See Naples and Die

For John, BLUF:  We learn:  "Vedi Napoli e poi muori ("See Naples and then die") was a common expression, echoed most famously on his grand tour by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, to identify Naples as the most naturally and artistically beautiful city in the world; so beautiful that one needn't look upon anything else after seeing it.".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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May the Wolf Die
Author:  Elizabeth Heider
Kindle Version:  368 Pages
Publisher:  Penguin Books
Language:  English
ASIN:  B0CKBD4PZT
Publication Date:  July 2, 2024

This is a murder mystery, with a number of plot twists to keep the reader engaged to the end.  Also keeping the reader engaged is the ongoing life of the heroine, Investigator Nikki Serafino, of Pheonix Seven, an Italian liaison organizaation embedded within the US Military stationed in Naples, Italy.

The locale for the murder mystery is the City of Naples (Napoli), and for those of us who have lived there the geography and the monuments are familiar.  I could almost think that the author saw her target audience as the thousands of US military and civil servants who have been assigned in Naples or who were there on Port Calls.

Murder, mayhem, criminal gangs and emotional stress are a part of Naples, and a part of this novel.  On the other hand, Naples is seen as a City it is safe to visit.

As the story begins our Heroine, Nikki, is out on a sailboat, of which she is part owner.  After some acquatic adventure they are headed back to port when they realize they have snagged a body floating in the bay.  While not involved in the ensuing murder investigation, Nikki finds herself drawn further and further into the case.  Her powers of observation and her reasoning skills allow her to help the official investigators, Italian and American, as the murder victum is a US Naval Officer.  I drop-shipped a copy of the book to a friend, a former Commander of the US Naval Support Activity in Naples.  Having quickly checked the back cover, he called me and asked "When do I die?"  It turns out the murder victim, although of the same rank, occupied a different slot in the organization.

Nikki, not a favorite of her boss, is outside the investigstion, and embroiled in problems of her own, but the investigation continues to intrude on her life, and she, in turn, continues to think about it and draw conclusions of value.

As a thread through the book is Nikki's own story, as she tries to establish herself as an independent and self-suffient woman, not to be pushed around by others or owned by any single man.  This problem is its own battle, and apparently not concluded by the end of the book, leaving space for a sequel.

Typo:  In Chapter Thirteen A NCIS Agent explains to the Italian Police Inspector, Sonia, that the murder victim was not, as he had told his wife, on TAD.  This acronym is defined as "Temporary Active Duty".  Per the DoD Dictionary, the meaning is "temporary additional duty".  Aside from that slip, the novel seems very faithful in reflecting the US Military in Naples.

For me, a good read.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Attack

For John, BLUF:  The possibility of a future terroist attack in these United States, sponsored by a foreign regime.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Attack

Author:  Kurt Schlichter
Kindle Version:  353 Pages
Publisher:  Kurt Schlichter
Language:  English
ASIN:  B0CR1N7R8T
Publication Date:  January 8, 2024

Mr Kurt Schlichter has combined current events, such as our open border and terrorist attacks in places like Russia, stirred with his imagination and produced a very believeable story about a terrorist attack on the United States in the not-too-distant future (27-29 August 2024).

I liked the author's approach to the book, writing what are 40 short stories, from interviews with different observers of the various terrorist attacks.  Each one smoothly fits into a believeable collection that gives the reader an overview of what could be in our future.

The book actually takes a positive view of a terrible situation, showing how the resilience of the American People help to keep the situation from being worse than it is.  The book also paints a positive view as to the political response on the part of the Government.

Set at a point several years in the future, the book gives its interviewees time to settle down and absorb the events of August 2024, and to draw informed conclusions,  It is for the reader to also draw informed conclusions and to reach out to elected leaders, and those they appoint, to take actions now so this does not happen in the future.  We all remember the attacks on 9/11.  We would not wish to see a repeat of that event, but with many more casualties and much more damage to our infrastructure.

This book is exciting to read, but should be read most importantly because it raises questions about what could happen to us in the future and which we might be able to prevent by actions today.

Yes, this is a self-published book.

Regards  —  Cliff

The End Times; An Alternate View

For John, BLUF:  There is no doubt the earth will end, but when and how are open questions.  One point of view is that the Creator will end His crestion and msy well do it soon.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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End of Daze
Author:  Andrew Fox
Kindle Version:  265 Pages
Publisher:  Aggadah Try It
Language:  English
ASIN:  B0BYHC3YGM
Publication Date:  30 March 2023

I picked up this book on the recommendstion of Blogger and Writer Sarah Hoyt.

I am glad I did.  Recent events in the Middle East raise the question of if these are the End Times.  If we pay attention to the likes of Author Hal Lindsey (The Late Grest Plsnet Earth) we note the return of Jews to the land of Israel (1900 years ago the nation of Judea).  This is a possible sign of the fulfillment of Biblical End time Prophecy.

The perspective of The End of Daze is a combinstion of science Fiction and of Jewish prospective.  It is this second view, with its liberal sprinkling of Yiddish and Jewish practices and traditions that made it interesting. 

Another aspect of a fictoinal look is thst the writer can pose some interesting situstions, such as when a radical Muslim group acquires a nuclear artillery shell from a nation from the former Soviet Union.  Such a weapon can be a game changer. . But the story also deals with those who cannot accept what G_d is trying to do and fight Him.  That is a story as old as time.

