Book Description
For more than a decade, Desires in Conflict has been the definitive “must–read” for those who wonder “Can a homosexual change?” This new edition with updated information offers more compelling reasons why the answer is “yes!”
“I read Desires in Conflict for the first time when I was 19...More than a decade later, I am free of desires that once held me captive, strong in my faith, married to my amazing wife, Leslie, and currently the Executive Director of Exodus International, North America. The Lord used Desires in Conflict to help guide me out of homosexuality. Joe Dallas has eternally impacted a generation of young people like me.”
Alan Chambers
Executive Director
Exodus International
Customer Reviews:
Desires in Conflict: I highly recommend the book.......2007-02-11
"Desires in Conflict..." by Joe Dallas, is a manual for Christian men striving to be Godly while dealing with their homosexual temptations. The book deals with the topic honestly and sympathetically but remains grounded in scripture. I highly recommend the book to any man struggling with homosexuality, and to any minister who may be counseling such men.
This book is not about who can and can't be a Christian!.......2007-01-23
This is an excellent book and a great help for anyone who is struggling with or trying to leave the homosexual lifestyle. This book is loving in tone and not hateful at all. It is full of encouragement and will be a real asset to anyone wanting to leave that life behind. This book is not about trying as hard as you can to suppress your desires and behavior. It is about dealing with and allowing God to bring healing to the root causes which will bring about change.
The review titled "you cannot be homosexual and be a Christian" (or something to that effect) sort of misses the point of the book. That's like saying "you cannot be greedy and be a Christian!" Both are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6 as those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. It isn't God's plan for Christians to be greedy, but they are sometimes. Hopefully, they deal with it and move on. But while they are dealing with it, they may still be Christians. Christ's sacrifice is sufficient. His blood is enough. The requirement for being right with God is accepting and putting your faith in what Jesus did and that alone. It isn't Jesus plus not sinning ever again. It's Jesus PERIOD. This book is for those who want to live more in line with the teachings of the Bible. Wanting to save oneself by being good or remaining sinless is off the mark. If, however, you want to live in a more mature way as a Christian, this book can help. I highly recommend it.
Joe Dallas's long, sad journey.......2007-01-05
I am a 23-year old gay man, and this book was given to me by a probably well-meaning relative. Joe Dallas falls into the same trap of attempted extrapolation that most exgay testimony books do: "My homosexuality makes me miserable and self-loathing, and your homosexuality should make you miserable too." He also blames his problems on homosexuality where the actual issues probably lay elsewhere. He admits in the later edition of his book that his sexual partners numbered in the hundreds(!) prior to 1984 (another common extrapolation in exgay testimonies - "I had hundreds of anonymous sex partners, so all gay men must.") and details his considerations and plans for suicide in the mid 80's. This sounds like a maladjusted or profoundly disturbed individual, perhaps sexually-addicted person who happens to be gay, not an accurate profile of how a gay man is. Many exgay books seem to fall into this unfortunate trap of trying denigrate all gay men to make their point.
He spends chapters on the idea of bad male-male non-sexual relationships (primarily those involving the father) as the primary driver of homosexuality, although he reluctantly admits at a few points that many heterosexual men seem to have the same deficits yet, strangely, aren't gay! His own assessment of father-son relationships is grim, calling them inevitably "doomed" to rages and hatred, more or less, including his own relationship with an adoptive son in the "raging" yet "re-bonded" category. These parts of the book is basically useless if your relationship with your father was not somehow estranged and you turned out to be gay anyway. (I even got the benefit of baseball-in-the-backyard with my dad on a regular basis growing up - sorry Joe, I got all that healthy male socialization and I still prefer men.)
I perhaps had one real argument with my father ever, nearly all my best friends in school were male, and even now I consider my relationship with my father considerably more genial and bearable than the one with my mother, and yet I am still gay. Also, since I am not plagued with guilt and self-loathing about my sexuality, I find little common ground to share with Joe Dallas. Perhaps if you're an evangelical Christian male miserable about your sexuality, you might feel less alone reading this ('uplifting' is not the word I'd use for this book, though), but it's virtually without value for people who don't fall into that narrow category. Two stars.
Great Book.......2006-11-06
This book helped me learn so much for me to be able to turn my life around and change completely for the better. If you're struggling with your sexuality and desperate for answeres and help, this book is a must read. I hope it'll change all your lives for better as it did for me. I literally cried tears of joy as I read this book, and I could never thank the author enough for having taken the time to write it. Thank you, Mr. Dallas from the bottom of my heart.
Dallas book an excellent resource.......2006-02-25
For those interested in understanding the underlying dynamics of homosexual attractions, this book will be a necessary part of your library. The author, Joe Dallas, overcame his homosexual attractions and has been a professional counselor, author and speaker for years on this issue. He is well-educated and compassionate in his approach. No one book explains everything on the issue of homosexuality but I recommend his book first to anyone interested because it gives a great overview in discussion of the general issues. A must read!
Book Description
Everyone goes through times of pain and sorrow, depression and darkness, stress and suffering. It is in the necessary struggles of life, however, that we stretch our souls and gain new insights enabling us to go on.
Building on the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with God and on the story of her own battle with life-changing disappointment, Sister Joan Chittister deftly explores the landscape of suffering and hope, considering along the way such wide-ranging topics as consumerism, technology, grief, the role of women in the Catholic Church, and the events of September 11, 2001. We struggle, she says, against change, isolation, darkness, fear, powerlessness, vulnerability, exhaustion, and scarring; and while these struggles sometimes seem insurmountable, we can emerge from them with the gifts of conversion, detachment, faith, courage, surrender, limitations, endurance, transformation, and (perhaps most important) hope. Each of these struggles and gifts is discussed in a chapter of its own.
