Who has seen the wind by W.O. Mitchell

Who has seen the wind by W.O. Mitchell is the quintessential western Canadian prairie novel. In it a young boy learns about life and death, mostly death. The prairie setting is everything in this work. A very interesting example of how setting can shape a story. The characters are flushed out particularly the main character Brian O'Connal. Who is perhaps a little too much the brat.. He goes through various stages of learning about how life begins and ends. This is done through a series of lessons. The death of his pets, father and finally grandmother. The ending does seem rather contrived unfortunately.

That being said highly recommended even if you've never experienced the prairie wind.

New blog in the sidebar

Usually when I come across a new blog I read a few weeks of postings then decide whether or not to read it from now on. So it's very unusual for me to actually go through posts back to 2005 and there are over 1000 of them. The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent is that good The author is a senior editor at the American Science Fiction Book Club and puts out excellent reviews of science fiction, fantasy and mystery material. I've wanted to reconnect with science fiction something I haven't purchased a lot of lately. When navigating the field this is an excellent resource. He has a larger TBR pile then I do which somehow makes me feel better about myself. It doesn't hurt that I tend to agree with his perspectives on publishing and the state of the genre [for instance the recent controversy over female representation in magazines and awards lists]. Anyway good reading.

Saddam's Iraq like today's Iraq for doctors anyway

According to this Washington Post story the current Iraqi administration in their infinite wisdom has started refusing to give out diplomas and transcripts to prevent doctors from leaving the country. This is something Saddam did.

Nouri al-Maliki is really getting desperate. I rather doubt this will have much effect. Apparently most refugees from Iraq aren't exactly doing white-collar jobs in their new country's anyway. But here are the statistics from the Iraqi Medical Association that were in the article.

The Iraqi Medical Association, with which all physicians must register to practice, estimates that at least one-third of the country's 40,000 or so doctors have fled to Jordan, Syria and other countries. Waleed Khalid, the association's vice president, said the organization issues 30 to 50 "certificates of good standing" to Iraqi physicians every day -- forms that any doctor must have to work abroad, he said.

Interesting historical note. One of the final attempts of the Roman Empire in the West to hang on was to attempt to stop people from changing jobs. Suffice it to say it didn't work.

New design

I finally redesigned the blog with one of bloger's templates. Mostly because I wanted to be able to add the list of labels in the sidebar. I'll be adding labels to older posts as time goes on. All of the content is still there. Let me know what you think. I tried to keep it as close to the old look as possible.

I hope to post something new every day. I guess we'll see how long that lasts.

Quotation [occasional]

"I think she has wanted to disregard everything that was said and continued to drive no matter what." Superior Court judge Michael Sauer on sentencing Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail.

The Gurkhas by Byron Farwell

The Gurkhas by Byron Farwell describes the history of these mercenaries from Nepal. The book was published in 1987.

the history of the units is laid out with particular reference to their operations in the first and second world wars. For instance in the Middle East and France in the first world war, North Africa Burma and Italy in the second. There's also coverage of their participation in the various colonial wars during the 19th century and post-1945 operations such as in the Malayan emergency and Falklands.

The confusing and tragic independence of India and Pakistan is mentioned as well as the problems in transferring some of the Gurkhas to Indian and Pakistani control.

Unfortunately there are no endnotes but there is a bibliography of sources as well as a discussion of the different tribes and unit designations.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

A Brief History of Mutiny by Richard Woodman

A Brief History of Mutiny by Richard Woodman describes the major examples of naval mutiny from the 15th through 20th century. In this book there are descriptions of the classic mutinies such as those against Magellan, Drake, the Bounty and Potemkin. There isn't much as far as new scholarship goes but the book provides a nice summary. There is also coverage of more obscure examples that took place within the Turkish and American fleets. The book contains a bibliography but no endnotes. There is a glossary with descriptions of naval terms.

A decent summary on an interesting topic.

Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II by Matthew Parker

Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II by Matthew Parker is a serviceable history of the 4 allied attempts to cease this key feature of the German fortifications in Italy. The book not only deals with Americans, British and Germans but the Italian locals Polish and New Zealand as well. The author has used various sources including interviews with survivors from all sides.

The one real irritation I have is that the pacing of the book seems to be off. We get to the final German surrender within five pages later we're talking about veterans having problems integrating in society. It's like he ran into a maximum word count ceiling. It's a little frustrating much is made of the attempts to bridge the river and get armor across but the way the text is written it seems like victory was assured at that point which undercuts his main thesis. That the battle was closer to World War I then World War II.

