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Sunday Morning Book Thread 05-08-2016: Peak Stupid [OregonMuse]


Professor Richard Macksey Personal Library 525.jpg
College Professor's Personal Library


Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, space isn't safe, and snowflakes will melt. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. And if you self-identify as a daisy, your petals must be modest, and in good taste.


More on the photo:

A Personal Collection...that belongs to Professor Richard A. Macksey - Professor of Humanities and Director of the Humanities Center at Johns Hopkins University. He has one of the largest personal libraries in Maryland, with over 70,000 books, manuscripts, and art work (valued around $4 million). Word is he holds grad classes in his gorgeous library.


Have We Reached Our Limit?

According to the this article in the L.A. Times, Rachel Dolezal is going to publish a book about race.

Who cares, right? I know. But this particular sentence caused me to raise my left eyebrow and mutter "Fascinating...":

Dolezal served as the president of the Spokane, Wash., chapter of the NAACP from 2014 to 2015. She resigned after her parents revealed that she was a white woman who was pretending to be black.

Emphasis mine. I think what we have here is a cultural marker. You don't often see them. To illlustrate the boundaries now in place, compare these two sentences:

1. Racheel Dolezal is a white women pretending to be black.
2. Bruce Jenner is a man pretending to be a woman.

Both of these are sentences that a conservative (i.e. a normal person) could have written. Both are simple, declarative statements. Both are the truth. But according to the current cultural rulebook as dictated by progressives, (1) is permitted to be spoken aloud, even by the exquisitely liberal L.A. Times. (2) however, is not permitted to be spoken aloud by anyone, and heavy penalties accrue to those who would dare to do so. I can see no logical reason why these sentences should be treated differently. If we are forced to close our eyes against all biology and all science and pretend along with Mr. Jenner, then Miss Dolezal should be granted the same courtesy and assigned all the rights and privileges that pertain to her assumed identity as a black woman. It is not logically consistent that the L.A. Times newspaper should have a problem with this. If I sat down with the editors and asked them to explain the difference, they would probably be unable to do so.

So, in the progressive hierarchy of victimization, race trumps gender. Not sure why, but there it is. Some victim groups are more equal than others, I guess

Anyway, I can't wait for Dolezal's book to come out. I'm sure it will be a big hit with African Americans everywhere.

And speaking of books written by *actual* African Americans, a black journalist wrote a book that caused him to be disinvited to a speaking gig at Va. Tech, as ace discussed at length earlier this week. The only reason progressives aren't forming up into lynch mobs over this is because the journalist is conservative and because the book that so disturbed the school administrators, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, attacks some cherished liberal ideas. In his book, Riley

...examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding black Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education is intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer black college graduates than would otherwise exist. And so it goes with everything from soft-on-crime laws, which make black neighborhoods more dangerous, to policies that limit school choice out of a mistaken belief that charter schools and voucher programs harm the traditional public schools that most low-income students attend.

My only quibble with this book is that the title Please Stop Helping Us... assumes facts not in evidence, i.e. that the intent of progressive social programs is to *help* blacks. As opposed to, say, turning African Americans into dependent, compliant voters who will help keep progressives in power (see also: immigration reform).

Correcting History

OK, pop quiz, what is the source of these quotes?

“The Negro should be accepted and not grudgingly but wholeheartedly,”

“The Negro has the right to compete in sports and who’s to say they have not?”

“No white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man. In my book, that goes not just for baseball but for all walks of life.”

a. MLK, Jr.
b. Jackie Robinson
c. Barack Obama
d. Trigglypuff
e. Ty Cobb.

The answer is, of course, e. Ty Cobb.

But hold on a minute, you say. Wasn't Cobb an evil racist? Wasn't he the most evil racist in baseball, and also in the entire United States? Doesn't everybody know this? The man was such an evil racist, he would kill black babies, cut them up into little pieces, and then sell the-- oh wait, I'm sorry, that wasn't Ty Cobb, that was *Planned Parenthood* who cut up and sold black babies. Sorry, my mistake. Anyway, as it turns out, everything you know about Ty Cobb is WRONG.

We all know that Ty Cobb was an evil racist bastard, right? We've seen that Tommy Lee Jones movie about him. He was even discussed in one of those prestigious Ken Burns documentaries on PBS. So yes, it's true: This man has no... Ty Cobb was worse than Hitler.

Except he wasn't. The case for the rehabilitation of Ty Cobb is set forth in the book Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen, who actually did original research, read the old newspaper accounts and interviewed as many of the relevant people as he could find.

Obviously, Cobb wasn't a saint:

He got in a lot of fights, on and off the field, and was often accused of being overly aggressive. In his day, even his supporters acknowledged that he was a fierce and fiery competitor. Because his philosophy was to “create a mental hazard for the other man,” he had his enemies, but he was also widely admired.

And that time he rushed into the stands to pound on a loudmouthed fan who had been riding him the whole game who turned out to be handicapped? That one actually happened. And then:

After his death in 1961, however, something strange happened: his reputation morphed into that of a monster—a virulent racist who also hated children and women, and was in turn hated by his peers.

There's a good piece in the March edition of Hillsdale College's Imprimis journal, where Leehrsen describes starting out with the assumption that the Cobb-is-an-evil-racist-bastard stories were basically correct, but then had his mind changed early on when he started looking at the actual evidence.

Leerhsen traces the accusations against Cobb back to one particular sportswriter who basically made stuff up about him to boost sales of the biography he had written.

So now that we know all this, what do we do?

[I]t remains to be seen how these revelations are absorbed in a culture otherwise eager to make shows of contrition for past misdeeds—at least when the targets of such compassion are politically safe. Philadelphia has formally apologized to Jackie Robinson for its racist treatment of the player when he appeared in that city. One wonders what comparable gesture could be offered to Cobb’s descendants for the calumnies that have tarred him in American memory. Perhaps Ken Burns has some ideas.

There's actually a good point behind that last bit of snark. Ken Burns added on to his original "everything is about race" baseball documentary with The Tenth Inning, which I admittedly skipped because I didn't want to be subjected to yet another pious lecture by a liberal on the evils of racism. But it seems to me that the rehabilitation of Ty Cobb would be a fantastic opportunity for Burns to correct the public record, since he was one of the ones responsible for creating the public record.

If you're interested in vintage baseball, you might want to check out The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It by Lawrence Ritter:

Shortly after the death of legendary baseball player Ty Cobb in 1961, Ritter, armed with a portable tape recorder, attempted to obtain an oral history of early-20th-century baseball from Cobb's contemporaries. The edited transcription of the interviews he obtained became a best seller and went to several editions.

For this book, Ritter was able to interview Fred Snodgrass, Sam Crawford, Hans Lobert, Rube Bressler, Chief Meyers, Davy Jones, Rube Marquard, Joe Wood, Lefty O'Doul, Jimmy Austin, Goose Goslin, and Bill Wambsganss. This book is a classic.

And I think Leehrsen's book will become *the* definitive biography of Ty Cobb. Eventually.


Cross The Streams, Earn A Little $

I would guess that when most of you morons hear the phrase "sci fi romance", you immediately think "tentacle pr0n". But there is actually a publication called "Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly" that I had never heard of until Anna Puma e-mailed me about it earlier this week. I have discerned with my vast powers of observation that it is a quarterly publication specializing in science-fiction themed stories of love and romance.

And what, exactly, is a "sci fi" romance? According to their submission guidlines:

“In a nutshell, it’s a romance that takes place in a technological setting and has an upbeat ending. Some stories have more science fictional elements and some have less, but generally the stories focus on the intersection of technology and romance.”

Intersectionality! There's NOTHING it can't do.

They're accepting submissions for issue #11. The deadline is May 15th. Yeah, I know this is short notice, but it's all Anna's fault.

The pay rate is 2.5 cents per word, up to 7,500 words. That means a maximum payment of $187.50. It's not a fortune, but it's enough to keep you in ValuRite and mesquite smoked hobo jerky for a long weekend.

All of their other requirements are listen on their submissions guidelines page.


Moron Recommendations

Years ago, I happened to catch an episode of On The Air, a short-lived TV series by David Lynch. I knew Lynch, of course, from Twin Peaks, so I was curious to see what else he was capable of. My first impression of OtA was that it was bad. Bad, bad, bad. But then I thought, wait, this is David Lynch, a reasonably competent writer and director. How can it be this bad? Maybe he's doing it on purpose. Maybe he's *intentionally* making OtA look bad as some kind of ironical artistic statement, or maybe because OtA was about a bad TV show, and Lynch was showing us how bad it was. I thought that someone else could maybe look at OtA and say, "ha ha, very clever, I get it", even though I obviously didn't. So was OtA intentionally bad, or just-plain-bad bad? I didn't hang around long enough to answer that question, as OtA was simply too unpleasant to watch.

I suspect I would have the same problem with The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, so I'm going to take a pass. But, as the poet says, YMMV. From the Amazon reviews, people seem to either really, really like it, or really, really hate it.

Illuminatus came to my attention as it was recommended by one of us morons:

Reading a piece of sci-fi/conspiracy theory fiction from the 70s called The Illuminatus Trilogy. Pretty damn good book. All about a shadow war between the collectivist Illuminati and their hardcore libertarian opponents (if only, right?), the Legion of Discordia. You know what they say about fiction being a superior vehicle for truth than nonfiction? Two points the authors make resonated with me:

- Identity politics can only divide
- The truth will make you laugh

Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 03, 2016 09:42 AM (xuouz)

Here is a typical review from someone who hated it:

Possibly the most annoying book that I have ever plowed through...a disjointed, turgid, hack written, drug induced hodgepodge of every stupid countercultural idea expressed in the past thirty years... with the most rabid examples of establishment paranoia thrown in for leavening. Besides, the "Question Authority/Free Sex" message has worn a bit thin by now. Why question authority? Is it to find a better way, to restrain its abuse, to protect our rights? Or is it simply to be a contrarian pest? And free sex brought us first herpes, and then AIDS. Nice going guys, any more bright ideas with which to usher in the millenium? This book reads like the worst excerpts from every freshman dorm late night bull session over the past three decades. It's a bible for the fuzzy thinkers, a blueprint for the fatuous, a justification for those who cannot distinguish between fogginess and brilliance.

Emphasis mine. That was my whole problem with Lynch.

I suspect that Illuminatus is one of those highly subjective, fun-house mirror type books where what you get out of it depends on what you put into it, which in most cases is going to be a distorted reflection of yourself. Robert Anton Wilson is also responsible for The Book of the SubGenius : The Sacred Teachings of J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs, which, as far as I can tell, is just one big "in" joke dipped in nihilism and deep-fried in smug. Years ago, I used to know a Robert Anton Wilson fanboi and believe me, that whole "subgenius" schtick got old real quick.


___________

Longtime moronette Rushbabe highly recommends The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss by Dr. Jason Fung, which she says helped her tremendously with weight loss and diabetes risk. She says:

If peeps are too cheap to buy the book, he also has a six-part YouTube series that deals with weight loss. Most say it tells you everything in the book. The secret is combining low carb/high fat with IF (intermittent fasting). Taking Apple Cider Vinegar before a high-carb meal (if you MUST have one) is also recommended.

If you search for "Jason Fung" on YouTube, you'll get a lot of hits; he's got a lot of material. The six-part series mentioned by Rushbabe is called The Aetiology of Obesity and if you click on that link, which is Part 1, you will easily find Parts 2-6. The lectures are quite lengthy, and there are almost 7 hours total.

I may buy this book. I've been fasting two days per week for awhile (and by fasting, I mean restricting my caloric intake to < 600 calories per day), and while I can't say I've lost any weight, I haven't gained any, either, which is a net plus since I tend to be more sedentary than anything else. Also, I actually like having a day wherein I don't have to worry about eating, about what to eat, or when the next meal is. It's also a good opportunity to remind myself Jesus' words that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."


Books By Morons

I've been skimming through this thread on the AoSHQ Moron Horde Goodreads group, and have been discovering lurking moron authors whom I never knew existed. Like moron T. S. O'Neil, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, who served as a Rifleman with the Marine Corps Reserve, an Officer in the Military Police Corps of the United States Army, and retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2012. He has written three books, the first is Tampa Star, which is book 1 of the Blackfox Chronicles. The main character is Char Blackfox, a Seminole Indian and former Green Beret. One 5-star Amazon review says that the novel

combines elements of Fifties detective noir with modern-day high-tech suspense...The story is appropriately divided into two parts: post-Vietnam 1974 and current-day 2004 set in a South Florida backdrop. The robbery of an off-shore gambling boat coincides with the arrival of Hurricane Gamila on Halloween 1974. It causes a shipwreck after which a million dollars of gold coins goes missing. Thirty years later, the survivors and those knowing of the incident make plans to recover the stolen loot. It sets off a series of abductions, double-crosses and murders that will leave the reader guessing to the final conclusion of this page-turner.

O'Neil has written two sequels, Starfish Prime and Mudd's Luck. Also, he's working on the fourth in the series.


___________

Moronette 'votermom' is putting together a list of moron authors over on the Goodreads site which is intended to be acessible to non-members. Here is the list she has compiled so far. Let her know if there's an author she's missing.

http://www.bookhorde.org/p/aoshq-authors.html

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:01 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good morning bookworms

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 08:57 AM (3wHFl)

2 On the library picture, WOW.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 08:59 AM (3wHFl)

3 Ah the book thread, my day is complete now.



Completed Rising Sun by Michael Crichton. Have moved on to the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy. I am doing them in chronological order this time instead of published order. I have commented on how the movie for A Sum of All Fears butchered the book to keep from offending "muzzie sensibilities" but in point of fact, even the movie version of Patriot Games was botched. Those movies in the title screens should reword the "Based on" statement to say the only thing based on the novel here is the title.


Now on to read the post.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:01 AM (vvmPQ)

4 I'm slowly still reading HMS Surprise, a Aubrey/Maturin novel. I start slow on books sometimes but after into it and like it I won't put it down.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 09:03 AM (3wHFl)

5 examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding black
Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are
already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of blacks out
of the labor force.



Thomas Sowell has been screaming this for decades and has previously written several books on it, two of which I have.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:04 AM (vvmPQ)

6 Book idea from the husband for Anna Puma or Political Hat: A Japanese to English book full of zany cartoon violence. For example, "Here is how to say: 'I will chop you into tinier bits than a yandere finding out you gave her crush a bento box.'"

Posted by: pookysgirl at May 08, 2016 09:07 AM (EgeHs)

7 Ty Cobb's reputation as a racist, even though it is known to be a lie, will never be rehabilitated because journalists are like that newspaper guy on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. When facts dispute the legend print the legend. Except in that case they implied the "legend" was that he was a hero. In the real world if involves someone who is not a SJW or a commie the "legend" is always bad, and that is what they will print.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:08 AM (vvmPQ)

8 And BTW, Ken Burns is the worst "TV historian" in TV history, and that is saying something.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:10 AM (vvmPQ)

9 I've decided to finally, once and for all, sit down and read Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon. I've had the book since the early 90s and I've used it for reference but I've never read the entire thing. Pretty big book, though, 1100+ pages, so we'll see how long it takes.....

Posted by: Pave Low John at May 08, 2016 09:10 AM (b5yHT)

10 Books? Nobody reads books. Certainly not the press.

Posted by: Ben Rhodes at May 08, 2016 09:11 AM (nckx1)

11 @8 True, but Burns' "Jazz" series is being re-run and I really am enjoying it.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:12 AM (b5WEh)

12 11
@8 True, but Burns' "Jazz" series is being re-run and I really am enjoying it.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:12 AM (b5WEh)

I refuse to watch anything with his name on it.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:13 AM (vvmPQ)

13 Thomas Sowell has been screaming this for decades and has previously written several books on it, two of which I have.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:04 AM (vvmPQ)


Oh yeah. I left off mentioning this because I didn't want to make it sound like Riley's book was derivative. It probably would've been good to link some of Sowell's books, though.