A quick read, with an interesting alternative perespective.  Well worth the effort to read, and available on the Kindle.

Regards  —  Cliff

Do Political Parties Make Sense

For John, BLUF:  The importance and the cost of Political Parties is always a topic for interesting debate.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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On the Abolition of All Political Parties
Author:  Simone Weil, Translator by Simon Leys
Kindle Version:  96 Pages
Publisher:  NYRB Classics
Language:  English
ASIN:  B00JI48Y3O
Publication Date:  30 September 2014

My friend, John McDonough, producer of Local Access TV Program, City Life Show, wonders why we have political parties.  He thinks those folks down on Capitol Hill should be voting, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans.  Further, he thinks the taxpayers should not be paying to fund partisan political primaries, which are run at the behest of the political parties.  We joust about this on the City Life Show.

It is because of this ongoing discussion that I elected to read On the Abolition of All Political Parties when I saw it advertised.  The fact the author was Ms Simone Weil, added to it's attractiveness.

Ms Weil sees all parties as bad, parties demanding loyalty that should be owed to the truth.

My friend, John McDonough, breaks it down into two parts:

1. The big picture part is that he believes that the first duty of elected office holders is to do what is good for the United States of America.  He sees parties as getting in the way.  This is sort of like Senator Chuck Schumer arguing that Republicans voted for acquittal not because Messers Schiff and Nadler made a mess of the Impeachment presentation but out of party loyalty.  I would think one could also make the argument the other way round.  But, the point is, the vote was tainted, either way, by every Senator belonging to a party.  And they do, even Senator Bernie Sanders.
2. His second point is smaller, but maybe even more important.  He argues that since parties are, in essence, private clubs, like the Moose or the Elks, the taxpayers should not fund their elections, which we call primaries.  We don't pay for the elections held by the Moose Lodge or the Elks.  Why should we pay for elections by the Democrats or Republicans?

My response is (1) "parties" automatically form when there are differences as to the best way forward for America and (2) it is better for Government to run primaries, since they can do it more efficiently and effectively (cf. Iowa 2020) But, back to our author, Ms Simone Weil, she bases her thesis on her reading of Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher, writer and composer, who died in 1778.♠  She writes:

Rousseau took as his starting point two premises.  First, reason perceives and chooses what is just and innocently useful, whereas every crime is motivated by passion.  Second, reason is identical in all men, whereas their passions most often differ.  From this it follows that if, on a common issue, everyone thinks alone and then expresses his opinion, and if, afterwards, all these opinions are collected and compared, most probably they will coincide inasmuch as they are just and reasonable, whereas they will differ inasmuch as they are unjust or mistaken.”

With parties we put down our hunt for truth and go with the party, thus taking up passion.  In the view of Rousseau this can not be good.  We have to think out the answer and come to truth.  Passion will only lead us astray.  In fact, it will cause us to deny truth.  She cites young women supporting the Gaulist cause in World War II as arguing:

‘Truth is relative, even in geometry.’  Indeed, this is the heart of the matter. (Location 225)

The nice thing, the beautiful thing about geometry is that it is always true and there is no relativity.  Yes, with trigonometry there is the trig function sine, which except for 0, 30 and 90 go out past the decimal point for large numbers or numbers.  The fun thing about the ssine for 30 degrees is that it is a nice, solid 0.50 and will be, no matter how many places right of the decimal point one goes.

The problem comes in understanding truth.  For Ms Weil, fighting the Third Reich, during World War II, the truth is obvious.  Right is obvious.  The bind comes after peace breaks out and the discussion becomes less existential, but more about how to improve the lives of others.  Then there are different truths.

And example of different truths is the question of how to improve the lives of workers.  Some wish to grow the pie, giving everyone more money, even if some get a lot more money.  Others think it is important to more evenly divide the pie, to help the less well off, even if it means taking from those who today have a bigger slide of the pie.

The word ‘party’ is taken here in the meaning it has in Continental Europe.  In Anglo-Saxon countries, this same word designates an altogether different reality, which has its roots in English tradition and is therefore not easily transposable elsewhere.  The experience of a century and a half shows this clearly enough.  In the Anglo-Saxon world, political parties have an element of game, of sport, which is only conceivable in an institution of aristocratic origin, whereas in institutions that were plebeian from the start, everything must always be serious. (Location 84)

Even in 2021, when the tension between parties is almost palpable, the basic Anglo-Saxon view and values remain.  While we can say how things should be, that does not mean it is how they will be.  We should be cautious of abolishing parties.  We don't know the eventual outcome.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Per Wikipedia, His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic and educational thought.

Mr Trump's Supporters

TRIGGER WARNINGS:  It may turn out you are a Normal.

For John, BLUF:  As President Abe Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Militant Normals:  How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy
Author:  Kurt Schlichter
Kindle Version:  288 Pages
Publisher:  Center Street
Language:  English
ASIN:  B07B8G25M3
Publication Date:  2 October 2018

The Author divides Americans into two groups, the Elite and the Normals.  In his telling, the Elite are a self-selected group that thinks it should run the Country, and often do.  The Elite includes politicians, bureaucrats, academics, media and experts of various kinds.  The normals are pretty much everyone else.  They are people focused on family, work and religion.

In Mr Schlichter's telling of the story, the Elites want to run things and shape society in certain ways.  The Normals don't much care what the Elites are about, as long as they keep to "The Bargain".  The Bargain is that the Elites keep the Government running tolerably well and allow the Normals to carry on without undue interference.

