1 Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Mark Twain

2 Completed Shogun and have started Noble House.  I am reminded in Noble House of how much James Clavell did not like Americans.  And also of how little he knew about Americans.   Still good books though.

3 Vic, Clavell was fairly much a Sino-asskisser.

4 You could read another book about the Kennedy Assassination, or you could just watch the King of the Hill Episode where Dale finds the appendix to his Warron Comission book (with all the evidence backing the finings) holding up his table leg and suddenly realizes it was right all along.

5 In regards to Oswald and JFK, someone I read (and I can't remember who) gave the Occam's Razor answer to the assassination:

Lee Harvey Oswald, known Communist, killed John F. Kennedy, known anti-Communist.

6

Vincent Bugliosi, one of the prosecutors on the Manson case, wrote an enlightening book called Reclaiming History, where he examined the Warren Report line-by-line and then went scene-by-scene, interviewing everyone who was still alive and willing to talk about what he knew.

Until I read that book I also subscribed to the common notion that there must have been more to the Oswald story. Who wants to believe that a runt loser with a mail-order rifle could take down the Leader of the Free World?

And yet, that's exactly what happened. Truth is stranger than fiction.

I reviewed Bugliosi's book here, leading with my experience working on the set of JFK, when Oliver Stone tied up the west end of downtown Dallas for two weeks one summer building a very well-done film. As part of his creative process, Stone let a cadre of conspiracy buffs roam the set, telling their tales to anyone who would listen. What Stone never seemed to do was test their credibility. Fortunately, that's exactly what Bugliosi did.

7

Jeez, it'd be nice if Ctrl-k worked to insert links, like in most of the Internet.

 

Bugliosi book reviewed here.

8 http://tinyurl.com/7mwujuk

9 > 6 Vincent Bugliosi, one of the prosecutors on the Manson case, wrote an enlightening book called Reclaiming History, where he examined the Warren Report ... Posted by: Michael Rittenhouse Heard it was a good book but I'll NEVER read it since VB went full into Bush Derangement Syndrome (wants to try him for Murder). F*** That Guy.

10 Our intrepid watchdogs of the press more or less looked the other way when the Democrats were playing hard-ball politics,

So this is why I don't hear "What did the President know and when did he know it?".

11 I've always thought that Hoover's place in history is unfairly low

eh - read Amity Shlaes' book, Forgotten Man.  Hoover's place in history may be unfairly low, but it deserves to be low.  He was essentially a big-spending Republican (he provided the blueprint for FDR's WPA after all with the Hoover Dam), a George W. Bush but without the foreign wars and without the "compassionate conservatism" bit.

12 "Vincent Bugliosi, one of the prosecutors on the Manson Case." Sad that Bugliosi went full BDS. Back when I was in high school and probably shouldn't have been reading such things, I read his book about the Manson crimes, which was fascinating (it's called "helter skelter" of course.)

13 Ref Oswald's speed with bolt action. There's a common misconception that he couldn't have handled the mechanism that fast. But the paramaters are set up poorly. Suppose a rifle has a max speed of 1 shot a second. 2 shots are fired over a period of 1 second. Obviously that rifle couldn't do it - must have been another shooter or something. No. Time 0.0 Shoot 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 Shoot. Two shots, 1 second. That's the deal with the Oswald shots - you don't start the clock until the first shot is fired.

14 This week, I read nothing. But my husband is reading Robert Spencer's, Did Muhammad Exist and has been compelled to give me a digest of every chapter. It sounds thought provoking if nothing else. Anyone else read it?

15

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at June 24, 2012 11:52 AM (44/AS)

 

which seems pretty obvious and part of why I suspect people don't *want* to belive it was as simple as "communist kook loser, kills well-known anti-communist"

16

Posted by: elizabethe at June 24, 2012 11:54 AM (T03Ll)

 

What's the author's conclusion? Or your best guess if he hasn't gotten that far in the book.

 

No books here either. It's been Twitter, here or WoW for me if I wasn't running around like crazy IRL.

17 Two shots, 1 second. That's the deal with the Oswald shots - you don't start the clock until the first shot is fired. Posted by: Comrade Arthur at June 24, 2012 11:52 AM (44/AS) I don't know, I thought the T.V. show Bones pretty definitively demonstrated that while it could have been done, it would have been difficult. /sarc off. I tend to come down on the "no conspiracy" side of the question. But I may have been influenced by my father. My father has THE wackiest Kennedy assassination theory ever: let's just say it involves something like 16 shooters.

18 Robert Spencer's, Did Muhammad Exist

One billion camel humpers can't be all wrong!

19 Any of you morons ever read anything by Hugh Howey? I just finished the Wool omnibus series. Any opinions?

Wool has been recommended by a number of morons on previous book threads. Everyone seems to like it. It's on my list.

20 The new book by Latell, suggests that at the very least, Fidel was aware of the Oswald plot, Stone's deranged jeremiad, was the actual result of a KGB disinformation effort, that Mitrokhin and Max Holland, who is busy debunking much of what we thought we knew about Watergate, have uncovered.

21

Posted by: elizabethe at June 24, 2012 11:54 AM (T03Ll)

 

I'd missed the author's name on first reading. If that's who I think it is, it should count under the "Moron authors" list. Speaking of which, has anyone compiled such a list or is the Amazon "friends of the blog" as close as anyone's gotten.

22 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

23 11 I've always thought that Hoover's place in history is unfairly low

eh - read Amity Shlaes' book, Forgotten Man. Hoover's place in history may be unfairly low, but it deserves to be low. He was essentially a big-spending Republican (he provided the blueprint for FDR's WPA after all with the Hoover Dam), a George W. Bush but without the foreign wars and without the "compassionate conservatism" bit.

