General Books - Page 3

Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 202 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Detestable Rumblings 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Joel Rosenberg's "Epicenter" is absolutely the best explication of the Book of Ezekiel I have ever read! Also, one of a kind!

Mr. Rosenberg--a true Jew for Jesus (and how many of *those* do we have these days, after Roman Catholicism, Martin Luther, and the Holocaust?!)--tackles the greatest metaphysical problem of our time, known as the Immanence of God - where in the world is He?

Not only has this question long puzzled theologians, it has given rise to irreverent jokes (e.g., "I found Jesus! He was behind the couch!").

Rosenberg knows that if you want to see God, you must seek Him out. Even then, it's like asking to see the doctor in the Emergency Room of a U.S. hospital: No matter how bad off you are, you will have to wait. (Worst-case scenario: a nurse finally says, "Okay, you can see the Doctor now." But she's mistaken, you can't see the Doctor at all because by that time, you're already dead.)

A few patient individuals since Abraham's day have seen the Lord without having to wait until death. The prophet Ezekiel, for one, was granted an eyeball-to-eyeball with Yahveh after just six years of prayerful pleading.

Ezekiel, as Mr. Rosenberg reminds us, is the first holy prophet whom God called "the Son of Man" (Jesus being the second). Ezekiel's ministry extended from 595 - 573 BCE, and he is the only Old Testament prophet to merit mention in The Guiness Book of World Records: Ezekiel once lay on his side for 390 days, eating bread made from the Lord's own dictated recipe: flour, water, yeast, and cow-poop. (The original recipe called for human excrement, but God finally allowed Ezekiel, who was squeamish, to substitute cow-pies for human turds: it's in the Bible, you can look it up; but I hope you never get that hungry [Ezek. 4:9-15]).

Ezekiel's meeting with the incarnate Yahveh came when the prophet least expected it, during afternoon snack-time with the Jewish elders -- none of whom was willing, however, to try one of Ezekiel's chocolate-chip muffins.

In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the Jewish elders sat before me, the hand of the LORD God fell there upon me. I saw Him coming, a radiant figure - and when I looked up, lo! from His burning loins downward, He was like flaming fire! And above the waist, He was the color of bright amber. (Ezek. 8:1-2)

The Jewish elders did not look up Yahweh's skirts, as Ezekiel did. They did not even see the Lord come or go. They noticed only that their friend Ezekiel, "the Son of Man," suddenly (*poof*) disappeared; and the elders were sore amazed.

The Lord had snatched Ezekiel by a lock of his long, rather dirty, somewhat tangled hair, and hoisted him high above the streets of Jerusalem.

"Son of Man," said Yahveh, "do you see what they are doing down there - the utterly detestable things that the people of Israel are doing?" (Ezek. 8:3).

Ezekiel looked down. The first thing he saw was that his mystified houseguests - the Jewish elders - had ventured out into the street, to search for him. One of the elders pointed. The rest looked up. They saw him. They waved. Ezekiel modestly tucked his robes between his thighs, so that they could not look up his skirts and see his loins. But he did not wave back at them because he was distracted and appalled by what else he saw: the prophet of God (or "Son of Man," as God always called Ezekiel) espied the Jews of Israel, on rooftops all over the city, performing such human abominations, such whoring and sodomy and gormandizing, such idol-worship and such Sabbath-breaking and such nude sun-bathing, as made him want to vomit.

"Do you see this, Son of Man?" said Yahveh. Ezekiel nodded. "Lo, you shall see things that are even more detestable than this!" (Ezek. 8:6). And the Lord was thinking at that precise moment of the Internet--2,000 years before it happened!

Needless to say, Mr. Rosenberg has some pretty detestable things to show us. I'm not going to tell you what those things are: but if you want to find out, buy Joel Rosenberg's "Epicenter"! You won't be disappointed!

- L.

Editorial Review:

A riveting audiobook about the dramatic changes that will transform the world as we know it. Americans are anxious about the future - the world's and their own. Rosenberg explains the enormous political, economic, and spiritual changes that are underway in the world's most important countries. He answers why these changes are happening, what they mean, and provides insights from exclusive interviews with world leaders.

The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy--If We Let It Happen

Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, Peter Tanous

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Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Arthur Laffer -- the father of supply-side economics and a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board -- joins economist Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal editorial board and investment advisor Peter J. Tanous to send Americans an urgent message: We risk losing the exceptional standard of living that has made us the envy of the rest of the world if the pro-growth policies of the last twenty-five years are reversed by a new president.

