The Reivers

This book report is on the Faulkner offering The Reivers, subtitled A Reminiscence.
Published in 1962, this was the last novel written by William Faulkner. Surprising enough, at least to me, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the next year, 1963.
The plot at first is hard to follow, as I have found most Faulkner fiction, building to a climatic end that makes it difficult to set down.  The period of the story is in the early 1900's before the first World War. The central character of the tale is the 11 year old Lucius Priest who with an employee of his grandfather, Boon Hogganbeck takes a lark on a trip to Memphis. En route the pair learns that Ned McCaslin has managed to climb aboard for the trip. Ned, a black man who works the Priest stables, is also, by blood, a cousin of the young Lucius. The boy was convinced by Boon to take Lucius's grandfather's car (a rare thing) to Memphis while the parent were on a trip to Mobile. Boon wanted to go in order to visit a prostitute called "Miss Corrie". In taking the Priest car without permission, the vehicle could be regarded as stolen, the term "reive" is Scottish work for "rob, which in turn lends itself to the book's title. When they trio arrives in Memphis, Boon and Lucius stay at the brothel, home of Miss Corrie, and while Ned heads off to the other side of town. While off alone Ned trades the car for a racehorse that has a losing reputation.
The second half of the book revolves around the trio of thieves setting up a and getting to the race.  All the while Boon is trying to build a relationship with Corrie whom he obviously loves. Lucius has never been to Memphis let alone a brothel, learns of many things and of people who have taken the wrong way in life.
The story comes to a head when Lucius Priest rides the horse in an race set up for gambling. Lightening is fast but he has a habit of running just behind the other horses so he can keep all them in sight.  Ned has figured out what makes Lightening run in front, by coaxing him with canned fish; or as Ned calls them "sour deans". Lightening win the race and Ned a good deal of money; which Lucius as rider refuses to accept any of. Lucius's grandfather shows up, another race is arranged, and this time Ned doesn't do the bait, Lightening loses and Ned make more money by betting on the other horse.
To finish off the story, Boon and Corrie get married and name their first child for Lucius.
My neighbor the librarian told me that he thought Faulkner was drunk when he wrote this book, in the beginning I was pretty sure he was right, not knowing about the prize, thought the book was crap. But it grows on you, its a lot like a modern Huckleberry Finn.
You should read this book, but give it time to be careful.

Come On In

Found this fake sign at the Patriot Post.

Reminds me of the old Oak Ridge Boys song.

Just Ask Any Black Republican

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

Voltaire

aka François-Marie Arouet

The Sky Is Not Falling

But listen to some folks and you would never know it.

A report on the liberal press claim that Israel's Iron Dome is not working. Even NPR is getting in on the act. If the facts are inconvenient; ignore them seems to be the left's mode of operation operation.

What I suspect is that the Israel haters in the world are hoping they can erode American support for such systems, indirectly cutting the Hebrews off at the knees.

Iron Dome: 'Rigged Success'?

The King of Torts

It had been a long time since I'd read a John Grisham book, saw this laying around and knocked it out in a couple of days.
Published in 2003 by Dell the paperback version has 470 pages.
The story is about a public defender in Washington DC, in the preparation for the defense of a client catches a whiff of obstruction and in chasing that he triggers the interest of a pharmaceutical company fixer. Clay Carter, the public defender, the son of a prominent disbarred lawyer, is scraping by on a lousy salary, becoming numb to guilty clients, has a girlfriend pressuring for marriage and a better life.  The girlfriend leaves him for a good earner and an offer comes from an unknown pharmaceutical company via a shady fixer, millions of dollars to pay off victims of criminal that have killed due to negative side affects of a promising drug.  Clay jumps the public defenders office and takes the deal and solves the offers to settle quickly.  Soon the fixer presents another offer from a different pharmaceutical company, to bring a class action suit against a competitor for benign tumors side effects of a popular arthritis medicine. Clay plays the short stock game knowing what is going to happen. The results are swift and dramatic, Clay's new firm earns over $100,000,000.00, with which he is generous to his subordinate partners.
Soon more class action torts are developed.
Well, as the fires are burning red hot the benign tumors started turning cancerous and a class action suit is filed against the star lawyer. The new cases fall through for various reason and the end results is a lot of pissed off clients and the SEC knocking at he door. A pair of the victims beat the tar out of him, all of is property is sold off, he stays out of SEC jail, gets the girl back and runs off to hide where he can be invisible.
If you like Grisham give it a whirl, The King of Torts is a fun fast read.
That said if you haven't read Grisham, I suggest you start with some of the better offers like A Time to Kill.  The plot is simple and I found myself thinking about three chapters ahead after about the first hundred pages.

Election 2014: Georgia Governor

A few weeks ago it looked like a toss up.

Nathan Deal gives me the creeps, certainly does not pass the stink test.

That said there is no way I will vote for Jason Carter.

Maybe I will abstain on that office.

Election 2014: Georgia Governor

That's How We Roll

Last week the White House prepared the fifth column with this propaganda...

"That's How We Roll"

Hey,

Last week at the United Nations, President Obama laid out a forceful case that in an uncertain world, American strength and leadership is the one constant.

The United States is leading an international coalition in the fight to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine, and to contain and combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

As the President said on Sunday night: That's how we roll.

This Thursday, speaking to Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, the President will make the case for what has always fueled America's leadership -- and that's America's economic greatness. He'll take a step back from the rush of current events to explain what we've done to recover from the Great Recession and what we need to do to ensure that more middle-class Americans feel that progress in their own lives.

Make sure you're watching. RSVP to watch the speech here -- and we'll email you on Thursday morning with an exclusive set of materials so you have the facts before the President speaks.

The fact is, the President's policies and the hard work of the American people have helped America come back farther and faster from recession than almost any other advanced nation. The economy is stronger today than it was before President Obama took office. But he didn't run for office to get us back to where we were; he ran to get us where we need to be -- to rebuild an economy that creates not only good jobs, but broad-based prosperity.

Right after the President took office -- in the face of a global recession -- he laid out his vision for building a New Foundation for the American economy based not on the cycle of bubble-and-bust that led to the crisis, but rather on shared, durable growth that creates good, middle-class jobs. We focused on reforming our financial and health care systems, investing in education, unleashing new jobs in new industries like clean energy and high-tech manufacturing, and bringing down the deficit for future generations.

From the toughest reforms of Wall Street since the Great Depression, to the Affordable Care Act, to cutting our deficits in half, to ten million new private sector jobs over the past four and a half years, we've made significant, measurable progress on each element of this New Foundation. Today, our economy is on a stronger footing for the future.

There's no quick fix, but there are commonsense things Washington can do right now to help create jobs and raise wages. The President will detail the strategy we need to follow to ensure that this century is the American century and that the benefits of our growth are shared broadly with the middle class and all who hope to join it.

Say you'll be watching, and we'll send you an update on Thursday morning, putting the facts you need in one quick, easy-to-read place.

More soon,

Dan Pfeiffer

Senior Advisor

The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111

So now the world has President Obama to thank for saving the world from the "Great Recession". Classic self aggrandizement from a cabal that couldn't figure out how to keep track of TARP money or construct a health service website.
President Obama is a tough one alright, tough to comprehend, tough to respect, impossible to believe.

Got Head?

Get one from an infidel.

REWB

Send in Eric Holder to protect the civil rights of an oppressed athlete. He could have a sit down with the running back but instead of having a glass of beer, maybe and assortment of steroids and HGH.

Obama: If I Had a 2nd Son, He’d Look Like Ray Rice | ScrappleFace

Riding an Elevator While Black
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It is almost February!

Sound Familiar?

The daily report from Foreign Policy (www.foreignpolicy.com) suggests that a newly agreed plan for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan does not have the endorsement of all parties.

A bilateral security agreement was signed, pledging the the United States will remove all troops from Afghanistan by the year 2017.There are currently US 24,000 troops in the country and the plan reportedly has that dropping to 9,800 by the end of this year.

That is three months off folks.

Some officials from both Afghanistan and Pakistan are suggesting that striking a rigid plan may not be the best idea. Quote...

"You can have well-designed plans, but the future is hard to predict and you have to be willing to adjust those plans based on the reality of what's taking place on the ground. The situation in Afghanistan in 2014 is very difficult, and we have been asking our American friends to re-evaluate their plans for leaving Afghanistan so you don't see what has happened in Iraq happen there as well."

We were hearing comments such as these from Iraq and from experienced military and political pulpits domestically. The executive branch forged ahead anyway. Now in Iraq and neighboring Syria we have a uprising of religious rebels that came to strength in the power vacuum. 

I understand that we are sick the middle east and wish that it would go away, but when you are in in the middle of a mess for which you have at least some responsibility, you do not walk away when the result is certainly going to be a return to the condition that got us there in the first place. The condition that got us there in the first place was real, the country was harboring terrorists. Now with the expansion if ISIS-ISIL in the region, is there any doubt that they will regain power in Afghanistan?

I say no.

It is easier to stay than it is to go back, set up permanent bases and plan on being there for 25 years or more. They don't have to be large, but why not, it frankly is probably more strategic than having basis in England.  Taking a prolonged bunker mentality, will, by its permanence increase stability in a country that recognizes itself the need. 

Resist the temptation to cut tail and run.