Inside The League by Scott Anderson, and Jon Lee Anderson
For over ten years progressive researchers in this country and in
Europe have been uncovering evidence linking certain American conservatives
and rightists to racist and fascist movements around the globe through a
shadowy organization called the World Anti-Communist League. Now the book
"Inside the League" exposes the hidden nature of the League and documents
in devastating detail a parade of League-affiliated authoritarian
ideologues marching from the death camps of Nazi Germany into the parlors
of Reagan's White House. The idea for the book came when Jon Lee Anderson
was researching a series of columns on Latin American death squads for Jack
Anderson, (Jon Lee's employer but not his relative). Enlisting the aid of
his brother Scott, the two first began tracing the connections between the
death squads but soon were unravelling networks and alliances that involved
terrorists, Nazi collaborators, racists, assassins, anti-Jewish bigots, and
right- wing anti-communist American politicians. The one factor all had in
common was their involvement with the World Anti-Communist League.
The Latin American death squads, for instance, were found to be linked
through an umbrella group of Central and South American rightists called
the Latin American Anti-Communist Confederation (CAL). CAL in turn was
affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), lead by a retired
U.S. Major General, John Singlaub. Singlaub boasts WACL is the
coordinating body for raising private aid for the Contras, a task support
ed explicitly by the Reagan White House which has sent government officials
and glowing letters of support to WACL meetings in recent years.
WACL also serves as an umbrella for several Eastern European emigre
groups founded and lead by Nazi collaborators, and there is far more. As
the Anderson brothers write:
"We have examined the World Anti-Communist League...because it is the
one organization in which representatives of virtually every right-wing
extremist movement that has practiced unconventional warfare are to be
found. The League is the one constant in this netherworld; whether looking
at Croation terrorists, Norwegian neo-Nazis, Japanese war criminals, or
American ultra-rightists...." (p. x, Author's Note).
WACL is more than a club for aging facists and their modern- day
After reading the story, I found I had mixed emotions about it. To explain, when we were getting into detail and finally finding out what really happened the day of June 28th, I found myself completely interested and glued to the book. I also enjoyed the way the incident was explained because I felt like I was there watching it all happen from the great detail. I enjoyed Phillips style of writing because through his writing, he really came off as an intelligent person who is very familiar with the legal system. The book is an easy read, and I liked the non-pretentious style of writing. I did not find myself struggling with reading the book at all, which made the overall experience that much more enjoyable.
...suppression, and incarceration. That ended up costing American an estimated 10,000 jobs. The government had complete control over the media, educational system, and any literature that was available. Books were illegal, and were burned in the novel by the government enforcers, the firemen. We saw the comparison with the time period in when the novel was written, and post September 11. It is great how the author's work still has great meaning in today's society.
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover & Inside: Life Behind Bars in America by Michael Santos
In Fish written by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen we find a woman who moved to Seattle from Southern California with her husband her two children. This woman Mary Jane Ramirez had everything going for her she was a happy person who had a happy life her family their relationship couldn't get any better. They both had good jobs, jobs that they enjoyed. Then one day, twelve months after they had moved to Seattle Dan her husband was rushed to the hospital with a burst aneurysm he then died. After that incident everything changed for Mary Jane especially when she took an offer to work on the third floor for First Guarantee Financial.
There are many short stories in literature that share a common theme presented in different ways. A theme that always keeps readers’ attention is that of death because it is something that no one wants to face in real life, but something that can be easily faced when reading. “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both exemplify how two authors use a common theme of death to stand as a metaphor for dystopian societies.
Silver Linings Playbooks tells the story of Pat Solitano Jr. (played by Bradley Cooper), a high school teacher diagnosed with bipolar disorder who is trying to get his life back together. The movie opens as Pat is released from a psychiatric hospital after eight months of treatment and moves back in with his parents. He is determined to get back together with his wife, Nikki, despite all the signs that say she does not want to be with him - such as the restraining order she filed against him. Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell (played by Jennifer Lawrence), who is suffering from depression and overcoming a sex addiction that ensued from the death of her husband. Tiffany offers to help deliver Pat’s letters to Nikki if he enters a dance competition with her. As the movie goes on, Pat and Tiffany’s relationship progresses and they learn to cope with their issues.
