The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Cracker!’ Says Mendacious Swindler Charlie Rangel, Who Should Be in Prison

Posted on | August 2, 2013 | 64 Comments

Behold, the antonym of honesty speaks!

In an interview with the Daily Beast published Friday, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) suggested Tea Partiers are the “same group” who fought for segregation during the Civil Rights movement. “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked,” Rangel said.

Every time Charlie Rangel opens his mouth, remember that the only time his name ever appeared in the same sentence with the word “ethics” was when he was censured by the House Ethics Committee:

Rangel was found guilty by the ethics panel of 11 counts of violating ethics rules, including charges that he improperly solicited millions of dollars from corporate officials and lobbyists for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York, failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of income and assets on financial disclosure forms, maintained a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office in a Harlem apartment building and failed to pay income taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic.

If he weren’t in Congress, he would be in federal prison, which is basically true of every Democrat, but Charlie Rangel is so crooked, even Democrats can’t deny it (and they lie about everything).

You could call him a “thief,” but that would be an insult to thieves.

 


Category: Congress, Corruption, Crime, Democrats

Democrat Agenda for Women: Abortion and Also, Getting Groped by Bob Filner

Posted on | August 2, 2013 | 61 Comments

Oh, sure, they’ve got some language in there about “equality,” education, health care, yadda, yadda, yadda, but when it’s time to get down to business, there are only two things that liberal women care about — killing babies and getting felt up by skeezy Democrat perverts:

A ninth woman has emerged to accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D) of sexual harassment. . . .

(There would be 10 of them by now, but at least one woman had enough sense to run the moment she laid eyes on that creep.)

Emily Gilbert, who was hired to sing at a fundraiser days after Filner took office in December, told Fox5 that Filner grabbed her inappropriately at the event.

(Is there an “appropriate” way to grab a singer?)

“He grabbed me a little too tight, then proceeded to slide his hand down my arm and then did a little grab on my derriere,” Gilbert said. “I didn’t want to make a scene, there were kids around.”

(“There were kids around” — getting a free sex-education lesson from the mayor. “Vote Filner: It’s for the Children!”)

Eight other women have alleged Filner sexually harassed. One, his former communications director, is suing Filner and the city of San Diego.

(An interesting sort of welfare: Vote Democrat; Democrats molest women; women sue the city; taxpayers are forced to pay the bill.)

Filner, a former member of Congress, has said the city failed to provide state-required sexual harassment training, though a contradicting report states that Filner’s office cancelled the session.

(Oh, this is rich: “Harassment? How was I to know that groping women was wrong? I didn’t have sexual harassment training!”)

Several lawmakers on Capitol Hill have slammed Filner’s behavior. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had the harshest words, calling the mayor’s actions “reprehensible” and “disrespectful of women.”

(It’s “reprehensible,” as opposed to stabbing babies in the head, which is a “right” all Democrats are sworn to defend.)

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) called on Filner to resign.
“The misconduct Mayor Bob Filner has been accused of is reprehensible and indefensible,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “I am personally offended by his actions and I firmly believe no employee should face a hostile environment or harassment at their place of employment.”

Of course, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz knew all along what a lecherous creep Bob Filner is. It wasn’t exactly a secret on Capitol Hill, but as long as Bob Filner had a “D” beside his name and was willing to vote for the Democrat agenda (i.e., stabbing babies in the head), Wasserman-Schultz was willing to help elect and re-elect him, until the “misconduct,” by which she means, getting caught.

If you ever see a Democrat heading toward you, ladies — RUN!

 

Category: Crime, Democrats, Scandal, Sex

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 08.02.13

Posted on | August 2, 2013 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Snowden’s Asylum Enrages US, But Won’t Destroy Already Strained Russian ties

Former CIA/NSA contractor Edward Snowden

Former CIA/NSA contractor Edward Snowden

Could Snowden’s asylum scuttle Obama-Putin summit?


