Porterville Nerd » General Information

Where’s the Rest of Me? The Ronald Reagan Story

Barry Caplan — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:58:57 +0000

Another curious find at the Porterville Friends of the Library “Dusty Book” sale: This mass paperback autobiography (“as told to Richard G. Hubler”) . Published in 1965, probably at the beginning of his campaign to become Governor of California, this looks to be nothing short of propaganda and marketing.

Probably not meant to be read too closely – the writing actually appears pretty dense (as in packed on the page, come on, be nice!), I think this was supposed to introduce Reagan to the public as a whole and give his image some “heft” after being best known as an actor.

Apparently it worked. I haven’t read this yet, but I will definitely add it to the pile of fist hand documents related to the fundamental principles of our country. Now that we know “the rest of the story”, it will be interesting to see how much of it turned out to be foreshadowed in this book.

A few quotes from the back cover:

On Name Calling from the Political Left and Right:

I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

On Federal Welfare Spending:

If this present welfare spending was prorated equally among these (9.3 million) families, we could give each family more than $4,000 per year. Actually, direct aid to the poor averages less than $600 per family. There must be some administrative overhead somewhere.

On the Fear of Speaking Out:

If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile, hoping he’ll eat you last.

Like the man and the results or not, those 3 lines are each marketing gold. I expect nothing less from every page of this book. Priced at 75 cents new in 1965, with slightly yellowed pages and a cover with minor damage, 25 cents made it mine.

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A bit of a situation

Barry Caplan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:49:28 +0000

The Universe doesn’t care what you believe

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Protected: River Locations

Barry Caplan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:29:53 +0000

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Captain Lou Albano Dies at 76

Barry Caplan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:53:29 +0000

Captain Lou, Captain Lou …

Early Professional Wrestling Icon Captain Lou Albano

Captain Lou Albano, a former professional wrestler and actor (though never a sea captain), recently passed away at the age of 76 of natural causes. In the wake of his death, searches surged on the man and his unique body of work.

Still, despite his accomplishments in the wrestling world and his portrayal of video games’ biggest stars, the masses are likely to remember Albano for his work with Cyndi Lauper.

via The Buzz Log – Captain Lou Albano Dies at 76 – Yahoo! Buzz.

Captain Lou Albano!

The Man, the Song – Lyrics by NRBQ:

Captain Lou
Well, some say the man’s not wrapped too tight
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou, Captain Lou)
But when he’s on the scene, everything’s all right
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano)
With the man of a thousand faces
I know we’d be goin’ places (hey!)
I’m gonna stick with the guiding light
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano)

Lou don’t worry ‘cause it’s figured in
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou, Captain Lou)
And he’s got sharp teeth like Rin Tin Tin
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano)
With the man of a thousand faces
I know we’d be goin’ places (hey!)
We’ll stick with the light through thick and thin
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano)

Captain Lou:
Captain Lou, Captain Lou, Captain Lou
Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano
hey!
Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano

With the man of a thousand faces
I know we’d be goin’ places (hey!)
I’m gonna stick with the guiding light
(Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano)

Captain Lou, Captain Lou Albano {repeat}

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Gay rights advocates march on DC, divided on Obama

Barry Caplan — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:08:15 +0000

WASHINGTON – Thousands of gay rights supporters marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.

via Gay rights advocates march on DC, divided on Obama – Yahoo! News.

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Reading is FUN-damental!

Barry Caplan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:40:07 +0000

OK, working on a new feature for this blog!

I thought y’all might like a look into the types of books that draw my interest. I will elaborate on specific ones from time to time, and use their content as a jumping off point for various blog essays.

To that extent I have added a new “library” section to this blog. It can be found at http://www.portervillenerd.com/library/

To kick it off, I will add some books I grabbed today from the Porterville Library “Friends of the Library” monthly book sale. To be honest, there were far more books available than I expected, and I didn’t expect to find anything except curiosities, if that. I think I did a little better than that, and the money goes to a good cause.

For now, the formatting of the Library page, and the individual book pages may look a little iffy as I have not integrated the default formatting into this blog’s theme. In the interest of sharing information rapidly, I let you know about the data anyway

And if you see any books that are interesting, you can click on the images or the titles and you will be taken to the book’s page on Amazon.com. If you then buy the book, you will be bringing the internet economy to Porterville, which can really use it, and honoring me with a small contribution that Amazon will provide me for having helped you! I thank you for that honor, I hope you find some books as interesting as I do, and I welcome your feedback on what you think of them or the essays I will provide.

Here are the books I got today, all for a total of less than 10 dollars:

Open Society

George Soros. PublicAffairs 2000, Hardcover, 400 pages, $6.75

Open Innovation

Henry William Chesbrough. Harvard Business Press 2005, Paperback, 227 pages, $5.00

The Excuse Factory

Walter Olson. Free Press 2007, Paperback, 384 pages, $18.01

The Lonely Crowd, Revised edition

David Riesman. Yale University Press 2001, Paperback, 315 pages, $9.00

Rigged

Ben Mezrich. Harper Perennial 2008, Paperback, 320 pages, $2.77

Film Form

Jay Leyda (Translator). Harcourt 1969, Paperback, 279 pages, $5.93

Horatio’s Drive

Dayton Duncan. Knopf 2003, Hardcover, 192 pages, $13.49

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Ghost of Tom Joad

Barry Caplan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:55:23 +0000

Strathmore, California. Citrus workers in winter quarters 1939 Feb. Strathmore is adjacent to Porterville.

Now Tom said “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries

Where there’s a fight ‘gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I’ll be there

Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin’ hand

Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me.”

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Bizarre Article on Porterville SB54 Vote

Barry Caplan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:37:14 +0000

Michael Shelton, pastor at First Baptist Church and a resident of Porterville, wrote an op-ed piece published today in the local paper that congratulates the Council for an action it did not take:

I want to go on record and applaud the Porterville City Council for taking a definitive stand on the issue of marriage. It is between a man and a woman. History bears this out for centuries, as being the intended state of marriage.

He then rambles on with a long series of arguments we have debunked thoroughly and repeatedly over the last 11 months before Council. We have debunked them so thoroughly that few if any of them were presented to Council during the 90minutes+ of open comments at last Tuesday’s meeting by the way.

For example:

Gay is a choice. Period. End of story. The APA has recently declared no gay gene. It is a behavioral choice.

How can 5 such short sentences have so many fallacies?

Science has never shown a “stupid” gene either.

Full text of the article after the jump, because I can’t believe this is what he meant to publish and the paper has taken material down before.

(...)
Hit the link for more: Bizarre Article on Porterville SB54 Vote

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Statement from Barry Caplan, representing Same-Sex Marriage Advocates of Porterville

Barry Caplan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:08:13 +0000

This Statement was read into the record immediately following the historic vote on August 4th when the Porterville City Council voted 3-2 rejecting a resolution to oppose mark Leno’s (D-SF) SB 54 bill.

The bill would, if passed, clarify issues for same sex couples who are legally married in other states and then arrive in California, in essence granting them all the rights of a marriage without allowing the relationship to be deemed a marriage. This is designed to clarify a gap in coverage that the California Supreme Court has identified in Prop 8, now a Constitutional Amendment.

Full statement after the jump ….

(...)
Hit the link for more: Statement from Barry Caplan, representing Same-Sex Marriage Advocates of Porterville

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Text of Cameron Hamilton’s Resolution opposing SB 54

Barry Caplan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:31:56 +0000

After the jump is the full text of the Resolution that Porterville’s City Council considered and rightfully rejected on August 4, 2009.

Earlier, I reported the brief results and a statement from Shannon Minter, Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)

RESOLUTION NO. _______-2009

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORTERVILLE OPPOSING STATE SENATE BILL 54 (LENO)
(...)
Hit the link for more: Text of Cameron Hamilton’s Resolution opposing SB 54

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