1 I have read the Mckay book, good stuff.

This week I am back to re-reads. Next book by an author I am following will not be out until March (david Weber).

These guys are too slow!

2 oops, don't now why I did the italics on first line. Too much of a habit.

3 First?!?

OK, first things first: Barack Hussein Obama is a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure.

4 Thanks for the kind words, Monty! I'm greedy for readers, you see. My Terran Empire stuff at Gutenberg includes a timeline (for those who want to read in chronological order) and the corcordance I used to keep myself from goofing up too many details from one story to another. Enjoy!

5

I'm re-reading Mark Twain. Roughing It is still my favorite but I'll avoid Letters from the Earth because it pisses me off.

Clemens became a bitter SOB in his old age.

6 Man, this here bar is getting up-scale!

7 No thread for Vaclav Havel? One by one, the heroes that brought about the downfall of European Communism are dropping off the vine, and we seem to hardly notice. He was a worthy author, playwright, and - of course - political leader of enormous moral courage and stature.

8 Posted by: HH at December 18, 2011 10:25 AM (KB0hv)

Maybe, but all the chicks have great racks and put out on the first date.

9 Odd title but it's the best 99 cent sci-fi I've read this year.  Actually there are three Wool books so it's 3 bucks after the first one hooks you.

http://tinyurl.com/7hc3nvb

10 Monty, Thanks for the links! Hey Vic. How are you doing?

11 Doing good today. For some reason felt like crap yesterday but better today.

12 The Patrick O'Brian books (Aubrey/Maturin as in Master and Commander) are newly released in Kindle versions.

I understand there is a way to give Kindle versions as gifts, though I haven't done it yet myself.

I'm reading Sabrina Chase's book between Christmas preparations, and liking it. Thanks to the moron(s) who recommended it a week or two back.

13 Thanks

14 Posted by: CoolCzech at December 18, 2011 10:26 AM (niZvt)

I was surprisingly moved by the news of his death. He understood the evil of totalitarianism and collectivism far better than the current crop of fools in power around the world today. This quotation from his obituary in the WaPo (no link...) is a perfect distillation of his unyielding views:

Communism, he said, was “a monstrous, ramshackle, stinking machine” whose worst legacy was not economic failure but a “spoiled moral environment.”

There is no equivocation; no attempt at conciliation; no finding common ground. He knew that communism was pure evil, and he never backed down.

15 Man, this here bar is getting up-scale!

Posted by: HH at December 18, 2011 10:25 AM (KB0hv)

It better not. I'm a cheap-ass and I can't afford that top shelf shit.

Bartender, I'll have a PBR.

16 Communism, he [Havel] said, was “a monstrous, ramshackle, stinking machine” whose worst legacy was not economic failure but a “spoiled moral environment.” There is no equivocation; no attempt at conciliation; no finding common ground. He knew that communism was pure evil, and he never backed down. Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo (NJconservative) at December 18, 2011 10:36 AM (nEUpB) That is, really, at the heart of the man's moral greatness: his clear grasp of the fact that envy is a corrupting evil that cannot be compromised with. Just look at the OWS thugs' latest slogan - something to the effect that We Are Needy, You Have What We Need, Hand it Over or ELSE. They are Pure EVIL - and so is Obama and the Democratic Party for endorsing them.

17

I'm thinking about getting my mom a Kindle for Christmas and I'm wondering if I should make it a second device on my Amazon account.

She still doesn't like to use her credit card online, so that would make buying Kindle books tougher for her to do. She doesn't have an internet connection at home, so doing something like using a one-time credit card number gets more complicated. (They don't even get cell phone service at home, but do about 5 minutes away from home, so I'd get her the 3G version of the Kindle.)

If I had it on my account, she could order whatever she wants on my credit card (!) and we could share books.

Sounds like a good plan, but I wonder if there are any details of which I'm not thinking.

18 Posted by: Vic at December 18, 2011 10:34 AM (YdQQY)

My dad had the same thing (16 years ago), and he still can't drive past the building where he had chemotherapy without feeling queasy! But that is the only residual effect.

And...as usual...my recommendation is to drink more bourbon.

19 And one more thing about Havel: The man spent time in prison being abused as a political dissident at the hands of Communists, as loathsome a prospect as being in the hands of the Gestapo. It makes me sick to my stomach to see a photo of some spoiled upper class American young bitch acting all self-important because NYPD officers are arresting her for being a first class douche and obstructing other people's lives in Lower Manhattan. Does she think that in any freaking way imparts anything of the courage of a Havel to her? What a poseur she is, what a sanctimonious scrunt dilettante immature child.

