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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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CountDeMoney

#1275
August 22, 2012, 10:56:36 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 22, 2012, 07:19:20 AM
I'm delving into the deep dark world of free Baen Books. This week, Better To Beg Forgiveness...

The theme? UN bad. Fat people...stink! Socialism bad. Third world societies bad. Foreign Aid..bad! PMC's Good! Americans Good!

The book isn't that bad. For being free.

What did you do, join the Newt Gingrich Book of the Month Club?

derspiess

#1276
August 22, 2012, 11:26:50 AM
I've started reading Grant's memoirs on Kindle.  I knew he was opposed to the Mexican War, but man he lays it on thick.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

CountDeMoney

#1277
August 22, 2012, 11:31:16 AM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 11:26:50 AM
I've started reading Grant's memoirs on Kindle.  I knew he was opposed to the Mexican War, but man he lays it on thick.

Yeah, I've been wading through them for the last several months in chunks myself.  It's a fantastically written memoir.  But yeah, he doesn't pull any punches on the Mexican War at all.

Josephus

#1278
August 22, 2012, 01:28:47 PM
Just finished The Myth of the Muslim Tide by Canadian journalist, based in Britain, Doug Sanders.

In it he basically uses facts to debunk the propaganda spread by the  likes of Mark Steyn, Niall Ferguson, Christopher Caldewell, Daniel Pipes, etc who say that Muslim immigrants are out to take over the west.

Good read.
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Habbaku

#1279
August 22, 2012, 01:58:29 PM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 11:26:50 AM
I've started reading Grant's memoirs on Kindle.  I knew he was opposed to the Mexican War, but man he lays it on thick.

As well he should.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Ed Anger

#1280
August 22, 2012, 02:30:19 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 22, 2012, 10:56:36 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 22, 2012, 07:19:20 AM
I'm delving into the deep dark world of free Baen Books. This week, Better To Beg Forgiveness...

The theme? UN bad. Fat people...stink! Socialism bad. Third world societies bad. Foreign Aid..bad! PMC's Good! Americans Good!

The book isn't that bad. For being free.

What did you do, join the Newt Gingrich Book of the Month Club?

The misogyny book club closed down.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

derspiess

#1281
August 22, 2012, 03:04:16 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on August 22, 2012, 01:58:29 PM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 11:26:50 AM
I've started reading Grant's memoirs on Kindle.  I knew he was opposed to the Mexican War, but man he lays it on thick.

As well he should.

Nah. 
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Habbaku

#1282
August 22, 2012, 03:06:46 PM
Yeah.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

ulmont

#1283
August 22, 2012, 03:25:05 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on August 22, 2012, 07:19:20 AM
I'm delving into the deep dark world of free Baen Books. This week, Better To Beg Forgiveness...

The theme? UN bad. Fat people...stink! Socialism bad. Third world societies bad. Foreign Aid..bad! PMC's Good! Americans Good!

After reading the theme, I knew it had to be Williamson before I looked it up.

derspiess

#1284
August 22, 2012, 03:39:30 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on August 22, 2012, 03:06:46 PM
Yeah.

No, sir.  I respect Grant's an your opinion, but Manifest Destiny demanded that the land be ours.  Lord knows the Mexicans weren't doing anything productive with it.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

The Minsky Moment

#1285
August 22, 2012, 03:50:00 PM Last Edit: August 22, 2012, 03:51:48 PM by The Minsky Moment
Quote, Mr. LeBlanc is only the second author to unequivocally argue that, for most of its existence, homo sapiens has waged almost constant war on its own kind and that primeval society was far more warlike than any of its civilized successors.

(blurb from Timmy's book)

I've actually read two books in the last month that made that argument: Francis Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order, and Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn.  Both cite LeBlanc and its fair to say he seems to be a (if not the) leading proponent of the thesis, but the claim to radicalism is a bit overheated.

QuoteEven Mr. LeBlanc cannot shake himself free of this tradition. He concludes his book with the hope that his study of this topic will, in some unspecified way, contribute to the eventual elimination of warfare. The very work he has produced, however, is an effective antidote to Enlightenment romanticism

WTF??
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Habbaku

#1286
August 22, 2012, 03:57:01 PM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 03:39:30 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on August 22, 2012, 03:06:46 PM
Yeah.

No, sir.  I respect Grant's an your opinion, but Manifest Destiny demanded that the land be ours.  Lord knows the Mexicans weren't doing anything productive with it.

Eminent domain is fine as long as it's nation to nation, eh?  :hmm:
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

derspiess

#1287
August 22, 2012, 04:02:45 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on August 22, 2012, 03:57:01 PM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 03:39:30 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on August 22, 2012, 03:06:46 PM
Yeah.

No, sir.  I respect Grant's an your opinion, but Manifest Destiny demanded that the land be ours.  Lord knows the Mexicans weren't doing anything productive with it.

Eminent domain is fine as long as it's nation to nation, eh?  :hmm:

In this one case, yes.  Otherwise the effing Brits might've gotten their hands on some of that territory and we'd have a second Canada to deal with.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Habbaku

#1288
August 22, 2012, 04:10:53 PM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 04:02:45 PM
In this one case, yes.  Otherwise...we'd have a second Canada to deal with.

I'll view that as a concession the war was bad.  ;)
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

derspiess

#1289
August 22, 2012, 04:21:04 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on August 22, 2012, 04:10:53 PM
Quote from: derspiess on August 22, 2012, 04:02:45 PM
In this one case, yes.  Otherwise...we'd have a second Canada to deal with.

I'll view that as a concession the war was bad.  ;)

May not have been as just as other wars, but I wouldn't have opposed it had I been around back then. 
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall
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