Meant to help readers cope with their own suffering and disappointment, "Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope" is, in Chittister's words, "an anatomy of struggle and an account of the way hope grows in us, despite our moments of darkness, regardless of our regular bouts of depression. It is an invitation to look again at the struggles of life in order that we might remember how to recognize new life in our souls the next time our hearts turn again to clay."
Neither a self-help manual nor a book offering pat answers, but supremely practical and relevant, Chittister's "Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope" will richly reward those readers seeking solace in the empathic, wise, and accessible meditations of a fellow struggler.
Customer Reviews:
A Grace filled text.......2007-03-21
If you are looking for a book to help you understand the bumps and roads along the journey of life, this is the one to read. By God's Grace, the Holy Spirit has instilled wonderful insight and wisdom into each chapter.
Joan has written a book that will transform your heart.
If you are struggling with life, you need to read this book........2007-03-08
I would highly recommend this book to anyone going through a struggle in their lives. My wife died 5 months ago and this book has been very helpful in giving me hope that I will eventually get through the grief. I keep reading it over and over and every time find something new that touches my life and the struggle that I am going through with my loss.
hope from jacob's struggle.......2007-01-18
The myths of Superman and Superwoman are alive and well in our culture, but also in our churches. As I sit in the pew week after week, I am told that the Christian life is one of miracles, growth from strength to strength, joy and celebration. "It's just that simple," I heard from the pulpit recently. But when I took inventory of my own life, nothing felt simple.
Like our culture at large, believers celebrate wealth, power, strength, bravado, and confidence. We abhor weakness, failure, struggle and doubt. Vulnerability, fear, discouragement and depression are construed as signs of immaturity or lackluster faith. In real life, for most people, this naïve optimism and rhetoric of idealism is a recipe for deep disappointment, for sooner or later reality catches up with most of us.
In contrast, the Benedictine writer Joan Chittister offers what she describes as a "spirituality of struggle" which takes as its paradigm the narrative of Jacob's struggle with the angelic visitor (Genesis 32:22-32). Jacob had swindled his brother Esau and then deceived his blind father in order to steal the family blessing. He fled in fear. At the river Jabbok he then wrestled all night with the angelic visitor who somehow was God himself. The result? God blessed this cheater and liar, but the blessing came with a crippling touch to the hip. He limped the rest of his life.
Frederick Buechner described this same text of Scripture as the "magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God." Chittister calls it a "spirituality of struggle". The apostle Paul spoke of being "harassed at every turn---conflicts without, fears within" (2 Corinthians 7:5, NIV). In the Jacob narrative Chittister finds eight elements of the struggle---change, isolation, darkness, fear, powerlessness, vulnerability, exhaustion, and scarring. But these are not the end of the story, for in response to each struggle there is a divine gift---conversion, independence, faith, courage, surrender, limitations, endurance, and transformation.
"Jacob does what all of us must do if, in the end, we, too, are to become true. He confronts in himself the things that are wounding him, admits his limitations, accepts his situation, rejoins the world, and moves on" (p. 87). This is not an easy path, but it is one with Biblical warrant: "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Outstanding .......2006-08-19
This is a remarkable and heartfelt book. Its theme is transformative hope and how this can emerge, counterintuively, from struggle, grief and loss. An exegesis on the biblical story of Jacob's strange encounter with a seemingly belligerent angel, it shows how unanticipated trouble, the trouble we are never ready for or fully anticipate, can in the end be maybe just what we need to grow more fully. The author certainly does not understate the extent of the pain which is part of every human life. She honours the reader by telling her own story of loss and grief. However, she does in the end convincingly show how such pain, with courage and determination, can be transformative.
Healing The Hurts Through Hope For the Future........2006-07-05
Hope springs eternal in the human psyche. No matter how deep the scar be it external or internal, faith and hope will lessen the pain and make things bearable. Being ashamed and embarrassed is unnecessary, as all people are scarred in some way. Dare to dream. It's time to dive into a new project or line of work. The risks are great, but so are the payoffs.
John just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd been despondent since Gloria's death. Communications were virtually at a standstill concerning her murder, but John knew her attackers. He was a marked man and would hold the killers responsible. In the bar, he'd been approached by a fair-haired woman who wanted to tell him something, but he was in no shape to listen to anyone. The bartender asked if she was making a nuisance of herself, but John didn't pursue her and simply said, "She mistook me for somebody else, that's all."
As he left to walk to his car parked a few streets away, he saw two men struggling with the woman from the bar. She was lashing out with her feet and wriggling like a wild cat. When he went to her aid, Cyril used his knife on John's face. He was a handsome man, like a young William Charles Ross (even the same eyes), but now he became known as the scarred man. He avoided people as he was proud of his good looks previously; she had the internal scars, while his were external on display for all to see. He became disfigured in more than his facial scars. Vengeance was his, and so he created a new identity to succeed in his retribution.
Book Description
On the morning of September 11, 2001, two hijacked airplanes destroyed New York's World Trade Center Towers. Thus began the extraordinary story of a great city coping with the worst disaster in its history. As shock and amazement gave way to grief for the victims and their families, New Yorkers reached deep inside themselves to discover a sense of civic nobility, exemplified by the heroism of firefighters, police, and rescue units.
