What SINGLE book or video would you RECOMMEND for everyone, NOW???

MKJ

a good choice

War and Globalization
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3117338213439292490&q=Hijacking+Catastrophe&total=29&start=20&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=7


Hijacking Catastrophe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SltOy_F6ZII&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YlcpXBFOXA&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwZaWh0cJPQ&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8S_vOZqJbE&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GT7ti8LZ6A&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkOtqGNJ8qI&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C02QHS0D44&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YlcpXBFOXA&mode=related&search
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kBX00TR-aA&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jghh00bn_DA&mode=related&search=

everytime.

...by Howard Zinn. The biggest problem is corporatism, particularly now in the media, and people are grossly uninformed about real issues when they get their "news" from the corporate media.

I dig your login and totally agree.

The morning of 9/11, when I heard what had happened, it's the first thing that popped into my head, and nothing since has dissuaded me of the essential accuracy of the analogy.

A little background: the evening before 9/11, I'd had an hours-long political discussion with a Filipino friend of mine -- like me at the time, a collector and seller of signed first edition books -- wherein I'd railed about the evils of ascendant mediocrity in America, and the apotheosis of that concept, GWBush. Upon being informed by my friend the next morning of the magnitude of the attack -- I'd only seen a Yahoo! headline (with no story text beyond the headline) about a plane crashing into the WTC and nothing subsequent -- my question was "Cui bono?" The obvious answer was Bush and his administration, of course, because of the tendency of any people to follow their "leader" in times of crisis. That led to me connecting 9/11 to the Reichstag fire. So there it is. :)

If you want to understand the trajectory of 20th centurty American politics and history that starts with FDR and which we've gotten off of with Kennedy's assassination, and which we desperately need to get back on, read this book.

often see it.... as a struggle of a people to keep building something great as nations go.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=786048453686176230&q=terrorstorm&hl=en

We live in the days of False Flag terror. The staging of terror incidents will continue until enough people get wise and stop it, or there no civil liberties left to speak of.

By Howard Zinn

I am almost through it. But what I have gotten from it so far is the pattern of populist/workers/civil rights protests and backlash against these movements throughout our history. We are stronger and more ready to change the status quo than we realize.

excellent book. :toast:

I read it in 1964 while I was in the marines. The absurdity of war, America, militarism, capitalism, sacred cows, etc.

It is more true now than when Joseph Heller wrote it.

I am re-reading a paperback edition of Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" and "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience." (Collier Books)

"An individual's first duty is to live his life as his principles demand." -- Thoreau

The enemy is among us right now - the servile, Gollum-like creatures who pretend to be Americans.

Pale Blue Dot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Pale Blue Dot is a famous<1> photograph of planet Earth made by Voyager 1 from a record distance, showing it against the vastness of space. It is also the title of a 1994 book by astronomer Carl Sagan that was inspired by the photo.



<snip>

Book summary

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994) is a non-fiction book by Carl Sagan. It is the sequel to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage and was inspired by the "Pale Blue Dot" photograph, for which Sagan provides a sobering description. In this book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of the current knowledge about the Solar System. He also details a human vision for the future.<10>

The first part of the book looks at the claims made throughout history that Earth and the human species are unique. Sagan makes two claims for the persistance of the idea of a geocentric, or Earth-centred universe: human pride in our existence, and the threat of torturing those who dissented from it, particularly during the time of the Roman Inquisition. However, he also admits the scientific tools to prove the Earth orbited the Sun were (until the last few hundred years) not accurate enough to measure effects such as parallax, making it difficult for astronomers to prove the geocentric theory was false.

After saying that we have gained humility from understanding we are not, literally, the centre of the universe, Sagan embarks on an exploration of the entire solar system. He begins with an account of the Voyager program, in which Sagan was a participating scientist. He describes the difficulty of working with low light levels at distant planets, and the mechanical and computer problems which beset the twin spacecraft as they aged. Sagan then examines each one of the major planets as well as some of the moons, including Titan, Triton and Miranda, focusing on whether life is possible at the frontiers of the solar system.

Sagan argues that studying other planets provides context for understanding the Earth - and protecting it from environmental catastrophe. He feels NASA's decision to cut back exploration of the Moon after the Apollo program was a short-sighted decision, despite the expense and the failing popularity of the program among the United States public. Sagan says future exploration of space should focus on ways to protect Earth. The book was published the year after the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, an event Sagan uses to highlight the danger Earth faces from the occasional asteroid or comet large enough to cause substantial damage if it were to hit Earth. He says we need the political will to track large extra-terrestrial objects, or we risk losing everything. Sagan argues that in order to save the human race, space colonization and terraforming should be utilized.

Later in the book, Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, challenges readers to pick one of the other planetary dots photographed and featured in the book, and imagine that there are inhabitants on that world who believe that the universe was created solely for themselves. She shared Sagan's belief that humans are not as important as they think they are.

The first edition of the book includes an extensive list of illustrations and photographs, mostly provided by NASA.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_blue_dot

Savvy and eye-opening as it covers America's foreign policy blunders. The character "Joe Bing" is still around today.

