Book Description
A digest of today's modern apartment trends. A sourcebook for apartment owners, architechts and interior designers. Features fabulous apartments from North America, Asia, Australia and South America
Customer Reviews:
NICE INTERIORS.......2006-08-21
Generally I liked the apartments. I must say the plans are really extraordinary and stylish. The only thing that bothers me is the buildings are ONLY from Brasil, USA and Australia. Isn't there any great apartments in the rest of the world...?
ALTAN SISIK
Book Description
Absolute Beginners guides represent a fresh new series of drawing and painting books for budding artists written by professional artist/ teachers. In You Can Sketch, master artist Jackie Simmonds leads the novice by the hand, demonstrating dozens of step-by-step, easy-to-follow techniques using a variety of sketching media. Over 100 clear, full-color illustrations show readers how to sketch the separate elements of simple still life and landscape subjects one by one in pencil, charcoal, colored pencil, pastel pencil, and Conté crayon. Explicit instructions demonstrate how easy it is to combine these different elements to make a finished picture. With You Can Sketch, even the most hesitant artists will gain confidence and start sketching fast!
Customer Reviews:
You Can Sketch: A Step by Step Guide for Absolute Beginners.......2007-01-11
For the size and price of this book it is packed with very usable information. It is easy to read for young and old. The book details various media and materials and composition.
The demonstrations are very nice. I was very surprised at the variety of sketches from small objects to landscapes,animals, people,skies,water,etc.
I would recommend this book for beginners as well as those who have been sketching their own pictures for painting.
Sharon
Must have for beginners!!.......2006-06-15
I absolutely love this book!! Being a beginner wanting to learn basics about drawing everything from landscapes to fruit the book lets you explore the different methods and mediums. It's also a complete confidence builder and I was excited to run out a get a sketch book (which she encourages) to learn to become better. There is something in here for everyone and she makes it so easy to follow her step-by-step examples. You can choose your favorite medium to use, from charcoal to pastel pencils instead of being tied the medium she used in her examples, this is also a great way to see the differences between the textures of each medium. I borrowed this book from the library but I intend to purchase it to refer to as a reference! A must have for beginners and a great source for finding your favorite medium!
Sketching.......2006-02-08
Jackie Simmonds wonderful pastel books have saved me more times than I can count and I can't say enough about those wonderful books so I won't even start. So, when I told my art teacher I'm going to England in the Spring she suggested I take a sketchbook along with my camera. Not having done any sketching beyond a quick thumbnail in class to check composition and value of a still life I felt panic set in. I didn't need to worry, as soon as I found that Ms. Simmonds had a sketch book I knew I'd be fine and she hasn't dissapointed me. This book makes it almost impossible to mess up. You don't have to work page by page through this book, just pick an example you like and with a little time, (as in a few mins!) you will have produced a nice sketch and it will encourage you to do more. This book is really inspiring and confidence building. Now I can't wait to go to England and I'm going to take 2 sketch books! Ms. Simmonds shows you that art doesn't have to be scary and gives you the confidence and inspiration to really surprise yourself with what you can produce.
Sketching as a Hobby.......2002-09-16
I decided to do some sketching as a hobby. This book was perfecto. It is easy to understand and explains basic methods used. Simmonds explains exactly which parts of your subject to focus on and where to start. It also gives a good list of materials to use but simple pencils are all you need. I love this book because it gets me excited about sketching.
Very Basic but a good place to begin.......2002-06-22
The title says it all for this book. The author skillfully takes the reader on a step-by-step tour of basic sketching techniques. Throughout the book each project has detailed illustrations showing how the sketches should look as the reader follows along. It covers several drawing media including pencils, charcoal, pastel pencils, water soluble colored pencils, etc. The instruction covers basic sketching, shading, and composition techniques. Sketching subjects in the lessons include fruits, vegetables, natural forms, plants, flowers, trees, skies, water, landscapes, animals, people, buildings, people and the seaside. If you have had no art training and don't know where to begin or just want to try your hand at sketching then this is an excellent place to start.
