A Good Kangaroo and Kiwi Morning

Good morning Stroock's Books Commune. We've another sub-50 degree morning with temperatures expected to rise pleasantly.

We've had excellent back to back days at the gym and will probably top it off with a 5 mile walk. 

Happy ANZAC day to all our Australian and New Zealand readers:

In this part of the Northern Hemisphere, today is take your child to work day, and at least one daughter will be using the opportunity to stay home and study for AP exams. It looks like another has a cold. Nope, she's off to school. Forty years in the desert she can go to school with a cold. Who said the Passover lessons aren't paying off? 

Sticking with the education beat...We once again welcome the ugly outburst of anti-Jewish pogroms on American college campuses. Take the hood off, we say again. We've been following local Rutgers news. No campus takeover yet by Jihadi, and the president just issued a statement about fighting Juden-hass. Good. 

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent has invited Oldest Daughter to attend Ole Miss. We've gotten a similar offer from a fellow North American. Wonder how she'll feel about poutine. And now Glenn Reynolds tells Jews to go down south. 'Jewish students in the Ivy League, I’m here to offer an invitation: Come to the South, where you’ll be safe,' the great Instapundit writes in the New York Post. 

And Facebook tells us that on this day in 2012 we hosted a pro-Israel rally at Raritan Valley Community College. Two days before the rally, the dean of campus services tried to cancel it, bastard. We went right to his office and demanded an explanation. The dean tried to claim the campus couldn't host a political event. We pointed out that the profs held an 'Occupy' rally a few months before. The dean caved. Motherfucker. The rally went off just fine and was a small success. 

We thought Israel was in for a bad week. But this week is shaping up to be pretty good. The Biden regime won't sanction the IDF's Netzah Yehudah Battalion. The EU Parliament just voted to condemn Iran. Preparations for the Rafah attack continue. Israel Radar reports another 20 kilometers of tunnels in Gaza have been demolished. Iran has pulled back personnel from western Syria and Damascus. The U.S. and 17 other nations have called for Hamas to release the hostages. State Department flunkies are expressing displeasure with Hamas intransigence. Israel restraint and patience paying off?

In Which Will and Vlad Part Ways

Good morning, Stroock's Books supporters of Jews and the Jewish State; the Righteous Among the Nations. The second Passover Seder is in the books, and Pharoah got ten plagues all over again. May each plague fall upon Gaza. This seems like a good time to remind everyone of the eventual fate of all enemies of the Jews from Pharoah to Hitler. They're gone, we're still here, and will always be. 

Staying with the religious-holy war theme, today the IDF is attacking targets in northern and central Gaza, based on 'new intelligence' The Times of Israel reports. These appear to be brigade level actions. The IDF says it's prepared for an assault on Rafah and is waiting for the government to give the order. Hamas is claiming they have many dozens of hostages and is prepared to release 40 of them. Pressure working? Meanwhile the Israelis carried out 40 air and artillery airstrikes in southern Lebanon. The battlespace preparation up north continues. 

On the home front, the weird anti-Jewish pogrom at Columbia and NYU is spreading to other campuses in America. Good, we're glad. Let the hood come off. In other academic news, the historically Jewish Brandeis University ($62,000 per) has extended its transfer deadline because of the rabid Juden-hass on American campuses. Oldest Daughter looked at Brandeis. 

So we looked over the Ukrainian aid package. There are some HIMARS and ATACMs goodies in there. But fancy missiles won't alter the battlefield situation. It mostly looks like the US is sending the Ukes some ammo and old vehicles, including M113s if you can believe it. Count us underwhelmed. Meanwhile, every day we look at the map, the arrows point west, further into Ukraine. 

Related...this blog has long pointed out that Vladimir Putin is the closest thing to a friend the Jew has ever had in Moscow.  That's changed, 'Russia decided on the move after it had avoided responding to a two-year-old Iranian request. The media reports said that 12 Su-35 jets were to be delivered to Tehran, with the initial batch arriving this week,' says Ynet. Putin has been supporting Iran way too much for way too long. We're suspending Putin's Friend of the Jew status.

