Reviews (Books & DVD) – Page 243 – Public Intelligence Blog

2007/07/312009/10/16

Review: The Folly of War–American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005

6 Star Top 10%, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Strategy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, War & Face of Battle

Truly Brilliant, Reflects a Sea Change in Scholarship

July 31, 2007

Donald E. Schmidt

There are some fine reviews, so my primary purpose in posting this review is to flag it for the folks that keep an eye on what I read.

My one complaint is the tiny font size. I had to get special glasses from the supermarket to read this book, a $15 cost that should not have been necessary. The publisher made a serious mistake on the font size and I urge that all future printings be at least 11 font. This entire book is in a font normally used for obscure notes, and it takes dedication to get through this. Such valuable material should NOT be so parsimonesouly treated by a publisher, who should have known better.

I am among those that believe that war is a racket and that we live in an unconquerable world where the only possible positive outcome comes from combining the wealth of networks with the new craft of intelligence and free distance learning as well as on demand answers via cell phone, in order to empower the five billion at the base of the pyramid. Only they can create infinite wealth that stabilizes the entire planet in a sustainable fashion.

This author has ventured where few have had the imagination, persistence, or integrity to go. He has taken on the military-industrial establishment, the banks, the rule by secrecy and scarcity mandarins, and he has nailed it. This is a Nobel Prize level effort and I for one am deeply impressed.

His organization is superb, and even his fanciful conversation among all our Presidents is provocative. This is not “turgid text,” this is the fabric of history restored and rewoven.

Shortly Medard Gabel will have a book come out entitled “Seven Billion Billionaries,” and I urge one and all to buy that book along with this one. They are two sides of the coin. This book is focused on the folly of war (which today costs $900 billion a year across all nations, with the USA being the most spendthrift), while Medard's focuses on the inexpensiveness and achievability of peace and prosperity–in his carefully documented manuscript, every bit the equal of this author's, he shows how $230 billion a year–LESS than a third of what we spend on our varied militaries, could resolve every single one of the high level threats to mankind identified by LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret), and the other members of this United Nations panel.

I hope this book is put into the digital domain prompty, for the wealth of information it contains will be made all the more valuable as we move to an era of transparent budgets, digital democracy, and constant oversight from the people whose money has been wasted so cruelly all these years.

See my many lists for other recommended readings. Below are a handful of books that complement this one.
War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

2007/07/292009/12/04

Review DVD: THE ART OF RACING SAILING

4 Star, Reviews (DVD Only), Sailing

Must Own, Must View Annually

July 29, 2007

Bennett Marine Video

It's a stormy day and the boat I crew on (as a grinder, the lowest of the low) is in for warranty work, so I spent the afternoon with this DVD.

It grabbed me right off by pointing out that many races are won or lost before the boat ever hits the water, and then going over a stem to stern list of all the warps and unevenness along the hull that could significantly reduce the boats symmetry and consequently, speed.

I can barely remember all the good stuff covering every position on the boat, but I know now that I am going to have to watch this DVD at least twice more this season, and then annually thereafter.

I'm a big fan of Gary Jobson and have his book; I dsicovered his DVD by wrting this review and will buy it. In the meantime, this specific DVD is a world-class opportunity to improve your racing sailing, at a price that so low that buying this could be the best $30 bucks you ever spend.

See my list of great sailing books, adding this DVD to it.

Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing : The Definitive Guide for Skippers, Tacticians, and Crew
Racing To Win with Gary Jobson
Getting Started in Sailboat Racing
Championship Tactics: How Anyone Can Sail Faster, Smarter, and Win Races
Whitbread 97/98: Pushing The Limits.
The Race: Extreme Sailing and Its Ultimate Event: Nonstop, Round-the-World, No Holds Barred
Volvo Round the World Race: The SEB Stopover Reports.
Advanced Racing Tactics

2007/07/292009/10/16

Review: High Tech Trash–Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health

6 Star Top 10%, Environment (Problems)

One of my top ten (new list) for saving the planet

July 29, 2007

Elizabeth Grossman

Fairly quickly into this book I was comparing it to Silent Spring and to Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy.

This is a brilliant elegant work. If you agree with its premises it is a fast read, ending with an appendix on how to recycle electronic waste, and a truly superb bibliography. This is a serious book, a PhD level accomplishment, and totally objective and meritorious.

I am particularly impressed that Apple accepts its computer back for recycling in Japan, something we need to demand here. Indeed, if Apple and CISCO (for its routers and hubs) were to commit to total recycling, what is called for in Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming and described in more detail in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things I for one would immediately switch my business and my office to iPhone, MacIntoch, and Open Office from Sun (on verge of being fully implementable within Apple's operating system).

Other books on my top ten:
Where to find 4 billion new customers: expanding the world's marketplace; Smart companies looking for new growth opportunities should consider broadening … consultant.: An article from: The Futurist (Forthcoming as a book, see my keynote to Gnomedex, “Open Everything”
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System
Diet for a Small Planet
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World

2007/07/282009/12/04

Review DVD: Peaceful Warrior

5 Star, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Reviews (DVD Only)

Karate Kid on Steroids for Adults with a Brain,

July 28, 2007

Scott Mechlowicz

I spent an enchanting evening with this move. Having lived all over the world as the son of an oilman, an infantry officer, and a clandestine case officer (spy), everything here resonated with me. This was a wonderful way to spend the evening.

Here are some other items that complement the theme:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Peace One Day
The Age of Missing Information
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
What the Bleep Do We Know!?