Book Description
An essential resource for understanding how photography works and how to solve the many problems photographers face when learning this trade. It deals with the fundamental principles upon which the photographic process is based and presents the principles in a practical manner.
The new edition of this classic text has been updated to include a new chapter on Digital Imaging. This important addition covers, in depth, everything photographers need to know in order to be completely up-to-date on the digital aspects of photography. This book is heavily illustrated with helpful photographs and line drawings, and also includes a special color insert. Since Basic Photographic Materials and Processes deals with the capturing, recording, and reproduction of visual images, the principles discussed have direct applications to graphic arts printing, graphic design, computer graphics and electronic imaging.
Learn about converting analog to digital- bits to gray levels, brightness resolution, and spatial resolution
Covers image processing basics- concepts, filters, color spaces
Up-to-date information on storage of Digital Images- magnetic, optical, electrical, CD Media, and Digital Printing
Customer Reviews:
A good text book.......2005-08-15
This isn't an Idiot's guide to photography. It is a well written book on the physical and chemical phenomena around picture tacking, an eye opener on quirky peculiarities of the media for photographers (more scientifically minded people may feel it just brushes the surface of many subjects). It is a good read, but as with text books, if you're not well awake, you'll have to go through a topic several times!
Most of the emphasis is on film, with a last chapter added on to cover digital. I reckon even strictly digital shooters may profit from reading it.
wealth of information in a cheap jacket.......2002-01-30
No question, content wise this one tops most pubs on the subject. Especially helpful for those who like reading into it. In a sense it could replace all of Ansel Adams books. In some respects it makes photographic process easier to understand, easier to anticipate inconsistancies and sure should help better ones' photography (Ansel is still a required reading though as his language is simply superior to anything out there). At $... it also should be better published (photographs are just cheap looking). All in all information far outweighs printing shortfalls.
A good book with a lot of details.......2002-01-16
All the technical details of photography have been covered. The review questions at the end of the each chapter are helpful too. I feel one can surely save a lot of film after reading this book. And there are quite a few b&w photogrpahs which are quite interesting.
The admirable book.......2001-02-18
The book "Basic Photographic Materials and Processes" is separated on 16 chapters. Very useful chapters for everybody, both for beginners and professionals are chapters: 1) Light and Photometry, 4) Photographic Sensitometry, 5) Photography Optics (there is an instruction how to build the pinhole camera with exact calculation a diameter for different pinhole cameras and how make the lens testing), 8) Black and white Photographic Developments (with a paragraph about anti-foggants, special black-and-white process), 10) Tone Reproduction (Objective tone-reproduction curves for motion pictures, transparency etc., Luminance values of an outdoor scene, Flare factor, The making of negative, The making of Positive, the equations for average gradient for different quadrants of tone-reproduction diagram, ......), 11) Micro Image Evaluation (with much examples og graininess of films of different producers), 13) Filters with their influencies on different sort of films, 14) Color, 15) Color Reproduction and 16) Digital photography. This book is very useful and its content is very comprehensive one. I photograph since 1960 and I admire Mr. Anselm Adams, that is to say I very, very recommend this book for one, who has serious interest about photography and different cameras with their optics. The book has many pictures, useful tables and diagrams. (Rene Novak, studio ER67, ...)
Comprehensive school-book.......2001-01-05
This is a rather comprehensive introduction to the theory of photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester (NY) is of course where the headquarters of the Eastman Kodak Company is located...
Note the word "theory" above. That the volume contains an appendix on the calculation of basic logarithms should give you a clue to the nature of this book.
This is a book about the physical properties of light, the chemical properties of photographic papers and film, and so on. It is not a book about composition and "beauty".
Photography is an art and also a craft. You would buy this book to become a better craftsman.
