I finished The Men Who Stare at Goats by journalist and documentarian Jon Ronson the other day. What a good book, nice narrative journalism. There’s some very disturbing information in there as well. It’s basically about how a few people in the military believed and some still believe in New Age phenomena. It does take a swipe at believing in God in one or two sentences, but besides that it’s a great book that mocks the strange and odd beliefs of some in the military who think that it’s possible to walk through walls and kill goats by just staring at them. There’s a lot of disturbing info, from the torture of Abu Graib detainees to even a martial arts instructor in Florida who trained one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. That instructor still considers that murdering hijacker “like a son.” Sick. He trained the hijackers combat to take over the plane, but I assume he didn’t know the plan then, otherwise he’d be in jail.
I saw on Google Video a documentary by Ronson on Ruby Ridge, and how the media including Bill Maher spinned the story. Maher even compared the kid who was murdered by the federal agent as he ran away, to a dog. What an evil person. If you don’t recall, Maher also mocked the death of Steve Irwin when he died.
If you’re not familiar with the Ruby Ridge story, while I am no fan of white supremacists (the family was NOT white supremacists, they just knew some and lived by some), or fan of any racist no matter what color they are, the man was entrapped with selling a sawed off shotgun to an undercover agent. An FBI sniper later killed his wife when she was unarmed and just opening the front door. Sick and evil. I support law enforcement, both local and federal, but when those same law enforcement murders a kid as he runs away, murdered in the back by an automatic weapon, or when a sniper murders a woman as she holds her baby, then that’s murder and those agents should be in jail. Those in authority should be held to a HIGHER standard instead of a lower standard.
It’s a great book. Check it out.