#BookReview: Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

Not As Much Of A Hit Piece As One Might Expect. If you see that a self-proclaimed “environmentalist” is writing a book about nuclear energy and specifically the Diablo Canyon Power Plant along Central California’s coast, many would likely assume this is going to be little more than a thinly veiled hit piece about how evil the plant is and how it should never have been extended.

And one would be WRONG in that assumption… mostly.

Tuhus-Dubrow instead actually does a reasonably balanced-ish (if still clearly tilted slightly (your mileage may vary on how “slightly”) towards the anti-nuclear position) approach of looking at the totality of everything about nuclear power in the 21st century, showing its evolutions from its earliest incarnations in the middle of the previous century when many thought nuclear power could usher in a Pre-War version of the world from Fallout (briefly seen in the opening sequence of Fallout 4, for example) into its most modern – and promising yet highly contested – forms, using the Diablo Canyon facility as the basis of much of the overall narrative.

Along the way she makes it a point to talk to many on both sides of the issue and give the requisite brief biographies of each of the key players to the narrative she is constructing, as well as discuss in varying detail the whole of the nuclear power saga – everything from its well known incidents to its lesser known incidents to how *exactly* spent nuclear fuel is stored (mostly, she never details the process involved at facilities such as South Carolina’s Savannah River Plant, where I’ve worked a couple of times in a couple of different software engineering roles) and most everything in between. She discusses the various pro- and anti- groups that have formed over the years and actively interviews several leaders on both sides.

But it is during these interviews in particular that Tuhus-Dubrow develops a new term she clearly means and uses as a pejorative throughout much of the text, specifically to describe many – if not all – on the pro-nuclear energy side: “nuclearists”.

Still, even this wasn’t truly significant enough to necessitate the star deduction. Instead, that comes from the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 11% or so of the Advance Review Copy of the book I read nearly four months before publication.

Ultimately, no matter your position on nuclear energy and even if you, like I, have actively worked in the field for any length of time, you’re going to learn something from reading this book. So give it a read, and make sure to write your own review about your own experience with it. And then go read the fictional Viral Apocalypse series by Michael McBride, showing one way Diablo Canyon could actually someday help cause the Apocalypse. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow was originally written on December 28, 2024.

#BookReview: Fewer Rules, Better People by Barry Lam

The Practical Case For A More ‘Libertarian’ Ethic In All Walks Of Life. First off, let’s acknowledge that the Libertarian Party in the US is a joke of its former self that has squandered in these last few years all the hard-won gains it had achieved in its first 40 years – including the first so-called “third” Party candidate with over a million votes in any US election *ever* (John Monds, Governor of Georgia, 2010, followed by the LP’s Presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, in 2012 and again in 2016).

But seriously, forget about the LP and every instance you’ve ever heard of “libertarianism” in the media, particularly over the last 15 yrs or so.

What Lam does here, instead, is build a far more practical case for largely the same ideals. No, he never specifies “remove this government agency” or “that mandate is unconstitutional” or some such, his arguments are far more practical and every day – why must a mandate exist to buy coffee from a coffeeshop that doesn’t even open (at least on certain days) until 10am exist? Why shouldn’t I be able to buy coffee for my 8a meeting from a different vendor who is open at that time? As but one example Lam actively cites.

Time after time after time, case after case after case, Lam builds his argument chiefly around the insanity of the proliferation of laws, mandates, and rules across the US in particular. Even mandates with lofty ideals often wind up *harming* those ideals in their specificity and implementation, according to Lam, in a common theme throughout this text.

While entirely a philosophical, if practical philosophy, text, the writing style is far from a Mill or a Thoreau – this is far more approachable and conversational, easy for basically anyone with the reading skills to actually read the text to follow through logically and understand Lam’s points.

No, the singular flaw I found here was dearth of its bibliography, clocking in at a paltry 9% in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read just a couple of months before publication. Had this had double (or even triple, if I’m being hopeful here :D) the documentation it does, it would be a truly flawlessly executed book that strongly and persuasively makes its case quite well indeed.

Overall a compelling book written in an easily approachable style, this is one of those books that anyone committed to “Liberty in our lifetime” (as the LP once proclaimed) should read, take to heart, and begin beating the drums for. It makes the case for its points truly better than most libertarians of any era have, including the oft-cited (in LP circles) Harry Browne.

Very much recommended.

This review of Fewer Rules, Better People by Barry Lam was originally written on December 12, 2024.

