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Sunday Morning Book Thread 03-28-2021

Barr Smith Library University of Adelaide 01.jpg
Barr Smith Library at the University of Adelaide, Australia


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 are part of the game strategy, to make the other team laugh so hard that they can't concentrate on the game.



Pic Note:

The Barr Smith Library is the main library of the University of Adelaide:

Situated in the center of the North Terrace campus, the library houses Rare Books and Special Collections and University Archives and Recordkeeping. It is also home to large collections across many subject areas including Australian history, politics and literature, English literature, world wars, socialism and fascism, women and gender studies, utopian literature, and food studies. Level 2 of the library is home to the large and opulent Reading Room. The High Use Collection and study spaces on level 3 can be accessed 24/7



It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

20210328 book pic 02.jpg
And I have it on good authority (Solzhenitsyn) that you should never, ever be the first guy to stop clapping.



20210328 book pic 06.jpg



Standing Athwart History Yelling 'STOP!' Isn't Working

63 I am currently reading the most eye opening and important book filled with citations that I have ever read. This is a must read.

The Transgender-Industrial Complex by Scott Howard

Posted by: Patrick Bateman's Video Tape Return Service at March 21, 2021 09:40 AM (Y8OTr)

I wish The Transgender-Industrial Complex was more readily available. But there is no ebook version, only hard cover, and the price is > $45.

Wait.

OK, so I just went to the publisher's site. The paperback edition is available for $25 with free shipping within the US. They also claim that Amazon has banned it, only it appears to be still available. So I don't know. Whatever the case, ordering direct from the publisher seems to be the better deal.

In his debut book, Nebraskan author Scott Howard exposes the actors financing the institutionalization of transgenderism. Behind the medical research into gender transitioning of children, ubiquitous pride parades, and Drag Queen Story Hours is a lot of money. Sex education, the homosexual and feminist precursor projects, and the global propaganda are all pushed and paid for by very wealthy and well-connected people with motive and will. Howard demonstrates that the transgender phenomenon is far from the “grass-roots movement” some of its advocates would have the public believe.

Impeccably sourced and researched, The Transgender-Industrial Complex pulls the mask off the complex network of influential groups responsible for this inhuman project. Howard takes a deep dive into the murky depths of the Big Money behind Big Gay, exposing how the concept gained such recognition as well as the goals of the people behind it. At once wide-ranging and specific, advanced and accessible, The Transgender-Industrial Complex is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why every institution with power, and a great many without, are uniform in their inversion of reality, their religion of lies, and their commitment to all that is ugly, broken, and foul.

Let us compare & contrast: the homosexual rights movement went from "Please stop beating us and throwing us in jail" to "We'll beat you up and throw you in jail if you don't bake us a wedding cake" in about 50 years. But this transgender thing got ramped up and jammed down our throats in about 5 years. That's, like, warp speed. I, for one, would like to know how it happened so fast.



Who Dis:

who dis 20210328.jpg

(Last week's 'who dis' was Wolverine Hugh Jackman.



Books By Morons

One of my acquintances, Federalist author Laura Fleming, has a son whose books I've mentioned before. His latest book is being published by 'ette Gunnar Grey's Dingbat Publishing ("Quality entertainment that doesn’t take itself too seriously."). The book is an urban fantasy titled The Lesser One:

Forty years ago portals opened all around the world, leading to dungeons with dangerous monsters inside, monsters that can escape into the real world and do incredible damage. At the same time, people began manifesting spirits that allowed them to fight back.

Markus Red just manifested his spirit and it’s a weak one, the weakest one there is. But he squeezes into the position of Adventurer and is sent to Ixtham Academy, where he’ll learn to fight those monsters and destroy the dungeons invading New York City. He is on the lowest rung, but he soon finds an ally in Dr. Barrimore, an eccentric scientist with views that no one else seems to take seriously.

Together the two of them work on a project that will change everything Markus is. But will surviving at the bottom give him the power and courage he’ll need to make it to the top?

So it sounds kind of like Dungeons and Dragons meets Harry Potter. The Kindle version is $2.99. It is also available in paperback.

___________

I have mentioned lurking moron author James Y. Bartlett's Golf Mysteries (Death in a Green Jacket) on several occasions previously. He informs me that he is about to release

...a Hacker Box Set edition: the four Hacker mysteries each set at one of golf’s major championships. In honor of the upcoming Masters (April 8-11), I’m running a very special discount deal: you can pick up the box set of four novels for just $5.00 (regular box set price will be $9.99). Offer is good until the last putt drops at Augusta National on Sunday evening, April 11. The box is available on Amazon, B&N, Apple, Google and wherever ebooks are sold.

For a complete list of retailers, go here. The box set is available for pre-order now and will be delivered on April 8th.

Also:

I have also recently published a book that has nothing at all to do with golf, except it is set in Scotland! Year of the Sheep is my historical novel about the Highland Clearances. My elevator pitch calls it "Like Braveheart, except the lassies do all the fighting!"

The historical setting for this is something called the Highland Clearances, which I had never heard of before. In an over-simplified nutshell, many large landowners in northern Scotland evicted tenants that had been living on their land for centuries to make room for more profitable sheep-farming. The evictions went on for decades.

From the Amazon blurb:

Scotland 1805

The landlord has decreed that the people of the straths and glens must leave their homes to make way for the coming of the blackface sheep and their herders.
The people of the glens, who have lived peacefully there for almost a thousand years, do not want to go.

That was the central conflict of the Highland Clearances, a sad period in Scottish history. James Y. Bartlett’s sweeping historical novel about the Clearances in Sutherland in Scotland’s Far North, focuses in on one important—and historically accurate—fact:

Both the landlord and the people being told to leave were women.

Well, what happened to the men? The author explains:

[A]ll the men had been drafted into the army and sent to Europe to fight Napolean. And some women in some of those villages (historical fact) fought back against the eviction orders. With sticks and stones. But they fought.

So that's the story. Plus a smidgen of magick and faeries and folk tales.

Available in hardback, trade paper and e-book, details here. There doesn't seem to be am Amazon link, but that's here.



They Don't Publish Books Like This Any More:

20210328 book pic 03.jpg



Moron Recommendations

A lurker e-mails:

My sister recently self published her first novel "Attercoppe Hall" which is about the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry and the individuals involved. What to say about it... Historical events! Devious villains! Manipulated individuals of a mad bishops goal to become Pope! Saints! Sinners! Spoons! Redemption?!?

Here is the blurb from the author's web site:

Inspired by the embroidery known as the Bayeux Tapestry, Attercoppe Hall is a novel which explores the mysteries that have been hidden in its threads for nearly a thousand years. Why was it commissioned by Bishop Odo, brother of William the Conqueror? Why is such a violent depiction of Norman invasion so riddled with griffons and drakes and smiling horses and men pressing shushing fingers to lips? What is the meaning behind the shocking scene labeled — WHERE A CERTAIN CLERIC AND ÆLFYGA — ? And why is the end of this two hundred and thirty foot long embroidery missing?

Attercoppe Hall is the story of a Norman bishop who will stop at nothing to seize the papacy for himself...

It is also the story of how an aged English prioress, who happens to descend from Viking seiðrs, sees into the future and carefully plots the bishop’s undoing. Set against the backdrop of a culture that is being forcibly erased, Attercoppe Hall is ultimately a tale of how an embroidered length of linen becomes a treasure for the ages.

Wait, I've heard that word "attercop" before. Bilbo uses it when he's trash-talking those giant spiders in Mirkwood who have captured his dwarf companions. "And attercop, of course, is insulting to anybody" is Tolkien's line. It's just an old English word for spider.

The Kindle edition of Attercoppe Hall is only $4.99. It is also available in paperback and as an Apple e-book.


20210328 book pic 05.jpg
Not The Bayeux Tapestry

___________

(Mostly) lurking moron bensdad00 offers his review of the Crimean war history book, The Reason Why: The Story of the Fatal Charge of the Light Brigade, by which you'll see how easy it is to think of war as an enterprise conceived of by the insane, planned by the ignorant, and carried by the incompetent:

The war is a Near East boondoggle no one wanted sparked by obscure religious disputes (sound familiar?) and half a dozen instances described in the campaign will make you laugh out loud - i.e. the British commander who heads out with his staff for a better view of a battlefront and ends up obviously on a hill behind enemy lines, only avoiding capture or death because the enemy couldn't believe it wasn't a trap of some kind. Or the fleet of hundreds of ships crammed with thousands of sailors that sailed from port - - without a destination.

Combine this with the British gentry class's complete contempt for working men with actual skills (prejudice against soldiers with decades of experience because they served in India was rampant) and it's disheartening that despite how much things have changed they still remain the same.

'War is crazy' has been done before in books such as Catch-22, and M*A*S*H, but the reality is always far worse.

___________

Well, here is a book that is sadly OOP and deserves not to be: What Makes You Think We Read The Bills? by (then retired) H.L. "Bill" Richardson, long time California state senator (1966-1989) and founder of the firearms Gun Owners of America. According to the Amazon blurb,"this book of legislative political tales is not only instructive, it is hilarious." And I assume hilarious in a black humor sort of way.

One of his quotes: “I’m not one to argue that politicians don’t deserve their fair share of the blame, but I’m convinced the problem is greater than just the quality of the men we elect. I believe the major hang-up is that we have completely forgotten the job description of what an American politician is supposed to do. We have concentrated too much on the character and personality of the candidate and have misunderstood the task that we have assigned to our elected leaders.” He went on to explain how and why many of the personalities of people elected to legislature guarantee failure, and also why the current execution of political processes will cause those elected to tend to fail. One big component missing from the work: He left it up to the reader to determine courses of action to remedy the failings.

Unfortunately, being OOP, copies of this book are not cheap. Prices range from $20 and up. Abebooks isn't much better.

(h/t to lurker SPinRH_F-16 for the review)

___________

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.



20210328 book pic 04.jpg

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 hiya

Posted by: JT at March 28, 2021 09:00 AM (arJlL)

2 Yep

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at March 28, 2021 09:01 AM (vCrRy)

3 Well, you CAN stop clapping, but ONLY when the appropriate signal is given.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 09:02 AM (49Dnm)

4 Morning horde

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:03 AM (ONvIw)

5 "Who Dis?"

Brigitte Bardot?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at March 28, 2021 09:04 AM (Q9lwr)

6 Tolle Lege
I'm quite damp from rain

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:04 AM (Cxk7w)

7 The who dis is Mick Jagger

Posted by: JT at March 28, 2021 09:05 AM (arJlL)

8 Not that interested in reading lately.

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 28, 2021 09:05 AM (yrol0)

9
Brigitte Bardot?
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at March 28, 2021 09:04 AM (Q9lwr)

Oui

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:07 AM (ONvIw)

10 Who Dis? is a rare high school picture of Rachel Levine.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 28, 2021 09:07 AM (PiwSw)

11 "Who Dis?"

Brigitte Bardot?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at March 28, 2021 09:04 AM (Q9lwr)

Hard to believe...never seen her that young...or dark.

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 09:07 AM (AwYPR)

12 exposing how the concept gained such recognition as well as the goals of the people behind it.

I would very much like to know what these goals might be.

Posted by: grammie winger at March 28, 2021 09:08 AM (45fpk)

13
Hard to believe...never seen her that young...or dark.
Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 09:07 AM (AwYPR)

Parisian hat box and French titles gave it away, beautiful picture

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:10 AM (ONvIw)

14 This week I read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Morgenstern has crafted a fantasy world deep below the surface of the Earth. It is a world of tunnels and rooms filled with books . . . filled with stories. There are stories within the story. The book is a love story, a mystery, and so much more. Quite unlike any other book that I've read before.

Posted by: Zoltan at March 28, 2021 09:10 AM (qb8uZ)

15 Sort of looks like a very young Jane Fonda.

Posted by: Jewells45 at March 28, 2021 09:10 AM (nxdel)

16 Good morning *again*

It has been raining here all weekend long. So, I just randomly opened my Bible and I saw Ezekiel 18:4 "Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine; the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

Posted by: jmel at March 28, 2021 09:11 AM (bVhJi)

17 My Robert E. Howard books arrived this week. The Complete Chronicles of Conan, Kull: Exile of Atlantis, and The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. My desk is practically groaning under the weight of 1600 pages of toxic masculinity, and it is glorious!. Finished Kull this week. Will probably start Solomon Kane next week.

Posted by: Lord Squirrel at March 28, 2021 09:11 AM (hQrcu)

18 Good morning to my fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. My reading took a couple of wonderful turns.

Posted by: JTB at March 28, 2021 09:13 AM (7EjX1)

19 So there is a word for the trained seals who clap rather than laugh at the political "humor" of late night TV. They are aplaudaci and each individual clapping seal is an aplaudac. Knowing that the term is an insult of Ceausescu's obedient fan club makes the insult even better.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 28, 2021 09:14 AM (d9Cw3)

20 I've also been working my way through some more of F. Paul Wilson's The Secret History of the World. It's a fascinating web of conspiracy theories mixed in with cosmic horror (think Dan Brown meets H.P. Lovecraft meets Stephen King). Pretty good stuff.

Posted by: Lord Squirrel at March 28, 2021 09:14 AM (hQrcu)

21 Wow, that is Brigitte Bardot, the innocent Brigitte. Back when seeing her naked was for your eyes only, proof of age required.

Posted by: Colin at March 28, 2021 09:15 AM (oik8T)

22 Quite unlike any other book that I've read before.
Posted by: Zoltan at March 28, 2021 09:10 AM (qb8uZ)


Have you read The Night Circus, an earlier book by Morgenstern? She has a gift for writing about things that other authors irritate me with, only she makes them interesting and compelling.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 09:16 AM (y7DUB)

23 My Who Dis guess is Twiggy.

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:16 AM (v16oJ)

24 The guy who wrote the contentment book was a muckraker from Lansing, MI.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:17 AM (ONvIw)

25 Brigit Bardot !

Posted by: The Wehrmacht at March 28, 2021 09:18 AM (zr5Kq)

26 off ugly, broken, and foul sock !

Posted by: runner at March 28, 2021 09:18 AM (zr5Kq)

27 Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot !

Posted by: runner at March 28, 2021 09:19 AM (zr5Kq)

28 aka BB

Posted by: runner at March 28, 2021 09:19 AM (zr5Kq)

29 Thank you OM for another outstanding Book Thread!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 28, 2021 09:19 AM (PiwSw)

30 Thank you to the moron who suggested

Left to Tell

It's a survivor's first-hand true story of finding and trusting God during the Rwandan genocide. I'm not usually much on religious-leaning books, nor one where people hack each other to pieces with machetes just because their skin is more or less dark than someone else's, but this one is fantastic.

Coming soon to an America near you, btw.

Posted by: Lysenko -Official dot gov Wyoming COVID vaccination card link, should be 4.25x3.5 at March 28, 2021 09:19 AM (bm04m)

31 I read "The Reason Why" for a college history course several decades ago. I do recall being amazed at the utter incompetency of the British officer class, all of whom were there because of family connections rather than merit.

I remember that it was a good book, but I don't remember thinking it was humorous...at all. But then I am sure I didn't understand any of the nuts-and-bolts military stuff (and probably still wouldn't).

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at March 28, 2021 09:19 AM (fTtFy)

32 A quiet moment for El Kabong in drag?

Posted by: klaftern at March 28, 2021 09:21 AM (RuIsu)

33 Anyway, not much reading done here except to grandson. I had bought some books from my own childhood about the
child of Appalachian family of subsistence farmers and his wild little doggo which are fun with beautiful illustrations. Maybe the best part is all the outdoor play and low tech "adventures".

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:21 AM (ONvIw)

34 Those pant are a homage to Mondrian.

Posted by: runner at March 28, 2021 09:23 AM (zr5Kq)

35 Will probably start Solomon Kane next week.


Posted by: Lord Squirrel at March 28, 2021 09:11 AM (hQrcu)
----
The Kane stories started well but he fell into a rut of having his Puritan Avenger constantly end up in darkest Africa. I can see why he retired the character.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 09:23 AM (llXky)

36 But for my troubles had a sticky bun and cup of coffee.
Getting half through W.E.F. Jackson's The Battle of North Africa 1940 - 43. He has a few WWII history volumes and really like his writing.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:23 AM (Cxk7w)

37
The world may be going insane and trying to kill us, but as long as there are Bayeux Tapestry meme generators there will be a tiny point of light remaining in the world !

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at March 28, 2021 09:24 AM (K65Kq)

38 Who dis: a very young Brigitte Bardot?

Posted by: Anacleto Mitraglia at March 28, 2021 09:24 AM (FFfcp)

39 Curling pants...anyone here ever participated?

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 09:25 AM (AwYPR)

40 Love the painting of the young girl staring off into infinity as she thinks about what she just read. Very expressive. Thanks OM for that and, always, the thread.

Posted by: JTB at March 28, 2021 09:26 AM (7EjX1)

41 Another thing I did, reading oriented, was scour the web for old acquaintances and friends who have tried their hand at writing. I found several, and bought an autobiographical book by one of them. The one with the greatest success (he keeps his day job) tends to write books with a Robert Nathan quality, but updated for the 21st century.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:26 AM (ONvIw)

42 I read "The Reason Why" for a college history course
several decades ago. I do recall being amazed at the utter
incompetency of the British officer class, all of whom were there
because of family connections rather than merit.



Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at March 28, 2021 09:19 AM (fTtFy)

---
Not to pass up an opportunity to slag on the Brits but a key issue in Crimea was that it was fought by a complacent peacetime Army, still basking in the afterglow of Waterloo, more than 35 year ago. The Indian Army had seen action, but the home station types had been telling war stories (and doing little else) for decades.

Few things are as good a predictor for disaster is an army that won a barely-remembered war and then sat around bragging about it for decades of peace.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 09:27 AM (llXky)

43 I still have the 1966 NatGeo that has the full Bayeau tapestry.
One of My early D&G figures was Bishop Otto

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:27 AM (Cxk7w)

44 Nice Lieberry!

Those pants.....big in Canada!

The Who Dis is Linda Ronstadt before Moonbeam Brown spread his filth in her and gave her the palsy.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 28, 2021 09:28 AM (R/m4+)

45 Currently reading The Life of Greece by Will Durant. Originally published in 1939, this is volume 2 of his "Story of Civilization" series. I'm about 1/3rd through and have mixed feelings. Durant frequently has something witty to say and there's plenty of citations. The beginning of the book is a little disjointed (Durant admits that the challenge is that the various city-states developed independently and there was no driving leadership before the Persian War in the 5th Century BC). When he has a cohesive topic such as art, or Athenian politics, the writing is much more cohesive and interesting. He does seem to make the argument that the Greeks developed the concept of Natural Law.

A major weakness is that Durant (apparently a not particularly devout Presbyterian) totally misunderstands Catholicism and apparently little of Christianity in general. He makes the assertion that the Greek gods, Dionysus and Adonis, are the root sources of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Unlike the rest of the book, these assertions are not supported by citations from his sources.

Rating = 4.0/5 (I would have rated it higher except for the misleading information about Christianity).

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 09:28 AM (pJWtt)

46 ove the painting of the young girl staring off into infinity as she thinks about what she just read. Very expressive.

***

'Rons do that often as well, except it's lady parts.

Posted by: Lysenko -Official dot gov Wyoming COVID vaccination card link, should be 4.25x3.5 at March 28, 2021 09:28 AM (bm04m)

47 Has anyone read Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin by Pushkin? I'm thinking "no" but the Horde of the book are full of surprises, mostly pleasant. I'm gonna pass on it for a number of reasons. First I don't like poetry much although part of the controversy behind it was that he wrote it as a prose word by word exact translation that didn't even try to use the rhythms of poetry. Second, it's huge (like four volumes including massive explanatory notes) and not easy or inexpensive to get. But it was a big fucking deal when it came out and quite controversial in the lit crit world. It led to a permanent split between Vlad and Edmund Wilson whom, quite frankly, after their initial pleasantries seemed like a major league cocksucker, including insisting that Lenin was really a good guy to a person that the pile of shit had his father murdered.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 09:29 AM (y7DUB)

48 Still reading Livy. Hannibal has crossed the Alps and is maneuvering in northern Italy. The Romans are in for some serious hurt.

I also picked up a bunch of Osprey books on the Chinese military, from the decline of the Manchu (Chi'ing Dynasty) to the end of the 1949 civil war. Interesting stuff.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 09:30 AM (llXky)

49 I finished C.V. Wedgewood's Thirty Years War, originally published in 1938, then rereleased in 1948. The book itself is a bit of a proofreader's nightmare. It lacks commas in obvious places, and some words are missing. It was a BOMC edition, so I guess they were phoning it in.
Anyway, the text is workmanlike and thorough, and gives one a much better perspective on the motivations behind this dog's breakfast of an historical period (1618-164. Basically, everyone in Europe hated everyone else, and decided to have it out in Germany. The warring factions included:
Protestants vs CatholicsBourbons vs HapsburgsFrance vs SpainSpanish Hapsburgs vs Austrian Hapsburgs

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:30 AM (v16oJ)

50 Curling pants...anyone here ever participated?
Posted by: BignJames

I've worn pants before.....

Posted by: JT at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (arJlL)

51 The Glee Gang to Tranny Bathroom Joy speed increase is largely a result of the application of 4 and 5g warfare doctrine to the social battlefield.

They had all of the pieces in place so to speak but lacked the resolute doctrine to use the pieces in an interlocking efficiency.

Remember ALL of this insanity is over less than a statistical fart population percentage wise as our people currently exist.

They are using these antics to try to grow the ranks of the deranged by creating the illusion it is a cool group of superstars needing "enforced equality."

Have a plan to get out, this place is a madhouse.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (Lzpvj)

52 " ... The Indian Army had seen action, but the home station types had been telling war stories (and doing little else) for decades."

That, and treating "Indian" officers as Deplorables.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (K65Kq)

53 I took a look at Helen's Page, the new social media / marketplace website from Mrs Instapundit. I'm not sure I understand the layout and mechanics of it, but I'd love to see a viable competitor to Amazon emerge for authors. It will have to include ebook downloads at some point to become a player.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (d9Cw3)

54
g'mornin', book-ish 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (ruQvu)

55 36 what hasn't slowed me up to much is start looking at Google Earth to see battle sites

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:32 AM (Cxk7w)

56 (cont)Sweden vs the Hapsburgs, their North German allies, and to some extent, the French, who were also their nominal allies.
And everybody hates the Joooos..... (h/t to Tom Lehrer)

Wedgewood even argues that the war was a conflict between the old medieval world and the emerging Enlightenment.
It
left Germany devastated by pillage, famine and plague, depopulating
much of the country, although she argues not to the extent that some
have claimed. The overall population was cut by 80% in some locations,
half in many others, but we really don't know exactly. In summary, if
you're interested in this period, it's a fine history.

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:32 AM (v16oJ)

57 I just finished reading Dark Sky by C.J. Box.

Mmmmmm, it was ok.

Posted by: JT at March 28, 2021 09:32 AM (arJlL)

58 53 Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (d9Cw3)

When she starts selling enough conservative books she will sell out to Jeff.

I am placing a 100 internets wager on that outcome within a decade.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 09:33 AM (Lzpvj)

59 "Who are you going to believe? Me or your own eyes?"

- Groucho Marx, optometrist

Posted by: BackwardsBoy - Psychos Rule! No, really. They're in charge now. at March 28, 2021 09:33 AM (HaL55)

60 Durant was following the intellectual fashion of the time. Pagan roots of Christianity was "in" in the early 20th century, part of the whole ongoing Leftist project to debunk and denigrate the Church (es).

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:33 AM (QZxDR)

61 Yes wilson could be incredibly obtuse, nabokov sr was a kadet (constitutional democrat)

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 09:34 AM (hMlTh)

62 I continue to avoid all political and current social reading except for the posts here on Ace. I've even cut out most talk radio. It has done wonders for my attitude about life these days. It has also led to some pleasant discoveries.

It turns out that Youtube has all the Conan stories available as audiobooks. As far as I can tell they are unabridged. The readers do a fine job of bringing the characters to life without a lot of distracting dramatization. Like the audio version of "Travels With Charley", the audio brings out aspects that add to the pleasure of Howard's writing. Definitely worth the time to listen.

Posted by: JTB at March 28, 2021 09:34 AM (7EjX1)

63 Well, off to do stuff. Have a great Sunday everyone.

Posted by: Jewells45 at March 28, 2021 09:35 AM (nxdel)

64 Currently reading The Life of Greece by Will Durant. Originally published in 1939, this is volume 2 of his "Story of Civilization" series.

***

I was fortunate enough to find those at a library sale for $1 each. Yes, please.

They're worth having because there is some actual history written prior to 1984 and therefore serious wrongthink in them.

Posted by: Lysenko - Click here for COVID vaccination document, print on card stock at March 28, 2021 09:35 AM (wCgji)

65 62 Posted by: JTB at March 28, 2021 09:34 AM (7EjX1)

I am giving serious thought to becoming a librivox reader to kill time.

https://librivox.org/

Thousands of public domain books read by voices of varying quality.

The internet gave mankind the ability to get almost any knowledge desired cheaply....

we look at folks rutting and kittens mostly.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 09:37 AM (Lzpvj)

66 The choice of translator in key, a poor one you might as we be trapped in the pripyat marshes

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 09:38 AM (hMlTh)

67 19 So there is a word for the trained seals who clap rather than laugh at the political "humor" of late night TV. They are aplaudaci and each individual clapping seal is an aplaudac. Knowing that the term is an insult of Ceausescu's obedient fan club makes the insult even better.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 28, 2021 09:14 AM (d9Cw3)

This is a great word indeed. "Aplaudaci" should be spread far and wide. (And hell, this is English. In English, we steal words from other languages shamelessly, and all. The. Time.)

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 09:39 AM (49Dnm)

68 When I want to learn about any topic in history before 1900 or so I automatically seek out Victorian British historians. They're still the gold standard. In some cases new discoveries from archaeology or recovered texts changes some of the facts, but overall they are superior to any modern writers in honesty, scope of knowledge, and attention to detail. When they are biased they don't try to be sneaky about it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:39 AM (QZxDR)

69 Raining in NJ, dog class cancelled. Second seder needs preparations, so that will be most of my day.

I think escaping into an "Adventure in Contentment" sounds good as the world goes crazy. I've never knowingly red anything by Grayson (aka Ray Stannard Baker) but I read those books were popular.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:39 AM (ONvIw)

70 Reading at lunch the other day it struck me a good perspective of how the German National Socialism and Russian Communism is different. I run across on the German Wehrmacht, Prussian names from back as far as Frederick the Great, Rarely and can't think of any of Napoleonic era Russian officers ever do in WWII.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:39 AM (Cxk7w)

71 I'm continuing to re-read the Liturgical Mysteries series. The current one is "The Bass Wore Scales". When Mark Schweizer passed away it was a real loss for his fans. His books continue to entertain with laughter and good mysteries.

Posted by: JTB at March 28, 2021 09:39 AM (7EjX1)

72 Any good books on the Roman Empire and Christianity during the 1st century AD?

Posted by: dantesed at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (88xKn)

73 I actually stayed up to finush reading a book! Last night in fact. It's been way way too long since I've done that.

I am happy coz I take it as a good sign of mental health. For mire than a year I haven't had a reading appetite.

Posted by: vmom super straight stabby stabber stabalot at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (GBZnB)

74 Basically, everyone in Europe hated everyone else, and decided to have it out in Germany. The warring factions included:
Protestants vs CatholicsBourbons vs HapsburgsFrance vs SpainSpanish Hapsburgs vs Austrian Hapsburgs

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:30 AM (v16oJ)

Germany for the longest time functioned as Europe's battleground.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (49Dnm)

75 Edward Gibbon!

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (QZxDR)

76 Those pants are fine. That should call that team the Mondrian Squares.

Posted by: Piet at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (SfHwR)

77 The internet gave mankind the ability to get almost any knowledge desired cheaply....

we look at folks rutting and kittens mostly.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 09:37 AM (Lzpvj)

Given the present state of things, I learned everything I need to know by age 15.

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (AwYPR)

78 74 Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (49Dnm)

Which lead to a proud resolute people, who are now led by "Mudder."

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 09:41 AM (Lzpvj)

79 I have long been amused by "long-time lurker" types submitting "please buy my self-published book" requests. I recognize that we all have read the tips section at whatever platform we used for our book that tells us to "find a blog with topics you like" and engage in the comments section with other "like-minded" commenters and work in a mention of your book as a means of promoting sales.

Today's "lurker's sister just published her first novel" entry takes this to a whole new level. If not careful this could get out of hand.

"Hi, I'm a total stranger but just wanted to let you all know that my cousin's brother-in-law's granny's gardener's barista is thinking about writing a book. You can pre-order at BuyMyBook.com starting in June!"

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 09:42 AM (m45I2)

80 "Hi, I'm a total stranger but just wanted to let you all know that my cousin's brother-in-law's granny's gardener's barista is thinking about writing a book. You can pre-order at BuyMyBook.com starting in June!"
Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 09:42 AM (m45I2)


It's funny, isn't it?

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:43 AM (ONvIw)

81 *snorts awake*

Hello Book Thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at March 28, 2021 09:43 AM (Dc2NZ)

82 Forget about clapping -- I want to know why, at any performance, somebody decides to stand, and then almost everybody else in the venue stands.

I resist sometimes and stay seated, at the cost of seeing nothing but backs.

**********

I finished "The Scarlatti Inheritance." As Ludlum's first novel, it has elements on which he built a career. International conspiracies? Check. Hired killers? Check. Big, big bucks? Check.

I zipped through the conclusion, and now I think I should reread that part.

Pixy is fighting me again. Maybe more later.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 09:43 AM (wGehn)

83 Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 09:42 AM (m45I2)

That is literally how Larry Correia (of Monster Hunter International fame) got started. He advertised the crap out of his books on gun forums.

Seems to me that writers really should be shameless in promoting their work. No one is going to buy your stuff if they aren't even aware of it.

Posted by: president kg at March 28, 2021 09:44 AM (9npt1)

84 Have a few of Will and Arel Durant's History of Civilization, but only from 1600 - 1815, they're big volumes, 700 pages or better. Read all the ones I have. Would get any I don't, and could have had them all as picked only the ones I wanted then at Goodwill.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:44 AM (Cxk7w)

85 Forget about clapping -- I want to know why, at any performance, somebody decides to stand, and then almost everybody else in the venue stands.

**

I despise that it's become common now. It's meaningless these days, and has taken the place of regular applause for a good performance.

Posted by: Lysenko - Click here for COVID vaccination document, print on card stock at March 28, 2021 09:45 AM (e6I/s)

86 Actually the osterman weekend was his first novel, scarlattis like 4th

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 09:46 AM (hMlTh)

87 Is dat Charlie Weaver's grand-daughter?

Posted by: Flyover at March 28, 2021 09:46 AM (Rbu5d)

88 The new word appears to rhyme with Fauci, punsters everywhere rejoice.

Posted by: Only Context at March 28, 2021 09:46 AM (xEIoY)

89 In the same class for which I read "The Reason Why" we also read "Hell in a Very Small Place." It was lost on me--a 17 year-old-girl at the time--but at least I've been able to say that I read a classic.

Mind you this was at The University of Texas...in Austin. Can't even imagine those texts being assigned for any history class there now, much less an intro one.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at March 28, 2021 09:47 AM (fTtFy)

90 Durant was following the intellectual fashion of the time. Pagan roots of Christianity was "in" in the early 20th century, part of the whole ongoing Leftist project to debunk and denigrate the Church (es).
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:33 AM (QZxDR)


I figured that was the case.

The actual "hard" history is good and he has about 1000 citations. The footnotes are frequently amusing and he makes some trenchant comments about modern politicians: Durant thought that there was much merit to the ancient Greek lore that when a politician proposed a new law, he should do it while standing with a noose about his neck (to save time) if the populace decided the proposed new law was contrary to good governance.

Unfortunately, the Greek god Dionysus becomes Jesus Christ is seriously crazy, and requires a historian to disregard the mentioning of Jesus in other ancient sources besides the Bible.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 09:47 AM (pJWtt)

91 Durant was following the intellectual fashion of the
time. Pagan roots of Christianity was "in" in the early 20th century,
part of the whole ongoing Leftist project to debunk and denigrate the
Church (es).

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:33 AM (QZxDR)

---
Yes, the Germans came up with a theory that religion "evolves" from animism to paganism to monotheism. Coincidentally, its highest form happened to be Protestantism!

If two religions are similar, it's due to cultural borrowing or something. The one thing that can absolutely be ruled out is any kind of divine influence because of course God doesn't really exist to this geniuses.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 09:48 AM (llXky)

92 I despise that it's become common now. It's meaningless these days, and
has taken the place of regular applause for a good performance.

Agree, especially at school performances. A standing O has become obligatory. I usually refuse to stand, and keep myself warm with the idea that I'm the German with his arms crossed, refusing to Hitler salute. That, or I'm just a peevish d***.

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:48 AM (v16oJ)

93 Good morning, all - it's raining here in South Texas, my daughter is doing a Zoom course all day to get her real estate license, and I will have to walk the dogs, soon. I finally got around to finalizing and uploading the print version of the third Luna City Compendium - that is, books 7,8, and 9 are all there in one volume. I had the Kindle/eBook version up months ago, but there will be a big festival of Indy Texas Authors in Seguin's downtown town square on May 29th. I'll be there with all my books. I'll send the event poster to OM for the book thread.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at March 28, 2021 09:48 AM (xnmPy)

94 The guy who wrote the contentment books also had Baker Hall at MSU named for him, btw. I guess a relatively forgotten big alum.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:48 AM (ONvIw)

95
The new word appears to rhyme with Fauci, punsters everywhere rejoice.

Posted by: Only Context at March 28, 2021 09:46 AM


the Fauci Aplaudaci

and thus, the bestest descriptive term for those panty sniffers is born

Posted by: AltonJackson at March 28, 2021 09:49 AM (ruQvu)

96 Mudoon, meet Sgt Mom.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 28, 2021 09:49 AM (PiwSw)

97 Seems to me that writers really should be shameless
in promoting their work. No one is going to buy your stuff if they
aren't even aware of it.

