Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Egypt: Islamic supremacist presidential candidate says “the path to world freedom is the destruction of Israel” http://ping.fm/JMUFr
Friday, May 20, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a great history of the Civil War and the politics that surrounded the era. My understanding of the time period has increased immensely now that I have finished this book.
Typically we’re taught in school that the North won the war over a belligerent South and not much more. After all, the winners write the history books so this makes sense. What we aren’t taught is how close the South came to possibly winning this war had some events gone another way. The South’s loss of Stonewall Jackson at the height of the conflict and a failure to send competent generals to the Confederacy’s west largely sealed the rebels’ fate.
Lee certainly was a military genius and “Battle Cry for Freedom” tells us why. At the beginning of the war the North was plagued with incompetent generals content with assuming a defensive position and Lee was able to exploit that in the east until the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
The war did abolish slavery upon its conclusion but much more came out of this darkest time in American history: federal power consolidated and touched the average citizen for the first time ever. No longer are we a group of “United States” as we were before the war but a “United States” nation where the federal government trumps the fifty states.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough as an excellent account of the events that led up to the Civil War, the war itself, and the implications of the war.
View all my reviews
Book review – “Battle Cry for Freedom: The Civil War Era” by James M. McPherson http://ping.fm/DQZNh
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
When ‘Yes I Can’ Stopped Working… They Dug Him Up And Killed Him Again! (Comic) http://ping.fm/n8dVw
Why Neocons Idolize Lincoln and Despise Decentralized Government « LewRockwell.com Blog http://ping.fm/o7wDV
White House Insider: Obama Hesitated – Panetta Issued Order to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Socyberty http://ping.fm/pcaOs
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Book review – “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America” by E... http://ping.fm/dPVe0
Book review – “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order” by Samuel P. Huntington http://ping.fm/SGBBb
Book review – “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” by Mark R. Levin http://ping.fm/HZ8rc
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I bought this book without checking what year it was written. It's all pre-911 and quite outdated I thought. The book was written before the Japanese economy imploded in the 1990s and when it was thought the Japanese would overcome America.
I did like the perspectives on civilizations and some interesting points are made about China and the "Orthodox culture."
It was also quite a dull read!
View all my reviews
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I bought this book without checking what year it was written. It's all pre-911 and quite outdated I thought. The book was written before the Japanese economy imploded in the 1990s and when it was thought the Japanese would overcome America.
I did like the perspectives on civilizations and some interesting points are made about China and the "Orthodox culture."
It was also quite a dull read!
View all my reviews
Book review – “A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor” by Robert G. Pielke http://ping.fm/TZJgX
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Excellent points brought up after the first fifty pages. The first part was a good overview for the uninitiated but then the book really gets broad and deep and gets to the root of America's problems - the systematic dismantling of the Constitution since FDR.
It's going to take decades for conservatives to undo the damage modern liberals have done over the last eight decades but it can certainly be done. Levin lays out how in this book. Conservatives must reunite and stand their ground wile the most liberal administration ever elected attempts to enslave the public further.
The title comes from a speech Abraham Lincoln gave in 1864.
"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."
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Book review – “American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson” by Joseph J. Ellis http://ping.fm/SVJQk
The White Tiger by Aravind AdigaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an exceptional, great book. Honestly its one of the most intriguing, engrossing stories I've read in quite some time. I really liked how it delved into what life is like for 99.9% of the population in India which is very much still under the caste system - especially for those who hail from "the Darkness."
The political statements in the end were thought-provoking and I usually don't like personal politics mixed with my reading (see my review of "American Lion"). It's really the Hindu point of view that I found so engrossing. It's not one I've heard from much thought that's begun to change both with this book and "Slumdog Millionnaire." BTW - this book is much more realistic and representative of Indian/Hindu society than that movie was so I've heard.
I read every night to help me fall asleep. I found that I was unable to fall asleep reading this book, I just kept turning the pages. The end is a bit of a shocker and well worth it.
View all my reviews
Book review – “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” by Barbara Demick http://ping.fm/19pE3
Book review – “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon http://ping.fm/S7XEi
Book review – “The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression” by Amity Shlaes http://ping.fm/wUwxt
Book review – “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin” by Timothy Snyder http://ping.fm/MzppV
Book review – “The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe 1944-45″ by John Nichol http://ping.fm/hCOU3
Book review – “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James D. Hornfisher http://ping.fm/dKIY1
Book review – “Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century” by Tom Woods http://ping.fm/6M0jE
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