http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/ en-us Copyright 2008 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:13:11 -0500 Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:19:18 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.35 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Why We Are Excited About Obama And Why He Can’t Win Shelby Steele – ISBN – 9781416559177 This essay is in keeping with, and a specific expansion upon his book White Guilt (published in 2006, a review of which is available on this site.) Here Steele elaborates upon those same observations, but applies them specifically to Barack Obama in his quest for “blackness” and the presidency. The pair might have been published together with the... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/04/a_bound_man.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/04/a_bound_man.html Book Reviews Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:13:11 -0500 J.G. Ballard – ISBN – 9780743265232 Immediately after Pearl Harbor the Japanese launched all out war in the Pacific, beginning in the Philippines and in Shanghai where Ballard’s family were English merchants. This novel encapsulates the experiences of its English author, an adolescent prisoner in a Japanese prison camp in China during WWII. It is a first person narrative embroidered with reliable hearsay into a metered exposition of the horrors of China itself, the war,... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/04/empire_of_the_s.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/04/empire_of_the_s.html Book Reviews Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:57:48 -0500 Answering the Critics Neal Boortz & John Linder – ISBN - 9780061540462 This is the capstone to their prior book suggesting and explaining the Fair Tax. Ever since the release of that book there has been excessive controversy based upon ignorance of their carefully studied program. In this volume, as is suggested by the title, they take on the critics and explain the malaprops, misunderstandings, misrepresentations and outright lies of the opponents of this proposal... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/03/fair_tax_the_tr.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/03/fair_tax_the_tr.html Book Reviews Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:19:09 -0500 A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Simon Winchester – ISBN – 9780060839789 This fascinating saga is well told by Winchester. The protagonists are Dr. James Murray, editor of the dictionary, and Dr. Wm. Minor, a crucial contributor: Yale graduate, American physician in the Civil War, and schizophrenic “madman” convicted of, and incarcerated for, a bizarre murder in the slums of London. Murray’s mission was to replace the only... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/03/the_professor_a.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/03/the_professor_a.html Book Reviews Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:36:48 -0500 Observing the electioneering on the tube last night I was struck, listening to Barak Obama, at the similarities of the scene to those described in The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer over 50 years ago (a book I'd strongly recommend being re-read . . . or read, if you haven't.) "People in the atmosphere of a mass movement are fashioned into incomplete and dependent human beings . . . The blindness of the fanatic is... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/02/assessing_curre.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/02/assessing_curre.html Pontification Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:53:14 -0500 A Memoir Bill Bryson – ISBN 9780767919371 Bryson writes well in so many genres that “his best” would be misstatement, sort of. Nonetheless, I must note that this one hits the mark. A memoir of growing up in the best country in the world . . . when it was at its peak! For me it was an exhilarating trip down memory lane. People of later generations will read his comic genius-laced anecdotal hyperbole with... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/02/the_life_and_ti.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/02/the_life_and_ti.html Book Reviews Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:47:52 -0500 The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming Bjorn Lomborg - ISBN – 9780307266927 A decade ago Lomborg authored his first “attack” on environmentalism gone amok. Inasmuch as he was one of the founders of Green Peace it carried considerable weight. Predictably, the environmental wackos savaged him mercilessly. Amongst other things, as I recall, he observed that he had himself been preaching for several decades that the rainforests were being diminished by 5-10% annually. In flying... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/02/cool_it.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/02/cool_it.html Book Reviews Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:26:04 -0500 America’s First War on Terror – 1801 – 1805 Joseph Wheelan - ISBN – 9780786714049 This new book revisits The Pirate Coast (see my review of Nov. 2006). Of a sudden the Barbary Wars are being re-explored. I have always wondered about them, but “pirates” didn’t get me there. Unfortunately this one isn’t a lot better. There’s less minutiae, but still too much. Whatever happened to great editing? He does observe that Jefferson felt it... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/jeffersons_war.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/jeffersons_war.html Book Reviews Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:42:49 -0500 The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas Theodore Dalrymple – ISBN - 9781594032028 “Americans are presently longing for high moral standards and the security they bestow, but our love affair with freedom and individualism gets in the way. We are unwilling or unable to see that such standards require a mentality that accepts and derives comfort from iron-clad rules that make no sense, and explanations like ‘just because.’” Florence King Right on . . . but explicative... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/in_praise_of_pr.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/in_praise_of_pr.html Book Reviews Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:40:33 -0500 This rant is precipitated by comments made in The World is Flat and several other such renderings I have more recently read. Neil Postman once observed that Las Vegas is a metaphor of our national aspiration: a city devoted to entertainment: i.e. faux reality. It is, in essence, a prototypic American mall—on steroids! Like our modern shopping malls it is without significant statuary or public squares; public art is replaced by plastic plants arranged around... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/the_mauling_spi.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/the_mauling_spi.html Pontification Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:35:33 -0500 David McCullough – ISBN – 9780743226721 This masterful book is by McCullough. What more needs be said? It chronicles the year 1776, detailing the initiation of the American Revolution with his expected, colorfully accurate and riveting descriptions of the times, the people and the events. He deals adroitly with the principals: Washington, Greene, Knox, etal, as well as the British commanders. The drama unfolds with descriptions of the combatants: farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, ne’er-do-wells, and the... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/1776.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/1776.html Book Reviews Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:08:35 -0500 And Other Controversial Essays Thomas Sowell – ISBN – 9780817947521 As one would suspect, this compendium of essays is luminous, insightful and damaging to those who do not consider the effects (often predictable) of societal policies regarding legal, social, racial, educational and economic issues reflected in the culture war now in progress in the U.S. It is a Philippic, of sorts, but Sowell does have the soul of Demosthenes. For those unfamiliar with this scholar... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/ever_wonder_why.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2008/01/ever_wonder_why.html Book Reviews Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:46:04 -0500 Conflicts that will shape the 21st century Ralph Peters – ISBN-9780811702744 Peters is a retired Army officer with experience in some 70 countries, the author of over 20 books and a recognized opinion columnist who regularly contributes to USA Today, the Weekly Standard, the Armed Forces Journal and the Armchair General (a magazine publication of which he is also an advisory board member.) If anything he is overqualified to represent his opinions in matters military... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2007/12/wars_of_blood_a.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2007/12/wars_of_blood_a.html Book Reviews Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:50:35 -0500 Michael Crichton - ISBN-9780060873165 After State of Fear, all I can say is WOW! He’s done it again. As another well done tale about the currently troublesome biotech revolution, it is as entertaining as was the former, and cogent to a contemporaneous conundrum. As in the former he signs off with suggestions on a rational approach to the problems. He uses numerous vignettes recurring throughout the book, each expanding the narratives in which he expounds... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2007/12/next.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2007/12/next.html Book Reviews Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:00:21 -0500 I dunno ‘bout-chew, but I am frustrated that the information channels consider it news--and that we care--that all of the screwed up young and famous are in combat over their kids, enamored of their drug use, excuse their drunk driving and wallow in their sexcapades—even make movies of them. It’d be delightful to go the rest of my life without hearing another word about Paris, Britney, Madonna, K-whatever his name is and their ilk. Even... http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2007/10/who_cares.html http://www.curmudgeonalia.com/blog/archives/2007/10/who_cares.html Pontification Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:32 -0500