Read any good books?

[lisa kit]

Trying to encourage the discussion and review of book titles.

[lisa kit]

Constitutional Caos A. Napolitano

Napolitano, a former judicial judge, go in depth on how the US constitution has been abused the last century. Two good high lights are accounts of Ruby ridge and Waco. Though it won't go into detail like a book written on the subject will, he gives an overview of who was involved an how they violated the constitution. The accounts of Reno's reign as AG of Florida are hair raising to say the least. While fed perps in the ruby ridge case were protected by Clinton and even promoted for there illegal acts.
One officer provided a meth lab and then arrested the guy, w/o the officer's help there would have been no case. The book also reviews several cases where the rich would have property condemned when the owner wouldn't sell, picking it up for chicken scratch. A case in point, Donald Trump's Taj mahal in NJ where he wanted a parking area for his limos. A woman w/ property next door wouldn't sell the land she had owned for a lifetime. Trump tried to have it condemned, even though she lived there. The book addresses more illegal actions taken by the state, not very long 250 pg, it is well worth reading. You won't find this info @ a media outlet. Its a wonder Bill O allowed it to be promoted on his show, as he is all about some patriot act (damn Nazi).

artical excerpt:
And as an individualist Napolitano argues that the government can't be trusted and you should be every bit as skeptical because your freedom is at stake. The remedy for such an untrustworthy government is an independent judiciary, but the courts are still part of the government and have unfortunately been unreliable and all too willing to cave in to the pressures of Congress and the President, specifically the administration's handling of the war on terror.

[Terrence Abrams]

that is a good book Martin, I like it when Buchanan can stay on message and not strafe across too many subjects at once.

Then there is the more escapist fare of an old conservative, King Arthur. "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White. Always entertaining, and the tales of Arthur and his Knights mirror so many political developments of our own day still.

[lisa kit]

Haven't read this one in 20 years, Mission Earth: L. Hubbard
This is a dekalogy (i.e. 10vol, avg 300pg) w/ the following titles: The Invaders Plan, Black Genesis, The Enemy Within, An Alien Affair, Fortune of Fear, Death Quest, Voyage of Vengeance, Disaster, Villainy Victorious, The Doomed Planet

The story is told from the perspective of the bad guy, Soltan Gris. His job, make sure Jethro Heller doesn't succeed in saving Earth. Jet is like an airforce officer in the inter galactic military. Soltan is like foreign legion officer in another branch made up of prison deralicts. The first book sets up the entire story, as Gris gets a jump on Heller by planting a bug, allowing Soltan to see and hear everything Jet duz.

Some highlights. Though rape is a serious crime, Soltan gets raped several times in his adventure. You will LOL when the lesbians rub Tabasco sauce in to his cat of nine tails wounds. I was ROTFL when an old lady gets shot by NYPD, in a case of mistaken ID. (sic I know, but you have to read to understand) The hash candy trip in the middle of the ocean was memorable as well.

The science fiction was great. Makes sense to use a device that sees into the future when traveling faster than the speed of light, otherwise you will hit an asteroid. The capital planet is hidden by a black hole and they can reduce heavy metals to lighter ones, like lead to gold.

Please keep in mind, I didn't know what Scientology was when I read the story. But after reading A new slant on life L. Hubbard, I could look back and see where the philosophy came through in the books.

One of the things that stands out in A new slant on life was conflict between two parties is usually caused by a third party, exp given was Stalin's black train, given to him by the Germans to stir up the Russian revolution and in effect preventing them from fighting Germany.

Any Scientologist out there? Comments are welcome.

[Chris Lawley]

Here are few that are well worth it:

The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle that Changed the World - W. Cleon Skousen
The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution - W. Cleon Skousen
The American Classic Series - The National Center for Constitutional Studies - http://www.nccs.net/store.html

These are related to the beliefs of our Founding Fathers

[lisa kit]

The World is Flat T. Friedman

This book is about the digital revolution and how its going to affect our lives. An analogy is drawn in the book to the industrial revolution. Paraphrased "This book would be like a foreshadowing the industrial revolution but for the digital age"
To start this one off, he explains how if illegals didn't take low wage jobs, the wages for those jobs would be higher. This is because as the high tech sector expands less people would be available to take the manual labor.

Then he explains the dot com bubble and how it effected telecommunications. In a rush to be first, a lot of people dropped money into fiber optics. Because of so much competition they didn't make the expected profits. As the weaker companies started to sell off for ten cent on the $, technology improved allowing faster data transmission. So this caused a snowball effect, which made more companies sell for TC/$. CAPITALISM @ IT'S FINEST, AND THERE WAS NO BAILOUT. Now we have very fast very cheap data transfer which was not available i/t 1930s.

