Reviews and Comments

I've heard L. Neil Smith speak several times and I agree with him on almost everything. returnreturnI heard of this book and thought it was exactly what we needed. I expected it to be an updated equivalent to a Mary Ruwart standard, like "Healing our World" or "Short Answers to Tough Questions" returnreturnIt tries to be, it tries hard to be a new platform in a world where the Libertarian Party Platform doesn't say anything. returnreturnBut it doesn't. Not only is it published poorly, with grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes that even I can notice, but Smith has become nothing but an old man who thinks pretty damn high of himself, and talks as if everyone in the room agrees with him and he's trying to show how big his Libertarian penis is. returnreturnMaybe its a reminder that I need to be less L. Neil Smith, and more Jefferey Tucker. returnreturnIf you're a Libertarian looking to see how to explain your positions, this is not the book for you. Take a look at either of the ones I listed. returnreturnIf you are new to libertarianism and want to see what its all about again look at one of the other too, or get a modern perspective by clicking into Ernest Hancock. But this one is worth passing by for everyone, unless you are a statist looking for a reference book to show your college professors why no one should listen to libertarians.

This was a fairly good wrap up to the "Mission Gamma" Series inside the DS9 relaunch series. However, the most memorable part was the ending, but not for the right reasons. It was really rushed and tried to poorly set up the next book in the DS9 relaunch, while actually not telling us anything. If your in the series, its worth reading.

This Gray Spirit takes over where Twilight left off in every way, including every other chapter switching between DS9 in the Alpha QUadrant and the Defiant in the Gamma Quadrant. Again the story in the Alpha quadrant was better than that in the Gamma Quadrant, strange seeing this is supposed to be "Mission Gamma". The Federation announces that Bajor will be welcomed as joining the federation, the Bajorians are being douches about it and are still mad at Caradassia and Kira must navigate this nonsense without hurting anyone’s feeling, while the love story of Ro and Quark continues. returnreturnCommander Vaughn finds a new ally in the Gamma Quadrant only to have them double cross him and reveal a racisms that makes 1960s America look tame. Shar thinks if he can save these racists bastards he can save the entire Andorian people. returnreturnJarman does a much better job than George did on keeping her story focused and readable. Chapter sizes where manageable, and each chapter was almost its own cliff hanger wanting me to read through the unrelated next chapter to get to the conclusion of the one I'm on. returnreturnThere were a couple of Star Trek Univerise inconsistencies that must be dealt with, such as If Quark had access to a containment field within the bar, how come he never used it when things got crazy on the show like when the Klingons drank too much?returnreturnWhen a character we were just beginning to fall in love with dies at the end the whole future of the DS9 relaunch series will need to take a direct turn. Reminds me how much easier it is to kill off and get new mager characters in a book series than a TV seriesreturnreturnAll in all a great part of the DS9 relaunch and a desire to keep going after the disappointment of book 1 in the Mission Gamma Series.

This contained quite a bit of cheese, but if you are willing to over look that. I can't recommend FPU enough. While the full class, I felt, was quite beneficial. Merely meeting other families in similar situations to us and discussing verbally was worth the cost of the FPU class. I felt like my time in the class was more beneficial if I listened the the "lessons" on CD before I went to class. If you aren't yet in a place where you can take the full class, borrowing these CDs from your library likely would be worth it too. returnreturnFPU remains me a lot of a 12-step program "Its simple, but its not easy" But getting direction on how to tell my money where to go, instead of wondering where it went, was surprisingly beneficial. I can't recommend enough.

This story could have got to a 4 or 5 star rating, however it didn't due to George's poor use of detail. He sets this in the wrong order. For example he spends two pages telling us how empty the walls in Commander Vaughn's quarters on board DS9 are, and spends the same number of pages describing First Contact with a brand new species unlike anything in Star Trek History. returnreturnThe story was good, going through Bajor possibly joining the federation again, Quark falling in love with Ro, and possibly being okay that his life is not as profitable as once was. Kassidy adjusting to life on Bajor, for the most part I found the story back in the Alpha Quadrant better than that in the Gamma quadrant, which surprised me about a book titled "Mission Gamma" but I'm okay with that. returnreturnThe book begins with an attack by a species I wasn't familiar with which made me think I had to read the Gateways books first. However that particular part of the story wasn't really relevant to the rest. However, I'm still glad I did break and read Gateways. The character development between Vaughn and Prynn was interesting to say the least and Shar with his "bond mates" returnreturnI hope we get more stories involving the Vahni(first contact species mentioned above) and I hope that Geroge gets less wordy so that I actually want to keep reading for the sake of reading, and not just because I'm out of renewals on my library book.

This audio book was all in all Okay. I think there is an important thing to take note that this was written in 2006, such before Mrs. Clinton was to announce that she was seeking the Presidency. As such I think the Clintons were looking for a way to paint themselves in a positive light as caring people, which may or may not be true. returnreturnThe majority of the book is giving to explaining why its important for everyone to give. From the needs of everyone's spirit, including all major religions instructing you to, to the betterment of society, to how it makes you feel, tax benefits, and governments ineptness to get anything done on its own. There is a long list of various organizations you can give to, and stories about how each of them make an impact in there own way. This includes two organizations that I support regularly, Heifer International and Operation Christmas Child of Samaritan's Purse. As well as donating time and skills for those who money isn't the best way to make a difference. returnreturnHowever, what was good in this book was pretty much smashed by the final chapter. After spending most of the book telling why YOU as an individual need to give, then Clinton decides to tell you that it also counts if you spend time trying to "change the system" and get the government to give to people. Even after going into long winded exerts of how ineffective government is by its very nature, he somehow tries to convince you that the nature can be changed. He even gives examples of how its happening now, including "up and coming young Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick" those of use from Michigan have always known he was scum, and by 2013 (granted nearly 8 years after this book was released) most of the rest of the world sees so too. returnreturnSo if you want to get motivated why YOU need to give, or if you have already decided to give but don't want to spend time actively researching which organization you agree with to give your hard earned funds to, then this book is for you. returnreturnIf you like the pseudo-educated southern drawl of Bill Clinton himself, then pick up the audio book for an even less involved decision making process on your giving. But above all, take the last chapter as a grain of salt at the most.

This book was different than what it was sold to me as. It was sold to me as a pathway, a map, for how to get to a completely libertarian society. While there is some of that, it was onl in "Section III" which made up significantly less than 1/3 of the book. returnreturnThe majority of this book was a step by step guide about how a lassie-fare society would operate, particularly how it would operate without government intervention. While this was very fine writing, had fairly clear thought out points, it wasn't knew for me so it was less valuable than it could be. returnreturnThere were two piont when I highly disagreed with Tannehill on. One was the idea that once we eliminated the FED, everyone would certainly turn to gold as the medium of exchange as "only gold is REAL money" yet he gives almost no reasoning to back up such an outlandish claim. The second was far worse, though it was discussed much less in the book, and that was Tannehill's idea that so-called intellectual property is rightfully property, and that somehow this would still exist in a state free society, managed and protected by private Databanks. Not only would such continue stifle intervention, it leads me to believe that such a society would be filled with time consing insurance claims and arbitration and a society not significantly better than we have today. returnreturnAll in all I recommend this book, particularly if you are new to the ideas of living within a completely libertarian society, and even for the old hats it will be useful for section III alone. Even with the two down sides to the writing mentioned above its worth a look.

This book is a collection of short stories about the Icononclasts Gateways, i.e. someon's attempt to write anichients and StarGates into the Star Trek world. returnreturnThe Gateways "series" is actually an interesting idea of a collection of themes which lie into other series. Reading the whole series is not necessary, but reading the portion that is the sequal of the first book from "TOS" word makes me want to circle back and read the rest. This book is the "climax" of the others. Each other book in this series is one story that ends with a "to be continued" like context, adn then finishes in this book. However the stories don't intermingle even in this book so you can just pick and choose what you like. returnreturnI am currently reading the DS9 relaunch, and as such had read "Demons of Air and Darkness" and only had the back story to read DeCandido's DS9 story completely. I felt that his story was too short and fast paste to fit where it did. He should have taken at least one whole book to finish the story. It starts with Kira in the ancient world of Bajor (before it was called bajor, likely equal to about 1200 A.D on Earth) and she included a great line about wanting a new tense of language to refer to items that happened in her personal past but where yet to happen in relation to the time/place which they are currently in. that transition was fast, but likely acceptable, the transition from there back to "modern" times at DS9 was ridiculous. The story failed to explain how it happened, why it happened, or anything else, then it just ended. returnreturnI do recommend the book and story line as a whole, but of the story which I was most interested in I was disappointed.

This story was a drag. returnreturnI tried I really did. In hopes of learning one of the great stories of history I decided to go with the Audio book. This is why it jumped out at me as it was the largest Audio Book in the library. 48 CDs. As far as an audio book production quality it was fairly well. The foreigner reading the English version was good, the end of each CD was properly announced, the beginning of the next likewise, and the track splits made sense. 48 CDs is a lot to manage, and I think about 3 or 4 MP3 CDs would have been better. The Library still had this item marked as NEW yet the box was already falling apart. That is a problem. Worst of all I couldn't renew it because the audio book was already reserved for someone else. returnreturnThe story dragged on and on and on. After the first 6 discs nothing had really happened. Some guy died, someone else joined the army and a bunch of rich bastards talked about how great it is that French people kill other people, and how awesome it is to get drunk. After having to return the discs due to what was described above, I decided to watch the movie before I wrote this review. I got about half way through the 4 hour movie before I realized I still wasn't following it due to how much it dragged on and on about nothing. returnreturnSave yourself some time, unless you need to for a class, or you have a much stronger desire than I to read it just because its classic literature, don't.

This book is more than it looks like. The Reason to vote mentioned in this book is the existence of "the newest and fasted growing party in America, the natural law party". The National Natural Law Party has ceased to exist for almost a decade now, yet this book is still relevant. In some ways more so. Roth does a great job showing what value third parties have had, and continue to have, even in our first past the poll system. Most of the larges changes in the history of our nations politics have been ideas first brought to the for-front by third parties. He shows how difficult it is to get your ideas out as a third party when most of the time is spent simply trying to retain ballot status. It also shows in great detail, with hindsight, WHY the Natural Law Party no longer exists. Even though Roth explains the value of a third party as a third party in his early chapters, in his later chapters he shows the high ideals of the party and their truly deep thickheaded idea that they will become a major party, likely replacing one of the two old parties if they can't get a proportional representation past. This lofty goal is likely what caused them to fold. If you keep telling your supporters that you soon will be the mainstream, and some of their ideas now are, but you are stuck perpetually ending in 4th or lower position in the polls, your going to loose support. Now 14 years after this book was realized, only Michigan still has the NLP on the ballot. A book worth reading, some ideas worth considering, including at least the presentation of some I will include in my campaign for U.S. Senate. I recommend the read.

I finished this book very quickly. The story was very fast passed and kept me flipping pages. The Chapters transitioned quickly from one place to another (gamma quadrant, Bajor, DS9, etc.) and it was easy to keep track of as the chapter would begin with a title indicating where you where. returnreturnAlthough the author claims that this is a stand alone story that happens to fit in the DS9 Relaunch world, I personally would not recommend reading this unless you have at least read S.D. Perry's Avatar. There's not enough background in the fast pasted Gateways book to understand why in the world there is a Jem'ha'dar fighting for the Bajoron Militia and why in the world TNG's Ensign Ro is hanging out with Quark. Almost feel bad for folks who just read the "gateways" series. returnreturnBasic synopsis is somehow something that is a practically identical to Stargates (though I think they are in invisible) shows up in the DS9 universe. But the Federation hasn't figured out how to use the DHD (Dial Home Device is what the SG-1 world calls it). Starts off with someone in another quadrant of the galaxy dumping anti-mater waster into a "hole in space" in hopes of saving their world and avoiding been killed by some crazy hunters. These hunters remind me of the hunters from the DS9 Episode "Captive Pursuit" going after Tosk but I don't think they are identified as such. Through on top of some Xenophobic aliens really mad that refugees are coming through a "gateway" and be amazed that its finished in less than 300 pages.

I had been wanting to read a book about JFK that was from closer to his time. Most things I have heard on JFK are either conspiracy theorists taking about how he "actually died" or libertarian propaganda about how his whole goal in life was to experience sexual freedom and overthrow the bank-sters, or Catholic Propaganda about how he was the great example of an American Catholic. This certainly didn't fall into any of these, but still wasn't what I really wanted. Walton makes the argument, basically, that JFK is the same as any other politician. His description sounds a lot like Barrack Obama, that he was an excellent speaker, and even more than that the media was in the palm of his hands to make him look like a great bastion of liberalism. Walton, I believe, is a Communist, and spends most of the book from that perspective, that if you aren't a communist, you certainly aren't a liberal, and that JFK was just another American President going about promoting the interest of U.S. government and corporations outside of our borders. Much of what Walton would right about reminded me of the writings of DiLorenzo in "Lincoln Unmasked." Walton is a little more tactful than DiLorenzo. Instead of comments about "The Cult of Lincoln" we get messages about "intentionally uniformed Kennedy Defenders" Similiar to DiLorenzo the writing is very focused on the individual subject, and not on the great deal of history around it. The government indoctrination camps didn't do me justice in informing me of the cultural and political ongoing of the mid twentith century, and this coming from a guy with a B.S. in Political Science. It would be like reading DiLorenzo without knowing what "the war between the states" was.returnreturnThe first chapter, revolving round JFK's dealing with Loas, I felt was relatively informative and benneficial. Howeer the deeper Walton got into ideals that readers of his time, the early 70s, likely would have been more familiar with the less detail he gave his later readers. This includes items like the bay of pigs and the the Cuban missile crisis. These are phrases I had heard before, but not situations I was really familiar with. While it did inspire me to read Wikipedia articles about the events, it didn't go much more than that and I still likely didn't have the understanding necessary to really get what Walton was trying to convey. It was certainly wrote for his time, and didn't plan on a long shelf life. returnreturnAll in all if you where a teenager or older during the JFK years, this book is likely a deep dive into "the other side" of JFK, if you are younger than that I recommend reading something else about his presidency than reading this if you'd like too. After reading this I have not been inspired to read more. Maybe someday, but not now.

This audio book was great. The story flowed well and likely could have been about most anyone who grew up in the south at those times. I definitely saw correlation between what our president experienced and the way he is now, and similarly with my father-in-law who is only slightly younger than Mr. Carter. returnreturnI found it surprising how much respect he had for his father even though from the stories he tells it sure sounds like he wasn't deserving of that respect, particularly when you think of "how he knew to go to the back door, and exactly where the Turkey's where and why it took so long to settle up" returnreturnI recommend this to anyone, regardless of your political persuasion; it is really less about politics and more about people. Jimmy Carter's voice is great on audio, and I'm sure the hardcopy would be just as entertaining and informative.

All and all it was pretty good, though I felt the ending kind of fell apart and was a little unbievable. Dr. Bashir is again confronted by the NSA of The Federation, Section 31 an organization that doesn't exist. This time to stop a gemetically enhanced mass murderer who has threatened the unoverse and started his own Jem'haDar Hatching facility in the Badlands. Ezri conviences Kira to let her go along as Ezri and Bashire are not Jadziah and Worf. Ro's expertise at the badlands comes in handy even more than you'd expect and Tarana'tar, the Jem'haDar that Odo sent to observe DS9 has his loyalty questioned successfully, but his tactics still like Federation tact. All in all pretty good.

After borrowing this book from the public library I really want to purchase it myself. I felt Marshall B. Rosenberg did a fine job communicating his ideals. This should not have surprised me as Rosenberg has made almost all of his money communicating with others on how to communicate. At first I thought NVC was a really cheesy idea because "no one talks like that" and I still think it can be ridiculous if taken to the extreme. I certainly see how, when used correctly NVC can better ones life and interactions with others. However, I'm finding that when the opportunity arises I am often having difficulty remembering the stops that Marshall B. Rosenberg taught. Partially it could be the difference of Rosenberg being strait and to the point, unlike the 19th century libertarian philosophers I have been reading lately. He is not repeating himself again and again. So this certainly has advantages and disadvantages. I also found myself while reading of it, allowing my mind to wonder into how others can use it, like my parents, instead of focusing on how I can better my life by using NVC. So its on my wishlist for myself so that I can quickly and easily reference and may decide to get for others too.