Since the early 1980s, the United States has experienced a wave of prosperity almost unprecedented in history in terms of wealth creation, new jobs, and improved living standards for all. Under the leadership of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Americans changed the incentive structure on taxes, inflation, and regulation, and as a result the economy roared back to life after the anti-growth, high-inflation 1970s.

Now the rest of the world is following the American economic growth model of lower tax rates, more economic freedom, and sound money. Paradoxically, one country is moving away from these growth policies and putting its prosperity at risk -- America.

On the eve of a critical presidential election, Laffer, Moore, and Tanous provide the factual information every American needs in order to understand exactly how we achieved the prosperity many people have come to take for granted, and explain how the policies of Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi can cause America to lose its status as the world's growth and job creation machine.

The End of Prosperity is essential reading for all Americans who value our nation's free enterprise system and high standard of living, and want to know how to protect their own investments in the coming storm.

The Plan: Big Ideas for America

Rahm Emanuel, Bruce Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

The leading Neo-Con of the Democratic Party 1 out of 5 stars.
17 of 34 people found this review helpful.

It is amusing to have Rahm Emmanual write a book on saving the United States, when his first allegiance is to Israel. He is a proponent of the neo-con plan to reconfigure the Middle East, including attacking Iran (or, as Hillary Clinton, his partner in crime, would say, "Obliterate Iran"). He supports attacks on Syria, Lebanon, the continued occupation of Iraq, the refusal to allow a viable Palestinian state to exist, and the impending attack on Iran: all for the "survival" of Israel.

In the process, America is weakened, open to more extremist attacks, and its men and women are dying or losing limbs.

Rahm is an orthodox Jew, his parents are citizens of Israel: All of which would be fine if they didn't use America as a puppet for Israel's ultimate super power status in the Middle East.

Rahm is a traitor. He will sell -- and is selling out -- our country for Israel.

This book is a joke.

Editorial Review:

The Plan offers a bold vision of what America can be. It shows the way for both parties to move beyond the old political arguments and make progress for the American people. And it offers an innovative agenda for America – with ideas that address the nation's most pressing challenges by doing more for Americans and asking Americans to do more for their country in return. Each of these ideas offers a clean break with the status quo, yet all are positive, practical, and can be put into action right away. Built on the authors' firm beliefs that politicians owe the people real answers, that citizenship is a responsibility, not an entitlement program, and that the Democratic Party succeeds when America succeeds, the highly anticipated Plan delivers, challenges, and inspires.

The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

James Galbraith

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The cult of the free market has dominated economic policy-talk since the Reagan revolution of nearly thirty years ago. Tax cuts and small government, monetarism, balanced budgets, deregulation, and free trade are the core elements of this dogma, a dogma so successful that even many liberals accept it. But a funny thing happened on the bridge to the twenty-first century. While liberals continue to bow before the free-market altar, conservatives in the style of George W. Bush have abandoned it altogether. That is why principled conservatives -- the Reagan true believers -- long ago abandoned Bush.

Enter James K. Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist. In this riveting book, Galbraith first dissects the stale remains of Reaganism and shows how Bush and company had no choice except to dump them into the trash. He then explores the true nature of the Bush regime: a "corporate republic," bringing the methods and mentality of big business to public life; a coalition of lobbies, doing the bidding of clients in the oil, mining, military, pharmaceutical, agribusiness, insurance, and media industries; and a predator state, intent not on reducing government but rather on diverting public cash into private hands. In plain English, the Republican Party has been hijacked by political leaders who long since stopped caring if reality conformed to their message.

Galbraith follows with an impertinent question: if conservatives no longer take free markets seriously, why should liberals? Why keep liberal thought in the straitjacket of pay-as-you-go, of assigning inflation control to the Federal Reserve, of attempting to "make markets work"? Why not build a new economic policy based on what is really happening in this country?

The real economy is not a free-market economy. It is a complex combination of private and public institutions, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, higher education, the housing finance system, and a vast federal research establishment. The real problems and challenges -- inequality, climate change, the infrastructure deficit, the subprime crisis, and the future of the dollar -- are problems that cannot be solved by incantations about the market. They will be solved only with planning, with standards and other policies that transcend and even transform markets.

A timely, provocative work whose message will endure beyond this election season, The Predator State will appeal to the broad audience of thoughtful Americans who wish to understand the forces at work in our economy and culture and who seek to live in a nation that is both prosperous and progressive.

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

Steve Coll

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Total reviews: 142 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the managing editor of the Washington Post, a news-breaking account of the CIA's involvement in the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and gave rise to bin Laden's al Qaeda.

