The best read since they invented the alphabet.
As we mentioned last night, Rachel’s new book "Drift" is number one on the New York Times print hardcover nonfiction list (who-hooo!) and the reviews have been equally encouraging. For instance:
"In her hard-hitting debut, popular MSNBC host Maddow examines how the country has lost control of its national-security policy...[Written with] humor and verve." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)
So "Drift" is obviously a hit in the here and now but I can't help wonder how this book would have been received in other time periods. Like, maybe:
"A hit. A very palpable hit." -- William Shakespeare.
"So military overreach can hasten the decline of a mighty empire? I've never heard anything so preposterous." -- Julius Caesar
"Curs't of foulest deviltry and mischief. Repent thou, Massachusetts witch, and may thy sinful beliefs be caste into thee hazard!" -- Salem Gazette
"Miss Maddow's critics insist on branding her a socialist. I do not think that word means what they think it means." -- Karl Marx
"About 'Drift' -- listen up. All this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war... because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans." -- Gen. George S. Patton
Now it's your turn -- write us some historical blurbs for "Drift" and we'll post the winners tomorrow. Enjoy!
Leave a Comment:
I recommend this book to anyone interested in mankind and they're need for war. Especially my father, who doesn't know man as well as he thinks he does. - Jesus Christ
Clearly a forgery--Jesus would never use the word "they're" incorrectly in a sentence (a most grievous error). "They're" is a contraction of "they are". The correct term would be "their".
Damn! I blame ... The Bible!
Correction:
I recommend this book to anyone interested in mankind and their need for war. Especially my father, who doesn't know man as well as he thinks he does. - Jesus Christ
"Thanks to Rachel for taking up the banner against the war machine AGAIN. The battle never ends." Dwight David Eisenhower
"In my farewell address I warned of foreign entanglements, yet I fail to find myself cited as a source of inspiration, nor am I mentioned in the dedication. Otherwise, a decent read." G. W. Washington
Nine years my recommendation would be nine years for every war ....Herman Cain
God caused hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay-pride parade the week before and Rachel Maddow is writing DRIFT, Rev. John Haggee
"What Julius said." - Ghengis Khan
incidentally, my husband said he saw Drift on the bookshelf of some conservative pundit in the background on his broadcast, but alas couldn't remember which one it was.
It was Steve Schmidt.
To the tune of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll:
Twas bryllyg! Frabjous!
A book of how we've drifted away from America's original ideals
We did gyre and gymble in ye wabe: and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war,
All mimsy were ye borogoves;
And ye mome raths outgrabe.
With a plea for a Dick Cheney interview.
She has an and eye for the absurd.
She Provokes a smart public debate.
Oh Kent, how I've missed you! Shakespeare indeed! Very clever. OK, I have to try one:
"Let's face it. We are always already undone by this book. And if we're not, we're missing something. One does not always stay intact. It may be that one wants to, or does, but it may also be that despite one's best efforts, one is undone, in the read of the book, by the touch, by the scent, by the feel, by the prospect of the touch, by the memory of the feel. Neither of these is precisely a possession, but both are to be understood as modes of being dispossessed, ways of being for another, or, indeed, by virtue of another.”
- Judith Butler
“The connections in this book are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet. In the military-industrial complex, lying is done with words and also with silence. Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, false namings of real events. When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.”
- Adrienne Rich
Oh my god I'm in stitches.
A well reasoned and excellently written book. All that is missing is a wooden horse! ~ Odysseus
That's it no more toy guns.....Santa Claus
"I'm drinking over it!"
Carrie Nation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Nation
"Drift's got what plants crave" -- Frito Pendejo
"Mommy, does the book come with a toy?" 8 year old child (okay that doesn't count as a historical figure but I couldn't help myself)
"You see, you see, their stupid minds! STUPID, STUPID!" Eros, Plan 9 from Outer Space (it counts, that movie is old so Eros is a historical figure)
"If this book covers cartoon space submarines I am owed 10 percent" Yoshinobou Nishizaki
"Are you ready for when Driftamania runs wild on you?!" Hulk Hogan
"I, like, didn't really understand what this book said, but, dude, this book is like, totally awesome!" Michelangelo, TMNT
"I reviewed this book for one reason: to attack and keep coming. Not to ask but just to give, not to want but just to sing, sing the power of the Warrior... and of Rachel Maddow's new book, Drift." The Ultimate Warrior
"The green weenie is coming after me... Al Capone can't run an illegal mousetrap. Honey, pass the dandelions... Do they serve dormouse in this joint? I'll ventilate ya.
Drift is a well written, cogent and timely work that deserves serious consideration, especially in the post 9/11 world. Woodrow Wilson was a broken jet pack with a mosquito on his bum."
-Dutch Schultz
Here's another one:
"What's this UN-mooring business? I don't like that at all." Othello.
I guess not all book blurbs are so glowing.
Nah, you got it right. Maybe I need to work up an Iago rejoinder now, perhaps as a creative way to fulfill my self-imposed Machiavellian requirement for our little project. ;)
Verb. Noun. 9/11. Read Drift.
--Rudolf Guliani
"ah but I may as well try to catch the wind" Donovan Leach
"And I was like in the bookstore, man, when I suddenly flashed on this book with a toy soldier on the cover and I opened it and was like 'This chick sees stuff, man.' And you get real insights, you know? Real information that needs to be out there, right? And I'm like, vigorously recommending it to all my friends as a book of great social and political import."
--Janis Joplin
Drift ... is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can you want?
-- Oscar Wilde
How historical?
"There are too many words. How does she expect me to read this?" - Herman Cain
From the world of fiction
"...." Silent Bob
"Reading is only for dirty Liberals, don't buy this elitist buk!"
~Sarah Palin
Few years ago would have been treated as Michael Moore was.
Protecting the #1 cash crop in Afghnistan,might start to think it's alright to use it.
"It read like a silly, Liberally biased pile of reindeer dung stuck to the bottom of my shoo, doncha know...."
~Sarah Palin
"It's a trap!"
-Admiral Ackbar
Thank you, Miss Maddow, for finally discussing the reality of a perpetual war society. About time someone pointed out the elephant in the room.---Hannibal