20 Somewhat on topic- I have a buddy in MA who writes screenplays. He asked if I could find a "fighter pilot" veteran he could ask a few questions. So, do any of the flyboy moron Vets think they could help him out? I assume it'll only entail an e-mail or two.

21 Currently reading The Bluegrass Conspiracy by Sally Denton. It is the true story of a major drug ring that operated out of the Lexington, Kentucky area in the 1970s and 80s. A bit difficult to keep track of the large cast of characters, and the prose is somewhat dry. But fascinating when you see how far it went beyond drug-running, with ties to the Mafia, Colombian drug cartels, Middle Eastern and Libyan terrorists, etc. The tentacles spread out over many parts of the country and the world.

22

Bartender, I'll have a PBR.

Or you could hold up a sign that says "Will buy your book for beer".

23 This week I am back to re-reads. Next book by an author I am following will not be out until March (david Weber).

These guys are too slow!

Posted by: Vic at December 18, 2011 10:14 AM (YdQQY)

Vic, have you given Ben Coes a try? Power Down was his first and Coup d'Etat  is his most recent. Everyone I recommend him to can't put him down.

24

Communism, he said, was “a monstrous, ramshackle, stinking machine” whose worst legacy was not economic failure but a “spoiled moral environment.”

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo (NJconservative) at December 18, 2011 10:36 AM (nEUpB)

And that's what it boils down to. Faith provides a moral compass. Commie bastards believe in central planning.

When you rely on man, you fail because humanity is fallible.

25 And...as usual...my recommendation is to drink more bourbon.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo (NJconservative) at December 18, 2011 10:42 AM (nEUpB)

Maybe will be able to tomorrow. I like a little ice in my glass if doing anything except the Woodford Reserve and can't have that today.

26 Vic, have you given Ben Coes a try? Power Down was his first and Coup d'Etat  is his most recent. Everyone I recommend him to can't put him down.

NO haven't. I'll check the library and see if they have some I can sample.

27

Or you could hold up a sign that says "Will buy your book for beer".

Posted by: Mama AJ at December 18, 2011 10:45 AM (XdlcF)

LOL! Thanks for the laugh, Mama, I needed it!

28 8 Posted by: HH at December 18, 2011 10:25 AM (KB0hv) Maybe, but all the chicks have great racks and put out on the first date. Posted by: Typical disgusting moron at December 18, 2011 10:26 AM (nEUpB) Scientific studies have conclusively shown that moronettes offer on average 20 percent more rack, enough to park a bicycle with! Now if we could only get those first dates

29 Posted by: CoolCzech at December 18, 2011 10:43 AM (niZvt)

Ah yes, the anger of the terminally entitled when they don't get exactly what they want. Here is the latest installment of that series. It's a NYT link, so be warned.

I'll be going to my sister's house for an early Hanukkah celebration. I will be sure to toast to Vaclev Havel -- as you said, one of our true heroes.

30 It makes me sick to my stomach to see a photo of some spoiled upper class American young bitch acting all self-important because NYPD officers are arresting her for being a first class douche and obstructing other people's lives in Lower Manhattan. Does she think that in any freaking way imparts anything of the courage of a Havel to her? What a poseur she is, what a sanctimonious scrunt dilettante immature child.

I'm sure that Solzhenitsyn, Scharansky and their ilk would be the first to recognize her for the moral giant she is.  I mean, she gave up free trade designer coffee for jailhouse joe.  What more can she give? 

31 Back on topic, I'm reading the Library of America volume combining Melville's Moby Dick, Redburn and White Jacket.  Previously, I got "Democracy in America".  For those who haven't gotten a book from this series yet, they are physically wonderful, and dirt cheap for the quality.  Highly recommended.  Best of all, they're available from Amazon. 

32 Posted by: Vic at December 18, 2011 10:47 AM (YdQQY)

It's interesting how just a little bit of water from the melting ice smooths and mellows bourbon (and scotch). But I think it's also the cooling from the ice, because my impression is that adding water doesn't do the same thing. But...I am not sure, so I will have to do some more research. My preliminary analysis is that I will need to have an "n" of at least 10,000 before the study is valid.

33

Bartender, I'll have a PBR.

I ordered one also.

It's on your tab...

