3 comments about Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer (Christian Heroes: Then & Now) (Christian Heroes, Then & Now).

1. The awsome story of one mans journey to reach out and save a civilaztion. very well written and layed out. A great read, you feel as if you know Nate by the end of the book.
   A must read!!!



2. I just finished reading this book aloud to my children, ages 8 and 6. Each day, they begged me to read more. Our family was already familiar with what happened to the five missionary martyrs, including Nate Saint and Jim Elliot. After reading this book, we all felt that we were a part of Nate Saint's family, and we wept at the end of the book. The book was very well-written and very appropriate to read to children, but also very interesting for my husband and myself. In fact, about halfway through with my children, I finished reading it myself while they were asleep. Nate Saint's story was very challenging to all of us to fully devote our lives to Christ.



3. This book is all about a Christian man that gave his love of flying planes to God. This inspriational story about Nate Saint tells of his life, from his childhood, to his tragic death in Ecuador. Nate was actually a martyr for God. By the death of his friends and himself, he acutally opened up the door for others to minister to the savage Auca tribe. This is a wonderful book, I highly reccommend it!

5 comments about Leadership.

1. Im in management, and I have taken more than one thing away from this book. Brilliant man, brilliant book, brilliant operational strategies! Wish he could have taken the republican nomination! I would definitely recommend this to anyone in a corporate leadership position.



2. Forget about politics. Forget about extreme Muslims. Forgot about Republican or Democrat. Forget about Giuliani's personal life. Just forget about it.
   
   This book is about the defining moments of 9/11 and the leadership it needed in order not to descend into chaos. This man has put his heart and soul into this event and showed great leadership you can learn from.
   
   The writings in 'Leadership' give you great insight into the situation of the event and dealings of the mayor. Courage as well as leadership prevail in keeping the objective of his mission close. Information is critical when chaos is lurking around the corner. Sleep can be denied.
   
   Being European I'm not biassed in my judgement of the person or politician Giuliani. When you read this book about mayor Giuliani there's a lot you can learn from.



3. In response to Rachel's review, which I somewhat agreed with, she was frusturated that Giuliani compared running a city to running a business. Running a city IS like running a business. think about it: you cut tax - so more companies come to NYC to do business, which brings in more revanue to the city. that's business! you clean up madisson square garden and make it more family friendly - more tourists come to visit bringing more money to nyc. etc etc.
   
   is it derogatory to call citizens "costomers"? absolutely not!! on the contrary: a good business man respects his costomers. a good business man's motto: 'the costomer is always right' is onlike a politician who would rather say: 'the union board memmber is always right because he can get me more votes' or 'the big media coorperation is always right cuz they can write more positive one liners for my campaign'
   
   if NYC is a business, and the customer (-citizen) is always right, than the citizen is most respected. more so than the bureaucrat. unfortunately, this honest method did not work for Giuliani - he did not suck up to the media/beurocrats/unions and therefore failed to become prez.
   
   but as for the book itself - it was not his life story or anything - which is more like what I was hoping for. it was just dry pointers on how to lead. the only interesting part was that fire in the church and some other personal ancitodes few and far in between.
   
   for the record - those who claim that he decided to write it after 9/11 - check your facts: this book was almost finished being written by the time 9/11 rolled by.



4. Rudy Giuliani has always been a man I admired. When he stood up to the crime bosses I was impressed. As he was finishing off his second term as New York City Mayor he was already known for making incredible crime reductions and for cleaning up 42nd Street. Imagine ESPN Zone and the Disney Store where all the adult XXX stores use to be! Anyone who could accomplish this when everyone else was saying that it was impossible, is certainly worth listening to when he discusses leadership qualities. Rudy wrote what is basically part II of the book as he prepared to leave office.
   
   Then came 9-11. He wisely chose to add chapter 1 on the events of 9-11 and the immediate aftermath. The final chapter describes how the recovery was achieved over the last days of his adminstration. Basically Giuliani was always interested in being a leader. He read a lot about and learned a lot from his mentors. Many of the ideas in this book I had already learned from reading and taking courses in leadership, e.g. empower and make everyone accountable, be open and honest and communicate clearly, let your positions be known but allow for open and honest debate, and consider all reasonable options but make a decision and stick with it.
   
   What the book added for me was the details of Rudy's experience from his father and grandfather teaching him as a child how to stand up to bullies, to the synergism of Torre and Steinbrenner, to the teachings of Judge MacMahon and to the example of Ronald Reagan standing up to the air traffic controller. Not only does Rudy clearly relate these experiences but he also takes examples from his years in the district attorney's office and as Mayor of New York where he applied the lessons he learned. Standing up to Arafat when he crashed in on an engagement was an example of Rudy standing up to a bully when Clinton would not.
   
   Still his achievements as Mayor and the leadership he showed during the 9-11 disaster were remarkable. What was so special about Giuliani compared to other Mayors? One thing was his unconventional way of treating the government of a city like the running of a corporation. He used the organizational and economic principles of business in running New York City. He followed what Jack Welch was doing with six sigma at GE and through his Compstat program successfully used statistical methods for improving police effectiveness. This is very similar to the success that is common in many six sigma projects. It was fascinating to hear the types of information they chose to collect and the dramatic results that occurred when the measures were reviewed in meetings.
   
   I even found myself recognizing Reagan and other Republicans whose vision and leadership I generally discounted in the past. Rudy is not arrogant or a braggard. He is simply trying to describe the key ideas that led to his success. This is great food for thought for all of us.
   