The one-star reviews of Riley's book are pretty funny. "Affirmative action is good because I, personally, have benefited from it" was one. Another one boiled down to "yes, but facts can be used to prove anything". And of course, there were lectures from amateur statisticians about correlation and causality.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:14 AM (J6NRq)

14 I read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. Chang has written a memoir of her grandmother, mother and herself in twentieth-century China.

Her grandma was a warlord's concubine with bound feet. Her mother was a young idealistic Communist who married a man who was even more idealistic and pledged to the cause, often to the detriment of his family. The two were members of the Communist elite and ran afoul of the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution.

Jung Chung also suffered during this time. She was sent to the countryside to work and learn from the peasants. Later she became a "barefoot doctor". After her family is rehabilitated, she is admitted to a university to study English. She becomes a top student and, after Mao's death, she wins a scholarship to study in England.

Because of her parents positions as high officials in Sichuan, the book is also an eyewitness to history and shows the changing views towards Mao and communism. An excellent book.

I also read John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades. An interesting story, but I did not like it as well as his Old Man's War.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 08, 2016 09:15 AM (JYer2)

15 Happy Mother's Day to all the motherly 'ettes!

Posted by: steevy at May 08, 2016 09:16 AM (B48dK)

16 If you are a fan of Elmore Leonard's "Raylan Givens" or C. J. Box's "Joe Pickett", you might enjoy Ace Atkins' "Quinn Colson" series.

I would strongly recommend reading the books in-order. http://www.aceatkins.com/quinn-colson/

Apparently popular enough that your library may have them all.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:18 AM (b5WEh)

17 Never watched anything from the Burn's brothers after their Civil war series.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 09:19 AM (3wHFl)

18 Auntie lived beside Ken Burns' former mother-in-law on Cape Cod. Ex -mil hated Burns. Said he was a complete ass. Don't reckon Kenny will be calling her today.

Posted by: And That Haircut? at May 08, 2016 09:19 AM (nckx1)

19 Is it too early for the crass commercial notices? Because I have a short story (Sequel to Gone with the Zombies) that is FREE on Kindle through Tuesday the tenth. Thanks again for the wonderful support of morons I only know through glowing pixels.

Also, I owe MPPP an Amazon review of Director's Cut. A really good review. I read lots of history/alternate history, and it really chafes me when I see 21st century people walking around in costume pretending to be natives of an earlier time. His book has none of that. It's wonderful. You can't tell the fictional characters from the historical ones, everyone is written with depth and complexity. And the book itself is a great romp in a fascinating time and place, with lots of action mixed in with quiet moments revealing character and setting. Thanks, MPPP, for a great read!

Posted by: delayna at May 08, 2016 09:20 AM (2VAnK)

20 13 Oh yeah. I left off mentioning this because I didn't
want to make it sound like Riley's book was derivative. It probably
would've been good to link some of Sowell's books, though.

The
one-star reviews of Riley's book are pretty funny. "Affirmative action
is good because I, personally, have benefited from it" was one. Another
one boiled down to "yes, but facts can be used to prove anything". And
of course, there were lectures from amateur statisticians about
correlation and causality.


Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:14 AM (J6NRq)

There is a problem I have with Sowell's books (or I would have a lot more of them) is that they are classified as college textbooks. And we all know how the publishers gouge you on college textbooks.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:20 AM (vvmPQ)

21 Because of her parents positions as high officials in Sichuan, the book is also an eyewitness to history and shows the changing views towards Mao and communism. An excellent book.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 08, 2016 09:15 AM (JYer2)


I've mentioned this excellent memoir on the book thread a couple of times. I heartily recommend it. Her account of the "Cultural Revolution" is a frightening description of what a country looks like when it literally loses its mind.

Chang has also written a biography of Mao ZeDong. The one-star Amazon reviews are a hoot. Mao still has a lot of fanbois, especially in countries other than China, and Chang's book has driven them into a frothing rage.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:21 AM (J6NRq)

22 I'm about half done with my book on Renaissance personalities and I am currently reading about St. Teresa of Avila and we are just getting to her reform of the Carmelite order. I don't think I've encountered St. John of the Cross yet who I think was her partner in this project.

And I am otherwise reading a murder mystery called "The Chill of the Night" which is set in Portland, Maine and is turning out to be not too bad at all. It's a straight up police procedural, and although I have decided who the killer is, I'm far from positive so I think that's a good sign since I've only got 25 pages to go.

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 08, 2016 09:22 AM (VsZJP)

23 I've been re-reading all (and some I missed) the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly after watching the Amazon series 'Bosch.' Some of the absolute best writing I've encountered in a lifetime of reading. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Jake at May 08, 2016 09:23 AM (+KNhD)

24 Ah, the highlight of my Sunday morning - the book thread!
I've been working on book stuff of my own this week, so reading has been confined to reference stuff about the Gold Rush - including the Shirley Letters, which are quite amusing and insightful!

My brother the graphics artist has finished the cover for the next Luna City chronicle - which should be available as an e-book early this week, and in print by the beginning of next. I'll send the links when available to OM, for next week's thread.

Love this weeks' library picture. I have some walls in the house that look sort of like that at a squint, but not a whole, two-story-tall entire room filled to the top with bookshelves!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 08, 2016 09:24 AM (oK6A/)

25 Life is too lousy to be reading short books.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 09:26 AM (0mRoj)

26 Fascinating times which we live. Who would've ever thought you could be some type of celebrity by declaring yourself black when you're white, or female when you're male.

I guess this is a great example of what we get when we allow the progressives to take over education from K-12 college.

What I really wonder is do these talking heads on TV really believe in this stupidity like they seem to, or is that all a real act and they're just as disgusted by this ignorance as the rest of us.

Posted by: Retire John McCain at May 08, 2016 09:27 AM (u+Cug)

27 24 Love this weeks' library picture. I have some walls
in the house that look sort of like that at a squint, but not a whole,
two-story-tall entire room filled to the top with bookshelves!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 08, 2016 09:24 AM (oK6A/)

We were just before having to buy some more 7 foot high book cases (which have to be ordered) and would have had to get rid of some other furniture to make room for them. But then we were saved by the Kindle/Samsung. I have actually been getting all my new books on Kindle now and even converting some of the old ones to Kindle and giving the paper copy away.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:28 AM (vvmPQ)

28 @23 Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer books are also excellent. Bosch and Haller (the lawyer) are both in the 2015 book "The Crossing", which is quite good.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:29 AM (b5WEh)

29 Well, I was told to bring this book up here and since we'll never get that eschatology thread...
the best book I've read on wheather the rapture of the Church is pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib or perhaps something else...

"The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church" by Marvin Rosenthal.
"The Sign" by Robert Van Kampen is a very good book with a more overall look at the end times.

Posted by: teej at May 08, 2016 09:29 AM (ijopM)

30 23 I've been re-reading all (and some I missed) the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly after watching the Amazon series 'Bosch.' Some of the absolute best writing I've encountered in a lifetime of reading. Highly recommended.
Posted by: Jake at May 08, 2016 09:23 AM (+KNhD)

I found the Amazon series by accident and quite enjoyed it.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 09:29 AM (0mRoj)

31 That library picture can be taken as proof that there is never enough shelf space

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 09:31 AM (ry34m)

32 Ken Burns' "The Civil War" was among the greatest TV programs of all time. His "Baseball" series had a lot of good in it, but he just kept pounding the race meme incessantly. It was very off-putting.

Posted by: rickl at May 08, 2016 09:32 AM (sdi6R)

33 As you can guess from my nom de Horde, I'm a fan of the Illuminatus trilogy. It is very much a product of its time, meant to blow your mind, freak out the squares, and fry up the Cosmic Egg. But it is just as much a riff on Hippie pieties and conspiracy theories and how their dupes are being manipulated by various puppetmasters.

If you don't mind Burroughsian word salad and a narrative that flows back and forth through time, man, it is a fun trip.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 09:32 AM (jR7Wy)

34 I'm not sure I want all new books on my tablet, one thing is my tablet isn't forever.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 09:33 AM (3wHFl)

35 "The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church" by Marvin Rosenthal.

"The Sign" by Robert Van Kampen is a very good book with a more overall look at the end times.



Posted by: teej at May 08, 2016 09:29 AM (ijopM)

The best book(s) I have read dealing with the end times are the Last Jihad series by Joel C. Rosenberg.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:34 AM (vvmPQ)

36 Burns' "Jazz" series is being re-run and I really am enjoying it.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:12 AM (b5WEh)

I refuse to watch anything with his name on it.

-
Even his generally excellent The Civil War was marred by progressive crap. Probably the worst moment was in the finale when people were summing up the significance of the war and one AA was stating, in effect, so long as there is not income equality, the war is not over. Yeah, all those guys died so we could give free government money to a bunch of layabouts.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at May 08, 2016 09:35 AM (Nwg0u)

37 @32 Burns & race. Agreed. I skipped the Jackie Robinson two-part series because the promos made it clear that we would be bludgeoned about race incessantly. Same reason I skipped "Baseball".

As to the "Jazz" series, Wynton Marsalis is a featured interview subject, much like Shelby Foote in the "Civil War" films. Marsalis adds a lot to the series. Artie Shaw is another interesting participant. Less propaganda, more interesting content than some other films.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:40 AM (b5WEh)

38 I saw leftism was all over the Burn's Civil war view, but still enjoyed the pictures that went with it.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 09:40 AM (3wHFl)

39 Good morning my fellow Book Threadists. I tried to watch some of Ken Burns' stuff after the Civil War series but got tired of being lectured, not educated. And the best things about the Civil War series were the extracts from diaries and Shelby Foote. His Jazz series might be good but I'll never know.

Another vote for MP4's Director's Cut. It's an enjoyable read worthy of your time. When the sequel comes out, I'll be first in line for it.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 09:42 AM (V+03K)

40 I'm reading Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure by Michael Asher. 130 years ago, a crazed and delusional fanatic draws together disaffected Muslims to wage holy war against the West. Somewhere I've seen that story before...

Posted by: Citizen Cake at May 08, 2016 09:44 AM (ppaKI)

41 I am extremely perturbed that not a single one of you bastards warned me not to read "Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace.

Well, I didn't actually read the whole thing, because it was so abysmally boring and irritating that I stopped after about 100 pages and skipped around to the end. That too was singularly unsatisfying.

I will have my revenge.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 09:45 AM (Zu3d9)

42 When you think "Sci-Fi Romance", think Space Raptor But Invasion.

Posted by: Chuck Tingle at May 08, 2016 09:46 AM (nFdGS)

43 38 I saw leftism was all over the Burn's Civil war view, but still enjoyed the pictures that went with it.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 09:40 AM (3wHFl)


So it sounds like Burn' Civil War series is best watched with the audio switched off.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:46 AM (J6NRq)

44 the joke's on you, then, CBD?

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 09:46 AM (ry34m)

45 Love that photo at the top of the post. But where would I put the rest of my books and magazines?

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 09:47 AM (V+03K)

46 CBD, I thought Infinite Jest was one of the books one must read before dying. It sounds like it will be the last book you read before you die.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 09:47 AM (jR7Wy)

47 ...a crazed and delusional fanatic draws together disaffected Muslims to wage holy war against the West. Somewhere I've seen that story before...

Posted by: Citizen Cake at May 08, 2016 09:44 AM (ppaKI)


Isn't this the story of Obama?

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:48 AM (J6NRq)

48 I will have my revenge.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 09:45 AM (Zu3d9)
***
You mean, the sight of that tome in the hands of countless pseudo-intellectual hipster types wasn't sufficient warning?

Chief, if, in the desert, you come across a little spring round which nothing grows, and, drawing closer, you see nothing but the bleached bones of a range of different species at its edge and in the water, you don't drink from it.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 09:49 AM (lutOX)

49 "Bob" sold it.
I bought it.
That settles it.

Posted by: Dr. Varno at May 08, 2016 09:50 AM (GdFQh)

50 @43 Turn the sound back on for Shelby Foote.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:50 AM (b5WEh)

51 I love Professor Macksey's library! And I bet he knows where each book is, like Smaug is aware of every bangle and bauble in his heaps of gold.

I need to worm my way into one of his grad glasses and poke around in there. Maybe insert a copy of, say, Valley of the Dolls into his stacks.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 09:51 AM (jR7Wy)

52 Posted by: Chuck Tingle at May 08, 2016 09:46 AM (nFdGS)

Hey, thanks for dropping by the book thread. Love your work. Especially your novel "Handsome Sentient Food Pounds My Butt And Turns Me Gay: Eight Tales Of Hot Food." What a masterpiece.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:51 AM (J6NRq)

53 I like Tampa Star! My review:

http://www.bookhorde.org/2016/04/tampa-star-by-tsoneil.html

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 09:52 AM (nbrY/)

54 Bigger than Qatar's national library.

Posted by: WOPR at May 08, 2016 09:52 AM (br8cd)

55 No, I did not make up that title.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:52 AM (J6NRq)

56 When I think Sci-Fi-Romance, I think Enemy at the Gates with Posleen.

Things have been stressful recently, so I am back reading Memory by Louis Bujold. Such beautiful, mostly clear prose.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 09:53 AM (ry34m)

57 If you've never seen the Old Negro Space Program, you should google it, Absolutely vicious Ken Burns satire. Nails him perfectly. Hilarious.

Posted by: tu3031 at May 08, 2016 09:53 AM (qJhUV)

58 Subgenii are aware of their own accursed fanbois.
They call them "bobbies."

Posted by: Dr. Varno at May 08, 2016 09:54 AM (GdFQh)

59 33 As you can guess from my nom de Horde, I'm a fan of the Illuminatus trilogy.

--

I thought you were the Greek goddess of discord?

Illusion status: shattered.

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 09:54 AM (nbrY/)

60 47- YES

Posted by: Retire John McCain at May 08, 2016 09:54 AM (u+Cug)

61 Hey, thanks for dropping by the book thread. Love your work. Especially your novel "Handsome Sentient Food Pounds My Butt And Turns Me Gay: Eight Tales Of Hot Food." What a masterpiece.
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:51 AM (J6NRq)
----
Okay, that's what I'm sneaking into the good professor's personal space. The entire Tingle compendium.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 09:55 AM (jR7Wy)

62 One thing about "Infinite Jest": once you have carried it around the coffee-houses, you no longer have to sit there and take it when somebody says "Atlas Shrugged" is too long.

I used to use "Parade's End" for that, but nobody now alive knows who Ford Madox Ford was.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at May 08, 2016 09:57 AM (tIja6)

63 (1) is permitted to be spoken aloud, even by the exquisitely liberal L.A. Times. (2) however, is not permitted to be spoken aloud by anyone, and heavy penalties accrue to those who would dare to do so

====

Lawrence, 2003

see Scalia's dissent.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 09:57 AM (Cq0oW)

64 Just finished "1906: A Novel", by James DeAlessandro, set during the San Francisco earthquake of the same year. Excellent book, very engaging. Started " Meyer Lansky: Thinking Man's Gangster ", by Robert Lacy.

Posted by: antisocialist at May 08, 2016 09:58 AM (SgYbV)

65 MP4's Director's Cut was very entertaining and an interesting look at the silent movies industry. Still waiting for a sequel.