In this new book from Abrams, the editors of New York magazine provide a visual record of the city in the week after the attack, through the images of several superb photographers and the words of prominent New Yorkers, including Mayor Giuliani. The book begins with the attack itself, documenting the panic and chaos it caused, and goes on to chronicle the rescue efforts by firefighters, police, and construction workers at Ground Zero and the attempts of the city's leaders to maintain morale. Color photos record a vast emotional upheaval of grief, rage, and patriotism, and display the many memorials created by private citizens, at hospitals, parks, firehouses, and in the streets.
All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the September 11th Fund, which has been created by the United Way and the New York Community Trust to respond to the immediate and long-term needs of the victims, their families, and the communities affected by the events of September 11.
Customer Reviews:
Magnific photos........2002-03-14
Very good book. I would recommend to anybody interested about the tragedy of september 11, 2001. The money raised from the sale of this book goes to the September 11 Fund. Help the families of New York...
An American Tragedy 9.11.01.......2002-02-06
This book grabs you.
I had watched the events take place on television at work, with my coworkers, one could look out the window and see the smoke in the distance. Being a New Yorker everyone I know has either lost someone or knows someone who did.
I had seen the book in a store before Christmas, but it was too close to 9/11 to buy it. Since that time it has been sold out everywhere.
If you want to see hell on earth in book form this is it. But more importantly, buy it and keep it so that we never forget 9/11/2001 or let it happen again.
rewview not purchased.......2002-01-31
I have never received this book and I was actually ordering a different book when I ordered. I wanted to order the 9/11 book by LIFE magazine, not this one. Like I said; I wouldn't be able to critique this anyway because I never received it.
Please let me know how to delete this order and re-order the one by LIFE magazine instead.
Thank you
Nora Bartman
Rivoting!!.......2001-12-12
As I leafed through the pages of this keepsake book, goosebumps appeared on my skin as well as tears. It brings back the horific day in clear view.
I'm ordering three more for my childrens hope chests.
A superb photohraphic account of that terrible day..........2001-12-03
This superb pictorial remembrance of the events of September 11 comes to us from the editors of New York magazine. Rather than focusing on all of the events of that day, this book simply focuses on the attacks on the World Trade Center. What results is a wonderful photographic record, with an emphasis not on the attacks themselves, but rather on the post-attack heroism and recovery efforts.
If you are looking for a book that will anger you and yet still manage to raise your spirits, get this book. The strength of the American people and the savagery of the Islamic terrorists is well displayed in this work.
Book Description
Restoring Sexual Identity offers answers to the most commonly asked questions from both homosexuals desiring change and friends and relatives of women struggling with same–sex attraction.
- Is lesbianism an inherited predisposition or is it developed in childhood?
- Does becoming a Christian eliminate all desire for members of the same sex?
- What support is available for women who struggle with lesbianism?
- Can a woman be a lesbian and a Christian at the same time?
- How does childhood sexual abuse relate to the development of lesbianism?
These and other important questions are answered as the author draws from her own experience and that of many other former lesbians who participated in an extensive survey on same–sex attraction.
Customer Reviews:
Restoring Hope.......2007-01-05
A wonderful review of the complex creature that is woman and the steps to take for women who desire to walk away from homosexuality.
This hope is real!.......2006-12-02
Let me start by saying to all women who struggle with same-sex attractions that hope exists and that it is real! Anne did a wonderful job presenting this hope in her book! And yet she also honestly admits the struggle and the journey out of lesbianism in the reality of a fallen and painful world. It is not an easy road! It can be long and ardous, but my beautiful women, it is possible, and completely worth ALL the blood, sweat and tears!!! Let us not fall into the trap of what this person said, or what that person said! Let us not make generalized, absolute and yet un-substantiated statements regarding the impossibility of freedom! Change is possible! I myself am a testament to that.
Anne also does well to provide several different case studies of struggling women. Different women with different stories allows for personal identification with at least one or more! And when you can relate, it makes the hope even more real to you! I would also greatly recommend Jeanette Howard's book - Out of Egypt... an excellent portrait of the development of same-sex attractions, linked with this hope and this freedom!
The world tries to hide the fact that freedom exists and our stories are hidden from the public. Have you ever noticed that the world acknowledges our failures more-so than our successes?! And when humanity is constantly shown only failure, we tend to believe only in failure! Do not fall for it! Hope is real and VERY MUCH ALIVE!!!!!!
Met the author in a support group- she is for real!.......2006-06-17
Hello, I want to say that I have not yet read the book, but want to ask if someone wants to get a car fixed, would they go to someone who's never worked or fixed a car themselves or someone who knows how because they have had to walk it through and learn? What I'm getting at is that Anne Paulk has worked through and walked through what it takes to walk out of lesbianism and same sex attraction so why not give a try a book written by someone who has "fixed a car" and walked out and went on.
I remember going to the Love In Action support group over 15 years ago to help with my own lesbianism and having come when Anne was still just an attendee but meeting her as well as a handful of other women who I find still have their testimonies listed whether on Exodus International or Love In Action websites and am so delighted to see them still walking it out after so many years.
Now, would you want to learn from a mechanic who has fixed their own car or from a critic of the mechanic who has never fixed any cars before or ever experienced anyone fixing their car before?
Why not give her book a try? If anyone has hope, she seems to be one of them.
This book is not about her husband, or anyone else's walk, but her own personal one. It might be more reasonable to keep it all separate as that is not what the title and subject matter of her book is about. Thank you and bless you, Anne, for trying to write and get out there some resources/tips that you have learned along the way in your journey out of lesbianism and for being willing to be vulnerable to even write a book on this subject matter.