   I took my book to a signing at Barnes and Nobel in Princeton New Jersey and got him to sign my copy and we talked briefly. In 2008 as he runs for president in the republican primaries it may be worthwhile to look at this book again to see if he displays the leadship of a president. If he should get nominated it would take a strong campaign by the democratic candidate to get me to vote democratic and I have never voted for a republican for president before. But more than other candidates except for Clinton and McCain he exhibits the level of leadship that we expect but rarely get from our president.



5. This was a quick read. For those who think this is just a book about his performance on 9-11, read on. This is a book on his whole professional career. For those who want a sordid description on his several marriages, look elsewhere. Rather this is an exhaustive collection of stories and facts about his time as US Attorney, Deputy AG, and Mayor of NY. He also devotes sometime talking about his prostate cancer and decision to withdraw from the US Senate race in 2000. The last chapter is an intimate window of Rudy's soul.
   
   This book is not a self-congratulatory expose about how great his is. What it does show is his passion to bring justice to criminal elements of society - mafia, corrupt officials, ivan boesky. It shows his ability to work under 2 Republican administrations and his experience in Washington. It shows his ability to manage and govern the "ungovernable city". It shows his inner strength during the WTC attacks and the myriad of issues that he had to face particularly in light of the death, destruction, and possible subsequent attacks (?anthrax).
   
   Rudy Giuliani is an impassioned leader who has long resume of accomplishments who's singular focus in a future presidency will be to eliminate radical islam. Whether America is up to the task, we'll know more by the end of the primaries.

1 comments about Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock 'n' Roller's Life and 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict.

1. I bought this book and read it in one setting. There are a few stories told here that I didn't know about, and he does seem to take golf very seriously. I myself detest golf but I must admit Alice is very persuasive. The style of writing utilized here is very difficult to resist and I found the book difficult to set down.
   There are a few parts in the book where Alice discuses his religious faith, but he's not pushy with it. There are some genuinely funny stories relayed in the book and he does cover a few of the lesser known events of his career.
   Overall I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in classic rock. I'm not a big golf person and would not know how good his golf tips are.

5 comments about Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales from a Life.

1. As a child, Harriet McBryde Johnson never thought she would live a long life. At least that is what the telethons on television kept saying. However, she has. Yet, this is not a "triumph over disability" story. It is a story of a woman who is living her life fully. From a law student schooling the University of South Carolina on the subject of civil liberties to experiencing a disability-themed conference in Cuba, the reader is taken on a journey in which he or she just might view disability in a different way by the end of the book.
   
   This book was really powerful for me. I was born with Cerebral Palsy. However, it has not been until the last couple of years that I started feeling comfortable with myself as a person with a disability. I read this book as part of a class I took this semester and I'm very glad I did. Stories like these remind me that disability is not a negative and that we are worthy of full, rich lives.



2. The chapters in this book are arranged chronologically, but each is a discrete story. The episodes varied enough so that I was never bored: Ms. Johnson protested telethons, resisted a search of her dorm by the Secret Service, ran for office, served as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, visited Cuba for an international conference on people with disabilities, argued in a jury trial, and more.
   
   Her views on disability as a civil rights issue aren't presented in a didactic way; they become clear to the reader as she confronts her opponents. I liked being privy to the details of her experience, even though she presents herself as nearly always right. While I read I was thinking that she came off as SO sure of herself that I would find her overbearing and a little obnoxious in person. However, she acknowledges the thorniness, and clearly isn't out to be the reader's best friend.
   
   Other than that note, I felt myself in good hands. I have a better understanding of what it's like to need and live with a personal assistant. I was familiar with the basics of disability rights, but the book got into nuances I hadn't considered-- the pressures and trade-offs in Cuba, where genuine intentions for equality butt up against severe economic limits, for example. And it reinforced ideas that non-disabled people glide over: most of us will be disabled sometime. Disabled people aren't necessarily more "terminal" or "suffering" than the rest of us, because frankly everyone suffers and dies. And if that sounds depressing, don't worry: some of the stories in this book were so funny I had to read bits out loud to my spouse.
   
   This is a four- instead of a five-star review because I didn't feel I quite got a fair view of the author's opponents; it was just a little too one-sided, although that enhanced some of the humor. But the book was still well-written and fascinating. Definitely worth reading.



3. This new book by Harriet McBryde Johnson, a civil rights attorney in Charleston, SC and disability activist, is a must read! Her book, Too Late to Die Young, provides insight into aspects of her life and career, but the author states upfront that "This book doesn't have a tidy message." Ms. Johnson is a gifted writer with a provocatively tilted perspective that is worth hearing. She accurately describes herself as a story teller in the great tradition of southern story tellers. I knew her stories were worth reading when, early on in the book, in describing a German doctor's bedside overnight care, she wrote "Now I remember how he kept vigil at my bedside so my parents could sleep and then fell sleep himself. As I listened to his deep, barrel-chested rumble, I imagined he was snoring in German." Later in the book, Harriet, after having noted that her normal viewpoint of most people is at crotch level (due to her posture), described her first impression of someone she met: "It's love at first sight - at my first sight of his shoes." Wonderful!
   
   This easy to read book (a mere 258 pages) includes the bulk of the text of Unspeakable Conversations, a 2003 New York Times Magazine article she wrote that described her conversations with Princeton Professor Peter Singer about his beliefs that the severely disabled, in some circumstances, can justifiably be killed. Interestingly, she is conflicted about the accommodating and courteous man versus his "evil" ideas. She acknowledges that she stands outside the radical mainstream simply for having engaged Mr. Singer in a conversation. Sundry other topics this self-described "crip" covers are her personal crusade against telethons, her atheism, her battles with the Secret Service, caustically amusing anecdotes from the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago, a trip to Cuba, and battles with a New York Times photographer who wants to shoot her nude ("nekkid" in her parlance) and does -- but not for publication, and many more amusing and unsettling stories.
   
