Homestead mailing list

[Akka Homestead <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> 
> I certainly hope that he keeps writing. After the last seven years I  
> am hungry for a president with a fine mind who offers his thoughts in  
> writing that we may examine them.

Two thoughts go with that...one, I certainly agree that we currently don't 
have a president with a fine mind...and two...are you sure that what you read 
in Obama's books are his own thoughts?  When I was searching around the other 
day looking for publishing stuff, I saw one or two sites that insinuated that 
perhaps not all of the material under his name was his, that perhaps he had 
help.  It was probably just innuendo trying to slam the guy, but that is what 
I thought about when you said "offer his thoughts".
Actually, if he had had help writing his works and credited that help, I 
might actually think better of him(-unless he ghosted it. ) as that would 
mean that he didn't spend all of his time writing.  After all, McCain wrote a 
few self serving books while in the Senate, too, but he had a co-author.  
There is no shame in having a co-author when you have a busy schedule with 
outside obligations.  I don't like any of them writing books on my dime.  I 
don't care who it is.


> 
> I admire people who write well. Writing is a way to discipline the  
> mind, to get things in order, to verify the strength of ideas, their  
> truth.

I admire anyone who writes, even if they don't write well, because writing in 
general shows a commitment to communication of ideas, whether they are good 
or not.


 I have an early edition of Winston Churchill's, The Second  
> World War. The six volumes comprise a huge amount of writing. Imagine  
> the time required. The effort won for him the Nobel Prize in 1953. Yet  
> Churchill had characteristics that today in America might well make  
> him unelectable. Ponder that.


I pondered it a little, and I had heard of the Nobel Prize winning books, but 
relied on (drumroll) Wiki to look at the dates of when he he wrote it vs.. 
when he was prime minister.  It appears, according to this page, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_World_War_(Churchill)
that he did not actually write the book while he was prime minister, but he 
did save memos and dictate his thoughts.  Basically, he journaled and 
scrapbooked, both things are ok in my opinion to do while one is PM.  After 
his term was up, THEN he concentrated and wrote the bulk of the series in 
memoir style.  The last volume was published in 1953, but previous volumes 
apparently came out in 1948.  Recall that he was PM from 40-45 and after 
51-55.  Also, he apparently had help writing the books, Sir Norman Brook and 
others.  Churchill set out to write those books as a historian; it was not a 
self serving venture.  If you look at all of Winstons work on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_as_writer   you will see that 
the only material during his PM years are 'books' that are collections of his 
speeches, like 1944's Onward to Victory.

> 
> I don't measure Obama by comparison to mere ordinaries. He is in a  
> higher league. You may be one of those who think that if he is writing  
> books he is neglecting the duties of his office. I think that he is  
> keeping his brain in tune and he is capable of much more.

Yes, in fact, I *am* one of those people.  If my tax dollar is paying for him 
to do a job, he better as F?%^ be doing that job, not writing and publishing 
books about his own life that will make millions of dollars.   He should work 
for me, and as his employer, I demand that he is loyal to my needs,...my son 
if not myself, and not serving his own needs.  That is what he is paid to do 
as a public servant.  He can serve his own needs after he is out of the White 
House(or Senate as far as I am concerned, but he is not my Senator so I don't 
know if anyone else has complained)


> 
>  From Amazon.com re: The Audacity of Hope:
> Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule,  
> how did you find time to write?
> A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day  
> was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1  
> a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I  
> wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then  
> I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.


I haven't read the book, but here is an example of how we can see two 
different things in one passage.  The Audacity of Hope was written in 2006, 
while BO was a Senator.  By his own statement above, he spent 3+ hours a day, 
rather at night, writing, typing, editing.  I think he should have been doing 
other things personally. You see a guy that claims to write after his Senate 
workday, and I see a guy who I think should be studying and preparing for 
voting on the issues, a guy who should be writing legislation, not his 
memoirs.  If you look at this page, it shows his voting record
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490
There are an awful lot of NV's on there.  I decided to do some counting and 
boy was I surprised!  I created a little spreadsheet with Obama, McCain and 
Clinton votes.  I recorded the number of times they should have voted since 
2005, and the number of times they voted NV.  
Obama missed voting 40% of the time. Maybe he was writing at the time, or 
sleeping that day because he had been up half the night writing.
McCain missed voting 52% of the time.  Maybe as an old guy he was sleeping.
Clinton missed voting only 30% of the time!  Amazing that she came in ahead 
of the above slackers.  30% isn't anything to brag about, but it certainly is 
better than either one of the guys.
I was amazed.  You can even kind of make assumptions what is important to the 
candidates by how many votes they missed vs. how many votes they attended and 
expressed an opinion.




>
> 
> Somewhere I have an article I wrote about staring out the window while  
> writing. Any non-writer (or wife} observing this would fairly conclude  
> that I was goofing off, that I lacked drive, that I lacked focus.

Were you being paid to write, or were you being paid to perform another type 
of job, like a real estate search or research?  If you were being paid to 
write, then I could care less if you were looking out the window.  That is 
thinking, part of the writing process of organizing thoughts.  If you were 
supposed to be working for a paying RE client, then you lose my respect.


> 
> Truth be told, some of a writer's best thoughts come while staring out  
> a window or at a ceiling. Non-writers just don't get that.

I get that fine.  I am not making judgments against writers who stare out the 
window.  
As an American, though, I pay my fair share of taxes to support government.  
I don't want to see cops spend hours in a Donut Shoppe, I don't to see 
Senators at Lobbyist parties or playing golf in the Caribbean, and I 
certainly don't want to see Obama staring out the oval office window trying 
to figure out what he should write about next.  We will be paying him to read 
proposals, develop policy, make decisions (whole 'nother thread there), meet 
with dignitaries, be commander in chief, etc. etc.  I don't want to pay the 
guy to write his next book-a book that he is bound to make millions from...


You know Gene, maybe I am making a bigger deal out of this than most.  It 
does seem that book writing while acting as a public servant is a common 
thing to do.  It just doesn't set well with me, though.  
I have to thank you for continuing this conversation, because I think I 
learned a lot today.  


Akka







>From akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com  Sun Sep 14 02:34:01 2008
Return-Path: <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
        id 229C44C016; Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:34:01 -0400 (EDT)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level: *
X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.8 required=5.0 tests=HTML_MESSAGE, 
MIME_QP_LONG_LINE
        autolearn=disabled version=3.2.3
Received: from n3b.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com (n3b.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com
        [76.13.13.73]) by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9FEAA4C010
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:33:51 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: from [76.13.13.25] by n3.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP;
        14 Sep 2008 06:33:51 -0000
Received: from [76.13.10.168] by t4.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP;
        14 Sep 2008 06:33:51 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp109.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP;
        14 Sep 2008 06:33:51 -0000
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3
X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 344760.60809.bm AT omp109.mail.ac4.yahoo.com
Received: (qmail 82379 invoked by uid 60001); 14 Sep 2008 06:27:01 -0000
X-YMail-OSG: 
NGC20nQVM1m8I5aJ47UDJBcbtJ.g5GBHcRpLZTVKsrMtGYfkexKUacUu1Y4b.YTmxkGR6xD_WxjLyr72pLsnyVAPi8r7xKSrZ3PVsrzIEJCRQG3AQwdLSnVZWg4G6_g-
Received: from [216.78.38.144] by web59901.mail.ac4.yahoo.com via HTTP;
        Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:27:00 PDT
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.218.2
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:27:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Akka Homestead <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>
To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
In-Reply-To: <688004.63322.qm AT web38702.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <941403.81133.qm AT web59901.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.9
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Republicans appear to be yesterday
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:34:01 -0000



william Eggers wrote:
> This could be the last election, period.  Bush has signed a law that
> allows the president to suspend all elections and declare martial law
> when he feel it necessary.  Not when there in a national emergency,
> but when the president feel it necessary.
> 
>

Hi William.  I think your post needs clarifying.  Feel free to add additional 
comments to what I will make.  I know what I am going to do is a start and is 
not complete.  Most of this is copied from other, government sources.  

