A Book Review

I realize the author is a decorated Vietnam veteran who was a Marine Corps officer in 1969.  I'm aware he was a Rhodes Scholar who entered the Marine Corps following his graduation from Oxford University one year before William Jefferson Clinton graduated the same place.  I greatly admire these two accomplishments of Mr. Karl Marlantes, the author of Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War. This March 2010 book was published by Atlantic Monthly Press.  I read it on my Kindle over a two month period. It took this long because I continually stopped reading because of my dread to continue. However, I persevered and finished it while vacationing in Alexandria, Virginia a couple weeks ago.

The book is over the top with exaggerations.  I can verify that leeches in the jungles of Vietnam were bad and would attach to tender body parts to suck blood from infantrymen at night, but, entering a man's urethra, attaching itself, and blocking urine flow?  I don't think so. This was described early in the book as a marine reached an emergency backup of urine which required his buddies to slice the man's penis to remove the leech.  Urine and blood spewed over everyone involved during the procedure in the field.

The book says, "half the company came from broken homes and had wives or parents who were drunks, dope addicts, runaways, prostitutes, or child beaters."

2nd Lieutenant Waino Mallas, USMC Reserve, the main character described his Marine company by saying, "... They all talked the same, too, say f**k, or some adjective, noun, or adverb with f**k in it, every four words."  "Mellas had gone to some fancy private college and graduated second in his class at the Basic School."

The 592 pages of Matterhorn teem with gutter language throughout. Here is a count of some profane and vulgar words used:  f**k 209 times, f**ker 32, f**king 654, motherf***er 44, p**s, 20, s**t 274, Godd**n 99, ni**er 25, b*tch 15, and bast**d 31.  These statistics were computed using my Amazon Kindle.

These words and other derogatory language average 3 or more times per page. The author actually served in Company C, First Battalion, Fourth Marines of the Third Marine Division (Reinforced) in 1969.  If his experiences formed and shaped his foundation for writing this novel, then his words reflect poorly on the officers and enlisted men who served in that marine company at that time.

Here is the frequency of other words used in the book: freedom 1, honor 7, honorable 0, truth 6, love 14, devotion 0, duty 31, thanks 43, praise 1, goodness 0, South Vietnam 3, General Westmoreland 0, Robert McNamara 0, Ho Chi Minh 2, Hue 2, President Thieu 0, Vietnam 69, Ho Chi Minh Trail 0, DMZ 14, Paris Peace Accords 0, and Richard Nixon 0.

The stories and dialogue among and between these Marine officers and enlisted men should not be used to characterize the Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel who served throughout Vietnam.  I was a Private First Class infantryman in the Army in VN in 1966. My experiences and observations with enlisted men and officers did not come close to what is described in the behaviors around Matterhorn.

The book is about a Marine junior officer and his perception of inferior military personnel. Lieutenant Mallas becomes a hero by bringing out the best he could in the men he had to work with.

Have a good week!

Could You Be Wrong?

This new book is available on Kindle

This 2010 book is about people possessing a belief and later discovering they were wrong.  For example, a KKK leader in Durham, North Carolina hated a group of people and later discovered he was wrong to feel that way.

Another example was a woman who grew up believing that abortion is murder and later decided to have an abortion when she became a married adult.  Other example included medical professionals performing surgery on a body part and then discovering they operated on the wrong organ.  (Medical errors are the 8th leading cause of deaths in the United States.)

Being Wrong explores buyer's remorse, religious belief, opinions about others, and errors made in court that imprison innocent people.  See the link here about a Winston-Salem woman who helped send an innocent man to prison for a life sentence. These are examples of mistakes made by well meaning people.  How does this happen?  How does the human psyche cope at the moment when a belief is learned to be mistaken?  How can people avoid being wrong?

Answers to questions like these are examined in this very interesting book. Below are some notable quotes from the book:

"Groupthink most commonly affects homogeneous, close-knit communities that are overly insulated from internal and external criticism...."

"... how we react when our convictions collapse out from under us, and how we are changed from the experience."

"... buyer's remorse is a failure to accurately predict our own needs, desires, beliefs, and emotions..."

"This is one of the most powerful ways being wrong can transform us: it can help us become more compassionate people."

"Studies have shown that, on average, doctors interrupt their patients eighteen seconds after they have started explaining the reason for their visit."

"As soon as we think we are right about something, we narrow our focus, attending only to details that support our belief, or ceasing to listen altogether."

So, what is the lesson?  The lesson for everyone is to consider the possibility that our opinion or belief may not be accurate.  How can we avoid being wrong?  One way is for some people is to stop talking so much and begin to listen more.  Another way is to listen more carefully and keep an open mind.  Personal growth occurs when one discovers an error in their opinion or belief.

I recommend this book.

Have a good week!

How To Convert Company Assets Into Personal Wealth

"A control fraud is a company run by a criminal who uses it as a weapon and shield to defraud others and makes it difficult to detect and punish the fraud." This concept and quote came from the book by William K. Black entitled The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One, How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry published by University of Texas Press in 2005.

Mr. Black worked as a bank regulator for the Federal Home Loan Bank during the period of the Savings and Loan Crisis during the 1980's and 1990's. He helped root out the crimes of S&L executives of which Charles Keating was most notorious. Throughout the book he describes how white-collar crime works at the executive level in banks and companies. Unscrupulous or greedy company executives with the help of politicians loot companies by converting company assets into personal wealth. They do this through stock options, political donations, and numerous perks for executives. Politicians help set the rules and weaken government oversight to allow looting to take place. Jim Wright, U.S. Congressman of Texas was one of the most difficult politicians to roadblock government action against control fraud in savings and loans banks in Texas.

Here is an example of how government regulators became weak. Ronald Reagan ran for the presidency on the platform that government was "too big" and "the problem". When elected, President Reagan appointed department heads that managed as if their departments were "the problem" not the businesses they regulated. Staffs were slashed and bank audits made infrequent. When audits turned up questionable practices, politicians stepped in to fight the auditors. Black said, "It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that government will be ineffective if one designs it to be ineffective. The systems-capacity problems of the SEC and the Bank Board are parallel. Both were forbidden to pay salaries competitive with those offered by the banking regulatory agencies (much less private firms). Both experienced rapid turnover and had to staff key operations with inexperienced personnel."

Mr. Black pointed out, "that for many years no public accounting audit firm exposed any S&L control fraud." In other words, there was a crisis in the industry and no public accounting firm gave any signs or warnings.

Black wrote, "One advantage that white-collar criminals have over blue-collar criminals is the ability to use top lawyers, not only at trial but also before criminal investigations begin. Control frauds maximize this advantage by paying for the lawyers who help the controlling insider loot the firm." Of course the lawyers are paid with company funds.

In addition to reading his book, I watched Mr. Black's interview with Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers' Journal. You can see the interview here. Not much has changed with regulations to prevent fraud since the S&L Crisis.

Black is currently Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

Have a good Week!

Read Electronically Displayed Words

Why are words on white paper different from the same words on a digital device?

They're the same words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in both places. The internalization of written words should be the same regardless of the medium upon which they're read, right? Well, according to some readers, the experience of reading is not equivalent though the words are the same.

My family gave me an Amazon Kindle as a Christmas gift in 2008. I've been reading books on the device since then and have completed thirteen so far. The picture above shows my Amazon Kindle beside twelve books. All twelve are in the electronic device, saved with my highlights and notes, and easily accessible with a few clicks.

I am convinced that hard copy book selling is on the way down. It's not logical anymore to buy books, read them, and put them on a shelf to collect dust.

Think about it and get on the cutting edge of innovation.

Here is the list of titles I've read on Kindle:

1. Getting Things Done by David Allen 2001

2. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, 2008

3. American Theocracy: The Peril & Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, & Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips, 2006

4. 5000 Year Leap: 30 Year Anniversary Edition With Glenn Beck Forward by W. Cleon Skousen, James Michael Pratt, Carlos L. Packard, and Evan Frederickson, 2009

5. Tomorrow Now: Envisioning The Next 50 Years by Bruce Sterling, 2003

6. Biscuitville by J. Phillips L Johnston 2010

7. Half The Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, 2010

8. The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street & Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson 2010

9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 2010

10. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, 2003

11. The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War by Thomas A. Bass, 2009

12. No Apology by Mitt Romney, 2010

13. The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One by William K. Black, 2005

Have a good week!

Medical Research

Here is the concept: The approach researchers take to find cures for cancer is to obtain cancerous tissue, keep it alive in a lab environment, and treat the tissue cells with test vaccines to see if the cancer cells stop growing. This is how chemotherapy and radiation became treatments.

The problem, in part, is that human cells will not live for long outside the body. (Exception: stem cells from human embryos can live and grow into tissue or organs as directed by researchers. The foreskin from circumcised baby boys can grow into large sheets of skin for transplant onto burn victims. One foreskin can grow into a surface area the size of 6 soccer fields. Bone marrow is another exception.)

Everyone will die and everyone's cells will also die, except the cells from one woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died at age 31 in 1951. Her cells are alive today and have been used by researchers, universities, hospitals, labs, and science for the past 60 years.

Mrs. Lacks was a poor woman with 5 children who lived in the tobacco farm country of Clover, Virginia near South Boston. Her cervical cancer cells were harvested and kept alive by Dr. George Gey. The cells grew (multiplied) and were given away or sold to the science community ever since. The cells have gone into space and to the moon. They helped test the safety of the polio vaccine instead of using monkey cells.

When Rebecca Skloot was age sixteen and in a biology class, her teacher wrote Henrietta's name on the board when he began to explain cells. After class, young Skloot approached the teacher and wanted to know more about Henrietta Lacks. The teacher indicated he didn't know much about her, but if she would research this woman and write a summary, he would give her extra credit. Twenty years later the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was published in February 2010 by Crown and authored by Rebecca Skloot.

In fact, very little was known about Henrietta Lacks until Ms. Skloot spent years researching her descendants, her hometown, Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, and the medical community processing her cells. Rebecca Skloot continued her education and graduated college with degrees in science as she pursued the complicated history of HeLa cells. HeLa is derived from the first two letters of the name of the person from which the cells were harvested, Henrietta Lacks.

This book explains what happens to tissue and organs surgically removed from people and describes who has legal ownership and rights to whatever benefit may come from the procedure.

This new book is informative and very interesting!

Have a good week!

Half The Sky

I read the book Half The Sky Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide by co-authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, published by Alfred A. Knoph in September 2009.

This important book enlightened even me, a 63 year-old man who has a mother, sister, wife, daughter, and has worked with lots of women all my adult life. I love, admire, and respect women and have often said they are superior to men in many, many ways. When I was in my career job, I liked management teams when they consisted largely of females. They were almost always appreciative, tolerant, empathetic, patient, and stressed quality over quantity. I loved working with and for women!

Now, let me relate some facts presented in this book:

An obstetric fistula is a condition of torn or weakened membranes brought on by difficult childbirth. Left uncorrected by surgery, a fistula results in urine and bowel waste continually flowing from the female body. Poor health care in parts of the world results in some women living with this condition. The odor is horrendous and the unfortunate women are often ostracized to the point of death or suicide.

On any given day, absenteeism by doctors in health care facilities is 30% in regions where care is desperately needed.

Iodine deficiency in some countries affects brain development in the first trimester of fetuses and lowers IQ by 15 points.

In some countries young girls are lured to other countries by job opportunities and then forced into prostitution and remain trapped in brothels.

Female genital cutting is practiced in many cultures as a way to deter promiscuous behavior.

Infibulation is a process of stitching the vulva to prevent sexual intercourse until marriage and is practiced in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

During the last hundred years, of all the countries in the world China has done more for the advancement of women. Women in urban areas of China participate in decision making in the community and enjoy high status in the family with housework equally shared by the husband and children.

Fully 30 percent of parliament positions in Rwanda are held by women since the genocide of 1994. As a result, the country is changed and getting better.

This book is about the potential of women worldwide and the need to break free from some customs that are rooted in religion, culture, tradition, peer pressure, and sexuality. The authors put forth a case that a better world will only result when women are more educated and participate in governance. They point out that when women are educated birth rates decline, violence and terror are reduced, and health improves overall.

The authors contend that a movement for women is needed similar to the abolitionists who changed slavery in the 1800's and activists who affected civil rights in the 1900's.

Do you agree and can you be an instrument of change?

Have a good week!

Former Correspondent for Reuters and Time Magazine

He earned the "Hero of the People's Armed Forces" award, the highest military recognition by Vietnam for his information in planning the Tet Offensive in January 1968.

Fourteen additional medals were awarded to Pham Xuan An for his tactical help in specific battles and campaigns while fighting the United States and South Vietnam forces. In 2003 An was awarded a medal for 50 years of service in the Communist Party.

All these awards were presented following the war, because from 1955 to 1975, Mr. An was a spy working as a news correspondent for Reuters until 1965 and for Time magazine from 1965 to 1975.

