The Daily Donnybrook, and other fine things

Posted on March 30, 2026April 10, 2026 by Mike 3 Comments

Welcome to Ye Aulde Colde Furye Blogge’s shiny new open-comments thread, where y’all can have at it as you wish, on any topic you like. New posts will appear below this one. There will be blood…

Mike @Substack

New Eyrie posts go up every Monday and Friday, although the time of day may (and most likely will) vary. Mike’s latest Eyrie offering is available for perusal here: “Epic FAIL.” Links to archived Golden Oldies are findable down at the bottom of each post.

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Remembering another Lost Cause

Posted on April 11, 2026April 11, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

The moment it all started to go badly, badly wrong for the Founders’ America.

The Guns Fell Silent at Appomattox, and the Reconciliation Began
Early morning, Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865: The rebel yell of the ragged, half-starved Army of Northern Virginia rang out for the last time. Sheridan’s Union cavalry had swung around Appomattox Court House to the southwest and captured the trains carrying the food and supplies Lee so desperately needed, but it was, after all, just cavalry, and if the Confederates could break through them, recapture the supplies, and then head south to link up with Johnston’s Army, the cause might still survive.

Over the cavalry, the Rebels prevailed, but as the Union troopers withdrew and they crested the ridge, they could see solid lines of Union infantry arriving in the distance beyond them. The trap was closed.

Two days before, Lee had received the following letter:

General R.E. Lee

Commanding C.S.A.

The results of last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.

U.S. Grant

Lieut. General

Lee responded by asking what the conditions would be, to which Grant replied that “…the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms again against the Government of United States until properly exchanged.”

Lee replied that he would be willing to meet, not to surrender, but merely to discuss the overall terms of peace with the Confederacy. Grant, suffering from a severe migraine, simply replied that he had no authority for such a discussion, saying to an aide through the pain, “It looks as if Lee still means to fight.”

Now that the trap was closed, Lee faced the inevitable: “There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant. I would rather die a thousand deaths.”

He asked his old “warhorse,” Gen. James “Petey” Longstreet, if Grant’s terms would be harsh, but “Petey” had been an old friend of Grant back in their West Point days, and told Lee he thought not.

Upon receiving Lee’s request for an interview to ascertain the details of surrender, Grant’s headache instantly vanished. A cease-fire was arranged so the two could meet, and at last the guns fell silent. A stately farmhouse owned by Wilmer McLean was selected. Ironically, he had moved out to Appomattox to get away from the war, since one of the first cannon shots at Bull Run had gone through his living room. Grant and his officers arrived half an hour after Lee. Grant wore a private’s blouse with nothing to distinguish his status but the three star epaulettes. His boots and pants were muddy, since he was fresh from reconnoitering his lines. Lee, on the other hand, was resplendent in his dress uniform, with sash and bejeweled sword.

After handshakes and small talk, it was Lee who politely suggested they get to the matter and asked Grant to write out the terms so that they may be formally accepted. Grant began to write the draft, which read in pertinent part: “The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them…”

Then Grant eyed the bejeweled sword Lee had by his side, evidently brought to perform the humiliating act of handing it over to the victor, and continued to write, “This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses and baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.”

That was it – ALL of it. Stack arms and colors, swear parole, and go home. Full amnesty.

Lee was nothing short of astonished at the unanticipated magnanimity and even personal warmth Grant extended towards himself and his ragged, weary boys that day, as would many others be in the years to come. Rightly so, I think; Grant’s tacit refusal to rub Lee’s and his vanquished army’s noses in the bitter dregs of their grinding, agonizing defeat and treat the Confederates not as a despised enemy but with respect, humility, and restraint was a brilliant first step towards binding up a national wound that could easily have proved fatal in the years following the Appomattox agreement—this, after so assiduously building for himself a reputation as perhaps the hardest of hard-war men.

