Triumph Reviews

I'm not a smoker (fortunately my parents totally discouraged me from it, and I had enough smarts to avoid it anyway) but I found this history of the cigarette industry to be quite interesting--especially the facts about the early years.

It got a little dry towards the end, and the whole indictment of the industry has gotten a bit repetitious; I suspect at the time the book was published the message was new, but the message has gotten old fast. (Yes, it's clear that they knew about the health issues, and yes, they did very little about it.)

Overall it's a good read, especially the first half. If you're at all curious about how the cigarette industry came to be, the book does a great job of describing the companies and personalities involved.

Kluger's research is impressively thorough, his writing is lucid, and his insights -- well, insightful. But his inability to leave any detail unexamined makes this more of a resource book than a narrative. Slogging through to the end, became a chore. I mean, there ARE a few other books I'd like to get to before I die . . .

I highly recommend Ashes to Ashes, by Richard Kluger, to anyone who wants to know more about the tobacco industry. Kluger provides a comprehensive history, beginning with the temperance of the tobacco leaf and the physical labor involved in producing marketable tobacco, and ending with the struggles the tobacco industry now faces with public health groups and government regulations. Kluger's narrative style makes this thick, fact packed book easy to read. Rich in history, critical, and thought provoking, Ashes to Ashes is a worthwhile read.

David Dupuis does an admirable job in marshalling the facts in this eminently readable biography of one of hockey's most difficult subjects, the incredible Terry Sawchuk. Illuminated with generous contributions from Sawchuk's family and colleagues, it captures both the highs and the lows and should set the record straight regarding the life, death and career of perhaps the greatest goalie who ever lived. Even though we know how the story ends, the book builds up momentum to become a page-turner, and one almost wishes there were more pages. Its only small shortcoming is a somewhat static style that abruptly jumps back and forth between sporting and domestic scenes. Dupuis makes an earnest effort to understand the roots of the inner rages that drove Sawchuk to excel on the ice and to self-destruct off it. One is left wondering if the lives of Terry and his family might've been any more stable had he been born a couple of generations later; in that sense, his story becomes something of a cautionary tale as well. This compelling biography and hockey history is worthy of addition not only to the shelves of Red Wings and Maple Leafs fans, but to that of anyone who wants a better understanding of Sawchuk's incomparable legacy to the game.

Before I read this book, all I ever knew about Terry Sawchuck was that he was the greatest goalie ever to play the game of hockey. After reading this book I found out how a great athlete of the past is so much like the athletes of today. Sawchuck was an alcoholic womanizer who physically and mentally abused his family. This book tells a compelling story about his personal life and the greatest moments from the games he played. This book is a must for any hockey fan.

THE AUTHOR DOES A SPECTACULOR JOB SHOWING THE GREAT CAREER OF A HOCKEY LEGEND. FROM HIS CHILDHOOD TO HIS FINAL DAYS, TERRY SAWCHUK WAS A VERY COMPLEX MAN. GOOD VS. EVIL FIGHT ALWAYS GOING ON INSIDE HIM. THE DREADED DEMON ALCOHOLISM IS WELL DESCRIBED AS TO WHY HE HAD SUCH ANGER AND MOOD SWINGS. A GREAT CAREER AND TURBULENT FAMILY LIFE. EVERY ASPECT OF SAWCHUK'S LIFE IS SO WELL DESCRIBED BY MR. DUPUIS. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BIOGRAPHIES I HAVE READ. THANKS FOR A GREAT JOB MR. DUPUIS. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This is a very handsome book with lovely graphs etc. However I was after a useful summary of historical market performance.

This book was lacking in several respects:

1. The numbers behind the graphs are not provided and are not available so you cannot do any further analysis yourself. The graphs themselves are also drawn in such a way that it is hard to extract the numbers using a ruler.

2. The problem of survivorship bias. They claim that while the 16 countries analysed are an incomplete list (only 70% of world GDP in 1900), this is not a big problem, they feel. Their message that stocks do well in the long run supposedly remains intact, however they do not provide any solid evidence of this. The countries left out of course suffered terrible performance, with total confiscation of assets in most cases and major losses in others.

The countries left out include: Russia, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America. As an example, Argentina was the wealthiest country 100 years ago but was left out. They claim that their criterion for inclusion was the availability of data, but Switzerland was included even though the data is incomplete.

