The short stories in this book are encouraging, and heart warming. The author has the ability to condense very powerful
true stories into just a few pages, making it easy to read and a great gift book. We laughed and we cried.

Peter St. John has written the definitive book on air piracy and airport security. I have perused some 20 books and papers dealing with the challenge of keeping hundreds of millions of airline travelers safe. St. John's book is the best. It is at once a text and a page-turner, easily the most comprehensive, analytical, and readable study of a subject that should fascinate anyone who flies.

Where other authors struggle to arrange their material in some coherent manner, St. John's book has a chronology and organization that keeps the reader on track. Too many scholarly authors write pedantic (read: dull) prose; St. John delivers excellent expository writing. While most authors focus on one or selected aspects of this complex international problem, St. John manages, in seven chapters and just 190 pages of text, to examine 60 years of aerial hijacking and sabotage. Yet St. John's book is anything but a historical overview; he scrutinizes past and present situations to develop his prescriptions for improved airport and in-flight security. And although he presents copious detail, his concise, varied syntax reads more like a novel than non-fiction. Hoping to skim some sections, I found this impossible: each chapter captured my concentration, every segment proved integral to the whole.

An Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba, St. John pulls no punches, unhesitatingly criticizing his own government:

"Even after 331 people died on one June day in 1985 as a result of air terrorism in Canada, the government scarcely changed its policy of studied neglect of the airports of Canada."

"The central problem in both U.S. and Canadian airports is that the security personnel are completely inadequate...."

"But in North America at present, more attention is paid to illegal parking of cars...than to security."

In compiling this seminal textbook (for airlines and their passengers, for agencies and governments) on air terrorism, St. John invokes and duly credits more than 100 sources. However, he states his own specific and cogent conclusions as to what must be done, on the ground and in the air, to combat terrorism.

"Good airport security involves a delicate balance of human and technological expertise in which the human element takes the lead...it involves close cooperation between all agencies that can, together, block all security loopholes that exist...."

"The main problem ...has to do with chinks in the armor, the loopholes that are still far too plentiful in a Western commercial aviation system more finely tuned to profitability than to security."

Most of the loopholes St. John identifies relate to inadequacies not of machines, but of humans. His message is clear: excellent security is a function of not of resources, but of resolve. In terms of resolve, he cites Israel as the benchmark:

"No attempted hijacking of an El Al airliner has been attempted since 1970, and that one failed...."

St. John augments his study with ten appendices found nowhere else in the literature. These include chronological listings of aircraft sabotage (1949-1988) and of important aircraft hijacks (1968-1989), as well as diagrams of the "terror-proof" airports he deems crucial to controlling hijacking. Two non-statistical appendices, however, stand out as the most intriguing. The first is "Terrorism from Below and Above," which summarizes human aspects of terrorism through profiles of both terrorists and their victims. The other is "My People Shall Live," Leila Khaled's autobiographical account of the two hijackings she led. Khaled survived capture and temporary imprisonment to live on as the grande dame of the Palestinian Intifada.

St. John's book is fully annotated and well indexed. If you can own but one book on terrorism in the air, choose this one.

An obviously underrated little masterpiece that needs to be resurrected and praised for what it is: a highly useful and user-friendly tool for the mind to awaken consciousness, hone mental skills and integrate the mystical experience to the betterment of your life.

There's a nice balance between methodology and subjective impression, satisfying both the scientist and the artist.

Wasserman does an excellent job of framing the elegantly twisted words of Crowley to the effect of creating lasting impressions
and tasty morsels of knowledge that spice up the brain and heart.

Buy it and use it!

It was about how two people struggle while in Louisiana City. They move to a bay and thier life is hard at firs. It showed how two people can find their place in life!

The English edition of this book offers not only what is one of the most worthwhile pieces of poetry the 20th century has to offer to 21st century readers, but also a work that may serve as a standard to anyone looking to locate an example of a classic that survives the often deadly process of translation, for whom here we may thank T.S. Eliot, -- the edition prints the French language on the facing page, so that readers may trace what little poetic liberties the latter has taken in order to deliver across mountains and rivers, -- resembling the nomadic journey of St.-John Perse's epique, -- of language-scapes crossed . . . Mr. Eliot deserves our esteem for this feat if nothing else, to have retained that essence of "a great principle of violence", or rather that "essence" of the journey described in this book which is really not so much one of plot, character, or any emotional developement in the specific sense, but one of a progression of language . . . certainly the distinction is difficult to articulate, I mean that one existing between the emotional evolution and the progression of language, FEELING, essence, -- but that is what is so worthwhile about this book, in fact fascinating, to me, because it describes exactly this very experience, -- in that it reads as a kind of separate history, it describes the essence of man in history apart from any historical reference, apart from any identification that makes what the book describes HUMAN at all . . . we see a man here that is not a man at all except anatomically, as we would in focusing on the ancient cultures of South and Central America (Chavin, Olmecs, etc.), Egypt, China, and so on, they are only men as we are men today by an anatomical relationship. Thus this book reveals to us a sense of being, as men, that is largely lost in our modern day, and in the form of purely pleasurable poetry . . . so many lines in this books seem to sum up the entire statement of the entire vision, as if they could easily exist alone in fragments, say when our own culture has long passed to the dust of a long time's ravaging, and say all that the book builds from those lines together. I highly recommend this book, not so much for my own reasons, which are certainly a crock of my own reflection, but for your own. This is a book that speaks, there are few that do so, it is a book one can hear without reading. Mr. Eliot called it "as important as the later works of James Joyce", -- I would never give it so unworthy a comparison as that, -- I mean that this book is simply CAPABLE of more, Joyce is one thing, but this book, like Egyptian hieroglyphs, can be so much more. In terms of history, this is a book worth digging up.

