Douglas Crockford's Blog

Format Net Units Net Sales Royalty % Net Royalty
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Book 2,286 29,957.09 10.0000 2,995.71
License 29 347.39 10.0000 34.74
On-Line Access 3 3,835.01 10.0000 383.50
eBook 107 1,870.55 10.0000 187.05
Book reserve returned from Q408: 777.04
Book reserve withheld -599.14
Subsidiary Translations reserves returned from Q408: 397.72
--------- --------- --------- -----------
Net 2,425 36,010.04 4,176.62

So he wrote back:

Yeah,sure.

My father replied:

Are you also suggestinng that Obama doesn't have radical ideas, or that he doesn't have radicals and worse in his administration?

This was my answer:

I didn't suggest anything like that. I don't even know what that means. Radical ideas? Are we afraid of ideas now?

I don't have a problem with people criticizing the President of the United States. We have a constitutional right to do so, and an obligation to do so when the President is breaking the law, as Nixon did. But I think a citizen who does so has the moral responsibility to get their facts straight. This is something Jarcik failed to do.

So if you think I'm wrong, get the facts and prove it. Read Zakaria's book, and critically determine if it is what Jarcik said it was, or if it is what I said it was.

I just got an email from my dad. He forwarded this message:

From: RICHARD JARCIK
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 1:18 PM
Subject: America, Wake Up

This will open your eyes..
What does Obama read?

The name of the book Obama is reading is called The Post-American World, written by a fellow muslim. Post-America The world After America ??? Please forward this picture to everyone you know, conservative or liberal to expose Obama's radical ideas and intent for this country!
photo verified by snopes

So I wrote this response to my father:

I assume that you forwarded this because you think that Richard Jarcik, despite his difficulties with English punctuation and composition, is on to something.

You'll be glad to know that he is not. The book, The Post-American World, is by Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek. The book is a summary of the state of the world, which it turns out is a very complicated place. Making foreign policy decisions without an understanding of its complexity can have terrible consequences. For example, a military action that was expected to last "weeks, not months" can go on for years, if not decades, when it is undertaken with a profound lack of understanding of the region and the region's connection with the world.

The title of the book is provocative, but it is not the frightening thing that you imagine it is. I recommend that you read it. It is available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393334805/wrrrldwideweb

Having read it, those hysterical, misinformed rants from Jarcik will lose their power to frighten you. They will just look as they are, cowardly and foolish.

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