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Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny

By on March 19th, 2025

The powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs.

Alexei Navalny began writing Patriot shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world super-power determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change cannot be resisted—and will come.

In vivid, thrilling detail, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime.

Written with the passion, wit, candor, and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, Patriot is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.

“This book is a testament not only to Alexei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship—a fight he gave everything for, including his life. Through its pages, readers will come to know the man I loved deeply—a man of profound integrity and unyielding courage. Sharing his story will not only honor his memory but also inspire others to stand up for what is right and to never lose sight of the values that truly matter.”—Yulia Navalnaya

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How the Fate of the West is Tied to the Fate of the Jewish Nation By Janet Levy

By on March 18th, 2025

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/how_the_fate_of_the_west_is_tied_to_the_fate_of_the_jewish_nation.html

Why is Israel alone forced to justify its existence and questioned when it stands up to those who would annihilate it?  Why was a worldwide campaign of hatred that reeked of anti-Semitism unleashed on Israel when it responded to the October 7, 2023, attack, while there was no criticism of Hamas?  Why has the U.N. censured the Jewish state more times than any other nation, even China, North Korea, and Cuba combined?

The answer runs deeper than geopolitics, says conservative commentator and legal scholar Josh Hammer in his debut book Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.  Western civilization is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and its enemies know well that to deny the existence of God and destroy individual rights, private property, and freedom, they must first destroy the Jews.  Ergo, he argues, the preservation of the West is contingent on the welfare of the Jewish people and the Jewish state of Israel.

It was the People of the Book who first introduced the world to monotheism, and along with it, to ethical and legal codes that became the basis for the establishment and preservation of all civilizations.  The West drew upon the Judaic idea of humankind as the pinnacle of God’s creation to give primacy to individuals, their freedom, and their rights.  Many of America’s Founding Fathers admired Jewish history, culture, and its legal and moral teachings.

God made a promise to the Jews to protect them as long as they kept his covenant and followed his commandments.  The Hebrew Bible speaks of the Divine Revelation of the Decalogue to Moses at Mount Sinai, the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, and the seven Noahide laws.  The seventh Noahide law, as mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud — to establish courts of justice — is perhaps the first expression of the need for neutral forums and judges to deliver justice.  It is by obeying these laws — divine and temporal – that Jews, often at great cost, have survived millennia of persecution.

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Peter Beinart’s Dilemma How does a Jewish writer who hates Israel address October 7? by Bruce Bawer

By on March 18th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/peter-beinarts-dilemma/

Now 54, the American Jewish writer Peter Beinart, author of the new book Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza, is one of the most prominent of those lamentably multitudinous commentators in whose view Israel can hardly do anything right and the Palestinians can hardly do anything wrong. Asked about Palestinian violence, he’s been quick to blame it on Israel. While wringing his hands incessantly over Muslim suffering, he’s displayed a chilling indifference to the plight of Jews in Iran. He’s even routinely refused to identify Islamic terrorist atrocities in Europe and elsewhere as acts of jihad, or to concede that there’s anything at all about Islam and its teachings that should cause concern to Westerners who live alongside the religion’s adherents.

Long a champion of the two-state solution, in 2020 Beinart wrote a New York Times op-ed announcing a change of heart. Whereas “the dream of a two-state solution that would give Palestinians a country of their own” had once let him hope that he “could remain a liberal and a supporter of Jewish statehood at the same time,” that hope had been “extinguished” by Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank and the denial of “basic rights” to its inhabitants. Hence the time had come “to abandon the traditional two-state solution” and “imagine a Jewish home that is not a Jewish state” – which could mean “one state that includes Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem” or “a confederation that allows free movement between two deeply integrated countries.” Yes, admitted Beinart, some Palestinians had committed terrorist acts against Israeli Jews, but after all “members of many oppressed groups” had done the same. (For Beinart, Muslim terror is always a desperate reaction to Western oppression, never part of a coldblooded, Koran-inspired effort to expand the umma.) Dismissing Jewish concerns “that anything short of Jewish statehood would mean Jewish suicide,” Beinart quoted an Orthodox rabbi who’d “spent more than a decade forging relationships with leaders of Hamas” as saying: “I have yet to meet with somebody who is not willing to make peace.” Well, that op-ed certainly didn’t age well.

