Book Review #2
A Brief History of Freemasons: the true story of the World's Most Powerful Secret Society: From the back cover: An illuminating and unbiased history of this most enigmatic secret society.…
Random Learnings #65
Reading the otherwise underwhelming The Freemasons: The True Story of the World's Most Powerful Secret Society by Jasper Ridley, the author uses the folk tale Cinderella when discussing the French…
AI Learning
No question, I am a library nerd: I'll wander through the shelves, grabbing, random seemingly interesting bound periodicals or journals to glance. The truly interesting finds are taken to a…
Constitutionality
Donald Trump's continual declaration of national emergencies that he uses to declare executive orders of dubious legitimacy harkens back to similar usage in Germany following World War I. This was…
Book Review #1
The cover description of Retreat From Glory by R. H. Bruce Lockhart in tantalizing: By the author of British Agent. Mr Bruce Lockhart continues the fascinating story of his career.…
Random Learning #65
From the book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris I learned the etymology of the term redlining: In his acclaimed 2017 book, The…
Random Learnings #64
In 2016, the government of the Czech Republic declared that Czechia is the country's short name in English. Yes, Czech Republic remains the country's official name and yes, Czech Republic…
Unexpected Continuity
From the Brittanica Book of the Year 1968, p376: Another in a series of legislative measures designed to establish the separate statehood of East Germany was passed by the People's…
Oh What A Year: 1933
[Nothing like spending a Sunday reading undigitized, bound periodicals at your local university library...] Time Magazine began 1933 by declaring Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president-elect, as Man of the Year.…
BITE Model of Cults
In Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA, the author John Lisle describes the worldview and culture of the CIA that led to unstructured and…