20 Years on from 73

Oh look, a touch of gout this morning. Probably stress related as Mrs. Stroock is away and we're doing all the heavy lifting around here. 

We made chicken tacos last night. Not perfect by any means, but good enough and the girls seemed pleased. 

Well the Israelis held the funeral for the Bibas family today, a mother and two sons murdered by Gazans; with their bare hands. The nation is rallying around the deceased and the living; their poor father. It's extraordinary really. No not really. This is Israel. A lot of people say if this happened to them they don't know what they'd do. We know exactly what we'd do and Israel should do it. This seems to be a moment for Israel. We don't know what the moment means, but the moment certainly has meaning. 

Relatedly, Israel Radar thinks something is happening in Israel, though doesn't know what that happening might be.  

The New York Post reports, 'Monica Lewinsky believes former President Bill Clinton should’ve resigned from the Oval Office as Congress voted to impeach him for lying about his affair with the then-22-year-old.' Yep. The Lewinsky scandal was the year zero of our current politics. Because that's when the left decided that Democrats could never lose and Republicans could never win, and if Republicans did win, something nefarious happened. See Bush v Gore, Ohio in 2004, and the Russian collision hoax.

Throughout 1998 the Dems and the media kept saying the Europeans were laughing at us tearing ourselves apart over Bill's tawdry sex scandal. But don't fool yourself. In any Westminster system, that is Britain, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, an angry and ambitious parliamentary caucus would have booted Bill by the weekend. 

DOGE report: Yesterday we spent all morning writing and rewriting the opening scene of the Derry chapter. Doing so was grueling and frustrating. But mission accomplished. We also edited two other scenes. Hmmm...we've got some Catholics at a pub, and some Protestants at a pub? Too tropey, or just right? [Irish gathering at a pub? You don't say!-Ed] Shut up, Ed, you're from Liverpool. 

So...20 years ago today we finished the (almost) final draft of A Line Through the Desert. We chose February 26th because it's the anniversary of the Battle of 73 Easting. Here the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment met two Iraqi armored divisions in a sandstorm and shot the shit out of them. It was the last great tank battle of the 20th century, they say. The Battle of 73 Easting also showed the absolute technical superiority the United States had achieved over all enemies. We had sabot shells, GPS, night vision, and they didn't.