thequickbrownfox

Leftist victimology distracts from Autism

Revisado: 09-17-23

The author should write on dysmorohia and transgenderism, as that seems more interesting to him than autism. I was looking for insights into my undiagnosed suspected autism but am confronted with non-stop talk about how rich white men get diagnosed but poor black brown Latinx (yuck, even Latinos hate that term) women and the whole pantheon of leftist victimized groups aren't. There are some insights on autism but the book title is misleading. I wasted my money on this woke agenda screed masquerading as a scientific work on an important subject.

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Great Message on Sex Positivity Marred by Politics

Revisado: 12-17-22

The information in challenges women especially face enjoying sexual pleasure is useful and needed. Humans have distorted what should be a fun healthy safe practice in deference to social norms for time immemorial.
Unfortunately the author mixes in references to 3rd wave feminist tropes about the patriarchy, which contradicts her own evidence that much of sexual stigmas are from internalized attitudes, not active oppression. Other references to irrelevant political topics are scattered throughout. it's a shame that her politics intrude to distract from an otherwise strong work of scholarship.

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interesting history, unconvincing feminish thesis

Revisado: 11-26-22

The history itself is fascinating. Outsized roles of women in Mongol leadership is very interesting. But the idea of Genghis Khan as a proto-feminist is unconvincing. It is based on the idea of him as a meritocratic ruler who appreciated women's roles and promoted his daughters, while his sons were n'er do wells who squandered the great Khan's patrimony. It doesn't make sense that he would put his sons in such leading positions if his daughters were universally far more capable. Even the story as presented doesn't hold the thesis. His 2nd son Chagatai didn't drink, why was he passed over as successor for 3rd son Ogedei? Oldest Joshi died on campaign, why did Genghis trust him to campaign? Even the daughters were often ruthless schemers.
It was really a story of a few exceptional women whereby the rest were not so different from the men, of varying abilities and motivations. The book would have been better as a straight story about a fascinating aspect of Mongol culture, the ability of some exceptional women to rise above the normal patriarchy of all societies of that time. Not as a forced feeling feminism in an otherwise ruthless unforgiving violent culture.

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Exhaustive Biography of Hedy's Acting Career

Revisado: 11-24-22

Lots if details of Hedy's career from childhood yearnings to act to every movie and relationship throughout her storied career. However the coverage of her inventing hobby is less complete. Howard Hughes is barely mentioned and her aircraft insights are missed. Even her famous frequency hopping development is something of a sidebar. If you want to know about Hedy's Hollywood career and personal life, this is the book. "Hedy's Folly" or "Hedy Lamarr's Double Life" better cover her inventiveness.

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Balanced perspective on a monumental man

Revisado: 11-20-22

Deng thought deeply about what would make China prosper. He was not a democrat, democracy scared him. He was the closest to an enlightened dictator that we've seen in the modern era. Unfortunately his kind comes along very rarely. More often to be replaced by the likes of a Putin or Xi.

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provocative unsurprising leftist religion thesis

Revisado: 02-16-22

glad he wrote it. you need cojones to confront the zealots of leftism. only a black intellectual can get away with it. maybe

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Biased unreflective presidential history

Revisado: 10-28-21

The title is misleading in that the president is the focus of most discussions rather than the cabinet. There are much better presidential histories around.
it should have stopped with Ronald Reagen as the lectures show strong pro-Democratic bias for all more recent presidents. Especially the discussion on scandals which never mentions the many scandal allegations of the Clinton and Obama administrations while characterizing Trump as so scandal plagued the news couldn't keep up, or highlighting Trump's reliance on family advice as a problem while Clinton's reliance on the First Lady was acceptable.
The one truly interesting part was rehabilitation of US Grant from the historical view of a scandal tainted administration. That shines a light on her failure to do the same for Warren Harding, on whom she spends an inordinate amount of time for a 2.5 year long administration while failing to mention some admirable Harding accomplishments. It also fails to see how, if past administration scandals can be trumpeted for political effect, perhaps we are seeing the same partisan motivation with the non-stop focus on more recent scandals.
it's a shame that these lectures are probably typical of the superficiality and partisanship probably dominating history pedagogy today.

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not too realistic but good suspenseful listen

Revisado: 12-20-20

while the story is improbable, there is a lot of attention to detail in chess completions and moves. good entertainment and worth a listen. chess is pretty male dominated. it would be fun to have a heroine.

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Exposé of apocalyptic environmentalism

Revisado: 09-26-20

Superbly researched tour de force expose of misanthropic environmentalism. if you ever wondered why environmentalists oppose the cleanest lowest footprint form of energy, nuclear power, pro-nuclear environmental activist Michael Schellenberger has the answer. I thoroughly enjoyed his impressively argued thesis. Read or listen to this book.

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Good historical perspective but biased analysis

Revisado: 06-28-20

The closer you get to the present the less objective the analysis. While the author is clear that the grade rating is based on adherence to constitutional orthodoxy, supreme court appointments are what matter most in the end. The predictable result is that Republicans of the 20th century get high grades while Democrats fare poorly, mostly Fs. That was not the case for the 19th C presidents. The real intent of the founders was to establish an enduring governing institution for a new sort of nation that would adhere to principles while adapting to the times. All constituencies should have a voice. The president should ultimately reflect the desires of a plurality. Denigrating the desires of a broad constituency, whether or not that constituency seeks strict adherence to constitutional norms or wishes to modify them in the interest of changing social norms, doesn't fairly assess the performance of the chief executive.

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