James Comey (2018). A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership

I picked up this book for a couple of reasons. The first is that I’ve been wanting to see if it would provide an alternative view of the character of Donald Trump, or whether it would confirm what I read in Wolff’s Fire and Fury. The second main reason is that, as an executive in the corporate world, I am always interested in insights about leadership from people who should have something to say about leadership because of their social position and experience.

James Comey, a lawyer by education and profession, was a US district attorney, then director of the FBI, appointed by Barack Obama in 2013. He was fired from his position in the FBI by Trump in a controversial manner in 2017. When Trump attacked Comey after having fired him in a series of tweets, Comey responded with a Tweet saying “Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not”. This is the book that would be Comey’s comeback…

Rollo Tomassi (2013). The Rational Male

Over the past year, I started looking more in-depth into the Men’s movement, the Men’s Rights Movement, the Manosphere, the MGTOW — or Men Going Their Own Way — movement… because of their influence on the youth of our community.

I will be posting some of the works I read in this regard. I have yet to start drafting my take on the Men’s Movement in all of its variants, but I intend to eventually. These entries will simply be a placeholder for my own reminder.

The present entry is for Rollo Tomassi’s The Rational Male.

Neil Strauss (2005). The Game – Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Over the past year, I started looking more in-depth into the Men’s movement, the Men’s Rights Movement, the Manosphere, the MGTOW — or Men Going Their Own Way — movement… because of their influence on the youth of our community.

I will be posting some of the works I read in this regard, with a couple of bullets about each. I have yet to start drafting my take on the Men’s Movement in its variants and issues, but I intend to once I get over some of the other important projects I’m currently working on. In other words these entries will simply be a placeholder for my own reminder.

This entry is about a book called The Game, by the man who became the most popular name in the world of pickup artistry, Neil Strauss.

William G. Carr (1959). Satan, Prince of this World.

This entry can be seen as a follow-up to the previous one.

Satan, Prince of this World is Carr’s last book, edited and published after his death by his eldest son.

There are a couple of passages that I thought complete those I quoted in the last entry.

William G. Carr (1955) Pawns in the Game — A couple of passages…

The following are passages from a book I was recently reading called Pawns in the Game, by William Guy Carr.

His biography indicates that he travelled to most countries of the world during his life, and eventually became a commander in the Canadian naval forces and participated in both world wars. He was also clearly a devout Christian as well as what people today would call a conspiracy theorist. He toured Canada multiple times giving public lectures to warn people against the dangers of an international conspiracy that will manipulate the world into another global war.

Making Sense of Wahhabism – 4

Wahhabism and Kharijism – 1

In Part 1 and Part 2 (as well as the entry Are Wahhabis Sunnis? Chechnya Conference and Saudi Anger), we got an overview of the life and thoughts of the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn Abdl-Wahhab, and his close ties with the Saudi family since his initial contact with them. In Part 3, we took a quick look at the history of the Saud family, because of the very close ties between Wahhabism and the Saudi regime.

In this entry, we are going to start exploring the deeper historical and ideological roots of Wahhabism, beginning with their striking similarities to the Khawarij.

Many journalists, thinkers and authors have referred to Wahhabis over the years as the modern-day Khawarij (or Kharijis / Kharijites, as they are usually referred to in English). It is noteworthy to mention that once ISIS appeared on the scene, and their leader proclaimed himself as the caliph that everyone had to accept and pay allegiance to, some Wahhabi Saudi scholars, including their grand mufti, started referring to ISIS as Khawarij (when both Wahhabis and IS share the exact same ideology and principles!). In other words, while they are all relying on Salafism (which we’ll explain in detail in future posts), Saudi scholars (official Wahhabi ideology that is the foundation of such groups as al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra) declared IS a Kharijite movement. Of course, there are numerous reasons for this, but the main one is that Wahhabis are completely loyal to Saudi Arabia, whereas IS is now working independently with its own agenda, which may or may not overlap with that of the Wahhabis, whose agenda is often simply that of Saudi Arabia. Because of a number of factors, IS was able to grow much faster (geographically, militarily, financially) than anyone expected, becoming a competitor to the extremist movements blessed by the Wahhabism, the Saudi verion of Islam, especially in terms of recruitment of their agents…

So who are the Khawarij and what do they have to do with Wahhabism?

Making Sense of Wahhabism – 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 (as well as the entry Are Wahhabis Sunnis? Chechnya Conference and Saudi Anger), we got an overview of the life and thoughts of the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn Abdl-Wahhab, and his close ties with the Saudi family since his initial contact with them.

In Part 3, we want to provide an overview of the history of Saud family, because of the very close ties between Wahhabism and the Saudi regime.

Making Sense of Wahhabism – 2

Roots of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

In part 1 and the entry entitled “Are Wahhabis Sunnis? Chechnya Conference and Saudi anger…“, we explained that the links and intermarriages between Saudis and Wahhabis run deep. We also explained that Saudis have a Jewish ancestry. (This in and of itself doesn’t mean much. What is significant however is the concealment of this ancestry and the fabrication of a different genealogy that is used publicly… as well as the real interests that are sought by Wahhabis and Saudis)

What is as interesting, but even less known, than the Jewish ancestry of Saudis, is that Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab’s ancestors were also Jews.

Making sense of Wahhabism – 1

Given the interest that the last entry generated, I decided to start writing some entries to talk about Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism), ibn Taymiyyah, and explain what they believe by going through their own writings and those who adhere to their thought.

D. Miguel Ruiz. 1997. The Four Agreements – A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. A Toltec Wisdom Book

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague at work mentioned having acquired this new book, and then on Friday, mentioned having just finished reading it, thanks to a very long wait at a medical clinic. This is not the type of book I typically spend any time on, so let me tell you why I did.