Events Books

Given the times in which we live, it is easy to why hindsight continues to be the preferred tool of analysis for many of our leaders in Washington. For the remainder of us however, foresight, though not always accurate, is a more important goal despite the always unpopular political ramifications. That is where Dr. Doug Bandow comes in. Foreign follies almost cries out, 'I hate to say I told you so,' setting-up a tragic review of America's foreign (and domestic) policy follies. Should you decide to pick-up this excellent book, perhaps you will make the wise decision to seek out Dr. Bandow's columns ([...]) for a more holistic analysis of the state of U.S. foreign policy. Indeed, the business of foreign affairs is not about one's favorites, but rather the analysis that must often be complete, and most importantly, accurate. Anything less needlessly places lives at risk--something Dr. Bandow and a handful of other analysts are obviously keenly aware of.

Published in 2006, this collection of essays ranges from the late 1990's to its year of publication, and I was quite astonished to discover two things fairly quickly into the work:

First, the author is a conservative--a true conservative--and firmly opposed to what he calls "promiscuous intervention" or elective wars or global rampant empire-building. I was expecting a left of center diatribe against the follies of the Bush-Cheney Administration. Not so. The author is consistent--he railed against the follies of the Clinton-Clinton Administration first, and this followed over.

Second, as an estranged moderate Republican who believes in fiscal conservatism, a small government, and not supporting dictators or decadent despots like the debauched Saudi "royal" family of swindlers, pedophiles, and perverts, I was stunned to find my conservative roots reaffirmed, and the neo-conservatives, the false conservatives, soundly lambasted for their chicken-hawk enlargement of the military-industrial complex.

The author opens early with the statement that America is no longer a Republic, and I completely agree. The author, affiliated with the Cato Institute, has given me a new and deeper appreciation for that organization's intellectual and constitutional line of reasoning.

The early part of the book is a superb collection of varied arguments for completely avoiding foreign adventurism that enriches a few in the military-industrial complex, at three great costs:

1) Loss of lives and limbs among our brave troops;
2) Loss of natural treasure we cannot space on others
3) Loss of morality and rise of vulnerability to hatred occasioned by our foreign presence

The latter point merits special emphasis. The author's views are totally consistent with my own reading and world experience:

1) Morality, as Will and Ariel Durant tell us in their The Lessons of History, is a strategic asset of incalculable proportions. Others, such as Max Manwaring, in The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century tell us that security--long-term security, can only come from legitimacy, legitimacy in the eyes of both our own citizens and denizens in every clime and place where we venture.

2) Bin Laden is on solid ground to use terrorism against us, an asymmetric method that is necessary for smaller actors, and the author is clear in validating the degree to which we merit and invite such terrorist attacks by intervening and by supporting debauched dictators like the Saudis. The author states clearly: "We must reduce the sources of foreign hostility to the US." The author quotes Pape, author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism among others on how suicidal terrorism is correlated with US occupations overseas, *not* with radical Islam per se. He goes on to say, as my colleague Robert Baer has documented in See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism and Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, that "American commitment to the Saudi royal family is a moral blemish and a practical danger. See also Ambassador Mark Palmer's denunciation of our support for 42 of the 44 remaining dictators in Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025.

In 1999 the author penned this statement against the Clinton Administration that applies equally today to the Bush-Cheney Administration: "Indeed, where the President and his aides are arrogant, ignorant, and incompetent, others must lead." I agree with this author of the strategic logic of terrorism against US misbehavior, and point the interested reader to Pape's book above.

I am heartened to read this conservative author's sensible denunciation of both the lies of Bush and Cheney to all Americans, and of the idiocy of the neo-conservatives in striving for increased unconstitutional executive power, and in believing in an "immaculate presidency" that can do no wrong. He clearly labels Bush as wrong and as owing all Americans an apology. He properly dismisses the "stay the course" propaganda by pointing out that when you are on the wrong road, you get off at the first available exit.

He segues from that to a proper denunciation of American support for a genocidal racist Israel and offers this lovely quote: "Crackpot theology is no substitute for thoughtful analysis is developing foreign policy."

The author offers an elegant essay against conscription and the draft. As a taxpayer who now seems that 75% of my taxes are misspent on elective war, secret earmarks, and fraudulent procurements that benefit a small elite while destroying the working poor and the vanishing middle class, I am now all for eliminating federal taxes and forcing the federal government to apply to the states for funding of "common" needs. War is not in our common interest, and we should not have allowed our Congress and our Executive to become spendthrifts with out money--as Davy Crockett learned--it is not theirs to give!

I part with the author only on the subject of Taiwan--he is wrong to see Taiwan as a beacon of freedom. Chang Kai Sheik was one of the greatest war criminals and thieves on the planet in his time, and a cursory reading of the literature, for example, the books by Sterling and Peggy Seagraves, will quickly document that Taiwan is both an inherent part of China, and not at all a bastion of freedom as much as limpet fish sucking the blood from the American's so naïve as to believe these cheating miscreants.

Over-all I found this author to be inspiring. He neglects to address the war crimes of the extremist Republicans, nor does he venture to comment on the very high probability that Dick Cheney, Rudy Gulliani, and Larry Silverstein (and their insurance co-conspirators) are guilty along with Donald Rumsfeld of the mass murder of most of those who died on 9-11 to controlled demolitions in NYC and a missile into the Pentagon. Evidently there are some areas where "true blue" conservatives do not dare venture. For those interested in this aspect of the *other* neo-conservative crime of the century see my lists on 9-11 books and DVDs, and on evaluating Cheney, and most especially, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency, where my review lists 23 of the 25 high crimes and misdemeanors of Dick Cheney that are documented in the public record (for the other two, see Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11)

Because of the Iraq fiasco, it is fashionable to blame the Bush administration for being the Ziegfeld of America's foreign policy folly. True enough, Iraq may be the height of U.S. folly -- an unnecessary war against a phantom threat that has given jihadists a convenient target in their own neighborhood, created greater anti-American sentiment throughout the Muslim world, and threatens to break the U.S. Army -- but such folly is not the sole purview of the Bush administration. In Foreign Follies, Doug Bandow has assembled a collection of essays that span more than a decade to demonstrate that U.S. foreign policy run amok pre-dates the current White House, but that the Bush administration has made things worse. Bandow chronicles unnecessary U.S. interventionist policy in Europe, the Balkans, Asia, and the Middle East. Of course, he devotes an entire chapter to Iraq -- the mother of all unnecessary U.S. interventions. Not only does Bandow make the case that U.S. foreign policy -- Bush and Clinton, Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal -- makes us less safe, but that it undermines the foundations of our republic. The real folly is that Bandow's voice is drowned by the shrill cries of partisan politicians and pundits who place self-interest ahead of the well-being our the country.

Bandow's work reveals one folly of any critique of US foreign policy is that the addled thinking is not limited to the past few years or the current administration. Drawing on his career of assessing foreign policy across the globe, Bandow showcases his astounding scope of expertise and insight - providing a cohesive point of view that brings sanity to any review of US foreign policy in the past -- and in the future. A must-read for every policy wonk, and every American.

Foreign Follies, a collection of Doug Bandow's columns and articles on U.S. foreign policy over the past decade, is an incisive diagnosis of what has gone so terribly wrong with America's position in the world. It is also an even-handed, bipartisan analysis. Bandow criticizes the faulty policies of Democratic and Republican administrations alike. He makes a compelling case that a more cautious, coherent security strategy would better serve the interests of the American people. Over the years, Bandow has shown himself to be one of America's most astute experts on foreign affairs, and it is gratifying to see his prescient analyses gathered in one place. Foreign Follies is a valuable book, and it deserves to have a wide audience.

This is a little mentioned corner of the grand American experiment. Long ignored by historians, the origins of American foundations is a worthy subject of study. American history textbooks devote much space to the so-called Gilded Age, making note of the contributions made by journalists in exposing the injustices of corporations such as Standard Oil, but no mention is made of the extraordinary contributions these founding fathers of corporate and private giving have made on the American landscape. Just think of the extraordinary universities founding at the turn-of-the century. Fleishman's focus tends toward more recent exemplars but the spirit and the enormity of their contributions to our lives is no less worthy of attention.

This is a very helpful book, indeed, a unique book. Here are some of the notes I took. As one of 24 co-founders of a new 501c3, the Earth Intelligence Network, created to provide decision support to foundations, the United Nations, NGOs, and others seeking to address the ten high-level threats to Humanity, I could not have found a more relevant work.

A few notes:

* Foundations are the dynamo of social change, with three roles varying from foundation to foundation: as driver, as partner, or as catalyst.
* The author is very critical of the general state of mismanagement and in some cases, lack of clear ethical guidelines or stated values, and says the field must do better.
* In his view, and his case studies bear this out, foundations are an enormous force for good, but they are unregulated, unaccountable, and if they are to retain the tax breaks and the trust of the people, they must change their process, their governance, and their attitude--this will, in the author's words, strengthen the social contract within which they are given so much leeway.
* He states that foundations *need* a decision-making process (music to my ears) and also a progress-checking system.
* He clearly communicates the willy-nilly state of many foundation programs, their lack of boundaries and focus, and hence their relative lack of impact. He states that many underperform, are insulated, and are arrogant.
* A positive quote (the book is generally positive and constructive) from page 3: "Foundations enable the creation of countless civil sector organizations--groups dealing with human rights, civil liberties, social policy experimentation, public advocacy, environmental protection, knowledge generation, human capital building, and service delivery, among other causes--and assist them in building national, regional, and local constituencies that move into the forefront of continuing social change. Elsewhere in the book he points out that in many areas, foundations preceeded and inspired later government programs.
* He is careful to point out that foundations have had limited success with education, health care, and poverty, and that in the face of global challenges (e.g. the ten high level threats to Humanity) the best they can do is educate the public and press government for action. I disagree. If foundations could collaborate with the United Nations UN) and leverage the Multinational Decision Support Center (MDSC) that we are trying to create in Tampa, Florida, they could among themselves agree to take on specific elements of a $230 billion a year program that Medard Gabel has been researching for ten years.
* He points out that US foundations take in 1.1 trillion a year in revenues, but only dole out $33.6 billion a year. In my view, given the enormous value of preventive action, I believe the foundations should be required to dole out 20% of their endowment in the first year of a concerted global program, and then so much as to keep the endowment steady, not hoarding and growing.
* While the "overarching objective" of foundations is large-scale social change, the author notes that they are peripheral players *unless they can organize and catalyze in the aggregate--precisely what the UN and the MDSC could help them do.
* He laments the current lack among most foundations of the "scientific method" that the Carnegies and Rockefellers first imposed, to wit: 1) get the facts; 2) identify problems precisely; 3) study options for action; 4) identify supporting and opposing stakeholders; and 5) plan for action. He blames the predominantly academic leadership of foundations today for the loss of "business" rigor and focus.
* The bottom line in this book appears with regularity in these pages: without goal setting and progress measuring, most foundation programs are simply arbitrary give-a-ways. He admires the Carnegie "Appraisal List" as a good starting point. He points out that neither inputs nor outputs matter; what matters is outcome.
* He lists all that ails foundations, a list that includes arrogance, discourtesy, inaccessibility, arbitrariness, failure to communicate, foundation Attention Deficit Disorder, lack of accountability, invisibility, scholarly void, and political vulnerability.
* The balance of the book consists of chapters that are extremely helpful, and here to whet the potential buyer's interest, I will simply list five core aspects of the book.
* Strategies and practices include (with subheadings not shown here):
* Creating and disseminating knowledge
* Building human capital
* Public policy advocacy
* Changing public attitudes
* Changing the law
* Creating a blue ribbon commission
* Offering an award or prize
* Building a model through a pilot program
* Financing litigation
* Building institutions
* Building physical plant
* Catalyzing partnerships among foundation
* Catalyzing partnerships with the for-profit sector
* Ways of recognizing impact include:
* Major benefits to the public
* Expansion of knowledge
* Helping to launch a movement
* Catalyzing an urgent social change
* Taking an initiative to scale
* Characteristics of high-impact programs (with much detail for each):
* Focus
* Alignment
* Due diligence about the problem
* Due diligence about the solution
* Intelligent talent selection
* Due diligence about prospective grant-receiving organizations
* Entrepreneurial riskp-taking
* Optemistic thinking
* Independence
* Effective grantee selection and management
* Long-term thinking and commitment
* Maintaining focus and alignment over time

