Top twenty books and movies for me in the last 6 years

Since September 11, 2001 I have been on a quest. I do not have much of a formal education. My high school education was kind of a joke and that's another whole story and I'm not going there. I took a few community college classes. A bachelor's degree seems like just another of my parent's unrealistic expectations for me.

The quest has been for knowledge. I know I'm not he only American who wondered "Why do they hate us so much?" during the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center. I was pretty sure I had a clue about why the attack on the Pentagon.

Obviously I'm not well traveled. A few trips to Mexico does not a world traveler make. Until 2002 I had seen very little of my own country. That's not to say I hadn't met and developed working relationships with immigrants from many different countries. It's amazing how poorly we treat our immigrants. I worked with people with advanced skills and experience who were forced to work in unskilled labor jobs in this country because their English skills weren't sharp enough to pass the licensing exams here. I've never been to New York but I've heard the New York cabbie stories.

I've been reading, watching documentary DVDs and trying to find out why they hate us enough to blow us up every chance they get made me wonder which ones that every jr. high kid should watch or read. I started out with a list of ten, which quickly grew to twenty, with a regular TV show thrown in for maintenance purposes.

Top twenty media sources that helped this American pull her head out of her butt, and not be such an ignorant clown.

1. The Corporation (DVD documentary)

2. I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the book, but it was a book on the modern history of Israel. Something striking to me was one page that had four maps on it that showed the growing territory of Israel, the shrinking Palestinian territories. You know, shit that ain't on the six o'clock newz here in Murika. Like most of these, it was available through the City Library system.

3. The Arms of Krupp 1587-1968: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War by William Manchester.

4. Planet of Slums by Mike Davis (along with realistic sex education of course, this book will make the little shits think before they start breeding)

5. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

6. Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (the book, I never saw the PBS special)

7. The Prize by Daniel Yergin (yeah, I missed the PBS special on this one too)

8. Killing Hope by William Blum

9. The End of Suburbia (DVD documentary)

10. Secrets of the American Empire by John Perkins

11. Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD by Michael Moore

12. Why We Fight a documentary by Eugene Jarecki

13. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast

14. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

15. The Opium Wars The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another
by W. Travis Hanes, Frank Sanello

16. The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson The trilogy is important, but if you only can buy one of the three, this is the one.

17. The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond

18. Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast

19. Breaking Rank by Norm Stamper

20. And finally, save Friday night (oh Tivo it fer chrissakes) for PBS NOW , and Bill Moyers Journal.

Reading The Third Chimpanzee

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (Paperback)
by Jared Diamond (Author) "IT'S OBVIOUS THAT humans are unlike all animals..." (more)


Yup. More"successful" than any other species on the planet. And more destructive.

In only 15 years the author's information on DNA is outdated.

I've been looking all day for somthing worth re-posting.

That whole Akin political theatre crapola has become beyond tedious to me.

Chris Hedges nails it again:

The War in the Shadows.
Truthdig OpEd
Published: Tuesday 21 August 2012

"...They were all the same. Gangsters.

All states and armed groups recruit and use members of this underclass...."


"...The multitudes of crimes these killers, torturers, kidnappers, propagandists, special operations units and spies have carried out in our name are well known to those outside our gates. There are hundreds of millions of people who have a tragic intimacy with the twisted and brutal soul of American imperialism. Okinawans. Guatemalans. Cubans. Congolese. Brazilians. Argentines. Indonesians. Iranians. Palestinians. Panamanians. Vietnamese. Cambodians. Filipinos. South Koreans. Taiwanese. Nicaraguans. Salvadorans. Afghans. Iraqis. Yemenis. Somalis. They can all tell us who we are, if we can listen. But we do not. We are as ignorant, gullible and naive as children..."


Hmmm. Yes, Mr. Hedges some of us were ignorant, gullible and naive. I am not any longer, but I do not feel that Americans who are behind clandestine operations reflect the wishes of the American people overall. I also wonder how many other nations (or their elites anyway) would engage in those activities given the wealth, power, and goodwill afforded the nation as a whole after WWII. After all, people are people, as Jared Diamond proves in "The Third Chimpanzee." Americans aren't the only humans to shit in their nest.

The United States and Its Comrade-in-Arms, Al Qaeda.

AUGUST 13, 2012
The United States and Its Comrade-in-Arms, Al Qaeda.
Tales of an Empire Gone Mad
by WILLIAM BLUM

I keep William Blum's "Killing Hope" close for referral purposes, and I've read "Legacy of Ashes". I've read "The Third Chimpanzee" so I certainly don't believe that any nation state or ethnic group is going to do any better with the amount of power that the US has wielded for the last 60 years.

I'm with Batty. Or I am batty. Or something.

Humans and chimps

...Then, after evolving in different directions for about 4 million years, they got back together for a brief fling that produced a third, hybrid population with characteristics of both lines ...

..."It's a totally cool and extremely clever analysis," said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard who wasn't involved in the study. "My problem is imagining what it would be like to have a bipedal hominid and a chimpanzee viewing each other as appropriate mates - not to put it too crudely." ...

Associated Press Update 2: DNA Study Maps Human-Chimp Split
By MATT CRENSON , 05.17.2006, 04:57 PM

Methinks Mr Liberman dosen't have too many young, male friends.

p.s. Oooooh - oooooh, eeeee - eeee - eeeeee.
Take that, those of you who want to thump me over the head with your Bible .