What Are You Reading Now?

[Uncle Ted]

These books come up now and then in various "last day" discussions...

http://www.amazon.com/A-Greater-Tomo.../dp/0996097406 ("#1 best seller in Mormonism")

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1462111181/

I haven't read either one of them but the plot seems pretty much the same... the author has a near-death experience and receives some grand vision of what is going to happen in the last days. In short, all kinds of sh*t goes down. They make the claim they need to tell everyone they can about this so they can be prepared. So they write a book and sell it (and it becomes a #1 best seller in Mormonism).

So my question is to the authors of such books would be: If you feel that you have such an important message then why the hell are you charging money to read your book? Why not just make a nice PDF file and put it up on the internet for folks to download to get the word out to as many folks as possible? I think these books are yet another 'Boy Who Came Back From Heaven'. These authors are in it for the money and not because they are trying to warn folks about some apocalypse. My BS meter is showing some very high readings.

Yep, my BS meter seems right on... The "#1 best seller in Mormonism" on amazon seems to be pure bullsh*t:

http://www.docdroid.net/nnbt/a-great...rrow.docx.html

http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewt...p?f=13&t=37001

Add this to the "mormons are so gullible" file.

[pelagius]

Ha ha. I've been waiting for Pelagius to dissect the thing for us on here.

I can't imagine I will ever read it. But here are a couple of heuristics for reading the economics literature: 1) if the paper/book was originally formatted for A4 paper, it's almost surely not worth reading. (2) If the paper/book was published in the last 20 years and uses the word capitalism more than once, it's almost surely not worth reading.

[cowboy]

I just finished reading Chris Kyle's "American Sniper," which I found interesting, though I nearly dismissed him entirely when he called unbroken horses "broncos." He seemed fairly humble, and very honest. The thing that really struck me, though, was his discussion of how hard it was to lose men in the war. I think he had four guys from his team killed, and lost several marines he was working with on joint ops. He describes how devastated they all were when they lost two guys in the space of a week or so, and how they were pulled off for a break because of it.

The reason this was so interesting to me is that I just finished "Visions from a Foxhole," by William Foley, who was an infantryman in Patton's Third Army, and recall his description of losing buddies daily. The casualty rate for some WWII infantry companies was well over 100%, with 20-30% mortality rates. The guys in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced nothing compared to the WWII infantrymen. After reading both books, I have greater respect for our military both today and in WWII, but I'm really overwhelmed by what the Greatest Generation went through in WWII.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I just finished reading Chris Kyle's "American Sniper," which I found interesting, though I nearly dismissed him entirely when he called unbroken horses "broncos." He seemed fairly humble, and very honest. The thing that really struck me, though, was his discussion of how hard it was to lose men in the war. I think he had four guys from his team killed, and lost several marines he was working with on joint ops. He describes how devastated they all were when they lost two guys in the space of a week or so, and how they were pulled off for a break because of it.

The reason this was so interesting to me is that I just finished "Visions from a Foxhole," by William Foley, who was an infantryman in Patton's Third Army, and recall his description of losing buddies daily. The casualty rate for some WWII infantry companies was well over 100%, with 20-30% mortality rates. The guys in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced nothing compared to the WWII infantrymen. After reading both books, I have greater respect for our military both today and in WWII, but I'm really overwhelmed by what the Greatest Generation went through in WWII.

Your BS meter didn't go off when he talked about punching Jesse Ventura? Mine sure did.

[clackamascoug]

I just finished reading Chris Kyle's "American Sniper," which I found interesting, though I nearly dismissed him entirely when he called unbroken horses "broncos." He seemed fairly humble, and very honest. The thing that really struck me, though, was his discussion of how hard it was to lose men in the war. I think he had four guys from his team killed, and lost several marines he was working with on joint ops. He describes how devastated they all were when they lost two guys in the space of a week or so, and how they were pulled off for a break because of it.

The reason this was so interesting to me is that I just finished "Visions from a Foxhole," by William Foley, who was an infantryman in Patton's Third Army, and recall his description of losing buddies daily. The casualty rate for some WWII infantry companies was well over 100%, with 20-30% mortality rates. The guys in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced nothing compared to the WWII infantrymen. After reading both books, I have greater respect for our military both today and in WWII, but I'm really overwhelmed by what the Greatest Generation went through in WWII.

