Sunday Morning Book Thread 04-13-2014 [OregonMuse]

Rizzoli bookstore West 57th Street Manhattan.jpg

(The interior of Rizzoli bookstore on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Credit Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times )

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Blue City Blues

Manhattan used to have a ton of bookstores, but now they're disappearing:

Rising rents in Manhattan have forced out many retailers, from pizza joints to flower shops. But the rapidly escalating cost of doing business there is also driving out bookstores, threatening the city’s sense of self as the center of the literary universe, the home of the publishing industry and a place that lures and nurtures authors and avid readers.

And rents in Manhattan are like nowhere else:

“They were unsustainable,” Ms. McNally said. “Small spaces for $40,000 or more each month. It was so disheartening.”

I remember Rush Limbaugh complaining about this years ago when he lived in an apartment in New Yord City. He said, you just have to adjust your thinking to understand the rent situation in NYC. And back then, it was only $10,000 per month.

Naturally, an exquisitely liberal publication like the New York Times isn't going to mention this, but New York City is one of the most rent-controlled cities in the world, where building owners are saddled with a bewildering array of housing regulations and rules about what kind of rents they may or may not charge their tenants. The idea that these burdensome housing regulations may be a factor behind the high rents simply does not enter into their minds.

Years ago, as one of my first purchases through the 'Conservative Book Club' (remember that?), I picked up Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies by William Tucker, who presented a large amount statistical evidence to prove a correlation between high rates of homelessness and rent control. Along the way, he spent a lot of time talking about NYC rent control and I was surprised to learn that Manhattan, now the home of $40,000/month rents, used to have so much housing that they practically had to give it away. Rents were affordable by practically everybody. Then they imposed rent control during WWII as a "temporary war-time measure" and that introduced distortions in the housing market that have become permanent. And nobody wants to repeal any of these regulations because too many politicians and legislators have used their positions of influence secured sweet, sweet deals for themselves (like a nice, upstairs apartment for $237.50 per month) and so there's no way they're going to want to change anything.

So the closings continue:

Independents like Coliseum Books, Shakespeare and Company on the Upper West Side, Endicott Booksellers and Murder Ink have all closed their doors.

And it's not just the little guys:

But now the chain stores are shutting down, too. Since 2007, five Barnes & Noble stores throughout Manhattan have closed, including its former flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, which was shuttered in January. Five Borders stores in Manhattan were closed in 2011 when the chain went bankrupt, vacating huge spaces on Park Avenue, near Penn Station and in the Shops at Columbus Circle.

I'm tempted to jeer at the wealthy Manhattan liberals who have brought this turn of events upon themselves. Still, I hate to see all these bookstores closing their doors, and I hope that somehow, the trend can be reversed.

PS- Rush also mentioned that he couldn't get a garbage disposal installed in his kitchen because of the contract the building had with the garbage-collectors' union.

The Boss Always Finds The Good Stuff First

On Friday, ace posted a link to these two sentence horror stories. Some of them are deliciously creepy. I'm trying to think of one myself, but only could come up with this, inspired by Lovecraft, and it's kind of lame:

As I was gazing at the old photo of my grandfather, I happened to think of those poor people over on the coast in Innsmouth who gradually turned into groteseque fish creatures as they got older. Wait, is that a gill behind his ear?

And here's one for AtC and MWR:

Last night I had this horrible dream of feeling a bunch of huge, hairy spiders crawling all over me. I woke up choking and had to pull a large wad of silk threads and an egg sac the size of a golf ball out of my mouth.

Nostalgia

Those of you who were fans of the old National Lampoon mag, as I was in the days of my misspent yoot, should probably check out Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site. The site is no longer being updated, but there's a ton of stuff there. The magazine itself, issue by issue, is of uneven quality, but I really like some of their ancillary publications, such as National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook parody by P.J. O'Rourke. Also National Lampoon's Truly Tasteless Cartoons: The Best of the Worst (see above).

Of course, you can get the National Lampoon Magazine All 246 Issues Plus 36 Radio Show Episodes and Cover Art Gallery 2 Disc Set Rare New Find for the low, low price of $9.95.

...and Speaking of Comics

The ONT may have mentioned this already, but if not, let me be the first:

Archie Andrews will die this summer.

Say it ain't so:

According to the publisher, Archie will “sacrifice himself heroically while saving the life of a friend.” The “Life with Archie” series detailed what happened to the main character after he finished college. However, “Life” has followed two different timelines, one showing what Archie’s life would be like if he pursued a relationship with paramour Betty and the other following his life if he chose Veronica.

“The final issue, however, will show readers Archie's final fate in both timelines – and they're the same,” Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater told CNN.

More on this earth-shattering turn of events here.

Historical Note

So a couple of days ago, I stumbled upon When The Wicked Seize A City, and as it happens, it is the very first ebook I ever read on teh internets, which would have been around 1998 or 1999. It costs $3.99 now, but back then, I could read it for free. The book is a recounting of events that happened in the late 80s/early 90s that, strangely enough, are still relevant today:

1. Group starts Presbyterian church in San Francisco
2. Short on music help, said church hires guy to play the piano
3. Guy turns out to be gay
4. Church fires gay guy
5. Hilarity ensues
6. And by "hilarity", I mean harassing/obscene phone calls to the church and pastor's private phone at all hours, lawsuits, verbal abuse, death threats, vandalism, and street protests, including property damage with the San Francisco police standing around like potted plants.

These days all of this stuff is pretty much old hat, but back then, it was sort of unprecedented.

The church got zero help from local civic authorities, and precious little from its own denomination (OPC). And they stuck to their guns. What that small church had to endure was truly frightening. Don't know if they would be able to get away with something like that today, though.

A Print Version of Wikipedia?

So how much material is on Wikipedia? C'mon, guess. Actually, it's about 2.6 billion words. And now they're trying to raise the funds to come out with a print version:

Conceived by the team who work on the open source book tool for Wikipedia at publisher PediaPress, the Indiegogo fundraiser is looking to raise $50,000 (Ł30,000) to bring Wikipedia into print...It would run to over a million pages, featuring more than four million articles by 20 million volunteers: an "record-breaking" new project to turn Wikipedia into 1,000 books has just launched on Indiegogo.

So how big would something like this be?

The team, PediaPress's Heiko Hees, Christoph Kepper and Alex Boerger, believe the complete English Wikipedia would fit into approximately 1,000 books, with 1,200 pages each. "All volumes will have continuous page numbers, so the last article could as well be on page number 1,193,014," they say. The text, which will include images, will be laid out in three columns across 600,000-odd sheets of paper, which will be "FSC-certified paper that comes from sustainable forestry", they said...They envisage the books fitting on a 10m-long book case, which they would hope to display at the Wikimania conference in London this August.

Of course, given how Wikipedia works, the print version would be outdated practically instantaneously.

What I'm Reading

So I'm still reading Stephen Ambrose's Nixon biography, and I just got to the part about his first congressional race in 1946, against the entrenched Democrat Jerry Voorhis. The wikipedia description of Nixon's successful campaign is surprisingly bland:

[Nixon] contended that Voorhis had been ineffective as a congressman and suggested that Voorhis's endorsement by a group linked to communists meant that Voorhis must have radical views.[48] Nixon won the election, receiving 65,586 votes to Voorhis' 49,994.[49]

In fact, it was a ridiculously dirty campaign. Ambrose, a sympathetic biographer, nevertheless sums it up by saying that

his campaign as a whole was characterized by a vicious, snarling approach that was full of half-truths, full lies, and innuendos, hurled at such a pace that Voorhis could never catch up with them. Nixon had promised a “rocking, socking campaign,” but what he gave the people of the 12th District was a dirty one.

But then later on, he denied the whole thing entirely:

In 1955, Nixon told a reporter that “Communism was not the issue at any time in the ‘46 campaign. Few people knew about Communism then, and even fewer cared.” That was a breathtaking assertion, reckless in its disregard of the truth, outrageous in its denial of the facts, as was Nixon’s further claim that he had never implied that Voorhis was a Communist or raised the issue of Communism in the campaign.

The truth? Nixon admitted

“Of course I knew Jerry Voorhis wasn’t a Communist.”...But it’s a good political campaign fire to use. I had to win. That’s the thing you don’t understand. The important thing is to win. You’re just being naive.”

So it's OK to do whatever you have to do to win? A more succinct declaration of absolute amorality would be hard to come by. This is the Nixon everyone knows and hates. How he went from being a nice Quaker boy to a ruthless politician is something that no one, to my knowledge, has ever explained. There is no evidence, in anything he ever said or wrote, that he was conscious of any change from the one to the other. So it's hard not to conclude that that's just who he always was.

I started out being impressed by Nixon, now I'm kind of disappointed.

Easter Bleg

So, this is for all of you Christians, I would like to know your thoughts on what are good theological/devotional writings appropriate for Easter, and if I get enough responses, I'll compile a list for the Easter Sunday book thread.

___________

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

What have you all been reading this week?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:55 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 "Last night I dreamt he leaned over me to kiss me.
It was President Obama."

This is actually true. I *did* have that dream last night.

Posted by: Y-not at April 13, 2014 10:03 AM (zDsvJ)

2 Try the Conrad Black biography of Nixon....balanced, concise, funny

Posted by: berserker lurker at April 13, 2014 10:05 AM (wrlzk)

3 Say what you will, but Nixon was STILL better than Obama.

And I think the damage he did to the Presidency was far less than that done by either Obama or Clinton.

Posted by: Y-not at April 13, 2014 10:07 AM (zDsvJ)

4 Kindle Countdown Sci-Fi Deal: Take The Star Road (The Maxwell Saga #1) by Peter Grant for 99 cents

http://t.co/St7zxpdkC0

Peter Grant is better known as conservative blogger Bayou Renaissance Man. This space opera sci-fi novel normally runs for $2.99 so this is a very nice deal indeed. The 99 cent price will last for four days.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:07 AM (zpNwC)

5 Finally finished the 1632 series. It was starting to drag by the time I got to the next to last book so I quit there. Now working on Steven Lawhead's Paradise War (book 1 of the Albion cycle). Funny I have read his stuff before which is why I bought this one when they put it on sale. This book so far is chock full of eco-propaganda. Its back up to $9.99 now so don't bother with it.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:07 AM (T2V/1)

6 (The interior of Rizzoli bookstore on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Credit Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times )

I suspect stores like that will go the way of the dodo soon.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:08 AM (T2V/1)

7 LOL, which you said immediately after.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:08 AM (T2V/1)

8 Video: Tax Day is Coming (Game of Thrones edition)!

https://t.co/OajsjqoThM

Via reason.com

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:09 AM (zpNwC)

9 And rents in Manhattan are like nowhere else:

Direct result of commie rent control and building codes..

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:10 AM (T2V/1)

10 I use to have an apt of 56th, a block away. I was always amazed at all the foreign newspapers they carried.

Don't know why. Country boy I guess.

Posted by: Nip Sip at April 13, 2014 10:11 AM (0FSuD)

11 Oh for petes sakes! It's not rent control that causes high rents in NYC, its the high demand. When I lived there in 79-80, not only were rents relatively high it was difficult to even find apts for rent. Every body wants to live there (lord knows why) and they have the money to do so.

Posted by: Rowan Atkinson at April 13, 2014 10:12 AM (8c12T)

12 Steinway has also sold their building on 57th. The Economist's offices are on the third floor.

Posted by: Nip Sip at April 13, 2014 10:12 AM (0FSuD)

13 Lack of bookstores in Manhattan? TUCK 'EM! (as they say down in Fexas). Anybody who lives there gets what he/she/it deserves.

I've just finished "The Orphan Master's Son," by Adam Johnson.. It's brilliant. No wonder it won the Pulitzer for fiction last year.

It's a novel of, by about North Korea. If Johnson is a liberal (I assume so), he hides it well in THIS novel. I'm stunned the Volvo lattte set would give their big prize to anything so... condemnatory of a communist regime.

Posted by: mnw at April 13, 2014 10:13 AM (MipG2)

14 For fantasy fans, today is the last day to vote for the Gemmel Awards!

http://gemmellaward.com/

No registration required.

I haven't read any of those books yet sadly so I'm only voting for the Ravenheart Award for best fantasy cover.

