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Reader Interactions

108Comments

  3. 3.

    Virginia

    And, it’s easy to overreact with all the shit swirling around us these days. Thanks for coming back.

  4. 4.

    Drunkenhausfrau

    I’ve been lurking here for 15(?) years or more… you, sir, are a gentleman scholar and mensch.

  8. 8.

    Cookie Monster

    How will you ever get on the Wingnut Welfare gravy train when you go around apologizing and behaving like a decent human being?

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cookie Monster: I had two bites at that apple. Two different of that type of think tanks came knocking, I turned them both away. Doubtful it’ll happen again. I have two contacts at think tanks. One is a non resident Senior Fellow at CFR – he’s a retired ambassador and my former boss. The other is a very senior person at a right of center think tank. Neither has the ability to help me get my foot in the door at either one. I’ve found that those jobs are all about who you know. And while I’ve got some very senior contacts, none that could even help me get on the non-wingnut circuit. I’m pretty sure I’ll live.

  21. 21.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    These are fun days for conspiracy theories (since many of them are actually true!)

    1) C-SPAN interrupted by RT broadcast
    2) Power outage interrupts Pompeo’s testimony on Russia
    3) MSNBC hardball glitch causes guest to repeat Russia 30 times mid-broadcast

    Hrmmm…..(probably all coincidences, but hot damn.)

  25. 25.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dog Dawg Damn: Tell me what I did wrong, and, if I agree that I was wrong, I will be happy to apologize.

    ETA: I have apologized to people on this blog when I have been wrong or unfair.

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elmo: Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to read the final one that he wrote before he died. Its been sitting in iBooks unopened since shortly before his death. I understand the author he hand picked to take over the character and series is doing a good job, but I need to get through the final Parker book before I move into the new guy’s work.

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dog Dawg Damn: If I think someone is trolling, I will say so. I tell you what, I still thing that you have acted like a troll at times, but you are not an actual one.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    I am waiting for the scientific research that comes back and tells us that jackals rip their targets to shreds and then say, “Oh, bother. Did that somewhat trouble you, Old Chap? I apologize profusely Old Bean.”

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Not really. I’m a big believer in civilian control of the military, but I really don’t see this as a problem with Mattis or most of his generation of general officers/flag officers. He’s been hammered with the concept over and over and over during Professional Military Education throughout his career. This includes the capstone courses for general officers/flag officers. I also agree with Rob Bateman in what he’s written about Mattis at Esquire: that Mattis is doing this to make himself a buffer between the general officers/flag officers, senior execs, the services and the President-elect.

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: I understand. I’ve read them all more than once. Once I get through Parker’s final one, I will probably give the new guy a try just because Parker hand picked him. Parker could have just as easily left binding instructions that the character died with him. So if he was good enough for Parker, I’m willing to give him a chance.

    I was also a big fan of the Joe Montegna Spenser movies that they did for A&E. Back when A&E was doing such things. I wished they’d have done more.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elmo: Yes. Robert Urich as Spenser, Barbara Stock as his long time girlfriend Susan Silverman, and Avery Brooks as Hawk. A&E did several (three I think) movies that were direct adaptations of the novels. Joe Montegna was Spenser, Marcia Gay Harden was Susan Silverman, and Ernie Hudson (first film) and Sheik Mahmud Bey as Hawk (2nd and 3rd films). The TV show is a classic, but had to water the books way down. The A&E movies are far more faithful to the books.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: Kelly is qualified for DHS. As SOUTHCOM Commander he had to do a lot of emergency management, disaster response, and humanitarian assistance.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    I missed the whole brouhaha. Sounds as if Adam needs to watch Al Yankovic’s “Word Crimes.”

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Am most concerned about it being used as precedent. The Marshall waiver was designated as a one-off applying to a specific individual, which the current one does not.

    Waiver passed 81 – 17 in full Senate. In committee, Gillibrand, Warren and Blumenthal were the only nays.

