W Books

Hey,this is a pretty great book!Even though some people like the idea of a Nancy/Frank thing,I think its sweet that Ned cares about Nancy. I mean now-a-days,all guys are players.Where else can you find a guy who cares about you and doesn"t cheat?Answer rhat question.Anyway , even though I like the Nancy/Ned thing,there was a lot of romace in this book!Not just between Nancy and Frank. This is a definetly must read book!

This is a great book!!! What is with the whole "I'm sorry Nancy but I'm in love with Callie I feel terrible about kissing you,'Thats alright Frank me too I'm in love with Ned" thing Frank and Nancy are meant to be!!!!! They are so not being true to themselves. Nancy admits that she is attracted to Frank practicly in everybook and in a question of guilt Frank proves that he is jealous of nancy going off with other men!!!! Anyway a good read as useual totally recorrmend!!!!

This was a pretty good book.It was all about how Nancy and the Hardys have to solve this case at a resort.Ned shows up in the middlish end.He sees Frank and Nancy hugging and thinks that hes lost his girlfriend.But Nancy talks to him and they still go out together.The case is eventually solved and Nancy and the Hardys go back to their regular lives then solve their next case,The Paris Connection.

I LOVED this book! It was really good. Nancy and the Hardys get called in to help with sabotage at a rich mountain resort.It's full of mystery,romance(LoL),and keeps you reading!I loved the part in the cabin & I hate that Ned showed up.It's a Must read for any fan!

I think this is the best Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Supermystery of all. I finally was able to locate it in December. I have been wanting to read it for years, but I never could find it. It has an interesting plot intertwined with just enough romance that it's not too mushy.

I agree with the other readers, Ned should have been left out. Carolyn Keene should definately write a series without Ned and Callie. Frank and Nancy are meant to be.

Excellent book!!! It helped my kids and myself complete the game! Help alot during complicated levels.

This guide helped me a lot to beat the game. I got stuck at the second dungeon so I bought the guide. The only problem is that the walkthrough for the seventh dungeon, Eagle Tower, I got lost and couldn't really figure out what to do, so I just walked around trying different stuff. But other than that, this guide is perfect and you should get it if you own the game.

IT KICKS BIG BUT I BOUGHT IT FOR MY FREIND AND HE BEAT THE GAME IN ONE DAY! BUY IT NOW! ! !

What can I say? This guide book is very well put together, aiding the young adventurer (i.e. you) thru his quest in beating the Wind Fish and solving the elusive mystery of Koholint Island. It is very well thought out, with complete maps for everything. Of course, it being a guide book, if you really want to beat it you ought try to do it yourself first, and consult the book only when necessary. But they have done a very fine job.

There is one stint I have against it, however. At the beginning of each section, they have suggestions for things you ought to do. This is all well and fine - but one some of these they should direct you to the page number that dealt with that specific item or whatever it is. Example: they say in one of the later sections it is good to go and get your boomerang. You have to go back and find where they talk about the boomerang (which, as I remember, in the early part of the book, not the section it should be). But this is only a minor stint.

Another good thing is they have a map, and on the back of that is where to get all the new pictures from the camera shop. The only problem with that is if you lose the map, you're basically screwed in the picture department.

Visually very nicely laid out. You can very clearly tell where you need to go. The dungeons are taken step by step, and is an excellent example in the writing of guides. I would like to see more of their work: if its anywhere near this good, then they're great overall. They should be regularly featured guide writers (they probably are). The one problem I mentioned is only minor, and does not deserve to detract an entire star.

Therefore, this guide book is 4 & ½ stars. Keep it up you guys! Actually, on second thought, a full 5 stars.

What can I say? This guide book is very well puttogether,aiding the young adventurer (i.e. you) thru his quest inbeating the Wind Fish and solving the elusive mystery of Koholint Island. It is very well thought out, with complete maps for everything. Of course, it being a guide book, if you really want to beat it you ought try to do it yourself first, and consult the book only when necessary. But they have done a very fine job.

There is one stint I have against it, however. At the beginning of each section, they have suggestions for things you ought to do. This is all well and fine - but one some of these they should direct you to the page number that dealt with that specific item or whatever it is. Example: they say in one of the later sections it is good to go and get your boomerang. You have to go back and find where they talk about the boomerang (which, as I remember, in the early part of the book, not the section it should be). But this is only a minor stint.

Another good thing is they have a map, and on the back of that is where to get all the new pictures from the camera shop. The only problem with that is if you lose the map, you're basically [messed up] in the picture department.

Visually very nicely laid out. You can very clearly tell where you need to go. The dungeons are taken step by step, and is an excellent example in the writing of guides. I would like to see more of their work: if its anywhere near this good, then they're great overall. They should be regularly featured guide writers (they probably are). The one problem I mentioned is only minor, and does not deserve to detract an entire star.