For nearly the past quarter century, while most Americans were unaware, Afghanistan has been the playing field for intense covert operations by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies-invisible wars which sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks and which provide its context. From the Soviet invasion in 1979 through the summer of 2001, the CIA, KGB, Pakistan's ISI, and Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Department all operated directly and secretly in Afghanistan. They primed Afghan factions with cash and weapons, secretly trained guerrilla forces, funded propaganda, and manipulated politics. In the midst of these struggles bin Laden conceived and then built his global organization.

Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll tells the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, from its covert program against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989, to the rise of the Taliban and the emergence of bin Laden, to the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998. Based on extensive firsthand accounts, Ghost Warsok is the inside story that goes well beyond anything previously published on U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. It chronicles the roles of midlevel CIA officers, their Afghan allies, and top spy masters such as Bill Casey, Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al Faisal, and George Tenet. And it describes heated debates within the American government and the often poisonous, mistrustful relations between the CIA and foreign intelligence agencies.

Ghost Wars answers the questions so many have asked since the horrors of September 11: To what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail?

2009 Barack Obama wall calendar: Words of Hope and Inspiration

Inc. Sourcebooks

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Editorial Review:

A celebration of a uniquely American journey

"For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of the people: Yes we can."
- Barack Obama

This 16-month wall calendar features the most moving and memorable quotes from Barack Obama's groundbreaking political career, from his electrifying address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, to his seminal speech on race in early 2008 and his historic win of the Democratic Presidential Nomination in June. Dynamic photos show an engaging Obama in action on the campaign trail, at work in the community, addressing crowds of thousands, in a quite moment with Michelle and family, and victorious in a sea of confetti.

This calendar also chronicles the legacy of hope in America, with dates of famous firsts throughout history and key moments that united our nation. Such as:

June 12, 1987 - President Ronald Reagan stands in a divided Berlin and issues challenge to Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" and allow freedom to the Eastern Bloc. (17 months later the wall fell.)

October 23, 1945 - Jackie Robinson signs a contract with Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African American to play major league baseball.

January 10, 1737 - Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, advocating independence for the American colonies.

July 12, 1984 - Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman to run for Vice-President on a major party ticket.

Inspirational quotes are also included throughout the grid:

"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

"The future depends on what we do in the present."
- Mahatma Gandhi

I Am America (And So Can You!)

Stephen Colbert

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Total reviews: 429 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Congratulations--just by looking at this webpage, you became 25% more patriotic.

From Stephen Colbert, the host of television's highest-rated punditry show The Colbert Report, comes the book to fill the other 23¿ hours of your day. I Am America (And So Can You!) contains all of the opinions that Stephen doesn't have time to shoehorn into his nightly broadcast.

Dictated directly into a microcassette recorder over a three-day weekend, this book contains Stephen's most deeply held knee-jerk beliefs on The American Family, Race, Religion, Sex, Sports, and many more topics, conveniently arranged in chapter form.

Always controversial and outspoken, Stephen addresses why Hollywood is destroying America by inches, why evolution is a fraud, and why the elderly should be harnessed to millstones.

You may not agree with everything Stephen says, but at the very least, you'll understand that your differing opinion is wrong.

I Am America (And So Can You!) showcases Stephen Colbert at his most eloquent and impassioned. He is an unrelenting fighter for the soul of America, and in this book he fights the good fight for the traditional values that have served this country so well for so long.

Please buy this book before you leave the store

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

Doris Kearns Goodwin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 124 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another great Goodwin book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Team of Rivals" remains my favorite Doris Kearns Goodwin book. But this is a very close second. "No Ordinary Time" is a brilliantly written, information-packed book that provides great insight into the FDR White House and the minds of both Franklin and Eleanor.

"No Ordinary Time" covers the Roosevelts from 1940-45, focusing primarily on how they handled the home front during America's involvement in World War II. It was interesting to learn about Eleanor's deep commitment to civil rights, how polarizing a figure she was throughout the country, and her influence on the president.

I was also very intrigued by the relationships between both Roosevelts and their friends and family. Goodwin occasionally breaks from the time period of the book to cover important moments in their lives pre-1940. FDR's affair with Lucy Rutherfurd, and the rekindling of their relationship in his last years, through the help of his daughter, is fascinating.

If I have one criticism -- and it's a stretch -- it would be that Goodwin sometimes gets bogged down in numbers, such as statistics about war production -- the amount of planes, tanks, guns, etc., that were produced and/or shipped to England and Russia. But while those sections may have somewhat slowed the progress of the book, they were important to the story she was telling.

