Amazon 1-Liner Review for Selected Salvos 2

Discovered on Amazon's book page for Selected Salvos 2:

A one line five star review.

Here's the concise, precise, incisive review in its entirety:

This reviewer self-identified as "TANSTAAFL" also self-identifies as

Yankee by birth.

Southerner by choice.

American by the grace of God.

Christian because I have faith.

Libertarian because I have brains.

If anyone is interested TANSTAAFL's review is down at the bottom of this page just below Mama Liberty's more traditional review:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1312811633/ref=pdp_new_dp_review

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As an aside:

I'm hoping that "insite" in TANSTAAFL's review was a typo since the various definitions of insite – a Dow Chemical trademark; a legal heroin, cocaine, and morphine drug injection site in Vancouver; numerous acronyms for numerous things – don't seem to apply to me.

Or he could have meant "incite" as commonly used in the phrase "incite to riot" which of course I would never do, although I would "incite to buy, read and enjoy my books."

But he probably meant to say "insight" which generally means having a "deep intuitive understanding" of which I may have little but will always endeavor to make you think I do anyway, by inciting you to have insights about insite.

Selected Salvos 2 is available in Paperback / ePub / iTunes / Kindle
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lf7px2g	Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/okqacn3
Barnes&Noble: http://tinyurl.com/o339l2o	Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/khvrvox
Lulu: www.lulu.com/spotlight/salvospot	YouTube: http://youtu.be/MYFWQlTIYPs

The Cutie on the Cannon

Since nobody asked me why my Selected Salvos 2 book cover features a beauty balanced atop the barrel of a cannon I'll be glad to answer.

Various cannon graphics have been part of my identity ever since I first talked my way into my first online professional writing gig in 2001. A site called NewsGuy.com was offering $50 per article for "Feature Writers" and I pitched them on a libertarian column. It was a general interest site with other onliners babbling on about food and homemaking and cars and angst-riddled accounts of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

My Newsguy logo: Cannon with a red L for "libertarian."

I figured with this kind of readership anyone who stumbled into my libertarian territory would instantly label me as a loose cannon so I labeled myself first; The Loose Cannon Libertarian. After my pay-for- posting position disappeared I put out my own shingle under the same name on my own website which still exists today in its achingly ancient Microsoft FrontPage format.

My animated website cannon: Chipping away at the war against freedom

Since all my book-bound articles come from those early Loose Cannon Libertarian days that explains the cannon. And it also explains my reedcannon@aol.com email address.

So what about the lissome lass balanced atop the boom barrel?

The theme of Salvos 2 is "Playboynomics" as expostulated in two of the main articles, "Tax Dollars for Sex Scholars" and "The Playboy School of Economics."

Both bits of art come from open sources on the net, and I was actually able to trace both back to their origins, a rare achievement on the Internet.

The eye candy atop the cannon is one of countless variations of the "mudflap girl." The original bright silver silhouette seen on tractor trailer mudflaps all over American highways was designed in the 1970s by Bill Zinda of Wiz Enterprises to promote his line of truck and auto accessories. It entered the public domain in June, 2011.

The particular pulchritudinous pretty one on my cover is one of many "trucker girls" and was offered as a free vector download on pixgood.com.

The cannon has its own Provenance. It's called, if it's identified at all, as the Ortner Cannon and is the work of Eric Ortner. Created in 2009 it's described as his "graphic translation of a revolutionary war cannon." It's also described as "Public Domain (free to use)."

Now you know the backstory about the loose lady adorning the loose cannon.

I've named her Shannon O'Cannon, "She of the Free."

Selected Salvos 2 is available in Paperback / ePub / iTunes / Kindle Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lf7px2g               Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/okqacn3 Barnes&Noble: http://tinyurl.com/o339l2o    Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/khvrvox Lulu: www.lulu.com/spotlight/salvospot          YouTube: http://youtu.be/MYFWQlTIYPs

Amazon Reviewer channels Salvos 2 as "Applied Libertarianism"

Maria Folsom has been a longtime loyal reader and a friend even though we've never met – she lives in Montana and I reside in Texas. But she recently downloaded Selected Salvos 2 and read it aloud to her husband as she loves to do with my Examiner articles. Then she was kind enough to file this review on Amazon. Thanks Maria!

 The book is too short. That's my only complaint. Mr. Reed's style is what I call "applied libertarianism." Not just dry explanations of how the world works or should work - you can read plenty of those books by other legendary authors - but these are situations and anecdotes that we all relate to. Anyone with absolutely no formal knowledge of economics or libertarian philosophy can understand this book. Anyone who's waited on line at DMV, battled with IRS, or wandered through a maze of bureaucratic paperwork will relate to his message. That is what Mr. Reed does best - relates real-life challenges to You, the Reader, with delicious sarcasm, humor, and hard fact. This is not just a screed or a rant; every chapter has a suggestion. Beneath the wit and sardonic style Mr. Reed always offers a True Way. All is not hopeless!

Tip: read this book aloud if you can. It channels Mr. Reed and emphasizes all his masterful use of humor.

Her review, for the curious and those needing proof, is posted here:

http://www.amazon.com/review/RQMMURRUKVZS3

And posted here are all the links to Selected Salvos 2:

Selected Salvos 2 is available in Paperback / ePub / iTunes / Kindle
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lf7px2g	Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/okqacn3
Barnes&Noble: http://tinyurl.com/o339l2o	Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/khvrvox
Lulu: www.lulu.com/spotlight/salvospot	YouTube: http://youtu.be/MYFWQlTIYPs

 

2 Salvos get 5 Stars from 1 Top 50 Amazon Reviewer

Doug Erlandson is a Top 50 Reviewer in Amazon's pantheon of Top 100 Customer Reviewers (he's currently #45), a writer, taught philosophy at the University of Nebraska (my home state) after having earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He self-identifies as a former anarchosyndicalist and currently as a "radical decentralist."

  Doug Erlandson Amazon Reviewer photo, bookended by Salvo1 and Salvo2

When I first approached Doug Erlandson about taking a break from his normal heavy philosophizing to review my Selected Salvos 2 book he responded with "I am sympathetic to libertarianism, so I'm sure I'll find these essays interesting" and when I mentioned my first book he said, "I'm sure I'll also enjoy Selected Salvos 1."

That meant two reviews for the price of none!

For Selected Salvos 1, under the heading "Good primer on what libertarianism is" he begins with: "This is a fun book to read" and describes it as "lighthearted, humorous, occasionally self-deprecating, and now and then acerbic."

Read his entire review here along with one other Five Star review.

His Review of Salvos 2 is titled "Thoughtful libertarian fare" and makes the point that "If you have libertarian leanings you'll love what Mr. Reed has to say. If you don't, you probably won't read this book (even though you should)" and then concludes with "I highly recommend Volume 2 of 'Selected Salvos,' just as I did Volume 1."

This entire review is here along with another pair of 5-star reviews.

Amazon Top 50 Reviewer, taught philosophy in my home state, is libertarian minded and gave me ten stars for two books. Thanks Doug Erlandson!

Read the books yourself, enjoy them, and write your own reviews:

Selected Salvos 2 is available in Paperback / ePub / iTunes / Kindle
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lf7px2g	Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/okqacn3
Barnes&Noble: http://tinyurl.com/o339l2o	Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/khvrvox
Lulu: www.lulu.com/spotlight/salvospot	YouTube: http://youtu.be/MYFWQlTIYPs

 

Free McDuck Capitalism article from Salvos 1

After my Selected Salvos 2 book and free excerpt was posted at, disappeared from, and reappeared on BookDaily the good folks there invited me to post up a free excerpt from my first book, Selected Salvos 1, as I'd already done for Selected Salvos 2.

So once again I've offered up the leadoff article, this one being "Scrooge McDuck Capitalism." Two things about this article:

1. Back when I wrote it in 2002 whenever I said "capitalism" I always had in mind "The Laissez-Faire Free Market" definition of that word. Since then I've discovered that in many people's minds "capitalism" means "Corporatism" or "Government-Corporatist-Bankster-Masonic-Bilderberger-Iluminatti-One World Space Alien Conspiracy" which as a libertarian I utterly reject. These days I eschew the term "capitalism" altogether and just say "free market."

2. In 2004 I received this email:

"I’m a high school economics teacher.  Your essay [Scrooge McDuck Capitalism] will be both interesting and valuable to my students.  I am printing a class set."

Here's a teaser for the article. Please visit BookDaily to read the entire excerpt:

Scrooge McDuck Capitalism

I learned about capitalism long before I'd ever heard of "the free market" or "libertarianism." I learned everything I ever needed to know in my youth, with my head burrowed deep under the bedcovers, reading Scrooge McDuck comic books by flashlight.

Read the entire "Sample Chapter" here: http://tinyurl.com/kyzc4qt

Selected Salvos 1 & 2 are available in Paperback / ePub / iTunes / Kindle
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lf7px2g	Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/okqacn3
Barnes&Noble: http://tinyurl.com/o339l2o	Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/khvrvox
Lulu: www.lulu.com/spotlight/salvospot	YouTube: http://youtu.be/MYFWQlTIYPs