Patrick Shrier

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The German Way of War?

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Is there such a thing? That question hit me this morning as I was reading a book review in an old copy of the Journal of Military History. The book in question was Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942 (Modern War Studies), by Robert M. Citino and it was reviewed in the January 2009 issue of the Journal. The reviewer made mention that one of the prevalent theories about the German army is that in World War II they fought a completely different war than the one they were designed for and that goes far to explaining the ultimate German defeat. The argument is that the German … More after the Jump…

Ancient Roman Military Camp Layout according to Polybius

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Polybius provides a detailed description of the layout and organization of a Roman Legionary Camp in Book VI of his Histories. Rather than try to rewrite everything in the section on the layout of a Roman camp contained in Polybius, I have just posted the actual text. I took the text from Bill Thayer’s excellent site at Lacus Curtis. He uses an older translation than the one I have at home, and it differs at some points. The only thing I have done to the text is edit it a little for clarity and added emphasis to some words, mainly putting most of the Latin titles in italics. I also … More after the Jump…

Ancient Roman Military Organization according to Polybius

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From reading Polybius, I gather that the basic unit of the Roman Army was not the Legion, at least not in the days of the Republic during Polybius’ lifetime. Instead, it was the Consular Army, which consisted of two Legions. A Legion was commanded by a Consul, who was elected by the people and served for a one-year term. The Consuls each appointed twelve Tribunes who served directly under the Consuls. The Tribunes were distributed six to a Legion. Then began the enrollment process whereby the actual men who would serve in each the Legion were selected by lots from among the tribes and assigned by a rotating order to … More after the Jump…

UPDATE: Saint John of Nepomuk

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I wrote a post about Saint John of Nepomuk a week or so ago and at the time I wanted to post a picture of the statue near my house but had been too lazy to stop on my way to work and take picture. I fixed that yesterday and here are the photos. The first one is a full-length photo of the statue and the second is a close-up of the inscription. The statue stands on the bridge over one branch of the creek that flows behind my house. The stream’s name is the Flötbach (Flute Stream), but of course it is the Shrierbach where it is adjacent to … More after the Jump…

Book Review: Polybius-The Histories

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The Histories by Polybius is the next book in classics arc. It covers the period from the beginning of the First Punic War in 267 B.C. to 167 B.C. when he claims the Roman Empire was essentially complete and ruled most of the known world. He claims to write the first universal history and has some pretty harsh words for historians who preceded him, especially Timaeus of Locri. The complete text of the histories is available online at several sites, the one I like the best is Bill Thayer’s site LacusCurtis, he has a huge number of classic texts online as well as travelogues of many classic sites and what … More after the Jump…

The Battle of Lake Trasimene- 217 B.C.

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I am currently reading Polybius’ Histories, and I have finally gotten to the part where he describes the events during the Second Punic War.   Last night I read his account of the battle of Lake TRasimene in 217 B.C. Trasimene was not the first of the great disasters to befall the Romans in the Second Punic War, but it was the first that really threw the Roman people into a panic. The Romans had been defeated and lost an army at the Battle of the Trebia in December, 218 B.C. the Romans had reacted to that loss by raising another army to face Hannibal led by the Consuls for … More after the Jump…

Can’t Play Online Poker Anymore :(

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I don’t play poker online but I Think it is kind of stupid that the Feds would waste so much time and effort stopping it, They should probably regulate it and tax it, that might even help with the Deficit. I do think the banner they put up when shutting down Poker sites is quite amusing. Full story here It is only a matter of time before there is some kind of internet policing for speech as well s amusement. Net Neutrality indeed.

Book Review: The Makers of Rome by Plutarch (Penguin Classics)

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I am currently on an arc of reading Latin classics I have not read but always wanted to. I finished the first one a few days ago, the Penguin Classics edition of The Makers of Rome by Plutarch. It is not a complete copy of Plutarch’s Lives however, it only includes the lives of nine Romans, Coriolanus, Fabius Maximus, Marcellus, Cato the Elder, Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus, Sertorius, Brutus, and Mark Antony. Plutarch writes in an engaging style that is very easy to read and the translator does an outstanding job of converting the Latin into English while keeping his style. Plutarch is not always historically accurate; he has a … More after the Jump…

Does this Little Girl Look Like a Terrorist to You?