In my opinion, some attempt should have been made to adjust for this problem.

3. No assessment is made of the issue of capital controls etc as an impedement to implementing the world indexing strategy. It is simply assumed that equal dollar indexing could be implemented without any costs, and with no taxes.

All in all, this book fails to provide a realistic and convincing assessment of global investment returns in the real world.

Victor Niederhoffer uses this book to justify his bullishness on stocks, Sorry Vic, no cigar.

If you remove good solid research and objectivity you have the foundation for 90% of the investment books at large. "Triumph", however, is a member of the other elite 10%. The authors have made a tremendous effort to present only the facts. And, they're given to you in a concise, clear fashion with corresponding color graphs for further elucidation. This is an especially gargantuan accomplishment given the wide breadth of data they've tackled. If you're interested in gaining an accurate perspective of the history of global markets, buy this book...if you're not, then all I can say is "eventus stultorum magister".

"In writing this book," authors Dimson, Marsh, and Staunton conclude, "we set out to answer four big questions: How have stock markets performed over the twentieth century, domestically and internationally? How has this compared with bonds and bills? What has been the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations? And what toll has inflation taken?"

In answering these questions, the authors have achieved perhaps the greatest triumph: assembling a 101 year database from 16 countries that is free from the "easy data" biases that result from utilizing readily available--but skewed--financial information.

In the spirit of their title, the authors find that stocks worldwide provide real risk-adjusted returns above and beyond bills and bonds. Interestingly, their estimates of risk premia are more modest than those offered by traditional sources. They also provide intriguing support for seasonality effects and the favorable returns associated with high dividend yields, value investing, and worldwide diversification.

Quite simply, I know of no other source of information on the "big picture" of investing that is as thorough or as lucidly outlined. This is a rare work of theoretical *and* practical significance.

I stumbled across this book by accident on a vacation to Hawaii (I was originally looking for a book on scuba diving) but I'm glad I did. Most new works coming out on Islam focus -- for better or for worse -- on the Prophet Muhammad or on contemporary fundamentalism. Considering this is a religion at least 1400 years old (or older, if you believe the Quran), that's a heck of a gap. The period in Khalifah, which is commonly known as the Rashidun period for "Righly Guided" Caliphs, is unfortunately rarely examined outside of Islamic or Middle Eastern studies. But there is plenty of interesting stuff happening: the standard edition of the Quran came during this period, the first inter-Muslim civil wars, not to mention the Arab conquests of the Middle East. So kudos to Mr. Elray for taking on a subject that isn't widely known and successfully retelling it for a contemporary audience.

There are a couple negatives in this book, first and foremost the gratuitous sex scenes. These include references to the Caliph's "maleness" -- I wonder if I could write about St. Peter being well-hung and get away with it? -- as well as the standard let's-sell-more-books type. The only other major minus is the problems with character development: namely there isn't much. But these are minor quibles, considering the obvious hurdle that the author overcame of getting a 21st century American audience to sympathize with a 7th century Muslim conqueror and stay relatively faithful to history.

Overall, I'd say this is a great starter book to read for those interested in learning about classical Islam, and as long as you don't actually practice the faith, you probably won't be offended.

"Khalifah" is a fictional novel based on historical events set in the mid-east. The time period is from 632 A.D. to 661 A.D., Islam is in turmoil as the once unified peoples have scattered and become predominantly a culture of multiple warring tribes. The book is written from the Muslim point of view and includes descriptive details of the violence that was common during that time period. The story line is filled with intrigue and treachery as various factions of the Arab groups vie for power and Mu'awiya is caught up in the events of the time. If you want to understand the customs and mind-set of Islam during that period of time, John Elray does a masterful job of bringing the reader into the daily life and frustrations of the military actions and deceit that were common then.

With well-developed characters and a good story line it is a recommended read with the following reservations. First, this is a novel about very turbulent times and includes a lot of violence. If you don't like violence in your reading then this is not for you. My second concern is that readers understand that this is a fictional novel based on historical events at the beginning of the rise of Islam. The reader should enjoy the book as a novel and as a window to understanding that time period, not as a political commentary of modern day Islam. If you are able to do so then you will find it an interesting read.