The 5 star rating (sorry, but they wouldn't let me just not put a rating) is for the exciting thing that God can do with a life that's broken and rebuild it in a lovely way in rebuilding who Anne is and who we each are. There is hope.
Consider the source.......2005-03-14
Now, let me get this "straight": We're supposed to give credence to the wife of the founder of Exodus International, who, two years after appearing on the cover of Newsweek as the poster boy for "ex-gay" movement, was discovered chatting up another man in a Washington, D.C., gay bar?
Don't take my word for it -- ask Wayne Besen, who recounts the incident (and who photographed Paulk at the bar) in his book, "Anything But Straight: Unmasking The Scandals And Lies Behind The Ex-Gay Myth" (ISBN: 1560234466, available on Amazon.com).
"I have never," Besen told the Guardian (UK) in 2004, "met a single person I believe has changed. I've met a few people who've changed their behaviour - but not their orientation. The founder of every single ex-gay ministry has failed. All of them have failed."
By the way, when is somebody going to ask Anne Paulk herself why she and her husband left Love in Action in 1993 to deal with (as one observer noted) "unspecified personal problems"? Let's see how dedicated the Paulks really are to coming "clean" about their personal lives.
It would easy enough to attack this book (and its author) as the worst the Homophobic-Fear-Mongering Movement has to offer -- but that would be far too easy. Instead, I ask _thinking_ people -- Christians, heterosexuals, and misguided self-loathing lesbians and gay men alike -- to use the brains God gave them and judge for themselves the "success" rate of the Paulks and others like them.
And I thought Christians believed that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life -- and that God loves you for exactly who you are... even if you don't have the good sense to love YOURSELF as God intended.
Sadly, that's just lip service for some "Christians."
Good place to start.......2004-08-23
If you believe that lesbianism is not a "normal" expression of sexuality, then this book may help you. However, if you don't believe in the Bible, this book is not meant to persuade you. For the record, the APA requires therapists to respect the position of the client in terms of what they want their therapy to accomplish. If a woman wants to find a way out of lesbianism, a psychotherapist is ethically required to help that woman do it.
Paulk's book provides a good starting point for a woman who is beginning to deal with her struggle with same-sex attraction. Paulk's discussion of developmental factors and a plan for getting help are particularly helpful. This book encourages women who want to leave lesbianism to establish a good support system, including one-on-one professional psychotherapy. It is a long journey, usually two and a half years, according to the author.
Married women who struggle with these issues may want to consider asking their husbands to read this book too, in order to better understand their struggles.
My only slight criticism of Paulk's book is that she tends to take some Bible verses out of context in order to support her points.
Book Description
As the American diplomat chosen by President Bush to direct the reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq, L. Paul Bremer arrived in Baghdad in May of 2003. For fourteen danger-filled months, he worked tirelessly to realize the vision he and President Bush share of a free and democratic New Iraq.
MY YEAR IN IRAQ: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope is a candid and vital account of this world-shaping task and the daunting challenges lying in wait. With his unique insider perspective, Bremer takes us from the ancient lanes in the holy city of Najaf to the fires of a looted and lawless Baghdad; from the White House Situation Room to the Pentagon E-Ring; from making the case for more U.S. troops to helping Iraq's new leaders write a liberal constitution to unify a traumatized and divided Iraqi people.
Download Description
BAGHDAD WAS BURNING With these words, Ambassador L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer begins his gripping memoir of fourteen danger-filled months as America's proconsul in Iraq. My Year in Iraq is the only senior insider's perspective on the crucial period following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. In vivid, dramatic detail, Bremer reveals the previously hidden struggles among Iraqi politicians and America's leaders, taking us from the ancient lanes in the holy city of Najaf to the White House Situation Room and the Pentagon E-Ring. My Year in Iraq is required reading for all those interested in the real story of how America responded to its gravest recent overseas crisis.
Customer Reviews:
Another one of Bush's incomptents.......2007-04-27
Bremer's year in Iraq was the turning point in the Iraq war...a war that was not considered in is consequences by Bush or his cronyies, bomb first, think later if at all! It was a year when both security and economic issues were in desperate need of the best minds possible...instead we got Bremer. It is not that the endless problems that came up were entirely Bremer's fault, except in part..the war architects had not even minimally anticipated what would happen, thus they destroyed central leadership [....], then through bombing destroy resource basis, then through disbanding security forces (Bremer) unleashed competitive violence and underlyng ethnic conflict.amazing thatthey did not see it coming...incompetent and America and the Iraqis pay and pay and pay.........
Microcosmic Partial Picture in the First Person.......2007-02-15
I took great care to read this book slowly. See my list on Iraq Evaluations.
Bremer is clearly a decent man, hard-working, totally clueless about Middle Eastern and military affairs, and put in a no-win situation by George Bush and Dick Cheney. Bremer bugged out after a year, and now, two years later, the Administration we have a quagmire and a possible attack on Iran building up.
Quite incredulously, for me at least, Bremer actually sees Iraq as the crux of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and yet is totally oblivious to the fact that we created this battlefield opportunity for Iran and Al-Qaeda. See At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
Early on the book makes it clear that Iraqis were delighted to be liberated, dismayed at the occupation, and completely unable to agree among themselves about how to achieve a legitimate government capable of stabilizing and reconstructing the country.
