Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog of mine: Google Knowledge Panel for my name - Ravi S. Iyer - got claimed (by me) in end. Jan. 2021; Updated Knowledge Panel, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2021/02/google-knowledge-panel-for-my-name-ravi.html .

A few days back I finished reading the main part of the book FDR by Jean Edward Smith which is around 630 pages. I did not read the Notes which runs into 150 odd pages! While it is a lengthy book, I found it to be a very interesting read giving a detailed view of the life of one of the most consequential men of the 20th century - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of USA from 1933 till his death in 1945. I also found it very inspiring to read about how FDR overcame the great handicap of being "permanently paralyzed from the waist down" from 1921, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt#Paralytic_illness_and_political_comeback_(1921%E2%80%931928) . The cause of this paralytic illness was thought to be polio at that time, but in 2003, it was suggested that it could have been another disease called Guillian-Barre syndrome. I have put up some posts on the book in the past - that list is given below:  1) I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made, https://rav...

Utah Blaine 1957 Western Rory Calhoun, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHWUMHY1HsA , movie ends around 1 hr. 15 mins into the video. The rest of the video can be ignored. The movie is based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. I have read quite a few Louis L'Amour books in my college student days and perhaps a few years after that as well. It was interesting to see a movie based on one of his books. I found the movie theme to be of great interest. I must also say that the movie does seem more fictional than resembling reality of those days. Nonetheless, the theme is great. A bad wealthy guy is greedy and wants to own all the land in the area. As the area is a frontier area, the land claims office is not well organized and neither does the area have any proper law and order. There is no sheriff as far as I can recall from the movie - I think that is one of the hard-to-accept aspects of the movie. I mean, one could have a sheriff who is under the power of the bad wealthy guy but that tow...

Over the past two months or so, in fits & bursts, I have been reading former National Security Adviser (NSA) to former President Trump, John Bolton's, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bolton , book: 'The Room Where It Happened' - 'A White House Memoir',  https://www.amazon.in/Room-Where-Happened-White-Memoir/dp/1982148039 ,  about his stint as NSA from April 2018 to Sept. 2019. My objective of reading the book was to know more about how USA, the most powerful military power in the world today, handled peace & security crises that broke out in various places in the world in this period. Note that I am publicly politically neutral and also largely country-neutral (except for countries that have clashes with Indian armed forces in current times) and my interest in reading the book was to know more about such stuff as I am very much interested in promoting and having more peace & harmony in the world. As an example, the tension between USA & North Kore...