He was charming and entertaining as he interacted with diplomats and news people like Morley Safer, David Halberstam, Frank McCulloch, Beverly Deepe and many more reporters throughout the long war.

When North Vietnam realized the United States would continue the fight after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Vietnam Communist Party sent Pham Xuan An to Costa Mesa, California in 1957 where he enrolled in Orange Coast College to learn American culture. He studied two years in the community college and then traveled across country by car. An was in the press gallery in New York to watch Nikita Khrushchev deliver his speech during the Soviet leader's first visit to the United States.

Pham Xuan An had a network of 45 couriers to get messages to Ho Chi Minh. Twenty-seven were captured or killed throughout the war. One courier, Ngenyen Van Thuong, was captured and tortured by amputating his legs several inches at a time every two months. A total of 6 cuts reduced his legs to stubs. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 brought about Thuong's release. He, too, earned the "Hero of the People's Armed Forces" award for his part in transporting messages and keeping the secrets during captivity. Thuong lives in Vietnam in a wheelchair with half a body.

The tunnels in Cu Chi were used by An to send frequent intelligence to North Vietnam leaders.

In the 1980's when all this came out about Pham Xuan An's role in the war, most reporter friends in the U. S. didn't feel betrayed. Some admired his cunning and skill at avoiding detection and suspicion. During the 1990's many friends in the United States raised money to bring An's son, Pham Xuan Hoang An, to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study journalism and Duke University to study law.

The book, The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game, by Thomas A. Bass was published in 2009 by Public Affairs. I recommend this book if you're a student of history, war, and spying. If you're easily upset by the news media, then don't read it.

Have a good week!

The Other Side

As an infantry fighter in the jungles, mountains, and rice paddies in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1966, one might think I wouldn't read a book written by a former NVA enemy soldier. You might feel it would be upsetting or heighten Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to read about a past enemy's experiences of combat, death, and destruction while fighting Americans.

Bao Ninh, pictured below, was born in 1952 in North Vietnam. He deployed south with the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade to fight American and ARVN soldiers in 1969. The unit consisted of 500 hastily trained youths. Only 10 survived the war. Mr. Ninh was one of the ten survivors and was part of the Ho Chi Minh's forces that overran Saigon on April 29, 1975.

His book, The Sorrow of War, was a huge bestseller in Vietnam and was translated from Vietnamese to English by Phan Thanh Hao and edited by Frank Palmos. The English translation copyright was 1993 by Martin Secker & Warburg Limited in Great Britain. The copy I read was published by Riverhead Books in New York.

The novel's central character is a young fighter by the name of Kien. Tu was the name of a fellow fighter with Kien. "Tu was killed at Gate 5 of Saigon's Ton Son Nhat airport on the morning of April 30 only 3 hours before the war ended."

Kien described the deserted areas of Hanoi during the bombing raids and the troop-train movement of NVA soldiers south when U. S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered periods of ceased bombing.

Kien's life following the war is absorbed with memories of that jungle place in the Central Highlands where, in '69, his brigade was almost annihilated by helicopter gun-ships at tree-top height, artillery, napalm, and Phantom jets. That place is referred to as "Jungle of Screaming Souls".

Kien describes life after the war. Many times at night he lies in bed and is attacked by helicopters with the "whump-whump-whump sound of the rotor blades". In reality it's the ceiling fan in his bedroom."

Mr. Ninh writes in the novel of Kien saying, "I am watching a U. S. war movie with scenes of American soldiers yelling as they launch themselves into combat on the TV screen, and once again I'm ready to jump in and mix in the fiery scene of blood, mad killing, and brutality that warps soul and personality. The thirst for killing, the cruelty, the animal psychology, the evil desperation. I sit dizzied, shocked by the barbarous excitement of reliving close combat with bayonets and rifle butts. My heart beats rapidly as I stare at the dark corners of the room where ghost-soldiers emerge, shredded with gaping wounds."

Mr. Ninh fought, I fought, and comrades on both sides fought in Vietnam over ideology. The fight was not for land, natural resources, food, or water rights. It was about differing cultures and the desire to spread one over the other (the north and south).

But, if one is not willing to defend a way of life, then one should be prepared to accept change in his speech, language, style of dress, behavior, thinking, or even his religion if an outside force brings different ideology. Would you fight to defend a way of life?

Have a good week!

Legacy of Ashes

I now understand why my wife chooses romance novels and books with happy endings when she reads for pleasure.

