Average customer rating:
- A Great Wyeth Book
- He must have been in love
- Andrew Wyeth One of America's Finest Painters
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Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures
John Wilmerding
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Wyeth at Kuerners
ASIN: 0810917882 |
Customer Reviews:
A Great Wyeth Book.......2005-10-20
Yes, this IS one of the great Andrew Wyeth books. Everyone interested in this great American artist will love it. This was my first Wyeth book. It was on my shelf for a long time, and I knew I liked his work. After my retirement in 2001, I began painting with watercolors and looked around for some work I liked for inspiration and found only Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth. Later, I was fortunate to see the Helga show in Omaha and found out how amazing Wyeth really is. I spent hours looking at these paintings trying to figure out how he was able to balance areas of color that looked almost poured on next to areas of almost photographic detail. I have read that that's what they call drybrush technique. Well, maybe so, but I call it sheer genius. As with all Wyeth reproductions in books, this one is good, but after you have seen the actual paintings, they are but pale shadows. Nevertheless, I love this book. It is the next best thing to being near a museum where you can see the originals. Wyeth is indeed an inspiration.
He must have been in love.......2005-06-19
I don't mean that Helga was his lover. Still, the artist has an intense experience of his model, and Helga was his model for 15 years.
This is an outstanding book in lots of ways. The subject matter is beyond belief, and the reproductions are good. The visual content is organized well: major pieces are chronological, and sketches and studies are gouped with the pieces they support. I find it very helpful to see the sketches, and see all the variations that Wyeth tried before committing to a more dmanding piece. Those groups of drawings are drawing lessons themselves, in how to explore a visual idea. The text is a bit thin, and says nearly nothing about Helga herself - not a flaw in the book, so much as a step short of what it could have been.
Most of all, the pictures are simply lovely. Helga was a very handsome woman, in her 50s in the lastest of these pictures. Not 'pretty' maybe, but very beautiful - at least, she is presented as very beautiful, and very real. Some of the nudes studies show her arms crossed, oddly compressing her natural curves. That just makes the pictures more genuine for me, showing her as she is, not made up to some anatomical ideal.
Explanatory text could have been more explanatory, but that's OK. The large majority of the book is just the pictures themselves, and I don't mind being alone with them.
//wiredweird
Andrew Wyeth One of America's Finest Painters.......2005-05-31
For well over 25 years I have examined and reviewed countless paintings of the Wyeth family (N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, & Jamie Wyeth) who are all phenomenal painters. But the quality of the Compositions, the details of the clothing, nature and the human figure are an amazing spectacle when you review this book of Andrew's work. What an amazing technician he is.
Whether you're an art collector, painter or art critic you will admit that this book contains some of the most intriguing and interesting art.
Andrew Wyeth is a master at creating depth in each picture. The justaposition of figure to landscape or figure to interior items seems to be a heighted sense of "knowing" in Andrew's work. This book helped me to conclude that Andrew Wyeth is a genius who is in full command of his materials. If you think Steven Spielberg is a great film producer than it won't be hard for you to conclude that Andrew Wyeth is also a great painter.
The details in the picture "Farm Road" are excellent. Helga's hair is detailed as if painted with a laser while the leather strap from the bag she is carrying appears worn like real leather. The muted colors of green, brown and reddish tones in the coat and the rich transparency of light emanating from her cheek are amazingly done with subtlety and richness you will appreciate.
My degree in Accounting allows me to be able to count the hundreds of amazing things that are going on in each work while my degree in Art allows me to appreciate the quality of the brush work and the transparency range in each painting.
Book Description
An insightful debunking of the way charitable giving disguises American neglect of the public welfare. Observing that the United States has the weakest public social welfare system in the industrialized world, What's Love Got to Do With It? explores the extent to which the huge charity enterprise industry legitimates and supports this state of affairs. Independent philanthropy, the book argues, provides a cover for the harshness of America's free market capitalism. It also exposes the warlike posture of a state apparatus that focuses on discipline and correction rather than on eradicating inequality. David Wagner, a professor of social work and sociology at the University of Southern Maine, traces the origins of the charitable mystique from a historical and sociological perspective--from its religious roots in the missions to convert indigenous peoples, through the long period of the poorhouse, the rise of foundations, and the development of new alternative social service agencies. Wagner goes on to show how America has glorified its private sector at the expense of providing material benefits, such as income support, housing, or medical insurance, to its citizens. This has immense social costs, not the least of which is the institutionalization of poverty among many U.S. citizens. One of the few works to examine the overall role of charitable giving in America, What's Love Got to Do With It? is bound to spark debate and, ideally, reform.
Customer Reviews:
waste of a time.......2006-05-01
this book is utterly useless. the author makes good points, but he would have been better off just writing a short essay. the book drones on and on, every paragraph feels exactly like the one before it. saying something over and over again, hammering it in like that works sometimes but this authorly surely cant. go to borders, read the introduction and the last chapter, and then move onto something better.
dont waste your money on this.
Excellent and incisive critique of American charity.......2000-04-08
David Wagner's book What's Love Got to Do With It, provides the reader to an insightful perspective on American charity. Penetrating the veneer of "do-gooderism," Wagner exposes the abuses, distortions and deliberate social control mechaisms that have been a part of the American charitable entrprise since its inception. This book is a must read for anyone involved in philanthopy, social welfare service provision, or social work education.
Baltimore Sun 2/6/00.......2000-02-19
"Wagner's book will be interesting reading for donors, policymakers and advocates for the poor...with charities' influence growing, the time is right to raise red flags -- and Wagner's (criticisms) are largely on target....His book attempts principally to raise questions in an unquestioning age."
from Frank Browning salon.com review.......2000-02-10
"Wagner's concise and vivid chronicle of the rise of paternalistic American charity is a valuable handbook for anyone who wants to challenge the duplicitous nostrums that the vapid stars of both political parties have lately offered up on everything from welfare to the widening class gap to the impoverishment of public education to the more and more degraded public-health system"
Book Description
A fundamental, but mostly hidden, transformation is happening in the way public services are being delivered, and in the way local and national governments fulfill their policy goals. Government executives are redefining their core responsibilities away from managing workers and providing services directly to orchestrating networks of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to deliver the services that government once did itself. Authors Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers call this new model "governing by network" and maintain that the new approach is a dramatically different type of endeavor that simply managing divisions of employees.
