A three-dimensional look at major developments in conservative politics and culture.
Baldi (The Grand Experiment: What Went Wrong?, 2012, etc.) presents a collection of philosophical musings, political commentaries and general thoughts on life.
This compendium of the author’s opinions is extensive, featuring views on subjects ranging from St. Anselm of Canterbury’s writings to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on large sodas. Beginning with discussions of selected works by several famous thinkers, including Leo Strauss and Francis Bacon, the book goes on to explore big philosophical questions (“How does one go about defining ‘Man’?”), and offer opinions on economic policy (“The proper role of government is to encourage and support free enterprise”), brief aphorisms, and a series of letters, mostly to a newspaper editor, from the years 2009 to 2013 (“The bottom line is our government is spending money it doesn’t have”). This collection is sometimes outraged, sometimes docile, but always dotted with moments of humor (“The luckiest man alive is unquestionably Tiger Wood’s caddy!”) and discussions of religion (“We are ‘co-partners’ in God’s intended purpose to make of it what we ‘Will’ ”). It effectively paints a portrait of a man who’s both in awe of human potential and worried about the future. It reserves its venom for President Barack Obama and perceived proponents of political correctness and offers praise for the wisdom of the United States Constitution. Throughout its 700-plus pages, the author’s opinions remain articulate, if occasionally obvious, as when it urges the two major parties to work together “for the common good of the nation.” The end result, however, is a thoroughly wide-ranging, readable investigation into modern conservative thought that doesn’t rely on the opinions of popular right-wing media cheerleaders.
A three-dimensional look at major developments in conservative politics and culture.Pub Date: June 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1490839585
Page Count: 734
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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