Categories
Non-Fiction True Crime

The Stoning of Soraya M

Every nasty thing Hollywood says about Christians is true of Muslims. The Handmaid’s Tale is a farce, because in reality, it’s not Christians brutally subjugating women – it’s Muslims.

This is the story of an Iranian woman, Soraya, who was married to a useless, lazy, lying sack of shit named Ghorban Ali, a petty thief and crook, condemned to death over something she did not do, all because her husband wanted to divorce her without any repercussions. Soraya was a woman beyond reproach. Her wretched husband conspired with another crook-cum-mullah and the town’s mayor to frame his wife for adultery so that he could be “rid” of her and marry some fourteen year old girl he met in town.

This happened in 1986, not too long after the Islamic Revolution, and while women in rural areas didn’t really enjoy the kind of freedom and autonomy we take for granted, it wasn’t as bad as it became once the shah and his regime were swept out of power.

This is the story of how Ghorban Ali and his buddies framed his wife, Soraya, and the result of that despicable act:  her brutal execution by stoning.

It is written by Freidoune Sahebjam, a French-Iranian journalist based in France (he passed away in 2008), and is very short. I, of course, read the English translation by Richard Seaver. It’s pretty matter-of-fact, but still compelling – some people have mistaken this for a novel. No, it’s not a novel – it really happened, and sadly, stonings still happen to this day.

This book was adapted into a screenplay and made into a movie, also called The Stoning of Soraya M. I saw the movie a few years ago, and it was rough to watch, to say the least. I cried like a baby. I did cry a little bit once I finished this book, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that I had already watched the movie and knew what happened, I probably would have cried like a baby.

This happened only thirty-something years ago. Women are still being unjustly killed even to this day, for totally unfair things such as holding hands with a guy or wanting to learn to read or simply wanting to go outside without covering their heads, and yet feminists here in the West whine and cry about stupid shit, like the so-called “pink tax” or “slut shaming.”

Oh, about “slut shaming” – this book contained REAL slut shaming, even though Soraya wasn’t even close to being guilty of trying to sleep with the widower she was roped into helping out. Considering how badly her husband treated her, who could really blame her for wanting to seek solace in the arms of a man less loathsome than her husband? Or to just at least spend time in the presence of a man who treated her like a human being? The people in her village were absolutely thirsty for her blood, all because three people claimed she was guilty of adultery. And they killed her for it. They didn’t just call her a slut behind her back (they called her a slut to her face right before they murdered her). They didn’t just spread nasty rumors about her around the village or to other villages. People didn’t stop being her friends or any of the other stupid petty shit that feminists whine and cry about today.

They killed her in the most brutal of manner, and even roped her father and her own sons into helping.

That’s a real patriarchy. That’s real oppression.

What’s even more horrifying is that Western Europe and North America are hell-bent into importing this horror here, to live among us. Twenty or thirty years from now, our granddaughters may very well be stoned to death on some disgruntled man baby’s word.

The blurb for this book contains the following as its final line: “It is a story that must be told.”

I agree. It must be told, no matter how much the left might hate it. Our freedoms are slowly slipping away, and if we don’t stop it, this thirty year old story may be our future.

Categories
Memoirs Non-Fiction True Crime

Captive by Catherine Oxenberg

captive
This is a book by actress Catherine Oxenberg and her attempt to save her daughter India from the NXIVM cult – you know, the one actress Allison Mack was involved in.
She had help writing it, as you can see on the cover, and it is very chatty and conversational, but still very riveting.  I remember watching Catherine’s reality show I Married a Princess, which she did with her ex-husband Casper Van Dien.  India was just a tween on that show, and I was saddened to hear that she got caught up in this horrible cult.  Catherine does reveal quite a bit of details too.
She also goes into her own life, including an instance of abuse in her own childhood, her eating disorder and her own #MeToo moments as an actress.  She even reveals some political leanings, such has her stance on abortion.  She’s had one (I think more than one) and while she acknowledges that it’s a horrible decision to make, she wouldn’t “take” that “choice” away from anyone.  Well, I, obviously, disagree with her stance on abortion.  It is the taking of innocent life, and while she seems to know and understand that, she still thinks that the choice is more important.  I don’t understand that at all.
Through her persistence and connections, the New York Times did a story on the cult, and this actually spurred the police and politicians – including the governor of New York and that slimy sack of shit, Sen. Schumer, to do something about this cult already.  She made a swipe at how only extremists use the term “fake news” – an obvious swipe at Trump without actually naming him.  After all, the cult did brand the NYT article as “fake news”.
Comparing Keith Raniere, the cult’s founder and leader, to President Trump is shitty.  But I wouldn’t necessarily dissuade anyone from reading this book, because aside from that, it’s still pretty good.  The exposure and dismantling of any cult is a good thing.
At the risk of spoiling it, her daughter still seemed caught up in the cult, even after Keith and Allison got arrested for the things they did.  I hope that they all heal from this awful experience.
If you want to know more about cults beyond Scientology and Peoples Temple, this is a good choice.  I do admire Catherine for going above and beyond for her daughter, as any decent mother would.
Categories
Memoirs Non-Fiction Politics True Crime

