Bookworm Room

Tweet Long-time readers know that Fleet Week is a BIG DEAL in the Bookworm household.  Thanks to our membership in the Navy League, we’ve seen the Blue Angels from the deck of the USS Carl Vinson, as well as from the middle of the Bay on a Coast Guard cutter.  We even had the pleasure [...]

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Tweet A friend forwarded me this Facebook page: Perhaps, though, we should be grateful. You just know that Obama would have wanted to say something along the lines of Ron Paul’s execrable statement about living and dying by the sword. (And we know how stupid that is in this context.) Given half a moment and [...]

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Tweet Back in June, I reviewed Chris Kyle’s American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.  I gave the book a thumbs up — it was an enjoyable, informative read about life on the front lines from a tough guy who became a SEAL, and then went on to become, [...]

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Tweet Hot Air caught the New York Times public editor stating — with a straight face yet! — that she really has no idea what political viewpoint informs their writing.  Maybe this screen shot, from today’s online edition, will help her: I’m sure both stories are true.  That is, I don’t doubt that a specific [...]

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Tweet Leon Panetta has given the go-ahead to a plan to allow women into combat situations: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military’s official ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said Wednesday. [snip] The decision clearly fits into [...]

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Tweet If you knew a young man who is fascinated by the military and by watches, what watch would you give him?  I would like a watch that is favored by the guys on the front line, whether Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army, or Coast Guard.  It can’t be too expensive, though.

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Tweet The rule of war used to be that you hated your enemy. That made it easy to fight your enemy. Then, starting with the first Gulf War, the new rule was that you felt sorry for your enemy. By the Iraq War, the rule had become, you’ve got to like and respect your enemy. [...]

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Tweet My childhood spanned the late 1960s and early 1970s.  In San Francisco, a few things were clear:  policemen were pigs; troops were baby killers; and veterans were crazy drug addicts.  Those older than I — say in their late teens through late 30s — were openly hostile to the military.  There was no back [...]

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Tweet What more can I say?  Happy birthday to one of the greatest institutions in America — the United States Marines. Semper fi!

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Tweet Paul Brandus decided he’d had enough of the innumerable lies about Obama floating through the blogosphere, so he did some research and came up with a post:  “Deconstructing the 5 most ridiculous myths about Barack Obama.“  Unfortunately for him, he forgot the cardinal rule of attacking your enemy:  Know your enemy.  Without that knowledge, [...]

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Tweet Last year, when I was casting about for a holiday season charity, a friend recommended the Semper Fi Fund, which helps out wounded service people and their families.  I was planning on making a donation again this year, sometime around December something or other, but I’m not going to wait that long.  I’m going [...]

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Tweet On Monday, November 5, an ad will run in the Washington Times with the names of almost 500 retired military officers from all of the different forces who support Mitt Romney.  I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of the ad.  The same email forwarding the ad asked that it be shared [...]

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Tweet Usually, I post about what I’ve found on Facebook — the anger, the silliness, and the misinformation from my Liberal friends.  Today, I’m doing something different.  I’m posting about what I didn’t find on Facebook. You see, Facebook was apparently unwilling to tolerate a poster that suggested that Obama had been less than courageous [...]

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Tweet The Mellow Jihadi suggests official recognition for the unusual bravery Lance Woods and Glen Doherty showed in their final hours.  I realize that such recognition will not bring these men back, but acknowledging their sacrifice is something we do for the good of the country.  If we cannot honor those who died in our [...]

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Tweet I cannot vouch for the facts in this email I received, so please take that into consideration as you read it: From my personal experience at Bagram last year, when the “Commander-in-Thief” came over, the troops were handpicked, screened, and disarmed, including the Marines. All base roads, sidewalks, and access to flight lines, mess [...]

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Tweet I’m guessing that a majority of Americans (a slim majority, but still a majority) know that America entered WWII because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  What few stop to consider is why we ended up fighting, not only the Japanese who had just bombed us, but the Germans as well, since they, after all, [...]

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Tweet When last I wrote, the CIA denied giving a stand down order and denial of aid to Glen Doherty and Lance Woods.  Since then, the White House has issued a carefully worded statement to the effect that “Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi.”  That [...]

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Tweet A military friend pointed me to Fallen Not Forgotten, a veteran-created and owned apparel business that donates a portion of its proceeds to military charities.  The guys at FNF have now set up a page that seeks straight out donations that they will put towards a scholarship fund for the sons and daughters of [...]

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Tweet I’ve got an amazing array of links, all of which indicate that, with three weeks before the election, America and the Middle East aren’t static.  Instead, there are a lot of things that are suddenly coming to the boil in ways that make me pray very hard that Mitt Romney wins. A lot of [...]

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Tweet One of the most memorable advertising campaigns from WWII was the all-out effort to make sure that people didn’t inadvertently reveal military secrets that they’d gleaned from their work or from contacts with loved ones.  The most famous is probably this one, because it’s got that memorable rhyme: The “loose lips” poster wasn’t the [...]

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Tweet Courtesy of the Navy League, today I boarded the USS Makin Island as an official ship’s greeter.  My visit was a bit more fraught than past experiences have been, so I thought I’d walk you through the girl’s guide to visiting the USS Makin Island, starting with pre-visit preparations: Review boarding instructions at last-minute [...]

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Tweet I wonder whether any branch of the military has lost a larger proportion of people than the Navy SEAL in the years since 9/11.  Certainly they’ve done their bit and more to fight for American freedoms.  We now learn that, in Benghazi, former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods, 41, and Glen Doherty, 42, gave their [...]

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Tweet In war, it’s entirely possible to have battle causalities increase despite the fact that you’re winning.  This is because, as with the Surge in Iraq, you are aggressively engaging the enemy.  Yes, you are defeating the enemy, decimating his numbers, and driving him back, but the very fact of engagement is necessarily going to [...]

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Tweet We talk a lot here about the way our children are indoctrinated.  They’re not alone.  Everyone who touches government gets indoctrinated. Here’s a funny look at what could happen: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The anti-American protests spreading throughout the Islamic world over an anti-Muslim film took a startling turn today when the Marine Security Detachment at [...]

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Tweet Various news outlets are reporting that the U.S. is dramatically scaling back joint exercises with Israel, something Israel perceives to be a sign of distrust and an effort (again) to create distance between itself and America: Seven months ago, Israel and the United States postponed a massive joint military exercise that was originally set [...]

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