Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens on Taylor Branch on Bill Clinton. When Big Chris looks down on a man for drinking too much, he's probably drinking too much.
John Edwards
Who's creepier? Handsome Johnny or "the butt boy?" This a fascinating, like a train wreck.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Books
I just finished Richard McMurry’s “John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence.”
The book was originally published in 1982, but for many Civil War enthusiasts this look at Hood will still seem fresh and intriguing.
McMurry is no apologist for Hood. He recognizes the Kentuckian’s many faults and discusses them in detail. But he also takes issue with many of the common, though unfounded, perceptions of Hood held by many.
For instance, McMurry points out the series of crucial mistakes made by Hood on his campaign in Tennessee, but also examines more closely, and more reasonably, Hood’s reasons for striking north.
McMurry finds plenty of fault with both Hood and Gen. Joseph Johnston, who Hood replaced at the gates of Atlanta.
McMurry does a very good job describing the “dance of death” through North Georgia between Johnston and Sherman. Strangely, for a book about Hood, the author isn’t nearly as good describing the chess match between Hood and Sherman in the days right after the fall of Atlanta. Sherman disappears from the story for too long as Hood wavers on what curse to pursue with his beaten but still dangerous army.
The battles of Franklin and Nashville are dispensed with quickly, as if the author was uncomfortable recounting the destruction of the Army of Tennessee. I also wish McMurry had written more on the performance of the Texas Brigade during and after Hood’s wounding at Gettysburg.
Complaints logged, I strongly recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in the Georgia-Tennessee theater of operations. To understand the calamity that befell the Confederacy’s second largest army, you have to understand John Bell Hood. McMurry’s book is a huge help in that regard.
The book was originally published in 1982, but for many Civil War enthusiasts this look at Hood will still seem fresh and intriguing.
McMurry is no apologist for Hood. He recognizes the Kentuckian’s many faults and discusses them in detail. But he also takes issue with many of the common, though unfounded, perceptions of Hood held by many.
For instance, McMurry points out the series of crucial mistakes made by Hood on his campaign in Tennessee, but also examines more closely, and more reasonably, Hood’s reasons for striking north.
McMurry finds plenty of fault with both Hood and Gen. Joseph Johnston, who Hood replaced at the gates of Atlanta.
McMurry does a very good job describing the “dance of death” through North Georgia between Johnston and Sherman. Strangely, for a book about Hood, the author isn’t nearly as good describing the chess match between Hood and Sherman in the days right after the fall of Atlanta. Sherman disappears from the story for too long as Hood wavers on what curse to pursue with his beaten but still dangerous army.
The battles of Franklin and Nashville are dispensed with quickly, as if the author was uncomfortable recounting the destruction of the Army of Tennessee. I also wish McMurry had written more on the performance of the Texas Brigade during and after Hood’s wounding at Gettysburg.
Complaints logged, I strongly recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in the Georgia-Tennessee theater of operations. To understand the calamity that befell the Confederacy’s second largest army, you have to understand John Bell Hood. McMurry’s book is a huge help in that regard.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Big Gummint 2
Phil Bredesen points out major healthcare funding problem for state governments. But does anyone in Washington care?
Big Gummint
Are you telling me a large federal agency is spending money in a fiscally unsound manner? Homeland Security in the crosshairs.
Politics
I a not a supporter of the U.S. getting more deeply tangled in European politics, but it would have been nice of Obama had got something in return for his sell out of Eastern Europe. Instead he (and the US) just looks weak. Putin has to be howling. It won't be long before New Europe dislikes us as much as Old Europe.
Obama didn't just blink. He ran away crying.
Dismay in Europe according to the London Times.
Obama didn't just blink. He ran away crying.
Dismay in Europe according to the London Times.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The border
Newsweek editor Jon Meacham has the troops working overtime to help his man-crush Obama get a healthcare package passed. Here's a fresh salvo. Insure illegals!
Henry Gibson, RIP
A funny man. A terrific character actor. Remember him as the head Nazi in The Blues Brothers?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Books
A really interesting list of the 100 sci fi and fantasy novels you must read. I'll argue for and against this list -- no J.G. Ballard? Bradbury? -- but lots of good stuff mentioned. From The Guardian.
My Sunday column: Go West middle aged man!
