Hunter Biden Wrote a Book

Gov. Cuomo's Book Revised

Trump Derangement Got You Down? Try One of These!

2018 is the kind of year that when you think you've seen about everything, something comes along and proves you wrong. Consider...

Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted—the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic.

Yes, the newest dynamic duo of mystery solving studs is not Riggs and Murtaugh, not Tango and Cash, but none other than Barack Biden and Joe Obama. Whatever. I was looking on Amazon for a couple of specific books, when this one caught my eye: 'Hope Never Dies', an Obama Biden mystery... which implies there are or might be others.

Be afraid.. Be very afraid!

Editor's note: This is not technically a violation of the "Obama Free Zone", because these two clowns are clearly fictional, since, in real life, neither has the sense that God gave geese. Although I could picture Joe going into a biker bar. Forget the Magnum PI reboot. This is what America's been waiting for!!!

Hillary's 'What Happened' Sequels

Last Minute Gift Ideas

It's a public service, I tell ya! But, just in case you've run out of ideas for thoughtful gifts for people you like, here's a small grab bag of ideas.



Books

I just finished Andy Weir's 'The Martian'. Recently released as a movie with Matt Damon. (Or Ben Affleck, or one of those interchangeable Hollywood leads.) I saw somewhere that the book was better than the movie. The book was really good. A real page turner. Must have for anyone channeling their inner geek. Note: some NSFW language

I bought Dana Loesch's book 'Hands Off My Guns', initially as an "in your face" to support Dana, through her book sales, in light of the onslaught of people who were attacking her. I expected it to be "preaching to the choir", but I was impressed with her story, the way she tells it, and the amount of new information in it. Buy this one for your favorite Second Amendment supporter.

I just started '13 Hours - The Inside Account of what Really Happened in Benghazi'. It was also recommended to me, but might be a little intense for some readers. Or your blood pressure as you consider that you know how this one turns out.

Finished Michael Connelly's latest, 'The Crossing' about a week ago. Connelly is one of my favorite authors. Always bittersweet coming to the last page.  I'm a bit of a purist, so if he's not been on your radar, consider starting at the beginning of the Harry Bosch novels with 'The Black Echo' (1992)

DVD/Blu Ray

Clint Eastwood's blockbuster 'American Sniper' bears more than one viewing. Chris Kyle is the Alvin York of our time*. This movie would have been Six Stars out of Five if it only hadn't been for that fake baby! Add this one to your collection or if you can find any of the six people in America who didn't see it first run.

A thoughtful gift on a budget is the Blu Ray of 'The Island'. Seen this one for $5 or less at Target. Thought provoking sci-fi, well acted with a little bit of edge-of-your-seat action thrown in. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson star, with some top notch supporting actors.

A DVD I gave all my kids last year was an HBO movie with Kevin Bacon called 'Taking Chance'.
Taking Chance and the Island are the two best movies you never heard of.

CDs

If you like acoustic guitar (and if you can find it) 'The Charlie Byrd Christmas Album'. Outstanding!

Still time to order and get these shipped in time for Christmas. Since I already have all these things, if you're wondering what to get me, dead president portraiture is always in season.

If you are an Amazon shopper, consider signing up for AmazonSmile. A small portion of your purchase is donated to a charity of your choice, like Wounded Warriors, at no additional cost to you.
I support Phoenix Patriot Foundation.

Update: I thought I would include one more suggestion, but for a very narrowly defined group of people. That and a disclaimer that I am not profiting in any way, shape or form from these endorsements. Michael Connelly is NOT sending me a personally autographed copy of his next book (Hint, hint.), nor will Dana Loesch start following me on Twitter (although her husband Chris does), Andy Weir will not write me into one of his next books as the blogger who saved NASA until I do something like... actually saving NASA. (Clint Eastwood and I will still go bar hopping on New Year's Eve, but that goes without saying! If we do run into Scarlett Johansson, that's just luck!)

This is the one product I do not own, but I am quite impressed with the design. If you or someone you love is a pistol shooter, but has trouble gripping the slide to charge the pistol, a company called Brass Stacker has an ambidextrous ring that mounts to the back of the slide, which would make charging the weapon much easier for someone suffering from arthritis or injury. The design is quite simple and elegant, and I was tempted to buy one even though I currently do not need it. I know some folks have purchased Beretta Bearcats in .380 for self defense simply because they lacked the hand strength to chamber the first round. Again, a very narrow subset of people, but if someone in my audience fits this category, look into it.


Merry Christmas! Don't get caught up in the commercialism. Give gifts from the heart for the joy of giving. I also accept Pay Pal.  : )



*If you don't know who Alvin York was, get a copy of Gary Cooper's Sergeant York for yourself. STAT.

Dick Cheney and the Bitter, Frustrated Book Reviewer of Doom

I was reading an article by Christopher Hitchens over at Slate. Now, while Hitchens is a liberal, he has demonstrated that uncommon quality among liberals of being sane, so, while I don't always agree with what he says, I respect his honesty.

On the sidebar, there was a link to this Washington Post story:

‘In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir’ by Dick Cheney. Only the link was titled "Dick Cheney's Self Serving Memoir".

Question for all you non-rabid, intellectually honest people out there: Has there ever been a "memoir" that was not in some way shape or form "self serving"? Anything from "this is how I remember or perceived events at the time" to "the publisher gave me a nice fat advance on the book"?

And even though it is in the "Entertainment" and "Books" section of the Post, don't read Robert G. Kaiser's column to find an analysis of the book, as one might expect in a "book review", but rather you can see Kaiser's bitter partisan take on Cheney the man, not the book.

Far be it for an "honest liberal" (stop laughing!) like Kaiser to analyze the book on its merits or lack therof, and allow the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

If I had to sum up this review in six words, it would be "Move along! Nothing to see here!"

Naomi Campbell: Reading is Fundamental!

The Daily Caller had a Pop Sugar poolside pic of model Naomi Campbell, proving once and for all that models are not just pretty faces!



Note the title of the book. (Turn your monitor upside down, if necessary.)

Christopher Hitchens - Honest Liberal

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Christopher Hitchens
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

A man of humor, given to literary allusions, author and believe it on not...an honest liberal. Although I seldom agree with him, I respect him for his honesty.

H/T Threedonia

"Everything You've Heard About Interrogating Prisoners is Wrong"

An enlightening interview with Marc Thiessen
More on the subject here.


H/T Conservative Perspective
Cross posted at Say Anything

Robert B. Parker, R.I.P.

Robert Ulrich as Spenser

One of my favorite authors has passed away.

BOSTON – Robert B. Parker, the blunt and beloved crime novelist who helped revive and modernize the hard-boiled genre and branded a tough guy of his own through his "Spenser" series, has died. He was 77.

The cause of death was unclear.

Creator of the Spenser novels, his works have provided inspiration for both TV shows and movies. He will be missed.


Robert B. Parker, dead at 77

November 22, 1963 - A Remembrance

This was first posted Nov. 22 2008



Today marks the anniversary of the passing of a great man. One who left his mark on his country and his culture. One who is still quoted to this day. On November 22, 1963, the world little noted his passing in the shock and outpouring of grief over the assassination of JFK. That man was Clive Staple Lewis…oddly enough, like JFK, ”Jack” to his friends.

C. S. Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, was a contemporary and friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also an atheist who came to Christianity, in his own words, “kicking and screaming”, who became one of its strongest apologists.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

-Surprised by Joy

His books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold millions of copies over the years. Anthony Hopkins portrayed him in the movie Shadowlands (1993), the story of his romance with American poet Joy Gresham, who died of cancer a mere handful of years after they met.

His life was rich and varied. His sorrows deep and vast. His legacy is enduring.

In our remembrance of those who passed this day, one might do well to remember what can be accomplished with just a pair of Jacks!

Sarah Palin on Limbaugh Show

All you Sarah-cuda fans take note: Next Tuesday (Nov. 17th) between the hours of 9AM PST and Noon, Rush will interview Sarah Palin on the EIB network the day her new book debuts.



For my friends outside the US, you could listen via the Internet on KSFO.

Cross posted at Say Anything

Gulag Archipelago Now Required Reading in Russia

Things that make you go...hmmm! Who would have thought or even imagined in one's wildest dreams, that a book banned by the Soviets in the '70s would become required reading for that nation's high school kids?

If I may channel Yakov Smirnoff for a moment:

What a country!

Hat tip Jay Nordlinger

To Say Nothing of the Dog -A Mini Book Review

I just finished “To Say Nothing of the Dog” -by Connie Willis , A tale of time travel set primarily in Victorian England. Think “Charley’s Aunt” meets “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”!
Time travel stories are a particularly favorite genre of mine, and one that is seldom well done. Too many authors have problems with causality or paradoxes that are either ignored or perhaps, not even recognized by the author?
To Say Nothing of the Dog is not science fiction per se. There is little “science” here: No flux capacitors, black holes or Heisenberg compensators. Their time portals are rather like an elevator…when you push the button, the door opens and you get in and are taken to your destination.
Set in a so too distant future where cats, incidentally have become extinct… See! Not all visions of the future are bleak! (Just kidding, cat lovers!) …it is thought that matter cannot be transported from the past, until a historian sent back to Victorian England rescues a cat and brings it forward in time. The difficulties and humor ensue when another historian is dispatched to return the cat to its own era and prevent any incongruities in the space time continuum from occurring.
Unfortunately, for our hero, frequent trips back and forth through time produce “time lag”, which closely mimics severe sleep deprivation in its effects, further hampering our hero from concluding his appointed rounds.

I enjoyed it. More a Victorian comedy than space time epic, still Ms. Willis acknowledges inspiration from the master, Robert Heinlein, in her dedication, and you can see, perhaps a bit of By His Bootstraps in the structure of the plot. A good read, but not everyone’s cup of tea!

To Say Nothing of the Dog won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1999 and is available in paperback from Bantam Books

The Scarecrow: A Mini Review

Michael Connelly’s latest book, The Scarecrow is a tightly written, compelling work of suspense fiction. Featuring characters first fleshed out in his book The Poet, Connelly takes newspaperman Jack McEvoy into today’s headlines of newspaper downsizing and layoffs. Given his notice and told to train his replacement, Jack stumbles onto the trail of a serial killer who reunites him with FBI agent Rachel Walling, and then puts both their lives in peril.

An outstanding read. Hard to put down. Having come late to the party (I discovered Mr. Connelly books passing through an airport having exhausted my last book) I soon became a big fan and have not been disappointed in any of his fiction.

In fact, the only disappointment with The Scarecrow, is it ends too soon…
Five out of five stars.

November 22, 1963 - In Remembrance

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the passing of a great man. One who left his mark on his country and his culture. One who is still quoted to this day. On November 22, 1963, the world little noted his passing in the shock and outpouring of grief over the assassination of JFK. That man was Clive Staple Lewis…oddly enough, like JFK, ”Jack” to his friends.

C. S. Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, was a contemporary and friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also an atheist who came to Christianity, in his own words, “kicking and screaming”, who became one of its strongest apologists.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

-Surprised by Joy

His books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold millions of copies over the years. Anthony Hopkins portrayed him in the movie Shadowlands (1993), the story of his romance with American poet Joy Gresham, who died of cancer a mere handful of years after they met.

His life was rich and varied. His sorrows deep and vast. His legacy is enduring.

In our remembrance of those who passed this day, one might do well to remember what can be accomplished with just a pair of Jacks!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Michael Crichton RIP

Last May, I started a post on Michael Crighton's contribution to the environmental debate. Not sure why, but I never got around to finishing it. He was an impressive man with an impressive intellect. Crighton passed away recently, much too soon: A great loss to reason, literature and the culture. Mark Steyn, far better wordsmith than I, put it thusly:

Michael Crichton was a man of formidable intelligence and boundless curiosity. The two don't go together quite as often as they should. For years, when I picked up his latest novel, I'd find myself sighing, "Of course." The books had the inevitability of all the truly great ideas - as if they had not been cooked up in his study but had always been lying there, like truffles out in the woods, and he'd just been the first hound to get to them and snuffle them out. But, of course, he got to them again and again, for over 30 years. To be sure, the characters and the prose didn't always rise to life, but the concept, the premise, the hit title usually saw him through. The critics were snippy about Crichton, but then he had the measure of the media far more than they had it of him.

Belatedly, I bring you what I started, but never finished, of Crichton detailing how beliefs, particularly beliefs in junk science, are impervious to facts:

Noted author Michael Crichton has spoken out with a very clear voice on Environmentalism and the Environmentalist Wackos that have tried to co-opt the movement. Here are some excepts from a speech he gave in 2003:

I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance.

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

Read the entire speech. His words do him greater justice than I could ever do.

RIP, Mr. Crichton. You'll be missed.

Bonus Quote (from 30,000 feet)

...Navajo say the way to find witches, anybody evil, is to look for people that have more than they need and their kinfolk are hungry.

-Tony Hillerman, The Shape Shifter

Moonlighting for Harper Collins

There is no "off" position on the genius switch! - D. Letterman

If anyone knows Steve Martini or any editors at Wm. Morrow or Harper Collins, tell them that the word he was looking for on page 104 of Shadow of Power was "levee" not "levy".

You're welcome.

The Mouse that Roared - A Book Review

Well, not so much a review as a recommendation! The Mouse that Roared, (1955) by Leonard Wibberley is a novel set in the tiny, imaginary country of "the Duchy of Grand Fenwick."
I suppose it's been at least two score years since I've read it, but it's a delightful tale of a small country that proposes to solve its economic problems by declaring war on the US and then immediately apply for foreign aid. Plans go awry when they accidentally "win".
I don't wish to spoil any of the fun for you. If you need a little light hearted satire this election year, you could do far worse than investigating Mr. Wibberley's small dynasty!
BTW, don't rent the movie! At least, not until after you've read the book!