What struck me is that this book analyzes natural law within a legal context: many of the contributing authors are attorneys as well as philosopher. This is particularly helpful to our nation today, as I think more citizens will have to reassess the role of the judiciary these days.

For the latter half of the 20th century, worries over "judicial acitivism" and judges' making decisions that should be made by legislatures have been the domain of conservatives, with Roe v. Wade probably being the chief example. But now liberals have said similar things about the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision. It is high time for intelligent discussion, and this book is a solid foundation for a dialogue.

By looking at natural law historically, legally, and philosophically, the authors of this book examine how natural law works and various challenges to it. This book is a very good introduction, and I have come away with a greater respect for natural law and its vital role in our nation, and also new questions to pursue (and more books to buy...).

The contributing authors are an impressive team of formidable thinkers, and while most of the writers clearly come from a religious background, the are pretty good about keeping what they say applicable to a secular society (the last two essays tend to be more theological than philosophical, and I thought that hurt their impact).

I think MacIntyre's essay on the role of the ordinary person in natural law is particularly valuable: if the American citizenry cannot execute sound moral judgment, our nation as a constitutional republic is in grave danger. Fuller's essay on Locke's struggles with natural law is an honest and challenging look at natural law's theoretical chinks. Riley's essay on tort law gave excellent lessons on liability, but with lawsuits being as common as they are nowadays, I would have hoped for more practical insights on today's situation, and possible remedies.

On the whole, this book is a good read and a good challenge. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in ethics or concerned about the present condition of the United States.

Common Truths: New Perspectives On Natural Law is a collection consisting of cogent remarks and prescient essays: Are There Moral Truths That Everyone Knows? (Ralph McInerny); Natural Law: The Legacy of Greece and Rome (J. Rufus Fears); Aquinas, Natural Law, and the Challenges of Diversity (John Jenkins); John Locke's Reflections on Natural Law and the Character of the Modern World (Timothy Fuller); Theories of Natural Law in the Culture of Advanced Modernity (Alasdair MacIntyre); What Dignity Means (Virginia Black); Natural Law and Positive Law (Robert P. George); Natural Rights and the Limited of Constitutional Law (Russell Hittinger); Natural Law and Sexual Ethics (Janet E. Smith); Contract Law and Natural Law (Edward J. Murphy); Tort Law and Natural Law (William N. Riley); Criminal Law and Natural Law (Ian A.T. McLean); and Natural Law in the Twenty-First Century (Charles E. Rice). Common Truths is scholarly, intellectually stimulating reading for anyone wanting to better understand and appreciate the permanent norms of human action and their relationships to a moral and political life.

A useful text with numerous examples to motivate and encourage your team to get creative and innovative. Useful to owners of small businesses and entrepreneurs to understand how the big organisations succeed. It is little things that could be done for big returns. With the focus on simple things like benchmarking and audit, understanding markets, products and services, it brings all together on winning customers. I have often trawled this book for best practices from time to time and without fail, I have found often new insight and ideas each time I flipped through it. Its a kind of book you may want to read and dip into from time to time for ideas to spark your creativity! The best practice agenda & top ten diagnostic questions at the end of each chapter are useful tools to develop your own best practices.

An enthusiastic two thumbs up!

Unlike most businesss books that say in 300 pages what can be said in 3, this book delivers its message clearly and concisely.

It offers many "best practices" learned from direct client experience that can be used immediately in companies. Colored with examples, and punctuated throughout with tidbits of wisdom.

A must buy!

The books quotes numerous examples. That's what the book is all about.

Readers may use these as foundation point for implementing best practises in their own companies. Different companies have different situations.

These ideas motivate one to perform well, often to surge ahead of the competition. Gives you the adrenaline pump to come out with the best.

The importance of value-chain is emphasized by quoting examples of companies such as Lexus which managed continuity of service despite problems in plants of its suppliers.

Readers have to be cautioned that this book is not a panacea to customer-service problems.

Customer Service is not a mere toll-free number. A reader will realise this and much more by reading this book.

Very few surgical fields demand a complete and comprehensive knowledge of the entire human body. Plastics and reconstructive surgery is right up there when it comes to that. A successful Plastic surgeon incorporates knowledge of Gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, tissue physiology, physiology of the patient itself and the innate aesthetic sense to recreate from tissue and prosthesis alike.

Grabb and Smith's text offers a comprehensive and engaging review of the essential aspects of Plastic surgery. Each Chapter starts with a review of clinical anatomy and leads on to Clinical aspects of diease. Historically important surgical approaches as well as current techniques are discussed. Disease classification is also described in excellent details through the use of tables.

I do firmly believe that this book is a worthwhile investment of time and money.

When I received the Book with Cd I thought that Cd will contain some interactive materials or MCQ self test kind. To find the CD as exact version of the book makes me wonder whats the idea behind.