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Dr. Marty Makary’s ‘Blind Spots’ Book Is At Odds With Established Findings By Benjamin Rushe

By on March 13th, 2025

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/dr_marty_makary_s_blind_spots_book_is_at_odds_with_established_findings.html

Marty Makary is well-known for writing informal autobiographical books critiquing medical practice in America. Given that he is poised to lead the FDA, it should concern people that his book, Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health, has some serious biased presentation of data inaccuracies. How can Dr. Makary claim he is qualified to run the FDA when he presents controversial data in such a biased style?

Blood pressure

In Blind Spots, Makary rhetorically asks: “Can we lower high blood pressure by improving sleep quality and reducing stress instead of throwing antihypertensive medications at people?”

While that sounds like a good idea to someone who doesn’t know any better, it leaves something out. According to the NIH, essential hypertension makes up 95% of hypertension cases and has no modifiable cause (i.e., it’s not sleep or stress-related, it’s genetic). In other words, it exists in people who already get plenty of sleep and are at a good weight, et cetera. That is fundamental knowledge known by medical students and non-degreed ancillary healthcare workers. To the extent Makary implies otherwise, he’s just wrong.

Blind Spots promotes using silicone and other breast implants for cosmetic surgery. Makary states in his book chapter titled “Silicone Valley” that “…evidence was never presented that silicone breast implants caused any woman to suffer lupus, cancer, or another condition” (emphasis added). That is a statement so outrageously wrong that suggests that he never actually reviewed the data, and/or raises the possibility that Makary’s book or chapter was ghostwritten by a nonscientist.

Here are the actual facts: The largest ever study performed (nearly 100,000 patients) at the University of Texas showed that silicone breast implants are associated with a higher risk of certain autoimmune disorders, as well as stillbirth, scleroderma and melanoma.

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The Moral Inversion of Antisemitism A review of Robert Spencer’s new masterpiece, ‘Antisemitism: History & Myth’. by Daniel Greenfield

By on March 13th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-moral-inversion-of-antisemitism/

After Oct 7, Robert Spencer, the eminent scholar of religions and expert on Islamic terrorism, witnessed the irrational return of antisemitism, not just on the left, but also on the right.

“Fervent and articulate opponents of globalism and socialism began sending me articles in which globalists and socialists rehearsed all the alleged evils and misdeeds of Israel,” he writes.

“Vociferous critics of the United Nations began citing its figures on civilian deaths in Gaza.”

In response, Spencer began working on what would become his latest book, ‘Antisemitism: History & Myth’. Spencer, already the author of numerous critically acclaimed books touching on the intersections of religion and history including ‘Empire of God’, about the Byzantine Empire, ‘The Palestinian Delusion’ and his recent, ‘Muhammad: A Critical Biography’, once again goes back in time and perhaps further so than his past books have ever traveled before.

In  ‘Antisemitism: History & Myth’, Spencer traces the origins of antisemitism to an initial pagan reaction against the translation of the Bible until “in the ancient world, revisionist versions of the accounts in the Jewish scriptures became a cottage industry.” Antisemitism became a way to rebut scripture and with it the moral foundations of a divine religion. The more contemptible the Jews were, the less reason there was to respect anything that Moses and later prophets had to say. This echoes the moral inversion that Spencer now sees all around him on social media in which the Jews attacked on Oct 7 become the perpetrators and Hamas becomes the victim.

In trying to understand this present day moral inversion, ‘Antisemitism: History & Myth’ travels through the ancient pagan world, from Egypt to Greece and Rome, through to the rise of Christianity in which Spencer, a devout member of the Greek Orthodox Church, grapples with the troubled history of antisemitism in Christianity, and then on to the Muslim world.

