Customer Reviews

Warning Signs: The Good News is that the Bad News is Wrong

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In the "review" posted by RC Lighthill, he neglects to mention that he has attacked me, the author, on various Internet boards and chatrooms. As to my scientific credentials, I am a longtime member of the National Association of Science Writers, in addition to other prestigious writers and authors organizations. I am fortunate to have some of the nation's top scientists advise me on any topic addressed in the book regarding science issues.

The best way to enjoy my commentaries is, indeed, to purchase the book and, after that, visit my website for The National Anxiety Center in the same way as half a million others do each month. My weekly column, "Warning Signs", is posted there. It is also excerpted on more than thirty other news and opinion websites and occasionally published as Editorial Opinions in leading US daily newspapers.

It's said you are known as much for your enemies as your friends. Well, RC is no friend, but I know you will be after you read Warning Signs, the book!

With all due deference to the author, I assure you this is meant to be wholly complimentary, we offer the following
analogy: Imagine, if you will, a young man in a penny arcade. He's had one too many Mountain Dews and the
Whack-a-Mole game is stuck in the "On" position. The vermin keep popping up endlessly and the lad is only too
happy to keep hammering them mercilessly. As we observe him, we are struck as much by his enthusiam as by his
persistence. Now, imagine him a grown man. Give him a cudgel formed of his own wit and intelligence, and turn
him loose on all of the nonsense that keeps popping up from the Left on topics like energy, the environment, animal
rights, education, the UN, and Islamicism. Alan Caruba--one time PR man, lifelong resident of the great County of
Essex in New Jersey, and now a prolific conservative columnist--is that man and this collection of essays his
weapon. He's just as much fun to observe, if not quite as manic, as our caffeine-stoked kid, as he pounds away at liberal myths, mistakes, and
outright lies, even though they just keep coming.

Here, for instance, is a particulary appalling example of what he's up against, -ESSAY: Greens Attack US Military (Alan Caruba, September
2001, Conservative Monitor):

"Endangered species has power to halt war training" was the headline on an article in an October 2000 edition of the Washington Times.
Written by Steve Miller and datelined Fort Irwin, California, the article began "What may be one of the most formidable threats to
national security today has a craggy face, scaly arms and, well, he likes a little grass now and then." He was referring to the desert
tortoise.

Soldiers on the Army training center's battlefield were instructed to call a commander if a desert tortoise crawled out of a hole. At that
point, the entire training exercise would stop. This insanity has been repeated on every military base in the nation in one fashion or
another.

The US Defense Department oversees and controls 17 million acres of US land, down from 30 million acres after World War II. It has
been losing the fight for space to train a modern military for years. When asked about the need for national security, a spokesman for the
Bureau of Land Management (the same one that shut off water to the farmers of Klamath Valley) was quoted in the article as saying,
"It is not in our purview to make a determination related to national security. Ours is to make sure the Endangered Species Act is
complied with."

And, after reading that and what follows, it's hard not to agree with his conclusion:

[T]he Greens have infiltrated our military establishment, just as they have done in our nation's schools, and throughout federal and state
government agencies. In every case, they have instituted and supported programs that will continue to have serious consequences for our
national security and sovereignty.

It is time to identify and root out these enemies of our military. A good first step would be to rescind the DoD Office of Environmental
Security. This would help to begin restoring our nation's ability to wage war effectively against its enemies at home and abroad.

Next, this nation has to rid itself of the Endangered Species Act and, ultimately, the greatest enemy of our national security, the
Environmental Protection Agency.

Sure, Saddam's Fedayeen can't stop our troops from driving across the desert, but a bureaucrat and a freakin' turtle can?

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, the good auspices of web-based magazines like the excellent Enter Stage Right, and the fecundity of his own
mind, you can find many of Mr. Caruba's writings on-line (see below). This book though is an entertaining compendium of his commentaries from
the past couple years on the full range of issues he addresses week in and week out. It will, as he says, "mostly please people whose political choice
is conservatism." Of course, on finishing, you'll wonder how anyone could ignore all the warning signs and choose otherwise. But they do, so
maybe we'd all better grab mallets; here come some more moles...Grade: (B+)

In his book, Alan Caruba abuses the malicious influence of fear and anxiety in order to establish his baseless ultra-conservative ideas. He mixes fact with fiction to come at conclusions that are far from reality. Our world would have been a much better place today if it wasn't for these so-called "Warning Signs".

First of all, this book's entire contents is already available online at the author's website for the National Anxiety Center, so there is no reason at all to waste $12 on a print copy.

Secondly, Caruba can't tell a fact from a hole in the ground. Go through any of his columns and try to verify any of the "facts" upon which his opinions are supposedly based. He frequently gets the basic facts wrong, very wrong. Not everytime, but far more often than is excusable. It's hard tell to if he's a liar or just stupid.

Finally, Caruba is about as conservative as they come-not that being a conservative should, by itself, precludes someone from doing good journalism. But in Caruba's case it does: all his conclusions are entirely in step with conservative dogma, and more often than not, out-of-step with established science. If Caruba occasionally had opinions contrary to conservative dogma, I'd be more inclined to believe he is an indenpendent thinker.

"Warning Signs" content is a selection of titles from a continuing series of articles by Mr. Caruba that are available--no charge--from archives at his website. It's not hard to find simply use "Caruba" as a search term.

The articles are written with a very, how shall I put it, select audience in mind. Perusal of other published titles in the Merril Press (one "L") collection will illustrate this point for anyone who is inclined to do some checking.

While Mr. Caruba's articles address a wide range of topics it should be noted that he has no scientific credentials. His background is in public relations and journalism. Anyone who reads him should bare this in mind.