I voted for Martin Deschambault's new cover for "Silverthorn" that he did for Harper Collins UK.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:13 AM (zpNwC)

15 A guy got fired because he is gay?

Posted by: eman at April 13, 2014 10:13 AM (AO9UG)

16 @1Y-not, did you really have that terrible nightmare?

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 10:14 AM (NqhG2)

17 He's a filthy socialist but a good storyteller.

Kindle Science Fiction & Fantasy Graphic Novel Daily Deal: Fray by Joss Whedon for $1.99

http://t.co/bBRObaYxTP

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:14 AM (zpNwC)

18 Why does Ace hate ampersands?

Posted by: mnw at April 13, 2014 10:16 AM (MipG2)

19 *aims earthquake ray at Cascadia*

Posted by: alexthechick - Oh save us mighty SMOD at April 13, 2014 10:16 AM (Gk3SS)

20 11
Oh for petes sakes! It's not rent control that causes high rents in NYC,
its the high demand. When I lived there in 79-80, not only were rents
relatively high it was difficult to even find apts for rent. Every body
wants to live there (lord knows why) and they have the money to do so.

Posted by: Rowan Atkinson at April 13, 2014 10:12 AM (8c12T)

Rent control and other regulations caused fewer apartments to be built. That in turn drove up the prices of the apartment that were no covered by rent control. When someone moves out of a rent control apartment they go off of rent control so nobody ever moves out until the body wagon totes them away.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:16 AM (T2V/1)

21 Witnessed the most spectacularly bright sunrise in the distance. Then realized it was 3AM.

Posted by: RWC at April 13, 2014 10:17 AM (QeH9j)

22 The Dragon's Fury hasn't gone on sale yet. Later tonight maybe?

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:18 AM (zpNwC)

23
I remember Coliseum Books very well as well as all the Barnes & Noble's and B. Dalton's. About the only real indy book store left is Strand. Time was when there were dozens if not scores of Strand's all over the city. And it's not just books. We used to have all sorts of vendors selling everything from hardware to specialty spices and foods.

No more. The New York of the past is just that. Sad; nay, tragic. It didn't have to be this way.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at April 13, 2014 10:18 AM (CMkNk)

24 Hey horde,

Not really book related, but reading related.

Younger Bro (who got his shit together far earlier than I) is heading out to DC for a summer internship.

He tells me he'll be writing for Red Alert Politics. And getting paid for the summer too (which is more than I can say right now.)

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 10:19 AM (HDwDg)

25 Two sentence horror story(incorporating post):

"No citizen, Archie Andrews was not a real person and he died because the cabal of unknown people controlling his fate no longer found him useful."

"This has nothing to do with us refusing you treatment under the Affordable Care Act."

Posted by: naturalfake at April 13, 2014 10:19 AM (KBvAm)

26 Two sentence horror story:

Everywhere I go I hear obvious lies jabbered back and forth as truth and common sense. Then I fall asleep and dream about The Love Boat.

Posted by: eman at April 13, 2014 10:21 AM (AO9UG)

27 No more. The New York of the past is just that. Sad; nay, tragic. It didn't have to be this way.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at April 13, 2014 10:18 AM (CMkNk)

The Oyster Bar is still open. Go get some.

Posted by: Nip Sip at April 13, 2014 10:21 AM (0FSuD)

28 One third of the way through Neal Stephenson's "REAMDE". My favorite Stephenson book, by far.

Almost none of the gratuitous geekiness of the earlier works. The characters ring true and you care about them. The plot is delightfully devious and full of surprises. To my mind, he has matured as a writer without losing what was special about his earlier stuff.

===

Enjoyable beach/airplane book -- "NYPD Red 2" by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. Not literature, but a well-written police procedural with interesting characters and nice plot twists. Head and shoulders above most Patterson and Co. books.

Posted by: doug at April 13, 2014 10:22 AM (O4p89)

29 Sarah Hoyt has released her first ever straight to indie novel, "Witchfinder" as a Kindle ebook:

http://tinyurl.com/psjthcq

The book blurb:

"In Avalon, where the world runs on magic, the king of Britannia appoints a witchfinder to rescue unfortunates with magical power from lands where magic is a capital crime. Or he did. But after the royal princess was kidnapped from her cradle twenty years ago, all travel to other universes has been forbidden, and the position of witchfinder abolished. Seraphim Ainsling, Duke of Darkwater, son of the last witchfinder, breaks the edict. He can't simply let people die for lack of rescue. His stubborn compassion will bring him trouble and disgrace, turmoil and danger -- and maybe, just maybe, the greatest reward of all."

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:22 AM (zpNwC)

30 Got two of my next reads from the library: Sunrise (Book III in Mike Mullen's Ashfall series) and The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, the next in the Flavia de Luce mystery series.

I'm also reading Tom Swift and his Atomic Earth Blaster. Did somebody here recommend it? I don't know where my mind ends and the Horde Mind begins!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 13, 2014 10:22 AM (QBm1P)

31 The Oyster Bar is still open. Go get some.

Posted by: Nip Sip at April 13, 2014 10:21 AM (0FSuD)

Only here would I have to say:
"I can't tell if this is a Double Entendre or not!"

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 10:23 AM (HDwDg)

32 Read 'The Last Policeman' by Ben Winters, which has received positive comments here. A novice detective investigates a suicide (or was it murder) while life on Earth is doomed by the arrival of a 4-mile diameter asteroid in 6 months. I thought it started slowly but improved as it went along, and ended up enjoying a lot. Sci-fi and mysteries are my favorite genres so it hits my sweet spot. Have started book 2 of the series, 'Countdown City'.

Posted by: waelse1 at April 13, 2014 10:23 AM (VrAbp)

33 I won't dispute that rent control can badly distort a market, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. Here in the bay area there isn't that much rent control and low income housing and the rent and housing costs here are insane.

Posted by: Strange Bedfellow at April 13, 2014 10:23 AM (QCc6B)

34 @31

Ha ha.

I am NOT that quick.

Last month for oysters so load up!

Posted by: Nip Sip at April 13, 2014 10:24 AM (0FSuD)

35 OT, but important. If you have a phone or tablet running Android 4.1.1, you are exposed by the Heartbleed bug. Google says, that is the **only** version of Android affected.

Here's what Google wrote: "You may have heard of “Heartbleed,” a flaw in OpenSSL that could allow the theft of data normally protected by SSL/TLS encryption.... All versions of Android are immune to CVE-2014-0160 (with the limited exception of Android 4.1.1; patching information for Android 4.1.1 is being distributed to Android partners)." http://goo.gl/Z8vHOF

Mashable explains: on.mash.to/1gjjSDM

There are a number of Heartbleed scanners in the Apps section of the Google Play Store. I've tested the Lookout and Bluebox Heartbleed Scanners and found them accurate.

What this means is that logging in to a "secure" https site may not be secure. E.g., Google Gmail, your bank, Amazon, or credit card company. Use another device until your device is updated.

No word from my phone manufacturer or carrier if/when the vulnerability will be fixed.

Posted by: doug at April 13, 2014 10:24 AM (O4p89)

36 I've just started "The Survivors Club-The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life" by Ben Sherwood. It describes why people will live or die in different emergency situations. So far it seems that your personal will to live makes the biggest difference. It's not a new book, but survival is always relevant.

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 10:25 AM (NqhG2)

37 During the last week I made some good progress in "Master and Commander" to the point where I'm past all the offputting and difficult to endure introductory stuff (which fans of the series warned me about) and am starting to really enjoy the book. The writing is superb and the ways that characters are revealed is quite good.

In "Red Fortress" the book is up to the time of Peter the Great who relocated a lot of operatrions to Saint Petersburg, perhaps in reaction to not wanting to stay in a setting where so many of his family was trashed.

Since Gibbon is to the point of the Crusades, I've decided to scrutinize the events more closely with other books, including a mid 60s book by Zoe Oldenbourg which I already had and one on the first Crusade which a fellow moron helpfully suggested last weekend which looks very good.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 10:26 AM (yT+eY)

38 Posted by: doug at April 13, 2014 10:24 AM (O4p89)

I thought heartbleed was a server side bug, and should be fixable by merely changing the OpenSSL version being used.

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 10:26 AM (HDwDg)

39 Two sentence horror story (for the ladies):

My husband and I were so happy with the new life growing in my belly.

Until the first spider crawled out of my navel...

Posted by: naturalfake at April 13, 2014 10:26 AM (KBvAm)

40 24 Hey horde,

Not really book related, but reading related.

Younger Bro (who got his shit together far earlier than I) is heading out to DC for a summer internship.

He tells me he'll be writing for Red Alert Politics. And getting paid for the summer too (which is more than I can say right now.)
Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 10:19 AM (HDwDg)

Cool. I already follow them on le Twitter. Other than that dumb "Oreos are worse than crack" story they got taken in by they seem to have their heads on straight.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:28 AM (zpNwC)

41 Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:28 AM (zpNwC)

If I am to gather correctly, they're plan is to capture the attention of young people.

Every so often you do that with a crazy ass story.

I'm just glad he figured out he has to start paying his dues now. I never figured that shit out, so I'll never be able to break into the area of affecting policy and the like.

C'est la vie

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 10:29 AM (HDwDg)

42 33
I won't dispute that rent control can badly distort a market, but it's
just one piece of the puzzle. Here in the bay area there isn't that much
rent control and low income housing and the rent and housing costs here
are insane.

Posted by: Strange Bedfellow at April 13, 2014 10:23 AM (QCc6B)

SF has always had insane rent prices. Even when I was out there in the early 70s. The entire Bay Area finally exploded in a huge real estate bubble which subsequently burst. I have friends out there still and they left years ago and moved to a town up near the NV border.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:30 AM (T2V/1)

43 so nobody ever moves out until the body wagon totes them away.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:16 AM (T2V/1)

It's worse than that.

Grandma puts grandson on lease, so when she dies he gets the apartment, with rent control intact. All he has to do is pretend to live there until the old biddy kicks the bucket.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 10:30 AM (QFxY5)

44 @39 Naturalfake- Now that's just mean!

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 10:30 AM (NqhG2)

45 Ending rent control will not make more apartments more affordable, it will only drive out the native new yorkers, like myself and all my family, who hung in there and paid the taxes and endured the crime and the graffiti, the wilding and whirlpooling, the squeegie guy and ATM assaulters, and the very real possibility that NYC would turn into another Detroit. We made this city and we hung in and took a chance that things would turn around and it did.

Anyone who saw a tenement (I grew up in one, still live in one) has seen a shaftway. Shaftways were mandated by city law to make sure the residents could get some air and light. At the time, landlords and builders whined that those changes would cost jobs, put them in the poorhouse, and make it impossible for anyone to build in NYC. Hah.

The housing situation in NYC is unlike anywhere else because of the demand, not the supply. After 9/11, renters left the Battery in droves, so the feds gave cash to the renters to stay. And the landlords raised rents enough to take the incentives. I have seen and experienced firsthand how landlords and developers use illegal and strongarm tactics to drive out longtime tenants. (I've had a knife held to my throat in the hallway.) We're not dealing with Ghandis. They buy buildings knowing there are rent controlled and rent stabilized tenants. And the $250 rent controlled aparment is pretty much a myth. Now folks with rent controlled leases have their rent increased by law.

Posted by: vivi at April 13, 2014 10:30 AM (+/8mE)

46 The big black NFL player smiled at me as he swung open the door of a large safe and said, "Take a look at this, Costas." There were guns inside.

Posted by: Bob wets his pants at April 13, 2014 10:31 AM (2w+1/)

47 33 I won't dispute that rent control can badly distort a market, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. Here in the bay area there isn't that much rent control and low income housing and the rent and housing costs here are insane.
Posted by: Strange Bedfellow at April 13, 2014 10:23 AM (QCc6B)

It's done to keep out the riff-raff. The high-tech companies can afford it.

They never build enough housing near SF to lower the prices, just enough to match growth.

Posted by: eman at April 13, 2014 10:31 AM (AO9UG)

48 I finally paid all of my taxes. Then they told me my grandmother owed taxes when she died.

Posted by: WalrusRex at April 13, 2014 10:31 AM (Mogjf)

49 43 Grandma puts grandson on lease, so when she dies he
gets the apartment, with rent control intact. All he has to do is
pretend to live there until the old biddy kicks the bucket.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 10:30 AM (QFxY5)

LOL, I didn't know they could legally do that, but then again Charlie Rangal with 3 rent control apartments was also illegal.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:32 AM (T2V/1)

50 nobody ever moves out until the body wagon totes them away.