Therefore, this guide book is 4 & ½ stars. Keep it up you guys!

This is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. The one thought I had throughout the book as I read about each life was the passion these great people had for knowledge. Their continuing drive to learn and to stretch their minds and abilities to unthinkable successes. Lessons from Great Lives has changed my thinking of what i'm capable of accomplishing. I still re-read many of my favorites for continuing inspiration.

Dennis McCormick Mesa, Arizona

I thoroughly enjoyed the book as we can learn so much from studying such amazing people in the past and present. Dan captures the essence of what so many powerful and influential leaders can share with us. This book will help you to understand the principles, habits and work ethic of the greatest people that have ever walked the planet. When you need inspiration to get you through tough times this is the book to open. I am reading this book to my three month old daughter and if even a small part of it helps to shape her future, she will live a life others will write about some day.

What better way to learn than from the subjects themselves. This book provides insight into some of the greatest people that have ever lived. Whether you are familiar with their story or not you will be able to take something valuable away from each chapter. These were real people like you and I that accomplished Great things. Reading about the sacrifices of Joan of Arc and Ghandi inspired me to make some signifcant changes in my life even though mine pailed in comparison. In a world full of celebrity worship, "Great Lives" provides you with role models worth admiring. I found myself researching several subjects in order to learn more about some of these Amazing people. If you're looking for a great inspriational read, this will definitely satisfy. Well done Dan, thanks for sharing these stories.

Dan McCormick has truly brought back Sterling W Sill's fantastic works. A must for everyone who wants to create wealth in all aspects of their life!
A Phenomenal Book about the Great Lives of Historical People who were leaders of their times that did not have the modern means to accomplish their greatness. It exhibited what man or woman can do with the sources God gave them naturally to be leaders because their WHY was big enough and they were able to help others in their dreams and causes.
I would put this book in the same category as "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

Bill Powers
Entrepreneur

My first book review! Not because I don't read lots (I'm a bookaholic) and not because I don't love the books I read (I just turned my dining room into a small library) but because this book has really touched me at my core and I sincerely think it will do the same for many others. There is a connection between each extremely different life that runs through this book ; so obvious that it jumps out at you in a way that you can't miss; and can't help but be inspired by. It's why this book can change people now and generations to come. Come to find out Greatness isn't always glamorous and rarely easy. It requires passion, being true to ones self, doing what is right (o.k..some exceptions), and above all the confidence to follow your path - not someone else's. Dedication, commitment, focus, and the phrase "no matter what" frequently appear in these lives, voiced or not. Sounds difficult? Maybe even less than desirable? Read on! These were the most satisfied, fulfilled, inspired, passionate people imaginable. Feel like life is less than it was supposed to be? This book may hold the key for you...it honestly did for me. I just received my second one in the mail yesterday... For the dining room.. leaving my copy to share! Ü Thank you Dan McCormick for caring enough to share this treasure - these Great lives.

Joe Leininger provides great insight in his daily efforts to be both a good and Christian person with his success as a commodities trader.

Few businessess are as brutally competitive as trading in Chicago exchanges. However, with great faith and works, Joe obviously holds to his strong Christian values in this tough environment.

This book helps me come to grips with striving for success while hoping to maintain the fundamental value of helping and loving one's fellow man (or woman).

An excellent picture of how to live a balanced life and besuccessful at it. Especially applicable to those in the financialfield, but applies to all of us who desire to excel in our field. Joe's personal experiences in such a high pressure environment serve as poingant lessons. Take advantage of this book as a roadmap on the path to success.

Under the guise of being about trading securities, this is an excellent book about life, about observing what work gives you and what it deprives you of. About making changes that lead to a richer life and how to know when work costs too much. It also offers wonderful insights into the life of a trader and the paradox of being a good trader and trying to balance that with being a good Christian.

Joe has done a good job of taking interesting stories from his life and distilling an excellent life-lesson from each. Joe's life comes through clearly in this well written collection. He is transparent and engaging. Not only does it draw us to examine our inner health and values, but to look to our own stories for the lessons hidden in them. Worth a plane flight to read it.

Lessons From the Pit was a very fasinating and involving book. It is obvious that Joe Leininger spent a lot of time thinking and planning this book. This book is not one where the first chapters are interesting. The whole story is interesting. I kept saying to myself "at the end of the chapter, I will go to sleep, but I just couldn't put it down! He talked about personal subjects also, making you feel like you were just talking to him, alone. I highly recommend this book, and I think that Lessons From the Pit was the best book I have read so far.

Very in depth reader about the works of Marx and Engels. Gives some historic information on the life Karl Marx and the order in which he wrote most of his works. If all you have read by Marx is the Communist Manifesto then do yourself a favor and pick this book up.

The other reviews cover the content, but as for the format (at least in the elder edition this reviewer has), the pages are stubby and short given the length of the binding. Increasing the width by another 1.5'' would have reduced the somewhat crammed text, but Norton must have needed the paper to print other books at the time.

Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Includes Capital (Das Kapital) and Communist Manifesto. FREE Authors' biographies and essays in the trial version.

This ebook contains essential works of Marx & Engels. Great digital item!

then this is really the volume to get. Besides it's Norton: headnotes, footnotes, delicious paper, quality binding, good selections, a good look at Marx as far I can see.

This is an excellent compilation of Marx and Engels's works. Tucker's version is one of the foremost used by scholars and educators in the academic setting and is considered one of the best. Although I admittedly have not read all of the works in the reader, I was consistently impressed with the classics such as Capital, Crisis Theory, and the Communist Manifesto (most of which were actually written by Engels, not Marx).

The Marxist legacy lies not in his theories, but in the questions and concerns that he raises regarding other Enlightenment theorists. Indeed, Marx continues in the Enlightenment tradition in that he is deeply committed to science and rationality as a basis for legitimating a certain governmental regime and he has an intense regard for individual rights, which he believes can only be ensured if class differences are eradicated through the elimination of exploitation. Marxists believe that the role of government is to prevent exploitation, although more contemporary theorists such as Roemer have argued that exploitation theory is little more than a distraction from what they should actually worry about--which Roemer believes is domination. Anyone interested in exploitation theory should read Marx and Engels alongside Roemer's "Why should Marxists be interested in exploitation theory?" which is a great companion in helping you scrutinize Marx and Engels's argument.

Although the communist utopia where distributive justice is defined as, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" (as opposed to the transition state between capitalism and communism, socialism, has distributive justice defined as "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work") never does emerge as Marx predicts, Marx and Engels do raise some interesting arguments that everyone interested in political philosophy should be familiar with. Although their belief in their own infallibility and the failure of their theories--notably, the crisis theory--to hold up empirically have been used to downplay their relevance, Marx and Engels left behind several important tools with which to critically analyze all other political theories. The concerns they have with the existing system are not altogether irrelevant.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I have read it at least three times and learn something new each time. Schelling is not only a great economist but a great writer. He has a knack for making arcane concepts accessible. I highly recommend it. This book uses economic methodology to tackle "non-economic" concepts, such as segregation, sorting and mixing and cooperation.

Micromotives and Macrobehavior shows what fun it must be to be an economist. More specifically, it shows what fun it must be to be Thomas Schelling. It's not a book of high theory; it is a book of high particularity. When Schelling walks down the street, I imagine him with a giant grin or, barring that, a notepad in his hand to take down his thoughts on whatever he might be looking at; every last bit of the world must fascinate him. The great fun in economics, to me, is not what it has to tell me about optimal investment strategies -- finance being only a small, if important, part of life -- but rather what it has to say about human behavior, and particularly human behavior in the face of other humans.

There are some basic problems of arithmetic that our desires might well create; Schelling very charmingly entitles a chapter on this subject "The Inescapable Mathematics of Musical Chairs." If we all want to live a solitary life in the country, we'll all move to the country and find ourselves surrounded by the people we were trying to escape. We can't all dispose of our Canadian quarters, says Schelling: you pawn off your quarters on me, I pawn them off on my neighbor, and yet still the total stock of quarters is exactly where it was. This accounting for musical chairs gives economics much of its power. It's what happens when you take your eyes off individuals for just a moment and think about their behavior in crowds.

What happens if no one in a university can stand being in the bottom 10% of his class? The bottom 10% will leave. Now 90% of the original class is left, and there's a new bunch in the bottom 10%. They leave. And so forth. Eventually, if this process continues, the class will whittle down to 10% of its original size. An unrealistic example, surely, but it's illustrative. The most famous model of this sort in Micromotives and Macrobehavior is the segregation model. Suppose few people wish to live in a racially homogeneous community; everyone desires some integration. But suppose people don't want to be too isolated: white people have no problem living with black people, so long as the white people aren't the minority in their neighborhoods. What will happen to the racial composition of neighborhoods? Schelling simulates a small city on a standard 8×8 cheesboard, with nickels and dimes representing white and black people. The board starts out in one equilibrium where everyone is satisfied with his neighbors and no one is too isolated. Then there's a minor shock to the system: a few people move away at random around the board. Suddenly black people have no neighbor on one side, and only white people on the other. What was a satisfying equilibrium before is now unsatisfying to at least one person on the board, so he moves to a neighborhood whose racial composition is more to his liking. This process continues until we've reached a new equilibrium. More often than not, this equilibrium involves massive segregation. No one desired that it be this way; people only wished that those near them looked somewhat like them.

A few questions naturally present themselves here. How many equilibria are there? How many stable equilibria are there? (Perfect integration was an equilibrium at the start of the experiment, but it was unstable in the face of mild shocks.) The convergence to segregation depends on how homogeneous people wish their neighborhoods to be; if everyone desires that 50% of his neighbors be like him, does that change anything? Also, do the conclusions change when we move from a small city modeled by an 8×8 board to a larger one?

One of the lessons has been well-rehearsed elsewhere (e.g., No One Makes You Shop At Wal-Mart): in many cases, the decisions that we make individually cannot be expected to result in outcomes that we all would have chosen had we coordinated. You don't even need to look at the level of an entire society; Schelling has plenty of examples from everyday life. Maybe the easiest is something that happened to him while driving back from Cape Cod: a mattress had fallen off the roof of someone's car and had snarled traffic for hours. If the driver of that car with the mattress could somehow have borne (in the jargon: "internalized") the costs that he inflicted on everyone else, he'd probably have stopped his car, fetched the mattress, and saved everyone a lot of lost time. Or if all the other drivers could have coordinated somehow, they might have been able to get that mattress off the road and save everyone behind them the time that they all lost. Absent any coordination, though, that mattress might still be laying there.

This coordination doesn't need to come in the form of an enforcer with guns, necessarily; social norms can do it. What if we've all been trained by our parents to feel great shame at not helping others? You can certainly imagine social structures in which people would fight others for the right to clear off that mattress. If it's hard to envision this, suppose that selflessness were actually sexy.

The direction you turn from here is asking how societies solve coordination problems -- how we encourage each other to behave in a way that helps out everyone. Micromotives and Macrobehavior is chiefly valuable in that it gets you thinking about these problems, and realizing that it's not especially easy: merely scaling up your own virtuous behavior won't necessarily cut it.

I enjoyed this book for it's stimulating arguments and everyday examples of big picture, "big topics" issues. As a novice to any type of economic analysis I've found the book informative and interesting. I recommend this book to anybody wishing to increase their awareness of the relevance of everyday events and experience to bigger, more intellectual topics.

Game theory has been criticized for being able to explain anything, yet having little predictive capability. Whatever the case, Thomas Schelling's book is a gem. He takes everyday life phenomena and applies some systematic analysis as to why these things happen. It's a quick read and when you are done you too will keep viewing any issues coming your way as if they were seeking an equilibrium. With the varied topics and colorful examples it's the 1970s equivalent of "Freakonomics".

Schelling's book covertly drafts a model of economic support for the Golden Rule. While many of his examples may be repetitive, ultimately, we learn that by restraining ourselves in various enterprises, such as energy conservation, we are able to produce overall benefits for society. However, the hitch is that without critical mass or some basis for keeping rebels in line, no one adheres to the collective system and therefore no one benefits. Thus, the author intelligently posits an argument that in properly regulated environments, cooperation and selflessness produce stability and will lead to long-term success.

What is more interesting are Schelling's numerous examples and asides about human behavior that, once examined carefully, yield a greater understanding about everyday phenomena. For example, he writes, "Most people think that inflation reduces purchasing power without stopping to notice that their own pay increases are somebody else's inflation, and at least some of it must cancel out." This book is filled with such astute and not easily apparent statements. He also carries economic theory into social theory, showing that if all men married women four years younger than them where population is growing at three percent annually, eventually women of marrying age may outnumber men by more than 12%. The book has several of these nuggets, but leaves out an obvious and one of my favorite lessons about education: when a student goes to school, s/he not only "loses" the money s/he spends on tuition, but also her/his earning power during the years spent studying. For this reason, one could argue that it seems more sensical to attend school when there is a recession and to work when unemployment is low.

The glaring gap in this book is the problem of freeloaders--what do we do, for example, about the neighbor who waters his lawn excessively during a water shortage, thereby creating less incentive for others to conserve water? The author most likely believes that education will assist this problem, but this may be an idealistic notion at best. Still, Schelling manages to prove that cooperation rather than competition in some cases may produce better results, leading to viable arguments against selfish behavior.

Dr. Carroll Quigley, favorably cited by then-governor Bill Clinton at his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president in 1992, penned "Tragedy & Hope" in 1965 after his review of many pages of documents of what he describes as the "power elite." This elite, composed of powerful banking families (Morgan and Rothschild) and uber-rich industrial capitalists (the Rockefellers, Andrew Carnegie) along with the intellectual wells of John Ruskin and billionaire Cecil Rhodes, comprise a well-connected, well-established power axis that is intent on clutching the world's social, political, cultural, and economic powers into their tightly clenched fists. The banking houses, typically referred to as simply the "international bankers," have been the hidden money powers behind the revolutionary movements of the 20th century, including Bolshevik revolution to overthrow the Russian monarchy.