   If you want to read a sweet story about a courageous and noble fight against disability that profiles an individual who overcomes great obstacles to achieve self-fulfillment, this IT NOT the book to read. Johnson`s book isn't about her disability (adamantly so)...but the fact that she is disabled inescapably colors her stories in powerful ways. You won't necessarily fall in love with Harriet, her politics, or all of her causes, but I think you will love her passion for what she believes, what she does, who she is, and why she does what she does. Ms. McBryde is a new and profound voice (at least to me) that is worth listening to.



4. While I disagree with a fundamental premise argued in the book, I do recommend it for many reasons. First of all, the author can write! She has filled the book with interesting and unusual experiences, described them with wit as well as passion, and she challenges people like me on some basic assumptions and conclusions. I do hope readers of this book will follow up with Peter Singer's Writings on an Ethical Life (referred to in Harriet Johnson's book) in order to hear Singer's opinions in his own words.



5. This has been a good year for disability rights in terms of publications. First, Mary Johnson published Make Them Go Away and now we have Harriet McByde Johnson's much anticipated Too Late to Die Young. Read together these texts provide a powerful one two punch for the disability rights movement in an era which has seen the courts gut the Americans with Disability Act. Both authors have been champions and leaders of the disability rights movement and each are gifted writers.
   
   Harriet McBryde Johnson is a gifted story teller--although I wanted to savor the text and make it last I was too spoiled to do so. I read the book cover to cover the day I received it. Now, I am going back to re-read each and every chapter. Each story told resonates at some level regardless of the subject matter. What truly struck me the most was that my life is not so different, that I am not so unsual, and that the bigotry and discrimination I encounter on a daily basis is no different from what other disabled people face. I am not the only one that is subjected to unwanted attention and grossly inappropriate comments. I am not the only one that found Christopher Reeve comments about disability offensive. I am not the only one who is treated poorly when I travel on an airline. In short, discrimination against the disabled is rampant and it is heartening to know others are experiencing and fighting against this. To know that I have two gifted authors on the side of equal rights lets me not only feel better about myself a feel less alone but know the future, in spite of the courts, will be better than the past.

1 comments about How Did You Do It, Truett?.

1. Wonderful book about a wonderful man and company! Very practical and understanding, anyone in business would do well to read this book!

5 comments about Blue Blood, True Blood: Conflict & Creation.

1. In my opinion, Stewart Swerdlow is one of the most brilliant men on earth at this time. What a great man, and a brave man, to tell his story and spend his life trying to help others defeat the evil men who are attempting to bring in the NWO.
   His story is fascinating and at times unbelievable, but so much of it is coming to pass just as he was told it would.
   A must read!!!



2. The Hyperspace Helper: A User-Friendly GuideThe True Reality of SexualityThe Unknown Zone - Interviews of Stewart Swerdlow, Author of 'The Healer's Handbook- A Journey Into Hyperspace'
   
   I found this book very to the point, no beating around the bush. It is not meant to scare anyone but to inform all of what is truley going on in our world, OUR World. It may seem so off the wall to many but that is what the controlers what us to do, think it is so far fetched that we will all think this kind of stuff only happens in the movies! Steward puts it out there for you, to at least be informed and for you to ultimatly make your own mind up. And the excerpts from his wife Janet, are wonderful, I will now look into her writings. This is a must read for anyone out there looking for truth, truth that may be hard to take in but it can be done, as long as you can step out of the box we have all been in all our lives and for those especially that think they are not in that box... prison



3. Who is to say what is true and what is imagined in a book of this sort? Some of the author's assertions are fascinating but others one can drive a fleet of buses through. You pays your money and takes your choice. Most of the content jives with the theories of David Icke, though Stewart actually takes things a couple of steps further into left field. Or of course...he may be right. I found Janet Swerdlow's comments and insights that comprise the final 20 pages of the book to be the most enlightening and helpful of all. She really is grounded and at the same time gifted with a rare insight into the human spirit. So Stewart definitely got something right!!



4. The radical subject becomes believable under this author's pen, even though not much is new except for some detail on subjects found in other writings. However, midway through his work, the author loses his way and meanders, without apparent rhyme or reason, into misadventures with a nefarious female who is his nemesis, a demon, karma, or more. This aside may be pertinent, but the author does not demonstrate its pertinence and the digression spoils much of my initial favorable impression. I wish I knew what the author was trying to say about this involvement. The excerpts at the back of the book were enlightening and well-reasoned. This author thinks clearly. Overall, the book did not live up to expectations but may direct me to the secondary author's work.



5. I just finished reading this book. I already had read several books from Sylvia Browne about some of the same similar events. So it was fascinating to learn there is more than one person who has the same theories. Since this is so, it helped me to believe even more. I am new to this "demension". I have lived under this happy vail of a cartoon world. Now things are starting to make sense. I also do wish Stewart would elaborated more and was a better writer but he got the point across even if it was crass. I am still not sure if that afair was due to the "drugs and programming" or an excuse to fool around. Hahaa!! Doesn't matter, I loved the book. I am excited to read more.

5 comments about It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered.

