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Sunday Morning Book Thread 06-12-2016: Everything You Know Is Wrong [OregonMuse]


Book pimpmobile 1.jpg
Vintage Book Pimpmobile - With Book Pimp And A Couple of His "Librarians"

Update: Discussions about politics and the Orlando Lutheran rampage should be directed to the open thread directly below this one. Thank you.

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are lovely, space isn't safe, and snowflakes aren't particularly special. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if you want to gay them out with rhinestones and sequins, that's fine.


Losing History

I'm continuing to read Diana West's American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character and it's absolutely mind-numbing. You ever watch a comedy where there are so many jokes (Airplane! is the movie I'm thinking of) that you eventually stop laughing at the jokes because you're all laughed out? West's book is like that, only it's not laughing you'll grow tired of.

One of West's themes that she is developing is the necessity for reclaiming history, that is, we need to know what actually happened so the proper historical lessons can be learned.

And the creepy part is when West relates going back in old newspaper files to research original accounts and finding that the one edition that she needs that will tell her what she needs to know is missing. Not the newspaper for the day before, and not the one for the day after, no, they're all there, just the one she needs. That one's gone, and nobody knows where it went, or what happened to it. As if somebody went back at some point and deliberately altered the historical record.

I'm not sure how we can ever recover from something like that. The amount of historical "re-revision" that's going to have to be done is extremely daunting.

Take Lend-Lease, for example. I had always thought that it was a mostly benign operation set up to help out Great Britain, and yes, we did help out the USSR commies a bit, but they were our allies, so it was probably OK, right?

Well, to the extent that we were feeding thousands of tons of supplies to the USSR, maybe not:

Was the continuous Lend-Lease supply line to Soviet Russia, then, a case of government inertia, or was there some other justification worth ferreting out from our lost history? Could it have had anything to do with the curious priority the U.S. government attached to Soviet Lend-Lease superseding other Allied and even American military needs? (As for American civilian needs, the 217,660,666 pounds of butter shipped to the USSR during a time of strict stateside rationing offers a quick read on U.S. government priorities.)

One of the sources West relies on is a book written by Maj. George Racey Jordan, tasked by the Army as an "expediter" to manage the part of the Lend-Lease pipeline to the USSR. What the Major saw, and what he was ordered to do, was so hinky that he started to keep a diary of his experiences at Newark airport and later, the airbase at Great Falls, Montana, where he was stationed. This in accordance with advice once given to him by a senior officer, who told him that the way to survive in the Armed Forces was to keep your eyes and ears open, your mouth shut, and keep a copy of everything. So he did. As he describes it:

[T]he tremendous volume of Lend-Lease material going through under "diplomatic immunity," the infiltration of Soviet agents through the Pipeline, the shipments of non-military supplies and even military secrets, were more than I could stomach. I finally protested through proper channels, first in Great Falls, and then in Washington; nothing happened. This was in 1944, while I was still in the Army.

Of course nothing happened. The rat bastard commies working for FDR made sure of that. Jordan testified to Congress about this. He was interviewed on Fulton Lewis' national radio program about it. And even that wasn't good enough; everything went down the memory hole. But here's what Major Jordan said did happen:

I have been shocked at the efforts of the character assassins and press experts to keep the implications of this story from being brought into proper focus. A vicious attack was launched against Fulton Lewis, Jr., and the sniping at me has continued for nearly three years, in the vain hope that this story would never be evaluated and understood by the public.

"I'm totally surprised the commies attacked him", said no AoSHQ moron. Also, Jordan was wrong about one thing: the efforts of the rat bastard commies to prevent the story from being "evaluated and understood by the public" was not vain. In fact, it was actually quite successful.

So, to recap:

1. The Lend-Lease Act was used by the Soviets, with the cooperation of the FDR administration, to infiltrate a bunch of spies, moles, and agents into our country

2. The Lend-Lease Act was used by the Soviets, with the cooperation of the FDR administration, to exfiltrate atomic-related materials and top-secret classified documents, which including military secrets as well as documents relating to and from the Manhattan Project.

3. And nobody did a damn thing about it.

Major Jordan's book is appropriately titled From Major Jordan's Diaries, published in 1952, and as I found out, pdfs as well as epubs of it are available all over the internet. I have left off West's book for the time being and am reading Jordan's diaries. Fascinating stuff.

By the way, I e-mailed Ms. West and asked her if she intends to revive her original book project she started to work on before she got sidetracked, the one about the *Islamic/jihadi* infiltration of American government. Unfortunately, I didn't hear anything back.

But I'm thinking it probably won't be that hard to write. All Ms. West has to do is go back to the manuscript of American Betrayal, cross out words like "communism" and "communist" and write in "Islamic" and "jihadi" in their place, substitute some Arabic names for the Russian ones, and the book pretty much writes itself.


Gloucestershire church door.jpg

(Medieval church door in Gloucestershire, England believed to be the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's entrance to Moria. Compare with Tolkien's drawing of the Moria door. Pic stolen from here. Thanks to moron commenter 'JTB' (may his tankard of ale never be empty) for the link.)


Man Bites Dog

The Amazon reviews on most books tend to be inflated positively, so here's something I don't see every day: just the opposite. The Confessions of Congressman X, which is available on Kindle for $2.99, has garnered an amazing number of 1-star reviews. For a book like this, I would expect the negative reviews coming from one side of the political aisle, or the other. But here are some of the quotes from Congressman 'X'.

"My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence overeverything."

"Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works."

"It's far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification."

"We spend money we don't have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation. It's about getting credit now, lookin' good for the upcoming election."

I can see what the 1-star reviews are complaining about. This is stuff that either everybody knows, or everybody should know. There's absolutely nothing new or earth-shaking here. It sounds bipartisanly ho-hum.

Instead, you might want to look into Peter Schweizer's exposé Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, which I've mentioned on the book thread before:

Schweizer reveals the Clintons’ troubling dealings in Kazakhstan, Colombia, Haiti, and other places at the “wild west” fringe of the global economy. In this blockbuster exposé, Schweizer merely presents the troubling facts he’s uncovered. Meticulously researched and scrupulously sourced, filled with headline-making revelations, Clinton Cash raises serious questions of judgment, of possible indebtedness to an array of foreign interests, and ultimately, of fitness for high public office.

There's supposedly a companion documentary about this in the works. I don't know if it will be ready in time for the election.


Moron Recommendations

I think I'm going to be mining this thread for a very long time. It's the one from Tuesday wherein ace called for book recommendations.

But first, bensdad00, one of my chess buds tipped me to the 1965 memoir, The Situation in Flushing by Edmund G Love (1965), which he characterizes as

...remarkabl[y] sweet and loving...A childhood memoir looking back 50 years to a boyhood spent in rural Michigan circa 1918 which is now a full century past.

I thought this was interesting:

Chapter 7 could make some hay for someone of a more political bent, since it discussed the city of Flint and their habit of poisoning the drinking water for everyone downstream from them

Okey-dokey. So Flint's crappy water is not a new thing, then.

___________


From the above thread, here are some recommendations from the boss:

The List Of 7 by Mark Frost, which ace describes as "a great pulp mystery thriller actioner". This is a novel

which postulates that Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle (and he was a doctor) meets the man who will be the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, a British agent named Jack Sparks, and they run around London solving murders and dodging attacks by strange zombie-like humanoids with sewn-closed mouths.

Sound weird? Yeah, well, Mark Frost was one of the co-creators of the 1990-1991 TV series Twin Peaks, so perhaps this shouldn't be surprising.

Ace loves him some good California creepy conspiracy novels, and really, who doesn't? So let us consider Flicker by Theodore Roszak: a "neolovecraftian [novel] with hidden texts embedded in 1940s art films from obscure German directors", as ace describes. From the Amazon blurb:

Jonathan Gates could not have anticipated that his student studies would lead him to uncover the secret history of the movies - a tale of intrigue, deception, and death that stretches back to the 14th century.

I did not know that there was such a genre as the "creepy California conspiracy." I wouldn't call it that. I would, in keeping with this book thread's theme, call it an "everything you know is wrong" novel, like Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Or Crooked, by Austin Grossman, which I have on my stack, which is a Lovecraftian alt-history starring the worst man in history. Worse than Hitler, worse than Stalin, worse than Mao.

We're talking Richard Nixon:

In Crooked, Nixon finally reveals the secret history of modern American politics as only Austin Grossman could reimagine it. Combining Lovecraftian suspense, international intrigue, Russian honey traps, and a presidential marriage whose secrets and battles of attrition were their own heroic saga, Grossman's novel is a masterwork of alternative history, equal parts mesmerizing character study and nail-biting Faustian thriller.

You know, that's actually a pretty good description of Diana West's book. I think Nixon, God rest his soul, could reveal a "secret" history of modern American politics where the fight is against an enemy equal to the Lovecraftian horrors invented by Grossman. But alas, he is no longer with us, so it remains for authors such as Diana West to tell the tale of modern times as it should be told.


Books By Morons

J. Gunnar Grey is an 'ette of longstanding who has written a number of books and novellas. Her mystery novel Deal with the Devil won the 2013 Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction.

August 1940...Major Faust is a prisoner of the English and he must escape before they break him. But every time he gets away, a woman is raped and murdered. The English need someone to hang. He’s the hot suspect.

He’s got to catch the killer, even though he’s helping the enemy. It’s collaboration, almost treason. It’s making a Deal with the Devil.

$3.99 on Kindle.

Here's another interesting (to me, anyway) book from Ms. Grey: Ballistic Basics: A writer's primer on firearms and the forensics that track them. Written for writers:

In this compact, easy-to-understand guide, an experienced mystery writer and target shooter takes you step by entertaining step through the mysteries of firearms and the ballistics that track them. You’ll learn the theory behind forensic ballistics, the timeline of firearms and forensics development dating back to the 10th century, the different categories of firearms, and what’s involved in a ballistics examination. It’s topped off with some examples of real-life historical crimes, showing how forensics technology advanced since 1912.

Every member of Congress should be forced read this book, at gunpoint, if need be. So when they try to pass their craptacular anti-gun legislation, they'll at least know what they're talking about.


___________

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

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

___________

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

___________

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

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


Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:02 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Morning.

