Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Shepherd of the Hills

SBN: 50000 (Fiction)
Title: Shepherd of the Hills
Author: Harold Bell Wright
Publisher: A. L. Burt Co.
Quality: 8
Difficulty: 6
Worldview: 7 (Deistic – Evangelical)
Summary:
A stranger from the city comes to the Ozarks. Daniel Howitt (for that is his name) decides to live there and teaches that to be a noble person it is not necessary to live in the city. Rather, being noble has to do with one's character and the way one uses one's self. I could say more but that would give away the story.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Government by Supreme Principle

Many men have been praising Democracy and elections to day as if that is good in the world. However some more recent events show that that is not a true statement. Democracy, that it is the form of government whereby the governed popularly elect their leaders, has failed and will continue to fail, to give all men freedom, justice and order, these are the three Supreme Principles of good government. Please do not mistake me, I do not mean for any of the three to be overweighted, though they must stay in that order, but rather that they must be in harmony with each other.
The Principle of Freedom is that each person must get what is most his due without taking from his fellow citizen. Lady Liberty has a torch and smile to show to each his right to life, to liberty, to own property, to worship as he pleases, to speak as he chooses.
The Principle of Justice is that to each man who takes the rights of another without just cause it must be repaid to him the same in proportion of the proof of the crime. Lady Justice weighs out the penalty with the crime and caries the sword to exact the price.
The Principle of Order is that the government is ruled by law, the for the purpose of preserving the higher rights of the people, the government may make rules which take away some of the lower rights and in emergency some of the higher rights may be temporally suspended in order to preserve those higher than the ones suspended. Lady Wisdom calls in the streets to “give understanding to the simple” and preserve the liberty and the justice provided by her sisters.
A perfect government may come in any form but it is always the one in which those three sisters work and sing in perfect harmony and no person in that government's domain is neglected.
I know no government in this life will be perfect so each must be judged on how close it comes to having those Principles, and though they work in harmony Freedom is the eldest and Order the youngest and that is their order of importance. Each government must also be judged on how rapidly it draws near to or leads away from those principles.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Wilderness: the Discovery of a Continent of Wonder

SBN(Simple Book Number):30000 (History)
Title: Wilderness: the Discovery of a Continent of Wonder
Author: Rutherford Platt
Publisher: City, Year: Dodd, Mead & Company: New York, 1961
Quality (How Factual, Useful, etc. is the book)(0-10): 5
Vocabulary or Difficulty(0-10): 3 (4th grade)
Worldview(0-10): 4 (Atheistic)

Summary: This is a book about America being discovered; about the wilderness in its prime before any European stepped foot in it and settled it.

Cautions: It presents Evolution and sister theories as fact. One pen drawing of Sacajawea nude from the waist up.