Sunday Morning Book Thread 09-04-2016: The Five Year Plan [OregonMuse]

Sabrina Chase's 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, all the 'ettes are gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like tornadoes, and special snowflakes melt like snowflakes in the sun. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these.

And thanks to you morons who are sending me library pics. Sabrina's photo that she sent me is really quite a bit larger, and if you click on the reduced version at the top of the thread, it will (should) open up a Dropbox window or tab on your browser where you can see the larger version. It's almost like you can snoop around in her house.

A Planned Economy Is A Crap Economy

Mrs. Muse and I are watching the second season of the Fox TV series Wayward Pines, a sci-fi drama concerning a visionary billionaire who, forecasting a rapidly approaching time of social, political, and even biological degradation for the human race, started stockpiling supplies and picking out competent people (even kidnapping some of them) to repopulate the earth after the big decline. He invented some kind of suspended animation technology and arranged to have everything buried inside of a mountain in a remote corner of Idaho and simply wait out the collapse. So they wake up in the year 4032 and start building a small town that they name 'Wayward Pines'.

(Ob. book thread: The TV show I'm talking about here is based on the Wayward Pines series of novels by Blake Crouch, who also is a producer for the TV series. This is a trilogy. I have no idea if the author is intending to write any more books in the series.)

But the genius billionaire has miscalculated and the biological aberrations that the human race has de-evolved into are still around (they're called "abbies" in the series, which is shorthand for 'aberrations' or 'abnormals'. This is because they can't reason, think or communicate beyond a rudimentary level, they run around naked all day, crap all over the place (although this is not shown), are murderously predatory towards humans, and, in short, are a constant threat to a fragile civilization. Because of this, I think a better word to describe them would be "Democrats" and oh, by the way, their leader is a female. ). So the Wayward Pines people have to build a big herkin' electrified wall to keep the mindless and destructive Democrat hordes at bay. And in the last episode of the season, the wide-angle shot of the tens of thousands of buck naked, hostile Democrats massing at the wall made me think, holy crap, it's the FSA and they want their EBT cards.

It's not a great show, but it's entertaining enough. Lately, though, my suspension of disbelief is starting to get strained because: they have everything they need to run a small town, despite their lack of industrial or manufacturing capability. They're even having a hard time growing food because of the constant threat of Democrats breaking in and killing people and destroying the crops. But there are cars, trucks, electricity, computers, refrigeration, multi-story buildings with elevators with touch-screen controls, x-ray machines, antibiotics, all sorts of weapons and ammo, etc.

So the billionaire genius must have had to have hollowed out 4 or 5 additional mountains and filled each one with fuel, food, and other supplies, both consumables and also spare part in order for the Wayward Pines community to survive with all of the modern conveniences. For example, what do they do when one of their computers goes down and it turns out the hard drive is pooched? Presumably, they have an inventory of spare hard drives, but when they use one, that's one less that they have. They don't have the industrial capacity to build any more. As I told Mrs. Muse when I was explaining my dissatisfaction about this series to her, it takes a civilization to make a hard drive.

Then I remembered the classic 1958 essay, I, Pencil by economist Leonard Read. In it, he reviews all of the different agricultural, mining, and industrial processes that have to be in place in order to produce something as simple a lead pencil. He then argues that there really isn't one single person who knows how to manufacture a pencil as the amount of required knowledge is just too great.

As I told Mrs. Muse, the basic argument was against the folly of thinking you could plan an entire economy. Nobody can make a pencil. Pencils can't be planned. And if that is true for a pencil, how much more so for an entire civilization? This is exactly what the economist F. A. Hayek was talking about in his famous lecture The Pretense of Knowledge, planned economies are impossible.

(And make no mistake, 'Wayward Pines' is a planned economy -- and is as totalitarian as all the other ones. In fact, WP's idyllic, small-town veneer over a brutal totalitarianism reminds me quite a bit of ~~Apple computers~~ the "Village" that Patrick McGoohan's character spent 17 episodes of the Prisoner series trying to escape from.)

Also, how much does something *really* cost? A nail costs a few pennies, and a hammer costs some dollars, but how is that determined? The only method we know of that can establish a rational basis for prices is a free market -- which is completely antithetical to those who wish to have a planned economy. This is the "calculation argument", as explained in the book Collectivist Economic Planning is a collection of essays by F.A. Hayek, Ludwig Von Mises and others. This argument

...has still never been answered. It shows that without private property in capital goods, there can be no prices and hence no data available for cost accounting. Production becomes completely irrational, random at best.

Which is a pretty good description of the old USSR and Maoist China. Also,

Mises had convinced his generation of the futility of socialism, and this new edition of Collectivist Economic Planning completely devastates the whole socialist apparatus for yet another generation.

Unfortunately, few these days seem to listening.

Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth by Ludwig Mises is along these same lines.

___________

This discussion of planned economies and totalitarianism reminds me if a comment from Weirddave in the sidebar earler this week:

Read The Court of the Red Tsar sometime, it'll turn your hair white. The murder, The constant, unending MURDER that was the central reality of Soviet life...and this is what the Left wants for the US.

He's referring to Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar,a biography of Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore is based on groundbreaking research which

...reveals the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with bracing narrative verve, this feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.

I was disappointed that most of the one-star reviews were about the writing and editing. Only one unabashed Stalin apologist showed up crying into his beer because Montefiore had dissed his hero and ignored his "great achievements".

Another Library

This is the outside of moron commenter JTB's library: He tells me

Attached is a photo of the "library cottage" of JTB. It is a 10 foot by 15 foot pre-made shelter with air conditioning and heat. 4/5 of the structure holds in excess of 1500 books. 1/5 is a ham shack. New antennas will be selected and attached to the side of the cottage in the near future. The so-called environmentally-controlled cottage has on occasion served as a respite area when the house a/c or furnace needed repair.

Yeah, JTB calls it a "library cottage", but another word for that is "man-cave". All he needs is a wet bar and he's self-sufficient. I wanted a shot of the interior, but none is available, and he offered the following lame excuse:

Unfortunately, some of the shelves (overladen) collapsed and we need to purchase some new ones and reassemble the whole kit and caboodle.

Yeah, yeah. However, I'll give him this: a pre-fab man-cave with its own heat and a/c sounds pretty good. Only problem I can see is getting to it in the pouring rain.

Opening Lines

A few weeks ago,. moronette RushBabe remarked that she has a standard she employs to judge her escapist reading:

I have a "first sentence" rule when picking up any book. If the first sentence doesn't grab me and make me want to continue, down it goes.

She provides the opener of the novel The Passenger by Lisa Lutz as an example:

When I found my husband at the bottom of the stairs, I tried to resuscitate him before I ever considered disposing of the body.

That's a great opening line. She also mentioned one by Harlen Coben from his book Tell No One, which I wasn't familiar with, so I had to look it up. The opening sentence is:

Another girl was about to break my heart.

Very good. Here's one of my favorites, the opener from Robert Heinlein's 1982 novel Friday:

As I left the Kenya Beanstalk, he was right on my heels. He followed me through the door leading to Customs, Health, and Immigration. As the door contracted behind him, I killed him.

OK, technically that's not an opening sentence, that's an opening paragraph, but I have to say it grabbed me when I first read it way back when and I've never forgotten it.

A very famous opening line is the one from the Franz Kafka short story, The Metamorphosis:

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Yeah, I see how that could ruin your whole day. I haven't read the story, but it's interesting that tells you right up front what's going on rather than later on, perhaps at the end of the story, with something like, "...and then he looked into the mirror, and he saw he was A BUG! AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!"

Get a load of this one:

'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

OK, out of context, that line sounds pretty creepy, like it's something from the Addams Family, but it's not. It's actually the opening line of a much-beloved children's book. Try and guess which one. Swipe the empty space below for the answer:

The title of the book is --> Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

One more, and then I'll be done:

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression �As pretty as an airport.'

Douglas Adams aficianados will no doubt recognize that opening line from his novel The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul.

So what about you morons? What are your favorite opening lines from the books you've read?

Moron Recommendations

Mrs. Muse enjoyed reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Or, more accurately, she enjoyed listening to the audiobook version, read by the British actor Jeremy Irons. She liked Irons' narration so much that she told me "I'm not sure if I really liked the book itself or the way he read it." So I had her write up a brief review.

Like John the Pupil, which I mentioned last week, this is a "road movie" book, which, in this case, is the story of Santiago,

...a young shepherd who travels from Spain to the Pyramids in Egypt to follow what he believes to be his purpose after a dream he has about finding a treasure.

He is told by some people he meets that when a person tries to follow his purpose or calling everything in creation works together to help him accomplish his goal. Sort of like the Biblical idea that "all things work together for good".

It's kind of an odd take on a biblical ideas, but I thought it was a good story. It kept my interest. Santiago Meets Melchizedec, a biblical priest, who gives him the urim and thummin (cf. Exodus 28:30) to help make decisions. He follows omens and meet up with a Alchemist who finally gets him to Egypt.

I'm actually surprised Mrs. Muse enjoyed it. Coelho uses biblical concepts and themes in unorthodox ways to tell the story, and normally that sort of thing exasperates her, but it didn't seem to bother her this time around.

___________

Moron commenter Hrothgar brought to my attention How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns. The author trained his dog to sit still in an MRI scanner and they would

...embark on a remarkable journey and be the first to glimpse the inner workings of the canine brain. Painstakingly, the two worked together to overcome the many technical, legal, and behavioral hurdles. Berns�s research offers surprising results on how dogs empathize with human emotions, how they love us, and why dogs and humans share one of the most remarkable friendships in the animal kingdom.

___________

Another lurker recommended to me the novels of Donald Westlake,

...particularly the series featuring a small-time burglar named Dortmunder, are very funny. Picture Abe Vigoda and his band of merry men planning and attempting a complicated heist.

The first one in the series is The Hot Rock, which I think was made into a movie (Update: I was right).

John Dortmunder leaves jail with ten dollars, a train ticket, and nothing to make money on but his good name. Thankfully, his reputation goes far. No one plans a caper better than Dortmunder. His friend Kelp picks him up in a stolen Cadillac and drives him away from Sing-Sing, telling a story of a $500,000 emerald that they just have to steal. Dortmunder doesn�t hesitate to agree.

There are something like 15 Dortmunder novels in the series.

Books By Morons

Back in July, I let you all know that moron lurker Edwin Markham published his first novel, which he titled Call It Even:

Robbie Bowman is a U.S. Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan troubled by guilt and sorrow. He is looking for his missing sister, the only family he has left, and for redemption and peace. Bowman finds himself in a small town in New Mexico, where he is arrested for a brutal double murder, which triggers chilling memories of other deaths for which he feels responsible. Circumstance and his guilty conscience drive him to take on those responsible for the murders. His survival skills and combat prowess will be tested as he finds himself in a mortal struggle with vicious drug traffickers and their allies. But not all of the good guys are blameless, and not all of the bad guys are evil. He must use his judgment as well as his fighting skills.

The good news is that Ed is running a promotional giveaway over the Labor Day weekend for his book. The promotion has been running since Sept. 1 and ends on Sept. 5. So, until tomorrow night, you can download it for FREE. He says the idea is to generate reviews that will lead, hopefully, to actual sales later on.

___________

James Dudley is another moron lurker who has surfaced on votermom's GoodReads group for morons. He has released his first movel, The Clown Prince of Paris, and no, it's not a biography of Jerry Lewis:

Paris, 1954... Up-and-coming comedian Tommy Malloy is preparing for the biggest break of his career; a series of headline shows in one of Paris�s hottest clubs... But when a mysterious audience member asks Tommy for an unusual favor, he is unwittingly pulled into a series of shocking events that leaves him trapped in a deadly web of international espionage. Pursued by the KGB�s deadliest assassins with only his wits to protect him, Tommy must run for his life, improvise new identities, and put together the pieces of a sinister plot that threatens to shatter a precarious peace. A continent stands on the brink of World War III, and a B-list celebrity from Philadelphia is the only one who can stop it.

The Kindle edition is $2.99.

Sale Coupon

From an earlier thread:

Barnes and Noble Labor Day Sale -
40% OFF One Item
Code : N9U2PAJ3LK2TS
Good through 9/5, I think.

Posted by: garrett at September 02, 2016 06:10 PM (+0EeU)

These type of online coupons are frequently not available to be used on e-book purchases, but they would certainly be good for dead tree editions.

h/t to garrett.

___________

Moronette 'votermom' is putting together a list of moron authors over on the Goodreads site which is intended to be accessible 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.

Posted by: HH at September 04, 2016 08:59 AM (DrCtv)

2 Don't know if its the ads slowing my tablet but anyway Good morning bookworms.
Just a bit past halfway on The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 09:02 AM (0G2eQ)

3 Good morning. Again, this blog is sporadically loading very slowly.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 09:03 AM (I0EOP)

4 Going to do some reading now.

Posted by: French Jeton at September 04, 2016 09:03 AM (WMvHw)

5 I took a break from the Sword of Truth series after the first two and went to one I had got in a one day special via Book Bub for 99 cents. It was The Farrier's Daughter (The Irish Witch Series Book 1) by a female author. I thought it would be historical SF/Fantasy. I made it through the 11th chapter before I gave up. It was a woman oriented bodice ripper. The 'ettes may like it. Am now back to the Sword of Truth series at Book 6. Those of you who want a more modern version of Atlas Shrugged would love this book.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 09:05 AM (mpXpK)

6 A Planned Economy Is A Crap Economy

In similar news our economy is a crappy economy. Crappy job growth, crappy GDP and crappy lies about how good everything is

Posted by: TheQuietMan at September 04, 2016 09:05 AM (auHtY)

7 LOL, I see kitteh chair in pic

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 09:06 AM (mpXpK)

8 Life is too lousy to be reading short books.

Posted by: Insomniac at September 04, 2016 09:06 AM (0mRoj)

9 Would really like to read that Stalinist history, don't know why but have always been fascinated by Russia like Dennis Prager only thought about learning Russian not doing it.

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 09:07 AM (0G2eQ)

10 'Wayward Pines' is available on Hulu. Sounds interesting.

Posted by: free range 'sorta' conservative but not 'true' conservative at September 04, 2016 09:08 AM (ZFUt7)

11 I do that first sentence thing too, also open to random page and read a sentence or paragraph.

JTB, library / hamshack, so cool !
WANT !

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at September 04, 2016 09:10 AM (Z8DIA)

12 Although I don't rely on first sentences, my favorite remains from Raphael Sabatini's "Scaramouche": "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad."

Posted by: Libra at September 04, 2016 09:17 AM (GblmV)

13 Wow. If you click on the library pic and make it full-screen, you can then scroll with your mouse and make it larger and larger. Very cool.

Posted by: HH at September 04, 2016 09:17 AM (DrCtv)

14 No planned economy has ever worked. Mainly that has been because they were all socialist and communist. We are embarking on that now at top speed. And the economy shows it, but we also have to include a lot of Fascism.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 09:18 AM (mpXpK)

15 The opening line of "The Day of the Jackal" certainly grabbed my attention:

"It is cold at 6:40 in the morning of a March day in Paris, and seems even colder when a man is about to be executed by firing squad."

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 09:18 AM (P8951)

16 "I, Pencil" was brilliant. Glad you mentioned it. Every Economics 101 course should start with it.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 09:19 AM (V+03K)

17 "It was a dark and stormy night."
Always grabbed my attention, but I don't think Snoopy ever got around to finishing the book.

Posted by: Derptastic at September 04, 2016 09:19 AM (b8jcS)

18 I like Sabrina Chase's library. It's cozy.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 09:20 AM (P8951)

19 Opening lines?

"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain, he fell madly in love with him"

Posted by: The Neon Madman at September 04, 2016 09:20 AM (vyh2c)

20 There's a fine line between a compelling opening line and a Bulwer-Lytton candidate.

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 09:20 AM (Ovnvw)

21 Only pertaining to hopefully a future Book thread photo setting but on Friday the Reading room I'm working on the fabric ceiling areas were finished. But the electricians had to wait to cut in fixtures until it was done because they had to be placed in the pattern of the fabric. The material is a thousand dollars a roll or more, well the first hole cut into it they cut in the wrong spot. It will have to be patched both the fabric and the drywall above it.
Also yesterday had to go in for emergency addition capitals added to the 4 side columns. I do have a great application on the rooms we get to see here.
Hope this isn't out of bounds.

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 09:22 AM (0G2eQ)

22 Watching The Blue Max, for the hundredth time. And for the hundredth time, wondering how and why, for Gods sake, is George Peppard rejecting Ursula Andress in that towel draped over her shoulders. Oh sure, eventually he gives in, but still. That towel should not have lasted 10 seconds.

Posted by: goatexchange at September 04, 2016 09:22 AM (BS0XN)

23 Sabrina is so neat!!!! Nice library.

JTB - do you have bannned books in there or just girlie mags?

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 09:23 AM (Om16U)

24
While playing around with a new Windows 10 computer I discovered that MS Word has a grammar checker, and MS word admonishes me for improper use of the hyphen. So I went looking, and found the rule for hyphen use in "The Blue Book of Grammar."

