Disturbing Portayal of the Abuse of Power
356080
Excellent explanation of just some of the recent ways our government runs amuck.  It is disturbing in its examples and in its implications.  Although Strassel focuses on the Left, I will not be surprised if the Right makes a comeback and in a few years a liberal is able to write an equally disturbing volume about abuses on the other side.  Big Data, sadly, will be abused by all.
3783070
In one way I wasn't surprised but then I was disappointed that the people that we elect to high office to represent us and those that are paid to bring every day occurrences into our living rooms, can be so disgusting in the way they feel that they can treat a woman and a Prime Minister.  I can understand that the commentators don't necessarily believe in what is being said /proposed/done but to undermine a person in the continuous manner that was taken, that no one of "high" rank or influence tried to stop it, was a disgrace.
838077
I hate to use the word enjoy when commenting on this novel. I guess I was enlightened and somewhat angered after reading it. To think that this goes on in our society today is a blight on humanity and the things that get swept under the rug by the very people that have the power to do something about it sickens me ! Betty Webb did a good job of presenting this and I will read more of her work. Perhaps this work of fiction can provoke us to do something about the abuse of these women and children.
3683467
I chose to read this after seeing the author doing an interview on TV. Very, very interesting. While it is one person's account and of course, there are those who are sure she is a complete liar, even if the book is half true, it is very disturbing. The life these children endure and the strategies used to keep families apart is completely unreal.
391978
The excuses that all the excesses and mass murders of Stalin's era were caused by his henchmen are exposed. Not only Stalin knew about it, he personally initiated them and pursued them relentlessly. The Russians won WWII not so much because of him but despite his blunders and the severe purges he conducted in his army. He finally let his generals manage but then he was jealous of their successes. The book painstakingly revealed in minute details the crooked personality of this egomaniac, and how he destroyed practically everyone near him. How absolute power corrupts absolutely. No one was safe. This book suffers of focusing too much on the persons and not enough on events, as many books by this author. A lesson in history: it has happened and can happen again.
583646
Prof Amy Chua's 'World on Fire' is an alarming and depressing read. She lists the intra-ethnic barbarisms that have arisen over the past century or so, from the Holocaust to Rwanda to Serbia, taking in Indonesia's anti-Chinese riots and the Los Angeles anti-Korean riots, and highlighting the common features they share: an aggrieved majority, stirred up to hatred by demogagues against a market-dominant minority. In many countries, some of the minority (Jews in Russia, Chinese in SE Asia, Asians in Kenya, Lebanese in Sierra Leone) have disproportionately benefited from crony capitalism, supporting corrupt political leaders who enable them to become rich while the majority of the populace remains in poverty - until there is a violent explosion. Prof Chua points out that the US' enthusiasm for encouraging unfettered 19th century capitalism in these evolving and unstable countries with no social safety-nets while simultaneously promoting democracy is a recipe for instability. (Her thesis helps to explain the current argument in Iraq between the majority Shia who seek immediate direct elections, and the market-dominant Iraqi exiles and Kurds, who prefer a more gradual transition to raw democracy.)
More alarmingly, she encourages us to see the USA as the market-dominant minority in the world, infinitely richer than most of its citizens, and increasingly seen by many as the reason for their poverty and humiliation. Her prescription for the market-dominent majority in unstable nations is that they should make conspicuous contributions to the well-being of the majority in order to stave-off violence. Considering the current US administration's tendency to unilateralism, protectionism, and its low level of international humanitarian aid, advice to apply the same prescription to the US may be timely.
173979
The fact that he actually did all of this and remained alive for so many years  is in itself disturbing. That he did this and was able to tell his story (and the fact that I read this book) seems totally unfair to the victims.
 That someone made a profit from this (I assume that the author made money) also seems totally wrong.
 The book did have a profound affect on me. I have read other books with this same genre and I can now say with full conviction that I will never read another!
770265
This is a gruesome true story of mans inhumanity to mam. It reveals a side of the human species that surfaces far to often and results in muct suffering. It is a story of the lust for, acquisition of power by man or institution that is often destructive!
4486611
BE AWARE: TRIGGER WARNING (spoilers)

For some people, going into this book blind could be very upsetting. It's not just graphic sex or BDSM. What I found most disturbing, and ultimately put me off the book in the end, were the power imbalances in some of the relationships that, even without any other violence or kink, made them inherently abusive and seriously disturbing. In particular, if you have any experience, first-person or otherwise, with child sex abuse between adults (30+ years of age) and young teenagers, or abusive relationships, sexual or otherwise, between minors and members of the clergy, then you should definitely stay away. That the book excuses these actions as loving/healing, and even praises the adult characters for their behavior, made my skin crawl. Be warned.
3518509
This is a book that carries the reader with it, it puts the experiences of the three authors, Andrew, Ken and Heidi right into oneself as the story unfolds. It is so sad to see the atrocities meted out on fellow human beings by other people and to bear witness at the gross failures of those in power, the United Nations and the world international community. The accounts of the Rwanda and Bosnia genocides and the killings in Haiti and Liberia are very disturbing and what is worse, they happened at the watch of the UN or its inaction. Human beings are born equal, they should be treated with equity and dignity whatever skin colour, religion or ethnicity......

I got personally engrossed in the lives of Heidi, Andrew and Ken and would have wanted to know more as to what happened in their personal lives after leaving the UN. Did Andrew actually settle back in Cambodia with his wife Suzanne? Did Ken ever get married? Did Heidi find new love after losing Marc? Did they ever start families?

