Reviews and Comments

One of the better Star Trek novels I have read in some time. Kirk has been sent a on a mission to steal a Romulan cloaking device. No one questioned it as the time. They take some R&R at a science symposium. Things turn weird when one of the scientists starts spotting some bigoted conservative propaganda. returnreturnS.D. Perry is a great author. She did a fine job letting us get inside of Kirk's head, in particular she did a great job as showing as to how Kirk justifies to himself his treatment of women.returnreturnThis would be the first time in the Star Trek timeline that I am aware of Section 31, the Federation's NSA, shows its head. If it wasn't for the giveaway on the cover, it would be much more suspenseful, then again if it wasn't for the giveaway on the cover, I might not read it at all. No need to read the other books in a series to get this. As long as you have seen Star Trek: The Original Series a few episodes to know the characters you should enjoy this book. Highly recommended.

Knost does one of the things I hate when authors do, quotes themselves and their other works in their own writing. Other than that, it is pretty good. Gives a good argument for not being an ass to your kids and to not smack 'em even though you want to.

I felt the Matter of Honor deserved a better conclusion than Sally gave it here. Unclimatic and everything just worked. It was as if she had a deadline and tried to meet it. Didn't make we want to pick up the next in the series, particular when I know she is better than most others writing such licensed science fiction

I read this book at the recommendation of my Aunt Pat because "OMG, Jimmy you don't know what those libertarians are really all about." I did so with the understanding that she would return the favor by reading some essential libertarian ideological literature.

Mayer is very liberal. She has so many assumptions, that the government has a right to the fruits of others labor for one, and that the anonymity is a vice as another.

Let us be clear I am not a fan of the Kochs, however, rather than exposing their great evil, Mayer has done nothing but give me more respect for them than I had had before. They do have a thorough up brining in the literature and the ideology. However, their willingness to use the laws to their advantage against that of their ideology, or even at times to focus on increasing government regulation against their competitors did give me great pride that the Libertarian Party all but kicked them out back in 1983. It is completely missed on Mayer that libertarianism brought to its logical conclusion would have encouraged their political opponents to "expose" what they have been doing as opposed to statist quo we have now "protecting" them from what they have.

The other thing that was plainly clear here is that Mayer seems to have very little respect for her readers. She repeats information frequently, such as "The 1980 platform of the Libertarian Party that David Koch had ran for Vice President under" she either thinks her readers are stupid and have forgotten, or that she has written it assuming that it is going to be used primarily for quoting by others.

The rest of the rouge gallery has learned from what the Kochs have done to transform the Republican party to move the Party further into corporate interests.

Not once does Mayer even question if what the "Dark Money" is doing may be moral, not once does she investigate the ideology behind the corporatists, she simply assumes its evil and then goes about exposing how they did their evil.

If you want to strengthen your own positions, to pat yourself on the back for being right, this book is for you, if you want to get a historical perspective on the corporate interest in American politics, however; this book is not for you.

Frequently when I review audio books, particular nonfiction ones, I recommend that if you are interested in the topic to get the dead tree version instead. This could never be so true as with the 4 hour work week. Not only, as usal, would it be helpful to easlily reference what is discussed, but more importantly it is incredible annoying with the reader actually READS full web URLs. ech-tee-tee-pee-colon-forward-slash-forward-slash, etc. returnreturnThe content, however, seems solid, if sometimes seeming unethical, but then again it can be no more unethical than reviewing a book while at work. We all waste lots of time at work. There is no reason to do so in this day in age. return returnFrom time management techniques, why I got this book, to ways to automatize your entire business and start your own company, this book has something for everyone. I do highly recommend and will be looking to get a copy myself .

While I cannot agree with his recommendation of a "software development tax" where the government could potentially pay the salary of free software developers, everything esle in here is fantastic. returnreturnHis many arguments, even the one I disagreed with, are well thought out and well written. He makes the case not only for the development community but for the community of the whole. We are loosing our rights everyday to restrictive end user license agreements (EULA) Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and the like from Governmetns, the media, and corporations. We need to be teh residence. The more of our life is tied to computers the less it matters who controls the state and the more it matters who controls our computers. returnreturnreturnThis collection is a few years old, and misses some of the developments like Android/Linux and Microsoft joining the Linux foundation, which make me fearful that the open source advocates have one and freedom has lost, but I think that is still open for debate. Highly recommend for all.

This book was OK. This is story of SG-1 and their trip into a far off moon that is still following the religion of the ancient Aztecs. The Go'auhld here, however, are not very strong and need the followers to believe for the sake of believing and fight amongst themselves with no real winners. An old "colleague" of Dr. Jackson has unearthed a Crystal Skull under the Mayan pyramids that it self is a tranporter. However he thinks he's gone back in time. returnI don't feel Whitelaw did a great job capturing the true characters of O'Neil and Carter. Particularly their story long ability to allow the children to believe that they are gods. In a very short time with life in the line maybe, but not for days and weeks at a time. O'Neil wouldn't just be uneasy with this idea, he'd do more about it. returnreturnAs the Sg-1 Series is not intertwined I'd recommend skipping this one.

I really liked this book. I became more interested in Black Catholics in particular as when I lived in Texas I belonged to a primarily black Catholic church. returnreturnWhat I found most interesting actually wasn't related directly to Black Catholics but was actually learning how religious communities (like a new association of nuns) is actually established. It seemed amazingly easy, at least from a hierarchy perspective. The other is that I was surprised how deeply important it was for people to have the option of a Catholic education available. Most of the Church's largest opponents I have met are those that went to Catholic school, so this seemed odd to me. I know that at the time frame the public schools were basically protestant schools that were funded with stolen money, as opposed to the voluntarily funded Catholic schools, so I'm not sure if that is it, or if there really is expected a larger positive from the Catholic schools than I realized. returnreturnOtherwise it was interesting learning of just how old the Black Catholic church is, how long they have been around, and how delicately race relations were treated. I think its unfortunate that Vatican II happened when it did, if it was earlier perhaps we would have had more Black Catholics if the church wasn't so scary in Latin. But it looks like the push of African American Catholics to re-instate the permanent deaconate, something that is evident in almost ever Catholic Parish I've ever been in, seems to have played a major role in the development of Vatican II. returnreturnThe book is expertly referenced, and in a way that does not detract from the comfortable reading. (In line subscript numbers that correspond to the back of the book). A few topics that I found extremely interesting, including: Biography of the first Black Bishop, the son of a slave and her master, A black Catholic outreach home appearing to attempt to rival the Communism of the Panthers, and civil war relations with the state of Missouri, lead to items to add to my book queue for some time in the future.

Significantly better than the first in the series. Characters are well written, I again fall in love with T'ealc and his quiet yet in your face ways. returnreturnThis story takes place during the 7th season of SG-1. Senator Kinsley, now a candidate for VP, has set his own ambassador to set diplomatic relations on a distant world. SG-1 have to come with as his body guards. Soon Jack learns that he's trying to obtain technology specifically intended to work around the 4th amendment of the Constitution, and they try to put a stop to it. In the mean time they find anti-grav technology, floating cities, silent transports etc. that are beyond their wildest dreams. returnreturnJack remembers his friends on SG-10 still trapped trying to gate out of a black hole 5 years ago. Could this technology save them? In their investigation to both stop Kinsley ad save their friends, they get stuck in a false flag attack on the alien world, and get blamed for it, their escape ends them back on the home world of Baal where Jack must over come his PTSD in order to save his friends.

When I went through David Aikman's "Great Souls" about 2 years ago the section on Billy Graham gave me great hope. His story about how the book Angels improved a study not seen in the mainstream made me really want to read this book. returnreturnHowever, this book was disappointing. Graham indicates that he was disheartened by the growing interest in the occult in the 1970s, particularly demonology. He indicated that he had considering writing a book on demonology from a Christian perspective, but chose to write this instead, still dealing with the supernatural. returnreturnWhile I was hoping for an in depth look at Angelic connections in the scriptures, that was very shallow, instead we got a few shallow scripture references, a whole lot of anecdotes, and each chapter ending annoyingly with a request to accept Jesus as your savior. This may have been exactly what the 1970s needed, especially in the environment Graham speaks of, but for a converted Christian it didn't give me a deeper faith than I had had, nor did I feel it added to my tool box of evangelization.

This audio book is actually a collection of lectures, perhaps all recorded over the same weekend retreat. returnreturnAll in all it was pretty good. It was VERY Catholic, and by that I mean frequent references to terminology that other Christians may be unfamiliar and/or uncomfortable with (Like "Heresy" and "Eucharist"). returnreturnAs with most Catholic teaching they take the focus of the teaching from the Gospels and the words of Christ and then use other information to back up their particular interpretation. returnreturnIt surprised me how many times that Jesus talked about the end of the world, the surprising confusion between the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem with the destruction of the world, but what I was most surprised to learn was that the idea of the "rapture" (like described in "Left Behind") did not even exist until the 19th century, and was first penned by a 15 year old Anglican mystic. returnreturnAll in all it kept my attention well, I frequently found myself sitting in the car to try to complete the lesson and a few times even rewinding it to hear that again. It probably would have been more beneficial if I had had access to the handouts/references the instructors were citing. The 8th disk does contain that, probably in PDF form, but I no longer have access to a PC that has a CD drive in order to be able to get to it.

This book started out fantastic. The first chapter deals with Hawkeye and trapper in their volunteer role as medics of the local boy scout troop. They give ever boy in the troop a free physical before they go to summer camp, and at the Camp the serve as the BSA Health Officer. It was a few quick stories. Butterworth could have easily written an entire book about such adventures covering a summer at camp that would have been a fun unique addition to his Mash Series. returnreturnBut alas, quickly it devolves into Buttherworth's standard format of something happens, in this case a Cuban boy gets hurt at camp is then carried for by the Finest Kind Fish Market and Clinic and then his rich family in Miami wants to pay for it but since the FACS refuses they make a large donation to Hotlips' hospital in New Orleans. Then some sort of adventure or Party is planned, in this case giving a "holy relic" from the God is Love in All Things Christian Church, Inc. to this deeply devout Catholic family, and somehow all of Butterworth's cast of characters (less than half of which are from Hooker's Mash world we see on TV and Movies) have to come from around the world to meet. returnreturnNothing bad but little new. 3 Stars.

As usual we spend more time trying to find a way for the gang to accidentally get back together than we actually do with a story once we get there. It's really an old trope by book 11 (9th that Butterworth wrote). At this point I'm not sure if its even worth finishing the series, but I did buy them all.

This audio book was pretty darn good. One of Earth's newest Eagle Scouts Bill Lermer has to leave his troop behind as he and dad are selected to go to Jupiter's moon Ganymeade. On top of that, his dad is getting remarried, and he had no idea ahead of time. returnreturnThe trip to Jupiter teaks forever and is boring, so ta da "lets invent space scouts". Its actually pretty interesting to see how they adapt the patrol method to the set up themselves. returnreturnOf course that gets in even more awkward when they get to Jupiter and find other scouts already there. How to councils merge? (My description makes this sound boring, but its not). returnreturnBill and his dad have to find a way to farm on the moon. Its hard work, and some of the settlers want to return to the over crowded earth, but there is no way to do so. The Socialist programs of Earth have made it impossible to pay to do anything, and some of these folks have just been put there because they appear to no longer be liked by their neighbors at home. returnreturnBill works hard to build his own farm, he is good to have neighbors that care and teach him the hard work. He doesn't get to make his scout meetings, but that's okay, he's falling in love with the farmers daughter. returnreturnYet another Heinileine Juvenile that is well worth reading.

Butterworth gives us another tale of some random foreigners trying to get together with Hawkeye and Trapper and it takes nearly the whole book for them to get there. returnreturnThis time they through in a congressman who had been mentioned before and his wife who is all mad that their daughter wants to be more than just a big boobed cheerleader. returnreturnSomehow the uncle of the wife ends up in a chewing tobacco commercial with his Indian Compatriot, but they wouldn't include their buffalo because that just wouldn't be believable. Said Buffalo, Teddy Rosevelt, ends up driving the Hurse so they can meet up with Hot-Lips all pansi acapella choir, but can they do it before the Knights of Columbus Marching band shows up? returnreturnIf that sounds fun, read this book if not, give it a pass.