Dune Part 2 Notes Part II: As noted yesterday, Denis Villeneuve made some interesting directorial choices in Dune Part 2. In his version of Dune, Paul's sister Alia is never born, but attains sentience in the womb and actually talks to her mother and advises Paul. This is an interesting idea. Still, we miss the Alia in the Sy Fy Channel's version of Dune who proclaims as the Fremin attack begins, 'My brother comes!' and of course, 'Goodbye grandfather. You've finally met the Atreides gom jabar!' so cool. 

Our grognard mocked us this morning for finally coming around to the idea that War Night, and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975 should be about, you know, the fighting. So we've got two solid ideas on that front. An arty battery going nuclear, and Al Haig in his bunker directing the battle. 

Chag Sameach Let's Eat

For as it is written, the Holy One, blessed is he...

Chag Sameach, Stroock's Books readers. Last night's seder went off just fine. Pharoah never knew what hit him.

The seder felt a tad quick this year. Though Mrs. Stroock denies speeding things along, we finished in plenty of time to watch her beloved 76ers play the New York Knicks. Note to NBA playoff schedulers. A playoff game on the first night of Passover might not maximize viewership in the New York and Philadelphia markets.

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent has kindly invited Oldest Daughter to attend Ole Miss, which it should be said, was Eli Manning's school. We take the opportunity to note once more that, despite contemporary misconceptions, the south was long a place where the Jew was welcomed. Much of our family is buried 

in the Jew's Hill section of the Natchez City Cemetary, Mississippi. 

The ten Passover plagues from Haggadah: Dam, Tsifardeah, Kinim, Arov, Dever, Shkhin, Barad, Arbeh, Choshech, Makat b’chorot. Gives us chills every time we recite them. May they fall upon Gaza. 

Sky News: 'The US State Department says the militant group has signaled it does not want a ceasefire agreement in the war.' Even the Shimon Peresists* at the State Department have figured it out. Israel media is reporting that Shin Beit believes just 40 hostages remain alive. In their last offer Hamas proposed releasing 20. We doubt even that many live. Finish it, Bibi. Also from the Haggadah:  '‘Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home. Pour out your wrath on them; may your blazing anger overtake them. Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens.’

The Times of Israel reports, 'The Israel Defense Forces is readying to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Gaza’s southernmost city in Rafah ahead of its planned offensive there against Hamas, according to a report Monday.' Another story this morning has a satellite photo of tent cities being built outside of Khan Younis. In the spirit of Passover, Stroock's Books proposes the Rafah assault be codenamed Operation 11th Plague. 

Meanwhile Israeli battlefield preparation in Lebanon continues. 'Mohammad Khalil Atiyeh, a Hezbollah operative killed Monday night in an attack on southern Lebanon's Arzoun, was a senior member of the terrorist group's elite Radwan force, according to Lebanese media reports on Tuesday,' reports Ynet.

Dune Part 2 Notes Part-I**: Director Denis Villeneuve made an interesting directorial choice in the way he portrayed the emperor in Dune Part 2. In Lynch's Dune and Sci-Fi Channel's Dune, the emperor and his palace are highly articulated with lots of followers, handlers, and regalia. But in his Dune, Villeneuve goes minimalist. We see Emperor Shaddam and Princess Irulan in a garden contemplating events over a board game. The effect is very understated.

We're not announcing a breakthrough, but we did kinda-sorta got an idea for War Night and other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. What if the main War Night story was about General Haig (who readers will recall was SACEUR at the time) fighting the conventional/nuclear war in Europe? Upon this idea we shall dwell. Right now we're reading through the Titan II missile silo scene, Razorback-1

*Shimon Peresism:  The naive belief that if the Jews concede everything, the Gazans and West Bank Persons will stop wanting them dead. Named after Israel's Quisling loser prime minister and 'peace process' fanatic Shimon Peres. See also Tom Friedman.

**We'll be writing about Dune Part 2 for as long as we have something to write about Dune Part 2. We all know that David Lynch's Dune, while it has some strong visuals, is a convoluted mess. We've preferred the Sci Fi Channel's version ever since it aired in 2000. 

Passing Over

Chag Semeach, Stroock's Books readers. Passover tonight. Prep well under way. Mrs. Stroock's relatives arriving later this afternoon. 

