An informed, articulate conservative manifesto that will shed light even for those who disagree.
A semiretired systems engineer and former Air Force officer with ties to the Conservative Christian Liberty Institute calls for sweeping reductions in the size and scope of the federal government.
Modestly describing himself as “a reasonably well educated citizen,” Hines methodically and adequately details a contemporary conservative case for how the federal government has flagrantly exceeded its explicitly limited constitutional powers. He opens with a well-argued, word-parsing history of the origins and nature of an American social compact in which free citizens have voluntarily but grudgingly assigned a short list of duties to the three branches of the federal government, reserving everything else to the states and, most importantly, to themselves. After thoroughly setting down this baseline, Hines describes a drift away from the constitutional bedrock that gathered force under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s; now, in Hines’ and other conservatives’ estimation, that trespass has reached insurrection-worthy proportions. He reserves his most peevish rebuke for a ruling class composed of what he calls “progressive patricians” who, thinking they know what’s best for everyone, willingly ride roughshod over the Constitution to carry out their welfare-state agendas. Among the course-correcting remedies he offers: the elimination of a long list of federal departments and agencies; scrapping the current mendacious, unintelligible tax code in favor of a flat tax; and privatizing Social Security and Medicare—both of which, as currently structured, are “government-centric welfare immorality.” Progressives will certainly find fault in Hines’ directives, but even a respectful centrist can disagree. Hines, for example, fiercely opposes federal subsidies for green energy programs: “When Americans want wind farms, or photovoltaics, or the like we will indicate that through our purchasing decisions in a free market,” he says. It’s unlikely that the framers of the Constitution would prefer the planet be crisped in the name of free market ideology. As a number of experts would agree, saving the earth—and the United States with it—from catastrophic climate change seems to fit the definition of providing for the general welfare, a power the Constitution grants the federal government. While Hines will have no problem finding bipartisan agreement that the federal bureaucracy is bloated, the wholesale amputation of gradually evolved federal functions would be a rash step with dire, unintended consequences.
An informed, articulate conservative manifesto that will shed light even for those who disagree.Pub Date: June 28, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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