Secure This

The hostage deal is inked. The Israeli security cabinet is meeting to approve as we write this. The full Knesset will vote later today. The process will begin Sunday. Is the deal great? No. But the deal is necessary. 

There's been some political grandstanding in Bibi's coalition with Ben Gvir and Smotrich threatening to resign over the deal. Ben Gvir will leave the coalition but not take steps to collapse the government, and will rejoin when the ceasefire is over.  This is all kabuki and we suspect Bibi had a plan-b* if those two loons followed through with their threats. In any event Netanyahu's government will survive. 

Expect to see some galling things in the coming weeks. 

Some are arguing Hamas has won. These people are retards. Or Arabs.

Exit question: Will the Israelis enter the truce with a Parthian Shot?**

Moving on....

What Will's Watching: Jerry Springer, Fights, Camera, Action. This is one of those 'you had to be there' 90's things. We'd forgotten what absolute trash the Jerry Springer show was. We loved it. My god we did love it so. Anyway, episode-1 did not disappoint, with staffers confessing how they would coach and manipulate people to act as badly as possible on camera. These staffers are bastards. We look forward to episode-2. 

We have begun our Northern Irish Loyalist research in earnest. These Ulster Volunteer Force fellows are no better than the IRA. We'd bet the two groups would get on just fine as they trade stories of kidnappings, kneecappings, shootings and bombings over a pint or two. These guys would really relate to one another. Exit question: during the beginning of World War Three, would the Right Reverend Ian Paisley stoke an anti-Catholic riot in Derry as an excuse to get at the Marxist IRA? This blog believes he would.   

*Bibi to reluctant political leader, 'Do you really want to be the reason why the hostage deal didn't go through?'

**The expression 'parting shot' is just a corruption of the term Parthian Shot, after Parthian light cavalry which would shoot a bolt and ride away. See for example the Roman general Crassus against the Parthians at the Battle of Carhae, 53 BC [Thank you, Professor-Ed] Ah, we miss being called professor [You miss smitten coeds calling you professor-Ed].

Will Stays the Course

Good Thursday morning, Stroock's Books. As of this writing the hostage exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas has not been finalized as Hamas has made last minute demands. We're sick of thinking about this already, and we're sick of reading and/or arguing with all the doomsayers. 

We've got a bit of doomsaying of our own and it may be tough to hear. But here are the facts. If Israel could rescue the hostages, they would have. There's just not much more the Israelis can do to Gaza. Israel and the IDF could use a break too. And what have we said from the beginning? Hezbollah, Bibi. Gaza was always the secondary front. 

Mike Waltz, Marco Rubio, and oh yeah, Donald Trump have said Hamas will not remain in power. Do you think Donald Trump betrayed Israel? Do you think Netanyahu got rolled? If so then this is a bad deal. Maybe they did. But we don't think so. We shall see. 

As predicted, Gazans have taken to the streets like ululating retards, and declared victory. Again, as predicted. Arabs don't understand the difference between victory and defeat. Stroock's Books knows the Arab and he is dumb [Do you mean Arabs are dumb or you are dumb?-Ed] What do you think? [You think you should be saying an entire people are dumb?-Ed]. Expect gloating too, as Israel will have to release some awful people. Let them gloat from the rubble. But beware, tough days lie ahead. 

So Justin is finally out up north, Baruch Hashem, saying he's not running for re-election. Again, Baruch Hashem. 

Another War Night short story down. What's left? Alberta Range, Australia, Voodoo Genie, and Morning Rory [Sigh, again with the Rory Gallagher-Ed]. We wait. We wait for ideas. We wait for little sentences that can add depth to a story. 

We also got back to work yesterday on our Saigon on the Themes short story. We've 4,500 words and they're looking pretty good. 

We've done lots of good research on Northern Ireland, the Troubles, the IRA, etc etc, and the narrative is coming together. We have a pretty good idea of how the IRA works. Also, British intel. Still, we don't quit know who the characters are. Let's say there's a grand IRA/Sinn Fein meeting as the crisis unfolds. Who's there? We still really don't know all the players. 

