5 comments about The 9/11 Conspiracy.

1. If you are just starting to explore beyond the offical story of the 911 tragedy, this book would be a great place to start. Dont believe the BS about Death Rays or any other bs about this book as it is just an attempt at discrediting it.



2. The most cogent and scientifically persuasive collection of essays on the unthinkable.
   
   The stunning and searing last chapter alone
   (Explaining the Inexplicable) is worth the price of the book.
   
   Be prepared to have your mental footings scrambled and rearranged.



3. This book gives a lot of information, scientifically explained, in detail. VERY impressive evidence. One of the best on this subject.



4. This book provides a responsible look at the science that points to a massive cover-up of U.S. insider involvement in the explosions at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I've tried to tell friends about this, but they always say that I'm a "conspiracy theorist". Using what I've learned in this book, I then work to put THEM on the defensive, saying that they need to look at the evidence, and then challenge the EVIDENCE, rather than start in on name calling.



5. Wake up America!Turn off your Television set and pick up a book!Everyone in America needs to read this book carefully.Come on,Turn off Hardball With Chris Matthews(Its actually pathetic Blah Blah Wussball)and read this book and get a couple 911 truth DVDs and investigate for yourselves this disgusting Lie we have been told by Cheney/Bush and the pathetic,owned and controlled mainstream media!!!!

5 comments about The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West.

1. The author develops an original argument that the Islamic insurrection is imploding on its own. In other words, Osama bin Laden's Jihad is viewed as intolerable terror against innocent civilians by a majority of Muslims. Over time, the Muslim peace lovers will progressively dwarf the ranks of the Jihadists.
   
   In the author's mind, this is especially true if the U.S. gets out of the way and stop waging an ill fated War on Terror that keeps throwing oil on the fire of the Jihad movement. He makes a case that the U.S. ongoing backing of Israel and its invasion of Iraq have strongly boosted Al Qaeda's ranks.
   
   The author belongs to the camp that believe that the Islamic insurrection is almost solely a counter reaction to U.S. foreign policy. It certainly is a factor, but how can it be the main driver? 9/11 was totally unsolicited. Also, prior act of terrorism were more often than not caused by the U.S. government becoming friendlier towards various Middle Eastern ones rather than the opposite. Thus, whether the U.S. supports or attacks a Middle Eastern state, it appears as justification for act of Islamic terrorism. What kind of rational is that.
   
   The Pew Global Attitudes surveys and current events don't support any of the author's original arguments. Osama bin Laden's aura is ever increasing. Islam is becoming increasingly fundamentalist and violent throughout the Middle East and Africa. Wherever it overlaps with Christian population bloodshed results more often than not executed by the Muslims and suffered by the Christians such as in Somalia, Rwanda, and Sudan.
   
   So, the main thesis of letting Islam extremism implode on its own just does not hold well to any reality check. Right now it is picking up steam big time.
   
   Instead, I recommend a far more prescient book on the subject: Samuel Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations." He has a far better understanding of Islam's extremism from a geopolitical and demographic standpoints.



2. Gilles Kepel is a really bright person, but this is one terrible book. His idea is that Muslims may reject violence as counterproductive and instead achieve the acceptance of their wisdom by convincing us all. In return for accepting their wisdom, they will accept our advice to be non-violent about it. As for those who reject the truth of what they have to say, well, they'll simply shame us all into accepting their wisdom. Did I use the word wisdom a little too much? If so, it is because I think this book needs more of it. Much more of it.
   
   Kepel never seems to get around to condemning Arab propaganda. And in an age where the international information supply has been seriously contaminated by arbitrary antizionist untruths, I think this is a serious oversight.
   
   First we see Kepel misrepresent the 2000 Intifada as the work of Sharon, who clearly provoked the Arabs by visiting the Temple Mount, and Arafat, who clearly provoked the Jews by killing them in bunches.
   
   But this is nonsense. Jewish members of the Knesset had been visiting the Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest site, on a regular basis. If non-Muslims were to start a war just because an Arab leader visited the Kaaba, we'd all regard this as an absurd excuse. Kepel just adds to the problem by pretending that this is reasonable.
   
   This is a serious problem with the whole book, because truth is central to the theme. If Muslims are going to support truth, they may get their way without violence. If they are fighting truth, they will not be able to convince others or shame them into agreeing. The only options left will be violence or apology.
   
   The author is convincing when he says that Israeli settlements do annoy some Arabs. Now, these settlements are on disputed land. They ought to be as legal as Arab settlements. But let's forget all that. Let us think only of justice and truth and human rights. Here is where Kepel falls apart. He keeps implying that in a just world, Israel would be trimmed down to size. And that even if the settlements are legal, if Israel had to fend for itself, without anyone supporting it or attacking it, the size of Israel would decrease to something more reasonable.
   
   Kepel has it totally wrong. Israel has over 6 million people and over 5 million Jews. In a just world, all else being equal, Israel would be much bigger. And this is the core of the problem. The present size of Israel is not a crime against Nature. If anything, it is like low tide at the beach: one is making a big mistake if one expects the water to recede from it for the rest of the day.
   
   The author admits that some folks support Israel here. But he blames this support on a few "neoconservatives," implying that they are fighting against reality. The truth is that the Arab side is fighting against justice and reality, and that such a war can't be won in the long run.
   
   Once Kepel avoids saying that in a just world, Israel would be much bigger, it is easy for him to present Muslim violence as the wrong means for antizionist Muslims to convince others of their essential reasonableness. And in his discussion of Europe, he concludes that European Islam will emerge with a "universalist perspective, freed from the straitjacket of authoritarianism and corruption." Now, I do admit that the author is a learned and intelligent person. And he may be right! But as far as I am concerned, he could not have made a less convincing case.



3. This book is an easy to read, somewhat easy to understand wrapup of what is currently happening with the Global War on Terror and the fight for Muslim hearts and minds. The author does a great job in explaining some of the differences in the Salafist community and also in pointing out that Wahhabists are Salafists, but not necessarily of the Bin Laden strain, something that many people in the West just don't get.
   
   However, if there were any down sides for me, it was the part about the fight in Europe for Muslim hearts and minds. It focuses, somewhat understandbly, on France. There are fights going on all around Europe and I think the author could have done a better job bringing that to light. I also feel that although he demonstrates the conflicts within the Muslim community in Europe, one needs to realize that these issues trasncend national borders, although each government is trying to deal with its specific Muslim community, rather than getting that Europe needs to deal with this issue in a better fashion from Spain to Germany.
   
   As for one of the poor reviews implying that the author is not facing the truth regarding the 2000 intifidah, she is incorrect. It did start when Sharon visited the Dome of the Rock (not sure if that was it) for the Arabs. Yes, other Knesset officials may have visited it, but none like Sharon. For the Palestinians, that was the event that triggered the uprising, regardless of whether this is superficial analysis or not. In the Arab world, as in all other places, perception is reality. This is something that too many Westerners fail to comprhend when dealing with Muslims...............there is not necessarily one truth.



4. This book was a major disappointment after the author's brilliant work JIHAD. Jihad was published just as the US was destroying the Taliban, and I had hoped that this work would bring us up to date with the invasion of Iraq. I immediately noticed that Kepel did not bother to correct his characterization of US tactics in Afghanistan as "carpet-bombing", which it wasn't. Then he referred to photos of American "sexual abuse and torture" of Iraqi prisoners (which was more like hazing) while calling videos of the beheading of a screaming American youth as "mistreatment." Events have shown Kepel's earlier theory that Islamic fundamentalism is falling apart is quite correct, losing out to a rising tide of democracy in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and even Saudi Arabia, but he sort of goes off the rails to talk about the Islamic diaspora in Europe and elsewhere as the hope for the future. I guess he's afraid of not getting invited to the right cocktail parties in Paris if he endorsed anything to do with American policy.



5. Gilles Kepel provides an insightful, European perspective on relations between the West and Islam. As the title suggests, he does not see the two locked in intractable conflict. Muslims, like the West, are divided. The interests of the Saudi government are separate from those of the Wahhabite preachers; salafists can be distinguished from other Sunnis, and salafists themselves can be divided into pietists and jihadists. His description of the problems of the Muslims in Europe is particularly valuable and suggests issues that the American news media barely touches. His chapter on the dilemmas that face Saudi Arabia is also enlightening. The significance he places on the collapse of the Oslo agreement puts developments in the Middle East in an unusual perspective.
   
   Unfortunately, his view of neoconservatives and the Bush administration is akin to Michael Moore's. It is somewhat more subtle, but hardly as profound as his understanding of the politics of Islam.
   
   Nonetheless, that understanding makes the book invaluable, perhaps essential.

2 comments about The Robot Olympics (Tom Swift Young Inventor).

1. This is a great book in the newly re-invented Tom Swift series. In fact, this would have made a better book #1 and introduction to this new series (some early cover art shows this as #1 in the Young Inventor series.) Tom and his family, friends, and environment are nicely introduced in this story. We have descriptions of the characters and the town of Shopton (which boasts a "Statemeyer Street" and is said to by quite bustling). Another great nod to the original Tom Sift and Tom Swift Jr series is the lobby of Swift enterprises, which holds a museum to Tom's father's early inventions (including the Giant Robot., G-force inverter, triphibian atomicar, etc from the Tom Swift Jr series of the 50's and 60's.) Mr. Swift is married to Mary Nestor, and Tom's little sister is Sandy. I feel these are nice touches to long-time fans of the series. Tom's friends are funky and fun, and they make a well rounded trio for todays readers. Overall, a great book, with books #1 and #2 a perfect introduction to the new Tom Swift, Young Inventor series!



2. The writing is for kids, but the new series is a nice update. My 9yo son love the new over the old. I still like the writing in the older series.
   Would recommend. Not expensive, OK soft cover.

5 comments about Nextwave: Agents Of H.A.T.E Volume 1: This Is What They Want TPB.

1. Warren Ellis writes a strange book, at times. This is one of those. An enormous spoof on comics on the whole, but Marvel comics in particular, Nextwave deals with a group of semi-anti-mostly heroes who had worked for H.A.T.E. - Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, but learned that HATE was secretly run by super-terrorists. They defected, and now they're on the run from fanatical Dirk Anger (an obvious Nick Fury parody, and perhaps the best character in the book)
   
   Nextwave has a brisk, crisp pace. It hits the ground running and never slows down, and it's that manic energy that fuels the humor and action of the series. The series relentlessly pokes fun at the common superheroic traditions, and Ellis comes up with some truly glorious threats for his team to face.
   
   This book certainly won't fly to well with everyone, as people have different senses of humor. The irreverant take on these characters, many of whom have a long history at Marvel, will annoy many purists. But, if you enjoy that rare summer blockbuster that manages to balance heavy-hitting action with hilarious satire, Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is definitely the book for you.



2. Nextwave is quite possibly as close as one will ever get to a "pure" comic book. This is what the medium was invented for: posingstreetstransformingcopgonecrazyhomicidecrabsdirkangerindragcrying and so on an so forth.
   
   Alright, in all seriousness, this book is a fantastic read! Forget those serious comics and convoluted continuities that never seem to make sense or seem remotely appealing to wade through (though they can be). This comic does away with that and simply gives us five individuals fighting weird... things... like all the time. That's as deep as it gets. And frankly, that is perfect for those who simply want to laugh at zany storytelling that is one of Warren Ellis' many strengths while being accompanied by great artwork by the inimitable Stuart Immonen.
   
   In short, get Nextwave. You'll laugh your way through the book in no time and you will remember Dirk Anger. Trust me on that.



3. Ellis invents a couple of characters, and takes a few others that had disappeared, the other Captain Marvel, Boom-Boom, and the daughter of Ulysses Bloodstone and even Machine Man. I didn't even know she existed, so that was a pretty cool find.
   
   Then, they have some humorous, robot, corporation and monster stomping to do, while yelling cross-cultural insults at each other.



4. NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is all about the heroic poses and mindless violence and wonky and terse, darkly humored dialogue. It's also about a rant-happy villain who comes off like Nick Fury's bonkers evil twin. And Nextwave is about five basement-tiered superheroes who've somehow fallen into Warren Ellis's purview just when Ellis was being consumed with a rollicking f*ck-all mood. Consummate artist Stuart Immonen drops by every issue to dazzle us with his clean, fabulous artwork.
   
   For the unknowing: the Nextwave is comprised of Monica Rambeau (the ex-Captain Marvel and Photon, who tends to hearken back to when she led the Avengers), Aaron Stack (Machine Man, mechanical git who likes to call folks "fleshy ones"), Elsa Bloodstone (Brit babe and kick-arse monster slayer), Tabitha Smith (mutant formerly known as Boom-Boom and Meltdown), and the Captain (not really a captain of anything). These five were hired on by H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort) to be its elite antiterrorist arm.
   
   But when the Nextwave members discover that H.A.T.E. is actually a branch of the terrorist cell, the Beyond Corporation, well, they go rogue in a blink. Apparently, Beyond Corp. intended for NextWave to become the test subject for their various Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction. But Nextwave would firmly beg to differ. Next thing you know, thanks to Tabitha having pilfered the Beyond Corp.'s planning documents, NextWave is popping in at each test site and screwing it but good for the bad guys.
   
   Not much character development here. Barely a storyline. A simple premise. Lots of acronyms. An abundance of silliness (loved the tidbits of hilarious background info on our heroes, as well as the widdle, cuddly koala bears...of death!). Here's a crapload of bizarre enemy agents and weaponry (including Fin Fang Foom and his purple underpants!). And a cornucopia of rending, maiming, smashing, 'sploding, smiting with a guitar, finger shredding, and just a bit of vicious cop kickin'. As breezily written by Ellis, the characters may lack depth and internal musings, but they are a hell of a lot of fun to read about. My favorite character here happens to be the unkempt and not too smart Captain, or Captain **** (expletive unknown, although it's offensive enough that it merited a vicious beatdown from Cap'n America and soap shoved into his mouth). The Captain was specifically created by Ellis and Immonen for the Nextwave series, although he somewhat reminds me of a Kevin Matchstick gone sour.
   
   NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. Vol. 1 (This Is What They Want) collects the first 6 issues, and it's a work of stylish brevity and outrageous, unapologetic action. These amped-up action sequences are where Stuart Immonen truly earns all his big money, his art being that wonderful. As for Ellis, his outrageous narrative style here is as if he got talked into an impromptu tale-swapping contest and he's just kickin' it and cutting loose with the blarney. So, basically, put away all the deep thoughts and notions of a convoluted plot and the search for a meaningful story. It ain't like that here, sir. This is brisk reading and will leave you craving more. Definitely, it sucks that only 12 issues were published before the series was cancelled. But, fret not, Mr. Ellis has vowed to put out more Nextwave adventures, but in a limited series format.
   
   So what makes Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. so much fun to read? In brief, to quote Monica Rambeau: "Monsters to beat up! Things to blow up! It's the best job in America! Nextwave go!"



5. Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is one of the most fun comic series in a long time. It captures absurdity, violence, and humor, puts it all in a paper bag, sets it on the front stoop, rings your doorbell, and lights the bag on fire. With a cast of Marvel second-stringers (if that high up on the ladder!), Nextwave offers the readers a chance to see superheroes doing what they do best: solving problems with violence, making things blow up, and posing afterwards. In the first volume alone, we see a "heart-moving" battle with the underpants-wearing dragon Fin Fang Foom, the razing of a pseudo-robotic broccoli-man breeding farm, and a city menaced by a crazed mech-armored samurai police officer.
   
   Featuring team leader and Avengers cheerleader Monica Rambeau (Captain Marvel/Photon), mutant mallrat and pocket-picker Tabitha Smith (Boom Boom/Boomer/Meltdown), fleshbag-tolerating robotic marvel Aaron Stack (Machine Man), British monster-hunter and Yankee-hater Elsa Bloodstone, and the superpowered dim bulb The Captain, Nextwave takes on all threats to freedom, life, and the world, thrown at them by H.A.T.E. commander Dirk Angery (think a maladjusted Nick Fury on suicide watch). If you miss the absolutely crazy **** that made Golden Age comics so much fun, but would like to see it in a modern setting, you need to pick up Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.!

5 comments about Dancing Under the Red Star: The Extraordinary Story of Margaret Werner, the Only American Woman to Survive Stalin's Gulag.

1. Dancing under the Red Star was a good book but not what I would call a "page turner." The beginning was a little slow and confusing because the author went back and forth changing time sequences...but once I got past the beginning, everything was in chronological order. Also, the author tended to go a little too much into detail about Margret's personal thoughts...sometimes pages were spent with her thoughts just going and going. I wanted the storyline to continue...not drone on and on. However, overall, this is a good book with a great deal of details on what life must have been like for millions under Stalin. I would recommend this book for high schoolers and above.



2. What should have been an amazing story - a young woman goes to Russia because her father is a Ford worker on an exchange program, then her and her father end up being tried for treason and imprisoned, although not together, and only she makes it out of the prison system alive - fails to be a page turner in Karl Tobien's recitation of his mother's story. The main problems are Karl's confusing writing style (I had to read the book several times before every scene made sense, also I think he claims that his grandparents were "waiting out the Depression" on a beet farm in 1921, which differs a little from the dates I was taught in school) and his incessant proselytizing.
   
   It would be understandable if Mrs Werner had given her son a whitewashed vision of the camps. She had lived quietly for years after returning to America and was careful to avoid publicity or attention, and even though she seemed to lead as charmed a life as a gulag prisoner can, there was probably a lot she didn't care to dwell on. But Karl doesn't do any of his own research to supplement her story, leading the reader with a lot of questions especially about the Ford-Gorky exchange and Carl Werner, who despite his daughter's obvious worship, might have dug his own hole in Soviet Russia.
   
   The second problem is that Karl is clearly a born-again Christian, and possibly his mother also was by the end of her life. This really shouldn't be that obvious halfway through the book, but there we are. While a gulag-as-a-spiritual-discovery-journey is explicitly stated, right off the bat young Maidie is crediting a benevolent God with every possible stroke of good luck and never once does she seriously question him about the bad. In fact, there is a surprisingly small amount of conflict in the whole book, both in her heart and in her environment, considering she's in a freaking gulag. By the epilogue, where Karl exclaims that we need truth! need it now! in our schools! without ever once stating what truth he's talking about because to him it's totally obvious, I have to wonder how much of the story is really Margaret Werner's, and how much was Karl.



3. First a note about other reviews:
   Largely ignore the negative comments.
   
   The three greatest negative comments I've read are those referring to:
   1) Proselytizing
   2) Writing style
   3) Historical research/content/details.
   
   At this point, these three types of negative comments seem to run from greatest to least in this order.
   
   First of all, or to cover #1 . . . proselytizing: There really isn't any. The quantity of coverage given specifically and directly to God within these pages seems no more than would be set aside for him in anyone's book. There's no literary "alter call" and the closest you get to a description of a conversion experience is found within the last three or so pages--and no formula is given and no call to the reader extended. It's obvious the author and the subject (if he has been faithful to her memories/recollections) consider God a central figure in the universe and their lives, but because this story is what it is, a true biographical telling of survival in Stalinist Russia, it says little of God directly. Apparently, Margaret Werner knew little of God during these difficult years and so there is little said. What insight she received were tidbits from her mother . . . which were generally meant as encouragement to get through the next day, hour, moment. So, given the little amount of space the book devotes to specifically mentioning God, I will say no more here . . . or run the risk of spending even more space here than there was there!
   
   The second objection I've seen in reviews of this book: Writing Style. The book is well written. I read an Advanced Reading Copy and noted only a couple of typographical or print errors--these may have been corrected in the final printing. The writing style itself, while a little wordy perhaps, does an excellent job of portraying the words of the subject as if they are being delivered in person, one on one, from an eloquent, down to earth individual. There are no literarily elaborate phrases and you don't need a Harvard education to grasp the vocabulary. The story is delivered in a direct and straightforward fashion and the entire read, I found, was pleasant. It was certainly good enough to "forget" I was reading and fall into the story.
   
   Finally, the last negative comment I've seen in reviews of this book are its attention to historical content/detail/research. This is not an historical treatise. There are not a lot of historical details given in the text. We are given details, but they are those directly related to the story, by the subject, in the first-person. Most of the historical information we receive is that which the subject was familiar with at the time and not what would have become available after-the-fact through research. This book is a retelling of events that befell Margaret and the struggles she endured. Indeed, the reader learns a lot of things about death camps in Stalinist Russia during this time frame--but these details are those which are relevant to the telling of the story and nothing more.
   
   I have attempted to cover what seem to be the main negative parts of the reviews I have read of this book. I will not spend a lot of time reviewing the positive aspects because that has already been done amply by others. As I began this review with the suggestion to largely ignore the negative comments of others regarding this book, I will now suggest that you give credence to the positive comments others have given. Take the most glowing comments you read with a grain of salt and realize that everyone will have his or her own bent--specific reasons they liked this or that which are personal to them. But as you should largely ignore the negative comments given, I suggest you largely consider the positive.
   
   This is a wonderful read and a good solid book and it has earned its place in my library--and as suggested reading to others.



4. Never, in Hollywood's motion picture history, has there been a book and riveting true story more worthy of an epic screen adaptation than DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR.
   
   A 2006 Non-Fiction "Pick" title by the American Booksellers Association, DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR has been adopted by many of America's top libraries, reading groups, book clubs, pro-family and faith-market organizations, home-schooling associations, and high school reading curriculums around the country.
   