Indian MPs Quit Over Telangana
Twelve Congress Party MPs from Andhra Pradesh resign over creation of new state


African Union: Zimbabwe Poll “Free, Honest And Credible”
Observer mission head Obasanjo says Wednesday’s incidents won’t change outcome



POLITICS
West Virginia Seeks EPA Reset On Coal

New EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy

Mountain State Democrats have “open, receptive” meeting with new administrator

Senate Confirms Samantha Power As Ambassador To UN

Obama Names New IRS Commissioner

Former San Diego Mayor, Business Leaders Call For Filner’s Resignation

House GOP Report Concludes Holder Misled Congress On Reporter Targeting

Texas Running Out Of Execution Drug Pentobarbital

US Temporarily Closing Embassies Sunday Due To Security Concerns

DoD Scrounges For Cash To Cancel Civilian Furloughs

Gay Teacher’s Firing From Catholic School Sparks Online Petition



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Rises On Positive Economic Data: NYMEX $108.53, Brent $110.04
TGI Friday’s To Pay $500K Fine For Passing Off Cheap Liquor As The Good Stuff
Goldman Sachs’ Fabrice Tourre Found Liable For Defrauding Investors
Bank Of America May Face Civil Charges Over Mortgage-backed Securities
US Jobless Claims Drop To 5 1/2 Year Low
S&P 500 climbs Above 1700 On Stimulus Bets, Economy
Former Employer, Not Secret Snooping, Triggered Police Visit Over Pressure Cooker
Microsoft Releases Office Mobile for Android Smartphones
Netflix Adds Personalized Profiles To Streaming Service
XBox Team Creates Community Deputies To Fight Trolls
Apple Fixing Bug That Allows Fake Charging Stations To Hack iPhones



SPORTS
Nava Bounces Back Big: Is Catalyst Red Sox’ Amazing Rally

Coming back from Monday’s blunders

Works walk to begin 9th, caps six-run rally with hit over center fielder’s head

New Orleans Pelicans Unveil New Uniforms

Orioles Deal For Astros’ Norris At Deadline

Royals Win Ninth Straight, Beat Twins 7-2

Russian Sports Minister: Olympic Athletes Will Be Subject to Anti-Gay Laws

Alabama #1 In Preseason Coaches’ Pick

Fox Extends NASCAR Agreement Through 2024

Nationals Sign GM Rizzo To Long-Term Contract, Promote Him To President Of Baseball Operations



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jennifer Lopez Very Close To “American Idol” Return

J-Lo: Here comes the judge – back again?

Source: “Both Fox and Jennifer are very happy about this and want it to happen very much.”

Jamie Lee Curtis Injured In Car Crash – Jodie Foster To The Rescue!

Teresa Giudice facing Reality Show Cancellation Amid Tax Fraud Charges

Bethenny Frankel: No Sympathy For The Giudices

Baby #2 On The Way For Megan Fox

Amanda Bynes Loses Bid For Freedom

Aaron Hernandez Letter From Jail – God Put Me Here

Chris Evans To Helm “1:30 Train” Before Reprising Captain America Role In “Avengers 2”

Former “Dawson’s Creek” Star Monica Keena Unrecognizable In Pic With Ex Edward Furlong

Lindsay Lohan – I’m Not Cutting Dad Out Of My Life

Penelope Cruz Directs Super Sexy Ad For Agent Provocateur Lingerie

Joan Collins to Shirley Jones: You’re LYING! I’m Not Into Foursomes!

Gloria & Emilio Estefan Are Going Strong – To Broadway!

Amanda Seyfried On “Lovelace” Sex Scenes: “I Don’t Want My Dad To See My Naked Body”



FOREIGNERS
Taiwanese Politicians Swap Punches Over Nuke Bill
Bangladesh High Court Outlaws Islamic Party
Iran’s Rouhani: Israel An Old Wound “That Should Be Removed”
Snowden Granted One Year Asylum In Russia, Leaves Airport
Berlusconi Rages As Guilty Verdict Sustained
Arms Depot Blast Kills 40 Syrians
Japan Says GDP Growth Could Slow To 1% After Sales Tax Hike
Kerry Says Pakistan Drone Strikes To End Soon



BLOGS & STUFF
Twitchy: Bombshell – CNN Report Shows Benghazi Coverup May be Worse Than Previously Thought
Allahpundit: CIA In Panic Over CNN Revelations
Protein Wisdom: “Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack”
NRO Corner: CIA Trying To Cover Up Involvement In Benghazi
Power Line: Banghazi Coverup By The CIA?
Washington Free Beacon: Ohio Latest State To Announce Insurance Rate Spikes
Via Meadia: ObamaCare – A Hipster’s Paradise?
Weekly Standard Blog: IRS Chief Wants To Keep His Health Care Plan, Not Switch To ObamaCare
PJ Tatler: Gay Couple Suing C of E To Force It To Perform Gay Weddings
Weasel Zippers: Government Agents “Armed To The Teeth” Storm Animal Shelter To Kill Baby Deer
Mark Steyn: The Buck Stops Here 2
Freedom Works: New Poll Shows Republican Voters Want More TEA In Their Party
NewsBusters: Variety – MSNBC’s Losing Ground With ‘Too Much Opinion and Not Enough News’
Jammie Wearing Fools: Shamelessness On Steroids
AmSpecBlog: Pro-Illegal Demonstrators Arrested In DC


Deadline to submit links for tomorrow’s FMJRA is tonight at midnight. DO IT.


Category: Live at Five

Vile Lie-Peddler @Karoli Kuns and the Posthumous Vindication of Breitbart

Posted on | August 1, 2013 | 68 Comments

“Liberal bias is not a matter of unfairness, but rather a matter of dishonesty — deliberately ignoring some facts, and misrepresenting other facts, in order to misinform the public by portraying to them a politically falsified view of events and personalities. If there were ever any honest person employed by the New York Times (we stipulate the hypothetical), that person would have been obligated to quit Thursday morning [July 25], when the banner headline on the front page of the paper should have been: ‘ANDREW BREITBART WAS RIGHT.'”
— Robert Stacy McCain, “Beauty, Brains and Bias,” The American Spectator, July 26

Andrew Breitbart had a special contempt for Karoli Kuns, whose hatefulness and ignorance are exceeded only by her stunning dishonesty. Of course, there is no such thing as an honest Democrat, but the vile lies peddled by Karoli Kuns are especially odious because she has made a habit of hatefully smearing honest and decent people.

It’s formulaic: Anyone who tells the truth, Karoli Kuns calls a liar, while she reserves her highest praise for people whose dishonesty is notorious. And speaking of Neal Rauhauser, here is how Karoli Kuns praised the head “Weiner Truther” in November 2012:

From the moment the Anthony Weiner scandal broke, Neal Rauhauser smelled a rat, and as it turns out, he was right. . . .
I’m certain the Breitbots expected all left-wing outrage over the setup to evaporate when Rep. Weiner resigned. . . .
One person wouldn’t let it go, and that one person was Neal Rauhauser, who kept on with it and keeps on with it until this day.

Well, well, well, Karoli Kuns. Seems you’ve changed your tune, eh?

Whereas in 2012, you were certain that Anthony Weiner was an innocent victim of a “setup” by “Breitbots” — and thus, Weiner’s defender Neal Rauhauser was deserving of praise — now that Andrew Breitbart has been vindicated and Anthony Weiner has been disgraced, you say the Weiner story is “not of national concern.”

Because you peddle vile lies, that’s why.

There was never any “setup” of Anthony Weiner by anyone. All honest and intelligent people recognized this in 2011, but Neal Rauhauser manufactured a series of lies intended to deceive the ignorant and Rauhauser was, as you say, the one person who “wouldn’t let it go.” He was the acknowledged leader of “Weiner Truthers” and he kept lying about Andrew Breitbart even after Breitbart was dead.

