Review: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Journalist Chris Hedges has another bugbear to keep me up at night: Christian dominionists lurking in the Christian Right yearning for apocalyptic violence and for an assault on freethinkers like me. Hopefully this coming persecution will be held off until after my days. If that is so, it won't be any credit to me because as the author observes, "Tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance coupled with passivity is a vice."

Passable narration by the author.

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Review: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Journalist Chris Hedges has another bugbear to keep me up at night: Christian dominionists lurking in the Christian Right yearning for apocalyptic violence and for an assault on freethinkers like me. Hopefully this coming persecution will be held off until after my days. If that is so, it won't be any credit to me because as the author observes, "Tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance coupled with passivity is a vice."

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Review: Probability and Statistics

Probability and Statistics by Arak Mathai
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While this appears to be a textbook, teachers may be a more accurate target audience for this introduction to probability relevant to the applied sciences. Including basics of sampling distributions, estimation, and hypothesis testing, the topics here arose in a course for teachers in Kerala, India. “These topics were suggested by the college teachers themselves so that they … could be better prepared to teach the material in their classes”, states the preface. This then companion text for future practitioners or their instructors begins from set theory basics and extends to model-building and experiment design. The two or more semesters of material here range from the undergraduate to early graduate level.

This English text has some notation, verbiage, and grammar idiosyncrasies that separate it from similar texts. For instance, the relative complement of A with respect to a set B is notated AC, rather than the clearer binary operation B ∖ A. (AC is the complement of A relevant to what set?) ...

[Look for my entire review at MAA Reviews]

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Review: The Demon in the Freezer

The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This tale could have been somewhat better edited for more coherence, but it is still a scary, thought -provoking tale that delivers the horrifying details of small pox its very present threat under Russian military experimentation and the cruel punishment wreaked on the bystander Steven Hatfill. The author doesn't explore the morality of retaining and experimenting on small pox, but along the way provides a basis for both a pro and con view of this controversial subject.

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Review: Tales of the Fish Patrol

Tales of the Fish Patrol by Jack London
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

London's chronological, tightly coupled tales of Fish Patrol fights with oyster pirates, Greek scofflaw salmon poachers and more is marred by this 1982 audio production with low audio quality and a narrator that is just phoning it in.

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Review: Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving

Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving by Mo Rocca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wowzer! Mo Rocca's passion for and playful way of relating historical trivia is both entertaining and enlightening. Based on his podcast, this work covers the "deaths" of real people, imagined ones (like TV series characters), trends and trees even. One can dip in anywhere and read with delight and be fully prepared for witty party smalltalk.

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Review: The Genius Lanny Poffo

The Genius Lanny Poffo by John Crowther
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a teen World Wrestling Federation fan, my interest in that franchise overlapped Poffo's presence: 1985–1994. I was entertained by his flamboyant antics and liked rooting for him as an underdog. I had really moved on to other characters when he became “The Genius” and would write and recite an original poem before the match. This comix biography charts his career under the tutelage of trainer and father Angelo Poffo in a career paralleling is even more flamboyant brother "Macho Man" Randy Savage. It is very self-serving and self-glorifying which really doesn't fit the form of his undercard career.

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