Posted by: chemjeff at June 24, 2012 11:48 AM (LK3ef)


The guy also signed off on the largest peacetime tax increase in history.  The top income tax rate went to 63%--in the middle of a Depression.  That didn't exactly help things and kinda prevents him from being a conservative model.

24

Fortunately I wasn't aware of Bugliosi's anti-Bush screeds until I'd already read the book. I might have been less inclined to read it. But since I borrowed it from the library I can at least feel assured I didn't give him any of my money.

25 Two shots, 1 second. That's the deal with the Oswald shots - you don't start the clock until the first shot is fired.
Posted by: Comrade Arthur at June 24, 2012 11:52 AM

My take on the Oswald-shot-JFK thing (and I remember Nov. 22, 1963 and followed the who twisting course of the various "investigations" in later years) is that JFK was simply having a Major Bad Luck Day.

You can prove Oswald couldn't have done the shooting himself any number of ways. It would, of course, have been almost impossible for, say, a currently serving Marine sniper to pull it off with that rifle. Impossible for anyone else, too.

But if there was a one-in-1000 chance of making it happen, that pathetic little commie bastard Oswald managed to get the ball in the right slot in the roulette wheel. It was, IMO, nothing but a sickening lucky run of "luck."

26 Posted by: Polliwogette, Teahada hobbit at June 24, 2012 11:58 AM (Qe7jo) The conclusion is "No." The most interesting thing so far, from what I understand, is the suggestion that Islam may have started out as a derivation of a sort of Aryan heresy about Jesus (where Jesus is not actually divine, but merely a human prophet or messenger of God). According to Spencer early archeological references to "Muhammad" or a "messenger" of God were sometimes accompanied with the symbol of the cross that clearly referred to Jesus. Later some writers may have taken stories of some kind of Arab military or tribal leader (or more than one) and mashed them together with this Aryan Jesus heresy and came up with the writings in the Koran. Like I said, though provoking if nothing else. ugh, too long, sorry.

27 Was that Amazon review by OregonMuse?

28 @26 The distance from the sniper's nest to the limo at the time of the fatal head shot was 88 yards. The limo had almost come to a complete stop as the driver had turned to look behind to see what was going on after the 2nd bullet had hit Kennedy & Connally. Oswald had consistently hit targets at 200 yards during his time in the Marine Corps. Not impossible at all.

29 3 Yeah,he seemed to dislike Westerners in general.

30 29 Exactly.Easiest shot too,target going away directly at almost no speed.

31 I have read Shogun and Tai-Pan and they are good books.

32
To understand Watergate you need to read Will, by G. Gordon Liddy, followed by Silent Coup, by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin.

It was all about a call girl ring operating out of the DNC.

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy In Media has a good article about it:

http://tinyurl.com/7yjqjqs

33 Well Bugliosi, did go insane, for a time, however he did debunk some of the crazier notions, like the French Corsican plot, foisted by Panorama, and one of Stone's co writers, by pointing out the lead shooter, Lucien Sarti, was in prison at the time.

34

Posted by: elizabethe at June 24, 2012 12:08 PM (T03Ll)

 

Not too long, I appreciate the reply. That conclusion would be *very* unpopular in islamic circles where Mo is venerated possibly beyond the level of allah.

35 Ho Chi Zen thought 'Oswald' was a German name from the Crusades.

36 Continuing to make progress in "The Great Upheaval"; now to the point where they're talking about the disagreements in Washington's cabinet between Jefferson, Madison & Hamilton.  Anybody thinking the Founding Fathers were above acting petty and vindictive are in for a quick attitude change; they'd trash each other anonymously under what was the MFM at the time (although I'd have to think the people doing the writing were smarter than Special Ed or Trandrea).  Also interesting is how Washington was worried about the attitudes toward the French Revolution ending up here (Jefferson was an ardent supporter who seemed to have no qualms about the executions) and Genet came here to raise a fucking army to attack the Spanish in New Orleans.  Fascinating stuff; too bad it doesn't get taught amidst all the Rigoberto Menchu horseshit in the extended daycare centers.

37 I'm firmly in the "Oswald shot him" camp, but Bill James, the baseball writer, who wrote a book on crime, talks about an author who has posited the theory that the fatal head shot came from a secret service agent in the car behind the limo. It was an accident, of course. I don't buy it, but apparently the book is written well enough, with enough documentation to suggest it's not impossible.

38 Fuck, I forgot the ampersands don't work on this wonderful software.  That should be "Jefferson, Madison AND Hamilton".

39 ';;;YHMN
 jkkkkkkkkk

40 Although it was discussed here a week or so ago, about the slant in travel guides, I think the guides are a good topic in itself. They are a wealth of information. When I travel, I usually like to buy at least 3 different guides for the country of destination: usually Fodor's, Frommer's, and Lonely Planet. I cross reference to see patterns and ratings overlap, which helps me in deciding on which hotels and restaurants, as well as sights to see. Sometimes, depending on where you are going, those publications either do not have an up to date one, or none at all, so you have to go with others. If it is a major city, such as London, it's nice to have a guide just for London, alone. They give you better detailed, localized maps and info. Or, for places, such as Machu Picchu - specific guides can be invaluable. Also, I try to find that "diamond in the rough" book. One that shows off-beaten paths. More local hangouts, etc. Fun stuff. If I do not carry all the books along with me, I tear out the language translation dictionaries/glossaries in the backs, as well as all the maps. (I haven't tried a translation device.) Fodor's and Frommer's typically do not give many photos, but Lonely Planet is all about photographs. I still haven't been happy with online sites for travel. Especially if it is for locations such as China or South America. (But, I haven't paid for any subscriptions, either.) Guide books are definitely written for specific audiences, and Fodor's and Frommer's screams American traveler.

