02/16/17

Burke’s Gamble – A Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamitlon

Purchase here…

Recently, I read an incredible book entitled Burke’s Gamble by William F. Brown. I’m a fan of Brad Thor and came upon this author and I have to tell you, I love his books! Very few books keep my attention these days as I am constantly swamped with work, but this one did. You should read the whole series. The book mixes military intrigue with humor, hard hitting action and fantastic characters. I’m a sucker for military guys, especially special ops and having lived in Vegas for over 20 years, the mob is of special interest to me.

Here’s the summary from Amazon.com:

Bob Burke is back! Welcome to ‘American Sniper’ meets ‘The Godfather,’ Round #2, or Bob Lee Swagger takes on the New York City mob. He is a former Army Ranger and Delta Force commander, and one of the quickest, most lethal forces of nature this country has ever produced. When one of his old NCOs is tossed out the fifth story window of an Atlantic City casino run by the infamous Genovese and Lucchese NY mob families, someone’s going to answer, and payback’s gonna be a bitch! Slight of build and easy to dismiss, Burke shed his uniform and left Fort Bragg. He now runs a sophisticated telecommunications company in Chicago. Often mistaken for ‘the telephone guy,’ he is a highly-decorated West Point ‘ring knocker,’ who spent four tours in Iraq and the rugged mountains of Afghanistan running deadly ‘special ops’ missions. He and his men don’t take kindly to one of their own being murdered, but this time it won’t be a simple ‘Gumbah’ hunt with sniper rifles in a Chicago Forest preserve. The target is a Mafia Don holed up in the penthouse of a large hotel and casino complex, backed by a dozen mob gunmen plus and an elite team of foreign Special Ops mercenaries brought in to take down Bob Burke. While there’s always a place for a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle or two, and his old Delta Force sergeants, this time Bob calls on a pair of baby-faced computer Geeks, a three-star Army General, a Chicago homicide detective, a female Air Force pilot, a Russian computer programmer, one of the world’s most renowned pickpockets on an overnight.’ pass from Cook County Jail, and his own new wife, Linda. From stealth helicopters to luxury yachts, fishing trawler’s, and bodies in 55-gallon oil drums, the action is non-stop. But this time, Bob and his crew aren’t going to shoot it out in the woods, they’re going to take the Mob’s money, all of it!

If you like a good murder mystery suspense thriller, put this fast-moving Bob Burke series Delta Force action adventure novel into your Cart. It is another war and military best seller novel from the author of “Burke’s War,’ ‘The Undertaker,’ ‘Amongst My Enemies,’ ‘Thursday at Noon,’ “Aim True, My Brothers,’ ‘Winner Lose All,’ and ‘Cold War Trilogy’ three book boxed set. Pick one up and enjoy!

This is an incredibly fun read… if you love Brad Thor, you’ll love William F. Brown. You can purchase a copy at Amazon.com here. The book is the second in a series involving Robert T Burke, former Army Major and Delta Operator. He’s absolutely badass and is totally devoted to his brothers in arms. I have a number of favorite authors out there and now Brown is one of them. Just fantastic and simply superb writing.

12/20/15

Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century – A Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase at HarperCollins or Amazon.com

Recently, I read a book that was just full of military history and is fascinating. I think you will thrill to reading this book by Alistair Horne. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1943 at age 17. He couldn’t qualify as a pilot because of his vision, so he managed to land a commission in the Coldstream Guards and fought with them in Europe. After the war he did a stint in the Middle East and was attached to MI5. The book is available in Kindle, Hard Back and on audio. It’s well worth the cost and is a fantastic gift.

Here’s a summary from Amazon on the book:

Sir Alistair Horne has been a close observer of war and history for more than fifty years and in this wise and masterly work, he revisits six battles of the past century and examines the strategies, leadership, preparation, and geopolitical goals of aggressors and defenders to reveal the one trait that links them all: hubris.

In Greek tragedy, hubris is excessive human pride that challenges the gods and ultimately leads to total destruction of the offender. From the 1905 Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War, to Hitler’s 1941 bid to capture Moscow, to MacArthur’s disastrous advance in Korea, to the French downfall at Dien Bien Phu, Horne shows how each of these battles was won or lost due to excessive hubris on one side or the other. In a sweeping narrative written with his trademark erudition and wit, Horne provides a meticulously detailed analysis of the ground maneuvers employed by the opposing armies in each battle. He also explores the strategic and psychological mindset of the military leaders involved to demonstrate how devastating combinations of human ambition and arrogance led to overreach. Making clear the danger of hubris in warfare, his insights hold resonant lessons for civilian and military leaders navigating today’s complex global landscape.

A dramatic, colorful, stylishly-written history, Hubris is a much-needed reflection on war from a master of his field.

I simply love military history and this book far exceeded my expectations. Horne makes a point that sometimes success in war can lead to arrogance, which can lead to very bad things indeed. I don’t agree with every point in the book, but overall, it is an incredible look into past warfare. I will say this though… a certain amount of hubris is needed to win a war at all. Without it, a leader lacks the fortitude to do what must be done. Too much of anything though can lead to a downfall. Such is the drawback of hubris.