   GENRE: Historical & Inspirational Drama / Adventure / War / Political Persecution
   
   Margaret "Maidie" Werner was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1921. The daughter of European immigrants--Carl & Elisabeth Werner, Margaret was your typically ordinary, innocent fun-loving 11-year old American schoolgirl, when--in 1932, during the Great Depression, her entire world was suddenly turned upside down.
   
   In the wake of this radically turbulent time, the Ford Motor Company commissioned an estimated 450 of their employees, and families, to leave America, set sail across the seas and take up residence in Gorky, Russia, in order to operate Ford's manufacturing facility there (though Ford admits to only 114 employees being sent). Margaret, along with her parents--Carl and Elisabeth, were one such family.
   
   Carl Werner was a tool and dye specialist with Detroit's Ford Motor Company, seeking only a good life for his family, and the "temporary economic opportunity" in Gorky that Henry Ford had promised, in the face of Detroit's hard times. Carl soon found more than he had bargained for...
   
   Russia of the late 1930's was an unimaginably brutal place. With the beginning of Stalin's infamous purges and the ensuing "Great Terror"--widespread arrests, political corruption, human torture, and unparalleled malevolent evil was the lay of the land. More than 30 million people had passed through the Gulag system: Russian Civil War prisoners, former aristocrats, businessmen, and large land owners were incarcerated alongside murderers, thieves, and common criminals, plus political opponents, intellectual "enemies of the state," religious dissenters, women, children--and those found "guilty" of simply associations with any of the above. Suddenly and unjustifiably, Margaret's father--Carl Werner, was deemed one such enemy.
   
   A little known (or virtually unknown) fact is that AMERICAN WORKERS BY THE THOUSANDS (employees of Henry Ford, and others), perished in Stalinist Russia--like animals, in the dreaded political prisons and malevolent slave-labor camps of Siberia, while both the Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Government, each turning a blind eye, did nothing to intervene or facilitate their rescue. Other Americans then trapped in Russia were not quite as fortunate. They were simply executed by Stalin's henchmen, murdered in the streets.
   
   Of these faithful American pioneers; the men, women, and children who originally made this now historic passage and lost their lives as a result thereof, spending years, nearly lifetimes, in the infamous and dreaded Siberian death camps, purely by the grace of God--there was one American woman who survived the horror and lived to tell of it. Margaret Werner. She is one of only two gulag survivors who eventually made it back home. She was the first. She was an American...
   
   In the end, Margaret "Maidie" Werner would become the only American woman known to have survived the brutal Siberian Gulag of Stalinist Russia, later escaping from East German exile through the Iron Curtain, to engineer a most miraculous eventual return home to the United States, where she would finally, and gratefully, kneel and kiss the pier at New York Harbor!
   
   Spanning nearly 30 years of Margaret Werner's extraordinary life story, "Dancing" is a brutally honest and illuminatingly sensitive record of how one very special woman, through clearly miraculous circumstances and the ever-present hand of a God she didn't fully recognize, managed to live through years of wrongful imprisonment in the Soviet Union, overcoming innumerable hardships while defiantly cheating death in her ultimate journey back home--the fulfillment of her vision and destiny.
   
   Margaret Werner's remarkable journey beyond the Iron Curtain and back is a story of defiance, hope, inspiration, and personal triumph--those often unseen elements rooted in the deeper spiritual realities of the human experience.
   
   When rightly caste and developed for feature film production, this amazing chronicle is sure to captivate and inspire the hearts of moviegoers across the globe--with hope, vision, and other lasting treasures, gifts, priceless "deposits" of eternal consequence...
   
   Historically unprecedented and fascinating beyond words, DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR stands as one of the most compelling and uniquely powerful stories of a woman's survival ever recorded.
   
   
   BOOK SYNOPSIS:
   
   In 1932 Detroit, the depression was "looming large and about to take its toll on everyone." Ford employee CARL WERNER carefully considers the decision of a lifetime--for his entire family, as HENRY FORD finalizes a new contract to begin automotive production in Russia. Despite much, maybe prophetic, steadfast opposition from mother and daughter...the choice is all Carl's, and the reluctant decision is made; the Werner's are bound for Russia.
   
   The story begins in 1938 Gorky, Russia, amid the Stalinist regime, as American 17-year-old high school student and, now, champion Russian swimmer, MARGARET "MAIDIE' WERNER witnesses the brutal arrest of her father, Carl, at the hands of Russia's notorious NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Margaret and her mother, ELISABETH, the family's quiet but confident spiritual leader, are more than devastated as a result of the inexplicable madness they have just witnessed, and are now left with the unanswerable question of "Why?" Margaret, trying hard to recover, ponders her mother's steadfast words of faith, "Everything will be all right; Do not lose hope. God has a plan...and HE will get us through this..."
   
   Carl is now declared a "vrag naroda" (an "enemy of the state") and has been sentenced to an indeterminate term in a labor camp in Siberia's far North. Within one month of Carl's savage arrest, Margaret and her mother are evicted from their tiny apartment, with no savings--no means of support, now having to fend for themselves in the midst of their impoverished surroundings. At an assembly in her high school auditorium, Margaret is appalled as the authorities urge she publicly "denounce her father as a traitor of their country," and, to the absurdity of such a demand, she vehemently speaks out against this ruthless Soviet system that has "murdered the years of her youth," as friends and classmates, including best friend, MARIA, can't believe their ears!
   
   Margaret becomes a champion `Soviet' athlete, highly touted, excelling in both swimming and track. She is quite taken with a handsome young Russia lifeguard--NIKOLAI; as the entire country is in a state of moral, social, and physical collapse, spiritual bankruptcy. Con men abound...trying to take advantage of bereaved families. During a brief vacation at a youth resort near Moscow, Margaret, now age 19, hears the camp loudspeaker suddenly announce that "Finland has just attacked Russia," and the country is officially at war. Everyone knows that the true perpetrator is Russia, but no one dares speak his or her mind on the matter, as Margaret is ordered and mobilized, along with several hundred of the city's youth, to dig anti-tank trenches from there to Moscow. Her life is miraculously spared; she narrowly escapes aerial gunfire from German planes advancing on the Russian capital, as World War II is now in full swing...
   
   She befriends British officers: LESLIE & MAC (serving in Russia as part of the `Allies Lease-Lend Pact'), who willfully offer their assistance to help facilitate Margaret and Elisabeth's hopeful escape. Margaret and Elisabeth manage to survive the war years, selling their blood for money and/or food. Margaret's life is again spared--surely by God's grace--as she is almost caught, by a MILITARY GUARD, stealing small bits of wood for nothing other than personal survival. It is, nonetheless, considered a "crime" punishable by execution. As a necessary means of survival, Elisabeth harvests (the world's worst tasting) potatoes at a kolkhoz, as she and Maidie jokingly make light of them, in an attempt to ease the consuming insanity.
   
   World War II rages on, and Gorky is all but obliterated, primarily by air, by the considerably superior tactics and weaponry of the German army; while Margaret works for a brief time at the People's Court, where foreign and national POLITICAL PRISONERS, and others, are brought to stand trial on various trumped-up charges.
   