Posted by: HH at June 12, 2016 08:57 AM (DrCtv)

2 Not 10 minutes after vowing not to purchase any more books for at least a month, I ordered the coffee table book/door stop “Infinite Worlds: The People and Places of Space Exploration” by Michael Soluri, a photographic chronicle of NASA’s 2009 space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. All the people involved in human space flight are profiled.
Mission specialist Mike Massimino writes “On my first spaceflight I got to spacewalk around the Hubble Space Telescope, the first rookie to be given that opportunity. That was on STS-109 in March 2002, my first visit to Hubble and my first experience of viewing our planet from 350 miles up. From that altitude I could see the curvature of the Earth and view it as a complete planet. It was so beautiful that it brought me to tears, which immediately caused terror, as I was concerned about introducing water into my space suit, creating some kind of problem, and having to admit during the ensuing investigation that I had cried. My astronaut colleagues never did let me live that one down.”

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 08:57 AM (jR7Wy)

3 Reading The Burning of Moscow , Napoleon's Trial by Fire by Alexander Mikberidze
Good morning bookworms

Posted by: Skip at June 12, 2016 08:58 AM (d9qXV)

4 So the EMT time posting is kinda wrong.

Posted by: HH at June 12, 2016 08:58 AM (DrCtv)

5 As far as missing documentation, that happens when criminals have something to hide:
http://tinyurl.com/hj4ndmy

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at June 12, 2016 08:59 AM (6FqZa)

6 So the gay club was having a latino pride party?

More of the dividing of America

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:01 AM (Ozsfq)

7 Sneaked in early!


Still working through re-read of the Jack Ryan series. I am on Executive Action now and I think I will lop it off here. I don't have The Bear and The Dragon on kindle and getting burned out on it. And as I recall that one wasn't all that good and I don't want to pay $10 for the kindle version. And why they are hitting $10 for a book that old is a mystery to me.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:01 AM (mpXpK)

8 Gee they called this islamic terror pretty fast. Wonder what the killers name is?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:02 AM (Ozsfq)

9 Still working my way through American Betrayal myself.

And I am having the exact same reaction concerning the purging/re-writing/revision of history which has, and is taking place.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:03 AM (ptqRm)

10 Okay if we go a little off topic, OregonMuse, as the truth unfolds in Orlando?

Not to be disrespectful, it's just pretty big news?

Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:03 AM (ZnIt3)

11 4 So the EMT time posting is kinda wrong.

Posted by: HH at June 12, 2016 08:58 AM (DrCtv)


It was until I made an adjustment.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 09:05 AM (+pz/4)

12 Okay if we go a little off topic, OregonMuse, as the truth unfolds in Orlando?

Not to be disrespectful, it's just pretty big news?
Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:03 AM (ZnIt3)

The only way it would be bigger news is if the guy had been wearing a trump tee shirt..then the MSM would be jerking off on camera right now

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:06 AM (Ozsfq)

13 [T]he tremendous volume of Lend-Lease material going through under "diplomatic immunity," the infiltration of Soviet agents through the Pipeline, the shipments of non-military supplies and even military secrets, were more than I could stomach. I finally protested through proper channels, first in Great Falls, and then in Washington; nothing happened. This was in 1944, while I was still in the Army.




The beginning of the communisation of the country via the government began with the commie cripple FDR. And the one effort to extract them with quashed by the rats firmly entrenched in power and their allies in the MFM. Fvck all of them

Posted by: TheQuietMan at June 12, 2016 09:06 AM (45oDG)

14 10 Okay if we go a little off topic, OregonMuse, as the truth unfolds in Orlando?

Not to be disrespectful, it's just pretty big news?

Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:03 AM (ZnIt3)


I'll allow it. Except I just got up, so I have no idea what you're referring to.

I need coffee.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 09:07 AM (+pz/4)

15 "It was until I made an adjustment."

You are changing time, itself?


Can you jump to Wednesday, and tell me the winning lottery numbers?


I'mm go halfsies on the winnings.

Thanks in advance

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:07 AM (ptqRm)

16 One wonders what it looks like inside that church door.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:07 AM (mpXpK)

17 "I'll allow it. Except I just got up, so I have no idea what you're referring to.

I need coffee."

Jump to Drudge for a moment

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:08 AM (ptqRm)

18 If the shooter made terror threats in the past why was he walking around with a weapon? And this has nothing to do with gun control, but has everything to do with PC Police procedure.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:09 AM (Ozsfq)

19 Read conservative Radosh's response to Diana West's theory on losing history: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/152933

Posted by: Crowley at June 12, 2016 09:10 AM (s7Gx8)

20 The Amazon reviews on most books tend to be inflated positively, so here's something I don't see every day: just the opposite. The Confessions of Congressman X, which is available on Kindle for $2.99, has garnered an amazing number of 1-star reviews.


Go read the "reviews" for Michell Maulkin's "In Defense of Internment". It turns out that there is a lot of "revised history" on that as well and the liberals do not like her exposing it.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:10 AM (mpXpK)

21 Jump to Drudge for a moment

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:08 AM (ptqRm)


I just skimmed the EMT, so I'm up to speed on the shootings at that nightclub in Orlando. Dang Lutherans.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 09:10 AM (+pz/4)

22 The left, Fredo,and the MSM will focus 100% on guns and completely ignore the nuzzle link.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:11 AM (Ozsfq)

23 Must hie me to church. Still reading 'Russia's War'. For any with WWII interest, I highly recommend it. Very well researched/written.

Based on last weeks recommendation (Thanks to whoever), obtained a copy of 'Pioneer Go Home'. It's time for some amusing, light reading.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 12, 2016 09:11 AM (9mTYi)

24 Authorities said they could not confirm if the shooter was a U.S. citizen.


Might as well admit the truth, Orlando police and FBI.

Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:12 AM (ZnIt3)

25 In response the left will want to bug gun stores but not islamic centers?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:12 AM (Ozsfq)

26 "ignore the nuzzle link."

Behold the awesome power of a fully operational Auto-Cucumber!!!

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:12 AM (ptqRm)

27 I realize this is the book thread, but since it's the same theme...

What an astonishing feat they've created with the tv show, The Americans. I think they do a remarkable job of keeping the politics to a minimum, and just letting the audience soak up the facts of the story.

Soviet agents, doing unspeakable evil, inept FBI personnel, a man of Christian faith, struggling with his own conscience, and they manage to have us rooting for the commies!

Get out! While you still can..... What an astonishing thing they pulled off here.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 12, 2016 09:13 AM (Dj0WE)

28 So still not name or ethnic description ha?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:13 AM (Ozsfq)

29 FBI Special Agent in Charge Ron Hopper said there's no further threat to Orlando or the surrounding area.

When asked if the gunman had a connection to radical Islamic terrorism, Hopper said, "we do have suggestions that individual has leanings towards that."





Let me guess the evidence is so obvious a blind man could see it but the PC police will only say there are suggestions of leanings towards that

Posted by: TheQuietMan at June 12, 2016 09:13 AM (45oDG)

30 19 Read conservative Radosh's response to Diana West's theory on losing history: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/152933

Posted by: Crowley at June 12, 2016 09:10 AM (s7Gx


OK, I will check it out, but fyi, calling Radosh a "conservative" is a bit of a misnomer.

Also, West wrote a $2.99-on-Kindle follow-up to her book to answer the objections and personal attacks raised by the FDR-is-a-saint crowd

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 09:14 AM (+pz/4)

31 " So still not name or ethnic description ha?"

CBS
http://tinyurl.com/j97szms

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:14 AM (ptqRm)

32 A lot of anti-Clinton books due out in the coming month.

An embarrassment of riches, so to say.

Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:14 AM (ZnIt3)

33 Wonder now if the Gay community will recognize THEY are in the cross hairs....not that gay body tossing off of roofs should not have given them a hint. Fuckin idiots

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:15 AM (Ozsfq)

34 Austin Grossman, aforementioned author of Crooked, also penned two of my favorite reads: You, a techno-mystery about the early-to-mid years of the gaming industry, and a gamer's lost childhood friend rediscovered as a 'ghost in the machine"; and Soon I Will Be Invincible, showing the human side of clashing superheroes.

Austin is the brother of Lev Grossman, who wrote the Magicians trilogy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 09:15 AM (jR7Wy)

35 When asked if the gunman had a connection to radical Islamic terrorism, Hopper said, " we do have suggestions that individual has leanings towards that his Imam told us he was a nice young man, turning his life around."

Just a suggestion.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:16 AM (ptqRm)

36 Law enforcement sources told CBS News the gunman has been identified as Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie. Mateen was born to Afghan parents.

Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:17 AM (ZnIt3)

37 CBS
http://tinyurl.com/j97szms
Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:14 AM (ptqRm)

Sigh

So Omar from Afghanistan ha

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:17 AM (Ozsfq)

38 Daily Mail - Suspected Islamic extremist shoots dead at least 20 at Florida gay club after bursting in 'wearing a suicide vest' and taking hostages - injuring a further 42 - before he is killed in shootout




Of course the truth is in the British press. So a muzzie shoots up a gay club. My my who will the MFM and lefty loons ignore this like they ignore other muzzie murderous rampages? Oh wait, what am I thinking. It must be Donald Trump's fault because h8er

Posted by: TheQuietMan at June 12, 2016 09:18 AM (45oDG)

39 Law enforcement sources told CBS News the gunman has been identified as Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie. Mateen was born to Afghan parents.
Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:17 AM (ZnIt3)

So a Met's Fan your saying?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:18 AM (Ozsfq)

40 Damn Book Pimps.....riding around rural America in the nineteen teens and 20s lending people books to read so they could educate themselves and opening up whole new horizons to them.

They were a scourge I tell ya.....

Muzzies at it again in Orlando. When will we ever learn?

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 12, 2016 09:18 AM (ej1L0)

41 OM, I kind of like the book thread as a quiet retreat from breaking news. Can we bump up the previous thread to accommodate those who want to follow news developments?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 09:19 AM (jR7Wy)

42 I second what Eris said.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at June 12, 2016 09:20 AM (6FqZa)

43 Someone last week mentioned Robert Crais and hid ongoing detective series, and I noted that I had enjoyed his books very much, although they are definitely pleasure reads, not learning reads.