In the near future I am going on a vacation with an old high school buddy. My wife, the angelic Alison, has given me the OK for this “man trip,” because she is a wonderful woman — that, and she went to Cape Cod without me last summer.
I wanted to go to Cape Cod. Alison and my daughter met up with a bunch of my wife’s old college friends
They spent several days in a lovely house, comparing workout routines, eating really healthy foods and talking about recycling and how wonderful it would be when a Democrat regained the White House.
OK, maybe it was best I didn’t make that trip.
This excursion with my buddy Jim is a different creature altogether.
It is officially known as the Great Texas Adventure of 2009.
We are going to leave Dalton bright and early one morning and drive to Shreveport, La., where we will seek out a locally owned restaurant that does NOT feature nutria on the menu. The next morning we plan to visit the Bonnie and Clyde Museum in beautiful Gibsland, La. Among the museum’s many delights are weapons seized from the duo’s “death car,” old film footage of the ambush scene and the “authentic” fake movie car used in the Warren Beatty movie, “Bonnie and Clyde.
After that wallow in our nation’s history, we will then strike out for the Lone Star State. Our target is the west Texas burg of Archer City, home to Booked Up, a Texas-sized bookstore owned by my favorite author, Larry McMurtry.
McMurtry has written 40 or so books, of which I have read about 35. He’s best known for his Pulitzer Prize winner, “Lonesome Dove,” which every American should be required to read, or have read to them by someone paid with federal stimulus money.
While in Archer City we plan on taking in all the sights, or in this case, the site. That would be the legendary Dairy Queen, where over the years McMurtry has done some of his better thinking, if not dining
I would love to meet Larry McMurtry. I can see us hitting it off big, him inviting us over to stay at his house, sitting up all night talking about writing and then the next morning him offering me a multi-million dollar deal to help him pen a novel about Bonnie and Clyde.
More likely, he won’t be in town at all.
Jim and I also plan on seeing a a high school football game on that Friday night. We would love to check out the Itasca Wampus Cats. Heck, who wouldn’t? But time and distance may limit us more to the immediate Archer City area. The home team Wildcats will be on the road that week so we may have to hit the backroads to find a game. But that kind of uncertainty is just part of the Great Texas Adventure of 2009.
Our tentative game plan also calls for a jaunt down to Arlington to see the Texas Rangers — the baseball team, not the lawmen. They have a kid playing center field named Borbon I need to scout for my fantasy team next season.
Also while in that general vicinity I hope to meet up with my old pal Robert Bohler, one of two Valdostans I know of who left South Georgia for the Wild West, the other being notorious gambler-gunman-wiseguy John Henry Holliday. (You know him better as Doc.)
Planning for this trip is mostly non-existent. Not doing too much planning is part of the plan. In fact, it’s the Master Non-Plan. Of course the Chaos Theory could kick in and everything unravel. A busted axle in Throckmorton or a slung piston in Buffalo Gap would certainly muck up our Master Non-Plan.
But that’s the price you pay to be a free-ranging man’s man wandering the Wild West looking for adventures.
Well that and the long-distance charges for calling home every night to check in with the wife
Jimmy “You can call me Tex” Espy is executive editor of North Georgia Newspaper Group. Also, you can visit him at Espysoutpost.blog spot.com
I wanted to go to Cape Cod. Alison and my daughter met up with a bunch of my wife’s old college friends
They spent several days in a lovely house, comparing workout routines, eating really healthy foods and talking about recycling and how wonderful it would be when a Democrat regained the White House.
OK, maybe it was best I didn’t make that trip.
This excursion with my buddy Jim is a different creature altogether.
It is officially known as the Great Texas Adventure of 2009.
We are going to leave Dalton bright and early one morning and drive to Shreveport, La., where we will seek out a locally owned restaurant that does NOT feature nutria on the menu. The next morning we plan to visit the Bonnie and Clyde Museum in beautiful Gibsland, La. Among the museum’s many delights are weapons seized from the duo’s “death car,” old film footage of the ambush scene and the “authentic” fake movie car used in the Warren Beatty movie, “Bonnie and Clyde.
After that wallow in our nation’s history, we will then strike out for the Lone Star State. Our target is the west Texas burg of Archer City, home to Booked Up, a Texas-sized bookstore owned by my favorite author, Larry McMurtry.
