Aug 22, 2017 By far, the book I've been quoting all day, The Culture of Critique. @BigCountry you're a bigger bookworm than me, you might check it out sometime. (Amazon reviews are great.)
Aug 22, 2017 I read The Giver in 7th or 8th grade, and I remember how good it was. Edit--Touching Spirit Bear was also good (also read in middle school).
Aug 22, 2017 The 5 People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom or Inverting The Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson
Aug 22, 2017 I wouldn't rely on a Jewish activist organization like the ADL for a balanced critique of MacDonald. Consider: The other reviews have raised several important issues that bear discussion. Frank Salter’s (2000) review in Human Ethology Bulletin discussed some of the controversy surrounding my work, particularly an acrimonious session at the 2000 conference of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society where I was accused of anti-Semitism by several participants. For me the only issue is whether I have been honest in my treatment of sources and whether my conclusions meet the usual standards of scholarly research in the social sciences. Salter notes that I based my research on mainstream sources and that the assertions that have infuriated some colleagues are not only true but truisms to those acquainted with the diverse literatures involved. Apart from the political sensitivity of the subject, much of the problem facing MacDonald is that his knowledge is often too far ahead of his detractors to allow easy communication; there are not enough shared premises for constructive dialog. Unfortunately the knowledge gap is closing slowly because some of his most hostile critics, including colleagues who make serious ad hominem accusations, have not bothered to read MacDonald’s books. Salter also notes that those, such as John Tooby and Steven Pinker, who have denigrated my competence as a researcher in the media, have failed to provide anything approaching a scholarly critique or refutation of my work. Sadly, this continues. While there have been a number of ringing denunciations of my work in public forums, there have been no serious scholarly reviews by these critics, although they have not retracted their scathing denunciations of my work. (p. 10) See also the brief discussion on the question of the author's bias in the preface. (Search "the question of bias”.) He also replies to all his critics on his website.
Aug 22, 2017 Trusting the work of anti-semites = quality logic and scholarship Trusting contrary work = bias
Aug 22, 2017 An “anti-semite” in actual usage is less often a man who hates Jews than a man certain Jews hate. The word expresses the emotional explosion that occurs in people who simply can’t bear critical discourse about a sacred topic, and who experience criticism as profanation and blasphemy. The term “anti-semitism” doesn’t stand for any intelligible concept. It belongs not to the world of rational discourse, but to the realm of imprecations and maledictions and ritual ostracisms. Joseph Sobran, National Review, March 16, 1992.