Having posted that, I went to Amazon and saw that he had recently published "The Promise" so my Amazon bill went up again.

Bottom line, I really liked this book and read it in the course of basically a day. It has a prequel ("Suspect"), not necessary but I'd recommend it as well. It probably helps if you are a dog lover, but that's not necessary either.

Don't think I can read "Betrayal". Had a uncle in the Merchants that survived multiple Murmansk runs as we supplied kindly Uncle Joe with supplies thanks to FDR's commie proclivities!

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 12, 2016 09:20 AM (wYnyS)

44 Scankles is counting on the electorate being illiterate.


Posted by: Grampa Jimbo at June 12, 2016 09:21 AM (1ijHg)

45 Breaking News usually trumps ( no pun intended) niche threads

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:22 AM (Ozsfq)

46 Anyhow, a wonderful case study of Democrat politics in Washington state in the late 60's is On the Take, From Petty Crooks to Presidents by William Chambliss. It talks about the intersection of corruption, drug money and politics and how that played out in the Seattle area

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/0253202981

Posted by: Kindltot at June 12, 2016 09:22 AM (ry34m)

47 MSM: Omar was just a simple tent maker who was angered by all the islamophobia he suffered in the Great Satan.

Posted by: IrishEi at June 12, 2016 09:22 AM (Lsu4e)

48 I really didn't get into reading much this week - finishing prepping for a book event in Wimberley, Texas - which went on all day. There were about forty other local authors, all members of the Texas Association of Authors. Alan, who set up the organization, does a wonderful job almost single-handed, of representing independent authors, setting up events, making connections with libraries and local communities of book lovers. The neat thing was that we already knew a good few of the other authors from previous events.

This is the first year of the Wimberley Book Festival; there was a decent amount of local support, and a fair amount of publicity, but not overwhelming crowds coming out for it, as there are at longer-established book festivals like the Giddings Word Wrangler. So I didn't sell all that many of our own books, but handed out a lot of information, and had a very satisfying bump-up last night for Luna City Chronicles and the Second Chronicle of Luna City.

What I did get a lot of interest in, was from other authors. Most of them have published through Createspace and other internet POD outlets, and they are quite unhappy with the service. I talked it over with a good few of them - and I'll be offering my services (for a price, of course) in assisting them to set up as their own publisher, with an account at LSI. (Lightening Source International, which is associated with Ingram, the distributor.) I'll do the editing, the formatting, organize cover design, and then walk them through getting an ISBN and setting up the account. It's the technical aspects of working with LSI which most writers find daunting.

There is a sense among the indy authors that I know, that they are approaching the next phase. The traditional publishing model is creaking along, the best of the indies are getting better and better, and they are tired of the high costs associated with the POD providers.

And I think I got a lot of attention also - because I was dressed up in an Edwardian style walking suit, and a really flamboyant hat. One of the other authors said that I looked like Kathy Bates playing Molly Brown in "Titanic". In a room full of other authors and piles of books - one has to stand out!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 12, 2016 09:22 AM (xnmPy)

49 Muzzie gunman shoots up gay nightclub on Latino Pride night.

News cycle wont go 24 hours.

Posted by: fixerupper at June 12, 2016 09:23 AM (JmjOe)

50 Just a question...

Are we who are buying books making an effort to go through Ace's link to Amazon, so that the Boss receives a few shekels from our purchasing efforts?

It's kind of hard to find, and I frequently forget to do so myself.

*Hangs head in shame*

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 09:23 AM (ptqRm)

51 Now is a good time to read or re-read World War IV - The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism by Norman Podhoretz .

Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck at June 12, 2016 09:23 AM (/H5Dl)

52 What an astonishing thing they pulled off here.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 12, 2016 09:13 AM (Dj0WE)


I stopped watching that, among other things, because I couldn't stand seeing the commies as "heroes" of any sort.

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 12, 2016 09:23 AM (wYnyS)

53 The local liberal uber left rag here in Bergen County NJ " The Bergen Record" still has not used the word Muslim ....but they are still pounding "Bridge Gate"? LMAO

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:26 AM (Ozsfq)

54 Mr. President a gay nightclub was shot up last night.


Oh those hateful right wing Trump supporters! Where's my teleprompter? I must make a speech


Mr. President, it was a Muslim.


*Barry's head explodes*

Posted by: TheQuietMan at June 12, 2016 09:27 AM (45oDG)

55 And the creepy part is when West relates going back in old newspaper files to research original accounts and finding that the one edition that she needs that will tell her what she needs to know is missing.

===========
I was living in SF in the 80s and tried to take out books and articles on the radical groups like SDS, etc, and they were all missing, too.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:27 AM (iQIUe)

56 The FAB releases a statement that she is praying for the victims and their families?

2 Points:

1) She never prays, so we know that is another lie
2) She can't figure out how to play this one yet

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 12, 2016 09:28 AM (Ozsfq)

57 Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 12, 2016 09:22 AM (xnmPy)

Novel concept: Daring indie editors and publishers create and distribute books that present factual history while on the run from armed Ministry of Truth censors!

Nah, that could never happen!

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 12, 2016 09:28 AM (wYnyS)

58 Re: missing history

My homeschooling sister had reported to me once that she had encountered an author who had discovered that important historical documents were being purposely lost or destroyed. I will have to ask if she remembers that author.

Tangentially concerning current events, this reminds me of the Freddy Grey case, where the judge became angry that important evidence was hidden. The police van had at least one more passenger who said the ride was not rough but that he did hear Freddy thrashing about in the other compartment. The judge did not know about that, but I read it here at the HQ within a few days of the incident. It's like the facts get buried even though they've been out in the open for a bit.

Here at the HQ, we knew the Benghazi victims had asked for (and been denied) help because they knew an attack was imminent. The official story blames a video protest, but years later it comes out again that everyone knew the attack was planned.

Blatant lying, but I guess the people let them get away with it.

This is why I have no patience with conspiracy theories that require deeply hidden knowledge. We've got plenty of easily-proven conspiracies out in the open.

Posted by: Emmie at June 12, 2016 09:29 AM (xVuS6)

59
I have also found that incidents that I personally remember and remember reading news accounts on and which I initially was able to reread on the internet are gone. There was a lot of shit about Feinstein's husband that has been "wiped" off the internet.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:29 AM (iQIUe)

60 You can take the boy out of Islam, but you can never take Islam out of the boy. The capirote was a religious adornment, until it wasn't. When will the same logic apply to the head scarf? They might as well be wearing a pointy hood. It is a supremacist ideology. The parents silently cheer their children's fighting spirit. True he slaughtered innocent civilians, but he gave his life for the cause. In their eyes he is a martyr, a brave soldier.

The globalist are running out of fingers and the dike just keeps springing leaks. Man this sucks.

Posted by: Spoonman at June 12, 2016 09:29 AM (PcHwJ)

61 Just finished "The Man in the High Castle." A bit squirrely with all the I Ching stuff, but a chilling/fascinating alternative universe. The author seemed to consider every line....in the part of the US that is occupied/controlled by Japan, he took care to use Japanese dialectic (dropping articles like "the") in the speech of native Americans, even in their interior monologues.

Posted by: vivi at June 12, 2016 09:30 AM (11H2y)

62 OK, by request, I just created an open thread beneath this one so we can get back to books.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 09:30 AM (+pz/4)

63 I'm continuing with 'Master and Commander' and enjoying every bit of it. I came across a brief paragraph that struck home so strongly I was startled. Aubrey is at the wheel of the ship for the first time to judge her handling qualities. It reminded me of the few times I was steering a 30 foot day sailer. The sense of being part of a new entity as you harness wind, water, cloth and rope, adapting to their signals with sight, touch, and sound, is exhilarating. And it touches something very old within the soul, or at least my soul. It is a moment of zen-like oneness that is so very rare but is something you long for after experiencing it once.

I haven't sailed for over 40 years but the memory and feel of those minutes remain with me. I can only assume it would for others.

If O'Brian can capture something like this, I understand why his books are so popular with so many people.

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 09:33 AM (V+03K)

64 Facebook is weirdly absent of rainbows ribbons, diatribes against Islamaphobia, or calls for gun bans.

I think Omar has messed with their OODA loops.

Posted by: fixerupper at June 12, 2016 09:33 AM (JmjOe)

65 55 I was living in SF in the 80s and tried to take out
books and articles on the radical groups like SDS, etc, and they were
all missing, too.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:27 AM (iQIUe)

I had a similar thing happen here but I don't think it was politically caused. I was looking through the Internet listings for my local library in the History topic. They had a history book about the South that was originally published in the late 1800s. It was listed as a reference book only so no checkout. I went down to look at it and of course it was missing. I suspect someone stole because they figured it was worth a lot of money.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:33 AM (mpXpK)

66 I read the back-and-forth between Diana West and her critics pretty carefully at the time the book came out, and in my opinion Ms West won the exchange. Radosh, in particular, was especially dishonest and made several misrepresentations of the claims that West put forward in her book. Almost as if he hadn't read the thing.

I developed a theory about why Radosh & Horowitz are so vehement in their denunciations of certain people. They attack anybody or any work that ever shows that McCarthy was not the devil. They have a psychological need for McCarthy to be pure evil in order to justify their own youthful evil. Demonstrate that McCarthy was largely correct and a decent man and they can no longer say "What I did back then was wrong, but you've got to understand, McCarthy made me do it." They cannot accept that.

Posted by: Emmett Milbarge at June 12, 2016 09:35 AM (nFdGS)

67 How long before the MFM blames the attack on-

Trump's right wing atmosphere of hatred

or some such foggy term like they did when JFK was shot by a straight up commie who the MFM knew was a straight up commie?

I can hardly imagine it-

but as we all know what's most important in any "news" story is-

to keep the libtards sucking hard and heavy on their Woobies of Unreality and Leftist Irrationality-

and never let them face the consequences of their actions.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 12, 2016 09:35 AM (HGtd0)

68 (I love my Dad,I LOVE my Dad,I love my DAD!)

I can't fucking TAKE one more minute of FoX News.

Always, fucking ON!

Shut up!

And who gives a shit about Trump!?

