Category Archives: Uncategorized

What ISIS Is And What They Want

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Joel D. Hirst

Given the horrific ISIS attacks in Moscow (and my heart goes out to the victims and their families), I wanted to re-up this piece I wrote for posterity on where ISIS came from.

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We Help Those In Our Path

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Joel D. Hirst

As I continue reflecting on 25 years in the trenches, as I start to dredge up the past, old memories start floating to the top like decaying chunks of wood from an ancient wreckage I disturbed. I think, often in … Continue reading →

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My X is @JoelDHirst

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

As I promised a while back, I joined Elon Musk’s new X. Let’s see how it goes!

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Homage to Catalonia by Orwell

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

In many ways the Spanish Civil War defined the fight (violent and non-violent) that has plagued the industrialized world. The left (utopian progressives who see a new order of harmony and equality just over the bloody horizon) wins elections and … Continue reading →

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I Should Be Writing My Armenia Book

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Joel D. Hirst

Originally posted on Joel D. Hirst's Blog:
This essay represents a failure, not complete for I remain optimistic but certainly a success deferred. I should be writing my Armenia novel. Each passing day, it gets a little harder. My…

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Fear

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Originally posted on Joel D. Hirst's Blog:
Nothing easier than to say ‘have no fear! Nothing more difficult. How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a specter through the heart, slash off its spectral head,…

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RIP My Best Friend

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

My wife always tells me I have no friends. But that is not exactly true. I had one. Yes, somebody who stuck by me in the best and worst and all of that. But it was more. As I’m digesting … Continue reading →

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On Prophets and MISRULE

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I have been feeling these days more often like my namesake, that grand Hebrew prophet of old seated atop a mountain decrying the wickedness around and imploring people to seek God. They never do, seek God. Wickedness is way too … Continue reading →

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War in Europe

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Yesterday I watched “Sound of Music” with my little boy. We are going systematically through the classics of American civilization, books and movies and ideas that made us who we are and more importantly keep us who we are. Some … Continue reading →

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Our Ending Age

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There are ruins strewn across the length and breadth of this world. Tiwanaku, sitting high and sterile in the fastness of the Bolivian Altiplano protected by its Andean ring of mountains and the highland oxygenless lake filled during the last … Continue reading →

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