This is what poses as journalism in the disgenic idiocracy of today’s Western world : here. They aren’t even embarrassed that they are quoting an author that they haven’t read. If NRO wants to cut and paste the following comments, I suggest they do that, especially considering that this is the age of twitter journalism and that it is more important to Bolshevik-purge your only decent intellectual to tow the line in PC thinking than to actually read the books you are quoting from in our modern society. Here may be some reasons why Putin has taken the Crimea (perhaps he actually has read Clausewitz?) One country may support another’s … More after the Jump…
I need your aviation stories. The anthology will be titled SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation. See my website for submission guidelines, and send your flying tales for inclusion. Proceeds benefit Angel Flight, the service that flies kids for medical treatment. Deadline for issue #1 is March 30th, so scribble your story, and send it along. Thank you.
A Platoon Sergeant and his Platoon Leader are racking out in the field for
the night. The Platoon Sergeant looks up and says, “When you see all the
stars in the sky, what do you think, LT?”
The LT replies, “Well, I think of how insignificant we really are in the
universe; how small a piece of such a grand design. I can’t help but wonder
if what we do truly means anything or makes any difference. Why? What do
you think of, Sergeant?”
“I think somebody stole the freakin’ tent.”
I just want take a moment to wish all the readers of Battles & Book Reviews a very Merry Christmas.
Full disclosure: I consider the NYT to be a gang of flabby, post-modernist girlymen who stroke each other(‘s egos) all day long, and try to get an emotional response out of their dwindling readership. So today I saw a comment on one their articles that fully describes my opinion of what is wrong with America. Who do we want to emulate? A bunch of tribalist beach bums who sing “O Sole Mio” while thinking about how to poison their uncle in order to take over his restaurant, or the Iron Will of Prussian Steel??? Here is the comment from the unworthy-to-read article: Do we really need to be told that … More after the Jump…
You are on a hill, a commander. Your troops are aligned in a phalanx. Your commanding officer is guarding the bridge on the opposite side of your fortress. He sends his messenger to you: By ths rdr ttck t th wstrn flnk nd kp prssr n th nmy whn h s rtrtng It’s not Greek, its an abjad, meaning that there are only consonants in this alphabet. Although you want to focus on the enemy formation, you take a moment to decipher this message: By this murder attack to the western flank end keep pressure in the army when he is returning So, we must attack the western flank end … More after the Jump…
Just want to wish everybody a 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving 🙂 I hope that everybody is as blessed as I am with a great family and multiple reasons for happiness. While scarfing down the Turkey & fixings and watching all that football take a moment to pause and think of all the things you have o be thankful for.
American exceptionalism is no myth. The 19th century saw some of the greatest minds produce a vastly modern civilization out of a wilderness. Since then we have been in intellectual decline – we have consistent party purges of anyone who doesn’t toe the party line in all areas of life from academia to the military, and narrow ideological constructs such as political correctness have rendered the 1st amendment a relic and a sideshow. How about our performance in the Second World War? The greatest fighter pilot was a German, the greatest tank ace was a German, and the greatest sniper was a Finn. The greatest military performance of all time … More after the Jump…
Today’s generation can be forgiven for seeing the Second World War’s common participants as engaging in a battle of ideologies. That being said, the Waffen SS were the ultimate outsiders who became the ultimate insiders. During the blitzkrieg into Poland the Wehrmacht saw them as little more than auxiliaries, along for the ride. It is therefore interesting to appreciate the fact that the majority of the Heer were not ideologues, and therefore why they were capable of constantly putting up amazing fronts against an opponent (Russia) that outnumbered them 13:1. The German military predated the rise of national socialism and shared few values with the Fuhrer and his henchmen. German … More after the Jump…
By the time the leopard-pelt donning Serbian mercenaries arrived in the commonwealth, the ferrous mines of Europe were in full bloom. No longer would the ancestral ingot change from plowshare to spearhead and back again under the same village smithy. The 17th century would see the rise and fall of heavy cavalry. The panoply of the mighty Polish Hussar would only come to rust when the musket was capable of penetrating plate mail, but this falls after our incursion into events past at this moment in time. Today citizens fear the idea of fighting two wars at the same time. In our peek into rustic Poland we shall find that … More after the Jump…
In the sixties ‘wheel of life’ folk song The Great Mandala, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary sings these lines: “Take your place on the great Mandala— As it moves through your brief moment of time— Win or lose now, you must choose now— And if you lose you’re only losing your life.” With this book, Coleman brings those words full circle, so to speak, delivering a rendition of his own life that, though marked by hardship and judgement, turns always toward a better day. Here’s the story of a man who took his place on that great wheel, and did not lose his life but gained a richer, better one. Even the title of the work evokes the turning wheel metaphor, in addition to other meanings.
The Battle of the Nations in and around Leipzig, Germany from 16-20 October, 1813, was the culminating battle of 1813 and the last major battle fought prior to the fighting in France in 1814 before Napoleon’s defeat, abdication, and exile to Elba. It was the largest battle fought in Europe to that time with over 500,000 soldiers on both sides. The city of Leipzig spent millions renovating the huge memorial to the battle and planned a week of commemorations coinciding with the 200th Anniversary of the battle. This past weekend I went to the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of the Nations re-enactment. This was billed as the highlight of the … More after the Jump…
This post is Non-History but still relevant to the Blog. I tend to do quite a bit of internet searching in the course of writing and just general news reading. Because I do a lot of book reviews on her I tend to spend a lot of time on publisher webpages and bookselling websites. This post mainly concerns a new service I have recently become aware of. Bookbub is a site that purports to only send you recommendations for books that you want to read at deep, deep discounts. The site is a startup based out of Cambridge, MA and seems to be trying to be Groupon for books. They must … More after the Jump…
I just returned from vacation in Croatia and will be back to posting updates soon. I also got some pretty good material and photos while on the trip to be used in some upcoming posts. I got a very good fix of Roman history this trip as Illyria and Dalmatia were both conquered during the Republic and stayed Roman for almost 8 centuries.
Battle Tactics of the Western Front: The British Army`s Art of Attack, 1916-18 by Paddy Griffith is a very interesting book. The premise is that despite what many historians have said about the inertia of the British Army in WWI and it’s resistance to tactical change, that is not true and the British were committed to innovation throughout the war in an effort to break the deadlock of the trenches. The book itself is not long, 219 pages of text including appendices. There are extensive endnotes and the bibliography is fairly extensive as well. The book is organized topically and though it purports to only deal with the developments of the … More after the Jump…