McMurtry has written 40 or so books, of which I have read about 35. He’s best known for his Pulitzer Prize winner, “Lonesome Dove,” which every American should be required to read, or have read to them by someone paid with federal stimulus money.
While in Archer City we plan on taking in all the sights, or in this case, the site. That would be the legendary Dairy Queen, where over the years McMurtry has done some of his better thinking, if not dining
I would love to meet Larry McMurtry. I can see us hitting it off big, him inviting us over to stay at his house, sitting up all night talking about writing and then the next morning him offering me a multi-million dollar deal to help him pen a novel about Bonnie and Clyde.
More likely, he won’t be in town at all.
Jim and I also plan on seeing a a high school football game on that Friday night. We would love to check out the Itasca Wampus Cats. Heck, who wouldn’t? But time and distance may limit us more to the immediate Archer City area. The home team Wildcats will be on the road that week so we may have to hit the backroads to find a game. But that kind of uncertainty is just part of the Great Texas Adventure of 2009.
Our tentative game plan also calls for a jaunt down to Arlington to see the Texas Rangers — the baseball team, not the lawmen. They have a kid playing center field named Borbon I need to scout for my fantasy team next season.
Also while in that general vicinity I hope to meet up with my old pal Robert Bohler, one of two Valdostans I know of who left South Georgia for the Wild West, the other being notorious gambler-gunman-wiseguy John Henry Holliday. (You know him better as Doc.)
Planning for this trip is mostly non-existent. Not doing too much planning is part of the plan. In fact, it’s the Master Non-Plan. Of course the Chaos Theory could kick in and everything unravel. A busted axle in Throckmorton or a slung piston in Buffalo Gap would certainly muck up our Master Non-Plan.
But that’s the price you pay to be a free-ranging man’s man wandering the Wild West looking for adventures.
Well that and the long-distance charges for calling home every night to check in with the wife
Jimmy “You can call me Tex” Espy is executive editor of North Georgia Newspaper Group. Also, you can visit him at Espysoutpost.blog spot.com
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Jihad 2
Arrests could lead to deal with the Taliban. Tough times for terrorists? Here's the BBC story. Key Talibani captured.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Robert Samuelson
Bright Bob does the numbers on Obama's healthcare ideas. Guess what? Those savings will be hard to come by.
The corruption busters II
It ain't just Murtha. That this crap goes on and to this degree is no surprise but where is the outrage we saw when it was GOP scum buckets ladling the pork. The MSM largely ignores Charlie Rangel's skullduggery and the disgusting Murtha has fallen off the radar screen with most big media organizations.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Economy
Gary Becker says the economy will be fine, particularly if the government stays out of the way. But will it? Hell no!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The corruption busters
From Politico. Pelosi doesn't want to deal with Rangel. Who would replace him? Who would calm the Black Caucus? The merits of his staying on be damned.
Your free Sunday tune
From Soul Train. Al Green sings Take Me to the River And here's a bonus track from the great Delbert McClinton. He's good and the band is smoking.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Corruption busters
The Washington Post, that conservative bastion, calls on Rangel to step down. Again! Meanwhile the corruption busting Democratic leadership remains silent.
Michael Yon
The reporter answers George Will and says he still doesn't know why the Brits ended his embed.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Europe
Heavily socialist city in Scotland elects libertarianish codger who is backing up his talk. Via Instapundit.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
George Will
I backed Bush on the Iraq invasion.
Primarily, I believed the WMD argument, but also shared the administration's vision of a vibrant, individual rights-based democracy in the Middle East. Such a country would devastate the Jihadis and help bring light to a dark corner of the world.
Afghanistan, after the destruction of the Taliban, has always seemed like much more of a reach. I don't quiver in fear at the "graveyard of empires"
crap about the region, but I am left to wonder: What's the gain?
George Will wants the U.S. to pull troops out. It's a column worth reading.
Primarily, I believed the WMD argument, but also shared the administration's vision of a vibrant, individual rights-based democracy in the Middle East. Such a country would devastate the Jihadis and help bring light to a dark corner of the world.
Afghanistan, after the destruction of the Taliban, has always seemed like much more of a reach. I don't quiver in fear at the "graveyard of empires"
crap about the region, but I am left to wonder: What's the gain?
George Will wants the U.S. to pull troops out. It's a column worth reading.
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