My Favorite Books of 2017

The best books of the year, in my opinion, are the following.  All are non-fiction, and I think all are very timely.

road to jonestown

The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn

This is a biography of the infamous Reverend Jim Jones, aka the leader of the Peoples Temple cult.  It started in Indiana, then moved to California, and finally ended in Guyana.  It’s a complete account of Jones’s life, up to the massacre/mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.  The opening prologue is chilling and well-written.

This isn’t the only book I’ve read about the Peoples Temple cult, so I already knew the basics.  But this one gives you so much more, because it covers Jones’s background and life prior to Jonestown, of which was officially called the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project.

The author seemed to be somewhat sympathetic to Jones due to Jones’s political views, and it almost seemed as if he were saying, “oh, if only he hadn’t been a drug-addled megalomaniac…he would have been a great guy otherwise!”  Yes, Jim Jones was anti-racist, and I think part of it was genuine, but in the end it was very, very obvious that he just used that as a hook to gain followers.  Just like he shamelessly used Christianity as a hook to gain followers.  He was never really a Christian and at the end was very anti-Christian.  Jones was also a communist.

The events of the book happened a few years before I was born, which made it doubly fascinating.  People don’t really talk about this anymore.  It was one of the deadliest days in American history before 9/11. I have some theories as to why, but I won’t go into it.  I highly recommend this book, though.  It’s riveting and very timely, considering the whole Scientology issue and all.

milo dangerous

Dangerous by Milo Yiannopolous

When I heard that Simon & Schuster was going to publish a book by Milo, I was so excited.  Then the pedophilia hit job happened and it was cancelled.  I was not happy.  But Milo never gives up.  He started his own publishing company and published it himself, and with a better cover image.

This is kind of a memoir/political commentary kind of book.  He does briefly talk about his background but mostly covers some of the political issues of the day, and with his signature humor.  His voice is excellent, and I could easily imagine him reading each line aloud.

I think it is an important book for those of us on the right, and should especially be read by politicians.  This book, like Vox Day’s SJWs Always Lie, gives excellent advice on how to handle the shit the left slings at us on a regular basis, and insights as to why the left is the way it is.

As of this writing, Simon & Schuster has basically leaked the original manuscript of this book, complete with their editor’s notes.  I’ve only started to go through it.  Like, I’m only about seven pages in.  Most of the criticism is baseless and tone-deaf, but some of it is legit.  I might do a review of that whenever I finish reading it.

Milo, after the cancellation of his book, sued Simon & Schuster for breach of contract, so that’s why they leaked the manuscript.  It was entered as evidence, so I guess it’s not really a leak per se, but still.  It’s the entire book and you can read it for free.  Kind of a dick move, but whatever.  As I said, I highly recommend the finished version.

lastcloset

The Last Closet:  The Dark Side of Avalon by Moira Greyland

I’ve already written a separate review for this, so I’ll be brief.  The daughter of fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter Breen has published her memoirs/tell all through Castalia House, exposing the ultra-progressive sci-fi community as the disgusting perverts they are.  Calling them perverts is too mild, I guess.  What they’ve done goes straight into abuser territory.

It’s a very tough read, as she is pretty frank about what her parents did to her, but does not go into lurid detail.  She’s also very honest and open about how the abuse affected her mentally.  It is also a sad read, but a necessary one.  Moira comes to the conclusion that homosexuality is not good for society, and leftists – those who bother to acknowledge the book’s existence, that is – will be apoplectic about it.  However you feel about homosexuality and its place in society, I still think this is an important book to read.  There’s serious issues in that community that really needs to be addressed, and sweeping it under the rug and shrieking HOMOPHOBE isn’t going to do anyone any favors.  Furthermore, as I said in the original review, expect to see much more of this as the children of today grow older.

gosnell

Gosnell:  The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer

I’ve already reviewed this here, so I’ll be brief.  This is a pretty good and compelling account of Kermit Gosnell’s crimes and the grand jury report that initially exposed them.  It also covers his trial, and the authors even interviewed him.  He’s still completely unapologetic, by the way.  It is going to be turned into a movie, but I haven’t heard much about that lately.  The abortion industry is just flat out evil, and it’s a tragedy that many abortion supporters care more about it remaining legal and utterly problem-free than they are about the health and safety of the women that seek such (horrible) procedures.

Categories
Memoirs Non-Fiction True Crime

The Last Closet by Moira Greyland

I should probably be ashamed of not knowing who Marion Bradley Zimmer was. I am only 35 as of this writing, and when I was younger, I stuck to books on astronomy and other random kid books until I moved to Japan, when I read Sweet Valley Twins novels. Then, in high school, I graduated to R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series and eventually moved on to Stephen King novels. It wasn’t until recently that I actually got into fantasy and sci-fi novels.

So, a couple of years ago, more or less, I read this post at Ask the Bigot, about the daughter of a famed fantasy writer who had been molested by both parents. My eyes went wide like saucers as I read it.

A few months ago I realized that the daughter, Moira Greyland Peat and I were in a social media group together. I was like, wow. And she was writing a book, and it was going to be published by Castalia House. I was so very excited, which is kind of messed up, given how truly tragic her story really is.

And it is. The book is The Last Closet – the Dark Side of Avalon and it is one hell of a read.

She goes into her parents’ background, not justifying the things they did, but explaining why they were the way they were. She manages to…I dunno, describe, or at least recount the things her parents did to her. She doesn’t go into excruciating detail, as I imagine that would have been far too traumatizing, but is pretty frank about it.

She is also very, very adamant on being against gay marriage, given her upbringing. Her parents both had homosexual relationships outside the bounds of their marriage. She is one of many children of gays that have such tragic stories to tell. Note that she does not hate gay people or anything. She even says as much in the book, but she does condemn the “do what thou wilt” mentality that is so present among the libertine left.

Moira is very, very brave and very strong to write this memoir. She really is, because one of two things will happen: either the left will just ignore her, or they’ll absolutely savage her. Some fringe sci-fi SJWs did just that, but for the most part, she has been ignored.

Mark my words – you’re going to hear more and more stories like this in the coming decades. The children of today are going to grow up, and they’ll grow up in this disgusting sewer culture and they’ll all be messed up. At some point, they’ll realize what’s been done, and boy howdy I bet a lot of them will be pissed. Hell, that’s probably putting it mildly.

My own childhood wasn’t a picnic either, but I am grateful to my parents for not being like Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter Breen. I just want to hug the both of them fiercely right now, even though they’re on the other side of the country.

Moira also has a great sense of humor, of which is peppered throughout the book. I’m glad…a lot of it is grim. There is a lengthy appendix that could be its own book, and a foreword by Vox Day.

One more thing…I was, and still am astonished at the similarity between Walter Breen’s insane Great Vision for the world, and the philosophy of one of my villains. Freaking spooky. Both are sex addicts who think that sex with everyone, all the time will make for a better world. I used to think I was being over the top with that – that nobody, nobody could possibly think that way in real life. I was wrong, dead wrong.

This book should be more widely read, but it won’t, because it doesn’t even come close to fitting the left’s preferred narrative, and we all know that the left is largely in control of our culture, and that they love that control more than anything else. But we shouldn’t despair…thanks to the Internet, we have a platform. We can speak out, and we should. The truth should prevail.

The only criticism I have would be some of the typos and minor errors I found. I tried highlighting them all in case Castalia House wants me to email them, but Amazon’s stupid iOS Kindle App mysteriously lost a great deal of my progress, including the highlights and bookmarks I made. Fortunately, I remembered which chapter I left off of.

This was easily one of the best books of the year (along with Milo Yiannopolis’s Dangerous and The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn – both I highly recommend).

Categories
Non-Fiction Politics True Crime

Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer

gosnell

by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer

I don’t know how anyone can be pro-abortion after reading this, or the grand jury’s report. I’ve read both, obviously. It’s harrowing and shocking. A political party that just loves regulation and government intervention conveniently decides that both are bad whenever it comes to abortion.

As someone who is for limited government, even I must admit that some regulations are necessary. The Gosnell murder case is an excellent example of that. Putting aside the morality of abortion for a minute, how could one possibly be okay with the notion that dirty, filthy clinics full of unqualified must be acceptable simply so that “access” to abortion isn’t “denied”? Don’t these women deserve to be treated properly? They don’t go to these clinics to become permanently sterile, yet that’s what happened when Gosnell “performed” abortions on these women.

The book covers pretty much every aspect of the investigation and trial. Even though I pretty much knew what happened, it was still a compelling read. You are left with no doubt that Gosnell was guilty and that he is precisely where he belongs.

I noticed some typos and misspellings in my copy…I’ve been noticing this in a lot of book releases lately. It’s not something that cannot be corrected, and it does not detract from the story too much.

Every time I see that little family on the front of 3801 Lancaster, I get sad. The little icon is just so Orwellian. People don’t go to these places to start a family. They go there to destroy them.