34 OK Rush Babe, library says it has both books.

35 Hey Ace, keep banging on the botox bitch from the bay.

36 His Hero, Dewey Andreas, is kind of a no frills Jack Bauer, a former Navy Seal
who is dragged into a terrorist plot to destabilize the US Economy, from an unusual
yet familiar source, and it is moron friendly in other ways,

37 Use Ace's Amazon link and buy any book by Viktor Survov.

You won't be disappointed.

38 Posted by: pep at December 18, 2011 10:53 AM (6TB1Z)

At the risk of sounding like a troglodyte, Moby Dick is a long slog that is best read in the company of others in a classroom setting. I recognize its importance in American literature, but it can be a tedious read.

I am having the opposite experience with Charles Dickens. I am rereading Great Expectations, and it is much, much better than I remember it from high school.

39

I'm looking at my copy of Sylvia A. Earle's Sea Change and thinking of using it as firestarter.

40

Thanks for that quote, CBD.  That's good stuff.

I have added everyone's books to my LibraryThing list and will download the free/really cheap stuff ASAP.  I just got my Kindle a few weeks ago and it's already so loaded with free stuff from Gutenberg and Baen that I hardly know where to start.  Where I did start, oddly enough, was The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux. 

I finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and am putting off the next book a bit as I don't want to get through them too fast.  And last, in the car I am listening to Sex, Love, and Money which is about high-stakes divorce.

41 That book "Stacey's Quest" looks interesting. Is Mr. Steele one of our commenters?

42 @38
CBD-
I've read Moby Dick 5 times now, and it just keeps getting better each time.  I recognize that it isn't for everyone, although I'm a bit surprised that someone who likes Dickens doesn't like Melville.  IMO, they have similar writing styles, both of which I like.  Specifically, the pacing is slower, and there are larger tracts of descriptive prose.  If you're used to modern writing, it can take some adjustment to get used to the slower pace of the 19th century authors.  But when they're good, their writing is unmatched in its beauty.  But you know that.

I've never figured out if my dislike of "literature" when I was younger stemmed from the English teacher's obsession with finding symbolism in everything, or my teenage obsession with the young lady in the adjacent desk.

43 But I think it's also the cooling from the ice, because my impression is that adding water doesn't do the same thing.

Its the chilling it down that mellows the taste, not the water.

44 OT: From the sidebar link on Netanyahu's refusal to put an oped in the NYT:

The unusual public refusal appears to reflect the hardline Israeli government's increasingly prickly relations with much of the outside world.

Yes, that's it.  The NYT = the rest of the outside world.  You're just that important. 

45 His Hero, Dewey Andreas, is kind of a no frills Jack Bauer, a former Navy Seal

Looking at the write-up at B&N it looked like a new version of Vince Flynn who I love (and whose latest book has been delayed due to prostate cancer)

46 I'm in the middle of "Red to Black" by Axel Dryden.
It' touted as an MI-6 British Agent under a pseudonym to reveal Putin's secret plan to rule the world.  The 1st half kind of dragged, but I was trapped on a 4 hour flight and got thru it.  Now it's getting .... interesting.  anybody got any idea if this is, just a gimmick? The big revelation so far is that Clinton rigged the Aluminum market to keep the price up, so Russia would not descend into Chaos due to lack of funds when Yelsin was in charge (and Putin was his #2), and then  get the vast resources of Russia out on the world markets.  Now most of the big money players are Putin's faction of the St. Pettersburg KGB which has ..."The Plan".  So far, not bad. 

47 Posted by: pep at December 18, 2011 11:07 AM (6TB1Z)

I haven't read it in many years (although the last time was as an adult), so I may be shortchanging myself. But I don't recall it being nearly as tongue-in-cheek and humorous as Dickens' works. I do like Melville's other stuff (Billy Budd is wonderful, if flawed, and Bartleby is great too).

I think I'll put it on my Kindle so that I can peck at it one in a while.

48 That's a good one, too, Paladin, it seems like Dryden might have been MI-6, and it's really not crazier than many other notions, he has at least two more books in the series, the last Blind Spy being published here in March.

49 LOL, Ben Coes bio from Amazon:

Ben Coes worked at the White House under President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, serving as a White House-appointed speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of Energy at the height of the Gulf War. Ben ran Mitt Romney's successful run for Governor and was a Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. A graduate of Columbia College, where he won the Bennett Cerf Memorial Prize for Fiction during his senior year, Ben lives in the Boston area with his wife and four children.