Tupac Shakur once wrote about the rose that grew from the concrete, which by keeping hold of its dream proved nature’s law wrong. The motifs of the rose that grew from the concrete are repeated in Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities and reflected in the life of Tupac Shakur. Driven by a yearning for the redemption of their troubled pasts, Sydney Carton and Tupac make amends with those who hurt them, pledging themselves to a higher calling.
The Los Angeles Lakers are a professional basketball team located in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association, better known as the NBA. They are a part of the leagues’ Western Conference Pacific Division. The Los Angeles Lakers play their home games at the Staples Center located in Downtown, Los Angeles. The arena is shared with the NBA’s Los Angeles Clipper, The Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, and the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA. They have won 16 NBA championships, being the 2nd most of any other NBA franchise.
In "The Rules of the Game," a short story about a young Chinese-American girl, Waverly Jong, embarks journey to become a chess master. Waverly's mother believes she is a key component during this journey. Even though the mother actually has no true role in Waverly's adventure, she continues to believe it is her as the one who is succeeding. This belief is a necessity for Waverly's mother because she has nothing for herself. Waverly's mother has to live through her daughter because of her own lack of success.
United States. National Archives and Records Administration. The Influenza Epidemic of 1918. 23 July. 2008 < http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/>.
Financial Shenanigans was written by Howard Schilit. The main objective of the book is to show ways companies can alter their financial accounting reports to reflect a much attractive appearance of their company’s health and growth when indeed that company is running into severe trouble. There are different ways the company can accomplish this and the author gives us “Seven Shenanigans” that companies can change the investor’s point of view towards the performance of the company. Basically, he breaks up each chapter to the particular shenanigan and discusses different techniques for achieving each shenanigan. For example, the author used Priceline.com, Cendant/CUC, AOL, and Xerox to illustrate each shenanigan. Chapter 11 and 12 of the book discusses the analyzing of financial reports and how to use financial databases to discover warning signs. Then there is another chapter on finding shenanigans in the company’s annual 10K report and how to find hints for financial shenanigans.
In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the notion of the past and present played a great part introducing and developing a theme. A character in both novels long to relive their pasts but at the same time are okay with keeping things as they are. One of The Alchemist’s themes is about achieving one’s Personal Legend; and one of A Catcher in the Rye’s themes about the pain of growing up. These characters and their stance on the past and present were catalysts for introducing these themes.
Influenza, normally called “the flu”, the influenza virus causes an infection in the respiration tract. Even though the influenza virus can sometimes be compared with the common cold. It also can cause a more severe illness or death. During this past century, pandemics took place in 1918, 1957, and 1968, in all of these cases there where unfortunately many deaths. The “Spanish flu” in 1918, killed approximately half a million people in the United States alone. It killed around 20 million worldwide. The “Asian flu” in 1957, in the United States their 70,000 people died. In 1968 the “Hong-Kong flu” There where 34,000 deaths in the United States.
Influenza is a very serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and even fatalities. There are many different strands, infecting people of all ages and originating from different animals, which can be extremely fatal if the right care isn’t provided. Care for flu patients have changes tremendously over the years from once having no vaccine to having a limited amount of vaccines, only for the most prone individuals, to now having yearly vaccines to prevent the most common cases of flu. Doctors have learned just how deadly the flu virus can be which has led to the importance of them educating their patients of the flu virus and explaining the importance of getting the vaccine in order for their bodies to get an immunity of the many flu viruses that many in our country have previously faced. Many in our county in the past have died from the H1N1 virus due to no vaccines, poor precautions, and being uneducated on the virus because it was new, but new vaccines and precautions are being taken in order to prevent pandemics such as the Flu Pandemic of 1918.
The point of view of tradition in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is the normal once of year gathering on the townspeople. This gathering is held in order to pick, via a lottery drawing, to decide who in the town is going to be stoned to death. “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock; in some towns there were so many people the lottery took two days and had started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, and the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 251). The fact that the people gather and discuss everyday issue prior to the start of the lottery all point to the blind tradition of selecting some to be stoned to death.