by Rupe | Apr 17, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Bob Woodward
Date: 17-Apr-04
With his unmatched investigative skill, Bob Woodward tells the behind-the-scenes story of how President George W. Bush and his top national security advisers, after the initial shock of the September 11 attacks, led the nation to war.
Extensive quotations from the secret deliberations of the National Security Council – and firsthand revelations of the private thoughts, concerns, and fears of the president and his war cabinet – make Bush at War an unprecedented chronicle of a modern presidency in a time of grave crisis.
Based on interviews with more than a hundred sources and four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, Bush at War reveals Bush’s sweeping, almost grandiose, vision for remaking the world. “I’m not a textbook player, I’m a gut player,” the president said.
Woodward’s virtual wiretap into the White House Situation Room reveals a stunning group portrait of an untested president and his advisers, three of whom might themselves have made it to the presidency. In Bush at War, Bob Woodward once again delivers a reporting tour de force.
My Thoughts:
by Rupe | Mar 19, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Michael Moore
Date: 19-Mar-04
He is the scourge of Stupid White Men everywhere. He’s taken on fat cats, gun nuts, lying politicians. The Guardian describes him as “a wake-up call, a kick in the mental backside.” And now, Michael Moore is back, daring to ask the most urgent question of these perilous times: Dude, Where’s My Country?
Michael Moore is on a mission in his new book: Regime Change. The man who slithered into the White House on tracks greased by his daddy’s oil buddies is one of the many targets in Mike’s blistering follow-up to his smash #1 Stupid White Men, the biggest selling nonfiction book of the year. Now no one is safe: corporate barons who have bilked millions out of their employees’ lifetime savings, legislators who have stripped away our civil liberties in the name of “homeland security,” and even that right-wing brother-in-law of yours (yes, we all have one) who manages, year after year, through his babbling idiocy, to ruin Thanksgiving dinner.
Fearless, funny and furious, Michael Moore’s new book is the call to arms we’ve all been waiting for, the kind of book that comes along once every so often that rallies citizens with humor and insight, and changes the course of the country.
My Thoughts: Loved it. Don’t really consider myself a liberal on many topics, but I found this book to be lucid and full of things that make you go…hmmmmm?
by Rupe | Mar 19, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon’
Date: 19-Mar-04
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon began working on this project shortly after leaving the National Security Council, where, as director and senior director for counterterrorism, they watched the rise of al Qaeda and helped coordinate America’s fight against Usama bin Laden and his organization. They warned about the appearance of a new breed of terrorists who were determined to kill on the grand scale. More than a year before September 11, 2001, they began writing The Age of Sacred Terror to sound the alarm for a nation that had not recognized the gravest threat of our time.
One of their original goals has remained: to provide the insights to understand an enemy unlike any seen in living memory – one with an extraordinary ability to detect weakness and exploit it, one with a determination to inflict catastrophic damage, one that will not be deterred. But after September 11, a second, equally crucial goal was added: to understand how America let its defenses down, how warnings went unheeded, and how key parts of the government failed at vital tasks. The Age of Sacred Terror also describes the road ahead, where the terrorists will look to draw strength, and what the United States must do to stop them. A year after the attacks America continues searching for answers about those responsible, and explanations for the glaring gaps in our defenses. The Age of Sacred Terror provides both with unique authority.
My Thoughts: Definitely a great read and well recommended. I just could not put this book down. Long and good…that’s what I can say.
by Rupe | Feb 18, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Bernard Lewis
Date: 18-Feb-04
Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the frustrations and resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and tells us what the Islamic doctrine of jihad has meant at different times in history. And he takes us, as only he can, through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahabi proselytizing and Saudi oil money on the rest of the Islamic world.
Crisis of Islam ranges widely through 13 centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the 20th century leading up to the bitter and violent confrontations of today. The Second World War, the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States have all shaped Muslim perceptions in important ways.
While hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award-winning article for The New Yorker, The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Osama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world.
My Thoughts: Really good read. I would highly recommend for an understanding of the history and Islam.
by Rupe | Feb 18, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: AL Franken
Date: 18-Feb-04
Al Franken, “one of our savviest satirists” (People), takes on the issues, the politicians, and the pundits in one of the most anticipated books of the year.
Once again, the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene, leaving the powers-that-be in tatters and his audience in hysterics. Al Franken thrives on being in the opposition, and now that the Republican party controls both the Oval Office and Congress, the gloves are off and the satire is fast and furious.
Franken’s specialty is using his targets’ own words to make comedic and political points. Finding logical inconsistencies, factual errors, and doublespeak wherever he looks, Franken takes on and destroys the myth of liberal bias in the media, hoists the Bush White House on its own rhetorical petard, and punctures the mean-spirited sanctimony of such media darlings as Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, and host of post-Limbaugh talk-radio gasbags. Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always uproarious, Lies is sure to raise hackles and spark hilarity inside the Beltway and from sea to shining sea.
My Thoughts:
by Rupe | Feb 11, 2004 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Ken Wilber
Date: 11-Feb-04
Science and religion have always been considered mutually exclusive concepts, but are they really? Philosopher Ken Wilber shows how we might begin to think about science and religion in ways that allow for their reconciliation, on terms acceptable to both camps. Science is one of the most profound methods humans have devised for devining truth, and religion focuses on discerning meaning. Wilber shows that not only is science compatible with the world’s religions, it is indeed necessary to unite the two. He presents an elegant and accessible program which is breathtaking in its scope – one that cannot fail to change the way you look at your world.
My Thoughts: Really didn’t get this book. Got some glimpses of goodness, but will have to take a closer read to get it fully.