On May 9, 2007 President George Bush reasserted the role of the Federal 
government during a declared emergency by issuing Executive Order NSPD 51/ 
HSPD-20. The Order states that in the event of a ‘catastrophic emergency’ all 
‘national essential functions’ may be taken over by the Executive branch of 
government and the Department of Homeland Security (including FEMA). [20]

NSPD-51/HSPD-20 is a direct reformulation of Presidential Decision Directive 
67 of October 21, 1998 (”Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of 
Government Operations”). NSPD-51 basically recreates and replaces 67. It is 
different in some function due to this falling under Homeland Security’s 
jurisdiciton, but the primary goal of government continuity in the case of 
national emergency.

http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd/pdd-67.htm

Here are some previous executive orders going back a few years.  Many are 
revoked or amended by now.  Many have been rolled into other documents.  
William, this is a very common "continuity of government" order that has been 
around in one form or another since the Cold War or earlier.  Both parties 
have enacted such orders over the years.
Not to worry Bush becoming a dictator.  A. He is not smart enough.  B. He 
doesn't have the support he needs-even his own party has thrown him to the 
wolves.


* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of 
transportation and control of highways and seaports.  Signed by JFK

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the 
communication media.  Signed by JFK

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical 
power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals. Signed by JFK

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources 
and farms. Signed by JFK

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work 
brigades under government supervision. (JFK)

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, 
education and welfare functions. (JFK)

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a 
national registration of all persons. (JFK)

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and 
aircraft, including commercial aircraft. (JFK)

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate 
communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be 
abandoned, and establish new locations for populations. (JFK)

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland 
waterways and public storage facilities. (JFK)

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of 
Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into 
effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial 
crisis. Revoked and superceded by EO#12148 see below

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to 
enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial 
support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all 
aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and 
assist the President. signed by LBJ

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal 
departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued 
over a fifteen year period. Revoked by 12553, signed by Ronald Reagan

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to 
develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and 
distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of 
money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It 
also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, 
Congress cannot review the action for six months.
Signed in by Gerald Ford

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA) that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense 
planning and funding. An "emergency czar" was appointed. FEMA has only spent 
about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies, the bulk of their 
funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities 
to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or 
domestic. Signed by Jimmy Carter

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 12656 appointed the National Security Council as the 
principal body that should consider emergency powers. This allows the 
government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. 
citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States 
and granted the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians. 
The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control 
of U.S. air space and all ports of entry. Many of the figures in the 
Iran-Contra scandal were part of this emergency contingent, including Marine 
Colonel Oliver North.  signed by Ronald Reagan

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13083 SIGNED BY CLINTON, replaced by 13095


The Violent Crime Control Act of 1991 provides additional powers to the 
President of the United States, allowing the suspension of the Constitution 
and Constitutional rights of Americans during a "drug crisis". It provides 
for the construction of detention camps, seizure of property, and military 
control of populated areas.






>From akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com  Sun Sep 14 02:37:26 2008
Return-Path: <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
        id 4D1184C010; Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:37:26 -0400 (EDT)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=HTML_MESSAGE
        autolearn=disabled version=3.2.3
Received: from n7c.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com (n7c.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com
        [76.13.13.84]) by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8E04C4C016
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:37:20 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: from [76.13.13.26] by n7.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP;
        14 Sep 2008 06:37:20 -0000
Received: from [76.13.10.173] by t3.bullet.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP;
        14 Sep 2008 06:37:20 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp114.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with NNFMP;
        14 Sep 2008 06:37:20 -0000
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-5
X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 409158.91982.bm AT omp114.mail.ac4.yahoo.com
Received: (qmail 96199 invoked by uid 60001); 14 Sep 2008 06:36:52 -0000
X-YMail-OSG: 
B8JovAMVM1kAFAefg.5qESJxbX4mmGbUmQtjpFZ979IPeHSvThEpN.c1bNCZjIzHt0n3I8gVRbyyuPMz7VrhNeQTHjvP4fb9saUSRI2NkLmsMzJoFZsqhjAdfamdohI-
Received: from [216.78.38.144] by web59908.mail.ac4.yahoo.com via HTTP;
        Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:36:52 PDT
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.218.2
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:36:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Akka Homestead <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>
To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <633017.92419.qm AT web59908.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.9
Subject: [Homestead] A health questionnaire
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:37:26 -0000

