A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that… More »
This is has been one of those weeks where – in the words of the late Molly Ivins – sitting down and powering up the internet of a morning was kind of like opening the refrigerator and seeing Fidel Castro sitting inside. You can’t help thinking there was something mighty strange going on. The current… More »
Such has been the sad state of our very own dear media creatures in these United States lately that I have begun again to read the English newspapers, or their on-line iteration – mostly the Telegraph and the Daily Mail, and mostly because the worthy reporters for those establishments don’t seem to give a damn… More »
We were distracted Sunday morning by the Jubilee procession of the boats on the Thames, as covered by BBC America. Blondie noticed that none of her various friends in Britain were on-line Sunday morning; presumably they were all off at various street parties, celebrating Her Majesty’s sixtieth year on the throne. She turned on the… More »
Another night, another night of riots, arson and casual lootery, relatively untrammeled by the efforts of law enforcement, and perhaps slightly slowed down by the efforts of massed local residents and business owners. After three or four nights of this destruction, which leaves the internet plastered with pictures that look like the aftermath of the… More »
There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear There’s a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down… Exploding cars, and a Beslan-like massacre of teenaged campers, plus a claim of responsibility from the… More »
(this is a reprise of a post from five years ago, slightly re-worked, but still relevant, especially since probably no one but me could find it in the archives!) A Sunday September morning, on one of those mild and gorgeous fall days, when the leaves are just starting to turn, but the last of the… More »
A send-up from Israel’s answer to “Saturday Night Live”, on BBC coverage of the current situation in Gaza Link: Found by degrees through Rantburg and Hot Air. Enjoy – it’s subtitled, which puts almost everyone in on the joke. Look, haven’t I been saying we ought to make fun of these guys … and this… More »
So my first reaction to this story was a jaw-dropped five minutes of boggle-eyed amazement. The second was to double check – this wasn’t an intricate send-up by the Onion, or Iowahawk? April Fool’s day was almost two weeks ago, admittedly… but no, it appears to be a completely straight – in the sense of… More »
From Iowahawk, naturally. How can an English major resist a parody entitled: “Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte.” Read, and savor the final punchline. You won’t regret it. Really.
“Here, dhimmi! Sit! Stay! Roll over! Want a treat?! There you go – such a good dhimmi! “Now, give up your minorities… there’s a good dhimmi, now!” “Sit! Stay! Who’s a good dhimmi then? “Quiet, now! Good dhimmi!” “So obedient! I hardly have to tell them what to do!” (All links courtesy of Da Blogfaddah)… More »
…Europe was a quagmire, and we just should have pulled out our troops and brought them home! (Courtesy of Instapundit.)
The summer that I was sixteen and a half was the one spent in Britain and Europe, doing the Eurailpass/Youth Hostel/$5.00 a day adventure… which upon reflection at a point nearly four decades later seems nearly as long ago as luxury steamship travel and the Grand Tour. I learned many useful and useless things during… More »
Found at “Chicago Boyz“: a long evocative essay about the fall of France, which took place early in May, 1940. The writer takes a look at some of the factors which led to the gutting of France… factors which may look hauntingly familiar. My own essay on a significant historical event which followed closely after,… More »
Sgt. Mom’s post got me to thinking about some of my past experiences in Europe. I first started travelling there on business in 1987, when I spent quite a bit of time in Burnley, Lancashire in northern part of the UK. At that time, we had just entered into a joint venture with Lucas, aka… More »
Interesting trip report, from a regular contributor at “Cold Fury”. Anyone else whose traveled overseas lately have input? Courtesy of Rantburg
Another interesting essay, here. (Found courtesy of Rantburg, from whence cometh all sorts of odd tidbits and free-flowing springs of sarcasm)
With a bit of surprise, I tallied it up today, and realized it has been slightly over 20 years since I was in France, actually, driving across Europe in the VEV (Very Elderly Volvo) with a nearly-5-year old Blondie tucked up in the back seat with a couple of pillows, the tattered striped baby blanket… More »
… and would it ever happen? Good thing I am not holding my breath. (link courtesy Belmont Club, via Austin Bay)
To: Gary Busey, Billy Zane From: Sgt Mom Re: Your Next Career Move 1. I assume, of course, that you will still have one in movies catering to mainstream American audiences. You know, America… that country of which you are both ostensibly citizens? The one where a decreasing number of people with disposable income and… More »
To: Major Newspapers, Broadcast TV News Channels, NPR and especially (but not limited to) the ever lugubrious Daniel Schoor (What? He is still a practicing journalist? Who’d have thought it?) Re: “Free Press” & The Affair of the Danish Cartoons 1. As far as American newsprint and broadcast television is concerned, the phrase “freedom of… More »
All this last week I have been returning, almost obsessively to certain blogs for continuing updates on the Danish cartoon story. It is a marvel of jaw-dropping proportions of how a dozen fairly innocuous sketches, published in a comparatively small national newspaper, in a small European country have gotten the goat, so to speak, of… More »
Here’s and interesting news tidbit from Norway: A new law came into force at the beginning of this year that stated that every cow in Norway had to have its own mattress to sleep on. This rather bizarre ruling from the Ministry of Agriculture is only partly about animal protection — there are sound economic… More »
Considering the recent exchange between our own Joe Comer and reader Robin on a nuclear response to a terrorist strike, I thought in would be valuable to blog on this In Berlin, government spokesman Thomas Steg rejected the view that this was any change in French nuclear doctrine. ‘There is no doubt that France supports… More »
This from Paul Marks at Samizdata: However, I was surprised as the editor started a pro Bush story of how he had met the President some time ago and… Then the BBC suddenly went off the air. The broadcast of the show started again when the story was over. At the end of the programme… More »
Scott Johnson at Powerline is concerned with this from Mark Steyn’s Telegraph article, “Wake Up and Listen to the Muezzin“: Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic missionary group, has announced plans to build a mosque next door to the new Olympic stadium. The London Markaz will be the biggest house of worship in the United Kingdom: it… More »
This from Dave Kopel at Volokh: One textbook quotes with approval an article written in the run-up to the Iraq war, arguing for the urgency of containing American power, which imposes its will by force and is contemptuous of allies. Also approvingly reprinted in a textbook is a student essay: Terrorism is a revolt against… More »