Inherent Vice Review

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Inherent Vice Review4.5 out of 5: Cloaked as a detective thriller, Inherent Vice contains the snappy dialog, complicated plot, and criminal underworld types typical of the genre. Don't be fooled by the packaging, though. This novel is pure everything-including-the-kitchen-sink Pynchon with satirical song lyrics, paranoia, drugs, pop culture, lawyers, sex, politics, zombies, more drugs, and a side-trip to Vegas. The neat resolution of a convoluted plot is not really the point. Instead, let go of your need for closure and join Pynchon for a buoyant romp through the psychedelic haze that was L.A. in the late 1960s.
Doc, an amiable, drug-addled personal investigator, stumbles onto a vicious international crime ring as he works on a case brought to him by his ex-girlfriend. By turns brilliant and bumbling, Doc exudes a kind of humble innocence and is the likeable center of this novel. He's both trustworthy and trustful and never far from questioning his own abilities and actions ("Did I say that outloud?"). In a typical example of the endearing workings of Doc's logic, he tries to deduce the origin of a postcard he receives "from some island he had never heard of out in the Pacific Ocean, with a lot of vowels in its name":
"The cancellation was in French and initialed by a local postmaster, along with the notation courrier par lance-coco which as close as he could figure from the Petit Larousse must mean some kind of catapult mail delivery involving coconut shells, maybe as a way of dealing with an unapproachable reef."
In Doc's world, postcards delivered via coconut catapults make perfect sense.
Clearly, Pynchon is having fun with the detective genre. In one scene, Doc drives to a mansion protected by a moat with a drawbridge. After the drawbridge descends "rumbling and creaking," "the night was very quiet again--not even the distant freeway traffic could be heard, or the footpads of coyotes, or the slither of snakes." Beneath all the humor and satire, there's a darker message here. The fun is almost over for Doc and his fellow hippies as paranoia, the harbinger of future oppression, overtakes the fun-loving sixties "like blood in a swimming pool, till it occupies all the volume of the day."
At times Inherent Vice is overly constrained by its purported genre as Pynchon weaves together the complicated plotlines of a detective story, maintaining too tight a grasp on a linear reality. The excessive plotting hampers some of the book's whimsical exuberance. But, unlike much of Pynchon's previous work, Inherent Vice is eminently readable and even, at times, actually suspenseful. At under 400 pages, Inherent Vice is also one of Pynchon's shortest novels. If you've been too intimidated to attempt a Pynchon novel up to now, try this one.Inherent Vice Overview

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Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It Review