And the website of the author

grammarbook.com

I recommend this site because the Author even looks like an English Teacher, but her explanation of the use of hyphens was clear enough that even I can understand it. So I recommend the web site, and the book based on that alone. I don't know if the book is even available since the Author succumbed to cancer.

And so, to pimp my newest attempt at writing. "A Second Taste of Imagination" (B01L7P3MNI)

Six short stories with a hint of science fiction.
Read for free on Kindle unlimited. Preview/look inside serves up the first short story plus some of the second.

1. Gear Jammer : a close encounter of the Art Bell kind.
2. Theodore Waljcowski : a mystery man, a spook of some kind.
3. Salamander : Something you don't see every day, and old man walking his salamander
4. Dead Drop : a scifi rescue that is impossible
5. New Friend : you find a stray on your door step, you feed him, and you have a friend for life.
6. The End : The end of civilization as we know it. Taken from current events, news headlines, and Ace of Spades Blog comments. (Any resemblance to real people, places, or events, is strictly coincidental.)

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at September 04, 2016 09:24 AM (jQxab)

25 My blog post today is on the Fall of Rome.

link in nic

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 09:24 AM (Om16U)

26 The only opening line I've ever memorized is, "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were." And of course as I begin typing, I can't remember the damn thing and had to go look it up.

Another favorite novel, a huge favorite, starts with, "The motto was 'Pax' but the word was set in a circle of thorns." That's from "In this House of Brede" which is about a woman entering a monastery at the ripe old age of 40, and it's a truly beautiful novel that jumps around rather a lot in time bu you never get lost. It's by the prolific Rumer Godden.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 09:25 AM (VsZJP)

27 For the past three weeks shoulder surgery hampered my already meager typing skills and prevented me from posting here. Also, a ten-day visit by my son cut my reading time; but I managed to read three books.

The first was In Enemy Hands by David Weber. This is the seventh in the Honor Harrington series, and has just the right mix of political intrigue and fight-for-survival scenes one expects in this series. In this book Honor becomes a prisoner of the People's Republic of Haven; but you know she will escape... there are a lot more books in the series.

I also read Rain Fall by Barry Eisler. This thriller is the first in the John Rain series and was recommended here sometime ago. John Rain is a half Japanese, half American assassin who learned his trade in Special Operations Group missions in Vietnam, Cambodia and North Vietnam. Now he poses as a businessman in Tokyo and becomes involved in a plot to expose the vast corruption in the Japanese government. I liked the book very much and am looking forward to reading the other seven in the series.

Finally, I just finished Glenn Beck's new book, Lairs: How Progressives Exploit Our Fears For Power and Control. Liars gives an interesting history of the progressive movement and how progressives have incrementally changed America. We are near to implementing Stuart Chase's Political System X, which Beck covers in detail. One should read at least this chapter.

Posted by: Zoltan at September 04, 2016 09:25 AM (JYer2)

28 Posted by: goatexchange at September 04, 2016 09:22 AM (BS0XN)

I don't recall any of the dialog from that scene....just the visual...

Posted by: BignJames at September 04, 2016 09:26 AM (9RGU3)

29 Good morning my fellow Book Threadists. I received my hardcover edition of Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales. It's a beautiful, well bound edition and worth the $22. The stories are creative and charming and her illustrations are beyond charming.

I got an email from Amazon the other day advertising children's classic books on Kindle. (Coincidence? Probably not.) Amazon says they are illustrated and formatted for Kindle. For 99 cents each, it seems a good, inexpensive way to have these books available for your kids or grandkids.

Wind in the Willows
Just So Stories
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter drawings)
Aesop's Fables
The Secret Garden

There may be others. Just FYI.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 09:27 AM (V+03K)

30 Ross Hassig, "Polygamy And The Rise And Demise Of The Aztec Empire"

This book investigates the marital system of the "Aztec" Triple-Alliance empire. This sociology is difficult to get a handle on, because the Aztecs didn't mention women as much as, say, the Maya and the Zapotecs did. But that turns out to be the reason: the rulers of the Valley were more patriarchal.

When the Triple-Alliance acquired an empire, both Tenochtitlan and Tetzcoco brought home the other nations' princesses. Moteczoma I, in particular, enacted a law that inheritance should go preferably to the son who has had experience in battle - didn't matter who mom was. The other nations went along with all this because at least then they might have another voice at court. Plus if they were lucky, say the next Aztec tlatoani was half Totonac, the Totonacs might prosper from Aztec policies.

This system led to certain policies: when the Tetzcocan king Nezahualpilli died, he left a *lot* of children. One of them - Cacama - happened to be related to the Tenochtitlan tlatoani at the time, Moteczoma II Xocoyotl. Guess which kid Moteczoma planted on the throne. This, incidentally, ended the Triple Alliance as such, leaving only an Aztec Empire for the Spanish to find just a few years later.

This polygamist policy worked for awhile but left some time-bombs. Another prince left Tetzcoco and set up a rival kingdom at Acolhua. When Cortes took Tenochtitlan that first time, he killed Moteczoma and Cacama both. So now the exiled Tetzcoco prince - who had no connection to Tenochtitlan - could claim the kingdom of Tetzcoco. This one was all too eager to ally himself with the Spaniards to take that other city that second time. Also the Aztecs themselves were left with Cuauhtemoc as tlatoani, who wasn't related to all those native nations like Moteczoma was. So he couldn't call upon his allies.

Polygyny, then, would appear to have a problem in that it gathers too much power to a narrow elite. I also suspect that all those leftover upper-rank men left stranded across Mesoamerica, who couldn't anymore hope to marry a princess, might have resented things a tad.

One interesting fact Hassig notes is that the Spanish didn't notice much in the way of promiscuity among the Aztecs. It turns out that *Spanish* women at the time had four times the illegitimacy rate as other European women. If the men are away from home raping other nations' women, I suppose the girls at home are gonna have fun. . .

The later Spanish priests did however complain about 'sodomy' among the locals. I had to laugh. Gee, I wonder how come there's more homosexuality among men who've been left without women for generations - first because of Aztecs, then because of Spaniards. *I* can't think of a reason.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 09:27 AM (6FqZa)

31 Peter Tsouras, "Warlords of Ancient Mexico: How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years". I leafed through this after reading Hassig. Please don't encourage this tripe.

Tsouras mentions - in purple prose - that Maxtla the king of Colhuacan had murdered the chieftain of Tenochtitlan; at which point the regent Itzcoatl took over as tlatoani (king) in that city. Itzcoatl then went on to found the Triple Alliance, which replaced Colhuacan.

Hassig is aware of this theory and calls bullsh!t. Maxtla had other problems at the time, not least his own brothers who didn't recognise his rule. Maxtla had no interest in Tenochtitlan, at the time a swampy mud-mound in the middle of the lake; if anything he was pleased to leave it under a weak young chieftain. Maxtla was a lot less pleased to have it ruled by a cunning warrior like Itzcoatl, which warrior would soon unseat him. Hassig thinks that Itzcoatl had the actual, you know, motive to bump off the chief of Tenochtitlan standing in his way.

Tsouras has almost certainly swallowed ancient Aztec propaganda. There is no reason you should do the same.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 09:27 AM (6FqZa)

32 The creepiest monster in Stalin's inner circle had to be Beria, the head of "state security." Not only was he a mass murderer, but he would roam around Moscow in his state limo, spot attractive young girls - many in their early teens - and pick them up and take them to his place, where he would rape them. He raped hundreds of girls.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 09:27 AM (P8951)

33 Wayward Pines sounds a lot like "Omega Man" with Charlton Heston.
Zombies, black chics having sex with Heston, Linc from Mod Squad as a zombie and a TV reporter turned zombie cult leader and a killer virus to boot.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at September 04, 2016 09:27 AM (ej1L0)

34 'The 100' had even worse plausibility issues. First of all, the Earth has a nuclear war and the survivors live in a giant space station. OK. That is the ultimate closed system. But... to cite just one example... their preferred method for execution is to blow people from airlocks. This means everything they kill someone... which happens with Soviet-like frequency... they lose atmosphere and the irreplaceable clothing and protein the prisoner represents.

And don't get me started on how the tribes of violent savages on Earth are all ruled by teenage Goth princesses.

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 09:28 AM (Ovnvw)

35 "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - Call of Cthulhu

Posted by: Yuimetal at September 04, 2016 09:30 AM (dtWKK)

36 One of my favorite first sentences comes from Casino Royale, "The scent smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."

Posted by: HansGruber at September 04, 2016 09:31 AM (60SwY)

37 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Sort of takes off from there.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at September 04, 2016 09:32 AM (ptqRm)

38 Glad folks like the cottage/library.
Votermom, I have no doubt SJWs would love to ban a lot of my books. :-)

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 09:33 AM (V+03K)

39 The opening line from a novel I never finished.

"The old woman sat by the side of their bed watching her husband die."

Now I just have to write the next 300 pages.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 09:36 AM (V+03K)

40 Favorite opening sentence. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. This is the book that moved me from Nancy Drew to literature, Tale of Two Cities. it could have been written today.

Posted by: LMD Outer Banker at September 04, 2016 09:36 AM (SoJdk)

41 One of my all-time favorite authors, Alistair Maclean, both started AND ended "The Golden Rendezvous" with, "A small, dusty man in a small, dusty office." Genius.

Posted by: goatexchange at September 04, 2016 09:36 AM (BS0XN)

42 For the ettes, here is a free historical western romance

(no idea if it's good, just passing it along)

https://twitter.com/BookHorde/status/772200405493248000

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 09:37 AM (Om16U)

43
"His day started with an explosion. As explosions go, this one wasn't all that big. A circuit breaker tripped on the high voltage panel and the arc over melted the panel, tripped everything else off line, and scrammed the fission reactor."

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at September 04, 2016 09:38 AM (jQxab)

44 Right now I am reading Field of Fight by Gen. Mike Flynn

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 09:39 AM (Om16U)

45 The best laid plans of mice and economists gang aft aglay.

Posted by: Yuimetal at September 04, 2016 09:39 AM (dtWKK)

46 #BestOpeningSentences: Neal Stephenson, SevenEves...
"The moon exploded without warning and for no apparent reason."

Posted by: Russ at September 04, 2016 09:39 AM (0/0uS)

47 What are your favorite opening lines from the books you've read?

It's not technically the first line, but it's on the first page:

"We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold."

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 09:40 AM (mgbwf)

48 I like the opening sentence of the ACA: "If you like your plan, you can keep it." Sort of bogs down after that, though.

Posted by: Jonathan Gruber at September 04, 2016 09:42 AM (dtWKK)

49 Would really like to read that Stalinist history,

"Koba the Dread" by Martin Amis is quite good, not overwhelming, and leaves you with the taste of pure evil in your mouth.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 09:42 AM (mgbwf)

50 "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (working draft title, A Tale of Two Marriages)

Posted by: cool breeze at September 04, 2016 09:43 AM (ckvus)

51 Not much time for reading this week; my daughter and I are prepping for a book event in Giddings, Texas - the Giddings Word Wrangler. We went last year, had a wonderful time because the whole town is enthusiastically involved, and they pull in a large number of Texas authors. It's on a Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon - and part of the appeal is that some of the authors go out to the elementary school on Thursday with their books - and on Friday, they bring all the kids from the elementary and high school to the library to meet the authors. It's kind of a scavenger hunt for the kids, in a way, so we have to have lots of giveaways; postcards and book markers.
If there are any 'rons and 'ronettes in the Austin-Giddings-Bastrop area on Friday, come on by! This is the first of our scheduled fall/Christmas book events, BTW - I'll have the rest of them up on my Goodreads page at some point...

The other big project was to finish up the third Luna City Chronicle; it should be available in print and ebook around the middle to late September. No spoilers - except that the location of the Charley Mills treasure hoard will be revealed. Also working to finish the picaresque novel about the Gold Rush which has been an ongoing project for about three years. (I kept having ideas for other books taking priority.) The Golden Road will be done by mid-November.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at September 04, 2016 09:44 AM (xnmPy)

52 Sabrina Chase sounds like the name of a Bond Girl.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at September 04, 2016 09:44 AM (F5KS5)

53 A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.

Gravities Rainbow

Posted by: Davo at September 04, 2016 09:45 AM (sMLEE)

54 ...It shows that without private property in capital goods, there can be no prices...

****

This small statement carries a broader truth beyond its narrowly expressed boundaries.

Inherent in the Progressive viewpoint is a basic greed and a failure. They are not able to carry out any of their policies without borrowing heavily or even fully coopting the infrastructure and philosophical basis of that which they claim to hate. They are truly bereft of originality. The collective moral greed and intellectual bankruptcy of the political Left relies on conservative values for virtually everything they espouse, and they cannot see their own hypocrisy. Once they have torn down, what shall they use to build?

Other societal areas where we see the same phenomenon, for example:

1. Secularity Morality => borrows heavily from traditional religious morality
2. Borders => an extension of the private property theme (e.g. White House fence)
3. Tax 'revenue' (as if taxes are actually a product of government)
4. Perverted notions of free speech
5. The intolerance of 'tolerance'

...and many others.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at September 04, 2016 09:45 AM (mvenn)

55 First line from the series I am reading now, which is among my favorite books:

It was an odd looking vine. Dusky variegated leaves hunkered against a stem that wound in a stranglehold around the smooth trunk of a balsam fir.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 09:46 AM (mpXpK)

56 The best opening sentence has to belong to Harry Harrison from the Stainless Steel Rat:

When the office door opened suddenly I knew the game was up. It had been a money-maker - but it was all over. As the cop walked in I sat back in the chair and put on a happy grin. He had the same sombre expression and heavy foot that they all have - and the same lack of humor. I almost knew to the word what he was going to say before he uttered a syllable.
"James Bolivar diGriz I arrest you on the charge-"
I was waiting for the word charge, I thought it made a nice touch that way. As he said it I pressed the button that set off the charge of black powder in the ceiling, the crossbeam buckled and the three-ton safe dropped through right on the top of the cop's head. He squashed very nicely, thank you. The cloud of plaster dust settled and all I could see of him was one hand, slightly crumpled. It twitched a bit and the index finger pointed at me accusingly. His voice was a little muffled by the safe and sounded a bit annoyed. In fact he repeated himself a bit.
"On the charge of illegal entry, theft, forgery-"

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 09:47 AM (e9hKK)

57 I finished Anna Puma's "Golden Isis". This is a fun read and a great way to relax on of an afternoon. It's the Horde's Goodread book this month and I posted a first comment there yesterday. Hope others join in. "Golden Isis" was a pleasant respite from the news and 'heavy' reading I've been doing lately. Left it a favorable review on Amazon as well. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 09:47 AM (V+03K)

58 >> Only problem I can see is getting to it in the pouring rain.

Keeps out the riff raff, I bet.

Very nice.

Read all 3 Divergent series books and watched the movies. I have no idea what happened with the third movie...terrible and barely related to the book. Coincidence?? Heck no.

Posted by: Mama AJ at September 04, 2016 09:48 AM (gTQoY)

59 The GWTW first line is one I remember after all these years.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 09:50 AM (Om16U)

60 Drat, fast on the enter key. Harrison stated that he intentionally wrote "gotcha" opening sentences, my understanding was that he would write a number and keep them for inspiration for the next stories too.
He also claimed that he made sure there was a major gotcha within the first page of any manuscript he sent out for consideration, and that his pet peeve as an editor was that he generally had to cut the first two or three pages of certain authors because they just wouldn't settle down to the point.

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 09:51 AM (e9hKK)

61 Mama AJ they split book three into two movies, so there is still one more movie.

For the record, I hated book 3.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 09:51 AM (Om16U)

62 Good morning all. Checking in to let you know I requested membership in the Goodreads group.

My most recent read was "The Bear and the Dragon." I save Tom Clancy novels to read on vacation. I've read and liked a lot of his other novels, but this one wasn't as good. Needed some serious editing and tightening.

Posted by: Dr Alice at September 04, 2016 09:52 AM (nItR4)

63 Love Sabrina's library. You can actually find a book you're looking for. (What a concept!) The figure in the wood is gorgeous.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 09:52 AM (V+03K)

64 Joe Rogan has a great bit on how most people in the world are dumb and only survive because of the few smart people who know how to make things. He includes himself as one of the dumb people.

Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck at September 04, 2016 09:53 AM (MNgU2)

65 Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede jacket, sneaker and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk, Virginia.

V

Posted by: Davo at September 04, 2016 09:53 AM (sMLEE)

66 Ohhhh.

I thought my daughter said there was going to be another book, which didn't make sense to me.

Hated it for one big reason or a bunch of little ones?

Posted by: Mama AJ at September 04, 2016 09:56 AM (gTQoY)

67 I am working on an opening line to the effect of "The sun rose over the lake on one of the last warm days of the summer, a fine day for fishing and for being one of the last survivors of the human race."

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 09:57 AM (Ovnvw)

68 I like my first line.

"Miles Matthews survived the apocalypse because of his third job."

Posted by: Emile Antoon Khadaji at September 04, 2016 09:57 AM (JjW88)

69 How now, Bookish Morons all!

Lend me thine ears for this sweet sweet deal:

Tomorrow is the last day to purchase-

"Wearing the Cat - Part Three: His Golden Time"

at the low low moron-friendly introductory price of $0.99 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Wearing-Cat-Part-Three-

Golden-ebook/dp/B01L38EFCG

(remove extra spaces)

Many thanks to all who have picked up WTC for thou rockest most!

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 09:57 AM (HGtd0)

70 I can't believe I'm almost an hour late and nobody's mentioned two of the greats:

There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
(C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

and

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit hole, and that means Comfort.
(J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit)

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at September 04, 2016 09:58 AM (G4y5c)

71 Vic is correct as always--that is a favorite kitteh chair in the picture. Sometimes I am allowed to use it. (My chair is not visible. A proper leather library chair, suitable for lounging). Thanks for the kind words, I am very fond of my library. It also has a cabinet of curiosities!

("Bond Girl" hahahahahahno. I am pretty much the antithesis of a Bond Girl. I don't even *own* a bikini--but I am a fairly good shot, so...)

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at September 04, 2016 09:58 AM (SuJIo)

72 I quit reading Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's "Hellhole" because the first paragraphs were full of exposition. What a couple of hacks.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 09:59 AM (6FqZa)

73 I would send a picture of my library but its mostly just piles of books on far too insufficient shelving surrounded by piles of paper.

I own many fewer books than many of you I suspect mostly because poverty and a lifestyle brought up to face that makes me buy only books I want to read over and over and treasure.

Other than my old college books I can't quite bring myself to get rid of because they won't sell.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 10:00 AM (39g3+)

74 "We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold."

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 09:40 AM (mgbwf)

Kerouac? No, wait, I'll bet it's Hunter S. Thompson.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 10:01 AM (I0EOP)

75 What are your favorite opening lines from the books you've read?

I'm pretty much f*cked.

The Martian by Andy Weir.

Posted by: JackS at September 04, 2016 10:02 AM (hgwL9)

76 Sabrina Chase wrote: "("Bond Girl" hahahahahahno. I am pretty much the antithesis of a Bond Girl. I don't even *own* a bikini--but I am a fairly good shot, so...)"

Sabrina, Bikinis don't last. Good aim does.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 10:02 AM (V+03K)

77 I quit reading Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's "Hellhole" because the first paragraphs were full of exposition

The window's dirty
The mattress stinks
This ain't no place to be a man
I ain't got no future
I ain't got no past
And I don't think I ever can

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 10:03 AM (Ovnvw)

78 Would really like to read that Stalinist history,

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 09:07 AM (0G2eQ)

Try reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder.

Stalin was just as much of a monster as Hitler.

Posted by: JackS at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (hgwL9)

79 Has anyone read Boorsteins The Discoverers? Is it any good?

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (e9hKK)

80 Not much sexier than a girl with a gun.

Now - is that the opening to a book, a universal truth, or both?

Posted by: Weasel at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (Sfs6o)

81 My writing computer was down for a few weeks and I can't stop writing, so I started up an old idea I've had a while. I'm writing a Sherlock Holmes story on Wattpad, just a little at a time over weeks when I find a moment and the ideas have coalesced. Its unedited, raw, and just as I write it down so there are some rough spots, but its fun to work on.

https://www.wattpad.com/299948082-the-dreadful-business-of-the-abernetty-family

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (39g3+)

82 The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Posted by: Davo at September 04, 2016 10:05 AM (sMLEE)

83 Hated it for one big reason or a bunch of little ones?
Posted by: Mama AJ at September 04, 2016 09:56 AM (gTQoY)

For one big reason.
You know whereof I speak, as Galadriel would say (the Thing that happens)

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:05 AM (Om16U)

84 Great library pics, y'all!

Posted by: sinalco at September 04, 2016 10:06 AM (yODqO)

85
("Bond Girl" hahahahahahno. I am pretty much the antithesis of a Bond Girl. I don't even *own* a bikini--but I am a fairly good shot, so...)
Posted by: Sabrina Chase at September 04, 2016 09:58 AM (SuJIo)

Chase. Sabrina Chase.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:06 AM (Om16U)

86 Another fave first line:

That amiable youth, Jimmy Thesiger, came racing down the big staircase at Chimneys two steps at a time.
(Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery)

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at September 04, 2016 10:06 AM (G4y5c)

87 There once was a lovely little sausage named joey. The End.

Posted by: Joe Biden at September 04, 2016 10:08 AM (dtWKK)

88 Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.

The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.

The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No."

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 10:08 AM (Ovnvw)

89 Kerouac? No, wait, I'll bet it's Hunter S. Thompson.

*ding ding ding*

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 10:08 AM (mgbwf)

90
My favorite opening two sentences from the perfect Moron Horde book (let's see if anyone can ID the author and title):

"On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth story window."

Posted by: Pave Low John at September 04, 2016 10:09 AM (Kfa/7)

91 After CBD's wonderful Rembrandt paintings on the art thread this week, I got curious about his technique and the other Dutch Masters. (No cigar jokes please. This isn't the Oval Office.)

Does anyone know of a book that describes how these classic painters made their paints, brushes, etc.? I assume they couldn't just pop into the closest Hobby Lobby.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 10:10 AM (V+03K)

92 PLJ, great opening, but I don't know the book.

Posted by: Dr Alice at September 04, 2016 10:11 AM (nItR4)

93 I finished book three of Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples and I'm about 2/3's of the way through book four. The first half of book three is "Marlborough was a bad ass" the second half is "Wellington was a bad ass."

Book four covers the War of 1812 (terrible misunderstanding), the Sepoy Revolt (it was a mutiny not a nationalist movement), the Crimea (fuck the Russians), the American Civil War (oops, and R E Lee was a bad ass) and Gladstone vs Disraeli, and that is as far as I've gotten.

I also read Alison Weir's Princes in the Tower. I read her War of the Roses book and she had definitely picked a side (Yorkist) so I was surprised at her treatment of Richard III. She doesn't let him off the hook.

Spoiler alert;

Richard was every bit the monster that Shakespeare made him out to be and was probably already planning and scheming to seize the throne from his nephew even before Edward IV died.

Oh, and Elizabeth of York was a slut with big tits.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at September 04, 2016 10:11 AM (x3uSY)

94 I'm pretty sure that is from The Book of Mormon

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 10:11 AM (Ovnvw)

95 @79 The Discoverers is very entertaining, definitely one of those "Huh, I never knew that" kind of books. It skips around a lot, being organized more by theme than by chronology, but definitely worth buying and reading whenever you're in the mood for some quirky historical reading. The follow-on (The Creators) wasn't quite as good, but that could be just me....

Posted by: Pave Low John at September 04, 2016 10:12 AM (Kfa/7)

96 >>On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth story window."

Oh, yeah, that's one of the best.

Posted by: Mama AJ at September 04, 2016 10:13 AM (gTQoY)

97 I finished book three of Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples

I read that ages ago when I was on a Churchill kick. I was hoping to read a history of the English speaking peoples. (How the language arose, whence, and how it spread).

What I think I actually read was "here is why America and the current and former British Empire should always stick together when war is afoot".

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 10:14 AM (mgbwf)

98 Ref "Opening Lines"

I was thinking of that some years ago and recalled that Cherryh's "The Pride of Chanur" had a great opening line. I checked. It didn't. But the opening *page* was tremendous and I wound up re-reading the book, then the other 4 novels in the series - then another 20-30 of her novels.

Posted by: ArthurK at September 04, 2016 10:15 AM (h53OH)

99 The space station Belvaile was not the most Currupt city in the galaxy, but we like to think we are in the top 5.

Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy.

I can't recommend the series enough, very funny. This is also a book that is even better in the audio version, it's read as HANK.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 10:15 AM (dKiJG)

100 And now I absolutely must read "The Stainless Steel Rat" which I think I have around here somewhere, for reasons unknown.

I finshed the true crime from last week - left a kind of "never give up" message with me so that's always good. And I am currently reading "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams" which is a collection of Stephen King stories, an awful lot of which have been entirely predictable. The last one I finished, just a few minutes ago, had no supernatural horror but was horror just the same, and so quite good. But it's a fluke.

And I am still reading "Hollywood Party" which is truly infuriating. What a fraud "progressives" have perpetrated on the rest of us: a bunch of damned communists they are, and they have no excuse for not knowing what that means. They were there, watching it, same as me and they have absolutely no excuse.

I think I have both "Koba the Dread" and " the Montefiore book around here. I'm thinking it's really good that my voice teacher pulled out something both Mozart and liturgical for me to learn - it's Psalm 117.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 10:15 AM (VsZJP)

101 82 - The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Posted by: Davo at September 04, 2016 10:05 AM

I thought that was from some author, That line is used in Logan's Run when Logan 5 and Jessica 6 meet Peter Ustinov in the Library and all the cats.

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 10:17 AM (0G2eQ)

102 >>PLJ, great opening, but I don't know the book.

Monster Hunter International, by Larry Corriea

Posted by: Mama AJ at September 04, 2016 10:17 AM (gTQoY)

103 dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth story window."
Posted by: Pave Low John at September 04, 2016 10:09 AM (Kfa/7)

Hah! MHI! Love that opening.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:17 AM (Om16U)

104 94 I'm pretty sure that is from The Book of Mormon
Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 10:11 AM (Ovnvw)

It's from a book of a Mormon.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:18 AM (Om16U)

105 "This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history."

Prologue to LOTR.

That sentence started what is now a 51 year odyssey of reading and re-reading.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 10:18 AM (V+03K)

106 >>You know whereof I speak

For once, I actually do!

(insulting me there, not you, of course)

Off to the place with the people...

Posted by: Mama AJ at September 04, 2016 10:19 AM (gTQoY)

107 Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Posted by: Davo at September 04, 2016 10:05 AM

I thought that was from some author

Poet, T.S. Eliot.

Is citing a poem cheating? If not, same poet:

"Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky, like a patient etherized upon a table."

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 10:19 AM (mgbwf)

108 Chase. Sabrina Chase.

Douglas. Oliver Wendell Douglas.

"You've got enough names for TWO fellas."

Posted by: JT at September 04, 2016 10:20 AM (AWYka)

109 90 is Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

Posted by: cool breeze at September 04, 2016 10:20 AM (ckvus)

110 Sabrina Chase sounds like the name of a Bond Girl.
Posted by: Pete in Texas at September 04, 2016 09:44 AM (F5KS5)

And so she could qualify. Talented, witty, completely driven,with an interesting back story and a wide array of competencies.

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 10:20 AM (e9hKK)

111 Have to look it up but think it continues

First is their name
Next is their fancy name
And then the name only they know.

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 10:22 AM (0G2eQ)

112 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (39g3+)

Sorry about your computer issues but so glad you are writing.
You are on my "should be chained to a desk so they keep writing great books" list.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:23 AM (Om16U)

113 Off topic, my bing news feed, where I went to look up an opening line so I can get the book so it's not entirely without a book connection, says that an interview on ABC news with Milo Yiannopolis ended badly when Milo called the interviewer an idiot. That sounds like a really, really, really good ending, and long overdue.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 10:25 AM (VsZJP)

114 Wow.

Great libraries, Sabrina & JTB.

Posted by: JT at September 04, 2016 10:25 AM (AWYka)

115 Never knew that as a cat person (not totally by choice)

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 10:26 AM (0G2eQ)

116 >>>What I think I actually read
was "here is why America and the current and former British Empire
should always stick together when war is afoot".<<<

Yes, he was an early advocate of the Anglosphere concept.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at September 04, 2016 10:27 AM (x3uSY)

117 Favorite opening lines:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Call me Ishmael.
In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.
A Dream Of Freedom was a ship that had once been a world.

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at September 04, 2016 10:28 AM (mj4NC)

118 I just finished Casino, by Nicholas Pileggi the book that the movie was based on.

Posted by: JT at September 04, 2016 10:28 AM (AWYka)

119 FYI Stainless Steel Rat audiobook is on YouTube.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 10:29 AM (dKiJG)

120 In my quest to read every Star Wars book in timeline order, I just finished James Luceno's "Cloak of Deception", set just before Episode One. But I need a break from all that, so I just started "Batavia's Graveyard" by Mike Dash, about a shipwreck & mutiny on the Dutch East India Company's 'Batavia' in 1628. So far, very good. It's a fascinating look at the Netherlands in their Golden Age, the odd religious sects & cults that were springing up at that time, the ways of "The Company" & life at sea in The Age of Sail. Any book with interesting footnotes is always a good sign.

Posted by: josephistan at September 04, 2016 10:29 AM (7qAYi)

121 113 Off topic, my bing news feed, where I went to look up an opening line so I can get the book so it's not entirely without a book connection, says that an interview on ABC news with Milo Yiannopolis ended badly when Milo called the interviewer an idiot. That sounds like a really, really, really good ending, and long overdue.
Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 10:25 AM (VsZJP)

No, it was interviewer Terry Moran who lost it and called Milo an idiot for the massive thoughtcrime of making fun of an untalented, unfunny and unattractive black "comedian."

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 10:29 AM (P8951)

122 If we are doing opening line of poetry;

"Lars Porsena of Clusium
by the nine Gods he swore
the great House of Tarquin
should suffer wrong no more."

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at September 04, 2016 10:32 AM (x3uSY)

123 "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Posted by: Karl Marx at September 04, 2016 10:32 AM (dtWKK)

124 Either way, sounds like someone used a wrong vowel in "Moran".

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 10:33 AM (6FqZa)

125 Yep, MHI by the International Lord of Hate, Larry Correia (mortal enemy of all things SJW). Can't sneak anything past you guys ;-)

Posted by: Pave Low John at September 04, 2016 10:34 AM (Kfa/7)

126 I thoroughly enjoyed "The Trouble With Lexie" by Jessica Anya Blau, which begins with this paragraph:

"The problem wasn't so much that Lexie had taken the Klonopin. And it wasn't even that she had stolen them. At thirty generic pills for ten dollars, the theft of a handful (one down he gullet, the rest down her bra) had to be less than ... seven bucks? The problem, as Lexie saw it, was that she had fallen asleep in the bed of the owner of the Klonopin. And the owner of the Klonopin was the wife of her lover."

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 10:35 AM (jR7Wy)

127 Josephistan,

There is a movie on Netflix now called Admiral about de Ruyter and the Anglo Dutch wars that is pretty good.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at September 04, 2016 10:35 AM (x3uSY)

128 Milo would make a great gay Bond.

He's got the panache. And the accent.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:35 AM (Om16U)

129 "75 What are your favorite opening lines from the books you've read?

I'm pretty much f*cked.

The Martian by Andy Weir."

Yup. Sort and to the point. Perfect opening line that captures the main character's personality perfectly.

Posted by: Tuna at September 04, 2016 10:36 AM (JSovD)

130 110 Sabrina Chase sounds like the name of a Bond Girl.
Posted by: Pete in Texas at September 04, 2016 09:44 AM (F5KS5)

And so she could qualify. Talented, witty, completely driven,with an interesting back story and a wide array of competencies.

As an internet editor, I would suggest a "multitude of competencies" in place of EVER using "wide array" to describe anything regarding a woman. Don't forget Ms. Chase is a good shot and this simple change could save your life.

Posted by: A guy who has been shot at at September 04, 2016 10:36 AM (pxwEr)

131 121, Donna: well, crap. I like my version better but kudos to Milo for causing the interviewer to lose his cool.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 10:36 AM (VsZJP)

132
"Renowned curator Jacques Sauni�re staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery."

Posted by: NOT at September 04, 2016 10:37 AM (nw9BH)

133 Kafka had quite the knack when it came to opening sentences.

Coming soon to Hillary's America:

"Someone must have been spreading slander about Josef K., for one morning he was arrested, although he had done nothing wrong."

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 10:38 AM (P8951)

134

"Oh, for a muse of fire
that would ascend the
brightest heaven of
invention....."

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at September 04, 2016 10:39 AM (x3uSY)

135 128 Milo would make a great gay Bond.

He's got the panache. And the accent.
Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:35 AM (Om16U)

Bond boys instead of Bond girls?

Instead of Pussy Galore,...., (fill in the blank)

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 10:40 AM (P8951)

136 132

"Renowned curator Jacques Saun?ire staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery."

Posted by: NOT at September 04, 2016 10:37 AM (nw9BH)

I actually thought that was a good book if only he had not put that stupid forward that said it was based on true events. I thought for a change the movie was good too.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 10:40 AM (mpXpK)

137 "High, high above the North Pole, on the first day of 1969, two professors of English Literature approached each other at a combined velocity of 1200 miles per hour."

David Lodge, Changing Places

Posted by: Don at September 04, 2016 10:42 AM (R8iLy)

138 I suppose Idris Elba would make a good Bond Boy for Milo

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 10:42 AM (6FqZa)

139 Bond boys instead of Bond girls?

Instead of Pussy Galore,...., (fill in the blank)
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 10:40 AM (P8951)
----
Roger Dicksbury

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 10:43 AM (jR7Wy)

140 Best opening line from a children's book:

"Where's Papa going with that axe?"

Posted by: cool breeze at September 04, 2016 10:44 AM (ckvus)

141 As an internet editor, I
would suggest a "multitude of competencies" in place of EVER using "wide
array" to describe anything regarding a woman. Don't forget Ms. Chase
is a good shot and this simple change could save your life.

I would never shoot a fellow Moron for speaking as a Moron should. Innuendo and juvenile juxtapositions are our chief weapons! Oh, and ADD that would make a squirrel facepalm. Our THREE weapons... Did I mention thread drift? Because we do that too.

I'm highly amused by being considered a Bond girl. I don't think Mr. Bond would enjoy it much, though. :-D

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at September 04, 2016 10:47 AM (SuJIo)

142 Finished Sarah Hoyt's " Witchfinder" this week. Fun read. A nice respite from a nasty news cycle. Now on to something a little more substantial. "Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World" by Adrian Goldsworthy.

Posted by: Tuna at September 04, 2016 10:47 AM (JSovD)

143 Instead of Pussy Galore,...., (fill in the blank)
Posted by: DonnaV. whitely brandishing ampersandsso there at September 04, 2016 10:40 AM (P8951)
----
Roger Dicksbury

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 10:43 AM (jR7Wy)

Steele Johnson?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 10:50 AM (I0EOP)

144
110 Sabrina Chase sounds like the name of a Bond Girl.
Posted by: Pete in Texas at September 04, 2016 09:44 AM (F5KS5)

And so she could qualify. Talented, witty, completely driven,with an interesting back story and a wide array of competencies.
Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 10:20 AM (e9hKK)

But, alas, no bikini. Every Bond girl has to have a bikini.

Posted by: Bond, James Bond at September 04, 2016 10:51 AM (uVv9E)

145 Read Shakespeare's As You Like It, one of his better comedies, where people in trouble head to the forest and Rosalind finds love with Orlando.

Also read Hamlet, which was surprisingly good considering it reputedly was typed up by a lot of monkeys.

Listened to Cervantes' Don Quixote which I hadn't read since high school. Sort of remember liking it then and liked it a lot now, very funny and affectionate portrait of a madman and his sidekick traveling the Spanish countryside looking to stir up trouble.

Posted by: waelse1 at September 04, 2016 10:51 AM (DXrCk)

146 Roger Dicksbury

Steele Johnson

And Milo's favorite - Rod Black.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 10:52 AM (P8951)

147 Bizarre thing, hit the link for Stalin -Court of the Red Tzar and it comes up, tried to get sample but wanted password. Went to my Kindle app to look up book and will not come up. Went back to link and read reviews, tried again and nothing comes up in search. From Kindle app book previews or purchases come right up.

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 10:53 AM (0G2eQ)

148 Beef Jerky, if you want to be a double-naught spy like Dash Riprock

Posted by: retropox at September 04, 2016 10:53 AM (UFwG4)

149 ...on-reading, 'Beef Jerky' is funnier than I first thought.

I kill me.

Posted by: retropox at September 04, 2016 10:56 AM (UFwG4)

150 I was thinking how much I enjoyed the openings to novels by P G Wodehouse-

but then I realized it wasn't so much that he wrote great opening sentences.

He wrote great opening paragraphs

or perhaps, opening pages, if you will.

Pick up almost any book of his.

By the end of his first paragraphs, or certainly by the end of the first page-

you are comfortably ensconced in Wodehouse's world, settled into a nice puffy chair with gin and tonic at hand.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 10:56 AM (HGtd0)

151 It was a dark and stormy night."
Always grabbed my attention, but I don't think Snoopy ever got around to finishing the book.

-
In the end they do it doggy style.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at September 04, 2016 10:56 AM (N8bEZ)

152 Not a porn fan, but I do appreciate the cleverness of calling a male porn star Peter North.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 10:57 AM (P8951)

153 I don't suppose this qualifies as a sentence exactly, more like a long thought, but the opening to W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" grabbed me whe I first read it.

"About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree."

Posted by: Tuna at September 04, 2016 10:57 AM (JSovD)

154 What I
think I actually read was "here is why America and the current and
former British Empire should always stick together when war is afoot".

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 10:14 AM (mgbwf)

Bandersnatch, listen to Kevin Stroud's History of English Podcast.

http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/

You have to go through episodes 1-to-20 to get from Proto Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. It is glorious.

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 10:57 AM (e9hKK)

155 A great opening couplet anyway is Herman Melville's Moby Dick. "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little, and see the watery part of this world." As a child of the 60's in upstate New York, I always loved that book. I think it was required actually.

Posted by: rdohd at September 04, 2016 10:57 AM (czxW1)

156 I used my Barnes and Noble coupon on "Theodore the Great: Conservative Crusader" by Daniel Ruddy. Haven't started it yet but it looks like he wants to wrest Teddy Roosevelt back from the clutches of the modern-day Progressives who want to claim him as one of their own. I remember when he was hated as a jingoistic warmonger by the left, but now they're praising him as a friend of big government, the environment, and regulation. There is some merit to that, but they forget his fiscal conservatism and attempts to reign in courts. Anyway, I shall see as I dive into the book.

Also: for being dying institutions, my local brick and mortars always seem to be hopping.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 10:59 AM (jR7Wy)

157 I'm continuing with the Collected Letters of CS Lewis, volume 2. It has proved so delightful I will probably order volume 3 even though it ain't cheap. Each volume is over 1,000 pages so the Kindle version is convenient but I will eventually find decent hardcover editions at a decent price. Something to keep me on the hunt.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 11:00 AM (V+03K)

158 Instead of Pussy Galore,...., (fill in the blank)

Posted by: DonnaV. whitely brandishing ampersandsso there at September 04, 2016 10:40 AM (P8951)

Crusher Glutes

Rex Sphincter

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 11:00 AM (HGtd0)

159 155 A great opening couplet anyway is Herman Melville's Moby Dick. "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little, and see the watery part of this world." As a child of the 60's in upstate New York, I always loved that book. I think it was required actually.
Posted by: rdohd at September 04, 2016 10:57 AM (czxW1)

That's the opening that immediately came to mind.

The other one was "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Posted by: Northernlurker at September 04, 2016 11:01 AM (s7hQ/)

160 My favorite book from the 20th century is Robertson Davies' Murther and Walking Spirits. If the first sentence doesn't grab you, then you have no imagination or sense of wonder at all.

"I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead."

Posted by: biancaneve at September 04, 2016 11:01 AM (6p7LQ)

161 Watching The Blue Max, for the hundredth time. And for the hundredth time, wondering how and why, for Gods sake, is George Peppard rejecting Ursula Andress in that towel draped over her shoulders. Oh sure, eventually he gives in, but still. That towel should not have lasted 10 seconds.

-
I'm rereading the novel which is quite a bit different from the movie. Satchel survives the war and a sequel was written about him during the prewar Nazi period. It is not as good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at September 04, 2016 11:01 AM (N8bEZ)

162 Book experience of the week:

Milady noticed that a stack of books on one shelf had spiraled* a bit, and we think that may have been from the earthquake yesterday morning. Silly, but she took a picture.

Spiraled: from bottom to top book, horizontal rotation counter-clockwise, each a couple of degrees more rotated than the one below it. I guess her picture might be worth at least those 22 words.

Good morning.

I had a long and detailed dream about living in a very small, isolated, impoverished town with a corrupt mayor and sheriff, where I somehow got myself elected vice-mayor and the mayor was out to get me. Then CNN rolled into town but I didn't know what they were reporting on. If I did, I thought, I might have had a good story to work up. Had everything except the main mystery. Dreams rarely seem as usably story-like once I wake up.

Posted by: mindful webworker - shaken, not stirred at September 04, 2016 11:02 AM (cWLG9)

163 You have to go through episodes 1-to-20 to get from Proto Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. It is glorious.

Ack! I mean, thank you.

But ack! He's up to episode 83.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 11:03 AM (mgbwf)

164 And then we have: "Once there were four children, whose names are Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy."

Posted by: Northernlurker at September 04, 2016 11:03 AM (s7hQ/)

165 "I always get the shakes before a drop."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:03 AM (5fSr7)

166 Running out to the grocery store and then I'm going to enjoy our lovely weather - it won't last long.

Have a good Sunday, horde. See you later...

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V. whitely brandishing ampersands&&&&&so there at September 04, 2016 11:04 AM (P8951)

167 Rex Sphincter

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 11:00 AM (HGtd0)

"Rectum? Damn near killed him!"

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:04 AM (I0EOP)

168 Regarding audio books I am currently hooked, completely hooked on listening to Agatha Christie books as read by Hugh Fraser who some may know as a British TV Actor, but he may actually be a Canadian, I'm not sure.

He reads these books so excellently it is better than if you read them yourself, I think.

The best so far, reading-wise was "Mrs. McGinty's Dead", but I also just finished listening to "And Then There Were None" (a/k/a 10 Little Indians) which is a real classic and considered, according to Wiki anyway, as Christie's masterpiece.

Super highly recommended!

Posted by: jocon307 at September 04, 2016 11:05 AM (4WPdG)

169 Hairy Chafen? ...perhaps as the dead singer who was killed by Crusher Glutes as a diversion?

Posted by: retropox at September 04, 2016 11:05 AM (UFwG4)

170 37 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Sort of takes off from there.

-
Lots of sex and violence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at September 04, 2016 11:05 AM (N8bEZ)

171 My favorite book from the 20th century is Robertson Davies' Murther and Walking Spirits....

Posted by: biancaneve at September 04, 2016 11:01 AM (6p7LQ)

I might pop for "The Rebel Angels" as my favorite Robertson Davies book.

though they're all good. He's one of my writing idols.

Too bad the old boy didn't hang around long enough to collect his much deserved Nobel Prize for Literature.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 11:06 AM (HGtd0)

172 I listened to a podcast this week with Timothy Ferris and Ryan Holiday.
They started talking about Fahrenheit 451. One of them pointed out, the book burning was driven--not by government control--but the desire to remove all offence from society.
The conversation then morphed into a discussion of "bigoteers" who make their income from cries of offence, racism and bigotry.
Interesting.

Posted by: Northernlurker at September 04, 2016 11:06 AM (s7hQ/)

173 Posted by: Northernlurker at September 04, 2016 11:06 AM (s7hQ/)

Bigoteers. I love it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 11:08 AM (jR7Wy)

174 "Every time he drove through Yorkville, Rosenbaum got angry, just on general principles."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:08 AM (5fSr7)

175 I've posted about Hayek and his book Road to Serfdom here before. I thought it worth raising again in the context of planned economies.

Hayek had a simple argument in his Road to Serfdom: in addition to being inherently coercive, central planning is sub-optimal because it's not as good as free market pricing at processing information in order to make informed decisions. Even when bureaucrats are smart and well-intentioned, they don't always have all the information they need. If they do have sufficient information, they get overwhelmed by it. Free market pricing wins every time, with the exception of the occasional grand military-oriented project.

An extension of this idea is that bureaucrats don't like change and won't admit to making mistakes. Compare the private sector: even monopolistic companies that don't change and won't admit to making mistakes will eventually fail.

Reagan, a closet intellectual, was a big fan of Hayek. If you believed Hayek, you'd have understood the Soviet Union's vulnerability.

If you understood Hayek, you'd have known that ObamaCare was doomed to fail.

The book itself is a bit of a slog because of Hayek's acaemic style. You can find a Reader's Digest su
mmary version online, which I recommend. This summary version was read by millions back in 1945, when we had far fewer people getting higher education.

Posted by: Ignoramus at September 04, 2016 11:08 AM (bQxkN)

176 Bigoteers. ya, that's a keeper.

Posted by: retropox at September 04, 2016 11:08 AM (UFwG4)

177 I have a dream to go to Mars.

First and only sentence Athens Jr. wrote for an assignment in second grade along with a picture of Mars with large geological features in relative relation to each other. He had to explain to the teacher what they were.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at September 04, 2016 11:09 AM (lQqij)

178 Why can't B&N have a 40% off coupon for the end of the month, when the complete Ralph McQuarrie Art of Star Wars is released? It's over $200, and 40% (plus the gift cards I'll likely get for my birthday) will go a long way towards getting that.

Posted by: josephistan at September 04, 2016 11:09 AM (7qAYi)

179 165
"I always get the shakes before a drop."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:03 AM (5fSr7)

Book was great, movie not so much. In fact the movie bore almost no resemblance to the book.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 11:11 AM (mpXpK)

180 "In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:13 AM (5fSr7)

181 The Dragon awards (new SFF and gaming fan award) should be announced today or tomorrow.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at September 04, 2016 11:13 AM (ASSjT)

182 Kindltot - thanks, I'll have to check that out.

I hope Ahmad al-Jallad does one for Arabic. It's only just become possible the last couple years. That's when he identified the missing (Roman-era) link as Safaitic and Hismaic. He's already written a grammar of Safaitic; he's supposed to be working on Hismaic next.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:13 AM (vCyy6)

183 "Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith."

I was able to get family to help me buy the 3 volume Letters of C. S. Lewis in hardcover just before neck surgery made holding the books almost impossible. Thanks to BookBub, I was able to pick them up for 1.99 each on Kindle; hurrah for BookBub! I've just gotten to June 1936 in volume 2. What a delight Lewis is!

"I suppose we have all lived to discover that we are not great men, and not to mind: there are better things than that in the world, and out of it."

There's the letters to, and about, his brother Warnie, who gets sent to Shanghai the month before the Japanese invade China.

I am trying not to rush through these books, though. I've read and (per the advice of CSL) re-read about all his stuff I can find. "New" C. S. Lewis is a gift!

JTB, that's an impressive Library ham shack

Posted by: Sigfried at September 04, 2016 11:14 AM (C+8qh)

184 "It is a truth universally acknowledged; that a man in possession of a great fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Or words to that effect.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:14 AM (A4pxH)

185 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Pride and Prejudice-first sentence

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 04, 2016 11:15 AM (6HqlZ)

186 As an
internet editor, I would suggest a "multitude of competencies" in place
of EVER using "wide array" to describe anything regarding a woman.
Don't forget Ms. Chase is a good shot and this simple change could save
your life.

Posted by: A guy who has been shot at at September 04, 2016 10:36 AM (pxwEr)

Hey, you notice I avoided the term "broad base" in referring to her competencies. I am not suicidal.

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 11:16 AM (e9hKK)

187 180 "In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:13 AM (5fSr7)

Doon.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:18 AM (I0EOP)

188 180
"In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final
scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone
came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:13 AM (5fSr7)

Good book, the follow-up books not so much.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 11:18 AM (mpXpK)

189 Mickey Spillane - "Your first line sells the book. Your last line sells the next book."

Posted by: Jaqen H'ghar at September 04, 2016 11:19 AM (5fSr7)

190 FenelonSpoke, looks like bluebell beat you by a whisker.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:19 AM (I0EOP)

191 The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

...he may be libtard as the day as long, but King can sling the words with the best of 'em when he's good.

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at September 04, 2016 11:20 AM (vyqqu)

192 First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (One of my favorites) by Ray Bradbury

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 04, 2016 11:21 AM (6HqlZ)

193 Good book, the follow-up books not so much.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 11:18 AM (mpXpK)

Exactly. Only the first one is worth your time. The rest are unnecessary, forgettable effluvia.

Kind of the the 'Matrix' movies.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:21 AM (I0EOP)

194 Ah, but I left a word out and may have funked the punctuation. Was going by memory and short on coffee.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:21 AM (A4pxH)

195 183 Posted by: Sigfried at September 04, 2016 11:14 AM (C+8qh)

The first time I read SIASL by Heinlein I liked it but that was way back in the early 60s. I tried recently going back and re-reading it and did not like it. I guess tastes change.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 11:23 AM (mpXpK)

196 Brian J. Palma's The Map of Time has a plot point about first sentences of great books. It is the first of a trilogy. I loved the first, liked the second, and haven't made it through the third.

There are worse opening sentences than The Wat of the Worlds.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at September 04, 2016 11:24 AM (N8bEZ)

197 Bond Men:

Rex Cherry
Dick Vaste
Roger Nightly

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:24 AM (39g3+)

198 Good book, the follow-up books not so much.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 11:18 AM (mpXpK)

Exactly. Only the first one is worth your time. The rest are unnecessary, forgettable effluvia.

Kind of the the 'Matrix' movies.
Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:21 AM (I0EOP)

Ugh. The "Matrix" sequels.

Way to violate and unwind the world and rules created in the first (and Only) "Matrix" movie Wachowski Brothers...

...uh....Sisters?....

....

...

...uhm, thingamadoodles?

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 11:25 AM (HGtd0)

199 193 Kind of the the 'Matrix' movies.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:21 AM (I0EOP)

Yep; agree 100%

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 11:25 AM (mpXpK)

200 Morning all. Stopped in to say hi before heading off to Evangelical Church, to listen to really good Christian top 40 singing, pretty good keyboardist, and kick-ass drummer.
Then pass the plate, the weekly communion, and a very pleasant message.
Run time usually 70 minutes.
Wife loves the church, reasonable amt. of arm waving, but no jumping around in the aisle. And none of that tongue stuff.
I'm Calvinist, so, just whatever.

