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Find textbooks at Alibris!

NOTE: Overstock bests Amazon's prices and is "blue."

THE BOOKS WITH "BUZZ":
______________

Learn the real story behind the WMD in Iraq:

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
by Ron Suskind

Read Barack Obama's vision for America:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama

DaveW recommends:

I Am a Strange Loop
by Douglas Hofstadter

Need some laughs?

I Am America (and So Can You!)
by Stephen Colbert

rae recommends:

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
by Morris Berman.

On BooMan’s shelf:

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End
by Peter W. Galbraith

This looks interesting:

Adventure Divas
by Holly Morris

Here’s a good one from
Elizabeth Gilbert:

Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Crash" * Best Motion Picture, Academy Awards * Only $11.79 at Overstock * 2006 SAG Winner, Best Ensemble

Check out
Powell's new section:
NEW FAVORITES

Selected new arrivals at 30% off

Recommended by Indianadem and ejmw:
The Conscience of a Liberal
by Paul Wellstone

From northcountry’s bookshelf:

The New Golden Age:
The Coming Revolution Against
Political Corruption and Economic Chaos
by Ravi Batra

A novel about contractors in Iraq from the woman that runs The Spy That Billed Me:

Outsourced: A Novel
from RJ Hillhouse.


SOTW-120x90
Download Sleeper Cell on iTunes (Better than "24") Download Weeds on iTunes (Hilarious 1/2-hour adult comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker) Download Late Nite with Conan O'Brien on iTunes
John Belushi - SNL
Download South Park on iTunes
Verve Vault

James Hunter - People Gonna Talk:
James Hunter - People Gonna Talk
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Great Deals
----- * ^ * -----

Find mystery novels by Nancy Pickard ("Kansas")



Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power by Phyllis Bennis (interviewed on DN!)


Featured by Keith Olbermann, New (Powell's Sale): Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum (whose other books merit serious consideration)


"Explosive" State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen


The book the CIA doesn't want you to read: Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
Larry Johnson's review


BT's all-time best seller:

PERMACULTURE:
A Designers' Manual

$79.95 * Sale: $59.95


Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History (Third Edition)


The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan


Green Press Initiative
----- * ^ * -----


Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists by Eleanor Mills * NYT review


Bury Me Standing: the Gypsies & Their Journey


1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus



Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
----- * ^ * -----
Check out Powell's
"At The Movies"


Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World by Noam Chomsky (Power & Terror: Post 9-11 Talks)


The Price of Privilege:

How Parental Pressure and
Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of
Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

by Madeline Levine


Save 35-70% on
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We listened to PEN American Center's "State of Emergency" and found 1940s books by Curzio Malaparte only at Alibris. (Selection (MP3) excerpted from "The Skin.")

Alibris - Books You Thought You'd Never Find
Banned Books * Are you a fan of Film Noir, Art House, Documentaries or Hong Kong Action? * Searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl? Find it at Alibris!

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Display:
When I read stories like this, I wonder what information influences these kinds of people have.  If my own father is analogous, these people might be deriving their ignorant opinions from their own active imaginations.

Not long ago, the topic of gay marraiges came up in a conversation with my father. He said he was against gay marraige because if you allow that, then the next thing you know there would be laws allowing people to marry animals.

I tried to rationally explore the basis for his opinion. I knew for a fact that his only outside source of information was a moderate-to-liberal daily newspaper and he didn't watch TV. Otherwise, he lived with my fair-minded sister and only interacted with her fair-minded friends.  

When I asked my father why he thought animal marraiges would be a logical progression from gay marraige, he had no answer. When I asked where had he read or heard such an idea, he said from no where.  He "just knew."

This opinion was from the same person who vehemently didn't like that my wife kept her surname when we married; his reason was that "People in Hollywood don't change their names when they marry because they know their marraiges won't last."  That my wife and I soon will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary allowed my father to finally divorce himself from his long-ago ignorant bias.  But it took a long time.  

My father can change his ill-informed opinions--but only when he becomes personally acquainted with facts that refute his beliefs.  I don't see how that can happen for WV folks like those cited in the article. They probably are closely wedded to their imaginations.

by Sawgrass on Mon May 12th, 2008 at 12:43:33 AM EST
I just plain agree with you.

People CHOOSE to stick with their gut impressions of things, else they'd be feeling dishonest with themselves. Entertaining new information or asking the inner self to change an opinion is, to those with an idealistic personality, asking the inner self to negate the idealism inside, and that idealism is by nature blind and adherent to the initial inspiration.

Thus, if "Obama is a Muslim" is the ideal, it would be dishonest to the self to change that view, despite consequences, despite all known facts, despite surrounding opinions of others.

Sounds like Dick Cheney? Maybe. Cheney is not an idealist, he's a fatalist, willing to sacrifice everything for his ideals.

Share. Share resources, share delight, share burdens, share the healing. Sharing will bring us back from mass suicide. www.share-international.org

by Isis on Mon May 12th, 2008 at 10:34:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think you're on to something, but I wouldn't call it "idealism." Buddhists talk about "attachment" to various things, including "views." It's the feeling that your "self" depends on things being a certain way. So there's a fear underlying these beliefs that people aren't even conscious of.
by SqueakyRat on Mon May 12th, 2008 at 01:35:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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