jesse.in.mb
Gregory Maguire – Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this book. Everything about it feels like it doesn’t resolve, but maybe it’s just a good reflection of life and the small role we play in it.
Currently working on Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, I’m not sure why I like post-Colonial/Indian diaspora literature as much as I do. I distinctly remember reading Roy’s first novel The God of Small Things years ago but couldn’t tell you the plot now. TMoUH reminds me a bit of Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children with long ambling digressions and personal stories inextricably tied to the historical moment of independence and the partitioning of India and Pakistan. Like MC, I am constantly flipping between getting lost in the daily moments of the characters and just wanting her to get to the fucking point.
OMWC
I have the Alpha and Omega of essay collections. Let’s start with Alpha, and it encompasses the startling fact that, once upon a time, Fran Lebowitz was actually funny. Yes, amazing. While unpacking boxes of books to be shelved in our new home, I ran across my copy of Social Studies, which was a birthday present given to me when I was in grad school (and admittedly had a bit of a crush on her). This was before she had her long period of writer’s blockade, and morphed into a shrieking harpy resembling Linda Hunt on a bad day. These essays are actually funny, self-deprecating, and showing some insight into the culture of the time. Nothing profound, mind you, but fun and amusing, reminiscent of a similar oeuvre of Robert Benchley forty years previous to this. If you see a remaindered or used copy, grab it.
The omega is my later-in-life idol, Jorge Luis Borges, who could do it all- novels, short stories, poems, and essays. A brilliant and profound talent, with an imagination that only comes once every few centuries. Being the dullard I am, I have been enjoying another book dug up in our move, Selected Nonfictions, which covers language, history, culture, literature, politics, art… well, everything, really. And in this collection is my single favorite Borges essay, “The Art of Verbal Abuse.” I bet you were thinking I’d pick, “I, a Jew,” you fucking anti-semite. But every essay in here is a gem, immaculately translated, and bursting with insight and beauty.,Don’t wait for a sale or remainder, just buy this. Now.
mexicansharpshooter
I read this. I read it for ALL OF YOU. That’s it.
JW
Staff: We asked JW to tell us about what he was reading, but we found him curled up, sobbing in a blanket fort with a flashlight and a dog-eared copy of Old Yeller and figured he’d get to it later.
SugarFree
I have continued my Lovecraft Mythos kick, reading both early Mythos contributors, especially those writing while Lovecraft was still alive: Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Edward Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Henry Kuttner; and Lovecraft’s self-identified influences, collected in H. P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Weird Tales: The Roots of Modern Horror, edited by Douglas A. Anderson. While familiar faces appear–Poe, Machen, Bierce–I enjoyed reading the more obscure authors like M. L. Humphreys, whose story in the collection, “The Floor Above” (1923), is the only story he or she ever published and oft-anthologized “The Night Wire” (1926) by H. F. Arnold, another lost author. (His or her only other two short stories have never been republished since they originally appeared in pulps.)
Swiss Servator
Beer list, wine list, spirits list, contract for work, contract for work, contract for work, continuing legal education, continuing legal education…wait here it is!
So the United Methodist district I live in is shriveling under the sweaty hand of the bishop who is ever so slightly to the left of Chairman Mao. She has packed the district with mini-mes. And this coterie of pudgy, earnest leftwing, 50-60 somethings are too engaged in various protests and public temper tantrums to conduct much of a church. So I went Protestant shopping. Just across the bean field from my house sits a Lutheran church. So I wandered over, went to a traditional service. Met the pastor later on and he gave me a copy of said book. I got homework. Man, these people are serious. But, I guess it is good to do some due diligence, so I am about 20-25% through right now. I get a bit wary of the “with Explanation” part, but that is just the libertarian in me, I guess.
As I am in the Commandments, and the basics still, I can’t say much about the more advanced points. Also, I have not been ordered to burn OMWC’s house yet. So I have that going for me.
“So I went Protestant shopping.”
Don’t buy any Baptists. They aren’t any fun to play with.
Don’t buy any Baptists. They aren’t any fun to play with.
Oi! I represent that remark! {thinks a bit, remembers why he didn’t go into the ministry with the Baptist Union of Western Canada}
Okay, fine.
any Baptists ?
Try the Primitive Baptists: no catechism, no hierarchy, no tall building in ATL with a list of names and addresses,, no fees, no website.
Primitive Baptist churches arose in the mountainous regions of the American South, where they are found in their greatest numbers.
So, of course, there are none there. I think there are some in Arkansas.
Meanwhile, here’s what you need to know: read your KJ Bible.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.
How funny, Arundhati Roy uses exactly that joke when talking about Muslim unity in a post partition India.
Huh. I wouldn’t have thought that there would be enough Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region members in India for that to be a relatable joke. Then again, with a billion people, there are probably a few of everything there.
I have been fascinated how true hatred is way too often reserved for those that seem to believe something almost the same as you do.
For about a year I attended a Baptist church that was part of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. One Sunday they had a guest speaker and somehow or another he ended up talking about the end times (actually most of the sermons ended up there).
Warning: boring “angels on the head of a pin” discussion follows.
This really gets into the theological weeds but it speaks to Alex’s point. This church subscribed to something called dispensational premillennialism. Within that particular eschatology there are three interpretations of the Rapture (the event where believers are caught up to meet with Christ in the sky): pre-tribulation (rapture before the arrival of anti-christ); mid-trib, and post-trib.
Now, keep in mind, this church agrees with other pre-millennial people on EVERY aspect of Christian doctrine (not just the end times) except WHEN the rapture will occur. I don’t remember this speaker’s exact position but you’ll get the point: he declared himself to be pre-trib. He said mid-trib people were wrong but it was OK to enjoy Christian fellowship with them. However, post-trib people should be avoided as they were not true Christians.
I have been fascinated how true hatred is way too often reserved for those that seem to believe something almost the same as you do.
Near enemy v. far enemy.
Holy Wars, heh…
There are a few around where my mom used to live in Alabama. Along with an I Am temple.
When I lived in Central Texas I went to Temple every evening after work.
don’t think they’re getting it: Bell County is deep in the spleen of Texas
Nah, they probably are getting it, that’s why they are ignoring the non-religious pontificating…
I am temple, hear me roar?
Q: Why don’t Baptists ever have sex standing up?
A: It could lead to dancing.
I went to a small Southern Baptist university that didn’t allow dancing until 1988. I started there in ‘90. It was a weird place…
I think I saw the movie…
I know someone who knows someone who knows somebody in that movie!
every couple of years back in the day Playboy would run Girls of the SWC
and the inevitable Baylor participants would be tossed off campus
My school made Baylor look like a party school. We routinely made the bottom five, just above Oral Roberts and Bob Jones…
How can a school with Oral in the name not be a party school?!?
