The reason that I’m a hermit is that most people are far too repulsive and belligerent for me to allow in my life. This is especially true in my main field of interest. Military buffs tend to be aggressively ignorant and hidebound. Because I don’t think like them, they’ve begun the fifth large-scale round of…
Everyday berserkery
July 13, 2014
At some point I wanted to finish a book titled Assault Troops of World War I: the Central, Allied, and Neutral Powers. I may get to it eventually, but for now I’ve totally lost interest. The everyday berserkery of people interested in military matters has drained me of my enthusiasm. It’s a bad day. I’m…
Why I’m optimistic
July 5, 2014
You may have heard of Kendall Jones, the teenaged cheerleader who goes big-game hunting in Africa. People call it a sport, but I don’t apply that term to life-and-death struggles. I’d much rather we leave wild animals alone. If there’s a need to cull them, I don’t think we should have our pictures taken cuddling…
Night Raid: Screenplay for a short war movie
June 27, 2014
I’m very critical of movies. Might as well put my money where my mouth is. Here’s a screenplay for a short war movie titled Night Raid. I wrote it this morning. It’s my first-ever screenplay. Night Raid FADE IN 1. EXT. THE WESTERN FRONT. TITLE READS “1917” – NIGHT We see the devastated, shell-pocked landscape,…
The postal service missed one
April 3, 2014
Well, the US Postal Service theft ring missed one. The reason is because it was sent domestically instead of from Europe. The funny thing is, this is the most valuable purchase I’ve ever made. It’s an original watercolor by Friedrich Ludwig Scharf (1884-1965), an artist who served in the Imperial German Army during World War…
Accuracy is evil! Shut up!
November 10, 2013
A plurality of the people interested in military history are terminally unpleasant. I keep having that realization rammed into my block-of-oak head. They believe that accuracy is evil. My latest dust-up with a very unpleasant, truculent military buff was over my statement that a certain book contains many historical inaccuracies. I won’t copy and paste…
Bigotry can cost you a lot
November 3, 2013
I just tried to win two postcards of German flamethrower pioneers of World War I. It turns out the dealer blocks addresses in the US. The cards were extremely valuable for two reasons: They showed the machine-gun platoon of a flamethrower company, and they proved my theory that machine gunners in the flamethrower regiment wore…
Karma, baby
September 14, 2013
The U.S. Postal Service is swirling the drain. I can’t bring myself to feel badly about it. Why? Because karma. I’ve had too many priceless postcards, photos, and cartes de visite stolen. A theft ring of postal workers operates in New York. With total, absolute, complete impunity. Every American collector of military postcards knows about…