Knobbed Up

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. Once again, this is really a minor holiday. Usually, Chanukah is said to have become important in the 20th century because it is close to Christmas. Our rabbi says that Chanukah grew in importance in the late 19th century, as Zionists needed a military hero, and Judah Macabee was it. Anyway, Passover, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are the big holidays. 

You think Jews at Harvard, MIT and Penn will be able to hold Menorah lighting ceremonies tonight? The Daily Mail reports on the backlash against MIT president Sally Kornbluth, Harvard president Claudine Gay, and UPenn President Liz Magill. The Times of Israel says that Gay and Magill are 'walking back' their comments. Whatever backlash these presidents are facing, it's not enough. 

The Israelis really are breaking out the pumps and hoses and getting ready to flood the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. Or are they? This would be a controversial move, to say the least. Might the very public flood plan be a bit of strategic misdirection, a ruse meant to trick Hamas fighters out of their safe spaces? Heh. Or maybe the Jews are just going to go biblical on Hamas and flood them out. You know what the imams say. 

An interesting tidbit from the Times of Israel: 'Meeting local leaders of northern border towns on Wednesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel plans to force the Hezbollah terror group to move away from the border, and does not expect residents to return to their homes before it does so.' Gallant talks about pushing Hezbollah north of the Litani River, 18 miles or so off the Israeli border. That means some kind of major military op. One supposes that the IDF might be in the early stages of such an op right now. Anyway, this would be wise. [Puts on Omar Sharif voice] 'Hezbollah, Bibi.'

Ahhh, the real Ed sent us a pic last night:

We're not making this crab up, yo. 

The GOP held a debate last night. We didn't watch. We don't care. People who believe these polls showing Trump beating Joe setting themselves up for a massive disappointment. Joe, or whoever the Inner Party substitutes, will win because the Dems control the means of counting. Don't you know that? 

The Alberta Plain story is coagulating just fine but lacks a conclusion and...something. A property dispute with a neighbor, a water dispute with municipal authorities that comes to a head with the world ending. We can't have another story where characters are just gawking and pointing, 'OMG! Mushroom clouds!' So what does our loner, lapsed Quebecois do when he sees the southern horizon glow?

The readthrough of World War 1990: The Final Storm...continues, continues with great fear and trepidation, and slowness. We must pick up the pace.

The War on the Jew in Israel and on Campus

Stroock's Books has repeatedly said that Bibi should win the war in Gaza and resign. It seems many in Likud agree. Via The Times of Israel, 'Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party are concerned that if Netanyahu fails to resign at the end of Israel’s war with Hamas, voters will oust them from the government and keep them out for decades to come, effectively putting an end to their political careers.' Meet Danny Danon, the man who would be Bibi. The article quotes a poll that shows were an election held today, Likud would win 25 seats, down from its current 32. Make a deal and get out Bibi. Write your memoir of the war. Follow that up with some kind of Israeli history. Earn $50,000 a pop doing a speaking tour in the US. [Puts on Omar Sharif voice], resign, Bibi. 

The New York Post reports on the presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn testifying before congress about the anti-Jewish pogroms sweeping their campuses. Read of their failure to condemn Jew hatred and behold the horror. We found the stories of three Jewish students on these campuses compelling, and enraging.  Do click on that link. There is deep meaning in the presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn being late middle-aged wine ladies with PHDs, but this blog doesn't know what it is. 

Decorum prevents us from writing what we think of MIT president Sally Kornbluth, Harvard president Claudine Gay, and UPenn President Liz Magill. But when we see these people, words come to mind, mean, nasty words. Those words are well deserved. It just shouldn't be that hard to condemn Juden hass, Jew hatred. Stroock's Books doesn't think Israelis in Judea and Samaria should attack West Bank Persons. It's wrong and the Israeli government shouldn't stand for it. There, we said it. Not hard, was it? So why can't Sally, Kornbluth, Claudine Gay and Liz Magill condemn Jew hatred? Hmmm...we wonder. 

The War Night short story, Alberta Plain, is going fine so far. We have a lone man on the range with his horse and his dog. Hmmmm... in The Aftermath of 1976 we wrote about a lone man in the Berkshires with his pets, and made him a Nazi. Are we playing to type? Or are these stories a window into the heart of Will Stroock, wishing to spend his days in quiet contemplation and solitude surrounded by natural beauty- sans the Nazi bit? Anway, the missiles hit, the southern horizon glows. What does out man in Alberta do after that?

The read through of World War 1990: The Final Storm continues apace. We're taking it slow [You take everything slow, by necessity -Ed]. We're on page 50. Our proofer is further ahead. January. February 1st?

A School that is no place for hate is no place for the Anti-Defamation League

Last September we had this to say about the Anti-Defamation League, 'One supposes one should opine on Elon Musk's fight with Johnathan Greenblat and the Anti-Defamation League. We joke in the headline, but there's really nothing funny about the ADL. We agree with every word Laura Rosen Cohen says at Steyn Online. The ADL is proof that one can monetize 'hate'. They're fascists and Greenblat is bad for Jews. Here's Greenblat on Al Sharpton's show. Sue the ADL, Elon. Sue the ADL back to the stone age.' We admit to being less hostile to the ADL lately because Greenblat has been saying all the right things about Israel and Hamas. 

We bring this up because a few weeks ago the Bridgewater Raritan School District sent an enthusiastic email to parents about the district's plan to bring the Anti-Defamation League's 'No Place for Hate' program into the schools, with a link to the program materials and the ADL website. The next day the district superintendent sent a follow up email stating that many parents had objected, and the program was being put on hold. A curious development, we thought. Also a welcome development. Who said what, we wondered. We had our suspicions. 

We read limited accounts online about the ADL controversy but didn't get the full scoop till the physical copy of our local paper, The Bridgewater Breeze, arrived last week. The latest issue details the latest board of ed meeting in which the ADL matter was discussed. We asked our friend on the schoolboard about the meeting. She sent us a YouTube link to the meeting, which we watched. 

Our suspicions were on point. The Breeze notes three speakers, their names are Ahmad, Ahmed, and Mahmood. Three other Muslim parents spoke against the ADL's program. The Breeze quotes Mr. Ahmed, 'Ahmed noted that on the website for the ADL, there are comments that are “clearly one-sided” with regard to current events.' Most speakers called the ADL a partisan group, which it is. A few speakers complained about arriving at the ADL's landing page and seeing a lot of pro-Israel links. 

Messrs. Ahmed, Ahmad, Mahmood and the others spoke in friendly, reasonable tones. We can't guarantee we would have done the same in their position (we once flew off the handle at an anti-Israeli speaker at RVCC). They were just like us, but Muslim. Though they never said so directly, we believe the Muslim speakers didn't want the ADL in Bridgewater schools because it's a Jewish group that supports Israel while they're Muslim and they oppose Israel. 

You know, a century ago, millions of German and Irish Americans opposed Britain in the Great War. It's okay. Muslim residents of Bridgewater have their reasons for keeping the ADL out of Bridgewater schools. We have our reasons for keeping the ADL out of Bridgewater schools.  Let us say that our reasons are temporarily aligned. 

Will Attends an Event

So yesterday we attended a talk by MEP Christine Anderson...right around the corner from our house at Gateway Church. Seriously, we could have walked there if we really wanted to. We drive past Gateway Church several times a week. Upon arriving we saw a small sign at the front door, 'Masks not allowed' it read. Hallelujah and amen to that, brother. It felt odd entering a house of worship and not donning a Kipa. 

We were mostly interested meting people. The church members we encountered were warm and friendly. It turns out our friend who is on the local schoolboard, and for whom we passed out flyers last year, attended the event. We caught up and she introduced us to some of the people she knew in local conservative politics. Usually we're the weirdo in any room [Usually?-Ed], and we find it off putting to meet likeminded people. We also met a lovely woman who is moving to New Jersey from the Netherlands. She and her family had been in New Jersey for a week. So far she had managed to avoid New Jersey's deadly traffic circles and luckily, the Dutch drive on the same side of the road as us. 

MEP Anderson could best be described as an anti-EU, anti-globalist activist, a German version of Nigel Farage. Here she is wishing the British people a Merry Brexit. Last night Anderson spoke out against the EU, the Lockdown Industrial Complex and the globalists. She spoke movingly of her own father's experiences as a political prisoner in East Germany. Anderson said the Lockdown regime reminded her of the early days of Nazi Germany. We met her afterwords and exchanged a few nice words. Anderson was friendly and gracious. We told her we liked that 80 years after the war, German and Jew stand together. 