In fact, Grant went from there to be roundly vilified in certain Northern quarters as either soft-hearted or soft-headed, or maybe a bit of both, for declining to harshly punish the Army of Northern Virginia and its general officer corps for their purported “treason.” “Treason,” the fire-eaters of the North snarled, even though never at any point had the Southern Confederacy evinced any ambition to overthrow the Federal government, wishing only to depart from the Union in peace and be let alone.

Which, of course, is why some of us unreconstructed Southrons still insist on referring to it as the War of Northern Aggression to this very day.

I’ve always considered Wilmer McClean’s unsuccessful attempt to remove himself from the immediate physical exigencies of war by fleeing his ancestral farm in Manassas (called Yorkshire Plantation, being used at that time by Gen Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard as his HQ) and heading further South for what he fervently hoped would be quieter, less turbulent digs near Appomattox Court House to be one of the most bizarre, intriguing, and poignant episodes to emerge from a historical cataclysm that produced a plenitude of such tales. It’s one of the many, many reasons I’ve always found Civil War history such an absorbing subject, and have read basically any and everything on it I could get my hands on since I was, oh, about 13 or so.

And as far as THAT goes, if you’re a proud son of the South and haven’t read anything by the incredible Shelby Foote yet…honeychile, what on Earth are you waiting for, anyhoo?

A circus of error

Posted on April 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Very much related to tonight’s Eyrie post, I fully share Spencer’s disgust with the sudden, serious wrong turn on Iran.

Well, it’s another glorious day, or something. President Donald Trump’s threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran have apparently worked, a “ceasefire” has been concluded, and as he did when he forced Israel to stop fighting Hamas when it had a chance to destroy the jihad terror group once and for all, Trump is once again hailing the dawn of peace in the Middle East:

A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else! The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just “hangin’ around” in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will. Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP

The Islamic Republic of Iran was likewise in a celebratory mood, and in its joyful exuberance, fired off a round or two of celebratory missiles and drones into Israel and the Sunni states that it has targeted since the beginning of this conflict. Fox News’ Trey Yingst reported that on “Ceasefire day 1,” Israel “took multiple waves of Iranian missile fire after the ceasefire was announced. Kuwait reports that more than two dozens drones were launched by Iran since 8am. UAE is currently under an Iranian missile attack. Iran, via state media, reports strikes against Lavan Island and the oil infrastructure there.”

At least eleven people were injured in Israel, and (Iran also) attacked Qatar and Bahrain as well as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The government of Israel says it supports the ceasefire but only if it is real, which it obviously isn’t.

Well, I mean, DUH; of course it isn’t. None but a wilfully blind fool could possibly imagine that it was, and/or would ever be. As the esteemed Mr Spencer closes out his brief, straight to the point essay:

Without military action, which Trump will become progressively less likely to resort to as the midterms approach, the U.S. has no leverage.

If the Islamic Republic of Iran remains in power, it will build up its strength again and then resume its jihad against Israel and the U.S. That’s one of the only two reasons truces are allowed in Islamic law: one is if the Infidel enemy converts to Islam, which is not in play here, and the other is if the enemy is winning, so as to give the warriors of jihad time to regroup and then fight again more effectively.

The Trump administration, like so many others before it, should have studied Islam and realized that the Islamic Republic is serious about Islam above all. Then it would have known that when the Islamic Republic’s leaders showed a willingness to conclude a ceasefire, they were tacitly admitting that they were losing. It was time to press forward to final victory, not to stop fighting. And so another opportunity to rid the world of a jihad threat is lost, another chimera of peace is announced, and the jihadis will rejoice that they have survived to fight another day, as yet another Western government has kicked the can down the road instead of defeating them.

I truly hate having to say it, but that’s precisely what has happened here, to my eternal mystification and deep, deep disappointment. Bitterly clinging to the forlorn belief that this is all part of some Grand Strategic Plan is about as helpful as trying to polish a turd. To quote my own Eyrie piece:

Bottom line: as long as an Ayatollah, any Ayatollah (even one Trump idiotically assures us is a “reasonable” “moderate”), remains in charge of the nation-state entity known as “the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the war ain’t done yet.

