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Sonoran Sunsets: Books We Love!
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Grokking Real Eyes Flip Book:
Alien Invasion - M Theory
The Octopus Conspiracy:
And Other Vignettes from the Counterculture
-From Hippies to High Times to Hip-Hop and Beyond
by Steven Hager
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You won't believe what your missing!
BEYOND BELIEF
Are you ready?
Interesting book! If one reads it and uses it subjectively with self-honesty (this may be the hard part for some) it can widen your vision of your world viewpoint. One can start with your own personal vision, expand to family, friends and larger community, and eventually to the entire global village. Shift is slight at first, perhaps like watching North American CNN, and then travelling to where the CNN available is the World Edition. Differences are subtle, but important. Can help one understand some of the viewpoints of different cultures in conflict in your own backyard and around the globe.
In our world, colliding beliefs create devastating struggles. The battle to be right fills the world with a raucous noise, not only obscuring what we seek, but sometimes threatening our very existence.
Would you be willing to sheath the sword of Being Right and travel where few have dared? Even if you have never carried this sword, you may be surprised by what you find.
First we explore how we are wired in feelings and thoughts to filter out much of reality. Then we loosen the filters. We escape the belief box. Then we begin to tackle the greatest filter of all-the human group subconscious.
Our journey will take us to a place with enormous possibilities. If we are lucky, we may even start an evolution.
The magical part of this journey is you can keep your beliefs, whatever they may be.
Let's go on a quest together, through the mountains of "facts", beyond the valley of "have-to-be", through the deep waters of our group subconscious to see if we can find something precious, delicate, and powerful, in reality, right now.
Share and enjoy!
The New Pearl Harbor
Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and
9/11
by David Ray Griffin
"Everyone should read this and reach their own conclusions. The official
conspiracy theory, that 19 hijakers conspired with Osama has holes big enough
to drive a truck through. He cites fact after fact after fact that are
irrefutable.
David Ray Griffin, long known for his contributions to the fields of philosophy
and theology, turns his logical mind and keen powers of analysis on the
official story of the events of 9/11 and finds it, frankly, incredible.
Griffin has performed an invaluable public service by writing this book, and at
no small risk to his reputation. By exposing the flaws in the official version
of these events he raises the possibility that mainstream journalists find too
terrible to contemplate: that elements of the U.S. government, and possibly
even the President, were complicit in bringing these events about.
To those (and they are many) who would dismiss such a suggestion out of hand, I
would recommend taking this book seriously. Griffin is no wild-eyed fanatic,
and one could not accuse of him of making unwarranted logical leaps. He treats
this topic with the same care and rational rigor exhibited in his philosophical
works. This book is not so much an indictment of the Bush Administration as a
call for a serious public investigation (and not a mere whitewash) of events
that have been used to justify unprecedented infringements upon the civil
liberties of Americans at home and imperial adventures abroad.
Ultimately, such an investigation (were it ever to occur) would likely lead to
impeachment. If the evidence points in the direction that Griffin's analysis
suggests, the current government of the United States is guilty of the highest
crimes imaginable. It is vital to our democracy that this book receive the
widest possible readership, and that the public demand answers to these
questions.
I was sceptical when I first heard about this book. I sat in the bookstore and
read it for about 20 minutes and was hooked. I knew this was not just some
fringe alarmist; this is important. I read the book in a matter of days, though
at times I had to set it down and breathe deeply. Many of the unanswered
questions are profoundly disturbing... Griffin is clear and thorough. Griffin
works through eight possible levels of what the Bush administration knew about
9/11 and when. Though the work is disturbing, I felt energized rather than
overwhelmed. I give it my highest recommendation."
Oil, Power, & Empire
Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda
by Larry Everest
Is the U.S. poised to topple Saddam -because of his taste for biological and other weapons of mass destruction? Is it George Jr.'s revenge for his father? This tightly written book reveals the agenda behind the U.S. moves and why now. Including an overview of history, this book is timeless and timely.
Larry Everest is a correspondent for the Revolutionary Worker newspaper and author of Behind the Poison Cloud: Union Carbide's Bhopal Massacre. He has reported from the Iran, the West Bank, Gaza, India, and Iraq, and his articles have appeared in publications across the U.S. In 1991 he traveled to Iraq and shot the video "Iraq: War Against the People." He currently lives in Berkeley, California.