This is a very self-serving book, extraordinarily selective in its recollections. A few things that really struck me:
1) This book starts without reference to the path to war paved by lies from the Vice President and other members of the Bush "team." It begins by saying that it was "widely accepted" that Weapons of Mass Destruction were the proper cause of the invasion. BALONEY. See instead Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq and Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
2) There is ZERO discussion in this book of the massive role played by Halliburton, Bechtel, and others. There is ZERO discussion of the 18 billion dollars he had to work with and managed to lose, completely apart from the contracting. There is ample discussion about the pretense of progress, but ZERO discussion about the thousands of contracting failures, the abysmal failure of the entire reconstruction effort. See Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation And the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq and a host of other books on our failures there, such as Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
3) There is a lot of blame to direct elsewhere, clearly justified but not at all making up for the fact that Bush-Cheney lied to America and the world and created this mess:
a) Chalabi was a constant irritant, obstruction, and general twit. This is the man who was fired by CIA for being a thief and a liar, convicted in Jordan of bank fraud, and still allowed by the US to be very active in Iraq.
b) Wolfowitz's rosy predictions are labeled as "fantasy," and the author on more than one occasion talks about Doug Feith in a manner that is the diplomatic equivalent of General Frank's blunt statement in his own book: "the dumbest bastard on the planet." See Tommy Franks "American Soldier."
c) The Governing Council created early on was lazy, working quarter days four days a week. They simply did not compute the demand for hard serious work.
d) He takes General Jay Garner to task for allowing looting (ultimately 17 of 20 Ministry headquarters buildings were completely looted, as well as electrical and water plants and petroleum pumping stations), and also calls General Garner's 15 May turn-over plan a reckless fantasy. I posit instead that the neo-cons were sucked in by Iranian agent Chalabi and never realized how deep they were into fantasy land. I think Garner was close to getting it right early on.
e) He very properly points out that he inherited a deep structural crisis, a country coming off fifty years of neglected infrastructure, with virtually every sector of society dysfunctional. For context see The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World and The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
f) The CIA and the Marines shut down his attempt to arrest Muqtada Al-Sadt, the Shi'ite cleric that has since then completely disrupted the country.
g) On more than one occasion the Spanish Army elements refused to fight and refused to follow direction. The Ukrainians also come in for direct criticism from Bremer.
There are a number of absolutely fascinating tid-bits, a few of which are listed here:
1) The Iraqi military had 16,000 generals while the US military (all of it, worldwide) has only 300.
2) The military consisted largely of Sunni officers who abused enlisted Shi'ite soldiers.
3) Saddam Hussein had implemented virtual starvation genocide against the Shi'ites, with severe malnutrition being the norm within that majority.
4) Because of the complete breakdown of all sanitation measures, he estimates that 500,000 tons of human waste each day were dumped into the two rivers.
5) Hussein printed money with inflation up to 100,000 per year--at the same time, 50% of all Iraqis said by the author to be unemployed when he arrived. [On this later point, he does not address the fact that the contractors received billions and instead of employing Iraqis, imported many other nationalities as slave wages.]
6) In his view, there were three sources of instability: looters, die-hard Bathists, and the Mukhabarat paramilitary.
7) Saudi Arabia was known to be egging the Sunnis on and in my view; this makes the Iranian interest in Shi'ite self-preservation completely appropriate. The author also notes that Syria and Lebanon were training and sending in foreign fighters (in the low thousands). Saudi Arabian royalty is EVIL. See See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism and also Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
8) The author blames the French (and to a lesser degree the Russians) for keeping Saddam Hussein in power, while making no mention at all of the strong support provided by the USA to Saddam Hussein in his genocide against the Kurds and his genocidal chemical war with Iran.
9) On an extremely important point, I found it beyond belief that the author, the "Viceroy" was put into Baghdad without a command & control communications and computing set of vans, tents, generators, and so on. The military incapacitated him with quiet scorn.
The author claims in this book that the insurgency was "largely unpredicted" (page 223) and this is of course not true. However, I do believe him when he says he tried over and over again to get Washington and the military to take the insurgency seriously. His problems with Washington are very similar to those described by General Wesley Clark in Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat
The author has 164 references to Bush and only 26 to Cheney. He really did deal with the President on many matters after the fact, but I credit Dick Cheney will totally trashing our entire global program. See Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The author has good things to say about the World Bank (this is prior to Wolfowitz taking it over). They completed 15 assessments in six weeks instead of six months, and were very helpful.
There are only 12 mentions of Iran in this book. That is the epitaph for our failed invasion and occupation of Iraq. Iran wins, we lose.
A diplomat desperately trying to justify his efforts.......2007-01-23
I think that this is one of the important books of the Iraq war. Bremer is perhaps the most important figure of the most important part of it, namely, the attempted reconstruction of the country. This book describes his efforts toward that end, and attempts to justify his decisions.
Unfortunately, the effort is a disaster. Bremer really didn't have much experience with this kind of work, and it appears clear from the beginning that right-wing ideology was the driving factor in his decision making -- and most of these decisions suffered for that. For instance, Bremer refused to re-open the state-run businesses, because he thought the private sector should run all business -- this immediately threw tens of thousands of people out of work. Similarly, the draconian de-Baathification forced almost all qualified managers from their jobs. Bremer also, and I think unforgivably, doesn't spend any time comparing this attempted rebuilding to the very successful post WW II efforts. In particular, the de-Baathification seems to have been based on the de-Nazification in Germany, without really looking too closely at what might be different between Iraq and Germany.
Still, it's an interesting book, and a point of view that should be a part of any study of the war. The book could well have been 10 times as long, and it would be interesting to see what parts were edited out. I share others recommendations of "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" as a great companion book.
