what people have done in the past has an effect on how we live now. They need to be able to connect the dots—to see which prevailing thoughts led to fights, what ideas led to prosperity, what actions led to other actions, and so on.

Our country has a unique history of men and women with the right ideas who had the integrity and courage to put those ideas into practice. If Western Civilization is to survive, this is a story that needs to be told and cannot be lost.

Emphasis mine. "Your life belongs to you" is a great one-sentence description of what America offers, particularly Europeans tired of being bossed around by various kings, lords, dukes, earls, etc.

Who Dis:

(Last week's 'who dis' was author Frederick Kohner and his daughter Kathy, the inspiration for his best-selling novel 'Gidget'.

How We Got Here

Here is a book that might raise some eyebrows: Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics by Mary Eberstadt and I almost don't have to quote the blurb because the title pretty much tells you everything:

As Eberstadt illustrates, humans from time immemorial have forged their identities within the structure of kinship. The extended family, in a real sense, is the first tribe and first teacher. But with its unprecedented decline across a variety of measures, generations of people have been set adrift and can no longer answer the question Who am I? with reference to primordial ties. Desperate for solidarity and connection, they claim membership in politicized groups whose displays of frantic irrationalism amount to primal screams for familial and communal loss.

This suggests that Ms. Eberstadt is perhaps building on her 2013 book, How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization

The conventional wisdom is that the West first experienced religious decline, followed by the decline of the family. Eberstadt turns this standard account on its head. Marshalling an impressive array of research, from fascinating historical data on family decline in pre-Revolutionary France to contemporary popular culture both in the United States and Europe, Eberstadt shows that the reverse has also been true: the undermining of the family has further undermined Christianity itself.

Drawing on sociology, history, demography, theology, literature, and many other sources, Eberstadt shows that family decline and religious decline have gone hand in hand in the Western world in a way that has not been understood before—that they are, as she puts it in a striking new image summarizing the book’s thesis, “the double helix of society, each dependent on the strength of the other for successful reproduction.”

You can see the same themes running in both works.

Moron Recommendations

38 I just began Edward Achorn's new book "Every Last Drop Of Blood: The Momentous Second Inaugural Of Abraham Lincoln" . Having listened to an interview of the author, in which he noted parallels between the struggles Lincoln faced and Trump faces every day, I was hooked. I even bought the hard cover edition, so I have high expectations!

Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 13, 2020 09:14 AM (gtNWf)

What's so great about Lincoln's second inaugural speech? In his book Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, Edward Achorn explains:

By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans and left intractable wounds on the nation. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors—every drop of blood spilled—might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery.

...A host of characters, unknown and famous, had converged on Washington—from grievously wounded Union colonel Selden Connor in a Washington hospital and the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson, to poet-journalist Walt Whitman; from soldiers’ advocate Clara Barton and African American leader and Lincoln critic-turned-admirer Frederick Douglass (who called the speech “a sacred effort” to conflicted actor John Wilkes Booth—all swirling around the complex figure of Lincoln.

You can read Lincoln's speech here.

___________

23 Last week I responded to a comment about all the grimdark stories by recommending a couple of authors that write lighter and humorous fare, but that was kind of late in thread so I'm repeating it here. If you're looking for fun and funny books you should try A. Lee Martinez and the John Moore who's written books like A Fate Worse Than Dragons and The Unhandsome Prince and Heroics for Beginners.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at September 13, 2020 09:10 AM (qDSku)

Let's take a look at John Moore, who likes to take fairy tales and twist them around in humorous ways. Take, for example, The Unhandsome Prince:

Caroline’s plan to live happily ever after has hit a snag. She’s spent months mapping the swamp, building tadpole nets, and kissing every wriggling frog she could get her hands on, and one has finally turned into a prince. Unfortunately, Prince Hal is not, as promised in the fairy tales, particularly handsome. In fact, he’s kind of dorky-looking.

Hal himself isn’t very eager to marry a girl so obsessed with appearances, but he finds that a lot of people have a stake in his impending nuptials—including a sorceress in training, an irritating dwarf, and Hal’s own royal family, who seem to have misplaced large portions of the treasury. But the biggest reason for him to marry Caroline, true love be darned, is that if he doesn’t, it’s back to the lily pads for him—permanently…

You get the idea. His other novels include Bad Prince Charlie and A Fate Worse Than Dragons. And the prices are $4.99-$5.99 each, so you're getting a good deal.

___________

'Ette commenter Catherine e-mailed in a rec:

A homeschooling mom I know personally has self-published an adorable little book for the tween set. She looked for an agent and was told that while the book was good, there wasn't enough about toxic masculinity or trans children to get a contract. So she went out on her own and got it done.

The book is titled White Rock Avenue: The Case of the Missing Lawn Mower and Catherine tells me:

The book is in the vein of Encyclopedia Brown with the heroine coming from a Catholic homeschooling family. I proofread it for her, and I laughed out loud a few times while reading it. I purchased it, and it has the ultimate seal of approval from my children in that the ones that read independently read it in one sitting. It's probably at the 10-12-year-old level for reading, but it would make a good read-aloud for the younger set as well.

Available on Kindle and paperback.

---

And here's another book for young adults that Amazon suggested, looks like fun, The Adventures Of Young John Quincy Adams: Sea Chase

Young John Quincy Adams befriends a boy whose father is illicitly buying weapons, finds a girl pretending to be something she's not, learns from a French doctor connected to a mysterious Committee, and discovers a British spy in search of something that might not be there.

In Sea Chase, bestselling author John Braddock has written a story of the American Revolution for young adults...

Inspired by the incredible true story of young Johnny Quincy Adams' first journey to Europe, Sea Chase is a novel of action, courage and resilience in the face of enemies, foreign and domestic.

$2.99 on Kindle.

___________

Books By Morons

Moron author Jerry Carroll has published a sequel to his 2014 book The Great Liars, a novel about some wild WWII shenanigans and whether Roosevelt knew about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor. The Greater Liars picks up the action where the first novel left off:

The madcap and harrowing adventures past and alarmingly present continue for roguish former Navy officer Lowell Brady and Smithsonian scholar Harriet Gallatin as government agents try to keep secret events just before Pearl Harbor that could bring down some very big names in the Capitol. It is early in the morning in 1953 when FBI and CIA agents rise from beach grass and fire at one another in an operation that has gone tragically awry. Pulling off a Bonnie-and-Clyde getaway, Brady continues his recollections of his wartime experiences as she tape records them with eyes on the rear view mirror as terror mounts on their endless cross-country flight from danger. Her dawning realization that Lowell is an adrenaline junkie who gets a charge from narrow escapes is making making her as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Both novels can be purchased on Kindle for $2.99 each.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

(I guess we're lucky that Calvin never discovered the Loompanics catalog.)

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:05 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle lege

Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 09:06 AM (OjZpE)

2 Jean HArlow!

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:06 AM (ONvIw)

3 The reading lamp is lit. Repeat, the reading lamp is lit.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:07 AM (Dc2NZ)

4 Good morning, Horde.

I love the pic of the deco ladies reading, great color

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:07 AM (ONvIw)

5 Barely started a long book
Peter Wilson's The Thirty Years War
Its a step earlier than my usual reading but at least have a grounding in the period

Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 09:08 AM (OjZpE)

6 Mornin', all! Once the rain gets here, it should be a perfect reading day.

Welcome back, OM!

Posted by: Catherine at September 27, 2020 09:09 AM (McBCG)

7 Oh, I love that painting.

I want a house and three ladies just like that for my own enjoyment.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:09 AM (2JVJo)

8 booken morgen horden!

yay for the book thread!

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 09:10 AM (nUhF0)

9 "That's three quotes? Add another quote and make it a gallon."

- Groucho Marx, mathematician

Posted by: BackwardsBoy - Joe Biden killed my career at September 27, 2020 09:10 AM (HaL55)

10 Who dis is Jean Harlow.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:10 AM (2JVJo)

11 Those pants are fine. I'd wear them while getting the backyard ready for the barbecue.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 09:10 AM (Fc5rx)

12 Great content, OM.

And so true about having to bring two books just in case you finish one early.

Without a backup, you may have to talk to people!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:12 AM (Dc2NZ)

13 And here is Harlow in 1932s Red Headed Woman:

https://tinyurl.com/y65m4lth

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:12 AM (2JVJo)

14 The painting is like "Three Girls Reading" grown up.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:13 AM (ONvIw)

15 my headache is worse, not better so I'd just like to point the interested to my nic for a new release info by a gay Trump supporting Wash Ex columnist

also down the page from last week is AH Lloyd's Long live death (dunno if he saw it previoysly(

ok, gonna try not to throw up right now

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 09:13 AM (nUhF0)

16 In before post 500!

Posted by: filbert at September 27, 2020 09:14 AM (NiXyF)

17 I've toyed with ordering Land of Hope: an Invitation to the Great American Story, and a paperback will be released in November so it's in my cart.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:15 AM (Dc2NZ)

18 Catherine - thanks for the rec of DL Sayles book. I've got an 11 yr old granddaughter that this sounds perfect for.

(Of course she has to put down the phone for a moment or two.)

Posted by: Tonypete at September 27, 2020 09:15 AM (Rvt88)

19 Speaking of reading, I cannot wait to read the emails and texts that POTUS says are coming this week. When he is re-elected, I wonder if he will demand that Obama and Biden stay away from his inauguration, as he doesn't want to be around traitors?
That would be LOLOL!

Posted by: jmel at September 27, 2020 09:15 AM (bVhJi)

20 hiya

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:16 AM (arJlL)

21 Hey Gucci, I got your pants in my work closet. Send money.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 27, 2020 09:17 AM (u82oZ)

22 I started reading "Catholic Republic" by Timothy Gordon. He posits that we cannot have a republic unless we have Catholic Natural Law. What's Catholic Natural Law, you might ask?

1: Nature is moral: within nature mankind is free and morally accountable, because intelligent.
2: Nature as intelligible: because man is intelligent he can learn from and about his surroundings.
3: Nature as teleological (oriented to a purpose): mankind is wired to see the moral purpose to his surroundings.

If were are a bunch animals with no free will, we cannot keep the republic.

Posted by: JAS at September 27, 2020 09:17 AM (2BZBZ)

23 I love the pic of the deco ladies reading, great color

Posted by: CN

The woman in apricot and reading the book is Laura Dern.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:17 AM (v16oJ)

24 Jerry Nadler has some poop-stained pants he'll sell you for a lot less than $1200.

Posted by: Fritzy at September 27, 2020 09:17 AM (VY+MJ)

25
The woman in apricot and reading the book is Laura Dern.
Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:17 AM (v16oJ)

She must be much older than I thought!

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (ONvIw)

26 Currently reading The Myth of White Fragility by Jim Hanson. "A Field Guide to Identifying and Overcoming the Race Grifters."

Been a fan of "Uncle Jimbo" since his days at Blackfive.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (Do5/p)

27 My library doesn't have Charlotte Cushman's children's book on the birth of the United States, but it does have one on Charlotte Cushman, 19th Century queer actress.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (Dc2NZ)

28 I am rereading Empire by Niall Ferguson. This is the history and defense of the British colonization of a quarter of the globe. If you want to understand why the English speaking peoples created realms of freedom and prosperity all across the globe, and these diverse locations to this day are models for every other nation in the world, I highly recommend this book.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (bXMTe)

29 18 Catherine - thanks for the rec of DL Sayles book. I've got an 11 yr old granddaughter that this sounds perfect for.

(Of course she has to put down the phone for a moment or two.)
Posted by: Tonypete at September 27, 2020 09:15 AM (Rvt8

Awesome!

Posted by: Catherine at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (McBCG)

30 Reread Roverandom to the grandsons this week. They are playing with books on Epic this morning, mommy needed to get some work in before the holiday.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:19 AM (ONvIw)

31 I've got some grease stained jeans that are prolly worth a million bucks !

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:19 AM (arJlL)

32 Vashta Nerada

Empire is a fun read. Not sugar coated by any means. But fair.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 27, 2020 09:20 AM (u82oZ)

33 Ordered VDH's book on the Peloponnesian War.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:20 AM (ONvIw)

34 Yay book thread!

I'm continuing to work my way through Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End series. I'm now on book 3, A Man Could Stand Up- (yes, the punctuation is in the title).

Some folks my find the first book tough sledding because it's got a lot of social commentary on Edwardian England and has some lengthy internal monologues to establish the characters. Ford is being experimental and sometimes it doesn't work.

The second book is cleaner, partly because it sidelines Valentine Wannop, the protagonists would-be mistress. Instead it focuses on Christopher Tietjens' military experience and does so by using the classic British device of piling up a series of individually unremarkable events to achieve and overall absurd result.

A Man Could Stand Up- brings Wannop back into the picture and begins on Armistice Day 1918, before going back into flashback. Ford does this a bit much for my taste, but his military narrative is pretty good, particularly the way he sketches the troops and their attitudes towards the war. The title of the book comes from an NCO who, when asked what peace would mean to him, answers: "It means a man could stand up on a hilltop," which of course is sure way to get killed on the front lines.

Incidentally, I watched "1917" Friday night with my daughter who thinks very highly of it. I found the film gorgeous to look at, evocative in mood but utter rubbish in terms of storyline. I plan on writing up a fuller review for my web site if anyone cares.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 09:20 AM (cfSRQ)

35 Antifa/BLM scum lobbing fireworks and Molotov cocktails at police officers is what you get when you feed your kids a steady diet of Howard Zinn and other "f*ck America" academics.

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:05 AM

Matt Damon!'s Good Will Hunting character was all about pushing BS like Howard Zinn.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 09:21 AM (Do5/p)

36 *** PSA ***

Book folk:

OzarkMoMe on Sunday, Oct. 11th (Columbus Day weekend) at The Lake of the Ozarks in MO. Contact info is at left.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:21 AM (Cssks)

37 The girl sitting down reading has a neck that would make a giraffe envious.

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:21 AM (arJlL)

38 also down the page from last week is AH Lloyd's Long live death (dunno if he saw it previoysly(

ok, gonna try not to throw up right now

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 09:13 AM (nUhF0)

---
Yes I did! Thank you!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 09:22 AM (cfSRQ)

39 I’m taking a break from Dean Koontz’s Jane Hawk series (it was keeping me up too late reading it) and I switched to a new novel by Max Brooks, who wrote “World War Z”.

“Devolution: a Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre” is about a high-tech green energy community of PoMo urbanites living in splendid isolation in the wilds of Washington, but connected to the world by wifi. They have everything they need ferried in weekly by driverless vehicles and drones (stockpiling is just more wasteful overconsumption typical of modern America, don’t you know). It’s a micro-eco-community that personifies the Green Revolution, powered by solar and biogas. It’s paradise, until…

Mount Rainier blows, knocking out the power grid and spewing ash into the atmosphere. Comms are out, solar can’t be relied on. The roads are covered in hot mudslides, there’s no escape, and winter is coming.

And worse: the disaster has driven a horde of Bigfeet into contact with the community.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:24 AM (Dc2NZ)

40 And worse: the disaster has driven a horde of Bigfeet into contact with the community.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:24 AM (Dc2NZ)

---
BigFOOTS!

Posted by: Odo Bigfoot with his feet on the table at September 27, 2020 09:25 AM (cfSRQ)

41 Nice Lieberry!

I got some stained jeans......cheap too.

The Who Dis is Amy Coney Barrett after she learned of her nomination to the SCROTUM.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at September 27, 2020 09:26 AM (Z+IKu)

42 ALH

I had mixed feelings about "1917" as well. I saw it in a theatre shortly before the beer virus shutdown.

Have you seen a smaller WWI film called "The Wipers Times"? It's excellent, imo. It's a useful corrective to the unconscious assumption, that many people have, that life in the trenches must've been akin to a Nazi extermination camp.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:26 AM (Cssks)

43 Nature is moral: within nature mankind is free and morally accountable, because intelligent.
2: Nature as intelligible: because man is intelligent he can learn from and about his surroundings.
3: Nature as teleological (oriented to a purpose): mankind is wired to see the moral purpose to his surroundings.

Camille Paglia needs to have a short corrective conversation with this guy.

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 09:27 AM (y7DUB)

44 28
I am rereading Empire by Niall Ferguson. This is the history and defense
of the British colonization of a quarter of the globe. If you want to
understand why the English speaking peoples created realms of freedom
and prosperity all across the globe, and these diverse locations to this
day are models for every other nation in the world, I highly recommend
this book.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (bXMTe)
I read Unruly Waters, by Sunil Amrith, a Harvard prof of government. The idea of the book was intriguing; an exploration of how the monsoon and attendant water management issues affected the development of Asia. Unfortunately, it was mostly an anti-British screed on the evils of colonialism, and of course, global warming, with a very favorable view of communism and the CCP. Ironically, most of the 20th Century progress he describes in eliminating famines based on droughts originated with British engineers. Also, he's anti- big dam, which has it's merits as an argument, but his preferred solution of groundwater based wells is rapidly depleting the aquifer. In the end, we're kind of left with "everything sucks, but the British suck worst of all".
The book was a disappointment.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:27 AM (v16oJ)

45 Coulda been worse; coulda been a horde of stinky feet.

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:27 AM (arJlL)

46 37
The girl sitting down reading has a neck that would make a giraffe envious.