Ah, would that t’were not so. But alas, here we all are.

True story

Posted on April 9, 2026April 10, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

I checked the Morehead City PD’s Fakeberg page and no shit, it’s for real.

As I said to a cpl friends of mine earlier: I would drive a hundred MPH right through the middle of Morehead City just to get pulled over by that thing, then resist arrest so’s I could get a look inside. The cop-shop Wienermobile is not merely cool as some cucumbers, it’s fucking GLORIOUS.

Marketing genius

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Once upon a time, there was a lovely old song went a little something like this:

Now, down the years since it was written there have been many versions of this particular song cut by many artists, many of them females. I just used this one because, I mean, come ON, man, it’s Nat King Cole—of COURSE I did!

Which is not germane to the central point of this post; no, this remarkable story of marketing superdupergenius is.

Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders
The Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders are the official National Football League cheerleading squad representing the Los Angeles Rams team.

History
They were established in 1974 during the team’s original tenure in Los Angeles and were known as the Embraceable Ewes. The cheerleading organization became known as the “St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders” when the team moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Beginning with the 2016 NFL season, the organization changed its name to the “Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders” to associate themselves with the recently relocated Los Angeles Rams football team. They also have their own television show by the name of LA Rams Cheerleaders: Making the Squad.

Heh. Bold mine, because I absolutely love it.

Memezapoppin’!

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Welcome to this week’s installment of our Wednesday meme feature, folks. Links to the “found via” sources will be attached to the specific MiQ’s (Memes in Question) whenever I can remember them, which likely won’t be very often. Only the first two memes will appear above the fold to save on bandwidth usage, since I assume not everybody who shows up at this here websty will want to see all of them. This intro will appear at the top of each week’s Memezapoppin’! post. Enjoy, funny-pitcher lovers.

Continue reading “Memezapoppin’!“ →

“The Times regrets the error”

Posted on April 5, 2026April 5, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Mike’s Iron Law #7846: When all the “errors” and “honest mistakes” seem to cut in only one direction, what you’re seeing isn’t actually an error at all, but an agenda.

To wit…

Via Ed Driscoll, who, incredible as it may seem, has more examples of those one-way NYT “errors.”

Pictures-with-words Post

Posted on April 4, 2026 by SteveF Leave a comment

I still don’t use the word “memes” for pictures with words. Here’s a double-handful-plus of pictures with words created by me. I don’t think I’ve posted any of this batch here before, but if I did, you’ll probably survive.

In response to…

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Mike 2 Comments

This lackwit drivel.

This is horrifying if you believe in the first amendment. https://t.co/Bz8rydSirs

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl)

March 14, 2026

Is Joe Huffman’s no-bull blast of plain common sense.

Your “horrifying if you believe in the First Amendment” drivel is the exact cognitive blind spot these cells exploit…weaponizing free speech as a get-out-of-consequences card for those who piss on it with bullets and bombs.

Brandenburg v. Ohio carved it out decades ago:

protected speech stops cold at incitement to imminent lawless action that actually happens. They didn’t just talk; they executed.

The Constitution doesn’t shield arsonists, shooters, or terror enablers any more than it shields Al-Qaeda sympathizers handing out bomb manuals.

This verdict isn’t chilling dissent; it’s lethal accountability, the kind that deters the next cell of ideologically poisoned fuckwits from turning public facilities into kill zones.

So spare me your performative horror, you fucking idiot.

The jury saw the pathology for what it was. The FBI built the case on it. And the law cut them down.

Cry harder, sweetheart.

LHGrey™️ @grey4626
Posted on X, March 14, 2026

With this Parthian shot tacked on for good measure.

It is interesting this person believes the First Amendment protects the destruction of government property and shooting a police officer with an AR-15. They must have crap for brains. With that broad of scope for the First Amendment, just imagine what the Second Amendment must protect. Why, it must protect the use of artillery dropping HE on the U.S. Capital or some such thing.