1. It's obvious that this book is cobbled together from drafts of several authors with different writing styles which isn't all that annoying in itself. However, the chronic repetition of the same information is. That said it's still worth finishing the read. It's certainly a sad indictment on the media industry and justice system in the USA.



2. Even though I had followed the case at the time, I still read this in two nights flat - it's that good. This is an important book, heck it's an important story, particularly for "white people". I write that with hesitation, but heck that's the truth. How come "white" has almost become a term of abuse? "White boy" certainly has. And that's just it. They only reason this tall tale, this ridiculous hoax, went this far, affected so many lives, pushed so many people to the edge of their existence (could you post a $400, 000 bond for your son, whilst your wife is having a nervous breakdown) is that these were "white boys". Thus it was open season. Read with horror as these boys, because of making one mistake, one error of judgement, inviting a stripper to perform a private function in their home, lost their coach, their season, their house (many slept in their cars), were hounded off campus or formally expelled, threatened both verbally and by mail - all this after fully cooperating with the police, turning over all the physical evidence in their house without question, voluntarily took DNA tests - and it still took months and months, hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions (the lawyer fees of the indicted three estimated at $100,000 a month), an extraordinary display of loyalty and togetherness between their teamates, their relatives and neighbors and some great lawyers (their lawyers are to me, all heroes - one, Kirk Osborn, sadly died of a heart attack during the ordeal) to finally shake off the blatantly false allegation of a mentally unstable criminal supported by a madman whose daytime job was District Attorney. So we both cheer when they are finally vindicated by then wonder - is America crazy right now or what? What is this war on "white men" by the feminists, the race hustlers, the homosexuals, the Latinos and everybody else. I remember reading a post on a blog after this arose from a white male: "All the more reason just to keep your head down, get your sh** done in the daytime, and retire for the evening behind a locked door" - this is the reality for countless "privileged white males" in many parts of America today.
   
   I couldn't recommend this book highly enough. If you have teenage sons or daughters preparing to go to college, they need to read this book.



3. Exceedingly well written book. I have not stopped talking about it. This is not just a simple story of a high profile case. It focuses on how innocent people were directly affected in their every day lives by scandalous lies. The media never revealed this side of the story. It's unimaginable how this horrific mess could've happened. You can't stop but think what you would do had this happened to you. I was paralyzed reading what these people went through. You will truly be shocked, in disbelief to no end. I commend all the people who courageously stuck by and weathered the storm with all those who were unfortuneatly (directly and indirectly) involved. How utterly defiant, inexplicably brave. It just goes to show you the truth will always prevail. "It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered", is inspirationally AMAZING!!!



4. Coach Mike Pressler knows better than most of us how it feels to be in the center of a raging inferno of politically correct rage--where truth and justice have no place.
   
   In 2006, he was abruptly fired from his job as coach of Duke University's lacrosse team after three of his players were accused by a demented black female stripper of gang rape. These charges fed perfectly into a fanatically obsessed scenario found at most universities of white male treachery, black victomhood and feminist paranoia.
   
   Duke President Richard Brodhead, his motor-mouth assistant, John Burness and board chairman, Bob Steele, quickly jumped on the politically correct bandwagon and let the public know that they were throwing the players into the raging inferno.
   
   The administration refused to look at any of the exonerating proof of innocence of the accused that was continually offered to them by the defense attorneys.
   
   The administration instead threw its support behind the psychopathic District Attorney Mike Nifong who knew early on that the rape charges were a hoax. The stripper, Crystal Mangum, had made the identical charges three years before against another group of men, but these, too, proved to be false.
   
   The raging storm against the trio of young men grew stronger when the usual anti-white racists came out of the woodwork. Like the NC Chapter of the NAACP, the New Black Panthers Party, the local Pot Bangers group, made up of left-wing faculty and students. Racial arsonists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson flew down to Durham, NC, to scream about white racist rapists and poor defenseless black women.
   
   This reminded many of us ironically that Al Sharpton engineered an identical hoax in l986 when he spent a year pushing the notorious Tawana Brawley rape hoax in New York state. She accused a gang of white men of raping her. A grand jury said the charges were totally fabricated but in the meantime, Sharpton and Jackson had destroyed lives right and left. Brawley was never charged for her crimes. Sharpton received a slap on the wrist and has never apologized.
   
   The authors reveal how corrupt members of the Durham police department, the district attorneys office, judges and many members of the black community of the city pushed their goal of railroading the trio of boys into prison for life. To hell with the truth.
   
   The media coverage was so vicious, especially the New York Times, that it often felt as if all the news reports were being written by Mike Nifong and Al Sharpton.
   
   At Duke, a gang of 88 faculty members (or a gang of 88 bigots) took out a full-page ad praising the protestors and urging them to "turn up the volume." Many of the teachers had lacrosse players in their classes and openly taunted them into admitting their guilt. None of the teachers ever apologized for their actions. Many were actually promoted, along with black activist students who had sent threatening e-mail to Coach Pressler.
   President Brodhead was just recently lavishly praised by his board of directors for his handling of the rape hoax--and for for his unwavering support of the demented Mike Nifong.
   
   When Pressler begged the administration to wait for the truth to come out before firing him and cancelling any appearances of the lacrosse team for a whole year, Duke's Athletic director, Joe Alleva told Pressler: "It's not about the truth." In those four words, you have revealed the heart of the people heading Duke University. And of all the other criminals who passionately pursued imprisonment for life for three young men who just happened to be white.



