Jerome R. Corsi

With more and more presidential aspirants (and/or their running mates) being children of one or more non-citizens at the time of their birth, this book is still relevant despite the misleading title. The title is grossly misleading (intentionally or not, it's not clear to me), since the eligibility issue primarily concerns the Constitutional natural born citizenship requirement (ie, both parents being citizens), not mere birthright citizenship or native born citizenship. Corsi does address the natural born citizenship issue, even mentioning Vattel and natural law, but it's superficial and mixed in with a bunch of birth certificate and other stuff that give so much padding it's hard to know if he's intentionally obuscating or not. Corsi does cover a lot, but not all, of related eligibility flashpoints during the Obama campaign for presidency, but quite often it seems as if he's making the case FOR Obama (while seeming to appear against Obama) by misdirection, misrepresentation, omission, quote-twisting, etc. For ex, he lifts snippets, not even full sentences, from the damning video of the now deceased Percy Sutton, which primarily is of concern due to campaign fundraising sources, but Corsi's omits the entire point of the video and actually misquotes Sutton(!), making it seem about something in the past (partially true) and not the fundraising then going on. In sum, the book is probably confusing for most readers, but still documents a strange time in US history, given Obama's the first (not counting accidental president Chester Arthur) to run for President knowing of natural born citizenship eligibility issues -- even if the general populace fell for the birth certificate and mere citizenship red herrings. With 3rd party possibilities, forthcoming running mate choices, and ineligibile people like Ramaswami, Haley, Cruz, Rubio, DeSantis, Sununu, etc., the protective natural born citizenship requirement will impact how people vote, but no one's talking about it yet, so at least this book, annoying though it is, offers some thoughts.… (mehr)

A kindly king and an elderly dragon are good friends in this slim paperback picture-book from 1972, but run afoul of the local witch, who is very wicked indeed, and who hates for anyone to be happy. When the king and the witch meet in the forest one autumn day, she casts a spell on him, cursing him to experience bad things every day at four o'clock, unless he drives away the "wicked beast" haunting the forest. Although clearly intending to force the king to turn on his friend, the witch's vague condition instead sees her being driven off, when king and dragon put their heads together to find a solution...

One of many titles I discovered through my perennial hunt for witchy picture-books and beginning readers—such books being a pet project of mind—The King, the Dragon, and the Witch was completely unknown to me, when I picked it up, as were its author and illustrator. I thought the story idea had promise, but the text itself was a little bit too involved and clunky for the whole thing to work. There was a great deal of exposition, with the book alternating between two-page spreads that were entirely text, and those which were half text and half illustration, and the overall effect was somewhat ponderous. Apparently the author has written numerous political works for adults, with this being his only foray into children's books. While not that impressed by the writing here, I was intrigued by the illustrations of Sylvie Selig, a French artist whose work includes painting, drawing and sculpture. The visuals here have a somewhat naive style, and look like they could be done in collage. The colors are often vibrant, and attention is paid to the fabrics worn by various characters. Although I wouldn't say I loved the artwork, I did find it interesting, and enjoyed looking at it, which raised my rating from two to two and a half stars. I'm not sure I would strongly recommend this one, unless the reader is interested in the artist, or has a strong preference for fairy-tales involving dragons and witches.… (mehr)