Much of the Kirkus review was accurate, although, the point that New Agers will find little that resonates is probably the most compelling reason to buy this book. It isn't New Age mystical garbage---I wasn't levitating when I read this book.

Cayce is a fascinating character. Because of his deep faith, he wrestled with the concept of reincarnation and tries to reconcile a biblical explanation for what he experienced in the "life" readings. I found the final chapters of the book more interesting than much of the rest of the book. But it deserves better treatment overall than was given by Kirkus.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to see inside the mind of a great psychic? To be able to access information about people and places that reaches far beyond the physical dimension? Edgar Cayce's biography, expertly compiled by a professional journalist and editor from Cayce's never-before-published autobiographical notes, a personal diary, and lecture records, allows us just such a rare glimpse. Cayce (1877-1945) is the world's best-documented psychic, with over 14,000 verbatim transcripts of 'readings' on topics ranging from health concerns, reincarnation, astrology, spiritual development, earth change predictions, and other metaphysical topics catalogued in the Library of the Association for Research Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, VA.

Edgar Cayce is also known as the "Father of Holistic Medicine," whose unorthodox naturopathic cures, while helping many regain their health who had been given up as hopeless by the medical establishment, once led to his arrest on grounds of practising medicine without a licence.

In "My Life As a Seer," we get to know the Edgar Cayce who struggled with self-doubts regarding his psychic gift, and with concerns about the impact which the information from his readings might have on those who sought his counsel. We meet Cayce the family man, a photographer by profession, whose deep faith sees him through a series of defeats, including the destruction by fire of his studio; the closure, for lack of funds, of the hospital he had spent years trying to build; an eviction from his home; and physical injuries suffered while being the target of a humiliating attempt to expose him as a fraud. Through it all, Cayce remained a sincere and humble man,who was motivated not by fame nor by riches (which eluded him all his life), but by an overwhelming desire to serve God and help his fellow human beings.

"My Life As a Seer," as grandson Charles Thomas Cayce says in the foreword, represents "the first account of Edgar Cayce's life told completely in his own words. He does not dwell on all of the personal aspects of his life, but focuses primarily on those experiences that marked him since childhood as decidedly different from anyone else in his world."

Reading this fascinating book is the closest most of us will come to talking with Edgar Cayce in this lifetime.

The test of a true prophet is his accuracy. Cayce has been wrong and does not glorify our lord and master. Check your bibles and verify everything

This is another good Cayce book, and it's unfair to bash this very spiritual man without a through study of his words. If we read what Cayce specifically said regarding Jesus Christ, we see how every reading he gave in trance, as in all areas of his waking life, he never once denied Christ or his divinity or his love for us. Rather, Cayce often said that nothing we do in any lifetime is as important as loving God and our neighbor as ourselves. In one very powerful group of readings, he taught that by his suffering and death, Christ actually took upon himself all our worst karma and thus freed us from that endless Karmic-Wheel-of-Rebirth Hindu's long to be done with. If we accept this salvation of being released by Christ's sacrifice from the necessity of subsequent births, but choose nonetheless to reincarnate, we do so as servant-souls: that is, our lives become a gift we're not obliged to make. Mother Teresa is a good example of such an evolved soul who came back not for her own spiritual gain, but to lead humanity closer to God. When people questioned Cayce about the safest place to be living during the coming earthquakes/tidal waves, he would reply, "Why do you worry so about where your body will be? You should be more concerned about where you are in your relationship with HIM every day!"

I don't take the Bible literally, and I don't mindlessly swallow everything Cayce says either. But I liked the exercises, which more or less focus on a "resonance" method -- that is, do the pictures, time periods, etc. resonate with you.

A good book of letters should bring its subject to life for the reader. This book is dry to the point of being brittle. At no time time during the reading of this book did I get any sense of what Oppenheimer was feeling or experiencing. Oppenheimer was involved with one of the pivotal events of this century and the whole experience comes off like a trip to a neighborhood store. The recollections mentioned in the title are not those of Oppenheimer but of friends and family. Like the rest of the book their thoughts and memories add little to the understanding of Oppenheimer's life and work.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was better at keeping himself hidden than most people, and you won't learn a lot about him from these letters, but it does a give a rare, patial glimpse of a very mysterious person.

This book is not meant as general reading. For more colorful writing, see Smith's _A Peril and a Hope_. Letters and Recollections is, however, an incredibly valuable resource for those of us researching the time period and Oppenheimer. There were letters, interviews, and insights that I simply could not have obtained anywhere else. Smith has a personal connection with Los Alamos, and that shows in her writing and sources. She gives an side to Oppenheimer like no other book I've read (and trust me, I've read a lot of them). Thank you, A.K.S.!