Thursday, March 28, 2024

Lieberman, Lieberman

A good rainy Thursday afternoon to Stroock's Books weather enthusiasts. 

Would the leader of this blog's Confederate Continent care to email us at wtstroock@yahoo.com? Got a question. 

Ahh...we nuked the gout and got to the gym yesterday. We admit to being impressed with ourselves. I ain't afraid of no gout. 

Today is the last day before spring break. This weekend the Stroock family will decamp for points south along the I-95 corridor in a whirlwind tour.  We're going to DC to look at George Washington, Georgetown, and a non-Jesuit university which we refuse to name. [Howard? Gallaudet? -Ed] We're also staying in Baltimore one night to see the inner Harbor, aquarium, etc. We probably won't be blogging. 

Former Senator Joe Lieberman has passed on. He was the first Jew on a presidential ticket, America's Disraeli, over a century after the prime minister. Lieberman joked 'only in America' a few times, until people pointed out, uh, Joe, Britain had a Jewish PM a century before.* He practiced Modern Orthodox Judaism (like Ben Shapiro), a tick or two away from the guys with the prayer curls and hats. He didn't roll on Shabbos, that's for sure. 

Lieberman was said to be the sage/conscience of the senate, mostly because of a 1998 floor speech that mildly condemned Bill Clinton.  Lieberman was a moderate Democrat, a new Democrat, and very at home politically in the winning Clinton/Gore coalition. His 2004 presidential campaign went nowhere, as the Democrat Party was changing. In 2006 the Democrats expelled Lieberman. We never voted for him. Noted elsewhere, Lieberman was a symbol of the golden age of Jews in America. That age is over. 

1990s, the Beat: Remember, the first few years of the 90's still had one foot in the 80s. The fashions of 1990 through to about 1992 were still very bright. We recall a lot of dayglo in 1990-91. See for example, New Jack City, we always enjoyed those bright colors. By 1992 the Grunge look emerges but the look doesn't take over till 1993. The biggest album releases of 1991 were from GnR and Metallica. In the early 90's most cultural artifacts are still cool. But the hip and ironic, Seinfeld are Letterman for example, are rising. Soon.

*Not technically Jewish, he converted to the C of E (?) at some point, but that's how people thought of him. Bismarck called Disraeli, 'his old Jew'. The Queen much preferred Disraeli to Gladstone.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Jews (American), Israelis, Blue Stars

Good morning, Stroock's books disability pensioners. We're talking like that this morning because we awoke with a touch of gout. No red meat or shellfish or anything. Just dehydration and, we think, stress. Ouch. This attack seems manageable. We will most likely hit the gym this afternoon. 

About that stalled offensive in Gaza, Arutz Shiva reports: 'In the past 24 hours the soldiers eliminated dozens of terrorists and located terrorist infrastructure and weapons in the area of the hospital. So far, hundreds of terrorists affiliated with the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip have been detained in the hospital area, and dozens have been eliminated.' Don't forget, Western media wants you to think the Gaza war is going badly. Israel Radar reports that dozens of Hamas operatives are barricaded in al Shifa. Yeah, Gaza is a real quagmire, for Hamas. 

From a rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan*, the synagogue of our grandfather and his grandfather, an article about whether one is a Jewish American or an American Jew. We've always been the latter and remain so. This seems right, 'The twentieth century saw great advancement of Jews’ acceptance in America. But as the twenty-first century dawned, old prejudices rose again and old canards shape-shifted into new threats.' 

Most Juden-hass from the right is of the troll variety, which is not to excuse or underestimate it. We've been assailed by such a troll the last few days on Substack. The Jew bashers on the left want Israel destroyed and the rest of us dead. The great Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US, recently wrote of Jews feeling lonely. Boy, is that ever so.

Trump's selling God Bless the USA bibles? For $59.99? Look, we're sure it's the classiest bible out there. But just imagine if the GOP had a candidate who relentlessly talked about inflation, crime, and the border. What might have been. We shake our head more in sorrow than anger. We dunno, maybe hocking this kind of merch is the best way Trump can fund his campaign. Reminder, we're skeptical of all these polls showing Trump ahead. Okay, okay, we keep waiting for the polls to turn and they haven't...yet.

Staying on the American political beat...there's been a lot of talk about Trump's veep lately. In our lifetime the veep pick has mattered just once, 1992. Clinton and Gore were two young, southern, and new Democrats signaling the arrival of the next generation; the anti- Carter/Mondale. Otherwise, Cheney, Pence, Kamala...who cares? Quick, who was Hillary's veep pick? See?

*Check out Temple Emanu-El's sanctuary. Impressive. We took out grandfather to services there a couple of times. 

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Should a Jew Punch Back?

Good afternoon, Stroock's Books constituents. Temperatures remain in the mid-50s today, which is not unusual. 

