Catfish: Volumes 41-45

by Andrew Bushard

  Komisaruk, Katya

  2003:Beat the Heat: How to Deal With Encounters With Law Enforcement. Oakland, CA: AK Press.

  This book is so ideal. This is a lot like Nolo Press’s Criminal Law Handbook, which I have been ever so fond of. Both of these books were written in wonderful styles and this book has even more edge to it than the Nolo book. This book is written in a more anti-authoritarian tone than the Nolo book and I liked that. This book further inspires me to dedicate myself to advance my rights and I love it for that.

  The book clarified the issue about ID which didn’t seem so clear in the Nolo book, and I left with the conviction that name and address are all that you need tell. Clearing that up was wonderful.

  The section on minors was enlightening. The book even suggested that minors can refuse searches and even includes something to post on a door. The book is very good at having forms in it and I hope to copy them for my own use.

  The book went into better detail than even the wonderful Nolo Book about how to document an event and even included great forms with it as templates. This section also made me feel better. Since I have trouble describing incidents, especially in regard to sequence of events, the book’s observations that people don’t remember so well and especially major events, made me feel better. One might be inclined to think that some major event would be all the more easy to remember, but this book suggests that such is not the case. The book did a wonderful job walking the reader through filling a misconduct form, as it broke it down into the steps, so it was as clear as could be.

  I liked the use of cartoons to show applications of these principles.

  On page 148, the book discusses that police review is often an empty procedure. My level of cynicism has lead me to believe that such is futile, especially after reading Nolo works and other works about it. Now I think this even more so.

  The biographical sketch of the author was also interesting. It says she was an activist who got thrown in prison and is now a lawyer. Although I am generally not fond of lawyers, former activist lawyers are inspiring and it’s wonderful this author is using her legal talents for good, and it is reassuring that she writes as some who knows what it is like to be an activist or otherwise disliked by cops. Many people just don’t understand how this feels. She had some good words on how the courts dislike pro se lawyers and unfortunately she insinuated that representing oneself is not so good.

  Lal, Vinay (author) and Borin Van Loon.(illustrator):

  2005:Introducing Hinduism. Thriplow, Royston, UK: Icon Books, Ltd.

  I have read a lot on Buddhism lately, so I have become familiar with atheism, Christianity (particularly Protestant Christianity), and Buddhism. I have been thinking that Hinduism is something I could more about. So it’s good I got this enjoyable easy to read book which in a light format taught me some more about Hinduism.

  Luna, J.J.

  2004:How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

  Ever important but rarely given the necessary emphasis is the typeface. This book has one of the best typefaces around. It’s hard to top a fantastic book with a fabulous typeface.

  The book is full of sound ideas, many of which are too involved and sometimes even costly for me. It did achieve the aim of getting me to think more about privacy. I don’t really want to be invisible, in fact, I want the opposite: social prominence, and thus perhaps, the book’s advice is even more pertinent. It helps me to start thinking more carefully.

  In making an appeal for the necessity of a book on privacy, Luna acknowledges that the wrong people are accused and convicted for crimes, and he claims that insufficient measures to assure privacy can play a role. He really emphasized this theme on pages six and seven and also elsewhere in the book. Such a realization shows good sense and insight. It is unfortunate and perhaps even tragic that some cocky people seem to think it’s easy to avoid arrest and hard to get arrested. To me it seems so easy to get charged, it’s almost surprising it doesn’t happen all that more often.

  On page 37, Luna suggests a very innovative suggestion for mailing with privacy: slyly paying a hotel to mail it. I wonder why he doesn’t worry more about the hotel actually mailing it. Something tells me that the hotel may not mail the piece.

  On page 40, he presents a very interesting definition of liar, which I don’t exactly buy. He says, “a lie is a false statement made by one [person] to another, who is entitled to hear and know the truth, and which false statement tends toward injury to the other.” I would define a lie as something much more basic than that. He argues that “lying” is sometimes acceptable depending on why and how it’s done. He thus suggests that “harmless lies” for privacy purposes are acceptable. Ideally, we wouldn’t have to lie at all.

  I have thought about the potential dangers of allowing apartment workers to come in my home when I am not there. My concerns are justified according to Luna as on page 251, he really cautions us against doing this.

  The book is full of good anecdotes to help advance the points. So good, a so very good book.

  Manz, Charles

  2002:The Power of Failure: 27 Ways to Turn Life’s Setbacks into Success: Prescriptions for a More, Productive, Prosperous, and Peaceful Life. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

  The premise of this book is right on. I love books that encourage people to hang in during difficulties in hopes of ultimately triumphing. Manz is not as naïve as some thus his writing is consequently more effective.

  Manz sure seems to like to write poems as a number of his poems were included in various chapters.

