“We are Forerunners. Guardians of all that exists. The roots of the Galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun, towards which all intelligence blossoms… And the impervious shelter, beneath which it has prospered.”

The children of a dying paradise

I recently wrapped up reading a short book- more like an extended essay or master’s thesis, really- by a chap named Julian Langness, who writes quite well and thoughtfully over at European Civil War. Part travelogue, part philosophical discourse on the current...

Where did you say you were from?

So my buddy and I were driving back from a fight night through upstate New York, through some truly spectacular countryside along the interstate winding through the Adirondacks and the Catskills, when we passed a town with a rather curious name. My friend turned...

Vote “LEAVE”, and become great again

Take up the White Man’s burden-And reap his old reward; The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard- The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light- “Why brought ye us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?” — From The...

“Survival cancels out programming”

(With apologies to LtCol. Tom Kratman for blatantly ripping off a, um, Kratmanism.) A little over ten years ago, a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Army who had recently turned his hand to writing science fiction released a book “written in collaboration...

A few facts went a-missing

An interesting article over at Return of Kings the other day posited that Russia is becoming a rather good place for modern “unplugged” men to go, in order that they might expand their horizons: A man who (wisely) chooses to leave the Western world today...

An inconvenient parchment

Are Muslims required to get an ironioctomy before they convert to this so-called “religion”? New archaeological evidence regarding the origins and the age of the Koran are resulting in some rather interesting questions being asked of the one...

In case you think “Delhi Belly” isn’t real…

IT’S A TRAP!!! I can tell you from very real and very personal experience that if you visit India, you are virtually certain to get a nasty case of the trots at some point. The South African cricket team found this out in the worst possible way when TEN of...

Don’t fall for the Dubai story

For me, “home” is basically wherever my parents have made their home. Last year, when they moved back from Singapore to the old country, my method of getting home changed too. If you want to get to my country of origin, there are direct flights available-...

Domain Query: Cracked jumps the shark

Cultural insensitivity can be hilariously awesome AM sent over an interesting link to a Cracked.com article last night that talked about five unpleasant realities of visiting India as a young Western woman. It is worth reading through all the way, if only to get an...

Messing up matriarchy

Recently I finished up Karen Traviss’s final book of the Kilo-Five Trilogy, titled HALO: Mortal Dictata. The book itself was interesting enough, I suppose; at any rate, her work in the HALOverse did a lot to raise my dismally poor opinion of her work,...