Karoli Kuns of Ventura, California, interviewed on GRITtv, 2010

Were you stupid enough to believe Neal Rauhauser’s lies about Andrew Breitbart, Karoli Kuns? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, and instead conclude that you knew Rauhauser was lying — as any intelligent person would — and deliberately helped him peddle vile lies, because that’s all you’ve ever done in your entire life.

And here’s the truly interesting thing, Karoli Kuns: The title of that dishonest 3,000-word November 2012 blog post of yours didn’t even mention either Andrew Breitbart or Anthony Weiner.

Neal Rauhauser, Brett Kimberlin,
and a Right Wing Blueprint

Isn’t that interesting, Karoli Kuns? Your entire purpose was to defend the notorious liar Neal Rauhauser and the convicted felon Brett Kimberlin.

And how did you do that? You peddled vile lies.

Here’s what you wrote about Neal Rauhauser:

Neal Rauhauser in particular has been robbed of his ability to earn a living simply because right wing bloggers decided to make him the devil incarnate with no evidence, no actual wrongdoing, and no foundation in truth.

“No foundation in truth”? When were you ever interested in truth, Karoli Kuns? I would ask you to go read “‘A Faint Whiff of Vigilante Hysteria’: Weinergate’s Kimberlin Connection,” if I thought you were interested in truth, but you’re not now and never have been.

Rauhauser hasn’t been “robbed of his ability to earn a living.” Certainly “right wing bloggers” have not prevented any liberal group from hiring Rauhauser. The problem is, Neal is so compulsively dishonest even liberals don’t want to work with him. Which is amazing, considering some of them don’t mind being associated with you.

As for your “who are we to judge” attitude toward Brett Kimberlin — “Whatever the truth about Kimberlin’s past is,” as if the facts weren’t actually known — there are a couple of important names missing from your account: Julia Scyphers and Carl DeLong. Once people know about Julia Scyphers and Carl DeLong, it tends to affect their attitude about Brett Kimberlin. Not in a good way, either.

Hey, did you know Tetyana Kimberlin fears for her life?

Please don’t pay any attention to the facts, Karoli Kuns.

All honest and decent people share Andrew Breitbart’s contempt for you, but whatever you do, don’t ever repent your vile lies.

Because we wouldn’t want you to save your soul from Hell.

 

Category: Andrew Breitbart, Anthony Weiner, The Kimberlin Files

The Game That Homey Does Not Play

Posted on | August 1, 2013 | 50 Comments

Homey says, ‘I don’t think so.’

A friend e-mailed me in reference to Matt Osborne‘s (absurd) claim that the identity of someone calling himself “Watchful Avenger” is a matter crucial to the Brett Kimberlin story. Having never paid any attention to this at all, I replied to the e-mail:

It’s ridiculous, of course, for anyone to make a big deal over who the “Avenger” is. Certainly I never paid attention to that, and if anyone did, they did so without asking me about it. About two or three days into this story, back in May 2012, I realized that trying to figure out which actual person was behind any particular online “persona” was a fool’s errand. Neal Rauhauser loves to play that childish “you-can’t-prove-it” game: Bait people into making accusations that he is behind a certain sockpuppet account and then, quicker than you can say “plausible deniability,” Neal turns that into “evidence” that the person who makes the accusation is a paranoid conspiracy theorist, an unserious person with no credibility. So I don’t play that game, just like I never respond to any of Bill Schmalfeldt’s “evidence” against Kimberlin’s enemies, myself included. I know the motive for that game, and I don’t play it.
We don’t have to play dumb, of course. The only reason — the ONLY reason — Matt Osborne name-checked me in that item yesterday was in an effort to preemptively discredit me (in the eyes of whatever “progressives” pay attention to Osborne). And this is not just a random coincidence, of course.
Developments in the Kimberlin v. Kimberlin case, especially Tetyana’s claim that Brett illegally had sex with her when she was 15, are newsworthy enough that it’s getting more difficult for mainstream journalists or left-wing bloggers to keep ignoring it. There are people on the Left, as you know, who can’t stand Neal Rauhauser, and Osborne has his enemies, too. Whereas that little crew (including Karoli) were able to keep a lid on it before, so that the whole thing could be dismissed as just a “right wing nut job” story, now it might start getting a bit of traction.
Also, of course, there’s the latest Weiner scandal, which provides a potential news hook for revisiting the whole “Weiner Truther” phenomenon, of which Rauhauser was unquestionably the ringleader. OK, so if any good reporter started digging around into the two-year Weiner rehabilitation effort that preceded his NYC mayoral campaign, what would they find? The not-exactly-mysterious SWATtings of Neal Rauhauser’s enemies — who just so happened to be involved in exposing WeinerGate in 2011 — and the plausible suspicion that this was somehow connected to Brett Kimberlin’s anti-Breitbart crusade.
Is it a coincidence, then, that Matt Osborne jumped out there smearing me and Lee Stranahan and Aaron Walker immediately after Tetyana made her damaging accusations against Brett? Coincidence, my ass. They’re worried. And they should be worried.
— RSM

Having not paid any attention before, however, I did a quick Google search and discovered that this is actually relevant because (a) Brett Kimberlin took a photo of Aaron Walker’s wife in March, and (b) the photo was posted online by “The Watchful Avenger”:

“The Watchful Avenger” is what they have taken to calling calling this “Breitbart Unmasked” character on Twitter and the “publisher” of the Breitbart Unmaksed Blog.  Schmalfeldt is specifically referring to photographs of me taken at the courthouse and now you know who took them: Brett Kimberlin.  So Brett Kimberlin owns Breitbart Unmasked, which unsurprisingly means that he has perjured himself when claiming he doesn’t blog or use twitter.

OK, simple question: How did this photo, taken by Brett Kimberlin, get onto the Internet? It’s one thing to deny that X is Y. It is another thing to prove that X is not Y, in any equation where the identity of Y is unknown. If Brett took the photo, did he send that photo to someone whose identity he does not even know?

Yeah, right.  Matt Osborne hasn’t explained this, because he can’t explain it, nor will Matt Obsorne bother to explain his sudden interest this week in attacking Brett Kimberlin’s enemies. But surely he doesn’t think we are stupid, does he? Final suggestions:

Homey says, “Fuck you, Matt Osborne.”

 

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Wretched Chattanooga Newspaper Fires Editor Because of Anti-Obama Headline

Posted on | August 1, 2013 | 45 Comments

The citizens of Chattanooga are afflicted with a paper owned by the same crowd of truthless swindlers who own the New York Times:

“The headline was inappropriate for this newspaper. It was not the original headline approved for publication, and Johnson violated the normal editing process when he changed the headline.”

The Times-Free Press is a disgrace to any fish unfortunate enough to be wrapped in it. Parakeets become constipated if you line their cage with it — they don’t consider it worthy of their droppings.

 


Category: Journalism

Oh, My: Anthony Weiner Porn Movie?

Posted on | August 1, 2013 | 29 Comments

“Boom-chick-a-wow-wow,” says Aleister at American Glob, reporting the news that the tawdry tale of the would-be Mayor of New York’s online affairs could become THE MUST-SEE PORN FLICK OF THE YEAR, starring typical Democrat girl Sydney Leathers.

“I laughed! I cried! It was better than ‘Cats’!”

UPDATE: Sometimes the jokes just write themselves:

 

Category: Anthony Weiner, Scandal, Sex

21 Books, Part II

Posted on | August 1, 2013 | 18 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


Continuing the list of books that had a major influence on my life. Comments, suggestions and book plugs welcome, as always. A couple of the more noteworthy suggestions from last week’s post were Anne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History (oddly, the Kindle edition is more expensive than the paperback) and The Other Side of Time: A Combat Surgeon In World War II by Brendan Phibbs.


