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Evidence of Fasting Benefits Comoelling

Revisado: 09-16-24

I first read Hendricks article years ago, and had over the years read about scientific support for the medicinal benefits of fasting. I was happy to discover he had expanded that article into a book. His research is meticulous. His recitation of fasting history gets a bit tedious but his first experiences at two fasting clinics, one in Europe and one in California are well-written and compelling. His condemnation of the institutional medical profession’s near total rejection of the medicinal benefits of fasting is non-hysterical, evidence-based, and reasoned. It is ever so clear that so-called modern medicine has been overwhelmed by some marvelous in-roads made by pharmaceuticals and now is so completely beholding to the money of BigPharma that it cannot, or refuses to, see alternative cures and remedies is science-based non-pharmaceutical fasting.
This book is well-worth the read. The author is a skilled journalist and writer, who convincingly argues that serious illness may be cured by fasting but only under guidance of skilled medical professionals - this is not to be done at home on your own.
We need our doctors to be more opened minded and our medical schools - who teaches nothing about diet and even less about fasting - to get with the science!!

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Excellent!

Revisado: 03-01-24

Clever and sophisticated behind its simple and direct, but nonetheless compelling, narrative, this is a marvelous novel. A key part of the narrative involves an eight-year-old boy, the protagonist’s little brother, who is enthralled with a travel book of great stories from history and literature, which he has read 24 times. The novel mirrors the suggestion in the travel book that a great travel story should begin in the middle, and it uses as a device to heighten the intrigue one of the book’s stories - the travels of Ulysses - by introducing a character named Ulysses who saves the boy and becomes a great friend. This travel adventure is not a travelogue, but a character study of three teenagers from disparate backgrounds who were sent to a reformatory in Salina, Kansas, who became friends and players in the story, along with the eight-year old little brother, and others who participate in the story by either being with the protagonist from the start or meet the players along the story-line.

I was drawn into the story by the well-defined characters and their “voices,” as the main characters narrated their own sub-chapters to carry the story along. I was kept glued to the story by the plot development, and stayed up late listening unable to interrupt the story-telling.

Highly recommended.

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Lives up to its well-earned reputation

Revisado: 02-03-24

High quality story telling, well-developed characters, compelling tale. Thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Audible version.

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Her words echo down the canyon of history and come back to us in the new age of fascism.

Revisado: 01-17-24

This book is quintessential Rachel Maddow: assiduously researched; punched into a compelling narrative; focused on people, often with real power, who do egregious things sometimes for unfathomable but mostly misguided and stupid reasons; all the while subtly telling her reader between the lines, “this could happen to you”. Chilling language cooked up in support of Hitler’s fascism reappears verbatim in Donald Trump’s electioneering and governing policies, and Maddow never says so - it is obvious to any one paying attention. It appears someone working for Trump did a high school quality research project, came upon thirst slogans (“America First”, for example), and took them to Trump who thought them grand. Amazing Nazi origins of so much current Trump sloganeering and policy promotion. Prequel, indeed.

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I Never Thought I’d Say This About a Cheney: “God bless Liz Cheney!”

Revisado: 01-06-24

I don’t like Dick Cheney. As Vice President to George W. Bush he made terrible choices and influenced Pres Bush to do the same after 9/11. I think he is smug, arrogant, and politically foolish. But he raised a daughter with courage, integrity, and grit, and I honor him (and his wife, Lynn) for that. Surrounded by Republicans with no sense of duty to country, no integrity, no honor, and absolutely no courage to do what is right, Liz Cheney stands tall among her faint-hearted fellow GOP party members. I salute her steadfastness to oath and country. Her book expertly captures the horror of a collapsing once Grand Old Party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, that once upon a time did the right thing in eliminating slavery, passing civil rights and voting rights legislation, and forcing a corrupt President to resign. Its collapse is caused by an evil enthrallment with and for Donald Trump. Cheney’s leadership role with the January 6 House Select Committee and her unswerving adherence to the rule of law, her refusal to be cowered by threats both political and physical by Trump and his spineless Republican minions and the MAGA mob, and her commitment to fighting to keep Trump away from the WH because of his historic and infamous refusal to adhere to our constitution and attempt to overturn a free and fair election, are admirable, praiseworthy, and may save our nation from ruin. She is a hero.