Baylor’s the place you can buy into after you don’t get into Austin. I didn’t know how sad they were until I got season tickets to the high school sitting next to my attorney; after a game or two of listening to his analysis, I moved my business. Apparently party is all they do.
Apparently party is all they do.
+
12 preacher’s daughters.True fact: my second girlfriend was a no-kidding Baptist preacher’s daughter. The stereotype held true in her case. Ay caramba!
I used to go to this Baptist church. You know, on account of being forced by my parents. One time a musical group came from another church to perform. Afterwards one of the elders stood up and had a fit about the fact that the musical group had drums. ‘Drums in the church, I won’t stand for a tool of the devil in the church!’. Seriously, those people were fucked up in the head.
That is pretty extreme, even for Baptists.
It’s like the Baptist Church doesn’t believe in the Psalms:
Lots of people get lots of things wrong. Also
a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities (1 Tim 5:23)
I remember the time my parents dragged us to Saturday evening Mass instead of Sunday morning, and instead of the organist, they had a folk music combo. Awful, awful, awful.
I was going to suggest he try Catholicism.
Eastern Orthodoxy is Catholicism without wokeness.
“Life in the Far West”, by George Fredeick Ruxton. Written in the Mountain Man dialect. Sometimes the expressions are a little hard to parse but the foot notes do a go job for those of us that speak Minnesodan.
Ruxton died at 28 but somehow accumulated a lot of experiences in a short life. Some controversy as to the accuracy of his biography. Interesting if not accurate, nonetheless.
go can be spelled good too.
I am in a period of reading books that a lot of people recommended but I hadn’t gotten to yet.
I just finished “Sapiens” by Yuval Harari, which I thought was great.
Now I am reading “Good Omens”. I’m going to watch the series after I’m done, because apparently I enjoy being disappointed.
Good Omens is one of my faves. I enjoyed the series, particularly David Tennant as Crowley and Jon Hamm as Gabriel.
I thought they did a good job with it. I’ll watch anything David Tennant’s in, though, and I do like Jon Hamm. I thought Michael Sheen was good, too.
They really got some of the nitty gritty details right. Did you happen to notice Crowley’s watch? It was brilliant.
No, but I binged it in a day with a kid who seems to believe that people in a room not talking is a problem she should personally solve by a loud stream-of-consciousness narrative if necessary. My wife wants to sit and watch it like adults. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
I’m about half-way through. I’ll have to keep an eye out. I read the book a decade ago and loved it. There were a few bits where I expected the voiceover to drop in and make some specific jokes. I’m not sure if I’m mis-remembering where they fall in things or no. Like famine’s assistant desperately wanting to chew on her laptop because she was so hungry made me laugh when reading, but they scooted through his intro in a split second.
Yes, the lack of backstory and details of the Four Horsemen (and especially the bit with the doomed bikers) was disappointing, but limited time means something has to be cut.
I was disappointed when I read it (long time ago).
I am considering watching the series.
I have heard good things too. To some people that book is as important as the Bible, so it’s nice to hear they put some effort into the series.
If you haven’t read any other Pratchett, I hope this book convinces you to pick him up. A great author with a libertarian streak that comes through in some of his books.
It’s finally dawned on my why I’ve been putting off The Shepherd’s Crown so much. Once I’m done with it, there will be no more Discworld books for me to read.
I second this. I can’t count how many times I’ve reread some of that series.
Obviously the ones with Sam Rimes are brilliant. This quote always stays with me:
I’ve read Night Watch probably at least half a dozen times, and Hogfather usually gets read around Christmas every year. I was able to convince the girlfriend to watch the live action version of Hogfather this year, and she was surprised that a comedy show about Death taking over the role of Santa Claus would have a deep meaning.
I have some small hopes for the announced tv show.
Ha! Hogfather is a yearly read for me as well.
Just read Feet of Clay again recently. It’s a great one and has some thought provoking questions about natural rights and what constitutes life.
Pratchett was a genius.
I’ve not read a Discworld book since “Unseen Academicals”, which broke my heart. Good ideas in it but I could tell Sir Terry was not doing well with how it meandered and ultimately went nowhere.
He was too good for this world and we didn’t deserve him, poor man. And Gaiman is a hack not fit to lick his boots, whose main talent is stealing and repackaging Terry’s ideas for sub-literate goths in the 90s.
Raising Steam appears to have been written by someone else. There’s at least one section that goes through the Patrician’s thoughts, as opposed to just hinting at them.
I’ve not read a Discworld book since “Unseen Academicals”, which broke my heart.
That’s where I stopped too.
It was a decent enough book. But Terry wasn’t really Terry anymore.
I’m the very same. I’ve read every one of his books, most of them multiple times. But I haven’t cracked The Shepherd’s Crown yet…
I think I may be one or two behind. The Night Watch books are, to my mind, the pinnacle. I regularly quote* the Patrician:
“This is a democracy. One man, one vote. I am the man, and I have the vote.”
*Well, probably not exactly.
The Death ones are my favorite. The human idea of Death (and his adopted grand daughter) against the uncaring forces of the universe. The Night Watch are a close second though.
Yeah but they put effort into American Gods with Gaiman onboard as a creative consultant and it SUCKED
It also has IMO the single worst piece of political bullshit I have ever seen in any video media with their anti gun episode
Ah, you never watched the Arrow or Supergirl anti-gun episodes then, have you?
Even anti-gun people were bitching about how bad those episodes were.
American Gods is a seriously beautiful show, but I punched out after the first season. Deviations from the book aside, I’m starting to think I don’t actually like Gaiman as much as everyone else seems to.
I can only take him in small doses.
I really, really liked Neverwhere and Stardust, but kind of lost interest after American Gods.
I refuse to watch any adaptations of those two, because I don’t want them ruined in my mind.
Re: post-colonial/diaspora. I’ve not read much of this but V.S. Naipaul’s “Enigma of Arrival” is one of my all-time favorite reads. The only Rushdie I’ve read was “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and I thought it was meh.
I’ve enjoyed all of the Naipaul that I’ve read, but don’t think I’ve read that one. As far as Rushdie goes, I liked Satanic Verses well enough. I don’t think it should’ve earned the poor fellow a fatwa. Midnight’s Children was beautiful, but the entire first half of the book dealt with the protagonist’s father and grandparents from the time his grandparents met. I started it twice and got about a quarter of the way in before I’d get frustrated and struggle up to just before the half way point and then give up again.