Again, Laura Dern.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:28 AM (v16oJ)

47 BigFOOTS!
Posted by: Odo Bigfoot with his feet on the table at September 27, 2020 09:25 AM (cfSRQ)
---
Nice!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:28 AM (Dc2NZ)

48 a horde of Bigfeet into contact with the community.

---
BigFOOTS!
---
"Flo, my name is Daryl..."

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 27, 2020 09:29 AM (oRpiG)

49 A little over a year ago, I mentioned a new history textbook that does just this, i.e. it celebrates American history and civilization rather than condemns it. Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is written by historian Wilfred M. McClay of the University of Oklahoma, which sets our country on a foundation of respect rather than contempt:

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:05 AM

I have been watching Modern Marvels series lately. The early seasons. And it's just amazing learning again about all the inventions that have happened in America over the past 150 years or so.

People who dump on this country simply have no perspective of how much we have accomplished with railroads and automobiles and the industrial revolution, because they were born into a time where we are all enjoying the comforts brought on by our ancestors' hard work.

One episode I started yesterday was about Household Items.

It was funny, because they said that the push for things like ovens and stoves and dish washers came from opportunities provided from the Industrial Revolution. House servants were leaving those jobs to take jobs in plants and such. This was now leaving women in the household without servants to do things like cook and clean. So that led to a demand for machines that could help with those tasks.

Sorry, I know that's not book-related, but just a comment on the general complete lack of perspective people have today to understand the amazing feats of ingenuity, engineering, creativity and invention we have had in this country for decades. All that have made our lives easier and easier. Yet, so many people have no clue of how easy we have it today, because they have no sense of the past, only being told about America from a negative point of view.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 09:29 AM (Do5/p)

50 *patiently waiting for TJM's new book hoping the title once again includes battle*

*sip*

Posted by: Marcus T at September 27, 2020 09:29 AM (ZmCUz)

51 Other items in my "to do" writing bin: a comparison between Sword of Honour and Parade's End. Having read both carefully, I'm struck by how closely the one follows the other.

I would say the most significant difference is that Waugh's book is essentially spiritual. Like Brideshead Revisited, it is a conversion story wrapped in a war novel.

Parade's End lacks that religious angle, and is purely centered on relationships and social issues. Religion factors into it, but only as a constraint or sidebar to the main story.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 09:29 AM (cfSRQ)

52 Greetings Gray Box Bibliophiles!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at September 27, 2020 09:29 AM (PiwSw)

53 Book folk:

OzarkMoMe on Sunday, Oct. 11th (Columbus Day weekend) at The Lake of the Ozarks in MO. Contact info is at left.
Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:21 AM (Cssks)

I'm disappointed. I could almost make it there, but that is probably the weekend I will be picking up the travel trailer we're taking to the TX MoMe.

Posted by: Emmie at September 27, 2020 09:30 AM (4JM5Y)

54 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at September 27, 2020 09:30 AM (7EjX1)

55 Welcome back! Naturalfake did an excellent job covering for you, and the discussions of Lilly Langtry were great. But it's great to have you back in the saddle.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at September 27, 2020 09:32 AM (d9Cw3)

56 53 Emmie

You can always show up without an RSVP, if your schedule frees up.

If not, maybe next year, hopefully.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:32 AM (Cssks)

57 I'm still reading The Fall of the Dynasties, but am alternating with The Pope Who Would Be King, about Pius IX and how a kind, essentially simple man was so badly frightened and appalled by the wave of revolt that swept Europe in 1848 that he turned into an angry, embittered reactionary determined to stamp out any move towards Italian unity and independence.

https://tinyurl.com/y566lo64

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:33 AM (2JVJo)

58 Also worthy of a Moron Perusal--Paul Johnson's book, Modern Times. . . .

Posted by: FIIGMO at September 27, 2020 09:33 AM (Qf08A)

59 Hiya JTB; regards to Mrs. JTB !

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:34 AM (arJlL)

60 In Bend Sinister Nabokov is infuriating me with including a bunch of words that just don't exist. The most recent example is Baron M�nchhausen's horse-decorpitation story. Using search engines the only reference to decorpitation is in the novel itself. This wouldn't bother me much if the author hadn't made the point many many times that a good reader should always have a dictionary handy. WTF Vlad?

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 09:35 AM (y7DUB)

61 You can always show up without an RSVP, if your schedule frees up.

If not, maybe next year, hopefully.
Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:32 AM (Cssks)

Oh, thank you! The timing for our pick up is dependent on the current owner's schedule, which is a little unpredictable. I'd love to join you! You're closer than all the other non-Colorado MoMees.

Posted by: Emmie at September 27, 2020 09:36 AM (4JM5Y)

62 Clyde, excellent points. I loved that show, and "The Men Who Built America", which I was surprised was even allowed to be made (I even saw it advertised in the theater!).

The Industrial Revolution made it happen, and the American idea was that everyone deserved to have it. I think that's why consumerism is one of the bugaboos of the Left -- it's really about equality + individuality. Or "access", which they claim to want for all.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:36 AM (Dc2NZ)

63 2 Jean HArlow!
Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:06 AM (ONvIw)

You are correct, ma'am!

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at September 27, 2020 09:36 AM (5iVbi)

64 The idea of the book was intriguing; an exploration of how the monsoon
and attendant water management issues affected the development of Asia.

I'd certainly go along with that as a jumping-off point, but it gets negative points for originality, since it arises from Noah and Gilgamesh, and William McNeill's "Rise of The West played water management technology for all it was worth, starting at the Fertile Crescent (which was in Asia last time I looked).

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 27, 2020 09:36 AM (oRpiG)

65 And I haven't gotten anywhere with editing my own book. I've had a couple of really down weeks of black depression.

Even going to the Avenue Victor Hugo bookstore didn't help. I bought The Nearest Faraway Place, a bio of the Beach Boys, an Aubrey Beardsley-illustrated version of Wilde's Salome, a Social History of England and a book of photos of American musical comedy dancers and singers from the 1870s to the 1950s.

And I'm still as miserable as fuck. I wish I could just go away by myself for a long, long time.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (2JVJo)

66 I've mentioned before that my local Post Office has a Book drop/swap/flop .

This past week, there was a copy of Dave Barry's Big Trouble, and I set aside Joseph Wambaugh's The Choirboys to read Big Trouble.

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (arJlL)

67 I'm reading "Death Traps" by Belton Y Cooper.

He got to collect and repair knocked out American Tanks and other vehicles in Europe during WW II.

He was not a fan of the M4 Sherman and those didnt want the development of the M26 prioritized. Pull a few bodies out wrecked tank that didnt have a chance might make you a bit jaded.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at September 27, 2020 09:38 AM (uxUoN)

68 BigFOOTS!

**************

Now THAT'S a Bigfoot - a limerick

Ol' Sasquatch said Fiddle-de-dee!
Why are y'all laughing a me?
You think mine are large?
You should see my wife, Marge
She's a size 22, triple E!

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 09:38 AM (Fc5rx)

69 This past week, there was a copy of Dave Barry's Big Trouble, and I set aside Joseph Wambaugh's The Choirboys to read Big Trouble.

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (arJlL)

Arugula!

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 09:39 AM (AwYPR)

70 Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 09:35 AM (y7DUB)
---

It's wordplay, Hatey, a spin on "decapitation". Roll with it.

I guess if your head can function in isolation, like Mr. Data, then one could be decorpitated.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:39 AM (Dc2NZ)

71 62 Clyde, excellent points. I loved that show, and "The Men Who Built America", which I was surprised was even allowed to be made (I even saw it advertised in the theater!).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:36 AM (Dc2NZ)

Mrs. Muse and I watched that series. It talked about Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Ford and other titans of industry. I especially liked the very last narrated line of the last episode: "these men didn't discover America -- they built it."

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at September 27, 2020 09:39 AM (5iVbi)

72 Great book thread, Oregon Muse!

Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 09:40 AM (TdMsT)

73 And I'm still as miserable as fuck. I wish I could just go away by myself for a long, long time.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (2JVJo)
---
*hugs*

Sorry Poppins.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:40 AM (Dc2NZ)

74 Good morning! Sunday morning!

Posted by: Muad'dib at September 27, 2020 09:41 AM (fZqIv)

75 I'm here.
Didn't do a lot of reading this week. Got caught up in Yellowstone and wanted finish the series. Liked it almost to the end and then too many story lines to tie up kind of ruined it.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 27, 2020 09:41 AM (sd8p8)

76 Speaking of our travel trailer acquisition, we have never camped before, but I assume we will be taking opportunities to go beautiful places and relax. This means I could finally get a book or two read! I have some Moron recommendations that I've only made it a couple of chapters before life distracted me from continuing.

Regular car travel seems to always be to a destination with social obligations, so I don't get much reading done. Also, my husband will only chat with me in the car if I pick up a book after he has ignored all my conversation prompts for ten miles.

Posted by: Emmie at September 27, 2020 09:41 AM (4JM5Y)

77 Death Traps" by Belton Y Cooper was an interesting book.

Not sure moral was high in the third crew of a tank with two big new paint areas and new armor.

His tale of being free of military conventions also rang true, as he went outside the lines to get tanks.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 27, 2020 09:41 AM (u82oZ)

78 Still working on "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. It's somehow both detailed and lacking something.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at September 27, 2020 09:41 AM (/+bwe)

79 {{{MP4}}}

Come visit me.

Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 09:42 AM (TdMsT)

80 Going to make a cup of tea in my Trump mug.

Speaking of which - the tolerant left strikes again, in my neighborhood:

https://tinyurl.com/y23mcelu

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:42 AM (2JVJo)

81 Is Factsheet Five still around?

Posted by: Dr. Varno at September 27, 2020 09:42 AM (vuisn)

82
I'd certainly go along with that as a jumping-off point, but it gets
negative points for originality, since it arises from Noah and
Gilgamesh, and William McNeill's "Rise of The West played water
management technology for all it was worth, starting at the Fertile
Crescent (which was in Asia last time I looked).

The distinction is that the Amrith book was focused on the impact of the monsoon, specifically its unpredictability, and the difficulty of dealing with both crippling floods, and periodic droughts. In India, which is the main theater of the book, this often led to the deaths of millions from famine. The development of modern meteorology, with lots of weather stations in ships and other colonial areas, was used by the Brits to start tracking typhoons, thus enabling evacuation of low lying areas in what is now Bangladesh.

He also argued that British railroads were actually contributors to famines because they made it easy to take what grain there was and sell it in overseas markets. That's possibly true to an extent, but they also made it much easier to bring grain to the affected areas.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:44 AM (v16oJ)

83 Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

Do you want a life of Danger? Important work in secret?

We have a spot for you to infiltrate the DNC for the new secret agency, {Redacted}. We know how to find you.

Alternatively, we can canoe in the wilds of Canada, looking for the lost Trudeau bustier, ankle button boots, and his favorite, the garter belt chaps.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 27, 2020 09:46 AM (u82oZ)

84 And I'm still as miserable as fuck. I wish I could just go away by myself for a long, long time.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (2JVJo)

Running away from home does sound good. But they would hunt me down like bloodhounds, and my grandsons could virtual school from anywhere.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:46 AM (ONvIw)

85 If you want real non-fiction accounts ofthe American Revolution try

This Glorious Cause: The Adventures of Two Company Officers in Washington's Army
Herbert Treadwell Wade and Robert A. Lively
Collections:
Princeton Legacy Library

https://tinyurl.com/y3j8rjvt

or the online Journal of the American Revolution

for example The Village of Machias Confronts The Royal Navy, June 1775

https://tinyurl.com/y4zph6jf

Posted by: MachiasPrivateer at September 27, 2020 09:48 AM (EMi53)

86 The development of modern meteorology, with lots of weather stations in
ships and other colonial areas, was used by the Brits to start tracking
typhoons

Should have said cyclones. Typhoons are in the Pacific.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:48 AM (v16oJ)

87 Going to make a cup of tea in my Trump mug.

Speaking of which - the tolerant left strikes again, in my neighborhood:

https://tinyurl.com/y23mcelu
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:42 AM (2JVJo)

They do the hating, but Trump is the "beacon". They are as illogical and warped as ever.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 09:48 AM (ONvIw)

88 Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

********

Chin up lil Buckaroo! You're essential here. Without you who could we count on to post links to provocative pictures of the women of my grandmother's generation!!??

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 09:49 AM (Fc5rx)

89 "The Men Who Built America" series also has a kickass theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoE6o8M-V-Y

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at September 27, 2020 09:49 AM (5iVbi)

90 WWI film called "The Wipers Times"

-
I assume that this is a reference to a common English corruption of "Ypres", a Belgian town that had the misfortune to be strategically located leading to massive casualties to both the English and the Germans during WWI. Ypres did not flow trippingly off English tongues so it was widely referred to as Wipers.

Incidentally, speaking of Ypres, Forrest Gump author Winston.Groom has written a number of popular (as opposed to academic) histories including Storm Over Flanders which presents the battles around Ypres as a microcosm of WWI. His Shrouds of Glory about John Bell Hood's attack on Nashville is also quite good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (+y/Ru)

91 I returned The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place books because the tone grated on my nerves. The heroine Miss Penelope Lumley is a sort of stereotypical plucky governess of children raised by wolves, which might have been fun, but everything was written in a pseudo-old style.

It's hard to put my finger on it, but imagine if someone imitated George MacDonald or the various writers of the Bobbsey Twin books but without the sincerity. I suppose kids who don't know better might like it.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (/+bwe)

92 A new addition to Leftist phrases that need to die.

Worse than "Stee Home, Stee Seef."
Worse than "we're all in this together."

Worse than "during these uncertain times."
Worse than "social distancing".

"responsibly masked." - Gah.

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (3P/5p)

93 Not sure moral was high in the third crew of a tank with two big new paint areas and new armor.

His tale of being free of military conventions also rang true, as he went outside the lines to get tanks.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 27, 2020 09:41 AM (u82oZ)

---
An often ignored element of late WW II armored combat was the increased demoralization of German crews. Especially on the Western Front, the Germans knew that *most* guns had a hard time against their armor, but were never sure what they were up against. A 76mm with HVAP could penetrate at a respectable difference and because the ammo was in short supply, crews often used standard ammo as the ranging shot.

Thus German tanks that got even a glancing hit would bug out, fearing the next shot would be lethal.

The Sherman had its faults, but it was more maneuverable and had better situational awareness than its German opponents - so forcing the Germans into a mobile battle put them at a disadvantage.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (cfSRQ)

94 Matt Damon!'s Good Will Hunting character was all about pushing BS like Howard Zinn.
Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 09:21 AM (Do5/p)
-----
And thus is a warning about the dangers of uncritical reading.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 09:51 AM (Rk6Cp)

95 Good morning, Book Thread! Not much to report this week at Chez Hayes - but the draft of the new book is almost two-thirds done, and the Author Marketing Guild (formerly the Texas Authors Association) is holding a virtual book festival on Saturday - all on-line through a mass Zoom session. Lots of creative and independent authors there - check it out!
https://authorsmarketingguild.com/

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at September 27, 2020 09:51 AM (xnmPy)

96 The young Kathy Bates in the red dress is getting her pijaralivuq all fired up, fixin' to crush some pencil-neck skull with the communal flatiron.

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 09:51 AM (RuIsu)

97 Thanks to moron commenter naturalfake for arranging to have Zombie Judge Roy Bean fill in for me last Sunday. The judge provided a number of interesting book recommendations and, from what I saw, he didn't have to hang anybody.

More's the pity. Thanks, naturalfake. And woe be to the progressive Dems if my eventual epitaph is The Hanging Judge II -- Electric Boogaloo.

Nowadays, you do the Kamala, and bang somebody.

Posted by: GnuBreed at September 27, 2020 09:51 AM (Z4rgH)

98 He also argued that British railroads were actually contributors to famines because they made it easy to take what grain there was and sell it in overseas markets. That's possibly true to an extent, but they also made it much easier to bring grain to the affected areas.
Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:44 AM (v16oJ)

The argument of facilitating moving anything from point A to B being bad is dependent on what people use it for.

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

99 Going to make a cup of tea in my Trump mug.

Speaking of which - the tolerant left strikes again, in my neighborhood:

https://tinyurl.com/y23mcelu

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:42 AM (2JVJo)

Others, who have steered clear of the place, include Democratic state Rep. candidate Sara Dillingham.

She describes the store, in a word, "threatening."

For Dillingham, it's "a beacon of the hatred perpetuated by the Trump administration."

In libtard Bizarro World a store selling merchandise is threatening and a beacon of hate. The rioters, looters and mobs burning stores down are peaceful.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at September 27, 2020 09:51 AM (xrRLa)

100 And I'm still as miserable as fuck. I wish I could just go away by myself for a long, long time.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (2JVJo)

I hear ya. Can't even get my head together enough to read the blog most days. Depression is a heartless killer.

Posted by: grammie winger at September 27, 2020 09:52 AM (4EyHE)

101
Quiñones' Pants

link in my nick.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 09:52 AM (Fc5rx)

102 And in case anyone has not yet commented on the Copenhagen Library pic, that is a magnificent optical illusion.

Posted by: GnuBreed at September 27, 2020 09:52 AM (Z4rgH)

103 Muldoon

Penelope Cruz. Well alrighty then. Whatever floats his boat.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 27, 2020 09:54 AM (u82oZ)

104 Welcome to autumn. That means a lot of things to a lot of people but to me it includes a list of books I plan to read over the cold days. At the moment that list consists of :

- My 55th (I think) reading of LOTR
- the first two or three books of the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey series (just started the first one for the third time)
- start one of the Bernard Cornwell series, to be determined but I have almost all of his books.

You may notice a theme so far. I am avoiding books about current culture and politics. I get enough of that shit by osmosis.

There will be plenty of smaller reads sandwiched in between dealing with gardening, guns and other hobby stuff, and 18th century history.

Posted by: JTB at September 27, 2020 09:55 AM (7EjX1)

105 He also argued that British railroads were actually contributors to famines because they made it easy to take what grain there was and sell it in overseas markets. That's possibly true to an extent, but they also made it much easier to bring grain to the affected areas.
Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:44 AM (v16oJ)

Speaking of famine, I remember reading in "The Fatal Shore" By Robert Hughes about the early years in the colony of Australia that the famines in the early years could have been avoided if the recently deposited inhabitants had turned to the local seafood, which was in abundance. But they still pined for English food and the tastes of home.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at September 27, 2020 09:56 AM (Z+IKu)

106 59 ... Morning JT. Hope you are doing well.

Posted by: JTB at September 27, 2020 09:57 AM (7EjX1)

107 Have you seen a smaller WWI film called "The Wipers
Times"? It's excellent, imo. It's a useful corrective to the
unconscious assumption, that many people have, that life in the trenches
must've been akin to a Nazi extermination camp.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:26 AM (Cssks)

---
I have not. Didn't even know that was a thing.

I have the book of the same name, which is a compilation of the humorous trench newspaper.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 09:58 AM (cfSRQ)

108 Past 100, so OT: I know most of you despise Kevin Williamson and NR, but he occasionally hits one out of the park. This article on RBG is correct, although I insist that her assumption of dictatorial powers wasn't because she didn't understand her job, but rather because she preferred to be a dictator.

https://tinyurl.com/y653zla9

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:59 AM (v16oJ)

109 Just received "Culinaria: France," another of the beautiful Konemann titles. I have Hungary, am awaiting Germany.

Wonderful books.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:00 AM (xK9An)

110 WWI film called "The Wipers Times"......

I believe the "Wipers Times" was the name of a newspaper/newsletter of sorts put out by the men in the trenches to poke fun at the situation they were in at the time.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at September 27, 2020 10:00 AM (Z+IKu)

111 It's wordplay, Hatey, a spin on "decapitation". Roll with it.

"Hatey"! I love that song by Barry Manilow!

Oh, Hatey!
You ate your Kaboom with chicken gravy
So, I sent you away.
Oh, Hatey!...

*sniff*

The man was a genius.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 27, 2020 10:01 AM (dWwl8)

112 Have you seen a smaller WWI film called "The Wipers
Times"? It's excellent, imo. It's a useful corrective to the
unconscious assumption, that many people have, that life in the trenches
must've been akin to a Nazi extermination camp.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 09:26 AM (Cssks)

These days everything is assumed to be Nazi extermination camps.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:01 AM (ONvIw)

113 Speaking of famine, I remember reading in "The Fatal
Shore" By Robert Hughes about the early years in the colony of
Australia that the famines in the early years could have been avoided if
the recently deposited inhabitants had turned to the local seafood,
which was in abundance. But they still pined for English food and the
tastes of home.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy

It's my understanding that the same was true of the Vikings who settled Greenland during the Medieval Warm Period. When it turned cold, they could no longer raise grain and cattle. They could have turned to the fish and other resources used by the Aleuts in the same area, but didn't want to. Those that didn't starve eventually returned to Iceland and Denmark.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:02 AM (v16oJ)

114 >>100 And I'm still as miserable as fuck. I wish I could just go away by myself for a long, long time.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (2JVJo)

You may sequester at the atelier on Zod's estate. You can bring your own staff, or you can avail yourself of Zod's superior Aztec help. There is no turn-down service. There will be dogs.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:02 AM (xK9An)

115 Inuits, not Aleuts.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:02 AM (v16oJ)

116 After a slow week last week, I've been making up for lost time this week.

I tore through "Ashenden," a novel by Somerset Maugham about a British spy in WWI. It's really a collection of short stories, just with chapter breaks in the middle of the longer pieces. Maugham himself actually was a secret agent in WWI so one can assume it's pretty accurate. HIGHLY recommended.

Also started Victor Davis Hansen's "A War Like No Other," which is about the Peloponnesian War. Unlike most other histories he devotes a lot of attention to the mechanics of warfare in those days and reaches some surprising conclusions. One grim takeaway: neither Athens nor Sparta started the war with any clear idea of how to win it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:03 AM (QZxDR)

117 On the WWI theme, I have a book I acquired many years ago titled "Eye-Deep In Hell", about the life of the common soldier in the Great War on the Western Front. Copious photographs, well-written, it goes chapter by chapter on various aspects of trench warfare. It is uncannily similar to the structure of Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old". I wonder if Jackson and his crew knew of the book. No idead if it's still in print.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:03 AM (Rk6Cp)

118 Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:03 AM (QZxDR)

I just ordered the VDH book, thanks for the Maugham rec. I will look into it today.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:04 AM (ONvIw)

119 Bookish Problem #444 --

I always carry a backup book.

I mean, would you conceal carry a gun with one bullet?

My car is a rolling library. I've even been known to carry a concealed backup book.

Posted by: GnuBreed at September 27, 2020 10:04 AM (Z4rgH)

120 I don't enjoy the physical act of reading much these days, due to the ol' H35.30. But I do try to keep my mind active with wordplay and ongoing conversations from the mundane to the profound with the ever lovely Missus Muldoon.

Thanks for letting me play.

Endeavor to persevere.

Stop testing asymptomatic people!!!

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (Fc5rx)

121 I assume that this is a reference to a common
English corruption of "Ypres", a Belgian town that had the misfortune to
be strategically located leading to massive casualties to both the
English and the Germans during WWI. Ypres did not flow trippingly off
English tongues so it was widely referred to as Wipers.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (+y/Ru)

---
Wipers was one of many "English translations" of places in the British sector during WW I. Ploegsteert became "Plug Street," Neuchapelle was "New Church," etc.

Inventive folks. I find trench jargon fascinating. The Wipers Times uses a lot of 'em.

One of my favorite quips was in response to the British Army decreeing that Privates would now get a single chevron on their uniform as a badge of rank (as opposed to nothing).

Quoth Private Tommy Atkins before going over the top: "If only I 'ad a chevring, I'd die 'appy!"

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (cfSRQ)

122 Hollow out a lousy book to hide a good book inside.

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (RuIsu)

123 Matt Damon!'s Good Will Hunting character was all about pushing BS like Howard Zinn.
Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 09:21 AM (Do5/p)

Iirc, Matt was the next door neighbor of Zinn.

Posted by: GnuBreed at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (Z4rgH)

124 >>122 Hollow out a lousy book to hide a good book inside. Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (RuIsu)

This can also apply to people.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:06 AM (xK9An)

125 One grim takeaway: neither Athens nor Sparta started the war with any clear idea of how to win it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:03 AM (QZxDR)

And thus set the tone for the next 2 millennia.

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 10:06 AM (AwYPR)

126 Thought I posted this, but it doesn't show.

This is the story about the Trump Gear store I was looking for:

https://tinyurl.com/y2rc4yo2

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 10:06 AM (2JVJo)

127 I began reading The Thirty Years War in 1990.

I should be finished this afternoon.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at September 27, 2020 10:06 AM (Ndje9)

128 My pleasure, OM.

It's good to have you back.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 27, 2020 10:06 AM (dWwl8)

129 actually 1917 is more nuanced, cumberbatch is supposed to be the villiain, but he's more bewildered in this set piece loosely based on the battle of passchandaele, according to mendez's account of his grandfather, he is told by courier not to advance, into the trap the germans have set, but what of the preceding three years of slaughter, the Somme Verdun,
or other battles on farther fronts east, they set the tale in march right before wilson commits the aef, but right after the russians pull out because of the revolution, the real battle was in the fall of that year, closer to the october revolution,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:07 AM (hMlTh)

130
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 27, 2020 10:07 AM (qxC6t)

131 122 Hollow out a lousy book to hide a good book inside.
Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (RuIsu)
--

Genius.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 10:08 AM (Dc2NZ)

132 These days everything is assumed to be Nazi extermination camps.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:01 AM (ONvIw)

---

Well, when every Republican is literally Hitler...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:08 AM (cfSRQ)

133
I bought in a Kindle edition Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tale by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Piers Dudgeon. the seventh volume of the short stories about Don Camillo, a hulking parish priest, Peppone, the equally sized Communist mayor and their postwar village in the Po valley in Italy.

A good many of these stories are appearing in English for the first time, including one where Don Camillo, as a young seminarian, hears Christ's voice from the cross for the first time.

Sometimes charming, sometimes grim, always poignant, these little stories still speak to us down the years.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 27, 2020 10:08 AM (mht8P)

134 >>>And I'm still as miserable as fuck. I wish I could just go away by myself for a long, long time.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 09:37 AM (2JVJo)

Hang in there, bud. I, too, have battled depression over the years and the bitch that 2020 has been certainly hasn't helped. First, the Chy-nah Lung Cooties, then the leftist terrorists rioting, and now Sally displacing me from my home...well, it all adds up. The depression seems to be worse at night. I don't know why.

Posted by: fly at September 27, 2020 10:08 AM (k3tBs)

135 Good Sunday morning, horde!

This week, I read Black Orchids, a Nero Wolfe novel. Rare orchids, competitive growers, flower shows, and of course--murder!

On audio, I have Ghosts of Eden Park, a non-fiction account of George Remus, king of bootleggers during the Harding administration. He never drank a drop, but made a fortune buying alcohol and "medicinal" permits to sell it. He was caught and imprisoned, and gave his wife POA to maintain the family fortune.

Unfortunately for him, she liked him better in prison than out, took up with a dry agent that had been investigating him, sold most of his shit, and went on the lam.

Etc. I'm not finished, but he is now released from prison, has discovered her treachery, and is trying to make a deal with Asst Atty General Mabel Willebrandt to take down his wife and other co-conspirators.

Posted by: April, Freedom Now! at September 27, 2020 10:08 AM (OX9vb)

136 That picture of Jean Harlow reminds me of two book related lines in "Dinner at Eight" (1933) Harlow and Marie Dressler are walking in to dinner (the movie is about the people trying to put it together, you never see the actual dinner) Harlow is playing (as usual) a very sexy, beautiful trophy wife of a businessman and she says to Marie Dressler "I've been reading a book recently...." To which Dressler gives this classic Vaudeville double take. And then Harlow says "no really, it's about how in the future all the professions will be replaced by machinery." And Dressler looks at her and says "my dear, that is something you need never worry about!"

Posted by: Tom Servo at September 27, 2020 10:08 AM (q3gwH)

137 'Morning

Posted by: runner at September 27, 2020 10:09 AM (zr5Kq)

138 Going to re-read Jim Crace's 'Continent.' Great collection of short stories.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:09 AM (xK9An)

139 129: I am pro "bewildered villains". Too often they're portrayed as smarter, more creative and almost "better" than the good guys. This makes for ambivalence among the young

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:10 AM (ONvIw)

140 why is Graham on TV , begging for money, and not concentrating on ACB confirmation ??

the Durham Report is not coming out before before the election, so don't underestimate the ability of the Republicans to fuck this up

Posted by: REDACTED at September 27, 2020 10:11 AM (O+AcM)

141 Ah, the collective noun for a mess o' Bigfeet is a "ruminance":

https://electricliterature.com/supernatural-collective-nouns/

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 10:12 AM (Dc2NZ)

142 My light reading lately has been rereads: "Flashman in the Great Game", about Flashy' Indian Mutiny adventures, and C. S. Forester's "The Gun", his Peninsular War story about guerilleros who find an abandoned siege gun. Also finished reading "Long Live Death".

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (Rk6Cp)

143 Good morning, Horde.

I've spent the last couple of weeks rereading all thirteen of the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts. Decius Caecilius Metellus is just so much *fun* to spend time with - very spirit-lifting.

I've also completed 25 of the 26 chapters of my translation of "Daily Life during the Spanish Civil War/Nationalist Spain" (the Franco side). The original is still under copyright so there's no question of publishing it, but I do have a devoted readership of 4 people and I don't like to disappoint them. And when I've finished Chapter 26 I will move on to the other volume, Republican [read:Commie] Spain. Immediate takeaway is: the Commies had better poster art but lousy leadership.

Posted by: Annalucia at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (S6ArX)

144 Harlowe also figures in the story of the Bitchiest Remark Ever Made, featuring Margot Asquith and the letter T.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (QZxDR)

145 129
actually 1917 is more nuanced, cumberbatch is supposed to be the
villiain, but he's more bewildered in this set piece loosely based on
the battle of passchandaele, according to mendez's account of his
grandfather, he is told by courier not to advance, into the trap the
germans have set, but what of the preceding three years of slaughter,
the Somme Verdun,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:07 AM (hMlTh)

---
The core problem with "1917" is that it's plot is rubbish. The lines in that sector of the front are clearly well-maintained. The troops in the 2nd Devons are getting regular supplies, which means that they are in communication with higher headquarters.

This means that there is no reason for runners to cross enemy territory to reach them. If they had been cut off, that would be different, but they aren't, they are just in a salient, which means they have a line of communication to the rear.

If a battalion (or brigade) did get cut off, the top priority would be re-establishing contact, via runner, pigeon or repairing the phone lines.

There are other issues, but that's the biggest one.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (cfSRQ)

146
Since I need a hardcover to read at the same time, I'm reading Mao, The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday.

Whatever you may have read about Red China before the mid-70s, the truth is much worse. Mao was a psychopath, completely indifferent to the lives of others. His legacy was worse than nothing. The Chinese at his death in 1976 were in far worse condition than when he took power in 1949.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (mht8P)

147 108 Past 100, so OT: I know most of you despise Kevin Williamson and NR, but he occasionally hits one out of the park. This article on RBG is correct, although I insist that her assumption of dictatorial powers wasn't because she didn't understand her job, but rather because she preferred to be a dictator.

https://tinyurl.com/y653zla9
Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 09:59 AM (v16oJ)

Williamson isn't wrong about her, but he doesn't have the nerve to admit (because he hates actual conservatives) that the real switch in the SCOTUS came when Roe v Wade was decided, which allowed a new national social policy to be enacted without any input from any legislature. That's when the game changed. Ginsburg was simply carrying out what the court had already become, and she believed in it. No one in the legislature ever pushed back.

Posted by: Tom Servo at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (q3gwH)

148 yes in deed pericles generation, the kennedyesque analog opened up the front was that 430 ad, of course thucydides was a general in the early part of that war, so he diminishes the great pericles errors, and focuses on the likes of cleon, who had a smaller role,

the pelopenessian war, is a little like this long term engagement that began in 1990, against the odious satrap saddam, but brought in other players, in butterfly effect fashion, had the saudi king, have enlisted ubl's forces, how long would they have lasted, would al queda have been smashed at that point, yes one might consider the collateral damage to the oil fields,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:14 AM (hMlTh)

149 I have already read at night. I admit that participation on the ONT has taken up a good bit of my reading time.

Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 10:14 AM (TdMsT)

150 I saw Bewidered Villains open for Fine Young Cannibals at the Palladium in '89.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:15 AM (Rk6Cp)

151 This means that there is no reason for runners to cross enemy territory to reach them. If they had been cut off, that would be different, but they aren't, they are just in a salient, which means they have a line of communication to the rear.

If a battalion (or brigade) did get cut off, the top priority would be re-establishing contact, via runner, pigeon or repairing the phone lines.

There are other issues, but that's the biggest one.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (cfSRQ)

I thought that the made for TV movie "The Lost Battalion" (2001) did this very well.

Posted by: Tom Servo at September 27, 2020 10:17 AM (q3gwH)

152 28 I am rereading Empire by Niall Ferguson. This is the history and defense of the British colonization of a quarter of the globe. If you want to understand why the English speaking peoples created realms of freedom and prosperity all across the globe, and these diverse locations to this day are models for every other nation in the world, I highly recommend this book.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (bXMTe)

I second that recommendation. Ferguson is one of the few sane historians writing today.

Another great read - The 3 volume history of the British Empire by James (or Jan) Morris. Morris is an odd duck - a one-time British Army officer who went from James to Jan back in the early 70's, long before "transitioning" became fashionable. Don't let the author's sexual confusion put you off from reading the Pax Britannica series though, as well as his/her many travel books. Morris is an excellent writer, with no ideological axes to grind and the trilogy contains vivid word portraits of the men (and women) who built and governed the British Empire. I was so engrossed in it that I was saddened when I came to the end of Volume 3.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:17 AM (HabA/)

153 123

Iirc, Matt was the next door neighbor of Zinn.

Posted by: GnuBreed at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM

Yep, good memory.

When Will (Matt Damon) and Sean (Robin Williams) meet for the first time in Sean's office, Will recommends that Sean read Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States". As a boy, Matt Damon was Zinn's neighbor, and provided the voice for the CD recording of that book.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 10:17 AM (Do5/p)

154 Hollow out a lousy book to hide a good book inside.
Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:05 AM (RuIsu)

The old comic book inside a text book gambit.

Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:17 AM (2DOZq)

155 Morning All, thanks OM!

Book recommendation for those who are looking for age group 9-12: Peter Polo and the Snow Beast of Hunza. Author is a friend, and he's considering an entire series on Peter Polo, Marco's kid brother. Fun adventure, from a guy with personal travel experience in the area.