Read more books!!

Posted by: tubal at September 04, 2016 11:26 AM (d6TTt)

201 194 Ah, but I left a word out and may have funked the punctuation. Was going by memory and short on coffee.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:21 AM (A4pxH)

I think it's one of the funniest lines in English literature. It brilliantly sets the stage for what follows and pretty much telegraphs her punch: namely, that she's going to be making fun of British upper-class customs and morals.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:26 AM (I0EOP)

202 Roger Nightly
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:24 AM (39g3+)
---
Milo Yiannopoliulos IS Roger Nightly!

Too good to waste on a Bond twink. This needs to be its own series.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 11:27 AM (jR7Wy)

203 I'm Calvinist, so, just whatever.
So are my wife and I. She's a member of a FB group of Calvinists, and their tag line is Calvinists: The Group that Finds You!

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:28 AM (SeD0w)

204 203 I'm Calvinist, so, just whatever.
So are my wife and I. She's a member of a FB group of Calvinists, and their tag line is Calvinists: The Group that Finds You!
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:28 AM (SeD0w)
---
Is it predestined?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 11:29 AM (jR7Wy)

205 OMuse, it is, and must have really surprised some people back then, coming from a woman no less.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:30 AM (A4pxH)

206 I wish my library looked as organized as Sabrina's.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 11:30 AM (XNHOq)

207 I'm Calvinist, so, just whatever.
So are my wife and I. She's a member of a FB group of Calvinists, and their tag line is Calvinists: The Group that Finds You!

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:28 AM (SeD0w)

That sounds like a threat.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 11:31 AM (HGtd0)

208 I signed up for the Dragon awards at the last minute and got an email indicating I'd get a form email last Monday. Didn't happen. Hope Puppies do better.

Posted by: waelse1 at September 04, 2016 11:31 AM (DXrCk)

209 *scroll*scroll*scroll* and another thing.
Went to see "Hell or High Water" this weekend. Here's my review: Do not miss this movie. Everything is good about it. Beautiful cinematography, great acting, realistic and engaging plot. Definitely see it in a theater too...

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:31 AM (SeD0w)

210 Tubal's gone now, but other people might enjoy this video by Christan comedian Tin Hawkins on "Hand raising in church." The only hand raising we had today at church was by me. :^)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuRN2LL3fBs

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 04, 2016 11:31 AM (6HqlZ)

211 Is it predestined?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 11:29 AM (jR7Wy)

Well of course. Free will is a necessary illusion. I'm hard Determinist.
God runs everything, we're too vain to admit it.
Go God!!!
Now, off to see the Arminians be nice.

Posted by: tubal at September 04, 2016 11:33 AM (d6TTt)

212 Speaking of Shakespeare, a good resource is No Fear Shakespeare. It translates into modern English (thereby sucking every last drop of beauty from the language) but you can understand what he talking about. For example, here is Richard III (which has the beautiful winter of our discontent opening soliloquy).

http://m.sparknotes.com/nfs/richardiii/

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at September 04, 2016 11:33 AM (N8bEZ)

213 Is it predestined? Predestined is a bit vague for Calvinists: I believe the term is preordained.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:34 AM (SeD0w)

214 So are my wife and I. She's a member of a FB group of Calvinists, and their tag line is Calvinists: The Group that Finds You!
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:28 AM (SeD0w)

I describe my Calvinist beliefs to other Christians using a clever acronym:

BACON

B - Bad people
A - Already elected
C - Completely atoned for
O - Overwhelmingly called
N - Never falling away

Bacon is the new tulip.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:34 AM (I0EOP)

215 Bandersnatch, listen to Kevin Stroud's History of English Podcast.

http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/

I just listened to Episode 1, the introduction. I'm pretty familiar with most of that, but as he describes what he's going to talk about I know nothing and want to know it all.

Kindltot, you're costing me about 40 hours of my life!

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 11:37 AM (mgbwf)

216 I'm Calvinist, so, just whatever.
So are my wife and I. She's a member of a FB group of Calvinists, and their tag line is Calvinists: The Group that Finds You!

-
I'm more of a Hobbesian. Our tagline is Whatever, Dude.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at September 04, 2016 11:37 AM (N8bEZ)

217 But next week I'm serving communion at the multi ethnic church so there might be some hand raising there-probably not during communion, though except to get the bread. :^)

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 04, 2016 11:38 AM (6HqlZ)

218 Bander, had coffee in the hahbuh this morning.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:38 AM (A4pxH)

219 My daughter and I challenged each other to read our Five Foot Shelf in its entirety. ( a family heirloom for us: my dad purchased it when he was a bachelor so he would educate himself; also know as the Harvard Classics - a collection of lit equivalent to a college education.)

It begins with Ben Franklin's autobiography. By the time he was 17 years old, he had already run a printing press; published a newspaper; was major contributing writer to said paper; traveled by boat alone from Boston to Philadelphia to seek his fortune; found employment at another press; found a place to live and met his future wife.

When I was 17, I was watching MTV...

...I feel nauseous...

Posted by: RondinellaMamma at September 04, 2016 11:38 AM (oQQwD)

220 Bacon is the new tulip.
Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:34 AM (I0EOP)

That's very clever. Did you think that up?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 04, 2016 11:38 AM (6HqlZ)

221 It's a shame Brian Herbert learned nothing from his daddy about writing other than how to milk a franchise.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:40 AM (vCyy6)

222 That's very clever. Did you think that up?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 04, 2016 11:38 AM (6HqlZ)

Yeah, no. Got it from a jpeg I found online somewhere.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:40 AM (I0EOP)

223 Bander, had coffee in the hahbuh this morning.

Oh, bluebell, I'm so ~~seething~~ happy for you.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 11:40 AM (mgbwf)

224 I was thinking how much I enjoyed the openings to novels by P G Wodehouse-

but then I realized it wasn't so much that he wrote great opening sentences.

He wrote great opening paragraphs
[. . .]

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 10:56 AM (HGtd0)

P.G. Wodehouse's final editing style was to type out his stories on half-sheets of buff paper and post them (seriatum, shall we say?) at shoulder level around his office and then read them through and move each half page that didn't have a moment, zinger or major plot element down the wall a bit, and then when he was done with that, he'd re-write the ones that were moved down until he judged they could be moved back up to the level of the others.
I suspect if he couldn't do anything with a sheet he'd condense it with other pages.

Wodehouse's writing was very concise for being so flighty, and it was like getting a high end box of chocolates: you didn't really know what you were going to bite into next, but it was pretty much guaranteed to be tasty.

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 11:41 AM (e9hKK)

225 Sigh, I guess Heinlein is a racist now. At least that is what the SJW's in SF are telling me.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at September 04, 2016 11:41 AM (Ee2nz)

226 Mmm bacon

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:42 AM (39g3+)

227 I read The Communist Manifesto this weekend. It was a good read. It was short, easy, and made lots of sense.

If I stopped right there, what would happen is a bunch of people will Trump me with guilt by association. I will get all kinds of, "how about some butchering, Comrade" type comments.

But the fact is, the manifesto is short, easy to read, and makes perfect sense.

Here is a great quote I learned reading a smart military blog:

"For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

So here is a question. Was Marx's writing persuasive and effective? How can we be as effective in writing about libertarian ideas?

Posted by: Donald J. Trump at September 04, 2016 11:44 AM (0+srV)

228 Heinlein was very prejudiced against Arthropod-Americans. They were just looking for a better life

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:44 AM (vCyy6)

229 Heh, Bander. You should go for a visit soon. Not sure how far away you are. But the horrible weather has broken, and it really is nice. Are your boys still here?

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:46 AM (A4pxH)

230 I forgot about my Donald J. Trump sock.

Posted by: davedaveadavarf at September 04, 2016 11:46 AM (0+srV)

231 17 "It was a dark and stormy night."
Always grabbed my attention, but I don't think Snoopy ever got around to finishing the book.
Posted by: Derptastic at September 04, 2016 09:19 AM (b8jcS)

"It was a dark and stormy night, when suddenly the snot ran out."

That's the opening line from Time Pressure, by Spider Robinson.

Posted by: Bacon Jeff at September 04, 2016 11:46 AM (VSenK)

232 I'll offer up the title for Chapter 1 of Mark Helprin's "Memoir from Antproof Case":

"I Protest the Sexuality of the Brazilians."

Posted by: Smallish Bees at September 04, 2016 11:47 AM (YPgXi)

233 Just so y'all know, that coupon code apparently works Once Per Order.

Doesn't appear to be a limit on the number of times that you can use it.

My wallet is not pleased.

Posted by: garrett at September 04, 2016 11:47 AM (IWo60)

234 http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/

Thanks for posting that, as I love this kind of stuff. Listened to the first episode and I'll be busy with the rest all weekend.

Posted by: t-bird at September 04, 2016 11:47 AM (w35Hj)

235 Snoopy kept finetuning the book because he got rejection notices all the time.

This is Charles Schultz we're discussing here. Every comic he did was about rejection and loss.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:48 AM (vCyy6)

236 Wodehouse was a genius. And he wrote the funniest stuff I've ever read, with nary a bad word or a gratuitous sex scene anywhere. Love, love, love his stuff.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:48 AM (A4pxH)

237 Are your boys still here?

No, the reason I'm in godforsaken central CT (*spit*) is that the stupid ex-wife got a really good job here ten years ago and I couldn't be without my boys.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 11:48 AM (mgbwf)

238 I'm Calvinist, so, just whatever.

So are my wife and I. She's a member of a FB group of Calvinists, and their tag line is Calvinists: The Group that Finds You!
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at September 04, 2016 11:28 AM (SeD0w)

15-20 years ago there was a thing about the new motto for the US Postal Service. My proposal was "USPS, We Know Where You Live"

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 11:49 AM (e9hKK)

239 Ah, well, at least you're not far plus you're near your boys which is paramount. Grab them and head to Scituate for a weekend.

Posted by: bluebell at September 04, 2016 11:50 AM (A4pxH)

240 I like Wodehouse's technique though, its a bit mechanistic, but it's like comedians who do a set, keep the parts that killed and dump the ones that don't adding to it until they have nothing but a non-stop winner set.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:51 AM (39g3+)

241 Would anyone mind if I quoted some of my own opening lines here? Too bad.

"Deep within the wreck of an ancient and gigantic spaceship, Trajan Lear was getting his ass kicked." - Book 7

"Naked, wet, and furious, Commander William Keeler slapped the COM panel in the hallway outside his hygiene pod." - Book 10

Posted by: V the K at September 04, 2016 11:51 AM (jn7FC)

242 New England is beautiful and you're going to be in autumn soon. Pity about the locals.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:51 AM (vCyy6)

243 So here is a question. Was Marx's writing persuasive and effective? How can we be as effective in writing about libertarian ideas?
Posted by: Donald J. Trump at September 04, 2016 11:44 AM (0+srV)

Heinlein's short talk in Starship Troopers over the Marxist mistake in understanding value is a good start. People think they have to refute the whole thing. That is a mistake and leads to TL

R. Undermine one piece of the argument and it all starts falling apart.

I have to agree though. I read it in college and it is well written.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at September 04, 2016 11:52 AM (Ee2nz)

244 This is Charles Schultz we're discussing here. Every comic he did was about rejection and loss.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:48 AM (vCyy6)

...and depression
...and loneliness
...and alienation
...and desperation for love
...and misery due to personal failures

So, then. It really wasn't a comic strip for kids.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:52 AM (I0EOP)

245 I read The Communist Manifesto this weekend. It was a good read. It was short, easy, and made lots of sense.

It does, and it doesn't. It appeals to a part of humanity that wishes things were a certain way, in defiance to all we know about the world and human nature. Communism requires all humanity be perfect, selfless, and virtuous. Capitalism just requires people be somewhat virtuous and appeals to our real human nature.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:53 AM (39g3+)

246 Summer in the desert means reading "cool" books. Right now I'm reading "The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-12 - Volume 1 and Volume 2" by Roald Amundsen, translated by Arthur G. Chater
Note: It's a free kindle book.

Posted by: AzDesertRat at September 04, 2016 11:53 AM (aScBL)

247 I've been using Grammarly which is a browser/word plugin for grammar. Very helpful. The free version picks up a lot of issues.

http://www.grammarly.com

Posted by: davedaveadavarf at September 04, 2016 11:53 AM (0+srV)

248 Speaking of denominations, I just scored a free coffee-table book from my mom. Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, & Time Lines. It has a very entertaining taxonomy section ("Christianity, Cults & Relgions) that describes virtually every religious group in the world (the cult part is why they include Nation of Islam and Wicca in this section).

Nice overall layout and design, tons of maps and timelines and seems to be aimed at an academic audience, which is a plus for me.

Anyone else ever seen this particular volume?

Posted by: Pave Low John at September 04, 2016 11:53 AM (Kfa/7)

249 "Trajan Lear was getting his ass kicked."

Just that gets my attention.

Posted by: davedaveadavarf at September 04, 2016 11:55 AM (0+srV)

250 Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 11:41 AM (e9hKK)

Yes, Wodehouse's genius was very much the genius of hard work.

P.G. Wodehouse's final editing style was to type out his stories on half-sheets of buff paper and post them (seriatum, shall we say?) at shoulder level around his office and then read them through and move each half page that didn't have a moment, zinger or major plot element down the wall a bit, and then when he was done with that, he'd re-write the ones that were moved down until he judged they could be moved back up to the level of the others.

While I couldn't hang pages of manuscript about the house,

or else the lovely and organized Mrs naturalfake would remove my medulla oblongata with a corkscrew,

I more or less used that method while writing "Wearing the Cat'.

It's one of the major things I learned from reading Wodehouse.

You can't copy his style without sounding like a bad imitation,

but his "mechanics" of writing are masterful.

For me, he's easily in the top 10 of Greatest Writers of the 20th Century.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 11:57 AM (HGtd0)

251 I have book that I inherited from my father,it's a kids book from the 1860's and the book is from my Great Great Great Grandma. The book is how do I say this very very racist. What the hell do you do with a book like that.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 11:58 AM (dKiJG)

252 128 Milo would make a great gay Bond.

He's got the panache. And the accent.
Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 10:35 AM
(Om16U)

Votermom, it's clear Milo is a Bond villain.

Posted by: Smallish Bees at September 04, 2016 12:00 PM (YPgXi)

253 Chris,

It makes sense and is common sense to a gazillion people that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Some things about economics are counter-intuitive. For example, to suggest that price gouging laws are harmful is counter-intuitive on its face.

Posted by: davedaveadavarf at September 04, 2016 12:00 PM (0+srV)

254 JTB thank you for liking my little story. Warms my heart it does. Now to finish the sequel. That is truly the magic trick.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 12:01 PM (XNHOq)

255 @219, RondinellaMamma - I know how you feel. Even now, as a 60 yr old man, I look at what I've done vs what so many others have done and I feel quite unaccomplished.

This is the essence of the value of individual freedom and liberty as it is well described by Hayek - that we stand on the shoulders of giants, should they be allowed to exist, study, produce and teach rather than be constrained by arbitrary political demands of a centrally-planned economy.

My greatest hope now is simply to teach my grandchildren how valuable freedom is and how easily it is lost.

Posted by: A guy who has been shot at at September 04, 2016 12:03 PM (pxwEr)

256 BiancaNeve, NaturalFake:

We need to have a Robertson Davies reading club here. And a Mark Helprin reading time. Each perfect in his own way.

Posted by: Smallish Bees at September 04, 2016 12:04 PM (YPgXi)

257 Elisabeth G. Wolfe #70: I can't believe I'm almost an hour late and nobody's mentioned...

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit....

If you hadn't I would've. Such a deceptively simple but intriguing beginning to one of the greatest adventures.

Posted by: mindful webworker - Frodo lives! at September 04, 2016 12:04 PM (cWLG9)

258 It appeals to a part of humanity that wishes things were a certain way, in defiance to all we know about the world and human nature.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:53 AM (39g3+)

I would also say that some of Marxism's appeal lies in its totalitarian nature, and by that I mean not in the political sense, but it is what post-modernism refers to as a "totalizing meta-narrative." Like Christianity, it has an explanation for everything, it has its own explanation for the creation of matter, for the evolution of life, for how history proceeds the way it does, it has its own theory of morals and what man should be striving for, and what we ought to be doing. It's everything, all rolling into one, complete package.

I think it's actually a species of Christian heresy, but that's a subject for another time.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:08 PM (I0EOP)

259 Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesay and the rest of those gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is treasure still not lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17__, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first took up lodging under our roof.