#BookReview: Political Survival 101 by Adam Marky

Pessimistic Satirical Look At Politics For The Millennial And Younger Crowds. First, let me address why I specifically say this is for the younger crowds: Every chapter ends with an image that, in the print edition at least, is a coloring sheet. Yes, you read that right. This is, partially and only in the print edition, a coloring book. Even the last text section before the coloring sheet is a suggestion of how you might want to color it, based on the image at hand and the commentary of that particular chapter.

As to the actual text, it is exactly what I said above – a satirical, if perhaps a touch pessimistic, look at all things politics, including how so many stereotypical politicians act so much of the time. Which means that at least in a certain vein, it absolutely does ease political stress with a bit of humor – if perhaps landing a touch close to one’s actual views of the subject.

The coloring sheets, while infantilizing – arguably one of the *last* things we need to be doing with this set of younger adults (to be clear, including those of even my own Xennial generation) – are at least a solid attempt at humor whose landing will depend more on personal taste.

Overall a fun, light, funny-enough book that never takes itself to seriously and is in fact a good way to try to have a laugh.

Very much recommended.

This review of Political Survival 101 by Adam Marky was originally written on November 16, 2024.

#BookReview: Toxic Empathy by Allie Beth Stuckey

There Is A Case To Be Made For The Premise Of This Book. The Text Of This Book Does Not Make It.

And ultimately, that’s the bottom line. Not because Stone Cold Said So, but because Stuckey was so utterly inept in trying to make her points that she didn’t bother to do even cursory research into the issues – at least, at bare minimum, immigration and police abuse of citizens.

Her points about abortion seem reasonable, if almost verbatim from the pregnancy crisis centers anti-abortion advocates run. Be warned, through this section – the first chapter of the book – Stuckey dives deep on being as explicit as possible on what exactly happens during an abortion. Not for the squeamish, but it is also clear that she is going for shock value here. So take it as you will.

Similarly, in Chapter 2 when discussing transgenderism, she goes for the shock value quite often again, while also making some genuinely intriguing points – many of which have been pointed out by various others (sometimes on both conservative and “progressive” sides) over the years. Here, she cites some work that sounds promising – but which another 1* reviewer claims has been retracted due to failure to obtain institutional oversight review approval. Take that as you will.

In Chapter 3, discussing LGB issues more generally, Stuckey actually shows probably the most promise of the entire text of genuinely being more compassionate… except that even here, she often ignores Christ in favor of some US right wing 2000s era talking point or another.

And then, as mentioned earlier, the last couple of chapters are just such *utter* trash that to even begin to describe them… well, let’s just say that it is *here*, in particular, that this book truly earns out my dreaded “gold mine” label. There is perhaps a modicum of genuinely good thought in these sections, but it is *so* buried under so much detritus that sifting through it may as well be moving mountains to find a fleck of gold dust. It is through this section in particular that I wish I had been able to see her bibliography, but this wasn’t possible in the Audible form of the book I read.

And, lest the reader of my review think I wasn’t going to point this out, there is indeed the constant and ever present proof texting – which is bad enough for a 1* deduction in and of itself.

Ultimately this is a right wing US political book calling itself a book about Christian thought… without ever actually (or, specifically, *accurately*) citing Christ’s examples in literally anything at all she discusses.

I picked up this book because it was being so utterly destroyed in my circles on Twitter – and now I have to admit that those friends and other luminaries were far more correct than I’d have liked about this book. I wanted to be able to defend this text – as I said in the title, I firmly believe that a case for the general premise *can* be made and even *should* be made. I simply wish Stuckey had given even a wet Dollar General paper towel’s worth of effort in crafting such an argument, rather than… whatever this is… that we ultimately got.

Not recommended for anyone but the truly masochistic.

This review of Toxic Empathy by Allie Beth Stuckey was originally written on November 1, 2024.

#BookReview: Proximity Politics by Jeronimo Cortina

Obvious “Research” Yet Still Manages To Be Hyper Political. The basic premise of this book is that people are more about those things that are physically, emotionally, or ideologically close to them. Ok, and the sky is blue. Next. Oh, but now there’s numbers showing this! And? There are numbers showing why the sky is blue. Nobody cares. Well, maybe the scientists and pedants. Aha! The target audience for this very academically oriented text!

I’ll grant that the length of the bibliography is solid, clocking in at 30% of the text of the Advance Review Copy of this book that I read. Though content wise, it seems cherry picked specifically to support the author’s conclusions rather than offer a more well rounded view of the topic.

