Another nugget from Sheriff Bell:

Here a year or two back me and Loretta went to a conference in Corpus Christi and I got set next to this woman, she was the wife of somebody or other. And she kept talkin about the right wing this and the right wing that. I aint even sure what she meant by it. The people I know are mostly just common people. Common as dirt, as the sayin goes. I told her that and she looked at me funny. She thought I was sayin somethin bad about em, but of course that's a high compliment in my part of the world. She kept on, kept on. Finally told me, said: I dont like the way the country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion. And I said well mam I dont think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I dont have much doubt but what she'll be able to have an abortion. I'm goin to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she'll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation.

Some keen cultural insight, courtesy of Sheriff Bell in Cormac McCarthry's No Country For Old Men (complete with McCarthy's trademark non-punctuation):

I read in the papers here a while back some teachers come across a survey that was sent out back in the thirties to a number of schools around the country. Had this questionnaire about what was the problems with teachin in the schools. And they come across these forms, they'd been filled out and sent in from around the country answerin these questions. And the biggest problems they could name was things like talkin in class and runnin in the hallways. Chewin gum. Copyin homework. Things of that nature. So they got one of them forums that was blank and printed up a bunch of em and sent em back out to the same schools. Forty years later. Well, here come the answers back. Rape, arson, murder. Drugs. Suicide. So I think about that. Because a lot of the time ever when I say anything about how the world is goin to hell in a handbasket people will just sort of smile and tell me I'm gettin old. That it's one of the symptoms. But my feelin about that is that anybody that cant tell the difference between rapin and murderin people and chewin gum has got a whole lot bigger of a problem than what I've got. Forty years is not a long time neither. Maybe the next forty of it will bring some of em out from under the ether. If it aint too late. [Emphasis added. --R]

Earlier this evening, in an attempt to drown our sorrows over the Tigers blowing their national title shot, the family dined at Rockfish, then did a little shopping. Normally, I try to avoid frequenting retail establishments on Black Friday, but by dinner time things had quieted considerably in our little corner of the metroplex. Part of the shopping involved an excursion to Barnes & Noble. I'd been wanting to read No Country For Old Men for quite a while, more so after Nathan told me his impressions of it, as well as my own reading of Cormac McCarthy's more recent bestseller, The Road. Now that the movie is out, and I, like Nathan, am jonesing to see it, I figured it would behoove me to read the book from whence it came. (Seriously, what is the deal with McCarthy and dialogue? Does the guy just not believe in the use of quotation marks? All three of his books which I've undertaken to read have been bereft of this usual aspect of literature, and while it seemed to work well in The Road, at least for me, it's made reading Blood Meridian quite a slog. I'm only 19 pages in to No Country as of this writing, and it's not a problem so far, but geez.) I first read Richard Matheson's I Am Legend in...gosh, I really don't recall, but it was late middle school, early high school. I really enjoyed it at the time, read it once or twice more before leaving college and getting married. After that, I didn't give it much thought until, some time in the `90s, I learned that Tom Cruise's production company had optioned it for a motion picture. I was worried about what Cruise's involvement, notably as the star of the movie, might do to Matheson's work. Of the myriad actors in Hollywood, Cruise is certainly not one I could picture as Robert Neville. I'm somewhat apprehensive about the 2007 film release, even though I've yet to see it. I have no problem with Will Smith as Neville; from the teaser and trailer I've seen, he seems to bring the right elements to the character. I am disappointed with the film's movement of the plot location from Los Angeles to New York City, mostly because I don't really see the point; it seems to be a change simply for change's sake. I totally understand updating the story for our modern time: the book was written in 1954, and the story takes place in the mid- to late-1970s. There are minor tweaks to the main character--Smith's Neville is currently in the military, rather than formerly, and is a scientist, whilst Matheson's Neville is more of an everyman--and those are also understandable and digestable. But the change in the plot location... I guess I'll just have to see the film to make a final, informed judgment. Until then, another rereading of what I consider to be a classic is in order.

[From Lee, via IM]

According to the rules laid out in Punk Rock Dad, my punk rock name is:

(Are you ready for this?)

(Are you sure?)

(Really?)

(Okay, you've been warned...)

Larry Leprosy.

