GoingGoingGone...

Truly Douglas

Revisado: 04-23-25

I’ve been waiting for this, concerned as I was that people outside Israel wouldn’t believe what we have been experiencing if it were not for an impartial journalist witnessing it and writing about it. The author has described it honestly, examining not only the history as such of these events, but also challenging the West to learn the lessons needed to protect their own countries and democracies.

I hope this will have the impact I desire. But to be quite honest, it will take much more than this book for me to regain the faith I once had in people, as so many Westerners, people I’d have thought would be our allies, have stood by silently as Hamas supporters cheered, or even joined hands with them due to their being misled. Douglas Murray has written an excellent case for why continuing to be misled by evil will be at the West’s own peril. I hope it’s not too late.

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Not what I expected

Revisado: 04-15-25

I value Peterson’s views but this was too wordy and rambling, and not focused enough to gel into solid themes that I can model my own behavior upon. The title suggested it was not primarily New Testament commentary though in fact, it was. It isn’t for me but I suspect that religious Christian’s will find more in it than I have.

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Another solution

Revisado: 01-05-25

The author proposes that the universities are the best arbiters of how grievance studies can be reshaped to yield benefits if they are held to the liberal standard of academic rigour. Opposed are options of government control or abolition of funding for these programs. And yet the author notes that the way these programs are structured, they behave like religions. Since in liberal societies government allows people to believe what they want, but will not establish beliefs or religions that are not subject to academic rigour, it’s surprising that the author opposes removal of these church-like programs from universities, given that it’s clear that universities will not harness these programs to the liberal outlook or scientific rigour that the author suggests. The author does a good job of stating the problem but does not establish soundly why tolerance for nonsense in universities is a liberal response, as it seems to me that rigour is applied best when ideas are allowed to compete so that nonsense is ejected rather than embraced in the public sphere.

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Patronising

Revisado: 12-16-24

The author likely considers himself to be open minded and wise, yet he is close minded and smug regarding his snide treatment of family traditions, religion, social mores and norms, in the sense that having those impede what he believes to be the expression of individual “purpose” in life. He seems to assert we are essentially only in service to ourselves when we partake of the commons, and cannot benefit from any examination of these as touchstones to a life well lived. Such as it is he did make this point over and again and if you are already predisposed to thinking this way or believe that your life is solipsistic, you might not notice. But a truly wise and open mind who lived for more than 4 decades should have already been humbled enough to realise truth benefits from sacrifice to something bigger than ourselves. There is no such humility to be found in this book. I hope his other books are better but I’d give this one a pass.

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One for the rest of us

Revisado: 12-14-24

Most books on this topic are written to help the people who marry Aspies. Finally, one written to help Aspira nurture the hope, and skills, to make their relationships pleasurable.

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As cogent today as two decades ago

Revisado: 12-01-24

I thought it accurately described the UN - unfortunately nothing has changed until 2024, but there are suggestions I hope the new US Administration will undertake.

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Lucid

Revisado: 11-20-24

Clear historical overview of how the Israel/Arab conflict is misunderstood due to misapplied political theories (that are not useful anywhere in grappling honestly with conflict) and how that misunderstanding distances peace rather than encouraging it.

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Grateful

Revisado: 11-20-24

I learned a lot of went on behind the scenes. Also learned that the press had been quite inaccurate, to be charitable, in their coverage of events during the first Trump administration. Americans can be thankful for the work Kushner and his team had accomplished.

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It's good for followers of the New Testament

Revisado: 02-10-22

The "biblical" slant of this book is limited to the last 2000 years. It pretty much ignores all the biblical characters that existed for 3000 years before that, to whom Jesus would have turned for lessons in leadership (Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Yoshiyahu, Ezra for example). In short, this book is for Christians seeking inspiration in New Testament sources for how to be a good leader. For others, not so much.

To illustrate another reason for why it's limited in its audience, there's a section that riffs on the word "kibush" in ancient Hebrew (context: "v'chivshuhah - meaning, stewardship/subdue as in "multiply AND SUBDUE the earth), compared to the word "kabosh" (stop immediately), which has its earliest use in the 1830's. As a Hebrew speaker, I was chagrined to hear his claim that based on his 4 years of studying Hebrew, that the two words may be related. They're not, and yet for about 5 minutes he built his assessment of good leadership on the nuance in the pronunciation between them. I get the point he's making, but the tendentiousness of it and the other assertions made were tiresome. I finished the book, but my expectations were not met.

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Excellent Review of Xi's China

Revisado: 07-26-20

This book is a fascinating and broad overview of today's policies of China under Xi. It doesn't go into much depth over Xi's biography, nevertheless this book gave me an excellent perspective on all the issues Xi confronts as he pushes in new policy directions, as well as the reasoning behind the responses of other countries - whether it's a tilt toward cooperation with China, or away from it. The end of the book goes into greater depth regarding how American and other Western powers should protect their interests in the face of aggressive and anti-competitive moves by China, and how their relationship with China can be turned toward cooperation. The author's knowledge was vast, yet ably presented . I highly recommend this book to anybody curious about today's China and the political nuances that dwell below the surface. The reader's performance was excellent.

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