41 "The Coming Caesars" by Amaury de Riencourt.  ---Written by a French journalist in the 1950s, he compares America to Rome ( and Britain to Greece )


Predicts a lot of stuff which happened since.  Prescient; very prescient

42 Anybody have a good recommendation for sci-fi space opera? I'm casting my net around, but the most-recommended books (A Fire on the Deep) all seem to have a pretty pathetic scale or some other silly problem.

43 In light of the oncoming Egyptian fustercluck, Amanda Foreman's Georgianna, the source material, for the Dutchess, shows how English liberals like Charles Fox, were equally naive, about the French Revolution, even as the bodies piled up,
whereas Burke was sadly precient,

44 Was that Amazon review by OregonMuse?

Heh. No, not hardly. Actually, I haven't done an Amazon review in about 8 years.

45

For those whose knowledge of Julius Caesar is restricted to a high school English course, let me advise Philip Freeman's "Julius Caesar" or Adrian Goldswrothy's "Caesar--Life of a Colossus."  Goldsworthy's book is more involved but Freeman has the ability to write like a good novelist and present an exciting tale of corruption, back stabbing, heroism and all the things that make up reality.

Regardless, Caesar's life was an incredible one and reads like a great adventure story.  He really did bestride the narrow world.

46

33

 

From what I understand, it is common knowledge in the Washington beltway that the premise of the book "Silent Coup" is true.  John Dean is a pernicious human being.

 

47 BTW -- Ida Maxwell (“Maxie”) Wells tried to sue Liddy over his version of Watergate. She lost.

When Liddy took the stand and was asked to identify himself he said "George Gordon Liddy, that's Lima India Delta Delta Yankee!" Everyone within earshot stopped dead to listen to him.

Liddy himself admits he didn't really know what Watergate was all about until reading Silent Coup.

48

travel, have you ever used Rick Steves' guides? He finds out stuff like, buy your tickets to the museum just before it closes, when there's no line, then show up when the museum opens -- so everyone's lined up buying tickets and you just walk right in.

 

Little tips like that help you make the most of your limited vacation time.

49 @44, oh how fun that you'd recommend it from a political standpoint! It's a wonderful book about a fascinating woman and one of my favorite time periods in English history. (She was Diana Spencer's gggreat something...aunt, grandmother?)

Very well researched and truly just a good all round book for your average Anglophile, and maybe even the average Moron (her marriage was a menage a trois)

50

"Sad that Bugliosi went full BDS. Back when I was in high school and probably shouldn't have been reading such things, I read his book about the Manson crimes, which was fascinating (it's called "helter skelter" of course.)"

 

I used to be a big fan of his, until he turned ultra-partisan wackjob.  The book "Helter Skelter" really is a fascinating and deeply disturbing book.  One thing is worth mentioning though.  If you look into that case and are curious about viewing the crime scene photos on the internet....don't.  Once you see them, you can't unsee them.  They are horrifying.

51

Re: Kennedy.  Liberals have never really gotten over the fact that one of their idols was actually killed by a communist.  After condemming the FBI, the Dallas police, and those ubiquitious "forces of hate and fear" they still have yet to come to grips with the idea that it was the extreme left that did him in.

 

See Oliver Stone's move for the utmost in stupidity.

52 B. Justin Shier "Zero sight"

Listed as YA. It isn't. Well imagined world, cross between Harry Potter and Dresden.

53

52

I was in downtown Dallas a few months back and decided to tour the Old Red Courthouse, which is now a museum of Dallas history.  I went into a room there that repeatedly showed a documentary narrated by someone from PBS.  It of course spoke about the assassination.  It didn't mention Oswald was a communist though.  What it said basically said was that the assassination opened the city's eyes to a dangerous right wing element.  I was half-way through the exhibit at that point, but I walked straight out the door in disgust.  My tax dollars paid for that crap.

 

54 Old travel guides are a lot of fun and very useful for writing research -- I came across a collection of old Baedeker guides from the late 1800's, and they had a wealth of information about what people actually did then ("don't forget to get a token from the train station for your hansom cab in Berlin, you can't hail them yourself like you do back home in London" etc.)

Speaking of writing, I saw some comments earlier from Morons interested in doing the whole ebook self-publishing thing. (I encourage! It's easy!) Dunno if it rates a book *writing* post, but if people have questions send me email (firstname.lastname at gmail dot com)

55 More in the John Rain series, by Barry Eisler, ' Killing Rain,' 'Gods & Kings' by Lynn Austin. 'David' by Cliff Graham.

56 I drove by that old building one afternoon when I was in Dallas visiting with wifey's relatives. Didn't have time to stop then and it looked like it was still a book depository then.

57

As announced last night, I now have a copy of "America, You Sexy Bitch," which has to be the stupidest title ever (topic for future book thread?) and, having perused the cover, I actually opened the book and looked around at random.  So far, I have concluded that Michael Ian Black, of whom I know next to nothing, is at least half-way literate and mildly amusing.  Meghan McCain, on the other hand, is incoherent, unintelligent, petulant, whiny, spoiled, and otherwise a blot on the landscape.  I can hardly wait to really start reading it with a supply of tape flags close by to mark the more egregious passages.

 

Still, still, still with "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."  Hitler has coopted the protestant churches, turned peasant-farmers back into serfs, taken charge of everyones children with his various youth programs in spite of protests from parents who object to their daughters being sent off to camps for the summer or a year and coming back pregnant - who cares, that's how you get more Aryan babies - and is busy mucking up the economy.  And I think it's still only 1934!

 

I have occasionally been stopping Hitler-lesen to spend a little time with a Kindle edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales that I picked up for about 99 cents.  I have a lovely 2-volume print edition that I thought gave me the unexpurgated tales, but this Kindle version - damn, but some bunch who made these things up were seriously disturbed.

58 @43 Anybody have a good recommendation for sci-fi space opera? I'm casting my net around, but the most-recommended books (A Fire on the Deep) all seem to have a pretty pathetic scale or some other silly problem. Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at June 24, 2012 12:24 PM (csi6Y) "Death's Head" David Gunn (pure S.O. fun) "Hyperion" Dan Simmons "Celestial Matters" Richard Garfinkle (if ancient Greek since were real) "The Mirrored Heavens" David J Williams ( great trilogy, no aliens though, first sixty pages will blow your mind) Blindsight Peter Watts (weird but....)

59 Miss Sabrina  )  will we ever get hard copies of your books???

60 Oh, the real Grimm's are deliciously sick.

61 Once you see them, you can't unsee them. They are horrifying. Posted by: Reggie1971 at June 24, 2012 12:33 PM (yTUwf) This is basically my motto in life. My imagination is way too vivid as it is, I do not need pictures. I can't even watch semi-decent special effects on a TV show like House. I know it's not real, I just don't want it in my mind.

62 #43

Have you read any of Peter Hamilton's huge sprawling epics?

63 Georgianna is quite a character, I don't think Kiera really did her justice, and it really does serve as both a character study, and a historical account of the mid to late 18th Century,  meticulously footnoted, and debunks some of the opprobium
she had received for being a little 'forward' for the age.

64 English liberals like Charles Fox, were equally naive, about the French Revolution, even as the bodies piled up, whereas Burke was sadly precient, Posted by: archie goodwin at June 24, 2012 12:25 PM (d7Svw) Interesting. I've done some research in this time period. There were plenty of pro-Revolution English and American's who seemed perfectly willing to accept the body count in the name of the progress of democracy (T. Jefferson and Erasmus Darwin come to mind).

65 Outside of a dog, cheeseburger is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, kidney goes great with fava beans. - Barak Obama

66 Yoshi,

The 'Lost Fleet' books by Jack Campbell are good sci-fi space opera. Not going to be as deep as Vinge, but good brain candy.

I also like the Alex Benedict books by Jack McDevitt. I think 'Talent for War' was the first. Not really space opera, but a good  sci-fi mystery series set in a plausible future world.

I get into the Liaden Universe novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller every now and then, but the timelines and characters have become so intertwined that I have trouble keeping them straight. The Theo Waitley story arc was very good, however.

67 Liberals have never really gotten over the fact that one of their idols was actually killed by a communist. After condemming the FBI, the Dallas police, and those ubiquitious "forces of hate and fear" they still have yet to come to grips with the idea that it was the extreme left that did him in.

See Oliver Stone's move for the utmost in stupidity.

Posted by: Libra at June 24, 2012 12:34 PM (kd8U

And RFK was killed by a fucking pali scum; another favorite victim.

68 Eisler, who apparently was former CIA, had a good run for a while, but about half way through the series, he's gone completely nutroots,

69 @60: Hi Naughty Tammy! Are you behaving yourself in the blog today?

70 I am a Georgian/Regency fangirl overall, and never get tired of reading about the women of those eras. I enjoyed the bio of Jane Digby, as well, though it's probably not your cuppa!

71 "Let's not BICKER and ARGUE about 'hoo killed 'hoo!"

72 Cool Czech....sort of.  I did have to go and mention Georgiana Spencer's marriage being a menage a' trois, but have been good otherwise. 

73 So,what sites do you think he checks out? Most evenings Obama dines upstairs with his family in the White House private apartment. Then he usually works alone and often scans the internet for news (another first for an American president). He rarely picks up the phone to chat with advisers or allies.

74

Herbert Hoover, like his pal Joseph Kennedy Sr.,was a strong isolationist, with a bit of anti-semite stirred in.

From the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the growing Japanese "War" party  (within the Army in particular and elsewhere in civilian life) was agitating for conquest and was definitely anti-West and anti-American in particular.

 

Hirohito in particular was involved in the rising Japanese Nationalism that led to their invasion of China, and finally the beginning of WWII in the Pacific.  He was not some innocent figurehead.

There was no "peace party" of any significance within Japanese politics in the 1930's.  Yes, there were Japanese that would be opposed to their invasion of China, but they were in a small minority.

 

Calvin Coolidge  did not like Hoover, and derisively called him "Wonder Boy" behind his back.  Calvin Coolidge could actually be considered to be the first real "Libertarian",  although modern libertarians would dismiss him because of his religious beliefs.

 

In short, Hoover, though in many ways a brilliant and energetic man, was totally unsuited to hold elective office (especially the Presidency)  because of his nascent authoritarian bent.  Good for running a large corporation, bad for heading up a Constitutional Republic.  His isolationism was typical of a faction in American politics in the 20's and 30's,  which had pretty much disappeared in the 40's and 50's.

75 I am reading "The Wrecking Crew", about the people who really played on the hits of the '60s and early '70s who weren't in the bands you thought you were buying when you bought the records. Pretty interesting.

