Diversity Lane by Zack Rawsthorne.
The web comic now in dead tree format! Great strip, on my short list of web comics to check daily. Rawsthorne captures the liberal mindset in brilliant one panel cartoons.
Tags: book, Humor, Liberal, Monday Book Pick, Politics
Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist by Patrick Albert Moore
Speaking of Evniromentalists and watermelons, this week’s pick is by a founder of Greenpeace. This book is by someone who actually cares about the planet, who quit the organization he helped found after it was taken over by socialists using the environmental movement to push their political agenda. Here is the money quote from a recent article by Moore:
The collapse of world communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall during the 1980s added to the trend toward extremism. The Cold War was over and the peace movement was largely disbanded. The peace movement had been mainly Western-based and anti-American in its leanings. Many of its members moved into the environmental movement, bringing with them their neo-Marxist, far-left agendas. To a considerable extent the environmental movement was hijacked by political and social activists who learned to use green language to cloak agendas that had more to do with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization than with science or ecology. I remember visiting our Toronto office in 1985 and being surprised at how many of the new recruits were sporting army fatigues and red berets in support of the Sandinistas.
Oh ya, a watermelon is a politie term to describe those folks in the red berets, a thin skin of green, but red to the core.
HT to AoSH, who also has this bonus video by Michael Crichton
Tags: book, Environment, Monday Book Pick, Politics, watermelon
Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth by Les Johnson, Gregory L. Matloff and C. Bangs.
A bit of hard science for you geeks and Greenies (real greenies, not watermelons), describing on how to use resources of the solar system for terrestrial benefit. Yup, going to space is good for Mother Gaia. Move your hard industry and power production to Earth orbit and mine the resources of the Solar System.
Tags: book, Environment, Monday Book Pick, Science, Space, Technology
The Fighting Tomahawk by Dwight C. McLemore.
Dispite its European origins, the tomahawk is considered a uniquely American weapon. This is an interesting look at the use of tomhawk, and long knife, in practical combat terms. It is interesting that the author emphasizes the reverse grip for the knife. I’m not a big fan of the reverse knife grip for combat, but I can see how it is useful in blocking when the tomahawk is the primary offensive weapon.
Tags: book, Martial Arts, Monday Book Pick, Tomahawk
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss
I just started digging into this book, but it is very interesting and the result of a huge amount of research.
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick
Out of the Dark by David Weber
Weber takes a look at a near future Earth invaded by a ruthless alien species. Raw meat for Weber fans right up to the surprise ending. An ending which horked off some fans, but not me. I took at a hat tip to the late Fred Saberhagen.
Tags: book, David Weber, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
The Shaolin Grandmasters’ Text: History, Philosophy, and Gung Fu of Shaolin Ch’an
A very good book for the serious martial artist. A lot of history as well the basics behind various techniques and philosophy. It explains why there are no real Shaolin in mainland China anymore (the Communists were better at driving them out than the War Lords), and why you are better off going to the Chinatowns of San Francisco, New York City and Boston, to find real Shaolin Gung Fu than going to Communist China (where they have Tai Chi practitioners and WuShu artists in orange robes to bilk tourists of the their cash).
Tags: book, History, Martial Arts, Monday Book Pick
The BIG Black Lie: How I Learned The Truth About The Democrat Party by Kevin Jackson
Kevin Jackson tells how he escaped the trap liberal democrats have set for Black Americans and became a conservative Republican.
Tags: book, conservative, democrat, Monday Book Pick, Politics, racism
SciFi author John Scalzi has written a reboot of the Hugo nominated H. Beam Piper novel, Little Fuzzy.
He figures that rebooting SciFi TV series is all the rage, so why not do it for a really good SciFi novel? He has permission from the Piper estate, even though the original Little Fuzzy book is in the public domain.
I’ve like what I’ve read of Scalzi’s work so far, so I’m looking forward to this reboot book.
Tags: book, H. Beam Piper, John Scalzi, Science Fiction, SciFi, Sunday SciFi
The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein
This novel is about four geniuses travelling through space and mutiple-dimensions in a flying car with its own AI. The travellers wander through multiple science fiction universes, including several of Heinlein’s own.
A fun ride for Heinlein fan, but I would not recommend this for someone reading their first Heinlein novel. If you haven’t read any thing by the Grandmaster of American Science Fiction, you are missing not just good adventure stories. As author Spider Robinson so aptly put it, “And I repeat: if there is anything that can divert the land of my birth from its current stampede into the Stone Age, it is the widespread dissemination of the thoughts and perceptions that Robert Heinlein has been selling as entertainment since 1939.”
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Robert Heinlein, Science Fiction, SciFi