Except that, now, the rent controlled apartment can be inherited by relatives who "lived" there.

Posted by: Fox2! at April 13, 2014 10:32 AM (cHwSy)

51 The other problem with bookstores is that they sell books, and people just aren't buying and reading them as much any more. E-books took off, but they haven't grown as much as overall reading sales have tailed off. Literacy is going backward in America and other places in the west, as people don't know or care how to read any more. It takes too long, requires too much focus and thought, and demands skills people have no inclination or time to learn.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at April 13, 2014 10:32 AM (zfY+H)

52 I went to vote against the Democrats. When I got there, they told me I had already voted.

Posted by: WalrusRex at April 13, 2014 10:34 AM (Mogjf)

53
Hello everyone from Sydney on Monday morning!

Only 4 days work and then Easter break (4 days) plus 3 days holiday plus Anzac Day ((April 25th) then the weekend - perfect mental health break I reckon

Something I've noticed here - some new book stores have been opening up - one brandin particular sells online and publicises that well but has heaps of book stores around the country which are doing quite well obviously

We still buy books at the book store, as well as online through the Book Depository/Amazon and of course Kindle (thanks Vic who feeds my Kindle addiction and I've got the 1632 collection waiting to be read !)

My recommendations....

Any cookbook by a very nice and talented Aussie Luke Nguyen - his recipes are good if you're interested in dabbling in Asian style dishes
Check out his docos on the SBS (Aussie TV station) site - he's travelled back to Vietnam and also done a trip down the length of the Mekong - very entertaining

Then if you are keen to learn about what economics should be - and not what is dished up by our Western economies these days...The Road to Serfdom by F.A Hayek

Have a great yesterday everyone!

Posted by: aussie at April 13, 2014 10:34 AM (XURZb)

54 Yeah, I haz a sad for the decline of bookstores, too.
As a kid, I could ofter be found in Kroch's and Brentano's in downtown Chicago, or one of the many others around the city .... Barbara's Bookstore (a hotbed of lefty subversion in the day) was only a few blocks from home .... used bookstores all over the place; most of the treasured books I inherited from my father came from them.

Readingwise, still trying to stay concentrated on the dry and technical, which is currently offering a pittance toward the bills here at House of Eez, so the nearest thing to light reading this week is Freedom National by James Oakes, an account of the "Destruction of Slavery" as the book is subtitled.
Good stuff, fairly interesting even if I know a lot of this ground already from a lot of Civil War reading.
Most amusing so far was the Preface, where the author cannot understand why the Republican party is currently not understood as having been central to the cause of emancipation and abolitionism. Insofar as he is a Distinguished Professor at CUNY, (i.e. a lifetime academic) I am not sure if he is being disingenuous or not; it hardly matters really.
Recommended, especially if you would like a break from the standard Party Line on this section of history.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at April 13, 2014 10:34 AM (+jyzN)

55 I went to vote against the Democrats. When I got there, they told me I had already voted.

Posted by: WalrusRex at April 13, 2014 10:34 AM (Mogjf)

They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney horrible things would happen to this country. They were right.

(With all do respect to Insty.)

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 10:35 AM (HDwDg)

56 Walrus, I hate to think what they might try to get from me. At times, my father was on a first name basis with the local IRS collection agent.

Posted by: Retread at April 13, 2014 10:35 AM (cHwk5)

57 I thought it was bad when I was murdered in the knockout game. Then I found out I was condemned to vote Democrat.

Posted by: WalrusRex at April 13, 2014 10:36 AM (Mogjf)

58 Note from last week:

There's a eulogy by John Ringo for his mother in the back of Citadel (2nd of 3 so far in Live Free or Die series). She was quite an adventuress and character herself. Makes some of Cally more believable but maybe not the Kindergarden Killer.

Posted by: DaveA at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (DL2i+)

59 The election official looked up at me, her face sad. "I'm sorry, but can I see a photo ID, please?"

Posted by: Illegal Alien who voted 25 times in 2012 at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (2w+1/)

60 My husband and I were so happy with the new life growing in my belly.

Until the first spider crawled out of my navel...

Posted by: naturalfake at April 13, 2014 10:26 AM (KBvAm)

Brilliant.

I hate you now, don't get me wrong, but truly brilliant.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (63X/k)

61 Still working on Gates of Fire. I had to write a paper for school this week but I should be able to finish it soon.

Posted by: Adam at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (Aif/5)

62 >>Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 10:14 AM

Yep. I really did.

Creepy.

I managed to get away from him and report him to I don't know who. (The real fantasy part being that anyone would care.)

Posted by: Y-not at April 13, 2014 10:38 AM (zDsvJ)

63 BTW, I had a three bedroom townhouse apartment with a garage in Union City, furnished, for $350/month back in the early 70s. Union city was about as far south as you could go on 14th street and still be in the concrete jungle. After that you hit countryside until you got to San Jose. The last time I checked those apartments are now in a high crime area and are going for $2,000 a month.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 10:38 AM (T2V/1)

64 Capt. Hate ,, you're in for a treat . The humorous parts are still to come in O'brian .

Posted by: awkward davies at April 13, 2014 10:41 AM (whqez)

65 I had my free birth control and rented a motel room. Then I found out all the males had turned alternative lifestyle, even the dogs.

Posted by: Sandra Fluke at April 13, 2014 10:42 AM (Mogjf)

66 I live near SF and it takes two-weeks pay to pay the rent.

It's insane.

Posted by: eman at April 13, 2014 10:42 AM (AO9UG)

67 ...and maybe, just maybe, the greatest reward of all."
A Senate seat forever?

Posted by: andycanuck at April 13, 2014 10:42 AM (hn5v5)

68 58 Note from last week:

There's a eulogy by John Ringo for his mother in the back of Citadel (2nd of 3 so far in Live Free or Die series). She was quite an adventuress and character herself. Makes some of Cally more believable but maybe not the Kindergarden Killer.
Posted by: DaveA at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (DL2i+)

Love, love, LOVE Citadel. Ringo has apparently said he's in the planning stages for book four of the series.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:42 AM (zpNwC)

69 I think you're probably right about Nixon--he was what he always was but was usually pretty good at covering it up. It was only when he reached the very pinnacle of his career that he could no longer keep the mask on. Remember, this was a "nice Quaker boy" who as a naval officer in WWII made quite a bit of money in shipboard poker games, and the key to success in poker is knowing how to bluff. Nixon fooled quite a few people and it seems that years after his death we're still trying to figure him out, but I doubt he was fooling himself.

The same may end up being said about Obama, except I don't think he's as comfortable in his own skin as Nixon was in his. That, and Nixon had the brakes put on him very sharply by his own party before he got completely out of control. That will not happen with Obama, and we'll be the worse off because of it....

Posted by: Jenk at April 13, 2014 10:45 AM (e2ysZ)

70 I've been mostly reading short stories this week.

So, a bit OT:

I saw "Oculus" this weekend.

Eh, it's okay. Well, made but not very scary.

The set up is nice but it goes exactly where you thought it would with few scares along the way.

My two biggest problems with it are:

1) The old "if you see gun in the first act, you know it will be used in the final act" - not a gun in "Oculus" but the principle holds

2) Stupid actions by characters set up the movie's plot.

KIND OF SPOILERY - POSSIBLE SPOILER:
*
*
*
Why the hell would you lock yourself in with a supernatural entity that you absolutely know from personal experience can distort your sense of reality and cause you to do harmful things to yourself and others around you? Just stand outside it's range of influence and blow the damn thing up or more likely stay far the hell away.
*
*
*
*
SPOILERY STUFF OFF

Anyway it reminded me a bit of an old 70s Robert Altman movie-

"Images" starring the luscious Susanne York as a woman trying to stop her advancing schizophrenia by murdering her imagined companions.

The same problem that "Oculus" had in that the set up gives you the ending and the real vs unreal twists and turns never surprise you so you aren't engaged.

So, "Oculus" well made, well acted, not particularly scary. I like that this movie wants to creep you out rather than gross you out.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 13, 2014 10:45 AM (KBvAm)

71 Larry Correia's next Next Book Bomb will be tomorrow, April 14th, for John C. Wright’s AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND

http://t.co/tGEQumDkKJ

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:45 AM (zpNwC)

72 I walked out to roaring applause at the fund raiser. Then the teleprompter malfunctioned.

Posted by: Barack Obama at April 13, 2014 10:46 AM (Mogjf)

73 Capt. Hate ,, you're in for a treat . The humorous parts are still to come in O'brian .

Posted by: awkward davies at April 13, 2014 10:41 AM (whqez)

I just got past the point where Aubrey got plowed at a party and talked about how his crew was ready with "yard-long pricks" to deal with the ladies before Maturin hustled him out at the insistence of the hostess. I was LOLing.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 10:46 AM (yT+eY)

74 A couple of months back I had some hours to spare in Manhattan so I walked a couple of miles down Broadway from Madison Square to around Chinatown. And what did I pass along the way?

National retail chain outlets, restaurants, and expensive clothing boutiques. That's it. None of the specialty merchandise which once drew people from all over the world to Manhattan, none of the quirky little dives Manhattanites love to go on about. Aside from the vents spewing sewer gas and the Arab taxi drivers trying to kill me, it was like walking through any high-end shopping mall from Potomac Mills to Irvine.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 13, 2014 10:49 AM (2NrWL)

75 Sci-fi and mysteries are my favorite genres so it hits my sweet spot.

Posted by: waelse1 at April 13, 2014 10:23 AM (VrAbp)

Have you read any of Jack McDevitt's books? Sci-fi mysteries, very well written. I thoroughly enjoy him.

Posted by: HH at April 13, 2014 10:51 AM (XXwdv)

76 There is a spectacular bookstore in Manhattan called The Strand, just West of Union Square. Great place, with a surprisingly good selection of subversive books.

Of course, in New York that means anything to the right of the current mayor.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 10:51 AM (QFxY5)

77 Michael J. Totten's Kickstarter project for a series of dispatches from Vietnam is now funded! YAY! If you still want to pledge and get the ebook version the project will be open for nine more days.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:52 AM (zpNwC)

78 How do you decide to quit reading a series?

Decades ago I started reading Anne Perry's mystery series. I read the first dozen or so books of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series pretty quickly, then slowed down as I got up to the publication dates, then fell behind as I lost interest and tired of Perry's writing style. However, I would occasionally buy new books in the series when I saw them at the FOL sale. Last week I read the next book in order and was ready to scream - the writing was so tedious - but I soldiered on, finished the book and this week I read the following book, which was much better. So I guess I'll continue reading the series, at least I'll read the next two books, since I already have them. Then I can decide if I'm done for good with the series.

(And on this subject of series fiction - am I the only person who feels sadness but also a tiny bit of relief when an author I've been reading dies because I know that the series will finally end and I can move on to other books?)

Posted by: biancaneve at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (2sR50)

79 Rent control! hah!

There is a wind blowing through this country.

Can you smell that?

It smells bitter and yet sweet at the same time.

Got guns?

If you don't you need to pick up a few.

Burning times ARE COMING.

Posted by: The Walking Dude at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (lOJcj)

80 After a hard day driving over slippery mountain roads during a blizzard, I checked into my hotel room, fell on the bed, and clicked on the television. All of the channels were MSNBC.

Posted by: WalrusRex at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (Mogjf)

81 77 Forgot the link to Totten's Kickstarter project page:

http://tinyurl.com/qbto2yv

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (zpNwC)

82 44 @39 Naturalfake- Now that's just mean!

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 10:30 AM (NqhG2)

Aww, c'mon, I'm just getting' my horror on.

Two sentence style.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (KBvAm)

83 Still working on Gates of Fire.

Posted by: Adam at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (Aif/5)

And?

I think it's a great book.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (QFxY5)

84 Morning all - started through my haul from last weekend's PTA book sale. Once a year in a school athletic center's basketball court; paperbacks .50, hard-bound $1.00 ... any hardbound, up to an including originally very expensive coffee-table books. Didn't make as impressive a haul as in some years, but still got a couple of paperbacks of Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries. I had previously gotten as far as 'M' ... maybe my interest will be re-kindled. The series is set in a thinly disguised Santa Barbara, CA, which we used to visit often. My grandparents lived just a little way down the coast, so it was just a short drive.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (Asjr7)

85 For those of you on Twitter, there is an account called "Very Short Story" which is along the lines of the two-sentence horror stories posted above.

Posted by: Gingy @GingyNorth at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (N/cFh)

86 (And on this subject of series fiction - am I the only person who feels sadness but also a tiny bit of relief when an author I've been reading dies because I know that the series will finally end and I can move on to other books?)
Posted by: biancaneve at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (2sR50)

You mean like with Frank Herbert? /sarc

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (zpNwC)

87
How do you decide to quit reading a series?

Posted by: biancaneve at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (2sR50)

When they stop being enjoyable. With "Dune" that happened pretty quick.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (yT+eY)

88 80 After a hard day driving over slippery mountain roads during a blizzard, I checked into my hotel room, fell on the bed, and clicked on the television. All of the channels were MSNBC.
Posted by: WalrusRex at April 13, 2014 10:53 AM (Mogjf)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Posted by: Insomniac at April 13, 2014 10:56 AM (mx5oN)

89 Print version of Wikipedia?

Dilbert's pointy-haired boss came up with this, right?

((not going to search out the strip from here))

And, Nixon was a real mixed bag.

Posted by: mindful webworker - print is dead at April 13, 2014 10:56 AM (u57y4)

90 @62-Ynot, you are in need of a cute emergency to get that dream out of your head!
http://cuteemergency.com/

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 10:57 AM (NqhG2)

91 I appreciate and agree with your comments about rent prices and rent control, and am personally dismayed because I'm about to have to move into a rent-controlled city, but book stores might not be the best example. They are closing everywhere. It's called Amazon and Kindle and the like. Remember Borders? They weren't killed by rent control.

Posted by: notropis at April 13, 2014 10:57 AM (bvlUm)

92 With "Dune" that happened pretty quick.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (yT+eY)

Like after the second book, which itself was shit compared to the first.

Of course Dune may be the greatest SciFi book ever written, so that's a high bar.....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 10:58 AM (QFxY5)

93 86
Beat me to the punch....

Posted by: Jenk at April 13, 2014 10:59 AM (e2ysZ)

94 (Am I really supposed to care that people who sneer about how stupid and worthless I am because of where I live can only rent half a bedroom with no kitchen privs for what I'm paying for 1700 sq ft w/two baths, two-car garage, and a backyard full of birds?)

How do you decide to quit reading a series?

When the author spends a whole novel going off on what a blessing abortion is and how horrible and H8-filled anyone who thinks it's wrong is. Ding! No more books from that bitch.

Posted by: HR at April 13, 2014 10:59 AM (hO8IJ)

95
When they stop being enjoyable. With "Dune" that happened pretty quick.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (yT+eY)

Yeah, I loved "Dune" so much. I plowed through two sequels before I gave up.

It's been a long time but I think it was when Paul Atreides became a sand worm that I lost all hope.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 13, 2014 10:59 AM (KBvAm)

96 Rent control is evil, and the idea that you should be able to 'inherit' a rent-controlled apartment is ridiculous. There are buildings in NYC where the one or two non-rent-controlled apartments are subsidizing the rest of the building. Very wrong. And in the normal course of events, retirees would move from high-cost housing areas to low-cost housing areas, freeing up space for new move-ins, but why would a retired person move out of a rent-controlled apartment?

Posted by: biancaneve at April 13, 2014 10:59 AM (2sR50)

97 Take a look at this Betty & Veronica cover

Definite lipstick lesbian undertones here ...

http://tinyurl.com/pz7krm5

Posted by: kbdabear at April 13, 2014 11:00 AM (aTXUx)

98 OMG! The 1964 High School Yearbook by National Lampoon!

I got one when they first came out. Every page was either a hoot or a holler, depending on your mood.

C. Estes Kefauver HS. "Wobbles" Waterski, and the guy who covered up all the No Smoking signs to read "SM OK." The slutty cheerleaders.

And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. It's too bad that the reprint seems to be of poor quality, according to the Amazon reviews. If that weren't a problem, I'd probably get one.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at April 13, 2014 11:03 AM (0HooB)

99 This past week I've read Mark Goodwin's American Exit Strategy and American Meltdown which can be had here: http://tinyurl.com/m3t9sq7 .

Goodwin is pretty clearly a libertarian LuapNor guy, but both books make for an interesting read. I do recommend having your tinfoil hat handy, however.

If nothing else, his cast of characters is priceless:

Randall Paul: Republican Senator running as an independent for President
Juan Marcos: Republican RINO Presidential candidate
Mustafa al Mohammed: The current President
Anthony Howe: Dem presidential candidate
Ed Nolan: CNC news anchor
Hayden Nicholas: Conservative governor of South Carolina

Posted by: Country Singer at April 13, 2014 11:03 AM (r/e1Q)

100 @82-naturalfake, you win the internet this morning with the most disturbing horror story. Congratulations!

(Now please stop, my brain can't take anymore.)

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 11:04 AM (NqhG2)

101 Correction, the Independent Republican candidate character is "Paul Randall."

Posted by: Country Singer at April 13, 2014 11:04 AM (r/e1Q)

102 From last week's book thread:

"The Dragon's Fury is a book by moron David Mickelson I mentioned a while back. David e-mailed me this week to let me know it will be on sale for a few days:

'I wanted to let you know that there will be a "Kindle Countdown Deal" for my book starting Sunday, April 13 and running for a week. For the first two days it will be available for download for just 99 cents.'"

Sale price just started:

http://t.co/zaNLleMD58

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 11:05 AM (zpNwC)

103 "When the author spends a whole novel going off on what a blessing abortion is and how horrible and H8-filled anyone who thinks it's wrong is. Ding! No more books from that bitch."

TERRIBLE! What author/book is that?

Posted by: biancaneve at April 13, 2014 11:05 AM (2sR50)

104 Also, rent control will never end because then the people who paid $4 million for an apartment would suddenly lose half that value when customers decide that renting is cheaper.

Posted by: PJ at April 13, 2014 11:06 AM (ZWaLo)

105 She was quite an adventuress and character herself. Makes some of Cally more believable but maybe not the Kindergarden Killer.
Posted by: DaveA at April 13, 2014 10:37 AM (DL2i+)

I got to that thread too late to post, but I wanted to tell you that my paternal grandmother and two of her sisters attempted to kill their stepfather multiple times from the time they were 7, 9 and 10, respectively. I won't go into the sordid details of why they felt it necessary, but they were quite serious about it.

The most successful attempt was an ambush by the barn where the youngest one jumped on his back and tried to gouge his eyes while the two oldest went at him with a butcher knife and an axe/hatchet of some sort. They did manage to wound him some, but they hadn't considered that they were as likely to hit each other as him.

They also tried to drown him and poison him.

He and my great grandmother finally just moved to Delaware, and abandoned my grandma and her other 8 siblings, including an infant and toddlers.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 13, 2014 11:07 AM (63X/k)

106 Anne Perry certainly knows what she's talking about when she writes about murder, being a murderer herself. It was a case that shocked New Zealand - a woman brutally murdered by her own teenaged daughter and her daughter's friend. Anne Perry was the friend.

Posted by: Donna and V. (presently ampersandless) at April 13, 2014 11:07 AM (2w+1/)

107 Re: 38 "I thought heartbleed was a server side bug, and should be fixable by merely changing the OpenSSL version being used."

Server-side got the most publicity. Some client-side apps are affected, predominantly open-source. As my Google cite said -- Android 4.1.1 **is** vulnerable.

"In a presentation given yesterday, Williams – aka MalwareJake – noted that vulnerable OpenSSL installations on the client side can be attacked by malicious servers to extract passwords and cryptographic keys from users' computers and gadgets." bit.ly/1sQ1gUM

My carrier has acknowledged the vulnerability.

Posted by: doug at April 13, 2014 11:08 AM (O4p89)

108 Posted by: HR at April 13, 2014 10:59 AM (hO8IJ)

Ohz? What book was this?

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) at April 13, 2014 11:10 AM (HDwDg)

109 Free Kindle ebook until end of the day: In God We Trust: A Novel of American Politics by Michael Harrington

http://t.co/0S3s9Uzlvn

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 11:11 AM (zpNwC)

110 I've continued reading some more Ringo and Kratman since some of the Horde mentioned Watch on the Rhine a couple months ago.

*A State of Disobedience by Tom Kratman is very good. It's his first book, published in 2003. From the internal timeline, the book is set sometime post 2008 after the incoming U.S President (a woman Democrat) blackmails and criminalizes political opponents and allies. She expands federal law enforcement and creates the Surgeon Generals Riot Control Police (to crush pro-life groups) and the Presidential Guard, Secret Service (these thugs wear black and are referred to as the PGSS). Things come to a head after the Director of the FBI orders an Army attack helicopter to strafe a Texan Catholic mission housing a fugitive priest.

Texas semi-secedes from the Union and primarily uses non-violent civil disobedience to force the federal government to use disparate armed responses. The ending is not "happily ever after" but does result in paring back some of the federal leviathan.

*The Tuloriad by both Kratman and John Ringo is also very good. It is set immediately after the Posleen have lost the interstellar war and the book primarily follows a group of Posleen survivors attempting to find their ancient home-world. The Pope is concerned about the salvation of their souls and sends a mission after them with representatives of various religions in search of them. The Posleen eventually adopt Roman Catholicism after the Clan Lord is impressed by the way a small group of the Swiss Guard fight in Trial-by-Combat in defense of a Posleen that became a Baptist preacher.

I highly recommend both books.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop at April 13, 2014 11:12 AM (1htQa)

111 You sure that pic isn't of Jay Carney and Claire Shipman's library?

Posted by: Albie Damned at April 13, 2014 11:13 AM (cGaCp)

112
Being an Aussie, I've always relied on the US to provide us with a security blanket.

This isa bit like a security blankie I had when I was a kidlet - it's gone.

That's my horror sentences for today...

Posted by: aussie at April 13, 2014 11:14 AM (XURZb)

113 C. Estes Kefauver HS. "Wobbles" Waterski, and the guy who covered up all the No Smoking signs to read "SM OK." The slutty cheerleaders.

Class president Chuck U. Farley

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 11:15 AM (fTJ5O)

114 kbdabear: Just innocent dress-up...

_____
President Eye Candy, webwork from 2012 Sep 24 - link in nick. Because Archie, Betty, Veronica. And TFG. And Alfred E.

Posted by: mindful webworker is done 4 today at April 13, 2014 11:15 AM (6B4ha)

115 Anne Perry certainly knows what she's talking about when she writes about murder, being a murderer herself. It was a case that shocked New Zealand - a woman brutally murdered by her own teenaged daughter and her daughter's friend. Anne Perry was the friend.

Peter Jackson did a movie about this sensational case around 1996 or so, "Heavenly Creatures", and it was quite good.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 11:17 AM (fTJ5O)

116 111 You sure that pic isn't of Jay Carney and Claire Shipman's library?
Posted by: Albie Damned at April 13, 2014 11:13 AM (cGaCp)

Not enough floating fingers.

Posted by: RWC at April 13, 2014 11:18 AM (QeH9j)

117 It's odd how many folks outside of New York thinks New Yorkers sneer at anyone, or look down on anyone for living anywhere else. I was on a plane on a business trip, chatting away with my seatmate, and when I said I was a NY native the woman in the row ahead stared daggers at me and told her seatmate "I can't believe she's so polite."

I"m willing to bet that anyone who does any sneering about living in NYC is a transplant, not a native. And when I say 'native new yorker" i mean that you spend Thanksgiving within the five boroughs - that is to say, you don't have a foxhole somewhere else to retreat to.

I have nothing to prove to anyone, I'm too damn busy getting on with it. I do sneer, though, but the only sneering I do is with the newbies, transplants, hipster d-bags, Eurotrash and trustafarians who think my home is a theme park.

Developers are Satan. Folks familiar with NYC may know one of the few remaining landmark bookstores - Argosy ("Wise men fish here") in midtown. It's still there because when they moved there in the 20's the bookseller bought the building. I know folks who work there who say several times a week developers knock on their doors trying to convince the owners to sell...and some developers try to sue them to compel them to sell and I know real estate lawyers who say that is not unusual.

Posted by: vivi at April 13, 2014 11:18 AM (+/8mE)

118 I bet Archie is killed by "a returning veteran gone psycho!"

Posted by: am We correct yet? at April 13, 2014 11:19 AM (oBzH0)

119 Class president Chuck U. Farley

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 11:15 AM (fTJ5O)

Charles Ulmer Farley "Call me Chuck"

They had class pictures with all sorts of hilarious names in the caption. "Phil Accio, Ima Dork, Harry P. Ness" , etc

There was also the school mystery of The Mad Crapper, all of the clues subtly leaning to the Vice Principal

Posted by: kbdabear at April 13, 2014 11:19 AM (aTXUx)

120 Anyone read Matt Kibbe's "Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto"?

Glen Reynolds did a interview on PJTV; now on youtube.com

Posted by: doug at April 13, 2014 11:20 AM (O4p89)

121 For those of you on Twitter, there is an account
called "Very Short Story" which is along the lines of the two-sentence
horror stories posted above.

Posted by: Gingy @GingyNorth at April 13, 2014 10:55 AM (N/cFh)

And being Twitter, there is another account called "Very Short Sequel."

Posted by: Retread at April 13, 2014 11:21 AM (cHwk5)

122 You sure that pic isn't of Jay Carney and Claire Shipman's library?

Posted by: Albie Damned at April 13, 2014 11:13 AM (cGaCp)

I had more real books in my personal library by the time I was 18, than those pair of dunces have in their fake library. I had over 4000 (I counted) when I had to move my books 16 years ago. I laugh and mock Lefties when they try to claim to well-read because, "New York Times."

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop at April 13, 2014 11:23 AM (1htQa)

123 I like it too CBD, I was extra intrigued when I found out they teach it at The Basic School.

Posted by: Adam at April 13, 2014 11:23 AM (Aif/5)

124 There was also the school mystery of The Mad Crapper, all of the clues subtly leaning to the Vice Principal

The school mascot, which IIRC, was a kangaroo.

Damn, talk about hopping in the WayBack Machine...

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at April 13, 2014 11:24 AM (0HooB)

125 I started reading Robert Crais' Elvis Cole series last week. I am I guess about halfway thru, reading 'LA Requiem' at the moment. I love being able to check out eBooks from the library.

Posted by: Emile Antoon Khadaji at April 13, 2014 11:24 AM (/8qpd)

126 Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 13, 2014 11:07 AM (63X/k)

Wow!!!

Posted by: HH at April 13, 2014 11:24 AM (XXwdv)

127
So that's what Libetarianism is about -- being neutral...like Sweden?

uh okay whatevs

Posted by: Soothie at April 13, 2014 11:26 AM (5c3Xp)

128 That's an amazing story, Tammy.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 11:26 AM (fTJ5O)

129 Two sentence horror is much akin to haiku, seemingly simple in concept. But brutal in the execution to convey an idea in such a short time.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at April 13, 2014 11:27 AM (/8So2)

130 I'm glad I last visited NYC when Giuliani was still mayor and it was my first and last impression of the city. Loved it, expected it to be more expensive to visit than a flyover city. It was, but for a "tourist" , it was still an amazing place. Was a little taken aback by the razor wire surrounding our small airport hotel, but still thought the city was incredible.

After Bloomberg and now DeBlasio, it sounds like it is returning to being a city of incredible wealth above and crime and panhandling below.

How can even the chain stores justify $40,000 a month rents? I realize they have a captive customer base, but with the internet, who can justify a rent like that, with all the additonal overhead, fees, etc. for a brick and mortar store?

Posted by: Jen at April 13, 2014 11:27 AM (Mt+Yq)

131 I saw Oldsailors Poet earlier this morning on the open thread. He hasn't been around much lately. Does anyone know if he is working on his second novel?

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 11:27 AM (NqhG2)

132 Two sentence horror story:

We had finally survived eight years of the Obama regime. Then we realized it was to be followed by eight years of the Hillary regime.

Posted by: cool breeze at April 13, 2014 11:27 AM (A+/8k)

133 Seems most of what you know about Poe comes from a Rufus Griswald. Not a friend of Poe by any means.

(On HC now.)

Posted by: RWC at April 13, 2014 11:28 AM (QeH9j)

134 Or what I thought I knew.

The horde probably knows all about Rufus.

Posted by: RWC at April 13, 2014 11:30 AM (QeH9j)

135 My parents actually bought a print version of Wikipedia when I was a kid. Our was sold by some guy named Britannica.

Posted by: JohnJ at April 13, 2014 11:30 AM (TF/YA)

136 Twitter? For short stories?

*pulls from the shelves*

100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander. Avon Books. 1978.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at April 13, 2014 11:30 AM (/8So2)

137
April 15th is coming up and I want you all to remember something.

Right after radical Muslims/EBT cardholders bombed the Boston Marathon the Republicans did what they do best: immediately sat on their thumbs, whereas the Leftists/media immediately began speculating about an anti-govt and anti-tax group acting out.

Posted by: Soothie at April 13, 2014 11:31 AM (5c3Xp)

138 From "The Federalist": "New York, New York: What A Progressive City Looks Like" bit.ly/1gpP30c

Posted by: doug at April 13, 2014 11:31 AM (O4p89)

139 There was also the school mystery of The Mad Crapper, all of the clues subtly leaning to the Vice Principal

They did something similar in the Sunday Newspaper parody (which, disappointingly, I could not find on Amazon). They had stories about this character who was breaking into women's homes and forcibly giving them enemas (don't ask me how). The police were "baffled", but there were clues scattered throughout all the articles, so if you read them carefully enough, you could figure out who he was.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 11:31 AM (fTJ5O)

140 I have to think that the explosion of ebooks have played a part (perhaps a very large part) in all these closings.

I can't say I see that as a bad thing. I love my kindle. I love being able to have any book in the world at my fingertips.

I think print is important, especially for important (read: subversive) books, but for pulp? I'm all for the e-book revolution.

Posted by: Lauren at April 13, 2014 11:31 AM (hFL/3)

141 PS- Rush also mentioned that he couldn't get a garbage disposal installed in his kitchen because of the contract the building had with the garbage-collectors' union.

****

When I was young I couldn't wait to get out of my hometown but, whoops!, here come baby. So, I stuck.

Then, in my 30's as my daughter approached adulthood I dreamed of taking my go-get-em work ethic and my smarts and heading into the big city for a few years.

Now, you couldn't pay me to live there.

I have no doubt that I would be shunned, and hard, because there's simply no way I'd be able to keep my mouth shut.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at April 13, 2014 11:32 AM (DmNpO)

142 You guys are mostly wrong about Nixon.

Yeah, he believed in winning. What would you prefer, the Bush approach, where the leadership of the GOP affects a fussiness about responding to the most scurrilous and damaging of attacks. All the while hoping that their endless displays of "class" finally gets rewarded by the electorate? Is that you prefer?

Our party hasn't run a half-way decent attack ad since the death of Lee Atwater!

We didn't run ANY genuine attack ads against Obama in 2008, and the situation was even worse in '12. You can't win contests when the other side enjoys such media advantages without running blistering, bone-breaking attack ads!

Nixon understood victory!

And that it was that understanding, the mindset, which allowed him to order Linebacker I, and then when the North Viets welshed, Linebacker II, (otherwise known as the Christmas bombings). He ended that war by bombing the enemy! And had he handled the idiotic watergate scandal as he should have, by dismissing the whole thing as much ado about nothing, because that election was a foregone conclusion, the North Viets would not have been able to subsequently conquer the South!

One party tried to bug the other in an election that was decided the moment that the Democrats went with the whifty McGovern! Nixon took 48 states in '72, and dirty tricks had NOTHING to do with it at all.

I for one prefer political leaders who FIGHT TO WIN, instead of these weirdos who rationalize their own self-inflicted, deep-seated defeatism!

Posted by: Dan M. at April 13, 2014 11:32 AM (K7rSv)

143 Two sentence horror story:
Obama elected as president. Obama re-elected as president.

Posted by: am We correct yet? at April 13, 2014 11:33 AM (oBzH0)

144 135 My parents actually bought a print version of Wikipedia when I was a kid. Our was sold by some guy named Britannica.

Posted by: JohnJ at April 13, 2014 11:30 AM (TF/YA)

My encyclopedias growing up had Nixon still in office. My school reports were less than stellar.

Posted by: RWC at April 13, 2014 11:34 AM (QeH9j)

145 We had finally survived eight years of the Obama regime. Then we realized it was to be followed by eight years of the Hillary regime.

That is truly scary.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at April 13, 2014 11:36 AM (0HooB)

146 National Lampoon has its influence right here and now in the comments. Ace once explained the sock puppetry we engage in as inspired by "letters to the editor" in NL which were of course written by the magazine but the famous names in the bylines made the letters hilarious in the context

Moron Nation proudly carries on that tradition

Posted by: kbdabear at April 13, 2014 11:36 AM (aTXUx)

147
The word "selfie" will end up being the most hated/overused word in 2014.

Posted by: Soothie at April 13, 2014 11:37 AM (5c3Xp)

148 Mustafa al Mohammed: The current President

Pretty much.

Posted by: baldilocks at April 13, 2014 11:38 AM (36Rjy)

149 Two-sentence horror story: "I voted for free healthcare. Then I found out who had to pay for it."

Posted by: JohnJ at April 13, 2014 11:40 AM (TF/YA)

150 And the very notion of even mentioning, EVEN mentioning the supposed personality quirks of Nixon, after the varied glandular impulses of a Clinton, the wanton lust of his wife, gazing longingly down at the luscious rack of Christina Aquilera, after the beard Michelle, whose misery and unhappiness is a daily spectacle for all the word to see and speculate over, after a President who spends HOURS ALONE, behind locked doors, all the time, with a "Reggie Love," --- after all the psychological disorders of the hard left in charge of that party of death.............. after what we've been through since the conclusion of the GHWB tenure, after all that, ---------------- to even refer to the quirks of a Nixon is just mind-boggling!

We should all be so lucky to have a Nixon around today. And yeah I know he disagreed vehemently with how Reagan conducted and won the cold war. Yeah, I know all about that, and his supreme court nominations. I know the full record, detente, the whole bit.

But at least he fought!

Instead of these squalid puss**s we have in charge of the GOP today!

Posted by: Dan M. at April 13, 2014 11:40 AM (K7rSv)

151 The problem with New York isn't native "old" New Yorkers -- but then, they're a shrinking minority there anyway.

The problem is the people who thought they were the smartest kids in town back in Iowa or wherever, who moved to New York where their talents will finally win the recognition they deserve.

They want to fit in among the New Yorkers which means they behave like the only models of New Yorker behavior they know: characters on Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother. Seriously: sometimes they even pause for laugh track after saying something supposedly funny.

It's the pseudo-New Yorkers who give the place a bad name, and unfortunately it's self-reinforcing.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 13, 2014 11:42 AM (2NrWL)

152 @105. What a story! I am amazed by people and what they can do when necessary. You come from sturdy stock. I hope your grandmother found happiness after the children were abandoned. The step grandfather must have really needed killing.

Posted by: 'Ette in training at April 13, 2014 11:42 AM (zvxqj)

153 OB Rush hosed you. Again. And again you believed him. Residential trash is picked up by the city. There are no restrictions against disposals. Please be a bit more skeptical about what he says.
Commercial space is not rent controlled
Rents are going up because so many people are willing to pay them.
And obviously you don't know the difference between rent controlled housing and rent stabilized housing

Posted by: Rightrt at April 13, 2014 11:43 AM (ODTDL)

154 Re-reading the Prince Roger saga..... currently in March to the stars. Quite the comes of age saga.

Posted by: Eric the old OC tanker at April 13, 2014 11:44 AM (rMyGM)

155 12 Steinway has also sold their building on 57th. The Economist's offices are on the third floor.
Posted by: Nip Sip

This is not really book thread related, but a couple of years ago we went to the Steinway store in Fort Worth, while visiting relatives. They had some gorgeous models on the floor, and the salesmen encouraged us to play. Turns out all of them were signed by Van Cliburn, who had come in the day before, just to visit and play. So he signed the pianos as a thank you. My daughter was over the moon.

As for the book thread, it breaks my heart to see book stores in death throes, but I fear that it's just the beginning. So, in the spirit of moron unity, when they have their going out of business sales, get in early and get the bargains.

Posted by: moki at April 13, 2014 11:44 AM (EvHC8)

156 149 Two-sentence horror story: "I voted for free healthcare. Then I found out who had to pay for it."
Posted by: JohnJ at April 13, 2014 11:40 AM (TF/YA)

Thread winner.

