On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting for Review

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(More customer reviews)
On My Honor Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For is a great book about the Boy Scouts of America. The author Rick Perry, Governor of Texas and an Eagle Scout is donating the proceeds to the Boy Scouts of America legal fund. The book begins with the history of Scouting. The chance meeting of an American businessman in London, England with a British Scout started the chain of events that lead to the founding of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910.
The scouts have been under attack for many years. Rick Perry said the first concentrated effort started in 1970. The attacks are in the form of law suits and court challenges which fall under four different topics. These categories are girls seeking membership in the BSA, duty to God, duty to be morally straight and access to government forums.
The author writes about each example of these attacks and their outcome. One of the cases went to the Supreme Court which the Boy Scouts won. The Boy Scouts usually win, but at a great cost in attorney fees and loss of future donations. The latest attacks are designed to cut off funding and reduce meeting locations.
On the values side of Scouting, the Rick Perry goes into many examples of successful Scouts and how Scouting has helped them.There are statistics that show the effect on a boy's life when he enters and stays with the Scouting program compared to a non-scout. The numbers will surprise you. The author points out that the Scouting handbook is the roadmap for a young boy growing up. Rick Perry writes that single parents in need of a male mentor for their son(s) see the Boy Scouts as an answer.
As you read the book the question comes to mind, Why do so many groups attack the Boy Scouts? The Boy Scouts have a set of rules much like our military and society, and looks for the greater good of the community. The last question, will Scouting survive? Rick Perry believes it will and I think all 100 million boys who have been Scouts will say strongly agree.
On a personal note Scouting, I am an Eagle Scout and a Cubmaster of Pack 136 and the scouting motto of Be Prepared served me well in Mosul, Iraq. Boy Scouts of America will be 100 years old in 2010 and many celebrations will be held. Let's hope scouting will be around for another 100 years. I am proud of my father an Eagle Scout my mother was a Cub Scout den leader, my wife also was Cub Scout den leader, and my two boys are Boy Scouts. I know the Boy Scouts is worth fighting for.
On My Honor Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For is well worth reading whether you are involved in Boy Scouts or for those that want to learn more about the values and program of Boys Scouts of America.
Be Prepared
MAJ (ret) NJARNG
Eric Shuler


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In On My Honor, Texas governor Rick Perry, through the legacy of the Boy Scouts of America, takes dead aim at the moral relativism of the secular humanist movement, indicting its corrosive impact on the culture.Examining the left's legal assaults on the Boy Scouts of America - which span more than 30 years - Perry offers prescient insight into the multi-faceted war, which pits the proponents of traditional American values against the radical leftist movement that seeks to tear down our social foundations.On My Honor underscores the depth to which the culture warriors of the left will go to force their secular humanist minority view upon American society and revered American institutions.It is a revealing look at a culture war that rages close to the surface of American life, and it is a must read for any American concerned that our society is slipping from the high moral ground of liberty to the valley of license.

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The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life Review

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(More customer reviews)Bought for Kindle PC and could not quit reading it. I thank God Glenn is so transparent and Keith is able to define each element with such clarity. The combination spoke to my soul and freed myself from the sins of my past. It's good to know I'm not alone. I feel one step closer - and eager to move on and live life to my potential for myself, my family, my friends and my God. Thank you Glenn & Keith.

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Radio and television host Glenn Beck has experienced the rollercoaster of life like few others. From the suicide of his mother when he was just thirteen, to his eventual alcoholism, depression, divorce, unemployment, and health scares—Glenn has weathered life's darkest storms.
Any one of those struggles could've ruined him, yet Glenn was able to keep moving forward. He saw past the darkness into the light; past his grief and addictions and into what his life could be.

You can do it too.

The process of finding happiness through personal redemption was not easy, but it left Glenn with a blueprint for how to confront future adversity. Glenn is living proof that these steps—he calls them "wonders"—don't just work on paper. They helped transform his life and can they can help to transform yours as well.

