Shooting at the Moon details the "alliance" between the American government and the Hmong (Meo) minority people of Laos during the Lao civil wars. Roger Warner writes with a very readable, journalistic style that draws the reader in. The book tracks several main "characters" throughout the war's development and escalation, explores possible motivations for American involvement, and the aftermath of the American betrayal of the Hmong. If you have read "The Ugly American," then you will see many instances of those fictional events happening for real in Shooting at the Moon.

As a university student who read this book to complement a research paper, I was disapppointed. Although very reader-friendly, Warner's style also verges on fiction and it is difficult to separate true fact from his interpretations of events. In such a book, this may be unavoidable, given that he attempts to plop the reader down into Laos of the late 1960's and 1970's. Warner does his job in that sense, but in doing so he blurs the line between fact and fiction. Moreover, I find that he often glosses over events and writes in a very American style, sometimes very dismissive of the Lao and Meo peoples. However, if you are looking for a "real life" wartime Communism vs. Capitalism cliffhanger, then Shooting at the Moon should fulfill that role quite nicely. For more thoroughly researched and more comprehensive books on Lao history, including the Lao Revolution, I would recomend Arthur J. Dommen's Laos: Keystone of Indochina and anything by Martin Stuart-Fox.

Warner accurately captures the bizarre twists and turns of the U.S. surrogate warfare efforts in Laos. My experience as a direct participant during the 1972-75 time frame gives me the advantage of being able to attest to some of Warner's chronicle. The historical record also provides us information on the failed strategies used by the American State Department in their desire to control events in Laos. Although the North Vietnamese considered all of Southeast Asia as their theater of operations, the American effort, in contrast, became one of disjointed and , at times, bumbling entities running into each other without effective command and control. This does not in any way diminish the heroic efforts of honest men trying too carry out tactical operations while complying with unreasonable controls of the American government bureaucracy. The legacy of these failed strategies can be seen with the difficult acclimation of the Hmong into American society. Warner's spares us the micro detail and intense emotionalism of other books on the same surrogate warfare. This makes "Shooting at the Moon" a good compelling read. With the above bureaucratic absurdities in mind, Warner was right on when he said that "it was the Americans who were shooting at the moon"!

The author spent years gathering the material for this book and Warner has written the definitive book on the period. Rarely has a non-participant so closely captured the feel and intensity of the times. I worked as a fighter pilot with the Raven FACs and was totally astounded at how good this book reads. A triumph.

If you think you'll buy this book hoping to get Mad's parodies of the best movies of all time, you will be severely disappointed. Instead what you will get is a collection of Mad's parodies of Warner Brother movies from the past three decades. What this means--

1. Don't expect to see, say, "Taxi Driver" or "The Graduate" or any other great film that wasn't produced by Warner Brothers.

2. The book has a few parodies of Warner Brothers' best ("The Exorcist," "Jaws," "A Clockwork Orange", but the rest of it is filled with WB's not-so-bests ("The Goonies," "Altered States"). Why this happened makes sense, if you think about it. Obviously, the editors only had a handful of classic Warner Brothers films to deal with and found that once they used them, they had to pad out the book with Warner Brother's less stellar fare. (Oh, yeah, "ERASER"-- that was fun to see parodied again!)

Also frustrating for me was how, as the book progressed chronologically, the parodies were handled more and more by Angelo Torres and Paul Coker, Jr and less by Mort Drucker. If you also hoped to buy this book expecting the definitive collection of the master's greatest work, you will be crushed-- he fills only about half the book.

All in all, not the best out of Mad's anthologies.

I love Mad magazine and I love all movies, so this book was the BEST thing that combines the two!

Book brings back the glory days of both Warner Brothers Pictures and Mad Magazine

Author has good credentials but a silly irritating style. Finds it necessary to shove a smarmy apology for about a paragraph for throwing in some history (Anti-Federalists, Whigs, etc.) which is essential to understanding Republican roots and the daytime TV level apology ends up running almost longer than the very brief historical background. Part personal memoire, part daily journalism on a USA Today level, part sophmore poli-sci term paper...and none of these parts fit or work together. Buy Republican Party Reptile by PJ instead.