And so begins another week of awaiting events in Israel. The Jerusalem Post says Netanyahu 'hinted' at an upcoming attack on Rafah. Let us hope so. Our own sense is that after the Israeli military aid bill passed the US House, Israel is in for a bad week, politically. Just a hunch. We also fear a horrible terrorist attack, in Israel, in Europe, even here in the United States. We will see an increase in anti-Jewish pogroms on campus for Passover. 

The New York Post tells us that the anti-Jewish pogrom at Columbia University is intensifying, 'Columbia University canceled all in-person classes Monday after anti-Israel protests inundated campus this weekend, erecting an encampment and resulting in the arrest of over 100 protesters.' Good. These protests are expected to spread to other campuses. Double plus good.* Columbia's president is a woman named Minouche Shafik? Anyone care to guess what kind of name that is? No wonder she's been putting up with Juden hass on campus. Shafik probably thinks Egypt won the 1973 War. 

As for endeavors this week, we're returning to War Night and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. We wait for Debbie to send us the edited World War 1990: Norway MS. Meanwhile we have multiple people reading over the MS to tell us everything that is wrong with it. We await with bated breath to hear back from the publisher about Standoff at San Miguel. 

What Will's Watching, Dune Part II. We saw Dune Part II was available to rent for 25 bucks or quid. So we watched it Saturday night and then we watched it again Sunday night so that we could assure Mrs. Stroock that we got our money's worth. We did not love this movie as much as reviewers like Chris Gore and The Critical Drinker. For us, the crusade and Paul's reaching messiah status came together too quickly. But we liked Dune Part II a lot. A beautiful film to look at. Epic in some spots, understated in others. We saw some great performances. Zendaya was fine, as was Florence Pugh. Critics are raving about Austin Butler as Feyd, but we think Javier Bardem deserves the best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Stilgar as a believer waiting for the Mahdi. It looks like we'll see a Dune Part III. Good. Screw it, 4/4 despite a few criticisms. 

Monday Metal...We listened to Def Leppard's Hysteria at the gym last week. This is our desert island album.** Hysteria gets better with age and thirty-five years later, we can still pick out new things. As the band and producer Mutt Lange said during production, 'All killer. No filler.' Every damn song could have been a single. We didn't buy Hysteria till the fourth single, Poor Some Sugar on Me. To this day we feel the most underrated song on the album is Women, which was the first release and kind of a flop. But it's a heavy song with a great video concept:

*Man we're not sure we want Oldest Daughter going away to school.  

**This blog had an Adrenalize week, right?

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/21/24

Good Sunday morn, Stroock's Books weekend enthusiasts. 

We walked seven miles yesterday. We over did it. 

The house passed the Ukraine money laundering bill yesterday. The legislation includes $17 billion in goodies for Israel. The Times of Israel tells us, 'Of the aid to Israel, some $5.2 billion will go toward replenishing and expanding Israel’s missile and rocket defense system; another $3.5 billion will go to purchasing advanced weapons systems; $1 billion to enhance weapons production; $4.4 billion for other defense supplies and services provided to Israel; and some $2.4 billion to US operations in the region amid the Gaza war.' [Why is aid to Ukraine money laundering but aid to Israel good-Ed?] Easy, we don't care about Ukraine but care very deeply about Israel. Any questions? 

Israeli patience is paying dividends. 

Passover begins tomorrow night. We expect bad things. An anti-Jewish pogrom in New York City or London, an Iranian missile barrage. This is the most dangerous Passover in living memory. 

Will's good idea for the week of 4/21/24...

We spent a lot of time yesterday and Friday night thinking about the Red Dawn Thingy. Remember that? Recall, D-Day fails, the Soviets sweep Europe. FDR loses the 1944 election to Thomas Dewey. By August of 1945 the United States has nuked Berlin, and the Red Army is on the Rhine. Forty years later the Reds invade America via communist Mexico. 

We see great world building potential here. Imagine, a communist block that includes all of Germany. Western Europe Finlandized. Great Britain run by communist union honcho Arthur Scargill. President MacArthur in the 1950s. A 1960s insurgency in Mexico. America loses the race to the moon. 

