going down into the garden of nuts
The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz
"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world." Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
the ceremony of innocence
A Dangerous Friend by Ward Just
Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia by Arnold R. Isaacs
"In each dream the locality was totally new to me, and I had an entirely fresh detachment." E.D. Swinton, The Defence of Duffer's Drift
British Muslims: who are they, what do they think?
Innes Bowen after seven years research and writing has written a short, exceptional book 'Medina in Birmingham Najaf in Brent Inside British Islam':http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medina-Birmi...ds=innes+bowen
Perhaps there is an American equivalent? Here is my review.
This 230 page book is simply an exceptionally useful guide to who British Muslims are and what they think (about their religion). They are a minority, which is growing, spreading out of the inner cities, are increasingly found in the professions and can often have differences with the rest of us – they need to be understood better. So read this book!
Loyalty to the nation, not a cricket team, regularly features in public discussions. In a 2011 survey by Demos they showed that Muslims were more patriotic than other Britons (83 per cent said they were proud to be British as opposed to 79 per cent of the general population).
The vast majority of urban English British Muslims have been here for at least fifty years, traditionally supporting the Labour Party. Alongside smaller groups like the (now growing rapidly) Somali and Yemeni for far longer - often in port cities. Not all British Muslims have an overseas origin, there are growing numbers of converts, black youths in London and white English academics – all of them have a place in the book.
Rightly the book concentrates on Muslims of South Asian origin (60% of all British Muslims). The book helps to explain that often their faith is expressed via mosques and community organisations that are sectarian, with strong South Asian / Saudi Arabian links. One consequence is that these groups produce very conservative clerics – not the externally desired British “moderate” ones.
In the media British Muslims appear to come in from small vocal minorities. What better example than the columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown; she is an Ismaili, one of fifty thousand. Or the Muslim Brotherhood whose main influence is in London's Arab community and control just seven mosques out of over sixteen hundred. Then there are the angry, shouting “radicals”.
One hopes that those in national and local government, the politicians and bureaucrats, read this book too. It should be on the desk of those responding to British Muslims as individuals and communities, such as community workers and the police.
Contrary to Amazon.com the book has been published.
'Uncle Bill' Slim: the authorised biography
Now available in paperback I read the hardback edition of Russell Miller's 'Uncle Bill: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Viscount Slim', thankfully I'd not purchased the tome.
It is a long time since I read another biography and his own book. Being 'The Authorised Biography' I hoped it would cast new light on Britain's best modern general.
Sadly there is not a single campaign map, not even of the Burma-Indian front. Nor a table of organisation for the Fourteenth Army, I suppose the author and editor forgot.
Yes the use of Bill Slim's letters to his children added value and the author has collected new material. Then one reads that the Japanese used Stuka divebombers! Some characters appear before their entry to the narrative, Wingate in particular, which would be confusing to a reader not aware of them.
UK Link:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncle-Bill-A...+viscount+slim
US link:http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Bill-Aut...+viscount+slim