Sunday, May 30, 2021

The Royal Runaway By: Lindsay Emory

 I am not a fan of the royals scene in England. I used to hate everything about it.  Not for the politics or anything like that, it was only something I really did not care about.  I thought they were hoidy-toity, until I started watching "The Royals" on the E! Hollywood channel.  It showed the supposed real life of the royals and how normal and flawed they were.  When I saw this book on Goodreads.com I decided to take a look at it.  As anyone that follows me knows, I will read three or four political books and then need to rest my mind and have some time to release my anger that I normally get reading about that subject.  I would mostly read biographies and memoirs but recently I started reading novels and such.  It is a good change in pace.  


The book is about a Princess that is left at the altar on her wedding day.  She is banished from her kingdom to keep the press off of her story in hopes of letting the scandal die down.  Finally she returns and little did she know that the adventure had not even started and that now she would find herself in the middle of a royal mess (pun intended).  

** SPOILER**

The princess escapes the palace to blow off some steam and meets a man.  Turns out it was a set up and the man is none other than her runaway groom's brother that is looking for him.  She is soon interested in him in a romantic way since he does not kiss up to her princess status.  She then finds herself in the middle  of a scandal that can bring the monarchy to an end.  A story of betrayal, embezzlement, lust & power.   

I’m not going to lie, I really got into the storyline.  Emory wrote a follow up book and I am contemplating adding it to my list.  Reminded me of the E! Series.  Obviously not exactly the story but very close.  

ASIN : B07CL9FC2C
Publisher : Gallery Books (October 9, 2018)
Publication date : October 9, 2018
Language : English
File size : 1716 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
Print length : 305 pages

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom By: Catherine Clinton

This was a great book for me.  I learned quite a bit about Ms. Tubman.  The book was not as detailed as I wished it would have been but I found her action truly amazing.  I plan to read additional books about Ms. Tubman and hope to gain much more knowledge.  

This woman was truly a trailblazer and was fearless.  For the time she lived in where men were the dominant ones, she proved to have more guts than many men.  

Publisher : Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (February 1, 2004)
Language : English
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 0316144924
ISBN-13 : 978-0316144926
Item Weight : 1 pounds
Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches

 

Friday, May 28, 2021

We're Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True By: Gabrielle Union

Let me start by saying, I never imagined knowing so much about her vagina and her period.  I have always thought she was absolutely gorgeous.  Sadly I was put off a bit with her obsession with race and shades of colors.  I have dated and been involved with women color of snow and the color of a plum and every shade in-between.  I literally had to sit back and think back to see if there was any in particular I refused to date. I always say that Hispanics are one of the most racist group of people but among each other.  Cubans (my heritage), Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are viewed as the bottom of the barrel from a "latino" culture.  By far Spain and Spaniards feel that they are superior.  I never knew this existed in the Black community.  


Although the book started funny, it does have its dark sides.  Her rape, the racial tension with her step-children and the death of her friend.  I enjoyed the book.  I could not put it down.  She was certainly promiscuous but good for her.  She owns it and I can respect that.  She is a beautiful woman and I think she was her worst enemy and critic.  Funny how she considers herself "dark skinned".  I don't see it, nor do I care.  I think she is stunning all the time. 


ASIN : 0062693980
Publisher : Dey Street Books; First Edition (October 17, 2017)
Language : English
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 8925598027
ISBN-13 : 978-8925598024
Item Weight : 15 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.93 x 9 inches

 

Saturday, May 15, 2021

The Tyranny of Big Tech Hardcover By: Josh Hawley

This man is hated by the left.  Really anyone that supported or supports Donald J. Trump is hated by the left.  Ironically the party of inclusion and anti-hate.  I even had trouble finding this on Amazon's web site.  They hide the book from regular searches.  Probably due to him outing Amazon as well for their fake woke practices.  


 The book stars off with a history lesson about monopolies.  Again ironic that the Democrats have always been about breaking up monopolies however now that they have found a way to use them for their advantage, they are surprisingly fine with them.  

