Year: 2011

Saint John of Nepomuk in Prague

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I went to Prague last weekend with my family and took the opportunity to walk across the Charles Bridge where St. John of Nepomuk was martyred. There are two shrines to St. John on the bridge and both are crowded.   I took some photos while I was there and they are blow with description sin the captions.   It was interesting to walk across the Charles Bridge because it is full of statuary and shrines along its entire 520m length.   Man are difficult to interpret and the inscriptions are so worn that it is difficult to make out what they say.   Well, the pictures are below.   … More after the Jump…

The Combat of the Thirty

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Here is an interesting episode that occurred in March, 1351 during the Hundred Years War.   It occurred during the Hundred Years War but was only really a peripheral part of it.   The combat occurred between the French garrison of Josselin Castle and the English garrison of Ploërmel Castle Brittany, part of modern day France. It was instigated because the English were not abiding by the terms a truce that had been made locally. The challenge to combat was issued by the French commander Jean de Beaumanoir to Robert Bramborough. On 26 or 27 March, 1351 the challengers met each other midway between the two castles with 29 retainers … More after the Jump…

Endorsing Herman Cain

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This piece by Charles Kradlec is one of the most ringing well written endorsements of Herman Cain I have seen.   It is well worth reading your self.   The conclusion of the piece says it all: When we vote for an individual to be president, it is an act of trust.   I choose Herman Cain because his policies would lead to a more prosperous, more secure America and a more just society. I trust Herman Cain to be president because he trusts liberty and the American people to move America forward to the great nation it aspires be. I could not agree more.   I heartily hope and … More after the Jump…

Oompa Loompa in My Garden

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As my wife and I were harvesting the carrots from our garden yesterday we pulled up an Oompa Loompa. I am wondering if I should use this as my profile picture. The Oompa Loompa Song This is just a picture of my dog enjoying a beef rib bone

Book Review: What Distant Deeps by David Drake

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This is the eighth book in the RCN series by David Drake and it continues the story of the adventures of Daniel Leary, an extremely competent and lucky starship captain in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy. This book finds CAPT Leary escorting a Cinnabar Commissioner to a world allied with the alliance of Free Stars shortly after the end of the recent war between the Alliance and Cinnabar. Once he gets there he discovers a plot that could drag the two exhausted star nations back into war and with the able assistance of his crew sets about to derail it. Along the way there is plenty of intrigue and adventure. … More after the Jump…

Book Review: The Age of Total War: 1860-1945 by Jeremy Black

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The notion that a book is “thought-provoking” is often thrown out there for works of non-fiction, and of those that are described as such that I have read most very seldom are.   This book is different, Dr. Black has written not so much a history as a treatise challenging historians, particularly military historians, to reexamine the history of conflict in the examined period with the idea of total war uppermost in their minds.   It seems a counter-intuitive thing to do at first, but he provides plenty of examples of why the wars under consideration were not total or were only partially total at best.   This includes World … More after the Jump…

Photo Essay – Langenbruck Cemetery – Rose Barracks, Vilseck Germany

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There is an old German cemetery on Rose Barracks that I have driven past hundreds of times and never stopped to look at. I finally did today and was surprised. I thought it was a military cemetery like the POW cemetery in Grafenwohr but it is not. It is a village cemetery from one of the villages that was moved when the training area was established in the early 20th century. There are several other abandoned villages on Grafenwohr Training Area, most of them are inside the impact area and off limits, there is one other in the maneuver area that still has the shell of a church and has been a reference point that anyone who has ever trained at Graf knows about. Ask anyone who trained at Graf about the Hofenohe Church and they have probably walked through the ruins.

The Cemetery on Rose Barracks is for the village of LangenBruck. As the information panel states, the village dates back to 905. Someone visits the cemetery as there were candles on several of the graves and some of the graves have what looks to be fairly new headstones on them.

I will post the photos below with short explanatory captions.   The photos are compressed due to their large size but if anyone wants the original photos email me and I will be happy to send you a copy of the originals.

Information panel at entrance to the cemetery.

There are more photos below the fold.

More after the Jump…

Gotta Love the Onion

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This was one of the headline stories on the Onion today: Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What’s Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions. Hilarious, Just Hilarious

S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire, and Whether Men are Conditioned to Kill in Combat or Not.

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I am currently reading The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200 by Adrian Kieth Goldsworthy. In the final chapter he talks about the motivation of the Roman soldier to fight. What brings up this topic that starting on page 264 he references S.L.A. Marshall’s (hereafter SLAM) work Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command and repeats the claim that only 25% of men actively participate in combat, the rest being cowards in place at worst or half-hearted fighters at best.   Now, being a recently retired soldier who has seen combat, in Iraq I have several issues with the claim.   In fact, I completely dispute … More after the Jump…

Knowledge of history and democracy

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Text of Declaration of Independence Saw an interesting article today: Back to School, Back to U.S. History Basics from George Nethercutt is probably one of the best arguments I have read for emphasizing historical literacy in schools that I have seen in a long time. I have posted before about the general lack of civics knowledge in America and it is worth saying again and again that civics and history knowledge is essential to the functioning of American democracy. The argument that if the citizens of a country lack knowledge about the historical roots of their government and nation then they will not long keep either is very true. Is … More after the Jump…

Book Review: Countdown: The Liberators by Tom Kratman

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Tom Kratman published his first book, A State of Disobedience, in 2005. This is the first book in a new series by Kratman, I am currently in the middle of reading the second book, which just hit my mailbox last week. The series starts another of Kratman’s “fiction as commentary on the contemporary world” series somewhat similar to his “A Desert Called Peace” series. This does not mean that it is a bad book, it is not. It is somewhat predictable though. I especially like Kratman’s style, he has a gritty down to earth writing style that I love. He does not pull punches. The book is the story of … More after the Jump…

Book Review: The Penguin History of Europe by J.M. Roberts

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I cannot remember why I bought The Penguin History of Europe by J.M. Roberts several years ago, no doubt it was as a resource for an undergrad paper I wrote although I cannot find it used as a cite in any of my papers. It is also possible that I bought it just because I though it looked interesting since my specialty is European history. This is not a bad book, but it is also not quite what the title makes it out to be. I think the best way I an categorize this book is that it presents an eclectic view of European history. It is very well written … More after the Jump…

Rick Perry on Social Security

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Being a Texas resident I like Rick Perry so I will probably be posting a lot about him in the run up to next year’s election.   I predict that Perry will win the Republican nomination and trounce Obama.   The question is who will be his running mate?  I think and hope it will be Herman Cain. Here is the first link:  A commentary piece from Perry in USA Today

Spam Comments on my Blog

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I get about 15-20 spam comments on my blog every day.   Most are the “Thanks for that Awesome posting, it saved MUCH time” variety.   They usually have a link in them to anything from Viagra ads, penis enlargement, cheap homeloans, to how to get student aid.   I am currently doing an experiment to see many of the “thanks for that Awesome posting spam I get as a percentage of all the spam I get.   My gut tells me that the “awesome posting” spam is about 50% of all the spam I get.   I have recieved 31 spam comments in the past two days and 18 … More after the Jump…

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