Monday, January 16, 2012

An American Haunting: The Bell Witch

  • ISBN13: 9780312363536
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
"'By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome,' crowed President George H. W. Bush when he repelled Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991. He was wrong. The Vietnam debacle continues to haunt America's political leaders, military men, and population. Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb's account of this phenomenon is studiously researched, vividly narrated, and, above all, highly readable. It will stand as a major contribution to the subject."Ââ€"Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

The United States had never lost a warÂâ€"that is, until 1975, when it was forced to flee Saigon in humiliation after losing to what Lyndon Johnson called a "raggedy-ass little four! th-rate country." The legacy of this first defeat has haunted every president since, especially on the decision of whether to put "boots on the ground" and commit troops to war.

In Haunting Legacy, the father-daughter journalist team of Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb presents a compelling, accessible, and hugely important history of presidential decisionmaking on one crucial issue: in light of the Vietnam debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war?

The sobering lesson of Vietnam is that the United States is not invincibleÂâ€"it can lose a warÂâ€"and thus it must be more discriminating about the use of American power. Every president has faced the ghosts of Vietnam in his own way, though each has been wary of being sucked into another unpopular war. Ford (during the Mayaguez crisis) and both Bushes (Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan) deployed massive force, as if to say, "Vietnam, be damned." On the other hand, Carter, Clinton, ! and Reagan (to the surprise of many) acted with extreme cautio! n, mindf ul of the Vietnam experience. Obama has also wrestled with the Vietnam legacy, using doses of American firepower in Libya while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The authors spent five years interviewing hundreds of officials from every postwar administration and conducting extensive research in presidential libraries and archives, and they've produced insight and information never before published. Equal parts taut history, revealing biography, and cautionary tale, Haunting Legacy is must reading for anyone trying to understand the power of the past to influence war-and-peace decisions of the present, and of the future.
Known throughout Tennessee as "Old Kate," the Bell Witch took up residence with John Bell's family in 1818. It was a cruel and noisy spirit, given to rapping and gnawing sounds before it found its voices.

With these voices and its supernatural acts, the Bell Witch tormented the Bell family. This extraordinary book recounts the ! only documented case in U.S. history when a spirit actually caused a man's death.

The local schoolteacher, Richard Powell, witnessed the strange events and recorded them for his daughter. His astonishing manuscript fell into the hands of novelist Brent Monahan, who has prepared the book for publication. Members of the Bell family have previously provided information on this fascinating case, but this book recounts the tale with novelistic vigor and verve. It is truly chilling.
From headless phantoms and screaming specters to invisible poltergeists and disembodied voices, ghosts occupy our homes, infest cemeteries and graveyards, lurk in nearby caves and forests, and even wander city streets. However, despite the wealth of sightings, aspiring ghost hunters have few resources.
        
Now, for the first time, here is a fully functioning field guide for those courageous investigators who wish to observe and interact with supernatural beings and the s! pirit world. Drawn from all available evidence, including rece! nt resea rch and sightings, modern urban legends, and Native American mythology and North American folklore, this book describes in detail over 100 haunted sites and their resident specters.
        
Brimming with useful advice and practical tips for the ghost hunter, The Field Guide to North American Hauntings provides vital information for those seeking to encounter ghosts. Whether exploring the lonely cells of Alcatraz or the desolate stretch of road known as Route 666, or searching for specters at the White House, ghost hunters will always be prepared with The Field Guide to North American Hauntings.W. Haden Blackman itemizes over 100 haunted sites and their resident specters, focusing on haunted houses, haunted vessels, haunted cemeteries, and haunted sites in nature--from the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego (where Kate Morgan, killed on Thanksgiving Day in 1892, now appears in a black lace dress and makes strange choking noises) to Franklin's H! aunted Orchard (where a foreign-born peddler was killed and buried under an apple tree in 1759, and where apple trees have continued to this day to produce blood-stained blossoms and blood-streaked apple pulp).

Blackman intends his guide, however, to be more than just another ghoulish anthology. If you want to find and interact safely with ghosts, you need to know where to go, what to look for, and how benign the ghosts are. For each site, along with a full narrative and supernatural history, Blackman includes its address and whereabouts, the number of ghostly residents, their identities, and the type of ghostly activities that have been observed. He tells what their demeanors are (their personalities; propensities for mischief, violence, or both; and attitudes toward the living), and the likelihood of encountering the spirit or ghostly phenomenon while visiting. A chapter on ghost hunting provides worthwhile tips for anyone wishing to avoid, cope with, ! or encounter a spectral presence, and the appendices--with sa! mple que stionnaires for ghost witnesses, sample questionnaires for ghosts, a glossary, and listings by state and province--round out the practical nature of Blackman's guide. But even if you haven't the slightest interest in searching out ghost haunts, the book is worth it for the sensational stories alone. --Stephanie Gold

Known throughout Tennessee as "Old Kate," the Bell Witch took up residence with John Bell's family in 1818. It was a cruel and noisy spirit, given to rapping and gnawing sounds before it found its voices.