Hey, I’m okay with that interpretation, myself.

(Via Sarah Hoyt)

YOICKS!

Posted on April 1, 2026April 2, 2026 by Mike 12 Comments

And now, ladies and germs, are you ready for…Batgirl?

Yep, that’s the one, the only Yvonne Craig, also seen below.

Tally friggin’ HO!!! (Special thanks to Dave Dietz for the supercalifragilistic YC photo up top)

Update! Well how ‘bout that: Turns out the smokin’ hot Miss Y was also on ST-TOS back in the day.

Updated update! As promised/threatened, for SteveF.

Julie Newmar. Also Julie Newmar:

YOWSA!!!

Update to the updated update! Now THIS is what I’m talking about, people.

I repeat: YOWSA!!!

Memezapoppin’!

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Welcome to this week’s installment of our Wednesday meme feature, folks. Links to the “found via” sources will be attached to the specific MiQ’s (Memes in Question) whenever I can remember them, which likely won’t be very often. Only the first two memes will appear above the fold to save on bandwidth usage, since I assume not everybody who shows up at this here websty will want to see all of them. This intro will appear at the top of each week’s Memezapoppin’! post. Enjoy, funny-pitcher lovers.

Continue reading “Memezapoppin’!“ →

Greater America

Posted on March 29, 2026 by SteveF 2 Comments

We live in the United States of America. (Most of us reading this essay. If you’re not American, you have my sympathies.)

“America” isn’t just the 3,500,000 square miles of the fifty states. (And the District of Columbia, but the district hasn’t really been American since the Roosevelt administration.) America is the 9,000,000 square miles of North America and South America. Can we honestly call ourselves the United States of America if the USA doesn’t cover the entirety of the two continents?

We need to do our expansion the right way, the American way. We expand into the territory we want and push out the natives. We can make promises that we don’t mean to keep if that will get them moving, but it’s probably easier to just kill everyone we see and drive the native populations ahead of us. If any make it to Tierra del Fuego, they can figure out how to swim.

What we do not want to do is do empire building the European way. History shows that keeping the native populations around as a workforce and customer base leads to nothing but trouble a few generations on. No, drive them off or kill them off. It’s the only way to be sure.

Only once the United States extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic will we truly be the United States of America.

KATN

Posted on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Mike

Jurassic Media propaganda and the rest of their Leftard partners in crime want you to think that Iran’s Mad Mullahs are kicking American ass and taking Israeli names—ie, that we’re exhausted, out of ammo, dispirited, mere minutes away from throwing in the towel and accepting another crushing defeat to the invincible Pisslamic horde.

As always, you can’t believe a word those serial liars say, nor shoud you.

Since President Trump revealed contacts with the Islamic Republic, we’re seeing something very telling inside Iran: chaos at the top.
Regime officials are either turning on each other, pointing fingers, accusing one another of negotiating with the United States or in their own…

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih)

March 23, 2026

In its entirety:

Since President Trump revealed contacts with the Islamic Republic, we’re seeing something very telling:

Regime officials are either turning on each other, pointing fingers, accusing one another of negotiating with the United States or in their own media and social platforms, they’re warning against character assassination of figures like Ghalibaf or Rouhani, because suspicion is spreading inside the regime itself.

Some are even calling for arrests or worse. Others are publicly shaming officials, accusing them of secret talks.

This is the atmosphere on the Islamic Republic’s side of social media. Total panic.
inside Iran: chaos at the top.

Is there more, you ask? Why yes, of course there’s more.

This is an Iranian insider, openly warning: “Do not collaborate with the enemy.
Do not assassinate Dr. Ghalibaf’s character.”
The infighting has gotten so bad, regime officials accusing one another of betrayal, right after president Trump said they’re talking to someone inside… pic.twitter.com/OU8V7WP3O4

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih)

March 23, 2026

The rest of it:

This is an Iranian insider, openly warning: “Do not collaborate with the enemy. Do not assassinate Dr. Ghalibaf’s character.”