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This was linked on Drudge Today.   Words Fail me.   How idiotic can our “security” procedures in America get? That little girl sure looks like a threat to me. UPDATE: The TSA has posted a response/explanation at their Blog. The best out of context logic in the post is this “Recognizing that terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection”. In the words of some political hack in Washington who I can’t remember, it “requires of suspension of belief” to think this little girl was a terrorist or some kind of threat.

The Actual Writing of a Thesis-Part 10 and Final update

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This is the final update I will post about writing my thesis.   I got the final grade for my Capstone (Thesis) class.   I have been academically cleared for graduationa and now all I am waiting on is word from the finance department and library that I do not owe them any money or have any books checked out.   I should be good on both.   If that is the case then on May 15, my degeree will be officially concurred and my school odyssey is complete.   At least for now, or unless I get the masochistic urge to try and get a PhD, which I do … More after the Jump…

Shout out to 1&1

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I use 1&1 as my host and this past weekend was the first time in my site’s 6 month history that the site went down.   I have to say that once I emailed tech support they got back to me quick and id’d the problem very fast and told me what I needed to do an also told me ow to avoid the same thing in the future.   Apparently I either downloaded a corrupt index.html file when I downloaded the latest WP update or it got corrupted when I FTP’d it to my server.   Regardless 1&1 identified the problem and I had my site up and running … More after the Jump…

Saint John of Nepomuk

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The region of Germany where I live in northeastern Bavaria is locally known as the Oberpfalz or in English the Upper Palatinate. Traditionally, this area was not part of Bavaria but was made up of numerous small separate sovereignties with a regional identity.   This was a relic of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thrity-Years War. That all changed in 1805 when Napoleon overran Germany and reduced the 350+ sovereign entities in Germany to 39, this is when the Oberpfalz became part of Bavaria. Of note is that the vast majority of the people in the region are Roman Catholic, my town is 95% Catholic for example. The … More after the Jump…

Book Review: Panzer Battles by F.W. von Mellenthin

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This is one of the most influential memoirs written by a former German Officer. The cover of the copy I own highlights that it “was the book on General Schwarzkopf’s desk during the Gulf War.” I found it to be a well written book with some pretty good accounts of the battles von Mellenthin participated in as a staff officer as well as some battles he did not participate in. I would not go so far as to say that this book is a definitive account of German tank warfare in World War II but it comes very close. Mellenthin does an outstanding job of describing the operational and sometimes … More after the Jump…

Spam Comments on My Blog

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An update to a previous post Spam Comments on my Blog.   I think I set a new personal record last night.   I got over 46 spam comments on my blog last night.   The vast majority included some garbage link in BBcode, which is not supported on a WordPress site.   WP only uses HTML code.   This is what the average spam looked like: NXwj1S ijecicpmubjv, [url=http://wgfbpiifvfrp.com/]wgfbpiifvfrp[/url], [link=http://hpgadeqvqdmq.com/]hpgadeqvqdmq[/link], http://xbgwsdgsxdaq.com/ NXwj1S ijecicpmubjv, [url=http://wgfbpiifvfrp.com/]wgfbpiifvfrp[/url], [link=http://hpgadeqvqdmq.com/]hpgadeqvqdmq[/link], http://xbgwsdgsxdaq.com/ I have not went down any of the referenced urls for fear of getting a virus on my home machine.   Any of my readers are more than welcome to try although I … More after the Jump…

The Ryan Budget Plan- The GOP Path to Prosperity

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About a month ago I asked when we were going to have a serious conversation about our national debt, it looks like that time might be now if our Republican and Tea Party congressman have the courage to grab the moment with the release of Rep. Paul Ryan‘s budget plan.   Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, is the author of the Roadmap for America, and is Chairman of the House Budget Committee. he outlined the new GOP budget proposal today in a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled The GOP Path to Prosperity. It seems to me that the ball is now in the Democrat’s court. They must explain why … More after the Jump…

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