OneForAll

Pitied the judge, embarrassed by the defendants

Revisado: 07-09-24

Listening to this story, I couldn't help thinking that if the signers of the Declaration of Independence had been captured and tried by the British, they would not have acted like this. And I certainly can't imagine Dr. King acting like this. These were not heroes, but insolent schoolboys continually interrupting the teacher, laughing in class, shouting, pounding on desks, and throwing out cheap shots like comparing the judge to Hitler.

The prosecution used the defendants' own words in his case, and no wonder. According to Wikipedia: "In a typical press release, Hoffman and Rubin stated about their plans in Chicago: "'We are dirty, smelly, grimy and foul...we will p--- and s--- and f--- in public...we will be constantly stoned or tripping on every drug known to man.'" Then they went into court doing everything they could to antagonize the judge, then were aghast to find they actually had to face consequences for their actions! One whole appendix is devoted to all the contempt citations, which were later thrown out as well as the convictions. I can't help but wonder, did they appreciate it at all?

Judge Hoffman was later censured for his own conduct during the trial. I guess we'll never know if he would have been so hard on them if they had respected the court and played by the rules--but I guess "revolutionaries" have never been known for that. In any case, it's a riveting story and doesn't read at all like a court transcript. Despite the repeated reminders, it's still hard for me to believe these were all the actual words.

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Engaging and Entertaining

Revisado: 09-01-23

James Patterson shows why he's famous for thrillers, and all the better with Hilary Swank starring in it. The three-woman team is out to uncover the truth, and they're willing to bend the rules, give their superiors headaches and force the bad guys to extreme measures. It's dark, but not overly so, with courtroom sparring thrown in toward the end. Held my attention all the way through.

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Fascinating Overview of all 45 Presidents

Revisado: 03-11-21

This is a great place to learn about our commanders in Chief, getting to know the lesser-remembered ones, as well as a fresh view of the iconic heroes we learned about in school; JFK, Franklin Roosevelt and so on. Some of the ratings may surprise you.

I wouldn't call the author biased. Rather, he's mindful of the presidential oath to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution--that is, putting his country first. This is the yardstick by which every president, regardless of party, is measured. Why, for example, should we send troops to fight prolonged, undeclared limited wars on the other side of the world that don't affect US interests? Or limit immigration regardless of the reason? As far as Islamic countries, he warns that whatever help we give them, we'll still be infidels in their eyes--but I see there are other whole books written about that subject.

The narrator's voice is clear and conversational, not distracting me from the narrative itself.

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Legendary book, and I liked the narration too

Revisado: 06-20-20

First, I'd like to say I tried reading this book years ago and soon put it down--it just seemed like people endlessly talking, and didn't go anywhere. So now I thought, why not give it another chance, and on audio? Eight hours later I finished listening, spellbound. My word. Hemingway was truly a master. And this was only his first novel. The interactions between the characters, the settings, the descriptions and details transporting you back to France and Spain in the 1920's; I didn't feel like I was listening to a story, I felt like I was in the story, surrounded by three-dimensional characters.

Now about the narration. I was surprised to see all the reviews panning William Hurt, because he does a masterful job. He brings all the characters to life with the accents, Bill, Mike, Brett, the Parisians and Spaniards. I felt he enhanced the listening experience, and after I finished, I reflected that a masterpiece like this needs an accomplished veteran actor like Hurt to carry it off. And he did it very well.

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Takes the wind out of my conspiracy-theory sails

Revisado: 06-30-19

I had just turned two years old when President Kennedy was assassinated. Growing up, I got to know all the conspiracy theories, speculations about the CIA, the FBI, how spotty the Warren Commission's report was, how the official Lone Nut story made no sense. I even read a whole book that swore LBJ arranged the whole thing.

Well systematically and methodically, one by one, this book dismantled all my lifelong-held notions. Bugliosi takes us minute by minute through the crime and the events afterward, showing one solid proof after another that Oswald indeed acted alone and the Warren Commission was correct. There were details I hadn't known, like how firearms experts were indeed not only able to duplicate Oswald's accuracy, but improve upon it. After listening, I had to honestly wonder how all the conspiracy theories started in the first place.

I used to think, "I want to know who really killed President Kennedy." Well, now that's been put to rest. Thank you, Mr. Bugliosi.

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Glad I discovered this

Revisado: 06-23-18

Studying Shakespeare in school, we always had the teacher to lead us through it. This is like that, but more entertaining. The narration and commentary weren't the distraction I feared they might be, but very helpful. Without them, frankly, I'd have been lost, but I understood all that was going on in every scene. And I loved the historical info about England at the time, the Globe Theater, and how MacBeth ties in with King James, for whom Shakespeare wrote it.

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Two sides to every story, even Vietnam

Revisado: 02-16-18

It was refreshing to hear this account, by someone who not only researched the war and met some of its people, but was there fighting it. Our military had the VC beat, but were kept on a leash by an over-cautious government bent on a "limited" war. Still, Nixon had them beat after the Christmas Bombings, when he made them accept the Paris Peace accords and then brought the remaining troops home.

It might have ended like there...except North Vietnam, who could never leave their Southern neighbors alone, invaded (according to the author, our press refused to call it an "invasion") and the Democratic Congress held back air and naval support. The North Vietnamese were still getting help from Russia and China. Case closed.

Jennings also dispels the common image of the Vietnam vet--most have actually done quite well.

