J.D. Holman > Recent Status Updates

The economics of paradoxical insecurity certainly explains a lot. I wasn't expecting such a lesson in this book.

Also, this book is from six years ago, and shows such insight into the mind of our terribly insecure Commander in Chief. There would be far less gilding in the Oval Office if he didn't have such a need to look wealthy.

"... religious extremists who violate the human rights of their residents, like Saudi Arabia and Israel" - well, that's a gutsy thing to say. (And this was published before the current obliteration of Gaza.)

"Corporations are people" actually dates back to a Supreme Court decision in 1886.

There it is!

His rhetoric has not changed since this book came out six years ago. I just read about "sock puppets" - which he defines as "people who are paid to pose as someone else on social media"- and earlier this week, he called the vice president a sock puppet.

I wasn't expecting a whimsical tone. This interlibrary loan came from a university library.

In talking about the negative effect of household insecurity/broken homes, I am struck by how a lot of conservatives would agree with him. But the difference is in the view of the causes and what can be done about the problem.

I love stories of little kids putting on glasses and noticing things they've never gotten to before.

"A painful truth in our healthcare system is that as executive profits have gone up, respect for and relative pay for nurses and support staff have gone in the other direction. Yet they deserve so much of the credit for the good things that happen for patients in our clinics and hospitals every day."

It's nice to see a Democrat say that he was disappointed in President Obama.

A sausage duel is not what one might think. One was proposed to Otto von Bismarck by Dr. Rudolf Virchow in the late 19th century, though.

Limbs - Historical fiction with some gruesome bits and a satisfying end. 4.5 stars.

Collections - Excellent use of what's left unsaid to create tension. Creepy. 4.5 stars.

Eep, that's a creepy sheep.

The Scientist's Horror Story - This might be my favorite. I really felt the punchline of Bets's story. Darcie Little Badger is so danged good. 5 stars.

Who knew that England's Queen Mary actually did something for the common good? She initiated the first disease surveillance system, using elderly women to collect data on deaths, and had the data published weekly. This led to epidemiology statistics 60 years later.

Capgras - No, thank you. 1 star.

Night Moves - A predictable but well-told werewolf story. 3.5 stars.

He wrote a letter to his unborn daughter while campaigning for governor in case they never got to meet. Oof.

Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected - Interesting take on the golem myth. 4 stars.

Sundays - Horror all too real and all too likely to have happened to many. Content warning: Catholic boarding schools, child SA. 5 stars.

Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning - a little confusing; mostly just sad. 3.5 stars.

The author needs a divorce from Texas.

Yes, narrator, I do ask that.

In the Republic of Texas, those who owned slaves could not free them without permission of the country's congress. Wow.

An interesting rebuttal of the 1619 idea. The Spanish and Portuguese had been enslaving Africans for a few hundred years before the English captured some from a Spanish galleon and brought them to Jamestown. The Iberian nations had been bringing enslaved Africans to the Americas for long before 1619.

Estabanico sounds like a very interesting historical figure.

Texas would not have come into existence without the institution of slavery.

I cannot adequately express my Northern disgust.

Wheathampstead's Granary

The Hour of the Wolf - Creepy historical horror. 4 stars.