A few random thoughts about recent assaults

Mad dogs and other pondering.

A few random thoughts about the recent terrorist attack in New York City.
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President Trump has gone after the fact that the terrorist came in on a "diversity visa".  Well, while Trump will now be attacked for mentioning that, visas for the purpose of achieving diversity are flat out odd, particularly for the United States which is the most diverse nation on Earth.

What's a diversity visa?

Well, according to the US:

Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. A limited number of visas are available each fiscal year. The DVs are distributed among six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.

Why do we need to do this?  We don't.  It's not the business of the United States to try to make immigration "diverse".  A sane approach would be to base immigration on something else, which we've already discussed.  That may cause diversity to occur accidentally, as in when refugees are taken in, or people with particular needed skills, and that's fine. But to decide that "gee, nobody comes here from there, and we got to address that" isn't an immigration policy.  It's just a feel good, and naive, social policy.

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The New York policeman that hit the suspect fired nine time.

The press has been quick to declare the policeman a hero, and he may very well be, but I have to wonder, why do big city policemen exhibit such crappy marksmanship?  Nine times and he hit a man sized target once?  Not that this is unusual.  The New York City Police Department some time ago infamously shot a Haitian man nineteen times after firing forty one times.  Pretty bad.

Now, I may not know a lot about his shot.  Maybe it was at long range, which with a pistol is tough.  Maybe the target was seeking to evade skillfully.

But it seems to be the case that any time we read about New York City policemen using their firearms, they shoot a lot but hit little.  That would frankly not occur in most of the Western states in the same circumstances (I wrote this, I'll note, before the recent incident in Texas).

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On the last item, while I don't know the circumstances so I'm commenting only in general, the modern definition of hero has become so loose that simply being subjected to violence causes somebody to be branded a hero.

The last big Eastern city to be attacked by deluded Muslim terrorist who hailed from a former Soviet republic was Boston, and the entire city was branded as "heroic" for that. But the city basically holed up for a day while the police eventually found the guilty parties.  That's not cowardly, and it may be wise, but it's not heroic.

It's also likely not the result the authorities would have received in most localities West of the Mississippi, FWIW. That might not be heroic either.

Anyhow, this policeman might be a hero.  I don't know.  Or he may have just been doing his job which, as harsh as it is to say, doesn't make you a hero.

On this, by the way, there was a situation back East where a policeman being held at gunpoint begged for intervention from a passerby who was armed and who shot the hostage take (it didn't take him nine shots either).  That strikes me as heroic, but I haven't heard it proclaimed to be.  Maybe it has, however.

Last night when I turned on the news, I saw where later Entertainment Tonight was going to have an expose on how easy it is to rent a truck.

Seriously?

This is a bit of a revelation as it shows the same mindset that tends to go into ever instance of there being a shooting.  A truck used in a crime? Gosh, we have to do something about the lack of truck rental policies in this nation!

Like what?

Fill out a form where you promise not to use a pickup in an attack?

As a local wise sage I'm related to closely pointed out, if you can't rent one. . . you can probably steal one.

Sheesh.

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Okay, I know that this is an ISIL/ISIS inspired attack and I've been quick to point out again and again that Islam has a problem with violence, but as I noted the other day, when you are at this level I think you are forfeiting your Holy Warrior card.  That is, no matter what Mohamed thought about jihad, I'm pretty sure he didn't have this in mind.

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On Islam having a problem with violence, I'd note that it seems well established that some of the people who attended Islamic services with this fellow thought he was a really unhinged radical. They said nothing to anyone.

Nor can we expect them to.  Violent extremists of every stripe are very rarely exposed by their ethnic fellows.  Most Sicilian immigrants were not in the mafia but it took forever to crack the mafia.  Criminal organization from Boston Southies has been hard to expose forever even though most Southies are not in criminal organizations.  Strong ethnicities, particularly recent arrivals, generally will not reveal problems amongst their own. They just won't.