76 73 Cool Czech....sort of. I did have to go and mention Georgiana Spencer's marriage being a menage a' trois, but have been good otherwise. Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at June 24, 2012 01:03 PM (3inkD) A menage a' twat? WOW.

77 #76

The secret reason why the live versions are often so off. Not because it wasn't in the studio but because it wasn't players of the same caliber.

78 75 The Japanese were shocked that we allowed Hirohito to remain in power.I've read that they took it as tacit admission that Japan committed no war crimes it needed to apologize for(they largely have not,unlike Germany,nor paid settlements).

79 78 Yep,especially in pop.

80 navybrat, to this day, most country singers do not record with the band they tour with. It's been that way forever. My dad was a studio musician in Nashville back before I was born and nothing has really changed much.


That's one thing I DO still admire the Dixie Chicks for. They insisted on playing their own instruments in studio and they really had to fight to be able to. (It was a sexist thing, it's just not the norm, still.)

81 True, CJ, the closest thing to a moderate in Japanese politics, outside the Control faction, was Yamamoto, who was deputy Defense Minister for a time, after the Inukai assasination, it was just not safe to oppose the Shinto nationalists, Ian Toll's
latest gives the right tenor of the times.

82 Liked all of Clavell's books, particularly Shogun and Taipan  Never read the one that takes place in Iran though.

Just finished a Stalin biography.   http://scoamf.us/wt  The translation from Russian is a little awkward at times but the author does ponder a few interesting questions. Was he an agent of the Tsar's Okrhana?  Did he kill his wife?  Was he secretly planning to invade Germany before Hitler beat him to the punch?  Was he murdered?

Also just re-read Frederick Forsyth's The Fist of God.  His best novel IMO, takes place during the first Gulf War and Forsyth does a great job interweaving historical fact including Gerald Bull's supergun.

Starting for the second time Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples.  Got it for XMas 2010 and read it right away but there was so much in it I thought I'd give it another go to see what more I could get out of it.

83 I guess that's why I like jazz. Less phoney.

84 hey beancounter!

Say hello to a fellow beancounter, CC.

85 85 CC counts boobs.

86 LOL, steevy!

87 It's the fastest way to learn to count to two, steevy.

88 Hi CC!

@86, I like him already.

89 Hi beancounter. Welcome to the 7th Circle of Moron HQ!

90 What's the proper asset account for boobies, though?

91

I keep reading that more and more defenders of BHO are relying on the term "witch hunt". Democrats have had a long romance with the term.  It's their favorite magic power phrase. It doesn't really mean anything, but it resonates with people too lazy to do their own homework.

 

 

92 "Witch scrunt?" You mean Pelosi?

93 Interesting. I've done some research in this time period. There were plenty of pro-Revolution English and American's who seemed perfectly willing to accept the body count in the name of the progress of democracy (T. Jefferson and Erasmus Darwin come to mind).

Posted by: elizabethe at June 24, 2012 12:57 PM (T03Ll)

I have read three biographies of Thomas Jefferson, including one written by a grand daughter, as well as numerous histories related to this period. I never got the impression that Jefferson was in agreement with the reign of terror.  Indeed, I got the opposite impression.

94 That being said, he was in agreement with overthrow of the royals.

95

I TOLD YOU SO:

3 days ago Gallup got everyone excited with having Obama at 43% approval. I said, “Do not trust this – with a few days he will be back over 50% – Gallup is highly unstable”.

Today, Obama is FRICKIN +5 ON GALLUP BACK TO 51. That is an 8 point surge in 3 days on a 7 day moving average poll. In other wprds, COMPLETELY INSANE!

What possible reason could there be for Obama to go from 43 to 51% on Gallup in 3 days? There simply is none. Gallup is not a trusted source.

96 Probably read 3.or more Barry Eisler, Rain series. I think his lefty politics are on display in most of them. Does he go berserk somewhere down the line? Or does he stay mildly annoying.

97 I think Jefferson was originally in favor of some of the "republican" qualities of the French Revolution, but I doubt he was in favor of "the Terror".

98 "Witch scrunt?"

Hey, what about me?

99 Just throwing this out there: http://tinyurl.com/6wzdp4s Because I really do care!

100 Meanwhile, Rasmussen sees no bump for Obama at all in the last 3 days.  So Gallup has Obama +8 and Rasmussen has him flat.

Now watch, Gallup will drop Obama back to around 47% early this week.  There is no way on earth a 7 day moving average poll should track in this manner.  To achieve a 5 point one day bounce, Obama must have polled abut 57% approval rating on Saturday - highly unlikely.

101 Liked all of Clavell's books, particularly Shogun and Taipan Never read the one that takes place in Iran though.


I have, and I hope to dear God that he stretched things in it because it illustrated what an evil and bumbling foreign policy cam accomplish. Th description of what went down in that book makes you want to puke.

I have read all of Clavell's books and the only one I didn't like was his first, King Rat.  Ironically, that was pretty much an autobiography.

102 So,what sites do you think he checks out?

I don't imagine AOSHQ is one of Barky's regular stops, even if it is a small step from dogs to hobos.

103 @101: Dude, I'mscared!

104

Just throwing this out there:

 

You couldn't throw that.

105

Because I cannot resist good stupidity, I reserved this at the library this morning:  Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt   http://tinyurl.com/7adaa93

 

It's written by someone with The Nation Foundation, i.e., a commie, and the author got a lovely sweet interview with a columnist in this morning's fishwrap (if I actually paid for it).  Apparently, it is entire the fault of "corporate exploitation" that Camden, New Jersey is the shithole that it is, and Occupy Whatever will make everything better.