I just finished reading Legacy of Ashes, The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner, 2007. It was a depressing look inside the agency with its history of directors and their relationships with presidents, bad intelligence, morale problems, high turnover among employees, and often improper involvement in other countries' affairs. I always held the CIA in high esteem. If one can believe this book, my high regard for this agency is unwarranted

Not long ago I read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, 2007. Again, a disturbing history of extreme Laissez Faire philosophy of managing societies and the impact on people and culture.

Several years ago I read Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation was Robbed of its Heroes and its History by B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, 1998. This book is about myths surrounding Vietnam veterans and fake heroes. There are thousands of people who wear medals and claim war experience that are lies. Some people in high positions of authority presented themselves as decorated veterans and later were discovered as fake. The problem is so widespread that Congress passed the Stolen Valor Act which makes it a crime to falsely present oneself as a war veteran.

My point here is that too much reading can bring insight that is disturbing about mankind and his organizations.

My next book to read promises to be uplifting. The title is Quiet Strength a Memoir Tony Dungy.  It was given to me by a family member as a gift for Fathers Day.

Have a good week!

Disturbed

The Shock Doctrine the rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, 2007, is the most disturbing book I ever read.

Models of society crafted on the concept ultra laissez-faire started in the 1950's at the University of Chicago by Professor Milton Friedman.

During the past fifty years, countries and cultures have have been impacted by economic models of free markets to replace government with privatized services. This conversion is easiest done following war, coups-d'etat, terror attacks, hyper-inflation, and natural disasters.

The dismantling of government was first tested by Chicago School trained economists in Chile when General Augusto Pinochet took control from the Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government. The "Chicago Boys", as they were known, moved into the new government, sold assets, and set up free markets. Many protesters were killed, tortured, or disappeared.

The model of change continued into other South American countries during the years following Chile's test. It continued to Indonesian countries before and after the great tsunami and in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Each instance involves changing government to privatization which results in enriching some and impoverishing many. The greater good for a society is lost and profit becomes the almighty goal.

The architect and consultant behind this great movement was Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago, the economists trained there, and the politicians who followed the philosophy to the extreme.

I recommend you read this book for example after example of how common people have been impacted.

Have a good week!

Mining Data

Fifty years ago tattoos were rare except on some GI's who had too much to drink one weekend. I never imagined that these permanent designs would become fashionable on so many people today. (I'll never have one.)

The authors of Microtrends, The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes have statistically studied recent behavior changes and advised politicians to be aware of possible big changes ahead. Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne authored this book that was published in September 2007.

They studied emerging trends of increasing college dropouts, vegetarian children, neglected dads, teenage knitters, car-buying soccer moms, women in "word professions", and much more. There are around seventy-five minor trends reported in this book and not a lot of statistics to wade through, just interesting reading that is informative and sometimes verification of what some of us have already observed. For example, the rise in the number of obese people. Their data estimates that there are around 8 million morbidly obese people in America. Morbidly obese is defined as 100 pounds or more overweight. "Eight million" is the population size of North Carolina or New Jersey according to the authors.

This book was published by Twelve. Go to the web site for Twelve by clicking here and read their mission statement and see other books they've published.

This book can be read by browsing the short sections or starting in the front and reading to the end. I read the whole book and was amazed at the rate of change that's happening all around us in ways I didn't know.

You may want to check out this book and also visit Twelve web site.

Have a good week!

Blackwater USA

Jeremy Scahill wrote the book entitled Blackwater The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books in 2007.

The book is about Erik Prince who founded the private security organization, Blackwater, and built a huge training compound on 7,000 acres in northeastern North Carolina.

I have high respect for Erik Prince. He is, perhaps, the wealthiest man ever to enlist in the military according to page 26 in the book pictured above. As a multi-millionaire, he volunteered for service in the U. S. Navy, became a Navy Seal on Team 8 in the 1990's, and was deployed on assignments that placed him in harm's way. After his honorable discharge, he purchased swampland, developed a training compound, and assembled elite forces to respond to new demand for private security contractors.

I am a great admirer of Jeremy Scahill, the author of the book mentioned here. I read his book, have seen him interviewed, and believe he is the gold standard for investigative research and reporting. He possesses awesome verbal skills as demonstrated in television interviews. This young man should be a case study for excellence and quality in doing the job of investigative reporting.