Hammer’s Slammers, David Drake
“Your family and I go back a long way, Lady. Did you know that I shot your father on Melpomone? Between the eyes, so he could see it coming.”
I first read “Under the Hammer” in my high school library’s copy of Galaxy Science Fiction and its sequel “But Loyal To His Own” (to which the above line, from “Standing Down”, refers) a month or so later, and I was hooked forever. Drake’s work has been criticized by some for being “carnographic conservative military SF” but in truth the exploits of the Auxiliary Regiment commanded by Alois Hammer are based on the real-life history of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam, a unit David Drake and I both served in (at thirty years remove, mind you) and don’t show a lot of sympathy for politicians of any stripe. Jim Baen saw the stories for what they were, which was well-written SF, and the series grew to the point where the new collection in hardback from Night Shade Press takes up three volumes. Hammer’s men (and women, for the most part) are complicated characters; there’s a lot more going on with them than just filling a role in a tale of combat, and that’s especially true of Joachim Steuben, the rather flaming and extremely deadly commander of Hammer’s military police company, the White Mice. Suffice it to say I’ve barely begun to describe the character.
Quite aside from their literary merits, the Hammer’s Slammers stories got me interested in David Drake’s writing, and while I haven’t yet picked up his fantasy works I daresay I’ve read (and own) pretty much everything else he’s written in the SF and horror genres. He’s also one hella interesting person in the flesh.


Fields of Fire, James Webb
“We are all sucking wind out here, L-T.”
This is a hard book to describe, because there’s a hell of a lot going on. Much like his later sociological treatise Born Fighting, Fields of Fire covers a lot of history as background to its main story, the tale of Lieutenant Robert E. Lee Hodges, a young Marine lieutenant whose family has fought in nearly all of America’s wars and who now heads off to Vietnam as a platoon leader in the I Corps zone. It’s also the story of Snake, Senator, Ogre, Bagger, Dan, Cat Man, and the rest of Hodges’ platoon, a story of revenge, betrayal, and deadly combat against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. It’s not a pretty story, and it doesn’t have a happy ending. In fact, it has multiple unhappy endings. There’s a lot of story packed into the ~500 pages of Webb’s debut novel, and I can’t recommend it enough.


The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft
“Right naow Barnabas is abaout changed. Can’t shet his eyes no more, an’ is all aout o’ shape. They say he still wears clothes, but he’ll take to the water soon.”
Thus Zadok Allen describes one of the leading citizens of the New England city of Innsmouth, the site of the action in The Shadow over Innsmouth, which was actually not a novel but a collection of Lovecraft stories published by Scholastic Book Services back in the late 1960s. Coming from a family that hailed from the northeast end of Massachusetts, I had no trouble imagining the decrepit city and the horrors that lurked behind the shuttered windows. This book set the hook in me, and over the subsequent years I snatched up every bit of Lovecraft I could find, even the tales adulterated by August Derleth into novels; even today, the Cthulhu Mythos and its several contemporary authors continue to fascinate me.


The River And The Gauntlet, S.L.A. Marshall
S.L.A. Marshall’s reputation was pretty huge when he was alive, but diminished quickly as it became apparent to other historians that he hadn’t let little things like the facts get in the way of a good story. Which makes me wonder how much of The River and the Gauntlet, a gripping account of Eighth Army’s retreat from the Yalu River in the winter of 1950-51 is supported by the facts…anyhow, at the time that I read this book it was pretty gripping. I hadn’t delved very much into American military history at that point and had yet to become familiar with such disasters as the siege of Bataan, the Crater incident during the Civil War, and the opening engagements of what would become the Battle of the Bulge. Marshall’s account of the Chinese intervention in Korea was a real eye-opener, and whetted my appetite for more of the same. Unfortunately, Battles in the Monsoon, his best-known work on Vietnam, wasn’t nearly as good, and I never bothered to read his other histories after that. Still, I have to give Marshall credit for getting me more interested in military history, and the Korean War (to say nothing of other things Korean) in particular.