The novel Khalifah, by John Elray, is a fast paced, account of the real-life historical events which took place in the Middle East during the first half of the seventh century AD, the period when Arabia wrestled control of this region from the Greeks and Persians. John Elray employs many plot twists throughout the book which keeps the reader guessing as to how the hero, Muawiya, will reach his ultimate destiny. I found the book interesting, compelling, and entertaining, and would recommend anyone seeking an easy-to-read, informative account of Islam and its history/culture to read this novel.

I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of this book -- an analysis that promised to expand the debate of the over the goods vs. evils of commercialism and its consumers. Unfortunately, it fell way short. Twitchell seems to think that his audience is (like a commerical audience?) satisfied by brief, unreferenced anecdotes as evidence of a dynamic, give and take between advertisers and their audience. While seeming lofty (and at times arrogant), Twitchell fails to back up his claims that media culture is, indeed, akin to art and religion, and responds to, rather than preempts and sets, cultural trends. I would love for another edition of this book to be released with expanded facts and figures (for which Twitchell only adds a sprinkle here and there, when they back up his arguments), and certainly some documentation of his sources. A real unconvincing disappointment. Save your money.

AdCult is about culture and advertising; both the culture of advertising and the influence of advertising on culture. This is not something we see explored very often or very deeply. As the author points out, one of the main reasons for this is similar to the reason dairy farmers tend to drink proportionately less milk than other groups. We are so immersed in advertising that we stop thinking about it as a topic of study for its own sake. It becomes just another object to sometimes attract our momentary attention, as when we stop to watch an award show treating advertisements as entertainment or when Saturday Night Live runs parodies of commercials.

Twitchell does take a close, inside look at culture of advertising and that in itself makes this book very valuable. He also makes an argument about advertising and culture. The unique memorability of advertising, acknowledges Twitchell, allows it to take on the function of shared cultural memory, and has therefore has inevitably replaced less memorable literature and science. This is a valuable if unoriginal insight, which many of the old-fashioned types refer to as the "dumbing down" of culture. But wait, there's more! The twist in AdCult is that Twitchell, while admitting that advertising culture is mindless and superficial, compellingly argues that this "dumbing down" is really a good thing.

It's good that we are inundated with superficially memorable images and phrases rather than literature and science? Yes, says Twitchell, and the old fogies who think otherwise just aren't getting it, they are mainly just feeling threatened by how advertising is "stealing their thunder." No, Twitchell is not some cyberpunk, he is (by profession) a university professor who did the research for this book in order to teach a class about advertising.

It's not that he never believed advertising was powerful, it was that he originally thought that power was a good thing, and then came to believe it was harmless anyway. Twitchell was apparently very impressed by advertising critics of the 50's like Vance Packard and Bryan Wilson Key, and took home the message that if advertising was so powerful, the advertisers must be doing something right. He later seems to have decided that advertising has lost most of its impact through constant immersion, familiarity, and increasing superficiality for ever wider appeal. So now, there is no reason to despise this aspect of culture which has redefined the way we speak and what we desire. Now it has become the source of our very substance, Twitchell argues, and bless it for that.

Twitchell characterizes pomo philosophers as intellectuals in a matter-of-fact way, while taking pains to point out how terribly quaint and old-fashioned are the culture critics who imagine there to be some basis for value in human life beyond what attracts our attention or feels good. Ed Hirsch's populist attempt to foster cultural literacy is to Twitchell hopelessly "whitebread." There is nothing of special value in what we traditionally think of as literacy. The main problem is that Hirsch's terms make hopelessly poor ad copy. Rather, Hirsch should have used phrases from commercial jingles as his basis for cultural literacy, since that's what really defines our culture at this time in history.

Twitchell reminds me a lot of the anthropologist who got too close to her subjects and couldn't report on them objectively any more. No, he doesn't see advertisers as kind, gentle, or noble savages. He accurately sees them accurately as promoting "commercial discourse" for a variety of self-interested reasons, including but not limited to trying to move products and create markets.

It is his view of culture that is wrong (or at least a collection of half-truths) and adopted from the twisted mindset of advertising culture. Twitchell completely ignores (or disavows?) any relationship between culture and the capacity for human thought. In the pomo tradition, he treats human thought as if it springs in final from individual heads, connected to each other by whatever arbitrary superficial ideas happen to be floating around and catching our attention at the time. In the advertising tradition descended from an idiot cousin of Freudian theory, he fully buys the argument that people are instinctively aquisitive but need to be told what to acquire by others.