I'm posting this because I am conducting this survey for my own informal 
research, and I would like you to answer the following 13 questions 
about your life.  The more people that I can get to take it, the better. 
 Please take the survey yourself and then get your spouse or other 
adults to take it.  I don't need names.  If you don't want to 
incriminate yourself on the marijuana question, you may leave it blank, 
but know that no one besides me will see this questionnaire-I'm not 
judging!<g>  Please do 
not post the results to the list, please send them to
akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com
Just hit reply, edit as you see fit to make the answer obvious to me, and 
that will be good enough.  I'm hoping for 100 adults to take this...please!

Thanks.

Are you male or female?


Are you
18-40 years old?
40-50 years old?
50-60 years old?
60-70 years old?
Over 70 years old?


In general terms, describe your diet:
For example:  I eat whatever, love cheese and bread or I am a vegetarian 
or I eat for diabetes, or I don't eat red meat, etc.

Are you overweight?
How much would you like to lose?

Do you drink alcohol?
If so, what and how much per day?

Have you ever been a vegetarian if you aren't now?
For how long and why did you stop?
Please describe your vegetarian habits (e.g. vegan, lacto-veg, etc.)

Do you smoke cigarettes?
If so, how much per week?
If you ever smoked, how long have you been quit?

What is you blood type?
If you don't know, leave it blank.

Do you smoke marijuana?
If so, how much per week?

Do you have chronic medical issues that you take prescribed medication 
to treat? (i.e. diabetes, RA, high blood pressure, etc.)

What is your level of education?
High school graduate or less?
Some college?
College graduate?

How often do you eat away from home(answer in meals per week)?

Do you garden, raise animals or grow any of your own food?
If yes, please describe.

Do you drink treated water, well water,  bottled/treated, or 
bottled/distilled?






>From lurine AT softcom.net  Sun Sep 14 02:57:23 2008
Return-Path: <lurine AT softcom.net>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
        id 57A3C4C010; Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:57:23 -0400 (EDT)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.3 required=5.0 tests=SARE_MILLIONSOF,
        STOX_REPLY_TYPE autolearn=disabled version=3.2.3
Received: from inoculator.softcom.net (inoculator.softcom.net [207.13.104.11])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BBE24C01F
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:57:16 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: from Moon (67-150-101-215.stkn.mdsg-pacwest.com [67.150.101.215])
        by inoculator.softcom.net (8.13.6/8.12.11) with SMTP id 
m8E6uneB014056;
        Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:56:49 -0700
Message-ID: <01bf01c9163f$718ff3e0$d7659643@Moon>
From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
To: <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>, <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
References: <975646.19771.qm AT web59905.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:54:30 -0800
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
        reply-type=original
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3350
X-SOFTCOM-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information
X-SOFTCOM-MailScanner: Found to be clean
X-MailScanner-From: lurine AT softcom.net
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Republicans appear to be yesterday
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:57:23 -0000

Welllll, I find it rather interesting that it took him years to write the
first book and that he had a free office with no job whatsoever, didn't have
to punch a clock, no responsibilities and couldn't get it done and then had
to take an 8 month vacation to finish it.

Then suddenly he is a whiz kid at writing books and he bombs the second book
out in a matter of months while *supposedly* working full time and
*supposedly* only spends a couple of hours a day and then late at night
writing the second book.

For those that read both book, do you really find the "tone" and cadence to
be the same in both books?

I didn't, most peculiar!

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: "Akka Homestead" <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>

Two thoughts go with that...one, I certainly agree that we currently don't
have a president with a fine mind...and two...are you sure that what you
read in Obama's books are his own thoughts? When I was searching around the
other day looking for publishing stuff, I saw one or two sites that
insinuated that perhaps not all of the material under his name was his, that
perhaps he had help. It was probably just innuendo trying to slam the guy,
but that is what I thought about when you said "offer his thoughts".
Actually, if he had had help writing his works and credited that help, I
might actually think better of him(-unless he ghosted it. ) as that would
mean that he didn't spend all of his time writing. After all, McCain wrote a
few self serving books while in the Senate, too, but he had a co-author.
There is no shame in having a co-author when you have a busy schedule with
outside obligations. I don't like any of them writing books on my dime. I
don't care who it is.