How Companies Lie
Why Enron is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
by Richard J. Schroth, A. Larry Elliott
From Publishers Weekly -
Elliott and Schroth argue that corporations have become so accustomed to "managed mendacity" as a means of manipulating investors' perception of their value that the stock market has become little more reliable than a casino; "at least in Las Vegas," they grumble, "you get a good meal and free drink." The idea that corporations lie to the public stopped being newsworthy long before Enron's spectacular implosion, and this slim volume a batch of ideas for several op-ed pieces strung together into one long essay only rarely goes beyond an extended restatement of the obvious. The most useful material for individual investors, a list of 18 questions they should ask about a company when contemplating buying stock, is covered in the introduction. Most of what follows is a skimpy account of Enron's fraudulent practices, gimmicks like a to-do list for cheating CEOs, alarmist warnings about "digital business warfare" and tacked-on rants about the airline industry. The two corporate strategists do come up with some original twists on the obvious premise companies should stop lying to the public but their proposals, including a federal insurance fund to reimburse investors who fall victim to stock manipulation and an "audit tax," which would fund the transfer of corporate auditing from a client-customer relationship to a neutral, SEC-administered process, may be too outlandish even for today's outraged investors. Readers possessing anything beyond a basic understanding of the stock market won't need this book, and those specifically interested in Enron would be better off waiting for more detailed accounts certain to come in the months ahead.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Inventing the Circle
The Geometry of Nature
By Johan Gielis
For centuries, scientists have sought to define natural forms through mathematical terms. Johan Gielis has created an elegantly simple equation that connects circles, polygons, and patterns in nature such as spider�s webs, shells, and plants.
Discovered in 1999 by Johan Gielis, the Superformula has won universal acclaim from the scientific and mathematic community and has been featured in publications by American Mathematical Society and Nature.
Knowledge of advanced math is not needed in order to understand the Superformula; a grasp of high school level math, geometry, and the Pythagorean Theorem is sufficient. Even better, this formula appeals to creative minds that think out of the box when seeking solutions to problems. With use of this formula, untold new technologies, design, art, and inventions are conceivable.
One of Tony Crow�s soul enriching Sonoran Sunsets photograph, "Serendipity - Serenity", is befittingly showcased in this beautifully designed book.
It�s the shape of things to come.
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The Biology of Transcendence
A Blueprint of the Human Spirit
By Joseph Chilton-Pierce
Why has humanity been able to create elegant high-minded philosophies and at the same time indulge in abdominal behaviors that are the antithesis of our great ideals?
Joseph Chilton-Pierce states that the essential qualities of transcendence and violence are not so much moral or ethical in nature, but an issue of biology. According to Pierce, transcendence is our biological imperative and it is restrained by enculturation. He supports his idea with research from a new wave of biologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers.
The core key to transcendence is centered on the new discovery that humans have five different neural structures: four located in the head, and one in the heart. The discovery of the neural structure in the heart means that the heart is also a "brain" that functions in dynamic with our four-fold brain.
The reason for our unnecessary violent behavior is due to the lack of development and employment of the heart brain/brain dynamic. This lack of development comes from the learning of some survival strategies (enculturation) that restrict the potential to transcend. With the use of our heart brain, we will be able to override our survival strategies and achieve a greater form of intelligence.
Pierce provides historical models of human transcendence as well as shares with us his own experiences with transcendence and unconflicted behavior.
Inspiring, transformative, and uplifting reading.
Beyond the tyrany of belief: another Pierce book review at Meta History Quest
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Killing the Buddha
A Heretic's Bible
By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet
A heretic�s bible - created for heretics, by heretics.
In this revamp of the Bible, Manseau and Sharlet write psalms from their impressions of their road trip through the USA, and 13 "books" of the Bible are written by American writers from diverse persuasions. Each chapter provides a unique and individual discourse on the divine.
In psalm 36:1, Sharlet and Manseau encountered a young girl in Heartland, Kansas who explained to them, "Monotheism is a mirror that offers only one reflection; Paganism is a spinning disco ball, a thousand glittering possibilities". After reading this book it is apparent that even monotheism has thousands of glittering possibilities. For every shared concept of Divinity, there is a myriad of distinct cosmologies bubbling up through humanity, each a universe of it�s own.
