Book Review: Blackwater

Jeremy Scahill’s Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army is a detailed and fascinating chronicle of a private corporate army run by Christian supremacists that subscribe to the idea of imposing their morality on the world. The company was founded by Erik Prince a young silver-spooned Christian wacko, whose father, Edgar, was an influential billionaire who gave millions to right-wing religious causes. Blackwater started as a small training facility in North Carolina in 1999 but after 9/11, went on to make over a BILLION dollars on the war on terror, mostly from contracting their “security” services to guard top government officials in Iraq. They operate outside the law and can kill anyone they want for no reason, which often happens, without any repercussions. This is possible because Paul Bremner, who was running Iraq the first year, handed down “Order 17” that stated private contractors could not be prosecuted under Iraq law.

The Blackwater men are mostly drawn from retired Army, Navy, and Special Forces, as well from other countries like Chili and South Africa, where those troops took part in the torture and slaughter of thousands of innocents under brutal dictatorships. In Iraq, they are paid 3 or 4 times more than an American soldiers and are often blamed for inciting hatred among insurgents and citizens, consequently doing more harm than good in the war. For Iraqis, the typical Blackwater solider is a picture of everything wrong with America: chiseled bodies, wrap-around sunglasses, goatees, khaki pants, backwards baseball caps, lots of guns and heavy artillery. They drive armored SUVs throughout the country indiscriminately firing at anyone that gets to close to their moving convoys. The stories in this book are horrifying and enraging.

Recently Blackwater have expanded beyond contract security in Iraq. They now operate a company called Total Intelligence Solutions, a private CIA type company run by J. Cofer Black, the legendary US spy and head of the Counterterrorism unit of the CIA for years and one of the architects of the government’s secretive “extraordinary rendition” policy. So now the CIA’s talent, information, and contacts are on sale for corporations and countries to purchase at will. The book explores in depth the other services offered by Blackwater and Prince’s other companies. Without getting too detailed, I’ll tell you- they’re really fucked up. It’s a jarhead fantasy of kidnapping, espionage, and violence.

Blackwater has recently come home and began terrorizing Americans too. They went into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and “patrolled” the city with machine guns. Instead of sending food and supplies in, the Bush administration sent these worthless heavily armed douchbags in- and paid them 73 million dollars! Needless to say, these people are extremely well connected to government. Their ties to the Christian fundamentalists and their donations to crazy hate groups is probably the most disturbing aspect of their existence. Anyway, I’m merely scratching the surface of the evil antics of this company. Scahill goes way deep into it and the book reads like a cinematic thriller. My only complaint is it gets bogged down too much with legal jargon in the middle, and it repeats itself a little. But the main point gets through. Your tax dollars are funding the biggest, scariest, lawless army in the world that wants you to worship Christ, just like they do. Hooray!

Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein has written a book called The Shock Doctrine. It is about private companies taking advantage of natural disasters for profit. For example, when the Tsunami hit India, in the immediate shock afterward, while the local fisherman that lived on the beaches were displaced, companies came in a sold the beach front property to build resorts on. The fishermen never got to go home. A similar situation occurred with the privatisation of the school system in New Orleans after the levees broke. And of course Blackwater and Halibuton in Iraq after the invasion. She is doing some important work by exposing some very fucked up and outrageous behavior. Here is a short excerpt from the book:

"What happened on September 11 2001 is that an ideology hatched in American universities and fortified in Washington institutions finally had its chance to come home. The Bush administration... seized upon the fear generated to launch the "war on terror" and to ensure that it is an almost completely for-profit venture, a booming new industry that has breathed new life into the faltering US economy. Best understood as a "disaster capitalism complex", it is a global war fought on every level by private companies whose involvement is paid for with public money, with the unending mandate of protecting the US homeland in perpetuity while eliminating all "evil" abroad.
In a few short years, the complex has already expanded its market reach from fighting terrorism to international peacekeeping, to municipal policing, to responding to increasingly frequent natural disasters. The ultimate goal for the corporations at the centre of the complex is to bring the model of for-profit government, which advances so rapidly in extraordinary circumstances, into the ordinary functioning of the state - in effect, to privatise the government."
-Naomi Klein

There is short film about it you can watch here.

The Works of John Fante

Some of the best writing I have read is that of John Fante. He was born and raised dirt poor in Colorado in the 1910s and 20s. He moved to Los Angeles at 18 and lived there until his death. There, he started out living on the streets of Wilmington struggling to write and survive. He eventually moved to Angels Flight in downtown LA where he lived and worked for years. Eventually he found some success with a few novels, then started writing screenplays for Hollywood. By all accounts he wrote whatever the studios wanted. He returned to his passion, novels and short stories in his later years, his final work was dictated to his wife because he had lost his sight and legs to diabetes. Since my brother first gave me his masterpiece Ask The Dust a few months ago I have been working my way through his books. That story is a good place to start and a good introduction to the Arturo Bandini saga. The saga is four books about Bandini written over a period of 40 years. Arturo Bandini is an intimate style of writing and a character he uses to describe his life experiences. Probably the funniest, coolest, most honest writing ever. When in a drunken rage Charles Bukowski used to scream "I am Arturo Bandini!" Bukowski claimed Fante was "his God" and it was he who convinced Black Sparrow press to re-publish all of Fantes, at the time, very hard to find books. I just read this book, the first in the Bandini saga:


This is about his upbringing in Colorado. The insight and emotional depth here are staggering. An absolutely beautiful work. Published in 1938 it was his first book and was critically acclaimed. It didn't sell to well due to the fact the publishing company had its advertising funds tied up in a legal matter concerning the publishing of a little book by an upcoming political figure called Mein Kampf. Fante had a bit more recognition with Ask The Dust.


One of my favorite books ever, I wrote about it earlier this year.


In the Brotherhood of the Grape Fante uses a different name: the Molini family. In this he is grown up, living in Redondo Beach, and goes to visit his family who live outside Stockton. It is mostly about his derelict Italian father and his friends who drink wine, gamble, and fuck women all day. They are some crazy old men by any ones standards. The unhealthy but too-proud father is a stone mason and convinces his reluctant son to build a smokehouse with him up in the mountains. This is an incredible story with extraordinary insight as he describes his family with painful honesty. The way the family treats each other is brutal to read but you know that's how families work. Another book that takes place in his later years is West of Rome:


This contains two novellas: My Dog Stupid and The Orgy. The Orgy takes place around the time of Wait Until Spring. At his mothers assistance young Molini goes to help his father and a friend at a silver mine that they go to each weekend. He finds them not working but holed up in a dirty shack, hammered on red wine, and fucking some lady that drives a beat up Cadillac. The young Molini freaks out and sprays his mothers Holy Water all over them as he breaks down in confused tears. My Dog Stupid takes place in Malibu in the 60's as he raises his hippie kids and looks for work as a screenwriter. Again, he just writes about what is going on around him with his family and it is nothing short of amazing prose.


Dream from Bunker Hill. This is the one he wrote in 1982 by dictating it to his wife. It picks up where Ask the Dust leaves off. He gets a job making big money writing screenplays and he tries moving out of Bunker Hill. Everything seems perfect until the studio won't give him an assignment, they just have him 'on hold'. Bandini, of course, won't stand for this and things unravel from there. This is a shorter book divided into small chapters that make for quick easy reading. Highly recommended.


There is one more book I have yet to read in the Bandini saga: The Road to Los Angeles. There are the short story collections Dago Red, The Wine of Youth, and The Big Hunger. Also Selected Letters and 1933 Was a Bad Year. Judging by the titles of those books, they are going to be good.

Literature

Ask The Dust by John Fante

This is the book. One of the best I've ever read. It's hard to describe the way Fante writes. It is funny, insightful, introspective and extremely honest. Fante writes from the gut. He is Charles Bukowski's favorite writer and his influence is obvious. The story is an autobiographical tale of a young man living alone in downtown Los Angles in the 1930's. It's about his adventures trying to become a published writer and his experiences with women, poverty, money, and life on Bunker Hill. Out of all the books here, I recommend this the most. Arturo Bandini is my idol.

