DEVELOPING THE MANAGER'S RESOURCE BAS

This work is an essential history of the usage of the term 'democracy' as this crystalized in the era of the 1840's leaving Marx and Engels stranded with a series of acute but now misleading assertions and critiques of its meaning and actual content. The more is the pity since these views of Marx and Engels were at the onset far more democratic than those who fixed the word's meaning. Small wonder a legacy of bitterness festers here. To this is added the unfortunate confusion over the term, 'dictatorship of the proletariat, and the thinking of Marx is indeed ambiguous in this regard. The perceptions of those passing through the revolutions of 1848 are hard to reconstruct, as the brief alliance of classes led to the victory of one and the betrayal of the rest. This factor is what is responsible for the mistruct of 'democracy so-called'in the name of democracy in Marx and Engels, in a period before universal suffrage was an intrinsic part of the word 'democracy'.

I originally picked up this book because of its Civic Education chapter. After I read that (excellent) chapter, I started reading other parts of the book as well.

If you care about the future of our schools, our children, and our country, you should read this book. Engel will open your eyes to the real and disturbing trend of corporate influence in public education.

In his conclusion, he urges you to get involved with your local school board, which never receives much input from the community. Go to the board meetings, find a candidate you support and help him/her win, run for the board yourself...just do SOMETHING before it's too late and we've lost control of our schools.

This is volume one of the best two-volume dictionary available for the English-speaking student of Dutch. ... You'll find it on 'foreign book' websites ... But do yourself a favour, if you're visiting the Netherlands on vacation any time soon, make room in your pack for two fairly large hardcover books and buy them when you're there. I bought my set (Nederlands-Engels and Engels-Nederlands) for 52 euros (26 euros each) at a bookseller in Haarlem. They are invaluable to me. I would not part with them for anything.

Six lectures delivered by Carlyle in 1840. He classifies six kinds of heroes: as Divinity (Wotan, paganism); Prophet (Mohamed); Poet (Dante, Shakespeare); Priest (Luther, Knox); Man of Letters (Johnson, Rousseau, Burns); and Ruler (Cromwell, Napoleon). The trait that defines a hero is: absolute sincerity and firm belief in his principles.

In his highly rhetorical lectures, Carlyle highlights and reinforces the role of the individual in the social process, as opposed to the role of the masses. And he did that precisely when the foundations were being laid for the most influential "pro-mass" movement in History: Marxism. The tragedy of Marxism, at least one of them all, is that, when translated into action, the blind masses were also led by "heroes" of the most authocratic sort. Not properly the work of an historian, these lectures are vivid, inflamed and enthusiast. Their uselfuness for our present age is precisely that they remind us of the crucial role significant individuals play in history, to accelerate or slow down (and even reverse) the process of social change, which is usually more gradual, diffused, and diverse.

Carlyle is not properly a historian or a philosopher, but a moralist, a fervent admirer of excellence, and a prose-poet of the first rank. Six meditations deal respectively of the hero as: Divinity, Prophet, Poet, Priest, Man of Letters, and King. If this book can't rightly be shelved with philosophy or history, it belongs in Literature with a capital "L," and Poetry. Carlylye loved the English Language and used it masterfully, energetically, and reverentially, without a trace of the trivial overindulgence of self-conscious and self-absorbed "poets."

This is an extraordinary work, let modern liberal critics say what they will of their 'mass movements' and 'diversity'. Long after they and their productions have bitten the dust, Carlyle will continue to speak to the enlightened few, and perhaps one day, it is to be hoped, to the enlightened many.

This work is much more than just a study of various influential men in history. Carlyle has very interesting notions of the historical process itself, the spread of religions and their demise, the importance of "true belief" in things, as opposed the unbelief that merely follows rituals and procedures. For Carlyle, true belief, is the beginning of morality, all success, all good things in this world; Unbelief, scepticism, the beginning of all corruption, quackery, falsehood.Unbelief, for instance, is at the root of all materialist philosophies, eg Utilitarianism which find human beings to be nothing more than clever, pleasure-seeking bipeds. It is also at the root of all democratic theories: faith in a democratic system means despair of finding an honest man to lead us.

Whether one agrees with Carlyle or not in his appraisal of democratic and other systems, one must admit, at least, that very little good is to be gotten from "the checking and balancing of greedy knaveries." If we have no honest men in government or in business, but only a bunch of self-interested quacks, then we cannot expect any system, however ingenious, to save us. Even the most skilled architect will not be able to construct a great building, if you give him only hollow, cracked bricks to build it with. Find your honest men, says Carlyle, and get them into the positions of influence; only then will it be well with you.

Yes,our Bounty Hunter heroine,Jinx,assumes the Lee Van Cleef role in a plot taken directly from Eastwood/Leones "Good,Bad & The Ugly". Well,the ending turns out a little different(and maybe that's the surprise for those who remember the Eastwood movie),but the dialogue here is great. Bendis is a lot stronger as a writer than an artist,and it shows in this volume. I really liked the 4 page spoof of Jinx as "The Incredible Jinx",mocking the Hulk's short lived female counterpart. Bendis even has a page spoofing the Hostess ads found in mid-late 70s Marvel comics! Bendis reminds me of Frank Miller a bit; Both writers/artists who are better with stories than as competition for Frank Frazetta,and both with a noir fascination. Jinx is worth a look.....

With Jinx, creator Brian Michael Bendis returns to familiar territory- street-level crime fiction. He also returns to his popular character Goldfish, who previously starred in his own graphic novel, appropriately titled Goldfish.

Jinx is a prequel of sorts to Goldfish. David "Goldfish" Gold, a petty grifter, is plying his trade with his sleazeball crony Columbia, when they are almost run over by a car containing 2 dying thugs- before they die, though, they pass along a tip about a hidden stash of loot...$3,000,000.00, to be exact. The problem is, Goldfish was told the location of the loot, Columbia was told the name it's stored under. So they're going to have to play nice to get the cash. Then along comes "Jinx" Alameda, a female bounty hunter looking to get enough cash to leave her sordid job behind. Goldfish and Jinx fall for each other, Columbia decides he doesn't want to share, the REAL owner of the cash comes looking for it....you can just feel the trouble brewing......

The story is well-told, and the book itself is HUGE; a tremendous value for your money. I loved the way that Bendis told the stories of the bystanders at the Arcade. It really made the scene take on more urgency by turning the onlookers into real people, as opposed to potential victims. Jinx is a great character; one of the most fully-developed females in comics, and I loved the dialogue- it's really Bendis' strong suit.

The bad...? The same as all of Bendis' other collections- POOR PRODUCTION VALUES. The introduction to the book has the usual transposed pages, a trademark of Bendis. There is also the typical mind-boggling array of misspelled words throughout the book. Bendis seriously needs an editor, and his wife just ain't cutting it.

You'd probably want to read Goldfish first- It'll make the ending easier to follow. And check out Torso, also by Bendis. It's amazing!

9-12?? if i had read this back then i would had probably snapped. this b&w comic book tells an incredible crime fiction story in a way no other comic has ever told one. bendis human-models based noir penciling and amazing, hyper-realistic dialogues are sure to be remembered and imitated. yet, i would read bendis' first work on this comic main character before sinking my teeth into this one, goldfish (i haven't yet read it, but i think it improves the reading of jinx -especially its end, which i'm obviously not telling-).