It seems we all have our own unique ways of coming to terms with God, our origins, the miraculous... often breaking out of one religious dogma only to fall for another kind of spiritualized mind-snare.
Tragic, chaotic, surreal, and often hilarious.
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The True Believer
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
By Eric Hoffer
Eric Hoffer, not a scholar (in the traditional sense), but visionary and a longshoreman who wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time. This book was written in 1951, made famous when cited by Eisenhower during a press conference, and just as relevant today as when it was conceived.
Both straightforward and riveting, The True Believer lays bare the essential and unifying characteristics of all mass movements and their appeal to certain frustrated minds. Hoffer explains the various phases of mass movements, the mindsets of individuals who join them, and how reactions to the movements perpetuate more mass movements.
This should be on everyone�s bookshelf
(placed in between Machiavelli and the Declaration of Independence).
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World on Fire
How Exporting Free Market Democracy
Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability
By Amy Chua
"A professor at Yale Law School, Chua eloquently fuses expert analysis with personal recollections to assert that globalization has created a volatile concoction of free markets and democracy that has incited economic devastation, ethnic hatred and genocidal violence throughout the developing world."
From Publishers Weekly
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Dreaming War
Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
By Gore Vidal
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers."
- Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon.
While the mostly unassuming Americans ponder over the moral questions about occupation in Iraq rather than the sad realities, the swindlers that run the show are gloating over the spoils and conspiring to start the next racket.
Dreaming War is collection of essays and op-eds exposing the origins of American foreign policy failures and cover-ups by a great literary provocateur.
Vidal�s observations on the events and people around 9-11 and the following wars are
penetrating, fierce, and extraordinarily witty.
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The Corporation
The Pathological Pursuit of Profit
By Joel Bakan
Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends the modern business corporation is created by law to function like a psychopathic personality.
Bakan�s most recent book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, will be released by Penguin Canada in March 2004, and in the US by Simon & Schuster. Bakan�s book was written during the making of the film THE CORPORATION (Co-created with Mark Achbar) and formed the basis of the research and writing for the film.
Beginning with its origins in the sixteenth century, Bakan traces the corporation's rise to dominance.In what Simon and Schuster describes as "the most revolutionary assessment of the corporation since Peter Drucker's early works," THE CORPORATION makes the following claims:
� Corporations are required by law to elevate their own interests above those of others, making them prone to prey upon and exploit others without regard for legal rules or moral limits.
� Corporate social responsibility, though sometimes yielding positive results, most often serves to mask the corporation's true character, not to change it.
� The corporation's unbridled self interest victimizes individuals, the environment, and even shareholders, and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.
� Despite its flawed character, governments have freed the corporation from legal constraints through deregulation, and granted it ever greater power over society through privatization.
Bakan urges restoration of the corporation's original purpose, to serve the public interest, and calls for re-establishment of democratic control over the institution. Concrete, pragmatic, and realistic reforms are proposed. A groundbreaking book filled with big ideas and fascinating stories, THE CORPORATION is original, provocative and informative.
"This fine book was virtually begging to be written. With lucidity and verve, expert knowledge and incisive analysis, Joel Bakan unveils the history and the character of a devilish instrument that has been created and is nurtured by powerful modern states. They have endowed their creature with the rights of persons -- and by now, rights far exceeding persons of flesh and blood -- but a person that is pathological by nature and by law, and systematically crushes democracy, freedom, rights, and the natural human instincts on which a decent life and even human survival depends: the modern corporation. This incisive study should be read carefully, and pondered. And it should be a stimulus to constructive action -- not at all beyond our means, as the author outlines."
-Noam Chomsky
"Bakan's "The Corporation" is one of those rare books that opens up a new world. It's message is compelling-- and more important now than ever. With exquisite historical evocations and incisive contemporary examples, the author challenges us to recognize the flaws inherent in the very nature of the corporation and the practical possibilities for reform. You will want to have the book at hand for frequent reference for many years to come."
-Robert Monks
"Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring began to expose the abuses of the modern industrial system, there has been a growing awareness that profit at the expense of Earth--of individuals, society, and the environment--is unsustainable. Joel Bakan has performed a valuable service to corporations everywhere by holding up a mirror for them to see their destructive selves as others see them. The clarion call for change is here for all who would listen."
-Ray Anderson
Further Reading: Corporatism
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