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling (hardcover)
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've only read the first Potter book once before, way back when it was released. So now I'm going through the whole series. And does anyone actually buy the paperbacks of the Potter books? Have parents actually made their children wait a year after each novel is released so they can buy the paperback because they're that...thrifty?
• Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
  Does this man ever use quotation marks to designate dialogue?
• The Hunters – W.E.B. Griffin
  The third in the Presidential Agent series, following By Order of the President and The Hostage. The paperback won't be out until December, so if you must read it now, nab the hardcover. Apparently I'm in a fiction mood at the moment, and a widely varying one at that. Fantasy, western, and modern thriller. Yes, I am a man with many sides...

Late last night, I learned that Lee Child's next Jack Reacher novel by will be released on May 15th. Bad Luck and Trouble is the 11th novel featuring the former Military Police officer turned drifter. I've been reading the Reacher novels since the beginning, and I'm anxiously awaiting this latest from Child.

Mark Steyn, in the introduction to America Alone:

1970 doesn't seem that long ago. If you're in you fifties or sixties, as many of the chaps running the Western world are wont to be, your pants are narrower than they were back then and your hair's less groovy, but the landscape of your life--the look of your house, the layout of your car, the shape of your kitchen appliances, the brand names of the stuff in the fridge--isn't significantly different. And yet that world is utterly altered. Just to recap those bald statistics: in 1970, the developed nations had twice as big a share of the global population as the Muslim world: 30 percent to 15 percent. By 2000, they were at parity: each had about 20 percent.

And by 2020?

September 11, 2001, was not "the day everything changed," but the day that revealed how much had already changed. On September 10, how many journalists had the Council on American-Islamic Relations or the Canadian Islamic Congress or the Muslim Council of Britian in their Rolodexes? If you'd said that whether something does or does not cause offense to Muslims would be the early twenty-first century's principal political dynamic in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom, most folks would have thought you were crazy. Yet on that Tuesday morning the top of the iceberg bobbed up and toppled the Twin Towers.

This book is about the seven-eighths below the surface--the larger forces at play in the developed world that have left Europe too enfeebled to resist its remorseless transformation into Eurabia and that call into question the future of much of the rest of the world, including the United States, Canada, and beyond. The key factors are:

1. Demographic decline
2. The unsustainability of the advanced Western social-democratic state
3. Civilizational exhaustion

Let's start with demography, because everything does. I'm already enthralled.

New additions to my ever-increasing Amazon wish list: + The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain - David Shenk + Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali + Evangelism for the Faint Hearted - Floyd Schneider + Drive - James Sallis Just thought the readership might be interested in some of these titles for their own reading (and learning) pleasure. (And in the interest of full disclosure, all of the above links are through my Amazon affiliate ID.)

Wishing a joyous and loving birthday for you, my friend. As I stated in my comment to your post, I shall celebrate with some Lost And Found and by starting This Beautiful Mess. See you at lunch. :D

From Orson Scott Card's Empire:

"I'm not surprised," said Cole. "What do you think it takes to build one of those? Two million? Six?"
"Real costs or Pentagon costs?" asked Reuben.
"Microsoft costs."
"These are not a Microsoft product," said Reuben.
"Developed in secret, though."
"Yeah, but they don't lock up."

If you'd like a first-person account of the Hezbollah attacks on Israel, and the Israeli response, head over to David Dolan's site and subscribe to his e-mail list. David is a Christian pastor and author who has been resident in Israel for many years. Last year, David spoke at our church, and even for someone like me, who has followed the Mideast conflict, and the region's history, for many years, it was eye-opening.

O'Reilly has a web site devoted to Lightroom. [Via John.]

Though I do not speak, read, or write either, I still think it very cool that Gmail now supports Arabic and Hebrew.

The World eBook Fair is a month away. [Via AWAD.]

The iPatch.

This likely has made its rounds through the blogosphere already, but I just read in the latest dead-tree edition of Wired that Choose Your Own Adventure books are getting republished, updated for the 21st century. Though he's not old enough yet to read on his own and appreciate them, I may have to pick up these titles for my little phisch. I had a great time with them when I was eleven, though I don't believe I was ever able to successfully navigate The Abominable Snowman without "cheating".

What happened to all that wreckage from the Twin Towers after 9/11? Twenty-four tons of steel girders ended up in one of the Navy's latest ships.