After a boring introduction to one of the most exciting topics I can think of (Light and Photometry) the volume covers exposure both at the picture taking (camera) stage and post-exposure (printing). These are extremely useful chapters for any photographer.
There then follows five chapters and 160 large pages whit what is essentially an introduction to science for photographers. You wouldn't guess it from the chapter headings, but you are given a brief introduction to statistics, sensiometry (excellent chapter!), optics, chemistry, and physical chemistry. Only what is relevant for photography is presented, and it is done at a fairly high-level. The level may suit you or frustrate you. The style is unlikely to excite you...
Finally, on page 213 we get practical and hands-on again with a chapter on black-and-while development followed, after a section on archival, by one of the gems of this book: tonal reproduction. Starting from the foundation it has developed over the five "boring" chapters it shows how to achieve the tonal reproduction that you want, and shows the Zone System as a practical approximation. Understanding the Zone System in this light (pun intended) will give you a great background on when and how to use it, and when not to use it: it is only an approximation.
The remaining chapters are classics and include excellent sections on visual perception, colors and color reporductions.
This book is a must read! I considered deducting a single star in the rating because the book is very focused on black-and-white photography. It does cover color, but not in the level of detail that I would have liked. In the end I decided that it would be unfair to give this book anything less than 5 stars: you should read it.
Customer Reviews:
A Momentary Lapse Of Focus.......2000-08-14
It is difficult- if not impossible- for an artist to hide signs of burn-out. The evidence is there in black & white, on the paper for all to see. When that artist is Robert Crumb, normally accustomed to putting his soul into his work, the result is painful to observe. Crumb demands that we witness his anxieties, refusing to quit working even in the face of physical & mental exhaustion (1972 & 73 were pretty heavy years for R.C.!). The results, though damn good, are still not up to the snuff of his previous period. In this volume you'll find Crumb's work on 'XYZ Comics', 'ZAP #6', 'BLACK AND WHITE' (featuring the classic male fantasy response to feminist criticisms: 'R. Crumb Versus The Sisterhood'), 'EAT IT!' (a cookbook by Dana Crumb that Robert illustrated) and 'FUNNY AMINALS' (containing 'What A World!': one of the sickest pieces Crumb has ever undertaken!). So, after all the naysaying, why the four star rating? Because lesser Crumb is still a helluva lot better than most underground artists at their peak! 'Nuff said.
Crumb in Your Face.......2000-04-01
This book collects some of comic artist R. Crumb's most infamous work. His dark vision of sexual relations (which crosses, at times, the border of misogyny), is at its most extreme in this volume. Angered by feminist attacks on his work, the intent of these stories and drawings seems to be to bait his critics, embodying every object of their scorn. What shines through on every page is Crumb's fundemental honesty, and his brillance at depicting these raw emotions and frustrations.
Not for all tastes, to be sure, but essential for an understanding of Crumb's work.
Average customer rating:
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Bremner!-Legend Of Billy Bremner
Bale
Manufacturer: Andre Deutsch Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
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General
| Football (American)
| Sports
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General
| Soccer
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General
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ASIN: 0233994777 |
Average customer rating:
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Bremner!: The Legend of Billy Bremner
Bernard Bale
Manufacturer: Andre Deutsch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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Soccer
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General
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ASIN: 0233994467 |
Book Description
Whether you're merely days or decades past the tender age of thirty-five, whether you adopted your child, were "assisted" by doctors, or were simply considered high risk, you're part of the growing family of older mothers. This informative, practical, and engaging walk through the many facets of parenthood later in life is designed with you and your family in mind.
Lois Nachamie, a parenting expert and an older mother herself, skillfully uses real-life interviews with dozens of women and her own keen observations from personal experience to discuss the unique redefinitions older mothers go through and the specific issues you'll face. Here are just some of the topics she covers on how to gracefully and joyfully adjust to the arrival of a child later in life.How to handle being sleep-deprived and premenopausal at the same timeHow to find peers in the "mommy" worldHow to keep the "double-generation gap" from yawning too wideHow to meet your child's every need--but not indulge their every whimHow to be a mom while your career is at its peak (or supposed to be)
Customer Reviews:
Get over yourself!.......2007-04-30
This author really thinks that older mothers are better than younger ones, and doesn't let you forget it for a single page! I'm just turning 35 and don't quite feel all the wisdom I'm supposed to have according to this book.
Not a balanced view of motherhood over 35.......2004-07-28
If you are looking for a book with information on the realities, both good and bad, of becoming a mother after 35, this is not it! The premise of this book is that mothers over 35 are better mothers than moms in their twenties. She gives several examples of how younger mothers focus on themselves, while older mothers are completely devoted to their children. She even compares how younger and older mothers put their children into strollers as evidence of the superiority of older mothers. I am not interested in comparing myself to younger mothers.
I found Midlife Motherhood to be a much more useful book with practical information and none of the we are better than them attitude so prevalent in this book.
Great resource.......2002-01-08
Whether considering becoming a parent at an advanced age, or already in the throes of parenthood, this is an invaluable resource. It covers all the topics that you need to hear about: working, not working, childcare, marriage quakes, sex, aging bodies and hormonal eruptions etc. Geared primarily to women, men should find some sections helpful. I've dogeared pages for my spouse to read.
Nachamie's opinionated--I held my breath while she ranted against relying totally upon a full-time nanny or sitter without establishing checks and balances that keep the child yours. While she spares no words here, her arguments were quite persuasive about keeping control.
I picked the book up to read about what to expect and am glad to have read it. Seems like parenting when your knees are giving out is a lot of work, but the joy expressed by the mothers she's interviewed is the most convincing argument of all.
Every parent over 35 should treasure this book!.......2001-05-25
Cannot rave enough about this book. The parenting advice is incredibly helpful, no matter how old you are. The writer is so perceptive about the joy, and possible mistakes we can make at our age. It's like having a really good friend, who is smart, funny, and very very wise. I loved reading other people's stories. We were lucky not to have gone through too much to have our daughter, but I felt so much for the others who did. This book has helped my husband and I (who also liked it) avoid a few of the problems, particularly spoiling, which we probably would have had, if we hadn't read this. I now give this book, and her other one, which I read after I read this, as a shower gift to every friend I have. Treat yourself to the best parenting book you'll find.
So glad we found this book!.......2001-01-04
We stumbled upon this book by serendipity -- ours was the last copy in a display as we walked by the "Parenting" section at our bookstore. We'd been dealing with the slowness of being selected by a birth mom, in an open adoption process, and we suspected it had to do in part with our being an "older" couple.
Nachamie deals with the big issues for "older" couples head-on yet with humor and perspective.
She examines the beliefs behind the social norms for the "correct" age of parents for young children. Nachamie also validates the sense we've had that for our age group, our mothers definitely are not the first resource we'd turn to in figuring out parenting challenges -- our age cohort feels this way (it's not just me and my mom!) and this is a contrast with younger moms and their mothers.
She identifies accurately the pitfalls older parents tend to fall into when parenting -- I see these frequently in my own clinical practice (as a child psychiatrist) and I can project how readily I could fall into a similar pattern unless I were forewarned and thus watchful. (Example: overindulgence of the highly-valued child, under the guise of "We're building his self-esteem by having him make the decision. . ." so the child doesn't experience appropriate limits. We've all experienced this at restaurants or stores.) And she makes specific creative suggestions for how to address the downside and celebrate the upside of being older parents. The parenting advice is very very sound.
