[Rhodes22-list] Christmas Books

[Brad Haslett]

In the rush to park the car and catch the bus from the off-airport parking
lot on the way to 'Wally World' I left my copy of "The Forgotten Man" in the
car.  Not to worry, the airport bookstore had Alan Greenspan's , "The Age of
Turbulence".  If you are looking for the perfect Christmas book for a
reader, this is perhaps the first book ever written on economics that you
can't put down until finished.  I had just finished the "Prince of Darkness"
(chosen by Sowell in the accompanying article). When I got back on the bus
yesterday the driver had a Happy Holidays sign posted.  I wished her a
"Merry Christmas" and added, "it is OK to still say that isn't it?" "Honey,
I say it all the time to whoever I want to say it to, you have Merry
Christmas yourself!"  Anyway, my kids have gotten used to getting books for
Christmas.  Here's a list of good ones (at least those on the list that I've
read were good).  Brad

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December 11, 2007 Christmas Books *By* *Thomas
Sowell*<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/author/thomas_sowell/>

Books are good gifts to receive and even better gifts to give because you
can get books without half the hassles involved in buying many other kinds
of gifts. You can easily buy books from the Internet and avoid the mob
scenes at the shopping malls.

This has been a good year for books that shoot down false and nonsensical
notions on major issues of our time.

"The Immigration Solution" is an excellent new book that discusses illegal
immigration without the political rhetoric, spin, demagoguery, and
unsubstantiated claims that have become all too common in the media and
among politicians.

It was written by three scholars at leading think tanks -- Heather Mac
Donald and Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute and Victor Davis Hanson
of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Unlike many other
scholars, they know how to write so that the general public can understand
what they are saying.

"Mugged by Reality" by John Agresto is an eyewitness account of life inside
Iraq by someone who does not take either the Bush administration line or the
Congressional Democrats' line. Nor does he hesitate to admit that what he
saw in Iraq changed the opinions with which he first entered the country.

It is a sobering and insightful account of what has happened and of the
problems with various alternative courses of action. It is one of those
books that adds a new dimension to your understanding, whether you agree or
disagree with the author.

"The Prince of Darkness" by Robert Novak is a big book detailing half a
century of his experiences in Washington, dealing with both political
figures and other members of the print and broadcast media. He names names.

This book should be especially valuable to those young people who have been
brainwashed with the notion that it is somehow nobler to be in "public
service" than in the private sector.

For those who like history, there is a new history of one of the most
decisive decades in American history -- the decade of the Great Depression
of the 1930s -- titled "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes.

It tells a revealing story of the people and the policies that shaped that
decade, as that decade has shaped much of what has happened with government
intervention in the economy ever since then.

For those who want more in-depth analysis of the economic consequences of
New Deal policies, Jim Powell's book "FDR's Folly" would make an excellent
supplement to Amity Shlaes' book.

"Until Proven Innocent" by Stuart Taylor and K.C. Johnson is an account of
the Duke University "rape" case that goes far beyond the misdeeds of the
disgraced District Attorney Michael Nifong.

"Until Proven Innocent" turns over a lot of rocks and shows what was
crawling underneath -- in the media and in academia, as well as in law
enforcement, that produced a lynch mob atmosphere in which evidence meant
nothing.

Because Duke University is by no means unique in the attitudes of its
faculty and administration, what happened at Duke could happen at any number
of prestigious universities around the country. It is something to think
about for those who have their hearts set on getting into Prestige U.

An excellent present for those parents and students who want to find
academic institutions that have not succumbed to the ideological corruption
found at Duke and other colleges and universities would be the book
"Choosing the Right College."

The latest edition, just published, is over a thousand pages long and goes
into the campus atmosphere at numerous colleges and universities, in
addition to dealing with academic questions, such as the presence or absence
of a curriculum.

A very moving account of the life of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
can be found in his very readable and insightful memoir, "My Grandfather's
Son," which has been on the best-seller list for eight weeks thus far.

In these politically correct times, we are only supposed to say "happy
holidays," lest we offend someone by being politically incorrect, but I wish
you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!