Posted by: waelse1 at May 08, 2016 09:59 AM (ouy6q)

66 Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 09:54 AM (nbrY/)
----
Eris Discordia is a major(ette) wedge against the forces of conformity and oppression in the Trilogy. Her weapons are not fear, surprise, ruthless efficiently, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, but rather guerrilla ontology and mind-fucking, i.e., laugh at the devil. And maybe a little LSD.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 09:59 AM (jR7Wy)

Posted by: Retire John McCain at May 08, 2016 10:01 AM (u+Cug)

68 The only Burns series I've seen was The War, and it was good. Don't remember much prog nonsense apart from interviews with James Inhofe, who was probably still a better subject than George Takei would have been, given that Inhofe actually served.

Had my students read Chesterton's "The Blue Cross" (first of the Father Brown stories) this week. Unanimous reaction: o.O Still trying to decide whether to respond, "If you think *that's* trippy, don't try The Man Who Was Thursday...."

Also, hi, not dead, just busy and sick. Hoping to start real work on Loyal Valley: Diversion sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at May 08, 2016 10:01 AM (vRQPU)

69 When I think Sci-Fi-Romance, I think Enemy at the Gates with Posleen.

Things have been stressful recently, so I am back reading Memory by Louis Bujold. Such beautiful, mostly clear prose.
Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 09:53 AM (ry34m)


Bujold's latest (Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen) is a straight-up romance novel, set in her Vorkosiverse.

Bujold is notorious for genre-blending . . . start with your basic military sf/space opera, and then begin having fun with it.

I'm not sure she's ever written anything not worth reading.

Posted by: filbert at May 08, 2016 10:01 AM (s5o+q)

70 Anyone remember a SF short story where one of the problems was a General or Admiral nicknamed Sinister Finister. She designed her own uniform and I think the uniform had a cape. The plot was that an ad agency was drafted (literally..as a form of coercion) to increase the number of women volunteering for space duty.

I don't remember much more. The main agency designer had guest chairs in his office that tended to dump people out into the floor if they weren't careful (by design). Don't know author, date, or title.

Posted by: qustion at May 08, 2016 10:02 AM (CRXed)

71 Chang has also written a biography of Mao ZeDong. The one-star Amazon reviews are a hoot. Mao still has a lot of fanbois, especially in countries other than China, and Chang's book has driven them into a frothing rage.
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 09:21 AM (J6NRq)

It's an excellent biography. I've been meaning to read Wild Swans for years now, but - well, the stacks of "to read" books I have around here are already pretty high.

That didn't stop me from ordering the early days of baseball book. I had fully bought into the Ty Cobb=racist monster myth, but so did the late Florence King, herself a conservative Southerner. In her book "With Charity Towards None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy," there is a chapter on Cobb. King called him a "Mean Ole Boy," the flip side of the Good Ole Boy, who would have made a fearsome Georgia sheriff if he had lacked athletic talent. King stressed that Cobb could be equally nasty toward people of all races, not just blacks, but she believed the stories about how he sharpened his spikes so he could drive them into the legs of basemen during a slide. Apparently, he did not - but didn't mind the opposing teams think he did.

No, I don't think the book will make a dent in Cobb's popular persona (honestly, can we expect the media to say "opps, we were wrong about this particular dead white Southerner?" They won't even admit they were wrong about Stalin, for god's sake.) What it will do, perhaps, is keep Cobb in the HOF. Sooner or later, the SJWs are going to start demanding that "racist" players get tossed from their respective HOF because what matters is not how great a player was on the field but his adherence to 2016 racial codes.

If the crybullies had their way, the baseball HOF would be 95% Negro League and Hispanic players, with guys like Ruth and DiMaggio and Mantle relegated to some little corner off the Roberto Clemente or Satchel Paige wing.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:02 AM (P8951)

72 Those who write the history set the history.

Ty Cobb racist. Dropping atomic bombs on war mongering Asians racist. Securing our national borders and defending ourselves racist. Requiring ID when going to vote racist.

In the sane past, people like Bruce Jenner and Rachael Dumbasall would have been locked up and never heard from again except for their screaming when the nuthouse guards came for a little late night fun.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at May 08, 2016 10:02 AM (ej1L0)

73 Her weapons are not fear, surprise, ruthless efficiently, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, but rather guerrilla ontology and mind-fucking, i.e., laugh at the devil. And maybe a little LSD.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage



And boobs, right? Please tell me she employs the boobehs.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at May 08, 2016 10:04 AM (1xUj/)

74 She designed her own uniform and I think the uniform had a cape.


No capes!

Posted by: Edna Mode at May 08, 2016 10:05 AM (1xUj/)

75 After CS Lewis' 'A Preface to Paradise Lost' and how much it adds to reading the poem, I'm hyped on learning more context for classical works. Started re-reading 'The Discarded Image', another gem from Lewis, and 'Shakespeare's Restless World' by Neill MacGregor. I don't need the explanatory info for the Bard the way I do for other works but it's still interesting and helpful.

I mentioned last week that the latest issue of Backwoodsman magazine was out. It has more than the usual number of fun articles. A good one is how to build a simple but effective crossbow. Now I'm not trying to start a crossbow or longbow controversy (okay, maybe I am) but the magazine is worth checking out. And it makes a great break from 'heavier' reading.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:07 AM (V+03K)

76 Not awake yet. Was up half the night. Crashed early.

But two books I have read, and can recommend.



The Devil’s Pleasure Palace by Michael Walsh
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PSSEIXE/?tag=aoshq-20

Milton’s Paradise Lost, German Opera, Classical Music, Good vs Evil, God vs Satan, and The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory. Perhaps you have already familiarized yourself with these topics, but if you haven’t, this hard hitting book will explain a great deal about current political events. Easy to understand for an amateur philosopher. I was reluctant to buy it when it was first suggested to me, because it is written by an Art Critic. I caught it deeply discounted, and it has since gone back to full price. (#1 in its category)

Walsh quotes Milton : "I can not praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race. . ."
Milton – Areopagitica

I try to avoid the snide insult, but there are days when it gets under my skin. I get into a lot of trouble when that happens.







A Rifleman Went to War by Herbert W. McBride
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014SRU58C/?tag=aoshq-20

A story of WWI by a man who was in the trenches. He was a machine gunner, a sniper, and most definitely in combat. (99 cents for the kindle)


And I found two books on Joan of Arc, one by Mark Twain that might be a fictional account that has 144 editions, and the one I just got from Amazon (Pilgrim Classic) wasn't known to Goodreads. Both 99 cents.


Lastly, I was reading a bad review of my first book Wolf Hunters : Origins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OJVCYBO/?tag=aoshq-20

and realized I should have expected it. What I write isn't acceptable to the modern feminist/SJW and my heroic character was called 'a hot mess'. The reviewer wanted her to die, and that I, the Author was writing May Sue. To which I reply, who doesn't want to be the hero of the story. Who doesn't want to be superman with super powers and save the world from evil. So this review tells me I got it right. Grammar not withstanding.

Thanks to all who bought some of my stuff.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at May 08, 2016 10:08 AM (ezF4O)

77 for a quick sci fi romance

rewrite Red Barchetta in prose with a love interest

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 10:08 AM (Cq0oW)

78 My friend is a big Bujold fan, and sent me a couple of her books a while ago. I thought they were ok. I don't really get the why of how devoted her fans are. Which bothers me - as a book reviewer I should understand the reason.

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 10:11 AM (nbrY/)

79 Florence King was an inspiration to me when I was finetuning my own misanthropy through college; I jumped on With Charity Towards None when it came out 20 years ago. Before that, all I knew about Ty Cobb was that he played baseball; afterward I also knew he was a jerk.

Yeah, I remember the spikes... that was what made me wonder why King put Cobb into her book in the first place. The book was supposed to be about "people who don't like people, the happiest people" and not "psychos who should be arrested".

But I *don't* remember taking from the chapter in general that Cobb was a racist, just that he was an ass. I'm not sure King intended that either.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:11 AM (6FqZa)

80 Finished Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. Meh. for "Hard Sci-fi" geeks it's probably great with the *detailed* descriptions of orbital mechanics, but it felt to me to be largely unfinished, like he had to meet (or was past) a deadline and stopped it at "hey, look! We found and met the earthbound survivors of the apocalypse we went into orbit to escape!

Not the top of my Hugo ballot. I'll have to read the rest of them, but I'm sure at least one of them will be better.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at May 08, 2016 10:12 AM (OR5cC)

81 68 ... Hi Elisabeth, Wish I could have seen the reactions of your class to Father Brown. Glad you are busy and I hope you are feeling better, at least. We've missed your posts.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:12 AM (V+03K)

82 Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc is good. Fiction, yes--at least the POV character is--but IIRC, Twain included a lot of actual history as well. Highly recommend.

And it says something about the kind of nerd I am that I've used The Discarded Image as bedtime reading. Loved it so much when I read it as research for a paper on CSL that I bought a copy. Also highly recommend.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at May 08, 2016 10:13 AM (vRQPU)

83 Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:07 AM (V+03K)
***
Hear! Hear!

I've always love the Backwoodsman.

And for those looking for their Burning-Times how-to's with a dose of sorta-kinda-libertarian constitutionalism, there's Backwoods Home Magazine.

Both are worth a read.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:14 AM (lutOX)

84 I read the Illuminatus Trilogy awhile back. Can't remember much of it though I do remember liking it at the time.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 10:16 AM (Cq0oW)

85 James T. Kirk was a pioneer at the intersection of technology and romance.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at May 08, 2016 10:17 AM (DeaqA)

86 Happy Mothers day to all the Moron Ette's out there and Mothers all over the Country except for that scrunt hillary

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 08, 2016 10:19 AM (Ozsfq)

87 I bought the "Baseball" series by Ken Burns years ago. It kept my interest despite the fact that the interviews with all of Ken's lefty celeb and semi-celeb friends got extremely grating. I really don't give a shit how terrible Doris Godwin Kearns felt when the Dodgers moved to LA or about Billy Crystal's anguish when the Yankees lost the WS in 1960. (Yeah, asshole, the Yankees didn't win the damn thing a few times in the 1950's. What a tragedy.)

The amusing thing to me is how clearly Burns demonstrated once again that the left does not understand cause and effect or how economics works. After repeatedly highlighting how underpaid and basically powerless the players were due to the reserve clause, in the final segment Burns bemoaned the money in baseball (which, in the early 90's was nothing compared to today) and how distant the players had become from the fans due to the big money. So - it was bad when players were poor but now it's bad because they are rich. And it was a great thing to desegregate baseball, but an awful tragedy that the old Negro League died as a result.


Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:20 AM (P8951)

88 Oh, yes, a Happy Mother's Day to all the 'ettes who are moms1

And thanks again, OregonMuse, for a most excellent book thread!

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:21 AM (P8951)

89 Thanks, JTB. Health's still pretty rocky, but we're getting closer to answers and thus to treatment.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at May 08, 2016 10:23 AM (vRQPU)

90 I decided it's FINALLY time to read 'Don Quixote'. When dealing with translations of classics I spend some time researching the best versions. (That is definitely paying off with the Montaigne works.) I'm going to use the Smollett translation with the Dore illustrations. I'm becoming increasingly leery of the "latest" hot translation of classics. Too often that just means they are easy to read and lose the wonder and poetry of the original work.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:25 AM (V+03K)

91 85 James T. Kirk was a pioneer at the intersection of technology and romance.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at May 08, 2016 10:17 AM (DeaqA)


True. And he demonstrated his incredible intersectionality pretty much every episode.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 10:26 AM (J6NRq)

92 Yeah, I remember the spikes... that was what made me wonder why King put Cobb into her book in the first place. The book was supposed to be about "people who don't like people, the happiest people" and not "psychos who should be arrested".


Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:11 AM (6FqZa)

Well, she also put anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator Celine in the book and he was hardly one of the "happiest people."

I don't have the book in front of me so I don't remember her reasons for devoting chapters to both men.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:26 AM (P8951)

93 About to start my semi-annual re-reading of Absalom! Absalom! and the Book of Ecclesiastes.

I try to read these two works at least twice a year.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:27 AM (lutOX)

94 I mentioned last week that the latest issue of Backwoodsman magazine was out. It has more than the usual number of fun articles...And it makes a great break from 'heavier' reading.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:07 AM (V+03K)




Backwoods Home is one of the magazines I actually subscribe to (as opposed to receiving as a part of an organizational membership). Check it out sometime, there's always something interesting to be found in it, plus Massad Ayoob is one of their columnists.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 10:31 AM (GUBah)

95 "The Illuminatus! Trilogy"

My impression was standard genre (SF+magic+action adventure+parody) mixed in with an occasional unusual writing technique, cynicism, fnords. Terry Pratchett style observations on life and culture but with sex scenes that are tell not show. Not even close to Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Nothing special conspiracy wise. I was disappointed. Ok as popcorn fiction. Others might disagree. :-)

examples:
Came in on a scene with one character and left with another. With no chapter break. I'm sure the authors would have like a reader not to notice this.

Short old Police Captain(? might have been a lieutenant ?) married to tall black former prostitute and former drug addict. Detailed that Captain wouldn't be hired if he was applying today because he was too short. Former prostitute gives reasons her husband is the cat's pajamas but can't remember what.

Slut of story is actually an incarnation (of Isis?) who can take the form of any woman. Slut gathers magical energy by having sex.

I considered them entertaining but their reputation overblown.

Posted by: reader at May 08, 2016 10:33 AM (CRXed)

96 2. Bruce Jenner is a man pretending to be a woman.

There's a lot of pretending we're supposed to be doing. Gay marriage, Religion of Peace, the nobility of savages, and that the economy is in excellent shape.

I just keep thinking "The Emperor Has No Clothes", but I'm headed for the camps, anyways.

Posted by: t-bird at May 08, 2016 10:34 AM (eeTCA)

97 Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:27 AM (lutOX)

Just leave me alone.

Posted by: Thomas Sutpen at May 08, 2016 10:36 AM (Zu3d9)

98 87
how distant the players had become from the fans due to the big money. So - it was bad when players were poor but now it's bad because they are rich.
Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:20 AM (P8951)


Back in the real olden days, players took the trolley or subway to the ballpark, along with their fans.

Posted by: rickl at May 08, 2016 10:37 AM (sdi6R)

99 Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:20 AM (P8951)


Agree with you 100% about Burns

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 08, 2016 10:37 AM (Ozsfq)

100 57 If you've never seen the Old Negro Space Program, you should google it, Absolutely vicious Ken Burns satire. Nails him perfectly. Hilarious.

Posted by: tu3031 at May 08, 2016 09:53 AM (qJhUV)


OK, I'm watching it, and I'm DYING here. Whoever put this together has perfectly captured all of the pompous Ken Burns tropes and mannerisms. Here is the 10-minute film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6xJzAYYrX8

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 10:37 AM (J6NRq)

101 ...but I'm headed for the camps, anyways.
Posted by: t-bird at May 08, 2016 10:34 AM (eeTCA)
***
I'm gonna go ahead and quaote Madge the Manicurist here:

"You're soaking in it."

There won't be camps - they don't need them. No, unreformed citizen, you'll not have the luxury of being behind wire to atone for your general wretchedness.

No, you'll have a mortgage on an over-taxed property, you'll work yourself to death - you'll work to pay for your punishment. You'll die broke, exhausted, and hated, and you'll pick up the bill for it.

