Transgender and Navy SEAL are not two words that often go together. In my limited dealings with this community, the men were hyper-masculine, adrenalinized types:
Warrior Princess, Chris Beck to Kristin Beck, by Anne Speckhard
I thought this might be a joke, but am nearly 100% certain it is not. . .
Lyssa Chapman’s Walking on Eggshells
Duane ‘Dog The Bounty Hunter’ Chapman has had a veritable litter of children. His ninth pup, Lyssa Chapman has put out a book called Walking on Eggshells. A little taste of the magic from Fox411:
FOX411: You have had quite a life.
Lyssa Chapman: It’s so funny I keep hearing that but really it was the only life I ever knew. That was what really inspired me to write the story because when I did tell people little tidbits of my life their reaction was, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you’re still standing,’ so I thought, ‘Well this would be a really good story to get out.’
FOX411: You became a mother at a very young age, as did your sister.
Curiously enough, my current life is the only one I know too. Tough girl, wish her well.
Over the past few weeks I have tried to sit and read through ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore’s book on bluff & bluster; a book that a good friend gifted/loaned to allow me to peruse at my leisure (please note, we are both absolute non-believer’s in the ‘tripe’ printed within its covers).
The reason for reading the ‘tome’ is that we will soon be hurtling ‘head on’ into discussion with a couple whose life evolves around their passion for global warming and living an eco friendly lifestyle. Each to their own beliefs, but when a belief is forced upon third parties I for one tend to stand up and be counted. (Unbelievably Al Gore’s book is one often quoted from their collection of Bible’s). The cracking and banging of skulls will take place at a sit down dinner at an engagement party, from which the Eco warriors will certainly bite off more than they can chew, in more ways than one.
I have less than a fortnight to plough through the nonsense printed within ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, which as it happens, is a great title that has since blown effluent back at the writer!
The Political left wing spin factories here in the UK & Europe still spout forth the nonsense attributed to Global Warning. Through the same horror stories and spin, an industry was fraudulently set up from which wealthy groups of business people still benefit; all achieved through handsome tax deductions as well as state sponsorship. Carbon Credits also form part of the nonsense, which is yet another industry that collapsed through fraudulent activity as it was totally non-regulated.
There are a few British/European/’and other’ politicians who may be reading this, that may wish to search their conscience as well as their souls; and perhaps hand some money back! (Was that a raspberry I heard some one blow from afar)?
Perhaps of interest? Last year the BBC was forced to admit that it’s research into global warming (via its own weather records) had been miscalculated, grossly! They pushed out the press release on Christmas Eve… And by doing so they buried bad news at a time ‘convenient’ to themselves to save embarrassment!
Absolute ‘Tosh’ or even ‘Taurus Cacas Nugarum’, as my Company Commander would whisper quietly in briefings.
Some thing else that made my earwax steam is the fact that Mr. Gore actually won a (politically enhanced) Nobel Peace prize for his waffle, bluff, & bluster. In doing so he blocked a honourable nominee, who, through her unselfish acts saved more lives than the feted ‘Oskar Schindler’ of Schindler’s List fame. A true heroine by the name of Irene Sendler; previously nominated several times.
Yesterday afternoon I sat outside on my ‘pondering logs’ with the book perched comfortably on my lap. This spot normally allows me the sanctuary I crave away from my home-office. The slight wind was cool, but in the lee of the felled tree trunk the warmth of the sun made up for it. My steaming tin mug of tea washed down three-fig rolls handsomely, but all was not well. As I sat and pondered I realised it was the bloody ‘Inconvenient book’ that was creating havoc with my mind-set.
The book now sits on a shelf within the down stairs toilet, which is fitting in one sense (it’s a man thing, which when required perusing through would produce the solitude and appropriate surroundings to work things out) 
Now sitting in front of my Mac, I have just viewed the evidence of the cold lingering winter held within my picture file. My mood has since lightened, as I caught sight of a picture from the previous summer, this with the fresh smell of spring drifting in on the breeze, which means this year’s summer is approaching once again, regular as clockwork as nature intended.
Isn’t that an inconvenient truth, Al?
I am generally against 15-year-olds publishing memoirs. But I Am Malala, to be published by Little, Brown and Co., may break my generalization.
Except for when I am driving, I like to keep one eye craned in the literary world. Who is writing what, for whom. A lot of it is pretentious nonsense. Novels that take pages to describe the snow falling. But there is also a lot of genuinely good writing. And I like to know what the market is calling for.
Pippa Middleton dropped
Although, since I rarely read fiction, I don’t buy it. Pippa Middleton, Kate Middleton’s sister, herself tried her hand at writing in Celebrate. A book not of the literary genre:
Literary guru David Godwin masterminded the deal with Penguin that saw Pippa Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge’s younger sister, pocket an estimated £400,000 advance from publisher Michael Joseph.
Under Godwin’s expert guidance, she set out to style herself as the go-to party planning expert. But she failed to impress observers astounded that someone without real writing experience had managed to secure such a substantial offer.
Insiders were more baffled as to why she was being represented by an agent whose stable includes highbrow writers such as biographer Claire Tomalin, novelist Vikram Seth and historian William Dalrymple. In the end, despite Godwin’s expertise, Pippa’s guide was a flop.
Islam without Extremes by Mustafa Akyol
If I were not up to the very tippy-toes of my adam’s apple with reading for work, I would be deciding whether I wanted to read Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, by Mustafa Akyol:
From furious reactions to the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad to the suppression of women, news from the Muslim world begs the question: is Islam incompatible with freedom? With an eye sympathetic to Western liberalism and Islamic theology, Mustafa Akyol traces the ideological and historical roots of political Islam. The years following Muhammad’s passing in 632 AD saw an intellectual “war of ideas” rage between rationalist, flexible schools of Islam and the more dogmatic, rigid ones. The traditionalist school won out, fostering perceptions of Islam as antithetical to modernity.
However, through his careful reexamination of the currents of Muslim thought, Akyol discovers a flourishing of liberalism in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the unique “Islamo-liberal synthesis” of present-day Turkey. Only by accepting a secular state, he powerfully asserts, can Islamic societies thrive.
Resa Azlan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
Persuasive and inspiring, Islam without Extremes offers a desperately needed intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam and religious, political, economic, and social freedoms.
Or No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, by Reza Aslan.
Not to be confused with this Aslan. . .
Blogging is a funny habit. I seem to post in pairs. If I see one story, invariably, I’ll see another on a similar topic. The below post was about a book and so is this one. Specifically, Nick Thacker’s guide, Building a Blog for Readers: 101 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Launching Your Blogging Empire. I’ve no blogging empire, but people seem to return and I keep posting. And posting on stories makes me think about them more, to ruminate upon ‘em. But I will pass on (pass on as in not read) Nick’s book. I prefer learning the ropes myself. . .
French lass Sophie Fontanel wrote a book titled L’Envie. Oddly, the American translators decided to title it The Art of Sleeping Alone. I suppose the title of Envy might confuse American readers? At the bottom of the Atlantic article is a link to another of their pieces, this one on Britain’s most beautiful woman named Florence Colgate. This Colgate is not heir to the famously white toothepaste fortune. But rather, she works in fast-food:
Sophie Fontanel or Florence Colgate?
Last year, a modeling contest claimed to have found the most beautiful woman in Britain: Florence Colgate, an 18-year-old who worked at a chip shop in Kent. As the Daily Mail later pointed out, Colgate’s face is nearly exactly symmetrical, with measurements matching ratios scientists have identified in the faces of exceptionally beautiful people: the distance between the pupils just less than half the distance between the ears, the distance from eyes to mouth just more than one-third the distance from hairline to chin.
Notice that they do not include a picture of young Ms. Colgate. I put her name into Google and got the above photo from a mixed-martial arts forum. It looks suspiciously like a Hilary Swank photoshop, no?
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. With that quote from Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy owns one of the more pointed observations of family life. I wonder if Hadji Murad has similar brilliance:
Hadji Murat, one of the most feared and venerated mountain chiefs in the Chechen struggle against the Russians, defects from the Muslim rebels after feuding with his ruling Imam, Shamil. Hoping to protect his family, he joins the Russians, who accept him but never put their trust in him – and so Murat must find another way to end the struggle.
Could be interesting. . .
I have an academic class I am finishing up for work. (I’ve been just finishing it up for a month now. It draggggggggs on and on.) I promised myself when I was done, I would buy Clark Zlotchew’s book, The Caucasian Menace. I worried perhaps the title of Clark’s book might be a nod to a Lindsay Lohan biography, but fortunately no:
Clark Zlotchew, The Caucasian Menace
Daghestan, which has broken away from the Russian Federation, has nuclear warheads. The usurping dictator is intent on selling some of these to Iran. He also holds a Russian nuclear physicist he intends to sell. To prevent interference with his plans, the usurper has nuclear missiles trained on key European capitals. Neither the U.N. nor NATO will take action. The United States, wishing to avoid a nuclear disaster, cannot take overt action. CIA operatives Baker and Gold are assigned to the case.
Complicating matters, Baker’s wife had been tortured and murdered years before by Thorne, the sadistic mercenary now employed by the usurper. Gold fears that Baker may have killing Thorne as his top priority, rather than capturing him for questioning. Meanwhile, William Bell, their immediate superior, has been selling information to the usurper that could result in failure of the mission and the deaths of Baker and Gold.
I am on board! And rather than waiting, I just bought the book via Kindle. Now I gotta finish up this painful class. Monday is a holiday, so The Caucasian Menace will soon be mine.
Update: So much for my class, I have started the Menace and it is great!
DC Comics has invited Orson Scott Card, author of the Ender’s Game, to write for DC’s Adventures of Superman. And the usual suspects are more-than-mildly peeved:
Orson Scott Card, author of the Ender’s Game, in DC’s Adventures of Superman.
Per the link, he belongs to the National Organization for Marriage? Hmmm, nom nom nom.
I don’t particularly see the point of giving out prizes for artistic endeavors. And I am sure many of the artists probably agree. But awards help further recognition of one’s effort and talent. This year for the Costa Prize, a first has occurred. The top five places were held by women. For the 2012 Costa Novel Award, Hilary Mantel won for Bring up the Bodies. I read at the link the novel is based on the Tudors. Of which, I’ve never really understood. I’ve always wanted to get a good teacher to explain them to me. Sort of a tudor’s tutor. . .
Hmm, here is a new one. In the UK, there are some writing awards called the Muslim Writers Awards. The downlow: Muslim Writers Awards was founded in 2006 to harness creative talent and nurture aspiring writers within the Muslim community. Since its inception it has grown to become a landmark calendar event in the Muslim writers’ calendar, and attracts support from a broad range of organisations in the UK.
Interesting. Care to hear to who was nominated last year? These guys and gals:
Never heard of any of them.
Capuchin monkeys
Marina Chapman wrote a memoir titled The Girl With No Name. In it, she details her life. The most notable fact is that she lived among Capuchin Monkeys for five years of her childhood. No humans, only the Monkees monkeys:
Between the ages of four and ten, Marina Chapman’s family consisted of 20 or so Capuchin monkeys, native to the jungles of South America. Her memory of how it all started is hazy-she remembers sorting peas in her village when in an instant a hand covered her mouth and she awoke in the jungle.
“All she can remember is being chloroformed with a hand over her mouth,” James, told London’s Sunday Times this past week. “It’s assumed that the kidnap went wrong,”
Two days after fending for herself, she was approached by a colony of monkeys who taught her by example to forage, feed, and survive as one of their own.
Marina Chapman, The Girl With No Name
“Acting entirely on instinct, she tried to do what they did: she ate what they ate and copied their actions, and, little by little, learned to fend for herself,” according to a press release for the Marina’s memoir, The Girl With No Name, to be released in 2013 by Pegasus Books.
As Chapman adapted to jungle life, she lost any language she had learned in her early years, and instead developed an inhuman ability to scale trees and to communicate with creatures native to the forest. After more than five years, she was discovered by hunters who sold her into slavery in exchange for a parrot.
I may have been born at night, I just was not born last night. I’m agonna have throw the bs flag on this one. Raised by monkeys? I’m not a believer. . .
Easy Ways To Teach Kids Hard Things
If you have children or are a reader or pass within 200 feet of a child anytime during your week, I have a book suggestion for you.
It is written by Bookworm, from the Bookworm Room, and it is titled- Easy Ways To Teach Kids Hard Things : The fun way to teach your children important life principles.
I just bought it, for a mere $1.99 off Amazon. I strongly encourage you to do the same. I am through page three and the book is a common-sense approach to parenting. An easy, practical read. And I don’t even have kids! (That I know of. . .)
In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest War
LCDR Joshua Welle helped write a book about the service academies’ atmosphere and response to 9/11. And like a good officer, he got others to do the work assist in the project:
Joshua Welle envisioned the book while serving in Afghanistan in 2009. As USNA 2002 Class President he was hearing the details of friends in harm’s way and their stories needed to be told. Executing that vision required classwide teamwork; the heavy lifting was done by co-editors John Ennis, Katherine Kranz, and Graham Plaster. Marketing efforts were led by Elizabeth Kreft, Anita Brenner, and Patrick McConnell. There are another 30 co-authors who wrote and helped during the three year process. Over 100 other members of the Class of 2002 supported the book as well.
I’m not an academy guy, but it looks to be an interesting read.
