Bernstein Books

David Bernstein has done something that most lawyers have a difficult time doing - he wrote a short, accessible book for a general audience. Since I have seen law review articles that are nearly half as long as this book, that is no small feat.

To me, the most important part of the book is Bernstein's consistent emphasis on how those arguing for laws that erode civil liberties might be shooting themselves in the foot. Any law that can be used to silence the speech of those whom you do not like can also be used to silence your speech. Whether this argument will prove compelling to those in favor of speech restrictions is a matter I will leave up to the reader. I will note, however, that in general, those in favor of using government to achieve their personal goals tend to believe that the political winds will always blow in their favor.

Antidiscrimination laws were once seen primarily as a means to help blacks, women, and others enter the economic mainstream. Those days have long since past. Bernstein shows that the laws are now seen primarily as enforcing a stringent moral code, one that is supposed to outweigh any competing claims, including claims of liberty backed up by the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. The Left has been the primary offender in this regard, but the Right, especially the religious right, is also willing to use antidiscrimination law to stifle speech they don't like. Especially pernicious are laws banning the creation of a "hostile environment", which are interpreted by some courts to ban any speech that any individual worker claims to find offensive. This book is an important warning, but it's also a good read. The first chapter, setting out a theoretical framework for why civil liberties should be protected against civil rights laws, is a little tough going, but after that it's a joy to read. Highly recommended.

Free speech really isn't as free as some people make it out to be. In fact, important and interesting ideas are stifled and suppressed too much of the time these days. In You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws, David E. Bernstein focuses upon the myriad of ways in which antidiscrimination laws that were once enacted for the benevolent purpose of remedying past injustices of racial discrimination have since come to be used by government agencies, campus PC crowds, and radical egalitarian interest groups to suppress the fundamental, constitutional rights of people to speak, assemble, associate and partake of their livelihoods.

Bernstein, a respected law professor at George Mason University School of Law and member of the popular Volokh Conspiracy blog, draws together cases ranging from claims of "hostile environment" in the workplace to those involving campus speech codes, providing a powerful expose of the threats to free speech that are posed by many antidiscrimination laws today.

An amorphous and often overly expansive notion of "discrimination" is often the basis of far-fetched antidiscrimination claims. As Bernstein writes, "The concept of antidiscrimination is almost infinitely malleable. Almost any economic behavior, and much other behavior, can be defined as discrimination." Indeed, during the Clinton Administration the Department of Housing and Urban Development-cited by Bernstein as one of the leading violators of free speech rights-went so far as to try to regulate real estate advertising to prevent what it saw as "discriminatory advertising." In a number of instances, HUD argued that the people pictured or drawn in newspaper ads for housing had to accurately reflect the racial diversity of the population it served or the real estate company seeking to advertise would be in violation. Keep in mind that these rules operated regardless of the intent of the defendants, regardless of the actual housing practices the engaged in. It was merely enough that someone might think the company placing the ad was sending an unwelcoming message.

But it doesn't even stop there: the shadow cast upon people and employers by the mere threat of lawsuits and the accompanying inconveniences and financial costs is enough to make many people buckle into political correctness. Even a flimsy cased built upon a flimsy standard can result in serious damage to defendants and place a chilling effect on their speech rights.

Bernstein does an excellent job of discussing the importance of free association as protected by the First Amendment's Speech Clause. Association is an essential component of speech that is often overlooked by many. Human beings often discuss, form and deliver their opinions as private groups. The criterion by which a group chooses its membership has a direct impact on the speech that the group engages in. But associations are under attack by antidiscrimination claims. If courts have the power to tell us who we associate with, then free association does not exist.

As Bernstein notes, the U.S. Supreme Court case of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000) not only reaffirmed the important associational principle that "a speaker has the autonomous right to choose the content of his own message," but also stressed that associations "do not have to associate for the `purpose' of disseminating a certain message" to receive First Amendment protection. But be warned: the decision was 5-4, and the battle continues.

One can completely disagree with and even despise the message that another person presents while still affirming that person's right to give the message. A read of Bernstein's fine book drives that important point home.

"Whatever happened to civil liberties?" one might ask after reading this book. Since liberty is probably a more valuable value than enforced fake equality, it is a good question to ask. Whether one is politically left or right, there is something disturbing to consider in You Can't Say That. But I think we will always have problems handling liberty for all, because we often want total freedom for ourselves, but often unwilling to give the same type freedom to others with clashing values due to moral judgements. In a word, we wish to control others, but have total freedom for ourselves.

Another conclusion one may come to after reading the book is the question of whether liberty can survive in diverse environment where everyone has clashing loyalties and viewpoints. One example is given of an American who put up a picture in his work space disapproving of Iran hostage situation of 1979, which offended an Iranian working at the same company.

Control from rightists usually involves cracking down on artistic freedom especially if it has sexual content. One extreme example is given in a book in which a woman sued a city government for having a nude statue of a woman in the public square. (Although this woman could have been a feminist and therefore not necessarily on the right.)

Control from leftists usually involves disapproving of any type of discrimination, such as a religious person not wanting to rent their place out to unmarried couples or people who are straight and don't want to have a gay room mate. Lawsuits are filed which encroach upon freedom of association.