If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine Trigglypuff, sitting on your face forever.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:38 AM (lutOX)

102 I'll have to check out Back Woods Home magazine. If it takes the same approach as Backwoodsman, I'll enjoy it. The "prepper" articles aren't end of the world survivalist so much as dealing with emergencies like purifying water, fire starting and food preservation. Plus it has a lot of just fun projects.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:39 AM (V+03K)

103 Just leave me alone.
Posted by: Thomas Sutpen at May 08, 2016 10:36 AM (Zu3d9)
***
I'll tetch you, Colonel. - Wash Jones

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:39 AM (lutOX)

104 What have you all been reading this week?

===

Still lazily wending my way through Keplers Witch.

kindle link
http://is.gd/mpMj2K

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 10:40 AM (Cq0oW)

105 If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine Trigglypuff, sitting on your face forever.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:38 AM (lutOX)


AAAAGHH!!!!!!

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 10:40 AM (nbrY/)

106 I'm currently reading Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman," about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and the contributions of an insane American doctor who was incarcerated at Broadmoor. Very interesting. Until reading this, I didn't appreciate what a Herculean task compiling the OED was.

Also, read the last two Maisie Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear. I think Winspear must have realized she'd written herself into a corner with Maisie's romantic life, so the penultimate book begins four years after the last and we learn that Maisie got married, got pregnant, saw her husband die in a plane crash, and miscarried. A fairly brutal beginning, but I have to hand it to the author for figuring out a way to wrap up the loose ends and then get Maisie back to being a single working woman.

Posted by: biancaneve at May 08, 2016 10:41 AM (sjq9T)

107 examples:
Came in on a scene with one character and left with another. With no chapter break. I'm sure the authors would have like a reader not to notice this.

Posted by: reader at May 08, 2016 10:33 AM (CRXed)


Right, and this is exactly my point. Did the authors do this *intentionally*, or is this just bad writing? If I have to ask that question, I will find something better to read.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 10:42 AM (J6NRq)

108 One of the first things I considered after I heard the "news" that Cobb wasn't all that we previously "knew," was to consider Bill James.

He should rightfully be considered one of the greatest writers of our time, and I would highly recommend to anyone interested baseball history, his "Historical Baseball Abstract." And then go on from there to any number of other sources of baseball history, because he's going to recommend several.

He has a website, much of which is a paid subscription, and a perusal of it doesn't show anything, but I would be very interested in Bill's take on this whole "Cobb wasn't so bad after all" thing.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 10:43 AM (Dj0WE)

109 Oh, yes, a Happy Mother's Day to all the 'ettes who are moms

Does Bruce Jenner identify as a mom now? Must his kids if they're to stay in the good graces of the media? Are liberals required to wish him Happy Mother's Day today?

I'm actually curious about that one, not just snarkin'.

Posted by: t-bird at May 08, 2016 10:44 AM (eeTCA)

110 Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:39 AM (V+03K)



Yep, that's a good description of BWH.

From the current issue's cover:

- How to grow alliums

- Install a steel roof

- Use the whole chicken

- Build a predator proof coop

- An easier way to cut firewood



I have no doubt they'll get plenty of new subscriptions from the Horde for that third one/

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 10:44 AM (GUBah)

111 There won't be camps - they don't need them. No, unreformed citizen, you'll not have the luxury of being behind wire to atone for your general wretchedness.

No, you'll have a mortgage on an over-taxed property, you'll work yourself to death - you'll work to pay for your punishment. You'll die broke, exhausted, and hated, and you'll pick up the bill for it.

If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine Trigglypuff, sitting on your face forever.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:38 AM (lutOX)


First, I'm going to steal this. Then, I'm going to figure out some place where I can use it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 10:44 AM (J6NRq)

112 First, I'm going to steal this. Then, I'm going to figure out some place where I can use it.
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 10:44 AM (J6NRq)
***
Steal away - it is an honor to be plagiarized by a cob.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:46 AM (lutOX)

113 votermom, I sent you an email

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:46 AM (6FqZa)

114 Some Hordeling this week recommended the Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote so I bought it.

I haven't actually read it in any translation yet. It's one of those bits of cultural literacy that I've been able to fake.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at May 08, 2016 10:47 AM (1xUj/)

115 If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine Trigglypuff, sitting on your face forever.


I choose death.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (0mRoj)

116 The Illuminati trilogy is pretty funny. Once you get that the format of the story is a deliberate mockery of James Joyce, you might forgive it for being disjointed as hell.
It's got a lot of great bits, but it's largely forgettable. I wouldn't recommend it. It's a lot like the first two Austin Powers movies, lots of great lines but generally craptastistic.

Read Foucault's Pemblem instead. That one will stick with you.

Posted by: Luke at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (u9wAT)

117 Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:38 AM (lutOX)


You monster!!!

Posted by: Big Brother at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (oU3Bb)

118 Elisabeth G. Wolfe wrote: "I've used The Discarded Image as bedtime reading".

I had to laugh. I tried that but needed constant use of the computer to find out what many of Lewis' allusions meant. Fascinating but not conducive to sleep.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (V+03K)

119 So the library's owner is a humanities director and professor. I wonder how he feels about the corruption and sickness of the entire field, or if he's ok with the bulging lexicon of bullshit.


Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (Wckf4)

120 I choose death.
Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (0mRoj)
***
When will you shoot me?

It might take some time. But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured in the end.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:49 AM (lutOX)

121 It's one of those bits of cultural literacy that I've been able to fake.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at May 08, 2016 10:47 AM (1xUj/)


I've seen the Wishbone version (which is a far sight better admission than "I've seen the Disney version," because at least the Wishbone writers give an *accurate* summary of the books).

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at May 08, 2016 10:49 AM (vRQPU)

122 On a happier note, I received Happy Mother's Day texts from both my daughters within 5 minutes of each other. They are in different time zones and don't know each other. One I raised, one I put up for adoption and she found me a few months ago. The world can burn around me today, I have a happy heart. For the time being.

Posted by: Infidel at May 08, 2016 10:49 AM (NhVFB)

123 death... by TRIGGLYPUFF!

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:50 AM (6FqZa)

124 Votermom: Prose aside (although it is lovely prose) Bujold has three major things:

characters are interesting in that they generally are deeply flawed people who are trying to do the right thing within their understanding of what is possible,

the plotting tends to be of the school of " what is the worst thing possible to happen here and how do we get out of it?" and she never seems to cut corners or leave gaping holes

the philosophy behind the writing seems to focus on what is honor, what is bravery and what is success.

So her books tend to be people - granted, with extraordinary skills and talents and drive - getting stuck deep in the woods and trying to find their way out for themselves and the people dependent on them. With a giant side-helping of resolving the difference between "what is the means and what is the ends"

The down-side is there are very few evil people in her books, or even very many people who are best just killed. On the other hand, I don't think she likes writing about evil people.

I think her books are about redemption, not survival.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 10:50 AM (ry34m)

125 You monster!!!

Posted by: Big Brother at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (oU3Bb)
***
And, by the way, why haven't you recruited her yet?

There's a poster-child for the Anti-Sex League if ever I saw one.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:50 AM (lutOX)

126 "The Glory of Their Times" is a great book. I remember checking it out of the library when I was a teenager.

The nickname "Rube" was common in the old days. All of the major league teams were located in big Northeast or Midwest cities, while many players were from small towns or farms.

Bill Wambsganss' claim to fame was turning the only unassisted triple play in World Series history, in 1920. After his playing career was over, he managed in the minor leagues and also with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during WWII. The Tom Hanks character in the movie "A League of Their Own" was loosely based on him. That movie featured the classic line, "There's no crying in baseball!" although I don't think Wamby ever said that.

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/420628e7

Posted by: rickl at May 08, 2016 10:51 AM (sdi6R)

127 And it was a great thing to desegregate baseball, but an awful tragedy that the old Negro League died as a result.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 10:20 AM (P8951)


Yeah, he sure did gloss over that part, didn't he. It coincides with the book written by the guy who was disinvited. There's a whole history left mostly untold about how white liberal policies destroyed the thriving communities of blacks, who self-contained their own businesses, and cultural institutions, like baseball.


The sad thing is, we really DID need to integrate, but forcing it caused harm we will never acknowledge as a society. Because there is no going back, and it can't be fixed if you could.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 10:51 AM (Dj0WE)

128 death... by TRIGGLYPUFF!

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:50 AM (6FqZa)



Someone needs to do a photoshop of Luke Skywalker and the Rancor with Trigglypuff superimposed on the Rancor.

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 10:52 AM (GUBah)

129 27 24 Love this weeks' library picture. I have some walls
in the house that look sort of like that at a squint, but not a whole,
two-story-tall entire room filled to the top with bookshelves!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 08, 2016 09:24 AM (oK6A/)

We were just before having to buy some more 7 foot high book cases (which have to be ordered) and would have had to get rid of some other furniture to make room for them. But then we were saved by the Kindle/Samsung. I have actually been getting all my new books on Kindle now and even converting some of the old ones to Kindle and giving the paper copy away.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 09:28 AM (vvmPQ)

Hey, maybe we should have photos of the Horde's libraries as part of the book thread, like we do with the Pet thread?

And good morning & Happy Mother's Day!

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 10:52 AM (7qAYi)

130 Second the recommendation for Foucault's Pendulum.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 10:52 AM (lutOX)

131 Posted by: Infidel at May 08, 2016 10:49 AM (NhVFB)



Great to hear that. I have to call both of my mothers later today, bio and adoptive.

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 10:54 AM (GUBah)

132 "My friend is a big Bujold fan, and sent me a couple of her books a while ago. I thought they were ok. I don't really get the why of how devoted her fans are. Which bothers me - as a book reviewer I should understand the reason."

Bujold creates good characters. She is very hard on her characters. I haven't read all her books because I don't want to suffer with her characters.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance would be one of those SF Romances mentioned above. It has less suffering by the protagonists than other books of hers.

The funniest scene in all her books I've read is when Miles (a severely physically stunted but brilliant protagonist that will not quit no matter what) must-have-sex with a seven foot tall, tusked women that was created in a lab to be a warrior. Miles is worried that he won't satisfy the warrior woman or he will and she will accidentally dismember him. The warrior woman's metabolism is super high. All the warrior males they created died (probably from too high a metabolism). The warrior women is a virgin and doesn't want to die as one. I can't do the rest of the scene justice. This is a PG rated as are all her books I've read.

Posted by: reader at May 08, 2016 10:54 AM (CRXed)

133 Is Rachel's book going to be a coloring book?

Posted by: BillPasadena at May 08, 2016 10:56 AM (R3hjx)

134 photos of the Horde's libraries



Oh the Horror! I have the clutter, but not the books, nor the scale, nor the intellect.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at May 08, 2016 10:57 AM (ezF4O)

135 115 If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine Trigglypuff, sitting on your face forever.

I choose death.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 10:48 AM (0mRoj)


...by snu-snu?

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 10:58 AM (J6NRq)

136 re Jason Riley --

VA Tech has re-invited him

http://tinyurl.com/zz95jm2

(Legal Insurrection)

We welcomed the statement this morning from Virginia Tech University's president Timothy Sands saying that the university is inviting Jason Riley to speak on campus. President Sands's decision to invite Mr. Riley reverses a disinvitation sent to Mr. Riley last week. This is very good news, and it has now been confirmed by telephone to Mr. Riley by the dean of the business school. The dean has also retracted his "open letter" statement claiming that Mr. Riley was never invited in the first place, and promised that he would make a public apology. Mr. Riley has been offered his choice of giving the BBandT lecture, which he was originally invited to present, or to speak in another venue.

Sisyphus can be proud of his progress for the day.

Posted by: GnuBreed at May 08, 2016 10:58 AM (gyKtp)

137 Morning, bookies! Storms threatening here in NE OK, thunder making the dog nervous, but mostly still only partly cloudy with just a brief sprinkle earlier. Nice Spring morning.

College Professor's Personal Library

I like the photo because, even with miles of bookshelves, there's still unshelved stacks all over the place.

Feels like home.

Posted by: mindful webworker - shelfish at May 08, 2016 10:58 AM (gJBE5)

138 "...but gernally the stories focus on the intersection of technology and romance."



That phrasing right there lets me know to steer well clear of submitting or reading anything they produce.


Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 08, 2016 10:59 AM (Wckf4)

139 "So, in the progressive hierarchy of victimization, race trumps gender. Not sure why..."

That's easy to explain: Because progressives believe, with absolute conviction, that blacks are genetically inferior to whites.. They always have, back to Woodrow Wilson. That's why they think blacks need a hand up and a hand-out, and they believe they'll always need them.

Posted by: Pastafarian at May 08, 2016 10:59 AM (+EU58)

140 I have two bookshelves in the office and piles everywhere else. I have thought about hiring someone to line two walls in the office with shelves. Dreams can come true?

Posted by: Infidel at May 08, 2016 11:00 AM (NhVFB)

141 #129 has a great idea. RIght now I"m reading Titans of History.by some british guy with three names. Capsule biographies of influential figures throughout history. The poet Bryon, when he lived in Venice, used to return from parties by swimming in the canals by the light of a candle placed on a piece of wood.

Posted by: vivi at May 08, 2016 11:00 AM (11H2y)

142 Someone needs to do a photoshop of Luke Skywalker and the Rancor with Trigglypuff superimposed on the Rancor.

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 10:52 AM (GUBah)


Google some images of Roz from Monsters, Inc. You won't need to do any photoshopping.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:00 AM (J6NRq)

143 And blood trumps all.
It's a Purple Heart after all.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 08, 2016 11:01 AM (MMa93)

144 127 The sad thing is, we really DID need to integrate,
but forcing it caused harm we will never acknowledge as a society.
Because there is no going back, and it can't be fixed if you could.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 10:51 AM (Dj0WE)

Ending segregation is not what destroyed black businesses. LBJ's "Great Society" did that.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 11:01 AM (vvmPQ)

145 Re: the vision of the future:

Mark my words, tolerating them wasn't enough, accepting them wasn't enough. Now we're at the 'compulsory subsidization and celebration' stage of their depravity.

But unless and until they can compel participation, they won't be happy, and even then, they'll criticize people for insufficient enthusiasm.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:02 AM (lutOX)

146 Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 10:50 AM (ry34m)

I thought Captain Vorpatril's Alliance was fantastic. It's a damn shame it lost the Hugo to the lazy fanfic Redshirts.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at May 08, 2016 11:02 AM (OR5cC)

147 Is Rachel's book going to be a coloring book?
Posted by: BillPasadena at May 08, 2016 10:56 AM (R3hjx)


And it will have a midi-chip that will play this song while it is open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3iPP-tHdA

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 11:03 AM (ry34m)

148 In books we find the dead as it were living; in books we foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are methodized; the rights of peace proceed from books. All things are corrupted and decay with time. Saturn never ceases to devour those whom he generates; insomuch that the glory of the world would be lost in oblivion if God had not provided mortals with a remedy in books.

-Richard de Bury, The Philobiblon, 1345

in translation here
http://is.gd/IKwP59

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:04 AM (Cq0oW)

149 113 votermom, I sent you an email
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:46 AM (6FqZa)

Got it!

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 11:05 AM (nbrY/)

150 136 re Jason Riley --

VA Tech has re-invited him

http://tinyurl.com/zz95jm2

(Legal Insurrection)

We welcomed the statement this morning from Virginia Tech University's president Timothy Sands saying that the university is inviting Jason Riley to speak on campus. President Sands's decision to invite Mr. Riley reverses a disinvitation sent to Mr. Riley last week. This is very good news, and it has now been confirmed by telephone to Mr. Riley by the dean of the business school. The dean has also retracted his "open letter" statement claiming that Mr. Riley was never invited in the first place, and promised that he would make a public apology. Mr. Riley has been offered his choice of giving the BBandT lecture, which he was originally invited to present, or to speak in another venue.


Those responsible have been sacked. We apologize again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:06 AM (7qAYi)

151 Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:02 AM (lutOX)
***
See Leo Strauss, 'On Tyranny,' for a more erudite explanation of my point.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:07 AM (lutOX)

152 Sisyphus can be proud

====

for my nic I once thought of using "Bigby's Sissy Fists" as a nod to Sisyphus.

Don't google that.

/shivers

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:08 AM (Cq0oW)

153 ***"The dean has also retracted his "open letter" statement claiming that
Mr. Riley was never invited in the first place, and promised that he
would make a public apology."***


Let's see if it's a real apology, or one of those mewling, juvenile apologies my kids had learned not to offer by the age of nine.


But it's good to see a minor victory for the voice of reason, for once.</i>

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 08, 2016 11:08 AM (Wckf4)

154 That top photo looks like a shelfie.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at May 08, 2016 11:09 AM (NeFrd)

155 154 That top photo looks like a shelfie.
Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at May 08, 2016 11:09 AM (NeFrd)
***
And with that, the thread is both won and Muldooned.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:11 AM (lutOX)

156 Hey don't blame me for the short deadline, the place I subscribe too for these email alerts is notorious for dropping them on me with almost no time to react. But hey at least they are looking for positive stories right?

Oh the reviews on Bujold's Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen on Amazon are a bit brutal. Very few are giving it 5 stars. Complaints of this being a pale version of Cordelia, asking where is the action and humor, of the plot not moving, and so on are aired.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:12 AM (Giba4)

157 There were references earlier to books about the end times. (I'm too lazy to go back and copy.)

The best book on Revelations I've reading is The Returning King by Vernon Poythress. It is written from the perspective of Reformed theology, just so you know. But it really improved my understanding of Revelations.
I think it might be available as a downloadable PDF, if anyone is interested.

The recent information on Ty Cobb is completely new to me, I had been convinced he was a racist monster.
Its odd how mainstream media liars never get called out.

Posted by: Northernlurker at May 08, 2016 11:13 AM (4rzL1)

158 144 127 The sad thing is, we really DID need to integrate,
but forcing it caused harm we will never acknowledge as a society.
Because there is no going back, and it can't be fixed if you could.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 10:51 AM (Dj0WE)

Ending segregation is not what destroyed black businesses. LBJ's "Great Society" did that.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 11:01 AM (vvmPQ)


THIS^^^

Thriving Black communities, thriving Black businesses, a thriving Black Middle Class (which was growing) with strong American and religious values,,

would allow Black people to stand toe to toe with anyone else in America. And owe no man anything.

You know, "free at last" to coin a phrase.

LBJ's expressed desire was a variation on Big Brother's- (and Palpatine's)

"Imagine Black People begging and dependent forever, while they keep pulling the lever for Democrats"

Welfare blew up the Black Family in a way that they as a group have never been able to put back together.

It's a shame that America as a whole bought into LBJ's devil's bargain.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 08, 2016 11:13 AM (oU3Bb)

159 Posted by: Infidel at May 08, 2016 10:49 AM (NhVFB)



(That's supposed to be a heart)

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 11:13 AM (nbrY/)

160 And with that, the thread is both won and Muldooned.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:11 AM (lutOX)
***
Muldowned, for those who like portmanteaus.

Or is that portmanteaux? I can never remember....

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:14 AM (lutOX)

161 How does the good professor access books on the top shelves? I don't see one of those swooshy ladders on tracks and the stacks of books heaped in front of the shelves prevents good placement of a stepladder.

Maybe he shoots a grappling gun?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 11:14 AM (jR7Wy)

162 Seeing that library reminds me of a personal library I appraised a few years ago in my former life. She was a professor at Princeton & had a two-level library in her home. Many of the books were 16th-17th century books on emblems & symbolism. Aside from her computer, nothing in her home dated from past 1820. It was such a privilege to work with her & her library.

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:14 AM (7qAYi)

163 "Sirch Noob"
Now that's out of the way.

Ace and co.: How about a book thread where you use the horde's knowledge and experience to suggest some *readable* history books covering things like the Russian Revolution, Russia Pre-Revolution, Colonial history of the British Empire, South American colonization by the Spanish and the Portugese, Venice vs. the Ottoman Empire, Europe during the 100 yrs. war, etc.

There are, of course, hundreds of titles on each of these, but it's hard to know which ones are worth reading, let alone worth paying for. Perhaps some collective experience would be useful here.

Or maybe i'll get the ban hammer.

Posted by: I have concern at May 08, 2016 11:15 AM (vtWEX)

164 My only quibble with this book is that the title Please Stop Helping Us... assumes facts not in evidence, i.e. that the intent of progressive social programs is to *help* blacks.

My only quibble with your quibble is, well, the title is referencing the ostensible intent, the propagandistic subterfuge, rather than the actual Johnsonian "we'll have these n!gg@rs voting Democrat for decades" intent.

The trouble with quibbles.

Posted by: mindful webworker - quibblish at May 08, 2016 11:15 AM (gJBE5)

165 As some of you know, Oregon Muse has been posting a Saturday chess thread. It has rekindled my interest in the game which was dormant for half a century. Also, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that it was harder to concentrate for long periods of time and the possible reasons.

Tying the chess and book threads together, I am finding that studying chess is improving my ability to concentrate in other areas. I am learning chess VERY slowly (another case of interest but little talent) but this is an aspect I didn't expect and it is very welcome.

Thanks to OM for both threads.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 11:16 AM (V+03K)

166 Ending segregation is not what destroyed black businesses. LBJ's "Great Society" did that.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 11:01 AM (vvmPQ)

Bingo. 100% correct. And nobody cares.

The biggest crime of all was Johnson destroying a vibrant and growing Black middle class. College attendance was skyrocketing, income was growing, businesses were being created, two-parent families were growing.....

But Johnson needed a permanent underclass to keep voting Democrat, and he chose Blacks, because he was a fvcking racist and understood what would happen.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:17 AM (Zu3d9)

167 123 death... by TRIGGLYPUFF!
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 10:50 AM (6FqZa)

NOOOOOOOO!!!!'

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:17 AM (0mRoj)

168 Ace and co.: How about a book thread where you use the horde's knowledge and experience to suggest some *readable* history books covering things like the Russian Revolution, Russia Pre-Revolution, Colonial history of the British Empire, South American colonization by the Spanish and the Portugese, Venice vs. the Ottoman Empire, Europe during the 100 yrs. war, etc.

There are, of course, hundreds of titles on each of these, but it's hard to know which ones are worth reading, let alone worth paying for. Perhaps some collective experience would be useful here.


I'll be more than happy to contribute, as that makes up about 90% of my book collection.

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (7qAYi)

169 160 And with that, the thread is both won and Muldooned.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:11 AM (lutOX)
***
Muldowned, for those who like portmanteaus.

Or is that portmanteaux? I can never remember....
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:14 AM (lutOX)

I thought that was a dessert wine from Portugal

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (0mRoj)

170 Muldowned, for those who like portmanteaus.

Or is that portmanteaux? I can never remember....

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:14 AM (lute)


Last night, I had a delightful bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild Portmanteau with dinner.


Posted by: naturalfake at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (oU3Bb)

171
"...would allow Black people to stand toe to toe with anyone else in America. And owe no man anything."

And as Americans we'd stand toe to toe with anyone else in the world.
We can be that great again.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (MMa93)

172 The world can burn around me today, I have a happy heart. For the time being.
Posted by: Infidel at May 08, 2016 10:49 AM (NhVFB)

Your post warmed my heart. Happy mother's day, infidel!

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (P8951)

173 165 As some of you know, Oregon Muse has been posting a Saturday chess thread. It has rekindled my interest in the game which was dormant for half a century. Also, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that it was harder to concentrate for long periods of time and the possible reasons.

Tying the chess and book threads together, I am finding that studying chess is improving my ability to concentrate in other areas. I am learning chess VERY slowly (another case of interest but little talent) but this is an aspect I didn't expect and it is very welcome.

Thanks to OM for both threads.
Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 11:16 AM (V+03K)

The chess thread makes me feel like a total fucking retard.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:19 AM (0mRoj)

174 The "readable" history books thread is a great idea.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at May 08, 2016 11:19 AM (P8951)

175 How does the good professor access books on the top
shelves? I don't see one of those swooshy ladders on tracks and the
stacks of books heaped in front of the shelves prevents good placement
of a stepladder.



Maybe he shoots a grappling gun?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 11:14 AM (jR7Wy)


Like Adam West's Batman.

(saw a window-washing crew scaling around on an office building the other day (bosun-chairing?) and thought "Batman's gone plain-clothes now")

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 11:19 AM (ry34m)

176 I thought that was a dessert wine from Portugal
Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (0mRoj)
**
It's called "port," it's from California, and you mix it with Sprite to help fight off the shakes.

Jeez....It's like I don't even know you people.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:20 AM (lutOX)

177 The chess thread makes me feel like a total fucking retard.
Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:19 AM (0mRoj)

That's how I feel about the "Chutes & Ladders" thread.

Posted by: Joe Biden, Vice President at May 08, 2016 11:20 AM (7qAYi)

178 One of these days I will have to catalog and tabulate my hard copy library. And then I will finally learn if I have crossed the Rubicon to the land of 2,000+ books.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:20 AM (Giba4)

179 It's called "port," it's from California, and you mix it with Sprite to help fight off the shakes.

Jeez....It's like I don't even know you people.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:20 AM (lutOX)

Classy!

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:21 AM (0mRoj)

180 I can easily imagine All Hail Eris armed with a grappling gun, some killer boots, and an impish grin...

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:22 AM (Giba4)

181 In the divorce, I lost, among other things, an extensive library - philosophy, theology, a little literature.

I think now how true it was that she stole my soul.

Such is life.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:22 AM (lutOX)

182 Here is a list of 15 mystery genre publishers.

http://www.authorspublish.com/15-publishers-of-mystery-novels/

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:23 AM (Giba4)

183 define readable please

/history minor

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:23 AM (Cq0oW)

184 Classy!
Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:21 AM (0mRoj)
***
Not for nothing did I study with the great minds of my age.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:23 AM (lutOX)

185 Last night, I had a delightful bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild Portmanteau with dinner.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (oU3Bb)


Technically a Chateau Lafite Rothschild portmanteau would be "Costlicious"

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 11:26 AM (ry34m)

186 looking at shelf two jump out as both good and readable

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

and

God's Fury, England's Fire by Michael Braddick

very different books though

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:26 AM (Cq0oW)

187 The trouble with quibbles.
Posted by: mindful webworker - quibblish

Who put the quibbles in the quadro-triticale?

Posted by: Jinx the Cat at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (1Boes)

188 The best wine comes in jugs with screw off caps,or in a box.

Posted by: steevy at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (B48dK)

189 181 In the divorce, I lost, among other things, an extensive library - philosophy, theology, a little literature.

I think now how true it was that she stole my soul.

Such is life.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:22 AM (lutOX)

Hell of a thing. I felt more like she ripped my soul out, smashed it with a sledgehammer, ran over it with the car a couple of dozen times, then handed it back and told me to be more careful with my things.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (0mRoj)

190 Chateau Lafite Rothschild portmanteau.

I'm guessing that didn't come in a box...

Posted by: Diogenes at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (MMa93)

191 @107, OregonMuse

It's intentional. The authors were not fans of James Joyce, and were deliberately mocking his writing style.

Posted by: Luke at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (u9wAT)

192 Michael Crichton was mentioned above. Talented writer who often used his science background to develop his novels like Jurassic Park. RIP.

Recently read State of Fear (2004) where eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming. Has graphs and footnotes, two appendices, and a bibliography to refute global warming theory. In one review called "pure porn for global warming deniers."

One of the few Crichton novels that wasn't made a movie or TV show. Wonder why?

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (bQxkN)

193 "The chess thread makes me feel like a total fucking retard."

Agreed. But each week I feel a bit less retarded. If I can't have an epiphany, I'll settle for progress.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (V+03K)

194 187 The trouble with quibbles.
Posted by: mindful webworker - quibblish

Who put the quibbles in the quadro-triticale?
Posted by: Jinx the Cat at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (1Boes)

Is old Russian inwention!

Posted by: Ensign Pavel Chekov at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (0mRoj)

195 183 define readable please

/history minor
Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:23 AM (Cq0oW)

Maybe it's easier to define "unreadable" in this context. I have several translations of 19th-century histories of obscure European conflicts of the time - the Franco-Spanish War of 1820, the Miguelite War in Portugal. Plodding through the translations, and deciphering the contemporary style of writing, is not something I'd recommend to most people. But if you want to read something on the Miguelite War, it's your only choice.

Posted by: Joe Biden, Vice President at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (7qAYi)

196 Off, idiot Vice President sock!

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:29 AM (7qAYi)

197 Ending segregation is not what destroyed black businesses. LBJ's "Great Society" did that.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 11:01 AM (vvmPQ)

Bingo. 100% correct. And nobody cares.

The biggest crime of all was Johnson destroying a vibrant and growing Black middle class. College attendance was skyrocketing, income was growing, businesses were being created, two-parent families were growing.....

But Johnson needed a permanent underclass to keep voting Democrat, and he chose Blacks, because he was a fvcking racist and understood what would happen.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:17 AM (Zu3d9)


This is the problem with using the comment box to make a point. Using a word like "integration" is meant to be shorthand for "yes, and this and that and the other."


To suggest that Johnson accomplished all this by himself would be as silly as suggesting he had nothing to do with it.


Integration is and was the slowly gathering movement that exploded in the 50s, and was codified into law in the 60s. They are one and the same.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (Dj0WE)

198 It's called "port," it's from California, and you mix it with Sprite to help fight off the shakes.

Jeez....It's like I don't even know you people.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:20 AM (lutOX)


I have a gallon jug of port that I bought at Grocery Outlet for $5.00 that I have put away to mature into a fine drinking experience.

In other news, I have buried a lot of yard debris in the back yard and I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to open my own coal mine.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (ry34m)

199 OK so you're looking for books that are easier read but can still be heavy on notes, sources, etc

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (Cq0oW)

200 193 "The chess thread makes me feel like a total fucking retard."

Agreed. But each week I feel a bit less retarded. If I can't have an epiphany, I'll settle for progress.
Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (V+03K)

Fair enough. I really hate it when I work on one of the boards and can't figure it out, then the solution gets posted and it feels like I missed the glaringly obvious. Much swearing ensues. Then the self-recriminations.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (0mRoj)

201 I think you'll find the Quibbles in the pantry.

Right between the box of Kaboom and the box of Trigglypuffs.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at May 08, 2016 11:31 AM (NeFrd)

202 "I have a gallon jug of port that I bought at Grocery Outlet for $5.00 that I have put away to mature into a fine drinking experience."

I'm no oenologist, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:32 AM (0mRoj)

203 Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:27 AM (0mRoj)
***
Lost a paid-for house, peace of mind, and three perfect children, to boot.

But that's all over now, and - believe it or not - we're best of friends again.

We were two people who ought never to have married. Pro tip to the Horde: Never marry your best friend, 'cause you'll let them get away with stuff you'd never let a lover pull.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:32 AM (lutOX)

204 201 I think you'll find the Quibbles in the pantry.

Right between the box of Kaboom and the box of Trigglypuffs.
Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at May 08, 2016 11:31 AM (NeFrd)

You have an 1800 sq ft pantry?

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:32 AM (0mRoj)

205 this thick book does a good job on the complex monstrosity called The 30 Years War

http://is.gd/DmcoUK

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:33 AM (Cq0oW)

206 Thank you votermom and donna ampersand

Posted by: Infidel at May 08, 2016 11:33 AM (NhVFB)

207 Am reading "Red Rising," which has a colon after it, and something after which calls out it is part one of maybe a trilogy, which of course just about every single ebook is nowadays.