"It's My Party" is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read in my life. In this book the author takes us on a tour of the Republican Party (circa 2000) and highlights the highs and lows of the party as well as pointing out things like the regional distribution of the party, why people tend to be either Republican or Democrat, and his own personal journey in life as a Republican.

You will meet various personalities in the party such as George W. Bush, Brett Schundler, Rudy Gulliani, Henry Hyde, Haley Barbour, and many others. The chapter called "A Tale of Two Cities" shows that the voters of New Jersey made a huge mistake in not electing Brett Schundler as their governor while also showing that the country as a whole made a huge mistake in not supporting the House Republicans on the matter of Clinton's Impeachment. Robinson shows this not by criticizing groups, but by revealing what a great man Schundler is and also while telling the story of the House Republicans and Impeachment honestly (which the news media did not).

Another great strength in the book is the discussion on how the Republicans can reach out to non-traditional Republican groups such as African-Americans, Roman Catholics, and others.

In short, "It's My Party" is highly recommended.

You don't have to be a Republican to enjoy Peter Robinson's "It's My Party." At the start, Robinson tells us that we're about to follow him on a tour of the GOP, circa 2000. We do, but somehow along the way we learn almost as much about the Democrats and about political America generally, how it got this way and where it is going. Robinson writes like a humorist, and so he's an easy read -- lots of fun. But don't let his wit fool you. Even as you're chuckling, he's sketching for you an extraordinarily sophisticated and penetrating portrait of our nation and the great institutions, issues and trends that are shaping it as it enters the new millenium. I enjoyed every chapter and, when I finished, felt tremendously glad that I'd read it.

This is a reprint of the 1965 edition. This book was originally a two volume set. It's now a large 818-page, unwieldy paperback in the narrow format of Dover reprints. (Don't get me wrong I love Dover reprints, this one is just too thick for the format). The second half from page 512 on is all that is worth while anyway. This book is very pendantic in the worse "New Math" sense (circa 1960). Meaning it emphasizes arbitrary abstract axioms, lacks historic perspective, concrete examples and real world applications; and, much is left to the reader as exercises. This is a shame since Modern Algebra is rich in history and application. The pedantic pretensions don't stop there. The book uses the number theorem approach to proofs without mentioning their common names (Since history is completely absent, this isn't a surprise). This is NOT a standard reference today, if it ever was in the past. Memorizing the theorem numbers will do you no good in your coffee shop conversations. The book only gets interesting in it's latter half, it's too bad you have to lug the first 500 pages along for the ride. Adding insult to pedantry, the really interesting parts are left as exercises! That's ok if you're paying big bucks for a professor and a TA to help you along, but as a self-study book, it's down right annoying. If you're looking for an introduction, I'd recommend Herstein's Topics in Algebra or Birkoff & MacLane's Survey over this one. If you're looking for more advanced treatment, I'd recommend Van der Waerden's Modern Algebra or Jacobson's Lectures in Abstract Algebra. These come in multi-volume sets that making reading easier. I'm sure there are better current books on the subject, but I'm not familiar enough to make a recommendation. I can only dissuade you from purchasing this one as your only reference or an intro.

Hard reading at times but worth the money. Get Durbin's "Modern Algebra" if you can afford it. Despite what some other reviewers are saying the exercises alone validate buying the book. CONTENTS: ALGEBRAIC STRUCTURES (sets,isomorphism in general, groups, an embedding theorem), NEW STRUCTURES FROM OLD (equivalence relations, quotient structures, some isomorphism theorems), THE NATURAL NUMBERS, RINGS AND FIELDS, VECTOR SPACES, POLYNOMIALS, REAL AND COMPLEX NUMBERS (constructions), ALGEBRAIC EXTENSIONS OF FIELDS (Galois Theory), LINEAR OPERATORS, INNER PRODUCT SPACES (Spectral Theorem), AXIOM OF CHOICE.

This book has received much undue criticism from other reviewers. Yes, the book is too thick (should be two volumes) and a bit old. But consider this:

I've self-taught myself most of this book in the past year, while attending school full-time as a materials science major (a whole field known to shy away from mathematics).

This book is unbelievably affordable and covers most of the main topics of modern algebra (good enough for those of us who just want to learn basics).

The book is entirely self-contained, which helps a lot if you don't have the most extensive mathematics background.

If your discipline isn't math but you're tired of "learning," ie. skirting around mathematical topics, in your classes, check out this book.

You are probably thinking of buying this book to save the cost of attorneys fees. Take my advice and don't do it! This book is based on the premise that the court system is a place where actual rules apply and that you will receive some sort of respect (or at least your constitutional rights) from the arrogant swine who inhabit the system. Nothing could be further from the truth! "He who represents himself has a fool for a client" is true not because you are a fool but because the system is a farce and designed to make a fool out of you.All court system paid participants have a vested interest in guaranteeing that you not be allowed to represent yourself in court. The major failing of this book (written by attorneys) is to pretend that you will be accorded some respect and receive a fair hearing. Some of the preposterous suggestions include hiring an attorney at a reduced fee to act as your advisor! (I will give $1000 to anyone able to find an attorney to act in such a capacity) Other absurd suggestions: that you can demand a fair hearing and complain to higher authorities that will insure you receive it.(no, they are all part of the system). This book cost me thousands. I asked for a refund from the authors.......guess what?, they refused.

Overall, I'd give this a positive rating, but since it's written for all 50 states, it is so broad in its coverage that it makes it difficult to learn about how to pursue your lawsuit in your particular state.

I'd suggest reading this book and trying to fill out forms as you go. Pick up the 'local rules' from your own court, and study them for what Bergman doesn't tell you.

One thing I will say, though, is that one bit of advice was invaluable...on visiting the court before your motion or case is heard. I did this, and it took a lot of the mystery out of the whole process.

By doing this, by the way, I was completely surprised that (in the motion hearings) that most of what took place was pretty much on a par with small claims court, with a few legal latin phrases peppering the give-and-take. Most of the motions I heard consisted of two things: Why one or the other party failed to meet deadlines, and trying to get the other guy's case thrown out before everyone went to trial.

One other thing that was also surprising...the opposing lawyers where pretty buddy-buddy with each other. I guess the hostility and animosity that one would associate with a lawsuit pretty much reside only in the parties to the suit themselves.

In my appearance, I took it very cool and did not act emotional at all. Let's face it...the court doesn't want to hear it. They just want to get done so they can go to lunch.

This book gives an understandable rendition of the various legal
procedures involved in bringing a major lawsuit into the Court
system. It is most helpful in assisting litigants with case
organization and presentation. The work explains how to document
a case throughout the various phases of a lawsuit with particular
emphasis on presentation of exhibits for trial. The work is
written in a belles lettres style. It could be read by anyone
wanting to understand the litigation process, as well as
law students taking courses in Civil Litigation. The book could
be useful in organizing a case so that a lawyer could pick it
up at a later time. Very often, the details of a claim may not
be fully known until the deposition process has been completed.
I would supplement this book with the purchase of a Civil
Procedure book if the intention is to complete the entire process
right through to trial. This work focuses on the documentation
you will need to develop in order to prove a case at trial.
The work has a good coverage of negotiation strategies.
Ultimately, it is in your interest to deal with a lawyer during
a formal negotiation in order to ascertain that you've secured
a fair deal.It pays to become familiar with a local legal
library as a supplement to this text. In addition, you should
utilize the internet in order to review similar cases
in the various Court jurisdictions relating to your case.
Sometimes it pays to talk to a lawyer who has completed a similar
case in order to gain perspective on the intricacies of the
whole process. This text gives you a good start.
It would be most helpful in organizing the type of case
that only develops after the deposition process is complete.
Early in the litigation, you should do some research in order
to identify cases similar to yours that have been decided.
The past precedent or stare decisis is very critical to
presenting a claim because it encapsules your case into
a similar fact pattern consistent with other cases that have
been decided by the Courts.It is to your benefit to do legal
research in identifying similar cases to your own either by
going into the legal libraries yourself, researching the
internet or paying a small fee for a legal research firm
to identify similar cases as the one you are filing.

