A massive (just over 700 pages) history of the naval battles between the United Kingdom and France during the time of Napoleon.  It is an adventure story which spans the world as sea battles from India to the English Channel impact Napoleon’s campaigns from Egypt to Moscow.

It has been many years since I attended graduate school, so I had forgotten how academics love to hear their own rhetoric, especially if they can dress it up in a “holier than thou” attitude. This article on racism is of value in and of itself, but the two videos in the article point out the mental gymnastics that some academics go through just so they can sound noble or justify their questionable job. My first reaction to the short videos was to burst out laughing and my second was to pity any students subjected to such academic drivel. https://quillette.com/2020/11/29/im-a-professor-from-an-immigrant-family-please-stop-telling-me-that-my-university-is-racist/

The assault on meritocracy is taking place at every level of our society but no where is it more deadly than in our schools. Unfortunately, too many insist of bringing the best low as opposed to lifting the low to new heights. School budgets and teachers salaries increase while legions of new administrators create programs which continue to fail. How long will we accept diminishing results? If children are our most precious asset and the hope of the future, we need to take action before it is too late. This article points to actions which seem to punish hard work in the name of “equality”.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-progressive-assault-on-selective-high-schools-11606349353?page=1

The Nazis term for this, Rassenschande was a terrible blot on the history of mankind, which we all hoped would never again raise it’s terrible head. This article on the conflict in India which has been building for many years points to a direction that could lead to a conflict between two nuclear powers; one which believe in heaven for the warrior and the other which believes in the cycle of life-a true no win danger for all of us. Let us hope that the extremists on both sides realize the danger before it is too late. https://www.wsj.com/articles/hindu-nationalists-crazy-crackdown-on-love-jihad-11606349657?mod=opinion_major_pos7

Histories of war are often told from the viewpoint of grand strategies, major military or political leaders or combat personnel.  Seldom do we get a view of the war from the ground level as experienced by non-combatants; we somehow seem to believe that their lives go on with a feel of normality, even in occupied territories.  In this book we find how a woman, living in an occupied land managed to not only lead a life, but to defy the occupiers and at great risk to herself, feed prisoners of war while at the same time hurting the occupiers war effort.

It is not often that I can write something positive about cigar smoking in California, but I am happy to recommend the cigar smoking section near Henry’s Uncorked, a restaurant at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach. There is no smoking at the restaurant, but just a few steps away is a nice fire pit overlooking Pacific Coast Highway, the broad expanse of the beach and of course, the Pacific. The sunsets are wonderful and you really understand what California is all about. Food and refreshments are available from Henry’s. Sorry, no pipe or cigarette smokers allowed.

Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort, 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach CA. Henry’s Uncorked opens at 5 PM.

For years, Albert Seaton’s “Battle for Moscow” has been the gold standard for reviews of that famous and brutal battle. This work is a welcome addition to any library on the subject as it is lighter and raises several points which are worth examining. Michael Jones uses eyewitness accounts of actions to bring a personal touch which was missing from Seaton’s and thus the reader is drawn not so much by the technical aspect of the battle as by the personal.

Thanks to the power of public employee unions, the greed of politicians for campaign funds and their fear of being out of a job, the pension plans for public employees has gone completely off the rails. As it stands right now, you, the average taxpayer will be on the hook for the unrealistic pension plans on the books. In reality, for some pension plans there is no way to get their funding back to a realistic level and the unions are not willing to face the truth or the wrath of their members by making meaningful changes. Given the amount of school debt, lack of funding for Social Security and Medicare, plus these pensions, major problems are coming at us at a fast pace. The great shame is that the politicians who give into the unions in good times do not face any fiduciary liability for their mismanagement. Maybe it is time to take a step in that direction? This excellent article points our some of the hard realities and we got to this place. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/the-state-pension-crisis-goes-beyond-the-big-blue-states

I had great expectations for this book as the role of women in ancient Rome is sadly underrepresented or understood.  Unfortunately, this book did not quite come up to snuff; it was aimed more at the academic in that if you do not have a basic command of Latin, or a good Latin to English dictionary handy, or, if you do not have a basic understanding of Roman history and society, the book will fall short of your expectations.  In fact, it seems to me that the author was trying to burnish his academic credentials by writing this book.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was well known during his life (and for centuries afterwards until the decline of a classical education), for his work as an advocate and speaker during dangerous times in Rome as it moved from a weak Republic, through Dictatorship and into the beginnings of the Empire.  Why do we know so much about Cicero?  Mostly because so much of his legal and philosophical writings survived through the ages, much of it written by himself, naturally putting himself in the best of lights.  He loved to write about himself so much that he managed to write two biographies of himself (sounds like a certain President we know) concentrating on the one major accomplishment, his actions in putting down the Cataline conspiracies.