It is SF and dystopian. Can a book be both? Set in our planetary system a couple thousand years hence, the culture is called The Society, and caste is called Color. The Golds rule all and The Pinks are sex slaves, while Reds toil in underground mines on Mars, never to see the surface.

I have not read Hunger Games, but it is a lot like it from what I know.

The author might be a moron, for what his views seem to be as to the collapse of America.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at May 08, 2016 11:33 AM (U6f54)

208 181 In the divorce, I lost, among other things, an extensive library - philosophy, theology, a little literature.

I think now how true it was that she stole my soul.

Such is life.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:22 AM (lutOX)
----
On the upside, the she-demon appreciated philosophy, theology, and literature.

Want us to break in and steal it all back? I bet she keeps your soul in a crystal vial on the bedstand.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (jR7Wy)

209 And as Americans we'd stand toe to toe with anyone else in the world.
We can be that great again.
Posted by: Diogenes at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (MMa93)


Who... us?

Posted by: Triggleypuff, Brucella Jenner and Rachel Dolozel at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (Dj0WE)

210 I'm no oenologist, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.
Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:32 AM (0mRoj)
***
Bah!

Any booze becomes sublime when you realize it's the only stuff you've got, and it still beats vanilla extract.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (lutOX)

211 "I have a gallon jug of port that I bought at Grocery Outlet for $5.00 that I have put away to mature into a fine drinking experience."



I'm no oenologist, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.



Depending on how desperate you are for alcohol. Like Einstein once said, "Everything is relative."

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (ezF4O)

212 Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:32 AM (lutOX)

I certainly have no intention of ever marrying again. I basically live as a recluse now anyway, so not much risk of falling into that trap anyway.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (0mRoj)

213 The comment on hierarchy reminds me of a comment I made some years back. Glad Bookworm sees it, too. Perhaps we should ask people where they stand in the Equality Hierarchy. But the irony would be lost on true believers.

Liberals dine out on the black/ white narrative, and are ramping up the hispanic/ white narrative-- but aside from Manzanar, they won't touch Asian issues.

I realized years ago, that liberals do not believe in equality in any way, shape or form. When you hear a liberal say the world "equality," what follows afterward is going to be a straight-up, bald-faced lie.

What they DO believe in, is an insanely structured hierarchy which is almost never openly discussed. You can usually only learn about the hierarchy when you find instances where one group arbitrarily "trumps" another.

Here are some real-life examples:

Child Protective Services is supposed to investigate instances of child molestation. And special-needs children are, of course, more important than regular children. However, if you are a special-needs child being molested by your mentally-retarded father... sorry, kid. The liberals have to accommodate your father first, by not making parenthood too hard for him. They will not allow the health department to investigate claims that there is rotting food and vermin in your house, either. Because fairness.

If you are black, that makes you special. But not as special as Native Americans. If you are a black teenager impregnated by a Native American, the tribe will take your baby, no matter how hard your parents fight for you to be able to keep it. The baby will be taken from you at the hospital, because this fits a white liberal judge's idea of the benevolent Great White Father reparations. Because racism.

If you are a lesbian, that makes you special. But not as special as a mentally-ill black man. If a mentally-ill black man starts screaming obscenities at your family and makes a rush for your kids, you will be arrested when you use your legal firearm to defend your family. Because racism.

Posted by: cameo_appearance at May 08, 2016 11:35 AM (R8yKQ)

214 205 this thick book does a good job on the complex monstrosity called The 30 Years War

http://is.gd/DmcoUK
Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 11:33 AM (Cq0oW)

I second that recommendation. I recently finished reading it.

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:35 AM (7qAYi)

215 The Society, and caste is called Color. The Golds rule all and The Pinks are sex slaves, while Reds toil in underground mines on Mars, never to see the surface.

****


Let me guess. The Blues are all musicians.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at May 08, 2016 11:35 AM (NeFrd)

216 Maybe it's easier to define "unreadable" in this context. I have several translations of 19th-century histories of obscure European conflicts of the time - the Franco-Spanish War of 1820, the Miguelite War in Portugal. Plodding through the translations, and deciphering the contemporary style of writing, is not something I'd recommend to most people. But if you want to read something on the Miguelite War, it's your only choice.

Posted by: Joe Biden, Vice President at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (7qAYi)


Joe, bless your heart, I think 'Good Night Moon' would be unreadably obscure for you.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:36 AM (J6NRq)

217 Want us to break in and steal it all back? I bet she keeps your soul in a crystal vial on the bedstand.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (jR7Wy)
***
Not too long ago, she was bitching because she couldn't read half of it, and had no idea what to do with most of it.

I said, "You wanted it; you're stuck with it. Maybe learn Greek and Russian and German?"

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:36 AM (lutOX)

218 On a related note, I had two otherwise intelligent black men this week telling me about how George Bush used a tactical nuke to bring down the WTC.

Why?

War profits, man. Pay attention!

So yeah, I think we're doomed.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:36 AM (Dj0WE)

219 Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (Dj0WE)

Ending legal segregation was the moral thing to do.

Forcing integration while destroying middle class Black America is a very different thing.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:36 AM (Zu3d9)

220 Good morning, what's left of it. A quick comment before I read the rest of the comments: Christopher Taylor, I read Life Unworthy, and did enjoy it. I was reading during a long travel/flying weekend, so didn't take notes, but I will read again. There are some editing matters I want to pass on to you, and I also want to review it. Will try to do that this week.

Good story, though!

Posted by: April at May 08, 2016 11:37 AM (79ZSg)

221 Posted by: Skandia Recluse at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (ezF4O)
***
Hail, fellow well-met!

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:37 AM (lutOX)

222 192 One of the few Crichton novels that wasn't made a movie or TV show. Wonder why?

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 08, 2016 11:28 AM (bQxkN)

You should read the comments on the Amazon book that have been hate bombed by the liberals.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 11:37 AM (vvmPQ)

223 Depending on how desperate you are for alcohol. Like Einstein once said, "Everything is relative."
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at May 08, 2016 11:34 AM (ezF4O)

I once stood in line in the grocery store behind two guys who were buying hand sanitizer for the expressed purpose of getting drunk off it. Good times.

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:38 AM (7qAYi)

224 One can tell how 'honest' the Left is about history in how Wilberforce is all but forgotten by them.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:38 AM (Giba4)

225 Fair enough. I really hate it when I work on one of the boards and can't figure it out, then the solution gets posted and it feels like I missed the glaringly obvious. Much swearing ensues. Then the self-recriminations.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (0mRoj)


So, do you think you will ever get to the point where this no longer happens to you?

Dude, I've been playing chess for a half century, and that has never stopped happening. Yes, I can work more problems than I used to, but there's always something I don't know, positions that are obscure to me, and things I need to learn.

I still say "huh?" a lot.

But let me encourage you: You need to practice, practice, practice. And if you don't get stumped, it means you're not thinking. This means you need to fail a lot.

You need to embrace the suck.

You know, I think I'll make that the motto of the chess thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:41 AM (J6NRq)

226 224 One can tell how 'honest' the Left is about history in how Wilberforce is all but forgotten by them.
Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:38 AM (Giba4)

It ruins their bullshit narrative that slavery was invented and perpetrated by rich white Christian men for arguably the greatest abolitionist in history to have been a rich white Christian man.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:41 AM (0mRoj)

227 Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:38 AM (Giba4)

He was one of those yucky Christians, so he can be safely ignored.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:42 AM (Zu3d9)

228 224 One can tell how 'honest' the Left is about history in how Wilberforce is all but forgotten by them.
Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:38 AM (Giba4)
***
Him, I'll never forget.

Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, the great chronicler of the 20's.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:42 AM (lutOX)

229 Happy Parasite Day!

Posted by: Planned Parenthood at May 08, 2016 11:42 AM (ImLO6)

230 But let me encourage you: You need to practice, practice, practice. And if you don't get stumped, it means you're not thinking. This means you need to fail a lot.

You need to embrace the suck.

You know, I think I'll make that the motto of the chess thread.
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:41 AM (J6NRq)


I appreciate the encouragement. And that would be the perfect motto for the chess thread.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:43 AM (0mRoj)

231 Not too long ago, she was bitching because she couldn't read half of it, and had no idea what to do with most of it.

I said, "You wanted it; you're stuck with it. Maybe learn Greek and Russian and German?"

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:36 AM (lutOX)


Can't you just ask her to give them back to you?

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:43 AM (J6NRq)

232 Kinda have to respect the way that professor hides his hording malady under the guise of a "library".

Posted by: Sharkman at May 08, 2016 11:43 AM (CS7jF)

233 Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:41 AM (0mRoj)

This is one of the maddening and glorious things about The Horde.

I will think something, post a comment, and 99% of the time one of you maniacs has already said it.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:44 AM (Zu3d9)

234 229 Happy Parasite Day!
Posted by: Planned Parenthood at May 08, 2016 11:42 AM (ImLO6)
**
And here I'd been calling it 'punishment day' all these years.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:44 AM (lutOX)

235 Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:30 AM (Dj0WE)

Ending legal segregation was the moral thing to do.

Forcing integration while destroying middle class Black America is a very different thing.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:36 AM (Zu3d9)


I don't know how you separate the two. It's like today, you can say both that blacks are unfairly targeted by overzealous cops, AND we need to have a police force that is able and willing to enforce the law, as it is written.


If 20-30 years from now, there are no-go zones in the cities, we can blame it all on blacks who decided to live in lawless communities, AND we can also talk about policy that led to the police pulling out.


They are one and the same. Different focal points, same overall movement.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:45 AM (Dj0WE)

236
Can't you just ask her to give them back to you?
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:43 AM (J6NRq)
***
No.

We're divorced. I'm past asking her for anything.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:45 AM (lutOX)

237 215 The Society, and caste is called Color. The Golds rule all and The Pinks are sex slaves, while Reds toil in underground mines on Mars, never to see the surface.
****
Let me guess. The Blues are all musicians.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at May 08, 2016 11:35 AM (NeFrd)


And I would have thought the Pinks would be, well, you-know-who.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:46 AM (J6NRq)

238 But what if a Pink self-identifies as a Gold?

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:47 AM (Giba4)

239 Wouldn't the Pinks be the pop stars?

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:48 AM (0mRoj)

240 I once stood in line in the grocery store behind two guys who were buying hand sanitizer for the expressed purpose of getting drunk off it. Good times.
Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:38 AM (7qAYi)


I find it hard to believe that hand sanitizer is cheaper than rotgut booze. Maybe it is.


I know a guy who had a relative die from drinking aftershave or eating deodorant. I forget which. Good times indeed.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:48 AM (Dj0WE)

241 This is one of the maddening and glorious things about The Horde.

I will think something, post a comment, and 99% of the time one of you maniacs has already said it.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:44 AM (Zu3d9)

Happens to the best of us.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:49 AM (0mRoj)

242 Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:45 AM (Dj0WE)

The desegregation movement was hijacked by progressives who saw it as an opportunity to increase dependence on government and punish those who were not sufficiently accepting of the new order.

The desegregation movement had many more supporters than did forced integration.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 11:49 AM (Zu3d9)

243
And I would have thought the Pinks would be, well, you-know-who.
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:46 AM (J6NRq)
***
Lavenders. You're thinking of the Lavenders.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:50 AM (lutOX)

244 *snickers*

Write your own Game of Thrones style story in just a few easy steps.

http://www.ufunk.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/selection-du-weekend-191-73.jpg

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM (Giba4)

245 I find it hard to believe that hand sanitizer is cheaper than rotgut booze. Maybe it is.


I know a guy who had a relative die from drinking aftershave or eating deodorant. I forget which. Good times indeed.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:48 AM (Dj0WE)
***
If the alky is in a dry county, or is otherwise caught short - think Sunday morning - he is apt to do things that, on reflection, seem unwise.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM (lutOX)

246 244 *snickers*

Write your own Game of Thrones style story in just a few easy steps.

http://www.ufunk.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/selection-du-weekend-191-73.jpg
Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM (Giba4)

They left out the incest and floppy wieners.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 08, 2016 11:52 AM (0mRoj)

247 Jumping the shark: I'm not making this one up, either, "Pounded in the Butt by Chuck Tingle's Hugo" by, heh, 'Tuck Chingle.'

It's keeps getting sillier and sillier.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 11:53 AM (J6NRq)

248 Insomniac, sounds like you are primed and ready to write that story then. Go for it.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:55 AM (Giba4)

249 I am extremely perturbed that not a single one of you bastards warned me not to read "Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace.

Well, I didn't actually read the whole thing, because it was so abysmally boring and irritating that I stopped after about 100 pages and skipped around to the end. That too was singularly unsatisfying.

I will have my revenge.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 08, 2016 09:45 AM (Zu3d9)



I'm a huge fan of the big comic novels of the 50's, 60's, 70's (so much so that I've written a moron friendly one for release soon).

"Infinite Jest" was supposed to be a return to that, but like you, I couldn't get into it. I may try again, but for right now...meh.

I think it was one of those New York literary log-rolling things, where you could show your intellectual bona fides by "reading" (ie. leaving on your table for everyone to see) it.


The one log-rolling big comic novel coming out of that scene, that I thought lived up to the praise was "Gravity's Rainbow" when I read it years ago.

Give it a shot. It's definitely not for everyone but if you can dig it's weird scientific WWII absurdist vibe, it's pretty good if not a laugh riot. Not heavily plotted and no real ending though (more of an intellectual summation of Pynchon's view of life through the "action")

Strangely enough, Don DeLillo put out a somewhat similar novel about the same time (when he was writing comic novels- before he believed his press)
called "Ratner's Star", which garnered a lot of hate as a "Gravity's Rainbow"-manque,

but I enjoyed it a lot. It's a more fun read than GR.

Guess I'll reread that one and see if my opinion still stands up.

Anyway, if you haven't tried either one, give'em a shot.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 08, 2016 11:56 AM (oU3Bb)

250 All Hail Eris #161: How does the good professor access books on the top shelves? I don't see one of those swooshy ladders on tracks and the stacks of books heaped in front of the shelves prevents good placement of a stepladder.
Maybe he shoots a grappling gun?


I see a market here for those little drone-copters with camera and grasping arms.

*lightbulb* Hey, they could be used to automatically inventory the shelves, too!

Posted by: mindful webworker - entrepreneurotic at May 08, 2016 11:56 AM (gJBE5)

251 I know a guy who had a relative die from drinking aftershave or eating deodorant. I forget which. Good times indeed.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:48 AM (Dj0WE)
***
If the alky is in a dry county, or is otherwise caught short - think Sunday morning - he is apt to do things that, on reflection, seem unwise.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM (lutOX)


Or in a treatment facility.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:57 AM (Dj0WE)

252 235 If 20-30 years from now, there are no-go zones in
the cities, we can blame it all on blacks who decided to live in lawless
communities, AND we can also talk about policy that led to the
police pulling out.





They are one and the same. Different focal points, same overall movement.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 11:45 AM (Dj0WE)

Funny you should say that. This is one of my links in the EMT:

16
A black member of the Civil Rights Commission has sent a letter to the
Senate who is considering that BS sentencing reform bill warning them
that letting black felons go free early will increase black on black
crime in urban neighborhoods. Just a little bit of common sense from a
Bush appointee. But will they listen in the age of Obama?


http://bit.ly/1Nngkqx

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 11:57 AM (vvmPQ)

253 Lavenders. You're thinking of the Lavenders.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:50 AM (lutOX)


And they are mauve-lous

Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 11:57 AM (ry34m)

254 Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM

And then there is the season finale where the beloved character apparently dies . . .
. . .quits the show. . .
. . . forced off the show. . .
. . .goes into extended contract negotiations. . .


and next season is back. They did that three times (or more) on Warehouse 13.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at May 08, 2016 11:58 AM (ezF4O)

255 Fox is promoting gerry river's el chapo story. He's going to get to the bottom (I thought he was already there) of the story. I guess a drug dealer who's sampling his wares fixates on a television star. Brilliant!!!
A wastoid criminal thinking with his dick takes his eye off his bidness and gets caught. Unbelievable Gerry! Probably never happened in the history of drug dealing!!!

