Randy Johnston: Robbed at Pen Point

Attorney Randy Johnston has written a marvelous book on how white collar professionals rob us all by just the stroke of a pen. He describes how it is done, how to get justice after the damage, and how to prevent it from happening to begin with. This is a groundbreaking volume from an attorney who deals with the damage done by contractual robbery daily. Get Robbed at Pen Point and read it as soon as possible.

Michael Finkel: True Story

This IS a true story. It is the story of identity theft that haunted one unemployed and despairing writer and the story of a low wage young married man who thought he could solve his problems by erasing the lives of those who depended upon him. Both men wanted a new chance at life. One retreated to Montana to find solitude, the other fled to Mexico seeking to become someone he was not and never could be. This is a tale you will be amazed at and will leave with questions and doubts about the people that surround you in your community.

Film: Alice in Wonderland

Let me say at the outset that I have seen every version of the story that has been put into film. I even saw the stage play version starring Richard Burton and his daughter. In the stage play, the costumes were in black and white' the effect was graphically charming. The version that included Gene Wilder was amazing as well. Gene's famous "Soup" song, in which he prolonged one word for the longest time ever in a song, was a stroke of theatrical genius. I will always savor that scene.
In this laterst version, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway are the characters Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska, encounters in her revisit to Wonderland.

The film's 3D and Imax presentation were wonderful. I have decided that 3D is definitely here to stay and will only get better in the years ahead. Who knows? One day it will transition into a holographic miracle in which the viewer is actually surrounded by the scene, as if he or she is within the scene. That would be marvelous, wouldn't it?  I found the caterpillar to be a wonderfully played character, even more so thatn the Cheshire Cat. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were great also, as a kind of paired morons. You really must see the movie, if you love fantasy and allegory. The White Queen, with the help of the Mad Hatter and Alice, wins over the domination of the Red Queen in the end and Wonderland is changed into a place of peace and beauty as it should be.

Batavia's Graveyard, by Mike Dash

This book reveals the events that took place following the shipwreck of a trading ship headed for Java. The ship crashed onto rocks near Australia and then in the months that followed, over a hundred people were murdered as the madness of one man stirred treachery and evil. This is a must read historical work by the author of Tulipomania. Batavia's Graveyard is an excellent read. Mike Dash has done it again, produced a masterpiece of history.

Julia Child: My Life in France: A great autobio of her years there

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/My-Life-in-France/Julia-Child/e/9781400043460

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/05/22/books/28ridi2.html

Author Robert Parker: Just Discovered his books, and he just died in January 2010

Robert Parker passed away just a few months ago. His writing style has been noted for its word parsimony. His writing style was leaner than Hemingway's, it is said. I spotted his books in the bookstore just last evening and loved this one. Even the font used is terrific..simple and easily readable. Obviously Parker cared about his readers. He got to the point, was great with dialogue, and created real world characters. His books are the basis of the Jesse Stone movies on television. I intend to read as many of his works as possible, hoping to learn his style and incorporate it into my won writing.

Dean Baker: The Conservative Nanny State, the book and his discussion of it on a Youtube Video

Detroit gets the bulldozers ready to "revitalize" blighted, foreclosed neighborhoods

Homes left empty when unemployed auto workers had to give them up to foreclosure have made many neighborhoods into ghosts of what they once were. Standing empty for over a year or two, many of them have been vandalized. Their broken windows and torn apart exteriors make the place look like it has been a combat zone. On some streets, only one person remains on the street, in a house surrounded by vacant houses. Now the city, instead of taking steps to create jobs or to find a way to give these homes to the newly homeless, has decided to bulldoze them all. This is the ready answer to many things in America: throw it away. We throw away natural resources, people, businesses, schools, and our own best efforts. How sad a situation this is. Still the headlines tell us we are in a recovery. Odd, isn't it?

Benjamin Disraeli wrote in the mid 1800s of the growing division between the rich and the poor, in a troublesome gap that he viewed as leading to continuous conflicts between these two worlds.  He saw it as enough of a serious problem to write a novel based on the issue. Wikipedia has this entry on the novel:
"Sybil, or The Two Nations is an 1845 novel by Benjamin Disraeli. Published in the same year as Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Sybil traces the plight of the working classes of England. As the title suggests, Disraeli is interested in dealing with the horrific conditions in which the majority of England's working classes lived — or, what is generally called the Condition of England question. The book is a roman à thèse, or a novel with a thesis — which was meant to create a propagandistic furor over the squalor that was plaguing England's working class cities. Disraeli's novel was made into a silent film called Sybil in 1921, starring Evelyn Brent and Cowley Wright."

What we have been seeing in the world today is a relentless glorification of the rich, with their conspicuous consumption, amidst the throngs of the poor who remain hungry and homeless. This novel is a good read to hone in on the nature of this dilemma.

A Jackass by any other name is Tom Delay

This ignorant yet arrogant idiot is now saying that "people are unemployed because they want to be". One might just as well say that people lose their homes to fires because they wanted it to happen, or that they are suffering from cancer because they unconsciously wanted to. What kind of an insane man is he? Then he goes on to justify his outrageous statements on budgetary concerns. This is equally idiotic, since in the past months Congress has doled out hundreds of billions of dollars to corporations. For DeLay to make these comments is an affront to the people. He should be booted out at once, and denied any job or unemployment, since he feels it is not justified. Christ, there is a pack of greedy pigs in Congress. We need to put apples in their mouths and roast them over on a spit.

Stiglitz explains how the global economy fell and what caused it. Get this and do some reading if you want to understand it.

Available from Amazon (with a different cover), this book is an in depth examination of the many failings of the financial sector. It explains why the changes that are currently being recommended will not be enough to correct the problem and prevent another such collapse. It seems the potential for such catastrophic drops are endemic to the system itself. Thus, the system is in need of major surgery/

Xiaopeng Han First Winner of Gold for China in the Winter Olympics

Xiaopeng's performance was incredible. His flips in the air were executed with power and ballet like fluidity. He hit the ground with an exultant stance after he spun in the air. This marks a new high for Chinese participation in the World Olympics.