The overarching question of W. Cleon Skousen's "The Naked Capitalist" is a puzzling one: why do the world's largest fortunes, which have amassed their wealth under free market capitalism, support the socialist, fascist, and Communist powers with continuing financial aid? The answer is an unpleasant, but simple, one. These interlocking powers, the Federal Reserve System, treasonous tax-exempt foundations, the Council on Foreign Relations, Fabian socialism as articulated by Ruskin and Rhodes, and the American slide toward socialist economics, are in league to envision the new "Tower of Babel," namely a collectivist World Government, under their jurisdiction and guidance, naturally.

"Naked Capitalist" carries the themes of "None Dare Call It Treason" by John Stormer in that every Communist nation has a glittering, red-inked "MADE IN THE USA" stamp on its blood-soaked land. Coupled with John Ruskin's idea of keeping the wealthy elite in control of the masses, the Anglo-American establishment could shape each nation's political and economic future in its hand, eventually leading to the institution of a global government that all nation-states would recognize.

The power elite controls and manipulates the economic and political life of the United States still today. The Federal Reserve's siphoning off of American wealth through fiat currency, artificial "boom-bust" cycles, and the repayment of massive interest from the U.S. national debt by the American taxpayer is creating an enriched political class able to dominate the masses as easily as a farmer directs and controls his cattle. It matters not who wins the White House or controls Congress. The CFR, Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderbergers, bought both institutions long ago, and they are directly in league with the international bankers.

The most entertaining part of the entire book is Skousen's review of multiple historical instances throughout the 40s, 50s, and 60s where the power elite's exposure was all but inevitable. To paraphrase one commentator, the elites are running naked toward the finish line. The establishment elites are probably having a grand old time chuckling about the "old days" where there was a possibility they might be caught red-handed. Nowadays, they can flaunt themselves in the faces of the sleeping masses and still get away with things. With the advent of the Internet, however, they may not be so lucky these "last days."

I was a down-to-earth skeptic as I approached the claims of not only "The Naked Capitalist," but also many other well-known authors, who appeared to me at first to be a bunch of right-wing cranks (on par with leftist 9/11 "Truthers"). As I have extensively followed current events for the past three years, I concluded that the evidence is too overwhelming to be ignored. World government is in our future, and nothing can divert us from that road. Not even the election of Ron Paul to presidency of the United States would buck us off the path to global socialism, although he may have been able to shield us from the atrocities for just a few more years.

Have you awaken from your slumber yet?

This book (The Naked Capitalist), along with the book "The Bilderburg Group", explains exactly what is going on in Government. The power of the men in the secret groups are dangerous to all Americians, and there are many in our Government at all levels. They are the Bilderburgs, Council of Foreign Relations and Trilaterial Commission, determined to make us a socialist country.

If this book were written by anyone less credible, you'd have to pass it off as conspiracy theory nonsense. But Skousen is anything but a conspiracy theory nut. He is a very well respected scholar. So what makes this book so infuriating is to realize both political parties are being swayed towards collectivism and totalitarianism through the robber-barons' self-percieved notion of good for the world and their "generous" donations to non-profits that promote this communist agenda. Thus, the Naked Capitalist reveals the wealthy elite to be promoters of exactly what would destroy not them, but the vast middle class of America. Ever notice that Karl Marx was fighting against the Bourgesie and not the aristocracy? The Bourgesie is the middle class. The rich want us middle-classers to simply revert to the equitable poverty of socialism while they continue to live luxuriously at our expense. This is a must read.

"The Naked Capitalist", first published in 1970, is a review and critique of a much longer book, "Tragedy and Hope", first published in 1965. While the references are inevitably dated, this book contains insights that are essential for understanding our current situation. While I wholeheartedly recommend it, it important to take into account the book's context and point of view.

This book must be understood as an attack from the right on "Tragedy and Hope" -- not the 21st century neocon right, but the old fashioned right that may be best thought of as a libertarian point of view these days. Mr. Skousen's approach is consistent with his conservative religious background (LDS) and his background in law enforcement (FBI and later Salt Lake City Chief of Police). Skousen's academic background is reflected in his exegesis of "Tragedy and Hope".

I thought his defense of J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy was thought provoking, and not to be dismissed out of hand as most left-leaning people would tend to do. By illustrating the clear link between the Eastern Establishment and Communism, the author perhaps provides a better understanding of the criticism of corporate media as "Liberal". Corporate owned media did at times cover the issue of Communists in government in a way that tended to downplay the extent to which the government, particularly the State Department, was infiltrated by Communists, which could lead a right-wing or even a neutral observer to believe that the fourth estate had Communist sympathies.

But that's only part of the story. The corporate owned media has also had a history of covering up the extent to which Fascism has infested USA finance, corporations and government. One example from the time span that Skousen focused on, but which he failed to mention, is the Fascist plot to overthrow the US government shortly after the start of FDR's first term. Jules Archer's recently re-printed book, The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR, tells this story persuasively. The earliest incarnation of the HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities), the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1934-1937) actually investigated not only domestic Communist activities, but domestic Fascist activities as well, including the plot just mentioned. Contemporary press coverage of the Congressional hearings and the plot itself was shameful for the most part, particularly the coverage by Time magazine and the New York Times. They covered the story in a way similar to later coverage of UFO and Elvis sightings, poking fun at the very suggestion that such a plot could even exist.

While I am grateful that Skousen wrote this unique review/critique of "Tragedy and Hope", I would urge readers to take "The Naked Capitalist" as a point of departure in their study of the power elite, not the final word. The plutocrats who run things behind the scenes take on many guises, using politicians and movements across the political spectrum to further their malevolent aims. They quite obviously used both Fascism and Communism simultaneously for a time and have moved on to other totalitarian movements, such as neoconservatism and various religious movements. Focusing excessively on these movements and philosophies only serves to distract us from discovering the actual puppet masters.

I must finally express my disappointment with the inclusion of a vitriolic attack by Al Smith on FDR's New Deal policies in an appendix. Al Smith had preceded FDR both as Governor of New York, and as a Democratic presidential nominee. Smith lost the nomination in 1932 to FDR, who, unlike Smith in 1928, went on to win the election. There is the argument that while Smith had maintained his previous progressive beliefs, the Democratic Party under FDR had moved on to Socialist tendencies. (In other words, the Democratic party left him, he didn't leave the party.) However, if Skousen were to choose a disaffected Democrat to criticize the New Deal, he could not have picked a better example of a sellout, a turncoat, and perhaps even a traitor, than Al Smith. Smith was first of all a sore loser, and secondly had by that time become a 100% owned asset of the Eastern plutocrats, the very class that "The Naked Capitalist" rails against. Smith was a prominent member of the Liberty League which sponsored the Fascist plot against FDR I referred to above. I again refer to The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR for details.

By suggesting that Al Smith was still the brown bowler wearing "Happy Warrior" in 1936 that he had been in the 1920s disingenuous to put it mildly.

A Christian Review of, "The Naked Capitalist" By W. Cleon Skousen


"A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things the Lord hates, seven of which are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devices wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers." Proverbs 6:12-19 RSV

The above verse if the first thing that came to my mind once I finished reading this fine book. Skousen in "The Naked Capitalist" is really describing the events from 1913 through the 1960's that will someday lead to The New World Order. There have been so many great reviews on this book on Amazon.com that I would encourage the reader to not only read this review but the others as well. Skousen's book is a summary of Dr. Caroll Quigley's (a professor of Bill Clinton, and an insider to the New World Order boys) Book "Tragedy and Hope" in which Quigley being an insider and allowed to review the CFR's (Council On Foreign Relations) documents for two years in which he decided to write a book since he felt that there was no way we could stop this socialist empire now. Here are some of the highlights from this book that stuck out to me:

We were actually making post war plans to World War 2 a whole two years prior to entering the war (this is where we got the United Nations from).

The international bankers financed two conservative candidates to split the vote so Woodrow Wilson would be elected to office. Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Federal Reserve which is actually a private banking system. This took the power of making money away from congress and gave it to a private bank. (Does anyone recall the bible verse that says, "The borrower is slave to the lender.")

The international bankers are in Europe, the United States and setting up shop everywhere. Since they came into power they have set up communist government after communist government because it's easier to work with a dictator and get rich than it is with a free society.

These bankers will usually finance both sides of a war, and have been linked to just about every war since they took power. They also make a lot of profit, and as Skousen points out their oil plants and businesses are conveniently not hurt even though thousands upon thousands may die for their gain.

I enjoyed Skousen's ability to break down the Korean War and show how (with facts that are documented from sources in the back) Communists within the United States working in high positions of power were playing both sides. The plan was for the U.S. to fight for South Korea, oh but wait, we were supposed to lose. When our military was TOO good there were 100,000 Red Chinese waiting for them. Our military was not allowed to take our Chinese supply lines or to go in and take territory. I mean the communists in Washington had it all set up and we were supposed to lose. What right did our military have actually being good.

The CFR (Council On Foreign Relations) is a front group by the international bankers (like the Royal Institute Of International Affairs is in Europe) . This council works for the international bankers and supports socialist causes.

The builderberg group is a small group of elites that meet once a year and plan the direction of the world and it's propaganda for the next year. It is very secretive and if someone finds out your invited your invite is automatically revoked. Group made up of large corporate heads, political leaders, media elite, and the international bankers.

Tax exempt foundations are influencing public policy and directly influencing our schools. They are pushing propaganda and dumbing down our society. These foundations oddly enough are places the big corporate big wigs and international bankers can stash their money and not get taxed.

Bottom Line: I could go on and on.... Read the book it's only about 125 pages, but it is loaded with some of the most important information you could want or know about our government and the New World Order.

