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Books I'm Currently Reading
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Books Read for 2007
Books Read for 2006
Books Read for 2005
Books I Read in 2004
  • "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them" by Al Franken
  • "The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick" by Jeffrey A. Krames
  • "Bushwacked" by Molly Ivins
  • "Crimes against Nature: How George W. Bush and his Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking our Democracy" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
  • "In Denali's Shadow" by Jon Waterman
  • "The Open Space of Democracy" by Terry Tempest Williams
  • "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century" by Bev Harris
  • "The Official Report of the 9-11 Commission"
  • "The Age of Sacred Terror" by Benjamin Nelson
  • "An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood" by Jimmy Carter
  • "Desire and Ice: Searching for Perspective atop Denali" by David Brill
  • "The Trouble with Islam" by Irshad Manji
  • "Against all Enemies" by Richard Clarke
  • "Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle" by Moritz Thomsen
  • "A Season on the Mat: Dan Gable and the Pursuit of Perfection" by Nolan Zavoral
  • "Islam Unveiled" by Robert Spencer
  • "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?" by Henri Levy
  • ""So long, see you tomorrow" by William Maxwell
  • "The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma" by James Mawdsley
  • "Crazy Horse" by Larry McMurtry
  • "My Invented Country: a Memoir" by Isabel Allende
  • "National and Joint Force Planning" Air Command and Staff College
  • "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World" by John Robbins
  • "Vagabonding" by Rolf Potts
  • "The Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World" by Jan Goodwin
  • "Modern Mongolia: a Concise History" by Tsedenambyn BatBayer
  • "Me Against my Brother: at war in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda" by Scott Peterson
  • Books I Read in 2003

  • "Teach Yourself Korean"
  • "Homelands: Kayaking the Inside Passage" by Byron Ricks
  • "Living History" by Hillary Clinton
  • "Looking for Mr. Kurtz: Living on the brink in Mobutu's Congo" by Michela Wrong
  • "Bucking the Sun" by Ivan Doig
  • "A Problem from Hell: America in the age of Genocide" by Samantha Power
  • "Spirit of the Mountains: Korea's San-Shin" by David Mason
  • "Women of Mongolia" by Martha Avery
  • "No Gun Ri: A Military History" by Robert Bateman
  • "We Wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch
  • "Thin Air" by Greg Child
  • "The Gate" by Francois Bizot
  • "Gobi: Tracking the Desert" by John Man
  • "War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet" by Eric Margolis
  • "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power" by Daniel Yergin
  • "The Koreans" by Michael Breen
  • "See no Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism" by Robert Baer
  • "The River's Tale: a Year on the Mekong" by Edward A. Gargan
  • "Reading the Korean Cultural Landscape" by Je-Hun Ryu
  • "Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag" by Kang Chol Hwan
  • "Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos" by Robert Kaplan
  • "Burying Mao" by Richard Baum
  • "The New Emperors: Deng and Mao" by Harrison Salisbury
  • "Soul Mountain" by Xingjian Gao
  • Books Read in 2002

  • "The Bridge at No Gun Ri" by Charles Hanley, Sang Hun Choe, Martha Mendoza
  • "Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader" by Dai-Sook Suh
  • "Black Tea and Yak Butter: a Journey into Forbidden China" by Wade Blackenbury
  • "My Dark Places" by James Ellroy
  • "Metaplanetary" by Tony Daniel
  • "Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment" by Richard Bernstein
  • "Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam" by Andrew Pham
  • "Deadly Feasts: Tracking The Secrets Of A Terrifying New Plague" by Richard Rhodes
  • "Koreas's Place in the Sun" by Bruce Cummings
  • "On Writing" by Stephen King
  • "Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia" by Greg Child
  • "The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History" by Dan Oberdorfer
  • "What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East" Bernard Lewis
  • "A Newer World: Kit Carson John C Fremont And The Claiming Of The American West" by David Roberts
  • "The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology " by Simon Winchester
  • "By any means Necessary: America's Secret Air War in the Cold War" William E. Burrows
  • "Hotel Honolulu" by Paul Theroux
  • "Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus" by David Kaplan
  • "Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War " by Mark Bowden
  • Books Read in 2001

  • "The War Against America: Saddam Hussein and the World Trade Center Attacks: A Study in Revenge" by Laura Mylroie
  • "The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910" by Peter Duus
  • "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden " by Peter I. Bergen
  • "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" by Yossef Bodansky
  • "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid
  • "John Adams" by David McCullough
  • "The Cold 6,000" by James Ellroy
  • "American Tabloid" by James Ellroy
  • "Compass Points: How I Lived" by Edward Hoagland
  • "The Girl who loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King
  • "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser
  • "The Loop" by Nicholas Evans
  • "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx
  • "Return to Mars" by Ben Bova
  • "A Case of Rape" by Chester B. Himes
  • "Darwin's Radio" by Greg Bear
  • "My Secret History" by Paul Theroux
  • Books Read in 2000

  • "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild
  • "North to the Night: A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic " by Alvah Simon
  • "Love thy Neighbor: A Story of War" by Peter Maas
  • "Flash 4"
  • "Mawson's Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written" by Edmund Sir Hillary
  • "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil
  • "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond
  • "Parachutes and Kisses" by Erica Jong
  • "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham
  • "Passage to Juneau : A Sea and Its Meanings" by Jonathan Raban
  • "Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
  • "Trespassing" by John Hanson Mitchell
  • "Sacred Land, Sacred View"
  • "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson
  • "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf
  • "On the Rez" by Ian Frazier
  • "River Horse" by William Least Heat-Moon
  • "Why They Kill" by Richard Rhodes
  • "Fire on the Mountain" by John McLean
  • "Travel in a Stone Canoe" by Harvey Arden and Steve Wall
  • "Sir Vidia's Shadow" by Paul Theroux
  • "Moments of Doubt" by David Roberts
  • "The Lost Explorer" by David Roberts and Conrad Anker
  • "Last Days" by John Roskelly
  • "History of the English" by Paul Johnson
  • "The Life of Thomas More" by Peter Akyroyd
  • "The Songlines" by Bruce Chatwin
  • "In a Dark Wood" by Alston Chase
  • "Eiger Dreams" by John Krakauer
  • "Basin and Range" by John McPhee
  • "Geronimo" by Alexander B. Adams
  • "Operation Shylock" by Philip Roth
  • "In Suspect Terrain" by John McPhee
  • "Loon Magic"
  • "Centennial" by James Michener
  • "The Spanish Armada"
  • "Rising from the Plains" by John McPhee
  • "Assembling California" by John McPhee
  • "The First Immortal" by John Halperin
  • "The Eternal Frontier: an Ecological History of North America and its Peoples" by Tim Flannery
  • Books Read in 1999

  • "In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest" by David Roberts
  • "Once They Moved Like The Wind : Cochise, Geronimo, And The Apache Wars" by David Roberts
  • "The Ends of the Earth : From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy" by Robert Kaplan
  • "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey
  • "Down the River" by Edward Abbey
  • "Abbey's Road" by Edward Abbey
  • "The Colorado Plateau"
  • "An Empire Wilderness : Travels into America's Future" by Robert Kaplan
  • "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry
  • "Streets of Laredo" by Larry McMurtry
  • "Widow for one Year" by John Irving
  • "The Ghost Writer" by Philip Roth
  • "Cold Oceans: Adventure in a Kayak, Rowboat , And Dogsled" by Jon Turk
  • "Zuckerman Unbound" by Philip Roth
  • "The Ninemile Wolves" by Rick Bass
  • "The Tracker" by Tom Brown, Jr.
  • "Cowboys and Cave Dwellers: Basketmaker Archaeology in Utah's Grand Gulch " by Fred Blackburn
  • "Dead Man Walking" by Larry McMurtry
  • "Killing Mister Watson" by Peter Matthiessen
  • "Gerald's Game" by Stephen King
  • "Lost Man's River" by Peter Matthiessen
  • "The New Wolves" by Rick Bass
  • "Winter: Notes from Montana" by Rick Bass
  • "Desert Notes" by Barry Lopez
  • "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell
  • "Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation"
  • "Bone by Bone"by Peter Matthiessen
  • "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941)" by Rebecca West
  • "The Serbs : History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia" by Tim Judah
  • "Turkey in Europe" by Charles Elliot
  • "The Croat Question" by Jill Irvine
  • "War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice" by Aryeh Neier
  • "To End a War" by Richard Holbrooke
  • "Seasons in Hell: Slaughter and Betrayal in Bosnia" by Ed Vulianny
  • "Burn this House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia" by Jasminka Udowicki and James Ridgeway
  • "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water" by Mark Reisner
  • "Martin Dressler" by Steven Millhauser
  • "End game: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe's Worst Massacre Since World War II" by David Rohde
  • "Forging War: The media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina" by Mark Thompson
  • "One for the Road" by Tony Horwitz"
  • "Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey" by V. S. Naipaul
  • Books Read in 1998 and before (coming as I find time to type them in)
  • Tuesday, February 28, 2006

    _____donnie darko_____

    _____donnie darko_____

    North Korean Physical Education Dance Video

    North Korean Physical Education Dance Video

    Saturday, February 25, 2006

    Foreign Affairs - Intelligence, Policy,and the War in Iraq - Paul R. Pillar

    In case you missed it. More evidence of deception and lies. We need to keep pummelling the Bushevics with these testimonies. When the scales fall from their eyes there will be impeachment:

    Foreign Affairs - Intelligence, Policy,and the War in Iraq

    by Paul R. Pillar: "Summary: During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community's expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.

    PAUL R. PILLAR is on the faculty of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. Concluding a long career in the Central Intelligence Agency, he served as National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005."

    Thursday, February 23, 2006

    Capitol Hill Blue: Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer

    Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer:

    "According to those who have talked with the agents and others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up."

    Tuesday, February 21, 2006

    The Rude Pundit

    The Rude Pundit is a busy prayin'

    Monday, February 20, 2006

    The White House Addresses a Threat

    The Blog | David Mamet | The Huffington Post

    TIME.com -- Joe Klein: Cheney's Thousand-Yard Stare

    Cheney's Thousand-Yard Stare:

    "One valuable metaphor emerged last week. The New York Times described the possible legal charges that could be brought in a hunting accident. 'Mr. Cheney could be charged with negligence, defined as failing to understand the dangers involved and disregarding them, or recklessness, defined as understanding the dangers and disregarding them.' Which is perhaps the neatest summary I've seen of the public debate surrounding the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. Absent further evidence, the Administration seems guilty of negligence—a cavalier insensitivity to the unimaginable calamities that attend the use of lethal force."

    Sunday, February 19, 2006

    Dick Cheney accidentally goes for the biathlon gold

    Dick Cheney accidentally goes for the biathlon gold:

    By John Kenney
    Special to the Los Angeles Times
    Salt Lake Tribune

    Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot documentary filmmaker Michael Moore yesterday as Moore was walking out of a Manhattan Denny's.
    A spokesperson for the vice president said that it was a ''complete accident'' and that Cheney felt ''horrible.'' The White House released a statement saying that the shooting was ''just bad timing. Vice President Cheney, who is well-versed in firearms safety, was merely sitting in a shrub, wearing camouflage, outside of a Denny's frequented by Mr. Moore.''
    The statement went on to say that Cheney had been in the shrub for ''several days.'' Moore is said to have suffered only minor injuries and was released from the hospital.
    --
    In another bizarre accident, Cheney mistakenly shot every Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A White House spokesman said that the vice president feels ''bad, but not that bad.'' An aide to Cheney said that the vice president ''happened to be in the committee chambers, under a chair, when he stood up to put on a pair of chaps, accidentally shooting the committee members, stopping to reload three times.''
    Remarkably, the committee members were largely unhurt and are expected to make complete recoveries.
    --
    The White House was put on the defensive again today when Air Force Two was forced to make an emergency landing 25 miles west of New York City after a loss of cabin pressure because of the accidental shooting of former FEMA Director Michael D. Brown and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
    Both men have recently come under criticism for their handling of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Cheney was said to be ''laughing, but also deeply concerned'' when he was awakened from a nap after accidentally shooting the men at close range.
    Typically, shotguns are not allowed on either Air Force One or Two, but Cheney is, the statement said, ''a seasoned hunter and also planned to accidentally shoot both men.'' Both Brown and Chertoff are expected to make complete recoveries, although it remains unclear as to why Brown was duct-taped to the wing of the plane.
    A White House spokesman later added that the vice president had been on his way to New York City to accidentally shoot New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.
    --
    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton miraculously escaped injury today after Cheney accidentally ran up to her motorcade and accidentally shot at her car. The White House said the vice president ''tripped.''
    ''These things happen,'' a White House spokesman said. ''Guns, while completely safe, are also dangerous.''
    A member of the vice president's staff said Cheney apologized to the former first lady and potential presidential candidate in a handwritten note.
    ''I'm sorry I almost shot you. But know that I will try again and will also be sorry then, too. I like the sound a gun makes and the smell of the gunpowder. 'Flint' is a neat word.''
    ---
    John Kenney has just finished his first novel.

    Saturday, February 18, 2006

    Cheney's Victim Sings | The Huffington Post

    The song that's sweeping the nation...

    onegoodmove: In The Park

    Pretty funny: Bill Maher on Jay Leno talking about Cheney and the shooting...

    The Magic BB Theory

    Jesus' General explains how Cheney could fire 30 yards and have the pattern so tightly grouped that nearly all the BBs landed within 18 inches.