Like any changes of such magnitude, it poses major challenges for those in charge. Faced by a web of relationships and partnerships that increasingly make up modern governance, public managers must grapple with skill-set issues (managing a contract to capture value); technology issues (incompatible information systems); communications issues (one partner in the network, for example, might possess more information than another); and cultural issues (how interplay among varied public, private, and nonprofit sector cultures can create unproductive dissonance).
Governing by Network examines for the first time how managers on both sides of the aisle, public and private, are coping with the changes. Drawing from dozens of case studies, as well as established best practices, the authors tell us what works and what doesn't. Here is a clear roadmap for actually governing the networked state for elected officials, business executives, and the broader public.
Customer Reviews:
More Lazy Thinking About Government.......2006-12-14
The "run government like a business" mantra has become so simplified in the minds of most people that it basically means, "if you want something done right, hand it over to private enterprise." This book is one more symptom of such lazy thinking. While the authors include some helpful insights about how governments can deliver services without being the primary provider, their underlying assumption is that all government is hidebound, inefficient, and boorish. Contrasting this is the innovative, public-spirited private sector--the answer to the world's ills, if only Neanderthal government would get out of the way.
It would be interesting to turn the concept on its head: let's run business like a government. Let corporate America open all of its records--including emails and even voice mail--to any person who wants it; let them go to the people every four years and ask them to evaluate their record of adding value; let them function without expense accounts, with secondhand furniture in dismal settings, without gyms or Business Class; and let them try to achieve long-range goals with a board that thinks in four year increments and whose every action is dissected daily in the opinion pages of the local newspaper.
The simple fact is that there are some things the government ought to be doing because private enterprise cannot do it at a profit. Americans have come to believe that every tax is a bad tax when, in fact, government services account for much of what Americans value in life. Unfortunately, this book simply feeds that sloppy mentality.
great foundation.......2006-07-14
this book provides a great foundation for those interested in the networking of private, public, and non-profit sectors. great examples are included in the book, and it is relatively easy to use. Great book!
The Public Private Business Connection.......2006-01-16
The average citizen may not notice it, but government is rapidly changing. Nongovernment workers are now delivering services that the government used to deliver as recently as a decade ago. As public policy specialists, authors Stephen Goldsmith and William Eggers know this area well. Their book is full of dense organizational descriptions, which come to life only when they use real-world examples. Fortunately, they do so often, presenting interesting facts and case studies. Still, this book is intended for serious students of public policy and government. Numerous checklists bog it down and may not be practical to use. We recommend it to public officials, policy-makers and citizens who want to understand trends in government and the ways that governing by network is changing the political scene.
Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector.......2005-08-02
Very fast delivery. Wonderful seller.
Clearly outlines what works in a networked state.......2005-03-14
Written by former politician Stephen Goldsmith and global director of Deloitte Research, Public Sector William D. Eggers, Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector exposes a largely hidden but nonetheless monumental transformation in the manner that public services are delivered and local and national governments fulfill their policy goals. Dubbed "governing by network", it presents great challenges to those in charge: skill-set issues (managing a contract to capture value); technology issues (keeping information systems compatible with one another); communications issues; cultural issues (including differences between public, private and nonprofit sector cultures) and much more. Governing by Network clearly outlines what works in a networked state and what is a recipe for failure, using case studies as well as firmly established practices. Chapters focus on achieving the goals of efficiency and effectiveness in the constantly changing and increasingly technological 21st century. Governing by Network is especially recommended for political leaders, political science teachers, political science students, and school library collections for its invaluable contribution to observing dramatic shifts in leadership and day-to-day practice requirements.
Book Description
The Divided Welfare State is the first comprehensive political analysis of America's distinctive system of public and private social benefits. Everyone knows that the American welfare state is unusual--less expensive and extensive, later to develop and slower to grow, than comparable programs abroad. Yet, U.S. social policy does not stand out solely for its limits. American social spending is actually as high as spending is in many European nations. What is truly distinctive is that so many social welfare duties are handled not by the state, but by the private sector with government support. With sweeping historical reach and a wealth of statistical and cross-national evidence, The Divided Welfare State demonstrates that private social benefits have not merely been shaped by public policy, but have deeply influenced the politics of public social programs--to produce a social policy framework whose political and social effects are strikingly different than often assumed. At a time of fierce new debates about social policy, this book is essential to understanding the roots of America's distinctive model and its future possibilities. Jacob S. Hacker is the Peter Strauss Family Assistant Profesor of Political Science at Yale University. Previously, he was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows and Fellow at the New America Foundation as well as a Guest Scholar and Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of President Clinton's Plan for Health Security (Princeton, 1997), which was co-winner of the 1997 Louis Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration. His articles and opinion pieces have appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Washington Post. A regular media commentator, he has discussed his work widely on C-Span, national public radio and in papers nationwide.
Download Description
The Divided Welfare State is the first comprehensive political analysis of America's distinctive system of public and private social benefits. Everyone knows that the American welfare state is unusual--less expensive and extensive, later to develop and slower to grow, than comparable programs abroad. Yet, U.S. social policy does not stand out solely for its limits. American social spending is actually as high as spending is in many European nations. What is truly distinctive is that so many social welfare duties are handled not by the state, but by the private sector with government support. With sweeping historical reach and a wealth of statistical and cross-national evidence, The Divided Welfare State demonstrates that private social benefits have not merely been shaped by public policy, but have deeply influenced the politics of public social programs--to produce a social policy framework whose political and social effects are strikingly different than often assumed. At a time of fierce new debates about social policy, this book is essential to understanding the roots of America's distinctive model and its future possibilities. Jacob S. Hacker is the Peter Strauss Family Assistant Profesor of Political Science at Yale University. Previously, he was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows and Fellow at the New America Foundation as well as a Guest Scholar and Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of President Clinton's Plan for Health Security (Princeton, 1997), which was co-winner of the 1997 Louis Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration. His articles and opinion pieces have appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Washington Post. A regular media commentator, he has discussed his work widely on C-Span, national public radio and in papers nationwide.
Customer Reviews:
Some new insights, book too long and ponderous.......2007-07-23
Jacob Hacker's book is on the development of the American welfare state in the 20th century, specifically pensions and health care. He has three major arguments.
First, unlike Western Europe, America provides social welfare by a mix of direct state spending and private spending, which is regulated by the state and encouraged by tax policy. Social Security is the pre-eminent example of the former; tax-advantaged 401(k) plans are a good example of the latter.
Second, there is a great difference between pension policy and health care policy. Pensions are provided primarily by the state, through Social Security, with private pensions being on top of and in addition to Social Security. Health care, on the other hand, is provided primarily by private employer-based insurance programs, which are encouraged by being given favorable tax treatment, with the state providing additional care for those not covered by the private system, primarily the old and the poor.
Third, there is a continual interplay between the public and the private spheres, in which what is politically possible today is shaped by the vested interests brought into being by the laws of yesterday. Social Security, for example, was politically possible in the 1930s, because -- among other things -- there was no large private pension system with which Social Security competed. Universal heatlh care is very difficult to get through Congress, today, because we have a huge system of private health care, whose stakeholders tend to resist change.
Much of the book is genuinely new; Hacker's ideas are well worth reading. Unfortunately, the book is not well written. First, it is about 100 pages longer than it needs to be; Hackerr badly needs an editor to chop down some of his redundancies and windy prose. Second, Hacker lays great stress on poli sci theory and jargon. He has a long and tedious explanation of the theory of "path dependency." The idea involved -- that past decisions limit future options -- is a good one, but the pomposity of the jargon is hard to tolerate.
As a social scientist, Hacker professes to be writing ideologically neutral, pure analysis. That is nonsense. Hacker is a liberal. The big question, which guides his entire inquiry, is, why is American social policy inferior to the moral norm provided to us by Europe? All enlightened people know that Europe sets the standard for the world, by providing direct state support for health care and pensions. Why does America fall short of this univerally accepted moral standard? That is the question underneath everything which Hacker writes.
Europe has an unemployment rate several times higher than America. The growth rate of the European economy has lagged behind that of America for so long now that our standard of living is now about 30% higher than most European nations. Europe is producing so few children that, as its population ages, and there are fewer and fewer working age people to support more and more retired people, the entire social welfare system there is on the brink of demographically driven economic collapse. Even in France, long the bastion of opposition to the evil Anglo-Saxon system, there is a new President, who wants to make France more like America. Considered objectively, the European model of social welfare has failed; its time is over, and no sane person looks to it as a model for the future.
But, none of this matters to Hacker. America is morally inferior. That is just a given. After all, this is science.
Informative, Engaging, and Timely!.......2003-07-14
At a time of renewed debate over Medicare and Social Security, this is an important and insightful look at the origins and effects of America¡¯s distinctive public-private system of social welfare. Hacker¡¯s main point is that the American ¡°welfare regime¡± (he prefers this formulation to the common term, ¡°welfare state¡±) is a lot larger than most people think because, unlike most European nations, the United States relies heavily on private social benefits provided by employers, for example, private health insurance. The book carefully explains why private benefits play such a large role in the United States, why the role of private benefits differs between the two biggest areas of U.S. social policy -- health insurance and retirement pensions -- and what difference all this makes for the politics of U.S. social policy and the nature of present political debates. The book is original and well-researched. And even if you delve into the more theoretical parts of the book, it's a joy to read -- a rare combination of academic rigor, lucid prose, and clear thinking about current affairs.
Book Description
A thoughtful addition to the growing debate over public and private morality. Looks at lying and deception in law, family, medicine, government.
Customer Reviews:
Academic Propaganda is a bad, possibly evil form of Paternalistic Deception.......2007-07-17
Quoting one philospher and paraphrasing another, she begins an insightful critique of "Paternalistic Lies" (Chapter XIV) with a bang.
"The abuse of truth ought to be as much punished as the introduction of falsehood. As if there were two hells, one for sins against love, the other for those against justice!" --Blaise Pascal, Pensees
"Conquest, birth, and voluntary offer: by these three methods, said Hobbes, can one person become subjected to another. So long as questions are not asked--as when power is thought divinely granted or ordained by nature--the right to coerce and manipulate is taken for granted." (p.204)
"And Odysseus asked to be tied to the mast of his ship when approaching the Sirens, who were 'weaving a haunting song across the sea,' bidding his sailors to take more turns of the rope to muffle him should he cry or beg to be untied." (p.204)
"A danger arises whenever those who deal with children fall into the familar trap of confusing 'truth' and 'truthfulness.' It may lead them to confuse fiction and jokes and all that departs from fact with lying*. And so they may lose track of what it means to respect children..." (p.207)
"...Equally destructive are those dour adults who draw the opposite conclusion from their confusion of fiction and deception and who try to eradicate both from the lives of their children." (p.207)
* "The confusion of fiction and deception has long antecedents. Plato stated in the Republic (597E) that artists and playwrights are at 'three removes' from nature. Augustine and others argued, on the contrary, that what they convey, and what is conveyed in the use of symbol and ritual, is not deceptive, because it is not intended to mislead." (footnote on p. 207) [Upon learning this, my faith in the Catholic church went up by several dB's.]
* "But even though fiction and lying are in themselves quite separate, there are, of course, a number of borderline regions and areas where one invades the other. If an author really means to manipulate through his writing, as in propaganda...if the author of a play has no intention to decieve anyone but finds that a gullible enthusiast in the audience leaps to the rescue...in all these cases, the elements of fiction and deception are interwoven." (footnote on p. 207)
So there I have it. Somewhere in all that analysis lies the answer to where Academic Propaganda comes from. It comes not only from a lack of respect for student or child, but also from too much truth and not enough truthfulness (as in not making up and not telling helpful fairey tales to children and students).
One should accept good forms of Paternalistic Deception as in fairey tales. One should reject evil forms of Paternalistic Deception as in exposing a child to too much knowledge (too much truth) from the adult world.
Applied Ethics.......2007-01-07
"Lying" is a thought-provoking exercise in applied ethics. The author, Sissela Bok, applies her razor-sharp intelligence to a variety of common deceptive practices, such as dishonest social science research or official deceptions about foreign policy. She believes that analyzing specific cases is a far better way to advance ethical knowledge than developing grandiose philosophical theories. (She's certainly right about that!)
Bok could be described as an enlightened utilitarian: she concedes that the benefits of lying can occasionally outweigh the costs, but she insists that the costs be weighed realistically and sensitively. To do so, she proposes the use of a hypothetical "publicity test" to consider how reasonable people would discuss and evaluate the broad, long-run effects of a deceptive practice. The test would cast its net widely and assess the impact of deception on duped individuals, the level of social trust, and the characters of liars themselves. When considered this way, the costs of deception almost always outweigh the benefits, Bok believes. She concludes that any ethical evaluation of a deceptive practice should proceed from a strong presumption that lying is wrong.