As far as civil rights lawsuits go, it is easy to second guess the official motivations for the lawsuits. Is the aggrieved party really being harmed or are they just smelling the money that a successful lawsuit can bring? Although tort reform is not discussed much, the author Bernstein does approximately say that we are subsidizing hurt feelings by rewarding money to the overly sensitive, which increases sensitivity and more frivolous lawsuits. --And let's face it, it's easier to win lawsuits than win the lottery.

Another reason for such lawsuits is that it is used to punish people whose viewpoints the one filing the lawsuit disapproves of. It has become a weapon in the culture war.

The workplace has become a rather stifling place to express oneself due to all the laws that pertain to creating a hostile environment. Nearly any non-bland statement or action could fall under hostile environment law. Again, one second guesses the real purpose of the law: Is it really about civil rights or does it just give government more work to do snooping into private sector where it does not really belong.

One of the worst organizations for encroaching on civil liberties is the government housing department HUD. Any protest against their activities can bring a lawsuit and they even control how a house can be advertised...

A lot of companies enforce oppressive civil rights laws not because they actually approve of them but because they want to avoid a bankrupting lawsuit.

Bernstein covers the American Civil Liberties Union and how it should really should start calling itself the American Civil RIGHTS Union since it is increasingly favoring civil rights over civil liberties.

Another interesting point is that those who try to restrict others' freedom of speech through hate speech regulation may one day find that same regulation will be used against their own free expressions. What goes around comes around...

Early in life my parents taught me the childhood ditty "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me" in order to inculcate into me the realization that my belief in myself was more important than what anyone else thought about me. After all, America was a "free country", and an essential element of that freedom was encompassed by the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment to our Constitution, the document which together with the Declaration of Independence outlined the political philosophy of the founders of our country. However, as David Bernstein shows in this marvelous new book, increasingly over the past few decades intolerant activist zealots have managed to "impose their moralistic views on all Americans". And one fascinating aspect of this trend which he discusses is the "psychological endowment effect", that by promoting monetary remedies and subsidizing feelings of outrage over alleged injustices, we have reinforced the probability that the trend will continue.

The primary focus of this book by Professor (at George Mason University School of Law) Bernstein is the tendency of the judiciary to abandon our Constitutional protection against government's ability to regulate speech when such speech (and very worrisomely even acts such as laughter or simply staring) conflicts with antidiscrimination laws and the regulations of the agencies charged with their enforcement. The book is very well organized; it begins with a general background discussion of the problem including important contextual history and proceeds to discuss several related aspects of the problem including the threat to artistic freedom, workplace regulation, speech codes on public university campuses, the regulation of religious schools and the threat to the autonomy of private organizations. Some of the most enlightening material outlines the increasing tendency of the judiciary to defer to the bureaucratically promulgated regulations of such government agencies as HUD, the EEOC and the DOE, which often seem to view their own intentions as above criticism and attempt to censor and even legally punish individuals who express disagreement with their goals.

This is a book that should be widely read and debated, since the topic influences all individuals in a myriad of ways. I hope that the academic approach to the subject does limit the audience for the book to readers with a legal background; despite copious footnotes the book is very readable and many of the references and cases discussed are fascinating. Despite my long standing layman's interest in the area of Constitutional law and my exposure as a member of the Cato Institute Board of Directors to previous publications discussing various aspects of this topic, this is by far the most comprehensive and systematic treatment that I have seen. The final chapter includes a fascinating discussion of the gradual transformation of the ACLU from an organization that was a stalwart defender of civil liberties to one increasingly captured by the adherents to a "liberal" code of political correctness.

The conclusion then examines the trend in other countries to adopt even more draconian impositions of statist authoritarian regulations, e.g. an Australian ban on dating services that tried to match partners with a religious preference (perhaps antidiscrimination marriage regulations will follow) and a Canadian criminal conviction of a high school teacher purely on the basis of "hate speech". As a Canadian professor of constitutional law has opined, "Canada now is a totalitarian theocracy... ruled today by...a secular state religion [of political correctness]. Anything that is regarded as heresy or blasphemy is not tolerated." Such a result is consistent with the goals of such free speech opponents in this country as well known Professor Stanley Fish, who attempts to deconstruct our legal traditions in the same way that he has deconstructed literature and who claims that all decisions regarding allowable speech are political and based on an exercise of power. Therefore, according to Fish, the targets of offensive speech and acts have every right to be legally protected from the indignity (read psychological harm) which they might suffer as a result of such acts. Contrast this view and the current climate regarding the imposition of limitations on permissible speech with the 1943 Supreme Court decision which eloquently concluded "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."

In summary, this book is about the conflict between an increasingly expansive view of civil rights versus the traditional primacy of civil liberties, and about the imposition of "civility" through political power and judicial reinterpretation of the Constitution rather than by argument and debate within civil society. As one reviewer cogently observed, this book might be deemed incomplete in that it does not include a discussion of the philosophical grounding of our First Amendment rights in the Founders' belief that these rights derived from the natural law view that we each possess a "property right" in ourselves and our actions. However, such an examination might easily have in fact become a distraction to the excellent focus which the book provides on the author's stated goal of examining and documenting the erosion of our civil liberties and the resultant implications for our personal freedom and privacy rights, thus I have chosen not to reduce my rating despite this omission.

Disclaimer: as stated above, I am a member of the Board of Directors of The Cato Institute, which published this book. While I do not feel that my objectivity was compromised in composing this review, I felt it incumbent upon me to disclose this fact to provide you, the reader, with the necessary information to decide if you believe that I have a significant conflict of interest which might have influenced my rating.

Tucker Andersen

I have been utilizing the value averaging approach for about 3 years now, and am impressed with the ideas behind it. Before buying the book, I was very curious about how relevant it would be for a young accumulator like myself. I had the impression that it was a strategy geared towards people that had a lump sum to invest. I also wondered whether it was relevant for those who have already developed a well-diversified portfolio.

I found that this book is extremely useful for those that are accumulating as it helps you develop a value path that includes periodic investing. It also makes adjustments for expected growth of contributions (as your wages hopefully increase throughout your career).

As far as the second question I had: I initially believed that this value averaging approach needed to be performed on specific funds in isolation. For instance, I thought that I would need to set up separate paths for each of my funds. However, I found that the value averaging approach can be used towards the entire portfolio as a whole. The first step is to develop a portfolio with a suitable asset allocation. Then you feed money into the portfolio according to the value path. This effectively creates two layers of risk-management:
- First, you manage your risks by making sure the portfolio itself is well balanced between asset classes.
- Second, you manage your risks by adjusting the amount of money you feed into the portfolio based upon its value path.

It is important to understand the reasonings behind value averaging. For me, the use of value averaging has two important objectives:
- The first objective is a behavioral one. It allows risk averse investors like myself to find a systematic way to put money into the volatile financial markets. Because behavioral issues have a major impact on returns, I believe that this is a very important objective.
- The second objective is to dynamically adjust your asset allocation to better reflect an investor's NEED to take risk. The maximum risk you should take should be defined by your risk tolerance, and this is determined by your asset allocation (i.e. when you are feeding money into your portfolio, the money still needs to be going into the right funds to maintain balance in your desired asset allocation). However, when you are exceeding your goals, by going beyond your value path, the value averaging technique actually forces you to put more money into riskless securities (the "side" fund, which is usually a money market fund). This has the effect of temporarily reducing your equity allocation. This coincides with the idea that when you are exceeding your goals, you can afford to take less risk. I find this to be superior to the static asset allocation technique, as I do not believe in taking unnecessary risks if you are on a path to reach your goal.

I am very impressed with Edleson's ideas in this book. I think it will be very useful for any investor that has experienced anxiety putting money into the market. I give it an enthusiastic 5 stars.

I'm sorry, but I put this book down after reading the first three chapters. This book takes into account strategies that only work if the individual stock or market continuously goes up. If a stock hits a new high or low, taking this books advice, you should buy ignoring all other market conditions. This will hedge your profit or loss while investing blindly into the market. No wonder why the majority of individual investors will end up losing in the stock market.

With the housing boom coming to an end, interest rates artificially being kept low, and inflation on the horizon, the book will lower your net worth for years to come.

For a man with an MIT PHD and the Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, this book is a big disappointment.

While I believe the concepts in this book would work to enhance returns, (certainly the data shown in the book indicates that it does work), I think it would be hard to actually pull this off.

With conventional dollar cost averaging, you invest a pre-set amount of money (say $100 a month) on a regular basis, an agreement you set up with a mutual fund company in advance. With the Value Averaging approach, you are supposed to invest an amount that will get you a specific amount of money each month, say $100 the first month, $200 the second, $300 the third, and so on. If the market has gone up, you would need to invest less (or perhaps nothing at all, or even have to sell), if the market is down, you would need to invest more. This would likely amount to odd amounts of money invested each month. Certainly, it would help to have an accompanying cash account to pull fund from that is held through the same provided as the fund(s) being invested in, which the author recommends. In prolonged bear market, increasing amounts of money would need to be invested, perhaps eventually more than the investor could afford. In addition, you are supposed to gradually increase your monthly investment as your portfolio grows so the new money coming in continues to be meaningful. The author explains how to do this.

It certainly would take some effort to determine what to do each month, which is vast contrast to the simplicity of traditional dollar cost averaging, which is automatic. In other words, a very good concept, but it would be difficult to make it work in the real world. If you are willing to accept the extra effort involved, and could find a mutual fund company willing to accept odd amounts of money, this book could enhance your investing returns.

Simply put, this book talks about how to continuously (and
systematically) keep investing money to reach your end goal.

After reading this book I've become a huge fan of value averaging over
DCA, primarily because of the following deficiencies with DCA:

* DCA never tells you went to sell (aka: rebalance your
portfolio). For that you need to make a market timing decision
or pick a random date to do it (suboptimal). If there was a
mechanical way of saying, its time to sell, which was optimal,
that would be good.

* If you invest $100/month in asset A; the $100 you invest in
(month 1, year 1) != the $100 you invest in (month 12, year 10),
because of inflation and the fact that over the long run the
asset A has a non-zero expected return (which is the reason you
are investing in it in the first place!)

* During severe market corrections. Think 1987 -23% style
corrections, DCA will let you buy more shares for the fixed
amount but makes no mechanical suggestion to actually buy a lot
more shares

So essentially, VA is the following:

VA is basically a formula based investing strategy like DCA but it
tells you when to sell (Think rebalancing). Here you make the value of
the fund that you own go up every month and not the actual market
price. Lets take a simplistic form of VA: Say you contribute $100
(=contribution amount C) every month to fund X. In month 1 the NAV was
$1 and you bought 100 shares. In month 2 you want the value of your
fund to go to $200, but it turns out the market price of what you own
is now $127, then you contribute only $73 in month 2. In month 3 the
fund tanks and value has gone to $150, then you need to put in $150 to
keep your value in line to $300. If in month 4 the fund goes crazy and
becomes $700 and your target was to get it to $400 you sell $300. No
other mechanical strategy tells you when to sell.