With these voices and its supernatural acts, the Bell Witch tormented the Bell family. This extraordinary book recounts the only documented case in U.S. history when a spirit actually caused a man's death.

The local schoolteacher, Richard Powell, witnessed the strange events and recorded them for his daughter. His astonishing manuscript fell into the hands of novelist Brent Monahan, who has prepared the book for publication. Mem! bers of the Bell family have previously provided information on this fascinating case, but this book recounts the tale with novelistic vigor and verve. It is truly chilling.

Kenneth Cole Women's Blurred Animal Printed Dress, Black/Pearl, 2

  • Asymmetric braid detail
  • Ships with self-belt
Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Dolby DTS 5.1 ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Short Film, Teaser(s), Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: After high school graduation, the tradition of 'Schoolies Week' has emerged at a Queensland's Gold Coast resort in which 70,000 kids from all over Australia congregate for a hedonistic week of drinking, drugs, and sex. Five couples travelling to this party of a life-time are in for the ride of their lives. ...BlurredThere is an indescribable freedom that comes from physically deceiving the world.

If you are a fan of Halloween then you know the! euphoria of pretending to be Frankenstein or a prostitute or Spiderman or Wonder Woman or a tiger or Dorothy or any old somebody or something that you are not.

To be free of social constraints, to melt the world as you know it for an evening, to be tantalized by uniqueness, causes tens of millions of people to be filled with glee on the last day of October. Some people spend a week's pay and a year's plotting to come up with the perfect costume that will blow their friends' minds away.

For some reason, people experience untold amounts of elation when they get to pretend to be somebody who they are not.

Multiply that by 50,000 and you would come close to the level of euphoria you'd reach if you got to actually parade around in the skin of somebody else for a few days. Just imagine if, all of a sudden, with the mere injection of a needle, you became Asian or a midget or a man. A quick sting in the ribs and you're blonde or pretty or have an Afro. ! Just imagine becoming any of these combinations and infinitely! more. Since you are no longer actually you, you are immediately freed up to talk to whomever you want to talk to without fear of them judging you. All of a sudden, you can take revenge on enemies, commit crimes and be lascivious without fear of repercussions. All of a sudden, you are free.

Imagine how much fun it would be to be anybody or anything you wanted to be!

And with absolutely no constraints, no restrictions, no limitations, no boundaries, no gravity!

Wouldn't that be great?!

The novel blurred explores this scenario and makes the following analogy:

Drop a frog into a pot of water and he'll swim about contentedly. Fatten him up with a few flies and he'll be the happiest frog in the world. He will swim around blissfully, unaware that a fire has been built beneath his pot, only that it has become warmer, until he is finally cooked alive.

blurred turns this figurative frog into Sam Senior who swims naively in a ! social milieu that has had a fire applied to it for generations. Brilliant in his use of the innernet (an internet connection in the brain), Sam can navigate dozens of websites simultaneously. A NetJeopardy champion on a full ride at a prestigious university, Sam's future looks bright. Perpetually checking social sites while surfing the net, even as he converses with people nearby, Sam doesn't initially realize that he is being held in the ubiquitous sway of a constant communication that paradoxically leads to a lack of real communication, a lack of deep communication.

However, Sam takes a class where he learns about a (possibly) mythological drug, DNA, which instantly alters a person's physical identity and is used primarily for either recreational sex, crime, or revenge. His professor teaches his class by having students read about "drops" he has taken where he engages in the above activities. Slowly, Sam begins to realize that the pot he is swimming in is ge! tting too hot.

Mirrored by a future that suffers from ! a genera l dearth of love, Sam's loneliness is palpable. For, although the future is excessively promiscuous, love and sex are not always interchangeable. A hopeless romantic, Sam wants to wait for just the right woman before engaging in intercourse. Of course, with most people taking several sex partners a month, everyone mocks him as prude.

As the world begins to blur together, like water in a boiling pot, Sam quests after love. Buffeted about by reality, he finally finds the arms of a fascinating woman. Simpatico, they both realize that there is nothing in a transitory world but one another and the hope that their love can carry them through the darkness that is postmodernity.Blurred animal printed dress

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