Book Description
Ten days before the largest operation of World War II was launched, it was still one of the century's best-kept secrets-thanks to countless ordinary people participating in one of history's most remarkable moments. David Stafford has written a riveting account of ten of those ordinary men and women-including an American paratrooper, a German soldier, a nineteen-year-old English woman working on secret codes, a Parisian Jew in hiding, and a daring French resistance cell-as they lived through ten very extraordinary days. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Stafford gives readers a fresh point of entry into one of the most significant battles ever fought. Ten Days to D-Day buzzes with the pace of a novel, as Stafford moves from country to country, from character to character, including some of D-Day's leaders: Hitler, Rommel, Eisenhower, and Churchill. Stafford compellingly brings to life the final days before the invasion through the eyes of its participants, the citizens and soldiers that made history on June 6, 1944.
Customer Reviews:
Unique.......2006-10-12
this is one fascinating book which I recommend to anyone interested in WWII. Its uniqueness resides in the way the author approaches D-Day, allowing the reader to get to know how those pre D Day days were lived by civilians, soldiers, secret agents and leaders of the great assault. Now I know what Churchill did , what was on Eisenhower's mind when he decided what he decided, what de Gaulle thought and how he acted, how the germans were fooled time and time again by allied intelligence, how important secret agents work was for the success of the invasion and it also accounts for the work of many unknown heroes. A great book, a great approach of D Day.
Windsor Jr. High-Kyle W........2006-02-10
No doubt one of my favorite books of all time.
I got this book as a birthday present a year or two again, and kept on putting it off. I don't know why, I'm interested in the war, I just didn't start it for a while. But when I got into it I knew that I'd love it. It was researched down to... well, let's just say that if it's a minute detail that happened back then, it's in the book. And you can prove it by looking at the bibliography! But the book is so emotional and intense that once you get into it there's no putting it down. I loved this book and would recommend to anyone.
Interesting take on D-Day.......2004-11-15
David Stafford is an unusual historian. He writes analytical books that study the Second World War, mostly from the perspective of the intelligence war and the partisans. He writes clearly and intelligently, and spends most of his time analyzing the various parts of the war, and their meaning. This book, by contrast, is something that is for Stafford completely different: instead of the intelligence war, and instead of analysis, Stafford instead focuses on showing us the world or a large part of it during the ten days leading up to the D-Day invasion.
The book focuses on various people in various walks of life who did various things during the war. The book is divided into chapters, one for each of the 10 days, the last being D-Day itself. Each of those chapters is divided into sections, each of which highlights the daily life and experiences of someone involved, directly or indirectly, in the war. They range from a Canadian infantry lieutenant and an American paratrooper to a British female code clerk, an SOE operative in France, all the way around to a Jew hiding in someone's house in France and a Norwegian resister in prison for assisting in the publication of an underground newspaper. Each of these individuals is followed through their daily lives, the soldiers preparing for the invasion, the rest wondering when it would happen.
One really unusual and interesting wrinkle that Stafford manages to incorporate is that the characters he chose to follow weren't all survivors of the events covered in the book. This involves a little harmless invention of presumed emotions and thoughts, but frankly that's overshadowed by the uniqueness of what he writes. For instance, one of the pictures in the picture section shows Sherman tanks lined up in an English village, with housewives hanging washing out to dry right next to them.
It's rather surprising that at this late date someone could write something unique on D-Day and the campaign in France. The fact remains, however, that this is a very unique book, and a very interesting one.
Fascinating "behind the scenes" history.......2004-07-30
Most books published about D-Day give scant mention to the background of the invasion, and concentrate on the invasion itself, and its aftermath. This extremely well-written book covers the 10 days that preceeded the invasion, through the lives not only of the important political and military folks involved, but also the common people. We share the lives of paratroopers, ground troops, signal interceptors, spies, prisoners, and others, and learn about their contributions, however small, to the ultimate success of the invasion. It is writing of personal history at its best, and we do get to be informed as to what happened to these people we grew to care about after the invasion. Several of them are still alive, and they, and the multitude of others who have gone to their rest deserve our eternal gratitude for what they all did for us that glorious 6th of June, 1944.