She writes in straight-forward style, without flare or wasted words. She sticks to proven facts founded on sworn testimony and uncontroverted documentary evidence. Her words reveal her pain felt deep in her conservative soul over the Lilly-livered Republican elected leaders’ complete loss of integrity and the utter collapse of her beloved GOP they have caused in their unhinged continued embrace of Donald Trump. Her Jan6 committee investigation uncovered Trump’s corruption and the dire future of this country if he returns to power. She tells it all here.

This book should be required reading for every MAGA voter as a prerequisite for voting in 2024. Sadly, a vast majority of them, like their Dear Leader, don’t read books. They really, really need to read this one.

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We could sure use Barack Obama’s steady hand, sharp mind, and clear-eyed leadership today.

Revisado: 12-25-23

I freely admit that I have missed Pres. Obama’s unique voice, his measured tone, the steady but quick tap-tap-tap of his cadence, and the intellectual and reasoned underpinnings of his approach to problem-solving and governance from the Oval Office in the White House, I had attended his inauguration, walking home afterwards to Arlington, VA across the Potomac, wondering what his Presidency would accomplish and how a black man would lead a nation like ours, and what that might stir up in places of the country where such would be considered come-uppence, at best, and at worse a genuine travesty. I purchased from a street vendor on the bridge a small poster showing Obama speaking in Hyde Park in Chicago on election night, to commemorate the occasion and my small participation in it. So, I am not an impartial judge of this book. I was from the start of his presidential candidacy and still remain a big fan, But I can say in all candor that this book met and even exceeded my lofty expectations. The book accurately reflects Obama’s personality, character, guiding principles, and his political style and substance. I felt like I was a guest in his personal study listening to him tell of his political rise and the journey to the White House. His writing is personal and even intimate yet with an air of formality - he lets his guard down but only so far - enough to pull you in to share his points of view but not so much as to truly invade his (or his family’s) privacy. I enjoyed the journey and was reminded how successful his presidency was. If you hated or disliked Obama when he was in the White House, you might actually learn to appreciate the man and his abilities if you were to read/listen to this book. If you were or are a fan like me, you will love the book and feel nostalgia for the competence, intellect, reasoned leadership style, and personality and character of one of the more remarkable Presidents in our history.

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It’s never too we late to open your eyes to the truth

Revisado: 10-06-23

Wow, did it take a long time for Ms. Hutchinson to (finally) realize she worked for a President who tried to destroy our democracy. January 6 did not open her eyes, nor did all the other Trump fiascos that occurred during her long tenure working in his White House. But when the President she admired and his Chief of Staff (Mark Meadows), whom she served as Deputy, accused her of leaking to the press which White House staffers would stay with Trump after he left the White House snd returned to MaroLago, calling her disloyal (the worst “crime” anyone could commit in the Trump universe, then she started to see the light. To be sure, better late than never. But she was ready to forgive Trump’s Jan6 crimes (although she never described his actions as such) or so it seemed, and stay part of Trump’s inner circle up until she was accused of leaking minor “news” - the usual petty Trump over-reaction to anything he thought made him look bad. To her credit, when she came up for air from the Trump swampy depths, and saw the light, she found the courage to act. God bless her for that. The truly sad part of the story is how lonely she is as the number of other insiders who surely saw what she saw but either did not recognize the evil or did recognize it but ignored it, is so very small. Most Republicans have sold their souls to to the Trump devil. So, give Ms Hutchinson her due praise, in part because she is such a rare Trumpian bird, but temper it somewhat with a query: What took you so long? In the end, though, she did the right thing with courage and resilience. Wish more Republicans had her fortitude and sense of country before Trump. For that, she has my admiration and gratitude.