Posted by: Deety at June 12, 2016 09:35 AM (xPWMR)

69 About a year ago, I ran into a few long articles about newer scholarship about the Haymarket Riots in Chicago. The researcher went to original trial transcripts, that somehow, amazingly enough, were never used by modern scholars opining about labor unrest. Quite a dust-up.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 12, 2016 09:35 AM (MIKMs)

70 The SOB's who let in the 911 and San Berdoo killers are the inheritors of the WW2 treason. Those folks in D.C. are trying to get us killed.

Posted by: torabora at June 12, 2016 09:36 AM (qm5nl)

71 Oops.

Wrong thread...sorry.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 12, 2016 09:36 AM (HGtd0)

72 Thanks for the book thread, what a refuge today.

J. Gunnar Grey is a great fun writer, I've enjoyed two of her books and reviewed them on my blog (the tag is J. Gunnar Grey or you can just search on Grey)

My blog post today is a short reminder of Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall!" speech.

Link in nic

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 09:36 AM (7lVbc)

73 Rest in Peace in Orlando.

The US's population must be in utter disbelieving shock this morning, not at the suicide attacker's bloodbath in Florida, but at the immediate reporting of the killer's name, religious connection and parents' country of origin.

Given, of course, that this is apparently the very first time that Islamic terrorism has stricken our country since 9/11. At least as reported by the Mother Fucking Media.

Also wondering how many people might have been saved if this gentleman had been worrying more about rushing to the scene and getting inside with weapon drawn than in gearing up to look tough and "Officer Safety":

http://tinyurl.com/Tactical-Clown-Tick-Tock

Okay, disgusted sarc tag off. My apologies if I offend. This was inevitable with Preznit Shit Midas in charge and pisses me the fuck off.

I also ask Christ for foregiveness that the first thought I had when I saw this story was "Thank G-d it wasn't a conservative or Tea Partier".

Posted by: Sharkman at June 12, 2016 09:39 AM (CS7jF)

74 I'm gonna vote for Trump.

Don't make it more repulsive than it needs tobe!

Fuck you, "Dr. Ben Carson" and all of the Trump surrogates.

Just...Shut the fuck up, already!

Posted by: Deety at June 12, 2016 09:40 AM (xPWMR)

75 Sleepy Ben....

Posted by: Deety at June 12, 2016 09:41 AM (xPWMR)

76 I finished reading William Hintzen's Border Wars of the Upper Ohio this week. Odd book that splits the difference between a narrative history and a thesis-driven monograph. No footnotes/endnotes for sources and a lousy bibliography, but the author has clearly done a considerable amount of research tracking down the origins of various stories from the period, seeing how they have been altered and distorted by previous writers, and trying to get to the truth of the matter. This is a book that I wantto believe, but have to force myself to be cautious about.

Basically, it is a defense of the white settlers and a counter to the prevailing meta-narrative casting noble Indians against the evil whites, but I think that the author swings a little too far in the other direction. He does present a pretty good argument that the Indians broke treaties as much as the whites did and points out that the nature of Indian society made it very difficult to make a treaty that every member of the tribe would honor (a nice change from automatically assuming that every attempt to buy land on the part of the whites was de facto illegitimate). The best part of the book is probably his account of Lewis Wetzel's life - Wetzel, possibly the most accomplished solo warrior this country has ever produced - has been considered a psychopathic murderer since the 19th century, but Hintzen makes a pretty good case that most of the cold-blooded killings ascribed to Wetzel either never took place or had nothing to do with him. Lewis emerges as the most lethal member of a truly badass family, but no villain.

Overall, I cautiously recommend it.

Posted by: Grey Fox at June 12, 2016 09:41 AM (bZ7mE)

77 Sgt. Mom, Any chance of a photo of you in that Victorian waking suit and hat? It would be so

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 09:41 AM (V+03K)

78 Ron Radosh's takedown of American Betrayal is worth considering:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/199666/mccarthy-steroids-ronald-radosh

Posted by: Elizabeth at June 12, 2016 09:42 AM (ZQ6So)

79 What an astonishing thing they pulled off here.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 12, 2016 09:13 AM (Dj0WE)

I stopped watching that, among other things, because I couldn't stand seeing the commies as "heroes" of any sort.
Posted by: Hrothgar at June 12, 2016 09:23 AM (wYnyS)


That's just it though, they're not! There's no way for anyone watching to think what they're doing is right. They do bad things, and justify what they do on the flimsiest of reasoning.


At their best, the couple can be said to be the naive dupes of a Soviet government who put them in the position of doing unspeakable things, and their blind continuation of doing just that is eating away at them.


The remarkable thing the show does is give us their point of view, so we're free to care about them as human beings. It does NOTHING to sympathize with their actions though.


If you don't want to give it another shot, I understand, but if you can it's the best show on television these days.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 12, 2016 09:43 AM (Dj0WE)

80 I've been reading God's Fury, England's Fire by Michael Braddock about how Charles I attempted to order the modification of the prayer book for the Scottish kirk which led to rebellion and the execution of the king. Some say the English Civil War was more devastating to England than WWI. It would seem that real religious issues were apparently unintentionally inflamed by a narcissist leader whose contempt for his subjects exceeded his inflated view of his intelligence. I'm so glad nothing like that could happen in this country!

The book is quite good but is written at an advanced level and some prior knowledge of Calvinist thought helps. Other than some volunteers, England avoided the devastation of the Thirty Years War but then in that war's final years engaged in their own protestant versus protestant massive bloodletting.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 12, 2016 09:43 AM (Nwg0u)

81 points out that the nature of Indian society made it very difficult to make a treaty that every member of the tribe would honor

So like Sunni Islam then.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at June 12, 2016 09:43 AM (6FqZa)

82 Good morning! I moved this week, from Wyoming back to Ohio, so I was actually up and waiting for the book thread before it was posted!

Posted by: April at June 12, 2016 09:43 AM (e8PP1)

83 Radosh's rebuttal has been, itself, rebutted by Diana West.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at June 12, 2016 09:44 AM (6FqZa)

84 >>>
I think Omar has messed with their OODA loops.
Posted by: fixerupper at June 12, 2016 09:33 AM (JmjOe>>>

Indeed! Just as we were putting the final touches of our "Blame Trump!" articles about that dipsy singer getting shot by the White boy.....

Posted by: The Vast Left-Wing Media-Machine Complex at June 12, 2016 09:44 AM (8rmdN)

85
My heart broke when Putin slammed shut the USSR archives. So much we could have learned! Sob!

I think it was Haynes and Klehr who were in Russia and were given archives to review which clearly stated that Hiss was a spy. They were shocked. And when the archive lady came back they joked that it must have been a mistake and they werent suppose to see these files. The woman turned white, left to talk to someone, came back and removed the file. For years, Haynes & Klehr never used this source out of fear for the archivist's safety.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:46 AM (iQIUe)

86 This week I finished The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill Defender of the Realm 1940 - 1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid. This is the third and final volume of Manchester's masterpiece, although he did not write this last volume. In ill health, he asked Paul Reid to finish his work. Using Manchester's exhaustive notes, Reid wrote well, in much the style of Manchester. Manchester died several years before the book's completion. This is a remarkable body of work, about a remarkable man living a remarkable life.

Because of the Trump and Bern phenomena, I read a book which has been on my "to read" list for years and years: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. In this classic, Hoffer dissects mass movements in great detail and points out the commonalities in them all. Published in 1951, most of his examples are drawn from Christianity, Islam, communism, fascism and Nazism, but the book is still relevant to what we are facing today. In Hoffer's words, "The book passes no judgments and expresses no preferences. It merely tries to explain . . .". I had quite few "ah-ha" moments while reading this.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 12, 2016 09:47 AM (JYer2)

87 OM, Thanks, as always, for the book (and chess) thread. I keep a running list of books suggested here but I'm having increasing trouble reading the political stuff without going ballistic. It is maddening learning the facts and not being able to do a damn thing about that is legal or even moral. It's good to be aware of these books even if I can't deal with them right now.

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 09:48 AM (V+03K)

88 I'm enjoying "City of Secrets" by Stewart O'Nan. I picked it up in the library because it was blurbed by Alan Furst, a writer I enjoy. If you like Furst, you will like this book.

In short: "a timely moral thriller of the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World War."

Publisher's synopsis -- http://bit.ly/1S13nOn

Goodreads rates it 3.4, but I would rate it much higher. Not a simple thriller. Atmospheric, historical, and moral.

Posted by: doug at June 12, 2016 09:48 AM (dnL4I)

89 Huh...

It's being reported as "terrorism".

Must mean that some trannies were shot.

Because, Lawd knows, if it were actual biological FEMALES being enslaved or blown the fuck up, we're cool with that.

*Hey Feminists!*

You are "way" down on the victimology priority list...

Posted by: Deety at June 12, 2016 09:48 AM (xPWMR)

90 Our local libraries have stopped bookmobile services, used mainly by very elderly and handicapped. They decided that with internet, it wasn't needed. Volunteers are still going out with direct deliveries, but the system is not sponsoring them any more. My mom was totally upset about it, but did acknowledge that it has changed and maybe they can work around without it. Kinda sad to it go because I know when the current crop of older volunteers falls away, the whole concept of bringing the books to those who can't get out is gone. Younger people don't seem to have the concept of volunteering like the older ones.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 12, 2016 09:48 AM (MIKMs)

91 I see a whole lot of people totally ignoring OM's request to use the new open thread he put up so we can concentrate on books here.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:51 AM (mpXpK)

92 Whittaker Chambers' 'Witness' will change your whole perspective on the '30's through the 50's, and, what is more, is a deeply meditative and spriritual work.

(and it has Richard Nixon as his children's 'Uncle Nixy.' A side of the man most people would never guess existed.)

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at June 12, 2016 09:51 AM (lutOX)

93 Good morning Palpatine. You still have a link in your nic

Posted by: Kindltot at June 12, 2016 09:53 AM (ry34m)

94
And the conference that Radosh and West both refer to is on youtube -- 3 parts, about 8 hours. It's fascinating if you are into soviet espionage. And there always nasty little leftards in the audience that get knocked down.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:53 AM (iQIUe)

95 90
Our local libraries have stopped bookmobile services, used mainly by
very elderly and handicapped. They decided that with internet, it wasn't
needed. Volunteers are still going out with direct deliveries, but the
system is not sponsoring them any more. My mom was totally upset about
it, but did acknowledge that it has changed and maybe they can work
around without it. Kinda sad to it go because I know when the current
crop of older volunteers falls away, the whole concept of bringing the
books to those who can't get out is gone. Younger people don't seem to
have the concept of volunteering like the older ones.


Posted by: mustbequantum at June 12, 2016 09:48 AM (MIKMs)

Our local library's book mobile only went out into the county. But there was always a neighbor or relative handy for the elderly so they could be taken to the library for books. It was a two-fer. Not only did they get their books but they also got to get out of the house for a while.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:53 AM (mpXpK)

96 Also on my blog is a sale alert for the Fire tablet

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 09:56 AM (7lVbc)

97 So like Sunni Islam then.


Certain similarities for sure. There was no centralized government and no executive or police arm to enforce it - the chiefs ruled by consensus and charisma. End result: If a young man and a couple of his buddies wanted to get a few scalps so as to impress the girls (and, apart from proving yourself an exceptional hunter, there was little else a young man could do to move up in the tribe), the older men could attempt to persuade him not go, but there was no way to keep him home if he wasn't persuadable.

It is easy to wax indignant about the whites stealing the land (and the whites certainly did do some pretty nasty stuff), but it is difficult to see how the two societies could have ever existed peacefully. Viewed in that light, the US policy towards the Indians (particularly the pre-Jackson strategy of semi-forcible cultural change to compatibility with white culture while allowing them to remain a distinct people-group) looks a lot more enlightened than pop culture would have it.

Posted by: Grey Fox at June 12, 2016 09:57 AM (bZ7mE)

98 I'm reading Left of Boom by ex CIA agent Doug Laux. Fascinating and infuriating.

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 09:57 AM (7lVbc)

99 36 Law enforcement sources told CBS News the gunman has been identified as Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie AND A HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER. Mateen was born to Afghan parents.
Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:17 AM (ZnIt3)
=========
Do it right...

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:58 AM (iQIUe)

100 born to Afghan parents.
Posted by: Lice Wags at June 12, 2016 09:17 AM (ZnIt3)


Hey, can we avoid making blanket statements like this, please?

Posted by: BurtTC at June 12, 2016 10:00 AM (Dj0WE)

101 And 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Counts down the "This Despicable Act Proces Just How Evil And Depraved Those Are Who Oppose LGBTCIAUCLAXYZFU Rights!" line of attack on us.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 12, 2016 10:01 AM (CS7jF)

102 "Younger people don't seem to have the concept of volunteering like the older ones."

Not true.

My 80 year old Dad PREFERS to get his Bill O'Reilly bullshit books on his Kindle Fire.

Going to the library is kind of a pain in the ass, at this point.

Never-mind EXPLAINING how to get services and deliveries up the driveway...

Posted by: Deety at June 12, 2016 10:01 AM (xPWMR)

103 I'm back after months of being Pixy-banned; my IP got blacklisted somehow (maybe I posted on a "dead" thread?).

Many thanks to the member of the Horde that recommended Assault on Saint Anges by Joseph Courtemanche. It is a very taut debut thriller about a retired Navy intel analyst that get inadvertently involved in foiling a Mohammedan attack on a Catholic church. The author (who just happens to be a retired Navy intel analyst) obviously knows a lot about various foiled terrorist plots.

Also read An Invincible Bease by Christopher Matthew. If you want to know how a Macedonian pikeman handled his long pike and how the phalanx actually fought in battle, this is the book for you. The author used test subjects wearing reproductions of the pikeman's equipment and tested their abilities. It is an exhaustive treatment of the subject and my only criticism is that the book is too long; it gets a bit tedious and repetitive in the author's criticism of previous modern scholarship.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop at June 12, 2016 10:02 AM (5Yee7)

104 41 OM, I kind of like the book thread as a quiet retreat from breaking news. Can we bump up the previous thread to accommodate those who want to follow news developments?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 09:19 AM (jR7Wy)

42 I second what Eris said.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at June 12, 2016 09:20 AM (6FqZa)


Thirded. Believe it or not, it is possible to have more than one active comment thread. Theoretically, at least.

Posted by: rickl at June 12, 2016 10:03 AM (sdi6R)

105 On Ace's midweek, impromptu book thread someone suggested Peter Hathaway Capstick's African books. I've known about them for ages but never read one. Picked up a copy of "Death In The Long Grass" and got a couple of chapters into it. Holy Moly! The man can write! It really is difficult to put the book down. (It's competing with Patrick O'Brian for reading time.) Capstick's descriptions are vivid and ring true. If you like this kind of real life adventure, this would be a good book to start with. I'm impressed enough to order two more of his books and am looking over my collection of Allen Quartermain novels.

I will never go on an African safari but based on Capstick's if I did it will be from inside an M1 battle tank.

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

106 @103 I am fascinated by historical weapons and tactics, so a big thank you for that rec!

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 10:03 AM (7lVbc)

107 Posted by: Grey Fox at June 12, 2016 09:57 AM (bZ7mE)

When debating an open borders advocate, ask them if the Indians had the right to fight back with violence against the white man's invasion. They may instinctively say they did. The smarter ones may realize where you're going with it and remain silent.

Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck at June 12, 2016 10:04 AM (/H5Dl)

108 I apologize.

Posted by: Deety at June 12, 2016 10:04 AM (xPWMR)

109 The books and sources I have read about Lawrence Duggan were unsure if his death was an accident or suicide. Duggan plays prominently in the argument between West and Radosh. I even looked up on google earth the building he fell out of the window from Christmas week. Could happen. Floor to ceiling windows that pushed out. However, recently I have found sources that clearly state that it was a suicide, citing that Duggan was an emotional wreck after appearing before congress. This surprised me being such a smart and abrasive guy. His wife was a fellow traveler, too. He left 4 kids behind.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 10:04 AM (iQIUe)

110 Ok you guys, please go to the political thread below this and don't pollute the book thread!

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 12, 2016 10:05 AM (wYnyS)

111 Some eclectic suggestions:
most books by David Gemmell, especially the Drenai series (Legend, Druss, the Waylander books).

George MacDonald Fraser's non-fiction account of World War II Burma, Quartered Safe Out Here. Plus his series of short stories, The General Danced at Dawn.

Thanks to someone's recent suggestion, I have started The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley. Pretty engaging so far

Thanks for these threads; the stack of books to read increases weekly.

Posted by: KirkC at June 12, 2016 10:06 AM (LD7v9)

112 16 One wonders what it looks like inside that church door.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 09:

Obviously it opens to a cave, carved out by dwarves.

Posted by: Skip at June 12, 2016 10:07 AM (d9qXV)

113 My hometown library -- really more of a book citadel -- still has a bookmobile tooling around to various locations around the city. But really, why stop at schools, community centers, and shopping malls? If you're there, chances are you drove.

Crap, I should load up my car with my own books and tour the boondocks myself as a public service. I can even serve coffee! I think I have a retirement gig!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 10:08 AM (jR7Wy)

114 After watching some videos of Brandon Sanderson teaching classes at BYU (just search on Youtube, great stuff), I decided to read the entire Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series by Tad Williams. I read the first one years ago, so I'll restart with that one. Apparently, this is one of the epic fantasy series that predates the big boom in the 1990s (Jordan, Martin, Goodkind, etc...) So far, pretty good introduction to the usual medieval Europe-ish setting (though a bit slow compared to more modern works).

Posted by: Pave Low John at June 12, 2016 10:09 AM (b5yHT)

115 "Believe it or not, it is possible to have more than one active comment thread. Theoretically, at least."

Heretic!

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 12, 2016 10:09 AM (ptqRm)

116 I've read the sample of Crooked and its very good, however I'm not going to pay 14 for a kindle book ever. and I don't want another used hardcover laying around.

I did just order the used hardcover trilogy that Philip Jenkins wrote on the future of Christianity, though. Most are a dollar with 4 buck shipping.

plus a campaign book for Clockwork and Chivalry, but thats neither here nor there

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at June 12, 2016 10:10 AM (Cq0oW)

117 If you've never read a book by or about Gen. George S. Patton Jr. then rent out your balls as a ladies' purse.

Posted by: CrustyB at June 12, 2016 10:10 AM (Hnglq)

118 Posted by: CrustyB at June 12, 2016 10:10 AM (Hnglq)

---
And stick your pearl-handled pimp revolver in it!

I recommend "War As I Knew It" as a nice intro, and follow it with Carlo d'Este's excellent biography.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 10:12 AM (jR7Wy)

119 96 Also on my blog is a sale alert for the Fire tablet

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 09:56 AM (7lVbc)


I got the Kindle Fire during the 2015 Black Friday sale when they had it marked down to $35 (!)

At that price, I couldn't not buy it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 10:15 AM (+pz/4)

120 @96 Fire tablet sale

I bought one during a previous sale. It is very handy for electronic e-book loans from the library.

My library loans Kindle and .mobi format books from Overdrive and also e-books from Axis360. Only the Kindle format books work on my e-ink Kindle device. All work on the Fire tablet, after downloading the free apps.

The Fire is a bit heavy compared to the e-ink Kindle, but graphics, formatting and navigation are better on the Fire. Battery life is better on the e-ink Kindle.

It is nice to have both. If I could only have one, it would be the Fire tablet.

Posted by: doug at June 12, 2016 10:15 AM (dnL4I)

121 The muscular Barack H. Obama fed Opening Day catchers a diet of fast balls thanks to his fitness regimen of bench-pressing 200 lbs...

Posted by: The New Historical Record at June 12, 2016 10:16 AM (9mTYi)

122 I've linked this before, but Gates of Vienna has an entire category of posts about West's book and the controversy surrounding it. She even turns up in the comments occasionally.

http://gatesofvienna.net/topical/diana-west/

Posted by: rickl at June 12, 2016 10:17 AM (sdi6R)

123 For those that haven't read it yet, I wouldn't waste your time with Crooked. It's my least favorite of the three Grossman books I've read, and it suffers quite a bit from not knowing what genre it wants to belong to.