Posted by: LMD Outer Banker at September 04, 2016 12:09 PM (SoJdk)

260 Snoopy kept finetuning the book because he got rejection notices all the time.

This is Charles Schultz we're discussing here. Every comic he did was about rejection and loss.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 11:48 AM (vCyy6)

In the most recent "Peanuts" movie ( which is very good by the way - if more "happy-endingish than Schultz would write),

Snoopy does in fact finish his "Dark and Stormy night" novel-

Lucy, of course, informs him that it's garbage.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 12:10 PM (HGtd0)

261 Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (e9hKK)

I don't know about The Discovers but I read The Creators. I planned to just read it through. But one reviewer said, the book is a smorgasbord and turns out that is the way I have read and enjoyed it. Not an essential read, but an enjoyable one. I admire DB and would like to read the trilogy. My academic background is in History and more specifically Russian and EE.

Posted by: gracepc at September 04, 2016 12:11 PM (OU4q6)

262 "You know what sucks about the zombie apocalypse?"

("Even Zombie Killers Get the Blues," John Holmes)

For some reason, I'm a big fan of Holme's zombie books, though I don't care for any other zombie book, show, or movie that I can think of.

Posted by: John the Baptist at September 04, 2016 12:13 PM (MPH+3)

263 Oregon Muse, Islam is a Judeo-Christian heresy..

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 12:13 PM (XNHOq)

264 Just finished Michael Kinsley's autobiography : I, Pencilneck

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at September 04, 2016 12:14 PM (IqV8l)

265 263 Oregon Muse, Islam is a Judeo-Christian heresy..

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 12:13 PM (XNHOq)

I believe that's true.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:15 PM (I0EOP)

266 Speaking of racist old books, I'm amazed no-one has reviewed Favell Lee Mortimer's "The Clumsiest People In Europe" here yet. So let's DO this!!

The book you buy is a recent annotated collection. But Favell Lee Mortimer, like many nineteenth century authors, can be had for free on Google Books (for now), in its full 'glory'. She was a miserable Victorian misanthrope who didn't like anything but Jesus, and I think even He would facepalm at the stuff she had written here.

When Mortimer's not being hilariously bigoted she does give a fine snapshot on lost worlds of the nineteenth century. This because she rarely left the house - she didn't even go to Wales, a scant thirty miles from her front door. So what she does is summarise what other people wrote.

The chapter on the Circassians, who had already been genocided by the damned Tsar, is a standout - because they were still around when Mortimer's sources were writing. Also the material on the Australian aborigines whilst they were still free is interesting (although, yeah, racist).

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:16 PM (vCyy6)

267 Huh. Is anyone else having difficult accessing the main AoSHQ page?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:16 PM (I0EOP)

268 Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:08 PM (I0EOP)

Yes, exactly.

Libertarianism big flaw is that it is all "do what thou wilt"

which is fine for a society composed entirely of "libertarian virtuous" adults-

without providing any means whatsoever for obtaining and nurturing and raising said adults from children.

It is simply an impossible ideology in the real world.

Though you could have "Libertarian Island" made up of adult individuals who abandon their own nations to live a "do what thou wilt" lifestyle.

The weekend version of this is called "Las Vegas".

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 12:17 PM (HGtd0)

269 Dang. If there was a Barnes & Noble still open near me, I would use that coupon and get "Young Frankenstein: A Mel Brooks Book: The Story of the Making of the Film.

http://bit.ly/2c3ZVsU

I see Amazon has exclusive rights for now, but it's available for pre-order on B&N.

It is described as "a picture book," so why you'd want it on Kindle, I don't know...

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 12:18 PM (YeKKY)

270 What's even funnier than Mortimer's bigotries is the SJW squealing over lines like "New Orleans is a dangerous place to live in, both for the body and the soul" and "It is dreadful to think what a number of murders are committed in [nineteenth-century] Italy":
http://tinyurl.com/j5fucl5

Oh the vapours! Who knew that Italy was violent when it was a mess of city-states and the mafia. Who knew that New Orleans sucks! I must retire to my couch.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:21 PM (vCyy6)

271 Though you could have "Libertarian Island" made up of adult individuals who abandon their own nations to live a "do what thou wilt" lifestyle.
The weekend version of this is called "Las Vegas".
Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 12:17 PM (HGtd0)

An an ONT a few months back, there was a link to an article about how some small town in New Hampshire tried running things along completely libertarian lines.

Everybody spent all their time arguing with each other about, well, everything.

Libertarianism, like communism is great if you're an ideologue who likes to think about politics all the time. Marxists call this "class consciousness." Most people don't want to have "class consciousness", nor do they want whatever the libertarian equivalent is. They just want to live their lives in peace and not have to think about politics all the time.

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:23 PM (I0EOP)

272 Although, as I've previously noted, I've been discouraged to talk here about one of my favorite tomes, I would be remiss in my duty to my fellow readers if, in a discussion of first lines, I did not convey this opening sentence of the Foreword of The Urantia Book:

IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia - that being the name of your world - there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity....

There in sum is the book's theme: an super-terrestrial messenger - even to the "naming" of our world (always thought Earth ((land, dirt)) a lousy name - all worlds are "Earth" to the inhabitants) -- and their intent to clarify and rectify our theological conceptual poverty.

This, and the subsequent several paragraphs expanding on this statement of purpose, will either repulse or intrigue the reader. In my case, the latter, due to both my truth-seeking and my science fiction fan impulses being pinged.

Posted by: mindful webworker - mere mortal at September 04, 2016 12:23 PM (cWLG9)

273 It is described as "a picture book," so why you'd want it on Kindle, I don't know...
Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 12:18 PM (YeKKY)

Maybe Amazon is coming out with the 30" "MotorVu" Kindle? Visible best from the back-seat?

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 12:23 PM (e9hKK)

274 The murder, The constant, unending MURDER that was the central reality of Soviet life...and this is what the Left wants for the US.

I had a history professor in college, '68-'72, who had immigrated from Estonia and lived under the Soviet system.

He said that during the Stalin era, everyone knew someone who had just "disappeared".

Posted by: nerdygirl at September 04, 2016 12:24 PM (+lVUW)

275 245 I read The Communist Manifesto this weekend. It was a good read. It was short, easy, and made lots of sense.

It does, and it doesn't. It appeals to a part of humanity that wishes things were a certain way, in defiance to all we know about the world and human nature. Communism requires all humanity be perfect, selfless, and virtuous. Capitalism just requires people be somewhat virtuous and appeals to our real human nature.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 11:53 AM (39g3+)

Capitalism is organic, while Communism is synthetic.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at September 04, 2016 12:25 PM (ASSjT)

276 I think it's actually a species of Christian heresy, but that's a subject for another time.
Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:08 PM (I0EOP)

That's an interesting idea. You should do a post on it.

Posted by: @votermom at September 04, 2016 12:27 PM (Om16U)

277 Capitalism the individual vs communism, progressivism the borg

Posted by: LMD Outer Banker at September 04, 2016 12:28 PM (SoJdk)

278 Oh, the irony. I'm currently reading "First Strike," by Ben Coes, the sixth in the Dewey Andreas saga. And while the first-sentence rule would probably not keep you reading this one, I'll vouch for it being unputdownable.

If you like Vince Flynn or Brad Thor, Coes is your man. I first heard of him when Rush mentioned staying up past 2 the night before reading Coes's first effort, "Power Down."

IIRC, his first jacket bios included that he had worked in the Reagan Admin. Now it just says he worked in the WH under two preezies.

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 12:29 PM (YeKKY)

279 Has anyone read Boorsteins The Discoverers? Is it any good?
Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 10:04 AM (e9hKK)

I have. It's quite good. It has fascinating things about how the development of an accurate chronometer allowed sailors to know their longitude (lattitude is easy) and what all that led to.

Meanwhile, episode 2 of your stupid timewasting why did you post the link podcast is full of interesting things I did not know.

Curse you!

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 12:30 PM (mgbwf)

280 Switching back and fourth between Zimm's Pearl Harbor book (a sort of operations research re-evaluation of the Japanese plan and performance) and Ian Kershaw's final Hitler biography installment (Nemesis - 1936-1945).

Almost done with Zimm. Very interesting book. Obviously the attack caused great damage to the US fleet - and was about the worst conceivable move by Japan, as it guaranteed enthusiastic US entry into war when such was still politically infeasible - but he does illuminate the weaknesses and pathologies of Japanese military planning/culture that played a big role long after December '41.

Somewhat disappointed with Kershaw so far. Was expecting more detail on some key events, and his narrative style just doesn't match up to some other period histories I've recently read.

One thing, though, that Kershaw is establishing that is sort of newish to me is the sheer improvisation and chaos that marked almost all of Hitler's great pre-war triumphs. Notable here was that Hitler's final seizure of dominance over the Army was no calculated plan, but the fallout of the serious twin Blomberg/Fritsch personal scandals - which had the regime literally panicking.

Posted by: rhomboid at September 04, 2016 12:30 PM (QDnY+)

281 In relation to the Borg, in four days it will be the 50th anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek on NBC. And for science fiction and fandom, things would never be the same.

Interview just conducted with Yeoman J.M. Colt aka Laurel Goodwin.
http://www.startrek.com/article/catching-up-laurel-goodwin-yeoman-colt-from-the-cage

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 12:32 PM (XNHOq)

282 Meanwhile, episode 2 of your stupid timewasting why did you post the link podcast is full of interesting things I did not know.

Curse you!
Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 12:30 PM (mgbwf)

I save it for when I am washing dishes, cleaning and canning

Posted by: Kindltot at September 04, 2016 12:33 PM (e9hKK)

283 "Howard Roark laughed."---The Fountainhead. {The next line begins "He stood naked on the cliff . . ."}

"It was love at first sight."---Catch 22 {The next line is "The first time Yossarian saw the chaplin he fell madly in love with him."}

Posted by: Locke Common at September 04, 2016 12:35 PM (CZCmp)

284 Was just pursing amazon for some books. There was one autobiography on Frederick Douglas. I have wanted to read about him for awhile. This particular version was edited by Henry Louis Gates, the same asshole of White House beer garden fame. Needless to say, I passed on that one.

Posted by: Infidel at September 04, 2016 12:35 PM (mvFsG)

285 Gadzooks! Content upon content. Another stellar thread OM.

After a mind-rinsing read of a couple of P.D. James whodunits, I'm moved on to 'The War on Guns', Lott. I am now convinced that the election of the Hildebeast will be the end of the 2nd Amendment as we know it, and will result in large-scale confiscation.

As an aside, the fellow that gave me the book to read, gave it to me after Sunday School class. Retired AF officer.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 12:36 PM (9mTYi)

286 Some Jackass on my FB page just posted something about The Japanese Detention Camps in WW2 being "Concentration" Camps. What an ignorant fuck

Posted by: Nevergiveup at September 04, 2016 12:37 PM (Ozsfq)

287
Haven't read the comments fully,and do not wish to inject politics into the thread,so I'll simply suggest visiting the Last Refuge and reading the post referring to Reuter's cutting the feed to Trump's Detroit speech.

You may find it enlightening.

Posted by: irongrampa at September 04, 2016 12:37 PM (X35Yt)

288 Capitalism is *not* a "system". It is simply the rational economic behavior of humans when left to pursue their interests.

A mega-corporation, when planning a new line of activity and assessing prices and margins etc., goes through precisely the same calculations as any person walking into a farmer's market or swap meet.

Confusion of the infrastructure of social and civic institutions that *improve* the outcome of natural economic behavior ("capitalism") - such as rule of law to guarantee property rights, or mechanisms to maximize capital allocation such as equity markets - with some sort of "system" is just that, confusion. The economic basis of it all is not a system, unless individuals behaving rationally in the economic sphere is defined as a "system".

Posted by: rhomboid at September 04, 2016 12:37 PM (QDnY+)

289 A friend today recommended 'The Boys in the Boat'. Has anyone here read that?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 12:38 PM (9mTYi)

290 I think it's actually a species of Christian heresy, but that's a subject for another time.
Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:08 PM (I0EOP)

That's an interesting idea. You should do a post on it.

I use T.E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" as a guide to what is traditional Arab/Muslim thinking.

He called Wahabism, which is the root of the modern perversion of Islam, a heretic cult. And he didn't mean heretical vs. Judeo-Christianism, he meant in the context of Islam.

It's what the Saudis have been financing around the world by virtue of the black goo that happens to live under them.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 12:38 PM (mgbwf)

291 Capitalism is *not* a "system".

Arguably ideologues like Rand attempted to make one of it.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:38 PM (vCyy6)

292 Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 12:18 PM (YeKKY)

Hed on over to the website, put the Book in your Bag and see it the Code will apply.

I have seen several 'Pre-Order' LPs where this worked.

Good Luck!

Posted by: garrett at September 04, 2016 12:39 PM (IWo60)

293 He called Wahabism, which is the root of the modern perversion of Islam, a heretic cult. And he didn't mean heretical vs. Judeo-Christianism, he meant in the context of Islam.

The seeds of it were laid in the 800s AD, when Ibn Hanbal challenged the caliph's right to enact law and - moreover - the status of the Qur'an in Islam. Ibn Hanbal held the Qur'an to be the coeternal Word (stealing a concept from the Christians IMO). The 'Abbasids at the time held the Qur'an to be a collection of oracles along the lines of God's oracles in the book of Isaiah. Later and superior to be sure.

So if "Wahhabi" thought is a "heresy", it's one of long standing in Sunni Islam.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:43 PM (vCyy6)

294 (Source: Reilly, "The Closing of the Muslim Mind")

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:44 PM (vCyy6)

295 Some Jackass on my FB page just posted something about The Japanese Detention Camps in WW2 being "Concentration" Camps. What an ignorant fuck
Posted by: Nevergiveup at September 04, 2016 12:37 PM (Ozsfq)

That's what they were called then (a concentration of people) and it was Churchill that created them for the Boar's, it was the NAZI's that used them as murder camps.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 12:45 PM (dKiJG)

296 "New Orleans is a dangerous place to live in, both for the body and the soul"
------------

I recall P.J. O'Rourke describing a visit to New Orleans as being akin to 'Taking a sauna in a crime-filled ditch'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 12:45 PM (9mTYi)

297 As ~~threatened~~ promised on another thread earlier this week, two books on the physics of baseball:

1. "The Physics of Baseball," by Robert K. Adair (professor emeritus of physics at Yale and member of the National Academy of Sciences), and

2. "Keep Your Eye on the Ball," by Robert G. Watts and A. Terry Bahill, professors of mechanical and systems engineering, respectively, at Tulane and the University of Arizona, respectively.

Fascinating stuff for those are interested in baseball and/or physics.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at September 04, 2016 12:46 PM (SRKgf)

298 That's what they were called then (a concentration of people) and it was Churchill that created them for the Boar's, it was the NAZI's that used them as murder camps.
Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 12:45 PM (dKiJG)

the Japanese Detention Camps created by the US Government during WW2 were NOT called concentration camps

Posted by: Nevergiveup at September 04, 2016 12:46 PM (Ozsfq)

299 285 I am now
convinced that the election of the Hildebeast will be the end of the
2nd Amendment as we know it, and will result in large-scale
confiscation.

As an aside, the fellow that gave me the book to read, gave it to me after Sunday School class. Retired AF officer.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 12:36 PM (9mTYi)

The Federal Firearms Act of 1938 ended the Second Amendment as it is written in the Constitution. And in one of the most ignorant and biased rulings of all time the Supreme Court upheld it. Of course by 1939 the court was already being packed by FDR so its rulings did not give a flying fig for the written document.

It also reversed numerous prior rulings throwing out the liberals sainted stare decisis.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 12:47 PM (mpXpK)

300
Some Jackass on my FB page just posted something about The Japanese Detention Camps in WW2 being "Concentration" Camps. What an ignorant fuck
Posted by: Nevergiveup at September 04, 2016 12:37 PM

What's the definition of a "concentration camp?"
Wouldn't it just be some place were groups are concentrated?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at September 04, 2016 12:47 PM (IqV8l)

301 Nood, elbows

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 12:48 PM (mpXpK)

302 What's the definition of a "concentration camp?"
Wouldn't it just be some place were groups are concentrated?
Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at September 04, 2016 12:47 PM (IqV8l)

Give me a break. In light of the Nazi Concentration camps they have come to have only one meaning

Posted by: Nevergiveup at September 04, 2016 12:49 PM (Ozsfq)

303 pants are required. Even if it's these.
-------------

The wrong trousers!

Posted by: Wallace at September 04, 2016 12:51 PM (9mTYi)

304 Does anyone have a link to the ABC interview where Terry Moran calls Milo an idiot?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:51 PM (I0EOP)

305 What's the definition of a "concentration camp?"
Wouldn't it just be some place were groups are concentrated?

Yeah. The Germans used the term for the places to put political prisoners and other undesirables long before they became extermination camps.

I think concentration camps go back to something like 1936, while extermination camps weren't a thing until about 1943.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 12:51 PM (mgbwf)

306 I think nevergiveup is saying that the term "concentration camp" has been poisoned by the Nazi abuse of the system, which was already an unjust system. (I'm British and I think the whole Boer War episode was a stain on our heritage.)