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And some random thoughts on the assault in Texas.
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This dude had a violent domestic assault on his record, had escaped from a mental health facility in 2012 after he was caught sneaking guns onto an Air Force base and had been regarded by the USAF as having attempted to carry out death threats towards his military superiors.

Given all of that you'd think that the USAF would have made sure that he ended up in the records for criminal searches so that he was ineligible to purchase a firearm, right?

Nope. They didn't managed to get that done.

Not that this is really uncommon.  It isn't. We pretty much let loonies be loonies until they do something really bad. And that's nuts.

We'll have lots of talk now about banning instrumentalities, but the fact of the matter is, this guy should have been in prison or a mental institution already.

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I wonder how many shots the armed citizens, who hit this guy twice, took?
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The Texas assailant wouldn't have been stopped as soon as it was but for two civilian Texans, one of whom was armed.

Of course, you can argue that if the assailant didn't have access to arms, the attack wouldn't have happened (although you really can't be sure).  But then, he wasn't supposed to have access as he was in the category of people that can't legally own firearms.

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Some Takeaways:

We live in the least violent era in history, ever.

That's easy to forget due to stuff like this, but we do need to remember it. Of course, that doesn't mean that we have license to ignore real problems.

But not having license to ignore real problems also means actually analyzing the problems.

And what would that teach us?

Maybe somethings that are true, but which don't fit the cuddly view we in the west have of the world.

One thing it would teach us is that even if most of the world is in its least violent period ever, some big patches of the world, characterized by a lack of development and close adherence to the Islamic faith, remain in the 7th Century more or less, in terms of their world outlooks and willingness to be violent.  There's really no reason for everyone else to participate in that by importing it.

Immigration can be to aid the oppressed, but its more properly to aid the country where people are immigrating to, in most of the world. As the world isn't infinitely large, taking that approach, with allowance for humanitarian reasons to other goals, is the sensible policy.  Taking in radical nutjobs in the name of diversity is stupid.

People can talk about gun control all they want, but what you have at the end of the day, in regards to the type of violence we still have, is control of a really violent element.  Islamic radicals are some, but people who are just flat out nuts and violent are another.  Waiting until they become unglued before anything is done is really not very smart.

Both of these acts could have been entirely avoided.  One by leaving the disgruntled Islamic radical in his home of origin to be a pest there.  The other by putting a violent mental deficient in the stockade for years. 

Related Threads: 

 Peculiarized violence and American society. Looking at root causes, and not instrumentalities.

Veterans Day 2017 (Did you get it off?)

Veterans Day remains November 11, of course, but this year a lot of agencies and some individuals will observe it on Friday, November 10.

I never get Veterans Day off, but that's my own fault.  I could take it off if I wished to, as simply a day off.

How about you?  Did you get the day off?

Leavin' Cheyenne. (For Friday Farming, an actual "Western" song. . . not that honky pop stuff)

Looking like a bum. A "No Shave November" Rant.

From Gillette, the razor company's, website:

SCRUFFY BEARD STYLES: THE 3-DAY STUBBLE BEARD

The 3-day stubble beard, or scruff look, is a great way to get that manly rugged style without growing a full beard. With the All Purpose Gillette STYLER, you can achieve this style and still look well-groomed.

Oh bull, it's a great way to look like you spent the past three days sleeping on the table of seedy bar.

One of the things that has struck me about the recent Harvey Weinstein revelations is the the fact that, for such a rich and successful guy, he looks like an absolute bum.

Which brings me to this. Maybe its time for modern American men to retire the stubbly bum look.  I sure hope so.

 Yassir Arafat, left, with the original stubble look. At least Arafat, who basically never slept in the same place twice, had an excuse.  On the right is Ghaddafi, who liked a lot of varied costumes, but who at least shaved.

I took this on once before in a thread called:

Shaving

West Point Cadet shaving with a straight razor in the field.