Wednesday Wait and See

Good morning, Stroock's Books people. Just five more days! We can't wait. 

The New York Post says, 'The Eagles fan involved in the now-infamous viral video that showed him hurling vulgar insults at a female Packers fan has been sacked from his job.' We will say once again, and we're not justifying what this fan did, that everyone knows one doesn't wear the other team's colors at an Eagles game. Reports say that other Eagles fans in that section got on this guy's case and told him to knock it off. Good on them. 

Out of curiosity we asked an associate and friend from Kansas City if one could wear another team's jersey to a Chiefs game, 'Yes,' he replied. 'Even the Raiders.' Which we figured, Kansas City being a nice Midwestern town filled with nice Midwesterners.  For those wondering, Giants games, absolutely. We once went to a Giants/Eagles game at the Meadowlands, Mrs. Stroock wore her Eagles Jersey and hat with no problem at all.  Jets games, don't even think about. They're just awful people, Jets fans. 

The Times of Israel reports,' A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.' So, what do we suppose Trump did to move things along, huh? Did Trump threaten Bibi? Or did Trump make him a deal? What's in character? Has anyone else noticed that Trump is running America's foreign policy?

Raylan Givens on Twitter notes this deal is better than the deal on the table earlier in the year. Unlike the earlier deal, Israel gets more hostages, occupies a buffer zone, and remains in the Philadelphi Corridor.  See also this post from Jewish Insider's Lahav Harkov, which we think is spot on. A' 90 percent victory' she says. Hmmm as of this writing, Raylan Givens isn't liking what he's seeing.

Dark days lie ahead though, as Hamas will use the hostage release for cruel psychological warfare on Israel. This blog suspects little coffins are coming home. Reminder, no fate is too bad for Gaza. 

But overall, we must ask, 'Are you such a loser that you don't know you've won?' We shall see what happens.

Okay read through the Arkansas Titan II missile story. It's fine. And we just finished reading through the Florida mom picks up her kids story, which is also fine. Lots of Thatcher's War research, or re-research. Avenues opening up. 

Deal This

Never trust the Vikings in an important game. Never. Mrs. Stroock's Eagles will be facing the Rams next week whom they've already beaten this year. The Eagles should be favored. 

So during the Eagles game wide receiver AJ Brown was filmed reading a book while on the bench. The camera zoomed in and revealed the book to be Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy. 'Oh wow,' we said to Mrs. Stroock. 'Inner Excellence is going to sell like crazy.' And so it did. As of this morning Inner Excellence is ranked #1 in all of its Amazon categories. We mentioned it to fellow indy auhtor who said, 'We saw and it's #1' Should we send a copy of A Line Through the Desert to AJ Brown?

By the way, reader(s) will recall that we often call a winning football team 'big, strong and tough'. We thought that we were plagiarizing, or borrowing anyway, the phrase from a 1999 column by famed WaPo columnist and ESPN television host Michael Wilbon. Seriously we remember driving home from work when Wilbon was talking about the column on the radio. Out of curiosity we tracked the column down (2 November 1999). Turns out Wilbon wrote, 'It has been a long time since the words "big," "deep" and "tough" characterized Washington's NBA franchise...' So 'Big, strong, and tough' is all our own.

Israel and Hamas have a hostage/ceasefire deal, they say. Details here. We've no major problems with what we see. At worst this deal is 3.6 Roentgen. At worst. We are also intrigued by Tony Blinken's plan for a post war, post Hamas Gaza. If that plan is implemented, then Israel has won a crushing victory. Best part, 'Some State Department officials were concerned the plan would serve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's interests and marginalize marginalize [sic] the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas.'  All the right people are worried. It's almost as if the Israelis are winning. 

This is more or less the deal that was on the table at this time last year. Since then the Israelis have destroyed every one of Hamas's field battalions, gutted Rafah, killed Hamas' leaders, etc etc. When was the last time Hamas launched rocket at Israel? We see a lot of howling and screaming on Twitter this morning. Let us introduce you people to the concept of diminishing returns. There's only so much the IDF can do in Gaza. How long do you want to stay there? Some of these people are acting as if Israeli troops patrolling the streets of Gaza is a good thing. Also, Netanyahu has been negotiating rings around Hamas and the Biden Regime for over a year. Do you think he suddenly turned stupid? No, this is the time for this deal. 

Don't get us wrong. We'll see some grueling scenes in the coming weeks. Arabs don't understand the difference between victory and defeat. Seriously, the average Egyptian thinks they won the Yom Kippur War. They'll take to the streets like ululating retards. Arabs are dumb.  

After 15 months of war Hamas gets what exactly? Some locked up terrorists?** Partial Israeli withdrawal from parts of Gaza the Israelis were never going to keep anyway? Hamas' army, missiles and infrastructure are gone. Large swaths of Gaza look like Berlin after the Red Army went through. In the end Hamas has lost a generation's worth of work. And by the way, Hamas can't just magically rearm and rebuild - whatever happens to the Philadelphi Corridor. It'll take another generation for Hamas to be where it was on 10/7.

Final thought: Israel is in a far better strategic situation than it was on October 7th. Oh, and Donald Trump will be president in 6 days. Take the W.*

Yesterday we read through War Night's Lexington chapter, and came away thinking, 'Meh. There's not much more we can do.' On to the Arkansas nuclear missile silo story. We read plenty on the IRA and the troubles yesterday and will read plenty more today. Wish us luck. We were struck by the photos of grizzled old IRA hands in one of the books. These men gave their lives to the cause, 40 years of war to achieve what? Was it worth it boyos?

*What are the odds that the deal goes kaput and some point during the process? High we think. High.  

**True, the Israelis have to release some terrorists at roughly a 30-1 ratio, which is the comparative worth of a Gazan or West Bank Person to an Israeli. Remember, the Israelis had to release a thousand terrorists to get back Gilad Shalit. So rates are coming down. In the long run it doesn't matter. There's always another Arab terrorist. 

In Which Will Gets Himself Banned From Ireland

One week! We can't wait.

In an odd defensive slug match, Mrs. Stroock's Eagles defeated the Packers 22-10. Not a pretty win, but there ain't no style points in football. Good on Saquon Barkley, it's hard to not be happy for the man. Reminder, the Giants didn't even make him an offer[All right come clean. Are you an Eagles fan?-Ed]. No, we are not an Eagles fan. But we can say we have zero emotional investment in the Giants, not really, not since they benched Eli Manning. 

Los Angeles...how you doing? We'll echo Mark Steyn here: nothing works. Also, no one will be held accountable. Not Gavin, not Karen, not the Lesbian softball team running the fire department. Nobody. And we wrote that before we read this from Colonel Schlichter. 

In the Middle East, A hostage deal has been reached, or nearly reached, or is near, they say. We shall see. There's no downside to this, Stroock's Books believes, not when Gaza and Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon are smoldering piles of rubble. Do note that Hamas chose war.  

Meanwhile, Ynet reports, 'Riyadh exerted its pressure to ensure the election of Joseph Aoun to be Lebanon's new president while Iran's efforts to prevent it failed; Now sources hint at the possibility of normalization with Israel.' There's some serious strategery afoot here.  Think about it. Exit question, if Gaza and Lebanon are quiet does this free Israel to deal with the Houthis and Iran? If so, the imams are right, the Jew is clever.

What do we got this week? Finishing up the War Night readthrough. [When are you going to be happy with what you've written?-Ed] We don't know...we don't know. Maybe when we stop finding needless words to omit. Writing a few Thatcher's War scenes...and research, research, research. Reminder for you goddamn foreigners, in America IRA means Individual Retirement Account. Sorry for the confusion. 

We find the Irish Troubles particularly troubling. We always have. Alert reader(s) will have noticed over the years a certain mockery of  the Irish need to wallow in Irish history.* 'English hung me grandfather they did,' we've joked more than once. Maybe we just saw Patriot Games at an impressionable age. Click the link. That! That scene, just sitting their wallowing in the misery. 

