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Friday, February 17, 2012

Whitney Houston

 

 

Whitney Houston - The Greatest Hits

Whitney Houston, 1963-2012

Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48. Best known for hits "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "So Emotional," Houston is the only artist to consecutively chart seven No. 1 hits. During her illustrious career she earned 415 awards, making her the most-awarded female music artist of all time. Houston paved the way for female vocalists and will endure as one of music’s most beloved voices...Read more in Amazon's Whitney Houston Store

Community biography from

During the 80s and 90s, Whitney Houston was an unstoppable force in pop music. With sales estimated to exceed 200 million records, she is one of the biggest-selling female singers ever.
Whitney Houston was born to a family with impressive singing credentials - her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston, her cousin was five-time Grammy winner Dionne Warwick, and her godmother was the 'Queen of Soul' herself, Aretha Franklin. Her first break came when she sang backing vocals on Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” when she was only 16. She continued to record, sing and tour with her mother, but although she was offered recording contracts she turned them all down until, in 1983, she signed with Arista.
Her debut album Whitney Houston appeared in 1985 but it was not an instant hit. However, due to the singles “Saving All My Love for You” (which won a Grammy), “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All”, it eventually reached the top of the Billboard charts and lodged there for several weeks. Critical praise, awards, television shows and massive sales ensured a grand entrance into the music world for new superstar Whitney Houston.
Her follow-up album was 1987’s nine-times platinum Whitney. It debuted at the top of the charts in many countries and the success of the singles “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, “Didn’t We Almost Have it All”, “So Emotional” and “Where do Broken Hearts Go” gave her a record of achieving seven consecutive singles at No.1.
In response to an enduring criticism that she was somewhat bland, she experimented with a more urban feel on her next release. I’m Your Baby Tonight (1990) found her exploring her versatility as an artist, with a fair degree of success. The album was certified four-times platinum.
Her next endeavor was her acting debut in The Bodyguard. It was a huge box-office hit and the accompanying soundtrack album went on to achieve 17x platinum certification in the US alone. The lead single from the album was a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” which cemented itself to the top of the charts in many countries. Her next two releases were soundtrack albums, Waiting to Exhale (to which she contributed three songs) and The Preacher's Wife, both of which were supporting films in which she had acting roles.
In 1998 she released My Love is Your Love which continued her exploration of urban sounds such as hip-hop and reggae. Two years later she released Whitney: the Greatest Hits, but unfortunately this marked a slide in her fortunes. When Just Whitney was released in 2002 it received poor reviews and the singles failed to chart well. She followed it with a Christmas-themed record, One Wish: the Holiday Album, which performed even less well. Since then, column inches have been dedicated to her battles with drugs, and with her husband Bobby Brown (whom she had married in 1992 after a 3 year courtship and divorced in 2007).

In Memorial :
The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album
 
The"Thriller" of the 90's.Just perfect, June 21, 2001
By 
Bob Waskiewicz (Wintersville, Ohio United States) 
This review is from: The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album (Audio CD)
"The Bodyguard" soundtrack is one of the biggest selling albums from the 90's.The 6 cuts from Whitney are all masterpieces.I was shocked to find out She co-wrote "Queen of the Night," along with Babyface.This has got to be one of the hardest rocking songs from Houston,and my favorite from the album."Jesus Loves Me" is another great song not played on the radio."I will always Love you," written by Dolly Parton,is beutifull.This was Kevin Costner's favorite song,and his idea to have Whitney record the number for the soundtrack.The Kenny G/AAron Neville duet,"Even if my heart would Break," is another great cut,but the real killer is "Its Gonna Be A lovely Day," by (The S.O.U.L.S.Y.S.T.E.M.)A fantastic rap,early 90's,HipHop sound. After almost 10 years,"The Bodyguard" soundtrack is still fresh.It would be great if Costner and Houston got together again for "The Bodyguard,Part2."Whitney's stlye has changed alot since the early 90's,and I think the record and Movie would be a huge hit. 

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash (Voices That Matter)



Following up on the great success of The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes, legendary magazine photographer Joe McNally takes us on another memorable ride with Sketching Light, another trip into the land of light--but this time running the gamut from small flash to big flash, and everywhere in between.