I strongly recommend fellow DCA-ers to pick up this book!

I had not heard of this technique until the book was featured on my Amazon page. I immediately purchased the book based on William Bernstein's review of the book in the foreword.

Value Averaging is a type of Dollar Cost Averaging recommended by many writers but is an improvement in that it also is a rule based dicipline for selling off portions of your portfolio on the way to your final objective. It is a buy low/sell high set of rules. The formula will be a little complex to those who abhor math, but just stick with the system to achieve superior returns.

I also recommend a little book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission This book is a must for those wanting to find out about indexing (passive investing) and why it is the superior method for the small investor (and big one too). This book is an outstanding guide to personal investing. It will be useful to all investors from novices to highly the highly experienced. This book prepares the reader to approach investing from the standpoint of the underlying science. It is the antithesis of a 'get rich quick scheme'.

All aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and passive (index) investing are explained in a through and easily understood manner. The aspect I like most is that as well as a solid theoretical foundation the book is very practical and shows the reader how to create (and more importantly) and manage over time a successful portfolio. This is a great book- for the beginning investor, it's a great place to start and for the experienced investor there are many valuable suggestions. I wrote this little book so I believe that it contains all you need to know about investing.
How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 Different Stocks-Pay no Commission

This is the most comprehensive I've seen in a long list of book reading here recently, and even then she didn't even mention some of the very important "parts" of the long history like Rosslyn, Bjornholm Island, etc. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know what has hit the fan in recent years!!! (And from all this you will know "who" doesn't like the info.) Now you can know exactly why the Inquisitions happened over and over again. Truth can be exciting and not quite so dangerous in this day and age!! Get ready for a real adventure into solidly researched facts!!

Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail takes the reader on an incredible journey through the past and gives a much clearer insight as to how our modern society has evolved. For anyone who has not read esoteric literature, this book will catch you right up to the present day leading to a sort of 'instant' enlightenment. Mrs. Bernstein has introduced me to an entirely new world and I will forever be in gratitude for her most amazing gifts. "As above, so below", it seems that Moses definitely played a role in writing her book, this is most likely why Mrs. Bernstein dedicated the book to Him. I recommend it as essential knowledge for the present and future.

Really awful - don't waste your money. (One star is the least the system will let me give).

I totally agree with Art Kunkin (past President of The Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles). It is a very important work of modern synthesis and scholarship. This book complements and also continues the work of Manly P. Hall. I loved how Mrs. Bernstein illuminated the feminine approach to the Ancient Mysteries. I believe this book is a "must read" for women AND men who are seeking to develop the feminine side of their nature!

Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail takes the reader on an incredible journey through the past and gives a much clearer insight as to how our modern society has evolved. For anyone who has not read esoteric literature, this book will catch you right up to the present day leading to a sort of 'instant' enlightenment. Mrs. Bernstein has introduced me to an entirely new world and I will forever be in gratitude for her most amazing gifts. "As above, so below", it seems that Moses definitely played a role in writing her book, this is most likely why Mrs. Bernstein dedicated the book to Him. I recommend it as essential knowledge for the present and future.

This is, indeed, a wonderful book, just as the other reviewers have said. People who are interested in language think most books on grammar and usage are entertaining even if they're really dry as dust. That's just how we are. This book, however, is much more entertaining than those that are really dry as dust.

The format of this book is easier on the eyes than many heavier tomes on usage. The pages have only a single, full column with bold heads and plenty of white space.

Bernstein has answers that can't be found elsewhere. Here's an example. Suppose you've written a paper you hope will be published in a scholarly journal. You submit the paper to your department head. He or she sends it to a peer reviewer. The reviewer writes that your ideas are "interesting, if not innovative." Based on that comment your department head refuses to submit the paper for publication. But did the reviewer mean your ideas were interesting BUT not innovative, or did he or she mean your ideas were NOT ONLY interesting BUT ALSO innovative? I checked five reference books searching for an answer. Only Bernstein came through. According to Bernstein, only tone of voice could distinguish between the two meanings, and so the construction "[this], if not [that]" should not be used in writing because of its ambiguity.

regarding the review just below, no professional editor could have written "this one earns it's cost." Oh, wait...the individual is Canadian.

(8/22/08) My apologies to our northern neighbors for the above, which must have been posted after one Labatt's too many.

There's no question that Bernstein's book has got to be on your shelf if you're a professional editor, as I am. I was happy to find it on the shelf of Amazon when all Canadian efforts to procure a copy failed (OK, I just called a few local booksellers and checked Amazon's competitor; I didn't say I'm not a _lazy_ editor sometimes).
It's a useful volume that has been used in my office to put snivelly writers back into their places as an effective "See, I _told_ you you're using those casualisms incorrectly, and Bernstein agrees with me!" atomic flyswatter ;).
I only give it 3 stars since it's dated (pub. 1966) and shows its age. Many times B. uses references to the Soviets as examples, which no doubt is amusing yet dates it somewhat. Similarly there are references to daily life and women's lowly state of the time that are quaint at best. Also I was looking for something that had a heavier grammatical bent, moreso than usage. I also am not in the newspaper business, so continual references to headlines and copy editors are not of much use to me.
All said, you must have this on your shelf, and you must read it, if you, like me, are editing for a living.
Any solid, respected tool such as this one earns it's cost the first time you can finally go after that PITA contributor who always thinks he/she can one-up you yet again in usage.