 

The library only ordered 4 copies of this (compared to 10 of Meggie's pile of crap) so it will be a while before I get it, but it should be interestingly delusional.

106 Or there's another explanation for JFK's assassination:

LBJ was going to be thrown off the ticket. No one liked him in the VP's seat. He was also being investigated by Bobby Kennedy for mob ties and other issues. LBJ didn't like this, one bit, and being the crooked idiot that he is, he worked with others and got Oswald to do the deed (with someone else in the knoll take care of Kennedy, just in case Oswald missed his target.)

Basically, the third explanation is that LBJ was involved it up to his ears, and that he was the second most evil president to come out of America (With Barack Obama being #1)

107 105 Just throwing this out there: You couldn't throw that. Posted by: garrett at June 24, 2012 01:34 PM (p86/h) Perhaps not. But I'd bang the two on the left like Ricky Ricardo playing congo drums with two lbs of bath salts stuck up his rectum.

108 Off allah sock

109 http://preview.tinyurl.com/7dz2tb


The author of this Scribd book, Anson Chi, was just accused of blowing up a pipeline in Plano, TX.

I only read about ten pages, but just his "Thanks To" page along with his bio show how the mindset of anarchists can be "wrapped around" to muddy the definition between left and right.


From the Ft. Worth news:

Chi has been railing for years online against what he sees as governmental oppression. His Facebook page includes postings in which he criticizes the Federal Reserve, calling it a private bank.

"What does this mean? It means your life is under control by greedy private bankers, especially since they print YOUR money based on nothing but thin air! Slavery never ended," he wrote.

He included among his interests "Truthmongering" and "Guns -- the bigger, the better!"

In a video posted on YouTube in 2007, Chi criticizes the country's tax system, asking to be shown a law that requires Americans to pay an income tax.

"So until I see that law, this is what I am going to do," Chi said as he ripped up a 1040 tax form.

"I will not file, nor will I pay a single penny in income tax until I see the law. So let's all stand together and fight the inequities of our government, as well as their corruption and exploitation of our rights and civil liberties."

110 I have read all of Clavell's books and the only one I didn't like was his first, King Rat. 

Now that you mention it King Rat was a disappointment.  I found the details of prison life interesting but the plot never grabbed me and pulled me along. 

111 38 I'm firmly in the "Oswald shot him" camp, but Bill James, the baseball writer, who wrote a book on crime, talks about an author who has posited the theory that the fatal head shot came from a secret service agent in the car behind the limo. It was an accident, of course.

--------

Mortal Error by Bonar Menninger. http://tinyurl.com/872twnp

Lots of fun. Unfortunately, I loaned my copy to a friend who never returned it.

112 Like Buchanan's thinly veiled pro-Nazi historical interpretation, the idea that we could have sat back and let Germany and Russia duke it out is simply absurd. No only would Germany have eventually just taken England, but without a second front, they would have steamrolled Russia, and controlled two continents.

113

In the run-up to Pearl Harbor, the Army and the Navy controlled Japan.  Their expansionist policies precipitated WWII.  The idea that FDR was in any way responsible for their aggression is ludicrous. 

The best book I've read on Pearl Harbor is Gordon Prange's At Dawn We Slept.

114 111 I have read all of Clavell's books and the only one I didn't like was his first, King Rat.

Now that you mention it King Rat was a disappointment. I found the details of prison life interesting but the plot never grabbed me and pulled me along.

Agreed. Here's my take on what Clavell I've read:

Shogun - one of his best, loved it
Tai Pan - one of his best, loved it
Noble House - almost one of his best, loved it
King Rat - well done, glad I read it, but won't read it again; it moved too slowly, and to some extent the point is the twist at the end, so you can only experience that once.
Gai Jin - never been able to get into this one. A follow-on of sorts to Noble House, but not nearly so compelling, and the characters seemed much less memorable.
Whirlwind - I couldn't make it too far with this one, because I found the culture depicted to be too revolting. No idea if it was an accurate portrayal.

115 Posted by: Splunge at June 24, 2012 01:57 PM (2IW5Q)


I am in almost total agreement, though I think I liked King Rat less than you.

116 LBJ was plenty evil but he was in the money corruption camp, not the murderous conspiracy one. He was greedy and grubby and easy to purchase, but he wouldn't kill the president.

117 "That's one thing I DO still admire the Dixie Chicks for. They insisted on playing their own instruments in studio and they really had to fight to be able to."
I'm sure that's how the Dixie Chicks tell it but I'm extremely skeptical.

118

@43

Anybody have a good recommendation for sci-fi space opera? I'm casting my net around, but the most-recommended books (A Fire on the Deep) all seem to have a pretty pathetic scale or some other silly problem.

Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at June 24, 2012 12:24 PM (csi6Y)

 

Yoshi, Try Baen<dot>com

Baen Books have a lot of free e-books.  for space opera, start with On Basilisk Station by David Weber; or With the Lightnings by David Drake; March Upcountry by Weber and John Ringo.

 

Or just look around, there are lots of other choices.  I usually end up buying one or two (out of 5- of their new releases every month.

 

Jim Baen, the publisher was conservative, and attracted a lot of writers with similar points of view.  Their viewpoints are similar to what I see here at the AOS. 

119 Re 100, CC, when, oh, when, oh, when will Michelle learn that bows at the waistline are not her friend.  Nothing at the waistline is her friend.  The only way to camoflage that rump is a single column of color in a soft but not clingy fabric with a matching jacket over.

120 I highly recommend the "boys books" of G.A.Henty. Historical fiction of whatever period you wish to know a bit about. Same plot in every book and free on Kindle.