Of course, Joe includes coverage of Nikon Speedlights, but he also covers big flash, as well as "in-between" lights as the Elinchrom Quadra. The exploration of new technology, as well as the explanation of older technology. No matter what equipment Joe uses and discusses, the most important element of Joe's instruction is that it is straightforward, complete, and honest. No secrets are held back, and the principles he talks about apply generally to the shaping and quality of light, not just to an individual model or brand of flash.

He tells readers what works and what doesn't via his let's-see-what-happens approach, he shows how he sets up his shots with plentiful sketches and behind-the-scenes production shots, and he does it all with the intelligence, clarity, and wisdom that can only come from shooting in the field for 30 years for the likes of National Geographic, Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated--not to mention the wit and humor of a clearly warped (if gifted) mind.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews


Like Sitting Down With the Reigning Master of Flash Photography, December 13, 2011
By 
Syl Arena (Paso Robles, California)

Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
If you are a student of light, then consider Joe McNally`s new book Sketching Light to be a must-read. Sitting down with Sketching Light is like sitting down for a beer with Joe as he talks you through his favorite pix in a photo album. The conversation will wander, stories will be spun, jokes will be told, detailed insights will be shared, advice will be given, and you'll walk away grateful for the opportunity.

Short bits to know about 'Sketching Light'...

>The book is Nikon-centric. Joe is Nikon-centric. Don't let this worry you. If you shoot Canon, or Sony, or any other brand, don't despair. Strip out all the Nikonian jargon and 'Sketching Light' remains a heavyweight when it comes to lighting. (And, if you shoot Canon, check out Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites
-- written by yours truly. It will give you all the buttons and dials info that you need to drive a Canon Speedlite.)

> 'Sketching Light' is a book about the possibilities of flash and it covers the full spectrum. Joe shoots Speedlights. Joe shoots big lights. Sometimes you need just a breath of on-camera fill flash from a Nikon SB-910. Sometimes you need the punch of an Elinchrom Ranger. Sometimes you need one light. Sometimes you need to haul out every light that you can get your hands on.

> There are plenty of set shots that show Joe and his gear in action. You'll also find Joe's signature lighting diagrams--drawn by hand on napkins and sketch pads--for nearly every shoot in the book. I recommend keeping a highlighter and a black marker on hand so that you can annotate your "aha!" moments as you read.

> Yes, there are photos in the book that no mere-mortal could make. Joe is, after all, the Indiana Jones of photographers. Yet, there are also dozens of shots that you can make today with gear that you likely have around you right now.

> There are no photo captions in the book. At first, you'll hate this. You've likely grown accustomed to flipping through photo books, pausing at a pic, and having the caption give you the basics so that you can move on. 'Sketching Light' makes you earn your knowledge. I guarantee you, however, that as you read Joe's narratives and decode his photos, you'll be a stronger photographer for your efforts.

> This is not a beginner's book that lays a foundation of basic concepts and then layers new ideas on top. Rather, Joe starts right in at an intermediate level and keep moving. Think of 'Sketching Light' as a long conversation that jumps around and you won't be disappointed. Each "chapter" is really another "hey, let me tell you about this now...." And yes, you can jump around 'Sketching Light' and read the chapters for the pix that interest you today and then jump to another spot tomorrow.

> 'Sketching Light' may give you deja vu. If you've read Joe's blog, watched his videos on Kelby Training, or attended one of his seminars/workshops, then you've likely seen some of these pix and heard some of these stories before. I see this as being like catching up with an old friend rather than a shortcoming. Of course, there were pages and pages of material in 'Sketching Light' that I'd never seen before.

While wrapped in a cover that says "flash", for me, 'Sketching Light' is really about vision and using whatever gear you have to craft images that express that vision. It's about dreaming big and having the courage to fail. It's a book that says "go out there and create the images that only you can create."

Awesome and inspring... and an important note on Nikon vs. Canon, December 16, 2011
By 
Hankk (Boulder, CO) 
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
Amazing book. He's a frikkin' genius writer, because he's so uninhibited and confident and smart that he gives you a brain-dump of everything in his mind. Take from it the bits you like, run with 'em, and have fun making some awesome shots.

If you haven't used a lot of flash before, you'll sometimes read over a page and have no idea what he's talking about. WTF? Not that he's overly technical... kind of the opposite, that he's so gushing and enthusiastic and dropping all the hip terms for everything ("start with a bit of a hot rim and then back it off, 'cause in a sidelight situation it's gonna blow it out by a stop... then it gets piped backed to the lens and baby, it's dark out there!"), that it's hard to bring him out of orbit and back into the land of 'OK, what button do I push?' But stick with it. Read the book, shoot, read it again, shoot some more. You'll get it.