That thread was mostly in the nature of observation, and it obviously had no impact. The carefully studied "I'm too busy to shave look" is more popular than ever.

Now, to be clear, I'm not writing about men with beards.  I'm not even writing about men with short beards.  I'm fine with beards and mustaches, all of which, of course, are part of the natural appearance for the majority of the males in our species (but not all, of course).

 John Gibbon, U.S. Army, with a fine short beard.  Observe this, stubble aficionados.

For that matter, I'm even okay with beards that have somewhat taken on a personality of their own.

William W. Cooke of the 7th Cavalry.  Shoot, I don't even mind a somewhat eccentric beard.

But the stubble "I haven't shaved for four days" look? Well, unless you are on your way to a beard, there should be a reason for that.

In a fair number of cases, Weinstein's being a prime example, it make the person too busy to shave look like a bum. I mean truly, did Harvey Weintstein think that the stubble make him appear more attractive to the budding starlets he hoped to bed?  If he did, he was delusional. Shoot, it made have been a deterrent to his lecherous objectives.  The guy looks like a disheveled bum.  At least Clark Gable, who was mentioned here in the other day for a bad act, looked good.

Clark Gable.  Notice, he's shaved.

Of course, perhaps in Weinstein's case, that was the point.  Maybe he figured he was so rich and powerful he could look like a bum and still grab any starlet he wanted.  And the movie industry being what it is, that's probably close to true.  Maybe he was just flaunting his status the same way a lot of Hollywood figures and entertainment industry figures affect outrageous styles.  

But I doubt it.  I think he was following a fashion.

The odd thing about this is that there are plenty of men who have in the past, and still do, who work in conditions where even if they normally stay shaved, they'll go for several days without doing so for genuine, and fairly rugged reasons.  Cowboys (yes, there are still cowboys) who work outdoors for days in a row often aren't in a position to shave.  Hunters in the West will often forgo it as well as shaving in cold water isn't much fun and packing water even less fun.  Soldiers provide another example, even though most soldiers in most armies have been required to shave since some point in World War One.

SOF troops in Afghanistan.  These troops have likely grown beards for cultural reasons as part of their mission, but soldiers omitting shaving in combat has been something that has occurred forever.  U.S. Army Photograph, SSG Kailly Brown.

Indeed, I think those occupations have a lot to do with the popularity of the stubble look now.  Men who work in cubicles in the antiseptic rather female world of today are striving to look like their rougher ancestors.  The stubble look is intended to send the message, look, I'm too busy to shave in  my rugged occupation.

But it doesn't really succeed.  It just looks stubbly.  And it would take work to keep the beard at that lengthy which seems sort of, well, unmanly.  Better just to grow a real beard or, alternatively, shave.

Military Review. Camp Custer, Michigan. November 9, 1917.

Roads to the Great War: An Invitation to Roads to the Great War Readers

Roads to the Great War: An Invitation to Roads to the Great War Readers: In you can't attend and would like to stream the event, here's some information on how to do so from the Centennial Commission...

Lex Anteinternet: Go Donna! In a week of revelations, Donna Brazile...

 Donna Brazile almost ordered a hot cup of Joe.

Amongst the Brazile bombshells of last week, which we earlier discussed in Go Donna! In a week of revelations, Donna Brazile exposes the Clinton Campaign was a real shocker.

 Donna Brazile, Chairman of the Democratic National Committe for the final portions of the 2016 race.  Photo by Ron Aira. Copyright holder Brazile & Associates LLC. - The uploader on Wikimedia Commons received this from the author/copyright holder.

She almost decided to replace Clinton as the candidate with Joe Biden. 

Joe Biden. The DNC chairwoman also decided to replace Queen Hillary with a Go With The Joe You Know ticket.

She didn't, of course, and its really hard to imagine that actually happening.  Still, it shows the extent to which the Clinton campaign was a mess to note that it was even considered.