UK Review.......2007-01-09
This is a very comprehensive account of Paul Bremer's time in Iraq, and for almost the first time gives a real insight into the political in fighting both in Iraq and in Washington as the US attempts to bring democracy to this nation. He has been unfairly treated in other books on Iraq and this tends to set the record straight. I very good read for those who are seriously interested in the Iraq situation.
Barely a first-person source, more like selective telling of the facts.......2006-12-29
Read this book with Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life to get the full impact of Bremer's story. Pay attention to the details Bremer glosses over, like what Bernie Kerik did (the guy in charge of rebuilding Iraq police). Ignored is the background and selection process of the people who served Bremer and how "loyalists" were more valued over experience and skill.
At times selective in the facts and other times ignorant, this book is useful only in reading the perceptions of reality the viceroy of Iraq held.
Book Description
Wednesday, November 7
My father gave me and my brother a little money. My stomach is all twisted up with hunger, but I don't want to spend the money on anything as frivolous as food. Because it's money my parents earn with their sweat and blood.
I have to study well so that I won't ever again be tortured by hunger. . . .
In a drought-stricken corner of rural China, an education can be the difference between a life of crushing poverty and the chance for a better future. But money is scarce, and the low wages paid for backbreaking work aren't always enough to pay school fees.
Ma Yan's heart-wrenching, honest diary chronicles her struggle to escape hardship and bring prosperity to her family through her persistent, sometimes desperate, attempts to continue her schooling.
First published in France in 2002, the diary of ma yan created an outpouring of support for this courageous teenager and others like her -- support that led to the creation of an international organization dedicated to helping these children . . . all because of one ordinary girl's extraordinary diary.
Customer Reviews:
what is this book about.......2007-03-14
this book is about a girl's strugels to go to school and how she had her dream of going to school she wrote a letter to her mom saying that she wanted to go school because she didnt wanted to stay home and work she wanted to go to school
A very touching story.......2007-01-28
I loved this story because of Ma Yan's spirit. This is the true story of Ma Yan who stuggles to stay in school in spite of her families severe poverty. She does not give up no matter what obstacles she faces.
Excellent read.......2007-01-09
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am only sorry that more of her diary did not survive. Ma Yan proves herself an articulate young woman. And this book will make you appreciate Americans' access to education and opportunity.
An eye opening look at life in rural China........2006-06-27
I enjoyed this book, though it is painful to read about the poverty and hunger Ma Yan and her family experienced. As mom to a daughter from China, I can't help but wonder if my daughter's life would have been similar, had she not been adopted.
This book was also very hopeful, as Ma Yan's diary brings her some fame and brings world attention and help to her family and schoolmates.
The Diary of Ma Yan.......2005-09-16
I came to find out about this book by listening to an NPR interview of the French journalist who originally was given the diaries by Ma Yan's Mother. His interview was so moving that I ordered the book from Amazon. Ma Yan was writing about her life in a village where no foreigners had been in more then 60 years. I have since given this book as a gift to several girls and boys of Ma Yan's age (12-13-14) so that they can read first hand what it's like for kids their age in a remote part of our World.
This book is a lesson for all ages. Well worth reading.
Book Description
This book traces the origins of the insurgency in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The first theoretically-grounded account, and the most complete, it is based on extensive interviews. Ganguly's central argument is that the insurgency can be explained by political mobilization and institutional decay. In an attempt to woo the Muslims, the government dramatically expanded literacy, mass media, and higher education. Meanwhile, fearing potential secessionist proclivities, it stifled the development of political institutions. Unable to express dissent in an institutional context, the Kashmiris resorted to violence.
Customer Reviews:
More to this conflict than you see on CNN.......2002-06-03
The problems involving Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir are complex and over time have become more and more volatile. To understand the history of this area and why it poses such a threat is not easy for someone who has only recently decided to learn more than what is provided on television or in the newspaper. Sumit Ganguly's book presents a thorough history. I have searched several sources both online and in other books and haven't found anything elsewhere that is not in this book. Ganguly offers more than one solution to the problem but it seems that no one is really interested in listening right now.
Incisive.......2001-01-12
Easily the most detailed and well organized treatise on this unfortunate conflict. While on one hand it establishes the nefarious designs of the Pakistani establishment, it also exposes Indoor Gandhi's chicanery in subverting the will of the Kashmir electorate via crass political subterfuge (e.g. transfer of Governorship to her puppet, a certain Jagmohan Malhotra). One of Dr. Ganguly's proposals, granting autonomy, is a dangerous one; this could lead to similar demands from the other disturbed states. It is critical that we listen carefully to the demands of the disenfranchised and work to mitigate decades worth of pain. The 1965 conflict deserves a more thorough coverage though.
This touched my heart and made me think . . ........2000-04-30
It made me think of the future of those two countries and what we can do. It may not have the same effect on everyone if you don't originate from Pakistan or India but, I recommend this book to anyone who doen't know of the bloodshed in Kashmir and even if you do, it's a great book to read.
Average customer rating:
- Not what I expected
- I loved it.
- Mind Twisting
- This book was awful
- This book is filled with the Doctrine of devils!
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The Thorn In The Flesh
R. T. Kendall
Manufacturer: Charisma House
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ASIN: 1591856124 |
Book Description
What happens when the pain just won't go away?
Do you want the prickly, uncomfortable thorn in your flesh to go away? R.T. Kendall wants you to know that God gives you thorns for your benefit. Most people think of this discomfort as a physical pain, but Kendall explains how God gets your attention through loneliness, a handicap or disability, an enemy, an unhappy marriage, personality problem, and more.
