UPDATED 27 February 2013. See also Corruption (207 Books) and original list Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Government Corruption
Continue reading “Worth a Look: Book Reviews on General & Specific Corruption 2.0”
UPDATED 27 February 2013. See also Corruption (207 Books) and original list Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Government Corruption
Continue reading “Worth a Look: Book Reviews on General & Specific Corruption 2.0”
Review:DVD: Behind Every Terrorist There Is a Bush
Review DVD: The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
Review DVD: Lord of War (Widescreen) (2005)
Review DVD: Why We Fight (2006)
Review: Betraying Our Troops–The Destructive Results of Privatizing War
Review: Blood Money–Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq
Review: House of War (Hardcover)
Review: The Price of Liberty–Paying for America’s Wars
Review: The Shock Doctrine–The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Review: The Swiss, The Gold And The Dead–How Swiss Bankers Helped Finance the Nazi War Machine
Review: The True Cost of Conflict/Seven Recent Wars and Their Effects on Society
Review: War is a Racket–The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier
Poisons, Toxicity, Trash, & True Cost
Review: High Tech Trash–Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
Review: Made to Break–Technology and Obsolescence in America
Review: Pandora’s Poison–Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy (Paperback)
Review: The Blue Death–Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink
Review: The Omnivore’s Dilemma–A Natural History of Four Meals
Review: The True Cost of Low Prices–The Violence of Globalization
Class War (Global)
Review: Bad Samaritans–The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
Review: Eco-Imperialism–Green Power, Black Death
Review: Global Inc.–An Atlas of the Multinational Corporation
Review: Global Reach–The Power of the Multinational Corporations
Review: Open Veins of Latin America–Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Review: Opening America’s Market–U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776 (Luther Hartwell Hodges Series on Business, Society and the State)
Review: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
Review: SAVAGE CAPITALISM AND THE MYTH OF DEMOCRACY–Latin America in the Third Millennium
Review: The Global Class War –How America’s Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win it Back (Hardcover)
Review: The WTO (Open Media Pamphlet Series)
Theocracy
Review: America’s “War on Terrorism” (Paperback)
Review: Dreaming War–Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
Review: Foreign Follies–America’s New Global Empire
Review: Hegemony or Survival–America’s Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)
Review: Losing America–Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency
Review: Obama–The Postmodern Coup – Making of a Manchurian Candidate
Review: Power Trip (Open Media Series)
Review: The Ambition and the Power–The Fall of Jim Wright : A True Story of Washington
Review: The Price of Loyalty–George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill
5.0 out of 5 stars Can Cause Discomfort, But This Book MATTERS
May 17, 2008
Grover Norquist
I was given this book as a gift, along with Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies and to my great surprise, being an estranged moderate Reagan Republican, I found that I am much more of a Libertarian than I realized, and this author, although he causes me great discomfort in some areas (such as privatizing Social Security), he makes complete sense. I learn he has been voted one of the 50 most powerful people in DC by GQ (2007) and I believe it. Senator McCain has better listen this time around. I urge all who are enthused with Senator Obama to read Obama – The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate. Senator Obama is NOT transparent and I consider his top foreign policy advisors to be dangerous–Dr. Strangelove (Brzezinski) has one last war with Russia left in him, and seriiousl believes he can confront the Chinese in Africa–this is lunacy (search for my Memorandum online <Chinese Irregular Warfare oss.net>.
The book lacks an index. This is a HUGE MISTAKE on the part of the publisher because there are too many important ideas in this book. The publisher should create and post online an index to this book. The publisher can also be criticized for failing to provide Library of Congress cataloguing information. This is a REFERENCE work. The author should consider holding the publisher accountable for such fundamental incompetencies that detract from the book's lasting value.
The five core reforms that he builds up to are:
1) Portable pensions
2) Competitive health care
3) Educational choice including home schooling
4) Outsourcing of all government functions possible
5) Transparency (see not only Groundswell, but also Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations)
The author posits a stark choice between the Leave Us Alone movement, that appears to be growing daily (and included 27 secessionist movements that meet annually at a conference organized by Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale, and what he calls the Takings Group, the tax and spend elected officials both Republican and Democratic.
This is a serious reference work with an even mix of books, articles, and online citations.
There are some areas where the author could benefit from knowledge that is not yet mainstream–for example, we can blow away the Medicare unfunded obligations by negotiating prices that are 1% (ONE percent) of what we foolishly pay now, and as a recent PriceWaterHouseCooopers study documented so well, also eliminating the 50% of the medical professional that is waste, including (the author does address this–the tort lawyers like Senator John Edwards who make millions putting good doctors out of business so bad doctors can do more elective operations).
On balance–and this was my first exposure to this individual–I put the book down thinking to myself that this author deserves his reputation, and that he combines a very powerful intellect with an equally powerful moral force.
Other books I recommend:
The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Inspire and Define Our Nation
The Revolution: A Manifesto
Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!
Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender
Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America
The Vermont Manifesto