Enjoy. as always, ya'll rock.

Posted by: goatexchange at September 27, 2020 10:17 AM (HgBj4)

156 And much thanks to OM for the front page shout outs.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:18 AM (HabA/)

157 "1917" is sort of an updated "Message to Garcia" story. It is not about Garcia, or the Message, it is about the messenger.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:18 AM (Fc5rx)

158 true, but it stints away from the typical colonel blimp approach typical in black adder, and path of glory, sic, so it's an improvement there,

private ryan, revisited the plot of the longest day, that didn't need to be so uneccessarily graphic, on the pacific front, windtalkers and hacksaw ridge, doesn't stint on the gore,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:18 AM (hMlTh)

159 "I always read at night."

Good Lord, I need to read what I type.

Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 10:18 AM (TdMsT)

160 "responsibly masked." - Gah.
Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (3P/5p)

I am pondering printing and putting up (as graffiti of course) 3x5 stickers reading "Mask Up For Biden"

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 10:19 AM (WyVLE)

161 >Too often they're portrayed as smarter, more creative and almost "better" than the good guys. This makes for ambivalence among the young
Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:10 AM (ONvIw)

The absence of "smarter, more creative" villains would rob children of the opportunity to develop critical discernment skills--ambivalence is a valuable part of developing an appreciation for moral distinctions and consequences. "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!" is ruined by his conversion; much better would be the children of Whoville losing faith in their parents and becoming ungrateful delinquents. Better yet would be the children of Whoville turning their backs on decadent Western holidays and putting their small shoulders to the wheel of collectivism and self-denial.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:20 AM (xK9An)

162 We can't agree on what 'history' is from one year ago. I can't imagine what history texts books will say 100 years from now about this period.

Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:20 AM (2DOZq)

163 "responsibly masked." - Gah.
Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM (3P/5p)

Up there with "Masked but NOT silent". Fuck these people.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (ONvIw)

164 I bought in a Kindle edition Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tale by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Piers Dudgeon. the seventh volume of the short stories about Don Camillo, a hulking parish priest, Peppone, the equally sized Communist mayor and their postwar village in the Po valley in Italy.

I've recommended these two books before - Everybody Calls Me Father by "Father X," who describes his first parish assignment. The book takes place sometime in the 1930s (Father never gives a specific date) and is a charming, self-deprecating look back at an America and a Catholic Church we'll never see again. If you're a fan of the movie Going My Way, you'll like this.

https://tinyurl.com/y3fxlvek

And then there's A Right To Be Merry, by Mother Mary Francis, who describes how she helped establish the first Poor Claire cloister in Roswell NM. Once again, dates aren't given, but the book seems to have taken place in the 1940s, though I could be wrong. Lovely, inspiring and thoughtful, IMO.

https://tinyurl.com/y6yla38n

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (2JVJo)

165 Williamson isn't wrong about her, but he doesn't
have the nerve to admit (because he hates actual conservatives) that the
real switch in the SCOTUS came when Roe v Wade was decided, which
allowed a new national social policy to be enacted without any input
from any legislature. That's when the game changed. Ginsburg was
simply carrying out what the court had already become, and she believed
in it. No one in the legislature ever pushed back.

Posted by: Tom Servo at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (q3gwH)

---
Correct.

The GOP Congress could have undercut the abortion industry decades ago by simply cutting of the flow of federal money. I'm not just talking direct cash, but also the various grants that go to trendy non-profiles who launder it and pass it onto Planned Parenthood.

The Court has no power to compel an appropriation (though they are now going that route).

The Power of the Purse is supreme, and yet the GOP never wanted to use it. Wonder why that is?

Oh, screw Williamson. He's a useless turd and if you stacked up everything he and Goldberg, French, etc. have ever done or written, they have not done a damn thing to advance conservatism - but a great deal to undermine and sabotage it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (cfSRQ)

166 "Take a Letter, Maria". Better horns than "Message to Garcia"

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (RuIsu)

167 "The Wipers Times" (film) lets the viewer see that the men in the trenches saw themselves as soldiers, not victims, & that they expected to go home one day... which most of them eventually did, in fact.

They also found many ingenious ways to make the best of it.

The front door of Fortnum and Mason's gourmet food shop in London was only about 50 miles behind the British lines. Officers who could afford it were able to get wine and cigars delivered to them within a few days, usually.

I think many casual readers unconsciously equate "trench warfare in WWI" with "just waiting around to die."

Wrong.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (Cssks)

168 "Land of Hope etc. is written by historian Wilfred M. McClay of the University of Oklahoma . . ." This is available as one of the FREE video lecture series at the indispensable Hillsdale U: https://tinyurl.com/vua6hn9

Posted by: quiggs at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (aZo5r)

169 Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:20 AM (xK9An)

Ha. I am opposed to making villains too attractive and detest when they escape consequences.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (ONvIw)

170 Damn ads cover the sidebars and even part of the main text. Getting sick of it.

Posted by: Gilded at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (BRkq2)

171 Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:20 AM (xK9An)

But who would make the roast beast?

Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (2DOZq)

172 A Who Dis that I (and several dozen others before me) can identify! Jean Harlow, with that psychotic grin that she had in the movie. Scary.

From that same era comes "The Chinese Orange Mystery" by Ellery Queen, which I finished within two weeks. I first read it as a teenager, but I was confused by certain aspects of it. So, a reread decades later.

I like the early EQ stories, but those confusing aspects are still there. Sad to say, the book belongs to its era. Imagine today's teen reading references to phone booths or computer printouts. History has left this book behind.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (u/nim)

173 I can't imagine what history texts books will say 100 years from now about this period.

******

E Pleb neesta

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:23 AM (Fc5rx)

174 shy away from, regardless that war was a tragedy one might say a crime, in the impact it left in europe, the fall of the czar, which led to the backlash typified by fascism, the collapse of german morals in the weimar era, the foolish reparation gambit which led to the 1923 hyperinflation which was staunched somewhat by the dawes plan,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:23 AM (hMlTh)

175 >>But who would make the roast beast?
Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (2DOZq)

Gruel.

Next question.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:23 AM (xK9An)

176 "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!" is ruined by his conversion; much
better would be the children of Whoville losing faith in their parents
and becoming ungrateful delinquents. Better yet would be the children of
Whoville turning their backs on decadent Western holidays and putting
their small shoulders to the wheel of collectivism and self-denial.

Naturally, one would have to replace the roast beast with grass and bark.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:24 AM (v16oJ)

177 f--k some company called fiver

Posted by: Gilded at September 27, 2020 10:24 AM (BRkq2)

178 I bet $10 Inuktitut means Eskimo.

Posted by: bour3 at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (png4/)

179 Harlowe also figures in the story of the Bitchiest Remark Ever Made, featuring Margot Asquith and the letter T.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (QZxDR)

For those who don't know the story, Harlow, being introduced to Lady Margot Asquith (wife of Prime Minister H.H. Asquith), was said to have addressed her as "Mar-GOT," to which Asquith replied, "No, my dear, the "T" is silent. As in "harlot."

Although the story was found in the diary of MP Robert Bernays, he only repeats it- he doesn't say he was there to hear it.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (2JVJo)

180 fiverr sucks

Posted by: Gilded at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (BRkq2)

181 Good morning, Horde.

I went to a birthday party for a four-year-old yesterday. I took him two books by Don and Audrey Wood...The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear and King Bidgood's in the Bathtub and He Won't Get Out

The illustrations in these books are off the charts in their detail. They draw you right into the story. Kids never tire of them.

Also at the party was a baby. Baby went from lap to lap for three hours. We passed him around like a football. By the time I left he had more miles on him than my car.

Posted by: creeper at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (XxJt1)

182 @175 and 176: great minds.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (v16oJ)

183 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (cfSRQ)

They have done the Mexico City Policy. Not domestic but it's something.

Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:26 AM (2DOZq)

184 5 Barely started a long book
Peter Wilson's The Thirty Years War
Its a step earlier than my usual reading but at least have a grounding in the period
Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 09:08 AM (OjZpE)

Let us know what you think of it. I know very little about the Thirty Years War other than it was a bloody mess. If you recommend the Wilson book, I'll put it on my list.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:26 AM (HabA/)

185 "Take a Letter, Maria". Better horns than "Message to Garcia"
Posted by: klafter

*********

Take a letter, Maria
Address it to my wife
Say I won't be coming home
Gotta start a new life
And send a copy to that bastidge, Garcia

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:27 AM (Fc5rx)

186 The Hyde Amendment is the other funding legislation that does cover domestically.

Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:27 AM (2DOZq)

187 Gruel.

***********

An unusual punishment.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:29 AM (Fc5rx)

188 I think many casual readers unconsciously equate "trench warfare in WWI" with "just waiting around to die."

Wrong.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (Cssks)

---
Yes, and also that they lived in the same trench for years on end, never getting a break.

In fact, there were regular rotations. Most units spent more time in reserve on than on the line and divisions (let alone battalions) would move around the front. The Wipers Times went through multiple name changes because they moved from Ypres and eventually it was renamed the "BEF Times" because in the course of "localizing" it, they were telling the Germans where the 24th Division was located.

One element I don't know I've ever seen in film is the weird British pride about leaving "their" sector better off than when they got there. Regimental pride dictated that when they rotate out, their relief be suitably impressed by the quality of the works and improvements.

Robert Graves brings this up in Goodbye to All That, contrasting the "county" battalion he was with, which dug their trenches very deep (to hide from snipers) with the Guards, who made it their top priority to achieve sniper supremecy upon arrival, forcing the other bastards to keep *their* heads down.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:30 AM (cfSRQ)

189 Speaking of famine, I remember reading in "The Fatal Shore" By Robert Hughes about the early years in the colony of Australia that the famines in the early years could have been avoided if the recently deposited inhabitants had turned to the local seafood, which was in abundance. But they still pined for English food and the tastes of home.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at September 27, 2020 09:56 AM (Z+IKu)

Always wondered about the Irish Famine as well. People starving to death and eating grass - while they're on an island surrounded by seafood. It's like they were raised to believe potatoes were the only food in the world.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (HabA/)

190 The "lions led by donkeys" view of WWI has some truth to it -- but the donkeys weren't the field commanders, but was the High Command level.

The problem -- as with Athens and Sparta according to Hanson -- was that nobody in WWI really had any idea of how to beat the enemy. Germany started with a Plan, but once it didn't work they just dug in and tried to wait out the enemy.

On the Allied side they just kept trying the same thing over and over. The Italians literally tried the same offensive in the Isonzo Valley ten times.

The only man with any new ideas was Churchill. His scheme for an end-run via Turkey might have worked but for three problems: 1.) The Allies didn't commit enough forces to do the job, 2.) It was a decade before the US Marines invented amphibious warfare, and 3.) Kemal Ataturk.

His other nutty idea was the tank. He pushed that as head of the Navy and as minister of supply and pretty much forced the Army to take them.

If he'd been PM in 1914 the war would have been over in a year. Which side would have won isn't clear . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (QZxDR)

191 187
Gruel.

***********

An unusual punishment.

Pease, sir, may I have some more.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (v16oJ)

192 "Assembly Language Subroutines for MS-DOS Computers" has some illustrations.

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (xK9An)

193 Started reading Blackout by Candace Owens yesterday. Her conversion to being conservative is interesting.

Posted by: Infidel at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (R4aZ2)

194 Let us know what you think of it. I know very little about the Thirty Years War other than it was a bloody mess. If you recommend the Wilson book, I'll put it on my list.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:26 AM (HabA/)
-----
C. V. Wedgwood's history of the period is also quite good.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (Rk6Cp)

195 When I worked at UPS during college there was a call during the day requesting help with a highway cleanup. I worked nights at a hub so it was an unusual request but paid time & 1/2. We all get there and what happened was in the early morning the UPS semitruck driver fell asleep and turned his tractor and load over. For some reason the UPS driver then turned all his hazards off so another semi smashed into it spewing the UPS load all over the road.

We were cleaning up the mess on the highway trying to salvage all the packages we could. A large number were going to the same place in Texas and contained rifle scopes, boxes of lower tier smutty magazines plus books that were probably from that Loompanics catalog. Titles like "How to Stalk and Kill a Man", "How to Hide From the Government", "How to Kill with Poison", etc...

Posted by: banana Dream at September 27, 2020 10:33 AM (l6b3d)

196 30 ... "Reread Roverandom to the grandsons this week."

CN,
I've been sending certain books to my great nephews as Christmas and birthday gifts. I already have a copy of Roverandom with Tolkien's illustrations on hand for Christmas for one of them.

Already sent were hardcover editions of "Treasure Island" with the NC Wyeth iluustration and "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" with Pyle's original artwork. I hope he can read some of these on his own and share them with his parents. It's reportedly working so far.

Posted by: JTB at September 27, 2020 10:33 AM (7EjX1)

197
Also at the party was a baby. Baby went from lap to lap for three hours. We passed him around like a football. By the time I left he had more miles on him than my car.
Posted by: creeper at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (XxJt

What fun!

I love children's' birthday parties!

Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 10:34 AM (TdMsT)

198 Let us know what you think of it. I know very little about the Thirty Years War other than it was a bloody mess

80 Years' War was longer....

Posted by: runner at September 27, 2020 10:34 AM (zr5Kq)

199 179 An ugly, witch like woman was Margotte Asquith

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:34 AM (ONvIw)

200 "And I must say I'm a bit astounded that it took us this long for us to get a president who is willing to use the bully pulpit call out this poisonous miseducation for what it is."

Reagan to Trump; not difficult to imagine the issue between 'em.

Nice reads, if you can find them, are the books by Robert Peter Tristam Coffin. Love letters to Maine, as it were. I enjoy his writing style, especially his descriptions of food. "Maine Coast" is the one I can find on my bookshelf this morning (I hope I didn't borrow out my others...).

Posted by: Flyover at September 27, 2020 10:35 AM (Rbu5d)

201 >>rifle scopes, boxes of lower tier smutty magazines plus books that were probably from that Loompanics catalog. Titles like "How to Stalk and Kill a Man", "How to Hide From the Government", "How to Kill with Poison", etc... Posted by: banana Dream at September 27, 2020 10:33 AM (l6b3d)

Naturally, you declared "finders keepers."

Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:35 AM (xK9An)

202 His other nutty idea was the tank.

His other other nutty idea was the word tank. He thought an armored tracked vehicle could end the trench stalemate but he didn't want spies to to know what he was working on. He called them tanks so that the coms would just sound like a boiler project.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 27, 2020 10:36 AM (q2K0j)

203
In fact, there were regular rotations. Most units spent more time in reserve on than on the line and divisions (let alone battalions) would move around the front.

----------

Gordon Corrigan's Mud, Blood and Poppycock is a useful corrective to the received wisdom of the BEF in WWI.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 27, 2020 10:36 AM (mht8P)

204 Let us know what you think of it. I know very little about the Thirty Years War other than it was a bloody mess

80 Years' War was longer....
Posted by: runner at September 27, 2020 10:34 AM (zr5Kq)
------
*ahem*

Posted by: The Hunred Years War at September 27, 2020 10:36 AM (Rk6Cp)

205 @180
fiverr is only as good as the individual vendor you find. keep looking.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 10:36 AM (AwPyG)

206 Watching The Equalizer 2 yesterday. Denzel made a deal with the potential gang banger he was trying to help that if he read a book Denzel would agree to pay the kid's quote to paint his kitchen. The book?

Ta-Nesha Coates Between the World and Me.

Ruined the rest of the movie.

Posted by: Weaning is hard at September 27, 2020 10:36 AM (2DOZq)

207 the full tableau is in michael burleighs sacred places, that i've recommended in the past, about the desecularization of europe, the soviet but also the 'ideological renewal regimes, as herman kahn might put it were anticlerical, while paying lipservice to believes, so pope pius, was torn between outright denouncing regimes like those in yugoslavia and romania, and supporting them, of course he was running a spy network, into the german infrastructure, something the likes of cornwell and goldhagen have ignored following the libretto formulated by hochhuth, and proselytized this summer by silva in the order,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:37 AM (hMlTh)

208 Posted by: Annalucia at September 27, 2020 10:13 AM (S6ArX)

Annalucia, (and all of you) since we are talking about the Spanish Civil War and their Political posters,

https://nwocorpsystem.wordpress.com/

this is a series of posters by Catalan artist Manu Guayre done in the style of the Spanish Civil War propaganda posters, using snark like an axe to point out his concerns about the manipulation of culture to control modern society

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 10:37 AM (WyVLE)

209 Always wondered about the Irish Famine as well.
People starving to death and eating grass - while they're on an island
surrounded by seafood. It's like they were raised to believe potatoes
were the only food in the world.

Posted by: DonnaV

This played into the notion that the Irish were stupid and lazy, and couldn't even be bothered to feed themselves. Potatoes could simply be strewn about, where they would grow, while Paddy was drinking and sitting on his pasty arse.

It's all true, of course. That's why the people of Rock Ridge wanted nothing to do with them.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:37 AM (v16oJ)

210 The framing of the Copenhagen Library is simply outstanding. It would have taken me almost an hour to set up that shot.

The painting of the three women reading is both lovely and restful. It's not as fanciful as some that OM chooses but it is damn nice.