In making claims such as “Partisan polarization proved to be the deadliest factor for Americans’ health.” (while blaming elderly Americans for their own deaths during the COVID event) and saying the US-Mexico border “The US -Mexico border as we know it today is a product of historical correction that took place in 1896 to rectify mapping errors from the US-Mexican War of 1849-1855. However, it is not merely a line drawn by Washington, DC and Mexico City to separate two nations. Rather, it is a dynamic permeable membrane shaped by centuries of movement and interaction among indigenous peoples, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans.”, Cortina makes statements that his fellow members of the Academy may agree with… that will leave the rest of us in the “real” world wondering what the fuck those “Academics” are smoking, and if we can have some – particularly in these last days before the 2024 Presidential election. And then there is the fictitious claim that “assault rifles” exist (they don’t) or that anthropogenic “climate change” is causing ever more natural disasters. Here, I’ll at least give Cortina credit for moderating a *touch* in later chapters and moving on to a more “regardless of origins, it is happening” approach – which is still not actually borne out in the data, but is at least much closer to reality. Cortina would argue that my own proximal politics – growing up in the foothills of the Appalachians yet currently living just six miles off the beach – influences our disagreement here… I would argue reality does. 😉

And that is ultimately how anyone is going to find this book. If you like academic treatises with a strong leftward bent, you’re going to enjoy what Cortina has put together here, obvious though it may be. Hey, there’s numbers now! 😉 If you find yourself not drawn to that type of book… spare Cortina the much more vicious take down that even *I* was tempted to write and just ignore this book. Your cardiologist will hate you for it, but your family will love you ever more for allowing them a few more days with you from not having a heart attack over this book. 😀

Recommended, but only for very select readers.

This review of Proximity Politics by Jeronimo Cortina was originally written on October 22, 2024.

#BookReview: Your Jesus Is Too American by Steve Bezner

No Matter Your Thinking About ‘Christianity’, This Will Challenge You. This is one of those excellent books that truly no matter what you think of Christianity or any given Christian-type theology, Bezner is going to find ways to challenge you – in the manner of the classic pastor joke as follows:

Man comes up to the Pastor after the service. “Preacher, you were stepping on my toes in there!”
Pastor replies: “I apologize. I was aiming about 3 feet higher.” (For his heart, in case that is unclear.)

In other words, yes, Bezner is a pastor and yes, this is written in that general style – but it also isn’t a book seeking to destroy everything you hold dear so much as gently goad you in areas where maybe you’re wrong – or maybe Bezner is.

And I’m not joking when I say no matter your thoughts on Christianity here. Bezner goads the conservatives with his talk of their lily white – or coal black – churches and the need for churches to be more multicultural. Bezner goads the liberals with his insistence that sex is only for straight married couples – and goads everyone with his insistence that more needs to be done to support single adults, no matter their sexual choices. He even manages to goad the Anarchists by *actively citing 1 Samuel* – the very passage where YAHWEH decrees that obedience to an earthly king as a rejection of Himself! – and arguing that earthly kings are necessary, but that a “prophet” is needed to stand outside their court and hold them to account.

If you’re looking for a book “taking down” “Christian Nationalism”…. this isn’t your book, and Bezner never intended it to be. If you’re looking for a book that decries *all* politics in the American Church and instead calls for complete separation between the Church and politics… this isn’t your book, and Bezner never intended it to be. It is quite clear that he sought to write exactly the kind of book he did – calling Americans of *all* political persuasions and telling them that according to his own beliefs, they’re wrong. As with anything else, at that point your mileage absolutely varies. I do believe that we can all gain something from reading this book, but I do NOT believe that Bezner is as correct as he clearly thinks he is.

Ultimately two stars were deducted here. One for the prooftexting, even though it only *blatantly* happened as quotes to begin chapters – I don’t really recall seeing it anywhere else. (For those unaware, “prooftexting” is the practice of citing Bible verses out of context in support of some claim or another.) So while not as bad as some others in this space, it is a practice that is an automatic star deduction from me *any* time I see it.

The other star deducted was for the near absolute dearth of any bibliography. While this book was indeed more pastoral in tone, it was still a nonfiction book and should have been cited much more thoroughly than it was – 20-30% bibliography is my general expectation based on my experiences overall, though I’m a bit more willing to come down to 15% as the lower number with more recent (2021 and forward or so) texts seeming to indicate this is a general shift in nonfiction books of this era.

Still, despite the two star deduction here largely on technical matters, this really is a solid book that every American needs to read – perhaps particularly during election seasons.