The 7 Wonders:

Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow—two of the most popular and influential personalities in American media today—have joined forces to present a powerful guide to personal transformation and fulfillment that is as unique as their own unlikely partnership. They are called the "7 Wonders" and they can be used by anyone who has made the decision that they are ready to change their life.

After the television talk show host and the bestselling psychiatrist struck up a fast friendship they realized that their experiences with life's struggles were complementary. What Keith had studied, Glenn had lived. What Keith had counseled patients on for years, Glenn had suffered through for decades.

The deeply personal insights they shared brought them to realize that their life stories had seven key principles in common; seven wonders that seemed to be essential ingredients for anyone attempting to transform their life.

Where does the courage to persevere come from when everything seems hopeless? Why is it nearly impossible to succeed without faith? How much do family and friendships matter in our journey? How do we break down our walls and reveal our inner truths? What does having compassion really mean? How do you tell real friends apart from those who are holding you back? If there's no one to blame for my past, what do you do with your anger and resentment?

These kinds of questions are the starting point toward fundamentally changing how you view past damaging relationships, toward breaking the debilitating grip of addiction and depression, toward injecting life with new meaning and purpose and toward helping you embark on a new journey based on hope, strength, and personal empowerment.

As you unwrap each of the seven wonders for yourself, you'll discover exactly what Glenn Beck found as he transformed his own life from darkness to light, from dead ends to endless possibilities, from addiction to freedom: it doesn't take a superhero to find the strength to change—it just takes the courage to take the first step.

This book, which was only possible by combining together decades of personal struggle with world-class professional experience, can be that first step for you.

The 7 Wonders grows out of a unique friendship that we've developed over the last five-years. It is unique because it brought together a psychiatrist who naturally burrows toward the truth, and a recovering addict who spent decades running from it.

As we spent more time together we began to let our guards down. Over time we reached a level of honesty with each other that is rare. As a result, we learned that the principles that have guided the well-honed healing techniques of one of us are precisely the same principles that instinctively guided the other to replace nearly unbearable pain with genuine happiness.

We believe that it was God's plan for us to meet; that it was God's plan for us to speak so openly with one another; and it was God's plan that we share with you the seven wonders we discovered together.

We also firmly believe that it was God's plan that this book now finds you at this exact moment in your life.

—Glenn Beck & Dr. Keith Ablow

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A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a cynical guy. US politics teaches me that leaders are cowards and fakers who are really out for their own glory. Americans desperately need a hero, and this author is the real deal. He started as a religious idealist whose talents made him the ultimate insider. When he witnessed unspeakable tortures committed against the families of people suspected of betrayal, he betrayed his "brothers." He volunteered to spy for the CIA, loading us up with invaluable information about Khomeini's associates. Every day he had to stare into the faces of people who would torture his wife and baby if they found out, but he kept going. He never got any fame or credit, and he did it totally alone, on his own initiative.
I'm a hard-hearted guy. I don't cry at sappy movies. But Khalili's rendering of his two best friends and their youthful idealism, and the separate paths they chose in the Iranian Revolution, repeatedly got me choked up. The story is tragic and horrifying, the espionage is nail-biting, and as the risks get more intense, I kept saying, "I can't believe this guy is doing this!"
I stayed up all night reading this, surprised the author waited over two decades to tell his story-- why not cash in on his heroism back in 1988?-- until I realized he's driven by one mission, which can be summed up as: "The governing mullahs in Iran cannot be negotiated with, because they've been explicitly planning Armageddon all along." If we can't trust this insider, who can we trust?
I'm not an effusive guy, just groggy from lack of sleep after I stayed up all night with this book. I dare you to read page one. Get hooked by this story and remind yourself what courage is really all about. Our nation should work for a free Iran, if only because the culture produces sterling characters like this author and his childhood friends.

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A true story as exhilarating as a great spy thriller, as turbulent as today's headlines from the Middle East,2010 National Best Books Award-winning A Time to Betray reveals what no other previous CIA operative's memoir possibly could: the inner workings of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, as witnessed by an Iranian man inside their ranks who spied for the American government. It is a human story, a chronicle of family and friendships torn apart by a terror-mongering regime, and how the adult choices of three childhood mates during the Islamic Republic yielded divisive and tragic fates. And it is the stunningly courageous account of one man's decades-long commitment to lead a shocking double life informing on the beloved country of his birth, a place that once offered the promise of freedom and enlightenment--but instead ruled by murderous violence and spirit-crushing oppression.Reza Kahlili grew up in Tehran surrounded by his close-knit family and two spirited boyhood friends. The Iran of his youth allowed Reza to think and act freely, and even indulge a penchant for rebellious pranks in the face of the local mullahs. His political and personal freedoms flourished while he studied computer science at the University of Southern California in the 1970s. But his carefree time in America was cut short with the sudden death of his father, and Reza returned home to find a country on the cusp of change. The revolution of 1979 plunged Iran into a dark age of religious fundamentalism under the Ayatollah Khomeini, and Reza, clinging to the hope of a Persian Renaissance, joined the Revolutionary Guards, an elite force at the beck and call of the Ayatollah. But as Khomeini's tyrannies unfolded, as his fellow countrymen turned on each other, and after the horror he witnessed inside Evin Prison, a shattered and disillusioned Reza returned to America to dangerously become "Wally," a spy for the CIA.In the wake of an Iranian election that sparked global outrage, at a time when Iran's nuclear program holds the world's anxious attention, the revelations inside A Time to Betray could not be more powerful or timely. Now resigned from his secretive life to reclaim precious time with his loved ones, Reza Kahlili documents scenes from history with heart-wrenching clarity, as he supplies vital information from the Iran-Iraq War, the Marine barracks bombings in Beirut, the catastrophes of Pan Am Flight 103, the scandal of the Iran-Contra affair, and more . . . a chain of incredible events that culminates in a nation's fight for freedom that continues to this very day. A TIME TO BETRAY was the winner of The 2011 International Book Awards in two categories of: Autobiography/Memoirs and Best New Non-Fiction. It was also the winner of The National Best Books 2010 Awards for Non-Fiction Narrative and honored as the "Finalist" in the "Autobiography/Memoirs" category. Itis now part of JCITA's (Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy of DOD) and CI CENTRE (The Leader inCounterintelligence), Iranian Program's readings.A TIME TO BETRAY was chosen as the Book of the Month for January 2011 by the Magazine of The Marines - Leatherneck.

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Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are interested in reading this book, it's likely that you are already of a certain political mindset. Therefore, I'm going to try to make this review helpful to you depending on your specific beliefs. I will do my best to be direct and not mis-leading.
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If You Are a Liberal:
Let me give you a fair warning; If you are a liberal democrat, even an "open-minded" one, you will hate this book. I would not recommend you waste your time reading Demonic. You will likely find Ms. Coulter to be mean-spirited toward your affiliation and paint you all with a generalized brush of disdain that you may not deserve. Now, if you still choose to read the book (despite my stern warning) you may learn some interesting facts(while being offended) as this book is undeniably well-researched and covers some interesting historical and philosophical concepts. However, I would imagine the chore of spending the hours needed to read this book red faced and clench-jawed will easily override some interesting facets the book uncovers. In fact, you will probably garner more from simply reading the work of Gustave Le Bon, particularly his book "The Crowd"- which provides many of the same factual insights discussed in Demonic, without being overtly offensive. So, to you my liberal, beloved, fellow American, I hope this review will save you some time and money by avoiding the aforementioned work.
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If You Are a Conservative:
Ahh, yes, the target audience for this book. If you fit within this group, Ann Coulter, and her newest work will likely appeal to you- especially if you prefer a no-nonsense delivery and a barrage of well-articulated shots taken at the Democratic Party and Liberal/Progressive leaders and it's followers. Coulter's true strength is her ability to couple well-researched events and link them to what she feels are modern equivalents (often with compelling evidence). The end result will supply you with entirely new reasons to remain firm in your political and moral convictions while giving you new ammunition to besiege your Democrat-loving relatives next Thanksgiving dinner. In truth, Ann is incredibly insightful and much too smart for my personal liking- as I fear ever having to debate someone like her about ANYTHING. I greatly enjoy her writing style, she is blunt, bold and opinionated- and fortunately for you, those are opinions you will likely support.
Final Thoughts
Demonic is primarily a book that seeks to highlight the mob-psychology that often occupies space in modern politics. Ann equates the "mob mentality" with literal demonic/evil influence- a notion that many may feel takes the argument too far. However, as with many of Coulter's books, her claims are backed by a myriad of historic events, facts and statistics, that may lend credence to many of the implications within the book. Ultimately, it will be up to you to decide whether her allegations bear any weight. I can only tell you, that for me personally, Demonic underscored strong correlations with some tragic historic events and recent tactics seen in several parties and sects today. Those who fail to observe the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them; perhaps Demonic will help America dodge some of the most unpleasant lessons on the horizon by encouraging critical thought from its people, rather than loyalty to propaganda and hollow-catchphrases.


