2019-03-11
Balko opens up this book with the statement that it is not an anti-cop book, but rather an anti-politician/ policy book, and he largely maintains that theme throughout.
He starts are far back as before the Norman Conquest of England, showing how law enforcement evolved under the English tradition and common law, the source of the American model. He moves into the colonial period, where he shows how the writs of assistance - and one defense lawyer's 5 hour courtroom diatribe against them - provoked the colonies to begin openly opposing the Crown. Then he moves through the Civil War and Reconstruction, showing the origins of the Posse Comitatus Act and the beginnings of the "professional" police force. Yes, unlike what many may expect, the modern police force didn't come into being until less than 150 years ago. Much of this period of the book speaks of direct militarization - using the military as cops.
He then spends the bulk of the book in just the last 50 years or so speaking primarily of indirect militarization - having cops increasingly act, speak, and look like soldiers. The Boston Bombings happened as the book was being printed, so there is no mention of that particular scenario a...
2019-03-11
This is the first Chess Team book to occur post-Ridley Saga, and is designed to be much more stand alone. As such, it makes a good entry point into the series for new fans – and they will be fans by the end of the book, mark my words on that one.
The back story here starts with Henry Morton Stanley trying to find the money to get back to Africa. It seems that Dr. Livingstone had told him a fantastical tale that he just had to go see for himself…
Flash forward nearly a century, and a man running from the constant wars of mid 20th century Africa finds a mysterious cave that two of his friends quickly die in.
And then we come to the modern era, where we are quickly introduced to a bunch of tourists in Egypt. One is Chinese, two appears to be a German couple, and two more appear to be tourists ...
2019-03-11
This is a special 10th Anniversary release of one of Robinson's earliest works, and even in this story you can see the promise of the excellent storyteller he would become. This was back during Robinson's more explicitly Christian writing days, and he comes through with a fresh look at the single most famous man in history. The time travel aspe...
2019-03-11
The overall story is actually solid. Former SpecOps guy looking to retire has a mystery and mysterious killers almost literally fall into his lap. Meets up with a cop and the murdered man's family to figure out what the hell was happening and why - and get a bit of payback. Formulaic? Yes. But there is a reas...
2019-03-11
If you like robots... READ THIS BOOK.
If you like zombies... READ THIS BOOK.
And if you've never seen the two subjects in one book, as I had never... READ THIS BOOK!
My title wasn't joking, if anything it was probably an understatement. Jeremy ...
2019-03-10
I had never heard of Rachelle Ayala before seeing this book as free on one of Facebook's various Kindle pages. It sounded interesting - in part because I am a software developer myself -am so I picked it up.
This book has go...
2019-03-10
Kelly Carrero has done something fairly rare in my experience - written something that is fairly unique. The closest thing I can think of to what she has pulled off here is the movie Jumper, and even that lacked the execution of Ms. Carrero.
You can get the overall synopsis from the Amazon blurb, but what it doesn't tell you is that the e...
2019-03-10
Yet again, Robinson - already one of the greatest authors currently writing - outdoes even himself.
We open in WWII, where we get a sense of what is to transpire throughout the book. After the opener, we find ourselves in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch aboard the Magellan... about to be eaten by a shark!
It never really lets up from there, tho...
2019-03-10
I just finished reading Judge Andrew Napolitano's It is Dangerous To Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom, and the Insta-Review is simple: If you claim to love the Constitution, If you claim to love Liberty, If you claim to love America, If you claim to love God, if even a single one of the previous fits you, READ THIS BOOK!
Even as a former Libertarian Party official and founder of my own somewhat influential libertarian leaning political blog, I was not overly aware of the Judge's positions prior to reading this book, even though his work is frequently cited among my political allies and genuine personal friends. The reason is simple: I detest talk radio and TV pundits with a passion - I don't watch ANY of them, not even ones I would agree with, as it seems I would with the Judge.
In this book, the Judge starts by explaining what the concept of "Natural Rights" and the "Natural Law" are. Quite simply, they are the innate rights we all share as individual humans, whether you believe - as the Judge explains - that these rights came from our Creator or simply because we are human.
From that foundation, the Judge proceeds to tackle a wide range of issues, from cause celebres of the right (immigration, abortion, gun rights, etc) to cause celebres of the left (unions, free speech, privacy, etc), and a whole lot of stuff in between. In...
2019-03-10
In Kent Holloway's Primal Thirst, we start out with Jack, a cigar chomping professor/ cryptozoologist/ adventurer in the Amazon chasing a supposedly mythological creature - and get pounced on by real cats at the edge of a ravine! Barely escaping that calamity, Jack gets offered a simple job with a lot of money behind it. Fly immediately to Malaysia, rescue a Senator's daughter,...