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“Inside Cyber: How AI, 5G, and Quantum Computing Will Transform Privacy and Our Security” by Chuck Brooks

By on March 12th, 2025

In a nutshell, Artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, 5G, IoT and others will require new approaches and understanding for cybersecurity as they offer uses for cyber-defenders but also cyber-offenders.

For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be able to help make decisions more effectively by prioritizing and acting upon data. Speech recognition, learning planning, and problem-solving are some of the fundamental tasks for which computers with AI are built. While AI and ML are valuable instruments for businesses, hostile governments, and malicious hackers are already using AI and MI as tools to find and exploit an organization’s cyber defenses.

Quantum Computing  operates by utilizing the unique characteristics of atoms and subatomic particles. It will allow for completely new forms of cryptography, analytics, and calculation at incredibly fast speeds. Unfortunately, the same computational capacity that makes it possible to tackle complicated problems can also be used to compromise cybersecurity. This is because current cybersecurity protocols usually encrypt sensitive data, like passwords and personal information, using pseudo-random numbers. However, quantum computers can break the techniques used by traditional computers to generate random numbers, which poses a serious risk to any organization that uses standard encryption tools.

5G will enable faster networks with greater capabilities and reduced latency or lag times will be possible for businesses thanks to 5G. For the business community, 5G will have enormous advantages. Higher traffic capacity and enhanced dependability are only two of the many advantages that advanced 5G and wireless networks will offer. The ability to access broadband will empower millions of people. Unfortunately, hackers will be able to use the speed and connectivity to their advantage too, enabling the rapid proliferation and targeting of malware.

The Internet of Things (IoT) includes all hardware and software that can be read, recognized, located, addressed, and/or controlled over the internet. The growth of the Internet of Things has totally changed how cyberattacks work and how big the attack surface is getting. Because IoT devices don’t have security built in, hackers have many ways to get past cyber defenses and steal data.

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Debunking FDR: The Man and the Myths by Mary Grabar (Author)

By on March 11th, 2025

The myths about Franklin Delano Roosevelt live on.

For the Left, FDR was a champion of the working class and the oppressed, suffering abuse as a “traitor to his class.” He gave up the lifestyle of the Hudson River gentry to lead his country out of the Depression and to victory against fascism. For many on the Right, FDR was out of his depth on economics but provided Americans with the optimism and confidence necessary to prevail during the Depression and gain victory in World War II.

Debunking FDR: The Man and The Myths exposes the suppressed and distorted facts about FDR’s life and the legends about him (many invented by FDR himself!) promoted by generations of historians. Born into immense wealth and insulated from the struggles of everyday Americans, FDR’s young life was one of vast privilege and mediocre talents. Mary Grabar chronicles FDR’s path to the presidency: his second-rate studies at Harvard, his indifference to law school and the legal profession, and his steady, insouciant rise through the government ranks. You will not think of FDR the same way again.

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ANTI-SEMITISM, BOOKS Comments turned off

The Forever Holocaust In a hard-hitting new book, Robert Spencer recounts the bleak history of antisemitism. by Bruce Bawer

By on February 28th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-forever-holocaust/

I’ve read more than my share of books about antisemitism. I even reviewed one of them here at FrontPage twelve years ago. Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives was a collection of nineteen essays edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, a professor of Jewish Studies at Indiana University. “Most of the essays,” I wrote, “illuminate the current situation for Jews in a specific corner of the world.”

Much of the book was impressive. But several of the contributors defended Muslims from the charge that their religion preaches antisemitism, or argued, lamely, that Muslim antisemitism has nothing to do with Islam, or professed, absurdly, that Muslim antisemitism dates back only as far as the early twentieth century, when Islamic leaders became enamored of Hitler. There’s something perverse about experts on antisemitism who consider it part of their professional obligation to whitewash Islam.

On my bookshelves I find other works on the subject. The subtitle of Jødehat (Jew-Hatred) by Trond Berg Eriksen, Håkon Harket, and Einhart Lorenz translates into English as The History of Antisemitism from Ancient Times to the Present, but only the first twenty or so pages cover the ancient world. (The book, originally written in Norwegian, has also been published in other languages.) And Clemens Heni’s Antisemitism: A Specific Phenomenon focuses mostly on twentieth-century Germany.

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CNN’s Jake Tapper Faces Backlash Over New Book ‘Exposing’ Coverup of Joe Biden’s Mental Decline By Debra Heine

By on February 27th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/26/cnns-jake-tapper-faces-backlash-over-new-book-exposing-coverup-of-joe-bidens-mental-decline/

A new book purporting to expose the cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, co-authored by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, has conservative critics fuming with exasperation.

While Thompson was one of the few legacy media journalists who questioned Biden’s mental acuity well before his disastrous debate, Tapper ignored the elephant in the room for years, and even insisted in 2020 that Biden’s chronic incoherence was just a “stutter.”

The pair, according to CNN, was inspired to write “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” the day after Donald Trump won the 2024 election.

But even before the 2020 election, it was obvious that Biden was struggling cognitively on the campaign trail. It became clearer by the day post election, even as White House staffers limited and strictly choreographed his media appearances.

The media, including CNN, was largely complicit in the fraud throughout Biden’s term.

Now, CNN reports, the “deeply sourced” Tapper and Thompson can report that there was indeed a “cover-up” of Joe Biden’s “serious decline.”

The book’s publisher, Penguin Press, announced the book on Wednesday, saying: “What you will learn makes President Biden’s decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless — a desperate bet that went bust — and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents.”

Biden, “his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations,” the press release added.

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Houellebecq’s Annihilation: an unlikely antidote to nihilism His final novel strikes a rare note of hope among his usual cynicism and despair. Neil McCarthy

By on February 17th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/02/16/houellebecqs-annihilation-an-unlikely-antidote-to-nihilism/

French master Michel Houellebecq has said that his latest novel, Annihilation, will be his last. If that does prove to be true, his departure will deprive us of a rare literary voice.

There is simply no one quite like Houellebecq. Through his novels he is able to explore the mood of the times, our spiritual malaise, in a way few other writers can. Take his last great succès de scandale – his 2015 novel, Submission. It dramatised the self-induced decline of the West and the rise of Islamism. And it did so by convincingly presenting the seemingly impossible – an Islamist political party assuming governmental power in France – as something entirely predictable and chillingly banal. He painted a picture of a political and cultural elite all too eager to collaborate with and ultimately submit to an Islamist regime.

Submission quickly acquired a tragic poignancy. On 7 January 2015, the exact day the novel was due to be published in France, two French-born Islamist gunmen massacred the staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on the grounds it had insulted Islam. Houellebecq suspended all promotional activities and left Paris to lie low.

At the same time, in an echo of the themes of Submission, too few among the French political class were willing to stand up for free speech, a fundamental principle of Western liberal democracies. Instead, they criticised Charlie Hebdo for its mockery of Islam. French prime minister Manuel Valls denounced ‘hatred’ and ‘intolerance’ towards Islam and Muslims. Tellingly, he insisted that ‘France is not Michel Houellebecq’.

We’re now a decade on from the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Houellebecq’s Anéantir, originally published in January 2022, was finally translated into English and published as Annihilation in late 2024.

This delay in publishing the translation is striking. Houellebecq’s previous novel, Serotonin, was published in France in January 2019 and the English translation appeared just months later. Contractual difficulties reportedly played a role in the delay of Annihilation. But it’s hard not to suspect that the increasing provincialisation of the Anglosphere played a role, too. In the 1950s and 1960s, the films of François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, or the novels of Françoise Sagan and Marguerite Duras, were part of the culture here as well as in France. Today, the latest French novels or films barely register in the English-speaking world.

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