McNally gets a lot of attention for using flashes in extraordinarily complex setups -- and yeah, he does. But he's always focusing on the people... the story... the eyes. He's not a landscape photographer. His stories about interacting with his subjects (models, celebrities, musicians, quarterbacks, astronomers, bagpipe makers) are what this is really about.

This book has longer stories, more details and more diagrams compared with the previous books. If you don't have his other books (Hot Shoe Diaries, or The Moment it Clicks) and you want to learn his techniques, *get this one instead*. It's fatter, it's got more writing, and the narratives are longer and more intricate. This one is more chapter-based with various techniques, and the other two are closer to "here's a cool photo, and here's a page about how I took it." If you have the other two and love him, then get this one since it's essentially all-new material, and his technique and philosophy are so useful and inspiring, that the more you read and see of his work, the better your photos will end up as a result.

*** Important note: McNally uses only Nikon and makes only passing mention of Canon. Everything is virtually interchangeable, *but* there's one important difference about flash exposure you need to know if you're a Canon shooter. All over the book, he's talking about the EV exposure compensation being a global adjustment (e.g., p. 213, 345) -- that is, if you change the EV on the camera, you program underexposure into the flash as well. That's how it works on Nikon, but *not* on Canon!

On Nikon: the camera EV and flash EV are indeed linked: lowering the camera EV lowers the flash output. So, to highlight the foreground, you go -2 EV on the camera, and then back up +2 EV on the flash to compensate.

But on Canon, this is *not true*: the camera EV and flash EV are independent. Dropping the camera EV drops the ambient exposure, but keeps the flash output the same! So to do the same as above on Canon, you want to do -2 EV on the camera, and leave the flash at 0 EV. If you do what McNally says, you'll end up over-flashing your subject on Canon.

This difference is *not* well documented, but you can find some more info on it at Canon's web page -- Google for "Canon EOS speedlite system tips" and click on the tips by photographer Stephen Wilkes, and there are a lot of sample photos for how this works. Neither system is better or worse -- but you do need to be aware of the differences!

*** Update February 2012. Nikon's new D4 will ship soon. The D4 offers the option to set the flash level using the Canon way, not the Nikon way... that is, on the D4, doing a -EV on the exposure will now leave the flash EV unaffected. Nice change, since it means you need to do one adjustment, not two, to lower the ambient level. It appears that this is an option (not a full-time change), and that this applies to the D4 only, not the D800. For details, search for an article called "Exposure Compensation When Using i-TTL Gets Easier with the D4" on Nikon's site.

Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images


Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (Voices That Matter)
 

David's best book to date, October 30, 2011
By 
DanielJGregory  
This review is from: Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
This is the fourth book of David's that I have purchased (not counting his ebooks over at craft and vision), and it is probably my favorite. I have been teaching an intro to photography course using his within the frame book, but next time I teach this class, I'll be using this book instead. It does a great job of focusing on a something that matters more than f/stops and shutter speeds---the vision of the artist and the grammar to talk about it with others.

On of my biggest frustrations as a photographer when talking to others about their work is how little they are able to discuss why they like certain photographs and what it is about those photos that make them unique to their vision. With so many people creating and showing great images, it is not enough to just be a good photographer. You have to be a creative photographer whose work stands out as different from others. I have found that to understand how your work is different and what your sense of aesthetics are requires a vocabulary/grammar to discuss the work so that you can continue to push those elements in your work that are unique to your vision.

David does a good job in this book by helping the visual artist begin this process. The book starts with some background on how David came to this book and what to expect. He spends some time discussing vision and intention in photography; and how vision is often times lost in conversations of gear, technique and tangible skills. In these early pages, much of the conversation is about the nature and intention required in the building of a "good photograph"

The second part of the book looks at two critical components of a photograph. The first is the elements within the image and their impact on the viewer. Elements such as lines, color, repetition and light are discussed in-depth as a language to discuss images rather than as a set of rules that need to be followed to create a good image. The second component is the decisions that are made when the camera is pointed at the subject and the shutter clicks. From lens choice, focus points, to framing and exposure; all these critical decisions are often made very quickly with little thought while shooting. David provides a chance to look at the impact of these decisions, and how we can use our awareness of these components to make more interesting photos.