I haven’t picked up Rushdie in over twenty years, but I liked Haroun and the Sea of Stories best out of the lot. Midnight’s Children behind that and Satanic Verses was so so after the buildup over it’s publication. I don’t think I went back to the Moor’s Last Sigh or anything more recent.
Thanks Jesse & GL, that’s helpful. I read MLS because somewhere I read it as his best book. So, I need to try some others.
Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje was quite good. It’s a bit weird to talk about a Canadian of Dutch descent as part of the Indian diaspora but he was born in Ceylon, so it kinda works. I haven’t read The English Patient, but a few people I know who have read both found Anil’s Ghost a more compelling read.
PHOEBE: Why are you guys so upset? It’s Old Yeller, it’s a happy movie.
RACHEL: What?
ROSS: What’re you talkin’ about?
PHOEBE: C’mon, happy family gets a dog, frontier fun.
ROSS: Yeah but Phoebs, what about the end?
PHOEBE: What when Yeller saves saves the family from the wolf and everyone’s happy?
Friends “The One Where Old Yeller Dies”
Currently reading yet another Dick Francis novel: Knockdown
I’m tearing through his bibliography, up to 1970s material so far. And, as an aside, it is interesting to compare how much has changed in the UK culture since then. Also I’m not tired of horses, jockeys, and the racing culture – yet. Actually getting more interested and some day may head down to a race in Kentucky.
Also reading the second Bulldog Drummond book: The Black Gang – which has BD and his group of WW1 veterans smashing up a communist ring of revolutionaries. Some pretty strong anti-Semitism from the writer. (((They’re))) all white slavers, drug dealers, and anti-English way of life.
I’ve read a bunch of the Francis books. Always enjoyed them, too.
Coincidentally, I went to the races last night for the first time in 20 years. We went with a big group, a few of whom were pretty into it, so it was kind of fun to watch the proceedings and learn a little about the culture.
“I went to the races last night for the first time in 20 years. We went with a big group”
I had plans to go to the racist big group meeting last night but BLM cancelled at the last minute for lack of local participants.
I went to the All You Eat Chicken place insted
(((They’re))) all white slavers, drug dealers, and anti-English way of life.
More of a documentary, then?
Finished both volumes of “Bodyguard of Lies” by Anthony Cave Brown. It describes the multiple, world wide deception efforts in WWII to protect ULTRA and deceive “zee Germans” on where the invasion would take place, It is a fascinating tale of widespread betrayal, cold blooded calculation, and imagination.
“The Milwaukee Road Revisited” by Stanley W Johnson. It is a combination of a son’s memories of his father, travelogue through Idaho and western Montana, and history of one portion of one railroad in the American west. The author writes with wit and a keen eye. A fun read and I will keep it on my shelf.
For work I was reading much. Both technical works and strategic thought pieces. Depressing at times but interesting.
I’m reading the US Power Squadron’s “Seamanship” textbook. Got a test on Monday!
Also reading “The Diabetes Code” by Jason Fung
Prior to or after the abandonment of the Pacific Extension?
dblegle, I’ll have to read The Miwaukee Road book. I live just north of Three Forks where the story starts and there are several sections of the route I’m going to bike. thx
Finished both volumes of “Bodyguard of Lies” by Anthony Cave Brown. It describes the multiple, world wide deception efforts in WWII to protect ULTRA and deceive “zee Germans” on where the invasion would take place,
You might like the movie The Man Who Never Was, about Operation Mincemeat, a plan to try to deceive the Nazis about where the invasion of Italy would be.
I’m almost done with Doctor Who & the Krikkitmen. It’s another 4th Doctor novel (try to feign surprise) written by Douglas Adams & James Goss. It’s very Douglas Adams. I like it so far, even if it’s a bit silly. I liked Scratchman better though.
Short Stories by CS Lewis – Gott in Himmel, I wish Lewis finished The Dark Tower. Recommended
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone – It was great. White collar trans urban fantasy doesn’t *sound like* my cup of tea, but this was my cup of tea. Recommended
Uprooted by Naomi Novik – This was also great. People say its a retelling of Polish fairy tales, but to me it feels like a modern fantasy story highly, highly influenced by the sensibilities and motifs of Eastern European tales. Possibly my new favorite fantasy book. Recommended
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett – You know how the newest Mad Max is a great action movie because all the action scenes have perfect choreography, where each person’s location, orientation, and acceleration is maintained even when off-screen. This is the exact opposite. People have time for five paragraph monologues between punches being thrown. Our plucky supernatural protagonist leaps 20 foot chasms without any supernatural help. I put it down 15% of the way through. Not Recommended.
Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory and (most of) Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik – Age of Sail + RAF + Fucking Dragons + Globetrotting continues to be great. Recommended
“I wish Lewis finished The Dark Tower. Recommended”
It freaked me out, I both wish he had finished and am glad he didnt.
That Hideous Strength is the only novel that has ever given me nightmares, I hate to think what a complete Dark Tower would have done.
I need to reread the Space Trilogy.
I’ve been on a bad run of books that I couldn’t be arsed to finish, went back to MacLean an read Night Without End, Now I’m reading Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride, one of my go to authors hopefully this kicks my reading back into gear.
You had mentioned MacBride a week or two ago so I picked up Cold Granite. About 3/4 through. Enjoying enough that I have the next book in that series today:).
Cool, glad you are enjoying them, as you can tell I’m a big fan.
I finally finished “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon”. What a slog that turned out to be.
I am reading Heinlein’s “Space Cadet”.
I haven’t thought about “Space Cadet” in years.
That does remind me that my nephews are getting to the age where they should be able to appreciate the Heinlein juveniles. I gave the oldest Ender’s Game last year.
I bought my grandkids the entire series of Heinlein juveniles. I don’t think any of them read a single book.
Favorites; Tunnel in the Sky and Starman Jones (because it was my first and you never forget your first.)
I finished the second Bosch book, Black Ice. It was OK, but I had trouble finishing it. I may try one more further along in the series to see if they get tighter.
From a recommendation from SP, I read John Talton’s Concrete Desert. It was a really interesting story and was decently paced. I’ll probably order the next one.
I believe it was The Hyperbole that recommended the Logan McRae series by Stuart MacBride. I just finished Cold Granite and while Hyp’s description of the crimes as ‘ghastly’ was underselling them by quite a bit, I thought it was an excellent book. An added bonus is that they are set in Aberdeen, the area of Scotland from where my family bailed out. Will read more.
I am considering redoing my deck, so Ive been reading some deck bools for idea. Boring.
I preordered a book called Beyond the Edge of the Map by some dude named Robert. I’m looking forward to it.
The wife and I just started watching the Bosch TV series, finished season one last night. I don’t read a lot of novels but I enjoyed the show so I thought I might check them out.