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The demon is a mob, and the mob is demonic. The Democratic Party activates mobs, depends on mobs, coddles mobs, publicizes and celebrates mobs—it is the mob. Sweeping in its scope and relentless in its argument, Demonic explains the peculiarities of liberals as standard groupthink behavior. To understand mobs is to understand liberals. In her most provocative book to date, Ann Coulter argues that liberals exhibit all the psychological characteristics of a mob, for instance: Liberal Groupthink: "The same mob mentality that leads otherwise law-abiding people to hurl rocks at cops also leads otherwise intelligent people to refuse to believe anything they haven't heard on NPR." Liberal Schemes: "No matter how mad the plan is—Fraternité, the 'New Soviet Man,' the Master Race, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Building a New Society, ObamaCare—a mob will believe it." Liberal Enemies: "Instead of 'counterrevolutionaries,' liberals' opponents are called 'haters,' 'those who seek to divide us,' 'tea baggers,' and 'right-wing hate groups.' Meanwhile, conservatives call liberals 'liberals'—and that makes them testy." Liberal Justice: "In the world of the liberal, as in the world of Robespierre, there are no crimes, only criminals." Liberal Violence: "If Charles Manson's followers hadn't killed Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, Clinton would have pardoned him, too, and he'd probably be teaching at Northwestern University." Citing the father of mob psychology, Gustave Le Bon, Coulter catalogs the Left's mob behaviors: the creation of messiahs, the fear of scientific innovation, the mythmaking, the preference for images over words, the lack of morals, and the casual embrace of contradictory ideas. Coulter traces the history of the liberal mob to the French Revolution and Robespierre's revolutionaries (delineating a clear distinction from America's founding fathers), who simply proclaimed that they were exercising the "general will" before slaughtering their fellow citizens "for the good of mankind." Similarly, as Coulter demonstrates, liberal mobs, from student radicals to white-trash racists to anti-war and pro-ObamaCare fanatics today, have consistently used violence to implement their idea of the "general will." This is not the American tradition; it is the tradition of Stalin, of Hitler, of the guillotine—and the tradition of the American Left. As the heirs of the French Revolution, Democrats have a history that consists of pandering to mobs, time and again, while Republicans, heirs to the American Revolution, have regularly stood for peaceable order. Hoping to muddy this horrifying truth, liberals slanderously accuse conservatives of their own crimes—assassination plots, conspiracy theorizing, political violence, embrace of the Ku Klux Klan. Coulter shows that the truth is the opposite: Political violence—mob violence—is always a Democratic affair. Surveying two centuries of mob movements, Coulter demonstrates that the mob is always destructive. And yet, she argues, beginning with the civil rights movement in the sixties, Americans have lost their natural, inherited aversion to mobs. Indeed, most Americans have no idea what they are even dealing with. Only by recognizing the mobs and their demonic nature can America begin to defend itself.

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