A Half Million Miles of Road Trips

This summer I had reason to call an old friend with whom I had become estranged.

Not having his contact information, I called his older brother whose whereabout I did know. 

That brother is Sam Allen, and he did put me in contact with his younger brother.

Sam and I talked some of motorcycles, me proudly sharing that I had finally stepped up and purchased a Road King with which I am still becoming familiar.

Anyway, Sam described to me his YouTube channel about Route 66 and talked of a couple of books he had written.

A Half Million Miles of Road Trips is the first of these two books. It reads like the diary of man that wants to share how he has loved life.  The diary includes many vignettes of experiences had, places visited and persons that made impressions.  Primary focus was on good places to visit on Route 66.

Sam and his family have been important people in life, his parents and brothers are all dear to my heart. 

If you are a motorcycle person, a Route 66 aficionado, or seeking a fun read, order the book  

The War on Warriors

Bought the book about a year ago after watching him on television discuss his work and hinting at how his military career was torpedoed by politicians and sycophantic officers. I started the book immediately, got bored, but then the author chosen and confirmed as the Secretary of Defense, so made quick effort to read the darned thing.

Fully titled The War on Warriors, Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, the book is short at only 256 pages.

A majority of the book focuses on how public political theories creep into and corrupt proven military processes. Particularly how the Obama and Biden regimes inserted DEI dogma into many facets of military operations and training. 

I suppose that this is the nature of politicians in times of peace, and the nature of military leadership to relax at the simultaneously. They cling to their positions more than reality, often until it's too late.

The book itself started weakly but did recover and end well.

If you like Pete Hegseth, it is a nice short read.

The Creature from Jekyll Island

The Creature from Jekyll Island is a book that, for me, a wonderful gift from my brother Kye. Written by G. Edward Griffin, the book was published in 1994.

As said the book was a gift, a couple of years ago. At roughly 700 pages and being somewhat technical in nature, it took me a couple of months to read, amongst other books.

The author is not loved by academia or media types, but it does present a reasonable theory as the way banking works in the world.

Basically, the process is this banks love for governments, and not just the United States to spend more than they bring in. This motivates governments to generate revenue by increasing the money supply, aka inflating the currency. The revenue is supplied by, in the US, issuing notes to the Federal Reserve, who intern lend that money to commercial banks, who in turn can lend the money out to whomever why maintaining, theoretically 10% in reserve. The commercial banks can now leverage that remaining 90% into multiple or the original amount. Essentially creating money that is never printed. 

The book in depth discusses fiat money and how the true value of money should be tied to gold or similar. Anchored currencies are the safest, but the politicians hate being tied to a commodity and the bankers can't profit on reserves not in play. So, we are likely doomed to a future of more of the same.

I might add that most financial systems are subject to dynamic forces, no system is perfect, all have had booms and failures.

Loved the book, recommend it highly. Don't be too public with it, you might be judged a right wing not rather than a financial scholar.

Enjoy

The Last Lion

The Last Lion is a segment biography written by William Manchester. Published in 1988, the work covers nearly 700 pages, detailing events for Winston Churchill (WSC), beginning in 1932 and closing in 1940. 

During most of this period Churchill was alone in public opposition to Hitler and developments in Germany. Out of favor with the politicians that happened to be in power, WSC spent the eight years fostering sources of intelligence, writing essays and books for the public. Winston's connection to the general public was much greater that that he had with the ruling class. The English political regime, and the monarchy had strong historical ties to German royalty via marriage and a common hatred of Communists.  In that posture, they resisted recognition of German aggression in favor of a misguided hope that it would end at the doorstep of France. They were wrong, WSC was right and it took Hitler invading Poland and the lowlands of Belgium to declare war, war which they were unprepared for.

At the point war was inevitable, the PM and his cabinet were still clinging to control. The public and correspondingly the House of Commons wouldn't have it. Churchill then became the Prime Minister, which was basically the end of the book. 