The book is painstakingly researched and related through the narrative of an expert storyteller. Horne’s insights into military strategic thinking, his stirring descriptions of battles and his brilliant insights into long-term consequences are all compelling. The book will rivet you and he brings to life the pain and sadness of war along with the exhilaration of victory. Within the pages of this book, you will read about the Japanese, Chinese and Russians and their tactics and strategy in war. It should be required reading for all military personnel. He delves into the mindsets of Stalin and Hitler as well. Hubris can be taken to extremes where a leader views themselves as almost godlike and unbeatable. That leads to the ultimate devastation in war every time. For an amazing review of the book, visit RedState. It is rare that I say read a review, but their’s is very well done.

I would pick up several copies of this book and give it to friends and family. It is a terrific read and the perfect Christmas gift. You can get a copy at HarperCollins or Amazon.com.

Critical Praise

“Eminently provocative and readable. Mr. Horne brilliantly reconstructs this long-forgotten battle [the 1939 Battle of Nomonhan]….It’s as if he has discovered a hidden spring for which mighty rivers of blood were to flow.” — Peter R. Kann, The Wall Street Journal

“…Sir Alistair makes [his case] with erudition and eloquence….This is a book that any political leader contemplating military action should read.” — The Economist

“Stark and compelling… Horne has a flair for wrenching detail…Rather than simply listing statistics, he makes the toll of arrogance and historical amnesia vivid through specific, harrowing stories.” — Boston Globe

“A well written, deeply researched, and persuasively argued book.” — Publishers Weekly

“Students of military tactics and general readers will take pleasure in the new insights into these selected battles expressed by this knowledgeable and accessible writer.” — Library Journal

“For more than half a century, Alistair Horne has written important books about the relationship between strategy, diplomacy, and statecraft. His latest volume continues that extraordinary effort. Herein he has brilliantly analyzed six battles of the twentieth century whose dimensions changed the course of history.” —Henry Kissinger, author of World Order and On China

“I can think of no one better to tackle the daunting subject of hubris and the punishments that so often follow than Alistair Horne. He brings the necessary wisdom, vast knowledge of the past, and understanding of human nature to show the effects of hubris in modern warfare.” — Margaret MacMillan, author of The War That Ended Peace and Paris 1919

“Like a good Bordeaux, and unlike a good mathematician, a good historian improves with age. This is Alistair Horne’s twenty-fifth book, and it is filled with the insights that can only come from a lifetime of studying war.” — Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University; Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; and author of The Pity of War and The War of the World

10/5/15

Book Review: Death Of The Family

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase here…

Recently, I received a copy of Christopher J. Green’s Death Of The Family. I personally love the book. It goes into Marxism and the influence of Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci is a man everyone should study. His evil influence has been widespread and toxic. Marxism has been an exceedingly destructive force in our society and it has been a big factor in destroying the family unit, all by design.

The book is fair-sized, with easy to read print. I found that a big plus. It is a breeze to read and grasp. The book was obviously well researched and professionally written.

It starts off with a Hungarian communist by the name of Georg Lukacs. This guy was a piece of work. His communist plan aimed to do away with both the Christian faith and the family unit. He planned to do this through sex education in the public school system. This also accomplished the goal of doing away with morality and ethics. If you look at our schools and society today, you will see that under Barack Obama, these goals have pretty much been accomplished. The very fabric of our society, the family unit, has been corrupted thoroughly under Progressive leadership. Children are taught to do whatever they feel… that they should follow any desire they have. That morality is passe and their parents know nothing. This is classic Marxism and it is poison.

Religion has been successfully removed from our schools, institutions and daily life. Christians are now actively persecuted. They are harassed, hunted, prosecuted, degraded, imprisoned and murdered. All according to plan. Once you remove religion, ethics and morals from the equation, a populace can be thoroughly manipulated and controlled. The Frankfurt School of Marxist theory continued Lukacs theories and designs… they expanded on the original concepts and produced whole battle plans for subverting American society. It was and still is a brilliant maneuver.

Enter the envisioned destruction of Capitalism. Social diktats such as feminism have worked quite well to undermine male dominance on the economic battlefield. Women were convinced it set them free, when in fact, it enslaved them and emasculated men. It took mothers out of the home, destroying the family unit and leaving the young to the not-so-tender mercies of their Marxist instructors. Radicals stepped in and promoted thug life and criminal behavior. Children are taught that the strongest survive and mercy is for the weak.

Next on the hit parade is sexual confusion, where men and boys no longer have a stable role in society. They are encouraged to act like children and get gratification however they can. Men are women… women are men… and then there are the transgenders. Everyone is confused and nothing is sacred anymore. Once again, all by design. Americans are being reduced to slaves and told to follow whatever their selfish desires are at the moment. That it is natural to do so and there is not the black and white of good and evil. Only shades of gray.

As the butchery of abortion is promoted and protected by both sides of the political aisle and by faux Christians, a death cult rises within our society. It is a modern-day sacrificial barbarity that defies morality and logic, but nevertheless is safeguarded. Divorce has been normalized. The one-parent family is beyond common. In fact, we now have families with multiple dads and moms and very confused children. Hooking up is expected and the norm. Homosexual militants have taken over complete sections of society and government and are forcing perversion on the public at large, backed by the Supreme Court.

Those who still believe in doing the right thing are called racist, intolerant, hate mongers. The majority of America is strong and good, but the weave of our culture is being unraveled and frayed quickly. This is how empires fall and the communists know it. It is a coup from within and most don’t even realize we are being destroyed, so we can be reformed by global tyrants.