Superb contribution to understanding D-Day and people at war.......2004-07-06
There are so many aspects of this book that are praise worthy it's difficult to know where to start.
The dramatic build up to the D-Day invasion.
The superb pacing.
The fully drawn historical figures.
The variety of people and places depicted.
The important contribution to our understanding of D-Day.
David Stafford's "Ten Days to D-Day" is one of the best and most important works on World War II I've read in recent years. It is a testament to Stafford's amazing talents as a researcher and a writer. The author acquaints us with such disparate figures as Adolph Hitler, a young English woman supporting the war effort as a WREN, an American paratrooper, Charles DeGaulle, a Gestapo prisoner in Norway, a member of the French resistance to name a few.
We follow these people and numerous others in the ten days before the greatest sea-to-land invasion ever contemplated. We share their anxieties, fears, hopes and plans. We get to know not only where they were in those ten days but how they got there. Stafford never lingers with any person to long, deftly going from one person to the next while ultimately still managing to give full justice to each story. Because of the breadth of characters, Stafford hardly ever needs to step away to offer perspective, it's there. He also eschews "cheating," almost never framing his stories with latter-day knowledge.
This would be a useful to students of World War II especially those with a particular interest in D--Day. At the same time it would serve as a great introduction to the war and this aspect of it to a newcomer. Yet at the same time it would be an entertaining for someone just looking for a good read. Remarkable.
Average customer rating:
- Vankin and Whalen are hot to plot!
- Good, could have been great
- Trust No-One !!
- I dare you to read this book and not become a raving paraoid
- BEST Conspiracy primer around....get it before it's banned!!
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The Sixty Greatest Conspiracies of All Time: History's Biggest Mysteries, Coverups, and Cabals
J. Vankin
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
20th Century
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General
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Conspiracy Theories
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Criminology
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True Crime
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ASIN: 0806518332 |
Amazon.com
Is this book funny in a "1001 Jokes for Toastmasters" kind of way? Certainly not. And if one-hundredth of its contents actually come to pass, I suggest you make plans to move to the moon. Of course, if your sense of humor tends towards the black--as the authors' do--you'll think it's an unmitigated laugh riot. After all, what could be funnier than J. Edgar Hoover in a dress? This book does an excellent job of giving you the background that the X-Files assumes you already have--who are the Pleiadians, and why are they mutilating my cattle? With grim good humor, this book is an excellent primer for a topic that actively resists rational discourse, much less cogency. The authors are funny, witty, and keep a bit of skeptical distance from the topic at hand without dismissing it.
Customer Reviews:
Vankin and Whalen are hot to plot!.......2003-12-06
Conspiracy theories are like medicine. Taken properly, they can be a healthy antidote to unrelenting statism and the adoration of Big Brother. Taken improperly, they are a recipe for groovy leftist nihilism.
Given the fact that the United States government, as well as other governments, have indeed shown themselves to have an unhealthy predilection for secret mischief-making, the conspiracy industry is something that should interest both Left and Right, and to some extent, it does. But as is the case with so many things, the "mainstream" conservatives disdain interest in the cutting-edge and the controversial and as far as the "extremists" go, the voices of the Left simply outnumber and out-shriek the voices of the Right.
So most conspiracy authors have large left-handed axes to grind, and many of them produce entertaining but self-serving and un-edifying literary acid trips, such as Tom Miller's"Assassination Please" almanac and Shea and Wilson's "Illuminatus Trilogy".
Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, the authors of "The Greatest 60 Conspiracies of All Time", are ... and a little more restrained, and hence slightly more informative and slightly less entertaining.
Some of what's published here is old stuff, such as the horrible experiments in eugenics that took place in the early 20th century or the CIA plotting against Fidel Castro.
The most entertaining conspiracy theories discussed are the apolitical ones. The notion that aliens once crash-landed at Roswell, New Mexico is fun, and there really aren't any serious political implications to it (the authors treat it skeptically, in any event).