This books explains the abuse of Section 230 and how these tech giants have used it to corner the power that even exceeds that of the putrid Federal Government, which by the way was already abused.  Since before even big tech's take over, the Federal Government has left the reservation when it comes to powers. In the Constitution of "these" United States under Article II explicitly defines what the Federal Government can do. 

I work in the Information Security Business and when it comes to Phishing attacks, the one constant is an immediate call to action.  They are always telling you, "if you don't click now, your account will be closed" etc.  This is why I do not want to take the vaccine until some more time passes by and we see results.  The government does NOT have the power to mandate that you take any medication.  Figures that Biden, coming from the administration that forced people to BUY healthcare I guess its not a stretch.  

The fact is the Facebook, Twitter, and any other Social Media companies need to be broken up and need to be regulated.  As we saw with COVID and Hunter Biden's laptop, regardless of what experts had to say, there was one narrative, the Democratic Party one and anyone writing anything against the liberal talking points were banned.  Not to be left out, is the Mainstream Media which does the same.  Social media controls even their messaging since they can block any story that SM does not agree with or does not meet the narrative.  New York Post was silenced by Social Media for a story that after the damage was done, finally admitted that it was not the "Russian Misinformation". 

What irks me is that still today in 2021, you are totally allowed to say that Trump's 2016 win was due to Russian interference, even though countless investigations that took place during Trump's presidency and even now that he is gone, are still taking place.  However when the Right demands investigation into the 2020 election, you cannot write about it on Social Media and no investigation are being allowed.  You have Democratic operatives fighting any independent investigations.  I wish that Social Media would be benefitting the Right so that the left would demand change as well.  

I used to think Liberals were people of substance, intelligent, fair, inclusive and anti-war.  However now I am completely shocked that they are nothing of the like. As a libertarian, I have friends that are left, right and everywhere in-between.  On the left, anyone not lockstep with them, deserves to die.  Even the most moronic statements like "If you do not wear a mask to protect your fellow Americans, you should die of cancer". It is absolutely insane.  I blame this on Social Media because of the echo-chambers they create and the fact that they silence one side which emboldens the other side to continue to attack. 

I agree with Hawley on the control of Social Media.  I believe that additionally, if an organization like NBC or Fox makes false statements and does not give the same level of correction as they did with the initial story (e.g. two days of Russian Collusion, they should have two days of "we lied and we were wrong" not a 5 second blurb.). Additionally today if Facebook blocks my content there is no option but delete the content.  There is no arbitration that we can do to plead our case.  

I posted the story of Pete Buttigeg not riding his bike to work and the reasons was that the White House denied the claim and therefor it is fake.  What a change from the Trump administration.  In light of well researched evidence they called him a lier.  BTW, calling a POTUS a lier on media started by the crazy liberal media.  They set a precedence moving forward.  

Even this book, was canceled because they media company did not agree with his views.  I challenge you to look through their thousands of authors and tell me if anyone of them are truly disgusting people.  Trump was canceled from all Social Media but you have the Hammas.  We even having sitting Congress people calling for the destruction of Israel and yet still remain on all Social Media Platform.  

I think society has devolved due to Social Media.  I would be find abolishing all of it if they cannot be fair.  


Section 230 - Wikipedia 

Section 230 is a piece of Internet legislation in the United States, passed into law as part of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 (a common name for Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996), formally codified as Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 at 47 U.S.C. § 230.[a] Section 230 generally provides immunity for website platforms from third-party content. At its core, Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by third-party users:

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

The statute in Section 230(c)(2) further provides "Good Samaritan" protection from civil liability for operators of interactive computer services in the removal or moderation of third-party material they deem obscene or offensive, even of constitutionally protected speech, as long as it is done in good faith.