The infighting has gotten so bad, regime officials accusing one another of betrayal, right after president Trump said they’re talking to someone inside Iran.

PRO TIP: This is NOT the way a victorious national leadership typically conducts itself. The only sane, sensible response…

They’re going to shit all over LOTR again

Posted on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Mike

Gird your loins, John Ronald Reuel lovers.

If ‘Lord of the Rings’ Isn’t Quite Dead, This Guy Can Finish It Off
The Fellowship of the Ring — the opening chapter of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of the greatest achievements in movie history — turns 25 this December, and since then, Hollywood has inflicted one indignity after another on Tolkien’s masterpiece. The worst may be yet to come.

What’s it called when the greedy mining company takes the tailings from its strip mine and runs them through the smelter one more time with all the reckless abandon of Gollum diving after the One Ring into Mount Doom?

Ah, yes — it’s called The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past, and lame-duck late-night host Stephen Colbert will co-write it with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, for Jackson and Warner Bros, which now owns New Line. Variety reported late Tuesday that Colbert, “a vocal Tolkien fanatic,” and McGee will write a screenplay “from chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring that didn’t make it into Jackson’s 2001 adaptation.”

Or as the movie’s official logline put it, “Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”

So Shadows of the Past won’t really take us back to 2001 and fill in the missing parts of Fellowship. It will take aging versions of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin and saddle them with an all-new girl-boss.

Fan reactions on X range from “I’d rather jump into the fires of Mount Doom” to “What is this need to mar great artistic works with slop fan fiction manglings?” Despite my best time-wasting efforts, I was unable to find a single positive response.

Maybe Colbert is a vocal enough Tolkien fan to make this work. Or maybe Jackson and his crew should do what Saruman couldn’t, and just leave the Shire alone.

A big, fat AAAAA-fargin’-MEN to that, Steve.

Update! Ace puts in his two cents:

Disaster! Warner Bros. Hires New Writer for Lord of the Rings Mid-quel: Steven Colbert
—Disinformation Expert Ace

Good heavens, what an absolute disaster.

We have the Hunt for Gollum coming up, directed by Andy Serkis, who just remade Animal Farm as a pro-socialism, anti-capitalism message movie.

And now Warner Bros. has hired this absolute assclown to write a draft of what is being called “The Shadow of the Past.” The concept of the movie is not terrible: A good part of Fellowship of the Ring was cut out of the Lord of the Rings movies because of time restrictions and also because it contains the character Tom Bombadil, who is just a big ball of plot questions. Like, given that he has godlike power that makes even Gandalf and Elrond envious, why doesn’t he just take the ring? (Tolkien’s lame answer: Because he’s flighty and would eventually just forget about the ring and let it go back to Sauron.)

The reason this section of the book is worth possibly making a movie about is the creepy, scary encounter with the Barrow Wights. If you know, you know.

So Colbert, I guess, pitched the idea of doing these four chapters of LOTR as a stand-alone mid-quel movie.

Couldn’t they just have said “Yes that’s an okay idea, here’s $20,000 as a finder’s fee, now fuck off”?

Sure they could’ve. But being shitlibs, they’d have never, ever, dreamed of doing such a thing, thereby offering tacit insult to one of their most iconic Trump-deranged heroes.

Memezapoppin’!

Posted on March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 by Mike

Welcome to this week’s installment of our Wednesday meme feature, folks. Links to the “found via” sources will be attached to the specific MiQ’s (Memes in Question) whenever I can remember them, which likely won’t be very often. Only the first two memes will appear above the fold to save on bandwidth usage, since I assume not everybody who shows up at this here websty will want to see all of them. This intro will appear at the top of each week’s Memezapoppin’! post. Enjoy, funny-pitcher lovers.

Continue reading “Memezapoppin’!“ →

Mike @Substack

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