I suppose one might argue that other usage guides are perhaps more thorough and instructive but for quality none outshines The Careful Writer. Theodore M. Bernstein created a gem for the ages when he assembled this collection of some 2,000 entries. I cannot imagine how often I've consulted this text to resolve some slippery usage issue or to refine my own text.

If you need help sorting out the use gender vs. sex, for instance, here you will find that gender is a grammatical term and not at all synonymous with sex. If you are not sure whether the context demands the use of fewer or less, Bernstein will set you straight. Did your supervisor remove all the commas you correctly inserted into a report? Check out the clear, precise explanation here.

Even as the standards of language erode, there are still many who strive to uphold correctness, precision, and nuance over fad and fashion. If you can find a copy of The Careful Writer, you will have a powerful tool to help preserve the legacy of our language.

Any copy editor, writer, broadcast journalist, or English professor who does not yet have a copy of Mr. Bernstein's stellar book is bereft of one of the essential compendiums of usage. It's well worth the effort to track down and purchase this book, for you will consult it with increasing frequency as you become aware of what a rich resource it is.

As advisor to a school newspaper staff, I recommended this marvelous book to the students because it made finding the precise word or the correct pronunciation fun. Bernstein was copy editor for the New York Times; he is a true expert, with a wonderful sense of humor. I have bought a copy of "The Careful Writer" for each of five grandchildren as they were setting off to college, and now routinely give the book as a high-school graduation present.

This book is an amazing in depth look into the lives of children with incarcerated parents. The stories are heart-felt and real, and the book then becomes a real eye opener to the injustices created by our justice system. I strongly recommend reading it.

Important, compelling, and sad book about the millions of children who have parents in prisons ("A six-year-old crouches behind his bed as armed strangers ransack his home, breaking through floorboards and throwing his parents to the ground. Downstairs, two police cars wait: one for his parents, one for him...."). Nell Bernstein and Soros Foundation deserve our thanks, and these children deserve our support. Ari Kohn

A sensitive portrait of the realities of being a child whose parents, one or both are incarcerated.
Well written and tugs at the heart strings! Makes you reflect and think soberly and seriously about this reality for many children. How are they supposed to rise above their unfair and undeserved label? They are also much a victim of their parent's crime and serve their sentences with them.

Every child welfare worker and teacher should read this for insight to the children they come in contact with.

The solid if sad truth of what it is really like having a parent arrested and your life disrupted. Honestly and professionally told. I would recommend for teachers and school counselors because these children are in your school no matter where you are located. The more you understand the more you can quietly support the children.

We have failed to measure the true cost of our policy of incarcerating offenders and Nell Bernstein describes the costs that we have yet to pay. The damage done to a whole generation of young people who have grown up without their incarcerated parents are coming of age, and we need to recognize and address the problems that the punishment policy has caused.

Ms. Bernstein has introduced us to these children and the sadness that they will carry for the rest of their lives. She makes us care. She has also given us a well researched review of the system and the problems that have been created by society as well as making suggestions on how to prevent or diminish the damage that we are doing.

A must read for anyone who cares about the health of our society.

However has decide to read this book, man or a woman in life, pretty soon you'll find out how beautiful insights your heart have. For blessed with both polarities indeed it is balancing the life you live for your very best results. Then one day when your reading are almost done a quite light coming from Goddess heart will stop by for a close look into the eyes. In radiance of her presence she will touch your lips and in a single smile with blissfulness in tears of your eyes she will open the heart. And if you are lucky in mind to apprehend these feminine Goddess's insights, the heart will wait not but start blossom with unconditional love healing any wounds of the past. And the Goddess still being aside will evaluate this new state of love achieved by your heart. Then she will smile and look back into your eyes for blessed forever is now thou heart with conscious mind for new awareness of love. And then one day when finishing this book you come to your very own decision that it is time to take a leap and have a look at outside world with this new feminine heart, it will not wait for a second chance but burst again with more love coming from inside. Then witnessing your new born heart you will smile to the world with words in mind: 'Don't be apart from my light but take a piece of my heart for your's is Crone's Oracle awarenes of love!'... ...and let it be!

This book is a complete book for understanding the Ancient Mysteries and more. Every time you read this book you will take away what you are needing at the time. I recommend this book highly to anyone that is in search of the ancient mystery teachings. It helps you understand YOUR evolution as well as the world's as a whole.

However has decide to read this book, man or a woman in life, pretty soon you'll find out how beautiful insights your heart have. For blessed with both polarities indeed it is balancing the life you live for your very best results. Then one day when your reading are almost done a quite light coming from Goddess heart will stop by for a close look into the eyes. In radiance of her presence she will touch your lips and in a single smile with blissfulness in tears of your eyes she will open the heart. And if you are lucky in mind to apprehend these feminine Goddess's insights, the heart will wait not but start blossom with unconditional love healing any wounds of the past. And the Goddess still being aside will evaluate this new state of love achieved by your heart. Then she will smile and look back into your eyes for blessed forever is now thou heart with conscious mind for new awareness of love. And then one day when finishing this book you come to your very own decision that it is time to take a leap and have a look at outside world with this new feminine heart, it will not wait for a second chance but burst again with more love coming from inside. Then witnessing your new born heart you will smile to the world with words in mind: 'Don't be apart from my light but take a piece of my heart for yours is Crone's Oracle awareness of love!'... ...and let it be!