    As the waiver must also pass in the House, who knows what further tinkering they will do with the language?

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: It is what it is. I’m curious how, especially for the DOD, DHS, and IC, they’re going to staff the successive tiers: undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, deputy assistant secretaries, directors, deputy directors, and special assistants. Given the NeverTrump folks I don’t know who, among the GOP/conservatives they tap. I can’t imagine they’d chose anyone who’s a Democrat or a liberal or a progressive.

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: Without triggering Corner Stone again, I thought the A&E movies were more faithful to the books. I enjoyed them for what they were. I also enjoyed the TV series. I prefer the books to both.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: As long as its a one off, I’m good with it. If they just get rid of the law, I think that would be problematic.

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Without triggering CornerStone again

    I fucking demand a thread publicly apologizing to me for this slander! Screw you! Hooo hoo hoo!
    You bastige! This means farging war!

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: I am still in a white hot anger mode. I can accept Mattis, especially as I can see him as someone who will try to protect the institution. I am not familiar with Kelly. My instinct is to oppose.

  67. 67.

    dww44

    @NotMax: i agree with you. I’m trying awfully hard to NOT normalize this Presidency, but it gets harder every day when one sees all these rules and precedents falling away. I DON”T like all these recent military guys occupying civilian roles, no matter how qualified they may be.

  69. 69.

    Corner Stone

    Like pretty much all long lived series novels, the Spenser novels were very readable and then got into the cheesy and then progressed into the self-referential maudlin.
    I stopped at some point when Spenser started endlessly reflecting on how Susan was the end all be all of his existence (clearly a stand in for his IRL wife) and their dog was the child she never had.
    At some point Spenser and Hawk had to be in their 70’s but were still spry and kicking young thugs’ asses on the regular. The mob, the cops, the establishment, all of them were in on the gag for 8 or more novels when I stopped.

  71. 71.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Adam L Silverman: I got the reference. I read Looking for Rachel Wallace Tuesday and yesterday. We’re reading them again in order; I should say I am as Mr. Q has not read many of them at all. I will say the the new guy strikes a very wrong Hawk note in his first book, then seems to improve. We’re also reading the Reachers again in order, with the same disclaimer about who’s read what… The Prey series will be next, which Mr. Q came to very late; I got the first one from my father.

    Most importantly, nice show of graciousness. We’re all on edge.

  72. 72.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Corner Stone: As one of your two friends here, I’m asking you to please settle down. I’m fixing to have a very unhappy birthday next week and my nerves are frayed.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: Kelly, like the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dunford, is one of Mattis’s former subordinates. They’re both his guy’s. Kelly has expressed some harsher views on Islamic extremism/ISIL/al Qaeda that sometimes seems as if he’s painting with too broad a brush, but he’s not in Geller, Spencer, Gaffney territory (that I know of). I’ve met Mattis once – was introduced, shook his hand, moved on. Never met Kelly. Have never met Dunford either. But from what I understand I could see a Mattis/Kelly/Dunford axis develop.

  74. 74.

    Lizzy L

    @Adam L Silverman: Ace Atkins has written some terrific fiction of his own — I recommend the Quinn Colson series, though be warned, it’s grim — but I don’t like his “Spenser” books — it’s like reading a bad pastiche. IMO.

    @Corner Stone: Agree. I think he got bored, which would not be a surprise — hence the Sunny Randall novels and the Jesse Stone series. My favorite of the Parker books was The Judas Goat.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’ve read every one of the Sandford Prey novels and all the spinoff Virgil Flowers novels and the two Kidd novels and the one off Night Crew. I have a friend at the gym who is from Minnesota and have loaned her the hard copy ones I’ve got here. Most of my stuff is still in storage being between Permanent Change of Station.

  78. 78.

    frosty

    @Corner Stone: Yeah, I stopped on the Spensers probably t about the same time, but I don’t recollect why. Like you said, long running series run into problems.

