After more than fifty years of reviewing books, I only occasionally come across a biography that gets my juices flowing; a book so well written that it is almost a physical pleasure to read it and a subject that is totally engrossing. This was the case for me when I began to read Zev Chafet’s “Roger Ailes Off Camera.”

“No statist lies are safe from his scrutiny,” writes Lew Rockwell about economist Thomas J. DiLorenzo’s latest book. What follows is my conversation with professor DiLorenzo about “Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government,” and the timeless economic truths to which it speaks.

From Benghazi to Obamacare and a staggering array of things in between, President Obama appears invulnerable when it comes to the potential disasters that have marked his presidency. That the vast majority of those in the media share his left-wing politics partially explains this—but only partially.

It has been quite some time since the fictional character, Rocky Balboa, achieved the stature of a cultural icon. Sylvester Stallone’s hugely successful film franchise has his beloved “Italian Stallion” exchanging blows with one adversary after the other. Yet Stallone has repeatedly insisted over the decades since the debut of the original Rocky that the series is not ultimately about boxing at all.

In October last year I included a book by B.K. Eakman in my monthly report, Bookviews.com, and recommended it, having perused it sufficiently to know it was quite extraordinary. “Agenda Games: How Today’s High-Stakes Political Combat Works” ($17.95, Midnight Whistler Publishers, softcover). As someone who has been a reviewer for over fifty years, I receive fifty or more books every month and I often have to return to a book to read it completely.

We all know that Nathan Hale was hanged by the British as a spy. But toward the end of Halestorm I was thinking, no more than just thinking, hoping and almost certain that Becky Akers' arduous historical research had uncovered a lost cache of historical records. Records that would prove Nathan Hale escaped the hangman’s noose and evaded the King’s men, disguised himself and lived a long and wonderful life after the Revolution.

If you are even remotely interested in politics you have probably heard Elizabeth Warren’s speech delivered almost spontaneously at one of her campaign rallies and then later at the Democrat Convention. President Obama had been playing lightly but consistently on the same anti individualist/anti property theme and, probably more important, in unscripted answers such as he gave to “Joe the Plumber.” After Warren delivered her arguments in favor and defense of a collectivized society, Obama “doubled down” as the saying goes and it became the overall Democrat theme. 

Today, we interview American Daily Herald contributor Becky Akers about her new novel, Halestorm. Set during the American Revolutionary War, it tells the dramatic story of the spy — and anarchist! — Nathan Hale.

At once autobiographical and political; philosophical, historical, and practical; controversial and commonsensical, Cannibal succeeds in weaving into a seamless whole a number of distinct modes of thought. This is no mean feat. In fact, its author richly deserves to be congratulated for scoring an achievement of the highest order, for in the hands of less adept thinkers this ensemble of voices would have fast degenerated into a cacophony. By the grace of Mercer’s pen, in stark contrast, it is transformed into a symphony.

Steven Yates, Four Cardinal Errors: Reasons for the Decline of the American Republic. Drayton, S.C.: Brushfire Press International, 2011; 314 pages.

There are some disturbing trends to modern life that are becoming more and more noticeable. Some of them are big, as in the decline in middle class incomes, alarming unemployment, and the worrisome problems in our schools along with the increased police presence there, to name just a few.

Others are less obvious but increasingly noticeable nonetheless. Among these are carefully managed communities that infringe, through the work of “community associations,” on the most basic rights of property. In one egregious case, a community association told a husband and wife that they could not let their grandchild live in their house because the community association forbade residents under a certain age. This despite the fact that the couple in question owned their own home and were current on their mortgage. Again, this is to cherry pick only one of many possible examples of lesser signs of decline.

Gene Kranz, Failure Is Not An Option. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000; 415 pages.

Arguably, the Space Shuttle’s finest hour (and perhaps its most daring and difficult mission) came during mission STS-61 in 1993. Commanded by Richard O. Covey who was on his fourth spaceflight, the remainder of the STS-61 crew was comprised of legendary astronauts Story Musgrave, Kenneth Bowersox, Kathryn Thornton, Claude Nicollier, Jeffrey Hoffman and Thomas Akers. The mission: repair the faulty Hubble Space Telescope.

Not only was the mission notable for its repair of the Hubble, itself one of the most important bits of technology ever hoisted into orbit, but the teams of Musgrave and Hoffman and Thornton and Akers of the Shuttle Endeavour discovery distinguished themselves by spending nearly 80 hours, collectively, on five EVAs or spacewalks, a record in spaceflight.

Present in Mission Control during the historic flight was a man, perhaps more than anyone else, should be credited with the overall success, over more than three decades, of America’s manned spaceflight program. But STS-61 would be the last mission for legendary flight director Gene Kranz.

Christine Hall, Conversations with a Moonflower. Cedar Fort Publishing, 2001; 112 pages.

It is a universal truth that flowers are given as a sign of love, encouragement, affection, and sympathy. But did you know they can also bring entire groups of people together?

Christine Hall never thought that a trip to New York state to clean out her late father's home would lead to a life-changing event. This touching memoir is the story of how a sincere Amish neighbor wanted to share something beautiful with Chris during a difficult time. The Amish neighbors invited Chris and her family to witness an amazing natural miracle. Every evening at dusk several of their family members would gather together around the moonflower plant. Chris initially thought this was an interesting way to spend time with each other, not really knowing what was happening. Right around dusk something astonishing happened. As the group was watching the moonflower plant they noticed several buds begin to move. The wind was not blowing, yet the flowers were shaking. Several seconds later they started to open. The flower opened completely in less than a minute.

The caring Amish family that shared this experience with Chris gave her a moonflower plant to take back home with her. Ever since then, life hasn't been the same. She was able to use the moonflower plant to calm her own troubled life, as well as bring her friends and family together. This short excerpt from the book illustrates how the moonflower did just that:

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Beverly K. Eakman, How to Counter Group Manipulation Tactics. Midnight Whistler Publishers, 2011; 194 pages.

On the radical left, group manipulation tactics are a time-honored means of reaching a desired political outcome by marginalizing the opposition. They are also a means of maintaining power once it is achieved and of marginalizing dissidents. The tactics of group manipulation have been used to great effect by the totalitarian socialist regimes of the 20th century. Heavily used and developed by the Soviets, they spread to other communist nations where they were used extensively, including Vietnam and in China, where they have seen their broadest use.

As author Beverly K. Eakman warns, group manipulation tactics are also used in the United States, albeit in more subtle, and perhaps more insidious forms. And for that, Eakman offers both a useful guide to the tactics employed as well as a training course for those hoping to counter them in the form of her book How to Counter Group Manipulation Tactics, available now in a new edition for 2011.

Dinesh D'Souza, The Roots of Obama's Rage. Regnery Publishing, 2010; 258 pages.

In his latest book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, Dinesh D’Souza argues that, at bottom, the animating force informing the 44th president’s vision is a commitment to, not race, Marxism, or “conventional liberalism,” as many surmise, but “anti-colonialism.” Since it was the abolition of colonialism and the independence of Africa of which Obama’s father dreamt, and since it is a journey of self-discovery terminating in the embrace of his father’s dreams that the President relays in his first memoir, Dreams from my Father, D’Souza’s thesis, the author contends, is more plausible than all competitors.

D’Souza’s book does indeed make for a fascinating read, and there is much that he says with which it is difficult to quarrel. As for what he doesn’t say, however, matters are otherwise, and because these omissions are glaring, what pearls he imparts lose their luster and, as a result, his hypothesis as a whole fails.

Beverly K. Eakman, A Common Sense Platform for the 21st Century. Midnight Whistler Publishers, 2010; 120 pages.

The first decade of the 21st century has been one of significant change for the United States. Ignited by the terrorist attacks of 9/11, government expansion began at a breakneck pace under erstwhile conservative President George W. Bush.

The Bush administration’s expansion of government power, for most of the decade, centered on growing the national security state, including the expansion of foreign and undeclared wars, rendition and torture in the form of waterboarding, and inroads on basic rights protected by the Bill of Rights in the form of the USA Patriot Act and other legislation.