I was intrigued when I heard that Dark Horse was creating an alternative history series to the Star Wars universe. I am a major Star Wars Fan and a fan of 'what if?' scenarios and alternative history. I was very pleased with the Infinities take on Episode IV: A New Hope.

When Luke's torpedoes detonate prematurely, he, in his X-Wing, and Han and Chewie, in the Falcon, are forced to flee Yavin 4. Princess Leia and other rebel generals manage to escape the moon just before a lethal blow is delivered. However, Leia manages to end up in the hands of Vader and the Rebellion is crushed. Vader and the Emporer begin a slow brain washing of the princess.

The story unfolds from there, and the writers did a good job imagining the 'future' from the divergence they created. Most of their decisions were plausible inside the Star Wars Universe. They also did a good job writing dialogue for most of the characters. Han's dialogue is especially true to spirit. I felt the conclusion a touch controversial, and maybe outside the bounds of what a Jedi Master would do, but that could be just me.

The art is good, but not great. The best treatments were saved for Vader and Leia. The 'dark side' look for Leia was especially good. There is a sabre duel in the second half of the book that is a little weak. I won't spoil it by giving away all the details, but most of the panels that involve the combat are just the two combatants with their sabres crossed. I also felt that Coruscant was not adequately represented.

I'm not certain anyone who is unfamiliar with the Star Wars story would appreciate this graphic novel. Fans of the Star Wars saga should really enjoy it. I can't wait for the Infinities treatment of The Empire Strikes Back.

I never thought I'd get into the comic books, but after reading and enjoying Star Wars Tales, I decided to give this one a try too, and I was certainly not dissapointed! The story is done very tastefully, showing what logically would have happened if the attempt to destroy the Death Star had failed. The characters are right on, and the concept of Leia on the dark side is just to cool to resist. The conclusion made the whole book; and I'm sure any true Star Wars fan would agree. Like most comic books it's a little pricy, but well worth it.

This comic-novel tells a What-If story. What if Luke Skywalker's torpedoes had detonated short of their target, leaving the Deathstar intact? With the rebellion crushed, the Emperor has new schemes under way, and Leia Organa is part of them. While Luke trains with Yoda, the Emperor refashions Leia into the perfect tool, and now it is up to Luke, Han, Chewie, Threepio and Yoda to set the universe right.

This is a great book, with a great story. Honestly, from the cover, I expected a dark tale that ground the original characterizations into hamburger. Instead, this story takes the exact same characters as the original Star Wars movie, and moved them through a new set perils. Each character acted the way you would expect, giving the story a real sense of continuity with the movie.

Further, I found the story to be quite interested, and was held reading until the very end. This is a great Star Wars book, excellently illustrated, that I highly recommend to all readers!

This book is a very good introduction to the art and sport of Kendo. It contains a full description of all techniques a beginner will be faced with as well as some very good suggestions for methods of practice, solo and with others. I do like the fact that the advanced competitive techniques are listed, but they are given very little description, forcing the owner of this book to put it down after about a year of use alongside work in the dojo. The glossary is excellent and useful as well as the introduction to bogu(armour), the shinai(bamboo sword) and the essentials of etiquette and competition. This book, however, completely lacks information about the kata, which are important for grading and it lacks (as I said before) adequate description of advanced techniques, and stances. I found the section on history, which takes up about a third of the book, to be colourful, interesting, and well condensed, but containing useless comparisons between samurai and knight, and misinformation about knights(i.e. crusaders wielding 9 foot longswords [implicitly in one hand!]),a comparison of stances with knights which is completely untenable(i.e. the knight moved body and sword together [how can one generalize like this, especially without any reference to European medieval fighting manuals, which show something quite different?]) and that Japanese armour was not "burdensome" like European plate. What does "burdensome" mean when one is trying to avoid death by deflecting arrows and other sharp objects with one's armour and when most soldiers wore only partial suits of plate supplementing it with other materials? These historical inaccuracies aside, the book gives the reader an excellent idea of what to expect in the dojo, and an excellent resource aid for practice during the first stages of learning. Since other more complete books on the subject are now available, I recommend this book to someone who wants a friendly, very thorough, understandable and clear introduction to the martial art which will give the reader a good grounding in all basic elements. But, if the reader wants a complete manual to last in usefulness beyond the basics and into medium and higher-level play, that reader would be advised to look elsewhere.

