Ben Douglass Digest

TITLE: The January 6th Report: Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol PUBLISHER: Celadon Books in Collaboration with The New Yorker DATE: December X, 2022 BY: United States House of Representatives Select Committee Staff PAGES: 724 - Paperback version PREFACE: David Remnick, Pulitzer Prize author FORWARDS: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker; Bennie Thompson, Chairperson; Liz Cheney, Vice Chairperson EPILOGUE: Jamie Raskin, Congressperson To start off this review let me outline how the organization of the book is presented: Table of Contents: I. Preliminaries II. Executive Summary III. Narrative:      1. The Big Lie      2. "I Just Want to Find 11,780 votes"      3. Fake Electors and the President of the Senate Strategy      4. "Just Call It Corrupt and Leave the Rest to Me"      5. A Coup in Search of a legal theory      6. "Be There, Will Be Wild...

    This 1862 novel, in a vibrant new translation by Peter Constantine, is Tolstoy's semi-autobiographical story of young Olenin, a wealthy, disaffected Muscovite who joins the Russian army and travels to the untamed frontier of the Caucasus in search of a more authentic life.  While striving to adopt the rough and ready lifestyle of the local Cossacks, Olenin falls in love with a free-spirited girl whose fiance turns out to be a formidable opponent. Showcasing the philosophical insight that would characterize Tolstoy's later masterpieces, this long overdue translation is a revelation.

 In 1851 Leo Tolstoy enlisted in the Russian army and was sent to the Caucasus to help defeat the Chechens.  During this war a great Avar chieftain, Hadji Murad, broke with the Chechen leader Shamil and fled to the Russians for safety.  Months later, while attempting to rescue his family from Shamil's prison, Hadji Murad was pursued by those he had betrayed and, after fighting the most heroic battle of his life, was killed. Tolstoy, witness to many of the events leading to Hadji Murad's death, set down this story with painstaking accuracy to preserve for future generations the horror, nobility, and destruction inherent in war.  By and far, one of the best "anti-war" stories of the time. Also, what makes this such a great story is that Hadji Murad is a deeply complex human being with layer upon layer of nuance.

[ When the Dust Settles . Broomfield, Arthur. Ballyfin: International University Press. 1993. 144 pages. Genre: fiction. ISBN: 1-873169-20-5] Mr. Broomfield, known far and wide as a "controversial individualist" and "subversive poet," uses his poetic license in an age of oppressive political correctness, to castrate the Department of Rural Development with vicious comedic force. The first paragraph of Broomfield's book is an opening salvo of hilarious humor, which goes quickly into hyperdrive, resulting in an explosively comedic hot mess at the end of the book. Mr. Sean Scally, a veterinarian, is being interviewed by a local radio station: A strong statement from Mr. Sean Scally of the National Veterinary Organization in today's Independent will worry you mothers of teenage daughters out there. But hold on, we'll be talking live to Mr. Scally after our first break. WILL HORMONE TREATED MEAT REALLY CAUSE TEENAGE GIRLS TO GO SEX WILD? The gist of the story...

 [ Catch and Release: An Oregon Life in Politics. AuCoin, Les. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press. 2019. 258 pages. ISBN: 978-0-87071-973-8 ] From the Back Cover: In 1974, at the early age of thirty-two, Les AuCoin became the first Democrat to win a US House seat in Oregon's First District. He was one of the post-Watergate reformers who shook up an insular, autocratic Congress and led fights for affordable housing, "trickle-up" economics, wilderness protection, abortion rights, and nuclear arms control. In the 1980's, the Oregonian called him "the most powerful congressman in Oregon." In this compelling collection of life stories, AuCoin traces his unlikely rise from a fatherless childhood in Central Oregon to the top ranks of national power. Then came a painful defeat in one of the most controversial races in US Senate history, against incumbent Bob Packwood. A fly fisher, AuCoin uses "catch and release" as a metaphor for succeeding and lett...

[ The Joshua Tree . Cabot, Robert. New York: Atheneum. First Edition. 1970. 242 pages. Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 78-103073] From The Inside Cover: At the heart of Robert Cabot's remarkable first novel stands a Joshua tree of the High Mohave Desert. The novel's design centers on a meeting, mediated by the Joshua tree, between old Will of the legendary West and young Lily of today's California. Will Spear: born on the Volga, escaping oppressions to a free life in America - cowpunching, hunting, prospecting, living with the Walapai Indians, mining in Death Valley, ranching in the Mohave - he lives out his convictions of rebellious freedom even as his family leaves him and the desert is threatened with death. Lily Tocca: from her wild childhood in the northern California mountains, forced into suffocation, unable to conform, finding drugs, finding despair, finding love, reaching the high desert, she receives the legacy of Will's uncompromising freedom. Their exp...

[ Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus . Wittgenstein, Ludwig. New York: Cosimo Classics. 2009. 109 pages. ISBN: 978-1-61640-237-2] From The Back Cover : Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was hugely influential on 20th-century philosophy, and here in his manuscript, he constructs a series of carefully and precisely numbered propositions on the relationship between language, logic, and reality, using a numbering system to show nested relationships between the propositions. Considered one of the major recent works of philosophy - a reputation enhanced, undoubtedly, by Bertrand Russell's glowing introduction - this edition is a reproduction of the translation by C.K. Ogden, first published in 1922, for which Wittgenstein himself assisted in the preparation of the English-language manuscript.  Students of philosophy and those fascinated by the history of ideas will want a copy of this essential volume. From The Introduction : In order to understand Mr. Wittgenstein's b...