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One thing that makes George Muller's biography's unique is the amount of documentation that his biographer's had to work with. Each year, he published a detailed report of activities, but more meaningful were the journals he kept in which he listed all prayer requests and the outcomes of those requests.
Muller was born in 1805 in Prussia. As a young man, he decided not to tell anyone of his needs, but to rely solely on prayer. God taught George Muller faith and trust by continually testing him, but always providing what he needed. Muller was motivated in 1836 to start an orphanage for 30 street children in Bristol, England. Over the years, as a result of his prayers, the orphanage grew to house over 2000.
Muller lived to be 93. In his later years, he was honored internationally and invited to visit and speak in many cities. Beginning in 1875 he made 17 trips and visited 42 countries, telling his story of faith, trust, and prayer.
This is an inspiring book. It is filled with stories of many actual experiences that help the reader grow his or her own faith.
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Beware: after reading this book you will have good reason for thoroughly disliking this man, but not because he makes a bunch of funny verbal mistakes. If you're afraid of being thoroughly skeptical and possibly oppositional to the policies of our "commander in chief", then don't buy this book.
There are many many things in the book that I already knew, but the author defintely does lay out a very damaging portrayal of our current President's personal politics and ideology.
Please, get the newest paperback version, released AFTER 9-11. Do NOT get the old hardcover version printed before the September events. You'll miss out on a lot of extra materials if you don't.
This book is very parochial and does not go very deep into foreign policy, class analysis, or deeper and longer standing issues of US society (issues that are often laughingly painted as "class warfare" in the commercial media whenever they are hinted at, and thereby sidestepped in favor of fluff), but it does paint a very convincing picture of a president who is fully devoted to the most reactionary and privileged elements of the ruling class in the United States.
This is NOT about some supposedly "stupid" president who is "incompetent" or "dumb". These kind of appeals to Goerge Jr's supposed "stupidity" only show how stupid and gullible Democrats and "Liberals" really are, and how they really fall all over themselves to play into the hands of the Bush administration who want nothing more than to portray George W. Bush as a "regular joe" who cares about the "working man" and is trying his best to protect "America" from any number of mysterious and devious enemies waiting to pounce on us.
"Make no mistake", GWB is none of these things, but instead is as much a blue-blood, silver-spoon ivy-leaguer as is Al Gore and actually quite more so. And, is as thoroughly calculated and schooled in propaganda, public relations and polls as was Bill Clinton or his father George Bush the First, or the Reagan administration before them.
It's about a president who is very much aware of what he is doing to America and who seeks to, and IS using the deaths of 3000 people to advance a reactionary and regressive agenda, all wrapped in the flag.
I actually suggest that readers that already realize this NOT read this book, don't bother, but rather read some more in-depth analysis of foreign policy of the kind of class warfare and nationalism that is now and always has used "patriotism" (since the dawn of recorded history and beyond) as a tool to convince the general population into accepting policies that thoroughly harm them and to draw them into subservience under protection of the fearless leader.
If what I've said above seems odd or outlandish to you, then just read this very good book on the personality of our president (the best currently available), get from it what you can, and then move on to more broad analysis later.
Josh
However, Miller paints a devastatingly bleak picture of George W. using the most damning material of all: Dubya's own words. Make no mistake: this book is not a pocket guide to Dubya's great bloopers, it is a shockingly disturbing portrait of a president who takes pride in the fact that he has little attention span and scorns at intellectualism. When you see his quotes in the context of answers to questions he's been asked, you realize that the often times he is merely trying to "get it over with"--offer a vague, no-answer "answer" to get through the debate/interview so he can get on to becoming president.
Miller takes it a step further by showing how the so-called "liberal media" did nothing but softball him on his way to the White House and make itself absolutely pliable to GOP spinmeisters. Not only is the media hardly liberal, it's become scarily compliant when it comes to being manipulated, and you have to wonder how "free" we really are if this is the case.
Miller also brilliantly suggests that, in the absence of the cold war, right wingers have been able--through propaganda, media and rhetoric vehicles like Fox News--to create Democrats as the new communists ("liberals"). We've got Americans demonizing their fellow citizens for not marching in lock-step to the far right agenda.
This is a wake-up call. Miller also outlines Dubya's other skeleton in the closet: his record in Texas. Again, nothing does in Dubya more than his own record in his own state... yet again, the "liberal media" happily gave this short shrift.