  A great move of his was precisely articulating specific definitions for “success” and “failure” and he contrasted these with what he considers the common definition.

  He includes Microsoft as an example of a company that has experienced a number of failures and we all know it is super successful, which is ever so motivating.

  On page 28, he extols the value of patience, “The critical bridge between vision and execution is patience”. I have really begun to see how important patience is for the purpose of success in my own life.

  On page 61, he puts forward a maxim almost identical to Zig Ziglar’s “You Can Get Anything You Want as Long as You Give Enough People What They Want”. I am not so sure this is the case. Is that How Hitler triumphed so much and achieved such unprecedented success?

  It was not as inspirational as it could be, but it is still wonderful to have a book full of inspiration during trying moments of life.

  Miser, Brad

  2005:Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Homeschooling. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing.

  Miser expresses some viewpoints which would seem to contradict what other homeschoolers say. On page 16, he seems to argue that a big problem is when schools try to stop using bad grades because such is claimed to harm kids. Ironically, it seems many other homeschoolers types argue that grades scar kids, yet Miser seems to be suggesting that schools that try to remove grades as doing a disservice.

  Also ironically Miser argues that competition is good and that the schools which remove such are erring. It seems to me that many other homeschoolers complain that the pressure of competition of the public schools damages kids.

  Again, ironically, Miser exalts standardized tests. So many other homeschoolers speak of standardized tests as if they are this great evil that harms children immensely.

  On page 55, Miser makes an excellent point that homeschooling can actually help the school district because he says, “In fact, removing kids from public schools improves the funding per student ratio because the same amount of funds educate fewer children”. That’s what you call wonderful logic.

  He thoroughly discusses the importance of addressing introversion and extroversion. He seems to oversimplify the differences between the two, but other than that, his disc
ussion of this matter is stimulating. It’s something I have been thinking about lately coincidentally.

  On page 254, he mentions that some of the standardized tests demand a college degree to administer. To me, this seemed to be one of those pointless requirements. Homeschoolers say the school system is full of that. It is. I have experienced some pointless “licensed teacher” requirements when I have worked in the public school. I have been told that only licensed teachers can walk a group of kids down the hall, even though this is not consistently applied. I even volunteered to help this one kid study math in my free time, but I was told I couldn’t do that because there wouldn’t be a licensed teacher to supervise me. One other time, this one kid had to be monitored for discipline purposes and someone else couldn’t do it, but I said I could stay there and do that. Then I was told that such wouldn’t work because there needed to be a licensed teacher there. To me, it makes no sense that an adult can’t sit and monitor a student for a timeout without having acquired a teaching license. On page 258, Miser shared my concerns about needing a college degree for giving out these standardized tests. He said, “I don’t really know why a college degree is required to administer such tests. Doing so is mostly a matter of reading and following directions.” Indeed, some people who think they know it all, really are stupid about their arbitrary rules.

  Miser is more fair minded than some homeschooling proponents. On page 265, he states, “Of course, not everything about an institutional school environment is negative.” Since I work in the public schools, I have wondered how homeschoolers could object to some of the happenings of the public schools, since to me these seemed unquestionably good. Many homeschoolers suggest the public schools are almost entirely rotten, and I think they could see more grey. I think if more homeschoolers made the acknowledgments that Miser did, they would have a better argument. You look bad when you say something is rotten when it is undeniably good. Homeschoolers could be more discriminating as some of their arguments don’t seem valid to me especially when they paint the public education system with such a broad brush. I once did and would love to more often ask homeschoolers how one could object to this and that. The time I did so, I got a thoughtless reply full of crazed extreme hysterical thinking. I want to be a devil’s advocate so I can learn more from the homeschoolers and to determine for myself which homeschoolers’ criticisms of the school system are valid and which are not.

  Piven, Joshua, David Borgenicht, and Joshua Worick

  2004:The Worst Case Scenario Handbook: College. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

  Of all the Worst Case Scenario books, I think I found this to be the most relevant and enjoyable one. For seven years of my life, I attended college and graduate school, thus I can definitely relate to what is presented in this book. Furthermore, although I am not currently enrolled in a formal institution of higher education, I am really still in the college mode. I feel and act like I’m in college, it seems. I guess such an environment is really ideal for me.

  Throughout this book, I related again and again.

  In the book’s “how to avoid going to the wrong college”, it suggests, “Compare the number of nearby bookstores to the number of nearby bars.” That’s awfully funny, because in my book Evil: the Impact of Alcohol and the Power of the Alcohol Industry, I demonstrate how sad it is that Mankato and Stevens Point, where I attended graduate school and college has way many more taverns than libraries.