See also my list of Transpartisan Books. We are at a rare stage in history, when the elites are collapsing and We the People are re-emerging as soverign common sense for the common wealth.

2007/07/282011/10/22

Review: While America Sleeps–How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Religion & Politics of Religion, Security (Including Immigration)

Stunning Offering in the Public Interest

July 28, 2007

Wells Earl Draughon

While I am not quite prepared to say the US should be a white, Christian nation, in part because the Native Americans and the people of color we brought here in slavery have every bit as much right as we do to the place, I *am* prepared to say that we need to emulate the Spanish and issue an expulsion edict for all Muslims who refuse to adopt our customs. Any Muslim that continues to beat their wife and demand that she dress in Muslim fashion, should be shown the way out of here. Any Muslim that speaks or hears without protest the advocation of the murder of Americans on American soil should be immediately evicted with all property confiscated. Indeed, I am beginning to believe that we should outlaw foreign ownership of anything and especially land, as well as absentee landlords, and of course revoke corporate personality.

I am going to list some books at the end of this review because while the author is utterly brilliant and on point, he overlooks all the evil things the US Government is doing “in our name,” and I will be the first to say we cannot restore our Republic unless we first restore both our moral compass and the sovereignty of We the People, demanding that the Constitution and Electoral Reform be the only two issues that matter henceforth.

The authors table of contents says it all, and I have never seen a better more organized laydown of content than this one, so good that I am spelling it out here because for many, the table of contents alone is sufficient (but I urge buying the book, it is very readable and thought-provoking).

An Economy in Hock
La Reconquista (the Reconquering, Mexico has gotten all the way back to the Guadalupe-Hidalgo line)
Absolishing Self-Defense
Subordinating Ourselves
Subordinating Our Culture
Subordinating Our Country
An Ideology of Submission
Enforcing the Ideology
Disabling Americans
Spreading the Ideology
Can America Be Saved?
Reclaiming the Individual
Reclaiming the Economy
Reclaiming the Government
If All Else Fails

This is an enormously important book that speaks to the heart and mind of every person of any race or faith who believes in America the Beautiful, in dignity, justice, and liberty for all. That's not what we stand for today, and that is a travesty of epic proportions.

One final observation: the author is completely correct in all that he says, but we have to recognize that it is the virtual colonialism, unilateral militarism, and predatory immoral capitalism (a class war on both our workers and middle class and those of other countries) that are the foundation for the mass immigration toward America. There is plenty of money for peace–for just one third of the $900 billion a year military budgets of all nations, we can resolve every single one of the ten high-level threats to humanity identified by the United Nations (with LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcroft representing America) and created infinite stabilizing wealth, what Medard Gabel calls in his forthcoming book, “Seven Billion Billionaries.” We know what needs to be done, we have to take back control of the US Government from the corrupt politicians and crooked Wall Street gangs that have legalized the marginalization of the majority of all citizens.

The blind support for an Israel that is both fascist and genocidal, combined with the idiocy of hundreds of billions of dollars for Egyptian arms purchases and total subservicen to the depraved and desposit Saudi regime are signs of a government that is totally out of touch with both reality, and the possibilities of peace and prosperity. No one in Washington cares about us, only about their next bribe or paycheck or lunch hour.

The books below are a tiny subset–see my lists for many more.
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World
Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage

2007/07/272009/10/16

Review: Spy Wars–Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games

4 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret)

Not for the General Reader

July 27, 2007

Tennent H. Bagley

Tim Weiner's book, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA is the better book for the general reader as well as any intelligence professional.

This book loses one star for failing to be open about the special prison built for Nesenko at “The Farm,” and the extraordinarily abusive treatment he received at the hands of the Soviet Division in the CIA's Directorate of Operations (DO). Old timers are still shaking their heads in dismay.

Recognizing that this book is a profound and detailed telling of the story from the side of those who destroyed Nosenko, I give it a four over all for detail from a particular perspective, a 3 for the general reader.

There is nothing in this book that would lead anyone to believe that the DO was anything less than quite good, and while I was tempted to drop it to a 3 for that reason, I left it at 4 for what I call special purpose reading. Deeper details than most desire, and details that cannot be evaluated alone, but must be considered in the light of many other accounts and context–don't bother if you only want to read one book.

In passing, the author confirms CIA's persistent inability to field officers with language skills, even against the “main enemy,” the Russians. The author also touches on the groupthink mentality of the cult of intelligence.

Other books apart from Legacy of Ashes:
Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC
Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War's Most Important Agents
The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West
Molehunt: The Secret Search for Traitors That Shattered the CIA
None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times
Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: U.S. Covert Action and Counterintelligence
Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million

2007/07/262009/12/04

Review DVD: Shooter (Full Screen Edition)

5 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Reviews (DVD Only)

Former Spy and Top Non-Fiction Reviewer Applauds

July 26, 2007

Mark Wahlberg

Most reviewers are missing what insiders would recognize as a very credible scenario for the various assassinations that have taken place in America. I found this movie compelling and I certainly do not subtract anything for any of what others found to be “bombs, babes, and booze.” News flash: that's what it's like.

The movie kept me guessing until the end, and I like it so much I am adding it to my list of “Great Spy DVDs” and palcing it second after only Breach. This movie has a real message that most miss: privatizing our spies and our military is absolutely the fastest way to out-source and lose our national honor.

Four books I especially recommend, for those who want to reflect on just how ugly it can get when money or ideology rather than honor talks:

Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
How to Prevent Genocide: A Guide for Policymakers, Scholars, and the Concerned Citizen