Monthly Archives: February 2009

United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror

united-in-hate-coverUnited in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror 
Author: Dr. Jamie Glazov
Publisher: WND Books

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Gary Mack

 

Once I was involved in a business partnership with a talented and seasoned salesperson. Often we teased my partner he was so good at what he did he could sell all the swampland in Florida. The man knew he was good at his trade and reveled in all the tricks he learned to perfect his pitch. Oddly enough, whenever a salesperson came to our office to pitch a product, my partner, so knowledgeable of his craft, easily succumbed to the tricks of his trade. He was always the first to sign on the dotted line. I could never understand that.


After reading, United In Hate, The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror, by author Jamie Glazov, I’m beginning to grasp an understanding on the phenomena of such thinking. I understand a little more how certain individuals, or entire groups, can be so close to something they cannot recognize when the tricks of the trade are being used against them. In the case of the Left, as Glazov points out from his opening chapter, it’s as if the “believer” is so close to knowing what they hate, they somehow fall in love with it. It’s just a matter of how the cause is packaged and sold to them.


For instance, if you were to announce on the “View”, to the hosts and audience, that a mystery guest was about to appear who was a mass murderer, a theocrat, a racist, a bigot, a sexist, a torturer, and a homophobe, the set of the show would instantly be filled with angry boos and jeers from the crowd. However, when the identity of the guest were to be revealed as Fidel Castro, the knees of the female hosts would suddenly quiver and an about face would occur. Barbara Walters would be the first to her feet to greet the great Leftist Dictator. The crowd would follow, taking her lead on giving Castro a standing ovation. Within minutes after the applause died down, movie pals Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola would greet their little darling via speaker phone. (Again, it’s all in the packaging. Those who work in a business of illusion and deception are easily deceived.)


As Glazov candidly points out, when it comes to the Left, Castro could easily be replaced by the likes of Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Pham Van Dong, Mao Tse Tung, Ayatollah Khomeini, Osama Bin Laden, and the newest darling of the Left, the world’s most charming homophobe, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These are their heroes, their leftist idols. It doesn’t matter that their heroes represent and encompass all that the Left hates. The Left is easily sold, easily caught up in the imagery and mystique, easy marks for despot trickery whenever one of their intellectuals arrives in the country of their autocratic friend. All a dictator has to do is clean up a town, dress up the townsfolk in totalitarian wear, and threaten the lives of the people if they don’t look happy while the conspicuous visitor is in town. Wow. How many times does that trick have to be done before the Left catches on? Yet you wonder how did Susan Sontag, Mary McCarthy, Walter Duranty, George Bernard Shaw, Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte, Jane Fonda, Ernest Hemingway, Danny Glover, and a host of other western intellectuals or entertainers fall for the same scheme?


What’s worse is their glowing testimonials after their visits. It’s as if these great thinkers or performers go back to high school to write of their first love. I was squeamish and embarrassed reading the passages Glazov used to illustrate and drive his point home. Unless you are stupid, or love struck, how could all the monsters of tyranny possess such sweet and unassuming qualities as reported by the Left?


Does anyone still remember the 1981 film, “Reds”, by Warren Beatty? What a perfect example of what Glazov speaks of. Back then, as a student, I wanted to puke over the manufactured sentiment over the flick, a film many of Beatty’s associates were hailing as a masterpiece. In the most overused scene in cinematic history, Jack Reed, the protagonist prepares a meal for the married woman he loves and stole from an American capitalist. In the scene, the water in the pots boils over, smoke billows from the oven, and Reed clumsily trips around the kitchen as the romantic little communist nervously tries to prepare a meal for his girlfriend. Geez Warren. That’s an original and uncontrived scene! Such masterful film making is certainly deserving of an Oscar.


Even then I thought, is Beatty willing to give up his glamorous American Hollywood life for the meager lifestyle of the Russian peasant? It certainly appeared from the point of view of the film he was selling the Soviet or Bolshevik way of life. History has certainly proven Beatty’s romance to be false and has certainly proven he was easily sold by his leftist comrades.


Glazov’s well thought out and carefully sculpted narrative of our times is an in-your-face expose on the hypocrisy of the Left. Glazov will take a lot of heat for what he reveals but he seems like a man with broad shoulders ready to take on the burden of a good fight. He’s professional in his presentation and his arguments are clean and succinct. Based on what he’s written, there’s little doubt in my mind that if an alien ship arrived in America, most of our Leftists, from Springsteen to Spielberg, would beg to be taken away. After paying homage to our captors, and after paying their way to the front of the lines, they would get on their knees, with their arms stretched out in the direction of the sinister ship. Then they would chant, “Free us from our freedom! Free us from our freedom” over and over, hoping to be heard.


Unable to stop themselves, and always desperate for attention, our Leftist friends would continue to chant while boarding the ship, knowing they could never return, and knowing a life of darkness would be all they would ever know again.

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Filed under Current Events, History, Non-Fiction, Politics

Divinely Inspired

divinely-inspired-coverDivinely Inspired
Author: Jerry Pollock
Publisher: Shechinah Third Temple
Rating:

Reviewed by: Cheryl Malandrinos

 

A candid and courageous memoir of one man’s spiritual journey can be found in Divinely Inspired: Spiritual Awakening of a Soul.

Jerry Pollock is born into a less than ideal family where his neglectful mother and neurotic father do not and cannot provide him with the love and nuturing all children deserve. It will not be until many years later, when Jerry begins Primal Therapy, that he will discover the repressed memories of his childhood.

Divorced from his first wife, now a full professor at Stony Brook University, and planning to marry Marcia, Jerry hears the words that will eventually change his life.

After being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder at age 50, enduring the collapse of his career, attempting suicide, and encountering a cult, Jerry returns to those words he heard a decade ago. His spiritual journey brings him past the memories, the hurts, and the disappointments of his earlier years, and moves him forward to a life of enduring richness and meaning.

If you read and enjoyed Pollock’s not-so-fictional novel, Messiah Interviews: Belonging to God you’ll want to pick up a copy of Divinely Inspired.

In true memoir form, Pollock shares his life in a candid way, holding nothing back, and the reader will be left amazed by some of the things that the author has endured. The dedication of his wife, Marica, that is also so lovingly portrayed in Messiah Interviews, also shines through in Divinely Inspired, as she supports and loves her husband through many difficult experiences.

The addition of an Epilogue that shares the author’s spiritual insights is a brave move. Having spent his life as a scientist, Pollock shares his belief that Evolution and Creation are not mutually exclusive because God is the Master Scientist. Divinely Inspired will also shed further light on the happenings in Messiah Interviews.

A true companion to Messiah Interviews, but also a book that will be enjoyed by those interested in reading how one man’s spiritual journey leads him to inner peace, Divinely Inspired by Jerry Pollock, is a unique way to discover the wisdom of God.

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Filed under Biographies and Memoirs, Biography

The Dead Guy

the_dead_guyThe Dead Guy
Author: Doug Hewitt
Publisher: Aberdeen Bay

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Cheryl C. Malandrinos

Looking for suspense? Looking for action? Looking for an intense read? You’ll find it in The Dead Guy by Doug Hewitt.

Jack Thigpen is sent on what he believes is a routine car insurance scam investigation. But on this one, Jack gets more than he bargained for.

His investigation targets him for death soon after Jack discovers he’s dying from an untreatable, debilitating illness. When Jack’s best friend, Hal, is caught in the line of fire, Jack vows to track down Hal’s killer, as he struggles to accept the fact that he’s going to die–slowly and painfully.

The Dead Guy is one of those books that will leave you begging for more. Jack is a likeable, tough character who is put in a position no human being should ever be–feeling responsible for his best friend’s death when he, himself, is at death’s door. Hewitt’s masterful storytelling allows the reader to experience everything with Jack as he uncovers the evil underbelly of Detroit, which is consumed by corruption, fraud, and organized crime.

Other memorable characters include Jack’s brother, Tom, the only other person who knows of Jack’s illness, and who is forced to deal with the impending loss of his brother while struggling to sit back and let Jack deal with things his own way; Octavia, a tennis champion who Jack used to mentor; and Blalock, whose own complex story unfolds in the background.

This book is a roller coaster ride of action, intrigue, and mystery. Just when you think Jack has it figured out, something throws a monkey wrench into his theory and things are no longer as they seem. The reader will unconciously be biting off fingernails as he follows Jack from car dealerships to body shops to riverboats.

If this book hasn’t won any awards yet, it should!

Riveting, intense, and action-packed, The Dead Guy by Doug Hewitt keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat and turning the pages.

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