   The war continues, as Maidie and her FRIENDS have a momentary time out at a dance in a war-torn building in the center of town; a surprise set up! Nikolai, whom Margaret has not seen in 5 years, is now a distinguished Russian aviator, a fighter pilot, who appears out of nowhere to meet her there. Their true love for one another is apparent, and blossoms, as plans are made to wed. Days later, Nikolai has orders to return to Leningrad, where, reportedly, tens of thousands are dying daily. Only a day later his plane is shot down and Nikolai is killed, taking along most of Margaret's heart. She is shattered. Eventually recovering, she later reflects on the fact that, perhaps, God somehow spared her life? The war is declared "over" on May 7, 1945, everyone "spilling out of their apartments, celebrating, and dancing in the streets." The Russian death toll: Military and civilian...27 million lives.
   
   The events of all the mounting years have taken their toll on our heroine. Now, in much the same fashion as with her father some 7 years prior...Margaret, age 24, is arrested, declared a political prisoner, in December 1945, and first detained at Gorky's infamous Vorobyo'vka political prison, where she is the only American detained. Prison conditions are ghastly; and equally so, her demonic cellmate, ANASTASIA. She endures constant interrogations, conducted mainly by FIDOLI, her somewhat compassionate Russian interrogator--a sly fox, but whom she actually likes...and says "could pass for a kindly old English professor."
   
   Margaret is jolted to learn that her filthy, demon possessed witch of a cellmate, Anastasia, has disclosed to her interrogator facts that she has learned about Margaret's life (her relationship with Leslie & Mac), now tainting Margaret's circumstances all the more, and leading to an eventual `spiritual' confrontation between the two. Day after day, almost non-stop, she is interrogated--but remains determined, simply refusing to cooperate with the malevolent Russian agenda. The official charges against her are "Treason," "Espionage" and "Anti-Soviet Propaganda," i.e. spying for the British Secret Service...
   
   Margaret has no choice; from sheer exhaustion, she finally breaks down and signs their bogus confession. She says, "...they simply outwait you and outlast you...leaving you no alternative." She is temporarily transferred to the much-feared Lubyanka prison in Moscow, and then, suddenly, again returned to Gorky, to her interrogator; where she breaks a very serious Russian taboo, by asking Fidoli his thoughts on God? The room is silent, anticipating; Margaret apprehensive and somewhat fearful, but defiant nevertheless.
   
   In April 1946, Maidie Werner, a falsely accused American citizen, stands trial in Moscow--where a former close `FRIEND' has falsely testified against her--for the charges leveled by the NKVD; and is sentenced to "ten years hard labor." Finally, news comes that she will be shipped to a Siberian labor camp. First, she and OTHER PRISONERS are humiliatingly marched through the city streets of Gorky, past the demoralized but sympathetic crowds of ONLOOKERS, then, herded like animals into a railroad cattle car, her trip to the far North begins. Upon arrival, she has a most painful, but surprising encounter with a Blatnoi man, MIKAL--a street thug, at the feared Siberian lumber camp, Burepolom; and also a shockingly strange, most unexpected encounter with another OLD ACQUAINTENANCE from years past.
   
   Maidie works in a log-loading brigade, the most physical, unimaginably demanding work she has ever done. But, as the news about her talent for drawing and tracing blueprints spreads, a quick transfer to a purported `better life' in a construction brigade ensues. She is the only American--man or woman, here...and the only "political prisoner" in the entire Siberian camp.
   
   Perhaps the best news Margaret has heard yet...the camp is auditioning dancers and performers for its dramatic entertainment troupe! She is readily accepted. Then...old and ugly, dormant feelings are stirred up once again: bitterness, resentment, hatred...as she spots Anastasia, the witch--the informer, amongst a column of newly arriving prisoners in the summer of 1948. In the middle of one particular night, Margaret is awakened from a dead sleep, and told, "Pack your things now; you will be leaving in the morning."
   
   Margaret's new `home' and labor camp is at Inta, Komi, A.S.S.R., far north in Siberia, just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle, one of the most notoriously brutal labor camps in all of Siberia. In a climate she describes as "bone-chilling, mind-splitting, devilish cold," she meets political prisoner--LINA PROKOFIEV, Spanish wife of the famous, world-renowned Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. A wonderful friendship begins... "One day," Margaret recalls, "a woman named TAMARA arrived in our camp, and things were never the same again!" -- as Margaret becomes a key member of the camp's Cultural Brigade, the official entertainment, ballet and dance group. It is here that we meet her closest lifelong friends--"SISTERS" all, simply held together in the mutual madness by just a single common thread--the thread of HOPE.
   
   Life continues for Margaret in this perpetually gray and unforgiving Soviet slave labor camp in Northern Siberia. We learn much more about the conditions and factors--indignities and `favors,' effecting camp life for these women. The prevailing thought in Margaret's mind through most of it is simply, "God, when are you going to change all of this?" The writer takes a shockingly truthful and spiritual look at the epidemic reality of suicide in the Russian death camps; the infiltration of hopelessness and despair into the human spirit, and then its devastating results, as Margaret decides, "this is all just too insane; where's the off button?"
   
   Margaret details her natural love for ballet--what physically demanding, exhaustive `work' it truly was; along with the existing jealousies created within the camp, due to the theatrical work of the "privileged" WOMEN in the Cultural Brigade. Russia's malevolent dictator, Joseph Stalin dies in March of 1953; it is practically nationwide jubilation in the hearing that "the master of the house has died, and all of the grateful servants celebrate." Maybe now, for the first time, Margaret begins to see the light at the end of her tunnel of darkness, as her original 10-year sentence nears its close.
   
   Maidie is an integral member and performer in the Cultural Brigade, also working as draftsman for a small construction group. Brigade member, NATASHA, disgusted with her producers one day (because they can't find her a "suitable role" for an upcoming show) throws a bucket of feces on their heads...as Maidie and others are doubled over in laughter! Though officially outlawed, the women have taken in pets. One day, their loving dog is missing, then soon discovered, as Margaret declares "oh, what evil lies in the hearts of men!" Later, a chilling `secret abortion' is performed in her barracks.
   
   Margaret has been `requested' back in Gorky by the officials of the MVD--Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the purpose of recruiting her mother, Elisabeth, to work for them in Gorky. She describes her mama looking like "a deer caught in 2AM headlights on a dark and lonely road...it was nothing but a set up...honey all over the bear trap," as Elisabeth, sitting at an overflowing mountain of delectable food, uncomfortably awaits her daughter's arrival. Back in Siberia, March 3rd, 1955, the day of Margaret's release has finally arrived. Before exiting, however, as she did once before...many years earlier, she again decides, regardless of the consequences, to defiantly stand up and speak her mind...
   
   Shortly after her eventual release, while dancing for Tamara's group in Inta, Margaret meets and later marries GÜNTER--a former German war prisoner, fellow labor camp survivor, and theatrical stage performer--now exiled to Siberia. Their BABY is soon born...
   
   Although considered `free' to some yet unknown degree, Margaret steadily realizes her increasing dependence upon "the grace, favor, and protection of an unseen God." She examines those spiritual certainties, which have most assuredly surrounded and guarded her life for all of these years, in miraculously inexplicable ways. At Inta, before giving birth, she dances her final dance...as Elisabeth, for the first time ever, witnesses her daughter's last dramatic performance. Still trapped in Russia, however, Maidie visits a former friend, JOHN, in Moscow...and, upon his advice, decides to write a grand and lengthy appeal to the country's Prime Minister, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, requesting permission to leave the country (to East Germany)--in accordance with a new "War Prisoner Exchange Agreement" between Germany and Russia.
   