(BTW, I read once of a North Vietnamese vet who came to visit US vets. He said the war was a living hell for "Charlie," too. They suffered PTSD etc., but when they went to their government for help, they were told they'd won the war and therefore had to be OK.)

Jennings also reminds us it wasn't a civil war; the South simply minded its own business, but the North wanted to conquer the whole country for their ideology.

The author doesn't flinch from telling what America did wrong, but also shows what America did right. And there's a whole appendix on the Pentagon Papers and how they were presented to the public, that I found very interesting.

After listening to this, I got the idea that our whole memory of that time has been twisted out of shape. My image of it was, the US government were doofuses, we got bogged down in an unwinnable quagmire, the North Vietnamese weren't so bad, it was the US who had everything to be ashamed of. I never seemed to hear about how oppressive the North Vietnamese government was or how they refused to stop attacking the South. When they finally took over, thousands of boat people fled out to sea to escape. All I heard, read, or saw in movies over the years was shame on us, shame on us, shame on us!

Well it's good to be reminded there are two sides to every story, even this.

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Compelling, if a bit biased

Revisado: 02-10-18

A comprehensive, sometimes tedious but often fascinating history of the whole evangelical movement in one volume. (To be fair, I think "tedious" means hearing about people I'm not so interested in, like Ralph Reed; "fascinating" with people I was curious about, like Billy Graham and James Dobson.) It charts the movement from its Great Awakening beginnings through the election of Donald Trump, focusing on the major players along the way.

What struck me was the movement's continual emphasis on politics and the issues of the day, trying to force a heavenly society into being using worldly political, legislative means. Not surprisingly, it doesn't appear God has blessed such efforts even after 20+ years.

The author tells the story from the leftish point of view, minding PC buzzwords like "anti-abortion" to describe the pro-life community, and "pro-choice" for the anti-life abortion supporters. He tells of the Republican Senators who suddenly confessed to adulterous affairs during the Clinton impeachment, but he doesn't say why: Clinton had Larry Flynt on his side, who dug up the dirt on the Senators. As if to say, What about your own indiscretions?

The author also brought my attention to another book, this one by two former Christian Right leaders, "Blinded by Might." I'll be checking that one out next.

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Fascinating, Thrilling, Enthralling, Perplexing

Revisado: 08-24-17

First, the positive: This is the history lesson I've been looking for. The authors run down the stories behind official paid church leaders, church buildings, the Lord's Supper and sitting for extended sermons, among other things. I was spellbound; I knew that Christianity had borrowed a bit from previous religions & customs, but I never knew paganism had soaked in _this_ deep.

The "perplexing" part--and the reason I only gave it three stars--is that Viola keeps jumping up on a soapbox about things ranging from trivial to just plain weird. He hates "individualism" with a purple passion and goes out of his way to attack it. Like, over and over again. Just the personal pronoun "I" in a praise song is enough to raise his hackles! (I wonder what he thinks of all the psalms that use the pronoun "I?") And while discussing proof-texting, he tells us to note the "individual nature" of the verses.(?)

After stressing the importance of interactive home gatherings throughout the book, Viola turns around and condemns a hypothetical man who has started just such a gathering. Why? The man's home church wasn't founded the right way, it was supposed to be planted by an itinerant church-planter who plants, and then makes himself scarce.(??)

The history lessons held me enthralled. But after finishing the book, I came away with the impression that Viola holds to specific, rigid ideas about how Christianity should be practiced, and he can't understand why everyone else doesn't think the same way. And he has little patience for said people.

There may be Christians, for example, who prefer a sermon over interactive discussion. Some may be blessed by a church's organ or worship team as opposed to people breaking out into spontaneous songs. And someone else might be more than happy to heed Christ's admonition to, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door, rather than doing it (and everything else) corporately with a group.

Listen to the book for the history. But as far as Viola's attitude, it reminds me of how Matthew Henry said, "There is a strange proneness in us to think that all do wrong who do not just as we do."

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Sad, but gives you something to think about

Revisado: 02-05-16

I watched football for years as a Chargers fan. Gradually I got turned off by the whole business--the endless hype, the inane commercials, the revolving door with players always coming and going, the rookies demanding more and more millions before they've even played a down, the obnoxious drunks, the fans who give sports a bad name, using football as one more excuse to be mean. (I wondered if Steve Almond would bring up the movie "Big Fan" starring Patton Oswalt, who asks, "Why does everybody have to be so mean?")

Admittedly, it also didn't help that I became a fan right when they drafted Ryan Leaf. :p

I cheered for the underdog Saints all through their Super Bowl season, was thrilled when they won...and then that whole bounty scandal broke. And the Patriots got away with cheating, how many times now? And then the concussion story came out. And Junior Seau shocked us all by shooting himself.

Like another reviewer, I stayed away from football this year to see if I'd miss it. And like that reviewer, I didn't.

I got this audiobook the week before Super Bowl. The game is the day after tomorrow. I was intrigued that Peyton Manning is in it again and thought I'd like to see how he'd do against the Carolina Panthers. If you're only watching one game all season, it should be the Big Game, right?

Well now I feel like, forget it. I want no part of it. After finishing Almond's book, it all reminds me of a first-century Roman Christian's remark, that men were being murdered in coliseums to please applauding crowds. Now it's men in billion-dollar state of the art stadiums, beating each other's brains out by the squadful, for the entertainment of cheering fans.

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