All Americans should read this book and take it to heart. Time is short and if we do not wish to fall as Rome did and see the finalization of a New World Order, we must act fast to cleanse our government, institutions, schools and daily life of these corrosive Marxists and their agendas. I recommend this book wholeheartedly and it has a cherished spot in my collection.

What You’ll Discover In Death of the Family…

In 1935, a genius fled Nazi tyranny for the USA and went on to serve in the OSS. Despite accepting the sanctuary of the USA, he became the most dangerous and influential anti-American, anti-West subvert ever. Discover how his pernicious theories continue to break down society to this day.
The “Big Lie” about the sexual revolution and the swinging sixties. See how a world-renowned expert’s “scientific research” fooled America and perverted the entire Western world.
Discover how a devastating social experiment conducted by the USSR during the 1920s is being implemented in Western nations today with the same catastrophic effects.
The critical major difference between pre-WWII America and post-WWII America and why this dramatic change is tearing families apart and causing malignant social decay.
Is this the end of Western civilization as we know it? How this attack on the family is now evolving and moving to the next toxic stage.

About the Author:

Christopher J. Green is an author and investigative journalist who has never been afraid to tell the story as it is. In his latest book: Death of the Family, he exposes how Americans were tricked by charlatans who claimed they were building a more enlightened, progressive society but whose concealed aim was to breakdown America from within.

After three years of research, he uncovers a series of appalling deceptions conducted by people whose duty was to serve and protect. People who ruthlessly undermined the trust of American citizens and stabbed them in the back.

He brings a fresh insight into post-war history in a step-by-step, compelling analysis revealing why America is drifting further away from the principles laid down by the founding fathers.

A story of deception. A story of betrayal. A story of treachery on a scale unprecedented in history. If you believe something is wrong with America and you’re looking for answers then you need to read this extraordinary book.

Purchase the Death Of The Family here…

08/16/15

The Conservative Heart – Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase at Amazon.com

I had the pleasure of reading Arthur C. Brooks, The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America. His book lays out an optimistic and uplifting vision of conservatism. Something that weary conservatives hunger for.

Mr. Brooks is a renowned economist and the president of the American Enterprise Institute. In his book, Brooks puts forth that it is time for a change. A time to switch from the traditional focus on economic growth and social values, to a new focus on helping the needy and those in want without bankrupting us and our children’s future. The book goes into fighting poverty, promoting equal opportunity, celebrating success and the importance of religion and faith.

Brooks focuses on four “institutions of meaning” — faith, family, community and meaningful work. They are the bedrock for personal happiness and national well-being. The book combines not only reporting, but research and case studies.

For as long as I can remember, the Republican Party has been viewed as being comprised of rich Republicans who are just shy of being a collective community of Scrooges. That has never been true and if you look at the Democrat Party closely, you will see that the wealthy in both parties tend to be the most powerful. The Dems are wealthier than the Republicans in many, many cases. They just have a different letter after their names.

Brooks is advocating a conservative approach to addressing income inequality. Here’s a taste:

The Conservative Heart

Brooks argues in favor of conservative principles such as not increasing the minimum wage. Raising it as the Progressives are doing (massively, I might add), causes businesses to hire fewer workers, raise their prices and in many cases, close their doors. People should have to earn their success and I absolutely agree with that. It does indeed lead to personal happiness and fulfillment. In the end, the ones that are hurt the most by raising the minimum wage in this manner are the poor, who wind up having no job at all. Brooks promotes the earned-income tax credit for the poor. And I agree with him on that point.

It is issues like this in which Brooks is calling for a conservative rebranding of social issues. They are still conservative in nature, but put forth in a more attractive package that appeals to more people.

The final chapter in his book is entitled, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Conservatives.” The chapter goes to the heart of conservative language and how politicians can utilize it to show that conservatives are just as compassionate and have just as much empathy for the downtrodden as the Left has. The Right needs to be seen as the moral champion of Americans and that they stand for a better opportunity for success and way of life for everyone concerned.

Brooks believes that first impressions are everything. You can argue politics and logic later, but first you have to win someone over, heart and soul. The mind comes second, emotions come first. He promotes that you have to address what people feel first, because whether you win over someone or not, it is decided in the first few seconds. It’s an instinctive and quick judgement. Brooks believes approaching politics in this fashion will win the White House.

As a Constitutional Conservative, a number of these issues are hard for me to accept and deal with. The book makes for compelling reading, especially if you are into politics. Considering the fight we face for the presidency in 2016, I would recommend you read this book and consider Brooks’ arguments carefully. The book is well-written and a good read. It’s full of issues that deserve consideration and pondering.

I want to close with the a promo on the last chapter of the book – it is excellent:

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Conservatives: How to Talk So Americans Will Listen

According to Brooks, the term “conservative heart” is often believed to be an oxymoron. Through his research, he found that despite conservatives giving more to charity than liberals, though they have less income on average, ordinary Americans believe conservatives don’t care about them. In fact, Brooks found that “conservatives have the right stuff to lift up the poor and vulnerable – but have been generally terrible at winning people’s hearts.” In essence, conservatives have a problem with messaging.

To help combat this, Brooks has come up with seven lessons to help conservatives relay their thoughts properly so Americans will listen. They include:

1. Be a moralist. No matter the topic, never start with what you want to talk about; start with the why. If you lead with your heart you’ll have a better shot at winning people over.