    Thursday, February 16, 2006

    Cheney's Chappaquiddick II: The Real Story Emerges | The Huffington Post

    RJ Eskow speculates on what really happened on the Armstrong Ranch.

    Wednesday, February 15, 2006

    Media Matters Comprehensive Analysis of "Liberal Media" phenom

    Media Matters - If It's Sunday, It's Conservative: An analysis of the Sunday talk show guests on ABC, CBS, and NBC, 1997 - 2005: "The Sunday-morning talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC are where the prevailing opinions are aired and tested, policymakers state their cases, and the left and right in American politics debate the pressing issues of the day on equal ground. Both sides have their say and face probing questions. Or so you would think.

    In fact, as this study reveals, conservative voices significantly outnumber progressive voices on the Sunday talk shows. Media Matters for America conducted a content analysis of ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and NBC's Meet the Press, classifying each one of the nearly 7,000 guest appearances during President Bill Clinton's second term, President George W. Bush's first term, and the year 2005 as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, or neutral. The conclusion is clear: Republicans and conservatives have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows - in some cases, dramatically so."

    Tuesday, February 14, 2006

    The Cult of Bush eloquently examined

    Unclaimed Territory: Do Bush followers have a political ideology? by Glenn Greenwald:

    "Now, in order to be considered a 'liberal,' only one thing is required – a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush. The minute one criticizes him is the minute that one becomes a 'liberal,' regardless of the ground on which the criticism is based. And the more one criticizes him, by definition, the more 'liberal' one is. Whether one is a 'liberal' -- or, for that matter, a 'conservative' -- is now no longer a function of one’s actual political views, but is a function purely of one’s personal loyalty to George Bush."

    Sunday, February 12, 2006

    The Effectiveness Thing

    Paul Krugman:

    "We are ruled by bunglers. Every major venture by the Bush administration, from the occupation of Iraq to the Medicare drug program, has turned into an epic saga of incompetence. In retrospect, the Clinton years look like a golden era of good government."

    Saturday, February 11, 2006

    Walmart top 12 Wines

    Dvorak Uncensored posts Walmart's Top 12 Wines.

    Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents

    Juan Cole has a good sequence of events outlining the Plamegate scandal. It's not that complicated. Cheney and crew trumped up the intelligence (read:lied) and the Repug political machine attempted to crush all dissent (read:truth).

     Posted by Picasa

    American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches by Rank

    American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches by Rank

    (Don't see any by GWB!)

    Guantanamo's Grip

    As an American I find this troubling and not in line with American principles. We are no longer the "good guys". An excerpt from the National Journal: Guantanamo's Grip

    "Like many of the men who came handcuffed to Cuba, Detainee 032 has never been accused of fighting against America. He fell into U.S custody far away from any battlefield. But today, after four years of interrogations and investigations, he is still an 'enemy combatant,' even though he was never an enemy or a combatant. He is something else: something that might be dangerous or might not. But he's securely in our custody, and raise your hand if you want to be responsible for releasing the man who next flies an airplane into a skyscraper.

    In some other world, one where the earth still turned west to east instead of inside out as it did on September 11, 2001, Detainee 032 would be finishing college this year, like his brother, father, and uncle before him. In this world, he's beginning his fifth year in prison, with neither charges nor freedom in sight."

    No Bravery

    Huffington Post Contagious Festival has some good polictical flash flicks.

    Here's the best one: No Bravery

    Thursday, February 09, 2006

    Connecting the Dots

    Part II of an interview with Mark Crispin Miller: author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)

    Tuesday, February 07, 2006

    Lair of the Spirit Bear Preserved

    Hartley Bay, British Columbia - In this sodden land of glacier-cut fjords and giant moss-draped cedars, a myth is told by the Gitga'at people to explain the presence of black bears with a rare recessive gene that makes them white as snow.

    The Raven deity swooped down on the land at the end of an ice age and decided that one out of every 10 black bears born from that moment on would be bleached as "spirit bears." It was to be a reminder to future generations that the world must be kept pristine.

    On Tuesday, an improbable assemblage of officials from the provincial government, coastal Native Canadian nations, logging companies and environmental groups will announce an agreement that they say will accomplish that mission in the home of the spirit bear, an area that is also the world's largest remaining intact temperate coastal rain forest.

    Secret Worlds: The Universe Within

    View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

    Monday, February 06, 2006

    The last 31 days in Iraq

    Think things are going fine in Iraq?

    Scar Run, Colorado Springs

    Click on the picture for more photos of Saturday and Sunday runs up "the Scar" and Williams Canyon: Feb 4th and 5th
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