So I consider this a 5-star book. I know Goodwin justifiably received criticism a few years ago due to some plagiarism in a previous book, but few, if any, historians combine research and writing as effectively as she does. I highly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

No Ordinary Time is a monumental work, a brilliantly conceived chronicle of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary periods in the history of the United States. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story lines--Eleanor and Franklin's marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor's life as First Lady, and FDR's White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

The Conscience of a Liberal

Paul Krugman

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Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The most consistent and courageous—and unapologetic—liberal partisan in American journalism."—Michael Tomasky, New York Review of Books

In this "clear, provocative" (Boston Globe) New York Times bestseller, Paul Krugman, today's most widely read economist, examines the past eighty years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age and the 1920s to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman has created his finest book to date, a "stimulating manifesto" offering "a compelling historical defense of liberalism and a clarion call for Americans to retake control of their economic destiny" (Publishers Weekly).

"As Democrats seek a rationale not merely for returning to power, but for fundamentally changing—or changing back—the relationship between America's government and its citizens, Mr. Krugman's arguments will prove vital in the months and years ahead."—Peter Beinart, New York Times

Rules for Radicals

Saul Alinsky

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Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Alinsky's rules for destroying capitalism have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. 3 out of 5 stars.
33 of 51 people found this review helpful.

So successful have radical front groups such as ACORN been, that it may not be long before the very same tactics can be used against the radicals themselves. Saul's tactics of intimidation, civil disobedience, threats, veiled threats, strikes, boycotts, lying, bluffing, more lying, fixing elections, infiltrating all layers of government, media manipulation, fear, smears, ridicule, hit & run tactics, humor and "dirty pool tricks" of all kinds were always intended for the "have nots" to use against the "haves." Now that the radicals have actually gained so much power, they are no longer the "outside have-nots" and the very same strategies they used to gain power can be turned on them. While the radicals will have succeeded in forcing most multi-national corporations to move their businesses and jobs off shore, their socialist policies will no longer be able to raise enough taxes to produce the Socialist, Communistic Utopia that was promised.
It will be interesting to observe taxpayer revolts where suddenly almost everyone is showing no taxable income. It will be fascinating to see millions of formerly middle class citizens suddenly and all at once decide not to pay their real estate taxes. It will be enlightening to see government offices swamped with citizens applying for every possible entitlement all at the same time and over and over again. The unemployed will simply refuse to work full-time. Tax payer lawsuits will overwhelm the court system and the IRS. While the majority of citizens have willingly paid their income taxes in the past believing they owed it to their nation for it's freedoms, the critical mass of real fairness will quickly be reached and the majority of the formerly law biding citizens will start to cheat on a massive scale. The American way of life isn't going to go down the drain peaceably and the voters, once they figure out how they have been tricked, will be ready for another revolution to restore the freedoms that they so easily surrendered to smooth talking snake oil salesmen.
When both sides start applying these rules for radicals the resulting polarization will be more pronounced than anything the United States has ever experienced other than the Civil War. This is an excellent primer for Americans to read to better understand how they have been tricked, and how to go about returning the favor to those who did the tricking. The black markets and underground economy may smother the legal economy and unreported cash and bartering will once again become king.
I found insightful some of the author's opinions of how shallow liberals are and how they must be treated with kid gloves and only included in quick, easy, symbolic actions because of their short attention spans and because of their low tolerance for even modest sacrifice. He considered them mostly radicals in theory and talk only. His sage advice not to try these tactics in Russia, China or Havana unless the radicals and all their friends wanted to be tortured and killed was enlightening as well.
Old Saul was obviously depending on the fact that freedom of speech would not be entirely eliminated in America because if the radicals managed to destroy free speech, they might find themselves on the wrong side of a Cuban-like dictatorship. He obviously didn't plan on causing so much damage to American Corporations that they went bankrupt. He didn't want to kill the golden goose, he just wanted to own and control it.
This is a fascinating read for political junkies. It's amazing how the same tactics may so easily be used to turn the tables on the folks originally employing them. One of the most interesting parts of the book to this reviewer was how to use humor to defeat your enemies. The idea is to make them a laughing stock. Humor can be utilized to make points much more effectively than straight, serious discussion. One only has to watch the late night talk shows and SNL to see how powerful humor can be in influencing elections, especially in this era when many people no longer read the print media and get much of their news from the jokes of their favorite late night talk show hosts.

Editorial Review:

This primers tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.