Yeah, the show is great. I may have had too high of expectations.
Also, many authors take awhile to get their feet under them. Ian Rankin started to really cook around book 5 or 6.
Completely subjective word of advice: don’t give up on Bosch after Season 3. I thought that one was pretty weak but S4 was excellent & S5 v. good. Of course, YMMV.
I gave up in S2.
#metoo
Just ordered in dead tree form.
‘ghastly’ was underselling them by quite a bit
Wait til you get to Flesh House. Glad you liked it.
I preordered a book called Beyond the Edge of the Map by some dude named Robert. I’m looking forward to it.
Ditto. I’m also reading through Shadowboy by this same mysterious author. So far its a light, enjoyable read that has deeper undertones. Very much the type of book I like to read for pleasure.
I’m also finishing up Histories, which has captured my attention, despite being so long that I had to renew the audiobook twice.
I do hope all of you enjoy the book.
OT: Wait, wut? Kamala Harris graduated from a high school in Quebec?
Most recently I read If a Pirate I Must Be, a biography of Bartholomew Roberts. Nice fun read. Working on The Looming Tower now, which I started years ago but never finished.
After we bailed on the Papists and did a short stint with the Episcopalians, we landed at a Lutheran church. Familiar enough service, but without the altar-boy abuse. Absolutely brilliant pastor that managed to keep stupid political shit out of the church.
The Episcopal church was fine but sweet jesus were they woke.
I’m a proud Joepiscopolian.
I’ve been thinking about going back to the Episcopal church but I’ve heard the woke thing, too, and I’m leery.
I’m sure it depends on the individual church, but I know there have been schisms.
Maybe just join the Sikhs to be safe.
It varies. The local Episcopal church is fairly non-political, the Methodists lean left, the Presbyterians lean a little left, and the frikkin’ Baptist church has a flaming commie prog in for a pastor right now.
I was raised Catholic, but my wife (especially early in our marriage) hates the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, while I was never a hardcore Catholic. my upbringing nevertheless instilled in me a pronounced discomfort with the style of many Protestant churches. Fortunately, she’s Lutheran, and the service is about 90% the same as a mass, plus none of that clapping and whatnot that I find so unsettling. Nothing woke at all about our church, which is more than I can say about the last Catholic mass I attended where the sermon was all about immigration.
Been reading the Silmarillion, which is the first non-fiction book I’ve read in years. It’s been enjoyable.
I’ve been reading the Silmarillion since about 2003.
Speaking of reading, I’ve been reading a couple of obituaries about Justin Raimondo today (including in National Review which is peak irony), but in one obituary there was a link to a gay liberation tract that he wrote in 1979. At a time when he was pushing the LP to fully embrace gay rights, while some members thought that fully embracing the gay rights movement would alienate possible supporters. This is some brave shit to have written in the 1970’s and it’s worth a read.
https://antiwar.me/aw/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Raimondo-In_Praise_of_Outlaws.pdf
My younger sister obsesses about her lesbianism and their imaginary struggles. She gets really upset when I tell her that the snuggle was fought and won by people she has never heard of. I may send her this.
Nice John-o
BAM!
Huh. It’s certainly interesting. I think he misunderstands or misrepresents some of the history he’s using to justify his position in this. Without the context of what the gay rights movement looked like prior to Stonewall and the Gay Liberation movement he makes it sounds like anything other than being a GLF member was a betrayal of cultural identity. He also seems (I’m only part way through) to either not realize or not want to disclose that one of the decisive things about the failure of the Briggs Amendment was Ronald Reagan coming out against it as being unnecessary bullshit, which sapped conservative support for it in CA…
He makes a rousing case that gays should boldly assert ourselves as a unique cultural identity, but history suggests that we can only do so as long as we don’t antagonize the straight majority enough to withhold support or to actively punish.
This seems to be correct to me, and there has been some experimental research recently that has demonstrated that uninterested third parties are much more receptive to request to change culture when those requests don’t come with violations of cultural norms.
But even then, and I’m sure this is my cis het privileged showing or whatever, but why would median-gay-person *want* to assert them self as part of a unique cultural identity? That sounds pretty miserable. I mean, yeah, I was 15 once to, but what’s the end game here? Why isn’t detente with the straights and the normies the goal?
I mean, I fall someplace in between the assimilationists and the radicals. There’s value in respectability, but I don’t think it’s the only virtue and I don’t think it should be pursued at all costs. Before Stonewall the Mattachine Society, the flagship group of the homophile movement (precursor to what we’d now call the gay rights movement) made a point of protests only containing feminine looking women in dresses and masculine looking men in suits, and that was fine for the moment. But why can’t there be room for flamboyant florists and butch dykes and RuPaul and whatnot?
Listen, if you don’t want to be treated like a thug, don’t dress like a thug. I mean, how can blacks expect cops to treat them with respect when they listen to the hippity-hop music loudly?
You all realize this was written in 1979, right? Seems pretty easy to judge a piece written by someone who was saying something unpopular from the year 2019. Should we pick apart the abolitionist pieces from the 1800’s next?
I apologize if my sarcasm wasn’t clear. I’m not criticizing Raimondo’s argument, but supporting it. Gay men and women shouldn’t have to be in lockstep with the cultural norms of the majority as a prerequisite to be treated with equality before the law. The same with African-Americans or any other minority group.
Once again my reading abilities fail me
I’m picking at it based on its own historical context not the contemporary one. I think it’s interesting, and I agree with much of his overall point, but it’s also either a deeply flawed understanding of its historical moment or an intentional misrepresentation of it.
If you really want bravery for its time period pick up Jeremy Bentham’s Offenses Against Oneself from the 1790s.
gays should boldly assert ourselves as a unique cultural identity, but history suggests that we can only do so as long as we don’t antagonize the straight majority enough to withhold support or to actively punish
Pretty sure that’s typical of subcultures everywhere, historically, to greater and lesser degrees.
Gay men and women shouldn’t have to be in lockstep with the cultural norms of the majority as a prerequisite to be treated with equality before the law.
No question. But social/cultural acceptance requires some commonality, and especially not antagonizing or attacking the dominant culture (well, more than a little, anyway). I think the “shooting the survivors” phase we are seeing now on the Left, where people who don’t enthusiastically support a subculture even when it attacks their (sub)culture, is crossing that line.
In this piece, it seems to me that Raimondo couldn’t have given two shits about social/cultural acceptance. He just wanted to be left alone.
Old School. I respect that.
Its the current “look at meeee” flavor of activism that sandpapers my ass, and since it seeks attention, too often goes oppositional/confrontational. Go right ahead, but if you’re acting the asshole don’t expect my support and “celebration”.
