Reviews (Books & DVD) – Page 43 – Public Intelligence Blog

Ralph Peters

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar!, May 10, 2015

I am a huge fan of Ralph Peters, who in addition to his civil war series under his own name and as Owen Parry, is a master strategist and intelligence professional who can find enemy special forces just by looking at a map and thinking. I am not sure he will ever match Cain at Gettysburg 1st (first) Edition by Peters, Ralph published by Forge Books (2012) Hardcover — that book set a new gold standard surpassing The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy) by six [and I hasten to add, I consider Michael Shaara gifted and only surpassed by Ralph] but I will say this: every book Ralph write surprises and delights, not just with how he delivers intimate details not found in other histories, but how he rights history — his books correct the less than accurate record and magnify what others have missed. His treatment of Early's last stand and Custer's best moment will stand for a very long time as yet another “first” for the author as historian.

Continue reading “Review: Valley of the Shadow”

2015/05/102015/05/14

Review: Wages of Rebellion – The Moral Imperative of Revolt

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Consciousness & Social IQ, Country/Regional, Democracy, Intelligence (Public), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Chris Hedges

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Brilliant with One Possible Flaw and Some Minor Oversights, May 10, 2015

I am a huge fan of Chris Hedges and consider Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle one of his most interesting works, a real complement to David Korten's The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

This book can be seen as a logical follow on to The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, among other works.

This is a five star book with one major point: revolutions don't succeed from mass power, they succeed when mass power is no longer confronted by the armed power of the state because the individual soldiers and police stop defending the status quo. Since I myself have studied revolution extensively, and < Graphic: Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today > is easily found online, I am both impressed by the author's blend of journo-scholarship, and a tad disappointed that he missed some key bits.

Continue reading “Review: Wages of Rebellion – The Moral Imperative of Revolt”

2015/04/072015/04/08

Review: The Story – A Reporter’s Journey

3 Star, Media

Judith Miller

3.0 out of 5 stars From the Person Who Helped Cheney Lie Us Into a $4 Trillion War, April 7, 2015

The author of this book almost single-handedly helped Dick Cheney lie the US public into a $4 trillion dollar war, the New York Times managers then lacking in integrity — these are the same people that covered up rendition and torture and mass surveillance by NSA at opportune times, so as to “help” a favored President living by Henry Kissinger's motto, “The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

I certainly recommend the book, at the very low price that is consistent with this book's lack of depth — like looking insider the mind of a worm, everyone should do this at least once.

Continue reading “Review: The Story – A Reporter's Journey”

2015/03/312015/03/30

KINDLE WITH LINKS: Intelligence for Earth

6 Star Top 10%, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Commercial), Intelligence (Extra-Terrestrial), Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Spiritual), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks)

Robert Steele's quite extraordinary book, INTELLIGENCE FOR EARTH, is now available in Kindle, which means that the hundreds of links within the book are easily exploitable. There is no one else on the planet that is a former spy, honorary hacker, #1 Amazon review for non-fiction, and the “top gun” for ethical evidence-based decision support to leaders who wish to be ethical and effective.

See Also:

Robert Steele's Reviews @ Amazon

Robert Steele's Books

Robert Steele's Biographies, Profiles, & Production

2015/03/292015/03/30

Review: The Onboard Medical Guide – First Aid and Emergency Medicine Afloat

4 Star, Sailing

Paul G. Gill

The Best in Its Time, Superceded by Marine Medicine, March 29, 2015

Dated but exceptional.

I have been so unhappy with the “standard” references such as Advanced First Aid Afloat that that I created my own informal study guide for offshore use, one page per item, description/diagnostics, treatment, and photo.

Continue reading “Review: The Onboard Medical Guide – First Aid and Emergency Medicine Afloat”

2015/03/292015/04/01

Review: Marine Medicine

5 Star, Sailing

Eric Weiss and Michale Jacobs

5.0 out of 5 stars BEYOND First Aid, Comprehensive It Is March 29, 2015

I've been an offshore sailor since 1988, off and on, and in all that time I have been very frustrated by a wide range of largely mediocre medical references, to the point that I created my own First Aid Afloat reference (one page per issue, description/diagnosis, treatment, photo).

Prior to this book (WARNING NOTICE: this is a small book with SMALL print), my preference has been for The Onboard Medical Guide: First Aid and Emergency Medicine Afloat, in part because it comes with large pages, large print, and lots of white space. While this is the first NEW maritime medicine reference that meets my standards, I would have preferred a larger layout with larger print. This is a cargo pocket book.

Thank having been said, yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Jacobs lecture the US Safety at Sea Seminar in Annapolis — this is the premier US Sailing event of the year — and today I had the further pleasure of an interactive session with the good doctor. I found him to not only be a superb professional, but the perfect gentleman whom I would recommend as a lecturer, mentor, and hands-on trainer.

Use Amazon's “Look Inside the Book” to review the extraordinary table of contents. Books such as Advanced First Aid Afloat, do not satisfy m; while I like the Red Cross online PDF including the color photographs, that could still do with some improvement. What wins me over completely, the small size and print aside, is the very long list of specifics (including multiple pages on fractures and multiple pages on internal injuries) along with the concluding appendices on drugs and assistance sources.

Review (Guest): The Utopia of Rules – on Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Civil Society, Complexity & Catastrophe, Corruption, Culture, Research, Economics, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Information Society, Misinformation & Propaganda, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), True Cost & Toxicity, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

David Gaeber

A Fresh Take on Bureaucracy

By Peter Richardson on March 19, 2015

What intense pleasure this book gave me, despite the dull topic: bureaucracy. Anthropologist David Graeber is perhaps best known for Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), which became required reading for the Occupy Wall Street movement. In that book, Graeber showed that the standard explanation for the origins of money, rehearsed in dozens of economics textbooks, was a fairy tale.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): The Utopia of Rules – on Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy”