jiujensu's reviews
440 reviews

I've long admired his reporting and always wanted to read about how he did what he did. Maybe his story has the usual hallmarks of white male success - not wealthy, but racism and sexism helped a great deal. 

Aside from that, it has those romantic old newsroom stories about cub reporters, teletype, running in the rain to get the story in, secret sources he convinces to talk, etc. My Lai, CIA involvement with Allende coup and tracking anti-war protesters to unpopular stories about US crimes in Iraq and elsewhere.  He seems the last of a certain kind of reporter that holds power to account. I hope I'm wrong about that. 

It ends with a chapter on the time period in which I became acquainted with his work:

"I watched over the next years as the American media, overwhelmed by twenty-four-hour news, would increasingly rely in a crisis on the immediate claims of a White House and a politically compliant intelligence community. Skepticism, the instinct that drives much investigative reporting, would diminish even more after Barack Obama, full of hope and promise, took office in early 2009."

This quote was exactly the landscape around the invasion of Iraq in 2002. I wanted to see/read rigorous questioning of those in charge for what seemed like murder, vengeance and massive abuses of power - proof to back up all the official accusations - careful consideration of the massive slaughter. 

Except for Hersh and Democracy Now, I couldn't find any good investigation or a remote desire to get to the truth of the matter, whatever it was, wherever it led.

The early 2000s. I was in my 20s and having one of those pivotal reassessments. I had to reorient as though i could feel the literal ground shift under my feet - what I'd been taught and felt sure i knew about America's goodness and promise and the murder and torture and lies i saw when i asked the questions i needed answered. 

I know he's probably got massive faults and represents the good old boys club that i hope dies off and never returns, but he was a huge figure i saw with courage, integrity and answers at the time i was becoming more aware and processing things and needed someone out there to tell the truth.

Short and direct explanation of prison abolition. Prisons don't solve the problems or repair harm, they only add to it. Angels Davis will encourage you to imagine a different, more positive way (and stop the demand for a one to one substitution). 

I love and agree wholeheartedly with her emphasis on this point:
"Alternatives that fail to address racism, male dominance, homophobia, class bias, and other structures of domination will not, in the final analysis, will not decrease decarceration and will not advance thre goal of abolition."

A little about her career, a lot about her loves, and a touchibg story of being reunited with her daughter she gave up for adoption 20 years earlier. 

Such a great book. This is one I'd recommend to men who want to support women. Even the ones who feel weird about saying feminism. 

It's sort of rapid fire feminism, as the book is only 6 hours, but it covers a lot of ground. She breaks down everything from Grumpy Cat and the use of slurs to how men can really help women to how societies should be for helping each other, not denying rights (refugees, abortion, etc). As she said: “It costs you nothing to err on the side of “care”.

A quote about how men can help, the realization of what is required:

One of my podcasting friends told me that he does stick up for women in challenging situations, like testosterone-soaked comedy greenrooms, for instance, but complained, “I get mocked for it!” Yes, I know you do. Welcome. Getting yelled at and made fun of is where many of us live all the time. Speaking up costs us friends, jobs, credibility, and invisible opportunities we’ll never even know enough about to regret.

Idk. Self help. *sigh*

I loved this book. Jane Goodall has been an inspiration from elementary school on. I've always felt her as a kindred spirit in her love of animals and travel so I couldn't wait to see what she had to say most recently.

She talks about hope vs optimism or faith and intellect and intelligence and lots more. She echos another smart woman, Mariame Kaba, in her explanation of hope as a vision for the future as well as action toward it.

One of three questions her co-author put to her was are humans mostly good or mostly evil. Her explanation was perfect - we're both. It's more what we nurture and what our environment demands for our survival. 

The bit at the end was surprising though. We aren't such kindred spirits where she talks about not believing in coincidence. I just think there are better, more likely explanations for that, though I understand why people want to believe there's a reason or higher power driving things. It could be a comfort. It's related to her hope, but isn't a reason for mine. She is able to acknowledge we've left the realm of science and doesn't demand we believe as she does, so I even enjoyed that part. 

The book is arranged as a discussion so at times it's kind of funny to hear a quote referenced and suddenly she's got to go feed the birds so could Doug look up the exact quote on the laptop, which is kinda funny. But I chose an audiobook, so I did get to hear her parts in her voice. I recommend that. 

The third book is a fine end - a bit rushed maybe toward the end,  but as it could really go on forever, one has to close it somehow. 

This one left enough loose ends not to be too simplistic but also gave a more or less satisfying resolution to the stories I started to care about within the main dystopia.

Year of the Flood is probably still my favorite but Maddaddam is a strong finish. 

If you like the end of the world type genre, this trilogy is top notch.

There's a lot of discussion lately about dropping "Brazilian" from BJJ. There are plenty of references in this book directly from Japan to the early 1900s in the US to add to that fray, if you want. Besides that, it's a fun historical look at fitness, jiujitsu and self-defense through the years - the attitudes about, reasons for - suffrage, eugenics, feminism and anti Black and Asian racism, as well

One funny anecdote i can't stop thinking about was that some Washington women were so annoyed with Roosevelt (all that manly art and worry over American masculinity?) that they were determined to best him at all his feats he bragged about - up to and including organizing a women's class when Yoshiaki Yamashita came to teach Roosevelt jiujitsu. One rode a relay of horses for 24 hours, lol. I need more of that!

The conclusion of the book brings in topics discussed tying together feminism and self-defense with an eye towards how racism affected it and also mentions my constant concern (oddly not so much discussed in the book i think?) that certain self-defense classes might enforce patriarchy and gender norms while others can indeed empower.