They demand affirmation instead of toleration, and they are willing to pursue it at the expense of other’s individual rights.
One might begin to think that the subversion of individual rights was the entire point for some all along.
left alone
That’s where we need to be across the board. I don’t need to tolerate or even observe others other than to support their right to enjoy their property as they see fit as an analog to my similar selfish concerns. Accordingly, among my priorites is to rage against police as the heavy hand of mayors and governors used to disabuse others of their property rights.
Indeed, Randolph Bourne, who is the intellectual and ideological founder of Antiwar.com, wrote an excellent essay “Trans-national America,” which if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do. Particularly, because many of the same things that we debate now where also debated 100 years ago.
I tried to reread “Lost Near the Beltway,” but it is now behind a paywall.
I’ve been reading the Chicken Squad series of books. Fun set of books that detail the misadventures of four chicks that live in a backyard coop.
recap of a scene…
A chick name Sugar needs a new name in a group full other chicks that start with “B” so she chooses Booger.
“Why did you choose Booger?”
“I needed a name quick. I picked Booger and it stuck.”
This series is seven year old approved.
Also reading Called to Freedom. Nice book, it’s a set of essays from five (?) authors about reconciling being a Christian and a libertarian.
I read My Secret Life which is supposedly a historically-important porn novel. It was fairly interesting, primarily because of exactly how different the attitudes of the protagonist are compared with today. I also learned the terms flat-fucking and gamahuche.
After enjoying Sean McIndoe’s hockey columns in theatletic.com, I read his book on the history of the NHL: The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL. It didn’t disappoint. As much humor and wit as his regular columns.
https://theathletic.com
Thanks. I’ll get it.
He’s one of my everyday reads. I can’t believe how prolific and funny he is.
speaking of hockey, many years ago I picked up the Don Cherry biography called Grapes. Highly recommended for some old school hockey stories.
Non-Fiction:
Finished “For God and Kaiser: Austrian army 1619-1918” and can warmly recommend it. If nothing else, it brings a new angle to Sarajevo assassination I haven’t heard before!
Also read “Blitzed”, about drug use in Nazi Germany. Quite funny when author went on a tangent about how Drug War of today does not differ from Nazi War on Drugs of 1933. It’s basically two parts, use of methamphetamines in German armed forces (with extra attention paid to 1940 invasion of France) and what Hitler’s doctors (Theo Morell in particular) were injecting him with, which becomes darkly comical. I guess this is revised edition because reviews generally attack the author for “getting Hitler off the hook by blaming The Drugs”, and the book has two places where he straight up says “Drugs didn’t make Hitler do all this shit, he did it because he was Hitler. Drugs did let him remain Hitler in the face of crumbling reality near the end.”
Fiction:
“Sakura: Intellectual Property”, beause Larry Correia recommended it. Pretty neat concent, in Cyberpunk Future a heavy metal-idol cyborg gets infected with assassin virus and starts killing against her will, with virus becoming a separate personality. Reads OK but the story is, author died as he finished the first draft, so his friends got together and finished the book for his family, so it isn’t as tight as it should be.
Other Kind of Life, by my favorite video game blogger and essayist. Cyberpunk again, but more down-to-earth, with some great exploration of how AI would actually work. A released con teams up with a reasonably advanced AI to figure out why menial work robots have killed people when that should be outside their programming. There are some interesting libertarian ideas in there, specifically our con-man having a bee about government cons being not only as rotten as his, but being completely inefficient by comparison (“they waste millions to skim a few thousands off!”)
Arriving from Arkansas by Mythical. A romance set in 1870s Nevada, with some neat historical detail, an afterword about female prospectors who were the basis for the heroine, and the first in a series set in the same town. Support your own for only a buck!
Up next:
“Sailing to Sarantium” by G. G. Kay was pressed on me, on account of me being a huge fan of “Lions of Al-Rassan” (seriously, better than Game of Thrones and sequels, and it’s a one-and-done book) and a huge Byzaboo.
Whoops, dicked up the link for “Other Kind of Life”. Should be here.
Publisher just marked the price up to $4.99 this morning so if you want it for a buck you better hurry before Amazon’s servers catch up ?
Pan, Kay has out a new one: “A Brightness Long Ago”. It’s high on my reading list. As, if and when you get around to the second book in the Sarantine Mosaic, “Lord of Emperorers”, I think you’ll enjoy it.
I might pick up the Kaiser book. We were just in Vienna and I became aware of how little I know about all of that, and what I did know was very obviously the English-French side of things. It was pretty interesting history.
]
Just started reading “The Bed of Procrustes” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It’s interesting. It’s basically a book full of aphorisms, so it’s sort of a bit of reading a quip, thinking about it, seeing if anything happens, and then moving on. I’m interested in picking up “The Black Swan” which might be his most famous book, but I figured this would be a good entry into his stuff. I don’t know if I’m buying in to his overall schtick, but there are some pearls in there so far–“The ultimate freedom lies in not having to explain why you did something”–along with some stuff he obviously dictated into a digital recorder while in the shower and other stuff that I don’t agree with but appreciate as a catalyst for considering the topic.
“Sharpe’s Enemy” by Bernard Cornwell. Another in the Sharpe series. Same old stuff, which is what I was looking for. It’s my favorite historical fiction series thus far, although the other two series I’ve been reading, the Hornblower books and the Aubrey-Maturin books, are close.
Grinding my way through 2 Chronicles. Now I’m just doing it because I’m stubborn.
If you thin Chronicles is hard, wait until you get to Lamentations.
I’ve discussed this about Taleb with my fellow Glib demigods, Warty in particular, before: what frustrates me about Taleb is that he’ll write on a topic and I’ll agree with 90 percent of what he says, and then, just as he’s made his case, he over-eggs the pudding with a wildly generalized and unsupported claim that undermines his authority on the topic. I’ve noticed this when he writes on linguistics (his argument about lingua francas or the typology of Levantine Arabic) and IQ/pyschometrics. In short, Taleb needs to realize that “skin in the game” applies to himself as well.
So much this!
Everything you said about him I agree with 100% (or maybe 90%). You can also replace his name with Ayn Rand and get the same result.
For me, it was his opposition to GMOs that went entirely off.
Taleb falls victim to his own ego. But what else could you expect from a god among mere mortals?
A suit on government takings. It will have huge impacts on a lot of people yet I don’t think any of them understand what the suit is about or what its effects will be. I am scratching my head myself.
Which one?
Which one? Is it for a case or do you recommend it for reading?
The Books of Bokonon.
Donation,
Re: last thread
Yes, too intrusive.