Kind of like the term "Aryan", for that matter, which has a real meaning in Indo-Iranian studies. Or like the swastika.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:51 PM (vCyy6)

307 304
Does anyone have a link to the ABC interview where Terry Moran calls Milo an idiot?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:51 PM (I0EOP)

Its on BB

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 12:52 PM (mpXpK)

308 Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:51 PM (vCyy6)

So what can you tell me about the theory that Mohammad was some renegade Arian bishop? Anything to it?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:52 PM (I0EOP)

309 oh, Arian with an "i" refers to the bishop Arius, who had - I think - nothing to do with the Sassanian Eranshahr.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:54 PM (vCyy6)

310 Places like Manzanar, CA were called Relocation Camps. The revisionists aka the tranzis - would later call them 'concentration' camps to stamp with the taint of Nazi evil the actions of the United States without admitting it was one of their Democrat 'saints who enacted it - FDR.

At Manzanar they had school where the children were taught, they had their own newspaper, and could grow their own food. They were not sent into underground factories like Dora to build V-2 rockets or ME-262 jet fighters while being starved to death.

So yeah, to say 'concentration' camp is to buy into the lies of those who hate America. Bet if you ask them about Woodrow Wilson's draconian actions during WWI in regards to suspect populations and the concept of a free press you will be greeted by the enlightened gaze of a sheep.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 12:54 PM (XNHOq)

311 Wasn't there already hints of a gay Bond? I believe it was Skyfall, Javier Bardem, the villain, stroked Daniel Craig's legs in a gay way, and Craig responded something like, "What makes you think I haven't done this before?"

Posted by: Yuimetal at September 04, 2016 12:55 PM (dtWKK)

312 http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/09/02/abc-nightline-milo-13-years-old/

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 12:55 PM (mpXpK)

313 302 What's the definition of a "concentration camp?"
Wouldn't it just be some place were groups are concentrated?
Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at September 04, 2016 12:47 PM (IqV8l)

Give me a break. In light of the Nazi Concentration camps they have come to have only one meaning
Posted by: Nevergiveup at September 04, 2016 12:49 PM (Ozsfq)

uh, I think the words everyone is reaching for are "internment camps"

Posted by: RondinellaMamma at September 04, 2016 12:56 PM (oQQwD)

314 309 oh, Arian with an "i" refers to the bishop Arius, who had - I think - nothing to do with the Sassanian Eranshahr.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 12:54 PM (vCyy6)

Arian was a Christian heretic who denied the Nicean divinity of Christ, much like Mo, and I guess someone noticed the similarity.

So you've never heard this theory, then?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 12:57 PM (I0EOP)

315 Sorry for the short answer ( Am lousy at posting)

When we kept the Japanese locked up in WWII, they were in internment camps, NOT concentration camps. To intern means to keep someone confined during war.

Posted by: RondinellaMamma at September 04, 2016 12:58 PM (oQQwD)

316 >>>oh, Arian with an "i" refers to the bishop Arius, who had - I think - nothing to do with the Sassanian Eranshahr.

This makes a lot of sense. Arius' heresy was that he believe that Jesus Christ was a created being, like an angel, and not the second person of the Trinity, God incarnate.

Islam has a very austere monotheism, and the Koran asserts "Allah has no son". It definitely fits into the category of Arian heresy, regardless of whether Mohammed was a follower of Arius.

Posted by: Yuimetal at September 04, 2016 12:59 PM (dtWKK)

317 Opening lines. It might simultaneously the longest and best:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:00 PM (9mTYi)

318 Concentration camps as a term is a transliteration from the Krautish Konzentrationslager, which they referred to as KZ because even the Krauts can't be bothered to pronounce their words.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:00 PM (mgbwf)

319 Yes, I've heard the theory. Bahira was the renegade monk who allegedly taught Muhammad - some call him Sergius.

It's very old and I've translated a version of it right here at the book thread - as a first post no less:
http://minx.cc:1080/?post=342795

I don't have much to say about Muhammad's early life because the post-Zubayrids out of Mecca and al-Madina spread a load of legend during the 700s AD. This deluge of propagandistic bullsh!t has swamped What Really Happened, to the degree very little can be recovered, and so some (serious!) people wonder if Muhammad even existed as such.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 01:02 PM (vCyy6)

320 310 Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 12:54 PM (XNHOq)

The relocation of civilians of Japanese to camps further inland was absolutely nothing like a "concentration" camp, and further nothing like what liberals say it was.

First it occurred AFTER people of Japanese ancestry aided and abetted Japanese spies in HI. And second they were not "locked" in camps with barbed wire fences and guard towers. The fences around the gates were open and the residents could come and go as they pleased.

The people who were actual Japanese citizens though went to different camps much like a POW camp. But they were humanely treated, unlike what the Japanese did to US civilians who were placed in prison camps, especially the women who were used as whores by the Japanese officers.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:02 PM (mpXpK)

321 Vic, what scared the US government was the Nihau Incident. One of the First Air Fleet A6M2 pilots crash landed on the island of Nihau. With the aid of one local Nisei he tried to take over the whole island. Coming right after Pearl Harbor it really played into every fear even though everyone else on the island resisted including all the other Nisei.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 01:07 PM (XNHOq)

322 321
Vic, what scared the US government was the Nihau Incident. One of the
First Air Fleet A6M2 pilots crash landed on the island of Nihau. With
the aid of one local Nisei he tried to take over the whole island.
Coming right after Pearl Harbor it really played into every fear even
though everyone else on the island resisted including all the other
Nisei.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 01:07 PM (XNHOq)

MM's book In Defense of Internment describes a group of Japanese ancestry people who actuality helped Japanese spies infiltrate the island and spy on the Navy at Pearl Harbor. Her book was well researched and documented in the footnotes. It is also a good read and thoroughly discredits all of the apologists for WWII interment.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:13 PM (mpXpK)

323 BTW, don't bother to read the Amazon reviews though.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:13 PM (mpXpK)

324 especially the women who were used as whores by the Japanese officers.
Posted by: Vic
-----------

Comfort Women, dammit.

Posted by: Zombie Tojo, falsetto, with stretched neck at September 04, 2016 01:14 PM (9mTYi)

325 One need look no further than the tattoos, slave labor, starvation, mass graves, and the crematoria to confirm the similarities.

Oh, wait...

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:18 PM (9mTYi)

326 Vic, not read that book but I must ask a question. Was this cabal of spies known to the FBI at the time or was this information that came to light years later?

If not known at the time as opposed to the German national the Japanese had as their back-up Hawaiian spy whom the FBI scooped up, it would be a case of Monday morning quaterbacking with 20/20 hindsight.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 01:18 PM (XNHOq)

327 What can ever top: "We were on the edge of the desert somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take effect"?

Posted by: Captain Eno at September 04, 2016 01:19 PM (TWCvp)

328 What can ever top: "We were on the edge of the desert somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take effect"?
Posted by: Captain Eno
----------

Has to be Hunter Thompson, no?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:21 PM (9mTYi)

329 What can ever top: "We were on the edge of the desert somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take effect"?

*fistbump*

Also see #47.

Also I like this thread better than the elbows thread but it seems to be dying.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:22 PM (mgbwf)

330
I found this little gem.

In response to a reporter's
question about the West Coast "evacuation," the
President called Nisei "Japanese people from Japan who are
citizens," and went on to state ". . . it is felt by a
great many lawyers that under the Constitution they can't be kept
locked up in concentration camps."

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO
ROOSEVELT, Press Conference, November 21, 1944, FDR Library,
#982.

Posted by: Zoltan at September 04, 2016 01:22 PM (JYer2)

331 Has to be Hunter Thompson, no?

Yes. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:22 PM (mgbwf)

332 326
Vic, not read that book but I must ask a question. Was this cabal of
spies known to the FBI at the time or was this information that came to
light years later?

If not known at the time as opposed to the
German national the Japanese had as their back-up Hawaiian spy whom the
FBI scooped up, it would be a case of Monday morning quaterbacking with
20/20 hindsight.

Posted by: Anna Puma at September 04, 2016 01:18 PM (XNHOq)

IIRC it had been tracked by the FBI and reported to FDR by J. Edgar who was the one behind the recommendation for internment. But it has been several years since I read that book.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:25 PM (mpXpK)

333 330 Posted by: Zoltan at September 04, 2016 01:22 PM (JYer2)

Regardless the Supremes did rule it OK in time of war.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:26 PM (mpXpK)

334 Sabrina Chase?

Is she one of he Back Bay Chases?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at September 04, 2016 01:27 PM (4HySM)

335 Bandersnatch - Puts me in mind of one of my favorite Doonesbury cartoons:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/zbxg6g8

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:28 PM (9mTYi)

336 Some opening lines I liked:

Zelazny's 'Nine Princes In Amber'
"It was starting to end, after what seemed most of eternity to me."

Robert Asprin's 'Another Fine Myth'
"One of the few redeeming facects of instructors, I thought, is that occasionally they can be fooled"

Zelazny's 'Lord of Light'
"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a God."

Those lines kept me reading what turned out to be intriguing first paragraphs and stories...

Posted by: styrgwillidar at September 04, 2016 01:30 PM (HAwO+)

337 I was trying to point out that although the official term was "internment camps", may officials, FDR, Eisenhower, Supreme Court justices used the term "concentration camps" to describe them.

Posted by: Zoltan at September 04, 2016 01:30 PM (JYer2)

338 Also I like this thread better than the elbows thread but it seems to be dying.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:22 PM (mgbwf)
---
A wiser OregonMuse would know to incorporate elbows into the book thread.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 01:33 PM (jR7Wy)

339 That's what they were called then (a concentration of people) and it was Churchill that created them for the Boers, it was the NAZI's that used them as murder camps.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 12:45 PM (dKiJG)

True, although the mortality rate in the British camps (used to intern Boer civilians, to keep them from aiding Boer irregulars) was so high, it was literally safer to fight the British than to be incarcerated in one of their camps.

Historical aside: concentration camps were actually invented by the Spanish, in Cuba, ca. 1898, for the same purpose for which the British used them.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at September 04, 2016 01:33 PM (SRKgf)

340 Bandersnatch - Puts me in mind of one of my favorite Doonesbury cartoons:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/zbxg6g8
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc.

Oh that's a hoot!

I know it's much derided around here, but Doonesbury was one of my major comic influences growing up.

I'm even one of about twelve people who saw the Broadway show of Doonesbury. It was a musical and there's no way to make a musical good.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:34 PM (mgbwf)

341 Memorable opening line: "The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault" from Jim Butcher's Blood Rites, the 6th book in the Harry Dresden series.

Posted by: Bob in Houston-TEXIT! at September 04, 2016 01:36 PM (b7AU3)

342 337
I was trying to point out that although the official term was
"internment camps", may officials, FDR, Eisenhower, Supreme Court
justices used the term "concentration camps" to describe them.

Posted by: Zoltan at September 04, 2016 01:30 PM (JYer2)

Funny that neither the ruling by the Court, nor the dissent used the term concentration camp in them. If any "Supreme" ever referred to them as "concentration" camps it is not in any official document that I have ever seen.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:36 PM (mpXpK)

343 A wiser OregonMuse would know to incorporate elbows into the book thread.
Posted by: All Hail Eris
---------------

They inevitably lead to distraction, distraction leads to 'Lolita', and it's all down hill after that.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:36 PM (9mTYi)

344 "We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold."

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 09:40 AM (mgbwf)

LOL!

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 01:38 PM (YeKKY)

345 Tomorrow is the last day to purchase-

"Wearing the Cat - Part Three: His Golden Time"

at the low low moron-friendly introductory price of $0.99 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Wearing-Cat-Part-Three-

Golden-ebook/dp/B01L38EFCG

(remove extra spaces)

Many thanks to all who have picked up WTC for thou rockest most!

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 09:57 AM (HGtd0)

Why do I hear Mr. Haney of "Green Acres" fame?

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 01:39 PM (YeKKY)

346 MM's book In Defense of Internment describes a group of Japanese ancestry people who actuality helped Japanese spies infiltrate the island and spy on the Navy at Pearl Harbor. Her book was well researched and documented in the footnotes. It is also a good read and thoroughly discredits all of the apologists for WWII interment.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 01:13 PM (mpXpK)

Although paradoxically the government didn't intern Nisei in Hawaii (because there were so many of them), only on the West Coast. There were lots of loyal Americans among the Nisei (literally "second generation"), but there were loyal Japanese among them too. Some of the Japanese in California just came to work as truck farmers, i.e., strictly for economic purposes, and viewed themselves as Japanese.

To this day in Hawaii, it is not unknown for parents to send their kids (gosei? rokusei?) to Japan for education.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at September 04, 2016 01:39 PM (SRKgf)

347 I know it's much derided around here, but Doonesbury was one of my major comic influences growing up.

Posted by: Bandersnatch
-----------

Every now and then, Trudeau would catch a glimmer of the hypocrisy inherent among liberals, and cast it in the light that it actually deserved. Not often, but sometimes.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:40 PM (9mTYi)

348
Historical aside: concentration camps were actually invented by the Spanish, in Cuba, ca. 1898, for the same purpose for which the British used them.
Posted by: Jay Guevara at September 04, 2016 01:33 PM (SRKgf)
---
This was a shock when I read about it in Teddy's "Rough Riders". The people in the countryside were pro-Independence, so they were herded into camps with buildings that were rotting and infested, and the people were left with little food and water. Ultimately one third of Cuba's population was forced into these camps.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 01:40 PM (jR7Wy)

349 Hi!! Long time lurker that would like to join the horde's bookish wing! TIA

Posted by: Cheri at September 04, 2016 01:40 PM (MjzZN)

350 Hi!! Long time lurker that would like to join the horde's bookish wing! TIA
Posted by: Cheri
------------

And it is about time.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 01:42 PM (9mTYi)

351 Hi!! Long time lurker that would like to join the horde's bookish wing! TIA
Posted by: Cheri
------------

And it is about time.

You forgot to tell her about the pics requirement.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:43 PM (mgbwf)

352 I thought "concentration camps" were places that ADHD kids went to help them think more clearly.

Posted by: Dr. Varno at September 04, 2016 01:43 PM (GdFQh)

353 I know it's much derided around here, but Doonesbury was one of my major comic influences growing up.

Posted by: Bandersnatch
---
Oh, I loved him as a kid and he was omnidirectionally sarcastic into the early 80's. "Megaphone Mark" Slackmeyer was mocked as a rich boy radical.

Zonker Harris was my spirit animal.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 01:44 PM (jR7Wy)

354 I can't recommend the series enough, very funny. This is also a book that is even better in the audio version, it's read as HANK.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 10:15 AM (dKiJG)

Which reminded me of the books on tape we used for the kids on long car trips. The funniest were Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events," but ONLY those read by Tim Curry, and Roald Dahl's "The Twits." We still repeat lines around the house to this day, and we listened to those about a decade ago.

Not sure how a story about a married couple who loathed each other enough to try killing one another (The Twits) was ever imagined to be a children's story! The "Series of Unfortunate Events" is another bleak tale with black humor that contains a preface in every installment to "put the book down now, you'll be glad you did."

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 01:51 PM (YeKKY)

355 Posting before reading the thread, so if somebody's already said this, great minds think alike.

Nobody did better opening sentences/paragraphs than Donald Hamilton in his Matt Helm series.

"I always feel guilty smuggling a gun through Mexican customs."

"It was an acid job, and they're never pleasant to look at ..."

"The airlines misplaced a plane, the one that supposed to take me on to Chicago. One of these days I'll put wheels on an aircraft and call it a railroad."

(I did these from memory; they may be slightly inaccurate in regard to word selection.)

And here's another vote for Westlake's Dortmunder novels. The scenes with the regulars in the bar are side-splitting.

Now to read the thread. There goes Sunday afternoon.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 04, 2016 01:52 PM (TPaJb)

356 Why do I hear Mr. Haney of "Green Acres" fame?

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 01:39 PM (YeKKY)

Ah, but unlike Mr Haney, I'm not trying to swindle you out of your 99 cents.

I'm trying to spread readership of a quality comic novel, "Wearing the Cat", throughout the wider moron community for the mere pittance of $0.99.

Besides Arnold the Pig gives "Wearing the Cat" 5 Oinks.

So there.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 01:55 PM (HGtd0)

357 *fistbump*

Talking to plants. Snorkeling in Walden Puddle.

"I'm deathly afraid of dehydration".

Here's where I place-drop. I did summer school at Yale and lived next to a bar named Rudy's. Rudy's was referenced in a Doonesbury strip and had it on their wall.

They were there until a few years ago and now they're a few blocks away and it isn't the same. The dive bar that followed in the space failed and the new place got rid of the tables that had grafitti carved into the tables from the last 60 years.

*sigh*

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 01:55 PM (mgbwf)

358 And I am still reading "Hollywood Party" which is truly infuriating. What a fraud "progressives" have perpetrated on the rest of us: a bunch of damned communists they are, and they have no excuse for not knowing what that means. They were there, watching it, same as me and they have absolutely no excuse.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 10:15 AM (VsZJP)

I haven't gotten to the "Liars" book by Glenn Beck about all the Progressive rot that has ruined what the Founders gave us, but I have to point out his serials on progressives. This past week's was on education. The information is phenomenal. We went from being the best-educated country in the world to so-so all because of progs like John Dewey. Watch all four parts!

