"Last Stop Vienna"- What the hell? A blurb about the dumbest book I've read yet

By Tresckow

I started reading the book believing it was about something totally the opposite of how it ended. Does that make sense? It begins as a good illustration into just what kind of people in 1920s Germany enlisted into the Brown Shirts, then the SA, and ultimately, the SS. I thought that was excellent... really getting into the mind of a troubled angry youth that did what thousands of others did. The SA gave the angry, brutish, and the uneducated a place to belong. They just had to sell their souls. That I got. Nagorski's depiction of the main character's mindset I got. The reacton of the main character's wife as she detests his beliefs, I got. It went so well until...well honestly around the time Geli (Hitler's niece) was introduced. It departed ifrom ts roots and really became a dirty novel with facist undertones. I'm not totally sure exactly what the description of the sexual encounters added to the story, though. It wasn't like "OH I GET IT! NOW I understand why the SA destroyed all those Jewish stores during the Night of Broken Glass. That paragraph describing Karl's sexual encounter with an STD ridden hooker really cleared things up!" To each his own, I guess.

Maybe it was the main character, himself, that let me down. Another reviewer said it correctly, HE LEARNS NOTHING. After a while it's just outright annoying to see him walk around in the same stupifying haze he began the book in.

The ending, well I don't want to give it away if you plan on reading this book... but it was unexpected. Here, the final departure from what the book initially promised to be occurs. You're left with a WTF reaction. Not so much for the sheer emotion or drama in the climax of the story, but for the "damn it, the book outright lied to me! " type reaction. Again, it may just be me. But really. What the hell? The book ends after the strange and almost silly climax. You have no real idea what the ramifications are.

If you want to read a book with a decent grasp on history with an ok fictional component, this may be worth your while. If you can get over the idiocy of the main character and simply enjoy a piece of well written fiction, read this book. If you have some time to kill, read this book. It's an easy read. I'd borrow it or buy it at a deep discount. Or you will end up like me...not knowing what to do with it after you're done. I almost feel dirty for placing it in the bookcase with my other books. I can hear them make fun of it. Basically, this book is the reason why I normally do not read historical fiction.

Last Stop Vienna: A Novel
Andrew Nagorski

Arizona, why do you think you're better than the rest of us?

By Tresckow

Just who in the hell do you think you are, Arizona? Really? You are too good to abide by daylight savings time? You pompous ass slappers!

Are you too good to fall in line with the rest of the US? Is being Arizona that fucking wonderful? BULLSHIT! You sons-a-bitches think you can flagrantly throw away tradition and "be your own state."

OK, screw tradition. How about practicality? How about providing an atmosphere of clarity? How about fucking admitting you are in the Mountain time zone? You basically pick your shitty angry Apache ridden, sand encrusted state up every spring and moved it exactly one time zone to the West. So for over half the year you sand humpers pretend to be a West coast state. The rest of us in the good 'ol USA have to do friggin math..no wait..MORE friggin math in order to figure out what time zone you are this week. Last time I checked you sun burned canyon jockeys were UNDER UTAH. Utah is in the Mountain time zone. What's the matter? You don't want to be like Utah?

OK, I'll give you this; daylight savings time is a crock of day old poo. And not just any crock. One of those fine crocks with a digital display you get from JC Penney. It's sort of like why families put out that God awful, ancient Christmas lawn decorations. No one really remembers why they do it. It's just something that's always been done. They can't go a year without setting up that plastic Santa with his jolly 'ol red pants around his ankles in the front yard. Yeah yeah…it was done to accommodate the farmers and give them one more hour of daylight to harvest with. Yeah, I get that. We're mechanized now, jackholes! But, I digress.

I'll lay it out on the line you "Four Corners" cornholes. If you're not with us, you're against us. The last time a state made such a bold statement was when Georgia left the Union waaaaay back in 1861. Is that it? Is that your game? You secessionist fucks. I'm just saying it's been too long since we've used the army to invade one of our own states.

Another Lakota Uprising...some people never learn..

By Tresckow

Holy shit! http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317548,00.html

I'm so divided, yet jazzed on this issue. I've studied the Apache, Cheyenne, and Lakota for years. We all know the treaties are shit. The US was just hoping that, over time, it would be forgotten and the various tribes would be assimilated.