That is definitely a high bar. I hope you consider the hypothetical to at least met Constitutional muster even if it is not libertarian enough.
Nerd movie incoming!
Luther’s Small Catechism
If you’re looking for a companion book on the spiritual disciplines side, I highly recommend the Lutheran book of prayer.
It’s meant more to reference than to read like a novel, but you can learn a lot about Lutheranism by reading through and praying the prayers.
I started reading Treasure Island and took Mote in God’s Eye on the airplane with me this week to reread for the nteenth time. I made it thru part 1.
arrest in missing sugar baby case
On Wednesday night police executed one of many warrants in the case and searched the home of someone they determined to be a person of interest, Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said
Is it too much to ask for someone to ask for the basis of the warrant ?
been reading Bravest Battle about the Warsaw ghetto uprising that lasted 28 days. it’s described thusly:
full-scale, step-by-step account of the climatic twenty-eight-day struggle of the poorly armed Jews against their Nazi exterminators. The Bravest Battle took more than two years to write and involved interviewing more than 500 people, including most of the surviving fighters.
the chapters are day-to-day. i’m on Day 10. the Nazis are currently firebombing buildings trying to burn the remaining fighters and other Jews out of their bunkers. only about 1500 of the 60,000 remaining were considered “fighters”. it’s a series ambushes and efforts to procure more rifles and grenades. several accounts woven together. it’s dramatic and desperate. i recommend it.
after Day 5 there’s a break in the dialogue and you’re shown pictures of several of the protagonists as well as several more-infamous antagonists. here’s one of the badder mofos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Anielewicz
how normal he looks. i’m sure after Day 2 of half-starving and fighting for his life he looks harder and not a little bit feral.
as a Virginia resident, our ability to purchase standard cap mags is waning so i’m shopping over at Cabela’s. here’s the restrictions for a 30-round mag:
Cannot Ship:
Vermont
New York
APO/FPO addresses
International addresses
Hawaii
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 603
United States Territories
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 604
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 605
California
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 606
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 600
New Jersey
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 601
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 607
United States addresses that have a zip code that starts with 608
Colorado
Massachusetts
Connecticut
District Of Columbia
Maryland
30 round mags are crap. Too many rounds and they get tangled up. Get 20 round mags and load them with 15-18 rounds. Do that with good quality mags and they feed smoothly and reliably. Practice changing mags and in most platforms you can do it in less than a second.
?? This isn’t 1971. 30 round AR mags, of good quality, are just fine.
*looks at calendar*
Get the hell off of my lawn!
Look, when I did comp the standard was a SW model 10 slicked up. There were a few pythons but they were few and never placed.
I earned all of these grey hairs fair and square.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q-QVBQVYTA
*not a fan of the AR platform. Mini-14 here but reloading mags is a bit slower.*
Meanwhile, some good news on the gun front from Ohio.
alright Ohio! but what a slog. it now has to go before another committee before the full House, and then Senate, and then former-prosecutor DeWine.
loathe the shrill nagging:
Jill Bowman, a Cincinnati activist with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said her group, which pushes for tighter gun laws, will continue lobbying against the bill.
“I don’t understand how people can’t realize that more people armed are likely to cause more injuries or more shootings,” she said. “I don’t understand that concept. The bill’s just a bad bill.”
Virginia CHP holders have no duty to inform.
[GOP committee member] Smith did not [vote for it], after he failed to convince members to amend the bill to keep a requirement that concealed-weapon carriers notify police officers during a stop that they have a gun.
that is just nuts. why would you escalate an already shitty encounter that, at best, results in a traffic ticket.
Under the current law, you need to inform the police promptly if you are involved in a traffic stop (as passenger or driver), or stopped for other law enforcement activities. And you are prohibited from touching the gun with your hands or fingers until after the cop (sorry ” law enforcement officer”) leaves.
No shit. No duty to inform in most states.
https://www.usacarry.com/duty-to-inform-laws/
What is funny is how many states had peaceable journey laws before more liberal carry laws came along. Then, subsequently, in stupid states like Texas, the carry law originally had a duty to inform whereas the peaceable journey did not. BECAUSE I had a permit, I had to inform in a way that someone WITHOUT a permit would not.
This is typical evidence that Texas is just a different sort of nanny state instead of being the American ideal they claim: their urge to freedom is a hodgepodge and a secondary destination arrived at only after it is understood that enacting freedom has come to become a fresh key to retaining office; there is no internal predilection for legislators to simply fuck off in a matter when that should be the primary, obvious, and best answer.
This is typical evidence that Texas is just a different sort of nanny state
Sadly true. It took me a little while to get used to the relative lack of statutes and regulations when I moved from Texas to Arizona.
“I don’t understand how people can’t realize that more people armed are likely to cause more injuries or more shootings,” she said. “I don’t understand that concept. ”
Shorter Jill: “I am a moron”
Shit, spell check. ‘maroon’
“that is just nuts. why would you escalate an already shitty encounter that, at best, results in a traffic ticket.”
I think you’re kinda famned if you do, damned if you dont. If you inform a cop you’re armed, he’s gonna get a jumpy.
If you don’t inform and he somehow discovers on his own that you are armed, he’s liable to get shooty.
Neither situation is good.
I don’t understand how people can’t realize that more people armed are likely to cause more injuries or more shootings,
That’s because you aren’t very smart, sweetie. You can arm 1,000 good law-abiding people, and you will get zero injuries or unjustified shootings.
You can disarm 1,000 good law-abiding people, and you will get zero reductions in injuries or unjustified shootings.
Thanks, Raston. Looks like a cool book. It’s going on the list!
don’t look for any warm and fuzzy moments. it’s really about plumbing the depths of man’s inhumanity toward fellow man.
Pimps don’t read; they get read to.
Nods….
41 Republican Senators just broke their oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Such a cluster-fuck I don’t even know where to start.
This stupid game of tit for tat is getting old.
There is only one party and they all genuflect before the same perverse God. What a shameful display.
I mean, I don’t really know why they bother to vote on shit like this anymore anyway. Congress ceded its authority to declare war over to the president decades ago.
Because they can take it back any time they like and should.
Jesus, at least Augustus had to wrest power away from the Senate, these chumps are giving it away.
Doing their job is difficult, and they would much rather someone else make the though choices so they can’t be held accountable for unpopular bullshit like this.
“Senate Republicans tallied enough votes Friday morning to block a largely Democratic-backed amendment that would require President Donald Trump to get congressional approval before striking Iran militarily.”
I know this is quaint, but why would a bill be required for this? War powers reside with Congress. I know they ceded much to the executive through the passage of the AUMF, but I find it hard to believe that a bill authorizing the president to make war on the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack could be twisted to justify war with Iran.
