Some Civil War Reading With Added Pulp

Posted on | July 4, 2021 | Comments Off on Some Civil War Reading With Added Pulp

It’s been a while since the last book post, and there’s good news for Civil War history aficionados, so let’s get to it.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

I’m so sorry.

For the past few years, it’s been difficult to get hold of Bruce Catton’s Civil War histories unless you wanted to shell out for used hardbacks or paperbacks. Apparently somebody at Random House has come to their senses and recognized there’s a market for these newfangled e-book thingies, for Catton’s Centennial History of the Civil War, which starts with The Coming Fury (an excellent analysis of the political fuckery that sparked the war), is now available for the Kindle. Catton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy is also now available, and Mr. Lincoln’s Army (Book 1 of the trilogy) is available on Kindle Unlimited in case you aren’t familiar with Catton’s style and want to dip your toe in the water. As if that wasn’t enough, his account of General Grant’s war years (Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command) is also available in a package deal.

I am frankly unsure why Douglas Southall Freeman has the reputation he does. I tried reading Lee’s Lieutenants when I was younger, and compared to Bruce Catton, I found him turgid and prolix, on a par with the detail-obsessed official histories of the Army in WW2 that were nearly unreadable with their insistence on detailing what every single company of every single division was doing in (for example) the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. Still, he had quite a reputation back in the day, and you can stick this, too, on your Kindle, and not throw out your back trying to lift the 400+ pages of the original edition.

On to things less serious. I am not much on mysteries, but I do like the noir genre, and the granddaddy of all the trenchcoat-clad private eyes out there is Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op. Who is he? We never find out. The Continental Op is a nameless man working out of the Continental Detective Agency as an investigator. Murder is his business, and in San Francisco in the 1920s, business is very good indeed. This collection of the fourteen stories involving the Continental Op is a good bargain, especially if you like this kind of thing.

Then we have Sax Rohmer and his (in)famous Chinese super-villain, Fu Manchu. The Sax Rohmer collection by Halcyon Press includes 56 novels and short stories, but I had to struggle to make it through The Insidious Fu Manchu and when I was done had zero interest in reading more. Look, I cut my teeth on Don Pendleton’s Executioner novels, so I don’t mind formulaic plots and cardboard characters, but the protagonists of the Fu Manchu novels are a couple of the biggest morons in adventure fiction. Granted, they are up against an extremely learned (and possibly quite ancient) SOOPER GENIUS, with an enormous army of criminals at his beck and call, but Nayland-Smith and his sidekick Dr. Petrie are constantly screwing up and carrying the Idiot Ball, falling into predicaments that would have left Mack Bolan or Frank Castle aghast at their stupidity. Frequently they are saved only through the intervention of Fu Manchu’s slave girl Karamaneh, who has inexplicably fallen in love with Dr. Petrie. You may like this kind of stuff, but it drove me nuts, and I plan on dumping it off my Kindle to make room for better stuff. Like War Against The Mafia.

Returning to non-fiction, Ernst Junger’s The Storm Of Steel is not as well known as All Quiet on the Western Front, possibly because Junger’s book isn’t nearly as depressing as Remarque’s classic. Junger’s autobiographical account of his service on the Western Front in “The Great War” is horrifying, yes, and he spares you none of the horrors of trench warfare, but on the whole, he doesn’t regret having served and in fact considered it a transcendant experience. I’m not done with it yet, but it’s a good read. The link I’ve provided is to the original 1929 translation; there is a more recent “American English” translation, but in my honest opinion I think that’s a waste of money.

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Books

July 4: Why I Am a Populist

Posted on | July 4, 2021 | Comments Off on July 4: Why I Am a Populist

One evening in the fall of 1997, we finished loading up the U-Haul truck in our driveway in Rome, Georgia. Friends from our church had come to help us with this task, as my wife and I prepared to move our family to Gaithersburg, Maryland. Four days later, I was to begin my new job as an assistant national editor for The Washington Times, and I was both excited and stressed over this new phase of my career as a journalist.

It’s a long way from Rome, Georgia, to Washington, D.C. — more than 600 miles, geographically, but even further, in political terms. Our nation’s capital is a center of power and prestige unequaled in the world, whereas Floyd County, Georgia . . . Well, not so much.

Folks down home don’t think much about power. There isn’t much of it around, and the difference between the most influential and least influential citizens of Floyd County is far less than the gap between any of them and the world-class power brokers in Washington, D.C.