Posted by: moki at April 13, 2014 11:45 AM (EvHC8)

157 So much about Nixon is 'narrative', we see this in Max Holland's Felt, that examined all about Woodward's source, and the treatment that Woodward gave him, in part by examining his notes, vs. the shooting script of All the President's men, where he made many things out of whole cloth, Jonathan's Aitken's bio is good, yes the fellow got subsequently involved with Arab business, there was also another about Nixon's early years, which debunked many of the phantom financing tales, ala the current Koch horror stories,

Posted by: Corolianus Snow at April 13, 2014 11:49 AM (Jsiw/)

158
Adult men named "Bobby" or "Jimmy"...

Posted by: Soothie at April 13, 2014 11:49 AM (5c3Xp)

159 I dreamed I painted the town red in a Maidenform bra. I probably should have taken her breasts out of it first.

Posted by: jwpaine @PirateBallerina at April 13, 2014 11:52 AM (2oU2+)

160 Posted by: Trimegistus at April 13, 2014 11:42 AM (2NrWL)

I'll take a walk with you through the upper West side, wearing a suitably inflammatory t-shirt (pro-2nd Amendment).

How will the 3rd generation NYers react to me?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 11:52 AM (QFxY5)

161 Posted by: vivi at April 13, 2014 11:18 AM (+/8mE)

I know from my own experience that what I initially took as rudeness is just a very blunt, no-nonsense, cut-to-the chase way of speaking.

I used to work for a finance company that was headquartered in NYC. Me being Southern, it would take me me 5 minutes just to say hello to someone I called there, and the Bronx and Brooklynites on the other end would always just cut me off or talk over me til I got to the point. But I finally realized they weren't being intentionally rude, they just aren't chatters. Once I realized that, I had a blast with them. So freaking funny.

My biggest problem was trying to understand the Puerto Ricans. Took me months to figure out their accent and they had the same problem with me!

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 13, 2014 11:53 AM (63X/k)

162 Two-sentence horror story:

She pushed her horned-rimmed glasses back up her nose. "My boyfriend and I were upset at first when Google sent him here to Idaho, but now we see the potential that it has!"

Posted by: Colorado Alex at April 13, 2014 11:54 AM (lr3d7)

163 Two sentence horror? Okay.

Ronan Farrow awoke with the sunlight streaming through the window of his rent controlled apartment in New York City, he rolled over and felt his arm fall upon another slumbering body in his bed. They say his blood curling screams could be heard all the way down in the Battery when he spied Roseanne Barr next to him.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at April 13, 2014 11:54 AM (/8So2)

164 There are no restrictions against disposals.

Posted by: Rightrt at April 13, 2014 11:43 AM (ODTDL)

The restriction may have been the owners of the building.

But...there absolutely are restrictions: my sister could not install a disposal. She did it anyway, but....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2014 11:54 AM (QFxY5)

165 Yeah, the Prince Roger series was quite the story, thoroughly enjoyed it through maybe 3 or 4 rereadings, never lost its flavor .... and an ending that really hit all the buttons at once.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at April 13, 2014 11:55 AM (+jyzN)

166 131 I saw Oldsailors Poet earlier this morning on the open thread. He hasn't been around much lately. Does anyone know if he is working on his second novel?
Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 11:27 AM (NqhG2)

I certainly hope so. I see him on Goodreads every couple of days so I'll ask him there.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 11:55 AM (zpNwC)

167 And obviously you don't know the difference between rent controlled housing and rent stabilized housing

And I've heard that only a true New Yorker can explain the difference.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 11:55 AM (fTJ5O)

168 Irwin Gellman's the Contender, that was the book I was referring to, what was his great crime, hire a political intelligence apparatus, some dubious financial contributions, the War in Cambodia, lets get serious,

Posted by: Corolianus Snow at April 13, 2014 11:55 AM (Jsiw/)

169 137 the radical Muslims are anti government and anti tax

Posted by: Rightrt at April 13, 2014 11:56 AM (ODTDL)

170 I laugh and mock Lefties when they try to claim to well-read because, "New York Times."

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop at April 13, 2014 11:23 AM (1htQa)

Those turds deserve to be constantly beaten down which I'm more than happy and adept at doing.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 11:56 AM (yT+eY)

171 Nood open thread

Posted by: ManWithNoParty at April 13, 2014 12:00 PM (ojnk6)

172
Howie Kurtz is a clown...speaking of clowns.

Posted by: Soothie at April 13, 2014 12:00 PM (5c3Xp)

173 And had he handled the idiotic watergate scandal as
he should have, by dismissing the whole thing as much ado about nothing,
because that election was a foregone conclusion, the North Viets would
not have been able to subsequently conquer the South!

One party
tried to bug the other in an election that was decided the moment that
the Democrats went with the whifty McGovern! Nixon took 48 states in
'72, and dirty tricks had NOTHING to do with it at all.

I for one
prefer political leaders who FIGHT TO WIN, instead of these weirdos who
rationalize their own self-inflicted, deep-seated defeatism!

Posted by: Dan M. at April 13, 2014 11:32 AM (K7rSv)

It's pretty funny that the point of Watergate was to trash Humphrey's chances to win the primaries in favor of McGovern, which is also what all the anti-Nixon lefty dickholes wanted.

Posted by: Captain Hate at April 13, 2014 12:03 PM (yT+eY)

174 Randall of xkcd covered a printed wikipedia in his what-if series, http://what-if.xkcd.com/59/.

Posted by: BishopWash at April 13, 2014 12:03 PM (5cQ4H)

175 Picked up a couple interesting books on little known , to me at least, military campaigns.

"The White War", Mark Thompson covers Italy in WW1 and its disastrous battles against Austria-Hungary, and later Germany. Ferocious discipline and senseless mass
Banzai type attacks. Cadorna must have been the most incompetent Allied commander in WW1, and that's saying something. Recent news articles have shown some frozen mummies recently unearthed in the Alps from these horrifying battles.

"Road of Bones", by Fergal Keane, covers the siege of British troops at Kohmina in India and the disastrous retreat of the Japanese army through Burma.A campaign little known to Americans, a very, very well written book.

Posted by: JHW at April 13, 2014 12:03 PM (A4PmA)

176 new one

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 12:05 PM (T2V/1)

177 Bleg: The whole book is the oddest thing I've ever seen, like the most insane Science Fiction ever written that shatters to a thousand shards with each piece eventually neatly tucked in place. A real task to read and comprehend, it actually gets easier and easier as you go until finally you are positioned to understand exactly who is Jesus of Nazareth and what happened to him. I guarantee you will not find anything more thorough, more tender, more loving than Urantia's description of the passion starting with last supper. I defy anyone to read that portion sympathetically to the end and keep their eyes dry. https://tinyurl.com/othqnzj

Posted by: bour3 at April 13, 2014 12:06 PM (5x3+2)

178 Since 2007, five Barnes & Noble stores throughout Manhattan have closed, including its former flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, which was shuttered in January.

HA! GOOD! I hope all of them close down. I would wish that they all blow up, but then the owners would get an insurance check. Nope, I want the entire chain relegated to Satan's anus where it belongs. (I tried to do a simple book exchange there a few weeks back, and the manager who was called to handle it called me a thief in front of a whole line of people and threw me out of the store while threatening to call the cops. If I came up out of a bank vault after a nuclear exchange the first thing I would do is burn the local one to the ground).

Posted by: Weirddave at April 13, 2014 12:10 PM (N/cFh)

179 In retrospect, we should have let Howard 'Yeargh' Dean, in favor of Lurch, they might have learned a lesson, yes the idea was to kneecap Humphrey and Jackson, yet the Dems think they got the nomination through their superior organization,

Posted by: Corolianus Snow at April 13, 2014 12:11 PM (Jsiw/)

180 There was never any doubt that Nixon was all about winning--that was pretty much the point of bringing up his poker playing in the Navy. To paraphrase the song, Nixon once knew "when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em". He folded in 1960 when Kennedy won by what later became known as blatant fraud, but that experience seemed to have scarred him.

1972 was a cakewalk for Nixon as there really was no realistic way for McGovern to win; that said Nixon should have come clean about Watergate when it broke and stepped hard on the "Plumbers". But really he couldn't. He was too convinced (rightly as it turned out) that the other side was playing dirty poker that the only way he could win was by playing dirtier poker, so he was responsible at least indirectly for the "Plumbers". His personal secretive nature and desire to avoid being compromised caused him to try to cover up a penny-ante scandal that blew up not only in his face but all of ours as well. It was Nixon's "A Bridge Too Far" that caused the GOP to turn on him lest the party's image became tainted.

Naive, in a sense, as Nixon was hardly worse than either LBJ or JFK (the latter being more incompetent than corrupt but still not nearly as bad as his successors), but the difference was that the Democrats closed ranks behind them while Nixon was forced out and Ford was forced to fall upon his own sword in an attempt to cleanse the party's image of honor.

In the end it was only Carter's gross bumbling incompetence that really ended Watergate and allowed Reagan to shine briefly, but it's been downhill since then--on both sides....

Posted by: Jenk at April 13, 2014 12:12 PM (e2ysZ)

181 I hope your grandmother found happiness after the children were abandoned. The step grandfather must have really needed killing.
Posted by: 'Ette in training at April 13, 2014 11:42 AM (zvxqj)

My grandma's story unfortunately didn't get any better.

She was a happy person, but her life was full of horror. Strongest woman I have ever know, hands down, and I come from a long line of strong women.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 13, 2014 12:13 PM (63X/k)

182 103 "When the author spends a whole novel going off on what a blessing abortion is and how horrible and H8-filled anyone who thinks it's wrong is. Ding! No more books from that bitch."

TERRIBLE! What author/book is that?
Posted by: biancaneve at April 13, 2014 11:05 AM (2sR50)

All of them apparently. Which may be why people don't buy as many books anymore.

Posted by: Kindletot at April 13, 2014 12:15 PM (caMDw)

183 "So a couple of days ago, I stumbled upon When The Wicked Seize A City, and as it happens, it is the very first ebook I ever read on teh internets, which would have been around 1998 or 1999. It costs $3.99 now, but back then, I could read it for free. The book is a recounting of events that happened in the late 80s/early 90s that, strangely enough, are still relevant today:

1. Group starts Presbyterian church in San Francisco
2. Short on music help, said church hires guy to play the piano
3. Guy turns out to be gay
4. Church fires gay guy
5. Hilarity ensues
6. And by "hilarity", I mean harassing/obscene phone calls to the church and pastor's private phone at all hours, lawsuits, verbal abuse, death threats, vandalism, and street protests, including property damage with the San Francisco police standing around like potted plants."

--------------------------

A few days ago I was listening to Moody Radio ( broadcast from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago) when I caught the last half of a talk given by a Chinese pastor who escaped from China in the late 90's. He was talking about how in China, when a person comes to Christ, one of the first things the underground church does is educate them in what they lightheartedly call "Prison 101". Meaning, if you are going to follow Christ in China, you will pay a price, often one of imprisonment, the loss of your job, expulsion from University, etc.

So anyway, skipping ahead, this Chinese pastor and his wife escape Communist China and now have a ministry in the United States and around the world. The pastor tells the story of how when he went to San Francisco, he met with churches and business owners there, encouraging them to take a bold stand for Christ. Some of the men he spoke to countered his proposals with "But we can't do that here! The ACLU would be all over us! We'd get sued!"

The Chinese pastor's response: "And so what? Why would that stop you?"

Anyway, I checked out his book from the library yesterday called "God's Double Agent", by Bob Fu. I've only read the first chapter. It is harrowing.

Posted by: grammie winger at April 13, 2014 12:17 PM (oMKp3)

184 @166-Born Lib, thanks. I can't wait for OSP's second installment of "Amy Lynn".

I'm off to walk the dog even though it is 39degrees out. What we do for our pets!