Even though this book is older (published in 1964!) it's an excellent source for what kendo actually "is." It has basic coverage of techniques and actual tournament play and practice, and has very good coverage on etiquette and philosophy (in fact, unmatched coverage of these), but lacks in many other areas (such as kendo kata, and a good description of zanshin). This was my first kendo book (and in fact the only one available at the time) and I found it an excellent starting point (and very interesting reading) but as far as a reference goes, Kendo: The Definitive Guide is much more up to date and comprehensive. That's not to say that this book shouldn't be in your library; I still believe that this should be the first book ANY aspiring or established kendoist owns.

This book, along with Fundamental Kendo (of the Zen Nihon Kendo Remmei) are still the most important kendo books around. Now, as we all know, Fundamental Kendo is out of print, so you should at least own a copy of this one.

I read the mystery as part of a Black Literature discussion group here in suburban Maryland, outside DC. Good story. Humor. Action doesn't fade when the events begin to come together in the denouement. I identified with Darryl Billups more than I did with Easy Rollins in Walter Mosely's "Devil in a Blue Dress", although the latter had a better story line. Since our discussion group quickly got off the subject of Walker's book, I missed the opportunity to talk about the newspaper journalist's life, and places and scenes mentioned in the story about Baltimore. I will read Mr. Walker's next work as well.

I just loved this book. A fan of mysteries, but having trouble finding ones to my liking, I was so pleased when I read this book. Daryll Billups, kept me laughing and intrigued. I also like that his character was fully developed. I loved hearing about what was going on in his life outside of his detective work. I liked the set up for a series, because I will be looking out for future books. Make sure you pick this one up.

Darryl Billups, Baltimore Maryland Police Reporter, has to deal with office politics, personal relationships, and the evils of race hate and domestic terrorism. Walker has an excellent ear for conversations, and an excellent eye for real life situations. There is little need for suspension of disbelief, so well structured is the plot and the characterizations. A nice blend of public and private, suspense and romance.

Although this is considered by many to be the bible of bartending, I found that it is incomplete. There are many newer drinks that are not mentioned. Unfortionately, many of the guides that have a more complete drink list do not have as much peripheral information. This book is really good at helping a person set up their own home bar. It also has little fun facts about alcohol and toats from around the world.

Mr. Bostons Official Bartenders Book, thats what you will find. From pubs in Scotland to hole in the wall bars in Hawaii, bartenders all over the world use this book. I find that no matter what, I always find this book usefull and it's always close at hand. The information is given in a style that a bartender understands. It does lack many of the "Trendy drinks" but those are hard to keep up with since you would have to publish a new version each month. But it does contain almost every tradional drink around and even some I havent heard of before!

Best bar guide I've read; concise, excellent variety. What I especially like is that the recipes are from scratch; no powder or liquid mixes. It does list liquor ingredients by Mr. Boston brands but one can easily substitute one's favorite liquors. Also gives good basics on barware, glasses, measurements and more.

I have a feeling that once the smoke clears, it will be the customers who pay the price for the AOL Time Warner debacle. I say this as a reader of this book and a consumer who has pulled my hair out trying to deal with both companies after the merger only to discover the right hand didn't know what the left was doing.

Klein's reporting brings clarity and insight to those of us who don't quite grasp the goings on at AOL Time Warner. It also provides us with a better understanding of the hostility many in the business world seem to have toward AOL. The internet officials seem to have had constant ethical lapses, often played it fast and loose with their competitiors, and bullied their supposed business partners.

Greed seems to be the overriding principle here as Steve Case and Jerry Levin, two very different individuals joined their companies together. The "old media" Time Warner was not prepared for new kid AOL, a company which seems to have operated since it's beginning with an illusion of greater financial success than it actually had. One wonders if a little investigation by Time Warner officials into AOL's practices could have avoided the disaster.

Klein successfully pieces together how in the end, Case and Levin are undone by their own arrogance and people such as Ted Turner and Dick Parsons, colleagues they grossly underestimated.

This is a terrific new book by a Washington Post reporter who followed AOL for the newspaper through its ups, its way ups, its downs and its way downs (now). The most appealing part of the book is that the subject is approached without malice. Klein could have taken a muckraking, expose the crooks attitude, but he did not. Perhaps this is because he spent so much time with "the boys at AOL" during the time he covered them for the Post.
The book appears to be very thoroughly documented and balanced. In the end, however, we are left with one, strong conclusion: AOL cooked the books to get the merger done with Time Warner and continued to cook them as long as possible to keep the numbers up after the merger. They did so, as has been documented previously, by booking phony ad sales when money flowed both ways and counting as revenue money that had not yet arrived.
It is clear, from this book and other reporting, that AOL should never have taken over Time Warner, any more than a mouse should try to eat an elephant. AOL was flying high on the combination of its subscriber revenues, temporarily inflated ad revenues and, more importantly, the expectations of investors that the Internet had no known limits (it did). Most of this had to be known Steve Case and his high spending, high flying group at AOL. They went ahead with the merger anyway, at all costs. Turns out, they lost their jobs and, for many of them, their fortunes.
There is no doubt that a kind of stock and money madness enveloped AOL. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect, for some, will be the revelations about how much money was wasted both by AOL and its stock optioned employees on their own. While the record is shocking, I have a feeling that Klien barely scratched the surface in this regard.
This book should be interesting to anyone who follows American business, who invested in tech stocks during the gold rush and anyone else who simply wants to learn about human nature and money. Highly recommended.

This is a terrific new book by a Washington Post reporter who followed AOL for the newspaper through its ups, its way ups, its downs and its way downs (now). The most appealing part of the book is that the subject is approached without malice. Klein could have taken a muckraking, expose the crooks attitude, but he did not. Perhaps this is because he spent so much time with "the boys at AOL" during the time he covered them for the Post.
The book appears to be very thoroughly documented and balanced. In the end, however, we are left with one, strong conclusion: AOL cooked the books to get the merger done with Time Warner and continued to cook them as long as possible to keep the numbers up after the merger. They did so, as has been documented previously, by booking phony ad sales when money flowed both ways and counting as revenue money that had not yet arrived.
This book is lively, a quick read and not harshly judgmental toward AOL, even while presenting strong indications that negative judgments would be justified. As at other high flying enterprises in the 1990s, AOL people often used company money like it was Iraqi dinars looted from the central bank. The "expensed" lavish trips and parties and rode their stock options to the stars. Almost every reference to Steve Case finds him in a different city, often other continents. Why work when you can travel in high style?
There is no doubt that a kind of stock and money madness enveloped AOL. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect, for some, will be the revelations about how much money was wasted both by AOL and its stock optioned employees on their own. While the record is shocking, I have a feeling that Klien barely scratched the surface in this regard.
It is clear, from this book and other reporting, that AOL should never have taken over Time Warner, any more than a mouse should try to eat an elephant. AOL was flying high on the combination of its subscriber revenues, temporarily inflated ad revenues and, more importantly, the expectations of investors that the Internet had no known limits (it did). Most of this had to be known Steve Case and his high spending, high flying group at AOL. They went ahead with the merger anyway, at all costs. Turns out, they lost their jobs and, for many of them, their fortunes. This was not a good merger that went bad, this was a merger that should never have even been considered, much less finished.
This book should be interesting to anyone who follows American business, who invested in tech stocks during the gold rush and anyone else who simply wants to learn about human nature and money. Highly recommended.