Yes I consider there to be some hyperbole in the subtitle. That's probably an issue with the PR department and not the author.

A useful history recommended for its handling of Polish and New Zealand accounts of the battle.

Is available through Abebooks.


For more WWII book reviews take a look at My World War II bookshelf.

The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest by Peter S. Wells

The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest by Peter S. Wells describes the destruction of three Roman legions by Germanic tribes in 9 AD. The book weaves together the literary sources such as they are with archaeology and even a little bit of forensics to construct the battle in the Teutoburg forest. I liked how the book dealt with the various pieces of evidence.

One minor criticism I'm sure some will have is that a couple of short fictional vignettes in the text. These are pretty short and can be easily ignored without taking away from the rest of the book.

A recommended look at a famous Roman military disaster that helped shape the eventual extent of the Empire in northwest Europe.

Is available through Abebooks.

Chief of Defence Staff Military Families Fund: Money for tanks but apparently not for personnel

For some context hears the original press release and some commentary from bloggers here and here.

So we have enough money for tanks in the budget. Which I think we need but apparently not for personnel. Instead they have to set up a charity to deal with some of the things that the government should be doing and quite frankly as a taxpayer I'd be happy to pay for.

How we treat the families [remember the stories about substandard housing? ] of those that we send into harm's way says quite a bit about us. It strikes me we are being found wanting at least are elected representatives are.

Support Canadian Forces bloggroll

No matter where people stand on the issue on the mission in Afghanistan I believe or anyway hope that most support our troops. This and my feeling that there hasn't been much blog activity on this has led me to create this bloggroll.

The rules for inclusion are pretty easy. You must be willing to add the code to your blog's sidebar and do a posting on why you support the troops. Your page doesn't have to specifically talk about the mission in Afghanistan or Canadian politics. This isn't just for the military and political junkies. After you do so drop me a comment with your post URL. I’ll take a look I'll add you. Here's the code to add just cut and paste what's inside the box.


<p>Supporter Canadian Forces bloggroll</p><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=aa0cd6c4ad0b204d4c000aa729de4d69"></script> <p><a href="http://jmnlman.blogspot.com/2007/04/support-canadian-forces-bloggroll.html">How to join</a>

Naturally I reserve the right not to add web sites with pornographic content or hate speech.

Disclaimer: this is completely unofficial and has no relationship with either the Canadian Forces or the government of Canada.

The Bounty:the true story of the mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander

The Bounty:the true story of the mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander is a superbly researched history of the mutiny that took place on HMS Bounty in 1789. The book lays out a description of the actual seizing of the ship and much more. Of particular interest is the way that the careers of many of the crew are described both before and after the fateful voyage. Lots of archival research has been done in parish records and archives in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

The question of why Fletcher Christian seized the ship is somewhat avoided. Alexander rightly points out that the evidence just isn't there are just theories. The relationship between captain William Bligh and Fletcher Christian is laid out. It was a lot more substantial than I knew before reading this book. Bligh receives a pretty sympathetic treatment.

The way that the story of the mutiny has changed over time is also dealt with. The campaign on the part of the Christian family is an interesting one. The breadfruit’s impact on slavery as well as the abolitionists anger about the issue is something I hadn't considered before.

Instead of traditional endnotes there is a 40 page commentary which provides citations as well as explanations of the sources and editorial comments.

A superb history highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

New tanks good idea

It feels good to be right. Now if they had only decided to do this a few months back the equipment could actually be in the field now. Canadian Forces to refresh aging fleet of tanks.

"Make mail free for Canadian Forces overseas " Paul Zed

A superb idea from Saint John Liberal MP Paul Zed. Let's see Stephen "I love the troops" Harper shoot this down. Remember it is what you do not what you say. And yes before anyone points it out currently postage is the same price as domestic mail.

15 months

Just watch Defense Secretary Robert Gates's news conference on CNN. The armshare strategist in me says that unit familiarity with the local situation can only be good but man this is going to play havoc with recruitment and retention. It also makes me wonder about unit effectiveness. Something there hasn't been much research done for counterinsurgency. Most have been done on fixed deployments. Algeria had a combination of both but there were political variables that makes the analysis pretty difficult. It has not been easy to get numbers for recruitment and retention recently wonder why.