In the Author's mind the Elites, who have lost touch with the Normals, have not been holding up their end of The Bargain.  He traces this back to the 1960s, when the new Elite began replacing the older Elite, an Elite who understood the Normals, and had many of the same values as the Normals.  Today's Elites are beaming off in a different direction from the Normals and the Normals recognize this.

The Normals wouldn't care about this path divergence, except they have begun to think the Elites are not holding up their end of The Bargain.  The first big sign of this was the Tea Parties.  The next big sign was the 2016 campaign of Mr Donald Trump.  In Mr Schlichter's telling of the story it wasn't so much that Mr Trump picked his voters as they were waiting for him and adopted him.

The book is about how we got to where we are and the fact that the Elites have to recognize this situation or they will find themselves cast aside, to be replaced by a new political elite, one more in tune with the Normals, who will then go back to letting the Elites decide things, until that Elite goes off the beam.

Regards  —  Cliff

Mussolini on Fascism

TRIGGER WARNINGS:  It may turn out you are a Fascist.
For John, BLUF:  Just read the highlighted sections.  Easy-peasy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Doctrine Of Fascism
Benito Mussolini
Paper Cover:  28 Pages (A Kindle version is available)
Publisher:  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Language:  English
ISBN:  978-1478370918
Copyright:  August 6, 2012

I read, a few years ago, a longer version of Il Duce's book on Fascism.  This shorter version seems to track very closely with the longer version.

It is a short, quick read, although there are some historic references, which would make the Kindle version handy (and cheaper).

Remember, this was written in the first half of the last Century, but these are the concluding two paragraphs:

Never more than at the present moment have the nations felt such a thirst for an authority, for a direction, for order.  If every century has its own peculiar doctrine, there are a thousand indications that Fascism is that of the present century.  That it is a doctrine of life is shown by the fact that it has created a faith; that the faith has taken possess of the mind is demonstrated by the fact that Fascism has had its Fallen and its martyrs.

Fascism has now attained ini the world an universality over all doctrines.  Being realized, it represents an epoch in the history of the human mind.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Camp of the Saints

TRIGGER WARNINGS:  In which we ask questions about culture and immigration.
For John, BLUF:  What should our immigration laws say?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NB:  This item was lost in my archives, from 12 November 2015.  I was prompted to resurrect it because Opinionator Michael Cohen mentioned it in his OpEd in The Boston Globe, this weekend.  The article is "The GOP has become the party of white nationalism".

I think Mr Cohen's OpEd is kind of flat.  It ignores that Mr Trump is a Progressive.  That Republicans across the nation are embracing and supporting "minorities".  I give you Kamara Kay, here in Lowell, who we supported for State Rep in the 18th Middlesex District.  Kam is an active member of the Lowell Republican City Committee.

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Here is the original Blog Post.

And they came upon the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.

Revelation 20:8

The Camp of the Saints
Jean Raspail
Paper Cover:  316 Pages (I read the Kindle version)
Publisher:  Social Contract Press
Language:  English
ISBN:  978-1881780076
Copyright:  1994 (Original, in French, 1973

An interesting book, which looks at the impact on France, in 1973, of a massive migration of Indian Hindus, on ships, down the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and up the West Coast of Africa, entering the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar and then falling on the South Coast of France.  Much of the discussion is about how France, anticipating the arrival of a million migrants, sees itself responding to this influx into a nation of 52.6 million people.

For context, this is five years after the May 1968 uprisings in France.  The events were severe enough to lead to President Charles de Gaulle fleeing the country and the 1968 college students becoming known as the 68ers.

One famous participant and leader was then college student Daniel Cohn-Bendit (aka Danny the Red), who later was found to be an advocate for pedophilia.

So, it was a strange time.

When the book came out in 1973 there were claims of racism, but I think race is a cover for the question of what is Western Civilization and is it worth saving. The author is obviously disappointed in the Catholic Church and its clergy. That said, there is symbolism from the Book of Revelation. And, he is down on the Secular Humanists. He alludes to the question of if a brave new world without western capitalism and its sinews can work, but doesn't develop that theme in detail. This book keeps popping up, due to the refugee crisis in Europe, with its spillover in the US and Canada. For instance, Naval War College Professor Mackubin Thomas Owens talks about it in National Review, "Camp of the Saints, 2014 Style?".  The sub-headline from the 2014 article is "A 1973 French novel eerily prefigures our current immigration mess."

The theme of the book is based on a moral quandary: What steps will a liberal society take to preserve its way of life? Is liberal society too humane and compassionate to protect itself from those who would undermine and destroy it?

Collin, thanks for the support. If I were a European, I'd be truly worried about the number of Muslims entering the Continent. As some point, ISIS will infiltrate this group after they feel it's reached critical mass, then begin their fun and games. I believe a major crisis is on the horizon, and I don't know how we'll cope with it. But it's coming, regardless. On the other hand, we seem to have enough non-Muslim madness to keep us focused in the meantime. Charles

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Conservatives, Misunderstood

For John, BLUF:  I am not sure this book is the straight word.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here is a review of the E J Dionne, Jr, book "The Triumph of the Hard Right".♠  The title of the book is Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism—from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond and the publisher is Simon and Schuster.  It is a 532 page book and is selling for $30 in the dead tree version.

The Reviewer is Garry Wills, not to be confused with Columnist George Will.

