Book Reviews
Old Embers
A Lesson in Courage
The need for civil courage - the courage to speak out when all are against you - is as great as the need for physical courage.
Mar 9, 2010 - 12:15:51 AM
Old Embers
City for Conquest
The "Conquest of the City" is an emotionally - rewarding movie which reveals the truth that Americans now labor under an alien, materialist ideology.
Mar 7, 2010 - 5:32:38 AM
Old Embers
Nicholas and Alexandra
The martyrdom of the Russian people will forever have a symbol in the death of the Romanovs. The execution of the Russian imperial family at the hands of the Bolsheviks makes a tragic ending to the film Nicholas and Alexandra, a historical drama called "the last of the epics."
Feb 13, 2010 - 3:48:29 AM
Old Embers
Nature, Mother of Invention by Felix Paturi
Indeed, the title of the book was originally, "The Genial Engineers of Nature, How Plants are Technologically Superior." But it would be a mistake to recommend the book merely as a compilation of natural curiosities.
Jan 30, 2010 - 12:20:45 AM
Old Embers
Dark Victory
We Americans aspire to a carefree life, a life which finds it meaning in the pursuit of money and pleasure. Indeed, many of our countrymen think of life as a non-stop party.
Dec 27, 2009 - 12:10:49 AM
Old Embers
Vigil in the Night
As for the movie being unrealistic, it should be remembered that the screenplay was based on a novel by A.J. Cronin, a physician turned novelist.
Dec 7, 2009 - 1:56:11 AM
Old Embers
Two Stories for Children
That America has fallen so far to allow such a movie to be shown to children is another matter. But what is the political significance of these two stories?
Nov 13, 2009 - 12:20:02 AM
Book Reviews
Treason from the Left: A Review of Matt Bracken's "Foreign Enemies and Traitors"
Will America survive the upcoming years as a "sovereign nation," or will the hideous dream of a one-world government be our fate? This is the paramount issue facing America in the 21st century; it transcends all other concerns.
May 29, 2009 - 3:36:20 PM
Book Reviews
Review: Predators and Child Molesters
Each year thousands of children are subjected to violent crimes such as sexual abuse and kidnappings. The US Justice Department considers protecting children from victimization a top priority. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the DOJ's primary component that investigates crimes against children.
May 17, 2009 - 10:45:45 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Blood and Sand
Longfellow once called a man who could speak up against popular opinion 'a brave man' and 'a man of pluck and courage.' How much more courageous is the man who risks death to defend the right! We will all need courage in the coming days, as an out-of-control government edges closer to tyranny. Death is, of course, the supreme test of courage and fortitude, and the willingness to stand for principle.
May 14, 2009 - 10:04:45 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Voyage of Forgotten Men
A wise philosopher once said that books are the true wealth of mankind. If so, then the pastime of browsing through an old bookstore is like a search for hidden treasure. The glossier and finer a book looks, the less it is likely to be worth. The best books are often the ones that are the most worn, or that have been carefully wrapped in a plain paper cover and tucked away in a dusty corner.
May 13, 2009 - 11:04:52 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Night of the Hunter
Euclid the Geometrician once met King Ptolemy in one of the shining white palaces that adorned the ancient city of Alexandria. The king was eager to know the mathematician's system, and he asked, without thinking, if there were a shortcut to learning Euclid's many theorems and postulates. "Sire," the great mathematician answered, "There is no royal road to learning."
Apr 20, 2009 - 5:17:04 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Dangerous
Hollywood has a perverse genius for subverting moral values, and this genius is nowhere more apparent than in its miscasting of characters. Just as Hollywood fails to understand certain moral values, it has a lack of understanding of that which drives and illuminates any movie role - the human personality.
Apr 2, 2009 - 11:18:13 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: My Man Godfrey
With crime out-of-control, broken borders, and no-good-nicks doling out trillions of dollars to millions of deadbeats, some of us are feeling down in the dumps. Many millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Millions more face home foreclosure. Others are scraping by to buy food or badly-needed medicine. Still others are being turned out into the street.
Mar 19, 2009 - 5:34:26 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Marxist Minstrels - A Handbook on Communist Subversion of Music
After moving into my new office last year, I discovered a campaign button, left behind by a dedicated conservative political activist who now works for pro-family and pro-life causes in Augusta. Few campaign buttons express thoughts of lasting value, but this impressive button displays the remarkable observation by the philosopher Schopenhauer regarding the fate of ideas in democratic society. The button reads "All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self evident."
Mar 6, 2009 - 10:42:12 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Lost Weekend
Those in search of a trivia question about Hollywood could not possibly hope to top the following: "Which actress, the ex-wife of an American president, was buried in a nun's habit?" The actress of course was Jane Wyman. When very young, Wyman suffered the loss of her father, a day laborer, and was then abandoned by her impoverished mother, and placed in the care of foster parents. By all accounts, her new parents were cold and harsh disciplinarians, and her childhood was quite miserable.
Feb 17, 2009 - 2:47:56 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: A Tale of Two Cities
The start of a new year is naturally a time for speculating on what the future holds. Most commentators agree that the coming year will bring a deepening economic crisis. One Russian academic has even predicted that America will be plunged into a second civil war, and shattered into six regions. This of course, is one possible outcome of the Obama revolution, and the counter-revolution which must inevitably follow.
Jan 1, 2009 - 7:34:58 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Movie Review: Heidi
The world of darkness wars incessantly against the world of light, never more so than at Christmas. As the day commemorating the birth of Our Saviour approaches, the media will focus on quarrels, shootings, knifings, and economic collapse. People will stand in long lines while surly customers hand plastic cards to scowling shop girls to buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, for people who don't care.
Dec 16, 2008 - 11:25:29 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Searchers
John Wayne was the iconic American hero, a tower of strength, a paragon of individualism and unflinching dedication to God and country. So important was the Duke to the cause of American conservatism, that the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, tried to have him killed. The Duke always maintained that two Soviet agents were dispatched from Moscow to assassinate him on the set of the film "Hondo." Nikita Khruschev told Wayne personally in 1958 that he cancelled the order; and recently disclosed documents from secret Soviet archives prove that Stalin did indeed plan to kill John Wayne.
Dec 4, 2008 - 1:15:05 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Green Promise
Like Solomon before him, Christ was a close observer of the world of sunlight and meadow. He used each flower and each blade of grass to draw the eye of man from earth to Heaven, towards the doctrines of His kingdom. If an idea was remote and obscure, He would show His listeners a picture from their daily lives. Galilee being both a garden spot and a place of many farms, He illustrated His deepest teachings with scenes of wheat fields, vineyards, and threshing floors. And sometimes He used strange paradoxes. How does a man gain his life if he loses it? How does a seed live only if it falls to the ground and dies?
Nov 25, 2008 - 4:54:22 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Roosevelt's Road to Russia
The recovery of lost or forbidden knowledge is a theme which enables science fiction writers to produce useful insights into contemporary society. In the movie The Time Machine, the hero digs through the ruins of the New York Public Library to find the reason why society is running backwards. In Fahrenheit 451, a government agent, equipped with a book-burning apparatus, is enlightened by the same works of politics and philosophy the government sends him to burn.
Nov 3, 2008 - 3:10:38 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Shadows
Rows of sturdy sunflowers, adding green and gold to our gardens in Maine, are a common enough sight. These spectacular products of nature merit closer inspection, however, since they are truly one of the overlooked miracles of life. Their seeds are laid out in an intricate and mathematically precise pattern, and the design of their stalks and leaves are marvels of engineering. But this is not the most astonishing aspect of the sunflower. The sunflower, along with the flowering trees, holds the same position in the plant kingdom that man holds in the animal kingdom. That is, of all the plants, they are the most-highly developed. In children's tales, these cheerful beings with trunks, limbs, and a round leafy top take on the shape of men and speak. How very strange that their form resembles a man!
Oct 21, 2008 - 11:38:37 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Penny Serenade
Anyone who sees through Hollywood's mystifying pretense of "popular entertainment" and discovers what really lies at its rotten core - a sinister preoccupation with, and promotion of the darker side of human existence - may easily conclude that modern day moviemakers are not concerned with values at all. They would be mistaken. Although Hollywood continues to heap trash on the heads of the movie-going public, those who control what we see and hear are careful not to offend certain core values indispensable for their own survival.
Oct 3, 2008 - 11:51:21 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: A Deeper Look at Gone with Wind
An ardent teetotaler, I once sat discussing the movies with a group of very bright young lawyers at Bull Feeney's Tavern in Portland. The subject of the movies naturally occurred to us since Bull Feeney was none other than John Martin Feeney, a Mainer born in Cape Elizabeth who, as John Ford, went on to become America's greatest director.
Sep 25, 2008 - 11:19:49 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: The Cypresses Believe in God
Outside the city of Madrid, in a place called The Valley of the Fallen, stands the largest cross in the world. Visitors on the esplanade below gaze up to a granite cross that weighs two hundred thousand tons and towers one thousand feet over their heads. The colossal scale of the monument is fitting, since it stands for the sacrifice of half a million Spaniards who perished in the Spanish Civil War.
Sep 11, 2008 - 10:19:03 AM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Rose-Marie
Just as New York and Los Angeles are centers of popular culture today, Maine was once home to the most popular singers and songwriters in America. Rudy Vallee of Westbrook, and his popular The Maine Stein Song, is one example. Less well known is Lillian Nordica, a native of Farmington who went on to gain worldwide fame as an opera singer.
Aug 30, 2008 - 9:46:37 PM
Old Embers
Old Embers for New Torches: Satan Never Sleeps
Every Easter, Christmas, or St. Patrick's Day we are sure to see one of Leo McCarey's films on TV. He is best known for his heart-warming movies on religious themes, movies such as The Bells of St. Mary's and Going My Way. McCarey's film An Affair to Remember is the most sensitive and profound treatment of romantic love that ever came out of Hollywood, and will be the subject of a separate "Old Embers" column at a later date.
