Jonah Goldberg: The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas
(5/21/2012) Imperative reading! (*****)
George W. Bush: Decision Points
(5/11/2012) Pres. Bush's explanations of his decisions following the financial collapse don't wash (he still doesn't realize that his economic advisors – financial guys, mostly, with a finance-is-everything worldview – panicked), but the details behind these decisions are, as always, enlightening. Highly recommended. (****)
Marc Gillinov M.D.: Heart 411: The Only Guide to Heart Health You'll Ever Need
(4/21/2012) I was annoyed by the authors' episodic reliance on poorly-controlled (at best) ‘observational studies’, but I understand that sometimes ‘in my experience’ is the best evidence available, and the authors do explain (occasionally) that such data is less than completely reliable. Still, cut it out.
That one complaint reduces this from a solid five of five to a muttering four-point rating. Anyway, read the book. Oh, yes, and quit smoking, you moron. Seriously. (****)
Aristotle: The Nicomachean Ethics
(3/18/2012) (*****)
Bernard Lewis: The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror
(3/9/2012) (****)
Salman Rushdie: Shame: A Novel
(3/4/2012) So it's one of his early novels, but this ‘magical realism’ thing is just plain confusing. Sheez. (***)
Thomas Sowell: The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
(3/3/2012) (****)
Richard Panek: The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
(2/29/2012) (****)
Bernard Lewis: Islam: The Religion and the People
(2/22/2012) (*****)
Gordon K. Andersen: I Hate to Criticize, But... Professional Writers and Broadcasters Are Murdering the English Language
(2/5/2012) ‘Abusing the English language is like picking your nose in public. It usually does little harm, but it certainly does nothing toward enhancing your image.’ (****)
Barbara W. Tuchman: Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
(2/3/2012) A monumental read! (At least, that's the usual euphemism for ‘Damn, that was big!’) But this is ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stilwell and Tuchman is brilliant as usual.
Tuchman doesn't think much more of ‘Generalissimo’ Chiang, of Chiang's field commanders, or of the British military leadership in CBI (the China-Burma-India theater of WWII) than did Gen. Stilwell, and the low opinion seems very well-deserved. ‘We can't’ is a lousy damned attitude to take when you desperately must, a point that was vividly made when first the Japanese going west and then Stilwell going east crawled through the eastern (Burmese) Himalayas with an intact, fighting army exactly as the Brits and the Chinese said couldn't be done. I don't think the Brit commanders ever forgave Stilwell for that one.
And Chiang demonstrated yet another shortcoming of nationalist fervor: Distrust of foreigners even when their interests clearly coincide with yours and you manifestly need their manpower and expertise is an entirely stupid and malignant attitude. (****)
Aristotle: The Organon (Logic)
(1/12/2012) (****)
Aristotle: The Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle
(1/10/2012) (****)
Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove: A Novel
(1/8/2012) If you haven't read this, what are you waiting for? (*****)
Robert A. Heinlein: Double Star
(12/27/2011) (****)
Charles J. Sykes: A Nation of Moochers: America's Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing
Ishmael Jones: The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture
Ibn Warraq: Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy
David E. Bernstein: Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform
The goal of economic liberty is laudable, but I doubt that ‘substantive due process’ (‘green pastel redness’, as John Hart Ely tartly described it) – in any form – will ever be anything more than a shabby excuse for judicial lawmaking. But I'm willing to be surprised.
Jared M. Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)