Shortly Before The Detour

Posted on | April 8, 2017 | Comments Off on Shortly Before The Detour

First, some administrivia: I’ll be in Minnesota from tomorrow morning through next Tuesday night, and so there will be no daily bloggage, nor will there be an FMJRA this Saturday. Rule 5 Sunday will be delayed until Sunday, April 16, when we’ll have the Easter Sunday Double-Dip Edition, so go ahead and send in your links this weekend and I’ll collect them all on the weekend after I get back.

Given that it’s tax season, I’m not getting as much reading done as usual (and still less since Block cut my pay this season, the bastards) but I am getting some done, and I have a few opinions to share. I checked John C. Wright’s Somewhither out of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and just couldn’t finish it. It’s heroic fantasy, and very well-written, but I put it down one night and never picked it up again. Your mileage may vary. On the other hand, Marko Kloos’ Fields Of Fire, is a very different kind of book, seeing as how it’s the fifth book in his Frontlines series, and it does not disappoint. Humanity is striking back at the alien Lankies, with a massive invasion of Lanky-occupied Mars with everything including the kitchen sink, but as the blurb reminds us, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Kloos may have lined up with the Puppy Kickers, and there’s an occasional guffaw-inducing moment, but by and large this is a good book and I fully intend to pay for a copy once the cash flow improves.

Also worth reading is Nick Cole’s Soda Pop Soldier, which is Exactly What It Says On The Tin, a novel about a young man fighting for a soda company. It’s virtual warfare, of course, and unfortunately PerfectQuestion’s been on the losing side for a while now, which means life is hard and he has to scrape up money where he can – by fighting in the highly illegal Black. There’s also a mysterious fellow who wants to buy his help in dominating the world, the equally mysterious Grandfather, and a spy who’s selling out Perfect and his buddies. Cole does a great job of keeping all the plot balls in the air and bringing them together in a (literally) explosive climax. Five stars, will definitely be reading again. A heck of a bargain for $3.99.

This month’s blast from the past is Michael de Larrabeiti’s The Borribles, the first book in a picaresque trilogy that continues in The Borribles Go For Broke and Across The Dark Metropolis, which has the dubious distinction of having its publication delayed for fear it would exacerbate existing tensions between the police and Londoners. I suppose that technically these are urban fantasies, though there’s nothing magical in them but the Borribles themselves (and their Rumble enemies, a parody of the popular Wombles) who are street kids with elvish ears who never grow up or grow old, and live by petty theft and scrounging in the decaying older parts of London and other cities. The plot of the three novels revolves around the Great Rumble Hunt, an assault by a picked squad of Borribles on the headquarters bunker of the Rumbles with the aim of killing the twelve leaders of the Rumbles; this done, the two sequels deal with the consequences of the hunt – factional fighting between the Borrible tribes, and the rescue of Sam the horse from the bobbies’ Special Borrible Group. Worth reading if you haven’t already.

Category: Books

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

Posted on | April 7, 2017 | Comments Off on Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty

Joe & Rose had done thousands of shows. A living.

Of a sweltering day, they were approaching a “dangerous” point, when “Dracalcoatl, the Blood-Drinking Vampire Snake” would appear to be about to fang Rose’s helpless throat. Of course, “D” was out of range; the tension delivered by illusion.

Until Sparky in the front row let fly with a slingshot round, the steel ball grazing the snake’s head and hitting Joe in the windpipe.
Rose came up; “D” came down; her passing was mercifully brief.

Sparky, acquitted for manslaughter, subsequently had a “David/Goliath Show”, giving most of his wages to the surviors.

—
Thanks, Darleen!

Category: Friday Fiction

THE BIG STICK: Trump’s Missile Attack on Syria Is the New ‘Smart Power’

Posted on | April 7, 2017 | Comments Off on THE BIG STICK: Trump’s Missile Attack on Syria Is the New ‘Smart Power’

President Trump’s statement Thursday night at the White House:

My fellow Americans: On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women, and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.
Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched. It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and ignored the urging of the U.N. Security Council.
Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.
Tonight, I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria, and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed. And we hope that as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will, in the end, prevail.

The military action:

The United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria overnight in response to what it believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people.
At least six people were killed, Syria claimed, but the Pentagon said civilians were not targeted and the strike was aimed at a military airfield in the western province of Homs.
The action completed a policy reversal for President Donald Trump — who once warned America to stay out of the conflict — and drew anger from Damascus and its main ally, Russia.

The domestic political consequences? Let’s just say Democrats will have a hard time saying Trump was wrong, considering that this was exactly what Hillary Clinton had suggested in an interview Thursday. So the President had political carte blanche to launch this attack, and finally enforce the “red line” Obama had failed to enforce against Syria.