Available here:

http://www.glennbeck.com/category/serials

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 01:56 PM (YeKKY)

359 Canada also interned citizens of Japanese origin during WWII. As far as I know they didn't build "camps" per se, but moved them to small towns away from the West Coast. Greenwood, B.C., and Lethbridge, Alberta both were settled with large contingents of internees.

People tend to forget, or choose to ignore the fact, but one reason for the internment was to protect the Japanese from being preyed upon by Imperial Japanese spies. Tojo's Japan would not have hesitated one millisecond to pressure a fisherman into using his boat to smuggle saboteurs by blackmailing him with threats of killing beloved family still in Japan.

Needless to say, with both the Province of British Columbia, and the Federal Government being in the hands of the Liberal party, and therefore corrupt, there was much graft and injustice in the disposition of the assets of the displaced people. But the internees themselves managed to make the best of a bad hand dealt to them, and many put down roots in their new communities, and became well-loved there.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at September 04, 2016 01:59 PM (oqkO3)

360
Which reminded me of the books on tape we used for the kids on long car trips. The funniest were Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events," but ONLY those read by Tim Curry, and Roald Dahl's "The Twits." We still repeat lines around the house to this day, and we listened to those about a decade ago.

Not sure how a story about a married couple who loathed each other enough to try killing one another (The Twits) was ever imagined to be a children's story! The "Series of Unfortunate Events" is another bleak tale with black humor that contains a preface in every installment to "put the book down now, you'll be glad you did."
Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 01:51 PM (YeKKY)

My wife didn't like the movie at all, but I will add it to my list.
Jim Dale does a good job, we liked the Peter Pan books very dark.

We listen to books on our 15 hour drive to Disney.

We also like RedWall, I always liked it especially in these times when good people must defend themselves against evil. Even the Abby relents and gives up control because some people don't believe in peace and you must fight.

Posted by: Patrick from Ohio at September 04, 2016 02:02 PM (dKiJG)

361 The Donald Westlake Dormunder series is hilarious! Read one of the last one titled "Get Real". Very good.

Posted by: Zogger at September 04, 2016 02:05 PM (SKahJ)

362 347 ... I know it's much derided around here, but Doonesbury was one of my major comic influences growing up.

Posted by: Bandersnatch

The first few years of Doonesberry were truly hilarious. He skewered everything. There were even some tender and sweet moments. As he became stridently libtard, the humor went away and all that was left was vitriol and nastiness. Haven't read any of his stuff in decades and don't miss it.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 02:07 PM (V+03K)

363 355 .. You have the Matt Helm opening sentences about right. I would have recognized them at once. Those books are some of my favorite re-reading.

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 02:10 PM (V+03K)

364 The openings of a lot of those pulp-noire novels were pretty good. Well, okay, pretty bad, but intriguingly bad.

“The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.”
-Mickey Spillane

-----
The opening paragraphs of:

THE BIG KILL, by Mickey Spillane

It was one of those nights when the sky came down
and wrapped itself around the world. The rain
clawed at the windows of the bar like an angry cat
and tried to sneak in every time some drunk lurched
in the door. The place reeked of stale beer and
soggy men with enough cheap perfume thrown in to
make you sick.

Two drunks with a nickel between them were
arguing over what to play on the juke box until a
tomato in a dress that was too tight a year ago
pushed the key that started off something noisy and
hot. One of the drunks wanted to dance and she gave him a shove. So he danced with the other drunk.

She saw me sitting there with my stool tipped
back against the cigarette machine and change from
a fin on the bar, decided I could afford a Wet evening for two and walked over with her hips waving hello.

"You're new around here, ain't ya?"

“Nah. I've been here since six o'clock.”

Buy me a drink?" She crowded in next to me,
seeing how much of herself she could plaster against my legs

No.“ It caught her by surprise and she quit
rubbing.

Don't gentlemen usually buy ladies a drink?"
she said. She tried to lower her eyelids seductively
but one came down farther that the other and made her look stupid.

I‘m not a gentleman, kid."

I ain't a lady either so buy me a drink."

So I bought her a drink....

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 02:15 PM (9mTYi)

365 Trudeau got so bad with its leftism that even Tom Tomorrow had to call Trudeau out on it. This was over the Garland meetup where ISIS came over to pop some caps into Geller and Spencer.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at September 04, 2016 02:22 PM (6FqZa)

366 until a
tomato in a dress that was too tight a year ago

Just a great descriptive phrase. Not overwritten at all.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 04, 2016 02:31 PM (HGtd0)

367 Well, now I know why Sabrina doesn't churn out books quickly enough for my satisfaction; she is too busy dusting.

I took pictures of portions of my library, and thankfully looked them over enough to notice the layer of dust before I mortified myself by submitting them!

Hey RushBabe!

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at September 04, 2016 02:36 PM (mk+UY)

368 364
I'm not a gentleman, kid."

I ain't a lady either so buy me a drink."

So I bought her a drink....
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 04, 2016 02:15 PM (9mTYi)

Love it!

Someone mentioned Gregor Samsa earlier. I'm fairly certain I'm turning into a cat. Well, I have the work ethic of a cat anyway, as it pertains to yard maintenance and house cleaning.

Posted by: rickl at September 04, 2016 02:36 PM (sdi6R)

369 #27, Zoltan: I also started reading "In Enemy Hands" (Honor Harrington) just yesterday. So far, so good. (I recall being furious with one of Weber's books because he introduced vampires at the very end. I may have thrown the book in the trash, a fate shared only by Dan Brown's ghastly "DaVinci Code.")

Also, thanks to whomever, several weeks ago, mentioned the Tad Williams series "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn." I bought the books as used paperbacks via Amazon. The third one was almost a thousand pages long; it became nearly a struggle to death to finish it. I'm not a big fan of sword sorcery, except for Tolkien, but this was very well done and worthwhile.

PS would someone explain how to quote a comment?

Posted by: Miss Sippi at September 04, 2016 02:48 PM (ByoS/)

370 PS would someone explain how to quote a comment?
Posted by: Miss Sippi at September 04, 2016 02:48 PM (ByoS/)

High light what you want then copy and paste.

Posted by: weirdflunky at September 04, 2016 02:51 PM (82ber)

371 It's not book-related or sports-related but I have to share. I went to the Burning Man website and under "theme camps" found this:

)'(anadu

Care to stretch out after a long day? Why not slip into something more comfortable and relax at Camp )'(anadu, a meeting place for Spandex lovers far and wide. Stop by anytime at our Spandex Annex to make your own sexy outfit, or get a photo of your naked silhouette pressed against our giant life-size “Moan-A- Loosa” stretched spandex picture frame. Add some matching neon body paint, and then light yourself up under our open-air shade structure during one of our black light deep house parties or live music sessions.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 02:58 PM (jR7Wy)

372 get a photo of your naked silhouette pressed against our giant life-size "Moan-A- Loosa" stretched spandex picture frame.

You did that?

Link?

Posted by: Bandersnatch at September 04, 2016 03:07 PM (mgbwf)

373 Fascinating book about detention camps in WW2:

The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II by Jan Jarboe Russell

It blew me away as to the fact that there were camps for Americans of German, Japan, and Italian descent in Texas. The author is a little left but the story of how FDR pretty much did what lefties accuse W of doing is fascinating. What also comes out of reading this book is the patriotism of many of these detainees never wavered. They were not only detained but traded for POW's even though they were US citizens.

Recommended it highly.

Posted by: Rgallegos at September 04, 2016 03:10 PM (59GQk)

374 "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again"

The second Mts. de Winter (Rebecca)

Posted by: Rider in the sky at September 04, 2016 03:34 PM (aCm0b)

375 For those curious about the Burning Man theme kamps, here's the website:

http://burningman.org/event/brc/2016-theme-camps/

The list goes from A to Z; be sure to scroll through up a the top.

I'm only through Barbie Death Camp...

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at September 04, 2016 03:40 PM (jR7Wy)

376 Just bought a copy of that Stalin-as-Tony MontanaSoprano book.

Posted by: md at September 04, 2016 03:46 PM (uKJIC)

377 Exploration Team, by Murray Leinster had an alien race that sounds-a-lot-like abbies. The story impressed more people than just me. It has a Wikipedia page. (1956)

Posted by: Ok at September 04, 2016 03:50 PM (2yEHG)

378 "So here is a question. Was
Marx's writing persuasive and effective? How can we be as effective in
writing about libertarian ideas?

Posted by: Donald J. Trump at September 04, 2016 11:44 AM (0+srV)"

Here is my theory about Marx. You know those optical illusions where there are things like two lines that are the same size but one looks bigger than another and other things that people's brains pretty reliably deceive them into seeing wrong?

I think that there are also similar ways that our brains tend to fool us into coming to wrong conclusions based on some accident of evolution. I also think that Karl Marx, pretty much randomly, put together a collection of those optical illusions of thought in one book and it caught on because people's brains tend to work that way unless they are trained to see the the errors. It is kind of like children preferring to get three nickles rather than two dimes because 1) nickles are bigger and 2) three is more than two.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at September 04, 2016 03:52 PM (+QFqi)

379 Was watching the movie Reds again with Warren Beatty the other day, Its all shallow 1st stage thinking.

Posted by: Skip at September 04, 2016 03:56 PM (0G2eQ)

380 Skip, did they sing a rousing chorus of The Internationale?

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 04:03 PM (xsHRT)

381 (Muse): "I would also say that some of Marxism's appeal lies in its totalitarian nature ...it's actually a species of Christian heresy, but that's a subject for another time."
(Votermom): "That's an interesting idea. You should do a post on it."
Two books address this:
Norman Cohn, __The Pursuit of the Millenium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages__
Igor Shafarevich, __The Socialist Phenomenon__.
Current evolutionary thinkers attribute the socialist impulse to our 100,000 years of survival in small groups of closely-related individuals.

I just finished a fluffy piece of infantile wish-fulfillment by Steig Larsen, __The Girl Who Played With Fire__. Don't bother.
I just started Contois, et. al, __The Black Book of Communism__. This will take a while.

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at September 04, 2016 04:41 PM (IbUUZ)

382 I just finished a fluffy piece of infantile wish-fulfillment by Steig Larsen, __The Girl Who Played With Fire__. Don't bother.

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at September 04, 2016 04:41 PM (IbUUZ)

Steig Larsen's 'Dragon Tattoo' books was one of my first book thread topics way back when 4 1/2 years ago

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 04:48 PM (I0EOP)

383 Opening lines: the preface to Solzhenitsyn's __The Gulag Archipelago__.

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at September 04, 2016 04:53 PM (IbUUZ)

384 Dear JTB - Does anyone know of a book
that describes how these classic painters made their paints, brushes,
etc.? I assume they couldn't just pop into the closest Hobby Lobby.

I can recommend Color by Victoria Finlay, and these articles from Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/art/oil-painting , http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/oil-painting.htm , and see some suggestions here: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/books/books_technique.html#.V8yO-jXMDcs

Posted by: Callen at September 04, 2016 05:16 PM (tKcuX)

385 Look like its dying.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at September 04, 2016 05:59 PM (mpXpK)

386 Oregon Muse,

http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/

You'll want to check out this site and the book. The issue you raised in regard to Wayward Pines are addressed directly here, in taking on the problem of rebooting civilization.

Posted by: Epobirs at September 04, 2016 06:11 PM (IdCqF)

387 358, Rushbabe, I can't tell you how many times I have posted on Facebook that the reason for our societal decline is a progressive takeover of the entire educational system from top to bottom. Unless we can afford to homeschool, our children do not stand a chance of learning anything.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 06:19 PM (VsZJP)

388
Browsing Amazon I find that Amy Schummer has a book that is #1 in three catagories, and she has fans who have written positive reviews.

The girl with the lower back tattoos.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at September 04, 2016 06:33 PM (bLCMu)

389 Callen, Thanks so much for the references. I'll check into them tonight. (One advantage of following the Nats game on radio, I can listen and read at the same time.)

Posted by: JTB at September 04, 2016 06:49 PM (V+03K)

390 No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

- The War of the Worlds

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With More Je Ne Sais Quoi! at September 04, 2016 07:00 PM (Nwg0u)

391 "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Neuromancer, William Gibson

A great line in the 80 that doesn't work for younger readers who've only known TVs that show a solid black screen when there is no signal.

Posted by: Epobirs at September 04, 2016 07:13 PM (IdCqF)

392 #369

To be fair, it was intended to be a shaggy dog story. The problem was that it allowed to stretched out to that length when such is usually no longer than a novella at most.

Posted by: Epobirs at September 04, 2016 07:17 PM (IdCqF)

393 Hey RushBabe!
Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at September 04, 2016 02:36 PM (mk+UY)

*waves*

Hi, there! I skipped out for some retail therapy and just got back to check the thread. I always think of you when
I'm 'fumin! LOL

-----------------

It blew me away as to the fact that there were camps for Americans of German, Japan, and Italian descent in Texas. The author is a little left but the story of how FDR pretty much did what lefties accuse W of doing is fascinating. What also comes out of reading this book is the patriotism of many of these detainees never wavered. They were not only detained but traded for POW's even though they were US citizens.

(The points you mentioned about lefties accusing W of stuff their hero did and of the internees of the US Japanese camps were also touched on by Beck in another set of serials a couple weeks ago. One thing no one mentioned was that the interns never got their homes or property back, and the neighbors were ashamed of what was done to them well into their old age and wondered whatever happened to them.)

------------------------
Rushbabe, I can't tell you how many times I have posted on Facebook that the reason for our societal decline is a progressive takeover of the entire educational system from top to bottom. Unless we can afford to homeschool, our children do not stand a chance of learning anything.
Posted by: Tonestaple at September 04, 2016 06:19 PM (VsZJP)

My sister is a retired schoolteacher and used to voice the same tired talking points about homeschooled kids being socially awkward. I just told her the other day that Mr. Dewey would be proud of her. He advocated teaching professionals say the same thing!

Posted by: RushBabe at September 04, 2016 07:31 PM (YeKKY)

394 Sorry about your computer issues but so glad you are writing.
You are on my "should be chained to a desk so they keep writing great books" list.

I really appreciate that VMom, it means a lot to me.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 04, 2016 08:18 PM (39g3+)

395 Now that the thread is pretty much dead, I can't believe that I didn't think to mention the first line of A Christmas Carol. I don't remember it exactly but it went something like "It is important to remember that Jacob Marley was dead".

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 04, 2016 08:42 PM (GDulk)

396 Jacob Marley was dead to begin with, as dead as a doornail. (That's from memory, influenced by the Muppet version, but I think it's correct. Might be a semicolon instead of a comma.)

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at September 04, 2016 08:52 PM (G4y5c)

397 Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at September 04, 2016 08:52 PM (G4y5c)

Thank you. It's certainly a great opening paragraph.

I wanted to say earlier that Seven Dials is one of my all-time favorite books, but didn't have internet at the time.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 04, 2016 08:56 PM (GDulk)

398 118
I just finished Casino, by Nicholas Pileggi the book that the movie was based on.

Any good? Dead tree or e-book?

Posted by: long time lurker at September 04, 2016 09:29 PM (a+BAV)

399 Another vote for the Dortmunder novels of Donald E. Westlake.

The crew varies by job, but usually includes Dortmunder, the planner; Stan Murch, the driver; Andy Kelp, the operator; Tiny, the muscle; and a collection of other hoodlums. For capers that are meticulously planned, elegantly staffed and resourced, and executed with elan and ingenuity.....they sure seem to run into a lot of "bad luck".

Posted by: cthulhu at September 04, 2016 11:08 PM (LBql+)

400 400! Yeah, baby! Rockin' the book thread!

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 04, 2016 11:57 PM (SmHHS)

401
Dear JTB, here's another: Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters (vol #1-2)

by

Charles L. Eastlake
(This is what happens when you ask a librarian...)

Posted by: Callen at September 05, 2016 08:29 AM (tKcuX)

402 JTB, here's the one I've been searching for: Bright Earth, by Philip Ball.

Posted by: Callen at September 05, 2016 08:58 AM (tKcuX)

403 Just wanted to say I really enjoyed "Call it Even", and left an Amazon review. Now I will definitely stalk the book threads for future recommendations!

Posted by: Toni at September 06, 2016 11:27 PM (mF1T3)

404 I participated in a discussion once on how long it would take society to recover from a catastrophic technology loss. Specifically, an alien society just waved its wand and all technology disappeared. Not the knowledge of it, just the physical manifestations of it. And the question was, how long would it take for us to recover to at least 1990's level. Everyone was coming up with hundreds or thousands of years. My call was, and is, 1. Unlike things back in the last century (1900's), knowledge is to spread out. Too many people know how to do too many of the basic things. Too many people, more importantly, have built on that knowledge but are tied by current manufacturing infrastructure that would take too much money to change. If we started fresh from right now, ignoring the mining and transport time of resources, I give it a year to rebuild, at least on a very small scale, up to 1990's level. Then it's just a factor of expanding like all technology.

BTW, pencils? Dig them up from the ground. It's just graphite and clay mixed together.

Posted by: Michael at September 07, 2016 05:22 PM (paAI/)

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