2. Fight for people, and against things. Conservatives should stop selling data, facts and figures, and start selling happiness and better opportunities.

3. Get happy. Good humor has to be authentic or people see through it in an instant. To be a happy warrior, you must genuinely be a happy person.

4. Steal all the best arguments. Most Americans don’t want to choose between compassion and morality, or between leadership and empathy. They want leaders who have all these traits, so expand your moral imagination and trespass on your opponent’s traits.

5. Go where you’re not welcome. Our goal for conservatives is not to remain a motivated minority. To do this you have to get out of your comfort zone, attract people who don’t see things the same way and enlist them to the cause. This includes the true believers, the persuadables and the hostiles.

6. Say it in 30 seconds. A great speech treats the first opening seconds like the scarce and valuable commodity they are. First priority in making a good impression? Don’t blow your opening lines.

7. Break your bad habits. The old way isn’t working. It’s not time to change the message: it’s time to change the way it’s delivered. Don’t be afraid to give up what’s comfortable for something that is scary, but has an opportunity for success.

07/5/15

The Quiet Man – A Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase at HarperCollins or Amazon.com

John Sununu, former New Hampshire governor and Bush chief of staff has written a poignant book: “The Quiet Man: The Indispensable Presidency of George H. W. Bush.” While I did not always agree with President Bush’s policies and he was far too Progressive on taxes and the Constitution for my tastes, there is no denying he was a great leader in his own right. Far more so than the Marxist we now have leading the country.

When H. W. Bush came into office, he followed one of the greatest presidents to ever lead the nation – Ronald Reagan. Even with the wild success that Reagan brought us with Bush as his VP, when Bush took office the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House. The Iran-Contra affair was front news and Bush had an uphill fight ahead of him. As I’ve contended many times, the Cold War never ended… it shifted and Bush still had his hands full with the Russian bear. Bush was a master diplomat and strong military strategist – the Gulf War and dealing with Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega are testimony to that.

Sununu contends that Bush’s presidency was misunderstood and underestimated. I agree with that. The man accomplished a great deal not only in foreign policy, but domestically. But he was not arrogant about it and went about leading the country quietly and competently. He managed to control Congress and heal the rift there somewhat, although I think far too much concern is placed on placating the other side. Bush salvaged a failing savings and loan program and managed to get major legislation passed even with liberals blocking him at every opportunity. There is no doubt that Bush reduced the deficit, albeit in a very unpopular way by raising taxes. He deregulated energy companies, passed the Clean Air Act, pushed through a major crime bill, touted child care legislation and saw the Americans with Disabilities Act come to fruition. All of those were major accomplishments, although not all of them were the right move in my opinion.

Here’s Amazon’s summation of the book:

In this major reassessment of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, his former Chief of Staff offers a long overdue appreciation of the man and his universally underrated and misunderstood presidency.

“I’m a quiet man, but I hear the quiet people others don’t.”—George H. W. Bush

In this unique insider account, John H. Sununu pays tribute to his former boss—an intelligent, thoughtful, modest leader—and his overlooked accomplishments. Though George H. W. Bush is remembered for orchestrating one of the largest and most successful military campaigns in history—the Gulf War—Sununu argues that conventional wisdom misses many of Bush’s other great achievements.

During his presidency, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Bush’s calm and capable leadership during this dramatic time helped shape a world in which the United States emerged as the lone superpower. Sununu reminds us that President Bush’s domestic achievements were equally impressive, including strengthening civil rights, enacting environmental protections, and securing passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1990 agreement which generated budget surpluses and a decade of economic growth.

Sununu offers unparalleled insight into this statesman who has been his longtime close friend. He worked with Bush when he was vice president under Ronald Reagan, helped him through a contentious GOP primary season and election in 1988, and as his chief of staff, was an active participant and front-row observer to many of the significant events of Bush’s presidency. Reverential yet scrupulously honest, Sununu reveals policy differences and clashes among the diverse personalities in and out of the White House, giving credit—and candid criticism—where it’s due.

The Quiet Man goes behind the scenes of this unsung but highly consequential presidency, and illuminates the man at its center as never before.

Bush wasn’t a hipster who had sex in the Oval Office or pushed ‘change’ in the guise of Marxist policies. He was a traditional leader who had principles. He put the country first and his own wants second. Someone might want to teach that to Barack Obama.

Sununu does a masterful job of telling Bush’s story and bringing facts to light. There are colorful personal stories as well as historical engagements. Then there is the age-old tale of the battles with the media, which we are all too familiar with these days. Sununu’s account is a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes and at the life of George H. W. Bush. It’s a fantastic read.

My feeling is that Bush was a very good president. He was courageous, understated and everything a good leader should be. Compared to the leader we have now, he’s a giant. Bush is a humble man and by all accounts that I have heard, a good man. His legacy for America will be anything but quiet. Perhaps it will drown out some of the damage done by Barack Obama. I heartily recommend “The Quiet Man: The Indispensable Presidency of George H. W. Bush”… it is one you and your children should read to understand American political history as it actually happened.

05/31/15

Carly Fiorina – Rising To The Challenge – A Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

I admire Carly Fiorina and she is a good, conservative candidate for the White House. She is principled and has a spine, which I really relish. She has not stumbled yet and her popularity among conservative voters is growing stronger daily. She also regularly trout slaps the Hildebeast, which is beyond entertaining and refreshing. She also takes it right to Obama with no mercy.

