Maxime Bernier goes

It's about time. Truly a terrible choice. His lack of judgment and ineptitude will be remembered. An example for future ministers on not what to do. The talent pool is probably starting to get thin for Harper, if he has to go to David Emerson as interim.

Note: to BBC. I'm not sure a minority government is "swept into power".

On blog traffic

When I put up a quick post on the passing of Rob Knox I didn't think it would be responsible for the highest traffic day in my blog's history. For a while yesterday for Google's blog search it was number 3 in relevance. Currently its 4th. Funny how things like that work.

Two comments on racing coverage

ABC, very classy prerace to the Indianapolis 500. When we weren't seeing Danica Patrick's breasts we were hearing from crying family members about the deathtrap that is racing.

Fox, so NASCAR says Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't endanger the safety teams during the Coca-Cola 600. Maybe you could show us a videotape so we could judge it ourselves. Unless of course you're covering up for NASCAR's favoritism like with all the fake debris cautions.

Rob Knox RIP

Condolences to the friends and family of Rob Knox. He was killed in a bar fight. He played Marcus Belby in the upcoming Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince film.

Nephew

Congratulations to my sister on the birth of her first born, 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches. Yes I'm being vague the kid doesn't need to be entered in the big government database quite yet..

Note: he was born on the 22nd apparently blogger ate this message instead of posting it.

Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey Across Asia by John Prevas

Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey Across Asia by John Prevas is a colorful popular history of the Greek conqueror. What becomes quickly apparent is that Prevas really doesn't care much for Alexander. He considers him to be a megalomaniac. Unfortunately the book contains many of the faults of popular history.

The narrative starts with the Greek seizure of the Persian capital. Prevas says that this was the beginning of the madness that took hold of Alexander. With the seizure the war of revenge against Persia had been successful and it would be possible to break up Alexander's army. He didn't do this because he wanted to take control of the rest of Persia and kill the king. That would give him the authority to rule. Even after this was accomplished Alexander wanted to expand his empire through modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. This led to a series of disastrous campaigns for the locals. Only after the mutiny of his army did he turn back.

Much is made of the relationship between Alexander and his Macedonian contemporaries. The tension between Alexander's desire to be treated like an Eastern potentate and God with the traditional ideas of Macedonian leadership and law. The various assassination attempts and reprisals are described in gory detail.

There are some quasi-fictional sections to the narrative that I don't think are supported in any existing source. There's description of palaces and cities which sound like they've been polled right out of a novel. The most colorful stories of Alexander's cruelty and other failings have been trotted out without many provisos about the sources they are drawn from. Not much here from a military history perspective if you are looking for that. Some of the references to current conditions in Afghanistan and Pakistan were mildly interesting but were nothing new at least to me.

Not recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

2nd year anniversary

Today marks the second anniversary of this blog. I'm actually a little surprised it's lasted this long. This post will be the 539th that I have put up. Most are book reviews naturally. This past year I had a 70% increase in unique visitors over the first year. No idea if I'll be able to keep that pace up I guess we'll see. Probably the centerpiece of last year's activity was my rereading of Harry Potter in preparation for the release of book 7. You can revisit that through the Great Harry Potter Reread .

In the upcoming year I'm going to try to be more sociable in the blogosphere. There will probably be an announcement in the next couple of weeks. Which reminds me Maggie if you're reading this I need to ask your advice about something.

Tag changes

Over the next little while I'm going to be changing how I tag my posts. I have over 530 to work my way through so it may take a couple of weeks. I'm going to add subject tags to my book reviews and clean out some of the ones that I haven't used that much. I've fallen behind with my bookshelf subject posts. I'm going to discontinue updating them but I will leave them up. I'll provide a link to the relevant tag. Hopefully this will make navigation around here easier.

For instance here's my new and up to date British history tag.

The Union: England, Scotland and the Treaty of 1707 by Michael Fry

The Union: England, Scotland and the Treaty of 1707 by Michael Fry. This is a history of the negotiation and passage of the agreement that unified England and Scotland in the early 18th century. Fry has written several books on Scottish history. They appear judging by their titles to be popular history.

the traditional historical analysis was that the act of Union was solely an economic bargain between the two countries. Fry acknowledges that the free trade clause was important to the Scots but it was not decisive. Rather the pressure brought to bear by the English was key in forcing the Scottish hand. They were however able to use the English ignorance of Scottish affairs to their advantage in areas such as religion.

The argument is well made however not enough time is taken up with describing the cast of characters. Many pages are spent on the debates in the Scottish Parliament. Lists of names of members of Parliament for different factions are listed off as if we are supposed to know who these people are. There are also long extracts from speeches and papers. I would have preferred a little more editing.

The most surprising thing I learned was that the author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe was a British agent who infiltrated Scotland to determine the perspective of the people for the agreement. His reports were a surprise to the English. He said the level of animosity was high.

Recommended rather difficult to follow in places but still enjoyable.

Is available through Abebooks.

Fandom has always had crazy

interesting piece on Claude Degler a crazy science fiction fan from the 1940s. Apparently people compared things to the Nazis even then.

In the outside world we are fighting a war for freedom and democracy — in fandom the P.F.F. has always stood for Democracy and the rights of newer and younger fans, as well as the old timers. I can only say that if this monsterous farce takes place here tonight, it will be a victory for the forces of totalitarianism and reaction all over fandom –- this concerns every reader of stf and fantasy fiction on this planet!

