Bob Etheridge (D-NC) is giving the nuclear test to the idea that no publicity is bad publicity. Having seen the video on “several blogs,” the congressman has released an apology. I know congressmen get away with far worse than this (hiding money in their freezers, prostitution coordination in their houses), but I think Etheridge must be rejected for his district in favor of someone more level-headed. I mean, two congressmen smacking each other around one thing, but grabbing the neck of a college student who asked him a question on the street?

According to reports, the Taliban in Afghanistan have hanged a 7-year-old boy.

A 7-year-old boy was murdered by the Taliban in an apparent act of retribution this week. Afghan officials said that the child was accused of spying for U.S. and NATO forces and hanged from a tree in southern Afghanistan.

Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand, said that the killing happened days after the boy’s grandfather, Abdul Woodod Alokozai, spoke out against militants in their home village.

For all you relativists who have trouble figuring out the complicated differences between good and evil, this is what we call evil.

Stopping a boat running a legal military blockade is not evil.

Just for the record.

You might want to make a note of this.

It was a pretty strenuous weekend, by my effete standards, but I made it through to the safe haven of another work week. The continuing theme was rain: I feared it; I expected it. I was pleasantly surprised.

Friday morning I drove down Highway 35 to Story City, Iowa (which, if you’ve been reading for a while, you may recall is the birthplace of my sainted grandmother) for the Scandinavian Days festival. I was representing the Viking Age Club & Society all by myself this year, with Sam the Viking, who owns the Viking boat, up from Missouri to keep me company. Here’s our camp.

Continue reading Story City (and Minneapolis) story →

E. Calvin Beisner points to an upcoming U.N. report to say climate alarmists are shifting from climate change to protecting various species around the world as another way to advance totalitarian politics.

Nonetheless, as global warming fears collapse in the face of Climategate, the green socialist machine is scrambling to be ready to switch gears. Perhaps the new rationale for global wealth redistribution and deindustrialization will be preserving biodiversity. It’s a good candidate: It has all the flaws of global warming – bad science, bad economics and totalitarian politics.

An awesome photo by Steve Coleman

The National Spelling Bee is on now, and there are protesters outside the competition who want our spelling rules changed.

Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population from learning how to read, write and spell.

“Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical ways,” Mahoney said.

The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their logo, “Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much.”

Thanks to Peter Sokolowski for this link. He is a lexicographer with Merriam-Webster and claims, “English spelling is arbitrary, but it is the key to the rich history of the language. Normalize the spelling, and we lose touch with history.”

Ken Blackwell suggests, “Maher says what liberals think.” So, don’t ask for outrage, cause it ain’t comin.

I’m kind of excited about this. Thanks to Grim’s Hall for putting me onto it.

This is a painting I’ve loved for years. It’s included in Osprey Publishing’s volume, Elite 3: The Vikings. Osprey publishes many, many fine books on military history, replete with illustrations. By far their best artist was the late Angus McBride, who painted this one. It illustrates a moment just prior to the death of King Olaf Trygvesson, an event that happens (offstage) in my novel, The Year of the Warrior.

I have a couple quibbles. The saga says that Olaf was wearing a red kirtle (or cloak, translations differ) over his mail that day. And anyone who wears mail knows that—especially with a shirt as long as that one—you wear it with a belt, to take some of the weight off your shoulders.

But I consider it probably the best Viking painting ever done, and I’ve got one coming. Osprey has made a limited number of prints available, and my order is in, my copy in the mail. They only announced it yesterday, so if you’re interested you might e-mail them yourself and try your luck, but I wouldn’t count on any being left by now. I think this is a print a lot of people will want.

Which reminds me of the funniest thing I heard during the Viking fighting in Elk Horn last weekend— “There’s no laughing in combat!”

And speaking of Vikings, I’m going to be representing the Viking Age Club and Society in Story City, Iowa tomorrow and Saturday at the Scandinavian Festival. Then I’ll be with the other Vikings for Danish Day at Danebo Hall in Minneapolis, on Sunday.

If I live.

As always, my renter will be protecting my house. He recently contracted rabies.

This kind of thing abounds, and some of it, like the stuff at The Bureau Chiefs Store, is pretty good.

“Remember, brevity is.”