Kendall helps you understand how God's grace is sufficient as he answers questions like:
* What are the advantages to loneliness?
* Why does God use an enemy to refine you?
* How can a handicap or disability offer you the most dazzling reward in
heaven?
* What did Abraham and Moses learn from experiencing unhappy living conditions?
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected.......2007-04-01
I have nothing against tv evangalistic programs, yet I didn't expect this book to be a TBN release.
I loved it........2006-01-17
This is a great book. Once I started reading it I could not put it down until I finished it. It is very true and scriptural. Christians need to stop this rose garden mentality. Life is not all prosperity and blessing. Sometimes it takes a thorn in the flesh to get to the blessing. We have to go through things. It is how we learn and grow and become the people God created us to become. Not all sickness and disease is from Satan, people give him to much glory. God is always in control. He does allow things to happen; for reasons we may not find out until we get to the other side. When we get to heaven, I believe we are all going to be surprised at what we thought we knew and what we actually did know. This is a wonderful book and may help you to realize why things you've hoped and prayed for have not yet changed. They may never change, but his grace is sufficient.
Mind Twisting.......2006-01-08
There is a reason why I write here. I don't feel at liberty to go into it in depth for maybe it will cause more damage than help. You can probably go figure yourself that I have been personally influenced by such writers in the past and have great joy that the internet gives me voice. I am sick of people being sick and wanted to know what the gospel has to offer us who are mere mortals with little faith. Hopeless is sickness and sickness is hopelessness. Hopelessness is not the will of Christ, that is for sure. The gospel is the power of God for those who believe.. , so what is the gospel? Is the gospel to believe that you have a "thorn in the flesh"? Of course not, the gospel is the power of God to release you from the guilt of sin and the fear of death. Where O death is your sting? Where O grave is your victory?
There is something to be said about those who teach about seeing yourself "well" in Christ. Christ is indestructable and He lives in you and you in Him. Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life" Abide in Me, and I will abide in you"
Rather than dwelling on outward physical signs, we should see the truth that we live in the indestructable Christ and Him in us. There is nothing to fear for fear has to do with punishment but we will not be punished because all our sins- past, present and future were laid on the head of Jesus. When we believe we are not condemned and that life has been given through His Son, then God imparts life to our mortal bodies.
In the time of fear and despair, I pray for revelation of Jesus Christ in you which is above your understanding. Peace be with those who are searching for peace.
This book was awful.......2005-12-19
I would like to thank everyone who has left a bad review for this book. It's no wonder so many people are suffering within the Church. This is one of the worst books ever written.
This book is filled with the Doctrine of devils!.......2005-08-27
This book is an indictment against God. Paul's thorn in the flesh was a demonic spirit. The word "messenger" used there is the same word that is used over and over in the Bible for Angel.
2Cor 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
How much clearer could this verse be? "the messenger of Satan,"
God was telling Paul that he had been given authority over the devil, and he should use it.
John 10:10 says, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
Book Description
After graduating from Yale University, Sarah Sentilles joined Teach for America and was assigned to a rundown elementary school in Compton, California. Through moving portraits of inspiring children, Sentilles relates a heartbreaking journey, as she learns about a failing school system, the true meaning of poverty in America, and the strength children exhibit when they're just struggling to survive. Beautifully written, charged with love and indignation, Taught by America is a powerful tribute to the young lives Sentilles witnessed.
"This is a poignant, touching memoir from a natural-born teacher. The education of Sarah Sentilles is something we can all learn from."
âGeoffrey Canada, author of Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun and president of Harlem Children's Zone, Inc.
"Sentilles gives a stirring description of working in one of our poorest school systems . . . [A] profoundly moving book."
âLibrary Journal (starred review)
"Hauntingly eloquent, this memoir raises chilling questions about race, social privilege, failing schools, and the loss of innocence. Sentilles's reflections on her students, their families, and the education they (don't) receive stays with you long after her story ends. This is a wakeup call that we as a nation cannot afford to ignore."
âJanie Victoria Ward, author of The Skin We're In
Sarah Sentilles graduated from Yale University in 1995 and earned her master's in 2001 from Harvard Divinity School. She is currently working on her doctorate in theology. Sentilles lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is her first book.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful account of a beginning teacher.......2007-09-19
This is a beginning teacher in the "Teach for America" program that starts her career in the Compton, CA area better known as the Watts area in LA. Since I have been a teacher for 36 years and live in LA, I relate to this book and her many disappointments and joys. Read it--you'll love it, especially if you are or have been a teacher.
alarming...Taught by America.......2007-05-13
We used this book for a women's book club study. It was very interesting and yet startling information. well written and a good read for anyone.
Book is new , arrived promptly.......2007-03-29
The book is excellent and appears to be new and arrived promptly
nothing new, but I'm glad I checked it out from the library.......2006-03-19
As a TFA alumna and Sarah's former colleague at Madison, most of what made Sarah's story interesting was finding out about her year after she left Madison, and seeing her recollection of people and events I remember. Her descriptions of Mr. Cleaver, Mrs. Redding, and other staff were painfully accurate. The descriptions of students and the community brought back memories I'd surpressed.
"Taught by America" is a quick, slightly unsatisfying, read. The reader learns a bit about the author's motivation for teaching, the lessons she learned, and what she's done afterward. But, it doesn't tell the informed reader anything new about inner cities or their teachers. This book might be a good read for someone who hasn't read a more compelling teaching memoir. Or, for one of the hundreds of new college graduates that Teach for America will send to inner city Los Angeles in August 2006.
