Presto Agitato: Quote of the Day: A Little Respect

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Currently Reading

Barbara W. Tuchman: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
Joyce Lee Malcolm: Guns and Violence: The English Experience
H. R. Mcmaster: Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
The reading list has been a bit, um, martial lately, but with the recent death of Robert S. McNamara, I thought I ought to bump this one up.

Recent Reading

Simon Conway Morris: Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe
Morris displays a bit of silliness here, but the basic point — the recurrent characteristics, independently-evolved, of quite disparate creatures — is impressive. While 'contingency' is a factor in evolution, what ultimately develops is far more the result of environment and time than of chance. (And Stephen Jay Gould can go suck eggs.) (****)
Bruce Gamble: Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington
(7/5/2009) Independence Day reading. (****)
Aristotle: The Basic Works of Aristotle (Modern Library Classics)
(7/1/2009) (*****)
Christopher Hitchens: The Trial of Henry Kissinger
(6/14/2009) I was, as I predicted after two chapters, unable to finish without skipping forward. My patience finally ran out on page 115 at which point Hitchens provides the evidence that devastates his own charge, on page 110, re: the murder of reporter and Greek anti-Junta activist Elias Demetracopoulos. (An NSC memo, in Dec. 1970, didn't presage the murder of Mr. Demetracopoulos as Hitchens claims but rather reported the death of Demetracopoulos's father.) But alas, this is an inquisition, so such obvious facts are simply unwelcome, never mind an even barely decent respect for context.

I give this book two stars because I did learn a few things, although not always what Hitchens intended. The many shortcomings of Hitchens' case notwithstanding, Kissinger was and is indeed an amoral and despicable toad. "Toad" is Hitchens' term, which seems to sum the matter. (**)
Bernard-Henri Lévy: American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville
(6/10/2009) Well, he did try to understand. With limited success, unfortunately. (***)
Natan Sharansky: Fear No Evil
(6/4/2009) (*****)
Bob Hoover: Forever Flying
(5/30/2009) (****)
Charles Murray: In Our Hands : A Plan To Replace The Welfare State
(5/25/2009) The current welfare system is destructive, Medicare has perverse effects, and Social Security will be unable to meet its obligations within only a few years. Yet, the political will to kill them, even in favor of a more effective plan, is nonexistent. Charles Murray tries to do an end run around the political resistance. If I were President, I'd fight for low, flat taxes first, let that situation settle down, and then try some (but certainly not all!) of Murray's ideas. Otherwise, there would be too many issues on the table at once. (****)
Richard P. Feynman & Steven Weinberg: Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures
(5/4/2009) Yes, I do have some very strange addictions. (****)
Hannah Arendt: Responsibility and Judgment
(5/3/2009) I spent time to finish this that I should have spent working. Very irresponsible. But I recommend that you should too. But keep in mind: Ms. Arendt was a very serious, subtle thinker. This is not casual reading. (*****)
Roy Spencer: Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor
(4/28/2009) The present debate on anthropogenic global warming is corrupted by misdirection, misinformation, bad assumptions, and outright fraud. Spencer focuses on the big picture rather than the details, or to put it another way, the forest instead of the trees, and concludes that everyone should climb down a bit and deal with the interface of reality with humanity, instead of the political and (frankly) religious hobby-horses that seem to dominate so far. Very entertaining reading, and excellently informative. (****)
Richard Feynman: Feynman's Thesis: A New Approach to Quantum Theory
(4/17/2009) Some of Feynman's mathematical notation (e.g., the derivative) is quirky, but that's what I get for trying to read the guy's PhD thesis. Yes, my head does hurt. (***)
Mark Skousen: The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers, 2nd Edition
(3/15/2009) Sometimes a bit scattered, marred by bad writing, the occasional bizarre speculation on character, and the also-bizarre inclusion of classical musical selections to accompany each chapter (?!). Still, the book is informative and useful. Seven stars on a scale of ten. Maybe six-and-a-half. (***)
Ted Nugent: Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto
(2/27/2009) Um, Ted? K-12 curricula are none of the federal government's damned business. Even if you were President.... (****)
Walter Isaacson: Einstein: His Life and Universe
(2/22/2009) An excellent personal and scientific biography of this enigmatic and delightful character. Highly recommended. But Isaacson has drunk the kool-aid regarding the bizarre 'Copenhagen Interpretation' of quantum physics, in which nothing is real until it is observed. To the Copenhagenists, this is not just a matter of knowledge, but of reality per se, and the problem is not just the mechanics of the observation; to be is to be observed. You can't white-wash this, it is just that bizarre and more. Isaacson also seems to confuse the issue of probability (which is accepted in all interpretations of quantum physics) with the Copenhagen Interpretation. (****)