Very much appreciated Terry Olsen's Skinny Berry. Growing food - research & design - profits - greedy people - caring people - a good read.

What I want to read is On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not by Robert Burton, MD. A review in Skeptical Inquirer states:

The insights in this book can be applied to every human interaction from marital squabbles to terrorism. There are implications for politics, religion, and every sphere of human activity. It may be frightening to recognize the limits of our knowledge and will be hard for some to give up their cherished certainties, but Burton says he has gained an extraordinary sense of inner quiet born of acknowledging his limitations.

Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music. (George Carlin)

I recommend Cory Doctorow's Little Brother

I'm doing a panel on Blogs and the Media at VCon, Oct 4, Vancouver BC

"Gypsy Jazz," by Michael Dregni.  An amazing, very well-written look at the life of Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and the development of Gypsy jazz in France, 1920's thru the 50's.

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/PopularMusic/Jazz/?view=usa&ci=9780195311921

Suskinds new book and Jane Mayer's Dark Side are both a top my list.

Blue Tidal Wave

i don't really read "political" books; i figure blogreading and newsreading is more than enough of that sort of thing.

i just finished "four horses for trishy" by CQ Yarbro this afternoon. i'm in the middle of "the last of the wine" by mary reanault, and SN Kramer's "the tablets from sumer."

I really enjoyed "Dark Ages America" by Morris Berman.  I don't know how much I buy his argument, but he pulls together a lot of interesting ideas.  Very erudite.

I'm attempting to start "I Am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter. It promises to explain all about thought and consciousness. It's gonna be a long, hard slog, but in this political season, consciousness seems like a nice break.

Bush is "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense." --Former Nixon counsel John Dean

"The Great Turning: From Empire To Earth Community" - David Korten

Amazon sez

The threat of continued warfare to the future of humanity has become dire. "The Great Turning" explores that threat in detail and provides an equally detailed plan for meeting -- and overcoming -- it. Written in the author's trademark clear, compelling style, this timely book uncovers the roots of Empire in ancient Athens and charts the long transition from the institutions of monarchy to those of the global economy as the favored instruments of imperialism. Korten then discusses the promise of early America as a democracy dedicated to spreading liberty and freedom -- and the failure of the "American experiment" through the contemporary takeover of the U.S. government by corporate plutocrats, religious theocrats, and neoconservative militarists in pursuit of naked imperial ambition. Korten draws on sources as varied as evolution, developmental psychology, and the wisdom of religious mystics to make the case for "Earth Community" -- a people-centered, community-based future that is both possible and necessary.

"Skinny Berry" - Yay! Loved it.

Always a bit behind the times, I'm simultaneously reading "The Audacity Of Hope" - it's very nice, too.

The most important book I've read lately was Ahmad Rashid's Descent into Chaos. Since our coming hot wars are likely to be in Afghanistan, and if we remain as unlucky as we have been, in Pakistan -- this is the pre-primer for Americans on those places.

Rashid is a journalist, a furious Pakistani who let himself hope that the US invasion of Afghanistan would lead to something better for people. He is pissed.

Can It Happen Here?

I recently read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine and found it enlightening in all its darkness.

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

"The Department of Homeland Decency: Decency Rules and Regulations Manual." It's a hilarious satire of the Moral Majority, Bush, The Patriot Act, Fox News, etc. The motto from the book: "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide. You have nothing to hide if you have nothing to fear. So fear nothing and you need not hide. Hide nothing and you need not fear." It's laugh-out-loud funny.