Section 230 was developed in response to a pair of lawsuits against Internet service providers (ISPs) in the early 1990s that had different interpretations of whether the service providers should be treated as publishers or distributors of content created by its users. After passage of the Telecommunications Act, the CDA was challenged in courts and ruled by the Supreme Court in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997) to be unconstitutional, though Section 230 was determined to be severable from the rest of the legislation and remained in place. Since then, several legal challenges have validated the constitutionality of Section 230.

Section 230 protections are not limitless, requiring providers to still remove material illegal on a federal level such as copyright infringement. In 2018, Section 230 was amended by the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (FOSTA-SESTA) to require the removal of material violating federal and state sex trafficking laws. In the following years, protections from Section 230 have come under more scrutiny on issues related to hate speech and ideological biases in relation to the power technology companies can hold on political discussions, and became a major issue during the 2020 United States presidential election. On December 23, 2020, President Donald Trump vetoed the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 in part because it did not repeal Section 230, but the veto was overridden.[2][3][4][5]

Passed at a time when Internet use was just starting to expand in both breadth of services and range of consumers in the United States,[6] Section 230 has frequently been referred to as a key law that has allowed the Internet to flourish, and has been called, by the cybersecurity law professor and author Jeff Kosseff, as "the twenty-six words that created the Internet".[7]


I say abolish it and let them deal with the fallout.



Publisher : Regnery Publishing (May 4, 2021)
Language : English
Hardcover : 200 pages
ISBN-10 : 1684512395
ISBN-13 : 978-1684512393
Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches









Thursday, May 6, 2021

American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI By: Kate Winkler Dawson

Great book. I am a fan of true crime TV.  I watch all of the forensic shows.  This book includes Edward Oscar Heinrich's cases he worked on and how he cut his teeth. He was a multi-disciplined scientist that was one of the pioneers of what was to become CSI.   I sometimes watch cold case files and wonder how these LEO from the past were able to investigate crimes without the advent of video surveillance and DNA.  I would assume that a lot of murders from the past went on and remain open, even today due to lack of the technology we have today.  


The book goes through Heinrich's evolution and the evolution of his techniques.  I was an expert witness many times from a digital forensic perspective and can feel Heinrich's frustration when trying to explain to the jury something that is not in their wheelhouse and not easily understood.  In my case it had to do with checksum of files and the ability to manipulate meta-data on files.  I think Heinrich's challenge was much greater than mine.  I truly believe that this technology and more impactful, are the CSI type shows.  Today's juries expect to have DNA evidence every time and it be available within the hour from any material which we know is not the case.  Heinrich also felt these types of challenges as he was working with bleeding edge technology.  

I think this was a great book and I truly recommend it to anyone looking to see the beginnings of what has been adopted as SOP in many cases today. 

Publisher : G.P. Putnam's Sons; Illustrated edition (February 11, 2020)
Language : English
Hardcover : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 0525539557
ISBN-13 : 978-0525539551
Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
Dimensions : 6.2 x 1.12 x 9.27 inches

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Camsterdam: How I got Caught in the Crosshairs of the War on Terror By: Simon Fidler

This was a very interesting book to read.  I am an American so some of the concepts required me to look them up specifically around the UK Legal System and housing, etc. but since I read the Kindle version, there were great links that allowed me to see the YouTube videos, Tweets, and other digital content. 


I found it funny that Fidler refers to people by the people they look like.  I do that all the time.  My wife and I do that and my father did it while we were growing up as well. 

In this book, Fidler describes the disturbing decade dealing with the various governments gunning for him and doing everything in their power to discredit and destroy him.  A couple of decades ago, I probably would have not believed anything written about governments and their shenanigans however after Snowden, George Papadopoulos, the blatant fraud that went on during our 45th President's time in office and the out route fraud during the 2020 elections, I believe much than I did before.

I enjoyed the book and the links to documents, videos, and documentary suggestions where great and I am looking forward to reading and watching them.  

ASIN : B08M46W1ZZ
Publication date : October 28, 2020
Language : English
File size : 931 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 177 pages