121 No, Christopher, I believe it. I heard it at the time from people who would know. The two cousins are very good musicians. Maybe not as perfect as the studio musicians, but more than good enough to record on their own albums. And Natalie Mains daddy is a helluva studio player himself.

122 All y'all War of Northern Aggression buffs might enjoy Missouri's War. Basically just a collection of documents, and as such rather dry, but I enjoyed it. It seemed very personal to me and made me realize all over again what made people do  what they did and choose the wide they chose.

123 "FDR put a lot of pressure on Chamberlain to guarantee Polish independence when the UK and France had no viable military means to make it stick." Based upon what I've read, Hoover is wrong when he claims FDR pressured Chamberlain on Polish independence or any other matter. FDR had no leverage or significant relationship with Chamberlain. Chamberlain, in fact, detested Americans in general and FDR in particular, and it is highly doubtful FDR's opinions on any matter held much weight. Much of Churchill's early work when he took Chamberlain's job was healing the rift in British-American relations: FDR never forgot or forgave a slight, and Chamberlain had slighted him more than once. Hoover was also wrong when he claimed FDR was somehow indirectly responsible for the ascension of the militarists in Japan to power. It's true FDR wanted to apply pressure on Imperial Japan using the non-military means at his disposal, such as refusing to supply the Japanese with American oil and steel, but those means were not intended as a provocation to war. Roosevelt (and pretty much everyone else) always viewed Germany as the greater and more immediate threat. Anyway, what Hoover is essentially doing is blaming FDR for starting WWII. Besides, the US military was 17th largest in the world, just below Sweden, when war broke out. We weren't prepared for war with anyone. Thus, Hoover's claim, however indirect, is either malicious or idiotic. I vote malicious. As a former President, Hoover was nearly Jimmy Carter-like in his bitterness and seethed with resentment against FDR. Naturally he would want to do all he could to challenge the perception--now seemingly fixed in stone--that he was a do-nothing dunce in the face of national calamity. It's fine to attempt to rehabilitate Hoover, a good man and great American in many respects, but he isn't simply the victim of bad press and biased historians. Although a brilliant administrator with a keen analytical mind, he was a mediocre president, at best.

124 Given that girls have been playing their own instruments and being in bands since the 70s without having a studio replace them for a recording I just don't buy that the Dixie Chicks had to fight to do what hundreds of previous bands did. Maybe I'm just out of touch with the phallocracy of the notoriously conservative music industry.

125 60 Miss Tammy ;-) Hardcopies of the books are being thought of, definitely. In my copious spare time ... Right now I'm trying to finish yet another SF book, under threats from my critique group AND my mother.  (My own mother!) At least nobody has mentioned broken legs. Yet.

126

#43 - Space opera? Did you say SPACE OPERA? Oh, yeah. My favorite secret vice. Try these -----

 

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series: Start with 'Shards of Honor' and 'Barrayar' (can be read as one volume in 'Cordelia's Honor') go on to 'Warriors Apprentice' and 'The Vor Game'. Then 'Borders of Infinity' and from there enjoy the ride through the rest. The last one or two books in the series left me flat with strained plot lines but the dialogue and characters keep 'em alive.

 

David Drake: The whole complete and entire 'Hammer's Slammers' books are glorious reads. His 'RCN series' is spotty and inconsistent - even within the individual books - and even though they don't reach the level of the Slammers stories they are worth a read to a Space Opera addict (but maybe not a reread).

 

 And, oh by the way ... if you haven't read the 'old' stuff and like the Slammers sci fi mercenary things you need to go find Pournelle's 'CoDominium' books and Faulkenberg's Legion. Pournelle also has some of the really good 'stand alone' old classic hard sci-fi stuff. Highly recommended are 'The Mote in God's Eye', 'The Legacy of Heorot', 'Footfall', and 'Lucifer's Hammer'. (The follow-up books to Mote and Heorot aren't worth the price - don't buy but borrow).

 

David Weber: The 'Honor Harrington' series started strong and stayed good to great through the first 5 or 6 books then became preachy, long-winded, and repetitive. The last 3 or 4 could be much better if edited to about 1/3 to 1/2 their size. That doesn't mean they aren't worth reading - I've learned to skip large swaths of talk-talk-talk to get back to the story line.

 

John Ringo: Ringo is a fun read with a quirky sense of humor but his story lines are often strained and leave me unwilling to 'suspend my disbelief'. That said his 4 volume 'Empire of Man' series was well worth the read: "The March Upcountry", "March to the Sea", "March to the Stars", and "We Few" are fun reads even if the last one is a weakish ending to the series.

 

I realize almost all these are sci-fi military thingees but each of these writers brings something extra to these books and do what good sci-fi does better then any other genre - they challenge your preconceptions and make you pause a moment and consider alternatives to your firm beliefs and world-view.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

127 Yeah, hitting middle age and the fact that both my parents were at least, most of a decade away from joining sperm and , so thate I could become a potential mote in God's eye, I can't begin to tell you how much the Kennedy assasination bores the fuckin' shit out of me. Always has. But even moresoe, after September 11th. Sorry. Maybe I am too young to appreciate the full and rich and shitty pageantry of the late 60's but honestly, I could give a fuck. I'm gonna go with "9/11" for, $4,000, "When did shit get real?" Alex.

128 yeah it was the cover up that sealed that one

129 A friend of mine had a whole line of blather about a 25th Amendment or lack thereof, basis for the assassination being a conspiracy because there was no provision for removing a President from his duties for medical reasons if he would not voluntarily step down.

