Month: February 2021

Colonial War

Africa, History

Over the years, many people have written to me asking about early South Africa, and more specifically about the Boer War (or, as the Boers called it, the Vryheidsoorlog, or [Second] War of Freedom) from 1899-1902.

A few days ago, I found an old 1992 documentary on BoobTube, and it’s not bad — only just a tad over an hour — and it covers the period quite well, and impartially.  So that’s your weekend viewing assignment.  (There will be a test.)  If any questions of history remain, write to me and I’ll put the answers up in a follow-up post next weekend, when I’ll talk about my family’s relationship to the war.

There are three books I’ve always recommended on the topic:  Rags of Glory by Stuart Cloete, and the book it’s partially based on, a campaign journal called Kommando  written by Deneys Reitz, a wartime Bitter-Ender (you’ll get that explained in the video above) who went on to become the Deputy Prime Minister of the unified South Africa.  Both are absolutely brilliant — Cloete’s book also incorporates a view of the Boer War from the British perspective, and it’s both accurate and illuminating.

The third — an actual history book — is The Boer War  by Thomas Pakenham, generally regarded as the sine qua non  of historical sources for the conflict.  Written during the late 1980s, it’s devoid of any hint of the political correctness which infests later works on the topic.

Enjoy.

Shared Accommodation

Real Estate

So somebody comes to you and says, “Hey, how would you like to share a house with us?” and you run away because you don’t want to share accommodation with anyone.

Then there’s this situation:

A stately apartment on the historic estate where Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed has had its price tag slashed by half a million pounds after failing to attract a buyer during the pandemic – and could now be yours for just £1.95million.
Apartment Three at Albury Park Mansions in Albury, Surrey, UK, is one of 14 luxury properties in the mansion house was transformed into separate apartments 12 years ago, and has been on sale since April last year.
It consists of four bedrooms, three bathrooms, kitchen/dining room with mezzanine above, utility room, reception hall, and access to gym, spa, sauna and wine stores.

Here’s a pic of the entrance to said mansion:

…and the master bedroom:

Yeah, it may be a little spendy at about $2.7 million for a 4BR/3BA pad with a detached garage, but you can’t beat the setting.

At those kind of prices, you’ll probably find that the co-inhabitants of the place are bearable.

And for those who care about such things, you can walk to the estate’s church on Sundays, no hassles with parking.

Glueball Wormening

Weather

This week in Plano:

…but normal service resumes later next week:

I was going to take New Wife on a little car trip over the weekend up into the Ozarks as she has Monday off, but I don’t live in Chicago anymore so my blood has thinned.  Yeah, I’m a big pussy.

We’ll stay indoors, wrap up / stay in bed, hope that the ice storms don’t cause any power outages, and trust that I don’t end up looking this:

 

Favorites

Health

Some rabbi has written out a reasoned response to the Chinkvirus vaccination issue, and lists his thirty-one reasons why he is refusing to get the jab.

Others would have confined themselves to five, or ten — but he’s a rabbi so he had to go into excruciating detail.  (My Tribe Readers will know exactly what I’m talking about.)

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to read his list and pick your top three reasons (assuming you agree with some, disagree with others, as I do).

No need to cut & paste the whole thing;  I’ll do a quick tally and show the winner, giving three points for your first choice, two for the second and so on.

I won’t count my choices in the total, but this was my absolute favorite, his #15:

Those who raise concerns about this medical treatment are being bullied, slandered, mocked, censored, ostracized, threatened, and fired from their jobs. This includes medical professionals who have science-based concerns about the drug and caregivers who have witnessed people under their charge suffering horrible reactions and death shortly after being injected. When the establishment is purging good people who risk everything simply to raise concerns about a new medical treatment — even if they don’t outright oppose it — I will trust these brave people over the establishment every time. I cannot think of a single similar case in history when truth and morality turned out to be on the side of the establishment.

As anyone who knows me well can tell you:  the more I am nagged, bullied or coerced into doing something, the less likely I am to do it, to an exponential degree.

Bravo, Rabbi.