Awhile in the coming, but at long last, an appropriate (albeit 'quirky') cover for a funny, touching (albeit 'quirky') book.

Before going the POD route, when the individual chapters were first being posted on Net sites, I got caught up in the moment. Moment? Actually, a year of 10,000+++ warm, encouraging reviews/comments & Author/Title of the Year from FanStory.com.

So eager to get the book 'out there', I convinced myself the original 'blah' grey cover would be okay. 'You can't tell a book by its cover, the public will embrace the content,' I thought. Well, I was not entirely wrong, but in truth, I was far from right. Kudos to winning illustrator Kacey Rayder, for capturing the (quirky) cover I could only imagine.

I am having a fit of a time finding proper shelf placement at Indie bookstores. When asked what read(s) '..Unicorn' most compares to, my response, "It fills the gap between 'A Child Called It' & 'Confederacy of Dunces'," is usually followed by a pause & long sigh. To further frustrate the Indie owner, his simple question, "Book's genre?" is met w/the answer, "Creative non-fiction." As if shelf space isn't scarce enough, I have to write in a totally new listed genre!

Though the road to getting ready for market has not been entirely smooth & far from quick, I have to tell myself, '...unlike perishables, '..Unicorn' will not spoil w/age.' Then, in memory of my li'l black dad, I grin...then smile, huck a louie, fart & walk away.

Best of reading,
Frank W. Bosworth

Never Play Leapfrog with a Unicorn is a heart wrenching glimpse into a young boy's life growing up in an abusive and dysfunctional family in the 50's and 60's. An incredible humor and resilience carried this author through the turmoil he was forced to endure. Although I felt a tremendous sadness for him and his plight I laughed out loud many times. I read this book in one sitting, could not and would not put it down, and look forward to a sequel. This author is smart, witty and has a real gift to tell a story. I was captured from the start. Read this book and give it to a friend.

Book Review - Never Play Leapfrog With A Unicorn

© - 5-09-08 - Tom Hyland


The author of this terrific little book is Frank W. Bosworth. He originally commented on something I wrote. To reciprocate, I visited his site at Authors Den, and scanned through his list of Titles. One excerpt caught my eye - "My Lil Black Dad." This was hilarious, and I was nibbling the hook. Then, out of curiosity, I clicked on the book, to read more detail. When I saw the creative sub-title - which combines the words, Drama and Comedy into DRAMEDY - the hook was set!

While this book is well worth the small cost, I was CHEAP, and ordered a used book from Amazon, at about half price. When the book arrived, about a week later, I immediately read just the first chapter, then put it aside. Was just a busy time for me, when I returned to it, a week later, I could not put it down! Thus finishing it in about 7-8 hours!

From cover to cover LEAPFROG is cram-packed with the trials and tribulations of a young, poor lad, told in the person of a naïve youth - with both grammar and spelling presented in the vernacular! One of my all-time favorite authors is Samuel Clemens - Mark Twain, who practically established this technique of writing - the way local people spoke the language.

The characters - Father, Mother, Family members, Friends, Neighbors - are ALL down-to-earth and bigger-than-life! The tongue-in-cheek Humor, Wit, and Satire creates out-loud BELLY LAUGHS! The day-to-day shenanigans, misnomers, and dismal local intrigues are HEART-FELT! This lil book of about 200 pages is an absolute GEM!

Compassion, growth and education of a young man/boy, as he tries to unravel the confusions of life, are all presented herein. And the final Beauty of this novel is that he survives victorious, perhaps a tad scathed, but NOT BITTER!

On a scale of 1 to 10 - it is an ELEVEN! Treat yourself, employ all the senses of: Empathy, Sympathy, and even Apathy (WOW - Glad it was Not ME!).

CONGRATULATIONS! FRANK - This is a WINNER! Tom Hyland. AD Author.

'..Unicorn' is a most unique autobiography of a young man's trials and tribulations growing up in a small New England town. I vascillated between laughing and crying throughout the whole book. To anyone looking for true to life writing, I highly recommend this book.

As a side note to a previous review, yes, '...Unicorn' deserves a better cover, but as they say, 'you can't tell a book by its cover'. Also, I found not one instance of text running into the gutter/binding.

The ending lends itself to a sequel; I can only hope. Read and enjoy

If you enjoyed "World According to Garp", you'll love this book! Quirky characters, hilarious situations and heart breaking realities. Grabs you from the first page and pulls you in right to the last page. I couldn't put it down.

"This book is for people who are living under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management," writes Deming in the preface. Deming has strong convictions, many of which are counter to conventional management thinking.