Here is the lede plus one:

Everybody told everybody early in this year’s presidential campaign (during what was called Trump Summer) that we had never seen anything so sinisterly or hilariously (take your choice) new.  But Trump Summer was supposed to mellow into Sane Autumn, and it failed to—and early winter was no saner.  People paid to worry in public tumbled over one another in asking what had gone wrong with our politics.  Even the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, joined the worriers.  After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, he set up what he called the Growth and Opportunity Project, to reach those who had not voted Republican—young people, women, Latinos, and African-Americans.  But its report, once filed, had no effect on the crowded Republican field of candidates in the 2016 race, who followed Donald Trump’s early lead as he treated women and immigrants as equal-opportunity objects of scorn.  Now the public worriers were yearning for the “good old days” when there were such things as moderate Republicans.  What happened to them?

The current Republican extremism has been attributed to the rise of Tea Party members or sympathizers. Deadlock in Congress is blamed on Republicans’ fear of being “primaryed” unless they move ever more rightward.  Endless and feckless votes to repeal Obamacare were motivated less by any hope of ending the program than by a desire to be on record as opposing it, again and again, to avoid the dreaded label RINO (Republican in Name Only).

In a way, I am kind of lost here.  I am a Tea Party Republican, but I don't think of myself as an extremist.  I know extremism when I see it.  Martin Bormann is an Extremist.  Professor Bill Ayers is an Extremist.  I believe in the rule of law.  Unlike Ms Whoopi Goldberg, I have never suggested I would leave the country if this or that candidate were elected President.

Maybe it is a lower case "e" extremism.

Frankly, it seems that Mr Wills wants Republicans who are Moderate Democrats.  What kind of an option would that offer the voters?  None.  And where would Conservatives go?

Here is a quote from the Book Review:

It is appropriate that this feeling has been in alliance with the Confederate South, the loser of a war it still thinks it should have won.  The rest of the Republicans may not be as racist as the South, but they cannot prevail at the federal level without it.

Does Mr Wills not remember the racism that surfaced in Boston during the busing crisis?  That was Democrats.  Racism in inherent in the Democrat party.  The suppression of the Second Amendment in Chicago is because of racism, is it not?  This is just not a balanced look.

Then there is the paragraph intro:

This feeling that superior people have license to circumvent democracy is still with us…

Was this not Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the beginning of the Obama Administration?  This idea that the Democrats play by the rules and the Republicans don't is rubbish.

I do agree with Mr Wills regarding racism in the United States:

The idea that America has somehow outgrown or transcended racism is an ever-renewable delusion. Some hoped that the election of a black president would mark the end of racism. But in fact it blew on the embers of racism we have beneath us all the time.

Then Mr Wills wonders off into birtherism.  Give me a break.  Is Barack H Obama not still President, seven years after being sworn in.  All those Republicans who wonder about President's place of birth or his religion still pay taxes.  They still sign up for the military, or continue their military service.  They do not use their Second Amendment gun rights to retreat into the woods in guerrilla bands.

The issue of racism is an issue of fairness, of equal rights, to all.  This is something Republicans believe in.  Interestingly enough, members of the "right" are concerned about oppressive use of the police powers, which puts them in the same camp as minorities.

And, of course, in this Presidential Race it is the Conservative Republicans who have a Black and two Hispanics in the race.♥ 

Yes, I will pony up $15.99 for the Kindle version of this book, just not right now.  I have a couple of books I am working right now.

That said, frankly, the Review is not what encourages me.  Rather, it is the Author, Mr Dionne, and the need to keep looking to see how the other side views one.  No party operates in a vacuum.  Even a dictatorship needs to worry about who might be lurking in the shadows.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  This link is behind a pay wall, at least at this point.  In a short time it may be open to all.
♥  Yes, Virginia, People from Cuba are Hispanic.

Twisted Personalities

For John, BLUF:  Want to borrow it when you are back?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Narrows
Michael Connelly
Hard Cover:  416 Pages (We listened to the audio version)
Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company
Language:  English
ISBN:  0-316-15530-6
Copyright:  2004

My wife and I just finished listening to the CD version of Mr Michael Connelly's Detective Novel, The Narrows.  It was a gripping yarn.  And it is a continuation of a story, The Poet, to which we recently listened.

The hero is retired Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.  The way the story is written, we hear Harry's point of view and also the point of view of exiled FBI Agent Rachel Walling.  Exiled to the Dakotas because of her actions in the previous story, The Poet.  We also get glimpses of the point of view of serial killer and ex-FBI supervisor Robert Backus.  FBI Agent Rachel Walling shot and wounded Robert Backus as the end of The Poet and he crashed through a large window.  He escaped, but the body found wearing his clothes and with his ID was to decomposed to positively be identified as his.  SPOILER ALERT:  He was on the run, committing more murders.

Harry Bosch's detective instincts allow him to stay ahead of the FBI and only a little bit behind fugitive killer Robert Backus.

ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT:  Quoting from the Wikipedia article on the book:

However, the relationship between Bosch and Walling falls apart in the end when Bosch learns that the FBI had discovered that Backus had nothing to do with McCaleb's death but had withheld the information from him. In fact, McCaleb had killed himself in a manner to make his death look accidental, as his heart transplant was failing, and he did not want to burden his wife and children with the crippling expense of additional medical procedures.

This was a large chunk of the Wikipedia review.  And rightfully so, since it represents another plot twist.  Perhaps the author created it to make FBI Agent Rachel Walling go away at the end of the story, thus cleaning up a loose end.

However, I think that Harry Bosch was pushing it.  FBI Agent Rachel Walling was trying to protect her friend of former colleague.  Why make a Federal case out of it.  It turns out it isn't really all about Harry Bosch.  While FBI Agent Rachel Walling had been referred to by her ex-husband, in The Poet, as the Painted Desert, there might have been something there for Harry.  But, he couldn't leave well enough alone.  Perhaps this is a character flaw that makes him such a good detective.  Maybe it is the character flaw that makes him a not so good lifetime partner.

Regards  —  Cliff

Murder Most Political (Fiction)

Silken Prey
John Sandford
Hard Cover:  416 Pages (We listened to the audio version)
Publisher:  Penguin Audio
Language:  English
ISBN:  1611761662
Copyright:  2013

For John, BLUF:  Good yarn, get the version in CDs, or borrow mine.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Martha and I traveled down to Virginia earlier in the month, for a picnic.  The picnic was for members of "The Warlord Loop" living in or able to get to the Northern Virginia area.  The Warlord Loop?  Yes, a list serve best explained here.

As is normal, we listened to a book on CDs.  Also, as is normal, it was a mystery story by one of Martha's favored authors.  I would have preferred something along the lines of national politics or national security affairs, but marriage is a product of compromise.  The book was Silken Prey, available from Amazon here.

The author, Novelist John Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp.  The novel is the 23rd in a series based upon detective Lucas Davenport who rates his own Wikipedia page.  In the series Detective Lucas Davenport is working for the Minneapolis Police Department, but then shifts to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.  Yes, there is such an organization.

This story looks at politics and the underside of same.  Our intrepid detective is invited by the Governor of Minnesota to quietly take a look into the allegation that a Republican candidate for a US Senate Seat was found to have kiddie porn on his personal computer at his campaign headquarters.  The Governor is a Democrat, but he and the Republican incumbent go back to Kindergarten.  And, adding to the mix, the Democratic challenger seems to be a little narcissistic.◊ 

This is a timely book (May 2013) in that we are dealing with a lot of political scandals at this time down in Washington.  I count five, including "Fast and Furious", Secretary of HHS Kathleen Seblius, IRS, AP and some aspects of the Benghazi Imbroglio.  In this case it might even be a throwback to the speculation surrounding the Clinton Administration and the Rose Law Firm.  There is the kiddie porn issue, found on the Candidate's own computer by a young female campaign volunteer.  There is murder.  There is theft and there is how people work out their own special quirks and drives.

Without giving away the ending, some get caught and some don't.  Some die and some don't.  And, as often happens, one wonders who the good guys are at the end of the day.  Forget the question of if good is rewarded and bad punished.

For me the most interesting parts of the story are seeing Lucas Davenport knit together the different strands of the story to come up with a larger whole.  The second thing I like is seeing those who actually have some sense of justice work to see justice done.  Some in somewhat strange ways.

I recommend it.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As opposed to the Deficit.  The Debt is the totality of what the Federal Government owes to creditors.  The Deficit is the amount the Federal Government overspends in a given fiscal year—Expenditures minus Revenues (Taxes) collected.
♥  Rush’s own words on this issue can be found her.  In essense, Mr Limbaugh didn’t like the policies President Elect Obama had been proposing and Mr Limbaugh thought they were bad for the nation.
♦  Sometimes referred to as "Dead Fish" after he mailed a dead fish to a pollster who was late with the data.
♣  Bomb Power:  The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, which suggests the acqusition of nuclear weapons "dramatically increas[ed] the power of the modern presidency and redefin[ed] the government as a national security state".
◊  In college she was told that she had a narcissistic personality disorder, which she assumed was a good thing.

The Great Gatsby

For John, BLUF:  Lots of glitz, but, in the end, little hope.

Last evening my wife and I went to see the movie The Great Gatsby.  There was a nice review in The New York Times earlier this month. And, there was an OpEd by NYT Columnist Maureen Dowd, which cites this line from F Scott Fitzgerald's novel and from his headstone:

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Then she goes on to use this line:

...the decay of souls, the crumbling mythology and the dark side of social mobility.

I get the decay of souls and the idea of crumbling mythology, but I don't get the dark side of social mobility.  Are we now against social mobility?  And, the idea of a "Gatsby Curve" was debunked by the NYT Catherine Rampell here.

All well and good, but my take-away, my Lesson Learned, from The Great Gatsby is this:

Jay Gatsby was wrong.  You can't hit the "reset button".  You have to play the ball from where you find it.  And it is there because of everything that happened in the past.  You can't go back.  You have to go forward.

I call as my witness, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who learned you can't push the "reset button".

Regards  —  Cliff

Cutting a Deal on Debt and Deficit

The Price of Politics
Bob Woodward
Kindle:  380 Pages
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Language:  English
ISBN:  1451651104
Copyright:  2012

For John, BLUF:  The President's tactical maneuvering WRT Capitol Hill left something to be desired—and I blame Rahm Emanuel.

This book looks at negotiations over the Federal Debt Limit♠ after the 2010 elections, where the Republicans gained a majority in the House of Representatives.  The book runs through 2011, up to the point where a deal is cut, giving us Sequestration as the gun at our head to force us to fix our debt and deficit problems before the next need for a Federal Debt extension.  What we are seeing today in negotiations to avoid going over the “Fiscal Cliff” is déjà vu all over again.