A Long Strange Trip by Dennis McNally

So this is the official biography of the Grateful Dead. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to read another book about them, I had read all the others years ago, but I went ahead and did. It was a good call. This is an amazingly detailed saga. McNally was appointed biographer and publicist by Garcia in the 80's. He breaks the band history down month by month, but skips a few years when the shows got monotonous in the early 80's. Besides that, every show and everything that ever happened to them is documented in this 700 page book. The first 100 pages alone are on Jerry's career before the Dead. McNally is extremely intelligent and an excellent writer. His chapter on LSD is one of the best pieces of writing on the subject I've read, and I've read a lot. His chapter on the importance and influence of Neal Cassady is incredible. My only complaint would be that he skips over discussing the subtleties in the performance of the last show. And sometimes he interjects his opinion to much (Apocalypse Now, which Mickey Hart did some music for and Bill Graham was in, was 'deeply flawed'??). One of the enemies later in the story is Jerry's last wife, Deborah. Did you know she banned Mountain Girl (Jerry's ex and one of his lifelong best friends) from his funeral and the scattering of his ashes? What a bitch! Anyway, if you are new to the Dead, this is a good place to start, and if you've already read the other books this is still crucial reading.

God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

An excellent argument for Atheism. The first chapter is amazing, I recommend going to a bookstore and just reading that. The rest of the book has it's moments but gets bogged down in the details of various religious wars and jargon. But Hitchens makes his points well and I'm glad a book like this is available in every library and major bookstore chain in America.

Trier on Von Trier edited by Stig Bjorkman

This series of interviews with Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier. It is a very detailed account of his work thus far. He comes across as a strange but intelligent man with a lot of anxiety. Some of his movies are brilliant, others not so much. But he is always trying new ideas and images. His early work like The Element of Crime is very stylized. Then he created the Dogme 95 style of filmmaking with Thomas Vintenburg. Their films Idioterne (Trier) and Festen (Vintenburg) are two of my all time favorites.
All his other major works are discussed here including Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, and the first in his new trilogy about the USA, Dogville. Check out the other two in the trilogy he has done since: Manderlay and Wasington.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Whoa, this is throughly fucked up. I was being sent for Jamba Juice a lot when I was working for a director on an all juice diet and they sell this book there. I started reading the chapter on slaughterhouses while waiting and I couldn’t put it down. It paints a dark, dark picture of what slaughterhouses have done to the towns in “Americas heartland.” Even darker is the way the workers are treated. Absolutely crazy. The rest of the book goes on to discuss disease, the history of fast food, what its like to work at McDonalds, and tons of other stuff. Pretty important work.

Since Then by David Crosby

This is part two of his autobiography. If you haven’t read either, skip this one and just read part one, Long Time Gone. That is a crazy story. It goes beyond shocking into inspirational. It’s all about threesomes, rock n' roll, hitting rock bottom, and a whole lot of freebasing cocaine. He ends up in jail and gets sober and that's where this book picks up. Part 2 is more about his medical problems as a result of his previous lifestyle. Throughout the book, he has children he doesn’t realize he had get in touch with him, totally out of the blue. Then there’s the whole donating his sperm to Melissa Etheridge and her partner. The rest of the book is filled with his thoughts on current issues like the music business, terrorism, and organ donation. It’s interesting but not critical reading.

Herzog on Herzog edited by Paul Cronin

Werner Herzog is a true original, one of my favorite artists in any medium. This book goes through each of his 50 plus films and tells the stories of how they got made, and what they are about. I have seen 40 of his films and each one is worth tracking down to watch. The more crucial ones, I’d say, are Aguirre, Even Dwarfs Started Small, White Diamond, Strozeck, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Bells from the Deep, and Fata Morgana. He thinks in a completely different way than anyone else and has insights that changed the way I view cinema, and life in general. Even if you’re not into his films, the adventures he went on all over the world to make his films are fascinating.

Love Saves the Day by Tim Lawernce

This is a history of America dance music culture from 1970 to 1979. It starts with David Mancuso selecting music for Timothy Learys League of Spiritual Development parties (note the initials of this and the books title). Those gatherings morphed into the first underground dance parties called the Loft. It details the diverse but heavily gay and black disco parties that sprung up in Manhatten throughout the 70's, pioneered by DJs like Francis Grasso and Steve D'Aquisto. The best part is the book has playlists of the records that the DJs were playing each year! I find them very helpful when buying old records. Lawerence seriously did his research. He writes a lot about the magic of The Sanctuary, the Continental Baths, The Gallery, and The Paradise Garage. If you're not into disco or the history of dance music, avoid this, but if you are, this is essential knowledge.

Lady Sings the Blues by Billie holiday

Wow. She had a tough life. Makes the Anthony Kedis and Motley Crue stories look like a walk in the park. Racial hatred, heroin addiction, jail, rape, death- it's all there. I wont even tell you about her deal with dead bodies. She almost always refers to women as 'bitches' and white folks as 'ofays.' There is lots of other well-used slang in there too. This book was published over 50 years ago. It's the real deal.