Her book is great. It's clearly written, filled with references to classic philosophical literature, and savvy about the routine deceptions practiced in government and the professions. As she puts it at one point, if knowledge is power, then lying alters the balance of power. I definitely want to read the companion volume on "Secrets." I knocked off one star only because some sections of "Lying" tend to meander and reach no clear conclusions. Maybe that's a problem inherent in casuistry.
The truth, but not perhaps all the truth, about 'lying'.......2006-05-05
There are certain books whose subjects seem so important that when one comes across them one immediately takes interest in them. Fortunate and wise is the writer who is able to find or define such a subject. Sissela Bok does this in her philosophical consideration of the subject of 'lying'.
She defines a lie this way, " an intentionally deceptive message in the form of a 'statement'.
But her examination of the subject is broader than this definition would imply.
In the first four chapters she considers the 'nature of lying , how it affects human choice, and basic a;pproaches to evaluating lies'. In chapter 5 she takes a look at 'white lies'. In chapters 6 and 7 she 'considers in detail what circumstances help to excuse lies, and whether some can actually be justified in advance. Chapters 8 to 15 consider 'in greater detail certain kinds of lies commonly thought justifiable:lies in wartime, for example, or to children; lies told to protect confidentiality, or to conduct research.'
I especially appreciated her consideration and in some sense, refutation of the arguments of Augustine and Kant who consider it forbidden and wrong to lie in each and every case. Such draconian virtue is of course taken exception to, and I think wisely, by the great majority of mankind.
At the background of Bok's investigation is her sense of a decline in integrity in public life, and even in public expectation of honesty from politicians.
But while she does make an argument and plea for greater honesty in public life, the heart of her work is in a richly exampled and carefully thought out of 'lying' in all its forms.
This is a thought - provoking book in which I believe each and every reader will learn something important about themselves, and their own occasional tendency to ' stretch it' for one reason or another.
Sissela Bok's Lying -- Good Book.......2005-10-18
really enjoyed reading Bok's thoughts on lying--her explorations into why we lie, how we justify it, and if our justifications are valid. I thought it was most interesting to read about lying for the public good and that a great amount of Americans expect their leaders to lie. I think it's sad that an expectation of lying in our society and especially among our political leaders even exists.
I like that Bok concludes her book with a message of hope saying that it is possible to raise the expectation of honesty and raise the integrity of people in this country.
I recommend this book to everyone. I think all people need to understand what lying is, when it is right and wrong, and all need to set a higher expectation of honesty. The standard of honesty needs to be raised in this country and it can only be done through individuals.
Lying - Or How To Be Honest.......2005-10-18
In "Lying," Sissela Bok analyzes the mechanics of deceit. She does a masterful job of analyzing the implications, motivations, justifications and rationalizations that precede or follow deceitful acts or passivity that renders a deceitful result or intention.
Some may argue that it is a treatise on how to lie, but for me the book has the opposite effect. By shredding the craft of lying to its bare core and singular components, it is easier to know what to avoid--granted one seeks truth.
In an age where honesty seems to be treated like a smelly sock, it is refreshing to find an expert who knows the topic so well, and who teaches without preaching.
I recommend this book to all. It has stretched my mind. It challenges many of the notions many of us have, and is a good ethical wake-up call for any reader.
Book Description
Since 9/11, business and industry has paid close attention to security within their own organizations. In fact, no other time in modern history has business and industry been more concerned with security issues. A new concern for security measures to combat potential terrorism, sabotage, theft and disruption- which could bring any business to it's knees- has swept the nation. This has opened up a huge opportunity for private investigators and security professionals as consultants. Many retiring law enforcement and security management professionals look to enter the private security consulting market. Security consulting often involves conducting in depth security surveys so businesses will know exactly where security holes are present and where they need improvement to limit their exposure to various threats. The Third Edition of Security Consulting introduces security and law enforcement professionals to the career and business of security consulting. It provides new and potential consultants with the practical guidelines needed to start up and maintain a successful independent practice. This new edition includes updated and expanded information on marketing, fees and expenses, forensic consulting, the use of computers, and the need for professional growth. The useful sample forms will be updated in addition to the new promotion opportunities and keys to conducting research on the Web.
- The only book of its kind dedicated to a ground-up approach to beginning a security consulting practice
- Proven, practical methods to establish and run a security consulting business
- New coverage of utilizing the power of the Internet.
Download Description
Since 9/11, business and industry has paid close attention to security within their own organizations. In fact, no other time in modern history has business and industry been more concerned with security issues. A new concern for security measures to combat potential terrorism, sabotage, theft and disruption- which could bring any business to it's knees- has swept the nation. This has opened up a huge opportunity for private investigators and security professionals as consultants. Many retiring law enforcement and security management professionals look to enter the private security consulting market. Security consulting often involves conducting in depth security surveys so businesses will know exactly where security holes are present and where they need improvement to limit their exposure to various threats. The Third Edition of Security Consulting introduces security and law enforcement professionals to the career and business of security consulting.
Customer Reviews:
Security Consulting by Charles Sennewald.......2006-08-30
Charles Sennewald is an excellent writer and security consultant with lots of years of private security experience. In preparation for my Certified Protection Professional (CPP) examination, I was required to study several books written by the same author. All of them were very informative. As I am getting ready to retire after almost 30 years of public law enforcement and security, my next book to re-read is Security Consulting as I getting ready to start my own security consulting business: Contreras Associates International in Yuma, Arizona.
Miguel Angel Contreras, PhD,CPP,CFE
www.contrerasassociates.com
Genereic AND specilised, at the same time.......2003-08-31
One of few books about security consulting. It is also a very general walk-through of some of the more practical aspects of starting a consulting business.
Recommended, as it is written in a very straight-talking way, without any mumbo-jumbo or great theories, just pure experience.
Excellent Intro to the Security Business.......2002-10-16
For the individual considering starting a security consulting business, this book is a must have. Sennewald lays out the basic questions facing the new consultant including, pricing your services, billing, relations with customers, etc. His entire text is not only highly readable, it is to the point and clear. This slim volume is packed with useful information and is one that will remain on my professional book shelf.