I've listened to both American Sniper and Loan Survivor in the last two months, and felt Lone Survivor was the better of the two. My takeaway from the books is the Seals are fringe people who do tough and terrible things, and I'm glad we have them. On the other hand, they sure are in love with themselves and their fraternal devotion to each other seems over-the-top.

[PaloAltoCougar]

...
The reason this was so interesting to me is that I just finished "Visions from a Foxhole," by William Foley, who was an infantryman in Patton's Third Army, and recall his description of losing buddies daily. The casualty rate for some WWII infantry companies was well over 100%, with 20-30% mortality rates. The guys in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced nothing compared to the WWII infantrymen. After reading both books, I have greater respect for our military both today and in WWII, but I'm really overwhelmed by what the Greatest Generation went through in WWII.

I've had the same things on my mind lately, having recently finished Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, a very lengthy opus on the African/European Theater in WWII. Truly a great piece of work. The effect of war on a person's psyche seems at times overwhelming. I was reminded of the movie Fury, in that a common theme is that a soldier only becomes really effective once he begins to forsake his humanity and sees the enemy as evil scum. It was fascinating and more than a little depressing to read how (big generalization here) American servicemen changed from naive innocents with the first Africa landing to ruthless killing machines as they swept into Germany two years later. It was also mind-boggling how many lives and other resources were lost through sheer stupidity and mistakes by commanders.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Your BS meter didn't go off when he talked about punching Jesse Ventura? Mine sure did.

Does the book specify Ventura? I thought the book just talked about a SEAL. I remember it being a news story when Kyle broke the story on Opie and Anthony that it was Ventura. Then Ventura and Alex Jones attacked Kyle saying it was false.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Does the book specify Ventura? I thought the book just talked about a SEAL. I remember it being a news story when Kyle broke the story on Opie and Anthony that it was Ventura. Then Ventura and Alex Jones attacked Kyle saying it was false.

Either way. The point is the same. I cannot imagine any circumstance under which Ventura would say that. And subsequent evidence has made a strong case that Kyle was lying. To me that brings into doubt much of the other material in the book.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Either way. The point is the same. I cannot imagine any circumstance under which Ventura would say that. And subsequent evidence has made a strong case that Kyle was lying. To me that brings into doubt much of the other material in the book.

Agree Venture wouldn't say that, he would be too busy talking about the thermite paint that the government used inside the World Trade Center to make it explode to engage in anything else.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Agree Venture wouldn't say that, he would be too busy talking about the thermite paint that the government used inside the World Trade Center to make it explode to engage in anything else.

Ha.

In spite of that, a jury examined all the evidence and sided with Ventura.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/...led-reasonable

You would think punching out an extremely famous former Navy Seal in the bar in San Diego would result in a few witnesses. Nada. IIRC, there is pretty good evidence that Ventura was nowhere near San Diego at the time.

There are other parts of his life story that people have questioned.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Ha.

In spite of that, a jury examined all the evidence and sided with Ventura.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/...led-reasonable

You would think punching out an extremely famous former Navy Seal in the bar in San Diego would result in a few witnesses. Nada. IIRC, there is pretty good evidence that Ventura was nowhere near San Diego at the time.

There are other parts of his life story that people have questioned.

I agree with you about Kyle making up that story, just too bad it lended any credibility to that idiot Ventura.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I agree with you about Kyle making up that story, just too bad it lended any credibility to that idiot Ventura.

[New Mexican Disaster]

I agree with you about Kyle making up that story, just too bad it lended any credibility to that idiot Ventura.

You won't say that to his face.

[clackamascoug]

I thought it was low class of Ventura going after the Widow Kyle for more money after the movie came out.

[happyone]

I'm currently reading S.C. Gwynne's new biography of Stonewall Jackson

Rebel Yell

http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Yell-Vio...rds=rebel+yell

So far it has been a really good read

Gwynne is also the author of

Empire of the Summer Moon
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-...sap_bc?ie=UTF8

which is one of the best books I've read about the Indian wars.