Pluses or minuses of Biden, it's interesting that his name was thrown out independently as a candidate who could rescue the Democrats, but he himself chose to reject those efforts.  Had the DNC thrown him in there, I wonder if he would have even accepted.  It certainly would have amounted to a rejection of the democratic process within the DNC.

Still, if it had happened, I suspect we'd have a President Biden now.

Mid Week Pick Me Up: Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray...

The Yeomany Charge at Huj, November 8, 1917

On this date, in 1917, the Worcestershire Yeomanry, Warwickshire Yeomanry, executed a successful mounted charge against retreating Ottoman forces at Huj.  The charge was costly, resulting in 26 deaths and a further 40 wounded in action.  Ottoman causalities were, however, higher.  The charge cleared the way for a resumed British advance.  An officer veteran of the charge has noted.

The Charge at Huj had it occurred in a minor war would have gone down to history like the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. In the Great War when gallant deeds were being enacted on all fronts almost daily it was merely an episode, but as the Official Historian remarks, for sheer bravery, the episode remains unmatched.

Bolsheviks issued their decree on Land, November 8, 1917.

The Bolsheviks issued the first of their significant decrees on this day in 1917, even though they were not really in control of the country.  The Decree on Land read as follows:

Peasant Mandate on the Land
"The land question in its full scope can be settled only by the popular Constituent Assembly.
The most equitable settlement of the land question is to be as follows:
(1) Private ownership of land shall be abolished forever; land shall not be sold, purchased, leased, mortgaged, or otherwise alienated.
All land, whether state, crown, monastery, church, factory, entailed, private, public, peasant, etc., shall be confiscated without compensation and become the property of the whole people, and pass into the use of all those who cultivate it.
Persons who suffer by this property revolution shall be deemed to be entitled to public support only for the period necessary for adaptation to the new conditions of life.
(2) All mineral wealth ? ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., and also all forests and waters of state importance, shall pass into the exclusive use of the state. All the small streams, lakes, woods, etc., shall pass into the use of the communes, to be administered by the local self-government bodies.
(3) Lands on which high-level scientific farming is practised ? orchards, tree-farms, seed plots, nurseries, hothouses, etc. ? shall not be divided up, but shall be converted into model farms, to be turned over for exclusive use to the state or to the communes, depending on the size and importance of such lands.
Household land in towns and villages, with orchards and vegetable gardens, shall be reserved for the use of their present owners, the size of the holdings, and the size of tax levied for the use thereof, to be determined by law.
(4) Stud farms, government and private pedigree stock and poultry farms, etc., shall be confiscated and become the property of the whole people, and pass into the exclusive use of the state or a commune, depending on the size and importance of such farms.
The question of compensation shall be examined by the Constituent Assembly.
(5) All livestock and farm implements of the confiscated estates shall pass into the exclusive use of the state or a commune, depending on their size and importance, and no compensation shall be paid for this.
The farm implements of peasants with little land shall not be subject to confiscation.
(6) The right to use the land shall be accorded to all citizens of the Russian state (without distinction of sex) desiring to cultivate it by their own labour, with the help of their families, or in partnership, but only as long as they are able to cultivate it. The employment of hired labour is not permitted.
In the event of the temporary physical disability of any member of a village commune for a period of up to two years, the village commune shall be obliged to assist him for this period by collectively cultivating his land until he is again able to work.
Peasants who, owing to old age or ill-health, are permanently disabled and unable to cultivate the land personally, shall lose their right to the use of it but, in return, shall receive a pension from the state.
(7) Land tenure shall be on an equality basis, i.e., the land shall be distributed among the working people in conformity with a labour standard or a subsistence standard, depending on local conditions.
There shall be absolutely no restriction on the forms of land tenure ? household, farm, communal, or co-operative, as shall be decided in each individual village and settlement.
(8) All land, when alienated, shall become part of the national land fund. Its distribution among the peasants shall be in charge of the local and central self-government bodies, from democratically organised village and city communes, in which there are no distinctions of social rank, to central regional government bodies.
The land fund shall be subject to periodical redistribution, depending on the growth of population and the increase in the productivity and the scientific level of farming.
When the boundaries of allotments are altered, the original nucleus of the allotment shall be left intact.
The land of the members who leave the commune shall revert to the land fund; preferential right to such land shall be given to the near relatives of the members who have left, or to persons designated by the latter.
The cost of fertilisers and improvements put into the land, to the extent that they have not been fully used up at the time the allotment is returned to the land fund, shall be compensated.
Should the available land fund in a particular district prove inadequate for the needs of the local population, the surplus population shall be settled elsewhere.
The state shall take upon itself the organisation of resettlement and shall bear the cost thereof, as well as the cost of supplying implements, etc.
Resettlement shall be effected in the following order: landless peasants desiring to resettle, then members of the commune who are of vicious habits, deserters, and so on, and, finally, by lot or by agreement.