Stanley Bing:

This little tale, which appears to be a book for children, is actually a clever evocation of what happens to a corporation when a management consultant is hired by absent, clueless senior management to evaluate its organizational structure and to effect change. Beginning slowly, the Cat proceeds to take everything apart, make a total mess and get everybody in potentially the worst trouble in the world--all at no personal cost to itself. By the time the Cat leaves, it has frightened everybody, and very little has changed except the mind-set of the protagonists, which has been forever disrupted and rattled.

I haven't started reading Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin yet, though I need to soon. I have started reading his blog the past few days, and like this post from last month:

[I]t seems to me that the issue of the cartoons points out the dangers of multi-culturalism, which has been embraced by Western societies post WW2. If all cultures are equal, and each culture reserves the right to be offended and to act on that offense in a matter it deems appropriate, whether burning cartoons or cartoonists, than we’re in for a rocky ride. When do the Hindus in the West start torching McDonalds for promoting the sinful eating of cows? When do the Amish run amok in shopping malls outraged by the rampant consumerism and excess vanity? When do the Scientologists go after South Park, one of my three favorite TV shows? Eerie how some things come to pass. Not that Scientologists are going after South Park (yet), but it was odd reading Robert's post from February 5th, in light of the recent Isaac Hayes-South Park flap. I don't think we'll see the Amish run amok any time soon, either, since they tend toward pacifism, but I must say I won't be surprised to learn of any Hindu violence, should it erupt in this country. Like many Muslims in other countries, the Hindu within India can be exceedingly violent against Christians, Buddhists, and other persons of faith.

Ron Moore, creator and executive producer of the best show on television, shares his favorite science-fiction tomes.

From the "You've Got to Be Kidding Me" Department "Hi, we're Western Digital. Since our hard drives are slightly above average in performance and reliability, rather than making them top-notch, the industry's best, we thought we would throw our research and development in to making clear cases for the drives, so you can see the inner workings..." It actually is a rather impressive drive, specification-wise. I just prefer Seagates, when I can get them.

From the "You've Got to Be Kidding Me" Department: Part Two The mail arrived at the house today at approximately one o'clock this afternoon. I know this only because I was walking down the stairs at that moment, and saw the postal worker depositing today's mail in our box. Within today's delivery was my latest order from the BMG music club of which I am still a member. I don't order from them very often, waiting for the really good sales they have from time to time, but that's not really the point here. The point is that at approximately two-thirty, an hour and a half after I pulled the order out of the mailbox, an e-mail from BMG hit my In box, informing me my order had shipped. Way to stay on top of things, guys.

The last John Grisham book I read was The Summons, and it was a decent read. Before that, the last Grisham book I had tackled was The Chamber, but I got bored and put it down before I was even a fourth of the way through, and have never picked it up again. Now, as far as decent fiction you don't have to really think about, the kind of books perfect for waiting around in airports, flying, or while on your daily bus or train commute, Grisham's work is usually perfect. I adore The Pelican Brief, not only because of the the writing, but also because my wife went to Tulane Law, and we were living in New Orleans when I read the book and when the movie came out. It's the only Grisham novel I have in hardcover. However, like I said, with one exception, it's been awhile since I picked up a Grisham book. That changed two weeks ago. On Sunday, December 18th, while browsing the books at Costco, I happened upon The Broker. I read the synopsis on the back cover. It sounded intriguing. Certainly more intriguing than the synopses for the other Grisham books I'd picked up and not purchased for the past decade or so. It went in to the cart, and I started reading it a couple of hours after we got home. I finished it Monday night. Yes, that Monday, as in the very next day, the 19th. I told my wife how good I thought it was, and she started it three days ago, and finished it off last night. It's as if after a long dry spell of just churning out books because that was what was expected of him, Grisham decided to write a book he would enjoy writing (which it sounds like he did, based on the acknowledgments) as well as one he would enjoy reading, and it shows. Most of the book takes place in Italy, which Grisham traveled through as part of his research. This could very well have a lot to do with why I enjoyed the book, as the author transports you to the cities and towns of Italy, and it gave my imagination a workout. Yet it has to be more than that, and I believe it's because it has the Grisham flow that made his early works so popular. The Broker is not going to win any literary awards, but let's face it: as with the Academy Awards, awards don't often reflect the reality of the marketplace. It's a fun book, and Retrophisch™ Recommended.

So I decided the whole blog post thing regarding my book reading was taking up more of my time than I wanted to devote to it. I have a stack of books on my desk that are in the queue to be blogged, and quite frankly I cannot muster the willpower to write said posts. So, back to a static list, which is now also part of the navigation links in the banner at the top of each page.