Posted by: JTB at September 27, 2020 10:38 AM (7EjX1)

211 oops, sorry, click on any of Manu Guare's posters and it takes you to the English AND Spanish versions, for those of you who don't read Spanish readily

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 10:38 AM (WyVLE)

212 I missed that, apparently bill pullmans spy was writing a volume on proust, that was the book that mccall had ordered,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:38 AM (hMlTh)

213 Posted by: bolivar de gris

Dude. Punctuation.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:39 AM (v16oJ)

214 What fun!

I love children's' birthday parties!
Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 10:34 AM (TdMsT)

That's been the best part of moving here to OK. Both neighbors have kids and/or grandkids. These kids actually go outside and play. (It was water balloons yesterday....everyone, including the adults, was soaked. That was mostly due to wet children climbing into laps.)

Kids are so innocent.

Posted by: creeper at September 27, 2020 10:41 AM (XxJt1)

215 193

Started reading Blackout by Candace Owens yesterday. Her conversion to being conservative is interesting.

Posted by: Infidel at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM

That's interesting. I didn't know she used to be liberal.

It's amazing to me the conversions of people like Dana Loesch and Candace Owens.

Dana Loesch has stated that as fierce a conservative she is now, she used to be just as fierce a liberal. It was with the help and patience of her husband that helped her see the light.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 10:41 AM (Do5/p)

216 >>> Naturally, you declared "finders keepers."
Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:35 AM (xK9An)

UPS had an interesting, nearly infallible, theft loss program. Anyone employee that gave tips concerning internal theft that checked out would be given immediate awards ranging from thousands to tens of thousands and up. Lots of money, orders of magnitude larger than anything someone else sought to gain from theft. It kept theft to a very low level.

Posted by: banana Dream at September 27, 2020 10:42 AM (l6b3d)

217 -Take a letter, Maria

Address it to my wife

Say I won't be coming home

Gotta start a new life

And send a copy to that bastidge, Garcia

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:27 AM
----------------
You want me to bring back his head?

Posted by: Warren Oates at September 27, 2020 10:42 AM (RVcmP)

218 fiverr sucks
Posted by: Gilded at September 27, 2020 10:25 AM (BRkq2)

If you are a "worker" they will suspend your account without notice for "violating guidelines" and keep any money in your account.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 10:42 AM (dNzKv)

219 Always wondered about the Irish Famine as well. People starving to death and eating grass - while they're on an island surrounded by seafood. It's like they were raised to believe potatoes were the only food in the world.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (HabA/)

IIRC, most of the native seafood was earmarked for export, so even those Irish who lived near the coast couldn't get it, and the ones in the inland were fucked.

The English weren't the genocidal maniacs some Irish writers portray them as, but they absolutely made the Great Hunger much worse than it should have been.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 10:43 AM (2JVJo)

220 Also, Annalucia, you wouldn't have a copy of your translation you would like to share?

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 10:43 AM (WyVLE)

221 Good morning.

Sunday morning.

Horrible headache all night. And I can't call a lid on unpacking books.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 10:43 AM (7X3UV)

222 Classic Harlow scene (0:20) from 1932's Dinner At Eight.

https://tinyurl.com/oqtrwtu

Posted by: Hierominous Botch at September 27, 2020 10:43 AM (YqED9)

223 We were cleaning up the mess on the highway trying to salvage all the packages we could. A large number were going to the same place in Texas and contained rifle scopes, boxes of lower tier smutty magazines plus books that were probably from that Loompanics catalog. Titles like "How to Stalk and Kill a Man", "How to Hide From the Government", "How to Kill with Poison", etc...
Posted by: banana Dream at September 27, 2020 10:33 AM (l6b3d)
---

Was there a TexMoMee around that time?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 10:44 AM (Dc2NZ)

224 BTW, where can on get AHL's Long Live Death, given I will not deal with either Amazon or B&N?

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 10:45 AM (7X3UV)

225 I've been reading (SLOWLY) a history book called "Christendom Destroyed," which is a general history of all things European (political; cultural; scientific; military) from Luther to the end of The Thirty Years War in 1648.

I haven't quite had time to let it percolate yet. A couple of insights for me, though:

1) Spain at its absolute zenith was still a very awkward, ramshackle polity.

2) Europe's religious conflicts/wars were generally about disputes that had little to do with religion. Not "NOTHING to do with" mind you, but "LITTLE to do with."

3) The mortal peril that Turkish expansion posed to Europe was rarely a top priority for Europe's decision makers... which is kind of hair raising to read about.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:45 AM (Cssks)

226
Ha. I am opposed to making villains too attractive and detest when they escape consequences.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:22 AM (ONvIw)

---
Over the last 30 years or so, villians have gotten to be much more interesting (and often sympathetic) than the hero by the simple virtue that they know what they want and are open about it.

This is because Woke Hollywood took the Reluctant Hero trope and made it into a crippling liability. In some films half of the screen time is convincing the hero to actually be a hero.

Meanwhile, the villain is strong, forthright and capable. Also, villains get all the best lines because being bad guys, they can say mean things.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:46 AM (cfSRQ)

227
Dana Loesch has stated that as fierce a conservative she is now, she used to be just as fierce a liberal. It was with the help and patience of her husband that helped her see the light.
Posted by: Clyde Shelton at September 27, 2020 10:41

Saw an interview with Loesch, her husband and kids. Kids didn't say much. He seemed like the quiet silent type. Handle bar moustache. Seemed very down to earth. I think it was on the Blaze long before Beck went around the bend.

Posted by: Infidel at September 27, 2020 10:46 AM (R4aZ2)

228 My library doesn't have Charlotte Cushman's children's book on the birth of the United States, but it does have one on Charlotte Cushman, 19th Century queer actress.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:18 AM (Dc2NZ)

She was a bad motorscooter and mean go-getter?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at September 27, 2020 10:48 AM (KbnOp)

229 @222 "Oh, my dear... that's something you need never worry about" after a full-body scan.

I LOL'd.

Posted by: creeper at September 27, 2020 10:48 AM (XxJt1)

230 what part didn't you understand?

I would hesitate to call what we've been through a 'forever war. this engagement in the gulf and south asia, has been a long war by any stretch. One might say it began in 1979 with the twin collapse of the shah and the consequences of the soviet invasion. a more astute executive then carter, might have provided support to the former of course our deep state didn't know he was deathly ill, and they were all too absorbed in the wonderful persian spring. the fall of heaven, notes how the regime could have been salvaged before the summer of 78, and imagine the consequences.

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:49 AM (hMlTh)

231
That's been the best part of moving here to OK. Both neighbors have kids and/or grandkids. These kids actually go outside and play. (It was water balloons yesterday....everyone, including the adults, was soaked. That was mostly due to wet children climbing into laps.)

Kids are so innocent.

Posted by: creeper at September 27, 2020 10:41 AM (XxJt1)

When I go to my daughter's family's I alway bring clothes and shoes that can be ruined. There is always hiking, biking, climbing, creeking, campfires and every kind of outdoor activity.

Posted by: Ladyl at September 27, 2020 10:49 AM (TdMsT)

232 166 "Take a Letter, Maria". Better horns than "Message to Garcia"
Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (RuIsu)
\---

"A Message to You Rudy" had even better horns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cntvEDbagAw

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 10:50 AM (Dc2NZ)

233 Always wondered about the Irish Famine as well. People starving to death and eating grass - while they're on an island surrounded by seafood. It's like they were raised to believe potatoes were the only food in the world.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (HabA/)

Northern countries, with their short growing seasons, don't have a lot of edible plant diversity.

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 10:50 AM (y7DUB)

234
2) Europe's religious conflicts/wars were generally about disputes that had little to do with religion. Not "NOTHING to do with" mind you, but "LITTLE to do with."

-------------

Cardinal Richelieu backed the Protestants against the Catholic Habsburg emperor. Tells you all you need to know.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 27, 2020 10:51 AM (mht8P)

235 His other other nutty idea was the word tank. He
thought an armored tracked vehicle could end the trench stalemate but he
didn't want spies to to know what he was working on. He called them
tanks so that the coms would just sound like a boiler project.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 27, 2020 10:36 AM (q2K0j)

---
Originally they called it "water carrier" but no one wanted to be on the W.C. Committee.

(W.C. stands for "water closet," British for toilet.)

So they made it a "water tank carrier," or "tank" for short.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:51 AM (cfSRQ)

236 Fox News Sunday: No indictments before the election

Out: #TwoWeeks
In: #TwoMonths

Posted by: Asshoes at September 27, 2020 10:51 AM (Bl5GC)

237 @227
There's the ruthless anti-hero (Walter White in breaking bad) and then there's the virtuous anti-hero (Robin Hood)

I think people have always like the virtuous anti-hero, but you're right, every once in a while we get a spate of ruthless anti-heroes.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 10:52 AM (AwPyG)

238 234

Not really.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:52 AM (Cssks)

239 Always wondered about the Irish Famine as well. People starving to death and eating grass - while they're on an island surrounded by seafood. It's like they were raised to believe potatoes were the only food in the world.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (HabA/)

Northern countries, with their short growing seasons, don't have a lot of edible plant diversity.
Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 10:50 AM (y7DUB)
------
It's worse than that - the poorest tenants paid their rents with potatoes.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:53 AM (Rk6Cp)

240 "...'Your life belongs to you' is a great one-sentence description of what
America offers, particularly Europeans tired of being bossed around by
various kings, lords, dukes, earls, etc."

Americanism is unique from nationalism in this attempt to have a government that answers to the people, in a structural way, not just via rebellion and chaos. The subversion of that foundation is underway by the shadow government and oligarchs (Atlantic Council, Bilderberg, CFR, Foundations, etc.), as well as more foreign forces like China.

Those insidious and odious modern kings/lords/dukes are currently backers of the coup, if not direct participants. Their armies are mostly PsyOp groups ... from the more violent BLM/Antifa, to the gentile MSM and DeepState bureaucrats, with the central power in Wall Street power brokers and Too Big To Fail Banks, who wield their own power via threat of "global financial contagion".

Will Durham/Barr drop the hammer and renew the Republic against the DC Cartel? idk ... #5Weeks

Posted by: illiniwek at September 27, 2020 10:53 AM (Cus5s)

241 224
BTW, where can on get AHL's Long Live Death, given I will not deal with either Amazon or BN?

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 10:45 AM (7X3UV)

---
I guess you could send money to me on Paypal and I'd email you the pdf.

I'm not a huge fan of Bezos, but Amazon does work well for self-publishing authors.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:53 AM (cfSRQ)

242 Spain at its absolute zenith was still a very awkward, ramshackle polity.

-
Damn homo sapiens! They ruin everything.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 10:54 AM (+y/Ru)

243 ALH

I ask because I don't know: can your book "Long Live" be requested through the public library?

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:55 AM (Cssks)

244 230
what part didn't you understand?

I didn't read it, because if you can't be bothered to put it in intelligible form, I can't be bothered to read it.

Posted by: pep at September 27, 2020 10:55 AM (v16oJ)

245 Greetings:

Loss of God:

Sister Mary Robert, the largest Sister of Mercy in the then known World, taught that "When it comes to the temptation to sin, the Devil almost always has ease and/or pleasure on his side of the balance.".

Posted by: 11B40 at September 27, 2020 10:56 AM (evgyj)

246 "Take a Letter, Maria". Better horns than "Message to Garcia"
Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 10:21 AM (RuIsu)
\---

"A Message to You Rudy" had even better horns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cntvEDbagAw
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 10:50 AM (Dc2NZ)

Don't forget "Message to Michael:"

https://tinyurl.com/yxbusf7d

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 10:56 AM (2JVJo)

247 3) The mortal peril that Turkish expansion posed to
Europe was rarely a top priority for Europe's decision makers... which
is kind of hair raising to read about.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:45 AM (Cssks)

---
The French established an alliance with the Turks against their mutual enemy, the Habsburgs.

During the second siege of Vienna, part of Austria's problem was that they were also at war with France, which drew off support from their German domains.

The French were hoping Vienna fell, and their plan apparently was to meet the Turks in the Rhineland, defeat them decisively, and then advance east, incorporating the devastated Habsburg lands into their empire.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:57 AM (cfSRQ)

248 some of the notions I've been toying with in my novella, which is set largely in yemen and the kingdom, but the characters are largely tied to events in the balkans, and segues through southern spain and morocco,

Posted by: bolivar de gris at September 27, 2020 10:57 AM (hMlTh)

249 A Message to Garcia

If you have a job to do, quit whinging and do it!

President McKinley wanted to get a message to Garcia, the leader of the anti-Spain rebels in Cuba, during the run-up to the Spanish-American War.

"[1Lt.] Rowan was sent for and was given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia--are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point that I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?"

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (Fc5rx)

250 OK, folks, ought to go to bed and wish the day away, but I think I'll go play some Beatles instead. Don't know when I'll be back. Maybe tomorrow.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (2JVJo)

251 The War of the Roses--secretly egged-on by Pansies and Petunias.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (Ndje9)

252 @243
You can ask your library to carry any self-published book, as long as it comes in print form.
The author will make less money, though, if people are borrowing though the library.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (AwPyG)

253 Meanwhile, the villain is strong, forthright and capable. Also, villains get all the best lines because being bad guys, they can say mean things.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:46 AM (cfSRQ)

And they gather unfortunate admiration.

In a kids' show or two, the villains always escape to fight another day. I hate that. It teaches, perhaps the obvious, that there is no justice.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (ONvIw)

254 "Also, Annalucia, you wouldn't have a copy of your translation you would like to share?

"Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 10:43 AM (WyVLE"

Well, I've got it in .pdf and .odt forms. Printed out, it would run to about 400 pages. So far it's been in limited, private circulation. No idea how I would pass it farther afield without drawing down the wrath of the original publisher. I *think* I'm OK as long as I don't attempt to actually publish or sell it, but you never know.

Posted by: Annalucia at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (S6ArX)

255 The French were hoping Vienna fell, and their plan apparently was to meet the Turks in the Rhineland, defeat them decisively, and then advance east, incorporating the devastated Habsburg lands into their empire.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:57 AM (cfSRQ)
-----
Gee, there's nothing that could possibly go wrong with that plan.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:59 AM (Rk6Cp)

256 243
ALH

I ask because I don't know: can your book "Long Live" be requested through the public library?

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 10:55 AM (Cssks)

---
I did enroll it in the shared kindle program, so you have a decent chance at getting it that way. The paperback version would have to be requesed from the library board. YMMV.
ALH is another commenter, btw. My initials are AHL.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:59 AM (cfSRQ)

257 Chris Loesch is one of the reasons I left political Twitter a long time ago. He was definitely one of those "If you don't agree 100% with my definition of conservatism then you are a RINO commie loser who needs to GTFO!"

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 10:59 AM (dNzKv)

258 @InfidelAngela

Omg this is GOLD!!! "OH HELL NO"

https://tinyurl.com/y5f22gze

Posted by: Tami at September 27, 2020 11:01 AM (cF8AT)

259 I have no experience with Lulu.com (other than as a purchaser) but in addition to selling ebooks, they sell dead trees to order. If you want some self-published bead tree version, you order it, then they print off a copy, and mai it to you.

https://bit.ly/30ccYR3

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 11:01 AM (+y/Ru)

260 AHL

I'll see if I can persuade the library I use to get a copy. I'll let you know how that works out.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 11:02 AM (Cssks)

261 Oh, and if you had money on "No Durham report or indictments before the election" please report to the office to collect your winnings. Since that was basically everyone, it works out to $0.1, however, there is a $5.00 processing fee, you all owe the clerk $4.99.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:02 AM (dNzKv)

262
And they gather unfortunate admiration.

In a kids' show or two, the villains always escape to fight another
day. I hate that. It teaches, perhaps the obvious, that there is no
justice.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 10:58 AM (ONvIw)

---
What I find interesting is that in the Age of Woke, the villain is often more sympathetic and people root for them instead.

As to kids' shows, the classic solution is to humiliate/discomfit the villain at the end of each episode, so you can have the benefit of a recurring enemy, but also mete out justice.

As the heroes laugh and celebrate the win, the villain shakes his fist, vowing revenge from the giant pot of soup/rabid dogs chasing after him, etc.

Classic feature of 80s cartoons.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:03 AM (cfSRQ)

263 Comment of the Day (so far):

-----------------
Adopting black kids is racist; aborting black kids is glorious women's equality

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 07:55 AM (nUhF0)

Posted by: ... at September 27, 2020 11:03 AM (uEbPt)

264 Annalucia, when it is done and polished, contact the copyright holder and ask if they are interested in either publishing or allowing for English publication of their work that you have already translated and had edited.

The worst they can do is say no.

IF they say no, send the same request each year until you get a different answer

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 11:03 AM (WyVLE)

265 236 - "Fox News Sunday: No indictments before the election"

No more indictments period. Barr just knows he can't say that before the election without pissing off a big chunk of Trump's base.

Posted by: lowandslow at September 27, 2020 11:03 AM (4thlk)

266 241 224
BTW, where can on get AHL's Long Live Death, given I will not deal with either Amazon or BN?

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 10:45 AM (7X3UV)

---
I guess you could send money to me on Paypal and I'd email you the pdf.

I'm not a huge fan of Bezos, but Amazon does work well for self-publishing authors.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 10:53 AM (cfSRQ)
_________

Not available in paper? I do not use ebooks. Makes the headaches worse. And anyway, it goes against my naturally reactionary nature. I actually used a quill to write my papers with, in my college days. Of course, they were easy to get in Charlottesville.

Next month N A M Rogers's 3rd volume comes out; I'm meaning to get yours then, with it if possible.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:04 AM (7X3UV)

267 @261
I'm not sure you've been paying attention.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:04 AM (AwPyG)

268 Better yet would be the children of Whoville turning their backs on decadent Western holidays and putting their small shoulders to the wheel of collectivism and self-denial.
Posted by: Zod at September 27, 2020 10:20 AM (xK9An)

They could all become Trappists!

Although I'm sure Zoe would consider time spent in prayer and study to be wasted, when it could be used to dig the Transcontinental Dignity Canal.

Posted by: Fox2! at September 27, 2020 11:04 AM (qyH+l)

269
Back from a delightful constitutional with the athletic and mighty mighty Mrs naturalfake.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 27, 2020 11:05 AM (dWwl8)

270 127 Lol

For WWI movies if you haven't watch Daniel Craig in The Trench, it is on line somewhere.

Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 11:05 AM (OjZpE)

271 In terms of organizing resistance to the Turks, the Counter Reformation Church comes off about the best of the lot.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 11:06 AM (Cssks)

272 Adopting black kids is racist; aborting black kids is glorious women's equality

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 07:55 AM (nUhF0)

They are going to "find" her kids family in Haiti and attempt to destroy her family and it makes me sick thinking about it. And that old bastard Soros will smile smugly in his living room, "She thought she would be SCOTUS, but I destroyed her without lifting a finger."

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:07 AM (dNzKv)

273 Gee, there's nothing that could possibly go wrong with that plan.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 10:59 AM (Rk6Cp)

---
It does underline the point that "wars of religion" aren't exclusively about matters of faith.

Not to ignite yet another of our Sunday re-litigations of the Reformation, but there was a lot of upside in local rulers siding with Luther and confiscating Church property.

Not only could you know claim to have "reformed" Christianity, you got rich in the process. Win-win!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:07 AM (cfSRQ)

274 @262
That's a good point. I love Bubble Guppies, but in every episode the villain turns out to be misunderstood, and only needing friendship to turn his actions around.
I feel ambivalent about that.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:07 AM (AwPyG)

275 Right now we're having a bit of trouble figuring where to put massive volumes. And we have more than I thought. Includes a wonderful Hammond Atlas and Gazeteer from c 1907. As I kid, I used it when reading Kipling and the like. You want maps of the Brit Empire? This is the book for you.

And there's Japanese Cruisers (Lacroix & Wells). Ship books run big, but this one is on another level. Though height and depth are standard, it is immensely thick and heavy.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:08 AM (7X3UV)

276 Biden to give speech on SCOTUS in 1 hr.

Posted by: Ha at September 27, 2020 11:09 AM (tDhhX)

277 Not available in paper? I do not use ebooks. Makes
the headaches worse. And anyway, it goes against my naturally
reactionary nature. I actually used a quill to write my papers with, in
my college days. Of course, they were easy to get in Charlottesville.

Next month N A M Rogers's 3rd volume comes out; I'm meaning to get yours then, with it if possible.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:04 AM (7X3UV)

---
I have it in paperback, but it's printed by Amazon. So if you order from me, Amazon still gets a share of the dough.

I will say that Long Live Death is the first book I've published to see significant paperback sales. Usually 90+ percent of my sales are e-books. It's probably 25-30% with this book.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:10 AM (cfSRQ)

278 They are going to "find" her kids family in Haiti and attempt to destroy her family and it makes me sick thinking about it. And that old bastard Soros will smile smugly in his living room, "She thought she would be SCOTUS, but I destroyed her without lifting a finger."
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:07 AM (dNzKv)

I think they'll find Haitian adoption are not as easy as they think. And that the Haitians are not a stupid people.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:10 AM (ONvIw)

279 As the heroes laugh and celebrate the win, the villain shakes his fist, vowing revenge from the giant pot of soup/rabid dogs chasing after him, etc.

Classic feature of 80s cartoons.

UmiZoomi, the troublemakers always get their comeuppance

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:10 AM (dNzKv)

280 In terms of organizing resistance to the Turks, the Counter Reformation Church comes off about the best of the lot.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 11:06 AM (Cssks)

---
Lepanto for the win!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:11 AM (cfSRQ)

281 Before you continue
Google uses cookies and other data to deliver, maintain, and improve our services and ads. If you agree, we'll personalize the content and ads you see based on your activity on Google services like Search, Maps, and YouTube. We also have partners that measure how our services are used. Click "See more" to review your options or visit g.co/privacytools anytime.
-----------------------

This is invasive arrogance, Alphabet should to be broken into individual letters and auctioned off

.

Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:11 AM (vW9Vw)

282 Thanks for the discussion of trench warfare. Count me among those who thought that it was just a meat grinder.

Reminds me of a quote from the comic strip "Bringing Up Father."

Jiggs, upon meeting a pal who's been in the war:

"It must be grand fighting 'over there' without any police to interfere."

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 27, 2020 11:11 AM (u/nim)

283
UmiZoomi, the troublemakers always get their comeuppance
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:10 AM (dNzKv)

They should. Villainy must not look beinign, that's how we get Pelosi types.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:11 AM (ONvIw)

284
They are going to "find" her kids family in
Haiti and attempt to destroy her family and it makes me sick thinking
about it. And that old bastard Soros will smile smugly in his living
room, "She thought she would be SCOTUS, but I destroyed her without
lifting a finger."

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:07 AM (dNzKv)

---
That's a risky strategy. Lots of Clinton skeletons in Haiti. I think they'll be told to stay away from that line of attack.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:12 AM (cfSRQ)

285 " To act in absolute freedom and at the same time know that responsibility is the price of freedom is salvation."

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 11:12 AM (Fc5rx)

286 I think they'll find Haitian adoption are not as easy as they think. And that the Haitians are not a stupid people.

Uh, of course they are stupid. They are minorities, don't live in NYC, and didn't go to ivy league! No, no, no, I will go down there and show them how it is all wrong.

-NY progressive activist

Also, they will bring a suitcase of cash, so they will find someone to say whatever they need.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:13 AM (dNzKv)

287 Chris Loesch is one of the reasons I left political Twitter a long time ago. He was definitely one of those "If you don't agree 100% with my definition of conservatism then you are a RINO commie loser who needs to GTFO!"
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy

Hmm, never been on twitter or faceplant.

Posted by: Infidel at September 27, 2020 11:13 AM (4ZQiP)

288 268 They could all become Trappists!

it's a trapp!

Posted by: Admiral Ackbar at September 27, 2020 11:13 AM (UPjBG)

289 Donna I certainly will post my thoughts on it here. As said my reading last 30 years has been from the period of Frederick the Great ( 1740 >) on so the vents after this I am somewhat familiar.
Always wondered how religious strife got started between Protestant and Catholic church's.
It will take a few weeks, it's like 850 pages.

Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 11:13 AM (OjZpE)

290 278 They are going to "find" her kids family in Haiti and attempt to destroy her family and it makes me sick thinking about it. And that old bastard Soros will smile smugly in his living room, "She thought she would be SCOTUS, but I destroyed her without lifting a finger."
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:07 AM (dNzKv)
----------------------

She/the family are committed Christians, they know what they've signed on for.

Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:14 AM (vW9Vw)

291 Calvin needs to get a copy of "The Anarchists Cookbook" Good how-to book

Posted by: TNTPro at September 27, 2020 11:14 AM (ey/b/)

292 Biden to give speech on SCOTUS in 1 hr.
Posted by: Ha at September 27, 2020 11:09 AM (tDhhX)

Late lid? Can he make it after noon?

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:15 AM (dNzKv)

293 I actually used a quill to write my papers with, in
my college days.

It is difficult as a left-hander to use a traditional ink pen because they are meant to be drawn across a page by the right hand, not pushed by the left.

So my Italian gave me a glass pen with a spiral tip. It holds ink and writes as well as any nib pen and it's ambidextrous.

These days I use it to write students' names in the Book of Good and Bad. The ceremony of dipping the pen into the ink looks like sorcery to them and it gives the whole good and bad thing a Biblical feel.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 27, 2020 11:15 AM (q2K0j)

294 The development of heroes is one thing traced by Barzun in his book. There's the classical hero of Greek and Roman myth - Achilles and Aeneas. Then, in the modern era, you get the national hero who exemplifies the virtues of a nation - think of Henry V in Shakespeare's play. Later comes the individual hero and finally, in the age of decadence, the progression to anti-hero.

But villains have always been portrayed as smart and wily - Richard III and Iago are 2 examples. Why? Because fiction and plays would be damned boring without attractive, smart villains. If evil presented itself as dumb and ugly, nobody would be tempted to be evil.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at September 27, 2020 11:15 AM (HabA/)

295 I am about 2/3 of the way thru "Killing Crazy Horse" by Bill O'Reilly. Audible book.
It is excellent, like the rest of his unique books.
Mr O'Reilly only orated the introduction.

Posted by: navybrat waits and watches at September 27, 2020 11:15 AM (w7KSn)

296 Durham Report will be on Pay-Per-View, packaged with teh Winter Olympics.

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 11:16 AM (RuIsu)

297 Coronavirus has turned us into a nation of pijaralivuqs.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 27, 2020 11:16 AM (W3n3j)

298 I expected the Durham thing, but I am no less incensed at confirmation.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (dNzKv)

299 It's a shame many of the commenters here are diametrically opposed to twitter.

You can be in complete control of who you read, and you can read without signing up for anything--you can just search the person's handle. (@realdonaldtrump for example)
it's the twitter patriots who are saving the world, and Jack Dorsey is gnashing his teeth because that was not the plan, at all

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (AwPyG)

300 "Annalucia, when it is done and polished, contact the copyright holder
and ask if they are interested in either publishing or allowing for
English publication of their work that you have already translated and
had edited.

"The worst they can do is say no.

"IF they say no, send the same request each year until you get a different answer."

Well, they've already said No for this year; I contacted them several months ago and they gave me the polite-but-firm brushoff - if they were interested in having the book in English they would contact an Anglophone publisher and let *them* find the translator.

My guess is that they assume that there is no market for his books in English. The author fought in the war as a young man, went on to become a pharmacist and took up writing "microhistory" about the time he retired. None of his books have been translated into any other language, so far as I can tell.

Another thing about this book is that I have had to add a lot of footnotes. The author was writing almost 50 years ago, for his contemporaries, and he breezily refers to political parties by their initials (FAI, UGT, CNT, etc etc) and politicians by their surnames only, because of course his readers would know who/what he was talking about. So I spend a lot of time on Spanish-language Wikipedia chasing these people down. I also have to trim some of the orotundities of his prose style ;-) though he's nowhere near as bad as an academic would have been.
But, good suggestion. Maybe I'll contact the publisher next January, and start all over again...

Posted by: Annalucia at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (S6ArX)

301 I am getting to the point where it might be better to just vote for the rapist. Push the burning hulk of a country off of the cliff, fight it out and start over.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:18 AM (dNzKv)

302 But villains have always been portrayed as smart and
wily - Richard III and Iago are 2 examples. Why? Because fiction and
plays would be damned boring without attractive, smart villains. If
evil presented itself as dumb and ugly, nobody would be tempted to be
evil.

Posted by: DonnaV at September 27, 2020 11:15 AM (HabA/)

---
A hero also needs a worthy foe that pushes them to the brink.

This is why Woke Mary Sue heroes fail. No drama, no interest.

It's why I hate the "You always had the power within you!" stories.

What a stupid cop-out.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:18 AM (cfSRQ)

303 @73, re: depression--went through 3 years of post-divorce/separation from children depression, 34 years ago--two suggestions for you: if have a friend/relative who you can trust to follow through, have that person contact you every day with a reminder that THINGS WILL GET BETTER. There's no timeline for this, but THINGS WILL GET BETTER. Also, since this is the book thread, get yourself a copy of Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning. Finally, remember that THINGS WILL GET BETTER.

Posted by: FIIGMO at September 27, 2020 11:19 AM (Qf08A)

304 Reminder: A prosecutor doesn't "report", a prosecutor arrests people (See, spate of recent pedophile ring arrests that are connected to Deep State funding.)
Some people here seem very, very, concerned.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:20 AM (AwPyG)

305 it's the twitter patriots who are saving the world

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (AwPyG)

Wow...I guess they should get medals...or peace prizes.

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 11:20 AM (AwYPR)

306 298
I expected the Durham thing, but I am no less incensed at confirmation.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (dNzKv)

---
Did Barr confirm this? Or is this "anonymous sources close to the investigation say..." crap.

At this point, they all lie. Until I see Barr or Durham say something, I will refrain from lighting my hair on fire.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:21 AM (cfSRQ)

307 Biden to give speech on SCOTUS in 1 hr.

**********

"Look, Fat! Here's the deal! Barack had me working on the negotiations to get SCOTland back in the onion before bagpipes were invented. By the way, I look better in a kilt than anyone else in this room. The kids in Copenhagen used to like to watch my silky leg hairs float up and then back down. At any rate, ye can take my wife, but ye cannae take my, you know, the Thing! Beam me up SCOTUS!"

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 11:22 AM (Fc5rx)

308 eminder: A prosecutor doesn't "report", a prosecutor arrests people

I wanted arrests. I wanted, "There was no Russian collusion, it was an attempted coup, and these are the bastards who did it" Now we will get "Some people did some things, but it was a long time ago and water under the bridge. Time to MoveOn.org"

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:22 AM (dNzKv)

309 306 298
I expected the Durham thing, but I am no less incensed at confirmation.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (dNzKv)

---
Did Barr confirm this? Or is this "anonymous sources close to the investigation say..." crap.

At this point, they all lie. Until I see Barr or Durham say something, I will refrain from lighting my hair on fire.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:21 AM (cfSRQ)

Far to measured a response, denounce yourself and be saved!

Posted by: browndog at September 27, 2020 11:23 AM (BgMrQ)

310 Good morning Horde.

Posted by: Diogenes at September 27, 2020 11:24 AM (JxC99)

311 299 It's a shame many of the commenters here are diametrically opposed to twitter.

You can be in complete control of who you read, and you can read without signing up for anything--you can just search the person's handle. (@realdonaldtrump for example)
it's the twitter patriots who are saving the world, and Jack Dorsey is gnashing his teeth because that was not the plan, at all
Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (AwPyG)

@brithume
There are many thoughtful people on twitter:
@molliehemminway, @OANN and many others.

Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:24 AM (vW9Vw)

312 THis probably means the big fish like Brennan and McCabe covered their legal asses with plausible deniability, and the only thing they have anything on is low level staffers.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:24 AM (dNzKv)

313 Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at September 27, 2020 11:22 AM (dNzKv)

No intent.

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 11:24 AM (AwYPR)

314 Biden to give speech on SCOTUS in 1 hr.
________

No way. Scotus was "the subtle doctor", and Biden can't even understand Ockham.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:24 AM (7X3UV)

315 Biden to give speech on SCOTUS in 1 hr.

Posted by: Ha at September 27, 2020 11:09 AM (tDhhX)

He's up this late?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at September 27, 2020 11:25 AM (WuUfi)

316 No Durham report before the election per Maria Bartiromo.

Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:25 AM (vW9Vw)

317 @305
You laugh, but most of them are anonymous sharers-of-information.
The powers that be are frantically suspending accounts, but the anonymous person then simply opens another. It's like guerrilla warfare, where no one cares who gets the glory. The purest form of the First Amendment.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (AwPyG)

318 Biden to give speech on SCOTUS in 1 hr.
_______________________________

Afterward he'll speak on SCROTUM.

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (AwYPR)

319 No way. Scotus was "the subtle doctor", and Biden can't even understand Ockham.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:24 AM (7X3UV)
-----
Classic AoSHQ: come for the bewbs, stay for the arcane references to Medieval philosophers.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (Rk6Cp)

320 Emphasis mine. "Your life belongs to you" is a great one-sentence description of what America offers

I've found that my life belonged to all kinds of people other than myself. Parents, teachers, church, spouse, employers. My teaching was that my life belonged to these people, not to me. So the idea that my life belongs to me, and that I can live for me, my own goals, my own enjoyment, is a foreign concept I'm still trying to get my head around.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (NWiLs)

321 Title of Durham book...
Fahrenheit 482. Hair on fire. Sorta smoldering, almost. Didn't try it.

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 11:28 AM (RuIsu)

322 I am getting to the point where it might be better to just vote for the rapist. Push the burning hulk of a country off of the cliff, fight it out and start over.

-------

Watching Lady YD over the last year and change has been interesting... She's gone the opposite way. Eighteen months ago it was "I hate Trump, he's an asshole, and probably a racist."

Then, once she watched the Dem debates it was "ok, I can't stand him but I'm likely going to vote for him because these people are all dangerous lunatics."

Then, by the time Biden got nominated and the press started pushing lockdowns, and attacking Trump relentlessly every day, she was locked in for the Big Dog.

As of the other day... We were watching him on TV, and it became "you know what? I wish we could just put an end to this madness. Cancel the election and just give him another four years. Or eight. Whatever. He's the only one responsible enough to lead and these Dems are just getting in the way."

They're doing a VERY effective job at getting millions of people to conclude that our political system is utterly broken.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 27, 2020 11:29 AM (W3n3j)

323 I've found that my life belonged to all kinds of
people other than myself. Parents, teachers, church, spouse, employers.
My teaching was that my life belonged to these people, not to me. So the
idea that my life belongs to me, and that I can live for me, my own
goals, my own enjoyment, is a foreign concept I'm still trying to get my
head around.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (NWiLs)

---
Obligatory mood music:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkRG-flg20

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:29 AM (cfSRQ)

324 Classic AoSHQ: come for the bewbs, stay for the arcane references to Medieval philosophers.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat

tits.

Posted by: tits at September 27, 2020 11:30 AM (YqED9)

325 The English banned the Irish from fishing if they stayed Catholic. Couldn't have a boat

Posted by: Ignoramus at September 27, 2020 11:30 AM (tkuJg)

326 Grampa told me to lift the lid, so I did. No change.

Posted by: Arkansas Biden Baby at September 27, 2020 11:31 AM (EgshT)

327 tits.
Posted by: tits at September 27, 2020 11:30 AM (YqED9)

-----

Touche.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 27, 2020 11:32 AM (W3n3j)

328 I've found that my life belonged to all kinds of people other than myself. Parents, teachers, church, spouse, employers. My teaching was that my life belonged to these people, not to me. So the idea that my life belongs to me, and that I can live for me, my own goals, my own enjoyment, is a foreign concept I'm still trying to get my head around.
Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (NWiLs)

You gave your life to teachers, church, spouse, employers. It was your choice.

Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:32 AM (vW9Vw)

329 But, good suggestion. Maybe I'll contact the publisher next January, and start all over again...
Posted by: Annalucia at September 27, 2020 11:17 AM (S6ArX)

In an interview with one of the founders of Scribe Media (a new publishing house) points out that publishing (at least in the US) is a social status activity, and not focused on either putting out quality books, engendering authors or making money, but is mostly intent on cementing the social position of the people running the publishing houses in the social status that they all belong.

I don't know if this is true in Spain, but it might not hurt to have an elevator pitch that points out for a very small amount of money and allowing someone else to accept the risk of a limited run, all they have to do is sit back and let funds arrive in their accounts, and see if there is a call for this sort book in this untapped market, with the benefits of finding new people the adore them.
Further, with no actual finger in the pie, if it turns out to be a negative all they have to do is say no to further printings and they are scot free.

You may want to find a small publisher as well as a proposal for self publication and marketing.

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 11:33 AM (WyVLE)

330 @323
I think the happiest people find a balance between looking out for themselves and serving others. But in the meantime, it is very, very important to recognize toxic people, and cut them off without a shred of remorse.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:33 AM (AwPyG)

331 328 Nothing like guilting people.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:34 AM (ONvIw)

332 social status that they all belong == Social STRATA that they all belong

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 11:34 AM (WyVLE)

333 @323
I used to listen to Laura Schlesinger (sp?) and people would call with tales of terrible relatives, and ask what to do.

Her rule of thumb was: you have too put-up with "annoying", but you don't have to put up with "toxic", where they are trying to destroy your happiness. Cut them off, no matter who it is.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:36 AM (AwPyG)

334 I'm reading a good book right now: "Mr. Rochester", by Sarah Shoemaker. It's a birthday present from my sister, who really like it, and though I don't always share her taste in things, this book is really good! It's "Jane Eyre", told from the point of view of Edward Rochester, with very interesting chapters on his childhood, upbringing, disastrous life in Jamaica, etc. I peeked at the end, and it continues through to the end of the events recounted in 'Jane Eyre'. I wondered if maybe it ended where that book began, and the last line would be something like, "And now, after a meaningless, painful life, I now have to interview some damned governess!"
Oh, and the painting of the ladies in the drawing room? I recognized the artist right away - a French painter named Enjolras. He specialized in this sort of picture, of beautiful, languid ladies, often by glowing lamplight. He also did a line in slightly naughty pictures of ladies in their boudoirs, wearing diaphanous nighties, looking at themselves in mirrors, reading love letters, etc. I know because (ahem) we own an original Enjolras - nothing too risque, just a portrait of a woman with a red flower in her hair and boob exposed. I found it in an antique shop in Alexandria, VA, years ago.

Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at September 27, 2020 11:36 AM (lWrlT)

335 So Durham is not a " white hat"? Go fucking figure

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:37 AM (ONvIw)

336 Insom, this is the time of year, in fact, almost the day on which jooz let go of the past, and ask forgiveness, intent on literally turning away from past errors. Its been a great observance in my life becoming more and more meanigful as I have more of a past now.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 27, 2020 11:37 AM (EZebt)

337 pep's excellent note on the railways being Very Bad Things to some theorists in India reminds me that Sam Rayburn hated railroads -- for luring his family to their awful failure trying to farm in west Texas. I think you'll find notes both in Tuchman and in Caro's LBJ books on how the old populist Dems worked themselves up to blaming the government for setting them up with cheap land, and railroads for controlling the way in and the way out.

Rayburn and a handful of allies were responsible for running railroads into the ground for half a century, and for replacing their passenger service with roads and airways via subsidy.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 27, 2020 11:37 AM (oRpiG)

338 I have made no progress in my HP Lovecraft collection these past few weeks. Instead I've been reading old Solomon Kane comics. Its just so much more uplifting to read stories where supernatural horrors are destroyed than where the supernatural horrors get to win...

I also discovered that the artist who drew a big chuck of the Solomon Kane collection--David Wenzel--was also the illustrator on the comic adaptation of The Hobbit. Radically different styles, but still...Small world.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 27, 2020 11:38 AM (Lhaco)

339 Beautiful library. I wonder if they have a full set of 5e core rule books.

From the sidebar: yeah, that SNL RBG skit is seriously not funny.

Posted by: Blacksheep at September 27, 2020 11:38 AM (6mvRv)

340 English has "exasperated" and "fed-up" and "Jane, you ignorant slut!"

Posted by: normal at September 27, 2020 11:38 AM (obo9H)

341 Social STRATA that they all belong

***********

Broader society differs in its make-up from a symphony orchestra in that society has various strata, while an orchestra has Stradivarius.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 11:38 AM (Fc5rx)

342 Finally, remember that THINGS WILL GET BETTER.
Posted by: FIIGMO at September 27, 2020 11:19 AM (Qf08A)

And while you are miserable there is no reason to not do something useful, so find a goal and start working at it. And while working on it, start planning for the next goal.

not "clean the house" but "have the house in order for my dinner party"

Posted by: Kindltot at September 27, 2020 11:38 AM (WyVLE)

343 Speaking of relatives that used to hate Trump, if you haven't seen it, take a look at Dave Portnoy's interview of the president. Toward the end, Dave tells Trump that his father "hates" him, and asks if they can all facetime as a surprise.
It's hilarious

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:39 AM (AwPyG)

344 And if you insisted on a noun, I suppose you could coin "exasperant".

Posted by: normal at September 27, 2020 11:40 AM (obo9H)

345 On "English translations" of place names in France and Belgium, I throw this one out there every few years just to keep it in circulation until the validated historians admit it must be true.

The town of Amiens was angle-sized to "Ay - meanz." It was a horrifying affair, and for the rest of their lives the survivors would greet each other with reference to "Bloody Ay," their abbrev of bleeding ay-meanz.

Language coarsened, mid-century, and it became "Fucking-A."
And that is where that comes from.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 27, 2020 11:41 AM (oRpiG)

346 I think the happiest people find a balance between looking out for themselves and serving others. But in the meantime, it is very, very important to recognize toxic people, and cut them off without a shred of remorse.
Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:33 AM (AwPyG)

The balance statement makes sense. If you believe that your self-worth derives entirely from serving and seeking (and hopefully receiving) the approval of others, you'll never be truly happy.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:41 AM (NWiLs)

347 336: We recite a litany of sins many of which we never committed. I have yet to receive an apology for any sins committed against me..lol. As I age it loses meaning, seems hollow and ridiculous. Yet people walk away feeling satisfied and renewed.

I have come to think the RC idea of having to tell a priest your sins and have him assign a penance more appropriate.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:41 AM (ONvIw)

348 Oh, and since I trumpeted my beloved LSU's success last year, I should probably own that they looked God-awful last night against MSU's newly revamped air raid offense. Very embarrassing performance. Congrats to Leach and Costello & Co.

Posted by: Blacksheep at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (6mvRv)

349 Dare I ask what his opinion of whether Roosevelt knew beforehand?

After reading bits of At Dawn We Slept I found a very personal reason why Roosevelt did not know. The son of FDR's naval aide was aboard the cruiser USS Raleigh that Sunday morning as a torpedo slammed into the slumbering ship.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (7/PyA)

350 2.) It was a decade before the US Marines invented amphibious vehicles
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 10:31 AM (QZxDR)

Currently listening to Churchill's Their Finest Hour and he claims *he* was essentially the originator of the concept of amphibious assault vehicles.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (uquGJ)

351 @334
Thanks, I love well-done "other point of view" books. People have done a few with Mr. Darcy.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:43 AM (AwPyG)

352 336 Insom, this is the time of year, in fact, almost the day on which jooz let go of the past, and ask forgiveness, intent on literally turning away from past errors. Its been a great observance in my life becoming more and more meanigful as I have more of a past now.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 27, 2020 11:37 AM (EZebt)

You mentioned this the other day, I think. What are the rituals and observances associated with this?

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:44 AM (NWiLs)

353 railways being Very Bad Things

-
Things were better when we were living in caves and banging rocks together.

- Gavin Newsome

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 11:44 AM (+y/Ru)

354 @348
two genius coaches, who will (hopefully) match wits many times in the future

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:44 AM (AwPyG)

355 Casting off the mantle of oppression isn't so easy for a person who is addicted to it. Who is comforted by the consistency. No one can take away your sadness. Or your anger and resentment.

Happiness is a choice.

Posted by: Nurse ratched at September 27, 2020 11:45 AM (U2p+3)

356 Currently listening to Churchill's Their Finest Hour and he claims *he* was essentially the originator of the concept of amphibious assault vehicles.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (uquGJ)
------
Nonsense. I saw in the Russell Crowe "Robin Hood" that the French had a Medieval version of the LCI! In the 1200s!

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 11:45 AM (Rk6Cp)

357 @316
Don't worry, the Sabermetrics people will be along to tell you that even though Durham can't lay down a bunt or always overthrows the cut off man, his WHIP is stellar, and he has a higher WAR than Huber.

That being said, the only thing we have heard is Barr saying he won't be bullied and that Durham is doing all the things.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at September 27, 2020 11:47 AM (KQ7QA)

358 Coach Ed from LSU would be a good guy to go drinking with.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at September 27, 2020 11:47 AM (d9MTx)

359 Go back to the Romans who turned naval battles into land battles by installing boarding ramps that would crash down and lock the ships together.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 27, 2020 11:48 AM (7/PyA)

360 Stop all human progress until we're sure it's OK.

Trains: Dead!
Planes: Dead!
Neidermayer: Dead!

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 11:48 AM (RuIsu)

361 359 Go back to the Romans who turned naval battles into land battles by installing boarding ramps that would crash down and lock the ships together.
Posted by: Anna Puma at September 27, 2020 11:48 AM (7/PyA)

What's "Avast, and prepare to be boarded" in Latin?

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:49 AM (NWiLs)

362 There it is:
The Pope says DJT "not a Christian".

Posted by: navybrat waits and watches at September 27, 2020 11:50 AM (w7KSn)

363 Posted by: Anna Puma at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (7/PyA)

Just like all Democrats, FDR had a very blind side.

Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (vW9Vw)

364 @362
I dunno; I have a sneaking suspicion that DJT is more pro-life than the Pope

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (AwPyG)

365 Go back to the Romans who turned naval battles into land battles by installing boarding ramps that would crash down and lock the ships together.
Posted by: Anna Puma at September 27, 2020 11:48 AM (7/PyA)
-----
True, but only for the First Punic War. Once they got a better handle on naval operations, the corvus went away.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (Rk6Cp)

366 362 There it is:
The Pope says DJT "not a Christian".
Posted by: navybrat waits and watches at September 27, 2020 11:50 AM (w7KSn)

Heh. Like Pope Frankie has any clue about Christianity.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (NWiLs)

367 English banned the Irish from fishing if they stayed Catholic. Couldn't have a boat
Posted by: Ignoramus at September 27, 2020 11:30 AM (tkuJg)

And Catholics couldn't own property, so what they managed to produce went to landlords. Hard to survive, let alone get ahead, when "everything belongs to not-you."

Posted by: NaughtyPine at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (/+bwe)

368 Barr/Durham have released a few explosive items, but imo, only indictments will penetrate the MSM cone of silence (which they control, over the general nitwit population).

Posted by: illiniwek at September 27, 2020 11:53 AM (Cus5s)

369 The Hill
@thehill
"Biden's trap for Trump in the first debate"

-
Apparently, the trap that Broken Brain Biden has set is that he has so lowered expectations that all he must do is "be willing to walk a mental and temperamental tightrope for the entire 90 minutes, without slipping once."

Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 11:53 AM (+y/Ru)

370 >>> 364 @362
I dunno; I have a sneaking suspicion that DJT is more pro-life than the Pope
Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (AwPyG)

More than FakePope Frankie? Definitely.

>>> 366 362 There it is:
The Pope says DJT "not a Christian".
Posted by: navybrat waits and watches at September 27, 2020 11:50 AM (w7KSn)

Heh. Like Pope Frankie has any clue about Christianity.
Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (NWiLs)

You don't expect him to actually believe that stuff, do you?!

///

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at September 27, 2020 11:54 AM (/kh7m)

371 Not to mention that a top Cardinal just had to step down from his position because he was embroiled in the Deep State money-laundering scheme.
But (as Jack Straw would say) "nothing is happening"

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:55 AM (AwPyG)

372 We recite a litany of sins many of which we never
committed. I have yet to receive an apology for any sins committed
against me..lol. As I age it loses meaning, seems hollow and
ridiculous. Yet people walk away feeling satisfied and renewed.

I have come to think the RC idea of having to tell a priest your sins and have him assign a penance more appropriate.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:41 AM (ONvIw)

---
It is very helpful.

One aspect about it that is particularly comforting is that you can be forgiven not just for the things you did, but they things you should have done, but did not.

Many people today cannot forgive others because they cannot find a way to forgive themselves. This then leads to further separation from God.

It is a powerful tool, and one I use frequently.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:55 AM (cfSRQ)

373 You mentioned this the other day, I think. What are the rituals and observances associated with this?
Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:44 AM (NWiLs)

===

Well, there are quite a number. Fasting is probably the most practical. But penitence, taking stock, accepting responsibility, taking steps to not only undo and restore damage, but to ensure the transgression are unrepeated, are considered necessary in addition to seeking forgiveness.

Some will go to a body of water and tear bread, and cast it upon the waters as if casting their sins away.

Some make a big donation to the congregation.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (EZebt)

374 By a fair margin, 'A Message to Garcia' is my most re-read book. Since it was written more as a magazine article than a book, its brevity is one of its many assets.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (x8Q/V)

375 Trump nominates ACB

The Left: "Catholics are yucky!!!!!"

Pope says Trump is "not a Christian"

Also The Left: "Listen to what the head of the Catholic Church is saying!!!"

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (Fc5rx)

376 Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 11:27 AM (NWiLs)

You gave your life to teachers, church, spouse, employers. It was your choice.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:32 AM (vW9Vw)

These are the kinds of "choices" people "make" when they are introduced to the world, fresh out of the womb. Their little brains interpret all sorts of messed up ways of living as "normal."

This is why the scolds are pretty much useless around ALL this stuff. No, people don't CHOOSE to be victims of abuse and neglect. It is thrust upon them. And it messes up how the mind works. And yes, it's up to the individual to fix it.

Which is not the same thing as telling the person it's their own damn fault.

Posted by: BurtTC at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)

377 @336/347/355 - Thoughtful comments about taking responsibility for your own happiness.

I like Confession because it forces me to articulate my shortcomings in both thought and deed. I can then forgive myself and move on. I find that when I'm in a good mental space like that the actions of others roll right off my back.

@354 - Thanks, Artemis, you are a gracious victor.

Posted by: Blacksheep at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (6mvRv)

378 That being said, the only thing we have heard is Barr saying he won't be bullied and that Durham is doing all the things.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at September 27, 2020 11:47 AM (KQ7QA)

---
The Barnett interview shows that things are in motion. They got him under oath AND immediately entered it into court records.

If you want something to go away quietly, that is exactly that you do NOT do.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:58 AM (cfSRQ)

379 Frankie the Red can eat shit.

Yeah, I said it. So tired of these people.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at September 27, 2020 11:59 AM (p6QYE)

380 @378
also, what's fun is this week we discovered that Durham has been on the job since 2017. Very much under the radar.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 11:59 AM (AwPyG)

381 Currently listening to Churchill's Their Finest Hour and he claims *he* was essentially the originator of the concept of amphibious assault vehicles.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (uquGJ)
_________

Though I'm a WSC fan since my early teens, you have to take such claims with a grain of salt. He liked to paint himself as the sole source of ideas that really had many contributors.

Unless they went wrong, of course. Bot to his credit, he was never a total blame-shifter.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:59 AM (7X3UV)

382 @377
How bout those Ragin' Cajuns?!!?

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:00 PM (AwPyG)

383 Trump nominates ACB

The Left: "Catholics are yucky!!!!!"

Pope says Trump is "not a Christian"

Also The Left: "Listen to what the head of the Catholic Church is saying!!!"
Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (Fc5rx)

Did he really say that?

What a fraud that man is. And it doesn't matter that he gets to wear the funny hat, he's not actually the Pope.

Posted by: BurtTC at September 27, 2020 12:00 PM (hku12)

384 We recite a litany of sins many of which we never
committed. I have yet to receive an apology for any sins committed
against me..lol.
Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 11:41 AM (ONvIw)

===

True, but part of the ritual is perfirmed for those who cannot or do not perform it for themselves.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 27, 2020 12:00 PM (EZebt)

385 Oh, and since I trumpeted my beloved LSU's success last year, I should probably own that they looked God-awful last night against MSU's newly revamped air raid offense. Very embarrassing performance. Congrats to Leach and Costello & Co.
Posted by: Blacksheep at September 27, 2020 11:42 AM (6mvRv)

***

Up here at Washington State we are going to miss the Air Raid.
On the upside, and ironically, we have one of the better running backs in the country.
Go Cougs!

Posted by: Diogenes at September 27, 2020 12:01 PM (axyOa)

386 Durham is moving with glacial speed.

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 12:01 PM (ONvIw)

387 CBD HAS A NOOD

Posted by: Skip, the guy who says NOOD at September 27, 2020 12:01 PM (OjZpE)

388 Banner day for the Trump campaign...

--The Rock puts out a video endorsing Biden

--New ABC/Wash Post poll shows Biden up 10

--New NYT/Sienna poll shows Biden up 8

--New NBC/Marist poll of WI shows Biden up 10

--New NBC/Marist pol of MI shows Biden up 8

--New CBS/Yougov poll of NC shows Biden up 2

And the Trump campaign is still broke and getting slaughtered on tv/radio by non-stop Biden ads.

Posted by: chimpy at September 27, 2020 12:01 PM (st1sw)

389 The Pope says DJT "not a Christian".

-
Nanzi Pelosi and Broken Brain, on the other hand, are practically saints.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (+y/Ru)

390 I will be so grateful when the smoke again rises above the Vatican.

Posted by: Infidel at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (4ZQiP)

391 >>> 383 Trump nominates ACB

The Left: "Catholics are yucky!!!!!"

Pope says Trump is "not a Christian"

Also The Left: "Listen to what the head of the Catholic Church is saying!!!"
Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (Fc5rx)

Did he really say that?

What a fraud that man is. And it doesn't matter that he gets to wear the funny hat, he's not actually the Pope.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 27, 2020 12:00 PM (hku12)

*fistbump*

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (/kh7m)

392 Go Cougs!

Posted by: Diogenes at September 27, 2020 12:01 PM (axyOa)

Uhh...go where?

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (AwYPR)

393 Though I'm a WSC fan since my early teens, you have to take such claims with a grain of salt. He liked to paint himself as the sole source of ideas that really had many contributors.

Unless they went wrong, of course. Bot to his credit, he was never a total blame-shifter.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 11:59 AM (7X3UV)
-------
There's also his history of WWI, about which a wag said, "Winston has written an enormous book about himself and called it 'The World Crisis'".

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (Rk6Cp)

394 I'm glad I'm not a Catholic

Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (OjZpE)

395 Although one could have an alternate interpretation that "A Message To Garcia" was no great accomplishment for Lt. Rowan.

"Go to Cuba and find someone named Garcia." Like THAT'S a big challenge.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 12:03 PM (Fc5rx)

396 Well, there are quite a number. Fasting is probably the most practical. But penitence, taking stock, accepting responsibility, taking steps to not only undo and restore damage, but to ensure the transgression are unrepeated, are considered necessary in addition to seeking forgiveness.

Some will go to a body of water and tear bread, and cast it upon the waters as if casting their sins away.

Some make a big donation to the congregation.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (EZebt)

*takes notes*

That last part - that's tax deductible, right?

The fasting thing - many major world religions do this. In Judaism, what is the purpose? Are there ceremonial actions taken in connection with it? I really am curious because there are a lot of behavioral things that seem to be beneficial.

Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo at September 27, 2020 12:03 PM (NWiLs)

397 This is why the scolds are pretty much useless
around ALL this stuff. No, people don't CHOOSE to be victims of abuse
and neglect. It is thrust upon them. And it messes up how the mind
works. And yes, it's up to the individual to fix it.

Which is not the same thing as telling the person it's their own damn fault.

Posted by: BurtTC at September 27, 2020 11:57 AM (hku12)

---
We all get dealt bad hands in various ways, the question is what do you make of them?

If you come from a broken home you can - with time, patience and (dare I say it - divine grace) build a new one, a place of comfort and love.

It is difficult to break out of that pattern, to create a new identity, but it can be done.

One way to facilitate that is to cast aside regret for doing good deeds for unappreciative people. A charitable act remains such, even if it goes unappreciated. One should never regret offering a helping hand to friends or family. If they slap it aside, that is on them. It doesn't make you a fool or an idiot.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 12:03 PM (cfSRQ)

398 ""Pope says Trump is "not a Christian"

Thats ok, this pope isn't either.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at September 27, 2020 12:03 PM (9Om/r)

399 384: to absolve the unrepentant seems very wrong. Sorry, the older I get, the more false it seems. Most of the women around here, get decked out in expensive finery, and denounce it...ridiculous

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 12:03 PM (ONvIw)

400 Can't swing a gato muerto in Cuba without hitting a Garcia.

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 12:04 PM (Fc5rx)

401 @388 - We've got 'em right where we want them then!

Posted by: Blacksheep at September 27, 2020 12:05 PM (6mvRv)

402 @380
So that would mean he's been on the job for roughly 1065 days.

I mean there's milking a job and then there's John Durham.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at September 27, 2020 12:05 PM (KQ7QA)

403 @392
Not to worry! The Pac 12 has crawled out from under the bed because the other leagues have shown how stupid they are. They will start playing in November! Which is coincidentally after the election and after the virus will disappear from the face of the earth.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:06 PM (AwPyG)

404 @402
I've said this before, but I honestly think the long, long wait for justice has to do with having one more USSC seat.

The federal judiciary is corrupt, as we have very clearly seen, and it's a massive job to try to clean that up

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:08 PM (AwPyG)

405 Just picked up The Great Liars.
It looks like a good read.

Posted by: Diogenes at September 27, 2020 12:08 PM (axyOa)

406 Polliwog: I didn't say amphibious VEHICLES, I said amphibious WARFARE. Please don't change my quotes.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 12:08 PM (QZxDR)

407 Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:06 PM (AwPyG)

Hey, I missed that.

Posted by: BignJames at September 27, 2020 12:09 PM (AwYPR)

408 English banned the Irish from fishing if they stayed Catholic. Couldn't have a boat
Posted by: Ignoramus at September 27, 2020 11:30 AM (tkuJg)

And Catholics couldn't own property, so what they managed to produce went to landlords. Hard to survive, let alone get ahead, when "everything belongs to not-you."
Posted by: NaughtyPine at September 27, 2020 11:51 AM (/+bwe)

What is old is new again. Sounds like a "social credit score."

Posted by: BurtTC at September 27, 2020 12:09 PM (hku12)

409 @399
It's very freeing to think, "I'll right; now I can start afresh". I think that's the main takeaway from the religious forgiveness rituals.
It frees you from your murky past. Amazing Grace was written by a former slave-trader. There are many, many examples.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:11 PM (AwPyG)

410 Not to worry! The Pac 12 has crawled out from under
the bed because the other leagues have shown how stupid they are. They
will start playing in November! Which is coincidentally after the
election and after the virus will disappear from the face of the earth.

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:06 PM (AwPyG)

---
I found that interesting. When the Big Ten decided to get back into the game, the Pac 12 said "No, not gunna do it." Same with the MAC.

And yet here they are, trying to stitch together a semblance of a season.

BTW, the next couple of weeks will be crucial in demonstrating that sports, school, etc. will not result in a wave of fatalities.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 12:11 PM (cfSRQ)

411 What is old is new again. Sounds like a "social credit score."

Posted by: BurtTC at September 27, 2020 12:09 PM (hku12)

---
Yep. Who knew Catholic Emancipation would only last 150 years?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 12:12 PM (cfSRQ)

412 Q calls the virus the "election infection." heh

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:12 PM (AwPyG)

413 There's also his history of WWI, about which a wag said, "Winston has written an enormous book about himself and called it 'The World Crisis'".
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Task Group Cluebat at September 27, 2020 12:02 PM (Rk6Cp)
_______

Arthur Balfour. Well known at the time as smart and lazy. I love the comment, though I also love The World Crisis. That's what got me on the WSC bandwagon.

Balfour's comment parallels one about Teddy Roosevelt having written a book which should have been titled Alone in Cuba. TR and WSC had a lot in common, really.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 27, 2020 12:14 PM (7X3UV)

414 @410
I honestly think what really turned everything around was the fact the Nebraska parents sued the crooked Big 10, and wanted to discover phone texts, records,etc about who voted to shut down. (up to then everyone had plausible deniability)

And I find it very telling that football fans rose up and broke though the false pandemic, while church leaders are still hiding under the bed

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:15 PM (AwPyG)

415 328---You gave your life to teachers, church, spouse, employers. It was your choice.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 27, 2020 11:32 AM (vW9Vw)
-------------------------------
Eh. I don't think little children can really exercise the choice you speak of, especially when they have parents who do not raise them to be conscious choosers.

(I'm not sure I articulated that well. Maybe someone else here understands what I mean and can say it better!)

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at September 27, 2020 12:18 PM (M/9m0)

416 409 @399
It's very freeing to think, "I'll right; now I can start afresh". I think that's the main takeaway from the religious forgiveness rituals.
It frees you from your murky past. Amazing Grace was written by a former slave-trader. There are many, many examples.
Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:11 PM (AwPyG)

You never start afresh unless you actually atone/confess/apologize to those you've wronged. Until then your freedom is fake and you are still tied as the day of atonement has not atoned until this is accomplished. Do you apologize to those you've wronged? Do husbands and wives admit to lies, affairs, etc? I doubt it...so there is no fresh start, alas. Cosmetic

Posted by: CN at September 27, 2020 12:19 PM (ONvIw)

417 In fact, Garcia is the fifth most common name in Cuba.

1. Rodriguez
2. Perez
3. Gonzalez
4. Hernandez
5. Garcia

Rowan: "Garcia? In Cuba/. No problem, boss!"

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 12:22 PM (Fc5rx)

418 "Do you want me to take one to Rodriguez as well? 'Cause I can totally manage that as well!"

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 12:23 PM (Fc5rx)

419 @416
That's true, for true repentance you are supposed to practice the three "Rs"--Remorse (I'm truly sorry) Repent (I'll not do it again) and Repair (I'll go make it right.)

Posted by: artemis at September 27, 2020 12:25 PM (AwPyG)

420 Eh. I don't think little children can really exercise the choice you speak of, especially when they have parents who do not raise them to be conscious choosers.

(I'm not sure I articulated that well. Maybe someone else here understands what I mean and can say it better!)
Posted by: Margarita DeVille

*********

You said it well. The word is 'autonomy'. The goal of parenting should not be to protect your child from any and all harm, it should be to prepare them to be a functioning autonomous individual adult.

As quoted above from "A Message To Garcia":

" To act in absolute freedom and at the same time know that responsibility is the price of freedom is salvation."

Posted by: Muldoon at September 27, 2020 12:27 PM (Fc5rx)

421 And worse: the disaster has driven a horde of Bigfeet into contact with the community.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 27, 2020 09:24 AM (Dc2NZ)

Shades of Michael Flynn's 'Eifelheim", where space aliens crash land in the Black Forest ca. 1345.

Posted by: Sal at September 27, 2020 12:29 PM (KTdeA)

422 In terms of organizing resistance to the Turks, the Counter Reformation Church comes off about the best of the lot.

Posted by: mnw at September 27, 2020 11:06 AM (Cssks)

---
Lepanto for the win!
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 11:11 AM

The Knight of St John. Jean is for Jean Parisot de la valette

Posted by: Jean at September 27, 2020 12:29 PM (Xih1H)

423 About the Irish not fishing, I remember hearing all the boats were destroyed by a huge storm several years previous, the lack of trees in Ireland is due to the forests being harvested for wood to rebuild London after the great fire.

Posted by: dIb at September 27, 2020 12:34 PM (VJOLZ)

424 "The Great Liars" was a wonderfully engaging and humorous book. My one negative comment about it was it ended too soon.

I'll run off and get the sequel ASAP.

Posted by: Whitehall at September 27, 2020 12:47 PM (ZiSgg)

425 I'm almost 1/3 into Gates of Fire by Pressfield

read Jim Butcher's Peace Talks last week - he really doea npn-stop action. As you might expect, it very much sets up the next book which will be out soon

(headache better but still there )

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 01:02 PM (nUhF0)

426 Started reading Jack Cashill's "TWA 800: The Crash, the Coverup and the Conspiracy", the second book he wrote on it. In the first chapter he mentioned a woman who'd witnessed a SAM hitting the airliner having a second FBI interview (I guess she got a copy of the 302 through FOIA) where she said, among other things, that she'd had a couple Long Island Iced Teas before the incident. Except she doesn't drink and the interview never happened.

I hope during DJT's second term he terminates the entire bureau.

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 01:17 PM (y7DUB)

427 Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo Illustrative of the History of the Emperor Napoleon (Rene Savary)
-----
Savary was an aide-de-camp of Napoleon's and also his Minister of Police. He knew everything. He wrote his memoir while everyone was still alive so he sometimes addresses them in this book: "If you are reading this...." Savary tried to go to St. Helena with Napoleon but he was on the list of people absolutely not allowed to accompany him. He was imprisoned on Malta for a while.

Posted by: microcosme at September 27, 2020 01:49 PM (uNa1R)

428 I got Jack Cashill's Unmasking Obama but ebook has issue on my tablet and wouldn't download so sent it back.

Posted by: Skip at September 27, 2020 01:49 PM (OjZpE)

429 Posted by: Trimegistus at September 27, 2020 12:08 PM (QZxDR)

Sorry, I'd accidentally backspaced over the last word removing the rest of the quote and apparently mis-remembered what it was. In either case, Churchill was pretty much taking credit for the idea in his book.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 27, 2020 01:55 PM (uquGJ)

430 Shades of Michael Flynn's 'Eifelheim", where space aliens crash land in the Black Forest ca. 1345.
Posted by: Sal at September 27, 2020 12:29 PM (KTdeA)

that's a great book

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 01:55 PM (nUhF0)

431 The only person that can make the Pope irrelevant is the Pope.

Posted by: klaftern at September 27, 2020 02:05 PM (RuIsu)

432 Here's Wilfred McClay on Albert Mohler's excellent podcast, talking about The Great American Story:

https://tinyurl.com/y5kfdph9

Posted by: .87c at September 27, 2020 02:28 PM (L1Ls8)

433 Well, I've got it in .pdf and .odt forms. Printed out, it would run to about 400 pages. So far it's been in limited, private circulation. No idea how I would pass it farther afield without drawing down the wrath of the original publisher. I *think* I'm OK as long as I don't attempt to actually publish or sell it, but you never know.

Posted by: Annalucia

E-mail him 1 word a day; Sun- The, Mon- War etc ....

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 02:37 PM (arJlL)

434 You mentioned this the other day, I think. What are the rituals and observances associated with this?
Posted by: Insomniac - Ex Cineribus Resurgo

Remove all of your clothing and run around the block backwards ten times.

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2020 02:42 PM (arJlL)

435 Annalucia, another idea is to build readership through a blog or some other social media by talking about the orginal book, related activities like tracking down ppl who understood the acronyms, etc

without actually publishing your actual translation

a hungry agent might come to you

just if it seems like something fun for you

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 02:55 PM (nUhF0)

436 About the Irish not fishing, I remember hearing all the boats were destroyed by a huge storm several years previous, the lack of trees in Ireland is due to the forests being harvested for wood to rebuild London after the great fire.
Posted by: dIb at September 27, 2020 12:34 PM (VJOLZ)

The Brits and French were ravenous for wood with which to build ships. Iceland used to somehow be covered with trees until someone cut them all down and with the wind being what it is there, the ones that have subsequently grown are all stunted (which brings up the question of how the tall ones were there in the first place).

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 27, 2020 03:13 PM (y7DUB)

437 The first two pictures are the pinnacle of White Privilege. Do I care? NO. We have earned every bit of it over 2500 years.

Posted by: dacama at September 27, 2020 03:40 PM (mwDnq)

438 Wouldn't you know it. The One Time I make the content, and I miss the thread because I'm giving blood.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at September 27, 2020 04:00 PM (qDSku)

439 Wouldn't you know it. The One Time I make the content, and I miss the thread because I'm giving blood.
Posted by: Cybersmythe at September 27, 2020 04:00 PM (qDSku)

no good deed goes unrewarded

Posted by: vmom 2020 - Grow Up and Vote for Trump by Eddie Scarry at September 27, 2020 04:37 PM (nUhF0)

440 The Sherman had its faults, but it was more maneuverable and had better situational awareness than its German opponents - so forcing the Germans into a mobile battle put them at a disadvantage.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 27, 2020 09:50 AM

If you want to talk about the M4 Sherman without sounding like a prat, run, do not walk, to YouTube and find a video by "The_Chieftan" (A.K.A. Nicholas Moran) entitled US AFV Development in WW2, or, "Why the Sherman was what it was."

Sherman tanks were not designed like German armor because they were designed with very different goals in mind. Those goals made more sense for the American situation than the goals the Germans had in mind.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at September 27, 2020 04:59 PM (qDSku)

Processing 0.04, elapsed 0.0594 seconds.
14 queries taking 0.025 seconds, 448 records returned.
Page size 281 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.