Average customer rating:
- fundamental rights
- Why same-sex marriage is Constitutional
- A legal book for everyone
|
Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution
Evan Gerstmann
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521009529 |
Book Description
Does the Constitution protect the right to same-sex marriage? Taking a careful look at the issue, Evan Gerstmann looks at the legal debate, and asks whether, in a democratic society, the courts, rather than voters, should resolve the question. Gerstmann also asks whether such a court-created law could be effective in the face of public opposition. Evan Gerstmann argues that this problem is one of the most significant constitutional issues facing society because it challenges society's commitment to true legal equality. After graduating with honors from the University of Michigan Law school in 1986, Evan Gerstmann practiced law in New York City for five years. Subsequently, he completed his Masters and Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin. He studies the interaction between law and politics. He has published a book on constitutional law, The Constitutional Class: Gays, Lesbians and the Failure of Class-Based Equal Protection (University of Chicago, 1999), as well as articles on subjects ranging from freedom of speech to how criminal law affects victims of domestic violence.
Customer Reviews:
fundamental rights.......2005-07-02
This is a well-done book, but one that will be a bit hard for those not at least somewhat familiar with constitutional law to follow. Gerstmann argues that marriage is a "fundamental right" under the constitution, and as such it is illegitimate to refuse to extend this right to same-sex couples. In making this argument he draws interesting analogies to the court's free speach jurisprudence. He tries to show how the more common "gender discrimination" argument doesn't work. I think this part is not 100% convincing, but it is a sophisticated approach. His discussion of the various "slippery slope" objections to gay marriage are also quite good. To my mind the biggest draw-back of this book is that it often makes quite teloscopic reference to other books (including Gerstmann's earlier book) in the place of detailed arguments. This book is not very long as it is, and it probably would have been better servered to give these arguments in more detail rather than just refering to other work as often as it does. This is especially the case for readers who do not have at least some constitutional law background.
Why same-sex marriage is Constitutional.......2005-04-11
Want to read a really good book setting out the case for the Constitutionality of same-sex marriage? This is it.
There are lots of books out there making the argument that recognition of same-sex marriage is a good idea. This is one of very few devoted solely to the case that the Constitution _requires_ such recognition. And it's very well-reasoned.
This book was being prepared for publication as _Lawrence v. Texas_ was decided, so you might think it would be outdated. But it isn't; that decision reinforces Gerstmann's analysis almost point by point.
I say 'almost' because _Lawrence_ was decided under the Due Process Clause, whereas Gerstmann thinks that fundamental rights are better regarded as founded in the Equal Protection Clause. (I disagree with him there, by the way, and I also wonder why he doesn't consider the Privileges and Immunities Clause. On the other hand, he gets extra credit for favorably considering the Ninth Amendment.)
But in the end it doesn't matter, because Gerstmann's argument is firmly grounded in the fact that the Supreme Court has long recognized the right to marry as a fundamental right. (Where that right is 'located' in the Constitution is a separate and subsidiary question.) This fundamental-right approach yields, on Gerstmann's view (and mine), a much more tenable analysis than the more common equal-protection approach. (And of course _Lawrence_ relied on a liberty-rights analysis in striking down state anti-'sodomy' laws -- which is why Gerstmann's analysis gets a fresh boost from that landmark decision.)
There are lots of other analytical treats throughout. For example, Gerstmann devotes the better part of a chapter to an argument that _Loving v. Virginia_ doesn't really provide a good analogy to same-sex marriage. He faces head-on the problems associated with judicial 'creation' of rights and offers a four-point pragmatic test for when it's okay. And he dismantles 'original intent'-based Constitutional interpretation by taking on the most capable and nuanced of its defenders.
(He also does a bang-up job setting out all the things that are _wrong_ with reliance on current Equal Protection jurisprudence. That won't surprise readers of Gerstmann's earlier book, _The Constitutional Underclass_, which I also highly recommend.)
But the best (and most important) part by far is the analysis of the right to marry as a fundamental right that encompasses same-sex marriage. This portion of Gerstmann's analysis should _gain_ in importance as post-_Lawrence_ courts address the Constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans. (And so should his argument that proponents of same-sex marriage should hold out for full-blown _marriage_ rather than, as William Eskridge has counselled, be at least temporarily satisfied with 'domestic partnerships' or 'civil unions'.)
My own opinion is that recognition of same-sex civil marriages is indeed required under the Constitution -- and since I held that opinion before reading Gerstmann's book, I may not be a good test of his persuasiveness. (I'm also a lawyer, so I can't tell you how 'readable' the book will be for non-lawyers.) But I find Gerstmann's argument cogent and, for the most part, right on the money.
A legal book for everyone.......2005-02-08
This fascinating book is cogent, well argued and a straight-forward read. It is clearly targeted at lawyers, but is very accessible by the lay audience.
The author, a law professor, originally set out to prove that there is no Constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and became convinced, while doing his research, that he was wrong.
He argues strongly the Supreme Court has established a Fundamental Right To Marry and there is no reasonable legal defense against extending that right to same-sex couples.
Customer Reviews:
Private Lies.......2007-10-05
I have not finished it yet but so far I found it insightful since it is written by a male and it gives you a glimpse into the the way men think so differently about things including Unfaithfullness. My husbands affair was an accidental one with a co-worker who was needy since she was going through a tough divorce and he as a nice guy that he has always been tried to help her sort things out and listened to her woes. That was the first big mistake. That is how it all started his feeling sorry for her and trying to comfort her by taking her out to drinks after work and talking. The affair lasted a little over a year and I discovered it by shear accident on July 1st of this year while checking his e-mail account because I had doubts about his friendship with her. The devastations that this caused me and him was overwhelming and reading this and other books on the subject have helped us to come out of the dispair and start working on recovering from this nightmare. We are on the road to recovery and are forming a stronger and more communicative marriage. Filled with understanding, knowledge and above all love and caring for each other.
I highly recommend this book to all that have been unfaithful or have sufferd the betrayal of infidelity. It has truly put a new light on how men act and why they do things this stupid.
Rather dated and biased..........2007-09-23
This author is rather biased and seems to think that infidelity is never the cause of a divorce and that divorce is to be avoided at almost all costs barring physical abuse! His references are also rather dated, is very gender biased and he meanderes way too much.
