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By ness31
#15155960
Page 810.

I’m over it. I was over it 100 pages ago :|
By Pants-of-dog
#15156459
I very rarely skip parts of books. I consider it disrespectful to the author.

I skipped Galt’s 150 page radio monologue. No regrets.
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By Godstud
#15156468
I am reading some Jeremy Clarkson in his book, "Really?". He's very funny. :D
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By Drlee
#15156471
I am reading some Jeremy Clarkson in his book, "Really?". He's very funny.


God I miss him and Top Gear.

This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying “Ooh good I've got syphilis, the BEST of the sexually transmitted diseases.”
Jeremy Clarkson


The Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite
Jeremy Clarkson
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By Godstud
#15156596
Jeremy Clarkson's books are very good and funny. He tells numerous anecdotes in his own particular style.

“Speed has never killed anyone - suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you.”
― Jeremy Clarkson
By ness31
#15156605
Pants-of-dog wrote:I very rarely skip parts of books. I consider it disrespectful to the author.

I skipped Galt’s 150 page radio monologue. No regrets.


:lol:

Pants, tell me honestly, did you hate this novel? I can’t imagine you having much time for it at all :lol:
By Pants-of-dog
#15156649
ness31 wrote::lol:

Pants, tell me honestly, did you hate this novel? I can’t imagine you having much time for it at all :lol:


It was not that bad. 6/10, maybe?
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By Rugoz
#15156659
After finding this excellent podcast, I've read two recommended books on democratic reform in the United States:

Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America by Lee Drutman.

Let the People Rule: How Direct Democracy Can Meet the Populist Challenge by John G. Matsusaka.

Both are ambitious enough to be interesting (unlike low hanging fruit such as abolishing the electoral college) and at the same time realistic in the sense that they are based on existing institutions in the US and abroad. The first book focuses more on history and the latter more on scientific evidence. Both are very US-centric, which I think is a problem for the first book, since the US has little recent experience with multi-party democracy.

I pretty much agree with the reform proposals of the first book (namely multi-member districts with ranked-choice voting). The second book however recommends to start with advisory referendums (i.e. referendums initiated by the legislative majority) because bottom-up binding referendums would require a constitutional amendment. That seems like a bad idea to me. Advisory referendums can be problematic by themselves, but could be especially bad within the US system in the current political climate.

In any case, I'd rate them 3 out of 5 stars. As long as you don't expect great literature I can recommend both.
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By Potemkin
#15156662
Rugoz wrote:After finding this excellent podcast, I've read two recommended books on democratic reform in the United States:

Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America by Lee Drutman.

Let the People Rule: How Direct Democracy Can Meet the Populist Challenge by John G. Matsusaka.

Both are ambitious enough to be interesting (unlike low hanging fruit such as abolishing the electoral college) and at the same time realistic in the sense that they are based on existing institutions in the US and abroad. The first book focuses more on history and the latter more on scientific evidence. Both are very US-centric, which I think is a problem for the first book, since the US has little recent experience with multi-party democracy.

I pretty much agree with the reform proposals of the first book (namely multi-member districts with ranked-choice voting). The second book however recommends to start with advisory referendums (i.e. referendums initiated by the legislative majority) because bottom-up binding referendums would require a constitutional amendment. That seems like a bad idea to me. Advisory referendums can be problematic by themselves, but could be especially bad within the US system in the current political climate.

Brexit started out as an advisory referendum. 'Nuff said. :|
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By Rugoz
#15156668
Potemkin wrote:Brexit started out as an advisory referendum. 'Nuff said. :|


The book is quite critical of the Brexit referendum, at least in terms of how it was organized. I think the book just had to offer a path forward in the end and advisory referendums are the only realistic one.

To be clear, the problem of advisory referendums, IMO, is that the legislative majority doesn't actually need them to pass laws. Then what is motivation behind them? I think the motivation needs to be good in order for them to be constructive. In the US I imagine Congress would use them to discredit presidential vetos.
By ness31
#15156723
Pants-of-dog wrote:It was not that bad. 6/10, maybe?


No, it isn’t bad at all. It’s just way too long. I’d give it a 8/10 and will finish it with audio book thanks to your little heads up.

If it’s a radio monologue she intended, than a radio monologue I shall receive :lol:
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By fuser
#15156826
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It was highly recommended everywhere and yet just after reading the introduction, it feels like that its going to be shit. :hmm: Author is just shoehorning geographical determinism to a ridiculous degree.

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Iain M Banks is awesome, started reading the Culture series last year, this is the third book and I am definitely planning to end the series before the year's end. Now Culture is the fully automated Gay space communism that we all want and love. Also apparently this is one of the if not the best book in the culture series, let's see. I am still thinking about "Player of the games", it was so good, although to be fair "Consider Phlebus" although not bad wasn't anything special.
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By Rugoz
#15156941
fuser wrote:It was highly recommended everywhere and yet just after reading the introduction, it feels like that its going to be shit. :hmm: Author is just shoehorning geographical determinism to a ridiculous degree.


I recently read another book that attempted to explain history with geography and I found it annoying as well. For the early stages of human civilization geographical determinism certainly makes sense, but it gets increasingly silly in later periods. One cannot dismiss the history of culture/ideas so easily.
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By Drlee
#15157003
Historians have the annoying habit of trying avoid admitting that our historical "heroes and villains" were frequently people of remarkable ambitions and abilities.
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By ingliz
#15157010
'Now reading Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 6 volumes (Everyman Edition).

'Just finished Snow by Orhan Pamuk.
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By Heisenberg
#15157382
Stumbled upon this and simply couldn't resist. Viva Posadas! :lol:
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Drlee wrote:Historians have the annoying habit of trying avoid admitting that our historical "heroes and villains" were frequently people of remarkable ambitions and abilities.

I know he isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I've always thought the podcaster Dan Carlin explains the tension between "great man" and "trends and forces" history pretty well.

Think about the Reformation, for example: sure, the rise in literacy, the printing press and general discontent with corruption in the Catholic Church were the long term trends that gave rise to it; but you still need someone with Martin Luther's balls, charisma and intelligence for it to go anywhere.
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By fuser
#15157403
I actually don't like Dan Carlin, I find him too cinematic, if that can be the correct word to describe someone. On historical podcasts, I like that guy who is doing the Age Of Napoleon podcast.
By ness31
#15157541
Not my usual type of thing but it was recommended to me; This is Going to Hurt - Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor

So far, very funny. I’ve had some genuine lolz. It’s also quite graphic. I don’t know how medical folk do what they do. Bleh.
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By Drlee
#15157547
@ness31 This is Going to Hurt - Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor

So far, very funny. I’ve had some genuine lolz. It’s also quite graphic. I don’t know how medical folk do what they do. Bleh.


If you want to read one that is a medical school standard and also very funny do "The House of God" by Samuel Shem. It is about internship and is also very funny. In a very quirky sort of way.
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By Godstud
#15157549
Just got a new shipment from Bookdepository.com. Free shipping anywhere in the world!!

This will tide me over for a while. :D

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I took @Drlee's advice and got some Patrick O'Brian novels.
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