If you're new to the world of weblogs, and looking to start a blog yourself, Hugh Hewitt's Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World is not a starter tome. Rather, it is a work that examines the impact blogs have had on American culture, notably in the realms of politics and the mainstream media. On his radio show, Hugh has repeatedly gone to the blogosphere as a source of news and correction of news from the mainstream media. He cites four major events from the past two years as showing the power of weblogs: the removal of Trent Lott as Senate Majority Leader, the Jayson Blair scandal at the New York Times, the campaign against John Kerry spearheaded by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and the 60 Minutes Bush National Guard forged documents scandal. Hugh is a huge champion of weblogs, and his constant encouragement of people to start their own blog led Joe Carter to begin a running list of blogs inspired by Hugh. Hugh offers advice to pastors, entrepreneurs, and a wide variety of occupations on starting their own blogs. His conclusion is that you never know where it may take you. I was so inspired by Blog that I passed it on to my pastor; I would love to see Tim blog on a regular basis.

Hank Hanegraaff, of the "Bible Answer Man" radio show, and author Sigmund Brouwer have teamed up to write The Last Disciple, a novel about first-century Christians, and the people they come in to contact with, undergoing the Great Tribulation under the reign of Nero. Hanegraaff and Brouwer operate from a different view of biblical translation and interpretation than Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins do in the Left Behind series. As they state in the Afterword, they seek not to divide the Church over this issue, but rather encourage debate and study of the book of Revelation. Simply put, Hanegraaff and Brouwer believe that many of the prophecies the apostle John was witness to, and transcribed in to what we know as Revelation, have already been fulfilled, as they were written to the early Christian church. You can read more on their take at the book's Web site. The Last Disciple features several characters, including the wicked Nero, but follows mostly the path of Gallus Sergius Vitas, one of Nero's inner circle. Vitas, a former military commander and from a Roman founding family, has grown tired of Nero's persecution of Christians. He doesn't care for the Christians because they are followers of Christ who refuse to bow to Nero, but rather he is tired of bloodshed in general, having seen too much of it when he was fighting in Britannia, and lost his wife and son, natives of the isle. In the course of his trying to subtly subvert Nero, Vitas discovers an old friend has accepted Christ, and Vitas falls in love with a former slave, also a Christian. In the mean time, Vitas's brother Damien, in an attempt to recapture the honor he has cost the family name, becomes a fearsome slave hunter. Damien is hired by another of Nero's inner circle, this time to find the writer of Revelation, the letter Nero fears and hates. Damien is hired to hunt down John, the last disciple of Christ. Hanegraaff and Brouwer craft a good read, taking you through the workings and machinations of Nero's inner circle, the duplicitous politics, the last moments of a Christian on the arena floor, and the feelings of a man who walked and talked with the Creator and Savior of the universe.

A dual reading selection today, mostly because both are sitting next to me, waiting to ship up New England way to my friend Rich, and both deal with the same topic. Mac OS X Hacks, by Rael Dornfest and Kevin Hemenway, was one of the early--if not the first--books in O'Reilly's Hacks series. The authors, along with numerous contributors, take the reader through many different aspects of the Mac OS X operating system. The book was published in 2003, and covered OS X up through the Jaguar edition. The second title, Mac OS X Panther Hacks, is the follow-up to the aforementioned book, and will soon be supplanted, I'm sure, by Mac OS X Tiger Hacks. Credit must be given to Rael and co-author James Duncan Davidson for not regurgitating hacks from the first book, but rather, again with the help of contributors, introducing one hundred new ways to make using OS X easier, more efficient, and more fun. Both tomes are highly recommended for those who want to get under the hood of Apple's great operating system.

Brad Thor delivers another Scot Harvath adventure in State of the Union, as the former Navy SEAL and ex-Secret Service agent is pitted against a Cold War enemy bent on the domination of the United States. Thor sets a good pace, and lets the reader inside Harvath's head. I found at times that Thor was trying too hard to be Clancy-esque in his descriptions of weapons systems and other equipment, but otherwise, this is a decent thriller.

I started a static list of books I had read on my old blog. As the list grew, I thought about starting a separate blog just for the books, even going so far as to setting the foundations within Movable Type. Finally, I've decided to simply incorporate these book entries in to this blog, with a few new categories to help along the way. These books will be presented both as I come across them in my memory, and as I read them from this point forward.