"The Populist Moment" discusses the Populist movement of the late 19th century, how it gained widespread momentum, how the Populists faced the same challenges from corporatists that we face today; and how racial strains contributed to the undoing of the only TRULY DEMOCRATIC movement that was ever undertaken in America. According to Goodwyn, the only movement in American History that truly attempted to change the core institutions of American economics was the Populist movement. The civil rights movement, the women's movement, and other movements resulted in social changes, and limited economic changes, but none were as grand in goals as the Populist movement, which, if successful, would have changed the whole structure of American economics.

Awesome, awesome book. So relevant for today.

Also, "The Populist Persuasion: An American History" by Michael Kazin. The book's thesis is that populists and Democrats always "owned" the language of populism. But Republicans eventually came to see how valuable the populist lexicon was for popular appeal, and they stole the language from the true owners of populism.

Both of these books are so informative for explaining to us how we got to where we are today. They are must-reads for anyone interested in American social history.

Although, you can't read this book straight through without putting it down every 3 to 5 pages, blown away by the re-occuring themes and accounts that are just too much. You begin saying to yourself -

Same as it ever was,
Same as it ever was,
Same as it ever was,
Same.... as ...... it ..... EVER...... WAS...

or Lord of the rings.

The cover alone is worth it.

... lest anyone have any doubt that evolution is real.

or Conservatives w/o Conscience. I've read all the books about Bush and the war and those two haunt me. Emerald City because it so starkly shows why ideology destroys itself (right and left I'd argue) and Dean's book because it gave me comfort to know it is an identifiable disorder.

a most powerful and enlightening book that could alter your consciousness as to what the current manifestation of the United States is and how it became that way.

Two thumbs up.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Immediately available at < http://www.8thfire.net >

Three outstanding films with political themes:

Soy Cuba (1964) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058604/
El Norte (1983) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085482/
Salt of the Earth (1954) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/

The three best films ever made:

Tokyo Story (1953) http://imdb.com/title/tt0046438/
The Bicycle Thief (1948) http://imdb.com/title/tt0040522/
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) http://imdb.com/title/tt0060138/

Don't Panic!

I am about finished with The Restaurant At The End of the Universe . A GOOD choice!


DON"T PANIC

Sinclair Lewis

,...how this government has come to operate not only beyond but also within its borders. It is so powerful while an easy read with the capacity to reach a broad audience.

However, I must say Gore's "Assault on Reason" is a great GREAT read.

There are so many recommendations in this thread that are also incredibly informative and/or thought-provoking. However, when I think about what books reach the broadest audience, the first that comes to my mind is "Confessions,..."

I just finished reading it... a lot of what was written could still happen!!

I've also heard that "My Pet Goat" is a good read.

alternate history like Howard Zinn.

He also wrote one about historical markers across America and how biased they are about the Civil War.

Many reasons why we must get rid of Darth Cheney first!

Scholarly articles for Howard Zinn, History of America in 21st Century
The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution ... - Lens - Cited by 3
Theorizing Anglo-American Alternative Media: toward a ... - HAMILTON - Cited by 7
Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st

AND...........

Results 1 - 10 of about 303,000 for Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty. (0.12 seconds)
Amazon.com: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the ...
Amazon.com: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush: Books: Kevin Phillips by Kevin Phillips.
www.amazon.com/American-Dynasty-Aristocracy-Fortune-Politics/dp/0670032646 - 191k - Jul 20, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages

BuzzFlash Interview: Kevin Phillips
Kevin Phillips, Author of "American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush". A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW ...
www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/01/int04001.html - 38k - Cached - Similar pages

All in the Family
Arts: Onetime GOP strategist Kevin Phillips takes on a world he knows well: ... Unlike the recent spate of anti-Bush books, Phillips' American Dynasty -- an ...
www.motherjones.com/arts/books/2004/01/12_103.html - 39k - Cached - Similar pages

It is an outstanding book about how entirely entrenched the right wing christofacisast defense contractors are in Iraq, at home, and in the world, and presents a terrifying view into what's to come. It reads like science fiction "conspiracy theory on a grand scale" and it's very very hard to digest. He sources everything. It Documents all of the illegal activities over the past 6 years and the players involved. It includes lots of anecdotal stories that will make your skin crawl. It Connects a lot of dots that even the truly informed may not have known about. This book single handedly ruined my entire weekend, I just finished it.

More: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Excerpt here: "Speak Out Now or Forever, Perhaps, Be Silenced"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1284808

http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/64onedim/odmcontents.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Dimensional_Man


and discipline and punish by foucault


http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html

http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.torture.en.html

Just because.

Movie: Idiocracy, or the Confederate States of America

Will be finishing it tonite.

Fiasco does a pretty job showing how fucked up Iraq is and why.

I keep handing it out for others to read. As soon as I get it back, I find someone else who will read it to give it to. Every other DU'er here who has the book should be doing the same in my opinion. If the book is sittin on someone's end table, it ain't helpin anybody.

I wouldn't require it as a condition of legitimacy, but failure to know what "Assault on Reason" talks about may result in one's rights being rendered illegitimate by those falsely claiming the authority to do so. :)

The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka