X-Mas
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!
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Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
Before posting on Anderson Cooper’s or Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book I’d like to write about a book I just read. On my flight from Washington DC to Fargo, North Dakota I had the pleasure of reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Several of my friends and colleagues had read this book and recommended me to read it, and I bought it right away (although it sat on my book shelf for many months). Generally speaking when a book is recommended so highly it doesn’t live up to my expectations; this was not the case for The Kite Runner. The book which takes place in both Afghanistan and the United States is full of passion and candor. Publishers Weekly states:
Hosseini’s stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy’s parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid ’90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn… (More …)
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The Kite Runner jumps ahead in the queqe
Coming Soon: The Kite Runner. It just happened to jump ahead in the queue.
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Bill Clinton – Giving
I like to read books from both sides of the political spectrum in order to better understand our country’s political landscape. Even though I expect politics coming in books written by politicians, I was surprised by the type of politics in the last book I read. Riding the coat tails of his memoir My Life’s success, President Bill Clinton has written a new book entitled Giving. The book intends to encourage people with means to give by showing them what, how, and where they can give. By people with means, Clinton suggests that anyone with even limited ability to give ought to give. The ultimate point is that every person has a duty to help his fellow man through charitable acts of some sort. In the book Clinton outlines several main categories under which there are ways for any person to give:- Giving Time – Helping a charity by working as a volunteer.
- Giving Money – Obvious.
- Giving Things – See Giving money in a non liquid state.
- Giving Experience – Helping schools by becoming a teacher during your retirement, passing down your learned skills and advice to people in need.
While most people understand “how” to give, having a manual listing many honored charities can be useful. Therefore the best audiences for this book include people who are interested in charitable organizations, people who work in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), or people who want to give to charity but for some reason are distrustful (or unknowledgeable) of the process in general. The book reads mainly as two parts “who’s who in NGOs/Charities” and one part “Hillary helped here, there, and everywhere.” The fact that a large part of this book reads as a campaign piece for Hillary is really disappointing. I felt that the Hillary grandstanding in the book seemed intentional and contrived: that they appeared to be added to talk about Hillary, instead of occurring because of her natural proximity to Bill and his work. I think these passages will tend to deter/alienate some readers. Perhaps I’m reading too much into the book, but I felt that a book designed to encourage charitable giving using Bill Clinton’s experiences/contacts gained in the years after his presidency, doesn’t need to add to Hillary’s bid for the White House.
I have to say though, charitable giving is a very noble cause, and an increase in giving can only help society as a whole. Therefore any effort by prominent influential people attempting to encourage giving are welcome in my opinion. We need more wealthy people like Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet who get rid of their excessive wealth to aid those less fortunate than themselves. What is the point of having excess money, when it could be used to really help people? More people need to give, and more people need to realize that they do in fact have enough for themselves and have the ability to give. Everyone can give something to another person, you don’t need to be rich in money only rich in kindness and character.
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Giving
Bill Clinton’s Giving is up next
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The Mitchell Report Part 3 or How to fix the game of shadows according to Mitchell
Here is the final part of my summary of the Mitchell Report. After all of the other information in the report (discussed here) the report concludes with a number of recommendations for improving baseball. Here is the list of the recommendations:
- The commissioner’s office (C Office) should place a higher priority on
investigating non-testing evidence of use. In other words, when allegations pop up, the commissioner should not look at testing for banned substances as the only way to investigate. For example, much like Mitchell, they can follow the money trail to dig up checks used to buy steroids. - Baseball needs a better education program focusing on career implications and also the player’s roles as role models.
- Maintain Drug testing and try to work with the Player Association to enhance the program.
- To aid in non-testing investigations the commissioner’s office should: (More …)
- The commissioner’s office (C Office) should place a higher priority on
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The Mitchell Report Part 3 Post should be up around 7 pm EST. This post will contain the recommendations from the Mitchell Report and my opinions on the report.
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The Mitchell Report – Comment and Analysis 2
I’m finally getting around to finishing this post after some delay (while watching Monday Night Football: Go Vikes!). After reading the majority of the Mitchell Report for myself (I only read around half of the player information at the end of the report), my overall conclusion is that the report only puts substance behind what every fan/commentator/player already knew: Major League Baseball has not been tough against Steroids. But before concluding I guess we should start with the reasons that Bud Selig asked to have this report compiled. The reasons Mitchell states he was asked to issue this report are:
- Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Steroids are very dangerous and pose health risks to the people who use them.
- Players using these illegal drugs influence younger amateur athletes to use the same substances.
- These illegal substances pose a threat to the integrity of the game of baseball.
- Finally, it is unfair to let some players break the rules of the sport at the expense of honest players (Mitchell Report 4-5).
Whatever the reasons for the report, here are highlights from the rest of the report that lead me to my conclusions:
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Upcomming Posts
Look soon for posts on:
- Bill Clinton – Giving
- Anderson Cooper – Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival
Its been a bit since I’ve read these (I read them between September and October) so it will take me some time to go through my notes and write a post on each. All were quick reads and well written and I would recommend them to anyone who is considering reading them. The least intriguing book of the three was Clinton’s, I thought it wasn’t exactly what it advertised. Also the most interesting book was Cooper’s book about his own life and struggles. Look for more information on each in the next two weeks further explaining my analysis.
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The Mitchell Report: Comment and Analysis
The Michell Report which covers the use of steroids in Major League Baseball was released yesterday. You can download your very own copy here (pdf format). Myself and several of my coworkers here in DC, quickly printed off copies and began reading through the 409 pages. The most interesting thing about the report is the pages and pages of evidence showing cashed checks from players to trainers. Of course the check are allegedly payment for steroids or HGH. But that’s about as far as I’ve gotten in the report, just a skim of the 409 pages of material. I’ll have some analysis about the report later this weekend after I have had a chance to read more of it.
jmverville 1:02 am on December 31, 2007 Permalink |
Sounds like an interesting read — and again to you, very Merry Christmas!