There is a chapter on how foundations fail, and certainly this entire book, and especially this chapter, need to be read by any foundation executive--or any prospective donor to any foundation.

This is a truly great and helpful book. I put it down thinking to myself, "my goodness, not only does the United Nations need an Assistant Secretary General for Decision Support, but so also do the foundations in the aggregate." Worthy book!

A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility--Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
Preparing for the 21st century: An appraisal of U.S. intelligence : report of the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition)
On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future
Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

Foundations are a subset of Non-Profit organizations that have become surprisingly big busines in the United States. Somewhere around 1/7th of the business in the country is conducted by these organizations. Somewhere around 1/9th of the workforce is employed by one. They have become an integral part of the American economy.

In this book Mr. Fleishman looks at Foundations (a number of which he has been associated as employee, trustee or some other capacity). He examines what makes a foundation successful, and how some have failed. He offers insight and advice on how to make a foundation more successful, and at the same time how foundations should have an obligation to become more accountable since they received special tax considerations from the Government. He suggests that this accountability should be done by the foundations voluntarily. However, Mr. Fleishman is an attorney and believes that if voluntary response is not forthcoming then new legal requirements should be placed upon them to require more openness.

Joel Fleishman's book lays an excellent bedrock of history underneath its discussion of philanthropy as a great element of American tradition. We live in days of some staggering examples - from Warren Buffet's living bequest of billions, to the fine work of Bill and Melinda Gates - and many others. But rather than see this as some product of the new millennium - Fleishman shows how the new avatars of corporate generosity are following a fine tradition. More than this, the author shows that certain gifting strategies have been leveraged for huge social benefit. For those who are thinking - at whatever scale - of giving to support a cause, this book sets out the strategies that have produced most benefit. This is an excellent, thoughtful piece of work on a topic that currently has wide currency. Well worth reading.

I'm a high tech entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur. This book gives an excellent analysis of the foundation world from an optimistic perspective combined with a healthy amount of constructive criticism.

Something that makes this book standout are the wealth of real world examples of both success and failure. In addition to those in the book, there's a companion piece with 100 case studies available for free download as well as purchasable as a paperback book.

What I enjoyed very much was meaty discussion of key aspects of the foundation structure. Fleishman's style is direct and clear: his points are made well and are backed up with real examples. One of the best books I've read about the social sector!

Threats to civil liberties are greater than ever since September 11, 2001. Due process rights are the most obvious casualties, but privacy, church-state separation, and other civil rights are being eroded, particularly for groups outside the mainstream.

Wendy Kaminer's latest book, "Free For All: Defending Liberty in America Today", is therefore extremely timely and relevant. Kaminer is a lawyer, author, and social critic, whose previous books include "Sleeping With Extraterrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and the Perils of Piety", and "I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions". "Free For All" is a collection of her essays on civil liberties from the past several years, both before and after 9/11. Most of the pieces appeared in "The American Prospect", though a few are included from other publications such as "Free Inquiry" and "Dissent".

The topics she addresses include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to privacy, defendant's rights, women's rights, and many related issues. A number of themes crop up repeatedly, including the following: When people favor giving up rights, they usually have in mind other people's rights. Civil libertarianism requires applying the Golden Rule to people you dislike. Civil liberties (freedom to X) often conflict with civil rights (freedom from X). Threats to civil liberties tend to come from those who want people to "be good," whether according to Christian morality on the right, or political correctness on the left. We should be especially wary of expansions of government power, especially prosecutorial power, which are likely to lead to erosion of individual freedom. And sadly, Americans tend to pay only lip service to liberties that are supposedly inalienable.

Kaminer is politically liberal, but she does not shy away from positions that make liberals queasy, because they are required by a strict civil libertarian interpretation of the Constitution. Some of her possibly controversial positions include:

* Free speech rights of abortion protesters must be protected. Furthermore, trying to shield abortion patients from protest undermines the feminist position that women can and should make autonomous decisions about abortion.

* Groups such as the Boy Scouts do have the right to discriminate against gays and atheists (and face the social consequences of doing so). Their rights to free speech and free association trump the desire to enforce equal treatment by non-government groups.

* Evangelism in schools (that is not endorsed by the school) should not be prohibited in the name of protecting children. "Sectarian religious groups that seek access to public schools are unlikely to compare themselves to pornographers, but they do rely on First Amendment rights." (p. 101) In both situations, it is the job of parents, not the state, to protect children.

These essays are necessarily snapshots in time. Most of the pre-9/11 pieces have been rewritten in the past tense, to reflect the changing face of civil liberties since that date. Two pre-9/11 essays are left in the present tense, to underscore the fact that civil libertarians were already alarmed well before the terrorist attacks. Many of the restrictions currently being used by the Bush/Ashcroft regime were enabled by the Counter-Terrorism Act of 1996. The attacks of 9/11 simply provided the first opportunity to apply them on a wide and well-publicized scale. The "USA PATRIOT" Act is merely icing on the cake.

"Free For All" is well worth reading if you interested in civil liberties in general. It provides a wide-ranging, thorough, and entertaining exploration of current issues. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, then Wendy Kaminer is standing guard, and letting us know that all is not well.

Thank goodness for Wendy Kaminer. A consistent thinker in the midst of our culture of conflict between fabricated absolutist alternatives.

This book is a collection of short essays on the state of American liberties which previously appeared in the "The American Prospect" over the past two years. They have been updated with additional material to confront the issues in civil liberty which have appeared after 9/11.

Censorship, religious freedom, women's rights, and homeland security are just some of the topics covered in these bite-size essays. The author's pen spares no sacred cows of either the Right or the Left. The feminist movement's campaign against pornography is vilified with as much fervor as is the conservative effort to criminalize flag burning. Both efforts are attempts at limiting unpopular speech. Kaminer shows them both to be the silly shibboleths of sanctimonious speech suppressors.

I don't agree with the author's opinions on every issue covered in the book. Her take on the criminal justice system, immigration, and social equality are a bit too left of center for my tastes. However, I am proud of her right to her opinions and her courage to care about the rights of others with whom she disagrees. If only we could all care with this much eloquence.

In this book, Wendy Kaminer, lawyer and civil libertarian, compiles many of her essays from her column in the American Prospect about censorship, religious freedom, women's rights, anti-individualism, rights of the accused, and post 9-11 curtailings of civil liberties in the United States. Kaminer makes a clear distinction between civil liberties, which are the laws protecting citizens from unjust government power and control, and civil rights, in which government power is used to protect the rights of a marginalized or minority population from other citizen groups. Kaminer criticizes both the right and the left in her attempts to find an appropriate balance, and she leans strongly toward individual freedoms except where clear, unambiguous discrimination is taking place.

This thoughtful and articulate book is particularly easy to read in chunks because each concise essay is only a few pages long. Kaminer's discussions of patriotic descent are strong and well-stated: "When you force children to salute the flag and recite the 'Pledge of Allegiance' you don't teach then to exercise freedom so much as you accustom them to the imposition of political orthodoxies." It is clear that she believes it is important not to violate fundamental principles of freedom, such as those defined in the Bill of Rights, even if doing so may result in short-term political gains: "...right and left, people who find themselves in possessions of power tend to resist restraints upon its use. ...What distinguishes a civil libertarian is a focus on preserving fair process rather than obtaining particular results." Kaminer takes to heart Voltaire's words: "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," and I'm sure she would support the ACLU's 1978 court case protecting the free speech of a new-Nazi group and Noam Chomsky's defense of Faurisson's right to question or deny the Holocaust.

While Kaminer's criticisms all are well-stated and have merit, her lack of analysis or outright dismissal of the role of power, agency, and systematic biases is at times unsatisfying. For example, while she supports reproductive rights, she criticizes the Hill vs. Colorado ruling establishing "buffer-zones" around abortion clinics where "even peaceful antiabortion protests are prohibited." While her arguments about "silencing political speech" and valuing the "imagined right not to be offended over a right to give offense" are legitimatize, women seeking abortion information face far more than offensive language, often facing threats of physical violence, vigilante retribution, and public exposure, resulting in essentially restricted access. To give her due credit, Kaminer does write that "an unregulated marketplace inevitably exploits the most powerless members of society and produces gross inequalities of wealth that effectively prevent many people from enjoying the rights to which they're entitled," and it would be difficult to provide an appropriate depth of discussion about these dynamics while maintaining brevity, focus and accessibility in her essays.

http://www.theonion.com/onion3211/acludefends.html

Social conservatives, Stalinist feminists, and political correct Democrats (not to mention the Christian soldiers of the Bush administration) will find no comfort here. Wendy Kaminer is going to come down on the side of individual freedom against governmental power whatever the issue at hand.

In this collection of essays, mostly from her column in The American Prospect, Kaminer looks at issues ranging from anti-terrorist encroachments on civil liberties to anti-abortion protests, and invariably comes down on the side of individual liberty, even when she has to share close quarters with the likes of NAMBLA or "pro-fetal life" abortion clinic demonstrators. Her justification is a fine restatement of the civil libertarian position: "If the First Amendment only protected sensible speech, we'd inhabit a very quiet nation indeed." (p. 80)

Because she writes with passion and wit, and because now more than at any recent period in our nation's history, there is the danger of "An Imperial Presidency" (p. 13), we need her and others like her--whether we agree completely with them or not--as a counter to the anti-civil libertarian designs of Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and Bush. Kaminer represents in these pages the loyal opposition that largely went into hiding after September 11th.

Her main concern is for the health of the Bill of Rights, which suffered from cardiac arrest as the Twin Towers fell. Kaminer sees the resulting struggle between the Bush administration's desire to increase its power, and the individual's desire for privacy and due process, as a struggle between our collective need for security and our desire for freedom. When people are in fear they will let go of some of their liberties in order to feel secure. Consequently today is a time of particular danger because many Americans are understandably afraid.

Kaminer also addresses free speech on high school campuses, media censorship, abortion rights, victim's and defendant's rights, gay rights, Bush's faith-based program, and other cutting edge issues. Her style is readable, thoughtful and penetrating. She comes from a position of considerable authority as a social critic, a lawyer, and best-seller author (e.g., I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional). She knows the facts and she knows the law, but more than anything she knows how to express what she feels in an engaging manner. Consider how she makes this very delicate, but true, observation: "I don't imagine that he welcomed it, but September 11 was not a bad day politically for George Bush."

Or, note her observation that we don't need a first Amendment to protect popular, inoffensive speech. We need it to protect speech that a "Lynn Cheney or Joe Lieberman" might consider demeaning and degrading. She adds, "Censorship campaigns often begin with a drive to protect children (or women), but rarely end there." (p. 40) My only nitpick is that Kaminer didn't devote some space to the farcical, hypocritical, and disastrous "war on drugs" that is also eroding our liberties. Maybe that will be the subject of her next book.

"Freedom" and "liberty" seem like two of the most over-used and under-appreciated words in our contemporary political vocabulary. Left-wingers might champion the freedom of dissenting speech (or freedom to abort a fetus), while opining about the necessity of hate speech legislation and railing against the right to own a firearm. Right-wingers might champion association rights and freedom of contract, but might rail to the death to regulate 'indecency' and stand opposed to the freedom of gays to marry. As Wendy Kaminer notes several times in this beautiful book, we tend to treat liberty as we do tax loopholes: we only champion the ones we use; to hell with the others.

Mrs. Kaminer's book, constructed from essays she has written mainly for The American Spectator magazine, shows that she, unlike most, is not that fickle. The antithesis of the partisan zeolot, Kaminer nobly defends civil liberties and freedoms WHEREVER they need defending. Whether it be defending liberty against the vicious assults they've encountered via the war on terror, or defending the rights of private conservative groups to discriminate against homosexuals if they choose, Mrs. Kaminer consistently champions liberty - everyone's liberty.

This book will most probably appeal to two groups - liberals and libertarians. While Mrs. Kaminer certainly approaches issues non-ideologically, she is much harder on right wing attacks liberty (regulating indecency on the internet, opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights, forcing the pledge, etc.) than on left-wing ones (speech codes, push for reparations, etc.) What's more, as a true civil libertarian, Mrs. Kaminer, as often as not, finds herself defending unsavory characters like pornographers, NAMBLA, criminal defendants denied due process rights, and the like - groups that tend to give conservatives more disease than liberals. But far be it from me to generalize; buy the book if you are concerned about liberty, no matter what side you stand on.

The only two complaints I have tend to do with the format as a collection of essays. First, most essays here are ridiculously short - averaging about three pages. While this is good if you are a casual reader that might read one or two essays at a time, the more serious reader will find the lack of depth that 3 page essays afford frustrating. Second, as these are essays there is a significant overlap of information from one essay to the next. For instance, the chapter of essays on post-Sept. 11 liberty are well written, but after the first few, the repitition of information gets cumbersome and, to be honest, I started questioning whether i needed to read all of them.

All in all, though, this book is a sorely needed, non-partisan, defense of liberty and freedom (and its peicemeal encroachment) in contemporary America. If we ever hope to reverse the trend, journalists like Wendy Kaminer becoems absolutely necessary.

I think it is a great book for children to read because it shows them that people their age can make a difference in the world. The stories are inspiring.

Freedom's Children was a very good book because it involved different interveiws by thirty people so every person's story was different. It is probably one of the best African-American books for children. I really recommend it to people who like true stories and the 50's and 60's. At some points it was depressing, and at some points it was happy.

Freedom's Children is filled with inspiring real life stories of children who lived in the 1950's. It tells about their separate lives and how they fought for Civil Rights. This book describes many aspects of the movement. One part is about the Little Rock Nine. I admire them for having enough courage to attend an all white school. They were made fun of and even physically threatened by fellow students. The book also tells about the bus boycott, Freedom Riders, and all the laws passed to make a better life for African Americans. I enjoyed this book mostly because of how much it taught me and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn

Many figures and groups of people are marginalized in the study of the Civil Rights Movement. This book is an excellent forum to give voice to the children of the movement. Especially powerful are the stories of students who were among the first to integrate. One student recounts the time when he asked a white friend to sign his senior year book. the white friend wrote "there was a time when I was a bigot and a racist... but knowing you changed me. I now know that people are people, black or white." He ended the entry by saying, "We shall overcome." Annecdotes like these illustrate the profound effect young people had on the movement. This book is a rich resource, and I recommend it to anyone. Though some parts are quite depressing, enough to make you cry, in the end you will feel a respect and appreciation for what "everyday" young people did to contribute to the movement. Essentially, a priceless collection.

Touching and powerfully honest personal accounts of the daily lives of children / youth in the Civil Rights Movement. Children surviving domestic terrorism in a culture of violence, ever hopeful of realizing " all men are created equal". Though it documents 'traumatic' incidents the focus is on courage , hope, and our personal responsibility for making the world a better world. For the children each day, each choice, each action made a profound vote for justice and equality. They are truly activists, and advocates for 'humanity'. Our elementary class uses this book to learn about and portray each person. They often seek to emulate them.The children respectfully honor these young heroes, and find their own 'voice'.

All I can say is that this is by far one of the best books that I have ever read on gun rights.

I've had the opportunity to meet Sheriff Mack. His genuine character is reflected clearly in this book. "From My Cold Dead Fingers" is a clear and concise explanation of precisely why Americans need to preserve the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Sheriff Mack tackles the various issues surrounding gun control in an format that is both easy to read and easy to reference. While the book is probably somewhat elementary for those already involved in the struggle to maintain 2nd Amendment freedoms, it is still a good quick reference piece. For those not sure about the issue or even on the other side, the book is wonderfully written so that anyone can understand the pro-gun argument without devoting hours trying to dig through masses of numbers and statistics. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who doesn't already have a copy!

This book is well-written and well-documented. I would recommend that every American (or anyone else that cares about freedom) get this book and read it through. Though the title is provocative, the facts are laid out clearly inside.

Richard Mack's book, in very literate style, exposes some of the disguised movements the liberal left is promoting to disarm lawabiding citizens of their Constitutional Right of self defense. Mr. Mack illustrates several examples of the propaganda being put before the American Public,by the anti-gun crowd, with misleading titles to lure the unsuspecting into a "this must be a good thing" attitude. A must-read book for any American concerned about the slow erosion of our constitutional rights and in particular The 2nd Amendment. ...the right to keep and bear arms...

Sheriff Richard Mack is a legend. He refused to enforce the Brady Bill in his county in Arizona, and filed a lawsuit, claiming that the Feds may not require a local magistrate to enforce a federal law. The Supreme Court upheld his point of view, and struck down the enforcement part of the Brady Bill, which no local law enforcement personnel are required to carry out. Good book, showing his basic understanding of the right to keep and bear arms. It is not a "right conferred by the Bill of Rights," but a pre-existing right that the Bill of Rights simply recognized as being more fundamental to freedom than the creation of a national government. Worth the read.

This book is what Im finding to develop server applications with Java language, it is filling the market gap.

This is an excellent book on Networking in Java. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn sockets, TCP/IP and UDP. Just make sure you have the API available when you're reading this book.

This book describes its subject from the basics of the underlying IP networking technologies (including both TCP and UDP) all the way up through the "traditional" socket classes to the new Channel classes.

Personally I particularly benefitted from the discussion of channels and the rest of the NIO (New IO) package, but I believe that the solid coverage of Java networking basics in tandem with the comprehensive description of the available libraries makes this both a good introductory text and a good reference to the more obscure niches. It helps that while there are quite a few reference tables and lengthy discussion sections this is still a hands-on book with plenty of code examples.

Not quite suitable for a complete Java beginner - but any novice developer with a grip on syntax and the core API would benefit from this.

Pitt demonstrates how to connect between machines in a TCP/IP network, when at least one of the machines is running java. He explains that the standard java, which you get free from Sun comes replete with a a core set of networking classes. These free you from a lot of the grungy low level I/O issues that programmers using C and the default unix libraries have endured since the 1980s. C network programming is notorious for the amount of sweat that developers have to endure.

In contrast, the book is an easy and concise read of a compelling alternative. The java networking classes also include the ability to connect to an arbitrary URL and to download data (usually a web page). A fundamental subroutine for Web access.

Hopefully, the book will deter you from going back to C networking.

I have never read a more concise but clearly written technical book, and the code looks beautiful too. Pretty much every software engineer needs this book.

If you absolutely know what you are doing it reduces the solution time for most known problems from hours to minutes. If you are not all that clued up about IP but want/need to be, this is the book. Fundamental Networking in Java could just as easily be just called Fundamental Networking.

I expect this book will become the standard text in Software Engineering courses on Networking. And if your course has a different text, this book is probably a better choice. It will be one of the very few textbooks that will survive your transition into the working world.

And the beauty of this book is that because it is written in crystal clear english it is also very useful to a much wider audience - technology manager, business analyst, etcetera.

I haven't even finished this gem of political quips, one-liners and come backs and I'm already recommending it to everyone I know. In fact, this is the first time I've ever reviewed a book and do so whole heartedly.

I am savoring each chapter as if I were at a great tasting. I find myself trying to remember the juicy, outrageous and unexpected quotes, and struggle not to read too many out loud to others so that they read and appreciate "A Funny Thing Happened..." for themselves.

I also appreciate Charles Osgood's chapter introductions and contextualizing the quotes within the specific campaign races, though this was clearly done with a twinkle in his eye and a bemused smile on his face.

This book is a keeper long after the current campaign season is over.

I have only read about 80% of the book and recommend it to any reader that wants another view of American politics.
While I understand that Charles Osgood is repeating quotes of the candidates over 40+ years, he has done thorough research and has portrayed the candidates in a brighter light in my eyes. I have been interested in history all of my life and I find his book informative and enlightening.
Well worth the money for the book!!!! AAAA++++

In reality, several funny things happened on the way to the White House and Charles Osgood has waded through what has to be a very large pile of clippings in order to bring his readers some of the funniest. The basic format that the book follows is to give a chapter to each presidential election starting with the 1948 contest. Each chapter starts out with a short overview of the election in question and then the fun starts. In each chapter there are direct quotes from the candidates along with blurbs from observers, the media and other political figures and there are things in here that you just won't believe.

Some of the quotes come from very quick-witted candidates who were able to snap off nice one-liners in response to almost any question or situation. Among the best practitioners of this art were Harry Truman, Barry Goldwater, Mo Udall and Ronald Reagan. Other jewels from this treasure chest include foul-ups and misstatements from candidates some of which the candidates immediately tried to correct and others that made perfect sense to the candidate but left everyone else scratching their heads. Vice Presidents Agnew and Quayle lead this category by a mile but along the way Quayle at least realized that he was making a lot of misstatements and told reporters that he was going to start being more careful with his words. He said, "Verbosity leads to unclear, matriculate things." Huh?

This is a must have book for any political junkie with the only drawback being that the book isn't longer. Both Democrats and Republicans say some pretty stupid things sometime and Mr. Osgood has taken this opportunity to remind us that a party label is no barrier to cleverness or unfortunately the occasional bit of stupidity. Even independent candidates like George Wallace and Ross Perot aren't immune form foot in mouth disease and both of them also show up in these pages. There are also little blurbs included that focus on local contests and in one of those there is a congressman who when asked what he planned to do if he was reelected replied, "I'm more worried about what I'm going to do if I'm not reelected." If honesty is the best policy then that guy should have won reelection in a landslide.

This book may not make you any wiser and it may not be the stuff that Pulitzer Prizes are made of but it sure will remind you that all of the candidates are only human and if we are expecting perfection from our candidates or our presidents we are in big trouble. The only person that could fill that bill was born in Bethlehem and is therefore not eligible to be elected president.

Forrest Gump's phrase comes to mind when reading this book, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."
Osgood has put together an excellent selection of humorous quotes and anecdotes from Truman to our current incumbent. Many of them are well known but that does not take from the joy of the book. This is a book best enjoyed if you simply deep into it. It is also a book that might be of real interest to anyone in the public light or a humorous keynote speaker as it contains some wonderful nuggets.

The most humorous elements of the book run from Harry Truman through to the Johnson/Goldwater campaign. Maybe candidates just got more wary in the more intrusive media age, but few of our most recent candidates excite humorous interest except of course Ronald Reagan.

Buy this book and place beside your bedside table. Just a few pages a night will have you sleeping happy.

Listen, my friend, and you shall hear, the odd bit of humour, for this is an election year - - which means the politicians want to fool enough of the people enough of the time to get enough votes and no more.

Jokes do occur on the way to the White House, but few politicians have the courage to indulge heavily in humour. Someone might believe them. Thus, politics is usually deadly dull.

In this vast wasteland of modern politics, though, there are occasional glimmers of wit . . . somewhat akin to seeing flecks of gold in a stream bed. There's not enough to get rich, but it's nice to know gold can still be found in the most tired of stream beds or campaigns.

Osgood does a masterful job in collecting campaign quips, barbs and goofs, which means the book shows a sad recent trend. Fifty years ago, most of the quotes were from candidates; today, the humour of politics is dominated by late night clowns.

Perhaps the 1996 campaign is indicative: Sen. Bob Dole, who challenged President Clinton, was reputed to have a sharp sense of humour. It wasn't expressed in the campaign. Instead, even when Dole smiled, it looked like he'd just evicted a widow.

Politics has lost the sunny optimism and confidence once expressed by Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and become a business of stolid national survival. It's hard to smile when both parties base their platforms on the choice, "It's us or treason". Politics is now too serious to laugh about, every election is "the most important one in our generation". That's no laughing matter.

Finding humour in today's politicians are like expecting humour from funeral directors in the middle of a service.

Osgood has done a superb job in panning for the golden nuggets of political humour, and the book is packed with the best he could find. But, it's an almost impossible quest; looking for gold in today's politics is like looking for fool's gold in Arizona. It can be found, but what's it worth?

Maybe it's time to ignore the politicians and look for humour among his fellow reporters.

When I read this book, I was very glad to see that there are solutions to the problems we face and that there is hope that our quality of life can become much better than it is. I really appreciate all books that tell us about solutions to problems and/or better alternatives to the status quo!

The trouble with the majority of writing about climate change and other environmental worries is that they make people think, "Oh, hell. It's too late anyway. Why even try to do anything?" The Geography of Hope is an antidote to this kind of thinking. I am now 54 years old, and when I was 20 years old or so, I devoured ecological jeremiads such as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. The trouble is, back then I actually thought my civilization was doomed to fall apart before the end of the 20th century. This, fortunately, didn't happen and in the meantime I got sidelined by matters too complex to detail here. Now at last I am returning to my environmental roots, but I find I simply no longer have the patience and strength to wade through dour predictions of ecological gloom and doom. Chris Turner's The Geography of Hope is the first book on this topic that I have felt glad to pick up, because it shows that it is really possible to put the brakes to the looming climate train wreck before it occurs and that sustainability is already within our grasp using existing technology, if only we would commit to it. How inspiring!

If anyone is feeling that the world is coming to an end because of human folly...then you must read "The Geography Of Hope"Here you will meet individuals all over the world who are making the world a better place and there is HOPE !!!! Brav0 !!!

Chris Turner takes a year-long tour around the world, visiting places that are implementing solutions for sustainable living. A zero-net energy island in Denmark. Community Supported Agriculture in the southern USA. Plug-in hybrid cars. Earthship homes in New Mexico. Radical improvements in waste recycling in various industries. Examples of New Urbanism in city planning and architecture in Florida, the UK, Denmark, Colorado. Mass transit and city policy in Portland. Finhorn in the UK and Tibetan refugee communities in India -- for agriculture and community and deliberate living. A micro-hydro installation in a remote village on the Burma/Thai border built by local villagers, folks from a nearby refugee camp students, and local NGOs. He looks at questions like "what kinds of planning and structures inspire community?" "What exists NOW that can be building blocks for a truly sustainable world?" Inspiring and casual at the same time.

I have no background in environmentalism or connection to the author. As a general reader I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it informative, inspiring and entertaining in equal parts. An unequivocal five stars!
The author is a journalist and disillusioned environmental activist. He is also a new father, and, concerned for his daughter's future, decided to do a global survey of existing, practical methods of achieving environmental sustainability. His perspective is what makes this book so refreshing: tired of the mainstream environmental movement's two main weapons of guilt and apocalyptic predictions, he searches for not just the means but the inspiration to change the way the world's resources are used. I found this practical, hopeful approach much more compelling than the doom-and-gloom, armchair analyst approach of, say, George Monbiot's Heat.
Potential readers should keep in mind that the author's previous opus was Planet Simpson, an exploration of the cultural significance of an animated cartoon series. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it informs his writing with a pop-culture sensibility that makes for entertaining asides and a contemporary grasp of how cultural fashions evolve. On the other hand, the one time I felt we may be getting a little too much information was in the final chapter. There he describes how the epiphany of embracing environmental sustainability occurred to him at a Seattle Lebowski Fest, a cult-like celebration of a movie that he admits to "only begin to understand after the fifth viewing". Presumably fatherhood changed his priorities, and rather than strain his credibility, I found this geeky anecdote disarming. A Greenpeace diatribe this is not.

I picked up this book not really knowing what it was about and discovered a gem. It interviews great activists and thinkers in an informal, intelligent style that brings out the best in them. Katha Politt's interview was one of my favorites. I recommend this book to any serious students of the world. It deals with the idea of a global morality that passes over religious, ethnic, or racial lines - something crucial in these times of globalization.

GLOBAL VALUES 101 isn't just the title of a book; it's a course which proved one of the most popular ever offered at Harvard University, in which original thinkers sat down with students and explored how knowledge and ideas contribute to better world citizens. From ideas of success and achievement to issues of war, religion and social change, GLOBAL VALUES 101 surveys all kinds of issues and connects social change to global values systems. Perfect for classroom discussion - even at the high school level.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

This book summarizes the conversations held between Harvard students and some of our most innovative thinkers. The students were asked to read and analyze works by these guest speakers and pose thoughtful questions to them. This relatively small book contains astute insights into politics, the economy, environmental issues, and human rights. It is written in precise, accessible language without over simplifying the concepts which are explained.

As a college student interested in the state of the world, this book caught my eye. It is full of interviews with the superstars of current debates about globalization, war and peace, work and family and religion. People like Paul Farmer, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Juliet Schor, Robert Reich, and Howard Zinn. I had read many of these guys before, but what struck me is that they are even more interesting in interview format than in their own books. More spontaneous and funny, and you get to see them struggling with some difficult questions. And they were interviewed by young people (in a super-popular course at Harvard), which means that you get some really wild questions; I found myself thinking at times, 'Who would have been so stupid and rude as to ask THAT?!' This makes for lively reading. My main complaint is that the book only includes 16 of these interviews (plus an introduction), when many more were done in the course and would have been welcome in the book. But it makes for good reading on a long plane flight, when you want to think about the troubles and joys of the planet you are flying over, rather than about the screaming infant in the seat behind you.

"Democracy is what the people do; it's not what the government does" - H. Zinn.

I was amazed that three pages into this book Zinn touched right on the point my Anthropology teacher was making in class the night before.

Any chance to read thoughts by Zinn, Goodman, Chomsky is definately worth every penny.

This is the fascinating true story of a little boy who through no fault of his own is incarcerated in one of the appalling Irish industrial schools in existence in Ireland until 1970. He suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse and as if this were not enough, he was then taken by the nuns of the industrial school and left to spend years of his precious life in different hospitals where he appears to have been no more than a guinea pig and was left with a permanent disability. Up to this day, no-one within the system has accounted for the brain operations, his eventual disability or any reason why he was in the different hospitals.
The book is very well written and although it describes the horrors inflicted on a small child, the sadistic treatment he received in the hands of the nuns, one can sense a healthy resignation which comes across every page thus making the unbearably sad story a little easier to read.
I found the book an inspiration, an ode to life, for after the total deprivation of affection, protection, a simple toy even, and having had his life taken away from him and practicaly destroyed, he not only survives with sanity but he wins in a superhuman way as he tells with such dignity about the perverse system under which he and so many other children were detained.
It must have been very difficult to relive the horrors whilst writing this very informative book. And for such an effort, I am indebted.

When The God Squad was first published in Ireland in 1988, the Irish public were confronted with the reality of life behind the walls of religious-run orphanages and industrial schools. However, perhaps because it was seen as just one unfortunate boy's story, there was no general sense of outrage directed at the perpetrators or at the system which allowed supposedly 'religious' men and women to ill-treat children entrusted to their care. That had to wait until another expose by the journalist Mary Raftery eight years later.

But Paddy Doyle broke the silence and for that we must all be grateful. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the real Ireland of the recent past. Paddy tells his story eloquently and without self-pity. The God Squad will break your heart. Read it.

I know this book is not out of print because I ordered it and read it in one day. Any intelligent reader knows that the mark of a good writer is the ability to write masterful, engaging narrative, and Paddy Doyle tells the story of his young life honestly and directly. It is this straightforward essential truthfulness which will keep your attention from page 1 through the epilogue. Of particular import in this literary journey is the challenge to see that the beauty of life is not there because of or in spite of what one survives, but because the human spirit, so brilliantly demonstrated in the Irish spirit of Paddy Doyle, is a fire that cannot be damped down. It's also a fine example of what happens when the church and state relationship gets too cozy; something we Yanks take for granted won't happen. Point and click your way to owning this book, it *is* available!

Excellent and a very good read. I have read a few books about Ireland's Industrial Schools and saw the movie "The Magdeline (sp?)Sisters." All are helpful in understanding what the children Of Ireland's Industrial Schools went thru. Although Paddy only wrote about his experiences in "The God Squad," I feel great love and compassion and sadness for these children as well as a sense of great strength coming from them as adults to have the courage to tell their tales. God Bless every one of them and hope that they can find a sense of release and closure from the pain by letting the rest of the world know their stories.

"The God Squad" by: Paddy Doyle is an extremely well written book that took me through the whole range of human emotion. I laughed, cryed, was angry and happy as the author led me through his life from 4 1/2 years old through the epilogue. It is a book that I could not cast aside to finish later.....the 236 pages were rapidly devoured in a few hours. I recommend it very highly to everyone. The education, alone, is very well worth the price that one would pay for ANY book!....No wonder that it was a best seller in the United Kingdom. It will hit the USA in a big storm too!