As I see it, one of three things will happen

1. This is a political move for the Lakota. The days of the arrow flinging, galloping Indian warrior are over. Today, they gallop on the senate floor. This is a statement of great proportions and they know this will embarrass the government enough to speed up the Sitting Bull monument

2. Other tribes will follow. Shit, I can see the nations that gave the US the most problems: Apache, Cheyenne, Navajo, Crow... all doing something similar. Eventually either the US will come to the new treaty table or just ignore the whole thing

3. The US will revert back to its old Geronimo Campaign ways and send out the calvary.

Of all of the above, the third is the least likely. We've gone to war with other nations for doing less to their minority populations. Just call them Kurds and we have a global soap opera on our hands. The second possibility is more likely, but I garun-damn-tee that none of the tribes with legal rights to run casinos will join the movement. Out of all of them, the first possibility stands as the most plausible. They are pissed. Most of the treaties they've signed are null and void our of sheer outdatedness. The US government will capitulate and, in an order to save face, will pretty much meet any reasonable demands given to them. As I said, I'm divided. I'm a Unionist at heart, but I have a special place in my heart for the Indians of the plains and Southwest. All in all, this is still pretty awesome. It's a little bit of the 19th century in the 21st.

Begin the begeen

By Tresckow

So this is just another in a long line of "humor" groups, sites, clubs on the internet. Or is it? Yes. Yes, it is.

It is important for everyone to have an outlet of some sort. Some vent by setting fire to dumpsters outside their college dorms. Others by dressing up in spandex and leather chaps. Others, still, put their worthless opinions and observations on the interweb. I am the latter. I don't own spandex or leather chaps. Also, I don't set fires. Boy Scouts taught me better than that.

So, what can you expect from this blog? Nothing. Set your expectations for low. This is therapy. It can be therapy for you. But, when it comes down to it, this is for my enjoyment. Hopefully, it will be for yours too.

Sit back and buckle up. Who knows what horrors will be unleashed. Maybe, just maybe we can make a difference in this kooky world. But, if that can't happen, maybe we can bring down some of the world with us.

Save your money, quit school

By Adel

Midterms. Midterms blow. They suck just as much giving them and grading them as they do taking them. Midterms are supposed to be difficult. Midterms are supposed to test the knowledge you've gained in the first half of the semester. They're used to put the knowledge you've gained into practice. It's not only about the knowledge you've learned, it's about how to retain the important stuff. That being said, why the bloody hell are colleges filled with dumb asses?

Seriously? This is what I get? Class after class of chuckle heads? University used to be for those who wanted to better themselves. Now, it's a bloody place to hang out from four to ten years while putting off real life. Don't use my place of employment as a bunker to hide in.

I had a miserable midterm season. The school won't let me terminate students I feel are a drain on society. I have to "educate" them. Bullocks! Have you ever tried to MAKE someone learn? It's bloody impossible. I am not Edward James Olmos. I do not bloody stand and deliver.

University students of the world hear me; drop out. Those who just want to piss around in class and use university as a multi-year bar hop need to move along and make room for those who want to learn. Brilliant students in undergrad are getting suffocated by the sheer shit storm of dumbassary. It used to be just high school teachers that lost faith and all hope. Now it's surged into higher education.

What bugs me is that they have a choice. I get high school rebellion. You don't want to be there, but the man says you have to be. University is different, my future gas pump jockeys. You don't have to be here. Drop out! Make way for honest, hard working boys and girls.

Yes, I am ranting. Yes, I am in a bad mood. No, I wasn't a perfect student. But bloody hell, it seems that over the years things have just gotten worse. Today's youth is this country's future. I weep for this country then. I'm being harsh, I know, but sod off; I'm in a mood.

And then they come to me in an attempt to barter for a better grade. Really? You want to make a deal? How about this; hit yourself as hard as you can with your text book. When you come to, I promise to never to try to educate you again.

OK, I'm done now. Thanksgiving break is coming at the perfect time. I just can't wait for final exams.

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When not attempting to write for The Fuse Was Too Cold, Adel can be found mentally abusing college students on weekdays and threatening sales clerks on weekends.

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