I found this book difficult to read.  After ten to fifteen pages the reader gets frustrated by the lack of progress, a lack of progress that was manifested in the previous ten to fifteen pages, with no hope that it will be better in the next ten to fifteen pages.

To be fair, the players, especially President Obama and Speaker John Boehner, are struggling to find a solution.  Others are actively looking to find a way out, but with little success.  These would include Senate President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The author sums it up early on:

They were facing contradictory policy requirements: spend more quickly, but address the long-term deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

The story is muddled by the fact that some, like WRKO’s Jeff Kuhner, think the President is a Radical Socialist, and he does sometimes sound that way.  However, this book suggests he is, his time in Chicago and round people like William Ayers notwithstanding, a bit of a Blue Dog Democrat.  This is not to say the President wasn’t and isn’t a Keynesian, but that he understands that there are limits.  This view of the President may cause my wife to comment on this blog for the first time ever.

Another thing happening in Washington was that even some Democrats were concerned about the economy.  Early in the Administration Democratic Senator Kent Conrad expressed concern.

Conrad, the head of the Senate Budget Committee, believed the country was heading off a fiscal cliff.  He could prove it, and he was going to fix it.

So, the problem with the Debt Ceiling was not solely a Republican Party issue:

Raising the debt ceiling was normally a routine matter, but Conrad was determined to change that.  “Unless we get a commission we’re just not” raising it, he said flatly.

There was also the issue of the President and the Republicans on Capital Hill.  Early on there was the Rush Limbaugh “I hope the President Fails”.♥  Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell put it this way:

In an October 2010 interview with National Journal, McConnell had said that for Republicans, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”  The statement was widely reported in the press and was cited by Democrats as evidence that Republicans in Congress prized defeating Obama above the good of the country.  But the coverage largely ignored the rest of what McConnell had said.  Asked if his strategy involved constant confrontation, McConnell said, “If President Obama does a Clintonian backflip, if he’s willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it’s not inappropriate for us to do business with him.”  “I don’t want the president to fail,” he said later in that interview.  “I want him to change.”

The thing that comes through the book is that, in fact, the Administration wasn’t into compromising here and there in order to build consensus.  It was an approach created by then White House Chief of Staff and now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel,♦ "the man in charge of that process":

President Obama’s fellow Chicagoan left the House leadership to help guide the relatively inexperienced president through the intricacies of Washington politics, and his aggressive approach to dealing with congressional Republicans in the early years of Obama’s first term was:  “We have the votes."

While that worked for the first two years of the Administration, it wouldn’t work for the next two years, following the 2010 election, when Tea Party Republicans were elected to the House of Representatives by voters who wanted real change and not just the continuous flow of Pork to their towns and cities.

As Author Woodward points out, “from the Obama administration there was virtually no outreach or contact.”  This meant that there were no paths laid down for future compromise.

Thus, the “Rahm Emanuel approach to congressional relations”:

We have the votes.  [Screw] ’em.

With the new Congress in 2011 the Democrats lacked the votes in the Lower House and in the Senate the ability to break a filibuster was reduced.  Further, the President’s promise, following the 2010 election, of regular meetings, never happened.  The needed infusion of political operatives from the White House into Congress, doing the button holing needed to build relationships and sell ideas, never happened.  It was as though the While House believed in the strong man theory.  Thus, in the previous crisis the President negotiated with House Speaker Boehner, but did not include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.  One assumes that the President either believed, (a) that Ms Pelosi would support the President, no questions asked, or that (b) Speaker Boehner would make it happen in the House, since he was in charge.  It doesn’t work that way.

Adding to the problem appears to be the belief on the part of the President that he is in charge, as opposed to one of three centers of power.  This would be what writer Garry Wills decries as "bomb power",♣ the idea that the President is superior to the other branches of Government, and not beholding to or accountable to the other branches.

Negotiations are hard.  They are harder when one side thinks it has the power and the authority to do what it thinks it right.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As opposed to the Deficit.  The Debt is the totality of what the Federal Government owes to creditors.  The Deficit is the amount the Federal Government overspends in a given fiscal year—Expenditures minus Revenues (Taxes) collected.
♥  Rush’s own words on this issue can be found her.  In essense, Mr Limbaugh didn’t like the policies President Elect Obama had been proposing and Mr Limbaugh thought they were bad for the nation.
♦  Sometimes referred to as "Dead Fish" after he mailed a dead fish to a pollster who was late with the data.
♣  Bomb Power:  The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, which suggests the acqusition of nuclear weapons "dramatically increas[ed] the power of the modern presidency and redefin[ed] the government as a national security state".

Ripped Off

For John, BLUF:  Not everything Amazon sells is good value for money.

About a year ago my wife decided we would take a Fiction Writing Course at UMass Lowell Continuing Ed.  Good pick.  Among other items, I wrote a short story on Exercise ABLE ARCHER 83, which you can look up on Wikipedia.

So, when a classmate from the course recently mentioned that there was a book out on ABLE ARCHER, I went to Amazon and ordered it.  The cost was $19.95.  Didn't seem unreasonable.

What a ripoff.  The authors, Messrs Jesse Russell and Ronald Cohn copied the above mentioned Wikipedia article, plus Wikipedia articles on NATO, the Soviet RYAN missile warning system and the United States.  There are also Wikipedia references and licenses.

So, I basically spent a Double Sawbuck for a nicely printed trade sized version of a couple of Wikipedia articles.  But, it is Caveat emptor.  I failed to read the fine print on the Amazon page.

So, beware those authors and their house, Bookvika Publishing!

Regards  —  Cliff

Not That Margaret Fuller

That is to say, not the woman who lives in the Belvedere section of Lowell, but a woman born in Massachusetts in 1810.  The New York Times Book Review from last week, 22 January 2012, has a review of a new biography, The Luives of Margaret Full: A Biography.  The author of the book is Mr John Matteson and of the book review is Ms Mary Beth Norton.

The subject of the biography, Ms Fuller, seems to have led an extraordinary life.

My problem is with the lede:

Margaret Fuller, a woman of great talent and promise, had the misfortune to be born in Massachusetts in 1810, at a time and place in which the characteristics of what historians have termed “true womanhood” were becoming ever more rigidly defined.  Well brought-up women like herself were to be cultured, pious, submissive and genteel.  Fuller, by contrast, was assertive and freethinking.  She was also—and to some extent, still is—a difficult person to like.

My problem is the idea that it was a misfortune to have been born in 1810.  Per the review she seemed to have been sufficiently free to have edited a Transcendental quarterly, to have met Mr Horace Greeley and to have been "the first full-time female employee of his New-York Tribune" and to have written a book.  Her relationships, as reported, were wide and varied.  She seems to me to have flourished.

OK, I will grant you that she didn't benefit from indoor privies or air conditioning.  Aside from that, one era is like the rest, an opportunity do your very best.  She took advantage of her talents and prospered.  She certainly was not submissive.  She seems to have been cultured and, in her own way, pious.  Genteel I can not judge.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Beeb Writes about Catch-22

Is that a Catch-22 kind of thing, what with the BBC writing about the 50th anniversary of the novel by Joseph Heller, a WWII B-25 Bombadier, Catch-22?

I read the novel quite a while ago and enjoyed it.  Yes, life in the service is often absurd.  Weird things do happen.  I remember that a member of the 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron, the Blue Boars, was friends with Navy Lieutenant Roger Staubuck, and for several bottles of whiskey we got a skid of plywood, a bunch of 2 by 4s and a lot of nails.  With those we rebuilt the inside of our Squadron Operations building (and had lumber left over for a pool table).  The ramrod for that building operations was "The Real Arch", Archie Lorenzen, who did a great job of making it all work out.

The book is great.  The movie has lots of footage of airplanes flying.  What more could you ask?

Regards  —  Cliff

Book Review: A Woman in Berlin

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City
Anonymous
Hardback:  261 Pages
Publisher:  Metropolitan Books (Henry Hold and Company)
Language:  English
ISBN-10:  0-8050-7540-3
ISBN-13:  978-0-8050-7540-3
Copyright:  2000

This book is a diary of a woman who was in Berlin when the Soviet forces arrived in April of 1945.  It is her story, and the story of others, as the final weeks of the war and the first weeks of the peace worked themselves out—worked their themselves out in an orgy of mass rapes.

Soldiers rape for a number of reasons.  Sometimes it is seen as part of the spoils of war.  Sometimes the result of the pent-up emotions of men who had been in combat for long periods and with no relief.  Sometimes it was just a way of humiliating and subjugating an enemy population, as in Bosnia.  Then there is rape as genocide, as in Darfur.  In the case of the Soviet Army and the occupation of Germany, it might well have been part vengeance.  A way of making up for the terrible things done by German and German led troops as those troops advanced toward Moscow and Stalingrad.  It may be easy for someone like Joseph Stalin to brush it off by saying that "people" should

understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle.

The anonymous author actually does seem to understand, saying

"the sum total of tears always stays the same"—i.e., that in every nation, no matter what flag or system of government, no matter which gods are worshiped or what the average income is, the sum total of tears, pain, and fear that every person must pay for his existence is a constant.  And so the balance is maintained:  well-fed nations wallow in neurosis and excesses, while people plaqgued with suffering, as we are now, may rely on numbness and apathy to help see them through—if not for that I'd be weeping morning, non, and night.  But I'm not crying and neither is anyone else, and the fact that we aren't is all part of a natural law.  Of course if you believe that the earthly sum of tear is fixed and immutable, then you're not very well cut out to improve the world or to act on any kind of grand scale.

This is a pretty bleak view of the world, but her eight weeks were pretty bleak.

One of the things of interest to me, was the ongoing discussion of the impact of these mass rapes on the men she knew.

It's the first time I've heard of one of our men responding with that kind of red-eyed wrath.  Most of them are reasonable—they react with their heads, they're worried about saving their own skins, and their wives fully support them in this.  No man loses face for relinquishing a woman to the victors, be it his wife or his neighbor's.  On the contrary, they would be censured if they provoked the Russians by resisting.  But that still leaves something unresolved.  I'm convinced that this particular woman will never forget her husband's fit of courage, or perhaps you could say it was love.  And you can hear the respect in the way the men tell the story, too.

A little later she reflects on this again.

"Well—life goes on.  The best part was over anyway.  I'm just glad by husband didn't have to live through this."

Again I have to reflect on the consequences of being alone in the world in the midst of fear and adversity.  In some ways it's easier, not having to endure the torment of someone else's suffering.  What must a mother feel, seeing her girl so devastated?  Probably the same as any one who truly loves another but either cannot help them or doesn't dare to.  The men who've been married for many years seem to hold up best.  They don't look back.  Sooner or later their wives will call them to account, though.  But it must be bad for parents—I can understand why whole families would cling together in death.

In the last few pages the diarist's boyfriend, Gerd, comes back from the war.  It does not go well and eventually he leaves.  He can not accept the rapes.  She ends the book with a question about the future:

Maybe we'll find our way back to each other yet

One can't help but wonder if the troubles of 1968 did not have at least part of their background in 1945.

The book is not lascivious, going with the minimal facts and not the details of a sexual nature.

Regards  —  Cliff

Books vs Kindle Books

Over at the Instapundit I was directed to this site to see a chart about a comparison between Amazon dead tree book sales and Kindle book sales.

Our nod to Business Insider for this information in graphic form.

I would say that for my wife and myself we are buying Kindle books over dead tree editions at a two to one ratio, at least.  Then there are the books on CDs for our trips to Virginia.

Regards  —  Cliff

Whose End Times?

The One-Donkey Solution: A Satire
Richard Bulliet
Paperback:  328 pages
Publisher:  iUniverse.com (April 18, 2011)
Language:  English
ISBN-10:  1462000126
ISBN-13:  978-1462000128
Paperback for $19.95
Kindle for $9.99

Terms like Apocalypse, Eschaton, Parousia, Rapture, and Second Coming are part of our vocabulary. With the publication of The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 the question of what the end times would be like again surfaced.  And resurfaced.  Reverend Harold Camping was predicting the Second Coming for 21 May 2011.  Best I can tell, he was off on his prediction.

The book at hand takes a look at some aspects of the question of the end of times, weaving in the traditions of Jews, Christians and Muslims, including the Shi'a belief in the 12th Imam, who is believed to be occulted at this time.  Not only the beliefs, but also a couple of the players, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is believed to be a Twelver or someone who believes that the 12th Imam will soon return.  The book also talks to the question of whether President Ahmadinejad is actually Jewish.

The author, Columbia History Professor Richard Bulliet, knows his subject.  Further, he knows the territory, including being the man who extended the invitation to President Ahmadinejad to talk to Columbia University on 24 September 2007.

This book covers the territory in a light hearted manner.  It advertises itself as a Satire and it is.  The book is a spy novel, but it is in the style of Eric Amber more than that of Ian Fleming.  While we meet the professional spies along the way, it is the amateurs who prove the most interesting and resourceful.

The book ranges from Cambridge, MA (of course there is a Harvard Professor) to Germany to Israel to Morocco to Iran to Scotland, back to Virginia and then up to New York City.  Oops, I left out Venice, Italy.

The book ranges from Christian Evangelicals (to include a TV Preacher) to the Episcopal (Anglican) Church, to the Catholic Church, to Judaism, to Islam and to Shi'a Islam, and throws in a Mormon and a Seventh Day Adventist to boot, as well as some skeptics along the way.  The book's characters indulge in sex, but like an older writing model, the steamy scenes are left to one's imagination.

The MacGuffin is a donkey, by the name of Ya'fur, the donkey of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, and of others of a prophetic bent.  People from several faiths are searching for this donkey in that he is the donkey upon which the Mashiach, the Messiah, and the Islamic Mahdi, who the Shi'a see as the Twelfth Imam, will ride into Jerusalem upon his arrival at or return to earth.  There are those, of course, who believe the Messiah will descend to earth, catching up the faithful to meet him.  Such are probably not impressed by the donkey solution.

The key, however is the donkey, Ya'fur.  It is through this donkey that we examine the views of all the other participants, including the CIA, which comes in for a lot of satire, as a clueless and bureaucratic organization, bogged down in paperwork and the filling out of forms.  And sometimes those forms actually result in progress being made, but one is left to ponder the cost for the benefit.

A quick read, unless you stop to check on all the side bar activities noted and go to the trouble to trace them down on the Internet.

Regards  —  Cliff

This Is NOT A Small Issue

Yes, blogging has been light.  I have been in DC with the lead author, checking on details regarding "The Book".

But, the big news is that The Anchoress weighs in on quote marks and (other) punctuation. Actually, Max Lindenman, as the Anchoress herself is under the weather. The headline, in BOLD, is"The New Punctuation:  A Menace to Our Way of Life – UPDATE!".

I think the "Britsh" system is a little clearer and cleaner.

Regards  —  Cliff

Neo-Liberalism Reviewed

Neo-Liberalism?  Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Here is an interesting review of a book by a Marxist anthropology professor over in the UK.  The venue explains the use of the term "neo-liberal" rather than "Tea Party".  The book is The Enigma of Capital, by David Harvey.  Let it be noted that I have read the review, but not the book.

What makes the review interesting to me is the way the review looks at economics and the role of government.  Incidentally, the review author is not much impress with the idea of President Obama being some sort of radical in this area, but he is looking at it as a Brit.

Here is the final paragraph of the review.

The prevailing outlook of austerity is not neo-liberalism but green anti-capitalism.  Mainstream notions of environmental restraint are far more influential than belief in the free market.  Anyone wishing to defend popular living standards first needs to challenge this Malthusian dogma, even when - or rather especially when - it is dressed up in the language of Marx.

A chance to broaden one's horizons and pick up new debating points.

Regards  —  Cliff