Speech writer for RR. Got to be good.

50 Re 17, Mama AJ -- We don't use credit cards either, but the local Food Lion sells Amazon gift cards, so I've been going that route for all my Amazon purchases for the last couple or three years. It might be something to consider, if you can get them locally.

51 Posted by: Vic at December 18, 2011 11:10 AM (YdQQY)

Think back to chemistry. Alcohol is hydrophilic -- so much so that ethanol molecules are attracted to water more than to other ethanols. The water from the melting ice mellows the bourbon.

Try an experiment with bourbon from the refrigerator or freezer compared to bourbon with an ice cube.

52

Amazon gift cards

Ah, yes. I could mail a new one to her whenever she needed them, if she couldn't get them herself. Thanks for that idea.

Still can't think of anything wrong with getting it on my account...she'd see my reading list, but I don't think there's anything too bad on there!

53 Posted by: pep at December 18, 2011 11:11 AM (6TB1Z)

Sulzberger is the epitome of the self-hating Jew. His family rejected Judaism long ago, but they still hate it and everything related to it, especially Israel.

54 I saw the movie version of Shaw's Saint Joan a few months back and it moved me to buy Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. I got about halfway through it and stalled, but ErikW inspires me to move it to the top of the toilet tank, where I'll finish it in short order. Twain considers it his best and favorite book. It's novelized, but the history all seems accurate. Weirdly, Shaw had a lot more fun with Joan than Twain did. But Otto Preminger's movie version of Shaw is a lot less fun than reading the play off the naked page.

This week, I zipped through Teenocracy by Robert Shirley, a 1969 comedy about a rock star whose fanatic followers elect him president of the United States. (Yes, another from that stack of '60s Youth Culture paperbacks I've been mining.) The country is reorganized along Teenocratic lines. Anybody over 30 must face the periodic Teen Test (a nationally televised game of Russian roulette) to serve in the government. Only "the infallible judgment of the gun" can prove that these oldsters still possess the teen spirit needed to lead. A cover blurb likens it to the 1968 movie Wild in the Streets, but I suspect the manuscript had been bouncing around for a few years until the hit movie made it marketable.

The funniest bit in the book is the religion of Embryonic Regression, whose followers curl up to listen to their own heartbeats in tanks of amniotic fluid in a quest to halt or reverse their inevitable aging.

It definitely marks 1968 as the year when the immediacy of youth toppled the wisdom of age in America, and it's been all down hill ever since. All the demands for "relevance," the infantile self-absorption, the naked fascism of the New Politics -- it's the same crap, in the very same words, that Obama, Pelosi, Meggy Mac and the Occupiers are selling today.

55

Try an experiment with bourbon from the refrigerator or freezer compared to bourbon with an ice cube.

Quick somebody write Chemistry For With Morons with a bunch of alcohol and hobo related experiments. And Vic can follow up with Nuclear Energy Experiments with Morons.

56
Let me add my Vaclav Havel Rest in Peace also.

Fighting communism from within, an astonishing life.

57 I would gladly buy your mother a beer, Trebek... but the stout in her mouth already has a strong body and a full head.

58 @38 I tend to agree. Nobody would buy it; it became the "Great American Novel" about 50 years later, only through academic crusading.

You want a couple of really important books from the 19th cent? Try Uncle Tom's Cabin (the little lady who started the big war, said Lincoln) and Ben Hur: A Tale of The Christ, whose author led, like, five lives, knew his pacers, and executed Billy The Kid.

59

Bookworm has a self-published compilation of her posts for only a couple of dollars on Amazon.

Since I don't recall the actual title or the name she published it under it's going to be a tad difficult to order it when I get my e-reader for Christmas.

60 Try an experiment with bourbon from the refrigerator or freezer compared to bourbon with an ice cube.

LOL, haven't done that with bourbon, have done it with vodka, schnapps, and annasette from the freezer.

But we will have to dc this booze stuff or Monty is going to chastise us for messing up his book thread.

61 Posted by: Mama AJ at December 18, 2011 11:32 AM (XdlcF)

This is consumption of bourbon in the interest of science. I am not suggesting that it is pleasurable. Sometimes we have to sacrifice for the good of all.

62 "...Try Uncle Tom's Cabin..."

Posted by: comatus at December 18, 2011 11:40 AM (N0OTq)

Unreadable. Awful.

63 But we will have to dc this booze stuff or Monty is going to chastise us for messing up his book thread.

Posted by: Vic at December 18, 2011 11:50 AM (YdQQY)

Currently reading An encyclopedia of Spirits and Liquors and how to cook with them by Stuart Walton and Norma Milla.

"Ouzo should be served cold in a small, thick bottomed glass either on its own with the equivalent amount of water or with an ice cube or two."

64

More along the line of the Ben Coes books are Michael Walsh's books starrnig Devlin (Hostile Intent, Early Warning, & his newest one is Shock Warning), and Brad Taylor's Pike Logan books (debut novel is One Rough Man & his newest one [Jan '12] is All Necessary Force.) Another author who's seldom on the military/political thriller radar screen is James W. Huston. He's got some interesting and unusual plotlines. Two that I haven't seen books from recently, but who I am always on the lookout for, are Brian Haig and Gus Lee. (Lee's earliest books are semi-autobiographical, based on his experiences at West Point & JAG service. His first book, China Boy, is a marvelous story of his growing up in a Chinese family in an L.A. black ghetto environment.)

65 Flavor mostly comes from vapors emitted by food and drink. Adding ice to bourbon for example reduces the temperature and dilutes the ingredients. These effects combine to reduce the vapor pressure and as a result change the flavor.

66 I've got a great idea! Let's all go to Egypt for Spring Break.
The military has the situation well in hand.
But all the moronettes need to be sure to cut their hair really really short first.

67 I've got a great idea! Let's all go to Egypt for Spring Break. The military has the situation well in hand. But all the moronettes need to be sure to cut their hair really really short first. Posted by: Pecos, Perry in a blaze of Glory at December 18, 2011 12:36 PM (2Gb0y) Yeah, Drudge has a pic of Tut Squad stripping a burka clad gal and stomping on her for wearing a blue bra underneath.

68 I wrote Obama Haiku with AoSHQ in mind. There is even a SCOAMF haiku. Long live Ace of Spades.

69

>>Gribbin's In Search of Schroedinger's Cat is a classic

Once again, I don't think I'm going to get what I want for Christmas: the Hello Schröddy shirt.

70 ARRGHH. Darned Amazon/MAC. The download from gutenberg press wouldn't show up and then amazons automatic update just upgraged the kindle app --and it is no longer compatible with my older O/S on the MAC. This does NOT put me in mindset to buy myself a kindle as a birthday or christmas gift to myself.

71

Posted by: Mama AJ at December 18, 2011 12:46 PM (XdlcF)

Now THAT is one funny shirt!

72 Many thanks to all the Morons who read my books!  Writing is fun but getting emails from people who stayed up until 2am so they could find out how the book ends is even better ;-)

73 For you morons having trouble setting or reaching your goals, like returning enough deposit cans to buy a bottle of Val-U-Rite, I give you:
TimeSavor Coaching!

74 Try this link if the first doesn't work

75

You guys rock, thanks! I am heading home from Afghanistan in a few days and this is a very nice surprise to round out a great week.

76 @62 Oh I didn't mean to suggest that it was a page-turner, just "important." FWIW, Dickens makes me gag. You know who's surprisingly not-as-bad-as-all-that? Bulwer-Lytton, who the bad writing award is named for. Stumblingly long clauses more or less conjoined, sure, but I found him no denser than, say, Trollope, for example. Lots of proto-Victorian religious asides, but then again, I gag on Dickens. Different "religion."

77 He has never confirmed it while I was looking but I believe the guy who writes as Jack Campbell (The Lost Fleet series, among others) comments here occasionally.

78

Monty, thanks for the plug!  The Director's Cut is also available on Kindle, and will be on Nook as soon as I can drag the stinking, gutted hobo carcass (or passed out Bawney Fwank - they both smell the same) in front of my laptop away long enough to figure out how to convert over.

"FWIW, Dickens makes me gag."

Have you tried Sketches by Boz?  It's a collection of essays he wrote early in his career and is as close - I think - to hopping in a time machine to early Victorian London as you're likely to get.  I also recommend Catharine Arnold's The Sexual History of London (great reading for transatlantic AoS morons) and Peter Ackroyd's London Under, which details all the Roman ruins, Saxon graves, lost wells and hidden rooms that turn up every time a new Underground line or office flat is built

79 This is an excellent post. It is very informative. Thank you so much. I'll be a regular viewer.

80

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