I admire anyone who writes, even if they don't write well, because writing
in general shows a commitment to communication of ideas, whether they are
good or not.

I pondered it a little, and I had heard of the Nobel Prize winning books,
but relied on (drumroll) Wiki to look at the dates of when he he wrote it
vs.. when he was prime minister. It appears, according to this page,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_World_War_(Churchill)
that he did not actually write the book while he was prime minister, but he
did save memos and dictate his thoughts. Basically, he journaled and
scrapbooked, both things are ok in my opinion to do while one is PM. After
his term was up, THEN he concentrated and wrote the bulk of the series in
memoir style. The last volume was published in 1953, but previous volumes
apparently came out in 1948. Recall that he was PM from 40-45 and after
51-55. Also, he apparently had help writing the books, Sir Norman Brook and
others. Churchill set out to write those books as a historian; it was not a
self serving venture. If you look at all of Winstons work on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_as_writer you will see that
the only material during his PM years are 'books' that are collections of
his speeches, like 1944's Onward to Victory.

Yes, in fact, I *am* one of those people. If my tax dollar is paying for him
to do a job, he better as F?%^ be doing that job, not writing and publishing
books about his own life that will make millions of dollars. He should work
for me, and as his employer, I demand that he is loyal to my needs,...my son
if not myself, and not serving his own needs. That is what he is paid to do
as a public servant. He can serve his own needs after he is out of the White
House(or Senate as far as I am concerned, but he is not my Senator so I
don't know if anyone else has complained)

I haven't read the book, but here is an example of how we can see two
different things in one passage. The Audacity of Hope was written in 2006,
while BO was a Senator. By his own statement above, he spent 3+ hours a day,
rather at night, writing, typing, editing. I think he should have been doing
other things personally. You see a guy that claims to write after his Senate
workday, and I see a guy who I think should be studying and preparing for
voting on the issues, a guy who should be writing legislation, not his
memoirs. If you look at this page, it shows his voting record
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id”90
There are an awful lot of NV's on there. I decided to do some counting and
boy was I surprised! I created a little spreadsheet with Obama, McCain and
Clinton votes. I recorded the number of times they should have voted since
2005, and the number of times they voted NV.
Obama missed voting 40% of the time. Maybe he was writing at the time, or
sleeping that day because he had been up half the night writing.
McCain missed voting 52% of the time. Maybe as an old guy he was sleeping.
Clinton missed voting only 30% of the time! Amazing that she came in ahead
of the above slackers. 30% isn't anything to brag about, but it certainly is
better than either one of the guys.
I was amazed. You can even kind of make assumptions what is important to the
candidates by how many votes they missed vs. how many votes they attended
and expressed an opinion.

Were you being paid to write, or were you being paid to perform another type
of job, like a real estate search or research? If you were being paid to
write, then I could care less if you were looking out the window. That is
thinking, part of the writing process of organizing thoughts. If you were
supposed to be working for a paying RE client, then you lose my respect.

I get that fine. I am not making judgments against writers who stare out the
window.
As an American, though, I pay my fair share of taxes to support government.
I don't want to see cops spend hours in a Donut Shoppe, I don't to see
Senators at Lobbyist parties or playing golf in the Caribbean, and I
certainly don't want to see Obama staring out the oval office window trying
to figure out what he should write about next. We will be paying him to read
proposals, develop policy, make decisions (whole 'nother thread there), meet
with dignitaries, be commander in chief, etc. etc. I don't want to pay the
guy to write his next book-a book that he is bound to make millions from...

You know Gene, maybe I am making a bigger deal out of this than most. It
does seem that book writing while acting as a public servant is a common
thing to do. It just doesn't set well with me, though.
I have to thank you for continuing this conversation, because I think I
learned a lot today.