Tag Archives: politics

Glass Houses

Posted on August 2, 2016 by smellincoffee

Glass Houses: Privacy, Secrecy, and Cyber Insecurity in a Transparent World© 2011, 2013 Joel Brenner320 pages Glass Houses, originally titled  America the Vulnerable, outlines some of the major ways that private citizens, corporations, and the government itself are exposed to … Continue reading →

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So You Want to Read about the Revolution

Posted on July 3, 2016 by smellincoffee

Although I’m reading American literature for Independence Day instead of history, why not share some favorites from previous years’ Independence Day salutes? Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin from HBO’s John Adams. Founding BiographiesJohn Adams, David McCulloughFirst Family: John … Continue reading →

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The Great Debate

Posted on June 29, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the  Birth of Right and Left© 2013 Yuval Levin296 pages The Great Debate uses the war of letters between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine  to explain the philosophical differences between conservatism and … Continue reading →

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Three for One: Robbing Banks and Being Robbed by the Banks

Posted on June 21, 2016 by smellincoffee

I stumbled upon The Great Taos Bank Robbery at some point last year. What road led me to it I can’t say, but it is a most interesting little book — a combination of folk history, humorous stories, and archaeology.  The … Continue reading →

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Lights Out

Posted on June 13, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared© 2015 Ted Koppell288 pages In Lights Out,  investigatory journalist Ted Koppel comments on the vulnerability of the United States’ power grid to a cyber attack,  and reviews the way government agencies, private citizens, … Continue reading →

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Saving Congress from Itself

Posted on June 7, 2016 by smellincoffee

Saving Congress from Itself: Emancipating the States and Empowering their People© 2014 James F. Buckley120 pages According to the latest Gallup poll, only 11% of Americans approve of Congress’ job performance, but virtually every senator or representative who runs for … Continue reading →

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Big Box Swindle

Posted on June 5, 2016 by smellincoffee

Big Box Swindle:  The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses© 2006 Stacy Mitchell336 pages What happened? Where did America go? ..everything’s Wal-Mart all the time, no more mom & pop five and dime.. (Merle Haggard, … Continue reading →

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The First Congress

Posted on March 29, 2016 by smellincoffee

The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government© 2016 Fergus Bordewich416 pages The first attempt at creating an American confederation resulted in a chronically bankrupt and impotent organization which no one … Continue reading →

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The Cult of the Presidency

Posted on February 14, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power © 2008 Gene Healy 264 pages Every four years, men and women with permanently-fixed smiles assure us that they will end corruption in D.C, get the economy moving, and … Continue reading →

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Unstoppable

Posted on February 6, 2016 by smellincoffee

Unstoppable: the Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State© 2014 Ralph Nader224 pages George Carlin groused that when he heard the word bipartisanship, he knew a larger than usual deception was in the works. Ralph Nader’s Unstoppable offers a different … Continue reading →

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