  On page 58, in “Find alternative facilities”, the book recommends the water closet by the Admissions office because the book says it is “nice”. Indeed, I have found this to be the case. I have used such a bathroom and it is indeed a good place to go.

  On page 63, it is recommended to “Shower with Your Clothes On” as a way to clean clothes. I don’t recall doing that in college, but I did something similar in Oakdale here. I was low on the dough and needed some clean clothes, so I filled the bathtub with water and laundry detergent and tried to wash my clothes that way. It was better than nothing, but definitely not preferable to the other way.

  On page 73, the book encourages poor students to go to grocery places and eat the free samples. I really did this one day while living in the Twin Cities. My food and money supply was super low. I decided to go to Whole Foods Market and it was a goldmine. There were tons of great and nutritious samples and I had tons. The book suggests “making a meal of the samples”. I humorously suggested this over a decade ago in a piece of satire, and I actually had to do it out of desperation that one day at Whole Foods Market.

  On page 74, and 75, the authors suggest going to gatherings with food and also dumpster diving. I have thought of this and have dumpster dived a number of times.

  The book says, “Generic or store labels are always cheaper than name-brand labels.” Generally, this is correct, but certainly not always. The book should have said, “almost always cheaper.”

  Oddly, the section “How to Survive a Riot” is something I have had need for. On October 4th, 2003, a major riot occurred after the homecoming game of MSU-Mankato. I slept through it and did not learn about it until the next evening, but it was only a few blocks from my apartment. As outrageous as needing riot survival techniques may sound, I can testify that they might be useful. Don’t doubt the destructive potential of alcohol.

  The section “How to Sleep in the Library” is a good one. Some universities don’t mind people sleeping in common areas, and maybe not even in the library, but other universities do. Once I fell asleep at the Todd Wehr Memorial Library at Viterbo College and people overreacted. The security guard woke up. Get a grip, it’s not that big of a deal! I have also slept at unorthodox places (such as a telephone booth and bathroom stalls) so how to sleep at a library is definitely something that could have been useful to me.

  A great book.

  Qunindlen, Anna

  2005:Being Perfect. New York, NY: Random House.

  The book makes avoiding perfection sound real good. Although I do believe she has a point about how awful extreme perfection can be, it is surely better than extreme sloth and apathy. There is nothing wrong with striving for greatness. Sadly, many do not want greatness. This may be fine, because if everyone was famous, we could not remember them all. It is a good deal society limits the number of famous people to a reasonable level, and such might be the natural order of it all.

  Tayoun, Jimmy

  1995:Going to Prison? Brunswick, ME: Biddle Publishing Company.

  I read this book on the public buses; a fact I found humorous. I don’t think anyone noticed, but if someone did it could have been quite funny.

  This book is very similar to Jim Hogshire’s Surviving in Prison, except it seems a lot shorter. As I recall, this work had smaller print than Hogshire’s, so an exact comparison is difficult, but I still think there was more to Hogshire’s. The main text is after all only 38 pages, but those pages are crammed full of very interesting information.

  Some think typos are so horrible and this book has several such as “tlevision” (30) and “de-scribes” and “re-cords”. As one who has written a lot, myself, I find it hard to eliminate every last mistake in a work, so I have some sympathy for mistakes and the fact this book has some mistakes in it, makes me feel better. It seems that some of the smaller publishing companies have less sophisticated editorial procedures, so this is the result.

  The autobiographical sketch is interesting as it describes a successful politician who entered prison. It even said “He considers his prison term to be his fourth career change”. I would imagine something in his political career contributed to his prison sentence and I would be interested to find out what it was. I do not recall hearing of this man before I read his work.

  I wonder if Biddle Publishing publishes other intriguing books like this. This is one of the books a place like Loompanics is well known for publishing, so it’s nice to find other publishers who do the same.

&
nbsp; Workman, Katrina

  1999:Homeschooling: Untangling the Web of Confusion. Mesa, AZ: Blue Bird Publishing.

  In the introduction, the author says she needed to write this book because she found lots of homeschooling books written about “why to homeschool”, but “not how to homeschool”. It’s ironic she says that, because I have found exactly the opposite to be the case. I want books about why one should homeschool, but mostly just find an abundance of how to homeschooling. The how to's are still interesting, I just prefer the other type.

  The Christian tone of this book is evident with quotes such as “the man is still the spiritual head and leader of the family”. Good grief.

  There are some typos, on pages 15, 16, and 65 to name some pages. I know how that can happen, so that makes me feel better.

  On page 57, she recommends observing court cases as an educational experience. I did exactly that in Stevens Point, WI and Mankato, MN. It sure was a terrific experience.

  Wright, Susan

  1995:How to Marry Money: The Rich Have to Marry Someone – Why Not You. New York, NY: Carol Communications, Inc.