However has decide to read this book, man or a woman in life, pretty soon you'll find out how beautiful insights your heart have. For blessed with both polarities indeed it is balancing the life you live for your very best results. Then one day when your reading are almost done a quite light coming from Goddess heart will stop by for a close look into the eyes. In radiance of her presence she will touch your lips and in a single smile with blissfulness in tears of your eyes she will open the heart. And if you are lucky in mind to apprehend these feminine Goddess's insights, the heart will wait not but start blossom with unconditional love healing any wounds of the past. And the Goddess still being aside will evaluate this new state of love achieved by your heart. Then she will smile and look back into your eyes for blessed forever is now thou heart with conscious mind for new awareness of love. And then one day when finishing this book you come to your very own decision that it is time to take a leap and have a look at outside world with this new feminine heart, it will not wait for a second chance but burst again with more love coming from inside. Then witnessing your new born heart you will smile to the world with words in mind: 'Don't be apart from my light but take a piece of my heart for your's is Crone's Oracle awarenes of love!'... ...and let it be!

This book has brought the knowledge of our past history into the present time. Before reading this book, the phrase "Initiation Path" seemed very mysterious. Now it is very clear just what an "Initiation Path" consists of. The Crone also explains in a very simple and easy to understand way what her life in Greece was like from childhood until adult--very interesting to read about her many challenges. I highly recommend this book to everyone trying to bring their masculine and feminine parts into harmony!

A great collection of photos -- perfect for the coffee table where you and your guests can pick it up and flip thru it to enjoy the interesting pictures. However, the best Beatles book of the year is undoubtedly TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN by Andru J. Reeve. It's available here at Amazon.com. While "Each One Believing" is nice eye-candy, "Turn Me On, Dead Man" is great journalism, and a much better target for your reading dollar. That's just my opinion.

Fans of the Beatles and Paul McCartney won't want to miss this lovely title, filled with photos never seen before and insider details from McCartney himself, and packed in an eye-catching hardcover suitable for gift giving and coffee tables. Each One Believing: Paul McCartney - On Stage, Off Stage and Backstage blends McCartney's personal reflections and those of his wife Heather, his band, and his crew and covers both public appearances and private moments. An intimate atmosphere is created which follows some of his finest on-stage moments in recent years.

Great great book!! if you are a McCarteny fan, you must have it. mostly if you were in the 2002-2003 "Back in the USA" tour. I don't think that Paul needs to promote himself like some reviews said, this is a good, ilustrative and photographic memories from that great tour. The photos are great, the quality of the book too. I was blessed to be in the last show from that leg of the tour in 2002 Ft. Lauderdale FL, amazing show!! and this book brings to me once again all the emotions from that show !!

Each One Believing: Paul McCartney; On Stage, Off Stage, and Backstage by Caroline Grimshaw and photography by Bill Bernstein is an excellent visual collection and recollection of Paul McCartney and his band, and the people that were involved with his 2002-2003 World Tour. The book has a great layout and captures McCartney and company in candid moments that go with documentary photography. The chapters in the book are particularly named from lines of songs included in the tour, and at the back of the book, is a quirky section, the Tourasaurus, that McCartney shares with his readers that gives a run down of terms that were used during the tour.

Besides the tremendous photographs in the book, there are radio interviews embedded in the contents of the book that reveal McCartney as one unstoppable rockin' machine, or not to be cliched, a fine wine that keeps "gettin' better" as time goes by. Indeed, he is an icon in rock and roll history and in history in general. There is a line in the book where he speaks about singing and writing "Yesterday," which reveals how far this man has come: "I was writing with wisdom of an old man, but I was quite a young man. So now, once you have actually lost friends and lovers, then it really is kind of ... it means more" (27).

Overall, this a nice addition to anyone's coffetable book collection as well for anyone interested in photography. In addition, this is a wonderful accompaniment to McCartney' Back In the USA DVD, and for those fortunate to be a part of this rock and roll spectacular, this is a book that relives the moments of the tour. McCartney sums up the excitement: "And it's electrifying. It's like a warm blanket, a big wave of heat coming over you, and you just get the intensity, and you see these faces and you think, "Wow! They've come to party" (128).

This book is a cornucopia of photographs and text. Paul McCartney, a veteran in the entertainment business and a class act to boot is clearly happy with himself and quite comfortable on stage, doing his job. No doubt fans as well as those with a more "moderate" interest in Paul McCartney as well as the Beatles will be delighted with this book. I love it!

Paul McCartney is not only an extraordinary showman, but serious and dedicated to his musical Muse. He is a musical purist in the truest sense of the term in that he respects the art of being able to create and perform musically. He paints musical murals with his words; he has a full range ability in performing many different musical styles which makes him musically versatile.

I like the feeling of cooperation that appears to underscore the people directly involved with this show...it sounds like the entire crew had a wonderful time and enjoyed the fruits of their success in technically enabling Paul McCartney to do a spectacular show! Paul McCartney acknowledges this which speaks highly of him. He also accepts the outpouring of love from his audience with grace and aplomb, never losing his humorous approach.

