G. Takamatsu's Book Review: John Steinbeck,Writer by Jackson Benson I'd like to look at just one aspect of this book alongside UNFIT FOR COMMAND. One can connect the dots. Steinbeck spent time in Vietnam as a reporter for Newsday magazine. Steinbeck spent at least six weeks in Vietnam. He also visited Thailand and Laos. I think his overall stay in Southeast Asia was about three to four

G. Takamatsu's Book Review: An American Soldier by Tommy Franks I found this an interesting autobiography: the author has lived an interesting life. He was a goofball when he graduated from High School and entered college at the University of Texas, Austin. After a poor performance at the school, he decided to enlist in the Army. He qualified for cryptography school, but found that was not

Team America I've just come from the foulest, trashiest, most vulgar and least culturally sensitive movie I've ever seen. It was funny too. One hates to give away the story line, so suffice to say that what you've heard is true: It is puppets. You can see the wires. Rather than amazing feats of puppetry, what we see is not unlike a ten-year old attempting to manipulate marionnettes for the

Short takes Just in case you needed one more reason to vote for Bush... Jesse Ventura Backing Kerry --- What happened to the Saudis doing anything to win this for Bush? Crude Price Tops $55 a Barrel --- Uh, no... The Anti-Voter Opinion: It's time to start demonizing apathy and ignorance Actually, in a relatively free society where our freedoms and the stable

First Lady: No Need for Apology NEW LONDON, N.H. — Laura Bush (search) said Thursday that Teresa Heinz Kerry (search) didn't need to apologize for saying she couldn't remember whether the first lady had ever had "a real job." Hmm. It's kind of telling, isn't it, the difference between the Kerry team's cheap shots involving family members vs. the graciousness of the First Lady? Laura Bush,

Book Reviews - It's Chopra time! The Book of Secrets This has been hailed as Chopra's most insightful book to date. You can either pause, curious, or insert your punchline here. Whatever your choice, though, this book makes for an interesting read. At some point, Chopra took up the "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" challenge with regard to quantum physics, and what he's come up with is a

G. Takamatsu's Book Reviews: How to Talk to a Liberal by Ann Coulter Ann Coulter writes the truth in an irreverent manner. I don't always agree with her, but she does argue persuasively and she does her homework like Michell Malkin. I am reminded of a Christian friend who grew up Buddhist. He was exposed to Hinduism, but showed no interest in converting from Buddhism (or atheism?) to Hinduism.

Interesting Kerry quote round-up here. (via Instapundit) Most disturbing: "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." -- John Kerry, 1970-- "There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I

from the e-mail bag (from the TurkeyMom, in fact - as was the Noah story below): A lady goes to her priest one day and tells him, "Father, I have a problem. I have two female parrots, but they only know how to say one thing." "What do they say?" the priest inquired. They say, "Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?" That's obscene!" the priest exclaimed, then he thought for a moment.

CARE Suspends Work Agency says it will put Iraq operations on hold because of director's abduction Another stunning blow by the Religion of Peace's fiercest advocates to protect the Iraqi people from... assistance? Let's face it. There may be Baathists who sincerely believe the old government was better. There may be ordinary Iraqis who are ready for us to be the hell out of there.

from the e-mail bag, author unknown to me... Noah's New Ark The Lord came to Noah, in Oregon, in the year 2004. The earth was wicked and over-populated. The Lord instructed Noah to build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans. "Here's the blueprint", said the Lord. "Hurry.... in six months I start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights." Six months

Nice Bleat today on the question of Bush and faith. And further proof that some Americans have set their sights too low: Lileks for President - 2008There. If he stumbles across this, that ought to scare the hell out of him. Anyway, Lileks does hit the right notes in the right places in the right ways. He seems like such a nice, thoughtful guy that one can hardly believe he's a

Book Review Inveterate reader G. Takamatsu will be contributing book reviews to this site from time to time while a site of his own is set up. This is the first of doubtless many. TWICE ADOPTED by Michael Reagan. ISBN: 080543144-6. The title refers to Reagan's two adoptions, first, into the Reagan family and second into the family of God. Michael Reagan did not become a Christian till late in

Mickey Kaus, wildly generalizing from his own personal experience, suggests wireless-only voters may break for Kerry because of their demographic, and then concludes this could mean Kerry's numbers are better than they appear. But... most of the wireless-only people I know fit a different group: Republican-leaning libertarians who got tired of dealing with government protected landline

From Lileks:Lynn Cheney fires back: Kerry is “not a good man,” which is a rather remarkable statement to make. Good Lord! You’d almost think her daughter had been dragged into a discussion of Constitutional amendments to score a point, or something. Lizzie Edwards on ABC radio responded: She's [Lynne Cheney]overreacted to this and treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion. I think

Charles Krauthammer, himself paralyzed, is quite right to rip John Edwards for the claim that somehow a vote for Kerry will get people out of their wheelchairs. One wonders, though. Are Edwards and his trial lawyer friends this optimistic about medical advances when advising juries on how much their personal injury clients should get? Has a single trial lawyer ever said, "I don't think my

Interesting bit about online polls... I guess the Dem memos about voting in online polls went through. Last night about an hour after the debate, the AOL poll was about 70-30 for Kerry. But now it's 50-50, with 73% saying the debate didn't change who they were voting for. Which may mean, contrary to Mr. Hewitt, that we're headed for another close one. The big question is whether the

Why we're fighting... Here's the headline for a post at LGF: Mass Grave of Women and Children in Iraq And here's the first line: A mass grave in northern Iraq has been found to contain the remains of toddlers clutching toys. Just to make things really awful, here's why the Europeans aren't helping investigate the atrocity: The Europeans, he said, were staying away as the evidence might be

Final thoughts, part I I do wish I could have seen the debates. Bush sounded okay and Kerry sounded a bit, well, Kerryish. But I don't know, for example, whether Bush looked pensive or lost during some of the pauses, nor whether Kerry looked self-satisfied, self-righteous or just serious after some of the more arrogant sounding remarks. And I know it makes a difference. Overall, I think

more debate... Kerry loves the minimum wage. Hmm. I worked at McDonald's in college. Every time the minimum wage went up, a new machine appeared and hours got cut. I was fine, but the people who didn't know and couldn't do crap went from having a job, however lousy, to being eased out - hours cut and jerked around till they quit. The problem, incidentally, wasn't that anyone had it in for