Such is the power of this book. It leaves many questions regarding the role of the UN, even right at the end when it was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
289664
What lead me to read this book was my curiosity as to what sort of man could justify his murderous crimes committed against humanity with the sanctimonious claim that he was appointed to Universal leadership by divine power.

I highly recommend that people who are interested in this book consider to read the currently published "Bush on the Couch" by Justin A Frank. MD. as I have, and was alarmed by the estounding parallel in these two individual's personality and behavioral traits. They are frightening, if not eerie. I am a Holocaust survivor
3575117
Having heard so much about this book I felt obligated to read it and see for myself why it has generated so much buzz. As someone who didn't know a tremendous amount about the story going in, I found the book to be much more violent and horrifying than I expected.

The book consists of two storylines involving disgraced financial reporter Mikael Blomkvist, and socially-inept hacker Lisbeth Salander. Together the two are trying to uncover the mystery surrounding the death of corporate heiress Harriet Vanger, and expose the financial misdeeds of a prominent tycoon. I was much more taken with the Vanger mystery than with the story about corporate corruption. That was rather dry.

One of Larsson's larger objectives in this book is clearly to highlight the disturbing pervasiveness of violence against women. All of the significant violence in the book is gendered, and is perpetrated against female victims. One of its victims is co-protagonist Lisbeth Salander. She is certainly an interesting character, one who is uncomfortable with what many of us might consider basic sociability. She is also a woman who has endured much abuse, and that makes her essential to Larsson's larger point. One of Salander's most significant problems is that legally she is considered a ward of the state. She had been in this position as a child without competent parents, but her status as a legal dependent was allowed to continue into her adulthood. The fact that an adult who earns her own money, holds a job, and is capable of managing the basic elements of day-to-day life can be legally alienated from her money and her basic legal rights is, quite simply, frightening. Clearly Larsson is making an argument against the institution of guardianship. I was unclear if the portion of the text which explain guardianship were part of Larsson's original text, or if they were added by the translator for the non-Swedish audience.

This is not the most amazing book I've ever read, but it's a book I'll certainly think about for some time. I suspect I'll read the next two books in the trilogy, as long as I can stomach the violence. Larsson does not glorify the horrific violence about which he writes, but it is, undeniably, difficult to read.
3094721
I must admit, that reading about the Holocaust was an unpleasant read. This is a very disturbing look into Auschwitz and the violence that took place on one particular ethnic group.  The detail account by the author on what happened, is thought provoking, but necessary for the world to read and beware of what took place.
2683307
Ron Formisano has written an eye-opening book that would horrify the founders of the Republic, who feared the rise of an aristocracy. In seven lively chapters he casts a wide net to show how the political class operates with the efficiency of an old-fashioned urban political machine. Both parties are implicated in his story. But there are some unfamiliar players beyond those moving through the revolving door between Congress and Washington's army of lobbyists. University presidents, for example, increasingly act like corporate business heads and they are paid like them as well, often with ties to Wall Street. Who knew that the president of my alma mater served on Goldman Sachs' Board, reaping hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of her university salary as the economy nosedived toward depression. There are many surprises in this incisive book as Formisano takes apart America's permanent political oligarchy piece by piece.
4142455
The otherwise shocking and gripping depiction of the ugly situations  described in the book was continuously undermined by suspicions that there  was some creative writing at work here.  How can every single negative  stereotype of the Arab world be played out in a few short years in one  woman's life?  I have lived in a Muslim country for 3 1/2 years, one of  those in the countryside, and have not encountered even one verifiable  story that comes close to the stories here.
I do not doubt that such  things happen, but the manner of telling without balance or context makes  the events seem routine.  In the book, we must believe that these are not  the types of random abuses that can and do occur in any country as the  result of individuals gone bad, but a whole society rotten to the core.  Perhaps it is "true," and I hope not, but the presentation  remains unconvincing and the need to "protect the source"  provides a good cover for possible abuse.
3643735
It took me two sittings to read this book. I started it and was so disturbed by its contents that I had to set it aside. After a few weeks, I went back to it and finished it. What is so tragic about this book is that what it contains is true. A rogue segment of our federal government at the highest levels rides roughshod over the Constitution, rapes children, and murders American citizens at will. There are too many government secret activities revealed in this book that are also discussed by other researchers to have been made up. It all fits together too well. And the sad truth is that these criminals {e.g. Bush and Cheney} are still in power and abusing their authority. This book is a great argument for the repeal of the National Security Act and the "Patriot" Act. Our leaders hide behind these laws to commit abominable crimes. The Executive Branch and Congress are a mutual blackmail society where individuals are kept in check, most likely by the CIA, by threatening exposure of misdeeds {pedophilia, murder, etc.}. The criminals at the highest levels of our federal government think that they are "above the law". However, what they don't realize or don't believe {since many of them are practicing Satanists} is that they cannot escape the law of Karma or God's laws. They will pay for their crimes eventually. Read this book. It contains terrible truths.
8209
This may be the most disturbing book I have ever tried to read.  It is a difficult read.  I didn't quite finish.  Maybe I am just a little naive.  I can't believe that so few people can have so much power to shape the structure of this country.  The book is mainly about the Koch brothers and their duplicitous and in many instances illegal actions.  One begins to wonder why.  They certainly don't need the money.  It is almost like they are psychotic in the extreme.
The book is important.  I would have given it 5 stars, but it is difficult to get through.