The third part of the book is a collection of David's images where he spends a lot of time looking at the application of the conversations in the earlier chapters of the book. We get to look at not only a variety of photographs and subjects, but also exactly how David uses these concepts in the creation and post-production of his own images. I found David's openness and honesty refreshing. He is willing to talk about what worked and didn't work for him and things he might change in the future. Having 20 examples of David's work builds a great foundation to start with before taking on your own work.

As I said, I am a fan of David's work; and I think he has an amazing gift to write so that you feel as if you are talking over a cup of coffee. He finds a way to make the conversation seem to be both educational and conversational at the same time. I have found him to be great mentor over the years and look forward to continuing to use his guidance to improve my own art for many more years.

Message, Elements and Decisions, October 25, 2011
By 
Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA)  
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   



This review is from: Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)
Anyone who has read David duChemin's other books will know why I regard him as a thoughtful photographer. In this book he returns to the starting place, discussing composition.

The beginning of the book talks about photography as a means of communication of the photographer's vision, and defines a few concepts that the author uses throughout the remainder of the book, particularly "Message, Elements and Decisions". The selection of an Element or Decision should enhance the Message. Next he discusses what he calls Elements, like line, light and moment. For Decisions he considers topics like framing, placement and exposure. Finally he presents twenty of his own photographs, explaining how the Elements and Decisions explicate the Message.

Early in the book the author discusses photographers who say they don't need to understand what he means by Message, Elements and Decisions because they say they shoot intuitively. DuChemin charitably suggests that the best of these have probably internalized those elements. The remainder are probably just lazy photographers who would probably most benefit from duChemin's analysis but are those most unlikely to try to understand it. (This harsh conclusion is mine, not duChemin's.)

This is an excellent book and the author's analysis of his photographs will prove useful to readers in trying to internalize the concepts of Message, Elements and Decisions. Sometimes I disagreed with the author's conclusion that a particular technique had enhanced the meaning of an image, but even in those cases, I believed the examination of the technique would ultimately improve my own photography.

The concepts presented are not new and have been presented in many other photography books. In fact as I read, I wondered why he had not stuck to the traditional terms of description and analysis of the arts, like form and content, or technique and product. Although the author does not explain the advantage of a new taxonomy, he obviously feels that it will help the reader to get a better grasp on the underlying concepts. I'm not certain that it does, but on the other hand, it certainly is no worse than the more traditional form. In any event, my own belief is that multiple approaches to concepts help us to get a better grasp, and reading duChemin can only help, even if you are an experienced photographer.

It seems to me that the author's earlier works, like "Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision" served to develop concepts that had not been emphasized enough to photographers. This book covers ground that studious photographers will be familiar with, but the path may be more attractive.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Professional JavaScript for Web Developers




A significant update to a bestselling JavaScript book As the key scripting language for the web, JavaScript is supported by every modern web browser and allows developers to create client-side scripts that take advantage of features such as animating the canvas tag and enabling client-side storage and application caches. After an in-depth introduction to the JavaScript language, this updated edition of a bestseller progresses to break down how JavaScript is applied for web development using the latest web development technologies. Veteran author and JavaScript guru Nicholas Zakas shows how JavaScript works with the new HTML5 as well as other significant advances in web development as it relates to JavaScript. Begins with an introduction to JavaScript basics and then moves on to more advanced topics regarding JavaScript and advances in web development technologies Describes how JavaScript is implemented into HTML5 Covers browser/feature detection in scripts, event-driven JavaScript development, error reporting and debugging, offline application and data storage, and more Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, 3rd Edition is an authoritative JavaScript resource that every web developers should have.

HTML5 & CSS3 Visual QuickStart Guide (7th Edition)




Review

If your budget only allows for one HTML5 and CSS3 book, this book is a terrific way to invest your money. I’ve reviewed HTML5 for Web Designers and Introducing HTML5 on this blog. I think this book is better than either of those books. That’s not saying the two books mentioned are not excellent books, because they are. I’ve read both of those books carefully and I still learned new and helpful things from HTML5 and CSS3. Plus, the VQS style is inherently easy to use with each topic detailed in small step-by-step bits. It’s so easy to find the one thing you need to know at any given moment with a VQS book.

Another advantage this book over the others I mentioned is that it can get a beginner going but it also offers a lot of good information for the experienced HTML and CSS wonk. If you’re teaching either of these topics, this book is classroom gold.

Definitely recommended. - Virginia DeBolt, webteacher.ws

About the Author

Bruce Hyslop began developing for the Web in 1997 and focuses on interface technical architecture, development, usability, accessibility, and advocating best practices. He is the author of The HTML Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press, 2010), a thorough discussion and reference of all HTML elements (HTML5 and prior). Bruce also teaches a CSS course at UCLA Extension and occasionally speaks on matters regarding front-end development. Over the years, he has overseen front-end teams or been a developer for more than 150 projects, including those for ABC, BBC, Disney, Logitech, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nokia, Target, Toyota, and Yahoo!, among others.

Bruce is an independent developer and consultant to agencies, start-ups, and others, previously having spent a decade in the digital agency world. Formerly, he was the senior director of the Interface Engineering Group (IEG) at Schematic, where he oversaw company-wide efforts to define and implement best practices regarding HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and accessibility wherever they may be applied: the browser, desktop, mobile devices, and emerging platforms.

Bruce was an early adopter of Web standards. At a previous agency in the early 2000s, he lead companies such as Baskin-Robbins and Pacific Gas & Electric into the fray of modern client-side practices while managing development between offices in Los Angeles, China, and New York.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Peachpit Press; 7 edition (December 31, 2011)
  • Language: English

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Mark R. Levin-Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology




About the Author

Mark R. Levin, nationally syndicated talk-radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation, is the author of Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, which spent more than three months as a #1 New York Times bestseller and sold more than one million copies. His books Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America and Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover’s Story of Joy and Anguish were also bestsellers. He has worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Ronald Reagan’s cabinet.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

EPILOGUE
MY PREMISE, IN THE first sentence of the first chapter of this book, is this: “Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology.”

Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, Hobbes’s Leviathan, and Marx’s workers’ paradise are utopias that are anti-individual and anti-individualism. For the utopians, modern and olden, the individual is one-dimensional—selfish. On his own, he has little moral value. Contrarily, authoritarianism is defended as altruistic and masterminds as socially conscious. Thus endless interventions in the individual’s life and manipulation of his conditions are justified as not only necessary and desirable but noble governmental pursuits. This false dialectic is at the heart of the problem we face today.

In truth, man is naturally independent and self-reliant, which are attributes that contribute to his own well-being and survival, and the well-being and survival of a civil society. He is also a social being who is charitable and compassionate. History abounds with examples, as do the daily lives of individuals. To condemn individualism as the utopians do is to condemn the very foundation of the civil society and the American founding and endorse, wittingly or unwittingly, oppression. Karl Popper saw it as an attack on Western civilization. “The emancipation of the individual was indeed the great spiritual revolution which had led to the breakdown of tribalism and to the rise of democracy.”1 Moreover, Judaism and Christianity, among other religions, teach the altruism of the individual.

Of course, this is not to defend anarchy. Quite the opposite. It is to endorse the magnificence of the American founding. The American founding was an exceptional exercise in collective human virtue and wisdom—a culmination of thousands of years of experience, knowledge, reason, and faith. The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable societal proclamation of human rights, brilliant in its insight, clarity, and conciseness. The Constitution of the United States is an extraordinary matrix of governmental limits, checks, balances, and divisions, intended to secure for posterity the individual’s sovereignty as proclaimed in the Declaration.

This is the grand heritage to which every American citizen is born. It has been characterized as “the American Dream,” “the American experiment,” and “American exceptionalism.” The country has been called “the Land of Opportunity,” “the Land of Milk and Honey,” and “a Shining City on a Hill.” It seems unimaginable that a people so endowed by Providence, and the beneficiaries of such unparalleled human excellence, would choose or tolerate a course that ensures their own decline and enslavement, for a government unleashed on the civil society is a government that destroys the nature of man.

On September 17, 1787, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Delegate James Wilson, on behalf of his ailing colleague from Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, read aloud Franklin’s speech to the convention in favor of adopting the Constitution. Among other things, Franklin said that the Constitution “is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become corrupt as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.…”2

Have we “become corrupt”? Are we in need of “despotic government”? It appears that some modern-day “leading lights” think so, as they press their fanatical utopianism. For example, Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time magazine, considers the Constitution a utopian expedient. He wrote, “If the Constitution was intended to limit the federal government, it sure doesn’t say so.… The framers weren’t afraid of a little messiness. Which is another reason we shouldn’t be so delicate about changing the Constitution or reinterpreting it.”3 It is beyond dispute that the Framers sought to limit the scope of federal power and that the Constitution does so. Moreover, constitutional change was not left to the masterminds but deliberately made difficult to ensure the broad participation and consent of the body politic.

Richard Cohen, a columnist for the Washington Post, explained that the Constitution is an amazing document, as long as it is mostly ignored, particularly the limits it imposes on the federal government. He wrote, “This fatuous infatuation with the Constitution, particularly the 10th Amendment, is clearly the work of witches, wiccans, and wackos. It has nothing to do with America’s real problems and, if taken too seriously, would cause an economic and political calamity. The Constitution is a wonderful document, quite miraculous actually, but only because it has been wisely adapted to changing times. To adhere to the very word of its every clause hardly is respectful to the Founding Fathers. They were revolutionaries who embraced change. That’s how we got here.”4 Of course, without the promise of the Tenth Amendment, the Constitution would not have been ratified, since the states insisted on retaining most of their sovereignty. Furthermore, the Framers clearly did not embrace the utopian change demanded by its modern adherents.
Lest we ignore history, the no-less-eminent American revolutionary and founder Thomas Jefferson explained, “On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”5

Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times and three-time Pulitzer Prize recipient, is even more forthright in his dismissal of constitutional republicanism and advocacy for utopian tyranny. Complaining of the slowness of American society in adopting sweeping utopian policies, he wrote, “There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”6 Of course, China remains a police state, where civil liberties are nonexistent, despite its experiment with government-managed pseudo-capitalism. Friedman’s declaration underscores not only the necessary intolerance utopians have for constitutionalism, but their infatuation with totalitarianism.

It is neither prudential nor virtuous to downplay or dismiss the obvious—that America has already transformed into Ameritopia. The centralization and consolidation of power in a political class that insulates its agenda in entrenched experts and administrators, whose authority is also self-perpetuating, is apparent all around us and growing more formidable. The issue is whether the ongoing transformation can be restrained and then reversed, or whether it will continue with increasing zeal, passing from a soft tyranny to something more oppressive. Hayek observed that “priding itself on having built its world as if it had designed it, and blaming itself for not having designed it better, humankind is now to set out to do just that. The aim … is no less than to effect a complete redesigning of our traditional morals, law, and language, and on this basis to stamp out the older order and supposedly inexorable, unjustifiable conditions that prevent the institution of reason, fulfillment, true freedom, and justice.”7 But the outcome of this adventurism, if not effectively stunted, is not in doubt.

In the end, can mankind stave off the powerful and dark forces of utopian tyranny? While John Locke was surely right about man’s nature and the civil society, he was also right about that which threatens them. Locke, Montesquieu, many of the philosophers of the European Enlightenment, and the Founders, among others, knew that the history of organized government is mostly a history of a relative few and perfidious men co-opting, coercing, and eventually repressing the many through the centralization and consolidation of authority.

Ironically and tragically, it seems that liberty and the constitution established to preserve it are not only essential to the individual’s well-being and happiness, but also an opportunity for the devious to exploit them and connive against them. Man has yet to devise a lasting institutional answer to this puzzle. The best that can be said is that all that really stands between the individual and tyranny is a resolute and sober people. It is the people, after all, around whom the civil society has grown and governmental institutions have been established. At last, the people are responsible for upholding the civil society and republican government, to which their fate is moored.

The essential question is whether, in America, the people’s psychology has been so successfully warped, the individual’s spirit so thoroughly trounced, and the civil society’s institutions so effectively overwhelmed that revival is possible. Have too many among us already surrendered or been conquered? Can the people overcome the constant and relentless influences of ideological indoctrination, economic manipulation, and administrative coerciveness, or have they become hopelessly entangled in and dependent on a ubiquitous federal...

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Threshold Editions (January 17, 2012)
  • Language: English

More About the Author

Biography

Mark R. Levin is a nationally syndicated talk radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation. He has also worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Reagan's cabinet. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Liberty and Tyranny, as well as New York Times bestselling books Rescuing Sprite and Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America, Mark holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law.


Building a Bridge to the Life You Want

Strategy For You: Building a Bridge to the Life You Want
Do you have a plan for life? Think back on your life and how you arrived at where you are today. Did you envision where you wanted to be and then map out a strategy for getting there? Or, have you bounced around like a bumper car from one thing to the next? New research shows that only 15 per cent of adults have a written plan for their life.......................

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