May 19th, 2009 9:23 am

A FEW PROGRAM NOTES…

Hi everyone.

First, my apologies to those people whose comments had been withheld for approval this past week. I only now got to them. I have no idea why WordPress holds some comments and releases most of the others, but I can tell you what a torrent of spam I have to deal with daily, and I’m afraid some legitimate comments were held for far too long. Again, my apologies.

I’ve been absolutely consumed this week and last with my next Afterburner subject. It will not be the deepest thing I have done yet, but it might be the most fun and WITHOUT QUESTION it is the most technically challenging.  It will have a cast (I think) and I can ALMOST promise that it will feature one of my celebrity friends — whose face you may not know but whose work you probably do.  The only two hints you get are: 1.) Costumes are being fitted, and 2.) go to YouTube and search for “International Talk Like William Shatner Day.”

Downstream, after this next Afterburner I am hoping to convince my Insect Overlords to try a new-format video. If I succeed, I hope to do an entire book as a series of video essays, with the book as a hard-copy transcript. More on that after I finish Epic Costume Afterburner.

Many have asked about links to the old Silent America essays. I am working on that as well. So much to do! But they will be back and have their own sidebar, and I’ll get to that as soon as I finish the more pressing stuff.

I have about a third of THE REPUBLIC OF EMOTION finished. That, and the Global Warming essay, will be the final installments of my second book, which I am calling SEEING THE UNSEEN: ADVENTURES IN CRITICAL THINKING.  The Boyd and Hiroshima essays will be included, as will WAR OF THE BUMPER STICKERS, the SEEING THE UNSEEN essays (obviously) and several other smaller works including THE UNDEFENDED CITY that originally appeared on National Review Online.  I hope to have that finished by the middle of summer.

And now I will format THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ATOMIC BOMBS. I’ll back-date that so it appears beneath this entry.

I have VERY high hopes for the next Afterburner. Don’t expect anything epic on the scale of the last one, but I do think you’ll get a kick out of it. Even if you don’t, I CERTAINLY will get a kick out of it.

More soon, and thanks, as always, for your patience and especially the very, very kind words, both in the comments and in your emails.

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16 Comments

1. Deano:

Keep up the good fight, Bill and thanks for your many efforts.

May 19, 2009 - 9:31 am 2. James Felix:

“Seeing the Unseen” was the first thing of yours I ever read and it made me an instant fan. I’ll surely be buying copies of the new book for myself and several friends that could use the education.

May 19, 2009 - 12:11 pm 3. Burgie:

Thanks, Bill. I’ve bugged you about the essays; I only needed to hear you say they would be back – Now I can breath again.

May 19, 2009 - 8:56 pm 4. Nick:

Great stuff, Bill. Look forward to every new thing. When the current crop of news gets me down, I get out my copy of “Silent America”, choose an essay and read it through. Gets me back in the fight….

May 20, 2009 - 6:39 am 5. Tim:

Looking forward to seeing your new project. I enjoy reading your stuff. And that’s coming from a 25-year-old; one of the fortunate few to escape the mass brainwashing.

Re: Global Warming essay. My thoughts on global warming are as follows: I live right smack in the middle of Georgia, it’s the 20th of May, and I have the heater turned on.

May 20, 2009 - 7:50 am 6. Chinny:

Bill

I think this whole PJ media thing is a great deal….we certainly hear from you more regularly which can’t be a bad thing.

Been a regular visitor to ejectx3 for many a moon and now PJ and it’s all good.

Thanks for standing up for what’s right, I believe our ranks are beginning to swell.

Chris

May 20, 2009 - 2:39 pm 7. runescape money:

Would you please provide a URL for this quote so I can send it to friends, or at least WSJ publication date, article title
“If you like to see the strong slap around the weak — and deep down, you know you do — this was the sports weekend for you.” – WSJ

May 20, 2009 - 5:19 pm 8. njcommuter:

Bill,

Thanks for the work on the old–that is to say classic–essays. It is so good to be able to point people to them.

And thank you for the new work as well.

May 20, 2009 - 7:39 pm 9. Winston:

this is a very good blog

May 21, 2009 - 6:28 pm 10. Steve:

Keep up the great work buddy!
COMMON CENTS
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

May 22, 2009 - 6:45 am 11. T Rich:

Bill,
I am really looking forward to the new Afterburner – particularly since you promise to extend the edge of the envelope on the video format. Thanks also for the work to get the “Classic” E3 (thanks NJCommuter) essays back into play.

I know that it will be too late to get it worked out, but a compare and contrast of the Obama v. Cheney national security speeches would be awesome. I watched both in their entirety and Cheney was outstanding. Granted, Obama looked better, sounded better, had a more impressive backdrop, but Cheney blew him away on content. My wife asked me before the talks why people hated Cheney so passionately. My answer was that the hatred was ginned up heavily by his opponents because they must keep people from watching him with an open mind because he is an effective speaker. He is effective because he is plainspoken, direct, tells the truth and is an unapologetic patriot that loves his country.

The parts of the speech where he addressed the military and the intelligence officers made me mist up a bit because you could tell that he respects these people and was truly pissed that the Obama people disrespect their work and treat them as monsters. I will echo Cheney’s respect on this Memorial weekend and say thanks to all who have served this country.

May 22, 2009 - 7:45 am 12. Igor:

Bill, will this increase your media exposure? If so, that means you’ll soon be ‘under fire” by the LLLeft and the MSM. Got your armor plated underwear on yet?

Keep up the good work!

May 22, 2009 - 11:15 am 13. blake:

Hey, Bill, why is your Tribes essay empty? All I can see is the R-rated language warning, and then the lettter “I”.

May 25, 2009 - 11:58 am 14. M.C.Cool:

Bill-

Great job as always.

Please take a look at my latest about Sotomayor. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Here’s to the good fight. Remember, as Napolean said:

“The moral is to physical as three is to one.” There’s power in your prose.

Still true!

M.C. Cool

http://samizdatrep.blogspot.com/

May 28, 2009 - 6:23 pm 15. M. Simon:

Your interview with Ms. Peters re: opium in Afghanistan was a disgrace.

Neither one of you figured out that it is not opium funding the Taliban it is opium PROHIBITION. And of course intensifying prohibition raises the profits to the Taliban.

There are estimates out there that for every 1% increase in the interdiction budget drug profits rise 3%. So how much would we have to spend to drive the criminals and terrorists out of the narcotics business? NOTHING. Well obviously we can’t afford it.

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/06/the_seeds_of_st.html

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:53 pm 16. Matt:

Bill — Your latest Afterburner effort was a phenomenal palate cleanser for those of us who have been watching the sycophantic media corrode the Star Trek canons with left wing Obama celebrations. I loved it and I agreed with everything you conveyed in this piece except for two assertions; First, I think Captain Kirk DID try to re-make other civilizations in his own image irrespective of what the United Federation fo Planets or Starfleet said. How many episodes feature Kirk violating the “Prime Directive” in favor of bringing about results that comport with his own principles? Second, I don’t believe that all of the Star Trek (TOS) writers were invariably Left Wing. In fact, there are more than a few episodes in which traces of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy can be detected. For example, in an episode called “The Apple,” there is a civilization that is completely dependent on a being called “Vaal” (an advanced computer?) for all of their needs. If memory serves, Kirk is an iconoclast in this episode who violates the Prime Directive by destroying Vaal and consequently promotes independence (freedom). This cuts against left wing idealism that compels dependence (slavery) on an all-powerful government for the “greater good”. Keep up the great work!

Jun 8, 2009 - 8:32 pm

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