   In December 1957, the good news finally arrives; they are authorized to leave Russia, eventually crossing into the GDR in February 1958 at Fuerstenwalde, not far from Gunter's hometown. Did Nikita "buy" the appeal?
   
   Margaret states, "we knew that we could never survive in the GDR; it was too much like Russia...and I'm an American. This is not my home!" Thus, a clever plan for defection, escape to the "free West," is hatched, as Soviet-controlled East German Border Police, or VOPO's, look upon the developing drama. West Germany was, in fact, the strategic-most place on the globe; the best place imaginable for launching back to the U.S.; also described as Margaret's "private plan within the plan." She recalls, "This would become our instant demise, death, if we blew the scene!"
   
   Nearly 30 years from the day Margaret first left Detroit as an 11-year-old schoolgirl, she returns to America--her country--with mother and son, her destiny finally fulfilled--as she slowly kneels down amid the gathering crowd of onlookers...to kiss the boards of the pier at New York Harbor...as she considers: "Were it not for God, I would have certainly died out there! My life had been stolen from me, but now it was being returned. The forces of evil had destroyed much of my life, yet, if but for a moment, I almost felt as if I hadn't missed a thing. I knew I could just as easily have died out there, given up and folded my hands. Many others had done just that. I knew them. I knew their faces. But now I was free. Here was my life, waiting for me all over again, as if I had just been born..."
   
   
   CLOSING THOUGHTS:
   
   Margaret "Maidie" Werner was the only American woman known to have survived the Siberian slave-labor camps of twentieth-century Stalinist Russia, to have escaped from exile, and to have returned to the United States...
   
   Though Ford insists its American workers returned to the United States in the later part of 1932, Carl Werner was still living in Gorky in 1938, and working at the plant Ford built to manufacture the trucks essential to Stalin's Five-Year Plans.
   
   Just what did Detroit's Ford Company know, and what didn't they know about the affairs going on in Gorky? What did they disclose, and what did they conceal? And why? What was their involvement, their level of support for their people? Why had they abandoned their employees? What, if anything, was their liability? And what was the U.S. government doing about all the innocent Americans who were there in harm's way? Indeed, even today there are many more questions than answers...as we realize that things are not always as they first appear.
   
   There is much documentary evidence that the Ford Motor Company worked for both sides during World War II. While Russia was at war with the Germans, the United States--as official ally to Russia and Britain, was certainly also at war with Germany. And Henry Ford, as history would recount, was doing business simultaneously with the two archrivals--Hitler and Stalin--supplying cars, financing, and political influence, for profit, to each. The Ford story was concealed by Washington, however, like almost everything else of that genre that could touch upon the name and sustenance of the Wall Street elite.
   
   It is said that if the Nazi industrialists brought to trial at Nuremberg were even remotely guilty of so-called "crimes against mankind," then so must be their fellow collaborators in the Ford family, Henry and Edsel Ford.



5. There are no words in the English language to describe how great this book is. I think it should be required reading in all high schools, but since God is mentioned, forget that ever happening.
   
   Not only tells of one families struggle under Stalin and communist Russia, it tells the truth about Henry Ford as well.
   
   God bless Karl Tobien for paying attention to his mother's stories.

2 comments about Hunting bin Laden: How al-Qaeda Is Winning the War on Terror.

1. After coming across Schultheis's new book, I've ordered copies for all my friends and family. This is one of the most important books of the year. It provides both a vital history to, and brillant analysis of, the origins of the war on terrror, and why we are losing it. After spending a great deal of time in Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, Schultheis is uniquely positioned to evaluate the misguided strategy that the US continues to pursue. If you want to understand the real nature of the conflcit between the US and radical Islam, without the fluff and spin of either the Bush administration or the mainstream news media, read this book.



2. A great book which brings to light facts about 9/11 and our realtionship with our so called friends like the Saudis and Pakistanis. VERY interesting analysis about where UBL is hiding (in plain sight) and how strange it seems that we can't find him. I couldn't put the book down and finished it in two days.

5 comments about American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center.

1. The "pile" as is came to be known, was the rubble left behind by the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. A mess. A huge mess. The who's, what's, why's and hows are accurately discussed in this book about that mess--who took control of it, and what was done with it. A different look at Ground Zero and those who were thrust in charge of this unique operation. An insight at the interests of those who really had control of the "pile"--the firemen, the police, and Port Authority police. A fine addition to the real story of 9/11.



2. This book has been completely discredited piece by piece.
   wtclivinghistory.org
   Honestly, I don't know how Langewiesche lives with himself.



3. This is a beautifully written and utterly compelling book about the fall of the Twin Towers and their subsequent removal. Langewiesche captures the characters involved well, and he fills the book with fascinating details (like the guy who swims towards the towers when others are frantically catching ferries and boats to escape). A very fast read, this terrific work is part journalism and part history, and it's one of the best two or three books related to 9/11 that I've read.



4. This book is inaccurate and just plain wrong. The author stated that an American Airlines flight attendant onboard doomed flight 11 called in to report the hijacking. That was the only correct fact he had. He goes on to say the flight attendant, Ms. Betty Ong, was speaking in "terrified tones, gasping for air". As we all heard a few years later when the tape of Ms. Ong final minutes were played at a congressional hearing, she was calm, composed, articulate and professional. Sadly, this rag was out for a few years before the truth came out. Mr. Langewiesche caused undue pain and heartache to Ms. Ong's family by his grossly inaccurate portrayal. Irresponsible and reprehensible "journalism". Shame on him.



5. William Langewiesche's "American Ground" reads like something Edward R. Murrow might have written, if he had been born on the planet Vulcan and beamed down to the site of the World Trade Center right after the 9-11 attacks. Emotionally detached, with a faint hint of contempt for the heavy passions the attacks unleashed, it's not a book of comfort or pride, but of stubborn facts, nervelessly related.
   
   For that some praise its bravery. Others say it reeks of disrespect, especially toward the members of the Fire Department of New York whose energetic response to the WTC fires cost them hundreds of comrades. To me, it's a book about a hole with a hole, that being Langewiesche's unwillingness to deal with the emotions of 9-11.
   
   Reading the Amazon.com reviews, one might think the entire book is about a fire truck loaded with looted blue jeans, or the last words by one of the flight attendants on a hijacked aircraft. "American Ground" only mentions these things in passing, focusing instead on the massive clean-up of the ruined WTC site, a leaky cofferdam with rickety steel beams, potential Freon gas leakage, and a sometimes chaotic command structure worsened at times by "tribal" issues regarding jurisdiction and the handling of human remains.
   
   What Langewiesche doesn't write about is the suffering of widows, the national mourning, episodes of bravery right after the attacks, or even the other two planes hijacked that day. Its subtitle: "Unbuilding The World Trade Center", is what it's about, not a metaphor for demythologizing the 9-11 attacks but the actual demolition work around the ruins.
   
