Recent reading

Well, after two nights of work-I finally have repaired all the damage the spambots caused to my humble little web site. Blogger may have had its drawbacks-but it did not require as much care and feeding as Word Press does.

The week has been going about as well as one can expect-given that all of us are just getting ready to get fucked up the ass assimilated into oblivion. For the short term I will have to deal with it, until I can more clearly outline a path to something better. I have no doubt what that is yet-but trust me-I will be thinking about it. I will be using some of my time on upcoming trip back to the Whining States of America to talk with folks a lot more learned than your humble scribe.

Over the last month, I have done a considerable amount of book reading. As this abomination of a reorganziation was going through its birth pangs, I took making sure I left my desk at lunch time, and holing up somewhere nice and read my I-pad with all my books on it. I covered a lot of ground.

The first book was this one:

The book was very interesting, and I enjoyed it. I think all the hype about Resa Aslan being a Muslim was way overdone. Plenty of Christian scholars have written well on Mohammed and that did not diminish from the quality of their work at all. In the book Aslan just postulates Jesus as yet another rebel who was among many who advocated freeing Israel from their Roman oppressors. I get that. He point out that what distinguishes Jesus is that he was quite successful at it. But the major point he makes is that -the rise of Christianity came after Jesus’ death. And to that death- Reslan makes what I consider, a major omission. He does not even try to explain the story of the resurrection-he simply treats it as if it did not happen. But given that, he fails to make a compelling case for the level of his followers devotion afterward. What Reslan does do well, is to explain the schism in the early church; between the followers of Paul and those of James. And that goes a long way towards explaining the difference in tone between the letters of Paul which compose most of the New Testament and those of James. Paul has much more emphasis on mysticism-for which I agree with Reslan devolves into the modern Catholic Church, and James who puts a lot more emphasis on doing the right thing, and still respecting the Jewish faith that begat Christianity. James’ letters are a more practical guide to life than Paul’s, and Reslan does a good job of chronicling the split in their views. Its worth a read-whether you are devout or not.

The next book is one on Wall Street. Its The Big Short  by Michael Lewis. Lewis is a gifted writer and this is an excellent retelling of the malfeasance that led up to the financial crisis of 2008 and how a handful of investors turned it into a huge money making opportunity.  One group of pessimists he discusses turned 112,000 dollars of their own money into 447 MILLION.  True story.  If you have any sympathy for the big Wall Street banks and the crisis-this book will disavow you of it. And make you understand what truly greedy bastards they are.

Moving on.

I’ve been reading a book about Sex in China. Which is great because it points out how lousy the Western influence was on China. When China was alone to itself over a 1000 years ago-sex was not dirty, it was a vital part of life. Along came first, Confucianism and later on Christianity and they together fucked things up royally. The book does a good job of how the Chinese used to have, as did the Japanese, a health love of sex and appreciation for pleasing both partners repeatedly. Christianity came along and fucked that all up. And then-came Mao, who was a disaster for the evolution of good sex in China, and for whom many of the post Mao events can be blamed. ( This, while he was evidently getting fucked regularly by any number of willing modern day concubines). The book is called, Behind the Red Door , by Richard Burger.

Of course, all the book did was make me want to immediately go to Frankfurt and board a plane to Shanghai.

The next book that I read, was one I really liked-mainly because it told the story of how despite all of our supposed “adoration” for the American Military man, the governing class is devoted to selling them out at every opportunity.  This is something I became painfully aware of myself as I watched a a worthless piece of shit a useless man pull the strings to fuck the rest of us over.  Andrew Bacevich wrote the book, Breach of Trust, How America is failing its Military as a song to urge the general population to understand the civil military divide:

In Breach of Trust, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes stock of the separation between Americans and their military, tracing its origins to the Vietnam era and exploring its pernicious implications: a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory. Among the collateral casualties are values once considered central to democratic practice, including the principle that responsibility for defending the country should rest with its citizens.

Citing figures as diverse as the martyr-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the marine-turned-anti-warrior Smedley Butler, Breach of Trust summons Americans to restore that principle. Rather than something for “other people” to do, national defense should become the business of “we the people.” Should Americans refuse to shoulder this responsibility, Bacevich warns, the prospect of endless war, waged by a “foreign legion” of professionals and contractor-mercenaries, beckons. So too does bankruptcy—moral as well as fiscal.

I particularly identified with his citing of Smedley Butler, and his explanation of how some of us experience a “Smedly Butler moment”-namely that point where you realize, that every thing you have worked for, every ideal you believed in about your chosen service, every year you spent in its service, was pursued in support of an overwhelming abomination and a lie. Butler had that moment back in the 30’s-and I had that moment reinforced to me in the lead up to this abomination of a reorganization.

Bacevich’s main argument, backed up by some good data is that the All Volunteer Army is a mistake- a huge one. He makes it clear he believes, as I do, that national service should be a requirement of every American. Bacevich takes it farther than I do-my belief is that it is a requirement of manhood only, based on my firm belief that women have a much different role to play in society.  Nonetheless he’s right in that “ an all-volunteer army in a democratic society simply does not work, and that the present system is “broken.” It is bankrupting our country, and not just financially, but morally. He tells us that Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the longest and most expensive wars in U.S. history, have evoked little more than “an attitude of cordial indifference” on the part of a shallow and selfish populace more concerned with the latest doings of the Kardashians, professional superstar athletes or other vapid and overpaid millionaire celebrities, reflecting “a culture that is moored to nothing more than irreverent whimsy and jeering ridicule.”

This book is well worth your time.

And finally, I finished the book by This Town, by Marc Leibovich that explains in all too close detail the inner workings of the pundit and lobbying class in Washington DC.

This is not an in-depth investigation into Washington corruption; it is, rather, a panoramic view of the culture of Washington, the fertile soil in which the corruption grows and flourishes. Presented in a lively, humorous manner, it is rather enjoyable to read. So much so that one tends to lose sight of the fact that these are people – Washington insiders, that is – who enrich themselves with money taxpayers are forced to send to the government. You get the sense that these people always have a smirk on their faces, laughing at the stupid people – everyone outside of the Beltway – who support their little aristocracy upon the Potomac (‘The Club’, as it’s referred to). The author, Mark Leibovich, doesn’t draw conclusions for us, he presents the rather corrupt underbelly of Washington – politicians and their minions as they really are – and let’s us decide just how bad it really is.

I happen to agree with that review. Nonetheless, the book is still worth the read.