Holocaust survivor and fellow anti-globalist activist Vera Sharav also talked, via zoom, hitting on the same points as Anderson.

The event was run by Trinity Productions, a company based out of Ottawa, Canada. We made idle chitchat with one of the producers, Bethan Nodwell a nurse and Canadian trucker activist. Our dumb Canadian jokes didn't land at all. 'You're in Devils country,' we said. 'I know, we're here to fight Satan,' she replied. 'No, I meant the New Jersey Devils,' I explained. 'Wanna go curling?' [You knobhead-Ed.] You're Canadian, you must love hockey!  [I'm surprised you didn't tell MEP Anderson your bad WWII jokes -Ed]. So am I.  Incidentally, we don't think Nodwell likes Pierre Poilievre one bit. 

So we had a gout attack last night, our second in a week. We're not stunned. We did a four and a half mile walk yesterday and stood around a lot last night. We've vanquished the gout at the time of this writing, leaving only residual soreness. But it looks like we might have gotten gout in the knuckle of our left pointer finger. This is a most worrying development. 

Moving on to Jew stuff, Hot Air talks about the American Kristallnacht in Philadelphia over the weekend. Here's another Hot Air story about Hanukkah being canceled in America. Bridgewater is holding a menorah lighting ceremony next Monday, we will be attending. And NRO runs a piece about being Jewish in America after last weekend's Kristallnacht. We've sent a few tweets to relevant authorities asking if their cities are safe for Jews. Does that even matter? We are sorely tempted to go for our long walks carrying an Israeli flag. 

The Times of Israel reports, 'Israel has readied plans to flood Hamas’s system of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with water pumped from the Mediterranean Sea, the Wall Street Journal reports.' The story goes on to say that the Biden Regime has expressed concern for Gazan soil and their water table. Stroock's Books doesn't care and endorses the plan 100 percent. Go biblical on Hamas and Gaza. 

Israel Radar tells us, 'IDF presents operational plans for conflict vs. Hezbollah to defense minister; army has started to launch deeper strikes on arms depots & command centers in Lebanon, after initially demolishing Hezbollah assets near border.' Puts on Omar Shariff voice, Hezbollah, Bibi. In Gaza, Israeli troops are in Khan Younis, bringing biblical level destruction to the Hamas stronghold. Israeli sources we follow think this is a very big deal. 

Monday Israel, Sports, and Heavy Metal Updates

As we predicted the San Francisco 49rs blew the doors off the Philadelphia Eagles. We expect the Dallas Cowboys to do the same to the Eagles next week. 

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent asks if the Stroock family will be traveling to Georgia to see Mrs. Stroock's Penn State play his Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. Sadly, no. 

Israel Radar reports the IDF is attacking Khan Younis in south Gaza while the 36th and 162nd Armored Divisions hit Jabalia & Shujaiya, in the north. The tempo of IDF operations is picking up, no? Israeli forces blew up Hamas' supreme court building. Good. Destroy every government building. Burn every school. Make a bonfire of Hamas' teaching materials. 

Former and failed Prime Ministers Ehud Barak (the man who tried to give Jerusalem to Yassir Arafat*) and Ehud Olmert (the man who failed to destroy Hezbollah in 2006 and tried to give Jerusalem to Mahmud Abbas) have called for 'all for all' prisoner/hostage swaps and a so called two state solution with the Gazans and West Bank people. Olmert also wants a NATO force in Gaza after the war. To put that idea another way, the Jews are to rely on the French, the Spanish and, oh yes, the Germans. [Isn't that a bit of a cheap shot at Jerry?-Ed] Why yes, yes, it is. These men are fools. They're out Shimon Peresing Shimon Peres. 

Meanwhile, ZeroHedge quotes a good Israeli Prime Minister, 'During his weekend remarks, Netanyahu also again warned Hezbollah that its further involvement in the war would bring about the destruction of all of Lebanon.' Quite write. 'Hezbollah, Bibi' we say in our Omar Sharif voice. The New York Post runs an op-ed with which we agree, calling for US military action against Iran. To clarify, as Iran is harassing American and other ships in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy should introduce the Iranian navy to the bottom of that same gulf. 

Iranian proxies attack Israeli and western shipping in the Red Sea. Iran's Revolutionary Guard is active and ensconced in Syria. Hezbollah continues harassing Israel's northern border. The Israelis retaliate in Lebanon and strike IRGC targets in the Levant. This is going to be a long war. Israel Strikes, War of the Red Sea, is almost a decade old, but prescient, no? 

Today we will be working on the Alberta plain story in War Night. 

We are reading the actual physical copy of World War 1990: The Final Storm. So far so meh.

Monday Metal: Today we return to Fever Dog, the band we saw open for Wolfmother two weeks ago. Our selection is Solid Ground. This is a well-executed far out and groovy 70s stoner song.We want reader(s) to pay close attention to Solid Ground's refrain, especially how the rhythm guitar sets the stage for the lead guitar, bam...bam...bam-bam. And check out that lead guitar riff, boom-da-da-da, boom-da-da-da. Combined with bass and drums the overall effect is a stunning cacophony. 

*Homosexual, died of AIDs.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 12/3/23

We awake this morning to a sore right elbow, probably from the gym, and a sore left big toe, probably from gout. Damn it, we were hoping to do a walk or hit the gym this morning. We've caught the gout in time, took a Colchicine and did a cherry juice shot. So we caught in time. But still, damn it all.

Unironically, or interestingly, we got a uric acid test on Thursday (uric acid buildup causes gout). The target level is 6, says the test. Our test showed our uric acid level was 8.6, which is 'high'. JFC, every time we have to get a test the results are 'high'. Cholesterol, high. Triglycerides, high. Blood pressure, high. Serotonin, high. And some people wonder why we assume we're kicking off in our mid-60s. 

Mrs. Stroock's Eagles play the Forty-Niners today, a peer football team. The Eagles have an impressive string of wins against peers or near peers. In succession these are the Chiefs, the Cowboys and the Bills by less than a touchdown. But these wins were exhausting and exposed the Eagles passing game and passing defense. The Eagles impressive string of victories has to end someday. Unless the Eagles have fixed these problems, Mrs. Stroock will be very disappointed today. 

In his review of Napoleon, Rick McGinnes quotes Andrew Roberts', who asks in his biography of same, '"Who is to say that a Europe dominated in the nineteenth century by an enlightened France would have been worse than the one that eventually transpired, in which Prussia dominate Germany and then forced itself onto the continent in ways far less benign than Napoleon?"' Now that's an interesting question. 

We read an awful lot about Napoleon and his wars some 25 years ago, including David Chandler's 1,200 page magnum opus in 2001. That took a while. Anyway, we came away thinking that Napoleon always needed something to occupy his impressive mind. A new city layout, a new tax system, a new war. And that was his greatest flaw. Napoleon just couldn't stop. So let's say he wins Waterloo, or the retreat from Moscow never happens. A few years later Napoleon would have hatched another military campaign.

No, Will's Good Idea for the Week of 12/3/23 is not an alternate history of a Napoleonic Europe. We don't have the chops for that. [Please, you could spend 2024 reading and researching while wrapping up current projects and be ready to go by 2025-Ed] True. But as the president in Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country once said, just because we can do a thing does not mean we must do that thing. [Aren't you always pining for a reading project? -Ed] Yeah but...hmmmm.

Our Good Idea for the Week of 12/3/23 is the title of War Night: War Night and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. War Night will be the main story, the story around which the other stories are built. So the good idea comes with an exit question. What's War Night about? We've no idea. Oh, we have another story idea. An artillery battalion firing nuclear rounds into Fulda Gap. 

Friday Updates

Today is Oldest Daughter's 17th birthday. We don't feel like time has flown by, as a lot of parents say, but still. [But still, what? - Ed] I dunno. We're looking back on the old toddler pics and damn it all, if we're not getting a bit emotional. 

We did a 5 activity cardio gym session Wednesday and a 4 mile walk yesterday. 

The war is back on. Good. Overall, the Israelis got 105 of their people back in exchange for 300 + Gazan and West Bank Person low level cons.  The war has entered its next stage. Negotiations will continue through several days of fighting. Right now the Israelis are calling on residents of Khan Younis in the south to evacuate. We suppose the battle will rage till the Israelis have done what they want in Khan Younis. Exit question, why did Hamas want the war to resume now?

The Times of Israel reports American secretary of state Anthony Blinken and the Israeli war cabinet had a contentious meeting yesterday. The Time's headline and sub header says,' Blinken said to warn war cabinet Israel may not have months to topple Hamas US diplomat says Israel must change way it is fighting, set up safe zones, avoid hospitals, UN facilities: ‘Massive loss of civilian life’ in north Gaza must not be repeated in south...' 

Blinken lectured the Israelis on the need to scale back operations, set up safe zones and corridors, etc, etc. The Israelis leaking the details to the press is their way of telling Blinken to get bent. How much Joe is willing to pressure the Israelis is anyone's guess. But the regime is under tremendous pressure itself from the Hamas wing of the Democrat Party. This was inevitable. The Democrat is no friend to the Jew.

Hot Air reports on the Newsome/DeSantis debate. Hot Air and other conservatives we respect (like Stephen L. Miller) think DeSantis wiped the floor with the failed governor of California. Okay good. But so what? In 2012 Mitt humiliated Barry Soetoro on the debate stage and it didn't make a difference. Gavin got his Desantis/Trump bashing talking points out and that all that matters to the Dem base. In the end this debate, or any debate, won't matter. So long as the Dems control the means of counting, they will win. 

The Things.

An odd, slow and not very productive week.

We've just about wrapped up the Norwegian Home Guard's attack on Banak. The epilogue remains. We're pleased overall, but still, something seems to be missing from World War 1990: Norway. We've no idea what. 

We've got our next short story for War Night. A lone Canadian rancher out on the Alberta prairie. Henri. Henry, as he prefers, as he loathes his Quebecois father, does a lot of lookin' around and seein' stuff, like ICBM contrails. Malmstorm is only a hundred miles away. We may also have the fodder for a story about an F-106 Delta Dart pilot. We'll let that idea percolate. As it's December 1st, our goal is to get two stories written this month. 

We have ordered the physical proof of World War 1990: The Final Storm. Our proofer will have a copy before we do, actually. We'll begin reading as soon as the proof gets here Monday.

Cease This

Former national security advisor and secretary of state Henry Kissinger has finally died. We won't opine on his legacy or even his opinions. Who can say, at this point? For a long time he was a giant of American statesmanship, a fixture on TV.  Kissinger became the kind of foreign policy grandee and jetsetter that we've come to loath, opining and advising on every international topic. Kissinger was unable to simply go away. We never liked his World Restored, about the Congress of Vienna, and much preferred Harold Nicholson's work on same. We admit to having always been baffled by the left's blind hatred of the man. It ain't pretty today. 

Moving on to deaths we're interested in, our sister sent along this clip of Jason Carter, eulogizing his grandmother, the late First Lady Roslyn Carter. 'All southern grandmothers are the same,' our sister said, referencing our own Mississippi born, Louisianna raised paternal grandmother. Why yes, yes they are. She totally would have done the thing with the pimento cheese. 

In Gaza the ceasefire has been extended by one day, so far. The Israelis have suffered a couple of seemingly random terror attacks this morning. Four dead. Welcome to the status quo.  Once again, Stroock's Book's believes Israel is driving events and Hamas is extending the ceasefire to play for time. 

There's also renewed skirmishing in the north with Hezbollah. Israel Radar links to a report stating that a Hezbollah invasion of the Galilee is possible and imminent. 'Nonetheless, it is our assessment that even today, at any given time, if it so desires, Hezbollah can implement its operational plan to invade Israeli territory with a smaller Radwan unit force [an elite force trained to invade Israel] and into a more limited area.' The report goes on to call for a preemptive strike. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom is debating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tonight. This is the election America should have, two governors of two large states with two different visions. But America deserves, do we ever deserve, Trump vs Joe. Whatever. We'll be watching Thursday night football.

We have a short story for War Night. A Canadian farmer, maybe a rancher, possibly a loner, near the Coutts border crossing in Alberta. He knows vaguely something is going on but doesn't much care. One evening he see's missile contrails going north. Half an hour later he see's missile contrails heading south. Soon after the far Montana horizon glows. 

We have received the interior proof and cover for World War 1990: The Final Storm. We'll make and order the physical proof today for final editing. We have a proofer standing by. Though we are pleased with the colour scheme, the cover needs changes, and we won't be posting it. We whistle, 309 pages.