As for her book, it is clearly written by a very young woman, with an average college education, who is very skilled in managing administrative details, charts, schedules, and functions, but not concerned with or adept at policy, politics, analysis, or evaluation. She writes like a normal, recent college grad, unsophisticated but direct and clear, in simple narrative style. When, toward the end, she described her discovery of Watergate witness and Nixon White House staffer Alex Butterfield, who became her inspiration to testify to the Jan 6 committee, and her reliance on and developing relationship with committee vice-chair, Republican Liz Cheney, her writing captures the emotion and trust she felt. The two hero’s of her story are Butterfield and Cheney, with supporting roles played by her pro bono attorneys from Alston Bird in Atlanta (primarily Jody Hunt, a former 20-year DOJ attorney). The money that firm spent to represent her and protect her, was impressive. (I wonder if she used proceeds from the sale of this book to re-unburden them - unlikely, because doing so would undermine the pro bono representation they provided).

Bottom line: I recommend this book. Cassidy Hutchinson is a rare Republican bird who saw the light and, though only after serving Trump for a very long time, finally came to see Trump for what he was. Her courage and resilience are admirable and praise-worthy. Her story should be read by anyone interested in preserving our democracy.

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Frank Church was the last of a western breed of politicians

Revisado: 07-22-23

The west seemed to grow politicians like Frank Church. Sprouting up from communities of decent, hard-working, plain-speaking folks, Church grew into progressive politics while in the Senate, like his contemporary fellow senators from Oregon and Montana. They eventually left their constituents behind as they grew wiser in worldly issues and more liberal in domestic ones, while their voters back home remained mostly rural and increasingly conservative. I think the title of the book accurately captures Frank Church’s public and private character. And the authors text does, too. Growing up in eastern Oregon in the 50s and 60s, I was aware of Senator Church and had a sense of respect and admiration for him. I recommend this book and it’s audio version.

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Brilliance finds different homes.

Revisado: 06-05-23

A compelling memoir from a brilliant woman who sprang from the union of brilliant but uneducated parents in rural Idaho, torn by a family where religious fervor, male dominance, abuse, female submission (grounded in Mormon fundamentalism), and sibling friction all mixed together into a stew of self-doubt, self-discovery, and awakening. For someone unaware of Mormon tradition and culture, or it’s manifestations in rural settings like author’s home in Idaho, this story would likely be one of a woman finding her voice after freeing herself from the shackles of her father’s and brother’s religious, physical, and religious abuse and oppression. But for a male Mormon like me, it was richer, deeper, and more daunting story of how ignorance (despite natural, even brilliant, intelligence) distorts faith and religion. If Mormonism was as her father manifest it, the author could no more embrace the faith than she could endure her father. She was doubly victimized, left without her parents and also her faith, even though her memoir hardly dwells on the latter. I am saddened to think that Idaho is filled with people not unlike her father, not as naturally intelligent as he, but similarly ignorant yet faithfully embracing a Mormonism distorted by that ignorance. Hard to explain how natural intelligence and ignorance can find place in the same person, but it happens. The author’s struggle to make peace, having inherited her parents’ intelligence but discarding their ignorance, with her family makes for a story worth reading (or in my case, listening to). And in the end, once rejecting the ignorance there could be no reconciliation - the consequences of ignorance can find no place with unrestrained intelligence. They are incompatible in the end.

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Worthy of Pulitzer Prize!

Revisado: 05-24-23

I was amazed at how Lincoln was a consummate politician, but one steeped in principle and adaptability. It seems that he was willing to learn and adapt while constantly trying to find political ground that helped his Republican Party from splintering, but doing so in response to fast-changing circumstances far beyond his control. This seems to be Foner’s theme - Lincoln grew and changed and adapted to unanticipated social and civil disruption, in ways that maybe no other man could have and in ways that preserved a nation and emancipated 4+ million slaves. He adapted more than he led, but ultimately his adapting brought a reluctant nation along with him (in a way radical abolitionists could not). Foner captures this Lincoln masterfully. His research is impeccable and his prose direct and pleasing. I am so grateful to have been given this new insight to one of our greatest, if not the greatest, Presidents by a skilled and truly great historian. Thank you, Eric Foner.

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