While Russia was a very heavily rural and agricultural country, the Bolsheviks were an urban party that had little grasp of rural issues. While Russia did have very real land distribution problems, the solutions to them proposed by the Communists would prove to be massively unpopular with the peasantry.  Communist struggles with the peasantry would be an enduring feature of early Communism and would be solved through heavy oppression.

The British enact the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917, November 8, 1917.

 King George V.

The ludicrous nature of  titles of nobility in the modern era proved impossible for the British to ignore any longer, resulting in the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917.

Titles Deprivation Act 1917
1917 CHAPTER 47

An Act to deprive Enemy Peers and Princes of British Dignities and Titles.

[8th November 1917]

Be it enactedby the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :
1Forfeiture o£ title of peer or prince held by enemy.

(1)His Majesty may appoint a committee of His Privy Council, of which two members at least shall be members of the Judicial Committee, to enquire into and report the names of any persons enjoying any dignity or title as a peer or British prince who have, during the present war, borne arms against His Majesty or His Allies, or who have adhered to His Majesty's enemies.

(2)The Committee shall have power to take evidence on oath and to administer an oath for the purpose, and may, if they think fit, act upon any evidence given either orally or by affidavit based on information and belief, the grounds of which are stated.

(3)Such report shall be laid upon the table of both Houses of Parliament for the space of forty days, and, if by that time there has not been passed in either House a motion disapproving of the report, it shall be taken as final and presented to His Majesty.

(4)Where the name of any peer or prince is included in the report, then from and after the date of the presentation of the report to His Majesty—

(a)The name of such person, if he be a peer, shall be struck out of the Peerage Roll, and all rights of such peer to receive a writ of summons and to sit in the House of Lords or to take part in the election of representative peers shall cease and determine :

(b)All privileges and all rights to any dignity or title, whether in respect of a peerage or under any Royal Warrant or Letters Patent, shall cease and determine.
Power of successor to petition for restoration of peerage.

2It shall be lawful for the successor of any peer whose name has been so removed, to present a petition to His Majesty praying to have the peerage restored and his name placed on the Peerage Roll; and His Majesty may refer such petition to a committee of the Privy Council constituted as aforesaid; and should the committee be satisfied that such person has incurred no disability under this Act, and is well affected to His Majesty's Person and Government, His Majesty may thereupon direct that the peerage be restored and the name of the petitioner be placed on the Peerage Roll; whereupon all rights and privileges of the holder of the peerage shall revive and be in force as if the name of the peer had never been removed from the Roll.
3Savings

(1)Nothing in this Act shall affect the title or succession of any person to any estates or other property.

(2)The powers conferred upon His Majesty by this Act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other powers of His Majesty.
4Short title and definition

(1)This Act may be cited as the Titles Deprivation Act, 1917.

