Las Vegas is an amalgam of opposites. It is a man-made air-conditioned oasis in the stark, sweltering desert. It is an amusement park for adults. It is the freedom of vice and the regulation of security.
So, it’s no wonder the dining experiences in Vegas offer opposites as well. In sin city restaurants, there are tourist traps and there is quality. I had witnessed the tourist traps on many occasions, most notably in the beautiful restaurants in the Venetian, which looked like the buildings in the island city itself if not a good Hollywood set to emulate it. The food there didn’t match up to the ambiance, however, and my party ended up spending a home-cooked Venetian price for a grocery store, microwave-dinner meal.
Just down the strip, on the other hand, at Paris, one can experience the city of lights within a building and eat a quality meal. La Crêperie is an authentic shop that will bring you back to Rue Mouffetard in the 5em arrondissement. The prices are high ($10 for a savory or sweet crêpe), but you can be assured a quality pancake meal without having to travel across the pond.
Mon Ami Gabi, the sit-down restaurant with outdoor seating facing the strip, also lives up to the high expectations of the casino’s name. With friendly and responsive service, Mon Ami Gabi makes the guest feel welcome. Then they put a lot of good food in front of you. I enjoyed breakfast and while I passed on the beautiful bloody Mary bar (complete with every garnish you can imagine), I did thoroughly enjoy the meal.
I started with a chicken, brie, and apple crêpe in a traditional white-flour egg wrap. The ingredients complemented each other well, but did not overcome the blandness. A few dabs of raspberry preserves remedied that, however and the first entree was finished off with fresh-squeezed orange juice.
The follow up was a special crêpe with a beautiful lemon butter glaze and topped with seasonal berries. The crêpe was a whole-wheat thin pancake and lacked the typical crêpiness found in other dishes, but it worked with the ingredients and allowed for the excuse that the dessert was “healthy.”
Paris in Vegas is an excellent place to get your crêpe fix and stands out as quality over the tourist-trap restaurants in other establishments. Bon appetit!
Com DeGroot is an outsider politician who tells it like it is. But as he makes his way up the power structure of the U.S. Senate, he is forced to choose between his promising career and the promise he made to defend the Constitution. Just as Com is poised to make a name for himself in the cut-throat climate of D.C. party politics, he is presented with an opportunity to save the charter city of Ur, Texas from a suspicious partisan plot aimed at taking over the rare free-market hold-out. The only catch is, in order to save Ur, he has to go up against the most powerful men on Capitol Hill and risk all he has accomplished in his young career.
With the help of astute libertarian and elusive past flame Cate Heatherton, Com engages in a dangerous fight to save Ur from what they discover is a shadowy corporate-government conspiracy that will stop at nothing to get its way.
There’s a lot of talk about “revolution” these days–the Ron Paul version being the loudest and most sweeping–but as far as I know, none of the revolutions being talked about have teeth. Paul’s is focused on first auditing the Federal Reserve, then getting rid of it altogether, but that takes acts of Congress, which, barring any sea change in the near future, isn’t going to be committing any such act as good for the country as that.
Enter Thomas E. Woods, who wrote the succinct, powerful Meltdown about the economic crisis. Woods looks back to the age of unprecedented American prosperity (the early nineteenth century) for an idea that will move the country forward in all respects: nullification. The idea is pretty simple: states have the right to simply reject anything the federal government puts out that expressly contradicts the Constitution. This revolution is much more easily obtained as it requires the participation of a state, not the entire country.
As the documents in Part II of the book reveal, Woods bases his concept of writings all published before the Civil War. To many, that might sound quaint, but to others, that age represented the peak of liberty on Earth (at least certain demographics). Only if we look to the original intent of the United States can we really understand the potential of this country. As Woods writes, was the United States supposed to be just another run-of-the-mill centralized power or was the United States created as a conglomerate of independent political societies?
The answer, of course, is the latter. But that has been confused as the power-hungry D.C. types look to consolidate control over the entire population. They want socialism. But they don’t want socialism just for themselves (which would be fine), they want it for you too, and everyone else, which is not fine. Should not citizens in this country be able to “opt out” of a corrupt, self-destructive federalism?
Woods’ answer is yes. He shows that nullification has a rich history and is, in fact, at the core of the original intent of the country.
The top 100 books on Amazon.com used to be a showcase reflecting the recent suggestions by a certain Chicagoan named Oprah. Now, that distinction now seems to be held by a certain New Yorker via Washington State named Beck. Everything Beck touches turns to Amazon gold (as well as NY Times Bestseller gold). His books–including the latest work of fiction–are no exception.
As for Glenn Beck’s freshman fiction effort, he no doubt had help to make it read as fluidly and as eloquently as it does (all good books are at the very least a collaborative effort between the writer and the editor). But that shouldn’t detract the from the fact that “Overton” is an entertaining, well-written pop fiction (what Beck calls faction). The timeline is a bit rushed and some of the characters are flat, but that’s to be expected with such a concise book. What stands out in the book is the accessible style and the important ideas espoused throughout, most notable of which is the concept that both parties in the federal government are moving us closer to an omnipotent world government, which would be as scary as Beck makes it sound. Beck is, after all, a controversial, limited-government thinker. As he says in his foreword, “I know this book will be controversial; anything that causes people to think usually is.”
Overall, this book is recommended. It’s not poetry and it’s not going to go down in history as the greatest book of all time, but the ideas within it are integral to the existence of liberty. We know that based on Beck’s new-found Midas touch, that hundreds of thousands of people will read the book. My only hope is that it makes a difference.
P.S. While reading this book, I found a number of striking similarities to my forthcoming novel “Gods of Ruin”. From the libertarian lead lady to the recurring dream that the protagonist has and even to the presence of a pie in the last scene of the book (!?). All I can say is that great minds think alike! Well done, Mr. Beck. Keep doing what you’re doing.
I’m not sure if anyone has come to this conclusion yet, but it seems clear that there are some connections between the character from the new television series “V” and the character from ’50s hero from Ayn Rand’s epic “Atlas Shrugged.”
Both are the clarion call for defenders of liberty, both are mysterious to the viewer/reader at the beginning of the story, and both have the name John. Come on people, it’s right in front of your face!