Scar tissue by Anthony Kedis

This book lives up to the hype. Anthony describes his entire drug history in chronological order, every detail of every bender and trip to rehab. With frightening realism, he conveys what its like to be high out of your mind or seriously fiending. Even the part about this childhood in the LA rock scene is interesting. He met Keith Moon, and Sonny Bono and Cher were his baby sitters.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

This dude comes across as an egomaniacal snob but he was actually a heroin and coke addict for a long time and still smokes weed. His tone in the book is often annoying but I learnt enough about cooking and dining to make it tolerable. He breaks down the "underbelly" of the cooking world and goes into some good tips about how to size up a restaurant, and what not to order. He hates vegetarians.

The Dirt: Confessions of the Worlds Most Notorious Rock Band by Motley Crue

Good easy read. I didn't put it down. Basically Vince has had everything bad that can happen to someone, happen to him. Nikki was the most talented and fucked up, as well as the most engaging writer. Tommy's story is interesting, and Micks just a weirdo.

Imperial Ambitions by Noam Chomsky

The greatest political thinker alive breaks down what's happening with America's imperialist strategy. Enlightening. Anyone interested in global issues or the future of the world should read this. The Iraq invasion is just the beginning. Welcome to the new Dark Ages.

Who Built the Moon? By Alan butler and Christopher knight

This is some serious bullshit. My aunt's friend gave me this in Australia. I should have known this was going to be retarded when he told me he was a devout catholic. When we first discussed it, I said it might be a good exercise in thinking different ways about things so he gave me a copy. It's boring to read. The authors think humans in the future sent "chronobots" back in time to build the moon for us. Their proof is tons of measurements made using "metric yards" which they get from looking at pendulums in front of stars. Strictly for the dumb pseudo new age crowd.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakuar

Ho. ly. Shit. This is the most disturbing book I have ever read. It's about the pedophile cults that call them selves the FLDS. You know, the fundamentalist Mormons. These guys have as many daughters as they can (they kick most the guys out of town), then start having sex with them when they hit 12(or younger), and/or trade them with their brethren, who are doing the same thing. They also commit serious welfare fraud. I went into more detail here but I erased it because it's just to twisted. These people need to be stopped.
http://helpthechildbrides.com
http://childbrides.org/

Nick's Book Corner

Book Reviews by Nick Sinclair.

Dear Mom: A Sniper's Vietnam
By Joseph T. Ward

Oh Shit. Back when I was wasted off my ass on a permanent basis I read Dear Mom, A Sniper's Vietnam. J.T. Ward is a complete bad ass. Upon joining the marines with his three other best friends from Colorado, he ended up joining the scout snipers and doing a tour of Nam 1969. He carried a 500 Remington bolt action rifle. The gun was his free pass to say, do, and kill anything he wanted, and he used that privilege. J.T. had over a 100 confirmed kills. That means after you kill someone, one has to somehow reach the body and search for anything important like papers, maps, or money. He smoked junk when hurting. All he wanted was a new pair of boots. J.T. chilled with the locals and ate dog.
Moho introduced this book to me and I read it immediately. We would drink beers and create an alter ego of J.T. Ward, which we would always say in a deep voice, babbling for hours about Vietnam. People thought we were insane, maybe we were..this book is no joke...It's a MUST read.

The Polynesian Family System in Ka'u, Hawai'i
By E.S. Craighill Handy and Mary Kawena Pukui

Ka'u is unique and amazing. This book was written from 1930 to 1950 by an Al'i women and her friend. It is taught at the universities of Hawai'i and is one of the keys to understanding the Hawaiian culture before white man. Filled with Hawaiian sayings, customs, spiritual beliefs, food, and general ways of life- this book is the roots! There are a lot of Hawaiian phrases that are translated to English. This is one of my favorites: "O ka moa i hanai ia ka la, ua 'oi i ka moa i hanai ia i ka malu." Translation:
A rooster raised in the sunlight is stronger than the one raised in the shade....
In this book you are brought into the reality of Hawai'in life. They discuss the importance of Kalo, the food staple, that is grown on the wet uplands. The Ohana(family) is of the highest importance. Working and keeping it tight with one another is what's all about. I can't speak more highly of it's cultural significance.