The Times of Israel tells us that 57% of the public isn't happy with Netanyahu and: 'Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi leads the rankings with 48% rating his performance as good and 28% as poor — followed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (40% and 33%) and war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz (34% and 35%).' The government does not have the public's confidence. Perhaps it is time to hold new elections. Benny Gantz' party would win 35-40 seats and ironically go into a coalition government with Likud (15-20 seats) and someone else. 

An interesting article asking, Why have American Jews remained non-violent? Well, it's complicated. We've been walking around in Israel T-shirts and/or an Israel hat since the war began. The only reactions we've received are positive. Of course at 5/11 245(ish) pounds, we're a pretty big man. Still, we wonder what we do if someone confronts us. Throwing a punch is a bad, bad idea. Stand up and get loud? Laugh? Ah, a Talmudic dilemma. 

Hamas had even bigger plans for 10/7, The Jerusalem Post tells us. They wanted to get to Ashdod prison, the nuclear facility at Dimona, and even Tel Aviv. Their desire to murder Jews is unsatiable. Hamas dalenda est, no matter the cost. Reminder, if Israel wanted everyone in Gaza dead they would be dead. 

Failed RNC chief Ronna McDaniel is losing her NBC gig. Good. McDaniel is indicative of a Republican party and leadership indifferent to winning. She was bad at her job and tried to cash in with the enemy. She deserves no better. 

What Will's Watching: House of the Dragon S1E3: an excellent episode filled with dynastic maneuvering and familial drama as King Viserys tries desperately to keep and please his daughter. In turn Rhaenyra feels nothing but alienation. Tragically, no one is to blame. As we said, great episode, that is till the last ten minutes. This saw a retarded battle scene in which Prince Damon defeats the crab-feeders. Pro tip for the writers: dragons can hover, outside of a cave entrance, for instance, and just napalm whoever is hiding within. But overall, a great, illuminating episode. 

Our efforts on Substack Notes continue to gain 'traction' as the kids say. We even see a small book sales increase, though that may only be correlation. We shall continue posting and see what happens. 

We had a decent day with our Pancho Villa short story and gleaned some excellent insights from a contemporary memoir. We've written everything through the cavalry troop's entry into the town. We really don't know how the fireworks start, or what the actual fireworks are. They'll be easy enough to light once we figure them out. 

Monday, March 25, 2024

Various on a Monday

Good afternoon Stroock's Books reader(s).

The temperature climbed all the way into the 50s yesterday. Heat wave! We did some more garage cleaning and found a box with stuff from 2009. These boxes are filled with childhoods that won't come back. We were both amused and depressed. We consumed way too many carbs over the weekend. We did get back-to-back days in at the gym, weights then cardio. 

So we started posting a lot on Substack, which has a Twitter/Gab like function called Notes that compliments long form writing. We're getting 'traction' as Middle Daughter would say. Of course, this 'traction' hasn't resulted in more subscriptions or more book sales. We shall keep posting. Why not? 

The Regime let a UN resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire go through. Trump wouldn't have allowed it. Does the resolution matter? Not really. Actually the resolution also calls for the release of Israeli hostages. We asked an Arab source if the Regime's actions will help Joe with the Arab vote (because one person can speak for the entire Arab community at large). Said source didn't think so and argued that the 'damage is done'.

Moscow Massacre: The Russians just catch the perpetrators hours after the massacre?* Everything is unfolding too easily. It's all too pat. This stinks. Maybe it won't stink later. Plots within plots, we detect. We're not saying the attack was a false flag. We're not even saying the Jews did, though the imams warn they are clever. We're just saying we don't know. We once again await events. 

What Will's Watching: Game of Thrones. In 2015 we binged the first 5 seasons of GoT on the couch recovering from a cardiac catheterization. We admit it's all kind of a blur. On a whim we rewatched Episode-1 last night. Entertained, we were. We've no idea if we'll keep going. We did watch episode-2 of House of the Dragon yesterday. King Viserys is a good man but weak king. What a cataclysmic error in marrying Alicent. We admit we can't wait to see what Prince Daemon does to these crab men. They made the wrong enemy. 

Will Writes...: ...and has nothing but questions. How to write a scene where a troop of cavalry scouts rides into a Mexican town without relying on tropes? Of course tropes exist for a reason. How to make these three or four paragraphs interesting? Exit question: what is the difference between a trope and a thing that would just happen? 

Monday Metal: Cleaning out the garage, we found this:


That's a cassette case holder, purchased at the Walmart in Dover Delaware, fall '92. It's filled with mostly heavy metal awesomeness, with tapes going back to the mid 80s and all the way up to 1999 (Def Leppard's Euphoria). We've owned some of these tapes for neigh on 40 years. We don't even own a tape player anymore. Oh, the flashbacks we've had this afternoon. We remember where and when we bought most of these tapes. We think over the coming weeks we'll be posting pics for Monday Metal. These tapes were once our friends. 

*Tim McVeigh was caught hours after the Oklahoma City bombing. So who knows. 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 3/24/24

Good Sunday morning to all Stroock's Books congregates reading this before or after church. Not the Episcopalians, though. Screw them.  