For something way down on the cerebral scale, try the Dave vs. Monsters trilogy by John Birmingham. It's a trilogy of books about an oil-rig safety officer who lucks into becoming something of a superhero when demons attack his rig. Dave is a bit of a hedonist with some non-PC attitudes, and the first two books are fun reads.

Posted by: notthatGreg at June 12, 2016 10:18 AM (BbFPz)

124 At that price, I couldn't not buy it.
Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 10:15 AM (+pz/4)

It's only $40 now.

I'm really tempted because my current fire is dying. (3 years old, charging is getting tricky)
Although I've been thinking about the more expensive smaller HD one.
Decisions decisions.

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 10:19 AM (7lVbc)

125 The conundrum of paper or kindle really did come up for me on the book I'm reading (The Burning of Moscow ). It's one I would have liked as a hard book but the 1/3 price on Kindle thought I'd try it, I'm going to get another by Alexander Mikberdze but in hardback. The one thing is I know my tablet isn't forever, I have books over 100 years old.

Posted by: Skip at June 12, 2016 10:22 AM (d9qXV)

126 55 And the creepy part is when West relates going back in old newspaper files to research original accounts and finding that the one edition that she needs that will tell her what she needs to know is missing.

===========
I was living in SF in the 80s and tried to take out books and articles on the radical groups like SDS, etc, and they were all missing, too.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:27 AM (iQIUe)

Terrorist Bill Ayers's (Barry's mentor & ghostwriter) "Prairie Fire" where he calls for the extermination of 25,000,000 Americans, is near impossible to find on the second-hand market. Gee, I wonder why?

Oh, and good Sunday morning to y'all.

Posted by: josephistan at June 12, 2016 10:22 AM (7qAYi)

127 JTB @77 - We neglected to take a pic of me in the Edwardian suit and flamboyant hat - but others did, and I will like to them as soon as they post.

Also - got a pic taken by a photog for the local newspaper, so - will see what happens. He had an official "press" badge and everything!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 12, 2016 10:23 AM (xnmPy)

128 119 ... OM, How is that Fire tablet for reading? I Really like my Kindle Paperwhite but it would be nice to have color sometimes and be able to keep all my books on the device. The Fire has a lot more storage than the Paperwhite.

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 10:23 AM (V+03K)

129 I'm halfway through "Every Man Dies Alone", by Hans Fallada. From the back cover, "Hans Fallada wrote Every Man Dies Alone in a feverish twenty-four days, soon after the end of World War II and his release from a Nazi insane asylum. He did not live to see its publication."

The book starts in 1940 with a couple who receive word that their soldier son has died and decide to take a stand against Hitler by leaving postcards around Berlin urging resistance. Fallada perfectly describes a society where nobody can be trusted and where petty bureaucrats act not on conviction but on what will appease their superiors. It's based on a true story, and clearly Fallada knew what he was writing about. And it's sobering to realize how quickly our current society could turn into the same thing. We're already halfway there.

Posted by: biancaneve at June 12, 2016 10:25 AM (xa+7G)

130 The Fire has a lot more storage than the Paperwhite.
Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 10:23 AM (V+03K)

Yup....I like my Fire for reading, playing chess/games and it does a good job of surfing the net. Pretty handy and I even use it for IHeart radio too.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 12, 2016 10:26 AM (ej1L0)

131 I loved my Kindle Fire ( it was dropped and destroyed on New years day). It was much better for reading than with the Samsung Tablet Kindle app I have now.

Posted by: Skip at June 12, 2016 10:26 AM (d9qXV)

132 119 I got the Kindle Fire during the 2015 Black Friday sale when they had it marked down to $35 (!)

At that price, I couldn't not buy it.


Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 10:15 AM (+pz/4)

My SIL had a lot of problems with hers until finally the socket the charging/data cord plugged into went bad. Have you had any problems with yours?

I am thinking about going back to a Kindle of some type because I will have to replace my Samsung soon as the battery is starting to get weak, and heaven forbid you would be able to change a battery in one of these tablets.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 10:26 AM (mpXpK)

133 Morning everyone. I see All Hail Eris is pondering competing with Oregon Muse to be a mobile book hustler.

Managed to write about 1,000 words yesterday. However it was not the Rome or Alexandria or San Francisco stories. My imagination offered up a nifty new idea and I figured I best jot down the outline before I forgot it.

Does anyone have a link or video with suggestions on how to focus and write like mad?

Golden Isis is still for sale
Kindle- http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B014BTSEYO
Dead tree edition - http://preview.tinyurl.com/zat87z9

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 12, 2016 10:27 AM (uSUw6)

134 I just got an order in yesterday of some used books - "American Gunfight" by Stephen Hunter & John Bainbridge (about the attempted assassination of Truman by Puerto Rican terrorists), Douglas Porch's "Army and Revolution in France 1815-1848" & J.R. Jones's "The Anglo-Dutch Wars of The Seventeenth Century" (those two seem pretty self-explanatory)

Posted by: josephistan at June 12, 2016 10:30 AM (7qAYi)

135 @119 I was a bit dubious about the Fire as a reading device before the purchase.

Now that I have it, I really like it. I prefer to download novels to the e-ink Kindle because it is light and has great battery life. For anything where navigation or searching is important, I prefer the Fire. Technical books and cookbooks go on the Fire.

I've read a number of novels on the Fire and been happy with it. Not quite the resolution of the Paperwhite, but not an issue.

I've used other apps on the Fire and consider it to be a decent little tablet. Not an iPad, but surprisingly zippy.

Posted by: doug at June 12, 2016 10:31 AM (dnL4I)

136 Fyi the fire tablet is not for reading in the sunlight. That's the big advantage of the paperwhite.

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 10:35 AM (7lVbc)

137 My SIL had a lot of problems with hers until finally the socket the charging/data cord plugged into went bad. Have you had any problems with yours?

I am thinking about going back to a Kindle of some type because I will have to replace my Samsung soon as the battery is starting to get weak, and heaven forbid you would be able to change a battery in one of these tablets.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 10:26 AM (mpXpK)


I've had no problems with the Fire I purchased, and to answer JTB's question, my text reading experience with it has been good. I use it lightly, not every day. I like the Silk Browser that comes with it. On my Nexus, this smart military blog takes a long time to load due to all the advertising, but Silk has some sort of default "no-script" thing going because ace loads up quickly and I never see any ads.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 12, 2016 10:35 AM (+pz/4)

138 Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 10:26 AM (mpXpK)


rdbrewer recommended this place. They might be able to swap the battery.

http://www.zfixit.com/

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 12, 2016 10:35 AM (Zu3d9)

139 Read conservative Radosh's response to Diana West's theory on losing history: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/152933

Posted by: Crowley at June 12, 2016 09:10 AM (s7Gx


As Om says, Radosh is no conservative. People forget that he, and Horowitz, were both Marxists (verrry committed ones at that), until the '70's or '80's. Horowitz had to make a big deal about voting for Reagan, in 84! He didn't acknowledge that until he 'came out' as an anti-commie in '85!

Anyway, "American Betrayal" is a great, and important, book.

I just read Diana West's "rebuttal" to her critics, finished last night. She totally shreds the attacks (mainly by Radosh) in this book. M.Stanton Evans says Radosh is a liar, as Radosh tried to use Evans to buttress his main point of contention against West. Viktor Bukovsky says Radosh is "dishonest and incompetent". Yes, Radosh is raked over the coals and exposed as the fraud he is.

Others, mainly Horowitz and Conrad Black, are also excoriated in the Rebuttal. It's amazing the lengths these so-called 'conservatives' went to discredit Wests' book, which includes 944 end notes , mostly from government archives. I could go on and on, but time constrains me for now.

I just have to say what a piece of dirt Radosh is, and I was stunned to learn of Horowitz' intellectual dishonesty as well. As for Black, OM kindly pointed out to me last week what an FDR apologist the man is.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 12, 2016 10:36 AM (KfqwP)

140 Ron Radosh's takedown of American Betrayal is worth considering:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/199666/mccarthy-steroids-ronald-radosh



Posted by: Elizabeth at June 12, 2016 09:42 AM (ZQ6So)

If you consider it to be trash. I suggest you delve deeper behind the scenes here. Mark Tapson actually wrote a glowing review of "American Betrayal" (on frontpagemag), at Horowitz' request, that prededed Radosh's smear on frotpagemag, and then Horowitz took it down, after the piece by fellow-traveler Radosh..

Posted by: Hanzo at June 12, 2016 10:41 AM (KfqwP)

141 After reading Lucifer's Hammer, I ordered volumes 1 and 2 of The Way Things Work. Sounded like an interesting reference series to have, especially when the kiddo gets a bit older. Also, you never know when you'll have to rebuild civilization.

Posted by: PabloD at June 12, 2016 10:43 AM (GP2ST)

142 "55 And the creepy part is when West relates going back in old newspaper files to research original accounts and finding that the one edition that she needs that will tell her what she needs to know is missing.

===========
I was living in SF in the 80s and tried to take out books and articles on the radical groups like SDS, etc, and they were all missing, too.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 09:27 AM (iQIUe)

Terrorist Bill Ayers's (Barry's mentor & ghostwriter) "Prairie Fire" where he calls for the extermination of 25,000,000 Americans, is near impossible to find on the second-hand market. Gee, I wonder why?

Oh, and good Sunday morning to y'all.

Posted by: josephistan at June 12, 2016 10:22 AM (7qAYi)"

Radosh was affiliated with SDS, btw.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 12, 2016 10:44 AM (KfqwP)

143 Like many of you, I'm more than casually interested in American history, and more than a casual viewer of the Hitler channels documentation of our past. That the History Channel's "Beltway Unbuckled" would yield new information about FDR, then, is illustrative of how media selectively protects the image of patron Liberals, while targeting what were once called mainstream Americans.

FDR mistress Daisy Suckley's diary, which was discovered under her bed in 1991, isn't a secret, as I discovered by searching the term. But, it sure as hell has not been been publicly aired. I'm talking about FDR telling Ms. Suckley about D-Day details a month prior to June 6th, 1944 ("... technically treason"). I'm talking FDR's plan to partner up with Joe Stalin after the war, to crate a new world order, with FDR running the planned United Nations. Doris Kearns Goodwin, call you office.