   I think Langewiesche missed an opportunity his access provided him, to use the clean-up as a framing device for getting more into the larger story of 9-11. To me, the clean-up of the World Trade Center by itself is just not that gripping. Langewiesche writes with energy and an eye for detail, but he doesn't seem to get much past the four or five guys in charge of the clean-up work, civil servants and construction guys of commendable energy but minimal charisma or vision.
   
   To Langewiesche's firefighter critics, the anger of their response is something "American Ground" seems to prefigure in its account of how FDNY personnel made themselves unpopular with others at the clean-up site by languishing in bitter recrimination:
   
   "Some had lost family when the Trade Center fell, and nearly all had lost friends. Their bereavement was real. Still, for nearly two months they had let their collective emotions run unchecked and they had been indulged and encouraged in this by society at large - the presumption being something like: 'It helps to cry.'"
   
   For his part, Langewiesche is having none of it. It's probably this as much as that story about the fire truck with the jeans that contributes to the animus. Detractors might have more of a case if they didn't write with the same sense of entitlement-through-tragedy that Langewiesche notes clouded judgments and colored actions at the WTC site.
   
   But Langewiesche's impartial tone lacks for something, too, more now than when it was first published in 2002, when emotions were so raw and overpowering that it was a relief reading a 9-11 account without them. Now it reads as a story about a giant hole, and the day-to-day decisions that were made to keep things running at a complicated worksite. The New York Times called the book "coldblooded" - cool-blooded might be a better term. But it's disengaging read from this remove in time, and I suspect it will be less essential reading in years to come.

5 comments about In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat.

1. A gifted journalist and military historian of the first order, Atkinson provides a stellar narrative account of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Division and brigade-level operations are illuminated in this book as the author is embedded with the division headquarters and is thus able to gain virtually unrestricted access to 101st Airborne (Air Assault) decision-makers at the tip of the spear.
   
   Focusing most of his attention on General David H. Petraeus, the Screaming Eagles' charismatic and highly respected commander during the invasion, Atkinson offers a rare glimpse into the many and varied challenges of contemporary battle command at the operational and tactical levels of war. For this alone the book is an immensely fascinating read.
   
   But what makes In the Company of Soldiers so interesting is it offers an insider's view into the early thinking of an outstanding general officer who history will likely regard as one of the greatest battlefield leaders of his generation. To his considerable intellect and unparalleled grasp of counterinsurgency warfare, Petraeus adds his empathy for the Iraqi people. At one point the author quotes Petraeus saying [upon gaining control of Al Hilla], "We want to be a benevolent and humble presence."
   
   We realize then that Petraeus understood even during the initial invasion the importance of "the soft knock" in winning Iraqi hearts and minds and ultimately in defeating the insurgency. Securing the Iraqi people eventually provides the foundation for the current surge strategy which has proven particularly effective in the fractious, sectarian neighborhoods of Baghdad.
   
   It is becoming increasingly evident that Petraeus will be remembered for his leadership of Coalition Forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom as General Matthew B. Ridgeway is remembered for his leadership of UN forces during the Korean War. Like Ridgeway, Petraeus recognized upon assuming command of Multi-National Forces-Iraq that he had to restore soldiers' confidence in themselves. He also determined that the only way to break the back of the insurgency was to reorient ground forces to true counterinsurgency warfare. His superior leadership has clearly meant the difference in the Iraq War.
   
   Petraeus has quite effectively employed the right combination of offensive operations targeting Al Qaeda and other radical elements with stability and reconstruction operations.
   
   In the Company of Soldiers also documents the 101st's struggles in the invasion to include the war's most serious fragging incident to date. Perhaps most noteworthy, Atkinson's writing puts readers directly in the middle of the action. Along with the key players we experience the challenges of waging modern war in the harsh, unforgiving desert conditions of Iraq. We readers quickly realize that there are limitations to the high tech tools of war (e.g., Apache helicopters) in America's mighty arsenal.
   
   We also learn that combat units of the 101st seem to be at their best on the battlefield when they return to the basic elements of tactical fire and maneuver.
   
   Atkinson does come in for criticism for his second-guessing of the Bush Administration. The author is at the top of his game when he captures the essence of the distinguished military leaders who figure most prominently in his historical accounts. Petty, meaningless digressions that second-guess our country's political leaders detract from Atkinson's artful depiction of modern warfare and are better left for the editorial pages.
   
   Nevertheless, In the Company of Soldiers offers a great account of contemporary battle command!



2. As a campaign overview this is a useful book, written by someone who was in Iraq during the 2003 invasion and had access to the command echelon of the 101st Airborne Division. I decided to read this book mainly because I wanted to have a more complete picture of General David Petreaus who was the CG of the 101st in 2003. Mr Atckinson does not fail in this aspect and, although he refers many times to himself and his problems following the division in battle, he gives a nice account of the campaign, more on the brigade and division levels than to the company and battalion ones. The impression someone has after reading this book, is that the victory the US armed forces achieved against an "army of half a million with 11,000 generals and 15,000 colonels" was not exaclty a masterpiece of military triumph. In 2003 there were also the first signs of the failure that followed regarding the insurgency and the mounting US and Coalition casualties. The book contains some very good maps which help a lot to follow the action and some black and white photos. Overall, a nice effort of first hand account of a modern campaign with all the pros and cons that this entails.



3. Atkinson does a very good job of objective history writing even though in this case his overall perspective was limited to a specific combate area. He did stray a little with his personnel thoughts but is still an excellent writer of military history.



4. An excellent book. Rick Atkinson really knows how to research a subject. To read his books is like being there



5. In the Company of Soldiers is an excellent book; very gripping. It shows that Gen. Petraeus is one of the best military leaders in American history.

5 comments about Home Workshop Explosives, Second Edition.

1. The title says very little about this most amazing book. I love high-explosives. I like to play with them. And I have a little bit of experience with it... I'm a former special-operations officer with 16 years of service in my country's intelligence agency (something like a "mix" of CIA/FBI/Secret Service, now extinct), and I have done years of overseas "contractor" work... I've been in five major guerrilla wars (Angola, Mozambique, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Lebanon), and alt. I had previous experience with improvised explosives, that old "Black Books" on improvising ordnance did not help me, when I needed it most. Old warriors never die (they only go to Hell to regroup), and I even ask some "insiders" on contrating me to work in Iraq, earlier this year, as a "security advisor", but they find me too fat & unfit to be of use in there... a close friend, former Royal Marine and veteran of Northern Ireland and Malvinas/Falklands, who lived in another big town here, go there, and now is doing what he was trained for... and alt. in all wars we once fought we can get any ammount of firearms, ammo, support weapons, you name it, there was a lack of high-explosives to we "Soldiers-of-Fortune" play with... If I had this amazing book with me on "my wars" back in the '80's, I could do things in a better, faster, more funny way, if you can get what I'm talking about. I love high-explosives, as I told earlier, even being outside of any war, and experiments with this books' fuel-air devices make me fell young again, even with the small earthquake people feel around... with the most potent "toy" described (and a very easy to use one), I get a fireball the size of a truck! I LOVED IT!!! Well, if you want real fun, this is the book for you. Stop reading feeble books that can only "instruct" you, or dangerous books that can only teach you how to blow yourself in hundreds of pieces. Uncle Fester knows what he writes about - and knows a LOT.



2. this book really has all you need to become a conoisseur of the finer explosives. It covers everything from material choice, recipes for the main high explosives through to detonators, safety and storage tips. Each recipe also includes a very good explanation on how to procure certain of the chemicals needed without leaving a paper trail 5 miles long. I can say from personal experience that these recipes do indeed work, and with a bit of creative chemistry one could convert these recipes to work with some of your day to day bathroom, tool shed or cleaning products to produce some crude yet effective explosives(I have succeeded in this without any chemical experience whatsoever).
   the book gives an insight that explosives are within the grasp of any DIY terrorist with even half a decent brain.
   learn how to protect yourself from them, BUY THIS BOOK!



3. I highly recommend this book for any one in military or law enforcement. Understanding how explosives are made helps you recognize the signs of some one making explosives. Who knew you could use stump remover, drain cleaner, and drug store glycerin to make nitro glycerin? Along with a $200 chemestry set as well.



4. i bought this book wondering how good it really was in the start but taking note from the reviews of this book i kinda knew what i was in for in getting this. THIS IS THE MAN, THE UNCLE FESTER. In reading all that i have so far i am shocked, almost to the point of hitting the floor. in the time that i have worked in the pyrotechnics field i have picked up a few things but not all that is in this book, knowing all that is in here makes me happy i got this book seeing as i am sure some time that it will be taken off the market due to all that is in this book.



5. I don't have the time to do any of the stuff in this book, but from two semesters of chemistry in college, most of it looks authentic. I wish he would add more chemical equations as well as visual diagrams or pictures. Also, he needs to get an editor, because his writing skills and formatting wouldn't pass highschool. A short summary of all the steps of each product would also serve as a good recipe list for someone actually making these products. Also, maybe he could add thermite, as I hear that is not illegal (not explosive) but it's destructive power as well as usefulness (some places use it for welding) would make it an excellent topic.

5 comments about When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden.

1. I will preface this review with the fact that I come from a perspective extremely critical of U.S. foreign policy and of its constant wars ("low-intensity" conflict, the "war on drugs," the wars on oil-containing nations, and the War o[f] Terrorism). Now you know where I'm coming from. That said:
   
   It appears Mr. Maher was stung quite painfully when Ari Fleischer, Bush's then-press-secretary, singled him out for denunciation after Maher said on his talk show, Politically Incorrect, that, whatever the 9/11 hijackers were, they were not cowards. As a result, the stricken Mr. Maher lost his show.
   
   He appears to have decided to respond to this downturn with a frothing-at-the-mouth, wrapped-in-the-flag nationalist rant, curiously intermingled with a platterful of liberal (and sometimes even radical) argumentation in regard to the injustices and inanities in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Inbetween his rants, he makes excellent points in terms of "why they hate us," and in our (the people's) complicity with the crimes of empire. But, without fail, he returns to anti-enemies-of-the-state and anti-Islam polemics, eerily reminiscent of the "Hate Week" histrionics against Goldstein, Orwell's official enemy of the state in _1984_.
   
   It is apparent that he is trying to vindicate himself by criticizing the "war on terrorism" from an ardent pro-war and pro-empire position.
   
   But Maher, in this book, did not just fall into line in response to his chastening. He decided to attempt to be one of the ideological drill instructors of the punditry, calling for his critics (and, of course, the rest of us) to fall into line as well -- but be nicer about it. In essence, it seems as if he is trying to bark as loudly as his avowedly-right-wing counterparts as he co-opts their position.
   
   It's an extremely ambivalent book -- he makes many excellent points and raises many important issues not raised by mainstream pundits (as other reviewers here have indicated). I recognize this, and it is indeed good. But, the problem is that the overall message undermines these arguments and smothers them in soothing generalities that, in turn, smother critical thought.
   
   In his conclusion, he denounces all critics of American foreign policy and empire, self-righteously reaffirming the conservative line that America's is the gentlest bloody-handed empire (my not-so-complimentary interpretation) in history, and therefore is praiseworthy. Of course, Chileans, Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Vietnamese, Haitians, Iraqis, Venezuelans, Grenadans, Cubans, the Timorese, and so on, would disagree. His quasi-historical concluding polemic, naturally, fails to substantiate itself, but rather speaks in sweeping, comfortable generalizations that pamper our traditional self-image and, in effect, reaffirm the conservative line. In the end, he becomes one of the best assets the neoconservatives could ask for -- an impassioned "liberal" who, in effect, argues their case but merely whines about methodology. A splendid example of false consciousness in action.
   
   (Incidentally, this friendliness to the conservative worldview is confirmed by the praise received from self-avowed "conservatives" and rightists in these reviews, and from none other than Ann Coulter in her glowing comment quoted on the back cover of the book. If you ever hear conservatives call someone a "reasonable liberal," that should raise some flags.)
   
   When it comes down to it, he is a privileged member of the upper echelons of the corporate media establishment, and he responded hysterically to an outright threat to his ability to stay there. Rather pathetic to observe, really. However, the neocons and "regular" cons can surely enjoy the thrust of his book.



2. I got introduced to Bill Maher through his HBO show. That is a mixture of no-nonsense political spiel with comedy mixed in. I then purchased his book "New Rules" which basically expands on the portion of the show where Bill says some really funny things about stupid things (both mundane and political). I really loved that book. This book is very different in that it only gives Bill's spin on how the current administration has "butchered" everything post 09/11 (minus the comedy). If you are an ultra conservative you will be put off by everything Bill says. Being in the middle I find that what Bill says in this book seems to be supported more by logic or common sense rather than digging up supposed "facts" that many of the political pundits seem to load in their books.
   
   What always bothers me about what they claim in those books as "fact" can never really be verified as the sources can be tainted too. Though I agree with Bill on many of his subjects, many others I don't. I appreciate a good argument though (I loved being on the debating team in school).
   
   Whether you agree with Bill or not he has an amazing presentation style that makes me enjoy his TV program even more.



3. I purchased the hardcover first and found it to be pretty slim on actual content for the price--the posters really didn't add a whole lot to Maher's commentary. The audio book, narrated by Maher, is delivered in his dry comedic style and as such is much funnier. Maher is, first and foremost, a comedian, and this book has to be heard to be enjoyed.



4. Excellent Book. Short and to the point. A great level of intelligence - about what is wrong with out system!



5. When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism - And Still Isn't is a parody of a World War II propaganda poster that read "When you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler !", which suggested that automobile owners carpool to conserve gasoline for the war effort. This isn't just ironic today - it is a complete epiphany for those of us who understand History really repeats itself.
   
   I must applaud HBO's host of Real Time with Bill Maher because he has the courage to speak his mind on topics most Americans staunchly are ignorant of. Like Maher points out - the United States is full of people who are wasteful when it comes to everything from oil, food, and the things we should be conserving and happy to have ready access to. FREEDOM!
   
   Maher critiques of the war in Iraq are right on. He pulls no punches and he shouldn't. Bill Maher is intelligent, funny, and has written another fine book for anyone interested in discovering real truth in real time that may change the way they view our government's practices.
   
   I am a father, a veteran, an author, and a concerned citizen. We need more people like Bill Maher, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Ron Paul in this world who know what they are talking about when they choose to be serious.
   
   Oh yeah - Bill - if you need me to come participate in the panel, I think I can silence Christopher Hitchens for you when he gets too pompous and contrived.