A much more useful reference on Infidelity is "Sexual Detours" by Dr. Hooly Hien
Simplistic.......2007-05-23
Pittman, like some other psychiatrists, likes to be able to put people and their actions into easy categories. Yes, people who have affairs, like people who fall in love, fall out of love, etc., behave in remarkably similar ways. That doesn't mean that those behaviors are necessarily wrong. I had an affair with a man who was/is verbally and emotionally abused by his wife. Her abuse was "infidelity" and a "betrayal of trust" long before he "betrayed" her by seeking love, acceptance and intimacy with me. And does Pittman think that the "betrayer," my lover, wasn't agonizing over his own failures and responsibilities? Pittman's advice reiterates to me that there are psychiatrists out there who like to simplify all relationships so they don't have to do the hard work of helping their clients through serious emotional work and complicated psychological motivations.
True Understanding.......2007-03-08
I love this guy. Dr. Frank Pittman is a psychiatrist with a sense of humor, and brilliant insight into the Passion, Drama, Lust and Love of affairs.
If I had a dollar for every client who explained their involvement in an extramarital affair as being swept up into Passion, I'd be a very wealthy woman. But affairs are rarely about Passion. They're about Lust, or about Drama. They don't often start out as Love. And very few of them end up there, either. It's estimated that fifty percent of marriages are affected by infidelity. Seventy-five percent of affair partners get dumped. Of the 25% who marry, ninety percent will divorce. Sounds like a ton of Drama, dontcha think?
Dr. Pittman writes engagingly about all of this and the mindset of people in affairs (Philanderers, Romantics, Accidental Infidels, and others). Here are three interesting excerpts:
"The instinctual nature of the human animal may be such that we bond, as other monogamous species do, to our sexual partner, our mate. Humans have the capacity to survive our mate -- if he or she should die, we, unlike some monogamous birds, can recover and find another mate. However, if we mate with others while our partner is still around, we may break the bond that holds the pairing together. We may, by having affairs, loosen the attachment and 'fall out of love' with our partner. It is therefore not that we fall out of love and thus have affairs, but that we have affairs and thus fall out of love by breaking an instinctual bond.
"The impact of an accidental infidelity on a romantic is explosive. It unleashes all that frustrated romanticism. Romantics with their pants off go wild -- not necessarily sexually, but emotionally. These people imprint whomever they sexualize, and they clamp on like snapping turtles, and you can't make them let go. Romantics will throw themselves desperately and suicidally at strangers, offering plans for the two of them to disappear and die together. The stranger may have trouble remembering the romantic's name. This sort of thing could even make a philanderer go straight, and will cure the accident-prone forever. This is the plot of the film Fatal Attraction, in which it was demonstrated that the romantic passion of a passing stranger is the most horrifying of nightmares.
"People [in affairs] risk everything on the hope that they can achieve joy by changing everything in their lives except themselves. They would like to press a button and have the old life go away and the new life appear. The human animal has an unfortunate tendency to identify the source of any unhappiness as coming from outside itself. The fault, as Cassius informed Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Our unhappiness is not in our marriages, but within us. Changing everything about our lives leaves everything important still the same, because we are the important factor in our lives, and we are the one thing left unchanged."
Best work on infidelity...........2006-04-10
I discovered this book while I was doing a research paper on infidelity. I kept noticing that most of the other books I used as references kept quoting this one! After reading it, I can see why this was so. This is just an incredibly insightful and sensitively written book on every aspect of this phenomenon.
I also like that this book does not side step ethical considerations and even calls some therapists to task for some of the advice they give in this area in the interest of their patient's who have strayed. I don't think Pittman's approach is moralistic, just responsible and common sense.
In this book, the author emphasizes betrayal of trust as the underlying betrayal that undermines intimacy. I agree that in matters of infidelity, this is indeed what does the most harm. In this book, infidelity is defined in terms of this betrayal, not just overtly sexual behavior outside of marriage or a primary relationship.
Book Description
A dramatic and compelling journey into the dark heart of globalization.
Customer Reviews:
An intriguing, eye-opening discussion.......2005-02-07
What happens when multinational corporations decide that the use of armed force is really business? When companies line up with warlords and armies to make a profit? When corporate interests dictate war or peace? Madelaine Drohan's meticulously researched and impressively wrfitten expose, Making A Killing, shows just what happens in a world of multinational power, drawing important connections between corporate armed forces and history and providing food for thought for corporations, policy makers and national leaders alike -- the result is an intriguing, eye-opening discussion.
A pantheon of predators.......2004-01-20
Resource control is the core of Madelaine Drohan's book. Where the image of empire was once faceless armies, religious zealots or expanding trade, modern conditions have changed this view. Instead of governments launching empires, suit-clad businessmen now decide where the action lies. Decisions to exploit resource areas are not made in ministry offices, but in corporate boardrooms. Businessmen, "and they are almost always men", choose locations, make investments, recruit workers and begin operations. Until there is unrest. Then they call in governments to support their enterprise. If governments cannot or will not respond, the entrepreneur's answer is the "private army". Mercenary professional military men act as "security" teams, policemen or replacement armies. And they are accountable to no-one but the firm that has hired them.
Drohan's account begins with the rule of Cecil Rhodes "who stands head and shoulders above" the ranks of those applying military solutions to "corporate problems". Rhodes built an immense resource empire in Southern Africa. He also set the standard for controlling workers as firmly as he did markets. By the expedient of raising a battalion of "pioneers" to deal with reluctant African peoples and recalcitrant workers, Rhodes expanded his holdings to an unprecedented degree. Attributing his goals to the furtherance of the British Empire, he also ensured the continuation of profits to his own pocket. Belgium's king Leopold followed Rhodes' example by keeping the Congo as a personal fief. The Belgian government was simply shunted aside on imperial affairs for decades. The rape of the Congo is a glaring example of imperialism run rampant, yet it set the stage for what followed.
Drohan's narrative is dominated by personalities. Like a gaggle of rapacious ravens, men prominent in resource enterprise descended on Africa after Rhodes. Some of these were British, some Canadian, but others arose from among Africa's own peoples. These last were flexing political and economic muscle as former colonies became independent. These new nations, with their artificial boundaries laid down irrespective of tribal or ethnic limits, became caught up in internal regional disputes. Resource firms played off these rivalries to their advantage where possible. If contests for power became too heated, the companies had the option to withdraw or find ways of protecting their investments. Protection was provided by "security forces" available for hire. Among the most notorious of these was the South African firm, Executive Outcomes. Staffed by disaffected South African soldiers, it offered services directly or through hidden subsidiaries. Executive Outcomes emerges frequently, if often vaguely, as Drohan valiantly tries to unravel the machinations the firm and its customers perpetrated as gold, diamonds and other resources were sought and exploited. Legality is an elusive term in these activities.
These are not distant and unrelated events. We tend to cling to the image of investment benefiting all - the theme of "globalisation". Drohan demonstrates how firms, pursuing resource wealth in Africa, have followed the Rhodes formula for success. Whether hiring private armies or simply requesting local government forces to act in their interests, resource firms are steadfastly ignoring the impact on local people and their economy. Of all Drohan's examples, the most glaring is the Talisman Energy story. Her chapter on this operation is at once the worst and the best example in the book. Talisman, a latecomer to Africa, seems to have learned nothing from previous resource history in the region. As Drohan describes it, Jim Buckee, Talisman's head, followed a sinuous path trying to keep his firm active in the resource field. With one eye open to profits and the other closed to government activities done in the name of "security" for his operations, Buckee brought his firm close to disaster. On the other hand, the case demonstrated the power of the public in bringing such firms to judgment. Various large stockholders, chastened at the thought of supporting a firm blind to the impact of its operations, withdrew investment. It's a fine example of what individuals can achieve in acting collectively.
Drohan's book is a much needed exposure of business morals left unscrutinised. In her final chapter, "Perfectly Legal, Perfectly Immoral", she shows the path to justice for people under oppressive regimes shored up by rapacious businesses is long and difficult. Yet, if readers pay attention, she shows how they can be effective in making change. With a federal election looming, it would benefit electors to read this book and reflect on its message. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
A book about corporate and state power without responsiblity.......2003-12-29
This is an excellent book about how specific corporations, individuals and both European and African rulers have plundered Africa for profit and the accumulation of private fortunes on the backs of millions of Africans who have been slaughtered over the centuries. Some of the individuals have passed into the history books, but some of the corporations and individuals are still very much in the news today and the world still waits for their atonement. Madelaine Drohan has provided a very courageous addition to the literature in the area by in-the-field research in some of the most dangerous places in Africa and written in most detailed and compelling manner.
Solid research and first-hand observations.......2003-12-06
Drohan cover a number of specifc cases of corporations using violence to further their interests - dedicating a chapter to each case. She makes no effort to be a comprehensive compendium of all the ills perpetrated by corporations, instead choosing to focus on a few prime examples in detail where her experiences as a journalist can bring some perspective to each case.
My own particular interest is around the role of Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. in Sudan. The chapter on Talisman was solid and insightful, with Drohan drawing from her own experiences in Sudan and interviews with key players, as well as the volumes of research and reports available.
The book is a telling study of the irresponsible extremes corporations can go to in their simple-minded focus on profit as the only goal.
Book Description
After decades of writing and research about American intelligence, Joseph Trento has written the most authoritative indictment of CIA splinter groups, two generations of Bush family involvement in illegal financial networks, and the funding of the agents of terror. Prelude to Terror reveals the history of a corrupt group of spymasters—led by Ted Shackley—who were fired when Jimmy Carter became president, but who maintained their intelligence portfolio and used it to create a private intelligence network. After this rogue group helped engineer Carter’s defeat in 1980 and allied with George H.W. Bush, these former CIA men planned and conducted what became the Iran–Contra scandal and, through the Saudis, allied the U.S. with extreme elements in Islam. The CIA’s number-one front man, Edwin P. Wilson, was framed by Shackley and his cohorts so that Wilson’s operations could be taken over. For the first time the story of how CIA director George H. W. Bush was recruited into this network, and brought it into the bosom of the Saudi royal family, is told in detail, as well as how this group’s manipulation of the CIA bureaucracy allowed Osama bin Laden’s fundraising to thrive as al Qaeda flourished under Saudi and CIA protection.
Customer Reviews:
Appalling.......2007-02-01
After reading Mr. Trento's "The Secret History of the CIA" (see my amazon review of this book) several years ago I thought Mr. Trento could sink no lower. I was wrong. This book is so full of rumor, innuendo, slander, and just plain innaccuracies that I don't know where to start, so I will just provide a couple of examples. On page 271, discussing one of his primary sources for this book, the late Colonel William R. Corson, the author writes, "Corson...returned to Vietnam as the only American on the ground at Dien Bien Phu and was marched out with the French prisoner after their surrender. General Vo Nguyen Giap sent him back to President Eisenhower to tell the American that they faced the same fate as the French..." As anyone who studied the Indochina War knows, there were no Americans at Dien Bien Phu when it fell in 1954, and Corson certainly wasn't anywhere close to the place. On the same page the author also says Corson "had been sent on an unsuccessful mission in 1950 to try to bribe Ho Chi Minh to launch a diversionary attack against China to limit China's help in North Korea." Not only is this claim ridiculous on its face, at the time of the supposed mission (1950) William R. Corson was a raw, newly-commissioned Marine Corps second lieutenant, hardly the type of person to be selected for such a mission.
This book is not worth the paper on which it is printed. I had thought that Avalon was a reputable publishing house. I guess I was wrong.
Some Inconsistencies, But Best Synthesis of Bush-Mafia-Dictator-Privatized Intelligence Network.......2006-04-30
This is not a perfect book. It has inconsistencies and errors but this book has helped connect many dots from the other 690+ books I have reviewed.
I had no idea while I was at CIA as a clandestine officer that there are really multiple CIA's and that there are three *external* CIAS: the "Safari Club" led by Saudi Arabia, with France, Egypt, Morocco and Iran (during the Shah's time, not since); the murder network (South Africa, Israel, South Korea, and probably also Chile and Argentina during their worst years); and a privatized CIA running drugs and arms, laundering money, and generally doing things that were "off the books and out of control" as the author titles one of his chapters.
According to the author, Allen Dulles has the first private intelligence service at 44 Wall Street, relying heavily on the recruitment of former Nazis. There is a direct path from the CIA's fascination with former Nazis to the presence of Karl Rove in the White House.
The author draws on good sources to document the long-time relationship between Wall Street and certain companies such as the house of Morgan and Brown that leads us right up to when Buzzy Kronguard, formerly of Alex Brown, was executive director of the CIA at no salary. Prescott Bush, farther of the first President Bush, features heavily in the corrupt relations between CIA and the Wall Street mafia. These people financed the Nazis and weapons that killed Americans.
