Showing 1 - 10 of 17
Isis thwarted
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 26/12/2019
» Until the 20th century, jihadists had no bones to pick with the US. Their ire was directed at the UK and France who coveted their lands, and the Jews trying to carve out their own. They got good press when T.E. Lawrence led the Arabs against the enemy Ottoman Turks. The silent film The Sheik romanticised them. The Riffs were favoured in their uprising against Spain. They didn't participate in the North African campaign in World War II.
End of fossil fuel?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 20/12/2019
» I'm not a linguist. I'm not proud of it. English is my first and only language, which is not to say that it's the only language worth knowing. I studied other languages in school, but couldn't get the hang of them. Neither am I well-versed in English. I'm not being modest. I look at Webster and Oxford with a groan.
Friends and enemies
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/11/2019
» People have friends and enemies -- fair-weather and true friends, run-of-the-mill and mortal enemies. It takes an emergency to sort them out.
Déjà vu
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/10/2019
» It wasn't until the second chapter -- what took me so long? -- that I realised I'd reviewed The Root Of Evil before, though it has a 2018 copyright.
Too ambitious
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 20/09/2019
» We are told as children that we must have ambition to make something of ourselves. What we aren't told is that it must have its limits. To be sure, most people are too lazy to make the effort needed to fulfil it. They figure that just getting along is enough. Anyway, they tell themselves that the odds are stacked against them. That those who succeeded did so by cheating or were just lucky.
Religion and warfare
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/09/2019
» What all religions, sects, cults have in common is that each believes it is the true one, the others not only unworthy but spawns of the devil, deserving to be liquidated.
Desert graveyard
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/06/2019
» While not as prestigious as Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize awardees are highly regarded in the US. The annual recipients are rewarded for works a giant step above their colleagues.
Flight of fancy
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/03/2019
» Intelligence agencies the world over see Russia's cloak-and-dagger operations as the greatest danger. But Russia's chief enemy is the US, to which it causes endless mischief, both directly and indirectly.
Fact or fiction?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/02/2019
» It is common knowledge that the KGB weren't above using sex in its spying activities. Books were written and movies made about it. What isn't generally known is that the Russian Federation's FSB are not only continuing the practice but expanding it.
A word to the wise
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/01/2019
» A cloak-and-dagger book again, but this one is the Real McCoy. A veteran CIA operative of three decades, Jason Matthews has seen and done it all. As the saying goes, he knows where the bodies are buried. The theme of The Kremlin's Candidate is that the US is engaged in a second Cold War, brought about by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.