The January sales contest is on at LULU.com. You can enter READ2011 at checkout to receive 10%* off of your order and help me win a contest.

One of my recommendations is the fictional thriller A Shroud of Evidence. One review states, “This book is intense. So like what it may be like someday. It has a lot of action, suspense and even love. A good read. I recommend it highly. My compliments to the author.” If you have an Amazon, Barnes and Nobles or other online book store account, you can purchase through those sites, but you cannot use the coupon code. 6×9 paperback.

Another pick is Concerning the Militia. This book started out as a research project during the Clinton administration and grew into a reference book. I would guess much of it you already knew or may have seen. Can be purchased in hardcover or paperback through LULU.com only.

The Patriotic Observances Handbook is a guide to the latest patriotic observances and legal Federal Holidays plus a perpetual calendar. This one came about as I searched for information on the LEGAL HOLIDAY National Prayer Day.

2011 Patriot Journal contains some of the information from the Patriotic Observance Handbook. Contains spaces for monthly appointments and journal pages.

My latest work, A Clause for Concern is an examination of the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution by a non-lawyer. Just how far does this Constitutional Power of Congress extend? What of other Constitutional authorities that the Congress has delegated or ignored? I must admit that this one may contain some mistakes, but I reference source material for you to look up.

I also have some reprints of older books such as A View of the Constitution of the United States of America. American Documents Volume II contain the Federalist Papers and American Documents Volume III contain some of the Anti-Federalist Papers. You can see all of the books I have available at my online store.

Please remember, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these books goes toward buying houses, cars, food, etc.

* Disclaimer: Enter coupon code ‘ READ2011 ‘ during checkout and save 10% off the purchase price. Discount cannot be used to pay for, nor shall be applied to, applicable taxes or shipping and handling charges. Maximum amount that can be applied to discount is $10.00 per account. Promotional codes cannot be applied to any previous orders. No exchanges or substitutions allowed. Only one valid promotional code can be used per order. Offer expires January 31, 2011 at 11:59 PM EDT. Lulu.com reserves the right to change or revoke this offer at any time. Void where prohibited.

December 27, 2010 – by Oleg Atbashian

An ex-Soviet immigrant goes Socratic on his liberal American critics.

The two women who showed up early for my book signing at a small bookstore in Houston, TX, never even bothered to open my book. Wearing knowing smiles, they engaged me in a bizarre discussion that wound up leaping all around the known and unknown universe. They hadn’t the slightest curiosity about my ideas as an ex-Soviet immigrant in America, or what I had to say about my experience working inside the two ideologically opposed systems. As it turned out, they had spotted my flyer in the store window the day before, and the book’s title — Shakedown Socialism — had enraged them so much that they decided to return the following day and give me a piece of their collective mind.

Their act almost made me feel as if I were back in the USSR, where the harassment of people with my opinions was the norm. The shorter, pudgier woman was the soloist bully, while her skinnier, older comrade provided backup vocals and noise effects. The duo’s repertoire was an eclectic collection of unoriginal talking points, each branded with an almost legible label: NPR, Air America, MSNBC, and so on. Not only were those mental fragments mismatched in key and rhythm; the very existence of harmony seemed an unfamiliar concept to them. But compared to the hard-core screaming I used to hear from card-carrying Soviet bullies, this was almost elevator music. If I had survived the original cast, I could certainly handle a watered-down remake.

Pajamas Media
SEE ALSO: The People’s Cube

By Lorraine Brown Jones
Illustrated by Cosette Riggs
Published by Inspired Originals
Available at Create Space for $9.99 and Amazon.com for $13.33.
(Price at Amazon may come down.)
Web Site

In the The Night Before Christmas, nothing was stirring, not even a mouse. In the nineteen page child’s book, Peedie’s Christmas, Peedie—a mouse—is stirring and believes that he has ruined Christmas.

I am not a connoisseur of the child’s book as I have just finished puberty. And my kids are a little older. I do have a little expert next door whom has promised to read it and let me know her opinion. I’ll let you know the results.

UPDATE: My little reader tells me that she liked the book. She was probably more fascinated with the illustrations since she is not at the reading stage. Her Dad, however, said it was very well done and a cute story.

The illustrations are nice and the poem is smooth. The illustrator—also author of Peach Springs and The Clade Letters: The Beginning—explained that the poem was from her mother. Cosette decided to put the story to print with her own illustrations. You can see a sample of the illustrations at the Amazon link above. I am told that she did the illustrations in oil on typing paper and scanned them in. It seems to have worked well.

Priced under ten dollars, it is small enough to make a great stocking stuffer for this holiday season and might help inspire a little reader.

Google

Author Robert Louis Stevenson

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 30 most translated authors in the world, just below Charles Dickens. He has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he “seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins.”—Wikipedia

Robert Louis Stevenson Biography

Just like a leaky faucet, after a while you get accustomed to the constant drip, drip, drip and forget it’s there. Even before the release of Windows 7 we were all aware that work was underway for Windows 8. There were rumblings and leaks of a possible 128 bit Windows 8 and certainly a 128 bit Windows 9 even when Windows 7 64 bit had barely hit the streets.

To be sure no one forgets, another leak has popped out, again suggesting, that Windows 8 will be released in 2 years. That would match the original leak of last year and serve to get Windows back in the news. You can read the cnet article here.

TechTalk

A Clause for Concern: Cross Examining the Interstate Commerce Clause

The Congress has, for example, turned over control of the wealth of the nation to a cabal of private bankers collectively known as the Federal Reserve. Since 1913 this group has caused the Great Depression and has been directly linked to our current economic turmoil.

Does Congress have the right to order you to purchase health insurance? The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution should destroy that myth.

This is an attempt by a non-lawyer to make sense of it all, but I have dug down into some of the Supreme Court cases and evaluated them next to the Constitution.

You can now get 10% off the price of any of my publications at Lulu.com by entering TURKEY in the coupon code area at checkout. Sale ends November 30!

* Disclaimer: Enter coupon code ‘ TURKEY ‘ during checkout and save 10% off the purchase price. Discount cannot be used to pay for, nor shall be applied to, applicable taxes or shipping and handling charges. Maximum amount that September be applied to discount is $10.00 per account. Promotional codes cannot be applied to any previous orders. No exchanges or substitutions allowed. Only one valid promotional code September be used per order. Offer expires November 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM EDT. Lulu.com reserves the right to change or revoke this offer at any time. Void where prohibited.