Posted by: Hadoop, the undickish at May 08, 2016 12:02 PM (2X7pN)

256 I see a market here for those little drone-copters with camera and grasping arms.

More properly called quad-paper-shredders. I wonder how many of those books were ever even opened by him.

Posted by: t-bird at May 08, 2016 12:03 PM (eeTCA)

257 If the alky is in a dry county, or is otherwise caught short - think Sunday morning - he is apt to do things that, on reflection, seem unwise
.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM (lute)



Hey! Over here!

Posted by: Sterno at May 08, 2016 12:03 PM (oU3Bb)

258 406 Hi 'rons,

I'm looking for good books on the history of surveillance; mostly the NSA, but I'll happily take information about other agencies too.

Also, conventions and practice of modern espionage. There's some wiggle room in "modern" of course, as I don't know what timeframe's practices have mostly been declassified by relevant agencies. I'm just looking to get a general sense of what it consists of in the modern era.

Posted by: Yuge is the word at May 08, 2016 12:05 PM (KLuJ6)

259 Cloward and Piven were notorious professors who developed a political strategy in 1966 to overload the welfare system to create a fiscal crisis to start the Revolution. Their campaign -- basically telling Blacks they'd be better off going on welfare than working -- helped drive up NYC welfare rolls substantially which contributed to NYC's 1970s fiscal crises. Giuliani cut welfare rolls substantially, which benefited everyone, which was copied by Bill Clinton on the federal level.

Cloward taught at Columbia so I've often wondered if Obama took any of his courses.

Cloward was also the brainchild behind Motor Voter laws.

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 08, 2016 12:06 PM (bQxkN)

260 For those who have trouble figuring out chess problems (I'm leader of that pack) with the naturally ensuing cussing etc., I think of baseball. Unless you are Ted Williams, most hitters are lucky to hit one out of four. And these are the major leaguers. Helps me keep my perspective, at least a little. :-) Having this attitude would have been helpful a few decades earlier.

Posted by: JTB at May 08, 2016 12:08 PM (V+03K)

261 So much to comment on

portmanteau is correct, and uniform item on some Napoleoic uniforms

Getting to the top shelf? Drones of course

And if you like bizarre alcohol stories look into Russian military history any era, they will drink anything to get a buzz, Anything.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:09 PM (3wHFl)

262 If you are black, that makes you special. But not as special as Native Americans. If you are a black teenager impregnated by a Native American, the tribe will take your baby, no matter how hard your parents fight for you to be able to keep it. The baby will be taken from you at the hospital, because this fits a white liberal judge's idea of the benevolent Great White Father reparations. Because racism.

If you are a lesbian, that makes you special. But not as special as a mentally-ill black man. If a mentally-ill black man starts screaming obscenities at your family and makes a rush for your kids, you will be arrested when you use your legal firearm to defend your family. Because racism.

Posted by: cameo_appearance at May 08, 2016 11:35 AM (R8yKQ)


It would be easier if they just published the hierarchy, so the rules would be right there in front of us, and we wouldn't have to bicker over 'oo trumps 'oo.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 12:09 PM (J6NRq)

263 "if the alky is in a dry county, or is otherwise caught short"

wikipedia Kitty Dukakis
In 1989, Dukakis was briefly hospitalized after drinking rubbing alcohol.

Posted by: huh? at May 08, 2016 12:10 PM (CRXed)

264 Posted by: Yuge is the word at May 08, 2016 12:05 PM (KLuJ6)

Check out a few suggestion here

http://www.bookhorde.org/2016/03/read-like-spy-CI-list.html

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 12:10 PM (nbrY/)

265 And if you like bizarre alcohol stories look into Russian military history any era, they will drink anything to get a buzz, Anything.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:09 PM (3wHFl)


But if they can find something to drink *and* use for tank fuel, that earns them a promotion, I think.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 08, 2016 12:10 PM (J6NRq)

266 @8 True, but Burns' "Jazz" series is being re-run and I really am enjoying it.

Posted by: doug at May 08, 2016 09:12 AM (b5WEh)


It's enjoyable because of the music, and all the performances included in it. The "message" is mostly subdued.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 08, 2016 12:10 PM (9AT3L)

267 Actually the top shelf would be easy to get to from the walk way (without any railing tsk, tsk) but the ship ladder is filled with books.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:12 PM (3wHFl)

268 "which was copied by Bill Clinton on the federal level."

Which was forced on Bill Clinton to keep from getting removed from office.

That's also why John Glenn got to be the oldest man in earth orbit so far.

Posted by: huh? at May 08, 2016 12:12 PM (CRXed)

269
About to start my semi-annual re-reading of Absalom! Absalom! and the Book of Ecclesiastes.

I try to read these two works at least twice a year.

Posted by: Uncle Palpatine at May 08, 2016 10:27 AM (lutOX)

===========================================

I have to admit that Ecclesiastes is one of my least favorite books of the Bible. A couple of years ago I went through a preaching series on Ecclesiastes. I thought it would never end. Just on, and on, and on. The whole thing makes me want to skip ahead to the Book of Revelation and be done with it all.

Posted by: grammie winger at May 08, 2016 12:12 PM (dFi94)

270 Russian military and booze?

IIRC in Belenko's MiG Pilot, in the Far East the troops would imbibe the alcohol that was supposed to cool the MiG-25's radar for personal use.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 12:13 PM (Giba4)

271 Hey now, crass to stress this point, but do I get an asterisk in the AOSHQ Style Guide for "muldooned"? I see that Palpatine used it above.


Wasn't sure, but I thought I coined it just yesterday. Like "willowed", but obviously to mean a thread had been ruined/derailed/saved/enhanced by an outbreak of punning, usually started by you-know-who.


I think Seamus hisself can back me up on this. Or correct me.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 08, 2016 12:13 PM (QDnY+)

272 In the Napoleoic age any thing from lamp oil or external medicinal to mechanical era vehicals fluids or meat fermented concoctions. It's endless what I've come across.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:15 PM (3wHFl)

273 Continuing my apocalypse reading phase. On the second book in the Undead World Series by Peter Meredith. So far, pretty engaging and good. Apparently there has been some controversy about racial issues in the series. After reading the first book, I don't thing he's a racist so much as accurately portraying the characters IMHO. There are some great books in the genre, there are a LOT meh! ones, and quite a few awful ones. I probably start about 6-7 books and quit them after a few chapters between the good ones/series I read completely. I really like the authors Joshua Guess, Justin Cronin, Vince Milam, and James Cook in this genre.

Posted by: lindafell de spair at May 08, 2016 12:15 PM (xVgrA)

274 And they are mauve-lous
Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 11:57 AM (ry34m)
---
But rather puce-illanimous unless plied with cheap red.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 12:16 PM (jR7Wy)

275 "But if they can find something to drink *and* use for tank fuel"

A hydraulic system in one of their tanks used pure alcohol for fluid according to one of the USSR defectors who wrote a book. I've read at least two (GRU and Soviet pilot) a long time ago. I think it was the GRU guy.

Posted by: huh? at May 08, 2016 12:17 PM (CRXed)

276 Anna, I recall that too about Belenko's book.


Didn't spend as much time there after the demise of glorious Soviet power as before, but alcoholism in Russia was/is a phenomenon most people can't really grasp here. It's far beyond anything one sees in western societies.


Of course it was (is?) part of a complex of social pathologies intertwined with history and horrendous governance stretching back into the mists of time. And part of the witch's brew that created the first falling male life expectancy in an industrial society ever seen (as first detected by the eccentric demographic sleuth Murray Feshbach back in the 80s).

Posted by: rhomboid at May 08, 2016 12:17 PM (QDnY+)

277 259 which was copied by Bill Clinton on the federal level.



Cloward taught at Columbia so I've often wondered if Obama took any of his courses.



Cloward was also the brainchild behind Motor Voter laws.

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 08, 2016 12:06 PM (bQxkN)

That Clinton pushed that welfare reform then is on outright lie generated by the MFM. It was a product of the Newt Gingrich Republican congress. Clinton vetoed it twice before it was finally passed over his veto when Newt rounded up enough Democrat votes for it.

The Motor Voter law was a so-called Republican Compromise to get a law requiring purging the voter rolls every four years of felons and people who had not voted in two because dead.
And like all Republican sell-outs called a compromise the motor voter when forward and the purging of voter rolls NEVER occurs in Democrat districts.

And the so-called welfare reform wound up being a fake anyway. All it did was shift payout of welfare from the adults to the children of the adults for a net gain of zero.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 12:18 PM (vvmPQ)

278 I really could have used Seamus's help on the Kentucky derby thread

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:18 PM (3wHFl)

279 267 Actually the top shelf would be easy to get to from the walk way (without any railing tsk, tsk) but the ship ladder is filled with books.
Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:12 PM (3wHFl)
---
You will note stacks of books clogging up the walkway.

I love this prof and feel we are kindred spirits.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 12:18 PM (jR7Wy)

280 IIRC in Belenko's MiG Pilot, in the Far East the troops would imbibe the alcohol that was supposed to cool the MiG-25's radar for personal use.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 12:13 PM (Giba4)




Somewhere, long ago, I read an account of American PT boat crews making a drink called "Pink Lady" from a fluid associated with torpedo tubes.

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 12:19 PM (GUBah)

281 Word is he holds grad classes in his gorgeous library.

The permanently mounted webcams under the tables must be the one concession to modernity

Posted by: derit at May 08, 2016 12:20 PM (OC+TJ)

282 "if 20-30 years from now, there are no-go zones in
the cities"

You mean more no-go zones. The no-go zones might get cleaned up if their locations were allowed to be printed on maps and handed out to tourist.

Posted by: huh? at May 08, 2016 12:20 PM (CRXed)

283 Russia has to drain public fountains on Paratrooper Day so no drunks wind up drowning themselves.

http://tinyurl.com/lldq5ke

Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 12:20 PM (7qAYi)

284 Posted by: Josephistan at May 08, 2016 11:18 AM (7qAYi)

Both readable and well researched, the post 1990 edition of Robert Conquest's , The Great Terror. It has been called by many the definitive work on Stalin's purges. I have linked an Amazon review only to ensure the revised version for anyone interested in getting this.

Is this along the lines of what you were thinking?

http://tinyurl.com/z6j7hvr

Posted by: gracepc at May 08, 2016 12:21 PM (OU4q6)

285
It would be easier if they just published the hierarchy, so the rules would be right there in front of us, and we wouldn't have to bicker over 'oo trumps 'oo.
Posted by: OregonMuse


The hierarchy is like the constitution, i.e. "living."

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at May 08, 2016 12:22 PM (k4M/B)

286 Country Singer, the Russian example is ever more galling if another part of Belenko's book is to be believed. When people complained to MiG about the alcohol for the radar, MiG replied if they wanted to cool the radar with brandy they would.

There is a difference between making moonshine and Russian/Soviet indifference.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 12:23 PM (Giba4)

287 280 Somewhere, long ago, I read an account of American
PT boat crews making a drink called "Pink Lady" from a fluid associated
with torpedo tubes.

Posted by: Country Singer at May 08, 2016 12:19 PM (GUBah)

Torpedo fuel was actually 100% (200 proof) grain alcohol for a long time on up through the 60s. The Navy tried to keep sailors from drinking it by adding something to it that would make you sick. But sailors managed to develop a way of filtering that out by straining it through bread.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 12:23 PM (vvmPQ)

288 You say you want Russian drinking and books?

Well step right up and read:


"Moscow to the End of the Line"

by Venedikt Erofeev


This is a pretty damn funny (Russian style) picaresque novel about

our hero riding the subway that runs around Moscow as he tries to drink down bottles of all of the 13 official Soviet vodkas (Pertsovka, Zubrovka, Starka, etc).

This was a Soviet era samizdat novel that finally got smuggled out to the West and published.

Being Russian there's a fair amount of bathos and pathos along with the humor, however-

unlike many Russian novels, it's short and to the point.

Give it a whirl.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 08, 2016 12:24 PM (oU3Bb)

289 "but alcoholism in Russia was/is a phenomenon most people can't really grasp here. It's far beyond anything one sees in western societies."

The same or worse 200 years ago if what I read is correct. Self medicating to get through a harsh life. Royal Navy cut rum ration in 1970. Bet sailors still drink so they effectively got a pay cut.

Posted by: huh? at May 08, 2016 12:25 PM (CRXed)

290 Just finished Larry McMurtry'"Book", about his 50-plus year career as an antiquarian bookseller.
It was a slog, but an amazing look at this obscure little world of fanatics.

McMurtry's Booked Up store in his native Archer City (Last Picture Show, Texasville) was shrunk down but still going strong with 200,000 books.

Posted by: La Frontera at May 08, 2016 12:27 PM (umzyu)

291 Word is he holds grad classes in his gorgeous library.
-----------------------------
The permanently mounted webcams under the tables must be the one concession to modernity
Posted by: derit at May 08, 2016 12:20 PM (OC+TJ)


Webcams mounted under the tables?? Is that a thing?


Good grief, next thing you'll tell me there are webcams mounted in the restroom stalls. Where does the learning end...

Posted by: BurtTC at May 08, 2016 12:28 PM (Dj0WE)

292
The no-go zones might get cleaned up if their locations were allowed to be printed on maps and handed out to tourist.
Posted by: huh?


Didn't someone have a smart phone app which showed no-go zones? There was such a big stink that it was dropped if memory serves correctly.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at May 08, 2016 12:28 PM (k4M/B)

293 Be warned, new thread is up.

CBD has dropped the math on us.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 08, 2016 12:31 PM (Giba4)

294 Actually Vic I think welfare reform was quite successful, as such (rare) kinds of reforms go.


Whatever success it had was undone with the "stroke of a pen" (or its administrative equivalent) early in the first term of the affirmative action empty suit, however.


Which provoked a storm of ..... no, wait, like every other awful thing happening, there wasn't any reaction at all.


One of the prime (yet invisible) examples of the damage done to both rule of law and "welfare" of citizens by the current reign of idiocy in the US (this term encompasses most actors of both parties, BTW).

Posted by: rhomboid at May 08, 2016 12:31 PM (QDnY+)

295 I'm looking for good books on the history of
surveillance; mostly the NSA, but I'll happily take information about
other agencies too.



Also, conventions and practice of modern espionage. There's some
wiggle room in "modern" of course, as I don't know what timeframe's
practices have mostly been declassified by relevant agencies. I'm just
looking to get a general sense of what it consists of in the modern era.
Posted by: Yuge is the word at May 08, 2016 12:05 PM (KLuJ6)


Basic introductory? Michael Kurland, The Spymasters' Handbook.
Basic history from the middle ages on up to cold war, terms, technology, methods, and mindset.

Too big to be a bathroom book, to wordy to be a coffee table book, too brief to be a text, but easily read and well rounded.

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/0816013144


Posted by: Kindltot at May 08, 2016 12:34 PM (ry34m)

296 In honor of Mother's Day, let me rant a bit about my own. She was a 'beatnik' who kept us kids away from TV. She volunteered at the Library -- and then served on the board for 30+ years. Mom demanded that I give her my favorite books; and I never saw them again because she passed them on to her friends. Of her friends, one died recently -- a 99-yo public health nurse -- who loved romance novels. I miss Mom, but I also miss her friends. The old lady would send an email out of the blue about some scientific study and in the same email send those realistic romance novel covers with the pudgy people and have me laughing for weeks.