Here’s a taste:

Yes, Mr. President, ISIS, indeed, wants to drive the whole world back the Middle Ages, but the rest of us moved on about 800 years ago, and while you seek moral equivalence, the world waits for moral clarity and American leadership.

And here comes the Hillary smack down:

Mrs. Clinton, name an accomplishment. And in the meantime, please explain why we should accept that the millions and millions of dollars that have flowed into the Clinton Global Initiative from foreign governments doesn’t represent a conflict of interest.

Fiorina has never viewed herself as a victim, but as a winner. Rising from the ranks of secretary to CEO, she is a formidable force to deal with. Her new book: Rising To The Challenge gives you an inside look at her rise in business, life and politics.

Carly tells the story of California’s unemployment and liberal policies that have devastated that state. Fiorina is for giving the states more power and stripping the federal leviathan of its grip on our throats. She wants to vastly reduce taxes and regulations as well. She is pro-capitalism, pro-business, pro-ingenuity, pro-technology and pro-entrepreneurship. If we are ever to have a woman as president, she would have to be the kind of woman Fiorina is.

Purchase at Penguin Random House or Amazon.com

From Amazon.com:

“There are all kinds of reasons why people fail to fulfill their potential. Perhaps they lack opportunity, perhaps they lack support, perhaps they lack tools or training or education. But everyone has potential. This I know. Our Founders knew it too. They had the radical insight that the right to fulfill your potential— to use your God-given gifts—is a right that comes from God and cannot be taken away by government.”

Since the 2006 publication of her New York Times bestseller, Tough Choices, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has faced a new round of challenges. She ran for the Senate as a Republican in deep-blue California but was unable to unseat the entrenched incumbent. She battled breast cancer, wondering if she’d even survive. Worst of all, she suffered the devastating loss of a beloved daughter. Yet despite these setbacks and tragedies, she remains undaunted: “I’ve come to see lessons and blessings in these passages. I know now that life is not measured in time. Life is measured in love and positive contributions and moments of grace.”

Now, Fiorina shares the lessons she’s learned from both her difficulties and triumphs. Drawing on her experience as a pioneering business and nonprofit leader, a politically active citizen, and a parent, she diagnoses the largest problem facing our country today: untapped potential. Too often, American men and women are held back by systems that prevent them from working and flourishing. Too many people lose hope for themselves. Too many lack the opportunity to use their gifts and live lives of meaning, dignity, and purpose.

In 2014, Fiorina launched the Unlocking Potential Project, a new grassroots organization, to share a message with those who worry about America’s future: we have all the resources we need to prosper, but we don’t tap into them. By ignoring conservative principles—or failing to articulate those principles in ways that connect with regular people—politicians have failed their constituents, abandoning them to the crushing burden of our bloated government.

Fiorina believes that politics, like business, is primarily about people. With warmth and compassion, she provides a vision that reaches across the usual barriers of gender, race, income, and party affiliation to craft a message that appeals to a wide range of Americans: a message of hope. As she learned facing life’s challenges, “Hope is a curiously strong thing.” Her story—and her ideas—will restore hope to those discouraged about the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed Carly Fiorina’s book: Rising To The Challenge. I already liked her and her book makes me like her even more. She is an exceptional woman… a true leader who has guts and the courage to get things done. What’s not to like? Sure, she’s had her ups and downs like all of us, but she’s something Hillary will never be – real. Not only that, she is brilliant and has a lifetime of tangible achievements. Hillary Clinton is a pale imitation of this woman. Her book is uplifting and if you want to find out where Carly stands on the issues in the 2016 race and just what kind of woman she is, I highly recommend it to you. It’s also a great read. Purchase a copy here.

05/17/15

Living History: On the Front Lines for Israel and the Jews 2003-2015

By: Fern Sidman

Purchase at Amazon.com

From 2003 through the early months of 2015, I wrote more than 200,000 words about anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism,” says Prof. Phyllis Chesler in the introduction of her recently released book, “Living History: On the Front Lines for Israel and the Jews 2003-2015” (Gefen Publishers).

This admission should come as no surprise to anyone even tangentially familiar with the voluminous amount of essays and articles that Dr. Chesler has written on the subject over the last 13 years, donning an impressive variety of hats. As an astute political analyst, researcher and investigative journalist, she has honed these skills in her quest to offer her reader a meticulous examination of a panoply of hot button geo-political issues pertaining to Israel and the Jewish people.

In this anthology-style compendium that contains the corpus of her work in non-redacted form, Chesler prodigiously confronts the seemingly eternal scourge of global anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism, the pernicious nature of radical Islam, the proliferation of visceral Jew hatred and incessant Israel bashing on university campuses, the exposure of the most egregious forms of propaganda in films and books, the truth about the nefarious agenda of multicultural relativism and critiques the role of the left-liberal media in creating the “perfect storm.”

Chesler throws down the gauntlet and debunks the “Big Lies” in a brutally honest manner. Crafting cogent arguments with the trademark depth and aplomb that has come to define her writing since 1972, she takes no hostages.

