Defy Your Doctor And Be Healed

Way back in 2005 my grandfather was dying of congestive heart failure, which anyone familiar with that term, knows it’s a slow and painful way to die. It surprised nobody, because if you don’t exercise or eat properly for 30 years, your heart just doesn’t pump right. A month before he died, he went on a zero-sodium diet and lost 30 pounds, becoming unrecognizable. But it was too late.

Corriher’s book gives practical and often cost-effective ways to treat things like depression and diabetes without drugs. For instance, it recommends a mineral called Niacin for depression, which is found in fish, then goes on to list the hazards of processed carbohydrates when it comes to emotional health. Other processed food ingredients, such as MSG, are listed with all the pre-existing conditions that they will aggravate. Aspartame, another unhealthy additive, has been linked to brain damage and Parkinson’s disease. Giving up sodas is strongly recommended.

Non-food products are covered here too, especially food containers. Plastic water bottles contain harmful chemicals, and even metal water bottles can be hazardous because acidic beverages will react with them, giving off harmful compounds. Chlorine is found in tap water, crackers, and processed fish, adding to the ill health effects.

Like many Americans, my grandfather relied on a cocktail of hypertension drugs, blood thinner drugs, drugs, drugs, and more drugs, pumping billions into the pharmaceuticals industry. I’ve seen articles on patients who reduced their meds for 20 to three by exercising and cutting out processed food. Not only is it cheaper than all the drugs, but it produces greater long-term results. The human body can’t continue functioning normally if it’s worn out from years of chemical use.

Tales of a Forensic Pathologist by Zoya Schmutter

Long before we had CSI and all those wonderful crime dramas, the New York City medical examiners were climbing up staircases to examine the dead, and it wasn’t glamorous or even rewarding. Dr. Schmutter was an immigrant physician from the Soviet Union, assigned to respond to homicides, accidents, and mysterious deaths were the cause was undetermined. The doctors were mostly immigrants from USSR or Haiti, and it was thankless work. You had to show up at whatever scene of death there was, whether the elevator worked or not. Traveling by subway was a long haul in the days before Guiliani, and as any NYC resident of the time will remember, it was never a safe place to be at night.

Zoya Schmutter writes in a way the captures the sights, sounds, and even smells of her work. She discusses the intense inspections of the dead bodies, taking blood and tissue samples, the dark, dingy basements where the medical examiners worked. There are a few short anecdotes about her cases, like the exotic dancer with the double life, or the mummified woman whose family didn’t know she was dead. Some photos or maps would be helpful, and perhaps some more info about the ways that the pathologist determines the cause of death.

Marijuana Syndromes by John Mini

Marijuana Syndromes is all about the way marijuana use interacts with other herbal drugs. The author, and acupuncturist and herbalist, discusses the many unhealthy side effects of marijuana use, along with practical advice for making it less hazardous. For instance, the chapter “Balancing the Effects of Marijuana” discusses proper nutrition and sleep if you’re going to use cannabis, along with proper fluids and exercise. He also recommends having friends that don’t use marijuana, and using reading and study to keep your mind sharp. Later chapters cover the herbs that you prescribe to counter the effects of marijuana use, and also the right foods to eat if you use marijuana. Most of the foods recommended are bitter greens, or root vegetables like carrots.

The overall point of this book is that like any other herb, marijuana can have negative effects if you take too much of it and too frequently. He stresses a balanced approach to marijuana use, taking it only as a supplement to proper exercise, nutrition, and lifestyles.

Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family

When New Orleans flooded, nobody was ready, not even the local National Guard. When Hurricane Sandy hit NY and NJ, some were ready. For those who didn’t lose their houses, many lost power and running water. But the ones who survived the power outages were the ones who said “fine, I’ll go without comforts for a few days.” But did they have adequate clothes? Did they keep a supply of water? Did they have flashlights?

Before I get into details, let me tell you that this book is not for the “doomsday prepper.” It doesn’t tell you how to fight off hordes of flesh-eating zombies, or survive a nuclear holocaust; those things are unlikely. It does tell you how to prepare your home for a natural disaster, like an earthquake. You can’t make your home 100% earthquake resistant, that’s impossible. But what you can do is fasten the boiler to the wall, same thing with the washing machine and the fridge.

Dr. Bradley covers basic things, like water purifiers, which everyone should have in their home regardless. Then he covers geographically-specific things, like having a small boat if you live in a flood zone. If you live 20 feet above sea level and a mile from the shore, a boat would be unnecessary, but as we saw in Hurricane Sandy, canoes came in handy for Breezy Point residents. First aid kits, fire extinguishers, and the knowledge of how to use them, are essentials not matter where you live.

The chapter that I found most relevant was #13, Financial Preparedness, because this country has seen a million homeowners get hit by surprise since 2007. Bradley covers the most obvious ways to save money; get rid of cable TV, quit smoking, buy a used car, drink tap water. All of these things can save you a fortune. If you’re obese, diabetic, and you need 20 medications, maybe this is the time to cut processed foods? Can you work out without a gym? Can you bike to work to save on the gas?

Too often, we seek out creature comforts rather than practical skills. Before you even think of disaster, think of something more likely, such as a strike. If there’s a truck driver strike, and bread trucks aren’t coming in, do you know how to make your own bread from flour and yeast? If the butchers go on strike, can you butcher a hog yourself? Are you willing to keep chickens in your backyard when eggs aren’t reaching the stores? After the threat of strikes is over, can you stand to go without electricity? Can you wash your clothes by hand, and hang them out to dry? Will you and your kids go crazy without TV or WiFi?

If you want to be secure in your finances, health, family, and community, read this book. Don’t bother with Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” series, which is all quackery and get-rich-quick schemes. Dr. Bradley give practical advice on saving money, energy, food, space, and your life. Remember how the subprime foreclosure crisis devastated whole towns? So many people were unprepared for that, and I bet it’s the biggest disaster we’ve had since the Great Depression. People lose homes in hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, but the foreclosure crisis hit people no matter where they lived.

Let me finish by saying that on 9/11, the first thing I did was buy a flashlight. I never needed it, until the blackout of 2003, and on that, do you know what happened to me? The flashlight didn’t work! I had left the batteries in there for so long that they corroded. On the one night that I needed it most, I had no flashlight, and the stores were sold out. I never, ever, made that mistake again.

Motivation and Reinforcement: Turning the Tables on Autism

Robert Schramm believes that kids with autism should be accepted as they are. But adults and teens with autism, who never got the help they needed when they were younger, may end up feeling very lonely. By teaching the child some skills for life, you can make it easier for the child to fit into his or her environment.

Schramm provides ideas on how to encourage the kind of behavior that the parent desires,  such as removing things to change the environment. Even if you are okay with something in the home, it may not be acceptable in public. Would you want a child doing it in your home? Would it be acceptable at a public swimming pool?  If not, then it requires work. One of the suggestions in this book is to NOT take things away as punishment, opting instead for a “cash and carry” policy; you get the said reward when you do the task, no credit or excuses allowed. If the rule is “no TV until homework is done” then stick to the rule and don’t take “I forgot the book” as an excuse.

My only fault with the book is that there aren’t enough stories or examples to illustrate. The Grandparents’ Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorders has many, along with diagrams and pictures, which would be helpful too.

Those Are MY Private Parts by Diane Hansen

This book reminds me of that 1980’s commercial with Emmanuel Lewis (the short kid from Webster, if anyone remembers) where he says “say no, go, and tell.” The problem with that commercial was that absolutely no child in the USA had any idea what they were talking about. Unfortunately, Those Are MY Private Parts has the same fault; kids will not understand any of it.

TAMPP consists of short poems that say “there is no private parts game” or “I don’t have to let anyone see my private parts.” The reason I think it’s futile is that these kids can’t say no, and the reason they can’t say no is that they’re not allowed to. Kids are always taught to obey authority, so what happens when mom and dad leave their kid with Uncle Ralph for the night and he tries something? Let’s say eight year old Marsha gets dirty from picking berries, so Uncle Ralph insists she take a bath. Then he insists on not only “helping” her undress, but insists on scrubbing her back, cleaning those “hard to reach places,” and then giving her a good “drying off.” What is Marsha going to do? Do you think she’s going to bark “those are MY private parts, and you’re not allowed to touch them!” I doubt it, because the average kid doesn’t want to displease the grownups and risk getting them mad at her.

Perhaps the book would serve a greater purpose if it involved a fictional story with regular illustrations? Kids need concrete examples in order to learn, and they learn best by seeing examples of rules in action. Another reason why I think this book won’t work is that kids (especially in the USA) are taught to allow “forcible touching.” By that I mean telling them “go give Uncle Ralph a hug or you can’t have your Christmas presents” or it can be “give your aunt a kiss or I’ll be very angry!” If we dictate to kids that they have to let grownups touch them, how can we expect them to tell the difference between acceptable and unacceptable touching?

Handbook of Peritoneal Dialysis by Dr. Steven Guest

Dr. Guest’s book is thoroughly inclusive, starting from the early days of Peritoneal Dialysis up to the present day and any problems involved. He states bluntly at the very beginning that some countries have not yet begun to use this technique, while others have enjoyed the benefits for years. As with any medical procedure, safety is paramount, and this book covers the proper way to place catheters. It also advises the repair of any pre-existing conditions, such as hernias, that can get in the way of the catheter placement.

A chapter is given on the use of Peritoneal Dialysis in obsess patients, for whom the procedure may bring further complications. Caution must be used with regard to anti-inflammatory drugs, and the catheters must be placed in a certain way so that they can be monitored, in case an infection flares up.

Yoga For Singers by Linda Lister

“Be ready to throw some ego and insecurity out the window” says the author. According to her, yoga for singers is just like any kind of yog; it means you can’t think about how you look. Forget about looking fat, forget about how people look at you, yoga means concentration. But then again, aren’t performers supposed to concentrate? Aren’t stage actors supposed to ignore the thousands of eyes looking at them? Somehow, I think that the only remedy for stage fright is concentration, and that is what yoga is about.

Yoga For Singers is perfect for anyone looking to have a career in performing arts. It teaches both physical and mental self-discipline, focusing on concentration and anxiety control. There are photos on every page, illustrating the many poses available.

The Education of a Teacher by Susan Van Kirk

I think this book falls into the category about how a small town changes over the decades. The 1960’s were about rock music, Vietnam, and the sex revolution. Then came the 1980’s, with the crack epidemic, crime, teen pregnancy becoming less of a stigma, and some good things too, like computers. The dynamic is that this is in a small town, not a city.

In the early 1970’s, Susan Van Kirk is young, green, and living in Monmouth, Illinois, a time and place where teaching is considered “woman’s work.” The very worst thing for her is “fighting” between farm boys, nothing more. But in the 1980’s, a student comes to her for help because her foster parent is coming into her room at night and “taking liberties.” In the 1970’s, a teen would not have been likely to tell a teacher about this, and would probably have been advised to keep it hushed.  I guess there was one good thing about the 1980’s, in that we were moving away from victim-blaming.

One poignant story in this book is about a black student, a true “minority” in a dominantly white town, torn between sports and academics.  He opens up about how he actually dislikes football; it’s the macho coaches pushing him into it, but his real talent is in computers. Here we see the transition towards technology in American life, and the stigma that was attached to it. In the 1980’s the computer scientist was the pencil-necked geek with 50’s glasses and a pocket protector, not the stylishly dressed hippy with torn jeans and lots of tattoos, making big money on the internet. But a “tough” black boy teaching himself advanced programming, now that’s a minority within a minority.

What’s missing from the book is the physical change of the town.  She admits early in the story that it became a college town after decades of farming. But how did it effect the kids? There must have been some transition as well from the factories. Did they close? Did the town lose jobs? She makes it clear in the intro, this is not going to be “Dangerous Minds” or “Freedom Writers.” It’s a small town, not a blighted city. But it couldn’t have all been good.

Van Kirk dislikes the NCLB law. She left before it came about, and transitioned to teaching at a local college. There used to be more expected from teachers, and they were trusted more. Now the teaching is towards the tests, and the teacher can’t make things fun. I also suspect that in a small town it’s easier to get a part-time job for a teenager, like the chapter “Mister Detroit.” The boy husks corn for money, a job you won’t see in New York City. But I promise you, my worst students would’ve loved that job.

Perhaps when you have sports and work, the kids have a better focus for their energy?

Religion, Food, and Eating in North America

Let’s begin by saying that every kid in the USA has learned the Thanksgiving story. Do they know that the Pilgrims came here because of religion? Maybe not, but they all know the menu they served, and they’ll all associate pumpkins, turkey, and cornbread with Thanksgiving.

It seems, according to this book, that religious people put more “soul” into the food. Jewish Shabbat lunches, Muslim Iftars, and traditional Christmas foods (each country has its own custom) all reflect this theory. In the USA, Protestants have always been at the forefront of the health crazes. If you need proof, look at the Kellog brothers, devout Seventh Day Adventists who ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and tried to invent new foods to replace the less healthy cooked breakfasts that Americans ate. There’s also the Hallelujah Acres, an evangelical ministry, that encourages raw food diets.

The chapter “Dreydel Salad” is not entirely accurate. Traditional Jewish foods in the USA are all Ashkenazi from Lithuania and Poland. KTAV, cited as the dominant supplier of Jewish cookbooks, stressed how Jewish people could impress the nation on how they could be the perfect American minority. It promoted typically dull American ingredients, like canned pineapple and coconut, typical 1950’s chintzy stuff.  Non-European Jewish foods, like tagine, shish kebab, and couscous, I imagine would have led to stares, sniggers, and xenophobia if they’d been served in the Eisenhower-Kennedy era. Israeli foods would’ve gotten the same reaction, because until the 1970’s most Jewish Americans had never visited Israel. Typical Ashkenazi fare, like blintzes, kuggel, and latkes, were considered “traditional” until the 1980’s. Today a lot of Jews won’t eat kuggel.

More chapters follow, with the same ethnic-religious connection to food. The movie Annie Hall is an example, where the wasp versus Jew dinner scene highlights the cultural difference. By the 1950’s, Yom Kippur was no longer a fast day to non-religious Jews, but a feast day! Borscht Belt hotels celebrated the “high holidays” with huge dinners and comedians. Orthodox Jews would blanch at the idea of feasting and comedy on Yom Kippur, but the likely humorous anecdotes are missing from this book. Most of the material is from second hand sources. Beef was abundant in the USA in the early days, so there was plenty of opportunity for Jewish, Irish, and southern cuisines had the chance to bulk up.

Children Living in Transition

There’s a scene in this book where a parent tries the “do you want another whupping” approach to a misbehaving 9 year old, in trouble both in and out of the classroom. They’re living in transitional housing, and the mother hates it when the social worker tells her not to use the traditional “smack in the behind.” But as you can guess, neither way  works, because the parent is fed up with the kid’s misbehavior, yet she’s too angry to take advice.

This book blames the problems on bad parenting more than on being homeless. Research shows that depressed mothers are more likely to use corporal punishment, and race can be a factor. Though poor white parents are just as likely to use slaps to discipline their children, angry black parents may see it as a “me versus them” issue when advised not to use hitting.

There’s a chapter on working with families to change the parenting styles, but some more case studies would be in order. Earlier book have covered these topic; I remember seeing similar problems discussed in Jonothan Kozol’s book Rachel and Her Children back in the early 1990’s, so you can see how things haven’t really changed in 25 years. Lack of mobility is a problem, and if you have no family to depend on for mutual support, that makes things a lot worse.

Libraries by Candida Hoffer

Hoffer photographs libraries as though she were photographing the inside of a great museum. Her photographs of libraries all the way from USA to Europe amount to beautiful artwork, evoking majesty and history. In a way, old libraries are museums; they were designed to resemble the insides of stately homes, so that whoever paid for them could show how rich and powerful they were. Whether they were built by kings and queens, or by the Medicis, or the Carnegies and Rockefellers, they always have the best when it comes to architecture and décor.

The juxtaposition is clear when it comes to the times. The libraries will either be wood-paneled and luxurious, or the kind of modernist carpeting that would make George Jetson proud. Few of the photos have any people in them, which allows the photographer to concentrate on the interiors. However, I the people who frequent the libraries tell you a lot about their true purpose. Take for example the library on Second Avenue and St. Marks Place in NYC; it’s full of homeless people who sit there all day, and those that aren’t homeless spend all day with their laptops. NYC’s public libraries are a notorious refuge for the homeless, so I wonder if it’s the same with public libraries in London, Paris, and Milan? Do Europeans bring their laptops into the library the way Americans do?

Unfortunately, young people don’t spend as much time in libraries as they used to. Whereas up until perhaps 2004, young people did their research at the library, now they use the internet. They no longer head for the library to do that social studies project, and as a result they don’t discover all those other books they have. It’s a shame that such a great resource is going to waste.

The New Urban Question

Andy Merrifield uses Paris as an example of early gentrification, particularly the way Bruno Haussmann bulldozed a lot of poor areas to rebuild the city. He quotes Eric Hazan’s book about Paris, with his lamentations over the changes, and championing of the banlieus as the next great thing in the city. If only Hazan had 30 year foresight and seen what the banlieus would become in this decade, I wonder if he would’ve moved to the USA?

The New Urban Question raises the rich versus poor argument frequently. If a city wants to expand, it has an easier time annexing poor towns. If the mayor wants to build a new stadium, he’ll probably demolish a slum. But this is where the author gets it all wrong (or simply ignores) in his argument; the “poor” areas are usually full of derelict fire-hazard buildings that the landlords want to get rid of anyway. If only somebody wanted the old row houses in Camden and Philadelphia, because those houses have been empty for years. The banlieus, which he lovingly discusses in tribute to Hazan, are a mess that nobody wants. The original inhabitants abandoned them as quickly as they could, and those that remain have nowhere to go, or simply lack the initiative.

The next book that the author discusses is Steven Graham’s City Under Siege, and its views on the militarization of police. Never mind what we saw recently in Ferguson, Missouri; that was just cops in military gear. Graham shows how London, Toronto, and other cities go crazy when they host the G7, G8, and G20 conferences, with barricades, cops in riot gear, security cameras everywhere, and general paranoia. But is it fair to call that an “urban” issue? Why not leave the city out of this and blame the G20? Do they have to hold their conference in a great city like New York, Paris, Milan, Seattle, or London? Why not hold the conference somewhere in Alabama? There’s plenty of room down there, and if they select the right town, no left-wing people to complain! Then there’s the Olympics, which spread demolition everywhere they go. Instead of Paris, London, or Athens, why not Philadelphia? There’s no shortage of derelict buildings to tear down to build a stadium, and you can build the Olympic Village to house them in neighboring Camden.

Just kidding folks, we know that’ll never happen. Philly, Camden, St. Louis, Mississippi, and Alabama aren’t chic, glitzy, or stylish, so they’ll never be an issue in a book like this. The only cities that will be part of the “urban question” are the stylish ones, where there’s a demand for housing and greater competition for space.

The Revolt Against the Masses: How Liberalism Undermined the Middle Class

Oscar Wilde and D.H. Lawrence turned up their noses at the bourgoise, while praising poets, according to the author. It won’t take a lot of convincing to tell me these men were full of themselves, because bourgoise money is what paid for their education and financed the production of Wilde’s plays. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis satirized the middle class, but it was middle class money that paid for their education. The author uses the heroine of Lewis’ novel Main Street as an example of dissatisfaction with small town life. But would she prefer living in a subdivision? Remember the town of Maycomb, Alabama, from To Kill a Mockingbird? That small town may seem dull, but there was plenty of social life for everyone, and the kids could walk to and from school.

   In the 1920’s, the New Republic’s Waldo Frank (NY born) voiced his disgust with the “human waste” that rode the subway home. But what had he done to contribute to progress? When Lewis turned up his nose at small town life, would he have preferred to live in one of Eugene O’Neill’s plays? Would he have preferred an apartment above the Last Chance Saloon, in a strip populated by hookers, crooked cops, gamblers, and drunks?

   I agree with the author’s criticism of society’s critics. Everyone chooses to live where they feel the need. Some like the city, some prefer a house, some don’t mind the long drive to work. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis were within their rights to satirize the middle class, but they never worked to make positive changes. Nowadays, it’s not unusual for Ivy League graduates to become teachers in rough, failing schools. Who’s opinion counts more?

    I don’t, however, agree with his use of Leopold & Lobe as an example of elitism run amok. Both men got life in prison, and although they were spared the death penalty, they didn’t get special treatment just because their families were wealthy. Clarence Darrow’s argument that they killed to satisfy intellectual desire didn’t influence the judge, who was probably against the death penalty anyway. A better argument for the author would be the Jack Henry Abbott case, now that was an example of intellectual stupidity gone wild. Norman Mailer fought to free a convicted murderer, over the psychiatrist’s objection, and a month later he committed another murder. Call it “radical chic” if you like, but Mailer was so awed by Abbott’s writing talent that he overlooked the man’s violent nature. At least the author rails against Amiri Baraka and other black intellectual hucksters who’ve killed any chance of progress.

    Keep in mind, in the early 60’s, Baraka was named “LeRoi Jones” and was living in Manhattan’s west Village, married to a white woman and a staple in the beatnik scene. With the death of Malcolm X, he suddenly became a great black radical.

First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar

The students of Dunbar High School in Washington DC put on a dance show to celebrate Obama’s election. Most of the audience found it vulgar, clumsy, and low class. Their school has a history of problems, like many inner city schools. But 60 years ago, it graduate the best black students in DC.

This book tells me that much of what drove progress in the DC black community of the time was elitism. If you were a good student who was able to attend high school, then you had to act the part. Always be properly dressed, well-behaved, and speak in perfect English. It was an “academics first” education, and if you couldn’t conform, off you went to vocational school, where you’d be trained for a respectable career. Either way, whether you were trained in classics or cabinetry, you were prepping for a career. Nowadays the vocational schools are gone and the academics are weak. In the old days, girls were more likely than boys to graduate high school because they felt no need to be macho and get a “tough guy” job. There weren’t a lot of jobs for women; they couldn’t be cops, prison guards, security guards, or army sergeants, just teachers, nurses, or secretaries. So you’d better go to school, or end up scrubbing floors.

Washington DC isn’t all about Senators and Congressmen. There are regular people living there, who’ve never visited the Capitol Building. To long-time DC natives, their city is just another southern town with southern character. Unlike Savannah and Charlestown, however, the character hasn’t been especially good; crime, drug use, dangerous schools and a crack-smoking mayor haven’t helped. There are a lot of hardworking people there, who often get pushed aside by the decay. In his autobiography Step By Step, Bert Bowman (longtime Senate employee) tells the story of DC, and it doesn’t seem as bad as I expected. Prior to the 1950’s, most of it was safe. You had streets full nice row houses where the black doctors lived in their own private homes, apartment houses where teachers lived, well-kept boarding houses where the men lived, working for the government and sending money home, strict rules of behavior enforced by the landladies. Somewhere, I bet you had the derelict houses, where winos and hookers lived. But somewhere along the way, the dereliction spread. Just like with Dunbar High School, the professionals moved away, and the “other” people creeped in to fill the space.

Dunbar High School is an example of what happened all over the USA. People moved out of inner-city neighborhoods and into the suburbs. The inner city schools declined and collapsed, and the technical schools were phased out, victims of the “college or bust” idea. This was once a big disagreement between DuBois and Washington, whether to promote technical or academic education. I guess DuBois won out. But what are we left with?

Hog Meat and Hoecake

Researched in the 1800’s and published as a book in the 1970’s, Hog Meat and Hoecake is a study on food production in the Old South. From the information gathered, it seems like the food supply of the Old South was based on a backward subsistence farming culture imported from Scotland. While the Northeast states were originally known as the “bread and butter colonies,” Southern agriculture was weak when it came to food. It had none of the cash crop production that you had in New England. There was plenty of room in the South to raise lots of pigs and chicken, grow corn and potatoes to feed them, and good rivers for shipping the produce around the country, but it wasn’t happening. Lack of commercial food farming was one of the reasons the South lost the Civil War.

While the agribusiness sector may have been weak, the southerners definitely knew how to make their food last. They knew how to preserve their pork, eggs, beans, and butter for months at a time. Sausage was a big part of southern fare, as were pickled vegetables. I don’t know for sure how accurate this information is, because it’s contrary to a lot of what I’ve seen in other research. In most of the stories I hear about the South, there’s a large population that’s poor and hungry, even though they have plenty of space to grow their own food and raise animals for food. It doesn’t take much effort to breed rabbits for meat or chickens for eggs, and it’s not expensive to feed them. I suspect that the southern mentality doesn’t encourage entrepreneurship, so there’s not much incentive to take care of the problem yourself.

Live Wire by Skeeter Wesinger

Wesinger takes elements from every criminal organization and pits his own James Bond-cum-Rambo type of adventurers against them, with helicopter chases, shootouts, and good old fashion spy thriller intrigue. The author is a licensed pilot and avid traveler, so he has plenty of adventures to write about. Whether it’s fighting in the bush in Africa or passing a suitcase with half a million dollars in foreign currency, you’re in for a swashbuckling wild adventure.

Analyzing Intelligence: National Security Practitioners' Perspectives

I was watching a documentary on Israel’s famous Six Day War, and the big question is always how they came to be so well prepared. One of the pilots involved in the war said “above all, you have to have intelligence.” It might seem trivial compared to fighter aircraft and tanks, but for Israel, I bet 50% was intelligence. They knew the location of all the Egyptian airbases, when the planes would be on the ground, and where the defenses were. When it comes to intelligence, we can say “okay, we need to know where the enemy is and what kind of weapons they have.” But the question now is how you’re going to know. Are you watching them via satellite? Do you have a spy down there? Do you have a mole in their government? If so, how do you know you can trust them? This book covers all those things, especially with regard to the post-Cold War era.

    Analyzing Intelligence devotes a chapter to the relationship between the intelligence gatherer and the analyst. It cites examples such as Pearl Harbor, The Yom Kippur War, and the Iranian Revolution, as examples of a weak relationship. In those three cases, there were few ears willing to listen to the information gathered on the respective countries. Israel’s spies, who’d spent years accumulating information on her neighbors, didn’t know that Egypt had surface-to-air missiles and wire-guided anti-tank Sagers from the USSR. In Iran, the US embassy didn’t have employees who spoke Farsi, and they knew nothing about the country. They didn’t know that the Shah was old, the army officers were incompetent, and the starving populace was angry. Ayatollah Khomeini, then living in Paris, was anything but quiet about his intentions. Somehow, nobody noticed.

   It seems from this book that a problem with intelligence is the lack of cooperation between agencies. Pearl Harbor is used as an example of the US army and navy not sharing information, and others, like Iran in 1979, seem more an example of ignorance based on arrogance. Then there’s the failure to warn about India’s nuclear tests. But with Israel today, they seem to know everything everywhere. I suspect that when you have a tiny country, with a miniscule coastline and only one major airport, there’s less to be done. Keep in mind that today’s Arab leaders (like most third-world dictators) are rarely secretive, so it’s easy to listen in on their activities. But not so with North Korea. They’re super-secretive and impossible to penetrate. The people are all brainwashed. It remains to be seen what happens with them. 

My Country 'Tis of Thee

   Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives (from Minnesota of all places) debates all the things he finds annoying with the nation. He complains that Nikki Haley, the Indian born governor of South Carolina, appointed the African American conservative Tea Party supporter to fill a vacant Senate seat in 2010. Have things finally gone full circle? Maybe, but this was the sate that gave us Strom Thurmond, the die-hard segregationist whose platform died after the Civil Rights movement. I might also add that Thurmond’s platform was undone thanks in part to his African-American daughter and son in law, both of whom worked in the Civil Rights movement. Regardless, I’d rather see governor Haley appoint a conservative Tea Party supporter than a Polish American sleazeball who tried to sell a vacant Senate seat and is now serving ten years in jail. For every honest right-winger there are plenty of grafters in the Rod Blagovitch mold.

    I’m going to give this book high marks because Ellison doesn’t put on airs. His parents were doctors, he grew up in Detroit, and discusses how Detroit used to be home to the African American middle class. He admits his parents weren’t perfect, doesn’t accuse anybody of holding him back. He criticizes the media for creating anti-Muslim hysteria after 9/11, but he also criticizes Minister Farakhan of the Nation of Islam. He calls out Farakhan’s presence at the Million Man March, and how it didn’t address the economic problems of the people.

    Ellison’s book reminds me a little of D.L Hughley’s book I Want You to Shut the &%#$ Up! In the way that it criticizes both sides with zero loyalty. That’s what makes some books become a great read; when you’re not concerned with loyalty or pleasing everyone, you can say what you like.

Waking From the Dream

  Kids today learn about the Civil Rights movement, but what happened after Dr. King’s assassination in ’68? The rest of it is usually absent from high school history books, and with good reason. It wasn’t an upbeat age anymore. It was tragic.

    Right after Dr. King was killed, the Civil Rights movement splintered and never recovered. Jesse Jackson and Amiri Baraka stole the spotlight, and Coretta Scott King didn’t trust either of them. Dr. King’s last accomplishment, a law against housing discrimination, couldn’t end segregation. It continued (famously) in Chicago, as well as in the Bronx, LA, Florida, and New York State. There was still plenty of work to be done, not just with equal rights, but also with poverty, drug use, teenage pregnancy, and traumatized Vietnam veterans. Jackson and Baraka focused all efforts on their own agenda at the expense of these things. Social problems were not dealt with, and they all got worse in the 1980’s. Take Detroit for example; her problems could never be cured by laws alone.

    Waking From the Dream pulls no punches in its criticism of “liberals.” One example it uses is the debate over whether to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. Ted Kennedy said yes, Jesse Helms said no. Okay, I know we don’t expect much from Jesse Helms, but you can’t call him stupid. He pointed out that Ted, and his brothers John and Bob, ordered the FBI to spy on Dr. King. Helms felt no obligation to please anyone, and his judgment wasn’t clouded by political correctness, so he saw right through the phony liberals. He pitted the “limousine liberals” against black radicals, and just as he expected, nothing got done. Kind of reminds you of the 2014 government shut down, doesn’t it?

    You won’t find any political correctness in this book. It’s more sympathetic to white southern conservatives than it is toward the left. If you watch the documentary Eyes On the Prize you’ll see the same thing; the movement got lost in the 1970’s, and you wonder what’s been going on in the 27 years since that documentary aired. Perhaps I should quote something Bill Cosby said in one of his “call outs” back in 2006; “when the movement was over, we started partying too soon.”

    It was the same thing with the Obama election. When he won, the country partied, and the next morning woke up with a hangover. All we can hear now are the cries of the poor. Thanks to foreclosures, the rest of the land is going silent.

Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of WWII

   Jeffrey Cox has written a wonderful and well researched book on the subject of tenacity. The US, British, and Dutch forces held out against the massive Japanese onslaught in the East Indies, despite having no support and being caught off guard. Within minutes of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan’s aircraft carrier planes were bombing Malaya, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, US controlled Philippines, and other targets in the Pacific and Indian oceans. The allied warships held out, but it’s clear from this book that it was all futile.

    I recently reviewed a book called The Battle of Peach Tree Creek, which covers the Confederates desperate (and typically fearless) attempt to defend Atlanta in the Civil War. I see many similarities between that battle and the Java Sea campaign. You had one side that was bigger than the other, and the defenders wouldn’t surrender without a fight, no matter how badly they were beaten. But the difference is that the USA allowed itself to be caught off guard. Intelligence should’ve honed in on the massive Japanese fleet heading their way, and the Philippines should’ve had much better air defenses. The British, despite their numerous overseas colonies, had no aircraft carriers, and neither did the Dutch navy. According to this book, their warships were badly designed.

    The facts are the facts, but Cox crafted this book based on everything that happened during the time, and the people behind the Java Sea campaign. He writes extensively on the admirals, the leaders on both sides, and the belligerents motivation for grabbing territory and having the colonies far from home.

    I wonder if the Java Sea campaign is an example of the hazards of colonialism. The Netherlands were a tiny nation, with a massive colony oceans away, and their navy was not capable of defending it. The British, with their vast colonies, had little air defense in Asia. Perhaps they were reluctant to build up their armies after WWI? The French hid behind the useless Maginot Line, so maybe Britain and the Netherlands were similarly inclined to avoid beefing up their navy and air power?

The Battle of Peach Tree Creek

    Some call the Civil War the last “gentleman’s war” in history; a fight waged by men of honor for a cause they believed in. The southern leaders; Lee, Beauregard, and Longstreet; are remembered fondly by their people, even though they lost the war. They’re remembered because they were willing to sacrifice themselves for their homeland, despite the odds being against them from the start. They also have a reputation for bravery; while the North had trouble raising an army, there were few Southern men unwilling to fight.

    Robert Jenkins’ book portrays the Battle of Peach Tree Creek (part of Sherman’s Atlanta campaign) as a kind of a “last stand.” It illustrates the more positive aspects of the Southerner’s mentality during the war, and how they knew they’d lose, but they’d all rather go down fighting than surrender. In an earlier book titled What The Yankees Did To Us, Sherman’s tactics are portrayed as cruel and gratuitous; he laid waste to Atlanta in order to make a name for himself, not because it was necessary.

    What amazes me is that the Union officers were borderline incompetent. In one battle, the Wisconsin regiments were hit by their own cannons and had to retreat. Of course the Confederates had no cannon left, so they wouldn’t have that problem. The Yankees would eventually overwhelm them, but it wasn’t through bravery or strategy; it was simply from having more men. The Confederates had a shortage of men, ammunition, metal, and food, but the Union army wasn’t doing well either. Keep in mind that thousands of them died from food poisoning, malaria, typhoid, and typhus, while the biggest cause of death for the Confederates was getting shot at.

    Peach Tree Creek was only one of many battles in the war, but this book goes into detail of what went on and the people in there. Sherman was encircling Atlanta and the Confederate defenses were no longer any good. General Hood had no choice but to go on attack mode, and charge the invaders. Previously the Union army had to storm fort after fort, but now that changed; the Confederates were coming out of the fort and attacking head-on. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued, and the Union troops were no match for them. If it weren’t for the huge Northern waves, I bet the South might’ve won.

    I don’t want to give too much away, but this book is a bit depressing. I couldn’t help but feel bad for the Confederates, portrayed positively, not like trend in most books to make them slavery-loving savages. These men were fighting for their own freedom, from what they perceived as Northern tyranny. Even after the war, Lee kept his honor in the way he negotiated the surrender; all he asked was that there be no reprisals, his men be allowed to keep their horses and weapons, and that his men be fed. He ended his days as head of a college, loved by the people around him. General Grant, on the other hand, became the worst US president, lost all his money, and died of jaw cancer, ending his life in disgrace. 

How Capitalism Failed the Arab World

I was surprised to see a book about this topic; it always appeared to me that the Middle East might be a good place to do business, if only the infrastructure were better and there wasn’t a danger of being killed. Things were looking up after the Arab Spring, now that the old dictators were falling, and that should’ve been the start of opportunity. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The author proves that not only was the Arab Spring the result of a hopeless economy, but the Arab economy is still hopeless.

    Richard Heydarian begins with the blunt facts; the Arab states are all at odds, women have few rights, and there’s poor infrastructure. The Arab governments made little effort to modernize their education system, and wasted money fighting Israel. This doesn’t make an ideal place for foreign investment, not if you’re boycotting your economically powerful Jewish neighbor and threatening to attack the country that makes the world’s most popular soda. You can’t expect to do business with people you’re scaring off.

    What I don’t agree with here, however, is the comparison between Ataturk and Reza Shah Pahlavi. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the author’s argument on how westernization saved Turkey, but he misses a vital fact. Turkey was NOT an Arab country; the people were not Arab by ethnicity, they didn’t speak Arabic, and the Arab world at the time was weak. There was no Ba’ath party yet, no Al-Jazeera, no televisions whatsoever, and there was probably no Arab radio (even if there was, how many Arabs would’ve owned radios?) The Arab world must have been 90% illiterate, so they couldn’t have read about Kemalism in the papers. In short, the Arab world couldn’t object to Ataturk shutting down the mosques and giving women equal rights.

   The argument about Reza Shah is also, in my view, inaccurate. He was definitely pro-western, and he was not popular with the Muslim clergy, but he did absolutely none of the great things Ataturk did. He didn’t introduce the Latin Alphabet, nor did he force parents to send their kids to school. Iran ended up poor, uneducated, and in no position to become and economic power. Remember how Peter The Great went abroad to learn about warships, medicine, and architecture, so he could go back to Russia and make it powerful? Or that he insisted that the sons of noblemen go abroad to study in order to keep their titles. Reza Shah did no such thing, and blew an opportunity.

    All in all, the author blames the Arab dictator’s incompetence for economic failure. Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq were in a great position to improve. They could’ve contracted with Japan to design and manufacture a car, and have it built in the Middle East, but they didn’t. This book shows how time and time again, the Arab states missed every opportunity. Muammar Gaddafi wasted his oil billions by grabbing Soviet weaponry, training terrorist, and sponsoring African dictators. Meanwhile his own people were uneducated, hungry, and foreign investment was zero. I bet the biggest source of wealth for a Libyan was money sent home by relatives working abroad. His army officers were incompetent, he lost most of his air power in the US attack of 1986, and how he survived for another 24 years is beyond me.

    There’s one thing about this book that I don’t like, and that’s the title. If anything in this book is true, then capitalism didn’t fail the Arab world. It’s the other way around; the Arab governments failed to do what they needed for capitalism to work.

Exploring America in the 1960's: Our Voices Will Be Heard

I’ve been waiting years for a book like this, so I can teach middle school kids about the 1960’s; Civil Rights, entertainment, women’s lib, the Kennedy-Nixon televised debate. The book begins with a chapter on the charts, graphs, and diagrams for the students to take notes. The chapters cover the decade’s music, but with a funny twist; the authors pit the Beach Boys against the Beatles. They call it “Beach Music versus British Invasion, and a later chapter deals with folkies (like Bob Dylan) versus Jimi Hendrix. Music forms a big part of the Civil Rights chapter, with protest songs and gospel.

   The book does not include the actual historical sources, but it does list them. The educator will have to download Dr. Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail and the Civil Rights songs, but these are available online. I would supplement these with Harvey Pekar’s Unsung Hero (for the chapter on Vietnam) and some lessons on the 1950’s changes that preceded the 60’s, like Levittown, television, the Cold War, and the GI Bill. Though it might be a little hard to take, I might also add a lesson on the “days of rage,” because the riots in Watts (and other neighborhoods) were a problem. The comic Two Cents Plain has a few pages on how a Brooklyn neighborhood changed, and the old-time Jewish stores found themselves under siege. Perhaps, if the students are interested, they can learn about the Rolling Stones Altamont concert, and how it “ended” the 60’s. All this can encourage the students to think about whether this was our greatest decade, or our worst.

   The most important thing about this book, regardless of the topic, is that it encourages kids to think for themselves. I want my students to learn on their own, so I can sit back and let them take care of business. I think I’ll tweak these lessons plans up a notch; I’ll give select students the documents a week in advance, and let those kids teach a class or two, saving me the effort. It’s good for the kids to learn how to take control for themselves.

After all, didn’t the 60’s teach us to “stick it to the man?” 

Let Us Fight As Free Men

    The service of African Americans in WWII was a major catalyst for the Civil Rights movement. Men who’d risked their lives fighting for the USA in Europe and Asia were no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens back home. They were coming back to a country that lauded the troops as heroes, but thanks to racism, they were getting shorted on the benefits. Unlike the veterans of WWI, however, they would not take it in good humor.

    This book uses great case studies to show how racial incidents in and after the war drove the movement for change. Truman’s forcible integration of the armed forces, for instance, was not simply a spur of the moment. A. Philip Randolph, the famous African American labor leader, denounced communism and backed the invasion of Korea. Randolph disliked communism, but he also wanted to get Truman to integrate the army further. He wanted to see an end to discrimination that was there despite the 1949 integration; he didn’t want non-white sailors being relegated to the kitchens, or the airmen being denied promotions.

   The blinding of Isaac Woodward is another example of a racial incident pushing the effort for integration. Woodward was an army veteran traveling in the south, when he was arrested over a verbal spat with a bus driver. Buses were segregated at the time, and the argument was probably over this African American soldier not wanting to sit in the back. For those of you that never heard the story, he was blinded by the police while in custody, and though tried in a Federal court, the officers were foiund not guilty and never punished for their crimes. The jury was composed of locals, and only white men were selected for jury duty at the time, so there wouldn’t be a fair trial. Much of the uproar had to do with the fact that Woodward was in uniform, and people wondered why Truman would tolerate the blinding of someone in the nation’s service.

    Truman didn’t tolerate it. But the president can only enforce the law, not make laws or interpret them. It would be the efforts of private citizens that brought about the end of racial discrimination in the service, not a government edict.

Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility

It won’t take a book like this to convince me of the points here. Throughout the world, it’s been common practice to dump garbage in poorer communities, and if not, the lower income resident usually live in the most polluted areas, near the dumps, coal bins, canals, and slaughterhouses. Take Vancouver’s “Low Track” as an example; it was a low-lying area that flooded easily, so you’d get sewage pollution whenever it rained, and who would want to live there? London’s Camden Lock is another example of low-income housing built near a polluted waterway. It may be stylish now, but in 1992, it was a mess. Tourists and locals came to the Camden Lock market to shop, browse, and take pictures, but you couldn’t be there at night. The smell from the canal made it the least desirable place to live.

    Toxic Communities turns things up a notch by studying how racism as well as poverty drives the “dump in the poor town” practice. Triana, Alabama, for instance, was polluted with DDT from the Tennessee River, and the locals were eating toxic fish, not out of a desire to “eat local,” but because they were hungry. Warren County, North Carolina, was the scene of a 1979 lawsuit to stop a PCB landfill. Love Canal is barely cited in this book, because it had nothing to do with racism or poverty. On the contrary, the dump was there before the houses were built, and the owners warned the town not to build there. The problem was that the town thought the canal was leak-proof, and it wasn’t. The residents were all white, so you can’t blame racism, but what if the town built low-income housing on the site? Could the town have force section-8 tenants to move in, so they could sell valuable land where existing housing projects were?

    Native American land in the USA is also in danger of pollution. The Skull Valley reservation in Utah is one example; a massive number of sheep died there in 1968 when gases escaped from a chemical site, and nowadays the US Army stores its waste there. The reason for Reservation pollution is simple; the Tribal Councils need money badly, and there’s so little oversight against corruption, so there’s little to stop someone from allowing tanker trucks full of sewage to dump things on the land. If there are mines on the Reservation, that’s also a problem. The Pine Ridge Reservation has radioactive tailings from the mines, and the local healthcare system is ill-equipped to deal with it. Mobility is probably half the problem. If Native American leaders let in the toxic waste, the residents can’t move away. Same thing in NYC, where NYCHA apartments often have black mold from leaking pipes (not to mention crime) and the residents can’t afford to live elsewhere.

    The book is well-written and researched, but it would’ve been better if there had been interviews with the residents of the communities that suffered from waste-dumping. Photos and maps would be welcome as well, because a lot of the places mentioned here are unfamiliar to the readers.

   

Astrophysics and the Evolution of the Universe

From the start, this book makes clear that matter and energy aren’t always bound by Newton’s theory of gravity. It covers particle forces, quantum theory, and Hubble’s studies on electromagnetic waves in space. Then there’s the Doppler shift, the principal on how wavelength and frequency change depending on the direction of the source. Excellent diagrams are included as well, but some more case studies or examples of these theories and principals would be welcome. It goes into depth, thankfully, on the subject of dark matter and electromagnetic waves.

Plato At The Googleplex

    Assume that the argument is over one man’s guilt or innocence. Now turn things up a bit, and argue as to whether or not he was in his right mind. A problem with his prefrontal lobes, perhaps, or a tumor in his hypothalamus? Plato, living in the days before x-rays, would’ve known nothing about these things. But with or without any knowledge of neuroscience, the argument is still the same. That’s why Plato never ceases in relevance.

    Plato’s works were often in dialogue form, portraying arguments over philosophical issues. In one chapter of this book, two Google employees discuss slavery, which was widely practiced in Plato’s time. One of the employees argued for it, saying that if he could get away with it, he would. Plato did not object to slavery, and incidentally, neither does the Bible, which allows for slavery as punishment for debt. It also states that an Israelite slave must be treated better than a Canaanite.

    Now look at ancient Greece in terms of war. Athens wanted to conquer, often for economic reasons. Warlike Sparta, on the other hand, would not allow their army to venture far from home; it was to be used strictly for defense. Every citizen of Sparta had to be a full time combatant, leaving crafts, business, farming, and labor to the non-citizen classes. Without an active economy there was no need for an expeditionary army. The Greek wars, huge building projects, and the Acropolis were all Athens’ idea.

    Did Athens follow Plato’s advice? It looks like as soon as they ignored it, they started expanding and ran into trouble.

Fitness For Life

A great book this is, with realistic goals for exercise and nutrition. It doesn’t say that every kid can be a jock, because every kid can’t. It defines fitness as being able to do the most with the least effort, so in a nutshell it means that fitness is being able to use your body to do what you need. But it also says that fitness-demanding jobs are in decline, so fitness is now more of a concern for average cubicle-slaves.

    There’s good advice here for starting out, especially if you’re sedentary, and it shows you how to use small steps to getting in shape. It warns against fad diets and fad machines, because they don’t work. The ab-master, ab-roller- ab-vibrator, Nordic Track, Soloflex; they were advertised with beautiful, muscular models, and bought by desperate nebbishes who wanted a quick fix to a long-term problem. I should know, I was one of them, and my Nordic Track didn’t help. I should’ve just gotten rid of the TV and walked to school.

  The problem with this book is the target audience. It focuses mostly on kids, but what about the adults? People who have to drive an hour in each direction and sit at a desk all day are in a sedentary trap. What about construction workers work their knees and shoulders hard all day? What kind of fitness advise is there for them? Another problem is the photos; they’re all of beautiful young men and women. No acne, flabby bellies, fat thighs, fat butts, etc. I would be wary of showing this book to teens, because seeing all this perfection can make them hate their bodies. Not every teen has beautiful hair and a great tan. It also doesn’t take into account that some schools have the kids in there until 5pm, and they’ve cut out gym class. It also doesn’t factor that when a school has P.E. it usually favors the jocks and consists of “here’s a ball go play.” The non-athletic kids are left out, picked last.

Fights On The Little Horn

Custer at Little Big Horn is a lesson in many things; human rights, heroism, and arrogant blundering. Some laud Custer on the same pedestal as Gordon of Khartoum and the men who defended the Alamo. Others see him as too brave for his own good.

    Harper, in his chapter The Question of Disobedience, discusses the communication aspect. Whatever communication there was between Custer and his superiors would’ve been spotty. There were no radios, and Custer was deep in hostile territory. The native tribes had better guns, also an example of blundering. The US Cavalry were issued single-shot Springfield rifles, while the Sioux and Cheyanne bought repeating Winchesters. If you’re wondering why, it’s because the US government were afraid the troops would fire in the air and waste ammo. When your enemy has the tactical advantage, plus ten shots against your one shot, the odds are in his favor. The exact same thing would happen to the Italian army in Abyssinia in the 1890’s; Emperor Menelik’s men were advised to buy quick-loading rifles, which would work fine with the traditional African tactic of swarming in large numbers. The Italians were, like Custer, trekking deep into hostile territory, where supplies would run low.

    The issue of disobedience on Custer’ gets attention too. Did Custer get his men killed? How many Indians were there? Did his scouts warn him that the trail was a mile wide? Did Custer listen, or did the scouts betray him? The British army made a similar mistake when they were peacekeepers in Sierra Leone; they didn’t listen to the native troops, drove deep into the forests, and were ambushed by the West Side Niggaz (called the “West Side Boys” in the papers, courtesy of political correctness) and had to be rescued by the SAS. It was a combination of colonial arrogance, failure to listen to the locals, and underestimating the ability of the enemy.

    I’d say that this book raises important questions, and makes the facts look even less clear than before. Undoubtedly, Custer’s heroism (or screwing up) will be discussed in military schools for decades to come.

In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry From The Sixties To Slam

I confess that despite moving to NYC in 1996 and spending my entire adult life here (including four years at NYU) I knew nothing of the Nuyorican poetry movement. It wasn’t until I saw the biopic Pinero that I heard about it. Then again, few of my Puerto Rican friends and none of my Puerto Rican students had heard of it either, so I wonder.

    Urayoan Noel says in the introduction that the Nuyorican phenomena is the result of the Purto Rican diaspora, being stuck in a strange place. The East Village barrio was close to Greenwich Village and NYU, where you had all the artsy types, more so than Harlem or the Bronx. He cites Piri Thomas’ Down These Mean Streets as a start; Thomas goes from trying to escape his community to realizing that it has its merits. On a funny note, Down These Mean Streets was banned in every community where the teenage Piri Thomas had gone to escape racism.

    The first chapter made me realize that the Nuyorican movement had none of the sponsorship that the Harlem Renaissance had. There was no Puerto Rican counterpart to the C.J. Walker company bankrolling Puerto Rican intellectuals, as Madam Walker did in the 1900’s. The Fords, Guggenheims, Astors, and Rockefellers weren’t sponsoring Puerto Rican artists or writers the way America’s millionaires had done with others. In the book Love Goes To Buildings On Fire, the author describes how Bruce Springsteen, a New Jersey native, had a big following among Andy Warhol’s transvestite crowd. His stubbly face, torn jeans, and rough guitar playing was surprisingly appealing to drag queens. But Miguel Pinero and other Puerto Rican poets and musicians; they were ignored by the established crowd. Perhaps the “arts” scene was little more than a clique, just with grown-ups rather than high school alpha-queens?

    Miguel Algarin, founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, first heard the term on a trip to the island. It was used to describe the New York bred Puerto Ricans, who the natives looked down on for speaking English. He and Pinero were seen as unwanted and undesirable by Puerto Rico’s academics; Pinero’s criminal record and drug use was hardly an impression. But the fact that Algarin was a professor at Rutgers meant nothing to them either.

Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America

In the wonderful book Over P.J. Clarke’s, the author describes the Prohibition as a law that the city’s liquor-loving mayor had no desire to enforce. His name was Jimmy Walker, and he saw through the temperance movement as being anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant. As a Catholic he had no problem with drinking, and as the mayor of New York City he knew not to anger the ethnic groups whose votes he needed. The people in New York had no desire to obey the Prohibition, any more than a 13 year old obeys an order never to look at internet porn. New York City in the 1920’s was a world class party town. But what gave it an edge over Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Miami, or LA?

    Supreme City will surprise you in how it pieces together all the aspects of New York City that gave it the famous Jazz Age character. NYC always tolerated silly behavior, hence the nickname “Gotham,” after an English town whose resident avoided taxes by feigning imbecility. Yet according to this book, the 20’s were a time when even the upper classes were enjoying silly things once stereotyped as low-class, like short skirts and drinking.

    The Holland Tunnel gets a chapter in this book, because at the time it was built it was a major tourist attraction. The ventilated air was cleaner than that on the street, and it ended the crowded boat traffic on the Hudson River. Before the tunnel, there were thousands of ferries crossing the river, crashing into each other, sabotaging each other, and god help the ferry pilots who had to cross at night or in fog. The waterways were now a place for pleasure boating. As for trains, the law forced them to convert from coal to electricity, so the smoke was soon gone. Even better, the tracks were forced under park Avenue, leaving Park Avenue literally what it was called; an avenue with a park in the middle (it was later removed to widen the lanes.) Property values soon rose.

    The roles of women changed too, with so many of the male sex dead from the Great War. Women were now free to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, wear short dresses, and socialize with men in way previously seen as low class. The US was the biggest exporter of grain, lumber, alcohol, beef, and fertilizer, and US corporations owned plantations in Latin America. Europe was a wreck from the war,  the US dollar value was high, and there were so many opportunities for wealth, not to mention the business of illegal alcohol. Radio programs increased, as did Hollywood and the movies, creating a greater influence than religious preaching. No temperance-minded moralist could stem the barrage of the media.

    New York City, like others, was going up. Skyscrapers were built in record time, thanks to Mohawk ironworkers, and there were no lawsuits for wrongful death, leaving the contractors with zero liability. They came from Canada and Upstate New York, lived in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, and had the Wigwam bar on Nevins Street. They left Brooklyn in the 1960’s when the highways decreased travel time and the area started getting bad.

  Supreme City isn’t full of surprises, but it does have a logical argument. If the Holland Tunnel weren’t built, and the trains hadn’t been forced under the streets, then perhaps New York City wouldn’t have been as attractive as it became. Cities on the coast have always been attractive as a tourist spot, more so than the ones within the continent, so I imagine NYC would be a bit more fun than Denver or Salt Lake City. As for Miami, it wasn’t built up yet, and there wouldn’t have been much to do, same with Los Angeles. But Chicago, now that was a city with character, also a destination in the 1920’s. However, NYC has always been popular with single adults, so it’s no surprise that the residents want to party. Once they needed more space (like Jay Gatsby) they moved out to Long Island or Westchester. The ones that stayed were the artists, writers, actors, and others who didn’t mind a cramped city.

Exploring and Engaging Spirituality for Today's Chidlren

    This book collects essays on how to discuss faith and values with children. One of the essays is about Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, and his discussions with Ruby Bridges. For those of you that don’t know, Ruby Bridges inspired the Norman Rockwell painting of the girl being accompanied by US Marshalls on her way to school. She was the first African American to attend a previously segregated school, and Coles figured she’d have anxiety and depression, or what today we’d call PTSD. On the contrary, she was doing fine. When asked what she thought of the people yelling insults, she said “I pray for them every day.”

   There’s also an essay here by Kevin Lawson on how children were taught faith in the Middle Ages. Keep in mind that in contrast to Ruby Bridges, European Christians weren’t looking to Jesus as a beacon in their struggle for liberty and equality. The church was under the same feudal system as the nobility, and the peasants couldn’t expect to find autonomy or fortune. Furthermore it was in an era before cheap printing, and inspiring news didn’t travel fast. It was in this era that priests relied on illustrations to teach children. We all know how kids prefer picture books to “grown up” books, and why wouldn’t they, seeing as they understand pictures better than words. Religious artwork and even plays became essential at this time. While there is agreement that religious instruction would’ve changed for Protestants after the Reformation, it would’ve been more important than ever to beef up religious instruction. With the rivalry going on between the Catholic and Lutheran churches, there was most likely a rivalry going on.

    In an earlier book I reviewed, titled Moral Issues and Christian Responses, there was a part on the Nickel Mines massacre, where a gunman killed Amish school children. The Amish families weren’t driven to depression by the killings, because as part of their religious instruction they were taught to accept what happens to them. They even made condolence calls on the family of the murderer who’d been killed by the police. But when asked if they’d want him to go free had he lived, they said no. A person who is a danger to the community has to be confined so that he doesn’t continue killing.

    With the many mass killings we’ve had in the last several years, it remains to be seen if we’ll develop a method for recovery.

Xerox Ferox

    Xerox Ferox is a book about all the self-published and small press magazines (or fanzines, or “zines”) about horror movies. In the book’s introduction we get a lamentation over the horror magazines that are more concerned with worshipping the star actors than having reviews of the actual movies. This book, however, is in the spirit of Bill Landis’ Sleazoid Express; a romp through a notoriously low budget genre, promoted by low budget paper.

    Horror movies have always been a source of quick cash. Roger Corman produced several in a week, and Francis Ford Coppola’s made his debut for Corman, with Dementia 13. It was a badly-photographed, badly-scripted horror movie set in Ireland, and I could hardly see, hear, or tell what the hell was going on. But a small audience liked it, and since it hardly cost anything to make, there wasn’t much to lose. Zombie movies are also a source of quick cash, probably because they feature hordes of unnamed extras, and since zombies don’t usually speak, the actors have no lines and you can pay them reduced rates. The makeup is cheap, the sound effects are stock, and the plot doesn’t have to be Oscar-worthy. In fact, you can recycle plots from other movies; Night of the Living Dead was like High Noon, and the Italian jungle-cannibal movies could be filmed anywhere. It wouldn’t be especially hard to remake Snow White as a horror movie; just make the queen look really ugly, and add creepy sound effects.

    The horror movie zines profiled here are just like the low budget drive-in movies. They’re printed on pulp, have a small, loyal fanbase, and don’t need top quality writing. They can be printed cheaply in black and white, and are cheap to ship. The internet has probably cut into the market for them, because anyone can start a horror movie blog for free. You wouldn’t make much money from it, but then again, most horror movie zines didn’t make much anyway.

Tuareg Jewelry

    The Tuareg, despite being Muslims, have a love-hate relationship with the Arabs. When Islam reached them in the 700’s, they refused to give up a lot of their customs, and rejected a lot of Arab ones. The name Tuareg is in fact an Arab one which they do not use for themselves, possibly the name of one of their clans, which the Arabs assigned to the whole group. Since the 1960’s, when Francophone Africa was partitioned, the Tuareg’s camel routes have been restricted. Yet they have not been sucked into 20^th century society, and unlike the peoples of Arabia, they never gave up their nomadic ways.

    Most of the pieces in this book are silver, with gold rarely used. Perhaps the jewelers lacked the fuel to heat it? Or perhaps it was too valuable as currency? As for the designs, many of them show ancient Egyptian influence, others have European motifs, like the fleur-de-lis. One common type of necklace is the Tchirot, worn by men as a symbol of their clan or tribe. There are large rings, given to people in childhood, that are exchanged between couples as a sign of intimacy. Colors also come into play, because blue is a symbol of tamed spirits that can be controlled (not surprising, as blue is considered to ward off evil spirits in Arab countries.) Some of the pendants were obviously old coins of Arab, French, or British origin.

   While this book shows extensive research, I would like to have seen more about the jewelers. There were no photos of the artisans at work, and I would like to have seen more about the actual crafts process, how they learn their craft, and what kind of monetary value they place in their work. What fascinates me the most if that aside from the silver, there aren’t any precious metals or stones, just good quality craftsmanship. I’ve seen artisans here in New York making beautiful jewelry from old spoons, pickle jar lids, and worthless foreign coins that they’ve flattened and refined. It’s great to see that you can make beautiful things from cast-off metal , instead of gold and diamonds that fund African dictators.

    But unfortunately, gold and diamonds are what people want when they buy rings. A Tuareg silver wedding bracelet would not do for an American woman who expects a diamond (even though diamonds don’t come from the USA).

Protecting Your Commissions

    As a former salesman, I remember having to haggle with the owner of a massage-chair business to get the 10% he owed me. He’d find all kinds of excuses not to pay, and if that didn’t work, he’d claim he was broke. Sue him in court? I had no contract to prove my claim, and besides, he was located five states away. Nothing I could do.

    Protecting Your Commissions is all about the rights of the commissioned salesman, and if you’re being paid on a 1099 basis, knowing your rights is essential. Randall Gillary, a legal expert in the field, gives many reasons why employers would try to deny paying. An employee who works for a wage and commission, for instance, might end up selling so much that he makes more than the management. The boss gets jealous and tries to avoid paying. He gives the case of Sharon Holland as an example of how an employer might raise a quota halfway through the year, and make it retroactive.

   The last chapter is on how to know if you’re approaching termination, and I’d say this is the kind of thing you need no matter what job you have. Gillary lists all possible factors; making more money than the boss, new managers who envy what you make, sudden interests in your day-to-day expenses, and general hostility. But he doesn’t say you should just give up. The chapter includes information on how to negotiate your commissions for what you’ve sold before your termination notice.

China's Political Development

    The first essay in this collection is called Sixty Years of Political Development, but I think a more apt title would be Forty Years of Economic Development. According to the author Yu Keping, The PRC’s leaders spent the first 25 years making a mess of everything. The 1950’s efforts to suppress the “counterrevolutionaries” got millions killed, along with whatever these men and women had to contribute. Then you had the “Great Leap Forward” which starved millions and wiped out the steel supply, and don’t even bother to mention the Cultural Revolution. But since the late 1970’s, capitalism has been welcome in China. So it looks like there’s been plenty of economic development. But has there been political development? It doesn’t seem like personal rights have really improved. If the Falun Gong, a trivial sect, is persecuted, what does that say about politics?

    Democracy is discussed here, and it is a very touchy issue in China. According to Huang Weiping, China’s leaders never disparaged the idea of democracy, but would it work in China? When in the country’s history was their ever any kind of democratic policy? Perhaps decentralization is a start, with individual cities and towns being allowed to make some decisions for themselves. This would probably happen in areas far from the capital, like in Xingiang province, where a sizeable number of non-Chinese speakers live. But what happens when the people of a town object to a policy of the central government? Supposing a town finds itself the site of hydraulic fracturing, and complains about the pollution; are the biggest complainers going to be forcibly silenced? What happens when a newspaper prints an unflattering story about the official in charge? The issue of labor rights is also a difficult one, and it remains to be seen what happens to the trade unions.

    One fault I find in this book is that the authors, almost all of whom are from China, are writing from a non-western perspective. Democracy is a European invention, while China has a long history of central control, a leftover from the days of monarchy. Are their benefits to having a non-democratic society? The Arab oil states are not a democracy, but the people have lived relatively well for the past 40 years, with opportunities for education and no problems with healthcare. It’s all paid for by the monarch, who owns the country’s oil wells. I guess you could say that royal charity keeps the Saudis happy. But China has had massive problems with hunger, overcrowding, and pollution. Thanks to the one-child policy the population is aging rapidly. If there’s a crop failure and the people are driven wild by hunger, will the central government be able to suppress dissent, or will it be just like the French Revolution?

And Grandma Said: Iroquois Teachings As Passed Down Through the Oral Tradition

Tom Porter is a member of the Mohawk Nation near the Saint Lawrence River, and an archivist of Mohawk language and teachings. This book is a collection of philosophies he gathered from his relatives over the years, ranging from creation stories to musings about the language. I think the language chapter is the best, because it’s quite funny; he compares English translation to watching a black and white TV. Words in Mohawk are far more descriptive than the English translation, such as “this red shirt” in English would be “this shirt is the color of the blood that flows through my body” in Mohawk. They don’t say “bury the dead,” but “wrap him in the earth.” The language is very descriptive and metaphoric, while English, by comparison, is a bit blunt. That’s why English translation of Native American can’t really be accurate.

But here’s where an English speaker might think of Mohawk language as blunt; Porter, as per tradition, refers to older persons as “grandpa,” so it’s a little hard to tell which are his blood relatives. From his description, life was clan oriented. As for school, he describes it as bizarre and annoying. On the first day, the Mohawk social worker says to them “you have to learn to read and write so you can sit behind a white man’s desk in a shirt and tie and push paper, not like your elders who shovel manure and husk corn.” Now imagine saying that to a callous-palmed farm boy in the Midwest. Do you think he’d want to go from a “manly” job to cubicle hell?

The chapter on the St. Regis Mohawk school starts with some bad memories, like white teachers hitting the kids with rulers. But then it turns into comedy. They have to sing “Yankee Doodle” which to them is completely alien, because their music consists of water drumming. Then they sing about a bridge falling down, or about weasels going around bushes, and wondering what kind of song is this? They think the teacher is practicing witchcraft because when she spins, the seat goes up (because of the screw in the chair, but none of them have furniture like that.) Then they have “art” involving a Christmas, and he’s wondering why they’d chop down a tree and put it IN the house. As for the popcorn stringing, well they’ve been told that you never, ever, ever, waste food! He thought the teachers had gone crazy.

While I found a lot of this book hilarious, my only criticism is that it’ll be a tough sell to get non-Mohawk to read it. I wonder if a straight autobiography would be more appealing, with an emphasis on the funny or shocking parts, the way Frank McCourt did with Angela’s Ashes. The “fish out of water” concept always makes for great storytelling. Maps would be welcome too, as I had some trouble understanding exactly where the stories too place, whether it was on or off the reservation, in the USA, or Canada. Nonetheless, I recommend using this book with middle school students as part of US history, especially the “Trading Eyes” chapter. I can just imagine their faces when they learn that “squaw” means “woman’s reproductive organ.”

Then again maybe not. It might go from being a racial slur to a scatological obscenity.

Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies

J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for 50 years, wasted a whole lot of time. He devoted millions of dollars in money, man hours, and equipment just to spy on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now what was the end result? They had tapes of Dr. King cavorting with his female admirers! It was all part of a scheme by Hoover to discredit Dr. King, and it didn’t work. The tapes didn’t turn anyone against King, and it didn’t drive him to take his own life. As for Hoover, the FBI made few gains during his tenure, with no major targeting of drug cartels nor organized crime. Hoover was interested only in bank robbers and subversives. According to this book, the US intelligence services had a problem with direction. When they were headed by one man (in this case Hoover) they were completely subordinate to him and his ridiculous policies.

    Each chapter in this book is written by a different expert in the field of intelligence, both in the USA and abroad. In the chapter Intelligence Since 9/11, the two authors, Gerald Hughes and Kristan Stoddart, discuss how 9/11 and the 1945 Soviet threat had similar outcomes, but different origins. 9/11 may definitely be an example of a government “caught napping,” but the Soviet paranoia was greatly exaggerated.

    While the book is generally open minded and examines all sides fairly, I would have like to see more case studies and comparison. There have been many unique spying efforts in the Cold War and in the 25 years since, so it would be great to learn about them and how the CIA has developed in the years since the USSR crumbled. I would also like to have seen someone compare the differences in the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security. Maybe compare the CIA, MI6, and the Israeli intelligence service.

The Last Scroll

For some reason or another you can always find adventure in Europe. Look at all the Bourne Identity films, James Bond instalments, Da Vinci Code; there’s something inherently arcane and mysterious about traveling in Italy or France. Dodging danger and mystery, the protagonist finds himself at some kind of spa in Italy, and comes in contact with a recently translated Dead Sea Scroll, with a prophecy that arouses controversy, not to mention the ire of some fanatics who’d like to kill him.

    The novel reads in the first person, all in the present; he gets up, wonders where he is, sees the open window. It is unusual to see a book written this way, but it works well for the story. For some reason when you write a travel story like this you want everything in the present tense, almost like a journal. I guess it allows you to capture the sights and sounds (and even perhaps the smells) of Italy. Believe me, Italy has a unique smell, and I can remember how shocked I was when I visited Florence all those years ago. I said to my mother “it smells just like Israel, I don’t get it.” Must be something about being so close to the Mediterranean.

Reading Capitalist Realism

There’s a discussion in this book between Mark Fisher and Jodi Dean in which they debate the “fun” of capitalism. Now you might be wondering how the aspect of “fun” fits in, but it does in many ways. The allegedly “liberal” promoters of anti-capitalist ideology, despite their criticism of capitalism, secretly enjoy the pleasures of it. Do they feel guilty for watching TV shows? Do they hate themselves for loving Youtube so much? Perhaps, after all is said and done, they have some ambivalence about using Amazon to get books at a discount. There’s no way anything could be done in their world without capitalism, because nobody in their right mind would work hard for zero reward.

    Reading Capitalist Realism is a collection of essays on capitalism by various economists. Caren Irr, for instance, writes on how the anti-capitalist platform can generate unrealistic goals, while middle-class researchers like Barbara Ehrenreich (author of Nickel and Dimed) use an educated approach while avoiding taking sides. Others find it hard to get candid interviews from “the poor” whom they’re studying, thanks to politics. In some countries you can get killed by the government for speaking out, and here in the USA, while you probably won’t be jailed for complaining about Walmart, you could be in trouble if they’re the chief employer in the town.

    While this book is full of solid academic discussions on the pros and cons of capitalism, I think it’s lacking in some ways. I would have liked to have seen arguments between economists who are seriously polarized, not because I’d want to take sides, but because you can discover great things when you pit two minds against each other. Keep in mind something that Dr. Thomas Sowell said about Occupy Wall Street; despite their complaints about capitalism, they spent an awful lot of time with their iPhones.

A Likely Story: One Summer With Lillian Hellman

The description on the book jacket sounds exciting; a teenage girl lacks confidence in the early 1980’s, feels out of place at her posh New England private boarding school,  and asks her idol Lillian Hellman for a job as a domestic. Hellman is nasty from the get go, and turns out to an old witch. But that’s where my attention span ended. This book is repetitive, drags on and on, so by page 50 I had to give up. I never got to read about all the nasty stuff in this book, because I couldn’t get past the author’s terrible writing. She spends too many pages on picking up and putting away.

I’m not even sure if there can be any surprises. Lillian Hellman is renowned, but nowhere near as much as others. I never read any of her works in high school or college, and anyone under 35 years old will probably be more familiar with Harper Lee than Hellman. Finding out that Hellman was a mean old hag was not a surprise. It wouldn’t be hard for me to believe it.

Queering Christianity

Here is a collection of essays on gay Americans and Christianity. Rachelle Brown begins with her discussion of the “radical love of Jesus” by comparing a same sex union to a kitchen design. The perfect kitchen design allows readiness, exploration, participation, discovery, and renewal. No argument here, I bet that the family that cooks together stays together. It’s not unusual either for ethnic dishes, like Gumbo, injera, and couscous to be made as one big pot that is shared communally.

Robert Shore-Gross writes of the basis of LGBT acceptance stemming from the doctrine of acceoting all faiths equally. Christian and Buddhist teachings both have similar messages, so why not learn from both? He includes a quote from Dharmasamgiti Sutra; understand great compassion, and you have learned the basis of all others.

Do Federal Social Programs Work?

When the US Constitution was drawn up, it said that the Federal Government’s job was to defend the nation, coin money, oversee Federal lands, and provide courts of appeal. Local police, health, education, local courts, and sewage would be the states’ problem. Most states, in turn, declare those things to be the local government’s problem. It wasn’t until the 1900’s that the idea of education, public health, garbage collection, and public assistance in some form or another came to be seen as entitlements. But when it came to government funded services, the question was, is, and always will be “who’s going to pay for it?”

Some progressives, like John Dewey, argued that freedom is useless when you live in poverty. Court cases, like USA versus Butler, argued that the Federal government can spend all the money it wants. But hang on, what will the voters say? I can imagine the conservatives in the Deep South saying “tax, and I vote you out” while the liberals in the “Blue States” will say “make it an entitlement and tax the rich to pay for it.” It was FDR that started many of the Federally funded enterprises, like the Hoover Dam and the TVA, but at the same time, a recent book called “Rainwater Harvesting” shows that flood control and other environmental improvements can be done with no money, just a lot of manpower. Groups like Common Ground, which creates farms in empty lots, run more on labor than money.

The book doesn’t favor one side over the other. It makes good use of charts for data, education, health, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn’t use case studies (like “The Poor Among Us”) and doesn’t discuss blue-collar apprenticeships, high school internships, or requiring municipal projects to hire local residents. Then again, a lot of these programs exist only on the local level. Perhaps it’s easier for a city or town to manage local programs than for the Federal government to manage something across 2000 miles?