I dedicate this post to Senator Joseph R, McCarthy, who died for our sins.
http://tinyurl.com/zqbmfp8

Posted by: G6loq at June 12, 2016 10:45 AM (zj+JZ)

144 The book starts in 1940 with a couple who receive word that their soldier son has died and decide to take a stand against Hitler by leaving postcards around Berlin urging resistance. Fallada perfectly describes a society where nobody can be trusted and where petty bureaucrats act not on conviction but on what will appease their superiors. It's based on a true story, and clearly Fallada knew what he was writing about. And it's sobering to realize how quickly our current society could turn into the same thing. We're already halfway there.
Posted by: biancaneve at June 12, 2016 10:25 AM (xa+7G)

================
Years ago, I went to hear a member of the White Rose speak. They use to mail their pamphlets and info to other resisters in Germany. The problem was that buying stamps, even just a 100, would result in a tip to the gestapo.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 10:45 AM (iQIUe)

145 I wanted to let you know that I got and started to read Diana West's book some time back but couldn't finish it because I was so furious that all this took place and no one has written about it before now.

Posted by: Thealienist at June 12, 2016 10:47 AM (1N8vc)

146 Of course it does not help my writing efforts when I get lost online just cruising and learning stuff. To continue with the wide variety of D-Day invasions stripes mentioned in the ONT, here is another example. It is neat in one way and hasty in another.

P-51B of the 369th FS/359th FG/VIII AF. Code IV-V
http://preview.tinyurl.com/zjnzhaq

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 12, 2016 10:49 AM (uSUw6)

147 141 After reading Lucifer's Hammer, I ordered volumes 1 and 2 of The Way Things Work. Sounded like an interesting reference series to have, especially when the kiddo gets a bit older. Also, you never know when you'll have to rebuild civilization.
Posted by: PabloD at June 12, 2016 10:43 AM (GP2ST)
----
I see on Amazon that a new and improved version is coming out in October of this year, to include touch screens and 3D printers. Of course, if we're reduced to Medieval tech levels, you may want Macauley's "Castle" instead.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 10:52 AM (jR7Wy)

148 I have to pick up some of these Moron-written tomes. New stuff is definitely required for the bookshelf. Assuming I can still find some space on it... the Kindle reader may have to get them instead. ^^;

Posted by: exdem13 at June 12, 2016 10:52 AM (ry4ab)

149 Folks, Thanks for the feedback. I just placed an order for the Fire tablet but with the 16 GB storage. I have a good number of 'complete works of X' in my account and they take up a lot of space. It would be nice to have them all on the device.

I have books I only want in paper so I'm not dependent on digital gremlins. But there is a ton of casual reading that's fine for an e-reader. And it's hard to pass up the complete works of a classic author, formatted for digital, for less than 3 bucks. Delphi does an excellent job with those.

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 10:55 AM (V+03K)

150 133Managed
to write about 1,000 words yesterday. However it was not the Rome or
Alexandria or San Francisco stories. My imagination offered up a nifty new idea and I figured I best jot down the outline before I forgot it.

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

Gotta watch out for those new idea bunnies Anna, they will get you off your planned hunt. But saving a new idea for future consideration is not a bad thing.

Posted by: exdem13 at June 12, 2016 10:55 AM (ry4ab)

151 "I wanted to let you know that I got and started to read Diana West's book some time back but couldn't finish it because I was so furious that all this took place and no one has written about it before now.

Posted by: Thealienist at June 12, 2016 10:47 AM (1N8vc)"

Some have, just usually in the dry style of a historian. The Venona Project (anti-spy campaign) revealed many of the traitors in the '40's, yet was swept under the rug for many years.

J.Edgar Hoover tried to shed light on this subject many times, but was overruled by higher up's, including Truman. All of the spys were democrats (imagine that), and it's supposed that Truman's cover up was in order to protect the Democrat Party, not that Truman was a spy, even though he did participate in the repatriation of those Russians, Pole's, etc. (but so did Eisenhower, for that matter), who were released from german prison camps after WW2, at the request of Stalin. Of course, these millions of repatriated people were sent to the Gulags, or executed beforehand.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 12, 2016 10:55 AM (KfqwP)

152 Speaking of Yipes! Stripes!, here's an interesting article on dazzle camouflage, which was meant to mislead the eye rather than disguise the object completely:

https://huckberry.com/journal/posts/razzle-dazzle-camouflage

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 10:55 AM (jR7Wy)

153 A touch-screen version of "The Way Things Work"

I can see one being unearthed in a few hundred years and written on clay tablets in Esperanto is the requirements to get it working again.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 12, 2016 10:56 AM (uSUw6)

154 Typically my app Podcast Addict will tell me a new AoSHQ podcast is up, long before it's on the site. This with checking in regularly with both. Yesterday it was on the site a day before the app.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 12, 2016 10:56 AM (VdICR)

155 Some time ago OregonMuse recommended the editing services of Elaine Ash here on the book thread. I got in touch with her recently to help me with my manuscript and she really helped me get it together. She's professional and kind, and very insightful. She is awesome and I seriously cannot recommend her enough! http://ashedits.wordpress.com

Posted by: MisfitJEM at June 12, 2016 10:57 AM (r1du+)

156 Sgt Mom, there is a blog called the Pragmatic Costumer which is a woman sewing period clothing using various modern patters, research, modifications and period examples.

Really interesting. Her last two projects were a ballgown and she does the walking dresses too.

Ace's mid-week book posting had me trying to write up a blurb for Bill Adams and Cecil Brooks' two books, The Unwound Way and The End of Fame.

The main character, Evan Larkspur, college poet and playwright, member of a secret society, and scholarship boy to one of the most prestigious universities in the human universe had joined the Navy's deep survey program to sit out what he considered a fad for statist philosophy in a decade or so of suspended animation during his hitch.
He returns to human space a century later, having been shipwrecked, suffering from suspend-sleep trauma and subsequent hallucinations that approach grandiose waking dreams, to discover his name has become a household word, his previous university aquaintances control an oppressive oligarchy controlling all the human worlds, his college secret society was both filled with more secrets than it admitted to and was secretly controlling the levers of power through its members, and he himself a wanted man because of what he has learned and who he is.
The books are about finding the roots if his society, and figuring out who the person claiming to be him is and if he really needs to be involved with the current revolution brewing in outer systems.

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/0345372387

The Amazon blurb is better than mine

Posted by: Kindltot at June 12, 2016 10:58 AM (ry34m)

157 " I've linked this before, but Gates of Vienna has an entire category of posts about West's book and the controversy surrounding it. She even turns up in the comments occasionally.

http://gatesofvienna.net/topical/diana-west/

Posted by: rickl at June 12, 2016 10:17 AM (sdi6R)"

Thanks for the link. Gatesofvienna used to be on my favorites bar, but, alas, I lost it in a crash. Good site.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 12, 2016 10:59 AM (KfqwP)

158 NOOD, more Orlando

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 11:01 AM (mpXpK)

159 150 ... Agreed, I once wrote a three page preface meant to set the mood and background for a novel. 300 pages later I had a book, unpublished, and never got to the original story. Beware the new road! :-)

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 11:07 AM (V+03K)

160 I think what I may do is go back to my original Kindle but I will miss the color. I may go to a paper white though as I hear those are much easier to read.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 11:08 AM (mpXpK)

161 @149 Digital gremlins

Backup your Kindle library to a PC/Mac. Google for howto.

If truly paranoid, use Calibre app to strip out Kindle file format DRM.

Posted by: doug at June 12, 2016 11:08 AM (dnL4I)

162 Posted by: MisfitJEM at June 12, 2016 10:57 AM (r1du+)

Are you writing a book? Cool!

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 11:08 AM (7lVbc)

163 If truly paranoid, use Calibre app to strip out Kindle file format DRM.

--

How can you get a kindle book ONTO calibre?

Do you need a usb cable?

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 11:09 AM (7lVbc)

164 That is a great summary kindltot! It's already in my Amazon cue.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 11:10 AM (jR7Wy)

165 Read Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, a slapstick comedy about two identical twin brothers separated at birth whose servants are also identical twin brothers. One set of brothers visit the town of the other and hijinks result. Fun play.

Listened to Sourcery (Discworld #5, Rincewind #3) by Pratchett, where a sorcerer and his living staff arriving at the college of wizards causing havoc and only Rincewind can save the day. Seemed to bog down a bit in the middle but enjoyable overall.

Listened to the zombie thriller Extinction Horizon (Extinction Cycle #1) by Nicholas Smith. Typical setup where US military lab experiment goes awry but very well done, enjoyed it.

Posted by: waelse1 at June 12, 2016 11:12 AM (20bBd)

166 This is a novel which postulates that Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle (and he was a doctor) meets the man who will be the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, a British agent named Jack Sparks

We actually know who was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes; a medical professor named Dr Joseph Bell who taught Doyle about deductive reasoning.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 12, 2016 11:15 AM (39g3+)

167 http://ebookfriendly.com/back-up-kindle-books-2-ways/

"Back Up and Restore Your Fire Tablet" -- http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201540750

Posted by: doug at June 12, 2016 11:15 AM (dnL4I)

168 Evidently the main problem people have with "Confessions" is that its very small. Its 66 pages, with a large font size and double spacing to get it to be that long. Apparently there's not a lot in the way of actual confessions or inside information beyond the quotes listed above. And that annoys people.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 12, 2016 11:17 AM (39g3+)

169 160 ... Vic, I am a big fan of the Paperwhite. It definitely is easier on my eyes than the standard Kindle and it really works in sunlight. Also, the battery life is pretty good. I did a side by side comparison of the two at a store and came home with the Paperwhite.

Posted by: JTB at June 12, 2016 11:18 AM (V+03K)

170 This is a novel which postulates that Dr. Arthur
Conan Doyle (and he was a doctor) meets the man who will be the
inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, a British agent named Jack Sparks



We actually know who was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes; a
medical professor named Dr Joseph Bell who taught Doyle about deductive
reasoning.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 12, 2016 11:15 AM (39g3+)
=====Saw something on broadcast Fox (summer replacement?) with AC Doyle and H Houdini pairing up to solve mysteries. It wasn't bad -- so I actually watched.
Don't know if anyone else has the problem of lighting being so dim in most current shows. I can't seem to get involved because I can't see anything.



