Book recommendations

Thanks. Will add. Heard great stuff on Junger.

20 week wait on Junger at library. Very popular.

 

Ordered the Junger book it is being held in DeLand.

 

Thanks, I just ordered Junger’s book. I’ve enjoyed the others of his books that I’ve read.
Another plug for The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta. Very pertinent to the political extremism we see around us today.

About half way through Alberta’s first book American Carnage but find I got more from TK, TP, and TG.

 

Thanks but I only read ebooks due to my eyes. Appreciate the offer though.

 

Probably not for everyone, but I just finished Midnight at Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbothan. It was the NY Times 2019 Best Book of the Year as well as Time Magazine Book of the Year. Of the various Chernobyl books I have read, it has the most depth of background describing the Soviet system and how it led directly to not only the disaster, but awful lack of urgency to contain the disaster.

PS... I was at Oak Ridge National Lab at the time of the disaster, so the unfolding crisis had a huge impact on everyone living and working in a place called "The Atomic City".

 

About 20% in. Great writing. Great use of one County to make a larger point

 

Currently reading:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/charli...ball-keith-o-brien/20213711?ean=9780593317372

The Florida/Pete Rose connection is really interesting. The 1970s must have been wild.

 

I’m excited about the new Junger. His trilogy of War, Tribe, and Freedom rank as some of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. Highly recommended.

 

I read The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory on the recommendations here. I had a couple beefs with it, but those are minor so I won’t even mention them. The book was also interesting to me because I’ve been in some of the churches discussed and met a couple of the people mentioned.

The book made me very sad, but also hopeful. As a Christian, I’m very sad that so many evangelical leaders have become so wrapped up in politics, especially with their unquestioning support of Trump. They have every right to vote for whomever they want, but I think it is wrong for them to be so publicly vocal about it.

I started thinking on these issues back in the 1992 election. I concluded that the problem is too many Christians use the Bible to defend their politics, when we should be using it to define our politics. The Bible first and then politics, not the other way around.

I’m hopeful for two reasons. In the last part of the book, Alberta talked about Christian leaders who are moving away from politics and especially from supporting Trump. Hopefully they will get back to the primary mission of the church, and that is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’m also hopeful because none of the churches I’ve been in have been wrapped up in politics as some of the ones talked about in the book. For the last few decades I’ve been in churches that are theologically conservative, and most of the people in the church are probably politically conservative. I have never heard a pastor in any of these churches endorse candidates or promote a political party. Individuals have their own beliefs and positions, but nothing political was endorsed by the church, save for protecting the unborn child.

Interestingly, the most political church I’ve ever attended was when I lived in Berkeley, California. Everybody in that church was politically liberal, and most made no bones about who or what we should be voting for.

 

I think it just means before football become undisputed king of sports in the US. One of the subplots in the book is the birth of free agency, so there is probably a big money aspect too that too.

 

This was recommended on a podcast and I started last night and was immediately drawn in by the clever writing and information about an area I know almost nothing about. Like a travelogue with political and historical overlay

 

Agree here. This serves as a light at the end of a very dark tunnel for me. Some hope.

 

I just finished Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T. J. Stiles. It was very interesting. All I ever learned in school about Custer was his defeat at the little Bighorn (oops, spoiler ). I never realized how significant he was in the Civil War. He played a major role at Gettysburg. He was at the surrender at Appomattox courthouse, and was later given the desk on which the surrender was signed.

He was a major wartime celebrity. Newspapers followed his colorful exploits. He was the toast of New York City when he visited there, hobnobbing with the rich and famous.

He became a brigadier general at 23 years old, known mostly for his flamboyant cavalry charges. To show his celebrity status, when the Army of the Tennessee gathered for a reunion a decade after the war, they invited four celebrity guests: Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, and Custer. Custer was never part of that army.

The impression I get from the book is that Custer was a brilliant combat tactician who would lead his men from the front. His fighting men loved him. However, in peace time after the war he was a terrible manager and a tyrannical leader, and his men hated him.

Some anecdotes from the book I found very interesting. Custer applied to West Point, but needed a recommendation from a congressman. In those days congressmen only recommended people from their own political party. Custer, a Democrat, applied to a Republican congressman for appointment. People were shocked that the congressman recommended Custer. It turns out that Custer was having dalliances the daughter of one of the congressman’s best friends. The two guys got together and decided the best way to stop that was to send Custer to West Point.

At West Point Custer told a friend that there were only two memorable positions in a class at West Point: the head and the foot. Since there was no way he could ever be top of the class, he would support the class by being the foundation, that is the bottom. He graduated 34/34 with 792 demerits.

During the Civil War, a badly wounded confederate officer was captured. It turned out to be one of Custer‘s best friends from West Point. The officer was sent home in a prisoner exchange. Sometime later when Custer was near that officer’s home, he asked permission to go under a flag of truce and see how his friend was doing. The friend was doing fine and was getting married. The friend asked Custer to be his best man and so at the wedding, Custer stood there in his union uniform along with the other bridal party in their confederate uniforms.

When Lincoln met Custer‘s wife, he said, “So your husband is the one who charges with a whoop and a shout.” She replied, “Yes, and I hope he always does.” Lincoln then said, “So you want to become a widow.”

In many ways war was different back then. Custer seems to be at the transition from chivalrous, romantic cavalry officers, to the industrial war of Grant.

If you don’t want to read the book but are interested in the subject, the podcast The Rest Is History did a series called Custer and Crazy Horse that draws heavily on this book.

 

I picked up a copy of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Family. At the same time, I picked up another book from the "Current Events" section entitled The Shadow Docket. It is a New York Times Best Seller from author Stephen Vladeck. The subtitle reads "How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic". I have never read much about the Supreme Court, anyone ever read this book or at least hear of it and have any comments/ critique? I plan to read Empire of Pain on my trip to Oregon next week and will get to The Shadow Docket after that.

 

What really happened? Terminal runaway... thermal runaway?

 

The operators tried a very dangerous experiment in the middle of the night after the reactor had sat at half power all day (key point). During the experiment, the simulated losing power and losing cooling water to the core. They were going to capture the kinetic energy from the turbines spinning down and use it for temporary power to start back up water pumps. Problem was that sitting at half power all day caused Xenon to build up in the core poisoning it. So they stalled the reactor. Rather than scrap the experiment and restart the core over 24 hours, they attempted to immediately raise power. Power suddenly spiked because of steam created without fresh cooling water. All the remaining water suddenly vaporized and pressure began building dangerously in the core. The control team tried to SCRAM the reactor by dumping all of the boron control rods into the reactor, but Soviet reactors had a fatal flaw. The control rods had graphite tips....graphite momentarily spikes reactivity. In that moment the core overheated and steam pressure blew out the control rod channels jamming the rods partially in, with the graphite endlessly driving the reaction. Eventually, the pressure blew out the top of the shielding containing the fuel in a massive explosion. When outside air rushed into the exposed core a secondary explosion blew the reactor apart throwing fuel rods out into the night.

The reactor that was designed to operate at 3200 kW, spiked to over 33,000 kW momentarily creating a temperature close to being on par with the sun. It melted the reacting fuel road, cement pad below and all of the walls around the core.