For anyone else interested in this type of book, I'd make two different recommendations. "Lessons to Learn" by Molly Ness is a more comprehensive (and balanced) book about the experiences of TFA teachers and what they do afterwards. "One Day All Children" by Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp gives more background on the organization and it's idealistic intent.
For Obsidian.......2006-01-22
I both agree and disagree with Lashonda's previous review. There are certainly Hollywood movies along the lines of which she speaks. I can't remember the names but I know Michelle Pfeifer and Tom Berenger were in 1 or 2 each. The "great white savior" types of movies where seemingly all it takes is a dedicated white teacher to turn these kids' lives around.
In the case of this book though, I didn't get that feeling. The author doesn't portray herself as any sort of hero. Nor does she protray the TFA as an organization that is saving the world. After being part of it I think she realizes it does nothing. If anything, she presents herself as a failure. She often questions whether or not this or that was the right thing to do or say in this or that situation. She says she knows she got more from the kids than they got from her, and that she fears she'll get more from the writing of the book than they will from hearing about it or reading it.
I think this book succeeds because Miss Ivy League oh nothing was given to me I worked for everything I have, etc... type of person finally realized that yes she was indeed given things which many are not...the gift of being a white, middle-class American. She found out that no, she didn't show up to classes and receive As simply because she's blond and white, so yes in that sense she had to work for them. What she learned is that she had the luxury of being able to focus on learning for all those years because she had the priviledge of never having to worry nor care about anything else. Those of you reading this review, think back to your childhood days and your place in life right now. Now imagine what that life may have been like had you not had all the things that strike you as being comfortable. A desk. The required books. A full stomach. Read this book, the list is much longer.
It's a shame that the USA has never seemed to realize how often it crushes its own people. The mandatory testing section should be able to make anyone who has a conscience hate this country (if you don't already). If the white middle and upper classes found out their children were being subjected to the things during school hours to which these children (and children like them all over the country) are being subjected, the American public-education system would be overhauled and fixed within the year. That's a fact.
Part of why this book succeeds is because the author failed. As a full-grown woman she couldn't cut it for even 3 years in the public schools of the American ghetto, yet we as a nation expect 5 through 18-year-olds to succeed in this same system?? Don't read this book and think of her as just 1 person. Think of her as a metaphor for 96% of White America in terms of what she can handle and what she thought she knew about this nation.
This book and some of these kids will break your heart. If you read this book and never break down in tears, you're a more stoic person than I. America is still broken. Ghetto kids don't need to read this book. Adults from and/or still in the ghetto don't need to read this book. They are this book, they live this book. Every white American should read books like this. Actually read this one last. First read When Affirmative Action Was White, then Shame of the Nation, then this.
Intelligence is but one part of the key to learning. It's not even the most important aspect. Opportunity and access are what it's all about. Take away those 2 and the brightest mind in the state may be slangin' 'caine on the corner.
Book Description
At the close of the nineteenth century, the Democratic Party in North Carolina engineered a white supremacy revolution. Frustrated by decades of African American self-assertion and threatened by an interracial coalition advocating democratic reforms, white conservatives used violence, demagoguery, and fraud to seize political power and disenfranchise black citizens. The most notorious episode of the campaign was the Wilmington "race riot" of 1898, which claimed the lives of many black residents and rolled back decades of progress for African Americans in the state.
Published on the centennial of the Wilmington race riot, Democracy Betrayed draws together the best new scholarship on the events of 1898 and their aftermath. Contributors to this important book hope to draw public attention to the tragedy, to honor its victims, and to bring a clear and timely historical voice to the debate over its legacy.
The contributors are David S. Cecelski, William H. Chafe, Laura F. Edwards, Raymond Gavins, Glenda E. Gilmore, John Haley, Michael Honey, Stephen Kantrowitz, H. Leon Prather Sr., Timothy B. Tyson, LeeAnn Whites, and Richard Yarborough.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2000-04-02
First let me say that I rarely read non-fiction and even when I do, I rarely manage to finish an entire book of it. Democracy Betrayed is an exception. The writing was clear, precise, right-on, and interesting. And, perhaps most importantly, educational. I was born and raised in North Carolina and knew nothing--absolutely nothing--about the Wilmington Race Riots or the subject of Cecelski's essay Abraham Galloway. I am female and was a victim of gender based racial violence myself so I was aware of the issues raised in Gilmore's essay and White's essay, but I have never seen the issues written about so well. What I most like about this book is that it destroys stereotypes about class and race. After all isn't it the most well-to-do who most benefit from race violence so why should we be surprised to learn that it was not the so-called "white trash" who began the racial massacre in 1898, but the rich, the ones who were most likely to benefit from forcing the elected fusionist party officials out of office and placing themselves in their offices. I never knew--it certainly wasn't taught in my public school--that in 1896 every office in North Carolina was held by a progressive fusionist party member, elected by the fusion of lower class whites and blacks. Imagine how different this state would be, how advanced in talent and intelligence, if the massacre hadn't occurred, if black doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, newspaper editors and writers, etc, hadn't been forced from the state and if the elected officials had been allowed to remain in office. Perhaps what is most important is the book succeeds in "drawing public attention to the tragedy", a tragedy that is apparantly very much in the consciousness of Black Wilmington citizens and very much needs to be in the consciousness of all humans.
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- Environmental Law (5th Edition)
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- Game Theory for Applied Economists
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- Gilded Tarot
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- Global Challenges: An Approach to Environmental, Political, and Economic Problems
- Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security
Books Index
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