Should the Congress have to pass a bill that names every specific country, organization, group, tribe, clan, association, gathering, religious sect, ideology, etc. that the president isnt allowed to make war in order to stop him from making war. Power to make war is supposed to flow in the other direction.
Even if the bill passed, it wouldn’t make any difference to Trump’s (current) policy, which as near as I can tell is to not strike Iran unless and until they attack us. The President doesn’t need Congressional authority to respond to an attack, and never has, really. Otherwise, everyone who fought back at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in the Pacific before war was formally declared would have been up on charges.
I think the Iranians are being pretty careful – they didn’t quite bait him by shooting down a drone, but I think they know if they kill Americans in the Gulf they will get hammered. And it won’t be after Congress gives permission, either.
As long as Trump only hits Iran after they initiate (beyond a certain point) aggression, I’m fine with a retaliatory strike. Of course, Iran has been openly at war with us for decades, and has killed thousands of Americans. Its remarkable what we have tolerated, really. And a good thing, because going full unconditional surrender on Iran wouldn’t be worth it, IMO.
“Iran has been openly at war with us for decades, and has killed thousands of Americans.”
Where were these Americans that were supposedly killed by Iranians at the times of their deaths?
Not in Iran. Mostly in Iraq.
My understanding is that claim of Iranian support in Iraq consists of weapons given to Iraqis and bot any Iranians doing the fighting.
To me, that is pretty far from Iran being openly at war with the U.S.
That is more like the Shia in Iran supporting the Shia in Iraq so that they can have some sone influence in the power structure of a country that used to be their biggest enemy before the U.S. invaded and knocked the Sunni minority/anti Iran government out of power.
My understanding is that claim of Iranian support in Iraq consists of weapons given to Iraqis and bot any Iranians doing the fighting.
Proxies count, in my book. And my understanding is that there were plenty of Quds fighters in Iraq as well.
Don’t get me wrong – the mullahs aren’t worth sending in the infantry for unconditional victory.
Hikikomori by Saito Tamaki.
Wasn’t sure if that was fiction or non-fiction!
Tamaki Saitō
This seems to be his specialization. Is it new? I don’t see note of an English translation in wiki.
By the same author:
Beautiful Fighting Girl
From Cutie Honey and Sailor Moon to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the worlds of Japanese anime and manga teem with prepubescent girls toting deadly weapons. Sometimes overtly sexual, always intensely cute, the beautiful fighting girl has been both hailed as a feminist icon and condemned as a symptom of the objectification of young women in Japanese society.
https://www.amazon.com/Hikikomori-Adolescence-without-Saito-Tamaki/dp/081665459X
DAMMIT
https://www.businessinsider.com/deepnude-app-deepfake-fake-nudes-women-shut-down-2019-6
Ummm… ok.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7187609/Modern-day-dandy-25-shuns-current-fashion-dress-1820s-gent.html
Well…..that’s certainly something.
There really needs to be more anarcho-dandyists on here. After Gilmore left, I’ve felt alienated and alone.
Unpopular Opinion: The wing of libertarianism whose entire wardrobe consists of cargo shorts and a t-shirt with a video game or comic book reference needs to be frog-marched into the public square and feed to the Brazen Bull.
I realize that this would be approximately 99.97% of libertarians, but omelets and eggs.
Hah! I don’t own cargo shorts!
I’m not happy about it, but welcome to the Elect.
Am I in too for owning neither the shorts nor the comic book referencing shirts?
Ditto also. I don’t like non-standard pockets on my pants.
Yes, my children.
I do have many comic book referencing shirts, as well as beer referencing ones, and concert shirts. But no cargo shorts.
“Yes, my children.”
Wait, does that make us the cool kids or just HM’s bitchez?
I don’t own any t-shirts with video game or comic book references. Combined, you and I make one respectable person.
You shut your whore mouth.
That’s just hateful.
I wear cargo shorts with camp shirts, like a Real Libertarian.
I wear cargo shorts with calf high slip on work boots.
Eat me, HM
Muh uesfuhl pokets!
Cargo shorts & polo shirt.
Accessorized with a black gun belt & matching leather holster carrying a 9mm.
Suck it.
Cargo shorts and polo shirt . . . . . pulling a golf cart and looking sad and old.
Wait a minute.
I’m supposed to be wearing clothes?
Correct response right here
My wardrobe consists of jeans, button up shirts, black socks and boots. Pajama pants and t-shirts if I am laying around the house. Did I mention before the 44 Ruger and the Mauser? I keep them handy too. That brass bull tender would look a lot better with a rifle ball between his eyes.
The Fashion Police, like every LEO department, have a BearCat and a SWAT team.
I respect your making a last stand, however.
Are the Fashion Police coming for my uncool niece?
No…..although you may want to watch out for the Suede Denim Secret Police
I will defend my button up shirts with my last breath.
And my button down collars ( in defiance of Gilmore ) are my defense against seatbelts.
Do you wear the combat boots with the jammies, Suthen? Because if you do, I expect people will leave you alone. No one fucks with a guy in jammies and combat boots, cause you can never tell what he might do.
Steel toed wellingtons.
I guess I am scary. I don’t mean to be. But there you have it.
I’ve had several people, after talking to them, suddenly say ‘You’re not mean!’. I’m like ‘wut?’… and they say ‘You look really mean, but you’re so nice!’. And I say, if you look mean, people tend to leave you alone, so don’t tell anyone I’m nice.
“or else”, right?
If hiking shorts don’t count as cargo shorts, I don’t own them either.
Cresta hiking pants from LL Bean are the best things ever.
I don’t have to show my white legs, yet I’m cool and comfortable.
Ah HM. You’re not alone. I don’t own cargo shorts or comic book t shirts.
Also, in HM’s world the men are suited up and the women are in athleisure?
Let’s add competitive knotting of manly neck-wear to the decathlon for the next rendezvous.
Four-in-hand, Windsor, and Half Windsor categories?
I don’t own a single pair of cargo shorts because I am not a fraternity member at an SEC school. I do however, wear cut-off BDUs exclusively (unless the temp drops into the single digits or wifey browbeats me into grudgingly donning trousers). I pair those BDUs with nice seersucker shirts from Land’s End. Long pants are an abomination.
My haberdasher just called to let me know my made-to-measure linen shirts are ready. Nor do I own cargo shorts.
Good day, sir.
The Beau Brummell reminded me of this video I ran across a little while ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vOGu_XtctY
I found this surprisingly compelling; that dude is my fashion spirit animal.
Thanks for that link. I just started and am already enjoying the Hell out of it.
My knee-jerk reaction was “look at this fop” but ended with “I should dress better”.
He’s a compelling speaker.
His instagram is solid: https://www.instagram.com/parisian_gentleman/?hl=en
His wardrobe is excellent.
I had no idea you were a fashionist.
I’d wear something like that if I lived in the Arctic.
Cargo shorts are fine, in the right environment. Which mostly doesn’t extend beyond hiking or maybe working outdoors. I practically never go out in public without a real shirt one (mostly because a t-shirt is too honest; I need something to drape over my pudge).
I do not show up to the office during the week without a tie, shiny shoes, the whole 9 yards. Even when I come in on the weekends and nobody else is in my offices, I wear long pants and a shirt (not just a t-shirt).
a plain black t-shirt is very slimming
Black clothes do nothing for me but let the world know I have lots of cats.
I live in Tucson, where for big chunks of the year a plain black t-shirt might as well come with a sign “Take me to the nearest ED for intravenous rehydration”.
Bookmarked, HM. I especially like the logo, featuring a . . . wait for it . . . monocle. They went for a fedora, rather than a tophat, but I can forgive that.
The most interestng part of that story is that he makes his own clothes and has turned that into a business. So, more power to him.
Good lord, it’s the guy from the Kinks’ “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” come to life.
What percentage of people actually dressed like that?
He’s specifically patterning himself after Beau Brummell.
The wealthy elite.
Umm, what?
Get that guy a monocle, and he could be our spokesperson.
That dude is hung. Gotta be.
It works for him. He’s not hurt I anyone and he advertises his business. Plus, how handsome!
If the heat index wasn’t 111 here, I would dress more dapper. As it is, I wear shorts from chubbies and V-neck shirts or polos.
I’ve decided to re-read a bunch of my favorites as I sort through my book collection looking for stuff to purge.
Last month I mentioned that I polished off Shogun in about three days. I wanted to read The Source (Michener) but couldn’t find my copy so I dived into Hawaii next. Traditionally I had held Michener up as one of my three favorite authors but I was stuck by his bland writing style compared to Clavell. So I went back to the latter and re-read Tai-Pan. Of course that had to be followed by Noble House.
I’m now about 10% into Whirlwind but I’m starting to weary of the House of Struan and I found my copy of The Source so I might switch books.
donated my Shogun paperback. the ending was so abrupt i couldn’t get myself to read it again. i get it. the Bushido theme of restraint and discipline. but there was no reward at the end of the book for enduring that build-up.
Don’t read any more clavel then. He builds beautiful worlds, just to burn them down.
Well put. The end of “Shogun” was abrupt and disappointing.
I read the Asian saga. Every book I think “how is he going to tie up all these loose ends with only 20 pages left” answer, he ain’t.
I learned my lesson on Shogun and never tried his other works.
OTH, the mini-series was a hoot in retrospect. I wonder if it holds up?
I haven’t seen it since it aired. It was released on both the US and Japan, so the Japanese is genuine (but modern) I believe.
I’ve watched the mini series dozens of times. They did a really good job, but couldn’t capture all the minutiae in the book. Definitely worth a rewatch.
Thanks I’ll see if I can find it.
FYI – http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/Learning_from_shogun_txt.pdf
Cool link. Thanks.
I remember when it first aired. All the kids at school the next day were talking about the show where a guy got peed on.
Only three contracts? Pssht. Otherwise, pretty much my reading these days, also.
OT: Not only does he work for the evil Chick-fil-A, but also carries an pocket knife!
https://nypost.com/2019/06/28/chick-fil-a-worker-leaps-through-drive-thru-window-to-save-choking-boy/
I read Malice’s The New Right. I got nothing to add to MS’s review.
I listened to the Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haight. A great read, a pretty honest and thorough evaluation of college kid shenanigans and the causes. There is one chapter that is essentially the leftist authors saying we can’t blame everything on leftist values so here’s some weak arguments Where the right and The Age of Trump are to blame. There solutions the coddling of the American mind are even reasonable and implementable
Also good luck with Protestant shopping all the denominations are hopelessly leftist at least the national apparatus and seminaries are
Nope.
You just have to veer a little more charismatic (but not too far!).
Fiction:
The U.S. constitution.
Lachowsky wins the thread.
Except he’s wrong. The FYTW clause is very non-fiction.
Magical realism.
I’m writing a book, “Why you should stay inside, play video games and drink beer all day because it’s 96 fucking Fahrenheit outside”. Looking for a publisher…
See above for the discussion between Q and me about hikikomori.
Well, no chance of me going hikikomori, since I have a wifey in my house and my clients will also not be leaving me alone for every long after Sunday…
every, very damnit. Where’s muh edit button? *resurrects long dead edit button debate*
The US Women (ugh Rapinoe) just scored another garbage goal.
PK sans P?
Close, free kick where it just somehow bounces through everyone untouched.
What’s the point of watching women’s World Cup. We know who is going to win before the tournament even starts.
“We know who is going to win before the tournament even starts.”
The team completely made up of women who are biologically men?
BAZINGA!
Maybe next Cup.
SURELY we can find some teenaged boys willing to identify as women for the lulz.
4/5ths through The Craft Sequence: (Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, Last First Snow, Four Roads Cross) – omnibus edition of the first 5 Max Gladstone books.
On a recommendation from someone from here, I think.
Really enjoying them, though I got bogged down a bit in Last First Snow – since they’re in publication order, not chronological order (indicated by the number in the title), the fact I knew, in broad strokes, how things would turn out took away from it a bit.
I’m told that Four Roads Cross is so awesome the fact I’ve already read Full Fathom Five won’t matter.
Science like this is why you all should be drinking mad dog 20-20 or ripple!
Good thing I’m not eating the paint or the bottle.
“Toxic substances found in the glass and decoration of alcoholic beverage bottles”
Since we can’t drink out of glass or plastic bottles without poisoning ourselves, what do we do? Maybe we put oak barrels of you favorites in our private wine cellars and drink straight out of a tap. Wait, don’t tell me, a recent study concludes that oak barrels are poisoning us?
oak barrels are poisoning us
NOOOOOO!
Well, I guess I’ll just have to drink what I want, and die like a man.
Just finished off Massimo Pigliucci’s “How To Live Like a Stoic”. Excellent read for someone interested in the philosophy as a foundational work. Also read through “The Gift of Fire” by Richard Mitchell. IMHO, whether the guy acknowledged it or not, he was a libertarian (if you want to read some good stuff that isn’t just Mitchell, try SourceText.com. Fine, thoughtful articles.
For dessert, I’m doing a reread of Guy Gavriel Kay’s “Tigana”
I’m reading A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea. Very interesting, but very depressing.