Sunday Morning Book Thread 09-18-2016: Simply Irredeemable [OregonMuse]

(For political, sports, and other non-book, related conversations, please use the open thread below this one, thank you)

Library of Moron Lurker HTL - Fiction Section

(Lurking moron HTL has an extensive library, and this is one of the three photos he sent. As you can see, this library comes complete with frightening, fiery-eyed guard dog. Click on pic for embiggening.)

Avast, 'tis a fine morning to all 'o ye morons 'n moronettes 'n bartenders everywhere 'n all th' ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed 'n high-tavern Sunday Mornin' Book Thread, whar men be men, all th' 'ettes be gorgeous, safe spaces be underneath ye ship 'n be used as protection against actual dangers, like tornados, hurricanes, 'n th' election 'o Hillary Clinton, 'n special snowflakes do not last. Arrrh! 'N unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, th' Sunday Mornin' Book Thread be so hoity-toity, knickers be required. To'morrow, 'o course, be International Talk Like A scurvy pirate Day, aaaarrrhhh, so I thought I'd start th' celebratin' early.

The Spiritual Life Of Hillary Rodham Clinton

A few days ago, the mask accidentally slipped from Hillary's face as she was caught on camera referring to supporters of Donald Trump as belonging in "a basket of deplorables" and, if that weren't bad enough, should be considered "irredeemable". Here is the full quote:

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

This is probably the most breathtakingly offensive outburst I've ever heard from a major national politician. She's just shat on half the country. But it's this last word, "irredeemable", that I want to discuss. As other pundits have noted, this is not some throw-away adjective, but rather, it's one fraught with meaning, and by 'meaning' I mean 'religious meaning'.

What, you didn't know Hillary was religious? Or perhaps you thought she was brought up that way but then discarded it as an adult? Grove City College professor and author Paul Kengor says otherwise:

“She has called herself many times an ‘Old Fashioned Methodist,’ so she ought to know that word usually has a religious content,” Kengor said. “Religious-left Christians can be Hellfire and Brimstone, and be the most [unforgiving] judgmental people on the planet,” he said, adding “that’s what we’re seeing.”

Professor Kengor should know. He's written books on the spiritual lives of several modern presidents (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush). So when Hillary uses the word "irredeemable", it actually has a specific meaning:

Clinton is a Methodist, and she knows that “everybody is within the mercy and forgiveness of God, and so she’s making, intentionally or not, what sounded like a religious condemnation, a literal judgmental statement,”.

So she's just consigned millions of Americans to the burning pits of hell. Inescapably. Hopelessly. No chance whatsoever of getting out. That's what the word 'irredeemable' means.

Kengor's book on Hillary is God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life, which

Based on exhaustive research, [it] tells the surprising story of Hillary's spiritual evolution, detailing the interaction between her lifelong religious beliefs and her personal history that has made her the politician she is today. Offering an in-depth spiritual chronology of Clinton's life, author Paul Kengor also analyzes the fraught relationship between her faith and her secular policies—most notably how she reconciles her pro-choice stance on abortion with her Christian beliefs—and scrutinizes how these policies have changed over the course of her political career. What emerges is an unexpected portrait of a political figure whose ideals have been shaped by both the power of her politics and the depth of her religious devotion.

You can take the girl out of the religion, but you can't take the religion out of the girl.

#PunctuationMatters

We're Doomed!

And speaking of Hillary and religion, I came across this book while looking at the other: Hillary Clinton, Prophecy, and the Destruction of the United States, 2nd Edition: s Hillary Clinton Fulfilling America-Related Prophecies? What About Donald Trump? by some guy I'd never heard of who claims that

Hillary Clinton is fulfilling, and will continue to help fulfill, various prophecies that will lead to the destruction of the United States.

What prophecies?

Citing Islamic, Buddhist, Catholic, Byzantine, Native American, and Bible prophecy, as well as the writings of Nostradamus and others...

Alrighty, then. Looks like all the authorities are in agreement. The election of Hillary Clinton definitely will be an extinction-level event. Of course, readers off this Smart Military Blog™ already know this, so we're ahead of the prophets on the curve. I wonder if these prophecies talk about Hillary! coughing up a lung or doing a faceplant into the cement on a warm sunny day? And what of her miraculous resurrection 90 minutes later?

And how does Trump fare in this prophetic environment?

[This book] also tells the truth about Republican leaders like Donald Trump and why their practices would also lead to destruction.

Not good, then. So this election is kind of like Alien v. Predator. Whoever wins, we lose.

Slouching Toward Hawaii

First, as to the "birther" conspiracy, zombie echoes my exact sentiments:

When the whole birther thing was raging back in 2008 I was in one of the world's largest libraries doing deep research on Obama and I was able to request and then literally hold in my hands an original paper edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from August 1961 and there on the yellowing page of the birth announcements section is read, "BORN to Stanley Ann Dunham, a son, Barack Hussein," or something to that effect, and for me, that ended the entire conspiracy...

Posted by: zombie at September 16, 2016 12:21 PM (jBuUi)

Now, the Trump campaign and the Hillary campaign got into a slap-fight this week about the whereabouts of Obama's birth, and who said what first. The question boiled down to, who is the first birther? Who started all of this 'birther' nonsense, anyway?

And the answer is: Barak Obama. Get a load of this:

The Breitbart site first showed this a few years back, and I did a screen grab. This scan is from a promotional booklet put out in 1991 by the literary agency Acton & Dystel, which purpose was to pimp their up-and-coming writers, one of whom was Barak Obama.

Now according to Snopes, this was attributed to sloppy fact-checking:

Miriam Goderich edited the text of the bio; she is now a partner at the Dystel & Goderich agency, which lists Obama as one of its current clients..."This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me — an agency assistant at the time," Goderich wrote. "There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii."

At the risk of giving ammo to the conspiracy theorists, I'm not entirely satisfied with this answer. If I understand Goderich correctly, she's saying, "it was an erroneous statement that I should've deleted before publication". Which is true, but that just raises the question, "then how did it come to be written to begin with?" Did somebody just make it up out of thin air?

But, whatever. That's a question that can never be answered. Obviously, the booklet was trying to puff up Obama's transnational cred in order to sell the book he was scheduled to write, and a Kenyan birthplace fit in very well with that narrative.

Of course, Obama could have cleared up all of this nonsense immediately and at any time. So why didn't he? I think it's mainly because a number of conservatives were chasing their tails over this (*cough*wnd*cough*) and Obama was merely following Sun Tzu's advice to never interrupt an enemy while he's making a mistake.

And then, after all of that, "Barak Obama: Transnational Slacker" never did finish Journeys in Black and White. He probably had Billy Ayers rework it into his towering masterpiece, Dreams From My Father later on, but I wonder if he had to give back any advance he received, or did he blow it all on choom?

Hillary's Book Has Fallen, Can't Get Up, And Has Lost A Shoe

I'm not going to link either hotair or the NY Times, so you'll just have to trust me on this:

Hillary Clinton’s newest book, “Stronger Together,” which provides a policy blueprint for where she hopes to take the country if she is elected president, sold just 2,912 copies in its first week on sale, according to Nielsen BookScan.

Both Mrs. Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, have promoted the book on the campaign trail, but the sales figure, which tallies about 80 percent of booksellers nationwide and does not include e-books, firmly makes the book what the publishing industry would consider a flop.

What, they couldn't come up with any of their Daddy Warbucks donors who could buy 10,000 copies to hand out at union meetings, CNN staff picnics, or lesbian pancake breakfasts? What is wrong with these people?

Here are more reasons why this book has the stench of incompetency:

1. The title of the book is 'Stronger Together', and whatever rocket scientist came up with it should be fired. Moron commenter Insomniac pointed out on a Friday thread that that phrase conjures up that bundle-of-sticks image from where the word 'fascism' is derived. Did they not know this?

2. On the cover photo, Hillary has got her "The Great Leader hails a cab" hand-wave going, and that's fine, but Tim Kaine's pose is the one that's interesting, and by that I mean, look at it, he's giving a pretty good Nazi-style salute. He's got the full arm extension and everything. I can just hear him singing out "Seig Heil!" Yes, I know he didn't mean it like that, but really, whoever is responsible for the cover layout, he should be fired, too.

And I suppose I don't need to point this out, but if Donald Trump ever published a book with a cover photo of him giving that full-extension fascist salute, the MSM would be lit up like a Christmas tree for weeks.

3. As I'm typing this on Friday afternoon, 84% of the Amazon reviews are of the 1-star variety, and it's rare that you see something on Amazon with reviews so lopsidedly bad. Not to mention hilarious. It looks like the negatives are being driven by hordes of conservative comedians, pranksters, snarkmeisters, and hopefully, some of you morons.

I heard from a moron author who told me that he has sold 6,000 copies of each of his zombie books, so he can now brag that he creamed Hillary Clinton.

(h/t Anonosaurus Wrecks)

Another Moron Library

When I first saw this pic with that "Leaving Tsunami Zone" sign on the cement, I thought maybe this was a library in a small town on the Japanese coast (yeah, like they'd have a warning sign IN ENGLISH), but no, the lurking moron who sent it said it's a public library in Gold Beach, OR. And as the sign says, it's below the tsunami line, so if Gold Beach gets hit, the library is a goner. And so, too, the local hospital, which is also below the line. Apparently, good, level land is hard to come by in Gold Beach, OR.

Moron Recommendations

One of my chessplaying buds, 'bonedaddi' who also lurks on the book thread, recommends the collected letters of Giuseppe Verdi, the great Italian composer.

'Verdi, The Man in his Letters', is a remarkable portrait of a genius as told through his letters between 1837 to 1900. Within these letters are his thoughts on politics, war, and of course music. It a wonderful glimpse into 19th century Europe without being pedantic.

Giuseppe Verdi, the great Italian composer, was born in 1813, and died in 1901. He composed 33 operas (Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata and Aida probably being his most famous) 6 cantatas and Hymns; 8 religious works, which include his beautiful 'Requiem'; 4 instrumental works and 6 scores for the ballet. A remarkable career by any standard and a level of success that few ever reach.

In the 19th century opera was the king of musical composition and its composers and performers were treated like like rock stars. Verdi's main competitor was Richard Wagner, who was considered the future of opera. Verdi was deeply immersed in the Italian tradition and felt that the human voice was more important than grand orchestration. His letters regarding his artistic process during 'Aida' are worth their weight in gold as Verdi agonizes throughout the whole process. It is a phenomenal glimpse into the creative process.

Bonedaddi goes on to say that you don't have to love opera to love this book. It is a glimpse into the joys, the sorrow, the failure and triumph of a man struggling to keep his head above water at times that seem impossible and overwhelming. In 1840, before any of his big successes he lost both his children and his wife to illness. He wrote:

June, 1840, the third coffin was carried out of my house. I was alone!... Alone!... In a little over two months I had lost three loved ones. My whole family was gone! And in this terrible anguish of soul... I had contracted, I was compelled to write an entire comic opera!"

'Verdi: The Man and His Letters' is currently out of print but can be bought used on Amazon for $16.16 or Alibris starting as low as .99 cents. There's probably a few copies on Abebooks, too.

Books By Morons

I heard from moron author Daniel Humphreys earlier this week who has just published A Place Outside The Wild, which is, in his words, a "post-post apocalyptic" novel, and it involves the lives of a group of survivors 8 years after a zombie-like pandemic:

Eight years after Z-Day, the surviving remnants of mankind face the unknown. The fences and walls kept the ravenous undead at bay until they wasted away. A once overwhelming foe has turned feeble and week, and a world gone wild seems ripe for reclamation.

The scars of the long war run deep. And hope is a dangerous thing when the real enemy might just be the survivors themselves.

This is a "self-contained" novel, which I assume means it's not part of a projected series. Available on Kindle for $4.99.

I first announced this novel, sort of, back in July, when Mr. Humphreys asked for beta readers for his second draft. He told me he is e-mailing as many of the beta readers as he has e-mail addresses for to personally thank them, but if he missed any, he wants me to pass along to you all his deep appreciation for all of your hard work and insight. Mr. Humphreys says the feedback he received really took the book to the next level.

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:07 AM

| Access Comments