Now this data speed is making the world flat, anyone anywhere can get more information than they can digest in a matter of moments. This allows the digital image driver photo your state sold for a penny, to a company in CT, to be pulled up @ a moments notice by who ever has access to them. It allows 12000 people to play poker from there home for free, and @ 1:05pm est when registration 10K seats opens it takes less than 10sec to fill up. That happens every day.

So we have the edge, right?
Then he goes to India where the "a lot of our jobs are going overseas" expression comes from. In India answering a phone is a good job w/ above avg pay, in America it is low end and low pay. Why wouldn't you pay 1/3 as much for a voice, to people who appreciate it more. They even train over there to sound more American, and they usually change their name on the phone.

But this is deceptive, because the nail he is trying to drive home is not that other countries want to take our low end jobs. If you are 1:10^7 in India there are over 1000 people like U in the country, China > 1300. He wants us to realize they are trying to take our high end jobs. Boeing hires Russian aviation engineers. Most university math departments are headed by Asian. And they are good @ it, that is why affirmative action drags the system down. When you can find an Australian radiologist wide awake to read an X-ray in the middle of the night, why have a full time staff position?

An eyeopening read as to how this world is progressing, unless you just want to build a bunker and hide from it.
Please tell me you comprehend the logic behind this.

[Lock Piatt]

Lisa,

I will point you to two sources that could shed some light on the subject. One is a old Book called Micro Millenium and the second is a white paper available from Stanford Economic Department that addressed the subject of how long it would take the computer to have a large effect on the economy and productivity - the Prof compared with technological change to the time it took for the steam engine and belt drives to be replaced in industry by the electric motor. Hint - it was 50 years. Read it and have fun.

The world is a better place than you believe and the third world is a worse place than you believe or know.

lisa kit said:

The World is Flat T. Friedman

This book is about the digital revolution and how its going to affect our lives. An analogy is drawn in the book to the industrial revolution. Paraphrased "This book would be like a foreshadowing the industrial revolution but for the digital age"
To start this one off, he explains how if illegals didn't take low wage jobs, the wages for those jobs would be higher. This is because as the high tech sector expands less people would be available to take the manual labor.

Then he explains the dot com bubble and how it effected telecommunications. In a rush to be first, a lot of people dropped money into fiber optics. Because of so much competition they didn't make the expected profits. As the weaker companies started to sell off for ten cent on the $, technology improved allowing faster data transmission. So this caused a snowball effect, which made more companies sell for TC/$. CAPITALISM @ IT'S FINEST, AND THERE WAS NO BAILOUT. Now we have very fast very cheap data transfer which was not available i/t 1930s.

Now this data speed is making the world flat, anyone anywhere can get more information than they can digest in a matter of moments. This allows the digital image driver photo your state sold for a penny, to a company in CT, to be pulled up @ a moments notice by who ever has access to them. It allows 12000 people to play poker from there home for free, and @ 1:05pm est when registration 10K seats opens it takes less than 10sec to fill up. That happens every day.

So we have the edge, right?
Then he goes to India where the "a lot of our jobs are going overseas" expression comes from. In India answering a phone is a good job w/ above avg pay, in America it is low end and low pay. Why wouldn't you pay 1/3 as much for a voice, to people who appreciate it more. They even train over there to sound more American, and they usually change their name on the phone.

But this is deceptive, because the nail he is trying to drive home is not that other countries want to take our low end jobs. If you are 1:10^7 in India there are over 1000 people like U in the country, China > 1300. He wants us to realize they are trying to take our high end jobs. Boeing hires Russian aviation engineers. Most university math departments are headed by Asian. And they are good @ it, that is why affirmative action drags the system down. When you can find an Australian radiologist wide awake to read an X-ray in the middle of the night, why have a full time staff position?

An eyeopening read as to how this world is progressing, unless you just want to build a bunker and hide from it.
Please tell me you comprehend the logic behind this.

[patriot123]

"Animal Farm" by George Orwell. It is only a hundred or so pages and is a fast read. Great political book.

[lisa kit]

A must for any coffee table by the beach, Freedive T. Maas & D. Sipperly. Though I have been SCUBA certified, freediving is da bomb digity. If you have not experienced the mammalian dive reflex, you are missing out on one of the GREATEST natural experiences in life. When cold water hits your face, under the thermal cline, your heart rate drops in half giving the ability to hold your breath longer than on land. This is unmatched by any tranq short of knocking you out, you don't even feel like having to breath. On top of that you feel the experience of under water "flight". I personally have been down 60' just holding my breath. Read an artical in Men's Journal, where the author trained for 3 days and accomplished 75'+. Consult a doctor before taking on this sport, but keep in mind even smokers enjoy it. There are dangers as well, like shallow water black out which took the life of Terry Maas's grand son a few years back. Males in their early twenties tend to push the limits too far.