Posted by: president kg at March 28, 2021 09:44 AM (9npt1)

---
I do what I can.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 09:49 AM (llXky)

98 As Mark Twain said, outside of a dog, books are a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. He didn't know about Kindle and cell phones. Along that line, moron friend John Hundley has a boxed set of his Red Wolf Saga on Amazon (spit) at $7.99 for the four volume set, over 1500 pages.

Posted by: Buck Fiden (nee Ofama) at March 28, 2021 09:49 AM (lIQVR)

99 If you stand to applaud, you're in position to get to the exit ahead of everybody else. That's my theory as to why every performance nowadays -- ESPECIALLY elementary school musical performances -- gets a standing ovation.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:50 AM (QZxDR)

100 Let's try again.

After "Scarlatti," I'm making another run into the Silver Age with the first adventures of the Atom. I always liked this guy.

It always looked cool to see his costume appear while he shrinks. Turns out that it's made of a material that's invisible at full size but becomes invisible as it gets smaller. This means that he's always wearing it over his normal clothes. So he's fighting while wearing a suit and tie -- or, in one story, pajamas and a bathrobe. Hah.

In an instance of how attitudes have changed, his girlfriend keeps rebuffing his marriage proposals until she's a success as a lawyer. Then she'll give up her career to become a housewife (a term I detest, by the way; I prefer homemaker).

Better quit now before Pixy objects.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 09:50 AM (wGehn)

101 the Fauci Aplaudaci
I leave it to greater minds to combine that with "grouchy" and "slouchy".

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:50 AM (v16oJ)

102 And I have it on good authority (Solzhenitsyn) that you should never, ever be the first guy to stop clapping.

Just be aware that if you have The Clapper installed, prolonged clapping at certain frequencies may induce epileptic seizures in some people.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 28, 2021 09:51 AM (DMUuz)

103
The guy who wrote the contentment books also had Baker Hall at MSU named for him, btw. I guess a relatively forgotten big alum.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:48 AM


in Starkville?

Posted by: AltonJackson at March 28, 2021 09:51 AM (ruQvu)

104 72 There is, and it's The Story of Civilization, volume on Caesar and Christ, bet its what your looking for.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:51 AM (Cxk7w)

105 I am happy coz I take it as a good sign of mental health. For mire than a year I haven't had a reading appetite.
Posted by: vmom super straight stabby stabber stabalot at March 28, 2021 09:40 AM (GBZnB)


The stolen election put a real dent on my reading, music listening and anything else that gave me pleasure. It's mostly come back (samizdat was still produced and read under tyranny) and I tagged on the end of last Sunday's thread, late in the day, that I finished volume 2 of Proust. But I'm being much more selective in what I read and any prog hints get a book tossed.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 09:52 AM (y7DUB)

106 Posted by: AltonJackson at March 28, 2021 09:51 AM (ruQvu)

East Lansing

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:52 AM (ONvIw)

107 And now it goes through. Apparently the secret to beating Pixy is to keep to one subject per post.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 09:52 AM (wGehn)

108 You can't have books like "Adventures in Contentment" anymore, because there's too much money peddling discontentment. Like the whole sex revolution continuum.

Posted by: Flyover at March 28, 2021 09:53 AM (Rbu5d)

109 And now it goes through. Apparently the secret to beating Pixy is to keep to one subject per post.
It's getting worse. I can't write much beyond 3 lines anymore without Pixy rejecting it, and removing punctuation.

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 09:53 AM (v16oJ)

110 Tacitus and josephus with some pliny the younger, now jerusalem was still backwater like mos eiseley so it wouldnt have been much of a big focus for the scribes of the day.

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 09:53 AM (hMlTh)

111 Posted by: AltonJackson at March 28, 2021 09:51 AM (ruQvu)

So I take it you are familiar with this guy? I am not, but it sounds like a fun thing to read.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:53 AM (ONvIw)

112 I was fortunate enough to find those at a library sale for $1 each. Yes, please.

They're worth having because there is some actual history written prior to 1984 and therefore serious wrongthink in them.
Posted by: Lysenko - Click here for COVID vaccination document, print on card stock at March 28, 2021 09:35 AM (wCgji)


That was a great deal. I spent about $10-$15 per book to accumulate my set.

I know that Durant's series is well-regarded. I was just stunned that he would make such a fundamental error in claiming Jesus Christ was based on a Greek god. Like many Protestants, he doesn't "get" Catholicism and stated in the book that we worship the saints.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 09:54 AM (pJWtt)

113 "Wicked Epic Adventures" is the third collection of comic strips from Wil Henry and his Wallace series. It just came out this past week. They are the next best thing to Calvin and Hobbes which is the best strip in the history of comics. They aren't as visually creative as C and H but but the humor is based on the enthusiasms and weird joys of youngsters. Sometimes laugh out loud funny and sometimes containing nostalgia for adults that brings a smile.

Wil Henry lives in Jamestown, RI, home to JackStraw and next to where I grew up. Part of the fun for me are the occasional Rhode Island topics that come up like a reference to Del's Lemonade.

Posted by: JTB at March 28, 2021 09:55 AM (7EjX1)

114 I'm not a believer -- but I despise most "atheists" as well, so I think that makes me a pretty neutral observer about comparative religion. The striking thing about Christianity is precisely how much of a radical change it was. It _didn't_ have connections to older belief and it _didn't_ syncretize old gods into the new faith. A few folk traditions may have snuck in, but the early Church fathers didn't try to claim Zeus was really God the Father, even though that might have saved a lot of early Church fathers from creative deaths at the hands of the Romans.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:55 AM (QZxDR)

115 108 You can't have books like "Adventures in Contentment" anymore, because there's too much money peddling discontentment. Like the whole sex revolution continuum.
Posted by: Flyover at March 28, 2021 09:53 AM (Rbu5d)

Stannard Baker was a muckraker type who wrote these under a pseudonym, probably as contentment sold better than muckraking. He was a big Woodrow Wilson supporter, it appears

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 09:56 AM (ONvIw)

116 I have maybe once had a Pixy issue since the change

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:56 AM (Cxk7w)

117 Greetings O Book Thread may-you-live-forever,

There is YOBS up, (yet another book site), and it looks pretty good. Bookbinge.com, currently still in beta, but it looks to me like a true second generation book site. Really nice layout, graphics, and behind-the-scenes coding (I can tell, I am a QA engineer in the daytime), and it looks like they are in the process of setting up forums and discussion groups. The true key to providing Amazon with competition will be the direct downloads, but we have the technology. Just a matter of time now.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at March 28, 2021 09:57 AM (BSV0x)

118 Tacitus and josephus with some pliny the younger,
now jerusalem was still backwater like mos eiseley so it wouldnt have
been much of a big focus for the scribes of the day.

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 09:53 AM (hMlTh)

---
Tacitus' The Histories is a great read, probably one of the best books surviving from antiquity in terms of pacing, tension and detail.

It's the story of the Year of the Four Emperors, and it is a real page-turner. The way it moves the story forward and then pauses "Meanwhile, out in Judea..." is right out of a modern history book. Tons of neat detail, like how artillery could be deployed in a field battle. The character portraits are also good. Basically, it's the real Game of Thrones.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 09:57 AM (llXky)

119 Yes the dionysus jump is one leap into thw canyon, seeing as it arose among jews first and those who were unlettered and less likely to know greek

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 09:58 AM (hMlTh)

120 I used to go to Broadway shows back before the burning times. At the intermission, the lefties would hand out the orange buckets for AIDS donations.

I would always bring a condom and toss it in the bucket.

I wonder what color those buckets are now that orange is banned.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 28, 2021 09:59 AM (R/m4+)

121 Church fathers didn't try to claim Zeus was really God the Father, even though that might have saved a lot of early Church fathers from creative deaths at the hands of the Romans.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:55 AM (QZxDR)

Maybe Jupiter.

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 09:59 AM (AwYPR)

122 I'm a few chapters into Lindsay Ellis's "Axiom's End". It is pretty compulsively readable and feels almost like a David Wong story.

It begins in 2007 when a meteor falls in northern California. An activist blogger with a huge following releases a USG memo proving that the government has been trying to communicate with an alien intelligence. He runs afoul of The Powers That Be and flees the country, leaving his family to deal with the law and the blogger's freakish fans.

Then another "meteor" falls in the exact location as the first, and there is no explaining it away. The lead character, Cora, a college dropout studying linguistics, thinks she's under surveillance because of her father. Not so.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at March 28, 2021 10:00 AM (Dc2NZ)

123 112 Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 09:54 AM (pJWtt)

People love mangling Christ, and let's be honest it was kind of his job and reason for being.

The interaction and utility of the Saints from a secular and clerical standpoint is a nuanced thing for outsiders to grasp.

I started out as an insider and drifted to Protestantism, but I always understood the Saints are conduits to God and were a tool to whisper polytehism out of the pagans.(of which my ancestors were multitude)

Ponder that Xianity as a whole has devolved to the point we can no longer categorize people outside the faith as needing redemption in the way a healthy vibrant growing xianity could.

Our pastors will have to submit their sermons for approval by the middle of the century I wager.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:00 AM (Lzpvj)

124 Yeah, yeah. Ignore the fact that Roman leaders in the early Christian era were all literate in Greek.

Don't teach your granny to suck eggs.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 10:00 AM (QZxDR)

125 116 Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 09:56 AM (Cxk7w)

The word limit is a hard one, and there is a definite "number of line breaks" one I have not yet sussed out with precision.

If it prevents "repost the whole thread" errors it is a good thing.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:02 AM (Lzpvj)

126
I'm not a believer -- but I despise most "atheists" as well, so I think
that makes me a pretty neutral observer about comparative religion. The
striking thing about Christianity is precisely how much of a radical
change it was. It _didn't_ have connections to older belief and it
_didn't_ syncretize old gods into the new faith. A few folk traditions
may have snuck in, but the early Church fathers didn't try to claim Zeus
was really God the Father, even though that might have saved a lot of
early Church fathers from creative deaths at the hands of the Romans.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:55 AM (QZxDR)

---
You might find the Lord of Spirits podcast interesting. It's a couple of Gen X Eastern Orthodox priests talking about the supernatural world and what some of the more obscure passages in the Bible mean. Fallen angels, stuff like that.

It's on the Ancient Faith web site. My wife and I have been listening to it and find it fascinating.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:02 AM (llXky)

127 ho Dis? is a rare high school picture of Rachel Levine.

****

Hardly,. I actually knew Rich Levine back in the early '80s. He had a sort of pudgy face and curly hair, and at times a beard. The only real change in appearance is now longer, bleached and straightened hair, and the beard seems to be gone now. Otherwise looks about the same now as I would have guessed.

https://tinyurl.com/vhmfcuyj

The man on the top of the lefthand page holding the specimen jar.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 10:02 AM (m45I2)

128 "Our pastors will have to submit their sermons for approval by the middle of the century I wager."

Didn't some mayor or city councilwoman in Texas try this a year or two ago?

Posted by: PabloD, boop/bop/beep at March 28, 2021 10:03 AM (792+X)

129 The Emperor was a deity his own self hence the business with the coins, that were used to pay the tax.

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:03 AM (hMlTh)

130 @86 --

"Scarlatti" copyright 1971. Wiki says "Osterman" from 1972.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 10:03 AM (tWiuK)

131 67... In English, we steal words from other languages shamelessly, and all. The. Time.)
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 09:39 AM (49Dnm)

One of the things I love about English.

Posted by: Flyover at March 28, 2021 10:04 AM (Rbu5d)

132 You can't have books like "Adventures in Contentment" anymore

-
I looked upon Congress, the Judiciary, and the White House and saw that it was good. Nope, doesn't work for me.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 10:04 AM (VVEnO)

133 114 Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:55 AM (QZxDR)

Ace and I had a series of extensive discussions on the declensions and delineations of sorts of agnostics, atheists, and people of faith here in I think 2004-2008 or9.

People content to not believe without the need to destroy believers are ethical atheists.

Unethical atheism is ascendant in the west.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:04 AM (Lzpvj)

134 This past week I read a fantasy novel, _City of Lost Fortunes_ by Bryan Camp. It's an urban fantasy set in New Orleans and it's pretty good. The guy knows the city, at least well enough to fool a former native. His magical argle-bargle is a pretty standard modern mish-mash of voodoo, pagan religions, paranormal woo, strawman Catholicism, and the doctrines of people who like to spell the word magic with a k at the end. But it's an entertaining book and a good page-turner; I give it a B+.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 10:05 AM (QZxDR)

135 ...holding the specimen jar.

*****

I'm not going to speculate on the contents.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 10:05 AM (m45I2)

136 128 Posted by: PabloD, boop/bop/beep at March 28, 2021 10:03 AM (792+X)

Yes, it is why I am certain this place is in a downward spiral.

The people gaining power want to manage our lives down to how we fold the toilet paper.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:05 AM (Lzpvj)

137 me a pretty neutral observer about comparative religion. The striking thing about Christianity is precisely how much of a radical change it was. It _didn't_ have connections to older belief .


So, Christianity had nothing to do with Judaism? Or the Old Testament? And Christmas wasn't based on a pagan Roman holiday?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:05 AM (sd8p8)

138 I stand corrected, i thought i was the ludlum expert.

Jesus simplified many rules that made been made complex since moses.

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:06 AM (hMlTh)

139 I'm not going to speculate on the contents.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 10:05 AM (m45I2)

Take a sip to confirm?

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 10:07 AM (AwYPR)

140 Sven - I refreshed my memory, and it was a mayor in Houston who issued subpoenas for the sermons of several pastors. Essentially, it was a witch hunt to see if she could find a way to ding their tax-exempt status for engaging in political activities.

Posted by: PabloD, boop/bop/beep at March 28, 2021 10:08 AM (792+X)

141 I'm interested in that book. Maybe enough to buy it.

I mean, there was never very much genuine in this trans movement. It went from a seriously niche subculture to being in your face every single day in the space of months. That doesn't happen naturally. That's a political decision. And the fact that it happened *directly* after Obergefell collapsed the gay-rights front in the culture war makes it patently obvious that the Marxists were just hurling ladyboys into the breach.

But it would be informative to read about the mechanics of *how* they executed the maneuver.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 28, 2021 10:09 AM (Uh2oA)

142 85...I despise that it's become common now. It's meaningless these days, and has taken the place of regular applause for a good performance.
Posted by: Lysenko - Click here for COVID vaccination document, print on card stock at March 28, 2021 09:45 AM (e6I/s)

The people who started the trend are the same people that clap between movements.

Posted by: Flyover at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (Rbu5d)

143 refreshed my memory, and it was a mayor in Houston who issued subpoenas for the sermons of several pastors. Essentially, it was a witch hunt to see if she could find a way to ding their tax-exempt status for engaging in political activities.

*

Oh, you mean like every black church is allowed to do?

Posted by: Lysenko - click here for your covid vaccine documentation and directions at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (oxXm8)

144 Our pastors will have to submit their sermons for approval by the middle of the century I wager.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:00 AM (Lzpvj)

---
I'm seeing a considerable shift in Catholic attitude right now. I attend a historically liberal college town parish and it is getting more orthodox almost by the week. All the 70s era decorations are disappearing and being replaced by traditional icons. Latin is working its way back into the Mass.

The homilies are emphasizing martyrdom, and the dioceasan monthy magazine just did a profile on St. Pius V, the pope who formed the Catholic League that defeated the Turkish fleet at Lepanto.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (llXky)

145 >>> I took a look at Helen's Page, the new social media / marketplace website from Mrs Instapundit. I'm not sure I understand the layout and mechanics of it, but I'd love to see a viable competitor to Amazon emerge for authors. It will have to include ebook downloads at some point to become a player.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 28, 2021 09:31 AM (d9Cw3)


I hope it catches on. I'm going to remember to look there first if I want anything. And I'm hoping the authors here and people that sale online make use of it too.

Posted by: banana Dream at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (Cr3F1)

146 Our pastors will have to submit their sermons for approval by the middle of the century I wager.
Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:00 AM


Houston's previous mayor, Annise Parker, was already there.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 28, 2021 10:11 AM (DMUuz)

147 The foundation of christianity is judaism why do the firsr sermons come from isiah

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:11 AM (hMlTh)

148 No, as a matter of fact Christmas wasn't based on a pagan Roman holiday. Here's the magisterial "History for Atheists" blog on the subject: https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/

And yes, obviously Jesus considered his teachings to be part of Judaism. But the new faith spread well beyond the Jews.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 10:11 AM (QZxDR)

149 Muldoon, I was thinking about you this morning. I had a vivid dream that I was back in Mass in the house I sold because the people had somehow defaulted on the mortgage and I got it back. (I know that's not how it works, but it was a dream). Thing is, I was really unhappy and just wanted to get back to my apartment in Md. I interpret that as a good sign that I made the right move.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:12 AM (sd8p8)

150 137 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:05 AM (sd8p

Christianity was a "product improved Judaism" with all new REDEMPTION!

In China the spiritual battle was between paganism, legalism, and Confucianism.

In Europe and the near east it was between various paganisms, a western version of legalism, and Judaism as the sole mobile monotheism.

Christianity's power was its ability to integrate and synthesize local customs and mores into its altered Judaist monotheism.

The faith wound up being a cultural weapon and unifying force for Europe, Egypt, and initially the near east. The spread of the faith led to the embrace of Islam a heresy on the heresy of the faith if viewed by Judaism.