More subtly, Twitchell encourages the view that cultural literacy plays no role in facilitating complex human thinking processes, except that it makes ideas "memorable" and that advertising is good because it does this really well. To discover why this view is wrong from a scientific perspective, a good start is Merlin Donald's "A Mind So Rare." Memory is certainly central to thinking, but literacy changed our minds in a very real and very fundamental way that is not independent of the content of culture, nor is it bound to Ed Hirsch's "whitebread" version of cultural literacy by means of key terms.

Put simply, humans are a symbolic species and the content of literate culture is part of what supplies the meaning of the symbols that enable us to think the way we do. We know that people don't think completely differently as a result of different kinds of cultures or languages. We can translate a great deal between cultures and still understand each other to a great extent. However the content of culture does play a central role in what kind of ideas are generated and accumulated over time, and so the path of cultural evolution.

Twitchell's conclusion that AdCult is superficial mind candy, but good enough for shared meaning, and his assumption that social order is independent of the content of culture (or even improved by superficially memorable images) will probably pass most people by without much thought in this slick advertising-like presentation. That powerfully supports half of the author's argument, that our minds do soak up slick memorable images like a sponge. It also reveals the dark side of Twitchell's perspective, the one that relentlessly wants to believe that there is nothing being lost except a few quaint stories.

I hate ads and haven't watched commercial TV or listened to commercial radio in many years now due to the relentless and frenzied assault of advertising. I credit the feeling people now have that silence is somehow strange with the immersion they have in endless stimulation. We don't know what it means to mentally sit still.

Mr. Twitchell finds advertising a fascinating cultural phenomenon, the very bedrock of modern culture and I find that hard to deny. He interest prods him to go deeply into all sides of advertising and he seems at pains to deflate any pretensions about high art and culture, claiming that ads are to our time what cathedrals and the paintings of the old masters were to the Middle Ages. While this may be plausable, at least in the Middle Ages you could get away from the cathedrals and paintings now and then!

When you finish with this book you will have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the field. The author goes into great detail about the industry and the history of advertising with plenty of illustrations you will recognize from TV and print.

He looks at the subject with wit and insight but doesn't attempt much examination of what ad saturation might be doing to us with it's direct attempt to guide fantasy to alight on the material.

He identifies every trick in the adman's book and believes we may be reaching a limit (my heart beats faster!) to advertising as the content of many ads now show irony in the message itself, a winking agreement with the targeted consumer that the whole act of selling through ads is psychologically bankrupt and no more than nonsensical entertainment...like the emperor having no clothes and clearly pointing it out himself while mugging and giggling for the amusement of all.

As Twitchell says, the link between advertising and sales has never been conclusively made. But that's OK because we claim an equally tenuous link between our rationality and our behavior. The only question is who is fooled more, the consumer or the advertiser? As knowledge and intellect fall back before feeling and fantasy, are we now in a very comfortable, convenient and attractive fools paradise?

Gen. Volkogonov is not a professional historian, and certainly not a great writer. His work his well researched and meticolous, but is fails to either capture the general reader or to impress the reader looking for a clear analysis of causes and consequences. The book is very long, the style of prose quite boring and at times repetitive. The author very often has a moralistic tone ("How could Stalin posssibly be so cruel? Look how corrupt his cronies were...") that bothers those who would like a more detached approach. I guess one has to remember that once he believed in Communism and cannot have helped being shocked by what he found in the state's archives (where he ventured with the original purpose of writing an orthodox biography of the Great Leader); this might explain his being upset at Stalin, but does not make the book more appealing. In the end, Gen. Volgokonov's main merit is exactly this: to have been able to access, thanks to his position in the Red Army, the USSR's impenetrable archives, and to have revealed to the world a deluge of details and documents. Some of them are immensely controversial in their potential consequences (eg the statements made by Stalin before the German attack that war was inevitable; or Zukov's plan for a preventive strike against Germany). Indeed, this book deservedly appears in most bibliographies on the USSR and the Russo-German war, and has provided the academic community with valuable insights for further analysis on Stalin and Stalinism. But it is probably more suited for an historian than for a general reader.

This is a terrible book. It is the best terrible book I have ever read.

The writing--ugh! The man has no sense of how to connect his various narratives together, how to build a sense of continuity, how to make us feel like we are really inside the events he is describing. He leaps back and forth in time at will, without bothering to explain why. He spends paragraphs or pages on picayune details, then leaps over giant topics with barely a word. And his politics--the man was an unrepentant Leninist! Time and again, he makes it clear that, if only the saintly Lenin had lived, all would have been wonderful in the worker's paradise. Only Stalin was a bloodthirsty monster--everyone else was a glorious revolutionary.

But I certainly enjoyed reading the book. The man knew a lot of the people who worked with Stalin. He saw how the Stalinist system worked from the inside. He has a lot of interesting things to say.

That makes up for the glaring flaws in this book. I just can't help but wonder what kind of book this could have been if Volkogonov had been a real writer, and if he had employed a real editor. And if, perhaps, his fog of naivety had been lifted and he could have dispelled the myth from his mind that the USSR was a good thing turned bad by a single man.

In short, don't expect a history or a biography. Expect a long, rambling monologue from a befuddled old man, who tends to confuse his stories, repeat himself, get lost in his train of thought...and occasionally drop out some bombshell anecdotes that make it all worthwhile.

I bought this book first when I was in Russia. I bought it in the original Russian. I had already read Volkogonovs study of Lenin and Trotsky and his book 'Autopsy of the Soviet empire'. THis, though, is the seminal work of a man who passed far to quickly from our view. He had yearned to detail the crimes of Stalin, the secrets also. This grand book details many obscure facts not found in other books. DIsjointed writing,as anyone fmailiar with VOlkogonov knows, this book nevertheless is very readable. Many critisize this saying it was not written by a true historian, its not organized, it smacks of a freshmens writing, in that it does not develop a topic thouroughly before going on to something else. It jumps around. THis is all true. Mr. Volkogonov was not a writer by trade. He was a military bureacrat who yearned to breeth free and compiled this information, independent of the west, for years before publishing his account after the fall of the Soviet empire. If we view it that way this book is unique, it is a testimony of a man who witnessed the evils of the Soviet system, who knew personally what Stalin had done and wanted to expose it. He could weight the good and the bad. This book is invaluable as history. It is by a Russian writing about the failings of his own country, in its formative period nonetheless. A must have and a must read. A landmark in Soviet studies.

As a previous viewer stated, this really is nothing more than a glorified magazine.I've gone throuh it, cover-to-cover, and I'm wondering if these people have actually SEEN dragonball z. There are numerous problems with it. Errors, mispellings, innaccurate information.

Let's start with the errors. I'm convinced that the authors are little more than American DBZ viewers who have seen a Japanese episode once or twice. The information looks like it was copied directly from a website, complete with mispellings and all. The "biographies" are short, and rarely state anything meaningful or interesting ("Bra is the daughter of Vegeta and Bulma"). Yet another problem : Is it just me, or do poser magazines struggle to get real images? Numerous (100+) of the images in this book are terrible screenshots that are blurry, fuzzy, or grainy (Many so terrible you can hardly make out what it's a picture of).

The synopsis of Dragonball/Dragonball Z/Dragonball GT is not very good either. The author's have a rather snobby view of American fans and a high view of themselves who have, quote, "Seen the REAL version [of DBZ]". Pojo, get off of it. Not even the card game guide is good, with poor strategies and being very outdated. I'm not even gonna start on the pathetic 3-D images thing.

That said, I really do praise Pojo for trying. It's much better than anything Becket or some other magazine company has tried to put out. However, hopefully they will revise it, knowing that DBZ fans are one of the most difficult to please.

Here's the bottom line, for the type of people who would spend $9 on a magazine, I think they will be very pleased. Kids/Teens who are fans of the English version of Dragon Ball Z and are not picky about tiny details will be satisfied. I'm just warning those would consider this a valid source for information. In short, information accurate enough to satisfy those who don't know better, but not on par with some of the stuff that can be found on the internet.

For people who have seen the japanese version of dbz/gt they wont be very pleased with this book nice try but needs a lot more work.

this book is great.it tells you about things you normally dont see in other dbz magazines.first off,the character bios.some may
be short but there just as good as any.why,theres 329 of them.
it also explains about all the sayian forms.a complete episode list for dragonball,z,gt.it also has a 3d section,cool!the only hard thing is not loosing the glasses after you use them.theres
lots of cool things in this book and more!the only dissapointment was it didnt tell you about dragonballs orgin,or how akirya toriyama got the idea to create dragonball,z.overall though its a great book.

Read the book expecting to understand strategies and inner-workings of Goldman Sachs. Basically, the book delivered a textual orientation of leveraged recaps and take-overs in the 80's.

After you learn the initial concept the book keeps repeating different recap examples.

We learn nothing of the broader view that Goldman takes in the 80's primarily because the author has no intimate knowledge of the firm --- he was a consultant on a couple of vague 'projects' involving Goldman.

[Reviewer has MBA in finance]

This book gives a good look at Goldman's history and how the firm operates so successfully. For a bit more recent insider's look inside Goldman and how to get hired also try the Vault.com Employer Profile on Goldman Sachs.

I found Long-Term Greedy to be an eye opener, as after reading it one realizes there is a great deal that is involved beyond the headlines and published accounts of Wall Street and investment banking. Through an in-depth description of a series of leverage deals, Nils Lindskoog does an interesting job of illustrating how Goldman Sachs survived the roaring eighties and set itself apart from other Wall Street firms in the process. The author's personal experience as a finance person helps him to bring out concepts and aspects of the era that are absent from journalistic accounts. Lindskoog then puts it all in perspective by showing how Goldman's principles relate to what is going on on Wall Street now. Best of all, he writes in a highly clear and concise style, and with a nice dash of wit. With so much negativity about Wall Street and business, it was refreshing to read a success story (and one done in a non-evaluative tone). I believe Long-Term Greedy would be very helpful for anyone interested in Goldman Sachs or how to succeed in an advisory business. For anyone who wants to learn something new about Wall Street finance on a cerebral level or who just wants to curl up with a really neat and intriguing book, I recommend this one--a real gem.

While many fine and thoughtful books have been written on the violent aspects of fundamentalist belief in the Islamic world, I found this the most provocative and challenging. Mr. Norval has done a first-rate job of thinking this problem through and marshalling his arguments. Even if the reader does not agree with some of his conclusions, the author always forces the reader to think afresh. Avoiding simplistic portrayals of the Islamic "threat," the author nonetheless captures the degree to which cultural separatism and fear of change inspires a disproportionate amount of international terrorism in the Islamic world--a mark of cultural inability to compete. For those seeking a deeper understanding of a very complex, but urgent problem, this book is well worth the price. Strongly recommended for those interested in terrorism, international affairs and cultural studies, from lay readers to military officers and diplomats.

As Morgan's publisher, I'd like to comment on what I know of the author and his knowledge of this terribly important subject to Americans now. Know this: Morgan Norval is an expert on terrorism, and the threat to the United States and the West from Islamic terrorism. After his stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, Morgan spent over ten years fighting "hand to hand" in Africa against anti-west forces in that region. Morgan writes from a perspective that most "think-tank" experts do not have...he's killed...he's looked into the eyes of an enemy and slit his throat in a very quiet moment--just the two of them--man to man. Morgan Norval knows what this next war will be about, how it will be fought, and why we will win it. Those who post reviews who have not been in that world of terror have every right to express their opinion about the book...just know that they do not have the expertise that the author has...nor the knowledge.

After the attack on the U.S., our inventory of hardcover books was immediately wiped out. We are now bringing out a paperback edition of "Triumph of Disorder" through our imprint "McKenna Publishing Group" and look forward to Amazon.com selling it at a reduced price of $.... It has been updated with a new introduction by Morgan, and freshened a bit.....

Eric Bollinger
Publisher
Sligo Press/McKenna Publishing Group

Mr. Norval's book is dialed right in in terms of the terrorist threats facing the world. I would recommend the reading of Pat Buchanan's "Death of the West" as a companion to this work. Althought poorly edited, "Triumph of Disorder" is incredibly prescient given 9/11. Western, Christian, capitalist society must prepare for the jihad. The fact remains, the population of the west is declining while the population of Osama, et al. is increasing. It is not racist to see the world in these terms. We, as Americans, must know what our history and heritage is. We do not want France or Germany to dominate us through the EU nor do we want to be subjigated to Moslem religious rule. We are a republican country guarenteed by the vote. Those politicians who spout political correctness and "tolerance" in the wake of terrorism are self serving whores. It is time for Americans to decide if they are citizens or subjects.