Deming does not believe in ratings and grades. He says performance is mostly attributable to the system in which that person works. "The forces of destruction that come from the present style of reward ... squeeze out from an individual, over his lifetime, his innate intrinsic motivation.... They build into him fear, self-defense, extrinsic motivation. We have been destroying our people from toddlers on through university and on the job. We must preserve the power of intrinsic motivation, dignity, cooperation, curiosity, joy in learning, that people are born with."

Nor does Deming think highly of goals. "Only the method is important, not the goal."

"It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it - a costly myth."

"The customer is not in the pyramid. A pyramid, as an organization chart, thus destroys the system, if ever one was intended." Instead Deming uses flow diagrams.

"With shared responsibility, no one is responsible. Joint responsibility is totally different from divided responsibility... Learning under a teacher is a joint effort between teacher and pupil."

Deming makes the distinction between common causes of variation, and special causes. He quotes Brian Joiner who said, "One necessary qualification of anyone in management is to stop asking people to explain ups and downs ... that come from random variation."

Deming is a legendary name in quality management, especially in Japan through his consulting work with Japanese industry from 1950 onward. He died at age 93 before the second edition of this book went to press.

After reading the "New Economics" by W. Edwards Deming I was very surprised. Mr. Deming's made the book very easy to read and understand. In my case it was the examples that really put things in perspective. "The Red Bead Experiment" was an example that was very good at explaining exactly what it was that, we needed to take away from the example, the difference between common cause and special cause variation. Management should be solely responsible for the well being of the production line. Personally, Deming's did a really good job in describing typical work situations that I personally am aware of. I enjoyed the way he broke everything down into its simplest form. You do not have to be an industrial engineer to understand the message he is trying to convey. The message he is trying to convey is "Team Work" because it is only when every person in the group agrees with each other that everyone can come together for one common purpose. He was very specific in the situation that he believed everything and everyone could work together. In his eyes the hierarchy had to be done away with. There was no one person that was better than the next. This one belief that I have always believed in. I appreciate his train of thought and think that if it could be applied to the small stream businesses it would be extremely effective. It sounds like Deming's was a man of the people because he described every person's job just as important as the next. It sounded like he believed in the chain of command. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and would recommend it to those trying to get a more in-depth feel to what common cause variation and special cause variation really means.

Wow. After 25 years in the quality business I am still not ready to claim I completely 'understand' Deming. He was of course, a brilliant statistician and business optimization theorist . . . but he was also a physicist. His famous quip, "Water turns to ice . . . same molecules. . . what happened?" I finally realize, was his way of speaking to the state change that occurs in a phase transition, the same phenonmeon that occurs when organizations cross over to quality. Deming was the real Superman.

also read Superperformance

Dr. Demming introduced in this book a new style of management which he basically covered in his simple 14 points of management using the idea of profound knowledge. It was very interesting the way he approached different scenarios with multiple examples that he encountered first hand through his time in industry, stressing the fact that ranking within a system is completely wrong and should be completely removed. Demming pushes group work and cooperation instead of programs such as incentives and commissions due to the fact that they turn into individual profit centers and ultimately lead to the collapse of the system. His ideas were simple to follow throughout the text and is a great book for people in management positions to read and consider.

I really liked the book , it was easy to read although I don't like the way that he writs , the good thing about the book is that consist of real cases and this make it much easier to relate to the book, another good thing about the book is that it doesn't repeat the same thing over and over again, what I don't like about the book is the way that he jumps back and forth and mention different books without any brief explanation about those books; this was sometime confusing for me, but other than that I would recommend everybody who is interested in management read this book and refers it to others. It was amazing that lots of thing in this book beside the last 4 chapter is commonsense.

This large book is the ultimate dive reference book. Encyclopedic in scope it covers everything you could possibly think of from underwater archaeology to preserving artifacts and surveying underwater sites. Also included are answers to many basic and advanced SCUBA questions you may have!

I could not find this book anywhere until I ordered it through amazon. And when I say no one had the NOAA dive manual I mean no one, my favorite dive shop listed it as out of stock so did Barnes and Noble and Hastings where all out of stock with no definitive stocking date.But as soon as I looked at Amazon.com for the publication they had it and shipped to me very quickly.I was very impressed, so thanks again Amazon.com for your professionalism.

This book not only outlines diving processes and procedures, but also the scientific principles behind them. It is by no means light reading, but it you are looking to enhance your knowledge about diving, this is an excellent reference point.

I purchased this book to give me more information on the science of scuba diving for my Dive Con and Dive Instructor courses.

The book gives detailed information on the gas laws, decompression theory as well as information on various forms of diving from contaminated water, tri mix, nitrox etc. The book is very well written and very clear.

If you are interested in get truly advanced knowledge of the effects of scuba diving on the body, I would highly recommend this book even though it is a little on the expensive side.

You can find all the explanations you need for those difficult issues related to diving. Excellent presentation, Beautifully illustrated. Easy to understand. If you want or need to go farther in your understanding of diving, you should get this book.