To this book's credit, Paul is not put up on a staged pedastal and fawned and spoonfed obsequious flattery. The people who were directly involved in the production and execution of the concert were serious about doing their jobs well and that was reflected in the actual performance. They were doing their jobs and not currying favor from anybody. It is only natural to be enthusiastic at such a performance and no doubt making any contribution toward the show could only prompt enthusiastic delight.

The photographs are delightful - readers see Paul having fun on and off stage; his lovely wife Heather and the crew who made it all possible. The book speaks to professionalism on the part of the crew; the performers and those photographing and writing about the concert.

This book is truly beautiful and there are many funny, touching, endearing and serious parts. It is Gestaltism - the whole IS greater than the sum of its parts because it is the whole, that is the performer, the crew, loved ones, audience and all who had a part in the production who made the whole show/experience/book as wonderful as they are. It is a glimpse behind the performer's curtain.

Sad, but true : Hillary Rodham is a menacing presence on the American political landscape; and so books like this serve as important warnings to all Americans, and to all freedom loving people on earth. This book, presented as fact, is strikingly similar to a book of fact-based fiction in that both are clearly intended as "warning calls" (or "sobering warnings") about Hillary; but the other book, entitled THE EMPRESS PROJECT, goes farther in its analysis and shows how a foreign power (Red China) is meddling covertly and dangerously in domestic American politics and using a home grown American citizen as its political "proxy". Is the message of THE EMPRESS PROJECT true? Is the message of this book by Sheldon Filger really factually correct? Maybe readers should read both, reflect on both, and draw their own conclusions.......The Empress Project

Of all the many books on Hillary Clinton, pro and con, this is the one essential read on the aspiring presidential candidate for thinking people on both the Right and Left. Devastatingly critical of Hillary Clinton, but without an ideological axe to grind, Sheldon Filger skillfully presents a case against another Clinton presidential administration that defies partisanship. Thoroughly researched and convincingly written, the author goes beyond the usual critique of Hillary. He identifies the critical challenges that America will confront in the next decade, than proceeds with an ironclad case as to why Hillary Clinton is intellectually and experientially ill equipped to provide the quality of leadership America must have in its next president. Reading like a thriller, this book presents a chilling scenario for America's future should Hillary Clinton be elected as president. Every thinking person, irrespective of their party affiliation, will find Filger's book a sobering and thought-provoking overview of what is at stake in the 2008 election.

One of the main reasons that George W. Bush was elected president was because of the country's guilt that they had elected Bill Clinton instead of Bush Sr. It was the country's way of recognizing that they made a tragic mistake by voting for Bill Clinton. The election of Bill Clinton's wife would be a travesty for the country because it is so shamefully obvious that Hillary used her position as First Lady to justify her husband's shameful behavior and ran for Senator of NY just to position herself to run for President. The Clintons have no shame. I hope that the American people will not fall for them a second time. We need a true leader that will serve the American people well.

Noel Serrano

Like another reviewer, I was contacted by author Sheldon Filger and invited to read and review "Hillary Clinton Nude." This is a valuable addition to the shelf of books about HRC. While it has a number of significant weaknesses, this volume also has significant strengths. It's up to the individual reader to decide how best to balance the two.

Perhaps paradoxically, "Hillary Clinton Nude" is both passionate and dispassionate: passionate in the strength of the language, in the author's commitment to his principles and beliefs, and in his conviction that the election of President Hillary Rodham Clinton would be an unmitigated disaster for the United States. At the same time, though, Filger is dispassionate in that he -- unlike many other writers on HRC -- is not a member of the fabled "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy." In fact, the vituperation Filger directs at Hillary is rivaled only by the scorn he directs at George W. Bush. "Hillary Clinton Nude" cannot, therefore, be dismissed as a GOP hit-piece or a brief on behalf of some other, competing, presidential candidate.

The author makes a persuasive case that lacking any demonstrable skills, training, opinions, or even basic understanding of the vital issues of economics and international relations, the only thing HRC can build a presidential campaign on is nostalgia for her husband's years in office. As Slick Willie's most attentive student, Hillary is mastering, Filger argues, the Clintonian Method of obfuscation, name-calling, smoke-and-mirrors, and (especially) a highly selective use of history, including but not limited to outright lies about facts, situations, and people.

Sheldon Filger is committed to setting the record straight, and so devotes considerable ink to laying out the facts about half-forgotten Clintonian scandals like the White House travel office firings, Hillary's commodities-futures windfall, Pardongate, and of course, Monica and impeachment. Of course, Filger thereby leaves himself open to the Clinton-defenders' time-tested charge that he is "obsessing over old news" while HRC herself is focused on the future. Given Filger's thesis of the importance of Clinton-nostalgia to HRC's own presidential hopes, however, I think he's done exactly the right thing.

As I said, however, this book also has a number of weaknesses. Some of them, I admit, are matters of taste. But there are substantive omissions as well.

For one thing, Filger's prose is, if not purple, certainly redolent of lavender: "Given the constellation of storm clouds gathering on the horizon of the new century, having a mediocre and politically ambitious megalomaniac figure making the key decisions of state is an alignment with catastrophe. It is also a rash gamble with history. If, indeed, the contemporary world resembles the apocalyptic dynamics that existed in the summer of 1914, then the admixture of nuclear armaments portents [sic] a cataclysm that will be vastly more devastating to humanity" (p. 179).