The book affirms my belief that in times of peace, politicians waste military capital by allowing equipment to become obsolete and diverting money to social objectives. Their actions and inactions tend to make us weak, confirming my belief that politicians, by and large, suck.

I'm a fan of William Manchester's biographies, in part because for a time he lived in my hometown which was adjacent to the city where he was a professor.  This biography is no different, I'm pleased to have added it to my pile.

Les Miserables

A sporadic effort over a year has ended with the completion of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

The novel was published in 1862, a story about an ex-convict's struggle for redemption in the depressed country of France, following Napoleon's defeat and exile.

Kind of already knew the story having been dragged to the Broadway production, by my wife, twice.

The book is  a hard read, but worth it.

The Master of the House, in the book, is not one bit humorous.

Think Little

Think Little is brief book, a collection of essays if you will, in which Wendell Berry describes the country paradise of his Kentucky homeland.

Published in 1969, the collection uniformly professes a love for the country and a disdain for progress.

While I disagree with most of the conclusions, conclusions based a willful ignorance of reality, the writing is beautiful, the thoughts deep and haunting.

The writing reminds me of the Robert Roark books I read long ago, filled with a love for countryside land and the men who lived carefully within it.

I have a neighbor who was a student of this author at the University of Kentucky.

Unfreedom of the Press

Unfreedom of the Press was published during the summer of 2019, this is the first book that I ever advance ordered because of radio commentary or advice. Written by Mark Levin, the book is short at only 227 pages in the hardback version. Come to think of it, this probably is not released in paperback format.
As anyone can tell from watching or listening to Mr. Levin's, the author is intelligent, well researched and passionate. The intelligence and research are evident in this offering, conveying the emotion is understandably tough to accomplish.
The history of the press's reporting of political news in the United States has ranged from newspapers and pamphleteers being openly aligned with one political party, to the practice of objective reporting which for me would be the equivalent of the scientific method. The writing work may of given themselves too mush credit because objective reporting has morphed into objective reporting with a thinly veiled alignment. In other readings, this development has paralleled the progressive movement in America, triggered by the German philosopher of the Bismarck era, and taking local form with progressive practices initiated by Woodrow Wilson and like minded politicians.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is.....

Now it is often a euphemism for the prerogative of reported to produce their synthetic commodity.

Daniel J. Boorstin

Boorstin was Librarian of Congress from 1975 to 1987, a educated man of high standing and a former communist that wrote a book titled The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events  in America.
Anyway, this a book worth reading, especially of you are a fan of the radio show.

The Age of Turbulence

The book The Age of Turbulence, Adventures in a New World is not your ordinary autobiographical work. Written by Alan Greenspan and published by The Penguin Press in 2007, this book in hardcover form has 505 pages.
Alan Greenspan describes his childhood living in the Washington Heights section of New York City. His parents estranged, primarily raised by his mother's family. Public schools, Julliard for the clarinet. Missing World War 2 with a medical deferment, NYU and Columbia. Playing his clarinet in a band that included Stan Getz. Two marriages, the second to Andrea Mitchell. Work in private financial markets and the eventual appointment as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, succeeding Paul Volcker, to server from 1987 to 2006, serving four Presidents.
Much of the book covers his financial philosophies, what he considers to be important components to successful systems, what does not work and what may come to pass.
Greenspan believes:

• The United States has succeeded in growth primarily because of adherence to the rule of law in a non-partial way.
• Financial growth is best in capitalist systems where citizens property rights are protected. Citizens must feel safe to invest effort and property, essentially to take risks, for the benefits of personal growth.
• Social systems are generally well meaning but not create productive growth.
• Fabian socialist systems, such as that in India, and now departed from in England, an attempt  of a hybrid capitalist + socialism do not work either.
• Communism wherever practiced has been a brutal failure. At the time of this publishing, Russian buying power was 1/3 of those industrial economies.
• The economies of Europe, Japan and United States are all facing zero to negative population growth with the promise of substantial retirement population growth. These economies all need to face harsh realities with regards to social program costs outstripping tax receipts. Most likely a reason why in both Europe and the United States governments are allowing substantial immigration over the objections of citizens.
• India, with the largest democratic population in the world is unlikely to evolve in a positive way from heavily bureaucratic processes established by Fabian socialism
• China's growth will subside as the agrarian society converts to an industrial society.

I likes the book very much, took me a long time to read because  little in it was entertaining, but I learned a lot by the effort.

Fahrenheit 451

Sometimes, oftentimes, I am way behind the curve. Fahrenheit 451 is a book I have been aware of for over 40 years, but never cracked a cover, until recently. A fictional novel researched and written by Ray Bradbury, in the forties, published by Simon & Schuster in 1951.
This is a science fiction story focused on a futuristic society, centrally manipulated by a government which controls the information citizens receive, and destroys the information, namely books, that citizens could use to generate thought. Individualism is denied by removing the triggers that incite creativity.
The central character is a man named Montag, his occupation is firefighter. In this world the people are addicted to television and listen to insipid dialog constantly with earbuds. News is controlled by the government and sprinkled in to television entertainment in bite sized sanity bits. All books other than trade magazine are outlawed and Montag's occupation as a firefighter is different from what we know in that the risk of fire to property is zero, firemen exist to burn books that citizens have hidden away from the government. The people have been lead to be ignorant by a government that needs them to be malleable.
As the protagonist, this fireman is called out with a team to the homes of reported book owners, the books are found and burned, the citizens jailed or exterminated. Montag develops a conscience, in curiosity sneaks away some books for reading, including a Bible, which by this time has become a rare thing. The fire chief discovers Montag's secret obsession and conducts a raid of his home, Montag's wife betrays here husband reveals the library. The books are burned on the front lawn, and in a confrontation, Montag, in defense of himself, burns the fire chief to death. Montag goes on the lam from the government. The government uses television to inform citizens of the fugitive in the city street, whipping up support. The search becomes the biggest thing happening in the city. Montag manages to escape the city and get to the country where he joins up with a group of men who roam the countryside. These men have each memorized particular books, shedding the physical books, they roam the country on defunct railroad tracks, sharing their knowledge with the like-minded and waiting for a revolution and then the next Renaissance. The government, to save face in their failed search, kills another man on television, after intentionally misidentifying him as Montag the fugitive. 
Fahrenheit 451 predicted parts of what we now recognize as common culture, such as, the rejection of great works of literature, supplanting religion, a preoccupation with television, personal ear-to-ear communication, and a deceptive government keeping is people ignorant to make the matter of control simple.

In short I loved the book,Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.

The Cardinal and the Kremlin

A Tom Clancy novel The Cardinal of the Kremlin was published in 1988 by Putnam.
As with all Clancy novels we have the normal characters, Jack Rayan, along with Ritter, John Clark, Bart Mancuso, the Admiral Greer and as a surprise Marco Ramius.
The plot concentrates on military and clandestine facets of what we have come to know as SDI. Both Russia and the United States are racing, in secret, to be the first to complete their laser defense systems which are intended to destroy enemy missiles. The Americans have the better programming and optics, the Russians have conquered the power delivery systems. Both have what the other have to complete their systems. Both countries have spies embedded within the their oppositions scientific development teams.
The main protagonist, Jack Ryan, while serving as a expert on a team of diplomats negotiating an arms reduction treaty, become involved in a plan for extraction of a long time, highly ranking military advisor linked to the Russian Politburo. The plan is scary, and Jack Ryan gets a scraped knee, but is eventually successful.
Ramius showing in the book was minor and insignificant.
The book is worth a read, even if it is generally formulaic, I am surprised this wasn't made into a movie..

To Kill a Mockingbird

People are getting wound up again over the seminal novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

School board in Ontario takes new approach to teaching ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’:

No doubt the book, one of my favorites, touches some raw nerves with its subject matter and language.  After searching many sites looking for a reasonable discussion. I found this statement in the above linked article.

Chinese-Canadian writer Wayson Choy says he agrees that “To Kill a Mockingbird” should be taught with a more critical approach and in context, since racism is discussed differently today than it was more than 50 years ago.

This I think fair enough, not a bad point for consideration of all books being studied. Books should be broken down and taught with an eye on its relationships to current culture as well as the quality of its construction. Literature should be taught with the intent of teaching students to write well.

I have read the sequel Go Set a Watchman released shortly before Harper Lee's death, and if any person suggests that this woman was a racist, they are revealing their ignorance.
If you did not know it, Harper Lee was an childhood friend and research assistant for Truman Capote.

A Painted House

A Painted House is a novel written by John Grisham, published in 2001 by Doubleday.
While John Grisham is no William Faulkner, he does invoke some of same traits of agricultural desperation. This is thoroughly enjoyable story, narrated by the 7 year old Luke, of life in Arkansas's cotton country.
Having totally missed its existence, this book was made into a movie starring Scott Glenn, who plays Luke's grandfather.
I do recommend the book for a light read, and a change of pace from the usually lawyerly centric stories by John Grisham.
Next up The Cardinal and the Kremlin.

Avenue of Mysteries

My favorite author is John Irving, has been for almost 40 years, was hooked after reading The Hotel New Hampshire.
Avenue of Mysteries was published by Simon and Schuster in 2015.
The plot is focused upon Juan Diego, both is past as an orphan Mexican reading prodigy and the current as well known novelist. Some of the unsurprising, Irving traits of story include authors, warped religiosity and Iowa, nothing about wrestling.
Juan had a unique childhood, living in a dump, then in and orphanage, with his sister who was unintelligible to all except Juan and notable clairvoyant. Lupe, his sister, foresaw, and proceeded regardless, being killed by a lioness. This event propelled Juan to Iowa where he became an author.
An accomplished author of same fame, Juan goes on a trip to the Philippines where age, dalliance with a mother and daughter. During this trip, which is peculiar, to say the least, the author floats between dreams of his past, and a surrealistic present.
The book became tedious to read, I found myself wished the book would conclude, parallel to Juan Diego's mental and physical decline to death.
I was happy the book was over, don't think this will become a movie.

FOREIGN Affairs

The bride gave me a pile of books to read for Christmas. This was the first I grabbed, to replace the John Irving novel that has lost me in the Philippines.
Foreign Affairs is a novel written by Stuart Woods, a man who as a boy my mother in-law taught in a Dearing, Georgia  (silent e) elementary school back in the 1940's.
The cover describes Stuart Woods as a New York Times bestselling author. Which after reading this book diminishes my impression of the vaulted New York Times listing. Publishing in 2015, this is a short novel of 308 pages, those having 1.5 spacing and wide margins. It hardly has to be mentioned that this is a fast read.
Let me save you some trouble and tell you the story.
The hero is Stone Barrington, a former New York city policeman who through superior intellect has amassed a large fortune involving businesses around world. Stone is pulled out of a New York dinner party for an emergency board meeting in Italy to discuss a new hotel being built. Getting the first available flight he's seated next a sexy young lady who becomes the focus of the plot. In Italy things become complicated when a local mobster tries to extort the hotel company into becoming partners. Being the studly man that the name Stone infers, Barrington tells the man to pound sand. The mobster reacts by kidnapping the young lady and impose a partnership. Barrington gets the CIA, FBI, POTUS, Italian Intelligence and MI6 all involved because he knows everyone and everyone owes him a favor. Naturally the girl is saved and the guinea bastard is jailed.
There, no you do not have to read the book.
Wait for the television movie, its perfect for one of those crap portrayals.
In case you are interested there are 81 such Woods novels out there, he writes about four per year.
Back to John Irving.