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 12:22 PM (NqhG2)

185 Are you seriously asking us to believe NYC rents would go DOWN without rent control? That defies logic and all the rules of supply and demand.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at April 13, 2014 12:24 PM (b/lt+)

186 185 Are you seriously asking us to believe NYC rents would go DOWN without rent control? That defies logic and all the rules of supply and demand.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at April 13, 2014 12:24 PM (b/lt+)

Jerry, these are really smart people. They can explain things good. Try them as a source.
https://mises.org/daily/3483/

Posted by: Kindletot at April 13, 2014 12:26 PM (caMDw)

187 For Easter? A.J. Cronin's "The Keys of the Kingdom".

Posted by: SDN at April 13, 2014 12:30 PM (gPHN8)

188 OB Rush hosed you. Again. And again you believed him. Residential trash is picked up by the city. There are no restrictions against disposals. Please be a bit more skeptical about what he says.
Commercial space is not rent controlled
Rents are going up because so many people are willing to pay them.
And obviously you don't know the difference between rent controlled housing and rent stabilized housing

***

Interesting take, but can you read. The landlords would not permit the installation.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at April 13, 2014 12:36 PM (DmNpO)

189 Are you seriously asking us to believe NYC rents would go DOWN without rent control? That defies logic and all the rules of supply and demand.

***

It would also create competition, and competition would result in a pursuit for the best tenants. And, unless they are upper-income folks, price will speak to most tenants.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at April 13, 2014 12:38 PM (DmNpO)

190 Mr Carden seems to assume that more (and better) housing would become available were rent controls to go away.

What is happening in San Francisco right now would tend to disprove that theory.

And commercial renters willing to pay the high prices they do currently, would still be competing for space that could be either commercial or residential.

I'm no fan of rent control.. but it seems to me any popular urban area will have prices rise to the whatever the market will bear and force out blue collar and lower income residents. And that's probably how it should be and has been all over the country for decades. Those lower income people move to other neighborhoods, revitalize them, and the cycle continues.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at April 13, 2014 12:38 PM (b/lt+)

191 190 Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at April 13, 2014 12:38 PM (b/lt+)

You can't go by SF or any other large CA town on the coast. But if you go out and do some research you will find that in city after city where rent control (or stabilization) is put in place rents actually go up in the long run.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 12:43 PM (T2V/1)

192 Naive, in a sense, as Nixon was hardly worse than either LBJ or JFK (the latter being more incompetent than corrupt but still not nearly as bad as his successors), but the difference was that the Democrats closed ranks behind them while Nixon was forced out and Ford was forced to fall upon his own sword in an attempt to cleanse the party's image of honor.

In the end it was only Carter's gross bumbling incompetence that really ended Watergate and allowed Reagan to shine briefly, but it's been downhill since then--on both sides....
Posted by: Jenk

The two major bullet points to me are that Ford pardoned Nixon, thereby making it clear to even the lowest of the LIVs that there was no law for all applied equally in the USA anymore which played directly into the counter culture narrative. After that, massive corruption on the scale of an LBJ had to be ignored forever by the MSM for, gosh, simple patriotism and restoring faith and oh yeah, 5 minutes to air time Mr Rather.
The lessons of the Obama madness for the mass of the People will actually play out after he is personally out of office. The Republic is in pieces and no one, Left or Right disputes that fact. Does anyone care enough to put it back together?

Posted by: Daybrother at April 13, 2014 12:50 PM (s4Rjj)

193 Thanks, grammie-I heard a little an interview with Pastor Fu several months ago. It's sounds like a good book to read during these times.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at April 13, 2014 12:50 PM (XyM/Y)

194 Easter writings? One can't go far wrong with John 1:1-14, preferably KJV.

[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[2] The same was in the beginning with God.
[3] All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
[4] In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
[5] And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
[6] There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
[7] The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
[8] He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
[9] That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
[10] He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
[11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
[12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
[13] Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
[14]
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace
and truth.

Posted by: Captain Ned at April 13, 2014 12:51 PM (i+Fm3)

195 Why, price controls never fail! It makes no sense!

It is kind of depressing to see yet another example of people defending a policy that *sounds good* to them, regardless of the track record of results.

That's how we get massive inflation, massive debt, government-run healthcare abuses, government-run school abuses, ad nauseam.

Because, gosh darnit, you have to support this inane policy or *children will suffer*! Police and schools and fire departments will be cut if we can't build a new sports stadium!

And not enough people *ever* get it.

Math, people, it all comes down to math.

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith at April 13, 2014 12:52 PM (qyfb5)

196 190 Not so much

http://tinyurl.com/n6j34sy

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 12:54 PM (zpNwC)

197 I'm no fan of rent control.. but it seems to me any popular urban area will have prices rise to the whatever the market will bear and force out blue collar and lower income residents

You're assuming that the amount of housing stock would remain the same. In a deregulated market, it might actually increase due to the improvement of the business climate, which would put downward pressure on rents.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 12:55 PM (fTJ5O)

198 Thanks for the link on SF rent control, BornLib.

Off to church, bbl.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 12:56 PM (fTJ5O)

199 I haven't read the entire thread yet, so apologies if these have been mentioned.

A long time ago, I worked at bookstores in between assignments. One was Borders in San Mateo -- what I liked is they tried to tie workers with section knowledge. I always got history and travel. People would come and read entire books and there would be a lot of chatting back and forth while I shelved or whatever. I always liked that about that Borders -- and as long as they had the same Manager -- I got to come and go.

Before that, there was a travel bookstore in Stanford Shopping Center, Phileas Fogg. Small, upscale and NO reading the books that's for sure. Still, fun.

And finally, during the same time period I started trekking out to Corte Madera to Book Passages which at the time was small but good for travel. Now it is large and two locations -- including one in the Ferry Building.

Who knows if the crazies get control of the internet, maybe books and bookstores will make a comeback.

Posted by: gracepmc at April 13, 2014 12:59 PM (rznx3)

200 Forgot to say Thanks. I love the Sunday Book Thread. Always learn something new and it is fun.

Posted by: gracepmc at April 13, 2014 01:00 PM (rznx3)

201 Are you seriously asking us to believe NYC rents would go DOWN without rent control? That defies logic and all the rules of supply and demand.

***

It would also create competition, and competition would result in a pursuit for the best tenants. And, unless they are upper-income folks, price will speak to most tenants.
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse

Yes. It's the market distortion in its many forms IMO. Look at vocational schools. 20 years ago you went to welding school to learn a trade. Not overly expensive. Then the same school is certified by DoE for government loans. Now you can only afford that same school by taking out a huge loan because their tuition has magically jumped to just under the maximum student loan available. Then, a Progressive administration decides that some schools are more equal than others and certifications are required with fees paid. Then upstart school chains want to get on the train but don't have the lobbying power and so must jack tuition up to pay for a permanent presence in DC. Then unions want a piece.
Suddenly everyone gets run over by a truck. The End.

Posted by: Daybrother at April 13, 2014 01:04 PM (NXZ98)

202 My sister and her husband recently bought an old bookstore in the center of their NW Chicago suburban town. They're doing a few renovations, but keeping the old squeaky wooden floors, the lopsided shelves, and apparently (according to town legend) the two old ghosts that haunt the stacks.

I've not been there yet. I'm sure my sister will make me pay full price.

Posted by: grammie winger at April 13, 2014 01:06 PM (oMKp3)

203 "So it's OK to do whatever you have to do to win? A more succinct declaration of absolute amorality would be hard to come by."

Yeah cause losing but doing it fairly is so rewarding.

How's that been working out for the country these last few years?

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That (Waiting For SMODOT) at April 13, 2014 01:08 PM (JS0vr)

204 And I think the damage he did to the Presidency was far less than that done by either Obama or Clinton.

Really, REALLY?

Nixon gave us the EPA, Gerald Ford and his pardon which gave us Carter.

And truth be told, Reagan didn't do all that well either because of back to back House and Senate domination.

Nixon tainted the Republican party in such a way that it still hasn't recovered fully.

Granted he was abused by the press and all but he was a disaster.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That (Waiting For SMODOT) at April 13, 2014 01:11 PM (JS0vr)

205 202
Posted by: grammie winger
Edit that to two sentences and it's right up there with 3am Sunrise for the win.

Posted by: Daybrother at April 13, 2014 01:15 PM (aL1qE)

206 Posted by: Rowan Atkinson at April 13, 2014 10:12 AM (8c12T)

You're wrong.

Rent control distorts the market. Make it less profitable to build new/more housing. The rules have shrunk the SRO Hotels. It drives up taxes because of lost revenue.

Something like 40% of rents are rent controlled or rent regulated.

And Yes the price goes up because of demand but the supply is artificially reduced by the lack of sufficient new apartment buildings and conversions.

yes the rents would be high no matter what in New York but compare what a rent goes for in Chicago or even LA to what is paid in New York.

It's at least triple to quadruple. And it causes distortions out in the suburbs as those who can't find a place in New York move there thus creating traffic and commuter jams and raising the price of living for miles around.

I've always considered NYC the black hole of cities. It distorts everything for miles around it.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That (Waiting For SMODOT) at April 13, 2014 01:19 PM (JS0vr)

207 "My encyclopedias growing up had Nixon still in office."

Mine did, too. But then, he was.

Posted by: notropis at April 13, 2014 01:19 PM (bvlUm)

208 Heard back from OSP. "Golden Angel has just crested 73K words," so yeah, he's hard at work on it.

If any of you Morons haven't read "Amy Lynn" by Jack July (OSP) yet, you need to do so. Then review it on Amazon so they buying public will know how awesome it is.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 01:36 PM (zpNwC)

209 Oh, and if any of you Morons are on Goodreads, OSP is doing a giveaway there for a signed copy:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/87820-amy-lynn

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 01:41 PM (zpNwC)

210 Two sentence horror:

My exotic Island girlfriend finally invited me to her home for dinner with her family. Just as I noticed there was no food on the table, the door clicked shut behind me and they all grinned wickedly, exposing rows of sharpened teeth.

Posted by: lyle at April 13, 2014 01:42 PM (w2pv/)

211 @209 BornLib, thanks for checking with OSP. That is exciting news!

@210 lyle, that is creepy.

Posted by: SnowyBits at April 13, 2014 01:49 PM (NqhG2)

212 Have you read any of Jack McDevitt's books? Sci-fi mysteries, very well written. I thoroughly enjoy him.

Posted by: HH at April 13, 2014 10:51 AM (XXwdv)

Thanks for the suggestion! I see his book 'Seeker' won the Nebula award, I'll give that a try.

Posted by: waelse1 at April 13, 2014 02:00 PM (VrAbp)

213 209 Make that giving away ten signed copies.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 02:03 PM (zpNwC)

214 I just finished a "thriller" called "Lie Still" by Julia Heaberlin. If you could ignore her utter contempt for Texas, conservatives, rednecks, and generally everyone below the Smith & Wesson line, it was a reasonably good story. She then goes so far as to say in the afterword that "most" of her neighbors are lovely people and are not crazy. She is a transplanted New Yorker living near Dallas, and she is a condescending c*^$.

In the car, I just finished Peter Ackroyd's biography is Shakespeare. There isn't much to say about Shakespeare, certainly not enough to fill 16 CDs, so there's a lot of background and information on Tudor/Stewart England. It was educational and interesting and I did indeed scramble at a few stoplights to get a notepad and pen out of my purse to write something down.

And now, also in the car, I'm listening to a Dave Barry novel called "Insane City" and, considering it's not unlike Carl Hiaasen's good books but funnier, I'm enjoying it.

Next in book-books, I'm not sure I think I pulled the Sharyn McCrumb that someone had mentioned, something like "All the Lawyers ..." should die? I don't recall. Anyway, it's now on top of the bedroom stacks. So, to whoever it was that recommended it, thanks! In return, I will recommend "St. Dale" also by McCrumb. The hook is the death of Dale Earnhardt but it was a really enjoyable tale.

Posted by: Tonestaple at April 13, 2014 02:16 PM (B7YN4)

215 I have never understood the business model of Borders, Books a Million, etc.

They are built like a library, complete with comfy couches, chairs, ottomans, etc. Put in coffee shops complete with doughnuts, cakes, etc. Luxurious restrooms, etc. Kid's play areas with TV, etc.

I guess the idea was to attract people with all the amenities to come in
who might buy a book as an impulse purchase.

Who instead, open up whatever book they are suddenly interested in, sit down and read through the chapters they might find appealing. I've actually seen people write down recipes out of cookbooks, or take a photo of the recipe page with a cell phone.

Fill the lower level with 1500 different types of calendars for sale,stationary, and the most interesting of all, sale booth for kindles. The anti-physical book device.

I would think if one owns a "store" in which you want people to buy your product, then display the product attractively, make it easy to find, and easy to purchase. But difficult to use before purchase.

