Between the Front & Back: Grundle’s Book Club
Comments
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I'm a fan of this 20 minute explanation, rockin' '80s music and all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzYf8IL_FE -
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!GrundleStiltzkin said:3. Iran
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books. -
A thousand pardons. “Present company excepted.”tap1thur29weretaken said:
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!GrundleStiltzkin said:3. Iran
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books. -
Is this the thread where I post Dubai Porta Potties?
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Ah yes, scenes from the most recent Hardcore Husky get togetherSwaye said:Is this the thread where I post Dubai Porta Potties?
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I am 80% through the book. I have found it to be eye-opening in spots and somewhat sobering a depressing. You get a strong sense of how mighty and powerful the US economy was pre-covid and we were headed for mightier heights. And with a combination of the Covid and the Biden admin working to shut down fracking, etc. we are making inexplicable decisions to hand our affluence and power away.
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I lobbied Grundle hard for us to read It's Good to be Gronk.tap1thur29weretaken said:
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!GrundleStiltzkin said:3. Iran
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books. -
HYGDerekJohnson said:
I lobbied Grundle hard for us to read It's Good to be Gronk.tap1thur29weretaken said:
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!GrundleStiltzkin said:3. Iran
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books.
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Looks like I've run through my bullet poonts. Sad.
In sum, I thought this was a fantastic book. I love big-picture stuff reinforced with individual examples, and this author is outstanding at that in my opinion. A year ago, this was a subject I knew almost nothing about other than skimming the occasional WSJ article. Then on a whim I read Energy by Rhodes (yes, I know everyone is sick of me raving about that book). That book gave me the foundational understanding of the importance—and historical rarity—of plentiful energy for human prosperity. Stacked up on that, The New Map gave me a better understanding of how that is accomplished from the 30K foot view.
If there's further discussion to have with anyone, I look forward to it. Otherwise, thus ends Book Clerb.
Thanks for reading ;-} -
I'll probably will be fully done in another 1 - 2 weeks at my snail's pace. But will have some more thoughts to share.GrundleStiltzkin said:Looks like I've run through my bullet poonts. Sad.
In sum, I thought this was a fantastic book. I love big-picture stuff reinforced with individual examples, and this author is outstanding at that in my opinion. A year ago, this was a subject I knew almost nothing about other than skimming the occasional WSJ article. Then on a whim I read Energy by Rhodes (yes, I know everyone is sick of me raving about that book). That book gave me the foundational understanding of the importance—and historical rarity—of plentiful energy for human prosperity. Stacked up on that, The New Map gave me a better understanding of how that is accomplished from the 30K foot view.
If there's further discussion to have with anyone, I look forward to it. Otherwise, thus ends Book Clerb.
Thanks for reading ;-}
It's cool that @1to392831weretaken is officially our Refining Superiority Guy now.