All the way up to, and through, the troubling election travesty in Florida, this is an unblinking, harsh look at what we've really got here in the U.S., both in a president and in our media. And that is not good news.
Highly recommended. But truly troubling. Although, there are many, many LOL moments.
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While this book is a good start on the topic, it is one of the books that many people will find too emotional - particularly people who are pro-vaccination to begin with. To his credit, the author makes this emotional element clear at the beginning of his book. I am glad the public library had this book, but I am spending my money on a more thorough and well written one I borrowed at the time - Immunization the Reality Behind the Myth by Walene James. She gives a well rounded and intellegent presentation of much of the same research Miller glosses over. The result being the reader will understand the issue more deeply themselves and come away armed with the facts. This one is so good I want it in MY library!
Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. Editor-in-Chief, Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
Pro-vaccine books don't seem to make a very strong case for getting the shots. They tend to cling to the declining disease rates as the primary evidence of effectiveness. Neil Miller's two books debunk this argument rather well. Pro-vaccine books also focus more on the diseases as they existed during the height of their epidemics, rather than the reality today. They tend to gloss over (or ignore!) adverse side effects, both in frequency and severity.
The doctor written books against vaccines take a sort of willy nilly approach to this highly political and emotionally charged subject. One said avoid the MMR, but get the DPT. Another said avoid DPT but get the MMR. In all cases, when they recommended a particular shot they glossed over specifics of safety and effectiveness, and instead focused on the dangers of the underlying diseases.
But Neil Miller clearly explains what the dangers of these diseases vs. the dangers of the vaccines for each disease. He also clearly argues against the effectiveness of vaccinations generally, and the surpising lack of science behind vaccines.
He also touches on how the corporations that make money from them have manipulated public opinion and the government, and how the statistics have been manipulated to under report adverse effects of vaccines.
His books are excellent. I would recommend them to everyone, both for and against shots. Get as many books as you can find would also be my suggestion. Read and think for yourself.
FYI, it wasn't very hard for us to find several doctors that would support our decision not to vaccinate. One doctor only gave the shots to kids when parents insisted on them.
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The introductions to the pieces are good--as good or better than Norton's--and the selections themselves are generally good. Still, though, there are a few notable things missing, but that is to be expected in any compendium, I suppose.
One of the highlights of this volume is the full reprints of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. If you have to buy this book, it should be useful and may even be worth keeping around after the class is over. I know I'm going to keep mine.
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First, the book does an excellent job of covering the entirety of rock history and drawing out its influences and evolutions. It does a wonderful job of covering the different local scenes and how they were integrated in with the whole of rock music. Whole chapters are generally rewarded to the most influential bands, and not just those that sold more album.
However, the book suffers a number of strong drawbacks. First, as many pointed out, the book is clearly slanted toward the Rolling Stone perspective. Artists such as Billy Joel, who have not had good relations with the magazine, have been omitted. Several others, such as Bob Seger, were also given no treatment. There is also a bit of redundent content, such as giving the Beatles two whole chapters and then devoting a third (British Invasion) to a primarily Beatles-related topic. Also, there are separate chapters on Motown and Stevie Wonder.
Secondly, the book is often skewed toward the "pop" scene when it comments on more current acts. Rolling Stone has been getting even worse about this in its magazine. One particular example that stands out is in the heavy metal section. My edition was published in 1991 and the writer heaps load and loads of praise upon such hair-metal acts as Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt and Warrant. Other, more talented but less popular metal acts, such as Metallica, are put down and summarily dismissed. However, we all know that if this were to have been written 5 years later, Rolling Stone would be worshipping Metallica and praising them for destroying such hair-bands. RS makes the mistake of "going with the flow" one too many times.
Overall - nice book, but with some obvious problems.
RS editors - in all fairness like most journalists - have an agenda, and accuracy and fairness in rock isn't exactly one of them. One writer (below) asked why Billy Joel was snubbed. Simple; RS and Joel have publically feuded for years so as far as RS is concerned, one of rock's greatest acts (and an inductee to the Rock Hall of Fame) doesn't exist. In the rock world according to Jann Wenner, there is no greater act in rock history than the Rolling Stones. They're certainly a bellweather act in rock history, but not "the greatest"...but that's how RS sees it, and apparently so should history.
So take what they say with a grain of salt, enjoy it for what it is (their fave-raves, as valid as the Listmania right here on Amazon) - cuz after all, it's only rock and roll.