Runaway Jury

A formula driven book written by John Grisham, published in 1996.
The novel's core character is Nicholas Easter, a man who through following the industry, disguises his identity and moves to Biloxi, Mississippi. There he manages to get on a jury for a civil suit against a leading cigarette manufacturer. Nicholas manipulates the jury and with the help of woman on the outside, manages to convince the corrupt jury consultant that they can push the jury to a favorable conclusion for the defense. After the $10,000,000 is paid the woman, the sequestered jury is pushed to find for the plaintiff.
As with any Grisham story there is a good amount of histrionics but the hero and heroine win out and survive the evil lawyers.
I found it interesting that the movie of the same name changed out the cigarette manufacturers for hand gun makers.
Like most Grisham books, it is an easy read, much like watching a movie for the third time.

Surrender is Not an Option

This book was written by John Bolton, published in 2007, shortly before President Bush left office.
Beginning with his time in college, being a Goldwater Republican, this is the work of the man who was rejected as the UN representative to the United Nations by bitchy Democrats like Charles Schumer and  Joseph Biden. Not to be outdone President Bush put him in there as a recess appointment.
Bolton spends a great deal of time describing the manner in which his primary directors Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice were inconsistent leaders more interested in their personal legacies and agreeing with other nations than placing the needs of the United States foremost.
Bolton spends a great deal of time describing how the United Nations, is ineffective, built and operates contrary to the needs of the United States who happens to be its greatest benefactor.
Bolton describes problems with the our government, notably the State Department:

• The State Department is composed of primarily liberal democrats
• Federal government is filled with career operators who resist the transient will of the people, something that we are seeing today with resistance to the policies of the Trump White House
• State Department allows the application of "moral equivalents" to be used by enemies in negotiations
• State Department approaches all negotiations with the position of "what can we give up", see North Korea

The book was an interesting read in that it describes Bolton's frustrations, frustrations which parallel the Trump White House and conservatives of today.
This is a dry read, spends a lot of time describing the machinations of the United Nations, often with acronyms. It is filled with many frank criticisms of politicians on both sides of the aisle.
I enjoyed it, here is a link to a more astute review.

The Whistler

Finished reading this The Whistler by John Grisham earlier today.
The Whistler was published in 2016.
The book is pretty short, having less than 400 pages.
I was able to read this in about three sessions of reading and enjoyed it very much.

The plot follows the Grisham formula of disadvantage southern lawyers in southern settings fighting insurmountable odds.
The plot centers around a judicial review panel in Florida investigating the intersection of a local crime family, a corrupt judge and a profitable Indian casino. In may ways the plot resembled The Pelican Brief.
I recommend this book,

The World According to Garp

Going back to the first time I read the book The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving has been my favorite author. With nothing fun to read at hand one day, found an old paperback copy of The World According to Garp and decided to go for the re-read.
The World According to Garp was published in 1978, is John Irving's fourth novel and first of critical and financial acclaim.
This is story of a TS Garp, born to an independent feminist before there even was a classification of the term feminist. He grew up well nurtured by a thoughtful woman, becoming an author, and for the most part lived a lived curtailed by women.
This is a wonderful book, a must read for any adult who enjoys humor tinged with political unrest.
Buy it, steal it, read it.

The Best and the Brightest

The bride and I have been living in this house for 15 years, the former owner left a bookcase full of mostly crap, but a few weeks ago, found this thick paperback gem. The blasted thing took me three months to read.
The Best And The Brightest is a book written by the Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam.
The book is not a novel so if you are looking for excitement stop right here. It is written like a documentary. The book was published in in 1972, had started as a article to be written for Harper's Weekly magazine and became the deep study eclipsing what the weekly could offer.
The process starts with the selection of the team of advisers and cabinet secretaries that John F. Kennedy was assembling during his Presidential campaign. The Senator had been seen in professional circles as an moderately intelligent man with a nondescript records in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. His image as a young conservative Democrat, participation in Massachusetts politics, substantial financial resources and Harvard connections made the President-Elect's offers of public service very attractive to renowned scholars and leaders of industry.
The first team that he assembled was made of men we still remember today.

• Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, a Georgia man, born to meager means. Rusk became a scholar by a less prestigious route that his contemporaries. An education completed at Oxford and UC Berkeley. Rusk was a an extremely loyal secretary, who had doubts about the build up in Vietnam. He, learned  during his time in the Truman administration, and did his best to discern what  the President's wishes were and to support that position. As a southerner, Dean Rusk manages to survive in office through the end of Lyndon Johnson's term.
• Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense. McNamara was an industry man, plucked out of the Ford Motor Corporation. A man with excellent industrial credentials and a penchant for applying operations analysis problem solving to system control. McNamara was staunch advocate for the Vietnam War effort, in public, for the President's team approach, for both Kennedy and Johnson. Over time he developed personal opinions otherwise, that subtlety expressed led to a firing by Johnson.
• McGeorge Bundy was Special Assistant for National Security Affairs. Bundy was the prize of Kennedy's team. He was hired away from his position of Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. He had been named to that post at the age of thirty-four, making him the youngest dean in the school's history. Bundy served a a filter for both Kennedy and Johnson, but as being primarily interested European issues managed to hold the Vietnam issues at arms length.
• Maxwell Taylor was military adviser to President Kennedy. He came to the team from being Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Taylor was thought of as a politician's general, very popular. His experience with large ground scale wars in WWII and Korea led him to advise poorly on the build up and execution of the war. Later as things began to unravel Taylor acted in obstructive way.

The best way to describe what happened in Vietnam, at least from this book. Is to start with he end of World War II. Nearing the end of the war Roosevelt made clear that he saw the situation the French had in Vietnam was mainly a colonialism issue, which made the insurrection there a civil war, and something to be avoided.

World War II ended with Truman as POTUS. Policies were continuing as Roosevelt had established until Joe McCarthy's Red Scare. The Communist hunts put the Democrats in the unenviable position of having been in power when most of the accused were active in government.  

This led to the elections of Eisenhower many Republicans. During this eight year long administration, there was monetary and equipment support given to the French fighting in Southeast Asia.  

Enter the Democrats and John F. Kennedy, smarting from eight years on the outside and fearing being labelled as soft on Communism. They were World War II veterans and intended to show the world how tough they were. They assembled team described was convinced that they were the smartest politicians of their time. To start, they jumped irrationally into Cuba, against expert advise and gotten their asses spanked. Then they managed to be manipulated by Nikita Khrushchev in Europe. They were in a mood to be assertive when the cries for assistance were arriving from South Vietnam. Advisers were sent, reports were scrubbed by Taylor's officers. The situation for years did not improve, decisions were made to bomb North Vietnam in hopes of softening it's position, it failed. 

President Johnson sent ground troops which the Army continually sought to increase in size. This team failed to use for critical decision making were intelligence reports and advice that North Vietnam was not being seriously hurt by the bombing and the North Vietnamese population of draft ready men was larger by two times the most men the United States ever had in country. Every time the US added men to the force the North Vietnamese just sent more men down trails.

By 1966, the Congress and public were on to President Johnson's stealthy build up, his administration was doomed.

There are many parallels to what we see of politicians today. 

• They are arrogant.
• They ignore history.
• They filter truth to fit leadership objectives.
• They lie to the public.

I liked to book very much, it is full of of character interaction and dynamics.

The Long-Legged House

Another book report, bought a couple of years ago after getting a clue to do so from Gun and Garden magazine. The book seemed dull at first, but on a recent review, revealed a rich expression of the author'a love for rural Kentucky.
The Long-Legged House was written by Wendell Berry, and published by Shoemaker & Hoard in 1965.
This is a collection of essays with having diverse scope. For this reason, finite description would be tedious. Mr. Berry was, is, a man deeply in tune with his own relationshipa to the earth, Christian fundamentals and man's care for each other.
The discussions written ring true and parallel to the positions of today's progressives and Sierra Club. They, the essays are logical and thoughtful, though in my opinion unrealistic.
I write because this is a book worth reading, Berry writes in a manner that pulls the reader onto a seat upon a rock on the banks of the river, any river.