New Releases by Jim West

After failed attempts to penetrate the veil of one of several oyster wholesale companies operating in Galveston, Texas, suspected of involvement in the production and distribution of the deadly drug, fentanyl, Black Water is called upon to solve the mystery. Using investigative techniques unavailable to the DEA because of restrictions imposed by numerous laws, Black Water discovers the suspect company is involved in a most unique distribution chain, stretching from Mexico across over half of the United States. Beginning with the head of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico to dozens of wholesale and retail oyster companies across the country and down to the street dealers, they are given approval to eradicate the entire distribution chain by whatever means necessary. Knowing the number of deaths attributed annually to fentanyl, Black Water is only too willing to do what the government cannot do: Remove everyone involved.

This accessible book introduces the life and work of Martin Bucer (1491–1551), the significant sixteenth-century Protestant Reformer. Bucer shared theological insights with other Protestant Reformers but also provided his own unique contributions. Donald McKim and Jim West help us to understand Bucer’s thought in the historical, political, and ecclesial context of his times. They also explore its ongoing importance for the contemporary church.

When Jim Lashey’s wife, Jennifer, is killed when an assassination attempt on his life goes wrong, a new company trying to get a toehold in the lucrative private security business is proven to be responsible. Although shot twenty times himself, he manages to survive the attack. After a year of surgeries and intense physical therapy, he’s finally ready to go after those who took his wife from him. With the tacit approval of his longtime mentor, retired General Gene Barker, and the backing of his company, Black Water, he begins his quest for revenge. Each of the four men who were directly responsible will be hunted down and shot once in the temple to symbolize the shooting of Jennifer. Once they are dispatched, he goes after the man who ordered the shooting, the man behind the company. His death will not be so simple. His will be unlike any other as Jim plans to bring the fires of hell down on him in the most gruesome way imaginable.

Heinrich Bullinger (1504–75) was an important and influential sixteenth-century Protestant Reformer. Sadly, today, many are unaware of his significance. This book serves as a gateway into understanding Bullinger’s life and theology, introducing them in a fresh and accessible way for non-specialists. After outlining Bullinger’s life-story, the main theological themes in Bullinger’s thought are explored through chapters on Holy Scripture, God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, predestination and covenant, sin and salvation, church and ministry, Word and Sacraments, the state, and last things. A concluding chapter considers the abiding significance of Bullinger’s theology and what his views can mean for faithful Christian living today.

With a virtually nonexistent southern border and crime rampant across much of the country, the notoriously brutal MS 13 organization is spreading its tentacles throughout most of the major US cities and into the suburbs. When law enforcement is unable, and often hampered by political pressure, to handle the increase in violent criminal activity, a solution must be found before the country descends into chaos. Black Water is ultimately called in to resolve the problem in ways that would be totally unacceptable to law enforcement and the majority of the nation’s law abiding citizens. After a year of planning, Jim Lashley is tasked with eradicating their activities in El Paso, Texas. Even using the latest in technology to track the MS 13 members, Jim and his team soon find that they cannot complete their operation until the streets are running red with the blood of the gang.

After Hua Mulan, a high level virologist from a government controlled biological laboratory in Wuhan, China, defects, the Black Water organization is tasked by the Department of State with getting her safely to the United States so she can testify regarding the Bio-weapons programs the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is developing. After being brought to America by Dark Water, Black Water’s covert international enforcement division, she is turned over to the domestic division, Muddy Water. General Gene Barker, former commander of Marine forces in Vietnam, calls in Jim Lashley, a former Marine Long Range Reconnaissance Patrolman and later an F-4 pilot flying missions in Vietnam, to take over safeguarding the lady. Knowing that the PRC will eventually determine that Hua is missing and will be sending someone to eliminate her before she can testify, Jim is faced with an almost impossible task. To keeping an unknown assailant, or assailants, from killing her or anyone in their path, Jim has to develop plans to draw out them out and eliminate them before they can do so. Once he determines who they are, he must also convince them that Hua is dead and wait for them to report back to Beijing before he eliminates them. As all of his well laid plans start to crumble, Jim is forced to enact some controversial methods to save Hua while ensuring that no further attempts will be made on her life.

After two tours as a recon Marine and one as a Marine F-4 pilot in Vietnam, Jim Lashley was recruited to be a member of the clandestine enforcement arm of Dark Water, a subsidiary of the international security company known as Black Water. Dark Water’s sole mission was to deal with any obstacle preventing the parent company from fulfilling its contracts with US government agencies, primarily the CIA. After retiring from the Marines and joining American Airlines as a pilot, he became an assassin for the domestic side of the group that worked solely within the United States. Contracted by various government agencies as well as civilian corporations, Muddy Water resolved issues that were counter to the interest of the government or the company that contracted for their unique skills. Protecting the members of the company from discovery was paramount to ensuring success. Each operation was meticulously planned, and the final solution only authorized after every attempt at resolution had been exhausted. Then the best members of the organization for each assignment were sent in to resolve the issue. This usually resulted in an assassination. Jim’s position as an airline pilot allowed him to crisscross the United States with relative immunity from scrutiny as he worked with other members of the group that performed the operations. After years spent in eliminating combatants for the government, the transition to the removal of civilian targets for the same government was relatively easy.