As she takes us on a sojourn that unravels the “slow motion holocaust” that is being perpetrated against the Jew but nary acknowledged or even discussed in “polite circles,” Chesler explains that this cognitive war against the Jewish nation is predicated on a corruption of the truth. Fueled by unsavory alliances between the denizens of the leftist/progressive camp and radical Jihadists of all stripes, anti-Zionism (which is tantamount to anti-Semitism, says Chesler) is no longer considered an odious worldview but one that smacks of a perverse sense of moral rectitude; straight out of an Orwellian-style groupthink salon..

Case in point: Chesler speaks directly to her erstwhile colleagues in the Western feminist movement who ostracized her for blowing the lid off the anti-Israel sentiment in its ranks. Shining a light on their misplaced invective against the Jewish state, Chesler writes, “Since 1972, I have been explaining to Ms. feminists that we should not hold the only Jewish state to a higher or different standard than we hold all other nations states; when we do, it is called racism, Jew-hatred, or anti-Semitism.”

While Israel continues to be the world’s ‘bogeyman’; its detractors are clearly multiplying at blinding speed as evidenced in Chesler’s writings The Jew is classified by the intellectual elite as the “aggressor’, the “cruel occupier” of Palestinians and the ruthless engineer of an apartheid state through a series of sophist arguments and Goebbels-like agitprop.

Chesler writes that Western academics haves became increasingly “Stalinized and Palestinianized.” Addressing the burgeoning phenomenon of academic boycotts that emanate from world class universities, Chesler clarifies the gravitas of the situation by writing “they have disinvited Israeli scholars, fired Israeli academics, rejected university applications from Israeli students, refused to stage exhibits by Israeli artists or sell textbooks to Israeli universities, written inflammatory and defamatory editorials in prestigious journals condemning Israel for massacres that never occurred, etc”

Chesler’s writing exudes passion, pathos, optimism and melancholy combined with the blunt force of realism. What is most remarkable and at times quite eerie is the degree to which prescience plays a significant role in her assessment of the abysmal failure on the war on terror. In a 2008 essay, in which she offers a critique of then presidential contender Barack Obama, she writes: “He is a United Nations-style anti-American and postmodern multicultural relativist, and that means Obama may refuse to call barbarism by its rightful name if that barbarism is practiced by Muslims,” this years before anyone even heard of “Jihadi John.”

Most troubling to Chesler is the rapid succession of horrifying events that may indeed presage the type of calamitous scenario that she warns of in terms of lethal Jew hatred. In 2004, she wrote: “Today, the danger to Jews is far graver and more complex than it ever was before, including the 1930s,” Lest we forget the murders of the four Jewish men in a kosher grocery store in Paris in January of 2015, the murder of a Jew in Copenhagen earlier this year and the attacks on synagogues throughout Europe.

Dr. Chesler exhorts us to lift our heads out of the sand. Denial by Western liberals of the real threat that Islamic jihadism poses to the glorious civilization they have built and the hard core fact that Israel and the Jews are in existential peril, will, says Chesler, lead us into “a Dark Age.”

This page turner is a must read for anyone who wishes to make sense of a world gone mad. With dismal news swirling around us, the keen clarity, vision, and indomitable spirit that Chesler’s imparts is a light in a dark tunnel.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Living-History-Front-Israel-2003-2015/dp/9652298417/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431828865&sr=1-1&keywords=living+history+chesler

05/9/15

Dana Perino – And The Good News Is… – A Book Review

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase at Amazon.com

Oh, how I long for the days of President Bush compared to where we are now… Dana Perino, former White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush and a current Fox News Channel host embodies optimism and a profound sense of confidence. I was fortunate enough to snag a copy of her new book, “And the Good News Is… Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side.”

Perino was the first female White House Press Secretary. You don’t ascend to that position without having brains and moxy. Good looks don’t hurt, but they won’t win you that prize. Dana Perino strikes me as an accomplished, complete woman, who is an odd mixture of simple, innocent intent, mixed with professional drive. Her book is charming and uplifting. Not only does Perino have a gift for storytelling, she conveys ethics and morality in her work. Most young women dream of a life like Perino’s – that one day they can climb the ladder of success to the highest levels in media and government. Perino is a role model for young women – she never quit and never faltered in her goals – in a word, she is genuine, the real deal. And her ambitions and dreams have led her on a fascinating journey.

From the book, some highlights and tidbits:

The Black Eye of Baghdad: During the press conference in Iraq where President Bush had a shoe thrown at him, Dana was hit in the face with a boom-mike amidst the chaos. Despite this low moment, and sporting a black eye, Dana was able to find the “good news” in the situation with humor and grace.
Accompanying President Bush on Marine One on his final visit to the Navy SEALs during the last days of the Bush Administration and her unexpected conversations with some of them.
What it was like growing up in Colorado and Wyoming including stories of how her father’s family emigrated from Italy, her mother’s family settled into a “one-and-a-half-horse town,” and the lessons that came from living the ranching life. Starting in the third grade, Dana’s dad required her to pick two stories from The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News to discuss before dinner. She credits that time as when she learned to articulate her thoughts and present her ideas persuasively.
Her first job in the media, how she realized it wasn’t for her and working through her quarter-life crisis (which included a whirlwind romance and a move to England).
What led to Dana taking her position as Bush’s White House Press Secretary, including building up the nerve to resign from the White House just before being offered the job.
The personal side of the story of how press secretary Scott McClellan went on to write a score-settling book after he left the White House, and how the President encouraged her to forgive him.
The touching story of Dana accompanying President Bush to visit wounded warriors at Walter Reed where President Bush explained to one Marine’s daughter why they were awarding him the Purple Heart and, as he’s doing so, her father’s eyes open for the first time since the attack.
Dana figuring out her post-White House life including her first days on The Five where Bob Beckel choked on a shrimp and almost died.
How Dana secretly handled the stress during tough White House press briefings.
Learning perspective through her work in Africa, in particular with Mercy Ships, a global charity that operates hospital ships in developing nations.
The wonderful life and times of Henry, Dana’s first dog, how they said goodbye when Henry passed on, and then the arrival of the great Jasper – the canine king of social media and “America’s dog.”
The best of Dana’s work and life advice broken into three sections: quick hits that can be applied immediately at the office, good habits to develop over the course of a career, and smart approaches to life’s big decisions (such as choosing to be loved).
Dana’s plea for civility, especially in political discourse and debates, and her suggestions to be more thoughtful contributors to any conversation.

Dana Perino is a gentler, more studied person than I am. I’m afraid many times I throw civility to the wind, because I do not suffer fools lightly. Her wit and wisdom in her book is a wonderful read. I especially recommend it to young women who aspire to reach the lofty halls of political and media power. Perino shows a great deal of grace and dignity in her work. “And the Good News Is… Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side” is a book that inspires and guides and I found it to be very heartwarming and insightful. I would definitely buy copies for your family and friends. It is clean, wholesome advice and shows the fight is indeed worth fighting.

One final note, anyone who can win the heart of SooperMexican has got to be top notch – just sayin’… 😉

America’s Dog – Jasper

03/21/15

The Uncanny Reader – A Book Review

Purchase at MacMillan Publishers or Amazon.com

Anyone who knows me well, knows that reading is my form of therapy. I have never been able to get enough of it during my lifetime and I have always carted a huge library around with me. Some books I read over and over… The Uncanny Reader is one such book. I have an inherent love of the supernatural and I am fascinated by science fiction and horror that is well-written. Thus, my devotion to Dean Koontz, who is simply the master of such works. Marjorie Sandor has written an anthology of ghost stories, fairy tales, science fiction and fantasy that is just addictive.

Here is a synopsis of the work:

From the deeply unsettling to the possibly supernatural, these thirty-one border-crossing stories from around the world explore the uncanny in literature, and delve into our increasingly unstable sense of self, home, and planet. The Uncanny Reader: Stories from the Shadows opens with “The Sand-man,” E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1817 tale of doppelgangers and automatons–a tale that inspired generations of writers and thinkers to come. Stories by 19th and 20th century masters of the uncanny–including Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, and Shirley Jackson–form a foundation for sixteen award-winning contemporary authors, established and new, whose work blurs the boundaries between the familiar and the unknown. These writers come from Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Russia, Scotland, England, Sweden, the United States, Uruguay, and Zambia–although their birthplaces are not always the terrains they plumb in their stories, nor do they confine themselves to their own eras. Contemporary authors include: Chris Adrian, Aimee Bender, Kate Bernheimer, Jean-Christophe Duchon-Doris, Mansoura Ez-Eldin, Jonathon Carroll, John Herdman, Kelly Link, Steven Millhauser, Joyce Carol Oates, Yoko Ogawa, Dean Paschal, Karen Russell, Namwali Serpell, Steve Stern and Karen Tidbeck.

I recognize many of those authors and adore their works. Sandor opens her works with an essay dedicated to explaining the differences between the uncanny and the weird. She dissects the word ‘uncanny’ and defines it for her readers. Then she delves into its historical significance and what it means to her personally.

From Weird Fiction Review:

Weird Fiction Review: Why do you think the uncanny has been around for so long and pervaded so many cultures and countries?

Marjorie Sandor: You probably already know the wonderful opening salvo of Lovecraft’s Horror in Supernatural Literature: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” If we think about this in terms of what art has always done for humankind, it’s always hovering in this intersection between the known and unknown — between the “official story” and the obliterated history that is not really gone, but suppressed or forgotten. We’ve been using this word, uncanny for hundreds of years, to describe the way we feel when something utterly mysterious happens close by—in the neighborhood, in the house-and-family, in our own bodies and sense of self. It might be supernatural. It might not. It might be fate. Or it might be chance. The crucial thing is that we can’t resolve it. The uncertainty — and what it makes us do and say — makes us uncanny to ourselves.

One cool thing to add here: the really old Scots/Gaelic word, “canny,” and its German equivalent, “heimlich,” originally meant not only safe and cozy but also private, hidden, and in old Scots, possessed of supernatural knowledge.” You might, for instance, go to a “canny man” to lay a curse on someone who’d pissed you off. This means that canny, as a word, has already secretly given birth to its eventual opposite, uncanny. That’s creepy, no?

But to go back to your question: we’ve always told ourselves stories after meeting with something inexplicable. The more we try to light up all the corners and rid ourselves of dangers, the more this primitive sensation takes root — like a seed of anxiety that will find a home wherever it can. The harder we try to expel it, the more it wants in. You can see why this is so rich and complex and unnerving when it comes to the art of storytelling, and all art forms, for that matter.

These stories are a great read for those who like the uncanny, the strange, the weird, the unexplained, as I do. The stories are just long enough to enthrall the reader and short enough to complete and then come back to the next one for more nourishment and delight. Pick up a copy of The Uncanny Reader – leave the light on and read all night. It’s just that good.