My Mom and Dad had a corner off the living room floor to ceiling books and bookshelves. Once a year we would be summoned to winnow it down. Just before she died, she gave up her Science Fiction hate to demand that I get rid of my clutter and only give her good condition SF for another of her friends.

Miss her tremendously. She liked Dickens and Swift and I liked Austen and Pope and our discussions about style and methods were epic. Bless you Mom (and Dad).

Posted by: mustbequantum at May 08, 2016 12:49 PM (MIKMs)

297 I love this prof and feel we are kindred spirits.
All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 12:18 PM

I doubt it, there is a extremely good chance he is a Marxist

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:50 PM (3wHFl)

298 What is the right age to give a young male a copy of Flashman? I gave mine to my kid brother when he was 16 and then he read all of them.

Most of my knowledge of 19th century British history comes from Flashman novels.

Forcing 16-year old boys to read Jane Austen is a hate crime.

Posted by: Ignoramus at May 08, 2016 12:52 PM (bQxkN)

299 294
Actually Vic I think welfare reform was quite successful, as such (rare) kinds of reforms go.


Posted by: rhomboid at May 08, 2016 12:31 PM (QDnY+)



I don't see how, there are more people collecting welfare and food stamps (now called EBT) than at any other time in the history of the nation.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 08, 2016 12:52 PM (vvmPQ)

300 The ladder in the picture I would term a Ships ladder, it has steps as opposed to rungs

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 12:54 PM (3wHFl)

301 if still interested in readable history

a fun one eris among others would like. is Lipstick Traces by Greil Markus

excellent book

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 12:56 PM (Cq0oW)

302 Forcing 16-year old boys to read Jane Austen is a hate crime. Posted by: Ignoramus at May 08, 2016 12:52 PM (bQxkN)
=====

LOL. I agree and I think absolutely that she singlehandedly invented the modern novel.

Posted by: mustbequantum at May 08, 2016 01:20 PM (MIKMs)

303 a fun one eris among others would like. is Lipstick Traces by Greil Markus

excellent book
Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 08, 2016 12:56 PM (Cq0oW)
---
My stoopid library system doesn't have it, and the Kindle version is twenty bucks(!!).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at May 08, 2016 01:23 PM (jR7Wy)

304 Finished "The Blight Way" by Patrick McManus recommended last week. I'll go ahead and read the rest of the series.

Posted by: gingeroni at May 08, 2016 01:27 PM (0oJ9U)

305 285: Yes it is very much like the Atlas Shrugged world of Ayn Rand. The state wanted you to be in violation of some law so you would be afraid and compliant (Rand) Progressives want you to be uncertain of the hierarchies so that even those who would be safe by normal hierarchy rules will be afraid to kick up a fuss over the latest "you will say that a man + artificial hormones and some surgery equals a very oppressed minority status woman" whose rights not to feel oppressed by having to use the private any gender bathroom trumps any concerns over safety of wimmen and children unlike when we say we have to curtail your 2nd amendment rights "even it saves one child" or make cars twice as expensive with mandated safety features etc etc.


On actual books. Started reading CTL-ALT-DEL. OMG, LOL author nailed the internet practice of folks "analyzing" images to say this or that surely happened in the opening sequence of the book describing the reality wedding show TV starlet having sex with a secondary character to set up the books premise. "we can show their was no condom" but other armchair analyzers believed they could detect evidence of vasectomy scars. Then the next set of episodes is downloaded with the starlet finding she is pregnant and deciding to abort because it will ruin the marriage to the star and the AI deciding it needs to terminate humanity first before humanity realizes it exists and decides an AI is inconvenient or dangerous. I'm not sure I'll totally enjoy the novel since the gaming aspect is totally foreign to me but seems there will be lots of entertaining bits.

Posted by: PaleRider at May 08, 2016 01:39 PM (wYRTH)

306 183: as to the "readable"/"unreadable" question lemme throw out some examples of "unreabable"/ hardly worth the effort:

Fire and Blood (A history of Mexico) by T.R. Fehrenbach (way too non specific speculation on pre-historic mexico, too much psycho-analyis--almost feels like you are not entertained AND not learning anything)
Four Ball One Tracer by Rolf van Heerden as told to Andrew Hudson (just not as good as I hoped from the kick-ass title)
Winston Churchill as I Knew Him by Violet Bonham-Carter (ugh)
Russia and the Golden Horde by Charles J Halperin (Assigned to me in college and I never read it. Picked it up a couple of months ago while packing some boxes and thought I'd give it a go. It's just a slog, tough to even get rolling. Seems sadly typical of history books assigned as reading in college, to me, anyway)
The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes (takes what I think might be a really interesting subject and makes it super boring and whiny)
These are the five that jumped to mind but they make a good list of examples.

Now for some very readable examples which I thoroughly enjoyed (forgive my inexact details it has been a while and most of these books are packed up in boxes currently).

Keegan's First and Second World War books.
--Some history book about the British Navy in the Age of Sail (which i think refrences O'Brien's books in the title) *very helpful, I know*
The Guns of August (Tuchman)
The Proud Tower (Tuchman)
Steel Bonnets and Quartered Safe out Here (George MacDonald Fraser)
The Other Greeks (V. D. Hanson)
Some Survived (Manny Lawton)
Beyond Courage (Dorothy Cave)
Empire of the Summer Moon (S.C. Gwynne)
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (Shirer)

To my thinking, it would be helpful to have History Books as the main subject of the book thread (just once), as it would also help focus the comments section a little and we might all get some useful recommendations.

Posted by: I have concern at May 08, 2016 01:42 PM (vtWEX)

307 argghh grammer. There was no condom. Now off to ride where it typos and lack of proof reading skills will not be a problem.

Posted by: PaleRider at May 08, 2016 01:44 PM (wYRTH)

308 By the way I'm doing my third book giveaway, this time for the novel Snowberry's Veil! You can win a signed, print copy of the fantasy story at Goodreads, just sign up:

http://tinyurl.com/zrneen6

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 08, 2016 01:45 PM (39g3+)

309
This week reading "Generation Kill", Evan Wright.

Too early to comment, but so far it is interesting. The writer was an embedded journalist ( Marine 1st Recon Battalion) during Desert Storm, and so the perspective is different than it would be if it were a GI's memoirs or a compiled account composed of records and/or personal recollections.

One of the great differences from most accounts is that Wright spends a LOT of time observing and reflecting on individual personalities. For the most part he seems even handed, and makes fairly insightful comments regarding personalities and interactions.

I'll grace you with a short excerpt. The scene is Wright's first meeting with the platoon corpsman:

"... he approaches with tight grin and shakes my hand. 'So you came here for a war, huh? You like war'? He continues to squeeze my hand, then puts his face about eight inches in front of mine and stares with unblinking, electric blue eyes. His smile begins to twitch. 'I hope you have fun in this war, reporter'.

He releases my hand and smacks my shoulder. 'I'm just fucking you, that's all. No harm'. He walks off laughing."

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc. etc. at May 08, 2016 02:50 PM (OLNwX)

310 I agree and I think absolutely that she singlehandedly invented the modern novel.
Posted by: mustbequantum
---------------

Romance novel.
Though that isn't to take anything away from her.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc. etc. at May 08, 2016 02:53 PM (OLNwX)

311 305 On actual books. Started reading CTL-ALT-DEL.
--------

CTRL-ALT-REVOLT!

I think...?

Posted by: Reboot at May 08, 2016 02:56 PM (OLNwX)

312 What is the right age to give a young male a copy of Flashman? I gave mine to my kid brother when he was 16 and then he read all of them.

15-16 works; I was about 16 too. My dad pushed them on me before that, but since he'd lost the first two in the series I waited until I could find those before I got into his collection. Glad I did.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 03:15 PM (6FqZa)

313 I have to admit that Ecclesiastes is one of my least favorite books of the Bible.

IIRC the Jews debated whether to toss "Qohelet" out of their canon along with Tobit, Esther, Ben Sirach et al. Eventually they decided to lose Tobit and Ben Sirach; keep Qohelet. My theory is they kept Esther so they had something fun to read after putting up with Ecclesiastes

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 08, 2016 03:20 PM (6FqZa)

314 Our May book read on goodreads is a history book in disguise:
The Complete Mowgli Stories, Duly Annotated by Moron Markham Shaw Pyle

The style is very 19th century.

Posted by: @votermom at May 08, 2016 03:28 PM (nbrY/)

315 311. Correct. I'll claim keyboard habits took over. Anyway thanks to OM and varied morons who brought the book to horde attention as a fun poke in the SJW eye read.

Posted by: PaleRider at May 08, 2016 03:37 PM (wYRTH)

316 Scalzi: One good book, __Redshirts__, one okay book, __Old Man's War__, and then self-indulgent wastes of time, imho.
I'm still plowing through Michael Mitterauer's __Why Europe: The Medieval Origins of Europe's Special Path__.
For relief, I read Lee Child's __Make Me__ (a disappointment).
History recommendations:
Bryan Farwell: __The Great Anglo-Boer War__
Richard Pipes, __Russia Under the Old Regime__
Heller and Nekrich, __Utopia in power: The history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the present__ (published 1986)

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at May 08, 2016 04:59 PM (IbUUZ)

317 Mr. Wrecks' guide to enjoying reading history for the general reader.

1. Realize that those guys living back in olden days didn't realize they were living back in olden days. They thought they were living in now.

2. Find the appropriate balance between forest and trees. It is the details that make history come alive but you also need to understand the over-arching theme. Some authors fall off one side of the tightrope or the other so choose wisely. (I believe it was in Winston Groom's book on the Vicksburg campaign that he mentions a young boy being subjected to a folk remedy for TB, scalding the back with hot irons. And you thought Obamacare was bad. That was a telling detail that evoked immediacy while not losing track of Giant's efforts against Pemberton.)

3. In one of his books (The Sirens of Titan?) Vonnegut parodies the too broad scope of historybooks. "Following the death of Jesus there was a 2000 year period of readjustment. Choose something whose scope allows sufficient detail for comprehension.

4. Avoid hagiographies of people or events. We all leave skid marks in our underwear and imperfection is what makes us, and them, human.

5. Strive for the objective author and strive to read objectively. Even the villains have their good points.

6. Don't judge historical characters by the values and standards of today. In many ways, for example, Nathan Bedford Forrest was a great man.

I'll note one book I think meets these criteria, Guadalcanal by Richard B. Frank. The scope of one battle on and around one island lasting approximately six months is big enough and small enough to allow comprehension and personal detail. The Americans are presented as flawed individuals, not heroes in marble, and the Japanese are treated fairly noting their arrogance and their suffering. The choice of this battle also allows the author to discuss land warfare, naval battles, and air power both individually and the effect of combined arms.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at May 08, 2016 05:43 PM (Nwg0u)

318 The most vomitous, disgusting, vile, loathsome thing I've ever actually eaten was chili without beans, meat or corn, served over white rice... Mon estomac!

Posted by: Zettai Ryoiki at May 08, 2016 06:48 PM (kP16F)

319 @318

Wrong thread, you blithering idiot!

Posted by: Zettai Ryoiki at May 08, 2016 06:55 PM (kP16F)

320 Of course race trumps gender! This has been known at least since 2008, when this upstart junior Senator jumped into a race that had already been decided for the gender hero. But the race of the junior Senator caused the gender hero to be shunted aside, and she was told that it wasn't really her turn, no matter what the moguls had been telling her.

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at May 08, 2016 06:56 PM (O4NI/)

321 If I'm in the mood I like blithering idiots depending on how they're cooked.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at May 08, 2016 06:57 PM (Nwg0u)

322 318 On the weekend I jump around threads and sometimes not sure where I'm at, but never have I done that.

Posted by: Skip at May 08, 2016 07:04 PM (3wHFl)

323 257 If the alky is in a dry county, or is otherwise caught short - think Sunday morning - he is apt to do things that, on reflection, seem unwise
.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 08, 2016 11:51 AM (lute)


Hey! Over here!

Posted by: Sterno at May 08, 2016 12:03 PM (oU3Bb)

--------------------

An apt nic. Back in my Paramedic days, drinking Sterno was called "squeeze." Seems there was street wisdom that held squeezing Sterno through cheesecloth would "take the pison out of it." Not so much. Lots of bad calls based on that concept.

Posted by: John the Baptist at May 08, 2016 07:04 PM (MPH+3)

324 The sisters are losing their place in the pantheon. They'll have to share bathrooms and showers with any men who want to be there--that's what 'self-identify' means legally.

They are also being attacked by more preferred igrievance groups like Kate Steinle was or like the German New Years celebrants, who were assaulted then aggressively ignored, then silenced.

Women had better wake up.

re; Mr. Riley, he got an apology and a re-invitation. The troubling part (besides the denial that he was invited in the first place) is that nobody had even complained. They pre-surrendered to a hypothetical grievance, a pre-speech ban. aka the Closing of the American Mind.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at May 08, 2016 07:42 PM (Ndje9)

325 Hello Gipper. The communist Chief Editor of SFRQ magazine would like to thank you (and Anna Puma) for your perspicacious summation of both the mag and the genre. As a quarterly, we have four deadlines a year, so if May doesn't do it for your fellow morons, August and November 2016 are still around.

We await your readers' submissions of titillating yet subversively intelligent tentacle pr0n with hitched and anticipated breath...

Posted by: KS Augustin at May 08, 2016 08:26 PM (vKt1t)

326 322 318 On the weekend I jump around threads and sometimes not sure where I'm at, but never have I done that.

Too bad.
There could be a game in this: malapropish or spoonerish comments that accidentally-on-purpose make sense.

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at May 08, 2016 09:20 PM (IbUUZ)

327 My M1911 now identifies as a trans female, African-American unicorn.

It can now enter Target and use any bathroom it wants. And you won't believe the discounts it qualifies for at Target.

Look for the biographical article on The Onion any day now....

Posted by: WarEagle82 at May 08, 2016 09:26 PM (LHa1m)

328 I found out about the Church of the Subgenius in high school by watching Night Flight on the USA Network, and from reading their books I got into the Illuminatus trilogy. Both are the sort of thing that are good to discover when you're young, when you still know everything.

Posted by: Jim Treacher at May 08, 2016 10:12 PM (aGaGt)

329 Infinite Jest, by DF Wallace, remains my favorite-ever novel ten years after reading it.

Posted by: mikeyboss at May 09, 2016 01:47 AM (rvYZc)

330 More of a conundrum than "race" is a construct but "transgender" is a reality: So a person can "identify" as a man for 50 years but suddenly DECIDE TO CHANGE to transgender, whereupon that must be immutable.

But GOD FORBID you suggest that a gay person was not born and must forever be immutably gay, e.g. that a suggestible teen might be persuaded to "experiment" with gayness, that is not their "true" orientation, by excessively aggressive gay recruitment, and that this could cause later life unhappiness.

So really, the first person who suggested that "Kaitlin" should "identify" as such should be prosecuted as a heterophobic hate-criminal.

Posted by: xnycpeasant at May 09, 2016 11:03 AM (k8tEg)

331 Double post but I have to add that the gay agenda increasingly resembles the Islamic concept of Dar Al Islam.

Lands once occupied by any Muslim population are forever the territory of Islam, but no amount of population or religious shift can ever transform a territory to non-Islamic.

So any tendency oer act of gayness, or "non heteronormativeness" means that the subject is immutably non-hetero. But you may never attempt to change, or even discuss the possibility of change, from gay to straight.

There really is a sameness at work here.

Posted by: xnycpeasant at May 09, 2016 11:09 AM (k8tEg)

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