November 2005 Bookshelf
In November I returned to my favorite Karen Armstrong book, a wonderful Philip Roth novel, and two great books on foreign policy - one by the world's leading pragmatist - Robert Kaplan, and another by a travel writer whose willingness to take risks and travel into unhospitable countries allows us more risk averse readers to learn about people and cultures we otherwise would never hear about. This post will probably be one of my last until mid-December due to other law school obligations. Merry Christmas to you all!Jarhead Movie Review
Jarhead is the story of what happens to a young man who, upon entering the Marines, takes on the identity they desire. In taking on their identity, he finds his own, an understanding of himself that he did not have upon entering the Marines, and one that he probably needed the Marines to force him to find on his own. This identity is ultimately one severed from the identity the military wanted him to adopt; however, it would only be by adopting their worldview that he could determine once and for all what his was to be.Blowdown Part 2: The Media and Society
Nothing has more damaged the historical role of media than the necessities inherent in filling the 24/7 content requirements of cable, radio and internet news. The ability to broadcast continuously and the value this has for breaking news stories is not the same as the necessity of doing either.What the Democratic Party is Missing …
What I saw yesterday evening during President Clinton's speech is what the American people do not see within the Democratic Party: ideas of their own, not angry dismissals of the Republican agenda. In some ways very much like the Bush Administration, Clinton is a man of ideas. Whether you like Bush or Clinton’s particular ideological stripe, they both stand for a definable plan for the country. Granted, people such as I doubt that the policies President Bush stands for are his own or those dropped into his teleprompter that morning.Book Review - Imperial Grunts: the American Military on the Ground
The argument that the ends justifying the means, is an incredible tension I have loved about Kaplan’s past work that is not present in this book. Kaplan forces a reader to take their idealism (regardless of its roots in liberal or conservative ideology) with them through the realities of the situations in the countries he has traveled in and has first-hand experience within. Kaplan is best when he is forcing you through compelling narrative into a besieged world torn apart by competing warlords, and asks you what American policy should do. Should it side with the lesser of two evils? Should it do nothing? If it does nothing it is condemned for its lack of ...An Homage to Our Articulate President
Sorry ... but this was too good to pass up!!!About MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
Themes
Now Reading
Search
Favorites
Personal Writing
Theology
Categories
Meta Data