Jim Lashley grew up on a small farm in rural West Texas. Following a couple of failed attempts in college because of misbehavior, he elected to enlist in the marines instead of being drafted into the army during the Vietnam War. Throughout his first two tours as a recon marine, Jim learned firsthand how cheap human life was. Following the almost-complete annihilation of his team on a small insignificant hill, Jim was noticed by a very senior officer who decided that he was worthy of special attention. After completing a program to become a marine pilot, Jim returned to Vietnam one final time. Returning home and nearing the end of the war, Jim was recruited to join a very special group that worked covertly to assist a high-profile security firm known as Black Water. That group, Dark Water, performed numerous clandestine activities that the parent company couldn’t afford to be associated with. For the remainder of his time as a marine pilot, Jim traveled around the globe, following the directives of this secretive group known only to a very select few. When his time with the marines came to an end, he was again advised by the same senior officer who had made possible his becoming a marine pilot and admission into the Dark Water group to apply to the airlines as a pilot. After being hired by American Airlines, he was given the opportunity to continue to assist Black Water with another covert group that functioned only in the continental United States. That group was simply known as Muddy Water.

Jim, a PhD molecular biology student, stumbles across a patented barley GMO that appears to have disappeared without any testing. His girlfriend, Maria, working on her master’s degree in archaeogenetics, discovers a dramatic and unexplained drop in the birth rate of a small African nation. Further research and assistance from friends and professors at the university lead them to the conclusion that a major agricultural company may be involved with supplying the barley that appears to be the cause of the population decline. Discovering that a local branch of the agricultural company has been deceiving him and monitoring his activities, Jim and Maria must take measures to prevent discovery of the extent of their knowledge. Finally finding the connection among three companies in Africa and the United States, along with a similar GMO that caused sterility, they must now prove the treachery and stop the genocide before an entire population disappears.

In 1956, a fresh-faced Sanford Clark recorded "The Fool" with guitarist Al Casey at Floyd Ramsey's small Phoenix recording studio. Written by local deejay Lee Hazlewood, the song became a top-ten Billboard hit nationwide and launched a new trailblazing era of Arizona music. Their success paved the way for other Phoenix acts and producers to chart national hits. Grammy-winning audio engineer Jack Miller started out in Ramsey's studio, and Hazlewood produced rock hall of famer Duane Eddy's debut album, Have "Twangy" Guitar, Will Travel. These early artists pioneered a sound that inspired Arizona's best musicians from Waylon Jennings and Buck Owens to Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt. Join former radio and broadcast personality Jim West for the story and soundtrack to the early days of music in the Valley of the Sun.

In 1956, a fresh-faced Sanford Clark recorded "The Fool" with guitarist Al Casey at Floyd Ramsey's small Phoenix recording studio. Written by local deejay Lee Hazlewood, the song became a top-ten Billboard hit nationwide and launched a new trailblazing era of Arizona music. Their success paved the way for other Phoenix acts and producers to chart national hits. Grammy-winning audio engineer Jack Miller started out in Ramsey's studio, and Hazlewood produced rock hall of famer Duane Eddy's debut album, Have 'Twangy' Guitar, Will Travel. These early artists pioneered a sound that inspired Arizona's best musicians from Waylon Jennings and Buck Owens to Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt. Join former radio and broadcast personality Jim West for the story and soundtrack to the early days of music in the Valley of the Sun. Book jacket.

For the last nine months, the US government has expended enormous effort and resources in an attempt to find and capture an element of a program that was removed from an ultra-secret facility located beneath one of the numerous hangers at the Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base (NAS/JRB), Fort Worth, Texas. The genetic embryonic nucleus enhancement program’s singular successful product, code named Gene, was removed by trusted members of the staff and set free. The problem became how to retrieve their ‘product’ and keep the information about its genetic abnormalities, as well as the program itself, from the public. After months of no progress, news of a potential sighting of one of the people thought to be involved invigorates the government’s efforts. Butch North had found Gene walking along a road north of Fort Worth. Believing him to be one of the numerous illegal immigrants searching for day labor, Butch took him to his stables to help while his normal stable-hand took a few days of vacation. The next day, members of the facility at the NAS/JRB learn Gene’s location and send a team to capture him. When they arrive and find Gene gone, they take Butch and his daughters back to the facility for interrogation. After listening to what he knows are lies about Gene, Butch vows to keep him safe and defy the government’s orders to help them find their missing product. That leads to a long running chase through the country from as far north as the Red River and down into Mexico as Butch and some of his close friends attempt to deny the government’s attempts at recovering Gene. Once they discover that Gene has fathered a child, the hunt intensifies with renewed vengeance. Butch and his friends must now protect not only Gene, but his child and the mother.