(2)In this Act the expression " enemy " shall be construed as referring to the enemies of His Majesty in the present war, an4, for the purposes of this Act, a person shall be deemed to have adhered to His Majesty's enemies if since the commencement of the present war he has voluntarily resided in an enemy country or if he has served in the enemy forces or in any way rendered assistance to the enemy.

Nothing, of course, would solve the embarrassing fact that the crowned heads of the warring states included quite a few cousins.

King George V depicted in Punch sweeping away his German titles.

I thought so . . .

when I read of this guys criminal history:

The Texas Church Shooter Should Have Been Legally Barred From Owning Guns

The Air Force says a mistake allowed Devin Patrick Kelley to buy guns. On Sunday Kelley opened fire on a small church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

The former airman had an assault-style rifle and two handguns — all purchased by him, according to federal officials — when he shot and killed 26 people.

* * *

"Initial information indicates that Kelley's domestic violence offense was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database by the Holloman Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations," said Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek in an email.

Top Air Force brass have ordered a complete review of the case.

A little late that.

Criminal law is a funny thing in this country.  We make illegal an incredible  number of things and then. . . we don't enforce them.  Later, we're surprised when things go wrong.  In the meantime, we let an incredible number of people who are seriously disturbed wonder about in the belief that this is being kind to miserable people who would be miserable under any set of circumstances.

When our advancements delete us.

The Bank of Ireland is planning to cut more than 1,000 jobs as the banking group (it's more than one bank) comes to the end of a project to overhaul its technology systems, according to the Irish Times.

It'd be hard to view technology as your friend if you are one of the 1,000.

The Good Shepherd

 The real James Angleton.

Disappointing.

I recently saw this film on television after repeatedly trying to catch it, having caught the very first part of it sometime prior.

This movie deals with remarkably similar content to the HBO miniseries The Company, which is really good   That is, it follows an individual in the CIA throughout his career in critical parts of the 1950s and 1960s.  Indeed, the character played by Matt Damon is a highly fictionalized version of James Angleton (and other early CIA figures) and he is a character, played by Michael Keaton, in The Company.  Unfortunately, unlike Keaton's excellent performance, Damon's falls flat here.

Indeed, as Damon is a good actor, we're really left wondering what exactly went wrong. The film starts out in an interesting enough way early in World War Two, grossly departing from the real story of Angleton, to say the least, but after the early university scenes it just becomes an odd combination of violent, odd, and boring.  The central character joins the OSS, but unlike the real OSS and various British agencies, this enterprises is deadly even against its own members.  This carries on to the post war CIA. Throughout it all, Matt Damon sort of slogs through scene after scene like an automaton, unlike Keaton's portrayal of Angleton which is mesmerizing.

This film was directed by Robert DiNiro, who has a bit role in it.  Based on this, I'd have to say that while DiNiro is a great actor, his talents don't translate to directing.

I'd skip this one entirely.

Blog Mirror: Victims of Communism Centennial Commemoration

A fitting recollection:

Victims of Communism Centennial Commemoration

Truth • Justice • Memory

November 7 - 9, 2017

Washington, DC

On a cold night in Petrograd, one hundred years ago, a small group of Red Guards seized the Winter Palace and installed the world's first communist government. The Bolshevik Revolution marked the beginning of a century in which adherents to communist ideology committed some of the worst and most widespread atrocities known to history. This November, we will gather to honor the memory of the more than 100 million victims of communism, to celebrate liberty where it has triumphed, and to further our pursuit of a world free from communism.

Today is truly the anniversary of one of the blackest days in the 20th Century. . . the beginning of a revolution that would bring mass murder to vast regions of the globe in the name of what is basically an absurd social theory. And yet, even now, that absurdist view of the world retains its adherents.

Red is an appropriate color for it indeed.

Officers of the 86th Division and part of 92nd Division, Camp Grant, Illinois. November 7, 1917.

First Naval District, The Cadet School, Nov. 7, 1917 (Harvard University)

Setting the clock back

If I am to discuss what is wrong, one of the first things that are wrong is this: the deep and silent modern assumption that past things have become impossible. There is one metaphor of which the moderns are very fond; they are always saying, "You can't put the clock back." The simple and obvious answer is "You can." A clock, being a piece of human construction, can be restored by the human finger to any figure or hour. In the same way society, being a piece of human construction, can be reconstructed upon any plan that has ever existed.

G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

The Lighthorsemen

Recently I noted the centennial of the Battle of Beersheba.  Shortly after that, I started re-reading the history of that battle in Anglesey's multi volume A History Of The British Cavalry and was struck by how accurate this film was.  It's then when I noted that I'd never reviewed it.

It's great.

This 1987 Australian move presents the story of a collection of actual Australian (and one English) figures in the context of the War In The Desert and, more particularly, the events leading up to the 4th and 12th Lighthorse's mounted charge at Beersheba.  While a film, and therefore a drama by its very nature, the film is remarkably accurate in all of its significant details making it a true rarity in films of this type.

The film culminates, of course, in the charge itself. That could hardly fail to be highly dramatic and the movie at least matches our expectations in these regards, if not grossly exceeding them. 

That addresses, of course, the historical details, but we'd note that in material details this movie is equally as good.  Uniforms, equipment, etc., are all correct.

Indeed this movie is so good that it may legitimately contend for the being the best movie set in World War One.  It's far better than most, and perhaps only Lawrence of Arabia, which of course is set in World War One but which is oddly not considered by many to be a film about the Great War, is better.

The October Revolution Commences, October 25, 1917 (Old Style Russian Calendar)

 The cruiser Aurora, which fired a signal shot during the October Revolution Petrograd action, to the extent there was any.

Yesterday I ran this item:

Lex Anteinternet: October 24, 1917. Lenin declares the Communists t...: Lenin and Trotsky sacrifice Russia to an alter of Marx while revolutionary soldiers and sailors look on in this Russian anti Bolshevik ca...

Today the revolution that Lenin argued should commence, did.  The Petrograd Soviet had of course planned the matter and action commenced early on this day in Petrograd when Red Guard took key positions in the city.  The city's garrison mostly joined the insurrection soon thereafter.  Holdout units in the Winter Palace eventually gave up or returned to their barracks. The entire matter, taking a little over a day, was largely bloodless.  Even the cruiser Aurora, whose sailors joined the uprising, only fired a single blank shot. 

The achievement was momentous indeed, but not the dramatic street fight depicted in later Soviet propaganda.

Not that the impact wasn't very real.  Kerensky proved unable to rally forces to his cause, the republican government collapsed, Russia went into civil war as it went out of World War One.

FATS DOMINO Blue Monday

Circulating. Will's observation on academic and popular historians.

George F. Will has reviewed, and strongly recommends, Chernow's new book on U. S. Grant.  I'll pick a copy of it up.

But that's now why I'm linking this in here.  No, rather, it's for this observation:

Chernow's large readership (and the successes of such non-academic historians as Rick Atkinson, Richard Brookhiser, David McCullough, Nathaniel Philbrick, Jon Meacham, Erik Larson and others) raises a question: Why are so many academic historians comparatively little read? Here is a hint from the menu of presentations at the 2017 meeting of the Organization of American Historians: The titles of 30 included some permutation of the word "circulation" (e.g., "Circulating/Constructing Heterosexuality," "Circulating Suicide as Social Criticism," "Circulating Tourism Imaginaries from Below"). Obscurantism enveloped in opacity is the academics' way of assigning themselves status as members of a closed clerisy indulging in linguistic fads. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, who is impatient with academics who are vain about being unintelligible, confesses himself mystified by the "circulating" jargon. This speaks well of him.

Worth noting indeed.

Sigh. . . .

Taken a couple of months ago, I'll note, before the cold weather set in.