It would have been true except for the Liao, Jin, Yuan and Qing dynasties.
Henry Kissinger
Bill Stillwell posts photos of the books he has read partially and put down, and, since I'm a follower, not a leader, here is a photo of the books that are either completely-unread or partially-read that were sitting on my bookshelf:
I've read half of Independent People by Halldór Laxness (I've quoted from the book book about the scandalous tyranny of mankind and being independent and free), about a third of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, and about 100 pages of The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu translated by Edward G. Seidensticker (it was one of the books I brought to China in 2000, and that's about as much as I got read during the trip, and the bookmark is a page from an article about the book from the the Japan Air inflight magazine). I picked up The Pursuit of Happiness and Other Sobering Thoughts by George F. Will at a library book sale (hence the call number on the spine), and same with Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger and The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (the library evidently already had copies of those books so they sold them right after they were donated). I picked up A Completely and Utterly Unauthorised Guide to Hitchhiker's Guide by M J Simpson at the best book store in the world (or at least the Northwest) last year.
The other books I'm sure have stories about them, but I forget what they are.
Kissinger Quits As Chairman of 9/11 Panel
Henry Kissinger cites the controversy surrounding (unnamed) potential conflicts accruing from his appointment of a panel investigating the Sept. 11th attacks (seems to be a lot of panels investigating this; Sept. 11 will most likely be over-investigated, not under-). Kissinger gets off the hook from revealing his client list. From Chistopher Hitchens' field day on the appointment:
Kissinger's "consulting" firm, Kissinger Associates, is a privately held concern that does not publish a client list and that compels its clients to sign confidentiality agreements. Nonetheless, it has been established that Kissinger's business dealings with, say, the Chinese Communist leadership have closely matched his public pronouncements on such things as the massacre of Chinese students. Given the strong ties between himself, his partners Lawrence Eagleburger and Brent Scowcroft, and the oil oligarchies of the Gulf, it must be time for at least a full disclosure of his interests in the region. This thought does not seem to have occurred to the president or to the other friends of Prince Bandar and Prince Bandar's wife, who helped in the evacuation of the Bin Laden family from American soil, without an interrogation, in the week after Sept. 11.
Yet by resigning because of the controversy that could (in his view) surround his consulting practice, doesn't that shine a light on said consulting practice? Has Kissinger tried to avoid the controversy while at the same time courting it?
Yahoo! News: Bush Names Kissinger to Head 9/11 Probe
Christopher Hitchens is going to have a field-day with this.
Update, the next day: Hitchens has his field-day. It couldn't make me happier that he is now writing for Slate, the only online magazine I read daily. read more →
This sounds like I'm implying something, but I'd really like to know the answer to the following question, well, I haven't exactly read much Chilean history, if you know what I mean:
Why does it seem like the that Salvatore Allende's government was democratically elected was the only good thing about it? I mean, the Left goes on and on about it. Sure, democracy is a Good Thing, but sometimes democratic countries make mistakes when electing their governments. I mean, we elected Jean Chretien as Prime Minister for 3 straight terms for crying out loud.
What, other than that it was democratically elected, makes Allende's government so great to begin with? Kissinger, the thug that he is, surely did not base his decision to oust Allende solely on his (Allende's) reputation (such as it is) as a democrat.