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Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It ReviewIf fanaticism is the heart of modern terrorism, then finance is its lifeblood - British Chancellor Gordon Brown November 24, 2002
Even the most devastating terrorist attack carries a surprisingly low price ticket. The organizers of the September 11 attacks are reported to have received change from their $500,000 stake money. Killing tens and injuring hundreds - whether in a Bali nightclub, a Jerusalem bus or a car bomb in India - sometimes costs less than a good meal. Nevertheless, the infrastructures of international terrorist networks cost billions of dollars.
Funding Evil, the latest book by Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center of Democracy, details the organizations and their methods. Ehrenfeld shows the links and similarities between terrorists as diverse as The Hizballah, the many Palestinian terrorist groups, Tamil Tigers, Colombian narco-terrorists and radical Islamic terrorism around the world.
As US Attorney General John Ashcroft has said "Terrorists cannot terrorize without money...Those who knowingly finance terrorist organizations are just as dangerous and just as responsible as those who carry out the ultimate acts of terrorist violence." Funding Evil details how this funding of terror has taken place, exposing the state sponsorship, corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities that have allowed these organizations and their leaders to amass fortunes and feed the spreading tentacles of terror. Ehrenfeld's timely book doesn't stop there, but recommends practical steps that can be taken to curb it.
Dr Ehrenfeld is a world expert in the topic, having lectured around the world, written copiously and been invited to make submissions and statements to world policy making bodies concerned with terrorism and its funding. It is clear that world leaders are slowly taking note of Ehrenfeld's advice, with the latest actions taken against the Hamas organization being one small step along the path.
Just this month, action has been taken against the Palestinian Relief and Development fund (known as Interpal), amid charges by the US Treasury that the London based charity - which raises between 3 to 5 million dollars a year - has been used to hide the flow of money to Hamas. The funds of the charity have been frozen, and will only be released under the tight scrutiny of the UK Charities Commission. Interpal's chairman, Ibrahim Hewitt is quoted as saying "We've been told this is for our own protection, so that any money going through can't be hijacked along the way." Hopefully these actions will ensure that funds collected for charitable purposes will end up helping their intended recipients - the Palestinian people who are in the most critical need ever, having been ignored by the Arab world, and having international aid and their livelihoods diverted into a war to the death with Israel that they have been unable to win. While up until recently, Europe carefully differentiated between the `political' and `military' wings of Hamas - a distinction long denied by the Hamas itself - Ehrenfeld's message is slowly being accepted by the countries at the forefront of the fight against terror. Removing any lingering doubt about the link between the charitable, political and military arms of these terrorist organizations, the Palestinian Authority itself just froze the 39 bank accounts of nine Islamic charities, in order regain control of rogue terrorist organizations that it unleashed in October 2000.
One of Ehrenfeld's long time recommendations, which she details in her book, is for donor countries to insist on the introduction of democratic norms and behaviors by recipient regimes, in order to qualify for ongoing support. Recently, after a very public campaign in which Ehrenfeld actively participated, the US and EU applied pressure to the Palestinian Authority. As a direct result, the PA has catalogued their visible financial assets and now claims to flow all public funds through a single, centralized bank account. Certainly the above clampdown on Islamic charities is also part of this process. Today's newspapers report that the Palestinian Authority has succumbed to American pressure and ordered its schools to take down posters glorifying suicide bombers before the start of the new school year.
These steps are just a start, but they do show a pragmatic determination to directly address the sources of funds of terrorist organizations. The Palestinian model also shows that these ideas can work if applied with consistency and courage. The question is whether there is the political will to apply these standards to other rogue regimes, where the political stakes may be higher.
Funding Evil is not just essential reading for policy makers and academics, but helps us all understand the dynamics of terrorism, its collaboration with criminal organizations to undermine democratic societies, and what we should expect our leaders to do to stop it.Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It Overview

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Lloyd's MIU Handbook of Maritime Security Review

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Lloyd's MIU Handbook of Maritime Security ReviewFor a 2009 publication, this book contains surprisingly little on Somali pirates and the issues involved in dealing with them. For example, there is no significant discussion of arming crews or private security providers. It discusses "hijacking" without defining the term. The book's piracy focus dwells almost exclusively on the Straits of Malacca. Despite these shortcomings, the handbook is well researched and written for the areas it does cover.Lloyd's MIU Handbook of Maritime Security Overview

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Honest Medicine: Effective, Time-Tested, Inexpensive Treatments for Life-Threatening Diseases Review

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Honest Medicine: Effective, Time-Tested, Inexpensive Treatments for Life-Threatening Diseases ReviewI've had the privilege of reading this book prior to publication, so I know what a tribute it is to patients and their families, who have fought to receive the best possible treatments for a variety of conditions. Like Julia herself, those who contributed their stories to this book faced sure defeat when searching and fighting for effective treatments for serious conditions. But despite the odds, these individuals kept going.
These treatents are not so-called "alternative therapies," so easily dismissed by conventional medicine. For example, the ketogenic diet for juvenile epilepsy has been around for decades, as has LDN, low-dose naltrexone, found to "stop MS in its tracks." (It's that, and more, including inexpensive!)
This is not a dry text...Julia had produced a true book of the heart, born of painful experience as an advocate for her late husband, Tim Fisher, whose story is told in this book. Julia's struggles illuminate issues we face as individuals and as a society. The book does no less than raise challenging questions about the future of healthcare in this country and questions the over-reliance on big pharma and institutional medicine and research. Honest Medicine makes a strong case for educating ourselves and forming alliances with individuals like Julia and the others in her book. Together, we can change medicine one brave patient and one open-minded, pioneering doctor at a time.
Virginia
Honest Medicine: Effective, Time-Tested, Inexpensive Treatments for Life-Threatening Diseases Overview

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Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War Review

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Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War ReviewBouvier's collection of essays on different peace initiatives at the local, regional and national level is an extremely helpful tool for the student, academic or practitioner. The book highlights many of the inspiring peace work going on in Colombia despite the odds. This book is a must read for those who hope to work on this conflict, or for those who want to get a deeper understanding of the peace initiatives in this country. In-depth, yet accessible to different publics, Building Peace in Time of War will hopefully broaden the current discourse on Colombia from one of war to one of peace.Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War Overview

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