The Obama administration talked a lot about “smart power,” but Trump actually used it. Military power is meaningless, as an instrument of diplomacy, if your would-be adversaries think you won’t use it. While it is unwise for the United States to pursue the kind of “nation-building” interventions that have characterized our post-Cold War foreign policy, neither is it wise for America to allow its international prestige to be undermined by a perception that we are unwilling to take risks. War is always an uncertain venture, and we cannot predict the consequences of military action against Syria, an ally of Russia. Yet there are also consequences of not acting, of doing nothing and thereby sending the message that your likely response in the future is . . . nothing.

“Talk softly, but carry a big stick,” Teddy Roosevelt famously said, and it is occasionally necessary to use that big stick to whack someone over the head, to demonstrate what the big stick can do.

Ralph Peters in the New York Post:

Leadership. That’s what we lacked for eight years. In the early hours of Friday morning in Syria — late Thursday evening here — our military, acting on the order of our commander-in-chief, avenged the slaughtered innocents in Syria and sent a clear message that we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons. Well done!

We may withhold congratulations until we see what effect this strike will have, and how Trump deals with future developments. At this point, it appears Trump’s action was the smart thing to do, but we have seen in the past that seemingly smart decisions can produce bad results. Personally, I have long felt that the United States and Russia should not be enemies, and it was only Soviet Communism that created this hostility. Vladimir Putin came to power during an era when the Clinton administration had fumbled away the opportunities America had in the post-Cold War era, and Putin’s ruthlessness is well known. The accusation (made by Hillary Clinton just yesterday) that Russia interfered in the U.S. election raises the question, “Why?” And now that Trump has attacked Putin’s ally in Syria, what did Russia gain by its alleged “hacking” of the election?

As a symbolic gesture, Trump’s attack on Syria has enormous importance, but we do not know what it will mean beyond mere symbolism.

Trump to Assad: "PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN!" pic.twitter.com/uJLe4Hmhqd

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) April 7, 2017

Category: Donald Trump, Military, Syria

Fake Hate: Guess Who Made ‘Hundreds’ of Hoax Calls Targeting U.S. Jews?

Posted on | April 6, 2017 | Comments Off on Fake Hate: Guess Who Made ‘Hundreds’ of Hoax Calls Targeting U.S. Jews?

Hundreds of bomb-threat hoaxes and other harassing calls have been phoned into U.S. Jewish community centers, synagogues and other Jewish organizations in recent months, but finally, law enforcement has apprehended the perpetrator of this anti-Semitic crime wave.

Neo-Nazis? No.

Radical Muslims? No.

Trump-supporting “alt-right” nationalists? No.

An autistic Israeli-American teenager:

The suspect arrested [in March] for a wave of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers in the United States employed an array of technologies, including Bitcoin and Google Voice, to make himself virtually untraceable for months, The Daily Beast has learned. But in the end, it only took one careless slip-up to lead police to his door.
Police arrested 19-year-old Michael Kaydar, who has joint Israeli-U.S. citizenship, at his home in Ashkelon, a coastal city in southern Israel. He’s suspected of phoning in over 100 bomb threats to JCCs and Jewish day schools in 33 states since January, with the most recent calls made [in early March]. Police also suspect him of making similar threats in Israel, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

The teenage hate-hoaxer’s parents claim that their son cannot be held responsible because he is suffering from autism and a brain tumor:

The father of the Israeli-American teen behind hundreds of hoax bomb threats against Jewish institutions in the US issued an apology “from the bottom of our hearts” to all American Jews on Monday, and stressed “there was no hatred” behind the threatening calls.
Speaking two days after the 18-year-old’s mother had blamed her son’s autism and a tumor on his brain for the hundreds of hoax calls he made, his father also said that it was “illness” that was responsible for his son’s actions. “The child is different. He is unique,” said his father, who appeared in silhouette on Channel 2 news and was identified by the pseudonym Eli. (A police gag order [on Israeli media] prevents the naming of the 18-year-old suspect, who is being identified only as “M.”) “There was no motive of hatred. The motive was illness.” . . .
In comments on Monday. M’s mother said her son has been diagnosed with autism and could not control his actions due to a tumor in his brain.
She said she was “shocked” to discover her son was behind a spate of US bomb scares and wished “I had known and could have prevented it.” . . .
The teen, whose family lives in Ashkelon, is facing charges of extortion, making threats, publishing false information and is accused of sowing widespread fear and panic.
Police say he was behind a range of threats against Jewish community centers and other buildings linked to Jewish communities in the United States in recent months, and is alleged to have made hundreds of threatening phone calls over the past two to three years, targeting schools and other public institutions in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
His mother . . . said it was clear from a young age that her son, while highly intelligent, could not function in the regular education system.
She said she was 40 when she gave birth to him, in the US, and that he had an unusually large head, and did not develop speaking skills at a normal rate, but was very good at solving puzzles and was later diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. . . .
He couldn’t cope with the formal framework of preschool education, she said. When he was about 6, the family moved to Israel, and he could not function in the school system.
The boy’s parents decided to homeschool him, and the mother gave up her job as a biochemist to care for her child from first grade through twelfth.

So, a woman who worked as a biochemist and became a mother at age 40 has a child who is, for lack of a better phrase, mentally defective. Resisting the temptation to go off on a tangent here, I’ll just say that there are known risks of delayed childbearing, and this is one of those risks — your mentally defective child turns out to be an evil genius:

The Israeli-American teenager behind hundreds of hoax bomb threats against Jewish institutions in the US reportedly earned millions of shekels’ worth of digital currency by selling counterfeit documents over the internet.
Police suspect the 18-year-old — whose name is sealed under gag order in Israel — sold forged identity cards, passports and driver’s licenses over both the internet and the dark net in exchange for bitcoins, a cryptocurrency often used in illicit transactions online, according to a Channel 2 report Thursday. . . .
Investigators are said to have have learned of his counterfeiting activity online after discovering millions of shekels’ worth of the digital currency in his bitcoin account, and are currently working to determine who purchased the forged documents, Channel 2 reported.

This is 21st-century parenting: Your mentally defective child is such a weirdo you couldn’t let him attend school, but yeah, just let him have unrestricted Internet access, because what could possibly go wrong?

Well, we could go off on another tangent about that — why do you think feminist Tumblr is such a hellhole of craziness, huh? — but the point here is that, contrary to liberals claiming that Trump’s election spawned a wave of anti-Semitic harassment, it was just this one teenage weirdo.

Category: Crime, Israel, Racism

The Kaiser and the Clintonistas

Posted on | April 6, 2017 | Comments Off on The Kaiser and the Clintonistas

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana remarked, and young people today know so little about the past that they are well and truly doomed. The teaching of history has been replaced by indoctrination for progressive activism, as Jane Shaw has recently explained, which means that the more “educated” a young person is, the less they are likely to know about the past. There are patterns in history, and the more we study history, the more easily we recognize the repetition of these patterns. In the last couple of weeks, my bedtime reading has been Martin Gilbert’s history of the First World War, a book I’ve already read twice, but one thing about good books is that you can enjoy re-reading them at intervals of five or 10 years.

At any rate, while re-reading Gilbert’s book, I took note of a certain pattern that some people with bad memories are condemned to repeat:

Few things are more likely to precede defeat than the conviction that you are on the verge of victory. One hundred years ago, in the spring of 1917, Germany had every reason to believe that it would triumph over its enemies in the First World War. France had been bled white in repeated attacks on the German army’s fortified lines, England was suffering from shortages of both munitions and military manpower, and Russia was descending into a revolution that would, within a year, enable Germany and its Austro-Hungarian allies to shift enormous numbers of troops and guns to the Western Front. Yet the entry of the United States into the war on April 6, 1917, proved to be the counterweight that shifted the balance. By the autumn of 1918, the fond hope of Germany victory had been exposed as a delusion. The ultimate result of the Kaiser’s war was the destruction of the Kaiser’s empire, and of much else besides.
What is true in war is true also in politics. Hubris is nearly always the precedent to unexpected defeat. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson won a landslide victory; less than four years later, LBJ could not even win his own party’s nomination for re-election. In 1972, Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide; less than two years later, he was forced to resign from office. More recently, after George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election, some imagined that this victory was the harbinger of a “permanent Republican majority” — a GOP electoral hegemony based on a so-called “center-right” realignment — but two years later, Democrats captured control of Congress and in 2008 Barack Obama was elected president. Obama’s success in turn led Democrats to become overconfident, and Hillary Clinton’s supporters believed they were “on the right side of history,” as rock singer Bruce Springsteen told a rally in Philadelphia on the eve of the 2016 election. Unfortunately for Democrats, history disagreed. . . .

Read the whole thing at The American Spectator.

Category: Democrats, Hillary Clinton, History

Full-Length Laser Cats Film?

Posted on | April 6, 2017 | Comments Off on Full-Length Laser Cats Film?

by Smitty

Category: Uncategorized

Coming This (Down)Fall: #RiceCapades

Posted on | April 5, 2017 | Comments Off on Coming This (Down)Fall: #RiceCapades

by Smitty

I’ve been pretty much wrong with every thing I’ve ever predicted, politically.

Undaunted, let me offer the following rough outline:

Trump has Congress appoint a special prosecutor.
They do a thorough investigation of #OccupiedResoluteDesk’s abuses, direct and indirect.
They publish a redacted copy.
Trump pardons Obama.

Think about it:

Obama wants to go to court. He can drag out every last bit of punctuation in court, while his thralls tear up the country.
Trump has far more to lose than to gain by actual litigation. What are you raaaaacists actually going to do to Teh One?
By just putting it out there and pardoning Obama, Trump executes irrefutable judgement on Obama. And Donald can claim healing, bi-partisanship, hugs, and cupcakes.

(image source)

Category: Barack Obama