5. This is a real page turner of a book. I was familiar with the work of Don Yaeger since he used to write for Sports Illustrated. He does not disappoint! I thought I knew the story but I wasn't even close to knowing the full story. He really brings it home and you feel like you know the person he writes about.
   
   Mike Pressler, the coach who lost his job, gives a first person account of the events that took place and is fascinating. You will enjoy this book, trust me!! GO DUKE!
   
   Gerard Zemek (husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry")

5 comments about House Rules: A Memoir.

1. Rachel Sontag wrote the chronicle of growing up with verbal and emotional abuse from her physician father and her doormat mother in this book. I think she endured some incredibly awful things with her control freak dad. Throughout the book I kept wanting her to get older and escape him and to set some boundaries with her mom. It's sad that estrangement has to happen but when there is someone who treats others the way Rachel's father treated his loved ones, it's the only way to cope. I've learned the hard way that self-preservation is more important than doing what others expect of me as I had similar experiences with a family member who was verbally abusive to me when I was young and on into my later years. Bravo to Rachel for setting some boundaries and then daring to tell her story. I really enjoyed the book and I hope she and her sister will remain close.



2. Read this book! If you work with children in any capacity, this is a must read. The writing is powerful and you walk away from it better understanding the effects of verbal, emotional, and mental abuse.
   
   Calling out crazy is a brave thing to do, especially when there is a lot on the line. Rachel - Kudos for finding your voice and using it!



3. It's hard to know what to say after reading memoirs of abuse. Saying that I loved this book doesn't seem right somehow, because it is a sad and troubling portrayal of a person's real life, and it was somewhat of a disturbing book to read. But I did love the way Sontag wrote about her family, the way she put it all out there and let the reader experience what she (unfortunately) experienced in her life. I have no doubt that her father was every bit as terrifying as she made him sound, probably more so, and reading this book simply made me feel sad for her. I actually truly feel for Sontag, because when I was growing up, I went through similar types of things with my father... he wasn't anywhere NEAR as abusive and controlling as hers, but he did do some of the same kinds of controlling and abnormal behaviors with myself, my mom, and my brothers and sister. So coming from that perspective, I truly understand and appreciate her telling this story and needing to tell it in order to heal from her past. At the end of the book, Sontag explores her relationships with her mother and sister as they stand now, and I truly hope, for her sake, that those three women are able to patch up their relationships with each other and lean on each other. I've learned through my life that the only people you can really count on are your family - and when some members of your family are less than ideal, you really need to stick by those family members who ARE there for you. So I hope that they can forge a friendship with one another from here on out.
   
   I'd definitely recommend this book, especially if you like memoirs, this one is a really good, quick read.



4. I couldn't put it down. I think most dysfunctional families have a core of mental illness or mental instability. This was a fascinating look at parents who were able to function in the world and even appeared to be well outside the home but, were unable to parent effectively or have healthy interactions in their most intimate relationships. Most people think that middle class parents who hold down jobs must naturally be doing well by their children. Some people mention that because these children had expensive vacations and all of their physical needs taken care of that they shouldn't "complain" that they were mentally abused by mentally ill or unstable parents. A child gets their entire first picture of themselves, the world, right and wrong, and everything else from their parents. This book shines a light on how that first picture being presented in a dysfunctional family may affect children and therefore the adults they become. It was a great read.



5. House Rules raises a compelling question about the effects emotional abuse from a parent can have on a child. Rachel's father is a well respected doctor, takes his family on expensive trips, and even sends Rachel to wilderness camp. But in the privacy of their home he is overbearing and controlling to the point of recording his daughter's phone calls and conversations. He also insists on her hair and nails being a certain length, and verbally abuses Rachel until she is even eventually removed from her home for a while. Most damaging of all, Rachel documents her father's drugging her mother with lithium to keep her passive. Even after reading all of this, I felt kind of a detachment from the story. I was excited to read about it to gain some insight into all of the controversy surrounding this book, but compared to the outstanding memoir, The Glass Castle, House Rules falls short. Sontag does not allow the reader to feel for her, for some reason the story feels more like she wrote it as a series of facts. I think it would have helped for her to divulge more about her parents past and what may have led her father to such an extreme behavior. Don't get me wrong, I think some of the things he did are awful, but required more depth and detail for such a book.

4 comments about A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency.

1. This book is not afraid to look at fundamental problems in the area of intelligence, which America today is finding amazingly similar to the problems that Richard Helms observed in Germany immediately after World War Two. Helms was uniquely qualified to see the big picture, having been a newspaper reporter who had lunch with Adolf Hitler (Chapter 2 is called `Lunch with Adolf') the day of a big rally in Nuremberg in 1936, a privilege that Americans willing to spend a thousand dollars a plate to attend a fundraiser with American presidents more recently might be jealous of, if being a millionaire is not enough to make them happy. Henry Kissinger was happy to report in the Foreword that Helms was even invited to lunch with President Nixon after an early NSC meeting. (p. xi). There is even a picture of the famous Tuesday lunch group with LBJ, Rusk, Clark Clifford, General Wheeler, Walt Rostow, George Cushman and Walt Johnson. There is even a picture of a lunch with Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush with the caption, "At lunch in the Vice President's office. Aside from George Washington, the elder George Bush is the only President who had firsthand knowledge of the intelligence world."

   The Preface reports that February 2, 1973, was the day James Schlesinger was sworn in as head of CIA and Richard Helms lost the position which was his main claim to fame. Richard Nixon had something to do with it, and Chapter 1, `A Smoking Gun' reports enough about the Watergate break-in to give the CIA perspective from the top, and ends with "Five months later, and a few days after his reelection, President Nixon called me to Camp David. It was the last time we spoke while he was in office." (p. 13). The Preface even claims "President Nixon had ended my intelligence career with a handshake at Camp David." (p. vi). If Helms is right about that, there was no personal contact between the Director of the CIA and the President of the United States in December 1972 and January 1973, when the Vietnam ceasefire was being hammered into place and a record number of B-52 bombers were being shot down by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns and SAMs. That figures.

   The German spies are most fascinating in the beginning of the book. Helms calls Martha Dodd an American, as she was the daughter of the American ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1938, but she was also girlfriend of Boris Vinogradov, the press secretary at the Soviet embassy in Berlin. After being charged with spying in 1957, she fled to Czechoslovakia. "Martha was seventy when she died in Prague in 1990." (p. 20). Spies and Richard Nixon have an acute sense of which side someone is on, and Helms seems to be particularly sensitive to the issues that Nixon would be prone to notice. Other major personalities are easy to locate in the index: Allen Dulles, James Angleton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, and Frank Wisner.

   Chapter 8, "The Gehlen Organization," deals with the group most responsible for allowing German intelligence after World War Two to maintain some continuity with the information that had been accumulating while Hitler was in power. As the only employer in West Germany that was not averse to employing the upper echelons of the previous regime, it had no trouble recruiting four thousand former Nazis, but Helms did not find them reliable. " . . . the American officers working with Gehlen in Washington neglected to insist upon being given the names of and biographical data on the RUSTY staff personnel. . . . Even in the confusion of the immediate post-war intelligence picture, this oversight violated one of the fundamental rules of secret intelligence, and helped to set the stage for the security disasters that in time all but destroyed the entire effort." (p. 86). A lot of people have been jumping to this conclusion without having the kind of in-depth knowledge of the situation which Helms observed.

   On "fundamental rules of secret intelligence," (p. 86), Helms seems most upset that he received a felony conviction for denying something in testimony to Congress that he felt compelled to deny. Helms was bitter that in his confirmation hearings to be appointed ambassador to Iran, he was asked questions by people who knew that the answer was officially secret, so he was being forced to lie to maintain a cover story that was maintaining dubious deniability. This is the area of books on intelligence that I find most interesting. Nosenko was not allowed to participate in a free debate in America over the nature of KGB activities regarding Lee Harvey Oswald because the entire nature of the KGB was a matter of exclusive CIA jurisdiction within the American system, and holding Nosenko a prisoner for years was the perfect symbol of the amount of control that the CIA believed it was entitled to maintain over such information. Convicting Helms of a felony for lying to Congress was a matter of attempting to establish the principle that laws have a higher function than rules, and any individual within the American system is subject to the possibility of being hauled into court to be a patsy for whatever law the administration of justice intends to glorify in its present incarnation.

   Helms doesn't exactly vilify Richard M. Nixon in this book, but just honestly stating "It has long been clear to me that President Nixon himself called the shots in the Watergate cover-up," (p. 13) is damn close. On our most recent impeachment, I think the movie "Candy" (1969, DVD 2001) with Enrico Maria Salerno as Jonathan J. John provides a better joke, when the police ask, "Did you see what happened to the girl in the blue dress?" Film buff J.J.J. responded, "I don't know. Who directed it?" That is the way most Presidents feel about the CIA.




2. Pages 300/301 of the Helms book:

   One of the most disturbing incidents in the six days [war between Israel and
   the surrounding Arab states] came on the morning of June 8[, 1967] when the
   Pentagon flashed(urgent top-priority precedence) a message that the U.S.S.
   Liberty, an unarmed U.S. Navy communications(spy) ship, was under attack in
   the Mediterranean, and that American fighters had been scrambled to defend
   the ship....

   .... The following urgent reports showed that Israeli jet fighters and
   torpedo boats had launched the attack. The seriously damaged Liberty
   remained afloat, with thirty-four dead and more than a hundred wounded
   members of the crew.

   Israeli authorities subsequently apologized for the accident, but few in
   Washington could believe that the ship had not been identified as an
   American naval vessel. Later, an interim intelligence memorandum concluded
   that the attack was a mistake and "not made in malice against the U.S."....

   .... When additional evidence was available, more doubt was raised. This prompted my
   [D]eputy [Director of Central Intelligence], Admiral Rufus Taylor, to write
   me his view of the incident. "To me, the picture thus far presents the
   distinct possibility that the Israelis knew that the Liberty might be their
   target and attacked anyway, either through confusion in Command and Control
   or through deliberate disregard of instructions on the part of
   subordinates."

   The day after the attack, President Johnson, bristling with irritation, said
   to me, "The New York Times" put that attack on the Liberty on an inside
   page. It should have been on the front page!"

   I had no role in the board of inquiry that followed, or the board's finding
   that there could be no doubt that the Israeli's knew exactly what they were
   doing in attacking the Liberty. I have yet to understand why it was felt
   necessary to attack this ship or who ordered the attack.

   (299 words in a 452 page book)

   Murder... they KNEW they were murdering defenseless American kids barely in their twenties so that they could complete WHAT two Israeli Prime Ministers(Menachim Begin and Moshe Dayan) have since admitted was a "land grab"....

   ...to get more land, ....more land than they had already grabbed by the fourth day of the Six-Day War-they left 34 American families without their sons, brothers, dads... and sent a good subset of the 171 injured home to THEIR families in the US maimed for life.

   and the kids burned and maimed for life who are standing up for their 34 fallen comrades unable to rise from the dead to defend their own memories and blameless conduct... now the Israelis call them "liars" and "anti-Semites"...

   ...except a couple of the crew members of the USS Liberty were Jewish themselves... so they're not called "liars" and "anti-semites"... no, the Israeli attackers and Government of Israel call them "liars" and "self-hating jews"...

   THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE CIA IS THAT THIS WAS A "TRAGIC MISTAKE".... BUT HERE IS WHAT THE OFFICIALS AT THE NSA HAD TO SAY TO UNITED STATES NAVAL INSTITUTE'S, DAVID C WALSH:Former NSA Officials Agree
   David C. Walsh
   The jamming of unique U.S. frequencies during the Liberty incident seems to establish deliberate intent. And in exclusive interviews with this author, several former high-level National Security Agency (NSA) officials agree.

   On 14 February 2003, the "godfather" of the NSA's Auxiliary General Technical Research program, Oliver Kirby, noted that the Liberty was "my baby." Within weeks of the calamity, Kirby, deputy director for operations/production, read U.S. signals intelligence (SigInt)-generated transcripts and "staff reports" at NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters. They were of Israeli pilots' conversations, recorded during the attack. The intercepts made it "absolutely certain" they knew it was a U.S. ship, he said. Kirby's is the first public disclosure by a top-level NSA senior of deliberate intent based on personal analyses of SigInt material.

   In an interview on 24 February 2003, retired Air Force Major General John Morrison, the agency's then-second-in-command (and Kirby's successor), said he had been informed at the time of Kirby's findings and endorsed them. Former NSA Director retired Army Lieutenant General William Odom said on 3 March 2003 said that, on the strength of such data, the attack's deliberateness "just wasn't a disputed issue" within the agency. On 5 March 2003, retired Navy Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, NSA director from 1977-1981, said he "flatly rejected" the Cristol/Israeli thesis. "It is just exceedingly difficult to believe that [the Liberty] was not correctly identified." He said this was based on his talks with NSA seniors at the time having direct knowledge. All four were unaware of any agency official at that time or later who dissented from the "deliberate" conclusion.




3. This is a biography we have been waiting for a long time. In fact, few even thought Richard Helms would even write his memoirs when one considers he spent his life working within the world of secrets, assassinations, political underdealings. Indeed, this can be a fascinating book for a realistic view of the world stuff like the Bond movies paint in more cartoonish terms. Helms takes us on a historical journey through World War 2 and his meeting with Hitler (where he describes the power of the Hitler aura upon the German people), he goes on into the years of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon during which he was director of the CIA. But...should we take Helms' version of history as official? Probably not. Consider he makes an attempt to bash any theory that tries to show uptight men like him as anything other than squeaky clean. He especially tries to brush off the idea that the CIA might have been involved in the JFK assassination. He goes out of his way to especially criticise New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison who first brought the assassination conspiracy theories to the public and the Oliver Stone film based on the investigation and evidence of conspiracy, "JFK." He calls the idea of a conspiracy hogwash and tries to support the idea of Oswald acting alone with evidence that has already been shredded apart by investigators. Helms even tries to defend the image of FBI head J.Edgar Hoover, he confirms that Hoover kept certain files on people, but he attempts to deny the idea brought about by overwhelming evidence and testimony that Hoover lived a homosexual lifestyle. Helms presents a good story but also tries too hard to clean-up the image of a government that runs wild in some areas, something that has been long ago proven. It is a good read, well-written and detailed, but like any open-minded reader, read but carefully tread the waters because are we to believe Helms would honestly reveal secrets that even today would awaken rage from the general populace? Helms tells a good story, how much of it is true we will never know.



4. 
   
   Richard Helms is, after Allen Dulles, arguably the most significant US spymaster and intelligence manager in history. It is a fortunate circumstance that he overcame his reluctance to publish anything at all, and worked with the trusted William Hood, whose own books are remarkable, to put before the public a most useful memoire.
   
   Below are a few of the gems that I find worth noting, and for which I recommend the book as a unique record:
   
   1) Puts forward elegant argument for permissive & necessary secrecy in the best interests of the public
   2) Defends the CIA culture as highly disciplined--he is persuasive in stating that only Presidents can order covert actions, and that CIA does only the President's direct bidding.
   3) Makes it clear in passing, not intentionally, that his experience as both a journalist and businessman were essential to his ultimate success as a spymaster and manager of complex intelligence endeavors--this suggests that one reason there is "no bench" at CIA today is because all the senior managers have been raised as cattle destined to be veal: as young entry on duty people, brought up within the bureaucracy, not knowing how to scrounge sources or meet payroll...
   4) Compellingly discusses the fact that intelligence without counterintelligence is almost irrelevant if not counterproductive, but then glosses over some of the most glaring counterintelligence failures in the history of the CIA--interestingly, he defends James Angleton and places the blame for mistreating Nosenko squarterly on the Soviet Division leadership in the Directorate of Operations.
   5) Points out that it was Human Intelligence (HUMINT), not Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), that first found the Soviet missiles in Cuba.
   6) He confirms the Directorate of Intelligence and the analysis it does, as the "essence" of intelligence, relegating clandestine and technical intelligence to support functions rather than driving functions. This is most important, in that neither clandestine nor technical collectors are truly responsive to the needs of all-source analysts, in part because systems are designed, and agents are recruited, without regard to what is actually needed.
   7) He tells a great story on Laos, essentially noting that 200 CIA paramilitary officers, and money, and the indigenous population, where able to keep 5 North Vietnamese divisions bogged down, and kept Laos more or less free for a decade
   8) In the same story on Laos, he explains U.S. Department of Defense incapacity in unconventional or behind the lines war by noting that their officers kept arriving "with knapsacks full of doctrine".
   9) In recounting some of CIA's technical successes, he notes casually that persistence is a virtue--there were *thirteen* satellite failures before the 14th CORONA effort finally achieved its objectives.
   10) He gives Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) much higher marks at a user and leader of intelligence, such that we wondered why Christopher Andrew, the noted author on US Presidents and intelligence, did not include LBJ is his "four who got it" (Washington, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Bush Senior).
   11) He confirms, carefully and directly, that the Israeli attacks on the USS Liberty were deliberate and with fore-knowledge that the USS Liberty was a US vessel flying the US flag on US official business.
   12) He expresses concern, in recounting the mistakes in Chile, over the lack of understanding by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger (who writes the Foreword to this book) of the time lags involved in clandestine operations and covert actions.
   13) In summary, he ends with pride, noting that all that CIA did not only reduced fear, it saved tens of billions of dollars in defense expenditures that would have been either defeated by the Soviets, or were unnecessary. There can be no question, in light of this account, but that CIA has more than "paid the rent", and for all its trials and tribulations, provides the US taxpayer with a better return on investment than they get from any other part of the US Government, and certainly vastly more bang for the buck that they get from the US Department of Defense.
   
   Richard Helms is a one-of-a-kind, and this memoire should be read by every intellience professional, and anyone who wishes to understand how honorable men can thrive in the black world of clandestine and covert operations. RIP.

5 comments about Love in a Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter's Escape from Iraqi Vengeance.

1. I briefly had an understanding of where Kurdistan was. That the "Kurds" were yet another minority being persecuted in our world. "Love in a Torn Land" has somewhat educated me as to their history and current situation. In a most entertaining manner. I salute both the author and the heroine. Thank you for letting me into the Kurdistan situation. Why can't we not only just not get along but need to bomb and chemically bomb a nation out of existance? The thing is, it is happening right now in Kurdistan and "most" other parts of our earth. I lie here in my comfortable bed wishing I could help. THANK YOU again.
   peter



2. It is hard to believe that this story is non-fiction given the never-ending twists and turns, intense drama and the perfect love story that unfolds. It was hard to put this book down!
   
   This is Jean Sassoon's best book to date. There is far less of the distracting shifting back and forth that I found to be a problem in the construction of her earlier books. Her descriptions are richer, more vivid. I used to live in Kurdistan, and her descriptions are very true to life!
   
   I think this book does more to advance the Kurdish cause than any documentary I have seen! The harsh life under both the Baathists and the Iranian government is fairly portrayed. You will come away impressed with the strength of the Peshmergas and very grateful for your own soft bed and other creature comforts.
   
   I do wish that the author had not been in such a rush to move the characters from Iran to London. I would have loved to have read more about Joanna's trials and tribulations in the Kurdish area of Iran and in Damascus. The adjustment to living in London would also have made for interesting reading.



3. In Jean Sasson's book, "Love in a Torn Land", you will meet an astonishing heroine of an unbelievable adventure novel as well as hear a tender romance that survives against all odds. This is Jean Sasson at her best!
   
   Before I read this book, I did not even know what a Kurd was, but you will come to admire the spirit of the Kurdish people and their struggle to survive in the current day through war, suppression, genocide and their unfathomable faith in their right to survive. This is a truly harsh environment as the people struggle day by day to survive.
   
   Follow the story of a family's struggles in war torn Iraq as our heroine, Joanna, carries us through stories of oppression of Muslim women, heart breaking tales of torture and loss, warm sharings of people reaching out to comfort when none seems to be had, harrowing narratives of a people's struggle to survive. Against all odds, this brave woman survives and lives to tell the tale of how she was determined to live the life she wanted no matter the cost.
   
   As you cower under your covers, you will read of the bombings of Baghdad and the Northern Iraq mountains where learning "that whatever one might be doing here, half the mind will not be focusing on the task at hand, but instead on the sounds and sights from the skies" is a crucial lesson. Joanna applies this lesson as her ears are tuned for the shrill whistling resonance of shells, or for the noisy roar of an airplane or helicopter engine while she is preparing a meager breakfast that may only consist of rice. Our heroine suffered through narrow escapes in treacherous places only to place herself in an area targeted for race eliminating scourges. She suffers the heartbreak of the loss of loved ones, is often on the brink of starvation, poisoned and blinded by gas - but almost never loses her spirit and will to survive. Just imagine thinking you are in heaven to have a shelter over your head that is crawling with scorpions, `despite the fact that there was no electricity, no running water, and no toilets".
   
   This eye opening book just may have you clamouring for more of Jean Sasson's books as she supports the efforts of women whose voices must be heard.



4. As usual, Jean Sasson opened my eyes to a harsh culture where survival is your minute by minute goal. She has provided women with a voice and others of us a reason to be thankful to be Americans.



5. I love all of Jean Sasson's books. Like all the others, this is written to keep you interested in the story and wondering what could possibly happen next to this poor young woman, her husband and all Kurds, even though you eventually know about the general outcome. The fact that the story is true, makes it hair raising. The only unfavorable thing I could say about the book, is that in telling the story, Jean Sasson looses herself a bit by going into too many details of places, people, every day occurrances, and the constant back and forth conversations between the protagonists. Sometimes it is best to leave details to your imagination. Other than that, I enjoyed it thoroughly and can't wait for the next!