I saw a news clip of Erik Prince's testimony before a Congressional Committee where he defended the mission of his company. I heard him say "I am an American fighting for America". I've never before heard another person utter those words. Have you ever said those words? Have you ever undertaken actions you feel mean the same as the words said by Mr. Prince?

I believe the subject of whether to use contractors in addition to the military should be debated with scholarship on university and college campuses. There should be more media discourse on who is and who is not volunteering for military service. I believe the size and socio-economic make-up of the military is an issue.

Have a good week!

King Philip's War

As a percentage of the male population during the periods, more men died in King Philip's War in 1675-76 than in the Civil War or WWII. The English settlers in southern New England referred to the Native American sachem as King Philip. His name was Metacom. All out war between the Indians and the Pilgrims occurred after fifty years of somewhat peaceful coexistence. Ten percent of the Pilgrim and Puritan men were killed and between sixty and eighty percent of the Native American population in that area died or were shipped out of the country into slavery.

The book is Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick which was published by Viking in 2006, 461 pages.

A new acquaintance brought to my attention this book as we compared reading material while attending a seminar at Wake Forest University a few weeks ago. Afterwards, I read this book and learned much about the settlers in the Plymouth, Nantucket, and Cape Cod areas of New England.

See book image below and have a good week!

The Power of Respect

Visualize this scenario: A home was offered for sale. A potential buyer evaluated the real estate and agreed to buy it at the asking price and terms of payment. The seller and buyer verbally agreed to close the deal in two weeks. During the two week period, the house caught fire and burned to the ground. Devastated and almost in tears, the seller told the buyer that his house was destroyed by accidental fire. The potential buyer responded: "No, my house burned; we had an agreement". The deal closed as agreed and the buyer paid full price for the pile of ashes.

This incident happened to Dave Longaberger involving a factory. He agreed to buy a vendor's facility which burned before the closing date. He followed through with the purchase, rebuilt the factory, bought new equipment, and reemployed the workforce to manufacture raw materials for his basket company. It may seem illogical to pay full price for ashes when it wasn't required, but, this man deviated from tradition and took actions counter to conventional wisdom throughout his life. Today, thousands of people are gainfully employed because of the dreams, vision, and passions of this one person. Mr. Longaberger was a success in life as well as in business.

Dave was 21 when he graduated high school. During his youth, he stuttered, he also experienced epileptic seizures, and wasn't a high performer when it came to school work. He was highly decent and had respect for everyone. Although he accumulated wealth, he was not obsessed by money and was generous in gifting. He developed 18 management principles that are presented in his book. He was largely responsible for reversing an economic decline in the small town of Dresden, Ohio and put it on a path of growth. Dave Longaberger was so admired that 8,000 people attended his memorial service in 1999 when he died at age 64 from cancer.

I could relate much more about this extraordinary man after reading his biography which is shown in the picture, but, you may want to read about his amazing life story. The book is Longaberger: An American Success Story by Robert L. Shook and Dave Longaberger. The publisher is HarperCollins 2001 copyright, 234 pages.

Have a good week!

Famous Man

I read the book by Debby Applegate entitled The Most Famous Man in America The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, 527 pages published by Doubleday in 2006.

I am so glad I read this excellent book of a man about whom I previously knew nothing.

I read this book as if preparing for a test in college - that is, slower than normal, concentrating, and marking certain pages with Post-it flags.

Henry Ward Beecher was the brother of Harriett Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henry and Harriett were two of several children of the famous minister Lyman Beecher.

Henry Ward Beecher was so popular and famous that President Lincoln invited Mr. Beecher to prepare and deliver the ceremonial reunification speech at Fort Sumter, South Carolina when the United States flag was re-raised there after the Civil War in March 1865.

Henry Ward Beecher was famous and influential as a preacher and orator who preached about God's love. This approach of teaching about God was different from his father's preaching and other preachers who emphasized the fear of God's wrath.

Henry was also a leading abolitionist and influenced many people to end slavery. Famous authors like Twain, Whitman, Melville, Dickinson, Emerson, Holmes, Hawthorne and Thoreau were attentive to the preaching and speaking tours of Beecher.

Beecher was born 1813 in Connecticut, graduated Amherst College and Lane Seminary. His first church was in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, "a destitute place indeed", according to Beecher's diary. Next, he served as a minister at a church in Indianapolis before he was recruited to Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York.

I learned much from this wonderfully researched and well-written book. Debby Applegate, Ph.D Yale University, researched Mr. Beecher for twenty years to prepare and write this book.