He also believed that science fiction fans also made up a new species that needed to be fostered. This would involve a farm in the Ozarks. Perhaps for a little breeding.... So crazy fans existed well before the advent of LiveJournal and the Internet. It makes you wonder if Homer had fan boys following him around pointing out inaccuracies in the Odyssey.

Captain Cook:the Seamen's Seaman by Alan. Villiers

Captain Cook:the Seamen's Seaman by Alan. Villiers this is a biography of the 18th century British explorer, he is best known for discovering Australia. There isn't much here about his early life this appears to be due to a lack of sources. The personal papers of Cook such as they were destroyed by his wife after his death. This means that his personality must be described through others and through his rather sterile official documents. This unfortunately makes the biography rather lifeless in places.

Villiers spends most of his time with the three voyages of discovery. He had done some sailing in a comparable vessel in the 20th century so he is able to provide some insights. This is geared towards a popular audience so various technical jargon is defined. The explanations are clear and I did learn something. The book concludes with a brief description of sailing vessels of the era and a further reading section.

Recommended.

Is available through Abebooks.

The Arrow; Avro CF-105 Mk 1; Pilot's Operating Instructions and RCAF Testing/Basing Plans Edited and with a Forward by T. F.J. Leversedge

The Arrow; Avro CF-105 Mk 1; Pilot's Operating Instructions and RCAF Testing/Basing Plans Edited and with a Forward by T. F.J. Leversedge. This is perhaps one of the stranger things that I have blogged about as far as my reading goes. As the title would suggest this is a publication of two internal Canadian government reports on the Avro Arrow.

The Avro Arrow [with the Money Pit of Oak Island] is the perennial subject of Canadian conspiracy theorists. After a successful series of test flights the program was abruptly shutdown in 1959. Theories about this often involve meddling from the United States.

There isn't any real discussion of the termination in the introduction or the documents themselves. What is here is a fascinating description of the aircraft itself. Down to what various warning lights mean and the test program that was cut short. The description of the basing plans includes the assignment of different airframes to each battery of tests.

It is rather hard to review this. There are illustrations and pictures on every page. Explanatory notes are occasionally provided. Personally I would have preferred more explanation of technical terminology but I understand why it wasn't included. This publication seems to be aimed at aircraft enthusiasts who presumably would know what many of these terms already mean.

Recommended a fascinating relic of Canadian aviation history.

Is available through Abebooks.

Quotation [occasional]

"Reading this book dragged like a government job,"
- From D. Matlack's Amazon review of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

The Catalans by Jan Read

The Catalans by Jan Read is a history of the people of Spain [and part of France] that have often strived for independence. This was published in 1978 so probably some of the analysis is out of date with current historical thought but it probably is okay. This is a narrative history written as an introduction.

Most of the narrative is discussing the various attempts to maintain independence from occupiers either Romans, Franks, Moors, various Spanish kings, Napoleon and Franco. There is not just a political history but also a cultural and economic one. Particularly this involves the literary and legal status of Catalan. There's also a further reading section which as noted above could be rather out of date.

Recommended.

Is available through Abebooks.

Britain's Secret War: The Indonesian Confrontation 1962 - 66 by Will Fowler

Britain's Secret War: The Indonesian Confrontation 1962 - 66 by Will Fowler is an Osprey title on the attempted infiltration of communist agents into Malaysia from Indonesia in the mid-60s. Typically for one of these titles much is made of the uniforms and units engaged on both sides. Most of the emphasis is on the British Special Air Service and Gurkha regiments.

Much of the fighting was done in the jungle of Borneo. Tactics were mostly of the ambush variety. They had been created during the Malayan emergency and were further refined. Aircraft were integrated they were used for troop movements resupply and medevac.

This conflict is probably most famous for the "Claret" operations. These involved highly sensitive missions inside of Indonesia. Since Britain and Indonesia were not at war they were to be kept secret at all costs. This involved changing a citation for a Victoria Cross to obscure where the act was committed.

As usual for Osprey pictures on every page and maps. I would have preferred a further reading section even though I doubt there would be much on it.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks. they must

Pretenders to the English Throne by Jeremy Potter

Pretenders to the English Throne by Jeremy Potter consists of short biographies of the following claimants to the English throne Robert of Normandy, Empress Matilda ,John of Gaunt, Henry Tudor, Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warkbeck, Lady Jane Grey, Mary, Queen of Scots, Edgar Atheling, William Clito, Edward of Warwick, Edmund and Richard de la Pole, Arbella Stuart. The book is only around 230 pages so some of the sections are very short. Some of them are too brief. Even with my knowledge of British history I was occasionally confused. Potter tries to put the various contenders in context. Fortunately family trees are usually provided to help explain the claims to the thrown.

He is at his best when discussing the later pretenders. I'm not sure if this is more his area of study or if it has something to do with the sources. It is actually quite noticeable that the quality of the sections seems to improve the later we go.

A book of this type naturally involves some reference to military campaigns. Unfortunately the descriptions are only narratives without any real explanation as to why victory was achieved or not. The occasional battle plan would have been nice.

Mildly recommended the coverage of the more obscure pretenders is interesting. I will probably try to find more though.

Is available through Abebooks.

Wrong language Prime Minister

"We are using the ancient language employed by our English and French ancestors to express the universal ideal that they shared," Harper said.

So shouldn't it be in a Germanic language not Latin? Or at least Vulgar Latin?

I know they're trying to wrap this in the flag but I'm a little sad. If you're going to redesign the Victoria Cross and change what it's made out of why not change the name also.