Books
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Marching Toward Hell
Michael Scheuer’s new book Marching Toward Hell, America and Islam After Iraq came in the mail today, I’ve read the first 20 pages or so, it looks to be a very good read. The man is the Merle Haggard of foreign policy.
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The weirdest thing I read last week
From Jim Thompson’s novel, Pop. 1280 after the protagonist almost get hanged by an angry mob for rape
I figure sometimes that maybe that’s why we don’t make as much progress as other parts of the nation. People lose so much time from their jobs in lynching other people, and they spend so much money on rope and kerosene and getting likkered up in advance, and other essentials, that there ain’t an awful lot of money or man-hours left for practical purposes.
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Line of the moment
I came across this podcast of Steven Landsburg, author of More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics and found it quite entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed his earlier works, especially The Armchair Economist (much better than Freakonomics). In the excerpt it has this bit:
…If your common sense tells you otherwise, remember that common sense also tells you the earth is flat.
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The Grifters
I just finished The Grifters by Jim Thompson, one of the best hard-boiled crime dramas I’ve ever read. Told entirely in the first person, it’s the dark and evil story of crooks, marks and no innocence whatsoever. Notable in it’s absence is any objective description (well, there’s almost none). Almost no “it was raining”, “the night was cloudy”, etc. Lots of impressions, feelings and lies, but no independent reality.
Highly recommended.
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At long last
The College Stories book is out. I don’t think my story made it in.
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Tuesday rapid fire
- The story and original lyrics to Bonaparte’s Retreat.
- A very good bio-article on Micky Spillaine.
- A new conspiracy site!
- You’ve got your pain ray in my sonic blaster!