There is more equality in small-town America than there is in the wealthy urban metropolises where the super-rich reside. The media celebrities who will be partying this weekend in the Hamptons do not even consider themselves rich, by comparison to the trust-fund barons and arbitrage wizards of Wall Street. One reason for the liberal tilt of the media is that so many journalists — including millionaire network anchors — are not grateful for their success, but rather are consumed with envy toward the billionaire class. People that most of us would think of as rich (e.g., Joe Scarborough, who gets $8 million a year from MSNBC) walk around with a chip on their shoulder because they’re not really rich, the way Warren Buffett or Bill Gates are rich. But I digress . . .

After the truck was loaded in November 1997, and we were getting ready to pull out for the long drive north, our friend Lamante Attaud shook my hand and said, “Don’t forget where you came from.”

This has been my mission ever since — to speak on behalf of those Ordinary Americans who don’t have access to media platforms, and whose voices are routinely ignored by the power-wielding elites.

Let it not be said that small-town America is homogenous in opinion. No doubt many of my friends down home are deeply divided over the political issues that confront us as a nation and, alas, even some of my close relatives are Democrats. But these divisions of mere opinion are not so significant as the yawning chasm that separates Ordinary Americans from the vast power of the influential elite, and the reason I consider myself a populist is because I know whose side I’m on in that conflict.

Despite everything that might lead me toward a pessimistic view of our nation’s future, I remain stubbornly hopeful, because I know the decency and common sense of Ordinary Americans can yet preserve our liberty, no matter how corrupt and decadent our elite may be.

This is the true cause of our struggle. There is nothing wrong with America that the ordinary citizens of this nation can’t solve for themselves, if only their efforts were not thwarted by the decadent elite.

Thank God for the Supreme Court majority in the Brnovich v. DNC case, which rejected claims by the Democratic Party that Arizona was not capable of running its own elections without federal interference. What this case was really about is not “voting rights,” but rather about centralized authority. Do we really want to say that no local election is legitimate, unless the rules and the outcome are approved by the Powers That Be in Washington, D.C.? I don’t think so, and if there is anything that can unite populists in America, it should be opposition to further centralization of power. You see, the decadent elites love centralized power because the elites exercise enormous influence in Washington, whereas their influence in Arizona (or Georgia) is not so decisive.

Some would say that my populist impulses are rather crude, but I can think of no better rule for public life than this: Figure out what side of the issue the New York Times is on, then join the other side and fight like hell. So here I am, once again asking patriotic readers to remember that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

Maybe I’ll make a last-minute run to buy some fireworks.

Category: Politics

‘Harmful Extremist Content’? Why Does Facebook Want You to Be ‘Concerned’?

Posted on | July 4, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Harmful Extremist Content’? Why Does Facebook Want You to Be ‘Concerned’?

We need Mark Zuckerberg to protect us from Thought Crime:

An eyebrow-raising new Facebook feature warns users when they might have been exposed to extremist content or if they know someone who is becoming an extremist — prompting concerns it may target conservative voices and stifle free speech.
Screenshots of the anti-extremism alerts circulated Thursday on social media.
One of the prompts asks users, “Are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist?”
“We care about preventing extremism on Facebook,” the prompt goes on. “Others in your situation have received confidential support.”
A second alert read, “You may have been exposed to harmful extremist content recently.”
“Violent groups try to manipulate your anger and disappointment. You can take action now to protect yourself and others,” it continues.
Both of the alerts also redirect users to a support page.
Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, confirmed that the company is testing the prompts as part of a wider approach to radicalization prevention.
“This test is part of our larger work to assess ways to provide resources and support to people on Facebook who may have engaged with or were exposed to extremist content, or may know someone who is at risk,” Stone said.
“We are partnering with NGOs and academic experts in this space and hope to have more to share in the future.”

We may assume that the “NGOs and academic experts” with whom Facebook is “partnering” include the SPLC and other Democratic Party propaganda operatives. Considering that today is the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I was re-reading Winston Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples, and what he says about the beginnings of the revolutionary movement in America, which rose from opposition to the 1765 Stamp Act:

With two exceptions it imposed no heavy burden. The stamps on legal documents would not in any case produce a large revenue. The English stamp duty brought in £300,000 a year. Its extension to America was only expected to raise another £50,000. But the Act included a tax on newspapers, many of whose journalists were vehement partisans of the extremist party in America, and the colonial merchants were dismayed because the duty had to be paid in bullion already needed for meeting the adverse trade balance with England. The dispute exposed and fortified the more violent elements in America. The future revolutionary leaders appeared from obscurity — Patrick Henry in Virginia, Samuel Adams in Massachusetts, and Christopher Gadsden in South Carolina — and attacked both the legality of the Government’s policy and the meekness of most American merchants. A small but well-organized Radical element began to emerge.

You see that today we celebrate what “the more violent elements in America” eventually achieved, namely our national independence.

Thank goodness there was no Facebook back then to warn them about “harmful extremist content” from Sam Adams and Patrick Henry.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! You may also enjoy my patriotic argument: “July 4: Why I Am a Populist.”

Category: History

Khaled Awad Update: Student Visa for Egyptian Who Stabbed Massachusetts Rabbi; Roommates Say He Hated Jews

Posted on | July 4, 2021 | Comments Off on Khaled Awad Update: Student Visa for Egyptian Who Stabbed Massachusetts Rabbi; Roommates Say He Hated Jews

When we first reported on this case, authorities in Massachusetts were still mystified about the motive behind the stabbing of a rabbi in front of a Boston-area Jewish school by 24-year-old Khaled Awad. Some readers may have anticipated this latest development:

An Egyptian man who is accused of stabbing a rabbi outside of a Jewish day school in Boston on Thursday overstayed his student visa and lost his legal status on May 14, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fox News.
Khaled Awad, 24, allegedly approached Rabbi Shlomo Noginski with a gun and demanded his car keys, at which point Noginski ran across the street to a park, where Awad stabbed him in the arm multiple times.
He entered the United States two years ago for college, but his legal status recently lapsed.
“Khaled Awad, 24, a citizen of Egypt, entered the United States on a student visa in August 2019,” a spokesman for ICE told Fox News. “However, he failed to stay enrolled as required by law, resulting in a loss of legal status in the U.S on May 14, 2021.” . . .
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said her office has launched an investigation into the case but it has not been labeled a hate crime as of yet. . . .
One of Awad’s former friends at the University of South Florida, Eric Valiente, told CBS Boston that Awad was “violent” and “anti-Semitic.”
“He started becoming violent,” Valiente told the local news outlet. “He was very much anti-Semitic. He would say like all types of Jewish jokes. I thought he was joking at first and then I started to see seriousness in his comments.”
Aidan Anderson, a former roommate of Awad’s who is Jewish, told CBS Boston he had to move out and get a restraining order last fall when Awad attacked him in their shared kitchen.
Prosecutors must prove “that a crime is bias-motivated beyond the violent and seemingly targeted nature of the attack” in order to charge a suspect with a hate crime, a spokesman for Rollins’ offfice said. . . .
Prosecutors said in court on Friday that Awad faced charges of battery and theft in Florida and had to be sent to a mental health facility. He had a clean record in Massachusetts.
Awad is currently being held without bail pending a hearing on July 8 to determine if he is a danger to society.

Talk about an open-and-shut case: Jew-hater stabs a rabbi, but you need a court hearing to know whether “he is a danger to society”? And prosecutors aren’t sure they can prove this is a hate crime?

Also, why are we importing Jew-haters from Egypt? Is there a shortage of domestic anti-Semites, so we need to bring them in from foreign countries? Stabbing the rabbis American Jew-haters won’t stab?

Category: Crime, Immigration, Massachusetts

FMJRA 2.0: Never Call Retreat

Posted on | July 4, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Never Call Retreat

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Some cool art for once from Ingress.

Rule 5 Sunday: Cottagecore Is The New Black
Animal Magnetism
Nebraska Energy Observer
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

The Billionaire Landlord Cartel
The Political Hat
Whatfinger
357 Magnum
EBL

CAPTURED: Othal Wallace Arrested at Black Militia Compound in Georgia
The Political Hat
Bacon Time
357 Magnum
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: You Dropped A Bomb On Me
A View From The Beach
EBL

Methamphetamine and White Supremacy
The Political Hat
357 Magnum
EBL

Thank You, Officer Curtis Brown!
Dark Brightness
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.28.21
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

What Happened to Nathan Allen? Troubling Omens of ‘The Crazy Years’
Rotten Chestnuts
357 Magnum
EBL

‘White Supremacy’ Jiu-Jitsu
Dark Brightness
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.29.21
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.30.21
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.01.21
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

Guy Named ‘Khaled Awad’ Stabs Rabbi in Front of a Synagogue: ‘The Motive … Was Not Immediately Clear,’ Police Say
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
EBL

‘Bioessentialist Concepts of Gender’
The Political Hat
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.02.21
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
EBL

The Other Podcast Rides Again

Posted on | July 3, 2021 | Comments Off on The Other Podcast Rides Again

Join myself, blog buddy John Hoge and frequent commenter Dianna Deeley for another exciting episode of The Other Podcast. If you miss an episode, you can always check the archives at Podbean.

