How-To Book Review for Mogul Skiing

You could ski the waterfall under the Gate House chairlift at Sugarbush, Vermont in only two or three turns – but I couldn't. After a nasty wipeout, navigating the two or three moguls became threatening enough that I'd simply started taking the easier way around. The daily lessons on our week-long, high school ski trips never seemed to address the bumps. Years later, in a private lesson, the instructor taught me to ski back and forth across the slope. “But I want to ski bumps fast, in one line like Jonny Moseley,” I remember thinking. Why is it so hard to learn how?

I spent years trying different techniques. Ski sloppy. Get on edge. Feet together. Feet apart. Gunbarrel at Heavenly. Devil's Crotch at Breckenridge. Outer Limits at Killington. Exterminator at Sugarbush. Derailer at Mary Jane. Beartrap at Mt. Snow. I practiced and practiced to master the bumps, but it wasn't getting much easier.

Then, while learning about shaped skis, mogul skis, powder skis and new, rocker-style skis, I happened upon a forum comment recommending a book called, “Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing” by Dan DiPiro. Dan competed in freestyle for years and teaches at Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire. This book has transformed how I ski and changed my entire approach to skiing.

In the book, Dan explains matter-of-factly that most instructors simply do not know how to ski moguls well themselves, their focus is on carving, and, therefore, they cannot teach the right way to do it. Dan can, and does. Carving wide-radius GS turns simply requires a different technique than the rotary turns required for moguls. He addresses and dispels accepted mogul skiing dogma then provides step-by-step instructions on how to work towards skiing a zipper line straight down the fall line every time. I'm not quite there yet but now I have a plan that I can feel confident in when pointing my skis down the hill. I especially enjoyed his guidance on skiing bumps in the East. To paraphrase, if the conditions are terrible, don't ski it. And if there's a sheet of ice in front of a big, puffy bump, jump over the ice. Easier written than done but lots of fun when it works.

If you want to become a better, more confident skier in the bumps, then go get this book. If you're scared of the bumps and have convinced yourself you just don't like the bumps, that you're perfectly content sticking to the groomers, then you're lying to yourself. Go get this book and free yourself from the confines of the blue trails.

Click here to buy Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing
Follow @PaulEntin

Four Lessons Americans Ignore from Russian Survivors

We humans have a strange capacity to believe only what we see right before our own eyes, and only if it fits our belief systems. This may be the only way to explain why so many Americans ignore, dismiss and/or refuse to listen to the lessons learned from Russians who survived life under the oppressive Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Having lived under the socialist police state before escaping or fleeing to America or to other Western countries, they can see America descending into the same type of totalitarian police state with far more clarity than most Americans can. They understand how quickly and easily the freedom we take for granted may disappear. The First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution, for example, have been gradually marginalized, not to mention key tenets of the Constitution itself. Given this context, here are four lessons from Russian survivors that I've found noteworthy:

Lesson One: The people have strength in numbers. Resistance is not futile per this excerpt from Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr L Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, 1973:

"During an arrest, you think since you are not guilty, how can they arrest you? Why should you run away? And how can you resist right then? After all, you’ll only make your situation worse; you will make it more difficult for them to sort out the mistake.

"They won't believe it until they feel a military boot on their necks." Yuri Bezmenov

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family?

Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?

The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! We did not love freedom enough. Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself."

Get the book here, if you dare.

Lesson Two: Turn off the TV. Don't be a useful idiot per Yuri Bezmenov, high-ranking KGB propaganda agent, in this excerpt from video interview, 1985:

"...[KGB goal is] to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their community and their country. It's a great brainwashing process...exposure to true, factual information does not matter anymore...When the Marxist-Leninists come to power, these professors, civil rights activists and other leftists will become disillusioned [at the harsh implementation] and will become dissidents. They will be lined up against a wall and shot. They will not believe it until they feel a military boot on their necks."

See complete interview here at RPU since Google has just removed it after millions of views.

Lesson Three: Most of human history has been lived under rule by brute force. The USA was intended to be different but has gradually become more and more brutish. Don't sit idly by while our freedoms are whittled away, per this quote by Ayn Rand from We the Living, 1936:
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."

Get the book here. 
 
Lesson Four: Our natural right to self-defense was included in the Bill of Rights primarily for the purpose of defense against a tyrannical government. (They disarm you with a smile.) Mass murder by the millions has happened all over the world for centuries and there's no reason it cannot happen in America. Consider that David Rockefeller idolizes Chairman Mao for murdering millions upon millions of people - he simply thought it a necessary task to implement the Communist plan. Obama mentor Bill Ayres expects to kill 25 million Americans if they resist the Communist takeover of the country. In this excerpt from the Russian newspaper Pravda, Stanislav Mishin warns, "Americans never give up your guns":

"One of the first things they (Reds) did was to disarm the population. From that point, mass repression, mass arrests, mass deportations, mass murder, mass starvation were all a safe game for the powers that were...Do not be fooled by a belief that progressives, leftists hate guns. Oh, no, they do not. What they hate is guns in the hands of those who are not marching in lock step of their ideology. They hate guns in the hands of those who think for themselves and do not obey without question."

See complete editorial here

When we're getting warned, scolded and reminded about the value of freedom from the Russian state newspaper Pravda then it's clear we've left the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine far behind and begun the descent into the very police state America was founded to banish forever. As Yuri Bezmenov stated, if the United States becomes just another socialist, totalitarian state then there won't be any place left for anyone to flee.




Follow @PaulEntin

Top reads for protesting, occupying, rallying

For those peaceably assembling in the streets and for those taking long rides to the protest rallies, there's a lot of time to read up on how our country arrived at this critical juncture in history and on what needs to be done to allow the economy to grow. Read these books before talking to reporters on camera or shooting a YouTube video to be sure you not only fully understand the issues but also are able to articulate them for others who may lack such clarity on the importance of these protests:

A Short History of Money and Banking, Gouge: the economic turmoil of today seems little different from the economic turmoil that plagued several periods during the 1800's, and much of today's troubles would have been predictable if anyone had paid attention to what had already happened in the past - and is sure to continue happening in the future if dramatic changes are not made.

A capitalist among the socialists occupying Wall Street - advertising works! If you're protesting, take a look at these books to be sure you not only fully understand the issues but can articulate them for the news media in seven-second sound bites.

Economics In One Lesson, Hazlitt: this essential work uses 23 real-life examples to illustrate the interconnected nature of the global economy. The value of stimulus projects, the impact of taxation on production, the relationship of employment and wages and the use of printing money or "monetizing the debt" are just some of the issues covered.

Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation, Kurtz: this book from CNN's media watchdog reporter reveals how the investment banks, analysts, public companies and media such as CNBC, CNN and the Wall Street Journal effectively conspire to dupe individual investors of their money.

Animal Farm, Orwell: see how the downtrodden, overworked animals rise up against their capitalist oppressors! When they finally learn the truth about how their most charismatic leaders take advantage of their idealism, it's too late.

Night, Wiesel: If you think outsourcing jobs, Wall Street bailouts and paying a portion of one's own healthcare represent the pinnacle of man's capacity for inhumanity, cruelty and brutality against his fellow man then read this true story about what happened to Elie Weisel - and millions of other innocent people - when the Nazis came to town. 

Washington's Crossing, Fischer: You don't need to live as close to the town of Washington's Crossing as I do to marvel in astonishment at what Washington's army endured to oust the British and the Hessians from Trenton and the surrounding area. In light of President Obama calling Americans soft, I wonder if today's Americans would bother to go through what Washington's troops endured if only for their freedom and that of their families. You'll be amazed what people risked so that we would be free to peaceably assemble in the streets today.

If there are other books you think would be worthwhile for people protesting or considering protesting, please put the title and author in the comment box. I'd be happy to take a look.
Follow @PaulEntin

"A Must-Read!" Book Review of Economics In One Lesson

I read Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt more than a year ago with my then 10-yr. old son. The knowledge in it is so profound that I’ve put off writing this review for fear that I could never do it justice, and I’m sure I haven’t. But there’s no time to wait – you need to read this book now.

I’ve read a number of books about economics and banking, history and politics, and without a doubt, Economics In One Lesson stands out as the most important book on the subject area.

It is setup as a series of 23 different examples describing everyday occurrences to illustrate fundamental economic principles. How a broken window impacts the overall wealth of the community is among the most famous of these examples. Other examples address the value of public works projects, the importance of exports, the impact of taxation on production, the relationship of employment to the minimum wage and the inflationary result of printing money.

Though written more than 50 years ago, the examples remain all too relevant today, unfortunately. In fact, for nearly every example, I was able to clip an article from the newspaper or print one from the Web documenting how the same issues are sadly alive today. “Price Controls Hamper Rise of Generics”, Wall Street Journal, for example, revealed how the government of the Philippines set price controls on branded drugs to lower their cost only to find the artificially reduced profits caused retailers to cancel planned store openings and stop hiring. Hospitals raised other prices to recoup the loss of revenue from drugs and the once-growing generic drug manufacturing industry stalled since the spread between its prices and the now-lower branded drugs has been cut. Now there are more people unemployed and less medicine available. If only government officials in the Philippines had read this book before causing so much needless and predictable suffering.

In “The New Cannery Row”, for a second example, Wall Street Journal editors reveal what happened to the tuna industry in American Samoa when our Congress required the U.S. territory to raise its minimum wage from $3.26 an hour to $7.25 an hour by 2015. Well, what do you think happened? Chicken of the Sea closed its plant. StarKist cut more than half its workforce. Thousands were put out of work. The minimum wage hike pushed unemployment from 10% to 30%. Seems workers in Thailand are willing to clean fish for $.75 an hour. Since our Congress failed to grasp this, we get to send $18 million of our taxes to Samoa as compensation. Oops.

Had our Congressmen read Hazlitt’s analysis of each occurrence and his predictions for the outcomes of each occurrence under different economic policies they would’ve understood how raising and lowering the minimum wage affects employment. In fact, the answers to nearly every economic challenge that seems to confound everyone from TV talking heads to Federal Reserve members and the President’s team of economic advisors are in this book, quickly and simply laid out for anyone to understand – regardless of a passing grade in Economics 101.

In fact, the policy answers are so obvious that my 10-yr. old, upon noticing the “50th Anniversary Edition” sticker on the cover, was baffled that the world could be in such economic chaos when the answers have been right here for 50 years. He’d thought we were reading a new book –it was unfathomable that most of our political leaders have ignored the obvious for so long while continually throwing money at policies that are proven to fail everywhere they’ve been implemented.

After reading Economics In One Lesson, it’s easy to see through all of the fear and hysteria driving today’s pseudo-journalists on the news. I highly recommend Economics In One Lesson. This book needs to be at the top of your reading list.
Follow @PaulEntin