As another matter of taste, I wasn't thrilled by the cover illustration by Molly Crabapple. It makes it too easy for critics to dismiss the whole book as an unattractive hit piece while ignoring the substance within. Certainly, I'm not going to leave this just sitting around on my desk at work.

Among the substantive topics Filger doesn't address, one key one is Hillary's alleged "move to the center" in the Senate. It seems obvious that this is part of Clinton's decades-long effort to disguise her true radicalism, but it will also be a centerpiece of her presidential campaign. A discussion of this question would seem to be in order.

Most fundamentally, I did not come away from this book with a clear idea of whether Filger believes that, deep down in her soul, Hillary really *believes* in anything more than her own ambition. For the vital distinction, I've always believed, between Pudge and Ruffles (wish I could remember who coined those nicknames) is that whereas he is an opportunist with no firm beliefs, Hillary is a true ideological warrior.

Other writers, from Barbara Olsen to R.E. Tyrrell, have done great work tracing Hillary's growth as what Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn described as a "Christian Social Romantic." In this understanding, HRC's Methodist upbringing was filtered through the tactical genius of Saul Alinsky to create a person driven by a true spiritual fanaticism. I think this is the only real explanation for HRC's distinctive drive, her determination not just to confront, but ultimately to destroy, anyone who disagrees with her or opposes her utopian vision: she sees them, in a very real sense, as fundamentally, theologically, evil. I believe that this is the key to understanding Hillary Clinton. I'm not sure, though, whether Sheldon Filger agrees.

Finally, I need to point out that this book lacks footnotes, endnotes, bibliography, and index. Clearly a lot of research went into preparing this, but it is impossible for a reader to track the author's sources.

This is a quite long review because I appreciate the author's request for my opinion of his work. What Sheldon Filger has produced is a strong, well-argued, and unquestionably important book. With some work on what I consider the book's shortcomings, a second edition could easily warrant four or even five stars.

I do not "like" the Clintons, and feel that the U.S.A. may be better served by electing a president who is not related to the Clintons or the Bushes. We are not an aristocracy, after all, and the present circumstances in our country require a fresh and fiercely different approach. Thus, I came to this book as a Clinton basher myself and was hoping to find hard facts to offer up in conversation about Ms. Clinton, other than my own feeble "I don't trust her" or "something about her (or Bill) just doesn't sit right". While I have no doubt that the author is probably correct in almost everything he avers in this book, the lack of an index of resources seriously reduces the impact of his assertions. Anyone can write a smear, but a political commentary of this nature begs a solid footnoting at the very least. I further found I would not be able to share this book (I was looking for a book I could pass on to friends and say, "Here, see? This is why Hillary is not a good choice.") simply because of the extremely poor editing. The book is full of mis-spelled words and grammatical errors. (It's PROSTATE cancer, not PROSTRATE cancer, I mean, c'mon.) It is hard to take seriously a work that is so poorly presented. And the cover - oh, dear. Who made THAT decision? The cover alone detracts immediately from the idea that the author was serious in his intent. I may have agreed with most of what the author said, but the thought of anyone seeing this book on my coffee table is downright embarrassing.
So while I enjoyed the chance to bolster my own opinion, I would not lend the book out, nor would I recommend it. It reads so poorly, a fault, as I say, that I find with the editor, that I feel referencing it in any serious discussion would be impossible.
Perhaps the others who reviewed this book were too polite to bring these things up. I hope that is the case; the thought that so many people didn't even notice the glaring spelling, grammar and syntax errors would mean our educational system is in even worse shape than I feared.

I thought the author kept on using the same old people over and over. I also some of the people were bitter and ungly, but you just don't know how they look.

I enjoyed the different perspectives of other people on their philosophy and expectations for dating. Reading through the comments makes you realize that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work in dating. You can expect your behavior to have a great result with one person and less spectacular results with another. It isn't anything personal, and that is what makes things interesting.

However, this might disappoint some looking for a formulaic approach to dating. Instead, your goal when reading this book should be to recognize different viewpoints while evaluating your own opinions on dating and relationships.

This book has honest advice (and funny stories!) from men and women who are in the dating game. I love how the juicy stuff is written by 'anonymous'! This book is better than dating books that stick to one theory on how to meet (and how to keep!) someone interesting. It covers a range of suggestions from a diverse group.

I don't know what I would have done without all the tips and funny pieces of advice in this book. It puts dating in humorous perspective. Reading about other people's experiences encouraged me to perservere.

This is an amusing and useful read. The perspectives you'll get in this book are what you'll run into in the real world. If you're on the market, you'll want to know what you're in for, and what you're up against. If you're not, you'll laugh at what you're missing, and maybe envy it a little. Amusing, unbelievable and sometimes even informative.

I really enjoyed this book. So will any other Minnesota hockey fan. Fun to read. Loaded with great information, and lots of pictures. No stone left unturned.

I found the book to be an interesting summary of the history of Minnesota hockey but I agree with the previous reviewer that there were too many errors, both typographical and informational that distracted from the flow of information for the knowledgeable Minnesota hockey fan.

Book is interesting;however, in looking over a small portion of the book,I noticed glaring errors. Because of this, I don't know how accurate the other information is.

I thought the book was wonderful. I was amazed to find out that Eveleth and Two Harbors played for the first time in 1903. There was a lot of neat facts and some great pictures.

This book was wonderful. I really enjoyed it.