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November 08, 2005

Panic Stations: Ace Solo on Hoist The Black Flag Today At 4PM

Karol's doing her thing on election day here in New York, so I'm going to try to wing this show without an, um, wingman.

My guest will be Tim Worstall, apparently a European of some sort, but don't hold that against him. He's just edited a book about the best in British blogging, called 2005 Blogged: Dispatches From the Blogosphere (available from amazon.co.uk, but not amazon.com).

We'll be talking about blogging in Britain, the EU, Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction, and maybe our favorite parts from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I'll also be ranting about this Joe Wilson character.

At Rightalk at 4PM Eastern, 1 PM Pacific, 9PM London/Lisbon time.

Given the fact that I'll almost certainly be reduced to a gibbering ooze of naked primal fear ten minutes into the show, it would be a good time to call in, at 866 884 TALK, to add your thoughts or maybe make fun of a retard.

posted by Ace at 02:39 PM

Comments

Man, you must be scared if you posted this thing three times.

Posted by: Hal on November 8, 2005 02:43 PM

What I'm not clear on is whether Ace will be solo on Hoist the Black Flag or not.

Posted by: tachyonshuggy on November 8, 2005 02:43 PM

This domain is frickin' unbelievably glitchy lately. I can barely post at all, and then when I manage it, I get three posts.

Posted by: ace on November 8, 2005 02:48 PM

Yah, definitely obscure on that point. Could you clarify this Ace? Are you going to be alone or not? Oh and give Worstell a "NEE" for me.

Posted by: Enas Yorl on November 8, 2005 02:48 PM

Karol's doing her thing on election day here in New York, so I'm going to try to wing this show without an, um, wingman.

Hmm... I detect the malevolent, unseen hand of Cavuto behind all this. Damn him.

Posted by: Reo Symes on November 8, 2005 02:52 PM

Don't OD on Val-U-Rite vodka beforehand.

Posted by: someone on November 8, 2005 02:54 PM

I think Ace was just competing in promotion with his guest, who has the post up like 6 times.

Posted by: Karol on November 8, 2005 03:02 PM

Ace, ya got nothin' to worry about. People like you, whether you're coherent or jibbering like a fucktard. I'll be listening and having a cup of coffee, hoping to hear a little of both. You're a blogoshpere god! But you're a humble god. Go get 'em tiger!

Posted by: compos mentis on November 8, 2005 03:21 PM

If you want to listen to the show, click on "channel 1" on the righttalk.com homepage at 5 minutes past the hour, that's when ace will be on.

Posted by: Village Idiot on November 8, 2005 03:23 PM

I, for one, started drinking early, just for such an event...

Posted by: JFH on November 8, 2005 03:28 PM

No, you SHOULD OD on Val-U-Rite before hand.

Posted by: Iblis on November 8, 2005 03:35 PM

I just checked the Rightalk lineup. What a collection of sad sacks, morons, and goofballs. Phyllis Schlafly has a show there . . . what more do you need to know?

Posted by: Arnie Sux on November 8, 2005 03:39 PM

Gray Davis? Is that you? I was wondering what you've been up to.

Posted by: Yaron on November 8, 2005 03:47 PM

You're good enough, you're smart enough and, doggone it, people like you.

Nobody out there but us freaks, dweebs and losers anyway. You're among friends, dude.

Posted by: VRWC Agent on November 8, 2005 03:59 PM

I am comfortably numb, Ilbis.

Posted by: ace on November 8, 2005 03:59 PM

I wonder how many F-bombs I could drop before they hung up on me.

Posted by: lauraw on November 8, 2005 04:07 PM

Isn't our favorite "it's old" blogger a member of the Permanent Government?

Posted by: someone on November 8, 2005 04:14 PM

4:14pm- This sucks without me, right? :-)

Posted by: Karol on November 8, 2005 04:14 PM

Yeah, need your cute laugh obviously....

Posted by: JFH on November 8, 2005 04:16 PM

Producer must be over his head, said he was too busy to take my call...

Posted by: JFH on November 8, 2005 04:17 PM

hang in there toots!

Posted by: lauraw on November 8, 2005 04:47 PM

You STUD, lost your guest and was able to filibuster until he came back!!!

Posted by: JFH on November 8, 2005 04:55 PM

Is Michael in Ohio, Michael "Butters" Michael?

Posted by: on November 8, 2005 04:58 PM

Yes.

Posted by: Michael on November 8, 2005 04:59 PM

Gee, this post and comments didn't even download until the show was almost over. I hope what ever they do this weekend fixes a lot of the problems you have been having with the site.

As to the show, you sounded a wee bit too numb, Ace. You obviously are more comfortable when you have alive person you can relate to sitting next to. When Karol is too big and improtant and stuck up to show up for her own show, can't you find someone to sit in her seat? They don't even have to talk. If all else fails, you have to have at least one blow up doll at home.

Other than that helpful comment, I enjoyed the show. And yes, Karol, we missed you.

Posted by: on November 8, 2005 05:09 PM

My keyboard is fk'ed up and I keep losing words. You can figure it out.

Posted by: on November 8, 2005 05:11 PM

I wish I could have heard the show, but I'm at work. But here's a cartoon for ya, Ace:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2005-09-07
See, it could be worse.

Posted by: sandy burger on November 8, 2005 05:38 PM

1) Ace was saying "uh" constantly for the first 16 minutes of his show. After that, he was really sharp and interesting. Need to find a way to get it together earlier in the show.

2) Ace doesn't know how to properly pronounce "cabal".

Posted by: Village Idiot on November 8, 2005 06:44 PM

Ace,

Just wanted to say thanks for having me on the show. Enjoyed it greatly.

Posted by: Tim Worstall on November 9, 2005 10:58 AM

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What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]

TJM acts like he knows anything about John Wick and screenwriting. It's embarrassing, really.

Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!

Oh, I forgot to mention this quote from Pete Hegseth, reported by Roger Kimball: "We are sharing the ocean with the Iranian Navy. We're giving them the bottom half."

Batman fires The Batman
Batman is disgusted by the Joachim Phoenix version of Joker
Batman tries to fire Superman
Batman is still workshopping his Bat-Voice

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
And I was here to please
I'm even on knees
Makin' love to whoever I please
I gotta do it my way
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Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

Sec. Army recognizes ODU Army ROTC cadets for their bravery and sacrifice in private ceremony
[Hat Tip: Diogenes] [CBD]

TJM gives you a brief tour of his movie collection.

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
One day I'm gonna get that faculty together
Remember that everybody has to wait in line
Oh, [Song Title], look out world, oh, you know I've got mine

US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
AI is doing a lot of the work in analyzing images to find the exact hiding place of the launchers. Counter-strikes are now coming in four hours after a launch, whereas previously it might have taken days for humans to go over the imagery and data.

Robert Mueller, Former Special Counsel Who Probed Trump, Dies

“robert mueller just died,” trump wrote in a truth social post on march 21. “good, i’m glad he’s dead. he can no longer hurt innocent people! president donald j. trump.”

TJM has thoughts on Superheros and Iconography

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Chuck Norris, Action Icon and 'Walker Texas Ranger' Star, Dies at 86

Podcast: Sefton and CBD have a short chat about Iran, the disgusting SAVE Act theater, Mamdani's politicizing of St. Patrick's Day, and more!

Official confirmation from the Joint Chiefs of Staff: the Warthog is now strafing Iranian fast attack boats