"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
Perception is reality. (Isn't it? Sometimes?) Time is a ring. A year of time is a ring, that is. It stands vertical as though one were facing it and the year proceeds counter-clockwise (of course), from right to left over the top of the ring, down the left side arc, across the bottom arc, and … Continue reading Lapham’s Quarterly Fall 2014: Time
[Categories: Literature, Reading.] But enough about YOU. What about ME? It seems like I'm reading EVERYTHING (exaggeratedly of course). I've been reading a lot of 'stuff' lately and still have a lot of 'stuff' to read. [Click on photos to enlarge, if you are so inclined.] Since December I've read or I'm reading: Hound of … Continue reading What are YOU reading?
[CATEGORIES: Book Review, WWII, veterans.] Subtitled: "The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII", by Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avila. Code talkers were Navajo Indians who developed an unbreakable English-Navajo-English code used while fighting the Japanese in WWII Pacific. This book is great storytelling. I had the … Continue reading Code Talker by Chester Nez and Judith Scheiss Avila
[CATEGORIES: Literature, Reading, Book Review] Check your pulse if you haven't heard of Anne Frank the young Jewish girl who kept a diary of her family's hiding in Amsterdam for 2 years (1942-1944) during WWII, only to be found and arrested less than a year before the end of the war, with most of them … Continue reading Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl [Updated]
Here is a new op-ed by two people whose intellect and opinions I very highly respect. I have read their book Free Market Revolution twice and I strongly recommend you read this 221-page book... carefully. OP-ED We Should Be Embarrassed by the Sequester Debate If you're concerned about economic growth the cuts are far too … Continue reading We Should Be Embarrassed by the Sequester Debate
I'm playing catch-up on this one. It is the favorite Quarterly of a scholarly, well-read friend. Lewis Lapham waxes eloquent in his introductory preamble Kingdom Come. A few excerpts: "President Obama appears before the congregations of the Democratic faithful as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, cherishing the wounds of the American body politic … Continue reading Lapham’s Quarterly Fall 2011: The Future
A fellow blogger I follow, conservative judging from her posts, recently posted this reference: Red brain, blue brain: Republicans & Democrats Process Risk Differently "A team of political scientists and neuroscientists has shown that liberals and conservatives use different parts of the brain when they make risky decisions, and these regions can be used to … Continue reading Politics and the Brain
Obama's State of the Union Address, Minimum Wage, Marco Rubio, Immigration, Gun Control, oh my! REALLY?! I could opine on conservative thought 3 times a day. I definitely should opine more than 3 times a year. If I have anything in life it is a surfeit (noun, an excessive amount of something) of opinions. I often … Continue reading T.O.T.N. (Thoughts On The News) 02/13-14/2013
False Idol: Barack Obama and the Continuing Cult of the Presidency [Kindle Edition] by Gene Healy, from Amazon. A friend often asks me something to the effect of "is our current president incompetent or does he have a strategy to grow government and weaken individual rights", to which I usually reply "yes", meaning all of the above. … Continue reading False Idol: Barack Obama and the Continuing Cult of the Presidency by Gene Healy
Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government by Yaron Brook, Don Watkins This is an excellent book. I approve its message. (It is presidential election season.) The book is a methodical, reasoned analysis of the self-inflicted big government altruism that is bankrupting us. It offers logical steps to reclaim the good of free … Continue reading Yet another book you must read: FREE MARKET REVOLUTION
This is a dynamic, powerful book. It is filled with in-your-face pull-no-punches logic and reason. Oh these Ayn Randians (Bernstein has written and lectured with the Ayn Rand Institute for some time). Do they never stop spouting about individual rights, freedom of choice and rational self-interest? It is a short book, 175 pages in hard cover … Continue reading CAPITALIST SOLUTIONS – A Philosophy of American Moral Dilemmas by Andrew Bernstein
...WHY GOVERNMENT FAILS-- BUT INDIVIDUALS SUCCEED. This is libertarian John Stossel's retort to the big government political slogan "Yes We Can". It is his latest book for individual freedom of choice and against overbearing government. Stossel was a consumer reporter on ABC network and its 20/20 investigative show for a couple of decades. Since becoming … Continue reading NO THEY CAN’T by JOHN STOSSEL
INSIDE APPLE: How America's Most Admired--And Secretive--Company Really Works, by Adam Lashinsky. Published January 2012 by Business Plus of the Hachette Book Group. At slightly over 200 pages this is a clear, fast, easy read, for which I am always grateful. I enjoyed this book and, more importantly, was educated. The author gives an excellent … Continue reading Inside Apple by Adam Lashinksky, book review
A review. Lapham’s Quarterly is a superb assembly of thought from all of recorded history. Each quarterly issue gathers essays and commentaries from great thinkers on a broad but specific topic. Recent issues have dwelt on Food, Lines of Work, Celebrity, The City, and Arts and Letters. (I saw a video interviewer pronounce … Continue reading Lapham’s Quarterly Winter 2012: Family
The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. A great book in my opinion. I highly recommend it. Five of five stars for excellent literature. This is the second time I've read it, the first being three or four years ago. Though written post-WWII (1951) it is as timely as … Continue reading The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer, book review
Does time have you? Do you care? A friend and his references to the Fall 2011 issue of Lapham's Quarterly THE FUTURE, as well as a night in the hospital recently, got me thinking about my mortality. As I've grown older, retired, and plotted my potential income and expense for the rest of my potential … Continue reading Do you have time…? (Lapham’s Quarterly Fall 2011: The Future)
I received the book STEVE JOBS by Walter Isaacson as a Christmas gift and inhaled the 600-page tome in a week. It's an easy read, something I always appreciate. I found it intriguing, inspiring, insightful and I highly recommend it. Jobs was the mercurial co-founder and intermittently long-term CEO of Apple Computer, the company that … Continue reading The book STEVE JOBS by Walter Isaacson
...by Ann Coulter. My commentary/review, written in several parts over time. It's a work in progress I want to share with you now. I'll add a note here when I've finished reading and commenting. (NOTE: I'M FINISHED NOW! 6/27/11.) [MINIMAL SPOILER ALERT. Details WILL be discussed briefly, but this is non-fiction. It's not like I'll be … Continue reading Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America
...by Ida M. Tarbell. The "muckraker". Book review time. Commentary actually, a real review would be too much work. Checklist: Here I sit, laptop in lap. Check. I'm sipping leftover Lipizzan Port from the Greystone Vineyards in Palidsade, Colorado that m'lady and I opened and consumed the greater share of many weeks ago. Check. (It's … Continue reading The History of Standard Oil
John's Space ..... 