Also kind of fun at this late date is the notion of some sort of connection between Jack the Ripper and England's royal family. But it's been done to death and has been largely disproven, as has been the "Lincoln Conspiracy" formulated by David Balsigier and Charles Sellier.
But as James Burnham once wrote about liberals and leftists, "Pas d'Ennemi a Gauche". For them, there is no enemy to the left. Whenever Vankin and Whalen are in doubt, they cast everything suspicious or dubious as "far-right" or "right-wing". For leftists who only chat with each other, the Left simply doesn't exist for them any more than a fish might be aware that he's always swimming in water.
Vankin and Whalen TRY to be restrained in their conclusions, but for them, there is always at least the POSSIBILITY of an underground right-wing cabal behind every major event. Just about every leftist conspiracy theorist disdains or ignores Lee Harvey Oswald's Marxist sympathies and distorts or ignores evidence linking him to the shooting of JFK.
But in another burst of creativity, Vankin and Whalen cast Mehmet Ali Agca's 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II as a fascist conspiracy instigated by a nationalistic Turkish group and they regard attempts to blame it on Soviet intelligence as a clumsy frame-up attempt by Western intelligence.
Mort Sahl once urged fellow conspiracy theorists to ask "cui bono? (who benefits?)" in order to come to appropriate conclusions about world events. Vankin and Whalen have obviously decided that at a time of unrest in a Soviet satellite country, inspired by the Polish pope, an "ultra-nationalist" Turkish group desiring to spread "terror and chaos" stood to gain more from the pope's death than did the Soviets.
That sort of mindset reminds me of Tom Miller's pointed use of the small letter "c", every time he had occasion to use the word "Communist" or "Communism" in his almanac. To remind us of what an insignificant role the Evil Empire played in world events.
Well, that sort of mindset is what probably accounts for the fact that the very real Soviet conspiracy to infiltrate high levels of the U.S. government in the post-war era through the use of spies such as Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and the Rosenbergs somehow doesn't even make Vankin and Whalen's Top 60 conspiracy list. Because, darn it all, there just isn't any enemy to the left. There just isn't.
They even suggest that if Vince Foster was murdered, he was murdered not by people close to the Clintons but by people conspiring against the Clintons. Oh, so THAT'S why the Clintons strained every nerve to make sure that no stone was left unturned in the investigation of his death.
It's a shame that the conspiracy industry is dominated by the acid heads and granola-eaters because I think there really is stuff out there that needs to be more thoroughly explored by credible authorities, stuff that really might necessitate the re-writing of history and the realignment of political factions. This might include the eerie connection between the Bush family and the family of John Hinckley, would-be assassin of President Ronald Reagan, at the time that the elder Bush was next in line. That's just plain weird.
And what if some sort of triangulation between Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton, involving drug deals and intersecting in Mena, Arkansas really could be found? Wouldn't THAT turn American politics on its ear? Wouldn't that just discolor the "red" and "blue" zones on the electoral map? Wouldn't mainstream conservatives and liberals just have a cow though? Wouldn't they just have a cow? That's why neither National Review nor the New Republic are likely to look too closely at such a possibility.
But if our world really is ultimately governed by shadowy right-wing overlords, they seem to have left popular culture untouched. Popular culture isn't a "right wing" conspiracy at all; it's more of a left-wing conformity. Popular culture is shrill and cacophonous and it's dominated by leftists, nihilists, androgynes, and multi-culturalists. The self-empowerment advocates. The diversity industry.
Vankin and Whalen are a small part of this, of course, and they might want to ask themselves why the fascists allow them and their peers to operate so freely and so destructively. Is it possible that the acid heads are pawns in a game played by forces that they suppose themselves to be in opposition to?