New Jersey saw quite the deluge of rain yesterday. It stopped around 5 PM. Then the temps dropped to just above freezing. Today the sun shines, blessedly so, but the morning temperature remains just above freezing. This is an odd Yankee spring. [Really? In 2018 you had two spring snow accumulations over of 6 + inches.-Ed]. This is weirder. 

Purim was a smash. We had way too many hamantaschen last night. This being America in 2024, a police cruiser was parked out front and a very large and very armed security guard was at the door. He liked the chocolate chip hamantaschen we offered him. To show the depth of Jewish penetration of all aspects of American life, spell check recognizes hamantaschen and corrects it. The Imans are right. The Jew is clever. 

Will's Good Idea for the week of 3/24/24. We've nothing major, really. Though we realize that the summer sneak in will probably not be a new project, just War Night and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. Maybe the summer sneak in becomes the autumnal artistry [The what?-Ed] Hey, we're trying. We've got one idea, and that's to not write anything World War 1990 related for a while. Frankly, we're sick of thinking about it. [You're rambling-Ed] We know. 

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Saturday Updates

Good rainy Saturday morning, Stroock's Books weather fans. We seeded the front lawn yesterday in anticipation of today's deluge. 

A horrific (is there any other kind?) terrorist attack in Moscow. Without looking we're sure Twitter ghouls with yellow and blue flags in their bio are celebrating. Right now ISIS is taking credit for the attack. We're not sure what making a mortal enemy of Vladimir Putin does for them. We're also seeing Russian politicians trying to link the attack to Ukraine somehow. We will maintain our skepticism of information out of Moscow and await events.  

In Gaza the IDF has killed more than 150 terrorists and captured 800 at al Shifa hospital. Something big is going down there, obviously. It's almost as if the Israelis lured Hamas into a trap. You know what the Imams say. 

The Things:

There's not much to report, really. We spent most of the week working on our Pancho Villa story and are finally happy with progress. We expect a rough draft by Friday. [You mean you plan?-Ed] If that helps you. [You know who laughs when you plan, luv-Ed].

We also made some progress on the Lexington nuke story. Lexington is one of those stories that we'll finish slowly then all at once.  

Friday, March 22, 2024

Friday Ennui

Good afternoon, Stroock's Books people. 

What do you feel like? Gaza war updates? The latest political machinations in Israel? Thoughts on Joe and/or President Trump? The Star Wars Acolyte trailer? Yeah it sucks and all the warning sighns are there. So what? 

Via Vox Day, Stroock's Books will adopt the new 'Same Gender Loving' phraseology from GLAAD right away. Usage example, Yassir Arafat was a Same Gender Loving person who died of AIDS. 

So a band of illegal migrants overpowered the Texas National Guard and violated American territory. You know, we just spent five minutes and $84.50 to renew our vehicle registration because that's what upstanding, respectable folk do. You gotta have the right documents. Yet the Regime despises us and welcomes these illegal border crossers. 

Candace Owens is out at The Daily Wire. We always found her cute and feisty. Dare we say adorable. We don't care.

Ben Shapiro is actually under fire for arguing that the social security age should be raised. Shapiro says people should find meaning in work. Shapiro is an intense creative, a freak who sleeps four or five hours a night, and highly successful. We know what Shapiro means when he said one should find meaning in work. We're a fellow (much less) successful creative type and plan to keep creating till we die. We admit there may not be much meaning in being a great tire salesman. If one's a bricklayer, one may want to stop working at 65. 

90's Beat*: Raising the retirement age is a very 90s GOP idea, and necessary. Reminder, we came from the nice, respectable fiscal reform minded Paul Ryan wing of the GOP. Nobody wanted to hear what we had to say about the nation's finances. Now it's too late. Entitlements will be reformed, brutally so, once America defaults on the debt. Ballance the budget on the backs of the Boomer. For the record, we'd cut hundreds of billions from the defense budget too. America doesn't win wars anymore. Don't fight 'em.

What Will's Watching:  Oh, House of the Dragon, why did we wait so long to watch you? We're hooked and we haven't even finished the first episode. Heck, we didn't even start Game of Thrones till 2015, when we were laid up after our cardiac catheterization. We're weird like that. We're unsettled, slightly, to watch something in the GoT universe and see people we like. Character, thy name is House of the Dragon

Tomorrow is Purim, which is like the Jewish Halloween. For Purim we'll be going as a middle-aged father of three daughters. Do click that link. Once Mrs. Stroock made a Hamantaschen costume for Middle Daughter. Our Rabbi usually wears a giant hot dog outfit. Once more with feeling: they tried to kill us. The failed. Let's eat. Actually, Purim can turn into a drinking game, too, 'Hammon!' take a drink. That dang hippie cantor of ours is going to bring his guitar again, isn't he?

*New feature we'll be going with for a while.