Posted by: mustbequantum at June 12, 2016 11:24 AM (MIKMs)

171 Yeah very dark areas is a cheap way to make things seem spooky and mysterious, and to use cheap sets or re-use the same ones. I think X-Files was the first one to use that, the shows like CSI did it, despite being about scientists trying to meticulously discover evidence. Maybe if you turned on the lights you'd find it better?

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 12, 2016 11:28 AM (39g3+)

172 I'm reading Clinton Cash. It really makes me mad. If everyone can get one Democrat friend to read this book, Hillary does not stand a chance of winning. It is sad how corrupted the system is by money. I'm sure it's not just the Democrats, but the Clinton family has mastered the game for maximum benefit of the family and their donors. Unfortunately there are no cheap dead tree copies available on AMZN.

Posted by: Ben Ghazi at June 12, 2016 11:31 AM (xJuqq)

173 If you are going to read Clinton Cash might as well snag a copy of Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. National Security for Chinese Cash to also read.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/jptb6pg

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 12, 2016 11:39 AM (uSUw6)

174 Double Star by Heinlein on sale today for $2.99 (notified by Book Bub)


http://amzn.to/232EhGZ

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 11:46 AM (mpXpK)

175 Instapundit just mentioned a new book that he received. Sounds like it might be of interest here: "Flyover Nation: You Can't Run a Country You've Never Been To" by Dana Loesch.

Pub date 21 June. Blurbed by David Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Brad Thor. Nice description on Amazon.

Kindle price $13.99. Sigh...

Posted by: doug at June 12, 2016 11:50 AM (dnL4I)

176 Fun book excerpt from highly opinionated gamer-scholar Lindybeige.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmqqrtChc40

Posted by: exdem13 at June 12, 2016 12:11 PM (ry4ab)

177 Try CNTL ALT REVOLT by Nick Cole.

Posted by: eman at June 12, 2016 12:18 PM (MQEz6)

178 I got this one in its first paperback edition. Someone forgot to return it some years ago, I need a replacement. It was a key influence in helping me leave the Left.
http://tinyurl.com/zayutjo

And oh yes, this whitewashing of Islam as a corrective stick to Western superiority goes back a long way. Even I still cling to the myth of the Medieval Spanish Cultural Oasis.

http://tinyurl.com/z7tuhak

Posted by: exdem13 at June 12, 2016 12:28 PM (ry4ab)

179 I had a local 4th grade teacher offer me a box of books from her classroom. In the middle of a bunch of workbooks and discarded teen fiction was a copy of Vol. II of Shirer's 20th Century Journey. This covers 1930-1940.

He's a good writer, although as a late 20 and early 30s, he was much smarter than all the politicians he was writing and talking about.

I've started his book on the fall of the 3rd Republic several times, but can't get past about page 25 or 30. Maybe I just like the Germans better than the French?

Posted by: John Pomeroy at June 12, 2016 12:33 PM (g2tHE)

180 Great book thread this week. "The Situation in Flushing" sounds like something I'd enjoy. Loved "Cheaper by the Dozen" for example.

Thanks for all this.

Posted by: jocon307 at June 12, 2016 12:39 PM (4WPdG)

181 144 The book starts in 1940 with a couple who receive word that their soldier son has died and decide to take a stand against Hitler by leaving postcards around Berlin urging resistance. Fallada perfectly describes a society where nobody can be trusted and where petty bureaucrats act not on conviction but on what will appease their superiors. It's based on a true story, and clearly Fallada knew what he was writing about. And it's sobering to realize how quickly our current society could turn into the same thing. We're already halfway there.
Posted by: biancaneve at June 12, 2016 10:25 AM (xa+7G)

================
Years ago, I went to hear a member of the White Rose speak. They use to mail their pamphlets and info to other resisters in Germany. The problem was that buying stamps, even just a 100, would result in a tip to the gestapo.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 12, 2016 10:45 AM (iQIUe)

-------------------------------------
Either the OSS or the British SOE printed up counterfeit Hitler Head stamps and dropped them into agents to use. To get around the gestapo as BruceWaW mentions. They are still available and collected.

Posted by: John Pomeroy at June 12, 2016 12:42 PM (g2tHE)

182 174 Double Star by Heinlein on sale today for $2.99 (notified by Book Bub)

--

I really liked double star

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 12:46 PM (7lVbc)

183 I guess this thread is slowed way down. I am just about done with that last Jack Ryan book and will move on to the Executioner Series I got last week when they were on sale.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 12, 2016 01:57 PM (mpXpK)

184 A bit late to this party, but referencing historical record vandalism, Steve Berry used it as a plot device a while ago for "The Patriot Threat" - his thriller dealing with the perhaps illegal imposition of the Income Tax and the mysterious disappearance of the state house records regarding its 'ratification'. All of his stuff is well researched and refreshingly end-noted to distinguished fact from fiction.

Posted by: bensdad00 at June 12, 2016 02:23 PM (zd3um)

185 Just finished reading the entire thread. Whew!

Speaking of lies we've been fed by the gubmint and its paymasters, I've been reading a lot of the same stuff Ace has been reading, namely about the bill of goods the country (albeit, the Western World) has been sold re the "best food choices." Ugh.

According to Taubes's "Why We Get Fat & What to Do About It," the medical community flatout knew as gospel as recently as the early '70s that low-carb was the key to a healthy weight. They chose to be swayed by biased know-it-alls. It's almost as if the medical profession was hypnotized into believing the opposite much like weatherfolk were cowed into believing globaloney.

Eat more fat. Eat more protein. Pass on the grains and spuds.

Posted by: RushBabe at June 12, 2016 02:51 PM (OJKE+)

186 Another edifying Book Thread, OM. Nice work.

Posted by: anonymous-9 at June 12, 2016 02:52 PM (3l4RI)

187 Everything Dan Brown knows is wrong.

Posted by: Emmie at June 12, 2016 03:15 PM (xVuS6)

188 Another foray into "missing" historical records: "The Rewriting of America's History" by Catherine Millard.

Posted by: Sock on at June 12, 2016 03:31 PM (7xrXW)

189 55 And the creepy part is when West relates going back in old newspaper files to research original accounts and finding that the one edition that she needs that will tell her what she needs to know is missing.

===========

This sort of thing has been going on for a long time. Most of you probably remember the James Byrd murder case from several years ago (black guy gets dragged behind a truck by three white guys until he dies). Now, the local cops caught the three guys who did it in short order, and right after the story broke in the media, a local Houston TV station reported that in their confession it came out that this was not simply a case of three white rednecks seeing some poor black guy walking down the road and they decide to drag him til he dies just for the hell of it.

No, it turns out that the three white guys, and James Byrd, were all ex-convicts. And at least one of the perps knew Byrd from prison and there was bad blood between them from those days. So the "ringleader" gets his buddies to help him grab Byrd and kill him in payment for whatever prison slights Bryd had done to him back when they were guests of the State.

However, this did not fit the Narrative, and the story vanished shortly thereafter. So yes, very relevant details about events can and frequently are made to "disappear" from the public record when the usual suspects want them to...

Posted by: The Oort Cloud - Source of all SMODs at June 12, 2016 04:03 PM (2pIEi)

190 Still leafing through "Infinite Worlds". Interesting essays by many of the technicians who worked on the shuttle. These were often blue collar types, gearheads who grew up on farms or in steel towns and understood how things worked and how they were made.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 04:31 PM (jR7Wy)

191 Can't wait to get through the whole thread.

Another example of missing history --

The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 supposedly was sparked by an inflammatory editorial in the first edition of The Tulsa Tribune the day of the arrest of a black suspect in an alleged attack on a white woman in a downtown store. (I think he ran an elevator.) Anyway, boom. The death toll has never been established -- there have been wild claims of 300 -- and the prosperous black business district was left in ashes.

That editorial was swapped out in the later edition. What's more, the library's copy of the paper is missing the editorial, clipped out by persons unknown.

I would love to find a copy of that Trib.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 12, 2016 04:48 PM (qDOUK)

192 Horde, has anyone read _The Name of the Rose_ by Eco? Recommended? I hear mostly good reviews, but some think it is bloviated.

Posted by: goodluckduck at June 12, 2016 06:36 PM (Q8PU8)

193 @192 I read it a long time ago. Yes, bloviated is a good word, but an interesting mystery.

Posted by: @votermom at June 12, 2016 06:42 PM (7lVbc)

194 Thanks, would you recommend it for a book club? How many stars out of 10?

Posted by: goodluckduck at June 12, 2016 07:01 PM (Q8PU8)

195 The Name of the Rose is definitely worth a read but not worth the accolades.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 12, 2016 07:30 PM (jR7Wy)

196 Also, the movie version of 'The Name of the Rose' stunk on ice.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 13, 2016 02:23 AM (VxLfp)

197 I started West's book but have not finished it. I was confused and a little dismayed by her whole-scale condemnation of Lend-Lease. As I understand it the real "dark heart" of the war was fought in the Soviet Union. 9 out of every 10 Nazi soldiers died on the Eastern front, leaving the U.S to effectively fight 1/10 of the German army (plus the war in the Pacific). Pouring arms and treasure into the Soviet Union to keep their army fighting against the Germans made a lot of sense at the time. It's not self-evidently insane or a sign of treason, as West suggests, to have prioritized Soviet arms sales even over US needs in certain parts of the Pacific theater that were less crucial. West acts like the U.S. was 'propping up' the Russians out of Communist sympathy and never once discusses the sacrifice (unwilling in most cases) made by the Russian people in stopping the Germans. The whole thing just seemed silly and incredible. Maybe she says something later in the book but it didn't seem that way. I was disappointed because I am interested in reading a real history of Communist sympathies in the US government.

Posted by: stinkfoot at June 13, 2016 11:41 AM (yXWrO)

198 Saying "Hi," just like I was asked to by goodreads group mod.

Posted by: Russ at June 15, 2016 11:55 AM (E46f6)

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