TheDude

Better never to have been indeed

Reviewed: 06-15-24

There are so many great quotes and one liners. Truly, a remarkable book. The author makes a compelling point about the suffering that comes with being sentient and why we should not perpetuate it by reproducing ourselves.

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pro unfettered capitalist propaganda

Reviewed: 06-09-24

About 45 pages in, my BS detector started going off.

The author calls the 1996 Act by Gingrich, a "reform", even though it contributed greatly to poverty and hardship among vulnerable populations, especially the ones with small children.

According to the author, "high taxes lower a firm's return on investment, thereby providing less incentive to invest in plants, research, and other activities that lead to economic growth". p. 52. Nevermind the fact that high taxes ENCOURAGE companies to invest in their own infrastructure, their workers, pensions, research and development, and long term viability to LOWER their tax burden, which was the case before Reagan. It is common knowledge that companies simply buy back their own stock or pursue cheap labor in jurisdictions that are not regulated well to make profit.

According to the author, "generous unemployment benefits diminish the incentive to find work" p 52. Nevermind the fact that most people would rather work than receive temporary insufficient unemployment payments which are run by the states and take a long time to be approved.

According to the author, "by providing guaranteed benefits in old age to all Americans, both programs may discourage personal savings". p. 52. Nevermind the fact that most Americans of any age have little to no personal savings because they are overworked, underplayed, or receive a very small social security check (as of Nov 2023, the mean social security check is $ 1710). The author apparentl thinks that people have no personal savings because they might get a $1710÷÷÷ plus check in their late sixties and get Medicare which does not even cover everything.

Fail all over the place.

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Brilliant.

Reviewed: 12-24-23

We're not going anywhere. mmkay? space is boring and Martian rocks won't be that much suffering from Earth rocks. Let's focus on fixing problems on Earth.

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1 person found this helpful

Brilliant analysis of the history behind 2A

Reviewed: 05-06-23

The book delves deep into the constitutional convention debates, the major players behind it, their motives (Patrick Henry being the biggest slave holder in VA, A.K.A. the "give me liberty" guy, with VA being the largest state and being the ninth state to barely ratify the Constitution), slave revolts in the Caribbean and the South (and how much that terrified the slave owners) as well as history prior to and after the convention. ---


It is apparent that slave states were more concerned with preventing and suppressing slave insurrections (which happened more frequently than reported because the South insisted on continuibg to propagate the "happy slave" myth) than affording an individual right to bear arms or even defending the country against foreign invasions. ---


Hence the amendment is comprised of a single sentence which mentions "security" (which is a passive word) of a "free state" - not the defense of the country as a whole; and "a well regulated militia", which was organized into slave patrols to seek runaway slaves. ---

Indeed, during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the British repeatedly overcome militia which frequently fled the battle (except for Lexington, Concord and possibly Bunker Hill). ---

There's no mention of an individual right to bear arms. Also, during the Revolutionary war, very few people owned guns. And before the Civil War, guns were made with iron and not steel, which made them useless after a dozen or so shots, unlike the guns today. ---

It simply makes no sense for a newly formed government, which barely held itself together by a handful of states that did not always get along, to enable its own populace to easily topple it. ---

In fact, today 48/50 states outlaws the forming of private militias without the supervision of the state. ---

All the militia was originally "good" for was maintaining the peculiar institution. That's what the second amendment was all about.

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How the Constitution binds and divides us

Reviewed: 02-04-22

This book examines the history of how various political, religious and hate groups used the U.S. Constitution to fit their ideology and agendas.

A KKK member will look at the ethnicity of the ruling class that wrote the Constitution and believe that by committing atrocities he is actually defending and protecting the US as its way of life.

A libertarian will cherry-pick a phrase or a sentence in the Constitution and then use that as a premise to argue that private property is sacrosanct, taxation is theft, and regulations that ensure that we drink clean water and breathe fresh air is government tyranny.

A protestant will find a way to argue that the Constitution was made for the Protestant nation even though god is not mentioned in the constitution at all.

A Southerner thought that he was actually defending the constitution when he attacked Fort Sumter.

A 45 supporter will argue that he stormed the capitol because "Constitution", despite never having read it.

The scariest part is that all of these groups believe (or purport to believe) that their cause is just and right.

People will do what they want to do and then assign valor to it.

Ultimately, this book encapsulates how logical fallacies and personal agendas distort and cherry-pick history to fit a particular world-view, which often results in violence and occasional treason.

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