Posted by: Jen at April 13, 2014 02:17 PM (Mt+Yq)

216 Recommendation: The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus Liguori. Make sure to get ONLY the volumes translated by Fr. Eugene Grimm, CSsR.

I can recommend no better author than the Moral Doctor, St. Alphonsus.

Another: Christ in His Mysteries, Blessed Columba Marmion

And: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.

You cannot go wrong if the author has "St." in front of their name.

Posted by: Tantrumblogo at April 13, 2014 02:23 PM (euACX)

217 You make some good points, but people who buy a lot of books would feel alienated if they couldn't pick up and look through books before purchase. The expensive lattes, the Godiva chocolates, the toys, the board games, the movie tie-in action figures and the calenders all pay for the endless perusing. More annoying is that you have to register to get a discount card. They should just make the sale price the everyday price. Then, people wouldn't use Barnes Noble as a place to check out a book--before ordering from Amazon from their smart phone while walking out the door....

Posted by: JoeyBagels at April 13, 2014 02:38 PM (0CCdz)

218 I pretty much go straight to the discount rack in Narns & Noble.

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith at April 13, 2014 02:48 PM (qyfb5)

219 A little off the beaten path, but still excellent reading for Easter: "On Fairy-Stories" by J. R. R. Tolkien. It's worth reading in its own right at any time of year, but what makes it especially appropriate for Easter is the epilogue, where Tolkien walks through how the Gospel bears all the hallmarks of a really good fairy tale--with the significant advantage that it is true. "Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused." And of course, there's always The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe!
Am a bear of very little brain today, alas, but if I think of other suggestions during the week, I'll email.

On a slightly different topic, I just found out about a book coming out soon called D-Day: The Last of the Liberators. It features the stories of 33 of Britain's last living D-Day survivors, accompanied by photos of them taken in the same locations in Normandy over the last two years. Watching the book trailer, I found myself hoping that the photographer will also release a DVD; the trailer includes video of him walking and talking with the veterans on the way to the various locations. (There are no plans for a DVD that I know of, but maybe someone will talk him into it if there's enough demand!) Google should take you to the book's website, and the project also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at April 13, 2014 02:52 PM (Aiwi+)

220 Nixon was no dirtier than FDR, JFK, and for sure Clinton. The worse thing he did (IMO) is open up China. He did that because the US economy was tanking and that was his way of covering up the fact. The big picture for today is the Federal Government can cut taxes and spending or start a major war so the can use war as an excuse to suppress unrest domestically. I'm betting their choice is war.

Posted by: Huggy at April 13, 2014 02:56 PM (5TdZp)

221 RE: Easter readings:

My favorite reading, besides the Gospels themselves, is the Easter homily given in A.D. 400 or so, in Constantinople, by St. John Chrysostom. These 1,600 years later, this short message is still one of the best encapsulations of the Gospel ever composed.

http://tinyurl.com/ohwa65u

Posted by: Kathy from Kansas at April 13, 2014 02:59 PM (afLO3)

222
"They had class pictures with all sorts of hilarious names in the caption. "Phil Accio, Ima Dork, Harry P. Ness" , etc"

If my memory serves, the best name was "Madison Avenue Jones." Still makes me laugh after all these years.

Posted by: Jaclyn at April 13, 2014 03:02 PM (ocU5X)

223 Love the pic of the book store.

Posted by: The Scholarly Hat at April 13, 2014 03:10 PM (AymDN)

224 #204

The economic policies Nixon inflicted are an ongoing disaster. So much of the bad stuff done by later administrations was enabled by the policies set at Bretton Woods.

Posted by: Epobirs at April 13, 2014 03:11 PM (bPxS6)

225 I'm trying to read "A Feast For Crows" again. Basically because I'm a fan of the show, and I want to avoid spoilers in the storyline when I talk to other fans of the show. And because I have to get through it in order to read "Dance With Dragons" which I'm assured is better.

But oh god AFFC is a boring pile of crap. I don't like the Iron Islands. I don't like Dorne. I hate Cersei. I do like Samwell but I don't care what he does in Braavos. I like Brienne too but she's not doing anything which matters for her character development or even the plot. I basically don't like the book. Nothing happens and everybody sucks.

Except Arya I guess. But... in that case... why didn't she just get her own book? It could be a send-up of young-adult literature for girls, it would have been hilarious as such.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at April 13, 2014 03:18 PM (30eLQ)

226 Lawhead is a hack. His Pendragon Cycle with its artificial linking of Atlantis and Avalon was aimed straight at the New Age market.

He is so unoriginal as almost to be a plagiarist as well. The bull-leaping scene in that first book, "Taliesin", with the white bull? Straight out of Mary Renault's "The King Must Die".

If you kept reading him after that, then I'm sorry.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at April 13, 2014 03:24 PM (30eLQ)

227 #215

Keep in mind those setting worked quite well for Borders for many years. The world changed. The bulk of the damage was not done by e-readers. (Borders sold the Kobo devices which were set to default to Border e-book store. Kobo is a big e-reader brand outside the US.) The biggest hit came from Costco, Target, and Walmart. Like the old record business, most of the profits come form a handful of big sellers in any one year. Stores like Costco only stocked a few dozen titles but those are the books sustaining the publishing industry at that moment.

I learned from my time as an Assistant Manager at a Crown Books that a lot of book buyers ignore anything except what is on the bestseller list. The District Manager once speculated, during a visit, that the store could be reduced to just the back wall where current bestsellers were displayed and only lose about 20% of its revenue. The book sections at places like Costco have done that and since people need to get other stuff from those stores, they find less reason to go into a dedicated bookstore at all.

This was already having a serious impact on book stores before the Kindle hit the market and was the first really successful e-reader product.

Posted by: Epobirs at April 13, 2014 03:25 PM (bPxS6)

228 226 If you kept reading him after that, then I'm sorry.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at April 13, 2014 03:24 PM (30eLQ)

I read the Pendragon Cycle and thought it was OK. And they had this next one on one of those one day sales for $1.99. There are two more books in the series. I will not get them.

Posted by: Vic at April 13, 2014 03:26 PM (T2V/1)

229 The Strand is excellent. Sometimes textbook companies dump their excess in there.

We should get a separate thread to debate rent-control. . .

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at April 13, 2014 03:26 PM (30eLQ)

230 227, very informative. But publisher's have catalogs so they must be making money on that as a whole. Barnes Noble might not make that much money on anything other than two dozen best sellers, but a few copies of that biography, a dozen of that history, a few hundred of that literary masterpiece--it all adds up, right? It's like supermarkets--they only make a few cents on most items, but it adds up. Otherwise, why would they publish so many titles?

Posted by: JoeyBagels at April 13, 2014 04:12 PM (0CCdz)

231 I lived in SF at the time covered in "When the Wicked Seize a City" and don't remember hearing about it. Of course that is probably part of the story, being ignored by the press.

Posted by: FOAF at April 13, 2014 04:15 PM (rZ7kp)

232 As for the insane real estate prices in CA and especially the Bay Area the biggest culprit is probably the difficulty of building due to environmental regulations and general NIMBY-ism.

Posted by: FOAF at April 13, 2014 04:16 PM (rZ7kp)

233 My most recent read is 'Directive 51' by John Barnes.

Every president since Truman has had some sort of classified document assembled detailing how to proceed in a succession crisis. The advent of the atomic bomb raised the threat of a decapitation strike, killing not only the president but much of the upper echelons of the federal government. Directive 51 was George W. Bush's edition of this plan. The difference was that it was partially made available for public scrutiny. It couldn't be completely exposed as doing so would provide a blueprint for an enemy to use in their planning but this openness fueled a lot of discussion, especially in the more conspiratorially minded areas of the net.

In the book, a group that may have leaders or may have formed spontaneously from AGs (Affinity Groups) decides to destroy what it calls the Big System aka industrial civilization. Through the use of nanotech and genetically engineered bacteria they destroy or render unusable every technology created after about 1850. This may sound like a bizarre contradiction, that people who were adept with technology would seek to eliminate it and cast everyone back to a far rougher world but you can find those in real life who express such desires while hanging out on web site they access with their iPad.

The Daybreak movement is far worse than an EMP attack (those come into play as well) because the change it renders is permanent. Build a new radio to replace the ruined one and the nanites will be drawn to the electromagnetic field and start producing nitric acid.

On top of all this there is a terrorist group that may or may not be connected to Daybreak and possesses fusion weapons that vastly exceed anything in the current nuclear arsenal.

So, things get bad very quickly. Billions die within the first year. Including all of the claimants to the office of President as defined by the Constitution. Thus Directive 51 comes into play.

This is the first of three novels in the series, with perhaps more to come. Barnes tries to get into the heads of the Daybreakers and how they rationalize their actions, knowing that vast numbers of people will die and the survivors lead much shorter, diminished lives. This feeds a subplot suggesting there may have been some form of remote brainwashing involved in the recruiting process. But recruiting by who? No evidence can be found of any central entity organizing the myriad participants.

I hope to see these question answered in the following volumes.

Posted by: Epobirs at April 13, 2014 04:49 PM (bPxS6)

234 #230

Much of that is because you don't know what the next big thing is going to be. And new talent must be developed.

You'll find the same effect in many kinds of retail businesses. A Home Depot could be reduced to a more profitable store a fraction of its size if you want it to be a 7-11 version of a hardware store. And that may more effectively serve certain communities, so long as a store with a more extensive inventory is within reach. The book section at Costco won't wipe the big bookstore from existence but it will greatly reduce the number that can do a decent business and by necessity they will need to be on less costly real estate.

Going forward, a lot of books that would do very small numbers and have very high prices will likely not be published at all any more. Instead, they will exist as web sites or apps for devices like tablets. A token number of physical books may be produced as trophies for the author and others involved. This has an emotional effect but also raises a concern if we ever had something like the Daybreak scenario in 'Directive 51,' which mention above.

This reflects on the difference in retail business models and how they affect wages: http://tinyurl.com/k6awrvu

Posted by: Epobirs at April 13, 2014 05:10 PM (bPxS6)

235 Two sentence horror story:

My son was coming home, and I went to the airport to meet him. I was startled to see him standing there, beside his coffin.

Posted by: I lurk, therefore I amn't at April 13, 2014 06:00 PM (rz0yi)

236 Yeah cause losing but doing it fairly is so rewarding.

How's that been working out for the country these last few years?

Yes, because replacing the unprincipled amoral Democrat douchebags with unprincipled amoral Republican douchebags is the path to prosperity and success!

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 13, 2014 06:32 PM (fTJ5O)

237 Thanks to the thread/moron who recommended CS Forester's "The Good Shepherd."

Also, I think the lead to EC Willliam's "The Westerly Gale Trilogy."

I had read very little seafaring adventure stuff. Found these absorbing.

Posted by: Nfield4 at April 13, 2014 07:01 PM (gKSkN)

238 235 Very good.

Posted by: BornLib at April 13, 2014 07:13 PM (zpNwC)

239 At that point in his career Nixon was a political neophyte being taught by Murray Chotiner, a thoroughly amoral man when it came to politics at least. Chotiner's theory of how to win political campaigns was to isolate two or three issues that were all "bad" for the opponent and then kick the opponent in the balls over those issues to the exclusion of everything else. Nixon learned well.

Posted by: deepelemblues at April 14, 2014 01:05 AM (eKL0i)

240 Forget to mention that Chotiner had an obsession with opposition research and getting it any way he could. Nixon took that lesson to heart also and it took him where it took him.

Posted by: deepelemblues at April 14, 2014 01:06 AM (eKL0i)

241 Regarding the Easter Reading Request:
It's not really scripture, but one of my traditional reads is "The Divine Romance" by Gene Edwards. It is a retelling of the Bible as a love story between God and Mankind, the lengths God is willing to go to fashion His bride. And, while great poetic license is taken, Edwards remains fairly close to scripture. The scene of Christ being crucified is breathtaking. And it's a pretty quick read (3-4 hours, start to finish. Enough time for all you Gentiles to bake your Easter ham. I kid. I kid)

Regarding that spider story: Not cool, man. Not. Cool.

Posted by: Aaah--Clem at April 14, 2014 09:28 AM (rVMNS)

242 I wonder if Chotiner was worse than any other for-hire political goon, i.e. Bill Moyers, who was one of LBJ's hatchetmen and certainly no stranger to hardball politics.

Posted by: OregonMuse at April 14, 2014 11:04 AM (fTJ5O)

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