Written in 1910, The Apocalypse Unsealed attempts to prove that the so-called "Revelation" of John (which in the original Greek was really named "The Apocalypse: The Initiation of John") is in reality a gnostic work that shows an individual's path to enlightenment and peace. Pryse shows how all of the symbols and mysterious figures in The Apocalypse (666, the Dragon, etc) are really (not so) hidden puzzles and clues, that once discovered and solved will enable the reader to use the book as a helpful guide in conquering the material world.

But if this is just a helpful guide, why is it so occultic? Pryse claims that John knew the church would one day get rid of it's esoteric foundation and become more exoteric - the 1958 discovery of portions of a so-called "Secret Gospel" of Mark, which was possibly kept hidden by the Church alone prove this, not to mention the Church's total subjugation of the gnostic sects. So John wrote his book in a code that could be understood by those with the gnosis, the knowledge, and he even made sure that it wouldn't be butchered by future editors by inserting a warning that the text should be left alone, in order to avoid God's wrath.

Some of the things Pryse uncovered are very interesting, such as his claim that 666 is nothing but the numerical transliteration of "he phren," ancient Greek for "the lower mind." The Lamb, 888, is Iesous (Jesus - be prepared for Pryse's usage of the original Greek names for all New Testament figures), the higher mind, whereas 1,000 is "ho nikon," Greek for "the conquerer." There are other numbers besides, such as 777: "stauros" - the Cross, and Pryse shows that there is a numerical chart hidden in the Apocalypse, showing in numbers the progress of a man's journey, from the lowest reaches of his carnal desires (333, "akrasia" - sensuality) to his total mastery over them, and return to his true spiritual self - "ho nikon," the conquerer. This number chart is one of the more interesting aspects of the book; ancient Greeks and Hebrews used letters for numbers, and so by figuring out the word equivalents to the numbers in the Apocalypse, and vice versa, Pryse was able to crack one of the book's many codes.

As I said, this was written in the early 1900s, and it shows. Pryse is about as prudish as an old maid. This book can be read as a code of its own, one which totally sneers at sex. For Pryse, sex is contemptible and profane; he very much has the celibate attitude of an old-school mystic. He also has that old-school mystic disregard for women. In ancient times, women were considered to be the source of all ills, for tempting men away from the pursuit of spirituality. Pryse is an adherent to this pattern of thought. For a better, more modern view of Pryse's thoughts, one which refutes his no-sex, anti-women beliefs, I would recommend Michael Wassil's "Dance of Ecstacy," which is available for free on-line. All you have to do is search for it.

I'm giving this book 5 stars because of the work and scholarship Pryse put into it. If you compare this to the paranoid works of Hal Lindsey or all those other people who put out their "end is near" books in 1999, Pryse's makes a lot more sense. However, I don't agree with all of the things he considers certainties - such as that John was really Jesus, and that Jesus wasn't a person at all, instead just a symbolic reference to the higher mind that lurks within all humans. Pryse also translates the Apocalypse to fit his needs, such as referring to the Seven-Headed Beast that rises out of the waters as a "constellatory Beast," so he can prove that in reality John is referring to a constellation of stars.

I could go on about this book...there are so many ideas and information in it that it's hard to grasp until you've read it at least a few times. It's also hard to explain what Pryse has written, unless you're talking to someone who's read the book. Also, I don't particularly like Kessinger's version of this; they're just selling a cheap-looking photocopy of the original manuscript. You might be better off finding a used copy of the original edition, or the 1972 trade paperback re-release, which will look a little better on your bookshelf.

Arianism and Other Heresies

This is a collection of short works by Augustine. The table of contents is as follows:

The Heresies (with Introduction and correspondence between Augustine and Quodvultdeus)

To Orosius in Refutation of the Priscillianists and Origenists (with Introduction and Orosius's "Memorandum to Augustine on the Error of the Priscillianists and Origenists")

Answer to the Arian Sermon (with Introduction and "The Arian Sermon", by an unknown author)

Debate with Maximus (with Introduction)

Answer to Maximus the Arian (with Introduction)

Answer to an Enemy of the Law and the Prophets (with Introduction)

Index of Scripture

Index

The translations, introductions, and notes are by Roland J. Teske. The supplementary material provided by Teske is quite good. He gives every work its own introduction, which he uses primarily to provide the historical context of the work. The extensive notes which Teske provides are used mainly to identify Augustine's references to people, movements and other works. The index, interestingly, locates references by the book and chapter in the structure of the original work rather than the page number in this edition. The only caveat I would have is that I prefer notes at the bottom of each page, rather than collected together at the end of each work, which is how Teske does it.