JFK had a lot of health issues plaguing him and is unlikely to have been able to sustain competence through a second term between pain and the drugs being used to relieve it. So, the idea was that it was a mercy killing to make a martyr of the President and almost guarantee the following election for Johnson and free reign to continue policies that could be claimed as JFK's.

130 Afternoon, y'all. My father owned first editions of both of Lasky's books. I read them both years ago. They are excellent.

131 My favorite theory of the Kennedy assassination is that Oswald was actually trying to kill John Connally, which is why he fired so many shots.

132 Bugliosi's book lays to rest forever any notion of conspiracy.  He bulldozes any and all conspiracies.  I defy any fair thinking person to read it and come out the other end believing anything other than it was Oswald, alone.

Bugliosi shows conclusively that not only could Oswald have made the shot, it was not a particularly difficult one.  All you have to do is ignore the conspiracy theorists.

First, start the clock running with the first shot. Then, accept that the first shot likely missed.  That gives Oswald about eight seconds to take two zero deflection shots on a target that was slowly moving away from him downhill.  That means Oswald had to factor no lead. It was an easy shot for Oswald, who shot sharpshooter in the Marine Corps when it mattered for him.

133 My father owned first editions of both of Lasky's books. I read them both years ago. They are excellent.

Posted by: rockmom at June 24, 2012 04:55 PM (YPgCz)

You must be my long-lost imaginary sister that I wanted instead of my dimwit brother.

134

Dang it. I keep meaning to do a review of Stephen Kings' book, but I just keep getting up too late on Sundays to do it.

 

Maybe next week...

135 135 Dang it. I keep meaning to do a review of Stephen Kings' book, but I just keep getting up too late on Sundays to do it.
Which book??  I think he's written a few.  The one about stopping the JFK assassination?  I thought it was pretty good...mostly.  He doesn't seem to be able to end his books in a reasonable manner anymore but up until then they're OK.
Under the Dome is an example of his crappy endings.  Some alien kid using a town like most small kids would use an ant farm....yech.  What a cop out.  Tired of writing the story?  Publisher saying time is up?  POOF--aliens

136

Posted by: Picasa Tucasa at June 24, 2012 01:37 PM (KRxG0)

 

I read recently that Jackie believed  LBJ was involved in JFK's assassination.

137

Posted by: myYbj at June 24, 2012 05:48 PM (myYbj)

 

The JFK book. I have some real problems with it, but I just want to hold off and make it one (probably too long) review.

138 Case Closed, cited in the post, is excellent.  What I found the best argument in it was the way in which Oswald got the job at the book depository.  It was basically a deal where his wife knew someone who had a brother, who knew someone, etc. who got Oswald the job.  It was purely fortuitous for his scheme that he worked there.  There was no grand puppetmaster who got him the job to make him a patsy, or whatever the particular conspiracy theory requires.

Oh, and there's really no doubt he took shots at Kennedy, even if you believe there were other shooters.  He was picked up for his car pool that day with a long package that he told his coworkers were "curtain rods."  Just these facts taken together make a pretty good case for Oswald acting alone.

139

Posted by: Bob at June 24, 2012 06:42 PM (s/Ukz)

 

What is also forgotten, is that there was someone on the floor right below him, who heard the rifle firing and the shells hitting the floor.

140 Thanks HH, forgot about that, as well as witnesses on the ground who saw him shooting from the window.  You never hear about them, only witnesses who claim they saw someone on the grassy knoll, or shooting from some other building.

141 The JFK book. I have some real problems with it, but I just want to hold off and make it one (probably too long) review. Posted by: HH

I'll be looking forward to it.  I read it when it came out and then promptly gave the book away (too many books, not enough room).  When you mentioned a SK book I had nearly forgotten that one until I started to post...they memory is the second thing to go, maybe that's true.

142

And just to pile on. Remember, he also killed a police officer who stopped him on the street, then headed into a movie theater. When the police came into the theater to arrest him, he pulled the gun on them.

 

Guilty as Sundusky...

143 143 Yeah, but the conspiracy theorists say Tippet's killer was Oswald's "double" and the bullet chain of custody was tampered with to tie it to Oswald's gun. (See "JFK"--and yes this is how f***ing absurd these theories have to get to ignore reality)

144

One thing I should add. For an number of years, I did in fact believe that Oswald did not act alone. But as time went by, and I saw more and more facts about the case, the only reasonable conclusion was that he, and he alone, was the only shooter.

 

So I guess I'm an ex-conspiracy theorist. Or, should I say, a grown-up,

145 I read "Case Closed" some number of years ago when it first came out.  Even though I am old enough to remember the assassination when it happened and thought the Warren Commission presented a pretty good case for what happened (how many people know the WC took testimony from men working on the 5th floor of the Book Depository who heard cartridge cases hitting the floor or that one guy looking out the window on floor 5 directly underneath the assassin's window on the 6th was getting hit with cement chips dislodged by the rifle firing out the window above him?) over the years I started to think that maybe the original conclusion was wrong.  Posner's book sealed the deal for me that the original conclusion was correct.  Interestingly, I've seen quite a few TV documentaries since reading CC which presented new evidence gained by using high technology unavailable just a few years ago.  They have proven the WC Oswald conclusion beyond a shadow of a doubt, in my mind.

146

The other thing that changed my mind when I wondered whether Oswald acted alone.

 

Any evidence?

 

No. Kennedy and Connolly were hit by bullits fired from above and behind. That pretty much seals the deal.

 

People can speculate on motives, or whatever, but you can't change the facts.

147 Thanks to all the morons who recommended titles. I'll check a few of those out this week.