We've got some good characters. We especially like Mexican Qadhafi, kind of an ideological maniac but a loving husband and family man. Through him and some American characters, reader will learn about the Mexican Insurgency and how America lost it. The nation's been in a funk ever since and is pessimistic. This is not Ronald Reagan's America. At this moment we've no idea who the president is.  

When we picked up the Indian takeout last night, we realized this concept is handicapped by the fact that the United States would never accept the buildup of Soviet and Soviet allied forces in Mexico before an invasion. Another problem, even though the Reds could build up Mexican infrastructure to supply a massive army, they'd still have to transport troops via a long vulnerable seaway across the Atlantic. 

Maybe something else. What's doing with War Night?

Saturday Updates

Good Shabbos Stroock's Books Ashkenazi. This morning the sky is overcast and damp but is expected to clear. Would be ice if we had actual spring, instead of Yankee spring. 

We hit the gym for cardio last night and plan on doing a 5-miler today. That will be four sessions in a row. Wish us luck. 

Services last night, and Passover prep continues today. For us this means getting the box with all the Passover dishes out of the basement. 

The Things:

We submitted Standoff at San Miguel to the anthology. We haven't heard back yet. 

World War 1990: Norway is officially delayed. But for good reasons. The fair Debbie is still editing. Also we have a couple of people, including our inhouse Grognard, reading the MS. We're looking at June for publication.

We did some good work on War Night: and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. The silo story is coming along slowly. This is just one of those stories that's a slog until it's not a slog. The Lexington story is moving along. We had two more ideas. The US embassy in Moscow and a DEW Line station in the Canadian arctic. Overall War Night is 26,000 words. Feels like progress is slow. Which it is. Still no idea what War Night is. 

Joe said Don't and Israel Did

Good Shabbos, Stroock's Books Kibbutzim. 

We did a six mile walk on Wednesday and lifted yesterday. At the gym we received yet another compliment on our 'I stand with Israel' t-shirt. People are staring because they like what they see. Who can blame them? Actually, the attention is starting to bug us. We enjoy quiet anonymity. We're thinking another 6-miler or cardio today. 

The Israelis finally attacked Iran. They aren't saying anything about the operation yet. At one point last night it looked like the Israelis were launching a massive attack on various targets throughout Iran, including nuclear facilities. We thought the attack was 'the big one'. Instead it was a pinpoint strike meant to deliver a message, 'We can strike you when, where, and how we see fit.' Message delivered. And the attack came on the Ayatollah's birthday, showing the Jews have not lost their sense of humor. That was a clever bit of strategic misdirection by the Israelis, as they convinced everyone the retaliation would come after Passover. You know what the imams say. 

We admit to being a little disappointed this morning. We had hoped that the Israelis would rain biblical, Charleton Heston level destruction upon the Mullahs, and our imagination ran away with us as we followed events on twitter. But the Israelis made their point and can get back to the business at hand. First Hamas, events seem to be moving toward an attack on Rafah, and then Hezbollah. Iran is a lot less of a problem if Hamas and Hezbollah are destroyed. Note, Iran promised to retaliate for any Israeli strike inside their territory. What will the Mullahs do? 

So let's recap this week's events. Israel assassinated an Iranian general, fended off the Iranian retaliation, and delivered a pinpoint strike deep into Iranian territory. There’s been lots of international condemnation of Iran’s attack on Israel. The US vetoed the PA’s UN membership bid. In America, google fired 28 pro-Hamas employees who shut down an office. Columbia had a bunch of pro-Hamas protestors arrested. Barnard college suspended Ilhan Omar's demon progeny. The regime has sanctioned Iran and an weapons bill is expected to pass the House tomorrow. This has been a good week for Israel. That's two in a row. Talk about taking the W!

Uhhhh...don't look now but Netanyahu and the right bloc are gaining in the polls. Reports Arutz Shiva: 'The Lazar Research Institute on Friday published a poll indicating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has significantly reduced the gap between himself and Minister Benny Gantz (National Unity)...' Overall the left bloc would get 60 seats and the right bloc 50. The left's total is way down from a high of 68 seats. This blog had been hoping for a center government led by Gantz with a truncated Likud party of about 20 seats in the coalition. 

We approach the weekend, and Passover, with great fear and trepidation. Things are going great, gotta wear shades.