"The Heresies", the first work in this collection, was written as a reluctant response to repeated requests by a deacon of Carthage, Quodvultdeus. Quodvultdeus wanted a short summary of all the heresies that had existed since the beginning of Christianity. Augustine replied that it had already been done, and that there was no need for him to add another, but finally gave in and wrote it. Augustine's original plan was to prepare the work in two parts - the first listing and describing the heresies and the second defining what a heresy was. Augustine completed the first part, which is heavily derivative (as Augustine had complained that it would be), but Augustine died before writing the second part, which would likely have been the more interesting of the two.

"To Orosius..." is a short work. It was written against two heretical doctrines. The first was the Priscillianist belief that man's soul is part of God, as distinct from the orthodox Christian belief that the man's soul is a creation of God. The second was the Origenist belief that all spiritual beings created by God were equal at first, and then assigned bodies according to their merits, and that all (including the devil) could be redeemed. Against the first, Augustine argued that the soul could not be part of God because the soul was changeable while God was not. Against the second, Augustine argued that such a doctrine had some absurd aspects and was not supported by scripture.

"Answer to the Arian Sermon" was written in refutation to an Arian creed. While this document no longer exists, so much of it is quoted by Augustine that a reconstruction is possible. The central Arian doctrine asserted therein and attacked by Augustine was the Arian concept of the Trinity - not as a single God, but as three different divine beings: The Father, who begot the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who proceeded from the Son. The unity of God, according to the Arian position, was a unity of opinion, not of being. Augustine's rebuttal was primarily scriptural, focusing on the Old Testament assertions that there is only one God, and that the Arian position contradicted that scripture.

"Debate with Maximus" and "Answer To Maximus" are properly taken together. Near the end of his life, Augustine was summoned to debate Maximus, an Arian bishop. The debate degenerated into speeches, in which Arian's were much the longer. The debate was to be followed by an exchange of essays, of which only Augustine's survives (it is not known whether Maximus even wrote his). The documents are not a total success from the reader's point of view. The first problem is that the level of ad hominem on both sides is rather high, and while it might have been an expected rhetorical style, it does not advance the reader's understanding of either position. The second problem is that the format resulted in documents that are somewhat repetitive and not particularly well structured. The content is similar to "Answer to the Arian Sermon".

"Answer to an Enemy..." was written in rebuttal to a document circulating that was an attack on the God of the Old Testament, holding Him to be both evil and an antagonist of Jesus Christ, who was man's saviour from that God. Scripture that held to the contrary was asserted to be Jewish fabrication. Augustine's rebuttal focused on the continuity of the Old Testament and the New, that the alleged differences in God and Jesus were the result of selective citation of scripture, and that the unity of the Old and New Testament could clearly be seen in that the Old foretold the New in prophecy. Much of the "Enemy's" line of argument is still used by enemies of Christianity today, and much of Augustine's counter-arguments retain their value in Christian apologetics.

Ruth Burrows overview of the theology of St. John of the Cross is an excellent introduction to St. John's thought and values. The author anicipates many of the questions and contradictions that readers might encounter in exploring St. John's world and his response to it.
Burrows writing style is direct and readable. This book was a departure from my usual pile of Buddhist books and I enjoyed it thoroughly. A must have for the spiritual student, regardless of background or spiritual path.

This edition of Augustine's early writings is an excellent text for undergraduates as well as a fine collection for specialists. One can see the formative years of Augustine's Christian thought on a variety of topics in nice translations with useful a useful synopsis of each work included. Well worth the money and essential reading for those who wish to know this greatest of saints better. You may also want to read his Confessions before or during your reading of these texts for a fuller picture of his life.

Thomas Arnold was a Lieutenant Colonel in the General Staff Corps, Assistant Chief of Staff of the 92nd Infantry Division at the end of World War II. He had been planning and directing the 92nd's operations during the most of the nine months it had been in combat. In 1947 he was stationed at Vienna, Austria in order to plan the reorganization of the United States Forces Austria, with a view towards the looming post-war Soviet threat to Europe. In Austria And Unites States Forces Austria, Arnold offers a brief history of Austria from its origins down to the present time, and documents its relevance to problems faced by the U.S., England, and France in seeking to establish a free, independent, and neutral country during the years of the Cold War. Austria And Unites States Forces Austria is strongly recommended reading for students of post-World War II military history, the 1950s and 1960s era of Cold War politics, and the history of what became the federal republic of Austria, a industrial and trade-based nation solidly in alliance with the Western democracies.