Interestingly, the Dutch are known to have all the details on the Bush family ties to the Nazis, and I have personally heard from the Dutch that they also have full details from the Chinese on drunken teen-ager George W. Bush, of whom photos are said to exist while he is incoherent and perhaps posed in naked compromising positions with his male Chinese tennis teacher). All of this is inevitably going to be in the public consciousness--right now it falls into what one author calls "Fog Facts"--known openly but not "computed" by the public.
This entire book is a tale of the corruption of intelligence, caused in part by the abysmal failure of US intelligence in the early years, ranging from failing to predict the Korean invasion to trying to assassinate Chinese premier Chou En Lai.
The Viet-Nam era empowered people like Ted Shackley (who died in 2002 and whose memoirs are coming out shortly). CIA learned to run drugs and arms, launder money, start its own banks, and generally avoid Congressional funding limitations and Congressional oversight. Unfortunately, creating a rogue CIA further incapacitated "CIA proper" of which I was a part, and the author reasonably points out that the fall of the Shah of Iran, the failure to understand the 1975 concerns about Shiite terrorism training camps, the assassination of Sadat, the CIA coup plans that were pre-empted by Qadafi, the growth of Al Qaeda, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban (which deprived Wall Street of its drug crops, now restored courtesy of the U.S. Army)--the list goes on.
According to the author's sources, the CIA opened the Far East to the US mafia, and helped develop pipelines for the drugs that included piggy-backing on US servicemen corpses coming back into Dover AFP. Fast forward to CIA using Special Operations Forces to protect transmitters that allowed hundreds of drug airplanes to land in Panama where drugs could be traded for money and arms.
The author centers the book on Ted Shackley as a bridge figure among many "external" intelligence activities, but Clark Clifford is also key in the founding of the BCCI bank and in asking the Saudis directly to fund an alternative CIA to be known as the Safari Club. BCCI had overtly good intentions--to attract terrorist and criminal funds, but at root it represented the complete "sale" of US intelligence to the Saudis.
The politicization of intelligence is the other major theme in this book, and the Bush family features very prominently.
Side notes:
Ted Shackley recruited Zbigniew Brzezinski as a young Polish-American student, and had full access to him later when he was National Security Advisor.
Don Rumsfeld, today Secretary of Defense, was instrumental in persuading President Ford not to appoint Eliot Richardson, a reformer of known integrity, to the DCI position, and instead got Kissinger to invite Bush from Beijing, all to ensure that Kissinger's role in subverting Chile would be concealed.
As DCI, Turner shut the Israeli's out, essentially forcing them to adopt Shackley as their "black CIA" partner, and then Bush as DCI turned CIA over to the Saudi government.
Shackley fought Inman for the soul of CIA, and the evidence suggests that Shackley won, in part by blackmailing Inman in collaboration with the Israel lobby.
CIA placed officers under cover on the Hill, notably in Senator Dan Quayle's office.
The book left me with three thoughts for reflection:
1) 9-11 was the culmination of decades of CIA corruption and politicization. Of course there are other factors, but from 1975 forward CIA "sold out" and it can be safely said that Viet-Nam killed CIA and opened the doors to the privatization of dirty tricks, murders, and generally very bad out of control covert foreign policy and a consequent subversion of national security.
2) Cheap oil resulting from our support of ruthless dictators set the stage for the radicalization of the Muslim world against America. People are not stupid--they see the link between the US situation, US support for dictators, and their own suffering and exclusion from the wealth.
3) One day, someday, I am going to fund an ABLE DANGER analysis of the history of secret intelligence, starting with Richard Secord, who is in charge of GRAY FOX (the successor to YELLOW FRUIT) and who is not killing terrorists, which is what he is supposed to be doing, but instead continuing the for-profit external CIA, and Ted Shackley.
This is an important book.
Not a perfect book.......2006-02-11
Unlike the previous reviewer I wasn't that impressed with this book. The author puts Felix Rodriguez at the Watergate break-in, when in reality he had no involvement in it whatsoever since he was in Vietnam at the time. That was one one the mistakes I noticed. I'm sure there were more.
Some of his theories are viable, yet others seem far-fetched. In fact a lot of these theories have already been refuted by reputable journalists in the past. Overall, something you should read with an open mind. By the way, to make a correction to the previous reviewer it's Chi Chi Quintero.
Indispensable.......2006-01-06
First and foremost, I think the POV is the CIA's "intelligence" wing(s) vs. the "Ops" goons, a longstanding civil war in the CIA and the other clandestine services where Trento, who has covered intelligence for 35 years, clearly sources to the inteligence side of the battle.
Those of us following scandals from Nixon's treason in 1968 as a private citizen who sabotaged Vietnam War peace negotiations, through Watergate, through Bush I's treason in Iran as a private citizen negotiating the continued retention of American Hostages, through Iran/Contra, through Bush II's treason as a private citizen interfering in Mideast peace negotiations, noticed the same small cabal involved in everything - Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, John Poindexter, Richard Secord, John Singlaub, George Herbert Walker Bush, James Angleton, Chi Chi Quinterez, Ed Wilson - and at various times, people like Oliver North and even Zbiegniew Brzezhinski operating on their behalf on a regular basis. Two of these, Angleton and Clines, were interviewed by Trento.
This book goes back to the days of Dulles and ahead to the present and shows how the CIA's old boy network can always bite back harder than it's bitten. It deals peripherally with things like BCCI and Nugan/Hand. It's much more critical of Stansfield Turner, whom I have met on a couple of occasions, than I would be, but it nicely fills in the back story on his period as director of the CIA.
This book has nothing about Adnan Kashoggi but does talk about Sarkis Soghnalian, a Turkish/Armenian power broker. I think one of the weak links for the rogue operative network is in fact the information held by their non-American allies. It's possible the US or Israel will attack Iran, and if so, people should be educated enough to understand any revelations the Iranians might have for us in retaliation.
Books:
- Arousing Suspicions (Avon Romance)
- At Play in the Fields of the Lord
- Baby Bargains: Secrets To Saving 20% To 50% On Baby Furniture, Equipment, Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear, And Much, Much More! (Baby Bargains)
- Biggest Brother : The Life of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Led the Band of Brothers
- Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
- Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children
- Caribbean Elegance
- Chocolate Covered Forbidden Fruit
- Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior
- Christmas in Camelot (Magic Tree House #29)
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