Cruise offerings abound, but making the most of your experience takes information that is harder to come by. The Essential Little Cruise Book, now in its fourth edition, is a compact collection of cruise wisdom. It holds everything you need to know for a perfect vacation at sea and answers such questions as how do you snag the best cabin in your price range, which is the best table in the dining room, and how can you get the best service from the crew.

This compact collection of cruise wisdom holds everything you need to know for a perfect vacation at sea. Jim West has logged millions of nautical miles as a cruise director and doles out the answers to cruise questions with wit and style. This new edition includes two new chapters with tips directed toward cruises in the Caribbean and Alaska.

The inflation crisis is now an international phenomenon. The whole industrialized world is suffering from chronic price inflation, and no government seems to be able to do anything about it. When those of us associated with Chalcedon began warning people of the impending inflation, back in 1964, few listeners took us seriously. They simply cold not accept the fact that governments would not control their monetary policies. But year after year, as monetary inflation has continued, thereby producing price inflation, people have learned the grim reality of what we warned about a decade and a half ago. The problem facing us today is massive. Few people understand the inflation process, and when people don’t understand what the cause of their problem is, and the problem gets serious enough, then they are likely to make serious errors—personal financial errors, political errors, and policy errors. If Christians have no better understanding of the causes and cures for inflation than the secular world does, then we are not going to be in a position to exercise effective leadership. The trouble is, everyone thinks he knows what inflation is all about. A person who wouldn’t venture an opinion concerning physical chemistry or astrophysics is ready with an explanation for inflation. About the only things not going up in price today are dime-a-dozen solutions to inflation. And given their value, they shouldn’t be going up in price; the supply of them keeps increasing too fast. What the latest issue of The Journal covers is the inflation question: causes, effects, cures, and ineffective solutions that have failed in the past. We hope that people who have read this issue will have a far better perspective on the subject: what to do about it personally, what the political authorities should do, and what we can expect them to do. We can expect them to take steps that will compound the problems. The intellectual father of modern price inflation was John Maynard Keynes. It is the universal popularity of Keynes’ ideology—and ideology favorable to government intervention and printing press money—which has led to the monetary policies of today. Ideas have consequences, and Keynes had some exceedingly bad ideas. The professors in the universities who have infected two generations of students with Keynesian economic theory are still in power, fully tenured, and still somewhat respectable. But these men are now trapped by their own ideology: price inflation is wiping out faculty salaries and pensions. This is precisely what Keynes said would happen: the reduction of real purchasing power, despite nominal increases in wages. Instead of the workers getting deceived by this phenomenon, it has been the professors. When this era’s economics are destroyed by the ravages of inflation controls, unemployment, and market instability, the utter nonsense published by the economists over the last 40 years will be seen for what it was: incomprehensible, overly mathematical propaganda for the construction of a statist society. What Christian laymen need to understand in advance is that professional economists, supposedly orthodox in their Christian faith, have generally bought the Keynesian ideology. We have to be ready to abandon all such attempts to fuse Keynesian economics and Christian faith. We have to disassociate ourselves from all versions of baptized Keynesianism, so that when public repudiation comes in the wake of economic destruction, Christians will be able to say, “We warned you about this. Now listen to us while we lay out the answers.” One of the nicest features of the last 15 years of international price inflation has been the erosion of faculty pension funds, university endowments, and the reputation of the big-name Keynesian advisors. They still have some prestige left, just as they still have some money left in their pension funds, but they are in trouble. The public is beginning to catch on. If these economic doctors can’t seem to be able to beat inflation in their own lives, why should anyone take them seriously? These two-bit emperors have no clothes. All they have left to cover themselves are their Ph.D.’s. Now that these have been debased through overproduction, they don’t mean as much as they used to. The Bible does have answers. It has solutions to the problem of inflation. They Keynesians have never taken the Bible seriously as a guide to economic policy, including the Keynesians who teach on Christian college campuses. We have to be able to spot nonsense solutions when they are offered in the name of Science or Christianity. Can we have inflation and unemployment simultaneously? The Keynesians used to say no. Now we see both. Can the boom-bust cycle be avoided through “fine-tuning” the economy? the Keynesians used to say yes. Now we know how wrong they have been. Will the government be able to find a politically acceptable solution to inflation before mass inflation wipes out the middle class? None has been able to do it so far. Will the middle class wake up in time? Some of them have, but as they do, prices rise even more rapidly, as they seek to find inflation hedges. Will any of these hedges really work? Did any of them work in the great German inflation of 1921-23? What will be the effect on society of continuing inflation? Who will be hurt most? Will anyone profit? All of these questions are covered in the latest issue. Keynesians in the classroom won’t appreciate the answers, but The Journal isn’t aimed at them anyway, except insofar as you would aim a shotgun. The economies of the West are in serious trouble, and this trouble is going to become far worse over the next half decade. Christians had better be forewarned. If Christians fare no better in the coming crises than humanists, then they will hardly be in a position to offer advice after the crash.