Very much recommended.

This review of Your Jesus Is Too American by Steve Bezner was originally written on October 15, 2024.

#BookReview: Over Ruled by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze

Brilliant Examination – Yet Outdated By The Author’s Day Job Just Before Publication. Define irony. One sense may be writing a book wherein you detail how one Supreme Court decision in particular a few decades ago allowed for an exponential growth in the number of laws and regulations Americans must abide by… and then just a handful of weeks before publication of the book you made this point in, joining with five of your eight colleagues in your day job in announcing that you collectively have… *over ruled*… that very prior SCOTUS decision in question. One might consider that a form of irony.

Beyond the discussion of Chevron though, Gorsuch and apparent longtime assistant Nitze do a truly admirable job here of showing just how much the laws and other edicts with force of law of the United States have grown in just the last few decades alone, primarily at the National level, but with brief examinations of the volume of State and local laws as well. Various case studies are used to illustrate various ways in which the explosion has occurred and how it has harmed every day working class Americans of nearly any imaginable stripe, and showing how many Americans can be in violation of some rule or regulation… and not even know it until cops raid their house with guns drawn in order to kidnap these “perpetrators”.

Indeed, some of the cases are quite sobering and harrowing indeed, including the one that opens the book – that of a Florida fisherman suddenly accused of tampering with evidence… due to a law that passed as a result of the Enron scandal. In other cases, Gorsuch and Nitze show various other “offenses”, including at least a few – such as civil asset forfeiture and occupational licensing – that will be on Gorsuch’s desk in his day job over the next couple of years, thanks in large part to the efforts of groups such as the Institute for Justice, which actively seeks to combat the very problem Gorsuch details in this book.

One thing that I can’t speak to that I normally do in this space is the length of the bibliography, as I read the Audible edition of this book on my way back home to Jacksonville, FL from my homeland north of Atlanta, GA yesterday. (Though I *can* note, from that, that it can easily be read at 1.5x speed on a 7 ish hr drive. 😉 )

Truly both a well written and genuinely important book for all Americans to read.

Very much recommended.

This review of Over Ruled by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze was originally written on August 19, 2024.

#BookReview: The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Does NOT Predict July 2024 Assassination Attempt of President Trump. This is a book I’ve had for a few years now – apparently I purchased my copy in 2020, several years after it had been out, and I just this month read it after an Acton Institute Fellow claimed on Twitter that this book “predicted in 2012” that something like the assassination attempt of President Trump would occur. (Screenshot of tweet in question is below. Link is here: https://x.com/drantbradley/status/1812266568140628252.)

To be clear, if there is any indication at all of such a prediction, I must have missed it somehow.

Instead, what this book *does* do is show Haidt’s own work as a psychology based sociologist, studying both societies and how the brain gets to the decisions it makes. Here, Haidt actually has a lot of seemingly solid ideas… though it is clear in looking through the one star reviews that few on the left appreciate his candor, despite his own admitted background (and presumptive leanings at the time of writing this, at minimum, back in 2011 or so) being as a leftist himself.

Yet Haidt makes his points clearly and logically, and actively builds concepts up rather than just expecting the reader to understand complex points from the get-go. The narrative is well laid out, and the overall writing is such that nearly anyone should be able to follow along reasonably well.

I can’t speak to the bibliography, as I listened to the Audible form of this book and thus don’t have access to that particular information.

Thus, all that I can see here, all that I experienced here, was a reasonably well written, clearly thought out narrative structure that made clear Haidt’s own work and the work of others in his field in a way that proves particularly illuminating and worthy of conisderation.

Indeed, in the points Haidt actually makes within this text, we can all learn to understand each other quite a bit better… which actually leans to this book *not* predicting any assassination attempts on current or former Presidents.

Still, I’m glad I finally got around to reading this book, and I absolutely recommend you do too… just don’t think it makes any predictions on current events. (It doesn’t.)

Very much recommended.

This review of The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt was originally written on July 31, 2024.

#BookReview: No Democracy Lasts Forever by Erwin Chemerinsky

Unoriginal Hyper-Leftist Wet Dream. In all honesty, had I known that Chemerinsky was the Dean of the Berkely School of Law, I probably would never have picked up this book to begin with. I would have already known most of what he was going to say… and now having actually read it, I can positively say that 95% of my assumptions would have been correct.