Have a good week!

It Was So, So Good!

The book Driving With The Devil by Neal Thompson (2006) is very interesting.

Don't misunderstand, I do not admire people who acquired wealth, power, and influence outside the law.

This book, in large part, is about people who lived outside the law to pursue their passion and to make money during the 1920's and 30's. Many of these same men entered WWII and became heroes for their bravery and sacrifices in war. Their love of V-8 engines, Ford cars, and fast driving on public roads as well as on race tracks led to the creation of NASCAR in 1948. It's about these men, their lives, and the places in the South where they lived and the methods they used to haul moonshine from the country to cities during and after Prohibition.

There's lots of interesting history about people, places, events, racing in the North compared to the South, and Henry Ford's connection to racing during the first half of the twentieth century.

The book's author, Neal Thompson, currently teaches at the University of North Carolina in Asheville for the Great Smokies Writing Program. He's written several books and was a journalist for several newspapers and magazines. Mr. Thompson researched fading history to prepare for this book.

I probably would not have selected this book on my own. My friend, Herschel Lamb, gave it to me as a Christmas present in 2006. After I started to read it, I enjoyed this nonfiction book so much that I didn't want it to end. I read slowly and often backed up a few pages to reread the material because it was so interesting and well written. I found myself studying the text as I read.

Thanks, Herschel, for knowing I would enjoy and benefit from reading this book.

Have a good week!

Values, Opportunity, The World Beyond Our Borders

If you've read Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope I invite you to review pages 62, 67, 190 and 307. If you haven't read his book I suggest you read these pages the next time you're at a library or book store.

The title for this posting comes from chapter titles in Mr. Obama's book. I could tell you about his views on the above pages and you wouldn't need to look them up, but that wouldn't be any fun or require any effort on your part. I could also reveal how my views compare to the message he wrote on these pages, but you can make your own comparison without knowing my views.

Have a good week!

How Do I Say "Thank You"?

How do I express thanks to an author who enlightened me by writing a book for which I gained insight and perspective by reading? I suppose I could write him a letter or send an email message. On the other hand, my payment of retail price for his book is, perhaps, thanks enough and the only feedback expected.

Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

I invested $26.00 and twenty hours to read The War of the World Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West by Niall Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson's acknowledgements indicated "the book has been at least ten years in the making and many hands contributed to the work. At least a dozen students helped with the research during vacations.......they not only helped to dig, but also to build."

Mr. Ferguson proposes that the twentieth century, in all its modernity, was the most violent in all of history.

I've read two other books by Niall Ferguson: The Cash Nexus Money and Power in the Modern World 1700-2000 and Colossus The price of America's Empire.

The books were enlightening and instructive.

I will use this blog to say thank you to Mr. Ferguson for his good works. Perhaps, by happenstance, he or one of his researchers will discover this message of thanks.

How do you thank authors of books for reading enjoyment you've experienced?

Have a good week!

One Faith

I read every word and processed every sentence in the non-fiction eye-popping book about the emergence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) beginning in the early 1800's. The book, pictured above, is about Joseph Smith starting the religion, the process of writing The Book of Mormon, plural marriages, the growth of the religion and the movement of its followers in the Southwest, Mexico, and Canada.

A few self-proclaimed prophets emerged from within the believers with instructions from God to kill certain people. Gruesome murders were carried out by a few prophets. Some were captured, convicted and now are inside the prison system.

An interesting presentation of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) was put forth in expert testimony at the trials of brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty.

This is a very interesting and alarming book you may want to read.

Return here on Wednesday, November 29 for an update.

Have a good day!

In future blog updates I plan to write about my vision and concept about how to staff the armed forces of the United States. Stay tuned.

Worldly Priorities Mismanaged

The book Meet You in Hell The Bitter Partnership That Transformed America by Les Standiford is about the contentious relationship between Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. These two men were industry giants in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century. They were powerful leaders in railroads, steel, and coal mining.

They eventually combined their companies (Carnegie Steel and HCF Coke) and then fought over managing the labor, pricing, profits distribution, and factory operations. Their Iron Clad Agreement caused them to never meet again after a certain time. Near the end of their lives, one sent a letter to the other requesting a meeting for reconciliation. The other sent a note back on the letter saying "I'll meet you in hell because that's where both of us are going".

This is a good book about the forty-year history after the Civil War and growth in the United States during that period.

Return here on Tuesday, October 31 for an update.

Have a good day!