What are we reading?

[GDS_Starfury]

I'm enjoying my marathon reread of the HH series.

[Martok]

Am halfway through The Dragon Reborn.  Whatever one may say of some of the later books in the WoT series, there's no question that at least the earlier ones move at a good clip. 

Also, it's fun remember/rediscovering what I've forgotten!  :D 

I'm enjoying my marathon reread of the HH series.

Horatio Hornblower or Honor Harrington? 

[GDS_Starfury]

Harrington.
I'm bitter over there not only being any video game but his legal teams squashing of any mod work.

[Greybriar]

I am currently reading To Rule the Waves by Arthur Herman.

[Gusington]

I have that book, Greybriar. Navies of WWI, right? It's on my to read shelf. How is it?

[JasonPratt]

Am halfway through The Dragon Reborn.  Whatever one may say of some of the later books in the WoT series, there's no question that at least the earlier ones move at a good clip. 

Also, it's fun remember/rediscovering what I've forgotten!  :D 

You're moving along at a good clip, too! -- although I did come to realize during my re-read last year that if I stuck to a disciplined schedule I could put away three books a month.

My dad finally made it through the slog a few weeks ago, and finished Knife of Dreams the other day, so he' well into the downhill slope. Or uphill to the peak from the swamp. Whichever metaphor works best. It's all new to him; he'd never read a single one of them before.

[Greybriar]

I have that book, Greybriar. Navies of WWI, right? It's on my to read shelf. How is it?

To Rule the Waves may include WWI, but so far I've read the first 80 pages and it's mostly about events in the 16th century. There's still about 500 pages to go though.

[Gusington]

Gah I got it confused with To Crown the Waves...nevermind!

[Ubercat]

... he'd never read a single one of them before.

I wish I'd never read a single one of them before. To start the completed GoT series from scratch would have been truly epic. Instead, I grabbed the first 3 books from The University of PA bookstore in the early 90's when I was locked out of my apartment for a few hours. "Oh look, a new trilogy!" I said to myself. After getting close to the end of book 3, I realized that the story didn't appear to be close to concluding.

Whenever a new book was due out, I'd reread the previous ones in preparation. I quit rereading the entire series around book 5 and just read the previous 1 or 2. Around book 9, I got tired of the multi-year wait between volumes and quit reading them all together. I still collected them, though, in anticipation of doing the entire series at once. I just need to get the last 3 books in paperback and I'll do just that.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

"John Adams famously stated: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." America today faces one of the greatest[/font][/font]threats which have arisen since this nation's founding – the unsustainable spending of our own government.[/font][/font]Sooner rather than later, this nation's "debt bomb" will go off. In fact, if we don't change course in the next[/font][/font]two or three years, the America of the future will only be a hollow shell of its former self."[/font][/font]
http://www.capitolreader.com/2011sum/041512-debt-bomb.pdf

[MetalDog]

That's pretty scary, Biggs.

[Staggerwing]

^John Adams only said the first 2 sentences. ("Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.")The rest is from the author of the pdf.

[Airborne Rifles]

Started Through Struggle the Stars. Pretty good scifi.

[Dolan50]

John Adams only said the first 2 sentences. ("Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.")The rest is from the author of the pdf.

And has been pointed out earlier by Brant, we aren't a Democracy but a Republic.

                               Democracy or a Republic

"How often do we hear the claim that our nation is a democracy?  Was a democratic form of government the vision of the founders?  As it turns out, the word democracy appears nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents of our nation – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Instead of a democracy, the Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, declares "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, . . . ."  Our pledge of allegiance to the flag says not to "the democracy for which it stands" but to "the republic for which it stands."  Is the song that emerged during the War of 1861 "The Battle Hymn of the Democracy" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"?

So what is the difference between republican and democratic forms of government?  John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe." Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights.  Instead, government is envisioned as a protector of rights."

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/articles/fee/democracy.htm

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Through most of history the words have been the same. It is only in recent times that people have tried to re-define distinctions between them.
Democracy is from the Greek language.
Republic is from Latin that the Romans used. It was a translation of the Greek.

Any country with government elected by the people is a democracy. Commonwealth countries have a parliament. Republics traditionally have a Senate. Same diff.