Thirteen years of Carrying the Gun ..read more

Stay behind cover ..read more

How can it be all right there, yet seemingly not understood? Because there is the truth of fact, and the truth of feeling. And they are never in balance. This is one of the most consequential stories I’ve read in a long time. And it helps explain, well, everything ..read more

And you can never actually be sure, can you ..read more

“It is no nation that we inhabit, but a language. Make no mistake; our native toungue is our true fatherland.” -Emil Cioran ..read more

From the end of Blood Meridian: “I tell you this. As war becomes dishonored and its nobility called into question those honorable men who recognize the sanctity of blood will become excluded from the dance, which is the warrior’s right, and thereby will the dance become a false dance and the dancers false dancers. And yet there will be one there always who is a true dancer and can you guess who that might be ..read more

…just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does. -John Steinbeck ..read more

I was very glad to get back. I plunged at once into a mass of accumulated work and have scarcely lifted my eyes from maps and files. But the pleasure of being well and able to work the whole day long! The truth is that one can’t do without that narcotic. To be idle means having time to think and no thoughts are bearable. Letters of Gertrude Bell, December 7, 1917 ..read more

The final chapters of Company K hit hard. It’s a bunch of short stories about coming home. And in the last, one of Company K’s soldiers visits his old camp a few years after the war has ended. The nostalgia of old places. He visits the commanding officer, takes a look at the current roster, and sees a familiar name – one of the soldiers he served with in WWI was still in the unit. These two old soldiers meet up and tour the facilities. The troop bay where they had stayed had been converted into a kind of monument to the men who “went over,” the soldiers’ names etched into the wall to mark thei ..read more

From Company K. Almost 100 years old, but it’s right there. Private Ralph Nerion. Do they think I did not know that Pig Iron Riggin is in the secret service? Or that he watched me like a hawk, hoping that I would betray myself?.. . I didn’t mind it in the army, so much, but now that war is over why can’t they let me alone? Why don’t they stop following me home and calling me on the telephone, only to hang up when I have answered? Why do they write letters to my employer, trying to get me discharged? Who is that mysterious person my wife talks to down the air-shaft?. I tell you I can’t stand th ..read more