01/10/15

Book Review: Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase at HarperCollins or Amazon.com

Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World by Daniel Hannan is a magnificent journey through history and politics. Thought-provoking and emotionally gripping, this book is a must read for those who cherish liberty and the law. It is a triumphant testament to English history and one of my all-time favorite books. Hannan’s masterpiece is also bawdily politically incorrect in its attitude – I simply love it!

From the Back Cover:

Why does the world speak English? Why does every country at least pretend to aspire to representative government, personal freedom, and an independent judiciary?

In The New Road to Serfdom, British politician Daniel Hannan exhorted Americans not to abandon the principles that have made our country great. Inventing Freedom is a much more ambitious account of the historical origin and spread of those principles, and their role in creating a sphere of economic and political liberty that is as crucial as it is imperiled.

According to Hannan, the ideas and institutions we consider essential to maintaining and preserving our freedoms—individual rights, private property, the rule of law, and the institutions of representative government—are not broadly “Western” in the usual sense of the term. Rather they are the legacy of a very specific tradition, one that was born in England and that we Americans, along with other former British colonies, inherited.

The first English kingdoms, as they emerged from the Dark Ages, already had unique characteristics that would develop into what we now call constitutional government. By the tenth century, a thousand years before most modern countries, England was a nation-state whose people were already starting to define themselves with reference to inherited common-law rights.

The story of liberty is the story of how that model triumphed. How, repressed after the Norman Conquest, it reasserted itself; how it developed during the civil wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into the modern liberal-democratic tradition; how it was enshrined in a series of landmark victories—the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the U.S. Constitution—and how it came to defeat every international rival.

Yet there was nothing inevitable about it. Anglosphere values could easily have been snuffed out in the 1940s. And they would not be ascendant today if the Cold War had ended differently.

Today we see those ideas abandoned and scorned in the places where they once went unchallenged. The current U.S. president, in particular, seems determined to deride and traduce the Anglosphere values that the Founders took for granted. Inventing Freedom explains why the extraordinary idea that the state was the servant, not the ruler, of the individual evolved uniquely in the English-speaking world. It is a chronicle of the success of Anglosphere exceptionalism. And it is offered at a time that may turn out to be the end of the age of political freedom.

There is no one like Daniel Hannan. A speaker that commands attention and stands above everyone else, his writing is excellent and his prose gives history life. Inventing Freedom is one of those rare books that teaches and entertains. The principles and ideals of freedom are universal and are what have made America the great nation she is. America inherited individual rights, private property, the rule of law and the institutions of representative government from England. But we took it further and in a more independent direction I contend. Hannan chronicles Anglosphere exceptionalism and how, if America is not careful, we could lose it and our freedoms as we have always known them.

FrontPage Magazine does a tremendous review of the book – here’s a slice:

The fundamental incoherence of multiculturalism comes from its cultural relativism that posits no one way of life is better than another, but then singles out the West as a uniquely oppressive global villain. Even more contradictory, at the same time that multiculturalists slander the West for its alleged crimes, they praise and promote political and social ideals––democracy, freedom, equality, and law-based justice–– that flourish only in the West. This cognitive dissonance is made possible by massive historical ignorance of just where such ideas originated and developed. The great value of Daniel Hannan’s Inventing Freedom lies in its recovery of that history, and the role that the “Anglosphere,” the English-speaking countries, played in recognizing and nurturing those ideals for over 1500 years.

Hannan is a writer, blogger, and currently the Conservative representative of Southeast England in the European Parliament, where he vigorously monitors and battles the dirigiste excesses and autocratic impulses of the European Union functionaries. He is also a stalwart friend of the U.S., a throwback to the days when the “special relationship” between Britain and the U.S. was instrumental in turning back the fascist, Nazi, and communist assault on everything that comprises the liberal democratic ideals universally admired and imitated, even by those illiberal regimes who must pay lip-service to democracy and freedom even as they work to subvert them. Readers will find in Inventing Freedom an immensely readable, clearly argued survey of those ideals, the history in which they struggled to survive, and the great heroes whose sacrifice and commitment to them ensured that we enjoy them today.

You should read the whole review – it’s comprehensive in scope.

This book is a slap upside the head of Leftists. As Benjamin Weingartin at The Blaze says, it “argues for the superiority of the Anglosphere in terms of the culture, values and institutions that it has bequeathed us…if we can only keep them.” Benjamin and I think a great deal alike and we love and respect Hannan’s work. You really need to read this book. It is a keeper.

If you are a patriot and a fighter… if you are proud of your American heritage and English history… this book is for you. Right here, today, we fight the fight that Ronald Reagan spoke of. It is a fight for freedom we dare not lose.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan in his Time for Choosing speech (October 27, 1964)

Hannan covers the gambit of history from the 10th century through today. It is a sweeping historical and political discussion that engages and inflames a patriot’s desire. Daniel Hannan makes the steadfast argument that the separation of powers, with sovereignty of the legislative branch representing the people, over and above the executive, and protections for the smallest minority, the individual, are in fact the fundamental building blocks on which an Anglosphere government was built. It remains to be seen if Americans still have the intestinal fortitude to embrace the principles of which Hannan extols upon, or whether they will submit to Progressivism ushering in a new Dark Age. This book should be part of our fight to reimplement our founding principles. Get your copy of Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World today. It’ll become one of your favorites as well.