Book Nook

Two new books on the radar screen, blips via Majority Report radio.

This has been a war of western oil imperialism against Arab nationalism.
-- Edwin Black, "Banking on Baghdad"

Money loaned to Third World countries boomerangs back to serve US corporate interests. Your tax dollars at work.
-- John Perkins, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"

Regarding the latter's web site, Perkins shows an apparent New-Age side in his previous writings, quite a clash to the cold-hearted business-like personna he portrayed in his on-air interviews. I venture to guess the vanity press spiritual route did not work to fully release his inner demons, so he spilled his guts in the new book. Either that, or as someone said on the Amazon reviews:

A part of me wants to hold John to a higher standard than I could stand myself. I wonder why, after many years of deep shamanic personal transformation, does it take him so long to speak up? The real question may be, how is it that he could now when most do not?

And why, after deciding shortly after 9/11 as he walked around ground zero "smelling the smoke and the burning flesh," deciding that he had to speak out, why does it take him three years and two months to come out with this story? Perhaps he has been speaking all along, but until now only a few were listening.

It's a shame that suspicions over ulterior motives always gets in the way of understanding the reality of insider culture.

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The Onion Flashback

"Our Dumb Century"

CAMPAIGN '80

partial debate transcription

Jimmy Carter: "We have an opportunity to use American technology and know-how to develop our own alternate, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, freeing us from our reliance on foreign oil. This is sound policy, not just for America, but for the Planet Earth."

Ronald Reagan: "While much of what President Carter says is true, he is missing one very important point. That is, if America is to continue to prosper in the 1980s and beyond, we must join together and kill the bastards."

Jimmy Carter: "Next year, I will propose to Congress a sweeping revitalization program, with increased funding for the development of mass-transit systems, infrastructure rebuilding, and low-cost housing and job-training programs for disadvantaged minorities."

Ronald Reagan: "Kill the bastards, kill the bastards."

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Excerpts from a talk promoting her book
Sonia Shah on Crude: The Story of Oil