[Ohhhh....look who's back to ragging on the Irish-Ed].

Shut up Ed. When we sent you a pic from Kilmainham Gaol, and said, 'You people should be ashamed!' you replied, 'What lies are they telling?'

Monday Metal (or not): related to our above post, Stroock's Books gives reader(s) Sweet's Los Angels:

*Yes, we do the exact same thing with Jews and the Holocaust. We'd much rather celebrate the IDF, Aerial Sharon, Bibi, and dead terrorists than wallow in the loss. There is a certain kind of Jew who believes the Holocaust is the be-all end-all of Judaism. Not us. [Yeah? What do you believe?-Ed] We don't know. We do know Holocaustism (we invented that just now) doesn't keep Jews safe. Oh, we did get in a Judaism on Saturday [Clap...clap...clap-Ed].

Will's Good Idea for 1/12/25

NFL wrap...It's a damn shame what they did to that kicker in Houston. Yikes. In Baltimore, the Steelers looked completely overmatched. We're calling it, Ravens' QB Lamar Jackson is the MVP. 41/4, lord have mercy. 

We found a bottle of Tullamore Dew in the liquor cabinet last night. Imbibe we did.  

The New York Post reports, 'Greenland’s leader Múte Egede said he is prepared to enter into negotiations with President-elect Trump about the future of the mineral-rich arctic territory — but warned his people had no interest in becoming Americans' - yet. Make 'em an offer they can't refuse, starting with 2 percent of every mineral dollar made, in perpetuity. Commonwealth status, keep the flag, a Greenland Olympic team, expanded US military footprint which means billions to Greenlandic contractors, thousands of American soldiers spending their paychecks in Greenland, expanded American tourism...These people stand to make a fortune. Exit question: who cares what Denmark thinks?

That's a better deal than we'll give the Canadians. By the way, as part of Greenland becoming American territory, we'll send the Marines to seize Hans Island. Make Hans Island Great Again. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 1/12/25...Still no new idea for a War Night tent pole story. But we did have another idea. What if we did two War Night novels, one about civilians, one about the military? It's a risk. We don't know if the concept will sell. And it's a lot more work. And we need to get something out soonish, and we'd really like to start knocking off the World War 1990 post WWIII novels...But as Mr. Trump said on The Apprentice some 20 years ago, 'Take risks.' [Are you serious?-Ed] We'll think about it.

World War 1990: Thatcher's War needs a blockbuster opener scene. We may do a battle in Ireland as a prelude, and then go back and start at the beginning in Chapter 1. We'll see. Or....something with the BAOR earlier in the war, but the characters would have to relate to Thatcher's War. Upon this we shall dwell. 

Saturday Updates

Good snowy morning from Northern New Jersey, Stroock's Books people. We only got an inch or so of snow. Our fourth minor storm of the season. But snow accumulates in the mountains of the northwestern part of the state, adding to the snowpack and spring thaw. 

Alright, alright, we admit that in our youth we used to drink our whiskey neat and was known to do a shot or three. But still, on the rocks with a splash is how Irish whisky is best drunk. 

The things.

Speaking of drunk Irish [Oh, har-har. You don't care if you get banned from the Land of Eire, do you?-Ed] we've resumed our Irish, Ireland, Troubles, Traditional IRA, Provisional IRA, RUC, SB etc etc, research. See why we approach the task with great fear and trepidation? Makes the Middle East seem easy.*

We're reading through War Night again waiting for....we don't know what. We keep seeing good, minor changes to make. And that bothers us. There should come a time when one reads one's thing and decides said thing is the final thing and needs no more changes. 

We can't tell yet if raising prices has negatively impacted sales. We won't really know till we have a new book out. So far, though, we're on pace to increase this month's royalties over last month's royalties. Exit question, if we're making more money with a smaller footprint, will that affect sales in the long run?

*Actually the Middle East is easy. The region is run by a bunch of corrupt and dysfunctional Arab/Muslim dictatorships, oligarchies and kleptocracies who use Israel to distract their retarded populaces.