I finished reading Michio Kaku's "Beyond Einstein" today and I completed David Flynn's "Why the Left Hates America." Both were great books, in my opinion.
"Beyond Einstein" delved into the history of the ultimate unified field theory of physics: superstring theory. After the history is established, Kaku explains some of the amazing symmetries string theory creates that explains the strangest phenomenon in the universe (ex: the Big Bang, dark matter, and higher dimensions). A criticism I have for this book, however, is the sob story regarding the female astronomer Vera Rubin. The writer goes to great lengths to explain her apparent "weep[ing]" about science still being predominantly male. Any woman who wants to go into science can (sometimes with a generous scholarship or grant) if she wants to. However, women generally do not go into the scientific and engineering fields. When one looks at the literary and social studies, one sees a very large portion of female scholars. Feminists would say women are just better than men in these fields for inherent female traits. On the other hand, these same harpies scream and cry "sexism" and "patriarchy" because more men are better in math and science. If this little emotion-over-logic-type diatribe was left out of science books, the better the writers would become. Other than that, this book does a great job at what Kaku set out to do: publish a book that can explain the significance of the scientific movement to establish a unified field theory of the universe.
Overall, Kaku's book gets four-and-a-half stars out of five.
"Why the Left Hates America" is a political book regarding leftists (not to be confused with liberals and Democrats) and their irrational hatred of the United States. Flynn spends the first half drawing out the history of the left's campaign against America. The second half deals with why America is not as terrible as leftists claim it is. The chapter "The Five Big Lies" lists what Flynn claims are the biggest untruths hurting America's image. These are: America oppresses women; America destroys the environment; America is a racist nation; America is a warmongering empire; and America robs from the poor. Flynn successfully displays the obvious that America is still, by far, the light unto the world. Leftists downplay America's great qualities with her negatives while ignoring the negatives and promoting/creating positives of other cultures. It is important to note that America's negatives (slavery, oppression of women, environmental damage, etc.) are not near as bad as most other third world and even some first world countries! On top of that, Flynn provides his own and other conservative speakers' experiences on the censorship and sometimes aggressively radical opposition to conservative views on college and university campuses. Flynn successfully demonstrates (with numerous sources cited) the hypocritical and irrational behaviors of the radical left, and he defends America's great accomplishments as the ultimate experiment in freedom. Why does the left hate America? Because America is the antithesis of "every pet theory the left holds dear."
I give Flynn's book five stars out of five.
As I hinted, I have decided to start two new books today: "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan and "The New Reagan Revolution" by Michael Reagan. It is fair to notice that I alternate between different books at the same time. I also like to have different subject material, usually a science book and a political book.
I did not think I would delve into two reviews in one post, but I felt I was brief enough. I have taken a fine liking to having reading time on a more frequent basis. I greatly enjoy taken in new information and learning to draw new methods of critical thinking. In the meantime, I am spending time while not working, reading, and going to college watching the progress in Washington and Civil War history. Hopefully more blog entries will follow.
- Forsaken Eagle
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