    Travis McGee must have bedded and dumped the love of his life a couple dozen times. Louis L’Amour did things a little differently. Same plot, different character for 100 (?) books.

  82. 82.

    frosty

    @Adam L Silverman: I’ll have to check my box of paperbacks for that one. My favorite was the Sackett Brand. I must have bought and given away 3 or 4 copies.

    “The Lazy A has 40 gunslingers who cornered Tell Sackett up in the Mogollons.”
    “Did you say Tell Sackett?”
    “Yeah, that’s right.”
    “We’d better get up there pronto, ‘fore ol’ Tell kills ’em all.”

    (Or something like that — I just went through the box and it looks like we gave away another one!)

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    @frosty:
    https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Mesa-Novel-Louis-LAmour/dp/0553270222/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484283775&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Haunted+Mesa

    The Navajo called them the Anasazi, the “ancient enemy,” and their abandoned cities haunt the canyons and plateaus of the Southwest. For centuries the sudden disappearance of these people baffled historians. Summoned to a dark desert plateau by a desperate letter from an old friend, renowned investigator Mike Raglan is drawn into a world of mystery, violence, and explosive revelations. Crossing a border beyond the laws of man and nature, he will learn of the astonishing world of the Anasazi and discover the most extraordinary frontier ever encountered.

    It is unlike any other L’Amour novel.

  87. 87.

    Miss Bianca

    @efgoldman:

    Nor do I have any desire to read the “Philip Marlowe”/Parker Poodle Springs.

    I read that, and I actually thought it was pretty decent.

    Right now I’m just starting on Philip Kerr’s “March Violets”, which is essentially Marlowe in Nazi Berlin. We’ll see how it goes!

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Never read them. I’ve been reading so much nonfiction lately, including my backlog on Putin I’m working through, that I’ve basically been reading the Sandford novels, I’ve got the last Parker Spenser novel I haven’t read yet, and the Cussler/DeBrul Oregon Files novels (I can’t read either the Dirk Pitt or Kurt Austin novels anymore, he’s done so many they’ve become all the same over and over).

  90. 90.

    J R in WV

    The Tony Hillerman books are pretty good for western police procedural novels with lots of Navajo culture embedded. I always kind of identified with the Sacketts, wish he had done more with them as a series.

    Parker was good. I don’t care about the lack of continuity between Travis McGee novels at all. Each one stands alone. He was a flawed hero.

    Adam, thanks for being a stand up guy.

  92. 92.

    Hitless

    @Miss Bianca:fwiw I highly recommend Phillip Kerr’s Gunther books. Started reading them in October and now have just finished A Quiet Flame. The prewar stuff is disturbingly resonant.

  97. 97.

    MomSense

    You’re a good guy, Adam. Glad whatever happened is sorted out.

    I’m getting really tired of my house being a mess. The new floors won’t be installed until next Wednesday and Im tired of all the baseboards stacked up in my room, and tripping on the lip between the hallway subfloor and the living room wood flooring. Don’t ever have a flood inside your house.

    I’m also thinking of taking boxing. I do love tai chi but I may need to add some punching to my practice.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: I have no idea if its sorted on the other side. I hope Steeplejack was around to see it. And I hope he continues to comment here. I’ve reached out directly as well just to cover all my bases, but the damage may be done and may not be able to be reversed.

  100. 100.

    Elie

    I have no idea what transpired but doff my hat to your good character – rare so always to be commented upon and celebrated these days.

  101. 101.

    frosty

    @Hitless: I read all of the Kerr / Gunther books. The ones set postwar are really interesting. If you like setting, David Dowling (Downing?) has a good series too. All the books have the names of Berlin transit stations. And of course Alan Furst is the master.

  107. 107.

    Mel

    @Adam L Silverman:
    You might enjoy James Lee Burke’s early Dave Robicheaux novels. Black Cherry Blues is a great one. In the Electric Mist With the Confederate Dead is another standout.

    Also, any of James Church’s novels festuring his very enigmatic and complex character Inspector O are excellent reads.

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