Category: The Other Podcast

@Timcast vs. the Journalistic ‘Midwits’

Posted on | July 3, 2021 | Comments Off on @Timcast vs. the Journalistic ‘Midwits’

Tim Pool did on-the-scene reporting around the world before becoming one of the most popular YouTube commentators. His audience of more than a million subscribers is larger than many CNN programs. Tim called attention to Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post misinterpreting poll data to suggest that the alarming rise in crime over the past two years is entirely imaginary. This is illustrates the problem, says Tim, of journalism being a career field dominated by “midwits.”

In the course of that discussion, Tim asks an important question: Why aren’t the guys in the so-called “intellectual dark web” (IDW) working in actual newsrooms? Why are all these guys doing commentary, rather than reporting? There are several factors involved here, including laziness — i.e., spewing your opinions online is much less labor-intensive than doing the job of a reporter. Anyone can log onto Twitter (or switch on their webcam and record a video) and pontificate about what’s wrong with the world, and there are no barriers to entry, no bosses, no gatekeepers, no human resources department, no necessity of conforming to an employer’s expectations. Furthermore, punditry is considered more prestigious than mere reporting. The reporter may be required to crank out two or three stories a day, and the vast majority of his work never gets any significant amount of public attention. You’re working for a newspaper in Topeka or a TV station in Tampa, and you have a near-zero chance of gaining nationwide notoriety.

Making it to the Big Leagues of journalism is a long-shot prospect for the young local reporter, and the longer he stays in local journalism — the Minor Leagues of media — the less likely it is that he’ll ever be working in D.C. or New York. Nowadays, there are very few local journalists over the age of 30 who have any shot at the Big Leagues. Local journalism is not lucrative or glamorous, and if you are someone who considers yourself to be an intellectual, you’re never going to pursue that line of work, which you disparage as being beneath you. So, the reason IDW guys don’t become journalists is rather self-explanatory.

Journalism, as a trade, looks very different from the outside of a newsroom than from the inside. Most people think of “the media” in terms of what they see on TV, especially in terms of the millionaire network news anchors and cable-news celebrities. But the vast majority of actual work — the real reporting — in journalism is done by people you never see on TV, and who don’t spend their weekends in the Hamptons.

As for the ideological bias in journalism, I once had a cigarette break with the late Peter Jennings of ABC News, who said to me, “Don’t you think journalism is inherently a liberal business? You know, ‘Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable’ and all that?”

And I must admit, in retrospect, that Jennings had a valid point.

Journalism as a career attracts a certain type of person, and it involves a certain type of work, and a certain amount of liberal bias may be unavoidable in the industry, quite generally. But the question, in our era, is who are the “comfortable” and who are the “afflicted”?

Once liberal bias as a problem became apparent to me, in my mid-30s, I saw how utterly one-sided journalism was becoming, and that problem has gotten much worse since the 1990s. The question of balance — giving the reader a fair and objective picture of the situation — is ignored by the journalistic elite who see themselves as defenders and advocates of a political project. Is there anyone at CNN (or CBS or ABC, etc.) who thinks that Hillary Clinton deserved to lose the 2016 election? Is there anyone at the New York Times or the Washington Post who has serious doubts about the Black Lives Matter movement? Because I know how newsrooms operate, and how the “water-cooler consensus” tends to shape the coverage of events, I understand the value of dissent within newsrooms. If there is no one in the staff meeting willing to play devil’s advocate — to say, “Hey, why don’t we try to take a look at this issue from the other side?” — then the output of the newsroom is certain to become homogenous in its outlook. And this is the real problem in journalism now, which you can see in “woke” staff devouring the New York Times.

The problem of “midwits” like Devlin Barrett is a direct consequence of the increasing ideological conformity of newsrooms. Barrett knows that his continued employment at the Washington Post is a function of his usefulness in advancing the interests of the Democratic Party. So he looks at the poll numbers and interprets them in such a way as to make the problem of increasing crime seem trivial, if not wholly imaginary.

Barrett is probably smart enough to realize that his interpretation is wrong — at least, now that Tim Pool had done it, surely Barrett can realize his error — but the problem is that there is no one on the staff of the Washington Post who looks at things from Tim Pool’s point of view.

Category: Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 07.02.21

Posted on | July 3, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.02.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts. It’s Gettysburg weekend, but I’ll try and get stuff posted in a timely manner.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.