I wonder what the legalistic leaders of the Temples in say circa 50 b.c. would think of the next 1000 years of history if you could ask?

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:12 AM (Lzpvj)

151 "Oh, you mean like every black church is allowed to do?"

Precisely. The irony being that, historically, black churches haven't been OK with the ghey. I guess those sermons get overlooked by the leftists.

Posted by: PabloD, boop/bop/beep at March 28, 2021 10:12 AM (792+X)

152 114 Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:55 AM (QZxDR)

Ace and I had a series of extensive discussions on the declensions and delineations of sorts of agnostics, atheists, and people of faith here in I think 2004-2008 or9.

People content to not believe without the need to destroy believers are ethical atheists.

Unethical atheism is ascendant in the west.
Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:04 AM (Lzpvj)


Agree, although I have come to the conclusion that the people you label "unethical atheists" are actually (some willingly, many unwittingly) in league with Satan. The glee with which they engage/support infanticide demonstrates that they are seriously broken people.

I also have no doubt that Christians will be called to become martyrs in the not too distant future here.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 10:12 AM (pJWtt)

153 This week I read Gladiator by Philip Wylie. Published in 1930, it became one of the inspirations for Superman. Wylie's character, Hugo Danner, does not fight for truth, justice, and the American way, though. He seeks self-fulfillment, rather than looking for opportunities use his gifts to serve and help others. So Danner struggles to find purpose in life and bounces around from one thing to the next, feeling feared and exploited. Interesting but unsatisfying.

Posted by: DIY Daddio at March 28, 2021 10:13 AM (RJscS)

154 140 Posted by: PabloD, boop/bop/beep at March 28, 2021 10:08 AM (792+X)

Yes the tax exemption will be the bludgeon, the answer of course if God is more important than gold will be to cede the physical trappings and speak the word anyway.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:14 AM (Lzpvj)

155 60 Durant was following the intellectual fashion of the time. Pagan roots of Christianity was "in" in the early 20th century, part of the whole ongoing Leftist project to debunk and denigrate the Church (es).
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 09:33 AM (QZxDR)


Which is thoroughly debunked by J. Gresham Machen's book The Origin Of Paul's Religion.

Get it for free on Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43503

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at March 28, 2021 10:14 AM (mgOCp)

156 I have little doubt about that, i wish it were not true, but 'a hard rains gonna fall'

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:14 AM (hMlTh)

157 Trimegistus, I defer to your knowledge about Christmas, but you said that Christianity was something entirely new and not based on previous religion. That was the point I was disputing. One of the reasons that Christianity spread more widely than Judaism is because many many men did not want to be circumcised being , you know, adult men.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (sd8p8)

158 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (u82oZ)

159 I hope it catches on. I'm going to remember to look
there first if I want anything. And I'm hoping the authors here and
people that sale online make use of it too.

Posted by: banana Dream at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (Cr3F1)

---
Let's see, you had A and P, Kmart, Sears and then there were the department stores.

All gone now. Amazon is not invincible. Google should look up Alta Vista to get a sense of their own vulnerability.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (llXky)

160 152 Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 10:12 AM (pJWtt)

I suspect so as well, and if the cycle holds true the martyrs will sway hard hearts.

I am so tired.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (Lzpvj)

161 Ethical atheism is relative and on a sliding scale.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (2DOZq)

162 Sven, you made my point in a more knowledgeable way. Being Jewish, was kind of offended in having the first people to believe in one God being slighted.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:17 AM (sd8p8)

163 I view Christianity or something very similar as an inevitable development (not WRT to matters of faith, not even opening that can of worms). Just politically and historically speaking. Monotheism is naturally universalist; it's almost impossible to conceive of it being anything else. Keeping it tied to a desert tribalist religious structure was unrealistic. I'm frankly amazed that it lasted in that form as long as it did, before someone freed that idea from its constraints in Judaism.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 28, 2021 10:18 AM (Uh2oA)

164 The people who started the trend are the same people that clap between movements.
Posted by: Flyover at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (Rbu5d)
--

Symphony Hall needs bouncers to deal with these philistines.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at March 28, 2021 10:18 AM (Dc2NZ)

165 Judaism is because many many men did not want to be circumcised being , you know, adult men.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (sd8p

Which would men choose ? Circumcised or eaten by lions?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 28, 2021 10:19 AM (2DOZq)

166 Good morning, Oregon Muse, good morning, Horde.

OM, thank you for the great content.

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 10:19 AM (bPb7p)

167 162 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:17 AM (sd8p

I will NEVER understand any Christian who does not love the Jews we owe them everything but what He gave us.

I will always have faithful Jewish people's back.

God bless you.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:19 AM (Lzpvj)

168 Symphony Hall needs bouncers to deal with these philistines.
We could call them ne-aplaudaci. (c.f. nekulturny)

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 10:19 AM (v16oJ)

169 I have little doubt about that, i wish it were not true, but 'a hard rains gonna fall'

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:14 AM (hMlTh)

---
It's already falling. The storm is here. No point worrying about it.

I realized that a lot of my agitation was that I imagined an end to everything, all at once. But things don't work that way. The US in 1866 was very different than it was in 1860, but it was still there. Not everything ended.

Most Germans lived through World War II. There was wrenching change, but also continuity. It will be interesting to see what happens, so I'm approaching the future with curiosity now rather than dread.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (llXky)

170 The best argument for Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular, is its modesty: God is all that is unknowable. Acknowledging that human capability has limits...even if they cannot be finally defined...and maintaining through millenia an idea and a structure which reinforces that acknowledgment, while simultaneously positing salvific design, is no small accomplishment. It's tempting to go further and say Christianity's breadth and persistence are natural phenomena, but it's probably best to resist.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (8HvsU)

171 I'm seeing a considerable shift in Catholic attitude right now. I attend a historically liberal college town parish and it is getting more orthodox almost by the week. ...

The homilies are emphasizing martyrdom, ...
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:10 AM (llXky)


The same thing seems to be happening at my parish, too. The pastor (our next-door neighbor at our new house!) is a Godly man that is loved by many. Homilies have been emphasizing living-up to our Catholic ideals even in the face of adversity, and the necessity of Reconciliation (this old revert still prefers to call it Confession).

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (pJWtt)

172 Ethical atheism is relative and on a sliding scale.

-
An example:

Do you even oxy, moron?

https://bit.ly/3crQBOi

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (VVEnO)

173 Good morning, horde! I was so impressed with Tom Holland's "Dominion" that I bought 2 more of his books - "Rubicon" about the fall of the Roman Republic and "Dynasty" which covers the Julio-Claudian emperors, Augustus through Nero. Again, Holland's superb writing and narrative skills make the books riveting - you come to realize the Mafia clans and the Renaissance power families have their roots in ancient Rome - Augustus and his family were the Sporanos in togas. I'm now reading about the death of Augustus and his jitters about a successor. He was a political gangster on the make during his rise to power, but once he had absolute control he used it very adroitly over the course of 40 years. The problem is that the system was built by and for him. His successors needed his political talent to keep it going smoothly- and they didn't have it.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 10:21 AM (HabA/)

174 Eris, you left out the most important part (SPOILER!):
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Cora names the alien Ampersand"

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at March 28, 2021 10:22 AM (b8eqQ)

175 161 Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 28, 2021 10:15 AM (2DOZq)

I renounced my faith at one stage, what brought me back was the need for humility and the admission that the godhead (in this case moral judgement) needed to be in something other than myself.

The hubris and danger of atheism and the worship of the superstate is that you are vesting the defacto godhead (moral judgement) in the hands of wickedly fallible beings.

When I was an atheist because of how my mind works I was stuck in a constant internal battle on the ethical and moral impact of my actions endlessly. I eventually ceded this noise back to God. The danger is a person constantly cutting deals with their desires to the harm of their values.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:23 AM (Lzpvj)

176
"And who is the Holy Spirit?"

Posted by: JAS, AoSHQ addict at March 28, 2021 10:24 AM (2BZBZ)

177 The regime went to seed pretty quickly by the time of tiberius, then caligula nero maybe claudius was relatively sane

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:24 AM (hMlTh)

178 Thirty Years War.?? Warwolf...all I see is Mel Gibson as the lead character

Posted by: qmark at March 28, 2021 10:24 AM (emnp2)

179 Ethical atheism is relative and on a sliding scale.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth

It's not what you know; it's who you know. Ask Hunter.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 10:25 AM (VVEnO)

180 I will NEVER understand any Christian who does not love the Jews we owe them everything but what He gave us.




Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:19 AM (Lzpvj)

---
According to David P. Goldman (aka "Spengler") the classical definition of an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is absolutely necessary. That line still cracks me up.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:25 AM (llXky)

181 "And who is the Holy Spirit?"
Posted by: JAS, AoSHQ addict at March 28, 2021 10:24 AM (2BZBZ)

He caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died......

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 28, 2021 10:25 AM (R/m4+)

182 Still reading To Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne.

I am just at the crossing of the Meuse at Sedan by Heinz Guderian and his XIX Panzer Corps.

It shows how training, fast decision-making and having a sound doctrine beats a bigger Army. It is not always about the weapon platforms.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 10:25 AM (u82oZ)

183 Book girl needs all the kisses, but would be annoyed because it would distract her from reading

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:26 AM (KZzsI)

184 Augustus and his family were the Sporanos in togas.

-------

Tony Soprano's mom was named Livia for a reason. And nasty as she was, she was a purring kitten compared to the real one.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 28, 2021 10:26 AM (Uh2oA)

185 If it hasn't already been mentioned, Douglas Murray tackles the same subject matter in his book, "The Madness Of Crowds," regarding the transjenner movement, and the speed with which it has ramped up.

It's a good, solid read, for any who haven't yet done so. And he tackles the other isms we're all being forced to bow before these days.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 10:27 AM (oQ94s)

186 Appreciate the thought Sven. Although Jews do not recognize Jesus's divinity, we understand his importance as a prophet and his teachings reflect the moral values we observe. I have never understood the antagonism and antisemitism throughout history. Only Jihadist Islam reflect values entirely opposite what both Judaism and Christianity teach. A religion that cannot tolerate other beliefs is not a religion.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:28 AM (sd8p8)

187 Don't get me wrong, I understand the notion of promoting one's book on the internet. I just find the one-shot drive by promotions awkward. Writers like Sgt. Mom, and many others have engaged in the commentariat community and built name recognition over time. I first started commenting here when I had a story to tell; the story of my father-in-kaw's disappearance and likely murder. While selling books would have been a nice secondary effect, my primary motivation was to publicize the story in an effort to goad the killer into making a mistake, not to make money. At the end of the day I did not sell many books.

Ultimately, for me at least, the experience of participating in a great on-line community outweighed any bookselling. I rarely push book sales here these days. I'm just a guy who likes to play with words.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 10:28 AM (m45I2)

188 >> I view Christianity or something very similar as an inevitable development (not WRT to matters of faith, not even opening that can of worms). Just politically and historically speaking. Monotheism is naturally universalist; it's almost impossible to conceive of it being anything else. Keeping it tied to a desert tribalist religious structure was unrealistic. I'm frankly amazed that it lasted in that form as long as it did, before someone freed that idea from its constraints in Judaism.




I see it as a Cult formed out of Judaism.

Posted by: garrett at March 28, 2021 10:28 AM (m1Hjr)

189 Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:23 AM (Lzpvj)

Whatever brought you back is great. When an atheist tries to tell me that I am only following a moral path because of the threat of punishment I have to politely remind them that they presently don't know the love a Christian has for the Trinity and I follow a moral path not because of the threat of punishment but because of my love for God and not wanting to disappoint God.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 28, 2021 10:28 AM (2DOZq)

190 170 Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (8HvsU)

Nicely said, I think moral judgement is a heavy burden on decent people's psyche as an intellectual exercise.

Christianity has a decent moral code, and a path to forgiveness if one errs.

It is beautiful because of that.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:29 AM (Lzpvj)

191 >>Although Jews do not recognize Jesus's divinity, we understand his importance as a prophet and his teachings reflect the moral values we observe.


We do not see Jesus as a Prophet.

We see Jesus as someone people considered as a Prophet.

Posted by: garrett at March 28, 2021 10:29 AM (m1Hjr)

192 Just started reading John Ringo's "Under a Graveyard Sky". I've had it in my Kindle since 2016 and have just gotten around to reading it....

Posted by: lin-duh 27-4 at March 28, 2021 10:30 AM (UUBmN)

193 America's bourgeois suburban Catholicism is on its last legs. The priest rape scandal wounded it fatally, but was itself the result of underlying moral, doctrinal, and social rot. The Church Miliant is returning.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:31 AM (8HvsU)

194 We see Jesus as someone people considered as a Prophet.
Posted by: garrett at March 28, 2021 10:29 AM (

-----

I always thought of him as a monumentally important rabbi who got deified. But now we're getting into the theological part I try to avoid. So I'll leave it there.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 28, 2021 10:32 AM (Uh2oA)

195 The same thing seems to be happening at my parish,
too. The pastor (our next-door neighbor at our new house!) is a Godly
man that is loved by many. Homilies have been emphasizing living-up to
our Catholic ideals even in the face of adversity, and the necessity of
Reconciliation (this old revert still prefers to call it Confession).

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (pJWtt)

---
Another data point: the seminaries are starting to fill up. Our diocease has tripled its enrollment over the last ten years. There is still a shortage, but the tide seems to have turned regarding vocations. Note also that the newly ordained are much more doctrinally sound that the priests they are replacing.

If we could only suppress the Jesuits again...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:33 AM (llXky)

196 This isn't so much the book, but the format (although the book is delightful too). I bought the Collector's Library edition of the Wind in the Willows, with the Rackman illustrations. It is slightly wider than my cell phone, complete with dust jacket and a ribbon bookmark. The font they use is easy to read although the illustrations are small. I just love it. I do have a fondness for small books.

Posted by: Notsothoreau - look forward at March 28, 2021 10:33 AM (YynYJ)

197 Our bishop in my AO is worthless.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at March 28, 2021 10:35 AM (vCrRy)

198 Okay Garrett. It is a long time since I was in Sunday school, but I was brought up Orthodox Jew and that is what I came away with. Maybe it is a slightly more tolerant viewpoint depending on how you define prophet.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:35 AM (sd8p8)

199 189 Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 28, 2021 10:28 AM (2DOZq)

The social anxiety we are witnessing is a coordinated deconstruction of the human condition. We are measured by our parents, we are formed and put into the world to interact with others, and in nature the body of humans coordinate efforts to survive and ideally thrive.

There is a reason that God in the Abrahamic faiths is "our father." Not to go on a tear but I have strove to integrate biological, epistemological, and spiritual living into my worldview. We are a tribal simian species given at birth to being carnivores of opportunity. God looking down on His creation most likely said "THAT is beautiful" and in loving us bent us to His image. He whispered forethought into our minds and gave us langauge.

That ability took us from the beauty of beasts and made us fallible creatures of thought and morals.

God is the judge of our worthiness in the moral and spiritual contest, and it is a race ran not with your neighbor but yourself.

I sincerely hope everyone reading this is well, and knows that no matter how dark the morning looks there is the full Sun behind the darkness.

God loves, man kills.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:36 AM (Lzpvj)

200 Can you PLEASE identify that lovely painting of a young woman, outside, sitting on the steps, reading?

Posted by: Clayton in Mississippi at March 28, 2021 10:37 AM (Tqz5s)

201 @83

I agree that it's kind of bad manners to self-promote your book here, but as Mr. Muse has hinted, sales will have a spike because there are a lot of lurkers here.

Maybe Mr. Muse gets to decide? I don't know the right answer to this.

But I'd rather books be promoted here than in the regular threads.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:37 AM (AwPyG)

202 I was jesuit educated, yet i still learned to think.

Just to ignore the foundations of christianity is like wet streets cause rain.

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:38 AM (hMlTh)

203 >>Can you PLEASE identify that lovely painting of a young woman, outside, sitting on the steps, reading?


Lilly. Definitely a Lilly.

Posted by: Zombie O'Keefe at March 28, 2021 10:38 AM (m1Hjr)

204 He was a political gangster on the make during his rise to power, but once he had absolute control he used it very adroitly over the course of 40 years. The problem is that the system was built by and for him. His successors needed his political talent to keep it going smoothly- and they didn't have it.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 10:21 AM (HabA/)

Sounds like others in history. Alexander, Genghis Khan, Napoleon...

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 10:38 AM (49Dnm)

205 170 Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (8HvsU)

Nicely said, I think moral judgement is a heavy burden on decent people's psyche as an intellectual exercise.

Christianity has a decent moral code, and a path to forgiveness if one errs.

It is beautiful because of that.
Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:29 AM (Lzpvj)



And the whole "love your enemies and do good to those that hate you" is a radical innovation. But it's what God does. All the time.

So, for me that means that for all those in positions of authority (and not) who call a fascist and a racist and a white supremacist and want me dead, my response has to be to love them and, should the opportunity arise, do them good. I know this sounds sappy, but I have to repay their hatred with love.

God commands it.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at March 28, 2021 10:39 AM (mgOCp)

206 Greetings:

My recommendation this week is "The Hardest Place: The American Military in Afghanistan's Pech Valley" by Wesley Morgan.

Posted by: 11B40 at March 28, 2021 10:39 AM (evgyj)

207 All the beautiful libraries presented here each Sunday
All the books contained in those libraries
And they, the colleges and society, are producing so many idiots.

Posted by: Braenyard at March 28, 2021 10:40 AM (1ENjc)

208 Lysenko, the recommendation of "Left to Tell" was mine. You're welcome.

I met the author at a papal Mass in NYC -- she's a lovely woman.

If folks want to know where the vicious smearing of whites and Trump supporters is headed, just read "Left to Tell."

Because the bad guys are using the same playbook here, that they used in Rwanda against the Tutsis.

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 10:40 AM (bPb7p)

209 "But this transgender thing got ramped up and jammed down our throats in
about 5 years. That's, like, warp speed. I, for one, would like to know
how it happened so fast."
They leveraged the gains from the gay movement. They have conditioned people to fear disagreeing with the perversion du jour movement, so they are more quick to acquiesce rather than lose jobs and reputations for opposing these evils.

Posted by: Eternity Matters at March 28, 2021 10:40 AM (eDfIu)

210 America's bourgeois suburban Catholicism is on its
last legs. The priest rape scandal wounded it fatally, but was itself
the result of underlying moral, doctrinal, and social rot. The Church
Miliant is returning.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:31 AM (8HvsU)

---
Yes, and Benedict XVI saw this coming. Recall how he spoke about a smaller but more faithful Church. Much of American Catholicism was really an extension of ethnic identity, sort of a social club/neighborhood association. So yes, the pews are a little emptier but the people remaining are a lot more involved. Even the priests are surprised at how many people show up for devotions and weekday Mass.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:40 AM (llXky)

211 Wow.

Do you know how I can get around the pixy limits?

Type out a response, and if it gets rejected, cut it, save a minimal comment that pixy will accept, then fire up pixy's editor and paste the actual comment on the back end.

Yes, it's good to be a cob.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at March 28, 2021 10:41 AM (mgOCp)

212 I just finished "American Cæsar" by William Manchester.
It was an excellent biography of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Posted by: navybrat at large at March 28, 2021 10:41 AM (w7KSn)

213 Most Germans lived through World War II. There was wrenching change, but also continuity. It will be interesting to see what happens, so I'm approaching the future with curiosity now rather than dread.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:20 AM (llXky)

And you have the English civil war of the 1640s as well. Even the English had go undergo periods of vicious civil strife and that (much like our own Civil War) happened while England was well on the path to superpower status.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 10:42 AM (49Dnm)

214 212 I just finished "American Cæsar" by William Manchester.
It was an excellent biography of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Posted by: navybrat at large at March 28, 2021 10:41 AM (w7KSn)

I so need to read that book. I have heard nothing but good reviews on it.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 10:43 AM (49Dnm)

215 So there is a word for the trained seals who clap rather than laugh at the political "humor" of late night TV. They are aplaudaci and each individual clapping seal is an aplaudac. Knowing that the term is an insult of Ceausescu's obedient fan club makes the insult even better.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at March 28, 2021 09:14 AM (d9Cw3)



I'd call a collection of them a Clapter of Aplaudaci...

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM guy at March 28, 2021 10:43 AM (ZSK0i)

216 Speaking of the transgender agenda, I used to clerk for a federal judge who saw a lot of Constitutional issues, where you had to decide between competing public policies--very tricky, sometimes.

But you were always supposed to support these three policies above all: (1)free enterprise/competition, (2) private property rights, and (3) marriage.

Note that the Supreme Court actively undermines all three, now.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:44 AM (AwPyG)

217 Has anyone read Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin by Pushkin? I'm thinking "no" but the Horde of the book are full of surprises, mostly pleasant.
Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 09:29 AM (y7DUB)

I don't know whose translation it was, but I read it, in college (in lieu of taking a foreign language, I got the foreign language credit by taking a course in Russian Literature In Translation).

I'm not a poetry guy either, but it's exquisitely written, sharply maintains the meter and rhyme, so whatever Nabby did to it, he probably made it much worse.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 10:44 AM (oQ94s)

218 Can you PLEASE identify that lovely painting of a young woman, outside, sitting on the steps, reading?

She's from something called The Book Thief, named Sophie Nélisse, according to IMDB.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:44 AM (KZzsI)

219 Getting back to books....I have read a number of books recommended on the thread. Most I never would have found on my own as they were outside my normal reading patterns or just authors I was completely unaware of. No one is forcing you to read or buy the books so I do not see what the harm is.
A lot of you who comment on this thread read very intense non fiction or books with deep meaning. I read so,ely for entertainment value. Always have. Never been a Big TV watcher.
I read 4 books this week. Two by Christine Feehan, one by Ilona Andrews and one by J.D. Robb. Enjoyed them all.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:45 AM (sd8p8)

220 Oh and I'm pretty sure that's Bardot posing with the book in the other picture

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:45 AM (KZzsI)

221 @214

You'll be sad to hear I was driving with my mid-30s daughter, down MacArthur Blvd.

I wonder who MacArthur was? she wondered aloud

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:45 AM (AwPyG)

222 The warp speed of trans-gender to me and probably Prager is the Left always needing a crisis to get their agenda through.
As soon if it does happen, and the unnatural of it might collapse it, the Leftists will have to find another crisis.
Quite possibly polygamy

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 10:46 AM (Cxk7w)

223 I've been reading No Ordinary Killing by Jeff Dawson. I'm just under half through and so far, so good. It is a murder mystery set in the Boer War. A British military doctor becomes involved in investigating a murder. Our hero, Ingo Finch, is no Sherlock Holmes nor does he want to be. He muddles through the defeats and corruption of the early months of the war. A native lost in the desert is also featured and, I assume, at some point the two will meet.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 10:46 AM (VVEnO)

224 213 Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 10:42 AM (49Dnm)

My family having fought on both sides of Cromwell had a lot of exiles sent here, I am certain we will have exiles from whatever the current epoch is.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:46 AM (Lzpvj)

225 And they, the colleges and society, are producing so many idiots.
Posted by: Braenyard at March 28, 2021 10:40 AM (1ENjc)

I think many go to college idiots beyond repair. At least that was my view as a college student. (A college student that somehow had college make him even more conservative.)

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 10:47 AM (49Dnm)

226 MacArthur Park is a song I would have told her, must have been a fan who named it.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 10:48 AM (Cxk7w)

227 Oh, by all means, promote the hell out of your bppk here. But it's actually fun joining in on the conversation, finding a thread that fits with the theme of your book and telling a bit of your story. Tell us why we should buy your book. There's more to it than posting your back cover blurb. Make your case. We (mostly) don't bite.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 10:48 AM (m45I2)

228 I agree that it's kind of bad manners to
self-promote your book here, but as Mr. Muse has hinted, sales will have
a spike because there are a lot of lurkers here.


Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:37 AM (AwPyG)

---
I think it depends on the situation. Someone just pasting spam into threads is annoying.

But if a book (any book, btw) is germane to a topic, it's fair game to bring it up. We talk a lot about the Spanish Civil War here (I mean on this thread) and that chatter was what goaded me to actually write a book about it. When the topic comes up and people have questions, I think it's perfectly appropriate to say "well, if you like what I'm saying here, yeah I wrote a book on that."

Basically, if people express an interest in a topic and you wrote a book specifically about that, bringing it up is reasonable. Muldoon writes wicked cool limericks, and he absolutely should mention it if people ask. It would be weird not to.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:48 AM (llXky)

229 @219

I read "lighter" books too (especially nowadays).

I think we all enjoy reading about the weighty people discussing the weighty books, too--there's something for everyone, here.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:48 AM (AwPyG)

230 re the Jesuits...Francis is the worst thing that could have happened to them. Arrupism not just fashionable, but empowered. The circumstances of Benedict's "retirement" will, if it hasn't already produce a lot of scholarship.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:49 AM (8HvsU)

231 @228

Exactly. There's a perfect example of a light reader (me) reading a weighty book just so's I know what you guys are talking about.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (AwPyG)

232 stubby fingers, gah!! bppk => book

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (m45I2)

233 The "transgender" movement isn't new at all -- it's a resurgence of ancient paganism.

Hat tip to Camille Paglia for pointing that out early on, when self-mutilation was just starting to get promoted.

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (bPb7p)

234 In "Dominion" Holland notes that St. Paul said belief in Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and a scandal to the Gentiles. To the Jews the idea of God becoming man was blasphemous. And they were also attached to and proud of their traditions - they didn't like the idea of melting into this big universalist stew. The Gentiles had no problem with gods becoming men, and vice versa, but the idea that a humble street preacher who was crucified was also ridiculous to them - men like Augustus and Hercules became gods. However to a slave living in some Roman attic, the idea that Jesus loved and cared for them was stunning. The Roman gods didn't care for poor people or forgive. You sacrificed to them as a form of protection money, to keep them from getting pissed at you. The belief that Jesus not only loved the poor and humble is staggeringly revolutionary - a belief that would make people willing to risk horrible deaths. So what seemed ridiculous to the Jews gave gentiles new hope and a different way of seeing themselves. And early Christians couldn't understand why Jews didn't see things the same way they did.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (HabA/)

235 Polygamy is next. A 2nd or 3rd or 4th wife of a Muslim man who married multiple wives overseas is going to petition the Massachusetts or California or Washington or Hawaii courts to have the marriage recognized.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (BMmaB)

236 228: I agree, the trick is to not be an annoying spammer. That being said, to a point, I see nothing wrong with "tooting your own horn" so to speak.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (49Dnm)

237 A college student that somehow had college make him even more conservative

------

I went to college thinking the Left was full of shit. By the end it was "oh, so THAT'S how it is, then. Well, best of luck. I'm going to make it hurt when you come to kill me."

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 28, 2021 10:51 AM (Uh2oA)

238 "Augustus and his family were the Sporanos in togas."

The books I, Claudius and Claudius the God are superb. The British TV show isn't too shabby. Livia is played by Sian Philips (Mrs Peter O'Toole)

Posted by: Ignoramus at March 28, 2021 10:51 AM (ZHVt1)

239 You'll be sad to hear I was driving with my mid-30s daughter, down MacArthur Blvd.



I wonder who MacArthur was? she wondered aloud

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. When I was younger, there were many things I didn't know and should have. I've spent my adult life filling in the gaps. The real problem is when people stop learning, and yet think they're knowledgeable.

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 10:51 AM (v16oJ)

240 A whole host of authors like perret think manchester was too laudatory one could fault him for not mobilizing faster when the japanese assault came, probably for management of battle of manila scapegoating of yamashita areas like that

Posted by: Alien covenant was worse at March 28, 2021 10:51 AM (hMlTh)

241 @227

Not to mention if you're promoting your book here, you're probably 'our kind of people' and we should help you out.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:51 AM (AwPyG)

242 I don't know whose translation it was...
Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 10:44 AM (oQ94s)

Ok, I believe I found the right edition: Penguin Classics version, paperback, with Charles Johnston translating. $7.22 on Amazon right now. I probably still have it upstairs though (or in one of the boxes in the garage, ready to be donated).

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 10:52 AM (oQ94s)

243 MacArthur Park is a song I would have told her, must have been a fan who named it.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 10:48 AM (Cxk7w)

---
The definitive version is by Donna Summer.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:52 AM (llXky)

244 pray for priests, support good bishops

Posted by: phoenixgirl at March 28, 2021 10:52 AM (CqHIp)

245 Polygamy is next.

I used to think so but I think that they've just bypassed it entirely for pedo. The main reason is that marriage is kind of dying out. Some still get married, but fewer and fewer each year. "Why bother?" more and more people think. Its old and outdated in modern culture. Just hook up a while and split if it gets too tough. Or stay together but don't bother with all the paperwork and ceremony, whatever.

So multiple marriages are irreelvant.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:53 AM (KZzsI)

246 I agree Artemis. Your Georgette Heyer recommendation has me now 5 books in so far. An d as I am a history buff, even though I don't read much historical nonfiction, I do enjoy the discussions.
I mean people here actually read books!

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:53 AM (sd8p8)

247 So Brigitte Bardot isn't a blonde?

Posted by: new bucs fan at March 28, 2021 10:54 AM (7FbwY)

248 I don't have a new book out but I did finally have Hero Games publish Western Hero last week, and will have a module (adventure) for it coming out this week.

I'd really like to get back to writing books but... they just don't sell much. One a month, on average. And I sell like 10-20 copies of my gaming stuff a month. Its just a question of market and business.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:54 AM (KZzsI)

249 re the Jesuits...Francis is the worst thing that
could have happened to them. Arrupism not just fashionable, but
empowered. The circumstances of Benedict's "retirement" will, if it
hasn't already produce a lot of scholarship.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 10:49 AM (8HvsU)

---
Francis is annoying in many ways, but his pontificate was absolutely necessary to save the Church. If another reformer had come in, the rot would have remained hidden, and its full scope would have evaded detection. Francis' selection emboldened the corrupt and they celebrated their victory, exposing themselves in the process. We no know far more than we ever would have without him.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 10:55 AM (llXky)

250 Lurker here. I just finished Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife by Ariel Sabar.In 2012, Karen King, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, made a splash by revealing an early Christian papyrus that referred to Jesus having a wife. Ariel Sabar embarked on an investigation into the provenance of the document. His search led him to a German-Floridian forger with pagan, possibly occult, connections. The Harvard professor comes off even worse. By the end of the book, she's exposed as a postmodernist feminist "scholar" who actually believes in neither facts nor history. It's an impressive feat of investigative journalism, and Sabar's takedown of the postmodern rot in academia is devastating.

Posted by: Linnet at March 28, 2021 10:55 AM (l8fD3)

251 I've spent the week contemplating re-arranging my living room bookshelf. I have acquired quite a lot of Conan the Barbarian (comic book) Omnibuses, and with more scheduled to be released, they will soon outgrow their shelf. So I'll need to displace some reference books, and I need to find a way to do so without sending them out of my living room. Because once they are out of sight, they may as well be out of mind...

...I may not read as many novels as I used to, but I've grown quite fond of reference/picture books. There is no better way to spend an evening than by watching a familiar movie while idly flipping through a book about castles, or pirate ships, or dinosaurs.... Or the aforementioned Conan Omnibuses. That's when they get a lot of their usage.

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 28, 2021 10:55 AM (Lhaco)

252 I think moral judgement is a heavy burden on decent people's psyche as an intellectual exercise.

-
Explaining Hitler by Ron Rosenbaum looks at various theories as to why Hitler launched the Holocaust. One is that the Jews invented morality and guilt thus becoming a wet blanket on humanity.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 10:56 AM (VVEnO)

253 @248

Jonothan Yanez is a sci fi self-made success, and he wrote a pamphlet explaining how he did it, if anyone wants to take a look.

I think its a little easier in sci fi and romance, because those groups have voracious readers who are talking to each other on line.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (AwPyG)

254 245 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:53 AM (KZzsI)

Which from a systems engineering standpoint tells you the powers that be must have wanted a society here in America that produced flawed self-defeating people.

Monogamy won the social evolutionary war, it produced when mated to faith capable productive kids and orderly legacy wealth progression. The polygamy types will now pull ahead of the simple "goin for a pack of smokes' breeders through raw numbers. The removal of public shame and shunning from the tools of culture has ensured our loss on a long timeline I think.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (Lzpvj)

255 All those new Muslim immigrants will disagree with you Christopher

Just a couple weeks of WWII history or Korea in school would come across MacArthur at some point one would think.

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (Cxk7w)

256 I just finished "American Cæsar" by William Manchester.
It was an excellent biography of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Posted by: navybrat at large at March 28, 2021 10:41 AM (w7KSn)

One of my favorite biographies. What gives it credibility in my opinion is that Manchester did not like MacArthur very much.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (2DOZq)

257 @251

Every time I gird my loins and try to re arrange my book shelves I have a hard time donating anything. It's like having canned happy memories, on the shelf.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 10:58 AM (AwPyG)

258 Looks like the rain has let up so I'm off to the farmers market.
Have a great day everyone.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 28, 2021 10:59 AM (sd8p8)

259 252 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 10:56 AM (VVEnO)

They are libertines who are incapable of creating an economic and social system that can support 8 billion beings.

There has to be a prevailing moral code, and frankly even if I were not of a descendant faith from them I would respect the Jews and the Old Testament as a very effective tribal survival manual.

I will never understand the amoral.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:59 AM (Lzpvj)

260 So Brigitte Bardot isn't a blonde?

I think her natural hair color was brown, all the younger pictures of her show her with darker hair.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 10:59 AM (KZzsI)

261 @255

Yeah--and this is a well educated daughter.

I reminds me of that BBC interview last summer when the host was talking to a BLM representative about tearing down Churchill's statue.

"I don't know if he's racist," the spokesman admitted. "I've never met him."

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:00 AM (AwPyG)

262 Christopher R Taylor: Congratulations on your game! HERO Games always publishes neat stuff. Even if you don't use the HERO system their sourcebooks have a ton of useful information.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 11:00 AM (QZxDR)

263 255 Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (Cxk7w)

When I was a student teacher the amount of time in a non AP history class spent on the American Civil War, World War One, World War Two, and Korea was measured in hours that would be better served by minutes.

Vietnam got a lot of time (shout out you hippie commies relitigating it).....

There's a reason I walked away.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 11:01 AM (Lzpvj)

264 The Left's next big cultural push is norming the violation of children...

...then human sacrifice.

The West has thrown the gears in reverse, and is redlining the engine as it blows by scientific method, logic, common sense, Christ and His Church, all the way back to appeasing nightmare gods with immolated humans.

But like Belloc (or Chesterton?) said, it won't be rebooted paganism. It will be much worse, because Christ's light was known, then willfully spurned.

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 11:02 AM (bPb7p)

265 167: For love to survive it should be reciprocated.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:03 AM (ONvIw)

266 Book related: I have embarked on construction of a long-promised gift for Missus Muldoon, a built-in bookcase for our morning room. Floor to ceiling, two matching vertical halves with five shelves. One side with a small drawer at the bottom and the other half with the corresponding space as a cubby for our router and wifi hub. When I finish, if it doesn't look like utter crap, I'll send OM a picture.Probably be done by autumn 2027.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 11:03 AM (m45I2)

267 247 Neither was Marilyn

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:04 AM (ONvIw)

268 Bridgette Bardot was the first "Marianne" -- the face of French Liberty. Later followed by Catherine Deneuve and other beauties.

Posted by: Ignoramus at March 28, 2021 11:04 AM (ZHVt1)

269 Posted by: Ignoramus at March 28, 2021 10:51 AM (ZHVt1)

I saw and enjoyed "I Claudius" immensely when it aired on public TV in the 1970's. Holland says however, that there is little proof for some of the more sensationalist reports - like Tiberius' goings on in Capri, for instance. Claudius was in fact a nastier character than he was portrayed in "I Claudius." Holland notes that the problem with trying to piece together what happened then is that we know the sources had their own agendas He said it's as if 2000 years from now the only information historians have about Trump are the WaPo and NY Times.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 11:04 AM (HabA/)

270 I have acquired quite a lot of Conan the Barbarian (comic book) Omnibuses, and with more scheduled to be released, they will soon outgrow their shelf.

Those 70s and 80s Marvel Conan books were really damned good and worth having.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:05 AM (KZzsI)

271 There has to be a prevailing moral code, and frankly even if I were not of a descendant faith from them I would respect the Jews and the Old Testament as a very effective tribal survival manual.

-
I fear that this country is about to experience the effects of the absence of a moral code.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 11:05 AM (VVEnO)

272 I'd also like to know how transgender mania descended so quickly. I believe there's satanic power involved but I'd like to understand the this world aspect of it.
I'd also like to learn how a corrupt, lifelong sub-mediocrity became the senile president of the United States.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:05 AM (lgiXo)

273 Muldoon sounds nice, shame couldn't come over and help it to fruition

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 11:06 AM (Cxk7w)

274 The
removal of public shame and shunning from the tools of culture has
ensured our loss on a long timeline I think.

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (Lzpvj)

---
The current situation is incredibly unstable, and rate of upheaval is increasing. This is why I say that the storm is already here, it's around us and we're in it. It can't be sustained, just as a hurricane can't be sustained.

And yes, I will here point out that the exact same situation happened in Spain in 1936. Check out the timeline and how having won a razor-thin majority in disputed elections, the Spanish Left then acted like it had swept to power and began frenzied changes to everything in society and acting like they will never have to face the electorate again because that was their plan.

I saw this coming last summer and wrote my book hoping in part that our version would turn out differently. I went through a profound desolation in January when I realized what was coming, but now I've found a measure of peace.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:06 AM (llXky)

275 CRT, congratulations on the game and module.

I think I would have enjoyed RPGs, but college circumstances prevented that.

Then last year I signed up for a Pathfinder game. Two sessions, and then the COVID panic hit.

***********

Of course books don't sell. Walk down an aisle of any book shop. How many titles do you pass?

It's amazing that ANY book gets sold.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 11:08 AM (J9wig)

276 266 Book related: I have embarked on construction of a long-promised gift for Missus Muldoon, a built-in bookcase for our morning room. Floor to ceiling, two matching vertical halves with five shelves. One side with a small drawer at the bottom and the other half with the corresponding space as a cubby for our router and wifi hub. When I finish, if it doesn't look like utter crap, I'll send OM a picture.Probably be done by autumn 2027.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 11:03 AM (m45I2)


Fortunately, our blog host is an expert with shelves, so you should hit him up for helpful advice.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at March 28, 2021 11:08 AM (mgOCp)

277 All those new Muslim immigrants will disagree with you Christopher


Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 10:57 AM (Cxk7w)

---
Some of Franco's toughest troops were the Moroccan Regulares. They rather enjoyed slaughtering atheists.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:09 AM (llXky)

278 274 What's your secret?

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:09 AM (ONvIw)

279 I'd also like to know how transgender mania descended so quickly.

It took like 5 years to flip abortion from "everyone opposes this" to "its the law of the land" too. The left is really good at this kind of corruption and evil.

The thing is, there's this huge dichotomy in the country about tranny stuff. The elites and establishment are all for it, totally in on the tranny express. The rest of the country, except for brainwashed children, are repulsed and horrified by it. How this rides out, we'll see.

But you notice they pretty much dropped the "men in your daughter's changing room" thing. They figured out that is not just a losing cause but actually turned people against them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:09 AM (KZzsI)

280 Kevin Wignall has a new novel out: "Those Who Disappeared". Surprisingly, this one's not about a killer for hire upon whom it slowly dawns that for unknown reasons the CIA is trying to kill him, so he ingeniously slaughters a whole bunch of CIA agents first. At least not yet. I'm only fifty or so pages in.

Posted by: occam's brassiere at March 28, 2021 11:09 AM (8HvsU)

281 I'd also like to know how transgender mania descended so quickly. I believe there's satanic power involved but I'd like to understand the this world aspect of it.
I'd also like to learn how a corrupt, lifelong sub-mediocrity became the senile president of the United States.
Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:05 AM (lgiXo)

Again, Douglas Murray, "The Madness Of Crowds." Easily accessible book, covers the topic quite thoroughly, as well as other "movements" you've been forced to discuss/contemplate/change for.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:10 AM (9qhLe)

282 Fortunately, our blog host is an expert with shelves, so you should hit him up for helpful advice.
Posted by: OregonMuse


*****

I figured he is too shelfish to share any of his hard-won expertise.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 11:10 AM (m45I2)

283 Christopher and Algerians in Indo-China fighting with the French

Posted by: Skip at March 28, 2021 11:11 AM (Cxk7w)

284 Famous Woke Philosopher Signed Petition To Allow Men To Have Sex With Children

The philosopher Michel Foucault, a beacon of today's "woke" ideology, has become the latest prominent French figure to face a retrospective reckoning for sexually abusing children.

A fellow intellectual, Guy Sorman, has unleashed a storm among Parisian "intellos" with his claim that Foucault, who died in 1984 aged 57, was a paedophile rapist who had sex with Arab children while living in Tunisia in the late 1960s.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 11:11 AM (VVEnO)

285 269 Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 11:04 AM (HabA/)
Quite, it is a historical soap opera. Probably the best done one on the period, and definitely a masterwork but it is a soap opera. You have a hard time making precise reads on character because one of the hobbies of monarchial chroniclers is flattery of the current magic chair occupier and deification of defecation of prior folks based on a patron's whim.

Tsao Tsao or Cao Cao depending on your bent was held in high esteem by the Jin dynasty and to a degree held up as the ideal "modern" (by circa 280 standards) Chinese ruler. The thing is when the Mongols toppled the Jins suddenly they monstered Cao Cao up until over time he became the Lucifer of the three kingdoms age in Chinese opera.

Tiberius contrary to modern mythology was probably the best of the Julio-Claudians not named "Octavian" originally. He balanced the books for Augustus' spending stabilized the Empire, and killed about 10% as many enemies as his "father." Later scholars had to sh*t talk him to pump up their patron.

When you understand how "history" scholarship has been done the fall of the press makes "sense."

Posted by: sven at March 28, 2021 11:12 AM (Lzpvj)

286 AH Lloyd, keep telling people about the Spanish Civil War.

They need to be warned.



Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 11:13 AM (bPb7p)

287 @279

I think it's a touchstone of sorts. Swear fealty!

I also think they'd like MO to run for office, and this may be a problem. So instead, she'll be stunning and brave (sort of like M Markle, who is 1/4 black)

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:13 AM (AwPyG)

288 Recent reads: The "Empire of Man" collection of the first three books of March Upcountry. So far Prince Roger whines a lot but I am anticipating great things and much pain for Prince Roger. Also reading a fascinating book I got for my repeated 29th birthday on "permaculture", which is basically lazy yet productive gardening and totally what I am looking for. Max output for minimal maintenance.

On the writing front, I am nearly done with the latest tome, set in the Mage Guardian universe. Probable title Sky Tribe.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at March 28, 2021 11:13 AM (BSV0x)

289 Polygamy is next. A 2nd or 3rd or 4th wife of a Muslim man who married multiple wives overseas is going to petition the Massachusetts or California or Washington or Hawaii courts to have the marriage recognized.
Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at March 28, 2021 10:50 AM (BMmaB)

Spas that that question settled in blood in pre-statehood Utah?

Posted by: Fox2!! at March 28, 2021 11:15 AM (qyH+l)

290 Speaking of the Bayeux Tapestry...

I have, in theory, an ancestor on the BT.

The Viking naturalfakes, lopped off a bunch of Frog heads and settled down in Normandy, then my ancestral naturalfake as some kind of main soldier for Bishop Odo, chopped off a bunch of Saxons and Angles heads and was made (a very minor) noble with castle, coat of arms, motto, and all the goodies.

Then at some point, they fucked up and had to come to America to start over.

Otherwise, as my alternative history self, I'd have bad teeth instead of glorious, pearly ivories, and have wound up selling the ancestral digs to some rock star.

Posted by: naturalfake at March 28, 2021 11:15 AM (dWwl8)

291 "The current situation is incredibly unstable, and rate of upheaval is increasing."

Yep. Several very different scenarios are plausible. Includes many I would have thought unthinkable a year ago.

Posted by: Ignoramus at March 28, 2021 11:15 AM (ZHVt1)

292 Of course books don't sell. Walk down an aisle of any book shop. How many titles do you pass?

I'd buy them all but I can't afford them. Seriously, the only reason I buy just a few books at a time is budget. But I know that I am in a small minority in that. Most people don't read more than they absolutely have to.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:16 AM (KZzsI)

293 I'd also like to learn how a corrupt, lifelong sub-mediocrity became the senile president of the United States.
Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:05 AM (lgiXo)

Because corrupt, lifelong sub-mediocrity people voted for him.

Posted by: Dominion Magic 8 Ball Voter Game at March 28, 2021 11:16 AM (R/m4+)

294 Book related: I have embarked on construction of a
long-promised gift for Missus Muldoon, a built-in bookcase for our
morning room. Floor to ceiling, two matching vertical halves with five
shelves. One side with a small drawer at the bottom and the other half
with the corresponding space as a cubby for our router and wifi hub.
When I finish, if it doesn't look like utter crap, I'll send OM a
picture.Probably be done by autumn 2027.

Posted by: Muldoon at March 28, 2021 11:03 AM (m45I2)

I had built an absolute masterpiece in this house, would cost probably 10K out in the world if you had it done, and it has to stay behind when I move. I am not happy.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at March 28, 2021 11:16 AM (9Om/r)

295 I just got an email inviting me to join Team Mitch. Well, I'm good at sitting around doing nothing . . .

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 11:16 AM (VVEnO)

296 this YouTube 20 minute video gives a summary of the Transgender Industrial Complex book. Lots of good points made quickly ... one big one, they are not opening up the world to allow people's "true self" to emerge, they are instead leading us to become their homogenous resource, worker/consumers that are all the same. (no real gender, all can pretend to be anything ... ) Also the ever changing required terminology and standards keeps opening new markets for "them".

I forget if he stated it in the review, but imo their aim is also the destruction of cohesiveness, by destroying traditional social norms. He does note that their liberal activism also allows them to have social credit, to allow them to continue polluting (as in China/India belching out coal soot, and basically denying the real human rights we provide Americans, at great expense)

https://tinyurl.com/8ubedr2s

Posted by: illiniwek at March 28, 2021 11:17 AM (Cus5s)

297 you might not be interested in big tranny, but bug tranny is interested in you, see below



a boy not wanting to date a girl with a penis is a 'ist'

Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:17 AM (r4bSV)

298 I've just reading a modern translation of the the writing of Madame Jeanne Guyon.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:17 AM (lgiXo)

299 Speaking of the Bayeux Tapestry

Some of those memes are kind of fun, but most of them use such atrocious, stupid faux medieval speech (like the one shown above) it makes me want to burn the original so people forget it and stop doing them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:18 AM (KZzsI)

300 @289

I actually wouldn't be surprised if our disgraced Supreme Court churned out a few "popular" opinions as a PR exercise.

Or there's no need, anymore, to even pretend. We'll see.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:18 AM (AwPyG)

301 AH Lloyd, any good books on the Cristiada you'd recommend?

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 11:20 AM (bPb7p)

302 I used to think that polygamy was next, but frankly, I don't think the Left considers that worth the effort. You've already got overweight science fiction nerds living in "polyamorous relationships" and nobody cares. It doesn't carry that pervy shock-Grandma thrill.

My money's on kiddy-fiddling. To be honest, I expected that sooner, but the combination of tranny empowerment and the unexpected setback of MeTooism delayed it.

We'll know it's next on the list when there's a stunning-and-brave movie about an adult (lesbian?) in a "loving, respectful relationship" with a just-underage partner and how they face oppression and bigotry from MAGA-cap wearing white Christian men. Maybe 2023, after Joe resigns for health reasons? Or wait until 2025?

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 11:20 AM (QZxDR)

303 I'd buy them all but I can't afford them. Seriously, the only reason I
buy just a few books at a time is budget. But I know that I am in a
small minority in that. Most people don't read more than they absolutely
have to.

I'm at the stage of life when I have time and money enough, but I have to be realistic about how many books I can expect to read. I like to have a half dozen or so waiting in the on deck circle, but it seems that I'm always distracted by the new and shiny. I suppose I'm that guy in the meme walking with his girlfriend while looking back at the hot new stranger.

Posted by: pep at March 28, 2021 11:20 AM (v16oJ)

304 What's interesting is the gay/transgender push is self-defeating, because the Trumpish people will be the only ones reproducing.

(see: abortion, which may be the main reason the left has got to voter fraud like crazy, nowadays)

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:20 AM (AwPyG)

305 Foucalt a pedo? Really. Will the pendulum ever swing the other way, I wonder.

Posted by: Common Tater at March 28, 2021 11:21 AM (3N/o1)

306 "That's, like, warp speed. I, for one, would like to know how it happened so fast."

It could only happen to a tamed society. Not enough adults were willing to say, "Touch my kid and I end you."

Posted by: Igotnothing at March 28, 2021 11:22 AM (xf2hT)

307 I just got an email inviting me to join Team Mitch. Well, I'm good at sitting around doing nothing . . .
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 11:16 AM (VVEnO)

Speaking of, if anyone is not familiar with the humor of Kyle Dunnigan, shame on you. He does (badly) deepfaked vids, with his impersonations of various celebs and pols. Here's him doing Cummo and Cocaine Mitch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoQQ3R6lHto

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:22 AM (9qhLe)

308 What's interesting is the gay/transgender push is self-defeating, because the Trumpish people will be the only ones reproducing.

"That's okay we can rely on you to send your children to our indoctrination factories and pull them over to our side. Suckers"
--The Left, snickering

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:23 AM (KZzsI)

309 I'm not a poetry guy either, but it's exquisitely written, sharply maintains the meter and rhyme, so whatever Nabby did to it, he probably made it much worse.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 10:44 AM (oQ94s)


Maybe from a pure poetry standpoint but Nabokov was a real stickler for understanding exactly what the author's words mean. Literature authorities came down strongly pro and con on it, with maybe the concensus being more positive. Like I said it probably terminated his friendship with Wilson, who was a not nice person, particularly once when he beat the shit out of Mary McCarthy in his presence (I don't know how the biographer would have known that except for Vera or Dmitri telling him).

Placing out of a language requirement by taking a Russian literature course is an odd substitution since they're different things; not that academia doesn't march to an arrhythmic drum. That's not meant as derogatory to your degree.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:23 AM (y7DUB)

310 Regarding the increased orthodoxy of Catholic parishes: well, Christianity has always thrived under persecution and younger priests are increasingly aware of how hostile the secular world as become. Prior to the '60's, Catholic families were proud if a son became a priest. I'm sure any young priest now has had to endure a lot of cracks about pedophilia and "your imaginary friend" and so on. Christianity becomes complacent when times are good. Unfortunately, when it is power it persecutes. When it is powerless and threatened and mocked, it grows stronger.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 11:24 AM (HabA/)

311 I like very little poetry, but the best stuff is actually good. Kipling's poetry is incredible. But he's not pretentious and 'artistic' about it, he's just writing basically song versions of a story like a bard. Its when poetry is too self aware or trying to be too deep or artistic that it becomes insufferable.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:25 AM (KZzsI)

312 @Fox2!!, everyone thought homosexual "marriage" was not only a settled issue, but ridiculous even to raise the question.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at March 28, 2021 11:25 AM (BMmaB)

313 What's your secret?

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:09 AM (ONvIw)

---
I realized I was praying for what I wanted, and getting angry when it didn't happen. So I let go of all of it. I stopped paying much attention to the news, cut out web surfing (remember I disappeared even from the book thread for a while). I spent the extra time cleaning out closets, just doing stupid little things around the house and getting more involved in parish life. Our priests are great and I really like our pastor.

Now I see that the storm had to happen. There will be pain and suffering but we could not go on as we were. Stressing about the fillibuster or voting changes or whatever, none of it matters. They're just details, incidents in a greater world-changing event. So I give my fear and anxiety to God and focus on the things I can do.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:25 AM (llXky)

314 -What's interesting is the gay/transgender push is self-defeating, because the Trumpish people will be the only ones reproducing.-




dude!

Posted by: Teachers Unions and Big Education at March 28, 2021 11:25 AM (r4bSV)

315 A fellow intellectual, Guy Sorman, has unleashed a storm among Parisian "intellos" with his claim that Foucault, who died in 1984 aged 57, was a paedophile rapist who had sex with Arab children while living in Tunisia in the late 1960s.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at March 28, 2021 11:11 AM (VVEnO)


Has Paul Bowles been denounced because I don't think they pretended otherwise with him?

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:28 AM (y7DUB)

316 @artemis, the reason hey have to import voters from south of the border is because most of the 65 million they've killed would have been their voters.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at March 28, 2021 11:28 AM (BMmaB)

317

saw where the police is handcuffing 5yo who skip school now.


2021 just shows the police are shock troops for the ruling class / government

Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:28 AM (r4bSV)

318 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:25 AM (llXky)

I'm trying to do this as well.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 11:28 AM (HabA/)

319 It took like 5 years to flip abortion from "everyone opposes this" to "its the law of the land" too. The left is really good at this kind of corruption and evil.

But, as the late, great Dr. Walter Williams would ask, "does legality establish morality? Slavery was legal, apartheid was legal, the Maoist, Stalinist and Nazi purges were all legal." If something is the "law of the land", is it still moral? Maybe to the Left, for whom the State and God are interchangeable terms. But for the rest of us?

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 11:29 AM (49Dnm)

320 AH Lloyd, any good books on the Cristiada you'd recommend?

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 11:20 AM (bPb7p)

---
I liked the Andy Garcia movie about it. Fun fact: the Knights of Columbus ran guns to the Cristeros.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:29 AM (llXky)

321 Stressing about the fillibuster or voting changes or whatever, none of it matters. They're just details, incidents in a greater world-changing event. So I give my fear and anxiety to God and focus on the things I can do.

Yeah that's where you get to when you are on the other side of the grief and horror at watching your world burn. I am not so much worried about myself as younger generations who'll grow up never knowing what America used to be or how you can be free.

But that's out of my hands. Cleaning my house, writing another book, trimming the bushes in the yard, that I can do. I can make a difference where I am with what I do, and the rest is in God's hands.

Voting gave us a false sense of power and input, as if our one vote actually gave us control over our destiny. It was a delusion that rigged elections break us from.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:29 AM (KZzsI)

322 @311

Exactly, I call it the "trying too hard" syndrome.

You see it in authors, too.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:30 AM (AwPyG)

323 "That's okay we can rely on you to send your children to our indoctrination factories and pull them over to our side. Suckers"
--The Left, snickering
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:23 AM (KZzsI)

"He who laughs last laughs best." Especially someone who went through such an indoctrination factory, and came out even more committed against it than before.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 11:31 AM (49Dnm)

324 Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 11:04 AM (HabA/)
------
I have a copy of Suetonius' "The Twelve Caesars", translated by Robert Graves. I believe he got the idea for his novels "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God" while doing it. If you enjoyed the TV series, I highly recommend them both. I also recommend "Count Belisarius", for historical novel readers.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at March 28, 2021 11:31 AM (WGara)

325 Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 10:44 AM (oQ94s)

Placing out of a language requirement by taking a Russian literature course is an odd substitution since they're different things; not that academia doesn't march to an arrhythmic drum. That's not meant as derogatory to your degree.
Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:23 AM (y7DUB)

I learned more in that class than I have in most others, including a love of Russian literature. The guy teaching was Russian, of course, looked like a friendly Stalin.

The translation was apparently considered something of a miracle, maintaining the tone and style of Pushkin as much as possible, and being highly readable and understandable in English.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:31 AM (9qhLe)

326 2021 just shows the police are shock troops for the ruling class / government

They always have been. Its just that the establishment used to be more focused on liberty and justice than it is now, so the force was more contained and directed.

I say more because if you were a black guy in Jim Crow, there was no justice for you and you could without logic, pattern, or warning be dumped on by the cops at the behest of the elites.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:31 AM (KZzsI)

327 (Last week's 'who dis' was Wolverine Hugh Jackman.

He's changed a lot.

Posted by: t-bird at March 28, 2021 11:32 AM (1vynn)

328 Exactly, I call it the "trying too hard" syndrome.

You see it in authors, too.


Sadly yeah. Hemingway is in that category in many of his books, I think. Several classic books are that way. I try to read them and they're so busy trying to be artistic and literature that they lose the ability to tell a story and engage a reader.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:33 AM (KZzsI)

329 317

saw where the police is handcuffing 5yo who skip school now.


2021 just shows the police are shock troops for the ruling class / government
Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:28 AM (r4bSV)

And why they should be subject to the withering questioning/vigilance of society to the point where the police operate in total (and healthy) fear. I don't mean fear of life, but rather, fear of their jobs, reputation, etc.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at March 28, 2021 11:33 AM (49Dnm)

330 I'm not a big lover of poetry but some particular poems touch me powerfully- for instance John Donne's holy sonnets. I frequently read his sonnet Death be not Proud and the one that ends when Thou hast done, Thou hast Donne.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:33 AM (lgiXo)

331 The publisher site you link for "Transgender-Industrial Complex" also has an e-book link at $4.99. It's a little gray line that's easy to miss.

Posted by: MW at March 28, 2021 11:34 AM (KXr4W)

332
When it is powerless and threatened and mocked, it grows stronger.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at March 28, 2021 11:24 AM (HabA/)

__________

Even worse, try being a TLM Catholic. Everyone hates you.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at March 28, 2021 11:36 AM (mht8P)

333 Yeah that's where you get to when you are on the
other side of the grief and horror at watching your world burn. I am
not so much worried about myself as younger generations who'll grow up
never knowing what America used to be or how you can be free.




Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:29 AM (KZzsI)

---
It's not losing the grief so much as embracing hope for something new and better. The broad sunlit uplands are still out there, and we might reach them, but it's not going to be a smooth ride.

Storms inflict destruction but they also clear a way for new things. So that's what I'm focusing on.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:37 AM (llXky)

334 Gun rights have been under attack for a long time. But the attack on freedom of speech seems relatively recent.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:39 AM (lgiXo)

335 It's not losing the grief so much as embracing hope for something new and better.

Well I didn't mean you get over it, but that you get through it and to the other side where you can begin to heal and live normally again. The Stages of Grief thing is over simplified but its not entirely false: you go through various phases and finally come through and deal with it.

My father died when I was 21 years old. I have never, ever gotten over the sadness and loss of that. But after a while I got to the point I could live life normally again and deal with it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:39 AM (KZzsI)

336 2020 and 2021 have opened my eyes

i used to be pro police

now I would not piss on the po-po if they were on fire

arresting folks singing hymes without masks in a church parking lot, arresting a woman who took her kids to a park (both of these in Idaho) arresting that woman in texas in the bank without a mask, putting cuffs on 8yo and 5yo, tazing the woman sitting all by herself watching sons football game in Ohio ....

Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:41 AM (r4bSV)

337 Good morning Hordemates.
Bardot. Bunk worthy.

Posted by: Diogenes at March 28, 2021 11:42 AM (axyOa)

338
My father died when I was 21 years old. I have
never, ever gotten over the sadness and loss of that. But after a while
I got to the point I could live life normally again and deal with it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:39 AM (KZzsI)

---
I don't think that comparison works. You can't get a new father and hope he's better than the last, whereas there is a chance to build a society without abortion and bureaucratic sclerosis.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:42 AM (llXky)

339 the Leftists will have to find another crisis.
Quite possibly polygamy

*

Nope.

There's a reason they're introducing your children to their sexuality in elementary school. It's related to Hollywood, Epstein, the Biden men, and why Trump was hated so much by politicians and Democrats.

Listen to what the left tells you and believe them.

Posted by: Lysenko - click here for your covid vaccine documentation and directions at March 28, 2021 11:42 AM (oxXm8)

340 PS
And call me crazy but I like dem pants.

Posted by: Diogenes at March 28, 2021 11:43 AM (axyOa)

341 I, too, was depressed that the fraud succeeded. Now I think it will prove in the long run to be a good thing because the rot we've had for decades is exposed.

Of course, I won't be around on this earth to see the good that will result.

I also believe that the constant shove leftward is just another example of entropy. Maybe when everything falls apart, God will call time.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 11:43 AM (vkomf)

342 everyone thought hittler was crazy after writing his book, he ment it

Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:43 AM (r4bSV)

343 I learned more in that class than I have in most others, including a love of Russian literature. The guy teaching was Russian, of course, looked like a friendly Stalin.

The translation was apparently considered something of a miracle, maintaining the tone and style of Pushkin as much as possible, and being highly readable and understandable in English.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:31 AM (9qhLe)


Rooski intelligentsia are very passionate about their literature, classic and samizdat. A former neighbor used to invite us to parties where this emigre nurse, one of the most earthy women I've met, spent long periods of time exchanging opinions. It still moves thinking about her.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:43 AM (y7DUB)

344 arresting folks singing hymes without masks in a church parking lot, arresting a woman who took her kids to a park (both of these in Idaho) arresting that woman in texas in the bank without a mask, putting cuffs on 8yo and 5yo, tazing the woman sitting all by herself watching sons football game in Ohio ....
Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:41 AM (r4bSV)

Covid has conditioned the police to function as the vanguard of a totalitarian state without common sense or decency.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:44 AM (lgiXo)

345 Good Morning all y'all!

I would rock those pants, gimme...gimme!

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 11:46 AM (BgMrQ)

346 arresting folks singing hymes without masks in a
church parking lot, arresting a woman who took her kids to a park (both
of these in Idaho) arresting that woman in texas in the bank without a
mask, putting cuffs on 8yo and 5yo, tazing the woman sitting all by
herself watching sons football game in Ohio ....

Posted by: will choose a nic later at March 28, 2021 11:41 AM (r4bSV)

---
Please stop with the sweeping generalizations. All police are local, and the environment and culture of the various departments varies greatly. I was really pissed off when I saw our local leaders blame our police - who have always been courteous and helpful - for George Floyd's death. It was an outrage, and I make a point of showing them kindness and support.

This is just as dumb and blaming the entire military for a jacked up bunch of reservist MPs at Abu Ghraib. The left is all about collective punishment. I don't see why we have to get into it as well.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:46 AM (llXky)

347 Greetings:

Me, I'm thinking that those Russians do pretty well in the music department also.

Posted by: 11B40 at March 28, 2021 11:46 AM (evgyj)

348 But the attack on freedom of speech seems relatively recent.
Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:39 AM (lgiXo)


Probably started with hate crimes, which was another case of Failure Theater selling out the base.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:48 AM (y7DUB)

349 I would rock those pants, gimme...gimme!
Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 11:46 AM (BgMrQ)
------
They look like they were designed by Piet Mondrian.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at March 28, 2021 11:48 AM (WGara)

350 If you really want to hear law enforcers trashed, talk to law enforcers.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 11:49 AM (J9wig)

351 Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:31 AM (9qhLe)

Rooski intelligentsia are very passionate about their literature, classic and samizdat. A former neighbor used to invite us to parties where this emigre nurse, one of the most earthy women I've met, spent long periods of time exchanging opinions. It still moves thinking about her.
Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:43 AM (y7DUB)

And translation absolutely matters. I know you've been on a Nabakov kick for some time now, but I'd give Onegin a try, the Johnston translation.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:49 AM (9qhLe)

352 De-lurking for "De-lurking Sunday."

I finished Welcome to the Monkey House, a collection of short stores by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., which includes "Harrison Bergeron." Although I knew of Mr. Vonnegut and his works, I had never read anything by him. I enjoyed this collection and will be adding his novels to my "To Read" List.

I am currently reading Neither Five Nor Three by Helen MacInnes. I would like to thank the 'ron or 'ronette who recommended this novel (unfortunately, I can't remember who it was). Set in 1950 in New York City, members of the Communist Party are infiltrating the news media and Hollywood. In many ways the plot is similar to C.S. Lewis' That Hidden Strength. Both novels are relevant to what is happening now--scarily so.

Posted by: March Hare at March 28, 2021 11:49 AM (lwrAe)

353 Probably started with hate crimes, which was another case of Failure Theater selling out the base.

Yeah, once you establish a moral component to justice -- that some acts are worse because of the sin of the perpetrator -- then the door is kicked wide open for outlawing other things for their moral component.

And since the left has no absolute guide, no book of law to work from, they just decide day to day what is forbidden and what is required. Sometimes changing overnight.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:49 AM (KZzsI)

354 Covid has conditioned the police to function as the vanguard of a totalitarian state without common sense or decency.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:44 AM (lgiXo)

---
False.

Multiple police departments and sheriffs in Michigan refused to enforce the clearly overreaching edits from the governor. Others did. That's because police reflect their local governments, nothing more. I'm sure other states saw similar actions.

They are not all the same.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:50 AM (llXky)

355 @336

Keep in mind that these seemingly brutal "arrests" that are so well-publicized may be playacting, so as to keep the general public cowed, and unwilling to fight back.

This was the case in Australia, where a "salon owner" who re-opened was brutally and publicly cuffed and jailed. It was all staged, to keep the public compliant.

For example, the Texas one you referenced happened after the "no more masks" mandate, which seems a little strange.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:50 AM (AwPyG)

356 But the attack on freedom of speech seems relatively recent.
Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:39 AM (lgiXo)

Probably started with hate crimes, which was another case of Failure Theater selling out the base.
Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:48 AM (y7DUB)

Political correctness on college campuses, leading to speech codes and safe spaces.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:50 AM (9qhLe)

357 341 it's a dreadful thing. The GOP abandonment of the rule of law, and the capitulation of our justice departments was the hardest blow. Biden was right that the GOP may not exist much longer and it should be ruled a suicide.

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:50 AM (ONvIw)

358 I am currently reading Neither Five Nor Three by Helen MacInnes

My mom used to love her books, but she finds them too stressful and anxious these days at 83.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 11:51 AM (KZzsI)

359 Does unconditional freedom of speech have any significant defenders left?

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:51 AM (lgiXo)

360 344 this is terrible. The Constitution is just kindling

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:52 AM (ONvIw)

361 @354

Yes--the Orange County California sheriff has been steady in letting everyone know he's not enforcing any of this.

And this weekend there are thousands at the beach, and very few masks.

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:52 AM (AwPyG)

362 Greetings:

Freedom of Association hasn't done too well since civil rights law superseded the Constitution. See "The Age of Entitlement" by Christopher Caldwell.

Posted by: 11B40 at March 28, 2021 11:52 AM (evgyj)

363 If you really want to hear law enforcers trashed, talk to law enforcers.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 11:49 AM (J9wig)

---
Yep, and military folks can regale you with stories of the idiots they serve with. It doesn't mean you should treat the good ones like the bad ones.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:52 AM (llXky)

364 Does unconditional freedom of speech have any significant defenders left?
Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:51 AM (lgiXo)

Yes, they're the people who get deplatformed by the social media oligarchs.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:52 AM (9qhLe)

365 362 long gone

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:53 AM (ONvIw)

366 Close enough to being done with "Radical Son" to call it done. I did find the passage I was looking for but it's way too long to quote so I'll have to pick out the good bits. The one sentence that struck me as a resident of Seattle: "But the abolition of property was really the abolition of private association and civil society and of the bourgeois rights they underpinned."

The city is going to take over two hotels, one north of downtown and one in the heart of the business district, to house the vagrants and junkies. The one north is on a block that could go either way if downtown ever wakes up again, but now we know it will be destroyed. And the hotel will be completed trashed. The hotel up in the business district was a nice boutique one that went for $300 per night. That block will be destroyed first, and then the madness will spread and the Olympic Hotel, very high end, will close as will the retail in it and the restaurants. The retail will relocate to Bellevue as soon as they can get out of their leases but the restaurants depend on the hotel and once that's gone, another lovely institution will have been destroyed by city council Marxists.

Posted by: Tonestaple at March 28, 2021 11:53 AM (Pgqh7)

367 Covid has conditioned the police to function as the vanguard of a totalitarian state without common sense or decency.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at March 28, 2021 11:44 AM (lgiXo)

just following orders.

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 11:54 AM (AwYPR)

368 They look like they were designed by Piet Mondrian.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at March 28, 2021 11:48 AM (WGara)

Absolutely...

Those would be great for any event:

1) Great pants to wear to attend formal occasion...pair it with a dinner jacket.

b) Obviously great sports gear. Would also work for golf, platform tennis.

iii) backyard cookout....c'mon, it's a layup!

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 11:54 AM (BgMrQ)

369 366 proving the fraud of the "pandemic".

Posted by: CN at March 28, 2021 11:54 AM (ONvIw)

370 And translation absolutely matters. I know you've been on a Nabakov kick for some time now, but I'd give Onegin a try, the Johnston translation.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 28, 2021 11:49 AM (9qhLe)


Maybe I will; thanks for mentioning the translation.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Ashli Babbitt at March 28, 2021 11:55 AM (y7DUB)

371 The weaselly governor of Texas has now denounced Gab, which is literally the only right-leaning platform left, and the Texas GOP backed him up.

What weasels; what gives, Texas?

They may be trying to deplatform a guy named @majorpatriot. He has a huge following on Gab, he criticizes Abbott all the time, and he's a Texan

Posted by: artemis at March 28, 2021 11:55 AM (AwPyG)

372 Oregon Muse, thank you for the content. And for making these great convos and comments about books and ideas possible.

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 11:56 AM (bPb7p)

373 Greetings:

367

"Just following orders" + golden handcuffs.

Posted by: 11B40 at March 28, 2021 11:57 AM (evgyj)

374 just following orders.

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 11:54 AM (AwYPR)

---
As I pointed out, they often do the opposite.

What I think is significant isn't how many police agencies did the enforcement but how many refused to in very public ways.

It's weird how so many folks call upon cops to refuse to execute unconstitutional orders and then they downplay it when they actually do it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 28, 2021 11:57 AM (llXky)

375 372 Oregon Muse, thank you for the content. And for making these great convos and comments about books and ideas possible.
Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 11:56 AM (bPb7p)

...and pants.

Don't forget the pants. Books are just a delivery mechanism for an undercover fashion post.

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 11:58 AM (BgMrQ)

376 platform tennis.

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 11:54 AM (BgMrQ)

I learn something every time I come here.

Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 11:59 AM (AwYPR)

377 I like my local sheriffs deputy. I also think most, and I mean almost all, people in uniform will take the orders given and worry about sorting it out later. Does this mean they are bad people? No. Does this mean people should stop reflexively defending the police, military, feds? You betcha.

Posted by: Only Context at March 28, 2021 12:00 PM (xEIoY)

378 having one great day changing the exhaust manifold on my plow truck

2 bolts came out 4 snapped off

got busted ones out by welding nut on stub but the other two are below the surface

drilling and ease out

love working on this rusted devil

Posted by: REDACTED at March 28, 2021 12:01 PM (6iURM)

379 browndog, you are right. I denounce myself as an enemy of the people's pantaloons.

Posted by: callsign claymore at March 28, 2021 12:01 PM (bPb7p)

380 376 platform tennis.

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 11:54 AM (BgMrQ)

I learn something every time I come here.
Posted by: BignJames at March 28, 2021 11:59 AM (AwYPR)

In addition to AoSHQ being a smart military blog, we cover a lot of sports as well.

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 12:01 PM (BgMrQ)

381 Afternoon NOOD

Posted by: Skip, the guy who says NOOD at March 28, 2021 12:03 PM (Cxk7w)

382 375 browndog

Very preceptive.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 12:03 PM (u82oZ)

383 Last call for Nood

Posted by: Skip, the guy who says NOOD at March 28, 2021 12:04 PM (Cxk7w)

384 382 375 browndog

Very preceptive.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 12:03 PM (u82oZ)

Thank you Salty...

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 12:05 PM (BgMrQ)

385 I need to get up earlier.

Currently reading "Mind Games", Book 4 of Dan Willis' "Arcane Casebook" series. It's a noir detective series set in 1930's New York City, but in an alternate universe where magic exists as a kind of technology. The magic is ubiquitous, but it has rules and limitations, and is mostly used for practical applications like heating coffee, staying dry in the rain, or finding lost dogs. The characters are interesting and well-drawn, and not anachronistic. Stories work well as noir even without the magic element, and crimes are mostly solved by old-fashioned legwork.

I might have got up early enough to write a more detailed review, but I was up very late last night reading the book I just mentioned. I didn't want to put it down.

Posted by: Toad-O at March 28, 2021 12:13 PM (cct0t)

386 browndog

It's almost like OM consults with his fabulous and devoted wife for jpgs. On the down-low, since we are supposed to be a testosterone-drenched smart military blog. But OPSEC.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 12:14 PM (u82oZ)

387 386 browndog

It's almost like OM consults with his fabulous and devoted wife for jpgs. On the down-low, since we are supposed to be a testosterone-drenched smart military blog. But OPSEC.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 12:14 PM (u82oZ)

Mums the word...

Posted by: browndog at March 28, 2021 12:15 PM (BgMrQ)

388 Don't know Who Dis, but I am admiring that glass-front bookcase.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 28, 2021 12:35 PM (GBHAb)

389 Still working on David Sarnoff biography, started this week, 'Death in the Garden', Ironside. I've never read anything by her, don't even know how I came by the book, but she is proving to be an excellent writer.

Character development, plot, etc. aside, her prose is worth the read.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at March 28, 2021 12:39 PM (GBHAb)

390 Hi all! Latecomer (former just-lurker) checking in post Palm Sunday Mass.

This week's reading included finishing up The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. Fabulous book. Depressing. I don't want to be like Hagar Shipley AT ALL. I suppose bad examples are worth looking at.

I read 5 chapters of Jane Eyre, along with the Close Reads podcast folks. Unlike every single one of my female friends, Jane Eyre is totally NOT one of my favorite books. I'm hoping that I can have my mind changed, at least a bit, by listening to the podcast discussions. Plans for today are to read the next five chapters. The book just never "takes off" for me and make me want to continue past my allotted chapters. But I am in a very distinct minority in this. (And I hated her sister's book Wuthering Heights even MORE, so there's that.)

I am refreshing myself with the audiobook version of Bleak House, narrated by Simon Vance - stellar. Really. This is the first time through Bleak House for me and I want to watch the Masterpiece miniseries after I finish.

And for fun I'm reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells, upon the recommendation of a friend. 1/3 of the way in, it's an enjoyable short sci-fi.

Posted by: SummaMamaT at March 28, 2021 12:49 PM (USQVR)

391 Back in the early 2000s I was in the Crimea, I had a pocketbook copy of The Reason Why with me, I got a lift up onto a high hill looking down into "The Valley of Death" and the harbor at Balaclava, I wanted to see it, "The Thin Red Line" and all that ("Damn all that eagerness lads!").
My Russian buddies were looking at me kind of funny, that old history didn't mean much to them, the ground we were standing on was heavily cratered and littered with twisted chunks of steel shrapnel, there was terrible WWII fighting on the same ground.

Posted by: yop at March 28, 2021 12:56 PM (V0Ztm)

392 What's interesting is the gay/transgender push is self-defeating, because...

Gays are a ferociously rich and powerful lobbying source. As they rise up in the world, they give each other jobs. I have it in good authority that almost all the male staff at abc news in New York are gay. And earlier this year a gay liberal guest on Tucker Carlson stated that it was an open secret that most male staff - both dems and repubics - are gay. My wifes friends kids are doctors and are finding the best positions at hospitals (such as Stanford) are gay

Since the majority have no children, they have lots of financial resources that they are using to groom young people. They did this when they took over the Catholic Church (I am Catholic and I have know the church was lost to them for 25 years) and they are now helping their tranny minority (most trannies are gay).

I half heartedly opposed gay marriage (as a Bay Area Californian I have seen the gays and their filth since the 70s where gay pride parades were proudly displayed every year by local news). But now I am totally against them. Sorry, I will not even vote for grenelle. I do not trust them and their fascistic methods.

Posted by: Loki at March 28, 2021 01:00 PM (KqiMr)

393 `

Posted by: vizzy at March 28, 2021 01:12 PM (R/9t3)

394 The Transgender-Industrial Complex IS available as an ebook: a very reasonable 5 bucks. Its just not kindle. Read it on your tablet or phone. And there may be a way to load a non-Amazon ebook on kindle. Smart morons help us out.

Posted by: Best thief in Lankhmar at March 28, 2021 01:20 PM (yhzCS)

395 Loki: trouble with that analysis is the growing conflict between trannys and gays. Basically the trans bunch claim that any gay man "really" is a secret trans woman and should get surgery and hormones.

Trouble is, gay men are all into, y'know, _men_, and don't really go for some chick who used to be a dude. Hence all the ruckus from the trans lobby about how people don't really have any right to decide who they're attracted to.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 28, 2021 01:23 PM (QZxDR)

396 369 CN, a fact which never ever ever occurs to them.

I know the answer to this question but still I ask, who in hell is stupid enough to vote for these people?

Posted by: Tonestaple at March 28, 2021 01:36 PM (Pgqh7)

397 288 On the writing front, I am nearly done with the latest tome, set in the Mage Guardian universe. Probable title Sky Tribe.
i'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for it.

Posted by: Comrade Anachronda, behind the Newsom curtain at March 28, 2021 01:38 PM (5br8a)

398
Tights on that red headed young woman sitting on the door stoop with her book.

Really ugly shoes on her, too.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 28, 2021 01:39 PM (pNxlR)

399
Basically the trans bunch claim that any gay man "really" is a secret trans woman and should get surgery and hormones.


"Don't leave us to stew here alone in our mire of bad decisions and irreversible mutilations -- you OWE us!"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 28, 2021 01:41 PM (pNxlR)

400 Former lurker.

Just finished Lone Wolf about the hunt for Eric Rudolph. Fascinating read that manages to pass quickly over the worst federal law enforcement abuses of the 90s, including the smearing of Richard Jewell, saving outrage and distain for anyone to the right of Trotsky. More balance and less spleen would've made this a better read.

Posted by: JP at March 28, 2021 01:53 PM (FG0Tu)

401 400, JP, here's the opening blurb from Wikipedia on Maryanne Vollers: "Maryanne Vollers is an author, journalist and well known ghostwriter. Her first book, Ghosts of Mississippi, was a finalist in non-fiction for the 1995 National Book Award. She has been the "journalistic facilitator" of two prominent books for famous people including Hillary Clinton and Jerri Nielsen. She has also written magazine articles for publications such as Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and Time."

I don't even want to know what a journalistic facilitator for a book is but it sounds like ghostwriter.

I'm sorry that book turned out to be not so good, and maybe I'll get a used copy so I am not paying royalties to such a twit, because Rudolf is from the neck of the woods where Daddy's side of the family is. I am not interested in hearing any damned fool ghostwriting leftist denigrate people I like very much - the Scots-Irish of western NC, I mean - but I'm still curious about the book, as long as I don't have to subsidize the author.

Posted by: Tonestaple at March 28, 2021 01:59 PM (Pgqh7)

402 Tonestaple, "journalistic facilitator" sounds to me like gobbledygook for "researcher."

Now, about the Seattle hotels: Did the city buy them or just seize them?

If they were sold, then it sounds as if they weren't making money. Maybe too boutique.

If they were stolen, Seattle is in more trouble than I had thought.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 02:08 PM (J9wig)

403 My wife and I spent part of our honeymoon at Inn of the Market. Hope it's thriving.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 28, 2021 02:11 PM (J9wig)

404
Mostly finishing up books that I reported on here earlier this year.

"The Road to Guilford Courthouse" I found really fascinating and detailed in its reporting on the Revolutionary War campaigns in the Carolinas. I can recommend it highly as a book that provides the story of the sweep of campaigns across the Carolinas without delving too deeply into the particulars of any battle.

I have since taken up reading "A Devil of a Whipping - The Battle of Cowpens", by Lawrence E. Babits. Focused on one battle as it is, Babits researched it extensively and provides a wealth of detail about the units involved, individual soldiers, the battle ground, weather conditions, and much more. The battle itself, according to reviews that I have read of this work, is buried beneath the mountain of detail that he uncovered. I am just starting to read it and already he has bogged down in describing the makeup of individual command units that were involved. I do not mean to dismiss his extensive level of research and scholarship, but loading it all into the text makes for slow reading for me, as this is usually not the depth of detail that I am seeking when I read history texts. YMMV.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 28, 2021 02:15 PM (pNxlR)

405 "I'm seeing a considerable shift in Catholic attitude right now. I attend a historically liberal college town parish and it is getting more orthodox almost by the week... The homilies are emphasizing martyrdom, and the dioceasan monthy magazine just did a profile on St. Pius V, the pope who formed the Catholic League that defeated the Turkish fleet at Lepanto."

AH Lloyd, where on earth is this? I am beyond fortunate to have found a Dominican parish in Seattle which is impressively doctrinaire and I purely love them for it. But this being Seattle, I feel sure there were many ground teeth and pursed lips when last year the Epistle reading was most, if not all of Ephesians 5:21-33 and they read and preached on ALL of it.

Posted by: Tonestaple at March 28, 2021 02:54 PM (Pgqh7)

406 Book: Tower of Skulls

The book's general theme is south east Asian affairs previous to the outbreak of world war two in Europe. Most of content focusing on the politics and leadership of China and Japan. The author's narrative takes a positivist view of Sun Yat-sen's united front nationalist Kuomintang - especially that of Chiang Kai-shek.

Historians view Chiang from many angles; charismatic leader; near military genius; doughty resistance leader; jumped-up mediocrity.

The author believes Chiang is both military and political genius.

I disagree. part 1

Posted by: 13times at March 28, 2021 03:31 PM (K3B2k)

407 The Transgender-Industrial Complex IS available as an ebook: a very reasonable 5 bucks. Its just not kindle. Read it on your tablet or phone. And there may be a way to load a non-Amazon ebook on kindle. Smart morons help us out.

Posted by: Best thief in Lankhmar at March 28, 2021 01:20 PM (yhzCS)


Really? I did not see it on the publisher's site. Do you have a link?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at March 28, 2021 03:50 PM (mgOCp)

408 mid to late 1920's.

Chiang was not a military genius. His first campaigns north and to Wuhan were the work of a Russian-comintern military genius known as General Galen. Chiang remained in the south - doing what he does best - coalition building and shaking down chinese merchants and western capitalists and co-opting mafia grift. Chiang was a genius at driving wedges between warlord-bandits. He typically bribed lower echelon commanders to turn traitor and join Koumintang forces on the eve of battle.

Wuhan falls to the left-Kuomintang-communists. Chiang finds he's locked out by the Russian born comintern leader Michael Borodin and crew. Which means he can't shake down merchants etc.

During all of this turmoil he marries Mayling Soong. This is when he sheds his communist skin and becomes Dictator Tyrant Chiang.

So Chiang turns to Shanghai. Because he needs money. By the by Chiang meets rich treat port persons - he points to Wuhan - and pretty much says ... shame what has happened to your industrialist-colonialist pals... they kick down millions. Concurrently he's meeting with mafia boss Big-Ear Du.

Posted by: 13times at March 28, 2021 04:15 PM (K3B2k)

409 13times

Thank you for the perspective.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 28, 2021 04:23 PM (u82oZ)

410 1937 the battle of Shanghai and the fall of Nanking.

Whole books are dedicated to the Battle of Shanghai. Chiang directs the battle one hundred and sixty miles away from Nanking. He lacks daring and loses the initiative at the outset (the Japanese caught flatfooted.) From that moment forward its all just a matter of exactly how many Chinese soldier die before the rout and panicked retreat to Nanking.

Chinese artillery is never brought forward - its crews and forward observers are incompetent.
Chinese AA is rarely used because crews are afraid Japanese pilots will see them.
Chiang ignores his German military advisors.
Communications between commands almost non-existent.
Troop reinforcements are haphazard and piecemeal.
later.......
Chiang calls commanders and screams at them over the phone.
Chiang gets mad and moves to the front (63 miles from Shanghai.)
Chiang blows town. Returns to Nanking and has all his loot shipped to Chungking.

Posted by: 13times at March 28, 2021 04:45 PM (K3B2k)

411 I've got a lot of reasons why I dislike Chiang.

I've more reason to dislike the author of tower of skulls - seventy years of scholarship on the subject of China and Chiang precede him.

The only way to make Chiang great is to discount historians like Barbara Tuchman or unhorse men like British General Slim and US General Stilwell. He turns a blind eye to the Soong family. FDRs feckless ignorance loom large over all of it.

Posted by: 13times at March 28, 2021 05:06 PM (K3B2k)

412
Jonathan Fenby's biography of Chiang Kai-shek is excellent.

Barbara Tuchman's Stilwell and the China Experience still towers over all others.

Peter Harmsen's Battle of Shanghai offers a lot of detail - order of battle - where corp and battalions are placed and how they are moved about. I know a lot of commenters here love this kind of detail.

Stilwell the Patriot by British author David Rooney. He treats Stilwell in a positive light but never gilds the lilly.

Wrath in Burma by Fred Eldridge. The author was Stilwell's public relations officer. Lots of inside dope regarding political maneuvering at SEAC and Mountbatten. Tuchman cribs his work.


Posted by: 13times at March 28, 2021 06:10 PM (K3B2k)

413 Reading 'The Lesser One' and listening to The Petersen's and its good even as my country burns down around my ears.

Posted by: Eric R. Ashley at March 28, 2021 06:45 PM (7YZdA)

414 Barbara Tuchman might be the greatest historian writer of the last 100 years. She makes the complex and distant relevant and interesting today without compromising or taking clear sides. Best of all she does not inject modern bias or analysis into the past.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 28, 2021 09:57 PM (KZzsI)

415 De-lurking to recommend The Mighty Fitz by Michael Schumacher. The true story behind Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Posted by: MammaB at March 28, 2021 11:47 PM (J/qAO)

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