Good, could have been great.......2003-03-25
60 GREATEST CONSPIRACIES is an informal encyclopedia of a variety of conspiracy theories from the last two hundred years. It begins by dicsussing the nature of these theories, and why they are hated so much by the Establishment. Theorists tend to be against those in influence and authority, and frequently deal with the Dark Side of human nature, stuff most people do not want to discuss in polite conversation. One of the methods used to supress conspiracies are when the establishment circulates its own wacky stories that they themselves can easily refute in order to make independent researchers look like fools and thus discredit them easier. The authors are obviously liberals, and this hampers them to some degree, especially when viewing certain topics and summarizing them, but otherwise there is a multitude of useful information and speculation. Some of the material seems poorly edited, and I had trouble trying to find out what the possible motives were in certain events described, especially the chapters on political assassinations. Some things in here are not conspiracies, like the chapter on the eugenics movement which gleams with the authors' liberal bias, and some useless info is included on UFOs and Alien Autopsies. The editors reject the notions of a possible Jewish conspiracy, but instead think that some kind of Nazi-fascist group is calling the shots behind the scenes in spite of contrary evidence that can be researched elsewhere.
Most of the best chapters were about unified field theories and satanic/occult-ritual crimes. Enjoy the really good ones:
'The Royal Ripper': Jack the Ripper slayings in London could have been the work of Masonic Assassins, high ranking figures in British society to symbolically terrorize London's underclass population and intimidate possible snitches.
'Death Squad from the Desert': Charles Manson's connections to the Process Chruch of the Final Judgement.
'Hello from the Gutters': My second favorite, about a possible occult group perpetrating the Son of Sam killings and other ritualistic murders around the country and being involved in the snuff-film trade. Michael Hoffman II makes some connections to the Manson murders, and to the rape-death of Virginia Rappe (a virgin-rape ritual symbolizing the extension of the elephant trunk's power) by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in 1921. Son of Sam also connected to Illuminati and attack on Gerald Ford.
'Enlightened Ones': speculations on who the Illuminati are.
'THE SORCERERS': My personal favorite, it advances Downard's idea that the world's Masonic rulers do what they do not for power or money but to warp humanity in an Alchemical process. The three things that have to take place are killing of the divine king (JFK assassination), creation and destruction of primordial matter (nuclear bomb test) and "the making manifest of all that is hidden."
'Anglophobia': Theories that rock music concerts and dancing are a revival of Dionysian/Bacchic rituals, and that sex-degenerate cults, rock music, sixties counter-culture and drug trade are traced to the British crown and secret agents.
'Playing Those Mind Games': Stuff on mind control. Possibility that UFO "abductions" are part of government expirements.
All in all, well worth looking at if "the most controversial explanations" of well-known events happen to interest the reader.
Trust No-One !!.......1998-08-19
By writing this I'll probably now have a file opened in the CIA database. But hey, stuff 'em. This book is awesome. I dare you to read it and not then be skeptical about everything you see on the TV or read in newspapers (or should they be called "disinformationpapers"). Welcome to the New World Order people; Never has so much been owned, controlled, and covered up by so few.
I dare you to read this book and not become a raving paraoid.......1998-01-31
I don't remember why I started reading this book, but I have spent the past year ingesting it in dainty, sanity-promoting bites. Funny? Certainly, in a bent and cynical way. But mostly it's informative, maybe even a little depressing (hence the nibbling), which is a direct result of their fairly consistent objectivity. What I've liked most about this book is the insight the authors give on the players and their motivations. Yes, I know more about the conspiracies themselves, but more important, they've shown me what kinds of questions to be asking and how to pay attention to details. I'll never be the same again (grin)!
BEST Conspiracy primer around....get it before it's banned!!.......1998-01-23
I used to dismiss conspiracy people, but this book made me a believer. Written in an engaging-but not too serious-style, this book avoids the usual raving, poorly organized syntax of most conspiracy books. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and most of all, it'll scare the hell out of you if you take the time to approach the material with an open mind. After reading this book, you'll never see anyone-or anything-in the same naive way again!!! Question everything!!!
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Books Index
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