Stephanie Maughan
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James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights
- De: Richard Labunski
- Narrado por: Richard Poe
- Duración: 11 h y 25 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 220
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 127
Richard Labunski offers a dramatic account of a time when the entire American experiment hung in the balance, only to be saved by the most unlikely of heroes, the diminutive and exceedingly shy James Madison. Here is a vividly written account of not one, but several major political struggles that changed the course of American history.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Tedious
- De Adam Smith en 04-19-10
Excellent, but slightly diminished by bias
Revisado: 05-29-23
A very interesting telling of very important events, and very well written. I remove one star, however, because the author seems to have a pro-federalist bias which, for me, sometimes tainted my enjoyment of the book. While bias is inevitable, in a historical book I feel that the author should do their best to be even handed. In this case, Patrick Henry and the other anti-federalist are almost always described derisively, and their arguments are always described as being emotional or exaggerations or distortions or calumny etc., while the federalist arguments are rational and true. Undoubtably, the anti federalists did engage in hyperbole and emotional manipulation and I’m sure not all their arguments were sound—but it strains credulity that the federalist did not engage in the same and with equal measure. Yet the tone of this telling suggests that the low politicking was the exclusive domain of the anti federalists. Moreover, when describing the supposedly exaggerated claims of the anti federalists, the author doesn’t ever mention the fact that many (if not all) of their premises did bare out over the course of history and many of their predictions proved prescient—for example, that the federal government would grow into a behemoth at the expense of the states, violate individual rights (alien and sedition act, as one example), and diminish states rights (the very concept of states rights is not even mainstream any more, the demolition thereof having been so thorough), that the federalist argument that explicit protections were not needed because the gov had only the limited powers delegated by the constitution was invalidated by the necessary and proper clause and other implied powers which could be interpreted broadly as allowing almost anything (see Marburg v Madison and the subsequent history of constitutional case law, which have done nothing but steadily expand the scope of the federal government with implied power), and many other examples. Whether you think these occupancies are for the better or not, it nevertheless should have been mentioned that the anti-federalists were not merely exaggerating or misreading clauses of the constitution, but did in fact turn out to be right on many of their core concerns. You can be on the side of the constitution while still acknowledging that it’s opponents were not fools or naives and had valid concerns many of which history has validated.
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Mind Bullet
- De: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrado por: R.C. Bray
- Duración: 11 h y 42 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 3,391
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 2,939
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 2,930
Jonas kills people...with his mind. He reaches out, focuses for a moment, and feels a snap of pain between his eyes. Then his target falls over dead: a hole in the center of their brains. The cause of death is unknown to all aside from Jonas, and his lone companion, Bubbles, a sarcastic AI with aspirations to be more human, or a serial killer. One of the two. Maybe both. Jonas calls his ability...mind bullet.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Highest Recommendation!
- De Harper en 11-23-21
- Mind Bullet
- De: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrado por: R.C. Bray
Entertaining and worth a listen, but not a 5 star story
Revisado: 01-25-22
The book is entertaining. It’s funny and creative and full of action. Mr Bray does an excellent job bringing the characters to life, as always. Now for the big “but”: the story was just too unbelievable for me to really get into it and buy into the characters. I am not talking here about the sci-fi and fantasy elements of the story—I’m fine with those being unbelievable, indeed that is the point of this genre. But irrespective of these fantasy elements, I still expect the rest of the world, especially the people therein, to be believable. For example, the people should interact with one another in believable ways, have believable motivations and psychologies, respond to events in a believable manner, etc. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case in Mind Bullet. Example: everyone who meets the protagonist and finds out he is an assassin is just cool with it…and not only that, they all are eager to join his team at the drop of a hat after barely knowing him at all. This is not believable human behavior. And he is totally cool with accepting and trusting everyone who joins him for basically no reason—EMT who helped him one time…sure join up and be my best buddy, FBI agent who tried to arrest him…sure join us and I will trust you implicitly. It’s just silly when you think about it. And there are Deus Ex Machina moments everywhere…literally. Again, I am
okay with super human powers and all that (this is fantasy after all) but it’s disappointing when the character turns out in the end to be basically all-powerful and invincible right at the moment he needs to in order to win. So overall, I was disappointed with the story. But I was entertained by the action and the humor, so I still think it was worth a listen. Just not great literature.
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