The book is FULL of exquisite HQ under water pictures. Mehgan Heaney Grier, making a WR dive to 155', has since been broken by a Brazilian. A sun or jew fish (sry Deb thats it's name), huge 400+#s. They explain the physiology of dive as well as it's history. Some people would sacrifice their hearing to be good divers before discovering equilization techniques. Coverage of personal equipment as well as spearfishing equipment is covered. I want to get a monofin myself, as I like the dolphin kick better. Some say dolphins are more attracted to swimmers w/ a monofin.

One of my fist blogs was on freediver.net, the stories were outstanding. One account of spear fishing an 800# tuna, would rival big game hunting and I have seen a woman take down a full grown bull elephant w/ a bow & arrow. They teather the spear to floats which pull the fish to the surface. But w/ big tuna and such, they can pull the floats so far down as to crush them, loosing the equipment in the hunt.

Though a great ref for the beginning diver, the pictures are worth the price alone. 5 out of 4 stars, that good.

PS admin has told me subject matter is pretty restricted, so I may not be posting much, will try some of the recommended books Thanks for supporting the post.

[Rosk]

Jimmy, both of those books are great! There are some great interviews with Shlaes on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLeAqbOUt4c
Also, I'm currently reading "Never Let Me Go." It's a very strange, but so far, good book.

Jimmy Clendennen said:

"The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes. Also, "Mr. Republican a biography of Robert A. Taft" by James T. Patterson.

[G. A. Harrison]

The best book I've read this year is Mickey Edward's "Reclaiming Conservatism". While Mickey may be a tad more libertarian than I am, he lays out where we've been and how to get to where we need to go. While I am a big supporter of #rebuild, I also know that it is a set of core principles and the ideas flowing from those principles which will allow us to motivate the grassroots and emerge victorious.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Al Regnery's "Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism".

While this may seem a bit old fashioned, I also make it a point to re-read "The Road to Serfdom" and "Conscience of a Conservative" at least once a year.

[Mary Mueller]

I've recently been reading a lot about women in Islam. What I have learned is deeply disturbing and it's VERY IMPORTANT that people actually educate themselves as to what's going on.

"Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

"Princess: Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia" by Jean Sasson

"Burned Alive: A Survivor of an "Honor Killing" Speaks Out" by Soud

I especially recommend Infidel, it has direct quotes from the Koran. Women all over the middle east are being beaten, raped, and murdered without the blink of an eye. Actually to the celebration of their family for returning their honor.

[Yucca Man]

Lias,
I too read this and enjoyed it. Knowing the background of tom Friedman (NYT Columnist) I was a little skeptical, my 80 year old mom loaned it to me. I thought he did a great job explaining the relationship between technology and jobs. It's funny but after reading it whenever I call a customer service site, I notice that they use recognizable American names. A couple of times I have asked the person on the other end if in fact that is their real name and they usaully say no.
I noticed he now has an updated version at the book stores.

lisa kit said:

The World is Flat T. Friedman

This book is about the digital revolution and how its going to affect our lives. An analogy is drawn in the book to the industrial revolution. Paraphrased "This book would be like a foreshadowing the industrial revolution but for the digital age"
To start this one off, he explains how if illegals didn't take low wage jobs, the wages for those jobs would be higher. This is because as the high tech sector expands less people would be available to take the manual labor.

Then he explains the dot com bubble and how it effected telecommunications. In a rush to be first, a lot of people dropped money into fiber optics. Because of so much competition they didn't make the expected profits. As the weaker companies started to sell off for ten cent on the $, technology improved allowing faster data transmission. So this caused a snowball effect, which made more companies sell for TC/$. CAPITALISM @ IT'S FINEST, AND THERE WAS NO BAILOUT. Now we have very fast very cheap data transfer which was not available i/t 1930s.

Now this data speed is making the world flat, anyone anywhere can get more information than they can digest in a matter of moments. This allows the digital image driver photo your state sold for a penny, to a company in CT, to be pulled up @ a moments notice by who ever has access to them. It allows 12000 people to play poker from there home for free, and @ 1:05pm est when registration 10K seats opens it takes less than 10sec to fill up. That happens every day.

So we have the edge, right?
Then he goes to India where the "a lot of our jobs are going overseas" expression comes from. In India answering a phone is a good job w/ above avg pay, in America it is low end and low pay. Why wouldn't you pay 1/3 as much for a voice, to people who appreciate it more. They even train over there to sound more American, and they usually change their name on the phone.

But this is deceptive, because the nail he is trying to drive home is not that other countries want to take our low end jobs. If you are 1:10^7 in India there are over 1000 people like U in the country, China > 1300. He wants us to realize they are trying to take our high end jobs. Boeing hires Russian aviation engineers. Most university math departments are headed by Asian. And they are good @ it, that is why affirmative action drags the system down. When you can find an Australian radiologist wide awake to read an X-ray in the middle of the night, why have a full time staff position?

An eyeopening read as to how this world is progressing, unless you just want to build a bunker and hide from it.
Please tell me you comprehend the logic behind this.