Aug 14, 2008 - 10:31:39 AM
Book Reviews
Move Over, Johnny Depp! The real Story of Pirates of the Caribbean next Friday in Searsport
SEARSPORT -- Award-winning journalist and author Colin Woodard will tell the REAL story of the pirates of the Caribbean and sign copies of his newest book, The Republic of Pirates, in a night of pirates and intrigue next Friday, June 22nd, at 7 pm in Searsport. The event, co-sponsored by Left Bank Books and the Penobscot Marine Museum, will be held in the Museum's newly-renovated Main Street Gallery at 40 East Main Street just next door to the Museum Store and opposite Left Bank Books. The public is welcome (eye patches optional!) and pirate refreshments will be served.
Jun 8, 2007 - 8:04:27 PM
Ken Christian
Mind Siege: Our Christian Faith is Under Siege
My thoughts today are taken from Tim LaHaye and David Noebel's book, Mind Siege: The Battle for the Truth. Christians, please read this book. It illustrates some important points that the church needs, not only to hear, but to respond to quickly. My comments are taken from, or in part inspired by, this book, sounding Shofars of alarm, calling the church to wake up and defend the rights that we have left, and to retake those that we have already lost.
Jun 7, 2007 - 11:52:08 AM
Book Reviews
A Brief Tour of Schmuckdom
It's not everyday that you get to speak to a legend, but that's what happened to me last month when I found myself interviewing Jackie Mason. He was my uncle's favorite comedian and I'd seen him on television numerous times so I was pleasantly surprised to hear his voice on the other end of the receiver. Although not included in my piece, the funniest parts of our exchange were due to my failing to recognize the rhetorical nature of his aside, "Is this understood?" I kept breaking in with "Yes, sir." Hopefully, he got a kick out of that, but there's no need to wonder what readers will think about his new book, Schmucks!: Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous, and Good Guys Gone Bad, as it's got all the laughs that audiences have come to expect from him.
May 23, 2007 - 12:47:12 PM
Book Reviews
Hillary Clinton, a Trojan Horse?
Like many conservatives, I've been a frequent consumer of Hillariana over the years. I fondly recall the chapters of The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in all the Wrong Places, Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House, and Rewriting History. So, with a mix of stimulation and fatigue, I opened Bay Buchanan's newly released The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton. Undeniably, there are few more topical persons than the junior Senator from New York, but, as works concerning her continue to roll forth, the crucial question regarding the Hill-o-hype is, "what new things does this author have to say?"
May 14, 2007 - 8:06:45 AM
Book Reviews
Christian Book Publisher Seeks New Authors
GRESHAM, OR -- With the recent launch of Anomalos Publishing House - a full-service publisher that seeks to partner with unknown writers (which is extremely rare within traditional book publishing) - some of the nation's hottest authors are lining up to have their books imprinted "Anomalos."
Mar 9, 2007 - 1:56:57 PM
Book Reviews
The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability
Perhaps the best way to educate an audience about a particular subject is to outline the uniqueness of its properties, which is most easily done by juxtaposing its essence alongside what it is not. Professor of Media Studies at Northwestern, Laura Kipnis, in her new book, The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability, uses this strategy to illuminate intrinsic female qualities via the four emblematic areas listed in the title. While it may sound rather popish, her brisk essays succeed in their goal. The author has produced a competent, intelligent, and valuable narrative.
Dec 11, 2006 - 8:38:18 AM
Book Reviews
The Pink Room
The author is a crime reporter and columnist with the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine. This, his second novel, is set in Aroostook, Maine's northernmost county. But the story line deals with a subject not often discussed in "The County," as it is known locally; and that is quantum physics.
Jun 11, 2006 - 3:10:00 PM
Book Reviews
The Weight of Winter
This is the third Cathie Pelletier novel that I've read, and I have to say that they keep getting better.
Sep 5, 2005 - 5:07:00 PM
Book Reviews
Maine Lighthouses: Documentation of Their Past
Built for the single purpose of guiding mariners safely to their destinations, these lights live on today in obsolescence, as reminders of a day when Maine depended on the sea for its livelihood and on the sacrifices of a few underpaid men and women who lighted the way while living in harsh isolation.
Apr 18, 2005 - 12:10:00 PM
Book Reviews
Book Review: Desert Places
Desert Places remains a fascinating read. Blake Crouch has a lot going for him as a writer, and his first novel has more than enough suspense to keep most readers turning the pages.
Jun 15, 2004 - 4:14:00 PM
Book Reviews
Book Review: America's Engineered Decline
The author makes a strong argument that America has been led to the brink of disaster by design. That's the bad news. The good news is that they can still be stopped.
Jun 7, 2004 - 11:40:00 PM
Book Reviews
Book Review: Strange Breed Grows Up
Always eager to review the work of local authors, I am pleased to review Steve Langille's collection of Internet cartoons.
Jun 1, 2004 - 3:07:00 PM
Book Reviews
Book Review: FedEd; The New Federal Curriculum and How It's Enforced
Did you know that the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states clearly that education is a state and local prerogative? Why then do we have a federal curriculum?
Jun 1, 2004 - 12:23:00 AM
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