Basically, however you feel about the Citizens United ruling, recent SCOTUS decisions, packing the Court, the Electoral College, and the well-debunked “Russian Collusion” conspiracy theory from the 2016 Presidential Election is largely how you’re going to feel about this book. It honestly reads as little more than hyper-leftist dreams about everything that has gone “wrong” with America for the last decade or two. Thus, some of you are going to sing this book’s praises from the highest places you can as loudly as you can. And some of you are going to want to take a window to those places just so you can be assured that you will be able to defenestrate this book from those places.

Chemerinsky *does* get *close* to some genuinely good ideas, ideas that could *actually* solve a lot of the problems he names… and then quickly backs away from them, for the most part. His one consistent good idea is that the process of “Winner Take All” as it relates to Electoral College votes does in fact need to end – a stance I’ve had for much of my adult life, particularly my politically engaged adult life. The more interesting things that he addresses but then thinks *secession* is more viable are as they relate to the number of Congressmen. Chemerinsky correctly points out that the only thing limiting the size of the US House to 435 members is a US law passed less than a century ago – and laws can be overturned in a number of ways. Here again, one weakness of Chemerinsky is that in proclaiming the Constitution a threat – and even spending quite a bit of the text here decrying the SCOTUS as a threat – he openly advocates for SCOTUS to take action against this law. But even this idea is hardly original, as people across the political spectrum have been proposing it for many years already.

Another point Chemerinsky gets truly close to a near-original idea (it has been proposed by at least one writer) is when he proposes – briefly, before quickly retracting it and dismissing it as unworkable – that States be broken into “smaller States”. But if “Democracy” is truly the end goal, and Chemerinsky wants everyone across the US to be as truly even as possible, why isn’t he going full-bore here? As others have written, first, build the House up to its Constitutionally mandated maximum size – every Congressman represents exactly 35,000 people, the Constitutionally mandated minimum number of people per Representative. That gives us something like 11K US Representatives. Now, take Chemerinsky’s own note here that “smaller States” would each get 2 US Senators… and make every single one of those US Rep Districts its own State. That would mean that every US Rep represents 35K people… and every Senator represents 35,000 / 2 == 17,500 people each. Meaning that for every 35,000 people, on average 1 Congressman of some level represents just under 12,000 people. Which in some urban areas is considerably less than an entire block, and in some rural areas could be several hundred square miles of territory. But Chemerinsky doesn’t go here, instead he just continually reiterates hyper leftist talking points rather than seeking actual solutions to the problems he decries.

Ultimately, I deducted two stars from this book – the first is for the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 12% of the text I read weeks before publication. Even being generous and lowering my 20-30% standard, as I’ve been trying to do of late, I just can’t justify allowing such a small bibliography against such grand claims. Even here, the bibliography itself is quite cherry picked and doesn’t show the full scope of what is going on through many of Chemerinsky’s claims, but I’ve never really addressed that issue in other reviews and won’t really address it here either.

The other star really was for the lack of objectivity and just how unoriginal very nearly everything about this book was. If you’ve seen nearly any left-leaning politician or activist speak in the last 20 years, they’re all saying much of the same things Chemerinsky is saying here – including more and more of them openly talking of secession, which would be ruinous on us all.

Again, at the end of the day your feelings about this book are largely going to hinge on just how ideologically aligned with extreme leftist US politics you are, so know that when making your decision to read this book. Some of you are going to LOVE this book, and others are going to HATE it, and it will largely be for exactly the same reasons.

Recommended.

This review of No Democracy Lasts Forever by Erwin Chemerinsky was originally written on July 31, 2024.

#BookReview: Big Brother And The Grim Reaper by Benjamin Ginsberg

Comprehensive. Dense. Short. Slightly Lacking Bibliography. This is an utterly fascinating look at the history and current issues involving political (and thus legal) life after death, in all kinds of different ways. Some ways you have probably heard of (Wills, Advanced Directives, etc). Other ways may be new to you, including the idea of posthumous reproduction. Everything is covered in a sort of “primer” manner – we get a broad overview, a few specific examples, a decent discussion of the overall subfield… and then we’re moving… and we’re moving. Which is to be somewhat expected given the overall brevity of the book and just how many different posthumous topics Ginsberg manages to discuss at all.

Indeed, the only weakness here is simply that at 13% bibliography, I simply expect at least a *touch* more – even, perhaps, as low as 15% (on an already expanded window that was once 20-30%).

Beyond this particular quibble, read this book – you’re going to learn a lot and have a lot to think about. I know I did and do.

Very much recommended.

This review of Big Brother And The Grim Reaper by Benjamin Ginsberg was originally written on July 5, 2024.