Retief’s War , Keith Laumer
“I is a great believer in peaceful settlements. Ain’t nobody as peaceful as a dead trouble-maker.”
As a former Air Force officer turned diplomat, Keith Laumer was well-equipped to tell the rollicking tales of Jame Retief of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne, an unorthodox fellow who often found himself fighting with his own superiors as much (or more) than he did the enemies of Terra, be they uncooperative natives or the five-eyed Groaci. Probably the best of all Retief’s adventures is the novel Retief’s War, serialized in Worlds of If back in 1965 – which is where I first saw it, or at least its second half. (That same issue had the first part of Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, with a memorable Gray Morrow cover.) Anyhow, Retief’s War takes place on the planet Quopp, where the locals are made mostly of metallic chitin and get ripped on sugar products. In one memorable scene, two Quoppina of the Voion tribe are completely undone by a jar of Terran honey our hero has hidden for just such a situation. The Terran mission is about to fumble its way into disaster, until Retief escapes in disguise to rouse the anarchic bush tribes against the would-be imperialist Voion…who happen to be getting some under-the-table support from a certain bunch of five-eyed, sticky-fingered aliens who have (nefarious!) plans of their own for Quopp. It’s a great adventure, full of swashes getting buckled, diplomatic derring-do, good old-fashioned brawling, misplaced educational supplies, plus a shipload or gorgeous women who aren’t averse to picking up a sword and kicking some butt themselves when the occasion calls for it. Of course, this novel started a decades-long fascination with Laumer’s works.
NB: The novel is now available as part of a comprehensive anthology of Laumer’s Retief stories from Baen, simply titled Retief! An outstanding deal on the Kindle, I must say.


From Here to Eternity, James Jones
“Got paid out on Monday, ain’t a dog soljer no more…”
There’s a lot to this book, and if you only know it through the (rather good) 1953 movie then you don’t really know it at all. It’s been called the best novel about the pre-World War II Army out there, and insofar as it gives an unsparing portrait of the Hawaiian Division before the war that may be true, but that really dates it far too much. Where the book really shines is in its equally unsparing look at the kind of men who enlist in a peacetime army and the kind of men who run that army, and that’s not always a very pretty picture. My father got the copy I now have as part of a set with The Caine Mutiny and The Naked and the Dead, neither of which are anywhere near as good as this. Well, Herman Wouk’s book, maybe; certainly on average Wouk was a much better writer than Jones, as a quick comparison of The Thin Red Line and The Winds of War will tell you. I probably read this for the first time when I was far too young to understand it properly or fit it into the right context, but there you are. Holds up very well to multiple re-readings.


The Revolt of Gunner Asch(’08/15 Im Kaserne), Hans Helmut Kirst
“We must congratulate Gunner Asch on his promotion to Corporal, Lieutenant.”
I don’t buy a lot of foreign books in the original language. I made an exception for Hans Hellmut Kirst’s ’08/15 im Kaserne (The Revolt of Gunner Asch) and its sequels, which I read in their Pyramid translations back in sixth grade. These were pretty remarkable books, depicting as they did the Wehrmacht in a very unsentimental light as an organization capable of driving its own junior NCOs to rebellion in the name of justice. Kirst had a gift for producing memorable, sympathetic characters, and even though I haven’t cracked these in years I can still see Asch, Vierbein, Lieutenant Wedelmann, and Colonel Luschke as if I’d just put the books down yesterday. Kirst also wrote a whole mess of other books about the Wehrmacht, of which The Night of the Generals is perhaps best known thanks to the movie, but these are his first, arguably his best.


Category: Books
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin